by Carl Conrad
“Scott? This is Stimson at Earth Control one. What is your location? You took off in such a hurry, we haven’t got a digital fix on you yet. We’ve got two visual confirmations from telescopic observations, but we’re not tracking you digitally yet.”
Marty leaped in. “We’re at zero niner one one seven two five, Earth Control.” Marty watched the dials spin around on his console as the craft spun like a yo-yo at the end of a string. “Although, that’s going to change by the second, Stimson. We’re spinning out of control because of the angle we had to take off.”
“Yes, I know,” Stimson replied to Marty’s comment. Then, turning to his side: “Michelson! Zero niner one one seven two five. And, get it fast!”
Quickly setting some dials and flipping a switch, Michelson watched for a radar confirmation. But, there was nothing. “Nothing, Chief,” he reported back to Stimson.
“Keep scanning, Brad,” Stimson instructed. “They’re rolling pretty fast. See if you can locate them.”
I am, Chief. But, they’re just a needle in a haystack without a better fix.” Then, he noticed something. “Wait! There’s Grayson! I can see him on the screen. He’s just coming out from behind the planet.”
“Earth Control One, this is Grayson at zero eight eight six five double zero seven. Do you read me?”
“Yes, we read you, Grayson,” Stimson confirmed. “Have you got him Michelson?”
“Yes, Chief. I’ve got a good fix on him. And... Yes! I think I’ve got the pod!”
“Put them on my screen, Brad,” Stimson commanded.
Michelson flipped a switch and the radar images immediately filled Stimson’s screen. There was a large, solid, yellow circle positioned in the upper middle of Stimson’s screen, then two other images faintly appeared to both the left and right of it. The image on the right was blinking in a red color as its position was unconfirmed while the image on the left appeared to be a sharp and steady, small, moving green dot.
“Grayson? Can you pick them up on your radar, yet?” Stimson asked.
“Yes, I see them,” Col. Thomas Grayson quickly replied, ”but I can’t reach them from here; not the right altitude. I’m going to have to go around one more time. The computer is figuring out an interception course right now.” He paused a few seconds, but nothing appeared on his monitor. “I can’t get an interception course plotted until I get a better fix on their location. Scott? Marty? Can you hit your thrusters on either side to stop that spinning?”
“Negative, Grayson,” Scott answered from the still spinning probe. We had to launch so fast, we didn’t have a chance to adjust our angle of ascent.”
“We can do a little maneuvering, though, Tom,” Marty quickly added. “I can put some drag on the ascent booster at the same time that I burn the rear thrusters. That might stop us, but it won’t hold us for long. If you can get close enough, we’ll see if we can stabilize long enough to dock.”
“Are you crazy, Marty! We can’t try something like that. That would be like catching an apple dropping off a tree in mid-air! If I miss, you’re gonna slam right into me.”
This was a dangerous idea. Stimson, at Earth Control One, briefly considered it, then had an image of a mid-space collision flash through his mind in an instant that ended in tragedy. “No, no, no,” he objected. “That’s just too much precision for the circumstances. It would be a one in a million chance. We can’t try it.”
Jennings and Fisk continued their out-of-control spin that hurled them deeper into space until they reached the limit of their blast and merely spun like a knuckleball as they drifted helplessly in place.
“Stimson, you’re exaggerating,” Scott added. “It’s not that bad of an idea. We can slow our spin for a short time, I’m sure of that. And, if Grayson uses some caution, he can always pull out if we’re not stabilized enough.”
“No, I just don’t want to risk it, Scott,” Stimson replied with finality.
“But, there’s no other option I can think of, Stimson, unless we just wait for something to happen, and I’m afraid to think of what that might be.”
The monitor on Grayson’s craft flashed with an image of two circles, representing their crafts, linked together with a dotted line that whirled around the planet then hooked them together.
“I’ve got a course plotted,” Grayson advised them. “My computer shows once around the planet, then I can overtake them. Shall I initiate it?”
