Avernus: Book One

by Steven Webb

  “Now head right towards the raised panel.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Joseph spotted the surface camera looking up at him. “Nice to know the cameras are working out here.” He unlatched his anchor and rehooked it onto the next rail. Again he crawled to his destination trying to focus on footing and hand placement as a way of distraction from the confines of the suit. seemingly by magic, his forward motion came to a halt. He looked up at a short wall in front of him.

  “You need to climb onto the panel and look for an electric box near the outer edge.”

  In one steady motion he stood up and pulled his body up onto the platform in front of him. The metal box stuck out of the metal floor. Joseph approached the box and removed the drill from inside his tool pouch. After removing the bolts, the lid opened up revealing a rat’s nest of tangled wires. One by one he pulled cords out rearranging some, and cutting and splicing others. “Okay what read out are we getting?”

  “Right thrusters fully operational,” Rocco’s checked in.

  “That’s what I want to hear!” Joseph exclaimed. “I’m going to head across to the other thrusters.” The box resealed easy enough. Joseph walked back to the end of the platform and climbed down. He worked his way back to the junction and crossed over to the other side this time a little quicker, confident he knew what to do this time. Once again he opened the electric box and began messing with wires. A black residue coated the lower wires. “This doesn’t look good.”

  “What’s wrong?” Captain Somers sounded confused.

  He continued fiddling with the mess of cords that lay before him. “The wires are fried. I don’t think I can get it up and running again. I’ve done all I can. Give me some good news from your end.”

  “Nothing,” Rocco chimed in. “They’re dead.”

  “We need those rockets to stop the ship from spinning.”

  “So then what should I do Trent?” Joseph stared at the thrusters in disbelief. Without an idea there would be no way to get the ship back on course. “Seriously any suggestions would be great.”

  Trent spoke up again, “Hold on let me run some number.” Silence filled the intercom. “Can you climb down the back side of the panel where the thrusters are?”

  “Looks like it,” Joseph faced out into the abyss beyond.

  “Position yourself just above the thrusters”

  Rivets poking out from the metal provided Joseph with hand holds to climb down on. “In position.”

  “Now I need you to release the governor from your booster pack on the suit. When I say go, turn the power to max and lay into the ship. I’ll control the other side.”

  The governor slipped off with ease and floated off into space. Joseph turned on the pack and suddenly found himself pushed up against the metal siding. “Please tell me this is working.”

  “Slowly, but yes the spin is slowing.”

  “How much longer? I feel like I’m being crushed.”

  “Just a little more.”

  Joseph began to panic inside the suit. Sweat streamed down his forehead. He closed his eyes and pictured a beautiful beach scene but couldn’t get the reality of where he was out of his head.

  “That’s it. Turn off the pack.”

  With a strong slap to the upper portion of his arm, Joseph turned off the power and his body released from the wall. “Uggggh,” he sighed with relief.

  “Come on back in,” Captain Somers said. “We’ll make you a nice hot meal.”

  Joseph climbed back up, took one long look at the stars, thankful he was still on the ship, and headed back to the airlock.

  FRANK

  “I need confirmation that the ship’s alright,” Frank blustered trying to grasp the events that had played out. “Allie get all the observatories on the phone. I want to know exactly where the Phoenix is.”

  “Sir should I try our Foreign contacts as well?”

  “No leave that to Randy. Randy team up with Judy and get all our connections in India, Russia, China and Europe on the Phone. I’ll join the Conference call in an hour.”

  “We’ll get right on it,” Randy picked up his cell phone and walked out.

  Frank turned to face the room. “Caleb, what’s our radio communication status?”

  “All signals are down. Transmission towers remain fully operational.”

  The room fell silent. Frank stared out at a sea of panicked faces. It took every ounce of control to remain calm. “Everyone keep trying to locate and reach the Phoenix VII, we’ll get them back home no matter what.” He walked out into the hall, only to be greeted by Daniel.

  Daniel’s red face and bloodshot eyes locked onto Frank, unflinching. The tears were still streaming down his cheeks. “You Bastard,” he screamed. His fist clenched so tight they were losing color. “How the fuck could you lose them. You were suppose to get them home.”

  “I know, I’m sorry. We should have been ready.”

  “Sorry? Sorry? That’s all you can say. How about, I swear we’ll get your wife back. Should haves just don’t cut it.”

  “I don’t know what to…”

  “Shut the fuck up, and get out of my way!”

  Frank, grabbed ahold of Daniel and pulled him in, wrapping his arms around him. “I swear to God I’ll get her home no matter the cost.”

  Daniel’s body transformed into a limp weight pushing against him. Frank could feel the rapid compressions of Daniel’s chest as he broke down in tears. He felt for his friend. This was all his fault. There was no conceivable way that he could think to fix it. The pain was eating away inside of him, but for the moment he still had to remain strong. The next few hours would be pivotal.

  Daniel finally regained enough composure to stand up on his own. “I’m sorry for that,” he said with exasperated breath.

  Frank lowered his arms. “It’s Ok. I have to get going but if you need anything let me know. We’re gonna figure it out.” He took one more look at his friend. “Promise me you’re going to be okay for the next couple hours.”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ve got to see what help I can be.”

