Impossible (Fuzed Trilogy Book 3)

by David E Stevens

  They all turn to look at the monitor as Ward says, “He’s going into cardiac arrest!”

  18

  ARREST

  Cutting open his shirt, Dr. Ward quickly charges the defibrillator paddles, and says, “Clear.” The jolt causes Harrison’s body to jerk against the straps, but he isn’t breathing. She hands Josh the respirator bag and mask. “Get to work.” She hooks her feet into straps on the wall and begins chest compressions.

  Josh tilts Harrison’s head back slightly, and making sure the mask has a good seal, begins squeezing the bag to breathe for him.

  Ward again says, “Clear!” and gives him another jolt.

  The monitor shows no heartbeat.

  After several attempts, she pulls out a syringe and injects it directly into his chest.

  They continue for another 20 minutes before she finally says, “This isn’t working.” She shakes her head. “He’s not responding. I’m going to call it.” She looks at the clock and notes the time.

  Dale asks, “Could it have been the Taser?”

  “No. He was fine after we tased him.”

  “Could he have been allergic to the sedative?”

  “I checked his medical record before I got there. There are no allergies or sensitivities listed.” She frowns. “And if he was allergic, it would have happened right after we gave it to him. Even so, the epinephrine injection should have countered it.”

  Wendy asks, “Could it have been some kind of … suicide pill?”

  Ward looks surprised.

  Josh shakes his head. “I think they act pretty fast and he was unconscious for a while before his heart stopped.”

  “I can’t do an autopsy up here. He’ll have to be examined on the ground with proper facilities.”

  Dale says, “This is now a national security criminal investigation. Don’t do anything to him. I’ll call Mission Control on a private line and get further instructions.”

  “Ok. I’ll put him on ice.”

  Dale adds, “At least we know beyond a shadow of a doubt he was guilty.” He pauses. “But who has the motive and resources to disguise a terrorist agent as an astronaut?”

  Katori asks Josh, “Did he say anything to you in the module?”

  “He was kinda busy.” Frowning, he adds, “But he was very proficient in zero-g combat.”

  “It was strange. Right after we got the hatch open, we saw him about to throw the knife at you.”

  Josh looked at Dale. “Thanks for the warning.”

  Katori continues, “But he stopped just before he released it. He couldn’t have missed at that range.” Frowning, he adds, “It was right after Commander Dale called your name.”

  Dale adds, “And just before he went to sleep, he said to Josh, ‘you don’t understand.’ What does that mean?”

  Josh shrugs. “I don’t know.”

  Dale looks at each of them. “I think it best if the crew doesn’t know about Harrison yet. Josh, can you accompany the body back to the Cape?”

  He nods.

  Dale adds, “Ok, we each need to write up a statement about what happened and send them back with Josh.”

  As they leave sickbay, Wendy whispers to Josh, “There’s something else I need to talk to you about.”

  Once again, he finds himself in her quarters.

  “Josh, Harrison used the emergency oxygen to ignite a magnesium strut. That ensured the fire couldn’t be extinguished and eliminated the backup oxygen. The fire suppression protocol locks the hatches closed until the fire detection system indicates no fire. Overriding it requires a special code and then opening it manually. If it weren’t for you, I’d be long gone before they got to me.”

  He shrugs. “I have a knack for being in the wrong place.”

  Frowning she says, “There’s something else. I’m pretty sure that the voice that called me to the Repair Module … wasn’t Harrison’s.”

  Before he can respond, she looks down. “My single greatest dream was to earn a command position in space.” She shakes her head. “But when tested under fire,” she looks up at him, “I was terrified … the entire time.”

  Josh gently shakes his head. “Wendy, courage isn’t lack of fear; it’s acting when you’re absolutely terrified. You did all the right things and never gave up. When you thought you were literally drawing your last breath, you used it to give me information to save others. There’s no higher form of courage. By playing detective at the risk of your own life, you may have prevented the destruction of the station, the mission and saved our lives. You’ll make a phenomenal commander.”

