by Alec Taylor
“And then I’ll take out the main gun with my lightsaber,” said June softly.
“Oh, shut up,” I whispered with a smile.
“We’re looking for exposed, soft rock,” continued Tony, still whispering. “Anything that could have fossils in it, close to the surface. Sedimentary rocks, actually, where a river or lake has laid down layers of mud that have dried out and turned into rock.”
We looked at him in silence for a second, impressed.
“And hopefully a little green man drowned in the lake, sank to the bottom, and turned into a fossil,” said Vivian in a normal voice.
“Exactly,” Tony replied, still whispering. “Although I’d settle for a trilobite.”
We stared at him again.
“What the hell is a trilobite?” I asked in a normal voice.
“Sh!” said June and then laughed quietly into her hand.
“Actually, I don’t know,” whispered Tony. “It just popped into my head, but I think it might have been an old sea creature on Earth. Or do I mean troglobite?”
“So,” whispered Vivian, “an exposed sedimentary rock with lots of layers.”
“Yep, and it might not even be creatures that we find,” whispered Tony. “Tracks would be fine as well.”
“You mean,” I whispered, “the footsteps of little green men.”
“Now you shut up,” whispered Tony, wagging his finger at me.
“Everybody just shut up, all right?” whispered Vivian and then laughed silently.
“We should also look out for signs of people,” said June. “We should try to follow in Robert’s footsteps.”
“Right,” said Tony in a normal voice. “Let’s go.”
We put on our suits, went through the airlock and out into the bright Martian morning. June and I walked to the hovee first and climbed in. She had a look at a map on the console and picked a riverbed a few kilometres upstream from the outpost. She then added a waypoint on the map further upstream and engaged the autopilot.
We gently rose and flew out across the valley. The haze had settled overnight. It was much clearer than the previous afternoon.
“Slow down,” said June to the autopilot.
“Look, June,” I said and pointed at a large landslide.
“This is amazing,” she said. “It’s so big. There must be thousands of landslides like that one.”
We swept around the waypoint, pointing out interesting rock formations along the way. One exposed rock face had clear lines where sediment must have been laid—we looked at each other and wordlessly agreed that that would be our highest priority to visit the next day.
The hovee settled down gently in the riverbed, dust swirling around. We hopped out and called the others to let them know they could call the hovee back to pick them up. It took off and left us standing in the riverbed. We walked away to get away from the swirling dust. Smaller rocks were scattered at the edge of the river. They had clearly been rubbed smooth by a stream. I had never been very interested in geology, but those rocks had a special significance. They proved beyond doubt that, at some point, a liquid—probably water—had flowed across the surface of the planet. In ancient Martian history, the temperature and atmosphere had been different and could have sustained life.
I sat down on a large boulder, which was also smooth, and it occurred to me that it might have been dropped there by a glacier. A few minutes later Tony and Vivian arrived.
“Howdy, bro,” said Tony.
“Hi,” I replied.
“See anything interesting?”
“Check out these smooth rocks.”
“I know. I mean, of course we already knew they were here, but it’s cool to see them in person.”
“We saw lots of landslides,” I said, “and a really interesting sedimentary rock face.”
“Yeah, we did, too. No paths or anything. A nice big chairlift at one point, though.”
“Sure,” I said.
“Actually,” said Tony, “I think I saw some belay points down a cliff just to the west of the outpost. Looked like Robert used it as a regular path.”
“Hmm,” I replied.
“Hmm indeed.”
“Did anyone bring a picnic?” joked Vivian. Eating in our outersuits was obviously impossible out in the Martian atmosphere.
“You’re as bad as Tony,” said June.
We wandered upstream. The riverbed was full of sand and dust, but it was hard packed and rocky along the edges, so walking was easy. Tony occasionally jumped over a boulder and made superhero sounds, showing off like a teenager for Vivian.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” said Vivian, half-heartedly.
