He tried not to look into black holes of windows and not to think that Mackliff can lose control and start a rampage.
A fight on a falling shuttle is a nightmare.
At the moment when he knelt down beside the humps of emergency batteries, he could hear a rustle of still running internal communication from the dynamics beside the navigation pane of the charthouse. A confident voice has started broadcasting in perfect English:
- Astronauts of "Independence" and "Das Rhein"! The Supreme command of the united armed forces of the Arab States Bloc gives you a promise to save your life and dignity, as well as to provide you with medical care and hot meals.
Give up.
Open gateway bays and disconnect the system of self-destruction.
Think about your families, kind and gentle women waiting for you, about your mothers. Surrender, and your life will be saved otherwise you will be destroyed.
Do not wait for help as our probes mimic your emergency call onto the orbits of a different azimuth. Astronauts of the "Independence" and "Das Rhein", the Supreme...
All of a sudden the Shuttle was filled with a powerful buzzing, as if its hull had a few APS distribution transformers pinned to it.
From the depths of the living quarters you could hear Mackliff shouting:
"Jerry, it is jerry! Idiots, they turned on the military emitter! Fanatics! I had almost thought it out, and they...
Whitehouse and Dybal rushed to the side port.
From the right solar battery of "Independence", from the spot where a combat ship was sticking out of his body; short pale-blue flashes were splitting the darkness. One after the other the probes for tracking and jamming, lit up and were destroyed between them.
The Arabs could not turn off their signal lights, necessary for safety control, and the German gunner methodically shot these electronic suitcases.
Islamist stations began to move away slowly to a safe distance closing them in a cloud of reflecting suspension.
- Come on, comrades, let"s burn the green devils! We are all done for anyway! Let"s have some fun after all...- Dybal was striking out wildly.
At the same time Whitehouse was feverishly writing on the sheets that were torn out of the logbook:
"On the 34th day of the flight we were attacked by the BIS warships.
We have lost the connection.
Fulfilling the duties of the "Independence" NIS, Ronald Scott Whitehouse. Finder must immediately pass this to representatives of the authorities. "
Having nervously filled up six sheets with the same message, he rushed to the reactor of ozone diffusion synthesis and found that Mackliff was already here, finishing the preparation of the cylinders for the launch.
Flight engineer seemed changed.
He was busy. His fingers stopped shaking there was a metallic gleam in his eyes, and the cheekbones were tightened.
It was the former Mackliff.
Cylinders were intended for many operations: from the input of ozone into the atmosphere up to the dumping of nuclear warheads, and they were designed for multiple passing through the burning atmosphere.
Now they were being prepared to launch without calculation, not above the critical points, and could fall anywhere, but there was a chance that they will be found by their people or allies. So, having torn out the filling tubes, Whitehouse stuck the notes inside and shut the lids. He looked at the flight engineer with expectation.
The other gravely saluted with the expanded palm of his hand.
"- Everything is ready, sir.
- Start without reference. Execute an order. - Whitehouse looked up at the place where on Earth would be the sky. - Let us hope that our people will find those. God bless us!
Cylinders started simultaneously and flew to the Land like an open fan.
The Islamists have not even tried to destroy them.
-It is burning!!! It is burning!!! - Shouted Dybal. - See what a beam can do!
About five miles to the starboard side, one of the enemy ships was burning like a Bengal fire. The emitter continued hitting it.
Germans did not give a chance and just leave it damaged they were finishing it off.
The confident voice that was humming about "The life and dignity, as well as medical care and hot meals", shut up in the middle of a sentence.
- It is burning, you bastard, and it is burning very nicely, - the Navigator was happy as a child, - I hope they do not run out of energy...
At this moment the Shuttle shook as if it hit the rock.
This was followed by a series of aftershocks.
Something exploded and cracked in the engine compartment, you could feel the smell of burning and heated metal. Round bulkhead door to the battery room protruded, but did not open.
The Arabs used non brisant missiles to "Independence", like those that are used to knock out satellites, when you don't want to damage the filling.
Getting out from under a pile of floppy disks and the coils of a collapsed rack of the archive, Whitehouse was anxiously listening to the established silence.
Emitter of "Das Rhein" was silent.
Mackliff was pottering about nearby, "Yes, it has been a long time I was hit in the face like that... "- he said, letting trickles of blood pour into the weightlessness, from his smashed nose.
The speaker of internal communication rustled again:
- "Das Rhein" calls up "Independence", "Das Rhein" calls up "Independence".
Raumwaffe Colonel Manfred von Conrad speaking...As a result of penetration of the cumulative rocket depressurization of all compartments has occurred. I beg permission to move into your Shuttle.
Whitehouse approached the microphone as quickly as possible:
- Yes, hurry up. We will open the lower gateway.
German astronauts appeared in ten painfully long minutes.
Covers of cadmium suits were torn apart; glass of pressure helmets was smoke-stained, identification badges looked faded.
Their eyes were empty, staring at one point. Their faces looked like the astronauts have just returned from the underworld. There were four of them, Colonel von Conrad, Navigator Eichberger and board gunner Hoffman, who was laid next to the fourth, Matthias Leiseheld, whose body was inside a funeral package with a small black-and-red-and-yellow flag pinned to the chest.
He was killed when one of the missiles hit the emitter cupola.
- Well, what do we do now? - Eichberger asked gloomily.
- Allah Akbar. That's what. - Von Conrad looked up at his Navigator with his dull eyes, reddened from the capillary bleeding, and brushed the edge of his hand across his throat.
- There, there! We will show them! - Dybal said, forcing himself to smile and made a hand movement as if he closed the breech of an antique naval gun. - "Our proud "Varyag" does not surrender and nobody asks for mercy..."
At this point from the utilization camera of sanitary block they heard blows of metal upon metal, buzzing of krypton cutter and already stifling air was filled with the smell of welding flux; Board engineer John Mackliff was in the process of making something:
- Hey, anybody! Come here quickly! - His excited voice pierced the silence.
Two German astronauts started moving, but Whitehouse stopped them and began to examine their wounds. Dybal went to see Mackliff, taking first-aid kit with him just in case.
But first-aid kit was not needed; Mackliff sent the navigator back with the task to rip off the heat sealing siding from the cooling compressor of the engine.