Last Flight For Craggy (21 page)

'Will they all
be in section eleven?'

'No. Fawn. We
reuse webbing and buckles over and over. The faulty batch from
Earth was one of the last batches we got from them. We have never
had an incident like this in ten years. There was simply no reason
for us to suspect components that should exceed all specifications,
so there is no coordination of stamp-marks identification as to
where they are used. They were all mixed up.'

'This keeps
getting better and better. How many buckles were used to secure my
load?'

Moore said,
'Three hundred and sixty five.'

Dillow counted
to ten. 'I have three hundred and sixty five buckles, five of which
are potentially dangerous?'

'Potentially.
Yes.'

'Okay. What's
the batch number I have to look for?'

'B79xIA.'

'Got that.
Thanks, Jay. I have to get busy.'

'Craggy?'

'Dillow. How
are you this lovely morning, afternoon, evening or whatever it
is.'

'Evening, Moon
Base Time. Bad news.'

'Is there any
other kind? What is it now?'

Dillow said,
'Jay Moore has just told me there are probably another five of
those bad buckles on my ship. Five in three hundred and sixty five
and they could be anywhere.'

Cragg whistled.
'Don't we ever get small problems? You need help over there.'

'Music to my
ears. Are you coming over?'

'Not me. I'm
too long in the tooth for crawling along inspection ducts and
climbing in and out of all those hatches. My back's only just got
straight again. I'll send Morgan.'

'As he space
walked before?'

Cragg chuckled.
'Always a first time. I'll get him suited up. Can't wait to see his
face. Morgan? Where are you? I got a little job for you.'

'I'm here. You
need a syncoff? A beer?'

'Nope. I want
you to jump out of the ship.'

* * *

'I'll stay in
our airlock and see you are safe,' said Cragg. 'Now you have all
the spare line to tie up anything needing it. Those hand-shears
will cut it, but don't waste any.'

'Okay, I'm
ready.'

'Take a deep
breath. When you jump, go hard and aim for in front of the hatch.
Dillow. Morgan's about to come over. Open the outer airlock for
him. Okay. Morgan. Have fun.'

Morgan gritted
his teeth, fixed a line to his belt, stood on the edge of the
airlock and dived over enthusiastically to the ship, and he hit it
hard.

'Urgh!'

'Morgan. Are
you okay?'

'Urgh. I'll
live.'

Cragg snapped,
'So stop messing about and get in the damn ship.'

Morgan climbed
through the hatch and was swallowed up by Big Bird as the hatch
closed behind him. Cragg reeled in the safety line and stowed it
for later. He went back in the freighter and sat on his seat.
Finding the rogue buckles would take hours. All they could hope for
was that the buckles could be found before any more broke.

'Feeling
energetic?' Dillow asked.

'Not too bad.
Better get going, I guess.' Morgan was through the hatch into the
inspection ducting. It was cramped, and only passable on all fours.
'At least we have lights.'

They started
with section one and found no dodgy buckles. Two and three were the
same. In section four, they found one buckle.

'It hasn't
broken,' said Morgan.

'That doesn't
mean it couldn't go at any time. We leave it as is, just wrap some
line around the whole thing as a backup.'

Morgan tied off
one end and made a single loop around the building sections. He
pulled hard and tied the free end close to the suspect buckle.
'Done. Section five.'

'After you,'
said Dillow.

They spent the
next two tiring hours until they reached section ten. No more bad
buckles had been found.

'We're over
half way,' said Dillow. 'Something to eat and drink before we carry
on.'

'I could use a
break.'

'Back to the
pointy end.'

It was a basic
prepack washed down with simfruit juice. A toilet trip in the
cramped wash-room and they were ready to continue. They had a call
from Cragg before they started.

'Are you
winning?' he asked.

'We only found
one so far,' said Dillow. 'It hadn't broke, but we tied a length of
line around the load just in case.'

'How far along
are you?'

'About half
way. We'll take another look at eleven and just keep going.'

'Okay. Keep me
in the loop. Good luck.'

'Thanks,
Craggy.'

