THE EMERGENCY CALL from TsUP came at 11:40 AM Solomon Islands time, the day after the launch.
“What do you mean Mir is breaking up?” Director Nasuda shouted into the phone. “I want answers, and I want them now!”
“We don’t know what’s happened yet. All of the station’s systems are off-line, and the explosive bolts connecting the Kristall-2 module have fired.”
“What kind of death trap are you people trying to pass off as a space station?”
“Each module is designed so it can be jettisoned in the event of an emergency. At this stage we’re not sure why that’s happened.”
“What about Yukari? Is she all right?”
“Yukari…Yukari was in Kristall-2 when it was jettisoned.”
“What?” Director Nasuda went pale. “Then get out there and rescue her! Your cosmonauts, they’re still alive?”
“They underwent rapid decompression and suffered some burns, but they survived. They’re evacuating in the Soyuz capsule now. Yukari was in her space suit at the time of the incident, so there’s a chance she’s still alive too.”
“You have to send your Soyuz to pick her up.”
“That is impossible.”
“Why?”
“The Soyuz has only enough fuel for the return trip. Even if she were right on top of them, you know how much fuel it takes to make a rendezvous.”
“All you have to do is get her back to Mir. The next ship can bring them back.”
“We don’t know what condition Mir is in. And even if we wanted to do an inspection, Nikolai and Oleg boarded the Soyuz without their space suits. With Mir off the table, we have to bring the Soyuz home.”
“Dammit!” Director Nasuda slammed the phone down.
“Yukari already used up twenty minutes of her backpack during the EVA,” said Kinoshita. “That leaves forty minutes. An hour if we stretch it.”
“Can we send the third ship to get her?”
Kinoshita nodded. “It’ll be close…We can just make a rendezvous. But without someone at the controls, we won’t be able to dock. If Mir can’t guide us in, the closest we can get is a couple of kilometers.”
Yukari’s space suit wasn’t equipped with thrusters, so they would have to pull up right on top of her.
“Hoi, then I can pilot the ship,” said Matsuri. “I just need to find Kristall-2 and take Yukari back to Mir. She can hold on to the outside of the capsule.”
“But we don’t even know if Mir is safe,” said Director Nasuda.
“The Soyuz can hold one more.”
“It’s no good. The Soyuz doesn’t have an air lock, so they’d have to let the air out of the capsule to bring Yukari aboard, and the cosmonauts don’t have space suits.”
“Right now, our only option is to use Mir as a lifeboat,” said Kinoshita. “It will take fifteen minutes to get Matsuri on board and launch the rocket, then another thirty to rendezvous if we wait until perigee for the main booster burn. Unorthodox, but it should work.”
“Can the main booster handle that?”
“Absolutely,” said Motoko. “It has an idle burn mode.”
“When did you add that?” asked Director Nasuda. Brushing his own question aside, he continued. “You’re up, Matsuri. Sorry for the short notice. Satsuki, get her suited up and on the launchpad.”
✦ ✦ ✦
[ACT 8]