  “I’ll be back soon enough.” Frank left hoping that Daniel wouldn’t do anything stupid. Now his mind was torn between the lost astronauts and their loved ones. He headed towards the conference room. Accents from all around the world chattered about. The door opened to large faces covering the walls. “Thank you all for taking time to join us. I promise this will be quick.” He walked to the head of the table. Whoever had designed the room had intended for anyone on video call to appear to be sitting around the table. The front seat of the table was the only screen that remained dark, the seat held for the NASA scientist in charge. The importance of this position wasn’t lost on Frank.

  “At five am this morning the Phoenix VII Interplanetary Space Ship was hit by a massive solar flare. All communication was lost and the ship is nowhere to be found. As of right now our top scientists are trying to figure out how to restore communication. I need your help tracking down the ship. We need all your available telescopes to help search for their location.”

  He watched the stoic faces hoping for some sign of understanding. The translation finally kicked in and one by one they began to agree to help.

  “Thank you. We won’t forget this. Please send word to us if you find anything.” One by one the talking heads disappeared making leaving behind black screens.

  Now came the hard part. Frank began to feel nauseous. He placed his hand over his mouth and hunched over. Get ahold of yourself. It took all the strength he had to ensure the little food he’d had over the last twenty four hours would stay down. Recouping himself, he dialed up the president’s direct line.

  President Graham’s office secretary asked him to “Please hold.”

  “Listen, it’s of the utmost importance that I talk to the President immediately. Tell him this is the Head of NASA. I need to speak with him.”

  “Sir, please don’t raise your voice to me. It won’t make this go any faster
. I’m putting you on hold.”

  “Tango Bravo three four one.” He needed to make sure she had heard him. The President had given him special permission to use that code but only for situations of a truly dire nature. It could drag the President out of any meeting. The line remained silent. He held his breath hoping it had worked, knowing it had to work. Word would spread soon and if he wasn’t ahead of it, the fallout would be enormous. Seconds dragged on. He knew time was relative but this was just ridiculous. Never before had his perception of it been so acute.

  The phone sprang to life. “President Graham here.” The apprehension, which had visibly shaken Frank, broke at once.

  “They told me there was some kind of emergency. Is this true?”

  “Yes sir.” Frank struggled to focus his thoughts into a cohesive sentence. The line remained dead.

  “Please get on with it. I have urgent matters to get to.”

  “Oh, yes. Sorry.” He adjusted his glasses as if preparing for a well rehearsed speech. It had become such a force of habit he even did it when talking on the phone knowing full well the receiving end had no way of seeing what he was doing. “I’ll keep it brief. This morning a burst of radiation hit the Phoenix VII earlier than expected. Without proper time to prepare, the ship took a direct hit. The status of the ship and everyone aboard is unknown at this time. I’ve reached out to our partners around the world and they are helping us to find the ship and get back in touch.”

  “Tell me what resources you need and I’ll get them for you.”

  “The sooner we can get the press conference out of the way the better.”

  “Just send me the information and I’ll have my Press Secretary get on it.”

  “Actually sir, I would prefer to do this one myself. It was my mission and I owe it the world to be the one to tell them.”

  “If that’s what you want we’ll make it happen. Give it four hours and everything will be set.”

  “Thank you, Mr President.” Frank hung up the phone. The queasiness returned with a vengeance. He threw the conference room door open and ran down the hall. It seemed to extend forever. The only thought in his mind was to not throw up in the hallway. After all he had an image to maintain. He fumbled with the door and quickly made his way to the stall and hunched over. Signaled by the sight of porcelain, the contents of his breakfast fled from him, escaping from the agitator they had been confined to. He stood waiting to see if anything would work its way free, before he placed the toilet seat down. Frank closed the stall door and sat down on the toilet. All the fear, stress, anger, and sadness came flooding out. Tears poured from his already weary eyes. His muffled sobs echoed off the ceramic walls. I could just walk out the door right now and never come back, he thought to himself. There’s no way to get them back. I’ve failed everyone. I’m a piece of shit. I can’t even take care of a pet. why did they trust me with a mission this big. His erratic breathing started to normalize. With a loud smack, he hit himself in the face. The jolt of pain brought him back to what he needed to do. This is my responsibility. I can’t stop. Not now. They’re counting on me. Get yourself together. He wiped away the tears stood up, with a regained sense of purpose, and walked out of the bathroom, turning around almost instantly, remembering he had just thrown up. A swish of cold water helped to rinse his mouth out and splash to the face help him feel refreshed. Time to get my speech ready. He left the bathroom once again, this time, continuing towards his office.

  There he sat in front of his computer unable to formulate a cohesive statement. Each line being reworked over and over again, his brain searching for the words to say. He only got one chance at this. The press would tear apart every word he said. Carefully constructed sentences formed on the paper. After what seemed like forever he hit send. There was no turning back now. He had an hour left to get his speech down. He left his office practicing his speech, and continued practicing as he navigated the empty halls Towards the prep room.

