Astronomicon 1: Inception Point (Finished)

16 - Supply Module 3

Chris and Fletcher walked around the apparently safely landed supply module and performed a visual inspection before moving closer.

"Looks like it worked as it was meant to," Chris reported.

"There's a fair bit more scorching on the outer hull than there should be," said Fletcher. "The heat dissipation system didn't work as predicted."

"We came in faster than was planned. Will that have done much damage?"

"Maybe not. Won't know for sure until we get inside, Commander," Fletcher replied.

He walked to the nearest of the four shock-absorbing landing legs and stepped up onto the metre and a half long, oval foot. Before going any further, he swung his rucksack off his shoulders and handed it to Chris. Then he used the metal steps, placed at forty-centimetre intervals up the sloped landing leg to climb to the top where the huge pivot locked into the cylindrical body of the module.

"The panel is heat damaged, sir," he reported as he leant to the left and grabbed a handle recessed into the hull beside the leg.

He tried pulling the handle three times before it swung with enough force to lock all the way down. A line of LEDs beside it lit and then a four-metre-long, vertical panel in the side of the body clunked heavily and slowly lowered on a pair of powerful pneumatic pistons. It swung down and reached the full distance down to the gravel surface below, its weight pushing the end of the panel into the loose gravel. Chris stepped up onto the rubber-coated interior surface and walked a short way up. Rounded steps, designed to work at a range of angles, were spaced every twenty centimetres up the ramp, making it easy to ascend.

Behind where the panel had been, two tall, vertical doors hissed momentarily before sliding slowly sideways into the curved hull to reveal the interior space which was, apart from a narrow walkway in the middle, tightly packed with large boxes. Chris moved halfway up the ramp then turned to the others.

"You all know the drill for unloading one of these. The original procedure was to land in the morning to give us the whole day to unload the modules and set up camp. We don't have that luxury, so we must only unload the stuff we need and any stuff that needs to be unloaded to give us access to more important stuff."

"We're meant to have the heavy lifting equipment from the fuel modules for this," Fletcher grumbled.

"Well, we're relying on human muscles for now," Chris replied. "We absolutely must get at least one shelter set up and enough power to run its heating and lighting for at least two nights."

"Two? We're staying here tomorrow as well?" asked Lucy.

"No, but we'll be coming back this way on the way home."

Fletcher checked out the electrical system on the supply module and, on finding the batteries were still fully charged, he switched on the interior lights. Chris was relieved that it all seemed to be working as it should, a definite improvement over their previous experiences since crashing. It also meant that, if they were unable to construct a shelter in time, then the option was there to simply clear enough space inside the module and camp in there overnight.

He gave Kate and Lucy the job of climbing the cargo netting inside the module to find the food supplies that should have been at the top, then he set about identifying the boxes and crates at the bottom level. It was not going to be possible to get any of the larger components out through the doors until the crates nearest the doorway had been offloaded.

Two of the eight buggies that were packed in the nosecones of the four fuel modules had compact cranes and winches fitted to them. The original plan was to use those to lift the heavier crates down onto the ground but, for now, that was not an option. He knew they were all going to be exhausted before they went to sleep that night.

Four of them working together, with Calvin coordinating the team, lifted the largest crate from the middle of the floor. Apart from the weight, which was at the limit of what they could lift between them, the hard part was getting the metal crate through the doorway which had mere millimetres to spare. Once on the ramp, the front two jumped off either side and the four of them slid it down to the ground. With one last heave, they moved it to one side to get it out of the way.

"Do we open it now?" asked Diego.

"It's a water purification system. We don't need it tonight," Chris replied.

"Maybe we should fire it up in the morning, Commander," Fletcher suggested. "We can all pee in it."

"Ewww!" Calvin squealed in disgust, causing Fletcher to guffaw merrily.

"You do know it's rated for that?" Chris added. "It's capable of taking urine as input and producing clean, drinking water at the other end."

"I do not want to drink reprocessed wee," Calvin squirmed.

"You know we've lost half our water reserve already?" Chris smiled.

"I know, I know...but...ewww...no...ewww!"

"I think Calvin's won that argument!" Lucy laughed, appearing at the top of the ramp holding a large, plastic bag of dried food sachets.

They retrieved enough components to build one of the prefabricated shelters and then started work on putting it together. The gravel was not the most suitable base for it but, even if they had time, they could not possibly transport it back to firmer ground without vehicles.

With the floor panels locked into place, they positioned the pack of interconnected metal ribs at one end and Fletcher connected one of the high-pressure pumps. Once activated, the pump made a sound rather like a cheap vacuum cleaner. It took a while for its efforts to become apparent but then the coated canvas material folded between the ribs started to inflate.

They watched in awe as a half-metre bundle of ribs quickly telescoped outwards to match the six-metre length of the floor plates. Soon the canvas panels were as rigid as the ribs between them and the whole structure was supporting itself. Two members of the team began fastening the many clips that connected the floor to the walls and Chris and Fletcher unfolded one of the end walls and worked on lining that up with the end of the rigid canvas tube.

Twenty minutes later, both ends were locked in place and they had an insulated space six metres by four and tall enough to stand up in. Each endplate had two small, rounded windows, one to each side, and the front plate had a swing door in the middle. The remaining jobs were to locate the camp beds and connect up the electrical system.

The shelter was supposed to be connected to one of the large power generators, but it was not possible to even move one of those without the cranes, so Fletcher wired it into the batteries on the supply module. There was a cheer when the lights built-in to the ceiling flicked into life and the air heaters in the back wall began to purr. When they added the camp beds, sealed the door and sat around to eat their evening meal, they were in positive luxury compared to the night before.

The physical exertion of the, albeit short, day had taken its toll and everyone fell asleep soon after eating.

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