Falling Ark

by Leigh Snelson

  “We need to get back on that ship and get out of here. The crew are still loyal to us. At least I think they are.” I said in my most confident voice. “I can call one of the planes and it will pick us up. Hold on.”

  I reached into my pocket, pulled out my phone and tapped on the icon that summoned the plane that was sitting on the shore outside Bills house.

  Within seconds it was in front of us, Bright headlights turned on, glaring at us and making it impossible to see.

  “That was quick.” Ava said, confused.

  “Yes, too quick” I agreed.

  Then the lights went out and the dim glow of the cabin became clear, there were five faces staring back at us.

  My phone started to ring. The buzz in my hand causing me to jump and startle Ava.

  “Room for two more.” Sam’s voice said down the phone. I looked over at the ship, Sam was sitting in the middle seat, with Julie and Hank in the front, piloting and Derek and Tony either side of Sam at the back.

  A smile grew on my face as the ship lowered itself down over us and I lifted Ava through the hatch in the base before I climbed inside. We both scrambled into the back of the plane, into the rear facing seat, I sat down first, Ava sat on my lap.

  I had not been in this part of the plane before and I wasn’t sure I wanted to again. The entire seat was encased in glass. I could see all around us as I clung to the arm rest, not wanting to let go as I perched in the air. Ava’s arms were wrapped around me and she tightened them after she looked down, through the glass floor, just as the craft was rising into the air.

  The plane made its way back to the ship and I could see the damage to the huts. They were all on fire and sinking into the lake.

  Just before we arrived back at the boat I watched a sequence of more explosions remove out the entire guest house from view and lighting up the night sky with another huge fireball.

  “How are you two?” a voice came over the speaker system.

  Ava looked at me and I her. I fiddled around for a button to press to talk back. I couldn’t find anything.

  “Just talk.” Sam said, “I can hear you. I am also watching, so no funny business.”

  I noticed a little blinking light above our heads which was obviously the camera and I shot him a thumbs up.

  “How did you know?” I asked. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that everyone was inside a plane rather than in their huts.

  “Know about what? The explosions? We didn’t. We were all on the beach when we saw you two sneak away. Derek suggested we get in a plane and follow you, looking for an opportunity to scare or embarrass you, but then the explosions went off and, well, it changed everything.” Sam informed me.

  “Thank you!” I said.

  “No problem, I have radioed the captain and he has opened a hanger for us, just stay there a few more moments.”

  I did as I was told. Sitting perfectly still with the lake flying past my feet and Ava sitting in my lap. I had to remain calm for her sake.

  A few moments later we were nestled safely in a container waiting for the airlock release and we all started to get out of the plane. It was not quick, the little hatch in the middle meant only one person at a time could get out. We must address this design failure with any plane we design.

  We all ran up to the control tower and found the captain waiting.

  “Where too.” He said, waiting for instructions. He had woken the staff, prepped the ship and was ready.

  I looked at Sam for inspiration and he did the same back to me. Coming up short for ideas we both ran over to the holotable and Sam brought up a three-dimensional display of the Earth. He spun it around frantically looking for somewhere safe.

  In the corner of the table I saw a little red-light flashing. We had used this messaging system for internal memos. I wondered what sensor had been triggered that would cause the warning, was the ship safe? I gestured over the icon to open it.

  “Moon route planned. Press to launch.” It was a message from Lovelace, the giant computer in the hull of the ship and she had calculated a route that would take the entire ship to the moon, and she had even found a suitable landing spot.

  Once again, I found myself looking at Sam, unsure if this was the correct course of action. He slowly nodded his head.

  I tapped the button that said ‘Launch’ and we left the world behind. I watched as the planet fell away underneath the ship.

  Chapter 26

  Lara’s face was plastered on the TV screen again. She was continuing to spin the story that we were terrorists, this time blaming us for the explosions on Bills ranch.

  It was tempting to throw a cup at her, but we were now in low lunar gravity and I wasn’t sure how much damage I would cause. The last thing I needed was a fire or even a puncture to the ship.

  We were marooned on the moon with a crew and a ship who were being labelled as terrorists.

  I didn’t even know if I could completely trust the crew, they had not signed on for this. They were fighting for our cause, and believed that Lara needed taking down, but never in their wildest dreams had they thought this adventure would take them to the moon. I wouldn’t blame them if they were freaking out.

  The scariest factor in all of this was that they now had put their lives completely in my hands. If they wanted to return home, then we would all need to work together and they would have to do as I said. It was not the way I wanted to run the ship, through fear, but it was the situation I found myself in.

  I had spent the past few hours locked away in the Armillary, our original golf ball shaped ship and occasionally communicated with the control tower every now and then to let them know I was still alive. It was the guilt of putting everyone’s lives in danger that affected me the most and I needed some time to come to terms with recent events.

  It wasn’t as bleak a situation as I thought. We had stocked up on food, water and other important supplies like toilet roll. The machinery and equipment that we had on board was also turning out to be quite useful. The robots were especially great as they were be able to get out of the airlocks and onto the lunar surface to perform the tasks like inspecting the ship for leaks now that we were in the vacuum of space.

