T-Plus 14

The first attempt didn’t quite reach the solar panel. Oliver stretched his fingers out to minimize the rest of the gap, missing the panel by at least several centimeters before losing the momentum that propelled him out this far. Daniel rocketed up beside him with about the same force, his fingers also missing by several centimeters. The two technicians stretched their arms and fingers out as far as possible, evening shimmying forward and recalling every movement their coaches in school had taught them. Even with all their awkward attempts at swimming through space, they couldn’t close the remaining gap, and eventually the three holding the other ends of their ropes pulled them back, so they could start their process all over again.

The time it took for them to return to where they started was enough for them to reset their mindset and prepare for takeoff again. This time they got one of the others to count down for them, so he and Daniel would be more synchronized in their attempts. With Soup’s worried voice in their ears, they pushed off the side of the Station again. This time, Oliver kept his hands outstretched and his palms together, making himself as aerodynamic as possible as he propelled himself toward the solar panel. As he and Daniel neared the solar panel this time, he could already gauge the distance they’d miss it by as their momentum slowed. At least, they had halved their distance before they started their awkward swimming jig in space.

As before, they were reeled back in when their struggles got nowhere. After a quick session in which they compared how much force they were pushing off of the Station with, they prepared for their next attempt. With Soup counting them down again, they rocketed forward, this time more streamlined in their approach. They went past their initial stopping points, zooming fast and finally reaching the solar panel.

Oliver and Daniel used both hands to grab onto the panel before it could get any further away from them. They could feel their ropes stretching taut as they struggled to pull themselves closer to their goal now that their hands were gripping the edges. They held onto the cold metal as hard as they could before twisting their bodies so the trio could reel them back in again.

The journey back was a lot slower than previously. They moved mere inches as the trio struggled to pull them along with their newfound weight back toward the Station. Every once in a while, either Oliver or Daniel would lose the feeling in their fingers, and they’d let go and have to start the process all over again. But after each time, they’d bring the wayward panel closer and closer, shortening the trip and effort. And then finally, after their thirtieth try or so, they pulled the panel just close enough for the other three to grab a hold of it.

They paused in their endeavors, their arms tired and shaking from pulling and tugging most of the hours away. Oliver raised a shaky arm up to his chest, patting the radio in the suit.

“We did it, boys,” he said, looping an arm around one of the rungs.

He hung there, sighing into his helmet as he gazed at their prize. It levitated in the space beside them and spanned wider than the five of them combined. Daniel kept an eye on it, making sure they wouldn’t have to redo that entire scenario again. He patted his chest, his voice crackling through their radios.

“So how are we going to do this?” he asked. “Should Joey signal for them to start pulling and the rest of us just hold on?”

“If you think it’ll work,” Oliver said with a nod. “Just have to make sure we don’t accidentally crash into the Station.”

“Two or three of us can be the cushion between the panel and the Station. It’s too heavy to push away, so at worst, we can kick it away if we brace ourselves against the Station if it gets too close,” Daniel proposed. “You and I are obviously going to have to do it, should we get Joey to be the third?”

“Between keeping the scientists closer to the Station or from being squished, what do you think?”

Daniel’s radio went silent as he stared at the two scientists that were beside him. The two looked up at him, looked at each other, and then pointed at themselves to volunteer for the position. Whether it was for drifting on the outer parts of the panel or for the chance of being squished by it, he couldn’t quite tell. But knowing them though, Soup was probably volunteering to be squished, and Toast was volunteering to drift on the outer side for “science” purposes. Evidently, Daniel thought the same thing, and instructed them with those exact roles.

“Okay, Soup, you stay on this side. Toast, go to the outer side over there and hold on. And don’t let go. Don’t let go.”

Toast only nodded several times in response to Daniel’s instructions, shuffling around so Soup could take his spot as he navigated along the outer edges of the panel. Daniel followed him part way, just to make sure he was okay. They watched the scientist as he moved one hand at a time to meet up with Joey the long way around. Seeing that he was now on the other side of the panel, up where the intern was, he was safe from being squished when the panel swayed, which Oliver had no doubt that it would.

Once Toast gave them the thumbs-up, Oliver and the others situated themselves as well. Oliver was the closest to the front. Daniel was several rungs behind him, placing himself in the most dangerous spot along the Station. Soup had the back, where in the off-chance he couldn’t stop the panel from crashing into the Station, he could still evade by climbing down a few rungs. Once in position, they all grabbed onto the panel.

“Are we ready?” Joey asked once everyone was in place.

Everyone responded in a smattering of agreement noises. Oliver double-checked his tether, prompting everyone else to do the same. Once another round of “Ready”s was spoken into the radios, Joey yanked on the tethers leading back into the Station, hopefully alerting those waiting for them. He held onto the panel with both hands, and they all waited for the sensation of tugging to appear around their waists. They were disappointed.

Oliver patted his chest. “Try again, Joey.”

