Back To The Moon Part 16

"Roger that, Mercy I Mercy I."

"Approaching two point four kilometers per second!" Bill shouted as they reached the lunar escape velocity. Moving rapidly, the Altair rose to rejoin the now-empty Orion in lunar orbit.

"Did you feel that?" Tony asked Bill.

"Yes, I did!" Bill reached up and tapped the att.i.tude-control algorithm screen, bringing it to the front. The thrusters started firing rapidly, and the s.h.i.+p started rocking back and forth.

"Ahhh!" Hui shouted as she lost her handhold and slipped. "I'm falling!"

"Tony! Grab her!" Bill shouted. But Tony couldn't react fast enough to do anything. Fortunately for Hui, her tether pulled taut and stopped her from falling farther than just an arm's length outside into the lunar night. But she was dangling against the already rocking s.h.i.+p and throwing off the center of ma.s.s for the control algorithms to adjust correctly. Tony and Xu did their best to pull her back up and steady her.

"Houston! We've got rapid bang-bang corrections going on, forcing us to precess and rock like mad. Any suggestions?"

"We're working on it, Mercy I Mercy I, but it might take longer than it will take to get up to the Orion. Are the manual controls an option?"

"Roger that!" Bill replied. Are the manual controls an option h.e.l.l! Are the manual controls an option h.e.l.l! "Manual systems online. Pilot taking over in three, two, one!" Bill took the controls and fought against the rocking and bucking s.h.i.+p. "Manual systems online. Pilot taking over in three, two, one!" Bill took the controls and fought against the rocking and bucking s.h.i.+p. Bang, bang! Bang, bang, Bang, bang! Bang, bang! Bang, bang, Bang, bang! went the manual corrections he initiated through the joystick. For several moments it seemed as though Bill wouldn't be able to overcome the wild ride that the computer had generated for them. But finally he got the s.h.i.+p settled down enough that he could control it completely. went the manual corrections he initiated through the joystick. For several moments it seemed as though Bill wouldn't be able to overcome the wild ride that the computer had generated for them. But finally he got the s.h.i.+p settled down enough that he could control it completely.

"Houston, I'm gonna have to fly her up to Orion. There are orange and red lights popping up nonstop on my screens."

"Roger that, Mercy I Mercy I. Good luck."

"Did we do something to the s.h.i.+p that we shouldn't have?" Tony asked.

"Sure we did, but it didn't cause this. We've got either some software or electronics issues going on here," Bill said.

It was a long three hours of constant course correction and slipping and holding on and slipping again all the way up to the Orion. But Bill knew that he was just the man for the job. He had hours and hours of training time on this vehicle. Granted he'd never simulated flying it with holes in the sides and six pa.s.sengers aboard, but he was the most experienced at flying the s.h.i.+p.

After the second time that Hui had been tossed sideways and nearly out of the s.h.i.+p, she managed to use her tether to lash her left arm to a handhold.

It was a long long three hours. three hours.

The rendezvous with the Orion capsule went exactly as planned. The crew then transferred from the Altair to the capsule that would return them home.

Stetson surveyed the five-person crew that he would be responsible for bringing home. They were alive, but tired and dirty. This was the first time he noticed the stench coming from the open suits worn by the Chinese. They'd been living in their suits for days, and they reeked of body odor, urine, and fecal matter. They'd been able to vent the worst of the mess from their suits while the air in their lander had been kept warm by the makes.h.i.+ft Bunsen burner, but when the air got unbearably cold, they'd just "vented" into their suits.

Everyone's suits, except for Anthony Chow's, were covered with a layer of lunar dust, turning their previously pristine white appearance to dark gray.

"What a mess," Stetson told them as he surveyed the situation. "Okay. We all need to shed these suits and bag them quickly." He didn't want to offend the Chinese, who might not be aware of just how bad they really smelled, so he decided to use a plausible sounding, and totally accurate, alternate reason for asking them to remove their suits.

"You're all covered with lunar dust. We can't risk letting the dust get into Orion's systems, so we need to get them sealed up as soon as possible. Please strip them off and secure them as best you can against the aft wall." Lunar dust was formed from eons of meteorite impacts, and each piece was more like a multi-spiked ball than its well-weathered Earthly cousins. It stuck to everything, and letting much get into the Orion's cabin simply posed too great a risk to its electronic systems.

The first to enter the Orion was Bill Stetson. After checking the s.h.i.+p's...o...b..ard systems, he went back into the Altair and scanned the rest of his crew. He cycled them in and then pressurized the cabin. They each began getting out of their suits.

