“Hold on.” Kimberly waved a hand, cutting Mini off. She shook her head. “This sounds like you’ve scheduled us for a month-long publicity stint up here. How long will it take for the Russians to get an emergency Soyuz launch to us for a rescue mission? A week or so, at the most. Right?”
Back at NASA Headquarters, Mini coughed and threw a glance at Patricia. “Uh, do you want to take that, Madam Administrator?”
Simone leaned in to the screen. “The Russians are completely revamping their launch facility in Kazakhstan with the discovery of Farid Hazood’s radicalization. This is very closely held, but they’re not even sure if any other cosmonauts or launch site crew workers may have been involved, so they’re doing a complete, top-to-bottom review of all personnel backgrounds, including equipment inspections and in-depth interviews with everybody on their launch teams.”
“Sounds more like interrogations, comrade,” Scott murmured.
Undeterred, Kimberly asked, “Then what about U.S. spacecraft? Isn’t there a manned Dragon launch that can be accelerated?”
Simone shook her head. “With what we’ve been through, that’s at least three months out. It will take a month just to get a new launcher to the Cape.”
Kimberly glanced at Scott, but her ex-husband kept his expression stony.
Simone continued, “However, the Russians have assured us that a Progress resupply vessel can be expedited to launch within three weeks, and a manned Soyuz a month after that.” She pursed her lips momentarily. Then, “So I’m sorry, but that’s the best we can do for you. In the meantime…”
“You want us to participate in the equivalent of a publicity tour,” Kimberly said.
“That’s one way to put it,” said Mini. “Look, Kimberly—in reality these publicity events won’t take up that much time. You’ve both been through it before. You know, the old grip and grin PR boondoggle for NASA. You guys’ll have plenty of time to start repairing the station, bring the JPM back online, maybe even complete some of the experiments you started.”
“Only if Kimberly sets the agenda,” Scott said. “And the timeline.”
He turned to her and lowered his voice. “Think of this as having another pair of hands to help you finish your projects. Since I was a last-minute addition I certainly didn’t have the normal prep time to come up with my own set of experiments.”
That was certainly unexpected, Kimberly thought. At a loss for words, she shifted her attention back to Simone, and noticed that the Administrator was wearing a tight smile. “You were going to say something, ma’am?”
“Just take advantage of the time,” said Simone. “In addition to Mini’s point about exploiting this opportunity for the space program—including getting a significant increase in the human space budget—you’ll not only have less of a constraint on completing your experiments, but it will be good for my two best astronauts to, uh, reacquaint themselves.”
Kimberly pulled back, suddenly self-conscious. Keeping her eyes riveted to the laptop, she asked, “Is that all, Madam Administrator?”
“For now. You’ve both had a long day—and you, young lady, have had an incredibly hard week. One for which the whole nation is grateful. Why don’t we pick this up tomorrow, and then Mini can go over the first few items on your new schedule.”
“With Kimberly’s approval,” Scott insisted. “As long as we also publicly acknowledge the sacrifice made by the six that died.”
“Agreed.” Simone nodded. “You can give the schedule thumbs-up or -down.”
“Copy,” said Kimberly. Without asking Scott if he had any other questions, she leaned forward and cut off the comm.
She pushed back from the laptop as Scott killed the link to MCC. Two months! That was an unusually long time to extend a mission, on a par with what had happened with the unfortunate Columbia disaster, back in the Space Shuttle era. But she knew that nothing she, or anybody else, could do would get them home faster.
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.