Orphans of Apollo - S2 E11
September 2056
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Previously: after their hair-raising landing on the Antarctic plateau, Lana’s crew make their way to the rovers. Joanna takes a first look at Brant’s injuries and Lana contemplates what changes will need to be made to the mission plan.
14:05
The short two kilometre journey to the habitat took only six minutes. They could have done it faster, but after the events of the landing, nobody wanted to take any chances. Joanna carefully watched Brant as they trundled over the ice plateau. She was the only one who spoke for the entire journey.
“Can you tell me what day of the week it is?”
“Tuesday.”
“What is your full name, and where were you born?”
“Brant Adams. Vancouver, Canada.”
The rover was equipped with a medical scanner, but Joanna was sufficiently convinced Brant had not suffered a concussion that she could wait until they got to the habitat where there were better facilities.
“Can you count backwards from 100 in sevens for me?”
“One hundred, ninety-three, eighty-six, seventy-nine...”
Joanna motioned in the air with her finger for him to continue.
“Seventy-two, sixty-five…”
She added a gently nodding head to the finger she was still rotating in the air.
“Oh, come on,” Brant winced. “You’re enjoying this too much.”
Joanna smiled a coy smile.
“What is the exact lat-long of the habitat?”
“Seventy-six degrees and fifty-three minutes south,” Brant looked up at the ceiling, squinting slightly. “One-hundred and twenty-two degrees and…hang on a second.”
Joanna looked over her shoulder towards the cab. She squeezed Brant’s knee gently. “We’ll be there soon.”
The habitat, or “hab” was a cylindrical structure two stories high, and about six metres in diameter. Bracing it against the wind were six legs spread equally around the circumference. They attached at forty-five degrees halfway up the exterior wall. The EVA prep room and primary airlock occupied one corner of the lower floor. Across from this was a smaller secondary airlock, separating these a short corridor led to the shower and toilet. On the other side, a workbench ran around the wall except for the last section, where the stairs led to the upper floor. Being cylindrical meant there were numerous peculiar shaped cabinets and work spaces. A good shape for a pressure vessel, not so easy for interior fit-out.
On the upper level, just under half the space was occupied by the crew’s sleeping quarters. They each had their own very modest room. Due to the nature of geometry, the centre two rooms were slightly longer, giving just enough room for a small desk. These were Lana and Pieter’s rooms. Opposite the crew quarters was a workbench, smaller than the lower one, as part of the space was taken up with a sink and cooking facilities. In the centre of the space was a large table big enough for all six to sit at together. The roof space of the hab housed all the environmental and communication systems.
“It’s actually larger than you think when you see it in real life,” said Zawadi as Rover 2 approached the hab.
“You might not be saying that after we have been here a few weeks,” quipped Aiden.
“I hope we are not going to have to cancel the meteorite hunting expedition,”
“Well, that’s going to be our first task, figuring out how bad Brant’s injury is and adjusting the mission plan.”
A large solar farm dominated the site. Because it was designed only for summer occupancy, solar power could supply all the electricity necessary for the hab. The farm was situated ten metres from the base, along with two large LPG tanks to provide gas for heating and also to power a fuel cell backup power supply.
Next to the solar farm was a modest greenhouse, where the crew would attempt to grow some of their own food. One compromise in the facility's construction had been to make the greenhouse standalone, requiring the crew to head outside or conduct an “EVA” to reach it.
Aiden carefully backed Rover 2 up beside the primary airlock. A short distance away Rover 1 waited and then Pieter backed it up on the other side of the airlock.
Ok, this is it, thought Lana. Let’s put the landing incident behind us and work as effectively as we can now that we are here.
“Joanna, you and Brant stay here for now. The rest of us will make sure everything is online, then we’ll come back and help you in,” said Lana.
“Sounds good,” moaned Brant. “Don’t worry about us. We’ll just relax here.” Lana smiled at him, relieved that he at least seemed to be getting some of his old self back.
