The radio communications rustled and crackled. This is the flight director. Initiate launch status assessment.

Roger, initiating assessment. Launch status assessment running.

Assessment completed.

Launch verified.

A trice of silence cut the broadcast. This is flight. We have a go for launch.

Another muffled gurgling sound impeded the radio transmission. Go for engine start. Proceeding with the countdown. T-minus ten seconds, nine, eight, seven...

Engines standby, six, five, four...

Ignition sequence starts, three, two, one... Ignition!

Liftoff!

The thrusters roared and spat radiant blaze producing tremendous heat, blinding light, and thick smoke. It propelled the rocket ship through the air, using the backward discharge of the fuel liberated by combustion.

Tower cleared.

The people of Cape Canaveral—the scientists, engineers, and evacuees who took great pains to repair and reconstruct the rocket, held their hands together and looked up at the ascending rocket. Some summoned the blessed intercession, while some took hold of their sturdy confidence that the uncrewed spaceflight would be successful.

All the engines looked good.

The neighboring towns and cities witnessed the ascent. Few survivors were gnashing their teeth, for they thought the rocket was loaded with passengers, the rich, and the influential selected individuals who paid for their escape. But most of them sensed that it might be their last hope to never say farewell to the planet that had cradled them for years. Earth was a perfect planet, and we would never find another one parallel to it.

The trajectory is stable. An ear-piercing interference stifled the report.

Altitude and velocity are right on the line.

Performance is nominal.

The rocket left a curving stripe, a slash that sliced the clear skies in half. Half of the sky was under the sun's golden luminosity, but the other half was oddly out of the ordinary. The floating clustering chunks of landmasses, ruins of human civilizations, and tons of garbage made it difficult for Helios to reign. It was an impenetrable barricade of chaos drifting through the troposphere casting shade over the meadows below. Fortunately, the rocket slingshot around the disorder cloud, tearing the layers of atmospheric gases. It crossed the stratosphere, then the mesosphere, and another eighty kilometers up to pass through the mesosphere.

Prepare for stage one separation.

Mission Specialists Veneracion and Azad were in full astronaut gear, driving the space garbage vehicle away from the ISS. Dr. Gawthorpe and Dr. Reid gave the details of the complications of the delivery of Project V-022424. "Gale, we are lucky that the rocket flew," Dr. Gawthorpe started, "Now, as we had discussed a few days past, we needed to improvise to transport the large artificial gravity generator. Are you at the prime spot to capture it?"

Gale replied immediately, "Yes, Dr. Gawthorpe."

The two listened intently.

"Okay," she smacked her lips, "Again, we encapsulated your delicate machine inside an oval pod. The pod was made from scratch, but it was sturdy. After the second separation, the pod will automatically be unbolted, releasing your machine to space. The rocket ascended faster than expected because of the dwindling Earth's gravity. Consequently, the pod will be thrown into space at a variable speed. And that's all we can do to transport your valuable machine."

"And we are here to catch it," Gale forthrightly articulated.

"Yes," she paused, "If only we had more time, we could do better."

Vishesh butted in to lighten the mood, "Gale is an excellent pilot."

Stage one. Successful.

The solid-fuelled booster was disjointed; another disposed of junk in outer space.

Ready for stage two.

The radio buzzed. Dr. Reid spoke. He sounded hopeful. "Remember the months that we worked hard to perfect your project, then one day you applied for a space mission to continue the funding of your vision, and the day just came—the moment we were waiting for—that your daedal machinery worked incredibly. I am confident that your machine could save us all. But you better capture it first securely," he chuckled.

The signal declined, then it flickered to life after fifteen seconds. "Hello, hello, this is Dr. Gawthorpe," the transmission was choppy, "I'm afraid this would be the end of our talk. The skies were overcast with rocks and debris of any sort."

Stage two. Successful. Entering the thermosphere.

She went on. "Expect a communication blackout at any moment. Also, it is not safe here anymore. Some debris was free-falling back to Earth, crushing the facility, devastating the entire state of Florida—" the telecommunications went dead.

The garbage vehicle was hovering 200 miles above the ground, locked in a position to catch the dodecaplex gravity generator.

"So this is it, Vi," Gale toughened his face.

Vishesh felt an itch inside his nose. "Yes," he nodded, wrinkling his nose.

