Ancient Birthright (22 page)

“I’m working on it.”

Beldon rushed to his dad’s side and helped him setup the necessary search files.

Duane clicked the transmit button. “Got it. It’s still accelerating. Current velocity is three point three miles per second. The missile is at sixteen hundred miles, traversing the satellite belt. I’m recording encrypted audio and video transmissions from the missile...must be a manned mission. Two thousand five hundred miles altitude at five point six miles per second, they need about ten and a half to get out of the solar system.”

“Someone give me an estimate on how long it will take them to reach the
Universe Explorer
if they achieve say forty thousand miles per hour,” Striker demanded.

“If we assume they want to intercept the
UE
in half the remaining time, then forty thousand miles per hour times…” The loud free for all finally spit out an estimate of a year.

“So, a year to get there but then they are in a head-on combined closing velocity of say...eighty to a hundred thousand miles per hour. There’s no way a Russian missile could carry enough fuel to decelerate then turn around and accelerate to match velocities with the
Universe Explorer
at that distance. It must be an attempt to destroy the
UE
using the kinetic energy of the missile,” Striker concluded.

“The missile is at ten thousand miles and doing eight-point-three miles per second, still accelerating. Hold on, it looks like the acceleration phase is finished. Their speed has remained constant for the last few seconds. Current velocity is nine point six miles per second,” Duane announced as he looked at Striker for further instructions.

Striker paced again and thought aloud. “So, they have enough speed to break free of Earth’s gravity but not the solar system. What are they planning? They’re moving away from Earth at a little over thirty thousand miles an hour, but since they are no longer accelerating, the sun’s gravity will gradually stop them then pull them back. That’s
it
...they could do it. If they use the sun’s gravitational pull to decelerate to a stop, they could be carrying just enough fuel to accelerate in the other direction and match speeds with the
Universe Explorer
. They will be well within the solar system but they could still have several months with the
Universe Explorer
before it reaches Earth.”

Striker’s phone rang. “Striker.” He listened for a few seconds. “How bad was it? Did it damage the craft? How soon can we get a replacement satellite launched? Okay, keep me posted. ” He closed the phone and stood sightlessly staring out the window.

Every face in the room studied him.

Striker finally turned back to the room. “That was NORAD, the Russian missile separated from its second stage booster just before reaching the Global Positioning Satellite constellation at ten thousand nine hundred miles. Something, either the main craft or the jettisoned booster took out one of the GPS satellites. Duane, are you still getting transmissions from the Russian ship?”

Chapter-22

“Iosif! We’re too close. It’s going to hit…” Anika screamed over her commlink as the collision alarm blasted her ears. The impact threw her forward in her acceleration couch where the seatbelt webbing painfully stopped her from flying forward and slamming into the instrument panel. The automated attitude control system kicked in and stopped the wild spin caused by the collision. It brought the craft back to its original attitude and held it there with gentle puffs of rocket thrust.

When the shock of the collision faded, Anika mentally thanked the capsule designers for arranging the radar display console at a ninety-degree angle to the pilots command console. During initial boost, her padded couch swiveled to face forward, so the force of acceleration pressed her back into the supporting foam. After the initial boost ended, and the second stage booster dropped away, she turned her seat left and faced the radar system. Iosif had not been so lucky. The glancing side impact had slapped his right leg out of the acceleration boot-well and snapped the head off his femur when it struck the armrest, and the lower leg continued to move sideways.

Iosif’s helmeted head had received the same treatment. It snapped right and impacted the overhead switch console. The padded helmet had saved him from a concussion, but an open metal switch guard had punctured the high impact plastic and cut deep enough to slice a shallow three-inch long gash in his right temple. He had almost drowned in his own blood before Anika and Nadya could remove the helmet to get the blood out of his nose and mouth. They now had splatters of blood covering much of the command deck and its equipment while round globes of congealing red floated everywhere. Nadya was using a hand-held vacuum tube to collect as many of the free-floating orbs of blood as she could before they shorted additional circuits.

