The siren was piercing and insistent. It was know as the fire alarm though its purpose served for any form of danger: it never wailed without reason.
Crew and visitor alike quickly made their way to the refuge as the shrill sound blasted through every corridor, cabin or workplace. “Evacuate immediately… evacuate immediately,” insisted the recorded voice. Everyone knew this wasn’t another drill.
Mathew was outside the refuge, ticking people’s names off his list as each entered the safety of the pod.
“Is there a fire?” asked one panicked visitor.
“Just a precaution.” Answered Matt in as reassuring way as he could.
“What’s wrong,” asked the next in line; a crewmember, Vincent.
“Flare,” replied Matt in as flat a voice as he could.
Vincent needed to know nothing more as he quickly scrambled through the heavy shielded hatch.
“Mathew?” called Andrew from inside the refuge.
Matt looked at his list and up at those waiting. “Three more?” he said seeing only two running towards him.
“Quick as you can.” Came back Andrews urging voice.
Matt looked down the corridor but there was no one else. “We’re missing one,” he called out anxiously.
“Who?”
Mathew had the name but knew a recalled face wouldn’t mean it would appear. “One of the male guests.”
Andrew would be looking at faces; he didn’t ask which one. “Where is he?”
It was a rhetorical question that Matt couldn’t answer other than by the obvious. “I don’t know.”
Andrew’s tone was somber. “Give him another fifteen seconds.”
It was more than thirty before Andrew called again. “Matt get inside. Shut the hatch.”
Matt didn’t want to, he had been one of the first to see the image on the monitor: it was a massive coronal ejection and headed directly towards them; anyone outside the refuge would have their DNA ripped to shreds by the cosmic radiation.
“Mathew now,” demanded Andrew.
Matt had been trapped in a solar flare, and his body felt cold at leaving some poor sole unprotected. He had been lucky that time, but this one was big: it would fry every cell in his or any exposed body. Forcing himself he quickly he stepped over the sill. To his side a crewmember was waiting, and as soon as Matt was within the refuge another slipped by to help shut the heavy hatch closed.
Matt didn’t turn around but a sick feeling of dread welled up inside his stomach as he heard the solid thud of the locking bolts sealing it tightly shut. Almost at the same moment he heard a rapid clicking, and saw that the radiation meters needle was sweeping over to the stop pin at the end of the dials red zone.
The refuge was in fearful silence as he looked about at the slumped bodies and frightened faces. He saw Jennifer between Emma and Mei. His eyes swept around for Peter; he was in a small group with a couple of the visitors and several crew; Matt imprinted their names to his memory.
Jennifer looked scared; he wasn’t sure if it was being within meters of Peter, or of memories of their last encounter with the radiation. He wanted to sit beside her and comfort her, but it would have been too much of a declaration, so he stood by the door and forced his eyes back to the radiation counter. From a distance he couldn’t actually see the values, but it was bad; as bad as they had ever experienced: he hoped the shielding in the refuge was up to it. Almost casually he thought; they should get a counter for inside, but maybe they didn’t want to know, as there was nowhere else to hide.
It seemed like ten or more minutes before the needle began to loosen from the pin and flick back and forwards rapidly. It had been intense and lasted longer than anything he had known before, and the time between the photons warning them and the radiation arriving was the shortest. Was it a one off: a rare event, or was this what was going to be the norm as they made their closest approach to the sun, he didn’t know and didn’t really want to think about it.
“Can I have your attention?”
Matt saw Andrew looking around, readying to speak.
“It seems and ideal time: being as we have everybody… together, to stress that alarms are not sounded for entertainment. I know that back on the planet alarms and drills are ignored. We can’t afford that in our situation. If the alarm sounds we all need to get into the refuges as soon as possible: whatever we are doing, and I can’t emphasize that strongly enough. We can’t assume anything, so I intend to create a buddy system. It was suggested a while ago, but I think now is time to bring it in.” He looked about the room, but nobody was willing to speak, all that looked back were blank faces. “Everyone of us will have someone who they are responsible for, and to. It’s the responsibility of all of us to make sure all of us are safe. We’ll work something out, but something how somebody will know where everybody is all the time...” Still nobody spoke. “The immediate danger seems to be over now, a couple more minutes and you can all leave and get back to whatever you were doing.”