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NEVADA. ESSEX’S OFFICE AND LIVING QUARTERS:
Essex looks at his watch and rolls his chair away from his desk. After endless hours of combing through the data acquired from Groom Lake, neither he nor Rita can find an explanation for the second signal. He stands and looks over at Rita, her elbows on the desk, entwined fingers supporting her chin while she stares at the data on the monitor. “It’s time we get suited up for the launch.” When she turns to face him, he sees the trepidation in her eyes. “My spaceship only needs one operator, so you don’t have to go with me on this mission.” His lips spread into a soft smile. “Of course, I’d prefer to share the experience with you.”
She notices a slight blush in his cheeks, and thinks it’s cute. She is going with him of course, regardless of the fear she feels about the second signal coming on while they are in outer space. Not everyone gets to go into orbit, and she is not going to miss her opportunity. She gets up. “Let’s make history.”
Essex looks up at her. “Great! Your jump suit should be in your closet.”
“I know. I tried it on last night. It’s a nice fit.”
“I’ll meet you out here when you’re ready.” He turns and heads across the living room to his bedroom.
Rita hurries across to the hallway leading to the two guest bedrooms, enters her room, and sits on the edge of the bed to undress. A knot of foreboding forms in her stomach as she stares across at the white pressure suit in the closet. She heaves a deep sigh to bolster her courage, stands up, and walks across to retrieve it. She looks up at the ceiling. “Please don’t let the second signal come on again.” She slides the suit off the hangar and steps inside it.
***
SV1 CONTROL STATION:
Steve Preston drops down into a chair and rolls it close to the control console. He grabs a headset, slips it into place, and turns to look over at Teresa, Scott, and Carter, standing behind them. “We’re about to make history.”
Carter indicates one of the wall monitors. “The ISS is almost out of video range of the SV1, so we’ll have the only recordings of the mission.”
Preston stares up at him. “Good. I’m going to set up a special news interview when we’re done, and I don’t want anyone scooping the story before I’m ready.” He turns and spreads his arms out toward the wall monitors. “The headline. DAR CORPORATION, FOR ALL YOUR CLEAN-UP PROJECTS, BOTH ON EARTH AND IN OUTER SPACE.” He turns back and smiles at everyone. “Not bad for a man starting out as a trash collector.”
Carter admires Preston’s ambition and accomplishments. He just hopes everything goes according to plan.
***
NEVADA:
Rita steps into Essex’s spaceship, and wiggles her legs out in front of the seat as she slides into place. After attaching the straps of the four-point harness, she slips the headset on and smiles over at Essex, who is already strapped in. She reaches up and pulls the clear canopy down over their heads, and presses a button on the control panel to latch it in place.
Essex activates his headset. “SV1 control, this is Recovery. How do you read?”
Preston answers. “Loud and clear, Recovery. This is your dream, Essex. Have fun.”
Essex smiles. “Thanks, Steve. You should come with me next time.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Essex looks over at Rita. “Are you ready?”
Rita inhales a deep breath to calm her nerves, then looks at him. “Let’s go.”
Essex feels his heart rate increase as he slides his elbows into the custom armrests to keep them in place under the extreme G-force. He poises one finger over the launch button. “Control, in three, two, one, launch.” He presses the button.
Essex and Rita are driven back into their seats as the spacecraft shoots down the launch rail. The desert races toward the front window, zipping past the sides of the craft as it gains speed along the railing toward the horizon.
Essex studies the computer-generated information on the instrument panel. The acceleration is steady at seven gravitational units. The indicator on the image of the rail system shows he is about to start gaining altitude when the track curves up toward space. An instant later, he feels the added downward force when the spacecraft follows the upward curve of the railing.
When he is nearly vertical, the sky is an indigo blue. He feels the pressure suit loosen for a moment, and tighten again when the rocket motors ignite. The view through the window fades from blue to black, and the stars brighten. A moment later, the motors shut down and he is soaring in outer space.
He looks over at Rita while he tries to catch his breath, and smiles so broad he thinks his lips will split. “We made it! I knew this would work!”
Rita studies the computer monitor built into the control console, and grins over at Essex. “Everything is in the green. You did it, John.”
Essex keeps smiling and stares out through the window, looking around for something familiar. He recognizes several of the satellites orbiting at various altitudes and speeds. He stop smiling, lets go of the handgrip, and points to his one o’clock position. “There it is. The SV1. Right where it’s supposed to be.” He hears a round of applause coming through the headset from SV1 control, then Preston’s voice.
“Congratulations, John. You made it into outer space. Our readings show that you’re good to go for pick up.”
“We show the same”, Rita answers and looks at Essex. “It’s all up to you.”
Essex engages the thrusters and his ship moves forward toward the SV1. Using small, controlled bursts of nitrogen for thrust, he maneuvers the nose of the craft directly beneath the silver ball of metal.
He reaches forward, grabs the electronic control gloves from a small compartment in the console, and looks over at Rita. “I’ve been practicing a long time for this moment. It’s hard to believe it’s really happening.”
He slides the gloves on. “Open cargo doors.” He waits while the bulbous nose of the ship splits down the middle and folds back out of the way on either side of the fuselage. “Activating arms.” He brings his arms up towards his chest, and the carbon fiber manipulators rise from inside the ship.
