Page 79 of Stars
“Roscosmos, Houston, the satellite has been neutralized.”
A burst of squawking Russian was overridden by Roxanne’s voice, taking over from CAPCOM. “I applaud your direct approach, Sasha.”
Sasha retracted the tether on the drill and grabbed the tablet he’d programmed for the mission. “Okay, Roscosmos, I need to know which of the wires connecting to the CPU lead to the guidance systems.”
“One moment.” His young Russian radio operator was not nearly so excited with him anymore.
While Roscosmos searched through the ancient blueprints, Sasha looked up, turning his whole body and space suit toward Mark. His reflection stared back at him in Mark’s visor, and he waved, watched himself wave.
The three cameras on Mark’s suit picked him up and beamed the image back down to Earth, to Houston and to Star City.
* * *
Star City
Russia
“That’s it,”Oleg breathed, clapping his hands in front of his face. “That’s the shot we need.” He turned to his assistants sitting behind him in Roscosmos Mission Control and started snapping orders. Get the feed, isolate that frame, get him both the high-def film and the still of that image, of Sasha waving next to the Soviet satellite with the curve of Earth rising behind him, illuminated by the distant sun.
Next to Oleg, Sergey tried to breathe, tried to drag air into lungs that refused to work. There he was. There was Sasha,his Sasha, floating above the planet. He could read Sasha’s name tag, the image as sharp and vivid as if he were watching a Hollywood film.Andreyev. Sasha Andreyev, his love, in between the stars.
“This is what we need,” Oleg said softly, leaning in to Sergey’s side. They sat behind the flight controllers in a row of seats unused for a decade and had to dust their seats off when they arrived. Cobwebs still hung from the corners and the doorjambs in Star City. Only Sergey and Oleg and the handful of young Roscosmos staffers were there, along with Oleg’s personal support staff and Sergey’s bodyguards. “We need to get control of the narrative back. This situation, it’s spinning out of our hands.”
“There were riots in Moscow this morning,” Sergey whispered. “The nationalists are pumping this for everything they can.”
“I saw. I tried to direct the news coverage away from it, but…” Oleg frowned. “This satellite has tapped directly into the nationalists’ pet causes. The glory of Old Russia, the neutering of New Russia. Subservience to the West, and to America—”
“Yes, the same bullshit General Moroshkin tapped to fuel his nationalistic rage,” Sergey growled, shaking his head. Sasha was still on the main display screen, larger than life—covering everything from floor to ceiling, one wall to the other.Hurry up and come home, zvezda moya.“It’s a new world, Oleg. Look at that. Sasha working with the Americans on the same mission. Roscosmos and NASA connected. We are now one space agency, practically. This is the world of the future. Even I know that, and I am a relic, a dinosaur who remembers the damn Soviets who put that fucking satellite in orbit. Those nationalists, they want us to... what?Hmm? Take control of this satellite? Keep it hovering over Washington? For what purpose? Do we not already get anything we want from the Americans as allies, far more than we ever received through force as adversaries?”
It was Oleg’s turn to sigh, shift uncomfortably. “You’re a very different Russian, Seryozha. Our history is not full of allies and alliances. Russian history is conquest and control. Sure, we get great things from our alliance. But whatmorecould we get from controlling the Americans? Bending them to our will?”
“Careful, Oleg.” Sergey leaned in, staring him dead in the eye. “You are starting to sound like one of those crazy fucks.”
Oleg’s Adam’s apple bounced. “I hear their shit on the television, nothing more.”
Sergeyhmmed.
“We’re two years away fromPresident/Insurgent. This is a very different country. You’re not the hero saving the nation anymore, not in anyone’s eyes. You’re the president ofpolicies, and those policies have opened Russia to the world, for betterandworse. We have Chinese and Middle Eastern and American investment now—”
“That’s what it means to be a part of the international order. To be global. We cannot go back to the past, where we were chewing through Eastern Europe and grasping chunks of nations to recreate an Iron Curtain. We cannot build a buffer to protect against the march of Napoleon, or Hitler, or NATO. Those will never be our problems again, not anymore. Now it’s insolvency, bankruptcy. A hungry population. Inflation and unemployment. Cyberwarfare. Terrorism. And now, nationalism. These are not problems that can be solved the old ways.”
“You cannot simply disagree these nationalists away. They belong to a Russia over a thousand years old, and they’re not going anywhere, Seryozha. They are a problem, and the problem is growing.”
“Then you’d better do a good fucking job controlling the narrative, Oleg. I sold you Russian One because I trusted you. I gave you the voice of Russia, put it in your hands. It is the one channel that every Russian receives in their home. Do not make me regret this.”
“You sold me Russian One because you were going to bankrupt this country if I didn’t buy,” Oleg breathed.
Sergey rose, pacing away, heading to the gaggle of university graduates and young professionals that made up the Roscosmos staff. He and Sasha had visited the revived space agency while Sasha was in training, and Sasha had been the second-oldest person in the room. Some of the Roscosmos staff still had pimples.
This is the future of Russia. These young ones.Sergey watched them work, the men and women chewing on pencils and arguing about decades-old Soviet schematics. They were global, with internships from Beijing and Mumbai and Silicon Valley under their belts. They sipped Starbucks and Turkish coffees, dressed in Western and Chinese fashions. One woman’s hair was done up in twin buns, hair sticks forming a miniature radar dish behind her head.
Please, let me hold on to this country long enough to give it to you.
* * *
Earth’s Orbit
“Okay,Captain Andreyev, you can hear me,da?”
