Maverick, but then realised she might send them even further into space, she decided instead to wait for help to arrive.
Halley was gathering herself together to make a distress call when a sudden sound pinged against the side of the pod; the sound wave bounced through the wall of the small escape craft and echoed in their ears. Mars shuck his head and place his hands over his ears as a second ping echoed and then static crackled over a speaker. At first a voice was terribly faint, but there was the unmistakable voice of Wolfe shouting into the microphone at the other end.
‘Hello, hello, hello is anybody hearing this?’ he asked. ‘Can you respond and tell me who you are and if anyone is injured. I need you to press the green button on the com’s monitor and speak clearly into the panel,’ he said before talking to Celestial. ‘I do not think anyone’s in there.’
Halley staggered to her feet and ran her fingers around the wall until she could feel the monitor again, in the dim emergency light more anxious moments passed as she struggled to send Wolfe a message. Eventually she was able to contact him. ‘Wolfe are you there?’ she pleaded. ‘Can you come and get us?’ her voice cracked with emotion.
‘Is that you Halley, are you OK?’ Wolfe asked
‘Yes but the pods damaged and loosing air.’ She replied.
‘Alright I m on my way,’ he said, as he punched the air with relief that his family were alive, he dashed towards a small recovery craft as Gonzalo’s men tried to restrain him.
‘Where do you think you are going, you can not take that we are in the middle of sending valuable equipment into space.’ A guard shouted at Wolfe.
‘What the hell do you think you are doing, trying to stop me.’ Wolfe knocked one of the guards out. ‘It’s my family out there and they need my help.’ They backed off.
Celestial reassured Halley. ‘He’s coming, hold in there it will not be long until you are safely back in the station.’
A tear fell from her solemn gaze as she tried to reassure herself that everything would be alright, she held her head in her hands before pulling the children close in an affectionate embrace. She knew as the crack in the window hissed, that they were close to death.
As they travelled through space they clung onto each other in the dim light, the chilly temperature appeared as clouds of vapour as they breathed the thin layer of air that still remained in the compartment.
Moments later a weary Mars wiped frost from the pods window, with relief they saw the recovery craft come into view. Its main beam of light focused on them as it manoeuvred around to position itself in their path. Mars watched the rescue crafts progress as it swallowed them, with anticipation the inhabitants of the pod peered out at the interior of the space ship, gasping for air. Just then Wolfe appeared on the outside of the pod, quickly punch in the access code before pulling frantically at the door to free its precious cargo. They all were overcome with a sense of relief as they stood together in the rescue craft.
‘What happened, why was there an explosion?’ Halley asked.
Wolfe squeezed them tightly, before answering. ‘We had luck on our side today, you have survived, others have not been so lucky,’ he said gratefully, as he motioned for the children to make their way into the cabin of the craft. He turned to speak to Halley. ‘We have to investigate but Gonzalo thinks gasses got trapped when the life support system backup failed. However I think Rusty stumbled across some explosives and tried to disarm them unsuccessfully.’
‘Gonzalo’s trying to blame the crew chief for the incident, but I’m not too sure it is a system failure. I think Gonzalo's trying to get everyone off the station too quickly for a reason, but I do not know what!’ he said in a disturbed manner. The whole zone has been closed down this evening to stop another accident occurring. Some of the personnel evacuation has been brought forward to help the displaced; they will be accommodated on the cruise ship. Our friends the Galieos are certainly leaving tonight.’ His face was full of regret.
‘Has anyone been killed?’ she asked.
Wolfe was silent for a moment and then looked her in the eye. ‘Twenty-four people are dead and forty-three have been injured, two have been placed in cocoon’s. We lost five Astro technicians and Chief Rusty in the explosion.’
That evening the recovery ship docked in the cargo bay of the station’s terminal. The crew and the rescued passengers from the pod walked onto solid ground, wrapped in medical cloaks to keep them warm from their symptoms of shock. All around them lay body bags of the deceased who had perished in what was one of the worst accidents reordered in modern space exploration. It made everyone realise the harsh reality associated with space life, and what could happen as a result of tight deadlines being imposed on such an advanced life support environment.
