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SV1 CONTROL ROOM:
Preston sets his headset on the counter and slowly gets out of the chair. “It hit them!” He spins around to Scott. “What did it do to their trajectory?”
“It’s very bad. They’re losing velocity, which means gravity is starting to drag the ship down to the planet. In about twenty minutes, the ship will skip across the atmosphere. They are inverted, so the heat shield on the bottom is pointed into outer space, and won’t protect them on the way down.”
“Are you positive you didn’t shut down the second signal the last time this happened?”
Scott leans back in his chair. “Positive.” He indicates the monitor. “Nothing I try makes any difference. Someone else is in control.” He suddenly sits up straight. “It’s off. It just shut down.”
Preston snatches his headset off the counter. “Recovery, this is control. Can you hear me?”
***
OUTER SPACE. RECOVERY:
Rita feels a surge of adrenalin when all the lights come on. She looks over at Essex, who smiles as the cargo doors in the nose of the ship close.
Essex hears Preston’s voice in his headset. “We hear you, Steve. We’re back on line.”
Preston heaves a deep sigh of relief and sits down. “I’m glad you’re both all right. Good luck.”
“Thanks. We’re good to go for re-entry.”
Essex checks their location while waiting for the red cargo door light to turn green. When it changes, he looks over at Rita. “Get ready to pull some G’s.”
He uses the thrusters to spin them around, then fires both rocket motors to bleed off their speed before intentionally dropping down into the atmosphere. Once the air is thick enough to affect the control surfaces of his ship, Essex looks over at Rita and smiles. “Now we just glide back to my facility and have a cold beer.”
Rita does not share his optimism, but doesn’t say so. She is impressed by his calm composure while everything went to hell. “That sounds good.”
Essex deftly changes trajectory and angle of descent until the image on the monitor shows he is lined up with his runway in the Nevada desert. The sun quickly drops over the horizon as they descend closer to the ground. Up ahead, the lights built into the launch rail flare on to show him the runway.
Rita feels a thud when the wheels drop onto the concrete, but there is no reverse thrust like on a jet. Just a parachute to slow them down. She is impressed by Essex’s timing when the parachute releases and he stops just outside the launch rail hangar.
Essex presses a button and the hatch opens. When a person rolls the ladder platform into place, he stands and steps out. “I hope you enjoyed the ride.” He reaches down to help Rita squirm out from her seat.
Rita smiles and reaches out to grab his hand, then stands and steps out onto the platform. “It had its moments, but yes, I did.”
Essex leads the way down the steps to the tarmac outside the hangar. He is about to walk inside when Jim drives up in his SUV and stops to get out.
“I have some good news, Mister Essex. The recovery team found the shipping container right where you said it would be. Well, within a mile of where you thought it would land. They’re on their way back and should be here in about three hours.”
“Thanks, Jim. I’ll let Preston know we have it.
***
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION:
Commander Short is doing his space version of bench-pressing when he feels a shudder through his backrest. A collision alarm suddenly blares through the station. He releases his restraint belt and shoves off toward the computer, soaring across the room. Anatole rushes at him through a connecting tunnel just as he reaches the screen. “The hull integrity is intact, and only a minor deviation in our orbit.”
Anatole stares out the window. “What the hell hit us?”
Short moves to another window, and what he sees causes his jaw to drop. Slowly rotating against a starry background, is a nearly black ball with swirls of colors on the surface. It appears to be slowly moving away from the station. “You are not going to believe this.”