Dead Space: A Short Story (2 page)

“Is the Soyuz still on schedule?” Willmore asked, yanking Avery back to reality.

“Affirmative,” Houston responded. “The Russian crew will be there in two hours.”

“Copy that,” Willmore said. “Sorry for breaking protocol, but we appreciate having the peace of mind. You know how important that is up here.”

“We understand, Commander,” Houston replied.

Then, the ISS crew heard what sounded like screams coming from the background. They all looked at each other, a concerned expression evident, even in the always stoic Commander Willmore’s semblance.

“Houston? Houston?” Willmore asked.

“They’re here! It’s happening here!” the voice said, sounding terrified.

More screams in the background. Not just any screams, but what sounded like a group people devoured by complete mass hysteria. What terrified Avery was the fear in Houston’s voice when he said, “
they
are here.”

“Houston, come in!” Willmore yelled. Gunfire could be heard, as well as the confused screaming of people in pain.

“Houston? Come in, now!”

More screaming and then silence. Complete silence.

They were all stunned. Something or rather
someone
had attacked the Mission Control Center. While not exactly the Pentagon, it was still one of the most secure buildings in the world. Whatever or whoever had broken in had effectively disabled their only communications with planet Earth.

“What the hell is going on?” Willmore said, not really to anyone in particular. Willmore had spent some time in the military and he had seen combat action, but he had never been this scared in his life. His hands were shaking.

Samantha spoke up. “Commander, what do we do?”

Willmore looked at her and then turned to face Avery.

“Ryder, what did your wife say, exactly?”

“Just what I told you a few moments ago. The call was freezing, so she kept breaking up. She mentioned the words
dead
,
attack
and
careful
before the call died.”

“Did she say anything else?” Willmore asked.

“Just that it was happening all over, whatever
it
means.”

“How about your husband? Did he say anything?”

Samantha shook her head. “Not a word. He did look tense, but I thought it was just stress. Oh my God, do you think they’re okay? My babies!”

“Calm down, Sam,” Avery said and put his hand on her shoulder. “NASA said that our families were safe.”

“Did you not hear what just happened in Houston?” she snapped.

“We don’t know what we heard,” Avery said. He was trying to calm her down, but also trying to reassure himself. He knew that they had to come up with a plan of action, but acting on pure emotion would not yield any good plans. Ryder was good at that, at taking a moment to look at a problem and detaching himself from it. His wife wasn’t always a fan of that tactic. She repeatedly told him that she didn’t want him to fix the problem, but just to listen to her. Other times though, she did want him to fix it, which made Ryder even more confused.

“If Houston is not safe, do you think our families are?” Samantha yelled.

“We have to believe that somehow they’re okay,” Avery told her.

Samantha began to cry. “I’m gonna try calling my husband again,” she said, amidst tears, although they really couldn’t be called “tears.” Because of the zero gravity environment they were in, the tears became a large bubble that covered the sides of her nose.

“Yeah, you do that,” Avery said, although he knew that the chances of her reaching her husband were close to zero. If communication with Houston was gone, there was no way that anyone else could reach the ISS.

“Commander, what do we do now?” Avery asked.

Commander Willmore seemed to be in shock. Of all the scenarios he had prepared for, this wasn’t one of them. They had all heard the terrified screams of agony, the gunfire and the ominous last words;
they are here. It’s happening here.

Ryder understood the commander’s shock . He could only think of his wife, Veronica. She said that she was okay and Houston confirmed that their families were safe, but as Samantha pointed out, if Houston was gone, who’s to say their families had not been attacked, too? And what about his father? He had talked to him more than a week ago.

“What do you think is going on down there?” Willmore said, finally breaking his silence.

“I don’t know,” Avery said, taking a deep breath. “But if we can’t reestablish communications with Houston, protocol dictates that we abandon ship. We can take the escape Soyuz and be back home in four hours.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Willmore said.

“Look, I was trying to keep Sam from freaking out, but we need to get out of here. My wife is down there and I need to be with her,” Avery said.

“You are out of line talking to me like that,” Willmore said. “I am your commanding officer!”

“With all due respect sir, I don’t think any of that matters anymore. Did you not hear those screams? Did you not hear the gunfire? If NASA was overtaken by terrorists, then there’s no Houston, there’s no chain of command.”

Willmore was silent for a few seconds.

“There’s still a chain of command aboard the ISS,” he said, firmly.

“All I care about right now is my wife’s safety,” Avery said. He knew he was out of line and he knew that he would probably face repercussions once Houston regained control of the Mission Control Center, but he didn’t care.

“Listen, Avery, I have an ex-wife and three kids. I got people I love too, but we have a Russian team landing in a couple of hours. We can’t just leave them. Besides, they may have information about what the hell is going on down there.”

