Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (100 page)

She sniffed and nodded. “Okay. I’m
just so afraid.”

“I know, we all are.”

Susan tentatively raised her hand.
“Uh…”

Jeff glanced at her. “What?”

“If were transferring all available
power from the station to the Genesis, can’t we run the Genesis Sabatier?”

Staring at her, his eyes opened
wide. “Yes!” He turned to Gabe and smiled. “All we need is 160 amps, and we can
stay in there indefinitely.”

She nodded and forced a smile.
“Yes. But that’s a long time to go without a shower.”

Jeff laughed and hugged her. “Yeah,
but like I said, nobody’s gonna die.” He glanced back at Susan. “You’re a
genius!”

Susan grinned. “I do have one
question. If we can last indefinitely in the Genesis, why not move in there
now? Save the O
₂
we have in here for when we move back, and save
some wear and tear on the RCRS?”

“Well, that is an option. Um, I
think we’d be more comfortable in here. I mean, we lived in there for six days
when we got here and, like Gabe says, it’s a long time to go without shower. At
least in here we’d have most of the comforts of home. Besides, who knows? This
storm could start to ease tomorrow and we may not have to move in there at all.
I vote that we give it a couple days and see what happens.” He looked around at
each of them.

They all nodded.

“Alright then, we’ve got lots to
do. Gabe?”

“Huh?”

“Can you pull yourself together and
send off a message to Newport advising them of our situation and what we have
planned? Have them take a look and see if we’ve overlooked anything?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Good. Abby, Sue, let’s get busy.”

They both nodded.

#

Jeff looked around the commons at
the mattresses and pillows on the floor, and heaps of blankets and clothes. Abby
came through the utility room hatch and stood beside him. “Well, doesn’t this
look cozy?”

She smiled. “Yeah. Looks like we’re
setup for a slumber party.”

“I think that’s kind of the idea.”

Gabe’s stuffed bear came flying
through the hatch from her room and landed in the middle of the mattresses.

Jeff stared at it and chuckled.

Abby shook her head. “Think of it.
We all had one trunk for personal effects and she chose to use part of that
valuable space for a stuffed bear.”

“Yeah, well, her choice.”

“Good thing she didn’t have a
stuffed elephant.”

He laughed softly. “Oh, I dunno, I
had a stuffed elephant when I was a kid. It was pink and fuzzy, and had a music
box inside. I liked it.”

She glanced at him with raised
eyebrows. “Huh. Never figured you for stuffed animals.”

“Hey, I was once a kid too. What
kind of toys did you have?”

“Barbie dolls, a whole bunch of
‘em. Fashion Barbie, Homemaker Barbie, Bikini Barbie, Bimbo Barbie…”

“Bimbo Barbie?”

“Yeah, I don’t think she was a
standard issue item, but Ken sure liked her.”

Jeff laughed. “Yeah, I’ll bet he
did.”

Sue hollered from the kitchen,
“Supper’s ready.”

“Excellent. I’m starving.”

“Yeah, me too,” said Abby.

“You know what’s for dinner?”

“Spaghetti and meatballs.”

“Oh, good. I like that.”

Thursday, December 8,
2016

MSD 50812.295 (Sol
62)

Jeff awoke to the beeping console.
What the hell? He glanced at his watch, 0604. If somebody set an alarm clock,
they’re toast. He punched a button to silence the alarm and looked at the
display. “Oh, crap!” He quickly turned around, knelt, and shook Gabe. “Gabe.
Gabe! Wake up. Abby, Sue, wake up.”

Gabe groaned. “What? I’m tired.”

“CO
₂
is up to 3%, we’ve
got to get you out of here and into the Genesis. This air’s no good for you.
Come on, get up. Now.”

“Oh, my head hurts and my heart’s
pounding.”

“I know, it’s the CO
₂
.”
He took her arm and helped her stand.

She momentarily lost her balance.
“Whoa, I’m a little woozy.

“Duh. Come on, let’s get you into
some good air.”

Abby sat up. “What is it?”

As Jeff helped Gabe stumble toward
the airlock, he called over his shoulder. “CO
₂
’s at 3%, get Sue up.
Time to move.” He stood Gabe against the wall in the utility room. “Can you
stand here for a minute?”

“Uh huh. Yeah, I’m okay.”

