Alone in the Dark, page 7
part #3 of Lunar Age Series
I thought about it and then gave the only answer I could, “I don’t know. The part of CDB Farms that occupies NLH can probably make up a shortfall of calories from Earth for the people living at NLH. The problem is Peary, I have no idea how many people are living there now or how much of CDB Farms available square footage at Peary is under production. I was pretty busy the three months before we left for Earth and didn’t spend any time working with my Mom. I could go ask her.”
“Leave that for some time you are alone with her. You don’t want to go accidentally starting a riot. From what I know of your mother, I’m sure she’s probably given the question plenty of thought already. Maybe she’ll pleasantly surprise us.”
The command deck was quiet after that, each one of lost in our thoughts about what might happen. I had never even considered the possibility that the Moon could be abandoned because of the after effects of the storm. How you would evacuate everyone to Earth was a problem that was beyond my scope to even imagine. We sat there in silence for almost a half hour when suddenly the radio came alive with, “Denali Flight One, this is NLH flight control, over”
Commander Saner answered back, “NLH flight control, Denali Flight One, what can we do for you?”
“Denali Flight One, we have an emergency situation and need your assistance.”
“Control, state the nature of the emergency”
“Flight One, we implemented emergency evacuation protocol for the Orbital Payload Receiving Station. Based on the earlier intensity forecast, a volunteer shielded caretaker was left in place. Somebody jumped the gun and stripped down the CLT-SB when it landed. The latest intensity forecast calls for pulling the caretaker and we’ve got no vehicle to do it. Somebody dropped the ball when they wrote these procedures and now we’ve got a soul exposed.”
“Control, understood. Give us ten to see what we can do.”
Commander Saner turned to me and Nina and said, “I want you to to pull the latest OPRS orbital information. Work separately, but I want both of you to calculate an intercept for the station and then get us down on the ground. Figure a half hour for the docking and extraction. I want to know the exact time to get there and the exact time to get us on the ground. Craig, I want you to check over the forward hatch and then extend it to make sure we have no problems with it. By the time you’re done with that, we should have the courses ready. I want you to check fuel allowances and make sure we can get away with this little detour. If everything is a go, then I want you flying this segment since you’ve docked at OPRS before.”
Mr. Hirayama pulled up the subsystem screen for the forward hatch and after checking over it for several minutes, left the command deck. We could hear him pulling panels in the trunk that led to the external hatch where we guessed he was checking over the hatch extension mechanism. Nina and I pulled the latest orbital data from NLH and then got to work computing a possible intercept. There was no doubt that we could rendezvous with the OPRS. The question was whether we could do it and then land at NLH before the storm front hit. If we couldn’t do that, then there was no rescue mission. Whoever was stuck on the OPRS had better pray that their radiation armor was strong enough and that the physical systems on the station were robust enough to weather the storm.
Nina beat me at completing the task, but I was only a minute behind her so I didn’t feel too bad. In the mean time, Mr. Hirayama had come back to the command deck and extended the forward hatch so it would be ready. Commander Saner had finished with his own course plot shortly after Nina and now said, “Throw your work up to my screen and let’s see what we got. My course matched Commander Saner’s within thirty seconds. Nina had a slightly different burn profile that managed to shave five minutes off of the mission time. Fortunately, for the stranded OPRS worker, the orbits lined up so we could reach him and set down before the front hit. It could easily have gone the other way. Commander Saner said, “Alright, Nina. Bryce, you and I are going to work the numbers again using Nina’s profile. Let’s see if we come up with the same numbers as a cross check.” Five minutes later, we had an agreement that Nina’s course would work.
