by TS Paul
Maxim pulled his helmet off the top of a box and inspected it carefully. “Is good. Mother Russia never put a man on the moon, and now here I am! Is good.” Carefully he attached the helmet and activated the seal.
“Too bad the Government won’t care. They only want us dead and technology under their control. It is good we’re not around anymore.” Nestor put on his helmet too.
Yana nodded her head in the boy’s direction. “What do you think Tina?”
“We need some time out of this box so let’s go.” Tina glanced up at the curved roof and shuddered. She was just a tiny bit claustrophobic.
All five of them finished snapping the helmets into place and went to the main airlock near the flight deck. Using the safety protocols, they checked that each other's helmet was properly fastened.
Bobcat and William were waiting for them.
“Got your gravity shoes? Without them, you will be like superman and fly off into the sky. The only difference is he could come back down. If you forgot them, now is the time to tell me. How about helmets? Got one of those? Wonderful.” William gave him a push and motioned counting money. Bobcat just shook his head.
“Everyone get their helmets on properly? There should be two small green lights up in the far corner of your HUD. If you don’t see them tell me now.”
None of the kids stirred.
“Good. Those lights signify that the seal on your helmet is good and that you are connected to the sensor package. Your suit can sense if the air is breathable as well as toxins or lack of atmosphere. You navigate using your eyes and tongue. It takes practice so keep to the basics for now. In the lower right should be the communicator. It will detect radio frequencies and auto connects to other helmets. Non-TQB frequencies can be detected, but it takes a fine hand or a special comms helmet to understand them.” Bobcat looked around to see if everyone was paying attention. He found five sets of eyes staring back at him.
“Great. Let’s go outside.” He waved at William who pressed a couple of buttons on the wall. A loud ‘whooshing’ noise could be heard as all the oxygen was sucked out of the landing bay. The bulkhead door to outside opened with a powerful ‘clang.’
The surface around the base was rocky and uneven. Piles of regolith and moon rock were everywhere. Construction of the base required explosives, and they had made a mess of the surface area. Directly outside the door all three LRV were lined up and ready to go.
Bobcat jumped up onto the first one in line. “Can everyone hear me OK?” All the kids including William responded.
“Now. Each of these can hold two people and a total cargo of around five hundred pounds. If by chance you find something bigger than that, mark it on your map, and we will use a pod to get it. You, boys, are stronger than humans but let’s not overdo it...OK? These suckers drive like regular cars now. The solar panel is an upgrade and can recharge the entire battery in a couple of hours if needed. My suggestion is to leave it deployed unless it's bouncing around too much. Top speed on these is around fifteen miles an hour. You can take two of them so pick one.”
Bobcat jumped off the rover and bounded over to William. They both watched as the kids kicked the tires and peered into the engine compartment. The engineers that upgraded the buggies painted names on them, Wheelie, Rota-Ree, and Dr. Crankinstein.
“Hey, Bobcat? What do the names mean?” Tina was crouched down behind Wheelie.
“Even I had to look that one up. Blame the engineers. It’s an old cartoon program they thought fit these things.”
“Oh, OK. Cool. We would like to take Wheelie and Rota-Ree, can we just go?”
“Not just yet. Use your tablets to navigate. Just northwest of us is the Mare Crisium area. That is marked on your maps as a No-Go area. There is a large amount of electromagnetic interference coming from there. It may cause a dropout in communications. Stay away from it. Everywhere else is open to you. Have fun, but stay alert and learn something. Now get out of here!”
Yana and Tina grabbed the pink colored LRV with the name Rota-Ree painted on a flag hanging off the back. Yana slapped Tina’s hands off the wheel and checked over the controls. Someone had thoughtfully labeled everything and decorated every empty surface with pastel flowers. “I’m driving. You navigate.”
Putting the little buggy in gear, Yana backed up and began to test out the simple controls.
Maxim, Nestor, and Ron had much more trouble.
“Why do I have to ride in the back?” Ron was tossed into the back by the much larger boys. He now was scrambling to find something to hold on to.
The controls on Wheelie were far more complicated. The engineers thought a jacked up chassis and wheels fifty percent larger than standard was a good thing. Driving through the regolith and rock was similar to driving on soft sand or very deep snow.
“Ugh, this drives like father’s old truck!” Maxim shifted to another gear as the buggy's wheels sank into the soil.
“Your father’s truck was more comfortable and bigger!” The two larger boys were crammed into the front seats. Neither of them had room to breathe.
“Good luck and have fun! Try to stay out of trouble.” Bobcat’s voice came over the speaker in their helmets as both buggies slipped and slid out of the base’s entrance.
Watching them leave Bobcat turned to William. “Half an ounce of gold they get into trouble within an hour, and we have to save them.”
