Gideon's Sword: Remnant Rescue, #3

By Michael Vetter

Gideon's Sword—Remnant Rescue Series | Book 3 begins immediately after the Rapture when the multi-national crew of the International Space Station (ISS) watches atomic wars destroy most of the United States and their aftermath kill one-fourth of the world's population. National allegiances on the space station soon split between the majority-Russian crew and two friends—an American and Israeli. When a Russian resupply ship approached the ISS with food and supplies, astronauts Ryan Legend and Gabriel Weiss take drastic action that saves their lives. They dub their new home the Blue Star.

The two astronauts' rescue from space comes from an unlikely place when the Remnant Rescue organization rebuild a rocket found in an aerospace museum and launch three of their own astronauts to the Blue Star. What the two castaway astronauts think is a rescue mission turns out to be an ingenious space shield as Jews enter a time period known as Jacob's Trouble or the Great Tribulation.

 

Gideon's Sword is also the name of a space platform from which captured Israeli atomic missiles with non-lethal electromagnetic pulse (EMP) warheads rain down on Imperium forces. A Syrian mechanized division, a strategic fortress, and the re-built city of Babylon all become targets. Not knowing the source of the mysterious attacks from space, the Imperium's kingdoms turn on each other in a fierce nuclear exchange.

 

Before the astronauts return home, they save a Christian from a space cruiser recently returned from an expedition to Mars in a race to dodge a satellite programmed to collide with what remains of the ISS and kill everyone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Vetter
• Release date: Mar 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9798201035730

Michael Vetter

Michael Vetter is a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer with degrees in Mechanical Engineering from UMass Lowell and Ocean Engineering from MIT. The Tapez Scroll—Remnant Rescue Series | Book 1 is his fifth book of fictional adventure that melds speculative technologies with Biblical themes. Michael and his wife Mary live in Salem, New Hampshire. Contact him at [e-mail]

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Chapter 1

International Space Station (ISS)

As the only American astronaut on the ISS, Ryan Legend found it impossible to accept the Russian’s explanation of what had happened on Earth. The international crew of the ISS, orbiting at an altitude of 400 kilometers, didn’t comprehend the mysterious occurrence at first. The U.S. controller in Houston calmly informed them that there was a problem and to stand by for further instructions. He went off the air and never returned. The same abrupt conversation took place between the Russian ground controller at Korolev and the cosmonauts on the Russian Mir side of the space station. Television stations offered only snippets of news before their short orbit took the station out of range. Thousands, maybe millions, of people had disappeared and governments were thrown into chaos.

Korolev, the Russian ISS Mission Control Center outside of Moscow, called the Mir crew twenty-four hours later. There had been a mysterious disappearance of people, they informed the ISS crew, that happened in isolated places worldwide, all at the same instant. While no explanation was certain, they speculated that it must have been caused by some type of an advanced weapon. A U.S. offensive weapon gone awry, they surmised. The Russians hinted that it also could have been extraterrestrial in origin. They would continue to investigate. Ryan Legend, the American astronaut, and his Israeli partner, Gabriel Weiss, weren’t sure what to believe. Blaming the Americans sounded too convenient.

The Russians assumed ground control of the ISS until Houston and NASA in Washington came back on the air. Militaries around the world went on alert except for the U.S. That was even more unusual. The Russians informed them that the U.S. military was in disarray due to the absence of essential personnel, countless air crashes, and military equipment accidents. Was that true or Russian propaganda?

