Orbital Maneuvers (9 page)

VIII

Endeavour pushed on along its orbital path while its occupants continued with their tasks at hand.  Paul finally emerged from his brief, self-imposed isolation and noted that Jerry was still in the airlock, just staring out the viewport.  Paul made his way up to the flight deck to inform Susan and Ivan of his survey and to inquire about any new information. 

“Thanks, Paul,” Susan said, after Paul relayed the information on the rudder. “What is Jerry up to?”

“He is still in the airlock.”

“What is he doing?” Ivan asked.

“I don’t really know.  We sort of had a discussion about things, and I blew up at him.  He feels that we should be on Earth now.  He doesn’t want to die in space.”

“None of us do,” Susan said.

“What does he think, that he is the only one who is stressed about this?” Ivan asked in disbelief.

“I know, that is what I told him.  I’m afraid that he is becoming completely irrational and I don’t think we can count on him for anything.  Especially if things get exciting.”

“I guess we all need to keep an eye on him,” Susan said.  Turning to Paul, she said, “Paul, why don’t you see what you can pick up on the radio?  We have about forty-five minutes before we meet up with Soyuz.  There is not much to be done now.”

“That sounds like a good idea. I can use the distraction right now, thanks. But, before I do that, I want to take a look at the viewport you told me about.” Paul proceeded to check out the port Susan had described as being closest to the collision with the asteroid.  He did see some small fractures around the window, but could not really tell if it was serious enough to be the source of their leak.  He took no chances and applied a sealant to the seam between the window and the ceiling panels.  If there were a leak here, the escaping air would force the sealant deeper into the crack, finally sealing it completely.  He told Susan and Ivan of the fix he applied and headed off to the shortwave radio station.

“Ivan, have you heard anything from Commander Orlov?”

“No, and I am a little concerned about that.  They should have contacted us after they cleared the area where the debris cloud was.”

Susan’s face grew pale as the image of the Soyuz being shattered by a large piece of earth flashed in her mind.  She shook her head trying to shake the image out of her mind.

Ivan noticed this out of the corner of his eye and asked, “What is the matter, Susan?”

“Nothing.  My mind just drifted for a moment.  I hope they got through it okay.”

“It may have been a rough ride, or possibly they incurred some damage that has disabled them or their radios.  It is hard to tell what they may have gone through.  The harsh reality is that they may not be alive right now,” Ivan said in an unusually dark tone.

“Wait,” Susan said, as she perked up at the notion that they were alive, but without the ability to communicate.  “The way the Soyuz is constructed, with its solar panels and antennae bristling out all around the ship, they may have just lost their communication system.” This felt a lot better to Susan.  It was better to believe they survived and deal with that, than to think that they lost two more warm-blooded humans to her cold monster.

“You may be right, but what does that do for us?” Ivan asked.

“I’m not sure.  We have nothing to go on either way, but let’s assume that they are still on the course we had previously laid out.  Keep scanning the radio frequencies that they may have access to, and we’ll see if we can get a visual on them as we approach the rendezvous point.”

“I will let you know if I hear anything,” Ivan said, as he turned his attention to the control panel in front of him and began scanning through the active radio channels.

Susan continued to refine the course needed to rendezvous with the International Space Station based on her best guess of when they would meet with Soyuz.  She tried to keep herself busy and not let her mind drift to a hundred other things that kept trying to pry into her consciousness: the well-being of the two cosmonauts, the death and destruction down on Earth, Jill’s last moments.  Did she realize what was coming?  What about the cosmonauts?  Were they floating out in space, having been ripped from their ship in an explosive collision?  They would eventually succumb to the limits of their environmental systems and die; ultimately, they would become new satellites for the planet.  She shuddered at the thought.  What about those poor souls down below them?  What terror and panic had gripped the survivors?  What would become of the human race?  Was this the end that everyone said would come, sooner or later, just like the end to the reign of the dinosaurs? 

Susan fought to keep her thoughts tightly focused, but eventually these invaders would find a crack in her defenses and push through.  Finally, despite all of her attempts to stop it, her mind drifted to her brothers and parents.  She had tried desperately to avoid this, but to no avail.  Before, she had indulged herself and just played with the pain, now it was in command. 

