The End of Earthrise
Orbit the Sun – Part 12
By John Stevenson
Copyright 2015 John Stevenson
Andrew waited until the Lander had departed before he turned to Tricia. “Contact the Explorer. Warn them what’s happened.”
“You heard what he threatened?” She protested.
“We don’t take orders from him,”
“It’s not about orders; he’s got a weapon; he could kill them?”
“Exactly, and if Matt and Alisha know he has they can stop him docking.”
“And how do they get back… if the Lander doesn’t dock, neither can they use it to get back here?”
“They got there; they can get back even if they have to walk the…”
“They aren’t coming… back.”
Andrew turned to look disdainfully down at Vincent. “We’ll get them back...”
“You can’t, they will let the Lander dock and Peter will get aboard.”
“No they won’t, not once we have told them what’s happened.”
“The radio won’t work,” snarled Vincent.
Andrew stared hostilely at him, not wanting to believe. “Why won’t it?”
“Ralph has jammed it before they left?”
Andrew went over to the internal phone and stabbed in the communication room’s number. He looked anxiously at the faces around him as he waited for an answer. “Contact the Explorer?” he said when he received a reply.
There was silence as they all waited.
The shock in Andrews voice was obvious. “What about Mars: can you can get them?”
Moment’s later Andrews’s expression told them all that they were helpless.
“The frequency has been jammed?” he said to the mouthpiece without looking at the faces watching him. “Try it again?”
Once more there was silence until Andrews deep breath told them as much as his words. He looked again at Vincent. “Where is it?”
“I don’t know… I said to him that you would contact the Explorer and he just told me the radio would be dead. That’s all I know, I didn’t have anything to do with that side…” his words trailed away.
Andrew looked at him angrily. “But you knew he was planning this?”
“Yes,” Vincent looked only a little guilty. “He said he would take me and the boys. He promised we would have everything we wanted?”
“Instead he took you for fools.” Andrew snarled, “ If we weren’t stuck with you I’d think you got what you deserved” Andrew knelt besides Vincent, deliberately grasping the bandage Bethany had been wrapping around the mans knee. Vincent gasped in pain.
“Commander… he’s hurt?” Bethany protested.
Andrew ignored her. “What is he going to do?” he said threateningly.
“What he said; go back to Earth.”
“What else?” Andrew gripped tighter. “What else is he going to do?”
“He’s taking them back with him.”
Andrew gripped even tighter.
Vincent was sobbing in pain. “It’s the truth; he’s going to kill Mathew and take the others.”
Andrews voice rose in concern. “He’s not sending Alisha back?”
“No; he’s going to take her with them, to make sure they get to Earth, in case there’s any problem’s.”
“He’s going to trap us all?” Andrew stood. “Damn him he’s trap… No, that doesn’t make sense.” Andrew looked down at Vincent again. “He must know that we will find the jammer long before they get back to Earth, and that once we do we’ll call ahead and have the authorities waiting for … unless he doesn’t expect us to be.”
Andrew snapped up the communicator again. “Is the telemetry working? …What does it say … do a back summary; see if there are any trends; what has it recorded for ...the last twenty or thirty hours?”
They all saw Andrews expression change, and heard his shocked voice. “We’re going to crash onto the planet.”
“How’s it going Matt?”
Alisha’s voice broke into Mathew’s concentration. “Good. The reactor is building up; it’ll take a few hours still to get to full power, but everything is running as it should.”
“Just to let you know the Lander is on it’s way here.”
“Anything else?”
“Such as?”
“I don’t know; I thought maybe Andrew had come up with some other instructions?”
“I haven’t been in contact with him; I’m going on visual only.”
“Then you had better give him a call?”
“I can’t; too much interference.”
Mathew sighed. “But it’s definitely on its way here.”
“I just said it was.”
“Okay, I’m just about finished.”
“Are you going to meet them at the airlock?”
“I can; there’s not much more I can do down here right now… So everything is ready for them up there?”
“I’ve programmed everything in; there’s nothing they have to do… actually it’s probably going to be a very boring trip?”
“After what we’ve been through that sounds like a very nice trip.”
“Hopefully it will be, but I’m still worried about the radio?”
“Why’s that?”
“I want everything working before they leave.”
“Fair comment, but it will probably turn out to be something simple?”
“I know; I’ve contacted Sheshi and she is having the same trouble. Losing connection with one or the other is one thing but to both isn’t good.”
“No… I expect Andrew is already running tests his end; the link could be restored any minute?”
“What’s worrying me is that if there is a serious underlying problem, and the link stays full of static, they won’t be able to contact us, and they really will be on their own?”
“You definitely can’t contact either of them?”
“No.”
“But you can see the Lander coming over?’
“I said I could; everything seems fine.”
“Okay; then maybe they can tell us what’s happening, and if they can’t we have time to find out what’s wrong before they go. I’m heading up; down or whatever to meet them at the airlock now.”
