David used Man's Hope to retrieve the core stage, and Yuri once again froze it into position above the atmosphere plant. Then the crew began returning the things removed from their "home cave." Finally, using tethers and the ship's steering jets, Man's Hope once again nosed into its previous position, and Yuri rebuilt the ice plug that secured it.
When Ron announced that atmospheric pressure was stable, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Months of living in their "home cave" had made everyone feel secure there. After almost two months of cramped living on Man's Hope, the cave, with its spacious individual living spaces, felt very much like "home."
But they could not relax. The perturbations to Eros' orbit caused by their actions and the added mass of the comet had been significant. They had to get Eros started moving in the right direction.
So, after one rest day for a celebration, it was back to work for the crew. They had to dismount the rocket engines from the comet, and reinstall them on Eros, along with those that had been brought by and salvaged from the cargo canister.
Eros was much larger than the comet, millions of tons of nickel, iron, and rock. They now had a dozen oxygen/hydrogen rocket engines, though most of them were fairly small. They were carefully placed in accordance with Dolf's instructions, to provide acceleration along the long-axis center of mass, essentially turning Eros into a huge stone space ship.
Once the engines were installed, the crew was kept busy refueling them as David moved Eros into its earthbound orbit.
It took almost another month, but finally, Eros was on an orbit that would eventually bring it into Earth's orbit slightly behind the planet itself.
Chapter 12
"Man's Hope International spaceship Eros has departed for Earth orbit. ETA about nine months."
Dolf's announcement on his regular broadcast touched off another round of celebrations all over the world. His listenership had surged again as they had approached the asteroid belt, and their selection of Eros had started loud and enthusiastic arguments across the globe. Even through the mostly boring work of getting established on Eros, Dolf's listeners had hung on. Nearly everyone on the planet knew that they were living through a momentous episode in humanity's history, and no one wanted to miss any of it.
For the crew, there was a massive let-down once Eros was steadied on its course for Earth. They gathered in the general area of the ice cave.
"Okay," Ron said, "This rock is headed for Earth, whether or not we steer it. What the hell are we supposed to do now?"
"I know," Yuri replied. "Every detail of the trip out was scheduled; but nobody thought about the trip home."
Raoul snickered. "Anyone have a deck of cards?"
"No," Yuri replied, "but David and I have quite a selection of video games."
"I have three-dimensional chess," Dolf put in. "But unlike some people, I have something to do."
Ron winked at Raoul. "I think he's talking about his Fifteen Minutes of Fame."
Dolf grunted. "My broadcasts only last fifteen minutes, but I must spend hours preparing and researching them."
"That's true," Yuri added. "I saw him preparing. Apparently the snoring helped."
As the laughter died, "I don't believe this," David said. "We are farther into the cosmos than anyone in the history of man, and you can't think of anything to learn?
"Ron," he continued," I can't believe you can't find anything on this whole assemblage to tinker with. Yuri, the booster tank is less than half full; we've been drawing on it. If something happens, and we have to bail out, that booster is the only thing that will let us get home before our air or water run out. Raoul, you can't find anything interesting in a mental health case, even with a captive patient? And Dolf! For God's sake man, you're an astronomer and you're in the asteroid belt! You can't find anything interesting?"
They looked at each other, abashed. Dolf was clearly embarrassed. David was right; every astronomer in the world was wishing he were here. Dolf hurried to his instrument panel. All of the instruments and telescopes, of course, were outside, some on the comet, and others on the asteroid itself.
Raoul started for the docking station with his tablet. In seconds, he was typing furiously on what he claimed was a diary, but that the rest of the crew was certain were book-length and detailed psych profiles of all of them.
"And what about our illustrious commander?" Ron asked.
David shrugged. "Oh, I'll continue teaching Yuri to play Call of Duty."
"Ha!" Yuri said, "Who is teaching who?"
"Oh, yeah," David added. "There's always ice to dig here, too. We need to enlarge these quarters. In nine months, an activation crew of about twenty people will need living quarters. There should be no shortage of ice for the atmosphere plant."
Ron and Yuri exchanged a glance, and then headed for the cargo bay to suit up. David went up to the flight deck, where he used the cameras to monitor his two crewmembers.
Despite David's efforts, there was plenty of time for the crew to once again spend listening to broadcasts that could once again be separated out from the solar static.
They were astounded to find that Frank was considered a villain, instead of a hero.
Frank, whose fortune was rebounding nicely, had agreed to lease Man's Dream from Man's Hope International, its owner of record. They were also negotiating for him to buy the "Energia" Buran that still occupied the hangar at Alcântara. Frank knew almost exactly how much it would cost to render it flyable. Frank's original purchase had been in the name of Man's Hope International, and he was being very careful to keep all accounts separate. So, it was important that he buy the Buran; he definitely had plans for it.
He dearly wished he could also buy Man's Dream, the second flight ship awaiting Man's Hope's return. But he had specifically mentioned it in the naming speech as belonging to Man's Hope International, and it was simply impossible politically for MHI to sell it, especially to Frank! The lease was as far as the other directors were willing to go. Frank stretched the lease to five years; by then, some of the excitement would have died down, and Frank might be able to buy it – if he still wanted it. There were some great designs on the drawing boards.
Frank still had a problem, though. He now had three Burans, but only two, or maybe even one Energia booster. Unless the crew had to use it for emergency escape, Frank rather expected the booster on Eros to remain there, as an ideal repository for the oxygen and hydrogen he planned to sell to passing spacecraft.
But that only made the problem worse. No other booster in production had the lift capacity of the Energia booster. The problem, of course, was that the last Energia booster was produced in the early 1980's, and Frank already owned the only two known to still exist. But he'd been hearing rumors that Energia was considering resuming production. He called Anton.
"Ha!" Anton laughed. "The line forms to the left. We've had at least a dozen inquiries about Energia boosters."
"Well," Frank asked, "Is Energia going to make them again?"
"There are arguments among the bosses. We could. About a month ago, I ordered an inventory of the tooling in all the old warehouses in the Moscow area. You'd be surprised how much of the booster tooling is still there. Or maybe you wouldn't. You're the guy who's launching twenty-five-year-old Burans.
"Anyway, some of the bosses want to start producing the original versions again. Others think the design should be updated first. Still others want to build a modification of the Vulkan version. They like the payload of 175 tons, but they want it to able to use fewer strap-ons when the big load isn't necessary, so it could replace the original. Still others want to concentrate on the Energia II Uragon, the fully-reusable version. That's the one I like. It's a true space ship, and nothing gets thrown away. You'd love it."