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Chapter 44

Low Earth Orbit

International Space Station

Monday

11:21 p.m. Eastern Time


“Can you hear me? Hello?” Tom shouted toward the Cupola hatch door. There was something going on out there. He could hear voices shouting but couldn’t make out what they were saying. He tried placing his ear to something structural but there was just too much stuff attached everywhere for that. He checked Dr. Denton’s pulse to make certain he was still okay. The man had finally succumbed to his pain and was unconscious. “We need help in here!”

There was a sound of spraying and a continuous sizzle against the other side of the door and then several minutes had passed. There was no light at all in the Cupola other than some flashlights that seemed to flicker past the window in the hatch. The ISS had passed to the night side of Earth and it was much darker. Then after what seemed like forever there was a banging on the door.

“Yes! We’re in here!”

The hatch seal broke free and then slowly and in an uneven motion was forced up. Tom could see two sets of hands, one in gloves, the other with cloth wrapping them, pushing up the hatch door. Then a light shined in at them, moving from him to Dr. Denton and then back again. Then one of the lights pointed away at a bulkhead and Tom could see Major Simms looking back at him.

“Tom! Are you alright?” Allison asked him.

“Yes, ma’am. Dr. Denton, though, well, I think he’s in shock. He has a compound fracture in his arm and maybe a concussion. He said he had been electrocuted,” Tom answered. “Damn, it’s good to see you, Major Simms.”

“You, too, Captain. Now let’s get you both out of here and to our medical area.”

“Good to see you are okay, Captain.” Major Nolvany stuck his head in. “Major, take the Captain Alexander and I will manage with Dr. Denton.”

“Right,” Simms replied. “Come on, Tom. Let’s get you checked out.”

* * *

Allison’s left leg was strapped down to the top of the multifunctional tabletop in the Zvezda or Russian Service module. The hatches were all opened and Nolvany was in the Soyuz capsule just outside, attached to the docking module just meters away. The entire crew was in voice range of one another. Dr. Fahid hovered about Allison’s leg, debating with himself about what treatment she was about to receive. Dr. Denton, Solmonov, and Commander Yancy were on the other side of the Forward Docking Port of the Service Module just inside the FGB Module. Solmonov was still unconscious but stable for the moment. Denton wasn’t better and was in and out of consciousness. Dr. Fahid was concerned he had a more severe head trauma than could be determined on the ISS. Itokawa stood beside her in case Dr. Fahid needed assistance. Dr. Schwab had returned to the DSIHM to assess any damages there. Tom had gone with him as Commander Yancy had ordered for nobody to be anywhere alone until they got power back and assessed the situation.

“Just get the damned thing out of there,” Allison grunted. “Any luck, Vasiliy?”

“Patience, Major!” Nolvany shouted back to her.

“I agree with our cosmonaut friend, Major.” Fahid grasped the metal sliver with a pair of forceps and locked them into place. “I am going to have to make a slight incision here to reduce tearing as I remove this.”

“Just do it.”

Suddenly, lights seemed to flicker from the docking module and there was power there. Vasiliy had the Soyuz capsule powered up. Allison breathed a sigh of relief once she heard Vasiliy speaking in Russian, trying to reach the ground stations.

“There, that got it.” Dr. Fahid held up a long white and metallic gray sliver of metal about ten centimeters long. “Now, a few staples and you’ll be fine.”

“Wasn’t as big as it felt,” Allison said.

“Yes. Now hold still.” Fahid swabbed a gelled clear antibacterial disinfectant all about the wound and then snapped a staple into her leg. Allison hadn’t felt a thing since he had applied a local anesthetic there. She watched as Dr. Fahid snapped seven more staples.

“That should do it. Let’s get a bandage there,” he said. A few seconds later Allison was bandaged and good to go.

“Thanks, Doc.” She started unstrapping her leg before he could protest. She pushed off the table toward the entrance to the Soyuz capsule. The sound of communication in Russian filled the space. She was glad of that. “Any luck?”

