“Do you have a better idea?”
She hung her head. “No. But even if the storm breaks in nine days, we’re still dead.”
“Why?”
“Because we’ll be completely out of O2, and the hab and the Genesis will be full of CO2. The RCRS can’t handle that much CO2, and we don’t have enough power to run one of the Sabatiers. So we survive the worst of the storm,” tears started running down her cheeks, and she whimpered “and die anyway.” Gabe cried out, “I don’t want our baby to die!”
He wrapped his arm around her. “Come on, now, nobody is going to die. Like you said, we’re smart people, we can figure this out. You need to stop fretting about it, and start thinking about it. Okay?”
She sniffed and nodded. “Okay. I’m just so afraid.”
“I know, we all are.”
Susan tentatively raised her hand. “Uh…”
Jeff glanced at her. “What?”
“If were transferring all available power from the station to the Genesis, can’t we run the Genesis Sabatier?”
Staring at her, his eyes opened wide. “Yes!” He turned to Gabe and smiled. “All we need is 160 amps, and we can stay in there indefinitely.”
She nodded and forced a smile. “Yes. But that’s a long time to go without a shower.”
Jeff laughed and hugged her. “Yeah, but like I said, nobody’s gonna die.” He glanced back at Susan. “You’re a genius!”
Susan grinned. “I do have one question. If we can last indefinitely in the Genesis, why not move in there now? Save the O2 we have in here for when we move back, and save some wear and tear on the RCRS?”
“Well, that is an option. Um, I think we’d be more comfortable in here. I mean, we lived in there for six days when we got here and, like Gabe says, it’s a long time to go without shower. At least in here we’d have most of the comforts of home. Besides, who knows? This storm could start to ease tomorrow and we may not have to move in there at all. I vote that we give it a couple days and see what happens.” He looked around at each of them.
They all nodded.
“Alright then, we’ve got lots to do. Gabe?”
“Huh?”
“Can you pull yourself together and send off a message to Newport advising them of our situation and what we have planned? Have them take a look and see if we’ve overlooked anything?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Good. Abby, Sue, let’s get busy.”
They both nodded.
#
Jeff looked around the commons at the mattresses and pillows on the floor, and heaps of blankets and clothes. Abby came through the utility room hatch and stood beside him. “Well, doesn’t this look cozy?”
She smiled. “Yeah. Looks like we’re setup for a slumber party.”
“I think that’s kind of the idea.”
Gabe’s stuffed bear came flying through the hatch from her room and landed in the middle of the mattresses.
Jeff stared at it and chuckled.
Abby shook her head. “Think of it. We all had one trunk for personal effects and she chose to use part of that valuable space for a stuffed bear.”
“Yeah, well, her choice.”
“Good thing she didn’t have a stuffed elephant.”
He laughed softly. “Oh, I dunno, I had a stuffed elephant when I was a kid. It was pink and fuzzy, and had a music box inside. I liked it.”
She glanced at him with raised eyebrows. “Huh. Never figured you for stuffed animals.”
“Hey, I was once a kid too. What kind of toys did you have?”
“Barbie dolls, a whole bunch of ‘em. Fashion Barbie, Homemaker Barbie, Bikini Barbie, Bimbo Barbie…”
“Bimbo Barbie?”
“Yeah, I don’t think she was a standard issue item, but Ken sure liked her.”
Jeff laughed. “Yeah, I’ll bet he did.”
Sue hollered from the kitchen, “Supper’s ready.”
“Excellent. I’m starving.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Abby.
“You know what’s for dinner?”
“Spaghetti and meatballs.”
“Oh, good. I like that.”
Thursday, December 8, 2016
MSD 50812.295 (Sol 62)
Jeff awoke to the beeping console. What the hell? He glanced at his watch, 0604. If somebody set an alarm clock, they’re toast. He punched a button to silence the alarm and looked at the display. “Oh, crap!” He quickly turned around, knelt, and shook Gabe. “Gabe. Gabe! Wake up. Abby, Sue, wake up.”
