The Salvagers Read Online Free Page B

Neil."
                  Neil and Stacey had a bad case of the usual rivalry between pilots and engineers.
                  "I said it was a workaround! Have you ever tried welding in space? That ship was spinning, taking turns freezing and boiling once an hour. That's hell on a makeshift weld joint," Neil responded defensively.
                  "Yeah, blah blah. Moon suits are clumsy. Don't forget to add that one too."
                  "Pilots have no sense of mechanics. You wonder why your ships break down all the time," he said. "Did you tell the computer to give it a little extra?"
                  That jibe hit home. Stacey had once burned out a reactor on a Roper Model 12 moon flyer during her training days. Those things are nearly impossible to break, and they're widely considered to be foolproof, but she managed to push it too hard and was left stranded on the Sea of Tranquility for a week until a crawler could pick her up. She lost five pounds living on crackers and mustard packets.
                  "It's still spinning," I said. "Could you two hold the rivalry until after we've figured this out?"
     
                  "We'll have to use some of the reserve air," said Stacey. "I'd rather we didn't have to because we can't refill the thrusters without bringing them back onboard. We lost that option when someone welded them on," she said, firing a parting shot at Neil as he returned to his window. "Still, we've got good reserves, and I don't think we'll use them up completely in a second try. I don't see any other choice."
                  "Alright, do it," I responded, more than a little disheartened.
                  Stacey had the computer recalculate the ship's spin rate. It came up with an answer faster than I felt comfortable with.
                  "That's it?"
                  "It's your computer. It says it's ready."
                  That wasn't comforting. The Amaranth Sun 's computers were usually reliable, but they were first and foremost navigational quantum computers. Using them for something else required the computer to write new software for itself. That usually meant glitches.
                  "Well, let's try this again."
                  This time Stacey didn't bother with a countdown. She just hit the button, and the thrusters fired almost too fast for the eye to see. I held my breath and hesitantly looked at my panel. I saw nothing but welcome, wonderful zeros.
                  "I think it worked," I said.
                  "Looks as though it’s stopped," Neil said as he checked the derelict visually.
                  "I think we’ve done it," I said. It took a moment to sink in before we broke into cheers. It was beautiful. The Cape Hatteras was sitting motionless with a slight dip to port just off our starboard bow. Stacey moved the Amaranth Sun alongside, leaving a space of about 50 meters between the ships.
                  "Next step," I said as everyone calmed down, "is to set up a scaffold around the center of the ship. We should have enough titanium pipe for it."
                  We'd never built a scaffold on a wreck before because it wasn't usually necessary. However, a fully intact derelict had to be treated as a ship in space dock rather than as a wreck. Cutting into the hull was an unfortunate necessity since handles can accumulate ice or jam from thermal fluctuation, so there's no way to open a hatch on a spacecraft from the outside.
                  "Shouldn't be a problem," Neil said. "I doubt it will take a week, and I'd definitely like to get rid of all that pipe. You ordered so much."
                  "Never know when you'll need it. Of all the things I've learned out here, you can't ever have enough pipe."
                  "You must have