172 Hours on the Moon Read online

  Midori didn’t believe him. “But why did you come back at all? Why didn’t you just keep going to DARLAH 1?”

  “By myself? Without you two? No, Midori, I’m responsible for everyone who’s left. Did you forget that?”

  He was acting weird, that was for sure. Had Coleman been helping himself to supplies from the infirmary, too? Or had he just lost his mind? Hard to tell. Mia wasn’t sure she could trust him, but decided to take the chance. After all, it was the only one she had.

  “We discovered something,” she said.

  “Really? What?” He seemed curious but detached.

  “In the computer room,” Mia said.

  “I thought I forbade you to go in there.” Coleman was stern.

  Mia shrugged. “It’s not like that really matters anymore, does it?”

  Coleman nodded slowly. “Still, you shouldn’t have done that.”

  “We activated the computer. After the emergency power went off.”

  “That’s impossible,” Coleman said right away. “The computer room is directly connected to the power generator and the emergency power.”

  “Well, apparently not,” Midori commented drily. “Anyway, it told us a few things.”

  “Like?”

  “You mean you don’t know?” Mia wasn’t sure anymore if she could completely trust him. “I thought you knew everything about this base.”

  “So did I, but that was before computers started working without any power supply.” Coleman felt his already considerable amount of anxiety growing.

  “It told us about priority DP7 0271DE.”

  Coleman furrowed his brow. That wasn’t one of the codes he was trained to recognize. None of the base’s codes contained letters, he was sure of that.

  “Not familiar with it,” he replied.

  “We don’t know what it is either. But it told us to abandon the base.”

  “I’m not sure I understand. …”

  “I’m just repeating what it said on the screen. But there’s more.”

  “More?”

  Midori told him about what else they’d learned. The information about when the oxygen would run out. The message that there was no evacuation plan, that the power had been shut off manually, and that the machine knew they were from Norway and Japan. And then they told Coleman the code the machine had given in response to their question about its identity.

  They could see how that last piece of information instantly stunned him.

  “What did you just say?” he asked.

  “6EQUJ5,” Mia repeated.

  “You’re quite sure about that? Quite sure the numbers and letters were in that exact order? This is very important, you understand. Is there any chance at all that you could have mixed up the numbers or letters?”

  “No,” they both responded.

  Coleman was quiet for a long time.

  “I’m afraid we have bigger problems than we thought.”

  And then it hit Coleman that someone was missing. “Where’s Caitlin?” he asked.

  Mia and Midori told him about their suspicion that she had helped herself to sedatives from the infirmary. Coleman took the flashlights and used them to safely lead the two girls to the living room, where, they hoped, Caitlin was still sleeping. They followed him out of the greenhouse area and down the empty corridor in module three.

  They stopped in the storeroom on the way to the living room. Coleman found some better flashlights in a locked cupboard.

  “These should work for up to fifteen hours,” he said, handing one to each of them. The flashlights were big and heavy. They reminded Mia of small versions of the theatrical lights her band used at concerts. They could only just barely carry them in one hand. Coleman took down two extras from the shelves and turned one of them on.

  “I need to tell you two something,” he began. “It might be important. It has to do with that code the machine gave you, 6EQUJ5. That’s not just any code or an error. It’s a signature. A signal.”

  “A signal?” Mia wondered.

  “Yes, a signal. It’s usually referred to as the ‘Wow! signal,’ after the mark the astronomer wrote in the margin on the signal printout. Let me try to explain: In Delaware, Ohio, there was once a giant radio telescope called the Big Ear. The radio telescope was part of the Perkins Observatory at Ohio Wesleyan University. It was mounted outside on a large, flat surface made of aluminum, about as big as a football field. And reflector walls were set up at either end that could catch and amplify incoming signals. Between 1963 and 1998, the Big Ear telescope was used to search for radio sources that could be coming from intelligent life in space. On fifty channels that were monitored by computers, the astronomers could listen for intelligent signals.”

  Mia and Midori were listening intently.

  “The first fourteen years nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. They couldn’t detect a single unknown radio signal. The computer printouts the astronomers reviewed every day didn’t show anything other than a boring string of ones, twos, and threes. That means the signals the telescope was picking up belonged to frequencies and sources the researchers already knew about. Like planets or asteroids, for example. Because of course any object with mass sends out radio waves. So do people. But then, on August fifteenth, 1977, just after eleven o’clock at night, something happened.

  “Dr. Jerry R. Ehman was sitting there, watching the printouts, when he suddenly discovered that the numbers on the paper had changed. First a four appeared, then a six. And suddenly a whole sequence, a code, a signal no one had heard before. With a totally different intensity. The meters were jumping around wildly. Instead of recording the sound source as a series of ones and twos, this code appeared: 6EQUJ5.”

  Mia and Midori were at first stunned, and then chilled, by hearing the code they recognized.

