AMERICA ONE - Return To Earth (Book 4)
Page 17
Suzi was inside Asterspace Three with VIN and Mars, Jonesy, Maggie and Saturn, Ryan and Fritz. Both babies could now walk. They were squeezed into the two-room cockpit, all in full suits. The toddlers looked extremely professional in small space suits, made by the crew aboard America One. There were three sizes of suits to accommodate the crew: toddler, medium and normal adult. Only the helmets were all the same size. They weren’t heavy, but the children were fitted with extra supports to help keep their necks straight.
To complete the first crew on DX2017, Allen Saunders, with Michael Pitt as co-pilot, were bringing down Igor, Boris, and Martha Von Zimmer. The second craft would return to America One once the first cargo bay was unpacked with added supplies for a long stay.
The whole team spent the first three-hour shift unloading supplies. Suzi and Maggie were excited about taking their children on their first short space walk. When the inside of the cylinder had been double-checked to ensure it was ready for habitation, the two women were aided out of the docking bays with the kids in their arms and helped down the stairs; they carried their children— the first children ever to be outdoors in space—the short walk to the docking port on the cylinder.
The whole crew helped, and everybody breathed a sigh of relief once the mothers and children were safely inside the newly prepared living quarters. After testing for radioactivity, the mothers removed their suits and then got the children out of theirs.
Martha Von Zimmer helped them change diapers, which were placed into a special container made for the purpose. A more powerful air circulation system had been developed which could remove all odors as well as additional carbon dioxide.
Jonesy had mentioned months earlier that dirty diapers were certainly not part of space exploration in small, tight spaces. He already had enough of the problem in his larger apartment aboard America One.
While the ladies were doting over their space children, the men were outside reopening the alien-sealed shaft in between the caverns. One of the mining spiders was unloaded to blast through the melted 25 feet of rock sealing the shaft. They also had to get the original spider out of the third cavern, which required taking out the docking port. All this work had to be done, and the entire alien system opened and then resealed, before any air could be released.
Fritz, Boris and VIN began to take apart the docking port on their shaft after Igor programed the spider to laser the melted rock that sealed the shaft. Its first program was to open the first six feet of the alien shaft another foot to fit the four-foot wide docking port, as well as take out the melted rubble. Next, the spider was to be programmed to blast the walls and increase the diameter of the alien shaft until it reached the horizontal corridors thirty feet below, 48 hours of non-stop work. VIN also wanted to move the broken rock to fill the twenty-foot shaft below the horizontal corridors; that dead area would just take up valuable air. But, digging from above, the spider would need to haul the rock out first.
Jonesy, Allen Saunders and Michael Pitt unloaded a dozen canisters of supplies from both craft. Then they unloaded the tanks of air. Using the winch, Michael Pitt, who was as good as VIN at unloading, connected each set of three 100-pound air tanks strapped together, lifted them up and over the side to Jonesy and Allen, who made sure they didn’t touch the outside skin of the craft as they were lowered to the ground. Even in this lighter gravity than Earth, the three tanks together weighed a hundred pounds, and could do damage to the skin of the mining craft.
Asterspace Three and Astermine Two each carried 15 tanks. It would take ten more flights to bring down all the air tanks needed, but there was no rush. It would take days, maybe weeks, before the caverns were ready for their first atmospheres for many centuries.
The crew worked in three-hour shifts, and by the time the men entered the cylinder one by one after the first shift, the ladies had dinner ready.
Allen Saunders and Michael Pitt took off and headed back up to the mother ship; they would return with more tanks in 36 hours.
The 40-foot long, 12-foot wide cylinder had ample room, with separate sleeping units, for eight crew members and two babies for that first night. Half had been divided into three narrow compartments on each side with a very narrow corridor in the middle. Each compartment had narrow bunk beds three high, enough to accommodate 18 crew members. Martha naturally wanted her own compartment, as did Ryan, and the others shared for the first couple of nights.
Ten feet of the cylinder was dedicated to storage rooms and its power plants. The third nuclear battery, taken from SB-III, was installed outside the cylinder and supplied heat and light and ran the dozen different systems in the power room. The air cleaning system, the heater, the lighting, the infra-red food heater, the music, television DVD player, space suit rechargers, and even the pressurized water system to the faucet, shower, and toilets, worked off the single power system. At one percent power, it could easily look after twelve crewmembers in such a small space.
Inside the lounge, a ten-foot long area was set aside where the dozen space suits were hung and recharged. A CO2 detector was in every compartment, as were carbon monoxide detectors, radiation detectors, several air density detectors and pressure monitors in the communal, storage and electronics areas. The roof and walls had several monitors everywhere. The kitchen was more like a small bar area with a refrigerator and an infra-red stove. In the lounge was a dining table able to seat six at a time and three couches to relax on, or to use as beds.
With 20 percent higher gravity than Mars, the crewmembers could sleep horizontally, without having to be tied down. With body weight at less than 60 percent, any thin mattress was comfortable to a light space body. Except for a slight buzz from machinery, the cylinder was extremely quiet. As quiet as sleeping in a sardine can.
