by L. S. Wood
Ann thought for sure during the initial takeoff that she was going to pass out at any given moment. She like the rest of the crew on board had luckily blown up their flight suits to maximum pressure to keep their blood from migrating down to their legs causing them to pass-out during the initial takeoff. They inflated their suits in anticipation of the extra g-force mentioned to them in the briefing room that was going to be on them using the solid fuel rockets. She hurt so damned bad during liftoff she thought for sure her insides were going to come right out her rectum and vagina at any given moment, as did the others about their rectums.
Ann knew if necessary, she would have to blow away the main rockets attached the Twitchel during takeoff if a rocket failed to ignite. She knew it would not be possible for her to do her job for the state they were all in, and it scared her half to death thinking about it. She sat squashed at her station in her seat listening intently for a glitch in their take off and kept feeling for that mental command from her inner senses that something was amiss and going wrong, as they continued to soar skyward.
Anticipation bothered Ann in her having to release the main rockets from the Twitchel when they reached their maximum altitude for their usefulness or if one or both failed after using up their full fuel supply.
Relieved when the g-forces exerted upon them lessened as she was now able to at least reach forward with her tight heavy limped arms feeling like steel, and take hold the crucial release levers attached to the explosive devices attached to each end of their cables, if they were still attached to anything after such force had been exerted upon them.
These explosives would release the first main stage thruster rockets from beneath the Twitchel’s belly, she hoped. The great g-force exerted upon them was becoming less and less. The time was quickly passing when she would have to perform her first duty of the mission, and yank hard on the first set of levers. Ann held onto the levers of the detonators as tight as she could in anticipation of the rockets faltering at any given moment. Finally, the entire crew felt one rocker falter and then the other rocket almost simultaneously. The powerless clinging rockets became like air brakes as the Twitchel slowed in her accent to the heavens.
Ann yanked hard on the levers in her hands firmly, she thought, hoping to release the main rockets from their bird, but nothing happened. She wondered had she grabbed the wrong levers by being so nervous. She sat back in her seat and with a quick glance knew she had the right levers in her hands all along as the Twitchel continued to slow down. She yanked as hard as she could once and then twice on the levers, and then finally she heard the explosion and felt the Twitchel shake from the releasing rockets falling away from the shuttles side.
Ann grabbed at the other set of levers in front of her having her adrenalin level at maximum strength now flowing through her veins from having yanked at the first set of levers several times, and gave the next set of levers as hard a yank as she could possibly give them. The lever in her right hand broke right off in her hand. She turned as white as a ghost fallen into a freshly fallen snow pile, almost passing out from fright of it that she had caused the mission to fail, and cost everyone their lives including her own. Thoughts of not seeing her children ever again ran quickly through her head. Suddenly the secondary stage booster rockets came to life a couple of seconds later, and the Twitchel shot forward under her own power once again.
Ann slouched back into her station’s seat and sighed a great sigh of relief as the color of her skin started to come back into her very white face. The g-force suddenly returned to the crew, but nothing any greater than that of taking off in a fighter jet from off the ground or off the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Commander Anderson reached forward with his right hand and released the locked-in flight controls, as Major Bill held tight the controls in a smooth flight pattern with his feet.
Soon the bright of light blue sky gave way to a dark blue almost black canopy exhibiting a million or more beautiful bright brilliant sparkly twinkling stars as they passed out of the earth’s atmosphere and into the beginning of their orbital path with the space station.
Their projected course could not have been any better even if they had been flying with the computers on board guiding them. In the far off distance above the earth’s round horizon, the lights aboard the space station were barely visible in its orbit traveling around the earth.
Commander Anderson turned to Ann and ordered her to release the second stage rockets. Ann yanked firm and hard on a third set of levers, and the second stage booster rockets blew off without incident shooting them off into outer space, leaving the Twitchel in orbit all by her lonesome except for the space station several hundred or better miles ahead of them. A bright green light lit up miraculously on the instrument panel. Commander Anderson thought and could not believe it. The light was a reflection of the sun’s bright brilliant rays shining through the windshield of the Twitchel reflecting back off the glass of the light bulb’s panel. He knew the electrical system of the craft was totally dead and all batteries aboard had to be activated by filling the dry battery banks with sulfuric acid stimulating the electrolytes in them and lead shields within their cells to produce electricity. The solar panels needed connecting in series with the batteries so they would start producing electrical power back to the main cells as well.
David, Chuck, and Steven quickly unharnessed themselves from their seats and headed as fast they could as they floated in the cabin’s air space toward the hatch of the cargo bay in the rear of the cockpit to do their jobs. They quickly unlatched the cargo bay door and went to work on the dry battery system to fill it and energize it with the sulfuric acid held safe in there secured containers.
The International Space Station’s lights were quickly disappearing out of sight of the Twitchel as its speed was just a little greater than was theirs. Commander Anderson had had Ann release their secondary stage booster rockets way too soon. Their orbit was correct, but their speed to overtake the space station was definitely too slow and wrong.
