Alvin knew he had hooked him. It was easier than he thought it would have been. Alvin guessed that Tom was getting desperate to have some good news. Tom had been in the Air Force before joining NASA and he did not want the marine contingent that was coming with the diplomats to find the tunnel before they could and get the glory.
The crew gathered together over breakfast for the morning briefing. Once they had all sat down, Tom spoke. "Christmas is in two days. That will be a day off for everybody aside from essential duties. Prometheus arrives the day after. So, Lana, you and I will make sure this place shines while Alvin and Sandra are away."
"So, I do the cleaning while you pretend you are busy in the control room," Lana joked, nudging him with her elbow.
"Oh, I'm helping alright," Tom protested. "I can't have a bunch of grunts running around here and acting superior because the ceilings aren't scrubbed." He turned to Alvin and Sandra. "In the interest of trying to find the city before the Prometheus lands, and only getting one area left to explore before they do, we are reprioritizing. You are to go to sector sixty-two by that pyramid shaped rock outcropping. NASA has already approved the change in schedule."
"Understood, Cap— Tom," Sandra said.
"Anyone else have anything to report?"
"Sensors reported a spike in Donoon's vital signs yesterday afternoon," Lana said. Alvin stopped mid bite. He tried to look uninterested. "Nothing happened as far as he would tell me. I'll have to keep a closer eye on him."
Alvin swallowed. It seemed that nothing would come back on him for his little visit. But why didn't Sam rat him out? That was troubling as well. It was almost as if he wanted the crew to find the underground city, even though he wouldn't just give them a location.
The rest of the meal passed uneventfully and Alvin and Sandra donned their space suits. Once they were underway, Sandra asked him, "Why do you think Tom changed the exploration schedule?"
"I think it's a military thing," Alvin lied. "He doesn't want another branch to do something that he couldn't. So this is his Hail Mary pass."
"I guess that makes sense," she replied.
Sector sixty-two was further than the previous areas they had explored. Sandra and Alvin took turns napping while the other drove. At last, the miniature pyramid came into view. There had been some talk when it was first sited during aerial mapping, but a closer look showed it to be natural. From their current vantage point, it didn't even look that pyramid shaped. Just a misshapen rock that was narrower at the top than it was at the bottom.
They parked the rover in the leeward side of the rock in case the wind block helped to keep the rover warmer. For once, Alvin was excited to go out and search for the tunnel. Remembering last time, he did help Sandra put up a few of the blankets. The sooner she was done with the task, the sooner the rover would be warm enough to remove the suit when they were finished.
Alvin plotted a rough course on his wrist computer. Outward spiraling circles would take him from their rock out to a smaller outcropping on the close horizon. He started his route. Along the way, he picked up any rocks that Sandra might find interesting. This area was higher than the lowlands they had explored previously and he knew enough about the science to know the geology would be different.
Alvin didn't expect to find anything too close to the pyramid. They would have seen it already.
After three hours, Alvin started doubting his plan. Maybe the bastard was telling the truth about not wanting his civilization to be discovered. Maybe he read too much into the pause.
What would have been even worse was if, after coming up empty handed here, the entrance turned out to be in the area they had originally scheduled to explore today.
Alvin scanned the surrounding area again. The other outcropping was getting close. At that point, he would give up and return to Sandra. He didn't feel right about his deception, but finding the tunnel would have made it worth it. Now, all he had were lies without the reward.
He caught the edge of a shadow out of the corner of his eye. The sight didn't even pause his scanning, but then he stopped. Titan didn't have shadows. Not from the sun anyway. The soupy atmosphere made sure of that. There weren't any spot lights set up out here. So where did the shadow come from?
He turned back towards the shadow again. He went in a full circle. Where had it been? Alvin pointed himself back at the outcropping and started turning slowly. Slowly, slowly, there. There was the shadow. But that wasn't quite right. It wasn't quite a shadow. Was that a hole?
