Instead of coming to help them remove their suits (which was difficult to manage without assistance) their parents had remained on the far side of the chamber with only their backs visible, as they peered into the Firmament’s cockpit.
Even the Russians who usually slept in between shifts had decided to forego their habitual naps and had started an animated discussion with Barney and Evelyn.
“Hey! A little help?” Sander yelled out, removing his helmet and accidentally dropping it.
But nobody seemed to have heard him. Lori came over to assist her brother and after a few difficult minutes, they eventually managed to heave off the majority of their space-wear.
“What’s the matter?” Sander asked the group, getting close enough finally overhear some of what they were saying.
“... so what, you think it could be a trap or something?”
“I don’t know...”
Just as he was about to ask a second, louder time, Pavel turned to them.
“We receive message, from new ship...” he pointed to the ceiling. “The Godsend.”
Stunned by the revelation, Sander looked up as if he was expecting to see them crash through their roof.
“Seriously? When-”
“They call just after you leave,” Pavel explained. “First, Quentin believe they are landing, so he wakes us… But now, I think they come tomorrow.”
“Yeah, and it’s gonna be tricky!” interjected Quentin, as he pushed past the crowd and exited the cockpit. “I was hoping we´d have a bit more time between arrivals… plus, they’ve got an injury on board…”
“OK... but where are we gonna put them?” Lori wondered aloud, thinking of their already-overflowing rooms. “Is the new base ready?”
“Not really,” Quentin responded, tossing a few pills down his throat on his way to the machine room. “My plan B, should the igloo falter, was to use the lava tubes up North. And we´ve made good progress, but with you guys and the Castor showing up, things have obviously slowed a bit… so it´s still not fully sealed, or pressurized.” He swallowed painfully, replacing a glass of water with a grimace. “Guess we´ll cross that bridge when we get there!”
“Exactly. We got this, man.” Barney said, coming over to pat Sander on the shoulder. “Everything´s gonna work out!”
But their host had once again disappeared into the recesses of his ship and gave no indication that he’d heard Barney´s encouraging words...
Sergei, however, gave a big yawn in response, and pivoted back towards their chambers. Soon, the Russians had retreated to their quarters and Evelyn had joined her husband in helping the twins return their oxygen tanks to the rack.
“One of Quentin’s probes picked something up…” Evelyn revealed, as they heaved the heavy canister into place.
“What’s that?”
“What, a probe? It’s-”
But Quentin cut her off as he apparated from below deck, a streak of grease stretching across his forearm.
“It’s our eyes and ears!” he replied. “These babies sense whatever’s out there, record it… even stuff that’s in orbit! That´s how I know where to pilot us...”
With the curious teens in tow, Quentin returned to the cockpit and nodded to a large, screen-covered console near the copilot seat, as the doors slid open.
“We got two up there now, with a third on standby...” he mentioned, pointing to each screen as he matched their readings with the drone activity. “My algorithms can plot our course, avoid dangerous terrain and all that good stuff… but without this extra triangulation, we´d basically be driving blind.”
“That’s insane...” Sander marveled, imagining the little satellites overhead.
“Yeah, just don’t touch it...”
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Crouching down, Quentin pulled out a drawer from beneath the dashboard and lifted the small, glass protection that shielded a series of dials. After double-checking his map, he then inserted new coordinates, hit a large green button and to the Schwabs’ surprise, the entire ship lurched to the left.
“Woah-” Barney gasped, barely catching himself on the side of door as his family stumbled around him.
“Sorry! That´s why we generally move at night, when everyone is asleep…” Quentin apologized, before continuing his explanations. “OK, so I´m setting a course for the shadow’s edge, should get us as close as possible to their LZ and still be safe…”
“What’s the plan?” Sander asked, rubbing the elbow that had just gotten smacked against a seat corner. “We just drive up to them and that’s it, right? Same as for us.”
“Depends how they land… ” his father interjected, putting an arm around his wife to steady her.
“Yeah… I uh- I don’t know, it’s always a crapshoot,” Quentin shot back distractedly, sliding the drawer shut and returning to his feet. “You guys crashed and survived, some people land just fine and die anyway...” he smiled wearily. “We’ll see.”
Their parents huddled closer to Quentin and started asking some technical questions that tired Sander just from overhearing them, so he gave a little nod to Lori, and they departed towards their room.
