The Bonding (6 page)

Everyone blankly stared at him, and one of
his men spoke up. “Lieutenant, how did they test it?”

Leddy looked at him and laughed. “Hell if
I know, but that’s what they told me.”

Just then, the entire shelter shook as a
meteorite hit about ten meters away. Everyone ducked and grabbed onto
something, as though ducking made any difference.

“Shit! I don’t believe this fucking thing
will stand up to
any
direct hits,” one of the men blurted. “I don’t care
how damned small the rock is.”

“Yeah!” Another exclaimed. “I was here
when that one destroyed the storage building, and it was only a small one. The
whole building disappeared.”

“I was here too.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Guys, guys!” Lieutenant Sanders shouted.
“We need to stay calm. It won’t help anything if anyone panics. We’re
definitely safer in here than out there.”

Sanders glanced at Leddy. “Just to be
safe, I think we should suit up.”

Leddy nodded. “I agree, everyone get your
suits on; better to be safe than sorry.” He leaned over to Sanders and
muttered. “I don’t trust the damned thing either.”

Each impact seemed to get a little
closer, and the ground shook a little harder. Everyone hurried to get suited up
and three meteors hit simultaneously around the shelter. The last one hit so
close that it knocked a three-foot hole in the wall. The air rushed out as the
building began to depressurize, sucking out the man closest to the hole. Two
others lost their helmets and tried to hold their breath as everyone grabbed onto
anything solid.

Leddy made a desperate move by running
across the room, towards the hole, with a large piece of metal. When he was ten
feet away the suction lifted him off his feet, but he kept the metal in front
of him. At the last second, he released the metal and it slammed into the wall,
covering the hole. He dropped to the floor and looked around. The two men who
were holding their breath exhaled and breathed normally. Everyone was holding
onto whatever they could.

“I think we can relax, guys,” Leddy said,
breathing hard.

“I ain’t relaxing until they’re all
gone!” one of the men yelled.

The bombardment continued for nearly ten
minutes; the longest ten minutes that any of them had ever experienced. They
estimated that over a hundred small meteors hit the moon, and miraculously, the
only damage was the small hole in the wall. They couldn’t believe it.

“Anyone know who got sucked out?” Sanders
asked.

“It was Robinson, sir,” one of the men
replied.

Sanders shook his head in dismay.
“Jackson, Fielder, you guys okay?”

“Yes, sir,” each replied.

“I was worried when I saw your helmets
fly out the hole.”

“I think it would have been bad if
Lieutenant Leddy hadn’t acted so fast,” Fielder said.

Sanders looked over at Leddy, who was
picking himself off the floor. “You okay, Bob?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. I hope the shuttles got
away.”

           
On
Intrepid, all of the rockets had fired and the shuttle was clear of the moon.
However, none of them knew that they were still in the path of the one large
meteoroid that had barely missed the Moonwalker and the moon. It was coming
right up their tailpipe. Commander Shelby shut down the rockets and was
preparing to fire the stabilizing jets to turn them around. She would then fire
a short burst from the rockets to stop them from going into deep space. She was
reaching for the stabilizing jet switch when the twenty-meter space rock
crashed directly into the tail of the shuttle. Although the shuttle was already
moving at over ten thousand miles per hour, the meteoroid was moving much
faster and hit with such force that Janet’s arm slung away from the switch and
back over her head. Her seat ripped loose from the floor and followed her arm.
She was strapped in and went with the seat into the back wall of the flight
deck. Her head hit so hard that it immediately knocked her unconscious and put
her into a coma. The seat, with her limp body attached, continued to ricochet
around the flight deck.

           
In
the galley, Ron and Oliver’s seats also came loose from the tremendous impact
and were thrown to the back of the shuttle. Ron’s seat smashed into the wall
hitting a sharp piece of metal that had been ripped loose. It pierced his seat
and entered the middle of his back, snapping his spine like a twig. His body
arched from the force and his arms stretched out as though trying to catch
himself from falling. His eyes and mouth opened wide from the shock of the
jagged metal going completely through his body and projecting eight inches out
of his chest. Ron died instantly. His blood spurted out, forming shapeless globules
that floated about the cabin, splashing against the shuttle walls.

           
The
meteoroid hit with such force that it ripped a huge hole in the side of the
shuttle. The ship’s oxygen rushed through the gaping hole. It was a miracle
that the shuttle didn’t explode. Oliver bounced around uncontrollably, hitting
the walls and ricocheting around the cabin. He tried desperately to get
unstrapped from his seat, fearing that he may also get sucked out into space.
Finally, the straps released and he grabbed the nearest solid object as his
seat disappeared through the hole. He pulled himself away from the opening,
gasping for air. The low oxygen warning blared loudly, and he thought of his
spacesuit. He looked around, and there, at the other side of the shuttle, the suits
were hanging in a cabinet. He braced his feet against the wall and pushed as
hard as he could to propel himself towards them. The oxygen was nearly gone,
and Oliver was straining for air. When he reached the suits, he was extremely
weak and breathing in short pulses. He pulled the suit from the case and began
putting it on.

