Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (99 page)

She nodded. “Uh huh. It’s what you
wanted, isn’t it?”

He lifted her off the floor and
spun her around. “Oh yes, more than you’ll ever know.” He glanced at Susan,
“Are you sure?”

Susan smiled and nodded. “About
98%. We’ll check again in a couple days but… pretty sure.”

Jeff, choking back tears of joy,
leaned his forehead against Gabe’s. “And how do you feel about this?”

She kissed him. “Yeah, it’s good.”

He was breathing hard by now. “Oh
god, I don’t know what to say.”

“Are you happy?”

“Oh yes, beyond words.”

Gabe grinned. “Then I did good?”

“Yes, you did very good. Do you
feel pregnant?”

“I don’t know. I feel… something, but
it may just be nerves.”

He kissed her again, then glanced
back at Abby. “I’m gonna be a father,” and pointed at Gabe, “and she’s gonna be
a mother.”

Abby smiled softly and nodded. “As
a rule of thumb, that’s generally how it works,” and she walked up and hugged
them both.

Jeff reached out, wrapped his arm
around Susan’s shoulders, and pulled the group into a tight knot.

Abby touched Gabe’s belly. “Think
of it, there’s a Martian in there.” She glanced up at Gabe and raised an
eyebrow. “That’s a little spooky.”

Gabe wrinkled her nose in a grin.
“Yeah.”

Jeff reached over and touched
Abby’s belly. “And what about in here?”

She shrugged. “Too soon to tell.”

He nodded and kissed her cheek.

Abby smiled and leaned her head on
Jeff’s shoulder.

He gazed into Gabe’s eyes. “Well,
this has been some Thanksgiving.”

She nodded.

He glanced over his shoulder at the
mess on the floor, then back at each of them in turn. “Um, anybody want to set
up the tree and decorate this place with a little holiday cheer?”

They all smiled and nodded.

“Okay. Abby, you want to help me
get that crate out of here, and make a little room?”

“Sure.”

Gabe grinned sheepishly. “Can we
open the presents?”

Jeff frowned. “No, of course not.
You have to wait till Christmas.”

She pouted. “Oh. None of them have
names on them.”

He smiled. “Guess you’ll just have
to wait for Santa Claus to sort that out. But you can open anything that’s not
gift wrapped.”

“Cool.”

Jeff and Abby returned the crate to
the suit room, then Abby joined Gabe and Susan on the floor opening boxes and
unwrapping packages, while Jeff sat and watched.

Abby opened a box to find another
box heavily packaged in bubble wrap. “What’s in here? The crown jewels?”

Jeff chuckled. “Not quite, but I
think you’ll like that one.”

She opened that box to find another
box. “Remy Martin XO! Oh my god!” She glanced at Jeff. “This won’t last till
Christmas. Somebody get me a glass.”

Susan reached toward her. “Give me
that.”

“What?”

“Give it to me. You can’t have
any.”

Abby glared at her. “What! Did you
suddenly find humor?”

“No. You might be pregnant and
you’ve already had too much to drink today. Give it to me.”

Abby frowned, cocked her jaw,
growled, and handed over the bottle. “Spoil sport.”

Susan smiled. “Maybe I’ll let you
have sip later, for medicinal purposes.”

Abby pointed a finger at her. “You
better start sleeping with one eye open.”

Susan took the bottle and promptly
handed it to Jeff. “Here, you keep this.”

Abby’s eyes carefully followed the
bottle as it changed hands.

Jeff groaned. “Ah, gee, thanks.”

Abby picked up the boxes and tossed
them toward the utility room hatch. “Somebody’s gonna pay.”

An hour later, the tree was
assembled, decorated, and lit. The presents were stacked beneath, the commons
was warm and smelled of burning cedar, a virtual crackling fire ‘burned’ on the
TV, and the four of them sat cozy on the sofa.

Gabe leaned her head on Jeff’s
shoulder. “It’s not Christmas at Wrentham House, but it’s very nice.”

He gently rubbed her tummy. “Yeah,
very nice.”

