Maria stared through her lightly fogged faceplate at the slowly rotating lifeboat at the far end of the tether, half hoping someone would call over her comlink and order her back to the California. She checked all of the status lights in the pressure suit helmet a fifth time, making sure that all of the life support systems in the suit were optimum.
"Maria, uh, you are go at this end," came Lt. Kim's voice over the radio."Are you, ah,okay?"
"I'm fine." Maria chopped the sentence, "I've only got five meters to go. I'm doing another visual check before I go in."
"The Commodore confirms that, Maria," said Kim."Go ahead with the visual check."
"Ah, okay, I'm going in," Maria gathered herself together."I'm at one meter.Okay, I'm in contact. Ah, Lieutenant, do I do the Neil Armstrong thing?"Laughter. "I'm looking for the hatch. I've got a handhold. Here's the opening. Is the camera picking it up okay?"
"Everything okay here."
"Good.I'm doing a quick once over so you can get everything recorded." Maria did a circuit around the pod, in the process wrapping her tether firmly against hull. She stopped, looking down at the surface. "Kim, I've got a word here in English on the capsule near some buttons beside the hatch. D'you see it?"
"Roger, we see," Kim sounded surprised. "That's 'Danger' above three buttons arranged horizontally."
"Yeah.Do you want me to open it up?"
"Negative, Lieutenant," said Kim. "Do not open it. Do a perimeter recon. Look for any other instructions on the capsule."
"Ah, okay. Got that." Maria's breath was coming faster, now. "Um, The surface of the capsule is roughed up around the 'Danger.'Is it possible that there's a longer phrase?It looks really torn up."
"Acknowledged. Abrasions on the surface of the capsule."
"Yeah, um, I think that maybe it says not to stand in front of the hatch when it opens, 'cause it swings out. I c'n kinda see a faded diagram here," Maria hesitated."I'm going to take a closer look at the rest of the pod 'n' come back here."
"Understood," said Kim.
"Uh, I've got another word here, and some numbers," Maria announced. "D'you have it?"
"Yes," answered Kim. "That's 'Icarus, 12A.'"
"Yeah.Do you know what that means?I mean, besides being the Greek guy with the wings who flew too close to the sun."
"Acknowledged. We're running a check."
"Okay, uh, I think that's everything. There's only one opening. I'm going t'try it. Any suggestions?" Maria was feeling a little braver now.
"Your discretion," said Kim.
"Okay. I'm pressing the button on the left." Maria stretched herself out along the pod as far away from the hatch as she could get and still reach the buttons.
She felt a click through her knees as yellowish fog shot out of the cracking opening.The button she had pushed flashed red.
"Maria, we see the opening. Can you get a better view?"
"Negative, Kim, Negative," said Maria. "There's some decompression going on 'n' I can't get any closer yet."
"Acknowledged."
The jet of gas stopped after fifteen seconds, dispersing into the vacuum.The hatch yawned, finally swinging to against the pod's outer skin.
"Okay, I'm going in."
"Uh, got that," said Kim. "Be careful."
"Do I look stupid?"
"You're the one out there."
"Silly question."
"Maria, we've got some movement with the capsule.The hatch opening has set up a slight end over end spin on the pod," Kim advised."Be sure to keep a good grip.By the way, we got an I.D. on Icarus.It's the name of an early warp-era vessel.She disappeared in 2149."
"Okay, got that. I'm looking at the interior now. Switching on my helmet lamp. D'you see that?"
"Affirmative, Maria," answered Kim. "Four, no, six smaller cylinders. There's frost all over 'em, Uh, I'd say we've confirmed our lifeboat hypothesis."
"Yeah," said Maria. "Uh, I'm going in for a closer look."
"Acknowledged."
Maria thrust her outstretched hands through the hatch, followed by her torso. "Okay, I'm inside.The interior is cramped, but I can get a better look at these cylinders here. They're lying longways, parallel to the outer hull and arranged at equal intervals around the inside perimeter of the capsule. The half of each cylinder toward the center of the capsule is clear. I'm scraping away some ice. Uh, the first one contains a human white male, about forty or forty-five years of age. There's a status panel here.He looks okay."
"We read that," replied Kim, relaying the news to Commodore Speckle.
"That's good," Karyn broke in on the link. "Recall her and we'll do the remaining checking aboard the California. Have Piotrowski and .... bring the capsule aboard."
"Yes, sir. Come on back," Kim said to Maria. "We'll look at the other five when we bring the capsule aboard."
The lifeboat rested like a bottle in a wine rack in the makeshift cradle Piotrowski had banged together from emergency shelter components; the skin of the pod looked even more pitted in the strong overhead lights of the dock than it had on the bridge viewscreen. Spanos stood with his head leaning in through the hatch, surveying the cold interior before hoisting himself in. "Can you hand me those insulated gloves?" he asked the ensign assisting him.
"Yes, sir," said the ensign, slipping the multi-layered gloves into Spanos' outstretched hand. Spanos shifted position, hunting for a grip he could use to pull himself fully into the capsule.The dim interior of the pod beckoned him, like the tombs of the Pharaohs drew (discoverer of Tutankhamen's grave).
"I'm going in," he said, flexing his arms and ducking his head within the hatch. "Hand me the tool box, please." The ensign quickly complied. Spanos looked around himself carefully. The canisters arranged, like bullets in a revolver, uniformly around the circumference of the capsule were covered by frost, concealing their occupants.He was comfortable with that; if any of the occupants didn't survive, Spanos would rather not have a personal connection with them. Appraising the condition of the containers, checking for cracks or damage, examining the power connections from cryogenic housings to the vehicle's central generator took him several long moments. The cabling looked crudely linked; the occupants of these containers were all lucky to have made it without catastrophic failure.He busied himself by establishing power linkages with the California's systems in preparation for moving the capsules out of the lifeboat and into the dock. He didn't want to take any chances on faulty power delivery systems.Doing it this way would mean that it took a little longer to revive the six suspended individuals, but at least they would all eventually awaken.
The power couplings took a half-hour to establish; Spanos and his assistant began removing the sleeping people from the lifeboat, still encapsulated in their frozen beds.
The rest of the crew of the California did not leave their posts during the removal of the castaways from the lifeboat. But they were not disinterested by any means.All shipboard gossip was related to the lifeboat.Was it alien? How did it get here? Who was aboard? Would they live?
In sickbay, the six capsules were quickly encased in stasis fields and brought to room temperature by the medical team. They expected that these mysterious travelers would have much to tell them when they were revived, and an aura of excitement penetrated their activities. The lead physician was already planning her medical journal article of the event.
Outside the operating theater where the team worked feverishly to revive the suspended astronauts, Commodore Speckle sat with Lieutenant Spanos.They both wondered what they had discovered.
"Who do you think's in there?" Spanos asked the Commodore.
"Hard to guess," she replied. "But the coincidence is way too good.There's got to be some connection between this capsule and Howe.Call me a foolish old woman, but that's what I think."
"Well, the Icarus disappeared about a hundred twenty years ago.How do you explain that?"
"I can't explain it. It's just a vague hunch."
"I don't know why I should agree with you, but I see no alternative.The events are just too closely connected."
"We'll just have to wait and find out," concluded Karyn.