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CHAPTER 47

Low Earth Orbit

International Space Station

Tuesday

2:48 a.m. Eastern Time


It had taken the harpoon reel about ten minutes to close the fifty-meter gap between the ISS and the Vyrezka. Once they closed to within ten meters the motor was stopped and the three of them were ready to open the Vyrezka to space. Jebidiah immediately set forth connecting backup safety lines from hardpoints on the capsule to hardpoints on the hotel module that had been designed for just such an occasion. The ISS was dynamic and the entire structure wiggled and wobbled and moved like a porpoise through space. Rather than building, designing, testing, and flying an expensive docking rig they had decided long ago just to tether down like a boat on a dock. And there they were. The Vyrezka was tied down just so.

Jebidiah’s next job was to start placing explosive charges at specific points about the DSIHM’s airlock door. He gathered his pack and was ready to move on to his next task while Michael and Vladimir would start on the release mechanism.

“The tether is secure. We’re clear to egress to the entrance.”

“Copy, J.” Michael slid slowly across the tether under the power of the suit jets. The suits had cold gas thrusters built in that were controlled via the virtual view in the visors. An icon of the astronaut showing pitch, roll, and yaw angles as well as velocity and range to objects was displayed in the lower right-hand corner of their view. Using the mental mouse they could control their trajectory and position orientation.

He landed against the hull with a muted thud as his boots made contact with the ceramic composite hull just above the large three-meter-diameter hotel window. He quickly attached another tether to a handhold to keep him in place. Michael had the cold realization that his maneuvering in space was indeed much more uncontrollable as there was no water viscosity to slow his movements and reaction forces. But the suit’s software helped with that. “Removing outer casing cover and setting the hull-clamp.”

“Good, M.” Jebidiah said while doing his best not to be distracted by the incredible view of the Earth as they passed over the Pacific Ocean. It was dark, but there were still lights to be seen. “We have to be careful here, just like in the training, or we can explosively decompress the chamber.”

“Doesn’t matter, other than debris hitting the Vyrezka. We don’t need that really,” Michael said. “Looks like the ISS is completely abandoned anyway.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Vladimir sounded sincere as he tethered himself beside his companions. “It is boring, comrade.”

“I like boring,” Michael said.

“Yes, we’ve had this conversation,” Vladimir replied. “You like boring.”

“Initiating impact driver now,” Michael said, ignoring the comment. After removing several socket head cap bolts around a rectangular composite panel covered in multilayered insulation material, he handed it to Vladimir. Looking under that panel revealed an internal aluminum panel cover. Two more bolts and it was removed. This time instead of handing it off he simply chucked it overboard.

“How long you think that’ll orbit till it burns up on reentry?” Michael asked.

“My guess would be months, maybe a couple of years?”

The opening in the interior of the hull revealed a sliding panel over a metallic box. It had been heavy on Earth and underwater, but in space that wasn’t an issue. In fact, the device was actually bolted and epoxied in place and it would take a significant amount of effort to remove it. Fortunately, removing it wasn’t part of the plan. Michael slid the cover back revealing two toggles and one red light pushbutton, like an old-school video game cabinet. The device was approximately eight centimeters thick and twenty centimeters on a side. There was also a metal tubular U-shaped handle that protruded from the middle of it large enough to get a space-suit gauntlet around. It was painted black and yellow and had a spring-loaded space-rated safety pin in it. He didn’t recall the pin from the training. He inspected it more closely and realized that it must have been added as a man-rating process for the aerospace structure. Michael thought that was funny considering that somebody during the process was certainly paid to look the other way on the DSIHM but this safety procedure made it through the design. Michael twisted the pin to break the tie-down, or stake as it was called in aerospace jargon, and then pulled the pin.

“V, this is a three-handed job unlike the training,” he said.

“Let me…ah, yes. I got it. Hold the pin.” Vladimir pulled the lever.

“Firing.” Michael flipped both toggles and then hit the red pushbutton. Four spring-loaded pitons fired simultaneously inward into the handle mechanism, releasing the box from the ceramic and aluminum layers of the DSIHM’s airlock door, generating a slight vibration in the structure he could feel through his tether. “J, ready to blow the hatch mechanisms.”

“Copy,” Jeb replied. He’d already placed the charges in the predetermined critical points along the periphery of the DSIHM airlock door and was ready. The door was almost two meters in diameter and had been designed for egress and ingress of Orlan space suits. While it had never been tested by astronauts yet, it had been designed to be a functioning airlock. If it explosively decompressed it could kill them instantly from impact. If it missed them and hit the capsule it could still be bad for them. “Stand clear. Three, two, one.”

There was no noise like on Earth. There were no air bubbles under the water racing to the surface. It was quiet. There was only a short, bright, red flash and then a shudder through the DSIHM structure they could feel through their handholds. The large circular airlock door wasn’t flung away at dangerous decompressive explosive velocities. Instead, the door floated gently out of position and looked like a can of soup with the lid pulled up and still attached to a sliver of the can on one side.

“It didn’t clear it completely,” Vladimir said.

“I’ll take care of it. You go help J,” Michael told him.

“Affirmative.” Vladimir pushed away toward the Vyrezka as Michael jetted his suit toward the now loosely connected window.

Michael inspected the exterior airlock door and noted that what was keeping it connected was electrical wiring. He carefully removed the oversized snips from his left sleeve and cut the wires one after the other until the door was free. He gave it a shove away from the module and it drifted slowly away from them.

“That one is bigger. I doubt it stays in orbit as long,” he joked.

“Did you get it, comrade?”

“Exterior door is detached and gone.”

“Okay, then, the next step, pull the interior hatch to the DSIHM airlock and enter the DSIHM,” Jeb said.

“I hope S depressurized the hotel like he was supposed to,” Vladimir added.

Michael made his way into the airlock to the interior door that would lead into the hotel interior. If it was pressurized it would be stuck and they wouldn’t be able to open it simply due to overpressure against it. It would be like trying to open a car door under water.

“Okay in three, two, one!” Michael gave the handle on the interior door a twist and then pushed against it with his jets in the forward position. M pushed until he felt it give and then the hatch let loose, releasing the door. Once the hatch was pushed clear he hit his thrusters and entered feetfirst, waiting for his boots to make contact with the bulkhead nearest him. He looked about quickly, making certain that nobody was hiding there waiting to jump on him. There wasn’t. He tethered off to the main entrance hatch.

“Interior breached. Feel free to enter and then we can seal off the outer hatch and use this room as our airlock,” Michael said.

“Got it.” Vladimir thrusted into the hotel near him slowly. “Let’s seal it off and power it up. Then it’s through the BEAM to Node 3.”

“Yes, and then let’s sweep the ISS to make sure there are no surprises. I don’t want any surprises,” Michael said. “J, while we secure the platform, you start installing the launcher and secure the warheads to the DSIHM bulkheads.”

“Copy that,” Jeb replied. “Time to message K to hit the restart sequences from the ground.”


K,

Start the startup sequences for the launcher and begin the restart of the platform systems.

J


J,

Roger that, J. Starting the launcher startup sequences. Let me know once they are installed on the DSIHM exterior.

K


“As soon as we get pressure in here, we can take the hill,” Michael said.


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