The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) Page 20

  Sam initiated her suit’s jets. Since she had her back to the Pegasus as they approached the ship, she needed to rely on directions from Roy. They had briefly debated making Roy use both joysticks, one with each hand, but then thought that would be too awkward.

  “It’s looking good, Sam. We’re almost there. It’s only a few hundred meters to go. How’s your fuel status?”

  “I’m down to five percent.”

  “Okay, we’re coming in nicely; cut the thrust off … now.” Sam shut down her jets and the two astronauts floated serenely in the void for another thirty seconds.

  “I’ll direct us to fly over the top of the ship,” Roy said, “and once we pass by I’ll use full power to stop us. I want to look that bastard Jacobs in the face through the front window when I talk to him.”

  Sam saw the small puffs of nitrogen from Roy’s jets as he slightly changed their trajectory, and then saw the top of the Pegasus pass slowly by a few meters below their feet. As they passed the nose of the ship, Roy turned them around and stopped their motion, perfectly placed. The two astronauts floated there in front of the ship as they unclipped themselves.

  Roy could see the leader of the Called sitting in his seat on the flight deck. It was obvious that he was shocked to see the two astronauts drifting right in front of him. “Jacobs, do you hear me? Your little stunt is over. I expect no further interference, if you know what’s good for you and your people. Without us, you have no hope of successfully landing this ship. We’re coming in now.”

  “No, you cannot!” Jacobs yelled back. “I will not let you!”

  “Sam, use the Pegasus intercom to let the people know that we’re about to enter the ship. Tell them that the spacecraft will burn up without us and that Jacobs has deceived them.”

  “Gladly,” Sam said. “Pegasus, activate main cabin speakers.” Sam waited a second for the ship to indicate the action had been completed. “Ladies and gentleman, this is Pilot Samantha Tuttle speaking. At this moment we are outside the Pegasus, and are about to enter. Brother Jacobs has misled you. You are all about to burn up approaching Mars because he launched this ship with no fuel aboard. Please remain seated and strapped in as the Commander and I enter.”

  Roy could see Brother Jacobs leap out of the seat and go into the main cabin, closing the door behind him. “C’mon, Sam. Let’s get over to the airlock. Be prepared for interference. We may need to fight with this character.”

  As the two astronauts initiated their jets to move to the side of the ship where the airlock was, inside Brother Jacobs was addressing his people.

  “Sisters and Brothers, you heard the Serpent’s tongue. All it did was utter soothing lies. I have seen videos of the NASA astronauts on Mars trying to destroy the emissaries of the Great Consciousness. I have heard the orders from Earth to our two baby sitters to create weapons to aid in the destruction of He whom we seek. I can taste the nearness of our destiny. Success is at hand. Do not listen to them! Repeat after me; we will land and merge!”

  Jean watched as the members of the Called all nodded and shouted, ‘We will land and merge!’ She had to do something. “But we can’t leave them outside to die!” she yelled. “You have to let them in!”

  “Ah, my dear child, you are too young to understand. Our mission transcends any earthly concerns of mortality. Their destiny does not include the Great Consciousness, and their fate is with whatever gods they worship.”

  At that moment, outside the ship, Roy pressed the airlock door button. When nothing happened, he said, “Sam, does Jacobs know about the manual locks?”

  Sam thought for a second and then exclaimed, “Oh my god! The S.O.B. must have been reading Jean’s diary all of this time. She kept detailed notes on the ship’s operation and systems in it. No wonder he knew how to initiate the launch sequence. He must have planned this whole thing months ago.”

  “Well, the ship’s computer can’t override manual locks. We’ll have to use the blowtorch to cut our way in.”

  “No, wait; we can’t do that, Roy. The people in there don’t have any spacesuits. As much as I’d like to see Brother Jacobs’ face turn purple and his eyes bug out, I’m not sure what it will do to everyone else before we can patch the hole. Don’t forget that Bonnie is pregnant. She won’t be able to breathe, and it could kill her and the baby.”

  “There are a few oxygen masks aboard. We could give one to her; it might help,” Roy said.

