Then she said, 'It's alive.'
'Did not copy.'
'The stuff floating around -- the spill from the body bag. It's moving all around me. It's inside me. I can see it moving under my skin, and it's alive.' A chill crawled all the way up Carpenter's spine.
Hallucinations.
A head injury. They were losing her, losing their only hope of getting the orbiter down intact.
'Flight, we're approaching burn target,' warned FDO. 'We can't afford to miss it.'
'Tell her to go for deorbit,' Carpenter ordered.
'Discovery,' said Capcom. 'Go to APU prestart.' There was no response.
'Discovery?' repeated Capcom. 'You're going to miss your burn target!' As the seconds stretched to minutes, Carpenter's muscles tensed, and his nerves felt like live wires. He gave a sigh of when Hewitt finally responded.
'Middeck crew's in landing position. They're both unconscious. I've strapped them in. But I can't get Kittredge into his LES -- '
'Screw his reentry suit!' said Carpenter. 'Let's not miss that target. Just get the bird down!'
'Discovery, we advise you proceed directly to APU prestart. Just strap him into the starboard seat, and you get on with deorbit.' They heard a ragged sigh of pain. Then Hewitt said, 'My head -- having trouble focusing ... '
'We roger that, Hewitt.' Capcom's voice became gentler.
Almost soothing. 'Look, Jill. We know you're the one in the commander's seat now. We know you're hurting. But we can guide in on autoland, all the way to wheel stop. If you just stay with us.'
She let out a tortured sob. 'APU prestart complete,' she whispered. 'Loading OPS 3-0-2. Tell me when, Houston.'
'Go for deorbit burn,' said Carpenter.
Capcom relayed the decision. 'Go for deorbit burn, Discovery.' And he added softly, 'Now, let's get you home.'
In the hellish darkness, Emma braced herself for the shock of decompression. She knew exactly what to expect. How she would die. There would be the roar of air rushing out of the hull. The sudden popping of her eardrums. The rapid crescendo of pain as her lungs expanded and her alveoli exploded. As the air pressure drops toward vacuum, the boiling temperature of liquid also drops, it becomes the same as the freezing temperature. One instant, the blood is boiling. In the next, it freezes solid in the veins.
The red warning lights, the siren, confirmed her worst fears. It was a Class 1 emergency. They had a breached hull, and their air was leaking into space.
She felt her ears pop. Evacuate now!
She and Diana dove into the hab, flying through gloom lit only by the bright red flashes of the warning panels. The siren was so loud everyone had to yell to hear each other. In her panic, Emma bounced into Luther, who grabbed her before she could ricochet off in a new direction.
'Nicolai's already in the CRV. You and Diana next!' he shouted.
'Wait. Where's Griggs?' said Diana.
'Just get in!' Emma turned. In the psychedelic flash of red warning lights, she saw no one else in the hab. Griggs had not followed them. A strange, fine mist seemed to hang in the gloom, but there was no hurricane whoosh of air sucking them toward the breach.
And no pain, she suddenly realized. She'd felt her ears pop, but there was no chest pain, no symptoms of explosive decompression.
We can save this station. We have time to isolate the leak.
She did a quick swimmer's turn, kicked off the wall, and went flying back toward the node.
'Hey! What the fuck, Watson?' yelled Luther.
'Don't give up the ship!' She was moving so fast she slammed against the edge of the hatchway, bashing her elbow. Here was the pain now, not from decompression but from her own stupid clumsiness. Her arm was throbbing as she kicked off again, into the node.
Griggs wasn't there, but she saw his Thinkpad, drifting at the end of its data cord. The screen flashed a bright red
'Decompression' warning.
The air pressure was down to six hundred fifty and dropping. They had only minutes to work, minutes before their brains would not function.
He must have gone in search of the leak, she thought. He's going to close off the damaged module.
She dove into the U.S. Lab, through that thickening white mist.
Was it mist or was it her vision fogging over from hypoxia? A warning that unconsciousness was closing in? She shot through the darkness and felt disoriented by the warning lights continuing to flash like a strobe. She banged into the far hatchway. Her coordination was off, and her clumsiness getting worse. She through the hatch opening, into Node 2.
Griggs was there. He was struggling to disconnect a tangle of cables strung between the NASDA and European modules.
'The leak's in NASDA!' he yelled over the screaming sirens. 'If we can clear the cables from this hatchway and close it off, we isolate the module.' She dove forward to help him yank the cables apart. Then she found one that could not be disconnected. 'What the hell's this? she said. All cables leading through hatchways were supposed to be easy to pull apart in case of an emergency. This one was continuous -- a violation of safety rules. 'It doesn't have a quick release!' she yelled.
'Get me a knife and I'll cut it!' She spun around, dove back into the U.S. Lab. A knife. Where the hell is a knife? Through the red flashes of light, she saw medical locker. A scalpel. She yanked open the drawer, reached into the instrument tray, and went flying back into Node 2.
Griggs took the scalpel and began to sever the cable.
'What can we do to help?' came Luther's shout.
Emma turned and saw him, along with Nicolai and Diana, hovering anxiously in the hatchway.
'The breach is in NASDA! -' she said. 'We're gonna close off the module!' Sparks suddenly shot out like fireworks. Griggs yelped and jerked away from the cable. 'Shit! It's a live wire!'
'We've got to cut it!' said Emma.
'And get fried to a crisp? I don't think so.'
'Then how do we seal the hatch?' Luther said, 'Pull back! Pull back into the lab! We'll close off the whole node. Isolate this end of the station.' Griggs looked at the sparking wire. He didn't want to close off Node 2, because it meant sacrificing both the NASDA and European modules, which would be completely depressurized and unreachable. And it meant sacrificing the shuttle docking port, which also led off Node 2.
'Pressure's dropping, folks!' called Diana, reading a handheld pressure gauge. 'We're down to six hundred twenty-five millimeters! Just pull the fuck back, and let's close off the node!' Emma could already feel herself breathing faster, trying to catch her breath. Hypoxia. They were all going to black out if she didn't do something soon.
She tugged Griggs's arm. 'Pull back! It's the only way to save the station!' He gave a stunned nod and retreated with Emma into the U.S. Lab.
Luther tried to tug the hatch shut, but he couldn't get it to budge. Now that they were outside Node 2, they had to pull, not push the hatch shut. And they were working against the rush of escaping air, in a rapidly depressurizing atmosphere.
'We'll have to abandon this module too!' yelled Luther. 'Retreat to Node 1 and close off the next hatch!'
'Hell no!' Griggs said. 'I'm not giving up this module as well!'
'Griggs, we've got no choice. I can't pull this hatch shut!'
'Then let me do it!' Griggs grabbed the handle and strained to pull it shut, but the hatch moved only a few inches before he had to let go in exhaustion.
'You're gonna kill us all just to save this fucking module!' shouted Luther.
