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Curious Sols (The Sol Principle Book 1) Page 18


  The lights customarily dimmed right before beginning. Stephanie couldn’t bear to look around the empty observation room she stood in. Kevin’s brother Kyle had been paged, but he had not responded. In her family, only her step-mother replied. Ashley was in the middle of some project she was trying to get out of, but couldn't say when that would be. She was there, by herself, with an unbearable weight pulling her down like a sinking ship. Several unthinkable thoughts ran through her mind… of how she could stop the pain she felt. But there was Kevin, on that table, truly alone. She had to stay. He was there because of her.

  Stephanie knew the surgery had begun when she saw the robot slowly circling Kevin. The doctor was more attentive now, watching the procedure from her own viewpoint. In a few minutes the surgery would be over. The seconds of waiting were endless. She couldn't imagine a more horrible feeling.

  Without warning the ground underneath her feet seemed to buckle as the walls shook. She grabbed onto a rail, keeping herself from falling. Looking through the observation window, she could see that the doctor had remained upright by grabbing the robotic station beside her. Stephanie’s heart pounded as she looked at Kevin. At least he remained stationary on the table. The robotic doctor continued along, unfazed by the phenomenon.

  An alarm sounded in the waiting room outside. Three med assistants rushed into the surgical room from a side area. The doctor waved them off, halting the procedure. Stephanie couldn’t hear the doctor’s instructions to initialize the backup systems. Moments later a second shock hit the room, this one far worse than the first. It knocked Stephanie clear off her feet. She heard a loud noise, an explosion. The vibrations reverberated through the room, but Stephanie thought it came from overhead. Using her hands to feel her way, Stephanie made it to the observation window which was her only source of light. Through the window, she saw her second traumatic event of the day. The doctor was laying on the floor, blood streaking down the side of her head. Trying to help her was one of the assistants. The other two assistants were on the floor across the room lying motionless. Looking around the room she saw Kevin, he remained on the bed. What she saw next crushed her hopes. The small robotic surgeon was strewn across the room, smashed into pieces by a large metal beam. It had crashed from the ceiling narrowing missing Kevin and striking the robot dead center.

  *

  Chapter 27 Crackerjack Surprise

  Three scientists were dissecting the ore carrier's workstation as though it was a mad science experiment. The huge reinforced doors leading to the carrier's bay had remained closed since the arrival of the Argo. The workstation housed the main controls for the entry point. Several compartments were torn apart, wiring strung from side to side. A host of Ksyncs were patched in to the workstation at all points. The idea that it was in better shape now than a few hours earlier would have seemed ludicrous to the average MARC colonist. To Ashley, Glennay, and Tyler, ripping apart workstations was like breathing.

  “I'm thinking we're the modern day equivalent of blacksmiths,” Tyler added to their ongoing conversation. “I mean, in the outback we wouldn't be shoeing horses these days, but fixing broken down Ksyncs and ground cars.”

  Glennay shook her head and countered, “Not I. You won't find me out there skipping along with any kangaroos. I'm going to bring civilization to this red rock, starting with a high tech spa.”

  Ashley couldn't help herself and let out a laugh. Glennay shot her an evil glance.

  “Don't disrespect my spa before you see it,” she stated with authority. “Where do you think all these tired settlers are going flock to after a hard day of playing cowboy?”

  “To the pub if they have any common sense,” Tyler chimed in.

  Glennay tossed a broken Ksync at Tyler.

  “Hey, what's the bloody idea?” Tyler shot back halfheartedly.

  “Careful Tyler,” Ashley said, stirring the pot, “a cute Aussie accent won't get you out of trouble with this one. You should see the bruises Kyle has from their last training day.”

  “Sounds like that mate could use a few jujitsu lessons,” Tyler replied. “Look at her, she's nearly skin and bones.”

  Glennay stopped and gave her best walk over to the technician.

  “That mate, was a lieutenant in the sentinels,” Ashley chimed in before Glennay could get a word in. “I'd hate to see what would happen to a tech head.”

