This was xposted to the linebyline community
The feeling of relief swept over Treyson as the airlock door closed. The outside of the shuttle was heavily damaged but he didn't see any critical damage. His magnetic soled boots clanked against the skin of the shuttle as he slowly walked along the ship to where the antenna that allowed communication to be maintained with Earth was supposed to be. As he approached he could see where the antenna had been snapped off, inches away from the ship itself. He was stunned that the shuttle had not suffered greater damage in the micro-meteor shower. Looking back down the length of the ship he could see hundreds of scars and minor ruptures that had broken the outer hull but failed to penetrate the inner hull. He knelt down and set to work. As his gloved hands rethreaded the replacement antenna, his mind wandered back over the hectic events of the past several days.
The mission had gone perfectly to begin with. The launch went smoothly and several days worth of work was carried out with a hitch. Then the warning had come through from the control center in Florida. A storm of micro-meteorites, ranging in size from one to thirty-six inches, had just been detected being ejected from the moon. No one knew the cause, but the effect was clear enough. They blinded every radiation scan that was done on them, and were moving at an impossible rate of speed directly for the Endeavour. There was no time to react or make a substantial evasive manuever. They put the ship into a spin, which the engineers on the ground thought might help deflect some of the projectiles.
It was one of the most frightening periods in modern space travel. For over an hour, the shuttle was battered and slammed by highly radioactive pebbles from the moon. Six of the seven astronauts spent the entire time in a huddle at the center of the ship, most of them praying quietly. Only the mission commander remained at the helm, making sure that the ship stayed on course even through the spin.
Finally, there was silence outside. Inside was dominated by the whistling of escaping atmosphere and the screams of the two crew members who had been punctured as a three inch stone blasted through the hull and both of them and came to rest imbedded in the control panel for the cargo bay primary arm. Treyson had sealed the hull breach, but there was nothing that could be done for Reeves and Ishikawa. They were sedated to ease their pain, but the mission just wasn't equipped to deal with that degree of blood loss in zero-g. They bled out in less than ten minutes. Droplets of their blood still floated through the ship.
Then they found that they had lost radio communications wtih Earth. Smith, the mission commander, quickly determined that they must have lost the antenna. They drew straws to see who would go out to fix it. Treyson, the lucky bastard, drew the short straw so he got the escape the bloody terror that was the inside of the ship. The rest of the crew started to clean up as Treyson suited up for the EVA.
Snapping out of his reverie he looked up at the great blue globe that hung above him. Was it just his imagination, or could he really still see the vapor trails of the meteorite storm in the atmosphere? A sudden fear swept over him and he quickly verified that the antenna tested as positively working before hurrying, as much as he could anyway, towards the airlock.
The rest of the crew were drifting quietly as he came out of the lock. They all were staring out the front viewscreen of the shuttle. The vapor trails had spread like an evil cloud, not normal behaviour at all. Treyson came to the front and Smith looked at him, shock evident on his face. "We've tried them three times. NASA, Eurospace, and the Kosmodrome. We tried them all but there was no answer. What are we going to do?" Treyson shook his head slowly and a single teardrop drifted off his eyelashes, reflecting the dead world that they would be have to return too soon.
The mission had gone perfectly to begin with. The launch went smoothly and several days worth of work was carried out with a hitch. Then the warning had come through from the control center in Florida. A storm of micro-meteorites, ranging in size from one to thirty-six inches, had just been detected being ejected from the moon. No one knew the cause, but the effect was clear enough. They blinded every radiation scan that was done on them, and were moving at an impossible rate of speed directly for the Endeavour. There was no time to react or make a substantial evasive manuever. They put the ship into a spin, which the engineers on the ground thought might help deflect some of the projectiles.
It was one of the most frightening periods in modern space travel. For over an hour, the shuttle was battered and slammed by highly radioactive pebbles from the moon. Six of the seven astronauts spent the entire time in a huddle at the center of the ship, most of them praying quietly. Only the mission commander remained at the helm, making sure that the ship stayed on course even through the spin.
Finally, there was silence outside. Inside was dominated by the whistling of escaping atmosphere and the screams of the two crew members who had been punctured as a three inch stone blasted through the hull and both of them and came to rest imbedded in the control panel for the cargo bay primary arm. Treyson had sealed the hull breach, but there was nothing that could be done for Reeves and Ishikawa. They were sedated to ease their pain, but the mission just wasn't equipped to deal with that degree of blood loss in zero-g. They bled out in less than ten minutes. Droplets of their blood still floated through the ship.
Then they found that they had lost radio communications wtih Earth. Smith, the mission commander, quickly determined that they must have lost the antenna. They drew straws to see who would go out to fix it. Treyson, the lucky bastard, drew the short straw so he got the escape the bloody terror that was the inside of the ship. The rest of the crew started to clean up as Treyson suited up for the EVA.
Snapping out of his reverie he looked up at the great blue globe that hung above him. Was it just his imagination, or could he really still see the vapor trails of the meteorite storm in the atmosphere? A sudden fear swept over him and he quickly verified that the antenna tested as positively working before hurrying, as much as he could anyway, towards the airlock.
The rest of the crew were drifting quietly as he came out of the lock. They all were staring out the front viewscreen of the shuttle. The vapor trails had spread like an evil cloud, not normal behaviour at all. Treyson came to the front and Smith looked at him, shock evident on his face. "We've tried them three times. NASA, Eurospace, and the Kosmodrome. We tried them all but there was no answer. What are we going to do?" Treyson shook his head slowly and a single teardrop drifted off his eyelashes, reflecting the dead world that they would be have to return too soon.