Space Station Down, page 28
As frustrating as that might be, though, at least she still had time, instead of having her life prematurely ended.
Outside the ISS, orbiting behind them were the Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsule and the surviving Soyuz. There was no way they could get to the two vessels. And with the small but noticeable atmospheric drag, without being boosted up to a higher altitude, within months both capsules would meet their demise with final, fiery entries into the deeper atmosphere.
So now we have three weeks before the unmanned Progress resupply ship arrives, Kimberly told herself. And at least another month after that—nearly two months total, alone on the ISS—until a Soyuz rescue craft arrives to take them back home.
Two months alone with her ex-husband. In zero-gee.
At least Scott didn’t seem as arrogant or self-absorbed as he’d been when they’d broken up. But had he really changed? And if he had, what had motivated his turnaround? Is it for real? And most important, will it stick?
So Patricia was right. And it didn’t take the NASA Administrator, or her being an ex-astronaut or even a three-star Air Force general to tell her: two months alone on the station was more than enough time for her and Scott to get reacquainted.
Kimberly smiled to herself. And hopefully very well.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to John Silbersack, our agent, and Bob Gleason, our editor.
TOR BOOKS by BEN BOVA
Able One
The Aftermath
Apes and Angels
As on a Darkling Plain
The Astral Mirror
Battle Station
The Best of the Nebulas (editor)
Carbide Tipped Pens (coeditor)
Challenges
Colony
Cyberbooks
Death Wave
Earth
Empire Builders
Escape Plus
Farside
Gremlins Go Home (with Gordon R. Dickson)
The Immortality Factor
Jupiter
The Kinsman Saga
Leviathans of Jupiter
Mars Life
Mercury
The Multiple Man
New Earth
New Frontiers
Orion
Orion Among the Stars
Orion and King Arthur
Orion and the Conqueror
Orion in the Dying Time
Out of the Sun
The Peacekeepers
Power Failure
Power Play
Powersat
Power Surge
The Precipice
Privateers
Prometheans
The Return: Book IV of Voyagers
The Rock Rats
The Sam Gunn Omnibus
Saturn
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volumes A and B (editor)
The Silent War
Star Peace: Assured Survival
The Starcrossed
Survival
Tales of the Grand Tour
Test of Fire
Titan
To Fear the Light
(with A. J. Austin)
To Save the Sun
(with A. J. Austin)
Transhuman
The Trikon Deception
(with Bill Pogue)
Triumph
Uranus
Vengeance of Orion
Venus
Voyagers
Voyagers II: The Alien Within
Voyagers III: Star Brothers
The Winds of Altair
By DOUG BEASON and KEVIN J. ANDERSON
Lifeline
The Trinity Paradox
Assemblers of Infinity
Ill Wind
Ignition
Virtual Destruction
Fallout
Lethal Exposure
Magnetic Reflections
Kill Zone
By DOUG BEASON
Assault on Alpha Base
Return to Honor
Strike Eagle
The Cadet
The Officer
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
BEN BOVA is a six-time winner of the Hugo Award, a former editor of Analog, former editorial director of Omni, and a past president of both the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America. Bova is the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction. He lives in Florida. You can sign up for email updates here.
DOUG BEASON, Ph.D. is a Nebula Award finalist whose fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including The Wall Street Journal and Journal of Computational Physics. A fellow of the American Physical Society, Beason has worked on the White House staff for the president’s science advisor under both the Bush and Clinton administrations as the key staffer for space science and technology. As the associate laboratory director for Threat Reduction at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, he was responsible for the programs and people that reduced the global threat of weapons of mass destruction. Before moving to Los Alamos, Beason received an M.S. in National Resource Strategy and completed a twenty-four-year career as an Air Force officer, retiring as a colonel. He has lived in Canada, the Philippine Islands, and Okinawa. You can sign up for email updates here.
Thank you for buying this
Tom Doherty Associates ebook.
To receive special offers, bonus content,
and info on new releases and other great reads,
sign up for our newsletters.
Or visit us online at
us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup
For email updates on Ben Bova, click here.
For email updates on Doug Beason, click here.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Day One
Japanese Module (JPM)
Japanese Module (JPM)
Flashback: Kimberly, Age 10
Johnson Space Center, Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Johnson Space Center, Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Johnson Space Center, Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Japanese Module (JPM)
Node 1
Node 3
Pursued
Barricaded
Assessment
Johnson Space Center, Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Japanese Module (JPM)
Johnson Space Center, Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Flashback: “Never Give Up…”
Japanese Module (JPM)
Japanese Module (JPM)
The White House: National Security Council
South China Sea: 745 Miles Sse of Hainan, China
Day Two
Japanese Module (JPM)
Nasa Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Japanese Module (JPM)
Payload Operations Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
Old Executive Office Building, National Security Council, Washington, D.C.