Wednesday, November
30, 2016

MSD 50804.169 (Sol
54)

Jeff
rolled over and glanced at the clock: 0300. Ugh. It wasn’t bad enough that he
needed to use the bathroom, but it was freezing. They had been turning the heat
off at night to conserve the batteries but, as well insulated as the station
was, it couldn’t hold off the 120 degrees below zero outside for long. By dawn
it would be down in the twenties inside. Enough, this is ridiculous. He decided
to use the bathroom then light the gas heater. They had plenty of gas and O
₂
,
for now.

He pulled
on some socks and sweats and headed into the commons. He was surprised to find
Abby wrapped in a blanket and curled up on the sofa staring at the virtual
fireplace. “Hi. What are you doing up?”

She
shrugged and said softly, “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Cold?”

“Uh huh.”

“Yeah, me
too. I’m gonna use the bathroom, then light the gas heater.”

“Are you
sure that’s a good idea?”

“Well,
given the choice between freezing to death now or later, I choose later.”

She
smiled and nodded. “Sounds reasonable.”

“Besides,
the Tau was down again today; 3.9 and a bit over 450 amps. That’s five days in
a row. Maybe this thing has broken, and we can afford to splurge.” On his
return, Jeff went to the computer and brought up the environmental panel.
Burning methane would produce water and the water tanks were nearly full.
Besides, the generators only burned methane, so he decided to save it and
switched the heater fuel mix to CO. It was a little less efficient but, at this
point, a small matter. He set the thermostat to 68º and the blowers to LOW,
then took a seat beside Abby. “Want some company?”

“Sure.”

“It
should start warming up in just a minute.”

She
nodded and took a sip of a drink.

Jeff put
his arm around her and pulled her close. “What have you got there?”

“Brandy.”

He took
the glass from her and took a sip. “Should you be drinking this?”

She
shrugged.

Jeff
peeked into her eyes. “You’re looking a little gloomy. What’s the matter?”

She just
stared at the fire.

“Abby?”

She
sighed, took the drink back and took a gulp. “I’m not pregnant.”

Jeff
winced and let out a soft cry. “Oh god, I’m sorry.”

“Why?
It’s not your fault.”

“It might
be.”

She
whispered. “It doesn’t matter. It’s better this way.”

“Oh,
Abby.”

“Jeff, it
is better this way, you know that. There should only be one, it’s a lot less
complicated.”

He
nodded.

“It’s
just that I got to where I was looking forward to having your child in me.” She
began to cry. “And now I know that’s never gonna happen.”

Jeff
winced at the terrible ache in his heart. “I’m sorry, Abby. God, I’m so sorry.”

She
sniffed, wiped her eyes, then caressed his cheek. “Don’t be. Like I said, it’s
better this way.” She laughed softly. “After all, can you see the Bitch as a
domesticated housewife?”

He
smiled. “Yes, I can.”

“Then
you’re more demented than I thought. Nobody else can, including me.”

He
grasped her hand and kissed it.

“Oh Jeff,
thanks to you, when we get back I’ll be rich and famous and will have more
suitors than the law allows. And eventually some fool will come out of the pack
and marry me, and boy will he be sorry.”

Jeff
chuckled. “Oh, I doubt that.”

“Yeah, he
will be, because he won’t be you.” She glanced into his eyes. “And I’m gonna
remind him of it every damn day.”

Sunday, December 4,
2016

MSD 50808.361 (Sol
58)

Jeff untangled himself from Gabe’s
grasp and looked at his watch, 0740. With the alarm clocks unplugged to
conserve battery power, he was a little surprised that he didn’t sleep until
1000. He didn’t want to get up. Snuggled alongside Gabe he was warm, but knew
that the moment his feet hit the floor he wouldn’t be.

As he started to slip from beneath
the covers, Gabe grasped his shoulder and whispered, “Don’t go.”

He patted her hand. “I’ll be back.
I just need to see how we’re doing.”

She nodded and pulled the covers up
over her head.

Jeff quickly climbed out of bed and
dressed as warmly as he could: three pair of socks, coveralls, and sweats. He
was still cold. He hurried into the commons and stared at the environmental
display. It was 34ºF inside and the batteries were reading 60% charge. He shook
his head. Enough, but barely. He set the thermostat to 60ºF and switched on the
floor heaters in the commons, the kitchen, and the utility room. At least the
water pipes wouldn’t freeze today. He quickly surveyed the other readings, then
returned to his room. He gently shook Gabe. “Gabe? Come on, honey, wake up.”

