Moon Base
By: Argus Warner
Sean took long deep breaths admiring the gray mountains of dust and sand, silent and unmoving. A part of him felt empty as he was riding on the Lunar Rover, longing for the feel of the wind blowing through his fur. His face then cracked a smile as he looked down at his hands only to find a white suit encasing his body. Then almost by instinct he began to gaze upward at what seemed to be the night sky, seeing the Earth floating. Sean turned his head to see a very stout cougar concentrating on the path ahead of them.
“Tch--Hey Kyle, its amazing isn’t it?” Sean beep in on his transmitter.
“Tch--You should save you battery power” The cougar responded. Sean sat there smiling as he looked at the feline. He could just imagine Kyle under that suite; his serious face brooding with his eyes concentrated on nothing else but the road ahead of him. The wolf began to laugh a little, thinking to himself, out of the fifty folk that were selected he had to get stuck with this bozo. But even with all of Kyle’s flaws he couldn’t think of a better partner. The Lunar Rover was picking up speed, which could only mean that they were getting close. Kyle’s driving was always predictable. They were on call when they had received an alarm in Sector Eight. The systems were indicating a Solar Panel malfunction, throwing off the power input reading to the colony. This would otherwise be a routine mission if it weren’t for the solar storm.
“Tch--How’s your electro-magnetic shielding?” Kyle asked.
“Tch--It says I have about…three hours! Wait that can’t be right?”
“Tch--Why not? Three hours is more than enough time”
“Tch--Normally I would agree with you but the battery was saying I had five hours of battery life just 15 minutes ago”
“Tch--I wouldn’t worry about it, lets get to the facility so we can do our job” Kyle grunted.
The wolf peered up at the earth again. His wife and daughter appeared before him, dancing around in his mind, dominating his thoughts. He tried his best to be content with the fact that he had three more months of the assignment left. The wolf sighed.
“Tch—We’re here” Kyle spoke as the power facility came into view. Getting up from their seats Sean grabbed the supplies, as his partner approached the dome like structure and entered in his access code. The access doors slide open as both walked into the artificial created atmosphere. No sooner than the door closed, Sean pulled his helmet off with a few flicks of his fingers.
“This feels wonderful, even if the oxygen is manufactured” The wolf then hung his helmet on the appropriate hook on the wall.
“Well at least you were not stupid enough to take off your suite” Kyle said as he hung his helmet as well. Sean nodded, he had only worked on the Lunar Station for about three months and while the simulations back on earth were very stringent, earth still had a much more forgiving environment, so one could easily accept the possibility of failure. During Solar Storms, the suites were equipped with a magnetic shielding generator and even though they were uncomfortable, they had to be worn.
Without much thought the wolf continued to follow the feline as they approached the third door, which was the last entrance to the generator housing containing the solar cells. When the door slid open, the wolf was amazed at what he saw; the sheer number of the solar panels seemed to cover every single inch of ground. Sean took one step forward beyond the threshold as his eyes were scanning for the computer. It didn’t take long for the tall arcade looking interface to catch his attention, since it did stick out like a sore thumb. Placing his equipment down, he went right to work.
“I will be heading over to each of the interface switches to run their monthly calibrations. Once you find the sucker, yell at me and I’ll get it replaced.”
Placing his hand over the sensor Sean activated the computer. Then entering his login Id and password, he tapped on the screen to move the cursor and select the diagnostic program. Sean gave a quick turn of his head glancing over at Kyle. The cougar was fast at work carrying his lunar equipment and attaching a cord from the relay box to the interface port at the base of each solar panel. A small buzzing noise soon caught his attention back on the Diagnostic console. Sean began to examine the information, as he tried to pinpoint the un-calibrated sector and specifically where the energy fluctuations were taking place.
“Tch--Found It!” Sean stated as he pressed the transmission button.
“Tch—Well, Where’s the damn thing?”
