Colonel Doug Baker and his Marines entered the garage dome. Pete Hazel, who had previously had a gig at Moonbase, went straight over to the two open buggies and began routine checks to ensure they were ready for the trip to recover buggy three.
‘How many will they hold, Pete?’ asked Doug.
‘You’re restricted to three on the Apollo buggy, but the other one could hold four or five if we drive carefully.’
‘Okay. Dave, you, Gillian and Vicky on the Apollo buggy. Danny, you and John with me and Pete on the other one. Get properly suited. Full gear and grab a couple of projectors. Check they’re fully charged,’ said Doug.
‘Both buggies ready to go,’ said Pete.
‘Show Gillian how to use the Apollo.’
About thirty minutes later, the door was open, and Pete watched as Gillian tentatively guided the Apollo buggy through the doors. It waited outside while Vicky positioned herself on the small floor area behind the two seats.
Pete drove the larger Moonbase buggy out of the garage. There was no problem getting three passengers on board.
‘Computer,’ Pete said over the radio, ‘close the garage doors.’
‘Garage dome doors closing, Pete.’
Pete kept his buggy behind and to one side of Gillian’s as they made their way towards the more remote Dragonstar take-off location. Over to the right they could see Andrei’s team walking towards the fleet of Dragonstars. Number five stood at a rakish angle on the surface.
‘My goodness, it didn’t miss number two by much. Will they be able to fix it, Pete?’ asked Doug.
‘What, Dragonstar 5’s legs? Possibly. It depends whether we can rebuild the leg in the garage, then it will just be a matter of lifting it upright. Once we’ve sorted buggy three, we can attach the Moonbase Canadarm to it and use that for leverage.’
‘I’m amazed how well organised you are here, Pete.’
‘When you’re a quarter of a million miles from the nearest service station, it pays to have a well-equipped workshop.’
The two buggies gradually covered the distance to the original Dragonstar launch site. Both of the open machines were labouring under the unusual amount of weight they were carrying with the extra passengers.
Soon, in the distance, buggy three could be seen. It was lying on its side with the door open and facing upwards. That wasn’t good. Dust would possibly have been thrown into the cabin from the Dragonstar lift-off.
Once they were twenty metres from the machine, Doug called a halt and asked two of the Marines to approach the buggy, sweeping their irradiation from side to side across the regolith.
‘Okay, now walk all the way around it, irradiating it. Don’t miss any areas,’ said Doug.
A few minutes later, ‘Done, sir.’
‘John, climb onto it. Irradiate the entrance thoroughly.’
The suited figure jumped onto one of the wheels, took hold of a stanchion and hauled himself onto the top. He sat astride the main body and irradiated the entrance, the door and the visible part of the cabin.
‘Done, sir. Shall I enter?’
‘Vicky, join John on top of the machine. Then you can enter with John and do a full sweep of the interior,’ said Doug.
The suited figure was seen to lower himself into the interior with Vicky peering inside after him. They heard John say, ‘Computer. Interior lights please.’
‘Lights on inside,’ said Vicky.
Suddenly, there was a shout from John. ‘Bugs, we’ve got bugs in here!’
‘Get inside, Vicky, and irradiate John,’ said Doug, and the second figure disappeared from view.
A minute later, John reported, ‘All clear, sir. Four dead bugs.’
‘We’ve irradiated the entire interior three times, sir,’ said Vicky.
‘Okay. We’re coming in,’ said Doug and the other Marines approached the fallen buggy.
‘Damaged wheel,’ said Pete.
‘Will it stop us using it?’ asked Doug.
‘No. It’ll get us back to Moonbase and we can change the wheel there. No damage to the axle.’
Doug and Pete climbed onto the body of the buggy and lowered themselves into the interior.
Everything was disarranged, of course. The seats in the front section were sideways on and anything loose on the port side of the vehicle had fallen onto the temporary floor which was the starboard interior wall.
‘Where are they?’ asked Doug.
‘Here,’ said Vicky, passing him a food bowl.
In the bottom lay four of the LRPs, gradually fading from clear gel to cloudy after death.
‘Give me that projector,’ said Doug, and John handed over his weapon.
Doug irradiated the inside of the bowl from above, for at least a minute, then handed the projector back. ‘Where were they?’ he asked, looking up at the hatchway and port wall which was currently the ceiling.
‘As I dropped into the buggy, I saw one fall onto my right arm and another onto my faceplate. The one on my arm tried to get through the glove seal. I irradiated it and it fell off me. As Vicky dropped in, I saw another drop onto her and we irradiated each other,’ said John.
‘So, they were hiding?’ asked Pete.
‘Andrei, are you hearing this?’ asked Doug.
‘Yes, Doug. We’ve just completed irradiating Dragonstar 5. Seemed sensible after hearing what you encountered over there. All clear here and no sign of any LRPs,’ said Andrei.
