by R Davison
The system that was to be set up in Kibo could sustain her for years if maintained properly. She knew that there were plenty of supplies to keep her going until the aeroponics system was self-sustaining, and then some. However, there was something that might be more important than supplies for existence—what about the prospect of living all alone on the station without companionship?
Would she go mad? Was this isolation really better than returning to Earth and dying from starvation or cold, or worse? She reminded herself that once the CRV leaves there was no second chance.
Susan laughed as she realized she was talking out loud and thought that anyone watching her now would think she was talking to someone in the compartment. After realizing that she was alone, they would think she was mad! But this was not unusual for her, she often carried on conversations with herself out loud, especially when faced with a very serious dilemma.
Squeezing her hands tightly and putting her arms above her head, she extended and stretched her legs as far as she could. Yes, she thought, maybe if things don’t go as badly as predicted on Earth there will be the possibility of support from Russia, but that chance was very slim and not one to be considered seriously now.
The thought of total isolation scared her. It was not something she really had any experience with. She thought about those people that sailed solo around the world. Trying to imagine herself in that situation, she quickly realized it would not be the same as being on the station. Sailing solo around the world would bring occasional contact with people, not to mention the birds, fish and other animals in the sea that would be there for a distraction. She would have none of that on the station.
She always thought of herself as a loner, very independent from everyone. She contemplated that thought and realized that even though she felt she was alone, there was always someone nearby, a stranger on the street or in a store. She would not have even that casual contact. Susan wasn’t really sure if she could survive isolation for years, it was a big unknown in the equation she was trying to solve. She contemplated if the research she could do with the resources on the station would be enough to offset the loneliness.
“Bury yourself in the work?” She asked aloud. That in itself might wear thin after a while, she mused. There would be some contact with people, if only by radio, from the ground for a while, that would help some. Then she realized that breaking this idea to the crew would not be easy. What kind of resistance would she get from the crew? She knew that they would not take this very well. Just look how I reacted to Paul’s very suggestion of not returning, she thought.
“What about the other hazards you will have to contend with? List them!” Susan commanded to herself. She had to thoroughly understand what she was about to do. Was it just a choice of die here or die on Earth? What risks did she have here on the station? Susan thought for a minute before she began to list the hazards she would have to deal with. There is the possibility of a collision with some object. That could put an end to the adventure really quickly, she thought. A major systems failure with no spare parts on board to repair could be another likely catastrophe. There is the chance that the aeroponics system will fail and sooner, rather than later. It was a serious reality that the closed loop system might not be a hundred percent efficient and at some point the water or oxygen or both, would need supplementing—the station only had a finite amount of reserves of both. I would run out of food or oxygen, she thought.
“Then you must consider the more subtle hazards of staying in orbit,” she said. The loss of calcium will be a never-ending problem. Even though you can exercise every day, you won’t we able to prevent it from happening. Then all it would take is to launch yourself into the wall a little too hard and you’ll break your arm or worse! “Then, where is the doctor?” she asked herself.
Susan moved to the viewport at the end of the compartment to see the Earth below. “Ah, yes,” she reminded herself, “don’t forget the invisible enemy: radiation!” Susan almost forgot that. Being in orbit exposed her to higher levels of radiation than she would receive on Earth, she would have a higher probability of developing cancer. Not to mention the danger from solar flares that could be very lethal while in orbit.
Taking a break from her analysis, she watched quietly as the planet rotated beneath the station. She thought about her family, her friends, and her childhood. Her thoughts drifted over the places she liked to visit as a child. The Grand Canyon was one of her favorite places along with the Crystal Springs in Florida with the manatees swimming in the crystal clear water. “All that was, will never be again,” she somberly reminded herself. “Can you deal with that?” she asked the reflection in the glass of the viewport.
Susan found herself wishing that she had been taken along with Jill and would not have to make any more decisions. “You have to decide now, before the CRV leaves!” Susan shouted to herself. She did not want to have to decide under pressure and have to defend her decision at the last moment. But, Susan did not have a chance to finish her thoughts as the intercom came to life with NORAD on the other end.
Ivan’s voice came in over the top of the call from NORAD, “Susan? NORAD is—”
Susan cut Ivan off abruptly. “I hear them. I’ll stay on down here.”
“…Very well,” Ivan said, bewildered with Susan’s sharp tone.
“Space Station…ha, this is NOR…do you cop…” They were picking up NORAD at the very edge of their range. There was as much static as there was intelligible speech coming through the communication system, but Susan knew that it would improve as they moved closer to North America.
Susan unintentionally replied in a louder voice than normal, as though speaking louder would help them hear her on the ground. “NORAD, this is Space Station Alpha, you are breaking up. Do you copy?”
A little more hiss and static. “….pha, we copy. We are tr…oost the gain…” Susan felt like pacing. She wanted to get this over with and the bad communication link was not helping. “Station Alpha this is NORAD, do you copy?” There was a lot of background hiss, but the voice was much clearer and consistent.