“Tch--Fourth Sector, Beta three”
Kyle didn’t even respond as Sean could see the feline get up from his position and began to run. Sean then stuck his tongue out, something he always did as he concentrated more on the computer now. Once in a while he would look over at his partner, who now was attaching the solar cell. Getting the thumbs up, Sean checked the computer diagnostic screen. Green graph bars and predominant flat lines were great indicators of stabilization. Sean smiled as he looked over at Kyle and gave him huge thumbs up. His partner didn’t react much as he began to close up shop, Sean just shrugged it off as he then heard another buzzing sound but this time coming from his suite.
“98% depletion of battery, five minutes of Electro Magnetic Shielding” was the message that flashes across the LED forearm display.
“Tch--ah Kyle how’s your shielding look?”
“Tch--I still have four hours left, why?”
“Tch--Mine is telling me five minutes”
“What!”
Sean was surprised to see the cougar’s reaction as he stood up and began running toward the wolf’s position. Looking back down on his forearm, Sean wanted to press a few buttons hoping for a miracle, but he only confirmed that the solar storm was at its peak and chances of surviving in this type of radiation exposure would be very little. Then without warning he felt the hand of his partner on his shoulder.
“That can’t be right” Kyle had a confused look as he was inspecting all the connections in and around Sean’s back. “Come on, let’s go and get you over to the hanger”
“But we haven’t—“
“LETS GO!”
Kyle pushed Sean along, even though Sean could still see all their equipment left behind. Moving into the room, the cougar reached up and opened up a cabinet. Kyle just tilted his head slightly and looked at him. Pulling out a box, he opened it to reveal three vacuumed sealed plastic bags.
“Here, what I want you to do; I want you to remove your suit”
“WHAT!”
“THERES NO TIME TO ARGUE, I’m your senior and you will do as I say!”
Sean’s heart was pounding as he was reminded that he had about one minute left, but Kyle was telling him to do something that they were never instructed to do under any circumstance. Currently they were in the back section called the hanger, an almost livable environment, though there was not enough shielding to adequately protect them from radiation.
“What are you waiting for, take off the suit!”
Kyle looked over at him with an irritated glare as he found that he was taking off his suit as well. He finally understood what the cougar was doing but he still wasn’t quite sure if he wanted him doing it. Reluctantly the wolf began to undress, un-strapping Velcro, flipping the latches and eventually dismantling the chest part of the suit from the Torso. It was at this time he noticed Kyle’s suite laying not more than two feet from him.
“Now give me your suit Sean”
“Kyle...I don’t think”
“Give me your DAMN SUIT”
Sean just threw the suit over at Kyle. The cougar reached down wasting no time putting the contraption on.
“I’m assuming I don’t have to tell you twice what to do next” The cougar glared at the wolf.
The wolf took a deep breadth as he then started to put on Kyle’s suite. Sean was doing his best to deal with the low gravity when he noticing that the cougar had syringes. With a determined look and ruffled brow he brought the syringe down onto his leg, the empty plastic wrapping was laying beside his feet. Kyle brought the last part of the suite over his leg and attaching the clip to his waist.
“That’s not going to last you” Sean said his ears folded back.
“I know that, come on were heading back into the Rover”
“Kyle No! We can’t go back—“
“And we can’t stay here, do as I say and put on that helmet”
The wolf didn’t know what was going on and he was almost fed up with the cougar’s orders. Right now the magnetic shielding on his suit was protecting him but at what expense? As the puma glared at him they walked outside and got into the Lunar Rover. Then they were off but not in the direction that Sean thought, the moon base would be a fifteen minute journey to their east but they were heading west.
“Tch--DAMN IT KYLE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”
“Tch—Saving your life and maybe if we’re lucky I’ll survive”
“Tch—Head back to the dome, you shouldn’t be doing this” Sean said with as much authority he could muster in his voice.
“Tch—Fat chance” The cougar was still trying to navigate the Rover.
“Tch—I mean it Kyle”
“Tch—And what do I tell your wife when your dead? Or what do I tell your daughter? That her father was trying to be a hero or that he was being too stupid to listen to reason”
Sean just sat there speechless; his mind drew a blank as he tired to muster a response to Kyle’s words. He watched the Lunar Rover makes it way further and further west. It didn’t take long before he could see it. It was a large square looking metallic structure off in the distance.
