First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (34 page)

He
sighed as they climbed in. "So... two minutes until it catches
up to us?" he asked a few minutes later as they frantically
drove. The Habs were in sight. Tess pulled up in a shower of dust and
dirt near the airlock. Tess jumped out and he followed.

He
was about two meters from the Hab Tess was ahead of him. They were
moving full tilt, hopefully they wouldn't trip on anything he
thought, mind focused on the door. "Yeah, but I think this one
is a dozy," Wanda said worried.

He
climbed into the airlock with Tess and watched her close the door.
"Pumping now. Two minutes," he sighed. "Great. Wanda
what's happening?" he asked looking up to the overhead camera.
He needed a distraction.

"It's
hitting the planet now, horizon in thirty seconds. We need to get
into the shelter," she replied. Mario grimaced. "You know,
as much as I love you Mario, you all sweaty in a confined space is
not what I had in mind to spend the day," Wanda chuckled. "I'm
there. Get your butts in here," she said gruffly. Mario
grimaced.

"Trying.
Air exchanged, equalizing now. Dust is working. Crap override."
He punched the override button. "Come on." He turned the
lock then threw the door open. He raced out, not even bothering to
pull his helmet off.

Tess
pounded behind him to the ladder. "Climb climb!" she
called. They got to the second deck and to the door. Wanda was
waiting with it partially open.

"Get
in here! What are you waiting for an engraved invitation?" she
yelled. Tess managed to twist past him and get in just ahead of him.
Wanda sealed the door behind them. "Thirty seconds of exposure,"
Wanda reported and then grimaced. She was holding a Geiger counter
and ran it over Tess. She shook her head. "A couple rems I think
I'm not sure." Her hands were shaking. Tess took her helmet off.

Mario
grabbed his wife’s hands and looked into her eyes. "We're
fine. Remember we added sandbags to the roof right?"

She
grimaced. "The longer we stay here the more your crazy vault is
appealing," she said. He chuckled.

Tess
smiled as she unstrapped and pulled her breather pack off. "Here."
Wanda helped him remove his helmet, and then she kissed him.

"Uh,
guys? Hello?" Tess demanded. The married couple was oblivious
for a moment.

Finally
Wanda broke the kiss. "Stop getting in trouble like this Mario.
You die on me and I will never forgive you," she growled,
holding his ears. She hugged herself to him. He smiled.

"Then
I better not die huh?" He pulled the straps and felt her hands
pushing it off his shoulders.

"Damn
radiation. I wish Mars had a magnetic field," Wanda sulked. He
chuckled. Wanda looked at him.

"That's
a problem way above my ability to fix dear. Let’s stick to the
small potatoes right now," he replied. Both girls chuckled.

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

"All
buttoned down?" Mario asked as Tess and Wanda came in through
the lock.

"Yeah,
what about in here?" Wanda waved.

"Cabinets
and samples are secured. Hopefully we won’t rattle too much."
He was dressed in his skin suit. T minus five minutes until the
asteroid's impact.

"Why
the suit?" Tess asked.

"In
case of a breach," he replied. He had his pre-breather out too.

Tess
froze, then started buckling hers back on. "You know, that's a
good idea." Wanda followed suit. "How much time do we
have?"

"About
four minutes." He waved them to the living room. The telemetry
feed was up.

"I
bet the seismologists are going to go nuts when they get this data,"
Wanda observed.

"Yeah.
I bet you will too when you see what gets sent up into the
atmosphere." Mario retorted.

"Touché,"
she chuckled. She glanced at the clock. "Three minutes fourteen
seconds and counting."

He
patted her hand. "No worries," he said. She nodded still
tense.

As
the countdown hit zero she looked around. "What no kaboom? I was
expecting an Earth shattering kaboom!"

He
laughed. He knew she loved Marvin Martian but that was totally
cliché. Within a minute they felt the first rattle. "Shake
rattle and roll! Now we’re talking oh baby!" Mario
laughed.

"Letch!"
Wanda gasped. "Damn what a ride!" She was panting.

"Is
it over?" Tess asked over the intercom. In a moment a second
shock wave hit.

"Not
quite," Wanda replied. They felt the Hab buck.

"We
have a leak in hab one, looks like a seal in the airlock ruptured,"
Tess said, voice all business.

Mario
grunted at Tess's report. "Not good. That's going to be a bitch
to fix," he sighed.

