Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

“I can’t believe it’s taken three weeks to get to this” Alex grumbles to his suit mic.

“But here we are” Wayne replies on the radio.

“I’m still nervous about this flight, no magnetic harpoon to fall back on.”

“Come on, you have been over the nav twice. Your jet pack is full of fuel; you have plenty of EVA experience.”

“Initiating burn now.” Alex says pressing the burn button. The jet pack fires a short burst and Alex is closing on the derelict.

“We only have a week before we are going to have to bug out and meet the collection ship.”

“Think we can have our shopping list ready by then?”

“You will know that very soon. Your decel burn is coming up.”

“I see it. 4,3,2,should be… now.”

The jet pack fires a perfect burn on the forward jets, slowing Alex’s approach to a crawl.

“Right on the money!” Alex exclaims.

“Good, now focus on grabbing that handhold by the airlock.”

Alex reaches out with his left hand, and grabs the hand hold. His body and the jet pack continue forward, slamming the control arms of the jet pack on the airlock.

“Ufff”Alex grunts with the impact, and they bounce away from the ship. Alex barely manages to hang on to the ring.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I got it.”

He clips himself and the jet pack to the hand hold, then releases himself from the jetpack.

“Moving to open the airlock.”

“Got it on video.”

“Got a mechanical pressure gauge here, next to a valve. It reads as no pressure.”

“Turn the valve, just to make sure.”

Okay, give me a sec.”

Alex reaches down and turns the valve counter-clockwise. It rotates a quarter turn before hitting the stop.

“Nothing coming out.”

“Copy that, try to open it.”

Turning the valve clockwise, he reaches up, and grasps the locking ring, and braces himself so he can apply pressure, and twists the ring counter-clockwise. It gives very little resistance, and all four arms retract from their clips. Applying pressure with his right arm, pushes the door open.

Hundreds of little black chunks bounce around inside the small airlock.

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure, looks like foam rubber. Let me get a look here. Yeah, the door has a rubber seal all around it; or should I say had.”

“What kind of crap design is that?”

“They designed and built these this things in a rush. They never intended for them to have more than two month’s active service.”

“This does not bode well for us.”

“Tiny airlock; only room for one inside. The same door setup on the inner. Moving in.”

“There is no air pump? They just vented to space?” Wayne asks.

“It’s simple, as small as this airlock is, you would only lose a few cubic feet of cabin air. Inner gauge also reads no pressure.”

“I’m not sure if that’s good news, or bad news. I was kind of hoping she was airtight. On the other hand, with the outer door leaking like a sieve, it may have taken awhile to bleed of any pressure.”

Turning the inner ring counter-clockwise, Alex gives the door a push. It opens, with a flurry of foam rubber pieces into the space beyond.

“Turning on my helmet lights, and moving in.”

“Might be a good idea to unclip your safety line.”

Alex reaches down and unclips the line, and snaps it to the inner door ring. Grasping the door frame, he pushes himself into the ship.

“I’m going to go forward, and check out the cockpit.”

“Video feed is very good. The hull is not affecting the signal at all.”

“Other than the foam rubber, everything is tied down; like he was ready for a burn or something.”

He pulls himself forward, moving slowly.

“I can see him. He is sitting in the command chair, still strapped in. He is wearing his helmet. His suit’s life support unit is clipped to the chair. He looks to have been on suit pressure when he died.”

“Look at all those switches!”

“I’ll try to get good video of everything up here. Hey look, a plastic book of procedures on a tether.”

Alex unclips the book, and puts it in his front pouch.

“No power apparent up here.”

“Head to the back and get a look around.”

Alex pushes backwards, feet first out of the cockpit, and then spins around.

“I think the floor in here is magnetic friendly.”

Switching his boots on, he moves his foot to make contact, with a click, it grabs.”

“Eureka, we have touch down”

“What’s that on the right?”

“Looks like the co2 scrubber, those are oxygen tanks attached to the wall just past the unit.”

Alex walks past the equipment, side stepping to keep the video pointing at it.

“Is that another manual on the front there?”

“Yup, looks like it; I’ll add that to my collection.”

Moving further back, he comes to a door.

“I found the head. It’s as small as the airlock.”

“If the two of us get this old heap running, we will be tripping over each other.”

“Well, that sounds like fun.”

“A small back room. The galley is a locker on the wall. One sleeping berth. No shower.”

