“Roger that, Mercy I. Bill, here is the problem. Something went wrong on aerocapture, and you came out in a forty-four degree inclination. Plus, your orbit is fairly elliptical. The orbital guys tell me you’re tracking with a perigee of about one hundred and ninety-four miles and an apogee of about three hundred and sixty-seven miles.” Bill listened and tried to work some of the math in his head. He couldn’t. But that was what Houston was for.
“Okay, Houston, what does that mean?”
“You don’t have enough fuel to crank your inclination enough to make it to the space station. You’d also need to circularize your orbit some. There just isn’t enough fuel for both maneuvers.” Mission control got quiet for a second.
“What do we do, Houston?” Bill asked.
“First thing we need to do is get that door closed. We think we have a workaround.”
“Roger that,” Bill replied. “What do we do?”
Chapter 34
“Pull harder, Hui!” Tony urged the Chinese taikonaut. “Bill, I don’t feel it budging at all.”
“Yeah, I think the motors are seized up, and I haven’t cut the right interlock cable yet,” Bill replied. “Houston. That didn’t work.”
“Roger that, Mercy I. There is a mechanism behind the panel you just pulled off on the right side and underneath the door’s track. You see it?”
“Roger that, Houston. I see it.” Bill reached in the hole they had made in the ship’s interior panel to feel the track-alignment mechanism. The door looked like it was in the right place, and nothing was wrong mechanically. It had to be software or a seized-up motor.
“Okay, Bill, pop the breaker-box lid open with the regular screwdriver,” the mission control engineer directed.
“Roger that.” Bill reached in with the long-length screwdriver and loosened the spring-loaded screw mechanism holding the breaker box in place. When he got it loose, it flipped up easily. “Okay, Houston. Got it open.”
“Now, there is a single throw breaker on the bottom right-hand side of that circuit box. Do you see it?”
Bill reached up with a finger poised to push it if that was the order.
“Okay, Bill, don’t touch it yet, because it may only let loose for a second or two. Make certain that Tony and Hui are pulling on the door when you do,” Houston directed.
“Understood, Houston.” Bill looked over at Tony and Hui. “Are you guys ready to pull?”
“Yes,” they replied in unison.
“Well, then, in three, two, one, go!” Bill depressed the button. It clicked on, and the hatch sprang to life. The release and close mechanism activated and started cycling the door closed. Then there was a snap he could feel in the panel box as the breaker threw open again. “Don’t stop! Keep pulling!” he shouted.
Tony and Hui had gained enough momentum with the door before the breaker clicked again that it actually slammed closed. Bill depressed the switch once more, and the lock seal popped into place just as the breaker threw again. Tony and Bill both tugged at the latching mechanism and agreed it was closed.
“Houston, I believe that worked.” Bill swam his way back to his console and scanned the screen. “Looks like the interior is sealed off. Tony, start repressurization.”
“Roger that, Bill.” Tony sounded relieved.
“Now, while the cabin comes back up to pressure, why don’t you folks down there start talking to me about how we’re gonna get home.”
“Well, Bill, we’ve got a solution. It’s an unexpected one. But we’ve got one,” mission control started. “We’re working an orbit circularization burn calculation based on the fuel you’ve got left. We’ll give you the procedure in a few minutes.”
“Yeah, and we circularize our orbit. Then what?” Tony asked.
“At that point, we’ll be in a wait mode as the Space Excursions ship Dreamscape plays chase with you. Once it catches you, you’ll dock with it, all of you will transfer over, and then the captain of that ship is going to bring you home. Over.”
“Dreamscape?” Bill and Tony said almost simultaneously.
“Houston, would you repeat that?” Bill asked.
“Uh, roger that, Mercy I. The Dreamscape is in LEO right now and starting to crank up to your orbital inclination,” Houston explained.
“But they just got back from the Moon a week ago! They’re flying again already?” Tony said, completely flabbergasted.
“Roger that, Mercy I. It appears they have a short turnaround. Good thing for us. At this point we wouldn’t have a workaround for getting you back down.” Bill waited for the reality of that last statement to sink into everybody on the ship.
“Understood, Houston. From the looks of things outside, we couldn’t attempt any type of reentry even if we weren’t too heavy.” Bill thought for a bit about what they needed to do exactly.
“Captain,” Hui interjected.
“Yes, Hui, what is it?”
“If this Dreamscape has to adjust its inclination and then catch us to dock, how long will that take?” Hui asked.
“Don’t know.” Bill had no clue. He did know that on several of the times he flew the Ares 1 and the Orion capsule to the ISS, it usually took about three days to get up, change to the station inclination angle, and then chase down the station and dock. “If I had my guess, we’re talking a couple of days.”
“I see.” Hui grimaced noticeably. Bill figured that the taikonaut was ready to get out of her nasty spacesuit for good. But they could manage a couple more days.
“Houston, Mercy I.” Bill had other concerns as well. Maybe Hui did, too. “Before we do any circularization burn and before Dreamscape starts orbit matching, we should do a quick status check. We’ll probably need to minimize our O2 usage.”
“We’ve been looking at that, Mercy I,” Houston replied. “We want you to run a quick systems diagnostic on the propellants and pressurants. That P & P PROP warning earlier needs to be fully assessed.”
“Understood, Houston. We’re already on it.” Bill turned to Tony and off-mic said, “Tony, let’s get that started.”
“On it.” Tony was already tapping at the screen. With the cabin pressurized and the immediate dangers somewhat benign, he placed his suit gloves in the box near his seat, and his helmet came off. The rest of the crew had done the same.
Bill didn’t want to bring it up, but he was pretty sure that it was starting to smell in the cabin. There was an air filter, but it hadn’t been designed for six. Bill unbuckled himself and decided to float around the cabin and check on morale. The Chinese pilot was still out, but his vitals seemed to be a little better. The stimulants, antibiotics, and other injections that Tony and Dr. Xu had administered to him seemed to be improving his condition.
Xu, on the other hand, was having a lot of pain with his leg. Bill and Hui had to order him to take a pain injection. He resisted, arguing that he needed to keep an eye on Ming. Xu then made a comment about possibly losing his leg. Bill hoped that wouldn’t be the case.
Then there was Zhi. The engineer and political officer had caused a lot of their troubles. He was in his suit with his gloves off and helmet tethered to him but was otherwise immobile. Hui had his arms duct-taped to his torso and his legs taped to his couch. She fed him and gave him water if he asked for it. But Hui was not about to let him loose. Bill agreed and let her handle it. She seemed capable of controlling the situation. There were a few times when he got loud and mouthy at first, but when he did, Hui had Xu or Tony sedate him.
“Captain Stetson.” Hui floated beside him while Bill was taking the time for a snack. Bill wasn’t sure, but he thought he was eating yogurt. He chased it with some orange juice.