“It means I'm on your side, whether you believe me or not. I need you to trust me.”
Pia's face became calm, and she swiped the tears off defiantly. "Stay the hell out of my chip, asshole."
Chapter 5
After two days of protests and arguments, a plan was finally agreed upon. With Cererian gravity being so weak, an initial kick off the surface could replace a sustained engine burn. To everyone's great relief, no explosions were required. The engineers devised a collection of piston tubes which they welded to the hull all around its base. When triggered, the pistons would drive meter long rods down against the ground. To ensure that the pistons didn't just dig into the ground, iron plates were anchored beneath each tube.
Once all thirty tubes were charged and linked for simultaneous firing, Miller gave the word for launch prep. Everyone settled into G netting and chipped into their data streams. Everything was well within safe limits for the life support systems, so Pia signaled she was a go for the jump.
Pia found herself longing for ground beneath her feet. Whenever she felt nervous, the softness of soil on her bare feet calmed her mind. Now in the confines of metal and plastic she felt completely adrift. She closed her eyes and felt soft blades of grass brushing her toes. With the help of her chip she conjured up vivid memories and made them seem real. Cool wet grass at dawn. Walking barefoot through the forest undergrowth.
Her focus snapped back as Vineland finished his final checks. Miller took his moment to be the center of attention. “Alright people, time is not on our side. Let's get this done so we can start mining. Go for launch, Colonel.”
Vineland merely glanced at Miller before returning to his work. Thirty awkward seconds later he said, “Thank you, Commander. Engaging pistons now.
Pia braced herself for an initial slam into the netting, but nothing happened. She looked over at Theo and Lara, and they both seemed equally confused. Against her better wishes her eyes shot to Zee, who was working as if everything happened as planned. “Are we…?” she asked no one in particular.
Sarah came to her rescue by projecting a holo wall with an outside camera. “We're up.”
Pia stared at the video and didn't notice much at first, but then Ahuna seemed to be shrinking steadily into the background.
“Solid lift, speed at ten meters per second vertical, forty lateral,” Vineland announced.
Without an engine blast, the launch was more of a jump, but with the extremely low gravity that jump was enough to send them flying. If not for Zee’s drones, Cerex might not land for months, stranded in orbit with no fuel to maneuver. Zee seemed intensely aware of his role and was openly sweating as he made minor adjustments to the thrust of particular drones.
Most of the crew had nothing to do, and yet for the next three hours of flight they had to stay in their nets. Gabe was the first to break the tension.
“So no inflight meal? Peanuts?”
“Shut up,” Theo grumbled, his hulking mass resting uncomfortably like a huge caterpillar stuck on a spider web, “you're making me hungry.” Everyone relaxed a bit watching Theo squirm.
The initial jump could barely have gone any better, with Cerex only having to correct course by two degrees. The thrusters slowed momentum until just enough remained to provide a gentle rainbow arc ending at Occator. The terrain began getting more rugged and cratered as they went. Cerex had to skim the four kilometer high southeastern rim, then slow to a vertical descent inside the crater.
“Let's put her down in the northwest quadrant,” Vineland decided, “gives us the most gradual drop.”
Coburn suddenly lifted his head above his netting. “What’s our path through Occator?”
"Dead center almost," Zee said proudly, "we had a perfect jump.”
“There's such a thing as too perfect, you know?”
“What's your point, Geoff? I'm kinda busy here.”
“My point is Cerealia Facula,” he said heatedly, “the haze.” No one seemed to have a clue what he was talking about so he added, “CereSat tracked consistent haze caused by outgassing, with a density reaching…”
His next words were cut off by an intense flash coming from all directions, followed by a brief but violent shaking of the entire ship. All crew went to work assessing damages.
Zee reported first, “no response from the drones...wait, some are coming back online.”
“Life support has us losing air down on tech deck. Must have a breach, tiny based on air loss rate, but definitely there,” Pia said out loud as she read the data herself.
