Orbital Maneuvers (12 page)

Ivan tried again, and for a second time he was rewarded with static.  Susan took the microphone, cleared her throat and said, “This is Commander Susan Corin of the shuttle Endeavour on board the International Space Station.  Do you copy Korolev?” She avoided looking at Ivan and again spoke into the small microphone, “Korolev control, this is Commander Susan Corin of the shuttle Endeavour on board the Interna…”

She did not finish her second call before she was cut off by a burst of noisy confusion coming out of the speaker.  A conglomerate of Russian voices shouting intermingled with American words and what sounded like papers shuffling and chairs tumbling over.  Finally the noise quieted down and a somewhat harried Russian-tainted, English-speaking voice popped out of the speaker, “This is Korolev control center…Ahh, please repeat your message.”

Susan’s pulse was racing, and she could feel her heart beating in her chest as she tried to calmly repeat her message for the third time.  Her voice trembled a bit as she got the last words out. She took a few deep breaths while she waited for a reply from the other end of the communications link.

More noise, hushed voices, and chaos emanated from the speaker.  Susan gave Ivan a questioning look and spoke into the microphone again.  “Korolev, did you copy?”

“Ah, this is Korolev control center…we, ah…we copy you?”

Susan looked at Ivan, who could only shrug his shoulders in response. 

“Whom am I speaking to?” Susan asked in a slightly sharper voice.

After a few seconds of silence, the speaker crackled, “This is Christopher Kirovski.”

More silence as Susan waited for something more to come out of the speaker. 

“Christopher Kirovski,” Susan inquired.

“Yes?”

Susan was losing her patience and looked to Ivan for some support.  She quickly realized that he was enjoying her dilemma by the big smile on his face and would be of no help to her now.

“Christopher Kirovski, who are you and what do you do at the center?”

“I am the assistant to the communications technician.”

“Oh,” Susan replied with a bit of surprise.  “Why are you talking to me?”

“Ah…You called us, remember?” Christopher asked in earnest, his voice now betraying his youth.

“No!  I mean why are
you
talking to us and not the Duty Officer, or whoever is in charge there?”

“I was the only one here who understands and speaks English.  Everyone else has gone home and is sleeping,” Christopher answered, adding, “It is about four o’clock in the morning here.  Are you really on the station?”

If there were gravity pulling on Susan, it could not have pulled her shoulders any lower than they were at that moment.  She suddenly felt a lot less hopeful than she did a few minutes ago.  Ivan took the microphone and continued the discussion with Christopher in Russian.  After a few minutes, he turned to Susan to explain.

“Apparently, since there was no crew on board the station, Korolev Control was running a skeleton crew to keep everything up and running as needed.  Of course, the lowest man on the ladder gets the lowest job and our friend Christopher, along with some other apprentice technicians, were manning the graveyard shift.”

“Just our luck to get the B-team!” Susan said.

“Well, Christopher did say that the NASA representatives left for the States shortly after the news of the impacts.  He said that the A-team would be on duty in a few hours.”

“He didn’t say that!  Did he?” Susan asked with a pink glow of embarrassment in her cheeks.

“Not in so many words,” Ivan replied with a small chuckle.

Susan’s face turned serious, and she spoke quietly to Ivan. “Ivan, I don’t think we should wait on boosting the orbit of the station.  Waiting two hours only leaves us four hours to raise the station’s altitude.  That’s a little over two orbits to get to maximum altitude.”

“Well, with a full burn with the fuel we have on board, we should be able to hit maximum orbital altitude in that time frame.  The orbit may not be very circular, but we may be able to touch it up as we go,” Ivan offered.

“I will run some numbers and see what we can do about the orbital parameters.  If we are going to wait a few hours, then I want to offload everything and anything we can get from Endeavour that we may be able to use on the station.  Then we can jettison the shuttle before we boost the station, so we are not carrying the extra mass of the shuttle,” Susan said quietly.

“What do you want to take off the shuttle?  The station is equipped with everything we need right now, and we won’t be here too long anyway.  Do you really think we need to jettison the shuttle?”

