In the Red

by Christopher Swiedler

  “It’s beautiful, I guess,” Lilith said, her voice shaking. “But—”

  A crackling sound came over the radio, accompanied by a deep hum that reverberated in their skulls. The hum rose in pitch, higher and higher, until they both clapped their hands against the sides of their helmets in a futile attempt to block out the noise.

  “What’s happening?” Lilith shouted. Her voice was barely audible over the squeal from their headsets.

  Before Michael could respond, the sound intensified, cycling up and down all the way from a high-pitched squeak to a deep rumble like rock grinding on rock. Pain shot through his eardrums.

  Then, without any warning, it was gone. The sound, the glow. Everything. The sky was a deep, somber black, and the full array of stars shone down, as if the aurora had never existed.

  Michael stared up at the sky. The flare couldn’t be over. Solar storms didn’t just stop like that. Hypothesis, some part of his brain thought. If the aurora has disappeared, then . . .

  His eyes flicked toward the compass on the dashboard. The needle, which had been ramrod straight for their entire trip, now wandered around aimlessly.

  “What was that?” Lilith asked. “What’s going on?”

  “The magnetic field,” he said hoarsely. “It’s—it’s gone.”

  6

  “GONE?” LILITH ASKED. “How can it be gone?”

  “I don’t know,” Michael said. His heart raced. If the magnetic field had failed, then as soon as the sun came up, there would be nothing to protect them from the full force of the flare. How much time did they have until the radiation was more than their suits could handle?

  “But what—”

  “I don’t know!” Michael snapped.

  The nav computer flashed an error. Primary signal lost. Then, a moment later: Secondary signals lost.

  Michael stared at the screen, trying to understand what was happening. If the planetwide navigation systems were already being affected by the flare, then what about communication satellites? Quickly, he switched his suit to the global emergency channel. He heard a brief hum, followed by bits of static and three or four overlapping voices. Then the channel went silent. Carrier signal lost, his wrist display said. He tried other channels and got the same result.

  “Satellites are going down,” he said. “No navigation, no radio uplinks.”

  “Okay, you’re joking, right?” Lilith asked. “This is all some stupid prank? Scare the Earther girl?”

  “It’s not a prank,” Michael said. “We have to find shelter.”

  “Shelter from what?”

  “From the sun!” He pointed at the eastern horizon, where the sky was already starting to brighten.

  “You’re serious?” she asked.

  “Listen to me,” he said. “If we’re out here when the sun comes up, we will die.” He could hear Randall’s voice in his head. Radiation poisoning: major organ shutdown, loss of consciousness, death.

  “And we can’t call for help?” Panic was creeping into her voice. “How can you and I still hear each other?”

  “We’re using line-of-sight radios, not satellite uplinks.” His eyes widened. Line-of-sight radios. Even if they couldn’t bounce a signal off of a satellite, maybe they could talk to someone at the station.

  He switched his suit to the local-area emergency channel. “Hello? Is anyone there? If you can hear me, please answer.”

  Ten seconds went by, and then twenty. Lilith watched him intently. He felt sweat trickling down his forehead. “Please. If anyone can hear me—”

  “This is Randall Clarke,” a ragged voice said. “I can hear you. Who is this?”

  Michael’s heart leaped. “Randall! This is Michael Prasad. I need help.”

  There was a brief pause. “Michael? Where are you? And what the hell are you doing out here?”

  “I’m with my friend in a rover south of the ice cap. Can you tell me what’s happening? The magnetic field—”

  “There’s been an accident at the station.” Randall was breathing heavily, as if he were running. “I can’t get many details. I’ve been out on the east slope.”

  “An accident?” Michael repeated. “What kind of accident?”

  “I don’t know. There’s a lot of radio interference.”

  “Is my dad okay?” Michael asked. “Randall, do you know if my dad is okay?”

  A woman’s voice interrupted. “. . . support teams to the east corridor. All personnel . . .” Her voice broke up in static.

