CHAPTER 8

She didn't get out more than a "What the hell…" when the cable snapped and the loose end whipped through the air where they had been standing a half-second ago. Had Don not knocked them over, the metal cable, at that speed, would have caused serious and most likely fatal consequences as it sliced through their vulnerable flesh.

When the cable broke, the Chariot came crashing down to the ground. However, since it was built to handle rough conditions, it was not further damaged. It bounced and rocked a few times on its tires before settling down.

Don, who had half fallen on her, rolled off to the side, breathing heavily. The fall had aggravated his injuries and he tried to stifle the groans that wanted to escape his lips. He was sure where he wasn't previously bruised, he was now.

Maureen recovered much quicker, sitting up and looking around, peanut butter smeared on her cheek from the sandwich that had been in Don's hand. "What happened?"

Curling up in a more fetal like-position, Don grunted, "The cable broke."

"Why? You said it would hold."

Closing his eyes, he took deep breaths between words. "It should have. But hell. Space. Does strange things… to materials… sometimes. Unexpected. We forget… we haven't had this level of sophisticated space travel… for long. There's always… a risk. You signed… the waiver."

Sitting up, Maureen looked over at the upright vehicle and despite her near brush with death, she felt exhilarated; her plan had worked.

She switched her gaze to the man who had just saved her life, who was still curled up on the ground. "Well, it worked. My plan."

"Great. Give me a minute here." Opening his eyes, he attempted to sit up and he succeeded, but not without a lot of pain. "Looks like you got my sandwich, anyways."

She rubbed a hand over her cheek removing the peanut butter. She looked at her now dirty hand with distaste. "The Chariot is upright. Ready to be worked on," she declared as she wiped her sticky hand on the grass.

"Wow. You are one hell of a task master. I just saved your life, at considerable discomfort to me, I might add. Maybe a five-minute rest break would be nice," he complained as he stared at her in disbelief. "Oh, and maybe a quick thanks would be in order too. Though, I get it. It's my duty to make sure you aren't hurt. Your husband made that very clear. If I had not knocked you over, and well, brought you home in less than stellar condition, like without your head, I'd be a dead man anyways. So, I guess it really doesn't matter that I nearly killed myself saving your precious ass."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that…"

Don waved her off. "Save it lady."

Maureen swallowed hard, then said, "I'm grateful for you saving me. If you hadn't knocked me down, I would most likely have died."

Glancing from Maureen to the Chariot, he sighed as he began to climb to his feet. Why the hell did doing the right thing have to hurt so damn much, he thought.

She had to give him credit for once he started working on the Chariot, he didn't stop other than a few quick breaks which she suspected were because of pain. At one point she saw him struggling to adjust a part with a wrench using his right hand. It was obvious that the damaged, tendons in his arm were not up to the task as he dropped the tool more than once. The third time it happened she walked over to him as he let loose with a string of curses.

Sensing her presence, he glanced over his shoulder. "Sorry," he muttered as he bent over to retrieve the wrench. "I promise. I'm working as fast as I can."

"I came over to see if I could be of assistance. It looks like your hand is giving you problems."

He studied her for a few seconds as if he were considering her offer, then gave a small headshake. Switching the wrench-like tool to his left hand, he went back to work. "On ships and such you often have to work in tight spaces. Helps to be somewhat ambidextrous."

With a shrug, she walked away to work on the radio again. She had retrieved the antenna and was able to remount it. She also had rerouted and reconnected the cables that had been damaged in the tumble. Luckily, there were some spare parts for the unit in the Chariot's rear compartment, so she had everything she needed to finish the job. When it was done, she switched the unit on, hoping the batteries had enough charge to power the unit. The power light glowed and the channel numbers lit up.

Switching to the channel she knew the Jupiter 2 would monitor, she picked up the mike and spoke. "This is Chariot 8 to the Jupiter 2. Do you copy?" In the old days one might expect to hear static while waiting for a reply. In today's world the static had been done away with leaving deafening silence. She thought the static would be nicer.

After a few seconds, she tried again. "Jupiter 2, this is Chariot 8. Do you read me?" Silence settled over the cabin again.

With an edge of frustration to her voice, she gave it one more go. "Jupiter 2. Anyone. This is Chariot 8. Do you copy!"

Just as she was about to hang up the mike, a voice rang forth. "Maureen? Is that you? This is Dr. Smith."

Maureen was simultaneously elated and dismayed to hear who answered. "Yes, Dr. Smith. It is. Is John around? Or Judy?"

"No. No they are not. Sorry. Just me. No one but me," she said in a voice that had that peculiar apologetic tone Dr. Smith used. The one that didn't sound like she was really all that remorseful.

"Where is everyone?" Maureen asked, not really wanting to talk to the doctor.

"Oh…ah…here and there. I think Will and the Robot are outside, ah, playing catch. And, ah, Judy and Penny went to the Wantanabe's Jupiter or maybe it was the one with the boy? Someone wasn't feeling well and Judy went to see them and Penny kept her company. Something like that. I wasn't paying that much attention as I'm not their babysitter."

Tightly controlling the frustration she was feeling, she asked, "And John?"

"John?" she repeated as if she'd momentarily forgotten who John was. "John. Yes. John went to some bigwig meeting. With Victor. At his Jupiter," she added as she looked out the front glass of the Jupiter two and John who was standing below talking to Judy. She hoped they stayed outside for a while. "Yes. Important meeting. Not for people like me. Only…ah…leaders. I stayed here. Is everything OK there? Why are you calling. Is there an issue?"

