Reece saw Commander Rogers waiting for him in the garden module as he passed through the bulkhead. The man had a dark and clouded look on his face. Reece was immediately on guard.

The commander narrowed his eyes as he began to speak. “I need you to be honest with me. Do you know or have any idea how that could have happened? Was Martinez acting strangely, or did he say anything to you? Do you have any information about what happened?”

Reece was instantly alarmed. Could Angel have been the one to cause the accident, if it was an accident at all? Or did Angel try to stop something that was happening on the shuttle? Reece decided to keep these thoughts to himself, but he needed to offer Rogers something as the commander seemed to be suspicious of him as well.

“He didn’t say anything that comes to mind, but he did seem out of sorts the last day. I figured it was just pre-mission jitters. Also, several of us thought we heard his voice at the end of that last transmission before the collision. It sounded like he and Taylor may have been involved in a scuffle. As for the accident, I can think of a half-dozen ways an explosion could have happened aboard the shuttle.”

“Like what?” pressed Rogers angrily.

“Well, if there was a struggle, they could have bumped the flight controls and rammed the shuttle into the airlock, which would have seemed like an explosion to us. Also, one of the thrusters could have been leaking and would have exploded on ignition if no one noticed it. Or maybe someone brought an I.E.D. aboard and activated it. There are a few ways someone with the right know-how could have assembled one from the compounds and materials aboard this station. Another way would be if…”

“Okay, okay,” interrupted Rogers. “Is there any way we can determine which one of those things it could be?”

“We could have Thomas and Aika tune to Hermes’s telemetry feed and that could give us some of the last equipment statuses. That could provide some clues.”

“Alright, good thinking,” replied the Commander as he activated the module’s intercom. “Thomas, see if you and Aika can download the shuttle’s telemetry and call out if you find anything. Over.”

The Commander put his hand on Reece’s shoulder. “You’re a good man, Danielson. I’m going to check out the airlock. I need you to do what you can with the mess here.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll do what assessment I can from here, but I’ll need to do an EVA in order to complete a true assessment.”

“Understood. Let me know what you find out. It’s good to know I can count on you.”

“Who’ll be my second?” asked Reece. “The safety observer?”

“Yeah, about that... We only had five EVA suits on the station. Yours, Angel’s, mine, Thato’s, and Naeva’s. Angel took his with him and the rest of them got sucked into space when the shuttle bay’s airlock got breached. Except for yours, because it was at the EVA airlock. So, unfortunately, you’ll be on your own. We’ll keep EVAs to a minimum, and make sure the next shuttle brings replacements.”

“You’re kidding? I thought there was another one in the EVA airlock besides mine, even after Angel took his out.”

“Well, technically, you’re right,” replied the commander. “The problem with that suit is that it doesn’t have a working helmet right now. It’s in the engineering lab for repair. Last I heard, we need some parts from Earth to fix it. Apparently, it was damaged a couple of weeks ago. There wasn’t time to get the parts on our shuttle mission. I wouldn’t be surprised if Angel sabotaged it. As I said, you’re on your own. Just make sure you follow all safety protocols and you’ll be fine.”

Reece sighed before nodding. The Commander patted him on the shoulder and turned and headed for the damaged airlock. Turning back to the garden module, Reece noticed a large dent in the outer wall, but the thick polymer of the station’s shell held together. It was designed to bend and not break in the event of a collision with space debris. Reece inspected the module from top to bottom to ensure that the damage didn’t compromise the structural integrity of the module or the station in general. Once he was satisfied that the damage was largely cosmetic, he spoke through the intercom.

“Commander, I’ve completed my analysis. I’m confident that the damage isn’t a threat to the station. These modules were designed for this type of thing, she’ll hold together," explained Reece. "I’ll do an EVA at the next opportunity to check for any additional damage. Over.”

“That’s some good news at least. Unfortunately, my news isn’t so great," replied Rogers. "The damage to the airlock is extensive and doesn’t look to be fixable. It also compromised the airlock access module with which the two remaining shuttles, Wisdom and Sombra, are docked. The only airlock that is accessible doesn’t have a shuttle docked with it, which means we are stuck here until another shuttle arrives at the station. Thomas, have you informed Ground Control of our situation? Over.”

