Chapter 27
Six years and five days in Space…
"Raven?" Bellamy said, walking into the Com Room. "Is everything okay?" She shook her head. Raven was lying down on the floor, arms and legs spread out. She looked like a star on the floor. She sighed and closed her eyes. "Raven, when was the last time you slept?" he asked, sitting on the ground next to her.
"Last year?" she chuckled humorlessly.
Bellamy rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Seriously."
"I don't know, really. All I've been thinking about is that the Earth has been survivable for a year, now, but I still haven't found a solution for Hydrazine." She paused and stared at the wires running all over the ceiling. "We're stuck up here, Bellamy. I'm so sorry…" she trailed off, tears streaming down her temples and into her hair. "And it's all my fault," she continued between sobs.
"No, it's not. It's all our fault. We decided to come up here in the first place. And you were the one to warn us that we didn't have enough fuel to come back." He chuckled. "Trust me when I tell you we had other things in mind back then."
"Like not dying?" she said, half laughing and half crying.
"Yeah, like not dying." He paused and looked at her. "Look, we're gonna find a solution, okay? Even if it takes us twenty years."
"But I don't want to stay twenty years up here, Bell. I'm sick of this place."
"Yeah, me too. But right now, it's all we have, and it's our home, like it or not."
"I don't like it."
They were both silent for a long moment, both lost in their own thoughts. At some point, Raven sat up, stretching her sore back.
"Raven," Bellamy said, "the people from the Ark took the whole Ark down when they came to Earth. Can't we do the same? Take the Ring down, I mean."
Raven looked at Bellamy. "Brilliant," she said slowly. "But if we do – and I have no idea how to do that, yet – there won't be any Space Shelter left for us to go to again."
"Let's just assume we won't need it anymore," Bellamy said. "Let's just take the Ring down."
Raven stood and started pacing back and forth in the Com Room, muttering to herself. Then, out of nowhere, she pressed the Intercom button for the whole Ring. "Monty? We need you in the Com Room. Now." She grinned at Bellamy. "Now that we have something new to dig into, we might actually find something."
Bellamy stood just as Monty walked in, a couple minutes later. "What's wrong?" he said, frowning.
Raven was beaming. "Bellamy just had a brilliant idea."
"Concerning…?"
"Getting back down to the Ground."
"Oh. Which is?" Monty asked.
Bellamy and Raven looked at each other. "Taking the whole Ring down," they said at the same time.
Monty's eyebrows shot all the way up to his hairline. "It is brilliant," he said, going for the computers and typing in some stuff Bellamy couldn't understand. "All we need to know is how they took the Ark down, and then we can do the same."
Raven frowned, thinking of something. "But why did they leave the Ring up here in the first place? Why didn't it come down with the rest of the ship?"
Monty and Raven exchanged a glance. "We're going to have to find that out," Monty finally said, much less enthusiastic than before. He looked at Raven again and then focused on his screen, typing other words in. A history of what had happened to the Ark appeared and he quickly went over it. Raven and Bellamy stood behind him, also looking at the screen.
"Well?" Bellamy said after a minute.
Monty sighed. "They stopped the propellers that kept them turning and in orbit and the whole ship went down, detaching itself from the Ring."
"But why?" Raven asked. "Why did the Ring stay in space?"
"It was designed to stay in space whatever happened. We'd have to find a way to take it out of its orbit so it would fall down… like the rest of the ARK."
Raven frowned and stayed silent. But it was clear that her mind was going 100 miles per hour. "What we need is a push. Something to propel us out of its orbit and zero-G and down to the ground."
"Exactly," Monty said. "But what would be big enough or strong enough to do this?"
They were all silent for a long time.
"What about going back down with the rocket we came in with?" Bellamy suggested.
"We don't have enough fuel, remember?" Raven said, rolling her eyes. "That's why we're looking for another solution."
"Yeah, but hear me out. If we can go down with the Ark in a free fall, why can't we do that with the rocket? How far can we go with the fuel we have left?"
Raven shrugged. "Probably two thirds of the way. Why?"
"Can't we use the Hydrazine to propel the rocket out if the orbit and then fall down on the Earth?"
"And die?" Raven said sarcastically. "Great idea."
Bellamy frowned, not following. "What about your fall with the launch pod?"
"It was designed to be launched from the Ark. But Bell, the falling speed would be enough to kill us. Let alone crash us to the ground."
"Water!" Monty shouted. "Can we fall in water?"
Raven froze. This was exactly what Luna had suggested, six years ago, when she and Abby needed to go into zero-G to make Nightblood.
"Monty, you're a genius." She darted away from the Com Room to the hangar where the rocket was. Bellamy and Monty ran after her. It wasn't hard to catch up with her, especially with that brace on her leg.
"What are you doing, Raven?" Bellamy called out after her.
