Ancient Birthright (44 page)

Reedn climbed into the running tractor and studied the controls. “This looks simple enough to maneuver. Let’s move some of the equipment from the load-pod.” Dantee and Tuuan scrambled into the cab with Reedn. Each wanting to get a turn at the controls.

“Wait a minute, you three,” Saigg called.

“I’ll be real careful, Dad,” Reedn was ready to give all the reasons why driving the tractor was a good idea.

“I didn’t say you couldn’t go. It will just be more productive if you have a trailer to haul the equipment on.”

Saigg waved Beldon over to help him connect a flatbed trailer to the back of the tractor. With the hitch snapped into place, Saigg plugged in a connector that powered the load lights and trailer brakes.

“Okay, you’re ready to go. Just take it easy and make sure you don’t hit anything.”

The tractor moved off at a slow walking pace and turned toward the airlock door.

Saigg switched off his radio and pressed his helmet to Beldon’s so his voice would carry through the plastic. “That should keep them busy for a while. I was worried they’d take off in three different directions and get lost in here.” Saigg switched his radio back on. “I saw a sign on the wall near the tunnel the engineers took. Why don’t we walk over there and see if it’s a map of the facility.” It took nearly a quarter hour to reach the sign, which was indeed a map. It was not very detailed, more of a directional indicator.

“This says, ‘Power Generation and Distribution,’ and the symbol means reactor,” Saigg told Beldon as he indicated the tunnel the engineers took.

Striker’s voice came over the radio. “We’re going to take a look at the other side of the hanger.”

Striker and the two Russian girls walked across the hangar bay to explore the far side where several large bulky objects were parked.

Saigg studied the map and saw that tunnels led off from this end of the hangar bay at approximately two-hundred foot intervals. Several were larger and apparently used as supply distribution tunnels that could accommodate the largest pieces of equipment while others were only slightly wider than two of the smaller electric vehicles sitting side by side. These smaller tunnels occurred in pairs and had arrows pointing into the hanger bay or away from it, so Saigg assumed they had carried only one-way traffic.

Light swept across the two studying the map. They turned to see the tractor and trailer coming back into the hangar bay. The trailer, now heaped with equipment, had one of the casroo engineers who’d remained on the ship perched on top of the load. The tractor drove partway down the row of vehicles and stopped. The engineer hopped off the load, disconnected the hitch, and then went to stand by another trailer parked in the line of vehicles and waited for the tractor to backup so he could attach the hitch and power connector. Within minutes, the tractor headed back out of the hangar bay.

Saigg turned back to the map and found an area marked “Archives” and another “Communications.” Both sections were at the end of one of the tunnels in the middle of the wall hundreds of yards away.

“These six battery powered lights we’re carrying won’t be enough to light and mark the way to ‘Communications’ so let’s cross over and join Striker and his team,” Saigg said.

As they headed toward the lights bobbing along the far wall, bright red beacons flashed a warning. Several minutes later, the ceiling-mounted lights flickered. About fifty percent of them finally came to full brightness and lit up parts of the hangar bay. Gaps in the grid of lights showed where some of the units had failed over the millions of years of disuse. One section of fixtures had pulled out of the anchors in the ceiling rock. The glowing light strip hung down about thirty feet suspended by its power cable. It threw weird patterns up the wall and part of the ceiling.

The dark access tunnels began lighting up one after the other. Someone was obviously doing continuity checks and powering up the circuits that showed they were in proper working order.

“I wonder what the flashing red beacons mean.” said Beldon.

“I imagine they are warning beacons for loss of air pressure,” Saigg said. “The airlock!”

The two friends looked at each other and took off at an awkward running hop. If the airlock was manually opened after the power was shut down, then its controls might still be in the closed and configuration. Saigg could already see the outer airlock door sliding closed. They were too late, trapped, sealed away from the children and the safety of their PTO ships. By the time they reached the airlock, both doors had closed and sealed.

Saigg tried to open the airlock manually but the locks would not operate with the depressurization safety system trying to protect the installation and seal all openings.

