Luke Marusiak - Lifeboat Moon

“We’re holding a naming contest. We have the suggestions of Moon Base Eden — after the biblical Garden of Eden, Moon Base Phoenix — the rebirth of humanity, and Moon Base Sumer — for the first known human civilization.” He waited and absorbed Yumi’s silence. “But we know we need something that works for both our crews. Do you have any ideas?”

“Director Hayashi suggests the title: Moon Base Sosu — that is the Japanese word for beginning or inception.”

“That’s a good concept but my crew wouldn’t know the word Sosu. It’d be best if we come up with a name both crews admire.”

“Yes, I said as much to Director Hayashi.”

Mark wondered how long the JAXA convention of using titles rather than names would survive in the new united arrangement. “I’ll let the Moon Base Armstrong crew know about the Sosu idea.”

“Good. When will we be ready to complete the cave pressurization with nitrogen?”

“Three hours. I’ll get confirmation from Brexton Little — the ArmCon’s son — that Shift Manager Graham is off shift and asleep in his quarters.”

“Do you plan to confront him when he awakes?”

“Yes.” Mark planned to confront Doug with a group of his friends standing with him. “Your shielding cloth should confuse him. He’ll see his device and your mock controller but won’t be able to control anything in the cave. The pressurization two days ahead of schedule will disrupt his timetable.”

“We were wise to use simple moon manufactured controllers in the cave. Our control systems must be robust. The sophistication and interconnectedness of the NASA and JAXA designs is unneeded.”

“For the time being we’ll keep everything simple. We don’t know what else Shift Manager Graham planned. This cave is our insurance.”

“It’s wrong for so much evil to be brought about by just one person.”

“It wasn’t brought about by just one person. Our culling plan was motivation for Shift Lead Arthur Sledge’s suicide. We must show our crews that we’re all important, that we all matter.”

“When the cave is operational and we are united, we will be visibly in it together. Let’s switch to the work team communications so we can direct pressurization activities. Only a few know we’re pressurizing the cave today. This will be motivation for both of our crews.”

“Yes,” Mark said. As long as Doug doesn’t have any more tricks up his sleeve. He and Yumi pulled the mulch container dolly down the buggy trailer ramp. Two of Tina’s work team members appeared and moved it into the cave.

Doug looked at Arthur Sledge’s shift lead replacement Jim Staid with a measure of disgust. He was, like Sally Ride Henderson, a true believer. Doug could handle scoundrels and politicians. He could handle the Steady-Eddy who only wanted to do their job and go back to their quarters. He could handle those despairing of hope. But Doug had a problem with true believers.

Jim Staid had no idea if or how humanity would survive but that didn’t matter. He was upbeat, can-do, and perpetually optimistic. But worst of all, in spite of being one of the sole survivors of the most horrific and unimaginable tragedy to befall humanity, Jim Staid was immune to suffering. He enjoyed everything about this new life and the new leadership. Doug wanted to kill him. When he thought about it, Doug realized he would kill Jim along with everyone else. That provided a measure of relief.

“Jim, you should do your base walkthrough to check all the seal gauges.”

“Now?” Jim looked at the control room clock. “Aren’t the checks supposed to be done in an hour?”

“I’ve been doing Moon Base Armstrong’s Shift Management longer than anyone here but Sally. We need to adjust our procedures as the situation requires.”

“What’s changed with the situation?”

“We’ve ripped installed cables from the Manufacturing Pod — the one place we’ve had multiple leaks. That area is unmanned since the crew’s working the cave preparation.”

“Sure but wouldn’t we see the problem here first?”

“Maybe, maybe not. I want you to do a thorough check of the analog pressure gauges of all Pod hatches. Pay particular attention to the hatch of the Manufacturing Pod and the permanently sealed Habitation Tube One.”

“I’m on it,” Jim said. He bounded down to the hangar, then jumped in a long arc to the Nexus hatch.

“Be thorough and log each reading with a digital image from your contactor.”

“Will do.” Jim opened the hatch to the Nexus and disappeared.

Doug exhaled. I need to see if they found my present in the mulch controller. He thought of surreptitiously checking with Jim present. He doubted Jim knew enough to figure out what he was doing. But Doug had underestimated Mark and he prided himself on not making the same mistake twice. He wasn’t about to underestimate the true believer Jim Staid.

Doug logged into his back door of the master control and communications system. He activated the point to point communications channel he’d used twice before — once to trigger his remote device in the director’s quarters during the pod descent and once to trigger the remote chisel that cracked the seam in the Manufacturing Pod.

He waited a moment and smiled. My device is working. It’s over there in the cave system and ready to turn every essential controller into a killing device. Doug tapped in the command to poll the Bluetooth devices. He frowned when seeing that none were discovered. That can’t be right. His point to point communications with the remotes were the complicated systems. For his remotes he encrypted signals that were in the background space radio frequencies. How could that work and not Bluetooth? Bluetooth was straightforward — he should be seeing something — at least he should see the mulch sensors.

He then saw a flashing indicator that his remote was communicating with a single Bluetooth controller. When the data displayed he saw his device was communicating with one mulch environmental controller. What’s going on here? Were those boobs so incompetent as to not place repeaters from cave branch to branch? He checked the digital work logs and saw that repeaters were placed. Weren’t they checked? He shook his head. Something was wrong. He should’ve had clear view of dozens of the cave controllers.

Doug heard the latch from the Nexus hatch turn and cleared his screens. Jim entered the hangar, secured the hatch behind him, and bounded up to the control room. “All secure,” Jim said. “I have the images here for the log. The seals in the Manufacturing Pod — my old work area — are holding better than when we were in there.”

“Of course,” Doug said. “All the equipment that used to be in the Manufacturing Pod vibrated those seals around the clock. Without the vibration, everything remains solid.”

“I can’t wait to get our manufacturing going in the cave. Moon Base Armstrong is getting emptier and emptier with all the equipment being moved to the cave.”

“It is,” Doug said. Moon Base Armstrong was getting empty of everything — except the crew. Doug was running out of time. If he wanted to strike the deathblow, his window to do it was down to three days. His cave device may or may not be working. I need to use my back up plan. I need to strike the moment I get off shift.

Without knowing he had control of the caves, Doug’s only option was to destroy Moon Base Armstrong and Japan Station before the cave was crewed. He had two days before pressurization but too much was going wrong. And they may be onto him. I need to act now. He was thankful the software in Moon Base Armstrong’s control room was layers and layers of complexity. He had used his time on shift well since the gamma ray burst.