“Not possible,” he replied.
“You’re the oldest person here,” I said to Tony, “and you’ve probably lost the most muscle mass. Just a helpful reminder.”
“Gee, thanks.”
We walked for a couple of hours, admiring the twists and turns of the river. It was wide and had carved a great channel. Every now and then, one of us would pick up a flat rock and try to skim it across the dust. One particularly good throw bounced three times before ploughing in.
“Anyone bring a fishing rod?” asked Tony. “I fancy this spot for a nice trout.”
“Oh, boy,” said Vivian. “Who brought this guy?”
*
Eventually we turned around, walked back, and flew in rounds back to the outpost. We were exhausted by the time we returned and we all decided to have an afternoon nap. An hour or two later, we woke up and met in the lounge room.
“Did anyone see anything worth investigating today?” asked Tony.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” said Vivian. “We’re not going to find perfect fossils just sitting out in the open. The entire planet is regularly sand blasted and it’s been this way for millions of years. Maybe a rockslide of sedimentary rocks exposes a fossil every now and then, but they’re unlikely to stay intact for long. I think we’re going to need to break some rock.”
“That could be tricky,” said June. “Could we be more targeted? Is there really no way that we can dig out Robert’s records?”
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “I could ask Liu to dig around and he might find something, but I doubt it and Karl would probably find out. No, we can have a look while we’re out here, but we won’t have the benefit of his research. Vivian is right, though—we might need to break some rocks, and we don’t really have any tools.”
“And we’re not wearing heavy protective suits,” said June.
“We’re going to have to be lucky,” said Tony.
“I know it sounds paranoid,” I said, “but I’m also sure that our suits are being monitored. JOSEV would be quite suspicious if we started chiselling rocks.”
“Perhaps the best we can do,” said Vivian, “is try to loosen anything that looks ready to fall.”
“Without damaging our suits,” I said.
“Right,” said Tony. “So where should we go?”
“The two best places we saw,” said June, “were the exposed rock face about four kilometres to the north east and that big rockfall to the west.”
“Okay,” said Vivian. “They sound as good as anywhere to start. Why don’t Mike and June go to the rock face and Tony and I go out to the rockfall?”
Later that afternoon, June and I flew out to the rock face. We circled around the canyon for a little while to make it seem that we weren’t just focused on the rocks, and then June manually landed the hovee on a precarious outcrop just under the rock face (the autopilot refused to land there).
We climbed over to the rock face and stood looking up at it for a moment.
“This is not going to be easy,” said June.
A few of the rocks at the bottom of the cliff had fallen and split. I turned them over, hoping to happen upon a fossil. Some were split along the layers of rock, I suppose where softer layers connected with harder layers. But nothing obvious appeared.
After a few minutes, I
spied a large flat chunk of rock in the cliff that looked like it could be pulled or levered out. I asked June to help me pull it, but it was stuck tight. I stood looking at it for a moment, then looked around for a rock that was vaguely wedge shaped. I found one and then picked up a larger rock. I placed the wedge under the front lip of loose rock in the cliff and gave it a few good hits with the larger rock. The wedge eventually broke up, but not before I saw the layer in the cliff move a little.
June and I had another go at pulling the chunk of flat rock out, and this time it moved slightly. We pushed and pulled it from side to side, gradually expanding its movement. Then we gave it a big pull, and it came flying out and smashed into a boulder a few metres out from the bottom of the cliff.
“Well,” said June, “at least we don’t need to break it up now.”
We went over to look at the remains of the rock. In several places, it had shattered through the layers. We carefully looked at all the pieces and even smashed a few of the larger pieces to try to expose the rock within the layers. But we found nothing.
“This seems silly,” said June. “We’re not really doing it right, and we could easily be in completely the wrong kind of place.”
“Let’s just do that again a couple of times and then head back.”
