Page 111 of The Devil's Ransom

“And we let them do that?”

“Not a lot we could say. It’s the first purely civilian flight. He owns the capsule, the rocket, the control systems, you name it. NASA owns the launchpad, and that was used days ago—after he paid to rent it.”

“He doesn’t own the damn space station.”

“Yeah, well, someone had to give concurrence to allow him to dock, I’ll give you that, but it’s not our problem.”

“He’s an idiot.”

Blaine turned on an overhead monitor and said, “No argument there. They left orbit about forty minutes ago and are now headed toward the space station.”

The live stream began feeding, and the control room looked like a bad zombie movie where the surveillance camera is showing everyone inside turning into monsters. Instead of seeing calm men working behind a computer, everyone was running around the room like they were trying to escape something.

I said, “What the hell is going on?”

George Wolffe burst through the door, waking up the team. We all looked at him expectantly and he said, “Where’s Branko?”

“With the federal agents you sent. Why?”

“The computers just locked up again with new ransomware, right after they left orbit.”

Chapter66

Inside Valkyrie One, Fabio was apoplectic about the new turn of events, although his placid demeanor belied that fact. He keyed his radio, speaking calmly. “Say again, mission control?”

“We’ve been hit again. We’ve lost all control of the capsule. They hit us again.”

He broke radio protocol, saying, “You’ve gotta be shitting me.”

“Unfortunately, no. You’re headed to the space station at Mach five, and we can’t do anything about it.”

Skyler Fitch cut in, saying, “But you firewalled the abort, right? We can abort?”

The engineer said, “Yes, sir. We can still abort. That would save the station.”

“What’s that mean?”

Nothing came over the net.

Skyler repeated, “What’s that mean?”

Finally, a new voice came on the net. “Sir, this is the lead engineer of mission control. We can abort, but we believe you’ll have about a fiftypercent chance of survival from the attitude and trajectory you’re currently on. The abort protocol is designed for orbit. After that, once you’ve left orbit, the abort protocol is controlled by us. We’re supposed to safely bring you home.”

“And if we don’t?”

The capsule heard nothing. He repeated, “And if we don’t abort? What then?”

“You’re going to smash into the space station.”

Fabio cut in, saying, “How long do we have to solve this problem?”

“Two hours, give or take.”

“Is someone working it on the ground?”

“We’re all working it.”

“I mean someone who can actually do something.”

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