by Keith Martin
“Hi Daddy…” Samantha shouted to be heard. She was glowing.
“Send the Little One our love Son.” Otto loved this.
“I will Dad, What’s new in the news?” He asked light heartedly.
“Fred got fired by the Master Chair!” He let it sit right there to bait his son.
“Master Chair or not, she can’t do that!” Joshua was shocked.
“Yep, fired him right at the N.W.G. meeting in front of all the Chairs…he’s just Fred now. Same job, new name.”
Joshua knew he had been had. “You had me scared for a second there Dad!” Joshua was relieved.
“Why don’t you two go on down to Fred’s office and meet us there. We have something to show you two.”
“He won’t be there for a hour.” Jill could be heard in the background.
“Or two...” Linda chimed in.
“Where exactly are you Dad?” Joshua knew he was asking questions that shouldn’t be asked, but they where Chisholm’s and teasing each other was just a part of their lives.
“That young man is none of your business.” Otto bit him hard and hung up.
“Dad sends his love, and so did Linda and Jill. They want us to meet them at Fred’s office in an hour.”
“What do you want to do for an hour Joshua?” She asked with lust.
He knew what he wanted to do. He just realized he still had no home to take her to do it in. He was thinking of what to do when his cell phone saved him and he answered. “Hello. You have the Chisholms here. How can we help you?”
“Hi Son…” This was not his father’s voice. Then he realized he now had two fathers.
“Mr. Craft?” He asked just to be sure.
“From now on it’s just Ed. Ok?” He sounded at ease.
“Yes sir, Ed it will be.”
“Did you get the fruit basket we sent you yesterday?” Ed asked.
“Yes. It was great.”
“And the note?”
“Hold on Ed.” He asked Samantha to look for the note.
“Your quarters are half way between the Chisholm’s and the Craft’s on the right side. Meet us there at noon.” Samantha read the note.
Joshua checked his watch. It was ten past noon. “Sorry Sir, we are on our way now. ETA five...we are just down the hall from you.” He had Samantha on her feet and moving as he said it.
“Move boy. You never want to keep a mother in-law waiting.” Ed advised and hung up.
* * *
Ed and Dianne where waiting for them in the hall holding hands as they walked up. Ed extended his hand to his son in-law while Samantha hugged her mother.
“I always wanted a boy and I got a full grown man.” He said lightheartedly. He opened the door to the couples unit and ushered them all inside. “Welcome to your new home.”
It was just a standard couples unit but it was decorated well by Dianne. The place looked just great. Joshua knew they would be moving to the main chamber as soon as he could have a home dug out just below his fathers. But for the time being, this was going to be great.
“What about my things Mom.” Samantha asked looking around.
“That part of your life is behind you now Sam. It is time for you to be a wife to Joshua and to collect the things a couple will have together. All your things we can pack for your little girl, when she comes.”
Samantha turned red faced and pleaded. “Mom we just got married.
“So did Jill, Linda and Otto. I do believe that they are both pregnant now.” Dianne corrected her daughter.
“Mom…stop!” Samantha turned a deeper shade of red with a big smile on her face.
“Dinner will be at our place on Mondays when you’re on base, agreed?” Ed asked.
“Agreed Ed… that sounds just great. Once a month we get both families together too. We Chisholm’s like to have family around.”
“We have an accord then. We will see you on Monday at the latest.” He turned to his wife. “Let’s let these two alone or they won’t be able to give us our grandchildren sweetheart.” He took her hand and they were on their way.
Joshua took his wife in his arms as they looked at their new home. Samantha started to lean back into his chest. “Well we don’t have enough time for making love. We have to be at the meeting in forty minutes. Why don’t we just mosey on over and show the base the Chisholm’s as a couple.”
Samantha’s lower lip stuck out as she pouted and she said. “Ok… but after the meeting we get to come home and play, old man.”
“OLD MAN…!” Joshua scolded her as she broke from his arms. “OLD MAN…!” He reached for her and she bolted like a spooked gazelle screaming with joy.
* * *
Steve looked at the photo of the skull in confusion. Not human but close. He knew this was real. He could tell that Ashley was not playing around. “This person must have been built for war. The bone is thick. Look at the jaw. It’s like a chunk of bull jaw. These people where designed for combat.” He looked right into Ashley’s eyes and asked for conformation. “This is real?”
“Yes! And there’s this too.” She gave him the second photo.
“Femur?”
“Yes.” She confirmed.
“Mars?” He asked.
“Yes.” Her phone rang interrupting her train of thought. It was her sister. “Yes I’m here with him now.” She listened for a few seconds. “Ok, 2:30 at Fred’s office…. Ok … bye now.” She hung up. “Our first meeting is at 2:30. A transport will be picking us up at 2:15.” She informed Steve.
“Let’s make sure Ton will be there. He is out in the gas tunnel.” He phoned his brother.
“I’m your driver, now let me work!” He said answering his phone and then hanging up before Steve could spit insults back at him.
“Let’s heat up the rest of the pizza and take him a cold one. He will need it. He’s been out there all day. You can even drive for us. I know you won’t let me drive.”.
