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Beth Somers had been trying to get hold of Will, without success. She called Melvyn Smith on the commnet.
"Hi Mel. Will was sent to have a look at a problem at Commbase 3 and got there about an hour and a half ago. I was expecting him to call in and give me an update on how it was going up there half an hour ago. I’ve been trying to call him since then but he hasn’t responded. I tried to look at the base using the cameras but can’t see him, although the one in the equipment room isn’t working, so he could be in there. Shortly after he arrived, I got a warning that showed that all the comm systems had gone down there, not just the in-system ones that he had gone to work on and had to switch things around to maintain coverage. Knowing he was there, I left it ‘cos I assumed that he had had to kill the power to all the comms, but now I’m wondering if something more serious has happened. I’m getting worried about him. Before we call Security, can you go see if he’s OK?"
"That’s not like Will. He’s pretty good at keeping in touch. I’ll just put the finishing touches to this job and will be off as soon as I can. Should be about quarter of an hour, tops, in finishing, if that’s OK" replied Mel, also starting to worry about his friend and colleague.
If anyone didn’t call in when expected or didn’t reply to calls from anyone in the team, then one of the others would go and try to find out what had happened. If no-one was nearby, they would call Security and ask them to check on them. Often it was simply that the team member was stuck in a cable conduit or they had left their comm unit somewhere they couldn’t reach quickly. While there was a limit to what could be done if there was a medical emergency, each Commbase had a Medkit that could cope with most minor emergencies. If there was a real emergency that was beyond what the medkit and their medical training couldn’t cope with, each Commbase was also equipped with a statis chamber that could be used to put the injured person into suspended animation but that was very much a last resort.
A few hours later, Mel was in sight of Commbase3. He could see Will’s ship parked alongside the squat structure, so was reassured that Will was still around. "Call despatch" he said to his comm unit, as he approached Commbase 3.
"Hi Mel. Any news on Will?" asked a worried-looking Beth.
"Hi Beth. Just approaching the asteroid now. Will’s ship is parked up next to the comm block, so he should be here somewhere. I’ll let you know more once I get inside and have had the chance to take a look around." With that, he closed the call and prepared for landing.
Once landed, he moved across to Will’s ship and saw the open airlock, so knew he wouldn’t be inside – the inner door wouldn’t close unless the outer door was firmly sealed, to stop the air inside from being lost and to stop anyone and anything inside from being sucked into space.
He propelled himself the short distance across to the low building and entered the airlock door, cycled the air and opened the interior door. When he entered the lobby just inside the airlock, he saw Will’s suit, helmet and power pack hanging there, so entered the door into the equipment room. As he did so, a scene of chaos met him. Smoke and fire had damaged large sections of the room. Apart from the lingering burning smell, the fire had gone out, just leaving smoke and the mess behind. Just to be sure, he went to the master power switch at the end of the lobby to turn off the power to the communications equipment racks, and put the air purifiers up to their maximum setting to clear the air.
"Will, are you there?" he called. As there was no response, he called again. Again, there was no sound from Will.
After about thirty seconds, he re-entered the room and walked across to the far wall, looking at the floor beyond the racks as well as in the aisle he was in, in case Will was lying on the floor on the other side.
As there was no sign of Will, he checked in the washroom and the store room. There were no signs of life in either. In fact, Mel hadn’t seen anything to suggest that Will had ever been in the room.
As he turned around to face the door he had come through, he noticed that there was a small amount of blood on the door frame and on the floor nearby. He moved to investigate further. He was no expert but there seemed to be a lot more there than if Will had simply cut himself. He was perplexed.
"Call despatch" he said into his comm unit.
After a few seconds, Beth replied "Hi Mel. Success?"
" ‘Fraid not, Beth. I’ve looked around the comm building and there’s no sign of Will. There’s a small pool of blood just inside the equipment room door. It’s almost dry, which suggests it hasn’t been there all that long. I don’t understand it. I think we need Security to have a look, after all."
"Are you sure?
"His suit’s in the lobby, so he hasn’t gone outside as I’d thought might have happened and his ship’s outer airlock door is open, so he’s not in his ship. I don’t know where else he can be if he’s not in the building and there’s nowhere in here that he can be that I haven’t looked."
"OK, I’ll call them out. I’ll get them to call you as they get near. While you wait for them, can you look at the equipment? It’s being shown as entirely offline now."
"The room was full of smoke, and the damage is quite extensive. There’s obviously been a lot more damage here than you thought when you asked Will to have a look. I turned the power off the systems to be safe but the fire seems to have already knocked most of them out anyway. It’s going to take me a while to figure out what’s happened, what’s failed and what needs fixing. I just hope we have the spares up here to fix everything but I very much doubt it. I’ll start on that while I wait for Security to turn up."
"Oh, hell! Thanks, Mel. Keep me posted. Good luck. Beth out."
It was clear that it would take some time, even with the spares he had in the storeroom, as well as on both his and Will’s ships. Some of the damage was so extensive that the usual method of simply replacing damaged parts couldn’t be done and if he didn’t have the spares he might have to go back to Shackleton once he had a clear idea of what would still be needed, unless he could get someone to bring the stuff up to him. Along with sorting out what needed repairing inside the Commbase, he would also have to check the antenna farm outside to make sure they were all working properly. Otherwise, the comm relay network might still not work. All in all, he reckoned he was going to be here for a few days at least.