The Final Expedition

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Seven

I ran briskly on the treadmill in Zvezda module. Of all the exercise equipment on the station, this one had taken the most getting used to, but I quite enjoyed using it now. I had my earphones in and was listening to a compilation of guitar bands that took me back to my student years. It had always seemed strange to me, how a song can take you right back to a specific time and place. I smiled as the latest track reminded me of a particularly raucous house party, a copious amount of beer, a can of whipped cream and a pair of blonde, tanned Australian girls. Aki suddenly appeared in my field of vision, emerging through the hatch from the direction of the American Segment. She began frantically waving her hands at me, obviously desperate to catch my attention. Alarmed, I pulled the earphones from my ears. Straight away, I realised something was wrong. Seriously wrong.

“Couldn’t you hear me?” Aki shouted at me. “We need your help. Flynn’s gone berserk! He’s attacked Karpov! He’s unconscious!”

“What happened?” I asked, quickly detaching myself from the treadmill.

“Flynn started ranting at Karpov, accusing the Russians of starting the war down on Earth. He told Karpov that he suspected that he knew already. He was crazy, eyes wide and babbling about ‘cowardly red bastards’, how Russians should not be allowed in American territory on the station and how you and I were probably in cahoots with them too. Then he took a swing at Karpov, taking him by surprise. When Wes tried to restrain him, Flynn threw him into the Tranquillity Node and locked him inside. Then he had Karpov by the throat, cracking his head against the side of the airlock hatch until he was unconscious. I tried to drag him off, but he was too strong…” At that moment, a dull metallic thud echoed through the station.

“What the hell was that?!” Aki spun around towards the hatch into the FGB module.

“Come on!” I told her, setting off towards the hatch. “Where is Natalya?”

“I don’t know.” Aki replied anxiously. “She was in the Columbus lab at the other end of the station last time I saw her.” We passed through the hatch into the FGB module and quickly pulled ourselves towards the narrow tube connecting the Russian segment to the Unity Node. We found our way blocked by the unconscious body of Karpov and behind him, the closed hatch, preventing us from moving any further into the station.

“Karpov!” Aki cried out in dismay. We pulled Karpov into the more spacious FGB module.

“Karpov. Karpov!” I shook him by the shoulders. There was a large swelling on his left temple, which had turned an angry purple colour. The big Russian remained motionless. I shook him harder, yelling his name louder until he finally groaned and his eyes opened a crack. I felt relief wash over me and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God for that.” I smiled at him. “You had us worried there for a moment.”

“Let me take a look at him.” Aki peeled back his eyelids. “He’s concussed.” She said after a moment. “Let’s get him through into Zvezda and I’ll get the medical kit.” We dragged him into the service module and Aki pulled a green medical kit from the wall. She pulled out a dressing and a cold compress before bandaging it to Karpov’s head. He groaned again as the dressing was pressed to his temple.

“You’ve suffered a concussion.” Aki told him, her voice calm and reassuring, though I imagined that she felt anything but. “As far as I can see, you haven’t suffered a skull fracture, but we can’t be sure. That was quite an impact.” She paused for a moment. “Mission Commander, I wish I didn’t have to burden you with this, but Flynn’s locked us in the Russian segment. He’s closed the door into the Unity Node. Wes and Natalya are trapped on the other side.” Karpov looked at Aki dumbly for a moment and I wondered if the big Russian had suffered some form of brain damage.

“Carter.” Karpov finally groaned hoarsely, seeming to regain his senses. I moved closer, relieved to hear him speak. “Carter. Flynn’s had some form of a break down and I fear for Dr Varennikova’s safety. Help me into a spacesuit. I’ll spacewalk between the Poisk airlock,” He nodded to the hatch in the ceiling of Zvezda leading to the Russian airlock, “And the Quest airlock on the American segment of the station. We’ve got to get that hatch to the Unity Node open again and stop Flynn before he does something we will all regret.”

“No way, commander.” Aki told him. “You’re concussed! You’re not going out there!”

“I’m fine.” He growled. “Quickly, now! Time is of the essence!”

