ISS by Laurie Mains, L Valder Mains Page B

continuously until it used up all its fuel. He found a tank of diesel in another building and used it to replenish the generator. He fired it up and it was running smoothly by the time he’d found the mainframe computer on the second floor. Restarting it was simple he pressed the reset button and in less than a minute everything was back on-line. The next job would not be so simple he needed to find a microwave dish transmitter which he could aim at the ISS. They began training the next morning with Steve directing them for fifteen minutes every ninety minutes from the ISS. He made them practice ten hours a day until they almost dropped from exhaustion. The work of flying the Jericho One was divided up between them, they both spent hours in the cockpit going over systems and controls with Sara spending the most flight seat time while Jack maintained the physical systems and learned all the ground crew and navigation duties.
    They used the next fifteen days, with only one day off for a trip to the city for food, to prepare for their flight. By the time they were finished training they could locate and read off any instrument or gauge or instantly flip any safety switch on the flight deck. They did not necessarily know why they were flipping the switch they simply needed to be able to find it quickly amongst the hundreds in front of and beside them. The crew of the ISS would make the decisions as to which switch to deploy and why. Steve was a tough task master making them go back over it many times if he had any doubts about their knowledge. They did not complain because, after all, their lives would depend on them pressing the right button.
    The spacesuits they found were intended for use by the flight crew of Jericho One and were much better than the light duty suits used by the tourists. They’d spent a campy hour modeling them for each other and laughing at the bulky butt pads. There were some awkward moments when the topic of going to the bathroom in zero gravity came up and it was Commander Randall who helped them with the details of that.
    The pre-flight training and preparations were complete and the supplies needed to replenish the ISS were loaded into the external cargo holds and strapped down. Sara spent so many hours on the radio with Gerry Wright going over the details of how to fly the huge spacecraft that she mumbled about inertial dampener controls in her sleep. They practiced the procedure for depressurizing the cabin and opening the hatch once they reached the ISS. They were to stay aboard the JERICHO ONE until the scientists were certain they’d found an anti-virus but just in case something went wrong they needed to be able to leave JERICHO ONE. Jack searched the exterior of the aircraft for a likely place for the astronauts to grab and secure Jericho One with the Canada arm. There was nothing solid enough on the exterior to safely latch onto so Gerry decided that they would have to risk deploying the landing gear in space so they would have something reasonably strong to grab onto. The risk was that grabbing the gear might damage it and they would lose the ability to return to earth in JERICHO ONE.
    ***
    “Do you want some more?” she asked him as he put down his glass.
    “No thank you I think that should do it.”
    “Are you sure?” she said but before she finished speaking he jumped up and ran to the bathroom making it just in time. He sat on the toilet and it felt like everything inside him, including his brain, was falling out his bottom. Jesus, he gasped, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. It was, unfortunately, his idea and he was not in a good position to suggest a change now. He was sitting there waiting for the next load when there was an urgent knock at the door. “Hurry up!” The look she gave him when she rushed past him into the tiny washroom wasn’t exactly sweet. It had been his idea to drink a lot of orange juice laced with Vitamin C to clear their digestive tracts so they would