First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (42 page)

"I
heard. You’re on vox you know that?" Joyce replied dryly.

Mario
grimaced. "Can't sweat the small details, besides you may need
to hear something. We're going to do this in a moment. Can you get
into the life support of Hab two and check it? Do a small test and
see if it holds?"

Joyce
paused for a moment. "If there is a seal breech like on your end
it could blow the door."

He
grimaced. "Okay, let's see if we can take a look first." He
looked over to the girls.

"You
ladies ready?" he asked. Wanda shook her head. "Just get
the suit to Sergei before he freezes solid, and then bring me my
boots back so I can join you."

She
grimaced. "Are you sure we can't stay here?" Wanda asked
timidly.

He
sighed. "Hon, argue later." He opened the outer door. "Move
your pretty ass!" He pointed his thumb out the door. She eased
passed him and down the plastic coated corridor to the first door.
Tess followed. "They’re on their way. We may have to wait
until first light to get a look if it is a through and through
breach. That area is covered in sand bags," he sighed. "What
the hell time is it anyway?" he demanded and then grimaced.

He
looked at the watch on his wrist. "Oh dark thirty," Joyce
responded.

He
chuckled. "Okay, next time emergencies should be arranged in
advance with notices to be filed in triplicate." He looked down
the corridor.

"You’re
still in the lock?" Joyce asked.

"Yeah,
I don't want to chance cutting or burning a hole in my stockings,"
he said.

"Yeah
good point," she replied.

"We're
inside. Sergei is using a tarp to stay warm. He is in his suit. It's
kind of dark and cold, but the air is good," Tess reported.

Mario
sighed. "Good to know." Mario took off his helmet. "Yeah,
cold." His breath froze. "Well, some of the water vapor
should be finding those leaks and filling them with ice," he
said, looking for a silver lining in this mess.

"Da,"
Tess responded, sounding amused.

Wanda
came in holding his boots. "Here they are oh
master
."

He
frowned at her sarcasm. "Thank you dear," He took them and
put them on.

"Why
do you have your helmet off?" she asked wary.

"It's
okay." He led her down the corridor through the locks and into
the vault. "Sergei you okay bud?" he called. He looked over
to Sergei and Tess huddled together beside a heater.

"DDDA
izzzs vvvvery ccccold tttthough."

Mario
nodded. Both had their helmets off. He turned and pulled a reluctant
Wanda in then shut the door. He pulled his helmet up to his face.
"Joyce? We're in the vault. We're going to regroup here and let
Sergei recover so we can plan our next move." He waited a
moment.

"Good
idea. I'll check with higher," Joyce replied. He grimaced and
then nodded.

...*...*...*...*...

"Crap,
not good," Mario sighed fingering the ruptured seal.

"Ruptured?"
Joyce asked.

"Yeah.
Shredded."

She
sighed. "Great, just great."

He
nodded. "I've got one spare. Keep your fingers crossed we don't
have the same problem in Hab two. We do and we're going to be
screwed." He carefully opened the door and walked down the
corridor. "The breach has to be at the junction." He
stopped at where the accordion corridor connected to the hull of the
exterior of Hab two.

"Yup.
Damn, I can see daylight through it too," he sighed frustrated.

"Okay.
Is it just the corridor or is it the seal too?" Joyce asked.

"Let
me check. Carefully he looked the seal over, using his flashlight to
get a better look. He poked a few areas until he came to a line. "I
have a split." He fingered it. "It doesn't go all the way
through, but close."

He
moved on. "Found another... and another. Damn, they aren't all
the way through, but they are pretty close. It looks like ice built
up outside patching them over. I guess that is why we picked up a
drop in life support. Must be triggered when the door closes."
He looked the seal over once more. "We'd have to x-ray the
entire door seal to be sure." He heard Joyce distant sigh once
more.

"Look,
let me get this fixed, I think I can patch it with some plastic. Then
I'll get you folks sorted out." He went back to hab one and
exited out the airlock. "Well, nice not to have to
depressurize." He started trudging to the garage.

"Are
you going to spray it with plastic resin?" Tess asked over the
radio.

