Containment

by Christian Cantrell

  PART II

  Earth

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The Wall

  Cam initially insisted that he be present in the dock whenever Arik conducted an EVA. Realistically, there wasn't much he would be able to do in the event of an emergency, and he trusted Arik and the environment suits implicitly. Yet there was something about being in close proximity to the airlock and in constant contact with Arik that made him feel better about their arrangement.

  But when it became apparent that Arik was as experienced with EVAs as almost any of the new Wrench Pod members, Cam asked only that Arik let him know before going out, and send him a quick message when he got back. The only other rule was that Arik couldn't take out the last rover; nobody in the Wrench Pod seemed to mind Arik coming and going, and in fact he'd never even been asked what he was up to, but Cam knew that if Arik's activities started preventing actual wrenchers from getting their jobs done, there would be problems.

  Arik had figured out exactly how close he could get a rover to the outside wall of the Public Pod before the magnetic field started significantly interfering with its operation. He learned to judge the distance by paying attention to the rover's steering and suspension. One of the components of the vehicle's navigation system was a short-range terrain mapping device which used radar to scan the ground ahead, then fed the data into the main on-board computer. The computer then used the topographical model to dynamically adjust tire pressure and the rigidity of the rover's independent suspension in order to prepare and compensate for whatever was ahead. Since visibility was so poor, the main navigation system could also automatically steer the rover around protrusions or depressions which its algorithms deemed overly hazardous. When the navigation system was functioning optimally, the ride was as smooth as a maglev track. But when the rover encountered electromagnetic interference, the irregularities of the terrain began traveling up through the machine and into the driver's body. That's when Arik knew it was time to park. Of course, he could just as easily estimate his proximity to the Public Pod by flipping on the rover's radio and listening for the interference caused by the electromagnetism, but after hearing the Wrench Pod's myth about the static, he preferred to keep the radio turned off.

  Arik didn't wait to feel a change in the rover's steering and suspension this time. He was hauling the trailer which meant that the rover had far less maneuverability than it normally had. The last thing you wanted while hauling the trailer was to get yourself into a situation where you had to back up. With the trailer attached, the rover's rear terrain mapping system was useless which meant not only did you have to worry about the awkwardness of maneuvering both the rover and the trailer, but you had to do it with no computer assistance. When hauling the trailer, the key was to make wide sweeping turns well before you reached your destination. Arik learned to stay just far enough away from the proximity strobes that he could make a full U-turn in either direction, but close enough not to entirely lose sight of them.

  Arik swung the rover around so that it was pointing back toward the airlock, then applied the brake. He couldn't see the Public Pod itself through the dense fog from where he was, but he could just detect the curved pattern of asynchronous white strobes along the top of the structure. He would have liked to get closer since he had a fair amount of hauling to do, but he knew he would probably waste at least 15 minutes maneuvering the rover and the trailer just to gain a meter or two.

  He lowered the trailer's gate and began unloading a pressure washer which Cam had explained was intended for removing corrosion and other unwanted chemical coatings from metal surfaces. It consisted of two parts: one part contained the compressor, power source, and dissolvent reservoir, and the other contained a nozzle which was connected to the compressor by a long, looping black hose. Arik had noticed it on the equipment rack when he was trying to figure how out to conduct his next set of experiments, and after talking it over with Cam, they decided it could probably be used entirely without modification, provided anything toxic was flushed out first.

  Arik needed a simple way to divide up the ground in front of the Public Pod into quadrants in order to separate and demarcate his experiments. He considered driving stakes into the ground and running string or wire between them, but he knew that any technique requiring significant physical labor meant that he would need at least two EVAs to get everything in place. Anyone who spent time outside on a regular basis was familiar with the concept of "the wall" which referred to the point at which the heat, dehydration, and the additional physical effort of wearing an environment suit all converged into exhaustion alarmingly fast. Arik had never hit his own personal wall, but he had gotten close enough to know that he needed to limit each EVA to only a single moderate task. The rule of thumb for new Wrench Pod members was to take the amount of work that you thought you could get done, and divide it in half. Anything beyond that, you were taking a serious risk.

  The other problem with installing a grid was that if anyone happened to come across his work, they would almost certainly become ensnared and end up on the ground. Cam explained to Arik once that the reason environment suits felt so light was their remarkably efficient distribution of weight, and their micro-skeletal systems which bore most of the burden. However, turn a "loaded" environment suit (one containing a fully charged cartridge) on its side, and those advantages were mostly lost, placing the full weight of the equipment on top of the person inside. Arik had been careful not to dig too deep in any one spot when collecting samples for fear of someone stepping in a hole and going down; therefore, he could hardly justify setting up what would basically amount to a system of tripwires to anyone but himself.

  So he decided to use markers that were already there to delineate his experiments: the shields covering the Public Pod's windows. There were sixteen shields spaced perfectly evenly which meant Arik could keep track of 16 different experiments planted in the ground in front of them. Although he assumed it would realistically take dozens if not hundreds of permutations to get results, four genetically engineered seeds combined with four crystal catalyst solutions to produce 16 initial experiments was a reasonable start. Arik believed it was really just a numbers game at this point; if he could modify enough genes and combine them with enough different types of catalysts, he was confident he could get something to sprout. Of course, he could obviously conduct his experiments far more efficiently in his lab using borosilicate tubes, but hundreds of Venusian dirt samples lying around the dome would surely tip Subha off to the fact that Arik wasn't exactly giving artificial photosynthesis his full attention.

