First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (43 page)

"Give
it a shot. We go slowly may find another leak," Tess suggested.
She held up a strip of plastic. She had cut it into the shape of a
feather. The edges were cut in thin strips.

He
nodded. "Okay." He went over and closed the door. "Door
closed. Looks good. Checking the seal now." He finished the
check then went over to Tess. They had stacked the Waldecker's skin
suits outside their door. He waved at them through the porthole.

"Okay,
we're going to test it now."

Tess
picked up a tablet and started tapping. "Is done. Coming up one
bar every five minutes with five minute pause so we can check."

He
nodded. "Good idea." He pulled out his own test strip and
went around to the windows and doors, checking each.

"Is
good, bumping up to next bar," Tess reported when they finished.

It
took two hours to get the Hab back up to normal pressure. "Is
going to take time for heat to return," Tess cautioned.

"I
don't care; I need to get back to work," Mr. Waldecker said as
he opened the door. His breath immediately frosted.

"CCClose
ttthe dddooor!" His wife stuttered. Tess handed him their skin
suits.

"Here
get into these, they will help," Tess ordered. Mario grimaced as
he turned his back to the door.

"So
everything is fixed?" Waldecker asked.

"Hardly.
We still need to go around the outside and check, then fix the
tunnel, and Hab one's door. But you can come out when you are ready."
He pulled his helmet off and sighed. "Joyce we're okay, you can
open your door and come over." He looked over to Tess who was
taking her helmet off. "Keep it handy just in case," he
cautioned. She nodded.

"Okay
we're coming out," Waldecker said a moment later. Mario moved
aside so the door could open. The Waldecker's came out wearing their
packs and helmets.

"Why
do you have your helmets off?" Mrs. Waldecker asked.

"The
air is cold but breathable," Mario said. He waved to Joyce as
she came through the tunnel. "Hey Joyce, welcome to the party,"
he said. She smiled.

"I
want out of here!" Doctor Waldecker pushed past her husband,
then Joyce to get into the tunnel to Hab three.

Mario
sighed. "Okay, we're going to check the seals again, and every
hour on the hour until we are sure she is safe." He looked over
to Joyce. She nodded reluctantly. "Can you handle that with
Doctor Waldecker and Latisha?" he asked. She nodded again.

"I
got your back you two work on the tunnel and door," she said.

He
sighed. "Yeah. That's going to be tricky." He shook his
head. He still wasn't sure about a permanent fix.

"Have
to glue it?" Tess asked. "Nyet, won’t hold. Is
tricky..." She looked away.

"I'll
get to work on pulling the tunnel seal. You check the other ring. If
it is okay we can either try to stretch the first part, or we can see
about melting the hole closed with a patch," Mario replied.

"Da,
will leak... must seal with resin," she replied. He nodded.

"Yeah,
good point," he grimaced. "Talk about waking up on the
wrong side of the bed!" he sighed. "Okay, we're on it."
Joyce motioned for Doc Waldecker.

"What?
I need to get back to my lab! I need to see what is damaged!"
the doctor replied indignantly.

She
motioned. "Get. All experiments are on hold during a crisis. You
know
that. Move it." She waved him to the door. "Check
this deck, I'll check the next." She told Latisha. "Check
his too, he might pass things over to get to the lab," she told
the pilot softly. Latisha nodded.

 ...*...*...*...*...

"Luigi
do you want to let me know why we had a micromanaging pin head
telling us what to do ten steps behind?" Mario asked exasperated
some time later. Now that things were under control they had time to
vent to Mission control. "I checked the day-night cycle; I am
assuming Betsy had hauled you off to bed. But whoever that was
thought we were working in the Apollo days," he sighed, running
his hand through his hair.

"We've
gotten the habs repaired the best we can. Good news is Wanda has
gotten over some of her fear of the vaults, it seems spending time in
them during a crisis with nowhere else to go woke her up a bit."
Mario chuckled as he sat back and rocked in the chair. "Tell our
family we said hi. Get your house sorted out little brother. Love to
all." Mario waved and cut the recording. A few taps at the
virtual keyboard and it was set to go in the next upload.

