The Arrows of Time

‘That’s true,’ Tarquinia conceded. ‘So we need to set up a tarp behind us before we go in, closing off the space around the hatch. That won’t be perfect, but it should catch most of the spill.’

Ramiro had no better idea. The only alternative to the jetpack would be to try to install handholds in the chamber – again, without any easy way to apply pressure to a resin join, or to brace themselves to use a drill. He buzzed wearily. ‘At least Verano will be pleased: we can bring him back a long list of suggestions for making the next version easier to repair.’

They dragged the two halves of the assembly most of the way to the chamber. Then Tarquinia fetched the largest tarp from the storeroom and they tied its rim to the handholds around the hatch, enclosing themselves and the hardstone pieces in a rough sphere of fabric. When they opened the hatch white pellets began drifting out immediately like inquisitive insects, and by the time they’d manoeuvred the two pieces into the chamber it was clear that they’d needed the tarp all along, whatever else they did.

Inside the chamber, with the hatch closed, Ramiro realised that they had another problem. ‘When we put resin along the join, how do we keep the sunstone from sticking to it?’ A few lumps caught under the fabric of his temporary repair hadn’t made much difference, but one pellet would ruin the airtight seal between the hardstone pieces.

Tarquinia said, ‘If I back myself into a corner, I can spray air over it while you’re applying the resin.’

‘I think we should rehearse that.’

They tried it. It didn’t work. Tarquinia could keep a small part of the edge free of pellets at any time, but not the whole join.

She said, ‘We need to get another big tarp in here. If we can form a kind of tent and vent air inside it while we’re making the join, that should keep most of the sunstone out.’

Ramiro grew tired just listening to this plan, but he couldn’t see a way to solve the problem without at least one of them leaving the chamber. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’ll get it.’

He took off his jetpack and left it in the chamber, opened the hatch just enough to let himself through, then untied a section of the tarp’s rim and slipped past it into the passage. A few dozen pellets followed him through the gap.

When he returned with the second tarp, they wrapped themselves and the assembly in this improvised tent and struggled to drive enough of the sunstone out to be confident that they could make the join. It was impossible to make a working space entirely free of pellets, but once they’d reached a point where the density wasn’t getting any lower they had no choice but to take the risk.

They manipulated the pieces so that they were almost slotted together, then Ramiro daubed resin along one half of the join. Tarquinia wound the clamp down on the assembly, then played the beam from her helmet over the edge. Everything fitted together perfectly; nothing had become trapped in the seam.

Ramiro chirped in jubilation. ‘Well done.’

Tarquinia said, ‘Next time we’re bringing a mason.’

They waited for the join to cure, then opened up the tent. Ramiro’s jetpack had ended up in a corner of the chamber; Tarquinia fetched it for him.

To fix the assembly in place they needed to use the tent again, to protect the edges of the gash they were repairing. Ramiro attached it to the wall with resin at half a dozen points, partitioning off their end of the chamber while leaving a large gap to one side through which to shoo out the pellets. But it was harder than before to drive sunstone from the enclosure, with most of the air they vented just escaping straight into the void.

They’d built the assembly with a raised rim that could sit flush against parts of the wall uncontaminated by the earlier repair. Ramiro spread resin around the whole margin of the gash, then with their jetpacks gently bracing them they manoeuvred the assembly into place.

‘It’s rocking a little,’ Tarquinia said.

‘Don’t say that,’ Ramiro begged her. He reached over and pushed on the spot where Tarquinia had been applying pressure, and felt the stone wobble under his fingers.

At least they’d had the foresight to put a handhold on the inner face of the assembly; Tarquinia grabbed it and pulled the whole thing back from the wall. Ramiro searched the contact region; a pellet of sunstone had stuck in the resin. He managed to wiggle it free, his body jittering as the jetpack struggled to track and counter the small changing forces.

They tried again.

‘Flat, no give,’ Tarquinia announced.

‘Same here.’ Ramiro wasn’t quite ready to believe it, but all they could do now was turn up their jetpacks and push, hoping to end up with an airtight seal.

‘If we’d built clamps into this thing we could have tightened them against the outside of the hull,’ Tarquinia mused.

Ramiro buzzed but offered no opinion; attaching them in the first place would probably have taken more time than it saved.