Five minutes later she was staring at the hab airlock panel waiting for the green light. After what seemed like an age, it cycled from red to green. Lana and Pieter lifted their helmet visors. Pieter twisted the handle and opened the inner door. It led to the EVA prep room, where all the crew’s suits were stored. He walked in and unclipped his helmet from the neck ring, lifting it carefully over his head, he placed it in on the shelf above his name. Underneath was a space to hang his suit. Lana followed him and removed her helmet.
“After you, boss,” said Pieter, gesturing to the handle of the door into the main habitat.
Lana opened the door and stepped inside. The room was well lit and there was the low hum of running equipment. Around the workbench the screens on the various pieces of equipment were lit up and ready, just waiting for their human masters to set them to work. It was as if people had been in the hab all along and simply vanished. However, nothing was out of place, not a badly coiled wire or stray coffee cup. A “new car” smell hung in the air. Lana turned slowly, taking it all in.
“Well, here we are,” said Pieter. “We made it. We might not have done though, if it were not for Brant’s quick thinking, cutting those cords when he did.”
“He also could have injured himself badly,” said Lana, irritated. “We are lucky it looks like he’s only broken his arm.”
“Let’s face it Lana, if he hadn’t acted when he did we could have tipped up and been dragged across the ice for kilometres while we waited for you to make a decision.”
Lana locked eyes with Pieter, unsure how to respond.
“We all know it. I’m only saying what the others must be thinking. And Larsson’s little speech. I don’t know what was with that. For some reason you are his little protege and he will always do what he can to protect you.”
“That’s not true. I did what—”
The door to the second airlock hissed slightly and swung open. Zawadi stepped through, helmet visor up and face beaming. Her and Aiden had come in through the secondary airlock. The primary was big enough for three, but the secondary could easily take two people, plus they wanted to check it out to make sure it was functioning correctly.
“Wow,” exclaimed Zawadi, “isn’t it amazing?”
“So this is home for the next six weeks,” said Aiden as he followed Zawadi through the airlock. His smile faded slightly when he saw the look on Lana’s face.
“Let’s start unpacking then, no time like the present eh boss,” said Pieter. “I’ll go and help Joanna with Brant, I guess it might be little tricky to put his arm back in that suit.
“I’ll come with you. We can grab the personal items from the rovers as well. The two of us should be able to manage easily,” said Aiden.
As the door closed behind Pieter and Aiden, Lana and Zawadi helped each other out of their suits in the EVA prep room.
“Can you believe we are finally here, Lana? Isn’t this amazing? You know the next time we are doing this, we will be on the moon. It’s all feeling so real now.”
“It sure is,” said Lana flatly.
“You know, I almost puked the first part of that parachute ride,” said Zawadi with a chuckle.
“It was pretty uncomfortable, wasn’t it? At least we won’t have to deal with that landing on the moon.”
“Yes, that is true. I can’t wait to get on with things. We have worked towards this our whole lives for this and it’s the final step. I hope Brant’s injury isn’t going to affect the meteorite expedition to the Transantarctic Mountains.”
Zawadi was uncharacteristically chatty. Normally she was very quiet, confident, but quiet. It was all feeling real for Lana too, but she also felt the burden of responsibility.
After they had finished taking their suits off, Lana and Zawadi headed upstairs. It felt like exploring, but it was also a familiar environment. During their training back at FAAS, they had been inside a full-scale replica of the hab, learning how the systems worked and what to do in the event of various emergencies such as fire or system failure. Everything seemed so familiar, yet this was the real thing and if there were any problems to deal with it was up to them, help was a long way away.
Lana heard the hiss of the airlock cycling and went downstairs to greet the others. She opened the door to the EVA prep room as Joanna was opening the inner airlock door. She stood with Brant in the airlock, surrounded by the small bags of the crew’s personal items.
“Let’s get you inside and get that suit off,” said Joanna.
They helped Brant through into the main hab out of the clutter of the airlock and EVA prep room. Aiden and Pieter came in through the secondary airlock with the rest of the crew’s personal items. The hab was already stocked with months of food and consumables.
