by R Davison
“What do you think caused it?” she asked, looking from Paul to Nicholas.
They both shook their heads, and Paul answered, “I am not sure. I suppose it might have gotten caught in one of the solar arrays while they rotated to follow the sun.”
Nicholas nodded in agreement, “That could explain the markings.” Turning to Alexander, he asked, “Commander, do you have any ideas?”
The look on the cosmonaut’s face answered the question before he said a thing. “No, I have no idea what might have caused that, or my flight across the station.”
“Do you think it might have been damaged when Alexander was thrown off the station? Maybe it got caught on something,” Susan offered.
“It’s a possibility. It’s really hard to tell without knowing just what caused Alexander’s adventure and how he got where he ended up. It really looks like it was crushed by something,” Paul said, as he stroked the damaged section of the tether.
Susan turned to Alexander and looked over his suit for any signs of damage. She then realized that Alexander was making no effort to shed his suit and join them. “Why are you not out of your suit Commander?”
“Someone will have to go out and reconnect the communication system, no?”
Susan thought for a moment and realized that he was right. She had forgotten that part of the plan. She slowly nodded “yes.”
“Well then, I will stay in the suit attached to the umbilical until we can reconnect the system.”
Susan admired his dedication to his work, she smiled. “Thank you, Commander. If we can get rid of this lockout command, it should be about an hour before we will want to reconnect the comm system.”
Susan turned to Paul, handing him the tether she still held in her hands, she said, “Paul, do we have another tether that Alexander can use? I do not want him outside with this one.”
“Yes, there is another one stored in the locker here. I will stow this one and get out the new one.”
“Thank you. I am going back to help Ivan. Take care of the Commander.” Susan left, but not before she gave Alexander a thumbs-up sign and a smile.
Susan was greeted with a smile as she entered the control module. Ivan had found the troubleshooting guide he was looking for and the reboot procedure. “I think your idea is going to work! Here, look at this.”
Susan followed his finger as it traced the screen, pointing out the key ideas that supported her theory. She was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but hesitated. It was not over yet, she reminded herself. They still had to reboot the computers, and hopefully, the command that Captain Mikhailovich placed in them would not survive the reboot procedure. She would not relax, yet.
Ivan checked a few more screens. Once he was satisfied he understood the procedure, and how the process would work, he turned to Susan to fill her in on the details.
“When we do this, we will automatically come up in a maintenance mode. This will allow all the essential systems to function, but the secondary systems will not come up until we give the commands to do so. It will take a few minutes for the procedure to be completed. Any questions?”
Susan could feel her pulse quicken. “No, let’s just do it. We don’t have any other options, and we don’t really have any more time.” She moved over to the intercom and switched it to address the full station. “We are going to reboot the computers now. It will take a few minutes to bring them back online. I will let you know when things are back up.”
She looked toward Ivan and nodded. He responded by entering the prescribed commands on the keyboard. In a few moments his terminal went blank and all the terminals in the control module and throughout the station went blank. In response to the reboot command, all the lights on the station flashed off and the emergency lights snapped on. The pumps, fans, motors and any other electrical devices shut off as the computers relinquished control over the station for these few moments, which seemed like an eternity to five of the six people on the station.
Those who knew what was going on knew the risks they had just undertaken. Jerry was not aware of the risks, or even why this was happening. At the moment, he was only annoyed at having his concentration broken while he plotted his escape.
Susan held her breath while the computer silently executed its command program. The display she stared at betrayed no information as to success, or even progress. Susan could see Ivan at the console by the illumination of the emergency lights. He was as frozen in time as she was. She wondered what he was thinking about at this moment. Her eyes darted about the room at each of the terminals hoping to see something that would indicate success. Ivan’s voice coming out of the semi-darkness startled her, and she yelped.
