'You'd better take a look.' She floated across to the hygiene station.
Her first glimpse in the mirror was shocking. The sclera of one of her eyes was bloodred. Not merely streaked, but a solid crimson.
'Jesus,' she murmured, horrified by her own reflection. I'm a pilot. I need my eyes. And one of them looks like a bag of blood.
O'Leary turned her around by the shoulders and examined her eye. 'It's nothing to worry about, okay?' he said. 'It's just hemorrhage.'
'Just?'
'A small bleed into the white of your eye. It looks more serious than it is. It'll clear up without any effect on your vision.'
'How did I get it?'
'Sudden changes in intracranial pressure can do it. Sometimes a violent cough or heavy vomiting is all it takes to pop a tiny vessel.'
She gave a relieved sigh. 'That must be it. I woke up coughing on one of those floating goombahs.'
'See? Nothing to worry about.' He gave her a pat. 'That'll be fifty bucks. Next patient!'
Reassured, Jill turned back to the mirror. It's merely a small bleed, she thought. Nothing to worry about. But the image back horrified her. One normal eye, one eye an evil and brilliant red.
Something alien. Satanic.
August 10.
'They're the houseguests from hell,' said Luther. 'We shut the door on 'em and they still refuse to leave.' Every one in the galley laughed, even Emma. In the last few days there had not been much in the way of humor aboard ISS, and it was a relief to hear people joking again. Since they'd transferred Kenichi's corpse to Discovery, everyone's mood seemed brighter.
His shrouded body had been a grim and constant reminder of death, and Emma was relieved she no longer had to confront the evidence of her own failure. She could focus, once again, on her work.
She could even laugh at Luther's crack, although the subject of his humor -- the orbiter's failure to depart -- was not, in fact, funny. It complicated their day. They had expected Discovery to undock early yesterday morning. Now it was a day later, and she was still mated and could not leave for at least the next twelve hours. Her uncertain departure time threw the station's work schedule into uncertainty as well. Undocking was more than just a simple matter of the orbiter detaching itself and flying away. It a delicate dance between two massive objects hurtling at 17,500 miles per hour, and it required the cooperation of both the Discovery and ISS crews. During undocking, the space station's control software had to be temporarily reconfigured for proximity operations, and its crew suspended many of its research activities. Every one had to be focused on the orbiter's departure.
On avoiding calamity.
Now a cloudy day over an air force base in California had delayed everything, wreaking havoc on the space station's work schedule. But this was the nature of spaceflight, the only thing predictable about it was the unpredictable.
An alarming blob of grape juice came floating by Emma's head.
And here was more unpredictability, she thought, laughing, as a sheepish Luther went chasing after it with a straw. You let your attention wander for just an instant, and there goes a vital tool or a sip's worth of juice drifting away. Without gravity, an object could end up anywhere.
This was something the crew of Discovery was now confronting. 'We had glops of this stuff land all over our aft DAP controls,' she heard Kittredge say over the radio. Discovery's commander was conversing with Griggs on the space-to-space subsystem. 'We're still trying to clean off the toggle switches, it's like thick mucus when it dries. I just hope it hasn't plugged up data ports.'
'You find out where it's coming from?' asked Griggs.
'We found a small crack in the toadfish enclosure. But it doesn't look like much leaked out -- not enough to account for what's flying around the cabin.'
'Where else could it be coming from?'
'We're checking the galley and commode now. We've been so busy cleaning up, we haven't had a chance to identify the source. We just can't figure out what this stuff is. It sort of reminds me of eggs. Round clumps, in this sticky green mass. You should see my crew -- it's like they've been slimed on Ghostbusters. And then Hewitt's got this evil red eye. Man, we're scary looking.'
Evil red eye? Emma turned to Griggs. 'What's wrong with Hewitt's eye?' she said. 'I didn't hear about it.' Griggs relayed the question to Discovery.
'It's just a scleral bleed,' answered Kittredge. 'Nothing serious, according to O'Leary.'
'Let me talk to Kittredge,' said Emma.
'Go ahead.'
'Bob, this is Emma,' she said. 'How did Jill get that scleral bleed?'
'She woke up coughing yesterday. We think that's what did it.'
'Is she having any abdominal pains? Headaches?'
'She did complain of a headache a little while ago. And we've all got muscle aches. But we've been working like dogs here.'
'Nausea? Vomiting?'
'Mercer's got an upset stomach. Why?'
'Kenichi had a scleral bleed too.'
'But that's not a serious condition,' said Kittredge. 'That's what O'Leary says.'
'No, it's the cluster of symptoms that concerns me,' said Emma.
'Kenichi's illness started with vomiting and a scleral hemorrhage. Abdominal pains. A headache.'
'Are you saying this is some sort of contagion? Then why aren't you sick? You took care of him.' A good question. She couldn't answer that.
'What disease are we talking about?' asked Kittredge.
'I don't know. I do know Kenichi was incapacitated within a day of his first symptoms. You guys need to undock and go home now. Before anyone on Discovery gets sick.'
'No can do. Edwards is still under clouds.'
'Then White Sands.'
'Not a good option right now. They've got a problem with one of their TACANS. Hey, we're doing fine. We'll just wait out the weather. It shouldn't be more than another twenty-four hours.'
Emma looked at Griggs. 'I want to talk to Houston.'
'They're not going to head for White Sands just because Hewitt's got a red eye.'
'It could be more than just a scleral hemorrhage.'
'How would they catch Kenichi's illness? They weren't exposed to him.' The corpse, she thought. His corpse is on the orbiter.
'Bob,' she said. 'This is Emma again. I want you to check the shroud.'
'What?'
'Check Kenichi's shroud for a breach.'
'You saw for yourself it's sealed tight.'
'Are you sure it still is?'
'Okay,' he sighed. 'I have to admit, we haven't checked the body since it came aboard. I guess we were all a little creeped-out about it. We've kept the pallet panel closed so we wouldn't have to look at him.'
'How does the shroud look?'
'I'm trying to get the panel open now. It seems to be sticking a little, but ... ' There was a silence. Then a murmured
'Jesus.'
'Bob?'
