The Greatest Race

Sandbox Earth #6

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The Race Is On

“I remember you said you had 72 hours before the ship re-entered. When You learned India had launched their mission, how much time did you have?”

“I think we had maybe 50 hours left. We would not beat the Indians there by any means, but we had enough time to get ourselves there safely. We still had the supply pod, we still could do the spacewalk rig. It would be a lot of work, but we could do it.

“We hadn’t slept in a while so first thing Elisa did was get everyone to sleep. We took a 2 hour power-nap just to recharge before we undertook the project. That also put us neatly at 48 hours before re-entry.

“Once we were awake and alert and recharged, we had a brief meeting to game-plan. The supply pod had limited oxygen, so one of us would need to stay on the ISS. It was also good planning just to keep the station manned. Elisa didn’t need to volunteer—the dangerous job had to go to the men. She would stay behind.

“As far as division of labor, we needed to check how much fuel and oxygen the supply pod actually had, and we would need to make sure whoever was space-walking had enough oxygen too. So, very orderly, we went and checked these things.

“The supply pod had enough juice in the main engine for 2 hours of flight, and maybe half a tank on the thrusters. Elisa estimated we had enough for one shot. We were going faster than the Diamond so we needed to slow down by a lot, delta-V we called it, and we were in a lower orbit so we needed to increase altitude by a bit. We could do this in 2 hours but needed to be precise. There was no room for turning around and coming back if we overshoot. So Charles and I needed to decide who was going to pilot the pod.

“I looked at Charles and I remember he looked at me, and we both laughed. Charles piloted our trip to the International Space Station in the first place. It was a no brainer. That meant that I had to be the space-jockey riding a tether and going into the Diamond.

“I didn’t really have time to process this decision. Thinking on it now gives me chills. I didn’t know what I was signing up for. I am lucky to be alive, I know it! I know it.

“Anyway, the Oxygen on the spacewalk-rig had enough for only one hour, which was a problem. We needed a way to conserve oxygen or for me to swap my oxygen tank midway through.

“I started to explain how this was not a problem at all. ‘The way I figure,’ I said, ‘the way I figure, we can spend one hour getting there, swap the oxygen, then I could explore for an hour, and then we…’

“I realized my mistake. We needed something for the trip back. The Pod only had two hours of thrust and the suit only had one hour of oxygen. At this rate we wouldn’t have enough of both.

“I remember we all stared at our feet for a second. I said, ‘Ah hell, I’ll go alone. I won’t need the oxygen in the suit on the way back, so as long as I can get there in an hour, spacewalk and explore for an hour, and then I’m back in the pod and I can come back in an hour.’ We needed this. And we all knew it was not a sure thing that I would be coming back. The Diamond was decaying rapidly and there were going to be other countries trying to get to the massive ship. There were a lot of uncertainties.”

“How long did it take you to prepare the pod?”

“It was not easy, not at all, blasted thing. I think it took us 10 hours just to be confident that the spacewalk rig was secured to the pod, not counting all our deliberating. So by the time I’m in the pod waving goodbye to my friends, we have I think 35 hours left.

“I was not the best at flying these things but everyone had to be trained in it. It’s very precise work. I had Charles and Elisa talking in my ear the whole way. It was painstaking work. I detached from the ISS, and once I was far enough away I rotated the pod and started firing. My trajectory would slow me down, so I pointed up as well to ensure that my orbit raised. I put a little force to the side to make sure I would move towards the Diamond. We had to time it right because I would be coming up on the Diamond from behind it, we couldn’t just fly in a straight line, that’s not how orbits work, understand.

“It was the second worst hour of my life. Trusting in the math and not having a visual target. Having to fly while already in a spacesuit since I wouldn’t be able to open the hatch, and there wasn’t enough room to suit up. It was uncomfortable, it was hot, it was stressful. Luckily Elisa and Charles spoke sparingly but they gave me confidence in that time.

“When they told me I could stop decelerating and turn the pod around, I could finally see the Diamond with my own eyes. I was coming slowly upon it. I could barely make out the Indian pod in a parking orbit nearby, and it looked like there was another group carving away a chunk. I didn’t recognize them so I thought it was the aliens at first, but as I got closer I saw it was the Japanese. They had thrown together a mission and a rocket somehow and were in the process of cutting away a big chunk of the Diamond. I still don’t know how they managed to do that—they are a very resourceful people.

“Anyway, I had made it in about an hour, as planned. 34 hours remaining. I had one hour to explore—less than that if we count travel time there and back. Charles gave me his camera so I could take pictures and NASA had told me to pick up anything I could fit in my pocket.”

“What was it like to approach and ultimately enter the Diamond?”

“It was…well it felt like I was flying towards a skyscraper in low earth orbit. The laser blast had ripped this ship apart, so I could see rooms and electrical wiring and the infrastructure of the ship as it drifted towards the earth. It was surreal though. I had decided I would follow the Indians and see if they had found anything interesting. There were tethers leading to the Indian command module, so they had clearly found their way inside. They entered what looked like a central causeway near the middle of the Diamond, which to me was an appropriate place to start. I flew towards it, and the really alarming thing was that, as I entered, I started falling towards the ceiling. The ship was not a Zero G environment like the ISS, but luckily was not as much as Earth gravity—I had been in Zero G for a few months so having to transition between the two would have been impossible. I could, reasonably comfortably, walk along the ceiling—which I guess at one point had been the floor.

“Once I gained my shaky footing, I started following the Indian tether line. It looked like this center causeway was important, and highly trafficked. I took pictures with Charles’ camera as often as I could. I talked to Elisa and Charles about what I was seeing—I couldn’t show them yet, unfortunately.

“The causeway was exceedingly long—and the Indian tether ran all the way along it. It looks like they had prepared for just this sort of thing—didn’t want their astronauts getting lost in an alien ship. I passed some rooms—curious looking rooms, but ignored them. One thing that stood out to me is I hadn’t seen any aliens. I guess since this section was exposed to vacuum, probably all the aliens had been sucked out of the ship and the rest were holed up inside. I tried not to think about that—I followed the Indian’s tether until it ducked into a room. I had 45 minutes of oxygen left.”

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Thank You For Reading!

This was supposed to be a 9 part series, but this part alone is monstrous so I am breaking it up, which will make this a 10 part series. This part of the story will continue next week!

My prequel series continues! I hope you are enjoying. I am very excited to be bringing this series of deep lore from the Adventures of Tylus Worran to you, and I hope you are enjoying it. It tells the story of the infancy of humanity’s life among the stars.

Thank you for reading, and God Bless you!