THEY USUALLY WENT home immediately after their work was done, but now the girls had to wait until their orbit took them back to the ocean near the Solomon Islands. With the abruptness of their mission, there hadn’t been time to properly mobilize retrieval teams.
That would be another eleven hours, or another twenty-four if they wanted to avoid a splashdown at night. Now came the tough part: killing time. Since they were already there, Yukari and Akane decided to spend that time lounging in the shuttle. The two girls sat by the rear observation window, nibbling on freeze-dried strawberries and observing the progress toward the Orpheus launch.
Norman and Gordon were out there now in their space suits, fiddling with the engine and making adjustments.
“This is incredibly nerve-racking to watch. I mean, it takes them minutes just to pick up a new tool,” Yukari muttered.
“It’s not their fault.”
“I know that. It’s just, it’s hard to sit here and do nothing. I want to be out there helping them.”
“I’m not sure they’d appreciate that. Guys don’t like being helped.”
“It’s a little late for that,” Yukari said, but she understood well enough. This was their chance to reclaim their honor. Even she knew better than to take that away from them.
In truth, the NASA astronauts’ patience and stamina were astounding. Each trip outside lasted several hours, and while they had water and some candy inside their helmets to keep their energy up, they never took anything like a break. That, and just moving your arm in one of those space suits was like doing a rep with a heavy dumbbell in weight training.
I could never do what they’re doing, Yukari thought.
✦ ✦ ✦
Disaster struck five hours after the girls’ arrival on the shuttle. They were on middeck at the time. The intercom monitoring the two astronauts’ conversation squawked with static.
“What the hell—”
“Get down!”
Akane and Yukari quickly made their way to the upper deck to find the captain and Luis glued to the rear observation window.
“You two okay?” the captain shouted into his intercom. Yukari peeked over his shoulder at the window and her mouth dropped open.
Orpheus and the upper-stage engine were gone.
The payload bay was entirely empty, save for Norman and Gordon who were drifting around just outside of it.
“We’re okay.” It was Norman. “I felt a little gas pressure, but life support’s all good. Just, we lost it. Godamnit! We lost it!”
“Try to calm down, Norman. I want you back in the ship. We’ll think of a way to deal with this.”
“What happened?” Yukari asked.
“The upper-stage engine fired. Luckily, no one was hurt.”
“What, it exploded?”
“No, it fired. Something caused it to start a thrust.”
A call came in from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Atlantis, this is Houston. We saw what happened. Do you have a report?”
“Houston, we have an accident. No injuries or life lost. I’m bringing our two men outside back into the shuttle. I’ll send more details once I’ve had a chance to talk with them.”
“The engine burn’s stopped,” Luis said. He was standing by the window, tracking Orpheus with a pair of binoculars. “It was a controlled burn, looks like—and it’s gone. I’ve lost visual contact.”
“Norman, you copy?” the captain asked.
“We can talk. We’re inside the air lock.”
“Did you check the tag? Can Orpheus be remotely controlled?”
“No remote control. The safety tag was still on.”
“Can you confirm, Gordon?”
“I saw the tag with my own eyes. We checked it before releasing the restraints on the probe.”
“Any idea how the engine could’ve fired?”
“You got me.”
“Houston, this is Atlantis. Something caused Orpheus’s engines to fire while the safety tag was still on. It was a controlled burn, lasting roughly three minutes. That’s all we know at present.”
“Roger. We’re checking Orpheus’s telemetry. We’ll let you know as soon as we find something.”
Yukari went back to middeck. She wanted to know what was going on, but now was not the time to interrupt. The air lock hatch opened and Norman came out. He closed the hatch behind him and found the intercom. “You’re clear to come in, Gordon.”
The nameplate on the left arm of the space suit was scorched black and half of his visor was clouded.
“Norman! Are you all right?” Yukari asked.
“I’m fine.”
His face dripped with sweat, and there was a hard look in his eyes. And something else too—anger. Norman began undoing his gear.
“Can I help with anything?” Yukari asked.
“Nothing I want your help with.”
“I’m okay with sweat, and urine.”
He glanced at her. “Then hold up the bottom half of my suit.”
Yukari got a grip on Norman’s legs while he began undoing the connector with the torso. The space suit split into two halves. He took off his liquid cooling garment until he was in his undershirt and MAG. The letters stood for Maximum Absorbency Garment—basically a glorified diaper astronauts wore during liftoff, landing, and extravehicular activities to absorb urine. The smell of sweat filled the deck.
“Are you injured? Any bruises?”
“I’m okay. The blast only hit me for a second,” Norman said as he slipped on his shipwear. “Any word on Orpheus?”
“The burn went for three minutes, and by then it was out of sight.”
“Three minutes?” Norman bit his lip.
“What does it mean?”
“A three-minute burn isn’t enough to break the probe from orbit, but it makes it very difficult—if not impossible—for the shuttle to retrieve it.”
“Can I ask another question?”
“What?”
“What’s the safety tag?”
“It’s a nonconductive strip that keeps the controller from accidentally activating the engine. Orpheus is wirelessly controllable, but we keep the tag on until it’s completely prepared for launch to avoid an accident. As long as the tag’s on there, nothing like this should ever have happened.”
“So you can’t remote control it and slow it down now?”
“Most likely not. You’d think if it was malfunctioning, we might have a chance, but that’s too much to hope for.” Norman turned to go to the upper deck.
“Norman—”
“Later.”
Yukari’s mouth snapped shut.
Akane came down the hatch as soon as Norman was through.
“Oh, no, Yukari! What do we do?” She had tears in her eyes again, like a dam ready to crack wide open.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s my fault. When I went into the engine space to retrieve the valve I must have broken something. That’s what happened! How will I ever face Dr. O’Reilly?”
“H-hey!” Akane pressed her face to Yukari’s chest and cried.
“Just hold on. Do you remember breaking anything?”
“No…but I’m sure I touched the truss in at least a few places. It was hard to avoid.”
“It’s not that easy to break an engine, Akane. You know they’re built to withstand quite a bit of heat and vibration.”
Akane nodded, sniffing.
“There’s still hope. Just try to stay calm. I want to see those ‘I can do anything’ eyes of yours, okay?”
Akane stopped crying.
“Or else I’ll have to take you off active duty.”
Akane hiccuped for a little while longer, then gave a nod.