  “No one could explain where the signal came from. It lasted for exactly seventy-two seconds before it disappeared. And after that it never turned up again. For almost twenty years they tried to locate that signal again. They used better equipment, more people and more time, but it was as if it had never existed. Dr. Ehman spent years studying that printout and those numbers. Little by little, he discarded most of the natural explanations. The signal couldn’t have come from planets, asteroids, satellites, airplanes, or Earth. They simply didn’t match the sound frequency. He was left with the big question: Could the signal have come from something intelligent, as if sent from a lighthouse in different directions and then randomly reaching Earth? At least that would make it probable that Ehman only managed to follow the signal for seventy-two seconds before it was sent in another direction. Regardless, the question of what 6EQUJ5 means has been discussed for more than forty years. But now? I’m afraid the discussion has just ended.”

  Mia looked at Coleman in the light from the flashlight. Suddenly she felt deathly afraid.

  “What are you saying?” she asked.

  Coleman’s voice grew serious. “I’m saying we have to get out of here.”

  THE DARK

  Coleman knew what had to be done. Standing over Caitlin in the living room, he gave her an injection. Mia had no idea what it contained, but its effect was obvious, because just a few minutes later Caitlin was sitting up on the sofa. She wasn’t quite so bleary-eyed anymore, and her face had some color again. Coleman whispered something quietly to her. Neither Mia nor Midori could hear what he said, but the words seemed to snap her out of the darkness.

  The four of them gathered around one of the tables. Coleman positioned the flashlights next to them so they could all see one another.

  “I’m not planning on giving you false hope. The situation is critical, and now is the time to act. The oxygen generator will stop working in less than two hours. From then on the conditions in here will quickly become unbearable. Which means you will all have to abandon the base.”

  “But … where do you suggest we go?” Midori asked.

  “DARLAH 1.”

  “Coleman,” Caitlin began,
“two of us tried to go there, and no one has heard from them since. Do you really think …?”

  “It’s our only option,” he said, cutting her off. “It’s a chance we have to take. If anyone has a better idea, I’m open to it, but right now this is the only thing that makes sense.”

  Midori glanced across the table to see if Mia seemed as scared as she was. But to her surprise Mia seemed just the opposite: calm, determined, focused. And seeing her like that helped. As long as Mia hadn’t given up, there was hope.

  “All right,” Midori said. “Let’s assume we make it to DARLAH 1. Just what exactly are we going to do there?”

  Coleman pulled a map out of his inside pocket. It was the same size as the map of DARLAH 2. “There’s an evacuation capsule at the end of DARLAH 1. To get to it, you have to go through the power station and two secure corridors. Five hatches total. Unfortunately, I’ve never seen it myself, so I can’t explain to you exactly how it works. But it should be simple and self-explanatory. It’s preprogrammed to return to Earth, a trip that should take four days. When you activate the rocket burner on board, the capsule will rise out of DARLAH 1 and climb to a height of fifty thousand feet. Then it will circle the moon until it gets up enough speed to start the trip to Earth. The capsule’s control system will modulate the reentry angle and speed once it hits Earth’s atmosphere, and parachutes will be released at twenty thousand feet to further slow its descent. Some radar on Earth is guaranteed to discover the capsule before you land. It also had a built-in radio transmitter that will activate when it lands, to make it easier to locate. With a little luck, you guys will be picked up within hours.”

  “ ‘You guys’?” Mia asked, looking at Coleman with terror in her eyes. “Why aren’t you saying we?”

  Coleman smiled sadly. “The evacuation capsule only has room for three people.”

  “Then we need to find another solution!” Caitlin burst out, suddenly revived from her drug-induced stupor. “I won’t accept that!”

  “You’re going to have to. There are no other solutions.”

  Mia couldn’t believe what Coleman was saying. “There must be something we can do! Maybe we could … I mean, there must be a way we could squeeze four people into that capsule, or …”

  “No, Mia. I’m afraid there isn’t room.” Then Coleman added, “I’ve made my choice. Now it’s time to get you girls out of here.”

  Midori had been completely paralyzed by what Coleman was saying, but now she forced herself to open her mouth: “We’re not leaving without you.”

  He gave her a cautious smile.

  “I’m afraid I don’t merit a ticket home, Midori. So I’m choosing to stay. It’s the right thing for me to do. Someone has to go down with the ship, you know. And me?” He looked around the room as if he were actually fond of the place. “I’m the commander of DARLAH.”

  Mia was about to say something else, but Coleman motioned for her to be quiet.

  “We’re running out of time. Let’s concentrate on doing what we have to do.”

  He pulled out a detailed map that showed the way from DARLAH 2 to DARLAH 1. He slowly pushed it over to Mia. She wondered if she ought to pass it on to Caitlin, but a quick glance told her that wasn’t a good idea. Caitlin seemed to have withdrawn into herself again.

  “You’re in charge of this, Mia. Never let it out of your sight. You’ll find suits and full oxygen tanks in the equipment room in module four. It’s just over seven miles to the power station, and it shouldn’t take you more than three hours to get there. Maintain an even pace and don’t look back. Make sure you use the decompression chamber before you go into the station. Caitlin?”

  “Yeah?” She was sitting, stiff and immobile, staring at the floor.

  “Go to the kitchen before you leave. Eat some food and get enough to drink. You’ll need it for this trip.” He stood up from the table. “And now it’s time for me to say my good-byes.”

