Chapter 12

Chapter 12

EVA day 1

Alex positions his legs, and pushes hard against the large wrench, which finally turns.

“I got it” he says into his radio.

“Good to hear. I have been looking over our video footage from that first survey; I think there is a hatch on the back wall big enough to pass that bastard through.”

 

“How long do you think getting that battery disconnected will take?”

“Ten more minutes I think.”

“Then you should have air enough to check out that hatch.”

“Roger that. How is that rocket sled your building coming along?”

“Good, all those days with my dad to his machine shop when I was young are paying off.”

“I didn’t even know we had a little machine shop in our modules, and I’ve been at this for five years now.”

“That’s because you never went into the machinery space.”

“Yeah. How long until you have it working?”

“I’m still working on the frame. Once it is done, the rest bolts in easy; so….maybe two days.”

“Good. I can keep busy that long, no problem.”

“What should I bring over first?”

“Your air exchanger I think.”

“Not the

“What would we power up? We may as well get everything over here before powering up.”

“Okay.”

EVA day 2

“Wayne, are ya on?”

“You know I am when you’re EVA.”

“I brought the battery for the power generator, and put it in.”

“Yeah, is something wrong?”

“I powered on the control panel, and it says we only have three percent of the catalyst remaining.”

“Shit. I don’t suppose you bought whatever it is we need.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Could we steal some from the used thruster I bought?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

“You’re going to have to open the power unit up, and see how the catalyst is held in place.”

“Roger, I’m on it.”

“I will remove the thrust cones we won’t be using from the used thruster, and see what I can see about catalyst.”

“How are our grinders doing?”

“Still up and running. Yield sucks so far.”

“That’s what we get for convenient placement.”

EVA day 3

“Good morning Wayne. Will you be joining me outside today?”

“How’s the weather?”

“Same as always; sunny, but cold.”

“Well, I have good news, and bad news.”

“Let’s have it; bad news first.”

“I ran into a few snags getting my sled assembled, but I believe I can work around the problems. Now for the good news: Remember you said we would use a jet pack to navigate the sled?”

“Yeah.”

“I looked up the jet packs manual, and there before me were instructions and schematics on a communications port”

“Wow. Anything we can use?”

“It’s programmable. It can run the sleds thruster.”

“That’s great, better than great.”

“You’re going to have to wire it; not my forte.”

“Okay. Fine by me, it’s your turn to get out here and do some work.”

“How far did you get with the power unit?”

“I pulled the fuel inlet, but couldn’t see anything. I am taking the high pressure manifold apart today.”

“Copy that. Keep an eye on your air.”

“Yes Mother!”

EVA day 4

“What’s the plan today Alex?”

“I’m on my way over to see you.”

“What did you find on the power unit?”

“I think we can cut up the catalyst from your thruster cones into small pieces, and put them inside above the screen.”

“I’ll get right to it. I finished as much as I could on the sled by the way.”

“All we need is the wiring?”

“That and put fuel in it.”

EVA day 5

“On my way in three, two, one, burn,” Wayne says at the front of the cargo sled, the new air exchanger in a crate tied down behind him. The sled’s thruster fires perfectly. Alex fires up his jet pack to follow.

“Looking good Wayne. Feel ok?”

“This is better than I had hoped for. Maneuvering is a bit slow, and off center, but I can compensate.”

“I’m going to rotate into deceleration position,” Wayne says as the jetpacks small thrusters strain to turn the large mass.

“Copy that. Glad you’re doing the piloting.”

It takes nearly thirty seconds to achieve the one hundred eighty degree turn.

“Maneuver compete. Does it look right, I can’t see a damn thing now?”

“You’re in the pipe, rest easy.”

“I hate blind maneuvering.”

“Trust your navigator.”

“Heh, don’t I always.”

One hour later.

“Out with the old junk, in with the new,” Wayne says, giving one of the old oxygen tanks a heave out the air lock.

“We should be able to get everything out today, including that monster battery.”

“You’re an optimist my boy.”

“Why do you say that?”

“We use more oxygen doing all this physical labor.”

“You mean me, of course.”

“I’m not naming any names; but now that you mention it, you are an air hog.”

“How do you do it?”

“You just have to relax.”

“Yeah, that’s it. Heads up, here comes the next oxy bottle.”

“Got it.” Wayne twists and shoves it out the air lock.

“Now to unbolt the old exchanger,” Alex says, reaching for his power ratchet.

“I’m going to uncrate the new one; it won’t fit through the airlock otherwise.”

