Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1)

by Gregory Gates

  Abby gasped. “Jesus! What happened?”

  “Panel seven got hit by something. Busted clean in half. Get some photos and fire ‘em off to Newport, and get us some options. Sue, get Gabe and I into space as fast as you can. We need to grab that loose half before it drifts away or damages something else.”

  “Jeff, there is no ‘fast as you can’. We follow the protocol, and that’s all there is to it. That thing failed to kill you, don’t do the job for it.”

  “Yeah, okay. Sorry.” He glanced at Gabe. “Should have brought the Mark III suits with us.”

  She groaned. “Who knew? Abby, turn us minus-X to the sun and stop our rotation. That may prevent it from hitting another panel. But be gentle with the thrusters and keep our Delta-V nulled. And keep an eye on that panel piece; try and rotate around it to keep it close. Also, don’t use the Sundancer quads, they’re too close and a jet of gas could shove it away. We don’t want to have to go chasing it.”

  “Got it.”

  At the truss, Jeff gently grabbed Gabe’s arm. “Hey.”

  “What?”

  “I thought you didn’t work well under pressure.”

  “I don’t.”

  He smiled. “You did just now.”

  She returned the smile. “Huh. I did, didn’t I?”

  “Uh huh.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe I’m growing up.”

  He laughed, gave her push into the truss, and patted her butt. “Yeah.”

  She suddenly grabbed the bulkhead and glanced back at him.

  “What?”

  “Um, can I change into the coolant garment in my room?”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “Like Sue said, we stick to procedure.”

  Gabe frowned.

  “Oh for cryin’ out loud. I’ll turn my back.”

  “You better.”

  #

  Two and a half hours later Jeff pulled the hatch open and drifted out.

  Gabe followed right behind him. She gasped. “Oh my god, this is incredible!”

  “Bet you never dreamed of doing this while sitting in your cubicle at Caltech.”

  “Uh… no.”

  “Alright, well we can sightsee later.” He glanced around, but didn’t see the panel. “Abby, where’s our missing solar panel?”

  “On your nine o’clock, about 20 degrees behind you. It’s drifted away a bit.”

  Jeff turned around. “Ah, okay, I got it. Shit, I don’t know if I can reach it. Gabe, stay here.” He pushed off from the airlock and drifted out toward the panel. At the end of his tether the panel was still out of reach. “Crap. I’m about ten feet short. Uh, damn, let me think.”

  “Hang on,” said Gabe.

  Jeff felt a slight tug on his tether. “What?”

  “Hold on.”

  He used the air jet to turn slightly back toward the ship and glanced at Gabe. “What are doing?”

  She reached for the end of his tether that was attached to the airlock.

  “Gabe! Don’t!”

  “Shut up.”

  She unhooked him, snapped the loose end to her harness, and pushed off toward him.

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Yes, but you already know that. You’ve got another 50 feet. Go get it.”

  “Oh god.” Jeff jetted toward the panel, then jetted to a stop when he reached it. “Okay, I’ve got it. Gabe, stop your motion.”

  “Okay, I’m stable.”

  “Do not put any strain on that line! That’s all that’s keeping us from becoming space junk. Do you hear me?”

  “I hear you.”

  “Okay, I’m coming back.” He jetted back toward the ship with the panel in tow. About halfway there he called to Gabe again. “Alright, get back to the ship and reattach me.”

  “On my way.”

  When they were both safely back at the airlock and Jeff hanging onto the solar panel, he turned and glared into her faceplate. “Don’t ever do that again!”

  She smiled. “Okay.”

  “Okay then. Any ideas what to do with this hunk of junk? It won’t fit in the airlock.”

  “No. Let me see the end.”

  Jeff swung the panel around so they could look at the impact end. “Jesus! Looks like it was vaporized.”

  “Uh huh. Well, at a relative velocity of 60 or 70 kilometers per second, on impact it probably was. That’s why there’s so little collateral damage. No shrapnel. Just an instantaneous burst of intense heat and… poof.”

  “Wow. Makes you a little nervous standing out here, doesn’t it?”

