Back to the Moon-ARC (32 page)

Stetson buckled Ming into a seat on the lower deck.

The four remaining astronauts pulled themselves through the ring and floated into whatever open space they could find available in the very cramped interior of the Orion.

Zhi, still mostly keeping to himself, managed to be the last person to enter the Orion from the Altair. Immediately after passing through the airlock, he launched himself like a torpedo toward the lower decking and the chair into which the pilot had been strapped, narrowly missing a collision with Dr. Xu in the process. His rapid movement distracted everyone from seeing what he had curled in his hands that he then rapidly tucked away behind the Orion’s lower right seat: a .45 caliber revolver.

“Ming’s got one seat,” Bill said. “I need one during the Trans-Earth Injection burn and reentry. Each of you two will have to share one. After TEI, we can take turns with two people hanging around until they get a chance to buckle in for a while.”

Hui looked at Chow, shrugged her shoulders, and motioned to one of the available seats. Taking the cue, Chow moved to the seat and motioned for Hui to take it. She pulled her weightless self into the seat. He then followed by wedging himself next to her and using the seat belt to fasten them both down.

Dr. Xu and the still-silent Zhi moved to the only remaining seat and rather awkwardly buckled themselves in as well.

About thirty minutes later, there was another countdown and then the engine on the service module ignited, giving them the impulse required to return the ship to Earth. The maneuver was short, lasting only long enough to give the ship the speed required for them to be on a course for home.

Stetson spoke just after the engines shut down. “It’s been a long day. Unless anyone objects, I’m going to dim the lights and take a nap.”

No one objected. Though they all peered out the window at the Moon one long, last time.

The rest of that day was uneventful. Though they were restless and crowded, the mood was generally upbeat. After all, they had all gone to the Moon, and it looked like everyone was going to make it home. There was good reason to be upbeat.
 

Hui chatted frequently with her Chinese colleagues back on Earth, speculating on what might have gone wrong with the
Harmony
and caused it to crash. She repeatedly tried to engage Zhi in the discussions—without success.

Dr. Xu almost never left the side of Ming, fretting constantly about his condition and speculating on why he had not regained consciousness. He, too, engaged in protracted discussions on the radio; his were mainly with Chinese physicians who were monitoring Ming’s condition from afar. Chow was often right there with him, checking Ming’s vital signs and engaging in similar discussions with his American counterparts in Houston.

Stetson purposefully remained somewhat aloof, watching the crew with interest and silently assessing them. His conversations with mission control were strictly business, and he never missed an opportunity to speak with his wife and children.

Chapter 26

The alarm sounded but didn’t exactly jolt him awake. Bill was strapped into the commander’s seat, his seat, and had been out for more than three hours. He was in the midst of a very good dream about his wife on a beach, and there were very few clothes involved. Then the alarms sounded and men came in and pulled him away to respond to some emergency. The alarm continued to sound.
 

“What’s that?” He finally snapped awake and immediately started scanning the screen in front of him. He had to squint, because he was extremely tired and hadn’t slept much since the whole mission began. Now they were more than a half day into their journey back to Earth.

Momentarily disoriented, Chow stirred himself awake in the adjacent couch. He looked around, and Bill figured he was doing the same thing he had done. He was probably trying to figure out where the heck he was.
 

“Rise and shine. Looks like another day, er, night at the office,” Bill said.

“Huh?” Bill could see that his colleague finally realized he was on the Orion spacecraft somewhere in the depths of space between the Moon and Earth and that an alarm was blaring at them. And in some way or other, that alarm probably meant something was trying to kill them in some form or fashion. Chow looked quickly over at Bill, who was smiling right back at him.

“Bill, what’s going on?” he asked nervously.

“I’m not sure yet,” Stetson said. “Won’t be long for Houston chimes in, I guess.”

Right on cue, the communication icon flashed and chimed.

“
Mercy I
, this is Houston. We’re seeing a problem with one of your solar arrays. Are you seeing it as well?”

“Uh, checking it,” Stetson replied.

“Something wrong?” Hui floated up next to them.

“Not sure yet, Hui,” Tony said to her.

