Vented the air pressure. Opened the chute to vacuum. Jumped out of a spaceship and floated to the Awesome with a bunch of packaged food and a prayer. Rogers felt his body shaking a little as he put his helmet on and started checking the suit’s systems. He really wasn’t meant for this kind of life. Sneaking around, running away, jumping out of spaceships. It was just too adventurous. Rogers preferred the quiet life, the classy drinks, cheating very discreetly at cards.

All the more reason to be done with this soon, he thought. He snapped the last clasps into place and turned on the VMU. The suit, reading the ambient pressure in the area, didn’t change anything, but he could hear several air gaskets opening as the suit prepared to do its job. Out in space, once he flipped the mobility switch on the back of his helmet, it would excrete little puffs of air, triggered by reading Rogers’ body movements, to get him where he wanted to go. It was a comfortable, familiar thing; he’d worn these thousands of times while making repairs on the outside of the ship. So, it was a terribly confusing feeling now, since he felt like he was about to shit himself.

He moved over to the control panel to the side of the door, making sure that the SEWR rats weren’t going to fly out the hatch as soon as it opened, and examined the controls. It wasn’t overly complicated; there was one large red button and one large green button. Above the red button was printed the word SHOOT, and above the green button was printed the word CHUTE. Rogers thought there might have been a better way to label it.

Underneath the control panel, a warning was issued in yellow lettering. ALL PERSONNEL MUST ENSURE ANY ITEMS AND PERSONNEL NOT INTENDED TO BE JETTISONED ARE FIRMLY SECURED, AND ALL VMUS ARE IN WORKING ORDER BEFORE MANUALLY VENTING THE CHUTE.

Under that sign was another warning.

FIRING THE CHUTE SUPERVISOR OR HIS PRIZE-WINNING BONSAI PLANT COLLECTION INTO FREE SPACE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

And another, this one printed on actual paper.

TRICKING THE CHUTE SUPERVISOR INTO FIRING HIMSELF OR HIS PRIZE-WINNING BONSAI PLANT COLLECTION INTO FREE SPACE IS ALSO STRICTLY PROHIBITED. ALSO, WHOEVER STOLE THE LABEL-MAKER, PLEASE BRING IT BACK TO ME ASAP.

Rogers’ finger hovered over the red button as he looked at his datapad. 1502 ship time. If the helmsman had listened to him, the targeting computer would have been off for two minutes and would remain off for the next twenty eight. Just enough to push the Awesome to full burn and get to the Un-Space point. If Hart had moved his ship like he said he would. If the engines were fixed like Hart said they were. If the MPF hadn’t confiscated all the credits stored locally on the Awesome’s systems.

So many ifs. But there was only one way to find out.

Then someone slapped him on the ass.