“How many fingers am I holding up?” Aki asked him, holding up three fingers.

“I haven’t got time for…”

“How many fingers!” Aki repeated firmly. He sighed and squinted for a moment.

“Four.” He finally told her with no conviction.

“I’ll go.” Aki told him. “I’m trained for E.V.A. I’ll go.”

“No.” Karpov growled. “I appreciate the offer, but you are only one and a half metres tall and of a slim build. You simply won’t fit in the big Russian Orlan type spacesuit. I have to go.”

“I’ll go.” I said quietly, feeling the blood train from my face the moment the words left my lips.

“What?” Karpov replied, knitting his brow.

“I’ll go.” I repeated.

“I appreciate the sentiment, Carter, but you haven’t been trained.” He told me.

“We don’t have a choice.” I replied. “We can’t wait for you to stop seeing double! We’ve got to get that hatch open. God only knows what kind of danger Natalya and Wes are in.”

“Very well.” Karpov said doubtfully. “If you’re sure you’re up to it.”

“I won’t let you down.” I told him with as much confidence as I could muster.

“You’re a braver man than I gave you credit for.” He smiled grimly. “Now, let’s get you suited up. Time is a luxury we don’t have. Remember, when you reach the Quest airlock, just open the hatch in Unity to let us through. If Morrison’s still locked inside the Tranquillity Node, let him out too. Don’t be a hero. Flynn’s got military training and will break you in half if you try to take him on alone.”

“I told you before that you might get another opportunity.” Aki reminded me with a smile. I laughed humourlessly at the irony as I climbed through the opening in the back of the Russian Orlan spacesuit. We were inside the Poisk airlock connected to the top of Zvezda. The Orlan spacesuit was a little different to the American version I had worn previously. This one comprised of a solid torso and helmet, with flexible arms and legs and a hatch through the backpack. I squeezed myself through the hatch, stretching my arms and legs into place. I felt nauseous, torn between my terror of venturing out into space and my desperation to reach Natalya, knowing her life was in danger. While I felt ashamed for thinking it, I wished to God that it was Karpov or Aki climbing into the spacesuit. Aki knocked on the back of the helmet and I turned around to face her.

“Remember, you’ll be tethered to the station, so you won’t be in any danger.” Aki told me. “You’ll be fine. Try to keep your eyes on the station at all times. You can do this!” I raised my gloved hand and gave her the thumbs up. “Communications are still out, so we won’t be able to contact you once you leave the station. Good luck Max!” Aki closed the hatch behind me, locking it into place and sealing it. I felt like I was in a coffin and it was being nailed shut. Aki pulled herself out of the airlock, gave me a wave and closed the inner airlock door. Exhaling, I swung around and with a feeling of dread, waited for the airlock to vent and for the outer airlock door to open. I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling a cold sweat forming all over my body, my skin tight inner suit soaking most of it into the fabric. Feeling the airlock vibrating through the handhold, I opened my eyes to find the outer hatch had opened and once again I was staring into the infinity of space. Feeling the panic that I had experienced in the Quest airlock well up inside me, I gritted my teeth and steeled myself.

“You can do this.” I told myself, reminding myself that there was no choice and that Natalya’s life lay in the balance. I had to bury my fear in the back of my mind. I pulled myself to the open hatch and attached my tether to the outside of the station and unhooked my short tether to the inside of the airlock. Taking a deep breath, I pulled myself through the hatch, grabbing hold of a yellow handle on the outside of the station and spinning myself around. A moment later the airlock hatch closed behind me. I gripped the handle for dear life, feeling like I would fall off, tumbling away into oblivion. Despite Aki’s advice, I looked away from the closed hatch of the Poisk airlock. The endless void of space stretched out all around me.