We found another few loose-looking rocks and used the same wedge technique. One of the rocks didn’t budge at all, and the other one was just as disappointing as the first. After we stopped looking through the pieces of the last rock, June looked up at the cliff and said, “You don’t think it could fall, do you?”
That was enough for me. We climbed back into the hovee and flew back to the outpost. Tony and Vivian greeted us with enthusiasm and were still positive after we had told them about our experience. They decided to head out to the rockfall.
“Just don’t stay too long. It’s getting late,” I said. “And be careful.”
“Stop worrying, Pumbaa,” said Tony.
June and I sat around relaxing while they were out. It was a strange feeling, having nothing to do and being so isolated. We fooled around and played a few puzzles and board games.
“Did you play Scrabble as a kid?” asked June.
“Not much,” I said. “I was more a Minecraft kid.”
“I want our kids to play real games as well,” said June.
“I know what you mean. They will, I’m sure. We’d just need Manufacturing to make some kids’ games.”
“They’d need to make a lot of things,” said June. “Small clothes, change tables, toddler gates…”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. There’s a whole lot of equipment needed for having kids. And we’d probably have to reprogram a lot of things to be kid friendly.”
“Although I suppose the main thing they’d need is other kids—you know, to play with.”
“Yeah,” I said. “You’d have to make sure that other people were having children as well. You wouldn’t want to raise them on their own. Can you imagine?”
All of a sudden, I realised I could hear a quiet ringing sound. I frowned and looked at June.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Can you hear that?”
“Um…Yes, what is it?”
“I think…” I looked around and saw my outersuit draped over a chair near the airlock. I walked over to it and realised a call was coming in. I quickly slid the legs on and pushed my arms through the back of the suit, then tipped the helmet up and the visor down. I could immediately see it was a call coming from Tony.
“Tony, it’s me. Sorry I wasn’t—”
“We’re in trouble,” he interrupted, speaking quickly and breathing hard.
“What is it?” I asked, and felt the blood drain from my face.
“Vivian slipped. She caught the side of her suit on a rock. It ripped right open, total depressurisation. I’m holding the suit together, but it’s not airtight. I think she’s starting to lose consciousness.”
“Hell,” I said. “Where are you? Are you near the hovee? You need to get to the emergency kit.”
“Shit. I don’t know. It’s a fair way. Fuck.”
“Listen, Tony. You don’t have time. Just hold it tight as best you can, pick her up, and run to the hovee.”
“Okay, I’m going.”
“Patch through your suit cam,” I said.
“’Kay,” he replied.
An image opened on the inside of my visor and I could see what Tony could see. He was carrying Vivian in his arms, one hand crimping the rip in the side of the suit, the other cradling her body. He was bounding across the rocks and dust in great leaps. Every time he landed, I thought he was going to trip and spill forward, but somehow he stayed upright and managed to leap forward again. I could see the hovee rapidly approaching.
“Slow down, Tony!” I yelled. “You’re gonna overshoot it!”
I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped, then I realised it was June.
“What is it?” she asked.
I tipped the visor back briefly and said, “Vivian’s suit is ripped. They’re in trouble. He’s going back to the hovee.”
Then I tipped the visor back down and saw Tony skid to a halt beside the hovee, the dust swirling up and around.
“Fuck!” he said as he changed direction and approached the hovee.
“Calm down, Tony,” I said. “The emergency kit is under the dash, either side. Pull it down from the straps and open it up.”
I watched as he placed Vivian in the hovee seat, switched hands to try to hold the tear with his left hand, and desperately pulled at the emergency box under the dash. On the third tug, it came out. He then quickly flipped the lid back.
“Just tape it,” I said.
Buried at the bottom of the box was a roll of duct tape. He let go of the tear and a final puff of air deflated out of the suit. Vivian was not getting any oxygen now. Tony fumbled with the tape with his gloved hands, desperately trying to lift the end.
“Tony, slow down. Calm down,” I said. “Use the scissors to scrape up the end.”