  One inside the room he paced back and forth running through every word one more time. His sweaty palms left the pages of his speech damp. The hour grew to a close, he could feel his heart pounding inside his chest. The thumping rang out in his ears. One sip of water and he was off to the show. Stepping onto the stage of the press room, he was greeted by a sea of faces, illuminated by bright lights shining from every direction. With the revelation would come the agony of seeing the shocked faces of those before him. He took several deep breaths, calming his nerves. Camera lights flashing everywhere. The teleprompter lit up. A small cough allowed him to clear his throat. The time had come.

  “At 5:00 a.m. this morning, the Sun emitted a massive solar flare. The direction of the burst prevented any effects here on Earth, however, the Phoenix VII ship was directly in its path. The ship was unable to avoid the radiation that traveling towards it. Upon being hit, all communication between NASA and the crew was lost. It has yet to be determined, the amount of damage they sustained during this incident. We have crews all around the world attempting to reconnect with the team traveling back from Mars. Before today measurements had shown the Solar flare would occur sometime next week, and this information was relayed to the Phoenix VII in hopes that steps could be taken to stop an adverse effects. Our hope is enough preparation was completed to ensure the safety of everyone aboard. As soon as we’ve established a link, I will release another statement. For now I will not be taking any questions until we know more.” Frank wrapped up his speech amid a flurry of questions. Security escorted him off the stage and through the crowd.

  Caleb stood in the hallway, his hands grasping a stack of papers. Not a usual site but nothing struck Frank as out of the ordinary. He turned towards Frank, held up the stack of papers and spoke up, “We believe we have a plan to regain communication.”

  “Let’s talk in my office.” Frank placed his hand on Caleb’s back, escorting him to the quiet room. “Stay out here while we talk.” he directed the security team. “Keep everyone away while we talk.” The door and he too a seat behind the desk. Caleb organize the stack of papers in front of him. Numbers and charts covered the surface. “Tell me you have a viable solution.”

  Caleb placed a page in Frank’s hand. “It appears that way. We are calling it Deep Space Relay Satellite. Basically the Idea is to send a Satellite up that can bridge the gap between us and the path of the Phoenix VII. theoretically it would allow us to send messages to and from the ship, bypassing the need for an antenna.”

  Frank rubbed his head, running over the numbers. “It seems like it could work. What kind of time frame and budget are we looking at?”

  “We should be able to get a working model up within a month. Our foreign contacts have agreed to let us launch it aboard one of their rockets.”

  Let’s get a move on it while we see if there’s any other options available.” A spark of hope returned to Frank’s eyes. This idea actually seems feasible. Now the only real struggle would be time.

  DIEGO

  The ship was cold. Less heat meant less energy wasted. Life support was more essential than the crew’s comfort. These conditions were less than ideal for Diego. His fingers struggled to keep up with the speed of his brain. It didn’t matter though, computers were the ultimate test of his capabilities. For the first time the puzzle came with more than just a paycheck and the sense of completion. This solution would be the one necessary to ensure the survival of himself and the entire crew. A little cold would hardly hold him back. “We lost all contact with Earth,” he said, so focused his tone would be misconstrued as callous to an outside observer. The crew had grown use to his cold working nature.

  “What do you mean we lost all contact,” Somers asked, her voice laced with nervous tension. “Are you suggesting that we have no way to get ahold of NASA?”

  Diego’s eyes carefully scanned the code on the display, his moving as fast as they could, to find the source of the problem. “It’s much worse than that. NASA has no way of knowing where we are or sending any informati
on to the ship itself.”

  Captain Somers approached from the side and stopped to glance at the monitor. “Is the problem something you can fix?”

  The clacking of the keyboard was the only response Diego gave. A box in the center of the screen eclipsed the code he had been working on. He closed the box and resumed the task at hand. “It seems all programs are functioning. So no. However, I’m working on a program designed to get us back to Earth.”

  Somers’ demeanor changed. “Fantastic. How long will it take you to get it up and running?”

  “Give me 24 hours. Also I need Joseph and Trent at my full disposal.”

  “I’ll make sure they are.”

  “We’re back,” Joseph hollered through the hall.

  Diego turned around to see Sophie, and Carl walking behind Joseph who was still wearing his space suit. “Did you happen to see if the satellite was still in tact?”

  “I was a little too distracted,” Joseph said nonchalantly, taking a seat on the bench.

  “Well once you’re done playing Buzz Lightyear would you like to help me out?”

  “Anything for you darling.”

  “Trent’s already up to speed, but basically I need the two of you to help me get the ship on course. I’m working on the program now. Once I finish I’ll need to have you guys put in your numbers and calculation.”

  Trent walked away from his station and towards the rest of the crew. “The system doesn’t appear to know where the ship is located so we’ll need to let it run for a bit.”

  “Okay everyone make sure you all get some food and rest,” Captain Somers ordered. “It’s been a busy twelve hours.”

  A resounding “yes Mam,” filled the air.

  Joseph joined Trent at the computers. They worked hard but the stress of the day was impossible to miss.

  Diego realized that Both of them appeared to be running on fumes. He felt bad. His desire to push himself was affecting more than just himself. “You guys should join the others.