“I don’t have the skill.”
“You have to.”
There was another silence. “How long have we got?”
“Your decent will be too steep; you need to orbit Mars and bring the shuttle in lower.”
“Orbit; can we?”
“Yes,” she wasn’t sure they could. “You need to compensate for gravity and to control your fall… Richard do you copy?”
Richard sounded worried. “Yes.”
“Your too close to the colony: It’s too risky for you to do a normal approach, but you can next time around.”
“Then what do we have to do?”
“You have to make your decent as flat as possible?”
“How do I do that?”
“Do you have any power?”
“I don’t know how much is left?”
Alisha looked at Emma and shook her head.
They watched as the St. Louis disappeared beyond the curve of the planet.
“What are their chances?” asked Emma.
“I don’t know, but not good?” Alisha replied.
Emma touched her shoulder comfortingly. “All you can do is what you are doing.”
“I know, but at least if I had been aboard I could have my own hands on the controls?”
“Maybe this was meant to be; maybe six hands and three minds is what it’s going to take?”
Alisha looked at her. “I wish I had your confidence.”
“We’ll know when they reappear.”
“And before then we will be on the surface.”
They all glanced out the window. Mars was so close now that they could clearly make out surface features.
“Yes, but now it’s us you need to get down safely?”
Alisha nodded.
“Here I am about to land on Mars and I feel nothing,” she smiled weakly. “A few months ago I would have done anything to do what I’m doing right now; but I feel nothing; it’s not fair.”
“It’ll come.”
“The ground certainly will; it’s probably not the time to say but I’ve never landed a Lander before; I don’t know how much fuel the rockets have…it could be a bit hard?”
Emma preferred not to think on that. “I wanted to say before… but the Explorer?” Emma pointed to an observation window behind them.
Alisha could see the Mars Explorer, but wasn’t sure what Emma was referring to; she looked back at Emma.
“The shield?”
At first Alisha though it was just shadow and then she realized there was a tear. She turned to Emma.
Emma was looking at her. “That’s not right is it?”
Alisha’s mind was trying to think why as her eyes followed the tear to its beginning, and she saw the cause. “The tractor?” she said as her mind tried to remember to sequence. “Every force has an equal and opposite…”
Emma looked at her puzzled.
“When we got aboard we kicked across the gap. We must have pushed the tractor away towards the shield.”
“It’s broken; they will be exposed to the radiation.”
Alisha nodded and turned away from the sight. “St Louis do you copy?” Her call was met by silence
“Colony; it’s the Lander; can you hear me?”
“Copy Lander; go ahead?”
“You heard everything?”
“Yes.”
“There could be casualties?”
“I’ll be happy is that’s all we have to face?
“What facilities do you have?”
“Full first aid, but we do have limited supplies, and we have an operating theatre that can perform robotic surgery… the problem is getting them here; depending on where it comes down we only have the exploration bus: bringing back multiple injuries is going to be a nightmare, it can only take six, and that’s sitting, walking wounded; not stretcher cases?’
“I think even in the best outcome we have no option but to get as close to the colony as possible. We don’t have any way of working out a trajectory here, you will have to calculate a speed and decent to get the shuttle as close as possible to you?”
Before Sheshi could speak there was bang: shuddering and a feeling of being extremely heavy. It shook Matt back to consciousness
“What’s happening?” Cried out Jennifer.
Alisha tried not to sound concerned. “Were in the atmosphere.”
Matt reached his hand over to Jennifer; gripped hers and smiled.
She smiled back. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yes.” But he felt completely drained.
She looked worried. “You’ll be fine once we get you to a doctor.”
Emma grunted.
“Sorry… I mean when we get to somewhere we can get better treatment?”
“Thanks?” muttered Emma.
Matt tried to laugh but it was too hard. “Maybe we should talk about something else?”
“Or maybe you should prey that I’m up to this?” said Alisha “Retros should be kicking in soon.
They were all quiet and a short while later a roar filled the small cabin.
Jennifer gripped Matt’s hand even tighter, as everything went silent again.
“Parachutes are about to deploy?”
Seconds later they felt the sensation of slowing.
“Parachutes deployed.” Alisha turned to look at them all. “It’s okay.”
The excitement was short lived as she spoke again. “Get ready; it could be hard?”
Another roar filled the Lander, and Matt gripped Jennifer’s hand again.
“Retro ignition.” Called Alisha.
After several seconds the noise stopped. “Brace.” Called Alisha urgently, just before the Landers feet hit the planet. The Lander crushed down onto the struts as they telescoped within themselves bringing the capsule to an abrupt stop.
