What happened to my Asteroid? Section 65:

Captain Calhoun looked up from his workstation out toward the incoming asteroid.  That was the moment he realized where it was going to impact the station: The very conference room he was sitting in.  That impact was going to be very, very soon.

“Captain,” Captain Calhoun was remarkably calm “The universe is about to go pear shaped on us.”

Captain Grind looked up just in time to see the asteroid impact the station directly below their feet.

 

The icy missile impacted the station on the outer edge of the forward spinning ring, almost perfectly centered on the conference room the two captains were settled in.  The station was moving away from the path but didn’t move fast enough.  The impact caused a yaw to the station making it spin away from the trajectory of the asteroid and saved the second, larger ring while devastating the section of the first ring.  This section was mostly conference rooms and storage that were currently unoccupied except for the one where the captains were located. 

The segment between the spokes disintegrated in a cloud of debris.  Chunks of hull and various supplies plumed around as the station rotated out of the path of the asteroid accelerating along its undetermined path.  The station held together but the people on board were jolted around and beat up inside.

The asteroid continued to accelerate toward the center of the solar system as if nothing was in its way leaving a trail of ice and station debris.

 

 “Sam!” Tim shouted into the radio “Who are we looking for?”

“I’ve got four people in space suits drifting away from that mess.” She made a quick scan without the camera “When do we get the last of the miners on board?”

“The last one just entered the airlock.” Tim tried to calm down “So hang on, we are headed for the station.”

“I’m strapped down.” Sam wanted to be reassuring “So just hit it and I’ll be with you!”

“Albatross Station this is Shuttle 2.” Tim announced on the radio “We have picked up 7 miners, we are currently tracking 4 suits in the station debris field and we are heading in.  Have we missed anyone?”

Commander Johnson replied to the shuttle “Shuttle 2, Albatross station.” He was rattled and nervous, but he projected the command confidence “We are working to stabilize the station so be warned we may be a bit unpredictable.  We show four people confirmed outside of the station and 10 un-accounted for at this time.”

“Acknowledged, Albatross.” Tim set the cameras to scan the affected area “We will keep our eyes open for anyone floating around.”

“Shuttle 2, be advised.” Commander Johnson was a bit hesitant “Captain Calhoun and Captain Grind were in the compartment that was hit.”

“Acknowledged, Albatross.” Tim had to pause a minute “We will keep that in mind as we sweep for survivors.”

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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 64:

Sam stood at the edge of the aft end of the shuttle hull.  Her magnetic boots were firmly locked to clean pads on the hull.  She had two safety lines connected:  a long one attached at the airlock and a shorter one secured to a structural beam a couple of meters behind her.  She looked out over the glow of the thrusters slowing the ship and its cargo to gaze toward the station and the missile headed straight for it.  She positioned the camera to zoom in on the region between the station and the Reykjavik.

“The Reykjavik is clear and away,” Sam told Tim “She should be safe now.”

“That’s good to hear.” Tim idly responded since he was quite busy with the deceleration procedure “How long do you expect before impact?”

“No more than 5 minutes.” She shifted the camera back to the station “It is only going to hit the rings, the main body is safe for now.”

“There are more people in the rings than the main body most of the time.” Tim was clearly only partially thinking about that.

“I am aware of that,” Sam sounded a bit annoyed “I expect the captain has figured that out too.”

“I’m sure he has.”

“How long until we can cut loose from this thing?” Sam wanted to get into the rescue effort as soon as they could.

“We just did.” Tim was relieved in one sense but tense in another “Watch for the cables as I reel them in and get us spun around.”  He paused for a moment “You know we have to rescue the miners first, right?”

“Yes, I know.” Sam was worried about the station “So let’s go get them while I record the station.”

“I’m going to need your help in finding those people.” Tim insisted.

“Then let me know when we get close and I’ll help out.” She was annoyed.

“Ok.” Tim went back to pilot mode “We’re coming around so hang on.”

“Will do.” Sam looked around and adjusted as the ship changed attitude.

The shuttle swung around toward the ice cloud left by the asteroid as the tow cables were retracted.  Beacon strobes signaled in front of the shuttle as the craft carefully navigated through the debris.

