The Final Expedition

Day Two Hundred and Fifteen

For the next two hours, we sat in silence, alone with our thoughts while Morrison continually monitored our descent.

“Any idea where our landing zone will be?” Natalya finally broke the silence, shouting to be heard over the roar as the tiny capsule pierced the outer atmosphere, the heat shield at our backs rapidly heating to beyond 2000°C.

“None whatsoever.” Morrison replied grimly. I swallowed hard. Wasn’t two thirds of the Earth’s surface water? What if we splashed down in the middle of the Pacific? Even if we missed the oceans, we could smash into the Himalayas or land deep in the Sahara desert. We might find ourselves in the irradiated zones of the northern hemisphere or the frozen wastes of the Arctic Circle. All of a sudden, Morrison landing the capsule safely seemed the least of our problems. Outside the porthole, I couldn’t make out anything beyond the crimson heat haze that had enveloped us as the capsule plummeted through the atmosphere.

“How high above the surface are we?” I asked Morrison.

“Sixty miles, give or take.” He replied. “About twenty minutes until we land.” I nodded, watching for the next few minutes as the heat haze began to thin, the black of space slowly lightening to a dark blue and then a familiar azure blue.

“Deploying parachute in 3… 2… 1… Mark.” Morrison announced. A moment later there was a violent jerk as the parachute opened and immediately slowed our descent. “Fifteen minutes until landing.” He commented, before pausing for a moment. “Look, I just want to say that whatever happens, it has…”

“Please don’t.” I interrupted. “I’m sure we can all live or die without an uncomfortable sentimental moment. Let’s just assume everything’s going to be okay.”

“Okay Carter.” Morrison laughed. ”Have it your way.”

The next few minutes passed in nervous silence. Peering back through the porthole, all I could see was a dense fog as we passed through layers of cloud. To my right, I could hear Morrison muttering something under his breath.

“What was that, Wes?” I asked. “Did you say something?”

“Shhhh!” Natalya whispered. “He’s praying!” I noticed his head was bowed, his eyes closed and his lips moving rapidly. A few moments later, he glanced up at the instrumentation.

“Firing Soft Landing Engines in twenty seconds.” Morrison told us. “Brace yourselves for landing. Engine fire in 3… 2… 1… Mark!” There was a terrific roar as the six soft landing engines fired, our bodies pressed back hard in our seats followed a moment later by a jarring impact as we landed. The whole capsule lurched to one side and for a moment I feared it would roll over. My heart was in my mouth before it rocked back and gently righted itself. The roar of the engines died off and we sat there in silence for a moment, the only sound the creaking of the capsule as it cooled down. Judging by the impact, we’d set down on land at least.

“Everyone okay?” Morrison asked after a moment, his head twisting one way and then the other inside the helmet.

“Okay.” Natalya echoed hoarsely while I just gave him a thumbs up, my senses still reeling from the landing.

“Well, we’re back. Now let’s find out where we are.” Morrison said, unfastening his harness and reaching up for the hatch. It swung out, sunlight shining in through the circular opening and making us squint. Morrison clambered out, squeezing through the narrow hatchway in his bulky pressure suit.

“Are you okay?” I asked Natalya, glancing across at her. I could see her head nod inside the glass hemisphere of her helmet. She looked as shaken as I felt. I unfastened my own harness and pulled myself out of my seat, Natalya doing likewise. I clambered up to the hatch and peered out. I could see the peaks of a mountain range to one side and endless plains all around us. It was dry and arid and I could smell burning.

“Carter! The fire extinguisher!” Morrison called up from outside. “Quickly!” My eyes widened when I saw the flames licking around the edge of the capsule. I quickly ducked down, wrenched the red cylinder from the wall and passed it to Morrison. He swiftly emptied it around the capsule, the powder leaving us in a dense white dusty fog. As it settled, I could see Morrison studying an instrument in his hand. A Geiger counter. I could hear it clicking rapidly as he swept it around. My heart was in my mouth. Had we come so far only to be condemned to a slow, painful death from radiation poisoning? I watched Morrison drop to his knees, the Geiger counter slipping from his fingers into the brown grass before him. He took his head in his hands.

“Oh no. God, no.” I gasped. After all we had been through, the months of hardship, Aki’s sacrifice, all for nothing. Morrison’s hands moved and I realised he was twisting off his helmet. He pulled it up and off and dropped it to the ground next to him.

“The radiation here is at a safe level.” He grinned up at me. “Come on out!” I breathed a deep sigh of relief before climbing out of the hatch, my feet sinking into the charred grass around the capsule. It felt strange to be back on my feet after all those months in space and I felt a little weak and unsteady. I turned to help Natalya out and stumbled, throwing my arms out. Morrison caught me, hauling me back upright.