  I had some ideas about what to do next and locking myself in here was giving me time to think.

  The trip to the moon had been the most amazing thing that any of us had ever witnessed. As the Earth shrunk underneath us, the entire crew could be found in the control room, looking through the windows, eager to witness the once in a lifetime spectacle.

  Even Hank was watching, from the chair nearest the window and was grasping the armrests with so much force they were starting to bend.

  Sam reported that we had hit a velocity of just over eighty-two thousand miles per hour which made us the fastest humans ever. A little roar went up when Sam informed the crew of that.

  We arrived at the Moon in just over four hours. It had taken the Apollo astronauts four days to reach the moon, traveling two hundred and fifty thousand miles in a tiny tin can.

  The moon had just become a tourist destination.

  During the trip we discussed at length if this was the correct thing to do. Both Sam and I agreed that the moon was our only option, despite protests from Derek, Hank and other crew members.

  On Earth it would be difficult to spot Lara if she decided to launch an attack. At least on the moon we would literally be able to see her coming as she would have to cross the vast emptiness of space to do so.

  We had landed twenty hours ago and naturally; people were still getting used to the environment. The low gravity was unusual, and it was causing issues with the crew, especially when it came to eating and keeping food in our stomachs. The simplest walk down a staircase was now an obstacle course and every time we tried to pick something up, the lack of weight always caught you off guard and the item would be propelled across the room. It was as if a massive ship like this was not designed for space travel.

  The first thing I ha
d to do was fix the gravity. The little metal orbs were the perfect tool to correct this issue. It had taken a bit of tweaking, but they were nearly ready to go.

  Ava was usually in the golf ball with me. She could communicate with Lovelace from here and she felt safe surrounded by containers. We couldn’t see out but then, sometimes, being able to see the infinite universe was not what you needed when you were already feeling out of your depth, sometimes you just wanted somewhere small and cosy.

  “What are you working on?” Ava asked as she floated into the control room. The gravity, being less than on Earth, was tricky to grasp but once you got the hang of it, you could float around much easier. Stairs became a simple two bound process.

  “I am trying to get the gravity back to normal.” I replied as I altered a few lines of code on the monitor in front of me.

  “I like it like this.” Ava said as she launched herself over me, doing a twist and a flip above my head.

  “Show off!” I replied, watching her land majestically. “It’s fine for you now, but long term it is not good for any of us, studies on board space stations have shown that muscle problems are common in low gravity. I need to get it right otherwise we will all be in a lot of pain.” I informed her.

  “I know, but if you can, leave one room like this, a bouncy room.” She pleaded.

  I smirked at her. I knew she was going to ask something like this, and I was already building it into my system.

  “You have already planned that haven’t you!” Ava realised! She came up behind me and wrapped her arms around me. “Thank you!”

  “How is everyone handling the situation?” I asked.

  “The usual, I have just helped Tony and Julie take back their jungle.” Ava replied.

  “What do you mean ‘take back’?”

  “The low gravity has caused some of their plants to grow with crazy speed so they have all been trimmed back.” Ava explained.

  “I see, so while I’m up here working, you’re doing some gardening.” I joked.

  She picked up a pen from a nearby desk and tried to launch it at me. The low gravity ensured she missed calculated her shot and the pen flew straight over my head.

  “What about Hank and Derek?” I asked.

  “They are trying to deal with the robot situation with some of the crew.” Ava informed me.

  “What do you mean? What’s going on with the robots?”

  “It’s the moon rocks. They are shredding the robots. They are taking quite a beating when they go outside.” Ava explained.

  “I suppose that makes sense. Moon rocks are likely to be sharp and dangerous, there is no atmosphere to erode the sharp points away.”

  “Thank you for that, Einstein” Ava said, then ducked expecting me to throw something in her direction.

  “They should attach gravity drives to the robots. It’ll help them move around.” I suggested.

  “Actually, that’s not a bad idea, I’ll let them know.” Ava confirmed.

  “What about Sam? How is he doing?”

  “Sam is trying to get some of the equipment out of the hold. You know, all the tents and domes that Derek found down there.” Ava replied.

  “How is he doing that? There are a few hundred containers stacked on top.”

  “I know, it’s a massive jigsaw puzzle. I have been trying to interface with Lovelace, to run simulations for him. All the different ways we can move the containers around to get equipment he wants out. Currently the only solution is to blow a big hole in the side of the ship.”

  “Hold on a moment.” My head picked up, “That’s it!”

  I tapped at the screens, altering numbers and changing dials.

  “What is? You’re going to blow a big hole in the side of the ship?” Ava asked, sounding worried.

  “Absolutely.” I confirmed. “If I target the gravity fields, I can stop the air inside the ship from floating away. Then we can have a huge opening in the ship where the robots can come and go, and Sam can get his stuff out.”

  “I was only kidding about the hole. Is that even possible?” Ava asked.

