by M B Panichi
“And you’re still a smart-ass, Captain. Good to see you.” He stepped back. “Welcome, all of you. Glad to have a few more hands here. I’m Joe Hailey, Head of Maintenance. This is the maintenance bay and the supply warehouse, so if you’re looking for supplies or need things fixed, this is the first stop.” He pointed to a small area of lockers and shelves off to one side. “You can stow your suits over there. Just grab an empty locker.”
“Thanks.” Shaine nodded toward her team and they obediently headed over toward the lockers. Shaine hung back a moment and Morgan remained at her side. Shaine regarded Joe Hailey with a broad smile. “Joe, this is my partner, Morgan Rahn. She’ll be joining us as a jack-of-all-trades. She’s a mechanic, so she can probably help you out down here if you need an extra hand. Morgan, this is Joe Hailey. Joe was my first drill sergeant. One of the guys who kicked my ass all over basic training and then again when I was rehabbing before they decommissioned me.” She grinned at him. “Stubborn bastard.”
He grinned back, skin creasing around his eyes and mouth. “Takes one to know one, Wendt,” he returned easily. Hailey smiled at Morgan and she shook his hand. He said, “Stop down here any time, Morgan, and we can chat. I’ve got stories you’re gonna love to hear.”
Shaine shook her head and Morgan chuckled, thinking it was going to be fun to get some stories about her lover. Morgan was certain whatever she heard from Joe Hailey would be damned interesting.
Hailey said to Shaine, “Grapevine said you’d gotten out of the security game. I was surprised to see your name come up in the memo here.”
Shaine shrugged as they walked toward the lockers. “I got out. Rogan sucked me back in.” They reached a long bench where the rest of the group was getting unsuited. Shaine set down her helmet and she and Morgan started stripping out of their vac suits.
As Shaine sat down to unseal her boots, she glanced up at her old friend. “So, what’s the scoop around here, Joe? Things going okay?”
“As can be expected. Had a couple bad sandstorms blow up over the past couple of weeks. Locked things down here, but no damage other than a lot of cleanup.”
“Got any troublemakers on board?”
Hailey scratched his head thoughtfully. “Not so far. Some tension between the science geeks and the core drillers, but nothing to worry about. We’ve only got about fifty people on-site. Maruchek’s been here quite a bit. He’s here now, probably in the control center.”
Morgan asked, “Garren?”
Joe nodded. “Garren Maruchek, yeah.”
Shaine said, “We’ll check in with him before we do a walk-through of the site. We’ve got building supplies on the transport. Do you have anyone for that, or do you need me to send a couple of my guys back to help out?”
“I’ve got crew here to unload, so don’t worry about that.”
“Excellent. Thanks, Joe.”
He nodded and sent Morgan a grin. “See you around later, hey?”
“Absolutely.”
* * *
Later that day, Shaine, Morgan, Josef Waylin, Garren and Amaar Ahmed, the primary System Operations and Site Engineer, sat around a table in a cramped conference room. Plas-sheets of data covered the dark, faux-wood surface along with architectural and engineering designs. To the side of the table, a touch screen easel had a handwritten list of the meeting notes and a column of action items scrawled along one side.
Amaar tapped on his pad and the image on the easel changed to a basic diagram of the mining site.
He used a laser pointer to indicate the area he was interested in. “You are thinking that here, here and here, we’d have external security cameras, yes?”
Shaine nodded. “For now, that will be enough. They’re out of the way of the construction crews, but we’d still get visual of the whole area.”
“Sounds good,” Garren agreed. “First priority, though, we need that underground shelter finished.”
Amaar confirmed, “We should have it done within the next week. The dig is programmed into the rock borer and it’s in process.” He glanced at his pad. “There haven’t been any issues so far.” He flipped to another blueprint and highlighted a part of it. “We’re creating a living area, an emergency medical unit, a secondary control center and a docking and maintenance space that should allow room for two regular transport shuttles and a workspace. The shelter will be linked to both the temporary living dome and then to the permanent dome after it’s been sealed. There will also be an underground connection to the processing plant when that’s ready.”
