Mojave Beginning ~ (Part Two)

 Mojave Beginning ~ (Part Two)

By John Abbott

Reality kicked in as Charlotte spoke to me in her soft tones.

" 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.

……………

Charlotte passed me my drink with a questioning glance. " Mr Hireson ? "

 

" 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 Charlotte's eyes. Name tag or no name tag, I knew more about Charlotte Fuller than she could ever have realised.

" 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.

……………

Charlotte smiled as she spoke " Mr Hireson, I don't suppose ..." she paused,

“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 Charlotte than Jenny I thought.

" 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. Charlotte was flung like a childs doll at speed up the central aisle as the front end of our section closest to section B was sent spinning over my head, the whole section was rotating end over end backwards. The rapid spinning rotation indicated our separation from the remainder of the OTL which was standard in emergency situations. In a second, darkness enveloped us only for the the emergency lights to crash into our consciousness, and for what seemed endless seconds - there was silence ... total silence. The spell was almost immediately, outrageously broken by the shockingly loud wailing siren. It cut through the hot air that hung inside our section of the lander, splashed itself into our faces and assaulted the eardrums of everyone aboard our section of the Lutter. I felt rivulets of sweat dribbling down my sides. The siren was screaming at us through the stifling air, one or two people who hadn’t heeded the earlier warnings were tumbling in a weightless panic - I'd briefly imagined an OTL full of screaming lunatics, but it wasn't like that at all. A few faint groans, a little whining, but generally pretty calm which was relatively surprising due to our present circumstances. I had no doubts that we were hurtling through space and I assumed that we would all soon be dashed into the desolate, dead lunar landscape.

 

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, Charlotte should be OK, Yeah, she should be bruised and shocked but generally OK.

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 Alexandria, then we would almost certainly be quite some distance away now, and definitely north of Alex, probably over the highlands somewhere, which wasn't good.

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 ‘Fredericks’? Weird?

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