  Mia should really hate him for having gotten them into this situation. After all, it was his fault. He and his people had been lying to them the whole time. But she couldn’t. She looked at him, but all she saw was a man who’d made the wrong choice. She suddenly realized how much she liked him, how much she liked all of them she’d been up here with. Stanton, Nadolski, Wilson, Antoine … and now she was losing yet another person. She didn’t know if she could take it.

  Coleman came around the table to her and gave her a hug. “I know what you’re thinking,” he whispered. “But I promise you, you guys can do it. In four days you’ll be the happiest person Earth has ever seen. You’ll breathe the fresh air in a whole new way. You’ll stand by the ocean and feel the salty sea spray tingling in your nose. You’ll be with people you know and love, and you’ll appreciate how beautiful everything is. You’ll see cars behind you in your rearview mirror, and maybe you’ll laugh at the drivers’ faces. Because they’ll look annoyed, bored, angry. And you’ll realize what they’re missing. You’ll live a long and happy life, Mia. Because when you get home, you’ll realize that anything is possible. You mustn’t ever forget that.”

  He let her go and went over to Midori and gave her a hug as well before moving on to Caitlin.

  “I’m afraid the hospitality here on the moon was even worse than I’d hoped, Caitlin. I think it’s best if you tell them not to send anyone up here again. I’m really, really sorry about that.”

  “Don’t give it another thought,” she snuffled.

  “You’re a good astronaut, Miss Hall. These girls need your skills. This is the most important mission of your life. Take good care of yourselves now, all of you.”

  And with those words, he picked up one of the flashlights and left the room.

  The three women were left standing there in silence.

  Coleman embarked on his very last stroll through DARLAH 2’s dark corridors. With determined footsteps, he walked over to his bedroom in module two. He opened his closet, grabbed his pistol, and stuck it inside his jacket before turning around and heading for the greenhouse. He sat down by the big apple tree and set his flashlight next to him.

  He would wait here. Wait until he was totally sure the other three had made it out of the base and were on their way to DARLAH 1. He would sit here, in position, with his weapon in his hands, until the oxygen level was so low that he was sure there was no other living thing inside these walls.

  And then he would end it all.

  OXYGEN

  Mia’s head felt foggy. It had only been an hour since the regular flow of oxygen from the generator had stopped, but she could already feel how difficult it was becoming to breathe. Every breath gave her the sense that someone had already breathed this same air and tapped it of all its sustenance. After the power went off, the temperature had slowly begun to rise. The sun, which was beating down on the moon’s surface, ensuring temperatures of over two hundred degrees outside, was working its way through the base’s insulation. And now that the cooling elements weren’t working anymore, there wasn’t much to keep the heat at bay.

  Midori was sitting by herself in a corner of the kitchen, trying to eat an apple. Caitlin was studying the map. It was her idea to stick it out for another couple of hours before they left the base for good and started their trek to DARLAH 1. The sun was still too strong out there. Without an atmosphere there was nothing to protect them from its radiation, and therefore it was too dangerous to risk going out. Besides, Caitlin wanted to give them an opportunity to drink enough before they left. Turning around and coming back wouldn’t be an option.

  Mia was standing by the big window, looking out. In the reflection from the sun in the windowpane, she could see her own reflection, unclear and dim. She turned on her flashlight and pointed it at her face. The reflection in the window got clearer. She could see that she looked frazzled. The last several days had clearly left their mark. Mia thought she looked like a living ghost. She had obvious dark circles under her eyes, and her hair hung limply to one side. It was a depressing sight. She low
ered the light, and her face disappeared from the glass.

  “Mia? Are you sure you’ve had enough to drink?” Caitlin asked. Mia turned to her and nodded absentmindedly. She couldn’t bear the thought of forcing herself to drink another drop of water here. It tasted metallic, old, rotten. It tasted like slow death.

  She was impatient. Couldn’t they just go? Get it over with? She wanted to get out of here as soon as possible and never come back. It had been a mistake to come here in the first place, the biggest mistake of them all. From the very beginning this place had been eating away at her, and by this time, there was hardly anything left. The only boy she had ever had a chance to love was out there somewhere with Nadolski, or alone. And she could almost smell the decay lingering in the walls. She had to focus to try to keep herself from imagining that it was the smell of Wilson, Stanton, and Coleman. She wasn’t sure where they were, but they were nearby. She could feel it.

  Again she raised her eyes and aimed the light at her face. She looked at the window. Her features were almost even clearer now. She could study the details around her nose, her mouth, her hair. She didn’t look good. Resigned, she switched the flashlight off and lowered it.

  That was when she noticed it.

  Her reflection didn’t disappear.

  It stayed there in the window, even clearer than before.

  For a second she allowed herself to just be fascinated by it. She made a face.

  But her reflection didn’t change.

  And in a fraction of the next second she realized: That isn’t a reflection. That is you. Yourself.

  Out there.

  Mia screamed. She dropped the light and staggered backward as she saw her own face in the window sneer at her. She lost her balance, bumped into the table, and knocked several plates off before she fell on the floor. Midori leapt out of her chair and came running.