Shadow Of The Moon--part two

"Scott?"

"Yes, Dad?"

"You need to change the way you're walking. You're kicking up a lot of this dust. Watch my feet for a bit. Put your feet down flat and gently. Almost like walking in snowshoes."

"Okay. Oh, yeah! I see the difference now."

"Now we all can see, period," chimed in John.

The fine mineral dust that covered the floor of the passage gradually stopped obscuring the vision of the three IR operatives, swirling instead around their calves and ankles as they walked. John kept his light at the ready, looking for the side tunnel that would lead to the spot where they could cut through to the battery chamber.

"We should be coming up on it soon. It will be on the left hand side."

Jeff and Scott played their lights around the ceiling and walls of the tunnel. It was actually quite spacious, much more so than the lava tube trail down to the waste treatment plant on Tracy Island. The floor was relatively smooth, with few bumps hidden under the dust.

"You could drive a hoverbike down here with little trouble," Scott remarked.

"Sure, Scott, if you wanted your visibility down to zero from the hover jets stirring up the moon dust and the engine clogged by it," John retorted. "Not to mention how high you'd float up and then down and then up and then down.... just like on a carousel horse."

"And then there's this....." John remarked in a different tone as he stopped suddenly. Jeff and Scott pulled up beside him and like him, played their lights around the dark abyss that had opened up at their feet.

"Look at the size of this place," Jeff admired with a low whistle. "It could fit two or three of our power house blocks and still have room to spare."

"Just imagine the kind of lava flow there had to be in order to create a chamber like this," John added, his own eyes wide in awe.

"No thanks. You can keep that vision to yourself," Scott said quickly, shaking his head. "I don't intend to go home and have nightmares about volcanic eruptions on the moon." He continued to play his light around the edges of the passage opening. "Oh, here, look! That was mighty thoughtful of them." His light revealed a metal ladder off to their left.

"And this, too," Jeff stated, shining his light upwards to illuminate a titanium spar sticking out of the wall above them with an old fashioned block and tackle attached to it. Both ends of the very modern rope that was draped over the wheel of the block were coiled up for storage and were attached to a small stalagmite close to the edge of the opening. "They must get out here quite often."

"Excellent. We're set if we have to move any injured up in stretchers. I think I put the antigravity stretcher in your pack, Father," John said, moving towards the ladder.

"That would explain why my pack is so much heavier than either of yours," Jeff quipped, following his son's lead. He held his light steady over the edge of the precipice, lighting John's long trek down the ladder. Then he motioned to Scott and did the same for his oldest son. Both of them shone their lights upward to illuminate their father's trip downward.

As he reached the floor of the chamber, he noticed that John had pulled out the map. It had been folded over to make it smaller and easier to carry and the pertinent part of the chart was on top.

"This chamber isn't even on the map. So the passage to the battery cavern must go from here, probably at this level," John explained as he pored over the chart. "I see a couple of different tunnels leading out. I wonder which one goes on to the danger zone and which one is the one we want?"

"And how can we tell?" Scott asked. "Both will be dead ends."

Jeff looked thoughtful for a moment. "I think I know how to tell. We'll use our radiation detectors. When we get to the dead end of the tunnel to the battery chamber, the radiation levels should be higher where the breakdown blocks the way. And in the tunnel we want, the radiation should be either non-existent or should increase near the thinner part of the wall."

"Sounds like a plan, Dad." John nodded inside his helmet. "In order to save time, we should split up. I'll take this passage over here," he said, pointing to a dark indentation nearly directly across from them. "You should take that one over there, Dad." John indicated one to the left of the ladder.

"Where does that leave me?" Scott asked. Both cavers looked back at him.

"Going with whoever you want," John told him.

"Ooohkay. I think I'll go with Dad," he decided, moving to follow his father down the dark tunnel. Both Scott and John pulled radiation detectors from their packs, and powered them up, getting them ready for use. Then with a final wave of the arms that held the lights, the men split up and walked further into the darkness.

Scott held the radiation detector in his left hand and guided his steps down the narrower passage with the light on his right arm. Jeff led the way, flicking his light here and there, taking the measure of the tunnel as they walked.

"Seriously, Dad, what do you and John see in caving? It seems a dull sport to me," Scott asked conversationally.

