by L. S. Wood
If the Americans were capable of sending this spacecraft to re-supply them, then there should be no reason why in the world they couldn’t send another, and another, and another until everyone onboard the doomed space station was back home safe and sound. At least there was a glimmer of hope now, and a little hope went a long, long way at a critical time in all their lives. The excitement aboard the space station turned to joyful bliss. Jubilation with it brought back many lost smiles to the many who had just about given up on their fellow Russians and men from below. The dreadful thought of dying by suffocation from the lack of oxygen was over for some of them for a while, or was it? Would the mere return home to Earth suffocate some of them in more mean ways than losing one’s breathe in space? The loss of some loved ones and the loss of friends. The loss of entire families, and death to entire towns around the globe might be too much for some of them to manage now after being held captive in space for so long. Maybe suffocating from the lack of oxygen in space would be a more pleasant, a more humane way to let them all perish, than to bring them all back to Earth and let them face the music of reality the way it actually was on Earth now. Suffocating by realization might be more a slow agonizing death than seeing loved ones who have lost their soul mates, lost in such pain, half their once good minds gone by way of simplicity and foolishness, just barely surviving day to day in stupor, and in swaddling dirty waste and soiled clothing.
Unquestionably, a death in space would save them all from this most agonizing slow cruel mecca of madness waiting for them below on Earth.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
A Friendly Voice in Space
International Space Station calling the U.S. Twitchel. Come in please, Twitchel. Do you read us, over? International Space Station, calling the U.S. shuttle Twitchel. Do you read, over? International Space Station this is the U.S. Omega One space shuttle calling, do you read us, over. Space Station this is the U.S. Omega One space shuttle calling, do you read, over. International Space Station, this is the U.S. Omega One space shuttle calling, please come in space station, over.”
The radio operator spun the frequency dial on his radio running the calling message out over all the different radio frequencies. Finally, the space station noticed the message broadcast from the Omega One, and returned its call.
“Omega One, this is the International Space Station, over. We hear you loud and clear, who is your Commanding officer Omega One, over?”
“Commander, Colonel Nelson Anderson is in charge, over.”
“May I speak to your commander, please?”
“All channels open, lieutenant. How are you doing, Ivan? You can talk to all of us, commander, our channels have been all opened up for you commander, and how have you and your comrades been holding out up here?”
“Quite well, thank you Colonel Anderson, especially now that you are here with us, sir, or almost here with us commander. Food and oxygen supplies have been getting rather scarce in these cramped quarters of ours, Nelson. How are the crewmembers we sent back to Earth several months ago doing now commander, especially the two very pregnant ones?”
“Everything is going quite well with every one of your comrades commander, very well indeed!”
“How many supplies did you bring with you this time around, over?”
“We brought you and your comrades a couple of busses, Ivan.”
“What do you mean a couple of busses, commander?”
“A couple of your own Soviet-built space capsules, Ivan, along with this very much modified shuttle with as many possible extra seats for your entire crew, sir. We are all going home together back to the earth this last trip, Ivan.”
Tremendous jubilation exploded in the confines of the space station, as grown men cried happy tears of joy, while hugging and kissing each other like children in a daycare center learning they were going to the zoo. The female cosmonauts almost passed out by being so pleased and happy that they too would all be going home this time. Ivan had to take a seat at the control station from stand floating as he became so weak kneed and light headed from his own excitement.
This was it, their final ticket home, and now they had something to be overly jubilant about, maybe.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE
The Docking
Commander, we will rendezvous with the space station at approximately 1200 hours U. S. Eastern time, sir. We will plan to dock at portal one airlock platform at approximately 1300 hours, commander. It is 09:38 eastern time our time. Please set your timing instruments and devices to correspond with ours, Ivan. We will set the controls on both the shuttle and space lab computers to guide the Omega One through her porting positioning procedures to our Port A with both the crafts’ computers synchronized to one another, sir.”
“You have no idea how good it feels to have electrical power back again, Ivan. You all will not believe it whence you return back home to Earth. We now live as if we were back in the dark ages compared to what it was like before you and your crew left the planet to come up here.”
Minds of the Soviets aboard the space station ran rampant, overjoyed with happy thoughts thinking how nice it was going to be to be back with their loved ones once again. The thoughts of just being back home on the family farm, back in the city of Moscow, or just plainly standing on the good old firm terra firma of the earth once again brought great joy to most everyone aloft. The only other thing that could possibly be more joyful than the moment at hand, would be to have already have landed back home on Earth, and already be with family and friends.
