Orbital Maneuvers (32 page)

“Commander, Lieutenant Barnes is not available at this time.  I will make sure that if she was going to set up a call, it will be done.  Rest assured.”

Susan did not know what to make of the Captain’s abruptness.  She was very curious as to what has become of Lieutenant Barnes, but decided not to pursue it at this time.  It was obvious that Captain Greene was not about to volunteer any information.  She turned and whispered to Paul, “Sorry Paul, I will keep after them though.” He nodded his head that he understood, but his face betrayed the deep disappointment he felt at the moment. 

Susan felt very badly for him and she could not just let the topic of Lieutenant Barnes end without expressing herself.  “Captain Greene,” she said, “if you can get a message to Lieutenant Barnes, please tell her that everything is alright up here, and thank her on our behalf.  We greatly appreciated all her efforts.” She felt better having got that out, but not much better.  She really wished she could talk to Lieutenant Barnes directly, it would have been best for all, she was sure of that.

“Commander, I will do that.  But now, we don’t have much time before we will lose contact with you.  I do have some information for you about the CRV.  We did find out that you can reprogram the landing site and the onboard systems will do the navigation for you.  We are having difficulty locating someone who has more detailed information about the system and how to program it, and we won’t have that information before we lose contact.  I will try to have it for you on the next pass.”

The background static was beginning to rise indicating the signal was growing weaker.  The Captain spoke quicker with a bit of urgency in his voice.  “Commander, I know that Lieutenant Barnes told you that California was a prospective landing site.  That is no longer an option due to the dust and new damage from several large earthquakes.  I am sorry, but it looks like your window for reentry may be Europe, or even Australia.  We will have more informa—” Static took over control of the communication system and settled around them all like a cold, wet blanket.  For several moments no one spoke as each one digested the information they had just received.

Susan pondered their situation.  As she looked down at her hands, she saw the hypodermic she had prepared for Jerry and suddenly realized that she had a more immediate problem at hand.  “Shoot!  I forgot about Jerry!  Paul, give me a hand here.  We need to give Jerry this antidote to the sedative, and we will have to monitor him very closely for the next half hour, or so.” Paul followed Susan into the compartment while Ivan and the others discussed their latest communication with Earth.

Nicholas questioned Ivan about the CRV, but beyond the basics of the system Ivan did not have much more to add.  He advised Nicholas to check the computer for more information if he was still curious. 

“No, that is fine,” said Nicholas.  “I get the idea that the CRV was nothing more than a very automated life boat, which is not bad, but something more controllable would be better in our situation.”

Ivan was moving over to Paul’s radar station to make sure it was still functioning as he replied to Nicholas’ comment.  “You are correct.  You must remember that the station was to be populated with more research-oriented personnel, not fully trained astronauts or cosmonauts.  The more automated the CRV is, the less training each new crewmember has to have.  For most circumstances, the way it has been designed is fine.  Landing anywhere on the planet would only be limited by the weather; the odds are that at least one of your available sites would be clear.  Plus the CRV can remain in orbit for a while, I think it is up to eight or nine hours, so that will give you time to wait out a bad weather situation.” Ivan looked at the display, which showed their current position over the North Atlantic.

Nicholas came over to the station to continue their discussion.  “I think I would feel more comfortable having more control over the ship I was about to deorbit in.”

“Yes, I agree.  But with most reentries, once you start the deorbit burn it is pretty much under computer control all the way down, much more so with the Soyuz, versus the Shuttle, which we fly most of the way down.  So, you should be used to the free ride!” Ivan nudged Nicholas in the ribs.

“Well, you have a point.  I guess it is the idea of floating around in a ship with no windows for nine hours, and having to rely completely on the computer system for all control, that bothers me the most,” Nicholas responded.  Looking at the display Ivan was working on, he asked, “What are you doing with this?”

