Space Cowboy Arc
26th April
"Seems like it all worked out," I say to Petr, "good job."
He laughs and it seems as if there's a load off his shoulders, "to be honest, I was extremely nervous. I couldn't stop myself from thinking about what would happen if I got it wrong. I'm glad that it worked out."
"Yeah, you should be," I smile at him, "you did well."
"So did you."
"My job's not done yet. Though I suppose we're over the worst of it."
Another three minutes maintaining the same speed, and the asteroid's caught up with us. The head of the asteroid passed us by, me and Petr both jumped when it came up out of the corner of our eye and slowly covered the entire bottom half of the cockpit. It's so close that I can make out individual features on the surface. Impact craters from smaller asteroids smacking into the side, and smoother surfaces moulded by the sheer speed of the asteroid itself.
I increase the speed once again, trying to match the speed of the asteroid. It's tough. Going up in tiny increments makes it difficult to tell whether it made any difference or not, because of the sheer side of the object we're trying to match. It takes a while, but eventually I think that it looks about right. The asteroid is still moving slightly faster than us, but it should be close enough that we can connect the tethers.
"Looks good to me," Ahmad replies over the radio, after me and Petr both agree that we've matched the speed close enough.
"Shoot when you're ready then."
In the void of space, no sound travels, so there's an uncomfortable silence for myself and Petr, as we wait with bated breath to hear whether or not the tethers successfully connected. It feels like it's taking too long. There shouldn't be this much of a delay. They must've fired the tethers by now. I'm about to say something to Petr, when the asteroid suddenly veers course. Or rather, the asteroid appears to change course, but I realise quite quickly that we're the ones changing direction. The nose of our ship turns sharply, pointing away from the asteroid, and it drops away under us. Before either of us can react, we're thrown out of our seats. The ship's connected to the asteroid, I realise, as I'm smashed into the console, but something's gone wrong. Considering the front of the ship veered away from the asteroid like this… it must be the front tethers that aren't connected. Hana. I spot the radio slowly headed upward toward the ceiling, I reach out and grab it, only just managing to reach, though I'm now also unconnected to a surface, and floating toward the far end of the cockpit.
"Hana. Hana! What happened? Ahmad can you hear me?"
"I don't know," I hear Hana reply, "I don't know. I did what you said, but the tethers didn't fire. They didn't work!"
Faulty equipment? Now of all times? We must've checked it before we left Ceres. In fact, I know. I was the one who checked it. It had been fine then; I hadn't noticed any problems. Maybe Hana pressed the wrong button…
"Wait I'll come," Ahmad said over the radio, "you probably just got the wrong button or something."
Even as I'm thinking it, and I hear Ahmad say it aloud, it sounds stupid. There isn't that many buttons to press on the controls down in the hull. The only reason that Ahmad thought that, that I thought that, is because Hana isn't one of us. Because she's inexperienced. Because she's young. Because she's a woman. I thought I had learnt not to think that way anymore. There was another woman a long time ago who was the most capable and intelligent person I've ever known. I thought that she taught me not to think that way. It makes me feel disgusted with myself.
"No, don't," I say. Even as I say it, I hit the far side of the cockpit, and hold myself back from wincing, as I hit the heavy metal door. I manage to keep hold of the radio, and even grab a rail with my free hand. I pull myself upright as I speak to Ahmad.
"Ahmad it won't make a difference if you go down there. The ship's no longer in position for the front-end tethers to reach the asteroid. It won't change anything. There's something else I need you to do."
I finally find my footing, and walk over towards Petr, who's floating to the left of the console, to help him do the same. Even as I'm helping Petr, Ahmad still hasn't answered. Finally, I hear him respond after a very extended pause.
"Alright. What do you need me to do?"
"I'll use the positional engines to try and move us back to parallel as much as I can," I reply, "once I've got the ship as stable and straight as possible, I want you to get out in one of the Dwarf units, and hold the ship to the asteroid until we can use the landing gear."
"Is that even possible?"
"We won't know until we try."
"Okay… I'm on my way."
I can tell from his voice that Ahmad is hesitant, that he doesn't want to do this. But Ahmad also understands that this is the only thing we can do now that we've got ourselves in this situation. That there isn't any other way to remedy the situation. Even if we decided to give up now, that would probably be more difficult and dangerous than what I've asked Ahmad to do. We'd have to disconnect the tethers, which would send us flying in who knows what direction. We might even hit the asteroid. Now that we're in this position, this is the only thing that we can do.