“Yes, sir," replied Thomas. "They are awaiting your assessment. Over.”

“Go ahead and give them our preliminary findings. Tell them we need some time for our complete assessment," ordered Commander Rogers. "Reece, you are cleared to prep for EVA. Everyone else, prepare for zero-G. Over.”

“Copy that. Over,” Reece responded before heading down to the EVA airlock and donning his suit, the only functional one on the station.

Just like his first time only two days ago, everyone affirmed readiness, and Zhengzhou Station’s spin slowed to nothing. Reece made his way through the airlock and into space one step at a time. Once outside of the station, he made his way over to the shuttle bay airlock, making sure he was always attached to a tie point. The way the day was going, Reece wasn’t taking any chances.

From the outside, the damage to the airlock module was just as bad as he expected. A giant hole remained where the inner bulkhead once was, and the closer of the two remaining shuttles, Wisdom, had a long scratch in the fuselage and the tip of the passenger wing was missing about twenty centimeters where the bulkhead had sheared it off. The other shuttle, Sombra, appeared okay. He figured about three sheets of plate steel alloy and four hours of welding would be able to patch the hole well enough to get by.

He approached the breach and checked the structure surrounding it for damage. Luckily, the support beams and under-structure to which the bulkhead had been affixed were mostly intact. It appeared that when the airlock was torn away from the airlock module that it had ripped out most of the bolts, but in several cases, the bolts must have held and ripped out the surrounding sheet metal. This never would have happened with the new modules, Reece knew. However, the airlock module was one of the first modules used to make up the station and it was constructed using old manufacturing processes and old materials.

There was a silver lining to the older construction methods, however. Reece wouldn’t be able to repair the damage to the point of having a functional bulkhead, but he would be able to plug the hole. New modules were much more durable, but any significant damage was usually impossible to repair in the field. He would simply need to beat some of the metal back into place and weld the plate steel over the gap. After the work, it should hold up under pressure.

He decided to activate his suit’s camera and capture a few images of the damage for further analysis and reference when prepping his repair kit. He also recorded a couple of pictures of the damage to the shuttle, Wisdom. However, there wasn’t much he thought he could do for the vehicle with the materials available onboard the station. Not in any reasonable amount of time, at any rate. Once that was complete, he contacted Thomas.

“Station Control, this is Danielson. Do you copy? Over.”

“This is Station Control, we copy,” answered Thomas with a touch of anxiety in his voice. “What’s your situation? Over.”

“I’ve finished my external assessment of the damage to the airlock module and Wisdom," replied Reece. "The shuttle is compromised and will need a new left wing and four to five body plates. We don’t have the proper materials on hand for those repairs. However, I believe I can patch the breach left by the damaged bulkhead and re-establish partial functionality of this airlock access module. I’m moving on to the garden module damage assessment. Over.”

“Copy that. Let us know what you find," said Thomas. "Over and out.”

Reece was already on the move to the other side of the ring. It was slow going, but Reece made it there as quickly as he could. As he approached the garden module, he saw where the bulkhead had gouged a chunk out of the module’s exterior armor. The bulkhead must have been moving extremely fast to do that much damage to the exterior. The thick coating around the newer modules consisted of a foam-like material that could be sprayed on but hardened much stronger than steel and isn’t easily damaged. If the inner structure remained intact, the repair was easy.

Zhengzhou Station had a good supply of spray-on foam and it was designed for application under the harshest conditions. That included the coldness of space, and it could even harden perfectly fine under extreme cold. Upon reaching the long gouge, Reece breathed a sigh of relief. The damage was mainly cosmetic, maybe half a can of spray foam would fix it. He noticed a second gouge across half of the neighboring module. This was the module with the panel covering the horrific creature within. While the garden damage looked to be a glancing blow, the bulkhead had obviously scored a direct hit on the lab module. Reece could see atmosphere leaking from the wound that happened to be right next to Angel’s access panel.