“Shh. Shh.” Nolvany waved at her to be quiet. Then he turned the volume up and handed her a headset. She worked her way into the seat next to him and put it on. The conversation was in Russian.

Allison cut her mic and quietly asked Vasiliy if he could reach U.S. Mission Control.

“Major Simms has requested we connect her to her command,” he said.

“Yes. Stand by.”

Vasiliy cut both mics and spoke to her in English. “Somebody has stolen nuclear weapons and launched a rocket. They are coming here, Major.”

“What? That sounds crazy,” Allison said wide-eyed. “How is that even possible?”

“I do not know.” Vasiliy shrugged. Then the radio buzzed and he reconnected their microphones.

“ISS, this is Mission Control. Do you copy?”

“Major Simms here.”

“Major, where is Commander Yancy?”

“Major Yancy is in the FGB tending to wounded. We’ve had a complete power failure, multiple fires, and loss of systems. All are accounted for and alive, but we have two with serious injuries. Dr. Fahid is unconscious and Dr. Denton is severely concussed with a broken arm. Commander Yancy also has a broken hand.”

“I see. Major, we have become more of an incident of global proportions and unfortunately you seem to be right in the middle of it. A few days ago, a Russian missile was raided and six nuclear warheads were stolen. A few hours ago, a rocket was launched from an oil platform in the Black Sea on what appears to be a direct trajectory to the ISS. Current radar data and trajectory prediction algorithms show them reaching the ISS in less than three hours.”

“Why are they bringing nukes here?” Nolvany asked.

“Our team on the ground believes that they intend to fire them off and detonate them over certain locations at high altitudes to create a global EMP blackout.”

“What can we do to help?” Allison asked.

“You have been ordered to evacuate the ISS immediately before they can get there. There are plans being put into place. But you must evacuate as soon as possible. Especially with the status of the ISS currently unknown, there would be no time to repair systems. Evacuate immediately. That is the order directly from the White House.”

“Understood. We will start evacuation procedures immediately.” Allison nodded to Vasiliy. “ISS out.”

“Major?”

“Well, first things first. We have to get Solmonov and Denton into suits,” she said.

“Yes. That will take time,” Vasiliy agreed. They both checked their watches. “Less than three hours.”

“I’ll go with Tom and start powering up Soyuz capsule two. If you get done soon, you might prep the other one.”

“Yes. Good idea. Follow the checklists.”

“Of course.”

“No, goddamnit, Peter!” Yancy’s voice shouted from the FGB. “Dr. Fahid! I need you. Solmonov is crashing!”

Allison and Vasiliy quickly climbed through the Orbital Module of the Soyuz capsule to see Dr. Fahid passing by swiftly overhead with a defib device in his hands. He had so much momentum he would have crashed right into them had they not ducked back down quickly. Once he flew by, they pulled themselves into the Zarya, FGB, module. Commander Yancy was giving mouth-to-mouth to Solmonov.

Dr. Raheem Fahid calmly but quickly worked the hasps on the defibrillator container and pulled the pads from within. The monitor beeped, showing a full charge. Raheem pulled up Solmonov’s T-shirt and placed the pads on his chest. He checked the device controls one last time.

“Clear, Teri. Clear!” he shouted and then depressed the discharge button.

Solmonov’s body curved upward as the pads released the high-voltage surge into him. Fahid checked him for a pulse and listened for breathing. He recycled the defib device while Teri continued to breathe for him. The device beeped it was ready.

“Clear!” Fahid waited for Yancy to back away, then depressed the discharge button again.

Again, Solomonv’s body convulsed in with his chest making an arc toward the bulkhead above and then relaxed. Fahid felt for a pulse frantically. He checked several times. It was clear from the expression of terror on his face he wasn’t finding one.

