Page 66 of Space Junk: Houston, We Have a Hottie
“She cornered Jackie,” Rose whispers to me. “At the bar.”
“What? What do you mean?” The band tightens.
Rose’s usual cheerful demeanor is gone, in its place a serious, intense girl I’m not used to dealing with. “I saw her, Flynn. I saw Jackie when she came out with the beer. Beth was right behind her.” She tries stepping closer to Beth, who shrinks back. Louder, she asks, “What’d you say? I swear to God I’ll hit you so hard I’ll knock the Botox right out of you if you don’t tell me what you said to Jackie. Stop messing with my family.”
“Family?” Beth snorts. “Please, that girl will never be a West.” She smirks. “Besides, I didn’t saymuch.”
Rose lunges, and I let her go, too dazed to be much help.
But both Holt and Trish step in front of Rose, Trish drawing everyone’s attention by saying, “She left. Jackie left.”
“What?” Rose spins, scanning the much thinned-out crowd.
“Didn’t you guys hear the sirens? The bar just turned off the speakers, along with the astronaut Skype session.” We all turn to the now blank screen, the feed dead. “Something happened on the station.” Trish addresses me. “She looked for you, but you were, uh… occupied.”
The weight sinks heavier on my chest. I look at the few faces left in the crowd, hoping to see Jackie’s. But it’s clear Trish is right; Jackie isn’t there. In fact, no one from NASA remains on the bar’s porch. Just my messed-up family and two unholy bitches.
“Where’d she go?” I ask Trish.
“Mission Control, I think.” Trish frowns and looks out to the parking lot. “She left with Ian.”
Beth’s laugh hits my ears, but is immediately cut off when Rose’s fist connects with her face.
* * *
Jackie
The lead Flight Director, Sean, waves at the projection screen lit up with pictures of the station’s damaged panels and exposed wires. “Okay, people, this is where we stand. Earlier, while most of you were cheersing and beersing with the crew, a failure alarm sounded.” He scans the room. “The second EXT computer has been having syncing problems since early this morning. At first they were minor things like being non-responsive to basic commands. But during the video chat session at Boons the EXT suddenly stopped responding to thruster commands. If it gets worse, this threatens the whole station as well as the astronauts inside.”
It’s a mess of an emergency meeting. People are sweaty, smell of beer and probably one or two of the team is too intoxicated to be productive—but it’s all hands on deck.
“We can’t power-cycle the second EXT without the first being operational,” one of the CHRONUS members says.
“No shit.” Sean glares at the person. “The question is how do we fix it?”
There’s a pause before Gary from the International Space Station Program dares to come forward. “We have the astronauts working on building a new EXT on the station, but it isn’t operational without the materials from the Progress, and that isn’t scheduled to dock until after the beta period.”
One of the interns pushes through the door. “We have confirmed debris heading toward the station.”
“Jesus,” Sean mutters.
“How close is the debris you’re tracking?” I ask, my mind running through various scenarios and outcomes.
“Estimated impact in ten hours,” the intern says.
I nod. “Do we have a read on where it will impact?”
“It’s aimed dead center in the pizza box.”
The “pizza box” is an imaginary container NASA created. It’s about a mile deep by thirty miles across and thirty miles long, with the vehicle in the center. When predictions indicate that debris will pass close enough for concern, Mission Control centers in Houston and Moscow work together to develop a prudent course of action-- usually an evasive maneuver, or moving the onboard crew to the Soyuz spacecraft in case of impact or the need to evacuate.
Ian speaks up. “Can we move up the Progress launch?”
“Negative,” Gary says. “Due to the beta angle, the Progress can’t dock until next week.”
The beta angle determines the percentage of time the ISS spends in direct sunlight, absorbing solar energy. The beta angle of the space station’s orbit is a crucial consideration when determining when a shuttle can be safely launched to the ISS.
Everyone’s quiet.
