Airlock

by Simon Cheshire

  “I knew it,” he muttered. “I knew you’d be trouble. Why are you sneaking back to the cabins?”

  Could Dwayne have been responsible for the explosion? Was he secretly working for MaxiBoost Spaceways?

  George passed the mini-screen to Josh and Amira and pointed at the figure of Dwayne. A look of shock and surprise flashed across their faces.

  “You don’t think – ” Amira began.

  ZZAAA – ZZAAA – ZZAAA –

  Before they had time to discuss the theory any further, an emergency siren filled the air. George almost jumped out of his skin. Technicians dashed across the Control Centre, gathering around a screen which was flashing warnings and a series of numbers rapidly counting down from 65%.

  “One of the emergency seals has given way!” cried one of the crew to the Commander. “We’re losing oxygen fast!”

  “Cut in the back-ups!” called the Commander.

  “I can’t, sir, they run on power from reactor 2. There’s no way to engage the air pump.”

  Mr Snodbury cowered in terror behind one of the workstations.

  “Where’s the manual over-ride?” cried the Commander. “If we don’t get the back-ups working we’ll all suffocate!”

  “It’s on the other side of corridor B-11, sir… so, since the explosion, it’s now out in space.”

  George clapped his hands to his ears to block out the din of the alarm. The station was becoming more than simply a space-wreck in need of rescue. Its systems were starting to break down. It was rapidly turning into a death trap.

  Chapter Five

  Lost in Space

  Ash returned to the Control Centre accompanied by Parker, just as the alarm was silenced by a sharp order from the Commander.

  Ash brandished a small metallic device in his hand.

  “I’ve scanned the reactor’s panels, Commander,” he said. “The scanner is just analysing the results. Then we’ll know who caused the explosion.”

  “No time for that now, Ash!” blustered the Commander. “We have to get the back-up air pumps working. You and I will have to spacewalk around the outside of the station. Parker, you’re in charge of switching the air supply inside. And take charge of those blasted kids!”

  “Stick with me, you three,” said Jane Parker to George and his friends. “I’ll need you to operate the pumps, nobody can be spared from in here.”

  As they left the Control Centre, George looked back at the scattering of staff hunched over their screens. He was feeling worried and frightened, but they looked even more worried and frightened. Several of them were calling out various readings to each other.

  Mr Snodbury was cowering behind a bank of computers, frantically trying to connect a phone call with his mini-screen and getting nothing but a ‘No Signal’ response.

  Less than two minutes later, Ian Ash and Commander Ferguson were climbing into spacesuits as fast as they could. Parker was beside them, ready to operate the airlock through which Ash and the Commander could reach the outside of the station. Behind her, George, Josh and Amira stood ready at the controls of the back-up air pumps.

  “Why have they got to get outside?” asked Josh. “Can’t they fix the air supply from in here?”

  “No,” said Amira. “The explosion destroyed half the mechanism. They’ve got to find a big air pipe that’s dangling out there, and connect it up to the station by hand. Then we can switch the air supply over from these controls.”

  “And if they don’t manage it,” said George, “we’ll start running short of air to breathe in a matter of minutes.”

  Parker pulled a lever and the airlock door slid aside with a hiss. Ash and the Commander clicked the helmets of their suits into place. They both tapped the sides of their helmets and shook their heads.

  “Communicators aren’t working,” said Parker. “Minor problem, I guess, compared to everything else.”

  The two bulky figures shuffled into the airlock. Coloured lights blinked on the large, rectangular packs attached to their backs. Small jet nozzles poked out of the packs – these were what they would use to move around in space.

  The airlock door hissed shut, Parker operated a second lever, and the outer door in front of Ash and the Commander glided silently back. Through a clear panel in the airlock door, George could see them switch on their backpacks and jet out into the inky blackness beyond.

  “Keep an eye on that indicator,” said Parker, pointing to a tall red panel just above George’s head. “When it goes green, the pipe’s been connected. Then we switch the pumps on.”

