Parker's Folly

by Doug L. Hoffman

  “You're not worried we're running low on air, are you?”

  “No, Captain, I would like to preserve as much of our supply as we can simply because the supply is finite.”

  “Fine Doctor, you and Freddy get to it. Mr. Medina, please monitor the ship's systems from the bridge. We need to ensure our air doesn't leak from the internal locks going to the cargo hold while it is under vacuum.”

  “Aye aye, Captain.” With that the engineers left the cabin for their assigned destinations. The Captain then turned to his First Officer.

  “Who do you suggest we have help with the transfer, Lieutenant?”

  “I think the Chief and Mr. Vincent,” came her unhesitating reply. “The Chief is as agile as a monkey even in a suit, and Billy Ray proved both level headed and adept during the firefight in the hold earlier.”

  “OK, the four of us then.”

  “Sir? Permission to speak freely?”

  “Of course, Lieutenant. What's on your mind?”

  “A spacewalk in itself carries some risk. This one could also lead to possible exposure to harmful levels of radiation if the solar storm gets here before we are done. The cargo hold door will be open and the shields will have to be down to transfer the station crew.”

  “And your point is?”

  “Captain, I don't think it wise for both of us to be in the cargo hold during the rescue.”

  “Are you suggesting that the three of you should proceed without me?”

  “No offense Sir. But you are the Captain, you are essential to our mission. I'm asking you to let your crew do their jobs while you stay in command of the vessel.”

  After thinking about Lt. Curtis' statement for a few moments, Jack realized that she was right. When he had been a captain in the Navy he would never have led a rescue mission or ship to ship transfer himself. The shootout in the cargo hold was another matter—then the safety of the ship had been at stake. “Yes, you're right Gretchen. You will lead the team in the cargo hold and I will stay on the bridge. But I do expect to squeeze in a spacewalk of my own sometime during the mission.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” said the relieved First Officer. As she left the cabin she looked back and said, smiling, “I'm sure you'll get your turn to play spaceman before the voyage is over.”

  Cargo Hold, Parker's Folly

  The atmosphere in the cargo hold had been reduced to near vacuum by the time the party led by Lt. Curtis had suited up. They entered the hold through the mid-deck airlock, which was large enough to hold a half dozen people at once, even in spacesuits.

  Unlike the spacesuits worn by American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts, the Folly's crew wore suits that fit skintight on the body. The only space for air was within the clear bubble-like helmets, and that air was kept at 14.7 psi. Not only were the crew able to enter and exit the vacuum of space without decompressing, their suits were much more flexible than the bulky apparatus worn by the space station refugees.

  On the backs of their suits were small, hard-shelled packs containing oxygen, re-breathing equipment and power supplies for radios, lights, heating and cooling. If they were venturing outside of the ship, they would have donned coveralls for further protection from radiation and physical damage. As it was, Billy Ray could not help noticing that the Lieutenant's skintight suit was doing interesting things for her figure. Pushing such thoughts aside, he asked the Lieutenant, “should we ask them to cut gravity to the cargo hold, Ma'am?”

  “Yes, good thinking Mr Vincent. Bridge, this is Lt. Curtis. We are preparing to enter the cargo hold and request you cut the deck gravity in that area.”

  “Roger that, Lieutenant. Gravity in the cargo hold is now off.”

  “Thank you, we will let you know when we are in position at the starboard side cargo door.” With that, she opened the outer airlock door and led the rescue party into the weightless, airless environment of the ship's hold.

  * * * * *

  Arriving at the rear of the hold, Gretchen, Billy Ray and the Chief connected themselves to the ship by attaching safety lines to cleats in the deck. “Bridge, cargo hold. I am ready to open the cargo door. Interrogative the status of the space station crew?”

  “Roger on opening the cargo door. The ISS crew say they are ready to open their airlocks any time we are ready.” Staying inside the station's airlocks until the last minute added some small extra shielding from the rising radiation levels outside.

