Tyre - A Space Opera Colonization Adventure (Aeon 14: Building New Canaan Book 2)

by M. D. Cooper

  Martin took his helmet.

  “So we’re about to drop twenty-eight and a half kilometers through a supervolcano?” he asked Isa.

  “A dormant supervolcano,” she corrected. “and the base stretches a long way out, it’s about a hundred and forty kilometers of chute.”

  Martin looked dubiously at his helmet before sliding it over his head.

  “Any last words?” the assistant asked him mischievously.

  Isa chuckled. There really was something about Martin that brought out the tease in everyone.

  “I’m sorry?” Martin’s eyes narrowed.

  “I meant, are you ready?” said the assistant.

  “Yes,” Isa replied. “We’re ready.”

  Domed transparent lids lifted and closed over each seat. Now Isa could only see Martin through the domes, though their seats were side by side, and they could reach underneath to clasp hands. She beamed at him. Their vehicle gave a slight shudder, and then they were moving.

  The first drop was in pitch blackness, which was more terrifying than seeing where you were going. All Isa could feel were the sensations of speed and falling.

  Very gradually, the chute evened out, slowing the progress of the pod. Lights appeared, showing they were still traveling at high speed. They slowed further, and the lights became brighter, highlighting the densely striated rock they were passing through.

  Suddenly, the tunnel twisted sideways, and they plummeted another few thousand meters, periodically corkscrewing and then passing through a series of loops. The pod slowed for a second time until they were moving horizontally and sedately. The tunnel widened. At the end of the passage, a river crossed their path. The pod moved directly onto it, and the next moment, they were floating, borne along by a strong current.

  Martin hadn’t said much up until that point, or maybe Isa hadn’t heard him over her own screams. But he was grinning stupidly, so she guessed he was having a good time.

  “You’re going to love the next part,” she said.

  They’d left the artificially created part of the chute and were traveling under arched natural rock, tastefully lit by concealed lights. The passage narrowed once again, and the river current grew stronger, speeding up the progress of their pod. The noise of rushing water penetrated the interior, and Martin looked questioningly at Isa, as if the sound was familiar. Just as realization dawned on his face, the river suddenly dropped out from beneath them, and they were carried over a waterfall and straight down.

  At the bottom of the torrent, the pod smacked into more water and sank beneath the surface. For a short time, they were surrounded by water and bubbles. Then the pod popped out like a champagne cork and came to rest, bobbing on a lake. The pod’s motor kicked in and began pushing the vehicle along.

  “Fantastic,” Martin exclaimed. “You’re right. I do love it. If you’d told me this is what we’d be doing, I wouldn’t have hesitated.”

  “If I’d told you this is what we’d be doing, it wouldn’t have been a surprise.”

  They were moving toward an archway that led to the rest of the ride. Isa was relieved at Martin’s delighted expression. She’d wanted to turn his trip to see her into something fun and rewarding on its own for him, and she’d succeeded.

  As they floated across the underground lake, her mind wandered back to the conversation she’d had earlier with Martin—in the same restaurant where she’d eaten with Samuel, Ada, and Rahmin.

  * * * * *

  “I’m fine, really,” she’d said. She had been deeply touched that Martin had come all the way to Tyre to check that she was okay. She knew how much it meant to him to leave his site.

  He’d reached out and put his hand over hers. “You do seem fine, now. But I still don’t understand what happened to you. You’re sure the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong?”

  “Of course I’m sure. Why would I lie?” She wasn’t strictly lying to him—the doctor hadn’t been able to find anything wrong. Yet guilt still gnawed at her for not telling Martin the entire truth, and he seemed to suspect she was hiding something.

  “I don’t think you’re lying,” he said. He took his coffee from the servitor.

  Isa was grateful that he’d decided not to pursue the subject for the moment. “So what do you think of Tyre?”

  “Seems okay, though I haven’t seen the oceans yet. Are we far from the coast?”

  “Seems okay?” Isa was flabbergasted. “Did you notice Mount Athos? It’s so tall, you can’t see the peak.”

