Orbital Maneuvers (28 page)

“Owning such aircraft is not a cheap proposition,” Nicholas commented, looking at Alexander.

“No, it isn’t,” Susan continued.  “This guy had the money, the time and the skills to do it, and he enjoyed it.  The F-4 was a trainer, and as a trade-off for my time helping him work on it and his other planes, he taught me to fly it.  We actually did the air show circuit for a few summers with it and had a ball!”

“So, how did you get to fly the shuttle from there?” Nicholas asked, being more impatient than his commander and wanting to cut to the meat of the story.

Susan began to help Paul pick up the empty food bags as she continued her story.  “I graduated with a degree in physics and aeronautical engineering.  I had over two thousand hours of flying time logged in single-engine aerobatic planes plus another five hundred in twin engine, about three hundred of those were in the Phantom.  I started looking seriously for work and was picked up by a small company that spun-off from one of the major military aviation manufacturers.  They had a really neat design that they were trying to develop.  It was a small, high-performance jet that was cheap enough to fit a lot of civilian applications, but could also be used by the military as a trainer.  That was their main target.  I got a lot of time in the air there with the prototype, as well as a chance to do some really interesting design work.  After three or four years there, I had an itch for something a bit faster, and I happened to hit the NASA website one day.  After reading the qualifications for a pilot-astronaut, I thought I would give it a try.”

“What happened to the company you were working for?” Alexander asked, before Nicholas could get the words past another mouthful of food.

“They folded because of defense cut-backs and a soft civilian market.  It was really too bad, because the plane they had designed was a real joy to fly.  It had the performance that would satisfy most civilian jet-jockey wannabes.  And, it was very reasonable to maintain.  In contrast, I shudder when I think about how much it cost to keep that F-4 in the air.”

Nicholas chuckled and nodded to Alexander.  “So, she never had the pleasure of a full military education into the world of jet flight.  You missed out on so much,” he said.

“Yes, like waking up at three in the morning to fly wing to a general who needs to keep his hours up and suffers from insomnia!” said Alexander.

“I was thinking more about the ten thousand touch-and-go maneuvers I did one day in a MIG-23, with my commander screaming in my headset that I was never going to have a flying career because my line-ups were sloppy!” Nicholas added, as he finished off his last piece of dinner.

Susan looked at Ivan and asked, “Well, don’t you have a horror story or two to tell, also?”

Ivan smiled and shook his head.  “No, my flight training went smoothly.  I did what I was told and nothing more, to stay out of trouble, that is.”

Susan laughed.  “I’m not so sure I believe that!” she said.  “Well, you gentlemen have just confirmed that I took the best path to space.  In fact, you’re beginning to sound like my brothers!”

Alexander gave Susan a hefty pat on the back.  “Well, Susan, you have my utmost confidence in your flying abilities!  You definitely would not be here if you were not qualified.  And, I dare say, Ivan would not fly with you if he did not trust your abilities.” Ivan smiled and gave Alexander a nod of thanks.

“I would hope, one day, to be as good a pilot as Ivan has proven to be,” Susan added.  “He is a testament to the benefits of doing it the right way.” This brought a round of jeers toward Ivan and a good laugh for all.

Susan noticed that Paul had been very quiet through most of the meal, not saying much but politely smiling at the right time.  She knew that Paul must be in tremendous pain, but she was glad to have him there with the group. 
Much better than being alone
, she thought.  She toyed with the idea of dragging him into the light conversation, but thought better of it after studying him for a while.  Susan knew he would join in when he felt ready. 

Paul had been watching the clock.  He figured that they should be getting close to crossing the latitude of the impact zones.  While Susan continued her discussion with the rest of the group, he made his way over to the computer monitor that was mounted on one side of the module.  After a few entries on the keyboard, he was able to have the data from the console he had been working on in the command module relayed to this station. 

He carefully watched the radar display and glanced occasionally at the visual image, as he was trying to pinpoint their position over the planet and finally realized that they were crossing over Turkey.  The radar image was beginning to show higher concentration of debris as they continued on.  The image on the screen also began to show more clouds forming: dirty clouds, not the water-laden clouds he would rather see.  He called the group’s attention to these developments and invited them to see for themselves how the debris plume was propagating around the planet.

“Doesn’t look good, does it?” Susan asked Paul, as she made her way over to the display.

“No.  It’s as one would expect.  It is interesting to note that there are some areas of higher concentration, it’s not all uniform.” Paul pointed out the splotches of dark red intermingled with the lighter red areas.

“If the denser stuff is made of larger material, then that should fall out sooner.  Less big stuff to worry about,” Ivan commented.

Susan responded, more absentmindedly than intentionally.  “That stuff falling back will, if small enough, vaporize in the atmosphere.  If it is too big, then it will hit the ground.  In either case, there will be more particulate in the atmosphere to block the sunlight.” Catching herself before she rambled further, she added, “That is if current theories are correct.”

Alexander remarked that they were about to pass over the zones of higher concentration and the room grew quite quiet as everyone tensed for some impact or sign that they had trespassed into the danger zone.  Traveling at a speed over seventeen thousand miles an hour, they would quickly traverse this high concentration zone.  As the radar display began to show a reduction in the red areas, they could see that they would soon pass out of this danger zone and would only need to contend with the rogue material once again.  The tension in the room lessened with each lighter shade of red that appeared on the screen.

Paul switched off the display once it began to show normal clouds and moisture concentrations.  “That’s it for now.  We can take another look as we approach Mexico in a little over a half hour.”

Ivan moved over to the console and began to step through some menus as he spoke to the group.  “I wonder if the weather satellites have a good image of the distribution of the dust?  They are in geocentric orbits and should have a good view of the planet.”