“Tch—There, that’s our…dest…tin…ation,” The cougar said as he body was beginning to fail him.
“Tch—Kyle!”
The cougar perked up, narrowed his eyes and increased the power as he drove as fast as he can to the structure. Sean kept a close eye as Kyle managed to maneuver the vehicle close to the front entrance. The mountain lion smiled.
“Tch—We’re here” then without any other words his body fell forward. Sean reacted quickly as he got out of the vehicle, ran around to the other side and dragged Kyle out of the Rover. Then he looked at his partner’s LCD display on his arm. His life signs were stable but his heart rate was slow. Sean then tapped on Kyle’s helmet.
“Tch—Kyle, are you there buddy?” Sean held his breath as he watched the suit for any signs of movement. Almost immediate, he could see the helmet moving left to right. “Tch—Kyle good you’re still with me”
“Tch—Where are we?” The voice was distant and faint.
“Tch—Well I was kind of hoping you would tell me, either way I’m going to lift you up, when you do I need you to work with me”
Kyle nodded as Sean wrapped his arms over his shoulder and got him to stand up. It was only ten feet from the rover to the door, but it was the longest ten feet of Sean’s life. For the most part Sean was pulling dead weight, though it seemed Kyle did his best mustering a few steps. Upon reaching the door the wolf immediately punched in his own authorization code and waited. Assuming it would work, a quick flash and a beep and the metal doors slid opened, revealing a small two-seat car, if you can call it that. The wheels were connected to some tracks that seemed to run into another sealed door, which he could only imagine was an entrance to some sort of tunnel since the structure wasn’t much bigger than the room they were standing in right now. Sean dragged Kyle over to the car as he opened the door and pushed him in, then moving around to the other side he jumped in as well. The controls were simple enough, since it was on a rail there was no driving it.
“Tch—Kyle, are you okay?”
“Tch--…”
Sean was worried, he couldn’t think of any option other than pressing the button to activate the control. Soon the car began to animate itself as it began to run through some diagnostic checks. Sean’s eyes keep shifting between the puma and the vehicle, as he watched his life signs on the LED display. “Breathing and heart rate abnormal, requires immediate medical attention” is what his suite was flashing, giving off a small audible alarm. Sean then looked up and before he realized it, the car was moving and the doors began to open.
“Tch—Hang in there, we’re almost there Kyle. I can feel it”
The huge sliding door open as the car made its last short leg of the journey. Sean couldn’t even imagine that tunnels existed below the moons surface.
“Oxygen level: Sufficient, You may exit the vehicle” an audible voice came from the onboard computer. Sean didn’t really take the time to look around; he was not concerned too much with his mere surrounding. Jumping out of the vehicle, he ran around to the other side, opened the door and pulled out his partner. Quickly he checked his LED forearm to run the radiation diagnostics again.
“Radiation levels safe” Sean gave a huge sigh of relief as he began to unlatch the cougar’s helmet. The feline looked terrible although there was nothing physically different about his face. The wolf immediately unstrapped his own helmet, taking it off completely. Without much hesitation, he began violently shaking the cougar.
“Huh…did…did…we make it?” The cougar said very meekly. The wolf smiled as he saw his partner’s eyes open.
“Yeah were going to fine, we’ve made it to this…uh—“
“Lava Tube, these caves…will keep you protected from the solar radiation”
“Us Kyle…Us”
“No I think my gamble was a bust…”
“Don’t say those things! Come on, you have to stay in there. What do I tell your…tell your—“
The cougar smiled. “I have no one Sean…but that was my fault.” Kyle said, as his eyes got a little more distant. Sean couldn’t help but feel frustrated; his mind was running in overdrive, trying to come up with something he could do.
“Funny” Kyle spoke, “I always had a fear that I would die alone, but I guess that was just wishful thinking” Kyle said with a smile as his eyes connected with Sean.
“Don’t do this Kyle… Don’t…” Sean said as he gripped his partner’s shoulder. It was then that he noticed his eyes, they weren’t connecting with him like they used to and he knew. Sean hung his head low as he couldn’t help but mourn.
