Read The End of All Things #2: This Hollow Union for Free Online Page A

vertigo.”
    “No problem.”
    “If the captain of the Odhiambo is still on the ship, ask it to send us a real-time data feed, please,” I said.
    “Will do.”
    “Also, Captain Neva Balla is ‘she,’ not ‘it.’”
    “You sure?”
    “I’ve met her before,” I said. “Humans generally prefer to not be called ‘it’ whenever possible.”
    “The things you learn about people while you’re on the job,” Aul said.
    *   *   *
    “Here we go,” Aul said, nodding to the monitor. On it a lone figure stood in an open airlock on the Chandler, directly across from the Odhiambo. The distance between the two ships was less than thirty plint—about fifty meters in human measurement. Aul was right: Whoever was piloting the Chandler had impressive control.
    The figure in the airlock continued to stand, as if waiting for something.
    “Not a good idea to run out the clock,” Aul said, under zis breath.
    A stab of light shot from the Chandler, striking across and at a small angle from the figure in the airlock.
    “They’re firing on the ship,” I said.
    “Interesting,” Aul said.
    “Why is it interesting?”
    “They need to cut into the hull,” Aul said. Ze pointed at the beam. “Normally for a rescue we’d send a crew over with some particle beam cutters to get through the hull. We have a couple here on the shuttle, in fact. But it takes time. Time they don’t have. So instead they’re just burning a big damn hole in the hull with a beam.”
    “It doesn’t look very safe,” I said, watching. A venting blast of air puffed out of the Odhiambo, crystalizing in the vacuum wherever the beam didn’t turn it into plasma.
    “It’s definitely not, ” Aul said. “If there’s someone in the cabin they’re cutting into, they probably just died of asphyxiation. That is, if they weren’t vaporized by the beam.”
    “If they weren’t careful they could have blown up the ship.”
    “The ship’s going to blow up anyway, Councilor,” Aul said. “No reason to try to be dainty.”
    The beam shut off as abruptly as it began, leaving a three-plint hole in the Odhiambo ’s hull. In the monitor, the figure in the Chandler airlock launched itself toward the hole, trailing a cable behind it.
    “Okay, now I get it,” Aul said. “They’re running a cable from the Chandler to the Odhiambo. That’s how they’re going to get them off the ship.”
    “Across a vacuum,” I said.
    “Wait for it,” Aul said. The figure disappeared into the Odhiambo. After a moment, the cable, which had drifted slightly, tightened up. Then a large container started moving across the cable.
    “I’m guessing vacuum suits, harnesses, and automatic pulleys in that,” Aul said. “Get them suited up, secure them in a harness, and let the pulleys do all the work.”
    “You sound like you approve.”
    “I do,” Aul said. “This is a pretty simple rescue plan with pretty simple tools. When you’re trying to save people, simpler is better. A lot fewer things to go wrong.”
    “As long as the Chandler can keep in sync with the Odhiambo. ”
    “Yes,” Aul agreed. “There is that. This plan has all its complications in one place, at least.”
    There were several moments of nothing obvious going on. I took the time to look at the co-pilot monitor set, on which we were tracking the Odhiambo ’s power and heat signatures. No excitement there either, which was a good thing. “You might suggest to the Odhiambo ’s captain that any remaining crew might want to disembark as soon as possible,” I said to Aul.
    “With all due respect, Councilor,” Aul said. “I’m not going to suggest to a captain that it abandon its ship a single second before it makes that decision on its own.”
    “Fair enough.” I glanced back over to the monitor with the Odhiambo on it. “Look,” I said, pointing. The first of the diplomats was making its way across the line, swaddled in a highly reflective vacuum suit, chest in a harness, trailing behind