"Over to the other one, this one is almost full," Joyce said and pointed.
"Right." He carried it to Tess's rover.
"Gotcha. I can take two more than we are out of room," Tess said. She had bundles and boxes strapped to every conceivable place except the front bubble. "We're going to crawl all the way there you know," she sighed. He handed her the box and then went back.
It took another half hour to get the loading sorted out. Twice the French Doctor had to be talked out of additional gear. "We don't have the room, next trip I promise." Mario had to assure her. She seemed a little rattled. Doctor Waldecker refused to help, spending the time taking samples.
Wanda leaned over to Mario and stage whispered. "Think I should tell him we already went over this place? Twice?" she asked, knowing Waldecker could hear her over the channel. Mario waved her to the rover.
Waldecker waved when they called him. "Twenty more minutes," he said.
Joyce sighed. "NOW Waldecker." She pointed to the nearest rover.
He sighed and got up, scowling. "Honestly I don't understand we are here to do research," he grumped as he marched. Mario chuckled.
"I'm not like that am I?" Wanda asked.
"No comment. At least while you’re in arm and leg reach," Mario chuckled then dodged her kick.
“Okay, let’s get this show on the road." The British pilot circled her right hand over her head then pointed. "Let's move em out!"
Mario sighed. "Base camp is that way." He pointed back the way they had come.
"Oh." She turned. Wanda chuckled. "You sure? I bloody well can read a compass..."
He pointed. "There are our tracks."
She looked. "Oh bollix, what did I do wrong now?" She looked at the map.
"Figure it out later. Inside ladies." He motioned them into the lock.
...*...*...*...*...
"Easy there Joyce, follow Tess," Mario cautioned. The new team were eager to prove themselves he realized. At least they were now entering base camp.
Joyce swerved back into line as they drove through camp. "What's the big deal?" she asked.
"Well, you were about to drive over the vaults," Mario replied.
"Oh crap. I didn't see them in this weather," she sighed.
"No problem. Almost to the garages." Tess had pulled up to the first, did a three point U turn and started to back in.
"Where's mine?" Joyce asked.
"Take mine. We can go out again in a bit anyway." Mario waved to the open bay.
She turned and backed her truck in. "Remind me to make another garage?" he asked Wanda. She chuckled. “Sure honey. You need to get more heat shields though."
He shook his head. "Not until the storm clears...which will be in a couple months...or a year? No thanks to my idiot who thinks he's a genius brother..." he sighed.
...*...*...*...*...
"Welcome to Mars base. Me es su casa es su es casa," Mario waved theatrically and bowed over his arm.
"Hon, I know you like to stretch, but stick to Italian, your Spanish stinks," Wanda teased. They laughed at that.
...*...*...*...*...
"Is that a vase?" Joyce asked pointing to a cream colored plastic object in the corner when they entered the Hab.
"VAAASe," Mario teased until Wanda elbowed him.
"Thanks," Joyce observed dryly.
"Anytime," Wanda smiled. "Yes, Mario made it with his fabricator thingy," she said. Mario rubbed his sternum.
"Fabricator thingy?" Toshi asked. "You mean a Reprap? You have one?" Toshi was suddenly excited.
"Three actually. Two small, one twice as big. That was all the parts we had at the time." Mario waved dismissively. "Now that you are here, we can expand again."
Toshi smiled. "I love it!" He turned to examine the vase. "Mendel build or gen four?" He turned to Mario.
"Mendel with gen six electronics and a one mil head. I wanted the robot arm one but it wasn't debugged so we had to go with what works." He waved to the vase.
"Looks good," Toshi picked it up and looked it over.
"Nice." Joyce looked over his shoulder. He handed it to her.
"Plates and things as well?" Toshi asked.
Tess nodded. "And brackets, silverware, all sorts of bits," she said and then grinned. "Wanda has him making stuff for the lab all the time. Melting polypropylene stinks though." She wrinkled her nose. Wanda nodded.
"What else?" Doctor Waldecker asked.
"Petri dishes, plastic manipulators, forceps, tweezers, a plastic stand, all sorts of useful things." Mario smiled at his wife. "It is really coming in handy with outfitting the vault." He waved to the window.
