They stank. The best one she’d been able to find had slightly short legs so she always felt like she should bend her knees, and the right elbow joint was harder to move than the left, so she expected to overcompensate in low-g and jerk herself to the left of where she wanted to go. Everything must have been perfect when the Fire left Adiamo, but she was willing to bet half of the damned ship would fail by the time it got home. She didn’t like the airlock a whole lot more than the stiff and stinky suit, especially since it felt crowded with two of them. KJ sat closest to the bay door. She had wanted Onor or Marcelle, but the only way Joel had allowed her to visit the robot spider was with KJ right next to her. She held her breath while pressure equalized, relaxing only when KJ could open the inner door to the cargo bay. They sat side by side on the lip of the lock, looking down. The small amount of gravity that Ix let them impose on the bay—about twenty-five percent—allowed their legs to hang down in a fashion.