“Shit!” I gasped, feeling small and insignificant in the vastness of the universe. “Shit, shit, shit, shit!” Closing my eyes, I turned back to the hatch. My breathing was rapid and I could feel my heart thumping in my chest. I just wanted to crawl back into the airlock, but I just had to get to the American segment, had to get to Natalya. Gritting my teeth, I looked around, heeding Aki’s advice and keeping my eyes fixed on the station. It looked enormous from outside, the core of metallic cylindrical modules arranged in a line with a few modules like the Columbus and Kibo labs jutting out of each side at the far end of the station. A long truss stretched across the station, the huge solar arrays extending out above and below the black solar panels glowing a brilliant burnt orange as they reflected the sunlight. On the underside of the truss on the left hand side, I could see the twisted remnants of the two solar arrays that had been torn off when the debris had hit a few weeks back. I concentrated on my route to the Quest airlock. I needed to drop down the outside of the Poisk airlock onto the dorsal side of Zvezda and make my way across the top of the adjacent FGB module. Then I just needed to cross the short distance between the Russian and American segments over the top of the narrow tubular Pressurised Mating Adaptor to the Unity Node. From there, I simply had to clamber over to the Quest airlock and I was there.

“Easy.” I muttered grimly. So near but so far. Taking a deep breath, I peered down the outside of the protruding airlock towards the top of the Zvezda module. Concentrating on staring straight ahead at the silvery grey metallic skin of the station, I slowly and deliberately began to pull myself over the outside surface of the Poisk airlock, working from handhold to handhold, like a climber scaling a rock face. For a moment, I couldn’t help myself and glanced at the surface of the Earth beyond the station. I felt a wave of nausea wash over me and squeezed my eyes shut, my hands gripping the hand holds as firmly as I could, frozen by fear.

“For fuck’s sake Max, pull yourself together.” I told myself, forcing my eyelids to flick back up. Turning my gaze back onto the surface of the station, I did my best to ignore the Earth to either side of my peripheral vision. I reached out an unsteady hand for the next handhold and began to move again. Though still terrified, from then on every time my fear threatened to overwhelm me, I remembered Natalya at Flynn’s mercy and the thought galvanised me. I reached the end of Zvezda and then crawled across to the top of the FGB module. Making my way across the cylindrical surface, I become a little more confident and passed quickly over it. I reached the end of the Russian segment and peered over the edge of the module. Before me was the Pressurised Mating Adaptor which linked the Russian and American segments of the station together. It reminded me of a section of industrial air venting with its flared ends connected to the FGB module on one side and the Unity node on the other, with a narrow tube between them. I realised with a start that there were no obvious hand holds on this section. I nervously dragged myself down onto the tube and hugging it with both arms, I slowly pulled myself along the surface. I was nearly to the Unity node, when something stopped my forward progress. I shuffled around to one side and glanced behind me.

“Shit.” I cursed. The tether was taut. I tugged on it, hoping it was simply snagged on something, but it didn’t give. I smiled grimly, realising I had quite literally reached the end of my tether. I considered my options. I could retrace my steps and return to the Poisk airlock, but then what? I didn’t remember seeing a longer tether and it would cost some more time too. I looked across at the Quest airlock, just to the right of me and almost within touching distance. I was so close and I had made relatively easy progress up to this point. I looked at the carabiner at my waist, connecting the tether to my spacesuit.

“What the hell are you doing, Carter?” I murmured as I reached down and unclipped it, letting it float gently away. I struggled the remaining short distance and looked up at the edge of the Unity node. A yellow hand hold was mounted on the edge of the module and was tantalisingly out of reach. Stretching for it, I flailed for a second, my fingers not quite reaching it. I clung to the tube and held myself in place. I would have to let go to reach it. I cursed my luck. If the tether had just been a little longer, at least I would have a safety net if I didn’t make it.

“You’ve come this far, Max. You can do this.” I told myself, trying to steady my nerves. Taking a deep breath, I gently pushed myself off the surface of the tube in the direction of the Unity node. I reached out and my fingers closed around the hand hold, grasping it tightly. I smiled with relief, a smile that instantly vanished as my momentum threw my body past the hand hold. Gripping it with all the strength I could muster, my momentum continued to swing my body upwards, away from the station. Squeezing my eyes shut, I gripped the handle as tightly as I could. My momentum pulled too hard at my fingers and I felt my grip begin to loosen. Gritting my teeth, I tried to twist my body around, desperately flailing with my other arm, but not able to reach the hand hold. I cried out in terror as I felt the handle slip from my grasp.

