Last Flight For Craggy (27 page)

'Fine. That I
understand,' said Cragg. 'Me telling stories to keep the troops
amused, completely sober; that request I don't get.'

'They're on
edge. Just a couple of days until Moon. Most of them have never
flown in space before. Kids born on Mars, like that girl Roswell.
Do it for Roswell.'

Cragg sighed.
'Okay. The observation deck?'

'An hour from
now. Thanks, Craggy.'

* * *

Dillow called
for order and got it. 'Okay. Listen up. You've all got to know
Captain Dixon Cragg. This man is a legend. Commanders like me teach
the technical aspects of flying a ship. Captain Cragg shows how to
become one with your ship. Never underestimate the importance of
that. Captain Cragg.'

Cragg gave a
self conscious wave to the assembly. 'In a short while, we are
going to land this bus...ship.' He looked at Dillow. 'You? Captain
Ramshorn?'

'Joint
effort.'

'Right. Even
better. I could do it if you want?' There was a slightly nervous
murmur. 'Relax. I'm joking.' There was a collective sigh of relief.
'Commanders Dillow and Ramshorn are two of the best. Things are so
much more ...reliable these days. I hope. Not like when I was a
hapless young buck of a pilot.' At a nod to Amethyst Ramshorn, the
lights dimmed, apart from one which illuminated Cragg's face. 'Did
I ever tell you of the time I flew a freighter with a dead man for
company? Well...'

'Craggy,'
Dillow whispered. 'I'm trying to unwind them, not have them
checking under their cots for boogie men.'

'Trust me. I
never told you how it ended. Right. There we were, on the Moon Mars
run, Big Billy Croxford was my captain. I was just a rookie, making
the syncoff, doing the laundry. We were about half way, when Big
Billy suddenly clutches his chest. Heart attack. His eyes rolled in
his head and he gurgled something, fell over and died.' He paused
for dramatic affect. All eyes were on him. 'So. I did what I
thought best and asked Moon what I should do. Can I throw him out
the airlock, I asked.'

Cries of, 'Oh,
jeez.'

'Can you
believe they said no? So I was stuck with him for the rest of the
flight. Anyone smelled a dead body? No? Nor me until then. Two days
later, he was starting to smell worse than that curried fish we had
not long ago.'

'What did you
do?' Roswell Strange asked.

'The only thing
I could do. Put his suit on, to seal the stench in.'

'Yuck,
gross.'

'Don't look at
me in that tone of voice you lot. You weren't there smelling it. Of
course, it was a bit of a struggle squeezing him in his suit, but
eventually I had his helmet on and job done. Now, the thing about
Big Billy was, he never really taught me how to fly the bloody
ship. The radio was down on Moon and I had to teach myself to fly
the damn freighter. I was halfway to Venus by the time I'd figured
it out. It was two days later, I was alone on the flight deck,
lights dimmed, not unlike this. When I heard behind
me...footsteps.'

Another pause
and the young men acted tough and held the girls to comfort them.
Cragg could hear them breathing. He continued, low and soft.

'The footsteps
were coming closer behind me, closer, closer.' Cragg could feel
Dillow's eyes burning into him. Don't spook the troops. 'I could
hear this peculiar, rasping breathing. I was like a statue,
petrified out of my wits. Slowly, so slowly, I turned to face my
worse nightmare. Then...I heard it speak. “Bloody Cragg. What did
you do?” I think I peed myself. I turned around and there he stood.
Big Billy Croxford. The big tub of fat hadn't died, after all.'

'You rotter,'
said Dillow.

'I know. So let
that be a lesson to all of you. Never be in too much of a hurry to
throw somebody out of the airlock. Sleep tight, everybody.'

Jay Moore and
Roy Tasker were sitting next to Dillow and Rocky Ramshorn.

Dillow asked,
'Just how close do you want us to land to the launcher?'

'Within one
mile of it,' said Tasker. 'And the flatter the better. That good
for you, Jay?'

'I want the
starboard side of the ship facing the launcher,' said Moore.

'Right,' said
Rocky Ramshorn. 'One last orbit and down we go. Stay buckled up,
people.' Rocky took the huge ship for a slow spin around the block.
'Going down...and...welcome to Moon, everyone.'

