Gergin and Drachcirn had calculated how far they would be from the exit portal if they had used the wrong gyroscope to set the direction. The number was a staggering 700 million eugaelon. When Gergin saw that, he groaned, “We’re halkopez!
Hearing him use that crude expression shocked Retepin. Drachcirn said nothing. He knew being off that much would be a disaster. They had to be sure they were on the path to the exit portal.
“Retepin, who thought like a pilot, said, “What's so terrible if we don’t see the portal? We can set off for the other point. We are moving at a very high speed. What's another couple of days?”
Gergin, speaking as calmly as he could, explained, “The K^Calpin Region is very irregular. It twists and turns, gets wide in some places, and narrow in others. Previous missions tried to map the boundary on the side nearest Tridon, which proved extremely difficult. And we know nothing about the border on either side of our exit portal. So we think we are about 78 days away, but we don’t know if we will hit a boundary first.”
“Is hitting the boundary that terrible? We want to get out of the black pit!”
“Retepin! “ Gergin was impatient. “Whenever a drone crossed the boundary, it was instantly crushed! The radar return abruptly ended. That's how we did the mapping.”
“Halkopez,” Retepin gasped.
For a few minutes, the three men sat in silence. The idea that they could be traveling at high speed one moment and crushed to nothing the next was terrifying.
Finally, Gergin said, “Let's take a break from this. Maybe after a break, we can figure out how to determine if we are on the right vector.”
“Ok, look at these camera images from the Spyder,” Retepin said, speaking commands to the ship's control panel. Then, the displays changed, and a video image appeared on a screen mounted on the front wall.
The three astronauts watched intently the image made by the Spyder's camera. The damage was soon visible. Finally, Retepin quietly said, “It's much worse than I expected.”
The ship had three layers of shields mounted on a pylon extending out from the nose of the craft. The pylon went through the center of three circular screens. Each had a greater diameter, the smallest in front. Their fine mesh prevented small meteorites from hitting the ship and could deflect larger objects, but that usually resulted in some damage.
The collision had torn the largest protective barrier almost entirely off, leaving only twisted supports poking out in defiance and a small piece of the shield on one side. The middle-sized screen was bent severely to one side, pressing its rim against the hull. The smallest disk was intact and not hit.
“See how the second shield is against the hull? That prevented a thruster nozzle from extending out and explains why one didn’t respond yesterday to your firing command.”
“Can we rebuild the protective screens?” Drachcirn asked.
“Not likely. But that's a question for Eteppon. Looks like it will take a lot of material,” Retepin replied.
“Do you see the material pushed through the bent screen? We hit a comet, a giant ball of ice and rock. We would have suffered much greater damage if it had been a large meteor. ”
“What are the odds of that,” Gergin said, shaking his head.
“Yesterday, you mentioned a problem with our forward radars. Any idea what happened?” Drachcirn asked.
“Let's look! They are mounted further back on the ship.”
The image switched to a shot from a point almost directly above the astronauts. The camera on the robot's arm moved to show the radar antennas.
“Crocit! Smashed flat against the hull.” Drachcirn gasped.
“We can probably reset the antennas, but will the radars work,” the pilot questioned.
“Retepin, any other damage? We saw data that looked like there were several impacts,”
“Oh yes. Part of the comet grazed one of the descent vehicles and one of the secondary engines,” the pilot continued.
They all knew the enlarged descent vehicles were the most vulnerable part of the spacecraft. Each vehicle extended slightly beyond the area protected by the shields. Damage to the surfaces that dissipated reentry heat could end the mission.
They watched the front screen as the Spyder maneuvered the jointed arm until the under-surface of a descent craft came into view. There were clear scrape marks along one side.
“From this view, I can’t tell if there is anything we will need to replace. But the maintenance guys can repair minor damage,” Retepin continued.
“Thanks. Drachcirn and I are going down to get something to eat. Then, we’ll return to work on the flight vector problem.”
Down in a Passenger Lounge
Enaida was taking a break, sipping a cold dianoma. She was exhausted from answering questions about the collision. As travelers came out of sleep mode, they heard about the injuries from those who had experienced the crash and were worried about their safety. Until yesterday, their trip had been a boring routine. Now, they realized there was real danger.
Adnilla had briefed Enaida on what had happened. Injuries were a big concern. Five civilians had died from being slammed into exercise machines and hard surfaces. She hadn’t heard anything from Gergin but knew he would be preoccupied with getting the ship back on course.
Enaida was deep in pleasant thoughts of the last time she and Gergin had slipped off to be alone in a descent vehicle. There in the darkness, she had nestled in his arms. It was one of the rare times when they could share the intimacy their feelings craved. She remembered the warmth of their bodies and his hands gently exploring.
Then, abruptly, she was interrupted by an irate traveler.
“Why hasn’t the Commander talked to us about what happened? You would think they could steer the ship to avoid whatever we hit,” the passenger snarled.
Enaida viewed his identification information on her eye display. Oh, she thought, it was Relytem, the Laka, who thought the mission would be an opportunity to find a girlfriend.
“The Commander is busy, Relytem. Unfortunately, space travel isn’t simple like driving down a road.”
“Well, I got a massive bruise on my head and a sprained wrist!”
