America One: War of the Worlds (14 page)

VIN had taken photos and video of when he had opened some of these rooms on other planets, wearing his helmet when he could open the doors without taking it off. Mars had his video camera and he started recording.

The young man stood up once he realized he was still alone. Now he knew what his father had gone through when he had entered the cavern on the blue planet for the first time, shock finding the hole with the mining spider missing.

He walked carefully across to the globes. One was very recognizable, it was Earth. The second was Mars, the planet he was currently on, and the third one looked familiar and he had to reconstruct his astronomy lessons. The third globe really glowed brightly in several areas. Mars was very dim and had one bright light while Earth was dull and had no glow at all.

“Must be Enceladus…or maybe Europa,” Mars said aloud to himself. There was nothing else in the room, apart for a red door panel which glowed opposite the door he had come in through. “That will be the command center. I’ll check that door and then see if my father is on the other side of the wall,” he again said loudly to himself, and wondering why he was suddenly talking to himself.

This time the door swooped across and disappeared into the wall when he tried it with the palm of his hand. He couldn’t figure out why some worked one way and others needed his eye to open.

Again the command center was empty of any life form, human or otherwise. The console was where it had been in the other bases, and he quickly walked over and checked the readouts.

All the
NextGeners
had been taught the
Matt
base layouts as part of their school curriculum by VIN, Commander Joot, and Roo, and everything that had been found had been passed on as teaching.

What Mars then looked for was an automatic reaction on his part. He had done the same to open the Cryogenic chambers the
OldGeners
were asleep in on DX2017. It was underneath on the bottom side of the console and he turned the entire command console upside down.

“Yes!” he shouted to himself. There were controls to open the cryogenic area below this level. There could be somebody asleep in the chamber down there, and then he heard faint tapping coming from behind him. He cocked his head listening, and then remembered that his fathers was due in the first chamber.

He began to screw on his helmet and after a few turns he could hear VIN shouting for him through the intercom.

“Mars, Mars, we are here outside the metal door. I have 32 minutes of suit power left. I need to get in. Can you hear me, son? Respond please!”

“I hear you, Dad, coming out,”
he replied and headed over to the metal door still screwing on his helmet. He worked fast. His suit was slightly powered up and he breathed fresh clean air through the suit. It had been cold in the rooms, and he felt the wave of heated air move upwards into his helmet.
“Dad, you remember how to get the door to open?”

“We have an extra space helmet with us and two bottles of air,”
VIN replied. Mars could just hear his father.
“Max is going to hold the helmet over the panel like Ryan did for you. Mars, make sure your suit is working correctly, there could be a deadly fall in air pressure once the door opens. I will slip through, join you, and as soon as I’m through the door will close again.”

“Helmet on the door, Mars, pumping air into it now,” added Max Von Braun.

“Mars, is your helmet tight?”
his father asked.

“I’m halfway,” Mars responded.

“Running out of time for me to make a return to the ship, turn that helmet fast kid,”
VIN replied.
“Mars, Max, I’m pushing the door panel now!”

His helmet was safe, half screwed on, VIN was gambling that such a small change in air pressure and loss of air wouldn’t be much of a risk to his son, but space wasn’t a place to gamble. Mars managed to turn his helmet two more times, closing his eyes not to get dizzy. He opened them.

Unfortunately Mars forgot that the pressure of the opening door could pull him with the escaping air, and as the door opened he was propelled into the opening. He connected hard with his father who was fighting to get in and a few seconds was lost as VIN had to take the hit on his suit by his son. His metal legs, always as strong as ever pushed him forwards and Mars literally bounced off his father and back into the room.

At the exact same time, Max ripped the helmet off the wall outside the cavern, and the door whooshed shut.

Mars was pushed hard to the floor, and he felt parts of his backpack hit the solid floor hard. Immediately he felt the air pressure inside the suit change and he motioned to his father by placing his glove over his throat. This meant that he was in trouble and VIN knelt down and began unscrewing his son’s helmet as fast as he could. He knew what his son was going through, he had been in the same position.