Aftermath:

Wanda
nodded to the Waldecker’s as they got up from their chairs.
"All done? We have a salt deposit sample to look at; I have it
under the scope if you would like to take a look Doctor Waldecker...”
She was confused by the slightly smug expressions both had that
turned into signs of fear, then satisfaction.

"All
right." The Doctor stood and took his body microphone off. He
left it on the chair as he left.

"Doc,
we still need the inventory of medical supplies, we need to know what
was damaged during the breach, and can you get that in the mainframe
and cc a copy to Luigi and the flight surgeon's office by close of
business today?" Joyce called over the intercom.

"We,
I will finish now," the French woman said. She took off her
microphone.

"How'd
it go?" Latisha asked. She whirled in fright at the sight of
Latisha and Tess.

"It
went well," she smiled smugly. "Good. Glad that's over.
Mario is up next." Latisha waved as Mario came in reluctantly.

"Do
we have to do this now?" he whined. Doc took one look at him
then squeezed past quickly.

"What's
wrong with her? She took off like a scalded cat?" Latisha asked
looking at the departed Doctor's wake.

"No
idea," Mario shrugged.

"I
didn't leave my ogre face on did I?" he mock scowled at both
women. They shook their heads smiling politely. "Huh," he
shrugged as Tess hooked a body mike up to his coverall, then the
other to her own. "Okay."

She
sat down in the chair. "I won't bite." She tapped the seat
next to her.

He
sighed. "Everyone's a comedian." He sat back and waited for
the first clip to play.

Two
reporters appeared on the screen. "And here we are with the so
called heroes of the hour, or should we say the villains? Let's find
out ladies and gentlemen. Mr. Irons isn't it true you were
responsible for the repairs and upkeep of the habs? And as Doctor
Waldecker informed us, also responsible for their design? You've
neglected your duties and endangered your wife and crew for a pipe
dream?" the reporter demanded. Mario sighed.

"Ready?"
Tess asked nervously.

"Oh,
you betcha," he growled. She gave him a nervous look, then
shrugged and hit the record button. "Thank you for allowing us
the opportunity to set the record
straight
Vanessa, Miguel. To
begin, let's take those things one by one... Yes, I was one of the
designers of the Mars vehicles, but I was in charge of the ERV and
Orion MAV,
not
the Habs." Mario shook his head.

"Nor
was I the only person involved. Dozens of scientists and engineers
were in the project." He nodded to Tess. "Including our
international allies. Now, as to the
cause
of the disaster,
well, it has several causes, one of which, the fast design time may
have been a factor. But if you remember several days ago we had a
problem with our temperature control, well, Mrs. Waldecker was
playing with the controls and spiked internal temperatures up to
almost ninety degrees Fahrenheit inside,” he grimaced.

“That
sort of temperature can do all sorts of nasty things to seals when
the outside temperature is much lower. It can degrade seals in a
remarkably short time period as we found out." Mario smiled
grimly for the camera. "I'll leave it to you to discuss the
event with mission control. I believe they can turn over the logs and
allow you access to our data and engineers who designed the seals."
Mario nodded to a stunned Tess. "I believe the next question is
for Tess Vladiskov?" He asked politely as Tess whistled softly.

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

"Mario,
what the hell is going on there? The Waldecker’s were a
disaster! They laid the entire crisis at your door and mine and now I
have everyone including ESA breathing down my necks and sharpening
knives to carve me into little pieces! The President just spent
twenty minutes chewing my ass into little itty bitty pieces Betsy is
going to take weeks gluing them back together!" Luigi sighed.

"Find
out what the hell is going on. If they can't cooperate, find a way to
muzzle them. We'll deal with the problem when they get back here,"
Luigi sighed and signed off.

"I
bet Mario is pissed too." Betsy said from behind him, and then
rubbed his shoulders. "So he chewed your ass did he?" Betsy
asked in a teasing tone. Luigi squirmed. "Want me to kiss it and
make it better?" Betsy asked syrupy sweet.

He
had to chuckle at that. "Later dear, when we're home alone."
He turned and gave her a leer.

She
chuckled. "You’re on." He laughed, good humor in the
universe restored.

