Earth Lost Without Power

by L. S. Wood

  Chenco distanced the space capsule away from the space station by using the attached jettison bottles mounted to the capsule’s sides and one both forward and aft for control of pitch and propulsion for reentry. They drifted further and further away from the huge dark phantom looking vessel in making their departure. They were definitely on their way home now all alone. They drifted further and further out away from the safe place they all had called home for so long, having felt quite secure in its steel cavity and their duty while aboard the space station. The safety of the departed ones along with their safe landing back on Earth was the only way, the only hopes and prayers the ones still trapped aboard the space station would have a chance for them all to live. If the six cosmonauts failed in this attempt, no one on Earth would know the critical situation developing in space aboard the steel city of beacons and lights at night that floated helplessly over the earth night after night, and day after day not being noticed but by a small number of family members below of the ones still trapped onboard her in the heavens.

  With each breath of oxygen taken by the departing crew, the security of the space station seemed to drift that much further away into the space that had no end. No end at all, they thought until at last the blinking flashing strobe lights of her many beacons could be seen no more.

  All minds were thinking similar thoughts as the capsule departed from the space station. “Please send us back some kind of little rays of hope of some sort, please. Send us a signal using Morse code by way of the bright sun’s rays.

  Some cosmonauts enjoyed happy thoughts about a rescue mission having already been planned for them to be rescued as they dreamed, or a rocket ship heavily loaded down to the point of exploding with multiple supplies and additional oxygen and food, and a possible ride home for a few lucky one, to maintain their quickly fading lives with a slight chance of hope attached. Any kind of message would be well appreciated, even if one wasn’t sent, but looked like it had been.” These were merely messages of wishful thoughts only, for no one had any kind of telepathic powers to broadcast their thoughts to one another anywhere in the universe.

  The weather over Cape Canaveral had been okay the day before, but some menacing clouds had been developing and were on the increase ever since they decided to depart and attempt their landing. At least with the space capsule, the weather over the cape could still be a little bad, and they would still probably make a safe and happy landing back on earth by the space center.

  Chenco gave the command. “Fire the boosters. Prepare for our reentry.” Once they fired the boosters, the module began to slow its speed down and began to drop rapidly down toward the Earth’s outer ozone ring and atmosphere. Everyone was beginning to feel the force of gravity for the first real time on his and her bodies in over two long years or better of floating helplessly in outer space in weightlessness. There had been no gravitational pull of any sort on their bodies for so long they didn’t know if the slightest gravitational force would break their weakened bone structures or not.

  They exercised daily aboard the space station using different strengths of strong elastic resistant straps to keep their strength up. After approaching the critical state in survival, all unnecessary exercise had been stopped by the station’s commander in order to conserve food, use of oxygen, and in reprocessing the water from the past couple months, and the flab on the cosmonaut’s bodies was beginning to show, especially on the girls.

  Now even Krista was beginning to feel a little queasy from the increased gravitational pull of the earth‘s gravitational force on her or was it from the booster rockets that was causing this discomfort? She gripped the armrests of her station for security as did the others in the space capsule. The lights on the instrument panel began to flicker as Chenco was reading the outside temperature of the capsule’s bottom heat shield, for it was gaining in temperatures well above a thousand and better degrees. When he last read twelve hundred degrees. the lights on his instrument panel all went dead, and the inside of the space capsule became as black as black could get.

  They were falling helplessly now toward Earth in solid darkness that caused great concern for Chenco. He did not know how high they were, and if he pulled the mechanical lever to fire the parachutes out behind them too soon, it could prove disastrous for everyone. If he were to fire the chutes at a high altitude, they could drift half way across the Atlantic Ocean ending up in the ocean somewhere between the United States, Great Britain, or even off of Africa. If he fired them too late, they might slam into the earth’s crust killing everyone, or merely burn up from the intense heat caused by the friction of the oxygen on the bottom of their space craft.

  He was betwixt and between in what to do next. The g-force was beginning to affect both Gina and Krista. Krista’s stomach was churning as was Gina’s trying to come up and out through her mouth and nostrils all at the very same time. Her twins were being forced up into her chest cavity as they plummeting quickly toward the Earth below. They in turn were forcing her stomach up into her throat, as she was trying desperately hard to breathe without success. She tried swallowing and swallowing several times trying to prevent her stomach acids from reaching her mouth, and in between the shallow swallows she managed to take a wee breath of air with each tiny swallow. A little acid did finally sneak past her flexing throat muscles and flowed out into her mouth burning both her mouth and nostrils to the point she now wished she had stayed onboard the space station. She wondered if this crazy ride she was on was in any way going to affect her or the babies inside her in any way.

