Astronomicon: Icarus

8 - Recovery

Felix already knew that none of the offered paths catered for Icarus travelling in a hurry; all assumed giving a couple of minutes for the worst of the debris to clear.

"Icarus," said Iolo this time, "The asteroid is splitting. It's unstable. We've got fissures everywhere. If it collapses, we're going to get mashed. We need a pick-up immediately. I repeat, immediately!"

"Let's go get them," said Captain Taylor, startling Felix with his sudden appearance right behind him.

"I don't have a clear path yet. If we go now, we're going to catch some of these rocks."

"And if we don't go now, I'm going to lose my mining team. Step on it. This isn't a shuttle. Icarus is built to withstand a punishing. The longer we wait, the harder it's going to get, so let's go."

"Yes, sir," replied Felix, rapidly assessing the best route from the data displayed before him.

He gave Icarus a firm boost of thrust towards the asteroid and then set about using the attitude thrusters to rotate her one-hundred-and-eighty degrees so that she was flying backwards towards the mining team's location on the asteroid's surface. There were several loud clanks as fragments of rock struck the hull.

The hazard detection system began to flash several red lines, displaying where rocks travelling nearby would collide with their current trajectory. The proximity alarm sounded but Felix silenced it immediately.

Carefully lining Icarus up with the desired target location, he gave two thrusts with the main engines to greatly reduce her speed relative to the asteroid and then made some final adjustments with the thrusters.

"Take her down to five metres if you can," ordered Captain Taylor.

"That's dangerously close," replied Felix.

"If the team have to get off that rock fast, the closer we are, the safer it is for them."

"Twenty-five metres and closing."

"Not too fast. We don't want to crush them."

"Twenty."

Suddenly Iolo shouted frantically over the radio system, "She's coming apart. Fractures all over the place."

There was another loud clank as something bounced off the hull.

Captain Taylor looked at the range meter. "We're fifteen metres above you now. Can you jump for it?"

"I don't think we can lift the rig that far, sir," Iolo replied.

"Leave the rig! Just get out of there!"

"Almost ten metres," reported Felix.

"I think we can..." started Iolo but then the radio reduced to just crackling.

"Iolo?" said Captain Taylor. "Are you there? We didn't get your last transmission!"

There was more crackling from the speaker and then a sound which could have been distorted talking before silence.

"Switch to the rear camera."

Felix frantically scanned his console for the camera controls but could not find any sign of them. Captain Taylor reached over Felix's shoulder and pressed an icon on the main display. Several more icons popped up. Before Felix had a chance to see them, Captain Taylor hit one and the entire display changed to show the view from the camera mounted above the rear airlock.

The camera's field of view was entirely filled with the rocky surface of the asteroid. Large fissures had spread across its surface and were spreading further even as they watched. The asteroid was rapidly breaking apart. In places, the cracks were several metres wide and spreading. Felix knew that this was a dangerous place for Icarus to be, but until the mining crew were back on board, he had to hold her in position.