“Reedn, Dantee, Tuuan are you guys all right?” Saigg called over the radio.

“Yeah, were okay. Why’d the airlock close?” Reedn asked.

“The power came on, and it closed automatically when the safety systems sensed the hangar was depressurized. I want you kids to go back into the ship and tell the others what happened. We’ll join you in a little while,” Saigg told them.

“Okay Dad, but remember we want to go with you when you go exploring,” Dantee reminded him.

“I’ll remember.”

“Dad…”

“Yeah.”

“Open the airlock soon. The extra air tanks are still in the load-pod.”

Striker and the two Russian girls, Anika and Katya, jog-hopped over to meet Saigg and Beldon at the airlock.

Saigg explained what had happened and that they were temporarily trapped until they could figure out how to open the airlock.

“Engineering team at the reactor, are you receiving me?” Saigg called on his radio. “Engineering team, please respond.”

“The rock must be blocking the signals,” Beldon offered.

Saigg glanced at the air supply indicator in his helmet, two hours of air remained. “Check your air supply.”

All were similar, two hours.

The group hurried down the row of parked vehicles.

Saigg noticed the illuminated indicator lights on the charging stations at each vehicle parking location. A few had flashing warning signals. One about two-thirds of the way down the line was shooting intermittent bursts of sparks from the battery area.

“If I read this right, the battery in this car still has a charge,” Saigg said.

The four climb on the open framework and settled in the seats with Saigg assuming the driving position. Katya climbed into Striker’s lap and settled in for the ride.

The controls amounted to a handle sticking up in a convenient position so it could be grasped by either soul in the front two seats. The control stick was about six inches tall and mounted to a solid looking block above the battery. No other switches or controls were visible.

Saigg placed his right hand around the stick but nothing happened. He tried rocking it forward and backward, still nothing. He tightened his grip and felt a slight click from something in the battery area. He slowly put forward pressure on the control stick and the vehicle silently moved forward out of its parking position. A little pressure to the left and the front wheels guided the car left. Relaxing the left pressure returned the car to a straightforward path.

Saigg headed down the tunnel the engineers had taken and followed the sparse trail of battery-powered lights. They stopped at each one and switched it off to conserve the battery charge in case they needed them in the future.

Several miles down the tunnel, they came to the first obstacle. A pressure bulkhead door had closed off the tunnel. That was when Saigg realized he hadn’t figured out how to stop their car. He eased off on the forward pressure on the control stick, and the vehicle was no longer under power but it wasn’t slowing much either. He tried a little backpressure and the car silently slowed to a stop ten feet from the massive door.

The wall-mounted indicator control panel for the pressure seal door was on the right wall. A graphic icon indicated the closed position of the door. The miniature door indicator was pulsing red on each side of the door icon. Three buttons below the door icon were marked in Common, “Open,” “Override,” and “Close.”

Beldon climbed off the car and looked at Saigg. “Press the one on the left. The tag says ‘open,’” Saigg told him. Nothing happened.

“I think this one says ‘Override,’” Beldon said.

Beldon next pressed “Override” and then “Open.” Still nothing.

“Try holding ‘Override’ while you press ‘Open,’” Saigg suggested.

The massive door vibrated and began to fold back into the wall. Beldon waited for the door to fully open then hopped back on the car, and Saigg took off down the tunnel. It took them nearly fifteen minutes to find the three-casroo engineers.

Saigg stopped the car outside of a doorway marked “Main Power Plant Control Room.” They dismounted and entered a large room with a three-story high ceiling and row after row of control panels and consoles. A metal stair climbed to a mezzanine area that contained panel after panel of video displays and analog meters. At least twenty-five percent of the video displays were blank and looked to be dead.

Saigg saw one of the engineers standing before a panel watching a series of readouts. He approached the casroo engineer. “We have an emergency situation. The airlock doors closed and we can’t get them open. The only air we have is in our tanks.”

The engineer turned his head and looked at Saigg, “We’ve got the main fusion reactor on line but all of the organic displays and some of the computer control systems are dead. It looks like they used diamond based computers and displays for critical functions and the easier-to-grow-and-replace organic ones for the ancillary systems. We’re going to have to bud and grow replacement systems for many of the peripheral controls. We should be able to read the dead databud cores and transfer the information to new systems as they mature. It will just take time.”

