Orbital Maneuvers (4 page)

“What do you think is out there?  Aliens?”

“No, not aliens.  But something dangerous…very dangerous.” Susan’s voice grew softer, colder, and more frightened as she felt the danger getting nearer, seeping like ice water into her bones.  With much effort, she pulled herself back into the shuttle with Ivan, and with the fear, too.  Her voice rasped as she said, “I think we should release the satellite and land as soon as possible.”

“Susan, you are not sounding very rational at the moment.  If you keep this up I am going to have to talk to Houston about this.”

“I am not crazy, or irrational!  I don’t know how to tell mission control that we have to abort the rest of the mission based on my intuition alone!  If I did, I would have already told them myself.  Look, I know this sounds crazy but if we are still in orbit in a couple of hours, something is going to happen.  I don’t know what— just that it won’t be good.”

“Susan, in a couple of hours you and Jill will be out on your EVA taking care of business.  We pack up our stuff and in twelve hours we go home, right on schedule.  As you say, ‘piece of cake,’ right?”

“Ivan, the satellite service procedure is not going to go as planned.  I can feel it.”

“You are letting yourself get carried away, Susan,” Ivan said.  He was beginning to have serious doubts about Susan’s mental well-being.

Susan moved closer to Ivan and lowered her voice,  “Ivan this is not going to work, trust me.  We need to get back to Earth now!” She floated out of her seat and headed toward the hatch.  “I’ve got to get on O2.”

Susan joined Jill and strapped on a portable oxygen tank and mask to begin the process of purging the nitrogen from her bloodstream to prevent the bends.  Susan always thought it was so non-intuitive that one needed to do this to avoid the bends in outer space.  She wasn’t deep-sea diving but the low pressure that was used in the space suits required the astronauts to purge their systems of nitrogen before sealing up the suit.  The consequences of not doing that could be debilitating pain and even death, just like a deep-sea diver who does not decompress before surfacing.

Paul and Jerry assisted Susan and Jill as they were slowly inserted into their spacesuits.  The process went pretty much by the book with very little extraneous conversation.  Much care was taken to ensure that all pieces of the suits mated properly and there was the usual range of motion and flexibility.  Checking the communications, cooling and respiration systems to make sure that they held onto their little piece of Earth as they ventured out into the hostile environment of space were but a few items to cover on the checklist. 

Ivan came down just before Susan and Jill donned their helmets.  He patted Jill on the back and offered her some words of encouragement.  As Jerry and Paul hovered around Jill to complete her suit-up, Ivan moved over to Susan.  He watched her very closely, trying to access her condition, but she was focused on the moment and there was nothing showing on her face.  She looked up and caught him staring at her.

“Is something wrong?”

Ivan, feeling a bit uncomfortable, grinned.  “No, but I was going to ask you the same question.”

“I’m doing okay.” She wasn’t, but she wasn’t going to say any more at this time.  Maybe she was over reacting, she thought. 

Ivan wasn’t convinced, but he knew how tough Susan could be.  He had to try again.  “Still have those feelings?”

Susan grabbed her helmet as it started to float away from her.  “Nothing more than the normal jitters one has before an EVA.  I’m fine.  Here, help me with my helmet.”

Ivan took her helmet and as he lowered it over her head he whispered, “Good luck out there.  Things are going to go well, just relax.”

Susan reached up and grabbed Ivan’s arm before the helmet was completely on.  Peering out from under the bottom of her helmet she looked at Ivan and whispered, “I don’t know what the future is going to bring but, I want to thank you for all that you have done for me throughout all our training.  Sometimes I think that I would not be here if you were not there coaching me, and most importantly, being my friend.  Thank you for that.”

“Susan, it has been my pleasure to help you and I am quite honored that you consider me your friend.  I have enjoyed working with you.  You have made my stay in the states so much more enjoyable that I feel it is a second home to me… Anyway, we are going to finish with SCIEXSAT and head home, and I will let you buy me dinner!”

“It will be my pleasure,” Susan smiled as she pulled the helmet down and Ivan locked it in place.

Although Susan returned his smile, it was with much effort as she wanted only to scream and run.  She then cursed herself for letting her nerves wear on her and her weakness show through. 
You can’t lead if you’re falling to pieces
, she scolded herself. 
Here, Jill is wound up in knots over the EVA and you, the pro, are a basket case.  Get with the plan!
  Susan straightened herself as much as she could in the suit and took a deep breath of the cool oxygen flowing into her helmet.  She waved to Ivan, who was heading back to the flight deck with Jerry.

