Abandoned in Space

The last few days had been uneventful. Routine meetings, typical workload, and daily exercise kept the crew busy. Finally the word from mission control that the weather in Florida was favorable to Orbital ATK’s launch at 8:00a GMT. It was time to get busy once again.

Martin Barret, looking forward to his last resupply as payload specialist was working through the details of transferring the new equipment and putting in place procedures for Angele Cataline’ to take over some of his workloads temporarily while the crew awaited the arrival of Shel Futaura. Vladamir’s responsibilities would be handled by a management cosmonaut at mission control. The term “management” cosmonaut or astronaut was used to describe a past crew member that was still active in the program but not eligible, for a variety of reasons, to return to space.

Martin and Vladamir had undertaken an expanded exercise program to try and minimize the effect of weightlessness on his muscular system. Yuri being a soldier before scientist often joined them partly because he wanted to maintain his physical stature and partly to satisfy his macho personality.
In many ways, the news of the resupply broke the tension that had been building and gave each crew member something to look forward too.

The resupply launch finally blasted off at 9:12a GMT Sunday morning and everyone onboard the ISS cheered when the report came over the radio. The resupply will deliver approx. 3500 kilograms of food, water, clothing, and equipment to the crew, about enough to last one month. Also aboard the resupply will be some care packages from the astronauts’ family members.

But the euphoria was short-lived. Just a few hours after launch, with the resupply well on its way, news of North Korea’s latest ICBM test brought the tensions to a new height. The Americans in addition to filing a formal protest with the U.N. has threatened “put the Koreans out of the missile business.” The President has ordered the Seventh Fleet, with nearly 60 ships and hundreds of aircraft to the waters just outside Korea. The Russian and Chinese governments have raised their respective military alerts which only served to ratchet up the tension.

With the excessive level of tension, the U.S. government has notified NASA and Roskosmos Mission Control that no more launches will be scheduled for the foreseeable future and the current supply ship will not be allowed to return to earth until further notice. If the crew could not send the resupply ship back to earth, it will be loaded up with trash and used up equipment and sent out into space hopefully to burn-up before reentry.

It typically takes about 48 hours for the resupply modules to catch up to the ISS and complete the docking procedure. Once the docking process was complete Martin Barret would be able to take over the unloading of supplies and reloading the module.

The next few hours would be one of the busiest times for the crew. Their very lives depended on the success of the resupply ship if something went wrong the crew would be in jeopardy until another ship could be sent. Given the current environment on earth, nothing was assured.

Despite the heightened tension, the crew performed admirably, each doing their jobs in preparation for the docking. Then Monday afternoon the bad news came. With the supply ship, only about 1 hour out flight control informed the crew that once the docking procedure was complete they have been instructed to invoke radio silence until notified by ground control or in case of a level 5 catastrophic event. The crew was essentially on their own until further notice.

Docking occurred without a hitch. It was a testament to the fine work of the ground control personnel and the training the flight crew had received. Martin took charge of the unloading process using the robotic arms to load and unload the bulky modules. It was now up to Yuri to make the call whether to wait for instructions from ground control or to eject the spent modules into space. They could not hold onto the useless cargo for very long. Yuri decided to give it 24 hours for the tension on earth to relax.

Melinda did not envy Yuri having to make the decision. The safety of the crew was dependent on releasing those spent modules and crew safety was his responsibility. Angele, Vladimir, and Martin were in favor of ejecting the modules right now, they wanted to move on and start preparations for their return home.

The radio silence was driving the crew crazy. It was even difficult to sleep since they had become so used to the constant chatter that without it the atmosphere was eerily quiet.

Melinda, when she wasn’t working, would curl up in the Cupola module. She would look longingly at the earth below wondering how things could have gotten this bad? When would mankind finally come to the realization that their petty squabbles are just little blips in the grand scheme of this giant universe?

It was early Tuesday morning, dawn was just breaking over the east coast of the U.S. when Melinda noticed the first flash. Something of major concern was happening. Within a few minutes, several more flashes larger than the first was occurring in the area that would be in the area near North Korea. It appears that the worst possible outcome has occurred on earth.

Nuclear war has begun!

As the crew gathered to try and figure out what was happening on earth a frantic broadcast came over the emergency channel. The U.S. has declared war on N. Korea! North Korea retaliated with the first strike on Tokyo, Japan. And the U.S. has launched numerous tactical nuclear strikes in an attempt to bring N. Korea to its knees. The real question was how would Russia and China respond? Will they let the attacks on N. Korea put an end to the conflict and move on or will they view the aggression as an attack on them?

