Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1)

by Gregory Gates

  “Yeah, we’re fine. We’re in the Genesis, no problem.”

  “Okay. We’re gonna suit up, grab the spare parts bin, hop in Amos, and head up your way. It’ll probably take us six or seven hours to get there, so with luck we’ll see you sometime this afternoon. In the meantime just hang tight.”

  “Roger that. What if we can’t get Andy started?”

  “Well, we’ll just disconnect him from the Genesis and leave him there. Let Amos tow us back, then go back up there and collect Andy at our convenience, tow him back down here and try to figure out what the hell’s wrong with him.”

  “Got it.”

  “Say, while Sue and I are getting ready and making our way up there, fire off an email to SRT and ask them if there’s some secret developmental diagnostic handshake in the rover engine software that we don’t know about. Something that’s not in the manual.”

  “Got it. Gabe’s nodding her head like there may be.”

  “Okay, good. Well, the good lord willing and the creek don’t rise, we’ll see you this afternoon.”

  “Roger that. We’re not going anywhere.”

  “Okay. Just stay cool. We’ll see you a little later. Out.” He returned to Susan’s room and collected his clothes. A moment later Susan came in.

  “Are they okay?”

  “Yeah, fine. They’re in the Genesis. They can stay there for weeks.”

  She walked up to him, hugged him, and began rubbing her body against his.

  “Oh lord, don’t do that.”

  “Why? If they can stay there for weeks, they can afford to wait another half hour.”

  He dropped his clothes, gently shoved her backwards onto the bed, and smiled. “Okay, you’ve got 30 minutes.”

  She hopped back up. “No. We’re going to do something different.”

  “What?”

  She took his hand. “We’re going to shower together.”

  Jeff grinned. “Okay.”

  Susan smiled. “We can wash each other’s nether regions. And besides, we probably shouldn’t go up there smelling like this.”

  “Um, good point.”

  “And then we’re going to brush our teeth and rinse with a liberal dose of mouthwash.”

  He chuckled. “Another good idea.”

  Wednesday, November 22, 2017

  MSD 51151.739 (Sol 401)

  Jeff keyed the radio. “We’re here.”

  A moment later Abby came back. “Took you long enough.”

  “Sorry, it took us a bit longer than I’d thought to get going, and rather than follow your tracks we decided to take a shortcut and had to make a few detours. You know, road construction and such.”

  “Right. What you mean to say is… you got lost.”

  “Not exactly but, um, yeah.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Look, we’ve been in these suits for nine hours, and need to get out of them. And we’re both hungry. So, we’re gonna park and come in, and we’ll deal with Andy in the morning. That alright with you?”

  “Sure. We kind of figured that’d be the case. Gabe’s already started on supper.”

  “Excellent. See you in a few.” Jeff parked Amos just behind the Genesis, grabbed a duffle bag out of the back that held their clothes, and he and Susan climbed into the airlock, got out of their suits, cleaned up a bit, dressed, then climbed into the Genesis. “Hi all.”

  Gabe and Abby greeted them. Gabe kissed Jeff and said, “It’s about time. I was getting worried about you.”

  Jeff frowned. “You guys weren’t supposed to be clear up here. It’s a long damn way from the station.”

  She pouted. “I know, but I really wanted to see what’s down in there, and try and figure out what created it.”

  “Jesus, Gabe, from this side it’s a thousand meters to the bottom. Please tell me you weren’t planning on hiking down there. Christ, it’s the Grand Canyon. Besides, it’s just a crack in the crust, probably resulting from the impact that formed that big ass crater just to the east.”

  “You mean the big ass crater that we named ‘Jeff’, and put up a sign.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “We did. We also put up road signs to the large one to the south of ‘Jeff’ and the small one to the southeast of ‘Abby’.”

  “And what did you name them?”

  “The big one is ‘Gabriel’ and the small one is ‘Susan’.” She winked at Susan.

  Susan shook her head. “You named that little crater after me?”

  Gabe shrugged. “Well, we named them in order of magnitude.”

