Planet Bound

by R. A. Mejia

  I quickly focus on no, and the display switches to one like I first saw when I put on the helmet. SAI offers to modify the layout to the simplified version I’m used to, and I grant her the needed permissions. The three dials at the bottom of the screen still show the integrity, oxygen levels, and energy levels, but there are now also three new semi-translucent circles on the left side of the display.

  “SAI, I’m going to head outside for a little while to test out the new tools and get a feel for the suit.”

  “That’s fine, John.”

  I take the elevator down out of the ship, and when the doors open, the familiar pink sand and the green sky greet me.

  Welcome to your new upgrade tutorial. Quest 1: Test upgrade Movement 1. Please walk, jump, and run in your new suit to get accustomed to how it now moves. Current progress: 0%

  “SAI, what’s this upgrade tutorial thing I see on my screen?”

  “Oh, that’s just a little program I put in to get you trained on the new upgrades. I tried to make it fun for you.”

  I shrug. I’d planned on testing out the upgrades anyway, so why not go along with it. “Thanks for helping out.”

  I take a few steps away from the ship and notice that walking is actually easier than before, even though the material is much thicker and heavier with the light armor. The progression counter on the quest increases as I walk, stretch my arms, do a few squats, and I even do a couple of yoga poses. I feel a little lighter and stronger than usual, and I find it easier to jump around and make quicker arm movements. I guess the Enhanced Movement 1 upgrade really does help. The suit was technically lighter before, but it felt more awkward to move around--almost like there were weights on my arms and legs, making it a challenge just to move. I felt like I had to be extra careful with each step. Now, I feel . . . well, normal. If this is what Enhanced Movement 1 feels like, I wonder what Movement 2 or 3 will do. Will I be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?

  A beep inside my helmet draws my attention back to the task at hand, and I continue moving around, even doing a little jog away from the ship. When the progression bar on the quest reaches 100%, a little horn appears on the display, plays a happy tune, and I’m given the notification in bold letters: CONGRATULATIONS YOU’VE COMPLETED YOUR QUEST. I chuckle at the overly-cute message, and then the text changes.

  Quest 2: Test interface for upgraded Sonic Tools. Find the UI button on your display for Sonic Tools. Activate the functions for Sonic Hammer and Sonic Screwdriver.

  I look around the display with my eyes and notice the transparent circles on the left side. When my eyes linger on the top one, it becomes more opaque, and text appears next to it: Sonic Tools. I quickly blink twice while looking at the circle to activate the button, and lights appear on the solid plastic on the left forearm. An opening appears, and a metallic cylinder about 15 cm long and 3 cm wide comes out. The cylinder protrudes past my closed fist by a few centimeters and looks like some kind of ray gun. I swing my left arm around, getting a feel for the shift in weight. It’s not a significant difference, but it’s noticeable. A new text box appears on my helmet display.

  Please select the tool you’d like to activate: Sonic Hammer or Sonic Screwdriver

  Below the text, two new icons appear: one is of a hammer and the other a screwdriver. I activate the hammer icon and feel a pulsing vibration shoot up my left arm. Thankfully, I’d pointed the protruding cylinder away from me because there’s a jerking movement as it activates, and a sonic wave pushes outward. Nothing else happens, and I ask SAI, “Why isn’t the sonic hammer doing anything? I activated the button and felt a jerking, but that’s it.”

  “Try kneeling down and using the sonic tool a few centimeters away from the ground.”

  I do as she suggests and activates the Sonic Hammer again. I feel the same movement, but this time, a blast of pink sand is kicked up.

  “Oh, I see. The tool has a small range.”

  “That’s correct, John. You can adjust the range of the sonic tool and the amount of force applied in the tool’s system setting, but it’s currently set at optimum for energy efficiency. Increasing either the range or the force will also increase energy costs.”

  “Can I assume that the same applies for the other tools too?”

  “That is correct, John.”

  I activate the Sonic Hammer a few more times above the ground to get a feel for the maximum range, and it seems like it only reaches out 7 cm past the tip of the tool. I activate the Sonic Screwdriver and find that the range on it is the same, but instead of kicking up sand like it was hit with a hammer, the ground twists in a clockwise motion. I note that a new option has appeared on my helmet display for clockwise and counterclockwise motion.

  Once I finish testing, I get another congratulatory message and a new quest to test out the laser cutter. The icon on the left-hand side of my helmet’s display activates the laser cutter, and the cylinder that protrudes from the forearm of the suit is replaced by a rectangular piece of metal with a claw-like tip. The tool also sticks out past my left hand, and I’m glad it does because a bright-red laser activates between the metallic claw-like pincers when I activate the tool. I note that there’s a slider on the screen that adjusts the width between the two pincers, making it look like they’re opening and closing, and I understand that I’m adjusting the width of the cutting laser. I stick the tool into the ground and hear a hissing noise as it cuts through the soft sand, melting it on contact. When I withdraw the tool, the area that the laser touched has turned to pink glass flakes.