Joanna pulled out a collapsible bed from the medical equipment bay underneath the stairs. Brant winced as he sat down on it.
“Right, let’s have a proper look and see what you have done to yourself,” she said.
Opening one of the compartments, Joanna pulled out a headband placing on Brant. She pushed a few keys on one of the screens and various readouts of Brant’s vitals appeared. Next she took what looked like an old-fashioned supermarket barcode scanner from the compartment beside.
“Is my brain still working?” asked Brant.
Joanna looked up at the screen. “Just about, I think. Now let’s have a look at your arm.” She ran the scanner up and down Brant’s arm several times from his elbow to the tip of his fingers and replaced it in the cupboard. On the large main screen of the medical unit a progress bar came up “processing image” flashed underneath.
“Let’s get things squared away shall we, and get something to eat. I’m starving,” said Pieter.
“Yeah, I’m pretty hungry too,” said Aiden, looking at his watch. “It’s nearly two thirty.”
Lana stayed with Brant and Joanna while the others went upstairs.
“Do you want us to get you something?” called Zawadi.
“I’m fine. I’ll head up once we see how Brant is doing,” said Lana.
“Me too,” said Joanna.
“You better not have anything Brant, in case Joanna has to operate on you,” said Pieter mockingly.
Brant rolled his eyes theatrically.
Aiden slapped Pieter on the back and grabbed his shoulder, “Too soon mate, too soon.”
Joanna started entering information on one of the other screens of the medical unit, following through a flowchart describing Brant’s injury to the computer.
“How are you feeling now?” asked Lana.
“I’m fine. Except my arm is killing me.”
“I’m just working on that now,” said Joanna.
The medical unit made some quiet mechanical noises, a bit like a coffee machine, then it dispensed a small package into the collection area at the bottom. Joanna opened the clear plastic flap and took out the blister package.
“Ok, take two of these now and two in eight hours time. They should help with the pain.”
“I’ll get you some water,” said Lana.
The progress bar on the medical unit finished. A three-dimensional rendering of the internal structure of Brant’s arm appeared. Joanna swiped her finger on the screen, moving the image around to look at it from different angles.
“Well, I don’t think you need to be a doctor to figure out what I’ve done,” said Brant.
“No. It’s actually your wrist you have broken, not your arm. We just have to figure out the best way to deal with it.”
“Looks like a pretty clean break,” said Lana, returning with a cup of water.
“Yep, the computer is suggesting a cast for six weeks. It’s just generating an .stl file for the 3D printer. It’s going to restrict your movement a little, but you should still be able to use your fingers ok.”
Brant put the two pills in his mouth, took a mouthful of water and swallowed heavily. “Well, that’s me screwed isn’t it? I won’t be able to wear it under a suit.”
“Unfortunately, I think that is true,” said Joanna. “I guess we could look at modifying the design it’s suggested.
“The problem is going to be getting a glove over your hand,” said Lana.
“Exactly,” replied Brant.
“I’ve already been thinking about how we can modify the mission plan. I’ll take another look now and we can all discuss it later.”
Brant looked dejectedly at the image of his broken wrist. “I’m sorry Lana. If I had waited, as you said, I could have cut the cords after the gust had gone through and we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“Don’t worry. If you hadn’t, we could have got tipped over and dragged across the ice, then who knows where we would be. It could have been a lot worse, let’s be thankful it wasn’t and figure out how we move on from here. I’ll get Aiden to start working on that cast.”
If you know someone you think would enjoy “Orphans of Apollo” or any of the other writing in “Explorations” please share this publication with them.
Apologies, this episode is a few days late. My day job interfered with the normal publishing schedule for Orphans of Apollo this week. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the latest episode.
Last week - when I thought everything was all on track - I watched “The Gorge”. Now, this is not the sort of movie I would normally watch. I don’t like horror. I find zombie movies where the protagonists mow down wave after wave of marauding half-dead creatures a bit boring. To be fair, there is a good deal of both in this movie, but the trailer intrigued me. It’s definitely worth checking out for a bit of fun.
Thanks for reading,
Alex