Finally, he reached the airlock node, along the edges of which there were railings that allowed him to securely cling to this node. The pressure in the transition chamber was steadily falling and soon amounted to only a little more than twenty kilopascals - at the top of Everest it is almost one and a half times more.
Pulling himself up to a small window, about twenty inches diagonally, Zavirdyaev saw Landskricht, carefreely floating in the tiny space of the airlock. She, as if sensing his gaze, turned around and waved her hand. Her lips were already blue. Red and white lights began to blink around the outer door.
- That's it, thought Zavirdyaev, - he had to end it all so stupidly for himself.
What would that Landskricht, whom he knew there, on Earth, say about this. She was not distinguished by stupidity, on the contrary, she did not miss her chance... his soul felt somehow sad.
Landskricht had never been a close person to him, Zavirdyaev, but still... he once again laid out his concerns to the AI in the purest English language of a solid official document. It was still to no avail. Afterwards, without much hope, he cursed the AI again. First in English, then in Russian.
The pressure dropped to five kilopascals. By this time, Landskricht had turned away, but it seemed she was still moving her arms independently.
Zavirdyaev had once been present at the opening of trenches, and this had happened more than once, but here everything had happened before our eyes, and slowly - this was not a shot or a bullet hit.
For some reason this brought to mind scenes from documentaries I had once seen about the bloodthirsty twentieth century... only there was gas there. Besides, Zavirdyaev, although he was now watching from the outside, on the contrary, he would like to fix everything...
Now the door gave way and a gaping crack into the blackness appeared. Then it, the door, began to open more and more energetically - all this was done by an electric drive, trained to open the hatch quickly and energetically at the same time, but also without starting and stopping jerks.
And then Landskricht turned around once again. Zavirdyaev shuddered with his whole body, which almost made him come loose from the knot. Landskricht's lips were now completely black, but her face was not at all lifeless. She even smiled, then made something like a laugh, flew up to the window, exhaled and drew OK with her finger, so that Zavirdyaev saw it not in a mirror image, but in the correct reflection. The frost, however, immediately evaporated.
- But it's true, she's indestructible, - the thought flashed through her head. - How long can a person live in an airless space? About half a minute, then all the oxygen evaporates. The end is still for the light ones...
Landskricht meanwhile pulled herself up to the outer hatch-door, in the opening of which the edge of the Earth loomed. Then she seemed to sit down in the hatch opening, although in zero gravity all this could be described rather conditionally. In general, she fixed herself in the corner of the opening and dangled one leg... Down... Well, if we consider that the bottom was where the main engine nozzles were, then down.
She looked back at Zavirdyaev again and shook her head towards the Earth. Then she waved her hand there, towards the Earth. Zavirdyaev watched what was happening in silence. The thought flashed through his mind that it would not hurt to pull up the camera and at least film something, but he decided not to break away and to watch what was happening continuously.
Finally, a few minutes after the opening of the outer hatch, Landskricht had played enough. There was a meaning in this - irrefutable proof was provided that she, Landskricht, really could do what no normal person could.
The outer hatch closed. The pressure indicator in the airlock began to creep up. Finally, after a few minutes of waiting, the pressure equalized and now the lights on the hatch to the cabin began to blink - these were only white lights, without red.
The hatch moved and began to swing open. Landskricht, as if nothing had happened, swam out of the airlock space into the cabin, looking towards the stunned Zavirdyaev.
She also gestured something, as if Zavirdyaev should throw back his visor, but then the AI suddenly showed itself, forbidding the suit to be breached until the inner hatch of the airlock was closed.