Ozaki thought again. “Around six hundred thousand. I’ll run off the exact figures if you want them.”
Kurt gulped. No place could be that far away. Not even Imperial Headquarters! He tried to measure out the distance in his mind in terms of days’ marches, but he soon found himself lost. Thinking wouldn’t do it. He had to see with his own eyes where he was.
“How do you get outside?” he asked.
Ozaki gestured toward the air lock that opened at the rear of the compartment. “Why?”
“I want to go out for a few minutes to sort of get my bearings.”
Ozaki looked at him in disbelief. “What’s your game, anyhow?” he demanded.
It was Kurt’s turn to look bewildered. “I haven’t any game. I’m just trying to find out where I am so I’ll know which way to head to get back to the garrison.”
“It’ll be a long, cold walk.” Ozaki laughed and hit the stud that slid back the ray screens on the vision ports. “Take a look.”
Kurt looked out into nothingness, a blue-black void marked only by distant pinpoints of light. He suddenly felt terribly alone, lost in a blank immensity that had no boundaries. Down was gone and so was up. There was only this tiny lighted room with nothing underneath it. The port began to swim in front of his eyes as a sudden, strange vertigo swept over him. He felt that if he looked out into that terrible space for another moment he would lose his sanity. He covered his eyes with his hands and staggered back to the center of the cabin.
Ozaki slid the ray screens back in place. “Kind of gets you first time, doesn’t it?”