"Well, Scott, to us it provides as much of a challenge as your rock climbing does to you and Virgil. We use many of the same skills you do, just slightly different equipment. And, if you're going down into a living cave, like Mammoth Caves or Carlsbad, the beauty of it all just takes your breath away. Plus, there's something to be said about being surrounded by the warmth of Mother Earth after spending time in the vast iciness of space." Jeff explained.

Scott kept his eyes on his instrument as he listened to his father's answer. "Ah! I've got a radiation reading now. Are we anywhere near the blockage?"

Jeff left his son, who had stopped in the corridor. He moved down the tunnel a few steps and shone his light around, revealing nothing but more dark tunnel ahead. "No, Scott. We're nowhere near the end of this passage."

He called to his other son. "John, I think we're in the passage we want."

John's voice came back, tinny and low in volume. "Yeah. I found the rockfall. I'm on my way back out. But check your radiation levels. Don't they seem a bit high to you?"

Scott frowned at the scanner in his hand. Jeff came to stand beside him and studied the readings. The two men glanced at each other, concerned looks on their faces.

"Yes, John. The radiation levels are higher than either of us would have expected," Jeff replied.

"Hmm. Alan, do you read me?" John called into his mike.

"F-A-B. I've been monitoring your communications. I'm already contacting the base to see if there's been another explosion. Be with you in a moment." Alan's faint but clear voice said. John came out into the cavern where the ladder was and headed for the tunnel that Scott and Jeff had taken.

"Bad news, guys. The seismograph at Hygenus Rille registered another explosion about five minutes ago. You've got a lot less time to get those people out of there," Alan said as he returned to speak with his family members.

I knew this was going to go sour, thought John as he hurried to join Scott and Jeff. He saw a bright blue light ahead of him and turning a corner, realized that his father and brother were already cutting their way into the rock of the tunnel wall. He dropped his pack and dug out his own laser cutter and began to cut a horizontal line to meet with both of the vertical lines that the others were cutting.

Back on the Island, Virgil and Gordon listened with growing concern as they heard the news about the new explosion. Virgil paced around, absently trying to deal with his worry through movement.

"Do you think there will be anyone left to rescue?" Gordon asked, looking out a window. His question caused Virgil to stop beside him and shrug.

"I hope so. If there isn't, then those four will be blaming themselves for not moving fast enough to head off an explosion that they didn't even know was going to happen," Virgil remarked. He resumed his pacing back and forth.

Virgil turned and walked over to Brains, who sat in front of the chess board, playing against himself. "Will they be able to take the hit from the higher radiation, Brains?"

Brains sat back and regarded Virgil, concern in the blue eyes behind the blue frames. "I th-think Scott and John will; they are w-wearing IR standard issue, uh, space suits. I'm not so s-sure about your father. I-I have no idea what k-kind of, uh, space suit he's using."

"I do." The three men turned to see Grandma Tracy enter the lounge, wiping her hands on her apron. "He's wearing one that he had left over from his first mission to the moon. It was still in its protective packaging, unused, and looked just as good as it did the day it was made. Jeff asked me to attach an IR logo to it, and I did." She sat down on the couch and patted her hand on the seat as a signal for Gordon to sit next to her. He did, and she took his hand in hers.

"Well, th-that's good news, Mrs., uh, Tracy. The older sp-space suits were made to, uh, withstand large amounts of radiation, s-simply because it took longer to get, uh, anywhere in sp-space at the time. Mr. Tracy should be f- fine," Brains said, relief coloring his tone. Then he frowned. "Wh-What concerns me is this, uh, second explosion. If a second atomic b-battery is bad, there are definite p-problems with all of them. The t-team should move qu-quickly. Another battery could explode a-at any, uh, time." He got up from his chess game and joined the Tracys in the center area of the lounge.

"Not going to finish the game, Brains?" Gordon asked, a small smile on his face.

The engineer shook his head. "N-No. White will checkmate in, uh, three moves."

Virgil sighed as he paced back to the desk. I wish this rescue was finished and Thunderbird Three was on its way back home.

"Are we through?" Scott asked as he turned off his laser cutter. With the hyper-bright lasers gone, the tunnel seemed darker than ever and the efficient tungsten lights seem to do nothing to penetrate the gloom.

"Yes, I think so," John replied. "The radiation levels took a quantum leap around the cuts we just made." He put away his radiation detector. "Okay, now. Put your backs into it!"

