"Lady Luna can you dig down to the exhaust port?"
"Will try. Note battery dropping. Nothing else in danger. Food, water, air all okay. Hull sound but battery dropping."
Seconds went on and Holt could see the resources of the entire world collecting to prepare the First Spacewreck Rescue. Complete with video, reporters, clergymen, politicians, and humanity waiting.
"Lady Luna repeat. You are fading."
Holt repeated, insisting that he was all right. "I can stick it out. I can stick it out."
He watched the radio battery fade.
Let it fade. He could stand the silence for two months until rescue came.
A billion people listened to his voice die away. And when their radio networks went dead, they raced to their telephones and clogged the land wires demanding that something had to be done.