Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) (34 page)

“Montgomery, this is Bumblebee two, we were in route back to you and we can catch him.  We have his transponder on screen and a visual.  We are at sixty percent fuel.”

“Very well Lt. Nichols, bring Jenkins back home.  I want all EVA personnel to return to the Montgomery.  We need to talk about this and see if we can come up with any ideas.”

After everyone was back on board, Mike had the crew muster in the galley area.  Although the habitat deck that contained the galley and living quarters was too small for everyone to stand when it was spun up for centrifugal gravity, in zero gravity that was not an issue. People could hang from the walls and overhead anywhere they wanted.  “Alright everyone, listen up.  We have been here a week now, and other than getting a bunch of samples, we have not come up with a solution for the regolith.  We need some ideas.  Space Force needs a base here but it cannot be built on top of the regolith.  We need a way to tunnel down to the rocky core so that we can excavate some cavities for the future base.  So far, everything we have tried has failed.”

Specialist Johnson spoke up, “If we were able to mix the regolith into the regocrete, or the regolith based concrete using the same technique they are using on the moon, we could construct a regocrete tunnel all the way down to the core.  We need a way to hold the walls in place while the regocrete hardens.  Some type of mold to hold the mixture in position as the epoxy dried would be ideal.”

“How much of the epoxy do we have on board?” asked Mike.  “We have about one thousand gallons in four two hundred and fifty gallon tanks,” volunteered specialist Samantha Teal. “We were going to leave the tanks behind for the follow on construction mission.”

“How long does it take the regocrete to harden?” asked Lt. Nichols.

“Once you mix the regolith with the epoxy it sets up in about forty five minutes.  In two hours it is as hard as pre-stressed concrete,” answered Specialist Jenkins.

“And how thick of a wall does it need to be to hold atmospheric pressure?” asked the Lieutenant.

“Technically, an inch of thickness will hold one atmosphere with no difficulty.  The walls of the lunar bases are one foot thick to help protect the interior from micrometeorites, but they have no shortage of either the epoxy or regolith.  They have premade molds of various sizes and shapes so it is no problem for them at all.  We just do not have the molds we need,” replied Jenkins.

“Maybe we do have some molds,” said Lt Nichols.  Those tanks are about six feet in diameter.  If we took two of them, emptied them, and cut the ends off, then we would have two circular molds.  We could cut one of them into sections.  Then, we could dig out a hole and stabilize the regolith with sections of the tank bracing the sides so they do not collapse. Once we get all sides up and in place, we can mount the other mold inside of that one, pump the cavity full of the regocrete mixture, let it harden, pull off the inner mold and repeat process as we go down,” she said as she looked around triumphantly.

“That would work great,” said Hank, “for one section.  Then, you are out of molds and you only have the two.  It would not be a very deep tunnel,” he smirked at Lieutenant Nichols.  Mike winced. If the angry
hurt look she gave Hank had been changed into the equivalent energy in a laser beam, Hank would have vaporized instantly.

“Wait,” said specialist Teal. She drifted into the center of the galley as her brow crunched up in thought.  Suddenly, she brightened up. “We can do it that way, sort of.  Yes, it will work.  We have thirty-five emergency escape bubbles on board.  Each of those is six feet in diameter when it is pressurized.  We could dig down six feet temporarily stabilizing the regolith with some epoxy as we go.  Once we have the cavity,
we can inflate a bubble to hold the regolith in place.  Then, we use the pieces of the inner mold that the Lieutenant was thinking of.  The Kevlar skin of the bubble will keep the regolith pressed out.  The person in the bubble can put the inner mold up, pump the epoxy and regolith mixture in the space between the bubble wall and the mold and let it harden.  Peel off the inner mold, depressurize the bubble, cut the ends out of it, and repeat.  We should have bubbles enough to get down to the core doing that.  Bingo, we have a tunnel using your process Lieutenant.”

