8-187: Shuttle Hio

Kwint says into the comm, “Hio ready for undock,” to Lia, “my spacecraft.”

Karmen says, “Hio, deploy the Comm Buoy.”

Kwint acknowledges, and the hangar doors open to reveal the stars, blotted out by a dark lumpy shape that is in reality kilometers away.

Kwint gently moves Hio out of Spanial’s hangar, and with a gentle burst of the main thruster sets it toward the asteroid.

After a shortish trip, he slowly rotates the ship end-for-end and brings it almost to a stop with another burst of the main thruster.   This close, the asteroid dwarfs the shuttle, it’s like looking at a cliff face the size of a mountain.  

“Lia, can you read the distance off the ladar?  Gregar says we want to set this thing about 200m above the surface.”

The ladar unit will bounce a laser off the surface of the asteroid, giving a precise distance between the shuttle and the asteroid.  Currently it’s reading 650m.

Assuming Lia is happy to do that Kwint brings Hio in to a stop almost exactly 200m from the huge lump of iron and rock.

Kwint says, “OK, your spacecraft.  Monitor things up here while I go help them shove this thing out of the cargo hatch.”