THE ORBITAL PAYLOAD RECEIVING STATION
Mr. Hirayama looked relaxed as he sat in the left hand seat. He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world. Commander Saner was in the co-pilot seat on the right and looked like he had indigestion. I was coming to realize that Mr. Saner was one of those people that just looked that way normally. It had nothing to do with him not liking me and Nina. It’s just the way he was. It had been two and a half hours since the call about the rescue mission had come in. We were about thirty kilometers away from the station, which at our present speed would put us there in a half hour. Our speed was dropping though, so we wouldn’t be in close enough to start the final approach for another twenty five minutes.
The OPRS looked a lot like a dumbbell with one end cut off and replaced by the wreckage of an umbrella. The bulb end of the dumbbell was the fuel storage section. Fuel was boosted up to lunar orbit by the accelerator and then stored in the tanks that took up one end of the OPRS. The tanks had the solar arrays that provided electrical power to the station attached to them. The opposite end of the station consisted of a series of trusses fanning out perpendicularly from the central spar. The trusses were used to temporarily attach the shipments sent up from the accelerator until they could be collected for a shipment by a CLT30-SB. The living quarters for the station were located in the central spar. The final feature of the OPRS was a ring of docking ports midway along the center spar. That was our destination today.
We were going to start eating into that two hour buffer we originally had before the storm would hit. Commander Saner’s estimate of a half an hour for the docking and extraction had to hold true. Nina’s estimated course put us on the ground at NLH forty-seven minutes after we left the station, if we hit our marks. If we were too long, then we’d miss our landing at NLH. Our only hope would be to find a relatively small, deep crater that we could set down in. Once down, we’d evacuate the command deck and take shelter with our passengers around the central core. No one wanted to find out if that would provide enough shielding from the increased radiation levels during the storm. Commander Saner had Nina and me working on alternative landing sites. It was really scary knowing this wasn’t just an exercise.
When we got down to a half kilometer, Commander Saner had Nina and I leave the command deck and take up station at the base of the trunk leading to the forward hatch. As soon as we docked, Commander Saner would signal me to open the hatch and then drop back down the trunk. The caretaker from the station would enter the CLT30 and then close and dog the hatch. After they dropped down the trunk, my job was to go back up and check the hatch was properly secured so Mr. Hirayama could get us out of there.
It had taken fifteen minutes to maneuver the CLT30 into the dock. As soon as Commander Saner gave the word, I flew up the trunk and opened the hatch. A short, wiry guy with a huge grin came through and then chased me back down the trunk. I shot back up and checked that he had secured the hatch. As I hit the base of the trunk, Nina let Commander Saner know and Mr. Hirayama started pulling away from the station.
We had taken twenty-eight minutes to perform the docking and extraction. That left us one hour and three minutes before the storm front hit and the flight time for Nina’s course was still forty seven minutes. If we landed according to plan, it would take an already waiting shuttle two minutes to link up with us and approximately seven minutes for everyone to exit the CLT30. That left us seven minutes for the normally five minute trip from the pad back to NLH. We were cutting it close, but we should make it. There’d be no time for the orderly shutdown Commander Saner had been hoping for.
SHELTER FROM THE STORM
Nina turned the rescued worker over to the steward and we risked floating back up to the flight deck while Mr. Hirayama gently maneuvered the CLT30 away from the station. Once we were strapped in, Commander Saner said, “There’s a new course on your consoles. Check it carefully and let me know if there’s any issues with it.” I didn’t understand why there would be a last minute change, but looking at the course, it was taking us to the unfinished space port at Peary instead of the landing pad at NLH. I ran through the math and everything checked out okay. The flight time was two minutes, thirty eight seconds longer than to NLH. I gave Commander Saner a go on my calculations and Nina followed me immediately after. We both asked at the same time, “Why are we going to Peary?”