Living in Seattle, Washington, they were safe for the moment, she knew that.  What was to become of them in the coming months?  This was not something she wanted to entertain.  Not now and not ever.  Ivan and Jerry were in the same boat as she was, with relatives safe for the moment.  She suddenly realized that Paul must be dealing with this demon also, but for him it must be worse, being that his family lives in Texas.  She felt confused.  What would be worse, having loved ones still alive or already gone?  Susan did not want to pursue this line of thinking any longer—it was a no-win situation.  She knew that this train of thought would eventually lead to a discussion of “why are they even trying to save themselves?” For what reason?  To get back to Earth to eventually die from lack of food, heat or other horrible things?  The harder she tried to pull away from these thoughts, the deeper they pulled her in  It was like struggling in quicksand.  She could feel her will to survive dwindling.

“Susan…Susan!” Paul said, louder the second time to get her attention.

“Yes,” Susan snapped out of the downward spiral she was in.  “Yes, Paul, what is it?”

“I just wanted to let you know that I was able to make contact with some people in Europe.  They told me that the militaries of the United States and Russia have stood down and reports are coming in over the international news that two asteroids had hit the mainland of the U.S., and one in the Atlantic Ocean.  There are unconfirmed reports of damage up the east coast as far as Maine.  Nothing has been heard from southern Florida and the Bahamas.  The west coast of Europe is bracing for a tidal wave.  A national state-of-emergency has been declared in the States.  They said that the United Nations has announced an emergency session for all diplomats.  Generally, there seems to be a lot of panic by anyone who knows what has happened and what this means to the planet.”

“I guess that is what one would expect, isn’t it?” Susan asked no one in particular.  “I guess for the short term, most people will not be affected by it, so life may continue as normal.”

“One contact told of people starting to riot and hoard food and water in some of the larger cities.  It’s not good however you look at it, short term, or long term.”

“No one had any information on MIR or Soyuz?” Ivan asked.

“Nothing that anyone volunteered.  Actually, I didn’t ask about them.”

“See if you can find out anything.  We have lost contact with the Soyuz.  Maybe we can get in touch with a Russian ground station.  We can use a little help from them.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Paul replied as he headed back to the shortwave radio.

“Still nothing from Soyuz?” Susan asked Ivan.

“Nothing,” he answered in a tired voice. “What is the time for the rendezvous?”

“We have fifteen minutes before they should come into visual range.  If they are still on course.”

“We should get everyone up here looking for them.  We are not doing too well ourselves and need to take advantage of whatever we have.”

Susan nodded her head in agreement.  She could feel her stomach tighten as the time counted down.  “Paul and Jerry, can you come to the flight deck?” she asked over the intercom.  To her surprise Jerry came up first followed shortly by Paul. 

Ivan explained to them that they needed to visually scan for Soyuz if they hoped to find them.  Each person was given an area to scan and report on.  “Paul, did you get anywhere on finding more information on MIR from down below?” Ivan asked after he gave Paul his designated area.

“No, the radio was not working right.  All I would get was bursts of static that totally wiped out any reception I had,” Paul answered as he slowly scanned his area of the sky.

“Is the radio broken?” Susan asked.

“No, I don’t think it is.  It just seemed to be picking up a very strong noise source that pulsed on and off…Oh, shoot!” Without another word Paul immediately made his way back to the radio set.

“Paul, what’s going on!” Susan shouted.

“I just realized that the static was coming in bursts.  Organized bursts!  Here, listen,” he said as he turned up the audio of the shortwave set so everyone could hear it. “Periodic and organized: Morse code!” Paul said as he began to write down the pattern to decode it.  “It’s Soyuz! They are transmitting numbers.  Must be their coordinates?”

“What are the numbers?” Susan asked.  Paul read them off to her and she immediately entered them into the program on the computer, which displayed the results a second later.  Susan frantically entered the new values into the computer to see what Endeavour needed to do to meet with Soyuz. “Come on.  Come on,” she said, trying to urge the computer on as if it was a thoroughbred race horse.  Finally, the numbers appeared on the display.  “Ivan here are the coordinates we have to come to, to meet up with Soyuz.  We have two minutes before the course correction.  Nothing like last minute timing!  After the course correction, we have ten minutes before we should meet with them.”

Ivan made sure that the coordinates were entered properly and that the on-board computer was ready to execute the change.  The shuttle made its course correction and everyone breathed a little bit easier.  Now all they had to do was visually acquire Soyuz, then Ivan would maneuver the shuttle as close as possible to Soyuz for them to space-walk over.  Everyone began searching for the ship in their designated area, just in case the coordinates were wrong.  They had no way to communicate with Soyuz to let them know that they received the transmission.  It would all be by feel from now on.

