The roche limit is an altitude at which the gravity of one objects is strong enough to disintegrate another object, and the Hyperspace was getting dangerously close to this limit. If it passes the roche limit, it will be completely torn apart.
We decided to split our forces. Arika and I will take care of the orbital correction, while the others fight Dawn and prevent her from sabotaging us. Amber managed to take one of Dawn's blasters and the two were now staring at each other, ready to shoot.
- Okay, Chris. How high is this limit? - Arika asked me.
- 18 400 kilometers - I replied. I learned this from a European book, which is why I used kilometers.
- Oh no. Were currently 19 000 kilometrs above Earth. How do we get out of this? - Arika frowned.
I got closer to the screen. Arika managed to whip up a map of our trajectory. We were about to crash into Earth, off the coast of Canada. We had to make our orbit wider. I grabbed the chair Arika knocked over and sat down. I played around with simulators when I was younger, so I thought I had the necessary experience, but reality was much more complex. I was sweating in stress and my hands were trembling. It was overwhelming, so I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths to calm down. I was still stressed, but managed to get my act together. I focused on the route and Arika programmed HISS to correct our orbit. Slowly but surely, it widened.
- Orbital correction initiated. Activating redirection engines. Liquid fuel at 90 percent - HISS notified us.
- You know, I wonder why they wanted to crash the Hyperspace - I told Arika.
- I think it's just for destruction, but I can dig through the code and try to find something - she moved to another screen so that I could supervise the orbital correction.
Strangely enough, I didn't have to do much. I typed in the coordinates and calculated the correct path, which Arika coded into the system. HISS took care of the rest, steering the space station. I just had to make sure that it gets the job done.
Suddenly, Dawn leaped to the computer, knocking me off the chair. Instead of calculated movements, she was just randomly clicking stuff, trying to deorbit us again. I ran towards her and we were now fighting for control. The other members of my unit came to my aid and managed to dislodge Dawn from the chair.
- Error, orbital correction interrupted. Overriding automated procedures. Transtitioning to manual control - HISS glitched.
The already complicated navigation system just became more confusing, with several windows on one screen, and it was up to me to set things right.
We were descending rapidly and the engines were going crazy. The first thing I did was turning them off so that they won't mess up anything. We were now in freefall, so it was my time to act. I activated two of the four bottom engines which rotated the Hyperspace. It was facing away from Earth, but still falling towards it. Then, I set the main engine to full throttle. The others were fighting Dawn, excluding Arika, who was observing my actions and helping me with the program. She managed to write a program converting the Star Cipher into normal code, which made navigating significantly easier.
The Hyperspace was slowing down, but it wasn't enough. So, I did something very hasty: I diverted all power to the main engine. Almost all, because a fraction of it was keeping the oxygen supply in check. The lights went out again, with the computers being the only glowng things on the entire space station. I focused even harder, maintaining the ship's upright position. Finally, we started moving upwards and I breathed a sigh of relief, so did Arika. I heard concerning fighting sounds behind me, but I couldn't look away from the screen, as there was a million things that could go wrong when I wasn't looking. The engine was running on 30 percent of the liquid fuel and I turned the Hyperspace around. Now, moving forward, I widened the orbit into a proper ring. We were back in low Earth orbit and I cried. Not from sadness, but from accomplishment. I did it. I saved the Hyperspace from its impending doom.
Arika high fived me and I then turned the power back on. Things were back to normal.
- You know, there's one thing I need to tell you - Arika whispered and I gazed upon her.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7J7B6p8kXI
- I know the purpose of the Sunset Protocol - she started - I sifted through the code and stumbled upon an extremely long list of guests. Among them was Richard Diaz, an important American governor. He came to visit the Hyperspace and the Perseids knew this and seized the opportunity. I found a blackmail code that was supposed to be sent straight to the president. He'd have to pay 10 billion dollars on the spot for the villains to revert the Hyperspace to its normal course. Otherwise, everybody here would die, except for the few people that escaped during the tank attack. I'm not sure if Richard was among them, but I'm assuming he was. Either way, a crash would have been devastating, so we did a great job - Arika smiled at me.
- It was much harder than I expected, but I feel unimaginably happy with this achievment. Maybe I'll become a spy space pilot in the future? - I wondered.
- Maybe - Arika was also happy.
- I hate to break the mood, but Dawn managed to beat us up in the darkness and is now trying to escape. We can't let her go like this! - Sebastian was fuming, but he wasn't angry with us; he was angry with himself. He seemed to feel responsible for Dawn's second escape.
- Its been a few minutes, she can't be that far away - I tried to cheer him up - Let's go capture her!
ns216.73.216.33da2
and then Add to home screen.