Read April 6: And What Goes Around for Free Online Page B

maybe he went back alone to retrieve something forgotten. That would
be stupid to do without telling Barak, but only too believable. The line was
visible and taut, the posts on both ends secure. There was no sign of him along
the line or at the engine sixty meters away. He leaned out and looked to each
side... nothing. He called on his suit radio. "Harold? Where are you? What
are you doing?"
    The bridge
monitored  their suit radios, so Captain Jaabir came on com and inquired,
"Is there a problem?"
    "Possibly. We
returned to the airlock and I entered. When I turned around and looked back out
Mr. Hanson is not in sight, and he doesn't answer a radio call either."
    "Well then I
suggest you go back out and look for him," the man said, like it was
obvious.
    "I will, when
somebody suits up to go back out with me. You don't send somebody out alone if
there is anybody at all available to partner with them. That's basic rule
number one."
    "Yes, but Mr.
Hanson is partnering with you," Jaabir insisted.
    "Not any more
he isn't since he disappeared. I have no idea where the hell he went, but I'm
not going to descend to the ice without a partner in the airlock ready to drag
me back in on the end of a safety line if whatever befell him gets me."
    "Why isn't
Mr. Hanson on a safety line for you to pull back inside?"
    "Because he
unclips himself any old time he feels like it and flaunts the rules. He
unclipped at the engine a few minutes ago and came back to the ship hand over
hand untethered. He does it all the time and I gave up telling him about it
because he's the supervisor and he got all crappy about me telling him what to
do. When he started saying 'Yes, Mother' in a sarcastic voice I stopped telling
him anything."
    Jaabir didn't say
anything for a moment. Barak was waiting to hear him challenge that, but he
didn't. "Nevertheless, I'd like you to go back out and look," he
insisted. "I don't have a camera that can see in close to the anchored
nose of the ship."
    And why didn't
you set one up on one of the drives looking back at the ship? Barak
wondered, but didn't say it.
    "I'm sure
tormented souls in hell would like raspberry ice cream too, but they're not
going to get it."
    "Are you
refusing my direct order?" Jaabir asked.
    "Damn right.
You are master, but we're not under military discipline. Nor are we underway.
You are ordering me to take actions off your vessel and in violation of
established safety rules. You can order me to take my helmet off and breath
vacuum right now too, with as much chance I'll do it."
    "Some would
argue the entire snowball became my vessel when we outfitted it with the means
to move it."
    "Then fire it
up and move it," Barak challenged. "Demonstrate you are underway and
declare an emergency and I'll consider it." It wasn't actually ready just
yet and Jaabir damn well knew it. His silence spoke volumes. Also if they were
accelerating outside the hatch would be up to the surface. The ship
would have to fire it's engines when they left to keep it nose to the ice.
There was nothing rigged to climb back to the ice under thrust and if Hanson
was loose out there he'd fall off. Jaabir was silent.
    "If there is
an inquiry later and you are asked if you know the safety rules for vacuum work
and why you failed to monitor and see they were followed it will be bad enough.
If you actually order them to be ignored it isn't just passive neglect,
it's actual felonious breach of duty. I'm not going to give them two dead crewmen to charge you over. One is quite sufficient."
    "You... do
not know Mr. Hanson is dead," Jaabir said. But his voice was very
unsteady.
    "Missing in
vacuum and doesn't answer the radio? I'll bet you three Solars at even odds
he's dead."
    "It's
unseemly to make bets over a man's life," Jaabir protested. "I have
the watch and can't leave to suit up. I'll have Ms. Keynes suit up and join
you," he said, singing a different tune now.
    "Do you have
somebody to run a suit check on her?" Barak asked, knowing the