A Planet Called Eden
Chapter 7: Damage

Angela sighed, closed the panel she beenworking on, and rested her head on console before her. God, but she needed acup of coffee. Real coffee, from a real mug, not something she sucked from atube. That had gotten old right about the time it had become a necessity ratherthan a luxury. Or sleep. Yeah, sleep would do nicely. Even just one blessedhour. But that was about as likely as the real coffee. Baring sleep or coffee,she wanted to cry. Instead, she settled for a tube of — whatever the hell iswas they squeezed in there and called coffee. Funny how something as simple asa mood can change the taste of a tube of coffee. At least it was hot andcaffeinated.

She pulled herself back along the ship’smain central corridor and joined Maazin in the aft corner of the engineeringpod. He looked up at her expectantly. Angela pulled off her Snoopy cap and lether hair float free. She ran her hands through it and sighed.

“Maazin raised his eyebrows. “How bad?”

“Fuel cells three and seven are acomplete loss. Four, Five, and six were damaged, but I’ve got them repaired.For now, anyway. No idea how much power we’ve lost. Starboard battery banks area complete loss.”

“I have an idea on those,” said Maazin. Angelasaw him suppressing a yawn. There were dark circles under his eyes. “I might beto get some of them back online, anyway. If we can charge them.”

Angela nodded. “That’s something. Chargingwe can probably handle. Life support?”

“Worse than we thought.” Maazin frowned,and deep lines furrowed his brow. He shook his head. “I’ve stopped thebleeding, but we lost a lot. I think we should seal off the sections thataren’t critical. That includes the cargo pod and crew’s quarters. Probably thescience pod, too.”

Angela winced. “That bad, huh?” Sheshrugged. “Well, it’s not like we’re sleeping much anyway. What about theengines?”

“Mains seem good,” said Maazin. He forceda grimace that Angela suspected was meant to be a smile. “Well, except for thefact that we don’t have much fuel for them. I want to run a few morediagnostics on the regulators, but I’d feel comfortable testing them soon.”

“That’s … refreshing. Thrusters?”

“I can repair the port ones,” Maazinsaid. He forced another grimace-smile.

Uhoh. Angela forcedherself not to sigh again. She ran a hand through her hair and closed her eyes.“And the starboard thrusters?”

Maazin shook his head. “Nothing. I can’teven get the diagnostics online.”

Angela pulled herself closer to Maazin’sconsole and took a look over his shoulder. “Wow. Well. At least all the lightsaren’t red.”

“The others are offline.”

“Oh. Wow. Wow. So what’s the next step?”

“I don’t even know if the starboardthrusters are still there, Angela. I’veliterally got nothing. We might have lost both arrays when we lost the antennafor all I know.”

That was bad, worse than she’d thought.She tried to swallow but her throat was dry. She needed a drink. No more coffeethough, at least not until her stomach settled. She thought about opening atube of Tang, but they only had the stupid grapefruit left. She forced herselfto swallow and grasp for options like straws.

“You tried the cameras?”

“Gone,” said Maazin.

Angela thought about beating her head onthe bulkhead. “Of course they are.”

Maazin nodded. “That means one of us isgoing to have to go outside and have a look.” He shrugged and smiledsheepishly. “Before you get all heroic and volunteer, we both know thatsomeone’s got to be me. I’ve got the best chance of patching together some kindof repair.”

Angela rubbed her temples. She wasgetting damn tired of making decisions she didn’t like. After a moment, shenodded. “Okay. But take an hour and sleep first.” Before Maazin could protest,she added, “That’s an order, flight engineer. A full hour. You can suit up forEVA after that.”

# # #

Maazin touched the control in his glovefor a split second, and the tiny thrusters on the back of his EVA suit firedbriefly, adjusting his course. His momentum carried him forward. He kept hiseyes focused on the wounded hull of the MichaelCollins; when turned his gaze to the vastness of the planet below, it’simpossible, patchwork surface larger even than mighty Jupiter, waves of vertigothreatened to overwhelm him.

Don’tlet me vomit in my suit. Sweet and mighty Allah, please don’t let me vomit inmy suit.

Angela’s voice came over his helmetspeaker. “How’s it look, Maazin?”

“To be honest? Better than I expected.You designed one hell of a tough ship. Mission Commander.”

“What about the thruster arrays?”

Maazin maneuvered around. “Yes, that’sbad,” he admitted. “The aft array on the starboard side is completely gone. Themain array’s still there, though.” He hesitated. Most of it. “If we can get that online, we should be able tomaneuver enough to get back to the gate and home.”

“But?” Angela prompted.

“The panel below the main array’s beenbreached. Best case, the regulators are offline. Best case.”

“And if we try to fire thrusters withoutthe regulators—”

“It goes boom,” said Maazin. “Assuming wecould bypass the safety overrides. Which we’re probably going to have to doanyway.”

“Can you fix it?”

“Do I have a choice?” The gate might beimpossibly large, but in astronomical terms, it was still the eye of a needle andthe Collins was an especially clumsythread. They’d only have one shot. Without the starboard maneuvering thrusters,the odds of coming even remotely close were about as close to zero as you couldget and still be marginally above it.

Maazin thumbed his thruster control andfloated toward the hull. When he reached it, he attached his tether. He let outthe breath he’d been holding. Up close the damage looked even worse. More thanworse, it looked hopeless.

He reached for the damaged panel beneaththe thrusters and ran his gloves along the access control. It should have swungopen, but the panel was bent and the hinges were jammed. Maazin gripped andpulled. For a long moment, nothing. Then, the entire panel broke lose. Only asingle cable kept it from drifting away into space. Only the tether kept Maazinfrom following it.

Maazin heard Angela’s voice in his helmetspeaker again. “Maazin, tell me you didn’t just make things worse.”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t.”