“I wanted to replay the tapes that Paul has been recording of our last pass over the States.  After what Captain Greene said, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what we saw on our pass.  We crossed somewhere over Texas, so we should have some window to the west, toward California, depending on how Paul had the radar oriented.”

The screen changed under Ivan’s inputs to display an image with arrows pointing left and right to retreat or advance the image shown on the screen, much like the controls one would have on a VCR.  There was dense cloud cover across the entire country, so it was difficult to tell where the station was in relation to the states below.  Ivan pulled up an outline of the United States and overlaid it on the screen, now they had some idea of where the camera was pointed.

“Look, here,” Ivan pointed to the display to show Nicholas and Alexander, who had just joined them.  “We are getting returns as far away as western New Mexico.  It is not very homogenous, there are denser areas intertwined with less dense ones.”

Alexander asked, “How can we tell that what we see is dust or water?”

“I don’t think that we can distinguish between the two.  See, as the tape advances, and we move across the Midwest, the overall density stays about the same.  You still get high-density pockets, but you also have the areas of lower density.”

Nicholas said, “Yes, but notice that overall there is a background density that is far from zero.  It is like there is a distribution of finer particles covering a wide area, which is punctuated with the more dense pockets or areas that have yet to be disbursed.”

Ivan thought about it for a moment before speaking.  “It is possible these higher density pockets are just storm cells,” he said.  “But, I do think that you may be right about the background dust.  I can see the finer particles being distributed more evenly, more quickly.  Even with the finest particulate that we are showing here, I am not sure what that would do to the parafoil on the CRV as we land.”

“Then maybe the Captain’s final suggestion of Europe, or Australia is not so bad,” Alexander offered.  “Australia, or the Southern Hemisphere for that matter, may still be relatively clear at this time.  Can you rewind the recording back about an hour?”

“I am not sure how much storage time they have on the system.  We can try and see how—”

Paul’s voice interrupted them from behind.  “You should be able to track back more than an hour, if I set it up properly,” he said.

Ivan turned to Paul.  “Well then, I will let our resident expert take over the controls!” He said and moved aside to let Paul have access to the console.

Paul’s face blushed as he tried to apologize for interrupting Ivan, but Ivan would have none of it.  Ivan warmly patted Paul on the back as he settled in at the console, locking his feet into the foot restraints on the panel beneath it. 

Paul selected the appropriate controls on the screen, and although it was nighttime when the images were recorded, the display distinctly showed the continent of Australia with patches of clouds passing overhead.  They watched as Paul rapidly advanced the time and the view on the display approached the Tropic of Cancer, twenty-three degrees north latitude.  They could see the clouds forming and the radar returns grow in strength.  These signals appeared to peak as they passed through the thirty-degree parallel, on which the line of impacts happened to fall, and then slowly drop off the further north the station moved. 

“Well, I guess it looks like Australia,” Alexander said, with a bit of resignation in his voice.

Nicholas turned to Alexander and smiled.  “But, Commander, you always said you wanted to visit Australia.  We now may have the chance!” he said.

“It would be nice to see Australia, but under the circumstances, I would much prefer to be home in Russia as soon as possible,” Alexander retorted.

“I know that, I also.  But would it not be nice to go to Sydney, and visit the opera hall?”

“I hate opera!” Alexander snapped, not noticing Nicholas winking at Ivan.

Ivan jumped into the fray.  “We do not know if they are going to want to us to set down there or not.  Hopefully we will get our answer on the next orbit,” he said.

Susan entered the module.  Unaware of what had transpired, she was quickly brought up-to-date on what they had learned.  She told them that Jerry had already started to show improvement after the application of the antidote and guessed he would probably be conscious within the next thirty minutes. 

Susan asked Paul if he would stay with Jerry until he came around, seeing as Jerry was more comfortable with Paul than anyone else.  Paul agreed and left his console to stay with Jerry. 

Paul had been with Jerry a short while when he was joined by Susan and Ivan who had come to free Jerry from his cocoon, so that he could move around after he awoke.  “You really want to free him?” Paul asked, a bit skeptical. 