“If I didn’t know you two loved each other so much, I would look for a fight to break out.” She stated as she stood to get Ton’s meal warmed up.
Steve stood to get ready and he never stopped the banter under his breath. “Me… I don’t love that lug. HA. I don’t even like him. That’s a good one. I don’t even know who his mama was, could have been that old skunk. HA. Love… THAT’S A GOOD ONE. I never…. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Me… love my own brother. YOU SHOULD TRY LIVING WITH HIM?” He came out ready to go. “Okay I am ready to go.” He said bowing to her with a flourish of his hand like he was sweeping his hat off.
“You’re a fool Steve.” Ashley said then started to giggle as he chased her toward the lift door.
“Why thank you my dear. Your words are like springtime to my ears.” He opened the lift door and stood aside for her to enter first.
* * *
The next thing he knew Ashley was holding him up, he was against the wall and the world was coming back into focus. She was scolding him. “No more bowing!”
“That was a big one. Are you Ok?” He was regaining his feet and senses.
“All the way out?” He asked sheepishly.
“How often does this happen Steve?” Ashley was getting to the bottom of this right now.
“I’m fine Ashley…”
He was cut off with a finger right in his face. “I call major amounts of bull Mister. You come clean, you’re family and your health is of concern to us all. So shut up with the dung and get with the truths or I’ll call Ton.” She pulled out her phone and showed it to him with her finger at the ready.
“He’s digging and can’t be interrupted!” He defended himself.
“I’ll call Fred!” She tried again looking to the chain of command on SMB to lend its power to her now.
“I’m on the mining crew, and a Commander on this base!” He served it to her court again as his legs got under him and he took all his weight again, thanking her for not letting him hit the floor.
“Ok…. I know what to do… I got your n
umber Bucko…. I’ll tell Terry, and she feeds you!” She played her trump card with a slap to the table.
“You win. Four times so far. Just when I move real fast, or bend down to get a thing on the floor. Its not as bad as it was, I hit twice at first, and told no one. Now we have a meeting to go to, if I feel anything at all again I will talk to the Meds, agreed?”
She was going to give him a single chance. She knew what he was experiencing was normal after a blast like he had taken. “I find out you lie to me, and no trust no more. Agreed?” She drew her line in the sand to make him understand just how much this meant to her.
“I’ll spit in my hand and shake?” He agreed joking around.
Ashley spit in her hand and offered it to him. “I know you will or it’s no deal, I’m not a city fool. Now spit on it or I’ll call Terry right now”
They had a deal; and that was worth being spat on.
* * *
Ton grabbed a nugget of the new fuel on his way out of the fuel tunnel. The nugget was no bigger than a golf ball in size. He had a stainless steel jar to store it in with a half-inch ball valve with a foot long half-inch nipple attached to the lid. He was going to show Shianne the power of this new gas. He knew she was planning to use it for fuel to boost the power of the shuttles. He figured a good demonstration was in order.
The frozen gas turned to a liquid state at negative two hundred and sixty-eight degrees and re-vaporized into a gas at negative two hundred and sixty-seven degrees. He had no idea how much it expanded as it vaporized. He knew that it was the most powerful fuel he had ever seen, that was enough.
On the way through the tunnels the frozen nugget had time to warm up and turn to liquid inside the jar. The outside of the jar turned frosty from the extreme cold held within it. By the time he reached the lift room it looked like a big white snowball that was smoking cold vapors.
“What in the heck is that?” Steve asked as he sat down in the transport. Ashley told Ton to take the passenger seat handing him pizza and a cold beer.
“You would think you would know. It tried to kill you the last time you played with it.” Ton informed his brother. “Pizza, pizza, pizza...I’m so hungry Ashley. You’re a life saver.” He said and dug in.
Ashley drove slow and safe for Steve’s sake. She knew that any sudden moves would cause him great pain and could re-injure his ribs. Even the slight G forces of acceleration could hurt him at this point in his recovery. She was amazed at how well he moved already. But she knew he was hiding pain, refusing to be slowed by his injuries.
Steve still had to razz her all the way to the meeting. “You drive like an old woman.”
She wouldn’t take the bait.
“We are going to be late.” He watched her for any sign of a reaction. “I could have driven us there twice by now.”
She kept her cool.
“Let’s go old woman…. Did you see that? A snail just passed us on the right.”
Ashley braked a little harder then she meant to and Ton spilled his beer. “Do you want to drive or shut up?” She scolded him.
“Look what you made her do nimrod; my beer is all foam now.” Ton raised his hand to smack his brother, then remembered he had almost lost him just days ago. “I owe you boy.”
Steve sat quiet for the rest of the ride. But it was easy to see that he was holding in his laughter.
* * *
The meeting was promising to be very large; all seven of the Chisholms, both the Terry’s, Vic, Chris, Fred, and Hackett were all in attendance.
Once all finished greeting one another Fred called the meeting to order. When everyone took seats Fred got rolling. “Hackett, why don’t we start with you showing us what you found in The Seekers memory?”
She hit enter and the screen filled with the planet she had named Hope. No one spoke as they all began to realize this was not Earth. “Where is this planet located Connie?” Otto asked her.
