The Accidental Explorer

by George Deeb

  Travellor pushed the button, and the indicators turned orange to show that the diagnostics were in progress. One by one they turned green until they were all green. He smiled. 'And there you have it!' he thought. 'All functions operational.'. He relaxed a little more, and exhaled in relief. He wasn't expecting the sudden, loud bang, and his vision went white for a fraction of a second before his helmet visor slammed itself shut, making him jerk in the bunk as his body reflexively tensed.

  The ship had suffered an explosive decompression, and the water vapor in the air immediately condensed to fog just before it was sucked out of the hole in the ship – along with the cabin air. In those few moments he saw papers, a pen, and a candy wrapper fly into the air and out the side of the craft. Another piece of paper almost made it out of the hole, but all of the air had already been drawn out, and it ended up just floating around. With his next breath he could feel the extra effort needed to breathe as his suit pressurized. Then he heard someone scream in pain and surprise! A flashing red indicator brightened on the panel at the end of the cabin, where it had been green before. Then there were red droplets floating around, and small pieces of what Travellor thought looked like raw meat.

  “TONIO'S BEEN HIT!” screamed a voice over the communications system. “I THINK A METEOROID STRUCK THE SHIP.”

  “SHIT!” yelled Travellor, now realizing it was Little Petey's voice. His brain switched from thinking mode to conditioned mode, and all of his training took over. “JJ – take care of Tonio! Petey – how many holes?”

  “Already moving to him.” said JJ, over the short whooshing sound of the pressurized air leaving his umbilical as it disconnected from his suit and sealed itself off.

  “Two, I think.” said Petey. “It was just one rock.”

  “Who has eyes on the holes?” asked Travellor.

  “There's one by Tonio.” said JJ. “About three inches wide.”

  “I have one by me.” said Dal, as he looked at the hole that was just inches from his face shield. “Looks a little bigger than four inches.”

  “You take care of that one, Dal.” said Travellor. “Petey – can you work around JJ and patch that one?”

  “I think so.” said Petey. “I'll give it a ...” He was cut off by a pained scream.

  'Damn it!' thought Travellor, 'There's barely any friggin room to work in.'

  “I want a point by point report.” said Travellor. He wanted to visualize what was happening in his mind, in an attempt to foresee any problems. With each person reporting almost every action they took he could play the scene in his mind even though his vision was very restricted.

  “PETEY! - I'll take the hole by Tonio!” yelled Marisa Delgadillo. “I'm smaller. I'll have more room to move around.

  Marisa Herrera Delgadillo, know as 'Radio', was the communications specialist on the team. She was good at her job, and dependable when things fell to crap. Her test scores in abnormal situation simulations were in the highest ten percent of all trainees on record. She was physically small, but capable, and Travellor had not wanted her on this team. Every time he heard her voice she made him think of his niece, and that made him feel a little protective towards her - and he was damn glad she was here now.

  “Good thinking!” Travellor said. “Let Radio handle it Petey.”

  “Roger.”

  “I've got the patch kit.” said Dal. “Foaming up now.”

  Mounted on the side of each bunk was a small pressurized canister of a special high temperature expanding foam, that was an adhesive and a sealant. With the canister were pieces of precut mesh made from carbon fiber and interwoven with steel threads. Together they formed a patch kit that no one had thought would need to be used. The final repair should stand up to temperatures of thirty-five hundred degrees, and the mesh would make the repair strong enough to handle the physical stress of re-entry. The properties of the foam caused it to cling to and flow over anything it came in contact with. As Dal sprayed the foam around the damaged edges of the hole it clung to everything it contacted, working its way inside the fuselage structure and flowing outside onto the skin of the ship. It did the same thing on the inner surface of the vehicle. As it set, Dal built up the material until it plugged the hole. Then he took one of the mesh pieces and pressed it against the foam, over the damaged area. Over that he sprayed another layer of foam.

  Radio released her restraints, pulled her weightless body away from her bunk, and slid herself into the more open area of the center of the ship. Then she slowly rotated herself to face down to where Tonio's bunk was.

  “Out of my bunk. Heading for Tonio.” she said.

  “First mesh on.” said Dal.

  “I'm with Tonio.” said JJ, as he quickly assessed his injuries. “He's unconscious. Right leg torn up. Femur's broken completely through. SHIT! He's lost all pressurization, and he's losing most of his air.”

  “Second mesh applied.” said Dal.

  “He's losing blood.” said JJ, as he watched red droplets floating out of the wound from both sides of the injury. “I'll have to put on a tourniquet.”

  “SEAL HIS SUIT!” yelled Petey.

  “Got the kit.” said Radio, as she edged passed JJ and extended her arm with the canister. Drops of Tonio's blood escaped from his leg, froze solid, then hit her face shield and bounced off.

