The Martians
Chapter 21
"Nooooooo!" Kay Kay screamed when the telemetry came in.
Henderson saw it at the same time, heard the girl that was about his grandson's age scream through the glass separating Mission Control and the press gallery, and felt like someone had kicked him in the gut.
"Annie, take her to the family room" then he turned to his assistant and ordered "Shut the doors."
The standard signal that was given when a catastrophe had occurred.
That had happened three minutes before, and as Henderson watched Annie Montrose led her protege and the crew's best friend on Earth away to the family room, promising that she would know something definite as soon as NASA did.
Both Henderson and Montrose had gone their entire careers without losing an astronaut, but both were mentally prepared, as well as one could be, for its inevitable occurrence. Missy and Mark's original stranding had been like a practice run and now it seemed prophetic that Mark had predicted in the stone at Ares III that he would die on Mars. Space was dangerous, that was a fact. Everyone on board, or in Ground Control, or even employed at NASA knew it could happen. There were contingency plans and red folder speeches written for every occasion in advance. Every occasion except having your heart broken by the cries of a 15 year old, telling you "No! He's alive! You can't give up!"
Now, all that there was to do was let Annie handle the press and figure out what happened. Mentally she was stuck in "oh c'mon" mode and simply could not believe this was happening all over again.
Communication with Orion III had been sterile. Park sent word that craft had auto launched, in the proper launch window, at almost the perfect time for rendezvousing with Hermes, and that four astronauts were on board. From the bio telemetry Houston and Hermes both knew who was missing. The cross talk with Hermes was all about guiding the ship to docking. Questions about what happened went unanswered.
"Rachel, when will we have Satcom photos of the launch site?" Henderson asked Mindy Park's best friend from her old job. Rachel had taken over Mindy's 'angel in the sky' role when Park was promoted back into space.
"Coming in now sir."
"Put it up here" Henderson ordered as he looked at the screen in front of him. The picture was coming from Mars and appeared slowly. It was a high-resolution photo from ESA Seeker VI, and it took several seconds for it to fill his monitor while Kapoor and Sanders looked over his shoulders. Neither had spoken. They were the Director of Mars missions and NASA respectively, but Mission Control was Henderson's domain.
Einstein would have loved that things were taking place simultaneously yet still minutes apart. The Orion III crew got the telemetry data first, but the satellite data last. The Hermes got the telemetry data second, only moments after Orion, and satellite data first as it was relayed to it by the satellites orbiting Mars. Houston got telemetry last and the satellite images before Orion III, but had a staff of engineers and technicians to make sense of it first.
On Orion III Anna gasped as Watney's bio-monitor signal went dead and it dawned on all aboard that their crew mate was gone. A few moments after Mindy gave the initial report Missy gave her only order of the flight.
"Fly the mission Washburn, Park get us to Hermes. We will grieve when we are there. Mark sacrificed himself to get us off Mars. We won't dishonor him by wasting the opportunity. I need a channel to Hermes and Houston please Mindy."
The G force of liftoff made most actions impossible, but once gravity was broken Mindy was able to comply. "Line is open Commander."
"Houston,... Hermes, Ares III Actual. Liftoff of Orion III Victoria I has occurred but at great cost. We are working the flight and will provide detailed information at docking with Hermes. Ares III Actual. Out."
By the time this message reached Houston, Mitch Henderson was already starting to look at the photos of the launch area, Kay Kay was wailing as her father and Annie led her to the family room, and Mark's parents were trying to catch their breath as all the other families were either stunned or beginning to console them.
"Well, that's interesting." Mitch said as he scanned the first image.
"Looks like snow, I guess from the hydrox engines." Kapoor said.
"Hab looks solid, can we tell if it is standing or is that a flat image?" Teddy asked.
"It looks good, look, you can see the shadows beside it, and it was nearly a hundred meters from the launch, and yeah, I'm guessing that's snow from the hydrox. Didn't get all the way to the botany hab, so my guess would be the hab is fine. We should have Satcom track its sublimation rate but, no, what is interesting is what isn't there." Mitch said as he keyed his headset.
"AD, do a calculation to determine how much maneuvering fuel it would take for Hermes to fall into a 275 k orbit."
"We know that one already sir, all of it. That was considered primarily but figuring Orion III's capabilities it didn't become necessary. If we needed a lower orbit we should have made an inflight adjustment a week ago at least, Orion III could link up anywhere between Mars and here."
"Copy AD. Figure it using the maneuvering thrusters on Orion III to power both craft instead. Would it have enough fuel to push Hermes down after the link, and would Hermes be able to regain speed to break orbit in an expedient manner and reasonable time frame."
"What? Why?"
