Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (116 page)

“On her way back to the station in
Amos
.”

“God, that’s a long drive.”

“No kidding. Sue and I did it yesterday.”

“But why?”

“Penitence.”

“Huh?”

“She forgot to reopen the CO and O
₂
cutoff valves on
Andy
after refueling him. That’s why he wouldn’t
start.”

Gabe gasped. “What?! I’m gonna kill her!”

“No you’re not. You should have been on the radio
with her walking her through the procedure. It’s as much your fault as hers.”

Gabe hung her head.

“Be thankful you’re not in
Amos
with her.”

“But then I wouldn’t be able to nurse Ghita.”

“I know. And that’s the only reason you’re still in
here. Now, go talk to
Andy
. Get us turned around and headed for the
station. I want to be there before dark.”

She whimpered. “Okay.”

* * *

Abby met them in the suit room.
“Have a good trip?”

Jeff shrugged. “Had a long trip,
but otherwise alright. How about you?”

“I put
Amos
on autopilot and
slept about halfway down.”

“You’re not supposed to do that.”

“I was tired.”

“Keep it up and I’m going to spank
you.”

She grinned. “Promise?”

Gabe removed her helmet. “And after
he spanks you, I’m going to kill you.”

Abby took a step backwards and
looked at Jeff. “You said she’d cool off by now.”

“I may have been wrong. I don’t
suppose you got dinner started?”

“It’s Thanksgiving, what am I
supposed to cook?”

“That’s right, you screwed up
Thanksgiving too, didn’t you?”

Abby sulked for a moment. “Alright,
I screwed up. I know it, you know, everybody knows it. Hell, by now probably
everyone on Earth knows it. I’m sorry, but can you give it a rest?”

Jeff chuckled. “Okay. What say we
postpone Thanksgiving until tomorrow? In the meantime we’re hungry. How about
just making us something to eat?”

Abby nodded. “That I can do. By the
way…”

“What?”

“You got lost in those foothills
northwest of my crater, didn’t you?”

Jeff glared at her.

“Thought so.” She smiled, nodded,
and headed for the kitchen.

Friday, November 24,
2017

MSD 51153.395 (Sol
403)

Gabe opened the refrigerator and
pulled out a tray. “Um, what are these?”

Jeff smiled. “Thanksgiving dinner.”

“Okay. But what are they?”

“What do they look like?”

“Uh, little chickens.”

“Technically, Cornish game hens.”

She stared at the birds and
frowned. “Where’d they come from?”

He rolled his eyes. “While you and
Abby were out playing in the sand, I went up in the hills and did a little
hunting.”

She chuckled. “You did not.”

“They came the same way as last
year’s turkey. I brought them in while you were gone so they’d thaw.”

“Oh, okay. So, what am I supposed
to do with them?”

“Bone them, stuff them with wild
rice, and cook them.”

She frowned. “I don’t know how to
bone a chicken.”

“Cornish game hen.”

“Oh, yeah. Whatever.”

“There’s an email on the comm
server from Abby’s mother with a recipe and complete instructions that she put
together based on what we have here. There’s even a video attached that she and
Brad made that shows the whole process. Just follow the directions.”

“Okay. Ah, so this is why you had
me grow that crop of wild rice, then wouldn’t let us eat any of it.”

Jeff grinned.

“You’re devious.”

“Sometimes. And sometimes I just
plan ahead, like this.” He pulled open the freezer door and pointed.

Gabe’s jaw dropped. “A ham?!”

“Yep. Honey baked and spiral cut.
It’s for Christmas dinner, so leave it alone.”

“Yeah, okay. So what time do you
want dinner?”

“Oh, I dunno. How about… three?
That’ll give us the rest of the day to decorate for Christmas.”

“You brought the Christmas
decorations in?”

“Uh huh. They’re in the suit room,
all thawed out.”

She set the tray on the counter
turned around and hugged Jeff. “I like this time of year.”

“Yeah, me too. That’s the neat
thing about Mars – Thanksgiving and Christmas usually come twice a year.”

She grinned. “And birthdays too.”

He curled his lip and frowned. “I’m
not sure that’s a good thing. I’m getting old fast enough as it is.”

Sunday, December 10,
2017

MSD 51169.566 (Sol
419)

Susan frowned. “You’re making a
mess.”

