by Gary Weston
Marcia felt a solitary tear trickle down her cheek. She knew of little Sapphire, and had once watched her play boisterously with the other children, not letting her disability slow her down one iota. In her own innocent way, Sapphire Stone represented Mankind's battle on their new world to beat the odds and survive.
'Sapphire. If I have to pull this place apart with my bare hands, I'll find you a teddy bear.'
Four exhausting hours later, Marcia struck gold. Or at least a golden furred teddy bear. It had one ear missing and one beady eye hung solemnly down on its cheek, wobbling grotesquely. It had been found in one of the few unopened containers, hidden behind piles of off-cut timber. Marcia Potts had gasped with delight at the treasure chest of toys. She counted them. Thirty seven items in hopefully repairable condition. She repacked the container with the various toys, and closed the lid, all except the battered teddy bear.
Tagg Potts had just woken up when she arrived back home. 'Where the hell did you get that old thing from?'
'Never you mind. When I've patched it up, it'll be as good as new. Well, almost.'
Tagg kissed his wife. 'Have fun with that. I'm off to see if there's been any result with the satellite.'
'I can tell you now, no.'
Tagg sighed. 'That's a disappointing but not unexpected start to my very long day. I'll see you...sometime.'
'Try to remember to eat.'
'If I get the chance.'
Marcia set about her work. It was a little used skill these days, but she was pretty good with a sewing kit. One hour later, teddy had a new, albeit mismatched ear and a slightly boss-eyed expression. He was several shades brighter after being washed and dried. She composed a reply to the orphanage on her recpad.
“Dear Iva Hart. It is with great pleasure I have discovered a handsome, pre-loved teddy. True, he shows signs of being given and giving much love and is eager to find a new little girl to cuddle up to at night. Not only that, but he appears to have spent some considerable time in the company of several other toys, and having checked the records, there are more than enough for at least one per child. I will make arrangements for the toys to be delivered tomorrow to the orphanage. I will mark it for your attention to ensure Sapphire receives her teddy bear. Yours sincerely, Marcia Potts.”
Marcia pressed send and smiled.
Chapter 40
It was a team effort. Dillow, Breeze, and Skye were floating in space, tethered to lines, Stella controlled the ship; Anna, also tethered and fully suited, was ready to help pull the satellite into the ship. The ship had been fitted out with air tanks, and Stella had closed those off, saving the precious resource. They had short range helmet radio communication, too weak to even be picked up by Mars without being boosted and amplified by the defunct satellite, but at least they could communicate amongst themselves.
Dillow used the hand tools to remove the two large solar panels, Breeze holding onto the panels to take them over to the waiting hands of Anna Graham. Skye collected the vital fixings, aware that the loss of any of them would chance debilitating the satellite for ever. The first panel came free and Breeze held onto it with one hand, pulling herself along the safety line with the other. She reached the open airlock door and a slightly nervous Anna, standing on the lip of the airlock on the edge of deep space, took the panel from her and took it inside. Breeze hurried over to the satellite, where Dillow was already removing the fixings. Skye stowed those in her belt pouch, and Dillow took the final one out, handing over the second solar panel to Breeze.
Once Breeze had passed the panel to Anna, she wasted no time in going to help her friends use the zero gravity of space to manoeuvre towards the airlock. Breeze took hold of the safety lines attached to Dillow and Skye and pulled them along. Twisting the satellite around, it took four of them in the delicate operation of easing the bulky object through the tight confines of the airlock. It was close but finally, it was inside, the airlock was sealed up and Stella had equalised the pressure and air supply. Fifteen minutes later, the satellite was safely inside and they could all remove their helmets.
'You girls are incredible,' said a very impressed Anna.
'Why?' said Dillow.
'Are you serious? You three were out there. I mean actually out there. And you've just pulled in a satellite into this ship.'
'No big deal, Aunty Anna,' said Skye. 'It's just what we do.'
Anna said, 'I had no idea. At least I can be useful, now. You were right, Fawn. This is what we had to do.'
