Soft Planet

by Mitchell Christian

  “Sure. I might get hungry before we get back, but with only a brief stop along the way to let Jules take soil samples I doubt I’ll need most of it.”

  Caroline nodded. “You ok?” she asked, her concern as team leader giving way to the friendship between the two.

  “Yeah, I’m good. Just excited, that’s all.” Caroline felt Roe was putting on a brave face, but the tension showed so she rested a reassuring hand on her friend’s shoulder.

  “We should be back by dawn, as long as the lull in the weather holds out.”

  Roe nodded back. They moved towards the copter as the pilot motioned them to board.

  Once everyone was seated the vehicle lifted from the ground as the still horizontal propellers spun into action. It hovered briefly, sending an expanding wave of dust outward along the dry ground below. The wing tips tilted back as the copter accelerated towards the uninhabited zone.

  ***

  In the depth of the night the aircraft carried its passengers along the barren terrain. Its headlights revealed a wide swath of the ground ahead, a landscape of pink sprinkled with browns and blacks that rushed underneath the vehicle as it sped towards its destination. Without warning a strong wind blew the vehicle to one side, and the team members held on tight to their arm rests. They were all strapped in to their seats for safety with a harness netting that would stretch with normal movements, but which would tighten against them from any strong, sudden force against it.

  “What was that?” Caroline called up to the pilot as the craft returned to its flight plan.

  “Well, we would normally call these gusts the pre-cursors to a possible sandstorm, but the scanners aren’t picking up any large scale activity headed our way. Just seems to be these wind shears here and there. Some of them are pretty strong. Kinda shaped like tall whirlpools.”

  “Tornados,” Maysie said, somewhat enigmatically. The others looked at her.

  “What’s a ‘tornado’?” Roe asked.

  “They’re intense cyclonic phenomena that aren't seen much on Earth anymore,” the climatologist explained, “but which were much more common in certain locations during the Hartmann Era over two centuries ago, according to the climatological records we’ve been able to recover. They’re now known to be developing here on Mars ever since the inhabited areas began to take up a sizable portion of the planet’s surface.”

  Their transport vehicle became increasingly battered by the shifting winds, and finally the crew decided to land on the nearest flat spot.

  “Jules, can you collect your soil samples here?” Caroline asked when they stepped out onto the terrain. Once the ecologist nodded, she approached the other team members.

  “I’d like to hear everyone’s opinion. Should we proceed with the mission, or head back and try again another day?”

  Larkin spoke first. “I say we continue. Things will only get worse if we wait longer.”

  “For once I agree with my colleague,” Jules responded. “Without that data from the factory we’ll be forced to blindly apply changes to our terraforming model. It’s vital to have current information from the upper atmosphere, or else any tweaks we make could have unforeseen, and potentially catastrophic, consequences.”

  “I’m for continuing on, too,” Maysie said. She looked over at Roe, who indicated that she concurred with the rest of the party.

  “That settles it, then,” Caroline concluded. “As soon as Jules has his samples we’ll be on our way.”

  The team soon climbed back aboard the copter. Another strong wind swirled around the aircraft just as it ascended. With a slight tilt forward it once again headed due west, quickly disappearing into the haze of dust.

  ***

  “You’d get lost pretty quickly. Compass readings aren’t very accurate in this area due to the intensity of the magnetic field from the Ferion Belt.” Larkin was responding to Roe’s question about what would happen if the copter broke down. A giant cord made from tightly twisted strands of superconducting metal was buried around the equator, hundreds of kilometers beneath the surface. It created a replica of Earth’s magnetosphere.

  “Then you could just walk east, using the sun as a guide,” Roe countered.

  “I’m afraid the severe weather would get you before you could make it back,” Jules explained. “In fact, we’d better get that data and return as soon as possible ourselves. Even with the copter to take us up to the roof of the factory and back we’ll be cutting it close. By early morning those tornados Maysie spoke of will be starting to appear, and with all the dust flying around I’d imagine some severe electrical storms could develop as well.”

  Maysie nodded her agreement. The rest of the team remained silent as they neared the factory.

  “How much farther?” Caroline asked the pilot, who indicated that they were still several kilometers away from the huge construct. She was about to make a comment to Roe about the effort required to build a structure of such magnitude, when once more the copter was hit by a sudden strong burst of wind. This time the tail was knocked to the left and upwards, forcing the pilot to struggle to regain control of the craft. After a distinct groan came from the back section, Caroline’s team instinctively braced themselves as the pilot brought the copter lower and lower. Finally it touched down with a slight bump. They could hear the impact of small rocks pelting the aircraft’s exterior.

  “What’s our situation?” Caroline shouted forward to the cockpit as the noise from the roaring wind outside threatened to drown out her words.

