Space Corps - Explorer (Book 1) (4 page)

Chapter 7

Waiting and Preparing

“Admiral, cargo bay two has been cleared and is outfitted to house the survivors.”

Ashley looked up from her console.

“Glad to hear it. Do you have any word on security?”

“Yes, sir. We’re prepared to have armed guards on watch twenty-four hours a day if necessary.”

“Good. I can’t imagine them being a problem, but there’s always a risk of them trying to steal system information from us. I don’t want to run the risk.”

The ensign hit a couple of buttons on his tablet before looking at the Admiral once more.

“One more concern I have is with regards to the medical needs of our guests.”

“What about it, Ensign?”

“Well, we only have four medics on board. That doesn’t allow us much manpower to use for them. If there are a lot of injuries, I don’t know if they’ll be able to keep up with it all.”

Ashley began walking toward the main engineering room with the ensign just a step behind.

“Ensign, what did you do before you joined my crew?”

“Sir, I worked on a nuclear sub for six years.”

“And did you ever take first aid and survival training?”

“Yes, sir. Of course, sir.”

“Then you, and everyone else on this ship, are more than qualified to assist the medics if they should need it, aren’t you?”

The ensign looked down to the ground, and then put a couple notes on his electronic tablet. If his magnetic boots didn’t have such a strong grip on the floor, he would have shuffled his feet.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ashley said. “Look, you’ve been working a lot over the last couple of days. I appreciate everything you’ve done. I asked you to handle preparations of the cargo bay because I knew you could handle it, and you have. Now, I’m going to suggest you grab something to eat and get some sleep before we arrive on the scene. Once we start bringing people on board, no one will be getting much rest.”

When the ensign nodded in appreciation, the dark circles under his eyes showed his exhaustion. He gave a quick salute and went on his way.

With no one around, Ashley decided to relax a bit. Shutting off the magnets in her boots, she began floating in the middle of the hallway. She had a lot on her mind, but stress melted away while floating in the air.

As she kicked off the wall, she decided to make her way to her quarters. If she could catch some sleep, she knew she needed to before things became too busy.

Her personal quarters were plain, but suited to her tastes. Along one wall sat a workstation. Though a bit of a mess, she knew where everything belonged without thinking about it. Another wall held a small closet and the entrance to the bathroom.

At one end, nothing but white and metal, the third wall was now the most precious to Ashley. It didn’t take her long to fill it with pictures of her family and friends.

At least with her family and friends, Ashley could send and receive messages. It hurt for her to say goodbye to her turtles before she left. Her mom and dad agreed to take care of them. She knew they were safe, but couldn’t see them for the whole trip. Looking at pictures just didn’t feel the same as holding one of them in the palm of her hand. She missed watching them lift their heads up to see if she offered any worms as a treat.

The flashing of the monitor caught her off guard. Ashley couldn’t believe how many messages sat in her inbox after not checking her mail for several days. 

Most of the messages came from people she hardly knew. Ever since she invented the Ion Pulse Drive, she achieved a bit of fame. With such fame came people she had once known suddenly wanting to know her better. She didn’t mind so much, but the messages from those people took time away from the important messages.

After a quick search, she saw what she wanted to see. Her mother and father sent her a message. As much as she would love to call them, she knew that the message would take more than five minutes to reach her family.

As soon as she opened the message, she smiled. Her father and mother squeezed in close together so they could both be in view.

Most of the message contained updates on sports, work, and weather, but the ending was the same as always.

“Ashley,” her father said, almost choking up, “we miss you so much, but I hope you know how proud we are of you.”

“Of course I do,” Ashley said to no one.

She couldn’t help but laugh at herself. Ashley knew no one could hear her say it, but it made her feel better just the same. She accomplished a lot in her life, but none of it would have been possible without the help and encouragement of her parents.

Over and over, Ashley replayed the message. She wanted to send one in reply, but couldn’t think of what to say. As usual, putting feelings into words felt much harder than it should be.

When ready to take a shower, Ashley entered into the bathroom and removed her uniform. To keep it from drifting off, she shoved it in a small bag attached to the wall.

Stepping into a circle on the floor in the bathroom, Ashley reached down and pulled up on a hoop. She lifted it over her head and connected it to the ceiling. With a wand she pulled down from the ceiling, she sprayed herself down with water to wash up.

Drops of water filled the air. Without gravity, the water floated around without direction. As they collided, they formed larger and larger balls of water. When one of the large balls of water hit Ashley or the wall of the tube, they shattered into thousands of smaller droplets. The cycle continued until Ashley turned off the water and switched the hose onto its vacuum mode. To dry herself and the air, she just let the vacuum suck in all the water.

When the water sucked out of the shower, it went to the recycling room. Machines in that room cleaned all the air and water for as much reuse as possible. The filters were so good that the ship wouldn’t need to replenish its water supply for almost a year.

