Luke Marusiak - Lifeboat Moon

“Good,” Thad said. “I’m going to get a couple hours of shuteye. Do you want me to remove Doug’s sabotaged controller tomorrow?”

“No,” Mark replied. “I’ve got a different idea.”

Doug looked at Sally with a mixture of admiration and regret. He knew she and Mark were a couple and he knew she had to die along with him. He knew within forty-eight hours, everyone would be dead. There was a measure of peace in that thought but also a measure of sorrow.

Human life, such as it was, wasn’t worth living but there was something noble in a futile quest. He wondered why humans, throughout all of recorded history, endured needless suffering. He wondered why the crews of Moon Base Armstrong and Japan Station endured the necessary intense suffering the loss of earth caused. The permanence of that loss ensured it would continue, through generations if they foolishly clung to life that long. And suffering was evil, there could be no doubt of that.

What you’re doing is a holy task , Doug’s inner voice coached. There’s no point to this moon-based outpost of humanity. There’s no point except perpetual suffering which is the biggest evil of all. Doug nodded to himself. It’s a good thing I’m clever as well as moral.

He watched Sally inspect the dollies of power cables that were scavenged from the Manufacturing Pod. He smiled when she inspected the mulch container. Sally has to see the added controller Chuck put in place. Either she doesn’t recognize it or is intentionally ignoring it so as not to give the game away. His smile widened. There was a chance the controller in the mulch container would work, there was a chance Chuck was on the level, but Doug wasn’t counting on it.

NASA always taught us to have a backup plan, he thought. Well I do. I’m certainly not counting on Chuck being trustworthy. Chuck was a mystery. Doug thought Chuck got the point when he heard of the sabotage of Mark’s air. After Chuck’s broken jaw, Doug was certain he could recruit him to his side. And then came the pod crash. The pod crash made him wonder. For some reason, with nothing to gain and everything to lose, Chuck went outside into the lunar vacuum with a precious seldom-used spacesuit to save Thad Rudzinski. That action could’ve been reflex or it could’ve been a cover of Chuck’s true inclination. Doug couldn’t be sure.

“We’re all set for the work teams,” Sally said as she bounded next to Doug. “Our cave preparation is going well, don’t you think?”

“It is,” Doug replied. Doug had doubts as to which side of the hope–despair pendulum Chuck landed, but of Sally, he had no doubt. Sally was a true believer. Her singlehanded efforts were the only reason Major Mark Martelli wasn’t fertilizer. “Is the crater top solar array operational?”

“It’s suppling power,” Sally replied, “but they’re still adding solar modules. These are the first actual use of moon manufactured solar panels.”

“That’s an impressive feat. How many solar panel modules are left to install?”

“The schedule calls for three but Habi mentioned we might add a fourth from Japan Station. When Jerry and Habi were at Japan Station for the technology transfer, they agreed on keeping the standard NASA-JAXA direct current power connector design for those 3D printed from lunar material. This solar array on the top of Shackleton Crater is a great validation of our interoperability.”

“It looks like the Moon Base Armstrong and Japan Station crews are united into one big happy family.”

“I wouldn’t say that. We’ll get there but it’ll take living together in the cave for a while to smooth everything out.” She arched her eyebrows. “Did you hear about the naming contest for what we’re going to call the cave habitation?”

“Sure,” Doug said. “We need to come up with something better than cave habitation.”

Sally laughed. “Do you have any ideas?”

“Maybe we call it Moon Base Armstrong.”

“It has to be something different. We’ll be combining both crews and still using Moon Base Armstrong and Japan Station for other purposes.”

Doug grunted. “Then no, I don’t have other ideas. I liked the honor we paid to Neil Armstrong with our NASA moon base. I’m not sure what to call the cave.”

“Chuck thought we should call it Moon Base Eden –from the bible’s Garden of Eden. I don’t think Japan Station or our multi-ethnic crew will go for that.”

“The Garden of Eden name is too hopeful. The bible holds that Eden was a paradise and it was Eve’s sin that condemned us all to a life of suffering.”

“Okay hotshot it was Adam and Eve’s sin.”

“Sure, but the point still stands. Eden was a place without suffering. Adam and Eve were cast out of paradise. That’s not the right name for the cave habitations.”

“What do you think of Moon Base Sumer?”

“Sumer? Why would you call it Sumer?”

“Because Sumer was the first human civilization on earth. They had writing, agriculture, and the first city state.”

“I thought Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley were older than Sumer.”

“No one ever figured that out. But what do you think? Moon Base Sumer — the beginning of our new civilization.”

“Throw it in for consideration,” Doug replied. If I have my way the only suitable names for the cave will be Moon Base Mausoleum or Moon Base Catacomb.

Mark had mentally gone back and forth on how best to handle the sabotage of the mulch container. He considered disconnecting the controller power but reconsidered. Doug would almost certainly attempt communications with his planted device the moment he had the chance. Once he discovered he couldn’t communicate with his device, he’d know he’d been made. Mark wanted to avoid giving Doug initiative.

Mark needed a full twenty-four hour day to get everything in place for cave habitation. After that time, the cave would be pressurized and they could isolate Doug and his destructive acts could be stopped. Mark needed to confront Doug but he needed the cave operational first. He needed one more day.

The sabotage of the mulch container with a malicious Bluetooth controller was the urgent problem. Mark sat on the edge of his bunk in his quarters and explained the problem in an old fashioned text message to Japan Station’s Captain Yumi Kaneko.

Yumi’s response was swift and comforting. Her text read: I’ll bring a solution. Bring the controller to me.

This was good. If Yumi had a solution, they didn’t need to tip Doug off. Mark didn’t want Doug to discover he’d be caught in his sabotage. He wanted to tell him in a face to face confrontation. Mark wanted to tell Doug with Thad, Jim, Brexton, and Zeke around so they could physically subdue Doug. From the point he publically identified Doug as the saboteur the only acceptable course of action was detainment. This was a dangerous game, consisting of a delicate dance where timing was everything.

“Major Martelli,” Sally’s voice came over his quarter’s intercom, “the work teams will assemble in the hangar in ten minutes.”

Mark arose from his bunk and punched the intercom button. “Have you gotten morning status from Japan Station?” For the hundredth time Mark wondered how long they’d keep using earth conventions like the word morning.

“Director Hayashi is remaining in Japan Station but Captain Kaneko and her crew have already driven past the hangar. Since they cover quite a distance, they started earlier today.”

“Good. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Mark was pleased Yumi was following their plan to the letter. For the whole thing to work — for them to be able to use a precious nitrogen tank to finish the cave pressurization two days ahead of the published schedule — Yumi’s crew had to be in the cave working the air valves. Once they started the final pressurization process, things would move quickly.