Dancing with Eternity

by John Patrick Lowrie

  This wasn’t good. Her ax was attached to her wrist by a short piece of webbing, but she’d let go of the ax itself. It was bouncing all over the place and there is no end of an ice-ax that isn’t sharp or pointy. I heard Steel yell, [Archie! Arrest! Arrest!]

  “She can’t arrest,” I said, “She’s dropped her ax.”

  [Oh, Shiva!] she answered. [We’re gonna have to try and catch her.]

  “Right,” I said, “She’s coming pretty fast.” I couldn’t see her ice-ax anymore. Had the webbing come off her wrist or had she managed to get hold of it again?

  [Alice?] Steel asked.

  [I’m here,] she replied.

  “Just try and get in her way, slow her down,” I said.

  [Right,] Alice answered.

  [I think she has plenty of run-out,] Steel said, referring to the flat expanse of snow behind us, [but we don’t want her going over—NOW!] Archie was on us. Steel and I both managed to get a piece of her, but she just whanged into us and on past. Alice caught one of her ankles and managed to hold on, getting dragged down the hill with her. She and Archie both starfished out, creating enough drag to bring them to a halt just a couple of meters from the edge. Steel and I got up and trundled down the slope to them, as fast as we could move in our suits.

  It looked like Archie’s ice-ax was sticking right through her chest. “Allah,” I muttered and hurried over. Steel got there first. It wasn’t as bad as it looked. The pike had actually pierced the shoulder joint of her space suit and was sticking through it, pointing up into the air. I couldn’t see any blood on it.

  [Archie! Archie, are you all right?] Steel gazed into her helmet. She didn’t answer. Then I saw how the handle of the ax had wedged the two sides of the joint apart; there was a gap of almost an inch under her arm.

  “Shiva, she doesn’t have any air!” I yelled. The air pressure around us was much greater than it had been up on top, but it was still little more than half what it was at sea level. “We have to get her suit closed up,” I grabbed Steel, “Look!”

  At that point it was more important to get her suit put back together than avoiding the possible harm we might do by moving her. The three of us got on either side of her and I stood on the adz of the ax as we lifted her off it. I still didn’t see any blood; maybe it had missed her arm. We set her down, gently but quickly. Steel got into my backpack and got out a repair kit. Those things are amazing; her suit was sealed in about a minute and a few minutes later the suit’s compressor had the air pressure inside back up to normal.

  Archie still wasn’t talking to us, however. Her breathing was okay and we could check her vital signs on Steel’s system—everything seemed fine. We hoped she had just lost consciousness from the drop in her suit pressure. We couldn’t really tell if she was bleeding; if she’d cut an artery or something it would have shown up on her vitals, but minor bleeding would only show up with time.

  [We have to get her down to the hut so we can take a look at her,] Steel said.

  “Right,” I answered, “we can rig a sling and lower her.” It was a long way to lower her. A dead weight on eight hundred meters of line makes quite a pendulum. “Is it a straight drop to the hut?” I asked.

  [I don’t remember,] Steel answered. So we went over to the edge and checked.

  Eight hundred meters never looked so far. We could see the tiny, manufactured shape of the hut glinting in the sun, no bigger than a piece of glitter tossed onto the scree slope far below. The face of the cliff was pretty clean, but about halfway down there was a crumbling lip that slanted steeply to the south, then a clean, narrow shelf about a hundred meters below that, and a wide hump covered with scree and talus maybe a hundred meters from the bottom.

  “How the heck are we going to do this?” I asked myself as much as anybody. Archie wasn’t going to be able to negotiate those ledges if she was still unconscious. I looked at Steel. “Do you think we’ll be able to drag her over them? What if she gets hung up?” Of the three obstacles, only the second looked negotiable.

  [Yes,] Steel replied, [We’re just going to have to do it in three stages.] She looked up at the approaching storm front, still far off, but looking a lot closer than it had a few minutes earlier.

  [I’ll go first and get set up on the first ledge,] she continued. [Alice, you follow me down. We’ll have to set up some guy lines to steady her with.]

