First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (24 page)

"We
must consult mission control. I do not think I can operate," the
doctor replied.

Mario
sighed. "Great. Well, the commander iced it and got it back in
the socket, so that's a plus," he said. Once the adrenalin had
worn off he'd really felt the damn thing. Doctor Han nodded. Wanda
pinched Mario's flank.

"Owe!
What was that for?" He rubbed his side.

"She's
just trying to help grumpy," she said firmly. She sat down next
to him and hugged his left side.

He
winced. "Yeah, your right. Sorry doc." He looked at Yung
Lin and nodded a bow to her.

Doctor
Han nodded. "We have sent the images to flight control. The
flight surgeon is looking them over now. I do not see any pinched
nerves or blood vessels though." She looked up at him.

"That's
good news," the commander sighed. "You're definitely going
to be restricted to the hab until it is healed though Mario."

Mario
grunted at that news. It was to be expected but still annoying. Then
again, getting in and out of his skin suit in this condition... No,
come to think of it, being grounded wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"Oh
that' just peachy. You have any idea how hard it is to keep him
bottled up? He goes stir crazy," Wanda sighed shaking her head.

"Well,
I can think of other ways to occupy my time..." he teased her
with a slight leer.

She
blushed. "Later hero." She smiled at Doctor Han then back
to Mario. "If you get a clean bill of health." She dimpled
when he growled.

 ...*...*...*...*...

"That
was a little close Mario," Wanda sighed as she hugged him later
that evening.

"So
I go bald a little early. No biggy." He smiled as he hugged her
back.

She
pinched his side. "Owe!" He tried to dodge her fingers but
she latched on tight.

"All
right I give! It was scary okay?" he admitted. She smiled and
let go. "It would have been even scarier for you. Bald doesn't
suit a girl," he said dryly. She hugged him tighter.

"Hmmm,
I wonder what you would look like? Maybe Sinead O'Connor? Care to
find out?" he teased her. She retaliated by tickling him
unmercifully. He giggled, trying to twist away. It devolved into a
wrestling match for a time. Finally he managed to pin her arms to his
chest with his good arm.

"There.
Finally. Claws are contained," he said. He kissed her fingers.

She
dimpled. "You bald is a bit hard to take," she murmured
relaxing against him. His left arm let go and wrapped around her
waist, pinning her arms to his chest.

"So
I look more like my name sake," he shrugged.

"What
super Mario?" she asked wrinkling her nose. He chuckled.

"You
don't think they aren't bald? Why do you think they wear the caps?"
he asked.

She
chuckled with him. "Careful or Nintendo will sue you for libel.”

He
grinned. "No way, they are even making a game about us."

She
looked at him. "You’re kidding?"

He
chuckled. "Nope."

She
sighed. "Great."

He
kissed her. "Don't worry; you'll always be my princess."

She
smiled, completely floored. She never got over that, how he said that
to her. "I'd better be," she growled. He laughed.

Building the base:

"Tess,
I need to do something I need to get out of here," Mario
grumped. Wanda had been completely correct in her assessment. He was
going stir crazy and it had been only one day. Tinkering with the
Reprap only got him so far; the long prints forced him to look
elsewhere for entertainment.

She
frowned arms crossed. "No way are you going outside."

He
sighed. "I need to do something. I want to set the brick maker
up. That damn solar flare gave me the heebie jeebies," he said
firmly. Which was true, but not his only reason. This injury had
mucked up their long range plans a bit.

She
shook her head. "Heebie what?"

He
smiled. "The willies. The worries. I want to do something. Make
something. I'm going nuts here staring at round walls," he
explained with enough exasperation in his voice to make her wince.
She sighed; she could of course understand his dilemma.

"Okay,
I have a better idea. You take care of my diagnostic checks in here,
and I will go out and check the brick maker over and see if I can set
it up," she said.

He
sighed. "Okay, I can live with that," he said. She nodded.
"The manual has the set up process. It is pretty straight
forward for the extruder; the kiln is a bit of a different story."

She
frowned. "Kiln?"