"I think I found it," he announced to Sandra over the radio. "Getting closer to take photographs."
"Okay," she radioed back. "Be careful and don't do anything stupid."
"Would I do anything stupid," he said. "Wait, don't answer that." He turned back towards the rover and waved. "Don't worry. I have no interest in finding myself looking at the wrong end of an alien gun."
Alvin took photographs and video with the digital camera built into the suit helmet. He made sure to get the shadow's position relative to the pyramid and the smaller outcropping. He inched up to the hole. There was a rock ledge that extended over most of it. He shined his light inside and saw the far wall. This couldn't be the right place. Alvin stood hunched over the hole for a minute. He looked over at Sandra who was watching his progress. "I'm going in."
"Wait, you just said—" Sandra started. Alvin jumped in. He landed four feet below with a soft thump. "Alvin," he heard her voice under a layer of static.
"Can you hear me?" he asked.
"I—" Static drowned out the rest. "Rock—inter—ring—back."
Alvin switched on the voice recorder. "This isn't the place, but it does look like it was recently occupied. Looks like maybe a couple tents. I see footprints. Some sort of boot. They lead somewhere." He shined his light around. The far wall wasn't a wall after all, the cave continued around a bend. He followed the footsteps. "Just a false alarm. The cave does end, just a little deeper." Only one set of prints goes back here, like somebody was hiding."
He returned to the cave entrance and pulled himself out. Sandra stood a few feet away. "What were you doing? Why would you do something like that? You didn't know what was down there." She punched him in the arm of the suit. He couldn't feel the hit, but the momentum wobbled him in the low gravity.
"It wasn't the right spot; it was just a cave. Here, listen to this." He tapped a few buttons on his wrist computer and played the audio file he had made while in the cave.
"Wow," she said, a full minute after the recording ending. "Do you think it was Donoon, hiding here?"
"No," Alvin replied. "He didn't have anything to protect him from the elements. He would have never made it to our ship from here. That's why I find it so suspicious. Somebody dumped him there. Knowing we would find him. He's not telling us something."
"Maybe they were trying to show mercy and left him knowing we would find him."
"Then why not just bring him to us, or leave some protective gear. But I don't want to argue this again. That wasn't the tunnel, but it has to be close."
"I think it's my turn to look," she said. "I can't trust you not to explore the tunnel by yourself."
"Fine," he said. "I'll stay by the rover."
He sent her the map data his wrist computer had accumulated during his turn and Sandra set off in the direction he had been heading before discovering the tunnel.
Alvin watched Sandra continue her trek. After a few minutes of watching her stare at her feet, he got to work on putting the blankets up on the rover. It took his full attention and he forgot about Sandra and their mission.
Finishing up, he got into the rover and blasted the heat. There would be no delay getting out of their suits today. He debated whether he should make himself comfortable in the rover as it warmed up when he heard her voice.
"I found more footprints. Just over the dune," she said. "Alvin, come here. Somebody was carrying something and dropped it. Then one set of footprints over the dune and into the rocky area."
Alvin made his way over as fast as the awkward suit and awkward low gravity could take him. Despite her urgency at his coming, she ignored him when he arrived. She examined the footprints from multiple angles. She was, he realized, taking photographs.
Alvin looked at the footprints coming to a stop and the indentation of a large object. The wind was starting to eradicate the evidence, but he thought he could make out some sort of appendages. Could the object dropped have been another person? Maybe Sandra's theory about Sam was right after all.
Beside the lone set of footsteps leading towards the cave, two sets went back in the direction from which they came.
"Sandra," he called. She ignored him, still too engrossed in her task. He reached over and yanked on her arm.
"Alvin, I'm busy," she said, not looking up. "Look at the footprints, they go off to the north. If we follow them, we may find what we are looking for."
Sandra looked at where he pointed and back at the rover. "We aren't supposed to get out of sight of our ride."
"You stand on the dune," he told her. You will be able to see the rover clearly and still keep an eye on me so I can't get lost."
