Peter laughed. He saw something floating out of the corner of his eye. He was happy to see it was Anya’s pendant, slowly floating past. He smiled as he looked at it for awhile floating in front of his face, thinking of Anya. He reached out and grabbed the small trinket. I’m thinking of you too. He turned to Viktor. “Let’s go catch us a space station!”
27
DOCKING
Sie was fidgeting with his pencil. It was early morning in his office, and he was nervous. He’d just learned the Americans launched the Newton 9 rocket, after he was so sure they wouldn’t, and now those astronauts were orbiting the earth. Why? What are they hoping to accomplish? He couldn’t figure out what the Americans were hoping to achieve. To him, it made no sense. He was so sure the rocket was put on the pad simply to be a decoy, but obviously, he was wrong. He was worried about the repercussions from his ill recommendations to Kuang. Was the private company flying against their government’s wishes, or were they working with the American government and this was just a ploy to get CNSA to fuel their rocket? Sie did not have the answers and knew he’d better come up with some before he was questioned. He turned and looked out his window. His train of thought was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. Expecting it to be Kuang, he straightened in his chair and cleared his throat. “Hello.”
“Sie, this is Kuang,” said his boss’ disturbed voice on the other end.
“Good morning, sir,” said Sie, firming his voice.
“Did you hear the Americans launched that rocket last night?”
Sie blinked. “Yes, sir, I just learned.”
“You said they wouldn’t launch, that it was just a decoy to get us to fuel ours,” said Kuang.
“I am surprised, sir. I am mystified as to what they are doing, especially going against UN sanctions,” said Sie.
“Have you ordered our rocket fueled?” asked Kuang.
Sie feared the United States was still trying to trick them. “Sir, I still think this rocket is a decoy. We know it can’t fly to the moon. They are trying to bait us into fueling.”
Sie listened for a response from Kuang, but dead silence came over the phone. He waited.
Finally Kuang spoke up. “If you are right and it is a decoy, what will they do in orbit?”
“I’m not sure, sir, but they can’t stay up there forever. I believe the U.S. will keep the astronauts up there until they realize we are not falling for their trick and then have no choice but to bring them home.” Sie twiddled his pencil between two fingers.
“I am still not comfortable with this. I think the U.S. is up to something. I recommend we fuel our rocket!”
Sie kept his voice steady. “Sir, if we do that and this is a ploy, once we start defueling they will send out their moon rocket, which will be ready to launch within forty-eight hours of being put on the pad. I have confirmed the quickest we could refuel after defueling is seventy-two, putting us at least twenty-four hours behind, unable to catch them.”
In a frustrated tone Kuang asked, “Couldn’t we just keep our rocket fueled?”
“Yes, sir, but there is a lot of cost and maintenance to keep Shenzhou 10 fueled. Besides, America will monitor our rocket with their spy satellites and will wait until we eventually defuel,” said Sie.
Kuang grunted. “How close are we to having another rocket ready?”
“Sir, we are over two months away before Shenzhou 11 is ready.” Again there was silence on the phone, Sie trying to come up with a solution that would pacify Kuang. He suddenly perked up with an idea. “Sir, I recommend we act as if we are fueling our rocket. Let’s play the same deception game the Americans are playing. If we can fool them into believing we are fueling Shenzhou 10, they will probably return their men to Earth, hoping we will in turn defuel. Once we act like we are doing just that, they will bring out their moon rocket. We’ll be able to fuel early enough to beat them to the moon.”
Again silence over the phone, and Sie allowed his boss a moment to contemplate his suggestion.
“How soon do we need to launch after they blast off to insure we arrive at the moon first?” Kuang asked.
Sie responded, “As you know, their design actually requires two rockets, their ‘heavy lifter’ rocket to send up their booster, and a smaller one to send up their orbiter with the astronauts. An Earth orbit rendezvous is needed to connect the two before they can proceed to the moon. With our more powerful booster, we can beat them if we launch within twelve hours. We will fly right past them while they’re playing around in orbit.”
“What if they decide not to leave earth’s orbit once we pass them by?”
Sie thought for a moment. “Sir, we continue and reprogram the laser.”
Again silence, then Kuang said, “Okay, we will go with your plan and I hope you’re correct.”
So did Sie as he answered, “Thank you, sir.”
THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION approached in the distance. The manned satellite looked beautiful floating all alone in the black, the blue earth slowly rotating below. But what surprised Peter the most was its sheer size. They were 500 meters out, but with the station’s width of over 100 meters and with nothing for reference, it looked as if they were moving toward a small city. It reminded him of something out of Star Wars. He experienced an odd sensation as feelings from his childhood years bubbled within, which he equated to those good ole times watching sci-fi space movies with his dad. This is fun!
As they got closer, he wondered how the crew would receive them. Would they be hostile or friendly? Would they even open the hatch and let them in considering they were uninvited guests?
Mission Control was still flying Galileo. Peter was scheduled to take control when they were fifty meters out from the station. “California, this is Galileo and all is looking good up here,” radioed Peter.
“Roger, Galileo,” said Mission Control.
Peter turned to Viktor. “Might as well hook up the dummy bomb. Once we start docking this baby and dealing with the crew, we might forget about it.”
“Roger,” said Viktor as he leaned back and dug into the storage container, unstrapping the red detonator box and pulling it out. Letting it float in front of him for a moment he asked, “You think this fool them?”
Peter looked at the box hovering in front of Viktor. “It better.”
Viktor nodded as he grabbed it from the air and set the digital timer on the contraption to thirty hours. He bent down in front of him and pushed the box against some Velcro next to the fake C-4 explosives strapped to the floor. He took the loose wires coming out of the red box and pushed them into the C-4 before flipping the switch on the back of the box. The lights started blinking green and the digital timer started counting down.
After the detonator was set, Peter radioed, “California, we have Red Baseball in place.”
“Roger, Galileo, Red Baseball is in place,” said Mission Control.
Peter said, “Okay Viktor, it’s time to say hello to the space station and let them know they’re going to have some visitors.”
“Roger.” Viktor adjusted his radio to the space station’s frequency.
“NA1SS, this Galileo,” said Viktor into his microphone as he looked outside his window at the ISS floating off in the distance. He said again, “NA1SS, this Galileo.”
Peter could tell by Viktor’s face he wasn’t getting anything on the other end, and watched him continue adjusting the frequency as he said again, “NA1SS, this Galileo, do you read me?” Peter flipped the switch that allowed him to hear both Mission Control and Viktor.
Suddenly Peter heard, “Galileo, this is NA1SS, the International Space Station, what the hell is going on? We see you outside our window and wonder what you are doing up here.”