“Yeah. Joint injury’s a lot less painful in microgravity, ain’t it?”
Holden was about to reply when a massive hammer hit the side of the ship. The hull rang like a gong. The Roci’s engine cut off almost instantly, and the ship snapped into a flat spin. Amos was lifted away from Holden and thrown across the airlock to slam against the outer door. Holden slid along the deck to land standing upright against the bulkhead next to him, his knee collapsing under him so painfully he nearly blacked out.
He chinned a button in his helmet, and his body armor shot him full of amphetamines and painkillers. Within seconds, his knee still hurt, but the pain was very far away and easy to ignore. The threatening tunnel vision vanished and the airlock became very bright. His heart started to race.
“Alex,” he said, knowing the answer before he asked, “what was that?”
“When we torched our passenger there, the bomb in the cargo bay went off,” the pilot replied. “We’ve got serious damage to that bay, to the outer hull, and to engineering. Reactor went into emergency shutdown. The cargo bay turned into a second drive during the blast and put us into a spin. I have no control over the ship.”
Amos groaned and began moving his limbs. “That sucks.”
“We need to kill this spin,” Holden said. “What do you need to get the attitude thrusters back up?”
“Holden,” Naomi cut in, “I think Prax may be injured in the airlock. He’s not moving in there.”
“Is he dying?”
The hesitation lasted for one very long second.
“His suit doesn’t think so.”
“Then ship first,” Holden said. “First aid after. Alex, we’ve got radios again. And the lights are on. So the jamming is gone, and the batteries must still be working. Why can’t you fire the thrusters?”
“Looks like … primary and secondary pumps are out. No water pressure.”
“Confirmed,” Naomi said a second later. “Primary wasn’t in the blast area. If it’s toast, engineering must be a mess. Secondary’s on the deck above. It shouldn’t have been physically damaged, but there was a big power spike just before the reactor went off-line. Might have fried it or blown a breaker.”
“Okay, we’re on it. Amos,” Holden said, pulling himself over to where the mechanic lay on the cargo airlock’s outer door. “You with me?”
Amos gave a one-handed Belter nod, then groaned. “Just knocked the wind out of me, is all.”
“Gotta get up, big man,” Holden said, pushing himself to his feet. In the partial gravity of their spin, his leg felt heavy, hot, and stiff as a board. Without the drugs pouring through him, standing on it would have probably made him scream. Instead, he pulled Amos up, putting even more pressure on it.
I will pay for this later, he thought. But the amphetamines made later seem very far away.
“What?” Amos said, slurring the word. He probably had a concussion, but Holden would get him some medical attention later when the ship was back under their control.
“We need to get to the secondary water pump,” Holden said, forcing himself to speak slowly in spite of the drugs. “What’s the fastest access point?”
“Machine shop,” Amos replied, then closed his eyes and seemed to fall asleep on his feet.
“Naomi,” Holden said. “Can you control Amos’ suit from there?”
“Yes.”
“Shoot him full of speed. I can’t drag his ass around with me, and I need him.”
“Okay,” she said. A couple of seconds later, Amos’ eyes popped open.
“Shit,” he said. “Was I asleep?” His words were still slurred but now had a sort of manic energy to them.
“We need to get to the bulkhead access point in the machine shop. Grab whatever you think we’ll need to get the pump running. It might have blown a breaker or fried some wiring. I’ll meet you there.”
“Okay,” Amos said, then pulled himself along the toe rings set into the floor to get to the inner airlock door. A moment later it was open and he crawled out of view.
With the ship spinning, gravity was pulling Holden to a point halfway between the deck and the starboard bulkhead. None of the ladders and rings set into the ship for use in low g or under thrust would be oriented in the right direction. Not really a problem with four working limbs, but it would make maneuvering with one useless leg difficult.
And of course, once he moved past wherever the ship’s center of spin was, everything would reverse.