Stimson was still greatly concerned. There just seemed to be no way these guys could pull off that kind of flying precision and timing without a major problem. It was like daredevils; the way they used to barnstorm those bi-wing airplanes in the old days!
“No, you just can’t take that kind of risk. It could get you all killed!” Stimson emphatically cautioned them.
“Not if we back everything up,” Marty asserted. “We’ve got these billion dollar computers, let’s see what they can do.”
“It’s not the calculations, Marty, it’s the hookup,” Stimson persisted. “If you’re not perfectly aligned, the ships aren’t going to fit together.”
All three of the astronauts knew that what he was saying was completely true. If those hatch doors didn’t link up perfectly, there would be a collision and damage that could never be repaired in space.
“Give me a chance at it, Stimson,” Scott pleaded. “I used to be a test pilot, I know how to improvise. I’m sure I can bring it in.”
“And, if Grayson comes in from the leeward side, it will give us that much more of a chance,” Marty added.
Stimson let the idea formulate more completely in his mind. It did seem to be about the only chance they had. If they waited much longer, it might be impossible to ever get another chance like this one.
“Ok. Try it. But the first sign that something’s not going according to plan, we’ve got to abort,” Stimson emphasized. “There won’t be a second chance if the timing isn’t just perfect.... What do you think, Grayson? Can you get in alignment with them?”
“Got it, skipper,” he said to Stimson, his old friend at Earth Control One. “The computer’s got a course plotted and I can swing around the planet in about 18 minutes.”
“We’ll see if we can slow the rate of our spin,” Scott advised.
“We’ll give Grayson our exact location, and he can fly in close to us,” Marty added.
“Then, Scott and I can fly them together manually,” Grayson confirmed.
They all knew what a huge risk this was, but they also knew that they were up to it. All those years of training and practice would now come down to just a light touch on the thrusters, a quick look out the pod window, reliance on the split second timing of their instruments, the confidence to push fear to the back of their minds, and enough poise to try something that neither of them had ever done before.
Immediately Scott and Marty resumed trying to slow the spin of their capsule, but that was like trying to dig in your heals in the calf roping event of a rodeo! The capsule had all the inertia of their blastoff, but none of the maneuvering power needed to bring it under control. All of that was complicated by the fact that their angle of ascent was twelve degrees off vertical. So, when they had hastily blasted off from the planet Venus as the ground beneath their ship began to tremble and split, they were actually launched at a diagonal to their desired trajectory. This put them into a lower orbit than they had planned, and created an almost immediate spinning effect on the capsule.
The weightlessness of their spin kept them from getting sick, although they had rehearsed this procedure many times in their training back on Earth and knew that they shouldn’t look around to be made more aware of the spinning they were experiencing but should rivet their attention to their consoles so that things were more stabilized for them.
In the meantime, Col. Grayson was riding around the planet Venus to bring his command module into position for a linkup. It would be a very delicate and intricate attempt. There was no telling how effectively they could fly these space cr
aft. Most of the mission was just going along for the ride with the computers and pre-programmed equipment doing what was necessary. But, now, they would have to do some manual flying. And, it became even more critical because of the dangers involved.
Col. Grayson looked at his radar monitor just as his ship came around the planet so that he could get a fix on Venus Twelve. He could see it still moving on his radar screen, so he pressed some buttons to lock onto it and swing into the proper altitude. He was gaining on the probe, but he slowed his ship with thrusters to try and match the speed of the probe.
“I’ve got you on radar, Venus Twelve. Slowing to come in on the starboard side,” Grayson informed Scott and Marty.
“Firing our thrusters, Command Module,” Marty indicated as he briefly pressed the palm-sized disk that controlled the blast of the thrusters near the front of the craft. The thrusters fired in the opposite direction that they were traveling, and immediately slowed the spinning they were doing. Then he hit the side thrusters and tried to stabilize the spin.