"Captain Hui, we brought one change of clothes for you and each member of your crew. This is one case where knowing a little about each of you ahead of time came in handy. Here are packages with your names on them. They contain the clothing and a few other items your people thought you would need. Also, there are antiseptic wipes available."

Hui smiled and then replied, "I am not by nature a very modest person, Captain Stetson, but I understand the indelicate situation in which we find ourselves, and I will, of course, efficiently work the problem." With that, she and the rest proceeded to strip. They then placed the filthy suits in garment bags, sealed them, and stowed them as best they could.

Hui looked like a different person without her bulky s.p.a.cesuit and dressed in a fresh flight suit. Chow had changed into his flight suit, and both Xu and Zhi were clad in clean undergarments provided. They'd also managed to get Ming into his fresh flight suit. Each of them had bathed with the wipes as best they could.

"Gentlemen and lady, welcome aboard the Orion."

Stetson helped Dr. Xu transfer the limp body of Ming Feng into one of the four chairs anch.o.r.ed to the floor of the capsule that would return them home. The chairs were arranged two on each side, one above the other with an aluminum deck below each of the top two seats. Open s.p.a.ce separated each pair of seats, allowing movement between them.

Stetson buckled Ming into a seat on the lower deck.

The four remaining astronauts pulled themselves through the ring and floated into whatever open s.p.a.ce they could find available in the very cramped interior of the Orion.

Zhi, still mostly keeping to himself, managed to be the last person to enter the Orion from the Altair. Immediately after pa.s.sing through the airlock, he launched himself like a torpedo toward the lower decking and the chair into which the pilot had been strapped, narrowly missing a collision with Dr. Xu in the process. His rapid movement distracted everyone from seeing what he had curled in his hands that he then rapidly tucked away behind the Orion's lower right seat: a .45 caliber revolver.

"Ming's got one seat," Bill said. "I need one during the Trans-Earth Injection burn and reentry. Each of you two will have to share one. After TEI, we can take turns with two people hanging around until they get a chance to buckle in for a while."

Hui looked at Chow, shrugged her shoulders, and motioned to one of the available seats. Taking the cue, Chow moved to the seat and motioned for Hui to take it. She pulled her weightless self into the seat. He then followed by wedging himself next to her and using the seat belt to fasten them both down.

Dr. Xu and the still-silent Zhi moved to the only remaining seat and rather awkwardly buckled themselves in as well.

About thirty minutes later, there was another countdown and then the engine on the service module ignited, giving them the impulse required to return the s.h.i.+p to Earth. The maneuver was short, lasting only long enough to give the s.h.i.+p the speed required for them to be on a course for home.

Stetson spoke just after the engines shut down. "It's been a long day. Unless anyone objects, I'm going to dim the lights and take a nap."

No one objected. Though they all peered out the window at the Moon one long, last time.

The rest of that day was uneventful. Though they were restless and crowded, the mood was generally upbeat. After all, they had all gone to the Moon, and it looked like everyone was going to make it home. There was good reason to be upbeat.

Hui chatted frequently with her Chinese colleagues back on Earth, speculating on what might have gone wrong with the Harmony Harmony and caused it to crash. She repeatedly tried to engage Zhi in the discussions-without success. and caused it to crash. She repeatedly tried to engage Zhi in the discussions-without success.

Dr. Xu almost never left the side of Ming, fretting constantly about his condition and speculating on why he had not regained consciousness. He, too, engaged in protracted discussions on the radio; his were mainly with Chinese physicians who were monitoring Ming's condition from afar. Chow was often right there with him, checking Ming's vital signs and engaging in similar discussions with his American counterparts in Houston.

Stetson purposefully remained somewhat aloof, watching the crew with interest and silently a.s.sessing them. His conversations with mission control were strictly business, and he never missed an opportunity to speak with his wife and children.

Chapter 26.

The alarm sounded but didn't exactly jolt him awake. Bill was strapped into the commander's seat, his seat, and had been out for more than three hours. He was in the midst of a very good dream about his wife on a beach, and there were very few clothes involved. Then the alarms sounded and men came in and pulled him away to respond to some emergency. The alarm continued to sound.

"What's that?" He finally snapped awake and immediately started scanning the screen in front of him. He had to squint, because he was extremely tired and hadn't slept much since the whole mission began. Now they were more than a half day into their journey back to Earth.

Momentarily disoriented, Chow stirred himself awake in the adjacent couch. He looked around, and Bill figured he was doing the same thing he had done. He was probably trying to figure out where the heck he was.

