One step closer to the real thing, Urle thought, gazing out upon the stars.

Standing on the hull of the Craton, fastened only by magnetic boots, he let out a long breath.

He did not need a full helmet, only enough to keep some pressure around the skin left on his head, and he'd put plates over his whole face to seal it in. His optical sensors simply protruded without cover, which meant one less layer between his external sensors and the light of those distant stars.

As good as anyone would ever get, he thought, even though it meant that he still had those sensors between his brain and the light. His 'natural' eyes had been replaced years ago, among the early parts he'd improved. Someone had once asked him if he felt like he'd lost something, putting technology between his brain and the world like that. But his birth eyes were the same thing, just an organic machine rather than a digital one.

He was on the 'dark' side of the ship, facing away from the planet and colony below. With the bulk of the ship blocking the reflected planetshine, he could see even more stars. The blackness between them was so incredibly, perfectly dark, he thought.

A small flash flared out in the distance behind him as the ship's navigation lasers incinerated a piece of debris.

The Craton was stationed outside of the path of the lion's share of debris from the destroyed shuttles, but some could still be in orbit this far out.

"Y," he asked. "How many impacts on the frontal cone have there been while I've been out here?"

The drone hovering nearby rotated to face him, though it was unnecessary, as it, too, had all-angle vision.

"Twelve, Executive Commander. But I imagine you knew this was an elevated risk period for your . . . 'jaunt', I believe you called it?"

"Yeah," Urle said. "I knew, but I wasn't very concerned. We're in the cone's shadow, the odds of being hit-"

"Are startlingly higher than normal," Y admitted. "But still infinitesimal given the length of your planned walk. Which, incidentally, is nearly over! Might I recommend you head back to the airlock?"

"Not yet," Urle said. "I still haven't found the source of the interference Cenz has me after."

Y said nothing, but Urle knew the good doctor was annoyed. He'd been against the space walk, but it was just panicking. Urle had run the calcs himself, ten times, and this was safe enough. They'd tracked the shuttle debris. It wasn't like they wanted any of it hitting the ship, and the defense lasers were giving him overwatch.

But eyes-on out here would be better than most drones. He had better sensors than the small ones they could maneuver easily out here, and he didn't use up much reaction mass with his magboots.

His spine stiffened automatically as he took a step forward, his sensors still pinging the surface with a low krahteon beam. Measuring the returning bounce, he compared it against the norm, and found . . .

Well, the ship was singing.

He had no idea why the ship was resonating, it was a rare phenomenon, but that was the reason he was out here.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Drones were handling the riskier planetary side, and their results, while less precise than his own, were falling into predictable ranges, though . . . maybe on the low side.

It was only by the tiniest margin, and he felt annoyed again at the fact that they did not all have tools of his caliber.

He knelt down, pausing his breathing for a moment. While his biological cells still needed air, many people didn't actually know that, given that he didn't need to wear a full helmet. Parts of his head that most thought was still flesh and blood were actually just well-designed prosthetics. He didn't even need an air supply to his mouth; his O2 tanks connected directly to his lungs through his chest.

All of his gear was of the highest grade, he'd saved for and designed much of it himself, and they gave his brain better protection from impacts and radiation than a standard space helmet.

"Y, look at these results . . ."

"Oh, I am," Y said. "Your radiation exposure is already quite high."

"Not that. I mean the krahteon scans."

"You are certainly getting some of those, too," Y noted.

". . . from the other side of the ship compared to this one."

Y replied almost instantly. "I admit, your sensors are far superior to the drones. I am afraid that the margin of error in their scans makes this all something of a waste of time. Oh well, let's get your still-somewhat squishy and biological parts back inside the ship!"

"I think I need to head over to that side to get better readings."

"That is a bad idea, let us head inside instead," Y said.

"I'll stay in the shadow of the shield plate," Urle said. "Just ten more minutes."

Y said nothing, and Urle knew he was biting his tongue. But Urle outranked him, so he could only push it so far.

His boots clumping against the hull, something he could only feel and not hear in the vacuum, he stuck to the metal sections of the ship's surface.

Large areas of it appeared to be raw cratonic asteroid, though he knew it was largely a facsimile. When the asteroid had been converted many years ago, the outside had been removed and ground up. Even their hardest carbon grinders had been worn down in the process, at an alarming rate, but the small pieces of unnaturally tough rock had been mixed with a shielding plasticizer and later added back onto the hull's surface. Metal plates, sensors, and other bits ran through and under the mixture, which - when it had hardened - made better armor than most warship hulls.

But it was not magnetic, so his boots wouldn't even stick to it. For that reason, metal plates had been put over sections, sometimes just narrow metal walkways.

He continued to scan as he walked, noting that the resonance was changing . . . growing weaker, it seemed.

"We need to get more scans," he told Y. "I need to head aft."

"I can see you are going to circumnavigate the ship in two orientations before you are finished," Y noted dryly.

"Yep. I'll be quick, though."

Here on the planetary side, the light of the stars was almost drowned out by the reflected planetshine . He had to adjust his sensors to see them at all.

He did hurry towards the back, sticking to a sunken channel for safety.

"Another piece of debris has struck the frontal cone," Y noted.

"I know," Urle replied, keeping the annoyance out of his voice.

"Do you want to know how big it was?" Y asked, his voice upbeat.

"I already know," Urle said. "It was four centimeters across at its widest point."

"Do you wish to know how deeply it burrowed into the shield or what it would do if it struck you?" Y added, his drone moving into an annoyingly close proximity.

"I can simulate that myself," Urle replied.

"It is very grisly!" Y said. "Oh, look, there is a hatch over there."

It highlighted in Urle's view, but he ignored it, instead looking to his scans.

"Y, help me correct this drone data," he said. "If we can use their wider data and compare it with mine, we can get a better overall view."

Y was silent for 2.6 seconds. "Complete. You may be onto something interesting here, Executive Commander, as loathe as I am to admit it. Will you head inside now?"

"Yes," Urle said finally letting out an annoyed sigh. "But we'll talk to Cenz on the way and see what the hell he can make out of this."