“I said, be quiet,” Raydon interrupted. “I didn’t want to chat, Senator. Button it.” Ann shook her head and snorted her frustration so hard it briefly fogged the inside of her helmet. “I’ll just have to line it up by feel and guide it in after I translate.” Raydon made a few more barely perceptible adjustments with the controls. The only sound anyone heard was the briefest of puffs from the thrusters. Then slowly, ever so slowly, the Black Stallion started a roll to the left so the top of the spaceplane was pointed at the station.
Just then, they heard a strange humming noise. Boomer checked his readouts — everything was normal. “Crew, station check,” he ordered.
“Quiet, Captain.”
“I hear a funny sound.”
“That’s me, Noble. Now be quiet.” Sure enough, a moment later the humming sound came back, getting louder and louder as Raydon nudged the Black Stallion ever so slowly toward the tower. “Clear the docking tunnel, Senator,” he said.
“Tunnel’s clear.”
“I asked you to clear it, not talk!” Raydon snapped. “What part of ‘be quiet’ don’t you jokers understand?” Ann had to bite her tongue to keep silent. “Okay, Captain, extend the tunnel…slowly.” Boomer hit a switch, and the docking tunnel extended out the top of the spaceplane. “Stop.” Raydon made a few more imperceptible adjustments. “Okay, extend…stop.” Another nudge of the controls; then they heard a deep “CLUUNK!” and four sharp snaps. “Contact, locks engaged,” Raydon said. “Senator, double-check your suit status lights, and tell me what they say.” Silence. Raydon waited a moment longer, then said irritably, “You can talk now, all of you.”
“Four green, no red,” Ann Page said. “My, Colonel, what a fart you are.”
“Thank you, Senator. I’m just doing my job. Lieutenant?”
“Four green, no red. I’ve double-checked Ann’s controls — she’s ready.”
“I’ve checked Nano’s controls,” Ann said. “She’s good to go.”
“Roger. Captain?”
“I’ve got four green, no red,” Boomer responded. “I’m ready.”
“Roger. I’m showing four green, no red. Flight crew is ready for cabin depressurization, and passenger module is ready for equalization with the transfer module. Senator, Lieutenant, ready to go?”
“We’re ready, Colonel.”
“Ready.”
“Very good. Captain?”
Boomer checked the status readouts being transmitted via an encoded datalink from the station. “Transfer module showing pressurized to nine point nine psid,” he reported.
“Good. Clear to match cabin pressure.”
“Roger. Bringing the passenger module pressure down to nine point nine.” Boomer hit a control. “Passing fourteen psid…twelve…ten…nine point nine pressure differential in both station transfer module and Stud passenger module.”
“Very good. Okay, Senator, Lieutenant, you’re cleared to unstrap, enter the tunnel, and open the hatch. Be sure to check the visual indicators first. Good luck.”
“We’re on our way,” Ann said. “And you still owe me a shot for every time you called me ‘Senator,’ Kai.” She and Nano carefully removed their seat restraints and floated free. Ann moved to the tunnel first and pulled herself up inside. At the top of the tunnel she opened a small shutter over an observation window, which lined up exactly with a similar window on the station’s transfer module. She flicked a switch, and a tiny LED light illuminated a pressure gauge inside the transfer module. “Transfer module shows nine point five on the gauge,” she said. “Close enough for government work. Here we go.” Ann twisted two recessed levers in the tunnel’s hatch, and the hatch unlatched. She floated back and swung the hatch in, then locked it in place. She then reached up to the hatch visible just a few inches away, double-checked the pressure differential gauge again, then twisted two handles and swung the hatch open. “Hatches are open. I’m going inside. See you when I see you.”
“We did it,” Boomer breathed.
“We’ve still got a long way to go, Captain,” Raydon said. “But we’ve cleared one incredible hurdle.”
Nano began by unstrapping several equipment cases and boxes inside the passenger module, floated them through the tunnel to Ann, then followed them inside. In a few minutes she was inside the station’s transfer module, and she secured the hatches behind her. “The hatches are closed and latched,” she reported from the transfer module. “Tunnel and module are pressurized and secure. This is so cool. Can’t believe all the room in this thing!”
“The transfer module is the smallest on Silver Tower,” Ann said. “Wait till you see the rest of the place. You might want to move up here permanently.”
“Awesome!”
Inside the station, Ann floated into an adjacent tunnel, turning on lights as she went, then entered the adjacent crew sleeping quarters. She had stayed on the station a few times in the past several years, and she was pleased to see many of her “womanly” touches still in place — some artificial silk flowers, a few pictures, and even a magnetic chess board floating in the middle of the module.
“Wow, this is huge!” Nano remarked. “You can sleep a dozen people in this thing with room to spare! And there’s a shower, closets, TVs, and desks — how cool! I thought it’d be all cramped like the Shuttle orbiter.”
“I told you you’d like it,” Ann said. She floated “down” to another connecting tunnel and checked the pressure gauges. “The cargo module is depressurized and checked, guys. Come on over.”
“Ready, Captain?” Raydon asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” Boomer said.
“I’ll go over first,” Raydon said. “Follow me and do what I do. There’s nothing to it.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“Your readouts look okay?”
“Four green, no red, reading nine point eight psid.”
“Me too. Check your tether.”
Boomer opened a hatch on his side of his seat and pulled out a length of shielded nylon cable. “It’s ready.”
“Mine too. Here we go.” Raydon hit a control, and the forward cockpit cabin began to depressurize. “Fourteen psid…twelve…ten…” But this time it didn’t stop at ten psid, but went all the way to zero. “Forward cabin depressurized. Canopy coming open.” As Boomer watched in amazement, the forward canopy motored open, and moments later Raydon floated free of his seat and was outside the spaceplane. My God, Boomer thought, he’s walking in space! “How you doing back there, Captain? You look like you seen a ghost.”
“I…I’m okay.”
“This is my fifth space walk, and I’m still nervous and excited every time I go out,” Raydon admitted. “But we don’t have all day. Let’s go.” Without appearing to push or even touch anything, Raydon gently moved away from the spaceplane so he was floating in space several yards away. As Boomer watched, the remote manipulator arm began to move toward him. Raydon reached up, and Ann steered the grapple at the end of the arm precisely into his grasp and towed him toward the cargo module on the station. Moments later he was inside the module, and he motioned for Boomer to follow him.
His stomach was knotted with flocks of butterflies, but he was holding up the show, and the remote manipulator arm was waiting for him. He touched the controls and slowly depressurized the rear cockpit cabin… done. With a finger that he noticed was shaking slightly, he hit the canopy switch…and it motored up. Holy Jesus… he was in space! Not just flying through space, but in space!
“Let’s move out, Captain.”
Boomer undid his seat straps, being careful to keep the metal buckles under control as they snaked around him, then pushed himself out of his seat…too hard, and his helmet banged up against the inside of the canopy overhead.
“Easy does it, Captain,” Raydon said. “Use just enough force to overcome inertia and that’s it, and remember you have to counteract inertia on the other side — nothing stops by itself up here. Remember that. Otherwise you’ll be making like a pinball all day. Don’t even think about moving and you’ll find you can move just fine. Keep an eye on your tethers and those locking teeth on the edge of the canopy — rip your suit and your blood will boil away in seconds.”
