T-Plus 15

  The lights were a welcome change to the dreary darkness they’d been living in for two weeks. Even with the dark visors of their helmet that helped dim the suddenness of the lights, it still managed to blind him. Oliver closed his eyes, waiting for them to recover enough to squint and blink through the rest of the pain, his eyes watery throughout the process. Once his eyes registered the new lighting, he and one of the others stepped forward to open the hatch doors back inside. The emergency power lit the halls and powered the important systems, but it wasn’t enough to operate the automatic doors, forcing them to still pull them open.

  With some effort Oliver and whoever was on the other side pulled the hatch open, waiting for the others to enter before slipping in themselves. The lights in the hangar were far dimmer than in the hatch, since most were blocked by tall drones or the mountain range of crates. Back in safe air, the technicians unlatched their helmets, pulling it over their heads and taking in the light without the darkened visor.

“How glad am I to see artificial lighting,” Daniel breathed as he shook his helmet hair out.

  They untied their tethers, stepping out of their suits. The feeling of cold air brushing against his skin was relieving after spending hours in the suits. He set his helmet down beside the suit, fanning himself with his shirt for a moment. They gathered around Soup and Emerson, who had joined the engineer at some point, plopping down on various impromptu seating. Oliver collapsed onto the nearest crate beside Emerson, resting his elbows on his knees as he rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes.

“Now, all we need is to find a working computer,” Soup muttered after he noticed the technicians’ momentary silence.

“Did the other group come back yet?” the Chief asked, looking up from his seat.

  Both Emerson and Soup exchanged looks before shaking their heads. Oliver could only sigh, rubbing his head that was still slick with sweat. Their last trio had gone downstairs for a few days now, and they still hadn’t made it back. At this point, either they were taking longer to circumvent any aliens, or they had run into some serious issues.

“Should we go look for one ourselves?” Oliver suggested.

“We’ve already cleared this floor,” the Chief reasoned, “so we’ll have to split up again. “Two teams this time, one to stay here and wait to see if the others come back, and the other will go search the second and first floors. I’ll be staying with one other person, the rest of you can decide who’s doing what.”

  Before he could continue on, the sound of feet shuffling and tripping on themselves came near them, and Oliver looked up to see their remaining Navigator amble up to their group, fresh and awake compared to the rest of them.

“You got the power back!” he said, rushing up to them once he saw them. “If you wanted me to wake up, you could’ve just called me.”

  The Navigator inserted himself into the circle, pulling up an unused crate to sit down Toast. His face had enough energy to wake up the rest of them if he chose to share it. Looking around, he realized they were in the middle of a discussion and sat back with a more serious look on his face.

“Are we talking about our next step?” he asked.

“As I was saying,” the Chief said after taking a deep breath. “We’ll need to split up again. One person will stay back with me, someone needs to keep an eye on the solar panel. Although it’s ‘repaired’, we did the best we could with what we had, which wasn’t much. One bad jolt and the lights can die on us again. The rest of you need to hunt down a working computer fast. Search both the second floor and first floors. How you want to accomplish that is up to you, but if possible, you should check up on the trio that’s supposed to be on the first floor.”

  Oliver nodded, looking around at their measly circle of eight. He sighed, running his hand through his hair again.

“Who wants to stay behind?” he asked.

  Everyone exchanged another set of looks. Oliver opened his mouth to volunteer, but Soup beat him to it.

“I’ll stay behind, I guess. I can’t help much with managing the solar panel, but I can manage the tether and keep an eye out for aliens,” Soup said. “Of course, it’s not recommended for Dr. Emerson to go on the escapade, but in the case where the Chief has to go fix the panel, she can’t hold the base by herself either. It’s best for me to be the one to stay behind. I’ll just have to ask whoever’s with Toast to keep an eye on him for me.”

  The Chief nodded, standing.

“That’s settled. I’m going to bed. You guys figure out what you’re doing. Don’t take too long planning.”

  He waved at them, heading back toward the locker room where his cot was, leaving the rest of them still sitting in their circle. Soup scooted closer to close the gap, crossing his legs.

“You could go take a nap too, Soup,” Oliver offered.

  The engineer shook his head, leaning further into the circle.

“I’ll rest once you’re situated. You shouldn’t leave until everyone’s feeling their best anyways. Both the second and first floor are out of our patrol perimeter, so you’ll have to prepare well.”

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“We’ll split into teams of three again,” Oliver decided, taking in Soup’s concern. “One team will scour the second floor. Be careful of the hospital and cafeteria. The other team will search the first floor. If you still have your room keys on you, search your own rooms. The rest of us will hand over our keys too, so you can search all the rooms possible. At this point, any working computer will work as long as it can send a message down to Triton.”

“I can hand you mine and the Chief’s before you guys leave,” Soup said.

  Oliver nodded his thanks, clasping his fingers together.

“Now, the question is who’s going with who?”

“Dr. Emerson should be part of the team that goes down to the first floor,” Daniel suggested. “She won’t be able to climb down to the second floor through our usual route.”

  Emerson only gave her nod of agreement.

“Oliver, I’m delegating Toast with you,” Daniel decided.