The cast-off bolts, o-rings, and miscellaneous fragments detached, revealing the oval pod. The shell was made of scrap solid metal sheets patched up altogether. It was not a stunning work of humankind; nonetheless, it was a symbol of their concerted effort. Without warning, the 15 feet diameter egg-shaped capsule hissed as it automatically unbolted, unleashing the gravity machine. The dodecaplex orb raced toward their spot. Indeed, they had predicted this, but they were underprepared.

"It's moving fast!" Vishesh said aloud, "We can seize it, right?"

"No," answered Gale as he retracted the spacecraft's mechanical arms.

Vishesh was in disbelief upon hearing Gale's response, staring at his reflection as their preparation and optimism were daunted by the impending danger. For a tiny moment, all hope was lost. He then knitted his bushy brows and then cast a brief look at his best mate with a face masked with grit. He calmed himself, for he saw the glimmer in his eyes that this man next to him had a plan. "Your idea should work," he uttered.

"I'll try," Gale answered.

Vishesh nodded and watched the monitors.

Their only chance to capture it had been blown.

Gale met an excellent vantage point of the incoming threat. He grabbed the steering wheel and veered off the vehicle sideward. They survived the fatal crash, leaving them toppling uncontrollably out of orbit behind. Hence, the gravity generator was gaining distance away from the wobbling spacecraft. He stirred the wheels to keep the vehicle upright in a frictionless environment. The space vehicle regained its orientation and retraced the orb's course. They spotted it but saw the ISS in the very background, where its array wings glinted off in the sunlight. Their faces were stricken with surprise as the gravity generator was traveling on the way to it. There was a need to capture it immediately before it came into contact with the space station. Unhesitatingly, they followed its course.

Gale pressed the pedal, propelling the vehicle smoothly. "Vi, analyze the gravity generator's speed," he commanded.

"Calculating," Vishesh flexed his neck to the left, "98 meters per second."

Gale grabbed the handwheel, clicked some switches, and maneuvered it onward. The bluish-white compact laser beams at the spacecraft's rearmost part glowed bluer, indicating an adjustment of propulsion power. "We're going to go fishing," said he as his irises were fixed on the retreating orb.

Vishesh had no clue what Gale had said. Unquestionably, it sounded like it was a daring gamble. His life was in Veneracion's hands now. What could he do when there was no other way to catch the gravity generator and prevent it from colliding with the ISS? Gale was doing everything in his power, his full ability and intellect, to achieve both impossibilities.

"Give me a projected impact," Gale demanded.

Vishesh responded quickly, "Okay, it says here we have more than 12 minutes to prevent the impact."

Gale floored the pedal until the artificial gravity generator was about a meter from the windshield. At long last, he saw his incredible creation up close, but it was spinning on its sides. "Vi, prepare the mechanical arms!"

The mechanical arms extended out. It was a little short of grabbing the enormous sphere. "It's not enough!" Vishesh said, his heartbeat pounding at an incredible rate.

"Release the intelligent fingers!"

"Okay. Eight minutes before impact. Collision is within the red threshold," Vishesh updated.

The robotic fingers crawled like serpents, and they logically and cautiously didn't touch the outermost shell of the rotating orb. As soon as the orb was completely enveloped, Gale directed Vishesh to grasp it with the combined grip of the mechanical arms and intelligent fingers. Then he ordered him to increase the power to maximum, pulling it. The improvisation immobilized the rotation of the gravity generator, but its speed remained constant. "Five minutes before impact. What's next?" he asked as the spacecraft was dragging behind.

Gale proceeded with his next tactic. He switched off the beam propulsion system, "Don't let it go. Pull it and brace, for I'll engage the laser beam thrusters in reverse to match the orb's speed!"

Vishesh nodded quickly, "Okay."

The beam thrusters changed angle, pointing towards the fore.

"In three, two, one... burn the reverse thrusters!"

"Reverse thrusters initiated."

"Diverting power to the retro thrusters increases to fifty percent." The laser beams turned bluer, trying hard to slow down the moving orb.

"Four minutes before impact."

"Power increased to seventy percent."

"The arms will not hold!"

Gale didn't listen to Vishesh. Instead, he floored the pedal, increasing the propulsion power. The laser beams glowed bluer. "Increase to seventy-five percent."

The orb started to decelerate. Vishesh burned lots of oxygen, making his visor covered in mist. He calmed himself and beckoned the remaining hope and courage within him to make it through. He looked at the monitor. "Orb's speed is down to fifty meters per second, forty-nine, forty-eight..." he continued.

"Time left before the impact."

"Two minutes!"

"Power increased to eighty percent."