"I
can't get anything from the vault, I'm not sure if it is okay or
not," Tess reported.

"We'll
have to wait and see. No way am I going inside for at least a couple
days. Not until these aftershocks pass," Mario replied.

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

A
few days later he wasn't at all amused anymore. He planned on having
a nice long chat with his little brother when he arrived. The wall of
dust was kilometers high. Wanda gasped, frozen in shock. "My
god," she murmured.

Mario
turned to look. "Oh crapolla." He looked up and up. "That's
a big storm." He shook his head.

"Yeah.
Uh, We ah... We better batten down the hatches and get inside."
Wanda turned and started to hurry.

"Crap.
This is so going to suck." Mario jogged to the garages. "We
don't have any doors!" he wailed.

"Think
of something! Use a tarp or something!" Wanda called back.

"Crap."
He looked around. "All the tarps are being used. Not good,"
he sighed. The cargo landers were supposed to land tomorrow too. His
hand bumped the helmet. "Definitely not good." Tess ran
past him. "Okay, we need to stop running around like headless
chickens and figure something out,” he muttered.

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

"So
we here that the real reason Mario Irons didn't return from Mars is
that he found out he would have to wear a tie at the White house,"
the comedian joked. Mario chuckled.

Wanda
poked him. He looked over to her to see her dimpling. "He's
probably right you know," Wanda said dryly. Mario's chuckle
turned into a laugh.

They
had just finished watching the recordings of the crew being awarded
by the international partners. The ticker tape parade in DC had been
wild. Millions of people had attended. "Missed quite a party,"
Wanda murmured. They were also missing their comrades. Team two was
stuck in orbit until the dust storms stopped. They had company, the
cargo landers, their ERV, and MAV were up there with them. No one
could land in this soup.

"As
long as I have you in arms reach we can have a party of two anytime
we want," he teased. He smiled at her. She blushed.

"For
me, am glad," Tess said. Mario and Wanda turned to the Russian.
She was tucked up in a chair with a blanket over her legs. "Is
bad enough have face on cereal boxes..." she shivered.

Wanda
smiled and turned on Mario. "See, you’re not the only one
who isn't into all the attention." It was Mario's turn to blush
as the girls chuckled.

"Take
a look at this picture." The comedian held up a picture of Mario
in his suit. "Either he has got to fart or he has the biggest
wedgie I have ever seen." Wanda and Tess started giggling
uncontrollably.

"Yuck
it up girls." Mario laughed. "You're turns coming." He
watched as Wanda got her laughter under control and wiped the tears
from her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Victoria
secret designers took one look at the Mars suits and decided they
were just too last year." The comedian held up another picture,
this time of Wanda in her suit with Victoria secret lingerie photo
shopped on top.

Mario
started laughing. The girls were shaking their heads. "Gee I
wonder if we can get that shipped out here..." Mario laughed.

Wanda
turned on him with a glower. "Don't you dare," she dimpled.

"It's
great to have brothers in high places," he teased. "I'm
sure he can get you a couple, maybe in blue?" She poked him.
"Okay, pink, no that will blend..." He couldn't finish
because she sat on him and started tickling him in earnest. Tess
laughed.

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

Mario
looked out the porthole and tried to see the falling MAV. "No
sign yet." Tess reported. "It's in blackout now, will cross
horizon in twenty seconds," she reported. He looked over to her
as he sat down at the desk. "Is... signal... weak." She
held her hand to her blue tooth. "Yes, got it." She smiled
at them. They smiled back. "Is okay." She looked at the big
screen. "Telemetry feed coming up." Mario reported as the
screen blinked. Slowly data began to scroll.

"Drog
chute deployed... Sixty kilometers out." Mario grimaced.

"What?"
Wanda asked coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around his
neck.

"I
was hoping it would come in a lot closer, but with storm..."

She
sighed in his ear. "You’re always expecting one hundred
percent," she said. He chuckled. "No one’s perfect."
she sighed. They watched the feed.

"Main
chutes deployed, craft slowing to four hundred knots. Tail wind is
blowing it in our direction. Hey maybe it won’t be so far out!"
he smiled.

"See?"
She kissed his ear. "You were worrying over nothing as usual,"
she teased. He sighed and patted her hands.

"As
usual you’re right dear," he murmured. They watched as the
craft's telemetry stabilized.

