Star Road by Matthew Costello, Rick Hautala

flexing... tensing ... getting ready, and then: with the airlock opening still not directly opposite from him, he jumped.
     
    The instant before his feet left the deck, another Road Bug—maybe more than one—slammed into the sides of his motionless vehicle. The impact threw him off balance. He tried to adjust his jump, but the SRV— needing to keep moving—was already pulling past him.
     
    His arms flailed wildly as he shot across the gap. Below him was the shimmering surface of the Road.
     
    The SRV’s airlock opening already looked too far away.
     
    It had passed him.
     
    But he twisted and thrashed in midair, legs and arms pinwheeling crazily, and—somehow—he caught the receding edge of the portal. A jolt of pain shot through him when his body slammed against the outer shell of the SRV. Without the EVA suit, he would have been squashed.
     
    But his grip held.
     
    Dangling above the Road, grunting loudly, he strained to pull himself up and into the bay. He chanced a quick look over his shoulder.
     
    The Road Bugs had swarmed over and were busily devouring his vehicle. Another few seconds, and he would have been part of their “clean-up.”
     
    Ivan swung around and reached up to grab the door frame with his other hand. Then ... slowly ... arms aching from the angle and the weight of the suit, he pulled himself up. He kicked with his legs to get some kind of foothold.
     
    Every muscle in his body felt strained to the breaking point.
     
    One massive effort, and he managed to hoist himself up waist-high, to the bottom edge of the door.
     
    He swung his right leg over the metal lip of the door and rolled to safety.
     
    “Punch it,” he said, breathing hard into his helmet mic.
     
    The captain responded immediately, and the SRV started moving forward much faster. Ivan was still sitting against the airlock door, catching his breath, when the outer door slid shut, and the lights inside the airlock came on.
     
    They were pressurizing the airlock and—thankfully—the door would open soon to let him inside.
     
    And see just how he had rescued him.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    “Thanks for picking me up,” he said.
     
    “Code of the Road,” the SRV captain said. “SOP, as they say.”
     
    No emotion in her voice.
     
    Not exactly glad to have me aboard.
     
    And then: “Scanner indicates you’re packing a sidearm. I expect you’ll take it out and leave it on the airlock floor ... once you can stand up.”
     
    Drop my weapon?
     
    Is she kidding?
     
    He never went anywhere unarmed.
     
    “I don’t think we should be arguing the point—”
     
    “We’re not arguing it. Lose the weapon, or you can stay where you are until we get to our first way station, and I’ll let you and the council police work it out.”
     
    He shook his head, and slowly stood up, using the wall for support. He had no doubt the captain or the gunner—probably both—were watching him on the closed-circuit vid.
     
    That’s what he’d do.
     
    So he made a show of drawing his pulse pistol, all nice and out in the open, dangling it from his forefinger, and then knelt down to place it gently onto the floor.
     
    “I like your manners,” the captain said. “You ready to come aboard now?”
     
    “It would sure be more comfortable than staying in here.”
     
    Ivan stood by the interior airlock door. Head bowed. Hands braced on both sides of the doorway. He waited for the pressure in the airlock to equalize so he could enter the passengers’ cabin.
     
    When the light went green, he took off his helmet and prepared himself.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    “You done good,” Annie said, looking over at Jordan on the screen as he unbuckled his harness and then stood up from his station. “As usual.”
     
    Jordan nodded. He didn’t need to be told.
     
    But he liked hearing it.
     
    “That big Road Bug. New to me.”
     
    Drawing his pistol, he walked over to the cabin door, unlocked it, and went down the short flight of steps to the