"Rise and s.h.i.+ne. Looks like another day, er, night at the office," Bill said.

"Huh?" Bill could see that his colleague finally realized he was on the Orion s.p.a.cecraft somewhere in the depths of s.p.a.ce between the Moon and Earth and that an alarm was blaring at them. And in some way or other, that alarm probably meant something was trying to kill them in some form or fas.h.i.+on. Chow looked quickly over at Bill, who was smiling right back at him.

"Bill, what's going on?" he asked nervously.

"I'm not sure yet," Stetson said. "Won't be long for Houston chimes in, I guess."

Right on cue, the communication icon flashed and chimed.

"Mercy I, this is Houston. We're seeing a problem with one of your solar arrays. Are you seeing it as well?"

"Uh, checking it," Stetson replied.

"Something wrong?" Hui floated up next to them.

"Not sure yet, Hui," Tony said to her.

"Might as well rest until we figure it out, Hui. Nothing you can do right now," Bill added. "Though my guess is that we've got an EVA coming up."

"Mercy I, any word on that solar array?"

"Copy that, Houston. We see it. It's the same one we had trouble with on the way out."

"That's what telemetry is showing us, over."

"d.a.m.n. And I was having a good dream, too." Bill stretched as best he could and pulled up the diagnostics for the solar array. "At least we've got experience with the thing this time."

"Right. I can do the EVA," Tony offered.

"Don't jump the gun. Maybe we can get her started up."

"Batteries are kicking in, just like on the way out," Chow grunted.

Bill continued to scan through the diagnostics while Tony kept his eyes on the status board. With the array not pointing at the sun, the onboard batteries had to come online in order to maintain the s.h.i.+p's systems, including life support. With six crewmembers in the Orion now, that would tax the batteries far more quickly than they were designed for. The carbon-dioxide scrubbers were already running full bore.

"Houston, the same array appears to have seized and is not moving," Stetson said. He looked at Chow and then back at the diagnostics screen.

Chow could see that Stetson was concerned. Without maximum power from the arrays, the s.h.i.+p would have to rely on batteries to make up the difference. There was probably enough power from the batteries to allow the craft to return all six of them back to Earth. Probably. Bill didn't like "probably."

When the panel stuck on the way to the Moon, the concern had been that they would not have enough power to go into lunar orbit and land. Without landing they could not have rescued the stranded Chinese taikonauts. If they had followed the book, the mission would have been over; they would've survived, flown around the Moon, and all the Chinese would've died a cold, lonely death on the lunar surface.

Now the problem wasn't to rescue the Chinese from the Moon. It was how to get them and Tony and himself back to Earth safely. And to do that, they had to have those solar panels working.

"Tony, let's run it by the numbers just like last time," Stetson ordered. "We know how well that worked."

"Makes sense to me," Tony agreed. "Who knows, maybe it'll work this time."

"Houston. We're going to power down the array-control system and restart. I'm pulling up the reboot procedure now. Do you concur?"

"We concur. Reboot will take approximately twenty minutes. We'll be running the simulations in parallel. If we come up with something else you need to know, we'll be in touch."

"Roger that. Mercy I Mercy I out." With that, Stetson began reviewing the manual restart procedure for the solar-array pointing system. "You know, I'll bet there's one of them d.a.m.ned Chinese circuit boards in that thing that screwed us on the test flight." out." With that, Stetson began reviewing the manual restart procedure for the solar-array pointing system. "You know, I'll bet there's one of them d.a.m.ned Chinese circuit boards in that thing that screwed us on the test flight."

"No way to know that," Tony said.

"Well, when we get home I'm looking into it."

Twenty minutes later, Stetson went about the motions to complete the sequence that would completely power down the solar-array pointing system and then restart it. The system rebooted, and the drivers started reloading.

On the way out, Bill had managed to flub several key entries and had to redo them. This time it went smoothly. Bill entered the last keystrokes and then leaned back.

"Nothing to do now but wait a minute or two." There was just the silence of the crew compartment and the recirculating fans.

"Any luck?" Hui floated quietly up between Bill and Tony unexpectedly. The two of them nearly jumped out of their skins. "Sorry to have startled you."

"I thought you were going back to sleep." Bill's statement sounded like an order.

"Sounded like too much excitement up here to miss out on."

"Dang." Stetson hung his head. Same result as on the way out to the Moon. Nothing happened. "Houston, the reboot is complete. No change. I'm afraid we're gonna have to go out and kick the tires."