  Arik mixed the first batch in the trailer and carried the pressure washer toward the strobes. When he was standing in front of the first shield, he estimated that he had walked a good 50 meters. He felt fine so far — even with the weight of the pressure washer's full reservoir — but he was already wondering if he would be able to get through all sixteen combinations in one day.

  Arik made sure he was perfectly aligned with the shield, then opened the nozzle. The pressure drove the crystalline solution deep down into the loose Venusian soil as Arik expected, but it also raised a surprisingly large cloud of dust and debris. The cloud was dense enough that until it settled, Arik completely lost sight of the Public Pod wall. Without a landmark, it occurred to him that he could easily get turned around and walk off in the wrong direction. Even after the mustard-yellow cloud had dissipated, enough of the solution had become airborne and adhered to his visor that his visibility was significantly diminished. He tried to wipe it away with his glove, but it had formed a thin crust against which his soft gloves were completely ineffective.

  Arik walked back to the rover and mixed the second batch which he then applied much more carefully. He held the nozzle as far away from his body as he could, and tried to keep himself rotated away from the cloud of dust. He had to maintain a wide stance in order to keep his balance, and since he wasn't able to watch exactly where he was spraying, he inadvertently clipped the
heel of his boot with the pressurized stream. He knew that Cam had told him that it would take nothing short of a high-energy laser to penetrate an environment suit, but Arik also knew what high pressure jets were capable of cutting through. Most of the saws in the shop were actually diamond-tipped high pressure water jets which, when combined with even a relatively minor abrasive, could easily cut through 25 centimeters of solid steel without generating any significant heat.

  He dropped the pressure washer and fell to one knee in order to inspect the back of his boot. There was a single clean spot in the location where Arik had felt the impact, but the microfiber didn't appear to be compromised, and the HUD inside his visor was reporting normal pressure. Arik told himself that there was no way the pressure washer could cut through an e-suit boot, even with the added abrasive properties of the crystals in the solution. If it were even remotely possible, Cam would have said something. He knew exactly what Arik was going to be doing. They had even agreed that Arik would probably need to use the highest setting in order to get the seeds and crystals deep enough into the ground and adequately combined with the soil. But Cam didn't anticipate the massive plumes of dust that the process produced, so if visibility issues hadn't occurred to him, what else might he have missed?

  Arik decided there was no sense in overanalyzing the situation. It was actually very simple. If the pressurized stream had significantly punctured the suit, he would be dead already. And if the puncture was small enough that the suit could compensate for it, the HUD would report a breach. Assuming his suit's arrays of sensors — and the thousands of lines of software that gave them life — were all functioning and communicating normally, he was fine.

  When Arik was back at the rover and the pressure washer was in the trailer, he wondered whether he should mix the third batch and keep going, or close up the gate and head back to the airlock. His EVA wasn't progressing as smoothly as he'd expected. He knew Cam's advice would be to scrub it, make some adjustments to the program, and try it again the next time he could get away from work. But when would that be? Arik knew he was already way too focused on terraforming, and that his time away from the Life Pod and his lack of progress on AP were not going unnoticed. It was difficult for him to accept that, for the first time in his life, he was not meeting or exceeding what was expected of him. He was completely confident that what he was working on was far more important than AP, and that the payoff of accomplishing something that everyone knew was impossible was worth whatever short term price he had to pay, but he also knew that there were limits. He had to produce results soon, or get back to working on his actual assignments. He didn't have a good sense of how much more time he had, but certainly not enough that he could put off conducting his first batch of experiments by several days or even weeks. It was always possible that he could see results from his very first trials, but it was much more likely that he would be back out here dozens of times experimenting with dozens of combinations and techniques. There was simply no way to know, so he had to make the most of every opportunity he had.

  Arik mixed the third batch and walked back to the Public Pod wall. He decided it was better to lose a little visibility than to risk clipping his suit again, so he stood directly in the plume of the debris as he applied the solution. He accumulated fewer crystals on his visor than he did the first time by backing away as soon as he was done rather than waiting for the cloud to dissipate, but he could still see that there were definitely more crystals absorbing and refracting the light from the strobes than there were before.

  By the thirteenth batch, Arik had decided that he would finish. He was tired, but he was close enough to having all sixteen combinations applied that his determination to complete his EVA's objectives was suppressing his fatigue. His legs burned as he walked back to the rover, but they recovered sufficiently while he mixed the next batch. His arms were getting limp, though he found if he moved the compressor back and forth between his hands several times as he walked, he was able to keep up enough strength. His visor was so opaque and his eyes so irritated from sweat running down from his saturated hachimaki that he couldn't see the strobes around him anymore, but he could make the trip back and forth by memory. He knew he would have to drive the rover back very slowly, relying on its computerized navigation system to keep him on course, and he would probably have to go in and get a new helmet before he would be able to maneuver the vehicle into the airlock, but at least he would be finished, and his first set of experiments would finally be in progress.