"Because the Mission Director just asked to you very nicely. And the Director of Mars Missions is asking too." Venkat Kapoor said into his own headset. "Get that information in 15 minutes and shoot it and the maneuver to Hermes. Also check with JPL to see if that is even possible so far as strain on the Hermes is concerned."
Teddy was unclear what this was about, as he still had not determined what Venkat and Mitch had seen on the image, but as much as he didn't like Mitch personally, he knew him to be a quick thinker and a good mission director.
"What the fuck?" Beth asked as Hermes received the first telemetry from Orion III relayed by satellite.
"What is it" Rick asked. He was busy flying the ship and monitoring its orbit. Alex was at the station beside Beth watching the symbols of the two ships as they began to close on each other in 4 dimensions and tracking that while keep Rick apprised of any needed corrections, calling out distances and intervals, which was a full-time job. In addition to the satellite and radio telemetry, they were getting radar and optical tracking info, and all were fed into the nav system to coordinate the rendezvous. Neither Rick nor Alex had time to look up at the rest of the screen.
"It's Mark. He... He's not there." Beth gasped as it dawned on her what it meant.
"Where is..." Alex started to ask.
"He's not anywhere." Beth answered as Commander Lewis' transmission came over their headsets.
"Oh my god! He's dead?" Beth could barely speak. The realization knocked the wind out of her as her eyes exploded with tears.
"Copy Ares III Actual. Let's get you here. That is what is our focus at the moment." Rick said before killing his mic.
"Beth, I know... can you keep it together a few more minutes?" Rick gasped as his own eyes filled with tears for his fallen friend.
"Ya... yes."
"Come on Beth, we need you. Vic I needs you. Put it in the back of your mind. We will get through this, let's get Orion to dock. Then I'll collapse with you" Alex added, trying to be as supportive as possible, then remembering that Chris was in airlock one as the recovery specialist.
"You should tell Chris" Alex suggested to Rick.
"Chris, you okay back there?" Rick asked.
"Yeah. Let's get them home."
"Chris, there was a problem with the launch. Mark isn't on board and we think he is lost. I... Can you do the link up?"
"Copy. Yes, I got it. Any idea what happened?"
"None yet. Commander Lewis will fill us in, uh, in about 15 minutes. Listen up everyone, let's keep it together. It's what Mark would want." Rick said.
"He probably would want to be on the fucking ship" Alex thought to himself.
The time passed in near silence, except for Beth and Mindy walking Rick and Anna through the delicate telemetry of the flight to link up and ultimately magnetically guided docking.
Back at Houston, in the family room, it was quite a bit noisier. Kay Kay was inconsolable, and Irene thought about taking her somewhere that she might not disturb the Watneys, who were themselves equally distraught. The other families comforted them as well as they could, as did the counselors provided by Irene's work group. Word came to give "Momma Watney" as she was known to NASA management, whatever she wanted or needed. At that moment, Momma Watney seemed to need to hug Kay Kay and talk with her. Consoling Kay Kay gave Mrs. Watney something to do and focus on. Irene could only eavesdrop on the conversation.
"I tried to tell them he's alive, but they wouldn't listen!"
"You think he's alive? Tell you a secret, so do I" Mrs. Watney told her.
"You do?"
"Marks solved everything Mars threw at him so far, why couldn't he solve this? You wait and see. After all he's been through, he's not going to miss his ride without a good reason."
"I know right?" Kay Kay replied, gratified that someone would listen to her.
"Right, so let's just wait here and see what happened. Its out of our hands anyway. Mark may seem funny all the time, but he's the smartest boy this place ever saw. I know he adores you too, he talks about you all the time, did you know that?"
"No" Kay Kay wept.
"It's true. He talks about his crews and you. Never talks about himself. When you found his rock piles, he kept going on about how smart you were and how you solved it when no one else did. Now you watch, he's going to solve this when no one else could either."
"You think so?"
"You just have to have faith. You watch and see." Mrs Watney replied, although she had her doubts. It seemed like Mark's luck had finally ran out. She had been prepared for this for several years but could not stand to see the little girl suffer without hope. She couldn't do anything to help Mark or the crew, but she could give a child a ray of hope, even if there wasn't any.
This went on for several minutes and Irene was just about to break it up so their hopes wouldn't be dashed when a docent arrived.
Minutes before, down the hallway at Mission Control, Mitch Henderson had turned to one of the press docents, signaled him over, and directed him to retrieve the Watney's if they wanted to come to Mission Control, and Kay Kay whether she wanted to or not.
"You want the girl here?" Venkat asked.
"Yes. Annie will have a stroke if she misses it."
The ships docked perfectly, but Missy had Anna delay opening the door in the nose of Orion that they would travel through into Hermes.