“Do you have any reason to keep it attached to the station?  We surely can’t land with it, and there is almost no fuel left in it.  I feel badly just tossing it off, but it is more of a hindrance to us now than it is an asset.”

Ivan nodded his head, “You are right. We need to let the others know what is going on.”

“Yes, let’s get this going.  The sooner we are done, the sooner we can move the station.”

Ivan switched the communication system over to the intercom, so they could hear any incoming messages from anywhere in the station.  He and Susan made their way back to the Habitation module.

XIII

As Susan and Ivan approached the entrance to the Habitation module they could hear a voice that neither of them recognized.  They exchanged a curious glance and hurried the last twenty feet to the entrance.  Looking inside, they saw the two cosmonauts and two astronauts floating in front of a display showing pictures of rubble and smoking ruins of what appeared to be a housing development.  Susan caught the logo of the news network in the bottom corner of the display and realized that they were watching live footage from some satellite news service.  Paul noticed Susan and Ivan first and offered the information that this was a neighborhood west of Nashville, Tennessee that was hit by fallout from the impact on the east coast of Florida. 

“God!  It looks like it was bombed out of existence!” Susan was stunned by the visual confirmation of what she had feared would be the secondary result of the impact.  This was only one small town of thousands that was in the path of destruction.  She closed her eyes wishing she had not seen the horrible images and wondered why it is easier to deal with a tragedy when you haven’t seen the stark reality of it.  Her imagination had run rampant with just an idea of the ghastly event, but she had controlled that until now.  Now Susan had real images to tie to the disaster, and it would be much more difficult for her to rein in her overactive imagination.

Paul said, “They still don’t know the magnitude of the damage. They’re trying to use whatever satellite systems are still operating to get a handle on how far the impact zone extends.”

Susan took a deep breath and said, “Paul, why don’t you shut that off.  We have some things to discuss now.”

“Sure,” Paul complied as everyone but Jerry, turned toward Susan.

“We contacted Korolev Control, but, well, there was no one there that we could talk to, and won’t be for another couple of hours.  Ivan was able to find out that the NASA team left shortly after the asteroid impact to get back to the U.S.  While we are waiting, I want to use the time to offload anything and everything we can get off Endeavour that might be useful for us on the station.” At this point, Jerry turned and made a motion as if he wanted to interrupt with a question but was cut off by Nicholas.

“Susan, you want to scavenge the shuttle to support us on the station, but I thought that we were not staying here.”

“Nicholas, I am not sure how long we will be here.  It will be as short as possible, but I want to make sure that we know the best path to take to get back down, and that may take a day or two to determine.” Susan looked at the others and continued, “Once we have taken everything we can off the shuttle, we will jettison it and then boost the station to its maximum allowed orbit, of course keeping within the maximum service altitude of the CRV, so we can use it to return to Earth.”

Jerry snapped to attention, “Here we go again!  Boost the station and stay in orbit a few more days.  What will that do but allow the dust clouds to spread and
reduce
our window for a safe return. The longer we wait, the worse it is going to get!”

Ivan cleared his throat and spoke to Jerry directly, “If we stay at this altitude, we run the very real risk of passing through the debris that is already in orbit.  You know, as we all do, what the consequences of that would be.  By moving to a higher altitude and giving ourselves time to map out the debris and dust zones, we will be able to plan a safer descent and not have to take a big risk of hitting something on the way down.”

Jerry was not buying any of this.  He snapped at Ivan, “I see she’s got you brainwashed too!”

Ivan was about to reply when Nicholas interrupted, “No, Jerry, they bring up a very good point and a very good plan.  We would have done the same thing on MIR if we had the advanced warning.”

Alexander added, “This will also give us time to coordinate with the ground control group, which should increase our chances of a safe return.”

Jerry backed down, as he realized that the idea was acceptable to everyone but him.  “I see, I’m in the minority, and I guess majority rules.”