Breeze said, 'Time will tell. Ok. If I were Craggy, I'd just kick the damn thing into submission and hurl it outside.'
'Dixon Cragg?' said Anna. 'That old timer?'
Dillow said, 'He saved my life, at least twice.'
'Mine too,' said Stella.
'I'm sure he'll get around to save me one day,' said Breeze. 'No rush.'
'Live and learn, I guess. Right. Shall we see what we can do with this big paperweight?'
Chapter 41
'How's it going, Richie?' Max Morgan asked.
'Pretty good,' said Richie, brushing grey dust off his shoulders. 'This damn stuff gets everywhere.'
'There's a feed in the galley for you guys,' said Rocky. 'Dig in when you're ready.'
'Sounds good. Hey. Would it be ok to try to radio home? My mother's ill and I'd like to know how she is.'
Morgan knew just how he felt. 'Ordinarily, not a problem. But the radio's down at the moment. But as soon as it's up and running, you can get through.'
'Oh, well. These things happen. I'm off for a shower.'
Supervisor John Mantle equally looked pleased to have another long day over.
Rocky asked, 'Work going well?'
Mantle stripped off his suit. 'Better than expected. We'll have the plant running by halfway through the next shift. We should get home sooner than we expected.'
'Well done,' said Rocky.
'I could do with calling my supervisor to give him a progress report. Any chance of doing that?'
Morgan said, 'Not at the moment. Some static or interference stopping the radio signals. I'll let you know when it's cleared.'
Mantle shrugged. 'It amazes me we can call home at all, millions of miles away. Yeah. Let me know when we can call.'
'Sure will,' said Rocky, adding a smile.
* * *
'This is getting ridiculous,' said Dillow.
She was surrounded by parts of satellite. As each piece was removed, it was tested. Skye was in charge of the schematics, Breeze and Dillow took the individual components apart one by one for testing by Anna, who after six hours, had not found the defective component.
'That's it. Time out,' said Breeze. 'Skye. Just how many working parts on this thing?'
'One thousand, eight hundred and sixty three.'
Dillow asked, 'how many of those are actually radio specific?'
'Four hundred and seventy two.'
Dillow rubbed her aching neck. 'That all. I quit. I'm off to bed. We can play again tomorrow.'
Breeze was also in need of an experienced massage on her back. She looked at Stella and said, 'Does bed sound good to you?'
'Ready when you are.'
As they went off to their room, Skye asked her aunt, 'You don't mind if I get off to bed?'
'You go. I'll spend a little time testing a few parts before I go to bed.'
'Ok. Night, Anna.'
'Sleep tight.'
The deck was suddenly a quiet and lonely place. Anna looked at the mountain of components. She had the components, the schematics, and the testing equipment.
'Looks like being a long night. Oh, well. Here we go.'
Chapter 42
'Oh, come on. Hit it with a hammer or something.'
Ivor Potful had reached his limit. 'Anton. This pump. It's stuffed. Buggered. Knackered. Dead. Beyond salvation; gone to a better place.'
'So hit it with a bigger hammer.'
'See these?'
'Hands?'
'Gloved hands. See? No
t very good gloves. Best you guys could supply me with, or so it seems. Yeah. Nice to be appreciated. Notice all the tape around them? There to stop the toxic waste touching my skin? Oh. Guess what. It doesn't. Do you think the medical centre has anything for a purple rash? A rash so ugly, my wife won't let me sleep in the same room?'
'I'm guessing no?'
'Correct. Not only do they have nothing for the rash, they don't even know what the rash is. It has an insane itching and an aroma you wouldn't bother bottling. The itching means I scratch like a dog with fleas which spreads the rash which means I haven't slept in a week. I have purple rash in places people don't even have places. You come along and say people are complaining about the stench? Hey. I'm complaining about the stench.'
'That's what I came over to smell you. Sorry. Slip of the tongue. I meant, tell you. We will have a working pump, in fact, two working pumps, here within the month. Gotta be good, right?'