‘And is the damage repairable?’ asked Pete.
‘Looks possible,’ said Chi. ‘One leg is a wreck, but there doesn’t appear to be any damage to the jets or integrity of the craft. We can build a new leg. Once that’s done, we’ll need to find out why Andrei lost a descent jet.’
‘That won’t be so easy,’ said Andrei. ‘We’re heading back with the broken leg and landing plate after we’ve checked each of the other Dragonstars and set a couple of traps for our friends. Just simple bits of tape to show whether doors have been opened.’
‘Yes, good idea, Andrei. Especially so as we are now certain they’re trying to attack us,’ said Doug. ‘Great care when you get back to Moonbase. No hitchhikers!’
‘Damn right,’ said Andrei.
‘Okay,’ said Doug. ‘Everyone out of here. Let’s see if we can roll this thing over. John, last one out shut the hatch. If it rolls too far, we don’t want it to be damaged.’
Soon, all seven were standing on the surface, looking towards the top of buggy three.
‘Right,’ said Doug. ‘Take a firm hold then wait for my command on four.’
The Marines astronauts planted their feet firmly in regolith and gripped their designated lifting points – mainly parts of the starboard roof rack structure.
‘One, two, three, lift!’
The buggy, in moon’s one-sixth gravity, rose remarkably quickly. After it reached about thirty degrees, the Marines could not lift it further until they changed holding points. Three were able to keep it in position. The other four took hold of rails along the line where the cabin joined the chassis.
‘Firm hold, you four?’ asked Doug. There were several affirmatives. ‘The rest of you, take your new handholds and, on four – one, two, three, lift!’
The buggy passed its centre of gravity and swung upright, then began to fall to port, before rebounding. The motion dampers came into play and it was upright and motionless in just a few seconds.
Pete climbed the ladder to the hatch and climbed inside. He sat in the left commander’s seat and said, ‘Cavor, how much power remaining? Full systems check, also.’
‘Certainly, Pete,’ said the buggy’s computer. ‘Power is at twenty per cent. Systems check underway.’
‘Doug, we’ve plenty of power to get us back to Moonbase. Suggest four of you join me leaving one on each open buggy,’ said Pete.
‘How about that damaged wheel, Pete?’ asked Doug.
‘Shouldn’t cause a problem. We can change it back at Moonbase. Benefit of having six wheels.’
‘Moonbase, Doug calling.’
There was a short delay before Anna replied, ‘Yes, Doug.’
‘We’re on our way back.’
‘Great. Full irradiation of everything before you open the garage door. Same with your group, Andrei,’ said Anna.
‘Copy that, Anna. We’ll be on our way shortly,’ said Andrei.
Anna looked at me and said, ‘Everything seems to be going rather too well.’
‘Yes,’ I agreed. ‘Let’s keep alert. Still can’t figure why we didn’t find a reception committee. Even more so now that we know some were waiting in buggy three.’
‘One buggy safely recovered,’ said Doug when he found me in the common room. ‘The offside rear wheel was damaged, and Pete is showing the Marines how to change it.’
‘Well done. How did it go?’ I asked.
‘Those open buggies are fun when they’re not overloaded. I drove one back on my own. Brilliant. They do a fair lick.’
I laughed. ‘Yes, over thirty mph. The Apollo buggy a little less,’ I said.
‘The buggy was easier to turn over than we expected,’ said Doug. ‘The batteries, tools and chassis are quite heavy, so the centre of gravity was low. The suspension also allowed seven of us to lift the main body. Once it reached about sixty degrees, the whole thing just sprang into the upright position.’
‘Yes, good design.’
‘Here’s the dead LRPs,’ Doug said, handing over a sampler containing the milky white slug-like pieces of gel. At least it proves the projectors work.’
‘Yes, good we were prepared. I think you should all get some sleep now. I’m calling an eight hour rest period as soon as Andrei’s back. You’ll set up a guard? One person in each area.’
‘Yes, will do, Mark. How will the infected be dealing with supplies of water and air?’
‘Water can be extracted from the regolith in deeper craters. As they have taken the spare water extractor that won’t be a problem for them. They took a quantity of air and can make oxygen out of the regolith too,’ I said.
‘They’re better equipped than I expected. Buggy three had a lot of dust in it. I’ve got three guys vacuuming right now. I’ll call Andrei and get him to leave the leg outside and come in through the EVA dome to save disturbing the work in the garage.’
‘Can’t help thinking they must be planning something. Strange none of them were in Moonbase,’ I said.
It was almost two hours later that Andrei’s team returned to the safety of Moonbase and the rest period could begin.
So far, there had been no sign of the LRPs. A CT scan had shown that Blake’s body was not infected, confirming that they could escape after death.
What trap were they laying for us at Asimov Rille?
Whatever it was, we’d find out tomorrow.