Dusters SEVENTEEN

Kelley was still in the Control Room when Dinah returned, after a quick shower and a change of clothes. She was tying her hair back as she sat next to Kelley.

“Any idea what happened to Fagan?” Dinah asked.

“I looked at the drone’s logs and he never re-pressurized the cabin before going into the airlock. It’s designed to keep air in, not out.” She said.

“Oh man.” Dinah sighed.

They crafted a message and sent it to Chaffee, who would relay it to Earth. They told of Fagan’s accident and the coming attempt to return. They didn’t wait for a reply.

Norrie called from Engineering, “We are all set down here. I tested the remote control and it’s all on line and ready to go.” She reported.

“Ready ay.” Kelly responded. “Dinah, bring us up to op speed and I will tweak our course. I calculated it so we wouldn’t chance hitting anything too big, I hope.”

“That’s good.” Dinah said. She was punching in the commands to bring the ship up to operating speed.

Opoku confirmed the course looked good, “Yeah, go for it.” She said.

“Ok, we are there.” Dinah said, everyone felt the acceleration cease as Two began drifting towards Mars again.

Kelley called to Engineering, “Norrie, bring the collectors up to half power and run a simple diagnostic please.”

This only took a minute. Norrie reported, “All collectors operating nominally at half power.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Kelley replied.

Norrie took the collectors to full power and verified they were all stable.

“Cutting collector 35 to half power, one..two, collector 17 is off.” She said.

The hum Dinah had heard before returned, and everyone braced for it. Dinah looked out the portal and just saw the stars sitting there. “Opoku, anything?” She asked.

“Nothing.” She said.

Dinah just stared out the portal, nothing was happening. She noticed the shift in frequency of the collector’s drone and then the harmonic that appeared.

“Come on!” Dinah almost shouted. Then it happened; the stars blurred then disappeared. “It’s working.” Dinah said calmly. She started her timer and kept looking between the portal and her console.

“15 seconds till collector cutoff.” She called. “10, 9, 8..” She counted down.

Norrie was counting down as well. Dinah’s voice came once more, “Kill it Norrie.” She cut the collectors off and everyone went silent. The humming died.

Kelley and Dinah looked over their shoulders at Opoku, who was working furiously, calculating their position in space. An eternity seemed to pass there in the Control Room.

“Not bad guys.” Opoku said. We overshot a bit but we should be able to get to Chaffee in two days, max speed.”

Shouts went up in the Control Room and Engineering. “We actually did it.” Kelley said, slapping Dinah on the arm.

“Fagan and Norrie did it, we just drove.” She replied. “Opoku, can I get a course to Chaffee please?”

Opoku provided that and Dinah plugged in the data and turned the ship to its new heading.

Kelley sent a message to Chaffee letting them know their position, which arrived before the message they had sent before attempting to return. They received a congratulatory reply in just minutes, from Chaffee that included “A heads up would have been appreciated.”

“I didn’t think about that.” Dinah said. “They’re going to be a little confused when the other message arrives in a few hours.”

“We can explain it later.” Kelley answered. “Let’s get some rest people.” She stood and headed to her quarters. “Oh, Dinah. Can you check on Fagan and let me know how he is please?” Dinah nodded.

She left and Dinah headed down to the infirmary.

Fagan was still unconscious. Dinah pulled up the status board and saw that his arm had been reattached. “Cool.” She said out loud.

Dinah went to the intercom and said “Hey, Fagan is doing good, Doc saved the arm and patched the leg wound. He will be in bed for a while, but Doc thinks he should be good in a few months.” No one replied.

She tapped the top of the Doc twice and smiled, “Good job.”

She headed to bed herself.