  “A little.”

  “What if we just secure this to the backside of the rest of the panel?”

  “No, I don’t like that. The impact may have damaged the drive. I doubt it, but it’s possible. I want to run a full set of diagnostics before we put any load back on it. Let’s not make things worse. As the saying goes, first, do no damage.”

  “Okay, then what do we do with it?”

  “I don’t know. We may just end up throwing it away.”

  Jeff was getting annoyed. “Then why did I just go get it?”

  “Because we may need it. And stop yelling at me.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Abby’s voice came over the radio. “If you two are finished with your lover’s quarrel, I have some info from Newport.”

  Jeff chuckled. “Yeah, we’re done. What have you got?”

  “Heidi has Sheri and Bob online. They’ve been poring over the schematics and looking at options. They want to see close-ups of the damaged ends before they make a recommendation. They also want us to run full diagnostics on the drive to determine if there’s any damage.”

  “Okay, we’ll get photos. Do you have any idea where we can stow this thing? Gabe and I are stumped.”

  “Um, let me think for a second. Uh… how about tying it down to a couple lifting pads on the CM? Just don’t scratch the paint, or anything else.”

  Jeff and Gabe both turned and looked at the command module just behind them. “I’ll be damned. Why didn’t we think of that?”

  Gabe put her hand on his arm. “Because we were arguing about it instead of thinking about it?”

  “Good point. Okay, let’s try not to do that again.”

  “Fine with me.”

  #

  The comm console beeped with an incoming email. Gabe got up from the dinner table and read it. “It’s from Heidi.”

  Jeff glanced over. “What’s the plan, Fran?”

  “Hang on. Oooo, you’re not gonna like this.”

  “It’s been that kind of day. What?”

  “They don’t see any practical way to repair the panel; we just don’t have the necessary materials with us. They’re suggesting that we remove the remnants of the panel, and panel five, and replace them with panels one and three from the EDS. They have the same mount but the EDS panels are a little smaller. But, it’ll restore us to about 97% power, and maintain weight and moment so we don’t wobble on rotation. And we still have the Service Module panels for backup.”

  “Holy shit! I’ll bet they wouldn’t be suggesting that if they were up here and had to do it. That’s gonna be one hell of a job.”

  “You have anything better to do over the next three months?”

  He groaned. “No, not really. Do you agree with them?”

  “Yes. It’s not the easiest solution, but it is the best.”

  “Ugh. Alright, the engineering brain-trust has spoken.” He glanced at Abby. “Job opportunity.”

  She hung her head. “Oh great.”

  “Can I help?” said Susan. “I haven’t been outside yet.”

  Jeff shrugged. “Alright, we’ll make this an all-hands evolution. Good thing we brought a toolbox with us.”

  CHAPTER 19

  Thursday, June 30, 2016 (T plus 100 days)

  Jeff connected the newly replaced number five solar panel array power cable. “Okay Gabe, that’s it. How do we look?”

  “Hol
d on, give me a minute.”

  “I’m exhausted,” said Susan.

  “Yeah, big job. Hopefully we won’t have to do this again, or anything else like it.”

  “Jeff,” said Gabe.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s online, drive alignment checks, amps are 97.6 percent. Good job.”

  “Hallelujah! Okay, we’ll be inside in a few minutes.”

  “What do we do with this old panel,” said Susan.

  “Chuck it.”

  “More space junk?”

  “At this point I’m beyond caring. Here, hand it to me. Hang on to my tether and the ship, momentum will carry me off when I toss it.” Jeff got some good footing and gave the panel a heave away and behind them. “Hasta la vista, baby.”

  As he drifted off, Susan stopped him short and pulled him back to the ship.

  “Hey, Gabe?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I just tossed the other half of the old panel. Mark our position and notify NORAD of its location and probable orbit, not that anyone’s likely to be out here again anytime soon.”

  “Alright, but those panels will probably follow us all the way to Mars, get snagged by its gravity, and burn up on entry.”

  “Their velocity wouldn’t carry them past? Just like us?”

