Chapter Thirty-seven
Earth Docking Station Two
Nineteen days after Manyard Colvin arrived back on station in orbit the device was installed behind the ramp-lock Master Control unit. Two months and twenty-five days later Colvin made his last major inspection of the backup system before the action date. He repeatedly thinks the things I’ll do for four million.
Standing before the cover over the backup system Manyard looked both ways, saw everyone else was busy, and no one was paying him any special notice. His gloved fingers twisted the two locks, swung open the access cover as he must do to inspect the system, and quickly twisted the restraining lock on the main wire unit. A quick shaking pull and the ceramic incased wire unit pulled free. With a strong push he quickly pressed it back underneath the lip of the ceramic case. As he worked, he was glad that the backup system only had power routed to it when the main went out. Nodding when it looked like it was still plugged in, Colvin closed the door thinking last inspection before . . . and refastened the cover’s twist locks before returning to his normal work station. His final report was like all of the others, “All normal.”
Colvin, Assistant Docking Specialist Second Level, made his every two hour report of his stations to Level Five Docking Master Specialist Orsdol at two minutes to two o'clock, "All normal, Sir."
"Very good," Orsdol replied and dismisses him with a nod. Orsdol watches Colvin walk back to his desk not concerned with anyone but himself. Orsdol wonders when they, the stupid incompetent officers over him, would recognize his worth and transferred him from the midnight shift to the dayshift. The transfer would mean two percent more pay. Feels of his overweight fat roll around his hips and waist promises again, for at least the thousandth time this new month, he will diet. Orsdol pauses over finishing typing his report into the computer to empty a second cup since midnight of hot chocolate and eat the last morsels from two thickly buttered slices of microwave warmed frosted raisin bread. Finally, fortified with his two favorites for a duty he detests, Orsdol licks clean his pudgy fingers and organized his inspections reports. Quickly, his chubby fingers type out his short even-hour report of “all normal” in the last four spaces on the view-screen form for each of his fourteen oversight stations and makes sure each is typed correctly. Thinking about having another hot chocolate and raisin bread his thick fingers finish typing his name, rank, and number on the bottom of the document in front of him on the view-screen. As his cursor slides up to hit “save document,” Orsdol’s feet feel a vibration.
Almost instantly, a bright red warning light flashes on all wall screens and switch panels. A loud warning siren wails intermittent shrill blasts.
Orsdol shouts. "What's wrong, Colvin?"
"Ramp Locking System shows a short. Backup system did not engage, Sir!" Colvin reports to his superior.
"Shut-off system. Switch manually to backup."
"Trying Sir . . . Backup is not responding!"
"Alert … Sound the alert! Notify ground control!" Orsdol shouts at his crew of three.
"Yes Sir!" Colvin replies, his finger taps repeatedly on the emergency panel
Instantly the sleeping crew quarters of the Earth Docking Station Number Two fill with the same intermittent shrieking alarm. His fingers touch a spot on the Com switch to transfer all station information to Surface Command Headquarters.
Frantically, all three men try to trace the problem on the main board showing the ramp locking system and backup.
When Voll Coop, the first arriving sleepy worker, staggers into the duty center he stops to look outside through a portal, points, and says loudly, “Will you look at that . . . !”
Everyone in the office looks outside as do the half dozen sleepy workers charging into the room behind Coop. All stand and watch five loading ramp tubes fall away from New Horizons and the spaceship drifts three yards away from the dock. Before anyone can even think to ask, “What’s happening?” All eyes gawk at the spaceship's small dock-side steering rockets fire a half-dozen rapid puffs gradually increasing the distance between the ship and the docking station.
Irritated and confused Orsdol shouts at his crew. "Don’t worry about that. The ship's safety program has moved the ship out of danger. It'll only go a mile or so. Get a crew into space suits, booster-packs, ready to ride a cable sled out to stop her drifting. Prepare for double and triple cables if need be. We'll pull her back when we get all this sorted out." Shift leader Orsdol points at both Colvin and his repair crew and motions them away.
Colvin leads a quickly formed five-man repair crew to start searching for the problem. Colvin leads two to the master docking control routing box and sends the other pair in a trace for line faults back to the backup circuit. At the master docking control routing box Colvin switches the main part of the system to the damaged area off.
One of this team takes off the back cover of the main junction box of electrical connections for the backup system. Both workers discover to their dismay that the main wire from the backup system batteries was not even connected to the unit. It was just pushed behind the edge of the inner panel overhang and looked like it was connected from the front. One worker double checks the power routing switch, shuts down the backup power source so another could reconnect the wire. A twisting push and he points at the main, lifts two fingers, and the second switch is flipped on. The lights briefly blink to dim as the station automatically switches from emergency power to backup batteries.
Colvin quickly arrives to check on the ceramic wire unit to make sure it is inside of the panel sockets, opens the front panel by pushing over the lock, twists the locking key, and secures the connection wire. One push of the main routing switch returns main power to the docking station generator and lights blink bright again to full power as the station switches away from backup batteries. Now, the electromagnetic locking backup system panel in the control room reads "Operational." Leaving one crewman to close the back panel Clovin moves down the long dock with the rest of his team returning to report.
"How far away is the ship?" Orsdol asks for it is still his shift until relieved.
"Less than a mile,” Colvin replies. “At this rate it will drift no more than a mile and a half I’d guess, Sir," Colvin reports after looking out the portal.
"I'll take over," orders Level Seven Master Docker Sooy, the daytime man in charge of this docking station. Sooy orders, "Broot, watch that ship," as Colvin’s face fills a screen.
“Sir, backup system is now operating on main generator power. The master control unit has suffered major damage, an explosion. Do not know cause. We have disengaged the main unit’s controls.”