Wolfe unable to return to their living quarters escorted his family to his quiet secure office in the quarantine bay. He made sure everyone was comfortable before switching on the com’s monitor to call Celestial. Moments later the communication came online and the two of them talked face to face. Celestial spoke first ‘Gonzalo has been searching the station for you with his guards since the explosion, he is holding you responsible for this!’
Wolfe looked down at his feet and said nothing. He thought about Rusty his trusted Chief of Maintenance and the other four members of his team who had died and shuck his head. ‘This guy is unbelievable! The first thing he wants to do is blame anyone but himself for setting these tough deadlines. If this is an accident and I have my doubts, then he has only got himself to blame. The truth of the matter is shortcuts cost lives and are bound to creep in under these circumstance, he was warned,’ Wolfe said grimly.
Celestial nodded sympathetically. ‘You better get yourself up here to the command centre and meet him to try and resolve the situation.’
‘That might be the best approach, but in case things turn nasty I better take measures to ensure the safety of my family first. ‘I’ll be there in the next hour, once I’ve settled the children and spoke to Halley about my circumstances,’ Wolfe signed off. He turned away from the screen to face his family and spoke softly. ‘We better spend the night in the offices away from the eye of Gonzalo's guards. We will need to keep a low profile for a while until I can iron out issues involving the shut down of the station.’
Halley agreed. ‘If he does decide to portion blame on you then we will need to fight him, otherwise we will not have a life on Earth when we get back there. Because we will not be able to get a job with any space organisations,’ she added. ‘You better work things out or cover our tracks in regards to Mars because Gonzalo will use that against us. We’ll be stripped of our commands, if that is not on the cards already.’
The two parents looked extremely concerned about the situation. Halley and the children had an exhausting ordeal without having to worry about the rest of their time on the station and future life on Earth. She took her anger out on a nearby bin and kicked it across the floor, rubbish flew everywhere.
Wolfe tried to calm his emotional wife down. ‘I agree we need to plan the rest of our time on Maverick carefully and to our advantage. ‘The time has come for the family to work together. From this evening the children will have to stay close in the maintenance bays or labs,’ he said.
Wolfe continued. ‘I need to convince Gonzalo that I can work with his schedule. However in any spare time, we should get rid of the evidence collected from Mars’s spacecraft. Tomorrow Mars can work with me in the ducts and bays. Whilst Capella can help tidy the labs, we can not afford to let the children out of our sight. Remember all evidence, every last seed and plant have to be spirited away, even the space craft must disappear before Gonzalo can use the evidence against us to get to Mars.’
That evening Wolfe set out to defend Rusty, and the Astro-technicians who had perished in the explosion. He mentally prepared for a long evening, of re-planning and organising tasks around the last remaining days of life on Maverick. The children made makeshift beds and Halley ordered take out from Exp
resso, which she had secretly delivered by Maria. As the night set in people were being evacuated on the latest ships to leave. A great uncertainty about the Magellan family’s future hung in the balance. Tomorrow might be another day but would it favour them or Gonzalo?
Wolfe said good night, he felt strange leaving them behind but made himself confront his fears. He closed the office door and made his way along the corridor, which split the Quarantine bays on either side. Wolfe was tired and upset about the day’s events; his emotions were raw from the disaster, which had nearly robbed him of his family. His conscious was heavy with the thought of so many people injured and experienced men dead, it was a great loss to him that men under his control had died.
As he walked ahead the corridor came to a fork. He followed the left passage toward the main transport terminals and his heart sank as he approached the departure bay. In front of him was a large bank of glass through which he could see the vast expanse of the main terminal. Within it were a large number of vessels from the IGE fleet spread out at various gates. The main Terminal space door was open, which meant all of the passengers for today's departure were already aboard the crafts waiting approval for departure.
Wolfe leant forward, his arms