A weak power supply was restored after two weeks of cold and blackness. A few dim lights were allowed in the corridors and common rooms, none in the cabins, and meals and rationed drinks began to be warmed. It was announced that the long period without power had led to a small deviation in their flight plan and for some days they must hold themselves ready to respond as directed to alarm signals as there was a possibility of collision with the Perseides passing through this area.
At midnight on this same day Captain Able spoke over the intercom to his Chief Engineer, Li. “Hallo Li. You can begin vacation. Take it down slowly. I’ll be ready at 0700 hours Ship Time to hit my first Perseid. You know what to do then.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” said Li in mock Scottish.
Able was referring to the forthcoming ‘accident’ whereby the ship would suffer holing by a meteor and lose much of its air, Chief Engineer Li was preparing the ground for a fast reduction in air pressure by subtracting some air while the passengers slept thus making the final job easier for his compressors. By slow leakage thereafter atmospheric pressure would be reduced to 8 p.s.i, the current Martian pressure. All this compressed air would be fed back into the ship on the return journey,
At about 0500 hours following Captain Able’s directive to Li. Tony Bellini sidled along the dim corridors panting a little with the combined effects of fear and Li’s evacuation of air. He passed the surgery door, freezing momentarily as he heard a movement within, then he silently pressed onward to the next door and went like a shadow into the blackness behind the door.
It was a small room used to store soap, of which a great amount was used in the six months of the trip. Locking the door behind him he switched on a small lamp and examined the shelves on the right hand side. Quickly he began lifting the cartons of soap tablets and stacking them in front of the opposing plastic racks. When he had cleared an area about the size of a door he examined the fixing of the slats.
They were lightly spot fused to the cross supports, and a few sharp upward blows with his fist were enough to break the welds and free the shelves. With the wall now accessible Tony Bellini pressed his ear to it and listened with all the intentness his love engendered. Beyond the wall lay Miriam Chokewater in her sick bay bed, and beyond her the surgery itself with Mary McPrince on watch.
He heard nothing except the roaring of blood through his cold ear. A look at his wristwatch, and then carefully he unwrapped a small package of what looked like thin sticky string and began pressing it against the wall in the shape of a tall oblong. To the bottom corner of this oblong he connected a minute detonator and two wires, one of which he attached to his hand torch. He then built himself a shelter from full cartons and sat down to wait for 0700 hours when the first Perseid was due to hit the SS Mayburg.
Bellini’s simple (lovelorn) plan was to blow a hole in the dividing wall at the moment when Engineer Li’s contrived explosions were going off around the ship, and then to bound through the hole, snatch Miriam from her prison and rush her back to his cabin while all the confusion prevailed, He would look after her until the excitement had died down and no harm could be caused by Miriam disclosing what she knew about the ‘Perseids’. Then he would take her to Captain Able and ask him to marry them. Beyond that he could not see; a rosy mist blotted out everything.
His watch read 0700 hours. He switched off his torch and carefully connected the second wire to the other side of the thumb switch. When the first “BOOM” echoed through the ship he pressed the torch switch. A tremendous “CRACK” hit his ears and a hard fist slammed soap into his body. Everything seemed to fall on him.
When his senses recovered it was to see a faint light shining through the hole in the wall and to hear a loud screaming noise. He scrambled up and battled his way across piles of burst cartons to the hold. Further “BOOMS” showed Engineer Li to be in full swing. The screaming came from Miriam thrashing in the bed, and the light came from the surgery beyond, the connecting door of which hung drunkenly from one hinge. A jagged section of wall lay half way across the room. Almost at Bellini’s feet on the other side of the hole lay Chief Medical Officer Mary McPrince unconscious and obviously broken in one or two places.
“Dio!” breathed Bellini in real horror. He stepped over McPrince and then stood hesitating between the opposing calls of love and duty. Miriam saw him while drawing breath for fresh hysterics and scrambled along the bed and into his arms.
“Tony!” she screamed into his ear. “Save me.”
Love won.
“Through here,” he shouted, pivoted, and dragged her to the jagged hole. They tottered over the chaos of broken cartons and fell against the door. Holding Miriam’s lightly clad body on one hand he unlocked the door and pulled. It did not open. He released Miriam and used two hands. It did not move,
“Oh, Christi!” sobbed Bellini. “It is jammed. Quick — the surgery door.”
They scrambled back, stepped over McPrince’s body, and rushed hand in hand into the surgery, around the examination table, and over to the door. This, too, was immovable.
Tony Bellini hammered on the door in rage and then fell silent as he realized that by making too much noise he would draw attention to himself and so to his crime. He swung and looked at Miriam in perplexity.
“We’ve got to get out,” he told her forcibly, his tone suggesting Mirian had got him into this contretemps. She was looking at him wildly, her pretty face white and wet with her recent hysterical outburst.
“What about mother?” she whispered and looked back at the door of the sick bay. Then seeing his puzzlement she added: “Doctor McPrince.”
“Yes,” he said reluctantly. Then shrilly: “Christos! What was she doing there by the wall? Why wasn’t she asleep?”
“She had just woke me up. She had something to tell me.”
He was speechless with frustration. For a few moments he turned away and rattled at the door, but all doors on a spaceship are strong and airtight and if the wall they are mounted in becomes distorted they jam. Also there was quite a difference in air pressure inside the surgery to the lower pressure outside in the corridor and this helped to hold the door shut. They returned to the sickbay end looked down at the unconscious woman.
McPrince had a lacerated shoulder and back, and a broken arm where the section of wall had struck her as it flew past. She was concussed by the explosion and her right ear would be forever deaf. There was a big pool of blood expanding on the smooth floor. Bellini stood frozen by revulsion above the body but Miriam dropped to her knees and timidly tried to raise McPrince’s head and shoulders.
“Help me,” she gasped, and was nearly sick as she felt warm blood trickle over her fingers underneath the shoulder. Bellini grunted and stepped over and took hold of the good side.
“On the bed,” said Miriam, and with a gigantic effort they raised McPrince inert body from the floor and got her to the bed. They turned her over. Her whole back seemed a mass of scored flesh.
“Dio!” groaned Bellini and turned away. He made sick noises as he stood swaying at the foot of the bed. Tears dripped from Miriam’s eyes as she tenderly stripped away the blood soaked clothing, but she nevertheless managed to inject steel into her voice as she called him to assist her.
“Stop being a baby, Tony! Come and help me to get her clothes off.”
Reluctantly, loathing it, he came and they peeled the shredded cloth from the bloody flesh.