Starfish by Peter Watts

then. He doesn't really need to go inside much. None of them do. There's a little desalinator piggybacked on his electrolyser in case he gets thirsty, and a bunch of flaps and valves that do things he doesn't want to think about, when he has to piss or take a dump.
    He's getting a bit hungry, but he can wait. He's fine out here as long as nothing attacks him.
    Brander just won't let him alone. Fischer doesn't know what Brander's got against him—
    Oh yes you do, says Shadow.
    — but he knows that look. Brander wants him to fuck up real bad.
    The others keep out of it, for the most part. Nakata, the nervous one, just keeps out of everyone's way. Caraco acts like she couldn't care less if he boiled alive in a smoker. Lubin just sits there, looking at the floor and smoldering; even Brander leaves him alone.
    And Lenie. Lenie's cold and distant as a mountaintop. No, Fischer's not getting any help with Brander. So when it comes to a choice between the monsters out here or the one in there, it's an easy call.
    Caraco and Nakata are doing a hull check back at the station. Their distant voices buzz distractingly along Fischer's jaw. He shuts his receiver off and settles down behind an outcropping of basalt pillows.
    Later, he can't remember drifting off.

    * * *

    "Listen, cocksucker. I just did two shifts end to end because you didn't show up for work when you were supposed to. Then half another shift looking for you. We thought you were in trouble. We assumed you were in trouble. Don't tell me—"
    Brander pushes Fischer up against the wall.
    " Don't tell me ," he says again, "that you weren't. You don't want to say that."
    Fischer looks around the ready room. Nakata watches from the opposite bulkhead, jumpy as a cat. Lubin rattles around in the equipment lockers, his back to the proceedings. Caraco racks her fins and edges past them to the ladder.
    "Carac—"
    Brander slams him hard against the wall.
    Caraco, her foot on the bottom rung, turns and watches for a moment. A smile ghosts across her face. "Don't look at me, Gerry my man. This is your problem." She climbs away overhead.
    Brander's face hovers a few centimeters away. His hood is still sealed, except for the mouth flap. His eyes look like translucent glass balls embedded in black plastic. He tightens his grip.
    "So, cocksucker?"
    "I'm...sorry—" Fischer stammers.
    "You're sorry." Brander glances over his shoulder, includes Nakata in the joke. "He's sorry."
    Nakata laughs, too loudly.
    Lubin clanks in the locker, still ignoring them all. The airlock begins cycling.
    "I don't think," Brander says, raising his voice over the sudden gurgle, "that you're sorry enough ."
    The 'lock swings open. Lenie Clarke steps out, fins in one hand. Her blank eyes sweep across the room; they don't pause at Fischer. She carries her fins to the drying rack without a word.
    Brander punches Fischer in the stomach. Fischer doubles over, gasping; his head smashes into the airlock hatch. He can't catch his breath. The deck scrapes his cheek. Brander's boot is almost touching his nose.
    "Hey." Lenie's voice, distant, not particularly interested.
    "Hey yourself, Lenie. He's got it coming."
    "I know." A moment passes. "Still."
    "Judy got nailed by a viperfish, looking for him. She could've been killed."
    "Maybe." Lenie sounds as if she's very tired. "So why isn't Judy here?"
    " I'm here," Brander says.
    Fischer's lung is working again. Gulping air, he pushes himself up against the bulkhead. Brander glares at him. Lubin's back in the room now, just off to one side. Watching.
    Lenie stands in the middle of the ready room. She shrugs.
    "What?" Brander demands.
    "I don't know." She glances indifferently at Fischer. "It's just, he...he just fucked up. He didn't mean any har—"
    She stops. Fischer gets the sense that she's looking straight through him, through the bulkhead, right out into the abyss itself to something only she can see. Whatever it is, she doesn't like it much.
    "Ah, fuck it." She heads