“Near as I can figure, it took The Seeker ten years of travel out past Pluto to capture these images. We have no way of knowing the exact speed the Seeker was traveling at. But I estimate that we are looking at a crossing of six to eight years at this time at least, given the max speed of our shuttles….”
There was no way a shuttle could keep a crew alive for that long of a crossing. There wouldn’t be enough room to store all the needed supplies to support the crew even with the cargo hold crammed with supplies. “So it’s unreachable?” Steve cut in.
“I want to show you all something before we go on.” Ton said taking the floor. “Let’s all go out to the hanger so we can have a little demonstration.”
On the way Ton picked up the Jar of gas with a couple of rags and carried it to a steel workbench in the hanger. The hanger was empty except for a few small things stored here and there and a couple of tow transports.
He got a scale and wiped the frost off the stainless steel jar then weighed it.‘6428 grams.’
The table was twenty feet long and five feet wide. It was bolted down with one-inch bolts on each of its eight legs. The steel it was constructed of was an inch thick. A guide was welded to the bench to hold the jar; Ton slipped it into the guide. The nipple of the jar now pointed horizontally across the hanger with nothing in its path for three hundred feet. Ton figured this was a safe way to show Shianne what she had to deal with.
23 Blue Thunder
“Vic, lighter if you please.” Ton requested with an outstretched hand.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Otto asked as Ton put on a welders smock and gloves.
“It’s just a little demonstration Otto.” He said innocently. He opened the valve ever so slightly and touched off the escaping gas.
Liquid blue flame burst forth from the jar. It was five feet long, a foot around and it sounded like a jet in afterburner. Shianne was impressed. She couldn’t wait to get this new gas and figure out just how powerful it was.
Ton reached over and flicked the valve open all the way and leaped back. The results sent everyone running for their lives.
A flame sixty feet long and ten feet around blasted from the nipple. The sound of thunder shattered the area of the hanger and started to move out as the pressure wave pushed out. It was bone jarring. Alarms went off. Pressure doors slammed shut automatically. The fire suppression system went off and the hanger air filled with a downpour of water. Over pressure valves vented the expanding gasses out of the hanger and the computer system automatically called the whole base to a level ONE alert.
The ripping thunder of this torch vibrated throughout the whole of S.M.B. The integrity of the hanger was stressed to the limits. The escaping fuels burst forth at eight hundred miles an hour causing rippling thunder claps of broken sound to rumble the vary foundation of the Moon base.
In Alpha chamber the sound was carried through access tunnels and through the rock of the Moons core. The power of it caused all work to stop and after a few seconds hundreds of the crew headed towards the hanger to lend a hand.
The workbench started to give way to the force that was being exerted on it. The bolts that held it started to snap as the surface of the bench buckled. It was being pulled apart as if it was just a tin can. Its back legs buckled causing the whole table to slump on twisted legs redirecting the blast to hit the hanger floor more directly.
Vibrations of sound waves caused everything within sight to start dancing along the floors and falling from shelves. The heat scorched everything in the area and the rock floor started to glow in seconds.
For this few seconds in time, the hanger turned into a violent pit from hell.
* * *
Everyone ran for their lives except for Ton, Shianne and Hackett. The three stood at a safe distance covering their ears with their hands. The water of the fire suppression system soaked them to the core saving their lives from the heat. A smile was on Ton’s face and awe filled Shianne and Hackett’s.
The demonstration lasted thirty seconds before the fuel spent itself. It slowly dim
inished and flashed out. Steam rose up from the hanger floor where the flames had turned the floor red-hot making glass out of the surface.
All the personal of S.M.B. had experienced the test, hundreds of them where now running towards the hanger to help with whatever had just exploded. Automatically closed pressure doors opened slowly as the computer sensors calculated that the danger of rupture was over.
* * *
The three of them danced like fools in the rain of the sprinklers. It would be minutes before the water even got close to cooling the floor and it was billowing steam.
The bench was trashed.
Of those who had run for it Fred was the first to make it back. “TON, ARE YOU NUTS? YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US ALL! WHAT THE HELL WHERE YOU THINKING? STOP DANCING LIKE A BUNCH OF CRAZY FOOLS. WE ALLMOST DIED…MY GOD LOOK AT THAT BENCH!!!” He started to calm down as the meaning of what he was looking at took control. “That had to have taken hundreds... thousands of tons of force.” Fred started to dance with them.
A flood of personnel followed the rest of the meetings crew back into the hanger. The twisted bench stopped them all in their tracks. Its significance was not lost on any of them.
As a crew broke out fire hoses to clean up the mess Ton had made, the meeting reconvened. First Ton used a torch to cut the jar from the welded guide. It had molded itself to the guide with thrust. The scale that had been on the bench was now a lump of melted slag. So they pulled another from supply.
5113 grams was the empty weight. “That was just 315 grams of the fuel Shianne.” Ton informed her.
She picked up the bent jar from the scale and began dancing again. “315 grams!” She sang as she and Ton swung around.
The fuel wasn’t just powerful it was phenomenal. There was no fuel as powerful invented by man.
* * *