Some of the sad lonely crew sped off to their cramped living quarters. They took out the only picture or pictures they had of their loved ones back home from their closed lockers. Some had placed them away so not to constantly think about their loved ones back there. They began weeping over them with emotional joy, imagining the feeling their loved ones’ arms would feel like wrapped tenderly yet firmly around them once again. Others imagined in tender thought about making love to their wives passionately, and showing just how much they had missed them over their time away from them. A couple the women cosmonauts thought how nice it would be to make love to their husbands in bed, and not making love to them using their imaginations alone in space. To touch one another was going to be bliss. Staring at the pictures of their children and family members brought happy smiles to their once so lonely, but now so joyful happy faces. Wondering how much taller, prettier, and more beautiful they would have become when they returned back home to be with them. Some thoughts of doubt about how their elderly parents and grandparents tolerated what had happened in their lives when they return. What would be the changes that had taken place in their communities during their absence?
If only the majority aboard the space station really knew what had drastically happened to most everyone down below, some would surely have rather chosen to stay on in the space station to live out their remaining days of life and pass away in their own silence. Some would want to take their own lives and most likely would rather than face the silence and emptiness they would find in their desolate homes back home on Earth. For some when and if they all returned back home, the pain of agony was going to kill them anyway.
Colonel Anderson, prior to liftoff had received word from the Kremlin on the status of all cosmonauts’ families present and past history of those aboard the International Space Station, and for that very reason he had left the list of their families wellbeing, and not so well knowledge of being behind. He wanted all happy faces to greet him this time around when they opened the air locker doors between the two vessels, and did not want to disturb better than half the space station’s crew before they were to return back home to Earth. He decided it was best left up to their own government to inform the lucky and not so lucky cosmonauts of the good, as well as the very sad very bad news about their immediate family’s catastrophes whence they returned back home to their own country.
“The space st
ation is coming into view, commander.”
“Fire retro rockets, major.” Bill reached over to the control panel to fire the retro rockets when Lieutenant Marsh interrupted him.
“Not necessary commander. The computer says we have one minute and counting before slowing mode takes over for us and slows us down for the docking procedures, sir.”
“Never mind then, Bill. Let the onboard computers do their jobs. We do not have to do everything by hand anymore seeing we have electricity to do the job for us.”
“It’s very hard to accept that idea up here, sir, seeing we don’t have to do all the work by hand anymore.”
Just the way Lieutenant Marsh had said it would happen. The Omega One’s retro rockets were ignited by the onboard computer calculating the exact time and distance between the two crafts, and the shuttle slowed down to intercept in the global course the space station was orbiting in, in order to prepare the two space vehicles for their docking. The timing between the two vehicles could not have been any more precise. The two onboard computers corresponded with each other precisely in preparation for them to link up with each other. If they had tried doing everything by sight and hand, they could have done the slowing down preparation manually, but it would have taken them twice as much longer in time to do the same job. The craft could have used up the much needed fuel they must use in their return flight back to Earth. The Omega One had already used up a lot of extra fuel in carrying the massive weight of the two space modules and its retrofitted cockpit to hold so many more passengers for their return trip back home.
“Space station, this is the Omega One, over.”
“Go ahead Omega One.”
“We are preparing to dock space station docking platform “A”. Is everything cleared at main docking platform for docking, over?”
“Main link docking platform all cleared for docking Omega One. Airlock chamber platform “A” now ready to accept docking of craft Omega One over”.
“We will let the computers finish doing their jobs, over.”
“We will see you at 1300 hours, Ivan, over.”
“Cannot wait to see and shake your hand, commander. It’s been way too long since our last visit.”
“Roger that, Ivan! Glad to be back for this special occasion. See you in about forty-two minutes, over.”
“Forty-two minutes and counting, colonel. Forty-two and counting, see you then.”
The friendly joyous sounds of metal to metal clatter of the docking clamps clamping tight to one another sounded like reindeer hooves on a roof and tones of sleigh bells ringing at Christmas time to the tired crew of the space station. What a beautiful joyful sound the two vehicles made as they engaged to one another, becoming one united vessel at the docking platform.
The joyful hearts aboard the space station finally beat with hope this time in them, instead of gloom, and doom they had all been beating with for so long a time, including Commander Ivan’s saddened heart.
When the safety airlocks decompression chambers between the vehicles opened, happy beaming smiles began generating from everyone on both sides. The happy crew on the space station greeted their rescuers with hugs and kisses so dear like only family members would give them to one another.
Lieutenant Marsh was overwhelmed with all the warm greetings he received, not knowing anyone on board the space station. It made him delighted he had so unselfishly volunteered for this risky mission, and receiving the overwhelming salutations he so deservingly received, he had not had the opportunity to live with these people for over a year’s time in space in the past. He had not been on the first mission, but could only imagine the reception that crew received on their first mission. It was amazing the gratitude this crew offered for the gift of life they were about to receive.
