One Giant Leap

by Keith Martin

  Samantha was having the time of her young life with her man. Here she was in space playing with some old ship from Earth that no one knew about. She was the first to touch this ship in a long time; she looked over the whole hull doing a primary inspection. It looked great. No big dents or holes. “This is amazing Joshua. We are working in space. We are zipping around in space and picking up old junk from another time from Earth. What’s next?”

  “Figure we will give this to Shianne first. Then we get hitched.” He contacted Mission Control again. “General, we are heavy one new toy, on our way to the nest. Over and out.”

  “Copy that Jackal, will be ready for unloading on your touch-down. Shianne will be at the bit by then.” He started to laugh knowing he had one over her. “Moon Mission Control… over and out.”

  The cargo bay doors closed with a loud bang and the two of them entered the air lock. He picked her up and started to slow dance with her a foot off the ground as the chamber did its job. He was looking into her eyes and falling hard. “Your turn to cook dinner you know?” He informed her.

  “Naked?” She smiled back with mischief in her eyes. She was not going to let up on him until she made him her man.

  So far he had done a great job of resisting her advances and both knew it was good for them to have this time to get to know each other without the passion of the relationship taking control of their lives. But now they faced a long ride home all-alone in the shuttle, and Samantha had plans.

  * * *

  The homing signal put the container within a day’s dig. Larry went down to dig it out knowing that a storm was brewing and on its way. He wanted that container in before the storm sat over the base and made it impossible to work outside of the compound.

  He was working his way down to the container as Monica talked with him from Command and Control. “How long do you think?” She asked.

  “Well first I haven’t even seen it yet. But I know the area Joshua set it down in. It shouldn’t be too long, a day at worst. The road in will save us. There are a few slides I have to clear; I’m just pushing it over the side. Right now it would be great to work with some tunes blasting and no interruptions.” He switched her off and went back to work.

  Larry only waited four hours before checking in again. He had to refuel and he pulled into the shop to give the loader the once over.

  “Starla tells me that there is a storm on its way?”

  “I was keeping an eye on that.” Larry answered Monica as he readied the loader for another shift.

  “She thinks we have no more than a day or two before it hits.”

  “Looks that way to me too, it’s a big one.” He admitted.

  “Well, do all you can to get that container in before the storm hits. I don’t want to lose it to the weather.”

  “What’s in the thing to make it so important?” Larry barked.

  “Fuel, spare parts for the transport, and two cases of whiskey.” Monica lied knowing the thought of losing the whiskey would make him work even harder to recover the cargo.

  “I’m out of here boss. Don’t wait up for me.” He said as he added power to his loader.

  * * *

  The winds picked up just as night fell. At first it was just a breeze and it was blowing a little sand around. By morning it was blowing at sixty steady and growing.

  Larry was on his twentieth music CD and he was getting close. In just hours at most he would reach the container. Visibility was down to thirty feet and at times he could only drive by radar and G.P.S.

  Monica stayed in constant contact now because of the weather. She had the recovery loader ready just in case it was needed. And a fifth of aged whisky sitting on her desk awaiting Larry’s return.

  There was a rock the size of a house in the way. He sized it up as he parked the loader to block the wind for him and leaped out to set a charge. ‘Twenty pounds should do.’ He thought to himself as he gathered the needed explosives and a detonator. He had done this a hundred times. He walked around the rock and picked the direction he would send it to. He set his charge and he returned to the loaders cabin. He raised the bucket to shield the cabin and hit the detonator just fifty feet from the blast. The shockwave rocked the loader and he waited for the wind to clear away the bulk of the dust.

  The rock shattered with most of it now clear of the path he needed to take to the container. He was a happy guy. Ten minutes work had the rocks debris cleared and him back on the mission at hand. Whisky!

  With the road cleared a few minutes was all it took and he was hooking up to the container. He reported in to let Monica know and headed back to the base.

  He was almost across to the ramp road up out of the ravine when he ran into a massive slide blocking his path. There was a deep hole not far from there so he just set the load out of the way and went to work. At six cubic yards per scoop, he dug in and dumped it over the side. 45 loads an hour he pulled, and it didn’t seem to make a dent, he didn’t slow down; It had to be moved to return to base, it was that simple.

  The slide was stabilizing and he had cleared a path three hours later. The winds and sand tore at the loader. He knew he had to get it in before Mars chewed it into little specks of shiny steel.

  He got past this first slide and found he would have to clear the ramp out of the canyon now. The wind was moving massive amounts of sand and small rocks, increasing in velocity by the minute.

  He went to work like a man possessed. He also called for help. He would soon run out of fuel and he needed air too. Lunch would be nice, but he wasn’t going to be greedy.

  There was a calm area on the edge of the storm on its way. Soon the winds would drop to just ten miles per hour or less for a few hours. Monica said they would be onsite when the wind dropped.

  Ten seconds on the alarm was enough to get them all to their feet. “Shop now!” Was Monica’s order and they were moving.