At last, Ashley could get some well-deserved sleep.

Against the wall by the door, there hung what looked like a sleeping bag. Ashley unrolled it and slid in. Though soft and comforting, she found it difficult at first to sleep without the pull of gravity. Slowly, she found she enjoyed the feeling. As she turned while she fell asleep, the cord attaching the sleeping bag to the wall kept her from floating off into the other walls.

“Lights off,” Ashley said.

The lights came back on much sooner than Ashley planned.

“Admiral, this is Lieutenant-Commander Holt on the bridge, please respond.”

“Go ahead.”

“Admiral, we need you up on the bridge as soon as possible.”

Ashley left her sleeping bag and put her uniform on before Holt finished his sentence. If she hadn’t already been running down the hall with her magnetic boots clanging underneath her, she may have taken the time to respond.

“Holt, status report,” Ashley said as soon as she entered the bridge.

“Yes, sir. We’ve just received word from Commander Gibbs. They’ve found the Fu Zing. Things aren’t looking good. They need us there immediately.”

“How far away are we?”

“Just a few hours. There are survivors, but there aren’t any airlocks functioning properly, so we have to find another way to get them out.”

Before Ashley asked for him, Chief Engineer Reynolds walked onto the bridge.

“Admiral, you’ll be glad to know that we’re completely prepared to take on any survivors we find.”

“And how are we going to get them on board?”

“Sir, it’s not without risk, but if they don’t have a working airlock—”

Ashley shook her head.

Reynolds nodded in return. “Not to worry; we prepared for that. Like I said, it’s not without risk, but we can create a temporary air lock. We’ll have to cut into their hull and use extending docking clamps, but we can get their people out.”

“And you’re ready to do this?” Ashley asked.

“I sure hope so.”

Chapter 8

Search and Rescue

“Admiral?”

“Go ahead, Harris.”

“We’re approaching the Fu Zing now.”

Ashley looked over at her diagnostics team. Before she asked, they displayed an image of the damaged Chinese craft on the screen on the port side monitor.

Card, the communications officer, said, “We have Commander Gibbs on a line. He’s requesting to speak with you, Admiral.”

Ashley nodded, and the voice of the commander filled the bridge.

“Explorer, this is Commander Gibbs of the Protector.”

“We read you, Commander,” Ashley replied.

“Admiral, we’ve managed to clear most of the debris, but there’s still more than enough to cause problems for the Explorer. Normally I’d suggest that you keep the ship back until we can clear everything out of the way, but the crew of the Fu Zing doesn’t have much air left. I’m afraid we don’t have time to be as careful as I’d like.

“It looks like the remaining crew managed to lock themselves in a small section of the ship. We’re detecting heat signatures with thermal imaging. I don’t know how we’re going to get them out of there without a working airlock, but they’re straight ahead of you.”

“Admiral,” Harris said, “if tactical can manage to keep as much of the debris off my back as possible, I’m sure we can squeeze in there without too much of a problem.”

Surveying the scene, Ashley saw very little of the Martian lander to save. Except for one large chunk, only small pieces remained and floated in space.

“Commander, do we have any idea what’s happened?”

“That’s a negative, sir. We can’t contact them. Even if we could, we don’t have a translator aboard the Protector. Whatever it was, it was bad.”

“Obviously,” Ashley said to herself. “Tactical, any ideas how we can clear the way?”

Ensign Tran ran through a bunch of text on one of his monitors.

“Admiral, if we call the Protector back to a safe point, we can use directional charges to clear most of the smaller debris.”

Ashley thought about the proposal for a few moments.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to explain what you mean.”

“Well, sir, the directional charges are just small explosives. We have them on the Explorer, but Guardian and Protector don’t. If we set them up to blow directly forward, the force of the blast should push all the debris safely out of the way.”

“I like it, but there’s one problem,” Ashley said.

“Sir?”

“The force of the blast could also push what’s left of the lander away. We can’t have that.”

Lieutenant-Commander Holt started pushing buttons on his console like a madman.

“Admiral, I’m afraid that means we’re going to have to just take it slow. We can push most of the more threatening stuff out of the way using low-yield missiles. Other than that, it’s all on the shoulders of Harris.”

The pilot looked back toward Ashley. When she nodded at him, he knew exactly what he needed to do.

Slowly but surely, the Explorer pressed forward toward the largest remaining segment of the Fu Zing. The smaller pieces of debris they couldn’t avoid made a noise like rain on the hull of the vessel. Occasionally, a whooshing sound would pass through the ship as tactical officers Holt or Tran fired off a low-yield missile to push back the larger shrapnel.

“Just think, that could have been us,” Reynolds said.

Card turned to him. “You can’t think like that. You’ll drive yourself crazy.”