He grabbed the scissors and, after some desperate scraping, managed to pull up the end. He quickly placed it over the rip and laid out a long line of tape, mostly missing the rip. He tried to rip the tape with his hands but couldn’t get a grip, so he grabbed the scissors again and cut it off. The second piece of tape went mostly over the tear, and the third sealed it. Vivian’s suit gradually re-inflated as he placed another couple of pieces over the top.
“Okay, Tony,” I said. “I think you’ve done it. It’s holding. Now strap her in and come back.”
He quickly tipped her feet into the hovee, knocking the contents of the emergency kit all over the floor. He then pulled the straps over her and fastened the buckle. He pulled himself straight over the hovee, not bothering to go around. He took off manually, ignoring the usual pre-flight checks, and accelerated hard toward the outpost.
“Viv?” said Tony. “Is that you? Can you hear me?”
He looked over and I could see Vivian moving slightly as the hovee turned.
“Is she conscious?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” said Tony.
I wondered how long she had been without oxygen.
28. A BIG SECRET
“Tony,” I said. “I think you just saved her life. Now slow down—you’re gonna crash into something.”
I tipped my visor back and could see June’s face was riddled with worry.
“They’re on the way back. I’m gonna go out and meet them. Grab the oxygen mask from the med kit and wait for us in the airlock.”
I went outside just in time to see Tony skidding the hovee down onto the landing pad. I rushed over to Vivian’s side and unbuckled her.
“Tony, is that you?” I heard Vivian ask in a quiet, shaky voice.
“It’s Mike,” I said as Tony appeared beside me, looking over my shoulder.
“Oh, thank God. I’m here, Viv,” said Tony. “You’re gonna be okay.”
“Tony patched y
our suit and brought you back,” I said as we lifted her out. Tony then picked her up in his arms and walked into the airlock.
June was waiting inside with the oxygen mask and bottle. We tipped Vivian’s visor and helmet back and saw that she was incredibly pale. June pushed the mask onto Vivian’s mouth and said, “Breathe.”
We all stood in the airlock for a few minutes—Tony holding Vivian in his arms, and June holding the mask over Vivian’s mouth. The colour gradually returned to Vivian’s face and she pushed the mask away.
“That stuff is awesome,” said Vivian, “but I’m okay now. I’m just cold. Let’s go inside. I can walk.”
She climbed down from Tony’s arms and we went inside.
“My God,” said June. “What happened?”
“She was on a big rock when it tipped over,” said Tony, “and she fell off. Her side caught on a sharp edge and it sliced straight through her outersuit. They’re supposed to be tougher than that. I pinched it, carried her back to the hovee and taped it up.”
“Not before I blacked out,” said Vivian.
We were all silent for a moment.
“Should we head back to the colony?” June asked me.
“If Vivian would like to…” I replied, raising my eyebrows at Vivian.
“No. I want to stay.”
“We have spare suits,” I said, “so we’ll be fine for another couple of nights. It probably means no more searching for dinosaurs, though.”
“Don’t worry,” said Vivian. “I wouldn’t do it now if you paid me.”
“I’m sorry, Vivian,” said Tony.
“No,” she replied. “It’s not your fault. It was fun—just a little too dangerous for me.”
We could see the lines of tape across the side of her suit, and there was a smudge of blood around the tear.
“Vivian, we need to look at your side,” said June.
“Okay,” she replied, “but I’m fine now. I’m just glad to be alive.”
*
We had an early night and a slow morning the next day. Tony and I decided to go out for a joyride in the hovee and we flew much further than we had the previous day.
We had no set path, so Tony just flew down and across the valley, to the other side. The rocky cliffs flashed past. Tony flew up the mouth of one of the smaller canyons and didn’t slow down. We swerved from side to side, not always knowing what was around the next bend. We gradually climbed as the canyon narrowed and eventually popped out at the top, rising straight up into the air.