 
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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 63:

“Commander Johnson,” Ensign Zhou announced “The Reykjavik has just cleared the station.”

“Very well, Ensign.” The commander checked his console and activated the radio “Reykjavik, we show you clear of the station, retract those docking arms and maneuver clear.”

“Acknowledged, Albatross.”  Commander Dunst nervously replied “We will clear and stand by.”

“Alright people,” Commander Johnson announced in his best command voice “We are about to be hit by a very large object.” He scanned the compartment “That means we need to be ready for every possible problem that it could cause.  We don’t know exactly where we are going to be hit, or how big that impact will be, so we need everyone on this station ready for the worst.  Check and double check every airlock, line-lock, safety bulkhead, space suit, and anything else you can think of.  Keep your heads and work the problem.”

The murmur in the compartment settled into a controlled cadence of status requests and acknowledgements, control checks and responses, checklist verifications and clarifications.  It was the finely tuned controlled chaos the space corps was known for.

“Bridge, this is the captain.” The intercom announced.

“Go ahead, captain.” Commander Johnson switched his attention.

“I would like the latest feed from our intrepid travelers on Shuttle 2.” The captain knew the stress the commander was under.

“Feeding that through to you now, captain.” The commander quickly entered the commands to feed the information to the captain. “Is there anything you would like to request for your meals?  I want to get everything staged up.”

“Now that you mention it,” the captain responded lightly “We would like the lobster for the next meal with a light chardonnay and the Fillet Mignon with a hearty zinfandel after that.”

“Acknowledged,” the commander confirmed “E-Rats meals 5 and 6 are on their way.” He held back a laugh.

“Very well, commander.” The captain went back to business “Get every compartment supplied and the station sealed up.  We have 20 minutes at most.  That thing is still accelerating, so get this station ready for ‘God knows what’.”

“Aye, Sir!” the commander sounded confident but was shaking in his suit.

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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 62:

The docking clamps connecting the Reykjavik’s docking arms to the station released.  The arms started to retract.  Fuel and oxidizer lines released and sprayed a small amount of their precious fluids out in to space.  The thrusters on the Reykjavik fired off to full thrust directly away from the station.  The station’s thrusters fired to push directly away from the ship.  The two vessels slowly started to drift apart.

Cargo containers drifted out of both the station and the docking arms as they retracted.  The empty cargo containers in the forward arm were already heading for the ship and the direction of the conveyors on the aft arm were reversed, but emergency retraction of the arms was faster than the conveyors so some of the containers would be lost.  This is a calculated loss for serious situations.

The ship had substantially lower mass and much more thrust available so it was accelerating away from the station much faster than the station could move. 

Observers on both vessels watched as the arms disengaged from the gaps between the rotating sections of the station.  Everyone watched the critical distances between the moving objects for the slightest movement toward each other.  This wasn’t a routine docking operation, it was an emergency separation to move out of the way of a dangerous object accelerating in their path and the possibility of error was high. 

 

The asteroid continued to accelerate toward the station, shedding ice, miners and transports along the way.  The ice formed a cloud around the path in its wake and the glow from the back end lit the cloud up like a nebulae.  It was a breathtaking sight for anyone not in immediate danger from an uncontrolled missile of unknown origin.  Unfortunately the miners and the transport pilots did not have the luxury of being able to appreciate this magnificent sight, they were too busy trying to stay alive and find each other.  The cloud was thick with mostly fine particles, so there wasn’t a collision hazard as much as there was almost no visibility.  Beacons and radio contacts were all they had to go by.

The lights from the transport craft and the space suit emergency beacons added to the nebulae look of the ice cloud.

 

Tim and Sam watched the spectacle on their monitors.  The shuttle was pointed away from the station in braking configuration to slow down their alien cargo.  It was very clear the asteroid was headed straight for the station and there was no way the station would get out of the way in time.

Tim looked to Sam “Get out there and record this.” He was serious.

“We’ve got 3 cameras on it already.” She was hesitant.

“But you’ll be faster with a handheld camera, and we don’t know what is going to happen.” He looked straight into her eyes. “Or who we’re going to have to find.”

Sam gulped and launched herself toward the airlock.  She understood the urgency and was, for once, actually thankful they were already suited up.