The suit intercoms were now active and Susan could hear Jill breathing hard as she made some final adjustments on her suit.  “Jill, are you all set?”

“Set and ready to go.  Are we cleared for the EVA from down below?”

“We are clear to begin the EVA.”

“How are the butterflies?” Susan asked, peering into Jill’s visor.

“They are still there but smaller than sparrows at this time.”

“Great!  It’s amazing and wonderful out there, and you’ll do fine.  Just watch out for the little green men!” Susan winked at Jill, who broke into a big smile.  “Paul, we’re ready.”

“Then let’s open the doors and let you ladies out!” Paul said, guiding Susan and Jill into the airlock.  “It’s time to get this show on the road!” As he closed the hatch to the airlock he gave them a thumbs-up and added, “Good luck and be careful you two.”

III

The sounds of the shuttle slowly disappeared as the air was pumped out of the airlock and there was nothing to carry the vibrations to their helmets.  All that could be heard was the hiss of the intercom system and the whir of the pumps and motors that kept the air and cooling systems running in their suits.  Susan always felt somewhat like a robot when she was in a space suit, kind of like a female version of Robbie the Robot.  Even with that thought she had to remind herself of how vulnerable she was cocooned within this microcosm of Earth.  On the other side of her suit the temperature was about 250 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, nothing like the balmy 75 degrees she felt the morning of the launch.  Outside her suit there wasn’t any air that would gently caress her skin, squeezing her on all sides with fifteen pounds of pressure per square inch, like it did when she walked on the beach near the Cape.  There was a vacuum, no pressure at all: harsh and unforgiving.  Within her suit she was provided with a comfortable temperature and pressure, but it was not designed to provide her protection from the cosmic rays, micrometeorites, and high-energy particles that are blasted from the sun with each solar flare that erupts.  She was at the mercy of things she could never see, or even feel, but could be extremely deadly nevertheless. 

Susan followed Jill out into the payload bay and after they attached their tethers to the tie-downs by the hatch she took a moment to marvel at the Earth overhead.  It was so different to see Earth in its entirety from the bay than to peek at it through a small porthole inside the shuttle.  The multihued globe commanded Susan’s attention, which she gave willingly.  It was only with much effort that she was able to tear her eyes from her home world and focus on what had to be done.

“Wow!” Jill said.  “What a view!”

“Yeah, I know.  And just think, we’re getting paid to be here!” Susan said.

“It’s even better than I imagined, even better than you said it would be.  Amazing!”

“Yes, it is,” Susan said.  A twinge in her stomach brought her back to the moment and the dread that was building inside her.  She forced herself to move on to the work that she was expected to do.

Jerry had retracted the arm so that SCIEXSAT was nestled in the bay; looking somewhat like a high-tech marshmallow on a stick.  Jill’s task was to remove the sample plates on the satellite and replace them with new set of plates, which would be collected in a year by another shuttle mission.  Susan’s main task was to tend to a piggyback experiment that was mounted on the sidewall of the payload bay.  These small, self-contained experiments went along on a mission because there was some room to spare.  Usually they required little or no support, but this one in particular needed to be monitored and adjusted after being in space for space for seven days.  She would be working with Paul who was conducting the experiment from a station on the middeck.  He designed the experiment and his company paid for its space on this mission.  Susan caught herself smiling as she thought about Paul.  She figured that if it were a hundred years earlier Paul would have been a rancher raising cattle in Texas.  In this day and age, he could forgo the spurs and steers and instead get his doctorate in chemistry at the University of Texas.  He seemed to be a very relaxed person who was able to enjoy whatever he was presented with, be it riding the fence line on his ranch or mixing up some noxious smelling chemicals in the lab.  She wished she could be that relaxed, but then again, she knew she would have made a dreadful cowgirl.

Susan listened to the conversation between Jill and Mission Control as she made her way over to the experiment enclosure.  “Paul, I’m about to open your box.  Are you ready?”

“Roger, that, Susan,” Paul replied, his voice sounding thin and small through the helmet’s headset.

“Okay, I’ve got the replacement cartridges and I will swap them out on your command.”

