by T I WADE
“Copy that, Dad,” replied Mars.
Before he moved, his instincts made him want to look around the cavern. He had been in DX2017 twice. Once to send the OldGeners to sleep, and the second time to pick them up. All the doors had already been open on both visits. This cavern made him feel like he was in the upper cavern on the asteroid. It was laid out exactly the same way. The light was the same. There were what looked like doors control panels in exactly the same places. And it was empty apart for the several blue suited skeletons, the old withered tree which stood as high as the roof, and the one-foot wide river of clear liquid that ran slowly past the tree. The water looked a few inches deep, and it looked like the floor of the base had been built around the trickle. The floor was an inch or two higher than the river, and the river ran through natural rock, not the metal floor material. Then he saw a second door about ten feet away from the door he had fallen through.
“Ryan, I’ve found another door closer to the blasted cavern. Going to the door now Ryan. It looks like you need to continue down the tunnel about ten feet. The door is in the wall at a 90 degree angle to you, so it looks like you need to turn a left hand corner before you will see it.”
“Copy that Mars, moving now. The tunnel is getting lighter. I see no door. Wait. I have turned a corner into a ten-foot long tunnel, and reached what look like a door in DX2017. Like yours it has a security panel, and it is blue again.”
“Mars, you have 107 minutes before the end of your 180 minute spacewalk session,” stated his wife as clearly as if he was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat next to her.
Mars acknowledged her. “I can’t figure out why they would have two doors if the Matts can’t survive out of a livable atmosphere?” Mars stated loudly to the others. “I know, the whole tunnel had atmosphere, and Michael Pitt destroyed the atmosphere in the tunnel when he opened up the cavern. Wow! This whole place was an atmospheric Matt base. Then why are there seven dead Matts in here?” Mars asked his father.
“I would assume the door was open when Michael Pitt blew up the part of their base, and it didn’t close fast enough. Maybe those Matts died of air concussion, the blast wave. If it melted all the gold off the walls, it must have really done a number on their bodies. Or there was a radiation spike from the blast. I would assume that the doors just didn’t close fast enough. I can’t say more if I can’t see the layout.”
“I think you are right, Dad. The door slid open when I pushed the panel. I’ll try the globe room door. Dad, Ryan, it won’t open. Why won’t the globe room door open?”
“The Matt systems on the other bases wouldn’t work if it wasn’t safe to open. The door won’t open because there is not enough atmosphere on your side. You will have to wait a few minutes.”
“Dad, what about Ryan? I can breathe in here. The air pressure is slightly higher.”
“Mars we can’t speak to Ryan. Tell him to get on the train and return to the exit. I’m going to have to get down there. I’ll return with Ryan or Max. Tell him not to hurry and make a mistake. It sounds like you are safe in there, but you are going to need to take off your helmet and turn down your suit. I’ll bring a suit charger with me. Did you copy, over?”
Mars stated that he understood what to do, and told Ryan to head back to the tunnel exit. VIN was going to come down and help him. He suddenly felt very alone.
Ryan did as he was ordered. He understood the situation as much as VIN and Mars did. VIN had been trapped in a room before, and had survived. It sounded like Mars was in the same predicament, but this time in a safe situation, and he carefully headed back to the tunnel where the carriages waited.
Since it was already turned around, Ryan fired up the small thruster, lay on his stomach, gingerly opened the throttle and slowly the two carriages moved forward. Ryan could see where he was going this time, there was no spacesuit in front of him, and he opened the throttle to climb up the hill to the exits.
Within 30 minutes, he could see the dying light of the sun’s ray’s coming through the first exit. He realized that VIN would be returning in the dark. He couldn’t as his spacewalk time was coming to an end. Max Von Braun or Dr. Smidt would have to go with VIN.
Mars now had all the time in the world if he removed his helmet and closed down his suit’s power. Like any youngster, his inquisitiveness was at full strength.