“No!” I gasped, my worst fears realised as I began to float away. “No, no, please God, no!” I tried to throw my body back towards the station but in the vacuum of space, it made no difference. I frantically swung my arms forward in a desperate and futile effort to somehow reach the handhold, but it was no use. I felt my eyes moisten as I realised that it was hopeless. I would gently float further and further away from the station and in a few short hours, my oxygen would run out and I would suffocate alone. My corpse would orbit the Earth until the end of time. I morbidly wondered if my body would decompose until only my skeleton remained, or whether I would be preserved, like the shrivelled up remains of Egyptian mummies. My morose chain of thought was interrupted by an impact against my back. It was the boom of the huge robotic arm on top of the station. I quickly reached out and grasped it, wrapping both arms around it. My momentum overcame the friction between the smooth boom and my arms and I began sliding along it outwards towards the business end of the robot arm.

“Not again.” I grunted, manoeuvring myself around and clamping the boom between my feet. Squeezing with all my might, my frazzled brain fleetingly brought to mind a fireman, sliding down a pole. Finally, the friction overcame my momentum and I managed to stop myself. Breathing a deep sigh of relief, I took a moment to catch my breath and regain my composure before very carefully pulling myself back down the boom towards the station.

I spent the next half an hour very cautiously making my down the robot arm to the top of the station, crawling across the Unity module to the Quest airlock. Finally reaching the airlock hatch, I pulled at a big yellow emergency release handle. I waited what seemed to be an eternity while the airlock was flushed and the pressure equalised. The hatch swung open and I pulled myself inside, relief washing over me as I closed the hatch behind me. Cycling the airlock, I patiently waited for the pressure to equalise and at last I was able to climb out of the space suit. I pulled myself out and kissed the wall of the airlock.

“Never again.” I muttered, before cautiously opening the inner airlock and peeking around the corner into the Unity node. Silence. No sign of Flynn or anyone else for that matter. Pulling myself over to the closed hatch leading to the Russian segment, I reached for the latch mechanism, unlocked it and pulled the hatch upwards. Opening my mouth to call for the others, I paused, thinking better of it. I didn’t want to alert Flynn to my presence just yet. The hatch to the Tranquillity node was shut too. Morrison must still be trapped inside. Glancing nervously towards the far end of the station, I reached for the latch and pulled open the hatch. Morrison appeared behind it opening his mouth to speak. I put my finger to my lips and he nodded his understanding.

“Where’s Flynn?” He whispered.

“I don’t know. Somewhere through there I think.” I replied, nodding in the direction of the Destiny Lab. At that moment, an ear piercing shriek echoed down through the modules of the station.

“Natalya.” I gasped, immediately propelling myself down through the Destiny module. Morrison followed me as we headed towards the far end of the station. Another scream, this time muffled, filled the air.

“Sounded like the Columbus lab.” Morrison said, his voice low. We quickly pulled ourselves towards it, my mind reeling. What was Flynn doing to her? Were we already too late? We dragged ourselves into the lab, to find Flynn grappling with Natalya, one hand over her mouth while the other tried to restrain her. She was wildly swinging and scratching at him with her one free hand.

“I take no pleasure in this.” He hissed at her. “But we must do this for the sake of humanity.” Natalya caught sight of us as we entered the module and stopped struggling. Flynn too, realised they were no longer alone and turned around just as Morrison hurled himself at him, gripping him by the throat and tearing him from Natalya. Once she was free of him, Morrison hurled him away to the other end of the module, Flynn crashing hard into an experiment rack, leaving him momentarily dazed. I looked at Natalya whose flight suit was torn open from her throat down to her waist. Her long blonde hair had been pulled loose of her hair band and her eyes were puffy and wet with tears. Holding the ripped remnants of her flight suit together to maintain her modesty, she pulled herself across to me. I took her into my arms, as she quietly sobbed into my shoulder.