Dillow entered
the inspection duct and Morgan followed her half the length of the
ship until they reached section eleven. The line she and Cragg had
tied around it was still secure. They looked for more buckles but
found none. It was hard going in and out of hatches and the
inspection duct was draining their energy.

They still had
four buckles to find. Knowing the risks to the ship, they pushed
themselves. In section fourteen they found one bad buckle. On close
inspection, they could see it had opened up along the crack. It had
held, but only just. Again leaving it in place, they added an
additional length of line to keep the load together.

They were in
section nineteen all buckles were good. They were about to get out,
when they heard a bumping noise.

'I don't like
the sound of that,' said Morgan.

Dillow was
through the hatch first, scurrying along the duct. She stopped at
the hatch to allow Morgan to catch up to her. The sounds of banging
were louder, something crashing around the section.

'I'll go in
first,' said Morgan.

'The hell you
will. My ship, my responsibility. Give me some space.' Dillow
cracked the hatch and looked inside. 'Oil drums. A few are bouncing
around. One looks like it's split.'

'Jeez. All that
mess floating around.'

'Take care in
here.'

Dillow lowered
herself into section twenty. Three two-hundred litre plastic drums
were floating around, crashing into one another, and making an
impression on the inner shell. Fortunately, there were no breaches
that she could see. Much more bouncing with the barrels and the
hull would give in eventually. A full barrel bounced into her back.
She wasn't hurt, but it had emphasised the danger and urgency. As
soon as Morgan got down, they were grappling the barrels.

They grabbed
one of the undamaged full ones first, and mauled it back with the
dozens of others. Dillow put her body against it and Morgan wrapped
the line about it. Globs of oil were glooping all around them,
splashing into their suits, staining their helmets, making vision
difficult. Morgan wiped his visor with the back of his gloved hand,
making the smear even worse. Dillow grabbed the second full barrel,
and Morgan had to work by touch to tie it down.

It left just
the split barrel to deal with. With so much oil everywhere, it was
becoming a nightmare. Even getting a grip on the oil covered
barrel, still with over one hundred litres of oil in it, was almost
impossible. Morgan had only a small patch he could see out of his
visor with one eye.'

'Stay where you
are,' said Dillow. 'I have the barrel.'

Even in zero
gravity, the oily drum proved a challenge to manoeuvre. The drum
was almost over to the open arms of Morgan, when Dillow slipped
with the barrel on top of her, slamming her against the edge of the
tops of the secured barrels.

'God
almighty.'

'Captain
Dillow?'

'I'm hurt,
Morgan. Jeez, that hurts. No. Leave me. Secure the barrel.'

Morgan went by
touch and what little he could see of the barrel and line. It was
the last of the line and he barely had enough for the job. It
didn't look pretty, but it would get them home.

'Come on. Can
you get out of here?'

'I feel sick
with pain.'

Morgan said,
'Let me help you out.' He went through the small hatch then turned
around and held out his arms for Dillow. 'To me. You can do
this.'

Dillow kicked
against the floor and floated up to him. He grabbed her arms and
eased her into the inspection duct. Her yell of pain hurt his
ears.

'Take a minute.
Anything broken. Ribs?'

'Jeez. Not
sure. I don't think so. Hurts like hell.'

Morgan said,
'sorry, but I have to get you to your cot.'

They had to go
the full length of the ship in the narrow duct, Morgan making his
way slowly backwards, pulling the injured Dillow along after him.
Every metre of progress was excruciating agony for Dillow, and
Morgan had to ignore the yelps of pain to make headway. It took
half an hour to make it through the hatch into the flight deck. He
sealed the hatch, equalised the pressure and oxygenated the air. He
took off his own helmet and then he removed Dillow's helmet.

'I'll fetch the
first aid kit.' He found that, and took out a soluble capsule of
painkiller. 'Here. Take this.' Dillow swallowed the capsule and
Morgan got her a drink of water. 'How are you feeling?'

'Oily. Damn,
this shit stinks.'

'How's the
pain?'

'Like you
wouldn't believe.'

'Let the
painkiller work and I'll help you out of your suit.'

Dillow gasped.
'You undress me? I don't think so.'

'Just the suit
so you can lay on your cot.'

