Luna (10 page)

21 |
No
One Gets Left Behind

“Maybe an earthquake? Moonquake, I mean,” Blake speculated after hearing Asami’s breathless account of what it was like down there in the moving cave.

“So it opened up the depths to reveal water, or at least liquid of some kind?” Martin asked, peering down into the chamber. “Hey, it looks like things stopped moving around down there.”

Blake, Asami and Martin all gazed into the chamber, which was in fact now still, but with a deeper floor than before. Blake checked his suit gauges. “Our oxygen supply is getting low enough that we should start heading back to the LEM.” He received no arguments, and the trio began making their way out of the tunnel system.

They moved quickly through the underground labyrinth, Blake by now sure of the way back. As they moved they transmitted to Suzette, calling her name, but no response was received. All of them kept their eyes open for signs of movement from the tunnel itself, but saw nothing of the kind by the time they reached the exit to the underground system. They huddled at the rocky outcropping on the crater’s inside slope. Left unspoken was the gravity of what they were faced with: leaving Suzette behind somewhere in the tunnels.

“One last try, then we go,” Blake said. They transmitted her name a few more times. Blake added, “Suzette: for some reason if you can hear us but can’t talk back—malfunctioning transmitter, perhaps—know this: we
are
coming back for you. We
will
find you.”

Neither Asami nor Martin said anything. They both knew that should Suzette actually be faced with the horror of being trapped somewhere in a rockslide or tunnel collapse, with a radio that would receive but not transmit, she’d be on the brink of insanity right about now, if not actually over it.

Blake shook them from their distressing reveries. “Let’s get to the rover.”

They trekked their way up the inside of the crater’s slope, always wary of the ground, watching for movement. Upon reaching the lip, Blake stood and surveyed the view while Asami and Martin climbed up beside him.

“What the—” Blake cut himself off as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. Or not seeing, as was the case.

“What’s the matter?” Martin asked.

“There’s only one rover here, and it’s down there.” Blake pointed to the wrecked moon buggy at the bottom of the outside of the crater.

“Caitlin took James back to the LEM in the other one,” Martin reminded him.

“But something—” Blake broke off as he stared down at the remaining rover. “Let’s just get down there.”

“It looks like it rolled, is that what you were going to say?” Martin said, his voice wavering as he bounded down the crater’s outer face.

No answer came, and when Martin turned to look at Blake, he saw his lips moving but heard nothing, meaning he was talking on a different channel, possibly to Caitlin or maybe to someone in the LEM. They continued down the slope toward the moon buggy. About halfway down, Caitlin’s voice came over the common channel. “Blake, you hear me? I’m almost back to the LEM.”

“Copy. What happened to my rover?”

“Don’t want to discuss over open frequencies, switch to X-band, over.”

Blake made an adjustment to his radio and then Martin couldn’t hear the conversation. Caitlin told Blake on the private channel about her sighting of the two astronauts walking away from the rover toward the Black Sky lunar lander.

“Caitlin, listen to me. Does Dallas know about this yet?”

“Of course, Blake. He’s the one who said it was a good thing I bring James back to the LEM, otherwise we all wouldn’t fit in one rover.”

“Tell him not to report on the rover crash to Mission Control, copy? And the official line on Suzette is that she is missing. We may still be able to find her. No outside communication regarding the matter until we have something conclusive, is that clear?”

A beat of silence ensued while Caitlin processed the fact that Blake was worried about his ever-important reputation. He was already in damage control mode.

“I said
is that clear?”

“Sure, Blake. It’s clear. That wasn’t really on my mind, I have to say. We have an astronaut to find. Let’s stay focused on that.”

“Okay, switching back over to main channel...” As soon as they did they heard Martin’s voice, a little higher pitched than usual.

“How are we going to get back to the LEM? The oxygen in our suits—”

Blake interrupted him. “We’re working something out, Martin. Give us a second, please.”

The voice of James Burton joined in. “Still think these moonwalks are tourist ready, do you, Blake?”

“Will you shut up already, Mr. Burton! You’re part of the reason we’re in this mess in the first place.”

“Oh really? I don’t see how the fact that one of your rovers rolled down the hill would have been changed if I hadn’t asked to leave early. In fact, I may have actually
helped
you by giving you more time to fix the problem instead of finding out about it even later.”

“Gentlemen, please,” Martin soothed. “This is no place for an argument.”