Before William could respond, another jumped into their conversation, “They are smarter than that Bobcat. Give them at least two hours.” Both men turned to see Marcus standing behind them.
Bobcat shook his head, “Ya think? I stick with an hour.”
William looked between the two of them and shrugged. “Why not? You’re on. Both of you. I’ll take over two hours before trouble occurs.”
All three men began to chuckle.
—
Just outside the base the boys in Wheelie were just starting to get the hang of the controls and were trying to catch up with the girls.
“Hey, Ron! Where are we going?” Nestor looked back at the young human who was sliding around the small cargo compartment.
“Hold on a minute.” Ron grabbed the side of the rover and locked his gravity boots down using the helmet controls. They acted like giant magnets and secured him in place.
Ron, from his position in the back, couldn’t tell their location. Pulling out his tablet, he punched the locator and waited. High overhead one of the E.I.’s deployed in the over-watch satellite zeroed in on the signal and sent an update to his tablet in microseconds.
“We are in the Mare Vaporum crater headed toward the Sea of Tranquility.” He was shouting when he didn’t have to. Concentrating for a moment, he turned his mic down.
“Sorry guys.”
“Is OK. Do you know where girls are headed?” Nestor looked back at him and smiled.
Ron said, “the girls are going to the Sea of Tranquility where Ranger 8 crashed, and Apollo 11 landed.”
“Apollo 11? Like the movie?” Nestor’s eyes widened. “Neil Armstrong, the first human on the moon?”
Ron laughed. “Yes to all of those. Except they shot the movie back on Earth. We need to make sure they don’t drive over the footsteps!”
“Why not call them?” Maxim asked.
Nestor and Ron looked at Maxim as he swerved to miss a large chunk of rock. “What did you say?”
Maxim snorted. “Call them. Didn’t Bobcat say helmets auto-connect to other helmets?”
“That’s not quite what he said but … I’m an idiot. Thanks, Maxim!” Ron smiled, realizing that he could just call the girls.
“Potato, potahto is all the same. Hold on...big crater! Yaaahooo!” The large boy let out an ear-piercing howl as the rover went off the edge of the large crater.
Half a mile to the west the girls were flying along. Rota-Ree had some speed to her.
“That’s pretty.” Tina pointed to a rock formation on their left.
“It looks like a dra
gon. We should get a picture, if anything, to show Team Charlie. They keep lording it up about space walking.”
“That sounds good Yana. We should do that. Remind me on the way back.” Tina heard a faint scratching in her helmet.
“Did you hear that?”
Yana slowed the rover down and concentrated on the faint scratching only to be almost flattened by Maxim’s howl!
CHAPTER TEN
“What did you idiots do to this thing?” Yana was walking around Wheelie shaking her head. The front end was smashed in along with the upper roll bars. It was a miracle the boys survived the crash.
“We drove off edge up there.” Maxim pointed up to the edge of the large crater they were standing in.
Ron looked up too. “Yeah, Maxim let out a howl and over we went! If my boots weren’t locked to the deck, I might have died. Is it wrong to want to go again?”
Laughing, Maxim clapped Ron on his shoulder. “Nyet! We can find more, less dangerous things to do. Come. We fix.”
“We fix. We fix. Is that all you have to say?” Nestor crawled out from under the rover. Grabbing his cousin’s hand, he hauled himself to his feet.
“Is fixed?”
“Of course. Only a bent axle. We should be OK now. The body needs work but is driveable.”
“Good.” Maxim saw the looks on the girl’s faces. “Nestor is the family mechanic. Can fix anything mechanical. Where would you like to go?”
“Yana was taking me to see the Apollo 11 site, but I’m not so sure now.” Tina pulled out her tablet.
“Tina, we are here.” Ron stepped over and showed her his map. “Apollo 11 is way over there.” He pointed.
“What is here?” Yana looked over Tina’s shoulder.
“That is Palus Somni.” Ron checked his own tablet. “It’s right on the edge of the area they told us to stay out of.”
“Why is it brown rather than gray?” Yana peered closer at the tablet.
“Not sure. My tablet doesn’t have that information. The name means ‘Marsh of Sleep.’ It does have more of an albedo than the surrounding area. That might be the magnetic soil Bobcat mentioned.”
“Ron, what is this ‘albedo’ you speak of?” Maxim had his tablet out too.
“In the simplest terms, it means a reflective surface. Many conspiracy groups think the shiny parts of the moon contain alien bases or ships. From Earth, all they can see is the reflection. If NASA has found anything, they didn’t tell anyone.”
“We should go look.” The whole group turned to stare at Tina.
“I thought it was against the rules?” Yana grinned at her friend.
“They said it was off-limits because of weird electromagnetism. We could just go to the edge. Just to look.”