Commander Anderson had too soon anticipated their speed, and had figured they would drift toward the space station and be under full computer control by the time they reached her, but his hurried calculations were definitely wrong. The Twitchel was drifting further and further away from its original orbit as planned.
“DAMN IT. Damn it. Damn it. DAMN IT. I just cannot believe I just did that. How damn stupid of me, how damn stupid can one be?”
Captain Morris, can you estimate a time for arrival when the space station will catch up with us in this orbit it is in now?” “No, sir, Commander, I cannot. Not until I know our calculated travel speed sir and not without the computers up and running at their fullest potential, sir.
A wild guess would be twenty eight or maybe even thirty six days?” “They definitely will not last another thirty-six damn days, not according to Command Center. Not even if their rebreathers are performing properly. I sure as hell hope their oxygen supplement experiment is still operating perfectly. I sure screwed up this time when I told Captain Mitchell to release those damn boosters when I did. Why did I not listen to my subconscious? I think it was trying to tell me something just before I nodded my fool head.”
“Secondary battery bank systems charged, sir. Working on the main battery bank system now, sir.” “Why didn’t you fill the main battery system bank first Lieutenant?” “We were told to fill the secondary batteries first, sir, and then the main battery banks last, so not to overcharge any electrical systems that might have been left on and possibly blow out any computer links, sir. Something about too much electrical surge in the mainframe if we do the main battery banks first and the secondary system last, sir.” “OK! OK!” “This way you can run your preliminary testing to preflight her, sir.” “OK, Lieutenant, as you were.
Get a damn move on then men. Get that main battery system up and running as soon as you can.” “Yes, sir, Commander Anderson!
” “Major turn on the secondary power switches. Let’s preflight this bird anyway and hope for the best.”
Commander Anderson was truly beside himself for making such a hasty ill-fated fool command and now there was not a single thing he nor anyone else onboard could do to correct his poor judgment call of their location and speed. “Secondary power switches on, Commander.
We have some power now, sir.” “Open up all solar shield protectors, Major, and expose the solar shield energizers to maximum swing. We need all the electric power we can muster up, right away!”
Everyone knew Commander Anderson was now browbeating himself up over the way he was beginning to say damn, damn it, or damn every other word he used to get his messages across, for it was not like him to do that. Commander Anderson usually came across in a very calm cool good natured control over most all difficult situations, but not this poor situation he got them into after making it this far into their rescue mission. This bothered the hell out of him, especially if he was the one to have cost the cosmonauts onboard the space station their lives because of a very foolish mistake he had just made.
“Solar shields open wide, Commander. Solar panels absorbing power from the sun at maximum power, sir.”
“Very good, major, can we bring up the radio to communicate with the space station yet? I need to know the status of those onboard the space station, Lieutenant! The main battery banks men, how are they coming along? Can you guys go a little faster?”
“Time wise, sir, at least another thirty minutes before they’re up and running to capacity.”
“Well, get a damned move on then would you, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, sir. Commander, right away.”
“Major, what is the verdict on those radios?”
“Radios are all static and clatter. I can’t seem to broadcast or receive a thing from them, sir?”
“How are those damned battery banks coming along, Lieutenant?” “Getting there sir, getting there.”
Everyone knew the commander had made a bad judgement call in releasing the second stage rockets, and was now taking it to heart that he had made such a miserable mistake in releasing the rockets too soon. Everyone knew he would never forgive himself if he let anyone down, never mind let them all die. He had never really made a bad decision that anyone had ever known about, but this one was a doozy.
“Commander, I hear something on the radio now. It must be the space station lab, sir. I can just barely hear them and can’t make out what they are trying to say, sir. Whoever it is surely sounds very weak and sick to me, sir.”
“Amplify the radio signal from them, Major, and turn that damn volume up to maximum.”
“I can’t sir, as that part of the radio system is powered by the main power systems. I cannot amplify the signal or turn up the volume without the main battery banks up and running, sir.”
“How are those damn battery banks coming along, Lieutenant?”
“The auxiliary jaytoe bottles are full, are they not, major? We have not used any of them as of yet, have we Captain Mitchell?”
“No, sir, Commander.” “Well, what do you think, major? Will they work?”
“Yes, sir, Commander, they should, but what is the concept of the jay-to bottles use, Commander?”
“Are we in the proper orbit with the space station, Captain, and not off course?”
“Yes, sir. We are on course, Commander.”
“Precisely what I am getting at, Major. If we turn the shields and fire the two jaytoe bottles together, they will propel us forward and toward the space station, correct?”
“Yes, sir, they should. I guess so, sir. It is a very long shot, but I guess it will work. There probably isn’t enough propellant in them to do the full job, sir, but they will help.”
“Turn those shields around, Major, and fire the jaytoe bottles on my command, Bill.”
“How are those battery banks coming along, Lieutenant?”
“A couple more minutes, sir, just a couple more minutes.”
