‘They’re not at Ben Lei,’ said Neil. ‘We’d been watching it anyway, but the latest pass shows nothing there.’
‘Thanks, Neil. Have you sent that detailed local image yet?’
‘Should be with you any second.’
The printer sprang into life and like a pot that takes forever to boil, the image gradually emerged from the printer’s mouth, a millimetre at a time.
Once complete, I grabbed it and a magnifying glass and sat at one of the dining tables. Bill brought us both a coffee and sat down with me.
‘What are you looking for?’ he asked.
‘Unusual clusters of tracks,’ I said to him. ‘Computer, is that orbital tracking system running yet?’
‘Spasmodically, Mark. But only buggy three is showing within the current tracking distance.’
‘Computer, is it still at the launch site east of Moonbase?’
‘Yes, Mark.’
‘I wonder if the Marines can roll it into an upright position,’ I said to Bill.
‘What does it weigh?’
‘Computer, what’s the weight of a buggy?’
‘The six-wheel buggies have a specification of four thousand pounds empty, Mark.’
‘What would that be on the moon, computer?’
‘Six hundred and sixty-six pounds, Mark.’
‘Doug,’ I called, and beckoned him over. ‘Do you think your Marines could roll a buggy over? Weighs about two tons on Earth but less than eight hundred pounds here,’ I said, making a mental allowance for buggy three carrying some stores.
‘I’m sure we could,’ he said confidently.
‘Right. Get Pete to help you fire up the open buggies in the garage. Take as many men as they’ll carry. You’ll have to travel about four miles to where buggy three is located. Pete will drive it back. He’s experienced with them. Anyone can drive the open buggies with a bit of trial and error.’
‘Okay. Will do, as soon as we’ve finished here,’ Doug said.
I peered at the aerial photograph again.
‘There’s a lot of track activity between here and Asimov Rille,’ I said, pointing out the darker marks of the tracks to Bill.
‘Yes, I see.’
‘Neil, come in please,’ I said.
A slightly longer delay this time. ‘Copy, Mark.’
‘Can you check the orbiter’s most recent images of Asimov Rille, to the northeast of Moonbase? There are a lot of tracks leading that way.’
‘Copy that,’ said Neil.
‘What is the Asimov Rille?’ asked Bill. ‘Sounds interesting with a name like that.’
‘Yes, it is. Roy and I were scheduled to do some work there after we’d returned from our crater survey,’ I said. ‘There are lots of rilles on the moon. Most are collapsed and show as no more than grooves in the lunar surface, but the Asimov Rille is much smaller and appears to be intact. They’re caused by volcanic activity in the moon’s distant past. Lava once flowed out of these tunnels. They exist on both Mars and the moon and could offer readymade shelters to combine with above surface bases like Moonbase.’
‘Could they be hiding there? Surely not?’
‘It would seem unlikely, Bill, but they must be somewhere. Why didn’t they lie in wait for us? They couldn’t know about the radiation projectors.’
‘They seem very intelligent, Mark. They might have assumed we’d come up with a way of dealing with them or we wouldn’t be here. I think we should likewise assume they’d have had some plan in place.’
‘Yes, worrying. We need to keep evaluating their strategic options,’ I said.
‘How long could a rille tunnel be?’ asked Bill.
‘Could be extensive. Apollo 15 landed near Hadley Rille. It was huge, but most of it had collapsed. Some others are thought to be intact,’ I said.
Penny came over with Dave and handed me a tablet. Penny said, ‘That’s the inventory comparison with the computer’s running list of stocks, Mark.’
‘Any large discrepancies?’
‘Yes, there’re three pages of them,’ said Dave. ‘Strange that first item.’
I was shocked at the extent of the list.
The list continued into another two pages.
‘What the hell are they building?’ I asked in astonishment.
‘It couldn’t just be that the previous stocktake was wrong?’ asked Penny.
‘Well, I did the garage and main stores myself a day or so before we had to flee, so I know most of that will be correct. Why the airlock?’
‘Looks like they’re building their own base somewhere,’ Bill said. ‘They couldn’t make a ship out of that, could they?’
‘No,’ I agreed. ‘A habitat is certainly a possibility. Penny, send the list to Neil and see what he makes of it. The more I study it, the more it looks like a habitat.’
‘Mark. You copy?’ said Neil.
‘Yes, copy you.’
‘Good guess, Mark,’ said Neil. ‘There are two buggies standing at Asimov Rille and the regolith is churned up substantially at the tunnel entrance.’
‘Penny’s sending you the inventory shortages. We think they must be building a habitat. Most of the food is gone, too, so, wherever they are, they are supplied for at least three months. Much longer if they are rationing,’ I said. ‘By the way, I’ve sent the Marines to recover buggy three.’
‘Okay, copy that. We’ll look at the inventory laterally in case there is something offensive they could be doing with it. Assume you’re all keeping suits on or close?’
‘Yes, lightweight suits, Neil, except for some of the military. As soon as the Marines are back, we’ll be calling for a sleep period with four on guard,’ I said.
‘Copy that. We’re looking at that lost inventory now. How are the communications repairs progressing?’
‘Copy that, Neil. Repairs ongoing. I’ll keep you advised.’
At that moment, Penny entered the room in a state of some agitation.
‘What’s up, Penny?’ I asked.
‘NASA asked for readings from the quantum particle detector as part of catching up on missing data since Moonbase was evacuated,’ she said.
‘And?’
‘No readings were stored in the database, nor raw files. I decided to go and look at the detector and took Ivan with me. It’s gone!’
‘What do you mean, gone?’ I asked, wondering why anyone would want the particle detector.
‘It has been very carefully disassembled and removed. Not like the smashing of equipment in the com dome. This was specifically dismantled and taken away,’ she said.
‘Okay, add it to the list of missing stores and check other equipment packages outside the domes,’ I said.
‘The alpha magnetic spectrometer is also gone from the experimental platform. Including its cooling system. Very neatly dismantled,’ said Penny.
‘There are quantum and other particle detector spare parts missing too, Mark,’ said Dave. ‘They’re on the list.’
‘Yes, and both smaller spectrometers are missing from the top of the atmosdome,’ said Penny.
‘Yes, puzzling. Seems like they have a real interest in particle physics. Curiouser and curiouser,’ I said.
‘And the rille might be the rabbit hole!’ said Penny.
I turned to the others, ‘Okay. I want everyone breakfasting at seven GMT. You’ll ensure a four person guard overnight when you get back, Doug.’
‘Sure thing, Mark,’ he said, and went off to organise the expedition. We needed an enclosed buggy. Buggy three was the one Linda and I had used to escape the infected crew.
‘Andrei, can you and Chi go and have a look at your Dragonstar. Chi will be able to ascertain if it’s something we can repair in our machine shop or whether it needs more specialist equipment. Take a couple of Chinese and Russian Marines with you. Enjoy the excursion… and keep your eyes peeled,’ I said.
‘Chi wants to get over to the Ben Lei base to see whether there are any of them there and to check their stocks and equipment,’ said Andrei.
‘No, it is not a priority. It’ll have to wait until we have all the buggies back in service, so not now.’
‘She was talking about hopping over there with Dragonstar 2,’ said Andrei.
‘Yes, good idea, but not until we’re finished here and have made some progress finding the LRPs,’ I said.
‘Okay, I’ll let her know. We’ll get over to Dragonstar 5 and assess the damage,’ said Andrei and went to find the others.