As the Explorer moved forward, Commander Gibbs ordered the crew of the Protector to connect tow cables to the surviving segment of the Martian lander. Though difficult, attaching the cables allowed them to control the movement of the segment.

“Reynolds, are we close enough for you to bring our friends aboard?” Ashley asked.

For a few moments, Reynolds sat frozen in his chair.

“Almost. There’s an airlock on the port side of the Explorer. I need it to be no further than twenty meters from the flattest surface the Lander has to offer.”

“Card, ask Gibbs to bring the segment as close as he can without risking damage to us.”

The Protector slowly moved toward the port side of the Explorer. The longer it took to get the Fu Zing in place, the less likely the crew would succeed in rescuing the survivors. All their effort would be for nothing if they damaged the Explorer.

Crackling back to life, the radio broadcast the voice of Commander Gibbs.

“Admiral, we’re as close as we can get. I hope that cuts it.”

Reynolds spoke to some engineers from his team over a private channel on their radios. His orders caused several men, dressed in full space suits, to exit the airlock. With them, they moved a long, thick tube until it made contact with hull of the Martian lander.

Card couldn’t hold in her curiosity.

“What are they doing?”

Reynolds spoke quietly, as if he thought speaking too loud could cause his men to lose focus.

“First, they’ve got to connect that tube to the Fu Zing. To make sure no air gets through, they’re going to weld it directly to their hull.”

Four men floated outside the tube. The rest stayed inside. As the men moved, they moved their harnesses. Failure to do so could leave them to float off into space.

“Now that they’ve welded the tube to the Martian lander, two men in the tube are going to cut through their hull. Because the hull of the lander is so thick, it will probably take a while. As they’re cutting through the hull, the tube is going to be pressurized so that the crew of the lander will be able to breathe.”

Once the tube filled with breathable air, the men inside began their work of cutting into the lander. The men would not fail in their goal no matter how difficult the work. They received orders and they wouldn’t defy them unless given no other choice.

“Is medical on standby?” Ashley asked.

“Yes, sir. They’re just inside our airlock,” Reynolds replied.

At last, the engineering team managed to cut through the hull. It took all the effort two men could put into it, but they pushed the heavy piece of metal through.

Several security officers made their way through the hole first with their weapons drawn. They had no reason to think the crew of the lander would pose a threat to them, but they couldn’t take the chance.

“Admiral, please come in.”

“Go ahead.”

“Admiral, we’ve made our way into the vessel. There are a lot of people lying around in here, but no one’s moving.”

One of the soldiers dropped to his knees while he checked the vitals of one of the crew. Even in an unconscious state, the man breathed and showed a strong heartbeat.

Reynolds stood. “It’s the air. Get those men out of there and into cargo bay two as fast as possible. We’ll have the medics look at them immediately.

When the first crewman of the Fu Zing came to, he looked up at Admiral Ashley with a translator by her side. Like the man on the floor of the cargo bay, he could speak Chinese, but dressed in a sharp Space Corps uniform.

The man struggled to speak. When he did, even if Ashley spoke Chinese, she would have barely understood him. The translator did his best.

“He wants to know what happened.”

Ashley couldn’t help but smile. “So do we.”

One of the medics shouted out for the Admiral’s attention. The man she worked with looked bright and alert.

“Hello, my name is Admiral Sorrells of the US Space Corps.”

After the translator did his job, the man smiled and extended his hand.

“I am Commander Liang Hong,” he said in Chinese. He took a quick look around the cargo bay. “It appears I am the commanding officer now. What happened to my men?”

Ashley looked toward the medic for an answer.

“Your crew suffered from hypercapnia. It is a condition they got when the air filters on your ship stopped working. In short, they were breathing in what they were breathing out, and it made them very sick. They should all be well again soon.”

Dismissing the doctor, Ashley expressed her thanks. “Now that you know what happened to your men, we need to know what happened to your ship.”

Hong’s eyes went wide. “Admiral, I don’t know if you would believe me if I told you. None of us did. That’s why we weren’t able to respond in time.”

“In time for what?”

“That’s what you wouldn’t believe. I assume your crew scanned for any asteroids?”

Ashley nodded.

“If they scanned for them, I’ll bet they didn’t find any, or even the remains of one, did they?”

Ashley shook her head.

“They didn’t find any asteroids, because there weren’t any to be found. Our ship was not struck. Our ship was attacked.”

For a moment, Ashley believed the translator misunderstood Commander Hong’s words. However, the look in Hong’s eyes told her all she needed to know.

“I’m sorry,” Ashley said, “but are you absolutely certain you meant to say your ship was attacked?”

Hong nodded.

Ashley shook her head. “I don’t understand. How could you have been attacked? Who could have done it?”

“How indeed, but I think you may be better off asking what could have done it.” Hong gave Ashley a moment to digest what he had said. “We thought we were alone in the universe. We were wrong.”