  [Okay.]

  I didn’t know how they were going to be able to work on that ledge—it wasn’t really a ledge at all. I couldn’t see any level area, just a crumbling, steeply canted mess.

  Between the three of us we carried Archie to the edge. We got out two extra light-weight lines, passed one of them through the bolt the fixed line was tied to, and tied Archie into both of them. Then we threw the other ends over, watching them twist and writhe in the rising breeze. Steel and I looked at each other, then back at Alice. The wind would probably get a lot higher before long.

  “You two be careful,” I said to her, “let’s not be in a hurry about this. We won’t help her if more people get hurt.”

  [Right,] Steel agreed, and got ready to rappel. [I’ll let you know when I reach the bottom.] She kicked off and disappeared.

  I looked apprehensively out at the western horizon, then turned to Alice. “How are you doing?” I asked. “You took quite a hit when you caught Archie. Are all of your parts still working?”

  [Yeah, I’m okay,] She answered tersely, [I wish we were back aboard the Lightdancer.]

  “You and me.” The Lightdancer, fifty thousand tons of fortieth-century technology orbiting above us and we might as well have been in the Himalayas on Earth two thousand years ago. Well, we had space suits; that was something.

  We kept checking on Archie as Steel continued down the cliff, but she didn’t wake up. We fidgeted. We were in a hurry with nowhere to go. We’d ask Steel how she was doing, she’d reply, then we’d check on Archie and she wouldn’t reply. Then we’d stand around and shift our weight from foot to foot and look at the storm and look at each other and check with Steel again. It took forever for her to get to the bottom.

  Finally we heard, [There’s no place to stand down here. We’re going to have to stay tied in.] Alice and I glanced at each other. Then, [Okay, I’ve set a couple of bolts. Alice?]

  [Yes?]

  [You’re going to have to tie into this bolt before you go off rappel. Understand?]

  [Yes, Captain.]

  [All right, come ahead.]

  [Roger], Alice replied and tied into the rope. She didn’t hesitate this time. For one thing, she was used to rappelling by then, but I don’t think she would have hesitated anyway. She was a trouper. She had more to lose than any of us, but I’m sure she would have risked it all, risked her life, to save any one of us. She was incredible.

  I think I was falling in love with her.

  Lowering Archie to the first ledge went smoothly. I just had to muscle her and her space suit—a not insignificant mass—over the lip of the cliff. Steel and Alice had taken the other ends of the two lines and spread out on the ledge below. Steel belayed Archie on the line that we had passed through the bolt while Alice steadied her with the other. It seemed to work fairly well.

  [Okay, off belay,] came Steel’s voice. [We’ve got her.]

  “Roger.” I started pulling up the belay line as fast as I could, passing it through the bolt and feeding it down to Steel as I did so. We’d need to rig up the same sort of sling two more times. It was a long rope. I thought I’d never reach the end of it—and the storm kept moving closer as I pulled. When I finally got the end in my hand I dangled it over the edge and said, “LINE! Coming down!”

  [Just a second!] I looked over the edge, saw their tiny figures struggle to drag Archie out of the way. [Okay, go ahead.]

  I let it go. Steel tried to gather it in as it fell, but she was four hundred meters below me. The wind caught it and blew it all over the place.

  They continued to gather it up as I tied into the fixed rope, back
ed over the edge, and flew down the side of the cliff as fast as I could go. The breeze was freshening; I could hear it whistling past my helmet. The longer I made my jumps the more it tended to twist me around. I banged back into the rock face on my shoulder a couple of times; once I even bounced off my backpack, but I made it down to them.

  The ledge looked worse close up. The face had cracked along a wandering vein of intruded quartz, leaving an uneven shelf of granite about three meters wide that had expanded and fractured vertically. It was like trying to walk around on top of a pipe organ. The only place where it was even close to level was right next to the face; it fell off more and more steeply toward the edge. And everything was covered with patchy snow, sand, and gravel.

