Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (120 page)

“Yeah, I think so. I think we’re
gonna just have to leave ours floating in here. We’re rapidly running out of
storage space.”

“Roger that. When NASA and Grumman
came up with this design back in the 1960s, they never anticipated this.”

“Still, here we are 50 years later
and the damn thing still worked.”

“Yes it did, with a few
modifications.”

She chuckled. “Just a few.”

“Okay,” said Susan, “I think I’m
ready to go.”

Jeff glanced at her and smiled.
“You certainly look ready to go.”

She gave him a smirk.

He gently spanked her naked butt as
she climbed into the tunnel.

Susan opened the hatch and swung
into the airlock. “Okay, pass it up to me.”

Jeff shoved Ghita’s carrier up
through the tunnel to Susan.

“Got it. See you in a bit.” She
closed the hatch.

He turned to Abby. “Are you going
through the closeout checklist?”

“Uh huh. Almost done.”

“Need any help?”

“No, just a few more switches and
breakers to configure.”

“Rog. I’ll unstrap this other
container. We’re next. Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll help you out of
your suit.”

“Okay. Be just a minute.”

Jeff removed his gloves then looked
around the MAV trying to think of anything they had forgotten. “You know, it’s
a shame we can’t take one of these suits back with us. I’ll bet ILC Dover would
kill to get hold of one of these that had been on Mars for a year and a half
just to see how it held up.”

“Yeah. Nothing we can do about it.”

“Nope. Come to think of it, what we
should have done is stuffed one of these in MAV-2 along with the other return
samples. Then used one of the spares to get here.”

“Good idea. Why didn’t we think of
that?”

“I dunno. Because there are only
four of us, and we had enough damn things to think about as it was?”

Abby laughed. “That’s a fact. Okay,
closeout checklist complete.”

“Excellent. Float over here and
I’ll help you out of your suit, then you can help me out of mine.”

“Is this a date?”

Jeff chuckled. “Um, not exactly. No
time. Maybe later.”

“Damn.”

Once they were both naked, Abby
climbed into the airlock, Jeff handed the remaining container to her, then
grabbed the MAV hatch, entered the tunnel, and secured it behind him. Then he
closed the airlock hatch and pressurized. They both wiped themselves – and each
other – with antibacterial wet wipes, retrieved UV resistant sunglasses from a
pouch in the airlock and donned them, then, while the airlock pressurized,
switched on the airlock’s UV lamps.

“Sanitized and suntan all in one,”
said Abby.

“Yeah. But you wouldn’t want to
stay in here too long, or that suntan would be a nasty sunburn. This ain’t your
typical tanning salon.”

“Do you believe we could be
carrying anything?”

“No. Sue attempted to grow over a
hundred cultures from stuff we picked up. Nothing. Nada. Not one of them grew
anything. And all the cultures she grew from earthborn organisms died almost
instantly when taken outside.”

“Maybe the Martian bugs just didn’t
like what she was feeding them.”

He chuckled. “Possibly, but I’m
more inclined to think there aren’t any Martian bugs. It’s a dead rock in
space. Nothing will live there without life-support.”

“Then why are we standing here
frying our hides?”

“Good question. Beats me.” He
switched the UV lamps off and retrieved a couple packages of fresh clothes that
were bungeed to the bulkhead. He handed one to Abby. “Yours. Let’s get dressed
and get out of here.”

“Works for me.”

Upon entering the commons, they
found Gabe sitting at the dining table nursing Ghita and Susan in the kitchen.
“How’s it going,” said Jeff.

Gabe groaned. “Well, after Ghita
and I both lost our cookies, it’s a little better. At least she’s nursing.”

Susan turned around. “I gave Gabe
25 mg of
promethazine. That should reduce the nausea. It’s contraindicated
for children under two, but the miniscule amount that gets into Ghita from
Gabe’s breast milk shouldn’t hurt her, and may reduce her nausea as well. It’s
just going to take her a while to adjust. But, like Gabe said, at least she’s
nursing.”

Jeff nodded. “There
is that to be thankful for. Gabe, are you going to be in shape to help us with
this MAV jettison and TEI?”

“Yeah, I think so.
You just need to give me an hour or two to readjust to space, and let me see if
I can get her to sleep.”

He smiled. “No
problem. Eleven hours to jettison and twenty-four to TEI. Take your time.” He
turned back to Susan. “And what are you doing?”