The three men lined up on the slab they had just cut and began to push. Scott had his back to the wall, pushing with his legs. Jeff had his shoulder there, bearing down with a sideways push. John had his hands on the rock, his elbows bent so that his helmet was almost touching the cold surface. They felt the rock begin to slide in the direction that they desired.

"C'mon! Give!" Scott ground out between gritted teeth. The large piece of wall scraped alarmingly along; the trio couldn't hear it, but they could feel the shudder beneath them.

They continued to push hard, straining every muscle, until finally the slab fell over. A quiet noise moved through the thin air of the chamber beyond, but a large cloud of moon dust arose and they could feel a distinct thud beneath their feet.

The cavern that held the atomic batteries was lit with a red glow. Scott held up his radiation detector and scowled at the readings it dared to give him.

"This is getting up near the dangerous range, boys. Let's find our people and get them out pronto!"

"Spread out," John commanded. "Holler when you find someone."

Scott went to his left, flashing his light over the walls, the floors. He spared a glance for the large installation to his right. He could see which two batteries, which were adjacent to one another, had blown out. One had blown in his direction, so he followed what should have been the trajectory of the blast with his eye and found a pile of rock... with a gloved hand sticking out from under it.

"I found someone!" he hollered, and within a few minutes, his father was crouching down next to him as he tried to dig the victim from the rubble. Jeff pulled out a medical scanner and pointed it at the form, then looked at it and shook his head.

"She's dead, Scott," Jeff said sadly, putting a hand on his son's shoulder. Scott shook his head violently inside the helmet.

"We were too late." A bad sign. I knew this rescue would be trouble.

"We'll never know for sure, Scott. She may have died in the first explosion, before we were even called in."

"I've got a live one over here!" John's voice came through the helmets of the other two men. They left the body beneath the rubble and hurried over to his position. They found him leaning over a man who sat slumped against a wall far from the atomic batteries. Jeff ran the medical scanner over the man's suited form while John attached an oxygen tank to the victim's own air tanks. John motioned for Scott to continue the search.

"He's taken a good sized hit of radiation, but not a fatal one. A mild concussion. Two broken ribs and some internal bruising," Jeff called out as he read off the scanner's readings. He completed the pass down the man's body. "Broken bones in the right foot, torn ligaments in the left. This guy will be in a wheelchair for a while."

John dove into Jeff's equipment duffel and pulled out the antigravity stretcher. Unfolding it, he laid it on the floor. Between the two Tracys, the man was immobilized, covered, strapped in, and the antigravity unit was activated.

"I've got another live one!" Scott shouted, making the two other men wince as his loud voice reverberated in their helmets. John looked over at Jeff.

"I can take the stretcher out of here but I'll need Scott to help me pull it up to the tunnel that will take us back to the base. You triage whoever it is he's found," John ordered.

"F-A-B. I can stay with them until you get back," Jeff affirmed.

"Scott, as soon as Dad is tending to your victim, come out to the big cavern and help me get the antigravity stretcher up and out of here."

"F-A-B, John. Be with you in a bit," Scott replied.

John hurried to the side tunnel with the stretcher, and Jeff hefted his equipment pack and went to find Scott.

He found his oldest son kneeling by a woman crumpled on the floor. Her helmet was cracked, and Jeff immediately pulled out some sealant to smear over the small fissure. Scott had attached an oxygen bottle to the woman's air tanks, but had not opened up the valve. Now he did, flooding the woman's helmet with life-saving oxygen. Then he ran for the exit to help John, stirring up the moon dust as he went. Jeff began to run the scanner over her.

Bad concussion. Broken left forearm. Bruised ribs. Fractured hip. Spleen looks like it might rupture. Bad hit of radiation. Jeff looked up at the atomic battery housing, the pulsing red light looking as dangerous as the radiation he knew was spewing forth from the damaged power cores. He looked at his indicator tag; still green, still within a safe zone.

Make it fast, boys. This lady won't last if you don't hurry up!

Out in the large cavern, John had climbed the ladder, leaving the stretcher down on the chamber's floor, and lowering one end of the rope to Scott. Scott used a belaying device to fashion a sling from the rope, threading the rope through holes in the stretcher that were made for the purpose, creating two loops that would securely hold the man and the gurney as they were pulled up via rope and tackle. While he was waiting for Scott to finish his work, John contacted the base.