"It has been an honor flying with you, given the circumstances I am stunned at how well each of you kept it together. Mark would want us to carry on and we shouldn't dishonor the gift of his life by sullying it with self-doubt or blame. Mindy, am I right in saying the ship launched from the tilt programming?"
"Yes, I should have..."
"There is no way you could have predicted that. Fair to say there was an explosion under the ship from the fuel that went out during the first launch try?"
"That's the only thing I can figure. I just don't know why it didn't dissipate."
"No wind, little atmosphere and it was warmer than the surrounding air that was there. The cowling must have held enough in to go off, then that sent a thump that tripped the stabilizing gyros and she launched."
"No way you could have predicted that Mindy. Don't you dare blame yourself. Mark would... Mark wouldn't want that." Missy said as she pulled Mindy into a tearful embrace. The crew came together as well as they could in the confined space and gave themselves a moment of humanity as they grieved for their lost friend.
Three solid taps were heard at the portal in the nose of the ship, fully forward in the com, the signal that Chris had opened his port and gone into the airlock to receive its crew. Missy released her embrace from Mindy and the crew separated, and then she nodded to Dana who was the lowest ranked member.
Dana opened the door, saw her love Chris and tearfully asked "Permission to come aboard?"
"Granted. Welcome to Hermes" Chris replied as he took Dana's hand and pulled her in, followed by the rest of Victoria I.
"Commander Martinez, Crew of Victoria I, uh, Lewis, Park, Washburn and Abernathy, safely aboard. Orion III secured at dock with three green lights confirmed."
"Confirm. Three lights. Welcome back Commander Lewis. The ship is yours." Rick replied.
"All crew to the green room please." Missy said over the intercom link, then looked at her Victoria I crew mates and added "Welcome to the Hermes. It's a bit roomier than you are accustomed to... uh, Chris would you take us to the Com?"
"Sure, right this way." Chris replied then led the group to the small meeting room aft of the command center. As the ship was completely weightless it was a quick trip, although all of Victoria I had to stop for barf bags along the way.
Missy knew the Hermes crew was full of questions and deserved all the information she had, and so she began.
"There was a primary ignition failure, probably the spark gaps corroded in the atmosphere, or they simply burned off the last time the mains were fired. There was no previous indication of this, our pre-launch systems tests showed nothing wrong. We didn't have either time or material for repair, but Mark had made some thermite devices he had wanted to set off for our weekly news reports. He volunteered to place one under the craft and set it off igniting the ignition rockets. The mains were off. We think a pocket of vaporized JP1, O2 and hydrogen were trapped under the cowling and detonated before Mark could return to the ship as planned, he should have had able time to return and strap in before we fired the mains. He was outside on the surface when the mains engaged due to a safety protocol in the programming. His bio sensor went dead within a second or so of the mains engaging. That's all we know right now. I know its hard, and its going to be miserable for all of us, but Mark saved us, the Victoria crew and me, and we need to honor that and earn it. Mark would want us to get home and live long and happy lives. I expect you to do your best. We need to rig for breaking orbit, but we will do a few observation passes first, his family deserves some closure, no matter how hard it is on us. I can't do any time off, but we will as soon as we break orbit. Mindy, Commander Park is now XO and will work up the roster. Rick, Beth, Alex, Chris... Thank you for coming back for us. I know Mark would thank you too. I am forever in your debt. I know we all need to weep, but right now we need to secure for travel and finish our job here. We will make time for anyone that needs it. Can we do this? Work together and get home?" Missy asked.
"Of course commander. The ship is yours. I think I can say for everyone, we're proud to be here with you." Rick said with everyone else nodding agreement.
"Beth, I need to send a message to Houston, can you record it so we can edit it first?"
"Yes" she gasped, then entered the appropriate commands and added "You're on."
Beth stared at her screen; her eyes full of tears. Everyone else wept with her as Missy recorded their announcement from Mars telling the world how Mark had died a hero, something Missy explained he never claimed to be, but always was.
Beth tried to focus on the screen in front of her that had all the information the sysop of the mission might need and tried not to listen to the description of Mark's demise again, but it was hopeless. She could barely see the screen and decided to ask to be relieved, for a few minutes at least, once Missy finished speaking. Maybe finally talking to Mindy face to face would help. She knew Mindy was hurting every bit as much as she was. Over the last few months they had developed a strong, if unusual, friendship and she felt closest to her of all her travel companions and...
"Why is that flashing?" Beth asked herself as she wiped her eyes dry to get a better look, just a new sub window opened with MAV information on it. It dawned on her in a moment what she was seeing, and she killed the recording of Missy's message.
The recording system cut out with an audible squawk that all heard, and Missy stared at her with pure anger in her eyes.
"Oh god Beth don't make me go through that again, it's hard enough without..."
"Commander, please, just a second. You need to look at this."