Chapter Eight - Dana
Dana wanted to roll her eyes as MacLeash stormed onto the bridge. Turning to face him, her mouth dropped open. The shock was too much. MacLeash wore fresh coveralls—the one’s with his company logo and rank on the shoulders. The cologne was new, or at least something she hadn’t smelled before. Of course, anything other than eau de scotch was an improvement. When he looked at her, there was the briefest twinkle in his eyes. His beard and mustache were gone, revealing a face more handsome than she’d imagined.
“You approve?” MacLeash growled at her, then winked.
Dana felt a smile cross her face. “Very much. Any particular reason?”
“Work to do.” MacLeash plopped into his chair. Dana followed his eyes and knew he was looking at Remnant, matching their speed and orientation five hundred meters to port. The man’s staring made her wonder if it had been in a similar position when Heather died.
Dana cleared her throat. “They regained control about five minutes ago. From what we can determine by their telemetry, their systems are still coming on line.”
“What happened?
Paul spoke up from across the bridge. “Looks like a complete AI shutdown. They had a conjunction alarm that booted the emergency protocol. The AI couldn’t take it and shut down completely. The emergency piece got them out of the conjunction, but it left them disoriented and blind. Lucky they got it restored.”
“Hmph,” MacLeash grunted and kneaded his hands. Dana could see a slight tremble in them.
“We’re about twelve minutes out from the target. We’re oriented nose-away to slow down,” Dana said. She flipped a switch. The external nose camera, the view they had besides their tiny, foot-thick windows, came up. The massive satellite filled the view.
“Good God,” MacLeash gasped. “What is it?”
Paul shook his head. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Neither has any stateside search engine.”
“You try the classified ones?” MacLeash said. Dana could see his mood begin to darken.
Paul laughed. “Ones you’ve never even heard of. I’ve got a schematic for the bird, but I have no idea what kind of components are aboard or what they’re made of. That’s only part of the equation, though.” Paul tapped a few buttons and turned to the screen, pointing with his right hand. A bright white spot showed on the central bus, or body, of the satellite.
“What’s that?”
“A radiation leak, and not a small one, either.” Paul said. “You have a remote probe onboard? A bot?”
MacLeash looked at him. “How do you know about bots?”
“You salvage guys always have them aboard, right?” Paul looked at MacLeash. “Look, I’m not stupid, MacLeash. You’ll have to sacrifice a bot, but I can get the fuel rods, or whatever they are, out of that satellite. From there, your standard anti-rad blankets should keep the components safe until we get to Luna.”
MacLeash shook his head. “How are we supposed to know what’s what? You take them out of that bird and wrap them up, we won’t know what to sell!”
Dana looked at her captain. “That’s not the deal. Wholesale capture and return only; no individual sales. We can inventory the stuff as we take it out of the bus.”
“Make sure we don’t get shorted for a bit of it.” MacLeash grunted. He looked at Paul. “You can have a bot. How soon until you can get that fuel rod out?”
Paul shrugged. “We’ll see. May not be rods—”
“But you said—”
“I don’t know. Unless you want to go over there and take a look for me, I won’t know what’s inside until the bot gets there, all right?” Paul shook his head. “I’m here because you thought you needed me. And guess what? You do. I want ten percent.”
MacLeash looked at Dana. “You can give him yours.”
“Bullshit,” Dana said. She turned to Paul. “Just because there’s a leak, you think you can make a new offer? That we’ll take it? I made you a deal.” She stood and walked toward him. The slightly-built man shrank down in his chair. Dana relished the feeling of power her rage brought. She would show this little man his place, and it wasn’t where he thought it would be.
“Look, I don’t want violence.”
Dana laughed. “You have no idea how violent I can get, asshole.”
MacLeash cleared his throat, and Dana stopped. The big man was smiling broadly. Dana had the feeling she may have made another impression on her captain. “Stop. He’s right. We do need him to capture that bird. He can have ten percent. Do you agree?”
Dana knew then that Paul Normandy was going to die. She nodded. “I agree. With all that radioactive shit on board, we’ll need him all the way back to Luna.”
MacLeash nodded, but the look in his eyes said other things to her. “Of course. We’ll do just that. Now, Paul, finish your capture plan and get that bot ready. It’s in Bay Four. Miss Cirefe?”
Dana nodded. “Yes?”
“Get Tyler Harris on the radio immediately, and see what you can do about hacking that godawful ship.” He pointed out the starboard window and laughed. “It’s an ugly craft isn’t it?” Compared to the sleek Cardiff, Remnant looked like an aptly named trash heap.
Dana keyed the radio. “Remnant, this is Cardiff off your starboard, steady at four hundred meters. How copy?”
The slight Australian accent of Lew Holmes responded. “Read you loud and clear, Cardiff. Apologies for the traffic earlier. Been a bit busy here.”
Dana licked her lips and tried not to smile. She didn’t want to sound as if she was rubbing it in. “Understand, Remnant. Is your captain available? Captain MacLeash would like a word with him.”