"Yeah...
Only thing I can think of to work. If we try heat with an iron it
could seal the top layer, but leave a bubble underneath. Or it could
shred it. I'd like to stick some of the carbon fiber we've been
making, but we don't have enough," he sighed, thoroughly
frustrated. Unfortunately he couldn't scavenge a seal from another
craft; the lock doors were different in the MAV and vehicles. Just
slightly smaller to make it impossible of course, he thought darkly.

He
rounded the corner of the garage and looked around. On a shelf in the
back was the sprayer. "We have less than a kilogram left. We
used it all spraying the inside of the tunnel yesterday," Tess
reminded him.

He
nodded. "Yeah." He picked the compressor and spraying rig
up.

"Should
I come out and help?" Tess asked.

"No,
I'm good. It's tight quarters anyway." He walked back to the
airlock then carried the bulky sprayer and compressor through the hab
and down the tunnel to the door.

He
sighed as he set them down inside the lock. "Okay, I'm set."
He started spraying the cracks. Plastic resin bubbled in the carbon
dioxide atmosphere, and then hardened. "Space age plastics,
gotta love them." He smiled. "Oops." He watched as a
dribble started to drip.

"I
don't like the sound of that oops," Joyce called.

"Just
dribbling and making a mess," he replied. He didn't want them to
worry. He finished with the cracks and then stepped back.

"I
have about half a kilo, more like fifteen or so ounces left." He
used the wand tip to smear dribbles around the seams. He used a
plastic stick he'd made to smooth the seal out. It wasn't pretty but
hopefully it would work. "Okay, it is going to take about a day
to cure. You’re stuck for now guys," Mario said as he
looked it over. “I'll just see if this will work on the
corridor, maybe spray it and the outside too." He hefted the
equipment and moved them into the lock.

"Does
that mean Hab two is okay now?" Doc Waldecker asked.

He
grimaced. He fought the dark thought of leaving them in that tiny
airlock. "We won’t know that until the plastic fully cures
in a day. Until then the two of you are going to have to sit put and
wait it out."

He
sighed as he set the equipment down. "Damn, it has a hole bigger
then my hand, no way." He shook his head. "Plastic ripped.
Looks like it was on the seam too. Kevlar is just gone." He
tried not to grind his teeth together." Okay, so that leaves Hab
one. No way am I trying this stuff on that. We're going to have to
yank the entire door assembly and fix it," he reported. "Damn.
Okay, nothing more I can do here for now, I'm going back inside."

He
left the equipment in the tunnel and returned to the vault. Inside he
took his helmet off and looked around. "You two okay?" he
asked Tess and Sergei. Sergei gave him a thumbs up. "Wanda?"
He looked around. Tess pointed to the open archway. He waved and went
looking for his wife.

"Wanda?"
he asked looking in the lower level.

"Up
here." she called. He grimaced and went up the improvised spiral
stairs. Tess had made them out of the steps, ladders, and stairs they
had saved from the tunnels. The set Luigi had sent in the latest
shipment would be used in the first vault.

"Hi,"
he said. He saw her at the landing. She still had her helmet on.
"Hon, you should conserve that, no telling if we may need it
later." She shook her head. "Honest its fine." He took
his helmet off. "See?" She shook her head again and looked
away. He sighed. He went down the hall and looked around. "We
have four bedrooms here. Or we can set it up like the hab with
smaller ones." He waved. "I thought we could use this one
for now."

Reluctantly
she joined him. "See? We can put a king sized bed right there,
and still have room for your walk in closet," he teased.

She
looked at the room. "It's dark," she said softly walking
over to the wall and running her hand over the resin. "Is it
safe?" Even with their suit lights it was still dark and a
little foreboding.

He
sighed. "Hon, I trust you with everything rock related. Please
trust me in this." She turned and looked down. "Honest."
He waved. "See vaulted ceiling too!" He pointed up. She
looked up and pursed her lips, trying to go with it.

"It
must be a major selling point," she joked weakly.

He
had to chuckle at that. He watched as gingerly she cracked the seal
to her helmet. After a moment she reached up with both hands and took
it off. She seemed to be holding her breath for a moment, and then
she let it out. "Oh cold!" She watched as her breath froze
in front of her. She shook her hair out after a moment.