  “How far are you from the station?” Randall asked.

  “A few hours. Maybe a little less.”

  “There’s not enough time for you to get here,” Randall said. “When the sun comes up, the radiation will be lethal. Do you understand?”

  “I understand, but—”

  “Head straight for the glacier as quickly as you can.” Randall’s next words were drowned out by static. “. . . or a cave. At least a meter of solid rock . . .”

  “Tell my dad where I am!” Michael shouted. “Please, tell my dad!”

  The first ray of sunlight peeked out over the horizon. All at once there was a jumble of voices shouting, as if a dozen different channels had been jammed together. “Randall? Can you hear me?” Michael said.

  The radio went silent.

  “Did you get all that?” Michael asked hoarsely. Lilith gave a barely perceptible nod. Her face was ashen.

  Michael shifted the rover into gear and jammed his foot down on the throttle. They sped up a small ridge and then started down a long, rock-covered slope. The rover bounced over each rock and ditch. Michael clutched the steering wheel, and Lilith grabbed onto the roll bar to steady herself. He stole a quick glance at the sun, which was now a bright orange curve on the horizon. How was it rising so quickly?

  In front of them, the cliffs of the ice cap glowed red in the sunlight. Boulders and debris from ancient eruptions littered the landscape. Lava flows cut wide channels across the ground. Each time they reached one of the deeper gullies or sinkholes, Michael was forced to turn to the left or right until he found a safe spot to cross.

  “Keep an eye out for any caves,” Michael said. He braked suddenly and swerved around a large rock, and then he accelerated again. “Or overhangs. Anything we can use for shelter.”

  “Michael . . . ,” Lilith said uneasily.

  He ignored her and kept his eyes focused on the terrain ahead. Their suits beeped radiation warnings. Michael glanced at the sun, which had almost cleared the horizon. He went through a series of mental calculations. The flare was supposed to peak at around three watts per square millimeter. Their suits could handle about a tenth of that. Given the current angle of the sun, how long would it be before their bodies absorbed a lethal dose? His brain whirred.

  “Look out!” Lilith shouted.

  A large sinkhole appeared just in front of them, half hidden in the shadow of a massive boulder. Michael turned the wheel sharply to the left and jammed on the brakes. The wheels lost traction and the rover spun around. A second later, the ground disappeared beneath them. For a long moment they were suspended in the air, tilting slowly to one side, in complete silence except for the whistling of the wind. Michael clutched the wheel reflexively and steeled himself for the impact.

  They hit the ground with a sickening crunch that threw them hard against their harnesses. The rover flipped over onto its right side and skidded down the incline, kicking up a cloud of dust that blinded them completely. They hit a rock and tumbled end over end until they finally came to rest. The rover’s metal frame creaked and shuddered, and then everything was still.

  Michael hung against his harness, the straps digging into his torso, and tried to process what had happened. Was it over? Were they still alive?

  Lilith unclasped her safety harness and ran her hands along the surface of his suit, searching for punctures. “Are you okay? Can you walk?”

  He nodded. She helped him unfasten his harness and slide down onto the passenger seat. T
hey staggered out between the roll bars. She squeezed his arms and legs and pressed her hands against his ribs to check for broken bones.

  “I’m fine,” he gasped. The fog in his mind was starting to recede. He quickly checked her suit for tears. “What about you?”

  “I’m okay,” she said. “But the rover . . .”

  Michael limped around the rover and inspected the damage. Its right front section had been crushed inward, and the front axle had snapped in half. Three of the tires were limp and deflated. The frame was bent and mangled.

  He sagged down against a rock. What were they going to do now? There was no way they could fix the rover themselves. How could he have been so careless? He’d just wrecked the only chance they had of getting to safety.

  A distant part of his brain finished the calculations he’d been working on. Thirty minutes. After only thirty minutes of exposure, their bodies would have absorbed enough radiation to kill them.

  Lilith grabbed his arm, jolting him out of his thoughts. She pointed at the glacier. “Come on! We need to find a cave, right?”