“Well get a move on then will you, Lieutenant, we need those damn batteries up and running now.” Damn fool that I am anyway. Why did I release those boosters in the first place? When will I ever learn?”
“Finished, sir. Main power battery banks are fully charged with acid in them, sir.”
“Strap yourselves gents, we are going to use the jaytoe bottles to boost our speed. Fire away. Major.” The commander was right. The Twitchel did move forward as planned.
Not very fast for a spacecraft, but it did pick up speed heading toward the space station at a snail’s pace.
“How long for the jaytoe bottles to burn, sir, one, two, three or more minutes to burn, sir?” “Until the damn bottles run themselves dry Major. When there is no more propellant left in them to burn.”
“Until they are completely empty, sir?”
“Yes, until they are completely empty Major. “Main power is on full power, sir. All cabin panel lighting and instrument panel lighting is up and running, sir.”
Finally the Twitchel had her lifeline of blood flowing with the life of electricity running through her many veins of wires again. “Switch off the auxiliary power, Major. This bird is A-OK, and well alive again. Let us fire up the main rockets now Captain Mitchell; we have a rendezvous with a space station to make.”
Ann checked the paneled display for the power locking device indicator light. “Commander, there is no power to the rear thrusters, sir?”
“Double check it again, Captain. Do that damn shutdown start up sequence of the craft’s electrical system once again, just the same way you would in your fighter jet when you lose your thrusters.”
“Yes, sir, right away, sir.” Ann shut down the entire electrical display board of controls in front of her at her workstation. Then she did as previously instructed in her training by turning them all back on, one by one. She carefully brought back every switch back in its proper order to the on position and its light-lit back to life. She then switched on the main booster rocket switch at the end of her sequence, but that particular indicator light did not light up as it had not previously done.
“Sorry, sir, still no electrical power indicated to the main rear booster rocket panel firing mechanism light, sir.”
“Maybe it is just a damn burnt out bulb or a loose one. Captain Mitchell, fire those damn main boosters on the count of three anyway, and let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Yes, sir, Commander. Fire thrusters on the count of three. One, two, three.” Ann threw the switch to activate the rear main boosters, but to no avail, nothing happened and neither did any light come on as it should have to indicate power to the rear main thrusters.
Dead silence filled the cabin, not a sound nor any vibration from the main thrusters. The rear main boosters remained perfectly quiet, not trying to ignite. Just then, the jaytoe bottles ran out of their solid propulsion fuel as Commander Anderson was having yet another fit for himself over yet another unbearable situation in the second stage of this important mission.
“There has to be a break in one of the wires or connectors somewhere between the panel’s control switch and the firing mechanism, sir. It could be as simple as a harness has come apart somewhere out in the cargo bay area sir.”
“Do it again Captain, and fire that damn thing one more time! You must have missed something when you brought that damn control panel back to life, Ann.”
“Yes, sir, Commander.” Ann ran through the sequence one more time of shutting down the entire electrical panel board and all its many switches in the proper sequence of shutdown mode before bringing them all back to life the way she was supposed to do it. She very well knew she had followed the correct procedure in the manual’s specified sequence the last two times she had gone through the startup procedure, but still to no avail. She would do it again as ordered. “Sorry, Commander, but there is
still no power to the rear main boosters, sir. There is no ignition power sensor light on either, sir. There has just got to be a loose connector or broken wire in one of the connector panels out in the cargo bay or somewhere in my panel here at my work station, sir.”
“The space station has come back into view, Commander, with its strobe lights flashing in the darkness.”
“Captain, damn it, Jim, how long is it going to be before you can get this damn glitch fixed?”
“I do not know for sure, sir. I will do my best, Commander.”
“Lieutenant, break out the tool kits from beneath the station’s seats.” Steven jumped right to it and took them out for Captain Morris. Ann moved away from her post so the captain could get started on his work. He wanted to make sure the control panel was not to blame for the mishap before he ventured out to the electrical panels located out back of the cabin in the now almost filled to capacity cargo bay. It would definitely be a whole hell of a lot easier a fix in the control panel with a little luck, but he did not have the luck of the Irish with him at that moment when he opened it up. The break of wire or problem with this particular control switch circuit was as he was afraid it would be; somewhere out in the almost full to capacity cargo bay somewhere behind or under the pallets of dehydrated foods, water containers, and the oxygen cylinders strapped to the floor and sidewalls of the Twitchel.
The work of repairing the shuttle thruster’s ignition system was proceeding along way too slow for Commander Anderson, while Major Bill continually kept trying to talk to the space station. All he could hear were faint soft unclear crackling voices coming in over the radio frequency.
The faint voices worried the hell out of Commander Anderson as all he could imagine in the back of his mind were the good people who had saved them from dying a horrific death by suffocation for lack of oxygen. The very substance he and his crew had used so much of that they so desperately needed right now to survive. He knew he had enough oxygen on board for them to live better than another year; also, enough food and water to go along with it, if only he could get those damned rockets to fire, and get the oxygen to them in enough time before they all succumbed from the lack of it.