  “Larry needs to be resupplied. We are going out. We need five hundred feet of fuel and Oxygen line... he could use some tanks for the cab also. Seven hundred feet of climbing rope for two wall walkers. Let’s go people.” Monica turned around to find Starla just walking up.

  Her hair was wet in a towel; she had on half her Space suit. “Hi, we go play outside now Boss?” She asked with a smile.

  She took hold of the top half of the suit and told Starla to get finished suiting up as she got ready to help her into it.

  She dried her hair as well as she could and put it in a quick ponytail. Monica lowered the top over her and they were soon sealing the locks. Monica motioned for her to drive and she was on her way to patch into the onboard life support system.

  As soon as the door opened to admit them into the airlock, all of them suited up and the supplies got loaded, Monica started her briefing, “Larry is five hundred feet down the canyon road and he will be running out of fuel soon. We are giving him a refueling and getting back undercover as soon as we can. We have a three-hour window. It only takes twenty minutes to top him off.” She turned to Starla. “Follow the homing beacon, he is transmitting.”

  They pulled up ten feet from the edge of the cliff and they could see Larry pushing a load of rock over the edge with the loader. “Still at it I see.” Monica called down over the Com Link.

  “So you do love me!” He started to laugh. There was no love lost between these two. But they would die trying to save each other.

  “Good luck with that. Do you want some fuel?”

  “Top her off please. Kick the tires and check under the hood too.”

  “Check under his hood.” She tapped Starlas hand as they stood looking down on Larry. “And what would you do if I said yes?” She pointed down to the loader, now dead in its tracks as Larry got ready for the refueling.

  “Not funny Monica.” Larry called back at the same time he backed away from the slide.

  A hundred feet straight down, the slide was a seventy-five percent grade and was like walking in dry sand. But there where boulders here and there
in this mass of loose debris.

  The lines flew most of the way to the bottom with Tom’s throwing arm to guide them on their way.

  Monica and Starla were their best climbers so they would do the work below. They each had two air tanks strapped to their backs for the loaders cab to make sure Larry could get back in without a resupply. As they descended they helped each other pull the fuel lines down between them on the ropes. The weight of their bodies carried the fuel and power lines with ease down the steep grade.

  18 I’ve Got a Bone Story

  Half way down the slide Starla spotted a flicker of white in this field of browns. She moved toward it knowing she had found something monumentally big.

  The slide moved again and it was gone. Sand and rock again hiding this discovery before it could be reached. She knew she had seen it, her mind raced. “Monica, I think I just spotted a bone.”

  “Where?” She asked disbelievingly. After all this was Mars and fifty years of exploration had found a little water and that was it.

  “Over here to the right. But it’s sliding and buried. Now it’s gone.”

  “Starla, Mars, fifty years of exploration with no signs of life. Hello. This is where we are vacationing. Or do we all have that wrong?” She did not mean to sting Starla, but her years on Mars had made her a little cynical.

  Starla decided it was best to just drop it for now and to focus on the mission they faced. If they were not under cover when the storm hit it would kill them all.

  They were just reaching the bottom and Larry was leaning against the loaders tire. “A bone...? On Mars? Is that the subject? Well, …I’ve got a bone story!”

  Ascending the wall had taken half an hour. Starla told Larry what she thought she had seen as they fueled the loader. The air tank for the cab was changed out and the loader soon finished gulping fuel and liquid oxygen.

  “Hey folks, that system is changing course just a bit. Let’s get you all up here now. Are you tied in?” Tom’s voice came down to them.

  Both checked their lines. “We are ready go.”

  “Copy you’re go in five, four, three, two, one, he started to slowly pull the supply truck back from the edge of the cliff pulling climbers and fuel lines up together.

  They both looked for anything white in the slide as they where pulled over the area where Starla had seen it and found nothing.

  The wind was kicking up as they loaded the fuel lines and prepared to return to base. Monica radioed down to Larry to see how long he would be before the slide was cleared.

  “As soon as the blasted thing gets out of my way. How should I know when that would be? Just let me work; be in as soon as I can get there.” Larry was not a happy man. He detested being prodded to give estimates on work that could take hours or even days. Like he knew how much rock was going to come down the hillside while he was digging at the bottom. He needed a road to reach the base and time was ticking by.

  Visibility was down to ten feet or less within an hour Larry was finally breaking through the slide.

  He knew the container was in a safe location and he would be back for it once the weather cleared. There was no way he could strap it to the front of the loader in this blasting wind and sand. He just pushed on until he had crested the road and headed for base. To find the base he had to use the GPS system. Visibility was zero. Some of the gusts rocketed up to 125 mph.

  He had half a bottle of whisky stashed and he planned to be drunk in a few hours. The re-supply was waiting his return and he felt like he deserved a good drunk after the work he did. He was going to shower and just drift away in a drunken haze.

  * * *

  Otto was just outside the quarantine area when the time passed and the first full load of women up from Earth where permitted to enter S.M.B. Linda and Jill walked out hand in hand. “Otto I would like you to meet Jill, Jill Otto!” Linda started with a formal introduction.

