Chapter 51
Low Earth Orbit
International Space Station
Tuesday
9:10 a.m. Eastern Time
“Astronauts!” Vladimir shouted. “They didn’t all leave!”
“I’m going, V.” Michael dropped the faceshield on his helmet and pushed himself from the middle of the BEAM and DSIHM interface through Node 3 and across. “Meet me at the Quest Airlock to cycle me out.”
“See you there!”
Michael turned himself feetfirst and floated through the hatch across Node 1 and into the Quest Airlock. He could see Vladimir coming toward him to his right. He reached down to his chest and pulled the firearm free of the magnetic holster and checked to make certain there was a round in the chamber. Then he flipped the safety off and stuck it back in its place.
“J, come in,” Vladimir said over the comm channel. “J, do you copy?”
“Shit! J, do you copy?” Michael added. “They must’ve got him.”
“The nukes!” Vladimir said.
“I’m going. Cycle this damned thing.” Michael sealed the hatch behind him and waited for the pressure to release. They had been keeping the pressure at about a third of an atmosphere just in case they needed to cycle through the lock quickly. Michael floated impatiently, changing the view on his screen to a wireframe three-dimensional map with signal ping dots for all of their locations. Jebidiah was out there by the Russian solar panel array nearest the P1-ITS. He wasn’t really moving.
“Clear,” Vladimir said as the light went from red to green.
Michael opened the hatch and worked his way out, not worrying with a tether. Using the mental mouse, he drew a path directly to Jebidiah and hit the go button. The jets of his suit fired and took him in that direction. He then toggled on an overlay of the map that showed any other movement. The computer in the visors used the digital radio signals between their suits and the Vyrezka as a passive multipath radar and would detect motion. He didn’t see anything but he did his best to keep his head on a swivel inside the suit. He put the rear-facing camera view in a small window on the upper left of his virtual view just in case somebody tried to get the drop on him.
The suit came to a stop right beside Jebidiah. It was a fairly gruesome sight. A couple of meters to his right and below there was a man in an Orlan space suit spinning slowly. Michael checked him out.
“J is dead, V. Looks like he took a flare to the face.” Michael studied the other astronaut. “He got one of them before they got him, though. I’m synching my view. You got it?”
“Yes. Look closer at the man,” Vladimir instructed him. Michael leaned in.
“D’you see?”
“Cosmonaut. Not astronaut,” Vladimir said.
“You know him?”
“No, but I just did a facial recognition with the ISS crew. He is Major Vasiliy Nolvany. Cosmonaut,” Vladimir said. “Check the Vyrezka.”
“On it.” Michael adjusted his course and jetted toward the space capsule. It still floated freely and tethered to the ISS from the original harpoon system and now multiple umbilicals that Jeb had connected over the last several hours. Michael shined his light through the open hatch of the Vyrezka and his heart sank along with his blood starting to boil. “Fuck!”
“What?”
“Nukes are gone.”
“Check on the DSIHM launch plates.”
Michael turned and looked back out the hatch across the ten meters are so to the DSIHM and there were two glide bodies attached and for all intents and purposes ready to be fired away at some target.
“Two nukes in place and they appear ready. Hold on, I’m punching in K on this.” Michael worked through a couple of virtual menus and then brought Keenan into the loop. “K, are we ready on one and two?”
“What happened to J?” Keenan asked.
“He’s dead. Are one and two ready?”
“They will be as soon as I finish the target location data. You need to give me that,” K replied.
“In a minute.” Michael thought. “Where did they come from?”
Michael pushed himself out of the hatch and floated out into the free space between the Vyrezka and the DSIHM. He looked down at the now night side of Earth and realized they would likely have seen them from that direction. He adjusted his position, doing a 180-degree roll, and stopped, looking straight up and away from the Earth and the ISS.
“What are you doing, M?”
“Wait.”
“For what?”
“Just wait.” Michael sat patiently as the Earth turned beneath him. A few minutes passed as they were approaching the morning side of the orbit. He continued to wait.
“What are we waiting for, M?”
“How long until daylight?”
“Seven more minutes.”
“Then we wait seven more minutes,” Michael told them. He continued to run through scenarios in his mind and had really only come up with one. If he were going to launch a raiding party on the ISS with little time to plan or few assets, he would come from a blind spot. He had a hunch about just where that might be. The sunlight peeked over the horizon and there it was.
“There!” he said excitedly. “There’s a bright spot about three to five clicks straight up.”
“Hold on, I will look,” Vladimir said. A couple minutes went by before he responded again. “I see them. Probably a Soyuz.”
“Well, that has to be where our nukes are,” Michael said. “Do we get in the Vyrezka and go?”
“Not yet,” Vladimir said. “I’m sending a note to M. We need some information. Come back inside. We will call their capsule.”
* * *
M,
We need information now. There are cosmonauts still up here. They have 4 of the specials. We have two ready to go. We need to get them back. Whatever data you can get for us on who is doing this will be helpful.
V
V,
Fuck. I’m on it. Fire one of them now if they are ready. As soon as you pass the primary target. Do not hesitate. Make that your first priority. Then make your second priority target number two. Then focus on getting the others back.
M
A,
Some cosmonauts have fucked up our plans! Tell me who it is now.
M
Ten minutes later…
M,
There were two. A cosmonaut, Major Vasiliy Nolvany. Your men got him. The other is astronaut USSF Major Allison Simms. She is from Melbourne, Florida. Her parents, sister Abigail, brother in-law Daniel, and a niece, Natalie, live there. I’m sending you her file now.
A.
V,
USSF Major Allison Simms. She is from Melbourne, Florida. Her parents, sister Abigail, brother in-law Daniel, and a niece, Natalie, live there. Her file is attached. Does M want his team sent to take them?
M
M,
No, I have a better idea. Thanks.
V
K,
I want a warning that a nuke is going to go off in Melbourne, Florida, to go viral across the internet. I want the highways completely jammed.
V
V,
Understood. Done.
K