Vishesh couldn't breathe. He was dying to end this crazy space sacrificial extravaganza. "Orb's exponentially decelerating. Down to forty meters, thirty-seven meters..." he gulped, "We can't make it."

"Do you need help?" Surprisingly, Emma honed into their channel," I was watching the video feed. Remember, we are here, Gale."

"Emma," Gale whispered.

"I had positioned the Canadarm-2 and attached Dextre into the end of it. This might aid in stopping the moving orb."

"Okay, I see the Canadarm-2," he inhaled, "Vi, what's the time left to impact?"

"Twenty-five seconds. And the orb's speed is down to twenty-three meters per second."

"I am ready to catch it," Emma said daringly.

Gale nodded.

Vishesh proceeded with the countdown before impact. "Twenty seconds, nineteen, eighteen..." he looked to the other display on his left, "The vehicle's batteries were burned almost half, plummeting to sixty."

"Come on," Gale uttered.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven..." Vishesh went on with the countdown, "Decelerating to—eleven meters per second."

"Bring it on," Emma clenched his jaws.

An alarm blared, saying that the mechanical arms were suffering critical damage.

"Three, two, one... Brace for impact!" Vishesh yelled.

The Dextre grapple fixture caught the spherical gravity generator while the Canadarm-2 worked as a buttress. Metallic ugly noises hummed across the space station. The two robotic arms fought the impact, vibrating and resisting until the orb came to a brake.

Everyone exhaled a volume of air, liberating them from danger, rushing such a sensation of relief throughout their bodies. "Whew—"

"That's act one, and the climax is a few pages further," Gale grinned.

"You had said that you were going to a fishing game. Well, we played baseball," Emma jokingly said.

Vishesh gave a long whew, "I think I just shit my pants."

Emma and Gale laughed.

The space garbage vehicle retracted its arms and constricting fingers and docked back to Tranquility. They left the undamaged artificial generator outside. The airlock buzzed behind, and the gauge displayed a rising percentage of air pressure as the two astronauts parked the vehicle inside the cargo bay. Bright white lights illuminated the entire module indicating a stable environment. Gale plugged the spacecraft to recharge, activating fast charging. And then, the two rushed to Unity as ordered by their commander.

"All right," Emma saw Gale and Vishesh coming in, "We're all here now."

Qiao hailed Vishesh and started boasting about their work. "If only you were here, feasting your eyes on our perfected microchips."

Gao interrupted, holding a tablet, "We have good results. No. Not just good but perfect results. We had controlled the power spewing out from the tiny black hole for Mister Veneracion's artificial generator."

"Where is it now?" Gale queried.

Emma handed the black container encasing the cylindrical canister. "They had already implanted the microchips at both ends of the canister."

Zhao snatched the tablet and handed it to Gale, "And the program to calibrate the gravity is in this tablet. After every five minutes, the orb will increase by 0.05 g. As you proposed, it comes with a smart program that, once the gravity peaks at 1 g, will automatically shrink to the original moon's gravitational field and remain stable. We worked so hard to finish this. We felt like gods after the simulations gave a ninety-nine percent outcome."

"When will this conversation end," Vishesh simpered.

Gale gently nudged his Indian friend, a subtle sign that the fox-eyed triplets found a moment of levity even amidst the challenging circumstances.

"Very good," Vishesh got the signal and commended the three Chinese astronauts, managing a fake smile. "But ours, catching the gravity generator, was a death-defying stunt, and thank you for not noticing our efforts," he murmured while gnashing his teeth.

The three bowed in unison, "Thank you, and you're welcome."

Vishesh put his hands in the air and gave up.

"Okay," Emma drifted to the improvised table with a laptop and floating wires, "Gale, here are the specific wires you told me that you needed to connect the canister to your artificial generator. I rummaged through all the labs in the ISS and found these in Nauka. And now," she opened the lid of the laptop wider, the other crews drew closer, "I'll show you the work of Gao, Qiao, and Zhao." She tapped a key to play the simulation.

The simulation lasted for two minutes, and it ended well. And Gao, Giao, and Zhao didn't quit smiling during and even after the simulation. After the video froze and the screen dimmed, Emma whispered something in Gale's ear.

Vishesh was a bit maddened by the secret whispering maneuver. He broadened his mind and won over the thought that Emma must have told something confidential and vital for the mission. And it was for the sole purpose of the man behind the creation and safe intercept of the magnificent gravity generator.

Gale whispered something in her ear.