Reece made his way over to the module and inspected the damage to it. A deep gouge about a meter long and twelve centimeters wide had been inflicted just to the left of the panel. The lab was constructed of the same material as the garden module, but the lab hadn’t held up as well. The foam was completely missing from a three-centimeter section over twenty centimeters long and the underlying alloy had at least three cracks in it that were clearly leaking atmosphere. That meant that the inner wall must have also been breached. Since the panel was so close, Reece decided to check inside for additional damage, though he really didn’t want to.

When he opened the panel, two things were immediately alarming. First, the rat creature in the terrarium was a totally different rat. This one was more or less complete, and it was black in color. Second, it appeared to be completely frozen solid. The lab must be extremely cold, which means that the life support systems were off. So why had Commander Rogers not mentioned this? He had gone to check both modules for damage, clearly, the lab had significant issues. He filed this all away for later and looked for what had caused the inner breach and loss of life support.

Both causes became instantly obvious when he looked in the direction of the gouged metal. The outer plating had been pressed in about two inches right on a support beam, which had punched through the inner wall. The flying bulkhead had acted as a hammer, and the support beam had acted as the nail. Reece also noticed several wires that ran across the damaged area had caught on a crossbeam of the support beam and been ripped out of their connection points.

These were probably power lines for the module, including to the life-support system, both primary and redundant. The wires didn’t look damaged, so Reece figured he could reconnect them with the proper tools. The harder question was how he would speak with Rogers about this without risking exposing his knowledge of the lab’s small occupant.

Reece finished his inspection quickly, not noting any other issues. He didn’t want everyone wondering what was taking him so long. Closing the panel, he took a few pictures of the damage. He turned and headed back to the EVA airlock, activating his comms system along the way.

“Station Control, I’ve finished my assessment. Do you copy? Over.”

“I copy you,” replied Thomas. “What’d you find? Over.”

“Well, first the good news. The garden module wasn’t badly damaged. I should be able to repair it to as good as new," replied Reece, trying to start the explanation in as upbeat a manner as possible. "The bad news is that, unfortunately, the lab took a hit as well. It looks bad from the outside, and it's venting atmosphere. I’ll have to look on the inside to determine the cause of the leak and any other damage.

The outside should be repairable, though structural integrity has suffered some. If the module gets hit in the same spot by space debris, we may have a problem. Short of that, it should be just fine. I’ll cover the damage with an extra cocoon of poly-foam to shore up the weak points. I’m headed back now and nearly to the airlock. Over.”

“Copy that, Danielson,” replied Thomas. “Let us know when you’re inside and have secured the airlock. Over.”

“Roger that. Over and out.”

Reece reached the airlock after a few more minutes and went through the process of traveling back through the airlock. Once inside, he secured the airlock and took off his helmet. Collecting himself, he pressed the intercom button located next to the inner bulkhead.

“Station Control, airlock is secured. Over.”

“Copy that. Everyone... prepare for gravity initialization. Over.”

The crew quickly sounded off and within moments the station started spinning back up. Reece took the opportunity to remove the rest of his EVA suit and carefully store it. Once it was stowed, he headed up to the control module for a more thorough debriefing. On his way to the control room, he ran into Aika exiting the female bay. She had clearly been crying and upon seeing him she somehow looked even sadder and went back into the bay. Reece didn’t have time to deal with her. Besides, she didn’t seem to want to talk to him anyhow. So, he continued to the control room module.

When he arrived at the module, Rogers was there to greet him. Thomas, Pasha, Naeva, and Stephanie were there as well. All of them seemed understandably miserable, but they still had jobs to do.

“Good work out there, Danielson,” commented Rogers.

“Thanks, sir,” replied Reece. “Any word from Ground Control?”

“Yeah, they were able to track Hermes all the way to the ground. It crashed in the Florida everglades. The shuttle seemed to be intact from the radar imagery they collected but it was in complete free-fall as far as they could tell. They’ve dispatched several search teams to comb the area, which unfortunately is rather large. They have about sixty square kilometers of swamp and wilderness to canvas. It could be days or weeks before we know anything more.”

“What do you suppose are the odds of someone surviving?” asked Pasha.