“And hang on while you are out there.” Tim was clearly concerned “It is likely to get bumpy from here in.”

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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 61:

Captain Calhoun and Captain Grind were relaxing on either side of the conference table, looking out of the viewport toward the front of the station observing operations on the asteroid while sipping some scotch from Captain Calhoun’s private selection.  The chit chat was light as the two captains let off some steam and had a few laughs with their feet kicked up on the table.  This was a luxury neither man got very often due to the responsibilities of command.

They both saw the cloud of ice erupt from the far end of the asteroid.

“What the hell was that?” Captain Grind was startled.
“Not good.” Captain Calhoun sat up in his chair and looked around toward the information console on the rear wall.

The klaxons and emergency lights kicked in.

“Oh Shit!” Captain Calhoun jumped up and bounded to the space suit locker followed very closely by Captain Grind. 

The two quickly donned their suits, activated their enviro-packs and ran through the safety checks on each other’s suits with quiet, smooth precision.  These two were so incredibly familiar with this procedure they could do it in their sleep and not miss a step.  In this case they were far from asleep since they both saw the threat, but that didn’t hinder them in the least as they were absolute professionals.

“Alright Captain,” Captain Grind spoke up “What next?”

“We can’t risk moving through the station right now.” Captain Calhoun moved to the conference table. “So this compartment just became a command deck.” He pressed a button and two command consoles opened up on the conference table.

“Has my ship undocked yet?” Captain Grind moved to one of the consoles and strapped into the chair.

“That would have been the second step after hitting the panic button.” Captain Calhoun strapped down into the chair at the other console. “So I expect you will be our guest for a while.”

The two captains frantically started checking status of their respective commands and the projected trajectories of all of the vessels in motion.

“This isn’t looking good.” Captain Grind looked up “I think my ship will get out of the way but I’m not sure about this station.”

“That is what I am afraid of.” Captain Calhoun didn’t bother looking up, he just kept watching status reports from every department.

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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 60:

Transport 2 slowed to a relative stop over the contact pad on the asteroid.  The cargo door opened and the maintenance bot drifted out.

“Bot is away Albatross.” The pilot announced to the station.

“Acknowledged, Transport 2.” Commander Dickerson responded. “We’ll take it from here.  Move to your assigned observation position and link up.”

“Aye, Aye, Albatross.” The pilot moved the transport to a higher altitude and off center to afford a better camera angle.

The bot descended toward the contact pad.  A grappling arm extended in the middle and three landing legs stretched out from the sides as it rotated around.  It slowed its approach as it neared the target.  The grappling arm grabbed to the mount point as the little craft rotated to place the landing legs outside the contact pads and located between them as it touched down.

 

“Bot is down.” Kim looked over to Gwen “Ready for the first set of tests.”

“Alright,” Gwen started punching buttons “Starting initial voltage tests between the pads, star pattern.”

She concentrated as the readings were displayed on the console for a few moments. “Kim, come take a look at this.”

Kim left her console and floated across the compartment and stopped behind Gwen.  “What have you got?”

“Look at these readings.” Gwen pointed to a couple of pairs. “Voltage and frequency appears to be going up as impedance goes down across these sets of pads.”

“It is not consistent across all of those pairs.” Kim pointed to one set “This one seems to have the greatest change.  What impedance range did you use?”

“I started at a gig ohm and brought it down to a mega ohm.” Gwen had the display order by the amount of change and display the correspondence values.

“Alright, let’s run this pair again and slowly run it down to 100 kilo ohms, and watch out for dangerous voltages.” Kim gestured down the list that showed no change. “And then check this set again.” She headed back across the compartment.

“Alright my little friend,” Gwen started programming in the test process “Let’s see what you are up to.”

 Kim strapped back down in front of her console and called up the video feed from the observing transport.

“Albatross station, Shuttle 2.” Sam’s voice sounded slightly nervous.

“Go ahead Shuttle 2.  What have you got?” Kim was focusing on the bot, looking for anomalies.

“This end of your asteroid is starting to glow.” Sam was definitely concerned.

“Did you just say it is glowing?” Kim was startled.  Gwen looked across the compartment.

“Yes I did.  Here is the video feed.”