“Alright, let me get the hatch
open.” Opening the hatch to the suit room, Jeff was struck by a blast of
ice-cold air. “Oh god!”

“What?”

“It’s freezing in here. Okay, come
on.”

Entering the suit room she gasped
and shuddered. “Oh my god! Even my goose bumps have goose bumps. It has to be
ten or fifteen below in here.”

“At least.” He closed the hatch.
“The good news is, after this the Genesis will feel warm.” A minute later he
had the inner Genesis hatch open. “Okay, after you.”

Gabe crawled through into the truss
and dropped to the floor.

Jeff followed immediately behind
her and closed the hatch. “Better.”

“Oh, yes. Much.”

He helped her into a chair, grabbed
a blanket from the truss, and covered her. “Okay, just relax and breathe
normally, you’ll feel better in a minute. I’ll turn up the heat.”

“Okay.”

Two minutes later Abby and Susan
came in. Sue rushed to Gabe. “Are you alright?”

“I think so.”

Susan grabbed a blood pressure
monitor out of the medical cabinet, strapped the cuff around Gabe’s arm and, at
the same time, checked her pulse. “Okay, your blood pressure and pulse are
elevated, but not horribly so; probably a combination of the high CO
₂
concentration and excitement. We’ll check them again in fifteen minutes, but
I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“What about my baby?”

“Yeah, your baby will be fine too.
He or she probably slept through the whole thing. Don’t worry about it. Look,
most people can tolerate 3% CO
₂
for a month without long-term
adverse effects. But Jeff was right, the sooner we get you out of it, the
better.” She turned to Jeff. “Do you know how long we were over 3%?”

“Not really, but probably not more
than a couple minutes. The alarm woke me.”

“Okay.” She glanced at Gabe. “No
big deal, nothing to worry about. The serious problems don’t start to occur
until you get up around 8%. We’re nowhere close to that.”

Gabe took a deep breath, sighed,
and nodded. “Thanks. I don’t suppose anyone bothered to check the Tau?”

Jeff chuckled. “Uh, sorry, no. We
we’re a little busy with another issue.”

Gabe gave him a sheepish grin.

“Hang on, I’ll check.” He brought
up the remote console to the main terminal. “Uh, let’s see here. Ugh.”

“What.”

“4.8.”

“Oh god, it’s still going up.”

“Uh huh.”

“That’s only about 1% of normal
sunlight. We’ll be lucky to get 200 amps this afternoon. The main batteries
will be stone-cold dead in a few days.”

“Well, that’s their problem.
They’ll recharge once we get past this. In the meantime we’ve got plenty of
power in here. Okay?”

“Okay.”

He turned around. “Abby?”

“Yeah.”

“We need to start shutting down the
station.”

“Okay.”

“Sue, when you’re finished with
Gabe, we could use your help.”

“Sure. Fifteen minutes or so.”

“Good.” He turned back to Gabe.
“And you…” He pointed to the floor. “Stay.”

Gabe grinned. “Woof.”

Monday, December 12,
2016

MSD 50815.548 (Sol
65)

“Lunch is ready,” said Jeff.

Abby came up and put her arm around
him. “Smells great. What is it?”

“Chicken Alfredo, garlic bread,
blackberries, and tea.”

“Oh, wow. Yum. It’s amazing what
they can do with freeze dried foods these days.”

“Yeah. I can’t imagine what it was
like back in the days of the Apollo program when every meal consisted of Tang,
a handful of vitamin pills, and some goo out of a toothpaste tube. Gabe, Sue,
lunch.”

“Be right there,” said Susan.

As they sat on the floor in the
Genesis and enjoyed lunch, Jeff glanced at Gabe. “So, how are we doing?”

She grinned. “Tau’s down to 4.33.
That’s the third day in a row it’s down. We’ve got 329 amps.”

“Outstanding! But we got fooled by
a lull in this two weeks ago. Should we be optimistic?”

“I think so. I think it’s over.
Well, not over, but we’re over the hump.”

“Great. In any case, we’ve got
power to spare. Right?”

“Uh huh.”

“Can we power up a Sabatier?”

“Uh huh.”

“Well, then let’s do so. Scrub the
air in the station and make some O
₂
. We’ve got plenty of methane
sitting out there, if we can make some LOX we can light off a generator and
expedite this process. We could be back inside in a couple days.”

