by Dean, Warren
He closed his eyes and thought hard. "I still need to extrapolate the quantum strings feeding the particle accelerator, then underpin the programme code with..."
"Hans, spare me the geek gobbledegook."
He opened his eyes. "This time in three days; but I can't promise you that it will be ready."
She glanced at her 'link to mark the time. "Well I can't promise I will make it to the ship. We'll both just have to do our best."
She opened the hatch again.
"I hope we don't get trapped in a trash compactor," he said with a grin.
"What?"
"Never mind, what do we have to get from the Russian stores?"
"A 'get out of jail free' card." She darted out of the room and he had no choice but to follow.
The corridors were deserted. She reckoned that Chang had probably rounded up everyone on the base so that he could see who was missing. It was what she would have done. It should give them the time they needed.
They slowed as they approached the hatch of the Russian delegation store. She was relieved to see that it was unattended. The Chinese were too busy to worry about a room full of equipment and supplies. She tapped a code into the touchscreen panel and the hatch slid open. They hurried inside, closing the hatch behind them. She moved quickly along the rows of shelves, found a locked strongbox, and opened it with a small key she produced from an inner pocket.
"What's in there?" he asked, quizzically.
"Stun-grenades," she said, casually pocketing three of them.
His eyebrows shot up again. "You Russians brought grenades onto a moonbase? Isn't that a little dangerous?"
"They aren't that sort of grenade. They're for crowd control; standard Russian issue. You never know when the locals are going to get restless."
"Surely the Chinese will take them away from you before they lock you up?"
"They're not for me, they're for you."
His eyebrows couldn't go any higher. "Er, are you aware that I am a civilian and have never handled a grenade in my life?"
She motioned for him to be quiet and opened the hatch again. "Let's go."
They hurried through the corridors towards docking bay four. About halfway there, she turned down a corridor which led away from their destination.
He hesitated. "Where are you going? We should be going that way."
She didn't reply and he ran after her. After a few more turns, she stopped next to a grille set into the wall of the corridor above her head.
"Open that for me, please," she said, taking one of the grenades out of her pocket and fiddling with it.
"Be careful with that, will you," he whispered, glancing around nervously. He was tall enough to reach up and open the grille without any difficulty.
Inside was a recess, densely packed with electronic systems.
She moved closer. "Give me a leg up."
He interlaced his fingers to make a step for her foot and boosted her so that she was able to reach inside the recess. She quickly wedged the grenade amongst the systems and then jumped down. He closed the grille and they ran back the way they had come.
As they entered docking bay four, the hatch of the suit locker adjacent to the airlock slid open and a soldier stepped out. They both froze.
"You took your time," said Carson. "We have the extra suits. What now?"
"Let's get inside and get changed."
They crowded into the locker and the astrophysicists put on the space-suits Carson had brought from the other suit locker. He and Katya put on suits from the locker they were in.
Then Katya took out the two remaining grenades and gave one each to Hans and Harry. Carson blinked, startled to see stun-grenades on the moonbase. Ignoring his reaction, she showed the astrophysicists that each grenade had a little timer and how to set it.
"Why are you giving them to us?" asked Harry. "Aren't you coming too?"
"No, I told you, Carson and I are going to be captured. Now listen carefully so that you will know what to do. All four of us will go into the airlock. A signal will alert the ops room to the fact that the inner hatch has been opened and someone will be sent to investigate. There should be just enough time for us to de-pressurize the airlock and open the outer hatch. Hans and Harry will then go outside and make their way towards the airlock of the hangar dome."
"Which way is that?" asked Hans.
"It will be on your right as you step outside. Move away from the hatch as soon as you can. You won't have any trouble spotting the dome. When you get to it, set the timer of one of the grenades for thirty minutes. That should give you more than enough time to get into position. Attach it to the outer surface of the dome and then go around the base of the dome to your left. You will find the hangar bay airlock about a third of the way around."
"What is the other grenade for?" asked Harry.
"It's just a spare."
"Why do we need a spare?"
"In case something goes wrong with the first one."
"Like what?"
She scowled. "Listen, we are running out of time. You are going for a spacewalk with stun-grenades in your pockets. And then you are going to try to sneak into a base full of Chinese soldiers. Something may go wrong and it may be useful to have a second grenade. What if the first one doesn't detonate? Russian weapons don't come with a money-back guarantee."
Hans held up his hands. "Alright, we get the picture. Just tell us how we get back inside."
"By the time the grenade detonates you must be on the other side of the hangar bay service airlock. Don't worry; the grenade won't do any serious damage. Conceal yourselves below the lip of the dome. Sensors on the outer surface will send a warning signal to the ops room. They will think it is a meteorite strike. These are common and the standard response is to send a two-man maintenance team out of the service airlock to inspect for damage. From the time they exit from the airlock it should take them about five or six minutes to get to the detonation site, a few minutes to survey it, and five or six minutes to return.