Jeff chuckled. “Whiner.” He and
Abby had her old PLSS disassembled and laid out on the lab counter. “Abby,
there’s your problem. You punctured the primary O
₂
bottle.”

“It’s not like I meant to.”

“Wow, that must have been some kind
of impact to punch a hole in that thing. It’s stainless steel for cryin’ out
loud.”

“Well, you saw what the fall did to
my leg.”

“Your leg isn’t stainless steel.”

“Yeah, but thanks to you and Sue
now part of it is titanium.”

“Well, there you go. The
six-million dollar woman.”

She laughed. “Yeah, right. Okay, I
can understand all the O
₂
leaking out of the bottle, but why’d it
also leak out of my suit? Aren’t there backflow check valves in here?”

“No. Well, there are on the water
side, but not the O
₂
side. Only the cutoff valves on the suit that
close when the inlet and outlet hoses are pulled.”

“Design flaw.”

“Not really. If you lose pressure
in the bottle, what’s left in your suit won’t last long. And you wouldn’t be
getting any flow through the lithium hydroxide canister, so no CO
₂
scrubbing. So, what’s the point?”

“The point is, a couple more
minutes of air.”

“I doubt the designers anticipated
anything like this. Remember, most of this stuff was designed for use in space,
not on Mars.”

“You remember what space did to one
of our solar panels?”

“Yes I do. But if a micrometeor
like that hit one of us it’d probably leave a six-inch exit hole.”

Abby cringed. “Now there’s a
comforting thought.”

He chuckled. “Yeah.”

“Do you think we can repair this?”

“No. It would need to be welded,
and we don’t have any welding equipment.”

“We have silver solder.”

Jeff shook his head. “Then we’d be
looking at the possibility of bi-metallic corrosion. Besides, I’m not sure it
would hold the pressure. No, we’ll use it for spare parts if we need them,
otherwise I think it’s toast. Anyway, we still have five good PLSSs, we’re only
going to be here for another three months, and we’ve got four good I-suits on
the ship.”

Gabe stuck her head through the
hatch. “Jeff?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“A rather large video just arrived
from Chrissie. It’s entitled ‘Army-Navy’. Do you know what that’s about?”

Jeff and Abby chuckled. “Yeah, I
know what it’s about. It’s yesterday’s Army-Navy football game. And it better
be complete and uncut. Queue it up, we’ll be there in a minute.”

“Oh, okay.”

He turned back to Abby. “Is your
beer done yet?”

“Yes.”

“Is it any good?”

“Yeah, it’s actually not bad. I
think I may have overcooked the barley malt a bit, it’s kind of dark.”

“That’s okay, I like dark beer.”

“I may have also added a bit too
much hops. Gabe said it took a lot of work to grow them, so I’d better use
them.”

He chuckled. “Is it drinkable.”

“Oh yeah. Like I said, it’s not
bad.”

“Is it chilled?”

“Sure. The canister has been in the
suit room for the past week, and that’s why it’s so cold in there. I turned the
thermostat down to about 40. It wouldn’t fit in the fridge.”

“Is the canister pressurized?”

“Yeah.”

“With CO
₂
?”

“Yeah.”

“How’d you do that?”

“Suited up, hauled it and the air
pump into the airlock, opened the outer hatch, and pumped half a dozen
atmospheres into it.”

“Excellent. This planet does have
its uses. How much did you make?”

“About fifteen gallons.”

Jeff laughed. “Okay, that’ll
probably get us through at least one football game. Let’s go drink Martian beer
and watch Navy beat the hell out of Army.”

“Works for me.”

Susan glared at them. “You’re just
going to leave all this junk in here?”

Jeff nodded. “For now, yeah. It’s a
matter of priorities. Besides, you won’t care.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re gonna come drink
beer and watch football with us.”

“I am?”

“Yes, you are.”

Jeff sat back and sighed with
contentment. “Okay, 24-7 at halftime. That’ll do. And finally Navy has a place
kicker that can occasionally put the ball through the goal posts. What was it,
Abby, about four years ago?”

“Yeah.”

“What?” said Susan.

Jeff groaned. “Navy had a place
kicker that reminded me of Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoons. Most of the
time you had no idea where the ball was gonna go, if it went anywhere. Cost
them a couple games.”