“This is Commander Corin, on Space Station Alpha, we copy you. You are sounding better.”
“…Good! You’re sounding better too! This is Captain Greene, sorry for the poor comm-link, but I wanted to regain contact with you at the earliest possible time. Just quickly, through a lot of luck, we were able to contact an engineer who had done some of the code for the CRV. He still had access to the navigation module code and was able to patch together something that should get you down in one piece—no bells and whistles though. We have to upload the new code to the CRV. I wanted to make sure that we had ample time to retransmit if needed. Unfortunately, we are not able to transmit at the normal data rate due to the damage to the communications network, so this will take longer than normal. We are going to start the uplink to the CRV to reprogram the control computers for new navigation and deorbit parameters…In fact, the uplink has just started.”
Upon hearing this, Ivan moved over to the display. After entering a few commands he confirmed that the CRV was indeed logging a new revision of code.
“I copy the new code on the uplink, Captain Greene,” Ivan said.
“Good. We don’t have a large window here to talk, so I will have to be brief. Copy?”
Susan gave the speaker an annoyed look. “We copy Captain, let’s have it,” she said. Ivan, in the control module, gave the speaker a perplexed look at Susan’s tone of voice.
“What we are uploading to the CRV is a new program that will allow you two chances to deorbit. This is important; you have one opportunity on this orbit to leave the station and that will be as you cross the equator…zero degrees latitude. Your second chance comes, one orbit later, again, as you cross the equator. Once the CRV leaves the station, it will execute a rapid descent with your touch down to be in Australia, near the Royal Australian Air Force base in Edinburgh, outside of Adelaide. They have a rocket test range by the airbase
and will have plenty of open land for you to set down. The Australian Air Force will be on the lookout for the navigation beacon of the CRV and is prepared to receive you on both passes. The communications system in the CRV will be automatically set to a secure channel that they will monitor, also. So, after you break through the radio blackout zone, you should be able to establish communications with their air force. Remember, you have only these two chances, and you must not change the station’s trajectory from this point on. With the way this code was hacked together it will not allow for any changes in the assumed position of the station. Do you copy?” The captain’s voice sounded very tired and Susan’s hostility faded a bit as she realized that he probably had many new decisions to make as well.
“Yes, we copy that Captain.” Susan’s voice was friendlier this time, which didn’t escape Ivan’s notice.
“Good. Please note that there will be a countdown timer on the CRV main readout, as well as on the CRV status screen that you can monitor, to know when the deadline is that you must leave the station. We can not reprogram the system again; these will be your only opportunities. If you leave late, you will run the risk of landing in the ocean, or worse, burning up on reentry. Do you copy?”
“We copy,” Susan answered.
“I’m sorry that we could not do more for you, but in the short time we had it was just not possible to give you something more flexible with any degree of safety. We have about five more minutes on the uplink until it is complete. The CRV will run a diagnostic program to confirm the integrity of the code and we should get a confirmation signal after that. Then the system is ready to go.”
“Thank you, Captain, for all your efforts for us and to all those who have helped out. We understand the chaos that must be going on down there, and we appreciate your help immensely. Thank you.” Susan’s hostility ebbed even more, and she began to relax.
Jerry was taking this all in with much delight and relief. He had been conscious and coherent for a while now, and he fully understood the conversation that was taking place. He did not know what the time was, but guessed that they would board the CRV very shortly to catch the first window to deorbit. He tugged at his restraints but gave up realizing that it would be better if Paul untied him instead of escaping his bonds himself. He was getting antsy to move about, and more so to get to the CRV; he tried to relax and be patient. Wait for Paul, he reminded himself. He was about to call out to Paul, but hesitated when he heard Paul’s name over the intercom.
“Just doing our job, Commander. Our pleasure. I have another bit of information. This is for Paul Holland.”
“I’m here, Captain,” Paul said. Susan could hear the excitement in his voice and hoped he was not going to be disappointed again.
“Mr. Holland, you should be meeting your sister, Celia, in Edinburgh. She is already on a military transport that left about an hour ago, destined for Edinburgh to bring you and your crewmates back home. She sends her love, and said, ‘God speed and have a safe flight home.’ I’m sorry that she could not talk to you personally, but time was of the essence for her to make the flight.”
Paul was disappointed that he wouldn’t be talking to Celia, but at the same time ecstatic about the prospect of seeing his sister soon. Ironically, they would be in Australia long before her flight would get there, even if they deorbited on their second pass. “I don’t know what to say…thank you, Captain.”
“Don’t mention it. Just give your sister a big hug from all of us here. She was a real trooper with what she had to go through to catch that flight!…Hold on…we have just gotten the confirmation signal. The CRV is online and at your service.”
“Thanks again, Captain,” Susan said, “we are in your debt.”
“You can pay me when you get back, Commander. By the way I almost forgot. The Russian government is also sending a flight to Edinburgh for Ivan Yanovich and the MIR crew.”
