The Infinity Brigade #1 Stone Cold (7 page)

My thrusters stopped firing and I began to drift. I had been in sunlight now for a good thirty to forty seconds. My suit’s power systems were already humming to dissipate the excess heat. At last I was close enough to Sam to grab him. He spasmed when I grabbed a leg. I lost the grip and had to grab wildly. I managed to get an arm. I held on tightly this time and brought my helmet to his. I knew that if our helmets where physically touching he would be able to hear me.

“SAM! SAM! Snap out of it! I’m trying to help.”

“I’m blind,” he sobbed.

“Don’t worry. Your nanites will take care of it. Right now we just need to work together to get back down.”

“Down… how far? My thrusters… they aren’t working anymore.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got a hold of you and I brought extra fuel. I’m going to clip a tether on you and turn you around. Once I do that our helmets won’t be touching and you won’t be able to hear me. I need you to trust me… Can you do that for me?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“No not really,” I admitted.

Once I had Sam secured and repositioned I ordered my AI to calculate the best possible burn for returning to the lunar surface. Unfortunately the news was not good. I had plenty of fuel to get back down. The problem was momentum. Kinetic energy is a function of mass and velocity. It didn’t matter that the moon only had sixteen percent the gravity of Earth. When we hit the surface our momentum would smash us flat. The problem was I didn’t have enough fuel left to arrest our combined momentum. We would crash about fifty kilometers into the sunlit side of the moon and there was nothing in the laws of physics that could prevent that crash.

Fortunately I had a few tricks up my sleeve. I had grown up on Mars and I knew all about Cat Kimbridge and the ill-fated voyage of ESX Arizona! I found my target and fired my braking thrusters. In about twenty eight seconds I’d know if I was right.  

Chapter 7: Boot Camp – The Selenean Summit

The Engelhardt Crater is home to one of the tallest piles of rocks on the moon… the Selenean Summit. At just under eleven thousand meters high, it was my goal to kiss the side of that big boy and slide down it in what had become called the Arizona maneuverer.

The ESX Arizona under the command of, then, Lieutenant Commander Catherine Kimbridge had attempted a marginally controlled landing on Mars by sliding down the side of Olympus Mons like a snowboarder. The kinetic energy was dissipated along the length of the slide. The date she had attempted this was December 7th, 2067. It was exactly one hundred and twenty six years to the day from when the most famous of the ships named Arizona was destroyed. The name ‘Arizona’ could only be used by Senate approval and then only by ships from whom great personal sacrifice was expected. Catherine Kimbridge had honored that commitment to sacrifice. Her experimental ship had not survived. I was hoping to do better.

According to my suit’s AI, I had just a touch over ten seconds of fuel left. I would need eight of them to adjust my course to gently kiss the top of the Selenean Summit. I would use the remaining two seconds of thrust to reduce my speed further but I knew it would never be enough. We were going to be coming in hard no matter what I did. Our best option would be to get help to our position as fast as possible. I re-enabled my commlink.

“To any station. This is Marine Recruit Anthony Stone. I need an immediate medical rescue at or near the base of the Selenean Summit. Two recruits down. Repeat two recruits down. Losing comms. Immediate help required.”

I programmed the suit’s AI to fire the last of my thrusters when it detected we were within five feet of the surface and to keep firing until the reserves were exhausted. My hope was the thrusters would kick up as much dust as possible. The dust on the moon was like a fine talcum powder. The high intensity ion thrusters would impart a static charge on the particles which would keep them dispersed. Given the low gravity on the moon’s surface the ionized dust cloud would be highly visible from kilometers away. It would be like a smoke flare on an airless moon… at least that was what I was shooting for.

I switched to my platoon channel. “This is AG. I have Sam. We are coming in for a hard landing near Engelhardt Crater and Selenean. I’m going to try and bleed off as much kinetic energy on the slide down the slope as I can. Sam and I are going to see just how rugged these Stark suits are…”

I was going to say more but my thrusters picked that moment to fire and I was bracing for what promised to be a very rough ride. As expected, I kicked up quite a dust cloud. My hope had been to land on my feet and ride the slope like I rode waves as a kid on Mars. Reality had a different idea.

As the last of my thrusters fired my feet hit the slide of the slope. Understand, because of all the dust that I deliberately kicked up I couldn’t see a damn thing. I slid for a few meters and I was just beginning to think that I might actually be able to make this work when my right foot hit a rock. The result was Sam and I began to tumble down the slope.

