Astronomicon 1: Inception Point (Finished)

37 - Synchronisation

"Ready when you are, Commander," announced Skylar over the radio.

"Ready here too," Ria replied. "What about you, Stephen? Everything ready for us to winch the ships together?"

"Go for it, Commander. Safeties are disabled and I have control of the Pathfinder's AFOCS computer," Stephen replied.

"Okay, Skylar, when I get to zero, wind both winches in at ten percent power," Ria ordered. "Three... two... one... zero..."

Ria rotated the power lever up to one-tenth on both winches, and both spools began to turn steadily. They gradually drew up the slack in all four cables until they pulled tight and the gap between the Hesperian and the Pathfinder began, almost imperceptibly at first, to decrease.

"Now it's moving, drop the winches back to five percent. I don't want the ships accelerating towards each other as we have no way of slowing them down again. We just want to keep taking up the slack as the gap decreases."

"This is going to take some time," Skylar moaned.

"With almost 1500 tonnes coming towards us, I'm happy to wait," Ria laughed.

She reckoned the two vessels were already around a metre closer and she wondered about reducing the power of the winches a little more. They had been more effective than she expected. Soon, the distance between them was around eight metres.

"Let's bring the winches down to three percent," she ordered.

Just as Skylar replied, there were two explosions of white vapour from the Pathfinder and the Hesperian jolted beneath their feet. Instinctively, Ria grabbed her suit's tether cable with her left hand. While she was trying to work out what was going on, there was another longer jet of white vapour from the Pathfinder and the Hesperian jolted again. This time she was looking right at it and could see that the Pathfinder was firing some of its attitude thrusters.

After a brief pause, the thrusters fired again, a much more prolonged jet this time. The platform beneath her feet jerked again. While the jets were firing, both vessels moved as one, the Pathfinder towing the Hesperian, and she feared the winch cables might snap under the strain, but when they stopped, the cables slackened as the reaction started the vessels drifting together.

"Shut down the winches!" she shouted into the radio, just as another long pulse of thrust fired from the Pathfinder. "Stephen, what the hell is going on? I thought you had control of Pathfinder's AFOCS system?"

"My mistake. I'd primed the Pathfinder's AFOCS computer ready for the operation, but I forgot to shut down its automatic collision avoidance system. It's still trying to keep the two ships apart."

"Shut it down now!" she urged.

"I'm trying! It's not that simple!" Stephen shouted. "It's pulling us off orbit and the Hesperian's systems are just itching to respond and correct it."

"Don't let them do that. Both ships pulling in opposing directions would snap the cables. I dread to think how much the whiplash would damage our ship."

"Give me a moment," Stephen replied, his voice sounding increasingly stressed.

"We don't have any spare winches," Skylar added.

The Pathfinder's thrusters fired again, a much longer pulse this time. Ria could feel the vibration through the Hesperian's exo-frame, and she imagined she could feel the immense stress on the steel cables and feared what would happen if they snapped, especially if they did not all give way at the same time.

"I've got it," Stephen announced triumphantly. "Pathfinder is completely shut down now!"

The powerful jets of vapour ceased, any residue dissipating in moments.