Magellan

by Scott Baird

  Here we go.

  14 – On Triton’s Surface

  “Search time on the moon's surface is limited, sir,” Ferdinand said as Nelson detached the X-57 from the Magellan and began the descent toward Triton. “We found the location in time to give you about thirty minutes on the ground. If you exceed that, we will be trailing Eris across the solar system and it will use up far more fuel than our ideal mission scenario.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Nelson piloted the lander toward the pale, icy moon, which grew larger and larger in his view until it filled the whole cockpit, dwarfing the far larger but more distant blue planet it orbited.

  It weighed on him that he was now almost three billion miles from Earth—three times as far away as the Titan portion of the mission had gotten him. He was so far beyond the reach of men that it would take several years for a subsequent mission to reach this point, and that was just direct travel time. Realistically, no one from Earth could arrive here for multiple decades, assuming a compelling case could be made for funding an accelerated schedule.

  Some of the mission parameters fluttered through his mind, contingencies in which he could wait in stasis for a number of years until the Magellan could be recovered and returned to Earth. But they were mostly relevant for the first leg of the journey. The likelihood of the stasis box remaining stable long enough to be recovered from Neptune's vicinity, especially after a mission-ending mechanical failure aboard the Magellan, was low. And beyond this point, between Triton and Eris, there was little hope that the ship would ever be brought back to Earth. If the Magellan suffered a catastrophic failure now, it would join the Voyagers and Pioneers as silent drifters, lifeless pieces of machinery that would sail for a thousand years toward distant stars.

  “Sir, this is Neil—just a reminder that Triton's gravity is about eight percent of Earth's, and there's only a trace atmosphere. Escape velocity is super low, and we'll have no trouble landing and taking off again using minimal energy!”

  Nelson smiled. At least he had these talking computers to keep him from brooding. “Thanks, Neil. That's good news.” He’d never felt so closely monitored—or so alone. Disembodied electronic assistants didn’t even approach the warmth of human contact, no matter how psychologically adept their programming was. But Nelson stopped himself before he could examine his feeling of empty loneliness, and the thoughts of his wife that his dreams had left swirling in his heart. He was a man with a job to do, and there would be time later for rumination.

  As Neil predicted, the descent into Triton’s atmosphere began much more smoothly than on Titan, which had one of the thicker atmospheres in the solar system. Triton's surface, by contrast, was icy and unclouded. The viewscreens showed a wide expanse of light gray spreading out on all sides. Supposedly there were cryovolcanoes and nitrogen geysers to watch out for, but Nelson saw no sign of any near the landing area.

  “The terrain in this region is topographically varied,” Neil advised. “Between the visible craters and all the hills and ridges, you may have a challenge ahead of you to reach the site.”

  “Gravity’s low, though,” Nelson replied, “so I can probably get around more easily than on earth.”

  “That’s true! But still, as we come in on the target zone, do your best to get the lander as close as possible to the triangulated signal. I’ll narrow the range parameters in real-time for you.”

  “Okay, Neil. Here we go.”

  The thin atmosphere made the lander come down a little faster than Nelson had calculated, but he found that the craft responded easily to his touch on the controls and he was able to slow it in as short a time as he wanted without feeling much pressure at all on his body. As the jets automatically responded to his ground proximity, he focused on the triangulation data Neil was feeding him and edged the lander nearer to Triton’s north pole. Finally he touched down on a flat, unobstructed patch of icy rock that lay between several craters and low mountains.

  As soon as he was down and the cockpit lights indicated a stable at-rest condition, he quickly prepared to exit the lander. “Okay, gotta go, Neil. Minutes count this time. Keep updating me with any help you can give in finding this thing.”

  “Will do, sir! But be advised: now that we’re down on the surface, my sensors don’t have as much reach. You may need to rely on your proximity tracker.”

