Mojave Beginning ~ (Part Two)
By John Abbott
Reality kicked in as
" Mr Hireson - ten,
twenty minutes maybe, OK. Would you like a drink ? "
" Yes, sure. Why not ?
" She turned and my eyes caressed her buttocks. I admired her curves and
thought what a shame it was that I could not really get involved. Body and
looks - eight. Brain and life - probably not as much as I might hope for? I
thought that I knew quite a lot about the personnel that I traveled the
highways of space with. You could say, I knew all the important
information about them, but even my limited experience had taught me to treat
that remark with caution. One of my God-given skills was immense patience,
which, coupled with intense and careful research on the net, normally gave me
most of the relevant information on my fellow travelers.
And as I knew - information is power.
……………
" Yes Miss ... Charlotte, isn't it ? " I said
gently as I grasped my frosted fruit juice. I sipped from the glass and looked
straight ahead into
" Yes, what can I do for you Charlotte? " I asked.
……………
" Well Jim ... Julius
Caesar can't see a thing - it's cold, whatever it is. Bloody space junk! "
“ Shelt ... I know that you
think I'm an old woman, but tell'em to go to Amber anyway. Space junk or not.
we don't want it hitting us unprepared do we ? “
" No question Jim, you
are an old woman ! But I'll get our customers to take some care - OK !"
" Thanks Shelt ...
Standard Condition Amber - OK. "
" You got it Jim. " I said glancing yet again at
my watch. I opened the channel to our passengers and put on my official
captain's voice.
" Ladies and Gentlemen, we may have a minor
fluctuation in our steadiness. Please proceed to Condition Amber now. Please
return to your seats immediately . "
My eyes checked the
instructions on my Head Up Facial Display. Each section of the lander was able
to operate independently at a push - only from orbit to the lunar surface of
course. My eyes blinked the relevant responses to Condition Amber :
Activate Emergency Ground
Lights. Yes. Activate Independent Operation Pilots. Yes. Activate Emergency
Warnings. Yes.
Activate Emergency Sealing
Units. Yes. Activate Emergency Stabilisers. Yes.
Activate Radio Beacons. Yes.
Activate Emergency Extinguishers. No.
No need to have the
extinguishers in or around the Moon, any fire would be snuffed out immediately
by the near-vacuum of Space. I checked our height and stability. I slowed old
Lutter just a tiny bit, that should give us the manoeuvrability for any minor
adjustments as we come in to Alex.
" Ladies and Gentlemen,
please remember we are on Condition Amber - please ensure that you stay in your
seats. "
I checked on my display where
the girls were, as expected, Susan was in Section C, Jen in B and Charlotte in
A, no problem ... everybody aboard should be happy enough.
Except for the delays - no problems. I crossed my fingers and hoped that nobody at Alex had got the jitters. Christ knows, times were hard enough with the trouble in the Belt without any extra security nonsense.
……………
“I hope you don't think it
too forward of me, but, would you fancy a drink sometime with me would you ?
" Her smile grew wider.
I was mildly surprised ... rather
" Ermm ... I don't know.
I've not got a lot of time. " My head was working overtime. I told myself,
I'm only young and must take every opportunity that comes my way, but I had
plenty of problems on my plate already.
" I'll give you a call after we land maybe, eh ? " her smile stayed upon her face, but not as broad, I was glad to see that I hadn't disappointed her entirely.
Then something happened ...
A massive blast was heard and
the shock rattled through A section, my head and neck were immediately forced
back into the padded seat.
No doubt if this is my death
I see approaching, then a few officials on Earth would by now be thinking about
my guilt. I feel sure that my death would be seen by them as God’s justice.
Almost immediately, our
section of the Lutter kicked violently sideways ... you could hear the
passengers gasping. One weightless woman (Anne Jackson I believe?), a yard to
my right, although unconscious, was spinning wildly, globules of blood and
tissue gyrated around a large gash on her her head, it reminded me of some
strange psychedelic effect. Again our section kicked violently sideways, much
stronger than the earlier one ... It was in opposition to the direction of our
tumbling and noticeably slowed the end over end motion. The couple of
unstrapped passengers appeared much gratified by this, whilst the nearby woman
still twirled amidst her own blood. A third extremely violent kick sideways
tipped the section up at an angle, my seat straps strained along with everyone
else, the ridiculous sirens stopped their wailing and thankfully the tumbling
end over end was now almost imperceptible. I couldn't understand why the sirens
were used at all, all they had done was scare the shit out of the passengers
and numb their brains for a short period. All these types of landers had
separate sections, each pressurised individually and each with limited although
necessary piloting capability, I figured that someone had sorted the stabilisers
out first to enable us to have a chance of surviving. As the tumbling stopped,
my thoughts turned to what sort of catastrophic problem had caused our little
calamity. There must have been a blast, exact cause unknown, and what the hell
had happened to the rest of the Lutter?