Ivan was scanning the sky when a twinkle of light caught his eye to the right and below the shuttle’s path.  “There they are!” he shouted pointing out the window.  He seized the controls of the shuttle and gently nudged the orbiter in the direction of Soyuz.  Slowly the nose of Endeavour came into line with the ship that they all focused their attention on.  They could begin to make out more detail on Soyuz.  The tattered solar panels stood out from the little ship glistening in the sunlight. 

The ships were a hundred feet apart and closing.  Susan wondered how the cosmonauts would know that they were there.  She could see the windows on the ship appeared white and clouded.  Along with the exposed metal on the surface, she reasoned that they indeed had a rough time with the debris cloud.  If it were not for the Morse code transmissions, she would have feared that the clouded ports on the ship might have indicated a depressurization of the capsule and the death of the cosmonauts.  She headed down to the mid-deck with Paul to get into her spacesuit, so she could help the cosmonauts as they came over.

Inside the Soyuz the cosmonauts were straining to see anything outside their ship.  The windows glowed with the sunlight that bathed the ship and made it impossible to see anything out of the small corners that escaped the sand blasting.  They knew that if they were to meet Endeavour it should be any time now.  That is, if they were on the right course and Endeavour did not deviate from the original course.  Nicholas and Alexander tried to remain positive about their situation, but it was beginning to wear thin. 

As Commander Orlov sat back from the viewport to relax, he noticed that the glow from the window subsided and grew dark.  He looked at the viewport on Nicholas’s side; it too had grown dark.  That would indicate that they had entered the shadow of the Earth and were on the night side of the planet. 

As Alexander thought about that, Nicholas spoke up, “Nighttime already!  It does not seem like we were in the daylight that long.  I must be losing track of everything now.”

“No, Nicholas.  Not nighttime,” Alexander said as he grabbed the release lever to the hatch and to the Captain’s shock, threw it open, “rescue time!” Nicholas looked up and found himself staring into the empty payload bay of Endeavour, a hundred feet away!  He smiled big and broad and gave the thumbs-up to the Alexander and to the suited astronaut waving to them from the shuttle’s payload bay.

IX

Susan suited up to assist the cosmonauts as they came aboard.  Paul wanted to go but with his damaged suit, and the bump on his head, Susan felt that he had better stay put.  Jerry said emphatically that he was not interested in going out to help the Russians.  With that attitude Susan was glad to have him stay out of the way.  Ivan was needed at the controls of the shuttle.  That left Susan.  As much as she did not want to go, she was the only logical choice.

She felt a great uneasiness as she ventured out into the payload bay this time.  Memories of the last time with Jill flooded back into her mind and she found herself gasping for breath and feeling dizzy.  She forced herself to look out of the bay at the Earth below and Soyuz slowly coming into view.  She could hear Paul asking her questions, but it was as though he was speaking a foreign language.  Slowly, things started to clear in her head as she concentrated on one thing at a time.  Focusing on the Russian ship helped her calm down and eventually she ventured further from the hatch.

She made her way over to the docking port to examine it for damage.  It had not occurred to her earlier that the port may have been damaged from the collision and she reprimanded herself for being so distracted.  If they couldn’t dock with the station, their plans for rescue would be worthless.  With much trepidation she scanned the port, reminding herself that the shredded outer layers of thermal insulation didn’t mean it would not still function.  For as terrible as it looked on the outside, the mating surface and locking mechanism looked undamaged and functional—much to her relief.  Susan suddenly realized that she had been talking to herself as she checked over the port, loudly enough for it to occasionally trigger her helmet communication system.  This caused some confusion for Ivan and Paul who picked up sporadic bits of her discourse.

“Susan, are you alright?” Paul’s voice echoed in her helmet.

“Yes, Paul, I’m okay.  Just checking the docking port,” she finally responded in a quivering voice. 

“How does it look?” Ivan asked.

“It’s pretty beat up on the outside, but the business end looks okay.”

“Nothing perforated the walls?”

“Not as far as I can tell.  We will have to be careful when we pressurize the system once we’re at the station.” Susan checked her tether to make sure that it was securely attached to the payload bay wall and moved out to the center of the bay wondering, how they would let the cosmonauts know they were there.  She amused herself with the absurd notion of blowing a horn to get their attention.  More seriously, she thought about launching herself across the void and knocking on the hatch.  It was at this moment that she saw a thin sliver of light appear around the periphery of the hatch and in another second the hatch popped open. “They’ve opened the hatch,” Susan excitedly shouted.  A cheer from Ivan and Paul sounded through the intercom.