  Susan rolled her eyes. “Figures.”

  “And we named that very little one northwest of ‘Abby’, ‘Ghita’.”

  Jeff sighed. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate that when she grows up and turns out to bigger than all of us. By the way, where is she?”

  “She’s asleep in the truss.”

  “Okay, that explains why it’s so quiet in here.”

  “I just fed her. She’ll sleep for at least a few hours. In any case, no, we weren’t planning to hike to the bottom of that fossa. But we did want to get some samples from the rim, but that plan was cut short by Andy’s demise. But we did get a lot of good pictures.”

  “Oh, alright. Well, like Abby said, I suppose it doesn’t much matter at this point. Sue and I are tired and hungry, so how about supper?”

  “On the stove… so to speak.”

  “Excellent. Abby, did you get a reply from SRT?”

  “Yeah. There’s a thorough engine diagnostic program on the prototype for developmental purposes, but it was omitted from the final design because it complicated matters and they figured if there was an engine problem there was nothing they could do about it.”

  “Well, duh! Of course there was nothing they could do about it, but what about us?”

  She shrugged. “We approved the design.”

  Jeff groaned. “Yeah, we did, didn’t we? Did they have any suggestions?”

  “Yeah, if the plugs are okay, which they seem to be, start replacing black boxes. They don’t think the problem is fuel injectors. The thing runs on CO and O2 gas, so what’s to muck up? It’s not like it runs on diesel fuel.”

  “And you already checked the plugs. Right?”

  “Yeah. I wish the plugs in my car looked that good.”

  “Um, you don’t have a car.”

  “Okay, the plugs in your car.”

  “I thought you liked my car.”

  “I do.”

  Thursday, November 23, 2017

  MSD 51152.375 (Sol 402)

  “Abby, hand me that Phillips screwdriver.”

  “Here.”

  “Thanks.” Jeff went to work affixing the ignition black box in place on Andy. After attaching the spark plug leads he said, “Okay, that’s it. Try starting it.”

  “The engine is cranking but it still won’t start.”

  “Ah, shit! We’ve replaced damn near everything but the whole damn engine. I don’t believe this. What the hell is wrong with this son of a bitch?”

  “Maybe you should stop swearing at it.”

  “Why, you swear at stuff all the time.”

  “I’m a woman. Men don’t mind being sworn at by a woman.”

  “I mind.”

  “And when was the last time I swore at you?”

  “I don’t know, I’ll get back to you on that. Okay, we’ve replaced all the black boxes, we’ve got good plugs, the injectors should be fine, the batteries are good, and we’ve got full fuel tanks.”

  “Right.”

  Jeff thought for a moment. “Um, fuel tanks…”

  “Yeah, they’re full. Filled them myself.”

  “Uh huh. The cutoff valves from the tanks that prevent over-pressurization of the fuel injection system during refueling. I don’t suppose you remembered to reopen them after you refueled?”

  Abby’s groan was audible.

  “Uh huh.” He walked to the back of Andy and checked the valves. “Abby, they’re clos
ed. The tanks are full, but there’s no fuel flow. Nice goin’.”

  “Oh shit!”

  “You know, that’s why we have manuals for procedures.” He opened the valves. “Alright, try it now.” Andy started up.

  “Oh god!”

  “Abby, you may be the best pilot in this solar system, but sometimes you just need to follow procedures.”

  “Oh, I can’t believe I did that.”

  “Why didn’t you flag them?”

  “I dunno.”

  “Would you do that on an F/A-18?”

  “No.”

  “Well then, let’s try not to do it again because it’s a long fucking way back to Earth!”

  “Oh god, I’m sorry.”

  “There’s a lot of moving parts to this mission and neither you nor I can remember them all. Maybe Gabe can, but not us.” He took a deep breath and sighed. “Alright, no harm done and lesson learned.”

  “You’ve got to help me.”

  “Huh? With what?”

  “Gabe’s gonna put my head in the wall again.”

  “Not here. The walls are too thick and too hard.”