Everyone was talking excitedly about the prospect of building the tunnel.  Mike held up his hand to quiet everyone down. “I am sure that Alpha Control would not give approval for us to use the emergency escape bubbles as molds,” he cautioned everyone.

Specialist Jenkins spoke up, “We have thirty five escape bubbles, and each of us would only need one if we had a decompression accident. That leaves fifteen spares at about six feet diameter each, giving us ninety feet or so of tunnel.  We have found spots where the regolith is only twenty meters or sixty feet deep.  That should be enough.”

“Maybe what Alpha control does not know, will not hurt them,” Hank interrupted. “I think we should give Lt. Nichol’s idea a try, it may work and it would be a waste to come all the way here and leave without a solution.”

Everyone looked at Hank in surprise.  At first, he had tried to shoot down the Lieutenant’s idea, and now he was trying to convince them to use it.

“Let’s give it a try Colonel; if it does not work we only waste a couple of the bubbles,” said Hank.

Everyone looked at Mike in anticipation.  The escape bubbles were round Kevlar spheres about six feet across.  In case of a depressurizing compartment in a space ship, a person could grab one, shake it open, climb inside and peel the tape off the special epoxy seal at the opening of the bubble.  The epoxy in the seal dried in about five seconds after the tape was removed and then the occupant pulled the pin on a small canister that would pressurize the bubble with oxygen.  Carbon dioxide was scrubbed from the air in the bubble by a chemical in the canister as a small battery powered fan circulated the air through the canister.  They were rated to keep one person alive for at least an hour in the event of emergency decompression.  The hope was that someone could then rescue the trapped crewman before their oxygen ran out. There were thirty five of them scattered throughout the ship at easy to reach locations.

“All right,” Mike agreed.  “But we use no more than five of the bubbles until we see how it works.”

Chapter 38

March 10
th
, 2033

Mars Orbit

Colonel Mike Pierce held on to the handgrip that had been put at the opening of the shaft and looked down its seventy foot length.  It was funny how the mind worked.  If you pictured yourself looking down into the tunnel, you got vertigo and your mind thought you were going to fall.  If you changed your reference so that you imagined you were looking down a tunnel sideways you were fine.  It had taken nearly two weeks
, but using the technique cooked up by Lt. Nichols and several of the specialists, they had managed to build a regocrete shaft a little over sixty feet deep and almost six feet wide. They had finally hit the bedrock of the moon core then and had been chipping away through almost ten feet of solid rock since.  Now, sonic probes indicated that there was a cavity in the rock that was at least as wide as the shaft less than six inches away.  Scientists on Earth had long speculated that Phobos was full of such cavities as its apparent mass did not match up with its size.  Its mass was only about sixty percent of what it should be if it was solid rock.  They were now awaiting his order to break through to the cavity now.

“Jenkins, this is Colonel Pierce.  There is very little possibility that the cavity on the other side is pressurized but I want you fastened to a lanyard just in case.  It would not take much pressure to shoot you out of the shaft like a bullet from a gun.”

Jenkins laughed.  “Don’t worry sir, I have already taken one joy ride this mission and do not feel like taking another.”

Mike looked up.  Lt. Nichols was at the controls of a Bumblebee floating about fifty feet away from the shaft, just in case.  “Montgomery, this is Colonel Pierce.  We are going to break through.  Please start the telemetry feed.”

“We are standing by up here,” said Hank.  I am ready to move the Montgomery if needed.  Colonel, be aware that I can barely pick up Jenkins radio signal from here.  The regolith is apparently shielding it out.”

“Same here, I can just barely make him out,” said Lt. Nichols.

“Roger that, I have a visual on him,” said Mike. “Do it Jenkins, let’s see what is on the other side.”

Specialist Jenkins started the jackhammer back up, braced himself, and starting chipping away at the rock.  After about five
minutes, the spade broke through into empty space.  He stopped and radioed.  “I am through, no gas escaping and I cannot see a wall on the other side.  I am going to go ahead and open it up.”  He re-started the jack hammer and in about twenty minutes he had the opening almost the size of the shaft.  Securing the jackhammer, he grabbed a flashlight and pushed himself into the opening quickly disappearing into the blackness.