  “Roger, opening the door now.” The cargo hatch, large enough to drive a truck through, slid open in eerie silence. The starboard side of the ship was facing the Sun and was brightly lit except where shadows cast by the station, only 50 meters away, played across its hull. The hold itself was well illuminated by overhead light fixtures—the space station personnel would hopefully see a large, brightly lit, rectangular opening in the side of the ship.

  “Cargo hold, bridge. The ISS crew is emerging now.”

  “Yes, we can see them. Col. Kondratov is out of the Pirs airlock and is working his way toward the main Crew Airlock. Now it looks like someone is coming out of the main airlock. It must be Dr. Saito, the suit is different from the one Kondratov is wearing.”

  As they watched, a third figure emerged from the complicated collection of cylinders, girders, solar panels and attached modules that comprised the International Space Station. The figures, and the station itself, stood in stark relief against the black of space. Lt. Curtis waved at the three figures clinging to the exterior of the space station, much like survivors clinging to a wrecked ship at sea. One of the Russians waved back.

  “Mr. Vincent. Send them the line.”

  Billy Ray stepped to the edge of the open door and shouldered something that looked like a crossbow with a spool of thin rope attached to its front. That was exactly what it was, a crossbow rigged for fishing with the fishing line replaced by more visible cord. He pulled the trigger, sending a blunt, stubby bolt toward the ISS.

  The drama played out in silence, as line uncoiled from the spool, trailing after the fleeting bolt. “I sure hope that thing doesn't run out'a pep before it reaches the station,” said Billy Ray, giving voice to what all three rescuers were thinking.

  “I think it's gonna make it, Billy Ray,” said Chief Zackly, speaking for the first time since they entered the cargo hold. “Look, you nearly hit that one!”

  Sure enough, Billy Ray's arrow had come within a few feet of one of the Russians. The suited figure, most likely Col. Kondratov, grabbed the line and moved to make it fast to the station. Once it was secured on that end, the cosmonaut waved back at the people in the open cargo door. Billy Ray secured the line on their end and motioned the station crew to start across the gap.

  * * * * *

  Ludmilla had followed Yuki out of the Crew Airlock hatch into the startlingly bright sunlight. It was hard to look around in the bulky spacesuit but she managed to spot Ivan moving along the side of the Unity module toward them. She started to drift away from the airlock when she remembered to grab on to part of the station's structure. This was definitely not the same as the big swimming pool used to simulate working outside the station.

  Ivan arrived just in time to snag Yuki as he started to drift off. As the three of them clung like insects to the side of their former home, their rescuers' strange silver ship floated beneath the station with the sunlit Earth as a backdrop. The underside of the station was illuminated by earthshine—much brighter than the feeble moonshine from Earth's natural satellite.

  Yuki started the journey to the ship, working his way along the guide rope. Unfortunately, he was making little progress in the direction of the beckoning cargo hold opening. As he pulled on the line his center of gravity seldom lined up with the force created by his tugging. The Japanese scientist was twisting around like a leaf in a gale as the line stretched wildly to and fro.

  “Ivan, you must do something,” said Ludmilla over their suit radios. “Yuki is taking far to long to reach the ship.”

  “Yes, you are
right Ludmilla. Yuki, can you hear me?”

  “Yes, Ivan. I'm sorry but I don't seem to be capable of heading in the proper direction.”

  “Listen, Yuki. I'm going to untie the line from the station. Just grab on to the line and let the ship pull you in.”

  * * * * *

  What are they doing? Lt. Curtis asked herself. Dr. Saito is taking far too long to pull himself over to the ship. While they had been able to communicate with the station earlier, they didn't have a direct link to the spacewalkers. “Bridge, can you talk with the station crew and ask them what they are doing?”

  “Cargo hold, be advised we have been out of contact with the station since the crew emerged from the airlocks.”

  “I don't think the line is taut enough to stop him from swingin' around like that, Lieutenant,” said the Chief.

  “It looks like they just cast off the line from the other end,” observed Billy Ray. “Yep the guy on the line has wrapped his arm around it, we need to pull him into the ship.”

  Billy Ray and the Chief both moved to grasp the line and nearly collided. “Let me do the pullin' Chief. You go to the door and catch him when he gets here.”