Commander Saner waited a minute and then said, “Here’s the situation. This storm is hitting at a time when the CLT-SB and this CLT30 are the only vehicles on the Moon. The CLT30 assembly line is down while they move it from NLH to the new plant at Peary. There won’t be any CLT30’s rolling off the assemble line for at least two months. All the other vehicles are in orbit at Earth . We don’t know how well any of that equipment is going to weather this storm. The CLT-SB is shut down and safe at NLH but it only has limited passenger carrying capacity. If we’re cut off from Earth, this CLT30 is our major asset for moving people. While you guys were taking care of the hatch, we got a message from NLH that they want us to land at Peary Space Port instead of the pad at NLH.” Nina said, “How does that protect the CLT30 any better than landing at NLH?’
“While most of the Space Port is unfinished, they did get the elevator operational. If we land there, we can use the elevator to get our passengers and the CLT30 under cover quicker than what we could just accomplish getting the passengers safe at NLH.”
Mr. Hirayama monitored the program carefully following the course Nina had laid out. He had a scan worked out where he cycled through multiple screens back checking what the CLT30 was doing in the hopes of catching something before it managed to kill us. Commander Saner back checked Mr. Hirayama and Nina and I monitored whatever the most critical task was at the moment. We were one hundred kilometers out from the Space Port and then fifty, then twenty, and then the main engines were singing a throaty song that only existed in the vibrations being conducted through the CLT30’s frame to the command deck. If you were standing outside watching the CLT30 land, you wouldn’t hear a thing. Of course, you wouldn’t be breathing either, vacuum is funny like that.
The altimeter crept down and with a gentle bump we landed at the Peary Space Port. I wasn’t sure what would happen next. Commander Saner got on the radio and said, “Peary Space Port Control, this is Denali Flight One.”
“Denali Flight One, this is Control, go ahead.”
“Control, we’re on the platform and look centered, do your magic and get us under cover please.”
“Denali Flight One, we read you as secured. Stand by for transition.”
Suddenly, there was a vibration and the camera views outside showed the landscape at the Space Port start rising above us. We continued descending into the elevator shaft until we were many meters below the ground. When the elevator stopped, we could see massive doors above us closing to seal off the elevator shaft. With that, the radio came back to life and said, “Denali Flight One, stand by for tow.”
“Control, we’re ready for the tow.”
The outside cameras showed that a powerful tractor had hooked up to what I assumed to be the base of the elevator. In reality, it was a large trailer that sat top of the elevator platform. The tractor gently took up the slack and then towed us deeper into the elevator chamber. Eventually, the chamber would hold ten ships, each in their own revetment that could be sealed off and pressurized. Today, the chamber was still being worked on and barely had enough room for the trailer. The room wasn’t pressurized but that was okay because we could see the shuttle approaching that would pull us off the ship. We were back on the Moon. We were safe from the storm. That was good enough for now, tomorrow could wait.
WAITING OUT THE STORM
Nina and I unbuckled our safety restraints. Commander Saner turned in his seat and said, “Craig and I will finish shutting down the CLT30 and securing it. Would you two please go help the Steward strip the ship’s food stores?”
Both Nina and I immediately said “Yes, sir,” but the confused look on our faces must have begged more of an explanation from Commander Saner.
“Since we’ve got the ship sheltered from the storm, I don’t need you to strip the control cards. We’ll leave them in place. However, we’re stuck here at the Space Port until the storm dies down. The only way back to Peary or NLH is by shuttle and nothing's operating on the surface right now. The Space Port is mostly still under construction so accommodations and things like food are probably pretty sparse. That reminds me, tell Mr. Cook to grab all of the blankets, too. We may need them before this is over.”
Nina and I climbed down the trunk and found Mr. Cook already pulling the meal kits from the galley.
Nina said, “Mr. Cook, Commander Saner said to grab blankets. Can I help you with that?”
“They’re located in the storage bays to the right of the forward hatch trunk. Grab all the blankets and stack them by the lower hatch. While you’re at it, grab all of the pillows, too. We might need them. Bryce, finish up pulling the meal kits and bring them to the lower hatch, also. The shuttle should be here by now and I’ll go handle the hatch.”