“Dad, Dad, I have no air!”
he squawked in the dying pressure.

“I’ll have your helmet off in two minutes,”
replied VIN.

“You OK in there,”
both astronauts could hear Max outside faintly, which reminded VIN to check his suit’s readouts before he finished unscrewing his son’s helmet.

The room’s air pressure was on the borderline, and the air just breathable at 491 millibars. It didn’t matter how perfect the air mix was if there wasn’t enough to pull the air into ones lungs. The room was much the same pressure as in Mars’ helmet.

He had to make decisions fast. As he unscrewed Mars’ helmet, he looked around. The door to the globes and command center was still open, Mars had put something in the way to stop both doors closing. He knew that the pressure would equalize, he moved fast, dragging his son’s body and suit along the floor through the first door, through the second into the command center, he kicked Mar’s hammer out of the way and hit the door panel hard once they were inside.

Mars was still conscious, as he carefully lifted the helmet off and his son grabbed the small emergency air tank he had brought with him.

“Max, I think we are OK in here for the time being. You get back up the corridor and call me once you are safely aboard the shuttle. Mars is breathing but he needs a new space suit to exit this cavern. Jonesy where are you, over?”

“Left SB-III, heading to SB-IV over.”

“I suggest you return and collect an extra suit from SB-IV for Max. Mars has messed up this suit big time, and we will need an extra suit down here, over.”

“Roger that,”
replied Jonesy
.

VIN had been told by Mars how clear the reception was inside the cavern, and talking to Jonesy and listening to Saturn, was still a shock on how clear the reception actually was. Mars winked at him, and he checked his readouts.

The pressure had climbed and was slightly above borderline at 510 millibars. VIN had been in every one of the
Matt
bases, and knew how good they were at replenishing vital air supplies. He couldn’t speak to Mars, but held up 5 fingers, 5 times, telling him that he needed to breathe from the air tank for 25 more minutes.

“Max, are you on your way?”
VIN asked 5 minutes later looking at the console. He noticed immediately what his son had already inspected as the console was already turned upside down.

“On my way, just wading through this massive bubble of air that is spreading out down the corridor,”
Max replied so faintly that VIN had to cock his head to one side to hear the message.

“Max copy that, I have my hands full here, be safe. VIN to Jonesy, we need every small teenage size spacesuit aboard SB-V. We will also need Roo and Joanne, and medics. Bring food and water supplies. You will have to head to the Retreat to collect them, as well as the cryogenic IV supplies, more suits, and whatever the medics will need to resuscitate sleeping Matts, over.”

“Copy that partner. Will relay the message to Dave Black, over.”

“Copy VIN, will search for suits,”
added Jenny Burgos in the larger shuttle.

Mars could see his father talking fast, but could not hear a word. He wanted to tell his father about the cryogenic chambers, but he was still dizzy, and the rich air from the tank wasn’t helping. There was always a far higher quantity of oxygen in the tanks than in normal air.

Both men waited another 20 minutes. VIN checked his readouts, 565 millibars, and showed Mars that he was about to pull the breather out of his mouth. Mars nodded, took his last big gulp of air, which made him even dizzier, and let VIN take out the breather from his mouth. VIN waited until Mars opened his eyes, breathed out, and breathed in the air in the room.

VIN could see that his son struggled more than usual, but the pressure was rising, and it was safe. Mars gave him the thumbs up and closed his eyes. He closed the air tank and continued to look at his son’s face.

Suddenly VIN was the one gulping for air, his suit was dying, and he had forgotten the time. He motioned to Mars, who unscrewed his father’s helmet in record time while VIN struggled to breathe in his suit’s remaining air.

The air tasted beautiful and clean to VIN when his helmet was removed, then he thanked his son.

VIN realized how much experience time gives a person. Mars had done everything right, but he himself hadn’t. His son hadn’t thought of the air surging him forward when the door opened, he had. This space stuff was certainly a continuous learning experience.

