She moved to the exterior hatch and looked out the small porthole at the wreckage outside. It was difficult to tell what type of ship it had been. The alien weapons had blown most of it to bits during the battle, leaving only this rear section intact.
She turned back to the group and lifted her arms high over her head. “Stretch out. Muscles need to be loose for takeoff and landing.”
The women complied, bending their legs and getting loose. Rena took a moment to reposition some of the gear she had strapped to her shoulders and belt. Arjuna had loaded each of them with salvaging tools. Rena carried a rotating saw, industrial shears, and a dozen other smaller tools stuffed into her suit’s many pockets.
Arjuna’s voice sounded in their helmets. “Move quickly. Don’t waste time on parts of little value.” He was up in the helm, monitoring them, tracking the wreckage. “When you enter a room, look at everything. Put a price on every piece you see. And remember that the most valuable pieces may not be out in the open. Look for pipes, wiring, conduit. Follow them to their source. Find whatever they’re powering or pumping from. Rip back panels. Expose everything. Then go to what’s worth the most and start cutting.” He was repeating himself. He had drilled this into them for weeks now. “And how much extra do you cut away?”
He meant extra wiring or pipes, all the replaceable pieces that fed into the part and anchored it to the ship. Cutting a power cord was fine. Cutting the part wasn’t.
The women all answered in unison, some with a tired rhythm in their voice. They had been over this so many times already. “At least half a meter,” they said
“At the least,” Arjuna repeated. “At the least. More is better. Err on the side of caution. If you cut the part too short or if you damage it when you cut it free, it’s junk. We’ll get nothing for it.”
Rena looked to her right and saw Abbi beside her. Abbi had come to El Cavador as a young bride from a Peruvian free-miner family that had never allowed their women to do spacewalks. She looked terrified.
“Stay close to me,” said Rena. “We’ll go everywhere together.”
Abbi nodded, grateful.
Rena’s heart ached for the woman. Abbi had lost her only son, Mono, when El Cavador was destroyed, and the loss had been devastating. Ever since then Abbi had been detached and distant. Rena had tried comforting her on a few occasions, but Abbi had always brushed off the gestures and preferred to be left alone. Now, however, she was terrified and desperate for companionship.
“We’ll help each other,” Rena told her. “No one’s alone on this.”
Abbi nodded again, putting on her best face. She was trying at least, thought Rena.
Arjuna’s voice returned. “We’ll have the nets open. Once you pull a part, bring it outside and push it to the nets.”
The nets had been a source of contention among the women. Arjuna had ordered his original crew to man the nets and catch the salvaged parts while he had ordered the women of El Cavador to go inside the wreckage and retrieve the valuables.
“You see what he’s doing, don’t you?” Julexi had said. “He’s giving us the dangerous work and giving the light, safe labor to his own family.”
“We’re better cutters than they are,” Rena had said. “We know the parts better than they do. He’s doing this for practical reasons. We’ll move faster and salvage more this way.”
It was true, but no one liked it.
“You see how she always takes his side instead of ours?” Julexi had said. “Arjuna can do no wrong as far as Rena is concerned.”
It was a ridiculous accusation. Rena had argued privately with Arjuna on a half-dozen issues, usually winning those arguments and getting what the family needed. But she never bragged about these small victories to the women. No one else even knew they had occurred. That would only fuel those who still griped about being here. They would use those arguments as proof that coming along had been a mistake. It didn’t matter that all ships had arguments like the ones Rena had with Arjuna. It didn’t matter that all families operated that way. It had happened every day aboard El Cavador. People argued. Disagreements were voiced on how things should be done. Opposing viewpoints were considered. Compromises were made.
But people like Julexi seemed to forget that fact when they were so desperate to build a case against their current situation.
Arjuna said, “Hatch is opening in five … four … three … two … one.”
The hatch cracked, and the rush of oxygen in the airlock was sucked out into the vacuum of space. With the bolts pulled back and the seal broken, Rena pushed on the hatch, and it swung outward, revealing the wide, infinite expanse of space beyond. She had told herself that she would be the first one out, leading by example, showing the women that they could do this without lifelines, that all would be well.
But fear paralyzed her. The blackness was a well she would fall into and continue on forever. It had taken Segundo. It would take her, too.