  Using her mini-screen, Amira tried to tap into the sensors outside the station, so that they could see what Ash and the Commander were doing.

  All she could get was a fuzz of static. “They must be broken,” she said. “Like the suit communicators.”

  They waited. Without being able to see or hear the men outside, they felt more tension with every passing second. Half the lights had fused along the corridor in which they stood. The shiny walls and floor had seemed sleek and high-tech only a few hours earlier. Now they seemed gloomy and sinister. The corridor was eerily quiet.

  George started wondering where Dwayne had got to. Why had he been sneaking back to the crew cabins? What was he up to right now?

  Suddenly, Josh cried out. “Oh no! Look!”

  They gathered at the window in the airlock door. To their horror, they could see a spacesuit spinning rapidly away from the station, shooting further and further into the distance. It was Ash.

  A loud PING sounded behind George. The red panel had turned green. The Commander must have managed to connect up the air supply.

  “George, switch on the pumps!” called Parker.

  George entered a code into the panel in front of him. There was a sharp thump, and from the machinery in the walls came an unsteady throbbing sound.

  At that moment, Commander Ferguson collided with the airlock window. He thumped against it with a heavily gloved hand. Parker closed the outer door and then opened the inner one to let the Commander in. He tumbled forward, clutching at his space helmet. Josh and Amira helped him to remove it.

  “Ash’s backpack blew,” he gasped. “I saw a flash.”

  “But the packs on those suits are MegaZone Premium-A,” said Parker. “They’re normally very reliable.”

  “Well, that one wasn’t!” snapped the Commander. “Another of my crew gone!”

  Parker was clearly upset. The Commander, on the other hand, seemed to be lost in thought.

  George was struck by another of those icy feelings of fear. He quickly turned to Josh and Amira and ushered them into a corner of the room.

  “I just thought of something, guys. I know we were wondering about whether Dwayne was the saboteur, but what if we’re wrong? What if the saboteur was Commander Ferguson himself?”

  “What?” said the others together.

  “Think about it – Ash had just gathered vital DNA evidence, which would help reveal the identity of the person who’d caused the explosion. What if that person was the Commander? What if he fought with Ash, outside the station, when they were both out of sight and cut off from all communication? What if he’d done something to Ash’s backpack? What if the Commander got rid of Ash in order to get rid of the evidence too?” George blurted out in a hushed voice.

  Josh and Amira looked stunned. The idea seemed absurd.

  “Why would the Commander want to wreck his own space station?” whispered Amira. She paused. “But then again, as Parker said, those backpacks are very reliable. I’ve read all about the countless tests they go through before they are fit for human use. Isn’t it a strange coincidence that precisely the evidence needed to find the saboteur was in the pocket of the person whose backpack went wrong?”

  “Or maybe Ash was the saboteur?” suggested Josh. “Suppose the Commander realised this and arranged an ‘accident’, in order to hide the fact that one of his loyal crew members was a spy?”

  George and Amira nodded eagerly.
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  “What if Ash’s backpack break-down was all a con?” continued Amira. “Could he have secretly set his backpack to shoot him far out into space? What if, at this very moment, he’s linking up with a shuttle somewhere, instead of tumbling to his death?”

  They all looked at each other.

  Josh said, “Now I don’t have a clue what’s going on.”

  Just then, Dwayne appeared around the corner. “Where have you been?” said Amira.

  “None of your business.” Dwayne went slightly red.

  “Parker,” said Commander Ferguson. “I thought I told you to watch these kids?”

  “They were helping me operate the air pumps, sir,” said Parker. “We’re safe. George switched the back-up feed on for me.”

  The Commander sniffed and cocked his head to one side. The machinery behind the panel George had operated was still making that strange, unsteady noise.

  “Did he now?” said Commander Ferguson. “Parker, why are those pumps sounding like an ancient steam engine?”

  “It’s possible they could have been – ” began Parker.