“Might as well rest until we figure it out, Hui. Nothing you can do right now,” Bill added. “Though my guess is that we’ve got an EVA coming up.”

“
Mercy I
, any word on that solar array?”

“Copy that, Houston. We see it. It’s the same one we had trouble with on the way out.”

“That’s what telemetry is showing us, over.”

“Damn. And I was having a good dream, too.” Bill stretched as best he could and pulled up the diagnostics for the solar array. “At least we’ve got experience with the thing this time.”

“Right. I can do the EVA,” Tony offered.

“Don’t jump the gun. Maybe we can get her started up.”

“Batteries are kicking in, just like on the way out,” Chow grunted.
 

Bill continued to scan through the diagnostics while Tony kept his eyes on the status board. With the array not pointing at the sun, the onboard batteries had to come online in order to maintain the ship’s systems, including life support. With six crewmembers in the Orion now, that would tax the batteries far more quickly than they were designed for. The carbon-dioxide scrubbers were already running full bore.

“Houston, the same array appears to have seized and is not moving,” Stetson said. He looked at Chow and then back at the diagnostics screen.

Chow could see that Stetson was concerned. Without maximum power from the arrays, the ship would have to rely on batteries to make up the difference. There was probably enough power from the batteries to allow the craft to return all six of them back to Earth. Probably. Bill didn’t like “probably.”

When the panel stuck on the way to the Moon, the concern had been that they would not have enough power to go into lunar orbit and land. Without landing they could not have rescued the stranded Chinese taikonauts. If they had followed the book, the mission would have been over; they would’ve survived, flown around the Moon, and all the Chinese would’ve died a cold, lonely death on the lunar surface.

Now the problem wasn’t to rescue the Chinese from the Moon. It was how to get them and Tony and himself back to Earth safely. And to do that, they had to have those solar panels working.

“Tony, let’s run it by the numbers just like last time,” Stetson ordered. “We know how well that worked.”

“Makes sense to me,” Tony agreed. “Who knows, maybe it’ll work this time.”

“Houston. We’re going to power down the array-control system and restart. I’m pulling up the reboot procedure now. Do you concur?”

“We concur. Reboot will take approximately twenty minutes. We’ll be running the simulations in parallel. If we come up with something else you need to know, we’ll be in touch.”

“Roger that.
Mercy I
out.” With that, Stetson began reviewing the manual restart procedure for the solar-array pointing system. “You know, I’ll bet there’s one of them damned Chinese circuit boards in that thing that screwed us on the test flight.”

“No way to know that,” Tony said.

“Well, when we get home I’m looking into it.”

Twenty minutes later, Stetson went about the motions to complete the sequence that would completely power down the solar-array pointing system and then restart it. The system rebooted, and the drivers started reloading.

On the way out, Bill had managed to flub several key entries and had to redo them. This time it went smoothly. Bill entered the last keystrokes and then leaned back.

“Nothing to do now but wait a minute or two.” There was just the silence of the crew compartment and the recirculating fans.

“Any luck?” Hui floated quietly up between Bill and Tony unexpectedly. The two of them nearly jumped out of their skins. “Sorry to have startled you.”

“I thought you were going back to sleep.” Bill’s statement sounded like an order.

“Sounded like too much excitement up here to miss out on.”
 

“Dang.” Stetson hung his head. Same result as on the way out to the Moon. Nothing happened. “Houston, the reboot is complete. No change. I’m afraid we’re gonna have to go out and kick the tires.”

“It looks the same down here, Bill. Be advised that we’ve run the simulation down to the milliwatt. With the six of you in there, you need that pane working. You are still a long way from home.”

“Understood, Houston.” Bill sighed. “Looks like we’re gonna start suiting up for an EVA in here.”

“What seems to be the problem?” Dr. Xu floated up behind Hui.

“A solar panel is stuck and not generating enough power,” Hui explained to the Chinese doctor. “We must all get in our spacesuits so Captain Stetson can go outside and fix it.”

“That’s right. Everybody has to button up so I can go outside and fix this thing. Tony, we’ll do it the same as before.” Stetson pushed away from the console and leaned back in his couch. He was still strapped in.
 