Kim quickly punched up the feed to see the slightly blue tinted glow emanating from the end of the object.  It was slowly growing in intensity.  “Gwen where are you in your measurements?”

“Impedance is 500 mega ohms, voltage is 90 volts and frequency is 125 hertz.” Gwen checked the other pads “And pad 3 to pad 5 is showing 10 volts DC, no AC.”

“Ok, knock it down another 100 mega ohms and re check the other pads.”  Kim set the screen to show both video feeds.

The ice on the far end of the asteroid erupted in a cloud blasting away and out from the body.

“Did you see that?” Sam shouted through the radio.

“Albatross, that thing is moving!” The transport pilot was near panic.

Kim looked up and remembered the asteroid was lengthwise pointed directly at the station. “Gwen…” Kim was very nervous now.

Gwen cut her off by punching the panic button for the station.  The klaxons and emergency lights lit up.  “Suit up Kimmie!  And DO IT NOW!” Gwen shouted and then turned to the radio “Reykjavik, Emergency Undock!  Unlock and blast clear of the station.  Code Blue 5.  This is not a drill.”  She paused “Repeat.   Emergency Undock!  Unlock and blast clear of the station.  Code Blue 5.  This is not a drill.”

Gwen quickly punched the command for the bot to disconnect then unstrapped and launched herself toward her space suit.

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What happened to my Asteroid? Section 59:

Beep.  Beep.  Beep. The alarm sounded.

“Time to get moving.” Tim kissed Sam gently on the nose.

“Do I have to?” She was not happy.

“You had better unless you want the bridge to see you in the buff.” He teased.

“Let them watch us get it on!” She joked as they pulled apart and grabbed their clothes.

“Shuttle 2, Albatross station.”  Commander Dickerson’s voice chimed out of the radio.

Tim floated over to the console and activated the radio “Go ahead Albatross.” He responded as he struggled to put on his jumpsuit.

“You should be starting braking maneuvers shortly, what is your schedule for that?” Kim sounded concerned.

“We are rotating around now and braking will start in 5 minutes.” He tried to sound professional as he contorted to get dressed.

The shuttle rotated around as the tow cables were adjusted to the new lengths needed for the deceleration phase they were heading in to.  The probe mirrored these attitude adjustments on the opposite side of the asteroid.  Maneuvers were slow and steady to avoid tangling the cables while maintaining tension between the bodies.

“We have a small correction to your flight path.” The commander informed the shuttle. “We want you to stop about 20 kilometers further away than originally planned.”

“Ok, I’ll bite.” Sam inquired while Tim was struggling with his jumpsuit “What are you planning now?”

“We are sending a bot out to run some tests.” Kim flatly explained “It will be on station shortly and we just want a little more safety margin.”

“Alright, we’ll swing a little wide when we bring this rock in.” Sam was trying not to laugh at Tim fighting with his jumpsuit. “Did you two have a nice dinner?” She mocked innocence.

Tim started laughing and ripped himself out of his jumpsuit and tried to start over.

“Why yes we did,” Kim started then hesitated “Hey wait a minute.  Who told you?”

Sam struggled to not laugh.  Between Tim fighting with his jumpsuit and Kim’s response it was almost too much.  “We figured it out when the bridge responded to our last check-in.”

“That obvious, huh?”

“Kim, there was a betting pool on how many fixtures you would break when you finally got to it!” Sam lost it and started laughing so hard she was crying.

“Well I’m sorry to disappoint the pool” Kim sounded slightly miffed “but we didn’t break anything.  Although Gwen is still cleaning up the wine we spilled.”

Sam made a quick launch toward the restroom.

“Kim, I think you just caused Sam to pee herself.” Tim laughed.

“Give her my apologies.”

“So why is Gwen cleaning up the compartment and you’re running ops?” Tim was teasing.

“She said she would rather scrub toilets than deal with the mining consortium.” Kim tried to play it straight.  She paused a moment. “And the look on her face confirms that sentiment.”

They all got a good laugh out of that.

“Ok Albatross,” Tim got back to work “Braking operations are starting, we will check back in as we are approaching final stop.”

“Affirmative.” Kim got back to business “We’ll send you the modified approach plan and the feed channel from the bot we are activating to run the tests.”

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