With his left hand, he brings out the net and loops it around the mass, and then drags the ship up beneath the eighteen-inch diameter ball. He keeps a close eye on the three dimensional image on the monitor, showing the progress of the metal sphere into the container. He stops when the indicator light flashes green, and uses the arms to seal the lid. He releases a deep sigh of relief, takes off the gloves, and looks over at Rita. “So far so good.”
For no reason, Rita flexes her fingers. Don’t jinx us. “I’m injecting the foam now.” A moment later, an indicator light changes color. “Injection complete. Ready for re-entry.”
Essex uses short bursts of nitrogen to back away from the SV1, then rotates his ship one-hundred and eighty-degrees so that he and Rita are staring at the blue world below. He makes a few slight course changes, and when the data confirms he is in position for re-entry, he presses a button to release the clamps holding the container to the ship, then backs away to watch what happens.
Rita stares at the capsule-shaped object dropping down into the atmosphere. A few moments later, she sees a yellow-orange glow of flames from the heat shield roiling back over the sides of the small black dot. As it slows down in the atmosphere, it quickly passes beneath them and out of view. She looks over at Essex. “My turn. Close bay doors.”
Rita heaves a sigh of relief when both doors come into view, slowly moving toward each other to meet in the middle. They are four inches apart when all the lights in the control console suddenly blink off. She gasps and stares at Essex, his expression one of calm contemplation.
Essex tries resetting all the control systems, but nothing happens. “I don’t think this will work, but I have to try. SV1 control, this is Recovery. Do you read this transmission?”
Essex shrugs and gives her a reassuring smile. “Even if it is the second signal, we’re not in any immediate danger. We’ll maintain this orbit for at least seven hours before we drop into the atmosphere. We’ll just have to wait until the signal shuts down and we’ll head back to my base.”
“No, you don’t understand, John! The second signal does the same thing as the SV1. It liquefies metal. Parts of this spaceship are going to fall apart!”
***
SV1:
Preston is staring at the two wall monitors, one showing a view of the canopy and cargo bay from a camera mounted in the tail fin of Recovery, the other showing the ship as seen from a camera on the SV1. When they lose the video feed from Recovery, he looks over at Scott. “What happened?”
“It’s the second signal. It just came on again.”
“Essex, this is Preston. Come in.” He tries again with no response. He glares at Scott. “Shut it down, damn it!”
Scott throws his arms up in frustration. “Don’t you think I’m trying? I can’t. Someone else is in control, not me.”
Preston tosses his headset on the console and leaps out of his chair. “You shut down their command the last time, damn it! Do it again!”
Scott pushes his chair back from the console. “I can’t. Maybe I wasn’t the one who turned it off the last time. Like I said, every time it happens, it’s like someone else has taken over control of the SV1.”
Teresa has had enough and glares at Preston. “You need to be more forthcoming with how the SV1 works or there is nothing we can do to stop this from happening.” When he doesn’t respond, she crosses her arms across her chest. “We have two people up there who are about to die unless we can stop that signal. Now man up and tell us where you got the device.”
Preston ignores her and indicates the image of the spaceship from the SV1. “How come it’s not affecting that camera?”
Scott slides his chair back to the console. “That’s a good question.” He types commands into the computer.
Teresa uncrosses her arms and stares at the wall monitor. She notices a flash of color, perhaps a reflection. It appears to be moving, blocking the stars for an instant. “I think we found our missing ball of hydrocarbons. Upper right hand corner of the screen.”
Preston locates the dark mass moving in front of the starry background. “It’s headed for Essex’s ship.” He grabs his headset from the console and stands up. “John. Rita. This is Steve. Do you read me? If you can hear me, there is an almost invisible mass of plastic headed in your direction. It’s approaching from your six o’clock position and moving at about six inches a second.”
He repeats the message and stops to look over at Scott. “Any chance they heard me?”
Scott looks up from the monitor. “Even if they did, there’s nothing they can do about it. There is a lot of empty space between the plastic and the ship. Maybe they’ll get lucky.”
Preston sits down. “I guess all we can do is wait to see what happens.”
***
RECOVERY. OUTER SPACE:
After five minutes, nothing has changed, at least as far as Rita can tell anyway. Staring at the earth from orbit in real life is much more impressive than a picture or video, and the knot in her stomach loosens. She just has to wait until the power comes on and they can return home. She looks over at Essex, who is gazing up through the canopy at the planet. His expression is one of contentment. His dream has come true.
Out of the corner of his eye, Essex notices Rita staring at him and looks over. “How long does the second signal usually last?”
“It’s never the same, so I have no idea. The longest that I’ve noticed is thirty minutes. It happened the last time it was turned on. We might be stuck here for a while.”
“We have plenty of oxygen, so as long as we maintain this orbit we’ll be fine.”
Rita hears a soft thud and pressure forcing her down into her seat. “What was that?”
“I don’t know, but any motion in this direction is very bad for us. It’s forcing us into a lower orbit and our speed won’t be enough to offset the increased gravitational pull of the planet.”
“I thought this ship is designed to glide back down for a safe landing.”
“It is, but first we need the rocket motors to slow us down, and second, the aerodynamics of the fuselage is messed up because of the open cargo bay doors. My ship will be extremely difficult to control for a safe landing. Unless we get our systems back online in the next few minutes, we’ll burn up in the atmosphere.”