Susan ignored his comment and said, “We should get everything off the shuttle that would be useful to the station for continued life support and backup equipment.  Oxygen tanks, EMUs, food, water, computers, any stand-alone equipment that can possibly be used on the station for mapping the debris zones.  The first-aid kits and the med-kits . . . I think you get the idea.”

Nicholas turned to Alexander, “Emus?  They have birds on the shuttle?”

Alexander shrugged his shoulders with a bewildered look. 

Ivan shot a glance at Susan and saw a small smile break her pursed lips.  “E-M-U, Extravehicular—Mobility—Units,” Ivan whispered to them only to receive blank stares in return.  “Space suits.” The blank stares turned into expressions of enlightenment as they finally made the connection.

Jerry interrupted again, “Why even bother with this?  If we don’t need the shuttle let’s just dump it and get going.  It’s a lot of wasted effort.”

Susan was ready for this one.  She turned to the others to reply, “We don’t need to offload the shuttle, that’s probably true.  But, if for any reason the CRV was not working, this extra equipment and supplies might make the difference for our survival until we get a rescue ship or we fix the problem ourselves.”

“Yeah, like they are going to send up a shuttle to rescue us with all that is going on down there—get real!” Jerry continued to spew his venom, “Look, if we don’t leave on the CRV now, we are going to die up here.  No two ways about it.”

“Well then, Jerry, all the more reason that we should get everything we can off the shuttle before we release it,” with that comment, Susan started moving toward the door.

Paul spoke up, “Do you think it would be better if we divided up into teams?  Nicholas and Alexander are not that familiar with the shuttle and would probably be better working with someone who is.”

“Good idea, Paul,” Susan said.

“I thought that Jerry and I could work together, and you and Ivan could split up with Alexander and Nicholas,” Paul added.

Susan appreciated what Paul had just done.  By detouring Jerry, he eliminated the need for Susan to order him to stay put or to assist in the scavenge effort.  “Sounds good.  Ivan, why don’t you and Alexander see what you can get in the way of the computers and instrumentation.  Nicholas and I will work on getting the first-aid and med-kit equipment as well as the EMUs and any tools that might be useful.” Turning to Paul, she said, “Paul, you and Jerry can bring over all the food, water and O2 that is available as well as anything else that you think may come in handy.  Okay, we’ve got about two hours, let’s see if we can wrap this up completely in that time.” Susan moved over to where Nicholas was floating and waited for the other teams to leave.

Each team proceeded toward the docking port discussing the assigned tasks given and the best way to complete them.  Susan noticed that Jerry seemed to actually be cooperating with Paul—well, at least he was talking to him.  She fully expected him to totally refuse to do anything.  As the chatter faded, indicating that the docking tunnel was empty, Susan turned to Nicholas, “Well, I guess we better get going before the return traffic runs us over.”

“You lead and I shall follow, Commander,” Nicholas replied.

“Please, call me Susan, it makes me feel less…authoritative!”

“Okay, Susan, you are the boss!” Nicholas teased as they made their way to the shuttle, single file, through the narrow docking tunnel.

Immediately upon entering Endeavour, Susan felt the tension of the limited crew space and a flash of the tragedy that had tarnished this fine ship—
her fine ship
, she reminded herself.  Her mind raced on, pointing out that they were about to scavenge
her fine ship
and then cast it adrift in space.  She shook her head, told herself to focus on the task at hand, and to be careful not to give anyone a reason to doubt her credibility, especially Jerry.

“Nicholas, the first-aid and med kits can be found in the storage lockers over here on the middeck.” She motioned toward the wall on the left.  “If you will start to get that stuff, I will grab the EMUs and move them to the station.”

Nicholas nodded and floated over to the lockers to begin his search.  Simultaneously, Paul and Jerry were quickly gathering up all the food stuffs that were stored in the galley area.  The packages that were open were an invitation to Jerry to taste the contents to make sure that they were still fresh and worth moving to the station.  Paul ignored his antics and concentrated on collecting everything he could into a large plastic bag so as to make only one trip with the food.  Jerry had his bag about half full when Paul announced that he was going to head over to the station and drop off this load.  Jerry quickly shoved the latest taste test he had going into his mouth and hurriedly stuffed the remaining packages from the food locker into his bag to catch up with Paul.  The two of them passed Susan in the airlock as she was packing up the EMU suits.  No comments were exchanged, but Jerry went out of his way to give her a wide berth as he headed for the tunnel.