Sensitive astrophysical instruments known as bhangmeters were affixed to the extreme ends of the space station’s huge solar panels. They detected the first atomic explosions. The characteristic double flash of a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere rang alarms in both Russian and U.S. sides of the ISS. The station’s habitations were shielded from cosmic rays that occurred naturally in outer space, so any damage to the ISS from massive electromagnetic pulses or EMPs from atmospheric atomic blasts was unlikely. Measuring the arrival times of the flashes on both widely spaced instruments revealed locations on Earth of the explosions that were mind-numbing. North Korea, the crew learned later, had taken advantage of the American military’s vulnerability and launched missiles at cities along the U.S. Pacific Coast, Alaska, and the island of Hawaii. Some missiles failed in flight and others were shot down by ground-based interceptors, but the twenty percent that hit their targets were devastating. Almost twenty million people died in the first salvo. When the U.S. finally responded 48 hours later, because the national command authority in Washington, D.C. had been either paralyzed, incommunicado, or missing, the delayed counter-attack destroyed all of North Korea. An unintended, but entirely predictable, consequence was deadly radioactive fallout on South Korea. A few errant American missiles aimed at North Korea also accidentally hit cities in southeastern China. Because of those mistakes, a second missile salvo against the U.S. was a counter-attack by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Forces. Hundreds of long-range and submarine-launched missiles with thermonuclear weapons destroyed major U.S. cities on its east and west coasts, military bases, and core manufacturing facilities. All industrial and technological capabilities were crippled. All state and federal government in the United States of America essentially ceased to exist.

Ryan Legend, the only American astronaut on the ISS, could not believe what he learned from the station’s nuclear burst sensors and sporadic news reports. What happened on Earth was so emotionally shattering that it turned the ISS crew in on itself. Eight astronauts on the orbiting space station watched as the lush green colors of North America 400 kilometers below were transformed into a hazy, brown radioactive landscape. At first, each man in the station’s all-male crew guarded his inner conflicted thoughts about what had happened. One fifth of the planet was destroyed in one nuclear exchange and a billion people were dead. It all happened so fast.

Ryan took the sudden disappearance and resulting nuclear wars the hardest because his home country was blown away before his eyes. How was he supposed to feel? Furious? Helpless? Numb? Depressed? All of the above? He was a 33-year-old biologist-astronaut at the pinnacle of his professional career who now felt like he’d wasted his life going into space. Then again, if he’d been in Houston at NASA instead of on the ISS, he’d be dead now. He almost wished he’d been in Houston to end the pain he felt.

While he struggled with his emotions, he concluded that it wouldn’t be long before the multi-national crew, confined to tight quarters in a metal shell orbiting the Earth with little chance of resupply or rescue any time soon, would begin taking sides along national lines. For the first few months after what was called the North American War, the men immersed themselves in routine station maintenance and scientific experiments. For Ryan, the official ISS biologist, gathering data for NASA or universities that no longer existed seemed pointless. He gave up most of the experiments or handed them off to others. He didn’t see a reason for continuing.

The ISS mission commander, Yuri Glakinov, was a Russian physicist-cosmonaut with a half-dozen Soyuz scientific missions to his credit and who’d been on the ISS for over a year. As any senior leader would, he’d taken time to get to know each of the crew after he arrived and used his authority with a light touch even though he was also a colonel in the Russian Aerospace Forces. He assigned station repairs and housekeeping duties fairly and treated everyone as colleagues as if the ISS was a scientific laboratory, which it was. Ryan was the only American on the crew, along with one German, and one Israeli astronaut. The remaining five Russians were a majority of the crew because their country had paid for most of the station’s continued operation.

Ryan sank into a depression that wasn’t alleviated by routine housekeeping chores or the occasional extravehicular activity (EVA) outside the station’s confines to adjust a solar panel or inspect an antenna. He had abundant free time to read or stare out the large lab window in the U.S. module at the end of the long, cylindrical space station as far away from the Russians as he could get. It was six months after the war that destroyed his homeland and the hypnotic procession of white clouds and bright blue seas below him provided only temporary relief from his malaise. Something had to interrupt the downward spiral or he would go mad.

Gabriel Weiss, the Israeli astronaut, found Ryan gazing out the observation window one day and quietly floated into the U.S. lab segment without Ryan noticing that he was there. When he heard Gabriel close the air-tight door that separated the Russian and U.S. halves of the station he turned around.

