Astronomicon 1: Inception Point (Finished)

49 - Orbit

The Hesperian's A.F.O.C.S. computer, having achieved the optimal use of thrust from both vessels to keep them on trajectory and achieve a stable orbital track around Proxima C, reported to the waiting crew in the Control Room that operations were complete. That was their cue to begin their second and final E.V.A. expedition. Neither vessel could deploy its modules down to the surface while they were strapped together with steel cables.

* * *

"Ready to unhook your winches, Susan?" asked Commander Laghari via the radio in her E.V.A. suit.

"Almost, Commander. Just slackening off the second one."

"Good. Stephen, is Foxy ready to hand control back to the Pathfinder's flight computer?"

"Just got to hit the icon, Command, then we set her free," he replied. "By the way, I'm picking up a beacon from the surface. It's just started transmitting."

"The Elysian?"

"That's the I.D. encoded in it. I'm guessing it just came over the horizon."

"Can you pinpoint its location?"

"Down to about two kilometres, right now, but give us another couple of orbits, Foxy will have it down to the nearest metre."

"Great. Make sure the Pathfinder's Foxy knows to use that as the deployment marker," she ordered.

"Already done, Commander," Stephen replied, somehow sounding smug over the radio.

"Anything other than its beacon?"

"There's a scattering of lower power beacons in the vicinity, but those are the supply and fuel module beacons, they're not designed to be picked up from up here. They're too weak to tie down until will get down there."

"They're scattered, you say?"

"Yes, spread over an area some fifty to a hundred kilometres across. I can't be more precise than that."

"That's good news, Stephen. Elysian was hit before she deployed the modules. If the beacons aren't all in the same place, they must have deployed from orbit. That means her crew survived the collision!"

"I guess, Commander, but why are they spread out so much? That doesn't sound good. I'm worried she broke up in orbit and came down spread across the surface."

"We can't rule that out until we get down there but, if that's what happened, I'd expect her to be spread over hundreds or thousands of kilometres."

Susan's voice broke into their conversation, "Are we doing these winches, Commander?"

Once they had completed separating the vessels, Hesperian used her thrusters to move gently away from the Pathfinder, putting a few hundred metres between them. Stephen handed control of the Pathfinder vessel back to its A.F.O.C.S. computer, which instantly made some minor adjustments to its own orbit.

Ria announced that they would do one more orbit to get a proper look at the Elysian's beacon to establish the best place to land, then they would aim to deploy on the next orbit.

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