“Casey? I told you to get out of that module!”
“It’s ready!” she repeated. “Try it!”
“Hydra engaging second spaceplane!” Henry reported. This time the lights significantly dimmed in the command module.
“Hydra powered down!” Valerie said. “It drained the batteries below forty percent and shut itself down!”
“Second spaceplane still inbound.”
“Try it, General!” Casey said on intercom.
“Valerie?”
“Starfire has full continuity,” Valerie said. She looked over at Kai, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. “Permission to spin up the MHD, General.”
“Go,” Kai said. On intercom he said, “Engineering, Command, permission to spin up the MHD.”
“Engineering copies,” Alice acknowledged. A moment later the lights dimmed again. “Batteries down to twenty-five percent.”
“Too bad we can’t plug the MHD generator into station,” Kai said. “We’d have all the power we’d ever need.”
“Next time, we will,” Trevor said.
“MHD at twenty-five percent,” Alice said.
“Spaceplane two closing to one hundred miles,” Christine said. “I’m picking up a target-tracking radar from that spaceplane—he’s locked on to us with something. Spaceplane three closing to two hundred miles. Multiple S-500 missiles still inbound.”
“High hull temperature warning on the Galaxy module!” Alice reported. “Temperature still rising!”
“Everyone in the Galaxy module, get into your lifeboats!” Kai shouted. “Move! Engineering, make sure the Galaxy module is—”
“Hull temperature at limits!” Alice reported about thirty seconds later.
“Lifeboat one sealed,” Trevor reported.
“Lifeboat two, seal it up now! Lifeboat two, do you—”
Suddenly alarms went off throughout the command module. “Galaxy module hull breached,” Alice said. Kai looked at Trevor, who shook his head—lifeboat two was still not sealed up. “Module pressure down to zero.”
“Spaceplane two is headed away from us,” Christine reported. “Spaceplane three closing to one hundred miles.”
“Hobnail is locked on to target,” Colonel Galtin reported to his command post. “Request permission to engage.”
“Permission granted,” the controller said. “Elektron Two had a successful attack. Good luck.”
I need no luck, Galtin thought—I have Elektron and Hobnail. Seconds later, the radar reported in range and Galtin hit the switch to commit the Hobnail laser.
“Warning, hull temperature in command module rising!” Alice shouted. “It’ll hit the limit in twenty seconds!”
“Lifeboats!” Kai shouted. “Move!” But no one moved. Everyone stayed at their stations . . . because Kai did not unstrap himself from his seat, they were not going to do so either.
“MHD is at one hundred percent!” Alice reported.
“Valerie, go!”
“Combat, Starfire commit! Shoot!”
The first indication that something had happened was the acidy smell of burning electronics, even though Galtin was sealed up in his space suit. The second was the astounding scene of his instrument panel sparking, arcing, and finally setting itself afire, all in the blink of an eye. The third was a warning tone in his headphones indicating a complete system failure, although he could no longer see the status of any of his systems. The last thing he encountered was his space suit filling with smoke, then he briefly felt the oxygen in his suit explode . . .
. . . seconds before his Elektron spaceplane exploded into a billion pieces and spread across space in a fiery spear; then the oxidizer was consumed and the fire blanked itself out.
“Spaceplane three eliminated,” Christine said. “Still multiple S-500 missiles inbound, about sixty seconds.”
“Hull temperature stabilizing,” Alice reported. “MHD and Starfire are in the green. Batteries are down to ten percent. At five percent the station will shut down to allow the remaining battery power to drive lifeboat release mechanisms, air pumps, emergency lights and alarms, and rescue beacons.”
“Can we get the rest of those S-500s with the power we have left?” Trevor asked.
“We got no choice but to try,” Valerie said.