Tiona (a sequel to Vaz) by Laurence E Dahners

Author:Laurence E Dahners
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: physics, asteroid, autistic, idiot savant, reactionless drive
Publisher: Laurence E Dahners

***

The airlock opened and Zack stepped in taking off his helmet. “How bad is it?”

Knowing that Zack was asking about the thrust, Ralph simply said, “311 Newtons.”

“Oh geez,” Zack practically moaned. “What is that, seventy percent?”

Ralph nodded, “A smidge less.”

“The mission fails if we get under what, fifty-eight percent?!”

Ralph nodded solemnly. Actually the “failure thrust” was a moving target which was slowly dropping because of the time they’d had thrust above the failure level already. But fifty-eight percent was close enough. Telling Zack that it was actually fifty-six percent would just piss him off.

Zack slammed down his helmet, “We’d just as well give up and start heading back! There’s no way we’re going to capture this rock with this little thrust. Have those idiots back in Houston figured out what’s wrong yet?”

Ralph slowly shook his head.

“I’m calling them and telling them that we’re going to bail then! They need to start calculating a burn to get us back.”

Ralph pursed his lips. Talking to Zack when he was in this kind of mood was always difficult. Giving him bad news when he was in this kind of mood was even worse, but he guessed it had to be done. “I’ve been running some numbers…” he paused, waiting for Zack to shift his attention.

Zack had just strapped himself to the command console seat preparatory to placing a call to Houston. He paused and turned. With a little dread in his voice, he asked, “What kind of numbers?”

“If Bellerophon’s engine suffers the same rate of deterioration burning the ice we’ve loaded into its tanks… we can’t make Earth orbit. Well, not before we run out of food.” They had a small system to purify water out of the ice on the asteroid so they wouldn’t run out of water. They could use the water to make oxygen and they had a Sabatier processor to remove CO2. Food would be their limit.

The light in Zack’s eyes dimmed for a moment as the air seemed to go out of him. “Have you talked to Houston about it?”

Ralph nodded, “They’re working on it.”

“Do they have a capsule that could rendezvous with us as we go by?”

Ralph shook his head.

“And the water purifier wouldn’t give us enough clean water for Bellerophon’s engines?”

“No, not and keep us alive too. I’ve emptied Bellerophon’s tank and started filling it with every drop of surplus water the purifier generates. It won’t be enough, but I figure that every drop of clean water will mean a little less of whatever impurity it is that gives the engines problems. We’ll refill the tank with the ice right before we leave.” He paused, “But it won’t be enough.”

Zack got a distant look in his eyes, “So we’re better staying here on the rock, hoping that Houston will figure out what’s wrong and come up with a solution?”

Ralph shrugged, “Yeah, for now. They’re also trying to run scenarios where they’d boost some clean fuel out to meet us on the way back. Then we could refill the tank before the engine deteriorated too much.

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