  “No, we’re going to have to cut too big a hole. That will require us getting a spare panel, attaching a patch and then repressurizing the cabin. It could take quite a while, and the air will just leak around any mask we give her in the interim. She and the baby will asphyxiate.”

  “I don’t think we have much choice,” the Commander said. “We’ll have to chance it.”

  “Wait, let me think for a minute,” Sam said. A few seconds later, she said, “Let me try something.” Sam initiated the main cabin speaker once more. “Jean, this is Sam. We’re stuck outside. I need you to disengage the manual door looks so that we can get in. It’s the only chance for all of you to survive. Hurry, before anyone can interfere!”

  Jean, hearing Sam’s voice, rushed to comply. She unbuckled her restraints and launched herself across the top of the group’s heads and towards the airlock door near the front left of the cabin. As she reached the aisle and was almost at the door, a hand reached up and grabbed her ankle, yanking her to a halt.

  “Traitor!” hissed Celia as she tugged on Jean’s leg. “I knew you couldn’t be trusted any more than your mother. I’ve been keeping my eye on you. You’ve been hanging around with that woman astronaut far too much and have lost your faith. I am not letting you go against the wishes of our glorious leader.”

  Jean struggled and tried to kick Celia, but other hands from those nearby reached up and grabbed her also. “No, you can’t leave them outside to die,” she cried, struggling. “What about mercy? They’ve been so good to us all this time. Someone must feel something! Can’t anyone help?”

  Brother Jacobs pushed off the closed flight deck door and floated over by the airlock to ensure that nobody else tried to release the door mechanism. As he positioned his back against the entrance, he faced his congregation from the side. He could see that a few people were unsure about what to do. He had to redirect their thoughts. “Brothers and Sisters, yes, we show mercy, but we must not to those who endorse violence and could stop us. We have sacrificed much to be here. Soon we will meet our destiny. Close your eyes and meditate on this.” He turned his eyes on Jean. “Jean, you will be quiet. If not, we will forcibly restrain you. Now, go back to your seat, and think about your faith.”

  Jean thought about resisting further, but realized she was outnumbered. She meekly floated back to her seat as Celia released her with a triumphant grin. She pulled herself back into her seat, and her mother put her arm around her. “You tried, Jean. I’m proud of you,” Bonnie said.

  Outside, Sam had heard everything that had happened through the ship’s radio. “Damn that man. He stopped her,” she said.

  “I guess we’ll need to cut our way in after all in spite of the affect it might have on the group,” Roy said.

  After a moment’s thought, Sam asked Roy a question. “That Brother Jacobs closed the flight deck door as he left, didn’t he?”

  “Yes, he did. Why? What are you thinking?”

  “There’s a way we can still get in and not decompress the main cabin. Pegasus,” the pilot commanded the ship. “Open the landing gear doors and deploy the skids.” She turned towards Roy. “Let’s go. We’re going to cut into the flight deck from below. The closed door to the main cabin will keep the air in there from rushing out. We’re going to get back in and take over from that bastard yet.”

  CHAPTER 36

  The two astronauts jetted their way below the Pegasus and over to where the two landing skids were hanging down. Sam noticed that the red planet was visibly closer and that time was running short. “There’s not eno
ugh room in there for both of us,” Sam said. “You’ll never fit in there with the blowtorch and have room to work. I’ll go in and get positioned, and then you hand me the blowtorch. After I cut an opening and get onto the flight deck, I’ll let you know so you can follow. Meanwhile, we’ll need to keep our friend inside distracted. Hold on a second while I change frequencies.”

  “Brother Jacobs,” Sam said a moment later over the main cabin speakers. “The Commander and I are proceeding to cut through the airlock doors. I suggest that everyone keep far away from them.”

  “Never!” Brother Jacobs shouted from where he was against the inner door. “Platinums One and Two. Come here and guard the door with me,” he ordered. Then into the air he shouted, “We will not let you pass. If necessary, my Platinums will hurl you along with themselves away from the ship! No sacrifice is too much for them to ensure our success!” As the leader finished his comment, George, who had drifted over with Jeff to guard the door, looked worriedly at his fellow Platinum. When he did not receive a return glance, he stoically stayed drifting by the airlock.