"Once the team has left the airlock, the safety protocol dictates that it be closed, but with a two minute delay to give the team time to get well clear. Within that time you must slip inside, so don't hide too far away and don't wait for the team to disappear over the curve of the dome before making your move. The team members have no reason to turn around so they shouldn't spot you."
Hans looked doubtful. "But isn't there a surveillance camera in the airlock? The operator will see us and want to know who we are."
"No, he won't, because his priority will be to monitor the team's progress. He will have switched his screen to visuals from the external cameras. As soon as you get inside, stand right up against the internal hatch; you will be underneath the surveillance camera's field of vision. If you move quickly you won't be seen. Wait until the hatch closes. The airlock will re-pressurise automatically. Then open the inner hatch. It has an internal control panel like this one. Don't forget to close the hatch behind you."
"But didn't you say that the ops room receives a signal whenever a hatch is opened?"
"Yes, and the operator will send someone to check. But by then you and Harry will be gone and there won't appear to be anything wrong. The operator will assume it was a false alarm."
"Won't we be seen leaving the service airlock? It opens directly into the hangar bay."
Technicians in space-suits coming from the service airlock are a common sight in the hangar bay. No-one will realise that you are not supposed to be there. Walk calmly into the suit locker and get out of your suits. Don't hang them on the empty pegs, however. You don't want the returning maintenance team to wonder where the two extra suits came from. There is a ventilation shaft feeding air into each room on the base. Open the grille of the shaft in the suit locker and stuff the suits in there. They are never opened unless there is a problem so they shouldn't be noticed for a while."
"How do we get onto the ship from there?"
"Just walk across to the loadin
g ramp. In your sanitation suits, you have the perfect cover. You are going in to clean something up. By then, Carson and I will be in Chinese custody and everyone but you two will be accounted for. Hopefully, Chang will have bought the story that Armitage planted and any active search will have been called off. Non-military personnel will probably be allowed to go about their business."
"Probably?"
"There are no guarantees, Hans. I am just thinking what I would do in Chang's shoes. The soldiers guarding the ship will think that anyone who is already inside the hangar bay has been vetted by the soldiers at the entrances. They will have no reason to question you. If you are confident and give the impression you are supposed to be there, you should be able to walk in unchallenged."
"Won't they be suspicious when we don't come out again?"
"I don't think so. There are technicians moving into and out of the ship regularly. The guards will have no reason to remember you specifically, unless you give them one. When the shift changes, the new guards won't even know that you are in there."
"What about you and Carson?"
"We are going to wait here to be found by the Chinese."
"Won't they suit up and follow us outside?"
"No, because they won't know that you two are there. Now, I want you both to repeat the whole sequence to me, word for word."
Once she was satisfied that they had committed every detail of the plan to memory, she made them practice setting the timers on their grenades.
Then she checked that the bay was empty and led them out of the locker. She opened the inner hatch of the adjacent airlock and waited while Carson reached up and covered the lens of the surveillance camera with a sanitation swab. They all trooped into the airlock and he closed the hatch.
"Whatever you do, maintain radio silence," she said to Hans and Harry as they put on their helmets. "Unless you get stuck out there and need to call for help," she added as an afterthought.
They quickly cross-checked each other's helmets and then she tapped briefly at the touchscreen. The airlock de-pressurised and the outer hatch slid open. Hans and Harry both hesitated, and she gave them a vigorous hurry-up signal. The moonskin they wore made walking out of the hatch a simple task. They turned to the right and were gone.
During her career she had ordered thousands of men into dangerous situations many times, knowing that some of them were going to be killed or injured. To keep her sanity intact, she had learned to do so dispassionately; to distance herself from what she had to do. Her analytical approach and unflappable manner had made her very good at it, so good that most of her fellow officers believed she was simply cold and unfeeling. She herself had often wondered whether they were right.
So when Hans and Harry stepped out into space, she was surprised to feel an unfamiliar emotion. Exactly what it was she couldn't say. It felt as if her windpipe had suddenly become narrower and she couldn't breathe freely. She checked the flow of oxygen into her helmet and found that it was normal. Perhaps the years out of active service had softened her. But perhaps not; she was still able to visualise herself walking into the ops room and strangling General Chang.
The sudden appearance of the face of a Chinese officer at the inner hatch window interrupted her thoughts. She made a show of fiddling with her suit as if there was something wrong with it. The officer spoke briefly into his 'mote, and the outer hatch slid closed. The airlock re-pressurised and the inner hatch slid open. She and Carson were hauled none too gently out into the docking bay by Chinese soldiers. They took off their helmets.
The officer thrust his face belligerently at Carson. "How many go out?" he asked in broken English. Carson shrugged his shoulders, pretending not to understand. The officer turned impatiently towards Katya and repeated the question. "How many go out?"
"We couldn't go out because there was a problem with my suit."
The officer spoke briefly into his 'mote, and was silent as he received instructions. He ordered Katya and Carson to strip out of their space-suits. Once they had done so, one of his soldiers picked them up and accompanied him to the suit locker. They disappeared inside for a few moments. When they came back out the officer reported briefly into his 'mote, apparently satisfied by the fact that there were no suits missing.