Miller looked frantic, his hair roughed up by his gyrations in the netting. “Where’s the attack coming from? Who has eyes on any ships?” He was nearly screaming out questions as rapidly as he thought of them. “McKinnon, swing us around and return fire!”
“We're less than five minutes from landing, there's no room to maneuver,” Vineland objected.
“There's no maneuvering, period, full stop,” Zee clarified. “Only seven drones are functioning and able to slow us down. We’re gonna hit hard.”
Everyone fell silent as they processed what that meant, then resumed their feverish pace of mostly useless data checks. Theo glanced at the flight holo and his heart dropped down through his stomach.
“Screw the gods, we're spinning,” Theo said.
“Eloquent as always,” Zee responded, “but yeah, I'm trying to figure out which part of Cerex is gonna impact.”
Miller demanded answers. "If it was an attack, where are the follow up strikes? What the hell is going on here?!”
Coburn was bracing as if he expected a crash at any moment, but pried his eyes open following Miller’s outburst. “We're not under any attack, Commander. It was the goddamn haze.”
“Start making a whole lot more sense in a hurry, Geoff, I don't have time for this.”
“The haze over Cerealia Facula," Coburn went on, "it had tons of free hydrogen ions. We just flew dozens of pilot lights through a gas leak and blew ourselves up. The only thing that stopped us from being obliterated was the super low density of the atmosphere.”
Zee was desperately trying to stop the spin so impact would happen where he chose, but he was clearly angry. “How was that not brought up at any meetings? Come down at this descent angle, slow at this rate, and oh yeah, don't fly over this spot or you'll blow us all up? Unbelievable!”
Vineland stepped in to regain control. “Zee! Get us stable if you can. Everyone else is going into pod lockdown in ten seconds. Try to relax while the pod system does its thing. We have just over a minute until impact, so there's no time for debate. Pods engaging now.”
Pia felt cold gel fragments spraying against her body from all angles, pressing her suit uncomfortably against her skin as it locked every fold and crease in place. In a few seconds the gel ceased and she lay there encased in a thick shell of what looked like blue jello. Only her face remained uncovered by what her chip informed her was a hybrid of ballistic shock absorbing gel and a rudimentary life support system.
The outer layer stiffened to Kevlar strength to protect against shrapnel, while the rest used advanced medical nanotech to treat injuries. The netting separated smoothly, with half the straps tightening to grip the hard outer gel. The other half widened to become a solid graphene egg with the inner netting anchored at various points. All this was done in under thirty seconds, a thoroughly impressive and disconcerting feat.
It was hard to concentrate on anything other than getting egged, but Pia noticed the ship had nearly stopped spinning. Just then time ran out.
The crash began with a thunder of slow motion violence. The ship hit going a mere 20 km/hr, but its massive bulk wouldn't give up without a fight. The bottom hull furrowed deeply into a surface untouched for billions of years, causing the helm to lift up dozens of meters in counterpoint. It reached nearly a 45 degree tilt before letting out a terrifyingly loud creak which had Pia convinced the ship was going to break in half. But sure and steady, the helm dropped again until it lan
ded hard on the scarred path Cerex had created.
Chapter 6
Pia was afraid to check the data streams, but from the lack of panic in the crew who called out she knew the ship was at least intact.
“Way better than the diamond mountain, boss,” Theo groaned.
Barton was first to snap back into the lead. “Systems show a slightly enlarged crack in tech deck but it seems to be in a section that's buried at the moment, so that buys us some time. Ship integrity is holding, no other signs of breach. Cerex is a tough bitch,” she smiled proudly, “initiating pod release on your command, Colonel.”
“Go ahead, Sarah, get everyone out.”
The reversal began immediately on Pia’s egg, with the inner shell pulling back out and taking most of the jello mold off with it. Pia sank downwards and was gently caught by a handful of support straps, which held her briefly until the egg cracked itself open. The others were all being dropped out of their respective eggs as well.