  “Your photo does you no justice at all. You, my dear, are simply astonishing.”

  Jill took his hand in hers and replied. “Thank you Otto, and you are not the man in your picture. You’ve gotten in great shape up here. The shot of you at the ranch showed a ranch hands belly. Did you stop eating here?” She playfully patted his now hard belly.

  “You will find that there is a lot to do around here ladies, more than you would think could be accomplished. But we do it every day.” Otto said proudly. He loved the base and all the people that made it one large family. Working long hours with them seemed to be the thing to do.

  It had melted off every ounce of fat on him over the past three years; it was his new way of life. He had always worked hard, now he had more to do each day than in any given week he had spent on Earth.

  “We are looking forward to being a part of everything Otto. We don’t want to be breeders only. We plan on helping anyway we can. You’re going to have to show us the ropes around here?” Linda informed him.

  Otto’s face turned red thinking of being a father again with these bold women. He was not used to women being so blunt, only his girls where so bold around him. And sex was not a subject thrown around like this with them at all. “Linda please, this is all going to take some getting used too. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a woman, go easy with me!” He pleaded.

  “Otto; you are going to give us babies.” Jill teased and then gave him their first kiss holding nothing back. It was wonderfully passionate.

  * * *

  Ashley had come down to see the women that her father was taking as wives. She was glad for him and at the same time she was understandably jealous of them both. She hoped she could love them as she knew her father did. She now had to share her dad with two beautiful women. The world changed again for her.

  As she walked up she noticed some game was in play and she hung back to take it in as it unfolded.

  Chief walked up with his back to Otto. He backed right into the back of Linda and stopped then elbowed her playfully. “Oh yes, and Otto, your friend Mr. Irwin” Linda started hamming it up big time.

  “Chief!” He corrected her with a whisper.

  “Chief that is, he has done a wonderful job of keeping watch over us, and he did a great job with all of the girls. I cannot tell you when we have had such good care in many years. He is a beacon among men to the female world. He should be commended for his efforts.”

  “And the cooking part.” Chief whispered again, big time hamming it up too.

  “That’s right, he did a fantastic job on the trout we had for dinner also. Our first meal here on the Moon was simply divine. He should be rewarded for his selflessness and good faith.” She whispered to Chief over her shoulder. “How was that? I’m laying this on real thick here.”

  Chief turned to face Otto with a smile lighting up his face. “Oh hi Otto, didn’t see you standing there.”

  “Ok; you’re off the hook. You won’t be needing a parka at work.” Otto informed him playfully.

  “Thanks Otto. And by the way… DOG…. YOU THE MAN…WHERE DID YOU FIND SUCH FOXY LADIES?” Chief sang out so loud it echoed down the hall. He gave Otto a wink then … “Girls you dropped this back there.” Out of his hand came the rest of the bag of green bud and a small pipe. “Just call me if you have a need. For Otto’s girls, I deliver.”

  “Do you girls feel a cold draft?” Otto commented with a stone look on his face. Marijuana on his watch was still taking some getting used to…especially when it was being handed to his wives to be. Chief knew when to stand and fight and when to run. This was running time. “Got to go now, Otto I will see you later and introduce the three I have.” He vanished into the crowd.

  With 27 new women in this crossing the male population off duty at the time kind of showed up to see what there was to see.

  * * *

  Otto could feel the presence of his daughter, Ashley. He looked for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. His eyes kept sweeping the area looking for her.

  “What is it Otto?” Linda asked, she could tell someth
ing was up.

  “Ashley is spying on us.”

  “I don’t see her.” Jill said as she looked also.

  “Let’s try this.” Otto pulled out his cell phone and he dialed one. They could hear her phone ringing loudly then it was muffled. Otto laughed, redialing, he got S.M.B. Mission Control. “Please patch me into the PA. This is Otto.”

  “Go ahead Sir.” The controller made the connection without question.

  “Ashley, I love you more. That is all base.” He called out for all on base to hear then hung up.

  She came out of hiding crying her eyes out. As soon as she reached him she just opened up. “I am such a fool. You have been so good to all of us, and now I’m upset just because you’re trying to have a relationship. I can’t believe I’m so stupid. Linda, Jill, I’m so sorry for this. Can you ever forgive me?”

  A group hug ensued and Ashley was pulled to its center. They understood completely. Ashley was just acting like any normal daughter. She wasn’t losing her father to them, she was gaining members of the family, and it was just naturally time for the family to grow.

  Otto had his hands full with three crying woman now. He just held them close.

  Shianne walked up saying, “My God Daddy, what did you do?” Before he could answer she said. “Let me in there.”

  Instantly she was pulled into the group of happy tears and hugs, as the new family took time to just feel the love of their bond growing.

  * * *

  As Linda and Jill began a tour of the base, Shianne let loose with the hard questions? “So where are we kicking Joshua out to?”

  “We will need to take care of that when he returns.” Otto agreed.

  “Let’s show them their new homes first, Dad. Then we can take a transport and show them around so they don’t die from the walk.” Shianne suggested.