EVA Day 6

“It doesn’t line up with the old mounting holes of course.” Alex says, looking at the new exchanger and then at the wall.

“I will bring in the new oxygen tanks, and then I can give you a hand. Or better yet, I will mount the exchanger and you can go in back and put the generator back together.”

“Generator it is.”

“By the way, my grinder jammed this morning.”

“You going to go fix it?”

“I put the bot on it.”

“Maybe we can get the monster battery out before we have to go.”

“Have you got the replacement built?”

“Yes, it’s ugly, but hopefully it will do the job.”

“I’ll bring it over here tomorrow with the sled.”

EVA Day 7

“After we get this ugly conglomeration of batteries you put together inside, how about you hook em up, and I’ll start working on the airlock seal?”

“Sounds like a plan, I left the stuff for that in the food locker.”

“I need to scrape off all the old stuff first.”

“I am glad we got that old battery outta here yesterday.”

“There was a lot of mass there, we are lucky we got it out of there without incident.”

 

EVA Day 8

Wayne maneuvers the sled to the back of the little scout ship, with Alex direction the maneuvers.

“The fuel transfer line should be able to reach from there.”

“Copy that.”

Alex lets out some of his tether line and floats out to the sled. When he is within reach, he grabs the fuel line, and pulls himself back the ship. Placing the hose in the filler tube, he tightens down the locking ring.

“Clear to turn on the pump,” Alex says.

“Pump on now.”

The hose writhes like a snake as the fuel surges through it, and Wayne has to fire maneuvering jets to keep station.

“Nice save!”

“All in a days work.”

One hour later Alex says” Here goes nothing.”

Pressing the start switch on the Auxiliary power generator, the overhead lights blink to life.”

“Let there be light,” Wayne says with a chuckle.

EVA day 9

“I have the nitrogen tanks, and some of the food,” Wayne says from outside the airlock.

“I’ll meet you at the air lock.”

“I know you have been putting off dealing with our corpse, but we need to get him moved.”

“Since we are finished with our work in the aft engineering area, we can move him there and strap him in.”

“Heads up, here comes the first tank.”

“Will the foam you glued in yesterday hold if we pressurize today?”

“Yeah, the adhesive said it would stick immediately, no cure time.”

“Ready with the next tank.”

“Let me get this one secured.”

“Okay, I got it, incoming.”

“We can just leave the food crates in the cargo net. I have another one back at my command module.”

Wayne sets his feet down with a clunk and carries the nitrogen tank to Alex, who is spinning a wing nut on the tank rack.

“I’ll get the food.”

Alex takes the second nitrogen tank, and jockeys it into the tank rack.

“Okay, I’ll tighten this one up, and then I will get our deceased pilot and move him.”

“It’s okay to dump the old batteries from the food locker, right?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Alex places the bolt, and starts the wing nut, and spins it down. He moves forward, and unbuckles the body, which he gently grabs, and carries aft.

“Sorry about disturbing your rest sir, but we need your ship. I promise we will see that you get a proper funeral soon.”

“You’re talking to him like he can hear you. He’s a corpsesicle; he can’t hear anything.

“Show some respect, it could be us one day.”

“When I’m gone, I don’t care what you do with my body.”

Alex just grunts in response, and carefully maneuvers the body through the aft airlock.

“Coming in with the food.”

“Copy that. I’ll be back up in a minute.”

Alex steers the corpse to the hatch on the aft wall, and straps him in place.

“You will have to ride here I’m afraid.”

Alex says a silent prayer, and then starts back, closing and latching the outer air lock door.

“Have you got everything in?” Alex asks.

“Yup.”

“Then I’m closing the airlock.”

“Okay, I am up front power up systems.”

Alex closes the outer door, and latches it, then he walks to the leftmost nitrogen tank, and cranks open the valve. Gas escapes silently at first, and then as pressure builds, begins to sound like a soft roar. Alex watches the pressure gauge on the wall, and closes the valve when the needle reaches .79 of one atmosphere. Alex steps to the right, and cracks open the oxygen valve, the oxygen screams out of the tank. Alex closes the valve when the pressure gauge is at one atmosphere.”

“How do you know you got the mix right?” Wayne asks.

“By partial pressure, it’s close. Power up the new air exchanger, and fire up the heater, it will be cold as hell in here.”

“Sec, let me find em; switching on the air unit.”

Alex pivots and can see the telltales blowing outward.

“I see a green light on the unit.”

“Okay, switching the heater on.”

“I’ve got a heater light, tomorrow we can un-suit and work unhindered,” Alex says.

“I think I’ll wait to power the gryo’s until then. Not sure if they will spin up cold.”