“Good.”

Maazin muttered to himself. “I don’t thinkit’s possible to make things worse.”

Carefully, he reached for the panel — buta small, silent explosion flashed slightly, propelling the panel away. Maazin losthis grip, but his tether strained and held. He grabbed for the panel, but itwas no good. The part tumbled away, lost.

“I stand corrected,” said Maazin.

“Maazin—”

Before Angela could finish, Maazin heardthe eardrum-shattering sound of an explosion booming over his helmet speakers. Thehull lurched and shook. A split second later, he felt the violence of the blastrock the Collins. The silent force threwhim back and spun him away from the hull, but once again his tether strainedbut held.

The explosion hurled debris away from theship. Maazin felt at least two of the pieces hit the back of his EVA suit,knocking him out of position. His tether held. He glanced at the display on thevisor of his helmet. The status light for his backup life support systemflashed to yellow. The status light for his right side thruster flashed fromgreen to red, and then winked out all together.

Okay,that’s not good.

And then Maazin felt his eyes shoot openwide with alarm. The explosion had torn the regulator panel away from thethruster array.

Maazin grabbed desperately for the parts.Too late. The critical gear tumbled away into space.

There was no time to think; he could onlyact. Maazin unhooked his tether and pushed himself after the panel.

Angela’s voice came over his helmetspeakers again. “Maazin? Maazin! What the hell are you doing?”

Maazin thumbed the control in his gloveand activated the thrusters in his suit. The rockets fired silently, and hepicked up speed.

The panel was just out of reach. Hestretched out his fingers—

And then, suddenly, the damaged rightside thruster sputtered and stopped. The left thruster was still firing, andbefore Maazin could reach his thumb control to make an adjustment, he foundhimself spinning wildly, out of control.

Angela’s voice was frantic. “Maazin!”

Maazin jabbed at his controls, but hemust have thumbed it the wrong way. The left thruster was still firing.

The universe tumbled madly. He saw theCollins, already dwindling, the vastness of space, and the unbelievably huge patchworkedmass of the planet below, swelling larger with every spin. Vertigo rose up inhis stomach like bile.

“I’m out of control!”

“Maazin, you’re tumbling.”

Angela’s voice was calm, firm. Maazintried to concentrate on it, but the nausea was growing in his gut, bubblinglike lava. He couldn’t think. He tumbled faster, and his head was beginning topound. The thruster was still firing.

“Maazin relax! Get your hand off thatthruster!”

Maazin was breathing too heavily, toofast. His visor was beginning to fog. He was tumbling faster.

“Maazin,listen to me. Listen, God dammit! Yourthruster’s damaged. The computer can’t compensate. You gotta go manual.”

“I can’t!” The planet rolled in front ofhim, closer, and then it was gone. The Collins appeared, then the emptyblackness of space, and then the planet again, closer still. His guts were inknots.

He was going to vomit. He was going tovomit in his suit.

He was breathing to fast and he wasbeginning to see spots.

“Maazin, you know the drill. Maazin! Getout of that tumble! Do it! Do it!”

“I can’t!”

He was spinning faster. He couldn’t replacethe Collins. Where was it? Whichdirection? The planet was closer, looming. He thought he could feel it pullingat him like an undertow, like a vortex.

“You can. Maazin, listen to me. You’regetting too close to that gravity well. Now dammit, relax!”

“Not helping!” Maazin’s breathing wascoming faster, faster, faster still. The dim, impotent, rational part of hisbrain knew he was having a panic attack.

“Maazin, do the math! Maazin! Focus.You’re tumbling and you’re moving in the wrong direction. You’ve lost athruster. Concentrate. How does the equation start?”

He tried to see the equation in his mind,but there was only the fogged glass of his visor, and beyond, the black andempty enormity of space, and the impossible vastness of the planet below,growing larger, nearer, larger, and nearer still with every ever-acceleratingspin.

He was going to vomit. He was going to vomitin his helmet, and then he was going to die.

Angela kept talking. “You know this.Maazin. Remember where your center of gravity is. Maazin! Calculate! Give methe numbers.”

The planet below was closer still,larger. Maazin wondered what it would feel like to touch the atmosphere. Hewondered how long it would take the fall to burn away his suit.

He was getting dizzier. He was definitelygoing to be sick.

“Maazin, get your thumb off the thrustercontrol!” Somehow, he managed to obey. He didn’t stop tumbling. There wasnothing to stop or even slows his momentum. He was falling toward the planet.

“Spread your arms and legs! Maazin, doit!”

Maazin did. His spinning didn’t slow, buthe was able to get his breathing under control.

Okay,center of gravity. Center of gravity.

Maazin forced himself to concentrate.

“Now use your thruster. Just the one. You’regonna have to re-center yourself. Carefully! Just see the equations in yourmind and start solving. Okay? You can do this!”

There — the Collins. Where the hell wouldthat be? He was missing a thruster,so he’d have to compensate. He pictured the equation, and started to solve. Onthe next spin, he concentrated on his center of gravity. One on the one after,he lined himself up. On the next one, he touched the thruster once.

The forward motion slowed his tumblingand started him moving, but his direction was off. This time, he saw theequation clearly. He calculated, solved, waited, and touched his thrustercontrol again, just once, for less than a second.

Yes,yes. That’s more like it.

Maazin’s breathing slowed. One moretouch, another small course correction.

He was doing it. He was jetting slowlyback to the Collins.

“I’m okay,” he said.

“Now what the hell were you thinking?” Angela demanded. “We havespare panels!”

Maazin took another deep breath. “No wedon’t. I already cannibalized them.”

“Oh,” said Angela. A faint, rhythmicthumping sound came over the speaker. Maazin recognized the sound. Angela wasbeating her head against her monitor.

They were, in a word, screwed.