  This meant we all had to stay tied in; the chance of slipping and falling was just too high. We were hampered by constantly having to deal with line as we moved around on the ledge, feeding it through our descenders with one hand while we manhandled Archie down to the next drop with the other. Steel had tied her into a bolt, as well, and we would lower her a little, then lower ourselves, then lower her a little more, kicking rocks and snow over the edge as we slid downwards.

  After we got Archie in position Steel scrambled back up to the bolt she was tied into, tied herself into the fixed line, and then untied from the bolt. In situations like this it’s very important to do everything in the right order. Then she backed down past us and over the lip.

  After a couple of minutes we heard, [I’m down on this little, straight ledge. Can you see me?]

  Alice and I slid down to the edge, trying not to kick any rocks down on Steel, and looked over. We could see her, on the other end of a vertical football field of rock. The ledge was clean and level, but just barely wide enough to stand on.

  [I think we can get her past this, don’t you?] Steel asked.

  “Looks good from up here,” I answered.

  [All right, I’m going on down to the next step.] She looked up as a shadow passed over her and then us as well. The storm clouds were moving in. We’d seen the last of the sun that day.

  It felt very exposed, huddling there with Alice and our helpless charge, clinging like lichen to the edge of the world. We couldn’t even move, for fear of knocking stuff off the ledge to rain down on Steel. She was two to three hundred meters below us; anything that fell off the ledge would be moving the speed of a bullet by the time it got to her.

  After an eternity we heard, [All right, I’m down. Come ahead, Alice.]

  “Wait!” I said, putting my hand on Alice’s shoulder to keep her still. “Captain, you’re going to have to get well off to the side before either one of us moves. Every time we twitch up here stuff slides off the edge.”

  [Don’t you think the wind will blow it north of me?] she asked.

  “It’ll blow the small stuff, but it’s not the small stuff I’m worried about.”

  [Right, of course. All right. Give me a couple of minutes.]

  A wall of air slammed into us.

  Just like that. One second it was breezy, the next a forty-five knot wind was tearing at us, peppering our faceplates with sand and blown snow.

  [Holy Shiva!] Alice said, clinging tighter to her rope.

  “Yeah,” I agreed, “Jesus, what are we going to do? Steel! The storm just hit up here! How is it down where you are?”

  [It’s pretty bad—Woah! Wait a minute.] What could we do but wait? [I just got knocked off my feet. It’s really blowing. On the good side, there’s plenty of room to work down here.] The hut was only a hundred meters below her. It was still four hundred below us.

  “What should we do?” I asked her.

  [What do you mean?] she answered.

  “Well, I don’t know about the advisability of rappelling in this wind. I had enough trouble getting this far, and it wasn’t blowing nearly as bad.”

  [We have to get Archie to the hut. We have to get her out of her suit. Why are you asking me this?]

  “But that’s my point. We don’t have to get her to the hut. What’s the worst that can happen? Her brain stops functioning and she automatically uploads.”

  [What?]

  “Archie can’t—can’t—you know. We get her body back up to the ship and fix her up good as new. Nothing can happen to her. But if Alice ...” I felt funny talking about it in front of her.

  [I’m okay,] Alice said. Then she said, [Shiva!] as another gust collided with us. [I think I want to keep going, you know? Get to the hut.]

  “Listen,” I said to her, “I know it feels scary tied to the side of this rock while the wind howls around our ears, but it’s a lot safer than trying to rappel. Lines the length we’re using act just like a sail in winds this high. You’ll get blown all over.”

  [Well—]

  Steel cut in, [Look, none of this matters! We don’t have time for Archie to re-boot! We have to keep moving. We have to. That’s an order.]

  “Okay, okay. Just trying to—”

  [I know. We’re all doing our best.] Steel paused for a minute and I pondered the dilemma. If Archie had to re-boot, that shoved us back three months. We obviously had to have Archie with us (Steel certainly thought so); she was the only one who knew as much, probably more, about the project than Steel. On the other hand, if we didn’t move quickly enough, Alice would ... would ... die, anyway. I glanced at her sweet, tough face, saw her clinging microscopically to a colossal, inhuman, unyielding and uncaring anvil of stone, the hammer of the storm poised to crush her. If Archie had to re-boot, would Krupp and Daimler catch up with us? What would happen if they did? Was it really worth risking Alice’s life this way, just so she could see her parents again before they ... passed on?

