The Woman in the Window

Only five of us were in attendance for the crew meeting. The first words to come to anyone's mind were the ones uttered by Commander Mikoyan.

“Where's Adams?”

None of us knew. Everyone exchanged the same look: a mixture of worried and confused. The last time I saw her… the last time anyone saw her was when she helped us launch the tardigrade experiments four hours ago. After that, as per usual, she floated towards her cabin. None of us saw her after that. Not even Doctor Kitaoka, who was scheduled to check up on her in half an hour.

“Okay, scratch that,” Commander Mikoyan told us. “Does anyone know what the hell just happened?”

“There was some kind of explosion,” Stewart replied immediately. “I was on my way to figure out what had happened when you called the meeting. Judging from the direction the shockwave came from, I want to say it came from the Jefferson module.”

“The Jefferson module? That's where the life support systems are,” Majors noted.

Majors began to panic once he realized what might have happened. Commander Mikoyan was not about to let that happen.

“Alright, everyone calm down,” he told us. “Right now.”

“Yessir,” I answered, the only one to do so.

“We will not speculate on what happened,” the Commander told us. “There will be no panic. And we will not accuse Adams of anything. Here's what we're going to do.” He pointed at me, saying, “Call up Houston and let them know what's happening.” To Majors, he said, “You and Stewart, come with me. If there's any fire in the Jefferson module, we'll need to put it out as soon as possible.” To Doctor Kitaoka, he said, “Find Adams and tell her what's happening. Drag her out of bed if you have to. Is that understood?”

We understood our orders clearly. Majors was still a little shaken, but willing to go along with the Commander's plan.

As everyone split up, I made my way over to the comms room. First though, I took a quick glance at the telemetry console in the Columbia module. There, the first sign of trouble was spotted: the pressure readings coming from Jefferson were off-scale low. The pressure in the module was either too low for the sensors to notice (the minimum reading was 0.25 Earth atmospheres) or even worse… completely nonexistent. Perhaps the best thing about this station was the fact that all the modules (seven in total) could be automatically sealed from the rest in the event of an emergency such as this. The fact that all of us were still alive (as far as we knew) in spite of such rapid decompression in one of the modules meant the sealing process worked as intended.

I heard a tapping sound coming from the onboard window.

“That shouldn't be possible…” I said to myself. Unless, of course, I was doing it subconsciously. No… I was too far away from the window. My arms were not long enough anyways.

But there it was again, this time accompanied by the voice of a woman.

“Johnson!” she screamed. “Johnson! Let me in!”

It was impossible! I knew it was! A human could not survive in the vacuum of space long enough to even utter those words.

The voice continued, “Johnson! Help me! Let me in!”

I tried to ignore the voices. They weren't real… I had to get more telemetry readings. 

The voice got louder, “Johnson! Please! Help me!”

At last, I relented. I looked out the window and saw Adams, hanging onto the station somehow and tapping on the window. But that was impossible! She wasn't real. There wasn't even anything on the outside of the station for her to hold onto. And yet… there she was… staring right at me…

“Adams…”

No! It wasn't real! I just had to keep telling myself that. It was not real. The only thing I could do at that point was leave the module and float over to comms.

Once I entered the room, I remembered what Commander Mikoyan told me earlier about making sure the antenna was aligned properly. Having done a quick check of everything to make sure my message would actually get through, I called up Houston.

“Houston? This is Skylab X. Do you copy?” I asked with perhaps a hint of frazzle in my voice.

“CAPCOM Houston, we copy, X. What's your status?”

“Houston, we've got a problem up here,” I told them.

“This is Houston. We're uh, having trouble reading you. Can you repeat?”

“Houston, we have a problem,” I explained while trying to keep myself calm. God knows what they would have thought if I sounded like I was panicking. “Pressure readings in the Jefferson module are off-scale low. We suspect there has been a rapid decompression incident. Confirmed the module has been sealed off.”

“Roger, but uh… I'm not how to tell you this, Johnson, but our readings show nothing out of the ordinary. We have no indication of MSP.” (Module Sealing Procedures) “Are the other pressure readings normal?”

“Roger, Houston,” I confirmed. “Only the Jefferson module is showing the off-scale low readings. The other modules read normal.”

“Okay, stand by, Johnson. We will look into it.”

“Roger, Houston,” I replied. “We did experience a large bang that could have been associated with the, uh… incident. Whatever that was, it was strong enough to cause the entire station to shake. I, uh… faceplanted my cabin door.”

“Have you undergone concussion protocols, Johnson?”

“Not yet,” I admitted. “We're still trying to figure out the cause of the abnormal readings.”

“Roger, Johnson. We just did a double check of the telemetry readings, and uh… nothing seems out of the ordinary here. Can you, uh… double check the sensors to make sure they are working properly?”

“Roger, Houston. Will do,” I told them.

They didn't believe me. Granted, faulty machinery was the norm around here, so it wasn't completely out of the question that something was wrong with the sensors. Only Commander Mikoyan and the others would be able to confirm. If I dared tell them what else I saw in the telemetry room, Houston would probably assume I hallucinated the entire thing. That, of course, would have been cause for an immediate grounding for me. As much as I didn't like it here, I was not about to allow that to happen.

•

Everyone minus Adams and Doctor Kitaoka reunited in the central hub.

“Commander Mikoyan, what did you find?” I asked him.

“We can confirm the Jefferson module is sealed off,” he explained. “MSP was a success. The pressure readings in the module read off-scale low, so if there is any fire in the module, we won't be able to put it out until we initiate the manual override.”

“That's a bit risky,” Stewart told him. “The modules weren't designed to be accessed after complete decompression. Depending on the extent of the damage, we could be risking exposing the rest of the station to vacuum.”

“That's our next play, then,” the Commander replied. “It's a bit unscheduled, but we'll have to perform an EVA to survey the damage.”

“A spacewalk…” Majors chimed in. “I'll go. Depending on the severity, we might be able to repair the damage before we attempt to enter the module.”

Commander Mikoyan turned to me and asked, “How did your call with Houston go?”

“They said everything read normal on their end,” I answered. “I said I would double check to make sure the equipment wasn't faulty.”

“That's stupid of them,” the Commander scoffed. “I know what I saw over there. Stewart and Majors can confirm they saw it too.”

“And I saw it over in telemetry,” I added. “I did a check of all our systems on my way to comms. All of the pressure sensors in Jefferson read the same. Off-scale low.”

“That's settled, then,” the Commander told us. “There's no way all of us hallucinated the off-scale low readings or the explosion. Something must be wrong with their systems.”

“Yeah…” Majors agreed nervously.

Stewart and I merely nodded.

“As soon as Doctor Kitaoka finds Adams, we'll be better able to coordinate our efforts,” the Commander explained. “In the meantime, Majors, get ready to suit up.”