Gabe peeked out from beneath the
covers. “Huh? What is it?”

“Batteries are at 60% and Tau is up
to 4.34.”

She gasped. “4.34? Oh god, that’s
going to put us below the tipping point.”

“I know. Come on, get up, get
dressed. I’ve got the heat on in the commons. Come in there, it’ll be a little
warmer. I’m gonna get Abby and Sue up. We’ve got to talk about what we’re gonna
do next. Okay?”

She whimpered, “Okay.”

The four of them gathered in the
commons. “As I told Gabe,” said Jeff, “Tau is up to 4.34, and still rising.
Solar cell capacity is down to 26%. That’s 329 amps. Below 340 amps we can’t
maintain life support and keep the batteries charged above 60%. Below 60%,
sometime during the night we get a low-voltage trip and we’re without power
until we can get enough charge in the batteries to get the voltage back up. Not
a happy situation.”

Abby frowned. “No shit. Do we have
any idea how much longer this may last?”

Jeff shrugged. “Gabe?”

“Difficult to say. Up until the
1950s, no one knew these dust storms even occurred, and it wasn’t until the
MERs in 2007 that we got a really good close-up look at one. So data on these
storms is sketchy, at best. Based on the Viking and MER experiences – and these
storms are by no means consistent – where the Tau is and it’s rate of change
over the past week would suggest that it will peak in perhaps four or five
days, and we’ll be back over the tipping point three or four days after that.
But that’s just a guess.”

“So, seven to nine days?”

“Jeff, it’s just a guess.”

“Understood. Okay, in the absence
of any better information let’s plan on nine days.”

Gabe shook her head. “We don’t have
nine days.”

“Why?”

“Not enough O
₂
.”

“Huh?”

“If the Tau keeps going up at its
current rate, we won’t have enough power for the floor heaters beyond tomorrow.
If we run the furnace, we run out of O
₂
in about three days, and
suffocate. If we don’t run the furnace, we freeze to death in a day or two.”

Jeff, staring at the floor, sighed
and scratched his forehead. Then he suddenly had a thought. “What if we move
into the Genesis?”

Gabe shook her head again. “It only
has enough O
₂
for all four of us for about five days. Besides, it
has the same power problem the station has. It can’t recharge its batteries.”

“Crap! There has to be some way.
Wait a minute. What if we effectively shutdown the station and transfer all
available power to the Genesis? We’ll still have 200 to 300 amps. That’s not
enough to run the station, but it’s more than enough to power the Genesis.”

“Yes, but we’ll still run out of O
₂
in five days.”

“No we won’t! We can electrolyze enough to
breathe.”

“Not if all the water that we have
here in the station is frozen. You can’t electrolyze ice.”

Jeff gently banged his forehead
with his fist. “How many days’ worth of O
₂
do we have left if we
don’t run the furnace?”

“In here? Maybe four.”

“Okay. And how much power would it
take to operate this module, the kitchen and utility room? Including the floor
heaters?”

She shrugged. “If we shut down all
other nonessential equipment, about 200 amps.”

“And in a worse-case scenario, with
a Tau of, say… 4.8, how many amps would we have?”

“Probably about 200.”

Jeff smiled. “Well, there’s the
answer. We all move in here and close off the other six modules. That gives us
four days. Then we transfer all power to the Genesis and move in there. That
gives us another five days. That’s nine days.”

Gabe sighed. “That’s cutting it
awfully close.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

She hung her head. “No. But even if
the storm breaks in nine days, we’re still dead.”

“Why?”

“Because we’ll be completely out of
O
₂
, and the hab and the Genesis will be full of CO
₂
. The
RCRS can’t handle that much CO
₂
, and we don’t have enough power to
run one of the Sabatiers. So we survive the worst of the storm,” tears started
running down her cheeks, and she whimpered “and die anyway.” Gabe cried out, “I
don’t want our baby to die!”

He wrapped his arm around her.
“Come on, now, nobody is going to die. Like you said, we’re smart people, we
can figure this out. You need to stop fretting about it, and start thinking
about it. Okay?”