Ivan and Paul watched from the observation windows on the aft flight deck and waved to the cosmonauts, who enthusiastically returned their greetings.  Ivan gently eased the shuttle closer to Soyuz, closing the distance to about fifty feet.  He felt any closer would be too dangerous considering what Soyuz had been through.  He had visions of a thruster misfiring and the ship crashing into the shuttle.  He kept his hands on the controls at all times and watched the Russian ship intently throughout the transfer operation.

“Ivan,” Susan called over the intercom, “keep me posted on the time.  Remember that we have only a twenty minute window for this, no more.”

“Understood.  I will post you every five minutes.”

Susan watched as one of the cosmonauts slowly eased himself out of the ship.  Once out he secured his feet to the surface and waited while the second cosmonaut handed him a large parcel. Upon securely receiving this package he turned to face Susan and made a throwing motion with his arm.  Susan understood what he was indicating and gave him a thumbs-up sign.  “Nice and easy now,” she said, half mumbling to herself.  The cosmonaut took the object with both hands and hefted it, as if to try to determine how much force was needed to hit his target.  He brought the object to eye-level to sight it in on Susan and gently gave it a shove.  The package floated, slowly tumbling, across the gap as if by magic and headed directly toward Susan.  Susan moved so her feet were on the floor of the payload bay.  She did not know how massive the package was and did not want to be pushed back out of control.  It took about twenty seconds for the object to arrive in the payload bay to Susan’s waiting arms.  She caught it with ease and laughed with childish excitement, as it reminded her of throwing the football with her brothers.  As soon as she secured the first item, the cosmonaut was in position to send the second one.

“Susan we have fifteen minutes left,” Ivan’s voice broke the silence as Susan was securing the second package.

“Okay.  I am not sure how many more they have to send over.  It can’t be too much more considering how small the ship is.”

Paul broke in, “You look pretty good out there.  Have you ever considered professional ball?”

“I did, but I am waiting for a better offer,” Susan said.

As she set up for the next package, she noticed the cosmonaut again hefting the object, but this time he set it aside and made a motion to Susan that she did not understand.  He was curling his arms and sort of squatting by bending his knees.  He then gave Susan a thumbs-up sign.  She responded with a thumb down sign, at which he repeated the motion a second time. “You understand what he’s trying to tell me,” she asked Paul and Ivan.

“I think he is trying to show you that the next package is more massive than the first one,” Ivan answered.

“Yes, I think so, too.  It must be significant if he is going through all this,” Paul added.

“Yes, I guess that makes sense.  Alright, let me have it,” Susan said as she gave the cosmonaut a thumbs-up.

The cosmonaut picked up the package, aimed and pushed it at Susan.  The package was shaped differently from the first one.  It moved and rotated more slowly, taking several more seconds to cross the gap than the first package did.  Susan braced herself for the reception, not really knowing what to expect.  The package hit Susan’s hands off-center and she grunted as she strained to control it and keep herself from toppling over.  “Wow!  I guess he was right.  This thing weighs a ton!” She secured the package and got set for the next one, “Oh no! Not another ton of bricks!” Susan shouted as she saw the cosmonaut going through the weight lifting routine again.

“Hang in there, Susan!  You can do it!” Paul joked.

This time Susan made sure that she was directly under the object as she caught it and let her arms and legs cushion the reception.  It worked much better and she smiled to hear Ivan and Paul clapping at her success.  As she turned back to the Russian ship after securing the last package, she was surprised to see the cosmonaut floating across the abyss toward her and Endeavour.  He looked like an action figure children play with, made out of plastic and frozen in one position.  But this action figure was far from frozen.  As he got closer to the shuttle, he slowly rotated so his feet would hit the payload bay floor first.  Susan realized that if she did not move she would end up cushioning the cosmonaut’s landing and did not think that would do either of them any good.  She moved to the side and prepared to grab the man as he hit the floor.

The cosmonaut hit the deck with both feet in a picture-perfect landing.  Susan was quite impressed with the landing and wondered if they practiced this in their training or if it was from all the time he spent on MIR.  The cosmonaut gave her a thumbs-up and a hug—at least as much of a hug one could give with both people being encased in bulky space suits.  They turned toward Soyuz to watch the second cosmonaut make the journey.

“Susan, we have ten minutes left,” Ivan reported.

“Copy, Ivan.  All we have is one more to go.  You have the coordinates entered for the rendezvous with the space station?”

“Yes.  Everything is all set, provided we leave in the next nine minutes.”

“If the second cosmonaut is as good as the first on space walking, we should be ready to go in a few minutes,” Susan said.

“Keep your fingers crossed and hope Murphy doesn’t show up,” Paul said.

“I can’t cross my fingers in this suit.”