Returning to the console, I get to work overriding the controls on the positioning engines. The smaller engines that I used to redirect the ship earlier are intended to be used only when the main engines are cut, and the ship is immobile. But it's possible to override this and force them to start even when the main engines are operating at full power. If I turn on the positional engines located along the top and front of the ship, even though they aren't very powerful, it should tilt us back toward the asteroid at least a little bit. And I hope that that little bit will be enough for Ahmad to reach the asteroid in the Dwarf.
It takes a few minutes for Ahmad to get in the Dwarf and power it up. He's supposed to wear his spacesuit while he's in the mining unit, but it should be fine if he isn't out there for too long. The Dwarf is fit for use in space, it's more the exposure to radiation that's a problem. I really don't know how I'm supposed to make this up to him.
Hana enters the cockpit, swinging the door wide open. She's short of breath. I guess she must've run all the way up here after what happened.
"Sorry," she says between gasps for air.
"Don't worry about it," I reply, "you didn't do anything wrong did you? Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine."
"That's good."
I turn around back towards the controls. It isn't Hana's fault that the tethers failed, I'm almost certain of that. After all, there isn't much she could possibly have done wrong. No, it almost certainly wasn't her fault. But that isn't important right now. At the moment, we have to focus on finishing this off, and securing the asteroid for ourselves. Now that Hana is up here in the cockpit, I can close the airtight doors at the bottom of the ladder down to the hull. Since we'll be opening the doors to the hull, the atmosphere down there will be sucked out. No human that isn't in a Dwarf or a space suit should be down there. Really no one wearing a space suit and inside a Dwarf should be down there, but desperate times call for desperate means.
"I'm ready," Ahmad comes in over the radio, "all systems are green."
"Okay, I'm opening the hull doors then."
The hull doors are the main entrance and exit out of the ship. At five metres high and ten metres wide, it's the only exit that a Dwarf can fit through. The doors are located below the cockpit, so we can see the Dwarf from above as it steps out into space. Ahmad grabs onto the side of the opening to stop himself from being shot out into space as the air inside the hull escapes. The machine is an awkward looking thing. The Dwarf stands at about three metres tall, and though it is humanoid in shape, the arms are disproportionately long, and it doesn't have a head.
"That's quite a distance, Sayyad."
Ahmad's right. From the cockpit, we can still only see the parts of the asteroid that are already in front of us, well ahead of where Ahmad will be dropping. Even with the top positional engines at full power, it's barely changed our position at all. The distance that Ahmad has to cover, must be almost the entire length of our ship, plus the tether. Probably about twenty metres. Even if Ahmad gets down there, it's still not guaranteed that we'll succeed. Once Ahmad is on the ground, we can draw the tethers in, and try pulling ourselves closer to the asteroid's surface, but I'm not entirely sure how that'll work. It's the only thing we can do, however. There's no other way to close the distance than to have Ahmad go down there, hold onto the ship from the surface, and then draw in the tether.
"Sorry, this is as close as I can get you," I reply, "if I cut the main engines back anymore, we might start tipping backwards, rather than forwards."
Ahmad sighs deeply into the radio. I feel horrible for asking him to do something so risky. It's quite possible that he could die. I can't help but think that maybe I've made a terrible decision. I can't let Ahmad die here in front of his daughter. I can't lose my friend.
But before I get the chance to say any of that, Ahmad comes back on over the radio, for one last line.
"Wish me luck," he says, as I watch the Dwarf jump out in front of the ship, then drop out of sight. The sight terrifies me. This was stupid. Ridiculous and stupid. We should've given up on this asteroid. Nothing is worth this. Nothing is worth risking Ahmad's life for. Why did I decide that we should do this? To prove a point to Ahmad? To show off? Is that why I chose this course of action? I'm such a fool. This was not worth it. Not in the slightest. And its' all my fault. Again.
"Dad? Dad are you there?"
I look over to Hana, and I'm shocked to see tears in her eyes. Ahmad is her father, yes, but they haven't seen each other for so long that they can't even relate to each other. It seems strange to me then to see Hana crying for a man that might as well be a stranger to her. No, maybe it isn't that strange. Maybe that's just the bond between family. And I've screwed it all up. I'm sorry Hana. I'm sorry Ahmad.
"Don't worry, Hana, I'm right here."
A very familiar voice comes over the radio, "Sayyad, hurry up and start lowering the tether."
"Ahmad, your fine?"
"Of course, I'm fine. I'm the best operator we've got after all. Get started already."