  “JJ. Put the tourniquet on so that it seals his suit and stops the bleeding.”

  “Right.”

  “Foaming up.” said Radio.

  JJ applied an elastic tourniquet just above the tear in the suit leg. He looked at the gauge on Tonio's suit. Slowly it rose, indicating internal pressure was increasing.

  “Got the first mesh on.” said Radio.

  “Tonio's suit is pressurizing, but it's leaking at the tourniquet. It'll keep him alive though.” said JJ. “Bleeding has stopped from the upper part of his leg, but I've got blood and fluid coming out from below the injury. His tissues are out-gassing.”

  Radio sprayed more foam over the first piece of mesh, and applied the second piece to it.

  “Second Mesh is on.”

  Travellor started the timer on the panel in front of him.

  “I can't do anything more until we get pressurization – and fast! He'll lose his leg if this goes on much longer.” said JJ.

  “Pressurization shut down automatically when we lost hull integrity.” said Petey. “Won't do any good to turn it on until we're sealed again.”

  JJ pulled a thermal blanket out of its holder above Tonio's bunk. With the scissors from the medical kit he cut a wide strip. Radio watch his actions as she slid away to give him more room to work.

  “What are you doing?” asked Radio.

  “Improvising. Stand by with that can of foam.”

  Taking the strip of the blanket, JJ wrapped it around the injured leg, overlapping the injury by several inches. Then he took the can of sealant from Radio and ran a bead of it around the top and bottom seams, and across the edge of the strip, sealing it above and below Tonio's injury, and across the edge of the strip. This closed the hole in the suit that was letting the pressurized air escape. He counted to thirty out loud, to allow the foam to cure enough to hold together. Then he loosened the tourniquet slightly, and the suit's internal pressure slowly increased.

  “Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful” said Radio, as she appreciated his make-shift suit repair.

  “It's only temporary.” said JJ. “Won't hold for very long. How long before the seals set?”

  Travellor glanced at the timer.

  “Sixty-two seconds until we can pressurize.”

  “It's going to be a mess in there, when you unwrap his leg.” said Radio, looking at the unconscious Tonio.

  “It already is.” said JJ. “I don't know if he'll be able to keep his leg. TIME?”

  “Fifty seconds more!” said Travellor. “Petey, as soon as I give the word, pressurize the ship!”

  “My hand's on the button.” said Petey.

  “Forty seconds.”r />
  Radio pulled her legs in and rotated her body to face the end of the cabin. Hand over hand she pulled herself to the pressurization panel, Where Little Petey's hand hovered over the ON button. With both legs spread, she braced her feet against the bunks on either side, and held on to a post with her right hand. She held her left hand a few inches behind Petey's. His eyes widened when he saw what she was doing.

  “What?” said Petey, “You want to do the whole mission by yourself?”

  She gave him a broad, exaggerated smile.

  “Just think of me as your backup system.” she said.

  “Twelve seconds.” came Travellor's voice.

  “We're ready.” replied Radio.

  Travellor squirmed around in his bunk so he could look down to the end of the cabin, where he saw both Petey and Radio ready to turn on the system. He looked back at the timer again, and started counting down.

  “Five... four... three... two... HIT IT!”

  2

  'Only minutes now.' thought Travellor, as he kept one eye on the timer that counted down to the moment of touchdown. The ship was holding together after the meteoroid damage was patched, and the cabin re-pressurized. They were skimming the edge of the far side of the moon, and approaching the landing site. The ground proximity radar indicator fluctuated as they traveled over the uneven terrain of the moon. The rear sections of the modified rocket engine nozzles had already pivoted and locked into position in preparation to re-direct the rocket thrust from the now idling engines. This would provide the reverse thrust needed to slow and stop the ship after touchdown. The large meteor crater they would land in would provide a relatively flatter surface for their landing. The ship was flying itself, which Travellor hated very, very much. It was another of the risks built into the mission. The ship was a flying robot, already programmed with a flight profile, and only capable of handling a few minor contingencies. If anything went wrong during the landing phase, there was no pilot to take control of the craft. If the forward looking ground scan radar detected any dangerous obstructions the ship could deviate slightly to avoid it, but this would put them farther away from the waiting equipment their survival depended on. No one on the crew was happy about that.

  If everything went as planned, they would end up parked within a hundred yards of the equipment containers that had preceded them. Then they would have thirty minutes to get out of the ship, check it for any damage, and close it up for its return trip to earth. It would be a slow flight back. Much slower than the flight getting here. The engines would have only enough fuel left to get the ship off of the moon, and headed back home. If its flight path was correct, it would eventually be captured by earth's gravity, re-enter the atmosphere, and make an unpowered programmed landing at one of several designated secure runways. There it would be surrounded by Air Force personnel and quickly hidden in a secured hangar. Travellor almost smiled at the thought of Farber-Chatwell's expression when he saw the hull patches on both sides of the ship. 'Let's hope he gets to see it.' he thought.

