by A Keuser
“Fixing those broken connections didn’t fix the problem. If it had, we’d be looking at five very dim pilot lights right now.” She flicked the lamp back on and looked back to Eri. “We’ve got some more walking to do.”
Eri smiled ruefully. “It was probably too much to hope for that this would be the solution.”
“Hope is never too much.”
The smile that brought to the partner’s lips was odd. Nala knew exactly what hope the woman clung to.
“Just so long as that hope doesn’t manifest itself in visible ways.”
Eri’s smile changed, and not in a way Nala liked.
“No promises. I’m used to getting what I want – even if it takes five years.”
The next three maintenance points had similar issues, but resolving them met with equally useless results.
"I think we can safely say this isn't an issue of a rat the extermination team missed."
"I'm sure the other partners will find a way to blame it on me if I can't figure out who's doing this. You'd think I was part of the security detail the way they expect me to know who's done what and why."
"Don't take it so personally, Nala. They want everyone to have the answers they want as soon as they want them. It's not as though they single you out."
"I'm sure they do. Likely they use me to get to you."
"Actually, with the exception of last night, I've been careful not to defend you. And as for the skywalk incident... I'll be able to explain that away easily enough. We’re here to protect everyone on the colony. That doesn’t mean we give up when only one of our denizens will die."
"Thank you for that, by the way."
"I wish I deserved that. My petition to resign was an empty threat and they all knew it. None of us can leave the council without months of red tape. I was so mad at them, I wasn't thinking straight."
Nala started to thank her again, when she saw a glowing light emanating from a panel in the corridor's far wall. Even with the glimmer of earthshine through the windows, it was easy to see the oddity. Especially since the panels had no reason to glow neon pink.
"What do you think that is?" Eri asked, grabbing hold of her arm as if to hold her back.
"There's only one way to find out."
Pulling on her gloves, she stepped up to the panel and gingerly laid her hand against it. It wasn't hot to the touch, and there were no odd vibrations. Gingerly, she removed the bolts that held the panel in place and pulled it open a crack.
The bright pink light flooded the corridor and Nala turned her head away.
“I can’t put down the panel now. I need you to get into my bag and get me my dark goggles. They’ll be in the zippered compartment on the back wall of the bag.”
Eri opened the top flap and after a moment of digging produced the requested item. She gingerly placed the goggles over Nala’s head and, with the hand she could spare, Nala adjusted them before she turned to look into the panel.
“Someone’s put a lamp packet in here that’s separate from the hardwire components. It’s got its own power supply, but there are wires connected to the colony feed.”
“Why?”
“That is a very good question, one to which I do not know the answer. Can you hand me the needle nose pliers again?”
Eri held them up before Nala had finished asking for them.
“You’re a decent parts slinger for someone who spends their days lounging about and making decisions for the rest of us.”
“My mother did ikebana when we lived in Japan. I would watch and hand her scissors, or the leaves she wanted to add. For a while she teased me about being an operating room nurse.”
“Well, I thank her for the convenience she’s provided me, unbeknownst to her. Do me a favor? Go stand around the corner… just in case.”
Sliding her arm through the opening between the panel and the components, Nala took hold of the wire attached to the panel’s interior face and pulled it away.
The panel exploded with a concussive burst that knocked into her chest and flung her backward onto the hard metal floor.
High pitched ringing and black spots made up the entirety of her world as she fought to breathe through the cloud of white dust surrounding her.
Eri appeared from the cloud, her knees and sleeves stained white. And though her mouth moved, Nala couldn’t hear the words for all the ringing in her ears.
Blinking away the black spots, she forced herself upright. She felt like she’d been kicked in the chest, but nothing else hurt and once her ears stopped ringing she’d probably be fine. It was the white powder that surrounded them that worried her most.
Pushing Eri’s hands away ignoring the woman’s worried ministrations, Nala dug through her tool bag and pulled out the tube everyone on the colony’s facilities staff was required to carry at all times. She pulled one of the long handled swabs from the casing and swiped it across the thin layer coating the floor.
Her hearing came back as she waited for the cottony end to change color. Beside her Eri repeated the same curse over and over, the word as quiet as a breath.
Less than three minutes later, the tip was completely purple. Nala looked over her shoulder at Eri and they heaved a collective sigh.
Nala stood and dusted herself off as well as she could before swiping through her tablet’s contacts and comming Angela.
"Angela, please tell me you're still doing the bomb sweep even though we have no lights?"
"Death or dismemberment are the only things that will keep me from going through this colony with a fine toothed comb. What's up?"
"If you see any panels that glow a funny color, make sure you approach them carefully. We just had a pink one blow up in our faces. Nothing too dangerous, some pressurized O2 and baby powder. I'll look like a ghost for the rest of the day."
"Do you think this is related to your—" she stopped abruptly. "We?"