Gabby, what’s up? Ryan said to the Israeli who by now was his best friend on the station. They were both about the same age and Gabriel spoke fluent English, albeit with a British accent.

I overheard something that we need to talk about, Ryan.

Always glad to talk with you, buddy. What is it? Particle theory? Fermat’s Last Theorem? Plant mutations? I have plenty of time for long, abstract discussions. Forced levity didn’t cover his entrenched indifference.

Be serious, man. I overheard the Russians talking like they’ve been in regular touch with Korolev. That was news to Ryan. The Russian radioman had told Ryan and Gabriel that the ISS Mission Control Center at Korolev went off the air a month after the North American War and never returned. Ryan knew Houston and Cape Canaveral were gone—he’d looked at most U.S. cities through the medium-power telescope and knew that they were gone. Most likely it was the Chinese who had efficiently obliterated everything that the North Koreans didn’t. He’d taken the radioman at his word when he said that the space station was cut off from radio communication with everyone on the ground.

Glakinov hasn’t said a thing about that to me. Did it just happen?

I don’t think so. They were in the break room drinking tea and didn’t notice that I’d come in. They and the German were laughing about some recent news from Russia. My sense is they’ve been in contact with Korolev control all along and are intentionally keeping it from us.

Ryan motioned for Gabriel to come with him to the other end of the U.S. module, but to leave the door open that connected the two halves of the station. No sense raising suspicions with a closed connecting door light showing on the main control room’s instrument panel. Ryan kept his eye on the connecting tunnel as they two conversed in whispers.

Chapter 2

International Space Station

The Russians and lone German were drinking tea and laughing when Ryan floated into the control room that doubled as a communal living room. Gabriel was close behind him.

Ryan, come join us for some good Russian tea! Glakinov smiled. Or would you rather have coffee?

How long have you been in contact with them, Yuri? Ryan held his anger in check.

In contact with who, Ryan? His eyes shifted to Anatoli the radioman and back to Ryan. Glakinov’s grin was gone.

"With Korolev Mission Control, tovarisch," the American said using the Russian address for comrade.

Oh, yes! I was about to tell you. It’s wonderful news! The lie was difficult even for him to utter without a forced smile.

How long, Yuri?

It was no use pretending. His fellow Russian scientists exchanged uncomfortable glances. The German astronaut grinned at the American’s gullibility.

For several months now, Ryan, Glakinov said in a low voice that might have appeared contrite until you realized that he was a Russian.

Gabriel restrained himself from lunging at Yuri and sending both of them careening into an instrument panel.

"Gabby needs to contact his parents now! Ryan glared at the radioman. Hook him up with a phone line to Tel Aviv through Korolev. He might calm down enough to not whip the lot of you if you do that for him. Some compassion from you might settle both of our tempers!"

The radioman looked to his superior. Glakinov sighed. Here’s the situation, Ryan. The ISS is now under control of the Russian Federation and its Space Forces. The Americans and their Jewish friends, he jerked his thumb toward Gabriel, are no longer in a position to pay their share of the ISS so our Premier decided that we will run the station from now on. The ISS is part of Russian Space Forces and I am its commander. There will be no phone calls for your friend.

Does that mean you have digital contact through your Luch satellite? Ryan assumed this was the case because the U.S. Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) went off the air when the Chinese attacked. Chinese ASAT anti-satellite weapons must have destroyed U.S. relay satellites but not Russian satellites. That’s why they’d been out of touch with all U.S. tracking stations around the world, not just with Houston and Cape Canaveral. You’ve been in touch with your people all along, haven’t you?

Pretty much. Yuri almost looked sorry to admit the deception.

Apparently your friend has chosen sides, Ryan nodded toward Heinrich Hoffer, the German astronaut.

