Listening in on the loop chatter, Jack quickly pieced together the nature of the crisis Carpenter was now dealing with. Jack had faced just such a problem in his own integrated sim two years ago, when he was still in the astronaut corps, preparing for STS 145.

The shuttle crew had reported a precipitous drop in cabin pressure, indicating a rapid air leak. There was no time to track down the source, they had to go to emergency deorbit.

The flight dynamics officer, sitting at the front row of consoles known as the Trench, was rapidly plotting out the flight to determine the best landing site. No one considered this a game, they were too aware that if this crisis were real, the lives of people would be in jeopardy.

"Cabin pressure down to thirteen point nine psi," reported Environmental Control.

"Edwards Air Force Base," announced Flight Dynamics. "Touchdown at approximately thirteen hundred."

"Cabin pressure will be down to seven psi at this rate," said Environmental. "Recommend they don helmets now. Before initiating reentry sequence." Capcom relayed the advice to Atlantis.

"Roger that," responded Commander Vance. "Helmets are on. We are initiating deorbit burn." Against his will, Jack was caught up in the urgency of the game.

As the moments ticked by, he kept his gaze fixed on the central screen at the front of the room, where the orbiter's path was plotted on a global map. Even though he knew that every crisis was artificially introduced by a mischievous sim team, the grim seriousness of this exercise had rubbed off on him. He was scarcely aware that his muscles had tensed as he focused on the changing data flickering on the screen.