  Nelson made sure the locator device was functioning correctly and then stepped into the small airlock at the rear of the cockpit. A few seconds later he was out onto the surface of Neptune's moon, looking around at the shiny, slightly rose-colored gray surface.

  Though he was hyper-conscious of the time limit on this part of the mission, he took a moment to gaze around in astonishment at the dramatic terrain near his landing site. The view from the surface of this moon was even more breathtaking than on the way down: high ridges rose above him on all sides, the walls of sizable craters and rocky mountain ranges. They cast long shadows that were pitch black, reaching out from every outcropping and mound. On the descent he had seen even deeper valleys than the one he was in, however. He was far from the bottom of this region on Triton’s surface.

  “Are you getting all this, Abigail?” he muttered instinctively, turning his head from side to side so the helmet cam would capture the full vista. For a moment, he felt as if his wife was with him somehow, in spirit if not in body, and he was sharing this moment of discovery with her. “It’s incredible.”

  He became suddenly self-conscious as he remembered that five or six billion other people would also be listening to every word he uttered, and that was nothing compared to the ribbing he’d get from his NASA colleagues if he said something dumb.

  Holding the locator device in one hand, he moved away from the lander, tearing his gaze away from the alien horizon long enough to keep an eye on the directional indicator. The signal was strong, coming from a point not more than half a kilometer ahead. With less atmosphere to get in the way, it had been much easier to zero in from above, and Neil’s last-minute updates had indeed helped.

  “We’re nearly on top of it, Neil. Good work. This will be a short hike.”

  “Fantastic, sir! And there’s no weather on Triton to interrupt the expedition.”

  “Nope. Just a ticking time window.” Nelson hurried onward, experimenting with his stride to see how much he could get away with. He settled into an easy jog that bounced him gently along without putting him into the air for more than a fraction of a second. He didn’t want to tumble to the ground with his helmet cam running—he’d never live that one down. Also, there was the small issue of rupturing his suit on a jagged rock in negative four hundred degree, practically airless conditions.

  After a few minutes of foot travel, he saw that he was nearing the rim of one of the craters he’d seen on the way down. It wasn’t the deepest in the area, but it was a significant obstacle.

  “Uh, oh, Neil. Indicator’s still pointing straight ahead. That puts the signal…”

  He approached the edge of a ravine, one of many that ran down into the surface crater, making its rim jagged and toothed like a gaping mouth.

  “… Right in the middle of this crater’s floor. I guess we should have steered the lander right into it, Neil.”

  “Perhaps it’s farther on, sir. You may want to circle around the rim until you get a better fix on the signal.”

  “Why do you say that, Neil?”

  “Based on data NASA has postulated about expected transmitter locations, sir, the bottom of an impact crater seems an unlikely place for a beacon that's been here for a long time. Unless these transmitters can survive a meteor impact, that is.”

  Nelson frowned. “I don’t think we’re more than a hundred meters away from it, which would put it right down in the basement of this thing. Maybe it hasn't been there long,” Nelson replied, looking for a way down the steep cliff at his feet. “It probably wasn't placed here within the last century, or we would have detected signs of its arrival. A hundred years is
nothing, though. Triton's surface is supposed to be pretty fresh, but we're still talking millions of years of meteors and erosion as this landscape has melted and frozen. The beacon could easily have been placed after this crater was made, but before we started watching our little corner of space.”

  “But the walls of a deep crater would inhibit the radio signal and increase the risk of the beacon becoming buried,” Neil argued back, still managing to sound chipper and supportive in her challenge. “NASA data suggests a mountain top or flat valley floor is a more likely site!”

  “Well, I'm guessing whoever put them here had a plan to deal with that. There’s a lot NASA doesn’t have a handle on yet. For example, these radio signals are far stronger than a tiny little ball should be capable of generating, in a crater or out of it.” Nelson softly kicked at a loose rock on the edge of the cliff, sliding it toward the edge. It slowly tipped over and began a smooth fall, then hit the slope and tumbled down the ravine before becoming lodged in a crevice. “I think I have some climbing to do, Neil.”