“Wait, why?”

“You’re Lab 5C’s babysitter, it’s your job, obviously,” the technician laughed.

  He reached over to pat Oliver’s shoulder, a smile on his face the entire time. Oliver could do nothing but throw a glare back at his friend.

“Is that what you guys call him over here?” Toast asked, leaning forward to join the conversation. “We just called him our housekeeper.”

“Is that how you saw me?” Oliver complained, swatting Daniel’s hand off him and shoving Toast’s shoulder. “I clean up your messes for you, take explosions to my face for you, and that’s what you call me?”

“Isn’t that your job?” Toast asked, tilting his head to one side.

“No!”

  The circle shared a laugh, although Oliver didn’t find it funny. He clicked his tongue, falling back into his seat when he realized he’d stood up in the heat of the moment. He crossed his arms, throwing yet another glare at both Toast and Daniel, who had fallen into suppressed snickers.

“Very funny guys. If Toast is going to be with me, then we’ll be on the first floor with Emerson. At least, she’ll be able to keep our imminent injuries to a minimum.”

“At least you know that,” the doctor said with a shake of her head.

“That leaves Richardson, Joey, and Daniel to climb down to the second floor,” Oliver said with a clap. “Easy.”

  He stood again, stretching out the joints in his body. He reached for his now useless flashlight, intending to head back to the locker room and finish the preparations. The others followed him, keeping their chatter in whispers.

  They stepped into the locker room. The Chief had already wrapped himself in the thin cover they’d found in one of the nearby storage rooms. His back was to them, and the coat to his technician uniform was draped on the edge of one of the open lockers. The black armband that symbolized his Chief status was still pinned to the sleeve.

  Entering the locker room, they quieted their footfalls and kept their shuffling to a minimum as they gathered their equipment. On the other hand, Soup took off his dirtied lab coat, hanging it off the nearest open locker door. As the others finished their preparations to leave, he took out a keycard from one of his coat’s inner pockets, handing it to Emerson, muttering some words to her. Oliver assumed it was something along the lines of “Don’t lose it.”

  Oliver set the necessary items aside, slipping them into his backpack. He set the backpack beside his cot, looking around to see the others’ progress. Emerson was already set with only a shoulder bag and her usual lab coat. She was still wearing the shoes they’d gotten her previously, the ones a few sizes too big for her. He approached her, pointing at her shoes.

“We should swing by your room if we’re able to and grab new shoes that actually fit you,” he whispered.

  She glanced up at him while adjusting her heels.

“At that point, we might as well grab the first wheelchair or cane we can find,” she whispered back.

  He gave a nod, beckoning to Toast. The scientist bounded over, his backpack already swinging on his back. Oliver looked around the rest of the locker room, gesturing for Daniel to come over as well.

“What’s up? You want to switch team members already?” the other technician joked in a hushed tone when he joined their circle.

“No,” Oliver hissed. “Just wanted to know when you were planning on heading out. We’ll need to go down the stairs, but the alien nest is still there last I checked. If you guys go first, you can lead some out so we can head down easier.”

“Easy,” Daniel promised with a nod. “I was thinking about heading out in a few hours. Joey looks put out.”

  He pointed over to the unusually quiet intern, and they all turned to see he had tilted sideways in his cot. As they continued watching, Joey continued sagging into his cot. His head hit the edge, and he snapped awake again, sitting up in a panic only to see everyone staring at him. Joey gave an awkward laugh as he ducked his head.

“Yeah, we’ll head out after a while then. Emerson, you’re free to get more sleep if you want,” Oliver yawned. “We’ll head out when the first of us wakes up.”

  Daniel and Toast nodded, heading back to their own cots. Daniel relayed the news to Joey and Richardson, who gave a nod. The intern basically didn’t move and simply slid into his cot, using his jacket as a blanket before passing out. Oliver kicked off his boots, freeing his feet before covering his face with his own jacket and getting some rest.

***

  As the others got some sleep before they headed out, Esther stepped out into the hallway, heading into the room across the way. She sat down, staring at the nearest light near her feet. Several moments later, Kuznetsov joined her, sitting in the chair across the table from her.

“Well, the power’s back on,” Esther said, leaning back in her seat.

  She spun in the swivel chair, tapping her fingers on the armrest.

“What’re we going to do once we send a message, and it becomes the worst case scenario?” she asked.

  Kuznetsov shrugged, sighing as he also leaned back in his seat.

“There were a couple reasons why I decided to stay behind, not including what I said before. It’s easier to consolidate our supplies if someone in the know stays here. And I’m sure the Chief, with his position, already knows of the possibility of the worst outcome. We’ll continue gathering supplies to last us as long as possible. Who knows, maybe the Chief already has a different idea in mind. You just need to keep an eye out for all possible supplies. If you find a computer, or if you go by the Space Elevator again, the first thing you need to check is if Triton’s already sent us a response.”

  Esther nodded in understanding. That was simple enough.

“Alright, I’ll keep an eye out.”

  The engineer stood to return to the locker room. He waved at her, hiding a yawn behind his other hand, leaving her alone in the dim room.

***