“Good,” Garren said, leaning back in his chair. “I think that about covers what we need to discuss for now. Anyone need anything else?” He got back negative indications and smiled. “Excellent. We’re on schedule, so that’s a good thing.” He looked at Shaine and Morgan. “Are you staying here for the duration, or headed back to Moon Base?”
Shaine said, “We’ll stay here. I’ve got new hire résumés coming to me to start filling out the security team. I won’t bring people out right away. There’s no rush yet.”
Garren frowned. “Is Rogan going to be involved?”
Shaine shook her head. “Peripherally. He’ll need to know what’s happening at a high level, but I’m doing the hiring. He won’t have any say on a day-to-day basis.”
The dark-haired man smiled. “Thanks, Shaine. Nothing against Rogan, of course.”
Morgan choked on a dry laugh. Garren frowned at her and she shook her head. “Later,” she muttered.
Shaine looked between the two, searching for similarities between siblings. Garren resembled his father in the broadness of his stature and his chiseled features, where Morgan had the almost elfin look of her mother—wiry and fine-boned. Her pale complexion was a result of growing up in space rather than on Earth. The only thing they had in common physically was their black hair. But where Morgan’s was fine and straight, Garren’s was thick and wavy. It was also much longer and tied with a metal clip at the nape of his neck. The ponytail hung halfway down his back.
They didn’t look alike, but they both did that little head-cocking thing when they were amused or teasing. They both tended to fidget if they had to wait for anything. Morgan played with her adopted mother’s wedding ring and Garren twirled his stylus through his long fingers.
Garren shuffled his plas-sheets into a folder and grabbed his pad. “I need to make a few calls before it gets too late.”
Morgan said, “Say hi to our father if you talk to him.”
Garren grinned. “I will. Hey, maybe later, you guys want to play some pool in the game room and have a beer?”
Morgan glanced at Shaine, who shrugged amiably. “Yeah, that’d be okay,” she agreed. “We’ll see you later.”
Garren nodded and headed to the tiny space across the hall he called an office. Morgan thought it wasn’t much bigger than a broom closet. Shaine turned to her. “How about we finish getting our stuff put away and relax a while before we find something to eat?”
“Sure. I’m wasted. Wonder if there’s anything in the mess hall other than military surplus meals?”
“What, you don’t like eating tasteless cardboard? You’da starved in the EG.”
Morgan backhanded Shaine in the stomach. “Some of us like food that tastes like food,” she teased.
Shaine laughed and dropped an arm over Morgan’s shoulder as they sauntered down the hallway toward their living quarters. They shared a single room toward the end of the hallway. Shaine used the palm-reader to unlock the door. It slid open with a catch and an ear-popping squeal.
Morgan made a face. “Guess I won’t be sneaking in and out without you knowing, huh?”
“Gotta love temporary housing,” Shaine muttered.
Morgan walked in and shut the door behind them, making a mental note to see if Joe Hailey had any spray lubricant down in the warehouse.
Their very spartan quarters had a double bed and a single dresser against one wall, and two chairs with a square end table between them on
the opposite wall. Morgan walked to the back of the room. A sliding door revealed a bathroom complete with a sink, a vacuum toilet and a sonic shower. She sighed. Damn, she was going to miss the long, hot showers at Shaine’s family home.
When they’d arrived, they’d left their bags unpacked on the bed. Now they made quick work of putting away their clothes and toiletries. Morgan laid the quilt she brought across the bottom of the bed. She sighed as she straightened.
Shaine leaned against the frame of the bathroom door, rubbing her hands over her face. She pushed off and strode the two paces to the bed, holding a hand out to Morgan. “Let’s lie down for a while.”
Morgan didn’t need any encouragement. Shaine stretched out on the bed and scooted toward the wall, making room. Morgan sat down beside her then reached to the foot of the bed and pulled the quilt over them as she settled back. She squirmed to get comfortable on the mattress. It wasn’t as form-fitting as she would have liked. She wriggled until she was curled around Shaine. Using Shaine’s shoulder for a pillow, she draped one arm loosely around Shaine’s middle. Shaine wrapped Morgan in her arms, giving her a squeeze.