"Partner Dendrond is helping me. And if this is related to my brief stay in the skywalk, then I think we've got some bigger problems on our hands."
Nala cut the comm connection and turned back to Eri. "Someone is playing practical jokes... and when I find them, I'm going to knock out their teeth."
"I hope this is just a practical joke; we don’t need someone getting killed."
Nala dipped her head in concession. If they weren't careful, the problems of the previous night could be a dream compared to the issues they faced now.
"We've got three more connection points to check, and if they are the same and we still have no power, we're going to have to get creative. And we need to let the rest of the station know about these little powder bombs. White powders will always induce panic."
After informing station security and the Partners about the potential “joke bombs,” Nala worked her way through to the last of the
maintenance stations. Connections restored, they finally had a panel with pilot lights, and one by one, she was able to restart the system.
Letting out a flustered breath, Nala thanked their lucky stars it had been an easy enough fix – albeit an annoying one for its required running around.
“It looks like we can both go back to our normal duties now.”
Smiling weakly, Eri nodded. “I have one more thing to check, but I’m glad we got that worked out.”
With a quick dip of her head, she turned on her heel and hurried away. Nala closed up the maintenance compartment and made her way toward the nearest of the outside hatches.
The reflectance of the moon was something she often ignored. But the vast majority of their power came from collecting the sun’s energy through collection panels that lay in a vast circular field around the colony.
Through the small viewport’s thick glass, she glanced out at the iridescent black squares as she manually checked the store levels.
Nominal.
She checked again, just to be sure, and then moved through to the next hatch. People rarely ventured down to the surface level of the colony unless they we
re departing or arriving – or a part of the occasional geological party heading out to gather samples. It had been relegated to storage for the majority of its service. Nala appreciated the quiet, especially right now.
There were eight entry points, based in a semiordinal arrangement – North, South, and so on. And as she made her way through the second to last door’s maintenance logs and collection data, she let out a sigh of relief. Here at least, she would face no problems.
On the last door, though, she revised that thought.
The collection data was nominal and
maintenance checks up to date, but the logs showed excessive use. She plugged her tablet into the port and downloaded the data, if the oddity was worth looking into, she’d make sure colony security knew about it.
She reached for the lead to remove it, and paused when a distant clattering echoed through the compartment behind her. She tensed as she pulled the connection and slowly put her tablet back in her bag. When she turned around, there was no one there.
Whether that was a blessing or a curse, she didn’t know.
She walked slowly through the compartment – one of the largest expanses in the whole colony – pausing beside the LTVs, vehicles they used on the lunar surface. Big knobby tires and hard fenders stood at eye level, their ground clearance designed for any potential terrain.
The vehicles were lined up parallel to each other, save for one. Its tires were still coated in a fine gray dust.
Resting beneath the back wheel was a small gray brick, the likes of which would make anyone flinch.
After assessing it from afar and noting its lack of glowing red numbers or ticking, Nala crouched down to retrieve it. She was getting too bomb-shy for her own good.
The device was small and square, but had no trigger. If it was a bomb – even one with as small a payload as the one she’d encountered earlier this morning, it would not go off until a detonator was attached.
She didn’t think it was a bomb; they did not usually have input jacks. She knew a thing or two about bombs.
Her comm chirped, “Nala, where are you?”
“Doing the final check of the exigency hatches. They’re all clear, so I was planning on heading back up there. Need me to make a stop?”
“We need to talk… in person. I’ll meet you on level nine.”
Nala acknowledged her and cut the
connection. She didn’t venture a guess as to why Eri wanted to meet on the same level as her quarters. At least she wasn’t trying to lure her up to the topmost levels.
She slipped the suspicious device into her bag and stepped into the lift, dropping her head back against the cool metal wall as the elevator sped toward the upper levels.
When the doors opened, Eri waited for her pacing back and forth in the corridor. She hadn’t changed from her white stained clothing.
“I talked to Jessica Franque.” Eri looked behind her as though the botanist would be standing there instead of in the colony’s green house where she worked and lived. “We’ve never grown lilies here.”
“That’s eerie.”
“As far as she knows, none of the colonies are growing them at present.”
“Considering the state they appear on my counter in, they couldn’t have come from Earth… someone must have a pot of them in their
apartment.”
“I suppose. I’m never going to get the others to agree to a station-wide search of everyone’s quarters. The rest of the colony would revolt. The other partners know that.”
“And I don’t think that’s necessary, yet.” Nala nodded toward her apartment. “Let’s go get the flowers and give them to Jessica to see if she can tell us anything else.”
Nala punched in her code and stepped in. The sight that met her was not comforting. The counter was empty, the flowers and makeshift vase gone. “They were here when I left this morning.”
“I believe you.”
“So, someone has the ability to supersede my door’s passcode, they have access to flowers that aren’t grown on this colony… and they want to turn my life upside down.”
