Arrival (5 page)

She slowly pushed the main throttles forward until the display read fifty percent. The increased thrust pushed everyone back deeper into their seats, and the shaking grew even more violent. “Mains at fifty.” She again watched the display. “Speed holding steady!”

“Seventy-five percent!” Jack ordered.

Lynn moved the throttle up a quarter more. “It’s working!” she announced. “Speed increasing! Slowly, but it’s going up!”

It’s working
, Jack thought. “That’s it, baby. Come on.”

There was a terrible shudder, followed by what felt like something being torn away from the ship. Frank looked over at the balloot display. The port balloot had shifted nearly twenty-five degrees. “Jack! The upper port-side balloot!”

The entire flight deck lit up as the upper port balloot began to tear away from its mooring points, allowing red-hot plasma to spill out over the Icarus and under the nose of the LRV. The plasma splashed across either side of the Icarus’s upper hull plates, instantly burning away any unprotected protuberances on her surface.

“The harness must be giving way!” Frank hypothesized.

“Condition red!” Jack ordered without hesitation. “Back off on the throttles, Lynn! Keep her at just enough to hold our speed so we don’t sink any deeper!”

“
Condition red! Condition red!
” Frank’s voice sent shivers down their spines. “
Set ship’s condition red! Visors down! Life-supports to internal! Hold on, people!
”

Back in the passenger bay, each of them switched on their internal life-support systems. They were now sealed in their own private worlds, the sound of their own breathing interrupted by the occasional comment made over the secondary comm-channel. They exchanged looks of fear and concern. Their looks all conveyed the same thing.

Alarms began sounding all over the flight deck as numerous control and data feeds between the LRV and the Icarus began failing due to the tremendous heat of the plasma that was now spilling across the side of the Icarus.

“I’m losing Icarus feeds right and left!” Frank declared. “Plasma must be seeping in between the LRV and the Icarus! Hull temp on her topside is rising fast!”

Jack punched a few buttons on the navigation display, calling up the orbital position display. He commanded the nav-com to overlay the landing site locations on the display. The primary site was already behind them.
No good.
They would need almost an entire lap around the planet to make that one, and at their current speed, they would definitely shoot off the other side of the planet and out into space long before coming back around. Laps were not an option.

The secondary landing site was coming up too fast, and Jack wouldn’t have enough time to put his plan into action. The tertiary landing site was just about to break the horizon. He queried the computer to display their ETA to the entry window for the tertiary landing site. The nav-com flashed a warning message at him in bold, red letters. ‘Entry approach profile not recommended. Unsafe.’

No kidding
, Jack thought. “Just give me the damned ETA!” The navigation computer granted his request a moment later.

Confident that he had a plan of action, Jack straightened up in his seat and took a breath. “Frank, do we still have control of the cargo pod deployment systems?”

“What?” Frank asked as his eyes darted back and forth across his displays, trying to keep track of what was happening to both the Icarus and the LRV.

“The drop pods, Frank! Do we still have control of the drop sequencer?”

“Doubtful,” Frank responded as he double-checked his displays. “I’ve got data feeds but no controls!”

“Lynn,” Jack said as he began to unbuckle his harness. “Try to hold her steady for eight minutes, then separate and make for the tertiary landing site whether I’m here or not.”

“What?” Lynn asked, completely confused.

“Here,” Jack said, pointing to the entry point on the nav-com display situated on the center console between them. “Follow this entry profile, and try to make it to that landing site,” he explained as he clumsily made his way up and out of his chair amidst the turmoil. “Understood?” He didn’t wait for an answer, turning to head aft.

“Where are you going?” Frank asked, surprised to see Jack out of his seat and moving toward him.

“Send a mayday to the Daedalus,” Jack instructed as steadily as he could. “Tell them we’re dropping all pods, abandoning the Icarus and trying for the tertiary landing site on TC Five.”

Frank couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“I’m going down to the pod bay to manually release the cargo pods when we get to the entry window,” Jack explained as he passed behind Frank. “With any luck, their internal nav-systems will set them down near the tertiary site. Then we’ll at least have a fighting chance.”

“What? Get your ass back in your seat, Jack!”

“Sorry, Frank. We need those pods.”

“And what about you?”