Mathew didn’t have long to wait before the airlock opened. At first he saw nothing wrong as the space-suited figures came onto the Explorer. Four passed by him, and no more: he was looking back towards the Lander when the closest figure tapped him on the shoulder and lifted the dark visor.
Matt looked into the helmet to see Ralph. “Where are the others?” he said over the communicator as he turned again to look back into the airlock.
“It’s just us Matt.”
The others lifted their sunshields and he saw Emma. He wasn’t sure about Ralph but he was certain Emma wasn’t going to go back to Earth. “What’s going on?” he said in surprise as through the other visors he saw Jennifer and then Peter.
“Change of plans.” Said Peter.
Matt looked down at the mans hand and saw one of the improvised guns was pointed at him. He looked in shock at the barrel. “What do you think you are going to do with that?”
“You can’t be that stupid as not to imagine?”
“I think it’s you that’s being stupid. Whatever you have as charge in that thing will probably only work in normal air; you’ll be lucky to get a fizz?”
“And that’s why Ralph has a knife.”
Matt looked back at Ralph; he was holding a knife against Jennifer’s side.
“I don’t know what the physics of being stabbed in a partial vacuum
are but she’ll probably suffocate before we find out?”
Matt knew he had to play for time. “What’s going on?”
“I said; change of plan; we’re going back and the others are staying.”
“You have to be crazy if you think you can just hijack a spaceship and get away with it?”
“We’ll that’s my problem you just do as you are told.”
Matt looked at Jennifer, and then to Emma. Ralph could slit both their suits before he could stop him. “So what happens now?”
“Nothing. As long as nobody gives us any trouble, and that includes you Alisha?”
There was no reply.
“I know you can hear us.”
“I could lock you all down there.” She replied threateningly.
“Yes you could, so who’s suit shall we deflate first?” Peter gave the impression he was thinking. “They all have uses but I suppose my bitch first; then Mathew and then…”
“You expect me to think you won’t kill us all anyway?”
“I just want us to get back to Earth.”
“You; you mean?”
Peter smiled. “If we have that clear then let’s go up to the module.”
It took only minutes for Andrew to confirm that they were dropping out of orbit at an alarming rate, and that there was nothing they could do other than abandon Earthrise: but their pilot was on the Mars Explorer and if Vincent was right she wouldn’t be coming back. They were all looking at Andrew as he spoke.
“I’ll fly the St. Louis,” he said without confidence. “I know the basics and I’ll do my best.” For a moment he was going to add that he had never piloted a shuttle, or that during the dozens of times he had been in one he had laid back and relaxed instead of taking notice of what the pilot was doing. He stared into fearful faces; they knew as well as he did that their chances of living had become almost zero, but nobody wanted to admit it.
“Unless anyone has a better suggestion we need to ready the shuttle for departure. We can’t be certain that Alisha won’t get back; but until we know I want the station stripped of all the food and all the medical supplies; I want space suits: if there’s even a one percent chance we can get down I want the shuttle packed with everything were going to need on the surface.”
When they arrived at the changing room Mathew went to take of the spacesuit but Peter stopped him.
“You keep your suit on.”
Matt looked at him in surprise. “Keep it on… whatever for?”
“You made a mess of Vincent; I want to make sure you don’t have the opportunity again. Wearing the suit will restrict your movements.”
Matt felt his chance slip away; I was what he had intended; sooner or later he would have had the chance and with a bit of luck he could have overpowered them both, but wearing the suit was like wading through chest high water. He was going to be too slow and too ineffective to do anything; he had to think of an alternative and fast.
Andrew was on the St. Louis’s flight deck. He looked at the mass of dials, screens and switches. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what any were for; it was just that before he had never had to look at them all at once.
“A bit overwhelming isn’t it?”
Andrew tuned to Ali. “There’s probably a few your not used to?”
“A few? Make that a lot, the Gulfstream doesn’t have anywhere near as many?”
“Don’t get too awed, most of the controls are automated, and the read outs are just to keep you informed.”
“Yea; it’s knowing which ones I have to respond to that worries me?”
“That’s okay; I can point them out.” Andrew hoped he could.
“Good; you are going to have to.”
“We don’t have a lot of choice and you are the only person aboard that has piloted an aircraft of any size.”
“Like I said that was for fun; this isn’t fun.”
“Life has lots of ways of testing us; I for one am glad your company bought a jet; otherwise I’d be here on my own?”
“There’s always Richard?”
“He’s never flown before.”
“Maybe not but he can probably make more sense of all this stuff than we can.”
“He said he didn’t design the flight systems when I spoke to him?”
“No, but he designed the software for the flight simulators.”
“You don’t get hurt when you crash a simulator.”
“And you don’t think we’ll crash?”
Andrew wished he hadn’t have spoken what he was thinking. “If we follow the rules we can do this.”