Susan shrugged. “Whatever.”

“You’re not much of a football fan,
are you?”

“Not really.”

“I don’t understand. How could you
go to both Cal and Stanford, and not be a fan of college football?”

“Wasn’t my department.”

He chuckled. “You need some variety
in your life.”

“I’m a doctor of internal medicine
sitting in a tuna can on Mars watching a football game that was played on Earth
and drinking homebrewed Martian beer while my lab has been taken over by a
disassembled space suit. How much more variety is there?”

Now he laughed. “Okay, good point.
Hey, I’m hungry. It’s halftime and we need hot dogs and nachos.”

“We don’t have any hot dogs or
nachos,” said Gabe.

Jeff shook his head. “Poor
planning. Um, do we have any of that Mexican chicken and rice left?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, that’ll do. Let’s go make
some.”

Twenty minutes later they resumed
their seats with plates of hot chicken and rice. Abby shook her head. “This
stuff sure tastes a hell of a lot better here than it did in space.”

Jeff nodded. “Yeah, after a month
in space everything tasted like cardboard unless you soaked it in Tabasco, Soy,
or barbeque sauce.”

“And in about three months we get
to do it all over again.”

“Yeah, but we’ll be on our way
home. Ten months from now we’ll be back on Earth. The first thing I’m gonna do
is find a bacon cheeseburger and onion rings.”

They all laughed.

“Sue? What are you gonna do?”

“Take a long damn vacation anywhere
other than in space.”

“That sounds like a good plan.
Abby?”

“Let you take me to dinner at
Durgin Park, and eat prime rib until I can’t eat anymore.”

He chuckled. “Another good idea.
Gabe?”

She sighed. “Wean Ghita so I can
have my boobs back. By the time we get home she’s gonna have teeth. I’m not
looking forward to that.”

Jeff howled. “Okay, sounds like a
worthwhile endeavor.”

“I have a question,” said Susan.

“What?” said Gabe.

“It’s been reported that some women
have orgasms when nursing.” She looked at Gabe questioningly.

Gabe reared back and frowned at
her. “That’s kind of a personal question.”

“I’m a doctor. Asking personal
questions is what we do.”

Gabe bit her lip and glanced at
Jeff and Abby, then nodded.

“Really?”

“Uh huh.”

“Often?”

Gabe groaned. “No, just once in a
while.”

“Okay, here’s a more personal
question. Did you achieve orgasms the same way before you got pregnant?”

Gabe gasped. “What?! Are you
planning on writing a book?”

“Maybe. This is a scientific
expedition. And it’s not just about Martian rocks.”

Gabe slammed her eyes shut,
grimaced, and after a moment she opened one eye and nodded. “Yes.”

Abby raised an eyebrow and peered
at her. “Lucky you.”

Gabe grinned sheepishly, and
shrugged.

Abby glanced at Jeff.

He returned her gaze. “What?”

“Nothing. Just thinking.”

He could see her nipples beginning
to protrude beneath her sports bra. “Ahem. Yeah, right. Um, what say we watch
some more football?” And as the 3
^rd
quarter began, he reached for
the remote and turned up the volume.

Just as the 4
^th
quarter
was about to begin an alarm sounded, the hatch in the commons that led to the
utility room slammed shut, and a red light above it began flashing. They all
glanced at one another and Jeff said, “What the hell?”

“A leak?” said Abby.

They all leaped from the sofa and
ran to the main computer. Gabe brought up the environmental display, and
checked the air pressure in the utility room. “Yeah, it’s a leak alright, but
not a very big one.”

“Is the O
₂
purge
actuated in the cross-connect?” said Jeff.

“Yes. The other hatch should close
in about ten seconds.”

“How’s everything else look?”

“Fine. It’s isolated to the utility
room.”

He groaned. “Oh, fine. That’s gonna
make getting to the suit room a lot of fun.”

“Okay, there goes the other hatch.”

They all stared at the pressure display.

Gabe shook her head. “Wait a
minute, that can’t be right. Pressure has stabilized in the utility room, but
it’s still fluctuating in the cross-connect.”

“Kill the O
₂
purge to
the cross-connect,” said Jeff.

“Okay. It’s off. Pressure in the
cross-connect is now dropping. That’s where the leak is.”