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

"What
the hell gives you the right to do everything in your power to
sabotage this mission and the team?" Mario snarled. The team was
arrayed in Hab three looking at the errant couple. "You put us
all on the spot with your crap. First with that little stunt with the
thermostat, now this!" Mario threw his hands up in the air. Mrs.
Waldecker clutched at her husband’s arm.

He
glared openly hostile to Mario. "We did nothing wrong, we told
the truth," the German snarled.

"Oh
did you now?" Mario asked softly. "Did you bother to
mention your wife's hand in that mess?"

Mr.
Waldecker looked away. "You can't prove she had anything to do
with that...." He began.

"Oh
yes we can," Joyce replied. "We've sent the data to mission
control. They can plug it into a sim and see what happens. I bet you
will both have egg on your face." Both Waldecker’s were
now looking uneasy.

"I
embarrassed you and now you’re what? Getting back at me is that
it?" Mario asked tiredly. Doc seemed to pout. "Oh grow up
both of you. You’re both professionals in your fields, start
acting like it," he snarled. "You wanted to play politics
and now the mission and the program will suffer," he sighed and
rubbed his brow.

"We
don't have to listen to this." Mr. Waldecker grabbed his wife’s
hand and led her out.

"Do
they have any idea what they are putting us through? What they will
go through on Earth? Hell if they are going to stay!" Mario
started waving his hands apart cross wise. "Hell NO! I'll go
back if they even think of it. Or I'll personally drop kick both of
them into orbit myself!" he snarled.

"I'd
love to see that," Latisha chuckled tiredly.

"Me
too." Joyce and Wanda said together. Sergei and Toshi both
nodded.

"So
what do we do?" Wanda asked.

"Well,
after going over the video record of their interview, we're going to
muzzle them. They want to play games..." Mario shrugged.

Joyce
smiled. "Both of them will lose all communications privileges.
I've already had Toshi lock them out. They are also loosing computer
mainframe privileges." She nodded to Toshi who grimaced.

"That
could backfire too. Censoring them and punishing them...” Toshi
shrugged.

"My
call too," Mario shrugged. “Since Mr. Waldecker is going
out again he shouldn't be an issue.”

"In
for a penny, in for a pound," Latisha sighed.

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

"Is
the Mars program censoring the Waldecker’s?" the reporter
asked. Mario sighed. Of course they were, they just couldn't come
right out and say that. He hit the record button.

"Doctor
Waldecker is out on another geology mission. The science of Mars is
one of our primary mandates as you know." He paused for a moment
in thought. "As to Mrs. Waldecker, as far as I know she is in
her lab working on her backlog of material testing. We lost a great
deal of time due to the accident. I believe she is attempting to make
that time up." He shrugged helplessly.

"I
can't help you there. In fact, I should be out in the field as well,
we need to expand the base and institute preventive measures so such
an accident can be marginalized," he sighed softly and hit the
transmit key.

The
next question was a bit more complicated. "In your report you
stated that the actions of Mrs. Waldecker were the root cause of the
accident. That appears to be shifting blame away from yourself. Care
to comment?" the reporter asked. Mario grimaced then hit the
record button.

"Well,
I believe I stated that there were a number of possible contributing
factors, but the highest culprit to me was the heating. Leaving the
doors open in the tunnels was also a problem. In fact, although
leaving the doors open allowed for the habs to depressurize, leaving
them
open
prevented a much more serious catastrophe, a blow
out. Had the doors been sealed with the weakened seals, they could
have blown out totally, and we would have been in a much direr
situation. So in a way, negligence on our part in procedures saved
us." He frowned, trying to think of a better way to spin that.
When nothing came to mind he shrugged and hit send.

"Mr.
Irons, isn't it true that you are responsible for the day to day
maintenance of the habitats?"

He
smiled and hit record. "Yes, I, Tess, Toshi, and
each
of
the others who live here are responsible for the habitats and their
upkeep. We
each
must keep an eye on our duty sectors, as
outlined in our individual mission plan. Mine happens to be the
overall health and welfare of the base. Unfortunately the seal damage
was not picked up when we checked them the day before. I am not sure
why this happened, either because we were so used to checking them
daily that we overlooked something, or possibly that they lurking
under the surface where we could not see them." He shrugged.