“This is nice,” Morgan murmured, eyes already closed.
Shaine rubbed her back and kissed her head. “It is.” She leaned back, said a little louder, “Lights, off.”
Morgan felt Shaine’s body relax as the room darkened and heard her sigh. Smiling contentedly, Morgan dozed off.
Chapter Nineteen
The next morning found Morgan and Shaine in the main operations control room. The primary communication and ops console was a half-circle workspace that took up most of the center of the room. Systems monitors for the facility’s power, life-support, electrical, water and heat covered the wall to the right of the ops desk. Operations staff in blue work suits manned the row of control stations facing the monitors.
Amaar had set aside space for Shaine’s group in the back left corner of the control room where a couple maintenance guys were putting together another half-circle counter. Shaine claimed the small office built out behind the counter.
Morgan loitered against the wall by Shaine’s office, purposely staying off to the side and observing.
Josef and Del stood with Shaine at the main ops desk. The three talked with Amaar as they looked over the work list for the day. Amaar had just posted the core drilling schedule to the main vid screen.
Shaine asked, “Do the scientists go out with the drilling teams?”
Amaar nodded. “Most of the time, yes. They confirm the core placements against the site surveys.”
“And get in our way.”
They all turned to face the woman who strode into the room. She was stocky, with dirty blond hair and blue eyes. The newcomer held out a hand. “Anya Bjork,” she introduced herself.
Shaine shook her hand. “Shaine Wendt, Head of Security. My second, Josef Waylin, Specialist Del Marin.” She gestured toward Morgan, who raised a hand in greeting. “Morgan Rahn.”
Anya nodded a greeting, and glanced at the work board. “I’m on the first drill shift,” she said. “Just need to log in.” She glanced around. “I take it the noble and all-knowing Dr. Ulm hasn’t checked in yet?”
Amaar shook his head. “I haven’t seen him this morning.”
Anya logged into one of the terminals facing outward, then held her comp pad against a data port for a couple of seconds to download the information she needed. Turning from the terminal, she said, “Tell the good doctor I’ll be getting suited up and checking our gear. Nice meeting all of you.” She strode out the door.
Del raised a brow. “Trouble among the natives?” she queried.
Amaar shrugged. “Never been in a place where the scientists didn’t piss off the workers,” he observed. “It’s nothing to worry about.”
Del frowned.
Shaine said, “First thing I want to do is get all our personal coms synced and start installing the cameras.” She looked to Amaar. “Do you have anyone who can set up monitors and systems here while we get hardware in place on-site?”
“Sure, I’ll get Ruddy down here. He’s good.”
Morgan walked over and asked Shaine, “You mind if I go down to maintenance? Maybe I’ll go with Anya to the drill site.”
Shaine nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
Morgan gave Shaine’s arm a pat. “I’ll probably be more useful there,” she commented.
Shaine smiled. “Don’t cause any trouble,” she murmured.
Morgan grinned and left the room. She headed down the circular outer hallway toward the maintenance space and palmed the hatch into the warehouse. It beeped and the door slid open. She strode through, shivering with the sudden change in temperature. She could see her breath in the air and pulled down the sleeves of her heavy tunic to cover her hands.
She looked around. The part of the warehouse she was in seemed to be primarily storage. Sheets of building materials for interior walls, stacks of piping and raw cable spools were piled neatly. Crates were stacked in low rows, each marked with an inventory sheet.
Morgan walked further into the warehouse, impressed by its organization. Along the outside wall, several shop tables were set up in separate work bays. Tools lined the walls above the counters. Joe Hailey stood in one of the bays, wielding a fuser and wearing a pair of goggles as he leaned over the innards of a ground skimmer.
On the other side of the warehouse, Anya Bjork was setting out her vac suit.
Morgan stopped a few feet from Joe Hailey’s work bay, not wanting to interrupt. After a few moments, he looked up and smiled. “Hey, Morgan, what can I do for ya?”