  “You got more heft than I do, son. Don't take much pullin' in this zero-g but you might be better at landing him.”

  “Yeah, you're right Chief.”

  “Course I am,” the little man said, moving to pick up the line. “That's why I'm the Chief Boatswain's Mate.”

  Once the two crewmen sorted themselves out they managed to bring the floundering scientist smartly to the door. The Chief had gotten the man in the American spacesuit moving at a fair clip and when he came across the threshold of the cargo door it was all Billy Ray could do to bring him to a safe halt. Billy Ray moved the floating man over to one of the strapped down crates and, using hand gestures, managed to get him to hang on to one of the crate's straps.

  Meanwhile, the Lieutenant was trying and failing to get the floating line back onto the spool on the front of the crossbow for another shot.

  “I don't think we're going to need that, Lieutenant,” said Billy Ray. “Looks like they are making a leap for us.”

  Lt. Curtis looked back at the space station just in time to see one of the suited figures push the other toward the open cargo hold. That's going to be a hell of a shot if he makes it, Gretchen thought. Sure enough the figure coming their direction was starting to drift high. “He's going to miss the door for sure. Maybe even the ship.”

  “Here, Lieutenant. Tie that line around my waste,” said the Chief. “Come on, Ma'am. This is bosun's work. Just tie me good and secure.”

  With the line affixed to his suit the Chief crouched in the open doorway. “Make sure that line don't foul on nothin' and pull me back in easy so's I don't lose the Ruski.” With that the wiry little man leaped from the deck out into space.

  “That old coot is either one of the bravest men I've ever met or he's batshit crazy,” commented Billy Ray, paying out line as the Chief closed with the drifting Russian.

  “Possibly both, Mr. Vincent,” agreed the Lieutenant.

  “Ya know I can hear both of yous!” The Chief snapped, an instant before colliding with the drifting spacewalker. The boatswain grabbed the floating figure around the wast and yelled. “I got 'em, pull us in!”

  Billy Ray complied, gently slowing the outgoing line, bringing it to a stop and then slowly pulling the drifting duo back toward the cargo door and safety. After the pair bounced off the upper lip of the door opening, Lt. Curtis managed to take the Chief's passenger from him and move her—it was clear looking through the suit's clear helmet visor that it was a woman—against the crate with Dr. Saito.

  “OK, we have Dr. Saito and Dr. Tropsha. That only leaves Col. Kondratov.”

  “Looks like he's on his way, Lieutenant. Chief, you'd better get ready in case he drifts too.”

  “I'm ready. Hell, I ain't had this much fun in years.”

  As it turned out Ivan's own jump was closer to the mark than his toss of Ludmilla. He went just wide to the left, landing on the open cargo bay door itself, which was slid forward along the hull. As the Colonel bounced off the door the Chief was able to lean out around the cargo hold opening and snag him. Within a minute, all three of the space station crew were safely in the cargo hold.

  “Bridge, this is Lt. Curtis. I'm closing the cargo hold door. You can give us some atmosphere any time.”

  “Roger that, Lieutenant. And congratulations on a job well done. You had us worried there for a bit—until we saw the chief launch himself out of the hold like a comic book superhero.”

  “Weren't nothing, Captain. Like I told Billy Ray, just bosun's work.” There was a look of pure joy on the little man's face as he basked in his Captain's praise.

  “Captain, we're going to work our way forward with our new guests. I think it will be easier if we leave the deck gravity off for now. Two of them had a hard enough time floating in a spacesuit, let alone hopping along the deck in one.”

  “Very good, Number One. We will have cabin pressure restored by the time you get to the forward bulkhead.”

  The Lieutenant shook her head. Did he just call me “number one”? He hates that Hollywood space opera lingo. Our captain was more worried about this little exercise than he let on.

  * * * * *

  Upon reaching the forward bulkhead, the rescue team managed to get the space station crew members to doff their helmets and start removing their spacesuits. They were hesitant at first and only started un-suiting when all three of the rescuers removed their helmets, proving the hold now had a breathable atmosphere.

