Deeper Into the Void (21 page)

Chapter 24

O
utside the dome, Captain Cardiff and Doctor Long roll up to within several meters of the outer airlock door. Cardiff is sitting next to Long, she holds her tablet to review what task Mendez or Ghent had been assigned. Mendez never called her on the radio to inform her of her task and location.

As the two enter through the airlock, both quickly remove their helmets. All is perfectly quiet, so quiet that all that they can hear is the sound of breathing. Their boots tread through the damp Martian clay, leaving new impressions in the muddy soil.

Cardiff cautiously unsnaps the holster for her gun as to prevent any undue delay if the need arose to use it. Long walks slightly behind her and to her right as he cautiously watches the other buildings in the plaza. The pair arrives at the entrance to the control center. The glass panel that allows for access shows the door as being unlocked. Cardiff reaches up to touch the handle of the door, and swings it open suddenly.

The bright halogen lights in the hallway flicker and the interior door is wide-open. Something is obviously wrong with this picture. Cardiff reaches for her side-arm and with an open palm instructs Long to wait outside. She leans in toward the inner wall as she quietly makes her way down the short hallway to the inner door in the control room.

From inside the room, the pistol appears and the hands holding it become visible. Simultaneously, Cardiff’s head barely peers around the corner. The lights inside the control center are also flickering in step with the lights in the hallway. The screen is off, the control panel dash flickers slightly with the lights. Cardiff bends down and picks up the gun case off of the floor, the same case that she had left on the table before. There isn’t anyone else in the control center; not in the control room, nor in the hallway. Cardiff turns and walks back down the hallway, holstering her weapon at the same time.

A simple nod indicates the simplicity and sensibility of the request given him. Walking further up the plaza to the living quarters, Long is watching intently for any signs of further problems or duress. The door leading into the hallway that ends in the mess hall is also open; this is not surprising though, the door is almost never closed.

The hallway is completely dark; the mess hall at the end of the hallway is well lit as a result of the windows adorning it. Long takes quiet steps into the hallway, the lights come on down the hallway. The mess hall at the end is further illuminated by artificial lighting.

Cardiff finds herself at the door of the utility control building. The door hangs slightly ajar, and the inside is completely dark. Once again drawing her weapon and holding it steadfastly in her right hand, she reaches for the door with her left hand; a firm push swings it open quickly.

The power converting and distributing hardware hums in the darkness of the large utility room. Rows of utility hardware stand neatly, bolted to the floor. Cardiff grabs her flashlight, holding it with her left hand, she braces her other wrist with it. She steps into the room with one foot. No movement can be seen in the room, so Cardiff turns her attention to finding the light controls in the room. A simple old-fashioned switch on the wall next to the door is found a moment later, and the lights quickly illuminate the corners, and the rest of the irregular room.

The breaker panels are arranged down the row on the left side of the room. Cardiff walks to the left, slowly, making her way down the rows toward the last row. After locating the array of breakers, she looks for the panel labeled “control center”. With the appropriate panel located, the door is opened to the panel, revealing the breakers that regulate the control center’s power. A single sharp piece of metal has been jammed into a small hole in the panel, this is the obvious problem. She reaches for her earpiece with her left hand and presses it.

Long appears at the doorway as Cardiff is looking at the breaker box. He looks to the right, over by the water filtration, and then to his left. He spots her several meters down the narrow walkway and begins to walk toward her. As he rounds the last aisle way, he notices what she is looking at. She notices him as he stands behind her. She moves to point at the metal shard. He simply nods his head at her.

Cardiff and Long rush back up the pathway to the airlock, putting their gear back on as they run. The rig sits outside, awaiting their quick return.

Chapter 25

C
ardiff presses the console on the large rig, gaining access to the satellite imagery. The main screen above illuminates with a bird’s-eye view of the area around the dome. Long is getting ready to haul out some extra oxygen canisters.