"Oh? When do we get a tour of that?" Joyce asked.
"Well, it is nearly dark so we'll have to wait till tomorrow. We haven't tied it into these habs yet. Now that you are here we can look into doing just that," Tess replied.
Mario nodded. "Let's get you folks out of those skin suits and settled in before we take the ten cent tour," Mario said. He for one wanted out, he had an itch he couldn't scratch. Wanda gave her husband and Tess a warning look.
"Why the tour? It's not like they don't know where everything is anyway," Tess said and then shrugged. Which was true, everything was on the web these days.
"Yeah, but you two have made some changes since then," Wanda smiled to Joyce as she handed her helmet to Mario. She knew Mario was proud of everything they had done and wanted a chance to show off.
"Good idea, my back itches something fierce!" Joyce said. She shrugged then shivered.
"Oh here!" Tess reached over and picked up a plastic pole. On the tip was a scratcher hand.
"Cute. Reprap again?" Joyce smiled at Tess. She nodded. "Comes in handy." She chuckled. "I'll wait to use this until I am out of this monkey suit." She followed the group to their quarters twirling the scratcher.
"So, we need to get a home for these babies right away," Sergei waved to the package. The others had broken up to their various rooms to change but then had met again in Hab 1's living room.
"The fish?" Mario asked.
"Yes, is fish, many fish and shrimp. They will start to eat each other soon," Sergei looked concerned.
Mario nodded. "How big a tank?" Sergei put the box down and measured with his hands.
"About here, maybe is two meter cube?" Sergei asked. He looked to Tess who nodded.
"Does it have to be a cube? We could cut a tank in half. Though I would hate to lose a tank," Mario sighed.
"What about cutting one of the cylindrical ones? Cut it down the side from top to bottom to form a bathtub?" Joyce asked.
"Might work." Mario responded rubbing his chin. "In fact, we have a tank that might work, one of the cracked ones from the MAV that crashed," he mused. He looked over to Tess who nodded. They had patched the crack with resin but didn't want to store anything other than water in it.
"Is good for beginning, but fish need lots of space." Sergei extended his hands then wiggled his fingers.
“We have five species of fish, two of Tilapia, one salmoniod, one carp, and one trout,” Sergei explained and then patted the box. “Plus two different shrimp species. Is why I am here, marine biology,” he said and then smiled. Mario had wondered why he was, he didn't have the qualifications. Now he knew, he thought. “Will need separate tanks soon,” Sergei frowned. “We must also separate males from females for some,” he sighed.
“Okay...”
"Some we take in name of science to measure growth, but some you want to eat," Sergei finished explaining.
Mario nodded. "Yeah. Where do we get a tank that big?"
Tess chuckled. They looked over to her. "It is easy Mario! I am surprised you didn't think of it sooner! Bricks!"
Mario looked startled then slapped his knee. "By Jove I think she's got it!"
Latisha grimaced. "Why don't you leave the British jokes for those raised to appreciate them mate," she said dryly.
He smiled. "I never messed with a woman and her beliefs." She smiled.
"A koi pond?" Tess suggested, ignoring his humor.
Mario rubbed his chin in thought. "Hmmm... Yeah. We can use the water pumps, brick for the outer walls, set it against one of the inner walls and spray inside and out with sealant..."
Sergei nodded. "May work. Will need to test toxicity of plastic to fish and shrimp though," he cautioned.
Mario grimaced. "Good point. Still it would add a sense of elegance to the vault." He smiled.
Wanda came in. "So what are we talking about?"
Tess grinned. "Home and garden." Wanda looked at her confused.
"Come again?"
Joyce chuckled. "We're talking about setting up a koi pond in the vault. More than one probably."
Sergei nodded. "Must have. As fish get bigger will try to eat um...” He held his hands apart.
"Smaller fish?" Tess suggested.
"Yes but mean something..."
Wanda smiled. "Late bloomers you mean."
Sergei's face cleared and he nodded. "Right. Late bloomers." He smiled his thanks to her.
"Okay, let’s get to work." Mario got up.
...*...*...*...*...