  Hitch and Jacobs entered the cargo hold to assist with suit removal, the later limited to capturing parts with his unbandaged arm. Kondratov, Saito and Tropsha were soon stripped to their cooling and ventilation garments, floating around in what looked like lumpy white long underwear.

  “We can offer you a shower and a change of cloths if you would like to follow us into the crew quarters,” said Lt. Curtis, addressing the trio of space refugees. “But before that happens I need you to all assume a balanced, standing position on the deck.”

  The trio complied with somewhat puzzled looks on their faces. The Lieutenant did not wish to disorient or traumatize the newcomers by having them drift from zero-g into a part of the ship under deck gravity. Once everyone was in a stable standing position the Lieutenant spoke to the bridge, “Bridge, this is the cargo hold. Could we get the deck gravity restored in here? The station personnel are out of their suits and we are ready to come forward.”

  “Roger, cargo hold. Restoring deck gravity to one tenth G in three, two, one.”

  The now empty spacesuits all slumped to the deck while their former occupants wobbled about, trying not to fall under the sudden restoration of gravity.

  “How can this be?” asked Ivan, “is the ship under acceleration?”

  “No, Colonel. There are a number of surprises in store for you on board Parker's Folly. First among them is that we have controllable gravity on all of the decks in the ship's habitable spaces.”

  “You have artificial gravity?” asked Yuki. “How do you do this?” demanded the excited Japanese physicist.

  “You will have to talk to our chief engineer, Dr. Gupta. As I understand it the gravity is real, not artificial, but the method of its generation is not what most Earth scientists would expect.”

  “So you are not from Earth after all,” said Ludmilla in an accusatory tone. “Have you told us any other lies, Lieutenant?”

  “I've told you no untruths, Dr. Tropsha.” the Lieutenant replied stiffly. “We are all Earthlings here, though some of our technology may seem a bit... advanced.”

  “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” Billy Ray murmured under his breath.

  “Yes, Arthur C. Clarke was totally correct,” Ludmilla, who's hearing was evidently excellent, shot back. “If America has such technology why doesn't the rest of the world know about it? I
assume that this ship does not operate like our rocket ships, if you have found a way to control gravity.”

  “As I said, Doctor, there are many things about Folly that will be unfamiliar to you. I can only reassure you that the Captain will answer your questions. So, if you please, follow Mr. Vincent into the crew quarters where you can shower and slip into a change of clothing.”

  “I am forgetting my manners,” Ludmilla said, looking at the Chief and Billy Ray. “Thank you for saving my life, all of our lives.”

  “Our pleasure Ma'am,” answered the Chief, who had remained quiet while the officers were arguing. “Don' worry, the Captain will explain everything.”

  “He surely will,” added Billy Ray. “Now if y'all will kindly follow me to the showers?”

  Bridge & Captain's Sea Cabin, Parker's Folly

  Fifteen minutes later, Billy Ray was back at the helm. When he arrived, Bobby fist bumped him and said, “awesome, Dude!”

  “It was pretty intense, man,” Billy Ray replied. Then, looking around to ensure they were not overheard, he added in a hushed voice, “that Russian Doctor lady is definitely space babe material. And Lt. Curtis knows her way around a skintight space suit too.”

  Shaking his head, Bobby told his friend “go with the Russian babe, Dude, 'cause the Lieutenant will kick your ass.”

  “Word, brother,” the lanky Texan agreed, “you got that right.”

  * * * * *

  Lt. Curtis escorted the three rescuees to the Captain's sea cabin just off the bridge. The station crew were now clothed in the one piece coveralls and soft soled boots that were standard issue on board Parker's Folly. Their outfits were a light pastel blue in color, which pleased the Russians since it was similar to one of the colors in the Russian flag. Dr. Saito's feelings regarding the new attire remained unvoiced.

  One thing Gretchen had notice when she delivered Dr. Tropsha's post-shower change of cloths was that, beneath the bulky spacesuit undergarments, the Russian lady doctor was quite shapely. Even taking into account the salubrious effect that low gravity had on women's figures in general, the ash-blond cosmonaut was stunning. Male members of the crew would agree—she was built like a brick shithouse.