Time marched relentlessly on. Houston was in charge of watching the clock and counting off the seconds.
“Orpheus is approaching two hundred thirty climbers behind you. Atlantis, you have fifty seconds until OMS burn.”
“All systems are ready,” Berkheimer confirmed from the shuttle.
“Atlantis, thirty seconds until OMS burn.”
“We’re ready to fire. Norman, Gordon, you two sitting down out there?”
“You bet we’re sitting.”
“Atlantis, start your sequence. Ignition in ten seconds…four…three…two…ignition.”
A jolt passed through the shuttle, and they felt a gentle weight pressing on their backs.
“Houston, this is Atlantis. We have a confirmed OMS burn.”
“This is Mangosteen. No unusual vibration in here.”
“Roger that. Orpheus is approaching the hundred-seventy-kilometer mark. Three minutes forty-five seconds until separation.”
The sound of the engines firing was barely audible through the ship vibrations, despite the fact that seven tons of force were being generated just a few meters away.
“Norman, Gordon, you still sitting down?”
“We’re both doing great.”
“Atlantis, Mangosteen. One minute until burn completion.”
I wonder what they’re up to?
Yukari took a look through the periscope, but something was in the way, and she couldn’t see the two NASA astronauts outside. If she said anything to them now, Atlantis and the entire space communications network would hear. But there was no guarantee that they would be able to communicate at all after separation.
Yukari bit her lip.
I waited too long, and now I missed my moment.
“Atlantis and Mangosteen. Twenty seconds until burn completion.”
“Houston, this is Mangosteen. We are ready to fire engines. All systems are go.” Yukari lifted the cover on the sequencer activation switch and held her finger over it.
“All crew prepare for weightlessness. I’ll count it down. Weightlessness in five…four…three…one…complete burn now, begin separation!”
“The lines are free,” Norman said almost immediately. “Atlantis, begin evasive maneuvers.”
In the periscope protruding from the bottom of the orbiter, Yukari saw the payload bay drop away into the distance. Then she saw the two wings, the engine housing, the nose—the entire shuttle—drifting away, becoming lost in the giant blue sphere of the earth.
“Separation complete. Mangosteen, begin!”
Yukari pressed the activation switch.
This time, the sound of the engine was a roar, the vibrations more intense.
That’s more like it.
“This is Mangosteen. Sequence started. OMS firing. Everything’s looking good.” Yukari kept her finger on the talk button. “Norman, Gordon, Luis, Captain Berkheimer, thank you all. And I’m sorry about earlier. You’re the bravest, coolest people I know. We’ll try not to let you down.”
Akane’s eyes opened wide.
Yukari stared at the instrument panel, muttering to herself. “I can’t believe I said it. Must be the adrenaline.”
✦ ✦ ✦
A PHONE CALL came into the control center for Mukai.
“What? What? Just calm down. Tell me everything in order.”
Whoever was on the other end, they were panicking.
“What? The Cdb settings…three whole steps! What about max temperature? Sixteen hundred seventy degrees? Are you kidding me?” The color drained from Mukai’s face.
“What is it?” Kinoshita asked.
“Our atmospheric resistance coefficients were off—er, that is—”
“Bottom line, please.”
“If Mangosteen reenters the atmosphere at its currently predicted speed, it’s going to disintegrate.”
“For real?”
Every controller within earshot turned around.
“They ran it through simulations on three models—apparently the bad numbers in the constant database came from a copy/paste error. I’m sorry, this is my fault!”
“Hoi? Did someone say disintegration?” Matsuri asked.
“Say nothing to those two up there,” Kinoshita told her quickly.
“Hoi…”
“What do we do?” Mukai wailed, his mouth twisting. “They’re nearly entirely out of fuel—”
“The first thing we do,” Kinoshita said, “is calm down. They’re already in their orbit. We can’t change that now. We have to proceed with the mission as planned and use what time remains to figure out a way to get them back through the atmosphere safely. This is on us now.”
“We’ve already determined optimal reentry path, and it’s disastrous.”
“What’s going on? Something wrong?” Nasuda had noticed the commotion on the floor and come out of the observation room.
Kinoshita explained the situation, but Nasuda did not appear particularly moved. “I see,” was all he said. While outspoken when it was time to celebrate, Nasuda kept all other emotions in check. “What if we pulled them up a little, had them come in shallower.”
“That won’t work. They’d just bounce off the atmosphere and come back at an even steeper angle.”
“Any chance of stealing fuel from Orpheus? It’s using hydrazine too, isn’t it?”
“Well—”
“Impossible,” Kinoshita said. “The tank on Orpheus is semipermanently sealed due to the long distance it has to travel.”
Nasuda grunted and thought for a while before saying, “I don’t want them to know about this yet. Tell Houston everything. They’re going to have to beef up the recovery team.”