“Only 32 seconds, Probe,” Grayson announced as he continued to gain on the probe but ever more slowly.
“I see you, Grayson,” Scott indicated when he made a visual sighting. “You seem to be coming pretty fast.”
“I’m slowing, Scott. Let me drift up close to you then we’ll see if we can manually adjust our orbits.” Grayson was flying totally digitally. He watched the dials and readings that were continuously updating, but he was very quickly coming into the recovery range.
“Here I am, Scott,” Grayson alerted him. “Turn seventeen degrees to starboard.”
Scott gave a quick burst to his aft thruster and watched his monitor as the craft moved almost seventeen degrees to starboard. But, not quite. There was just enough misalignment that they wouldn’t be able to dock.
“No, back it up, Scott,” Grayson coached him. “Come back another two degrees.”
Scott fired the thruster just a touch, then watched as the lines on his monitor looked to be in alignment. “I think I’ve got it, Tom,” Scott called out optimistically.
“Yes! Go with it!” Grayson urged him. The two crafts were only inches apart. It was a fluctuating gap and the movement of each ship made the alignment uncertain. But, just as they slid past each other again, Scott pressed his thruster and rammed the two ships together. As they touched, Grayson hit the disk to seal the hatches and they were instantly locked together.
“We did it!” Grayson exhaled. “I’ve got you,” he confirmed when the light on his console blinked green.
A vacuum seal had been established between the two ships, and they were now flying as one unit. Scott slumped back in his cushioned chair. Marty, too. And they both closed their eyes gratefully just as Stimson’s voice came over their headsets.
“Great work, guys!” he congratulated them. “Just superb! That was the best flying I’ve seen since, well... since Neil Armstrong!”
What a compliment, the astronauts understood. For it had been the steady, precise, manual flying of Neil Armstrong that had put the first men on the Moon. More guts than training because you could never practice for something like this. No one would even think it could happen! But, now the astronauts were linked together and could come back to Earth
Chapter 10 – A Change Of Plans
Scott and Marty shut down the instruments of their landing unit then entered the command module to see a widely-smiling Col. Thomas Grayson.
“You guys sure don’t make these pickups easy, do you?” Grayson remarked with an obvious tinge of humor in his voice.
“We’re just glad you can fly this old bucket of bolts as well as you did,” Scott responded. “Otherwise, we might have been in an eternal orbit around Venus, and that doesn’t sound like my favorite thing to do.”
“Scott and Marty. This is Stimson,” the mission commander interrupted from his console at Earth Control One. “You, too, Tom,” he said to the module pilot. “What a great job you did! None of that was planned. We didn’t even practice for it. Why would we? We never thought anything like that could happen. But, that was some great flying in a kind of free-for-all situation. You snatched them right out of space, Tom. Perfect flying you guys. I can’t tell you how fast my heart was beating. And you sure made some wives and children pretty happy.”
The men were quiet for a moment as the realization of what they had done sunk in. It was almost inconceivable that after all that had happened in the last hour or so they were still alive and grateful for the skill and poise they had exhibited under some very stressful conditions. But, everyone was eager to know what had happened to make them blast off from the planet so urgently.
“What happened down there, Jennings and Fisk? One minute you were safe and sound and sleeping in the landing module, then the next thing we knew, the ground was breaking apart and you had to launch.” Stimson urgently wanted to know more about what had happened because he had some important decisions to make in a relatively short period of time. “Were those creatures the cause of it?”
Scott and Marty looked at each other with a kind of confusion written on their faces. Then, Scott attempted an answer. “John, it’s hard to say exactly what happened or why. We knew we were in danger and that the whole module might be tipped over or damaged in some way, so we launched. I don’t think either one of us got a good look at what was actually happening outside, we just knew we had to get out of there. How about you, Marty? What do you remember?”
