“Well, I’ve drafted the note to Ty and made sure he had all of the facts he needs and none that he don’t. It’s on its way, now. What’s the verdict on your end?” he questioned.
Carl replied, “I’ve given the situation a lot of thought and gone over these numbers several times. If, whoever it is in Mission Support, believes Jackie has sabotaged the ship, that might buy us a little extra time. So here’s what I came up with: If we can pump the fuel from one of the almost empty fuel tanks into one or two of the remaining tanks and then jettison and blow the empty one, it will create quite a good sized response on the sensors. Of course, we can pump some of the liquid waste into that tank to dampen the explosion, but this will give the impression of a lot more damage and loss of fuel than there actually will be.
“When Mission Support contacts us about the explosion, we tell them that we may not have sufficient fuel to execute an atmospheric entry and barely enough to operate the escape thrusters. We report that we will have to head back to Earth, but it will be another twenty-four hours until we line up for the maneuver. I think whoever is involved in engineering this plot will back off and put a hold on killing Mike, waiting to see if we really do perform the maneuver. Do you think they’ll buy it?”
Brandon thought about it for a moment before replying, “That’s a fairly risky plan, but I like it. However, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go over those numbers of yours with Tom. What may initially appear to be a lot of damage could actually wind up being a lot of damage, if you know what I mean.”