“Making breakfast.”

“Ah, now there’s a
good idea. Either of you been in the CM yet?”

Susan shook her head.
“No. We just got here.”

“Yeah, right. Uh,
Gabe, you want me to setup Ghita’s bed while we’re waiting for breakfast?”

“Sure. Thanks. It’s floating
somewhere in my room. While you’re in there could you also grab the baby
harness? It’s in my bottom dresser drawer.”

“Rog.” He headed for
the truss.

“Oh, Jeff?”

“Yeah.”

“There are also a
dozen diapers in that drawer. Could you bring me one?”

“Sure.” He pulled
into the truss, then into Gabe’s room, pulled down a tray attached to the
bulkhead beside the bed and latched it in place. Then he retrieved Ghita’s
carrier – and crib – which was floating near the ceiling, placed it on the
tray, strapped it down, opened it and locked the hinges. Then he retrieved the
harness and a diaper, and returned to the commons. “Here you go. Crib’s all
setup.”

“Thanks.”

Jeff took a seat at
the table next to Gabe just as Abby and Susan arrived with covered trays and
coffee sippers. He took Gabe’s tray. “Here, let me help you.”

“Thanks.”

He pulled the cover
off. “Ah, Breakfast Skillet. Hash browns, scrambled eggs, sausage, peppers, and
onions. Want me to feed you or can you manage?”

She smiled. “I think
I can manage.”

He set the tray back
in front of her, and started in on his own. “I like this stuff.”

Gabe, with her mouth
full, mumbled, “I’m starving.”

“Yeah, me too. Abby, after
breakfast would you like to help me get that returnables crate stowed in the
CM, then we can check it out and make sure everything is in proper working
order after sitting in space for a year and a half.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Then we can start in on the MAV
jettison checklist.”

He took a sip of coffee. “I’d guess
it’s gonna be another early morning tomorrow. That TEI checklist is pretty
long.”

“Speaking of TEI,” said Susan.

“What about it?” said Jeff.

She drifted over to the counter and
pulled a box out of a drawer. “Time to change the clocks.”

He groaned. “Oh god. It’s got to be
what? About 0330 in Greenwich? This adds a whole new dimension to jet lag.”

Susan drifted back to the table and
opened the box. “Hand them over.”

They all handed their red-crowned
Speedmasters to her, and she disbursed the blue-crowned ones. They all wound
them.

Gabe glanced over her shoulder at
the instrumentation display. “0335 in 40 seconds.”

They each set their watch.

“And… mark.”

Abby shook her head. “It’s gonna be
a long day.”

Jeff chuckled. “Yeah, well,
following TEI we won’t have a lot to do except drift through space for seven
months. We can sleep then.”

“Won’t have a lot to do?” said
Gabe. “Speak for yourself.”

He smiled. “Relax, we’ll help.”

Wednesday, March 14,
2018

1453 UTC (T plus 722
days)

“Three minutes… mark,” said Gabe.

Jeff nodded. “Rog. Newport,
Ares
,
three minutes to MAV jettison.” He sighed. “You know, I’ll sure be glad when we
get close enough to Earth for a real time conversation. This sending postcards
doesn’t work real well.”

Abby chuckled. “After reading the
Apollo transcripts, I’ll bet there were times when the astronauts just wanted
to say, okay CAPCOM, we’ve got it, would you just shut up for a while.”

He laughed. “I think there were a
few times when they did say something like that.”

“Gabe,” said Abby, “we’ve got a
good integrity check on the MAV tunnel. I’m gonna vent now and leave it there.”

“Rog.”

“Sue,” said Jeff, “do you have a
camera on the MAV?”

“Yes.”

“Gabe,” said Abby, “are we Go for
Logic Bus Arm?”

“You’re Go.”

“Rog.”

“You’re also Go for Pyro Arm and
jettison.”

“Rog. Ten seconds.” There was a soft
bang. “There she goes.”

“Newport,
Ares
,” said Jeff,
“we have MAV jett at 15:08:09. Chrissie, send Grumman a case of champagne with
our compliments. She didn’t serve us for long, but she served us well.”

“Two feet per second,” said Gabe.

“Rog,” said Abby.

“Okay, Abby, in fifteen minutes
burn us minus-X with the RCS about two feet per second. That’ll give us some
separation.”

“Rog.”