A voice then stuttered into
life onto A section's intercom and an overly-loud male voice began to speak. “I
have stabilised the section.”
Not quite true I thought. We
still had motion, but backwards and subtly right, it was at least no longer
violent and was a damn sight safer than earlier.
“I would be most grateful if
somebody with flight dynamics experience could help me out back here?”
I knew a bit, but kept silent
... a low profile was best in my position.
Not that it mattered, a small
man - Parkin, was that his name? - five or six seats back on the port side of
our section of Lutter moved tentatively towards the rear using the seats to
stop himself from spinning in the weightlessness. He was dressed in combat gray
overalls and wasn't instantly recognisable - although I had guessed his name,
as I mentally scanned the passenger list that I had retrieved on Sunday, but
then I had only noted people that I perceived to be of any importance or that I
would have to talk to or deal with directly. He stopped and guided the
unconscious Anne Jackson back into her seat - the globules of blood remained
free floating to my right.
The section had been fully
booked on Sunday - eighteen passengers in total.
Obviously I hadn't checked to
see if anybody would cancel or not and when I had arrived at Houston early on
Monday, A section turned out to be two passengers short, then there was
Charlotte of course and presumably the section's steward as well. Hopefully,
In the shock of our
situation, I had almost blotted her entirely out of my mind.
I loosened my seat straps and turned to look down the
central aisle for her. I couldn't see her at first, but then someone had got
her seated. No doubt I would see her pretty face again after we'd got ourselves
down.
The loud male voice boomed out over the intercom,
“Ladies, Gentlemen ... This is Steward Fredericks
speaking. We ... that Mr Parkin and I, have made a quick assessment and we
figure that the best policy right now is simplicity. We have therefore decided
to land upon the Moon as soon as possible and signal for help.“
As I heard it, I knew straight away.
“Hopefully, this delay will take no more than two or three
hours. When Mr Parkin and I have more information, we will relay it
immediately.”
Lies - unadulterated lies. It must have been obvious to
the other passengers as well in particular the regular shuttle-riders. I
wondered ... If we had been only twenty to thirty minutes from landing at
My brain began to grind over the possibilities for myself,
not that I didn't trust this pair, but they weren't looking out for the
personal safety of John Hireson ... I was!
If we land ... it’ll be bumpy but relatively safe, when
the beacons are turned on ... we shouldn't have to wait more than a few hours.
Of course there were major
flaws with this little idea ... we don't know where we are for a start, hence
the delay before rescue could be a long one ... possibly longer than our
on-board supplies of air and water. And this plan assumes that we haven't
sustained any damage to our major systems. The beacons should work but we don't
know what happened to spark our little disaster initially on our journey into
Alex do we ? Personally, I'd have gone with another plan. Spend a little time
looking first, set off our beacons now, something is bound to pick up the
signal, then get as close to a base as possible before landing. There might
even be a base fully within range of our limited fuel ... although I doubted
it. Steward Fredericks loud voice again spoke,
" Please strap
yourselves in tightly ... we will attempt to land in a few minutes. "
……………
I tightened my seat straps as far as I could and stupid as
it might have seemed, I crossed my fingers and hoped we'd be ok. I couldn’t
believe that my personal safety would now depend on a ‘
I spent a fleeting moment allowing my mind to caress
Eleanor, which was another story entirely.
Obviously the descent was in itself not at all dangerous,
but, the landing ... Now that was another thing entirely.
These old types of landers were similar in design to most
classes of modern sub-orbital buses, but because they only operated from
orbital transfer stations to bases they weren't very rugged, especially as
separated sections ...
Normally, I'd have opted for one of the excellent
first-class OTL's, but I didn't want to attract any attention to myself, so I'd
taken the cheap commercial one instead, dear old Lutter.
Brilliant strategy ... I thought sarcastically.
(To be Continued)
Copyright John Abbott