“Easy,” he smiled, “Just take a moment. Get your balance back.” I nodded, watching as he reached up to help Natalya out. “Welcome back to Earth.” He grinned at her. She threw her arms around him and then around me, our glass visors clunking together. I could see tears in her eyes as she began to sob with relief. As the tension left my body, I welled up too, clutching Natalya close to me. Morrison, stoic as ever, just smiled broadly.

A few minutes later, we had stripped off our pressure suits, down to the blue flight suits beneath. The capsule was scorched and blackened all over and the foliage was still smouldering beneath it. We stepped away from it and I breathed deeply, enjoying a lungful of fresh air after months of recycled air conditioned atmosphere aboard the station. While I still felt a little unsteady on my feet, it was good to walk again, to feel gravity after all those months of weightlessness. A gust blew across us, the sea of long grass rippling in the wind. I closed my eyes, luxuriating in the sensation of the gentle breeze on my face. The world seemed so quiet after the constant background hum of air conditioning on board the station.

“Strange, the things you miss, eh?” Morrison chuckled. I opened my eyes to find both him and Natalya gazing at me, amused smiles playing on their lips.

“It’s good to be back.” Natalya murmured, stretching her arms high above her head.

“We need to salvage what we can from the capsule.” Morrison told us. “There is a full set of survival equipment and rations behind the seats just in case the Soyuz ever missed its landing zone in Kazakhstan and we had to wait for the search and rescue teams to find us.”

“Just as well.” I replied, looking all around us. I could see no sign of civilisation anywhere. No settlements or roads, just endless grassy plains. “Looks like we have a long walk ahead of us.” Morrison nodded. Behind him, Natalya was untying her long blonde hair. Pulling it loose, it cascaded down past her shoulders and she smiled broadly as she ran her fingers through it. I realised with a start that this was the first time I had ever seen her on her feet. As she strolled around the capsule, she moved with the grace of a dancer. Feeling my eyes on her, she glanced over her shoulder at me, blushing slightly.

“You’re taller than I thought.” She smiled.

“And you’re even more beautiful on Earth.” I replied. Morrison stifled a groan.

“Very Smooth, Carter. Come on, let’s get going before I’m sick.” He grinned good-naturedly.

We trekked wearily away from the landing site, the mountain range at our backs. Everything we could salvage from the capsule, we had divided between us in backpacks. The long, dry grass whipped at our legs and our flight suits were quickly darkened with patches of sweat. I wondered where we were. I couldn’t even be sure from the terrain and foliage what hemisphere we were on, let alone the continent or country. I guessed from the radiation levels we were probably in the southern hemisphere. Perhaps once the sun set, the position of the constellations would give Natalya, with her knowledge of astronomy, a rough indication of where we were.

“Let’s take a break.” Morrison told us, unslinging his pack from his shoulder and dropping it to the ground. I nodded and did the same, wiping the beads of perspiration from my brow and sitting down. As Natalya and Morrison sank to the ground, they looked as weary as I felt.

“A hell of a day, even by our standards.” Morrison smiled, reaching for his water flask before drinking deeply from it.

“You’ve got that right.” I agreed, taking a swig from my own flask before a thought struck me. “I think in all the excitement we never thanked you, Wes.” I told him. “That was some landing without mission control to guide us down and no idea where the landing zone would be.”

“I got lucky.” He shrugged.

“No, we got lucky having you as our pilot.” Natalya smiled. Morrison smiled uncomfortably.

“I can’t stop thinking about Aki.” I murmured. “It should be her sitting here, not me. I don’t understand why she did it.”

“Maybe she had already made her mind up weeks ago that she would stay behind.” Morrison mused. “Or maybe she saw the look on Natalya’s face when you pulled that short straw and couldn’t live with parting you both. Perhaps she found it easier to sacrifice herself rather than live with the guilt of you dying instead. I guess we’ll never know for sure, but whatever her reasons, she was one extraordinarily brave woman. One day, she will be remembered in the same breath as your Captain Oates.” Twisting the cap back onto his flash, he climbed to his feet. “We should get going. It’ll be a cold night if we don’t find shelter.” I clambered back to my feet. As I slung my pack back onto my back, something in the distance caught my eye.

“Is that what I think it is?” I pointed towards what appeared to be a plume of smoke rising into the sky.

“I think it is.” Morrison replied. “It looks quite a distance, but if we hurry, we should get there by nightfall.”

We walked with purpose as the sky began to darken, our eyes fixed on the plume of smoke. Glimpsing a flash of light overhead in my peripheral vision, I glanced towards it. Natalya had seen it too.

“Look.” She pointed at it. High above, we could see a series of bright lights streaking across the sky, sparkling brilliantly for a moment before vanishing as quickly as they had appeared. We watched grimly, all of us knowing exactly what we were watching.

“Goodbye Aki.” Natalya murmured, her hand tightening around mine. “Thank you.”