The Arrows of Time

‘What would you have done in the old days?’ he asked. ‘If you’d been piloting a gnat with this kind of damage?’

‘Flown it back to a workshop in the Peerless for repairs.’

‘And if you couldn’t use the engines until the repairs were completed?’

Tarquinia said, ‘Then I’d call someone for a tow. See how a lifetime of experience has prepared me for this moment?’

They kept up the pressure for two chimes, the resin’s nominal curing time. When they shut off their jetpacks and took their aching arms away, the assembly remained in place.

Ramiro looked over their handiwork. When the chamber was re-pressurised all the force would be pressing the glued surfaces together more closely, and the sloping side walls would also work in their favour, wedging the assembly ever more tightly into place. The whole thing wasn’t going to fall apart; the worst that could happen now was a small leak.

They cut the tent free of the wall and moved to the hatch, too tired now to speak. Outside, the sunstone trap seemed to have held on to most of the spillage. They took off their jetpacks and slipped them around the edge of the tarp to leave their bodies narrower, then followed them into the passage.

Together, they untied the tarp from the handholds while keeping the rim against the outer wall of the chamber. Then they brought the rim together and knotted it tight, leaving the spilt sunstone inside a large, closed sack. Tarquinia slammed the reset lever on the feed for the decomposing agent.

‘That’s the hard part done,’ she said.

‘What?’ Ramiro was already picturing himself asleep.

She gestured towards the access shaft that ran between her cabin and the cooling chamber. The cabins had airtight doors, but there was still a gaping hole where this shaft met the outer hull.

‘Smaller, no sunstone,’ Tarquinia stressed. ‘We’ll be done in half a bell.’

When the shaft had been sealed, Ramiro checked in on Agata and Azelio while Tarquinia went to restart the ventilation system.

‘He’s sleeping,’ Agata said. ‘All the wounds look stable now.’

‘That’s a relief.’ Ramiro squeezed her shoulder. ‘Thanks for keeping your head, before.’

‘What do you mean?’ Agata sounded genuinely confused; she wasn’t being modest.

‘When you went after Tarquinia,’ he said. ‘I was a wreck – I didn’t know what I was doing.’

‘Really?’ Agata buzzed. ‘It’s lucky I didn’t notice, or it might have been contagious.’

Ramiro said, ‘We’ll have pressure soon. Do you want to sleep in here?’

‘If that’s all right.’

‘Tarquinia’s going to set the temperature low enough that we won’t need beds, so just… make yourself comfortable any way you can.’

‘Thank you.’

He left her, and dragged himself to the front cabin. Tarquinia was at the main console.

‘Any problems?’ he asked.

She swivelled around to face him. ‘The cooling chamber’s up to full operating pressure, and we’ll be back to normal everywhere in four or five chimes.’

‘Back to normal.’ That sounded surreal.

Tarquinia said, ‘We should rest for a few days before we try to repair the cabins.’

‘At least. Agata’s going to stay with Azelio.’

‘Right. You take her cabin, then; I’ll be on watch.’

‘You need to rest, too.’

Tarquinia spread her arms, taking in the whole of the Surveyor: they could hardly leave it unmonitored in this delicate transitional state. ‘You were up before this whole thing started,’ she said. ‘Sleep for four bells, then I’ll come and wake you.’

Ramiro removed his helmet and strapped himself to Agata’s bed, still wearing his cooling bag. He managed to doze off, but then he woke after half a bell, aware that the pressure was back in the cabin. He shut off the air to his bag and tried to sleep again, but then he realised how uncomfortable he was. He peeled the thing off and nestled into the sand, trying to erase the image of papers flying out of Azelio’s cabin.

He was woken by Tarquinia’s voice and her hand on his shoulder. ‘Your turn for the watch,’ she said.

Ramiro looked up at her in the dim light. ‘I thought I’d lost you,’ he said.

‘But you didn’t.’

He unstrapped himself and reached out to embrace her. She was still wearing her own cooling bag; he opened the fastening behind her neck and pulled it down over her shoulders and arms. When she was bare he pressed himself against her chest; an urgent pleasure affirmed the rightness of it, and then he felt their skin adhering.

He looked down and saw the light passing between them. He tried to pull free, but Tarquinia stopped him.

‘You can’t hurt me,’ she said. ‘After shedding two children, I can’t fission.’

Ramiro wanted to believe her, but he was afraid that they’d reached the point where they could talk each other into anything. ‘How do you know?’

‘We’re not the first people to put it to the test.’

Tarquinia eased them together onto the bed, then she brought the straps around them and pulled them tight. The sense of being confined in this state made Ramiro dizzy with joy; he closed his eyes and sank into the warmth suffusing their bodies.