"We have at least two injured coming in. One is ready for transport and the other is being triaged," he radioed. "One confirmed fatality."

"Acknowledged. We will have medical personnel standing by."

"John, I'm ready down here," Scott said. John dropped the other end of the long rope down to his brother and they both began to pull. With the lower gravity making their burden seem lighter, the two men were able to bring the stretcher to the top lip of the passage with ease. John pulled the gurney off to one side and released the rope, sending it back down to Scott.

"I'll get this man to the base and be back as soon as I can. Give Dad a hand and look for any more survivors."

"F-A-B, John." Scott turned back towards the dark tunnel as John hurried the antigravity stretcher along towards the airlock.

Scott found Jeff kneeling beside the woman he had discovered, keeping track of her vital signs with the scanner.

"How is she?" Scott asked.

Jeff looked up at him. "Not good. I hope John returns quickly."

"I'm going to look for any more survivors," Scott said. Jeff nodded inside his helmet and handed him the scanner. He watched as Scott began to circle around the atomic battery housing, gingerly picking his way through the rubble.

A strangled, "Oh God," brought Jeff's head up from watching his charge breathe.

"What is it son?"

"A man. An older man. He's dead. His helmet's all smashed in and his face is covered with radiation burns. He must have caught one of the blasts full in the face."

"There's nothing you can do for him, Scott. Leave him and keep searching."

"You're right." And Jeff saw the figure of his son stand and move on.

By the time John returned with the antigravity stretcher, Scott had made his way back to the first body he had found.

"How many did they say were down here?" Jeff asked as he stood, stretching to get the kinks out of his knees and lower back.

"Five," John replied, strapping the woman in securely. "I found another body over there." He turned and pointed to a far corner to his right. "Let's see. Scott found one dead..."

"Make that two dead,." Scott remarked. "An older male. He was covered in radiation burns."

"Okay, Scott found two dead, I found one. Two injured," John recited. "Looks like everyone is accounted for."

"Good. Let's get out of here. My radiation tag is telling me that I've been here long enough," Jeff said. He activated the stretcher's antigravity unit. The stretcher rose slowly from the floor to waist height, then dropped back down to knee height.

"Catch it!" Scott cried as he jumped for one end. John reacted quickly and grabbed the other end, while Jeff looked at the unit beneath the stretcher proper. He snorted with disgust.

"It's gone. Probably all the moon dust we stirred up. Nasty stuff, always messing up machinery. That's why the denizens of the base vacuumed the stuff out of their main cavern; to keep everything in good working order." Jeff explained.

"Well, with the lower gravity, it won't be a chore to carry her out manually. Between the three of us we can do it. Besides I told the Hygenus Rille people to meet us at the end of the first passage. They should be there soon." John said cheerfully.

Scott shook his head. Still, it's another bad sign. But at least the rescue's almost over. We'll be back in Thunderbird Three soon and headed home. There's not much else that could go wrong.

The three men made their way to the entrance they had cut, lifting the stretcher over obstacles. As they walked out into the dark tunnel, Jeff, who was at the back of the line stopped. He shone his arm light over his chest near his shoulders, then sighed.

"Boys, I forgot my equipment duffel. I'll go get it and be right back." He turned back towards the doorway. Scott turned to look at him, feeling strangely apprehensive.

John turned around from his position at the head of the stretcher to look back at his father. He felt an uneasy knot in the pit of his stomach that he couldn't explain. "Dad, don't bother. It's okay. Leave it."

Jeff turned to grin at him. "It'll only take a minute. We've got some valuable medical equipment in that pack and I don't want to hear complaints from Brains about losing it." He turned and trotted back into the battery chamber.

Scott and John looked at each other, each surprised to see the same uneasy expression on the other's face.

"Well, we'd better get this lady to the winch and back to the base," Scott said, beginning to turn around. "Dad will catch up soon."

Suddenly there was a flash of red light, and a cloud of moon dust billowed out from the hole they had just left. Scott and John stared at it blankly for a moment until the significance of the event sunk into their minds.

"There's been another explosion!" John, eyes wide with horror, shouted into his microphone. "Dad? Where are you? What happened? Dad? Are you all right?"

Scott's face drained of color. "Oh God, no," he whispered. Then he added his shouts to John's. "Dad? Are you all right? Answer me! DAD!"

to be continued