Moonscape

4 The Unforgiving Moon

'How's the oxygen now, Mark?' asked Blake.

'Eleven minutes – and I see buggy one on the horizon trailing a cloud of dust,' I said.

'Sounds good.'

'Hi, Mark?' said a female voice over the radio.

'Yes. That you, Linda?'

'Super-heroines to the rescue. I've got Mary with me. We can see you, Timocharis Delta and Roy's wreck. Will be there soon. Mary says she'll teach him to drive later,' said Linda.

Roy choked off a laugh. It was unlike him not to make an instant retort. I figured he was embarrassed.

The rescue buggy was approaching the top of the crater. One helpful aspect of the moon was that the horizon was so close – they'd reach me within a couple of minutes.

Roy's voice cut in. 'Great care as you come around the crater, Linda. We don't know if there are more of these pits.'

'Yes. We must find out about this accumulation. Most unusual,' I said.

'We're taking care, Roy, but we accelerated when we got into your tracks. Coming around the crater now. Still following your tracks. Be there shortly.'

'Stop behind buggy two and I'll come aboard,' I said.

Mary said, 'I've suited up and am driving now, Linda's suiting up as I speak.'

I fought my way to my feet. The difficulty of getting to a standing position was why we normally remained standing when wearing backpacks.

Buggy one came to a halt a couple of metres from buggy two and the dust pit. I made my way around to the door which was being opened for me. Within two minutes I was inside.

'Just for the record, Blake, I've three minutes air remaining. Think we should consider additional supplies mounted outside the buggies in future.'

'Yes, that's a bit tight, Mark.'

Within a few seconds, my backpack was recharged with power and oxygen. Linda and I climbed out of the hatch to assess buggy two.

'We can get a good fixing on the rear strut, Blake. Will it take the strain?'asked Linda.

'Send us an image and I'll forward to NASA,' said Blake.

'Image sent. Taking and sending more,' I said.

The buggy was lying almost on its side with all three starboard wheels in view. The front pair were rotated hard right, which was Roy's last action before it tumbled into the pit.

'If we attach the tow cable to the rear strut, that should pull it up if you keep a steady reverse drive running, Roy,' said Linda.

'I'm strapped in and ready,' replied Roy.

'Turn the buggy around, Mary, with the rear end towards us, please,' said Linda.

'Will do.'

Linda and I stood still, awaiting NASA's response and taking in the view of Earth hovering in the sky, so near yet so far. Buggy one backed up about forty metres and turned through 180º.

'I'll never tire of this view,' I said, looking at the Earth.

'No. Beautiful. So beautiful, you forget how unforgiving the moon can be,' said Linda.'Three minutes!'

'I could have extended that by further pressure reductions,' I said.

'Not by much. Suppose we'd broken down en route?'