“Aha! Here it comes!” Ivan’s voice rang with relief as the display finally started to show some life. Susan floated over behind him to watch the results of their efforts on the display. Slowly the display began producing lines of words and numbers that she knew meant something to those who wrote the immense program that made the station function. As the system seemed to gain momentum, they flashed by faster. In an instant, the lights flickered back on. The pumps and motors began coming back to life, as they could hear the level of background noise increasing slowly and steadily. Finally, the display stopped with a small flow chart that Ivan had been waiting for.
“Ah, here we go,” he said, as he touched the display sending it off to yet another flow chart and ultimately waking the computer system even more. “I think we are almost there. It looks like all systems are back online, except for the communication system, as it should be.”
“How can we tell if the lockout command is disabled?” Susan asked, almost afraid to hear that it has not been disabled.
“The only way to tell is to fire the engines. I will enter the commands for that in a moment. I just want to let the computer finish its self-test. If it passes the self-test, then at least the computer thinks it is okay.”
Susan moved back to the intercom. “Looks like we are back online. Hold tight, because we are going to execute a full burn in a minute or so.”
Paul and Nicholas pulled Alexander over against the bulkhead so that he, in his heavy suit, would not careen about the cabin once the burn started. Then they moved to make sure that they would not get caught between him and the bulkhead.
Jerry was half in a trance, half asleep as the words, full burn, burrowed their way into his subconscious mind. He wove them into his escape plan, as he saw himself hitting the throttle on the CRV control panel, following Susan’s orders to execute a full burn. His drowsy eyes suddenly popped wide open as his subconscious mind handed back control to his conscious mind and the reality and origin of those words struck home.
“Noooooo!” Jerry screamed, as he tried to get to the hatch to stop Susan. As he made his way to the hatch, the intercom popped out, “Burn in five…four…three…two…one!” Jerry heard a rumble surge through the station. Before he could catch himself, he was slammed up against the bulkhead.
Jerry shook his head to clear it and pulled open the hatch, sputtering profanity all the while. Realizing that he could not stop the engines firing, he desperately headed to the CRV. His cool and calculated plot to steal the CRV and bring Paul along was now forgotten. He had only one thing on his frazzled mind and that was his version of self-preservation. He would leave without them! If Paul chose to stay with them, then it was his problem.
Jerry had to pull himself through the station against the g-forces he was now feeling due to the acceleration of the station. If he let go of a handhold and free-floated, he found the station moving out from under him. He now had to concentrate on moving through the station as well as not trying to be discovered in his efforts to escape.
As Jerry approached Node 1 to get to the CRV, he heard Paul and Nicholas talking in the airlock, which was just off the node. He froze and listened. Their voices did not give an indication that they were moving out of the airlock, so he slowly peered around the corner of the hatch. He had to pass through Node 1
and go down to Node 3 to get to the CRV, and that would fully expose him to anyone in the airlock who may be looking out into the module. He slowly moved toward the hatch to Node 3, keeping an eye on the airlock hatch.
When he was finally able to peer into the airlock, all he could see was Alexander’s back and Paul and Nicholas’ shadows. In a flash, Jerry bolted down through the hatch and toward the CRV. Everything looked as he had left it. Very carefully, he opened the hatch to the airlock for the CRV.
Jerry was so focused on getting to the CRV that he did not notice the rumbling, which had been shaking the entire station, stopped when he opened the hatch. In the control module, Ivan noticed immediately that the engines had shut down. Susan did too, and was at his side in an instant. “What’s going on?” she shouted.
“I am not sure!” Ivan said, as he frantically started to search the display and query the computer for an explanation for the engine shutdown.
Susan clenched her fists, as the Captain popped into her mind. “Damn it! I’ll bet this is the handiwork of that S.O.B. Mikhailovich!”
Ivan, in a calmer voice said, “I would not be so sure. There is no way for him to get through to us now, and if the command he placed before was still working, we would never have been able to start the engines. I…wait! Here is something.”
“What? What did you find?” Susan’s fit of anger with the Captain subsided for the moment.
