To Steal a March (Surviving the Fall 11)

“Rick!” Dr. Evans looked up at the arrival of the last two members of the group, beckoning him over. “You have to see this!”

Rick walked over to the normal-looking door with a metal touchpad mounted to the wall. The touchpad had been cracked open and a cable ran from it down to a small laptop on the floor. Oles sat back down in front of the computer and Rick knelt down to peer over the technician’s shoulder.

“I didn’t realize you all were this advanced. Are you brute forcing the system?”

“No, actually, we… uh…” Oles glanced at Ostap, who nodded. “We’re exploiting a weakness inherent to this particular type of security system.”

One of Rick’s eyebrows shot up. “A zero-day?”

“More or less.”

“Pretty interesting how you guys manage to have your hands on something like that for a NSA/CIA system.”

“Like your government,” Ostap interjected, “ours engages in espionage as well.”

“Relax, Ostap. I’m not judging. I’m actually glad for it. Without you guys we’d be stuck trying to figure out how to break through the door.”

“Wouldn’t be possible.” Dr. Evans shook his head firmly. “We’d need a bulldozer to break it down.”

“Fortunately, Dr. Evans,” Jacob exclaimed with a grin, “that won’t be necessary.” He stood up, made a wide flourish at the door and pressed a button on his computer. “We’re in.”

Chapter 4

ISS, International Space Station

“We don’t need that much food.”

“What if we land in an isolated area? If we’re off by a degree or two on the return trajectory, we could be stuck somewhere remote for an extended period of time.”

“Fine.” Commander Palmer sighs and nods as he examines his clipboard. “We’ll store it in the exterior compartment, aft side.”

“Commander?” Ted floats into the room, a collection of small silver pouches in his hands. “Got all the emergency blankets I could find.”

“Good. We’ll keep those inside the main compartment. Can you take over this and work with Jackie to finish up? I need to start the landing calculations.” Commander Palmer gently tossed the clipboard through the compartment and Ted snatched it out of the air.

“Sure thing. We going for water or land?”

“I’m not sure. Water’s preferable but we won’t have anyone there to pick us up. I don’t really want to be floating in the ocean for the rest of my life.”

“You and me both.” Jackie replied. “Why not go for land? We’ve got the basic training for it.”

“A million things could go wrong. But the biggest reason is that.” Commander Palmer gestured out the window at the Earth below. Areas that were supposed to be covered in lush foliage were obscured by smoke, tainting the atmosphere with black clouds of soot. “No way in hell are we going to land in Russia, and if we go somewhere in the USA it’s going to be like throwing a dart at the wall. We might land in an open field or we might veer off course and land in the middle of a fire or smash through a skyscraper.”

“So water’s our best option.” Ted scratched his chin, hooking his feet into the small loops on the wall to keep from floating away from the window. “I guess I’d rather be floating for a while than risk rolling and breaking bones or landing in the middle of a fire.”

“If we end up in the middle of the ocean then we won’t be floating for a while. There won’t be any ship traffic down there, and if we can’t call anyone on the radio then…”

“I know, Jackie.” Commander Palmer runs his fingers through his hair as he stares at the landscape through the window, trying to determine their best course of action. “What if we landed off the coast of Florida, though? Just a mile or two out?”

“That kind of precision’s going to be difficult with all the cargo we’ll have on board.” Ted glances down at the clipboard. “Plus this is an emergency maneuver. It’s not exactly supposed to be precise.”

“What if we adjust during the parachute phase with the maneuvering thrusters?” Both Ted and Commander Palmer turn to look at Jackie.

“Come again?” Commander Palmer blinks a few times, not sure if he heard her correctly.

“We have full fuel for those and we’ll barely use them in setting up our deorbit trajectory. The main engine will be what we use mostly. Why can’t we use the maneuvering thrusters to guide us closer to land once the parachutes deploy?”

Commander Palmer glances at Ted, who has an odd look on his face as he slowly nods. “That… could be possible. If you can set up a burn that gets us close to the coastline, the thrusters will give us a few dozen miles more of leeway.”