Zee had been thrown hard against the central spine anchor point after keeping his netting loose enough to project all of his holo screens. His left arm hung limp at his side, but as he sat there he was furiously issuing commands to his microdrones about the ship.
Vineland had kept his netting loose as well; the webbing had left his face with long scrape marks. In his element, his body moved in the rapid but relaxed bursts of someone trained to react without panic.
“Let’s get out and work this problem, people!” Vineland leapt from egg to egg in the low G, issuing commands. “Good work on the landing, Zee. Full status check with visual confirmation on every inch of Cerex.”
A distracted grunt of approval was all Zee managed, but he hadn't stopped working since before the piston launch.
“Coburn, take the Commander and reestablish a link with Natocorps," Vineland ordered. Let them know we're still alive.”
Miller was a bit dazed. Coburn had to grab hold of the Commander’s uniform, lift him from his harness, and guide him towards the unfolding Comm Center.
“Sarah," Vineland said, "I need you with Hixley, Santos, and Koeniger. You and Koeniger suit up and take a rover to patch Cerex from the outside. Hixley, Santos, you two head to Tech Hab C and seal us up from inside.”
As Sarah and the STEMs went off through the ship, Vineland turned to Pia.
“Secure life support and assess any soft damages. But take a look at Zee’s arm first.” With that he was off, heading to inspect each deck himself.
Pia never thought of herself as a doctor, but she had spent her mandatory service year trained as a field medic. She hadn't treated more than the occasional broken bone or stitches in over a decade, but the work always excited her. Muscle memory kicked in as she bounded in Ceres gravity across the tilted room to Zee's pod.
To her surprise, he was using both hands again, with his left arm ever so slightly tucked inward. “It's nothing. Don't worry about it, Pia, I just gave it a good smack. It's feeling better already.
She rolled her eyes and smirked. “You damn men. Just give me your arm, dummy.” She held her own hand out and flapped her long fingers inwards demanding his arm. “Give it here, let me look.”
He realized she wasn't going anywhere, so he lifted his arm up to her. He winced a little as Pia gently rotated his arm in various ways. Then suddenly she stopped and her moss green eyes shot him a serious glare.
“Your ulna is broken, Zee. Not a hairline either, this one is partially displaced. How are you even using it right now?”
“It’s fine, it doesn't even hurt much,” he protested.
“Miller’s gonna lose his shit if I don't get your arm set.”
“Why, because he cares about us so much? If we can't stabilize this ship, we lose all mission capability. The arm is broken, I get it. The adrenaline must be keeping me going, but until it stops working, I keep working.”
“I'm heading to the garden, and then I AM coming back to set this arm, understood? You won't be much good to us if you can't keep flailing your arms around like always.”
He didn't even look up as she turned and bounded back towards the exit, but before she closed the hatch he heard her yell back.
“Be careful with the arm!”
Zee grinned. He quickly opened a private line through their chips in response.
“As you wish, princesse.”
Pia worked her way back into the forest core through a mess unleashed by their crash landing. With Cerex laying on its side there was no artificial gravity, making her little kingdom more of an odd donut shaped tunnel. She opened the airlock only after rechecking with her chip that the area was intact. Once at the top of the entrance ladder, Pia peeked out to survey the damage.
The recent impact made her forest look like it had been through a hurricane. She glanced upwards again at the glowing Spine which shone like a greenhouse light, and suddenly had her plan. Debris blocked most of the normal pathways, so she would try for the Spine instead. Ten meters was an easy hop in Cererian gravity.
'Now I really do look like a superhero,' she thought as she flew up and grabbed hold of a narrow ladder running the length of the Spine. The damage looked less severe from this height. Pia climbed along the ladder until she neared the end of the tube.
Just then Zee came through loud on the shipwide comm. 'Hold onto your butts, people. We're going vertical.'
Before Pia could respond, the ship began vibrating. Her perch on the Spine tilted until she was clinging to it like Spiderman. Outside the hull Zee’s tiny drones had all been rebooted and were teamed up to get Cerex upright again.