  “I’m afraid we’re surrounded by bad weather,” the pilot replied. “We’ll have to wait for a lull before-”

  He was cut off as the body of the copter was lifted from the surface and the force of the storm sent it crashing back to the ground, where it skidded against a large boulder. The passengers were badly shaken up but remained strapped in and unharmed. Caroline managed to compose herself, and after checking on everyone’s safety, removed her harness to assess the damage. A fierce blast of rotating wind sent the plane spinning, causing her to lose balance and throwing her against the door. Suddenly the pitch of the gale rose to a scream as the door was ripped from its hinges. Before anyone could unstrap themselves to respond, Caroline was sucked out the open hatch and disappeared into the raging blackness.

  Chapter 5

  Her fingers and toes felt frozen, and the air was cold, biting through her suit like ice. The world was silent, the dark of night relieved only by pale starlight. Caroline managed to get to her feet and maintain a wobbly stance while surmising the situation. Caked-on bits of rock and sand fell from the suit as she stood. She was in no great pain, although her head hurt a little, so it seemed she had escaped any severe injury from what must have been a violent tumble across the rough Martian terrain. While her suit appeared undamaged, the communication system was not working. Both the power and oxygen supplies were better than half depleted, even though the suit’s systems had automatically been lowered to minimum life support while she had lain motionless on the ground. In a slight panic she felt for the data scanner. She breathed a sigh of relief upon finding that it still rested in a pouch on one side of the suit. A quick check showed it to be in working order.

  Her memory was not completely clear concerning the night’s recent events, but she recalled the surprising ferocity of the winds that had battered the copter. The weather was calm now, but severe activity was sure to rekindle with the coming heat of a new day. Switching on the helmet’s lights, she began searching the immediate area for any sign of her fellow scientists. Warmth began to flow through the suit with her movements, but the search was a fruitless effort. Caroline could only hope that her team had safely escaped the wild conditions.

  Alone, and with limited options remaining, there was only a single goal to achieve. Using the stars as a guide she headed to the west.

  ***

  The black void along the horizon could only mean one thing. Something was blocking out the heavens, and that something was big. The emp
tiness grew larger, nearly erasing the sky, until Caroline could see nothing before her.

  She almost ran into the wall before realizing that she had arrived at the factory. Her helmet’s lights played against the building, revealing a flat, white surface. Around the base of the structure were pale yellow grasses. Caroline surmised that their seeds had been blown here from the foliage around the town by the desert storms. They would have been deposited near the factory wall as the winds lost speed against the massive windbreak. Fertilization could have come from nitrates created by lightning around the spires which jutted into the sky from the roof of the enormous building. The intensity of those blasts would strip apart the molecules of nitrogen in the atmosphere, which then combined with oxygen and fell to the ground. Any electrical storms that passed overhead in this area were likely to produce sheets of rain, helping to keep the plants healthy and growing.

  Almost without thinking she turned to the right and resumed walking, heading due north along the exterior of the factory. She brushed her gloved hand along the surface, and was surprised that it lacked the smoothness of metal she had expected. Then she remembered reading that the material was composed of a non-corrosive polymer which was almost completely inert to any natural chemical process. It had a mild graininess and the sensation of slickness, like the cool skin of a sleeping reptile. Every once in a while she removed her glove and let her hand slide along, just for the enjoyment of the sensation.

  From far behind the wall came the prolonged bellowing of what sounded like mighty horns, or the slow breathing of giant creatures out of the fantasy stories of childhood. Caroline visualized the compartments of chemical soups within the structure, each filled with concoctions brewing a particular gas product that rose through wide pipes until it escaped out one of the venting towers on the roof. The whole thing was designed to require a minimum of human intervention, with only a few moving parts that would rarely need maintenance. The only regular visits required were to restock the supplies of chemicals needed to keep the processes running. With no visible means of entrance from the outside, she presumed there must be hatches on the rooftop leading down to the appropriate containment area.

  For nearly half an hour her stroll continued. She began sensing a subsonic pressure that seemed to pervade every cell of her body, squeezing and releasing each muscle as if she were a rag doll in the hands of a mighty being of unimaginable strength. It was a strange combination of comfort and complete powerlessness, creating a kind of surreal emotional attraction to the immense construct. The vibrations from within grew stronger, her body undulating with the pulse of the mammoth heartbeat. Soothed and relaxed, she slipped down to the ground. Her knees barely touched the grass before exhaustion overtook her, and she fell fast asleep.

  ***

  A pelting rain against her helmet’s faceplate woke Caroline with a start. It was still dark. She removed the headgear and gulped at the sleet, letting the frozen water crystals hit the back of her throat. They melted on the way down, somewhat satisfying her thirst. In only a few moments she was forced to replace the helmet for lack of breath. Heaving her stiff body up from a slumped position against the wall, she had to catch herself to keep from falling over. After staying in one position for so long her legs felt as if they were about to give out from under her. As the moments passed the strength in them slowly returned, until she pushed away from the wall, again making her way forward.

  Before long the rain let up and dawn approached, lighting the rocky path ahead in smoky pinks and rose, while the wall of the factory took on an alabaster hue in the morning light. There was no visible end to the building stretching out before her. Looking skyward, Caroline thought she could detect, just at the edge of her vision, the factory’s upper towers extending into the haze of the high cloud cover. White fluffy shapes clung around the tips where vents released the gases that filled the upper atmosphere. She had read about the dimensions of the factories, but the true scope of these cubic, kilometer-wide structures had not impressed itself onto her consciousness until now.

