“That’s because you just blew out the power, Vera. Freezing the system is a safety procedure.”
An angry, muffled shout came from another miner. “Okay, what idiot pulled that stunt?” Vera heard the miner sloshing toward them through the darkness.
“I did that!” Vera shouted. In the Acquis, it was always best to take responsibility at once. “That was my fault! I’ll do better.”
“Oh. So it was you? You, the newbie?”
Karen was indignant. “Gregor, don’t you dare call Vera a ‘newbie.’ This is Vera Mihajlovic! Compared to her, you’re the newbie.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I still have charge left in my capacitors.” Karen sighed aloud in the wet darkness. “Just go and reboot us, Gregor. We’ve all got a schedule to meet.”
“Please help me,” Vera begged him. “I’m stuck here, I can’t move!” “You’ll have to wait for a miracle, stupid,” said Gregor, and he left them there, rigid in the darkness.
“You made Gregor angry,” Karen assessed. “Gregor’s our very best rock man, but he’s not exactly a people person.”
Vera heaved uselessly against the silent pads and straps of her dead exoskeleton. Her boneware, which gave her such strength, grace, lightness, power, had become her intimate prison.
“Who designed all this?” she shrieked. “We should have power backups! We should have fuel cells!”
“Be glad that we can still hear each other talking.” Karen’s voice sounded flat and muffled though her helmet and shroud. “It’s too hot down here to run any fuel cells. Gregor will reboot us. He can do it, he’s good. You just wait and see.”
A long, evil moment passed. Panic rose and clutched the dry lining of Vera’s throat.
“This is horrible!”
“Yes,” said Karen mournfully, “I guess it is, pretty much.”
“I can’t stand it!”
“Well, we just have to stand it, Vera. We can’t do anything but stand here.”