Chad grabbed for his other foot, and they urgently pulled him forward. Michael spotted the bullet’s damage. “His umbilical’s wrecked!”
Luke’s body turned, and Michael saw that his visor was clouded by condensation. He strained to see inside. “His eyes are closed.”
“Shit!” Chad said, taking command at last. “The switches are on your side—start an emergency repress! I’ll watch the burn.”
Michael whipped to his left and moved the valves to let oxygen pour into the cabin. He watched the cabin pressure indicator, preparing to pop Luke’s helmet off the moment it rose high enough.
The needle on the gauge stayed at zero. He tapped it rapidly, hoping the mechanism was stuck.
No response.
“Boss, I think we may have a cabin leak!”
The two men looked at each other across Luke’s inert body, their thoughts racing.
“It’s either the hatch didn’t seat or a bullet hole,” Chad said. “Hatch is quicker to check.” He stared at Michael through the smears of vomit on his visor. “I’ll keep watching the burn. You cycle and clear the hatch.”
Michael unsnapped his harness and, fighting the force of the engine, closed the oxygen switches and reached behind him to the hatch handle, cranking fast to reopen it as quickly as he could. He watched as the mechanical rollers retracted, and pushed hard on the door as soon as they released. The darkness outside in contrast to the interior lights made it hard for him to see the rubber seal.
He rapidly traced the hatch edge and found the scored metal where the bullet had grazed it. He felt sick when he saw the torn rubber.
“Chad, looks like a small section of the door seal is missing! I’ll grab the patch kit—I think it’ll hold.”
He had to move Luke out of the way to access the aft storage cupboard, cursing under his breath as he hunted for the right container. When he found it, he tore it open, pulling out the heavy plasticine-like block inside. Pivoting back up to the hatch, he rolled the sealant into place, making it extra thick where the rubber was missing and using his gloved thumb to smear it smooth along the metal. The patch kit container bounced free and floated through the hatch, out into the darkness. Fuck! He checked his work.
“Okay, Chad, I’ve got a good glob in there. Should do it. Closing the hatch now!”
Bracing with his other hand, he got a secure grip and pivoted the hatch towards himself, carefully keeping an eye on his makeshift repair to be sure it stayed in place.
As he had the hatch nearly closed, something blocked it. He pulled harder, then leaned back slightly to see the whole circumference, wondering what was in the way.
What Michael saw, he couldn’t believe.
Pinched between the swinging hatch and the structure of Pursuit was a gloved hand.
Someone was trying to get in.
COSMONAUT
27
Pursuit, Trans-Lunar Burn
“How’s it looking?” Gene Kranz’s words were clipped with urgency.
Apollo 18 had just come into range of NASA’s Deep Space Network satellite dish near Johannesburg, South Africa. The downlinked data was starting to appear on the Mission Control console screens, and Gene urgently wanted to know how the Trans-Lunar Injection engine firing was going.
“Burn’s underway, FLIGHT.” A pause as the Flight Dynamics console operator evaluated the rows of flashing numbers he was seeing. “Everything looks right on the money.”
The Environmental Control officer spoke, mild surprise in his voice. “FLIGHT, EECOM here, they’re still at vacuum.”
Gene thought about it. Time had been tight, and the crew would have had no real need to deal with the distraction of repressurizing until after the burn.
“Copy, EECOM.” He visualized what the crew was doing, double-checking. “Confirm the hatch shows closed?”
“Roger, FLIGHT.”
So crew was inside, the ship was behaving itself, and they were on their way to the Moon. Just need to get this damned comm snag fixed.
“CAPCOM, let them know we’re here, and that we see good numbers on the burn so far.”
As CAPCOM keyed his mic to speak, the EECOM said, “FLIGHT, wait!”
Gene looked over the top of his console at the officer, who had turned so he could make direct eye contact. “The switches no longer show closed. The crew is opening the hatch during the TLI burn!”
Gene looked to his left. “SURGEON, you still getting Luke’s data?”
JW shook his head. “FLIGHT, his signal seems intermittent. Not sure what to make of it.”