Tom Lamb approached her, along the starboard fuselage longerons. “You ready for the MMU?”

“Sure.”

“Houston, EV2 preparing to deploy MMU.”

“Copy that, Tom.”

Benacerraf made her way to the MMU station. The Manned Maneuvering Unit was a big backpack shaped like the back and arms of an armchair. Since launch it had been stored in its station in the payload bay against the rear cabin bulkhead, on the starboard side.

Lamb had got there first, and he ran a quick check of the MMU’s systems.

“You ready?”

“Let’s do it.”

Lamb held her arms. He turned her around, and she backed into the MMU. She felt latches clasp her suit’s backpack.

“Houston, EV2,” she said. “EMU latches closed.”

“Copy that.”

She pulled the MMU’s arms out around her. She closed her gloved hands around the controllers, which were simple hand-controllers on the end of the arms. A fiber-optic data cable plugged into her suit from the MMU.

Lamb released the tethers which still clipped her to the payload bay slide wires, and reached around her. “Captive latches released.”

“Copy.”

He shoved her gently in the back, and she floated away from the bulkhead. “Don’t even think about it,” he said calmly. “It’s just like the sims.”

…Suddenly she didn’t have hold of anything, and she was falling.

“Oh, shit.”

“We didn’t copy that, EV2,” the capcom said humorlessly.

Lamb ignored him. “Come on, Paula. Turn around.”

She had two big nitrogen-filled fuel tanks on her back now, and there were twenty-four small reaction control system nozzles. She grasped her right-hand controller, and pushed it left. There was a soft tone in her helmet as the thruster worked; she saw a faint sparkle of nitrogen crystals, to her right. In response to the thrust, she tipped a little to the left.