Mark Anson - Below Mercury

Clare played the beam from her light round the hangar. Overhead, more gantries were rock-bolted into the roof, and the ruins of a travelling crane dangled; severed electrical cables hung down like jungle creepers from the load head. Along one wall, spare rocket engines lay in their carrying cradles, their protective plastic coverings partly torn off by the gale that had passed through the hangar. One of the giant mining machines sat nearby, its tracks removed for repairs.

At the far side of the chamber, 25 metres away, a further set of doors gaped open in front of them, leading further into the mine.

Elliott looked at the doors, and then back at the doors they had just come through.

‘So, how did the atmosphere vent?’ he asked. ‘When we arrived here, the outer doors were open but the inner hangar doors were closed. The hangar would have been in vacuum, but the mine integrity would have been fine.’

‘Well, we know the mine vented through here,’ Abrams said, ‘we’ve seen the debris field for ourselves.’

Elliott looked at the doors again.

‘All three of these must have been open together – wide open – to cause that amount of air to be lost so quickly, with such a force. I guess that the middle doors were closed after the air vented, which would have resealed the mine, but …’ his voice trailed off.

‘But who closed them?’ Abrams finished the thought for him. ‘And where did the air come from?’

‘Uh, there would have been sufficient reserves in the liquid air reservoirs to recharge the mine, once it was resealed,’ Matt said.

‘Was that automatic – the recharging?’ Bergman asked.

‘No. No, it wasn’t.’

‘So somebody must have closed the doors and repressurised the mine, after the accident took place.’

‘But the mine personnel were all dead within thirty-six hours,’ Elliott said, ‘and they were all trapped in the accommodation block until they made some kind of mistake and lost air pressure.’

‘Well, yeah,’ Matt said, ‘if you’re stupid enough to believe they’d really do that.’

‘What exactly are you saying?’ Elliott said, his voice rising, ‘just because we find a set of closed doors, doesn’t mean that all the previous findings are automatic bullshit!’

‘This isn’t about previous findings,’ Matt said, with exaggerated patience, ‘it’s about what really happened.’

‘Cool it, guys!’ Abrams stepped between the two of them. ‘We’re here to do a job, and both your opinions are needed.’ He looked from Matt to Elliott, and back again, waited for them both to calm down.

‘Matt. Just take it slow and easy, and let’s hear what you’re saying.’

Matt took a deep breath.

‘Well, we know from the voice transmissions that the survivors were definitely in the accommodation block. Then, about a day after the accident, we lost contact with the survivors. The systems telemetry showed loss of pressure in the accommodation block. Then finally, all data transmissions stopped. You with me so far?’

They all nodded, except for Elliott, who just stared at Matt.

‘Okay. Well, there’ve been all sorts of theories on what happened, ranging from them committing suicide, to a secondary explosion. The original investigation board concluded that it was some kind of mistake – someone accidentally operated a door control, and they couldn’t close it again in time.

‘But, they knew they had to get the hangar doors closed to repressurise the mine. If you were trapped in the accommodation block, and you couldn’t close the doors from there, how would you go about it?’

‘Find a spacesuit and send someone to do it manually,’ Bergman said.

‘Right. But the living areas have no airlock, just emergency pressure doors. To let someone out, they would have had to have opened those doors. Suppose they moved everyone into one area, sealed that, and then opened the doors so that someone could get to the hangar?’

‘Are you saying the survivors might have closed the hangar doors themselves?’ Elliott said.

‘Yes. And they may have been unable to tell Earth what they were planning, before they lost all contact.’

There was a pause.

‘I don’t buy it,’ Elliott said, his voice careful. ‘It’s too much of a coincidence, losing contact at just the wrong time. But if your theory is right, they managed to seal and repressurise the mine. Why didn’t they re-establish contact? And, why aren’t they here?’

‘Maybe they are,’ Bergman said quietly.

They turned to look at him.

‘Look, I know it sounds insane, but look at the facts. The mine is full of air. Someone managed to seal the mine. They may not have been able to get comms going again. This is a big place; they may not know we’re here.’

Bergman’s words echoed in the silence that followed. They all thought of the huge, empty mine, with all its passages, rooms and shafts running deep under the mountain.

‘Okay.’ Clare was the first to speak. ‘This is an interesting theory, but until we find further evidence to support it, it’s a theory. It doesn’t change our immediate priorities. We continue the search.’

Matt turned away from the group. He felt frustrated and confused. None of this made any sense. He tried to clear his mind and concentrate on looking for food or water.

He headed towards the left wall of the hangar, and rummaged among the scattered debris for some minutes. The hangar had evidently been a swirl point for the huge volume of air that had gushed through it when the mine emptied; wreckage, rubbish and dust had blown wildly about the chamber, before falling and settling in the vacuum.

Most of the wreckage seemed to be objects that had been torn away, or blown over, by the air rushing through the hangar. Equipment lay scattered everywhere – tools, maintenance records, seats, cables, spacesuit helmets – all in a dust-covered jumble on the floor.

Matt picked up a large flashlight he found on the floor, blew the dust off it, and flicked it on. Its white LEDs glowed briefly, and then faded. No charge left. He dropped it back into the dust.

The others were picking their way through the debris, but nobody seemed to have found anything useful. Matt turned round, and looked at the open doors in the end wall, leading off into the mine.

‘You know, I think we’ll have more luck in the next chamber – that’s the stores area,’ he called across to Clare.

‘Okay, there’s no food or water here, let’s move on,’ Clare shouted. ‘Don’t leave anyone behind. Matt – lead the way with Rick.’

Matt swung his light beam over the edges of the opening as he passed through the rectangular doorway. There were no signs of damage; the two sliding halves of the door were fully open, retracted back into the rock.

He sniffed the air cautiously as he went further into the next chamber, but there was nothing in the darkness but the familiar mine-smell of blasted rock and chill air.

As he followed at the back of the group, Abrams saw Elliott standing by the control box for the doors. He had switched on his flashlight while he unfastened an access panel, and was about to remove it.

‘Hey,’ Abrams cautioned, ‘I think you should leave that how it is for now. We don’t want to disturb any evidence until we’ve got time to do it properly.’

‘Oh, uh, sure, I guess you’re right,’ Elliott said. He stared at the panel, then pushed it back into place and slowly refastened it. ‘I just wanted to take a look at the position of the control interlocks.’

‘You think something’s wrong with them?’

‘Well, all three doors can’t have opened together if the controls were working properly. Airlocks are fundamental to mine integrity; it’s just not – possible.’ Elliott’s voice showed a trace of frustration as he clicked off his flashlight, and followed Abrams into the third chamber.