Yes, there was an issue, Maureen thought to herself. Someone tried to kill us by sabotaging the Chariot. But she didn't really want to tell that to anyone yet, since she had no idea who did this and who to trust. She had no reason not to trust the doctor, but…

"You sound stressed. I am a psychiatrist you know. I am good at reading voices. You sound like something is wrong. Have you made it to the Resolution?" Dr. Smith probed.

Maureen debated about lying, but she also knew the vehicles could be tracked so she went with a half-truth. "We had some mechanical difficulties with the C-8. West is fixing it as we speak and we should be underway again soon."

"Wow. Must have been some issues to slow you down for days. I mean I thought it would only take one day to get to the crash site. But, well, what do I know. And West, he is ok?" she asked in a tone that expressed curiosity, but had an undertone or doubt mixed in.

"Yes. Of course," Maureen lied. "Why wouldn't he be?"

"Well, with such a major problem, I thought…well never mind. I'm happy everyone is fine. What did you want me to tell John?"

That was a good question. What did she want to tell John through the good doctor? "Just tell him all is well, but it's going to take us a few more days than we planned."

"How many more days?" she asked in that odd, probing, curiosity tone she used which set people's teeth on edge.

Another very good question Maureen didn't want to answer or even knew for sure. "Three, maybe four days," she finally settled on. If they got started tomorrow, it was a half day more to the Resolution, a half day loading supplies and one and half days to get back.

"Wow. You don't sound to certain. Are you sure everything is ok?"

"Yes. Thanks. Got to go. Ask John to contact me when he gets back," Maureen requested.

"Yes. Yes. Of course. I will do that. Be safe," Dr. Smith replied quickly, wanting to bring this conversation to an end as John and Judy just disappeared, which meant they could be coming onboard.

Hanging up the mike, she looked fugitively over her shoulder before reaching over and shutting the radio off. If she thought she had more time, she would have tried to further disable it, but she didn't want to get caught. Quickly hurrying from the cockpit, she scurried to the center of the Jupiter, sat at the table, propped her feet up and cracked open a book she'd been reading earlier. When John and Judy entered, she glanced up at them smiled, then changed her expression to a frown of concern. "You look worried, John. What's wrong? Can I be of assistance?"

"You've been sitting here long?" he asked.

"Oh yes. For hours reading my book. I like studying. To improve my mind," she said in a grave tone.

"You didn't hear anything on the radio from Maureen, did you?" John asked as he looked in the direction of the cockpit.

"No. No. Nothing at all. And I would have, sitting here, heard if she called. I have very good hearing and it's not far away. No. It has been very quiet." She watched as John frowned and ran his hand through his short hair. "You look worried. Are you worried, John?"

"I, well, I thought she would have checked in by now," he answered truthfully. "Though, they are quite far away and we don't really know how well signals propagate in this planet's atmosphere."

Judy piped up. "Yeah, we had trouble reaching you guys when we were getting the fuel."

"I'm sure that's it," Dr. Smith crooned. "Too far away to make contact. But, if you like, I can go sit in the cockpit and read my book. Just to be extra sure I would hear any call."

"No, that's alright. I will go and try to raise her myself, now," John said as he turned and headed to the Jupiter's cockpit.

Dr. Smith rose to her feet and started to say something when Will came bursting into the room. "Dad, Judy. Victor wants you outside. He said he needs you and Judy. Someone got hurt and he needs help!"

"Oh, dear," Dr. Smith said with false sincerity. "You best go. I'll stay here. Listen for Maureen. Watch after Will if you want."

"I'll go grab my kit," Judy declared as she hurried from the room. "Meet you outside."

"I'll just go try to raise Maureen before I go," John said starting to walk away again towards the cockpit.

Dr. Smith sprang to his side and placed a hand on his arm to halt him. "Oh. I'll go do that for you. It sounds like you need to go right away. Like it is an emergency. I can try to raise Maureen on the radio while you take care of whatever the crisis is. And look, here is Judy already. You must get going."

John hesitated until Will said, "Victor did seem to be very anxious Dad."

John looked from Will to Dr. Smith. "I guess you're right. I should go. You will try for me? To raise Maureen?"

"Of course. And the minute I hear something I will radio you," Dr. Smith assured him. "Now go!"

"Come on. Let's go," Judy said hurrying away. After a second of hesitation, John hurried after her leaving Dr. Smith and Will alone in the room.

Dr. Smith looked over at Will and gave him a big smile. "Now you go outside and ah, keep watch with the Robot. Maybe your Mom is already on her way back."

"I can go with you and help with the radio," Will offered.

"No. No need. I know how to do it. We all had training. Remember. I did very good at radio training. No. You go outside and keep watch. I have it all under control here."

"Ok. If you're sure," Will said with uncertainty.

"Very sure. Now scoot."

Will nodded before heading back outside where the Robot was still waiting.

Inside, Dr. Smith headed back to the cockpit, and after checking she was truly alone, she sabotaged the radio. It wasn't sophisticated, she just yanked a cable out, but it was effective. Then she took her book, sat in the co-pilot chair and took a little nap. Everything was under control once again in her little play. Apparently, she did cause an issue with the C-8, but she had not killed Maureen or Don. She wasn't sure if she was glad or sad. One thing she was sure, with them alive it was going to be a little more difficult. But, she was the mastermind of deception so she'd make a few course corrections and go with the flow once more.

Back in the C-8, Maureen climbed out of the cab and went to look for Don. It was getting dark and they probably needed to stop soon. She was anxious to see how far he got in his repair.