Space Station Down by Ben Bova

Author:Ben Bova [Bova, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

JAPANESE MODULE (JPM)

For what seemed like the hundredth time, Kimberly checked the solid-state data acquisition system, worrying that the mission control center had either forgotten to alert her that the software patch had come through, or that something had happened to the voice link and MCC couldn’t alert her that it had arrived.

The light on the solid-state hard drive gleamed a steady red, showing no activity. Frustrated, Kimberly once again pushed back to the middle of the JPM, trying to control her fear that the ISS was plunging to Earth.

Patience is a virtue, she told herself. And quickly added, Yeah, but I’m going to be tearing my hair out in another five minutes.

Get your mind off it, she thought. Focus on something else until the mother-loving patch comes through.

She looked over the bags stowed on the JPM walls in their various bungee-cord prisons, but nothing jumped out at her as a weapon she might use against the two terrorists. She mentally kicked herself for missing her chance when Farid had been using the toilet and Bakhet had been asleep.

By monitoring the electrical activity and nontraditional sensors located throughout the ISS she could tell that the two now seemed to be nearly inseparable, most likely having learned their lesson that if they were isolated she would pounce. So before she could engage them again, she had to figure out a way to separate them, move them apart so that she could take them out one by one.

So much for the Israeli Defense Force’s Krav Maga and the CIA’s assessment of how dangerous those guys were. The non-sport martial art was probably deadly enough in a normal Earth environment, but here on the ISS—where they had nowhere as much experience moving around in zero-gee as she did—their refined, lethal moves were of no use as long as she was barricaded safely inside the JPM, separated by the twelve tons of force tightly sealing her hatch.

But if the software patch didn’t arrive soon she knew she wouldn’t have the patience to stay holed up in the JPM while the station continued to descend in altitude. The sooner she could engage the forward thrusters to boost the ISS into a higher orbit, the better. She didn’t want to wait too much longer before she reacted.

She floated across to one of the bungee-cord prisons and started rummaging through the supplies cached inside it one more time. She’d already searched through everything in the module, but she had a nagging feeling that she might have overlooked something she could use to overpower the two.

MCC continued to offer suggestions over the voice link, and they certainly had some good ideas, but since they didn’t have real-time knowledge of exactly where everything was located in the ISS, their recommendations were useless. She would have been able to whip up three or four MacGyver-type devices to take out the terrorists if she only had access to the entire station. But for years the station’s astronauts and cosmonauts had been

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