I almost fell getting the second foot into the water, only to hit my first snag. That first step wasn’t big enough for both booted feet. I waited for the light so I could more easily bend and brace my hands against rocks on the shore, then stretched that foot blindly down for the second step.
My toe met the rock. Or something solid. I couldn’t look through the helmet’s chin.
The base of the life support pack touched water. It didn’t burst into sparks. The words LEAVE WATER IMMEDIATELY flashed right next to TOTAL TELEMETRY FAILURE. All systems in trouble? The story of my career. The telemetry warning’s slow beep had become mere background noise, but with the second alarm it picked up pitch and acquired an erratic syncopation impossible to ignore.
The life support pack’s density more than
