SEP-010, Chapter 17, Part 1.

When West meets West:

SEP-010, Chapter 17, Part 1.

Enterprise.

"Houston, be advised: we've got the docking centerline camera on-line, and we're starting our approach run at this time," Pilot Tamara Ciotti said. The image of Constitution's docking port shone prominently in the center of the display, flanked by the shape of her hull. Over five hundred feet in distance separated the two ships, and she kept an eye on all three of the multifunction displays that told her exactly what she would need to know to achieve docking.

"Copy that, Enterprise. You are go for final approach and docking."

"Roger that, Houston," Tamara replied coolly as she added +Z motion to her spacecraft.

* * *

Constitution.

That's a beautiful-looking spacecraft, Jamie Cunningham observed as she watched Enterprise move in. The size of the ship lied to her; even though her instrumentation told her the closing velocity was less than five feet per second, every glance she took at Enterprise told her the two ships were standing perfectly still next to one another.

Five minutes passed. The distances grew smaller. Finally, she felt a subtle jolt in Constitution's framework that told her the deed was done.

"Constitution, Houston. We show hard-dock with Enterprise at this time; can you confirm?"

Jamie looked at Downs, who checked the gauges at the docking port controls, and he nodded to her.

"Affirmative, Houston," She said. "We show a solid capture up here."

"Thank you for the read-back, Jamie. Stand by for docking pressurization check, and report any anomalies, please."

* * *

Enterprise.

The docking hatches opened after an hour.

Greg Williams was the first to float through the docking tunnel, followed by Tamara Ciotti and Charlie Davis.

* * *

Constitution.

The first thing Williams noticed was the smell. Part of the antiseptic environment, the small concentration of bleach immediately set himself at odds with the faint smell of body odor. As he reached the mouth of the tunnel on Constitution's side, he was greeted by a pair of heads sticking through the tunnel's opening. Jamie Cunningham, he recognized immediately. She smiled and waved at him, and he smiled back. Anthony Downs smiled at him as well as he floated into the mid-deck.

"Hi Greg! Welcome to Constitution!" Jamie said happily.

"Thanks, Jamie," Williams replied coolly. "How is everybody?"

"We're doing okay for the moment," Jamie replied as people began to float into the mid-deck. "Greg, you know Brian and Anthony, of course . . . there's Sienna Morrison over there with the ESA, and Svetlana Zaytseva from Roscosmos."

"I'd like to get Brian over onto Enterprise right away," Williams said. "We've got fresh supplies on-board; you're all welcome to come across and partake in what we've got."

"Excellent idea," Adkinson said.

"Svetlana, would you take Brian up to Enterprise for me?" Jamie asked. Svetlana nodded, and they swam through the tunnel.

Greg Williams watched as their feet disappeared, and he turned his attention back to Jamie. She returned his gaze, frowning as she read his face.

"What's up, Greg?" She asked lowly.

"You've, uh . . . taken to your field promotion quite well," He observed.

"A girl does what she can," Jamie replied.

"I know. Listen, we've got a plan for getting all of us home."

"I'm all ears," She replied stiffly.

"Dirtside wants to take all of you back on Enterprise, along with all of your personal effects and whatever moon artifacts you've got. We break dock near the next window for Kennedy, we circularize, and we can have you back on the ground tonight."

Jamie stared at him. She somehow knew to expect some sort of bad news . . . and as she read his eyes, she knew that she was right.

"Sienna, would you go with the rest of the crew up to Enterprise for me?" She said softly. "Just for a few minutes. Greg and I are going to have a talk."

"Of course, Murdock," Sienna replied as she swam her way to the tube.

"What happened to plan B?" Jamie asked flatly after Sienna's feet disappeared up the tube along with Tamara Ciotti and Charlie Davis.

"There is no plan B," Williams replied. "Fixing this ship--"

"Christ," Jamie guffawed in disgust as she turned away from him.

"Fixing this ship," Williams repeated himself, "is considered too risky at this time."

"What risk?" Jamie growled as she turned herself around to face him again.