Ivan, Alexander, and Nicholas all exchanged glances, but only Alexander and Nicholas were smiling. Ivan had not given any thought to what he was going to do upon their return. He had been too busy with everything that was going on with the station to consider his life beyond the next few moments. In the back of his mind, he thought he would be back in the United States before he went on to Russia. As he thought about this, he realized that there was no real reason to go the States, the people he knew in Florida and Texas were no longer there.
A more burdensome thought pushed through: he did not like the thought of leaving Susan by herself. His feelings for her ran much deeper than he would consciously acknowledge, and they were now making themselves known. Ivan fought them back for the moment, so as to pay attention to Captain Greene’s conversation with Susan.
“Captain, we heard the President’s speech to the UN and I was wondering what the reaction was to it?”
“We heard part of it here, too. I don’t have much information about it though. Someone did say that there was a massive response of aid coming from Europe and Russia, but other than that we have no more information.”
“What about aviation? Are they flying anything across the country or to Europe?” Ivan interrupted.
“Commercial aviation is pretty much at a standstill in the county. There are flights heading west from California and a few coming into the state. As far as anything between Europe and America, the only things flying are military, and they are having a lot of problems coping with the dust at the higher altitudes. A lot of flights are taking polar routes to avoid the dust. I believe that Europe is also beginning to shut down its commercial aviation, as the dust clouds cover more of the continent.” The Captain paused as a burst of static overwhelmed the communication system. “I think that we are getting near to our limits on the communication link. I can hear the static starting to build. Do you have any questions? Or, is there anything more that I can do for you now?”
Susan thought for a second, scanning a mental list for things they might need, “No, I can’t think of anything. Thank you, Captain, you’ve done more than we could have hoped for.”
“You’re welcome. Please remember, you only have two chances, and you have about twenty minutes to your first window. Good luck and have a safe journey home.” The Captain’s voice faded in the rising static.
The intercom was still active, linking Susan with the control module, and she heard Jerry call out to Paul. The voice sounded hoarse but a lot stronger than she thought it would be considering Jerry’s condition. “It sounds like Jerry’s back with us,” she said softly to the intercom, hoping that Jerry did not hear her.
Ivan responded. “Yes, he has been awake for a while. He has been quiet, though.”
“He must be glad to hear we are about to leave the station,” Susan said. She did not hear Ivan’s response, but was again deep in thought about what her future was to be. Susan looked up at the intercom, and spoke up, “Ivan, could you come down to Kibo? I need to talk to you.”
Ivan was surprised at the request, but agreed and quickly left the control module. Meanwhile, Paul was undoing Jerry’s restraints with the reluctant help of Alexander and Nicholas.
XXIII
Ivan’s mind raced with thoughts as to why Susan would call him to Kibo, especially since they did not have much time before they had to board the CRV. While he sorted through the different possible reasons why Susan might have called him, he also considered what he was going to do once he got back to Earth. Going back to Russia made sense, but for some reason it did not feel right to him. He felt the need to go to the United States first. Why, he did not know, it was just a feeling. Frustrated, Ivan tried to push it out of his head for now, there were too many unknowns at this time to come up with a workable solution. The only thing he could count on, he thought, is that life is going to be very different.
Absentmindedly, he pulled himself along with whatever handhold he could find, moving faster and faster, which only made it harder for him to stop as he approached the hatch to the Kibo module. A bit out of breath, he entere
d the module and found Susan gazing into a rack near the end of the compartment. She looked very pensive and Ivan knew from that expression that she was thinking about something very serious indeed.
Susan looked up when she heard the hatch squeak as Ivan pushed it open and entered the compartment. “Hi, Ivan. Thanks for coming,” she said softly. As Ivan closed the hatch behind him, Susan continued, “I know we don’t have much time to make this first window for the reentry so I will get right to the point.” Taking a deep breath she looked Ivan in the eyes, and blurted out, “Ivan, I am not going to go back! I am going to stay on the station!”
Ivan was dumbfounded! He suddenly felt very numb and wounded. Slowly the words began to register as he searched her face, her eyes for a sign that she was playing with him, teasing him in some malicious way. He saw nothing other than a very serious pair of eyes gazing into his.
“What…what are you saying?” he stammered, not really wanting to believe what he thought he had just heard.
“I said that I am going to stay on the station. Look, Ivan, I have given this some thought—”
Ivan cut her off. “You can not be serious! You can not stay here! This is crazy, Susan.” Ivan’s normally quiet voice was tinged with disbelief and was many decibels higher than usual. He reached out to take Susan’s shoulders, but she moved back.
“Ivan, I have given this some thought. I have nothing to return to Earth for. No one, no reason to be there, and I am sorry to say, no desire to be there and suffer a slow death.”
“Susan, this is not going to be any better, in fact it could be much worse for you. You have no one to support you here if something were to go wrong. You have limited resources of food, water and air—”