  “Oh god, I’m dead.”

  Jeff chuckled. “Alright, I have an idea.”

  “What?”

  “Get in Amos and take him back to the station, that’ll give her time to cool off.”

  “God, that’s eight or nine hours, and I’ve already been in this suit for two hours.”

  “Yep. But somebody needs to take him back, and the only reason he’s here is you. Call it penitence.” He chuckled again. “Besides, it might save your life.”

  “Ah, crap.”

  “Keys are in the ignition and you’re burnin’ daylight.”

  “Shit.” She trudged off toward Amos.

  Jeff waved. “See you tonight.” He climbed back into the Genesis airlock, removed his suit, dressed, and climbed inside.

  “Where’s Abby?” said Gabe.

  “On her way back to the station in Amos.”

  “God, that’s a long drive.”

  “No kidding. Sue and I did it yesterday.”

  “But why?”

  “Penitence.”

  “Huh?”

  “She forgot to reopen the CO and O2 cutoff valves on Andy after refueling him. That’s why he wouldn’t start.”

  Gabe gasped. “What?! I’m gonna kill her!”

  “No you’re not. You should have been on the radio with her walking her through the procedure. It’s as much your fault as hers.”

  Gabe hung her head.

  “Be thankful you’re not in Amos with her.”

  “But then I wouldn’t be able to nurse Ghita.”

  “I know. And that’s the only reason you’re still in here. Now, go talk to Andy. Get us turned around and headed for the station. I want to be there before dark.”

  She whimpered. “Okay.”

  * * *

  Abby met them in the suit room. “Have a good trip?”

  Jeff shrugged. “Had a long trip, but otherwise alright. How about you?”

  “I put Amos on autopilot and slept about halfway down.”

  “You’re not supposed to do that.”

  “I was tired.”

  “Keep it up and I’m going to spank you.”

  She grinned. “Promise?”

  Gabe removed her helmet. “And after he spanks you, I’m going to kill you.”

  Abby took a step backwards and looked at Jeff. “You said she’d cool off by now.”

  “I may have been wrong. I don’t suppose you got dinner started?”

  “It’s Thanksgiving, what am I supposed to cook?”

  “That’s right, you screwed up Thanksgiving too, didn’t you?”

  Abby sulked for a moment. “Alright, I screwed up. I know it, you know, everybody knows it. Hell, by now probably everyone on Earth knows it. I’m sorry, but can you give it a rest?”

  Jeff chuckled. “Okay. What say we postpone Thanksgiving until tomorrow? In the meantime we’re hungry. How about just making us something to eat?”

  Abby nodded. “That I can do. By the way…”

  “What?”

  “You got lost in those foothills northwest of my crater, didn’t you?”

  Jeff glared at her.

  “Thought so.” She smiled, nodded, and headed for the kitchen.

  Friday, November 24, 2017

  MSD 51153.395 (Sol 403)

  Gabe opened the refrigerator and pulled out a tray. “Um, what are these?”

  Jeff smiled. “Thanksgiving dinner.”

  “Okay. But what are they?”

  “What do they look like?”

  “Uh, little chickens.”

  “Technically, Cornish game hens.”

  She stared at the birds and frowned. “Where’d they come from?”

  He rolled his eyes. “While you and Abby were out playing in the sand, I went up in the hills and did a little hunting.”

  She chuckled. “You did not.”

  “They came the same way as last year’s turkey. I brought them in while you were gone so they’d thaw.”

  “Oh, okay. So, what am I supposed to do with them?”

  “Bone them, stuff them with wild rice, and cook them.”

  She frowned. “I don’t know how to bone a chicken.”

  “Cornish game hen.”

  “Oh, yeah. Whatever.”

  “There’s an email on the comm server from Abby’s mother with a recipe and complete instructions that she put together based on what we have here. There’s even a video attached that she and Brad made that shows the whole process. Just follow the directions.”

  “Okay. Ah, so this is why you had me grow that crop of wild rice, then wouldn’t let us eat any of it.”