The intern nodded, pulling on the tethers harder this time. He proceeded to return to his ready position, and they all waited to be pulled up again. This time, they could feel themselves being tugged forward. Oliver tightened his grip on the panel, releasing his hold on the rungs. Like when he and Daniel were being pulled toward the Station, the progress of being pulled up towards the hatch was just as slow. Although, he noted, it was just a tinsy bit faster than when the trio was pulling him and Daniel.

There were times, as he and Daniel expected, where the panel drifted toward the Station. The three of them braced their backs against the Station and leveraged themselves between the solar panel and the wall. Usually, that was enough to keep the giant panel from damaging itself more than it was already.

Every once in a while, the tugging sensation would stop. Oliver assumed they were taking a breather up in the hangar, giving those outside ample enough time to take a break themselves. Oliver took one of those changes to tap his chest, his suit lighting up as everyone floated where they were in ease.

“How close are we now, Joey?” he asked.

The intern turned around, craning his neck and covering his eyes to see how much further they would need to pull the solar panel up to the hangar. After watching him lean from side-to-side in his attempt to gauge the distance, the intern patted his own chest, and his voice answered Oliver’s inquiry.

“Umm, it looks like we’re at the halfway point,” he answered as he still stared up at the hatch.

“Great,” Oliver muttered to himself without turning on his radio.

Outwardly, he nodded and the white noise in their helmets disappeared. He took the time to survey their surroundings, and take in the infinite space that surrounded them. Pinpricks of light blinked all around them, far off in the distance in faraway galaxies. Colors spread out in sporadic patterns throughout space, painting the dark universe with bright colors to accompany the trillions of stars that lit it up. If it wasn’t for the unfortunate fact that human beings couldn’t survive out here for long, even with their advancements in science since their first step off of their original planet, and that they were in the midst of an emergency, Oliver would’ve liked to keep floating out here and keep staring at the beauty.

Soon, the familiar tugging sensation returned, and they continued their slow journey up toward the hatch. Between keeping a close eye on the panel and Toast, he had enough on his hands as they moved forward. After another few sets of keeping the panel from colliding with himself and the Station, he could finally see the entrance of the hatch. He took the chance to take a hand off the panel to pat the radio on his chest.

“I see it, boys. We’re almost there.”

Daniel’s voice answered his with relief.

“Do you want to try and bring it in with us, or keep the panel out here?” he asked.

“We’ll have to see if the panel even fits through the hatch first,” Oliver said, eyeballing the size of the solar panel and comparing it to the hangar hatch of his memory. “If it doesn’t, then we already have an answer. I just hope the Chief remembers how to work in zero-gravity.”

“It’s the Chief,” Daniel laughed. “I don’t think we have to worry.”

After their brief exchange, the others could also catch a glimpse of their goal this entire day. About two more short lulls later, they arrived at the open hatch. They also found out the hard way that the panel did not fit inside the hatch by about a foot.

“Dammit,” Oliver cursed, sighing into his helmet at the sight of the extra length of the panel. “We’ll have to tether the panel somehow, so it doesn’t drift off again. Okay, Toast, Soup, and Joey go back inside and tell the Chief our problem. We’ll use your parts of the tether to keep this thing leashed.”

“Will do.”

“Okay!”

“Awww, I wanted to stay out here longer. Can’t I watch you guys?”

“No,” was the unanimous answer to Toast’s complaint.

Daniel and Oliver held onto the outer rungs as the trio went in and closed the hatch doors behind them. Now it was just them and their new pet, the solar panel. Oliver patted the marred silver plating, glancing over the damage now that they were at leisure. Like the transformer, most of its plating had been twisted or scraped off, although it was more intact compared to the transformer they still needed to repair.

“From the looks of it, the materials we’ve already found should be enough to repair this,” Daniel said, sharing his opinion. “How should we handle this? Obviously, I’ll handle the transformer since I’m the resident electrician, and Chief was part of the solar panel installation crew to begin with, so we can leave this bad boy to him. What are you going to do, Oliver?”

“Take Joey with you,” Oliver said, pointing at the other floating technician. “I’ll take care of the supplies you’ll need, otherwise you’d never get what you need if we leave it to the others.”

“Fair point.”

The loud creaking of the hatch opening again brought their attention away from their inner and outer ramblings. Out through the opening came the Chief and Joey. Or at least, Oliver assumed it was those two. He couldn’t quite tell through the tints on their helmets’ visors.

The lead suit tapped his chest, lighting up his suit in the familiar blue. The Chief’s voice sounded out through the radio.

“Hah, it’s been a while since I’ve had to come out here myself.”

Oliver answered in kind, “Sorry, Chief. At least we brought it to you, so you don’t have to go too far.”

He swore he could feel the eyeroll-glare combination that was the Chief’s specialty.

“Of course you did. If you didn’t, you’d have to anyway. Alright boys, it’s only the four of us tonight. Jiang, the intern has your tools, get over there. Hensley, help me keep this panel from straying off. The lab coats said they’re retiring for the night, so unless the troublesome one somehow sleep walks into trouble, we’ll be fine. Haaah, this is going to be a long all-nighter.”