[61—Dani Spacewalker]

There are some advantages to being in charge as thoroughly as the Commodore.  When I got back to my room, there were the promised translations, my last bit of homework, but also there was a letter.

It was addressed to Dr. Noam Chomsky, head of the Linguistics Department at MIT.  It was short and curt, almost to the point of being rude.

It read,

Dear Noam,

If you do not take young Dani here as your pupil, then you are an old fool.  I know Noam Chomsky, and he is no poltroon.

Your Disciple,

     

      Janey Cannesmore.

Besides the letter, there was a thank you card, hand written in beautiful script, two yellow envelopes, and a stack of jump suits. 

The first envelope contained two nametags, like the ones worn by Jekyll and Hyde, but with my name and a rank on them.  One was for T3C, the other T2C. 

The second enveloped said "do not open until directed," but felt like it contained the same as the first.

There were three of the charcoal uniforms of the US Space Force, possibly left behind as surplus, and one that was pure white.  They all had Velcro patches.

 The last item was looked like long underwear, but spun through with a network of hoses and wires. 

I'd finished the translations before bed, and got up to a knock on the door after what seemed like only a minute.

The clerk took my reports and gave me a flight assignment.  I was going back on the Bugs Bunny at 09:00.  It had seemed all too soon.

Now it didn't, I reflected as I stood on her hull, just abaft the main hatch, which was open. 

I was held fast by magnetic boots, the kind they use for spacewalks.  Under the bulky outer suit, I wore my new white jumpsuit, under that, the intricate underwear.  They were plumbed with cold water and sensors, to help regulate my body temperature.

I hoped the flight surgeon didn't know how nervous I was, about to do what I was.  He wasn't in the ship, but was monitoring my vitals via radio link in the main control tower.

"How are you doing, Dani?"

It was the Commodore, who was monitoring me too.

"Scared as hell."

"You'll do fine.  Just hold on and let Vastis do the rest."

"Jane?"

"Yes Dani?"

"I want to say thank you again, for everything; this is just mind-blowing, but it I die up here, it's all your fault."

"Noted.  Now carry on.  Mickey Mouse you are clear to leave the dock."

The lock was empty now, except a few other people in space suits and the seized Jitterbug.  It looked like a giant M&M—jewel red with windows all round the top and a bank of engines in a honeycomb pattern below.

It had to be four meters across and more than two thick, but it was dwarfed in the bay, hanging motionless above the deck.  I noticed I was using metric in my head.

The engines lit behind me and I could feel the gentle tug of acceleration.

I'd truly been in microgravity and would be again, soon.  I felt better than I ever had, more alert, more alive. 

And I was about to go for a space walk, something fewer than a hundred humans had ever done.

***

"Time to pull away, Dani," Vastis said through the radio link.  "I've got you."

He was inside the airlock, operating a winch that fed my tether.  It consisted of a steel lanyard, wrapped in a double helix of redundant signal cable and air supply and return hoses.  It was as thick as my wrist.

They'd had to install it in the ladder-cage beyond the lock, as there was no room for him and the winch inside. 

"I hear you, but I'm a little nervous here.  I can see the Earth."

We were less than a kilometer from Ophiuchus, about a thousand yards.  They kept feeding me info in metric.  It spun like a lazy wheel, once every twenty seconds, dwarfing everything else.

The sky above was truly breathtaking. 

We were 22,600 miles directly above Pennsylvania. 

The stars were bright like coals, and didn't flicker.  I could see Saturn and Mars, now that I'd been directed where to look and was surprise to find Mars was the planet I'd seen when I was on Earth, thinking of Korzak's books.

It was as red as I imagined, like a rusty ball-bearing.

I took a deep breath and squatted, resting on my palms and clicked my feet off the hull like they'd told me to.

I pushed off gently with both hands.

"No, Dani, you need to draw your knees in, past your elbows.

"And tuck in your arms, push from'unda yourself.  Center of mass."

I was starting to yaw into a backspin.  He pulled gently at the tether and righted me.  The jolt also checked my speed.

There it was again, no gravity at all.  It felt like falling down an endless well, only I knew I couldn't actually fall.

My eyes fluttered involutarily and every nerve tingled.  I had goose bumps all over.

As I spun slowly, the spacecraft rolled out of my sight and I could see Saturn again, I continued and soon I could see the Sun, and then, below me, my home planet.

Big blue marble doesn't do it justice.  It was magnificent. 

"We're gonna spin up now."

We did, by some apparatus inside the ship.  I grew heavier, hanging from the tether in the small of my back instead of flying free.  The acceleration forced me to face outward.

I was in heaven, in the Heavens, literally.  The sky swung past me again, first Saturn, then the Sun again—I saw Venus near it, and maybe Mercury— and the Earth, this time without the Mickey Mouse occulting my view.

It was still night-time in North America but it was ablaze with lights.  I saw New Orleans, and followed the Mississippi up to St. Louis.  Down there was my life, my family, my friends. 

Europe was in full day and dawn was creeping across the Atlantic Ocean and South America, so dark in comparison.

I watched for the Milky Way the third time around.  It was really hard to miss, much brighter than I was used to.  Both Mars and Saturn were imbedded in it; perhaps that is why I missed it earlier.

I started spinning on my own axis, and flattened out to slow myself down. 

I looked up, which is to say above my own head.  Ophiuchus Station passed by in a complicated path and for a brief second I caught a glimpse of the crescent Moon.

"You alright out there, Heywood?"

"Uh-huh," I wimpered, in an ecstasy the reached through my mind with both hands and supplied me with the adjective orgasmic.

I shuddered and passed out.