“Wait until the last second before you separate. I’ll drop them early enough to get back up here before you reach the end of your entry window,” Jack promised.

“Bullshit!” Frank argued. “This is a really dumb fucking idea, okay?” Frank’s voice grew desperate. “Are you listening to what you’re saying here?”

“Frank, that wasn’t a request!” Jack was done waiting, and disappeared through the aft hatch.

Tony was watching the display when he caught a glimpse of Jack in the compartment just forward of them, where he opened the inner hatch and dove down into the airlock. Tony strained to see what was going on, but could not.

Maria also noticed Jack’s departure, but said nothing, afraid to alarm Adia, who still had her eyes closed and her right hand clenched firmly onto Maria’s left one. 

Jack made his way precariously down the transfer tube, bouncing off the walls as the ship continued to shudder and shake. The sensations of aero-braking were much more severe in the Icarus than on the LRV. He swung open the hatch at the end of the tube and passed through into the midship airlock compartment. Grabbing the handrail along the outer edge of the hatchway ring as he dove through, he held tight, and let his body fold at the waist, dropping his feet down below him. With his right hand still holding tight, he swung the hatch closed with his left and spun the latch into its locked position.

He moved across the compartment to the aft hatch leading into the galley and wardroom. After spinning the latch free, he pulled the hatch open and pulled himself through. He purposefully left the hatch open, wanting a quick return path to the LRV after his task was completed in the pod bay. He would’ve preferred to leave the hatches in the transfer tube open, but that would impede the LRV’s quick getaway should their situation got worse.

“We’ve got an outer hull breach on the port side, section twelve,” Frank reported.

“Where is section twelve?” Lynn asked, embarrassed that she couldn’t remember.

“Just above the galley!” Frank acted quickly. “Jack!” he called across the comm-set. “We’ve got an outer hull breach over the galley! Where are you?”

An explosion to Jack’s right shook the entire ship, tossing him across the galley. He bounced off the starboard bulkhead, and careened back across the galley toward the fire spewing out of the port wall.

“We’ve got a fire in the port side fuel transfer lines!” Frank announced. “I’m shutting them down and blowing the sep-valves closed!” Frank frantically tapped at his console, ordering the pumps to shut down, and the valves at the forward and aft ends of the line to permanently close.

“What will that do to our fuel status?” Lynn demanded frantically.

“I don’t know yet,” Frank replied. The Icarus carried almost two thirds of her fuel in large tanks located in the aft section. But the electromagnetic ram scoop and the fuel manufacturing machinery was located in the nose, along with several large storage tanks that automatically transferred their load aft when the main tanks in the tail section were more than one third expended. “I can transfer using the starboard lines, but…”

“They can’t match our fuel burn rate, can they?”

Frank didn’t reply.

Jack managed to catch the overhead rail again with his left hand. The sudden pull transferred his momentum and caused his feet to swing under him and over toward the raging fire. He could feel the heat through the boots of his pressure suit as he struggled to pull himself away from the jet of flames. Having regained control, he quickly pulled himself around and continued aft along the rail until he reached the doorway into the wardroom. He positioned himself at the door frame, reached out, and slapped the fire suppression system activation button, but nothing happened. He pressed it repeatedly, but still nothing.

Jack looked at the fire. It had a bluish hue, which told him that it was coming from the fuel transfer lines. “Frank!” he called over his comm-set, “shut down the fuel transfer lines by the galley and seal them off at the valves,” he ordered, wondering why Frank hadn’t already done so.

“
I already did, Jack,
” Frank’s voice crackled across Jack’s comm-set inside his helmet.

“Well, they’re still burning!” Jack shouted as he watched the inner walls begin to melt around the blue fire. “And the walls are starting to melt down!”

“
My board shows them closed, Jack!
”

“Well they’re not!” Jack insisted.

“
I’ll leave the transfer pumps on so the fire won’t creep up the lines and blow our nose off!
” Frank decided. “
Jack! Has the fire suppression system activated?
”

“Negative! And I already tried the manual override! The whole thing is down!”

“
Is the compartment still pressurized?
” Frank asked.