  Jeff grinned.

  “You’re devious.”

  “Sometimes. And sometimes I just plan ahead, like this.” He pulled open the freezer door and pointed.

  Gabe’s jaw dropped. “A ham?!”

  “Yep. Honey baked and spiral cut. It’s for Christmas dinner, so leave it alone.”

  “Yeah, okay. So what time do you want dinner?”

  “Oh, I dunno. How about… three? That’ll give us the rest of the day to decorate for Christmas.”

  “You brought the Christmas decorations in?”

  “Uh huh. They’re in the suit room, all thawed out.”

  She set the tray on the counter turned around and hugged Jeff. “I like this time of year.”

  “Yeah, me too. That’s the neat thing about Mars – Thanksgiving and Christmas usually come twice a year.”

  She grinned. “And birthdays too.”

  He curled his lip and frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a good thing. I’m getting old fast enough as it is.”

  Sunday, December 10, 2017

  MSD 51169.566 (Sol 419)

  Susan frowned. “You’re making a mess.”

  Jeff chuckled. “Whiner.” He and Abby had her old PLSS disassembled and laid out on the lab counter. “Abby, there’s your problem. You punctured the primary O2 bottle.”

  “It’s not like I meant to.”

  “Wow, that must have been some kind of impact to punch a hole in that thing. It’s stainless steel for cryin’ out loud.”

  “Well, you saw what the fall did to my leg.”

  “Your leg isn’t stainless steel.”

  “Yeah, but thanks to you and Sue now part of it is titanium.”

  “Well, there you go. The six-million dollar woman.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, right. Okay, I can understand all the O2 leaking out of the bottle, but why’d it also leak out of my suit? Aren’t there backflow check valves in here?”

  “No. Well, there are on the water side, but not the O2 side. Only the cutoff valves on the suit that close when the inlet and outlet hoses are pulled.”

  “Design flaw.”

  “Not really. If you lose pressure in the bottle, what’s left in your suit won’t last long. And you wouldn’t be getting any
flow through the lithium hydroxide canister, so no CO2 scrubbing. So, what’s the point?”

  “The point is, a couple more minutes of air.”

  “I doubt the designers anticipated anything like this. Remember, most of this stuff was designed for use in space, not on Mars.”

  “You remember what space did to one of our solar panels?”

  “Yes I do. But if a micrometeor like that hit one of us it’d probably leave a six-inch exit hole.”

  Abby cringed. “Now there’s a comforting thought.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah.”

  “Do you think we can repair this?”

  “No. It would need to be welded, and we don’t have any welding equipment.”

  “We have silver solder.”

  Jeff shook his head. “Then we’d be looking at the possibility of bi-metallic corrosion. Besides, I’m not sure it would hold the pressure. No, we’ll use it for spare parts if we need them, otherwise I think it’s toast. Anyway, we still have five good PLSSs, we’re only going to be here for another three months, and we’ve got four good I-suits on the ship.”

  Gabe stuck her head through the hatch. “Jeff?”

  “Yeah, what’s up?”

  “A rather large video just arrived from Chrissie. It’s entitled ‘Army-Navy’. Do you know what that’s about?”

  Jeff and Abby chuckled. “Yeah, I know what it’s about. It’s yesterday’s Army-Navy football game. And it better be complete and uncut. Queue it up, we’ll be there in a minute.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  He turned back to Abby. “Is your beer done yet?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is it any good?”

  “Yeah, it’s actually not bad. I think I may have overcooked the barley malt a bit, it’s kind of dark.”

  “That’s okay, I like dark beer.”

  “I may have also added a bit too much hops. Gabe said it took a lot of work to grow them, so I’d better use them.”

  He chuckled. “Is it drinkable.”

  “Oh yeah. Like I said, it’s not bad.”

  “Is it chilled?”

  “Sure. The canister has been in the suit room for the past week, and that’s why it’s so cold in there. I turned the thermostat down to about 40. It wouldn’t fit in the fridge.”

  “Is the canister pressurized?”