“Nice. Crowded and going to be smelly.”

“One door to the aft engineering area. Another airtight door, same design”

Alex spins the ring, and pulls the door open. Another shower of foam rubber. He steps into the tiny airlock, and opens the second door. More foam.

“Man, tiny work space. I can see the reactor from here. I can also see lots of tanks and tubing going all over.

“Go in; see if there are anymore of those handy manuals hanging around.”

“Okay…. Well, what do you know, on the fire wall is a whole group of em.”

“How about operating instructions for the very low specific mass vapor core reactor with five megawatt magnetohydrodynamic power generation unit and thermocouple secondary cooling.”

“Wow, that’s a mouthful. You’re in charge of repairing that. Look to see if there is a tool box back there.”

“Ummmm, looks like one on the port wall, I’ll go open it.”

“I hope that they are standard metric. We will need to bring our own power tools, the batteries on that old tub are sure to be dead.”

Opening the toolbox, Alex lifts a wrench set and holds it so he can read the stampings.

“Yup, their standard metric.”

“Okay, how’s you air holding out?”

Setting the wrenches back, and closing the cover Alex looks to his wrist read out.

“One hour twenty seven minutes remaining at the current usage rate.”

“Good. Any pressure gauges on those tanks back there?”

“Let me look…..no. The big tank is labeled monomethyhydrazine, the other one is labeled dinitrogen tetroxide. One smaller tank is labeled hydrazine, which looks to be connected to….an Auxiliary Power Unit!” engineering area.”Thirty minutes later

“I’ve got the battery out. The connections weren’t corroded like I was worried about.”

“Good. The computer’s battery leaked acid all over. I’m still cleaning it up. I think I can fix it if we get some parts. It doesn’t appear that the optics was damaged at all.”

“Whew; that’s good to hear. I‘m going to put this one in the food locker.”

“Are you planning on eating it later?”
“No smartass! But if we need to look at it later, I’ll know where to find it.”

“Good idea. I’ll bring any I dig up back there too.”

“Any ideas about what we are going to say when we requisition all this stuff?”

“I plan on acting more eccentric than my usual self. As long as there is profit in it for them, they would sell me their own mother.”

“Do you think they can figure out what we are doing by looking at our shopping list?”

“Unlikely. I think we should split the list so that I order all the batteries and the oxygen tank, and you order the food and hardware.”

“Hmmm.”

“What are you going to tell your wife and kids?”

“I can’t just tell them, I’m sure they read all our mail and watch all our vids. We’ll be back on dirt before the company even knows we have gone.”

“Okay, I’m switching off all systems up here.”

“I am getting the access panel off the reactor.”

“You said the Auxiliary Power Unit could be cold started even without the battery, right.”

“Yes, I just have to hold the fuel bypass for a second. The manual says as soon as the fuel reaches the catalyst, the unit will start to produce electricity and can power itself.”

“I think we could try it soon.”

“Let me know when you’re ready. I just about have this cover off.”

“Need help with it?”

“No, I’ve got it.”

“Holy shit.”

“What?”

“The battery inside here is huge. It’s got to be two meters long, and half a meter deep and high.”

“Shit, that’s going to be hard to find a replacement for.”

“I could rig a series of smaller batteries in parallel, but I don’t think we can match the maximum amperes of this beast.”

“Okay, we are ready for the power test. I’m on my way back there.”

“Copy that, I’ll meet you by the aux power generator.”

Alex pulls himself out of the nuclear power crawlway and over to the Auxiliary Power Unit. Wayne enters engineering behind Alex.

“Ready?” Alex asks, finger just next to the bypass valve.”

“Let’er rip”

Alex depresses the button, and waits expectantly. “Nothing.”

“I bet the unit ran until the hydrazine was gone. I’m going to see if I can get a look inside the tank.”

“We are going to have to head back soon.”

“You start back; I just want a peek inside here.”

“On my way.”

“There is a glass peek on the side here, if I can get my light to….bone dry.”

“Where are we going to get hydrazine?”

“Buy it on the collection ship. Just like everything else we need.”

“Tomorrow I’ll need you’re help getting that monster of a battery out”

“And I will have to take a look at the air exchanger.”

12 HOURS LATER

“We aren’t going to be able to disconnect the terminals, the bolts are too big. We will need a socket much bigger than anything we have in the tool kit.” Alex says, his hands trying to gauge how big the bolt head is.

