Empty Toward The Moon

Chapter Twenty

The Chaser leant us the use of the shuttle for twelve hours to get the supplies down onto the surface of the moon. Phill piloted for us and turned out to be a pretty damn good pilot. For someone who works in an office on board the freighter, he surprisingly showed a deft hand in the piloting seat, for which I was grateful for. He was able to read the terrain of the moon, the weather patterning in the soupy atmosphere and get us down at strategic locations on the edge of the moon. I say edge, because the side facing the gas giant was warmer than the other side and we needed to set up replay stations around the edge of the moon that faced away from the planet into space. This way we would know when anything came into the star system. We could also use the relays for emergency communications if we needed to.

For ten hours we hopped to four locations that Cade had decided for us beforehand, and we set up a relay station on various peaks of mountain tops. It was dark, freezing work, and if it weren't for Nova's nanite army in my skin armour, I would probably have contracted frost bite after the first drop. Yes, drop. I was dangled from the shuttle and lowered carrying the tools needed for bolting the half sphere relay onto a rock shelf. Well, the relay capsule did its own drilling and attachments to the rock. Nova guided me to the best position and we placed it down after applying a commercial plexi-adhesive liberally. Everything had to be done using the mask air filter and night vision goggles as we'd arrived during the moon's night time cycle.

We managed to place three of these relay capsules before we hit a snag on the fourth.

[The final relay capsule needs to be adjusted a couple of kilometres to the east, Cia. There is subterranean electromagnetic interferences that will affect the electronics and wireless data transfer of communications.] I was about to set down on the line from the back of the shuttle for the fourth time when Nova made the correction. I wasn't sure how to go about telling Phill that we needed to move a little to the right. [I have started affecting the shuttle communications, adjusting it's connection to the ship in orbit. Give it a moment, Phill should suggest the move for you.] Sure enough, five minutes later Phill came on the shuttle's main speaker.

"Cia, I'm having some issues with interference with comms connections to the Chaser. Hold tight and I'll adjust to a new coordinates for the last relay. This isn't a good spot." Phill's voice sounded throughout the shuttle over the internal speakers.

I walked up the cockpit and found him looking over a holo-projected topographic layout of the area of the moon below us. I found the spot Nova suggested and pointed to it quickly.

"Try this spot. It sits on the edge of a crater about a kilometre wide. This would actually be a great spot to set up base. This point here should be about right for the replay." I suggested. Once we moved away from the previous location, the shuttle's communications cleared up.

"Do you think the interference was a mineral deposit or something?" Mocha was sitting in the co-pilot seat and asked.

"Most likely, working as a Faraday cage keeping us in isolation." Phill replied.

We flew to the new position and found the windy weather a little more chaotic at this location. It took me longer to swing down and attach the relay capsule. I was freezing cold once I was lifted back up. Latte covered me in her jacket and Mocha asked Phill to adjust the life support in the shuttle to increase the temperature for me. Actually, I was fine, but I had to look like I was a normal human being that would be in danger of hypothermia.

I swung back up to the cockpit and pointed out a location that was smack bang in the middle of this crater that we'd found for ourselves.

"How about we park here?" I asked.