Japanese Module (JPM)
Johnson Space Center: Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Maui Space Surveillance Site, Mount Haleakala, Hawaii
Joint Space Operations Center (Jspoc), Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Japanese Module (JPM)
Flashback: Kimberly And Scott
Day Three
Nasa Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Japanese Module (JPM)
Nasa Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Japanese Module (JPM)
Day Four
Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Johnson Space Center, Building 2: Public Affairs Facility, Houston, Texas
Japanese Module (JPM)
South Pacific Ocean, Northwest of the Solomon Islands
Japanese Module (JPM)
Iss U.S. Lab, Robotic Arm Controls
Japanese Module (JPM)
Clay Center Observatory, Brookline, Massachusetts
Japanese Module (JPM)
Intersection of Nasa Causeway And Highway 1, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Japanese Module (JPM)
Hadid Home, Vienna, Virginia
New York, New York
Russian Service Module (Sm)
South Pacific Ocean, Northwest of the Solomon Islands
Central Post, International Space Station
17Th Street And Constitution Avenue Nw, Washington, D.C.
Joint Airlock
National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland
Oval Office, the White House
Pentagon
Joint Airlock
Central Post, International Space Station
Central Post, International Space Station
South Pacific Ocean: Northwest of the Solomon Islands
Central Post, International Space Station
Central Post, International Space Station
International Docking Adapter, Node 3
Outside Node 3, International Space Station
Joint Airlock
Central Post, International Space Station
Central Post, International Space Station
Central Post, International Space Station
Acknowledgments
Tor Books by Ben Bova
About the Authors
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Characters in the book are entirely fictitious and are products of the authors’ imaginations—with the exception of George Abbey, Mike “Mini” Mott, Bill “Shep” Shepherd, and Fred Tarantino, whose names are included with permission, for purposes of verisimilitude.
SPACE STATION DOWN
Copyright © 2020 by Ben Bova and Doug Beason
All rights reserved.
Art by Michael Ferraiuolo
Cover art by Getty Images
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
120 Broadway
New York, NY 10271
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-30743-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-30744-6 (ebook)
eISBN 9781250307446
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
First Edition: 2020
Ben Bova, Space Station Down
Thank you for reading books on Archive.BookFrom.Net
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Outside the ISS, orbiting behind them were the Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsule and the surviving Soyuz. There was no way they could get to the two vessels. And with the small but noticeable atmospheric drag, without being boosted up to a higher altitude, within months both capsules would meet their demise with final, fiery entries into the deeper atmosphere.
So now we have three weeks before the unmanned Progress resupply ship arrives, Kimberly told herself. And at least another month after that—nearly two months total, alone on the ISS—until a Soyuz rescue craft arrives to take them back home.
Two months alone with her ex-husband. In zero-gee.
At least Scott didn’t seem as arrogant or self-absorbed as he’d been when they’d broken up. But had he really changed? And if he had, what had motivated his turnaround? Is it for real? And most important, will it stick?
So Patricia was right. And it didn’t take the NASA Administrator, or her being an ex-astronaut or even a three-star Air Force general to tell her: two months alone on the station was more than enough time for her and Scott to get reacquainted.
Kimberly smiled to herself. And hopefully very well.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to John Silbersack, our agent, and Bob Gleason, our editor.
TOR BOOKS by BEN BOVA
Able One
The Aftermath
Apes and Angels
As on a Darkling Plain
The Astral Mirror
Battle Station
The Best of the Nebulas (editor)
Carbide Tipped Pens (coeditor)
Challenges
Colony
Cyberbooks
Death Wave
Earth
Empire Builders
Escape Plus
Farside
Gremlins Go Home (with Gordon R. Dickson)
The Immortality Factor
Jupiter
The Kinsman Saga
Leviathans of Jupiter
Mars Life
Mercury
The Multiple Man
New Earth
New Frontiers
Orion
Orion Among the Stars
Orion and King Arthur
Orion and the Conqueror
Orion in the Dying Time
Out of the Sun
The Peacekeepers
Power Failure
Power Play
Powersat
Power Surge
The Precipice
Privateers
Prometheans
The Return: Book IV of Voyagers
The Rock Rats
The Sam Gunn Omnibus
Saturn
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volumes A and B (editor)
The Silent War
Star Peace: Assured Survival
The Starcrossed
Survival
Tales of the Grand Tour
Test of Fire
Titan
To Fear the Light
(with A. J. Austin)
To Save the Sun
(with A. J. Austin)
Transhuman
The Trikon Deception
(with Bill Pogue)
Triumph
Uranus
Vengeance of Orion
Venus
Voyagers
Voyagers II: The Alien Within
Voyagers III: Star Brothers
The Winds of Altair
By DOUG BEASON and KEVIN J. ANDERSON
Lifeline
The Trinity Paradox
Assemblers of Infinity
Ill Wind
Ignition
Virtual Destruction
Fallout
Lethal Exposure
Magnetic Reflections
Kill Zone
By DOUG BEASON
Assault on Alpha Base
Return to Honor
Strike Eagle
The Cadet
The Officer
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
BEN BOVA is a six-time winner of the Hugo Award, a former editor of Analog, former editorial director of Omni, and a past president of both the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America. Bova is the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction. He lives in Florida. You can sign up for email updates here.