"It’s a new world out there, Ryan. With the U.S. out of the picture, three major powers have carved up the pie, as you Americans would say. Besides Russia and China, a new leader with grand ambitions is building his vision of a new Roman Empire and uniting the rest of the surviving world. Russia and China have their own designs too, so we’ll see how it all works out. Meanwhile, Germany has joined the united Europa Kingdom. Heinrich has renounced his nationality and joined us, which is a move that you and your friend should consider. My orders are to maintain order on this space station which, by the way, we’ve named Red Onyx. You and your comrade have no choice but to get used to the new arrangement."

I see. What exactly does that new arrangement mean—assuming we don’t join you?

"For security reasons, I’m restricting the two of you to the U.S. modules. It won’t be that much different than it’s been for the past few months. Food will be rationed until the next resupply ship arrives and I’ll assign housekeeping chores fairly. I expect a Progress resupply within a year and I hope you two will comply with my orders in the meantime. It would be best if you obeyed the new rules." The threat was clear. He left the consequences of not going along to the imagination.

Chapter 3

International Space Station

Ryan and Gabriel spent hours on the exercise bike burning off their bottled-up hatred of the Russians while they thought about how to escape from the ISS. The two ate their rations apart from the others and used the time to discuss their dwindling options.

I don’t think anyone will be rescuing us, Ryan concluded. It was a year since the Disappearance, their fugue state had passed, and they were itching to find a way home. There would never be a NASA or SpaceX relief crew or rescue mission. The only way off the station was in the one Soyuz capsule docked at the far end of the station and that was firmly in the Russian’s hands. They’d probably already locked it so it couldn’t be hijacked.

No surprise there, Gabriel agreed when he and Ryan rehearsed their limited options for the hundredth time. We have enough food at this end of the station to last us another six months. You’re raising tomatoes, so we can make fresh spaghetti sauce someday. If only we had spaghetti. Neither of them laughed.

Ryan had been thinking about why they were still alive. "They’re waiting for the Progress resupply mission before taking some sort of action. Think about it: we’re two extra mouths to feed. Why haven’t they killed us by now? What are they waiting for?"

I don’t think Glakinov or the others are cold-blooded killers. Gabriel said. They’re scientists and academics. Yes, they happen to hold Russian military rank, but I don’t think they’re eager to kill us.

What about the German? Ryan asked. He’s radical enough to jump at the chance to kill a Jew? It might mean a quick promotion for him. A year of self-imposed solitude had amplified his mild skepticism; he’d become a bitter skeptic.

"Aside from the personal implications of that statement, Ryan, there must be some other reason for them keeping us alive. I agree that they probably don’t have the guts to murder us outright. Even if the German stepped up to do the deed, it might not set well with the new world leader who claims that Jews are his special friends and has pledged to protect them. Maybe our fate is being deferred for propaganda purposes, or maybe our deaths have to be orchestrated in a way that looks like a tragic accident. No, I agree with you that they’re waiting for the Progress ship to arrive before they do whatever they have planned."

Gabriel motioned his partner closer and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I have a crazy idea that could solve our problem. Here’s what we can do when the Progress resupply vessel arrives. What do you think of this…?"

The idea was beyond crazy. They discussed it for the next three hours.

Chapter 4

International Space Station

The Russians informed Ryan and Gabriel that the resupply ship had launched successfully from the Baikonur Space Complex to rendezvous with the ISS with over 20,000 kilograms of supplies. That seemed like a very large payload to supply an eight-person crew. Ryan casually asked if it was manned and Yuri said it wasn’t but that a manned capsule would be launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome military launch complex a few days later with six technicians aboard. Yuri didn’t call them cosmonauts which was telling. Gabriel’s plan better work.

***

Ryan first noticed the Progress resupply ship when sunlight glinted off of it fifty kilometers away. He settled himself in front of the control console in the Lab module of the U.S. station module while Gabriel quietly suited up for an extra-vehicular activity, or EVA outside the station. He waited in the telephone-booth sized Quest airlock. Ryan continued to watch the Russian ship from the large observation windows which gave him a 360-degree view of the space station’s central modules and trusses unobstructed by the giant solar panels. Their plan called for Ryan to depressurize and open the airlock door at the right moment.

