Luke Marusiak - Lifeboat Moon

NASA and ESA picked this crew for the early launches because they all had the same regard for duty. They were all tested so that in adversity they’d face their fears. Mark would trust that selection as he would trust that JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, did the same. The despair that Zeke feared was a projection, nothing more.

Mark knew what Zeke’s problem was. Zeke, like Mark, felt the overwhelming burden of humanity’s future and doubted his ability to carry it. Mark nodded and forced a smile for the crew. His heart raced but his resolution was firm. Doubt doesn’t matter. I must face this.

“Thank you for coming here,” Mark said into the microphone. The group stopped stirring and all eyes were upon him. “I know everyone is shaken. I am too.” He believed, just like Constance Collier, that candor was everything. “Here’s what we know. The supply pod crashed into the back of the crater and Habitation Tube One depressurized. Eight people, including Doctor McCarthy and five in the med-bay were lost. Both Director Collier and ArmCon Little were lost.” He realized that since the med-bay took up so much space in Habitation Tube One, the director’s quarters were the only living quarters there. The human loss would have been much more if the pod had hit either Habitation Tube Two or Habitation Tube Three.

“But why?” Brexton asked in a voice that reminded Mark of his father. “Do you know why the pod crashed?”

“We’re still investigating,” Mark answered. “It was coming down smooth and then went haywire. We don’t know why. But there’s some good news I’d like to share.” He looked at Thad. “Thad can you come up here and get the screen lowered and projector on? I want to show them what we found.”

“Yes sir.” Thad popped to his feet and went to the wall cubby that housed the screen and projector remote.

As the screen lowered Mark took in the group. “We need to pull together now more than ever.” The group responded with deadpan stares. He was relieved when the projector flicked on. Thad displayed an image of the interior view of the cave. Mark pointed to the picture. “We found a cave not far from the hangar entrance. It’s large and undamaged. Once we fix our moon base we’ll expand into the cave.”

A sharp hissing sound from Habitation Tube Two interrupted the presentation. All heads turned. Mark froze mouth agape.

“Jerry, Jim, and Gitty follow me!” Sally ordered. The four jumped to their feet and ran into Habitation Tube Two.

“Hey,” Thad said as he stood beside Mark. “Let’s get someone into the control room and check the base integrity again top to bottom.”

“Good idea,” Doug said. He turned to Chuck and Art. “Come on, let’s see what the sensors tell us.” Doug, Chuck, and Art departed the Nexus.

Mark stared at the crew which had become raucous. His mind raced to formulate a plan. “Zeke go with Doug, Chuck, and Art.” He did his level best to project calm. “All who have posts or quarters off the Nexus or in Habitation Tube Three, please return to them now. We’ll have to pick this up later. Crewmembers from Habitation Tube Two stay put until we figure out what happened.” He reeled from the unending blows and his Quick Response Force leader instincts prevailed. He grabbed Thad’s arm. “Thad, stay with these guys in the Nexus. I’m going to find out what’s going on.”

Mark entered Habitation Tube Two. He saw Sally and Jerry exit one of the living quarters and close the sealed door. Two rooms down, Jerry and Gitty exited a second quarters. Both groups had small bundles in their arms.

“What happened?” Mark asked.

Sally stared at the pressure gauge of the quarters. She then moved to the adjacent room and checked that pressure gauge. Her worry was apparent. “One of the living quarters started leaking.”

“Living quarters?” Mark was aghast. “I thought all living quarters were double hulled.” He felt dryness at the back of this throat. There’s no air out there. Mark’s personal demon wasn’t despair, it was the vacuum of space. He felt that vacuum as the hand of the Grim Reaper inexorably squeezing the life out of Moon Base Armstrong.

“A leak in the double-hulled wall of living quarters was never supposed to happen,” Jerry said. “It threatened the entire tube.”

“It threatened the entire base,” Sally said.

“We were lucky we heard the hiss,” Jerry said.

Mark’s suffocation terror returned. What Sally and Jerry were calmly discussing induced an unwanted recollection. Losing his air, being unable to breathe, was the most helpless and terrifying situation Mark ever faced. His near suffocation experience scarred him and for a crewmember’s living quarters to spring a leak like this now? He was just telling everyone they had a chance.

There was something to that thought. Mark tried to make his mind work. That’s exactly what the director and ArmCon were doing before the supply pod crash. Showing everyone there was a reason for hope. That’s what I was doing by showing the cave. Something was very wrong.

“We decided to seal the quarters with the leak as well as the two beside it,” Gitty added. “We grabbed the personals of the two adjacent quarters.”

Mark understood. “We need to permanently seal all three quarters. The last thing we want is someone to come in and break a seal to Habitation Tube Two.”

“How do we do that?” Jerry asked.

“There’s a barrel key required to permanently seal these doors,” Mark answered.

Sally turned to Mark. “Yeah and only the director and ArmCon had those keys. Jim is in the ArmCon’s quarters to see if he can find one.”

“I’ll go help him,” Mark answered. He went down the corridor and entered the ArmCon’s quarters. This was the first time he was there since the pod crash. Jim Staid sat on the edge of the bunk with the barrel key dangling from his hands. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “Jim?”

Jim looked up at Mark. “Jerry set up the ArmCon as my mentor.”

“Hux Little was a good man.”

“The best.”

“I need that key. We have to secure the suspect quarters so no one accidentally opens them.”

“I know.” Jim extended the key to Mark.

Mark took it. “Thanks Jim.” He turned to leave.

“Did you get the plans?” Jim asked.

Mark turned back. “What plans?”

“The ArmCon and director had plans for making this base work without help from earth. ArmCon Little said they kept them off the server to not upset anyone.”

It bothered Mark that Jim knew something about Huxley Little that he didn’t. “Do you know where these plans are?”

Jim pointed to a bottom locked drawer. “I’m pretty sure that key works there too.”

Mark went to one knee, inserted the barrel key, and opened the drawer. There were photographs, a bible, and a ruggedized solid state storage device. He lifted the device out of the drawer. It was the size of two decks of cards. The memory itself was tiny but this container could handle shocks, heat, cold and even electromagnetic pulse and still retain its data. “This must be it.” He turned to Jim. “Thanks, I really need this.”

Jim nodded. “You know, my family was split in two factions. I guess my grandfather had a twin brother and they wound up on opposite ideological sides. Go figure.”

Mark didn’t want to dig into Jim’s ancestry but he paused just the same. “Is that why you came up here?”

“Yeah. I wanted to show the two factions that we’re all one.” He shook his head. “I had this dream that I could send them a picture of earth and show them what we do here and they’d all get it.”

“And now?”