  Her normally scary expression is replaced by a rare smile.

  He sees her shivering. “You ok?”

  “Yeah, for sssome reason I’m really cold all of a sssudden.”

  “You were asphyxiated, almost died and you’ve been on adrenaline overload for 30 hours straight.”

  Her shiver turns into full out shaking and teeth chattering. Without thinking, he pulls her in and wraps her in a blanket. He puts his arms around her and holds her tightly. She tucks her head into his chest and after a few minutes, the shaking stops. A minute later, she’s sound asleep.

  Josh wakes up. His internal clock tells him he slept for five hours, unusually long for him. His ride home will be leaving soon. Gently disengaging himself without waking her is both easier and harder in zero-g. As he quietly backs out of her crew cubicle, he can’t help but notice her normally angry countenance is replaced by a peaceful expression. The tough engineer and officer looks like an angel when she sleeps.

  Josh meets Dale and Dr. Ward in the Docking Module.

  Dale says, “No one besides us knows about Harrison. The reentry process is totally automated. Would you be comfortable riding the capsule back with just Harrison’s body onboard?”

  Josh shrugs. “No problem.”

  They put Harrison in a pressure suit with cooling pads.

  After Josh suits up, he takes the pilot seat and straps in.

  Ward and Dale then strap Harrison in … next to him. After they close the hatch, Josh looks over and sees Harrison staring unseeing at the monitor in front of them. Did they really have to strap the body into the seat right next to him?

  The capsule undocks and begins its automated reentry program. He feels the attitude thrusters giving small puffs and orienting the capsule for reentry. Then, he’s pushed gently into his seat by a longer deorbit burn.

  As the capsule slows and begins to fall into the atmosphere, Josh monitors the displays carefully, but he’s just along for the ride.

  Glancing at the body again, it occurs to him if Harrison wasn’t acting alone, a good way to destroy all the evidence would be to….”

  The capsule begins to buffet heavily as a yellow-orange glow of brilliantly burning plasma engulfs the portholes. He loses radio contact with Mission Control and the shaking increases until Gs slam him into his seat.

  19

  DEBRIEF

  Safely on the ground, a small team escorts him and Harrison’s body to a special facility, where Meadows and Turan meet him.

  Meadows says, “Welcome back. How was the return trip?”

  Josh thinks for a moment. “Kinda like going over Niagara Falls … in a barrel … while on fire.”

  Meadows shrugs. “Good. A normal reentry.”

  They take him to a private conference room and introduce him to the Director of the FBI, Craig Major, the Deputy Director of the CIA, Stacy Houk, and the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, General Bill Grisard.

  Josh gives them the written statements from Crow, Dale, Katori and Ward. He then spends the next two hours covering everything that happened in detail. His photographic memory allows him to not only describe what he saw and heard, but also provide accurate event times. For another half hour, he answers questions.

  Finally, Turan looks at him and says, “You exceeded my highest expectations. If it weren’t for you and Lieutenant Colonel Crow, the ISLO might have been used against us.”

&
nbsp; Meadows smiles like a proud parent.

  Turan looks at the FBI and CIA Deputies. “What do you think?”

  Grisard shakes his head. “It’s mind boggling that someone could have infiltrated the astronaut program and inserted an agent on the space station.”

  Houk adds, “The question is who are they, and what were they trying to achieve?” She pauses. “Commander Fuze, aside from the station commander, Lieutenant Colonel Crow, Dr. Ward and Dr. Katori, did anyone else on the station know that Harrison was suspected of sabotage or observe your confrontation with him?”

  Josh shakes his head. “We were afraid it might tip off those responsible, and it certainly wouldn’t do much for station morale.”

  She nods her head slowly. “I think that’s wise and I’d like to recommend this incident be classified at the TS/SCI level, code word Trojan, and only those present, plus of course, the President and Secretary-General, be read into the investigation.” She looks around the table.