Enaida no longer had any patience for spoiled people who thought they were on vacation. “Relytem, This is a dangerous mission. You will be lucky if this is the worst you suffer.”
“When we get back, I am going to file a report. A Mamlaka deserves better treatment,” he huffed, pushing away.
She smiled, thinking: Good luck filing a report.
Looking around the lounge, she could see several small groups in conversation. She could pick out the Laka. They were always the most animated. Likewise, the Amilikuts were calm and took everything in stride. They had questions but seldom complained.
Enaida wasn’t surprised when Adnilla told her the Amilikuts had immediately helped the injured. Two Amilikut men had made several trips carrying badly hurt travelers to the Health Clinic Module.
Then her communicator sounded. It was Gergin. “I knew you would be out of sleep mode today. How's it going?” he asked.
His voice brought a smile to her face. “Other than a few angry passengers, good. I don’t have anyone to look after today. There are a lot of questions down here. How's it going up there?”
“We are working on some problems. And there is still significant damage to repair.”
He didn’t want to tell her they still didn’t know if they were on course to the exit portal. He just needed to hear her voice.
“I know you are busy,” she replied, wishing they could talk more openly.
Up on the Command Deck
Sometime later, Retepin concluded a long conversation with Odraciron, the other senior flight engineer. They had been running through the Collision Event Checklist, part of the double-check protocol. Both men knew what to check from experience and had done that right after the collision alert sounded. The list was to be sure they didn’t overlook anything.
Gergin glided into the Command Center with Drachcirn close behind.
“Everything fixed, Retepin?” Gergin asked jokingly.
“We left a few details for you,” came his droll reply. “And I asked Eteppon to send up one of his instrument technicians. The tech is still working on cable breaks, so he’ll be up later.”
“Thanks. We’ll take a fresh look at the accelerometer data. Hopefully, we can figure out the forces that altered our course.”
“Oh. We got the shield blocking the thruster partially back in place. But we haven’t tested the thruster. So when you can, give it a try,” Odraciron reported.
“Yes, master,” Drachcirn replied playfully.
The two navigators started working through the second-by-second record of the collision event. Slowly, they separated the translational and rotational components.
Meanwhile, Retepin and Odraciron discovered a problem in the undocking system on one of the decent vehicles. The four men worked quietly for more than two hours.
Finally, Odraciron exclaimed, Done.” They had completed the entire Collision Event Checklist. “I’m going to the galley for a dianoma. Anybody want something?” he asked. Seeing heads nodding no, he left.
Moments later, the instrument tech arrived. “Heard you had an instrument problem?” he announced.
Gergin looked up. “Yeah, Let me explain. These two gyroscopes oriented to the ship's vertical axis are not reading the same. We must figure out which one is giving a correct reading. Can you help us?”
“Let me take a look. I always start with the primary if that's OK with you.”
“OK, here.” The two navigators watched the tech unscrew the gyroscope from the display panel. Then, he gently eased it out of the housing and attached a calibration instrument to one side. After letting the combination sit quietly for a few minutes, he peered through an optic in the calibration device.
The tech said, looking up,” The primary is not aligned to the vertical axis. This one is giving a false reading.”
Drachcirn exclaimed, “Halkopez!” which startled the technician. Officers weren’t supposed to swear.
“Can you correct the alignment?” Gergin knew the answer, but it allowed the tech to show his skill. Gergin was already starting to feel some relief.
“No problem.” And the technician started the recalibration.
“Better check the secondary, too,” Gergin said.
“Will do!”
“After repeating the process on the secondary gyroscope, the tech reported it was also misaligned, but only slightly. The technician soon corrected both and installed them in the instrument panel.
“Great job. Thanks. You’ve made our day,” Gergin beamed.
“OK, let's get this ship on the entry vector.”
It didn’t take Drachcirn long to fire the steering jets. The gyroscope now displayed the entry heading. More importantly, the secondary gyroscope showed the same angle. Both navigators felt relieved. The ship was traveling along a path parallel to the original entry vector.
“We still need to adjust for the distance between the current line of flight and the original line,” Gergin said.
“Yeah. The fun part -- the accelerometer data!”
They isolated the components of the collision force that pushed them from the entry path. Going through the data was tedious, but the flight computer did the hard work. Each officer worked independently.
After twenty minutes, Gergin asked, “Ready?”
“Ready!! I have a correcting thrust of plus four, a minus one, and a plus two,” he replied, giving the steering adjustments along the ship's three axes. This change would slightly alter the flight angle so they would arrive close to the exit portal.
“We’re close. I calculated a minus two instead of your minus one. Either should get us within a visual sighting of the portal,” Gergin replied. “Let's go with minus one and adjust later if necessary.”
“Will do.” Drachcirn entered the values and initiated the burns.
“How long until we get a visual?” Retepin asked.
“78 days if we calculated correctly,” Gergin answered. He knew they would all be on edge until they saw the faint starlight coming through the portal. There was nothing more they could do.
Gergin sent the Commander a verbal message saying they had resolved the navigation issue and were confident the ship was on the right course to the exit portal.”
His eyewear optic displayed the Commander's quick response – “Excellent work.”
Drachcirn saw the same message. He turned to Retepin and said, “Tell Odraciron I tested that steering thruster. It's working fine.”