For several seconds none of them could believe they were down and at last safe: or comparatively safe, after so long.
It was Sheshi who broke the silence. “Welcome to Mars?”
“Thanks; at last it’s all over and we’re on solid ground… ” Matt felt a punch in his good side and turned in surprise to see Emma glaring at him, and jagging her finger skywards. It took him only a second to interpret her lips. ‘The shuttle.” she was saying silently.
“We’ll be re-establishing communications in one minute.”
Ali looked over to Richard. “Are we ready for this?”
“No.” Richard tried to smile. “But we’re going to do it anyway.”
Ali let out a deep breath. “As a child I once wanted to go to Mars. I knew I never would, but I’ve always loved space.”
“Yea; kinda the same as me. I thought coming to Earthrise would be the most I could hope for; and look at us now.”
Ali did smile. “All those years and this far; we have to at least get down now.”
“Getting down is not bothering me; walking away from the shuttle is what I want.”
Ali gripped the controls tighter. “We’ve not come this far to fail.”
“…you copy?”
Richard reached for the communicator. “Shuttle here; go ahead Alisha.”
“What is your height and velocity?” She listened intently as Richard read out the instruments.
“You need to lose fifteen hundred in height.” Said Sheshi. “And cut your velocity by eighteen hundred.”
Richard looked at Ali; Ali nodded back. “Doing it now.”
“We have beacons placed at the beginning and end of the prepared landing area. Switch to one hundred and twenty-nine point two, and keep the tone steady; it will bring you in on the right alignment.”
Richard reached for the frequency selector. “Switching over.”
Alisha was getting frustrated just listening. “What are your readings now?”
“Were about eighty high and a hundred too fast?” He looked at Ali anxiously.
Alisha’s voice was reprimanding. “You need to be within fifty of each.”
Richa
rd looked at Ali; Ali nodded back to him. “We are slowing.”
“It’s critical you stay within the parameters.”
“I understand.”
“Everything that can be done has been done; I can get you down but you have to stay within the parameters.”
“We realize that; we are going to.”
“The beacons can guide you in, but the rescue facilities will be stretched if you end up too far away from the colony.”
”It’s landing anywhere in one piece that we’re worried most about.”
There was a brief pause and Alisha’s voice sounded less demanding when she spoke again. “It was never going to be a walk in the park.”
“No… but neither was it meant to be an adventure park ride?”
Alisha’s voice was full of concern. “You can get the shuttle down.”
“Were not giving up.”
“I didn’t mean to…”
“It seems we drew the wrong card”
“I wish we could deal you another four aces?”
“That’d be good, but we can only play with the cards we have.”
“What’s your height and speed now?”
“Within limits.”
“… What’s the fuel status?”
Her question took Richard by surprise; they needed to loose rather than gain speed; then he realized she was just talking to keep him focused. “There isn’t any…”
Alisha’s voice became serious again. “There are people depending on you Richard.”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
“We just want you all down safe.”
“I don’t know if it’s in the book you have on me but I’ve ridden every roller coaster ride on the planet; Earth that is; now were going to make our own up on Mars…”
“I have visual.” Interrupted Ali.
“Me too,” added Richard. “This is it?” He flicked the switch to operate the hastily wired audio to the shuttles hold. “Okay folks we can see the Mars colony; get into braced position; and may god help us all?”
Emma and Jennifer were trudging across the Martian surface. Up ahead were the buildings of the colony, but Jennifer kept looking back towards the Lander. It seemed to keep getting smaller but the buildings dint seem to be getting any larger.
“I should have stayed with him?”
“We can help best by being ready for everybody when they get to the colony.”
“I just want to know he’ll okay on his own?”
“He’s not; Alisha is with him.”
“I mean me staying there with him?”
“Whether you stay or not, he can't make it to safety with a hole in his suit.”
Jennifer knew there was no option; Sheshi couldn’t send the bus for him when it would be needed more for the shuttle. She tried to think about something else. “It doesn’t look very big?”
“It’s mostly under…” she stopped talking, and walking as high in the sky she saw a trail of smoke.”
“Come on we need to get to the buildings; they will need all the help they can get.”
Even though the gravity was working for them their bulky suits still made rushing impossible.
Alisha had stopped giving Richard instructions; in fact she had almost stopped talking altogether; it was too late to help anymore now.
“You’ll be okay?”
“Yes.” Matt said in as light a voice as he could. “You go.”
“I should.”