The astronauts could remove their own spacesuit helmets, but it was easier and faster if someone else unscrewed it for them. He first checked his readouts. Nothing had changed, except the air pressure had risen a few more degrees, which was better. It seemed that the base was still fully functional. Then he carefully headed towards the first skeleton and knelt down at the remains.
It took him a full minute to carefully inspect the bones, then the teeth, and finally he touched the fingers, the closest bone. Only the skull and the hands were not covered. These two items wouldn’t have saved the man as these suits couldn’t take space conditions.
There was dark coloring on the rock close to where the skull lay. The skull looked alright, but it could have been slightly misshapen. The heads of the Matts were different to his own. He looked hard at the stain, and believed it to be a blood stain. Any remains on the metal floor area were long gone, but it looked like the stain on the rock had remained. The stain was pretty close to where the person’s ear would have lain, and he concluded that possible bleeding from that area of the person’s head was most likely. He also concluded that it seemed that the body had fallen and lain still. There was no sign that the Matt had moved, or tried to crawl after the body had hit the floor. The body was lying mostly on its back, and didn’t look like it had tried to move. That meant that the death could have been instantaneous, and not over a long period.
“VIN and everybody listening, I reckon a blast killed these people. If they had died from radiation poisoning, they wouldn’t be laying like they are. I am going to remove my helmet, over.”
“Copy that,” replied Saturn. “We are still waiting for Ryan. Your father and Max will return to your position on the train, over.”
“Good, I’m fine down here. The readouts haven’t changed and it’s time to go and find my space shark, Commander Jones,” joked Mars nervously.
“Just be careful young Mars,” replied Jonesy. “They have a tendency to sneak up on you and bite you in the butt.”
“Shut up, Dad,” added Saturn defending her husband. “Poor Mars doesn’t need your crap. He’s most probably scared enough as it is right now.”
“Well stated, Saturn,” added VIN Noble.
Mars smiled at the antics going on outside the tunnel. His father and Jonesy had often both gone where no men had gone before, and now it was his turn to be brave and see what secrets this base had. The three door security panels he could see were all red, which meant he could now open them. He also knew what should be behind each door, if this base was built the same as the other Matt bases. Mars decided to try the most forward door first, the one that should lead into the globe room, then the command center.
He checked his suit, he had 60 minutes of time left, and he decided to open the first door to see if there was an atmosphere the other side.
The first door wouldn’t open when he pushed the red panel, so he did what VIN had tried on DX2017 decades earlier. He unscrewed his left glove and placed his warm hand on the panel.
“If there is a vacuum the other side, it shouldn’t open, like Ryan’s door, is that correct, Dad?” Mars stated out aloud.
“Correct, son. The door could have a red light on your side, but if there isn’t an atmosphere on the other side, it will not open, like Ryan’s door not opening when he tried,” his father replied. “Unless it is damaged, or its systems aren’t working. I would keep your helmet if I were you, until you have opened the door.”
“I was thinking the same thing, Dad, I’ll try and open the doors before I take off my helmet.” The door to the command center did not open. “Dad, my hand does nothing, it looks like I have to
use my eye. Is it the right or left eye?”
“Right eye, and unfortunately you have to remove your helmet. Sorry, son, it has been so long since I have had to open a door. I’m getting a little old.”
“Don’t tell Bob Mathews that,” remarked Jonesy. “He wouldn’t believe you, partner.”
Mars waited for thirty minutes, now had no choice but to remove his helmet, and he might as well turn off the power in his suit to save it at the same time.
It took him several minutes, and unscrewing his own helmet made him dizzy. Normally he closed his eyes when somebody unscrewed it for him, and so did the other astronauts.
Finally he lifted it off and immediately his ears tuned into any sounds around him. A gurgling sound make him snap around. It was faint, and he opened his eyes to see and hear that the small stream was actually making a sound when it disappeared into wherever it was going.
