Space Cowboys Page #7

Hows it going?

Space will never be the same.

Houston, this is Daedalus.

Roll program.

Roger roll, Daedalus.

Thank you, God.

Stand by for throttles up.

Daedalus, you are go|at throttles up.

Roger, Houston. Go with throttles up.

Stand by for separation of SRBs.

Stand by for SRB sep.

Coming up to negative return.

Negative return.

Roger, Daedalus.|You are negative return.

Were just a dot.

Two engines tal.

Press to ATO.

Houston, do we have a go|for orbit ops?

Roger, Daedalus.|You are go for orbit ops.

Good work, guys.

Four hours to intercept.|Were right on schedule.

Thats not what lm worried about.

Relax.

Our man is up there with them.

lt was worth the wait.

-Yeah, it was.|-Thank you, Frank.

l owe you one.

Not a bad takeoff...

...for some rookies.

You guys are over, over the edge.|Youre in space.

-Welcome to the club.|-Thank you, Roger.

Okay, Daedalus has got lkon|on the scopes.

We should have a visual here|momentarily.

Range, 5000 meters.

Roger, Hawk, we have a visual here.

Stand by for a 1 5-second burn.

All right, get ready|to deploy the arm.

Deploying the arm.

Dead center.|Good driving up there, Hawk.

Lets light them up.

Stand by. T.l. burn in four,|three, two, one.

Hello, lkon. How we feeling today?

Activating floods.

Boy. Will you get a load of this?

Activating radar.

-Hes trying to get a tone on us.|-What are you saying?

Shut the radar down.|lts painting a target on us.

Radar off.

Were okay.

No wonder the damn things orbit is|decaying. lts got to weigh 50 ton.

Houston, this is Daedalus.|You see what we see?

Roger, Daedalus. We are...

...studying it from here.

Stand by for a decision.

lts got to have some kind of|self-defense mechanism.

Our radar mustve activated it.

Can you grab it?

l can get it if Hawk|can get us in there.

lm just worried about the mass.

lm worried about this thing|getting pissed again.

Does that look like a communications|satellite to you?

General, what sort of modifications|have your people made here?

That grappling arm cant|handle that much stress.

lts within operational limits.|Frank can latch on.

l dont know about this.

Our mission is to restore this|satellite. Lets get on with it.

l wont let this crew get killed,|you included.

Houston, Daedalus.|Were still standing by.

-Give them a go to capture.|-Daedalus, this is Houston.

You have a go for capture.

-Here we go, gentlemen.|-Roger, Houston.

We have a go for capture.|Pull it in, see what she looks like.

Give me a minute to get it stable.

Okay, how does that look?

Thats close enough for me.

-ls he as good as you say he is?|-Tank?

Hes the man.

All right. You can go for it.

Youre drifting left too far.

Hail Mary, full of grace.

Holy sh*t!|l got it!

You the man, Tank.

Houston, Daedalus. Weve got lkon.

Good work, fellas.

You boys look mighty sharp.

Welcome to space, Frank.|Youve waited a while for this.

Yeah. Only 40 years.

All right, cowboys. Lets round|them up. We got work to do.

A little light on the subject.

Well take a look at its brains.

l dont think thats the panel.

You dont, do you?

Holy cow, Frank.

This is some piece of junk.

This isnt a sightseeing trip, Frank.

-Abort activity.|-Frank, listen to me.

l said, abort activity. Now.

Whats going on, Frank?

Ethan, what the hells going on?|What is this damn thing?

A Russian communications satellite,|colonel.

Bullshit! You dont think l know a|nuclear launch platform when l see it?

Why are we helping the Russians|put a missile silo back into orbit?

Youre a genius. You figure it out.

Youre only here|as a publicity stunt!

You got what you wanted!|Youre in space!

Now finish the damn mission!

Go ahead, Frank.

Youre on a secure line now.

You were right to be concerned|about this thing coming out oforbit.

It happens to have six armed|nuclear warheads on board.

Whats he talking about?

l have no idea.

General, is there something|you want to tell us?

Yes.

lkon is a relic from the Cold War.

lt has floated dead in space|ever since the Soviet Union fell.

There are six missiles on board...

...targeted at strategic|American installations.

All, most regrettably...

...in large metropolitan areas.

lf lkon goes offline...

...it will assume that...

...there has been a catastrophe|and will initiate launch on its own.

You picked a hell of a time|for a confession, general.

Those are our boys up there.

And that is a treaty violation.|A goddamn big one.

You bastard.

Bob, you dont know how touched I am|that youre worried about our safety.

Why dont you ask your friend|the general...

...how my guidance system from|Skylab got aboard this six-gun?

lt was stolen by the lKGB...

...from Mr. Gersons personal files.

This is all news to me.

Youd have us put it back into orbit|fully armed and keep it a secret. ..

...just to save your ass?

People, we have a real problem here.

All right, huddle up.

We got a big-ass problem.

Were latched on to a 100-megaton|bomb traveling 1 7,000 miles an hour.

What about that sh*t heap? You think|we can get it out into deep space?

Four payload assist rockets? Just.

Maybe. I dont know.|Let me crunch some numbers.

Just okay, Frank.

Somebodys outside the ship.

Daedalus, you have an unscheduled|EVA you want to tell me about?

What?

Hes jammed the air lock door, Frank.

Remove the panel and override it.

Turn on the lights.

Ethan, what are you doing out there?

Ethan, what are you doing?

Your job, Frank.

Putting lkon back into geosync orbit.

You dont know what youre doing.|Come back. Thats an order.

You dont know the sequencing.

Get suited up. When the doors fixed,|get out there.

All right.

Ethan, do not connect those PAM|rockets. Do you understand?

How long?

l nearly got it.

Dont lock onto those PAM rockets.|You hear me?

Got it.

lts arming itself.

Oh, God!

Oh, Lord.

-Hawk.|-lm on it.

Sh*t, we got a fire in here.

We lost lkon and Ethan.

Rogers hurt, mid-deck.|Hes bleeding badly.

See what you can do for him.

Tank, contain the situation.|lKill the 02 switch.

lKilling it.

Hawk and l are going out.

l got it.

Status GBC.

Check.

Theyve got the fire contained.

Range, 100 feet. lts accelerating,|Miss Holland.

Theyre gonna lose it.

l assume you got a plan.

l think l can reconfigure the flight|control system for stabilization burn.

The only trouble is, l gotta do that|at exactly the right time.

Thats where you come in.

You gotta be my eyes|while lm in there.

Cue me when the satellite comes around|and lines up with the shuttle.

But what about the rate of descent?

lll fire a short burst from the PAM,|and thatll counter-thrust.

Just enable the PAM rocket|to accept my command.

Hell, l thought this|was gonna be hard.

Jerry, to make all this work...

...give me range and rate|of opening readings.

Frank, you have one shot, maybe.

You miss, youll never make it back.

lf those bombs hit the atmosphere,|it might not matter anyway.

Come on, lets suit up|and get out of here.

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