EVA day 10

“Soldering the battery into the computer is turning out to be a real bitch”

“Want me to do it Alex?”

“I’ll get it; it’s just a pain in the ass.”

“Try it with your suit on sometime, this will seem like cake.”

“No thanks.”

“The first gryo spun up fine, I’m switching on the second.”

The next ten minutes pass with Alex cursing softly, and Wayne checking systems.

“There, that’s got it; power up the computer please.”

Wayne looks around for the correct switch, and then flips it on when he finds it. The small screen on the computer blinks on, and the computer loads it’s ROM.

“So far so good,” Alex says, watching the screen.

The screen prompts him to enter the date and time. Alex types in the information.

The screen switches to a loading OS sign, with a progress bar. Thirty seconds later a main menu screen appears.

“We have ignition, control!” Alex shouts forward.

“I take it that means the computer works.”

Alex enters option 3, jump control. The program loads and displays its simple entry screen; enter the number of light years to jump. Not wanting to worry Wayne, Alex decides to keep it to himself just how crude the software is. He gets up, and walks to the head. Opening the door, he is met with a foul odor.

“Wayne, remember when you decided I would be in charge of the reactor.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I have decided you are in charge of getting the head in working order.”

“Heh, that bad huh?”

“Yes, and it’s all yours.”

“Yes captain.”

“Captain?”

“You found it, you own it.”

“Well in that case, get to work ya swabbie.”

“Aye aye sir. The second gryo has spun up ok. Switching on gryo three.”

Wayne gets up, and walks back towards the head. Alex holds his nose and points to the closed door. Taking a deep breath, Wayne opens the door and takes a look. The toilet has a small bowl, with a fan at the bottom. Daring an inhale, he gets a whiff of the foul odor.

“This could take awhile.” Wayne says while backing from the small space.

Still holding his nose, Alex declares “I will find someting to do up fwont.”

“When the going gets stinky, the captain gets going.”

Alex walks to the front, and sits in the pilot’s chair, studying the switches.

Finding the control panel for the very low specific mass vapor core reactor, he flips the switch to charge the battery; an amp-meter reads twenty one amps draw from the auxiliary generator.

Wayne yells forward “I’m going to have to replace the fan motor, it’s all corroded.”

“Where are you going to get parts?”

“I will scavenge a motor from the old air exchanger.”

“Let me know how it goes.”

Alex fixes his attention to the computer screen, and studies the steps needed to navigate a jump. The program was written for pre-calculated jumps, and little thought given for extra, unplanned jumps. He would have to calculate their course based on light from the target star, which would be five years in traveling. He had no way to factor in celestial movement, and would have to estimate the jump distance. Alex figured that most likely the errors would amount to ten percent or so, across five light years, would equal about plus or minus a half light year. That would mean they would have to do a course correction and a second jump to even be close.

“I have to go to my machine shop to make a motor shaft adapter. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Huh, oh sure, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

EVA Day 11

“Why are we bringing so much water?” Alex asks, cramming several water jugs into the tiny airlock.

“Because this lovely scout ship of yours does not recycle our waste.”

“Oh, that’s unfortunate!”

“You can say that again.”

“As far as I can foresee, we could leave system tomorrow.”

“If my toilet repairs are successful, perhaps we can.”

“What else do you have on the agenda?”

“I need to test all the maneuvering thrusters.”

“Could you bring us closer to my command module?”

“I suppose I could run my tests in that direction. Why?”

“I have a few things I want to transfer over.”

“Okay.”

“Have you wiped your module clean of evidence yet?”

“I started, but it would be a good idea for each of us to check behind the other.”

“I agree. I want to pull the computers memory crystal; I want no trace of our finding the scout to remain. Think I should destroy the printer too?”

“Better safe than sorry. Are you going to leave a bogus suicide note?”

“No. I don’t want to upset my wife and kids any more than I have to. You?”

“I think I will. Leave them a little misdirection to keep them from looking into what really happened to us.”

Alex closes the outer air lock door, and turns around and opens the valve to equalize the air pressure between the air lock and the cabin. He then opens the inner door, and carries in the first water bottle.

“I am getting the sled secured to the hull. Let me know when to meet you in the airlock,” Wayne says over the radio.

“I’ll be just a few minutes bringing in the water, and securing it.”

“I copy that.”

Alex spends the next few minutes carrying the water jugs into the cabin, and then arranges a cargo net to hold them in place.

“It’s getting crowded back here,” Alex says.

“And we have more to pack in yet.”