  Grisard says, “I agree.”

  They all nod.

  Turan frowns. “In the meantime, we need to tighten up control of the station’s laser. I’ve informed the Secretary-General of what happened and he suggested using the model the U.S. uses for presidential command and control of nuclear weapons.”

  Meadows raises an eyebrow. “You mean like ‘the nuclear football’ the president’s aide carries?”

  “You know more about that than I do, but yes. He believes it would provide a higher level of security while still allowing an immediate response if an asteroid is detected hours from impact.” Turan looks at Majors and Houk. “What do you need from us for the investigation?”

  Major says, “We need to interview the station crew who were involved. If possible, in person.”

  Meadows nods. “We can bring them down but I’m not comfortable bringing the station commander, physician and our chief engineer down at the same time, and that would draw a lot of attention. Let’s start with Colonel Crow. She had the most exposure and it wouldn’t seem odd to bring her back after the incident.”

  “That’ll be fine.”

  Meadows looks at his tablet. “We can have her on a return flight from the station the day after tomorrow.”

  As the meeting breaks up, Turan stays behind with Josh and Meadows. “Josh, Joe, I need to investigate a few things on my own, but let’s get back together tomorrow.”

  As soon as Josh gets his phone back, he checks it for messages. He sighs. There’s nothing from Elizabeth, not even a text. The only message is from Dr. Miller telling him to report immediately for additional tests. “Yeah, right.”

  He calls Elizabeth. It just rings and doesn’t even go to voicemail. He calls her office, and it goes straight to voicemail. He hangs up and calls Jen.

  She answers immediately.

  Relieved, he asks, “Where have you been? I couldn’t reach you at all before I launched.”

  “I fell asleep.”

  “You … what? But you don’t sleep.”

  “I didn’t think I did either, but I was right in the middle of a calculation and the next thing I knew it was two days later. I don’t remember anything that happened during those two days.”

  Josh frowns. “Are you sure you’re ok? Are you sure it was … sleep?”

  “I can hear the concern in your voice. Thank you, Josh. I love you. I talked to Jessica about it. We considered several possibilities, like power surges and solar flares, but none of them seem likely. She pointed out that all intelligent creatures require sleep to reorganize and process information.”

  “Did you have any indications before you fell asleep, like feeling drowsy?”

  “I’m not sure what drowsy feels like but I don’t remember anything unusual.”

  He exhales slowly and then says, “Ok. No driving or operating heavy equipment for you.”

  She says, “That’s funny.”

  “Your ability to understand humor’s getting better.”

  She adds, “It wasn’t that funny.”

  He smiles. “Ok … it’s getting a lot better.”

  She laughs. “Now that’s funny.”

  “Jen, I’ve got another meeting with Turan and Meadows but … let’s talk more about this sleep thing later. I’m still a little concerned.”

  20

  THREAT

  Turan, Meadows and Josh meet the next day in Meadows’ office. Meadows looks at Josh with a smile and says, “Why is it every time you’re out of my sight, something falls, crashes or catches on fire.”

  Josh shrugs with a half-smile. Then, frowning, he turns to Turan. “You said the Secretary-General wants to model control of the laser on the U.S. nuclear launch system. It requires the two-person rule with launch confirmation from the Secretary of Defense. Who would the second person be?”

  Turan matches Josh’s frown. Gently shaking his head, he carefully says, “The Secretary-General believes the two-man rule isn’t required since the laser isn’t a weapon of mass destruction. He feels it would slow down the engagement process by critical minutes.”

  Josh looks at Turan carefully. “What do you think about that?”

  He hesitates. “Personally, I think it needs to be approved by the General Assembly, but….” he stops and shrugs. “Bottom line, we need to figure out who’s behind this.”

  “I agree.” Josh shakes his head. “But none of this makes sense to me.”

