He looked down and checked the camera on his chest. “Hasselblad’s all set. Time to get some photos.” To point the camera he needed to use his whole body, concentrating on alignment as he looked up at Almaz, about 200 feet away.
The bright white reflection off Almaz’s exterior radiators momentarily blinded him. He squinted and turned to the side, away from the reflection, attempting to photograph one end of the Soviet spaceship.
The shape he saw was not what he expected.
“Hey, Michael, what’s that end cone thing on Almaz? It’s not like we briefed. It looks like some sort of add-on.” He pushed the shutter trigger on the camera and started a slow pivot to the right to get the full, planned photo survey of the exterior. “Maybe it’s some sort of return capsule?”
Chad was still keeping very still, fighting his nausea. Michael’s hands were busy on their joysticks, slowing Pursuit’s closure rate, easing the two vessels closer together. He’d been glancing at all edges of Almaz to assess speed and angles at the same time as he was trying to figure out what he’d seen at the base of the solar array.
Just then, Luke spoke rapidly, his voice loud.
“Guys! There are two spacewalkers on Almaz! Houston, Almaz is manned! It has cosmonauts aboard, and two of them are outside!”
A beat as he considered that. “It’s like they’ve been waiting for us!”
26
Almaz, Earth Orbit
Michael’s voice was urgent. “Houston, 18, are you copying Luke’s calls?”
Radio silence.
Christ! What do we do now?
“Boss, are you seeing this?”
Chad turned to face Michael, his visor smeared with vomit. The sudden motion triggered his nausea again, and he bent forward, pulsing weightlessly as he retched.
Michael shook his head in frustration and stared back through his window, slowing the approach, the vehicles drifting to within 50 feet of each other.
Luke’s voice came through Michael’s headset. “Okay, I’ve got a full photo survey done. The cosmonauts seem to be staying put. Maybe they’re supposed to be observing us?”
Michael watched them; their visors were turned to his ship, both holding onto an Almaz handrail. “Maybe, Luke. I’ll ease a little closer and set us up to fly slowly along the full length so you can get better-resolution photos. You got enough film left?”
“Yep, plenty.” He paused, looking at the cosmonauts. “I don’t think I should try to disable their ship. You guys agree?”
Michael looked across at Chad, still curled up on himself. Chad raised a thumb.
“Chad agrees, and so do I. Let’s just get the close-ups, and then I’ll maneuver us away.”
Luke adjusted zoom and focus on the lens. “Maybe they’ll wave on our way by.”
“Almaz, Almaz, how do you hear me?” Chelomei’s voice crackled in cosmonaut Andrei Mitkov’s headset.
“We hear you clearly, Comrade Director. The American ship is ten meters away and slowly closing, with the hatch open and one spacewalker outside. He has a large set of what look like bolt cutters with him. They are maneuvering now, repositioning forward, towards our re-entry capsule.”
Chelomei’s worst suspicions were confirmed. These men had been sent to attack his ship. “Mitkov! Be ready to physically stop the American from damaging Almaz. Take action as required.”
“Understood. Both of us are moving forward towards the capsule now.”
Chelomei whipped his head around at the flight director and shouted, “Where’s that video feed?”
“We’re just getting a solid relay lock now, Comrade Director. We’ll have it on the front screen in a few seconds.”
As if on command, a fuzzy black-and-white image appeared next to the Earth map at the front of the room. It showed a section of Almaz’s curved hull against the blackness of space, with the broad arc of the Earth below.
“Where is the American ship? We need to turn to face it!” Chelomei had a plan, but he had to get Almaz properly aligned against the aggressors.
The flight director gestured impatiently at his comm tech, who spoke to the crew. “Almaz, we need updates on the relative position of the other ship, in orbital coordinates.”
Mitkov paused from moving hand-over-hand along his vessel, and released one hand to pivot his whole spacesuit and look. The other cosmonaut paused behind him.
“They are aft and below us, five meters away now, co-aligned. Their command capsule is abeam our return capsule, holding distance steady, drifting forward slowly,” he reported.