“I accept these as facts, but… why you?”
“I wish I knew.” She opened the trash bin to check for any sign, and then through her meager cupboards. “If the flowers were from the same person that’s been building the bombs… we know they have a certain skill set.”
“Half of the scientists here can build a bomb.”
“And I know for a fact that more than just scientists would be on our list.”
“You’re referring to people like you, who have a past that might have been hidden?”
Nala forced herself to breathe evenly, but every muscle in her body was tense. “You know about that?”
“We met briefly before either of us came to LC-Six. I knew you wouldn’t have remembered me. And I know that you have no intention of allowing your past to resurface, so I have no reason to bring it to anyone else’s attention.”
“Talk about worst kept secrets.”
Eri shrugged and turned to the small window that looked out toward the other colonies. “I’ve made sure none of the partners are suspicious of you.”
“Why?” Nala glanced at the slowly approaching darkness.
“Because I know you would never endanger the lives of those with whom you’ve lived this long. You value people more than those you used to work for valued their ideals. And I should hope we pay you enough that you have no reason to fall back on your anarchist ways.”
“Well, I could always do with a raise.” “Couldn’t we all?”
“I don’t know, you seem to get along just fine.”
The darkness crept over them and, in the distance, the other colonies twinkled like stars.
“I usually like eclipses,” Eri said. “I’ll hide away in my apartment, staring out at the glittering colonies and forget that I have to make nineteen decisions that will make hundreds of people mad… regardless of what I choose.”
“Then you’re fortunate partner is not an elected posi –”
The lights cut again. “Damnit.”
Nala wrenched her tablet from her bag and tapped on the screen. When it lit, the pulsating sphere in its center confirmed the worst.
“The network is down. The lights are out…”
“Gravity too.” Eri said pressing to her toes and raising a few inches off the floor before she floated back down.
“At least I won’t have anyone in my ear demanding I fix it.”
“I suppose nagging you will have to fall to me then.”
“What’s the predicted totality?” Eri followed Nala through the corridor. They bounced more than they walked. Getting used to the change of gravity was going to take some time; a luxury they didn’t have.
Nala had wondered the same thing. If the eclipse ended, the solar backup generators would kick on and they’d be okay. “I think they were projecting thirty to fifty minutes.” Even the low end estimate would turn the colony into a crypt if they didn’t get the ventilation system back online.
“I thought ventilation was the one thing that wouldn’t go out.”
“There must have been a hard line cut. That’s the only way I can explain this. When….” She paused, correcting herself. “If the generators come on, that will be the first and likely the only thing they energize.”
She bounded to a stop in front of one of the many panels she’d already visited today. This one was the closest option with a line that could grant her access to the colony’s system backup – the small black box buried deep inside the colony that would work for decades after the colony itself was dead. Assuming it came to that.
Voices and bouncing flashlamp beams announced the arrival of others before the pair was visible around the corridor’s curve. Boudri and Angela waved as they came into view.
“I thought you didn’t work here anymore,” Nala said as her flashlamp’s beam lit Boudri’s face. The two stepped beside her, glaring into the panel where she worked.
Angela leaned in closer, inspecting the wiring. “My team is still sweeping for those little baking soda bombs, but it’ll take another hour or two to get through the whole colony. Probably longer in the dark.”
“Baking soda?” Nala asked. “I could have sworn mine was baby powder.”
“It doesn’t really matter. It looks like the full power cut has killed those too,” Eri said.
Angela nodded her head in agreement. “Almost like they were a distraction.”
“I hope not, I’m having enough trouble with this when I’m not distracted.”
“At least you don’t have to cut out the live wires this time.” Angela said it and then immediately glanced at Eri, her jaw tensing.
“She knows.”
“How much?”
“She knows about my previous occupation,” Nala said as she dug through the wiring, “though I suppose I should tell you that one of the two bombs we took care of was mine.”
“I knew that already too, I saw your signature.”
“You’ve known all this time and you haven’t told the others?” Angela asked.
“She’s not a danger to this colony. And I believe she’s atoned for the majority of her crimes,”
“Well that’s all well and good,” Nala said, “but it’s also the past. Let’s deal with that when we’re done dealing with this… if we’re still around to, I mean.”
She hardwired her tablet into the system through the backups. The information on her screen sent a chill through her. “Angela, where’s your daughter?”
“Susie’s in the playschool with the other kids. Miss Chen is making this a game.”
“Good,” Nala said, letting out a heavy sigh and scrubbing a hand over her face.
“What’s the problem?” Eri asked.
“The corridors are going to lose air… and soon. They’ll go in order of importance so anyone in a tertiary corridor won’t have a chance.”
“How do we warn the colony?” Angela asked. “If the comms are out, the all call is out, too. We found you two by sheer luck.”
“We were coming by to see if you were in your quarters,” Boudri said.