  Glennay looked over at Ashley and back to Tyler before agreeing. “Like she said…” Satisfied with the situation, Glennay returned to her repair work.

  “Hold up a second,” Ashley lobbied as she crawled out from under the workstation. “I’m getting a page on my Ksync.”

  After seeing the message she encouraged the group. “Stephanie needs me gang. We need to hurry this up or I’m going to have to let you two work together, alone.”

  “That’s some inspiration,” Tyler whispered under his breath.

  Several minutes later, Ashley let out a groan as she spun around the workstation.

  “I'm patched in to both the bay systems and the carrier, but I'll be darned if I can get a single command to register,” she said clearly frustrated.

  “You tried his backdoor code, I'm assuming?” Glennay questioned Ashley.

  “He must have chosen a different one, or that was specific to the Argo. Either way, it didn't work,” Ashley replied.

  A warning light began to flash on an unoccupied part of the workstation.

  “What did you do there?” Tyler questioned Ashley.

  “I'm not tied into that at all,” she responded.

  “Me either,” added Glennay.

  The three of them converged on the offending part of the workstation.

  Pulling up the schematics for that section of the workstation, Ashley looked for the source of the warning signal. With a look of horror on her face, she gasped and took a step back.

  “No, not again!” she cried.

  The other two looked closer at the screen. A technical layout of the ore carrier was dead center in the screen. The main thrusters of the vessel were partially covered by an overlay of a countdown timer. It was counting down from five minutes.

  Glennay tried to snap Ashley out of it. “C’mon Ashley, five minutes, we need a solution fast.”

  “I've tried everything, he changed the code, I can't get through,” Ashley recounted her attempts out loud. Her voice was different than usual. There was a hint of doubt in it, something Glennay wasn't used to hearing.

  “OK,” Glennay moved over to the workstation, “I'm sure there's something we haven’t tried.”

  Tyler took one look at Ashley, then another at Glennay.

  “I keep trying to tell you Americans, you can't bloody well keep doing the same thing over and over again and think something new will happen,” Tyler said, as though he was scolding a misbehaving student.

  He moved around the workstation, ripping off Ksyncs one by one from their connection. Glennay shot him a look of dismay as he had gathered all the devices and dumped them on the center table of the workstation.

  “Sometimes you just have to throw out the junk and start over,” he added as the Ksyncs banged down on the table.

  Pulling a Ksync off of his belt, he handed it to Glennay.

  “Be a sheila and string those together,” Tyler directed Glennay as he motioned toward the Ksyncs.

  Glennay was in a daze. She completely missed his slang, but managed to grasp his request.

  As she did, Tyler pointed a Ksync toward the terminal connection of the workstation.

  “What are you…?” Glennay tried to utter a question, but before she could finish Tyler had activated his Ksync.

  “Fire shock pulse!” Tyler gave a command to the device. The short hum seemed to rise in intensity as the device gathered all its energy. Then with a loud blast, it fired an electrostatic blast ripping the casing off of the terminal connection. With the cables exposed, he reached into the box and yanked a stretch of the cable. He fed it to Glennay. With the workstatio
n's connection lost, the security lock on the door reset.

  “It shouldn't take much to hook these up now, don't you think?” Tyler asked rhetorically.

  Ashley was literally jolted out of her state of shock with the Ksync's pulse.

  “We've no way to tell how much time is left,” Ashley commented, “just go fast.”

  Tyler and Glennay worked together to establish a connection between the make-shift workstation and the network.

  “That should do it,” Tyler said proudly. “Have at it.”

  Ashley jumped to the lead Ksync in the series.

  “That got us past the door,” Ashley announced, “but I still can't shut down the thrusters. The override is blocked from the carrier's systems now.”

  Glennay shot out an idea. “Can you fire the thrusters?”

  Ashley looked confused but answered, “Yes.”

  “Undock that ship and get it out of here then!” Glennay followed up.