  “Yeah, I noticed coming down in the shuttle. I’m not much of a mountain person myself.” Martin sipped coffee.

  “There’s a chute that goes all the way through it.”

  “Really?” Martin didn’t sound interested. “So how’s your work been going, apart from the unfortunate incident?”

  “Really well. I love it, in fact. It isn’t at all difficult to be enthusiastic in the recordings when I’m showing off so many fabulous places. How about you? I was so surprised when you told me you were at the air and spaceport. Did you persuade your friend Cameron to look after your site again?”

  “Uh, no.” Martin’s expression turned sour. “I have an intern.”

  “An intern? You didn’t say you were taking on an intern.”

  “I wasn’t. It was Cameron’s idea. He thinks I need help. I don’t know what makes him think that; I can manage the site perfectly fine by myself.”

  “What’s your intern like?”

  “He’s a student. Called Malcolm.”

  Martin didn’t seem to be about to offer any further information, so Isa asked, “Do you know anything else about him?”

  “He loves to cook, and he’s very bad at cleaning up. And he says ‘you know’ a lot.”

  “Oh.”

  Martin was glowering so much, Isa fought the urge to smile. Erin had told her all about the darker side of Martin she’d seen when they first met. From the look he currently wore, Isa could imagine exactly what Erin had meant.

  “It’s good that you have someone to look after the place while you’re away,” she said.

  Martin took another sip of coffee, put down his cup, folded his arms, and looked out the window. “So you were saying something about a chute through the mountain?”

  “Yeah, we should do that this afternoon. It’ll be fun,” said Isa. She reflected that Martin had to really dislike his new assistant if he was diverting the conversation to something that didn’t interest him.

  He peered at Mount Athos through the windows. “How tall is that thing anyway?”

  “About twenty-eight and a half kilometers.”

  “Okay. Let’s do it. As long as I’m here anyway.”

  As they flew up the long slopes of Mount Athos in the pinnace, Martin’s enthusiasm for their upcoming adventure seemed to increase.

  “It’s quite something, isn’t it?” he commented. Then he added, “what’s happening over there?”

  Isa followed his gaze and saw distant squares floating slowly downward. “They’re wing-gliding. You borrow a suit, and there’s a jump-off point near the top. It takes an hour or so to reach the ground, I heard. The updrafts around the mountain are insane. We could do that instead, if you want.”

  “Looks like fun, but let’s do the chute thing today.”

  “So you’ll be here tomorrow, too?”

  “Yeah. I haven’t decided when I’ll return to Carthage.”

  Isa’s throat grew tight and hot tears stung her eyes. The sentiment behind Martin’s words was unspoken but clear: he wasn’t satisfied that she was okay, and until he was, he was going to stick around—even if it meant leaving his site in the hands of someone he didn’t like or trust.

  * * * * *

  The memory faded as they reached the end of the lake and found themselves racing down another watery shaft. Martin’s hand reached out and clasped hers, making this one her favorite ride.

  “Just wait till we go through the ice tubes!” she said over the thunder of the wa
ter outside the pod.

  * * * * *

  Their excursion the following day took them to a location Isa hadn’t yet visited. She tucked in her shirt and took a final look in the bathroom mirror. She was wearing practical clothes made from light, airy fabrics suitable for the semi-tropical rainforest climate of their destination.

  “Are you ready?” Martin asked. “I think your friends must be waiting for us downstairs.”

  “Yeah,” Isa replied. “I’m coming.”

  Martin was sitting on the bed and putting on his boots. “You look like an explorer from old Earth,” he said when he saw her.

  “I do? Is that good or bad?”

  “Good,” he said. “You always look good. Doesn’t matter what you wear.”

  “Awww, thanks.” Pleasure suffused her, and she reflected on how much she liked having Martin around. “You look good too.”

  “I feel good. Really looking forward to seeing these fjords today.”

  “Ha! What I think you mean is you’re looking forward to swimming in these fjords today.”

