Skyfall

All the steps Ely had followed in starting up the nuclear engine had been recorded by the ship's computer. Patrick used his Commander's controls to retrieve the information. When he was satisfied he pressed the transmit button and all the details were radioed at high speed back to Mission Control on Earth. While he was doing this he was aware of the intercom bleeping and Nadya taking a call. She tapped his arm.

“Yes,” he said, turning towards her.

“It was Ely. He thinks he knows what has happened. I told him you were on to Mission Control so he's on his way up here.” Patrick nodded and turned on his microphone again.

“Mission Control, I have more information on the malfunction. Dr. Bron will report shortly. He appears to, have located the source of the malfunction.”

“You better believe I have,” Ely said, coming in. He saw the squeeze bottle of water in Nadya's hand and realized suddenly how dry his mouth was, how thirsty he had become without knowing it. “Can I have a swig of that? Thanks.” He drained half the bottle before sighing and passing it back.

“It's not good, Patrick, not good at all. I'll check with the team in Mission Control and they can run it through their mock-up, but I'm pretty sure about what has happened. You know that the hearts of these nuclear engines are heavy quartz tubes — which is why they are called light bulb reactors. That quartz is good stuff and the way the engine is set up the tubes are immune to thermal shock. But the pogoing and the abortive separation of the core booster must have done something…”

“Physical shock?”

“Exactly. Quartz is just a fancy kind of glass. Something must have bashed around back there during separation because I think one of the tubes is broken.”

“But — can you replace it?”

Ely laughed, very bitterly. “Replace it? Even if I had a spare it would be impossible in space. That tube is broken and it is going to stay broken. Those engines will just not run.”

“Something can be done. Something must be done,” Patrick insisted.

“Like what?”

“Like we take a look at the motors and see just what happened, send a complete report back to Mission Control and have them see what can be worked out.”

“You're an optimistic bastard, you know that, Patrick.” After the intensity of his work something seemed to have gone out of Ely. He was hunched, seemed smaller.

“No, I'm not. Just doing the job I was trained for. There are programs that cover a lot of what ifs. Now we've got a problem here, but we need more data on it. You're going to space walk and assess the damage. That's what we need to know next. There's only one undamaged umbilical left. Use it. Let's suit up.”

“Whoa, not so fast. I've never space walked before, and I certainly hadn't planned to do it alone for the first time. You have the experience and could save a lot of time….”

“I'm not an atomic physicist. You are. You helped design the motor, as you've often told us, so you should know what's wrong just by looking at it.” He started towards the suit locker, then turned back as a sudden thought struck him. “You're not afraid of going out there, are you?”

Ely smiled. “Yes, if you want to know, I'm frightened shitless of being out there on the end of a rubber tube and a couple of wires. I'm frightened of this whole trip and everything about it. But I'm here anyway because I wouldn't miss it for the world. So let's get suited up before I change my mind.”

Patrick wasn't sure what to say. “I'm sorry I said that. Please understand, it wasn't personal---”

“It was personal as hell, my boy, but all is forgiven. This hasn't been much of a pleasure cruise, has it? And you've been awake and working for what? Two days now?” He glanced up at the GET clock. “13:57 and still counting. And the estimate was that we would run out of space at twenty four hundred. Ten hours left. Why doesn't someone ask Mission Control if they've any revisions on that original estimate? It would be nice to know.”

“Nadya, as soon as we're all suited up, talk to them about that. Tell them Dr. Bron is going to look at the motors and they want to listen and record everything he says, then get to work on the information as soon as it comes in. Our time is running out.”

There was not a second to be wasted now. As soon as the suits were sealed and the flight cabin evacuated, Patrick opened the hatch. His cabin walk-about umbilical stretched far enough to enable him to help Ely through and feed his umbilicals after him.

“Slowly,” he said. “The one thing you can't do is rush now.”

“Rush!” Ely laughed. “It's all I can do to move.”

“There are rings all the way along. Clip onto one before you release a handhold.”

“Right. Moving now. Faster than I thought, guess the experience inside the ship in free fall helps. Here's the base of the first motor, trumpet bell looks fine, I'm moving to the next-Christ, there it is!”

“What?” Flax's voice sounded loud in Ely's ears. “We read you well, Dr. Bron. What did you find?”