“Standby, Cardiff. I’ll see if I can find him. He’s tidying up from our earlier problem.”
Dana looked at MacLeash. “At least he can fix the damned thing.” As soon as the words came out, she realized what she’d said and covered her mouth. “Oh, Captain—”
MacLeash shook his head. “It’s all right.”
But Dana could tell it wasn’t all right, and that his concentration was fading away. How much longer could she keep him in the moment, and not watching Heather MacLeash float away years earlier? “Six minutes out from braking.”
MacLeash snapped his eyes to a console nearby. “Make sure they match our bearings and fire at the same time. I want no more incidents.”
“Roger, Captain.”
Paul stood at his console and shut the systems down. “Bay Four, right?”
MacLeash nodded. “Yes.”
Dana looked at the man. She wanted to smile, to put him at ease after their argument, but instead kept her face straight and drawn. “Six minutes, you’ll be in position. Have it ready to deploy before we pivot to the bird.”
“Why?”
“Easier. Bay Four faces aft.”
Paul nodded. “Oh, right. Thanks.”
Dana turned back to her console as a new voice came over the speakers.
“Cardiff, this is Remnant, Captain Harris speaking. To whom am I speaking?”
MacLeash leaned forward in his chair. Any last vestige of his lighter mood disappeared. “You know damned well who you’re speaking to, Harris.”
“MacLeash. Thought you’d be retired by now. This whole space salvage business is for younger folks than you.”
The laugh that came from MacLeash was obviously forced, and the glare the man gave the radio speaker threatened to melt it in place. “Yes, younger and irresponsible ones like you.”
There was a pause. “Are you done?”
MacLeash shrugged. For a moment, Dana was convinced they’d argue like little boys. “For now. We’re under six minutes from braking, are you prepared to do the same?”
“Roger, we’re on the same timeline. Once we get positioned, I’ll dock Remnant to the bus at nine o’clock from our direction of travel. You take the three, right?”
“Negative. We won’t capture immediately.” MacLeash sighed. “There’s a radiation leak on the bus.”
“Yeah, I saw that. It’s a tiny leak.”
Says who? Dana wanted to say. She locked eyes with MacLeash and shook her head. “Guaranteed he doesn’t have the sensor capability we have.”
MacLeash nodded and turned his attention to the radio. “Remnant, we’re showing a very significant leak. I have a nuclear engineer on board who’s going to use a bot to inspect the leak. If it’s bad enough, he’ll remove the fuel and we’ll capture at that time. Acknowledge.”
“Yeah. You’ve got your panties in a bunch for nothing…Again. Why don’t you just let me take the bus? I’ve got enough shielding to make it happen.”
MacLeash laughed. “I doubt that. And I’m sure your newly-rebooted AI will tell you the same thing in that bombshell voice of hers. You did that on purpose. You like whacking off to it at night, eh?”
“Fuck you, MacLeash,” Harris said.
“I’m joking,” MacLeash grinned at Dana. “We’ll host you and Miss Holmes at capture. Bay Six is your ingress point. For now, we’re three minutes to burn. We’ll be in touch after the pivot and the bot’s on the way. Cardiff, out.”
Dana terminated the transmission, expecting MacLeash to begin screaming in rage. Instead, the man started laughing uncontrollably, eventually holding his stomach and wiping the tears from his face.
“You okay, boss?” She asked.
“Fine.” He laughed again, but it was shorter and in control. “That ass. I insult him and he doesn’t even realize it!”
Dana nodded. “Yeah. Two minutes.” She grabbed the flight checklist for engine start and flipped it open.
“We don’t need the checklist,” MacLeash said.
“We’re using it. No mistakes,” Dana said. As she read the first item, she knew MacLeash was thinking again, but it couldn’t be helped. Flight recording systems always came on before capture, to ensure blame and responsibility could be determined in salvage incidents. Perhaps there’d been something good to come from Heather MacLeash’s death after all. Flight checklists complete, Dana connected the harness belt at her waist and pressed the intercom.
“Paul? Thirty seconds. Get seated.”
“Already there,” he replied.
The anxiety of an engine firing was one of the most palpable. There were a million ways to die in space, and catastrophic engine failure was one of the most frequent. Extreme heating and cooling caused metals to become brittle or soft. Constant exposure to protons from the Sun caused electrical discharges. Valves tended to freeze closed, and over-pressurization of any number of tanks or chambers was always a possibility. She knew the truth about spacecraft. Anything with a fuel tank was just another potential, albeit brief, star in the sky.
“Ten seconds,” she said to herself. “Five, four, three, two, one, ignition.”
There was hesitation enough that Dana double-checked the instrumentation at the same time she felt the familiar, distant vibration of the main engines firing. With a deep breath, she relaxed as the gentle thrust held her in place. She risked a glance over her shoulder at MacLeash.
The look on his face was somewhere between amusement and mania. For the first time in two and a half years, Dana wondered if he were too far gone to recover.
* * *
“All stop, we’re right on the button,” Dana said. “Initiating the pivot in one minute. Paul, are you ready to deploy?”
“Roger.”
