“The minute I know more, I’ll let you know,” Landon said.
“Harry, last thing: can we bring the shuttle down on autopilot?”
“Hell, we can bring a seven-forty-seven down that way. The question is, will we want to?”
Landon’s next call went to the range safety officer, who had already been apprised of the emergency. Landon explained as much as he could, then added that the original duration of this mission had been eight days.
“Clearly that’s not the case anymore,” he said. “It’s not a question of if but when we bring her down.”
“And once she’s in range?” the RSO asked quietly.
“Then we’ll see.”
Landon continued down the list, which included calls to General Richardson and Anthony Price. In addition to being the air force chief of staff, Richardson was also codirector of the Space Security Division, which was responsible for identifying and monitoring everything that was either approaching earth or in orbit around it. As head of the National Security Agency, Price was on the list because the shuttle sometimes flew classified missions sponsored by the NSA.
Every time he finished a call, Landon looked around, hoping that one of his people would have some news for him. He recognized this as the gesture of a desperate man; under the circumstances, any conversation he might have been having would have been interrupted if contact with the shuttle had been reestablished.
For the next two hours, Landon continued to work the phones. He was grateful that at least for now, he didn’t have to deal with the media. Many in NASA resented the fact that shuttle flights were now considered so mundane that coverage was not warranted. During the ill-fated Challenger launch, CNN had been the sole network providing live feed. Today, only NASA cameras had recorded Discovery’s liftoff.
“Landon, circuit four!”
Landon didn’t even bother to see who was speaking. He found the channel and heard a faint voice through the crackle of static.
“Mission control, this is Discovery. Do you copy?”
__________
Dylan Reed was still in the Spacelab, in his protective EMU, his boots in the floor restraints that kept him positioned in front of the auxiliary communications panel. The several hours of deliberate incommunicado seemed like an eternity to him. He’d turned off the radio so that he wouldn’t have to listen to the desperate voices floating from mission control. Now, to proceed with the next phase of the operation, he had reestablished contact.
“Mission control, this is Discovery. Do you read?”
“Discovery, this is the mission director. What is your status?”
“Harry, is that you?”
“Dylan?”
“It’s me. Thank God, Harry! I didn’t think I’d ever hear another human voice.”
“Dylan, what happened up there?”
“I don’t know. I’m in the lab. One of the EMUs was showing default. I climbed in to check it out. Then I heard… Jesus, Harry, it sounded like they were being strangled. And the commo gear was down—”
“Dylan, hang on, okay? Try to stay calm. Is there anyone else in the lab?”
“No.”
“And you’ve had no communication with the rest of the crew?”
“No. Harry, listen. What—?”
“We don’t know, Dylan. That’s the long and the short of it. We got a garbled message out of Wallace but he couldn’t tell us what happened. It had to be something fast and extremely lethal. We’re thinking a bug got loose. Do you have anything like that on board?”
Actually what I have is a shuttle that’s one big hot zone.
But what he said was: “Christ, Harry! What are you talking about? Look at the manifest. The worst we’re carrying is Legionnaires’ and that’s still in the biofreezer.”
“Dylan, you have to do this,” Landon said in a measured tone. “You have to go back into the orbiter and see… and tell us what you see.”
“Harry!”
“Dylan, we have to know.”
“What if they’re all dead, Harry? What am I supposed to do for them?”
“Nothing, son. There’s nothing you can do. But we’re going to bring you home. No one leaves their post until you’re back on the ground, safe and sound.”
Landon was about to add “I promise,” but the words couldn’t make it past his lips.
“All right, Harry. I’ll go check out the orbiter. I want to keep the commo link open.”
“We need you to check the video feed. We have no picture.”
That’s because I fixed the cameras.
“Roger that. Leaving the lab now.”
The bulky space suit made his movements awkward, but slowly Reed floated through the connecting tunnel, taking care not to snag any part of his suit. Even the slightest tear would be fatal.
The sight in the mid-deck made him gag. Stone, Karol, and Carter had been reduced to bloated corpses covered in sores, floating freely or snagged to pieces of equipment by an arm or a leg. Trying not to look, Reed maneuvered his way around them to the ladder. Up in the flight deck, he found Wallace strapped to the commander’s chair.
“Mission control, this is Discovery.”
Landon responded instantly. “Go ahead, Dylan.”
“I found everyone except Megan. Jesus, I can’t tell you…”
“We need to know what they look like, Dylan.”
“The bodies are bloated, sores, blood… I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Are there any signs of the contaminant?”
“Negative. But I’m not taking off the EMU.”
“Of course not. Can you tell what they were eating?”
“I’m on the flight deck, with Wallace. Let me go downstairs.”
After a few minutes, Reed was back on the link. In reality, he hadn’t moved. “Looks like whatever was brought onboard. Chicken, peanut butter, shrimp…”
“Okay, we’re checking the source of the food right now: If it was contaminated, the agent might have mutated in microgravity.” Landon paused. “You need to find Megan.”
“I know. I’ll check mid-deck again, the john… If she’s not there, she’ll be on the lower deck.”
“Contact me as soon as you find her. Mission director out.”
__________
Thank God!
Although her transmit button was still malfunctioning, Megan had heard every word between Reed and Landon. She slumped forward, her helmet clicking against the air-lock door. Hundreds of questions raced through her mind: How could the rest of the crew be dead? What could have overtaken them? Was it something they had brought onboard? It’d been less than an hour since she’d last seen Carter and the others. Now they were dead?
Megan forced herself to calm down. She glanced at the nest of wires in the open panel above the door. Clearly there was a mix-up in the wiring. Following the instructions printed on the panel door, she had tried to reverse a number of connections but so far hadn’t found the faulty one.
Relax, she told herself. Dylan will be down here in a few minutes. When he doesn’t find me out there, he’ll realize I’m in here. He’ll open the door from his end.
Megan took as much comfort in the thought as she could. She wasn’t prone to claustrophobia, but she could feel the air lock— no bigger than a pair of broom closets set side by side— closing in on her.
If only the damn mike worked! To be heard by another human would be the sweetest thing.
Then fix the mike, she told herself.
Dylan’s voice came over her headset: “Mission director, I’m in the lower deck. No sign of Megan yet. I’ll check the storage holds.”
Even though she knew that sound was baffled in space, Megan raised both hands and began pounding on the door. Maybe somehow Dylan would hear her.
“Mission director, I’ve checked most of the hold. Still nothing.”
Landon’s voice floated through Megan’s headset: “Suggest you try the air lock. Maybe she got in there.”
Yes, try the air lock!
“Roger that, mission director. I’ll cut commo until I reach the air lock.”
As soon as Reed approached the door, he saw Megan’s face behind the porthole. The joy and relief in her eyes speared him. He switched on the intercom mode on his communications set.
“Megan, can you hear me?”
He saw her nod.
“I’m not receiving. Is your transmitter down?”
Megan nodded, then floated up and pointed to the commo unit built into the chest of her EMU. She gave the universal thumbsdown signal and worked her way back to the porthole.
Reed looked at her. “Okay. I understand. Not that it makes any difference.”
Megan wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly and mimed a shrug.
“You don’t understand,” Reed said. “Of course you don’t. How could you? Megan…” He hesitated. “I can’t help you get out.”
Her eyes widened in terror and disbelief.
“Let me tell you what’s out here, Megan. A virus. The kind the world has never seen before because it’s not of this world. It was born on earth, but it was given life here, in the Spacelab. That’s what I was working on.”
She was shaking her head, her lips moving frantically in soundless words.