Doctor Long grabs the last two full oxygen cylinders, which had been loaded into the atmospheric processing machine. Shouldering them, Long quickly hauls them through the airlock. He throws them on the back of the rig and climbs the ladder to ride alongside the captain. The humming of the rig once again drowns out the faint sound of wind blowing outside. Back into the sea of sand and rock, Long and Cardiff cruise, this time to recover what’s left of the rest of the team.

The rig rolls up alongside the walking pair; they soon become aware of the fact that they were being followed. Mendez and Ghent appear to be quite surprised; they jumped a little when they first became aware of the vehicle approaching them from behind. Apparently, they did not expect to see a rescue party.

Ghent holds his hand out for Mendez as he helps her to climb into the rig. He then climbs into the rig after she slides over into the adjacent seat. Long begins to turn the rig back around to head back to the dome, Mendez leans forward from her seat behind him and grabs his shoulder.

The rig rolls over the final hill before it will roll into the valley, which houses the Reconciliation. The sun gleams brightly off of the solar panels on the smaller rig; the missing solar rig sits adjacent to the larger ship.

The rig rolls slightly faster down the decline into the flat plain below. Several minutes of traversing the flat plain sees the rig approaching the freighter.

The unsettled dust begins to rest again in the windless air as the rig stops several meters from the shuttle. Ghent and Mendez are the first two to jump out of the vehicle and run toward the ship. Cardiff walks over to them, she is quick to join the pair as they stand next to the airlock. Long steps out of the cabin of the rig slowly and stands on the top rung of the rig.

He watches the rest of the team eagerly access the airlock and disappear into the ship. Doctor Long then turns his attention to the solar rig outside the ship. Each step he takes brings him closer to the unresolved issue of what is really going on.

Now standing adjacent to the control seat, or the driver’s seat, he bends over to look at the shattered console. A single long sliver of metal has been pressed with great force into the glass panel, thousands of fractures run through the safety glass. A single frozen stream of blood runs down the sliver onto the broken glass panel.

Long retrieves his pliers from his folding knife tool, and a vial from his belt. A simple pull on the sliver sees it released from the glass and placed into the sample vial. Long looks up from his work on the console and looks back toward the freighter. No one is in sight; he quietly and quickly places the vial back in its place on his belt.

Cardiff appears from the airlock and beckons to Doctor Long to join them inside. Long reluctantly joins her in the airlock, and the outer door shuts behind him. A rush of air entering the airlock produces a vapor cloud inside it. A brief moment later, the inner door opens and Cardiff removes her helmet inside with a twist. The outside of Long’s helmet begins to fog up as the difference in temperature on each side of the glass is quite different in this pressurized and moist environment. Long follows suit and removes his helmet.

The frigid air inside the ship immediately captures his attention as his ears and nose begin to feel the pain of bitter cold upon them. Each exhaled breath from the team produces a rushing cloud of vapor. The rest of the team seems too preoccupied to notice the cold air.

Crates of supplies have been opened throughout the cargo area, and have been discarded randomly in different places within the hold of the ship. Wrappers and supplies lay everywhere, hoses and electrical lines lay about. The next thing that Doctor Long notices is that the door in the bulkhead, which leads to the cabin upfront, is sealed tightly shut.

With his helmet under his arm, pressed against his torso, Long ventures forward and reaches the sealed door. A simple press of his bare hand against the access control and it opens. Long cautiously enters the bright cabin, the vast windshield allows the sun’s light in; the light penetrates even the darkest corners of the cabin.

Most alarming to Long, is the fact that the cabin is in pristine order, it is immaculate and everything is exactly where it is supposed to be. Everything in its place, save one item: a single glass tablet lay on the control console on the copilot’s side.

As Long reaches for it, he notices an oddity that he also did not expect to see, the glass is broken, and the tablet is simply held together by the plastic coatings on the glass. The only legible item on the entire tablet was “Lawrence”, which is etched into the top left of the tablet. The crackling noise emitted by the tablet as it is picked up causes Long to set his helmet down, and hold the tablet with more vigilance, to hold it with both hands. Mendez walks up behind Long and places her hand on his shoulder as he looks down at the tablet in bewilderment.

Cardiff and Ghent join the others in the cabin and have heard the ensuing conversation.