She mulled it for a second. "Okay, but no stunt like you did with that cave."
"Scouts honor," he put his hand up. He put his helmet cam on continuous recording video and followed the footsteps. He was well out of sight of the rover now. They wound around the outcropping. "I'll see if it's right here or if the footprints continue." Either way, I'll be right back."
"Okay," she told him. "You have five minutes."
Alvin continued around the bend. The outcropping leaned over the ground like a shelf. The ground seemed lower where rock met the ground. The prints continued to that area, so he followed them. There it was. "I found it."
"Al—You're—eaking u—"
"Damn, rocks. Why can't NASA invent a radio that works through rock." He thought about just going for it, but decided to not to scare her again. He turned and tripped over a rock. Again.
The fall felt like slow motion, as it always did. This time, however, when he hit the ground, he discovered it sloped. He bounced in the low gravity and rolled further into the tunnel.
The floor leveled out, and Alvin skidded to a halt. "Sandra, do you copy?" He waited but no response came. "Sandra, do you copy at all? I fell." Still no answer. He pushed himself up and dusted himself off. Before moving, he ran a quick self-check on the suit in search of tears or leaks. Everything seemed to be operating normally. He took a step towards the surface but stopped.
He promised Sandra he wouldn't go off and explore, but he was already down here. It couldn't hurt to go a few feet further. Tom was joking about sentries shooting, right?
He shined his flashlight further down the tunnel. It seemed to run a few hundred feet and go around a curve. He followed the tunnel to the corner and looked around. He held his breath as he poked his head passed the rock wall but there was only him and darkness. He let the breath out. Shining the light down the next stretch revealed more of the same. The sand from the surface gave way to rock. Alvin searched the tunnel walls. Nothing gave away its secret of the roadway to an alien society. If their castaway hadn't told him where to look, this tunnel would have been considered natural and explored only as far as Alvin had already reached. They would not have found enough of note in here to consider exploring further.
But Alvin did have a good enough reason and was already down here. Instinctively, he knew Sandra would be freaking out right now, but he pushed that concern to the back of his mind. There would be plenty of time to deal with the consequences of that later.
Another hundred feet and another curve. The floor started to slope more steeply but still an easy enough walk. At least downhill. Alvin suspected that uphill on Earth gravity would not have been an easy hike.
He debated how much further he should go. "One more bend," he said out loud. That should put him at about a quarter mile into the tunnel. Hopefully, that would bring him close enough to the city to see signs of it.
He continued climbing down. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a light flash. He turned around, but he was alone. It flashed again and Alvin realized it was coming from the temperature reading on the heads up display on his helmet. The number had almost reached zero. That was much warmer than it should have been from geologic activity considered how far below zero the surface was where Sandra was probably looking for his unconscious body.
He decided to run some atmospheric tests. Titan's atmosphere varied with the weather but the lack of oxygen, oxygen that their pet alien seemed to need as well as they did, was remarkably consistent. The oxygen sensor beeped. Five percent. Still much too low to walk around, but well above the moon's baseline. That had to be a good sign as well. He recorded his findings and continued down the rabbit hole.
He shined his light around while he walked. There wasn't anything in front of him during the stretches of tunnel.
The light bounced off the rough rock. Still natural. Was that an artifact of their tunnel building technology? Despite the look, this cave seemed to be a funny shape to Alvin.
There were signs of some sort of a scuffle here. Instead of the rough rock all around, he could see fresh cuts in the wall. It looked like a fight had broken out here.
That shook Alvin out of his revelry. He turned around and headed back. When he reached the final curve in the tunnel, Sandra was waiting for him, shining her light around.
"I'm right here. I fell and it took me a minute to catch my bearings. I went the wrong way." There, another lie. Alvin hated how much easier they were getting for him.
"I got worried when you stopped responding," she hugged him awkwardly though their protective clothing.