  With an almighty cracking sound, the wall beside them suddenly buckled and bulged inwards. The lights in the corridor spluttered and died.

  “What’s happening now?” cried Josh. “Surely things can’t get any worse?”

  Chapter Six

  Falling to Earth

  Things were getting much worse.

  There was an electrical fault in the air supply line that the Commander and Ash had fixed. Outside the space station, the supply line had burst into a shower of gas and sparks. The fault was an overload, caused by the various power level problems the station had experienced since the explosion.

  Thick jets of air were blasted out into space. The entire station rocked and shuddered.

  Within seconds, a rapid series of electrical discharges spread across the outer hull of the station. In the escaped oxygen, bright blue arcs of energy flickered silently against the blackness and the stars.

  The lights behind the station’s many portholes and windows began to go out. The effect rippled out from the point at which the air supply had short-circuited. Soon it reached the front of the station.

  If anyone had been watching the Control Centre from space, they would have seen every screen and machine suddenly rupture and burst into flames. The entire Control Centre became a sizzling, white-hot inferno in seconds.

  The station was battered by another shuddering movement from inside. The Control Centre’s windows all shattered at the same moment, and the huge room was half-torn from the body of the station. It hung at an angle, like the broken head of a child’s doll.

  Slowly, so slowly at first that the change was hardly visible, the crippled hulk of the Berners-Lee space station began to shift its orbit. The sudden burst of air that had jetted from its side was knocking it off-course. The jet had given it a sharp push, like a swimmer pushing back against the side of a pool.

  In the wide corridor where Commander Ferguson, Jane Parker and the Year 6s were getting unsteadily to their feet, it didn’t take long to work out what had happened. Even Dwayne and the Commander were looking scared out of their wits.

  Mr Snodbury and two technicians appeared, staggering along in the faint glow of the emergency lights set into the floor. All three were streaked with grime. One of the technicians clutched his arm, which was badly scorched.

  “W-we were just leaving the Control Centre,” gasped Mr Snodbury, his eyes staring. “We got out a second before the whole place went up!”

  “The Control Centre doors have sealed, sir,” said one of the technicians to Commander Ferguson. “Everything’s gone.”

  George suddenly realised he was breathing much too fast. He screwed up his face for a moment, and tried to steady his nerves. His heart felt like a hammer beating inside his chest. Gritting his teeth, he fought back the emotion that threatened to leak from his eyes and crumple his mouth.

  “This is it?” roared the Commander. “Nine of us left? Four crew, four kids and that wet drip of a teacher? We’re finished!”

  George suddenly felt a rush of anger and determination. “We are not going to give up!” he cried.

  “He’s right, Commander,” said Parker. “The rescue shuttle is on its way. There’s still a chance.”

  “Amira,” said George. “Log onto any of the station’s sensors that are still working. Find out how far off-course we are.”

  Amira’s fingers tapped at her mini-screen. “We’re falling towards Earth at an increasing speed,” she said. “The planet’s gravity is pulling us in.”

  “Berners-Lee was built in space,” said Parker. “It was never designed to land, or even travel out of Earth’s orbit.”

  “As we enter the atmosphere,” said Amira, “the station will burn up, and break up.”

  George tried to keep his voice steady. He didn’t make a very good job of it. “How long before that happens?”

  “It’s hard to say,” said Amira. “But from what I can tell, less than an hour.”

  “That is, if we don’t suffocate first,” cried the Commander. “The air’s already getting thin in here. We must have lost most of it to space. I told you. We’re finished.”

  Mr Snodbury let out a loud yelp of fright. He held his handkerchief across his face.

  “Couldn’t we push ourselves back into orbit?” said Josh. “Maybe a jet of air from the opposite side of the station would do it?”

  “We’d need to use every last bit of air we’ve got,” said Amira. “Which means, even if it worked, we’d die.”

  “Couldn’t we produce a push some other way?” said Josh. “I mean, this station has engines. It can move around.”