Twelve hours later the crew began its next shift. On this shift, all they had to do was to carry the internal parts and the walls of the docking port to the other hole; when that was accomplished they were done for the day.
The spider had created a seven-foot tall pile of rubble next to the shaft it had been expanding, which was wider and clear of rock for ten feet. After VIN, Fritz and Boris removed the docking port from the first shaft, thus releasing the second spider, Fritz programed it to collect the rubble from the pile and to take it back down the other hole to begin covering the bottom tube area where it had been imprisoned.
VIN carefully sat down on a pile of air tanks and looked around; it was the first time he could actually just sit and observe the scene around him. Allen and Michael Pitt weren’t due for another 15 hours, and he still had an hour of time left. The other crew members were also finished and were climbing back up the side to the roof and into the cylinder.
Suzi, looking out of one of the cylinder windows at him, asked her husband what he was doing.
VIN, quite surprised to hear his wife over the intercom, replied, “Just relaxing and checking out this blue space scene.”
“I am all suited up and all I need to do with Mars is to attach his helmet. Do you think it’s safe for us to join you?”
“I don’t see why not, what does Ryan say?”
“I think it is time for young Mars Noble to join his father. He might lead the next generation one day, and I’m sure he needs to find his space legs,” Ryan said. VIN stood up to help Suzi exit.
Suzi and Mars climbed out of the outer hatch of the docking port. Suzi leaned over the side with little Mars in her hands and VIN grabbed onto the toddler, who looked very dapper in his new suit. Being a baby, it wouldn’t take long for him to become curious about his new surroundings.
Young Saturn Jones was used to helmeted characters running around, and had been quite content to try on her helmet a few weeks earlier; but, like her father, she wasn’t very happy after having it on a few minutes later.
During the last few weeks, four toddlers had worn the suits for a couple of hours a day to get accustomed to them. Only the helmets and a complaining Saturn Jones had posed any difficulty.
VIN held Mars under one arm, while Suzi slowly maneuvered down the ladder. It was difficult for her to get about wearing the cumbersome metal frames around her useless legs when she had to walk, especially down a tiny cord ladder.
She reached ground and, still holding onto her husband, they gently touched helmets; Mars seemed happy making a few incoherent noises into his intercom. VIN let Mars down onto the surface of DX2017 to take his first mini-steps for mankind.
With the rest of the crew enjoying the scene from inside the cylinder, Mars took his first step. He was already used to changes in gravity and his first step was pretty good, with VIN helping him stay upright in case he fell down, a no-no in a space suit. Suzi found her balance and footing, held onto Mars’ other space glove and, first the first time in their lives, the Noble family, walked on a foreign planet together.
With rousing applause from inside the cylinder a dozen steps were taken before the family had to reverse the proceedings and return. In space it took much longer to get anything accomplished than it did on Earth.
Even young Saturn Jones, in Maggie’s arms, was silent as she watched her friend—who happened to look like a silver monster—walk around the planet’s surface as if he was out for a walk in the park.
There were smiles on all three Noble faces, once their helmets were removed inside, and the docking port secure. Even Mars had enjoyed his first walk. It would certainly not be his last.
Several hours later, it was back to work. The first objective was to open all the same rooms as they had opened on Mars, a task expected to take a few days.
The internal doors needed to be opened, and VIN would be the first one in with the usual investigative crew, joined by Martha Von Zimmer.
The docking port was secure in the new shaft the spiders had widened. It was interesting, that there was no metal, where the rock plug had been. The first twenty feet of the vertical shaft was not covered in the metal skin. The men postulated that maybe the aliens had a longer docking port, or entrance system. Ryan and Boris suggested that their space ships, or at least one of its legs, or a supply and transfer tube, might have penetrated the hole and sealed it from ship to tunnel.
VIN had rope ladders and a dozen metal ladder rungs ready to hammer into the wall. The spider had made the docking port area to exact specifications, but underneath it made the tunnel wider to allow space for the rungs, and not interfere with the canisters being lowered down the hole. His first job was completed in his first three-hour spacewalk.
The next day the shaft was ready for the crew to join him. The spider that had dug the wider shaft was still in the cavern. VIN made sure that the rock filled the bottom part of the shaft the other spider had been trapped in.
While Boris and Fritz sealed the wall where VIN first entered the tunnel, the others walked into the opened cavern. Ryan and Igor took Martha to the interior while VIN proceeded to the rear cavern. He had been here once before, and it seemed to be identical to the one on Mars. It was time to see if there were any bodies in the rear dormitories, or the morgues. VIN was in intercom contact all the time, since the battery was powering up the walls with light and heat.
He checked the cavern; it was as if he were standing in the same cavern on Mars. VIN sat on the steps and waited for the battery Boris and Fritz were going to carry through, when they finished patching and sealing the hole. He didn’t know if the doors in this cavern would be the same as those on Mars, but he hoped that the surge of power through the metal railing and into the walls would flip open the door panels. Then, he would have to do undertake the still dangerous task of removing his helmet in a vacuum.
