by L. S. Wood
Commander Khrushchev wished he now had postponed the damn request for the help mission and had put it off for at least another two or more days or even a week. Having seen the horrific storm off Africa’s coastline several hundred miles east of the Florida coastline heading in a westerly north westerly direction.
He never thought the space module would never in a million years drift that far off course before touching down. The weather over the Florida landing zone at the time looked perfect when the capsule left the space station. It sure was pure hindsight, and too damn late to do anything about it now. There was absolutely nothing anyone onboard the space station could do now except pray for the unlucky comrades below who had really lost in winning the lucky lottery draw of life, instead of having won anything.
The following day, the raft and its survivors were located to the south west of the storm. All six crewmembers still aboard the flotation device somehow were going to make out all right after all. Just off to their north sat the bobbing barge, but no sign of the space module anywhere around them. It must have sunk during the harsh storm of the night, thinking it a damn good thing they had all abandoned it during the night, or they too could have come up missing.
In the next few days, several ships and sailboats had passed by the crew in their life raft just off to the north of it, while a couple passed off to the south of them. They seemed to be drifting along in an ocean current between the two shipping channels of the Atlantic Ocean.
If only there was any kind of radio communications still working down below on Earth, the lost raft could have been located and found by now with its radio transmitter beacon working in every space rescue raft had attached to it in order for the coastguard or any other naval military vessel to locate it. The radio communications man aboard the space station continued to broadcast the position of their friends raft below over and over all day long. They broadcasted their position all night long as well, hopefully wishing for someone down there would hear the desperate cries of help for their friends.
It didn’t look very promising for the crew on the raft now, especially after the next couple of days out on the water cooking in the hot heat of the sun, unprotected from its rays. Everyone onboard the space station knew the crew below would be soon running out of all life support provisions of food and would desperately need water to survive.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
Stone Deaf Ears
International Space Station, calling NASA-ONE, over. International Space Station calling NASA-ONE, over, do you read me NASA-one, over? International Space Station calling NASA-ONE over, does anyone read me down there NASA?”
Silence fell over the radio messages like the closing of tomb doors behind coffins left in the silence of nothingness vaults for a future burial.
“NASA, international rescue team needed for life raft caught in middle of Atlantic Ocean, over. Six crewmembers in need of IMMEDIATE pick up, over! International rescue team needed A. S. A. P, for life raft victims, location heading north by northeasterly off Florida coastline, over, NASA!”
The many hundreds of radio messages they were sending were falling upon the thousands and thousands of dead silent radios around the earth. The electrical crystals needed the enhanced sound waves of the earth had been totally interrupted and silenced by the mammoth invasion of the neutrons spread worldwide.
There was no need for the space station’s radio operators to try to send any type of messages, and they knew it. Everyone aboard the space station felt a need for it, a duty to try in any way possible they could to help their friends in this desperate need of help.
They, too, would soon need help, but their only thoughts about desperation were on their fellow friends and comrades below at that moment. For the next few days, the space station radio operators continued to broadcast the bearings and global positioning location of their friends drifting rafts whereabouts on the ocean’s surface below to anyone who might hear their desperate plea for their needy friends.
The only ears hearing their calls were the many hundreds of communication satellites spinning around the earth in their own orbit right along with them, that also continually repeated the many pleading calls from them for help, over, and over again to the many silenced radio receptor towers below. The space station tried using Morse code in desperation to send pleading messages for their friends below. They repeatedly turned on and off the beacons around the space station as they passed overhead during the nighttime hours over all land, but no one responded back to any of their dire signals, not even from their Morse code.
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
The Seventh Day
On the seventh day of their observation, the assigned post officer in charge of the watch monitoring their comrades below observed a small sailboat crossing real close to the north of the life raft.
“Commander Ivan, there is a sailboat not far from the life raft, sir.” Colonel Ivan took over the watch of the raft looking down through the eye in the sky, wanting to know what was happening to his friends below. Commander Ivan had all but given up hope for the poor souls adrift on the open sea. This was the miracle the crew needed to enable them to survive. The life raft and sailboat looked so damn close they had to have been within hollering distance from one another.
“Can’t you see them? You sun’s-of-bitches! Are you blind or what?” Commander Ivan was getting upset because the sailboat looked to be intentionally sailing by his fellow cosmonauts.
The Colonel was so damn mad at what he was seeing that he started jumping up and down floating in weightlessness while screaming out profanities at the sailboat, especially at its crew. “What the hell is the matter with all you down there? Are you all blind? Can you idiots not see them? The life raft is off to your port side for crying out loud. Come on damn it! They need you, you inconsiderate morons! Get your asses over there, now!
