Frank grinned. "I'm certain that the Director of the cosmodrome has much more important matters to attend to, than to stand around while we crawl around the guts of old spacecraft. Perhaps you could just assign us a guide? Someone who knows Baikonur well?"
"Ha!" Arkanov roared. "I am forget you are a Director, too! You know how it is."
Frank nodded. "Yes, I do, and I know how annoying it can be when you are invaded by important visitors without warning. Please, do not let us disrupt your schedule."
With a broad grin, Arkanov walked around his desk, picked up his phone and rattled a string of Russian. After about five minutes, a single knock sounded on the door, and Arkanov bellowed. The door opened and a very attractive young woman in her mid-twenties came in. Arkanov introduced her as Maria Vespanova, and Frank discovered that her English was excellent. Frank was pleased, but David stumbled all over his tongue. Obviously, he was immediately smitten, though she ignored it.
"Maria is too young to remember Buran," Arkanov said, "but her English is very good, and she knows Baikonur. Besides," he added, "She is very decorative, no?" Again he roared laughter as she pinked and looked down. Her business suit was dark and severe, and her light brown hair was in a tight bun, but there was no doubt she was beautiful. 'Beautiful' was not a word Frank used lightly; very few women met his criteria for it. But Maria's flawless skin only accentuated her equally flawless, regular features.
Arkanov was right; she didn't recognize the name 'Buran', but when Frank began describing the orbiter she clapped her hands. "Of course!" she cried. "The space ships!"
Arkanov gave her instructions, in English, to take the Americans everywhere she had seen 'the space ships', or parts of them.
"Oh! But I know everything! The, how you say, old ones, all tell me the stories." She smiled blindingly, and David seemed to almost faint. "I do not believe many of the stories, but I am sure they have shown me everything." She looked at Frank from under lowered lashes. "Some of the places are very isolated, and I am not certain they only wanted to show me things."
Frank chuckled. "I'm certain they didn't just want to show you old spaceships."
"Ha!" she replied with a tinkling laugh, "That was all they did!"
Frank winked at her. "What a pity." She pinked again.
Arkanov called down and arranged a vehicle for them, and then fidgeted obviously until they left his office. Frank knew the feeling. Arkanov had finally gotten rid of the visiting firemen, and could at last get back to important matters.
The vehicle they were given was an old soviet-era Zil, a huge limousine. It came equipped with a driver, and Maria shot staccato Russian at him. The limo whisked away almost silently.
The first stop was the Buran that was stored outside, and even as they drove up to it, Frank was struck by how small it was and how dilapidated it looked. It seemed wrong, somehow. Spacecraft were supposed to be bright and gleaming machines, straining toward the heavens.
David and Sergei, who apparently knew Maria, piled out and began talking over one another in their excitement. David grabbed his arm and dragged him under the orbiter, still covered in black heat-control tiles. He pulled Frank to the opening for the forward landing gear and pointed. "See what I mean, Frank? I think the corrosion is pretty much out of control on this one. If we have any other choices, I'd say to skip this one."
Frank nodded. The once silver aluminum was nearly covered with white corrosion. Unless the inside was a lot better, David was right. Frank hoped they could afford to skip this one.
There was no lock on the hatch, and, with flashlights, they explored the interior. It was not as bad as the outside, but Frank still hoped they could just strip parts from this one. He set Sergei to finding and counting missing heat tiles and they walked around the back of the orbiter. Frank noticed that there were no engines. Buran orbiters did not have main engines like the American shuttles; all the main engines were on the boosters. But they did have maneuvering thrusters, and these were missing. He mentioned it.
Maria shrugged. "They said this was a test model."
Frank breathed a sigh of relief. The information he had gained from the internet had said that there were three Burans at Baikonur; one static test model, one engineering mockup, and one flight Buran. The test model should have been identical to the flight ship, but somehow Frank hoped the one he bought was the flight bird. Of course, he was also curious about the 'engineering mockup'. Would it be a complete ship? Or just a fuselage? or even less?
Apparently, it was less. It was the framework of the orbiter's fuselage, but didn't even have a skin. What appeared to be miles of wiring ran through holes in the aluminum bulkheads making up the framework, with thousands of wires simply hanging loose. Russia could keep this one!
Frank was getting nervous. Two times at bat, two strikeouts. Oh, the outside ship could provide vital parts, especially the specially designed heat control tiles. There were no "standard" tiles. The Russians had used a computer to design each tile to accommodate the curvature, protrusions, and grooves it was to cover. Apparently, no two tiles were exactly alike. This meant that the only place to get a replacement for a lost or damaged tile was from another Buran. Luckily, Sergei had only counted four missing tiles on what he was coming to call the "outside" Buran. He was becoming nervous about examining the "inside" Buran. He tried to cheer himself by hoping that the two test models shown on his list as "location unknown" would also be here. But it didn't help. His hopes were coming to rest on the "inside" Buran. His heart leapt as they pulled up to a huge hangar marked "112." This was where that picture of a Buran mounted on the booster was taken in 2001. The Buran in the picture had looked good. Could it still be in there?
Yes, it could. Under a thick coat of dust on one end of the darkened hangar, sat a Buran. Sergei and David went looking to see if they could find a way to open the hangar doors, while Frank began walking around the ship with his flashlight. He ducked under the Buran, and duckwalked to the landing gear opening, waving his way through spider webs. He flashed his light into every corner, but spotted only minor corrosion. This could be it!
Suddenly, the hangar was bathed in light as David found a switch. A moment later, a loud screeching and rumbling announced the opening of the huge doors.
"Look!" cried Sergei. "Only three tiles missing, and see, they're on the floor beneath!"
Frank grinned. Things were looking better and better. David found a ladder, and they climbed up to the hatch. It opened easily.
The pilot's compartment was complete, even containing the ejection seats. The passenger compartment beneath it was equally complete, though as above, everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. No one had been here in years. They moved into the cargo bay, to find it also apparently complete. This was no hulk. It was a ship!
A shout from David brought him to the front of the cargo bay. "Do you know what this is?" David asked excitedly. Frank looked. It was barrel-shaped, with pipes and hoses on the outside, and evidently protruding through the top of the cargo bay. Frank shrugged. "No idea."
"Damn, Frank, it's the one thing missing on these orbiters," he was practically dancing with excitement. "It's an airlock and docking collar! They were rigging it to mate with a space station. Maybe Soyuz, or maybe even the ISS. I'd say this is the one we want!"
Frank snickered. "I think we may want to look at it a bit more closely before deciding that," he said.
They scoured the cluttered hangar, but didn't find the big Energia booster, though there appeared to be a lot of equipment and even parts apparently for the Buran.