Chewing Rocks by Alan Black Page B

size she was soon face to face with the other person.
    The other suit said nothing.
    “Hey!” Sno shouted, although she knew shouting in space did not make any sense. It was just a human sort of thing to do. “Hey! Unfrost your visor.” She tapped the faceplate on her helmet and spoke slowly. “Clear your visor.”
    The other suit said nothing.
    “No? Okay by me.” Sno tapped her helmet in the location where her ears would be. “Our comms are on different frequencies.” She leaned in to try and touch helmet to helmet.
    The figure backed up to avoid contact.
    Sno snapped a hand forward and grabbed a hook in center of the other suit’s chest. “Whoa there, spud. I don’t have time to play around here.” She pulled the other suit to her and made helmet contact.
    “ -tact, Help. It is attacking me.” A voice yelped in her ears as the suit tried to squirm out of her grasp.
    Sno shouted, “Easy on there, pal. I just want to talk. Take it easy. You keep us dancing around like this and you might kick us both off the hull.”
    “Oh, sorry ,” a man’s voice said. “You just kind of jumped up and grabbed me. Scared me a bit is all. I mean, we thought you were dead and all, since you didn’t respond to our calls.”
    Sno smiled at the man, using her most sincere smile, although she did not really feel the sincerity or the smile. “We are on different radio frequencies. What is your freq?”
    “Oh, I guess we hadn’t though about that. Sorry. Um, could you let me go now?”
    “Okay, but before we break contact give me your comm frequency.” Sno gritted her teeth, “Please?”
    “101.89. Sorry, but now can you let me go?” the man said.
    Sno let the man go. She popped open a panel on the side of her suit and punched in the appropriate codes.
    A second voice boomed out of her helmet, “W hat the sam hill is going on? Come on, Jackson. Let’s get a move on.”
    Sno replied, “Gentlemen, thank you for responding to my beacon. My name is Sno. I am with the Whyte Mining Corporation and I am asking for help.”
    “Fire ants and big buckets!” the second voice said. “Lady, we knew you needed help or we wouldn’t have come all this way for nothing.”
    Sno said, “And I thank you for that. You gentlemen are…?” She let the question hang in vacuum.
    “Oh sorry ,” the voice from the suit in front of her said, “Where are my manners? I am Marlon Jackson. He is Allan Lee. We are the crew of the Blinkin.” The suit actually backed up a few steps while it spoke.
    Sno asked as pleasantly as possible. “Would you unfrost your visor? I would like to see who I am talking to.”
    Jackson said, “Unfrost?”
    She replied, “Unfrost. Your helmet visor is set on mirror. Since we are not in direct sunlight you must have it set to stay frosted. I can’t see your face.”
    Jackson said, “I didn’t know you could change that setting. We have been leaving them, what did you call it, frosted all of the time because we couldn’t work with the visor clear in the sunlight.”
    Sno said, “There is a setting to have the visor automatically adjust to the sunlight. I can show you how to -
    Lee interrupted, “Come on you two, you can have your little tea party later. Can we get this done with? I really want to get back. We are missing out on a couple of days work.”
    Sno said, “Of course. I actually don’t have much time left myself.”
    Lee said, “So what do you need, honey? We can sell you whatever you want and we can be on our way.”
    Jackson said, “Lee! Please, there isn’t any reason to be rude.”
    Sno said, “Gentlemen? Lee and Jackson, I am sorry, but unless you have a complete set of computer apps and core, Sedona is dead in space. I am going to have to ask for a ride. The Whyte Mining Corporation is willing to pay standard rescue fees.”
    Jackson said, “A ride in our ship…with us?”
    Sno nodded. “I know it isn’t what you planned. But I didn’t plan on being stuck out here, running out of