Blue Bloods

Charlie screamed 'Incoming!' Reflexes Drew didn’t know she had made her throw herself to the ground. In midair, before she hit the ground, one thought filled her mind. I am going to beat him to a pulp for that. Concrete and tarmac coated the roof of the hospital; her dive for cover would ruin Jesse’s jeans and shirt.

When the helicopter exploded, all thoughts of vengeance went out of her head. She twisted like a cat mid fall, her lungs already full of dust from the explosion. Like any good disaster, everything seemed to slow down, probably so she could see the pain about to hit her. One blade of the helicopter blasted free of the wreckage, spinning through the air like a giant flying scythe. Drew scissored her legs wide; the end of the blade yanked her shoelaces as it tore through the space where her legs had just been.

The yank pulled her around, flipped her face down into the gritty pavement. She had time for two thoughts before she passed out.

At least my face broke the fall; Jesse’s clothes are saved!

And

I broke my nose again!

***

Out of the corner of his eye, Charlie saw Drew leap sideways. The incoming meteorite wasn’t headed precisely for them. Its size, brilliance and speed made it seem so. Instead, it hit less than twenty feet away, nailing the helicopter. Dust billowed out from the impact, obscuring everything. A thick cloud of it obscured Drew in midair.

Milliseconds after the impact, the aviation fuel in the helicopter exploded, an angry yellow blossom in the core of the dust cloud. Charlie heard the explosion as his shoulder impacted Angela. Coughing from the dust, he rolled to see what was happening. Everything seemed to be moving underwater as adrenaline shoved his reflexes into overdrive. One of the helicopter blades spun through the air, headed straight for him. He blinked, rolled, and something inside his chest and his mind gave way, and the huge heavy blade slowed still further.

He didn’t imagine it, either. Smaller bits of shrapnel bounced down around him, and more blew past the blade as he watched. More important than any of that, however, it hadn’t stopped moving, and he hadn’t got out of its way. Berating himself for a fool, he rolled out of the way at the last possible moment. Before he completed his roll, the blade slammed down into the roof, pinning his shirt to the spot with him in it. He rolled backward far enough to slam his hand into what should have been a light aircraft aluminum blade. His hand bounced off, knuckles bruised, and he howled without shame as his knuckles cracked.

The rest of the crew on the roof moved like they were sleepwalking. Angela just now covered herself with her arms. Jesse landed behind an air duct where Steve had thrown her. Steve, off balance from the throw, recovered just in time for the end of the sheared helicopter blade shard to cartwheel into him. It sank into his chest with a horrible crackling crunch. Steve, the blade, and the torn end of Charlie’s shirt went flying off the side of the roof. A moment later Steve’s safety line played itself out and stretched taut. Charlie winced as a crash came from below. The safety line held.

Charlie looked around at the gathering dark and dissipating dust. Steve had gone over the side. Drew lay face down on the roof. Jesse pulled herself out from the air vent; she’d fallen in somehow. Last, but by no means least, the remains of the helicopter burned and dropped a piece at a time through a hole in the roof.

Angela and Jesse both had more medical skills than he did. Charlie’s skills lay with mechanical things... mechanical things and preparation. He grabbed up the two extinguishers from beneath the stereo and charged the fire.

***

Walker thanked the ever-vigilant drill instructors of the United Stated Military that servicemen in general and astronauts in specific never got ‘out of practice’. He hadn’t docked a real shuttle before, but he had done it so many times in simulators that the current situation felt like an exercise worked up by a particularly vicious and imaginative instructor.

Maybe not imaginative. After all, it’s not that hard to just say ‘station controls aren’t working’.

It took moment to moment adjustment, but half an hour after they’d approached the station they slid to a near perfect docking. Seconds after he heard the impact, Johnson’s voice sounded through the intercom speakers.

“Cut the thrusters, docking secured from our end.”

Walker cut the thrusters and, with his next motion, detached his restraint harness. Quickly yet carefully, he propelled himself across the cabin into the airlock. Once it completed its near-useless cycle, Walker stepped out and headed for the bay door controls. When the doors opened, he stared out at the space station hanging above him. A glittering cloud of crystallized water vapor and other gasses surrounded it. The lack of any space suits hovering around the station sent a chill through his gut that had nothing to do with the vacuum that surrounded him.

As far as he knew, he had the only suit remaining with full integrity. The suits on Johnson, Wilson, and Rosario had been compromised and patched. They could transit vacuum, but if anything hit the patches wrong, they would die before they patched the new breach. Walker’s suit could be holed, but with full normal integrity and function remaining, he had the best chance of keeping himself alive.

Before detaching from the console, he activated the intercom once more. “Johnson, this is Walker. Do you read?”

Something had changed in Johnson over the course of the trip. Before the shuttle got hit, he took every opportunity to slack on verbal protocol, but with the disaster he’d firmed up. “Walker, this is Johnson. I read you loud and clear.”

“Johnson, I am preparing to go EVA. While I check the exterior of the station for sections with integrity, you’ll be moving Commander Wilson and Captain Rosario to the Station Infirmary. Do not remove suits unless one of them goes critical or until I clear you to do so.”

“Walker, I read you. Move the wounded to the infirmary and await further orders.”

“Johnson, this is Walker. Orders confirmed. I am going EVA now.”

Walker cut the connection, connected his safety line to a tie down, and went into space once more.