Dana flipped the switch for Bay Four to begin depressurization. Through a video monitor, she watched Paul seal himself in the cabin as the air lock began to cycle. The bot was man-sized and would be flown by Paul from the observation port on the upper fuselage. The airlock light went green, and Dana opened the outer door.
“Deploying the bot now.” She pressed a button that extended a conveyor three meters into the void. The bot would trundle out in its neutral position. At the end of the conveyor, a cord would disconnect and start the robot’s primary systems. By the time Paul made it to the upper cupola, the bot would be fully warmed up, diagnostics complete, and ready for flight. With a programmed nudge from its onboard thrusters, it would clear their pivot maneuver easily. The bot deployed and powered up flawlessly, for a change. Dana tilted her head and smirked in surprise. Maybe their luck was changing.
MacLeash was watching the stern camera feed intently. “Status of the bot?”
“All systems nominal. We’ll know more when Paul reaches the cupola.”
He whispered, “How fast did he change his mind? To work with us?”
“Very fast,” Dana said. “Either I got him way wrong, or he’s a closet opportunist.” At least it was usually clear where MacLeash was coming from. Fending off his constant physical advances, especially when he was drunk, troubled her. His recent violence would increase if she didn’t agree to his contract offer. The current contract should keep her safe long enough to get back to Luna.
If all goes well.
She blinked at the words, spoken like her heroes from the Apollo era. What she would have given to sit at a table and ask them what it had been like to do what no one else had done before. If all went well, she knew she could survive this mission and live to fly another day.
MacLeash grunted and stabbed the intercom button. “You in position yet, Paul?”
“Roger,” Paul replied. “Looks like I’m green across the board. Another ten seconds and you’re clear for pivot.”
“Well, thank you very much,” MacLeash rumbled to himself, but loud enough Dana heard it.
Checking the consoles and displays one last time, she placed her hands on the RCS controllers and gently engaged the yaw thrusters on the starboard side. “Pivot underway. Half a degree a second. Remnant, are you turning?”
Lew Holmes’ voice came back. “That’s affirm, Cardiff. We’ll be pointing at the target in one minute and twelve seconds.”
As the gigantic satellite came into view, MacLeash mentally disassembled it. The enormous solar panels wouldn’t be re-stowable, based on the cantilevered design that clearly identified the satellite as something from the nineteen-seventies. Given Remnant’s large open cargo hold design, those would have to be stowed there. Two communications dishes—one a meter wide, and the other slightly smaller—would easily fit in Cardiff’s first two bays.
The problem was the satellite’s main body. The damned thing looked like it was the size of a tractor-trailer. Dana looked at it critically, wondering how in the world a satellite that big had gotten to orbit in the years between the Apollo lunar landings and the space transportation system, or space shuttle, or whatever history decided to name it. Dana doubted the bird would have even fit in the orbiter’s cargo bay. So how in the hell did it get up here?
“Big sonuvabitch,” MacLeash said to no one. “Something that big and nuclear powered, up here where it shouldn’t be.”
Dana agreed. “It’s got the standard third of the Earth view. I wonder if there are two others out here somewhere?”
MacLeash chuckled. “If this one is profitable, we’ll go get the others.”
The bot came into view, flying slightly askew to the orientation of both Cardiff and the target satellite. Pulses came out of the different thrusters on the bot as it approached the target. Cardiff and Remnant were now stopped a full eight hundred meters from the satellite, hanging in space above them like a gigantic bird of prey.
“Six hundred meters to go,” Paul said. “We’re going to have sunset soon.”
Technically, the Earth would eclipse the sun for a few hours every day. MacLeash laughed. “Are you afraid of the dark, Paul?” The condescension in MacLeash’s voice made Dana smile and cover her mouth. “Four hundred meters,” Paul called out. “Radiation on the target is holding steady at four rads per second. Definitely not something we’d want to put someone in a hardsuit to observe.”
“Can you see the leak?” Dana asked. “Is it repairable?”
“The optics on the bot are good, but not like a nuke repair bot.”
MacLeash harrumphed from his chair but said nothing. The indication was clear. Sorry I couldn’t buy the right bot for the job, asshole.
“Two hundred meters.” Time began to stretch out as Paul slowed the approach. “Looking for the right place to grab it without setting off the nuke.”
That would be nice, Dana thought. The idea of dying before they’d even had a chance to capture the bird wasn’t something she wanted to entertain. She watched the bot close on the satellite. The bot continued to slow until it appeared to hover above the satellite, within arm’s reach. Darkness swept over them, and Dana engaged Cardiff’s exterior lights. Remnant did the same, and the satellite appeared to be lit by the sun. The shadow of the bot looked like a gnat on the back of horse, given the size of the bird. For several long moments, nothing appeared to happen. Using the external cameras, Dana zoomed in on the bot just as the right-side manipulator arm activated and reached out like a mechanical hand.
“Capture,” Paul said. “That’s the good news.”
MacLeash looked at Dana. “Is there bad news?”
“I don’t know if I can get this disassembled without killing us all.”
* * * * *