Ali said nothing more, but Andrew knew he was thinking the same as he was; there were no rules for what they were about to do.
Tricia came onto the flight deck.
“How is loading going?” asked Andrew.
“We’ve got as much as time is going to allow; were going to load passengers soon, but there is a problem.” Tricia looked at Ali.
Andrew did too. “If it affects the St. Louis you should probably tell us both?”
“Were not going straight down, we are spiraling. There is a high probability that when Earthrise enters the atmosphere we will be in the wrong position to launch the shuttle.”
“Your sure?”
“I don’t know, I’m just telling you what the data says; but if the shuttle presents the wrong angle. We could either skim off or burn up?”
“Did the data tell you which is most likely?”
“We’ll probably burn up.”
Ali looked at Andrew. “We have to move the station to protect us?”
Andrew shook his head. “We can’t Peter emptied all our maneuvering fuel before he left?”
A feeling of dread welled up in Andrew and he looked at the dials in from of him: then suddenly it eased. He had never wanted to fly the shuttle; he was doing it because it was expected of him. Earthrise was different; it had been his command and he knew how to fly the station. He knew too that there was a way he could; he just had to make the decision.
Peter didn’t have to tell Alisha to bring up Earthrise on the screen; she already had. It looked much as it always had: or had become, but there was a slight difference in the background. Whereas once there was an utter blackness behind the station now it wasn’t quite as black. Earthrise was beginning to enter the atmosphere.
Alisha looked at him angrily. “What have you done?”
“I’m saving everybody from a slow and lingering death.”
“You’re murdering them.” Her words were almost spat at him.
“Sooner or later they are going to die anyway.”
“No, they don’t have to now; they need me; let me go back.”
Peter brought out his weapon and aimed it at Mathew. “If you do anything stupid I’ll kill him.”
“You’re going to kill me anyway.” Snarled Mathew.
Peter turned to him. “Maybe; maybe not, of course if you choose to give me no option?”
Matt saw Alisha tap her forehead and draw her finger down; he didn’t know what she meant other than he assumed she was crossing herself in the way Catholics do. But then her hand moved slowly to the control panel.
Peter saw her out the corner of his eye and turned quickly around. “What did you just do?” he snapped.
“Nothing?” she replied.
“You’re lying; what did you do?”
“I’m doing what you want me to; I’m being a pilot.”
“Don’t make me kill him.”
Alisha raised her hands into the air. “I’m not touching anything.”
As she spoke a buzzer began to ring inside Mathews helmet.
Peter turned back to him. “What’s that?”
Matt knew exactly what it was, and why it was ringing. “It’s a temperature warning; it’s getting hot inside here.”
“Do I look as if I care?”
“He’s lying.”
Peter turned to Ralph.
“She’s vented the…” gasped Ralph as
Jennifer collapsed beside him.
Mathew gulped but there was nothing to breath in. As he felt himself begin to pass out he slammed his helmet shut and flicked the suits own air supply on.
Emma was collapsing, as were Alisha and Ralph. Only Peter remained on his unsteady feet. He raised the pistol, but the tables were even and Matt was already moving. Matt pushed at Peters arm as the pistol fired with a soft pop rather than a bang.
Matt felt the bullet hit his hip. It felt like a sharp stone flicked up from a tyre.
Richard came onto the flight deck.
Andrew looked at him “Ali tells me you know something about flying a shuttle?”
Richard smiled in an apologetic way. “I’m a software engineer, one of my companies is in the space industry. We designed some of the software that’s used on the shuttle simulators: if that’s what you mean?”
Andrews began to think that this was a bad idea. “I know all that; I read your background before you came up.”
Richard said nothing in reply.
“You know what’s happening?”
“That we’re going to die?”
Andrew was surprised at the apparent resignation in Richard’s voice. “Is that what everybody thinks?”
“I think everybody is trying not to think of that?”
“But not you?”
Richard shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong; I prefer to live, but I’m not going to waste my last hours fighting something I can’t change.”
“What if you can?”
“Then I’ll do whatever is possible.”
“We need your help here.”
“Your not expecting me to fly the shuttle. I can’t do that?”
“What we need is someone who understands the shuttle.” Andrew gestured towards the controls. “Someone who knows what should be where and when?”
“Just to interpret?”
Andrew looked at Ali. “We need extra eye’s as backup; eyes that can spot something going awry before it happens… But what worries me is that you learned to fly a shuttle in a video game?”
Richard seemed indignant. “It wasn’t a video game; and I’ve probably had as much experience in crash techniques…” his words faded as he thought of what he was saying. “It wasn’t a game; it was a serious program; the software had to deal with everything including emergencies; It did that… but when we weren’t doing proper research we… we just played around a bit.”
Andrew nodded. “The fact is that you are not a qualified pilot?”
“No, but if you are looking for someone with the proper qualifications we are all dead?”
The End of Earthrise - Orbit the Sun – Part 12 Page 1
