by M. D. Cooper
* * * * *
New Canaan’s chief planetary engineer, Tony, had offered to meet Isa at the air and spaceport and show her around before she began work. As she walked out of the arrivals gate, she guessed he was the curly-haired man who stood waiting near the barriers. It was an easy guess—he was the only person there to meet an arriving passenger.
She waved.
Tony began to walk toward her, smiling. “Welcome to Tyre,” he said when he was within speaking distance. “Did you have a good flight?”
“It was fine, thanks, though it was just my luck to make the trip while Tyre’s at its most distant from Carthage, so it was a little boring. And the ship was half-empty. Is that normal?”
“Yes it is, sadly. Only a two day flight between Carthage and Tyre, yet they struggle to fill it. The governor has put more resources into building up the military bases in the outer system, but with Tyre being the closest world to Canaan Prime, that puts us pretty far from the action.”
“No kidding. I didn’t realize things were that…uninhabited out here. I mean, I saw that the population of Ushu was low, but I didn’t know so few people were even visiting.”
“It’s true, and it’s a great shame. Tyre is a beautiful planet,” said Tony. “Er, shall we go? I’ve arranged transportation.”
They walked across the sparsely peopled arrivals area, the trolley carrying Isa’s luggage and following after them.
“Personally, I’d love to live here,” Tony said, “but my work means I have to base myself in Landfall. Still, I try to come out when I can. I hope your project succeeds in making Tyre a more popular spot for settling down. Most New Canaanites don’t know what they’re missing.”
“I hope so, too,” Isa enthused. “I read the information packet on Tyre that’s up on the Link, but it really doesn’t do the place justice, according to what I’ve already seen. People don’t want to know facts and figures about the topography and climate and career opportunities. If my work with Placement Services taught me anything, it’s that what people are most interested in is how to have fun. The original Intrepid colonists are already geared up to work hard, but they want to play hard too. And the people who joined the ship on Victoria are thirsting for adventure. If they weren’t, they would have stayed back at the Kap.”
Tony’s expression fell. “Lucky for them that they didn’t.”
A familiar shadow settled over Isa. She regretted mentioning the Kap and Victoria, as it brought thoughts of how that colony had later been wiped out. Though Isa hadn’t expected to see any of her friends or relations again any time soon, the hope that she might meet them one day had remained. So the knowledge that the Lumins had finally managed to get their revenge and destroy the colony often weighed heavily on her.
They walked outside to a parking lot and over to a small pinnace. The vessel was wedge-shaped and black. At their approach, doors lifted on each side, revealing a snug, two-seat interior.
“Hop in,” said Tony. “If you aren’t too tired from your flight, I thought I would take you on a brief tour of the immediate area before delivering you to your lodgings. I’ll be leaving on this afternoon’s flight back to Carthage, meaning the pinnace will be yours for the duration of your project.”
“A pinnace of my own?” Isa asked. “Thanks! But I’ve never flown one.”
“Don’t worry about it. Unless you want to do something out of the ordinary, the thing just about flies itself. Just input your destination, and it will take you there.”
“That’s it?” Isa climbed into the passenger seat and strapped in.
As Tony started up the ship, he said, “The only caveat is she isn’t certified for anything more than quick jaunts up into the troposphere, so don’t try flying her back to Carthage, even if you do miss the one flight of the day.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Isa said. “Though it’ll be handy to have my own transportation. I thought I would have to rent something. Thanks a lot.”
“No problem.”
The pinnace lifted above the air and spaceport, then swerved sharply left, forcing Isa to the right.
“Whoops,” said Tony. “I’m used to flying her by myself. So—”
“Wow,” Isa exclaimed.
As the pinnace had turned, Mount Athos had come into view. The mountain was even more awe-inspiring up close than she had imagined it would be—even though the upper reaches were cloaked in clouds.
“Ah, yes,” Tony said. “Impressive, huh? Had you heard of it?”