Ivan and Alexander were busily collecting the laptop computers, calculators and any other electronic gadgets that were loose, or easily removed from their mounts.  Ivan downloaded all the latest information on the shuttle’s systems that had been logged for the last twelve hours into his laptop.  This would provide a record of the shuttle’s activities, condition and location for the time period in the event someone may want to know.  He did not really think there would be anyone on Earth interested in this information, but his training dictated his actions and he made sure he gathered every last record that he could find.  Alexander commented to Ivan, “It is a shame that we can not fly the latest technology that is contained in these laptop computers.  We would reduce our work load ninety-five percent.”

“Yes, but the scientists would dream up more experiments to occupy that free time,” Ivan replied with a smile.

“Well, it is probably time better spent doing research than station maintenance.  I just wish they would hurry up with a reliable voice command system that will eliminate the keyboard—I hate typing!”

Ivan nodded his head in agreement as he and Alexander headed off to the station with their load of equipment.  They ran into Susan and Nicholas coming back from dropping off the EVA suits and first-aid supplies. 

“How’s it going?” Susan asked.

“It is going well.  We have taken everything off the flight deck that was loose.  We will go back for the spare parts and supplies next,” Ivan said as they floated past each other.

“It sounds like we should be on schedule then.  We have a little less than an hour to go.  Paul and Jerry have taken up the food and are getting the water reserves now.” Susan gave a wave to Ivan and Alexander as they floated into the docking tunnel.  She and Nicholas proceeded to rummage through the lockers looking for anything else that could be of use when she noticed Paul herding two large containers of water like a sheep dog with some wayward sheep.

“Bet you thought that you would never use your ranching skills in space!” Susan called out to him.

“They have come in handy many-a-time in the most unexpected places.  At least with these, I don’t have to worry about where I’m stepping!” With that he disappeared into the tunnel.

Jerry was not far behind, but he was struggling a bit more with his load than Paul.  It took Jerry several more minutes to get his cargo to the station, partly because he waited for Ivan and Alexander to clear the docking tunnel.  By the time he finally got to the habitat module, Paul passed him going back to the shuttle for another load.

“Save some for me,” Jerry said over his shoulder to Paul. “I’ll be right there.”

“Don’t worry, there will be enough for both of us,” Paul replied, a little surprised at Jerry’s enthusiasm.  Maybe he’s coming around, he thought hopefully.

Jerry quickly stowed the water containers in an empty locker, in what one would normally consider the module’s ceiling.  He nervously looked around the room and listened to hear if anyone were coming through the tunnel.  He cursed the zero-g because there were no footsteps to hear. Certain that the coast was clear, he quickly propelled himself up to the Zvezda module and made his way to a data terminal that would give him access to the central CPU.  With trembling hands, he quickly navigated his way through the screens searching for information on the CRV.  Thinking to himself how nice it was for the NASA engineers to design such an easy system to navigate through, he quickly found the information he was looking for:

CRV EMERGENCY OPERATIONS
.

Using his finger on the touch screen to select the desired information, he found the page that detailed the checklist for emergency escape.  He smiled as he scanned the brief checklist. 
This should be a piece of cake
, he thought, pleased with his success.  He suddenly caught the sound of voices coming up from the docking tunnel.  Panicked, Jerry punched the exit button on the display, which immediately returned to the main menu.  He did not stick around to see what was on the screen, but was already flying toward the habitat module as Susan’s and Nicholas’ voices grew louder.  Jerry crashed into the metal doorway of the module with a thud and bounced inside.  Quickly gathering himself up, he reached for the latch on the locker where he had stored the water containers as Susan rounded the corner.