Free Orbital Maneuvers by R Davison Page B

around the viewport.”
    “We’ll be right up and check it out,” Paul answered.
    Susan felt certain of the location of the leak, but knew that they still might not be able to get to it.  She reprimanded herself for not thinking about the impact before; they had lost precious oxygen on a wild goose chase. 
    Turning her attention back to the computer, she began to enter the data to set up the rendezvous with the space station.  It was going to be tricky, because they had a very narrow window to pick up the cosmonauts and push on to the space station.  According to the calculations, they would have only a twenty-minute window to execute the rendezvous and transfer the MIR cosmonauts to Endeavour.  This was going to be extremely tight, and everything would have to go right from this point on to make this work.  If they could pull off the timing with Soyuz, they had a good chance of meeting up with the station.  But if they didn’t, they would become six more casualties added to the tens of millions the asteroid had already claimed.
    “Ivan, I’ve got the coordinates for the rendezvous point with the cosmonauts.  We should be getting ready for our burn in about five minutes.”
    “Okay.  I talked to Captain Zuyev and briefed him on the procedure.  It should not be a problem picking them up and heading on to the space station within our time window.”
    “Yes, but do you remember a guy named Murphy and his infamous law?” Susan asked in a bitter voice.
    “Never heard of him.  Was he Russian?” Ivan asked with a smile and a wink.
    Looking out the cockpit window, Susan’s smile faded as she saw the clean curvature of Earth’s horizon suddenly develop an ugly blackish-gray bulge.  “My God!” she gasped as the shuttle quickly approached the third impact zone.
    Ivan looked up from his console at Susan to see her staring out of the window, her face ashen.  He followed her gaze out the window and gasped at the sight before them. 
    “Paul! Jerry!  You should get up here—quickly!” Susan yelled over the intercom.
    The debris field formed an immense blister on the normally smooth, clear atmosphere.  It was the cap to an enormous black cloud of ash, earth, and other nameless bits of matter that once was part of Texas.  They could see the cloud expanding in all directions with an elongation running east to west, stretching further east from the prevailing winds. The cloud was off to the left of the shuttle’s nose, and it seemed as though the entire state was covered by this cloud of death.
    Jerry and Paul rushed up to the flight deck and both froze at the sight that was before them.  The magnitude of the destruction was greater than they had imagined.
    “Oh God!  Those poor people on the ground,” Paul muttered in a hushed voice.  His face was ashen.
    After a few moments Jerry snapped, “Jesus Christ…what a mess!  We should have landed when we had the chance, before all this dust spread!”
    Susan shot Jerry a piercing look hoping to silence him, but to no avail.
    “We should get down now before this gets worse,” he shouted.  “We can divert to Edwards Air Force Base or Spain or Africa—if we don’t wait too long!”
    Susan released her seat belt, slowly rose up from her seat and turned toward Jerry.  The tension on the flight deck was thick and heavy.  “Jerry,” she said in a hushed, strained voice.  “Do you have something to say?  Or do you just not understand our situation?” Susan’s fists were clenched, her knuckles white.
    “I have something to say all right!” Jerry shouted, seizing Susan’s offer. “I think we should land this ship now!  Not chase after some damned cosmonauts.  I think that you do not know what you are doing, let alone what is best for all of us here!  Furthermore, I think that we should all be consulted on any future decisions that may affect us and it’s not for you to decide what is best for us!  That’s what I have to say!  Does anybody