They unhooked themselves and were able to cross the fifty meters or so with a simple kick against the tractor.
“I hope nobody locked the door,” said Alisha as she followed Matt.
Matt dint reply but he was as relieved as he had ever been when the airlock activated. While Alisha pulled herself inside Matt took another look back at Earthrise. It was easier to see than had been the Mars Explorer. It was more bulky and caught much more of the sunlight reflected off the planet. It looked so far away and made Matt feel as lonely as he ever had been.
Stepping inside the Explorer matt felt as light as a feather.
Alisha was aware too. “Gravity must be about five percent?”
“Yea, and the air is a fraction too.”
“It’s a waste of resources to fill every nook and cranny with breathable air; it should be thicker in the crew module?”
“I don’t think it’s that way.” Matt pointed to a sign saying ‘Danger’ ‘Radiation’.
“No; probably this way?” Alisha began to walk along the dimly lit passage. After a short while they came to another, perpendicular, module. She looked up each passage; the view disappeared into darkness either way. On the facing wall were two arrows designated store module and crew module, but one was pointing upwards and the other down. “Either the sign writer was drunk or were moving?”
They stepped back out into the airlock module and watched intently. As they did they could see the arrows creeping around.
“So we are in the arm, what now?”
“This will probably tell us?” Matt pointed to a control panel that they had stared past. “Press for carriage.” He muttered looking at her.”
“Well unless you feel like walking?”
Several minutes later a sphere slid into view, the side facing them was open.
Alisha looked at matt dubiously. “Can we trust this thing?”
“Like you said unless you want to walk and I’m not sure I want to be in that tunnel of there are others like it trundling around?” matt stepped aboard. He waited for Alisha to join him and pressed a butt on named crew module.
Silently they dove into the darkness.
There was hardly any feeling of movement but slowly they realized they felt heavier, and then suddenly a sign indicated they had arrived. Before them was another airlock and beyond they were in a kit room: several space suits were neatly placed in cube type shelves. Matt looked at the portable sensor. “Air seems okay?”
“Yes.” Alisha said taking off her helmet. “But it tastes stale.”
“Right; control center first; once you make sure we can get all that stuff back up and running ill check on the engine status?”
They followed the emergency lit passages and entered the small command center. Alisha quickly went to the central desk. “Everything is in standby… I’m initiating a diagnostic.”
Mathew went to the communication console. “Earthrise can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear; how is everything?”
“Looks okay; Alisha is checking for problems.”
A female voice joined the conversation. “Mars Explorer… Mars colony here; copy?”
“Yes; copy Shashi; were aboard?”
“Just to let you know the lander is clear for takeoff whenever you want to… Have you had time to check the store?”
“Not yet.”
“We’ve put a bit of extra food aboard the lander for you; Sorry but all it is, is freeze dried vegetables from the garden?”
“Much appreciated, but we don’t want to run down your supply?”
“Systems all checkout… rebooting?” called Alisha to him.
“Don’t worry we wont starve, especially now we have lots more hands to plant and harvest...”
“Primary diagnostic is green; I'm initiating full diagnostic?” called Alisha.
“Okay; first looks is that it’s a go’er up here.” As Matt spoke the lights changed from emergency to full lighting.
“There could be odd things but it looks like we have a functioning spaceship; depending on you getting us some engines?”
Matt nodded. “Gotta go.” He said into the communicator. “I’ll call again once I’ve had a look down in the reactor room.”
Acts of Survival - Orbit the Sun – Part 11 Page 4