“Bill, I can go this time,” Tony interjected.

“No. Not because I don’t think you can do it, Tony.” Bill paused so he would get his words right. “The first time I kicked at the thing, I almost fell off. I know where to stand now and how to do it right the first time without as much risk. I’m now trained to do this. You aren’t.”

Stetson gave Tony a look that meant the debate was over. He was certain Tony understood why. It was the look that intimidated almost everyone who came into his presence. Bill never really even understood how effective that look was on people. He was just Bill Stetson. The look was just his
I’m serious here
look. But to anybody else, it meant
Get out of my way. I have something important to do, and you ain’t gonna keep me from doing it, because I’m Bill Stetson
.
 

“Roger that. I’ll get the procedure pulled up while y’all get in your suits. Then I’ll get suited up.” They all had to wear their suits because the Orion didn’t have an airlock. When either the main hatch or the docking hatch opened, it exposed the ship to the vacuum of space and all the air in the crew cabin would vent. That meant that everyone in the cabin had to wear their spacesuits for an EVA, even if they weren’t the ones going outside. Had they not had to modify the Altair, which was still docked with them, the passengers could have just gone into the Altair during this EVA. But that option was out, as there were two one-meter long by half-meter wide holes in one of its walls.

One of the big issues was the status of the Chinese spacesuits. They were a mess. It took them fifteen or so minutes just to get them out of the bags and cleaned up to a level that was tolerable for use. And
tolerable
was a word with a very broad definition. They were tolerable in that if the Chinese taikonauts didn’t put them on, they were all going to die. Funny how the definition of
tolerable
changed when one’s life depended upon it.…

Forty minutes later, Hui, Xu, and Zhi were in their suits and had manhandled their injured colleague into his. Stetson and Chow were ready to begin the EVA. Once Bill was certain that everyone had checked and rechecked each other’s suits, all according to procedure, and had “safed” any loose materials within the Orion, he gave the order to move out with the plan. Once the atmosphere was removed from the Orion, Stetson would be able to open the door and begin his EVA. The last thing they wanted was for some vital piece of hardware to float out the door with him.

“Tony, we’re down to minimum atmospheric pressure, and I am about to open the door. Are you ready?”

“Roger that, Bill. Just call if you need me.”

“Will do.” Stetson smiled and gave a thumbs-up. “But I think this’ll be quick and easy. I should be back inside in just a few minutes.”

“The dashboard shows decompression and a green light for opening the hatch,” Tony acknowledged.

“Good.” Bill reached down and forcefully pulled the door release, opening the cabin to space. Without so much as a swoosh, the door opened and they were all exposed to vacuum. Stetson pushed and gently eased himself out the door, careful not to bang his pack against the hatch-seal ring. Once his arms cleared the hatch, he snapped the loose end of the safety tether from his spacesuit into place on the hull of the ship.
 

Been there and bought the T-shirt,
Stetson told himself as he felt the reassuring snap of the tether to the fitting. On his previous EVA to fix the solar array, he recalled that he had experienced, albeit very briefly, a slight bout of vertigo. With the star field, sun, and Earth rotating around his field of view, he knew that the ship was spinning. This time, he didn’t take the time to look around and managed to avoid being disoriented.

“I’m moving aft toward the arrays. I can see them clearly. Our buddy is at a dead stop,” Stetson said. “Once again, for posterity, I don’t see any sign of damage. It looks just like it did in the mockup and on the drawings and when I came out here and looked at it last time.”
 

“Roger that, Bill. Looks the same as before,” Chow responded from within the confines of the Orion. “Just tell me when you’re in place to kick the thing.”

“Give me a minute.”

“Roger that. Getting in place to kick it loose.” Stetson actually had no intention of kicking the array at all. Just as before, he planned to pull like the devil against the thing, hoping to break it free of whatever was sticking it in place. He placed his feet sturdily against the hull of the ship, with the toe of one of his boots wedged up underneath the handrail as far as he could get it. Then he grabbed hold to the panel with both gloved hands.