Emma nodded and clapped three times, "Let's not waste time. I have news about the situation on Earth," she pivoted her collar, looking at the slant eyes of the three Chinese astronauts, "Sorry, it's getting worse."

Instead of pouting over the bad news, Vishesh woke up and prepared for the next task.

Commander Song composed herself and spoke with authority, "Boys, put those supplies inside the space garbage vehicle."

The fox-eyed triples instantly obeyed her. Qiao and Zhao carried the two plastic storage boxes filled with food, bottled water, and other necessities. At the same time, Gao fetched some equipment to begin a check and repair of the vehicle.

Emma looked directly at the two men in astronaut suits before her. "So as for the both of you, you will go to the shattered moon and try to revive it that imaginably would save us all," she blinked twice, "And it will be a blind unplanned three-day journey."

Gale negated her second statement, "No, we can arrive there in less than a day."

She smiled, "I know you'll say that, Gale. Yes, the vehicle is fast, but out there without guidance or communication is... suicide," her corneas hazed with alarm. "Houston and Canaveral sunk, and the technologies of the ISS are yet premature."

"I know," Gale responded, his deep amber-flecked emerald eyes twinkling with a tinge of confidence, evoking that they'd be back in one piece. He scratched the mole on the corner of his left eye and then smiled.

The two tall men stepped back and wedged their way against the installed pieces of equipment out of Unity. But Vishesh dragged himself, drifting with slowness, his head limp with downheartedness.

Emma parted his lips, and her voice box produced an awkward croak. She cleared her throat and uttered the complete name of the handsome astronaut, "Vishesh Azad."

Gale continued his pace, leaving and affording his old pal some space and time with her.

Vishesh turned his head backward, and his eyes caught a charming angle of Emma's visage, beautiful as a framed portrait of a woman safe inside the Louvre.

The Indian man drew closer, keeping a respectful distance. He patiently waited for her additional instructions.

"Vishesh," she paused, "Please come back," she bit her cherry lips.

He blushed, then gave her a clumsy salute, "Roger, Commander."

She displayed a soft smile.

Vishesh's heart pounded intensely. He was on cloud nine. Then he turned around to hide his unexplainable expression and hurried to where he must go.

———————

For the first time, Gale correctly uttered the three Chinese astronauts' respective names, thanking them for their efforts and friendliness. Gao, Qiao, and Zhao bowed their heads and left the space garbage vehicle's pressurized module at once.

On their way back to the control room, Vishesh was playing with the wooden chess piece, the famed king, with his right hand, swaggering and bragging. The fox-eyed triplets were infuriated, for they understood the signal that he won the commander's heart. The trio exchanged regretful looks with one another, then scratched their scalps, pondering their wooing lapses and trying to absorb defeat and shame through their very skin. "Well, Mr. Azad is a good man," whispered Qiao.

Gao and Zhao seconded.

Gale and Vishesh wore helmets, hopped in the fully charged and conditioned vehicle, and forged ahead into outer space. The airlock shut behind them as they drifted away, moving towards the secured artificial gravity generator. Gale did a spacewalk to attach the canister to the dodecaplex gravity generator's south pole connecting it with odd-looking wires. The machine flicked a three-second glow. The little light show gave him a jolt. He then hooked the tablet up to the gravity orb's mainframe and found nearby where the power source, the quantum black hole, was installed. His gloved finger tapped the tablet installing the software to control the making of artificial gravity. The small screen attached to the outermost shell lit up, running some codes and numbers. After a minute, the program was successfully embedded inside the sphere of humanity's last hope. The program was ingrained into its mind and deep-seated to its core—a soul for the empty vessel.

Emma honed into Vishesh suit's channel. "Get ready for the release of the gravity orb in ten, nine, eight..." she went on with the countdown.

Gale fled inside the spacecraft.

"...three, two, one," she flipped a switch, "Dextre arms released."

The gravity generator remained stationary, displaying well its diameter of thirteen feet. Gale spun the handwheel, turning it around. Vishesh manipulated some switches and buttons, extending the vehicle's mechanical arms and intelligent fingers, steadily constricting the enormous gravity orb while checking it on a monitor.

"Tomorrow, you will be with me in paradise," Gale said to Vishesh while looking through the windshield. The inky charcoal void of cosmos beckoned him to reach for the controls. He smiled.

As the Dextre moved around in an inchworm motion, Emma and the fox-eyed trio floated upright in silence, watching the garbage vehicle arch away from the space station towing the artificial gravity generator behind.