“Iosif, can you hear me?” Anika gently shook him. She wanted to rouse him but not disturb his head wound or the pressure bandage. “Nadya, is there anything you can do for his hip?”

“The head broke off the femur, the bone is rotated ninety degrees and displaced by five centimeters. Without an x-ray unit, all I can do is get the alignment close and immobilize it. He needs surgery. We don’t have the equipment or room to even imagine an operation of that magnitude.” Nadya ducked as a shower of sparks snapped from an overhead control panel, drifted across the cabin then slowly faded out.

Anika stared at the display, fascinated at the difference in what she saw and what she expected. In the movies, the shower of sparks always burst out and streamed to the floor. But on the command deck of their space capsule, they traveled in a straight line until they impacted the equipment on the opposite bulkhead or burned out. She watched as Nadya stowed the vacuum tube and knelt beside the pilot’s couch.

Nadya slowly manipulated Iosif’s hip and leg to try to get the bones back in place. “I need to set this before it swells too much. I have to align the bone ends or the broken bone fragments could puncture the femoral artery. If that happens, Iosif will bleed out in minutes.” Nadya with Anika’s help, slowly and carefully straightened and immobilized the injury.

Anika did a quick cockpit check and noted the extent of the damaged systems. Most were not an immediate concern. The one system that did cause her to stop and do a detailed diagnostic was the oxygen and cabin pressurization system. It indicated they were slowly losing cabin pressure and venting oxygen to space.

Anika leaned through the hatch to the living quarters. “Any luck with the radio, Katya?”

The muffled answer issued from an open access panel with a pair of size three pressure-suit boots offering the only hint that a person was there. “The video transmitter is toast, but I think I can rig something together so we at least have audio capabilities.”

A pair of legs floated out of the panel. “Let me give this a try,” A hand appeared and grabbed the edge of the radio console. Katya Vasina used her anchored hand to lever her tiny body out and up so she faced the console.

The fourth member of the crew, Katya, was Nadya’s identical fifteen-year-old twin, and the electronic technician-flight engineer.

Her spacesuit-encased body floated in front of the radio console, staying in place only because of the hand gripping the edge as she flipped several switches, studied the panel indications and swore. “From the reading on the standing wave meter, I think we lost most of our rear facing antenna array. The forward array looks good.” Katya switched back and forth between the antenna systems. “I don’t know how much of the signal will get out, but make the transmissions short, so you don’t burnout the output stage of the transmitter.”

“I’ll call Flight Control. You start looking for pressure hull punctures or cracks. We are losing cabin pressure and venting atmosphere.”

“Flight Control, this is
Nauka 7
, how do you read?”

“Flight Control, this is
Nauka 7
, we collided with an orbiting satellite and have sustained damage and injuries.”

“Flight Control, please respond.” Anika waited several minutes hoping one of the monitoring stations or intelligence gathering trawlers around the globe had picked up her distress call and relayed it to Flight Control.

When an answer arrived, the source was a complete surprise. “Manned Russian space craft, this is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, in the United States. We observed your collision with a global positioning satellite. What is your condition? Do you need assistance?”

“
Sukin syn
,” Anika swore as she slammed her hand on the knob to lower the volume. That was one strong signal.

As you Americans say...duh? Send the police, fire department and an ambulance, hell, send the Marines. Yes, we need help. I’m a sixteen-year-old kid in command of a spaceship that was hit by a bus. What the hell am I supposed to do? Should I answer? They obviously know we’re here, so mission secrecy is blown. Our own people aren’t answering, and I know there were no other launches scheduled at Tyuratam
Cosmodrome that can help us.
She swallowed her fear and took a deep breath to steady her voice.

“National Radio Astronomy Observatory, this is Russian space ship
Nauka 7
, Anika Drankova speaking. Radio is damaged. One crewmember with serious injuries. We have several cracks in the pressure hull and are venting atmosphere to space.”