  Parker checked one of the flickering readouts on the wall. “The main engine block is still in one piece, but there’s nowhere near enough power left in it to get us free of the Earth’s pull. It’s down to a few per cent. We mustn’t lose heart. The shuttle will already be on its way.”

  “Then get it here!” cried the Commander, beads of sweat running down his forehead. “Get it here, for goodness’ sake!”

  The two technicians helped Parker to rig up a communications circuit using Amira’s mini-screen wired into what was left of the station’s electronics. Eerie creaks and groans echoed from other parts of the station.

  “It’s getting cold in here,” muttered Josh.

  “Yes,” said George. “I should think most of the systems are dead. There’s very little power left. We must try to breathe slowly and steadily, to conserve the remaining air.”

  Amira’s mini-screen flickered and hissed. Parker boosted its signal as far as it would go. “This is Berners-Lee station, calling rescue shuttle. Do you read me? This is Berners-Lee.”

  A voice crackled from the mini-screen. “We read you, Berners-Lee. This is the MaxiBoost shuttle Adventurer. You’re very faint. What’s your situation?”

  “Very bad and getting worse, Adventurer. We need immediate help! Are you on your way? I repeat, we need immediate help!”

  “Confirm, Berners-Lee, we are en route,” crackled the voice. “Don’t worry. We’re at full speed. Everything’s at maximum. We’ll be with you in just ninety minutes.”

  George felt as if his stomach had turned to water. A terrible, empty feeling suddenly swallowed him up.

  Less than an hour, Amira had said. The shuttle wouldn’t arrive in time. It would be too late. They’d all be dead.

  Chapter Seven

  Saboteur

  Out of the corner of his eye, George spotted Dwayne slinking away along the corridor. Dwayne was heading back to the crew cabins again. This time, George was determined to find out what he was up to.

  “George, where are you going?” whispered Josh.

  “I’m not going to let Dwayne out of my sight for a second,” said George. “All this could have been his fault. You stay here, try to help the others come up with a survival plan.”

  Keeping his distance, George crept alo
ng, staying close to the wall. It wasn’t difficult for him to remain out of sight, because so few lights were working now. George’s footsteps were hidden by the sounds of distant alarms and automated warning voices.

  Ahead of him, Dwayne could only be spotted when he passed through patches of light shining dimly from one surface or another. Now and again he threw a glance over his shoulder. George froze, concealed in shadow, until Dwayne moved on.

  Soon, they arrived at the crew quarters. Most were still in one piece, although the temperature here was even lower than elsewhere, and the lights were flickering, making the room feel much darker than before.

  Dwayne sneaked into his cabin.

  George crept up as close as he dared and listened. There was a rustling sound, and the noise of a locker being opened. Was Dwayne about to signal to someone? Was he retrieving some sort of spy equipment? Maybe something that would help him escape the station? Maybe even a weapon, with which to control the station’s survivors?

  George thought that the best idea would be to catch Dwayne by surprise. That way, Dwayne would be off his guard and George might be able to snatch away whatever Dwayne was holding.

  He silently counted to three, then leapt into the cabin.

  “Hold it!” he yelled.

  Dwayne squealed in fright. He scrambled up onto his bunk, his legs bicycling in mid-air, clutching the item from his locker to his chest.

  At once, George realised that Dwayne definitely wasn’t the saboteur. Clutched to Dwayne’s chest was not a communicator or a weapon, but a small and slightly grubby rectangle of material.

  “You frightened the life out of me,” cried Dwayne. Then he noticed that George had spotted the piece of material. He went as red as a slice of pickled beetroot.

  “Is that why you’ve kept coming back here?” said George.

  “Yes,” said Dwayne, in a tiny voice. “It’s… my snuggly. I’ve had it since I was a baby.” His head dipped and tears began to slide down his cheeks. “I’m so scared. You’ll all laugh at me now because I need my snuggly.”