Gabe groaned. “What? I’m tired.”
“CO2 is up to 3%, we’ve got to get you out of here and into the Genesis. This air’s no good for you. Come on, get up. Now.”
“Oh, my head hurts and my heart’s pounding.”
“I know, it’s the CO2.” He took her arm and helped her stand.
She momentarily lost her balance. “Whoa, I’m a little woozy.
“Duh. Come on, let’s get you into some good air.”
Abby sat up. “What is it?”
As Jeff helped Gabe stumble toward the airlock, he called over his shoulder. “CO2’s at 3%, get Sue up. Time to move.” He stood Gabe against the wall in the utility room. “Can you stand here for a minute?”
“Uh huh. Yeah, I’m okay.”
“Alright, let me get the hatch open.” Opening the hatch to the suit room, Jeff was struck by a blast of ice-cold air. “Oh god!”
“What?”
“It’s freezing in here. Okay, come on.”
Entering the suit room she gasped and shuddered. “Oh my god! Even my goose bumps have goose bumps. It has to be ten or fifteen below in here.”
“At least.” He closed the hatch. “The good news is, after this the Genesis will feel warm.” A minute later he had the inner Genesis hatch open. “Okay, after you.”
Gabe crawled through into the truss and dropped to the floor.
Jeff followed immediately behind her and closed the hatch. “Better.”
“Oh, yes. Much.”
He helped her into a chair, grabbed a blanket from the truss, and covered her. “Okay, just relax and breathe normally, you’ll feel better in a minute. I’ll turn up the heat.”
“Okay.”
Two minutes later Abby and Susan came in. Sue rushed to Gabe. “Are you alright?”
“I think so.”
Susan grabbed a blood pressure monitor out of the medical cabinet, strapped the cuff around Gabe’s arm and, at the same time, checked her pulse. “Okay, your blood pressure and pulse are elevated, but not horribly so; probably a combination of the high CO2 concentration and excitement. We’ll check them again in fifteen minutes, but I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“What about my baby?”
“Yeah, your baby will be fine too. He or she probably slept through the whole thing. Don’t worry about it. Look, most people can tolerate 3% CO2 for a month without long-term adverse effects. But Jeff was right, the sooner we get you out of it, the better.” She turned to Jeff. “Do you know how long we were over 3%?”
“Not really, but probably not more than a couple minutes. The alarm woke me.”
“Okay.” She glanced at Gabe. “No big deal, nothing to worry about. The serious problems don’t start to occur until you get up around 8%. We’re nowhere close to that.”
Gabe took a deep breath, sighed, and nodded. “Thanks. I don’t suppose anyone bothered to check the Tau?”
Jeff chuckled. “Uh, sorry, no. We we’re a little busy with another issue.”
Gabe gave him a sheepish grin.
“Hang on, I’ll check.” He brought up the remote console to the main terminal. “Uh, let’s see here. Ugh.”
“What.”
“4.8.”
“Oh god, it’s still going up.”
“Uh huh.”
“That’s only about 1% of normal sunlight. We’ll be lucky to get 200 amps this afternoon. The main batteries will be stone-cold dead in a few days.”
“
Well, that’s their problem. They’ll recharge once we get past this. In the meantime we’ve got plenty of power in here. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He turned around. “Abby?”
“Yeah.”
“We need to start shutting down the station.”
“Okay.”
“Sue, when you’re finished with Gabe, we could use your help.”
“Sure. Fifteen minutes or so.”
“Good.” He turned back to Gabe. “And you…” He pointed to the floor. “Stay.”
Gabe grinned. “Woof.”
Monday, December 12, 2016
MSD 50815.548 (Sol 65)
“Lunch is ready,” said Jeff.
Abby came up and put her arm around him. “Smells great. What is it?”