"We'd need to EVA repeatedly to install the new plate, assuming this is even possible in the first place. We'd need more reaction mass to circularize the orbit. You're probably past your APU energy budget to cover the entry, descent and landing. And all of that needs to be done or changed--"

"--Needs to be done in an environment where we could be hit by debris, our two ships could drift too close to one another and squash the poor bastard doing the EVA, and said poor bastard could end up flying out into space unaided if we made a wrong move," Jamie interrupted. "Don't you think Brian and I have had several days to hash this one out?"

"You and Brian have held up commendably in all of this," Williams said. "Don't you think anyone on the ground hasn't taken note of that. But the primary goal of this mission has stayed the same: Get all of us back on the ground safely. This is what Foulkes and Payton want."

"And all of that can still be accomplished, including the return of this ship!" Jamie shot back. "We can do this, Greg. You know we can. How the hell would it sound if we made it to the moon, landed on the moon, came back from the moon, got hit by a ship-crippling rock, and still made it back home in one piece?! Hell, I'll stick myself in a suit and do the job myself to see that happen! All I need--"

"You know that's not going to happen," Williams said.

"Why not?"

"Because that's not what the flight director wants." His hand shot up, and Jamie's retort died abruptly. "Listen," He continued, "You're mission commander ad-hoc, which means you've got the slot because Brian had to step down on account of medical reasons. You're to be commended for how you've handled yourself so far. But that still means you're an employee of the government, and you're still under the flight director's authority."

"And what the flight director is telling me, is that he has no confidence in my ability to get the job done?"

"He has every confidence that we'll be back on the ground safely, tonight," Williams snarled. "Just not in the way that you want."

"So what I want has nothing to do with reality, and we're just going to leave this ship up here until it either falls back down to Earth, or the sun swallows it up?"

"Listen," Williams growled. "Here's the reality. You're a pilot. You're not a full commander yet. You've only been up in space twice. You've got maybe a few hundred hours of flight time in an aircraft. You've got a great engineering background, but you don't have the experience to back up what you're wanting to do."

"What I'm wanting to do," Jamie seethed, "is fix this ship and bring it back. What's so hard about that?"

"It's a multi-billion dollar ship that's taken a lot of time, effort, and discipline to design, build, and fly," Williams shot back, and Jamie's eyes hardened further. "Moreover, there's now two multi-billion dollar ships involved here. But the money is just one factor; there's lives up here on the line, and you know it. Why are you so involved in throwing good money after bad? Why are you so--"

"Because I screwed up," Jamie snapped. "I saw the debris. I saw where it was going. And I threw that rotational collective the wrong way."

The mid-deck became silent.

"And you want to fix it," Williams finally ventured quietly.

"You're damned right, I want to fix it," Jamie said coldly. "I have been kicking myself in the teeth every night since that chunk of whatever hit us. I have been wracking my brain, trying to find a way to make it right."

"It's not your responsibility to be a hero," Williams soothed. "We can get back on the ground after all of this is said and done. Maybe in a few weeks' time, maybe a month or two, we can go back up and get the job done right, when we've properly prepared for it. In the meantime--"

"What's happened every time we've lost a ship in flight?" Jamie growled.

Williams thought it over. STS-51-L. STS-107. His eyes darkened, and she nodded to him.

"Yeah, I thought so," She said coldly. "Both times, they grounded us after the fact, and through all that pain and loss, we thought it was for good. This time, I swear to God, if we don't bring this spacecraft back, they will ground us. Permanently. I can't let that happen to our country, Greg. I can't be a part of them wanting to pull their noses out of some place they think they can't belong in. I can't be part of proof we've got no business being in space."

Williams fell silent, absorbing the intensity of Jamie's eyes. His arguments rapidly dwindling, he smiled slightly.

"And I suppose a direct order from the President isn't going to stop you?"

"I didn't vote for him," Jamie said tartly.

Williams closed his eyes, and an incipient snicker left his nose as he shook his head softly.

"You really want to do this?" He asked softly, and she nodded smartly.

"Alright," He said. "I'll pass the word along. Hopefully we'll get some support."

"Thank you," Jamie said feelingly. "Now . . . how about a look at Enterprise?"

"Sure!" Greg said. As he led Jamie up the tunnel, the one thought that was the most prevalent in his mind, also screamed the loudest to him:

There's going to be hell to pay when we get home!

* * *