The Leaking Outer Hatch

Pip was helping in the Pebble Ring Observatory when the floor gave a soft, unhappy hiss.

She froze with both hands on a stack of clean cloths while Nera stood near the brass telescope and Cori checked a row of labeled jars. At the far end of the outer walkway, the new hatch that should have shut tight was only half-closed. A thin gray seam showed around it, and the cold air was slipping through in tiny, sneaky breaths.

Cori frowned and pressed her palm against the frame. “It should seal.”

“It is sealing,” Nera said at once, then tilted her silver goggles and peered harder. “Just very slowly. Which is nearly the same thing as not at all.”

Pip looked toward the hatch, then back at the rooms around her. The warm storage closet held blankets and spare lamps. The small map room held Nera’s star charts. Cori’s labeled trays sat stacked in careful rows beside the wall. If the air kept wandering out, one of those rooms would need to be shut first.

From outside the hatch, something clinked once in the cold darkness — the repair pieces they had left out there, still waiting.

Pip swallowed. She could hurry after the repair pieces, or she could stay inside with Nera and Cori and help decide which rooms to seal first. But she could not do both at once.