'A month? Oh, be still my beating heart. I can hardly contain myself with excitement.'
'It isn't so good, then? You know. New pumps. Coming here.'
'One month? No pump. Not here. All that shit with nowhere to go? Hmm. Let's see.' Potful took off his much taped gloves. He waved the nasty purple hands at Forbes who backed away. 'Does this look good to you? Me neither. See here? Big pile of crap. You shovel it. I'm going home not to sleep.'
As Potful stormed off, Forbes stared at the crater full of crap. Not far enough away, the pipe from which the planet's human waste came out of, gurgled, coughed and spluttered, and a treacly, dark brown substance plopped into the fermenting pool. It was probably his imagination, but he was almost certain something moved in that pool.
'Crap,' said Forbes, shuffling his dejected way home.
Chapter 43
'I'm pretty sure this is it,' said Anna, holding up a small part.
'You've been working on this all this time?' said Skye yawning.
'Pretty much. I've tested each and every part. This is the only one I couldn't get a reading out of.'
Breeze said, 'So, if we replace that unit, the satellite should work?'
Anna said, 'Yes. Just one small problem. We don't have a spare for it.'
'Damn,' said Dillow. 'Can it be repaired?'
'Possibly. We haven't the equipment here. This has to be done in the electronics department.'
'Then back home it is,' said Breeze. 'Let's get these pieces secured then we'll go.'
They spent an hour gathering every part and stowing them carefully away so they wouldn't be damaged with the zero gravity. Then Stella and Dillow fired up the plasma engine and took the ship on a slow orbit, before landing it. Forbes had been advised of their return and hurried to meet them when they landed.
'Any luck?'
'Yes and no,' said Breeze. 'We found the problem, but have brought it here to be fixed by the electronics technicians. The satellite's in the ship. In a thousand pieces.'
'Shit. Ok. You all take some time out, I'll get this sorted out. Good job, everyone.'
Twenty minutes later, Forbes was in the ship with Vince Friar, senior electronics technician.
'Jeez,' said Friar. 'What a mess.'
'And guess what you and your lot have to do.'
'Right. I'll have one repairing the unit and two others will work with me putting the rest of it back together.'
'Good. Just leave the solar panels off and Breezy and her team will fit those when they go and put it back in orbit.'
Friar said, 'We've been lucky with this satellite. This is a warning to us that we need to get more spares or eventually, we'll be in big trouble.'
'Easier said than done, Vince. Where do we get spares from? Once upon a time we might have got some from Earth.'
'Yeah. Bloody ironic. They got all that junk doing nothing floating around and we got nothing.'
'Yeah. Hey. Wait a minute. We can bring back a couple of complete satellites in Big Bird.'
Friar nodded. 'That's a damn good idea.'
'It would be if we could radio them to do that. You fix this satellite, we can do it.'
'Your wish is my command, commander.'
Forbes walked off a happier man. He decided he had deserved a feed and a beer. In the dining area, he saw Ivor Potful, sitting alone. Nobody would go near the man. Potful waved his purple hands at him. Forbes smiled, then he got a feed and a beer, saw Dr Jill Hill talking to Dixon Cragg and Misty.
'Hi. Mind if I join you?'
'Sit yourself down,' said Cragg.
He did that and as he ate, he glanced over at Potful. 'Dr Jill,' he whispered. 'Shouldn't Potful be in quarantine?'
Hill said, 'It's nasty, but certainly not contagious. We've used up all the ointment on him. We could really use some antibiotics.'
'I wish I could conjure some up for you, I really do. Marcia's searched high and low in her hanger. Nothing medical left in there.'
'All our medical supplies were from Earth,' said Misty.
'Not an option now,' said Forbes.
'Frustrating,' said Cragg, swigging a beer. 'I bet there's loads of stuff on Earth. All that medicine and equipment and nobody alive down there to send it to us.'
'Craggy. You're a bloody genius,' said Forbes.
Misty said, 'Don't tell him that, for God's sake. He's big headed enough as it is.'