Soon enough it was time for dinner and just as the twins arrived in the common area, Pavel and his gang showed up to eat. Sitting down to what turned out to be leftover vegetables from the previous night, the men let out a collective groan… but Quentin cut off their groggy complaints.
“Alright calm down…” he began, staring at the Russians until they stopped talking. “As we all know, tomorrow is a big day… and after talking it over, it seems that the easiest way we can do this, is to drop Pavel, Sergei and Matt off near the Marius hills, while we make a beeline for the light side-”
“When?” Sergei asked, picking at his food.
“Actually, we’re already on our way. So don’t worry if it gets a bit bumpy later on. We’ll be taking a few turns, but she’s sturdy.” He punctuated his explanation with a quick pat on the ship’s hull, beneath his feet. “So everyone up at seven, breakfast at eight… that should give you the whole morning to finish construction. And we stay in contact the whole time…”
“We can get up earlier and help, if you want!”
“What now?”
Perplexed by Evelyn´s comment, Quentin did a double-take.
“I mean, aren´t these tunnels like… really big? I´m sure the extra man-power-”
“No-no-no, we´re not using the full lava tube, you crazy? It´s like, 300 feet wide!” he laughed. “Gotta start small this time; I ain´t making the same mistake twice… We´re only exploiting one of the smaller fissures, near the entrance.”
“Oh…” she answered, taken aback by his response. “OK, but- so you´re sure that´s safe?”
“It better be… we´re already straining the life-support system as it is, with you guys on board. Not to mention, our food´s running a little low…”
Noticing the family´s concerned glances towards their lackluster meal, Quentin leaned in closer to comfort the Schwabs.
“But that´s under control! Look, minerals like the basalt we´re talking about are actually a little bit denser up here than on earth… and all those extra little ferrous particles make it pretty easy to work with, especially in lower gravity.”
He shot a little wink towards an oblivious Matvey, who just kept eating.
“Plus, we´ve already reassembled an airlock from one of the abandoned Runners, right at the mouth of the cave, and fitted it with enough geopolymer to choke a whale… All that´s really left is to do a final heat-treatment, rig up an algae filter from our garden -at least until the interior atmosphere stabilizes- then it´s all-good: we pick´em up, patch´em up, and move´em in. The boys know what to do, I showed them…”
As Quentin´s pep-talk petered out, the lingering uncertainty in the room cast somewhat of a chill, with no one having much to add except for Pavel, who gestured for Quentin to come over. Seeing this, the man finished his plate and joined the Russian side of the table, to immerse himself more deeply in the details of the coming day.
“Yes... OK, so once you´re finished, wait for us there. I’ll give you the Landshark coordinates…”
While they planned their expedition, Barney turned to the twins and brought Evelyn closer for their own family huddle.
“So, this is kind of exciting, right? New people...” their father grinned.
“If they make it…” Sander shot back.
“Come on guys, let’s not worry about stuff we can’t control…” Evelyn offered, returning to her plate for another mouthful. “I´m sure-”
Suddenly, the ship drastically reduced speed. Everyone did their best to catch the dishware as it slid to the ground… but Sergei wasn’t quick enough.
“Blyat!” he cursed, shooting Quentin a dirty look while wiping tomatoes off his feet.
“I’ll uh... lower the speed a bit more…” Quentin said sheepishly, before hurrying off to do just that.
After a few minutes, the Firmament’s crew had cleaned up the spills and stains of their aborted dinner, and eaten whatever was left of the meal. The Schwabs then excused themselves, and returned to their quarters in anticipation of what was to come.
Yet despite the slightly anxious buzz of having to deal with an imminent landing and all that it entailed, there weren’t any other notable incidents besides the turbulence that evening. Instead of playing their typical game of cards until around midnight, the Russians simply retired to their bunks… while the Firmament shifted again -albeit more gently than before- and caused Barney to almost swallow his toothbrush.
With an exhausted look to his giggling family, all he could do was sigh.
“I’m done. Time for bed.”
“Goodnight guys…” their mother chimed-in.
“Love you!”
And so, as the Firmament’s lights automatically switched to their night-setting, Lori and Sander let the weight of the day catch up to them and melted into their hammocks… until only Quentin remained.
Wandering back and forth throughout his ship, in search of any detail that could have been overlooked, Quentin was the last to drift off into an uneasy sleep… but with a final pill, he too dozed off.