  Martin smiled. “That too.”

  They left the hotel room and walked down the single flight of stairs to the lobby. Samuel, Rahmin, and Ada had arrived and were similarly dressed for adventure. Their look of surprise when they saw Martin reminded Isa that she’d forgotten to tell them about him.

  After the introductions were over, Samuel said, “Our pinnace is outside. I was going to suggest that you come along with us, Isa, but we only have a four-seater.”

  “That’s no problem,” Isa replied. “Send me the coordinates, and we’ll meet you there.”

  They passed through the double doors of the hotel and out into the bright, early morning sunshine.

  “To reach the fjords, we have to pass through the Central Range,” Ada said. “Your pinnace will figure out the route. The views are spectacular.”

  After walking out to the hotel’s parking lot, Isa and Martin climbed into Isa’s borrowed ship, while the Tyrians climbed into theirs. Isa input the figures Samuel had sent her over the Link, and started up the engine. The pinnace lifted as smoothly as ever. Isa wondered if she could afford to buy a similar vessel with the creds she would receive for making the infomentary. She probably wouldn’t have enough, but it was something to aspire to. It would be cool to fly around Carthage and pop over to Knossos to see Martin in her own aircraft.

  The pinnace’s nose turned, and they swept over Ushu toward Mount Athos. The slopes were lightly gilded by the rising sun. Isa settled in for the ride, anticipating another awe-inspiring day on Tyre.

  A while later, Martin said, “Hey, are you recording this?”

  They were flying around Mount Athos, and the rest of the Central Range was coming into view. The line of magnificent peaks was breathtaking. It was almost impossible to believe that the mountains had formed naturally and had only experienced a little tweaking by the FGT.

  “I am now,” Isa replied, gazing steadily at the panorama. Pulling the dry facts from the Link and adding her personal perspective, she created some commentary to go with the recording.

  The pinnace was flying them swiftly along the range, seemingly heading for a gap that would allow passage through to the northern side. Sure enough, a short time later, they began to bank to the left. A low saddle between the peaks appeared, and white, craggy slopes rose on each side of them, highlighting the brilliant blue of the sky opening up ahead.

  The land that spread out on the northern slopes of the range was clothed in deep, rich green. The Tyrians ship—which they had lost sight of at some point—could now be seen in the distance. It had flown beyond the shadow cast by the mountains and was glinting in the daylight.

  Isa and Martin had been chatting about the Athens trip and Erin and other subjects of mutual interest. Martin had finally found the words to describe Malcolm, carefully explaining how annoying he was.

  Isa didn’t think Malcolm sounded half as annoying as Martin was making out, but his words reminded her of her unease about her Tyrian friends.

  They’d taken her to see several places in the days since she’d left the hospital, but she’d never again seen the odd behavior she’d witnessed that first time in the restaurant, yet it had left an impression that hadn’t been erased.

  When Isa caught sight of the Tyrians’ pinnace, she remarked, “I probably sound paranoid, but I should tell you I think there’s something odd about Samuel and the others.”

  “Odd? In what way? I only saw them for a moment, but they seemed normal enough to me.”

  “I’m not saying they aren’t normal. But there might be something more to their befriending me than they’re telling.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  Isa explained about the whispered argument she’d witnessed the day she’d first met her new acquaintances. Relating the incident out loud made her realize how weak her evidence sounded. “I don’t know. I can’t explain it well, but it isn’t only that they stopped arguing the moment they saw me. I get the impression that they aren’t being themselves—I just feel that there’s more to their offer to show me around than they’re letting on.”

  “Do you know what other reason might they have?” Martin asked.

  “No, I haven’t figured that part out yet. I’ve just been avoiding them as much as I can, making excuses. I’ve only been out with them a couple of times, but I thought you would really enjoy what they had in mind for today, so I took them up on their offer.”

  “Maybe they want the fame of appearing in your infomentary.”

  “No, it isn’t that. If anything, they seem reluctant to appear in any shots.”