“I had,” said Isa, “but nothing compares to actually seeing it. It’s a supervolcano, right? Isn’t it a little dangerous for the capital to be situated so close to it?”
“No. Athos is entirely dormant; the upwelling of magma that made it has completely dissipated. It’s a magnificent backdrop to the city, though, don’t you think? Ushu is only in its shadow for part of the day.”
“Breathtaking. Carthage doesn’t have anything like it.”
“It would be a great selling point for Tyre,” said Tony, “if only people knew about it. But there’s more to the mountain than just the sight of it. The FGT excavated a chute right from the peak to the base—and they didn’t even mention it in the information they gave us! It was only when someone went to the top and found the entrance that the chute was discovered.”
“Maybe compared to everything else the FGT did, they didn’t think it was a big deal. But that sounds fantastic. So people can travel the whole way through the mountain?”
“In specially designed capsules, yes,” Tony replied. “I’ve done it myself. It’s quite a ride.”
He was flying them closer to the supervolcano. The clouds were clearing, revealing brilliant white slopes that faded from sight above.
“Carthaginians will be flocking here once they hear about this,” Isa said. “For a vacation at least, if not to stay.”
“Well, the more people who come to visit, the more people will decide to make Tyre their home.”
“That’s right. Are we going up to the crater?” Isa asked.
“Yeah, that’s where we’re headed. It’s a caldera, actually. I’ll show you the entrance to the chute. Maybe later on, you can return and take the ride to the bottom yourself. You can command the pinnace to fly down to meet you afterward.”
“Sounds like my plan for tomorrow is decided,” said Isa.
Tony guided the pinnace up Mount Athos, skimming close to the surface and giving Isa a clear view of the thick stands of dark green, snow-dusted pine trees. As they sped higher over the slopes, the horizon beyond shifted to a curve. Peaks, valleys, and vast chasms spread out across the land, stretching down to the cobalt ocean.
“Here we are,” Tony said.
Isa had been so distracted by the landscape, she hadn’t noticed that the nose of the pinnace had crested the caldera’s edge at the ancient volcano’s summit.
Tony brought the pinnace around. The wide hollow held several small peaks created by smaller volcanic eruptions and was entirely coated in thick ice. Now Isa could see the large opening in the caldera wall that led to the chute through the mountain. A few pinnaces hovered in a line, waiting to enter it.
“You land the pinnace inside once you’re through the airlock,” Tony said. “The interior of the mountain is a controlled environment.”
“Fantastic. And it’s only a short distance from the city,” said Isa. “What else would you recommend that I include in the infomentary?”
“It’s hard to pick. Tyre is the only planet that was habitable when the FGT began work on the system, so rather than having to spend their time simply terraforming, they went to town on enhancing its features. Something that people often forget is that the FGT worked on the New Canaan system for almost a thousand years; most of it was spent engineering the other planets, but a team spent centuries crafting Tyre. They opened up remote caverns and canyons and made them navigable even for the nonexpert. This is really a playground for t
he adventurous.”
“That makes it sound like Athens.”
“Oh no,” said Tony. “It isn’t the same sort of adventure. There’s no tsunami surfing here. Athens is still settling down geologically; it’s a place for going wild. Tyre is more for discovering spectacular hidden gems. It has the tallest and widest waterfalls, and deepest and longest caves in all of New Canaan. I’ve been to deep caverns that are made entirely of crystal, and others that are lined with gems. And that doesn’t even get into the glacial caves,” Tony continued. “Kilometers of tunnels through the ice. Additionally, Tyre and Troy are the only two worlds that they seeded with animals, so you’ll also find some amazing creatures out in the wilderness.”
“It sounds like I’ll have plenty of material to work with,” said Isa.
“That’s right,” Tony replied. “And if you want any more suggestions, just let me know. I’ll be in Carthage, but I’ll reply as soon as I hear from you.”
“Thanks, I’ll do that. And maybe I could interview you, too, at some point? Your enthusiasm for Tyre really comes across strongly. It’s bound to sway viewers’ decision-making.”