  Michael nodded, still half dazed. He climbed into the wreckage and pulled out all the pouches of water and energy gel that he could find. They stuffed them in the pockets of their suits and scrambled up the steep slope. The faint warmth from the sun on Michael’s face made his skin itch. It was just his imagination, he told himself. There wouldn’t be anything to feel until later, when the radiation poisoning kicked in and his body started to devour itself.

  After a hundred meters, the ground started to slope upward. The black, frozen surface of the cliff was sharp and jagged. Every outcrop and handhold dug into their gloves and boots. If they lost their grip even for a moment they could easily break a bone or puncture their suits.

  Lilith pointed up and to their right. “There!”

  Michael looked where she was pointing. Something sparkled in the sunlight: a layer of ice running down the slope like a frozen waterfall. They’d reached the edge of the glacier. As they climbed higher, they could see a dark gap in the ice where a wide cave led deeper into the mountain. Lilith scrambled inside and then helped Michael climb up. They crawled toward the back of the cave, skirting around pillars of ice that hung down from the ceiling. Once they were well out of the sunlight, they collapsed against an ice-covered wall, breathing heavily.

  “Are we safe in here?” Lilith asked.

  He stared at her in confusion for a moment, and then he checked his radiation monitor. “Yeah. We’re okay.”

  Lilith walked around the perimeter of the cave, shining her headlamp all around. The beam reflected eerily from the hanging pillars of ice. She stood at the mouth of the cave and looked out. “How long do you think it will it take for them to find us here?”

  “Not long,” Michael said. “We’re going to be okay. I promise.”

  She snorted. “For all that brainpower, Michael, you really are a terrible liar.”

  7

  FOR A LONG time they sat without talking. Lilith played a game on her wrist display, occasionally muttering to herself. Michael watched the shadow of the cave entrance creep along the ground as the sun rose.

  “Turn around,” Lilith said suddenly, turning off her screen. “I need to pee.”

  Michael looked at her in confusion.

  “Turn around,” she said again. “I’m not peeing with you watching me like that.”

  “You’re wearing a suit. All you have to do—”

  “I know what I have to do,” she said, exasperated. “Now please turn around.”

  Michael sighed and faced away from her. “Okay, you can turn back now,” she said after a minute. “That was the grossest thing ever.”

  “You should drink some energy gel.”

  “I’m not thirsty. Or hungry. Or whatever it is you have to be to drink that stuff.”

  “Drink it anyway. You need—”

  “What I need is for you to stop telling me what to do!” she snapped.

  Michael fumed. Why was she being such a brat? Did she think all of this was his fault? It wasn’t like he could have known what would happen. They didn’t even know what had happened. An accident, Randall had said, but that could mean anything. Maybe the station had just lost power, or maybe some critical circuit had gotten fried.

  Or maybe it was much worse than that. He tried not to think about the possibilities.

  Noon came and went. Michael called out again on the emergency channel, but all he got was static. Meanwhile, the magnetic field showed no signs that it was coming back, and the radiation from the flare was as strong as ever. He drank one of the bulbs of energy gel. It helped quiet the growling in his stomach, but it couldn’t replace an actual full belly.

  After a few more hours, Lilith stood up and stretched her arms above her head. “I’m tired of waiting. I’m going to explore.”

  “Explore what?” Michael asked.

  “This cave,” she said. “Maybe it leads somewhere.”

  “We need to stay here,” Michael said. “This is where my dad will be searching for us.”

  “You don’t know that,” Lilith said. “All we know is that there was an accident at the station. Your dad and everyone else—”

  She stopped suddenly.

  “What?” Michael asked. “My dad and everyone else what?”

  “Nothing. Never mind.”

  “Tell me!”

  “Look, I’m just saying that maybe we can’t sit here and wait for them to rescue us.”

  Michael narrowed his eyes. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Whatever,” Lilith said, shrugging. “Stay here if you want. I’m going to see where this cave leads.”