Whenever a Russian Progress or American SpaceX Dragon resupply ship approached the ISS, it descended slowly from a higher orbit out of a pitch black sky and waited one hundred meters from its destination port, depending on whose supplies it carried. Progress docked with Mir and Dragon docked with the USOC, although both docking ports were compatible. In this case, a Soyuz was already docked, so a second port on the Russian side of the station would be used. The protocol required that an operator of the Canadarm2 remote manipulator arm visually verify that the orbits of the ISS and the much smaller supply craft were stable relative to each other before he instructed the ground controllers to propel the Progress closer in gradual increments. When the radar range measured fifty meters, the approach paused again to stabilize before closing the distance until the remote arm operator extended the articulated boom to its full length of 18 meters and grabbed the supply ship with a special adapter that drew it into contact with the docking port. The delicate, remote controlled process from first sighting to docking could take as long as two hours.

Gabriel’s heart pounded and he felt sweat accumulating around his neck inside his tight air conditioned EVA space suit. In weightless space it was funny how sweat puddled in the most unlikely places. He put discomfort out of his mind and focused on what he had to do when the red depressurization light illuminated on the control panel in front of his face.

It’s moving in from the 100-meter position, Ryan said calmly over the secure intercom. He’d made sure that the UHF frequency and crypto key used for communication between him and Gabriel was one that the Russians didn’t have.

Seventy meters. Halfway there.

Sixty meters.

Gabriel braced himself for the rapid escape of air in the chamber, an indication that the outer door was unlatched. He’d see the light and hear the click nearly simultaneously.

Ryan waited to close the door for the Pressurized Mating Adapter—in this case PMA1 that connected the Russian Cargo Block and the U.S. Node 1 Laboratory Module. PMA1 was held together by the S1 and S0 trusses that tied the cylindrical ISS together. Six other PMAs configured the ISS into its distinctive cruciform shape of a long tube of interconnected modules and unfurled solar array wings on each side of the tube.

The ISS can be visualized as a link sausage laid out in a line of ten shiny metal tubes linked together with specialized modules extending out in all directions at the nodes. A NASA bureaucrat somewhere must have thought of the ISS like a naval ship because instead of left and right, which made no sense in space because there is no up or down, he arbitrarily named the station’s two halves port and starboard. The Russian Mir was designated port and the USOC starboard. The two essentially independent and self-sufficient stations built by two nations were joined by a pressurized door called PMA1 with the numbering of the module links beginning at the center and working outward to port and starboard. As new links or modules were added over the years and large solar panels, antennas, experiments by other countries, and a giant thermal propulsion mirror sprouted perpendicularly to the line of modules, the ISS structure needed to be strengthened with rigid girders and trusses. These were numbered (not always consistently) according to the modules they joined. Astronauts and cosmonauts assigned to the ISS knew by heart the layout of the station’s modules, nodes, trusses, ports, and airlocks so they used shorthand acronyms for them without thinking.

Closing the interconnecting hatch at PMA1 was, in itself, not something that either side of the station viewed as noteworthy. Just to make sure its closure didn’t raise an alarm, Ryan and Gabriel had closed and opened it at various different times during the past month with their compatriots isolated on the other side of the divide. Nobody should notice this time if it was closed from the U.S. side and locked. Airlock depressurization, a sign that an EVA was in progress, while the rest of the crew awaited Progress capture, might puzzle the Russians for a few precious moments before they reacted. Ryan hoped it would be too late by then.

Fifty meters. The supply ship hovered in mid-space and Ryan pushed the Airlock Depressurize button to throw their plan into motion.

Within seconds, the Quest airlock door unlatched and Gabriel waited ten seconds for the door to swing fully open before he floated out