Yukari didn’t waste any time reporting her conversation with Mir to SSA mission control in the Solomons.
“I don’t know what kind of progress you’re making down there, but we have a game plan ready up here. I’m currently approaching Mir under their guidance. I’m at a relative distance of sixty-three kilometers, elevation minus four kilometers. I should reach Mir in twenty-four minutes.”
Yukari spoke with absolute confidence. Oleg had said that astronauts of all nations answered to a noble calling, and she liked the sound of that. To this point, she had dutifully followed whatever instructions the ground had given her, but real astronauts relied on their own judgment, made their own decisions, and carried them out. It felt good to be in control.
“Mir is directly ahead—bright, it looks like Venus. I hope they have a shower onboard. I wouldn’t mind a bite to eat either.”
“Nice going, Yukari. Everybody’s celebrating down here.” Even Matsuri was having trouble containing her excitement.
“They should be. An astronaut who’s never flown before doing an EVA and an on-orbit rendezvous in a one-manned spacecraft? This has to be some sort of record.”
“Hoi. Director Nasuda’s beside himself.”
“NASA only lets their top astronauts do EVAs. When I get back, maybe I’ll pay a visit to Houston and say hi.”
✦ ✦ ✦
[ACT 7]
✦ ✦ ✦
FROM A DISTANCE of a few kilometers, Mir looked like a white cross. It was impossible to gauge distance in the vacuum of space, so it appeared to hang there like a key chain dangling just outside the window.
Tampopo performed her apogee burn and made her final approach, coming in one hundred meters above Mir.
As Yukari oriented the capsule vertically above the station, the earth swung into view, its orb dusted with snow-white clouds, followed by Mir itself, which had been hidden during the final leg of the approach.
“Wow, it’s big.” Yukari was awestruck.
Mir had grown considerably in the ten years since its launch. With its two Kvant modules, Kristall modules, and docked Soyuz, it was a massive structure reaching over forty meters in length.
Yukari wrung the last bit of thrust out of Tampopo’s engine to maneuver toward the end of Mir’s Kristall-2 module, bringing the ship to a stop a few meters from the air lock.
“Mir, Tampopo. I’m in position.”
“Beautiful approach, Yukari. You are a natural.”
“Just doing my best.” Yukari felt her cheeks redden. “Mir is pretty big. I feel like a fly on an elephant’s tail.”
Oleg laughed. “I like this expression. Let me tell you about our home while Nikolai prepares to go out. Can you see the window I am in?”
“Um, where?”
“Two meters past the air lock, in the middle of a tangle of equipment.”
Yukari peered eagerly out of her capsule. She spotted a small round window surrounded by pipes and handholds—and in the window she saw Oleg. He was younger than she expected. His hair was wavy and blond. He had a slender face with chiseled features. In short, he was quite handsome.
“Do you see me?” asked Oleg.
“Yes, I see you. Can you see me?”
“Unfortunately it is too dark. I will have to wait.”
“What about Nikolai? Can he talk with us?”
“He is prebreathing in his space suit now.”
“You don’t have radios in your space suits?”
“No, it is not that. He is a little quiet, that’s all.”
Yukari cocked her head. She had never heard of a quiet astronaut. If anything, the ability to communicate and work together was something to be prized in the space program.
“Well, he is Russian,” Yukari said to herself. She had always harbored a little prejudice against Russians. “But he’s also a professional astronaut—I guess I can trust him.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Two hours later, the round door of the air lock swung open to reveal a figure in a bulky space suit.
“This is Commander Nikolai Belyayev. I have exited the air lock. Do you read me, Tampopo?” He spoke in a husky baritone. Whatever his reason for not joining in their conversation sooner, it wasn’t for a lack of English ability.
“I hear you loud and clear, Commander Belyayev.”
“I’m going to throw you a tether. Get out of your ship.”
“Roger.”
Yukari opened the hatch and boosted herself halfway out of the ship. A gold visor concealed Nikolai’s face. He tied a wrench to one end of the tether and threw it to Yukari. It sailed magically through the gap separating them, the tether trailing in an undulating wave. She caught the wrench and tied the tether to a handle on her now derelict craft.
“First we will take care of you. Oleg explained the workings of the air lock to you, yes?”
“He did.”
“Pull yourself here along the tether. Once you are in the air lock, I will finish securing your ship.”
“You don’t need me to help?”
“It is a one-man job.”
“Understood.”
Nikolai was not the friendliest of people.
A little nervous, Yukari headed for the air lock.