Fiction Complete by H. G. Stratmann

Author:H. G. Stratmann [Stratmann, H. G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

Stone watched anxiously as his two crewmates, sitting beside him in the front row of seats, applied power just long enough to run diagnostics on each of the craft’s critical systems. As each computer and display flared briefly to life and Boris murmured approvingly, the doctor breathed another sigh of relief. If any critical system didn’t work—couldn’t be repaired—well, it would take only one weak link in the chain to kill them.

As he waited for their last flicker of hope to be extinguished, Stone remembered something the Machiavelli-reading LeBeau said. Newkirk’s getting the CRV ready. Now he wondered if that preparation included sabotage. How convenient, if the one person who might squeal about their extracurricular sexual activities suffocated in space—

Boris’s forehead beaded with sweat. “Now for the last test—our navigation system.”

Stone shivered—but not simply from fear. With their heaters not working, he could see Boris’s breath. Based on how cold the cabin was, they must’ve been in Earth’s shadow for a while.

But he felt warmer when Vali exclaimed, “It works!”

Her husband kissed her cheek, then whooped as numbers flashed on the console’s screen. “The GPS is showing our position! At least now we know where we’re lost!”

Vali’s fingers flew over a small keyboard. She exclaimed, “In sixteen minutes, we’ll be in the right place to fire our engines!”

“Now we know everything we need to!”

Boris flicked a switch, and the cabin went dark again until Vali turned on their flashlight. “We’ll reactivate these systems three minutes before we reach our deorbit point. That will—I hope—give us enough time to make sure everything’s still working and update our readings, while wasting as little precious power as possible.”

Stone interjected, “How far away are we from the terminator?”

“We’ve already passed it. Though we cannot see it, the Sun is shining on us!”

“Good. Then it should start warming up in here soon.”

“Let’s hope it does not get too warm. If our deorbit engines don’t fire properly, or we re-enter the atmosphere at the wrong speed or angle—”

Stone completed the sentence silently. We burn up.

He said, “Boris, let me hook you back up to the monitor and defibrillator.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, my friend. I may need to move around quickly to recheck the batteries if anything goes wrong during our descent. I cannot have your medical devices weighing me down like anchors!”

“But your body’s going to be stressed during deceleration and re-entry. If I can’t monitor your blood pressure, EKG, and other data, I won’t be able to treat you effectively!”

The Russian shrugged. “I must take that chance. Your medicines have done a wonderful job. I feel fine now!”

“Feeling fine doesn’t necessarily mean you are fine. Back on the station you were ‘feeling fine’ just before you went into VT! If we hadn’t already connected you to the defibrillator and shocked you immediately—”

Boris shrugged. “I suppose I’d be dead now. Perhaps it would have been better if I’d died on the station. At least then Vali and you would still be there—and safe.”

In the darkness Stone heard Vali, seated to his left, lean away from him toward her husband.

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