by L. S. Wood
While Commander Ivan watched, he observed the Twitchel firing her maneuvering jaytoe bottles to line their craft up for their docking to the station. Commander Ivan was totally confused because he had witnessed the Twitchel fire what he thought to have been their positioning jaytoe bottles, and wasted their short-lived lives just a couple of hours before. He knew they had, as he had witnessed it with his own two eyes. He did not know the ones they had wasted were their spare auxiliary jaytoe rockets that were hand controlled, and not computerized controlled jaytoe bottles. These were the ones affixed to the shuttle in case the Twitchel’s crew was unable to bring life back to the main battery bank systems located in the cargo bay of the Twitchel. The crew would then have to use them by operating the jaytoe bottles by hand to bring the Twitchel back into the earth’s gravitational pull properly and safely back to Earth hopefully.
“Close the docking coupler, Captain.”
“Contact coupler engaged, sir.” The forward jaws of the contractor coupler arm reached out and grabbed its intended target, securing the Twitchel firmly to the space station’s main docking ports specially designed for any of the American space shuttles fleet to dock with the space station.
The crew of the Twitchel had tears in their eyes when Ann threw the switch, and they could hear and feel the securing couplers of the two crafts engaging themselves locking the Twitchel firmly to the Space Station Laboratory‘s airlock locking mechanism. Ann was thrilled to death this time, but with other intentions on her mind than before when they docked to save their own hides, and now was glad to be back for them this time. Happy tears of joy flowed uncontrollably from the crew of the space station, as their ears heard the pleasant sounds of coupling couplers locking the two crafts together with their friends that they all hoped were on board the craft bringing relief back to them.
Ann’s happy heart was up in her joyous throat knowing very well and feeling quite wonderful that she had made the appropriate choice back home on her father’s farm, when Commander Anderson approached her and asked her to come along on this mission of mercy to help out her friends in need. She knew she didn’t have to come along or risk her life for the many unlucky crewmen onboard the space station, and could have just as easily have said no, but now she was extremely high in spirits with the choice she had made. Commander Anderson knew Ann would have probably said no to a stranger if he had sent someone else in his place to ask her; therefore, he went all by himself to see her personally. A stranger could not have preyed so easily on her tender caring heart of emotion the way he did. He knew that for having known her so very well for so very long. A stranger would not have gotten down on his two knees and begged her to go with them, the way he was prepared to do so if she had really said no to him. He knew this mission would have been almost impossible without her expertise’s knowledge onboard, and they would have probably failed the mission if she had stayed behind.
Ann could not hold back her emotions any longer or the flowing happy tears of joy she was feeling building up at the time. Three months or so earlier she had left this dying hulk of steel, this albatross of a space station laboratory in the heavens that had been her home, free floating in its orbital space pattern, of which she had hoped never to have to lay her beautiful eyes on the dying beast never again. Ann had returned to this unlikely layover hotel she once called home in outer space to give it a much needed CPR and return its once normal heartbeat gone array, back to a healthy beating one within its inner soul and needy mechanisms of life-supporting systems.
Commander Anderson opened up a small green canister of fresh oxygen he was holding in his hand as he entered the space station first. The canister was a grand token of their daring journey to space to bring to the needy space station’s crew. They also brought with them fresh filters for their re-breathing units, charcoal for their water purification system, food, and other much needed incidental supplies he knew they were so desperate in need of. Everyone cheered on both sides of the airlock as the hatches between the two vessels slowly opened up, as Commander Anderson was the first to emerge from the hatch of the Twitchel.
The mood was set, as many hugs and kisses of brotherly and sibling similar love flowed between the members of the two crews like water flowing over an opened dam on a bright warm summer’s day. The scene aboard the space station looked more like a reuniting of a lost child with his or her overly worried family, after the child had been lost out in the woods for a couple or so long lonely days.
Commander Anderson and Commander Ivan hugged as if they were lost brothers lastly reunited after having lost contact with each other for many years instead of the way two professional military men would act when addressing one another. The joyous mood between the two crews carried on for quite some time after the crew of the Twitchel had all entered the space laboratory before all finally settled down to the seriousness of business of the mission at hand.
The thin unraveling thread of life had finally come together once again as a whole, and the lives aboard the space laboratory spared for a short time to come for some and maybe not for some of the others. The worst of life’s dreaded news was forthcoming to some onboard the space station, for many lost loved ones back home on Earth, and the sad news for some would be too much a burden for anyone to handle at this critical time, especially if you had been trapped in space like they had been for so long.
It took a couple of days of transferring the life-saving supplies from the Twitchel’s huge cargo bay to the space station’s supply bay. After each long hard day of work, the two crews spent their relaxing time together chatting with one another about the changes around the earth that they once knew. They explained what they had witnessed and what it was like to live down there now, and it wasn’t as pleasant as it had been. Commander Anderson brought a satchel with him of disturbing information that he handed to Commander Ivan for him to go over with his comrades who had lost some of their loved ones.
