Craggy 2: Another Last Flight for Craggy (11 page)

'Craggy. You're a bloody genius,' said Forbes.

Misty said, 'Don't tell him that, for God's sake. He's big headed enough as it is.'

'Bloody cheek. I am not big headed at all. So, Anton. You were reminding everyone I'm a genius?'

'What you said about stuff on Earth and nobody to use it. All we have to do is go there and get it.'

Cragg said, 'Don't look at me, pal. I'm retired from that caper.'

'Morgan and Ramshorn,' said Forbes. 'They're in Big Bird on Moon. We already want them to bring back a couple of pumps from Moon and satellites, why not go get medical stuff from Earth?'

Misty said, 'Won't Earth be dangerous? I mean radiation from the war?'

'Big Bird has an external radiation probe,' said Cragg. 'They can land, test for radiation, and if it is too high, they can abort the mission and just bring back the pumps and satellite's.'

'That damn satellite,' cursed Forbes. 'I hope they get that fixed in a hurry. Right. Back to work I suppose.' 

'W
hat do you mean you can't fix it?' said a frustrated Vince Friar. 'That, electronics, you, electronics fixer.'

Keith Taylor prided himself on being able to fix just about anything that came his way, but the little black unit had beaten him. 'Look. See this? This circuitry hasn't been seen for thirty years. Like this bit. I mean, how do we replicate this?'

'Try using your necktop computer.'

'What?'

Friar tapped Taylor's head. 'This. Go back to first principles. Any idea what this part even does?'

'Of course. According to the schematics, it's a low input modulation filter unit, that singulates the amplified shortwave signals before amplification....'

'Exactly. And was that even a good idea at the time?'

'Of course not. A bloody stupid idea. If I were designing it...'

'Yes?'

'Well, to start with...'

'Kaching. Penny dropping from a great height. That was crap to begin with, so why fix crap? Now you know what to do, I want it done within twenty four hours.'

Taylor was visibly shocked. 'You expect me to redesign and produce an alternative for this?'

'And I want it in my hands with twenty four hours. Taylor. You are a star.'

'But...'

'Well done, Keith. I knew you'd solve the problem. Gotta get back. Oh. No pressure, but the future of the planet and the human race depends on you fixing the problem.'

'Thank goodness for that. For a moment, I thought it was important.'

Friar hurried off back to the ship. As he marched up the ramp through the airlock, the noise of the bickering stopped him in his tracks. There was clearly a difference of opinion within the team. He braced himself, took a deep breath and marched in.

'What's going on? I leave you for five minutes and you are at one another's throats. Wilkins?'

'I want to put this side back together, leaving access for the part Taylor's working on. Fripps here, thinks if we do the rest of the assembly, we can still put the new unit in.'

'Fripps?'

'Bloody obvious. We either go my way and keep working, or go his way and call it a day.'

Friar could smell the tension. His team were stressed and tired. 'Put your tools away. You lot have all the symptoms of BDS.'

'Did we catch it from Potful?' said Wilkins, nervously.

'No. BDS. Beer Deficiency Syndrome. I can cure that. Tools away, and the drinks are on me.'

Friar thought he wrote the handbook on people skills. A well earned break, him the hero providing beer, giving Taylor time to make a new unit, everyone happy.

C
ommander Potts gave his considered opinion. 'Anton. I'm not sure risking the lives of two of our finest young pilots sending them to Earth is a good idea.'

'They'll jump at the chance.'

'Of that I've no doubt. They don't even have weapons.'

Forbes said, 'Weapons? Why would they need weapons? Everyone is dead down there.'

'We know that for sure, do we?' said Potts. 'Andrew Foreman and a few hundred others survived. How do we know for sure others didn't?'

'Maybe they did. That wouldn't mean they'd be hostile.
We
weren't at war with them. They'd probably be glad to see us. Look, Tagg. Our medical centre can't cope as it is. Look at Potful's hand.'

'I'd rather not,' said Potts, grimacing.

'It's bad enough
he's
got it, and thank God it isn't contagious. If it were, well....'

Potts shuddered at the thought. 'Yes, yes. Point taken. But not just Ramshorn and Morgan. There are six fit men with them. If the pilots go to Earth, they take the others along. Strength in numbers.'