“Of course,” Tony replied with a wink. “I’d be happy to. Like any good professional, I love to talk about my field.”
* * * * *
The next day, Isa squinted up into the sky above Mount Athos, her heart still racing from her experience of traveling down the chute. Sliding down what amounted to over one hundred and thirty-five kilometers of tunnel through the mountain had sent her adrenaline levels through the roof. She’d seen underground rivers, massive caverns, and open shafts that led almost all the way to the planet’s mantle.
She peered up toward the mountain’s peak, looking for her pinnace, which was on its way down to her. As she waited, she made a mental note to invite Erin and Martin to Tyre. When Erin’s investigation was over, they could continue their vacation, since it had been cut short on Athens.
She also debated where to go next. Placement Services had given her free rein on what to include in her infomentary. Her former boss had said that she would know what the clients would be interested in, so he wouldn’t try to guide her. But Tony had opened up such a wealth of possibilities, she hardly knew where to start. Or rather, riding the chute through Mount Athos had been the obvious place to begin, but it was what to do next that had her stumped.
The narrow, black triangle of her pinnace appeared against the snowy slopes of Mount Athos. As the vessel flew closer, she made up her mind. The mountain range that stretched away from Athos and formed the backbone of Tyre’s eastern continent held many possibilities for treasure seekers. What could be more enticing than the crystal caves and gem-studded caverns Tony had mentioned?
The pinnace came to a rest in the lot, and Isa walked over to it. At her touch, the driver’s door lifted, and she climbed inside. According to the sparse information on the Link, the entrance to one of the most spectacular caves lay nine hundred and ten kilometers away—a mere hop.
Isa input the destination into the pinnace’s system, and it lifted up and away, speeding around Mount Athos and into the mountain range beyond. Though she wasn’t traveling far, Isa soon found the skies empty of other vessels, and the mountain slopes devoid of human activity. To pass the time, she wrote a message to Martin and sent the packet.
When the pinnace set down in the lot outside the cave entrance, it was the only one there. She climbed out, bringing the a-grav pack that Placement Services had loaned her and a pack of remote recorders to help her make the infomentary. She’d also brought water and snacks to last her.
Above the entrance to the cavern, a name was eloquently carved into the rocks: Mount Ida Caverns.
A mild trepidation caused Isa’s innards to tense. If something went wrong, would she be able to access the Link deep within the cave? Possibly not. But, she told herself, the place can’t be that dangerous if it’s a playground sculpted by the FGT.
Isa put her fears aside. She picked up one of the helmets available for visitors to use, put it on, and walked into the cave.
She thought it would add authenticity to her infomentary if she recorded her thoughts and impressions as she visited each place on Tyre, yet as she walked into the cave and prepared to say something, she found she was immediately tongue-tied. She reminded herself that she could delete whatever sounded awkward or stupid. Looking up at the cave ceiling, she began recording.
“I’m at the south-eastern entrance to the Mount Ida cave system. The ceiling is about nine meters above me, and already I can see an entrancing aspect of this site. Let me show you.” She focused on a spot on the cave roof.
Within each crack and crevice of the cave’s ceiling, small birds nestled. Most were babies waiting for their parents, their small, black-capped heads poking out. The adults swooped in and out of the cave, their wings forming crescents.
She looked up the information on the Link. “They’re swallows, and they come here during summer. The birds take advantage of the natural cragginess of the rock for building their nests. In winter, they migrate to lower altitudes where it’s warmer so they can fatten up on insects.”
Isa sent a drone up to record an eye-level view of the chicks. As the drone neared a nest, however, one of the adult birds swooped toward it.
“Whoops,” said Isa. “I don’t think it appreciates aerial intruders.” She directed the drone to move away from the nest to avoid disturbing the birds, and then zoomed in. After recording a cute episode of a parent swallow pushing fat caterpillars into its babies’ beaks, Isa said, “Let’s go deeper in.”
