Luke Marusiak - Lifeboat Moon

The defibrillator gave a measured pulsed shock to Jim. He began coughing. Gitty rolled him toward her. “I got you Jim, you’re going to be okay.” Jim reached for the oxygen mask but Gitty stopped him from removing it. “You were out for a while, breathe in the pure oxygen.”

Zeke removed the defibrillator and sighed. “You got to him in time.”

“Just in time,” Thad said. “How in the hell did the Manufacturing Pod get down to 550 Torr so fast?”

“The previous seal was cracked. It looked like it was pried open by something,” Gitty answered.

“How far was it cracked?” Sally asked.

Gitty never took her eyes off of Jim. “It was cracked top to bottom. I don’t know if the sealant worked or not.”

Jim removed his oxygen mask and grinned. “Gitty, we were supposed to keep this a secret.”

In response Gitty lowered her mouth onto Jim’s and kissed him for all to see. She pulled back and smiled. “Whatever happens, I’m in this with you.”

“Now that’s not right,” Doug said. “We’re supposed to be professionals.”

“We are,” Mark answered. “What’s the Manufacturing Pod pressure now?”

Doug apprised the baggy jumpsuit on Sally and quickly connected the dots. “Okay, am I the only one not getting laid in this moon base?”

Mark wanted to savor his union with Sally before it became common knowledge but the dark force of vacuum was always there and always threatening. There wasn’t a moment of hope not punctured by its insidious peril.

“I was about to bring my buggy team into the Manufacturing Pod to assist Jim in assembly,” Brexton said. “What the hell is going on with our base?”

“Manufacturing Pod pressure is holding steady at 550 Torr,” Chuck’s voice came over the intercom.

“We need to pressurize the Manufacturing Pod and get it back to 760 Torr.”

“That seal is held together with chewing gum and duct tape,” Doug said. “We are risking all of Moon Base Armstrong by keeping that pod unsealed.”

The vacuum monster reared its ugly head again and everyone knew it.

Manufacturing Pod’s Jerry Papadopoulos and Habibeh Rahimi were keenly interested in what happened to their work area in Moon Base Armstrong. The daily call with Japan Station heightened concern regarding the long term survivability of the meager human crew on the moon.

“I don’t see how that seam cracked like that,” Jerry said over the speakerphone. “Gitty, are you sure it was top to bottom?”

“I am,” Gitty replied into the speakerphone. The control room was crowded with Chuck, Mark, Sally — still wearing Mark’s baggy spacesuit, Gitty, and Doug. “I saw the crack pull the sealant into it just as I applied it.”

“Is Jim okay?”

“Zeke’s tending to him. Since we lost Doctor McCarthy, Zeke’s our go-to medical guy,” Mark replied. “But yeah, he’s doing fine.”

“We built a fuel cell here and Jim and Brex built a large frame buggy with the new silica magnesium tires. The frame is in the Manufacturing Pod which appears to be fragile. What do you want to do?” Jerry asked.

“We need to accelerate the pressurization of the cave and we need Japan Station’s help,” Mark answered.

“We need time to properly plan,” Director Katsumi Hayashi’s voice came over the speakerphone. “This is a complex multi-faceted endeavor.”

“We’re running out of time,” Mark said. “Moon Base Armstrong is running out of time. Since the pod crash we’ve had major leaks in both pods and living quarters. Habitation Tube One is destroyed and permanently sealed. We don’t know how long before the whole base is compromised.”

Sally and Chuck gasped at the blunt statement. Gitty audibly groaned and Doug grunted. It was something everyone knew in their gut. It was also a blunt reality everyone suppressed. It was a truth, once expressed, that couldn’t be ignored.

“What are you proposing?” Captain Yumi Kaneko asked.

It struck Mark how Katsumi was never without his right hand Yumi in conversations or planning. He cringed at being forced to state his thoughts before consulting his right hands — Thad and Zeke… and Sally. Zeke was tending to Jim but where was Thad? Why wasn’t Thad beside him now? None of that mattered. “We need to seal and start pressurizing the cave. We need to get the second air reactor going. And we need spacesuits manufactured from the lunar regolith. Our current spacesuits are wearing too fast.”

“Everything’s wearing too fast,” Doug added.

“We don’t know if the caves are airtight,” Katsumi said. “That’s a big risk.”

“It wouldn’t take much air pressure to find out,” Yumi said. “We can test it in a few days.”

“What are you thinking Captain Kaneko?” Katsumi’s tone came through the speakerphone with such rich warmth that everyone in Moon Base Armstrong assumed Katsumi and Yumi were a couple.

“We have the material to seal the cave mouth,” Yumi said. “The silica magnesium compound can be made in large quantities. We’ve made panels that are one meter by two meter in size. It would not take long to double seal the mouth of the cave.”

“And we could use the double door hatch from our unused plexiglass tube as an entry point.” Mark was surprised Yumi so quickly seized on the cave possibility. He didn’t want to let the moment pass.

“We could pump in a little bit of air, maybe enough for 100 Torr, from our existing reactors,” Sally added.

“Yes,” Yumi replied. “Exactly what I was thinking. Then we watch for leakage.”

“Even our current bases leech air,” Thad said behind Mark.

Mark turned and looked at the late arrival. Thad stood beside Tina Bennett and both looked in a flushed state of dishevelment. Of course. When life’s so uncertain, we humans grasp the most life affirming thing we can. Thad and Tina obviously clung to each other in this emergency — much like Mark and Sally or Gitty and Jim. “That’s true,” Mark said. “But 100 Torr of air in the sealed cave will give us data we don’t have now.”

“We’ll still need the second air reactor to generate enough oxygen,” Thad said. “I’ve inventoried the air reactor parts at the backside of the crater at the spot I placed the signal light. One of our last four orbiting pods has the remaining equipment we need.”

“There’s a lot of moving parts to arrange,” Mark said.

“Is your plexiglass tube long enough to reach from Moon Base Armstrong to the cave?” Katsumi asked.

“Good question,” Mark answered. “Only one section was destroyed. What remains may be long enough.”

“And if we seal the regolith under each section with the new spray-on flexible silica magnesium compound, we’ll have a much more reliable tube,” Sally said.

“If that could be routed from Moon Base Armstrong’s hatch to the cave entrance we could use it for people and air transport.”

“It’s long enough,” Thad said. “I’ve just done the calculations.”

“We’ll focus on production of more moon buggies so we can move our crew when ready,” Katsumi said. “Japan Station is also too fragile to last long.”

Mark grinned. “This multi-faceted plan is developing well.”

“Please cover the steps so there is no misunderstanding,” Katsumi said.

“One, we work together to map and seal the cave entrance. Two, we relocate the plexiglass tube while you manufacture moon buggies. Three, we land the correct supply pod and assemble the air reactor. Once we get the cave sealed and the second air reactor on line we can start moving equipment from our station.”

“And our station,” Yumi said. “As Director Hayashi indicated, the pod crash exposed fundamental weakness in our station construction as well. We share your urgency.”