"It looks the same down here, Bill. Be advised that we've run the simulation down to the milliwatt. With the six of you in there, you need that pane working. You are still a long way from home."

"Understood, Houston." Bill sighed. "Looks like we're gonna start suiting up for an EVA in here."

"What seems to be the problem?" Dr. Xu floated up behind Hui.

"A solar panel is stuck and not generating enough power," Hui explained to the Chinese doctor. "We must all get in our s.p.a.cesuits so Captain Stetson can go outside and fix it."

"That's right. Everybody has to b.u.t.ton up so I can go outside and fix this thing. Tony, we'll do it the same as before." Stetson pushed away from the console and leaned back in his couch. He was still strapped in.

"Bill, I can go this time," Tony interjected.

"No. Not because I don't think you can do it, Tony." Bill paused so he would get his words right. "The first time I kicked at the thing, I almost fell off. I know where to stand now and how to do it right the first time without as much risk. I'm now trained to do this. You aren't."

Stetson gave Tony a look that meant the debate was over. He was certain Tony understood why. It was the look that intimidated almost everyone who came into his presence. Bill never really even understood how effective that look was on people. He was just Bill Stetson. The look was just his I'm serious here I'm serious here look. But to anybody else, it meant look. But to anybody else, it meant Get out of my way. I have something important to do, and you ain't gonna keep me from doing it, because I'm Bill Stetson Get out of my way. I have something important to do, and you ain't gonna keep me from doing it, because I'm Bill Stetson.

"Roger that. I'll get the procedure pulled up while y'all get in your suits. Then I'll get suited up." They all had to wear their suits because the Orion didn't have an airlock. When either the main hatch or the docking hatch opened, it exposed the s.h.i.+p to the vacuum of s.p.a.ce and all the air in the crew cabin would vent. That meant that everyone in the cabin had to wear their s.p.a.cesuits for an EVA, even if they weren't the ones going outside. Had they not had to modify the Altair, which was still docked with them, the pa.s.sengers could have just gone into the Altair during this EVA. But that option was out, as there were two one-meter long by half-meter wide holes in one of its walls.

One of the big issues was the status of the Chinese s.p.a.cesuits. They were a mess. It took them fifteen or so minutes just to get them out of the bags and cleaned up to a level that was tolerable for use. And tolerable tolerable was a word with a very broad definition. They were tolerable in that if the Chinese taikonauts didn't put them on, they were all going to die. Funny how the definition of was a word with a very broad definition. They were tolerable in that if the Chinese taikonauts didn't put them on, they were all going to die. Funny how the definition of tolerable tolerable changed when one's life depended upon it.... changed when one's life depended upon it....

Forty minutes later, Hui, Xu, and Zhi were in their suits and had manhandled their injured colleague into his. Stetson and Chow were ready to begin the EVA. Once Bill was certain that everyone had checked and rechecked each other's suits, all according to procedure, and had "safed" any loose materials within the Orion, he gave the order to move out with the plan. Once the atmosphere was removed from the Orion, Stetson would be able to open the door and begin his EVA. The last thing they wanted was for some vital piece of hardware to float out the door with him.

"Tony, we're down to minimum atmospheric pressure, and I am about to open the door. Are you ready?"

"Roger that, Bill. Just call if you need me."

"Will do." Stetson smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "But I think this'll be quick and easy. I should be back inside in just a few minutes."

"The dashboard shows decompression and a green light for opening the hatch," Tony acknowledged.

"Good." Bill reached down and forcefully pulled the door release, opening the cabin to s.p.a.ce. Without so much as a swoosh, the door opened and they were all exposed to vacuum. Stetson pushed and gently eased himself out the door, careful not to bang his pack against the hatch-seal ring. Once his arms cleared the hatch, he snapped the loose end of the safety tether from his s.p.a.cesuit into place on the hull of the s.h.i.+p.

Been there and bought the T-s.h.i.+rt, Stetson told himself as he felt the rea.s.suring snap of the tether to the fitting. On his previous EVA to fix the solar array, he recalled that he had experienced, albeit very briefly, a slight bout of vertigo. With the star field, sun, and Earth rotating around his field of view, he knew that the s.h.i.+p was spinning. This time, he didn't take the time to look around and managed to avoid being disoriented. Stetson told himself as he felt the rea.s.suring snap of the tether to the fitting. On his previous EVA to fix the solar array, he recalled that he had experienced, albeit very briefly, a slight bout of vertigo. With the star field, sun, and Earth rotating around his field of view, he knew that the s.h.i.+p was spinning. This time, he didn't take the time to look around and managed to avoid being disoriented.