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there is damage, you guys could be stuck in there longer.”
    I heard someone else take up the speaker.
    “Alex.” It was Makara. “Why the hell didn’t you make it?”
    “Anna’s door didn’t open. I had to improvise.”
    “Wouldn’t open?” Ashton said.
    “Yeah. It stayed closed.”
    “Our techs will take a look at that,” Ashton said. “That it would not work at a time like this...”
    “Well, I’m fine now,” Anna said. “Thanks to Alex.”
    Samuel was next to speak. “Keep your heads in the game. The Mid Ring should be online soon, though I expect there will be a hell of a mess to clean up. Until then, sit tight, and don’t open that door .”
    “Copy that,” I said.
    The radio cut out, leaving Anna and me alone on the bridge.
    “I’m sorry I didn’t get out in time,” she said.
    “For what? It’s not your fault.”
    “It might be,” she said.
    I paused. “What do you mean?”
    “I honestly didn’t realize the door was shut. I was looking for my katana. It wasn’t where it normally was. I was searching for a good fifteen seconds until I turned around and saw that my door wasn’t open. That’s when I started to panic. Then, you came along and got it open.”
    “Could you have opened it from the inside?”
    “I don’t know,” Anna said. “I didn’t have time to try it.”
    “Anna....”
    I stopped myself. There was no point in getting upset about something that was over and done with. Anna seemed to guess my inclination to anger. She unstrapped herself from her seat, angling herself away from and toward the back of the ship.
    “Hey,” I said.
    I unstrapped myself as she pushed herself away. I grabbed her boot. Instead of stopping her, as I thought it would, it pulled us both together. Her head bonked into mine.
    “Ouch!” she said.
    We were now face to face. She stared at me a moment, her eyes at first angry. Then, they softened.
    “I’m glad you’re alright,” I said. “That’s what matters.”
    Then, realizing I was still holding her, I let go, even if part of me didn’t want to. Well, maybe most of me.
    She smiled. “I can’t believe you shot open the door.”
    “I’m glad that worked out, too.
    She sighed, turning slightly away. “I don’t like playing the part of the damsel in distress. But maybe just this once.”
    “It’s not that bad,” I said. “I know you saved my ass more times than I can count.”
    “Well, we both know that’s true.”
    We looked at each other for another moment. Something softened in her eyes, and for a moment, I thought we were going to kiss.
    Anna turned aside. “Since we’re here, we might as well get some rest. There’s bunks in the back.”
    I nodded, unable to push down my disappointment. “Might as well.”
    Despite the scare the impact caused, sleep did not elude me. As soon as I lay down and strapped into my bunk, I was out.

Chapter 5
    A fter twenty four hours, we were out of there. The EVA team sealed up the hole within a couple of hours, but pressuring the Ring took a while, nearly depleting the station’s oxygen and nitrogen reserves. The techs then restarted the Ring’s rotation. Finally, when the Ring hit that happy 1G, its rotation steadied.
    The stuff we left in our habs was safe. Each hab’s door automatically shuts upon detecting a sharp pressure drop. The lack of gravity for hours straight had made a huge mess of things. Ashton dedicated the entire day to cleanup – anyone who could be spared was set to putting things back in order. It was amazing what a few seconds of chaos could do.
    Skyhome’s techs later found the foreign object that had nearly sent us all to our deaths; a thin, titanium rod, a few centimeters long and half a centimeter in diameter. It looked like it could have been part of a satellite. I could hardly believe it could have caused such a scare. Skyhome’s tracking system had a lot of objects to keep up with, and it was amazing that it could predict such a small incoming object