Commander Ivan, being the leader he was, decided it was best if he should wait until the right opportune time should come about, when the hard work of transferring the much needed supplies between the two crafts had been completed before he would break any of the sad news to his weary crew.
It would be hard enough work transferring the bulky cargo from the shuttle to the space station while everyone pitched in to help in a happy way, never mind a somber unsettled one. As the work in transferring the many supplies became more difficult, the two crews embraced one another with kind words instead of angered ones during the trying times in the laborious task of opening cargo bay doors.
It was dangerous hard work transferring the many huge crates filled with supplies using the boom attached to the shuttles inner bay cargo wall. Commander Ivan did not need or want anyone of his crew going zany before or during the hard demanding chore of this mission was over. Before Commander Ivan broke the sad disturbing news to his fellow crewmembers, the sad news Commander Anderson had brought with him for several of the crewmembers; Major Bill stepped forward to tell his sad tragic story of his own personal close family’ fatalities.
Everyone hearing Bill had lost his whole family, his wife, his daughter, and his little son in the big bang, everyone swarmed around him with their closest of condolences for such an enormous loss. It was a good thing that he was strong, or Major Bill would have lost it all over again from the pain of the love shared for him.
Commander Anderson strived to use Bill’s personal sad news story as a cleansing tool for the minds of the crew who had lost loved ones before having Commander Ivan break the sad grieving news about some of the close family members of his fellow cosmonauts’ families. Major Bill volunteered to pave the way for the display of sad news relayed to the several crewmembers of the space mission felled by their own very tragic news of loss. He knew the real pain of it all and was willing to step forward to help try and ease the sudden shocking news that wouldn’t be welcomed very well by any of them onboard the spa
ce station at that time.
The news handed over to him from Commander Ivan was worse than had been expected when Major Bill stepped forward and addressed the Soviet crew. The two German astronauts had not lost a one of their family members, as had a few of the Russian cosmonauts onboard which had lost mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, wives, and children.
Whole families in Russia had been wiped completely out with their own weaponries big bang of massive neutron bomb destruction in the regions of their many homes below. It was a horror story being told to them by a total alienated individual whom they thought once was a friend, but now had other thoughts about him after he finished telling everyone what had happened back on Earth to so many of their families and friends.
Having been marooned in outer space for little under two and some just over two long years for most crewmembers, left a few of them in total denial of what could have had taken place back on Earth to anyone.
It all seemed like a horrid dream to most as not having any radio communication with Earth for so long, and not able to communicate verbally with anyone outside the confines from within the space laboratory itself.
The shocking news took its mental toll on a handful of the crewmembers, and they seemed worse than shell shocked with the news. Those few unfortunate ones were told that they had lost so many close relatives rejected the information immediately as inaccurate information, and suffered instant mental depression as other lost souls fell into limpness floating weeping. One after another they all rose from their limpness to firm footedness as they formed their own self-imposed opinions knowing damn well right the Americans were at an all-out war with their country because of the disaster which took place down there. All this talk about their loved ones’ deaths and friends dying was nonsense, nothing but a bunch of hog wash. It was all American propaganda being told to them by the angered enemy, or at least that was what a couple Soviets were convinced it was in their very own lonely depressed states of mind. They would not accept that any of their immediate family members had perished in the big blast because it happened all around the globe and not over Russia. They would not accept it for they had lost no one, and everyone was still healthy and well back home on Earth. Their leaders would not have been that foolish, and their homeland was well. “You people are the devils from the earth, come to destroy us, and should die!”
The emotions of the few now wobbly trying to stand firmly crying cosmonauts frightened everyone around them. Both commanders tried calming them down and asking their fellow comrades in helping to hold them down for tranquillizers for their own safety. The scene was not a pretty one, and Ann watched as close friends she once had over the past year, turned enemy toward her.
The few devastated cosmonauts were now screaming repulsive dirty accusations toward those who had just risked their lives to come and help rescue some of them and bring them food, oxygen, and other essentials to survive with. The United States, the stressed cosmonauts figured quickly chatting, were trying to weaken any relationship they had with their country, and were now trying to foil the precious mission they were sent to do aboard the space laboratory.
“Why in the hell did you have to come back here?” One screamed, shaking her fist at them! “Why in the hell didn’t you just stay the hell away, damn it, and let us all die in peace.” She slipped into limpness again, passing out cold from the shocking news of her whole family swallowed up by this neutron invasion that included her mother, father, husband, and her two little sons. She just wanted to die right then and there and could not believe all these bullshit lies could have possibly have happened to her family as if it had not happened to Bill’s.
The crew did not want to hear any more about tragedy that had taken place back on the earth! Several crewmembers carried the few sedated cosmonauts away to their sleeping quarters, as Commander Ivan had guards placed with them for when they awoke from their sedatives.