  “It’s your judgment call, sir. As always!”

  Nelson stared down at the valley floor in front of him. The ravine marked the safest way down, but it meant navigating a nearly fifty-foot incline that was near vertical in some places. As he turned his locator this way and that, trying to get a better angle and zero in on the location of the transmitter, it seemed to point straight at the foot of the cliff some eighty meters distant. The ravine would be a tricky route, filled with large boulders that had calved off and partially filled it. There was a steeper cliff face nearby that would be more direct, but a dangerous and strenuous climb.

  “We have twenty-six minutes remaining, sir. You should return to the lander for additional gear. I urge you to at least take a length of cord and your telescoping geo tool.”

  “Yeah.” Nelson bounced lightly on his feet, feeling the gentle impact of his oversize boots on the icy crust. “Thing is, I could probably just jump down there in this low gravity, and land it without all the climbing. You think?”

  “That is not advisable, sir. While the low gravity would prevent you from injuring your body on impact, the temperature difference between the internals of your suit and Triton's surface temperature would mean that even a minor rupture in your suit could result in combustion. It's a risk I urge you not to take!”

  Nelson considered that for another moment. “You don't want to clean up my frozen, exploded remains? Come on, Neil.”

  “No, sir. I do not.” Again the sarcasm had slipped past the AI his wife’s team had built. Strike two, Abby, he thought.

  Returning to the lander, gearing up, and making the climb with a rope tethering him to the top would make it a half-hour-long process. There wasn't time. “I'm going to climb it without gear, Neil. I'll take it carefully.”

  “Acknowledged, sir. We now have twenty-five minutes remaining to make our launch window.”

  “All right, keep me posted every few minutes.” Nelson walked to the part of the ravine that offered the easiest entry. With a transport box and a bag of small tools flapping gently outside his suit, he turned and clambered down the rocky defile.

  Getting over the lip of the crater was surprisingly easy, thanks to the ravine that cut a wedge-shaped crevice through the top of the cliff. Once on the slope, however, Nelson constantly had to stop and check his route so he didn't get into trouble on one of the steeper parts with no handholds.

  He tested his weight and found that he could hang on the side of the cliff easily without using his feet, but he didn't want to use up all his arm strength on the way down. He still had an ascent to make with the artifact, and time would be even more critical on the way up.

  Suddenly his gloved hand slipped on the hold he had moved to, and the added weight made his other hand and one boot slip too. For a moment he caught himself with his other foot, but then that rocky outcropping crumbled and he slid several yards down the steep slope, feet and arms bouncing off the icy crust as he scrabbled for purchase.

  He slid to a stop before going too far, and hugged the rock face for a moment until he was sure his suit was undamaged. Then he continued.

  “I'm okay, Neil. Continuing down into the crater. How we doing on time?”

  “Eighteen minutes remaining, sir. Your suit pressure is stable, but your heart rate is elevated.”

  “Yeah. I had a scare, but I came out all right.” The slide actually gave him a bit more confidence, now that he knew how it felt to bounce down the cliff and stop himself. When he came to a particularly steep portion of the incline he identified a sizable rock ten feet below him and let go, letting himself fall gently to land on the rock. He almost overbalanced and fell the rest of the way to the crater floor, but he put out a foot and steadied himself at the last second. A few more cautious slides got him to the bottom without further trouble.

  “Okay, I'm down. I think the sphere is going to be very close. Right over... this way.”

  The locator device pointed the way to a small mound about ten meters from the foot of the slope.

  “Yeah, this is it, Neil. I’m nearly on it!”

  He jogged a few more steps along the foot of the cliff and then stopped. He could see the second beacon poking up from the top of the mound before he even closed on it.

  “I've found it, Neil! It's here!”

  “Excellent work, sir! I knew you’d do it.”