'The
painkiller's kicking in. Hurry, before I change my mind.'

It was the
first time Morgan had helped a woman out of a suit. The sharp
stabbing pains in Dillow's back were only partially reduced by the
capsule, but eventually, she was in her one piece undies.

'One last push
and you'll be on your cot.'

Dillow allowed
herself to be manhandled into the sleeping compartment with the
small cot. She lay down, writhing with the pain.

'I'd get you
another capsule, but it said only one per hour.'

'I'll be okay.
I just need to rest. Thanks, Morgan.'

He heard
Cragg's voice over the radio. 'Morgan. What's happening?'

'The good news,
we found all the buckles and made everything secure. The bad news,
is Dillow's been hurt.'

'Bloody hell.
Is she bad?'

'It could be
broken ribs. Hard to say. She's had a painkiller and is on her
cot.'

Cragg assessed
the options. 'Obviously Dillow can't fly the ship.'

'I can't land
this bird, Craggy. What do we do?'

'Leave it with
me. I'll think of something. You look after Dillow.'

Cragg called
Rocky. 'Rocky. We need you to swap over with Morgan. Dillow's hurt
and he hasn't enough experience to land that bird.'

'Think he can
handle a freighter okay?'

'I think so. We
don't have any choice. I can keep an eye on him, but you need to
get Dillow to Mars for medical attention. Now, pull along
side.'

It took twenty
minutes to catch up with Big Bird and pull along side the ship's
airlock hatch. Cragg took his freighter above the two ships to see
things hopefully go well. Rocky wasted no time in jumping over to
the hatch. Through that open airlock came Morgan. The two did an
awkward shuffle as the safety line was unhooked from Rocky, and
fastened to Morgan.

'No fooling
around with my girl, okay,' said Rocky with a laugh.

'I wouldn't
dream of it. Good luck.'

'You too, Max.
See you on Mars. Don't break my ship.'

Rocky entered
the ship through the airlock as Max Morgan pulled himself along the
safety line to join Amethyst Bouquet. Craggy only started breathing
again when both young men were safe.

'Rocky. Break
some speed records. Get Dillow to Mars. We'll see you in a few
days.'

'On our
way.'

There was a
blast from the rear thrusters and the big ship became a blue speck
in the distance. Cragg knew they were putting a lot on the
shoulders of young, inexperienced pilots.

'Gotta be an
easier way of making a living,' he told himself.

'Stella. Rocky
Ramshorn calling.' It took a few minutes of time delay to have a
conversation.

'Things are
getting interesting, by the sound of things. When do you get to
Mars?'

'Sixteen hours
at full speed.'

'How's Captain
Dillow?'

'In a lot of
pain. No blood coming out yet, though.'

'Look out for
that. Craggy's already told Mars to be ready for her. Now. You
landed that bird on a fairground ride on your first landing in her.
She can land on any flat surface. You can do this.'

'Thanks. I'm
going to get Captain Dillow another pain capsule. I'll call you
again nearer Mars.'

'I'll be
here.'

* * *

Cragg said,
'Morgan. Are you okay?'

'Yes. Amethyst
has a grip on this freighter already. Between us we'll get there.
At least it has proper controls, not those old things on your
ship.' He watched as Amethyst almost doubled up stifling her
laughter.

'Is that
right?' snorted Cragg. 'You just waggle your fingers over them
bloody sensors and get Rocky's girlfriend back to him. And
Amethyst, too.'

Craggy let the
computer do the “boring” bits. He still hadn't much respect for
computers. He couldn't see them throwing themselves off one ship to
float out in deep space on a thin line to another. They couldn't
even feel a ship and know if it was happy. People gave computers
too much credit. He got himself a beer and let himself be carried
through the empty vast ocean, thinking about Misty Rivers.

He took a slurp
of his beer. 'They'll need a crowbar to get us apart this time. I'm
on my way, Misty.'

Mars Commander
Potts had all department heads to the meeting. 'We have Big Bird
and a freighter being piloted by rookies. Ramshorn has flown the
big ship before, but it's still a big ask for him to pull this off.
On the freighter, are two out and out rookies. Max Morgan and
Amethyst Bouquet.