“I’ll meet you in the air lock.” Alex says while stepping through the inner door.

“I’m ready and waiting,” Wayne replies.

Alex closes and latches the inner door, and says “Inner door secure, you can open the valve.”

Wayne opens the valve to release the air pressure from the airlock, the air escapes into the vacuum of space. Once all the air is gone, Wayne closes the valve. Alex unlatches the outer door, and opens it. Wayne and Alex trade places and Alex straps himself into his jet pack.

“See you at my place,” Alex says after his thrusters send him on his way.

Three hours later, and after much maneuvering, the scout ship is within five meters of Alex’s command module.

“Honey, I’m home!” Wayne calls over the radio.

“Super! How did it go?”

“All thrusters responding as expected.”

“I’ll be on my way with my stuff as soon as I can get suited up.”

“Is this the last of your gear?”

“Yes and my command module is ready for inspection.”

“Excellent. I say we move your gear and we have a last night of drinking at my place.”

“Sure, why not.”

Thirty six hours later, with both command modules declared ready for abandonment, Wayne and Alex begin to move the scout ship out of the solar systems plane of asteroids, and head for open space.

“Wake up Alex; it’s time for you to put on your navigators cap.”

Alex cracks an eye open, to see Wayne’s grinning face near his.

“Aggggh, my head hurts.”

“Rookie.”

“I have to pee, bad!”

“Good, hurry up. I need some sack time, and you’re in the way.”

“Asshole.”

Alex unhooks himself from the netting, and floats towards the head.

Wayne removes his feet from the magnetic boots, and straps himself into the netting Alex just left. Alex returns, and puts his boots on and then proceeds to open an SMRE for breakfast.

“I don’t suppose I can get you eat that up front and turn down the lights?”

“I need to keep the lights on while I study the star charts.”

“Fine, whatever.”

Alex walks to the forward part of the cabin, and eats. Then he turns on his personal computer and loads an astronomy program. The small holographic display shows stars and an interface. Alex works the interface to change the center location to the roids, down to their current position. Alex removes some folded paper star charts from his backpack. Picking out one labeled planet Dirt, and one labeled planet HV2378, he unfolds them and tapes them to the wall.

“What the hell are you doing?” Wayne asks.

“Navigating, now go to sleep.”

“I can’t believe this is standard procedure.”

“It is on this ship.”

“We are screwed.”

“Go to sleep.”

“That’s easy for you to say.”

Alex ignores him, and locates HV2378 on the chart for Dirt’s stellar view. Then he locates the Roids main star, and marks both on the map with a highlighter. He repeats this process on the HV2378 map for Dirt and the Roid’s. Moving back to the computer, he rotates the display, and picks out HV2378’s star, as well as Dirt’s. He flips through locations, and memorizes each view.

After he is satisfied, he makes his way to the cockpit, and starts up the navigation equipment, and rotates the ship to point at HV2378. Switching the main display to the telescope, Alex looks at the distant star and verifies he has the right one. Looking at his watch he notes five hours have passed since he awoke. Alex decides to let Wayne sleep one more hour before he wakes him. He gets up and moves to the main cabin, and shuts down his computer. Grabbing another SMRE and some water, he kills some time.

“Wake up Wayne. It’s time to make the jump.”

“What did ya wake me up for? I am not moving during the jump”

“So you would be aware of what’s going on.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Alex goes back the cockpit, and pulls the procedure chart for the jump. First, he turns off the trickle charge to the reactors battery. Then he flips the preheat circuit on, his eyes on the temperature gauge as it slowly rises upwards. A red light blinks on the reactor control board. Alex reads the panel as preheat failure. “Shit.”

“What’s going on Alex?” Wayne shouts forward.

“My replacement battery isn’t up to snuff.”

Alex switches the preheat off and returns the battery to charging.

“Can we use the auxiliary power generator to make up the difference?”

“The manual says no, so I’m recharging the battery now. I will give it ten minutes, and then try the pre-heat again. The unit should still retain most of the heat of the previous cycle.”

Alex leaves the pilot’s seat to interface with the computer, and sets the jump length to five light-years.

Ten minutes later, Alex tries the pre-heat again, and this time the vapor core reactor reached operating temperature. A look to the control panel shows an 85 percent output.

Strapping himself in, Alex yells back “Beginning jump sequence!”

And they waited, and waited for the computer to finish its calculations. Wayne fell back asleep.

Without warning thirty three minutes later the J-coil started charging, with a deafening noise that quickly rose in pitch. Alex slapped his hands over his ears to try and stop the pain.

Twang LURCH.