"You two flew F-35 Lightning’s?" Mario looked from Latisha to Joyce. Both nodded. "No wonder you had a hard time landing the hab!" he teased.
Joyce sighed. "Give us a break, the thing is a brick!"
Mario chuckled. "Yeah, definitely has that flight quality to it."
Joyce nodded. "I flew the air force version of the Lightening two," Joyce said. She nodded to Latisha.
"I flew the RAF version," Latisha replied. She picked up her cue.
"STOL or VTOL version?" Mario asked.
"VTOL. I flew off of carriers," Latisha responded with a smile.
"So you two are looking forward to the SSTO?" he asked. Joyce nodded.
Latisha grimaced. "I'll be half way back to Earth when it passes us by," she sighed.
...*...*...*...*...
Joyce came into the living room to see Mario, Toshi, and Tess studying a shaky video of the Hab. "Rerun again?" Joyce asked, joking. She sat down on a bar stool.
"No, we uploaded this to Mission control, but we decided to get an idea on what were going to need to do and what parts we will need to fix her," Mario replied. He held up a tablet.
"What do you have so far?" Joyce asked looking over to him. He handed her the tablet.
"The usual, three trucks, four landing gear struts, plasma torch, and a sledge," he replied absently. She chuckled. "Vibrating hammer would be good. The usual hand and power tools too of course," he said and waved. "We have the winches on the rovers, Tess and Toshi were working out a way to rig block and tackle to get the hab up so we can fix the broken wheel underneath," he sighed. "I'd like to just cut it off; it can roll with four trucks."
Joyce frowned thoughtfully. "Will it work?" she asked.
"Is unstable if tip," Tess replied and motioned with her hands.
"Yeah, the crater wall is a bit of a sticking point," Mario sighed.
"Yes, we need to figure something out," Toshi replied. "A rover can tow a hab over flat terrain, but I don't think anyone tried up a slope. I don't want to burn the motors out," he cautioned. Toshi looked over to Mario.
"Yeah," Mario said, gushing a sigh noisily.
"Okay, why don't you three go take a break. Eat something and sleep on it. Find out what mission control has for us in the morning over breakfast," Joyce said.
Toshi nodded getting up. "That sounds good to me." He looked over to Tess who yawned.
"Da is good for me too."
Mario nodded. He looked over to see Wanda rubbing her eyes. "Okay, I give. I should tuck my lady into bed anyway," he said. He smiled at her. She smiled back. "Been busy?" he asked.
She nodded. "You're dinner's cold you know," she told him with just the right hint of disapproval in her voice.
He shrugged as they filed out. "So I'll reheat it. That's what a microwave is for," he teased.
"Sergei and the Waldecker's settling in?" he asked.
She grimaced. "Sergei is okay, but he is moaning about his fish. The Waldeckers..." she grimaced and then shrugged. "Mrs. Waldecker is a pain in the ass. Bitched about the labs nonstop till I got out of there," she sighed running her hand through her frazzled hair.
He chuckled. "There's no pleasing some people. They will settle in, they're in shock still, give them time."
She nodded. "Yeah." She hugged herself to his side as they walked to the tunnel.
"So dinner and a movie?" he asked.
"You're late for your date boy," she replied giving him a dirty look.
He chuckled. "You're not going to let me off the hook easy are you?"
She smiled. "You'll find a way to make it up to me," she replied with a hint of a smile. He chuckled.
·Chapter 13
Moving:
Tess grimaced as she motioned for Joyce. She was her spotter, guiding her with hand and verbal commands as Joyce drove the rover and its winch. "Is okay, slow go slow." She watched as the Hab lifted incrementally. The day before they had towed three trucks back to the crash site, taking back loads of gear with them. Mario had tried to point out that unloading the gear and moving it would waste time and energy, but Toshi and Joyce had pointed out that it would lighten the hab, making it easier to lift and easier to move.
That had pretty much sold Mario on the extra effort. Mario had come up with a plan to repair the damages spars. He wanted to cut off the broken ones then weld on scavenges struts from the lower stages of MAV's one and three. Hopefully it would work Tess thought as she waved Joyce forward. When the Hab was more or less level Mario motioned for her to stop so he and Toshi could start piling sandbags underneath. "This would be so much easier with a little more help," Mario grumped again.
