I’m getting better at the extremely odd skill set of EVAs in non-zero gravity. And unlike my death dance on the nose of the ship, the rear has lots of handles. Mounting the beetles is easy enough. I attach them to handles on the hull to immobilize them while Rocky’s xenonite glue sets and makes a permanent bond.

In the end, I have John, Paul, and Ringo evenly spaced in a ring around the hull, each one angled so their engine points 45 degrees away from the long axis of the ship.

“Beetles set,” I say into my radio. “Inspecting damaged area.”

“Good,” Rocky replies.

I make my way to the spot that was ruined by the fuel-tank rupture. There isn’t much to see—I jettisoned the bad tanks at the time. A rectangle of missing hull plates shows an opening where the tanks once were. The area surrounding the hole tells a tale of trauma. Black scorch marks mar the otherwise shiny hull plates. There’s clear and obvious warping on two of the neighboring panels.

“Some panels are bent. Some have burn marks. Not too bad.”

“Good news.”

“Burn marks are odd, don’t you think? Why burn marks?”

“Much heat.”

“Yeah, but no oxygen. This is space. How did it burn?”

“Theory: Many Astrophage in tanks. Some probably dead. Dead Astrophage have water. Dead Astrophage not immune to heat. Water and much much heat become hydrogen and oxygen. Oxygen and heat and hull becomes burn marks.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Good theory.”

“Thank.”

I get back across the space rope bridge that is the cabling, then inside the airlock without incident. Rocky waits for me in his ceiling bulb in the control room.

“All is well, question?”

“Yes,” I say. “Controls for John, Paul, and Ringo are good?”

He holds identical control boxes in three of his hands. Each has a wire leading to a wall-mounted speaker/microphone attached to the hull. He taps a readout box with a fourth hand. “Communication established. All beetles function and ready.”

I strap myself into the command chair. This next bit is going to be uncomfortable.

We put the beetles at 45-degree angles from the ship centerline so we can use them to angle the ship as needed. It also lets us control the ship’s rotation. But we can only use the beetles when the ship is in one piece. So first I have to pull the halves together.

Conservation of rotational inertia being what it is, that means the ship is going to spin really fast. In fact, it’ll spin exactly as fast as it was when Rocky had to save me last time. We haven’t gained or lost any inertia in that time.

I bring up the Centrifuge panel on the main control screen. Well, it’s just above the original main screen. That main screen got wrecked in the Adrian adventure. But this one’s good enough.

“You are ready?”

“Yes.”

“The g-forces will be strong,” I say. “Easy for you, but hard for me. I might fall unconscious.”