“And about five minutes after that,
maneuver to preliminary TEI attitude.”

“Got it.”

“Sue,” said Jeff, “how’s the
munchkin doing?”

“Just fine. Sound asleep.”

“I wish we didn’t have to knock her
out for this,” said Gabe.

“If we’re suited up, she needs to
be boxed up.”

“Just two more times,” said Jeff.
“About twelve hours from now, then seven months from now. Then we’ll all be home.”

“Yeah,” said Gabe, “that’ll be
nice.”

“Uh huh. Okay, as soon as we’ve got
this wrapped up, let’s get some supper, turn in, and get a few hours’ sleep.”

“That sounds good.”

Thursday, March 15,
2018

0338 UTC (T plus 723
days)

“Hey Gabe?” said Jeff.

“Huh?”

“Do you remember that conversation
in the Apollo 11 Flight Journal between Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin just
before their TEI? The one about which way to go?”

“Yes. That was funny.”

“What was it Aldrin said?”

She chuckled. “Shades of Gemini
retrofire, are you sure we’re – No, let’s see – the motors point this way and
the gases escape that way, therefore imparting a thrust that-a-way.”

He laughed. “That’s it. When I read
that I was rolling on the floor.”

“Yes, well, you’re easily amused.”

“Gee, thanks. So we’re going to
burn prograde.”

“Yes, dear. Just command, and let
Abby and I do the flying.”

“Okay.”

“TGO nine minutes.

“How’s it look?” said Abby.

Gabe nodded. “Fine. Do you need to
trim again?”

“No. We’re good.”

“Well, so long Mars,” said Jeff. He
craned his neck forward a bit to look out the window past Abby. “It looks about
the same as we found it.”

“It’s not,” said Abby. “Now it has
our footprints on it. It’ll never be the same.”

“At least the sun’s up and we can
see it. Ought to be coming up on the station pretty soon.”

“A little before 9:00 a.m. down
there,” said Gabe. “Time for breakfast.”

“Yeah. Sue, how much food did we
leave down there?”

“Oh, about half a ton.”

“Guess we didn’t eat as much as we
thought we would.”

“Not quite.”

“Eight minutes,” said Gabe.

Jeff, Gabe, and Abby sat staring
out the window for a short while.

“Anything anyone is going to miss?”
said Jeff.

After a moment, Gabe said,
“Christmas was nice.”

“Yeah. But I think it’s better at
Wrentham House.”

“Uh huh.”

“I know one thing I’m not gonna
miss?”

“What’s that?”

“Having to suit up to go outside.”

There was a round of agreement.

“Falling in craters,” said Abby.

“What?” said Jeff. “You’re not just
dying to visit that crater in Arizona?”

“Not on a bet.”

“I’m not going to miss putting
Abby’s leg back together while reading the instruction manual,” said Susan.

“Seven minutes,” said Gabe. “Abby,
you about ready for bus ties?”

“Whenever you are.”

“Rog. Bus ties on. TVC servo Power
1 to AC1, 2 to AC2.”

“1 and 2 to AC1 and 2.”

“Translation Control Power, On.”

“On.”

“Rotation Control Power, Normal,
number 2, AC.”

“AC.”

“Arm Rotation Controller, number
2.”

“Armed.”

For five minutes they worked
through the checklist.

“Two minutes. Delta-V Thrust A,
Normal,” said Gabe.

“Normal,” said Abby.

“Translation Controller, Armed.”

“Armed.”

“Newport,
Ares
, we’re just
under two minutes from T
_IG
,” said Jeff.

“Gabe,” said Abby, “where’s the
MAV?”

“About 75 kilometers behind us and
four kilometers above.”

“Rog, that’ll do. Wouldn’t want to
run into it.”

“That could only happen if you’re
going the wrong way. Ninety seconds.”

“Rog.”

“Standby for 6 minute 15 second
booster burn.”

“Sue, how y’all doing down there?”
said Jeff.

“Fine. I wish I had a window.”

“In a few minutes there won’t be
much to see. Mars will be in the rearview mirror.”

“Coming up on one minute. And…
mark,” said Gabe.

“Jeff, you’re holding your breath
again,” said Susan. “Stop it.”

He breathed. “Sorry.”

They all sat silently for a moment.

“30 seconds… mark,” said Gabe.
“DSKY is blanks. EMS is in Normal.”