'Agreed,' said Forbes. 'I'll leave the planning to them. Being on the spot they'll have a better picture of the situation than we do. I just hope the technicians can fix that damn satellite so we can radio Big Bird and tell them.'

That hope was shared by Vince Friar as he entered the electronics department the next morning. It didn't look good when he found Keith Taylor asleep at his work bench, surrounded by parts and tools.

'Keith.'

'Hmm? Where...Oh. Must have dozed off.'

'You've been here all night?'

Taylor stretched and rubbed the back of his neck. 'Looks like it. Oh. You'll be wanting this.'

'That the new unit?'

'It's damn ugly, but it works.'

'Jeez. You did it. Brilliant.'

Taylor handed the unit over. 'I made it exactly the same size as the old one. There the similarity ends. In another life I'd be getting awards for that.'

'Remind me to buy you a beer. Off you go home to bed, Keith. I'll get this fitted right away.'

Keith got up and stretched. 'Ok. I'll see you tomorrow. If you get stuck with the satellite, come and get me.'

'I will, but we should be ok. Thanks.'

Taylor shuffled off home, Friar hurried to the ship where his team were already at work.

'That the part?' asked Wilkins.

'Keith only just finished it. He tested it and says it's good to go.'

Fripps said, 'I'll fit it.' He took the part and the others gave him space to work. Five minutes later, he said, 'There. Now we can get on with the rest of this thing.'

They worked none stop for over five hours, then finally, it was done.

'That's it, people. Job done. We won't know for sure until it's got the solar panels on and positioned in orbit, but it looks damn good to me. You all go home and I'll tell the commanders to get this in space.'

As soon as the commanders got the good news from Friar, Breeze, Stella, Dillow and Skye were instructed to get ready to take off. Anna Graham was to stay with her own technicians to make sure the satellite was functioning correctly. Less than two hours later, the ship was ready to go.

They took off with their precious cargo, and with Stella at the controls of the ship, Breeze, Dillow and Skye were ready in the airlock, about to push the satellite into space. Dillow and Breeze had the satellite, Skye had the cleaned up solar panels and also a belt full of tools and fixings.

Dillow and Breeze went out first, their safety lines trailing behind them. Skye followed and between them they fitted the solar panels. Then they manoeuvred the whole thing into roughly the right position and fine tuned it with the calibrator. It was done. All they had to do was to see if it worked.

'C
alling Big Bird. Mars calling Big Bird.'

'Holy crap,' said Ramshorn. 'Finally we have radio. Hey, you guys. Where you all been?'

It was taking over thirteen minutes for the signals to reach between Mars and Big Bird. Allowing for that, they were told everything on Mars was as it should be and that they had some special tasks to do. After sending messages to their loved ones, they had time to decide what to do. When the helium extraction team finished another long shift, Morgan told them the good news about the radio. Once they had sent messages to their families, Morgan and Ramshorn sat with them to discuss plans.

John Mantle spoke for his men. 'I don't have a problem with any of that. Apart from one aspect.'

'Go on,' said Rocky.

'I don't see the point in ripping apart a perfectly good extraction plant just to get a couple of pumps, knowing we'll only have to waste time putting them back in when we return. If we're going to Earth, why not find a couple of pumps from there to take home, instead?'

'An excellent suggestion,' said Morgan. 'How's the helium extraction coming along?'

Mantle said, 'We could start filling the ship's tanks tomorrow from the extraction plant storage tank. It'll take another three days to fill all of them.'

'Ok,' said Rocky. 'Could you hold fire on that for another day and still be productive?'

'I guess,' said Mantle. 'We still have a heap of capacity in the main tank. Why do you ask?'

Rocky said, 'While you do the next shift, Max and I can take off and bag a couple of satellites. With zero gravity that shouldn't be too difficult. Then when we come back, you can fill Big Bird's tanks. Then, when the helium tanks are full, we can take off together and go to Earth. If the radiation level is too high, we'll abort, return here and get the pumps. If not too high, we will stay together, get any medical stuff we can find and hopefully a couple of pumps. Everyone happy with that?'