  “John, if you’re not using that laser cutter, you might want to consider turning it off. It’s a steady draw on your battery while it’s turned on.”

  I look down at the bar for energy. It says 89.13 %. The energy units are pulled up when I focus on it, and I see that it dropped from 2000 to 1782.5. I turn the laser cutter off and make a mental note of the energy loss. A quest completion notification accompanies me turning off the tool, and another quest to test out the gravity beam comes up.

  “John, I wanted to warn you that the gravity beam can have a very heavy energy cost depending on how it’s setup. You can adjust the range and strength of the beam, and you can increase gravity around an object or decrease it. The tool is usually used to make objects float and easier to transport. The heavier the object, the more energy it will take to make it float though.”

  I thank SAI for the info and proceed to activate the icon for the gravity beam. An object comes out of the forearm tool system in two pieces. They connect to form a 10 cm wide rectangle that’s about 2 cm thick. It’s a little more unwieldy to move around on my forearm than the other tools, but it is not unmanageable. For the next 10 minutes, I play around with the various settings on the gravity beam, making patches of the sand float or compressing and adjusting the beam parameters. Thankfully, the gravity beam projects a visible blue ray that helps with aim and shows the area of effect. I adjust how far the beam extends, how wide it gets, and how much it lifts. SAI is right: it takes more energy to lift a small green rock than it does a clump of sand of the same size. It also costs more energy to lift something the farther it is away from me or the wider the beam setting is.

  Even only using the gravity beam for 3 minutes on a handful of sand and rock, the draw on the batteries is significant. I can only imagine what kind of drain it will cause if I try to lift something really heavy for an extended period.

  “SAI, how do people ever use this kind of tech if it costs so much energy? I can’t see it being practical for suits like mine with limited batteries.”

  “You’re correct. The gravity beam is usually used in shipping yards and on crafts with a steady supply of power from a reactor or core system. It may have a limited number of uses with your current power supply, but that’s something that can be upgraded. It’s a tool, John. How you use it is up to you.”

  I snort and laugh a little and mutter, “That’s what she said.”

  But SAI hears me and asks, “T
hat’s what who said? Me? Yes, I did say that. Are you having problems with the communications?”

  My eyes roll as I shake my head at the response. “No, SAI. It’s a joke. You know what? Never mind. You can look it up in the databases.”

  I dismiss the latest notification congratulating for completing the training with the new tool system. “SAI, can you change the icons for the tool system for me? Specifically, how the Sonic Tools show up? I don’t see the point in having all the submenus for two tools. Can I get icons for each on the left side of my screen?”

  Instead of answering, the three transparent icons change to four, and instead of being blank, they each have a small image: a screwdriver, a hammer, a laser cutter, and a gravity beam. “Oh, that’s perfect. Thanks a lot.”

  “No problem, John. Also, ‘that’s what she said.’”

  It takes me a moment to connect the phrase to what’d I’d said. “Uh, not bad, SAI, but you usually use that joke on more unintentionally phallic statements or ones that, when taken out of context, could also be sexual. “

  “Yes. ‘She’ was referring to the sex as being perfect and thanked him.”

  “Uh . . . You know what? If you have to explain the joke, it’s probably not funny.” There’s a sad pause where SAI doesn’t respond and, not wanting to discourage her from exploring this joking thing, I add, “But you’re getting better. Keep trying with the jokes.”

  “I will, John. Thank you.”

  As I back into the elevator, my mind shifts to the goal of reaching those black pillars and seeing what exactly is moving down there. Entering the elevator and going through decontamination on the ride up to the ship, I consider the problem of scaling those cliffs down. I’m glad that the suit moves a little easier now: it will help with the descent and ascent up that cliff. But the big question is: How do I get down? I did a little mountain climbing on Altorax III a few times with clients, but that moon had 1/18 Earth’s gravity, and it was more a matter of floating up the mountain. I briefly consider using the gravity beam on myself to get a similar weightlessness but dismiss the idea. It would drain the batteries too much.

  By the time decontamination is finished and the doors to the ship open, I’m feeling frustrated. After all, people have been climbing mountains for thousands of years, but I’m stuck because I don’t know how. I pause in the act of removing my helmet and wonder why I’m trying to figure this out alone. “SAI, how do people climb mountains?”

  “Many techniques and technologies allow for a swift descent and ascent up geological features. The most commonly used are anti-gravity vehicles and lifts.”

  “No, I mean without technology.”

  “Without technology, most species use their hands, claws, wings, or other appendages. The Sluggians use a mucus that they excrete from special glands on the limbless bodies to cling to the rocky surfaces of their planet. Also, the Arachnids of Ucanti use a web-like substance . . .”

  I interrupt her, “No SAI, I mean, how did humans climb mountains in the past? Without anti-gravity technology.” Images of men and women in my helmet display show early humans using mechanic boxes on wires to go up and down large mountains. “We can’t make any of that. I want to know how I can climb the cliff down to the black pillars.”

