“Will that work without air?” Nikki asked.
“Yeah. The firing pressure is hundreds of times higher than Earth’s air pressure. The loss of the sixteen pounds of air pressure outside won’t be a strain on it. Jake, why don’t you grab the needle rifle. Nikki, you take the wheel of the van in case we need to make a fast run for it.”
Jake and I extracted ourselves from the van.
“Let’s split up,” Jake suggested. “You head for that boulder next to the air lock and I’ll cover you.”
“Ready?”
Jake steadied himself against the van and aimed at the entrance of the base. “Go.”
I hippity-hopped toward a boulder near the airlock like a rabbit that had feasted on jumping beans, finally getting behind it where I caught my breath and aimed my pistol at the front access door. “Look’s quiet. I’ve got the Come on. I’ve got the entrance covered.”
Jake bounced across the plain like a kangaroo and stopped by the door and waited a moment, his rifle at the ready. “OK. Come on up, Phil.”
I bounced toward the door and stopped on the other side of it with the grace of a dancing hippo, plowing into the side of the dome hard enough to make my teeth rattle when my head bounced off the inside of my helmet.
We waited another moment.
“See anything, Nikki?” I asked.
“Looks clear from back here.”
“Just a minute,” I told Jake. “Watch the door.” I crawled over to the wide crack in the dome and peered into it, trying to see through the darkness inside. Throwing caution to the wind, I switched on my helmet lamp and inspected the interior of the dome in its bright beam.
The inside had been trashed with paper and equipment scattered all over the floor. There didn’t seem to be anything moving inside. “The place is a mess,” I told the others. “Looks like the communication gear is smashed.” I moved to the other side of the crack and checked out the rest of the room. “No one’s in sight. No bodies either. The crack’s just a little too narrow to get through. Has pretty sharp edges.”
“The shell’s too tough to break or pry open, ” Jake said. “Let’s use the door.”
Wish I’d thought of that. I told myself with a grim smile. I skipped back to the airlock. Jake opened up the outer door, peeked in, then motioned and we both entered.
“We have a problem, ” Jake said. “The inner door’s designed so it can’t be opened without cycling air into the air lock. That’s normally a safety feature; now it’s bad news since the dome doesn’t have any air in it.”
“Maybe the system is out of air,” I said.
“Yeah. Could be. Let’s try.” He pushed the cycle button. The door closed behind us and the chamber filled with air.
“Damn,” Jake said. “We shouldn’t open the inner door with the pressure up in here and a vacuum on the other side. It’s pretty dangerous. Might rip our suits open if it sucked us in.”
“There’s a pleasant thought,” I said. I aimed my Beretta at the wall leading out to the plain.
“Maybe if the instruments think the airlock is pressurized but it isn’t… Stand back… This looks like a good spot? No hidden wiring or anything.”
“Good as any. Stay away from the hole when you’ve made it. It’ll create some real suction at first.”
I pulled the trigger. The discharge exploded loudly in the air-filled chamber and a small hole appeared in the plastic wall. The air hissed out slowly as our suits ballooned as the pressure dropped.
Then the suits draped back against our skin as air rushed into the chamber with a steady hiss.
“So much for that idea,” I said.
“Forgot about the auto cycle,” Jake said. “Let’s see if we can turn off the power. Don’t get against the bullet hole!”
I was glad he cautioned me since I about put my posterior end against it. Having the seat ripped off your pants in a vacuum would be more than embarrassing. I grimaced at the thought of getting a little “behind” into my work, as it were.
Jake pulled off the metal plate over the emergency button which was located where the other one had been at our base. He punched it and the air quit running into the chamber and again leaked out through the bullet hole and our suits inflating once more.
But, due to safety features, the inner door would not open. “Any suggestions?”
“Fix thirteen.”
“Which would be?” Jake asked.
I laughed. “Whenever we had equipment that didn’t work right in the lab, we often resorted to
’fix thirteen.’ Brute force or some other override that the manufacturer never planned on seeing with his equipment.”
Jake held up his rifle.
“Yes,” I agreed. “I’d aim about there.” I tapped a section of the door that I suspected held the latching system.
“What are you guys doing in there?” Nikki asked. “Everything okay?”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “Just a little problem getting through the air lock. We’re about ready to go in now.”
Jake fired his weapon. The shower of sparks produced when the high energy slug hit the panel was spectacular in the closed quarters and I hoped it hadn’t peppered our suits with fragments. Not seeing any immediate leaks, we seemed to have met with success. Jake hit the button again and I pushed the door ajar, glanced inside and saw no one, then jumped on through the opening where I slipped, falling on my back, with a curse.
Nikki said, “Hey, are you guys all right?”
“Blasted lunar gravity,” I said picking myself up. I looked around to be sure it was still safe, saw no one, and straightened up. “Looks clear. Let’s give everything the once over.”
“Don’t get side tracked looking at the damage,” Jake warned.
That was easier said than done. The computers and machinery had apparently been smashed by a crow bar that was sitting on one of the control consoles. Spray paint had been used to write four-letter words as well as a lot of gibberish on the white walls of the control room. A madman seemed to have been in charge of the area.
We moved into the crew quarters, several of which were completely gutted by what appeared to have been a flash fire. The hydroponics area was sealed off with air pressure having apparently been maintained in it. We looked through the clear door panel and could see that all the plants inside were dead .
We continued through the complex. I held my pistol ready, wondering who or what might be waiting for us. In the mess hall, things appeared normal. The pantry storage area was full of food just as our base had been. The water tanks were full as well.
The mining area was a disaster. An industrial laser had been left on for sometime and had created a pool of molten metal and rock where its beam had been shining. How long it had been on was hard to tell, but its tube was black, indicating that it was worn out. “Look at that,” Jake said pointing to the frozen metal pool.
As with the base we had left, the mining operation itself had never been started.
We moved back into the command room.
“Nikki, how’s it look out there?” I asked.
“All’s quiet.”
“We haven’t found anyone in here,” I said. “But there are plenty of intact oxygen tanks. Why don’t you come on in. Uh… Do you have the key to the van? Why don’t you lock up. I don’t think anyone’s here, but…”
“Will do. I’m coming in. Don’t shoot.”
In a few moments, Nikki came through the doorway, “Looks like you guys could use a good house bot.”
“Which brings up an interesting point. Where’re the bots?” I asked.
“They said in storage shed eight, on the computer records” Jake asked.
“Given the chaos that was going on here,” I said, “that may be a little iffy.”