Back in the living area she paused for a moment when she saw the two men seated there waiting for her. She would have come to a complete stop if she hadn’t already been floating in their direction. It was hard to freeze on the spot in zero gravity.
So this was Commander Belyayev. Out of his suit, the bulky Russian looked more like a bear than a man. He had black hair, thick eyebrows, and sideburns on a square face. He was a bit older than Oleg—maybe in his mid-forties, she guessed.
“Yukari Morita reporting,” she introduced herself. “Thanks for the help out there.”
Nikolai glared at her for a moment and said simply, “Good morning.”
Mir ran on Moscow time, which made it six in the morning.
Yukari swallowed. Maybe he’s grumpy in the morning? Or maybe his blood pressure’s just low because he’s been up here so long.
Oleg glanced between the two of them and cleared his throat. “Welcome, Yukari, to our humble abode. Here, have a seat. You will want to tuck your toes under the handle there on the floor. It is breakfast time. I hope our food is to your liking.”
She sat down next to Oleg in the seat indicated. It felt odd having to bend her legs to fit on the chair, but once she was seated the arrangement felt much more like a conventional table, and the two cosmonauts much more like family.
“Should be about ready!”
Oleg lifted up the table lid, revealing an electric heating unit inside, with pockets for small cans and small tubes along an outer ring that were cool to the touch.
She took the can offered to her and pulled the tab to open the lid, revealing a brownish, gloopy substance inside. Wincing, she took a whiff and was overpowered by an intense smell of garlic. “What the…”
“Beef stroganoff!”
She set the can aside and reached for one of the tubes, but when she opened the lid, the stench of garlic assailed her nostrils again.
“And this is?”
“Borscht! It is a Russian specialty.”
Yukari shook her head. Considering the cost of transportation, this meal must have been insanely expensive. I can’t exactly refuse it, she thought, watching as Nikolai began working the gloop in the can with his spoon.
A call from TsUP broke the uneasy silence in the cabin. Oleg answered. After speaking in Russian for a while, he turned to them and said, “Yukari, you have a call from Solomon mission control. I told them you were eating, but they insist.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll talk to them,” she replied, hoping her relief wasn’t too obvious. She looked around for a moment, wondering where to set her spoon. Nikolai pointed toward a small magnetic plate on one corner of the table. Nodding, Yukari let her spoon clamp on to the magnet. She unhooked herself from the floor handle with her toes and floated up toward the ceiling, turning as she went to face the wireless communicator set into the wall.
✦ ✦ ✦
[ACT 2]
✦ ✦ ✦
“GET READY, WE’RE going live.”
Mission control was packed with Japanese television reporters. The man speaking to Yukari was a producer chosen to represent the group. Director Nasuda wanted to take full advantage of the media, so when the press corps made a request, he bent over backward to accommodate them.
“And here we go in three…two…one.”
A burst of applause filled the control room as the grainy image from the Russian space station appeared on the main screen.
Yukari waved at the wide-angle lens. “How’s it going down there? Can you see me?”
“Hoi, you look good, Yukari!” Matsuri was her usual chipper self.
“Everything up here is shipshape. We were right in the middle of a welcome party when you called.”
“I hope you’re getting something to eat. You can’t work on an empty stomach.”
“This Russian food though—gag me.”
“What’s it like?”
“You wouldn’t believe—”
“Let me talk to her,” interrupted Kinoshita. “Yukari, I want to go over our plans for getting you home.”
“Sure, okay.”
“Right now we’re preparing the third ship for launch. Unfortunately, the orbiter won’t be able to reach Mir by relying on remote commands alone. We’re going to need to downlink data from Mir’s docking radar to mission control here in the Solomons and uplink that to the orbiter to guide it in. Understood?”
“I think so. I don’t know what it’s going to take for Mir to do that though.”
“Could you put their commander on?”
“Sure, hang on.”
Nikolai appeared on the screen and began discussing the situation with Kinoshita in English.
The television producer leaned over and whispered to Director Nasuda. “This is no good. We need to get Yukari back on.”
“Patience, patience,” replied Nasuda with a winning smile. “It’s not as though you have to break for commercial anytime soon.”
“No, but if the audience loses interest—”
“Look, we haven’t gotten a formal reply from the Russians yet, so we want to pave the way by getting in good with their commander. It’ll just take a minute.”
“Let’s hope so. We’ve got Catching Up with the Moritas after this.”
“I know, I know. Once we get this business out of the way, she’s yours for as long as you like.”