'See, Roswell?'
said Cragg. 'Nothing to it. Are you okay?'

'Fine. Thanks
for staying with me.'

'Happy to. Now
you be careful out there.'

'Aren't you
coming out?'

Cragg shook his
head. 'Maybe later. I'll only be in the way. You all have a whole
heap of work to do.'

Roswell and the rest of the crew made
their way to the airlock. Cragg found himself sitting alone,
wondering why he was there. Why he was
really
there.

He was missing
Misty. He should be with her. He closed his eyes and felt the ship.
He felt the airlock doors open. He felt the heavy gear being driven
out the open sections. Not anything disrespectful to the ship. Just
professionals doing what they had to do to get the job done. It
took nine and a half minutes to get all the gear out on Moon's
cold, unforgiving grey surface. The airlock doors closed up and a
silence swept through the Big Bird, and Cragg let it wash over him.
He was a long way from home.

Mars Commander
Potts said, 'Just how long do we need to have the mine standing
idle?'

Hellicoyle
stood shoulder to shoulder with Berry. They were prepared for
Potts' hard line.

'That artefact
might just be the most important thing ever discovered,' said
Hellicoyle. 'It's that big.'

'That wasn't
any sort of an answer.'

Berry said,
'It's the only one we can give you, Tagg. Look. The first point of
interest is just one mile in. For some reason as yet unknown, the
probe we sent down just stopped sending pictures. Like, one second
perfect, next, nothing. Maybe when we reach that point, we'll know
what we have to do next.'

Potts
considered the situation. 'I'll deploy Singh and his team to other
mines. You two have two days. You're now wasting your time and
mine. Go.'

'We'll let you
know how we get on,' said Berry.

* * *

'We follow the
roboprobe,' said Hellicoyle to Peggy Cramer. 'You lose the signal,
you tell us, okay?'

'Have fun.'

'After you,'
said Berry.

Hellicoyle
didn't argue. Cramer had the roboprobe scurrying along the small
tunnel with the two suited geologists on all fours, scrambling
behind it.

'Hey, Peggy.
Slow the damn thing down, will you?'

The probe
slowed down. They had a mile to go.

Christopher
Crossman took off his helmet. He'd left his team at their last site
on the tiny moon.

'We need a
mole.'

'We never
brought one with us,' said Max Morgan.

'No shit? We
were only doing a surface survey for the benefit of a couple of
rookies, but I think I might have found something worth looking at,
but to do that I need a mini mole. I need to go get one.'

Morgan thumbed
towards a seat. 'Buckle up.'

It was a hop,
skip and a short jump from Phobos to Mars. Shamini Singh had a
mini-mole and a case waiting for them.

'What's in the
case?' asked Crossman.

'Don't worry
about it,' said Morgan. 'You got what you wanted, I got what I
want.'

'I hope that
isn't booze.'

'Don't worry
about it,' repeated Morgan.

'Listen,
cowboy. I'm not going anywhere with a boozed up pilot.'

Morgan said,
'Fine by me. Go get yourself a new pilot. And good luck with that.'
He picked up the case of beer and started to walk away.

'Hey.'

'Hey,
yourself.'

'Okay. Take
your beer with us.'

Morgan paused.
'I don't fly drunk. Never. I've just had a gut full of
syncoff.'

Crossman
grinned. 'You and me both. You're okay, kid.'

It took the two
of them to heave the mole in through the airlock. Both knew it was
risky carrying it unsecured. Morgan backed himself to fly straight
and land soft. He had the beer on a spare seat next to him. He was
back on Phobos and helping to unload the mole within three
hours.

'You found
something interesting?'

Crossman patted
the mole. 'I'll soon know. Easy on the beer, kid.'

'The roboprobe
stopped signalling. Nothing this end,' said Cramer.

Berry and
Hellicoyle were finding it hard work crawling along the tunnel.

'Bring it back
until we get the signal back and stop it,' said Berry.

'Bringing it
back,' said Cramer. 'And we have the signal.'

'I see it,'
said Hellicoyle. 'I see the probe.'

Hellicoyle
passed by the probe. Its light was shining brightly. The
geologist's helmet light shone brightly, too.

'See anything?'
Berry asked.

'Just tunnel
and...' The helmet light went out. 'And nothing.'