“Just thinking we had to blast off. I did look out of the pod window quickly. The ground was splitting up again... the way it did when we first saw the creatures,” Marty responded.
“Do you think they were attacking you?” Stimson asked, wondering out loud if the creatures were deliberately trying to harm them.
Each of the astronauts paused a moment to consider Stimson’s question. “No, I don’t think they were,” Scott replied. “I never got the feeling that they were trying to kill us even when we saw them in the pool. Did you, Marty?”
“No. I agree, Scott. I thought they were more curious and unsure of what we were doing there than they were trying to kill us,” Marty explained.
“Well, guys,” Stimson said, sliding in a somewhat uncomfortable bit of new. “We’ve talked it over, and we want you to go back.”
“What??” both Scott and Marty exclaimed at the same time.
“It’s just too much to give up if we don’t send you back,” Stimson tried to say persuasively. “Do you realize what you’ve done? What you’ve found there? Scott... Marty... Tom... You guys are in the middle of the most astounding encounter in the history of mankind! These creatures... they’re the only living things we’ve ever found outside of planet Earth! We’ve just got to know more about them. We’ve got to collect some information about them, figure out if we can communicate with them. Where did they come from? Where do they live? How do they live? Are there more? There are just so many...”
“But, John,” Scott interrupted. “We just aren’t equipped for this. I don’t even know if we have enough fuel to go back.”
“Scott,” Marty added, as he considered what Stimson had said. “Scott. I think we can do it. And, I think we can do it better this time. Before, we didn’t even know what they were, or why they were there. It might be a whole different experience if we’re actually looking for them. And, if we have Stimson and the Earth Control One group helping us, I’m sure we can find out more about them. Think of how much we can learn from it.”
“And, if we have to wait to send another mission, it may be years before we can get back to Venus,” Stimson inserted. “This is a chance of a lifetime. I know it’s dangerous, and I know you’re not equipped for this kind of a mission, but I think you can do it. And, you three are some of the best we’ve got for this.”
Scott let all of these arguments sink in. Stimson was certainly right that if they had to send a new mission, it might be years, might even be a decade before they could get all the approvals and funding
and training in to leave again. NASA was a great place for science, and a source of scientific exploration, but things moved almost at a glacier’s pace when you were trying to get something done. Check, double-check, and check again and again was the NASA motto. By the time things were ready to try, it was almost another lifetime since starting.
“How would we do it, John?” Scott asked Stimson. “I mean, do we have enough fuel and oxygen to even attempt it?”
“They’re doing the calculations right now, Scott,” Stimson replied. “There’s a planning committee going over the whole itinerary right now. They will be able to tell us if it’s feasible; food, oxygen, fuel, where to land... when to leave.”
Scott and Marty talked with Grayson in the capsule. “What do you think, Tom?” Scott asked Grayson. Do you think it’s possible?”
“Oh, I think it’s possible, all right,” Grayson said with confidence. “I even think it’s a great idea. We can do it, I know we can. And, there’s such a chance to make a giant breakthrough.”
“I certainly see all that,” Scott interrupted. “I can see all the upside. But, what if we fail? What if something bad happens – we don’t have enough fuel for another launch? We don’t have enough oxygen to find the creatures, or to make contact with them. And, what if they don’t want us there? What if they were trying to kill us before? How would NASA look if we die down there?”
Those were some real tough questions. Marty, Scott, and Tom Grayson all looked at one another. Would the price be too high if they failed? Would NASA be viewed as too mission oriented? No consideration for the lives of its astronauts? Science first and people later?
“We’ve got some information for you,” Stimson reported from Earth Control One. “The committee has been doing some calculations and they claim you’ve got enough fuel and oxygen to go back. Using certain precautions, we should have at least ten hours left to do a reconnaissance of the surface. We understand that you won’t be able to do a lot in a time frame like that, but it might give us an opportunity to at least collect some information and reset some of the equipment so that we can find out more.”