  Setting the transport container next to the sphere, he pried the alien object out of the icy crust with a tool from his bag, and stopped to examine it. It looked exactly like the one from Titan, perhaps a little smaller. Mottled iridescence gleamed on its spherical surface as he held it up to the daylight.

  He stowed it in the container and then chipped a small chunk of ice from the mound where it had rested. He put that and a couple of rock fragments in the container next to the sphere, closed it tight, and looped the container's tether cable over his shoulder. Then he turned to go. “Did you get good imagery of the site through my helmet cameras?” he asked Neil.

  “Yes, sir. You'll need to hurry back up here; time to departure is twelve minutes!”

  Nelson jogged back toward the ravine, looking up at the cliff wall as he went. The curvature of the slope blocked the last part of the rim from view, but it seemed to be a lot higher than it had seemed from up top.

  He came to the mouth of the ravine and began scrambling up the boulders. After a couple of minutes he got to the steep portion that he had slid down previously, and stopped to scan for an easier way.

  There wasn’t one.

  Looking around at the rugged stone face he was attempting to climb, he realized he wasn't sure he could actually make it in twelve minutes. The ascent wasn’t nearly as strenuous as it looked; Nelson’s Earth-strengthened muscles had plenty of energy left in them. But the way was steep and icy and he couldn't jump nearly as high as he had slid down.

  The minutes were burning. He swung the sphere's container to his back, hanging it from his shoulder on its tether so that it wouldn't get in the way. The he began to climb the nearly vertical stone face in front of him, hugging the rocks and inserting his gloved fingers into any crannies he could find. The huge toes of his boots made it very difficult to get good footholds.

  “They didn’t have rock climbers in mind when they engineered these boots, did they?” he muttered. “If I had climber’s shoes on right now, or even a pair of good sneakers, I’d be up there already. And why didn’t we think to bring along a jetpack?”

  “Sir, nine minutes left,” Neil replied, still in a perky and helpful tone. But the fact that the AI had ignored his grating attempt at humor told Nelson how close he was coming to mission failure.

  His foot slipped and he found himself hanging by both hands, bouncing gently against the rocks.

  “I can't get traction on this ice, Neil! Not in this low gravity.” Nelson took a few seconds to look for a better route. There were a pair of rocks nestled together overhead that would make a good platform
to push upward from, but there were no good handholds to get up to them. Going around would take extra minutes, and he could hardly back down and start over.

  Nelson's mind raced as he tried to come up with a way out of his predicament. There was a cord sitting in the lander's cargo compartment, he knew. Coiled neatly next to a few other items of gear he had opted to leave behind. Pity that Neil was just a voice in his head with no way to bring it to him.

  But there was a length of cord on him, he suddenly remembered—the transport container's tether. It would probably stretch to three or four feet, just enough to get over the two rocks.

  Hanging on with a hand and both feet, Nelson reached back with his free hand and pulled the container up to where he could grab it. Then he hurled it upward, aiming for the rocks. It went low and bounced back, hitting him in the head and then dangling behind him.

  He tried again, and this time got it up over the top of the rocks so that it settled on the outcropping just above them. He carefully lowered the tether cable through the space between the two rocks, forming a makeshift anchor. Then he began to pull himself up, using the tether as a climbing rope. It was a hundred times easier than rock-climbing on Earth, and Nelson felt a surge of relief and elation at having solved his problem.

  “And this right here, Neil, is why they sent an astronaut on this mission. Think a robot could have managed this climb?”

  “No, sir!”

  “Right you are. Sometimes it takes a man—”

  The whole thing broke loose and he fell backward, plummeting several yards to land on his back at the foot of the short cliff section.

  “Sir, are you all right? Have you fallen?”

  Nelson got to his feet. The fall hadn't even knocked the wind out of him, but he was keenly aware of the loss of time as well as how foolish he’d just made himself look. He could see the container resting on the rocks above, its tether dangling down and swaying slowly.