For VIN, it would have been an instinctive move to hold onto the side of the wall, or back away. Unfortunately, in space there weren’t often second chances, and one tiny mistake could easy result in death.

“Thanks for saving my life, Dad,” Mars stated.

“I wasn’t that far from losing my air either, son,” he replied having to breathe hard. “It looks like we are stuck in here, at least until the cavalry arrives. I can recharge my suit and add air from the second tank. The air pressure will be back in in my suit and the cavern out there in about an hour. Until then we keep the door shut. Your suit is unserviceable, mine has no air for a while, so it will be a risk to open any doors until we know we can exchange suits. I have a suit recharger for mine, and we have twenty minutes of air in your air tank.”

“How did you find the cryogenic chambers on the other bases? Were they breathable when you opened them up?” Mars asked.

“Yes, stale horrible tasting air, they all had bad air and low oxygen, and very cold.

I think the cold air is of more danger to us than the air quality. The
Matt
systems normally replenish the whole base, not just certain areas. The heating system in here still works, the air replenishment systems works, so I’m sure that the whole place will return to normal. But it’s the stale air in the cryogenic room, the extra carbon dioxide and helium that gets me, so we don’t go in there.”

Mars had noticed that his father’s voice had risen an octave or two.

“So has yours, son,” stated VIN knowing exactly what his son was about to say.

Back at the Martian Club Retreat, there was excitement in the air, especially among all the
Matts
. There was a chance of meeting some of their own, even though they weren’t very friendly.

Jonesy had relayed the message to the base, and Roo was the most excited of all. Joanne and Lunar were also rushing around checking on suits and IVs and Joanne had one other medic who had trained in medicine, and good at spacewalking.

The crew aboard
SB-V
and Saturn in
SB-IV
were checking out their supplies.
SB-II
was also orbiting 15,000 miles behind
SB-V
and a tally of equipment was checked there by Jane Burgos.

Max Von Braun was back in
SB-III
, and Ryan in
SB-IV
was working out how to get more spacesuits.

“Two canisters loaded full of equipment standing upright and tied down on the forward carriage and one driver, lying or sitting on the rear carriage, is all we can take down in one trip,” Max stated over the intercom to the astronauts who could hear him. “Pack the canisters as full as you can. We can fill medical equipment and IVs into one canister, and we can pack a new suit for Mars, and extra two air tanks in the other for my first journey. I can do a second trip with two more canisters. I would suggest the two teenage spacesuits in
SB-V
and food and water. I can head down twice, and get the four canisters delivered, leave the equipment in the tunnel and return to rest. Jonesy is going to take the same amount of time to land, pick up the crew and equipment from the Retreat and get back here. Each return journey will take me just over an hour. We believe we have enough extra food and water supplies to fill one canister, Boss.”

“We have four more emergency air tanks, and enough medical equipment, food and water onboard for a few
Matts
,” continued Ryan. “When Mr. Noble senior comes back on line, tell him to sit it out down there. Also prepare him to open the door. At the same time we need to continue our gold recovery efforts, so those who are not part of this rescue continue with your schedules, out.”

Both father and son sat propped up on a wall. It was tiring to take off the spacesuits, and they needed a breather first.

“Why did you return with so little life left in your suit, Dad?” Mars asked.

“I’ve done this before, son,” VIN replied. “I helped design the systems in the new suits from the wearer’s point of view. I have also spacewalked more than anybody in Astermine, I think. The scientist’s asked me what was important for the astronaut when they redesigned the suits after our odyssey. I asked for a larger reserve time, and why we only were allowed 180 minute space walks?”

“Yeah!” I always wanted to ask why we are only allowed 3 hours,” added Mars.

“First, these new suits were better than the first suits made in the early days. That was why they were redesigned in the first place. These new power units last an extra ten minutes more than the old suits. I know I was the test dummy back in Nevada. I got 3 hours 17 minutes out of a suit. It took two of the fastest scientists 4 minutes to get my helmet off. I wanted new connection systems on the helmets, but Ryan didn’t consider it necessary.”