SUNGLASSES AND ROCKETS Part 1 : New Moon

LESS THAN THREE HOURS BEFORE LIFT-OFF...

The surprise collision with Felix sent me a few steps downwards.

"Quick!" the doctor ordered, from above.

There was no time to lose. Felix stood up on my head, and started to go up the stairs.

After so many knocks and bruises, those heels of his still hurt.

We reached the enormous metal platform in a jiffy. Unexpectedly, Vanessa welcomed me with a bear hug. What can I say ? Life was good after all !

The doctor did not delay in checking out the surrounding area with his flashlight. He shone the bright beam of light on a silver-plated door on some kind of module about 160 feet away. He took off running.

"That's the entrance!" he affirmed.

Stupefied, we took the equipment and ran after him.

We reached the enormous, sturdy-looking door. Maybe it was bomb-proof. We tried opening it. Impossible.

"Felix!" the doctor pressed on. "The..."

He left the sentence dangling and looked towards a place a few steps away from the door. Felix had opened one of the backpacks. Quickly and calmly, he was taking out a sophisticated drill with an enormous bit, made of a special alloy of tungsten and carbon. He placed it right in the middle of the strange lock. We automatically shone our lights on the area.

A heavy buzzing noise was heard immediately.

"That's it..." the doctor approved, satisfied.

Darwin approached me.

"Do you realize what's going on?" he whispered in my ear. "He's opening a door of who-knows-how-many steel tons, with a drill? Incredible."

Suddenly the drill-bit snapped.

"It's useless," Felix said, withdrawing the tool.

"Hell!" shouted the doctor, taking a look at his watch. Time was running out!

"Uncle," his niece said, "Let's blow up the lock with the plastic explosives!"

The doctor shook his head in a gesture of sorrow.

"We lost the explosives in the river."

"And if we look for another entrance?" Darwin suggested.

"All the doors are made of plated lead and carbon treated with molybdenum," the doctor replied, raising his hand to his chin. "And all of the windows are shielded."

There was a funeral-like silence. For the first time, since I had known Moses Masterton, I could see an unmistakable expression of anguish on his face. I felt sorry for him. I had to do something. I couldn't just stand there.

"Let's take a deep breath," I proposed.

I received no answer. I took a deep breath anyway, and I tried to stay calm.

"We should split up to inspect the area," the doctor announced, bending over the equipment. "Vanessa and I will examine the southern and eastern sections."

He took out the only radiation detectors that were left. He handed one to me and said, "You and Darwin work on the north."

He then gave a detector to Felix, assigning him the eastern section.

"Let's hurry!" he exclaimed, looking at his watch.

He immediately began to run, along with his niece, towards some steps that led up to a platform above. A full, metallic echo was emitted with each step.

"Look in all of the corners! If it's necessary we'll go in through a crack!" I heard him say as he was swallowed into the darkness.

Felix, less dramatic, had already made off in the opposite direction. He silently disappeared. Darwin and I remained in the same spot.

"Onward," said Darwin.

"Let's go," I seconded. "Where's north?

We had also lost the knives with the compasses in them in the river, just like the GPS...

"Don't you know?" Darwin responded, surprised.

"No..."

"Me neither," he exhaled.

Without saying anything more, and resigned in the face of our ignorance, we quickly made a beeline for what looked some stalls of some kind arranged in a line. We didn't know if it was north, but at least we knew it was an area that neither Felix, nor the doctor and his niece, had run to.

We got to the place in an agitated state. The radiation levels were safe, according to the detector reading. We shone the flashlights over the walls of the first stall; they looked like they were made out of metal. There was a door. We approached.

"Looks like steel," Darwin commented, beating sharply on the surface. "And it has this weird lock."

Basically, it was another solid steel door...impossible to open.

"Let's forget it," I suggested, withdrawing my flashlight. "We'll take a look at the other modules."

We conscientiously inspected the next four modules. The doors were impenetrable for all time. The tiny round windows in the walls had an equally defiant look about them.

It had gone eleven minutes past five. The launch was supposed to take place at 7:47, and we hadn't even managed to get into any of the complex's buildings.

The situation was serious, even for me. Now I felt a certain responsibility about completing the mission, instead of aborting it. It was a matter of an inexplicable moral obligation. It was a strange, uncomfortable feeling.

We stopped at the fifth stall. We found a door that looked different from the previous ones. It had a normal handle. It was narrower than the others and was the only one that had a sign on it.

We instinctively drew away from it. Very slowly, I held the detector up to the door. There was no increase in radiation.

"Do you understand those symbols?" I asked, illuminating a strange sign marked on the door.

"No clue," my friend responded. "What do those letters mean?"

"I don't know..."

The writing underneath the archaic symbol was incomplete. The dampness had probably worn off the letters.

Darwin took a step forward and put his hand on the knob.

"Shall we go in?"

"We'll try."

My friend turned the handle and a whiny creak could be heard. The door started to open!

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed.

"I think it's the entrance..."

Euphoria overcame me.

"The entrance!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "We found it! We found it! Come here! We found the entrance!"

We had to get the group together as soon as possible! Darwin finished opening the door, giving it a careful shove. We pointed the flashlights inside.

A urinal appeared. The light of the flashlights continued their inspection. Two toilets appeared. There was a washbowl in the corner.

It was a restroom.