“Copy that, Susan.  Hang on a second while I get the system set for recalibration.”

Susan smiled, “You don’t mind if I just float?”

“Ah…yes, float, I got it!  That was a good one!  Hang or float, your choice, just don’t leave the cargo bay.  I’m almost done…there.  We’re all set.  You can swap the cartridges now, Susan.”

“Copy that, Paul.  I’m swapping them out now.” Susan removed the test cartridges that had been inserted before launch and replaced them with another set that would be retrieved once they were back on the ground.  Paul would need to recalibrate the system for these new cartridges and she would have to tend to the unit to make any necessary adjustments.  The process was a bit tedious and would take many iterations.

“Susan, you have about ten minutes before I’ll need you again,” Paul said.

“Call me when you need me,” Susan said.  She looked out of the cargo bay as the shuttle passed into the shadow of the earth and the stars stood out boldly against their black backdrop, no longer having to compete with the glare of the sun.  Her sense of foreboding grew the more she stared into the void.  Susan fought the urge to return to the airlock and argued with herself that she was just over-reacting.  Susan snapped out of her musings when she heard Mission Control talking to Jill about the replacement panels she was having trouble attaching. 

“Roger, I had some difficulty removing the mounting screws when I removed the original plate in position X4.  The material on the plate seems to have reacted with the screws and the new screws are just not going in quite as easy.” Jill moved back and surveyed the satellite for a moment.  “Jerry, can you raise SCIEXSAT about a foot or so?  It’s a little awkward getting at this lower panel.”

“Roger that, Jill,” Jerry replied. “How’s that?”

“Great! That’s much better. Thanks.”

Mission Control cut in, “Jill, tech support wants to know if you can reuse the old screws.”

“They are pretty useless at this time.  They came out pretty hard and the heads are shot.  I’m going to try a little more elbow grease on this one.  Hang on.”

“We copy that, Jill,” CAPCOM replied.

Susan watched as Jill applied more force to fasten the stubborn screw and her body rotated while the satellite remained stationary, as if she were a white pinwheel attached to the glistening satellite.  Newton’s third law of motion was in full force:
For every action there will be an equal and opposite reaction
.  Jill let out a gasp of exasperation and Susan floated over to give her a hand. 

“Try this, Jill.” Susan braced herself on a support strut that was installed for the CRV and let Jill prop her foot against Susan’s foot.  From this position, Jill was able to tighten the screw without rotating around the screwdriver.

“Thanks, Susan,” Jill said.  “I think I need a refresher course in Physics 101.”

“No problem,” Susan said.  “It’s amazing how we take gravity for granted.”

“That’s for sure.” Jill gave all the screws one more check to make sure that everything was tight.  “Mission Control, that’s the last panel, everything looks good.  Ready to toss this baby overboard for another year.” Jill’s fatigue echoed in her voice.  It could be quite exhausting working in micro-gravity and after two hours of wrestling with the satellite she was ready to call it a day.

“Jill, telemetry looks good for the new panels.  You are cleared to release SCIEXSAT.  You did a great job.”

“Thanks, Houston, couldn’t have done it without you, or Susan.  Jerry, you heard the man, let’s unload this beast so we can come in for lunch, I’m starving.”

“Roger that, Jill, that makes two of us.” Jerry scanned the cargo bay to make sure the astronauts were at a safe distance. “All clear from SCIEXSAT?”

“Roger, all clear,” Susan and Jill echoed.

“Okay. Let’s raise this nice and easy.” The satellite rose out of the payload bay in a smooth motion as Jerry manipulated the controls for the arm.  “We are at maximum elevation and now I am rotating ninety degrees to proper release attitude…Ready to release…three…two…one…release!  No, wait…damn it.  Houston, we do not have separation.  SCIEXSAT is still engaged with the arm.”

Susan had a sudden twinge of fear along with a flashback of her dream, hanging motionless in the water as the dolphins disappeared in the darkness.  A sense of impending doom started to grow.  She forced herself to think about the satellite and the probe mechanism and how they worked together.  Susan took a deep breath to compose herself and suggested that Jerry try to jerk the arm back and forth to jolt the mechanism into action.  Jerry complied as best as he could but the arm was not designed for such rapid movements and the satellite was still stuck fast. 

Ivan’s voice popped in over the intercom, “If we bring the satellite back into the bay Susan and Jill may be able to release it and then I can drop the shuttle out of the way.”