“I agree,” Caitlin said. “Blake, as soon as I drop Mr. Burton off at the LEM, I’ll turn right around and come back to the crater to pick up you, Asami and Martin. Just stay by the crashed rover, all right? Don’t wander off. We’re pulling up to the LEM now.”

Blake gave the thumbs up signal to Martin and Asami while he replied. “Good. We’ll be standing by the rover, over.”

Caitlin clicked off and the three moonwalkers stared at each others’ faceplate reflections for a moment, until Martin said, “So we have a bit of a wait for our ride. In the meantime, riddle me this: How do you think that life form we found...” He pointed to the bulge in Blake’s spacesuit where he had stowed the specimen container. “...is able to stay alive in the complete absence of oxygen and water?”

Asami answered. “We’ll have to analyze the chemical composition of the moon dust back in the lab. See exactly what it’s made of. That might give us some clues.”

“Agreed,” Martin said with enthusiasm. He turned to Blake. “When we return to the LEM, I’d like to make use of the lab straight away to study the specimen.”

“And I the rocks and soil samples, particularly the soil in the specimen container,” Asami added.

The Outer Limits CEO stared blankly off in the direction of the Black Sky lander.

“Blake?” Asami jarred him from whatever thoughts he was having.

“Huh? Oh right. The lab. Sure, you can get right to work in there as soon as we get back.”

“You don’t sound all that excited, Blake, for a man poised to unlock the secrets of life in the universe, “Martin said.

Blake didn’t turn away from his competitor’s lander. “There are other secrets to unlock as well.”

22 | Groupthink

“Here she comes!” Asami pointed across the lunar plain at the clouds of dust kicked up by the moon buggy. They watched it draw near in silence, Blake having finally turned away from Black Sky’s lander to join the conversation about the strange life form. He had the cube out with the creature, now hidden in the moon dust on the bottom, when Caitlin rolled to a stop a few feet from the group.

“Reminds me of waiting for the bus as a kid,” Martin quipped as he hopped in back of the rover with Asami. Blake sat up front with Caitlin, but she remained at the wheel.

“How’s your oh-two supply?” Caitlin greeted them with. A chorus of low readings ensued. Caitlin put the rover into gear and turned toward the LEM.

“And so how is our dear FAA representative doing now? Has he recovered from his frightful excursion?”

No one laughed. Caitlin replied. “It’s not funny, Blake. I know he was being deliberately rash to try and prove a point, but if someone wants to go back to the LEM, we have to take them. You know that. Dallas agrees.”

“We should conserve our oxygen by not talking,” Blake returned.

They made the rest of the drive back to the LEM in silence. By the time they pulled up to the airlock ladder, Asami reported that her breaths were getting harder to pull.

Caitlin, who had swapped out for a fresh spacesuit oxygen unit after bringing Burton back, jumped from the rover and bunny-hopped over to the ladder. “C’mon. I’ll get the airlock.” She opened the outer door while the other three exited the rover and moved to the ladder. When they were all inside the airlock space, Caitlin sealed the outer door and began the pressurization process. That completed, she removed her suit helmet, taking a few tentative breaths before a smile took over her features.

“C’mon in, the water’s fine!” The others also removed their suits and then Caitlin led the way through the inner airlock door back into the lander’s cabin.

Martin held his hands out to Blake. “Specimen, please. We’ll need to get right to work on it in the lab.”

Blake appeared to hesitate for a moment, but they could hear Dallas talking, and he handed it over before heading off in that direction. “Be careful with it!” he said as he walked away. Asami and Martin exchanged grins over the top of the acrylic cube. Two scientists with an alien life form to play with! They headed for the portion of the spacecraft that held the tiny laboratory.

#

Blake, Caitlin, Dallas and James huddled in the control alcove. Before Blake could take over, Dallas shot Caitlin a look and said, “Ray wants you to call him, right now.”

Caitlin turned on a heel and started for another part of the ship. Blake called after her, “Do not mention Suzette!”

James watched her walk away and then turned back to Blake and Dallas.

“Excuse me, Mr. Burton?” Blake said.

“Yes?” He turned to face Blake.

“Can you give us a moment of privacy, please?”

James’ eyes narrowed. “Absolutely not! You should be discussing your missing astronaut, not wasting time worrying about the likes of me. This is going in my report!” Burton produced his notepad and began scribbling furiously.

“Asshole,” Blake muttered under his breath.

James’ pen stopped. “
What
?”

“Just something else for your report, I guess. Fine, stay here and be a distraction while I talk to Dallas.”