Richie said, 'I think we all are, knowing our families are ok.'

'It's a load off our minds,' said Morgan

They were all in agreement of the plan. After a feed and a shower, they went to bed, to be fresh for another long day.

'H
ow long do you think you'll be?' asked Mantle.

Morgan said, 'There are at least half a dozen satellite's within relatively easy reach. We're just taking two. We can come back another time for any more. So, we should be back here by the time your shift is over.'

'Fair enough,' said Mantle. 'Make it sooner if you can. In the ship is the only place we can take our helmets off. We don't want to be too dehydrated out there.'

Morgan said, 'If it is taking too long, we'll just grab one satellite and go again for another one tomorrow.'

Richie said, 'Can't say fairer than that. Ok. Time to get cracking.'

As soon as the extraction team were away, Ramshorn and Morgan took off in Big Bird. Taking the huge ship in an orbit, they found what they were looking for.

'A mark fifteen,' said Ramshorn. 'One of the later ones.'

Morgan said, 'There should be three more of those between here and Earth. What's the one on Mars? Any Idea?'

'A series nine, if I recall correctly. Pretty old. I think we should just get two of the mark fifteens. For one thing, they're much smaller for us to fit in the ship. One can be the back up for the other.'

'Agreed,' said Morgan. 'And being newer, less likely to break down. I'll take us in as close as I dare. Here goes.'

The huge ship was amazingly manoeuvrable in the right hands. Rocky Ramshorn stayed at the controls of Big Bird as Max Morgan leaped out of the first cargo hatch. The ship had been designed and built with a series of separate sections, each with its own massive hatch. The design made for an incredibly adaptable ship, capable of being used for many uses. All but two of the twenty, twenty metre long sections had been fitted out with the collection tanks for the helium-3.

The tanks were specially designed to have the atmospheric pressure reduced, so the lower temperature would maintain the helium in a liquid form. Each tank could then be removed from its section for storage on Mars, allowing Big Bird to be used for other missions. It would be a tight squeeze fitting the extra payload into the two spare storage sections, along with the equipment used by the extraction team.

Max Morgan was no stranger to space walking, and he was soon out on his line with a spare line to secure the satellite with. With that done, he returned to the ship and pulled the satellite inside. There was plenty of space inside the storage section because the two dozers were on Moon. With the hatch door still open, Morgan pulled the satellite to the far end of the section and used the line to tie it down to the securing mounts.

'One down, one to go,' said Morgan. 'Rocky. I may as well stay in here. You close the hatch and we'll go get another one.'

'On our way. Hold on to something.' Rocky made a slow sweep with the ship, and within thirty minutes, had found the second satellite. 'Ok. Pulling alongside number two. Opening the hatch.'

The massive hatch swung down and Morgan was impressed with the way Rocky had positioned the ship so close to Big Bird.

'On my way over.'

It was a repeat of the exercise to rope up the satellite, pull it inside the hatch and tie it down. Once that had been done, Morgan told Rocky, who closed the hatch, waited until Morgan had made his way to the sealed flight deck and buckled up in his seat before taking off.

'Less than five hours, start to finish,' said Rocky. 'Way better than I'd expected.'

'It will be tight getting the two dozers in as well as the satellites and pumps.'

Rocky suggested, 'We might have to put the pumps in section one, with the accommodation. I don't think they'll be anything like the size of the satellites. It's all too important not to take everything we can lay our hands on.'

'We'll figure it all out between us. We'll have a feed and think about it then.'

B
y the time they had landed and John Mantle and his team were safely on board, it was another day over.

'Perfect timing,' said Mantle. 'I'm amazed you got both satellites in such a short time.'

Morgan said, 'We wanted to have you filling the tanks. Once that's done, we are off to Earth.'

Richie said, 'Can't say I'm looking forward to that. God alone knows what's down there.'

Ramshorn said, 'If that radiation's too high, we'll never find out. Max and I will make that call, but we aren't putting our lives on the line. Our suits will protect us from most of it, if it isn't too high.'

'Fair enough,' said Mantle. 'No point gathering stuff to take back only to die doing it. Are you thinking of Westmont City?'