  She only hoped if it did take their lives that she would go right along with them for putting the poor little dears through such an ordeal as this. This was her second mistake in life, she thought. Her first mistake was getting pregnant in the first place. Would it really be her fault for trying to give her babies a better chance at survival, or would it really be her fault for killing the two of them. She began to shed tears from the miserable pain she felt for them. More acidic bile shot from her stomach and came rushing up her throat to her mouth. Like fresh red hot molting colds fresh out of a campfire, the burning acid was thrust up into her mouth. The pain of it seemed unbearable, and she needed to breathe some fresh oxygen or die. She swallowed very hard so she could breathe again, and took in a very small breath of oxygen at that time. She knew she was about to pass out, but did not want to drown in her own acidic vomit by filling her helmet with pure vomit when she was passed out cold.

  A ray of light came blasting though a glass portal, as John manually blasted away its heat shield covering. Chenco could now see the round horizon of the earth’s outer ring through the portal, and decided it was time to fire the decent parachutes to slow them down and safely lower them down to the awaiting Earth below.

  Suddenly the force Gina and the others were all experiencing went from rushing up into their throats and began pushing everything straight down into their groin area. It felt like someone from outer space had reached out and down and was trying to pull the capsule and its crew back up into outer space again. Then the feeling felt like nothing at all, until again the Earth’s gravity caught hold of them letting them know it was still around them, and began to pull down on them once again. Gina went to raise her arms in order to release her face shield from her helmet as the others had already done with her arms feeling like heavy lead weights. She managed with great difficulty to remove her face shield to wipe away the burning acidic vomit from her face and chin. Krista had experienced the same things that Gina had experienced, and was busy wiping away her own face and chin but to a smaller degree because she was not carrying twins.

  Sebastian had lost an entire mouthful of stomach fluids up into his helmet, causing him to look more of a mess than the others. His eyes were on fire from his own excretions. His eyes, ears, nose, face, and hair were covered; he was a mess with vomit. He was totally embarrassed from his involuntary actions as were all the others. His own embarrassment qu
ickly faded away when thinking of his loved ones back home on Earth who he was going to be seeing soon, he hoped. He could not wait to see his wife and their children once again. It had been too long of a stay in outer space for him, and he hoped he still had a family to go back home to.

  The sun was beaming down shining bright and beautiful through the uncovered portal windshield. Chenco looked to the altimeter for a height bearing and was not pleased at what he was looking at. The reading read fifty-two thousand feet and not falling rapidly, the way it was supposed to be for a clear shot to land at the cape. In fact, it did not seem to be falling at all. That meant the capsule was floating along in the upper air stream aloft just hanging there and not falling toward their intended target below. He hoped the bottled up oxygen they were using would last until they landed.

  He had fired their decent landing parachutes way too soon for their proper landing. The perfect height to let out the chutes would have been twenty-five or thirty thousand feet. He had gone and done what he had feared the most in their reentry sequence. Their altitude was slowly falling, but not fast enough to suit his wants in their very slow descent. The air stream aloft could be taking them anywhere around the globe. It could be taking them up north deeper into another unchartered location of United States, into a southerly direction down over Cuba, or in an easterly direction out to sea toward the Leeward Islands.

  The upper airstreams would take them wherever the damn air stream was flowing to and wanted to take them. They had no choice in the matter now. He was exasperated with himself in his haste to discharge the landing chutes ahead of time, but there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it now.

  They were caught in the high air stream of the earth, and would eventually land somewhere on Earth’s land he hoped, but was that too much to surmise, or was the damn altimeter needle stuck.

  As if a feather caught adrift on a gentle breeze, the capsule drifted easterly out and away from their intended landing zone. Their decent was way too slow and everyone aboard knew they were in some sort of trouble for it. The weakness of the polar caps’ magnetic fields made it near impossible for them to detect their true bearings with their hand-held compasses they had brought with them while still inside their metal capsule.

  Wherever they were going to land, they would have to make the best of it. They were pretty well equipped for most anything on Earth, except for what they were about to enter into down below. The earth had become a hostile planet of forever-changing developments for humanity, and they were about to enter their own twilight zone of horrors. If any of the crew were to survive this cruel happening they were about to enter into would be pure luck, and if they were not to survive, they could count themselves lucky for not having to experience it for very long.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

  The Eye of the Storm

  They had no idea where below the capsule might be headed as the steel hulk began a more rapid descent down toward the earth below. It seemed to them as if it had been hours of leisurely drifting along, caught in the high air stream currents above the earth before they were let loose from its death grip adrift. Chenco was afraid they were going to run out of oxygen very soon if they stayed aloft much longer. Knowing if they opted for opening up a hatch at such a high altitude for oxygen and fresh air it would not do them any good. Helplessly adrift up in the high atmosphere where there was little oxygen, if not any at all. It would prove an instant death wish to all if they had opened the capsule up because the sudden drop in air pressure alone would have killed them all almost instantly, and they would have frozen to death within a few short seconds.

  Down, down, and down they drifted. Down through a swirling cloudbank surrounding them like a huge swirling cotton puff. The altimeter indicated to Chenco they were now descending down very rapidly as they should have been doing at least an hour or better beforehand when their parachutes were first deployed .