“Here is an error message, indicating that there is an airlock open that was not open before.”
“What airlock? Where? It’s not on the Joint Airlock where Alexander is, is it?”
“No, it is on Node 3...the airlock to the CRV.” Ivan looked at Susan, and instantly they both knew what that meant. “Jerry!” they shouted in unison. Ivan made a dash for the hatch, and Susan pushed herself over to the intercom and flipped it on, “Paul, Nicholas, meet us at the CRV! Jerry is trying to take the CRV!” She launched herself out of the module before the echo of her voice died in the station.
Paul and Nicholas narrowly missed colliding with Ivan as he shot down through the tunnel connecting nodes one and three. In a matter of seconds, he was in the airlock tunnel to the CRV just as Jerry was pushing the hatch closed. With one huge push from the bulkhead at the beginning of the tunnel, Ivan propelled himself toward the closing hatch. Rotating his body so he was flying feet first, he hit the hatch with such force that it flew open and threw the unprepared Jerry crashing into the seats. Ivan landed on Jerry, seizing him by the collars of his suit.
Paul and Nicholas were right behind Ivan, with Susan behind them. They hesitated for a moment, not sure what Ivan was going to do with Jerry. Susan could barely make out what was going on, trying to look past Paul and Nicholas into the darkened compartment of the CRV. She heard Jerry’s strained voice, and fearing the worst, she yelled out for Ivan to stop. Paul and Nicholas took their cue and rushed inside to save Jerry from Ivan.
Ivan backed off as soon as he heard Susan’s voice and let Paul and Nicholas pull Jerry out of the CRV. Jerry looked quite shaken by his ordeal. His hair was disheveled and his suit twisted and stretched to one side. He did not look at Susan as he was escorted out of the airlock. Susan looked inside the CRV and saw Ivan floating in the dimly lit compartment. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“…Yes,” said Ivan. His ankles ached and the heels of his feet burned from his collision with the hatch, but he enjoyed the distraction the pain brought him from his embarrassment at losing his temper with Jerry. He was glad that Susan called out, otherwise he may not have stopped.
He was suddenly thrust back into a memory from his childhood when he had finally had enough from a bully at school. When he let himself go, after many months of torment and harassment, it took four other boys to pull him off the boy. In spite of all the praise and cheers he received from his friends, he had felt so ashamed of himself for losing control that he cried as he walked home from school. Those same feelings were with him now, gnawing away at him just as they did so many years ago. He was glad it was dark inside the CRV.
“You sure that you’re okay?” Susan asked, not convinced, but not wanting to press too much. She moved into the hatch a bit more and seeing Ivan pull back slightly, she stopped. “Come up when you catch your breath, and let’s see if we can get the engines back online again. I will take care of Jerry,” Susan said. She looked harder into the dim compartment, but still could not see Ivan’s face in detail. She slowly backed out of the hatch and pushed herself out to catch up with Paul and Nicholas.
Susan could hear Jerry’s voice as she approached the Joint Airlock. She was greeted with the sight of Paul and Nicholas, each holding an arm, and Alexander hanging on to Jerry’s legs. Seeing them floating near the top of the compartment made the scene all the more comical. At the moment Susan was too angry to see the humor. Jerry stopped struggling when he saw her enter the compartment.
“What the hell are you doing, Jerry?” She shouted and could feel her face flushing with anger. “Are you trying to kill all of us, or just yourself?” She was now face-to-face with Jerry, nose-to-nose, and she pushed closer. Jerry pulled back as far as he could, but with the three anchors he had on him in the small compartment, there was nowhere to go. Resigned to the fact that he could not get away from Susan, he looked her in the eyes and with a raspy voice, he hoarsely whispered his response. “I might as well save myself before you kill us all!”
