Because he did not hear any such warnings from them, he was surprised but not especially worried when they suddenly began to cry out in dismay. He was in the middle of cutting down a stanchion. He could hear the distant sound effects he’d learned to associate with a shell crash-landing. It was far away and it wasn’t getting closer. So he ignored it until he was finished dropping this pole. It took longer than usual—he had the sense that the plasma cutter’s batteries were dying, and there was no question that the air tank was nearly empty.