She left the entrance and walked down the sloping floor of the cavern, sending drones ahead to record her progress. She had no desire to be any kind of celebrity, but she thought the sight of a person in the infomentary would make it relatable.
Motion-activated lights turned on as Isa moved deeper, and the wide cavern soon narrowed to a tunnel. Before long, she hit branching passageways. Looking up the map of the cave system, she saw that some areas had no network repeaters and would be off the Link.
No matter. She could drop relays as she went. As the only visitor that day—perhaps the first visitor ever—if she had an accident, she wanted to be able to call for help.
Isa decided to take the route that led to the largest cavern in the Mount Ida cave system. It was a hike of several kilometres, and the passage that led to it sloped steeply downward for much of the distance. Not wanting to bother with a long walk, Isa tightened the straps on her a-grav pack and activated it, setting it to one-eighth normal gravity.
Half-running, half-skipping, Isa bounced down the slope in long strides. The tiny drones sped up ahead of her, recording as they flew. She pulled their feed and watched it as she went along. As well as showing herself, the drones were picking up streaks appearing on the tunnel walls, glimmering faintly in the subdued lighting. Curious about what she was seeing, she looked up more information. The cavern was in an area rich in rare mineral deposits.
Isa smiled. She had a special appreciation for rare ores, even though in her past as a miner, their presence had meant that simply blasting the asteroids containing them was out of the question. Precious seams like this had meant using manual labor to drill them out of the surrounding rock.
She couldn’t help but smile at the knowledge that she could leave these be and enjoy their natural beauty. All the minerals that the people of New Canaan would ever need were held in the system’s moons, asteroids, and outer planets. The terraformed planets would never be mined.
She bounced to a stop and turned off her a-grav, the sight of a streak of soft, glittering, yellow halting her progress.
“Whoa,” she breathed. With a jolt, she remembered she was supposed to be recording what she saw. Isa swept her gaze over the rock surface. Wherever she looked, it faintly glittered. According to the description, what she was seeing was gold. She was surrounded by heavy deposits of the lustrous metal. As an experiment, she rubbed a fingertip hard against a
thick strand of color. When she pulled it away, her finger glittered.
“This is astounding,” she said for the benefit of the recording. “I’ve never seen deposits so rich. Kids would love this place. Free sparkles.”
She checked the map. The entrance to the large cavern that was her destination lay only a few more meters away. She walked the final steps and pulled off her a-grav pack before turning sideways to ease through a narrow break in the rock.
The moment she was through, lights burst to life from where they were tucked into the vaulted ceiling, hundreds of meters above her head.
The space was so vast, Isa could hardly believe the cavern didn’t open to the outside somewhere. Then she remembered that, although she’d entered the caves high on the mountainside, she’d since traveled a considerable distance underground, as she’d bounded down the slopes with her a-grav pack.
But the cavern’s size wasn’t even the most spectacular thing about it. The walls were coming to life with colors. They were crowded with more of the bands of gold she’d already seen, and mixed in with them were red streaks that she guessed were probably magnesium ferrite or a red hematite. She also saw the brass-yellow of pyrite, and bands of sparkling green and blue that could be malachite and azurite.
As if the cavern walls weren’t enough of a spectacular sight, the effect was doubled by a wide lake that spanned most of the cavern’s floor. The water lay perfectly still and gave such an exact reflection of the walls and ceiling, Isa got a sensation of vertigo. She felt as though taking a step into the lake would cause her to plunge to her death.
Struggling with what to say that would do justice to what she was seeing, Isa sent her drones up to record details of the ore strands and masses of semi-precious gems.
“What an amazing sight,” she said eventually, feeling the inadequacy of her words. “I feel like I’ve stepped into a sim. I’ve always appreciated the efforts of the FGT in terraforming New Canaan’s planets, but I don’t think I really understood the technical skills and artistry that went into their work. This geological wonder has been left here for us to enjoy forever, and it’s only one of the many amazing places on Tyre.”