Chapter 19

"How much of this goo do we need anyway?" moaned Cowboy as he twisted himself between the barge hull and the coffer dam edges, trailing the applicator tubing over his suit's shoulder. He rotated to prevent the umbilical cord looping about the suit.

"A lot" came the rumbling reply from Polack, "keep it off the sealing area – it's a devil to remove without using a vibrating chisel and that scratches the surface and that's not advised. That's me finished. How much longer for you, Cowboy?"

"Ten."

Polack retreated along his umbilical cord back to the bulkhead platform where the connections were. They had pushed the barge into the lock with the damage away from the platform so as not to cut the hose connections on a raw edge, and that bow was jagged. The gates had been fully opened with a bit of a push from the flivver because of the torque in one of the gates from the impact. Once opened the gates were left ajar after the barge was manoeuvred into the lock and that had been interesting for a while needing constant adjustment of the winches as the hulk was pulled into position. Slow had used the flivver for the fifth line to give a drag away controlling inertia into the lock.

The dam had been off set from the edges to keep it off the gates' sealing surface. The frame had been bonded around the hatch edges when the foundry's barge had arrived to remove the gates. McCock had stopped the work on the dam for safety reasons. They had watched the powered barge come alongside. Having hassled the damaged barge into the lock, the Flock was able to appreciate the skill of the foundry crew as they used differential pull on the lines with controlled bursts of power from the barge's engines. Two crew men had moved to the hinges and removed the securing pins. As the men floated just away from the hinges, the barge pulled under the 'bottom' edge and then lifted taking the gate off its hinge. Two other crewmen moved over the gate, bracing and securing it to on one side of the barge; the barge had then moved under the second gate and lifted it off. When both gates were secure, the barge backed off using engines and the holding lines then came to a full stop, allowed the tension to come off the lines as the crewman replaced the securing pins into the pivots. The crewmen disconnected the lines from the bollards and holding onto two each, the crewmen were winched to the barge. They moved across the secured gates and strapped themselves into their bench. The barge then rotated around and powered off towards the foundry.

"Neat" had muttered Cowboy.

McCock had led his people placing the sheets under Slow's direction from the control cabin. She got that job because she still didn't have an EVA suit and someone had to give the directions from the plan to bond the covers to the frame. Polack and Cowboy got the job of sealing the free edges. McCock had decided to bond the dam behind the edges of the airlock gates.

Cowboy joined Polack at the platform.

"Looks good to me."

"Yeh, Denny pressure it up will you and we'll see how good it is," called Polack.

Denny and McCock had joined Slow during the sealing process and had been setting up the locking braces to hold the barge and also to programme the dock computer.

The EVA suits external sensors advised the outside pressure was rising and the gas was breathable air without poisons.

"Pressure up" advised Denny "physically inspect the seal".

Polack and Cowboy kicked to the end of the barge to inspect the seals around the dam's edges against the lock. Denny warned

"Cowboy take care, those edges could puncture that suit." The pair passed along the seal visually inspecting and occasionally probing.

"No bulging under from my side," advised Polack.

"Holding my side" came from Cowboy.

"Stand by cracking inner gate now; good pressure here," called Denny. "Clear the inner gates – not that there is anyone there – the rest of us are up in the office. But let's get the procedures established. Come inboard you two. Aggy and I are coming out in our skinnies. We'll pull the lines and you two secure to that bow."