“W-what?” cried Mr Snodbury. “What proof could you possibly have?”
George held up the mini-screen. “This is yours, Mr Snodbury. It fell out of your travel bag. It’s got instructions on it for causing an overload in a fusion reactor.”
“How dare you!” declared Mr Snodbury loudly. “I’ve never been so …” His words tailed off and he slumped like a deflating balloon. He hung his head in his hands. “You’re right,” he wailed. “It was me. What have I done? I never thought it would be this bad. They told me the station would only be without power for a few days. They never said there’d be an explosion.”
“Who said?” growled Commander Ferguson. “Who are you working for?”
“MaxiBoost Spaceways,” said Mr Snodbury. “They offered me a huge amount of money. And I took it. They said they wanted this station to go wrong, so MegaZone Corporation would look bad and MaxiBoost would get the contract to build space stations instead. They told me it would only cause a power failure, I swear! I never wanted all this to happen. They said nobody would get hurt.”
“What about Ash?” interrupted Amira. “I’ve read about those backpacks countless times. They’re foolproof.”
“That had nothing to do with me, honestly! That must have been a one in a million faulty pack. They said everyone would be fine. But now they’ve left me here to die, the miserable so-and-so’s.”
“To get you out of the way,” said Parker, “and hide the fact that you were working for them.”
With a yell of rage, Commander Ferguson grasped Mr Snodbury by the collar and hauled him to his feet.
“You worm!” he roared. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t tear you limb from limb!” “Because that won’t help!” cried George. “Time is running out. We have to work together. We have to think!”
The Commander pushed Mr Snodbury aside with an angry grunt. “What’s there to think about? Life support is all but gone, every system in this station is wrecked and the rescue shuttle will miss us by half an hour!”
A couple of sudden tremors added to the shuddering motion all around them.
George stepped right up to the Commander. “You might be giving up,” he said, “but I’m not.” He turned to Amira. “Can you work out how long we’ve got now?”
After a few calculations, Amira said, “The station will break apart in about twenty minutes.”
“OK,” said George. “Let’s think. Is there anything we can use to get clear of the station?”
“Nothing,” said Parker. “The two escape pods were destroyed in the first explosion, remember. And the only spacesuit we’ve got is the one the Commander used.”
“Will whopping great chunks of this place hit the Earth?” said Josh.
“No,” said Parker. “When the station breaks up, most of it will burn away as it falls. I expect it’ll look like a shower of meteorites from the ground.”
“Most of it?” said George. “Will some parts of the station stay intact?”
“Maybe a few sheets of metal,” said Parker.
Josh suddenly perked up. “What about the main engine housing? Those things are made of micro-bonded carbon fibre. I read it in the technical manual on the way up this morning.”
George and Amira stared open-mouthed at Josh, amazed that he had remembered such useful information.
Parker thought for a moment. “I suppose the container holding the main engine is the toughest part of the station. Yes, I expect it would probably reach Earth in one piece. But if it fell in one of the oceans, it would sink to the bottom, and if it hit land it would smash apart instantly. By the time it reached ground level, it would be falling at several hundred kilometres an hour.”
“But perhaps we could hide inside it?” said Josh. “At least we’d survive the fall.”
“And then either drown or get squished,” said Amira. “No thanks.”
The rattling and rocking of the station was becoming ever more violent. The corridor was feeling even colder. Everyone’s breath was beginning to steam. Very soon, the reverse would happen, and the temperature would rise sharply. The outer hull of the station would heat up to melting point as it tore through Earth’s atmosphere.
Mr Snodbury curled up into a ball. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why did you do it?” said George. “Just for the money?”
“I wanted to leave teaching,” sniffed Mr Snodbury. “I’ve always wanted to run my own gardening centre. But I never had the cash. And now look what I’ve done. I’ve destroyed this magnificent space station and killed innocent people. Even with all our technology, space is still a dangerous place. Remember that project we did on the twentieth-century Apollo missions? They had little more than a giant tin can and a pocket calculator, but they got to the Moon and back. From Apollo 11 to Berners-Lee, a story of great achievement. And I’ve just ruined it. I’m glad I can’t go back to Earth – I don’t deserve to go back! I couldn’t face telling everyone what I’ve done.”
Suddenly, George let out a cry. “That’s it!” He leapt up. “I know what we can do! I know how we can use that engine housing to survive! And you will come back, Mr Snodbury, we all will.”
“Well, we’d better do it quick,” said Amira, pointing to her mini-screen. “I’ve done a few more calculations. It isn’t only our lives at stake now. When the station breaks up, it will be directly over northern Europe. When that engine hits the ground, it’s going to smash right into the centre of CentralCity. It could even hit the district where we live!”