Back to the Moon-ARC

off fairly easily. Getting it back on took him almost a minute and a half. It almost startled him when mission control chimed in.

“Mercy I, mission control.”

“Go ahead, Houston.”

“We’ve done a quick analysis and believe that this is a workable plan. The best location to create a leak will be as far into the nose as possible, just to the right of the docking-ring hatch. It is likely that the boundary-layer plasma will not damage the ship critically if there is a structural-integrity breach there. The plasma should flow past any damage up there.”

“Alright, then—let’s do it.” Tony slipped his glove off again and handed it to Hui. “Hang on to this for me, please.”

“I’ve got it.” Hui nodded to him.

“Bill, are you clear of the nose out there?”

“Roger that, Tony. I’m still hanging out with my old pal the solar panel.” Bill paused, slightly wondering if his need to use levity in the current situation was his subconscious helping him deal with the fact that he was teetering on the edge of dying. He shook that nonsense from his mind. “Good luck.”

“Right.” Tony glanced at the countdown clock on the screen, noting that they had less than fifteen minutes until it would start getting bumpy. “Houston, let’s get on with this. Give me the breaker sequence now.”

Tony had both gloves off and started flipping icon toggles on the computer touch screen. He had to have all the right breakers thrown so that the pressurization system wouldn’t just increase the oxygen flow into the cabin to make up for a leak. That took a couple of minutes. Then he was ready.

“Alright, everybody clear!” He scanned the cabin for an all clear from Xu, and then Hui. “Bill, here goes.”

Tony gripped the pistol in his hands. He raised his arms as best he could in his suit and took aim just to the right of the apex of the cone where the docking hatch was located.

“Firing in three, two, one, no shot.” Tony instinctively pulled at the trigger again. “What the…?”

“You didn’t disengage the safety,” Hui pointed out.

“Oh. I see.” Tony used his thumb to push the safety off and then raised the weapon again. “Once more. Firing in three, two, one!”

The pistol fired and tossed an empty casing across the cabin. The casing ricocheted off a couple of panels, making a clinking noise as it did so, and then began a slow-drifting trajectory about the cabin. The bullet, on the other hand, slammed against the interior wall panel a good half meter from where Tony thought he had been aiming. But it didn’t really matter as long as it worked.

“Mercy I, mission control.”

“Go ahead, Houston,” Tony answered.

“We show you’ve sprung a leak and are losing cabin pressure.”

“Hold on, Houston. I’ll check it out.”

“Before you do, put these on.” Hui handed Tony his suit gloves. Tony waved them off, handed her the pistol, and tapped at the control screen. He could have sworn he was hearing a faint hissing sound, but his ears were ringing from the pistol report, so he wasn’t certain.

“We’ve got a red light on the pressure panel. The question is, are we leaking fast enough, Houston?” Tony held his breath while he waited on mission control’s response. It seemed like forever before he got it.

“Hold on, Mercy I. We’re running the numbers now.”

“It’s gonna work,” Tony said to nobody in particular, but everybody heard it.

“Negative, Mercy I. Looks like at your current leakage rate, it will take about twenty minutes before the cabin is empty.” Tony felt his heart sink again.

“What!?”

“It was a good try, Tony. I knew it was risky.”

“Bill, are you still clear?”

“Yes, but why do—?”

Tony grabbed the pistol from Hui unexpectedly, took aim, and fired two quick rounds just to the top and right of the docking-hatch door. The sound of the reports rang like a bell inside the cabin, hurting his ears. He hadn’t balanced himself as well this time, and the pistol firing pushed him hard enough to make him tumble over. Newton’s law of reciprocal force, action and reaction, got him. He quickly grabbed on to a handhold and righted himself. He held the pistol up once more, considering firing it again.

“Tony! Stop it before you endanger the entire mission!” Bill shouted back at him.

“That ought to do it.” Tony thumbed the safety on the pistol and handed it to Hui. “Put that thing away for me, will ya?”

“Yes.” Hui looked nervously at Tony. “I think I should.”

Tony went to check the status panel. He looked at the reentry countdown to see where they stood. There were about nine minutes remaining before things started getting too close for comfort.

“Mercy I, we show an increase in the depressurization. What’s going on?”

“I made two more leaks,” Tony said nonchalantly and half expecting Houston to respond with a “You did what?”—but they didn’t.