"Wait,
pull up a plot... show me the overhead map." Tess called
suddenly wary. Mario typed at the virtual keyboard. A window popped
up with an overhead plot. "Zoom in." Tess walked up to the
screen looking at it. "It's going to land on us." Tess
observed looking back at them.

"No
way. There are beacons all over the place...” Wanda replied
looking up and slowly releasing her grip on Mario.

"No
it is. Look these beacons are all around us. It is heading for the
center." Tess used her finger to trace each of the perimeter
beacons then pointed to them.

"If
it doesn't land directly on us it might land on the Vault,"
Mario sighed.

"Crap,"
Wanda breathed, eyes wide. "Chutes have been cut, looks like
she's in free fall again. Wait, retros fired. Three hundred meters
above the ground." Mario looked up at the plot. "Come on
baby, for once in your life MISS!" Wanda chanted softly, fingers
crossed. Tess turned to her, crossed her fingers and crossed her arms
over her chest. Wanda did the same.

Tess
turned to watch the plot. "Crap, it's..." Mario started to
get up. Wanda felt a thrill of concern. Damn it did look like it was
about to land right on top of their heads!

"We
should get into our skin suits," Wanda said starting to back to
the door.

"Is
firing emergency thrusters now," Tess reported. "Bring up
camera?" she asked turning to Mario. She rushed to the porthole.
"I see it!"

Wanda
rushed over to her. "Where?" She looked up.

"Crap
its close!" She shielded her eyes. "Please not on us, go
land somewhere else..." Wanda chanted.

"I
think it heard you," Tess said. "Is drifting. Da is coming
down. Twenty meters and falling."

Mario
nodded. "The ground radar probably got the AI to kick over to
avoid landing and falling over. Nice touch." He had pulled up
several camera feeds and was watching the show. "Looking good. I
can see it, but the dust storm is picking up. I don't think we're
going to get to it when it is like this." The craft flared out
then touched down in the orange haze.

"Great!
Perfect!" They cheered. "Houston control, MAV four has
landed. Safe landing, though it gave us some heart stopping moments
there. We will get you the footage in a moment," Mario reported
over the communications. He looked up and smiled to the women. "Guess
we get to have an early Christmas huh?" MAV 4 was the last
unmanned lander before crew two arrived.

Tess
chuckled. "Da but must wait like any other kid for morning to
open presents Father Christmas brought."

Mario
smiled. "Well... We could rig some lights..." He struck a
thoughtful pose.

"Not
on your life," Wanda glared. He pretended to pout.

Tess
giggled. "Just like little boy wanting present," she
teased.

Wanda
looked at her husband then grinned at Tess. "I know, they never
do seem to grow up," she said. He rolled her eyes at her. Both
women laughed and threw pillows at him.

 ...*...*...*...*...

"Mario
this doesn't look right." Tess looked up from the cargo hold and
turned to him. He'd bustled them through a quick breakfast and out
the door, even passing on their chores.

"What
no candy canes?" Mario joked.

"No,
is no reactor. There is a lot of other stuff though," she
replied. She pulled out a small package and held it up. "Label
is for life support filters."

Mario
nodded. "Well at least they got something right," he
sighed. "No reactor sucks though, we've run through half the
power supply of the first two with the Vault as part of the load.
We're going to need more power if we are going to expand and stay
here long term." He shook his head as he climbed the ramp.

"No
robot either. Huh." He checked a crate label. "What the
hell? Solar panels?" he demanded. He looked up then over to
another. The packages were long but thin, less than three centimeters
thick. "What the devil?" He looked at another larger
package. "Yeah, this is the prototype forge unit we wanted,"
he said pointing to a label on a crate he recognized. He went back to
the solar panels. "Well, looks like little brother screwed the
pooch." He looked up at the storm.

"Da,"
Tess replied.

"Yeah,"
Mario sighed. "Well, let’s get this unloaded and what we
got." They started pulling crates and loading them on the back
of the rover. Tess drove the first load to the garage. He spent the
time waiting for her to come back pulling more gear out and leaving
it at the boarding ramp. "I can see leaving out the hydrogen and
fuel reactor, we can make plenty of fuel, we're even making the
carbon, zeolite, aluminum, and iron catalysts now, so that's not a
problem anymore. But we need a reliable power supply!" He
grunted as he hefted another box.