Rip rounded up his men.
"We're finished. The safety officer passed the word to secure the tubes,
which means we're going to decelerate." He smiled grimly. "You all know
they gave us this job just out of pure love for the Planeteers. So
remember it when you go through the control room to the decontamination
chamber."
The Planeteers nodded enthusiastically.
Rip led the way from the mixing chamber, through the heavy safety door,
and into the engine control room. His entrance was met with poorly
concealed grins by the spacemen.
Halfway across the room, Rip turned suddenly and bumped into Sergeant
Major Koa. Koa fell to the deck, arms flailing for balance--but flailing
against his protective clothing. The other Planeteers rushed to pick him
up, and somehow all their hands beat against each other.
The protective clothing was saturated with fine dust. It rose from them
in a choking cloud and was picked up and dispersed by the ventilating
system. It was contaminated dust. The automatic radiation safety
equipment filled the ship with an earsplitting buzz of warning. Spacemen
clapped emergency respirators to their faces and spoke unkindly of Rip's
Planeteers in the saltiest space language possible.
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