羊毛战记 Part 5 The Stranded 66

　　66,　　• Silo 17 •,　　Juliette grabbed the limp air hose with both hands and squeezed. Her reward was a few weak bubblesrolling up her visor—the pressure inside the tube was gone.,　　She whispered a curse, tilted ¹ her chin against the radio, and called Solo’s name. Something hadhappened to the compressor. He must have been working on it, maybe topping up the fuel. She hadtold him not to turn it off for that. He wouldn’t know what to do, wouldn’t be able to restart it. Shehadn’t thought this through clearly at all; she was an impossible distance from breathable air, fromany hope of survival.,　　She took a tentative breath. She had what was trapped in the suit and the air that remained in thehose. How much of the air in the hose could she suck with just the power of her lungs? She didn’tthink it would be much.,　　She took one last look at the large sump pump, her hasty wiring job, the loose trail of wiresstreaming through the water that she’d hoped to have time to secure against vibration ² and accidentaltugs. None of it likely mattered anymore, not for her. She kicked away from the pump and waved herarms through the water, wading ³ through the viscous ⁴ fluid that seemed to impede ⁵ her while giving hernothing to push or pull against.,　　She took a deep breath, sweat dripping from her nose and splattering the inside of her dome ⁹. Shetried again and came close, her fingertips nearly brushing the black straps, both hands outstretched,grunting and throwing her shoulders into the simple act of reaching her damned shins …But she couldn’t. She gave up and shuffled ¹⁰ a few more steps down the hallway, following the wireand hose, both visible in the faint cone ¹¹ of white light emanating ¹² from above her head. She tried not tobump against the wire, thinking of what one accidental pull might do, how tenuous ¹³ the connectionwas that she’d made to the pump’s ground. Even as she struggled for a deep breath, her mind wasever playing the mechanic. She cursed herself for not taking longer to prepare.,　　Her knife! She remembered her knife and stopped dragging her feet. It slid out of its homemadesheath sewn across her belly ¹⁴ and gleamed in the glow from her flashlight.,　　Juliette bent down and used the extra reach of the blade; she slid the point of the knife betweenher suit and one of the straps. The water was dark and thick all around her. With the limited amountof light from her helmet, and being at the bottom of Mechanical under all that heap of flood, she feltmore remote and alone, more afraid, than she had in all her life.,　　She gripped the knife, terrified of what dropping it could mean, and bobbed up and down, usingher stomach muscles. It was like doing sit-ups while standing ¹⁵. She attacked the strap ⁸ with a laboredsawing motion, cursed in her helmet from the effort, the strain, the pain in her abdomen ¹⁶ from lurchingforward, from throwing her head down … when finally the exercise weight popped free. Her calf ¹⁷ feltsuddenly naked and light as the round hunk of iron clanged mutely to the plate-steel flooring.,　　Juliette tilted to the side, held down by one leg, the other trying to rise up. She worked the knifecarefully beneath the second strap, fearful of cutting her suit and seeing a stream of precious bubblesleak out. With desperate force, she shoved and pulled the blade against the black webbing just likebefore. Nylon threads popped in her magnified vision; sweat spattered her helmet; the knife burstthrough the fabric ¹⁸; the weight was free.,She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅
。,There is so much vibration on a ship that one cannot write.船上的震动大得使人无法书写。