Nadya tightened Iosif’s couch restraints to keep him from moving and causing more damage to his hip. “That’s the best I can do. I don’t want to manipulate his hip any further. It may cause more tissue or nerve damage, and without the necessary equipment there is no way to see what I’m doing.” She checked the head wound and added another layer of gauze to absorb the oozing blood.

“Did either of you sustain injuries during the collision?” Anika asked Nadya and Katya over the commlink.

Nadya answered, “I have a few bruises on my right side ribs from the arm rest, nothing serious.”

“I dislocated my right elbow, but jerked it back into place as soon as I could. The residual swelling is minimal.” Katya grunted as she worked her way around and behind equipment trying to find the source of the cabin’s pressure leaks. “Suck that you
svoloch
.” Spray sealant hissed as she detected another leak.

“Anika, from the pattern of cracks and tears I’m finding, the damage is mostly to the right side of the ship. The main impact point was forward of the joint where the crew compartment attaches to the fuel tanks and engine. The bulkhead at the joint is buckled and bulging. I’ve sealed the leaks, but we have significant damage to the structural integrity of the aft portion of the ship. From what I can see through the inspection ports, it looks like the entire aft section is cocked at a five to ten-degree angle. If you ignite the main engine, it will tear us apart.”

“Thanks Katya. The cabin pressure is holding steady, you must have found and sealed the most significant leaks. Release a few small sealant balloons around the crew compartment just in case,” Anika said.

Chapter-23

Duane turned to his display. “I’m receiving encrypted audio but no video. The signal is about a tenth of what it was just minutes ago and getting weaker.”

“That sounds like the manned portion of the craft at least impacted the satellite or was hit by debris from the impact,” Striker said as he moved to stand behind Duane. “Try calling them on the audio frequency they’re using to broadcast. Crank up the power. If they lost a portion of their antenna, it may take a strong signal to get through to them. Report what we know about the impact, and find out if they need to be rescued.”

Duane switched the pulse transmitter to voice mode. “Manned Russian space craft, this is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, in the United States. We have observed your collision with a global positioning satellite. What is your condition? Do you need assistance?”

When the response came it was broken and filled with static. “National R…Obs… this is Russian spacesh… Nauka…ven, Anika Drankov… eaking. …dio’s damaged, …ne crew member with serious inj…, We have several cracks in the pressure hull and are venti… ere to sp…,” a young sounding female voice reported.

“What the hell did they do, send kids on the mission?” Striker asked the room.

“Makes sense, this is a long mission with limited payload capabilities. Every pound they save in body weight is another pound of air, food or fuel they can carry. Small-sized kids in their late teens, being trained for their space program saves a significant amount of crew weight.” Duane looked over his shoulder at Striker.

“How many souls on board, and how long will your oxygen last?” Duane sent back to the ship.

“…our crew, one with badly broken hi…nd head woun… Oxygen …ill las… approxim… thirteen months at current los...te.”

“Is your craft equipped with a universal docking ring?”

“..es, it was designed to dock with the Int… …ion.”

“That’s one piece of good news. If they have a universal docking ring and it’s undamaged, we should be able to lock a shuttle onto their craft and aid in repairs or transfer the crew to the shuttle,” Striker said.

“Russian craft, can you return to Earth or Earth orbit on your own?”

“Nega…e, attitude thrusters only at this time. They will slow us some but not enough to return. We do not have reentry capabili…s.”

“Colonel, they’re off course.”

“What do you mean?” Striker leaned closer to Duane’s display.

“The collision knocked them off their intercept course to the
Explorer
.” Duane reported. “If they stay on this course, they’ll miss the
Universe Explorer
by almost two million miles. Of course with their main engines inoperative, one mile is too much.”

“So if we can’t get to them within the next year they will die from lack of oxygen. We need to reach them as soon as possible and correct the flight path so we can come back to Earth with the
Universe Explorer
if they can bring us on board.” Striker spun around looking for Beldon. “Bel, contact Saigg. Ask him if there’s a way for them to bring something as large as the space shuttle onto their craft? If they can, ask whether they could alter their course to intercept us if we run out of fuel before we match velocities with them?”