“YES, YES, YES.” Shouted Commander Ivan as he spotted the sailboat coming about. “The sailboat has seen them,” he shouted! The whole crew in the control center screamed with joy, as the joyful sounds reverberated throughout the space station to everyone. The others in the space station came floatingly running to the control center quickly floating and grabbing hold of anything along the way they could to quickly get there. They wanted to see what all the happy hollering and joyful screaming was all about in there because they felt they knew and wanted to be a part of the rescue even if it was in their own minds in doing so. When the rafters were all safely onboard the sailboat, the crew on the space station screamed out in joyful jubilation. The once heavy burden of self-guilt they all felt had been lifted from everyone’s shoulders.
The space station then passed out of visual contact again, as the space station zoomed away in its normal orbit around the earth for another orbit. The cosmonauts still kept a continual vigil upon their friends aboard the sailboat for the next couple of days, as they zoomed over Florida’s east coast region of the Atlantic. They would bring up the power of the telescope just as they passed the halfway mark across the United States so they would be ready when they approached the eastern half of the country. They managed several minutes a day in their passes overhead during daylight time which enabled them to keep track of their friends below. Every second counted as far as they were concerned of what next was to happen to their friends.
They drifted in space having no idea if a rescue mission would ever be put together and come back to the space station for their rescue. They were glad and sad for themselves, but happy everyone below was safe and sound back home on Planet Earth once more, especially for Gina and Krista.
The space crew all felt quite sure that they would never see their homeland ever again. They took into account not seeing any activity at all taking shape on or around any of their own space-launching facilities back home in Russia. They really felt lost by not seeing the place around the Cape Canaveral launching site as well.
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
Everyone’s happy hearts were up in their throats aboard the small sailboat with a massive joy of relief in them as the sight of land came into view. This included Commander Anderson and his lovely wife, Becky. They were both happy for the six survivors they had just rescued from the deadly sting of the sea, especially Commander Anderson‘s happy attitude with his self-joy shared in with the six cosmonauts’ lucky situation.
He still could not believe the odds of this particular situation ever happing to him or anyone else in the world. It was greater than one in a billion, a zillion, a bazillion, or whatever the highest number in odds was in the entire world that he would be the one to save his comrades from the sea. It could never ever happen again to anyone else on Earth, and he was very glad it had happened to him.
By just seeing the looks of happiness appear on everyone’s faces when he and Becky pulled up alongside the raft was like looking at a child going to the zoo for the first time, and this thought alone made the commander’s heart over-swell with joy. This feeling was even greater than when he and his crew first docked at the space station on their first rescue mission when everyone inside greeted his entire crew with wide open arms, smiles, and kisses, thinking someone cared enough about them who was willing to try to help save them.
The hoots, the hollers, the hugs of joy, even Ludwitz got up off the couch and hobbled along on his good leg to come topside above deck to witness and take into account the beauty of land, making everyone aboard feel relieved. They all screamed with joy so loud they sounded like foghorns of a ship lost in a fog bank, warning other ships they were in the immediate area. They were all so damn glad that they were in sight of good old terra firma Florida land at last. They all would now be able to get the much-needed medical services they so desperately needed, along with the special necessary food and water everyone needed, seeing they had run out of supplies again the day before. Who the hell cared anymore as they were all home safe now. This would be a new beginning for them all. They now could all return to all their old ways of life back home on Earth with all their families and friends back home in Russia, or could they? The way of living on Earth before had drastically changed, and they may never adjust to things the way they are now. It was still good to be back home on Earth again, or was it?
Were there any of their friends or their family still left alive on Earth to return back home to? Many of their loved ones along with many of their friends had long since perished from the surface of Earth that dreaded day or just shortly after the invasion of the Soviet neutron missiles that caused the frenzied reaction to all life on Earth.
Commander Anderson and Becky docked their sailboat just south of Cape Canaveral at the yacht club where he kept their sail boat, not far from where they now lived. Immediately, the rescued space crew were all rushed to the military hospital facilities at the base, and there were taken care of straight away. The salty seawater had helped preserved Ludwitz’ leg from getting gangrenous, as physical therapy would be required to get him to be able to use it to walk once more.
The nylon sewing threads used by Chenco in his attempt to sew up the torn leg let the lacerations heal quite nicely, while some of Chenco’s torn up shirt, the doctors had to remove surgically from the forming flesh intertwining with it where the leg’s skin had started to use it in its healing process. He was lucky to be alive, and owed the most thanks to Chenco with his great sewing abilities, so the doctors said.
Gina had to be quickly rehydrated with a couple of intravenous units of fluids along with an antibiotic solution as an added precautionary measure, just to make sure everything would be all right with her and the twins she was carrying. Krista also had some intravenous units given to her along with antibodies to make sure she would do well in her fragile condition as well.