Katya and Carson were frisked and their 'links confiscated. She expected them to find Carson's sidearm, but he didn't have it anymore. Clever boy; he had stashed it somewhere.
Then the soldiers fell in around them and frog-marched them down the corridor.
"I've been wondering," she said conversationally to her fellow captive, "What is your first name? I don't think I've ever heard anyone use it."
"Yes you have," he said. "It's Carson."
"Your name is Carson Carson?"
"No, my first name is Carson. My last name is Armitage."
Understanding dawned on her.
"General Armitage is..."
"My father, yes."
"Good grief," she said.
CHAPTER TWELVE
It was not far to the brig. When they arrived, the officer spoke curtly into his 'mote. The electronic lock on the hatch was released and the two captives were unceremoniously shoved inside. The hatch closed behind them and they heard the lock re-activate.
The room was already occupied, although it was not as full as Katya had expected. General Armitage and two or three other American officers were there, as well as another of the Russian cosmonauts, Vitaly Dasaev. She also recognised one of the British astrophysicists and Heller Lahm, a German Lieutenant. It seemed that Chang had decided to imprison selected representatives of each delegation.
Armitage was beyond apoplexy. He had reached a higher level of rage than Katya had ever seen before, even in the Russian military. Locked up in what he regarded as his own brig, he was seething.
"You have no right to keep me in here," he bellowed after the departing soldiers. "I demand to see Chang; Heaven help him when I get my hands on him!"
The others were silent while Armitage raged. Eventually he ran out of steam and stopped.
The moonbase brig wasn't used very often. Only highly qualified personnel, who had all been thoroughly vetted from a security perspective, were eligible to be sent to the Moon. There was generally little need to lock anyone up. It was a much more civilised prison than Katya had ever seen. At a glance, she took in a large, clean room with eight bunk beds at one end and a series of tables and chairs along two of its walls. It even had a large wall-screen above the hatch they had just come through. Through a hatch along one of the side walls was a bathroom containing a communal shower area, which was adjacent to a series of lavatory stalls. She took it for granted that all ventilation shafts had been secured and that there was no way in or out, except through the main hatch.
She joined Vitaly at the table where he was sitting. If she was going to be there for the next three days, she might as well use the time to bring herself up to speed. "What happened to the American soldiers who had secured the base, Vitaly? I expected to see more of them locked up in here. Was there any fighting?"
"No, Colonel. The Chinese were all armed with laser-repeaters and a few warning shots were fired. The American soldiers were outnumbered and had to surrender. The ones I saw were disarmed and taken on board the shuttle. They have all been rounded up and are going to be sent back to Earth in the shuttle."
"That makes sense," said Katya. "I would do the same thing. The Chinese don't want any fighting which might damage the base; they mean to take over the project for themselves. Chang has obviously been planning this for some time."
"What about us? Why aren't we being sent back?" asked Vitaly.
It was Armitage who answered the question. "Hostages, to make sure that none of our governments try to take the base by force." He grimaced bitterly. "That is why there are high ranking members of each delegation in here."
"So," said Vitaly slowly, "no-one is coming to help us. We are on our own."
"When the time comes, we wil
l help ourselves," said Katya cryptically.
They looked at her quizzically, but she didn't elaborate. There were surveillance cameras in the room and she was sure that every word they spoke was being monitored. She decided to take advantage of that fact.
"It is a good thing that Dr Mattheus and Dr Hasper left the base when they did," she said to Armitage. "Otherwise they would be in here too. Perhaps they will be able to persuade their governments to put pressure on General Chang to let us go."
The American general's face reddened in anger at the mention of the two astrophysicists, but he played along. "This is all their fault," he growled. "If they hadn't compromised the project, we would probably have had an operational star drive by now and this wouldn't have happened." He made an expansive gesture taking in their surroundings. "And now they are gone and we are left to carry the can."
She didn't respond and let the subject drop. Too much in the way of amateur dramatics might make Chang suspicious.
Over the next three days she thought often about Hans and Harry and whether they had made it to the star ship. There was no sign anything untoward had happened; she heard no alarms blaring and the guards who brought food into the brig twice a day betrayed no hint of there having been any incident. But that didn't necessarily mean that all had gone according to plan. An alarm in the hangar bay would not be audible in the brig, and the guards might have been instructed to give nothing away.
It was possible that the astrophysicists had been captured trying to sneak onto the ship, and were being held elsewhere. In that case Earthworm's unofficial maiden voyage was off.
She tried not to think the unthinkable; that they had not made it back inside at all. When formulating the plan it had seemed a remote risk. Even if they had not been able to sneak into the airlock before it closed, they would have had the option of revealing themselves to the returning technicians, or of activating their radios and calling for help. She had been certain that Chang would not refuse to bring them back in, particularly when they identified themselves. Saving the two delegation heads from an ill-advised spacewalk would have been a massive feather in his cap.