If we had been wearing conventional space suits that would have been all she wrote. We would be dead. Fortunately I had anticipated this might happen so I programmed the AI in my suit to attempt to fold into as tight a ball as it could, given that my suit needed to fold over Sam’s suit as well.

If Sam hadn’t disabled his AI we could have tucked ourselves into two balls not unlike two divers trying to do a cannon ball splash. On the other hand, if Sam hadn’t disabled his AI we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with.

After what seemed like an eternity of rolling and bouncing down the Selenean slope my suit helmet hit what I could only characterize as a boulder. The force of the impact was numbing. Half the systems in my Stark failed outright and the rest began to issue warnings. The noise of the alarms threatened to drown out the noise of my suit banging repeatedly against the rocks and McDullis’ suit.

Suddenly I hit another massive outcropping of…
something-harder-than-I-was
. I went flying. The tether between myself and Sam grew taught and then snapped. When I had actually let go of Sam is anybody’s guess. I was too busy dealing with a cracked visor that was leaking air and, what I’m pretty sure, had the makings of a bad concussion.

Normally I would have ordered the suit’s AI to flood the cracked faceplate with nanites that would have quickly sealed the breach. There were however two problems. First my suit’s AI was now offline and second, my head was so woozy… I was pretty much offline. I struggled to do the best I could with the three and a half neurons that were still functioning within my brain. I grabbed a mouthful of water from my sipping straw and spit it into my helmet.

Now spitting water into one’s helmet in a low-G environment is not recommended. It’s a good way to aspirate said water and drown yourself.  I go back to the three and a half functioning neurons as my defense.  The cracks in my helmet let air escape. That escaping air drew the water droplets with it. As they hit the cracks they filled the gaps and froze. This worked only because the Mark Two Stark suit had an external solar shade for its visor that was designed to flex rather than break.  This meant the faceplate itself was still in the shade and thus could freeze the water droplets escaping through the cracks.  

At some point during my wild tumble down slope my suit’s left leg got caught in a crevasse. This had the effect of dissipating a tremendous amount of kinetic energy. Unfortunately that energy expended itself in shattering the mechanism and coincidently my leg. Somehow, even with the suit’s AI offline the suit was smart enough to inflate the emergency seals in that leg. This did three things for me.

First it prevented the rest of my dwindling air supply from escaping. Second, it kept me from bleeding out. Third, it caused so much pain, I finally passed out.

***

The first thing I felt when I woke up was elation. I woke up! About midway down the Selenean Summit I was pretty sure waking up was not going to be in the cards. The next thing I felt was absolutely nothing. Nothing as in ‘nothing’ nothing. I had no feeling anywhere. In my limited medical experience this was not a good sign.

I had grown up in a family that really didn’t believe much in church and God and all that stuff. That said, I had always pretty much accepted that there was a God. The minute you start talking about eleven or more dimensions, the Physics involved kind of becomes a compelling argument for something outside of time-space as we know it that is an uncaused-causer… God if you will.

Now I don’t think about God all that often. I’m not the religious type. That said, I was thinking about God now. Was I in whatever passed for heaven? I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t feel anything. I just was. My elation at waking up was starting to transform into abject terror.

Slowly things began to change. Light and sound began to creep into my consciousness. In a few moments I was making out single words and then complete sentences. Slowly the lights I was seeing resolved into images.

A petite red-headed woman with Commodore rank insignia was leaning over me. I knew the face but I could not place it. I was struggling to move but I still could not feel anything below my neck. It was actually a startling revelation that I could feel my face.

I tried to talk but my mouth was bone dry. The Commodore smiled… good Lord there was most certainly a God! What a smile that was. She held a small cup with a straw to my lips. I sipped just enough to wet my lips.

“Sam… Recruit McDullis… is…” I really had to struggle to get the words out.

The Commodore spoke. I knew instantly who this was. No one alive could fail to recognize that voice. This was Commodore Cat Kimbridge!

“Don’t worry about your friend. He had some nasty burns but they are taken care of. Because of you he practically walked away from this with little more than a really bad sunburn. You on the other hand had us worried.”

At this point my field of vision had expanded and I could see there was a doctor and at least two nurses working on me. The doctor had what had to be the largest syringe I had ever seen filled with a silver liquid I knew to be nanites. He move the needle out of my field of view. When the syringe came back into view it was empty.