  I didn’t have any answers. I hadn’t been around death in centuries.

  [Alice, are you ready?]

  I looked at Alice and said, “I guess we’re going on.”

  Alice nodded. [Just a minute,] she said, and started clambering up to the bolt.

  “ROCK!” I yelled, as a brick-sized piece she inadvertently kicked loose slid over the edge.

  [I’m out of the way,] Steel answered. As it fell I listened, straining to hear over the wind. After a long time there was a crack like a gun going off across a valley, then Steel said, [Okay, I’m going to move a little bit farther out of the way.]

  We waited for her before Alice started to move again.

  “Rock! ROCK!” I said again, as Alice’s climbing kicked off little landslides.

  [I’m okay. I think I’m out of the line of fire now,] Steel replied.

  Alice had made it to the bolt and started to untie from it. “Alice, no! WAIT!” I cried.

  [What?]

  “Tie into the fixed rope first,” I said, “Then untie from the bolt.”

  [Oh, right. Sorry.]

  My heart was pounding in my chest, “Just be careful.”

  [Okay.]

  I had an idea. Archie still had two extra full-length lines tied into her: the belay line and the line Alice used to stabilize her. I checked to make sure that Archie wasn’t going anywhere, then I untied the stabilizer line. “Here, Alice,” I said, scrambling up to her, “tie into this line, too.”

  [Huh? Why?]

  “If we can stabilize Arch, maybe we can stabilize you, too.”

  [Oh, I see. Okay.] We slipped a second set of carabiners into her harness, over on her side, and rigged up the second line.

  “I’ll head north along the ledge and find a place to tie into.” I didn’t want her pulling me off if she really caught a good gust.

  [Right.]

  I clipped the line into a carabiner on my harness so I could have my hands free and took off, moving as fast as I could, setting protection as I went. I was torn between the need for Alice to get going and the desire to get far enough away to provide a decent angle on her when she got down close to the bottom. A percussion sonata started playing on my helmet. Drops of rain appeared on my faceplate and gathered into tiny streams. Warm front, I thought, southwesterly, moving in fr
om the ocean. It could really dump on us. I looked up at the darkening sky. It would be getting colder again real soon.

  “Hey, Yuri, are you guys tracking us?” I asked.

  [We have you in our sights,] came his reply.

  “Let me know when I’m fifty meters from Alice, all right?”

  [You got it.] Fortieth century technology did help. Though the Lightdancer was on the other side of the planet at the time, we were in constant communication through Steel’s system. Ain’t telepathy grand?

  I crabbed my way along the ledge on rock that was getting wetter and slicker with each step. Then, [That’s about it,] Yuri said.

  I found a tapering granite column to tie myself to and sat down. “Ready, Alice?”

  [On belay,] she answered.

  I clipped the line into a second, reversed carabiner and took it in both hands. “Belay on,” I responded. The air filled with swirling flakes, fat and wet. I could barely see her.

  [Descending.]

  I talked to her as I watched her dwindle away. “Stay close to the rock. Walk down, don’t jump. Try to stay in contact with the face.”

  [Roger. The wind is heavy, but it’s steadier now. Not as gusty.] She vanished into billowing chaos, a seething static of snowflakes, leaving me alone on the rock. It was strangely beautiful, natural, harmonious. Almost mathematical.

  As I sat there letting the line slide through my fingers, the snow piled up around me. Fog moved in and I was in a frosted gray-white world, featureless beyond four or five meters. The wind just kept getting worse, slapping me and knocking me around like a prize fighter.

  [I’m down,] came Alice’s voice not a minute too soon. Then Tamika’s voice:

  [I think Archie’s beginning to come around.] They’d been monitoring her from the ship.

  “Is she moving?” I asked.