Zhi, still mostly keeping to himself, managed to be the last person to enter the Orion from the Altair. Immediately after passing through the airlock, he launched himself like a torpedo toward the lower decking and the chair into which the pilot had been strapped, narrowly missing a collision with Dr. Xu in the process. His rapid movement distracted everyone from seeing what he had curled in his hands that he then rapidly tucked away behind the Orion’s lower right seat: a .45 caliber revolver.
“Ming’s got one seat,” Bill said. “I need one during the Trans-Earth Injection burn and reentry. Each of you two will have to share one. After TEI, we can take turns with two people hanging around until they get a chance to buckle in for a while.”
Hui looked at Chow, shrugged her shoulders, and motioned to one of the available seats. Taking the cue, Chow moved to the seat and motioned for Hui to take it. She pulled her weightless self into the seat. He then followed by wedging himself next to her and using the seat belt to fasten them both down.
Dr. Xu and the still-silent Zhi moved to the only remaining seat and rather awkwardly buckled themselves in as well.
About thirty minutes later, there was another countdown and then the engine on the service module ignited, giving them the impulse required to return the ship to Earth. The maneuver was short, lasting only long enough to give the ship the speed required for them to be on a course for home.
Stetson spoke just after the engines shut down. “It’s been a long day. Unless anyone objects, I’m going to dim the lights and take a nap.”
No one objected. Though they all peered out the window at the Moon one long, last time.
The rest of that day was uneventful. Though they were restless and crowded, the mood was generally upbeat. After all, they had all gone to the Moon, and it looked like everyone was going to make it home. There was good reason to be upbeat.
Hui chatted frequently with her Chinese colleagues back on Earth, speculating on what might have gone wrong with the
Dr. Xu almost never left the side of Ming, fretting constantly about his condition and speculating on why he had not regained consciousness. He, too, engaged in protracted discussions on the radio; his were mainly with Chinese physicians who were monitoring Ming’s condition from afar. Chow was often right there with him, checking Ming’s vital signs and engaging in similar discussions with his American counterparts in Houston.
Stetson purposefully remained somewhat aloof, watching the crew with interest and silently assessing them. His conversations with mission control were strictly business, and he never missed an opportunity to speak with his wife and children.
Chapter 26
The alarm sounded but didn’t exactly jolt him awake. Bill was strapped into the commander’s seat, his seat, and had been out for more than three hours. He was in the midst of a very good dream about his wife on a beach, and there were very few clothes involved. Then the alarms sounded and men came in and pulled him away to respond to some emergency. The alarm continued to sound.
“What’s that?” He finally snapped awake and immediately started scanning the screen in front of him. He had to squint, because he was extremely tired and hadn’t slept much since the whole mission began. Now they were more than a half day into their journey back to Earth.
Momentarily disoriented, Chow stirred himself awake in the adjacent couch. He looked around, and Bill figured he was doing the same thing he had done. He was probably trying to figure out where the heck he was.
“Rise and shine. Looks like another day, er, night at the office,” Bill said.
“Huh?” Bill could see that his colleague finally realized he was on the Orion spacecraft somewhere in the depths of space between the Moon and Earth and that an alarm was blaring at them. And in some way or other, that alarm probably meant something was trying to kill them in some form or fashion. Chow looked quickly over at Bill, who was smiling right back at him.
“Bill, what’s going on?” he asked nervously.
“I’m not sure yet,” Stetson said. “Won’t be long for Houston chimes in, I guess.”
Right on cue, the communication icon flashed and chimed.
“
“Uh, checking it,” Stetson replied.
“Something wrong?” Hui floated up next to them.
“Not sure yet, Hui,” Tony said to her.
“Might as well rest until we figure it out, Hui. Nothing you can do right now,” Bill added. “Though my guess is that we’ve got an EVA coming up.”
“
“Copy that, Houston. We see it. It’s the same one we had trouble with on the way out.”
“That’s what telemetry is showing us, over.”
“Damn. And I was having a good dream, too.” Bill stretched as best he could and pulled up the diagnostics for the solar array. “At least we’ve got experience with the thing this time.”
“Right. I can do the EVA,” Tony offered.
“Don’t jump the gun. Maybe we can get her started up.”
“Batteries are kicking in, just like on the way out,” Chow grunted.
Bill continued to scan through the diagnostics while Tony kept his eyes on the status board. With the array not pointing at the sun, the onboard batteries had to come online in order to maintain the ship’s systems, including life support. With six crewmembers in the Orion now, that would tax the batteries far more quickly than they were
