She’d tried to be as quiet as she could, but one of the two must have seen her. As she soared through Node 1 she heard an excited shout come from behind her.
Crap! She felt as though she’d been doused with a bucket of cold water. She flew through the air with her hands out in front of her, still holding the knife. She didn’t dare look behind her, but she figured that they must have already pushed off in hot pursuit.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Although she was flying quickly through the air, to Kimberly it seemed as if she only crept toward the Russian FGB module.
She knew she was moving much too slowly. She hadn’t been able to kick off as aggressively as she normally would; she wanted to get out of Node 1 as quickly as possible because although she’d thought the two intruders had been in the JPM, they might actually be much closer.
And they were.
Time seemed to slow even more and it took almost forever to reach the FGB.
Finally. Just another few feet through the Russian FGB module and she’d be in the SM. Then she’d be able to make a sharp upward turn to the zenith, into MRM-2 where the Soyuz was docked. She reached out with her fingers, wanting to claw her way through the empty air of the zero-gee environment, but there were no handholds or places for her to kick off so that she could travel faster. She was stuck with her tortoise-like movement through the air.
She felt a surge of adrenaline as she finally approached the SM hatch—
Something sharp, fast, and hard whizzed past her. Her hip suddenly flared with pain. Kimberly doubled over and brought her free left hand to her hip. It felt warm, sticky blood.
And something was clanging out ahead of her. She spotted the Russian titanium prybar bounce off the side of the hatch and come twirling back toward her, spinning end over end.
Kimberly ducked and the long, sharp-edged metal bar barely missed her. But her motion in midair had rotated her body and instead of slipping through the SM hatch and kicking off for the Soyuz, her torso slammed against the metal vestibule between the FGB and SM.
Gasping with pain and fright, she looked up and saw Farid hurtling toward her, his arms stretched out as if he was aiming straight for her throat. Still rotating, Kimberly stuck out her bloody hand and grabbed the metal edge of the vestibule and yanked herself back into the FGB. She spun head over heels along the sidewall, at an angle to Farid and now hovering just below him.
Farid’s forward momentum prevented him from stopping or turning around. He hit the vestibule where Kimberly had just launched herself. She knew she couldn’t get to the Soyuz now; she either had to hide or somehow barricade herself into one of the modules. But that meant she had to get past Bakhet. She could see the tourist slowly, carefully making his way toward her; he was already in Node 2 and would soon be entering the U.S. lab.
She took her eyes off Bakhet as she bore straight toward the caution and warning panel of the FGB. If she timed things right she could get to the U.S. lab before the Qatari and hopefully before Farid was able to untangle himself and spring back in her direction.
Kimberly rotated in the air, and just before she hit the metal panel on the side of the module she twisted up, slamming her feet against the plate so she could push into Node 1 at an angle.
She flew across Node 1 and zoomed into the U.S. lab, hoping she could fly underneath Bakhet as she had done to Farid seconds earlier. But as she approached the Qatari, a searing pain flared down her arm, and instead of moving at a good angle toward the wall she headed straight for the blue European Space Agency storage bag.
She reached out and grabbed the container. The Velcro fastener ripped open and a potpourri of electronics hardware flew out, spilling everything from batteries, wires, solid-state lasers, and other lab equipment across the module. She twisted around and spotted a high-power flashlamp, used as an energy source for one of the old Russian solid-state lasers. She grabbed the device out of the air and groped to set its repeating mode.
Bakhet tumbled into the module and careened off the aft wall. Kimberly heard him grunt as if the air had been knocked out of him. She frantically looked for a place to kick off, but she still wasn’t at an angle that would give her a good vector back toward the JPM and away from the Soyuz.
There was no way she’d be able to get past the two of them and be able to lock herself inside one of the three Russian modules. But as she quickly ran through her options, she got the gut feeling that if she could get back to the JPM she should be able to jury-rig some sort of device that would allow her to come back and punch through both the murderers.
She heard a sound behind her. Turning, she saw Farid soar through the portal, aiming straight at her. Desperately, Kimberly held up the flashlamp, squeezed her eyes shut, and stabbed at the power switch.
She felt a staccato of hot flashes on her face and through her closed eyes sensed a bright red pulsating flare. The afterimage glared in her vision as she opened her eyes and bounced off the far wall of the module.
Farid screamed a loud, guttural screech, his hands clasped over his eyes. Bakhet was bent over double, wailing and pawing at his eyes. Kimberly twisted and kicked out, trying to get past Farid while he was temporarily blinded.
He randomly flailed out with both hands, trying to grab her. Trying to make herself as small as possible, Kimberly ducked beneath him, but as she flew past she felt his clawlike hands rake down her back. Her momentum changed, and for an instant she thought she wouldn’t reach the vestibule. She reached out and hit the hard metal edging of the hatch and bent her body through the portal and into the next module.
Now inside Node 2 she made a hard left into the JPM, still blinking at the searing afterimage of the flashlamp. Behind her she heard Farid and Bakhet talking; calmer now, they were regrouping, starting after her again, only seconds behind.
As Kimberly entered the JPM she realized she’d never be able to jury-rig a weapon quickly enough to stop them. She’d have to hole up, somehow barricade herself inside the Japanese module until she had the time to gather her wits and prepare for another tangle with the murderers. And this time, she hoped, she’d be better prepared.
As she flew through the vestibule into the Japanese module she spotted a VAJ—a vacuum access jumper—rolled up and secured by the hatch. It gave her an idea, and she rapidly raced through the pros and cons of it. At first she dismissed it out of hand, but the more she thought about it the better it sounded.
Her entire decision-making process took less than a few seconds, but she knew exactly what she had to do. She reached out and grabbed the tie that held the VAJ.
BARRICADED
Clutching the VAJ to her chest, Kimberly pulled herself into the Japanese module. She quickly unfastened the vacuum access jumper and unrolled its metal hose. It spread out in midair, writhing slightly like a weightless snake.
Kimberly turned to the vestibule.
There was a two-foot clearance between the hatches of Node 2 and the JPM. If she could evacuate the air in the vestibule after closing the hatches on either side, there was no way the intruders would be able to get to her. Kimberly mentally calculated that with the size of the ISS hatch, the 14.7-psi air pressure pushing against the 176,400 square inches of hatch area would exert nearly twelve tons of force, keeping the hatches closed.
She raced through the checklist attached to the VAJ, knowing that she had only a few seconds to act. Better get it right the first time, she told herself.