“No, that won’t work,” came Jill’s voice in response, “the satellite needs to be a hundred meters or more away from the shuttle before we can use the maneuvering rockets, otherwise the rockets will contaminate the new plates on the satellite.”

Mission Control broke in. “The experts down here think that the ejection mechanism on the probe can be triggered manually.  Jill could ride up with the satellite and trip the ejector once it’s in position.”

“What do you think about a little ride, Jill?” Susan asked.

“Hey, sounds like fun!  With the clamp-on footrest I should be able to get in position to trip the ejector.”

“Houston, did you copy that?” Susan asked, all the while feeling more apprehensive.  She could feel her stomach turning into a knot and was feeling slightly nauseous. 

“Susan, we got that. We will work up a checklist for the manual launch.  It should not take too long.”

“Copy that,” Susan responded. “We’ll be ready in about ten minutes.”

Jerry carefully brought the satellite back down into the payload bay and Jill proceeded to secure the footrest on the shuttle’s arm.  Susan took advantage of the break to give Paul some time on his experiment.  Within a few minutes, Mission Control sent up instructions to Jill and she began the preparations on the satellite.

Susan finished another round with Paul and glided over to see if she could help Jill.  “How is it going?” Susan asked as she closely examined the satellite for the first time.  She was very curious to see how it had weathered being in space for over a year.  As far as she could see, there was nothing obvious to indicate that it had been exposed to the rigors of space for such a length of time, except that the exposed metal parts were not quite as shiny as she thought they might be.

“I’ve almost got the last screw out of the cover plate…there, that’s it.” Jill carefully stowed the screws and the cover plate in a pouch Velcroed to her suit. She peered inside the assembly and with the screwdriver started to explore the mechanism. “It looks like the grease that was used to lubricate this has plasticized.  It’s quite hard.”

“We copy that, Jill,” Mission Control said, “can you see the ejector spring below the probe shaft on the right?”

“Ah…wait, I need some more light here.  Susan, can you help me with the light?”

“Sure,” Susan turned on a flashlight and directed the beam down inside the probe assembly, “How’s that?”

“Great. Yes, I can see the ejector spring and the release trigger is just at the end of the spring.” Jill breathed a sigh of relief at her discovery.

“Good work, Jill.  Now remember when you trip the trigger you may need to prod the spring if the lubricant is too stiff.”

“Roger that, Mission Control.  I think that may be the case, this stuff is really stiff!  I think that I’m all set to go for a ride.”

“I’m ready when you are, Jill,” Jerry said. “Be sure to observe the fasten your seat belts and no smoking sign.  And, as always, thank you for flying Jerry’s space arm!”

“You keep that up and I am going to cash in my ticket!” Jill quipped.

Susan helped Jill step into the footrest.  She then attached a safety strap from Jill to the arm and double-checked her tether.  While she was securing Jill’s safety strap, Susan realized that her hands were shaking and she was breathing rapidly.  Again she felt the gnawing pain in her stomach.  Susan tried to focus on Jill and cursed under her breath as sweat from her forehead migrated to her eyes.  She quickly looked out of the payload bay and scanned the velvety blackness of space, but saw nothing.

“Susan, is everything all right?” Jill asked with a bit of concern in her voice, “Did I drop something?”

“No…Everything’s okay.  Just taking in the view,” Susan replied, trying to collect herself. 
Come on, keep your head in the game
, she reprimanded herself.

“Come on you two, we have a train to catch.  Let us get that satellite back into orbit.” Ivan’s voice came over the intercom and put Susan a bit at ease.

“We’re all set here, I think.  Jill, you ready?”

“All set. Any time, Jerry.”

“Hang on, Jill, I am going to raise the arm now.”

Susan stepped back as Jill and SCIEXSAT were slowly raised out of the bay.  As Susan watched Jill leave the bay, she was feeling more and more uneasy.  If she could have hidden someplace, she would have gladly done so.  The harder Susan tried to concentrate on Jill and the task at hand, the more the image of the black beast surging out of the deep clouded her thoughts. She found herself pressing up against the bulkhead of the payload bay, grabbing the insulation that covered it and cowering in the corner.  She watched Jill, high above the bay, as if through a fog.  Only faintly did she hear the conversation Jill was having with Mission Control.