“Well, he really needs to exercise, move his arms and legs to help promote his circulation,” Susan said.  “In that sleeping bag, he can’t very well do that, and I don’t want any more complications, if at all possible.  We can’t leave him unattended even after he wakes up, or well have to tie him up again to keep him out of trouble.”

“By all means, do not leave him alone!” Ivan emphasized.  “If, for any reason, you have to do so, call on the intercom and wait until some one relieves you before leaving Jerry.  Clear?”

Paul seemed a bit taken back by Ivan’s response.  “Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme?” he asked.  “He may be his old self when he comes out of this.”

Susan answered for Ivan.  “Paul, I hope that he is the Jerry we used to know,” she said.  “Until we are all sure of that, we can’t take any chances that would allow him an opportunity to try something.  His record speaks for itself.  I don’t think I need to remind you of that.”

Paul shook his head.  “No, you don’t need to remind me,” he said.  “I agree with you, it makes sense, it just sounds very melodramatic.  I hope that Jerry will come out of this with his head screwed on straight.”

“As do we all, Paul,” Ivan added.  “Let us know if you see, or suspect anything in his behavior, no matter how small.  We need to be a step ahead of him now.  Maybe if he understands that we may be deorbiting soon, he will relax and we will not have any problems.”

Paul was quiet as he studied the still sleeping Jerry.  He did not like the position of being a policeman, guarding his friend, but he fully understood the reasons for it.  Heaving a long sigh, he turned to Ivan and Susan.  “I will keep you posted, don’t worry,” he said.

Susan and Ivan left Paul, who was checking Jerry’s pulse and respiration, as instructed by Susan.  Outside of the compartment, beyond earshot of Paul, Ivan asked Susan in a low voice, “Do you think Paul is up to this?”

Susan looked back at Ivan, somewhat surprised.  “Yes!  I don’t think there will be a problem with Paul.  Do you?” she asked.

“No.  I just sensed more hesitation on Paul’s part than I was expecting.  I just wanted to make sure that it felt okay with you.”

“I’m sure that Paul is not crazy about being Jerry’s custodian, but he knows the reasons why, and he understands them.  There shouldn’t be a problem.”

Nicholas interrupted their conversation with the announcement that he had picked up what seemed to be the audio of the President of the United States speaking to the UN General Assembly. 

“No visual?” Susan asked.

“No, I only have the audio channel,” answered Nicholas.

Susan instructed him to put it over the intercom so Paul would be able to hear it.

“…are urging all countries to maintain open communications at all levels to provide information and assistance to each other,” the President was saying.  “We, as a global community, must do what is needed to maintain communications with each other and to maintain our vital lines of transportation.  We have lost many communication satellites and, as most of you know, this has complicated what used to be a simple task of making a phone call.  If it requires placing more land-based lines to enhance the communication network, then we should begin to do that as soon as possible.

We fear that soon we will lose most of the commercial aviation corridors that we are now using.  This will greatly impact our ability to move much-needed supplies and equipment, not to mention people.  It also places greater importance on the condition of our surface transportation and infrastructure, which includes sea, as well as land transport.  We must coordinate our efforts to ensure that the surface transportation exists to move supplies quickly and efficiently and is not allowed to deteriorate.  Considering the damage done to the east coast of the United States, and the western coast of Europe, we will have a lot of work to do before we can easily move supplies across the Atlantic.”

“It all comes back to cooperation, locally, nationally and globally.  We will have to begin to implement a lot of this in the United States immediately, but we must think globally.  This is not an isolated problem.  We can unite in the face of this disaster and maximize the number of survivors, the amount of resources we save, and the technology we carry with us.  If we do not unite, and we fight each other for the scraps of bread that remain, or we shun each other, we will all lose!  Make no mistake about it.  We hold the future of the human race in our very hands at this very dark moment in our stewardship of this planet!”