  Soon they would be on good old terra firma once again, and none could wait to be there. They were all so very anxious and excited. With only minutes left before they touched down, Gina placed her hands and forearms beneath the precious cargo she was holding tight within her womb by placing her hands beneath her belly. She wanted to support her twins as best as she could with her hands, knowing the sudden hard landing was going to be an unpleasant impact for both them and her. Krista did the same imitating what Gina was doing just as a precautionary measure for her own precious cargo.

  “Less than five hundred feet before touchdown,” Chenco yelled out as he watched the altimeter declining rapidly in numbers. The three large parachutes stretched out wide and high above the capsule in a thick mist, looking quite beautiful to the six lucky cosmonauts held secure in the capsule, as they descended rapidly down through the clouded cover and misty fog they had now encountered in there rapid descent towards the earth.

  “Two hundred feet to impact,” Chenco yelled out, as the excitement grew within everyone. “One hundred-fifty feet, one hundred feet, fifty feet, twenty-five feet to touchdown. Brace yourselves.”

  Suddenly something hammered at the capsule sideways just before impact, and then a soft impact followed. They knew they had landed in water somewhere, but had been preparing for a much harder impact thinking they were going to be landing on good old hard solid ground. Gina and Krista were much better off by landing by in the water than landing on solid ground as the water cushioned the impact of the landing greatly. The capsule first landed on top of a huge rolling wave lessening the impact of the capsule all the more as their craft settled down through the rolling waves to the surface of the sea.

  The parachutes came down lying to one side fully inflated as gale-force winds atop the surface of the sea dragged the capsule sideways across the top of the raging waters, bouncing the capsule along the top of one rolling wave after another.

  Suddenly the capsule quickly submerged beneath the water’s surface, dragged along by the inflated parachutes twisting and turning them, as a huge wave broke over the top of them beneath the water’s surface, twisting at them even more.

  The awkward motion inside the craft caused Gina and Krista great discomfort in their pregnant shape. They became instantly sea sick with the constant motion of twisting and turning inside the capsule. The two screamed as both of their stomachs came bolting up on them. Sebastian, smelling and seeing the secretions from the girls’ stomachs brought up, began his own vomiting.

  “Release the chutes,” yelled out Chenco to John. He couldn’t inflate the rubber raft to support the capsule with the parachutes still dragging the craft along, for the force of the pull of the chutes along with the huge waves would tear the inflated raft to smithereens, and they would sink to the bottom of the sea, lake or wherever they were in no time at all. They would all be lost and drowned. They could be crushed to death from the immense pressures deep beneath the water’s surface. Water was beginning to seep into their craft while being dragged along continuously beneath the water’s surface by the huge parachutes. The capsule was acting like a big fishing lure being dragged along behind a fishing boat attached to a fishing line still tethered to the chutes in the high gale-force winds.

  Worse, they were beginning to be dragged deeper down into the depths of the water causing pressure to be exerted upon the outer seals of their space vessel letting in the salty water of the sea even more. They would soon drown if no one did something very soon to release them from this very bad situation.

  Chenco released himself from his seat in order to reach and release the parachutes. When released, the capsule began to sink even further down into the rough of the sea. He then slammed out with his hand in the total darkness of the capsule for the raft firing mechanism.

  When he hit it, they could hear the sounds of CO2 cartridges filling the circular rubber raft as the external bottom round shell ring of the capsule exploded out away into the sea, the way it was supposed to have, and the rubber raft quickly inflated itsel
f. The capsule shot upward toward the surface of the water upside down sending Chenco into the ceiling of the capsule as if it were the floor. When the capsule finally reached the surface, it lay suspended upside down in the water with its hatch submerged beneath the surface of the water. The inflated round rubber rafted ring did not allow the capsule to right itself into an upright position the way it was supposed to have.

  Hanging there suspended upside down in their stations, the gravity of Mother Nature’s natural forces caused everyone’s blood to rush up into their upside down heads. This made everyone think their heads were about to explode by feeling the real force of gravity upon them that they had not experienced in such a very long time. One by one, they released themselves from their seats falling downward onto the ceiling of the capsule, now its floor.

  The cone shape of the capsule’s top caused everyone to lay all twisted together as a can of fishing worms intermingled and stuffed into a small bait can like sardines stuffed into the tightness of a can so close they could hardly move.

  Panic, worry, and emotion overtook the girls as everyone inside all tossed back and forth onto each other as the craft tossed from side to side. Then up and down on top the surface of the raging sea, like an irritated animal trying to dislodge a drilling deer tick from its back, or an angered bear trying desperately hard to dislodge a number of stinging bees from its nose.

  One of the storage lockers above them beneath a seat suddenly opened up and dropped a huge heavy oxygen tank down onto them. Sebastian took the brunt of the blow to his head, losing consciousness instantly. He slumped down in a heap in the middle of everyone, causing the tight quarters in the capsule to become ever the more unbearable.

  The dim light shining through the portal window was small. It was as dim as a small-lit match would give off light in a ten by ten foot dark room on the darkest night of the year. The crew could barely make out their own crewmembers all cramped up in the tight space beside them.