He
nodded. "An oven. It bakes the bricks so we can use them. It
draws heat and power from the reactor. Spits out water for recycling
too," he explained. She nodded looking over the manual he had.

"Okay,
that may have to wait for a different day; I will need to read over
the directions a few times."

He
nodded. "Okay." She left. He busied himself with cleaning
the habs and checking over the systems. He noted her leaving the
airlock an hour later.

"I'm
outside, heading to the package. Hopefully the flare did nothing to
the electronics," Tess said over the intercom. Mario sighed and
crossed his fingers... "Da." He watched as she pulled out
the contraption. "Nice and simple," she said. She looked it
over. "Power feed, controls, water line... Is this for the
soil?" She pointed to the top.

"Yup.
The one on the side is for the output," he replied, checking her
camera feed.

She
nodded. "Okay, I think I can handle this. It would be better to
have more soil going into it; one shovel load at a time is slow."
She looked it over.

"Maybe
if we scavenge some panels from the wrecked MAV we can make a
chute..." he suggested.

She
looked it over. "Later."

He
chuckled. "So the four of you were in the storm shelters
together during the flare?"

She
shook her head. "No, the Hans took the number one shelter, Wanda
and I took the number two. It made it much less crowded." She
grunted as she pulled out a power cable then trudged to the nearest
reactor. "It was much easier, though Wanda complained about not
being out with you."

Mario
chuckled. "We were fine."

Tess
laughed. "Not exactly. But that wasn't her main concern; she
wanted to see the gully."

He
smiled wryly. Yeah, that's Wanda for you. Typical geology princess,
he thought. "Yeah, that's my girl." He shook his head
wryly. "I never could measure up when she started making goo goo
eyes at a rock."

Tess
chuckled as she plugged the power line in. "Okay, just the water
line and we are set. You'll have to wait to test it; I don't think
the dirt here will work." She scuffed her boot.

"No,
we need finer material. Clay like," he explained. She waved her
hand.

"Were
we going to find that?" she asked as she ran a hose out.

Mario
smiled. That base fortunately had already been covered. "Li
found it already. About point two clicks south west of here."

She
grunted. "Good to know." She hooked the hose up and looked
it over. "I don't want to waste water doing a test so you'll
have to wait on that." She looked the cables over.

"So
now what?" she finally asked. She stood arms on her hips facing
the camera. "I know this wasn't all you wanted to do."

He
chuckled. "You know me so well. Yeah, I wanted to do some
digging." He waved to her from the porthole with his left hand.
"See that low spot where we did the test dig? I wanted to take
the spare rover and try to widen and deepen the trench," he
explained.

She
looked at it. "Well, if we took samples and documented things I
guess we won’t get too much flack."

He
sighed. "Yeah." That part he hadn't planned on. Like the
damn shoulder.

She
climbed into the open rover and turned it on. She raised and lowered
the blade on the front, then raised it again. "Okay here goes,"
she said trundling to the trench. She went to work.

...*...*...*...*...

"Traded
shifts with Tess Mario?" the commander asked as he looked them
over.

Mario
flicked his left arm dismissively. "Well, Li and Wanda were out
and about with you, and Doc Han was in the lab, so, yeah." He
sat down next to Wanda. "Nice peach cobbler?" He looked
hers over.

She
edged it away. "Mine," she growled possessively.

He
smiled. "Yes dear, well maybe a bite." He held up his
spoon.

She
smacked his spoon away. "Go get your own," she growled,
eyes flashing.

The
commander chuckled. "So you set up the brick extruder?" He
looked over to Tess.

She
nodded. "And made the trench bigger." She waved to the
outside.

"I
checked the greenhouse, that leak has been fixed by the way. I used
some of the plastic resin we made," Mario smiled.

"Leak?"
the commander asked concerned.

"Pinhole
leak at the bottom. I think a rock pricked the greenhouse when we
dragged it out to set it up." He took a bite of his apple pie
then grimaced. "Hot!" He waved his hand in front of his
mouth.

"Yeah.
Okay." The commander settled back. "You said you fixed it?"
he asked when Mario settled.