Mike was about to radio him to wait before entering the cavity, but was about a second too late as he saw Jenkins disappear into the cavity.  He heard a faint “Holy Shit” then nothing from Jenkin’s radio.  Mike called up to the Montgomery. “We may have a problem, Jenkins disappeared into the cavity.  I am going down to take a look.  Lt Nichols, go back to the ship and grab three more people and some rescue gear.  Then get back over here ASAP.”

Mike started down the tunnel.  At the opening of the cavity, he stopped and grabbed the handle that Jenkins had been holding on too while using the Jackhammer.  Looking into the opening, he saw nothing but blackness.  Then, he saw movement and a flashlight that looked to be about thirty meters away.  “Jenkins, can you hear me?” he radioed.

“Over here captain, I pushed through and lost my hold. I floated across over to here.  Turn on the flood light.”  Mike took hold of the miners work light that they had pre-staged, turned it on, and pushed it into the opening.  He then attached a fifty foot lanyard to his suit and the grab bar and pushed himself into the cavity. 

Lt Nichols set the Bumblebee down about ten feet from the shaft and drilled its feet into the Regolith surface.  Grabbing a five hundred foot communications line that was on a spool she started down the shaft playing the line out behind her.  She kept calling to the Colonel but got no response until she was about seven meters from the cavity opening.

“Please relay to the ship that we are ok Lt. Nichols,” she heard Colonel Pierce say. “We need to get a radio relay set up down here so we can communicate with the ship.”

“I have it right here Colonel,” she replied.  She tied the relay into place at the end of the tunnel and connected the communication line to it.  She then looked inside the hole that had been made to access the cavity.  What she saw took her breath away, and she just floated there speechless.  The Colonel floated up beside her, pulling himself in on his lanyard. 

“What are they?” she gasped.  “They are beautiful.”

“I believe they are ice crystals,” said the Colonel.  He turned and looked again at the cavern spread out before them.  They were in a large cave that was probably one hundred meters long and eighty meters wide.  The walls were covered in glittering blue and white crystals that reflected the light in a million directions.  Off in the distance, she could see other openings that led to what was apparently a series of caverns like this one.

“Water ice,” she said. “I do believe we have hit the mother lode.”

“I believe you may be right,” Colonel Pierce replied.

“Where is Jenkins?” she asked, looking around.

Jenkins waved from across the cavern where he was holding on to some of the crystals that were growing out of the rock walls.  “I am thankful that I did not come down on one of the pointy ones,” Jenkins said.  “I lost my grip and floated across over here.  I am fine.”

Mike broke his gaze from the wonder of the cavern.  “I will send some help down.  We need lots of pictures and video of th
ese caverns and we need to get some samples of the ice.  Please get someone to go get Jenkins again. It seems like he is making a habit of having to get himself rescued.”

Jenkins laughed and waved from the other side of the cavern.

“I am going back up to the ship to talk to Alpha control.  I think that what we have discovered is going to drastically speed up our plans for the base here,” Mike said.

Chapter 39

August 5
th
, 2033

Washington, DC

Brett and Jessica strolled hand in hand down the Washington Mall in the late summertime heat and humidity.  Brianna was just ahead of them splashing her heat reddened face in a fountain to cool off.   For her fifteenth birthday, Brianna had wanted to come to Washington and see the museums and monuments in the nation’s capital.  Beginning next year, all of the national museums were going to be closed and their contents sent to safe storage or to new homes in New
Washington ,south of Atlanta.  Construction there had been going on for almost fourteen years and many of the nation’s new governmental offices were complete, or nearly so.  The new national museums were also nearing completion but their beauty and pageantry paled in comparison to the old locations here in Washington DC.  The old Washington Mall with all of its monuments, cherry trees, and reflecting pools nearby just could not be reproduced.  Soon, all the museums would soon be emptied and only the empty shells of gothic architecture would remain.