12/12/2022 Snippet, THE THING IN THE AIRLOCK.

Can almost see the end of this!

He felt rather than saw movement to his left, and desperately dove to the side. That kept the knife out of his guts, but it ripped a hole in his suit that almost hurt as much. Suits were practically sacred, on the moon. You didn’t quite have to bring them with you to ensure a good fit, but many people did — and all of them protected their suits like they would their children. You messed with a man’s suit, you were telling him you didn’t care if he lived or died.

All of that was the excuse Tobias made to himself later about why there was now a red haze across his vision. Honestly, though? It had been months of horrors piled up upon horrors, and none of them could be fought, merely endured. His friends had died, his country was likely destroyed, and very possibly going back to Earth was nothing more than picking a marginally better way to die. A very dark part of him desperately wanted an excuse to cut loose, and one had obligingly shown up, insanely hostile and begging to be a scapegoat.

Fine, Tobias thought. If that’s how things are going to be.

Miller might have been familiar with lunar gravity, but she didn’t know damn-all about fighting in it. Tobias swept out Miller’s legs, and grabbed her knife hand with both of his. Then he yanked in the opposite direction that her flailing legs was now going, ruthlessly making sure both her upper and lower limbs ended up hitting something immovable.