The light was brighter in the room without his helmet and he couldn’t help but walk over to check out this liquid. With his helmet off, he could now smell, hear and see from his side vision. The smell was faint but the lingering smell of human death was still there, although very faint. The air he breathed smelled good, and it didn’t make him dizzy. The only sound was the gurgling of the water and the same very faint hum of machinery, like back at base, or inside DX2017. The systems were still working. His eyes took a second to get used to the bright light around him, and once he checked the entire room, peered down at the running water.
“It runs slower than it did on earth,” he thought. It might be an illusion but he was sure that the water seemed to move in slow motion compared to the slant of the rock it was running down.
Then he remembered that without his helmet on his head, he had lost contact with the rest of the crew, so he stood up and replaced his helmet without screwing it down.
“Dad, Jonesy, Saturn can you hear me, over?”
He got confirmation that they did all at once, and he told them that he would be offline, and should he touch the water running down the rock?
“I think it safe,” replied VIN. “If it is the centerpiece of their room, they wouldn’t have left it open if it was dangerous, like an acid, and any liquid gas like methane wouldn’t stay in liquid form.”
“It could only be water, or something we have never seen before,” added Ryan who had just returned to the shuttle to recharge his suit. “Mars, how much life do you have in your suit?”
“Thirty-seven minutes, 38 seconds. I have just turned the power systems off.” Mars replied. “I believe my suit has enough energy to get me back to the shuttle if I had the carriage. I really want to touch this liquid,” he stated.
“Get close and smell it first,” suggested Jonesy. “If it is whiskey or vodka, I’ll be along in a hurry.”
“You would, Dad, remarked Saturn. “Mars be careful.”
“OK, going offline. Dad, Max, how are you doing?”
“Max and I are working to head down the tunnel. We have two extra helmets, a hand laser to cut you out if necessary, an air tank each with fifty minutes breathing supply, a suit charger, and our knowledge. By what Ryan told us, we should be with you in thirty minutes. My suit hasn’t had time to fully recharge. I have 74 minutes of spacewalk time, and an air tank, so I might need to join you. Max is fully charged and has 170 minutes. Heading into the tunnel now, out.”
Mars removed his helmet and took three large breaths of air. The suit was off and nothing was being pumped into his helmet. The air smelled and it was cool in the cavern, but was no worse than being back inside the Retreat.
He knelt down by the water and put his nose as close as his suit allowed him to get: about a foot from the water. He sniffed and smelled nothing out of the ordinary. Then he lay down on the ground on his stomach and got closer to the liquid. Again it didn’t smell like anything. It was clear, totally clear of any sediment. He touched it and the shock of ice cold of the water went up his arm and he realized that this liquid was like ice, or close to it.
Mars got up, headed to the source, an open hole in the side of the room a few feet higher than the floor. The liquid came out of a small hole in the wall about two feet above the floor and fell to the floor where it exited the room in a tiny hole in the floor several feet from the source. In all the stream lazily dropped about a foot from its journey through the chamber.
Again he touched the water. It was as cold as the first touch. The room didn’t warm up the water at all, even though it took about a minute to flow along the seven feet of stream. He had nothing in his suit to collect a sample, so he thought that waiting for VIN to arrive was the best option, before going any further.
Mars Noble headed back to the door to the command center and knelt down, as his father had taught them in a class on the Matt bases, in front of the panel. His eye looked into the red panel and suddenly a bright light hit his eyeball, as his father had warned. It blinded his right eye, but he had closed his left eye so that he could see out of it into the room when the other was blinded. The light went off, he continued to kneel to make himself a smaller target, closed his right eye and opened his left to see the usual part of the wall slide open silently.
He didn’t move as his left eye surveyed the scene behind the door. The next room had three globes on stands, just like the globes in the bases VIN had found. The room was empty of life. Mars continued to kneel as his view was stuck watching lights brighten and dim slightly on one of the globes.