The Lunar Module Pilot eyed both men in turn and then, realizing that Burton was going nowhere, addressed Blake in his presence. “There’s something you should know about. Besides Suzette.”

Blake visibly tensed. Even the problems had problems around here. “What is it?”

“I still haven’t been able to fix the lander’s guidance system, which I was hoping I might be able to complete while you were on your moonwalk.”

“What’s holding you back?”

James’ eyes followed the exchange like a spectator at a ping pong match.

“Mission Control is helping me work out a solution. They can run the sims with a lot more processing power than we have on board. They’re doing that now and will get back to me when they have something. I was hoping I wouldn’t even need them, but it’s not a simple fix, Blake. A direct lightning hit—”

James butted in with, “What if we can’t fix this guidance system?”

Blake closed his eyes and rubbed his temple. His reply came through gritted teeth. “We require that system in order to rendezvous with our command module in lunar orbit. Without it, we’d probably miss it—it’s like trying to hit a pinhead on a football field by launching a penny from the nosebleed seats. Landing on the moon was relatively easy because it was not as precise, requiring only that we land somewhere in one piece in order to survive...”

Dallas’ eyes widened at this as he recalled his seat-of-the-pants landing, but he said nothing in front of Burton. Blake continued.

“But to miss the command module is certain death. We’d go shooting off into the void of deep space where we would run out of oxygen and die. Just imagine that for a moment, if you would, Mr. Burton. You and I staring at each other while our faces turn blue from lack of oxygen...”

James held Blake’s eye contact for a moment and then jotted something down in his notepad.

Dallas said, “As soon as Caitlin’s done, I’ll see what’s up with Mission Control.”

#

Caitlin sat on a fixed stool in front of the communication station, talking to Ray a quarter million miles away. The quality of his transmissions was terrible, and she told him so.

“Severe dust storm about to hit Mission Control, Caitlin. We’ve already lost a bunch of antennae, have some broken windows...I’m not sure how much longer we’ll be in communication.”

Caitlin flashed on the impressive steel and glass monolithic structure that was the Spaceport America Mission Control building, and shook her head in disbelief. For some reason, she couldn’t imagine those windows breaking due to a force of nature. But by some quirk of atmospherics, she heard Ray’s voice come in loud and clear for the next few seconds.

“Listen: keep this between you and me, but someone’s been tampering with my station computer.”

Caitlin turned her head to see if she was alone, or as alone as one could possibly be in such cramped quarters. Martin and Asami were out of sight and earshot in the lab, but she could hear Blake arguing with Dallas over in the control alcove. She spoke into the transmitter. “
What
? Ray... Who would do that?”

“Caitlin, I can’t discuss it in detail now, but software’s been installed that tracks everything I do, logs my keystrokes. And it looks like it’s being sent to—someone’s coming! Gotta go. But listen: are you sure you’re all right?”

“Yes, Ray, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. I’m concerned about you down there in that dust storm, and you should be, too.”

“C’mon, Caitlin. Tell me the truth. Are you really okay?” Something in his tone made her shiver. Did he know something about what was going on up here? She didn’t want him to think she was hiding anything from him, but she also didn’t want him to worry. Not to mention Blake’s orders not to spill the beans on the Negative Terrible Thing that happened up here, to jeopardize—no, to completely obliterate—Outer Limits’ Perfect Safety record.

She whipped her head around again to make certain Blake wasn’t paying attention. “I am okay, Ray, but Suzette is not.” She went on to hurriedly explain how the marketing guru had gone missing in the tunnels and then been left behind.

“—et...isten—me...” The radio waves became static-filled again.

“You’re breaking up, Ray, make it quick.”

“—ver go in those tunnels again, ...me?”

“What’s wrong with the tunnels? What do you know, Ray?”

He started to explain something, but it was a garbled mess, the transmission ravaged beyond all semblance of recognition. Practically, the only words she recognized in all of it were
Strat Knowles
.

And then the line of communication was severed completely.

She sat there staring at a dead radio console, thinking about Strat... He was the astronaut she had replaced. If it wasn’t for him leaving, she wouldn’t have her current position here. Blake had said he was a good man—a great one, even—and he was more than sorry to see him go, but that he had quit to start his own aeronautical consulting firm. High dollar stuff. He’d chosen the big bucks over the adventure, Blake had told her. The moon wasn’t enough for Strat Knowles, he guessed.

Caitlin reflected on Strat. She had always wondered why an astronaut in his or her prime would leave a position that put them where an astronaut belonged—in space. She was still thinking about that when she heard Blake calling her name.