  “I doubt it. Their mass is negligible.”

  “Works for me.” He grabbed Susan’s arm. “Well, what do you think? Miller time?”

  “Do we have any Miller?”

  “No.”

  “Do we have any beer?”

  “No.”

  She groaned, “Some date you are.”

  Jeff chuckled. “Come on, let’s get back inside. I’ll buy you a squeeze bottle of grape juice.”

  “You must have been a real hit with the girls in college.”

  “No, not really.”

  “Jeff?” said Gabe.

  “Yeah, go ahead.”

  “Let me know as soon as you’re back inside. Now that everything’s working again, I’m going to have Abby put us back into a Passive Thermal Control orientation, and start rotation.”

  “Copy. Come on Sue, let’s head for the barn.”

  “Right behind you.”

  Friday, August 19, 2016 (T plus 150 days)

  Jeff, Gabe, Abby and Susan stared intently at Magellan’s telemetry.

  “How’s it look Gabe?” said Jeff.

  “Right down the pipe. So far so good. Entry interface in three minutes.”

  “She have Pathfinder’s signal yet?”

  “No, too far. But she’s right on course.” Gabe pointed to the wide-screen TV. “There’s the Valles Marineris.”

  “God, it doesn’t matter how many times we do this, each one is more nerve wracking than the last.”

  Abby groaned. “It wasn’t so bad when we were on Earth, but now? God, it’s a long way home.”

  “Yeah, you can say that again.”

  “It’s a long way home.”

  Jeff grinned at her and shook his head.

  They quietly watched the seconds tick down.

  “Entry Interface,” said Gabe. “125 kilometers altitude, 598 kilometers from the landing site, four and a half minutes to chutes, six minutes to touchdown.”

  Jeff sighed aloud. “Come on baby, do us a great big favor and get it right.”

  Gabe again pointed at the video screen. “Pyrrhae Chaos. Right on the mark.”

  Jeff nodded.

  “Come on you bitch,” said Abby, “I don’t want to have to spend another year in space.”

  Jeff gently grabbed her arm. “Now, be nice.”

  Four minutes later Gabe pointed again. “Morava Valles, 20 seconds, she’s got Pathfinder‘s signal; solid lock and on course. Pyros armed.”

  “Thank god.”

  “Yeah.” A moment later Gabe pointed at the telemetry. “There! Cargo door jett and… pyros and drogue chutes. Here they come, right on target.” 9.6 seconds later the final load was ejected from the rear of the lifting body. Gabe grinned. “They’re all in the air. 90 seconds and they’ll all be on the ground.”

  “One way or another. Spread?” said Jeff.

  “About 270 meters.”

  He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Good job. Guess we should have brought some champagne.”

  Susan shook her head. “Do you know what that carbonation would do to your GI tract up here?”

  Jeff cringed. “Yeah. But we could’ve opened the bottle a few days ago and let it go flat.”

  Abby frowned at him. “Yuck.”

  “Don’t you think maybe it’s a bit premature for celebration?” said Gabe. “Balboa and the MAVs won’t arrive for another five weeks. We’re not out of the woods yet.”

  Jeff nodded. “Good point. But at least with those, unlike Newport, we’ll be close enough to deliver last minute instructions, if necessary.”

  “Yeah. Okay, we’ve got chutes and radar across the board. Andy’s in powered descent, sky crane deploying. 40 seconds to touchdown.” 50 seconds later it was all over. “That’s it, last one. All 15 loads on the ground and intact, so far as I can tell.”

  He grinned. “Whew. I’d be jumping up and down… if I could.”

  Gabe chuckled. “So would I. There’s Andy’s system check. He’s alive.”

  “’At a boy Andy. Get to work. See you in 47 days.”

  Wednesday, September 7, 2016 (T plus 169 days)

  Jeff sat down to breakfast, and smiled at Gabe. “Happy birthday.”

  “Thank you. You remembered.”

  “Sure. I’ll bet that ten years ago you never would have imagined that you’d celebrate your 30th birthday in space.”

