The Wall: Eternal Day by Brandon Q. Morris

Author:Brandon Q. Morris [Morris, Brandon Q.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hard-SF.com
Published: 2021-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Two very tedious hours later, Jonathan was sitting next to Yue in the cargo airlock. Their legs were hanging down. Then Giordano came toward them. His shoulders were drooping.

“Doesn’t look good,” he said. “The drive must’ve been struck by something, probably a small meteorite. The fuel line’s been destroyed. There’s also no more fuel. Are you copying this, Judith?”

“Yes, I copy. Refueling should be no problem.”

“I won’t be able to seal the line anymore, though.”

“Not even with duct tape?”

Giordano spun a roll of adhesive tape. “No, it’s too cold. At below negative 180 degrees, it’ll turn brittle and crack.”

“What if we just brought it back to the L1 point?” Jonathan suggested.

“With no fuel, it can’t maintain its position, and a day later it’ll already be far away again. The reflector on the shell could keep tracking it, but not the one at the L4 point.”

“We could stay here and hold the satellite in place,” Yue said.

“The ARES is an interference source,” Giordano said. “Plus, then we’d have to stay here at the L1-point for months. We can’t know when a signal might come in.”

“And you don’t have any spare propulsion units on board? Weren’t all of the systems designed to be redundant?” Jonathan asked.

“The redundancy was achieved slightly differently,” Judith explained. “There are two equal propulsion units, one on the landing capsule and one on the orbiter module. We could replace one with the other, if necessary. So, even if one of them were to fail, we could keep going with the other.”

“So, both are functional? Then we could perform a living donor operation,” Jonathan said. “Like for a kidney.”

“That’d be sure to send Mike into a rage. The remaining engine might fail on our way to Mars.”

“But one should be enough,” Yue said, “or did I misunderstand something about the redundancy?”

“No, you’re right,” Giordano said. “But if the ARES flies on to Mars and we lose the engine at some point, then we’d be stranded. Depending on when it failed, we might fly right past Mars, or we might crash, or we might be trapped on the ground. I could understand Mike not being particularly happy about those prospects.”

“We’ll do it, nevertheless. We’ll transplant the orbiter module’s engine to LISA,” Judith said. “I’m in charge, and I’ll make the decisions. Mike didn’t even come along.”

“And our flight to Mars?” Giordano asked. “Not that I’m in any particular hurry, but wasn’t that supposed to be our primary goal?”

“It will have to wait. If we haven’t heard anything after a year, then we’ll retrieve the engine. And then all options will be back on the table.”

“I’m happy that Mike isn’t here. Otherwise he’d probably have you by the throat right now,” Giordano said.

“No worries, I know how to defend myself. Let’s get this repair over with.”

“I’ll start right away. It’s not that comfortable in these suits, even if our lovebirds here seem to think otherwise. Yue and Jon, come on, now I’m going to need your muscles.”

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