“Fine,” Avery said. “The minute the Russians get in I’m going to ask them about what’s happening and then I’m going to take our escape Soyuz and get the hell out of here. You and Samantha can come with me, or you can stay, but I’m leaving today.”

“Fair enough,” Willmore said. “I’m going to try to communicate with Commander Anton Ivanov. We should have been checking our systems for rendezvous an hour ago.”

“Our last contact with them was four hours ago,” Samantha said, joining them.

“Any luck reaching your husband?” Willmore asked.

She shook her head. “No response. It’s as if the entire planet has gone silent.” She wiped the giant tear blob that had now moved to her right cheek.

Willmore put on his headset again and tried reaching the Soyuz crew, but there was no response.

“I’m not liking this,” Avery said.

“Are the comms working?” asked Samantha.

Willmore nodded. He tried the Russian crew again. “Soyuz TMA-23M do you copy? This is Commander Willmore aboard the ISS, do you copy?”

Willmore took off his headset and put on the radio on speaker so that the rest of the crew could hear the call.

After a few seconds of silence, they could hear strange sounds in the background.

“Is that someone…moaning?” Avery asked.

“That’s what it sounds like to me,” Samantha said.

“Why don’t we try the Russian Mission Control Center in Moscow?” Avery said.

“Good idea,” Willmore replied. Obviously, he was still in a state of shock. As commander this should have been one of his first ideas.

“Mission Control Center, this is Commander Willmore aboard the ISS, do you copy?”

Again, just like in Houston, there was complete silence. A terrorist attack that targeted both Houston and Moscow was highly unlikely, and yet, this seemed to be exactly what had happened. It was hard to decipher the nature of the attack, but something catastrophic had certainly happened. Both Mission Control Centers seemed to be down indefinitely. The ISS was flying in the blind.

“Something terrible happened down there,” Samantha said. “Houston should have warned us.”

“I second that,” Avery said. “They should have told us the minute it happened.”

“They probably thought they had it under control,” Willmore said, still defending NASA, despite the likelihood that there was nothing left to defend.

“From what I gathered while talking to Veronica, it seems like whatever was going on had been happening for at least a few days, perhaps a week,” Avery took a deep breath before continuing. “When she said that it was happening all over, I thought she meant in Kansas where we live, and not in the whole world.”

Silence filled the room. Avery’s words had sunk in. If the 9/11 attacks had been unprecedented, then whatever had gone on today made the September 11
th
attacks look like a terrorist’s dress rehearsal.

“The Soyuz be here in the next hour,” Willmore said, breaking the deafening silence. “We need to get everything ready for docking.”

They all took their seats at the command station. Typically, Houston would relay all the information necessary to both the ISS and the Soyuz, but these were not typical circumstances. As far as the American astronauts were concerned, Houston was gone. If it was a terrorist attack, they had no doubt that the United States military would regain control, but how long would that take? What if they were holding people hostage? How long will this draw out?

“What’s their altitude?” Willmore asked.

“Cruising at 420 kilometers, sir,” Samantha said, looking at her computer screen.

“Houston should have alerted us that they were this close,” Willmore said. He then remembered the screams of horror, “But yeah, Houston is down.”

“What do you think happened?” Samantha asked.

Willmore didn’t respond.

“Some sort of attack,” Avery said. “Those were Veronica’s last words. That, coupled with what Houston said before being cut off, seems like some group or organization executed the most perfect terrorist attack in human history.”

By looking at the data in their computer screens, Avery knew that the Soyuz had performed the two Hohmann transfers necessary to reach the phasing orbit. This meant that someone down in the Moscow Command Center had relayed the latest calculations before the communications went dark. The next step would be for the Soyuz to issue the command for the docking probe extension. There was no way for Avery or for anyone on the ISS to know if the Soyuz had performed that crucial task, but they had to hope that they had. But the following steps were even more crucial for a successful docking. The Soyuz had to perform three precise engine burns, also known as the Bielliptic transfer. The first two burns would bring the Soyuz up to the ISS orbit, which it apparently had done already. The last engine burn, however, was the most important one. If the Soyuz did not reach the desire speed, that is if it went too fast, it would end up crashing into the ISS.

“How does their speed look?” Willmore asked.

“They’re still going too fast,” Avery said, looking at his monitor.

“They’re going to crash into us,” Willmore said almost in a whisper.

“No, they still have time to slow down,” Avery said.

“I concur with Avery,” Samantha said quietly.

“Negative,” Willmore said. “They’re going to crash and at this speed, we‘re all going to die.” With that, he left his post and began floating away.