Mario
nodded. "With the resin compound we made. Plastic resin spray."

Tess
smiled. "It is neat goop," she said. Wanda smiled.

"When
you dug the trench did you take more samples?" Li asked looking
expectantly to the Russian.

Tess
nodded. "Da doc, they are logged in the lab with pics and data,"
she replied. Li smiled.

"Why
did you dig it deeper?" Doctor Han asked.

"Tess
suggested we redesign the brick maker so we were looking for a better
supply of clay. We may have to go to Li's clay pit though,"
Mario replied glibly. Mario sighed.

"Maybe,"
the commander nodded.

"We
can do it on the way back next trip in that direction," Wanda
suggested. The commander nodded.

...*...*...*...*...

"Why
exactly are we bringing the heat shields back to base? They are not
going to be used again! The heat shielding has ablated!" Tess
grumped as she shifted the panel.

"Oh
we will get some use out of them, as a sun shade if nothing else."
Mario used his driver to remove the stuck bolt. He had been stuck in
the Habs for a week until doc and the flight surgeon had reluctantly
cleared him for outdoor duty. Wanda had teased him unmercifully about
acting like a sulking kid not allowed to go out and play.

"Okay,
let’s try this again,” he said patiently. He favored his
arm; he seriously didn't want a relapse. He stepped back as Tess
fumbled the remote. Slowly the panel rose as the winch wound tighter.

"Okay,
the nylon parachutes for brick, I get that, but a sun shade?"
Tess asked.

Mario
chuckled over the channel. "Oh ye of little faith. We're going
to use the pieces as roofing material for a shed and for the garage."
The winch twanged and the panel moved gently. "Okay, let’s
get this loaded on the flatbed then get the next one," he said.
He moved it over with the guideline then Tess carefully lowered it.
The suspension and tires sagged. "Darn, guess we'll have to take
them one or two at a time or we will get stuck." Mario shook his
head.

"A
roof?" Tess asked as they unhooked the cables.

"Yeah,
we can have it overhanging the front of the garage, so we can protect
the vehicles," he explained.

Tess
grunted. "How is it going to hold up?"

He
smiled as they yanked the last cable out. "Careful, that thing
comes back at you and it will breach the suit," he cautioned.

She
nodded. "Got it." She coiled the cable.

"To
answer your question, brick of course."

She
nodded. "I get it."

He
nodded. "Same deal for the sheds. We build a cylinder with one
side open, about three hundred forty degree arch, then set a piece of
the aero shell on top. Cover with sand bags and walla!" He
spread his hands apart dramatically.

She
grimaced. "Lot of work Mario, but I get the picture." She
grunted as she hefted the panel edge. "You lift; I'll get the
cables under," she ordered.

He
chuckled. "I'm coming, I'm coming. Geesh, forty million miles
from Earth and a woman is still having us lift furniture," he
grumped. Tess chuckled.

...*...*...*...*...

“So
dis thing is really going to make bricks?” Tess looked at the
series of boxes. One had a hopper on top, and then it connected to a
series of boxes. She had gotten a look before when she had set it up
a week ago, but hadn't thought it was really up to much use. The last
box had an opening on the side. The power cables she had plugged in
ran to the reactor.

Mario
rested his hand on the contraption. “Yes, it is the brick
maker. We sent it in the first test shot. We can make a couple bricks
like the plan specified... or......” Mario flipped the switch
and began shoveling clay into the hopper.

“Or
a lot of bricks. For the garage?” Tess asked.

“Not
just the garage, we can use them for another project we've had in
mind for a few decades...” Mario watched as the first series of
bricks came out of the end. “They will have to be dried in the
kiln, but that shouldn't be too hard.” He went over and picked
one up. It crumbled. “Oops! Damn, tensile strength is
definitely a must! Going to have to add the nylon, no if ands or buts
about it,” he sighed as he scraped the mess back into the top
hopper. “I need to get a few finished ones to Li for testing,”
he said absently. He looked around.

Tess
handed him a flat piece of aluminum. “What's this a door
panel?” She had her palm on the underside, flat like she was
holding a pizza.