  This modified X37 had two sets of landing gear. The standard tricycle gear, with rubberized tires, were for landing on earth after the return trip. These would remain retracted during the moon landing. The second set of gear had four wheels, like a car. The “tires” were made of interwoven steel bands that were welded to the hubs. The bands formed a skeletal tire that was designed to flex and give in order to absorb the landing forces, while maintaining their shape to support the ship. These gave a harder landing but could better survive contact with an unknown and unprepared surface. They also had a second purpose – they would be detached from the ship after it got off the surface, and later recovered to be used as the wheels for a crude battery powered vehicle whose parts were in one of the waiting crates. It wasn't anything fancy, but it would be transportation. The whole thing snapped together and was secured by steel locking pins – simple but effective.

  All of that depended on everything going well with the landing. There was always the possibility of a crash, and then none of it would matter. But the very first thing now was to assemble an environmental chamber so Tonio could be treated. Travellor knew that Tonio would probably lose his leg, but they would do everything they could to save his life. After the ship had re-pressurized, everyone except Tonio had opened their face shields so they could breathe cabin air instead of that from their scrubbers. Tonio's was left closed and ready for this next phase of the flight. Now it was time to close face shields again as a safety precaution during landing. The possibility of damage to the ship and loss of cabin air was relatively high, so you wanted to make sure your suit was sealed and supplying air before touchdown.

  “Secure face shields. Verify integrity of your suits.” said Travellor into his helmet microphone. He listened as each person confirmed they were ready. Tonio's voice was the only one missing. He had been checked by JJ a few minutes before. The temporary seal at the leg of his suit should hold.

  Upon landing the team would start assembling two structures – the chamber for Tonio, and the habitat for their survival. Afterwards the two would be connected. This was the most important phase of the mission. They could survive in their suits for only a short period. The habitat would provide them with air, warmth, and protection. With the waiting supplies of food and water, this would be their home for some time. It would be a simple thing at first, but with each day they would expand the structure to encompass almost ten thousand square feet of living and working space. Once everything was set up and working, they would have enough supplies on hand to survive for eighteen months.

  The equipment that waited for them on the moon's surface would allow secure communications, and covert monitoring of the earth. It would be the most secret military base in existence, as well as the first manned colony on the moon. With planned deliveries of equipment and supplies continuing into the future it would become a permanent base of operations. Eventually they would be able to send personnel back to earth, allowing for regular tours of duty.

  “ORANGE LIGHT!” yelled Radio, indicating the pre-touchdown phase of the journey.

  The 361 techs loved to keep things simple. Whether this was out of consideration for the people using their equipment, or a lack of respect for the perceived lack of intelligence of those people (Yes, this type of status discrimination went on even in a well run organization like 361), Travellor wasn't sure. There were three horizontal light panels at the top of the front bulkhead, located where everyone could see them. The blue light was lit throughout the flight, indicating the transit phase of the journey. Obviously the blue light didn't care about small rocks punching through the hull and injuring people since it remained illuminated throughout the episode. The orange light indicated there were five minutes until touchdown. This was a warning that if you weren't ready for landing you should get ready now. Travellor had already run the crew through the landing checklist. They were ready. The red light indicated one minute until touchdown. At that time both the orange and red indicators would be lit. At touchdown the orange indicator would go off and the red would stay on until the ship stopped moving. Travellor had wondered if the orange light was turn off by just a timer, or a sensor that indicated contact with the surface – not that it mattered – it was just his curious nature.

  “One last time.” said Travellor. “Dal and Radio go out first to assemble the medical compartment. Petey and I are out next to assemble the habitat. JJ will stay with Tonio and get him ready to be moved. Once we have medical working and Tonio inside, everyone except JJ and Radio will continue work on the habitat.” The red indicator turned on and caught his attention. “One minute to touchdown. Check your straps again. It may be rough.”

  Everyone tightened their safety straps a little tighter than they were already. Only a few seconds later the sound of the rocket engines firing permeated the cabin. Then came the bumping and shaking as the steel wheels made contact with the moon's surface. Some of the rocks they hit must have been small boulders judging by
the way they were tossed against their straps. It wasn't a landing like an aircraft would perform on earth. On earth, with its atmosphere, the forward momentum of the aircraft would be converted to lift by the wings, to slowly bring the plane in contact with the runway. This landing was more of a controlled impact. Here on the moon there was no atmosphere for the X37's stubby wings to grab on to, so there was no level off. Just a reduction in speed as the ship made a straight line flight at a shallow angle until contact was made. The ship moved forward for slightly more than a minute, and finally came to a stop. There was sudden quiet as the engines shut down.