It didn’t take long to find out. The Russians began the attack on the 7th Fleet with non-nuclear weapons in an attempt to drive them from the region. But as the battle raged each side began to launch tactical nuclear strikes of their own each trying to pre-empt the other attack. The ISS crew could only peer out the station's portholes in awe at the near continuous flashes that marked more explosions and further devastation to their respective homelands. If it continued, it was possible that they could be the last remaining humans alive.

Yuri called a meeting of the entire crew. He invoked the emergency survival procedures. Everyone would begin immediate rationing of all supplies, physical exertion will be held to a minimum to reserve oxygen and water. It could be weeks, even months before they can expect any help from earth.

Melinda's assignment is to make hourly attempts to communicate with earth on every possible communication method available. The crew would take turns peering out the Cupola module windows. It appeared that at least for now the commotion had died down.

Finally a radio broadcast from earth over a channel that was formerly a ground control backup channel. The speaker wanted to remain anonymous but Melinda recognized the voice as one of the radio specialists at SpaceX. His summary was that many major military installations in both the U.S. and Russia had been targeted and military installations across the globe had been damaged. The governments in the U.S. and Russia had gone underground fearing further attacks by each other. Only the Chinese government appeared to be fully intact and operational. Millions had been killed and in many parts of the globe, chaos reigned.

For now, the crew was safe, but in a matter of a few weeks, Yuri would have to make the decision whether to wait for help from earth, help that may never come, or attempt to man the ancient Soyuz emergency return modules and try to return to earth with no support. It was tearing Yuri up. He was a Russian, patriotic and trusting that the emergency modules would work. But they had never been tested and even if they work what would they be returning too? Would he send the 3 Russians home in one module and the 3 westerners in the other further dividing the crew?

As the days went by the crew was growing more and more restless. Performing scientific experiments which used to take up a lot of their time was useless now. All exercise was suspended to reserve resources and their only communication with earth was an occasional one-way broadcast that painted a dismal picture of life on earth. By all accounts, life in many places of the U.S. was like a scene out of Mad Max. Cities and towns were operating their own governments, people were hoarding supplies and many places were uninhabitable because of damage or nuclear fallout.

Melinda would periodically curl up in the Cupola and look out at the great big universe and wonder how did this happen? There are so many stars and planets out there in space that man could have discovered. So many other worlds where life could exist.

Being chosen for a tour on the ISS was once the highest privilege that a scientist could expect in their life. Now the ISS had become a prison. They were trapped with no support and little chance for survival beyond the next few days. Sensing the inevitable, Stanislaw Yanka and Vladimir Lacheko volunteered to be the first to attempt a return to earth. Their logic was that the remaining supplies would last longer if only 4 people remained instead of 6. Eventually, Martin Barret volunteered to join them leaving Yuri and the two women. While Yuri was not completely sold on the idea he instructed them to begin work on preparing the reentry modules just in case it was necessary.

On day 12 following the attacks, Melinda made contact with an entity that claimed to be a member of the U.S. military. According to the party at the other end of the communique. The remains of the U.S. and Russian military had taken command of their respective governments. They were beginning to take control of the remaining factions across the globe. Life was beginning to return to normal or at least some semblance of normal, it would likely be months or years before normalcy returns. While the person Melinda was communicating with probably had no authority to determine the ISS future it was clear that they were not a priority.

On day 14, Vladimir Lacheko announced that the escape modules were ready as soon as Yuri gave the command.

With little choice left Yuri called the crew together. He instructed them to try and rest as much as they can because tomorrow at daybreak they would be making their attempt to return to earth. The meeting ended with the crew holding hands and one final prayer, each in their own respective languages.

The sun began to rise over the Pacific Ocean. Angele estimated that in about 2 hours they could target the large Russian space installation in Kazakhstan where many Russian cosmonauts had landed in the past. If the site was still functional that would be their best chance for survival.

As planned, Stanislaw Yanka, Vladimir Lacheko, and Martin Barret climbed into the first module while Yuri, Angele, and Melinda boarded the second.

At exactly 07:00 GMT the first module ejected without incident. One minute later the second module departed the ISS heading for earth.

At precisely 07:04 GMT a broadcast came blaring across the ISS emergency channel. The Chinese government has prepared an emergency launch to the ISS bringing three Chinese astronauts that will take command of the ISS. All existing crew members will be returned to earth and placed in a Chinese detention facility until full physical and mental evaluations can be completed. After a full debriefing, they will then be returned to their respective homes.