Wayne replies from in front of the air exchanger he has just opened. “I have more bad news. The canisters are different than ours; wrong size and connecters. On top of that all even the tubing is a different size. The only thing that looks standard is the O2 tanks on the wall, and that is assuming the regulator threads are the same.”

“Will we be able to make adapters?”

“I suppose we could, but I am thinking maybe we should just buy a whole new system. I don’t trust thirty year old oxygen and Co2 sensors.”

“That will be expensive. What if they start asking questions?”

“I’ll just tell them I want a back up system, and act eccentric as hell.”

“Okay, but when they come looking for us, it won’t be in your command module.”

“They will think you and I took a long EVA together, never to return; and the rescue crews will clean out all the valuables and fly our birds to the collection ship, which will prep them for new tenants.”

“And we hope no one will notice our odd purchases are gone?”

“The rescue crews won’t know what we bought. The refurb team won’t likely know either. Even if they did, they won’t know if the rescue teams removed it or not. By the time the investigator checks out our…ah… suicides both teams will have had access to our stuff.”

“And you’re not worried he will look into our purchases?”

“I doubt it. He will be checking to see if our deaths were suicide or if we were snuffed out and robbed. Our hoppers will be full, so he will rule out robbery.”

“Has that ever happened?”

“Yes, years ago. A greedy collection ship crew killed a pair of miners, and then claimed their hoppers were empty. They got caught trying to sell the ore.”

“That was stupid of them. Nothing else I can do back here, need any help up there?”

“No, it’s a wasted trip for both of us. Lets head back, both of our grinders are down.”

“Think they would notice if I took a few kilograms of gold and platinum?”

“Hmmm, probably not, just hurt your profit this trip.”

“So what? They will just pay my debts before they send my wife the adjusted compensation.”

“You have a point there my boy. We will have a little ore to barter with on Dirt when we get home. In fact, it will be worth ten times as much there.”

 

 

“Eureka! If there is any hydrazine left in that tank we will have power. Is there an operation manual for the Auxiliary Power Unit?”

“Let’s see….just a single sheet. Looks pretty simple, should I try and reset it?”

“Hmmm, I’d wait a bit. We have a lot of things to check out before we try and power them up. I’d hate to fry anything if the wiring has gone bad; the heater for instance.”

“Okay, I’ll wait.”

“Where do you suppose the main computer is?”

“I’d guess it’s in the cockpit somewhere.”

“Need the manuals for that too.”

“I’ll head back forward.”

“What should we do with the pilot’s body?”

“I don’t know yet. What ever we do with it, I intend to show the utmost respect.”

“I agree. Tomorrow we both go over and start pulling dead batteries.”

 

*

“Both grinders are still down” Alex says, while crossing the distance from his command module to the scout ship.

“The closer we get to maintenance due on them, the more likely problems will occur” Wayne replies, crossing the void sixty seconds behind Alex.

“I know. It’s just ten times as annoying now.”

Alex lands, and heads inside, Wayne follows a minute later.

“I was thinking, lets clear out the food locker first. I’m sure none of the food is any good anymore.”

Okay. Be right with ya boss.”

“Actually, stay there by the airlock, I will toss it at you, and you can redirect out the door.”

Alex opens the food locker, grabs a meat and potato’s meal, and gives it a toss towards Wayne, who then gives it a swat out the door.

“Hey, this is kinda fun!”

“Heh! We just invented a new game!” Alex says with a toss of spaghetti.

“When we get done with the food removal, where do you want to work?”

“I was thinking since you’re the pilot, you should take the cockpit, and I’ll start in back on the aux power unit.”

“Okay, I’ll start on that lump of glass they called a computer. Did you know it’s a single laser design! “

“I’ll bet it was state of the art at the time. Heck, most computers around then were silicon based logic; optical logic was a giant breakthrough.”

“Yeah, but my wrist comp has more processing power than this old thing.”

“You better start praying, we are going to have to rely on that quote old thing, unquote.”

“I hope you’re kidding.”

“I’m not. We don’t have the time or the expertise to modify all the code to run on a modern computer.”

“Oh shit. I’ll be sure to take good care of it.”

“That’s the last of the food. I’m heading to the

“Copy that. I will give the main computer some TLC.”