  She crouched down and began crawling into the narrow passage at the back of the cave. Michael glared at her. In just a moment she’d realize how stupid it was to go exploring in an ice-filled cave when all they had to do was sit here and wait for rescue.

  A minute passed, and then two. After five minutes Michael sat up and peered toward the back of the cave.

  “Lil?” he asked.

  There was no response. He stood up and peered into the darkness. “Lilith?” he called again.

  He tried to stay calm, but he couldn’t help imagining all the possible things that could have happened to her. What if she’d been hurt? What if she’d slipped into a crevasse? He shouldn’t have let her go alone. His heart raced as he scrambled along the icy floor of the cave. The passage turned to the right, cutting off the light from the cave entrance. Everything in front of him was pitch-black except for the narrow beam of his headlamp.

  Cold sweat dripped down the back of his neck. She was somewhere down that passage, and she might need his help. He had to go after her, but his muscles were frozen in place. Raw, nameless terror gripped him.

  “Lilith!” he tried to shout, but his breathing was so rapid and shallow that it was hardly more than a whisper.

  He closed his eyes and clenched his fists, trying to stop them from trembling. What was he even afraid of? Why was he panicking like this? It wasn’t the darkness, or the narrowness of the passage, or anything else he could name. He was just as scared of going backward as he was of going forward. His stomach cramped and he fought the urge to vomit.

  His brain was going haywire, and he had to get it under control. He tried to remember what his doctor had taught him. His body, convinced that something terrible was just about to happen, was releasing massive amounts of adrenaline and cortisol, and now the fear center of his brain wanted to take over.

  But the rest of his brain knew that this was just a cave and he wasn’t in any real danger. All he had to do was crawl forward. Lilith had done it just because she wanted to explore. Now here he was, so petrified with fear that he couldn’t follow her even when she needed his help?

  He cocked his head to one side. Had it been his imagination, or had he just heard Lilith’s voice? He listened intently. A moment later it came again: Michael.

  She was callin
g for him. She needed his help. He couldn’t stay here any longer. He scrambled forward frantically. The passage turned to the left and then back to the right. He went faster, ignoring the pain in his knees from the icy floor. Without any warning the tunnel bent sharply downward. His hands slipped out from under him and he started to slide. He tried to slow himself down by grabbing onto the walls on either side, but his fingers couldn’t get a grip against the slick ice. He opened his mouth to scream.

  Suddenly, the passage ended and he tumbled out onto a wide, flat area. He collided with something soft and rolled to a stop. His scream turned into a loud “oof.”

  “Nice entrance,” Lilith said. Her voice was slightly muffled. “Very nimble. Now would you please get off me?”

  “Lilith!” he gasped. “Are you okay?”

  She climbed to her feet. “I’m fine. Except for some bruising where you decided to tackle me, anyway.”

  “I thought—I thought—”

  He blinked sweat out of his eyes. His breathing was still rapid and his heart rate was elevated, but his body was going back to normal. It was as if the panic switch in his brain that had switched on back in the tunnel had just as suddenly been turned off.

  “Didn’t you hear me telling you to be careful?” Lilith asked. “The ice is wet and slippery down here.”

  Michael stood up and brushed ice and dirt off of his pants. He stopped and frowned. She was right: a thin layer of moisture covered the fabric of his suit. “There can’t be liquid water here. The air is way too cold.”

  He checked the temperature. The air should have been way too cold. But his wrist display showed that it was five degrees above freezing. He wiped the screen with his thumb to make sure he was reading it right. Up on the surface, it had been seventy degrees below zero. Down here it should be even colder. What was going on?

  “Come look at this,” Lilith said.

  He stood next to her and shone his headlamp around. They were inside a large natural cavern about twenty or thirty meters across. Stalactites of ice or rock were barely visible in the shadows above their heads. A few meters in front of them, the floor ended in a straight, sharp ledge that stretched from wall to wall.