The CLT30 was stocked up for a full complement with enough food to last seven days. On the trip out from Earth, we only had seventeen people on board, so I ended up moving six hundred and seventy nine meal kits down to the hatch. The storms only lasted a couple of days usually, so we were set for food. We could actually go for around thirteen days if need be. The other, more likely scenario, was we could feed ourselves and an additional 58 people for the three days before we could leave for Peary. They probably pulled most of the construction crew back to Peary before the storm hit and just left a skeleton crew to help us get the CLT30 down and under cover. We’d find out soon enough as I could hear the bumping noises I usually associated with a shuttle hooking up.
On my last trip from the galley, I found Nina passing the blankets and pillow through the hatch to Mr. Cook. With that finished, we started shoving the meal kits through. When we had passed the last of the meal kits through, Mr. Cook came back through the hatch and showed us where everyone’s luggage was stowed. Given the price of moving mass to the Moon, it wasn’t luggage like most people think of. It was small, lightweight cardboard boxes that could hold the few necessities that the mass allotment allowed. Nobody brought clothes since they could be manufactured on the Moon for much cheaper. Like the last time, we had come to the Moon, I had given my mass allotment to my mom. She had combined it with hers and my dad’s and had three of the boxes stuffed with as many seeds as she could get away with.
I passed all the boxes through to Mr. Cook and turned around to find Nina and my Mom were over by Sam. I wandered over to them and said, “What’s up?”
Sam looked at me and said, “I didn’t account for a storm changing our plans. I sent ahead a request to have a set of canes and a wheel chair printed. They’re probably setting in the shuttle at NLH waiting for me.”
Mom said, “Don’t worry Sam, we got this. Nina, get on her other side and let’s get her to the hatch.”
Between the three of them, they got Sam through the hatch and into a seat on the shuttle. The lower lunar gravity made the process much easier than it would have been on Earth and Sam was able to use her upper body strength to be an active participant in the move instead of just being a burden to everyone like the case would have been on Earth. I waited on the CLT30 until all the other passengers had boarded the shuttle . Nina was with my mom and Sam and Mr. Cook was on the shuttle to help everyone get squared away. The only people left on board the CLT30 were Mr. Hirayama and Commander Saner. I called up the trunk to the command deck and said, “Commander Saner, everyone’s loaded on the shuttle. Do you need any help?”
“No Bryce, we’re almost done. We’ll be there in a moment. Let Mr. Cook know we’re about finished here, please.”
I passed through the hatch and passed the message on to Mr. Cook. There was a seat next to Nina so I took that and started looking out the shuttle windows which gave a much better view of the area we were in.
Nina said, “I wonder where they are going to take us from here?”
“This is the ship bay. Normally, the CLT30 would be in a revetment and a docking gangway would be attached to the ship. Since the revetments aren’t finished, the shuttle will take us down the ship bay to the end where there should be a lock that will let us get into the main terminal area, I’m guessing they probably have part of the main terminal area walled off and pressurized for the construction crews to use during breaks.”
“I thought you said earlier you didn’t know much about Peary? You seem to know a lot about the Space Port.”
“I don’t know a lot about what the Farms is doing at Peary since I wasn’t working for my mom the last four months. My mom’s not the only one who is doing a lot in Peary. Sandy has been keeping me filled in on what’s going on out here as far as the public infrastructure and Mussconny Enterprises goes.”
“So what’s this Space Port supposed to look like when it’s done?”
“They are actually building it in phases. In phase one, they are building out this ship bay to handle ten ships. You can see the digging equipment on that wall to the right of the CLT30 where they are enlarging the chamber. That near wall that runs the length of the chamber is what the revetments will be built out from and is where the docking gangways will be attached. Beyond that wall is space for environmental equipment, storage, and boarding and control rooms. Then there’s another wall and beyond that is the terminal space. The terminal space is a large area with a quarter curve roof. The room should have plenty of space for customer counters, food vendors, souvenir shops, that kind of thing.”
