Saturn Run by Sandford John & Ctein

Author:Sandford, John & Ctein [Sandford, John & Ctein]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, thriller, Fantasy, Mystery, Adventure, Adult
ISBN: 9780399176951
Amazon: 0399176950
Goodreads: 24611668
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Published: 2015-10-01T07:00:00+00:00

35.

Captain Fang-Castro sucked thoughtfully on her second bulb of pouchong of this watch. The delicate tea soothed her nerves and gave her something to do with her hands. Bridge watch was uneventful on the Nixon, and thank God for that. Still, it meant the officer of the watch mostly had little to do but sit in the big chair and look, well, watchful.

Fang-Castro liked to keep busy. Doing nothing, even watchfully, made her fidgety, and a fidgety commander was not good for morale. Consequently, tea was usually in hand.

The crew was excited about midcourse turnaround. It was the first tangible evidence of progress since they’d completed their slingshot pass of the sun, and it meant they were more than halfway to Saturn.

They were two and a half hours into restart and the engines were up to three-quarters thrust. Fang-Castro was finishing her tea when the faintest of shudders rippled through the bridge.

“Nav, what was that!” she snapped. “Comm, give me Engineering and patch Mr. Martinez in.”

Navigation came back instantly: “Command: we experienced a lateral impulse, ship’s aft. It turned us slightly off course. Attitude control is bringing us back on heading.” A second later, “Our acceleration is dropping rapidly. It looks like the engines are shutting down.”

“An impact?”

“Don’t know, ma’am, we’re inquiring.”

Frank LaFarge, who was on engineering watch, spoke up. “I’m not seeing damage indicators commensurate with an impact big enough to shift our heading.”

Comm spoke up: “Engineering’s on.”

“Dr. Johansson, what just happened?” Fang-Castro kept her voice calm and level, belying her twitching gut.

“Captain, Greenberg here. Becca’s on EVA, observing the radiator ramp-up. We’ve lost contact with her. Radiator Boom 1 experienced a blowout. We don’t know how serious it is, but we’re hemorrhaging radiator melt. I’ve initiated rapid shutdown and containment procedures on the damage.”

“Are we in any immediate danger, Dr. Greenberg?”

“I don’t believe so, Captain.”

Nav came back: “Command, we’re accessing the fore cameras, we’ll have them up in a few seconds.”

Comm: “We have Mr. Martinez on—”

Fang-Castro: “Nav, hold the pictures. Comm, show me Joe: Joe, what happened?”

“I’m really busy right now, ma’am, so I gotta be short.” Martinez was buckled into his egg. “We blew a radiator, looks like, some of the melt hit Becca’s and Sandy’s eggs. Sandy’s damaged but I think recoverable if I can get out there, but my best bet now is that Becca’s gone.”

“Gone? You mean . . .”

“Dead. The monitoring vid showed her getting hit by a wad of metal the size of a chair. Hit hard, head-on. The shell’s intact . . . maybe . . . but the cradle, power system, propulsion, they’re trashed. Her egg’s been hurled away from us. I gotta go, I gotta go, if I can get the goddamn garage door open, I gotta go . . .” Fang-Casto heard him shouting at somebody, “Get off the line: get off the fuckin’ line, get off the fuckin’ line and get me out there . . .”

Fang-Castro: “Keep me informed when you can, Joe.”

“Yeah, I will, ma’am.

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