Station Breaker

73 Bad Intentions

I give them all the details I can, while watching their reactions. I know one of them is Markov's insider, probably Sonin or the other woman, Vera, but I keep my mouth shut. I never went to spy school, but I imagine that rule number one is probably don't tell anyone that you're a spy — and rule number two is to never call out another fellow spy.

From their questions, I can tell they already knew something very shady was up. The commanders cut them off from talking to Roscosmos and rushed them into this section on short notice.

"Alright, hypothetically, let us say that we believe you. What is your plan? And how did you get here, by the way?" asks Vera.

"That's top secret." I don't actually know if it is, but better to keep my invisible spaceship a secret for as long as I can. There's the distinct possibility that one of these people could be an insider for Zhirov.

"I got in through one of your spacecraft berthed below." I almost said "Ivanka." That would have been interesting. "As far as my plan, um, well I was going to try to subdue one of the commanders and get him to let me into the secure module where I was going to use a sleeping gas to knock out the other."

"This plan is a stupid plan," says Sergey.

"Well, yeah, pal. You're right. I didn't have a whole lot of time to come up with a better one. Maybe the politburo here can think of something better."

The other man, who had been fairly quiet until now, Yves, speaks up in precise English. "How do you believe the commanders are going to detonate this bomb?"

"Um, with a detonator?"

He gives me a slightly condescending smile, which I'm sure I deserve, "Yes. But how will they deliver the bomb?"

"Deliver it? We're at the perfect altitude. I was thinking they were just going to press the button when their boss downstairs tells them to."

For some reason this assumption starts another debate that I can barely follow as they argue in Russian.

Sonin explains the discussion to me, "We believe that Yablokov is capable of this, but not Domnin. He is very…"

"Politically motivated," interjects Sergey.

"Well, this is interesting. All along we were working on the assumption the plan was for them to act as suicide bombers."

Sergey shakes his head. "Nobody loves Zhirov that much. Yablokov might do it for the… kink? Is that the word?"

"Close enough." I think he either means thrill or sense of duty, which could be the same thing. "So if you don't think their plan A is to blow the whole station, then what are they up to?"

"Could they eject it from the EVA airlock?" asks Sonin.

Yves shakes his head. "No. That would only put the payload in a slightly degraded orbit from us. If they detonate the bomb while we're in the same hemisphere, we could still be affected."

"Perhaps they plan to load it into one of our spacecraft?" says Vera.

"But there are only five seats in the other," points out Sergey. "That would leave us short one for reentry."

"Sergey, I don't think your commanders are planning for you to make the trip back to Earth. In fact, I'm kind of surprised they left you alive so far."

His face can't hide his reaction. "Commander Yablokov would not kill his own crew."

"Commander Yablokov would put a bullet in your head in a heartbeat," says Yves. "Domnin would do the same if he was promised a promotion. They're military men first and foremost. They came over to Roscosmos from the Army Air Force with Zhirov."

"Then why are we alive?" asks Sonin.

"Because Zhirov hasn't asked them to pull the trigger. This is still some kind of bargaining chip?" Yves asks me.

"Yes. I don't even think Radin knows what they have here yet."

"What?" blurts Sergey. "We must radio down and tell them!"

He starts for the door but Sonin and Vera grab him by the pant legs.

"Slow down there," I say. "The moment you send any kind of transmission down to Earth with the words 'bomb' and 'Zhirov' in them, one of his lackeys is likely to tell your commanders and the jig will be up."

"Is it settled then that they're going to use a spacecraft?" asks Vera.

Yves scratches his chin as he floats in mid-air thinking this over. "The prudent thing would be to abandon the station and take both of the spacecraft back down to Earth."

"But that still leaves the commanders with the bomb. Domnin may be the political animal you say he is, but if he's cornered, he might not hesitate to blow the thing out of spite. There's also the chance that Yablokov might not give him a choice. And there's the possibility that they have some other way of getting the bomb where they want to. We'd look pretty silly skedaddling out of here if that was never what they wanted."

Yves snaps his fingers. "Of course. They're not going to use the spacecraft. They'll use the EVO."

"EVO?" I reply.

"Extra Vehicular Orbiter. It's basically a small satellite launcher as big as a trash can. You eject it from the airlock. When it gets a few hundred meters its thrusters fire. After it reaches the right orbit a mechanical pusher releases the payload. Domnin said ours had malfunctioned, but I believe he was lying."

"How fast does it go?"

"Maybe two or three thousand miles an hour after a full burn."

I think it over for a moment. "That would give us five hours before it's far enough away from the station that they can set off the bomb. Regardless of which direction they send it, we'll run right past its orbit five hours after that. So when they launch it, they launch it. There's no going back."

"We have to stop them from getting to the airlock," says Sonin.

"Not so fast. We don't know if they have a dead-man's trigger on that thing. We could yell 'surprise' and the whole station goes boom."

"So what is your suggestion?" asks Vera.

I think it over then shake my head. "It's not a very good one…"