'Nothing?'

'Nothing. And
lots of it.'

Berry wriggled
up and hit a brick wall. Actually, it was Hellicoyle's backside.
'Move over, will you?'

'One of us
could do with losing a little weight, and I don't mean me.'

Berry turned
around and looked back down the tunnel the way he'd crawled along.
'Tunnel that way,' he turned back, 'Not so much this way.'

'Told you.'

'Yes. But have
you actually moved into it?'

Hellicoyle
looked Berry in the eyes, which nearly blinded the man with the
helmet lamp. 'Moved into nothing?'

'You keep
saying it's nothing. How can you tell unless you go into it?'

'Why me?' said
Hellicoyle. 'You go into it. Be my guest.'

Berry said,
'Look. There can't be nothing. I mean, the probe went in, then back
again.'

'So you
go.'

Berry reached
forward, his hand sliding cautiously towards the empty space in
front of him. He found it too disconcerting to be able to see his
arm clearly, then it seemed to vanish. In, gone, out, back
again.

'We need a
brighter light.'

'Like that'll
do it.'

Berry said,
'You got a better idea?'

'Peggy? You
hear me?'

'I hear
you.'

'We need a
really powerful light in here. Anything come to mind?'

'An argon
lamp?'

'Perfect. But
hurry.'

Max Morgan
sipped the Martian beer. He was much happier sitting in the
freighter, a nice view of the Red Planet, sipping beer. He had
finished off two and fallen fast asleep. Now he was warm and
comfortable, leaving the others to break rocks. He gave little
thought as to what Chris Crossman and his team had discovered. He
may have been more interested had he been with them. The mole was
burrowing through a dense layer of rock.

The two rookies
with them stood awkwardly to one side, trying not to look
completely superfluous. It had been one of them who had noticed an
unusual rock structure and had nervously asked Crossman what it
could be. Crossman didn't have an answer but agreed it was out of
place. He had praised the rookie for noticing it and decided they
would investigate while they were on that tiny moon. Suddenly,
there was no resistance to the mole's industrial diamond covered
cone as it chewed its way through.

'Reverse the
mole,' said Crossman. Carl Richter, Crossman's deputy, pulled the
lever backwards and the machine reversed out of the rock. With the
mole out of their way, they could look along the length of the
opening for about fifty yards, then the tunnel abruptly ended into
inky blackness.

'Is that a
tunnel?'

Crossman said,
'It can't be. I've been a geologist on Mars for the last seventeen
years. There has been no excavation on this moon in that time.' He
shined his torch into the hole but after illuminating the walls of
the perfectly formed tunnel, the light disappeared. 'How can that
be?'

Richter said,
'Everyone. Shine your torches in there together.'

Four powerful
beams were shone into the tunnel as one. All the light vanished as
it reached the end of the tunnel.

'That,' said
Crossman, 'Is impossible.'

'It isn't
natural, that's for sure,' said Richter.

* * *

It took an
agonising twenty minutes for Peggy Cramer to return with an argon
lamp. She sent it along on the robo probe.

'Use your sun
visor, Felix,' said Berry, before he turned on the blinding white
light. At least it was blinding in the tunnel, before it vanished
into the blackness. 'That is impossible.'

'No it isn't
impossible.'

'Don't say it,
Felix,'said Berry.

'Black
hole.'

Berry said, 'I
said not to say it. Anyway. It can't be a black hole. If it were,
we wouldn't be and neither would Mars.'

'Okay. A black
hole, but not as we know it. The probe came back easily enough.
Like you inferred. If it were a true black hole, it wouldn't have
been possible.'

'A man made
black hole?'

Hellicoyle shook his head. 'No. Not
man
made.'

It wasn't until
the third day that Dillow, Cragg, Rocky and Amethyst suited up and
stepped out of Big Bird. There was a monumental work effort going
on. Cragg wondered which one was Roswell Strange. They were using
the low gravity almost as a tool. Clambering over the launcher like
a family of monkeys, tremendous progress had already been made. As
each piece of the launcher was dissected, Jay Moore was just as
efficiently organising the packing and stacking as she called it.
Cragg also wondered if Moore's almost catastrophic experience with
faulty webbing buckles on that very ship was preying on her mind.
He hoped not.