Strike Force

Nano began by unstrapping several equipment cases and boxes inside the passenger module, floated them through the tunnel to Ann, then followed them inside. In a few minutes she was inside the station’s transfer module, and she secured the hatches behind her. “The hatches are closed and latched,” she reported from the transfer module. “Tunnel and module are pressurized and secure. This is so cool. Can’t believe all the room in this thing!”

“The transfer module is the smallest on Silver Tower,” Ann said. “Wait till you see the rest of the place. You might want to move up here permanently.”

“Awesome!”

Inside the station, Ann floated into an adjacent tunnel, turning on lights as she went, then entered the adjacent crew sleeping quarters. She had stayed on the station a few times in the past several years, and she was pleased to see many of her “womanly” touches still in place — some artificial silk flowers, a few pictures, and even a magnetic chess board floating in the middle of the module.

“Wow, this is huge!” Nano remarked. “You can sleep a dozen people in this thing with room to spare! And there’s a shower, closets, TVs, and desks — how cool! I thought it’d be all cramped like the Shuttle orbiter.”

“I told you you’d like it,” Ann said. She floated “down” to another connecting tunnel and checked the pressure gauges. “The cargo module is depressurized and checked, guys. Come on over.”

“Ready, Captain?” Raydon asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” Boomer said.

“I’ll go over first,” Raydon said. “Follow me and do what I do. There’s nothing to it.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“Your readouts look okay?”

“Four green, no red, reading nine point eight psid.”

“Me too. Check your tether.”

Boomer opened a hatch on his side of his seat and pulled out a length of shielded nylon cable. “It’s ready.”

“Mine too. Here we go.” Raydon hit a control, and the forward cockpit cabin began to depressurize. “Fourteen psid…twelve…ten…” But this time it didn’t stop at ten psid, but went all the way to zero. “Forward cabin depressurized. Canopy coming open.” As Boomer watched in amazement, the forward canopy motored open, and moments later Raydon floated free of his seat and was outside the spaceplane. My God, Boomer thought, he’s walking in space! “How you doing back there, Captain? You look like you seen a ghost.”

“I…I’m okay.”

“This is my fifth space walk, and I’m still nervous and excited every time I go out,” Raydon admitted. “But we don’t have all day. Let’s go.” Without appearing to push or even touch anything, Raydon gently moved away from the spaceplane so he was floating in space several yards away. As Boomer watched, the remote manipulator arm began to move toward him. Raydon reached up, and Ann steered the grapple at the end of the arm precisely into his grasp and towed him toward the cargo module on the station. Moments later he was inside the module, and he motioned for Boomer to follow him.

His stomach was knotted with flocks of butterflies, but he was holding up the show, and the remote manipulator arm was waiting for him. He touched the controls and slowly depressurized the rear cockpit cabin…done. With a finger that he noticed was shaking slightly, he hit the canopy switch…and it motored up. Holy Jesus…he was in space! Not just flying through space, but in space!

“Let’s move out, Captain.”

Boomer undid his seat straps, being careful to keep the metal buckles under control as they snaked around him, then pushed himself out of his seat…too hard, and his helmet banged up against the inside of the canopy overhead.

“Easy does it, Captain,” Raydon said. “Use just enough force to overcome inertia and that’s it, and remember you have to counteract inertia on the other side — nothing stops by itself up here. Remember that. Otherwise you’ll be making like a pinball all day. Don’t even think about moving and you’ll find you can move just fine. Keep an eye on your tethers and those locking teeth on the edge of the canopy — rip your suit and your blood will boil away in seconds.”

Slowly, carefully, Boomer eased himself away from the canopy and floated across the sill. Unconsciously he swung his legs out of the cockpit and almost succeeded in spinning himself around like a top. But before he knew it, he was outside the spaceplane, floating between it and the space station. God, he was space walking! He remembered watching videos of the Gemini astronauts doing their spacewalks, stepping outside their tiny capsules to float around at the end of an umbilical cord while millions on Earth watched on TV, and now he was doing it! He looked around and got a hint of vertigo as he saw Earth over two hundred miles below him, and he realized only then that he wasn’t floating — he was falling around the Earth at over seventeen thousand miles an hour! It was an absolutely incredible feeling.

“Sightseeing time is over, Captain,” Raydon prompted him. “Let’s get going. Ann, bring the arm down.”