  “Jacobs my man,” Sam muttered as she changed the frequency back to Roy, “you are nothing if not consistent. I wonder if your Platinums are rethinking their allegiance just now after that last comment.” A second later she addressed Roy as the Commander closed his jet control arm back into his suit and clung onto the ship’s landing superstructure. “Our friend is taken care of for the moment. I’m ready. Hand me the torch.”

  Sam ignited the tip of the device and leaned her back against the landing struts. As she held the lit end against the bottom of the flight deck which was above her, she made sure to make the first hole far away from her face. As soon as the flame broke through into the airspace above her, a rush of air came hurtling out, blowing the flame back along with sparks that flew all around. When that had subsided, Sam tested the flame periodically near the opening to discover whether all of the air in the flight deck had escaped. In about a minute, she found that she could proceed with cutting into the chamber above.

  As the cut line extended into the shape of a rectangle, Sam decided to leave one side attached so that she could lever the section up like a hatch. In a few more minutes, she had completed the cut and turned off the blowtorch. She leaned her back into the landing gear struts and kicked up with both legs. The metal gave way an inch. She kicked again, and soon had the metal in front of her pushed up into the flight deck. Sam scrambled into the space above, and the first thing she did was lock the door leading to the main cabin. “I’m in and secured the door,” she said to Roy. “You can come up now.”

  When Roy’s helmeted head appeared, Sam reached down and helped the Commander up through the hole. “Pegasus,” she ordered. “Retract the landing skids and close the landing doors.” She looked down through the hole in the floor, and could see the landing skids against the backdrop of the red planet. The skis were coming up and the doors were closing, shutting out the view. “Pegasus, repressurize the flight deck,” she commanded. When her visor indicated the pressure in the cabin had stabilized, Sam pushed the panel she had cut back down so that it was flush with the floor. “As long as we leave the landing gear up and the doors closed, we’ll maintain the pressure in here,” she told Roy.

  Now that they were safely inside, Sam issued another order to the ship’s computer. “Pegasus, release voice lock and resume normal operations.” When she saw on her visor display that the ship had recognized her voice and complied, she said to Roy, “We can remove our helmets now.”

  “Great. Let’s get started. First, check the systems and give me a status,” Roy said as he took the left hand seat. “How are our maneuvering thrusters?”

  Sam checked the instruments and readouts from her normal right hand seat. “The front thrusters have a few percentage points of fuel left. We can probably do a couple of maneuvers, but not enough to complete all of the ‘S’ turns needed to bleed off speed for a landing. That’s assuming we had some way of slowing down in the first place so as to not burn up. Without fuel for the main engines, we’d be coming in much too hot. So now, tell me; what’s the plan you had in mind? Are we going to do an aerocapture?”

  Sam, of course, was referring to a maneuver that had been used successfully many times by probes the Earth had launched to the red planet. In order to save fuel, multiple probes that had been dispatched to Mars had entered large looping orbits and then proceeded to just skim the top of Mars’ atmosphere on each low pass, slowing down slightly. The probes would then loop around the planet and dip back down again at each nearest approach, slowing further. Each orbit would bleed off speed, allowing the probe to circle closer and closer on each pass.

  “That won’t work,” Roy said. “It could take weeks for us to do enough orbits to slow down to the speed needed to perform a landing. We don’t have enough food, air or water to last that long. We’re going to have to do a skip reentry.”

  “A skip reentry? Do you mean skip off the top of the atmosphere and try to meet back up with the AB Cycler?”

  “No, the cycler is too far away by now and moving much too fast. We would need the main engines in order to catch it. I’m talking about something that was done a few times by the Soviets long ago, but never attempted otherwise.”

  “Alright, I’m not sure I like the sound of this. Enlighten me.”

