"We'll lose communications unless we put antennas out on the ice," Dolf mentioned.
David nodded. "And that's just what we'll do. Gentlemen," he continued, "We're going to be living on this ice cube, or in it, for a damned year. We can't spend that entire time cooped up in a tin can. We'd be killing each other."
Raoul nodded. "A very good point. Yoshi is exhibit 'A'. I think it's a terrific idea."
Yuri nodded. "I agree, though I am concerned about the pressure on the ship's hull."
David grinned. "Me, too. That's why we're going to put pressure monitors on all sides of the ship, with alarms. I think we can do it."
"I do, too," Ron put in. "And I'm certain we can handle the pressure problem. Perhaps by drilling relief holes when and where necessary."
Dolf was grinning. "Boy, is this going to make some news on Earth!"
First, though, they had to detach the tank, and that was not an easy task. The tank was attached to the Hope with bolts that were designed to explode, so there would be no chance of the core stage getting hung up and dragging the Hope back to Earth, to burn up on reentry.
There was no special 'arming' switch that could be deactivated, only the single switch in David's hand to fire the bolts. Ron had carefully removed the batteries from the remote-control switch, but still, each of the bolts attaching the tank to the ship contained about an ounce of powerful explosive.
The first task was to carefully examine the tank. None of them had bothered to do that on Earth, since they really expected the tank to be jettisoned. The examination took three of them nearly a day, as they had to remain tethered at all times, and were only able to move from attachment to attachment.
They were relieved to find that there were a large number of attachment points on the tank, apparently used to move the huge tank around on Earth. This gave them attachment points to tie down the big tank, but exposed another problem.
"We simply don't have enough tether rope," said Ron. "No one ever considered we'd have to tie down something this big."
By raiding the cargo hold, they were able to amass six of the six-meter reeled tether ropes. Dolf questioned whether they would be enough, and Yuri shrugged. "They'll have to be. I think we'll be all right, as long as we don't overstress them. That means we move the tank very slowly and carefully. Once it's in place, it'll be like a balloon; one tether could probably hold it."
Finally, of course, the time came. Ron and Yuri suited up and swarmed over the Hope's hull to her belly. Using channel-joint pliers that had been Yoshi's only nonmetallic tool, Ron gently and carefully struggled to remove bolts that had never been intended to be removed.
One by one, they yielded to Ron's gentle but persistent ministrations. He loosened them all, and then he and Yuri attached tethers to the tank and the ship before he went back and cautiously removed them. Yuri carried each of them individually away from the ship before finding small crevices into which he could put them, marking them so the bolts could be found again in an emergency. Finally, he breathed a large sigh of relief, as did his crewmates.
Their work was just starting, though. Each crewmember grabbed a tether. Yuri gave a slight tug, and the huge tank began to creep away from the Hope. Time dragged as the tank inched past the ship. There was an almost overwhelming urge to hurry things along; to give a long, steady pull.
But they knew better. They would eventually have to stop over a hundred tons of slowly moving tank, preferably without killing anyone.
As the tank cleared Hope's wing, David and Yuri each took a turn of their tether around an ice crag. Then the entire crew began pulling against the massive inertia of the moving tank, trying to bring the huge thing to a stop. By the time they succeeded, the core stage tank was hanging in space some fifty feet from the Hope and two meters above the comet's surface. The six tethers restrained it, and the five crewmembers were bathed in sweat. They anchored the tethers to pitons, and returned to their now-much-smaller ship.
Before they moved the Hope, they decided that all the large equipment that would be needed should be brought into the cavern before moving the ship. Once in place, the only access to the ship would be through the small boarding hatch, and they would be unable to bring the large equipment into the cave.
So, Yuri depressurized the cargo hold, and Ron got to open the big cargo doors and unlimber the handling arm the Russians had copied from the American Shuttle for a second time. Crate after crate flowed into the cave, until the cargo bay was nearly empty. Again, the crew was exhausted and sweaty.
They waited until the next day to begin moving the Hope. Once again, the four crewmembers manned tether ropes, nervously removed from the core stage tank. But this time, they had the assistance of the steering jets, operated by David. He gently nudged the jets until the ship was nose-on to the hole in the comet, the four rope men forming a square encircling the hole.
David did not dare use the steering jets to start the ship into the hole. It would be far too easy to overpower the men on the ropes, and smash Hope's nose into the ice. At a signal, the four men gently tugged on the ropes, and then began coaching David. Using quick, feather touches of the steering jets, and occasional pulls on ropes, the ship slowly descended into her nest. At last, Yuri told him that the bulkhead was about to enter the cave, and David fired the jets to bring Hope to a stop. A few very gentle tugs on ropes, and she was properly located. It was vital that the ice wall be directly opposite the main interior bulkhead, in order for the bulkhead to provide bracing and support for the hull.
Experimentation showed that if the reactor was used to actually boil it, and they used an insulated hose, the water wouldn't freeze quite immediately, and an icy slush would make it a few inches to Hope's hull before freezing solid. The slush was easy to build up, of course. It quickly grew to two meters thick.
While Ron and Yuri attended to the ice wall, David, Dolf and Raoul mounted antennas on the ice of the comet and connected them to the comm panel aboard Hope.
With the wall in place, there was a circular space some ten meters in diameter, and some five meters deep in front of Hope's nose. This space was jammed with crates and loose equipment.
Ron immediately began setting up the equipment for electrolyzing the water ice into its constituent oxygen and hydrogen. Men can live for weeks without food, and days without water, but without air to breathe, they are dead in minutes.
There was a sizable tank on Man's Hope that contained highly compressed gases that could be added to oxygen to make a breathing mixture. Besides scrubbing and recycling their air, the men had been making air that way for weeks. Added to a small percentage of oxygen, the gases created a breathing mixture similar to those of a skin diver. Slowly, the air pressure in the cave began to climb. Ron raised it to two Earth atmospheres of pressure, and then shut down the machine. They would wait, making certain the ice could take the pressure, and that there were few or no leaks.
There were some leaks, which Yuri plugged with his water hose. But soon their cave was airtight, and held a steady one atmosphere of pressure.
Chapter 10
The first two 'rooms' to be cut out of the ice, of course, were a space for the atmosphere equipment, and a cell for Yoshi.
Yoshi had been confined to an acceleration couch for nearly ten days, except for brief periods of exercise, food, and sanitation needs. All of the crew felt guilty about this, so there was no dissent when David ordered it.