DOUG BEASON, Ph.D. is a Nebula Award finalist whose fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including The Wall Street Journal and Journal of Computational Physics. A fellow of the American Physical Society, Beason has worked on the White House staff for the president’s science advisor under both the Bush and Clinton administrations as the key staffer for space science and technology. As the associate laboratory director for Threat Reduction at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, he was responsible for the programs and people that reduced the global threat of weapons of mass destruction. Before moving to Los Alamos, Beason received an M.S. in National Resource Strategy and completed a twenty-four-year career as an Air Force officer, retiring as a colonel. He has lived in Canada, the Philippine Islands, and Okinawa. You can sign up for email updates here.
Thank you for buying this
Tom Doherty Associates ebook.
To receive special offers, bonus content,
and info on new releases and other great reads,
sign up for our newsletters.
Or visit us online at
us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup
For email updates on Ben Bova, click here.
For email updates on Doug Beason, click here.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Day One
Japanese Module (JPM)
Japanese Module (JPM)
Flashback: Kimberly, Age 10
Johnson Space Center, Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Johnson Space Center, Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Johnson Space Center, Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Japanese Module (JPM)
Node 1
Node 3
Pursued
Barricaded
Assessment
Johnson Space Center, Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Japanese Module (JPM)
Johnson Space Center, Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Flashback: “Never Give Up…”
Japanese Module (JPM)
Japanese Module (JPM)
The White House: National Security Council
South China Sea: 745 Miles Sse of Hainan, China
Day Two
Japanese Module (JPM)
Nasa Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Japanese Module (JPM)
Payload Operations Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
Old Executive Office Building, National Security Council, Washington, D.C.
Japanese Module (JPM)
Johnson Space Center: Iss Control Center, Houston, Texas
Maui Space Surveillance Site, Mount Haleakala, Hawaii
Joint Space Operations Center (Jspoc), Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Japanese Module (JPM)
Flashback: Kimberly And Scott
Day Three
Nasa Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Japanese Module (JPM)
Nasa Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Japanese Module (JPM)
Day Four
Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Johnson Space Center, Building 2: Public Affairs Facility, Houston, Texas
Japanese Module (JPM)
South Pacific Ocean, Northwest of the Solomon Islands
Japanese Module (JPM)
Iss U.S. Lab, Robotic Arm Controls
Japanese Module (JPM)
Clay Center Observatory, Brookline, Massachusetts
Japanese Module (JPM)
Intersection of Nasa Causeway And Highway 1, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Japanese Module (JPM)
Hadid Home, Vienna, Virginia
New York, New York
Russian Service Module (Sm)
South Pacific Ocean, Northwest of the Solomon Islands
Central Post, International Space Station
17Th Street And Constitution Avenue Nw, Washington, D.C.
Joint Airlock
National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland
Oval Office, the White House
Pentagon
Joint Airlock
Central Post, International Space Station
Central Post, International Space Station
South Pacific Ocean: Northwest of the Solomon Islands
Central Post, International Space Station
Central Post, International Space Station
International Docking Adapter, Node 3
Outside Node 3, International Space Station
Joint Airlock
Central Post, International Space Station
Central Post, International Space Station
Central Post, International Space Station
Acknowledgments
Tor Books by Ben Bova
About the Authors
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Characters in the book are entirely fictitious and are products of the authors’ imaginations—with the exception of George Abbey, Mike “Mini” Mott, Bill “Shep” Shepherd, and Fred Tarantino, whose names are included with permission, for purposes of verisimilitude.
SPACE STATION DOWN
Copyright © 2020 by Ben Bova and Doug Beason
All rights reserved.
Art by Michael Ferraiuolo
Cover art by Getty Images
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
120 Broadway
New York, NY 10271
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-30743-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-30744-6 (ebook)
eISBN 9781250307446
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
First Edition: 2020
Ben Bova, Space Station Down