"We are going to need better radios if we keep this up. I'm pretty sure this is what we've been looking for," he said. "Let's get back to the rover. For once, I actually want to make my report."
Alvin
Alvin hadn't expected to watch the landing himself. He'd become an astronaut to discover life on new worlds, not to watch rockets burn. But Sandra insisted, and he found himself squeezed into the control room with the others anyway.
"Isn't this exciting?" Sandra asked him.
"No, not really," he admitted. Sandra elbowed him. "This was supposed to be a science mission. That got sidetracked real fast."
"At least you got to do some science while we've been here," Lana cut in. She folded her arms and leaned against the bulkhead. She glared at Tom. "I've been on babysitting duty almost the entire time."
"Not this again," Tom muttered. He dropped his head and sighed.
"Yes, this again," she repeated his words. "I haven't done anything here. I for one am happy that they are sending more people. They can babysit the alien so I can do what I actually came here to do, what I've spent years of my life training to do."
"Look," Tom said quietly. "I'm done having this argument. What's done is done. We did the best we could to help out, and now Donoon gets to be their responsibility." He pointed at the screen.
The landing itself was uneventful. Exactly how you would want it to be, Alvin figured. He certainly didn't want an exciting landing when he got back to Earth.
"Welcome to Titan, Prometheus," Tom called over the radio.
"Thanks for having us, Atlas," the voice on the other side answered. Alvin guessed it was the captain of the Prometheus; Jerry, Tom had called him. 'Ambassador' Atwell would feel too important to be chatting over ship radios. "We are looking forward to getting off of this tub and stretching our legs."
"Do you want some help getting your habitat up? We got the only people with experience in putting 'em up on this rock."
Another voice broke into the conversation. "That won't be necessary, Captain. My men will be faster without you in the way."
"Son, your elders were having a conversation. It's not polite to interrupt, so shove a sock in it." Tom rolled his eyes.
"Captain, I will not tolerate your rudeness, and
it certainly won't help your cause."
Jerry came back into the conversation, "Major Johns, if you want a ride back, you're going to have to play nice."
"Whatever," Johns responded. "Just all you lot stay out of our way. According to my briefing, this is a war zone and that puts me in charge. Captain Larkin, have the air lock section ready to open in fifteen. And Captain O'Brien, just stay on your ship and out of my way. Over and out."
There was a brief hiss of static and then silence. "Hanging up on somebody just isn't the same since the end of the analog telephone in my grandpa's day." Alvin chuckled.
Lana and Sandra looked at him but didn't say anything. Tom muttered something under his breath. "Well, I guess we should get back to not being in Major Johns's way."
Lana rolled her eyes. Sandra just shook her head. Tom seemed to finally break free of the fugue he was in. "Suit up. We still have to meet the ambassador." Tom stood up and left the room, forcing the rest of the crew to scramble to catch up.
Alvin was the last to exit the ship to exit the ship. He stepped outside and stopped in his tracks. The Marines must have been suited up and ready to go before the Prometheus even landed. Barely half an hour had passed since the Prometheus had landed and they already had the frame up. Alvin remembered when the four of them had put their Hab up, it had taken nearly half a day.
Something seemed odd with their suits. It took him a minute, but Alvin figured it out. Instead of their bulky vacuum suits, the marines were wearing something that looked like a wetsuit with a helmet. That probably helped a lot with getting their habitat up faster. "Well, Tom, I guess he was right. They don't need our help at all."
Tom didn't say anything. He just bounced the hundred yards to the Prometheus. "Hey, Jerry. Open up."
As the air lock door cycled open, Alvin and Sandra rushed to catch up. Lana didn't budge. Alvin turned to look at her. "Go on, I don't really feel like being around Tom right now," she explained.
Alvin opened his mouth but Lana had already turned and was heading back to their ship. Alvin looked at Sandra and shrugged. His suit didn't move. He really needed to get his hands on one of the Marine's suits. "I just shrugged, by the way."
Once Upon a Saturn Moon Page 10