Astronomicon 1: Inception Point (Finished)

27 - Search

Ria had long finished searching the area of Supply Module 2 that was above the waterline. Like module one, there were not many places to hide anything. She was leaning against the thin, metal handrail waiting for Skylar to complete her search below the waterline.

Her thoughts had returned to Pete's death. She could not deny that she was annoyed that he had ignored her orders but, unless he had triggered the device, they may not have known the severity of the threat they now faced. Losing a crew member was never going to be easy but it was more acceptable if his death had, even indirectly, saved the rest of the crew.

She began to imagine her way around the other parts of the Hesperian, mentally searching for any possible hiding places for an explosive device. It would help narrow it down considerably if they had any idea how large the device would be. She already had Stephen, Susan and Phil working down the interior of the Command Module deck by deck, searching every nook and cranny.

Her thoughts were broken by a sudden splash from behind her. She spun around to find Skylar's E.V.A. helmet above the water and causing ripples in the surface. Skylar was struggling to reach out for the aluminium mesh walkway without sinking back into the water.

Ria dropped onto her knees above the three-step ladder then descended into the water, held onto the handrail with one hand and stretched out to catch Skylar's gloved hand with the other. Their fingers locked and Ria heaved her towards the steps. Moments later, water was cascading off the E.V.A. suit as Skylar clambered awkwardly onto the walkway. Ria helped her release the safety catch on her visor so she could lift it to speak.

"There's nothing down there as far as I can tell, Commander," she reported, slightly out of breath. "One thing that does worry me though is those cryopods. If there was something hidden in one of those, we can't get into them without defrosting the occupants."

"I'm not too worried about those," Ria replied. "Firstly, I'm not about to start defrosting the entire crew to search the pods. Secondly, and more significantly, every pod was checked manually by a group of technicians as each crew member was frozen. Any hidden device would assuredly have been discovered."

Skylar removed her helmet and placed it on the walkway. Ria was helping her detach the life-support-pack when there was an incoming call tone from the tiny console that was attached to the top of the handrail. Ria reached past Skylar to press the flashing icon on the screen. Before she had a chance to speak herself, Susan's voice with her exaggerated consonants came over the speakers.

"Commander, we've found something odd in the air processing plant."

"What do you mean, 'odd'?" Ria replied, lowering the weighty life-support-pack onto the walkway.

"It's an extra oxygen reserve cylinder, but it's not connected to the processing system. I was looking around the pipes and equipment when I noticed there's an extra reserve cylinder strapped in line with the other four, but it's not plumbed in with the others. It's not on the inventory either."

"Whatever you do, do not touch it. I'll be with you in a minute. Do not touch it!"

* * *

"The plans for the processing plant show there should be four emergency oxygen bottles but, as you can see, there are five, in reality," Susan explained.

Ria leant in through the double-door-sized hatch in the wall and then looked back at the diagram displayed on Susan's tablet computer.

"That's got to be suspicious," she sighed. "How do we tell, for sure, that it's a danger to us?"

"I'd like Phil to have a look at it," Susan replied. "We need to find out exactly what's inside and if it's booby-trapped in any way."

"Have you seen these wires?" Keeping her hand pointing behind the cylinder, Ria backed away to give Susan room to move closer.