  “It sure is. Just like when Derek lifted the wall of water around us, I can target the molecules that are in gas form, the further they are from the gravity drives, the more gravity affects them, pulling them back to the ship. After a given distance the gravity will be too much and that should stop them from floating away. I just need to find the right point of equilibrium”

  “Do it then!” Ava demanded; I could tell she wanted Sam off her back.

  “Already done.” I smiled. “Fancy a walk?”

  Ava contacted Sam on one of the radios we had been using and told him about my crazy idea. We agreed to meet near one of the airlocks that contained the plane we had used to escape Bills ranch. It was on the starboard side of the ship and faced out onto the lunar surface.

  Sam was sipping a drink as he approached us. We had discovered it was much easier to drink out of straws instead of trying to guess how slowly things poured on the moon.

  “Didn’t you bring me one?” Ava asked, looking at the glass in his hand.

  Sam’s eyes widened like he was caught in headlights of Ava’s suggestion.

  “She is just messing with you.” I informed him. “I have checked the pressure and the readings tell me that the atmosphere is fine outside.”

  There was a makeshift, pressurised door between us and the docked plane inside the container. The usual routine involved equalising the pressure, opening the door, going inside, closing the door and get in the plane then, equalise the pressure with the outside world and automatically open the doors on the other side of the container before flying away. It was a lot of complicated steps but this way you didn’t cause any explosive decompression.

  Today was going to be different. Forget all the pressure equalising steps. Get in the airlock, close the door and open the outside door. If my calculations are correct the pressure outside the ship should be the same.

  We stepped into the container and Sam closed the door behind us. So far so good.

  “Are you sure about this?” Sam asked as he moved towards the manual controls for the outside door.

  “Yep, I think so!” I said and I felt Ava grab my hand.

  “I’m trusting you!” Sam replied and he tapped on the buttons to release the door.

  The door swung open without any fanfare or surprise, no rush of air or suffocation. I glanced at Sam in relief before we all ran to the edge of the open door, not daring to step over the threshold, instead we just gazed out onto the moon’s surface.

  “We are the first people to see the moon with our naked eyes.” Sam said in a powerful moment that would be more welcome at a graduation speech.

  “Well, apart from the other seven billion people on earth who stare up at it every night.” Ava corrected him.

  “Fine. We are the first people to stand on the moon without space suits.” He tried again.

  “Nah, it doesn’t have the right ring to it.” I commented.

  “How about this then.” Sam said, and he threw his glass of water out onto the moon’s surface.

  Nothing interesting happened for the first few metres, but as the glass jar cleared the ship the liquid inside started to rapidly freeze and turn into a misty vapour. The glass itself shattered during the extreme temperature change and the whole cloud of water and glass particles flew hundreds of metres across the lunar surface.

  “Up here you could be an awesome javelin thrower.” I commented as we watched the mist slowly descending and settle on the previously untouched lunar surface. There was no wind to blow it around so all the little vapor particles just hung and slowly sank down onto the ground.

  “Hello, is there anyone there?” The radio attached to Sam’s belt started to speak.

  “This is Sam, what’s up Hank?” he replied.

  “I don’t want to worry you, but we appear to be venting something, something just escaped on the starboard side of the ship.”

 
Sam looked at Ava and me and we all laughed in unison.

  “Understood. We have a hole in the side of the ship. Gather all the crew and come down to hanger 3B. We have something to show you.” Sam turned to me. “This is ground-breaking! I can get the stuff out of the hanger now. I’ll get one of the robots to cut a hole in the hull. We’ll have a proper moon base by this time tomorrow!”

  Chapter 27

  Everyone had been working hard for hours, getting very little sleep but our moon base was coming along nicely.

  Sam insisted, once the hole was cut and the containers were moved onto the moon’s surface, that the robots seal up the hull again. That way, if the gravity drives failed, we wouldn’t suffocate.

  The robots soon demonstrated the importance of this. Just because we could have a huge, unprotected hole in the side of the ship, doesn’t mean we should. It wasn’t the air we should be worried about but dust. It was very fine and very sharp, like breathing in tiny pins. As the robots moved around, they kicked up the dust, the first time it had been moved in centuries, and it was causing havoc with the more delicate systems.

  Unfortunately, one of the crew members, Geovanni, was standing too close to the huge gap in the hull, just as a container landed on the ground nearby. It kicked dust into the ship as it landed, Geovanni was just in range to breath in enough of the microscopic needles.

  Dust didn’t travel far on the moon. There was no air to carry it, but a fluke series of events sent Geovanni straight to Tony and Julie for some magic gel to ease his wounds.

  The dust had shredded his airways and lungs. Tony likened it to breathing acid. On Earth, with current technology, there would have be very little to save him. Tony gave him a cup of slime, in between screams of pain, and within an hour the screams stopped, after two, he was walking around the ship again. Just another reason why this type of technology should be in the public realm.

  Realising that the dust on the moon was going to be a problem Sam ordered all the machines to be fitted with gravity drives. This way they would not disturb the surface too much and it wouldn’t matter when their motors became clogged.