  Eventually she could see the end of the wall approaching. At that point she rounded the corner and turned to head west again. A few moments later she noticed a dark spot on the ground in the distance, indistinct at first, which gradually took shape until its outline gave the appearance of a giant insect with four wings. For a moment her hopes jumped at the thought of finding her teammates, but she quickly realized that the craft was deserted. Most likely her friends had pushed on through the night until they reached the factory. They must have been rescued by another copter. Caroline knew they had no other choice due to the ferocious weather, and that they would attempt to search for her once the storm activity settled down.

  Upon inspection, she found that the copter’s communications system was damaged beyond repair. Roe had left her bag of food behind the captain's seat. It held the carbohydrates and water that Caroline craved, and she hurriedly devoured the small meal. The gauge for the airship’s fuel cell read only a quarter full, shown on a display screen just to the left as Caroline started the engine. It seemed to run smoothly, but something outside didn't sound right. After exiting and walking towards the back of the vehicle she could see that the right rear propellers were bent, resulting in an off-key whir to the rotary noise of the blades. That meant there would be only an unstable vertical lift. The solar panel also appeared damaged. Without a source of additional energy the craft would not be able to make it back to the town.

  On instinct she decided to resume her hike around the perimeter of the factory. As she continued walking, towards what she now considered to be the back side of the building, Caroline looked further to the west and could see another storm approaching. The orange-gray wall of dust showed no movement but she knew that it would soon be upon her. Finally rounding the factory’s rear corner she noticed that the land began to rise until she stood atop a high mound, tallest against the wall of the building and then gradually descending away from the structure. Apparently it had been created by the repeated passing of storms which blew against this side, leaving behind a ramp of deposited sand and small rocks. She walked down the slope of the formation, slowly getting a feel for its dimensions while visualizing the forces that had been needed to create it. An idea formed in her mind as she stared at the massive factory wall. Calculations and graphs of stress factors flew through her head. After some time she headed back around the corner towards the downed craft as the wind kicked up behind her.

  ***

  The storm would be upon her too quickly for any repair work to be completed, so Caroline boarded the damaged copter and started the engine again. The vehicle rose from the ground, shakily at first, until she managed to keep it level. Piloting it around the back of the factory to the low end of the ramp, and turning it to face towards the rear wall, she kept the copter hovering a few meters above the ground as the storm sped closer from the rear.

  Finally it hit. The tail of the plane began to rise until, with some effort, she succeeded in leveling it out. The gale-force wind sent her ride at full speed up the ramp and straight towards the looming wall, which quickly filled her vision. Fear of impact sent her heart rate soaring, until at the last moment she shifted the ship into vertical flight mode. It rose like a balloon, lifted straight upwards by the cushion of air that rushed up the factory wall. The metal ship rode the energy of the storm as its fuel indicator hovered near empty. At the half-way point up the side of the factory one of the front left propellers grazed the wall and Caroline could feel the sudden impact shake the craft. Surprisingly, the blade sliced out a chunk of the building’s material and sent it shooting to the right, while the propeller itself seemed to be undamaged. The winds continued to wail around her, with more and more debris pelting the hull as the copter continued its vertical ascent.

  Looking up through the transparent cockpit canopy, Caroline thought she could see the bright yellow tower lights at the tips of the spires that rose from the roof of the structure. Then, witho
ut warning, she found herself soaring above the roof. She snapped out of her distraction, and after a split-second delay shifted the plane back to flying mode, the gears strained nearly to the breaking point. The craft shot forwards, propelled once again by the force of the winds. Gradually she lowered her ride until, nearly three quarters of the way across the top of the factory, she made a dash towards the side hatch and bailed out, tumbling across the roof as her transport was pushed towards the far ledge. Its rising tail no longer controlled by her steady hand, the plane’s nose impacted the roof just before it was upended, flipping over the edge and out of sight.

  As she rolled to the side Caroline slammed against a thick beam, holding on with all her might while the sandstorm surged past. She peered through the dusty air and spotted the dim, pulsing blue light of the data collection equipment. From far overhead lightning began to flash as the storm sheered electrons from dust and grit, the metallic upper ends of the spires attracting the streams of charged particles. A torrential rain began, and with her suit nearly out of power and oxygen, Caroline’s confidence in her make-shift plan faltered. Eying the intensity of the tempest that raged all around, she wondered if she’d had a lapse in judgment.

  Too late now. There was nothing to do but continue. If she failed then her only wish was that others would piece the story together, learning from her mistakes.

  As she contemplated a sad demise there came an unexpected lull in the winds. Steeling herself, she took advantage of the lucky break. Letting go of the beam, she rushed towards the data box and its precious contents. She hurriedly pulled the scanner out and plugged it into the data port. After an agonizingly long stretch of time the indicator light turned green, and she tucked the device back into the pouch on the right side of her suit.