Station Breaker

65 Thruster

The rocket kicks on and I feel a rumble words cannot describe.

"MOTHER OF GOD!"

"You okay, Dixon?" asks Baylor.

"THIS IS INSANE!"

"I think he's enjoying it," says Laney.

"THE POWER! ALL THE POWER!"

I think I need a cigarette. Holy shit. I just got violated by a mothballed Navy secret weapon and I think I kind of liked it.

Hell. I know I did.

Jesus. Christ.

I don't care if the DarkStar doesn't return my texts tomorrow. There will always be this magical moment I can take with me forever.

In pilot circles there's a kind of physical envelope we all strive for. It's that borderline place between going so fast you're about to black out and the sensation that your body is moving impossibly fast and you're sort of at one with the universe.

Ernst Mach, the guy who got to name a whole unit of speed, once theorized that inertia was the property of the gravitational force of all the matter in the universe acting on a body.

Relativity provided a much better explanation, but in that perfect moment of acceleration you feel like the universe is trying to hold you back — and failing.

For several glorious minutes, the DarkStar thrusted me along that edge.

This is why I became a pilot. And to think I was going to let some Navy squid have all the fun. Not on my watch.

"Hey, Dixon," says Captain Baylor over my comm after the burn. "Did you survive?"

"Survived is an understatement. When I get back I'm changing my relationship status for this machine."

"I'm sure you two will make a great couple. The good news is your trajectory looks great. We're using the spread spectrum radio for telemetry since we can't pick you up on radar."

"What's the bad news?"

"What? Oh, there isn't any. I guess I phrased that poorly. Hold on, Markov wants to speak with you."

"Hello, David. How are you doing?"

"Fantastic." I know better than to mention that I spoke to Vin about the launch. Even within our small group of rocket thieves I have to be careful.

"Well, I'm the bearer of bad news. I have confirmation that Zhirov has his commanders working on a improvised trigger for the nuclear device."

"Um, dumb question, where is the rest of the crew on this? Any chance of getting them to mutiny and save us all some trouble?"

"Unfortunately, no. Although they have not been informed of what is actually taking place, they're not likely to be in a position to try to stop this."

I knew it was too much to hope for. Although the crew of Skylab 4 did a kind of mutiny back in 1973 when they thought they were being pushed too far. Ultimately they returned to work; although NASA never let any of the men fly again.

I imagine the fear of crossing Zhirov goes a bit beyond being forced to retire at your current government pay grade.

"You can expect that at least one or both men will be in the secure module when you arrive," says Markov.

"And your insider, they're all set?"

"Essentially."

"Essentially? What does that mean?"

"I still have to do some persuasion."

"Okay." I have no idea how he's talking to the cosmonaut, let alone what carrot he's dangling in front of them. Fast Passes for Space Mountain? Well… Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev did have a hissy fit back in 1959 when he was told he couldn't visit Disneyland because of security concerns.

"I'll let you know."

"Please do. I'm less than twenty minutes out from the K1. I'd like to know that when I knock on the door someone will let me in."

"Baylor here. So, uh Dixon, are you comfortable with Laney Washburn giving you the technical details of the K1? I know she's a civvy, but she knows more than anyone here."

"Is this a joke? Hell, yes."

Laney hops on the comm, "You know you're not supposed to knock, right?"

"Yes, Laney. It was a figure of speech."

"Okay. Just checking."

"I think I'll just poke my head into the main viewport and wave to everyone. Maybe moon them."

"Sure." She gets right down to business. "We got some schematics that show the collision radar for the K1. It looks like the DarkStar will be fine if you leave her at the end of the tether. They won't spot that.

"But as far as you're concerned, they'll definitely be able to detect your suit once you exit. However, since the explosive decompression of the airlock, they've been having issues with the sensors, plus there's debris still floating around the station."

Debris… "Um, Laney. Do you know if…"

"Yeah. Baylor says they retrieved her body. Side note, they're still refusing to turn them over to us."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Markov says it's blustering by Zhirov to keep everyone distracted."

"What do they want? Oh, never mind." Me.

"Right. So anyway, once the DarkStar is over the K1, it'll orient itself nose down. You'll need to exit through the rear hatch and use your suit thrusters to make it to the station. Once you're within 50 meters you'll be inside their blindspot. From there you'll need to make your way to the spacewalk airlock on the south end of the station. Got it?"

"Roger."

"Here. Type 'CAMAFT.1' into the terminal. I found out they have a pinhole camera array embedded into the DarkStar's skin."

A screen pops up on my console and I see the tiny white speck of the K1 as it grows closer. "Oh, this is helpful."

"We'll be right here if you need anything. We're going to try to keep the chatter to a minimum though, in case they have an antenna listening for stray signals."

"Got it."

A number counts down the meters as the K1 grows closer. The tricky part, which thankfully, the computer is handling, is figuring out how to match velocity and direction with the K1 without using too much fuel and making it obvious that a rocket is approaching.

Most of my acceleration was compensated for by using an elliptical path that put me on a steep climb where the earth's gravity could slow me down — kind of like a curveball.

Through the walls of the DarkStar I can hear the hissing sound of the micro-jets making tiny course adjustments, accounting for the remainder of my speed.

As the K1 grows from a tiny white pinpoint to a massive cross I get a chill down my spine when I think about what happened here just three days ago.

All I wanted to do was get to safety. Now here I am, about to jump right into the stupid middle.