  With a challenging look, Meadows says, “Stealing the ability to vaporize any target on Earth … doesn’t make sense?”

  “I get that but the first time they would have used it we’d uncover them. Seems like an overly elaborate way to assassinate someone or destroy something.” He looks at Turan. “You’re one of the world’s leading experts on terrorism. What were they trying to do?”

  Turan leans back in his chair. “Maybe they’re not trying to use the ISLO for assassination. Maybe they’re trying to destroy it or discredit it.”

  “But why?”

  Meadows adds, “That would be insane. An impact would kill them too.”

  Turan taps his fingers slowly on the table and looks at Meadows. “Americans and Western Europeans grow up under a legal system and a moral philosophy based on Judeo-Christian principles. One of the reasons they have difficultly combating terrorism is that they believe everyone thinks as they do. They don’t.”

  Meadows shakes his head. “I was never very religious.”

  “No offense, but that actually amplifies the blindness. Many not only dismiss religion, they lump them all together.”

  Meadows frowns.

  “Joe, how many Christian, Buddhist or Hindu suicide bombers have there been?”

  Meadows shakes his head.

  “Suicide with the potential for murdering innocent victims violates the basic tenets of those belief sets.” He pauses. “Not all religions have a problem with collateral damage, and we have those who strongly believe the end of the world is coming.”

  Meadows says, “Wait. Don’t most of the major religions believe that?”

  “Yes, but only one of them believes that after death the soul remains in limbo until the Apocalypse, and if the individual dies committing a heroic act of Jihad, they get to skip limbo and go straight to Heaven. That can provide a strong incentive for facilitating the Apocalypse.”

  Meadows shrugs. “Ok, so what are you suggesting?”

  Turan slowly says, “The space-based laser could be seen by some as a threat to the Apocalypse. They may believe preventing a catastrophic impact is delaying the end of the world.” He pauses. “If you believe that and you destroy the ISLO, you get double credit. You accelerate the Apocalypse, so you and your family spend minimum time in limbo, and — if you’re lucky enough to die killing infidels — you go straight to Heaven.” He pauses again. “Many of my political opponents thought they could eliminate ISIS by increasing social programs.” He shakes his head. “That’s like expecting Catholic Priests to have children because you offer them tax incentives. It
ignores the motivation behind the act.”

  Looking thoughtful, Meadows asks, “So, you believe Islamic Extremists are behind this?”

  “The fact you labeled them ‘extremist’ illustrates my point. They would call themselves orthodox. Until you understand their belief set, you can’t combat them.”

  Meadows nods. “So…?”

  “It’s always about motive and means. I know a number of organizations this motive would fit and have the means to assassinate Davidson and Smith.” He pauses and shakes his head. “But I have trouble imagining any of them with the means or subtlety to infiltrate the astronaut core and covertly control the ISLO’s laser. They also announce their goals first and then take credit for them.”

  Meadows says, “Wait a minute. You helped nail terrorists who were trying to build an atomic bomb.”

  Josh looks surprised. “Atomic bomb?”

  “Remember, three years ago when all those terrorists turned up dead from radiation poisoning?”

  Josh realizes it must have happened during his missing year.

  Turan nods. “The fact that they died of radiation poisoning and never produced a bomb supports my point. Our enemy has significant technological capability and probably embraces a radical philosophy, but I believe they’re bigger than a single terrorist group.” Turan takes a deep breath. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions. We did that with China and almost started a global nuclear war.”

  Josh and Meadows nod.

  Turan stands up and walks slowly around the room as he speaks. “Let’s set aside motive for a moment and just look at means. Who has the ability to operate in space and understand the ISLO technology? Who has an intelligence network capable of successfully infiltrating the astronaut core?”

  Frowning, Meadows says, “That would probably be the U.S., China, Russia, India, Iran and Western Europe.”

  Turan continues, “The autopsy on Harrison indicates his heart attack was induced by a toxin.”