“Nothing. Just saying hello. I was going to see if I could go out to the site with Anya. Maybe I’d be able to lend a hand.”
“Sure. But if she doesn’t want you to go along, I can always use another hand down here.”
“Thanks, Joe.” She shoved her hands into her pockets. “What’s with the heat in here? I’m gonna freeze my fingers off.”
“I already called sys ops twice. I’m sure the heat exchanger is acting up. If they don’t do anything about it in the next hour or so, I’m gonna start doing it on my own.”
“Well, hell, if Anya doesn’t want company, I’ll help you out.”
Hailey grinned and Morgan gave him a wave as she crossed over to where Anya Bjork worked on her vac suit.
“Hey.”
The blond head came up. “What do you want?” The question sounded sharp and annoyed.
Morgan held up her hands in a peace gesture. “Chill, man. I was just wondering if you would mind some company on the site today. I need to get a feel for things, and thought it’d be interesting to see the coring process.”
Bjork stared at her, looked her up and down, then shrugged. “Whatever. Just stay out of the way.”
Morgan grinned. “No worries. On Moon Base I’m a dockworker, external ship systems maintenance.”
Bjork’s expression was unimpressed, bordering on hostile. “If you’re a dockworker, then what the hell are you doing out here? Tagging on your girlfriend? Oh, wait a minute, you don’t have to tag on anyone. You’ve got more money than you know what to do with, don’t you, Morgan Rahn? Or are you going by Maruchek these days?”
Morgan’s smile slid away, her hands clenching into fists. “I go by Rahn. It’s my name.” She turned and walked back toward Joe Hailey, hoping he was as decent as he seemed.
The big man looked up as she strode over. “Problem?”
Morgan scowled. “Fucking bitch,” she muttered. She looked at him, accusation in her eyes. “If you have an issue with the fact that Tarm Maruchek is my father, tell me now.”
He studied her, assessing. “Don’t see that it makes a whole hell of a lot of difference to me who your daddy is,” he drawled. “Shaine holds you in high esteem and that says a lot. She’s good people. I trust that woman with my life.” He squinted at her. “Any friend of Shaine’s is a friend of mine.”
Morgan sucked in a long breath, taking a couple
seconds to push down her anger. “Thanks, Joe. So, what can I do here?”
He smiled. “How are ya with a fuser, kid?”
“Passable,” she returned with a smile of her own.
“Good, ’cause I’m gonna start using a damned sledgehammer on this piece of crap in about five minutes. Why don’t you have a go at it? Damned sand everywhere and it’s got the whole drive mechanism hanked up.”
Morgan took the fuser from him and leaned over the skimmer’s engine. It’d been a while since she worked on small engines, but what she’d learned early on came back quickly. She considered what Joe had done so far and then went to the workbench against the wall for a few more tools.
An hour and a half later, the skimmer engine hummed to life. She could still hear some grating as it shifted gears, but that kind of wear and tear wasn’t something she could fix. Eventually the transmission components would need to be replaced. She didn’t usually see this kind of problem on Moon Base. With no atmosphere, there was no wind, so the gray rock dust wasn’t as invasive as the wind-blasted sand here.
Joe returned to where Morgan was working when he heard the engine crank up. He cocked an ear and nodded, impressed. “Nice work, kid. You’re now my go-to skimmer mechanic.”
Morgan grinned. “Thanks.” She brought her hands up and blew on her fingers, trying to warm them up before she shoved her hands into her pockets, stifling a shiver. “Damn, it’s cold in here.”
He nodded. “That it is. What do you say we go grab some lunch and then head up to the operations center and see if anyone is doing anything about it. If they’re not, we can get our hands in there and see if we can figure out what’s going on.”
“Works for me.”
* * *
When Morgan and Joe arrived at the mess hall, the lunch rush had already begun. Several site workers had gathered to eat, grouped around the bench tables, mostly segregated by occupation. Morgan recognized Anya Bjork sitting with three other men dressed in standard gray work overalls. Another table held a couple of women in lab coats. Amaar Ahmed, Whippet and Del Marin sat together at the last table.