  “Well, why didn’t you ask that? The simplest way would be to use a rope and cams or even a piston. It is not difficult to make a polycarbonate rope to take the combined weight of the suit and yourself. You secure the rope along the cliff using mechanical devices and then rappel down.”

  A video plays showing a man in a bright orange vest and brown shorts sliding down a series of ropes that have been knotted together in complex loops. Another plays afterward with a woman in a tank top and tan pants using several metal loops as she slides down some ropes. Still, it looks complicated. The next video shows a blonde man in a silver climber’s unitard using a dinner-plate-sized machine that has been fixed around his waist and some rope to walk backward down the side of a building and then back up.

  “Oh, that one. That looks useful. What’s that?”

  “That is David Wilmarthian demonstrating his Autoclimber. It uses a series of micro motors to run the rope through a pulley system and help a climber descend and ascend. It was never particularly popular. Anti-gravity technology had just been discovered, making it easier to explore using lifts. For the recreational climbers, the Autoclimber just took all the risk and fun out of climbing. However, the technology behind the device is sound.”

  “Good, can we make one?”

  “Yes, it doesn’t use any metal components but is made of polycarbonate materials. Even with the massive expenditures to make your upgraded space suit, we still have an excess of 7,000 Amps stored in the ship’s batteries. It will require a bit of training to learn how to use it.”

  “Great! Let's get rolling.”

  Chapter 8

  There is a loud crack as my helmet slams against the side of the cliff. My vision doubles as my head is knocked around, and the display screen goes fuzzy. When both clear, I notice an outline of the suit flashing on my display with a red line showing that damage has been taken to the helmet. I worry that the fall damaged my suit, but the integrity readout shows it’s holding steady at 86%. I’m a little confused as to what went wrong as I spin upside down, dangling thirty meters in the air from an Autoclimber and rope.

  I’d done the training and practice that SAI recommended. The original design for the Autoclimber was a handheld device that clipped onto a climbing harness, but SAI modified the design to attach to a belt that would fit around the suit. After a three-hour walk to the cliff, I secured the line at the top with a pinion and my sonic hammer, and I finally attached the Autoclimber. After leaning back off the edge of the cliff, I took my first leap backward to rappel down. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how slippery the side of the cliff would be. The moment my foot touched it, I slid off. I twisted to the side in order to try and keep my balance, but I only added extra momentum instead and ended up turning and smacking head first into the side of the cliff.

  I try to swing my legs up to get back into rappel position or maybe try to walk backward down the cliff, but it doesn’t work. My suit’s stupid boots slip like I was trying to walk on melted butter or something, and I end up twirling from the rope upside down again.

  “John, just press the descend button on the Autoclimber.”

  I reach up to the belt around my waist and grab the machine. I fumble around for a second, unable to see what I’m doing, but jam my thumb down on some button. I hear the whir of a motor and feel myself being pulled up. It’s not what I was looking for, but at least the motion pulls me upright so that my head’s again above my feet. I press another button and finally start moving downward. The rocks scratch and dig into the back of the suit as I descend, and I try to twist around to face the cliff so that I can avoid the worst of it. God. I feel like I’m a fish on a hook or something. I’m finally able to push away from the cliff with one hand while holding down on the descent button on the Autoclimber with the other. It takes twenty minutes to slowly lower myself down, but my boots touch the ground with the sound of the pinkish gravel crunching beneath them.

  I look back up and realize that the rock face has a shiny, slick look to it. “What the heck is that stone made of, SAI? I couldn’t find any purchase to climb down.” A blinking icon and a low buzz indicate that the scanners have activated. A bright blue light projects from my helmet and scans the surface.

  “My scans show that the rock seems to be coated in molybdenum disulfide, a low-friction surface coating. But that’s never been seen except as a result of synthetic processes.”

  A video appears in my display showing the rock, and then the camera zooms in for a very tight close-up. So close, in fact, that I can see small holes on the rock’s surface. “Here, John. See these tiny holes in the rocks? It’s like the coating is coming out of these pores in the stone.”

  “That sounds cool. Can we use it for anything?�
��

  “It’s possible that it could be useful for something, but I don’t have any particular fabrication plans that utilize this specific material. If you can bring back a small sample, I'd like to study it further.”

  I use the laser cutter to slice off a piece of the rock face and place it in the cloth bag tied to my waist. Turning around, I take a look at the valley. According to SAI’s estimations, it’s about ten kilometers to the black pillars. The gradient goes upwards from here, so I can’t see them, but that’s a good two-hour walk. The ground beneath my feet goes from dark pink and slightly slippery gravel to firm footing. It is still the same bright color but much easier to walk across than the area around the ship.

  SAI’s nice enough to lay down a trail of green dots as a visual reminder of the direction I should be heading. This is honestly one of the better features she’s had because I’m not particularly good with directions. Once, when I was seven, I got lost inside a shopping mall in one of the stations above the Earth. I wandered around for what seemed like hours looking for my mom, and they had to send a hovering sentry drone to come to find me.