Sebastian underwent medical testing deep underground with electrical scanning units for the lump he had had on his head. Everything looked like it was getting back to normal for the present. He would have to return back to the hospital in a few days because of the clotting that had developed from the massive blow he took to his head and being knocked out for so long in a coma and having seizures when he first came around to being conscious again.
This concerned the doctors at the hospital, suggesting to Sebastian that he could still have some severe problems lurking in his head that needed more attention in the future, should they arise.
The remaining crew were all been given good bills of health, and were cleared to leave for home in Russia and Germany or stay within the United States to live, It would be their choice, whatever they wanted to do. The U.S. Government had given them all their choices, and would provide free transportation back to their native land of Russia if they so choose to return to it. It all depended upon them. In the meantime, they would all be put up in the military base-housing facilities, and await the good or bad news of loved ones from back home. Some would choose to stay if they had no one left to go back home to, while others would be more fortunate and would have at least one family member to return home to be with.
CHAPTER SEVENTY
The Last Shuttle of the Fleet
Commander Anderson went straightaway to the command center at the Kennedy Space Center deep beneath the surface of the cape’s reconfigured space center. He contacted the Soviet Kremlin by way of a special underground wiring cabled system still capable in carrying a minimized amount of live current as long as it remained hidden beneath a certain depth in the earth or deep beneath the waters of the earth. The only insulators the wild neutrons around the planet’s atmosphere would not or could not attack, as man found out the hard way with so many deaths in its many attempts.
The threat of war from electronically operated flying aircraft and accommodated rocketry was now a thing of the past. The world was probably a better place for it, for now the neutrons were in total control and governed almost everything in its atmosphere.
Commander Anderson held long conversations with the many Soviets now in charge who were desperately trying very hard to rebuild their devastated homeland. The big bang had hit them probably the hardest of all of the countries around the globe when the initial blast occurred.
The Russian’s once superb space program was annihilated with their own big blast, losing every pilot capable of flying any type of space bound vehicle or aircraft for them.
They had no rockets readily built which could fly or the equipment to construct one. The only thing left of the Soviet Space Program were a couple of Soviet space modules still sitting in storage for future flights that would now surely never take place.
The fate of their remaining cosmonauts stranded in outer space they would leave up to another capable country in rescuing their cosmonauts because they were not capable of doing it themselves and would not try.
The new Soviet government wished they could help bring their fellow comrades home, but by no means were they capable of doing so now. When if possible they could put something together for a mission, it would definitely be too late for the crew above.
Commander Anderson in seeing they couldn’t help in any other way than just wishing everyone good luck in rescuing their comrades, requested information pertaining to the crewmembers surviving families back in Russia for the six survivors who had just returned back home from the space station who were now resting comfortably at the cape’s military hospital. Their kinfolk would like to know that their loved ones were back home safe and sound. The six cosmonauts back on Earth would like to know how their families were now doing back home in Russia. Seeing his last news he had brought with him to the space station was not very good for anyone several months ago, he hoped this new news would be more promising to the six now back on Earth.
The Kremlin would return his requested information as soon as they possible could, and thanked Commander Anderson for his attempt in trying to save their fellow astronauts from doom in his efforts to
return them all back home safely.
Chenco stayed with Gina during her medical prenatal pregnancy physical examination, as did John with Krista. Gina’s twins were doing exceptionally fine less the wear and tear on their mother, as they did not show any signs of trauma, so their birth should go well for her in the near future. Doctors recommended that Gina and Chenco stay in the United States until after the birth of their twins. This would afford the babies better chances in their survival and not risking them or her should any problems occur during the long journey of crossing the ocean. Not to mention the extended rough journey she would encounter getting back home in the back rough country of Russia where their relatives all lived, far from the city of Moscow.
Krista, on the other hand, passed her prenatal physical exam with excellence. Her healthy fetus of a strong-looking growing little boy was going to be a good football player, all the medics predicted. She and John were told they could venture back to their homeland at their earliest convenience or stay and live in the United States along with any of the crew who so chose to do so.
The requested information Commander Anderson received from the Kremlin was both good and severely bad. Sebastian’s entire family of uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, and grandparents, who mostly lived high up in the mountainous region in Russia in a small village, had all been laid to rest except for his father. He was the lucky one, or not so lucky one, having been away working when the blast occurred. His mother was one of the unlucky ones who was still alive back in the village who had been down in the root cellar getting food for the rest of the family, but who now had the mind of a three year old because of the high neutron count of the invasion in the region.
Chenco’s family was also from a smaller village located within the same region as Sebastian’s family. Drastically everyone in his entire family had vanished. There was absolutely no one left for him to go back home to. The only family he had left now was Gina and the twins to be.