She took a bite of garlic bread, smiled broadly,
and nodded.

Saturday, December
17, 2016

MSD 50820.941 (Sol
70)

Jeff and Gabe sat in the
greenhouse, the lights off, staring at the stars.

“It’s nice to be back inside,” said
Gabe.

“It sure is.”

“And alive.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, that too.”

She snuggled against him. “You’re
kind of quiet tonight.”

“Oh, just thinking.”

“About what?”

“Um, just things.”

“Come on, Jeffrey, what’s on your
mind?”

Jeff stared at the ground, then looked into Gabe’s
eyes. “Well, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Um, now that it seems we’ve
survived the worst of this and may make it home alive, and that you’re pregnant
with our child, when we get home…” Jeff leaned his forehead against hers, “…
um… will you marry me?”

Gabe reached up, covering her mouth
with her hand and began to cry. Then nodded her head. “Yes. Oh, yes.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to
think about it for a minute? Gabe, I’m old enough to be your father.”

“I don’t care. I love you. And like
you said, I’m carrying our child. Not mine, not yours, but ours. And this
child, perhaps more than any other, not only deserves – but will need – a
family, with a mother and a father. And that’s us; you and me.”

Jeff smiled softly in the starlight. “That’s good,
because I love you too. Have for a long time.”

“How long?”

“Oh, it’s funny, I remember the
first moment.”

“When?”

“The first night we spent at the
villa in Gaucin.”

“In the pavilion?”

“Uh huh. How’d you know?”

Gabe pulled close to him. “The
expression on your face. I remember it clearly. It startled me. I didn’t know
what to think. But suddenly I had trouble breathing.”

“Yeah, me too. I never thought I
could love another woman.”

“After Marsha?”

“Yeah.”

Gabe nodded. “I don’t want to take
that love away.”

“You won’t. Loving you doesn’t mean
I love her any less.”

“Will she forgive me?”

Jeff leaned his head against
Gabe’s. “Yes. She’d like you. And she’ll understand.”

“I wish I’d known her.”

“I wish you had too.”

They sat quietly together for a minute or two, then
Gabe took a deep breath and sighed. “Jeff, may I ask you a very personal
question.”

“Hmmm,
sounds like something’s about to get me into trouble. Go ahead.”

“Um…
before we got here, did you ever sleep with Abby?”

“Ahem.
Okay, well, just speaking hypothetically, what would you say if I said ‘yes’?”

She
shrugged. “Speaking hypothetically, if you said ‘yes’, I’d say… ‘good’.”

He glanced
at her. “Really? Why?”

“You know why. You took something
from her life that’s important to her. You didn’t mean to, you didn’t want to,
but you did. So if her friendship means anything to you, it’s up to you to give
it back.”

“Huh. Under the circumstances,
that’s awfully noble of you.”

She
kissed him. “I’m not insecure; at least, not anymore. I never had any empirical
evidence to support it, but I always believed deep in my heart that one day I’d
be yours.”

Jeff
kissed her forehead.

“Am I
yours?”

“Hmmm, well, let’s see. You’re
carrying our baby and going to marry me. How are we doing on empirical evidence
now?”

She giggled.
“Better. Do you know when I first realized I loved you?”

He kissed the top
of her head and caressed her cheek. “No. When?”

“On my 26
^th
birthday, when I opened a present from you and found a slide rule inside.”

Jeff chuckled.
“Really?”

She nodded. “Uh
huh. I meant what I said. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever given me.”
She rubbed her belly and grinned. “Until this.”

“Gabriel, has it
ever occurred to you that the slide rule was meant as a joke?”

“Of course. But
it was the most considerate and thoughtful joke I could possibly imagine. I
mean, why would anyone give
me
a slide rule unless they… unless they
cared enough to think that I might just enjoy having one, even as a joke.”

“I’d never
thought of it that way.”

She rubbed her
cheek on his shoulder. “Well, I’m complicated.”

Jeff laughed. “You are that.”

“Yes, but the
difference is, you don’t treat me like it. You just treat me like everyone
else. You know what the last present I received from my mother was? It was my
twelfth birthday.”

“No. What?”

“Well, it wasn’t
a new dress, or a heart pendant, or a stuffed animal. It was the score to
Ravel’s
Gaspard de la nuit
, and she told me to learn it.”