Saigg cut him off, “Time is one thing we don’t have. The safety system has us trapped inside the installation.”

“That might not be a problem. We were just about to bring the environmental systems back on line. It will take time to generate enough air to fill the entire installation but it looks like sections can be closed off and filled as we need them,” The engineer told Saigg.

“On our way here, we ran into one of the pressure bulkheads in the tunnel and opened it. We left it open, I hope that doesn’t cause a problem?” Saigg said.

“It shouldn’t. If it does I can close it remotely from that console,” the engineer pointed to a large console with a graphic embossed on its surface and status lights at various positions.”

Saigg and the engineer crossed to the console and studied the display. “This is the tunnel you took to get here.” The engineer traced the graphic. A status display showed the open door. The engineer pressed an actipad next to the indicated door and the door icon began to change as it slowly closed.

“There seems to be a problem with this door,” Saigg pointed to another indicator on the far side of the graphic in a tunnel that led to the hydroponic area.

“You’re right, it only closed half way and is indicating there is a malfunction,” the engineer said.

“Beldon, Striker and I will go see if it’s something simple to fix. We’ll leave Anika and Katya here to give you a hand. Just tell them what you need. They have a good background in Earth electronic and mechanical systems.”

Saigg touched the console and reopened the door they had just closed. “Have someone watch this indicator.” Saigg pointed to the door with the malfunction. “The radios don’t work through all the shielding and rock. If we can fix the door we’ll close it, and you will see it on the console.”

The girls must have heard the conversations over their radios. Anika moved over to watch the door control panel, and Katya asked, “What do you need me to do?”

Saigg, Beldon and Striker returned to the electric vehicle. Beldon took the driver’s position this time. A few minutes later, he had the feel of the control and its operation.

The three on the car zipped down the tunnel and soon passed through the pressure bulkhead with its retracted door.

They crossed the hangar and entered a tunnel on the far side that was marked with a sign for Hydroponics. “Did that sign say ‘Water Plants Field?’” Beldon asked.

“Close, it said ‘Hydroponic Garden,’” Saigg told him.

Ten minutes of driving brought them to the pressure bulkhead in that tunnel.

The partly closed door was jammed on a large rock that had fallen from the ceiling. Beyond the door was a mound of debris that had broken loose of the ceiling in the millions of years the installation was unoccupied.

Saigg climbed from the car and used the control panel to retract the jammed door. As it returned to the open position, Beldon and Striker removed the fallen rock that was about the size of a riding lawn mower. The one-sixth gravity of the Moon permitted them to lift the rock and carry it to the heap of fallen rubble. They returned and helped Saigg clear the crumbled stone and sand from the pressure-door seal area.

Saigg pressed the “Close” button and watched as the door slid out of the wall and sealed to the frame on the opposite side. The Indicator showed a good closure and that there was no pressure in either side of the door.

Striker jumped into the driver’s position this time and turned the vehicle around to head back to the hangar. “Before we go back to the control room, I want to show you guys what we found by the far wall of the hangar.”

Saigg’s eyes snapped to his air supply indicator, less than an hour left. It wouldn’t matter if they returned to the control room they wouldn’t make it in time.

Striker pushed the car to its maximum speed and headed to the bulky machines parked along the wall. He braked to a stop next to the first object. “Saigg, do you have any idea what these are?”

Saigg stepped off the car and examined one of the machines. It was an elongated triangular shape with an oval cross section. The exterior was smooth without evidence of opening or hatch. From wide end to rounded point, it was almost sixty-feet long and close to forty-feet from side to side. The flattened oval cross section would make it twenty to twenty-five feet tall at the center and sloping down to around four feet at the edges. “I don’t know what they are. They look like they could be craft meant to enter an atmosphere. They have the shape and configuration of something that would provide aerodynamic lift. I wonder if they’re the equivalent of the
Endeavour
, an interplanetary shuttle.”