  Since the Public Pod's wall was curved, and his experiments followed the curvature of the structure, Arik had to mentally adjust the path he took back to the rover each time by a couple of degrees. He was thinking about the correct trajectory while on his way back from setting his final experiment when he moved the compressor from one hand to the other, then realized, while on his way down, that he had stepped through a loop in the twisted hose. Arik knew he was tired, but he had no idea how tired he was until he was lying on the ground without the strength to push himself back up. In a prone position, the suit's center of gravity was all wrong, and Arik felt himself anchored to the ground.

  He decided to stay down and try to relax enough to regain some strength. The suit appeared to be fine since the HUD inside his visor reported nothing unusual. The cartridge hadn't been jostled lose, and he hadn't bent his glove or helmet threading. He had enough power and air that he could stay on the ground for at least thirty minutes recovering his strength if he needed to, and still make it back with resources to spare. If only he could reach his eyes. They stung so badly from the salt in his sweat that he instinctively bumped his glove against his visor trying to wipe them. The solution was becoming noticeably more potent which Arik knew was a clear indication of dehydration.

  Another symptom of dehydration is muscle cramps, and when Arik felt his calf constrict into a knot, he couldn't stop himself from screaming. The spasm triggered a cramp further up in his hamstring, and as he writhed, the other leg seized up, as well. Arik had experienced plenty of muscle cramps in his life while sitting in overly restrictive positions in front of his workspace or while sleeping, but he was always able to get up and walk them off, stretch them out, focus on relaxing enough that he could stop the worst of the pain. But locked in the environment suit, he couldn't even reach down and squeeze his legs to try to increase the blood flow. He had no choice but to lie on the ground and accept the pain unconditionally with his only solace being his screams and sobs.

  When Arik opened his eyes again, the pain had subsided, but he was suddenly horrified by the realization that he'd fallen asleep. His oxygen and power indicators had gone from green to yellow, and his lower body was numb from lack of circulation. When he tried to move, the soreness in his leg muscles recalled the tight balls of pain from the cramps as they threatened to seize up again.

  He tried to rub his legs, but the environment suit limited his reach. He finally succeeded in walking his glove down his leg and over his hamstring, but as he squeezed, the suit reacted to the pressure and pushed back. Arik laid back down, and drew his legs up toward his chest, flexing and relaxing his muscles as much as he could to get the blood flowing again.

  While he waited for his body to re-oxygenate, he analyzed his situation. Most events which people referred to as tragedies happened suddenly and spectacularly: earthquakes shaking entire cities to the ground, space crafts breaking up in the heat of reentry, nuclear reactors melting down during routine tests. These were the things we worried about, guarded against, spent countless hours training for. But Arik was realizing now that disaster could be dissembled into small unidentifiable components and smuggled past even our best defenses. It could be allowed to gradually accumulate right in front of us without tripping an alarm or registering on a sensor. Misfortune knew how to use our egos and our pride against us to lure us into vulnerable and defenseless positions. The more obstacles you placed in death's path, the more it was compelled to slip in through the cracks.

&
nbsp; Arik hoisted himself to his feet in a single fluid motion. His legs wanted to buckle beneath him, but he was prepared, and he pushed hard against the ground and forced them to support his weight. Gravity helped pull the blood back down into his muscles, and with the restoration of feeling came fresh pain and tingling with the intensity of a high-voltage electric current. But his legs were regaining strength. He was on his feet, and he knew he could walk. He just needed to make it to the rover. Even if he was unable to pilot it home, he could probably use the radio to contact someone in the Wrench Pod.

  Arik slowly turned and tried to detect the faint light from the strobes in order to get his bearings. He rubbed at the rough coating of crystals on his visor, but they had only hardened and fused further in the heat. Since he couldn't see any lights, he knew he must be close to the rover. He could see the pressure washer on the ground with the nozzle and the compressor spread far apart. He remembered that he had just moved the compressor from his left hand to his right when we went down which meant that if he stood with the compressor on his right side, he should be aligned with his original path.

  By the time Arik had been walking long enough that he knew he should have reached the rover, he had already made a decision. He knew that this would be the moment when panic would set in and intensify to the point where he might not be able to think logically, so he wanted to be prepared to act without having to think at all.

  Arik knew that if he had been wrong about the hand in which he was holding the compressor, he would have been walking in the opposite direction of the rover, and back toward the Public Pod which he would have already reached. That left three possibilities. The most likely was that he had simply walked right past the rover and hadn't been able to see it which meant he was continuing on toward the red strobe of the airlock. It was also possible that the pressure washer hadn't landed predictably, and that he was walking at an approximate right angle to his intended path. 90 degrees in one direction would take him back to V1, roughly somewhere between the Wrench Pod and the Public Pod which would enable him to easily follow the wall back to the airlock. 90 degrees in the other direction, however, was the worst case scenario. There was a chance that Arik was walking directly away from V1, out into the barren Venusian desert where nobody would even think to look for him until long after it was too late.