"Simulations!" she said, panting. She pushed open the Hangar doors and opened the rocket's door. She sat inside and turned the simulations on. She totally ignored the two guys and went to work. "Computer. I want a simulation to go back to Earth with the remaining Hydrazine. And with eleven people on board," she said making a face, knowing all too well that this was asking too much. The machine hummed and set the simulation starting. Bellamy and Monty watched from the small door.
"Re-entry trajectory has to be perfect," Raven mumbled, typing in words into the computer.
"Raven listen," Monty said. "Perfect sucks, remember? As long as we all end up in one piece, it's ok."
"Right." She sighed. "All I have to do is a control crash right into the water. Right." She took a deep breath. "Okay, Computer. Let's do this."
"Raven wait," Bellamy said. "Screw the computer. Fly it yourself."
She looked at her two friends and nodded, sweat beads appearing on her forehead. She focused on her task at hand. "Computer, put me on Manual Mode."
"Manual Mode engaged. Rocket ready to launch," the robotic simulation voice said. "The door must be closed."
Bellamy and Monty stepped inside closing the door, and made themselves small to let Raven work. She strapped herself in the seat and ordered the computer to simulate the launch from the Ark. Raven and the boys stared at the screens. Bellamy and Monty didn't say a word as Raven flew the rocket out of orbit and started the fall.
"Manual Override," she ordered.
"Manual Override engaged," the computer said.
She grabbed the control stick and focused hard.
"Landing pad within range at 600 feet," the robotic voice said. "Target now visible. Range 300 feet." Pause. "Course correction needed immediately." Warning sounds turned on as the screen showed the water coming at them fast. "Target trajectory unknown." The beeping warning sounds continued. All the screens blinked red in warning. Raven switched a couple of buttons Bellamy and Monty didn't know what they did, and stared at the screen. "Brace for impact," the computer said.
The rocket crashed into the sea, and Raven sighed, still watching the screen for the results.
"Mission just failed. Exterior damage: 30%. Cargo destruction: 0%. Fatality: 0%."
"We're good," Raven whispered.
"Schematics programmed," the computer said.
"We're good!" Raven exclaimed, unbuckling herself and standing up. She turned around and faced Monty and Bellamy with a huge grin. "We're good," she repeated again. "We can do this. And I took every last drop of fuel, which took me down two thirds of the way. The last part is free fall, but if we stuff the rocket with enough pillows and any foam we can find, we should make it." She grinned again. "I can put her down in the water just offshore, closest to the green patch we saw on the Earth."
They all climbed out of the rocket and Bellamy embraced Raven. "I knew you could do it," he said.
Monty simply grinned. "Let's go tell the others." Raven and Bellamy nodded and they practically ran back to the Com Room.
"Emergency meeting in the Com Room," Monty called everyone through the speakers. "I repeat: emergency meeting right now in the Com Room. Everyone."
It was rare to have a meeting like this with everyone outside of meals. But within five minutes, everyone was there, even the three kids: five-years-old Atticus, four-years-old Jasper and two-and-a-half-years-old Persephone.
She ran to her daddy and Bellamy scooped her up in his arm. "Hello Princess," he said, placing a kiss on the top of her head. She giggled and snuggled comfortably in his arms, sucking on her thumb. Jane joined her husband and daughter, wrapping Bellamy's waist with her arm.
"So, what's the big deal?"
Bellamy grinned. "You'll see."
"All right everyone, listen up!" Raven said. "Your attention, please." She waited for everyone to look at her and stop talking. She grinned. "We're going back home."
"For real?" Jane asked, squeezing Bellamy against her.
"Yep," Raven said. "Monty and Bellamy helped me find a solution and-"
"How?" Murphy asked.
"Our people came down with the Ark. We're gonna do the same thing, but with the rocket. I'm going to land us in the water, as close as possible to the shore."
Harper frowned. "But you said we didn't have enough Hydrazine."
Raven explained what she did in the simulation. "Now, I have to calculate the exact time to launch so we can land near the Green Patch on Earth. But you can start putting aside what you want to take down. I'm afraid we're never going to see this place again. So anything you leave up here will be lost forever. Number one on the priority list are pillows and mattresses. We made it in the rocket with eight people to come up here. We're going down with eleven, plus whatever we need not to crash inside the rocket." She took a big breath. "Eleven people in a rocket made for one. But we're gonna make it."
While Raven and Monty started on the calculations to know when to launch, the others started gathering necessities (like food), pillows and mattresses.
Bellamy walked along the hall with Jane at his side, his little Princess on the other side, and Atticus running ahead of them. He stopped at the window and stared at something that had not been there before.
"Daddy, look," Atticus said pointing on the window pane. "A big spaceship."
Bellamy and Jane joined Atticus at the window. He took Persephone on his hip and they stared as a huge square-ish spaceship flying towards them. He squinted his eyes.
ELIGIUS corporation – Gagarin PRISONER TRANSPORT, it read.
"What the hell is that?" Bellamy mumbled for only him and Jane to hear…