  “In that case, I don’t know either. Why would they go out of their way to help you unless they were proud of their planet and wanted to promote it? Nothing else makes sense.”

  “I know. Maybe I’m….” Isa was about to say ‘crazy’, but the word hit too close to home.

  She did worry sometimes about her mental health, but that had nothing to do with the Tyrians. She was sure of it. This was something else.

  “Paranoid?” Martin asked with a smile.

  “Maybe.”

  He squeezed her knee. “Interesting. If they do have some kind of malicious or ulterior motive for accompanying you on these trips, we might be able to figure it out together.”

  “That’s true.”

  A short while later, the pinnace began to lose height. The coast was approaching, its aquamarine and white lines stretching wide.

  “Look at that,” exclaimed Martin. “I think that must be where we’re going.”

  To their right, a series of convoluted cliffs and chasms lifted from the sea and reached deeply inland, as far as the foothills of the mountain range. Isa began to record what she was seeing.

  “It’s hard to believe that at one point, all this would have been covered in ice,” Martin remarked as they drew closer to their destination.

  “Would it?” asked Isa.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it would. Geology isn’t my subject, but as far as I understand, fjords are created by glaciers. Tyre must have undergone at least one ice age, and glaciers must have grown out from the mountain range, slicing out deep valleys as they worked their way to the sea. The ice probably stretched out into the ocean too, calving huge icebergs.”

  “Sounds amazing,” Isa said, “but I’m glad the ice retreated. Look what it left behind.”

  Below them, deep fjords sank down to the water, their rocky faces dotted with trees that clung impossibly to the vertical faces.

  Martin clutched Isa’s arm. The words to describe what he was seeing eluded him, but he was jabbing a finger at a spectacular waterfall. A wide, silver curtain was pouring from the top of a fjord into the shadowed, watery depths of the ocean below, rainbows glistening among the drops.

  Isa immediately zoomed in on the stunning sight and continued to record.

  “We have to go there,” said Martin finally.

  Isa replied, “I’m
sure we can, somehow. In fact, it looks like that’s where we’re going.”

  The Tyrians’ pinnace had slowed, and Isa and Martin had nearly caught up to it. The vessel dropped out of the sky and landed just beyond the top of the waterfall. Isa’s pinnace soon lowered itself down nearby. By the time she and Martin had climbed out, Ada, Samuel, and Rahmin were at the edge of the fjord, standing near the shallow river that fed the waterfall. They were already wearing their a-grav packs.

  Isa and Martin took theirs out of the pinnace and joined the Tyrians. A stiff, salty breeze was blowing from the ocean, and the air was loud with the sound of falling water.

  “The best way to go down is through the waterfall,” Ada explained. “It’s fairly fine, so the force of the water isn’t so strong that it’s uncomfortable. You can change into swimwear now if you’d prefer, but your clothes will dry quickly, anyway, in the warm wind.”

  Martin was standing at the very edge and peering down to the bottom.

  “Tell me you aren’t thinking of diving from here,” Isa said.

  Martin turned toward her and beamed.

  “It must be a hundred-meter drop,” said Isa.

  “According to Eamon, it’s a hundred and forty-eight meters,” Martin replied. “But there are no rocks in the water at the bottom.”

  He had a glint in his eye that Isa remembered from Athens, when he’d decided to compete with Usef at tsunami-surfing acrobatics.

  “But maybe another time,” he went on, walking back to the group.

  “Yeah,” said Rahmin. “Floating through the waterfall is cool too, and the fun lasts longer.”

  Isa put on her a-grav pack. Samuel was already stepping off the cliff, and Ada quickly followed him. It wasn’t long before Isa was doing the same, her heart racing when she found herself looking between her feet at the deep blue water below.

  She guided the pack to take her in amongst the jewel-like drops of the waterfall, and was quickly soaked in tepid water. The spray, mist, and rainbows around her took her breath away. Taking her time, she sank lower and lower, passing greenery that sprouted from the wet rock and small, intriguing caves.