“Commander Shelby!” he tried to shout,
but the sound barely came out. He was breathing extremely hard, and in very
rapid, short gasps. Again he tried to call to her. “Commander Shelby! Can you
hear me?” He couldn’t see into the flight deck, which was at least forty feet
away, and didn’t know if she was dead or alive. He could see that Ron was dead
and continued desperately to get his suit on. His coordination was off,
impaired by the lack of oxygen, and his fumbling grip caused a fatal mistake.
He lost the helmet, and when he tried to catch it, he only pushed it farther
away. He looked at the helmet floating away, then to the flight deck door, and
back to the helmet. The remaining air was almost gone and he grew weaker by the
second. Acknowledging that he wasn’t going to get his suit on before the oxygen
ran out, and that he also wouldn’t be able to get into the flight deck and
close the door behind him, he decided to try to close it from the outside, in
case Janet was still alive. That way, any remaining oxygen would be trapped
inside with her. Plus, the flight deck had its own life support system, which
automatically activates during a sudden loss of pressure. The entire flight
deck could be jettisoned from the shuttle, if necessary. Oliver knew he wasn’t
going to remain conscious for more than a few seconds, and this way, at least
someone might survive to tell what happened. Again, he braced his feet against
the side of the shuttle and pushed as hard as he could, aiming for the button
to close the flight deck door. He pointed his finger towards it as he floated
across the cabin.

“Please let me reach it,” he whispered in
prayer. He was ten feet away when he gasped one more time, his lungs straining
for the air that wasn’t there. The only thing that entered was the cold, vacuum
of space. His eyes rolled back in the sockets and his mouth hung open, still
searching for one more breath. He quivered slightly, but kept his finger
pointed at the target. His body floated towards the button, but Oliver was
dead. His aim was good and his lifeless finger pushed the button as his body
hit the wall. The flight deck door closed.

           
The
moon base crew, convinced that it was over, came out of the shelter, each
person putting his face against the clear walls of the tube and looking at the
clouds of moon dust still settling.

“Smitty, Gardner and Peters, go out and
see if you can find Robinson,” Leddy said. “He had on his helmet, but I don’t
know if he had it secured before he got sucked out.”

“We’ll find him, sir,” Peters replied.
“One way or another, we’ll find him.”

“Patterson and Fielder, secure that hole.
I’m sure it’s still leaking some.”

“Yes, sir,” Fielder said. “Consider it
fixed.”

Sanders went immediately to the radio and
called the shuttles. “Intrepid! Moonwalker! Can you hear me?”

“Moonwalker is here,” Commander Rand
replied.

           
“Thank
God! Are you guys okay up there? We had one hell of a meteor shower down here,
and we may have lost one man.”

           
“We
had a hell of a time up here too,” Rand complained. “They knocked out all of
our engines, except the stabilizers. We were damn lucky that we didn’t crash
into the moon. I haven’t had a chance to look at the rest of the ship yet. Have
you heard from Intrepid?”

           
“No,
not yet.”

“Intrepid from Moonwalker, do you copy?”

           
They
waited a few seconds, in silence, and Rand repeated, “Intrepid! Can you hear
me?”

           
Again, nothing but silence.
This time Sanders made the call.
“Intrepid from Moon base. Can you guys hear us?”

           
A
sigh of relief came over everyone as the radio crackled to life with a man’s
voice. “Moon base, Moonwalker, Intrepid, this is Houston center. How do you
read?”

           
Their
enthusiasm quickly diminished when they heard Houston instead of Intrepid. They
cussed under their breath. “Damn, Houston!” Rand moaned. “We thought you were
Intrepid calling. Have you heard from her?”

           
“No!
We could hear you talking, but not Intrepid. Intrepid from Houston center, do
you copy?”

           
Everyone
on the moon base, the Moonwalker and Houston center silently stared at the
radios, waiting for anything from Intrepid, but there was nothing.

           
“Janet!
Oliver! Ron! Can any of you hear me?” Rand pleaded. “Please guys, if you can
hear me, just click the mike.” They continued staring at the radios, but
nothing came back from Intrepid.

           
“I’m
going to switch to the other frequency and try again,” Sanders suggested.
Everyone switched to the alternate frequency as Sanders called again; the only
reply was silence. “Damn it Intrepid! If any of you can hear me, do something
so we know you’re there! Come on guys!”

           
“Moonwalker,
this is Houston. Can you circle the moon and search for them? They’re probably
on the other side and their radio is blacked out.”

           
“Houston,
we can’t do anything at the moment. The meteoroids knocked out our main
engines. All we have are the stabilizers, and we barely got stopped with them.”

           
“Shit!”
Matt Johnson cursed, as he slammed his fist down onto one of the consoles. The
man sitting at the console jumped at the sound and looked up. Matt slowly moved
his eyes across the group; blank, helpless stares looked back at him. The
entire team was feeling the same way and waiting for his next command. “I guess
all we can do now is wait to see if they come out from behind the moon.
If any of you know a good prayer, now’s the time to say it.
God, I hope they didn’t crash.”

           
All
was deadly silent on Intrepid. The auxiliary power units shut down, killing all
electrical power and life support systems throughout the shuttle. The
atmosphere was cold and dark, lit only by the starlight entering through the
large hole in the hull and the windows. In the flight deck, Commander Shelby
floated, unconscious, strapped to her seat. The flight deck emergency life
support system had engaged and was supplying minimal oxygen and heat to keep
her alive.

In the cabin, Oliver’s body and globules
of Ron’s frozen blood floated around with other debris from the collision. The
shuttle aimlessly hurdled into space at over ten thousand miles per hour.

           
Houston
Control Center continued calling Intrepid every ten minutes. It had now been
over four hours, and still no sign. It should have come around the moon by now,
if it was coming. What everyone
believed,
was that it
had crashed on the dark side of the moon, most likely killing everyone on
board. One of the Houston controllers said a prayer over the radio. “Dearest
heavenly father, if you are really there and watching over us, then please take
care of your children on Intrepid. They are good people trying to make a
positive change for all of mankind. If, by chance they are alive, please bring
them home. If they are not, please take their souls with you and let them walk
on the streets of gold in the shining city. We commend their fate to you Lord and
pray for this in Jesus’ name, amen.”