Maxim gave Ron a push. “Well?”
“It’s pretty far. These things go way faster than Bobcat told us. Let me check the battery charges.” He stepped over to the pink rover first.
Yana watched as Ron checked the battery and then deployed the solar panel. He came back and had to crawl under his beat up rover.
“I deployed your panels. We have enough juice to get us there, but we might not have enough to get back. It does get dark here. We might have to call them to save us.”
“Still big adventure and way worth it. What do you say Yana?” Maxim stared at his competition.
“Only if your buggy runs. If not, we will abort and give them a call. Understood?”
“Understood. It’ll run. Nestor is a master fixer.” Maxim and his cousin climbed into the rover.
“Hey, what about me?” Ron stared up at his friends.
“You ride with girls this time Ron. The rover is too dangerous now.” Maxim turned the key, and they could all hear the whine of the electric motor.
“It will start.” Nester motioned with his chin for Maxim to give it some ‘gas.’
The rover lurched forward very shakily. Up in the cockpit, the boys were bouncing around more than usual, but mostly safe.
“Boys!” Yana said, “Ron, hop on in.” They all climbed into Rota-Ree and took off after the monster truck version of a moon rover.
With a goal now in mind, the two rovers started to make better time than before. The Wheelie vehicle was a tiny bit slower than the girl’s rover due to the crash. Nestor’s quick fix wasn’t perfect.
Nestor nudged his cousin, “Maxim, you were too harsh with Ron.”
“He scared me when we landed in the crater. I thought for sure he was dead. I was looking for his body when he tapped me on the arm. I must have jumped a foot. He is a good friend, I will apologize later.”
“You do that. This is fun.” Nestor was watching the craters and rocks on the surface. For all his nonchalance this was really cool. They were on the Moon!
—
“I’m tempted just to leave all this stuff and have Jean destroy it from orbit.” Bobcat was under one of the computer consoles trying to unhook the system.
He heard William from above, “Why do that? You said it yourself, this equipment is important.”
“I know that, but they made this stuff so close to the wall I can’t quite reach it!” His arm was up into the middle of the wires and cables.
“Move your arm.”
There was a muffled grunt. “What did you say?”
“Bobcat move your arm!”
He pulled his arm back and asked. “Why?” A large machete came swinging along the wall just missing his head.
“AAaiiee!” Bobcat yelled, and scooted out of the tiny space. “You just missed hitting me!”
“I was careful.” William checked the blade before putting it away.
“Where did you get that thing and why is it up here on the moon?” Bobcat checked his hair and top of his head with his fingers.
“I don’t go anywhere without it. Ever since those guys shot me, I try to stay armed.” He patted the large blade again.
“With that? From what? Rogue asteroids? You are crazy, man.”
“We can re-wire this stuff later, and besides, it saves a bunch of time.” William started packing up the now, disconnected, equipment.
“This might be easier with those kids helping. Have you been watching them?” Bobcat placed the chopped up wire into one of the recycling bags.
“Me? I thought you were doing that,” William closed the box.
Bobcat scratched his chin, “No. I thought we agreed, you would keep an eye on them. Maybe it was Marcus.”
“Maybe it was Marcus, what?” Marcus stepped over some of the equipment and began peeking into the equipment bays.
“Keeping an eye on the kids. You’ve been tracking them, right?” Bobcat stopped what he was doing and stared at the older scientist.
“No. Was I supposed to? I left that up to you two since you turned them loose.”
“Guys, if I didn’t watch them and you didn’t watch them? Where are they now?” William had his tablet out and was staring at it.
“OK, I’ll play. Where are they?” Bobcat looked over at his best friend.
William mumbled, “That was rhetorical. I think that teacher lady is right. We should call you Bozo. They aren’t showing up on my map.” He held up the tablet and turned it around for Bobcat to see.
“What? Please don’t tell me we lost them.” Bobcat reached for the tablet and stared at it.
Looking at his own Marcus began to make faces at it. “I know where they were.”
“Where?” Bobcat asked.
“They went toward the Sea of Tranquility. It looks like the girls got ahead of the boys somehow and they went through this section here to catch up.” Marcus pointed at the map.
“Ouch! That is a huge drop-off! Are they dead? Please tell me they aren’t dead? The Queen is going to kill me! Cheryl Lynn will kill me, and John is definitely going to kill me, probably twice. Have you seen him lately? I think he has grown to extra-large-and-deadly. It will be chiseled on my gravestone I am the only member of Team BMW to be killed,” he started counting on his f
ingers, “Four times!” Bobcat held his head and began to moan.
“Not dead. See they started moving again. They were headed toward the Marsh of Sleep, that’s right on the edge of where we told them not to go.” Marcus tried to zoom in closer. Bobcat let go of his head and stepped over to look.