“Holy shit,” Pia spit out, as she recoiled from the view. She found herself staring down a hundred meter chasm with metal platforms interspersed along the way. It was like a tree house built up the sides of a giant redwood, with the Spine as the glowing central trunk. The simple addition of vertical gravity had transformed her paradise into a claustrophobic mess. Down at the newly defined ground floor Pia saw a great pile up of debris.
As she planned how to get safely from platform to platform, her ears pricked up. 'Some wiring must have shorted out', she thought as the noise grew louder. Then as the first bee flew by her nose, she realized what had happened. From her vantage point she could only see two of the ten hives onboard, but one of them had its inner slats knocked open and bees were streaming out.
The emergency lighting of the Spine acted like their daily sunrise beacon, and soon dozens of bees were buzzing nearby. One landed on her face causing her to instinctively swat at it, momentarily releasing her handholds. In the hasty maneuver she accidentally pushed off enough that she couldn't regain her grip.
The gravity was slight, and Pia might have easily jumped her way carefully down the tube. But without a big enough kick off the Spine, she began to drift downwards. At least the bees were no longer an issue, with most already crawling along their artificial beacon at the central Spine.
Slowly, imperceptibly at first, she picked up speed. While trying desperately not to look down, Pia stared at the lush greenery of her garden which receded faster by the second. Panic took hold of her body, making her limbs rigid and her throat tight.
'Ready to set my arm, Pia?' Zee asked casually in her head.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck,' was all she could respond. Zee was silent for a moment, then returned.
'Just ran the numbers, you’re gonna be ok at impact...I think you’ll be fine.'
All she managed was a low groan, staring downwards and kicking her legs wildly as the floor approached. 'You THINK? I'm going to punch a hole through the floor in a few seconds!'
'23 seconds by my count,' Zee said seriously, 'no more than 8 m/s at impact.'
'Don't you fucking say impact again, you hear me?'
'You got this, Pia, gonna be a rough landing, but doable. Can you reach anything to grab and slow yourself?'
'Stop talking now,' she barked out, instinct kicking in. She focused down on the point where her feet would hit, where there was a jumbled mess of
tools and branches. She quickly formed a plan. 'If I extend my legs to absorb the initial hit, maybe I can push sideways into a roll.'
The instant her feet made contact, they promptly slid sideways as soil underneath gave way. Her planned tuck and roll transformed into a full length body slam as her head smacked the steel floor, knocking her out.
'Pia, are you ok? Pia! Pia?' Blackness settled comfortably over her as she felt the pleasing coolness of soil on her face.
What new dangers and discoveries are in store for Pia at Occator crater? Will the crew all survive this strange new world? Find out now in Occator Unleashed, the next installment in the Mission Cerex saga.
Occator Unleashed
Mission Cerex: Book Three
David Colello
Chapter 1
The last thing Pia remembered was falling, and the ache throughout her entire body let her know the landing must have been rough. As her eyes slowly opened, she scanned her surroundings and found she was no longer in her forest hab. She didn't recognize the room at first. It was much too clean to be a tech’s, but not nearly nice enough to be Commander Miller’s, thank God. Then she saw Barton’s freckled face and red hair hovering nearby.
Sara's expression softened after seeing Pia awake. "You’ve really got to stop falling off shit, ok? I'm rusty as hell at working these autodoc kits.” She motioned for Pia to stay laying down. “Rest, you got some time, and a concussion by the looks of it. Couple hairline fractures in your ribs. Sprained your ankle something fierce. I thought the least I could do is give you my bunk for a bit."
Pia began to speak but nothing came out. She collected her thoughts and concentrated before trying again.
“Th….thank you, Sara,” she finally managed to say, “make sure my cast is cooler than Zee’s.”
“Zee was just in checking up on you. He looked pretty torn up about you getting hurt. Said he should’ve made sure everyone was ready for the shift. Didn't you get the comm alerts?”
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