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"Bruce, what's taking
you so long?" Amber asked. "We've got to get Laney
down to a hospital."
"I just finished clamping off all of the severed water
pipes." Bruce panted from inside his space suit, "Let
me check with Houston."
"Houston. Atlantis here. I just clamped the pipes. Any
change in the fuel cell cooling?"
"We see some water pressure building up. We'll keep an
eye on it."
"Should I wait to see if I should do anything else, or
go ahead and patch the hole?"
Patch the damn hole, Amber said to herself.
"Atlantis, Houston. You are clear to patch the hole."
"Bruce, what's been the hold up?" she asked.
"It took some time to stuff the hole with towels to protect
me from the jagged metal. Didn't want to puncture my suit."
That's smart. We wouldn't want to lose you out there. "How
much longer?" Amber asked, as she held Laney's hand.
Hurry up! We need to get her on the ground.
"I've got to tape a plastic bag over the towels to get
an air-tight seal. Peeling duct tape with space suit gloves
is harder than you would think." Bruce breathed heavy.
"It feels like I am taping my gloves together."
"We're going to be saved by duct tape." Ken rolled
his eyes, "I can see the media having a field day now."
"All I need to do is tape the edges, and we'll see if
the seal holds." Bruce paused to catch his breath, "I
hope you saved something to drink."
Inside the CargoHab module, Dan grabbed a bag of juice floating
nearby, removed a straw that was glued to the side, and punctured
the bag. As he took three long, deep gulps of tangy juice,
he noticed Ken staring at him and asked, "What?"
"You always think with your stomach. You've scheduled
everything on this mission by breakfast, lunch, dinner, or
snack time."
"We've been stuck in here for an hour with the electricity
off, and Bruce still hasn't fixed the hole. Besides, I'm homesick
to see my kids, and they like apple juice. Nothing we can
do up here until he fixes the hole, so I might darn well find
a way to enjoy myself."
Ken reached for a floating red bag. "My kids like cranberry
juice." He turned to look at Laney and asked, "Would
you like some?"
Laney nodded, and Ken stabbed the floating bag with the straw.
The bag floated away and bounced off a wall. As it ricocheted,
he stabbed it again, puncturing the bag as it bounced away
from his hand. Juice drops squirted out of the bag.
"Ken, relax." Amber said quietly. Laney's hand trembled
in hers.
He floated the red bag toward Laney and then licked after
the weightless drops of juice. Dan nudged several cans of
fruit toward them.
The intercom cracked, "Houston, Atlantis. I just finished
taping up the patch. How long before we can repressurize?"
"Atlantis, Houston. Immediately. We'll watch to see if
it holds."
Bruce looked in through the airlock window, winked, and floated
back to the debris impact area.
# # #
In Mission Control, Glen heard in his headset, "Flight,
EECOM. This is more serious than I thought. In trying to respond
to the loss in cabin pressure, Atlantis bled off a lot of
oxygen and nitrogen. She has enough to pressurize the cabin
to the bare minimum, but after the cabin is pressurized, there
will only be enough oxygen for 18 hours."
Glen swallowed hard. "Copy that." He wrote the number
down and underlined it again.
He heard in his headset, "EECOM, Fido. I've been in communication
with Discovery's mission control to work out an intercept
orbit with Atlantis. Discovery's weight and fuel combination
results in her being able to intercept Atlantis only if we
launch when Atlantis passes directly over Kennedy. Discovery
doesn't have enough fuel with its payload to change orbits
to chase Atlantis. If we miss the next window, we'll have
to wait six more hours for another launch because it takes
four orbits for Atlantis to be overhead for an intercept."
"What I hear you saying is if Discovery doesn't launch
and catch Atlantis on the next launch window, we'll lose her."
"Yeah."
"That's not acceptable." Glen glared. "I want
a backup plan for the backup plan." He glanced at his
daughters' photo, and said to himself, and a backup plan for
that backup plan.
"NASA has only three space shuttles in the fleet. Endeavor
just landed and will take too long for it to get set up for
another launch. There is nothing left if Discovery can't make
it."
Glen pounded his console. "Call the Russians, and, and
the Chinese. Have people working with them right now, just
in case." Glen motioned behind him to the VIP sitting
area. "Use our contacts in the State Department."
# # #
In the VIP sitting area, Senator Graff had been listening
to the flight controllers' audio loop. He leaned towards the
aide, "Better to have them burnt up as heroes than to
leave then as an outer space monument. We don't want the Chinese
to take credit for this, or the Russians. Especially during
an election year."
# # #
Glen exhaled deeply, "I want as much time as possible.
Discovery has to launch on the next available window."
He saw Bruce on the mission control TV finishing the repair
and floating up to the flight deck to flip switches to pressurize
the cabin.
"Flight, EECOM. We see pressure building in the cabin."
"Atlantis, Houston. The cabin is repressurizing."
# # #
Inside Atlantis's CargoHab, Ken looked at the other astronauts
and replied, "Copy that, Houston. We're waiting by the
airlock door."
"I'll wait by the patch to make sure it will hold."
Bruce added.
Ken looked at the four other astronauts in the CargoHab and
said, "While we're waiting for the cabin to repressurize,
I want everybody to think about getting Atlantis ready for
an immediate rescue. As soon as the airlock door is open,
Amber, get Laney into the cabin and get her ready to be moved
to Discovery. I'll go to the flight deck and prepare for a
rescue intercept. We may have to do a space walk, if we can't
get docked."
 
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