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“Never seen anyone max out a uni-suit before,” she said, the quirk of her lips saying that she was suppressing a smile. “If you’re gonna spend much time space-side, handsome, you might want to invest in a suit that fits you.”

He bit back a retort as he jammed his feet into the boots, relieved to find that they, at least, were big enough. The tank went on, and a moment later he felt the reassuring click as the hoses connected. Grabbing the suit’s helmet and gloves, he followed B into the airlock.

He made sure to cast a quick glance over her suit as she put the helmet on and fastened the gloves. It looked well used but also well maintained. Approval filled him. There was no way he would have allowed her to go out there wearing something like the monstrosity he was in.

“Beginning cycle now,” B said, as he fastened his helmet and gloves into place.

The airlock door clanged shut behind them, and for a moment, claustrophobia washed over him. The airlock was far smaller than he’d realized, barely big enough for the two of them when they were fully suited up. He hadn’t noticed how small it was before because they’d either been on station with both doors open or desperate to get away from the station after being attacked.

“You good?” she asked, and he looked up to see concern written across her lovely features.

Gritting his teeth, he nodded.

“Just been a while, that’s all,” he muttered, taking the toolbox she held out to him.

Hopefully, his expression showed the appropriate amount of trepidation for a human unused to working in deep space.

Which was all a lie, of course.

He was more than used to operating both on the inside and outside of a ship, thanks to Ryke’s relentless combat drills and the fact he seemed to delight in taking the most insane jobs he could find.

“Okay, don’t worry,” she said with a reassuring smile. “It’s like riding a bike. You never forget how.”

He had no idea what she was on about, but nodded anyway as she cracked the airlock door release. Air whooshed past him as the pressure in the airlock dropped. Within a minute they were equalized and she swung open the outer door.

“Nice and easy,” she said, one foot already on the threshold. Reaching around, she clipped her tether onto the guardrail with a practiced gesture. He closed his eyes, not believing that humans actually tied themselves to their ships rather than use something sensible like magnetic boots.

He followed her out, for once ignoring the blackness of space in favor of keeping an eye on her.

Normally he liked the peace and solitude of being out on the hull. On the Lady’s Dream, it was the one place Covak couldn’t bug the trall out of him. Or rather he could, but at least Rann could boot the irritating vorrtan off the hull if he did.

So instead of gazing out into the infinite blackness of space as he normally would, he kept his gaze firmly locked on the little female in front of him. That she was experienced at this was plain to see. Her movements were easy and confident as she used both tether lines to hold herself on the hull between the guardrails, then quickly changed over to another pair to take them around to the engine they needed to work on.

He followed her, emulating her movements, but making sure to be clumsy and much less graceful. Exactly as a younger pilot who wasn’t used to spacewalks was likely to be.

Before long, they stood on the ventral hull. B’s expression was set as she assessed the problem vent. It was closed shut, just as she’d said.

“Pass that here.” She motioned at the toolkit as she knelt next to the offending vent, shortening her tether to keep herself in place.

Every muscle in his body tensed. If that vent opened with her where she was, she’d be right in the center of the stream.

“B, should you?” He held the toolkit out of her reach.

“Should I what?”

She looked around at him, a frown on her face that cleared as she saw what he was motioning at.

“Oh, yeah… it’s fine. Don’t worry. The vent is all locked off at the moment.”

Tilting her wrist, she showed him the systems panel built into the forearm. It was so like the one in his combat bracer that he was forced to blink. The panel showed something outlined in red, so he nodded, not about to make a mistake like he had earlier with language again.

She reached out and took the toolkit he offered, latching it to her belt before unrolling it. It unfurled lazily away from her, revealing the contents in their magnetic loops.

He shook his head.

So they’d thought to use maglocks for their tools but not to attach themselves to their ship to stop themselves floating off? Draanthing typical.

Selecting one of the tools, B started to investigate each of the vent fins carefully, using the tool to wriggle beneath it and slid along the length. She seemed to be working more from feel than sight, her gaze on the edge of the hull ahead of her as she worked from top toward the bottom.