  “There are a few trajectories when approaching a planet. If your angle is too steep, you burn up. If it is too shallow, you skip off and head into deep space. The proper trajectory, as we all practice, is the size of the thickness of a piece of paper when compared to a basketball.”

  “Yeah, yeah. They make us all watch Apollo 13 and Armageddon during training,” Sam said impatiently.

  “But if you’re going too fast, even hitting that paper thin slice of an angle will still cause you to burn up. There is one trajectory, however, at one perfect angle, that will allow you to come in hot, burn through the atmosphere slowing down, go higher up to cool off slightly, and then come in for a landing. Think of it like throwing a rock at a lake so that it skips one time before it plunges into the water.”

  “And you said it was done successfully on Mars?” Sam asked dubiously.

  “No, but the Soviets performed it with some of their Zond circumlunar probes back in the 60s. The craft looped around the Moon and came back to Earth and successfully did a skip reentry. NASA even programmed the technique into the Apollo command modules, but never used it except in simulations.”

  “Why didn’t they teach us about this in the sims, and why hasn’t it been used since?” Sam asked.

  “Because you need perfect guidance in order to execute it. We’ve never had radar stations here on Mars that could provide the feedback needed to hit that very narrow entry angle. However, we’ve now got the colony supply ship that we launched. It should have landed a few minutes ago, and it has a perfectly good radar system.”

  “But it’s not deployed yet.”

  “That’s why we need the guys already there to deploy it for us.” Roy changed the ship’s radio frequency to the Mars base channel and started his distress call.

  CHAPTER 37

  “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! This is Pegasus Commander Roy Olstein calling the Star-Kissed Mars base. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! Do you copy?”

  Commander Grant Stiles was sitting in his cabin reviewing Sergey’s latest report on the accuracy of the Gyrojet bullets when the call came over the habitat’s speakers and startled him. NASA had commanded radio silence with the approaching AB Cycler and the Pegasus was still a month away from its scheduled landing. Per protocol, the frequency was left open at all times in case of emergency. This sounded like one of those times. He rushed out of his room into the main area and up to the communications array panel.

  “Commander Olstein, this is Commander Stiles. We copy. Roy, what’s your status?” As Grant was saying this, his three other teammates rushed into the main room, having heard the Mayday call. Brad had hurried upstairs from his co
ntrol console where he was continuing attempts to free the stuck rover while analyzing the surrounding crater. Sergey had run out of the MMTV where he was updating the transport’s software while it was connected to the habitat. Charles had sprinted out of his cabin where he was composing messages to family on Earth, informing them that his wedding had been called off.

  “You’re not going to believe this, Grant,” Roy transmitted. “Somehow, the leader of the colony learned about your run-in with the alien creatures on Mars and that NASA ordered all of us to create weapons. He’s convinced himself and the others that they need to meet with the head alien, or the Great Consciousness as he calls it. They want to get all lovey dovey with it and protect it and keep everyone else away. The group keeps chanting how they want to ‘land and merge’ with the alien. When the leader, called Brother Jacobs, discovered how the existence of life on Mars was kept secret from him, he and his group hijacked the Pegasus.”

  “They hijacked your ship?” Grant said in disbelief.

  “That’s right. We had to chase it with our suits’ thrusters and cut our way onto the flight deck and lock them out. Unfortunately, our main engine fuel is exhausted. Since the fool launched the ship without refueling, we have no way to perform a deorbit burn. It didn’t seem to matter to him that the twenty-five men, women and children would all get killed. He kept saying how the Great Consciousness would take care of them and land them safely so that it could meet with them. Since we have no fuel, I want to attempt a skip reentry.”

  “A skip reentry?” Grant repeated.

  “Da, da, I know of this,” Sergey said coming up to Grant. “We Russians perfected it long ago. But Commander,” Sergey said leaning in to the microphone, “you will need precision guidance to execute such maneuver.”

  “Yes, is that you, Sergey?” Roy asked, recognizing the accent of the Russian. “That is correct. We launched the colony supply ship which contains a radar array. I need one of you at the base to deploy and activate it.”