'Bloody cheek. I am not big headed at all. So, Anton. You were reminding everyone I'm a genius?'
'What you said about stuff on Earth and nobody to use it. All we have to do is go there and get it.'
Cragg said, 'Don't look at me, pal. I'm retired from that caper.'
'Morgan and Ramshorn,' said Forbes. 'They're in Big Bird on Moon. We already want them to bring back a couple of pumps from Moon and satellites, why not go get medical stuff from Earth?'
Misty said, 'Won't Earth be dangerous? I mean radiation from the war?'
'Big Bird has an external radiation probe,' said Cragg. 'They can land, test for radiation, and if it is too high, they can abort the mission and just bring back the pumps and satellite's.'
'That damn satellite,' cursed Forbes. 'I hope they get that fixed in a hurry. Right. Back to work I suppose.'
Chapter 44
'What do you mean you can't fix it?' said a frustrated Vince Friar. 'That, electronics, you, electronics fixer.'
Keith Taylor prided himself on being able to fix just about anything that came his way, but the little black unit had beaten him. 'Look. See this? This circuitry hasn't been seen for thirty years. Like this bit. I mean, how do we replicate this?'
'Try using your necktop computer.'
'What?'
Friar tapped Taylor's head. 'This. Go back to first principles. Any idea what this part even does?'
'Of course. According to the schematics, it's a low input modulation filter unit, that singulates the amplified shortwave signals before amplification....'
'Exactly. And was that even a good idea at the time?'
'Of course not. A bloody stupid idea. If I were designing it...'
'Yes?'
'Well, to start with...'
'Kaching. Penny dropping from a great height. That was crap to begin with, so why fix crap? Now you know what to do, I want it done within twenty four hours.'
Taylor was visibly shocked. 'You expect me to redesign and produce an alternative for this?'
'And I want it in my hands with twenty four hours. Taylor. You are a star.'
'But...'
'Well done, Keith. I knew you'd solve the problem. Gotta get back. Oh. No pressure, but the future of the planet and the human race depends on you fixing the problem.'
'Thank goodness for that. For a moment, I thought it was important.'
Friar hurried off back to the ship. As he marched up the ramp through the airlock, the noise of the bickering stopped him in his tracks. There was clearly a difference of opinion within the team. He braced himself, took a deep breath and marched in.
'What's going on? I leave you for five minutes and you are at
one another's throats. Wilkins?'
'I want to put this side back together, leaving access for the part Taylor's working on. Fripps here, thinks if we do the rest of the assembly, we can still put the new unit in.'
'Fripps?'
'Bloody obvious. We either go my way and keep working, or go his way and call it a day.'
Friar could smell the tension. His team were stressed and tired. 'Put your tools away. You lot have all the symptoms of BDS.'
'Did we catch it from Potful?' said Wilkins, nervously.
'No. BDS. Beer Deficiency Syndrome. I can cure that. Tools away, and the drinks are on me.'
Friar thought he wrote the handbook on people skills. A well earned break, him the hero providing beer, giving Taylor time to make a new unit, everyone happy.
Chapter 45
Commander Potts gave his considered opinion. 'Anton. I'm not sure risking the lives of two of our finest young pilots sending them to Earth is a good idea.'
'They'll jump at the chance.'
'Of that I've no doubt. They don't even have weapons.'
Forbes said, 'Weapons? Why would they need weapons? Everyone is dead down there.'
'We know that for sure, do we?' said Potts. 'Andrew Foreman and a few hundred others survived. How do we know for sure others didn't?'
'Maybe they did. That wouldn't mean they'd be hostile. We weren't at war with them. They'd probably be glad to see us. Look, Tagg. Our medical centre can't cope as it is. Look at Potful's hand.'
'I'd rather not,' said Potts, grimacing.
'It's bad enough he's got it, and thank God it isn't contagious. If it were, well....'
Potts shuddered at the thought. 'Yes, yes. Point taken. But not just Ramshorn and Morgan. There are six fit men with them. If the pilots go to Earth, they take the others along. Strength in numbers.'