The airlock cycled.
Pressure equalized with a sound like the ship exhaling, and then the inner door opened and they walked back in, and the first thing that happened was the air hit them.
Twenty three minutes and forty one seconds without it.
The first breath Noah took was so involuntary it was almost embarrassing. His lungs didn't ask permission, they just opened and took everything available, and beside him Lucas did the same thing at the same moment, both of them standing in the airlock corridor drawing air like they had forgotten what it felt like to have access to it and were now making up for lost time.
Neither of them commented on it.
They just breathed.
Then they walked out into the corridor and the ship received them.