“Yes; they will need everybody ready for the… arrivals?” he didn’t like to think of casualties.
“We’ll be back for you as soon as we can.”
“I’m counting on that.”
“If the bus can’t come… I’ll get another suit to you.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll go then?”
“Yes; you go.” Matt was feeling uncomfortable that she felt guilty leaving him alone and injured. “I’ll try not to give Richard any bad advice?”
Alisha nodded as at last she entered the airlock.
The wonder of stepping onto the Martian surface missed her as he immediately saw the trail of smoke and followed it to the speck that was the shuttle at its very tip. She stood transfixed; watching it come down.
Richard could do no more than call out their decent, but as the ground got closer his words faltered. He managed a quick glance at Ali; Ali’s face was a mask of grim determination.
Richard had to keep looking at their speed it seemed every time he took his eyes off the airspeed indicator they sped up. He had driven fast cars so many times that speed meant little to him, but they were still moving faster than he ever had before.
He could see a shadow racing up beside them and it surprised him for a moment until he realized it was the St. Louis’s own shadow. Once spotted he couldn’t take his eyes off it as it slowly crept back towards them.
The rocks strewn over the surface seemed to take to life too. They had been almost static and now they were appearing a disappearing behind at a frighteningly fast rate.
A change in pitch of the beacons signal brought Richard back to reality and he looked at Ali in concern.
Ali said nothing but with imperceptible movements the echo of the signal melded back into one continuous sound.
“Undercarriage.” Said Ali.
Richard looked at the maze of switches, but he couldn’t locate the right one.”
“We need the undercarriage down… now.” Ali insisted.
Richard was panicking; he had checked which one it was dozens of times before, but now he couldn’t remember which?“ he reached out and flicked one.
There was a motorized noise; then a shudder, and a light glowed. “Undercarriage locked.”
“Wish me luck?” Ali muttered.
“You got it.”
Richard couldn’t avoid the shadow now; it was barely ahead, and then it slipped below them.
From their vantage points; Matt; Alisha, Sheshi, Emma and Jennifer saw the St. Louise touch down, but then they saw nothing as a huge cloud of dust billowed up and engulfed the shuttle.
On the shuttle they could see the ground meters below but it was the shock wave of air forced before them that landed first and suddenly everything in the shuttle wend dark and them almost black.
“Ali?” gasped Richard
In the pale glow from the instruments Ali was forcing himself not to make any movement that would turn or cause the shuttle to deviate in any way that could send them into a slew or roll.
Suddenly there was a loud crashing sound as the wheels hit the rough surface and sank to the limiters.
The watchers watched the cloud of dust race forwards seemingly without losing momentum. It engulfed the marker that should have indicated the end of the improvised runway and kept going. It rolled and boiled beyond any thunderhead they had ever seen; or imagined until far past the last beacon, it lost speed and began to collapse into itself.
“Shuttle can you hear me?” Sheshi’s urgent voice received no reply over the Landers radio.
Matt’s eyes strained to look inside the impenetrable cloud.
“Shuttle can you hear me?” Sheshi sounded even more urgent.
The cloud was still barely settling when about two-thirds along a shape emerged from the side, and the St Louis slid out.
The noise of scraping metal smashing into rock after rock overwhelmed the screams until one of the leg struts gave way; then the screams overwhelmed everything else. Ali hung on grimly as he felt the back lifting, he fought the twisting motion.
Richard was hanging onto his seat as he felt himself lifted. His hand shot out and hit the drone release so violently that his knuckles punched it rather than pressed. A light came on but he felt nothing change.
Hidden in the blackness behind the shuttle the massive parachutes billowed open; immediately peppered and filled with dust and rocks.
The shuttle slid forward at an angle but slowly the tail settled and suddenly light flooded onto the c
ommand deck as they outpaced the cloud.
Ali was still gripping the controls as the ropes of the parachute snagged and snagged again, against rock after rock. St. Louis shuddered to a halt throwing Richard forward and smashing his face against the control panel.
The noise of tortured metal had ended as Richard: partial stunned, and with blood dripping from a gash on his forehead, slowly lifted his head. He tried to focus his blurry eyes and stared out at the expanse of Martian desert before them just before the dust cloud caught them us and obliterated the view.
Ali turned to Richard; he tried to speak but his mouth was too dry.
“You did it.” Richard said slowly.
“We did it.” Said Ali as he managed to get his voice back.
Behind them the screams had changed to cheering.
’
’
The End of Earthrise - Orbit the Sun – Part 12 Page 3