“Chicken Alfredo, garlic bread, blackberries, and tea.”
“Oh, wow. Yum. It’s amazing what they can do with freeze dried foods these days.”
“Yeah. I can’t imagine what it was like back in the days of the Apollo program when every meal consisted of Tang, a handful of vitamin pills, and some goo out of a toothpaste tube. Gabe, Sue, lunch.”
“Be right there,” said Susan.
As they sat on the floor in the Genesis and enjoyed lunch, Jeff glanced at Gabe. “So, how are we doing?”
She grinned. “Tau’s down to 4.33. That’s the third day in a row it’s down. We’ve got 329 amps.”
“Outstanding! But we got fooled by a lull in this two weeks ago. Should we be optimistic?”
“I think so. I think it’s over. Well, not over, but we’re over the hump.”
“Great. In any case, we’ve got power to spare. Right?”
“Uh huh.”
“Can we power up a Sabatier?”
“Uh huh.”
“Well, then let’s do so. Scrub the air in the station and make some O2. We’ve got plenty of methane sitting out there, if we can make some LOX we can light off a generator and expedite this process. We could be back inside in a couple days.”
She took a bite of garlic bread, smiled broadly, and nodded.
Saturday, December 17, 2016
MSD 50820.941 (Sol 70)
Jeff and Gabe sat in the greenhouse, the lights off, staring at the stars.
“It’s nice to be back inside,” said Gabe.
“It sure is.”
“And alive.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, that too.”
She snuggled against him. “You’re kind of quiet tonight.”
“Oh, just thinking.”
“About what?”
“Um, just things.”
“Come on, Jeffrey, what’s on your mind?”
Jeff stared at the ground, then looked into Gabe’s eyes. “Well, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Um, now that it seems we’ve survived the worst of this and may make it home alive, and that you’re pregnant with our child, when we get home…” Jeff leaned his forehead against hers, “… um… will you marry me?”
Gabe reached up, covering her mouth with her hand and began to cry. Then nodded her head. “Yes. Oh, yes.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to think about it for a minute? Gabe, I’m old enough to be your father.”
“I don’t care. I love you. And like you said, I’m carrying our child. Not mine, not yours, but ours. And this child, perhaps more than any other, not only deserves – but will need – a family, with a mother and a father. And that’s us; you and me.”
Jeff smiled softly in the starlight. “That’s good, because I love you too. Have for a long time.”
“How long?”
“Oh, it’s funny, I remember the first moment.”
“When?”
“The first night we spent at the villa in Gaucin.”
“In the pavilion?”
“Uh huh. How’d you know?”
Gabe pulled close to him. “The expression on your face. I remember it clearly. It startled me. I didn’t know what to think. But suddenly I had trouble breathing.”
“Yeah, me too. I never thought I could love another woman.”
“After Marsha?”
“Yeah.”
Gabe nodded. “I don’t want to take that love away.”
“You won’t. Loving you doesn’t mean I love her any less.”
“Will she forgive me?”
Jeff leaned his head against Gabe’s. “Yes. She’d like you. And she’ll understand.”
“I wish I’d known her.”
“I wish you had too.”
They sat quietly together for a minute or two, then Gabe took a deep breath and sighed. “Jeff, may I ask you a very personal question.”
“Hmmm, sounds like something’s about to get me into trouble. Go ahead.”
“Um… before we got here, did you ever sleep with Abby?”
“Ahem. Okay, well, just speaking hypothetically, what would you say if I said ‘yes’?”
She shrugged. “Speaking hypothetically, if you said ‘yes’, I’d say… ‘good’.”
He glanced at her. “Really? Why?”
“You know why. You took something from her life that’s important to her. You didn’t mean to, you didn’t want to, but you did. So if her friendship means anything to you, it’s up to you to give it back.”
“Huh. Under the circumstances, that’s awfully noble of you.”
