ISS (11 page)

The International Space Station

They were safe and afloat inside the Columbus module of the ISS. Jack held her close until she stopped trembling, making solid eye contact before letting go. She met his gaze and though she had tears in her eyes he could see she was back from the edge. When he let go they grabbed onto things to keep from floating away. He found it interesting that though there was no reason to do it they aligned themselves to each other so they were in the same head orientation.

This helped to cope with the extraordinary feeling and weirdness of weightlessness. The inside of ISS was more disorienting because it gave few clues as to what should be up and what might be down unlike Jericho One with its carpeted main aisle. He messed around with his spacesuit’s communication controls until he was able to talk to her again.

“I don’t know if it is safe to take our helmets off. We need to find the environmental controls and check the air quality before we do anything,” he said.

The possibility occurred to him the crew might have died from a hull breach and though it was not very likely, in his mind, it would have been preferable to his big idea having caused their deaths. She nodded, she was in no hurry to find out the air was missing or contaminated by trying to breathe it. After the shock of almost losing him she did not want to risk anything that might result in either of them being hurt or killed. They rested for a few minutes getting used to the different feel and look of ISS before setting off to explore the various modules. When they began their search Jack led but he went slowly because he knew they would eventually come across the dead crew members and he did not want Sara to suffer any more shocks.

The International Space Station had grown over the years into a tangled labyrinth of specialized pods and modules interconnected by tunnels and node intersections arranged in a confusing layout that could only make sense to an aerospace engineer. It was now over 36,000 square feet of pressurized livable space and represented many countries and private corporations. Jack was in heaven. It had been his dream since childhood to visit the ISS and now he could not wait to go exploring. It was clear from the size and complexity of ISS they might easily become disoriented so he tried to be methodical in his approach. They eventually found a diagram on a bulkhead that showed them the way to a module with the environmental controls.

It was eerie how the lights came on as they approached and then turned off again after they passed along the modules. When they found the control room he took his time checking and rechecking to make certain he understood the readouts before deciding it was safe to remove his helmet.

“Okay so the air looks breathable according to these readouts. So here is what I think we should do. I will take off my helmet and you keep yours on and after twenty minutes if I’m not dead you can take yours off, okay?” he said and smiled.

Nothing about any of this was okay with her but she nodded her head.

“If I turn blue or anything please put my helmet back on me, okay?” he said and smiled again this time somewhat nervously.

“What exact shade of blue are we talking?” she said and laughed without humour. She watched him closely as he unfastened his helmet and she noticed that he hesitated before breaking the seal and in that moment she realized that he was as afraid as she was, and oddly, that knowledge made her feel better. He removed his helmet and took a big breath and then opened his eyes wide with shock and pretended to be choking but she knew he would do that and she smacked him on his arm for his effort and they both laughed.

“I think the air is okay. If I do not suffer hypoxia within twenty minutes then everything is fine and you can take your helmet off,” he said.

She reached out and took his gloved hand in hers and held it while they waited and he decided it was time to broach the subject of the crew.

“We will need to find all the dead crew members and put them out through the airlock,” he said.

She nodded not meeting his gaze; she did not want to think about that ugly chore, she felt responsible for their deaths. She did not want to think about anything, but especially not that, she wanted to get this over with and get back home to planet earth. In her mind wild dogs and crazy people were preferable to death by starvation or worse suffocation when the air ran out. The twenty minutes passed and Sara took her helmet off.

“The air smells funny, are you sure it’s alright?” she said

“This is spacecraft air,” he said smiling, “twenty years of B.O. and stale farts.” He smiled thinking how cute she was when she wrinkled her nose.

“We need to search for the crew,” he said.

In a very short time they were good at streaming through compartments, they talked as they searched.

“What will happen to all this when we leave?” she said.

“It will eventually fall back to earth.”

“I wonder if there will be anyone left on earth to see it?” she said.

“Probably lots of people will see it but they won’t understand what they are seeing. The ISS will burn up on re-entry and it will be a fiery streak across the sky like a big meteorite,” he said.

“Are we going to make it back to earth?” she said.

“Yes,” he said.

“Alive?” she said.

“Of course alive, you and I are going to be a couple of wrinkled old farts living in Florida in our RV,” he said.

“Please don’t make me live in Florida,” she said seriously.

They found the crew in a biology lab. Looking in through the tiny port hole he saw the weird tableau of four dead astronauts suspended in odd positions within the small chamber. Jack saw the glove box where they’d begun taking samples from the diseased head he brought for them to work on but when he tried to point it out to Sara she turned away from the window refusing to look.

“Can’t we leave them in there?” she said. He heard the anguish in her voice and he was concerned that she might be reaching her breaking point. This much death and sadness would affect anyone. It was affecting him though he was trying hard not to show it. He was worried about her but also concerned that the decomposing bodies would foul the air and overload the scrubbers and as awful as the task would be they would need to deal with the bodies. If they were delayed in leaving or worse unable to return to earth they would want to have as much uncontaminated air as possible. He did not really want to go in there and touch them and the thought of doing so made him feel queasy but it had to be done.

“Maybe there is a way to release this module. If we can do that wouldn’t it float away into space?” she said.