VIN had taken photos and video of when he had opened some of these rooms on other planets, wearing his helmet when he could open the doors without taking it off. Mars had his video camera and he started recording.
The young man stood up once he realized he was still alone. Now he knew what his father had gone through when he had entered the cavern on the blue planet for the first time, shock finding the hole with the mining spider missing.
He walked carefully across to the globes. One was very recognizable, it was Earth. The second was Mars, the planet he was currently on, and the third one looked familiar and he had to reconstruct his astronomy lessons. The third globe really glowed brightly in several areas. Mars was very dim and had one bright light while Earth was dull and had no glow at all.
“Must be Enceladus…or maybe Europa,” Mars said aloud to himself. There was nothing else in the room, apart for a red door panel which glowed opposite the door he had come in through. “That will be the command center. I’ll check that door and then see if my father is on the other side of the wall,” he again said loudly to himself, and wondering why he was suddenly talking to himself.
This time the door swooped across and disappeared into the wall when he tried it with the palm of his hand. He couldn’t figure out why some worked one way and others needed his eye to open.
Again the command center was empty of any life form, human or otherwise. The console was where it had been in the other bases, and he quickly walked over and checked the readouts.
All the NextGeners had been taught the Matt base layouts as part of their school curriculum by VIN, Commander Joot, and Roo, and everything that had been found had been passed on as teaching.
What Mars then looked for was an automatic reaction on his part. He had done the same to open the Cryogenic chambers the OldGeners were asleep in on DX2017. It was underneath on the bottom side of the console and he turned the entire command console upside down.
“Yes!” he shouted to himself. There were controls to open the cryogenic area below this level. There could be somebody asleep in the chamber down there, and then he heard faint tapping coming from behind him. He cocked his head listening, and then remembered that his fathers was due in the first chamber.
He began to screw on his helmet and after a few turns he could hear VIN shouting for him through the intercom.
“Mars, Mars, we are here outside the metal door. I have 32 minutes of suit power left. I need to get in. Can you hear me, son? Respond please!”
“I hear you, Dad, coming out,”
he replied and headed over to the metal door still screwing on his helmet. He worked fast. His suit was slightly powered up and he breathed fresh clean air through the suit. It had been cold in the rooms, and he felt the wave of heated air move upwards into his helmet. “Dad, you remember how to get the door to open?”
“We have an extra space helmet with us and two bottles of air,” VIN replied. Mars could just hear his father. “Max is going to hold the helmet over the panel like Ryan did for you. Mars, make sure your suit is working correctly, there could be a deadly fall in air pressure once the door opens. I will slip through, join you, and as soon as I’m through the door will close again.”
“Helmet on the door, Mars, pumping air into it now,” added Max Von Braun.
“Mars, is your helmet tight?” his father asked.
“I’m halfway,” Mars responded.
“Running out of time for me to make a return to the ship, turn that helmet fast kid,” VIN replied. “Mars, Max, I’m pushing the door panel now!”
His helmet was safe, half screwed on, VIN was gambling that such a small change in air pressure and loss of air wouldn’t be much of a risk to his son, but space wasn’t a place to gamble. Mars managed to turn his helmet two more times, closing his eyes not to get dizzy. He opened them.
Unfortunately Mars forgot that the pressure of the opening door could pull him with the escaping air, and as the door opened he was propelled into the opening. He connected hard with his father who was fighting to get in and a few seconds was lost as VIN had to take the hit on his suit by his son. His metal legs, always as strong as ever pushed him forwards and Mars literally bounced off his father and back into the room.
At the exact same time, Max ripped the helmet off the wall outside the cavern, and the door whooshed shut.
Mars was pushed hard to the floor, and he felt parts of his backpack hit the solid floor hard. Immediately he felt the air pressure inside the suit change and he motioned to his father by placing his glove over his throat. This meant that he was in trouble and VIN knelt down and began unscrewing his son’s helmet as fast as he could. He knew what his son was going through, he had been in the same position.