Ivan was sure that one if not more of the crew would try something desperate to end their mentally mind-suffering lives all together, and not want to return home to Earth to face the demon of death by their lonesome.
Commander Ivan had seen and heard quite enough, and was truly convinced that the grieving few crewmembers should be part of the select few that should be picked to be transported back to Earth aboard the Twitchel for everyone’s safety, including their own. He would not allow any of them to stay onboard his craft to endanger any of the remaining crewmembers’ lives inside the laboratory.
He knew he could not afford to have any life threatening crewmembers still onboard his vessel that might prove dangerous to anyone, or the well-being or reliability of the space station’s structures’ worthiness. Ivan was quite betwixt and between on what to do next with the emotional ones except to send them all back home to Earth. Back on Earth, their stressed out comrades could be tended to properly and comforted by professional disaster councilors schooled in their profession. It would be best if they returned than left up here by themselves alone in outer space to dwell over and over in their wondering minds about their miserable grief and possibly interfere with the safety of all personnel left behind aboard the failing laboratory.
The unloading the Twitchel’s cargo bay completed in less than four long hard-working days. It took another three days to safely repair and prepare the Twitchel for her return trip back home to Earth. The spare jaytoe bottles that they needed to be removed from her two outer sides and the securing of holes created there needed filling in with heat-resistant silicon and tiles for reentry. The securing levers and cables used to get the Twitchel safely into outer space had to be carefully removed, and the holes left in her sides had to be filled in with heat resistant material and dried with electrically operated solar powered warming guns to dry the epoxy applied to her outer skin. As work on retrofitting the Twitchel was underway, the two commanders were busy at work trying to figure out who were best to send back to Earth besides the four cosmonauts who had really taken the sad news of their lost loved ones so harsh.
Commander Ivan went over his list of cosmonauts with his first mate to determine who was fit and not so mentally fit to send along with the others. One by one, they eliminated the strongest link in strong-minded ones over weak-minded comrades. They dwindled the cosmonauts down to the weakest link of the best last candidates, and came up with a list of two rather weak constitutionally-minded cosmonauts who would join the two Germans and six other lucky or not so lucky cosmonauts on their last return trip back home to Earth with the daring crew from the Twitchel. The remaining forty-two members of the laboratory would have to wait another long year more or less until another rescue mission might possibly be attempted.
The Soviet space module would have to stay attached to the space station until then, for safety reasons, in case a message needed to be delivered to Earth earlier for help in case a disaster should occur onboard the space laboratory, and they needed to take action for their own safety. Without radio contact with Earth, the space station module would be their only way of communication back with Earth if it was to become necessary.
Commander Anderson had already set into motion another rescue mission that would bring back to the space laboratory three already built soviet made space modules to help in the rescue of another eighteen cosmonauts, six onboard each, and another eight onboard the shuttle. Twenty-six possibly more should the shuttle be outfitted properly to accommodate the remaining crew aboard the space laboratory at that time. If not, then there would be sixteen left in outer space to be rescued at a much later time in the future, hopefully the last and final rescue attempt of the lost mission in space.
Commander Nelson Anderson, reassured Commander Ivan that he would do everything possible in his military powers to return for them, kept secure in the back of his mind. He was now under extreme pressure to arrange for this particular mission this time. His superiors were not for risking the lives of an American shuttle crew to save a crew of their
rivals who had caused this worldly disaster and dilemma to have happen in the first place.
The only single reason they went along with it was for the two remaining Germans still trapped onboard the space station who wouldn’t survive up there because none of them cared whether the others made it back safe or not.
The goodbyes and farewells would not be as emotional this time as they were the last. There would be a definite feeling that everything would be all right this time for the remaining crew of the laboratory. The odds of them surviving in outer space for another year were in all their favors now, or were they?
CHAPTER FIFTY
The Departure
When the Twitchel parted company from the space station’s docking portal, the radios between the space station and the Twitchel were in perfect working order.
In the unloading of the cargo from the Twitchel cargo bay to the space laboratories storage area, the space-walk workers noticed the aft antenna on the tail section of the Twitchel’s rear section had been broken. Lieutenant Steven performed an unsecured space walk without a tethered line attached to either him or the vehicles, using the newly designed jet backpack designed for such repairs in installing the newly repaired antenna link. The antenna somehow broke off during the grounds crew standing the Twitchel upright in the launching pad assembly hanger without notice by any of the grounds crew performing their tasks. If someone from the ground crew had noticed the small antenna was broken, a new one would have been easily installed prior to liftoff.
The two commanders selected eight Russian cosmonauts to return back to earth with the Twitchel crew with the exception for the two Germans. The ones chosen did not seem to be at ease with themselves never mind any of the Twitchel’s crew who had risked their lives trying to fly up through the deadly neutron mass into out space to try and save them from a life of doom and gloom.