Lands Soyuz

Glancing over at her American counterpart, she
wondered what the other woman was thinking. She
always seemed so cool and collected, not loud and
brash like most of the Americans Natasha had met.
When an indicator light on the panel in front of
her turned red and the ship began to shake more than it
usually did, her gut clenched suddenly. This was it; the
one trip she wasn't going to be able to walk away
from.

***

"We've lost communication with the Soyuz." the
voice wasn't familiar, but Clark had been listening for
any hint of a response from the White House.

"They've gone into a ballistic descent."

"How many American astronauts are on that
flight?"

"One, and two cosmonauts." The voice was grim.

"We're going to have to spin this. The other side is
going to-"

Clark blinked. As far as he could tell, the President
wasn't in residence, so he'd been eavesdropping on
someone who seemed to be the chief of staff, hoping
to hear what the American response was going to be to
him. If it was going to be aggressive, he wanted to
know so that he could form a response that was non-
threatening but firm.

"Where do you think they are going to come
down?"

"They were supposed to be landing in Kazakhstan.

There's no telling where they'll end up now."

That was all Clark needed to hear.

***

As the ship shuddered around her, Natasha found
herself muttering prayers that her grandmother had
taught her. Religion was still frowned on in some
circles, but at the moment she didn't care.
The sudden jerk as they hit the thicker parts of the
atmosphere almost made her black out. She felt her
neck snap back slightly and the pressure on her body
felt as though she was being crushed.
The roar of the wind outside sounded like the end
of the world.

It took her a moment to realize that the pressure on
her was gradually easing. Strangely, the sound of the
wind outside was vanishing as well. Natasha
wondered if she was going deaf.

"Did the parachute deploy?" her American
counterpart asked in a strained voice.

Yuri, her partner glanced at her, white faced and
silently shook his head. The feeling of the parachute
snapping into place was distinctive. This wasn't it.
Natasha could see that the two men knew it as well as
she did.

"Maybe we passed out and have landed already?"
Yuri's voice was hopeful.

Natasha shook her head and gestured toward the
instrument panels. They were still in the air, but they
had somehow impossibly decelerated to a speed that
was unsustainable. Furthermore they were changing
direction without feeling much of a sense of
acceleration.

"You people have something you haven't told us
about yet?" the American asked again.

"Whatever this is, it isn't of our doing."

The radio crackled, and a moment later
communications were restored.

***

Nikolai scowled as he gestured with his rifle
toward the last of the civilians. The evacuation of Red
Square had taken longer than he would have liked. In
the old days before Glasnost things would have gone
much more quickly. There wouldn't be Russian camera
crews waiting just outside the perimeter like vultures
waiting for a corpse to fall.

When word had come that the Soyuz was going to
crash in Red Square, he'd wondered how they could be
so precise. Given the distances involved it would be
easy to be off by three blocks, and if the thing landed
in the midst of a crowd of bystanders he had an uneasy
feeling that he would be the one to get the blame.

"Keep those people back!" he shouted, gesturing
toward some of the men under his command.
He started to issue another command, but then
stopped, staring up at the sky.

The familiar shape of the Soyuz was coming
quickly over the horizon, but it didn't look like it was
going to crash at all. It looked like it was flying.

Two Mikoyan Mig-29 fighter planes bracketed it.

As it approached, Nikolai could suddenly see why
they were so certain the ship was going to land here.

It was being carried.

Pgs. 93-94