  She smiled and shook her head. “Uh, no.”

  He glanced at Susan. “We gonna have cake and ice cream later?”

  She shrugged. “Well, we do have some freeze dried ice cream, but a cake? I don’t think so. Even if we had the ingredients I don’t know how we’d make it in zero-g without creating a horrible mess.”

  “Pity. 30th birthday is one of those landmark events that should be suitably celebrated.”

  “We do have some freeze dried brownies.”

  “That’s close.”

  “But no candles.”

  Gabe sighed and shook her head. “And I was so looking forward to seeing 30 candles on a reconstituted freeze dried brownie.”

  Monday, September 12, 2016 (T plus 174 days)

  Jeff pulled through the truss into the commons, and found Gabe, Abby and Susan gathered around the table. “Ah, the gang’s all here. What’s up?”

  Gabe sat wringing her hands, appearing very nervous.

  Susan glanced up and smiled softly. “Um, it’s time we had a talk.”

  He frowned. “About what?”

  “About conceiving a Martian.”

  “Ah. Um… okay.” He drifted over to the table and pulled into a chair. “You have my undivided attention.”

  Susan looked at Gabe. “Gabriel?”

  Gabe grudgingly grinned at Jeff. “Hi.”

  He chuckled. “Uh, hi.”

  “I suppose it will come as no surprise that I’m the chosen one for this, um… undertaking.”

  He smiled softly and shook his head. “No, no surprise.”

  She nodded and glanced at Susan. “Your turn.”

  “Alright,” said Susan. She turned back to Jeff. “It’s time.”

  Jeff’s eyes opened wide. “Now?”

  “Well, not necessarily right this moment but, today.”

  “Um, we’re still 23 days from landing.”

  “Yes, but we’ve talked about that. Gabe’s periods have been surprisingly regular since we left Earth, and if she stays on schedule, she’ll ovulate in five days. So, it’s time to get on with it.”

  Gabe frowned. “Can we try to make this a little less clinical?”

  Susan smiled apologetically. “Sorry, but there it is. This is how we maximize our opportunities.”

  Gabe bit her lip and, staring at he
r hands again, nodded.

  Jeff reached over, clasped her hands in his, and squeezed gently.

  She didn’t look up.

  Abby shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re problem is, girl. I mean, think of it, you’re gonna be the first woman – that we know of – to have sex in space. Not to mention, if all goes according to plan, the first to conceive.”

  Gabe shrugged. “This isn’t exactly how I ever figured on getting into the record books.”

  “Okay, then just forget about that and enjoy yourself.” She looked at Jeff. “I would.”

  Gabe glared at her.

  Jeff glanced at Abby and Susan. “I wonder if perhaps Gabe and I could have a minute alone?”

  Susan pushed away from the table. “Sure. Abby, come help me with laundry.”

  Abby shoved up from the table, got her feet on the chair back and launched herself toward the truss hatch. “No problem.”

  Jeff squeezed Gabe’s hands again. “Hey?”

  She nervously looked at him.

  “Do you remember the first time Abby’s folks came to visit us at Wrentham House?”

  She nodded. “Of course.”

  “Do you remember our kiss by the hot tub?”

  Gabe smiled softly and whispered, “Yes.”

  “What were you feeling then?”

  She glanced down and bit her lip. “My heart was beating so hard I thought it was going to burst out of my chest, and I couldn’t breath. All I could think of was how much I loved you and wanted you.”

  Jeff nodded. “Yeah, that’s about how I remember it too. Do you still feel that way?”

  She glanced into his eyes, and nodded. “Yes.”

  “Me too.”

  She reached over and caressed his cheek. “You could have taken me right then, I wouldn’t have struggled.”

  Jeff sighed. “We had a houseful of people.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So, what are you so nervous about now?”

  She looked into his eyes. “I’m just afraid.”

  “Afraid? Of what?”

  She whimpered. “That I won’t please you.”

  “Good god Gabriel, why would you think that?”

  “Well, because.”

  He shook his head. “Because… what?”