"Show must go on Mario." Joyce called back.
They had been forced to compromise with Wanda and the Waldecker’s, they had the new rover and were out and about getting samples. Mario had not been happy about it, and had been even more unhappy after hearing the Waldecker’s had appealed to Mission control behind his back to make it stick. He sighed. "I'll help," Tess called as she came over. The formed a bucket chain, she passed the load to Mario who passed it to Toshi who packed it under the Hab.
"Sure about this?" Toshi asked.
"Yeah. As long as we keep the bags from bursting, we should be okay," Mario replied.
It took two hours of back breaking sweaty work to get the job done. Toshi moved out from under the hab and Mario had Joyce ease off on the winch slowly. The hab dropped a few centimeters then settled. "Okay, it's up." Mario nodded as the line went slack. "Let's take a break and then see if we can get leg one fixed. It’s the least damaged one. If we can get it sorted out we will have it on three legs and a lot more stable." He sat down on an empty sandbag. "How is your life support?" He turned to Tess.
"Good, I have two hours," she replied.
He turned to Toshi. "One hour forty three minutes," Toshi reported. Mario nodded.
"I have about two hours as well. I think we better go recharge then come back fresh," he said and then groaned as he got up. His back was aching. It had been a while since they'd tossed bricks and he'd gotten out of shape.
"Getting to old for this?" Tess teased.
He chuckled. "Not on your life." He waved her forward. "Ladies first." She climbed into the Hab and plugged herself into the recharger unit.
"Did you see the size of some of these dents? Hope nothing inside was broken." Tess ran her hand over a series of meter long oval dents along the bottom edge of the Hab.
"Careful, there are some jagged pieces," Toshi cautioned.
"Yeah, we heard that you poked your arm," Mario replied and nodded.
"Is okay, no rips just dents here... rips near wheel two," Tess reported.
...*...*...*...*...
"Almost done here." Mario called as he cut the spar. "Watch out, this thing may rebound," he cautioned. He wanted to get this done and over wit
h so they could get back to base but he knew they had to get it right.
Joyce ducked under the spar and came around the wheel truck to check on Toshi. "Almost finished here?" she asked.
Toshi looked up and gave her a thumbs up. "Just have this little finger here. I love plasma cutters; it cuts through things like butter," Toshi said. Mario chuckled.
"You’re being careful of any dribbles or flash right?" Joyce asked.
"Yes," Toshi responded then returned to the cut. After a minute he was through. "That's mine." He shut his air line off then the plasma.
"Almost done here," Mario called. He was above them, working on the twisted down strut.
"I think you two should get out of there," Tess told them.
"Why?" Joyce asked turning to rest her hand on the above spar. "Seems safe enooo..." Mario cut through the last of his spar and the entire truck assembly tilted out away from the craft, then back. Toshi grabbed Joyce and rolled between her and the truck. He grunted as the wheel hit his pack. She slammed into the edge of the hab then he cried in anguish. She tried to clear her vision and felt about as she heard air leaking.
"Crap, I got a leak," she said. She reached around and found a hole in her left shoulder. The impact had ripped her suit against a ragged edge. She felt the brutal cold and pressure suck at her. "Great, Mars hicky," she growled. She kept her hand there and tried to focus.
The cries finally punched into her awareness. "Toshi?" she asked. She looked down as her vision began to clear. Toshi was at her feet. The spar he had just finished cutting through had slammed him to the ground and was lying across his legs. "TOSHI!" She quickly knelt and tried to roll him. He screamed. "Toshi's hurt bad, get in here!" she called.
"I'm already working on it Commander," Mario called. He had been hanging from a safety harness. He was repelling down the side of the Hab.
"I'm here, don't move him," Tess said as she touched Joyce's right shoulder.
"Toshi can you give us a sit rep bud?" Mario called.
"Legs, I think they are busted," Toshi sobbed.
"Breached?" Mario asked as he unhooked the safely line.
Joyce looked it over. "I am, but I don't see any on Toshi, looks like the bar flattened him. We can't see anything on the other side though," she cautioned.
First Steps (Founding of the Federation) Page 27