Jack looked across the room at the compartment pressurization control panel on the forward bulkhead next to the midship airlock hatch. Through the smoke, he could barely make out the little green light. The panel had its own sensor and didn’t depend on any remote sensors to detect the compartment’s pressure status. If that light was on, there was pressure in the compartment. “Affirmative!” Jack replied, “but if this fire burns much longer, the whole compartment will go!” Jack turned and floated through the doorway into the wardroom. There was nothing he could do about the fire right now. He had to get to the pod bay as quickly as possible. “I don’t have time to work this fire, Frank. I’ve got to drop the cargo pods!”

“Tony! Mac!” Frank called over the comms after switching to the secondary channel. “Fire in the galley! Get on it!”

“How’s our fuel?” Lynn asked.

Frank looked at the fuel level indicators on the main engine status panel.

“About ten minutes at this rate of consumption!” Frank reported after a few quick calculations in his head.

“On our way!” Tony reported as he flipped open his chest harness and pulled his thigh straps free. He floated up out of his seat, his head striking the ceiling as another vibration sent the ship lunging downward. He wrestled with the side handrails running along the inside edge of the port and starboard turbine housings, steadying himself against the constant, violent, and unpredictable motions of the ship. He pulled himself forward to the hatchway, turning sideways to see if Mac was coming. Despite his massive size and bulk, Mac moved gracefully in zero gravity and was right behind him.

“Let’s do it!” Mac declared.

Whether or not Mac’s bravado stemmed from stupidity or real courage, Tony was just glad that his friend was right behind him as they moved into the airlock.

Jack pulled himself along the overhead handrail, across the wardroom, and into the berthing corridor. He made his way to the far end, across from his cabin to the access tube hatch leading to the pod bay. He opened the hatch and entered the long, narrow tunnel that led to the bay in the middle of the aft section of the ship, along her bottom.

The tube was nearly fifteen meters long and less than one meter wide. It was not designed to be accessed while wearing a pressure suit, and he bounced off the tube walls every time the ship shook. It was poorly lit, with a handhold every two meters, so making his way through the tunnel safely was difficult as the ship buffeted about in the planet’s upper atmosphere.

Tony was the first to arrive in the midship airlock bay after opening the access hatch. Mac, who was closing the LRV’s outer hatch, was only a moment behind Tony as he made his way to the fire suppression apparatus locker in the compartment’s corner. He pulled out a fire extinguisher and sent it floating across the compartment to Mac who came out of the transfer tube and into the middle of the compartment. Pulling another extinguisher out of the locker, Tony maneuvered himself over to the hatchway. The hatch was open, and smoke filled the midship airlock compartment as well.

Tony peered around the corner of the hatch into the galley to peek at the fire, but all he could see was smoke. “Frank, this is Tony!” he called through his comm-set. “Can you vent the compartment? We can’t see a thing in there through all the smoke!”

“
Standby,
” Frank responded. A moment later, the smoke whirled around and cleared as it was sucked out of the cabin and vented out into the vacuum of space. After a few moments, Tony could see the fire more clearly, although the purge fans were not powerful enough to keep the compartment completely clear of smoke. The hole in the wall continued to spread, devouring the food prep counter as well.

“That’ll do!” Tony called out. “But keep them going so we can see what we’re doing down here!”

“
Copy!
”

Tony moved into the compartment, positioning himself as close to the fire as he could, the heat radiating through the thin layers of his pressure suit. “Brace me!” Tony called to his partner.

Mac moved in behind him, extinguisher in his left hand. Mac placed his feet on the floor deck plates and activated his mag-boots, securing himself to the deck. With his right hand, he grabbed the handle on the back of Tony’s life-support backpack and braced himself.

Tony pointed the extinguisher’s nozzle at the base of the flames and pressed the trigger, sending a white chemical spray at the fire. But it had no effect on the flames jetting out of the ruptured fuel line inside the wall. “It’s no good!” he yelled over his comm-set to Frank. “You’ve got to turn off the fuel flow!”

“
No can do!
” Frank objected. “
If we do that, the fire will burn the remaining fuel in the line all the way up to the forward tanks! Just try to keep it from spreading into the surrounding structures!
”

“Christ!” Tony exclaimed. “We’re gonna need more bottles!”

The ship rocked as another explosion erupted from the aft end.

“We’ve got a burst oxygen tank on the port side, aft end!” Frank announced. “Plasma must’ve burnt through the hull there as well!”

“Why didn’t we get a hull breach warning?” Lynn asked.