“Good job Colvin. Have your team stand down. Dockers prepare for manual docking rings,” Master Sooy orders and his hands wave Orsdol to step aside.
"Yes Sir!" Orsdol responds only too glad to be out of the hot seat as the named crewmember Broot steps passed him to return to watching the ship slowly drifting away.
"Are the men and cables ready?" Sooy asks.
"Should be in two and a half minutes, Sir," Colvin report as he returns to the Command unit.
"Is your five man emergency crew ready for an up to double cable operation, Sir?" Broot yells from a screen in front of Colvin.
Master Docker Sooy orders, "Load third cable.” Sooy waits watching on screen until it is done. And then, Sooy starts reading down the list of procedures, “Release cable covers. Release outer locks on airlock forty-one. Check all helmet seals. Check all midriff seals. Check all glove seals . . . ."
Without any sign of panic and acting like it is all in a day's work, Sooy reads carefully down the sequence of commands listed on his procedure screen to send a cable crew out and retrieve the spaceship. Impatiently Sooy waits for the two minutes to pass, a full hundred-twenty seconds, as required for final spacesuit checks.
Broot interrupts Sooy busy watching the seconds read out. When it was displaying 87 seconds Boot shouts. "Look Sir!"
Master Docker Sooy looks out through the portal and
others jam together at other portals to look too. All eyes watch New Horizons’ dockside thrusters puffing again. Suddenly, as they stare rear thruster start too—a malfunction they all think. Quickly, New Horizons drifts more miles away. Now, it is well beyond triple cable. Puzzled minds in the Docking Command Center try to imagine why the thrusters started working again.
Sooy shouts an order. “Shut them down.”
Furiously, computer operators send dozens of code commands to New Horizons to try to shut down thrusters and every command code fails. In the middle of that required procedure, inside the control room of the empty spaceship a red light blinks off in front of "Engines Warming," to glow in front of the words “Main Engines.”
Shocked eyes watch the main engines of New Horizons flame and ignite. At first, the main engines are at the lowest possible level and gradually with the help of thrusters push the spaceship tens of miles ahead and away from them. They are powerless to stop the spacecraft. All of the commands codes sent to it fail, even an abort command code to shut down all activity on board fails. Nothing changes to make either the thrusters or main engines shutdown. After almost three minutes, all thrusters on the runaway stop.
Computer operators have hope of shutting off the main engines and reclaiming their spaceship. However, even these hopes are dashed when instead of shutting down all eight engines fire at minimum. Without shutdown the rogue ship is quickly well beyond docking station retrieval distance except by a ground-ship boarding party. At a hundred miles the main engines fully engage at maximum thrust and New Horizons roars away from Earth Docking Station Number Two, curves up out of earth orbit, away from planet earth, and out into space.
"Is anyone, any living person, on board that ship?" Sooy asks his crew. Several crewmen work on their panels checking sensors. Every one of them lifts their eyes, shakes their heads negative, before rechecking their instruments.
In a less than a minute after main engines ignite, a view-screen fills with a very angry Ground Service Command face yelling, "What happened?"
"Don't know. For some reason the docking electromagnetic locks developed a short. The system should have automatically switched to backup in factions of a second. It did not. We found the hot wire was not connected on the backup system. Either, it was careless workmanship or purposely disconnected. Recent inspections as late as less than an hour ago have 'all normal.' If it was not connected we have an error in workmanship or if disconnected we have a saboteur up here. When the docking tubes separated the safety program on New Horizons engaged and fired the ship's steering rockets to move the spaceship a safe distance away. Somehow, while we worked to get a crew ready to ride a cable rocket sled out to hook on to it and drag it back, New Horizon thrusters started again and main engines ignited. I was surprised that even the rear thrusters started firing this time. It moved a head and further away—several miles. After a minute or two, the main engines fired on minimum. No living person was on that ship. Three views of the Command cabin show an empty room. Our infrared and sound sensors could not detect a single heartbeat or any body heat in any of the five sections. New Horizons was empty—unmanned. It must have been a fault in that untested safety program that somehow activated the automatic piloting system. New Horizon should travel, I believe and our people up here all believe, on its programmed course toward Mars. A launch from either earth or Mars should be able to retrieve it."
"Yes . . . our people here agree . . . make sure we get all the information you collect. Start a full investigation at your end and we will start one down here. We’ve got to get an emergency crew ready to launch in an hour or less. We'll call Mars to send one up too. I'll have to call Omenosova at the U.N. so he can ask for emergency permission for all this. He'll have to authorize changes on ground operations and programs. We'll catch her and fly her back . . . Standby!"
"Standing by, Sir," Master Docker Sooy replies to the direct order as he snaps to attention. How many levels will I lose over this incident Sooy wonders? As the screen goes blank his eyes go hard and angry. Sooy yells his first of many orders.
"Orsdol, mark the exact time of each of our responses, our findings, and prepare a complete report for Surface Command. Collect all maintenance and inspection logs on both. Find out the names of all people that installed and inspected the main system and the backup system since installation. Also, include the names of all industries that supplied parts, the names and ranks of everyone on duty today, and send all that down to surface Command. I’ll start interviews of all personnel on duty."
"Yes Sir!" Orsdol replies thinking I'll be lucky after this to stay on the early morning shift. Orsdol yells, "Colvin . . . the time of alarm.”
Colvin looks at his screen, scrolls upward to the first alarm, and replies, “03:04:09 March 3rd, 3233,” with a straight face; but his mind thinks third year, third month, third hour, third minute, and third second. Manyard Colvin looking at the first alarm time on his shift log, slowly scrolls two key strokes upward to the exact instant main control blew, and smiles as he thinks Well, I’ll be . . . right on schedule.