"A
little. Okay, under fifty. We're working on it." He shrugged as
he came up to her. He hugged her. "Thank you for trusting me,"
he said softly.

She
shook. "I'm sorry I didn't," she replied, equally soft.

He
smiled, glad that was over with. "It takes a little getting used
to I admit."

She
nodded. "Can we do anything about the walls?" she asked.
She motioned to them. He turned to look at what she was looking.

"What
do you have in mind?" he asked curious.

"Cover
them?"

He
nodded thinking it over. If it made her more comfortable he'd try
anything. "Okay, we can do that. Do you mean with plastic or
something?" He had a method to make plastic sheeting on file but
unfortunately they didn't have the equipment. At least not yet
anyway.

She
shook her head. "No, with insulation or a layer of plaster."

He
nodded. "Okay, yeah, we can do that."

She
smiled her eyes lit. "You know, we could maybe paint them too,"
she said.

He
chuckled. "I don't see a Home Depot around here hon," he
teased.

She
grinned. "You said you trust me on rocks right?"

He
nodded. "Yeah...” he drawled eying her.

She
grinned.”So we grind the right rocks together and mix it with
your plastic..."

He
nodded. "Okay, we can thin the plastic out too... might work."

She
laughed and punched him on the shoulder. "It'd better bub."

He
smiled. "Tired of seeing red?" he teased.

"Something
like that," she replied dryly. He walked her out into the
corridor.

"Perhaps
you would like to paint something else?" he asked.

"Like
what?" she asked, now curious. She loved to draw and paint back
in college, she missed it sometimes now. It was soothing. She looked
at his face.

"In
here." He walked her down the corridor and through the side
arch. "It's almost finished actually." He moved her to the
edge. "Careful." He waved to the ceiling. She looked around
then down and gasped. "What do you think?"

She
looked in different directions for a moment then back at him. "Paint
what?"

He
waved to the opposite wall. "That! And that!" He pointed to
the opposite wall and then the ceiling. "If you can make
different colors, then you could do a picture right?"

Her
face suddenly became animated. "Yeah," she breathed,
catching on finally. She smiled then turned her smile on him. "You're
not half as dumb as you look you know that?" she teased.

He
chuckled. "Why thank you dear. Just goes to show, you have good
taste in men," he said, ribbing her. She giggled as he leaned
down and rubbed noses with her. "I think this is how Eskimos do
it."

Her
smile turned into a grin. "I like my way better." Her arm
came up around his neck pulling him closer until her lips locked to
his. After an eternity she let him up for air.

"Yeah,
I think I like your method better too," he gasped, eyes soft and
amused. She chuckled and stroked his reddened cheek.

“You
know, when Tess and I converted her old quarters into the workshop,
we moved the bed here...” He leered at her.

“Down
boy. No
way
am I trying anything in this suit. Besides it is
to dddda-damn cold!” she replied with a glower.

He
laughed. “Awe but honey...”

She
dimpled. “You're impossible you know that? Let's check your
kitchenette for breakfast. I think we're going to have a long day,”
she sighed. Reluctantly he nodded.

...*...*...*...*...

"When
are you going to fix this? It is cold and I am hungry." Doctor
Waldecker whined over the channel.

Mario
grimaced. "We're working as fast as we can," he answered.
It just served the snit right he thought.

"Settle
down, just do some yoga or get some rest," Joyce suggested.

"Easy
for you to say, you’re not trapped in this tiny airlock,"
the Doctor complained.

"Well,
if you hadn't screwed with the temperature we wouldn't be in this in
the first place.
So
I suggest you shut up and let them fix
it!" Wanda snarled over the net.

Mario
grimaced. "Okay, let's focus on the job at hand, we’ve got
Hab two almost ready, just let Tess and I look the other seals over
and we will let you know." Mario watched as Tess traced her hand
around the porthole. "Found another?" he asked turning to
Tess.

She
shook her head. "I don't think so."

He
sighed in relief. "Okay, that's the last one then folks. Do you
want to double check or do you want to close the door and give it a
shot?" he asked.