Cosmonaut number two, Captain Zuyev, was out of the ship and sizing up the distance between the two ships.  Free floating outside a ship, without a tether, is extremely dangerous, but launching oneself across a void like this was even worse.  If you misjudge your speed and launch too fast you can injure yourself or tear your suit when you land.  If you push off unevenly with your feet, your path will not be in the direction you may have intended.  If you miss the target you are aiming for, even by a fraction of an inch, you become another satellite for Earth.

These thoughts were going through the Captain’s mind as he gauged the distance and the force he needed to push off with.  He looked at the Commander and Susan, waved and gave a thumbs-up sign.  Taking a deep breath he pushed off the ship.

The crew compartment of Soyuz lay exposed to the cold and vacuum of space, while the cosmonauts unloaded their equipment.  Slowly the control panels and instruments cooled as they radiated their heat into space.  Control circuits responded to this change in temperature by energizing heaters to keep critical equipment at the proper temperature.  This worked well for the many times it was asked to do so in the past, but today “Murphy’s laws” were in effect.  One of the heater wires had been severely stressed by the vibration and jostling the Soyuz took trying to push MIR into a higher orbit.

The frayed connection was hanging on by one fine strand of copper wire that melted like a fuse with the sudden current surge and snapped.  The harness holding the heater wire recoiled with the release of the tension on the wire. This action allowed the broken, but electrically energized, wire to touch one of the exposed terminals of the thruster control lever.  This applied a voltage where none should have been, but nevertheless it told the onboard computer that it should fire the forward port thruster.  The computer followed this command with its typical efficiency until it drained the thruster’s fuel tank.  Soyuz was sent spinning about its center of gravity narrowly missing Captain Zuyev, who now had his back to the ship.  Susan and Commander Orlov saw the ship start to move and began to wave wildly at Captain Zuyev to alert him to what was happening.  He responded by waving back at them, all the while trying not to start himself spinning or tumbling in the process.

Ivan was watching the cosmonaut’s ballet through the viewport as he maintained control of the shuttle’s position.  When his eye caught the white vapor cloud of fuel spewing from the thruster on Soyuz, he immediately responded by pushing the shuttle away from the Russian ship.  This in turn caused Susan and Commander Orlov to find themselves floating away from the shuttle’s payload bay because neither of them was secured to the cargo bay floor.  Susan immediately grabbed the Commander’s arm and he grabbed hers.  The tether was rapidly unwinding and would soon yank them both back toward the shuttle.

Captain Zuyev’s jaw dropped as he saw the shuttle start to drift away from him.  He still did not know what was going on behind him and was puzzled as to why the shuttle was moving away.  He was also surprised to see that the Commander and the astronaut were still hanging out in space right where he was aiming to land. 

Ivan realized that the Soyuz was not moving toward them, but spinning in one place.  He slowed the shuttle down but did not stop its retreat from the capsule.  Whatever set the Soyuz spinning could just as easily send it directly toward the shuttle.  He then noticed the situation that he left Susan and the Commander in and hoped that the tether would hold both of them once it drew taught. 

Captain Zuyev found himself floating into the waiting arms of Susan and the Commander.  They all hung on to each other as tightly as they could, anticipating the tether snapping taught.  With a solid jerk, Susan felt the tether tighten and pull her and her passengers back toward the shuttle. Thanks to the collision with Captain Zuyev, they were already moving in the direction of the shuttle, which reduced the strain on the tether and the severity of the jolt that Susan felt.  Ivan reduced the shuttle’s speed even more upon seeing the trio moving toward the payload bay, hoping to give them a chance to land safely.  He checked the clock and saw that they had only five minutes left to make their escape to the space station.  Ivan stopp ed the shuttle’s motion completely to speed up the capture of the space walkers.  They had to get inside before he lit the main engines, and they were rapidly running out of time.

Susan and her attached cosmonaut passengers tumbled into the payload bay in a jumble of arms, legs and tether.  Quickly Susan extricated herself from the bunch and helped the two cosmonauts untangle themselves from the tether.

“Susan, we have only five minutes left.  You must hurry inside.”

“Copy, I’m doing my best to get everyone in.”

“Paul, see if you can give Susan a hand down below.”

“On my way.”

Susan opened the hatch to the airlock and motioned for the cosmonauts to enter.  The airlock was a very tight squeeze for two American astronauts with their bulky backpacks, but the cosmonauts’ suits were more compact and they just might all fit. One at a time they moved through the small door into the airlock and once the cosmonauts were inside, Susan shoved the packages they brought in to them and barely managed to squeeze herself into the airlock.