Chapter 7

The EVA was done by the book with two out on separate tethers and a third suited in the boat bay. Algy was concerned about having half his complement unavailable but not overly so as "Shriek" wasn't scheduled for any thing until her damage was assessed and "Shriek" could be 'handled' by two; just.

Guns with Helm clumped across the hull on either side of the line to the damaged alpha node from the bay, tying off as they went. Guns went to his knees peering at the node and its seat. When satisfied, he rose to his feet to allow Helm access,

"Yours, Tony."

"Ta, Spec." and after having his good look, he sat back on his heels and looked up at his standing companion,

"The port bolt on the securing strap was stress fracturing, I see the smooth surface, then the bolt shaft failed. I think the node then began working and the strap began flexing at the other bolt; the working intensified and the node lifted and twisted but only far enough to jam itself under the forward rim with the strap holding the aft end. Would have broken loose in more vibration eventually, say three more seconds."

"I wouldn't even guess at a time, but generally I agree," laughed Spec, "did you get that, boss?"

"And recorded," responded Algy, "now will you pair get on with it and tidy up my ship?"

As Spec went to his knees across from Tony, he laughingly said

"Satan's teeth, the slave drivers who gets command these days." and to Tony,

"You tie a clamp to that free edge while I get this bolt out." He then applied his multitool to the bolt, adjusted the force setting and applied power. It was fortunate Spec was holding onto the strap because the bolt head sheared off. Tony noticed

"Lucky that!" and got the falsely bright response,

"Nah, just good planning."

The strap and the bolt head went into the side bag; the node was worked free with some difficulty despite the men being able to brace against cleats and then tied over Tony's back to leave his hands free. The pair then separated walking away from each other around the remaining alpha nodes applying a multitool rotation to each bolt head as per sop. They retreated, met again and returned to the boat bay.

"Infamous" had been aware of events, and McCock called a halt to continuance of the plan. He ordered "Shriek" to return under thrusters to the epsilon, "Giant" to take her as deck cargo and retrieve all but one of the epsilon UVAs to her boat bay (her armed cutter was in the hold of R1). "Giant" to return to Mountserrat n space, strip the 'puters in the UVAs and come alongside "Infamous" where "Shriek's" crew with all tapes and Felix with his tapes to repair on board. UVAs to be placed in "Infamous's" boat bay and "Giant", if necessary under her XO, to move to R1, dismount "Shriek" for repair and a very careful examination, and replace her own cutter in the boat bay.

Events went smoothly; the full Flock were joined by "Shriek's" crew in "Infamous's" deserted Admiral's quarters and the debriefing began with "Shriek's" part.

The voyage under her own power from the anchorage to the epsilon was covered on the tapes backed up by the recollections of the crew. All were satisfied that it was uneventful. The time spent hove to in the epsilon was then cleared. The manoeuvring into the boundary layer was very closely examined and cleared.

The tape of the layer journey had just started when Polack stopped it. Under the collective gaze of the others, he manipulated the sensitivity for the width of the lines for each parameter, finally going back to an output of a forward sensor antenna. He sat back and restarted the tape. All eyes were on that tape and particularly on the wide line which developed increasingly irregular edges which seemed to reach a crescendo, as Algy put it,

"Just about the time I filled my bag." Polack then went back to the manoeuvring tape and with the increased sensitivity of the line there was a demonstrated flicker; he went further back to the departure from the anchorage and the flicker was present. He explained,

"I noticed a flicker on that line just at entry into the layer. It proved to be a record of the node's failure; I don't know what that actually records but it is a response to vibration in that node. Going back shows a progressive failure of that bolt with sudden failure under the stress of the boundary layer at that entry velocity. We're going to have to go back to the logs to get the batch number for those bolts and look at the lot of them under xray. That means all the node bolts — it will be easier to xray a higher sample of new bolts and replace the old which can then be examined at leisure. Hugh should get the information as well."

Algy thoughtfully put an idea forward,

"Traversing the boundary in a horizontal movement; might diminish the vibration and minimise how far you get thrown. We know a UVA which went up horizontally and is much smaller did not really get thrown about much at all. Certainly, velocity is very important as seen from the histories."

"Yes," nodded Slow, "diving in as opposed to lowering in and size does matter, I think."

"Polack, pass the word to R1, please" said McCock, and turning to "Shriek's" crew, "Thank you, find the Bosun and you'll find rations in the Boat Bay. I am vexed that "Infamous" is manned by only an anchor watch so things are all ends up."

Algy and company departed to be met by the Bosun who had come up to meet them.

The Flock made themselves comfortable again with filled bulbs. McCock recapped,

"We know we can reliably and safely traverse the epsilon boundary but it reminds me of the very old maxim; 'Aviation, in itself, is not inherently dangerous, but like the sea, it is as terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity, or neglect'."