“Sir, where am…”

Commodore Kimbridge nodded to the doctor and then turned back to me.

“You are onboard the
GCP Yorktown
. In her medical bay to be precise.  We received your ‘Any Station’ broadcast as we were entering lunar orbit. As it happened I was on a shuttle heading to Lunar One when we saw your dust cloud… that was ingenious by the way – firing your thrusters to kick up as much dust as possible. It probably saved your life because we were able to get to you within seconds.”

I was feeling stronger by the minute. “Thank you Commodore.” It felt lame. I should have been able to say more but what do you say to a living legend?

The Commodore gave me another one of those butter-melting smiles and winked. Cat Kimbridge…
THE
Cat Kimbridge… winked at me! Did I mention my renewed belief in a loving God? 

“As soon as you’ve had a few hours to recover I’ll be dropping you and Recruit McDullis off at New Parris Island. Keep your head on your shoulders… I’m going to be watching you.

With that she got up and left. I would not see Cat Kimbridge again for many years but I would remember this first meeting until the day I died.

***

Arriving back at New Parris Island I didn’t know what to expect. Sam McDullis rode the shuttle from the GCP Yorktown with me. Aside from the pilot we were the only ones on the shuttle.

Physically, Sam looked fine. His burn injuries had been easy to heal. Unfortunately Sam’s problems went well beyond the physical and I think he knew it. He thanked me for coming to get him but I could tell his heart wasn’t in it. I suspect a part of him had wished I had abandoned him to die.

When we arrived at Parris Island, Senior Drill Sergeant Harris and Drill Sergeant Thomas met us as we marched down the ramp.

“ATTENTION!” Harris barked.

Immediately I assumed the proper position, as did Sam.

“Recruit McDullis you are hereby discharged from Marine Training. You are being given a medical separation. You will not be eligible to serve in any of the armed forces. This is not a reflection of you or your ability to contribute to society. It is an acknowledgment that you are not emotionally suited to this life.”

Sergeant Harris walked over to Sam and stood in front of him. When he spoke again it was in a much gentler tone.

“Son, some men… fine men… are just not meant to be soldiers. I’ve seen your aptitude scores… there is a lot you can do. This,” he waved a hand at the base, “is just not one of them. Get your gear together. Drill Sergeant Thomas will out-process you and we will get you on your way.”

The look of relief on Sam’s face said all that needed saying. He saluted the drill and turned to me and offered a second salute. I saw the salute out of the side of my eye. Not sure what to do as I was still at attention, I saluted while facing forward.

Senior Drill Sergeant Harris walked back over to my position. He stared directly into my face while I stood absolutely still. In a few moments, when Sam and Sergeant Thomas were gone, Harris spoke.

“You are either the smartest, the dumbest or the luckiest son of a bitch I’ve ever seen. You do realize you should be dead right now yes?”

I started to answer but he yelled “SHUTUP! I’m speaking… and when I’m speaking you listen. Am I clear recruit?”

I didn’t say a word.

“NOW YOU CAN SPEAK!”

“Yes Senior Drill Sergeant!”

Harris spent the next several minutes staring into my face… daring me to blink. I did not.

“You ignored an order from me. You disabled your comms so I could not remotely control your very expensive Mark Two Tactical Combat Armor. Armor which you destroyed. You damn near got yourself killed. Do you have any idea how much paperwork I would have to go through if you had actually managed to get yourself killed?”

I wisely kept my mouth shut… sensing this was one of those times the Drill did not actually want me to respond.

“I would be completely within my rights to kick your sorry butt all the way back to that ghetto you called home before you got here.” Harris shook his head. It was obvious that he was exasperated.

“I had a flag officer call me up and talk to me about you.  Commodore Catherine Kimbridge no less. It seems she was impressed with your initiative and ability to think on your feet. So no I will not be kicking you out today… You are demoted to Private. If you ever pull a stunt like that again you will wish your mommy never met your daddy! AM I CLEAR?”

“YES DRILL SERGEANT!”

“Good,” Senior Drill Sergeant Harris said calmly. “Officially, that is what I HAD to say. Unofficially, what you did honors the best traditions of the Marines and if you can avoid letting it go to your head it is my belief that you will make one hell of a Marine. DISMISSED!”

Chapter 8: Boot Camp – Destination Mars