He turned and watched the second team of four exit the airlock. These were Sampson, Elliott, Tewlewiski, and Demarest. He watched them deploy, further strengthening their perimeter. Sarah soon emerged by herself. Will smiled when she jumped the last three aluminum steps to the lunar surface. She was heard loud and clear when she laughed.
“Sorry, I always wanted to do that.”
Sarah saluted and gestured for her team to join her. One by one the men fell into place, two in front of Sarah and Mendenhall, two in back, two on the flanks, and one in the far rear.
The lunar excursion element of Dark Star 3 started moving toward Shackleton Crater.
Jack popped his head into the small tent. Alice was sitting in a small chair and smiled when Collins looked at her. The senator was laying quietly on one of the cots his small group of reinforcements had brought in with the rest of their equipment.
“How is he?” Jack asked quietly.
Alice looked from Jack to the sleeping Lee and shook her head negatively, the smile still on her pretty face.
“Answer the colonel, you mean old woman,” Lee said, as he raised his head and looked around.
“He’s gone as far as he can go,” Alice said. She shot Lee a dirty look.
“That’s what she says,” the senator sniped as he sat up on the cot. “Did you find another way in?”
Jack looked behind himself and entered the tent.
“We have a six-foot opening at the top of the cave-in. It’s right beneath an archway built by the Germans.”
“Kind of exquisite proof that they brought the roof down on purpose, wouldn’t you say?” Lee said, as he slowly lay back down, taking Alice’s hand as he did so.
“We’ll be running a COM line in for Europa, so you’ll know what’s happening at all times,” Collins said.
“Jack, give me a little time. I can make it up there and come along,” Lee said, this time without rising.
“I’m going to answer that the way you would have many years ago-you would be a hindrance and could get people hurt. I have to say no.”
Alice lowered her head as Jack turned away toward the tent’s opening, wishing he could just run from the enclosure. He swallowed the lump in his throat and reached for the tent pole to steady his hand.
“Colonel, please give me the opportunity to-”
Without turning, Jack closed his eyes and said what it was he had to say. “I admire you more than any man I have ever known or ever will know. You and Alice have… have become special in my life, and Sarah’s life also. I-”
“Go do what needs to be done. We’ll be here when you get back. He’ll undoubtedly want a full accounting of what’s over there,” Alice said as Lee rolled to his right side.
Jack nodded without turning back and left the tent.
Niles Compton was waiting for him as he exited. He saw the look on Jack’s face and decided to let his conversation with Alice and Lee go unvoiced. Niles watched Jack angrily snatch up his M-16 and start toward the men who were gathering at the base of the cave-in. Niles hesitated only a moment before scratching on the outside of the tent. Instead of calling out, Alice stepped through the opening.
“How is the senator?” he asked as Alice took a few steps away.
“Disappointed of course, but I suspect you would know that, since you gave Jack the order not to allow him to enter the second gallery.”
Niles knew Alice better than anyone other than the senator. He lowered his head as she turned to face him.
“He won’t last more than a few more hours.”
Niles, like Jack a few minutes before, tried desperately to swallow the lump in his throat.
“I meant to get here before Jack, but Charlie accidentally pulled the pin on a hand grenade and I had to help look for it. I never meant for Jack to be the one to tell the senator. He disagrees with my decision.”
“Of course he does, dear. He’s a soldier, just like Garrison. Jack’s an idealist, whether he wants to admit that or not. You, my dear Niles, are a realist. Jack believes Garrison should be allowed to go out the way he chooses, while you are of the same opinion as Jack. You’re afraid of seeing it happen. The colonel, while not wanting it to happen either, is not afraid of that. Thus you differ. But one thing Garrison and I know for sure.” She placed a hand on Niles’s shoulder and squeezed. “You both care about him beyond measure.”
“Thank you,” he said, as he placed his hand over hers. “Jack is far stronger than I am when it comes to death, even though the senator would want to go out any other way than the way he is.”
Niles started walking away and Alice watched him go. As she turned to reenter the tent she couldn’t help but realize the world was changing fast, and she knew it was time for her and Lee to leave it for what it was to become. Her own end was maybe a few years down the road, but Garrison’s was soon, and in the manner he would choose-not her manner, not Niles’s nor even Jack’s, but his way. She would allow Lee that one and only advantage in their relationship. He would go the way he wanted.
As Jack was on his way to the cave-in, an excited Charlie Ellenshaw came running over.
“Colonel, you’ve got to see this!”
“Whoa, Charlie, take it easy,” he said as he was joined by Sebastian and Carl Everett.
Charlie placed his hands on his knees and tried to get his breathing under control.
“It’s over there. Pete and I found a building that was out of place underneath that giant outcropping of rock. It looked like it was originally a German Quonset hut, but some modern scientific equipment was inside.”
“Okay, Charlie, lead the way,” Jack said, as Ellenshaw turned and they followed.
Just as Ellenshaw said, the Quonset hut was old, but in good shape. As Jack stepped inside he saw Niles, Appleby, Dubois, and Pete Golding standing around a large lab table. Niles stepped back and allowed the three men to see what they had discovered.
“Well, this is what we were looking for,” Niles said.
On the table, secured by some stainless steel clamps, was a rifle, but one the likes of which Jack, Everett, and Sebastian had never seen before. It was about three and a half feet long and had a thick barrel of what looked like steel. Just like the pictures from the Moon, there was a crystal installed on the tip. Only this crystal looked to be shattered. The stock of the weapon was broken and was the only thing that told the weapon’s very old age, as none of them recognized the material. There was a sighting aperture and what looked like a magazine.
“I suspect this thing here,” Appleby said, pointing to the magazine Jack was looking at, “is the power source. It looks like a large battery. This thing must be very heavy.”
“Look at this,” Ellenshaw said. He was standing in front of a thick rectangle of steel. There was a perfect hole in the center of the plate and it had what looked like a small rivulet of molten material running from it. Jack walked over and looked at the target. He sighted through it and saw that it lined up perfectly with the barrel of the strange weapon.
“Someone got it to work,” Jack said and stepped back around the steel plate.
“Yeah, make that past tense. Look at this,” Niles said, pointing out the smashed crystal. “It looks like some kind of overload.”
“McCabe?” Everett asked.
“Odds are that it was him or someone he’d been working with. It looks as though this may have been the only weapon they found in this gallery. Hell, maybe the Germans originally found the damn thing.”