  “Of course!” Ashley concurred.

  Large red lights flashed, and an alarm clanked on the corridor walls and inside the bay.

  A computerized voice indicated, “Warning, emergency launch procedures initiated.”

  Looking through the reinforced window view of the bay, the three watched as the docking clamps retracted from the ore carrier. Immediately following the retraction, the thrusters fired at full power. The vibrations rocked the exterior of the station like a minor tremor. The ore carrier proceeded in the direction of its launch point.

  Trevor checked his Ksync. “It should be any time...” but before the words came out of his mouth, the transport's thrusters exploded. Large pieces of the transport smashed into the MARC station, however, the docking clamps holding the U.S.S. Columbus had taken the brunt of the force. The carrier was passing the Columbus, and it had shielded the station from certain breach. The flagship of the MARC fleet, however, had been blasted out of its mooring.

  Alarms and klaxons echoed down the corridor halls from all directions.

  “Are there still people aboard the Columbus?” Glennay shouted above the noise.

  “I don't know,” Ashley shouted back.

  Instinctively, the three of them turned and ran down the corridor. As they started, a second explosion rocked the station from above. The vibrations shook them off their feet and threw them around the corridor like rag dolls.

  Picking themselves up they checked each other for injury.

  “Where's John?” Glennay yelled to Ashley.

  Pointing to the station's elevator she replied, “Getting ready to go down.”

  “Go find your family,” Glennay told her. “We'll check on the Columbus.”

  Ashley nodded as the scientists split up in different directions.

  #

  Stephanie stood mesmerized at the scene before her. She couldn’t just stand there and watch Kevin die. Reaching over to the doorway, she hit the emergency access panel. The entrance slid open, and she rushed through.

  “What are you doing?” yelled the med assistant at Stephanie. “You can’t be in here. This is a sterile environment.”

  “My boyfriend is dying on that table over there,” she yelled back. “You can’t let that happen. What’s wrong with the doctor?”

  “My eyes,” the doctor moaned. “I can’t see anything.”

  “Her imaging contacts fused to her eyes with the power spike,” the tech added. “She needs medical attention.”

  “But what about Kevin?” Stephanie countered, breathing heavily now.

  “If we can page Doctor Walter, then your friend might have a chance,” replied the med assistant.

  “Can’t you do something?” Stephanie frantically asked the assistant.

  “I can set up the stand-by robot, but the doctor is the only one who can do the surgery,” replied the med assistant.

  “I’m so sorry,” added the doctor. “She’s right. It’s difficult to maneuver the controls. I wish I could talk her through it, but I have to see it with my own eyes.”

  “See it,” muttered Stephanie. “See it.”

  Mustering every ounce of courage Stephanie commanded the assistant. “Get her up. Get her up now. She is going to see.”

  Thinking the girl had lost her senses the med assistant shook her head and replied “Hun you can’t fix this. There’s no way either of us are going to help the doctor see right now.”

  Stephanie gave the assistant a hard stare and spoke in a commanding voice, “Stand her up now. Get the robot ready”

  The assistant repeated half of what Stephanie said as a glassy stare replaced her animated refusal. As Stephanie gave the command, a shooting pain rippled through her mind. It was though her brain had retaliated against her neuroband. The pain cleared quickly, but it wasn’t something she wished to experience again. The tech bent down and worked to help the doctor stand.

  The stand-by robot was powered up. Next to it, the doctor was standing. She was too confused to question what was happening. Stephanie reached into the same container she had seen the doctor use earlier. Pulling out two contact lenses she struggled to place them in her eyes.

  “I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” said the med assistant more like herself, “but here, let me help you. Look up.”

  The med assistant moved over to Stephanie and helped her insert the contact lenses into her eyes.

  “Turn that thing on so I can see,” Stephanie directed.