“Okay, Boris, power up the battery to 40 percent,” VIN ordered. Nothing much happened, except one panel on the second floor, and the expected one on the first floor flipped open, and the walls began to glow brightly. “Fifty percent,” stated VIN, and the second panel on the second floor opened. “Sixty percent,” VIN ordered, and the walls glowed so brightly around them they felt like they were inside a light bulb. They had never gone over 50 percent before, and VIN didn’t really want to tempt fate, but he had to try one more notch. “Sixty-five percent,” he ordered and even their Polaroid helmet visors weren’t dark enough to keep the men from being blinded, but a new door panel flipped open on the ground floor, where the cavern joined the tunnel leading to the forward cavern.
Ryan called from the forward cavern. “What are you guys doing? This place is like being on stage in a rock concert. The walls are really bright in here.”
“Shut it down to 20 percent,” VIN ordered. “Just taking the power to the next level. We hit sixty-five percent and located a new door. I think the only way to get these doors open is to blast them with electricity. I wonder if a laser might work,” VIN thought aloud.
“Well, the spider is here, and I can walk it in and see what happens,” suggested Boris.
I’ll do one eye maneuver to open the door upstairs and then see if there are any more dead bodies,” VIN said. It seemed that this was the most important task ahead, before anybody really wanted to live down here. Fritz, who hadn’t yet seen how VIN’s eye opened the doors, wanted to see how it was done.
Breathing into the mouthpiece, VIN did his job, with Boris knocking on his helmet him after four seconds. On the fifth second, and on cue, VIN shut his visor. He sustained the expected immediate itchiness and profusely watering eye as he tried to keep his balance. The door opened.
There was silence as VIN’s eyes cleared slowly; it was like looking through water in a swimming pool. The other two just stared into the already lit room. VIN’s focus returned to see the exact same size room as on Mars, but it wasn’t furnished with beds and dust; the three men looked into a machine room. A machine room! Much like down in Nevada, and on board America One.
“Wow!” Was all Boris could say; the other two were speechless.
“Find something?” asked Ryan from the forward cavern.
“You had all better come and see this,” VIN responded. Nobody moved until Igor, Ryan and Martha walked through the tunnel and climbed the stairs to peer into the room.
About 30 feet long and 20 feet wide, the room was filled with strange looking machines. There were four different machines along each side wall, and what seemed to be piles of raw metal in sectioned off areas at the end. VIN could see what looked like pure gold. Also he saw diamonds, large ones, exactly the same kind he found on the first asteroid. The other three sections had square blocks of different silver metals. Above the sections were other, smaller supplies of metals and on the top shelf, six feet high, were what seemed to be premade electrical connectors and wires of every color and thickness.
“Electrical production room! Hallelujah!” Igor shouted, scaring everybody that could hear him, even the kids in the cylinder, and the crew on America One’s Bridge.
Igor had found his dream. Boris and Fritz were equally excited, and Martha wanted to open more doors.
“VIN, I believe that if we train the laser onto the glass inside the panel, the same thing will happen,” suggested Fritz once he had got over the initial shock. “I bet your eye is returning the light sent out from the panel. I think even a mirror might work, but we don’t have one with us.” Fritz walked the spider up to the only door panel below the staircase, programed a five second burst onto the panel’s glass where VIN looked into it.
Fritz was right. The laser acted like a key and the large double doors opened. The wall inside was glowing with light, and Martha was making happy yelps. Inside there were the water urns, red, glowing panels in the walls, and even what looked like a sectioned off area full of what looked like dirt, or top soil.
“Alien poop?” suggested VIN, but Martha wasn’t worried.
“You beating up my dear friend?” asked Jonesy fro
m inside the cylinder. “Give her one for me,” he joked.
“Martha, tell me! Tell me what you have found!” interrupted an excited Suzi.
“Soil, or poop, as your husband describes it, Suzi; about a ton of it. Also, urns on three shelves around the room and on the floor. Big urns, small ones, red ones, green ones all with faucet-type devices on them. I think this is the food supply room, or the biology supply room for the other bases,” she replied. “Herr Noble, we need to shut the door immediately. The temperature in this room is plus 44 degrees Fahrenheit and the cold vacuum of space is going to kill anything in here.”
Martha grabbed a glove full of soil (or poop), and rushed out of the room pulling VIN behind her with her other hand, and Fritz fired the laser. As prompted, the door closed behind them. They had been in there for less than a minute.
“There must have been an atmosphere in there to have heat,” Ryan commented, coming down to join them.
“Ja!” replied Martha. “My suit showed high oxygen, low nitrogen and small amounts of helium, about three percent. There was not enough carbon-dioxide to register, but there was an interesting sulphur-mix content, two percent. We need to get air in here immediately to restore the atmosphere, or everything will be worthless.”
The men headed to the shaft where Jonesy, Allen Saunders, who had just arrived, and Michael Pitt readied three tanks at a time to send down through the docking port.
“Since that room had air, and heat, it will save us a couple of tanks,” Ryan said, as he watched VIN, Igor and Boris open the first three tanks in the rear chamber. Nine more tanks were opened before their three-hour spacewalk was over, and they had to return to the surface.
Twelve tanks of air would be enough to get a basic atmosphere inside the two caverns and tunnel, and it would take several hours before the tanks emptied; that would increase the pressure, oxygen and heat for the next visit.