If it was not for Colonel Anderson, and him almost having to get down on his hands and knees and begin begging NASA for this mission, all these happy people would have been but a mere thought in the backs of someone’s blank mind back home on Earth, and thoughts of those few left alive that loved them.
CHAPTER EIGHTY
The Last Stage
After a healthy feast of thanksgiving with special foods and selected antibiotics that Colonel Anderson purposely brought with them, the work of the U.S. astronauts to return the Russian cosmonauts back to Earth began. For the next several days, both crews worked diligently with one another in the preparation for the shutdown of the space station, getting the two space modules ready with their retrofit, and the Omega One’s retrofit for their reentry back through and into the earth’s atmosphere.
Both Soviet space capsules were inspected back on Earth to see if they were space ready for a safe flight back home or not. All the makings for new battery life brought with the crew of the Omega to prepare their batteries in space for the onboard computers that both modules already had in them. The airtight seals aboard were inspected prior to occupation, or the cosmonauts onboard them could perish on reentry from the intense heat and sudden loss of oxygen.
Colonel Anderson had only hoped both capsules would be space ready when they were loaded into the cargo bay of the Omega One. It had been a crap shot in the dark, but one worthy of taking a chance on for the rescue of this well deserving crew. If all failed with the module, another rescue mission would have to be planned in the very near future, but not without an act of congress for its permission. NASA was not in favor of this last one, and did not want this mission to take place, never mind possibly a third.
Extensive testing on the two modules took place several times over, to make absolute sure the safety of all onboard equipment they inspected. The oxygen system along with its reserve, the pressure seals, and power systems all checked out positive, giving everyone a good feeling. No one left behind this time to fend for themselves.
Practice landing procedures went on daily for the crew of the space station who were going to be using the space modules for their own return. Colonel Anderson informed them of the mistake the first capsule crew had experienced in releasing their main parachutes too early in their return flight, and it almost cost the crew their lives. Timing for the proper release of the main landing parachutes would prove to be the most critical of all procedures during their return flight back to Earth.
After several days, the three crafts had passed all their needed testing and retrofitting for their safe flights back home. Both Colonel Anderson and Commander Ivan were pleased with the outcome of the retrofit of the Omega and the extensive testing of both space modules. One of the modules had failed the life support system’s testing. They took several needed parts from the space station’s section B life support system in repairing the one space module. After removing the special equipment from section B, that section of the space station had to be shut down and sealed off. The crew jury-rigged the oxygen unit scavenged from section B into the module for its safe return flight. All went well with retrofitting it into the disabled module. At first, they thought it was a futile attempt, but with a little Yankee ingenuity by Lieutenant Marsh, and his good Irish luck, it fit without a hitch. It cramped the usable space inside the module for those using it, but would be worth it. Riding cramped up was better than the alternative of being left behind to die in space, or was it?
The time for their return back home to Earth was quickly approaching. The last assembly aboard the space station took place in the dining hall of the space lab. The schedule for the departure of the three space vehicles was finalized at the last meal with everyone onboard the space station.
The Omega One’s crew would be the first to depart the space station. Commander Anderson would land his craft at Cape Canaveral first, and prepare the landing facilities to intercept the first space capsule, the second day after their initial arrival. The second space module would land the fourth day after Omega One, and then the entire space crew from the International Space Station would all be back on Earth and well, they ho
ped. If, by chance, the first space module did not make it safely back to Earth, the second module would still keep the same time schedule, landing on the fourth day, at the cape as planned.
The weather over the cape was discussed in great detail. None of the modules was to take any unnecessary chances this time. The weather was the biggest factor for them now, as the neutron field was very active during or around the formation or the disbanding of any storms lately. They wanted and needed perfect weather to be around the cape and even in the subtropics to guarantee a safe return home flight for all.
The space station ordered to alert the cape landing facility below by signaling it with its tracking light system the night before departure if everything looked favorable for the next day’s landing. They would signal them below when they traveled overhead in the darkness by two and three flashes of their beacons. Two for thumbs up and three for thumbs down. Two to land the next day, and three to wait for better weather because the space station was not in immediate danger now of running out of food or oxygen. If it took a couple of weeks for everyone to return safely back to Earth, it would be well worth the wait.
The two crews parted for their quarters to get a good night’s sleep before Omega One departed in the early morning hours, just prior to sun up over the cape and the landing facilities.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE
The Return
Space station, this is Omega One, over.”
“Go ahead Omega One.”
“It is a go space station, release docking clamps, over.”
“Docking clamp release switch activated Omega One.” With the squeal of the releasing clamp, the Omega One drifted slowly back away from the space station. This time there was no sad deathly feelings of desertion or fear in the ones left behind in orbit to die. The only fear was fear itself in the returning flight back to Earth some feared most.