"Right."
* * * * *
The gripper reep shot, turning, up and away from the Station, carrying
the meteor far enough away so that it could safely be released without
being drawn right back to the Station. Blair watched it go, then
stepped cautiously across the scored line and looked down through the
hole at the inner hull, five feet away. It was too dark in there to be
sure, but he thought he could see the marks of a tiny jagged tear.
Wiley's voice came through the earphones, saying, "Okay, Glenn, I'm
ready to slice 'er up."
"Come ahead." He backed out of the scored section again, and watched
as the fixer reep came in close, once again clutching the edges of
the hole with the side arms while the other two arms carefully sliced
through the scored lines, this time cutting all the way through,
leaving only thin uncut segments at the corners to keep the whole piece
in place.
As the fixer reep backed off, the gripper reep returned, empty-armed
now, and slid into place, grabbing the serrated edges of the hole.
Blair took the small powered hand-cutter from its loop at the waist
of his suit, and carefully sliced through the remaining segments. The
gripper reep backed away, holding the cut-off square.
Blair crouched at the edge of the cut, and held tightly to it as he
lifted both boots clear of the hull. His body swung slowly around, over
the hole, and he pulled himself down into it, until his boots clamped
to the inner hull.
The space between the hulls was a maze of braces and supports, five
feet wide. One diagonal brace had been crushed by the meteor, and would
have to be replaced once both hulls were repaired. For now, Blair was
concerned to affix a temporary patch to the outside of the inner hull.
The final repair job on that would be done from inside the Station.
All he had to do was put on a patch that would allow Section Five to be
filled with air again, so the inner repair work could be safely done.
Once his boots were firmly braced against the inner hull, Blair
released his hold on the outer hull and moved through the constricted
space to the cross-braced wall between Sections Five and Six. A
tool-and-patch kit was bolted to the wall, beside the round small
entranceway to the between-hulls of Section Six. From this kit Blair
took a small hammer and a foot-square rubberized metallic patch. He
then returned to the spot where the meteor had broken through.
The hole in the inner hull was a ragged oval, less than half an inch
in diameter at its widest point. The edges of the tear had been pulled
outward by the removal of the meteor, and Blair first hammered these
flat, then removed the protective backing of the patch square and
pressed the square firmly over the hole. Its inner side was covered
with a sealant designed to work in vacuum, binding patch and hull
together at the molecular level. It was not a permanent repair job by
any means, but it would hold for at least twenty-four hours of normal
pressure inside Section Five.
The patch job finished, Blair came back out in much the same manner as
he had gone in. Ricks, a little ways to the left, was still maneuvering
the replacement panel back and forth, though his arms seemed to be
sagging somewhat by now. Blair said, "Okay, Ricks, bring it in."
"Anything you say, Admiral."
Blair helped him ease the panel down close enough for each of them
to grab an edge. They released the cable clips, and Blair one-handed
bunched the cable together until he could slip it back onto the catch
on his suit. Together, they turned the panel around and held it flat.
On Earth, this reinforced thickness of hull would have weighed nearly
two hundred pounds. Here, it seemed to weigh less than nothing, since
the only force on it was trying to push it _up_, away from the Station.
They carried the panel over to the hole made for it, and Blair said,
"Lower it easy. It should be a snug fit, flush with the rest of the
hull. If we set it in flat, we won't have any trouble."
"No trouble at all, Commander."
"Don't play the smart-aleck!"