She kissed him. “I’m not insecure; at least, not anymore. I never had any empirical evidence to support it, but I always believed deep in my heart that one day I’d be yours.”
Jeff kissed her forehead.
“Am I yours?”
“Hmmm, well, let’s see. You’re carrying our baby and going to marry me. How are we doing on empirical evidence now?”
She giggled. “Better. Do you know when I first realized I loved you?”
He kissed the top of her head and caressed her cheek. “No. When?”
“On my 26th birthday, when I opened a present from you and found a slide rule inside.”
Jeff chuckled. “Really?”
She nodded. “Uh huh. I meant what I said. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever given me.” She rubbed her belly and grinned. “Until this.”
“Gabriel, has it ever occurred to you that the slide rule was meant as a joke?”
“Of course. But it was the most considerate and thoughtful joke I could possibly imagine. I mean, why would anyone give me a slide rule unless they… unless they cared enough to think that I might just enjoy having one, even as a joke.”
“I’d never thought of it that way.”
She rubbed her cheek on his shoulder. “Well, I’m complicated.”
Jeff laughed. “You are that.”
“Yes, but the difference is, you don’t treat me like it. You just treat me like everyone else. You know what the last present I received from my mother was? It was my twelfth birthday.”
“No. What?”
“Well, it wasn’t a new dress, or a heart pendant, or a stuffed animal. It was the score to Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, and she told me to learn it.”
“Yikes! Isn’t that about the most difficult piano piece there is?”
“The third movement, Scarbo, certainly is.”
“Kind of heavy stuff for a twelve-year-old, don’t you think?”
“You’d think so, but that’s how mom and dad thought of me. Instead of raising me as a little girl, they just wanted to continually push the edge of the envelope.”
Jeff wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. “Can you play it?”
“Not really. I know it, but I can’t play it well, it’s just too hard. Besides, I don’t like it. You know me, I like lyrical things. I don’t mind things that are difficult to play. If I like it, I’ll practice it until I can play it. But not that.”
“Can’t say as I blame you. I don’t care for it either.”
Gabe snuggled against him. “Do you know when it was that I realized I c
ouldn’t live without you?”
“No.”
“It was the day Abby broke my slide rule, and I almost broke her jaw.”
Jeff chuckled.
“She was laying there unconscious with her head stuck in a wall, but instead of tending to her you tended to me.” She shook her head. “From that moment, being near you has been the only thing in life I’ve wanted.”
He kissed her.
She glanced at him. “You still haven’t answered my question.”
“What? About sleeping with Abby?”
“Uh huh.”
“Yes, I have slept with Abby. But Gabe, you’re the one I always longed for. When I laid in bed awake at night, it was always you that I hoped would come knock on my door.”
“There were so many times that I wanted to, but I was afraid. Afraid that I wouldn’t know how to please you, and that you’d turn me away.”
He chuckled. “Not much chance of that.”
“If I had known then what I know now, I would have been knocking on your door every night.”
Jeff frowned. “Well, damn.”
“Yeah.” She kissed his cheek. “Did you sleep with her often?”
“No, just a couple times.”
“That’s all? In five years?”
“Uh huh.”
“Why?”
Jeff shrugged. “I dunno.”
“Yes you do.”
He sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I do. I was afraid of hurting you.”
Gabe nodded. “You would have, too. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d known. Probably gone looking for a higher bridge.”
He leaned his head against hers. “Promise me you’ll never do that?”
“I promise. If you promise never to leave me.”
“Deal.”
They hugged for a while. “Aren’t you curious as to why I didn’t ask about Sue?”
“Sue?” He chuckled. “How would I know if Sue ever slept with Abby?”
She slapped his chest, laughing. “That’s not what I meant!”
“Ouch. Yeah, okay, why didn’t you ask about Sue?”
“Because I already know that you slept with her.”
Jeff groaned. “And how would you know that?”
“Because I asked her, and she told me.”
“I see. And how did that come up in conversation?”
Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) Page 82