“Clear!” he shouted again and depressed the button, again draining the device completely of power. He put his ear to Peter’s chest. He felt for a pulse. Then he balled his right fist and swung it down hard against Peter’s chest. There was nothing.

“No!” He rummaged through the med kit and pulled out an epinephrine pen and jabbed it into Solmonov’s chest, injecting him with pure adrenaline. He continued to beat on his chest with his fist, trying to stabilize his movement. “Breathe for him, Teri!”

“Breathe, two, three, four, clear,” Fahid said and then pounded three times. Then repeated. “Breathe, two, three, four, clear.”

Fahid and Yancy continued to repeat the process for what seemed like an eternity as all of the ISS astronauts and cosmonauts floated, helplessly watching. It was becoming more and more clear that there was little anyone could do.

“Breathe, two, three, four, clear.” As Fahid raised his fist to strike, Vasiliy Nolvany caught the man’s wrist.

“It is okay, Dr. Fahid,” Nolvany said somberly. “He’s gone. He’s gone.”

“What?” Fahid turned and looked back at everyone in the room watching.

“You have done what you can,” Nolvany said. “You as well, Commander Yancy.”

Tears built up at the corners of Allison’s eyes. There was nothing she could do. Her friend was dead.

“How did this happen?” she asked.

“We may not ever have time to figure that out, Major,” Itokawa said.

“What now?” Tom asked.

“We evacuate. Those are our orders. We must evacuate in less than three hours,” Nolvany said. “We do not have time for mourning and philosophy right now.”

“Major Nolvany is right.” Allison dried her eyes with her fingers. She had yet to put on a new shirt. “Our orders are to evacuate. Go get what you want to take home. We’re leaving now.”

“Major Simms, a word with you, please?” Nolvany said, motioning her to follow him to the Service Module end of the station. “We need to discuss priority evacuation.”

“Yes, of course.”

* * *

“What exactly is it you wish to check on, Dr. Schwab?” Tom asked the billionaire scientist. “Didn’t the DSIHM get fried like everything else?”

“It would appear so, Captain Alexander. But with the current state of the ISS, it is design procedure for the DSIHM to be closed off and depressurized. I don’t want to take a chance that it could destroy itself by an overpressure from the Bigelow Expandable Airlock Module it is connected to,” Schwab explained.

The interior of Node 3 just over the Cupola seemed to have been one of the most highly damaged parts of the station other than the JEM area. From the damage Tom could see in the dim lighting from his flashlight, it looked like there was a wave of fire and destruction that had torn through that area just as bad as near the power conditioning area in the JEM.

“Jesus, look at that laptop, Doc. It absolutely exploded. There’s no telling how much debris is floating about in here. It’ll take years to repair all of this,” Tom said.

“I’m afraid so,” Schwab agreed. “Might be cheaper to build a new one.”

“Wouldn’t that be a shame. All this history.”

“Maybe. Not a big fan of history,” Schwab said.

The two of them floated through the Bigelow Expandable Airlock Module—the BEAM—into the DSIHM. Sometimes it was also referred to as the “Activity” module rather than “Airlock” module. As the two of them surveyed the damage along the way it was clear that there was almost no damage in the hotel module. Tom had only been in that module a couple of times but had never taken time to sightsee from it. He floated over to the giant circular bay window. It was larger than the Cupola. At first it gave him bad memories of being trapped in the Cupola with Denton while a fire raged just outside the door, but he shook that off and whistled in amazement as the Sun began to rise ahead of them.

“Damn nice view here.”

“That was the point,” Schwab replied from over his shoulder back to him. He was busy pulling away a panel and working manual hatch systems. “That should do it. We can egress into the BEAM now.”

As they egressed through the hatch between the BEAM and the DSIHM, Schwab pulled the Russian-style hatch door to behind them and turned the handle, sealing it in place. He turned and looked at Tom, who was still surveying damage everywhere when more shouting started just a module away.

“What’s going on?” Tom said. “You done here, Doc?”

“Yes, let us go see what is happening.”


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