Chapter 32

Our biggest surprise was the cockpit of the shuttle.

When Justin and I approached it, we had been on the job for over six hours. The cockpit was intact. It had been blasted from the rest of the shuttle and was 50m away with the nose buried into Luna surface. To our surprise, it was still pressurised.

Justin tapped on the door controls. I turned when he gasped. “Someone tapped back,” he said excitedly.

He banged on the door and then held his hand on it. “Someone’s definitely alive in there,” he told me.

I switched my Mad to the short-range channel that ships crews could use. “Shuttle pilot, this is Detective Carmichael, are you receiving over?”

“No, open, door,” a raspy, accented voice replied.

“How long before your air runs out?” I asked him.

“Minutes, less,” he answered with a laboured and pain-filled voice.

“How many of you are alive?”

“Me,” was the tired reply.

“I don’t think he had minutes, Justin. Can you open the doors?” I asked him.

“Yes, but it will let out what air he has left,” he replied.

I looked around us. The door was facing away from the dome so no one could see what we were doing. I stepped up to the door and placed an energy shield over the opening. I wasn’t sure it would work, but this bloke had run out of time. I then pulled out one of the body bags and grinned at Justin.

“We can stick him in one of these. It should have enough oxygen in the mix for us to get him to the door airlocks. Even if the shield only stops the pressure from dropping dramatically, we should have enough time to get him in the bag.”

“Well, he’ll be long dead before we can do anything else,” Justin agreed.

I opened the com again. “Mate, When I say now, I want you to start breathing out. Do it slowly but continuously.”

“Aye,” he replied softly.

We moved to either side of the doors. I nodded at Justin, and he pulled the override lever.

“Now,” I said.

The door shuddered and moved, but they only opened about 10cm. The air didn’t rush out past us, and my shield held. Justin wedged in an arm and pushed. They didn’t budge. I heard him say something and then the doors shuddered and moved suddenly.

He hurried in, and I followed. There was just enough floor space for us to spread the body bag out beside the slumped man. With the lighter gravity, it was easy to move him. We hurriedly shifted him into the bag, hoping we didn’t do more damage. He was unconscious, and he had only lasted as long as he did because he was alone.

We checked for any obvious bleeding. But there wasn’t enough for us to worry about. I closed up the bag and then activated the pressure canister and watched as the bag inflated. Closing the valve, I removed the canister and then screwed in a second one.

I opened the valve a little, and the bag inflated more. We checked it for leaks, but the integrity of the bag was good. I removed the shield from the door. What little air that was left in the cockpit, shot out of it. We grabbed the handles on the bag and moved the man to the buggy.

We got him on the back seat and hurriedly got in. Justin drove the buggy into the vehicle side and down to the doors. Jumping out, we moved the man into the airlock and cycled the doors. It seemed to take forever, and we were both fretting.

To our surprise, someone had reinstated the air and gravity to the receiving room. We both grimaced at each other but decided it was an argument for later. We now also had full gravity, and we lugged the man into the room. I shut off the air valve, and we opened the bag.

“What the hell are you doing?” Schneider barked at us.

“Trying to save this man’s life,” I barked back as I leant forward to check if he was still breathing and felt for a pulse.

A small Arab rushed over to us and knelt down beside Justin. “Doctor,” he said, and he placed a pad on the head of the pilot in the bag. He watched the pad and looked up at me, grinning. “He is alive,” he told us with bright eyes.

He jumped up and started ordering people around. They left the pilot in the bag, and he was placed on a gurney, and then they were running. Justin and I slumped onto the floor and watched the mad scurrying.

The doctor came back to us a minute or so later. “Do you know how long he was unconscious for?”

“Moments before we got him into the bag, I told him to breathe out, we breached the door and dumped him in the body bag as quick as we could,” I told him.

“Good, good, yes, you have saved his life with your quick thinking. I have never thought to use a body bag as a temporary oxygen and pressure chamber. You have given me a marvellous idea. We can put them in all the vehicles.”

I chuckled, “Some people might not like that idea. If, however, you add a window so they can see out and make them any other colour other than black, it might help. You could add a linkup to their monitor in their suits, too.”