The cosmonaut grabbed the line’s clasp, clipping it to a metal ring on his suit, insuring he would go wherever Peter went. The plan was for the Russian to climb onto Peter and hug him from the front, wrapping his arms tightly around for the transfer. It was the cosmonaut’s responsibility to hold on while Peter flew them over to the Galileo. None of the spacemen had any training for such a dangerous maneuver. These men were the first ever to be rescued in Earth’s orbit and Peter puzzled over exactly how it would all work out.
The cosmonaut gave Peter a thumbs-up, signaling he was ready. Peter motioned for the man to exit toward him. The cosmonaut unhooked his lifeline from the spacecraft, cutting off his air supply. He was now breathing only the remaining oxygen in his suit. Peter’s heart rate jumped, knowing he had little room for error. He had to get this man over to the Galileo as soon as possible so he could hook him up to one of the Russian oxygen packs on board. Peter extended his arm to help the man egress. As the cosmonaut floated out, Peter was startled to see a gloved hand quickly jut out from the darkness of the Soyuz and aggressively grab a hold of one of the engineer’s legs. Peter figured it was the commander stopping his partner for some reason. He motioned for the cosmonaut to stop, but instead was shocked to see the engineer shake his leg violently, trying to break free of the grasp. Not able to hear any radio transmissions, Peter was confused by the action. The helmet of the culprit finally emerged with his sun visor up. Peter cringed as he looked into a pair of wide-open, dark eyes filled with terror. A bulging, red face filled the helmet as the man appeared to be screaming, sweat pooling in all areas. Peter quickly determined it was the tourist panicking. Quickly Peter tried to give him some assurance everything would be all right by putting both hands up and motioning for him to stay put. Calm down, dude, or none of us are going to make it out of here.
Another arm came out and tried to pull in the frightened man. After a few seconds of struggling, the engineer was able to break his leg free and pull himself toward Peter. Damn, what was all that about? Peter was frustrated he couldn’t verbally communicate with the men.
Peter signaled for the cosmonaut to stop while he turned on the SAFER and removed the tether line from the Soyuz. Once the line was free, he shut his sun visor and motioned for the engineer to climb on as he held the handhold with his right hand. Peter was unable to help as the cosmonaut struggled to hold onto the ship. He smiled; the man had to wiggle his body against Peter’s in order to wrap his arms and legs securely around him in a big bear hug, his visor pressed up against Peter’s. I love you too, man.
Once the engineer was in place, Peter pushed off from the ship. Then panic set in. He couldn’t see Galileo. He was faced in the direction of deep space with the Earth behind him and had no idea how his push changed their bearing. The cosmonaut’s helmet was blocking half of his vision on the left side, which was where he assumed his spaceship was. The Russian also blocked Peter from seeing the controls, preventing him from getting help from the directional indicator. He expected the SAFER to fly differently with the extra mass; he just wasn’t sure how different. Regardless, he had no choice but to fly the contraption blindly until his ship came into view. He slowly moved his gloved hand along the machine’s arm, until his fingers found and grabbed the joystick.
Instinctively, he called out in his helmet, “Hold on.”
Peter pushed the control slightly forward and to the left, causing them to turn left and hopefully put them in the direction of his ship. Once the Soyuz was out of his vision, he had no reference points to know how fast he was going or if they were flying level. All he saw was complete blackness with thousands of tiny stars that all looked the same. He had to wish for the best as he continued to fly by the seat of his pants. After a few moments, he started to get nervous, knowing his ship should have come into view if he was flying as expected. Come on, baby, where the hell are you?
Peter was moving his head all around, trying to spot the ship. The longer he flew without finding it, the more lost they would be, possibly dying in the search. He tried moving the stick in another direction thinking he must have flown either under or over the ship. He frantically turned his head in all directions. He called out, “Where the hell are you?” He wondered if the engineer had any idea where Galileo was since he could see where Peter couldn’t, not that it would help since they couldn’t communicate. The pressure was building to find the spacecraft since time was ticking on the cosmonaut’s slim air supply.
A strong nudge on his side felt as if the cosmonaut was signaling him. I hope you’re trying to tell me something. It felt like a thumb was being jammed in an upward position into his suit. Peter hoped the engineer could see the ship and was signaling its location. He pulled back on the control, hoping to stop his momentum until he could figure out where he needed to go. Knowing where the engineer was facing and pointing, he presumed he had a good idea.
Sweat began to pool on his face. Peter, you can do this; focus.
He moved the stick into the position he hoped would allow him to locate the ship. He presumed they were turning and going up, in a slow corkscrew motion. The engineer’s thumb pressure rotated slightly to his left. Hoping the man was giving him some kind of clue, Peter looked in that direction. He needed to spot the ship before they were too close to avoid hitting one of the ship’s solar arrays. Suddenly he felt all of the cosmonaut’s fingers jam into his side. He wasn’t sure what this meant until a shadow began to creep across the cosmonaut’s upper shoulder and then his helmet toward his visor, which had to be one of the two ships. Please be Galileo! He pulled back on the stick, trying not to crash into the ship, but he was too late. When it came into view, they were only a few feet away and moving. Damn it, not again!
The engineer tightened his grip, signaling he was aware they would hit. Sorry, buddy. As before, Peter turned his head prior to slamming into the underbelly of the ship. Bam!
Surprisingly, the impact wasn’t bad. Probably the worst part was the damage to his ego. I’ve got to stop crashing this thing. The good news was he crashed into Galileo. He would really feel like an idiot if they had done a big circle in space and crashed back into the Soyuz. Peter brushed off his ego.
Unfortunately, his little tour of space used up some of the engineer’s precious air supply. He probably had only a few minutes left. Peter grabbed a handhold as the cosmonaut started to scramble off. Luckily, they were within a few feet of the opened hatch. The engineer reached another handhold before unhooking the tether line. He gave Peter a hasty thumbs-up before turning and scrambling like a spider along the spacecraft to the opening. Peter saluted the man as he spoke out in his helmet. “Thanks for flying Novak Airlines.” He shook his head, dislodging pooled sweat. One down, two to go. Now for the crazy nut.
Peter turned the SAFER around to reposition himself toward the Soyuz while continuing to hold onto the ship. His jaw dropped when he saw one of the cosmonauts on the outside of the Soyuz in a crouched position holding onto an antenna while the other one was frantically trying to wave him back in. It was obvious the lunatic was Carlos. “What the hell is he doing?”
Peter’s eyes widened when he realized the tourist was positioning himself to jump toward the Galileo. He remembered how difficult it was to get an accurate push and yelled out, “Don’t do it!”