“What the fuck, Flynn!” Morrison shouted at his compatriot.

“We’ve got to start to re-populate the Earth.” Flynn insisted, his eyes wild, his face a mass of welts and scratches.

“My God!” Morrison looked at him aghast. “What would Caitlin and Sarah say if they could see you now? You think your wife would be proud of you? You think you’d still be a hero to your little girl?”

“They’re dead, Morrison.” Flynn shouted back, his eyes brimming with tears. “They all are. Everyone down there is dead. We are all that is left of the human race, just us six. We have to start now. Takako and Varennikova aren’t getting any younger, so we need to get as many children out of them as we can before it’s too late!”

“Can you hear yourself?” Morrison asked him incredulously. “Tell me you’re not so far gone that you can’t hear how irrational you sound?”

“The survival of humanity is at stake!” Flynn told him, twitching with nervous energy.

“So you thought you’d rape Natalya.” I spat, barely containing my rage. I shook my head at him in disgust. “You sick bastard!” Flynn’s mouth twisted into something between a grimace and a sneer, saliva bubbling up in the corners of his mouth. I glanced meaningfully at Morrison, who nodded grimly, reading my expression.

“Dr Varennikova.” He said carefully. “I’m sorry. I appreciate that you have just been through an extremely traumatic experience, but I think it would be prudent if you could administer a sedative to Major Flynn.” Natalya reluctantly unwrapped herself from me and silently left the module to prepare the injection.

“My God, are you okay?” I heard Aki ask her just outside. Aki and Karpov must have heard the commotion, realised the hatch had been re-opened and hurried to help. As they entered the lab, they saw Flynn in his wide eyed, agitated state and realised immediately what had transpired.

“Major Flynn.” Karpov growled, his head heavily bandaged, but seemingly much recovered from his groggy state of earlier. “You are hereby relieved of duty and will be confined to this module until further notice.”

“You’re carrying on as if there is still a chain of command.” Flynn sneered at him. “All that ended the moment the world did. Our only duty now is to safeguard the continuation of the human race. That’s all that matters from now on. You might not like it, but it’s true. I’m sorry that Takako and Varennikova don’t want to be treated like cattle, but we lost that luxury the moment those missiles exploded.”

“Have some dignity.” Karpov snarled. “We are not animals!” Natalya returned with a syringe. Flynn’s eyes widened and he made a break for the hatch. Karpov and Morrison restrained him, holding him steady while she injected him. A few moments later, he stopped struggling, before slipping into a dazed stupor. We all left the module before Morrison pulled the hatch down behind us, locking it shut.

“What now?” Aki asked Karpov. He sighed deeply, glancing towards the sealed hatch.

“We’ll have to keep him locked down and observe him over the next few days.” He replied. “With any luck, he’ll settle down and recover.”

“You can’t mean release him?” I replied incredulously. “You saw him; he was wild, like a rabid dog. What’s to stop the twisted fuck from trying to rape Natalya or Aki in the future?!”

“Calm yourself, Mr Carter,” Karpov turned his steely gaze on me. “This has been an emotional few minutes and I know Dr Varennikova and you are more than friends, but you forget yourself. Like I said, we will check on Flynn over the next few days and I will make a judgement call as to whether he still represents a danger to the rest of us.”

“My God, Karpov.” I replied with disbelief. “What’s it going to take? He’s become increasingly violent over the past weeks and now this. We’ve got to lock him down indefinitely.”

“Mission Commander, I have to agree with Carter.” Morrison added. “He is a danger to the rest of us. We’ve all seen the warning signs and ignored them, but we can’t tolerate attempted rape not to mention his assault on you. It’s absolutely unconscionable.”

“I have made my decision.” Karpov snapped. “Much as I appreciate your completely unqualified psychoanalysis, we will re-evaluate Flynn’s state of mind in a few days and I will decide then.” For a fleeting moment, I saw a flash of anger in Morrison’s eyes, but the American quickly composed himself and nodded tersely, accepting the decision.