Metafire

Erisa held still. She was still disoriented. She had no idea about what had happened. But she watched Frank, Reba, Kennedy, and her friend, Jane, starting to move about.

Kennedy called out to everybody. "I've got the tape. Show me where!" Kennedy had a roll of what appeared to be duck tape. In fact, it was a form of duct tape, but with Kevlon fibers.

For the next twenty minutes everyone left awake moved about the colony listening for holes in the colony walls. They would count twenty nine. With each one they applied tape. Kennedy would tear a piece of tape, and one of the others would put it on the hole. The seal was immediate. None of the meteorites had been larger than a couple of millimeters, an eighth of an inch. The tape would form a permanent seal. The colony was not in fact in danger.

Randy came-to after about ten minutes. Erisa held him. They looked over and moved to Steven and George. George had his hand on his shoulder. He looked with some fright at Randy, but Randy didn't try to grab Steven's badge. He simply looked at Steven. Steven's eyes were relaxed and open. He had been killed instantaneously. Erisa held to Randy, then she reached over to George. She looked at his hand. Small droplets of blood were forming balls and escaping from George's wound. She took some fabric to keep the blood from floating off and helped George hold his shoulder.