Station Breaker

75 Hide and Seek

"I've got bad news," says Sonin as she sticks her head through the open hatch, carefully keeping her voice low. "The helmets. They're gone. All of them."

We'd sent her out on a reconnaissance mission to the upper airlock section, since she was the smallest and most agile. Two minutes later she returned with the dire news.

"What do you mean, 'gone'?" asks Sergey.

"Gone as in they probably locked them up in the secure section to keep you guys put," I reply.

Smart move. And bad for David. This means that there's only one astronaut working for the forces of light with a complete spacesuit. This one. Unless one of the Russians knows how to breathe vacuum, this operation just fell squarely back on my shoulders again.

"Okay. We need an alternate plan," says Vera, casting a look at Yves.

Suddenly Sergey perks an ear up like a mastiff listening to the sound of a can opener. "I think the secure section inner door just opened."

I don't stop to question how he could tell over the cacophony of Darth Vader sounds that fill the station. As a pilot I know to trust the instincts of someone who is familiar with their hardware.

There's no time to think. I have to react.

"Stay here!" I say in a harsh whisper then kick myself towards the open hatch.

I grab Sonin by the shoulder and pull her through then slam the door on her crew behind us.

"What are you doing?" she says, casting a nervous glance towards the other end of the station where the secure section is located.

I ignore her for a moment, grab the crowbar and wedge it back into the wheel that keeps the door shut, locking her comrades back inside.

I pat her on the back, and make a downward gesture towards the intersection.

A quick thinker, she gets it and pulls herself along by the straps then takes a dive down the docking spire. With my nose inches behind her feet, I follow her as she descends into the module.

CLANK!!! The outer door opens above us.

We're still only halfway down the module. If Yablokov and Domnin catch us playing hide and seek, this game is going to be over real quick.

Sonin yanks on a cargo net and sails faster towards the bottom. As soon as she reaches the lower junction she does a somersault like a cat, lands on her feet then presses up against the recess under the wall.

There's some muffled Russian talking above me, growing louder. I reach the junction, but not as gracefully as the space princess.

I try to find something to push from, but she saves me the trouble by scissoring her legs around me and pulling me under the overhang.

I grab a handle by a hatch leading to one of the two remaining vehicles and try to make my body go as flat as possible.

Sonin puts a finger to her lips — I guess I was being too noisy — then points to a reflection on the window at the bottom of the junction that overlooks Earth.

It's night below us, so the window acts like a mirror, showing the top of the main junction as a white disk.

One shape flies by towards the storage section. Another appears to go up towards the command section just below the upper airlock.

Sonin looks at me wide-eyed and nods. She instantly gets why I put the crowbar back in place.

If the commanders found that missing, they wouldn't just know that their captives were free to roam the station; they'd also know that somebody else had let them out.

In the category of things that would cause Yablokov to pull the trigger and make things go "boom"; an unknown person onboard the K1 is probably pretty high up.

We wait a tense minute as the commander checks the storage section. Finally, his shadow crosses back over the white disc of reflected light and he pulls himself up into the command section.

I whisper to Sonin, "We have to get into separate spacecraft."

"What?" she mouths.

I point towards Ivanka. "My spacesuit is in there. I have to do an EVA. You need to hide in the other one."

She nods her head in agreement. Out of nowhere there's a loud banging sound like a pipe hitting a radiator, over and over.

I give her a confused look.

"My crew is creating a distraction," Sonin whispers. "So we can get inside the spacecraft."

Got it. Back in the storage section they must have figured out our only course of action.

I give a nervous glance upwards, afraid Sergey or whoever's ape-like banging is about to bring Domnin and Yablokov running.

Sonin shakes her head. "We did that the first hour they locked us in there. They don't care. Ready?"

We go to opposite ends of the docking section and check our hatches.

Sonin gives me a thumbs up. We both pull the handles open at the same time then carefully close them, doing our best not to make too much noise.

I spin the wheel until the air-seal is secured.

And here I am, back inside Ivanka.

I work my way into my spacesuit as I bounce around the cabin, trying to avoid smacking my head on the bulkhead and failing.

Helmet finally on, suit lights all good, I vent the air from Ivanka and pray the commanders think it's just one of the many many sounds coming from the station.

After the ship has reached a vacuum, I open the side hatch I'd dismantled just a little while ago and drift outside.

Using the handrails outside the docking junction, I work my way over to Sonin's ship. She's got her face pressed up against the window.

If I was hoping for some kind of silent words of wisdom, I'm out of luck. She looks just as confused and scared as I feel.