He continued through the various menus on the display trying to get a link to one of the weather satellites.  Not having much success with that, he pulled up a list of news services that used satellite links to transmit their stories.  Ivan selected the first link on the screen.

Immediately the screen switched over to a well-groomed reporter interviewing some expert on asteroid collisions, at least that is what the caption said below the face of the person being interviewed. Ivan increased the volume on the console to hear what they were discussing, and everyone gathered closer to the display. 

The display suddenly cut over to a picture of Earth, prominently showing Florida in the center of the screen.  Susan felt a twinge of pain in her stomach as she immediately recognized the cloud patterns, which would be forever burned into her memory.  While they watched and listened to the voices in the background describing the scene, they suddenly saw a bright streak form from the east and head toward Florida. 

Susan gasped.  “Oh, God! Not again.” but she was not able to tear herself away from the screen as they all witnessed, in slow motion, the image of the asteroid puncturing the atmosphere. 

The display clearly showed the asteroid splitting apart and the first impact in the Atlantic Ocean, followed almost immediately by the second in Florida and a few seconds later, the impact of the last fragment in Texas.  The image also recorded the fragment that escaped back into space. 

They all stood transfixed at the display, oblivious to the voice describing the scene before them.  The images on the screen continued.  Shock waves from the impact could be seen propagating from the impact sites, as could the huge volumes of debris being thrown out in all directions, eventually shrouding the impact sites from the view of the satellite.

Ivan found himself hoping and searching the display for some indication that what they were watching was a simulation.  It was so surrealistic to see this happening in front of his very eyes.  He knew that it wasn’t a simulation and that they all were nearly destroyed by this asteroid on its collision course with the Earth. 

He reached out and gently grabbed Susan’s trembling arm.  He could feel how tense she was and could now understand the terror she must have felt, seeing this happen before her eyes in the cargo bay. 

Susan put her hand on Ivan’s hand and squeezed it as the image continued to flow on the display.  She tried again to look away, but could not; the images were just too strong. 

Eventually the display flickered and jumped to a later time where the dust clouds were more developed.  The change in the display snapped everyone out of their hypnotic state and back to the reality on board the station.

Silence filled the room, as each person sorted out his or her thoughts before speaking.  Paul was the first to find words and in a quivering, hushed voice, he said, “Christ!  That’s hard enough to swallow when you think it’s a simulation, but to know that what you’re looking at is real…it’s just too difficult to believe it really happened!”

“Yes, I know what you are saying, comrade.” Alexander spoke to Paul in a very soft voice.  “Sometimes reality provides us with more than we are prepared to accept.  It is very shocking to see this.” He looked over to Susan and was immediately concerned when he saw how pale she was.  “Commander, Susan, are you all right?  You look like you are about to faint.”

“Ahh…yeah, I’m okay.  It’s just…just very disturbing seeing that again.” Susan shook her head and straightened up her shoulders trying to regain her composure and put those rekindled visions of the horror out of her mind. 

She pulled away from Ivan’s grasp and moved over to the table to get something to drink.  Taking a long drink of water and trying not to pay too much attention to the news story on the display, she distractedly played with the empty food packages that floated over the table. 

Alexander made his way over to the table and began to gather the remains of their meal, while the others continued to watch the news broadcast.  He watched Susan for a moment, studying her actions as she toyed with her empty water container.  Her eyes never left the container as she spun it about its axis—round and round it went. 

With each revolution, the room light glinted off the container’s surface and Susan’s mind jumped to a different memory from her childhood, like a slide show being presented only for her.  Alexander finally let his curiosity get the better of him and asked, “What hides inside that bottle that is so fascinating?”

“Oh!” Susan exclaimed, blushing a bit and grabbing the spinning container.  “I didn’t realize that you were here!  I guess I was a little lost in thought.” She put the container in a bag along with the other trash from their meal.

“What were you thinking that captivated you so, if I may ask?” Alexander asked, as he relieved Susan of the trash bag she was holding.

“It wasn’t anything, really,” she said.  Realizing that she was not going to be able to brush this off, she relented.  “I was thinking about when I was little and we, my dad and I, would throw the Frisbee to each other.  Also, how I used to play with my brothers and the neighborhood children.  How much fun we had when we were children.  It’s a shame we have to grow up.”

She packed up the last of the food containers and passed them to Alexander as she continued.  “When I was little, I don’t remember ever worrying about the end of the world.  I guess I had bigger things to fear, like the usual monsters under the bed.” She smiled at Alexander, who was listening quite intently and smiled back.  “As I approached adolescence, and became more aware of the world and its politics and people, one thing that did cause me some concern was the potential for nuclear war between our countries.  Some nights I would have nightmares about it and wake up screaming, but that was not very often.”

“But your parents were there to comfort you, no?” Alexander said.

“Yes, usually my mother would come and calm me down,” she said.  “Sometimes it would be my father, and he would sing to me to help me get back to sleep.  The fear of nuclear war faded as I got older and as tensions eased between our countries.  That fear was soon replaced by something equally as bad as a nuclear winter, if not worse.  The fear of an asteroid impact brought shivers to my spine when I would hear about it.  At that time, there was a lot of television coverage about the topic, and just the thought of what one large rock could do to the entire planet was almost incomprehensible.  I was older then, but still did not understand what they meant about the ‘probability of an impact,’ so the fear was there and very real to me.  Growing older and understanding the math and science helped to put things into perspective, and the fear slowly faded.  Little did I know then that this was going to be my reality, our reality, twenty years later!  Ironic, isn’t it?”