Free The Krone Experiment by J. Craig Wheeler Page A

get flung off, you’re
gone!”
    “I know my job, Major. If I lose my grip,
we’re all gone.”
    Jupp looked at the stern face, barely visible
behind the darkened faceplate, and then yanked himself into the
airlock. He floated up through the hatch to the flight deck and
worked his way to the seat and buckled in. A glance at the clock
showed that four minutes had passed since the blast that had
blinded Wahlquist. Perhaps twenty more until the laser
recharged.
    Jupp took a few seconds to orient himself and
then let out an exasperated sigh. All he could see out the window
was the back of the mirror. He had to move it, but the controls for
the boom to which the mirror was attached were twelve feet away at
the rear of the flight deck. You weren’t supposed to have to fly
and handle the boom all by yourself, he thought.
    Wahlquist sensed his presence and reached out
an arm, grabbing Jupp for reassurance.
    “What’s happening?”
    “I’ve got to move the mirror and then do a
little flying. With them spinning we can duck down under and hide
from the laser.”
    “Listen, I’m okay now,” Wahlquist said.
“Talking with control calmed me down. I’ve got a good feel for that
boom, and you can fly better if you’re not jumpin’ up and down. Why
don’t you tell me what you want done with the mirror, and I’ll
handle that part?”
    It made sense; the mirror only had to be
lifted out of the line of sight.
    “Okay, buddy. You’ve got it.”
    Jupp unbuckled Wahlquist and floated him
around the passenger seat and over the open hatch in the floor to
the control panel at the rear of the flight deck. The rear facing
windows that opened to the cargo bay were now an unnecessary luxury
for his friend, Jupp mused as he planted Wahlquist’s feet on the
anchoring velcro pads.
    “Can you get your hands on those
controls?”
    Jupp watched as Wahlquist felt around the
control console in front of him. He fought the instinct to grab the
sightless hands and guide them to the controls. Wahlquist found the
recess after only a long moment and settled his hands around the
reassuring familiarity of the controls. Jupp regained his seat.
    “All right,” he said, “lift the boom straight
up ninety degrees.”
    He watched as the mirror lifted methodically
from his line of sight. They were still upside down and as the view
from the windows was cleared he could see the spectacular spread of
Earth out the tops of the windows.
    “Okay, that’s good,” he said when the boom
was overhead, pointed directly at the Earth below. Straight out the
nose was the blackness of space.
    A clutch of panic seized him. Where was the
Cosmos? It was supposed to be right there! Had the computers
screwed up? Could they find it before it unleashed another hellish
blast? He forced himself to think calmly. He triggered a thruster
and put the shuttle into a slow roll. They had done ninety degrees
when, thank god, there it was, out the corner of the window about
three hundred yards away, a little above them. He continued the
roll until they were “right side up” and the Cosmos was in clear
view out the window.
    “Now what,” demanded Wahlquist.
    “I’ve got the Cosmos in sight. We’re about a
hundred yards below it and a few hundred yards away. We’re at
twelve o’clock now,” Jupp twisted around to smile toward his
sightless colleague, “right side up, if that makes you feel any
better.”
    Wahlquist appreciated the black humor.
“Right,” he replied with heavy cynicism. “Blind and weightless, it
makes a shitload of difference to me.”
    “I’m going in.” Jupp eased the thrusters
again and the shuttle drifted forward. As he flew, he narrated to
keep Wahlquist at ease.
    “It’s much like the sketches they showed us.
Impressive looking brute. Big cylinder, just the upper end of the
SS-18 booster. What did they say? Four meters in diameter, ten
meters long? That looks about right. There’s a booster rocket
nozzle on one end, some sort of antennae on