  The med assistant activated the robotic device. Stephanie's first impulse was to scream as she was forced to see from an entirely new point of view. She quickly realized her vision was from the perspective of the robotic eyes. Taking a deep breath, she focused her thoughts on the doctor. This was going to take every last bit of skill and endurance she had developed for this to work.

  The doctor took a step back, almost faltering while she asked “But how? How in the world am I seeing this?”

  “Don’t break my concentration, either of you, just work,” Stephanie managed to say.

  The doctor stepped back to the machine. The med assistant attached the neurosensors from the robot to the doctor. Testing the connection, the doctor moved her hands. As she did the robotic fingers followed suit.

  For five extremely long minutes the doctor worked, directing Stephanie's vision as needed. Luckily, she was well versed in using the old-fashioned robotic unit. By the time she had finished, a small smile had crept across her lips.

  “Young lady,” the doctor said, “I’ve no idea how you did that, but you just saved a young man’s life.”

  Stephanie’s mind heard the words from the doctor. Her head managed a small nod. Then without a bit of energy left in her, she collapsed onto the floor.

  Chapter 28 Women and Children First

  The last family from the Melbourne finished loading up a pod. Everyone was smiling and waving as it started its decent to the surface. It would be the last pod to Mars for several hours as the station needed to make a mandatory course adjustment. John was told it was a routine adjustment, and that the MARC station would continue sending down pods once it had established a stable orbit.

  Jessica was visiting again with the Ramirez family. He was going to owe Vic and Ana a gigantic Christmas basket when the season rolled around for all their help. Stephanie was unloading crates with her academy classmates. With little else to do at the launch bay, he decided to find Kyle and head up to the admiral's office. The first time they had met, he hadn't made a fantastic impression. The captain chalked it up to pent up stress that bubbled over, but he didn’t like coming off as an impatient rookie in front of a living legend. John hoped to give a better account of himself the next time they met.

  Raising his Ksync, John sent a page to his second in command.

  “Kyle, let's meet up at the admiral's office in five if you're not tied up,” John messaged the Lieutenant. He then flipped his Ksync to private mode, he wanted the next conversation with the admiral to go smoothly.

  Unlike the fleet, the MARC stat
ion used multifunctional corridor panels to pick up and transmit signals throughout its structure. This was a godsend over the constant manual interaction with vidcomms aboard the Columbus.

  His Ksync gave off a tone followed by the Lieutenant's voice, “Okay John, meet you there in five.”

  John had a few minutes to observe the crew of the MARC station. They were a multinational crew, recruited from all over Earth. The demand for joining the MARC program was astounding. The opportunity to explore a new world, coupled with the feelings of hope and belonging to such an organization made for powerful recruitment classes.

  His thoughts drifted back to his own recruitment into the program. Given his connections, he only needed a heartbeat and a pulse to be accepted. John instead earned his position through merit. He remembered the arguments he had with his father over joining. With everything happening so quickly in the last few weeks, he hadn't devoted nearly the time he needed to that last communiqué. Before he could dwell more on the subject, however, Kyle appeared from around the corner.

  “So are we here to surgically remove your foot from your mouth,” Kyle greeted him with baited sarcasm, “or are we looking to impress this go around?”

  “See if you hang around with me long enough, you too can be a funny guy.” John dodged the sarcasm with some of his own.

  “Only when the opportunity is wide open,” Kyle chuckled in response as he gave John a friendly pat on the shoulder.

  The two of them approached the admiral's office, activating the door's page from the vidcomm. Moments later they heard a welcome, “Enter.”

  Inside the office, Admiral Conrad was speaking with engineering.

  “Excellent, proceed on schedule with the orbital shift,” she directed a tech officer on the screen of her vidcomm.

  The tech officer saluted, and the communication terminated.

  Admiral Conrad stood and approached the two MARC sentinels. They exchanged brief salutes before speaking.

  “We’ll have a two hour delay in deployment to the surface while we adjust the station's position,” she informed them. “As much as I'd like to get everyone on their way, it turns out you've timed your arrival with another visitor, Phobus.”