“You are so out of touch with reality, I don’t know if I should feel sorry for you or push you out of this airlock!” said Susan. “Had you completed your stunt you would have surely killed yourself and probably us in the process! That’s not even addressing the fact that you were intentionally stranding us here!” Susan backed off; Jerry’s stale breath was making her nauseous, and she needed some room.
Jerry’s eyes became hard. “You’re the one who wanted to stay, not me. I’ll take my chances alone. I don’t need you or anyone else for that matter.”
Susan turned to leave, telling Paul to hang on to Jerry until she returned. She did not get more than a few feet outside of the hatch when Jerry began struggling to free himself. This time he managed to push Alexander off his legs, shoving him up against the bulkhead in the process.
Looking at Alexander with murderous eyes, Jerry spat, “There! Enjoy that ride as much as you did outside? Damn Russians! We would be home now if it wasn’t for you!”
Susan spun around at Jerry’s words and darted back into the airlock. Paul and Nicholas were doing their best to hang onto Jerry, but neither of them had a good anchor from which to gain any real leverage on him.
Susan grabbed his nearest hand and with a quick motion twisted Jerry’s wrist back so far that he yelled out in pain. Again in Jerry’s face, and now through clenched teeth she asked, “What did you just say?”
“Let go of me! You’re breaking my wrist!”
“What did you say?” Susan hissed again, but this time it was accompanied with more pressure on his wrist.
“Ouch! Damn it, let go!” Jerry shouted at Susan, but only received more pressure on the delicate joint.
“Did you have anything to do with Alexander’s incident on his EVA?” Susan’s face was now as contorted as Jerry’s. Paul anticipated hearing Jerry’s wrist bones snap any second now. Suddenly, he felt Jerry’s body relax.
“Alright!…Okay! Okay! Stop, and I’ll tell you!” Susan eased off a bit, but did not let go of Jerry’s hand.
“Talk! What did you do?”
“I …” Jerry had relaxed, and could now feel Paul and Nicholas also relaxing their grips on him. He chose that moment to make a break, thinking that he could knock Susan out of the way in the process. Susan never let her guard down, and the instant she sensed Jerry’s intentions she viciously twisted his hand, bending it back further than before. Jerry howled in pain and finally realized that he had no hope of getting free, at least not without a broken wrist.
“I…I…pulled his tether—with the arm. Let go of me! I told you what you
wanted!”
“You tried to kill him?” Susan could not believe what she heard. She felt deep down that Alexander’s accident was no accident, and she knew somehow Jerry had a hand in it. But she did not really think that he would be capable of killing somebody!
“I did not try to kill him. Just to stop him.” Susan eased off on Jerry’s wrist and he breathed easier.
“You know the hazards of working in space! You know the dangers of working around a structure like this station and the consequences of tearing your suit or losing your tether! The results of your actions can be as deadly as if you shot the man in cold blood!” Susan gave Jerry’s wrist a violent twist and pulled his arm over to Paul. Pushing Jerry’s hand into Paul’s she shouted, “Hang on to him!” She flew out of the compartment and headed to the Habitation module.
Susan passed Ivan as she headed to the Habitation module. “What is all the yelling about?” Ivan asked, as Susan shot by.
“Give Paul a hand in the Joint Airlock. He will fill you in. I’ll be right back,” Susan called over her shoulder, leaving Ivan a bit uneasy at what he may find.
Once in the Habitation module, Susan found the medical kit and nervously searched for something that would put Jerry out for a few hours or more. As she searched, and her anger grew over Jerry’s actions, she reasoned that stronger would be better. In one of the kits, she found a package of hypodermic needles and in another, bottles of different drugs, each with a description of the drug, its uses and a dosage table.
As she excitedly searched for what she wanted, several bottles began to stray from the kit and she had to stop what she was doing to retrieve them. At last, she came across a bottle that was marked as a sedative. She quickly scanned the label looking for the dosage table. She guessed that Jerry probably weighed about one hundred and eighty pounds on Earth and pushing one of the syringes into the bottle filled it to the level for a two hundred pound person.