He studied the pod door system. According to the diagram it was indeed possible to release the module but he was aware of the inherent danger of setting something that big loose. If the module crashed into the ISS and put a hole in it that would be bad; any kind of hull breach would release the breathable atmosphere from the ISS.

While he studied the hatch Sara went in search of water and food. When she came back with an assortment of foods she screwed up her courage and looked inside the lab when she looked at Jack there was a quizzical look on her face.

Jack was about to pull the lever to unlock the module and set it free from the ISS when she said.

“Wasn’t there six astronauts on board?”

They put their faces to the window and counted the bodies; there were four in the lab and the one outside made five.

“Maybe there were two outside and one floated away,” he said.

She shrugged her shoulders it did not really matter where the sixth one was he must also be dead, she thought, and we will eventually find him if he is aboard.

They put on their helmets as a precaution and Jack looked at her solemnly and she nodded her assent but before he released the module, which was sad, and all the more so for knowing that they caused their deaths he said.

“Do you think we should say a prayer or something?”

“No, I never believed in any of that stuff, how about you?” she said.

“No,” he said.

They felt a bump as the module released and the compressed air between the seals gently pushed the lab away from the ISS and it began the slow tumbling journey back to earth. They went to the cupola and watched the lab drift away for a long time. He told her that the lab and crew would eventually return to earth thinking that might make her feel better. It didn’t. When they could no longer see it they turned away from the window. It was time to make a decision; do they stay on board the ISS and try to create an anti-virus themselves or do they attempt the return trip to the earth without the aid of the astronauts.

They needed to decide what to do while the memory of flying Jericho One was fresh in their minds but they were exhausted from what had already been a long sad day and they needed sleep. He went to the environmental control room and determined that though there were bodies decomposing for the last twelve hours and possibly there was one on board, the air was scrubbed and safe for them to continue breathing so they took their space suits off and ate their meal in silence.

He watched her eating her meal and at one point she dozed off and drifted away. He finished eating and strapped them into a small sleeping alcove to try and rest before making the decision about returning home. There were lots of sleeping bunks but they shared one. They felt the need to be close to each other more now than ever.

“Do you think if we stayed here we could figure out an anti-virus?” he spoke into the semi-darkness.

“No,” she said, “I failed science even with the help of the tutor my dad hired.”

He was quiet thinking about their situation it was clear to him that staying on the ISS was not an option. His understanding of biology was limited and the high level at which they would have to try to understand the problem, never mind solve it, was inconceivable. When he saw the lab with the dead astronauts the equipment inside it looked as complicated as the flight deck of Jericho One. Even if all the information they needed to solve the problem was in the onboard computers it did not mean they could learn to understand it. They would have to go back to earth.

“When we go back where do you want to live?” he asked.

“I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it. It doesn’t matter I suppose there is no one waiting for us, we can go anywhere we want,” she said.

“We will need to go someplace we can grow food. The food in the stores will eventually become inedible, even the stuff in cans will rot. Maybe north west California or Oregon, we will need to find a place where there is good water,” he said.

They did not talk about the flight home the plan to fly Jericho One without the aid of the astronauts was scary and they were both exhausted. It served no purpose to worry about it beforehand; they would either make it back or not. If not they would burn up in the atmosphere and, hopefully, not suffer long.

“Do you think we should look for other people when we get back?” she said.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. There are no laws and if someone wanted to kill us or worse…” he said leaving the thought unfinished then added, “you would be at greater risk than me.”

“Why, what do you mean?” she said.

She was not angry she knew it was not a slight against her but she did not really understand why she would be at more risk.

“For sex,” he said bluntly.

“Oh,” she shivered against him at this new understanding. She did not need him to explain it further so much had happened so quickly she hadn’t thought about that.

This was not something she’d had to think about much in her life but she remembered how she felt when she first met Jack and found his porn magazine. For a brief period, until she got to know him, she worried about exactly that.

“I can make myself look like a boy,” she said.

He did not say anything but he doubted she could do it convincingly. She has a pretty face with feminine features and her jeans fit her very well.

“What are you thinking about?” she said.

“I was thinking you are too pretty to be a boy,” he said.

She put her nose under his chin and nuzzled him.

“I can do it you will be amazed,” she said, “I will look like your ten year old brat cousin from Minnesota.”

He laughed, “I don’t have a ten year old cousin. Anyway what about your breasts? Not many ten year old boys have those,” he said.

“Don’t worry about that, they won’t show believe me they barely show as it is,” she said.

“I like the way you look,” he said, “I don’t get what the big deal is about breasts anyway.”

She did not say anything but she kissed the hollow of his neck and the kiss felt like thank you.

“When do you want to go back?” she said.

“I think we should go right away in case the batteries begin to die on Jericho One,” he said.

“Do you think there is anything here we should take back to earth? We are probably the last people who will ever be on ISS,” she said.

“We should take whatever is on the main computer maybe there is some useful research or something. I can’t think of anything else to bring back I mean what would be the point. There are no museums or scientists to give it to.” She sighed and wrapped her legs around him to keep from drifting away. The ISS was not as quiet as the Jericho One there were systems running all over the craft pumping air or adjusting solar arrays but the background hum of technology was somehow soothing.