Diamond Moon

by B K Gallagher

  Mara shook her head. “We should wait and talk to Julian and Luis about it. No sense in scaring anyone,” Mara said.

  Hanson became frustrated. “Johan was right about you. You’ll say whatever it takes to get your way. You want to stay. No matter what kind of danger we are in, you just want to stay.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? I don’t want to end up in that fissure any more than you do,” she said, shaking her head. “I need to find out more about what is down there first.”

  “You’re risking the lives of people you don’t even know, and you’re doing it without their knowledge.”

  Mara remained silent. Her expression changed as she considered his point.

  “Fine,” she said. She reached for her comm-link. “Hab one, come in, this is Mara. Come in Hab One,” she said into the comm-link.

  “Mara, this is Dr. Aman. How are you two doing?” he asked.

  “Hanson built us a shelter to ride out the radiation storm. We’ll stay here until we get the clear from you,” she told him.

  “I’m glad to hear that, Mara,” Dr. Aman said.

  “Aman, I need to report the findings of our trip to the fissure,” Mara said.

  “Copy that. What did you find?”

  “We saw the fissure for ourselves. It’s very large. The ice around it is extremely unstable. We nearly fell into it. The fissure appears to be headed your way. We can’t be certain, but the cracking appears to be very recent. It’s likely from the recent quakes,” she said.

  “Ok, that’s good work, Mara,” Dr. Aman stated.

  She hesitated to say anything else, but Hanson looked at her, expecting her to say more about the fissure.

  “Dr. Aman, there is more. Hanson wants us to warn the Zephyr about the fissure. Go ahead and tell Johan. The miners deserve to know how dangerous it is.” She looked at Hanson with a disappointed look on her face when she said the words.

  Dr. Aman was silent for a second. “Very well, Mara. I’ll talk to Johan and let him know.”

  “Don’t let them leave, Dr. Aman,” she asked.

  “You know that is not up to us. We’re still preparing for launch ourselves.”

  Mara gasped into the radio and turned it off.

  Hanson appeared satisfied. She turned to him as she nestled into the cave-like crevice he had carved for them. “Are you going to let them leave?” she asked. “We need the electricity from your reactor. We need water and fuel from your electrolysis system. There is still so much work to do.”

  Hanson ignored her. He rested his head on the ice, and his helmet tilted his head just right for him to relax.

  “Do you even care?” she asked him. “You’ve seen what is at stake. You’ve seen what is down there. Why won’t you just acknowledge that there may be something special going on here?”

  Hanson continued to ignore her.

  “You can’t just leave,” she said. “You saw the creature I was dissecting before the quake, didn’t you?” she asked.

  Hanson turned further away, still trying to avoid a confrontation.

  She persisted. “Didn’t you see what happened?”

  “Looked like a shrimp. So… What about it?” he said.

  “Didn’t you see what it could do? The way it could heal itself? It healed itself before I could even finish my work.” She knew she was grasping at straws. “What if we could learn something from them? Help people who are hurt? Maybe we could help mining teams like yours,” she suggested. “We could help with your injuries,” she continued, hoping it would get his attention.

  Hanson finally turned toward her. “You don’t seriously expect me to believe you are out here doing this to help asteroid miners, do you?”

  “Absolutely,” Mara said. “I would do it to help anybody.” She was content that she had gained his attention. “That’s exactly why I am here,” she continued. “Discoveries like this should make things better for everyone,” she said. “You never know what you are going to find or how it could change things.”

  Hanson looked perplexed. He remained still and quiet while he contemplated what Mara was telling him. He turned away from her once more, not saying anything.

  A slightly satisfied smile formed on Mara’s lips. “Just keep the rig here,” she said. “You can’t let Johan leave us.”

  Hanson had turned on his side, but she knew he was still listening to her. His body shifted one more time on the cold ice like he was finished talking.

  Mara was unsatisfied, but she knew she had planted a seed in Hanson’s mind. The thought that she had gotten at least a little something through to him helped her feel a little better. She turned and settled on the ice several times before finding a comfortable spot. She expected it would still be difficult to get any rest.

  She drew a deep breath and did her best to relax in the small chamber with him. She resorted to sitting partially up against the back wall of the shelter, her arms crossed in frustration, trying to relax, but she was too stirred up with the recent discussion. “This storm couldn’t be over soon enough,” she thought to herself, and she tried to sleep.

  CHAPTER 12

  Sol 14; Mission time - 22:38

  Hanson shifted his weight next to Mara as he lay waiting for the storm to end. They were crammed into the small hollow shelter made of ice much closer than they would have liked. Neither of them could sleep. His non-stop movement had annoyed Mara the entire time.

  Mara was getting frequent feedback from Dr. Aman on the status of the radiation readings, but unfortunately it was not good news. Radiation was still well into dangerous levels and had lasted for hours.

  Hanson tossed again. It was the bio-suit. The suit was not intended to be worn this long, nor slept in. Fortunately, Hanson had thought to bring the oxygen canisters. They had already made the exchanges on their suits for new tanks. They had enough oxygen to last another half a mission sol. Any longer and someone would have to come and rescue them with a transport.

  The cold was becoming more dangerous than the radiation. It penetrated their suits where they lay on the ice. Had there been one available, Hanson had been telling himself he would have grabbed a blanket or tarp out of the rover to lay on, shielding them from the ice. But there wasn’t one in the rover, even if he had thought about it, which he hadn’t.

  The ice they were resting on was in the minus two-hundred degree Celsius range. The heat required to keep them warm was rapidly wearing out the battery packs.

  “I bet this reminds you of Antarctica, doesn’t it?” Hanson said.

  Mara was slow to answer, not feeling the need to rush any conversation. “It was a bit warmer in Antarctica than this,” she responded. “Didn’t have bio-suits to keep us warm though.”

  Hanson took a deep breath. “Batteries are getting low. This isn’t exactly the way I saw myself going out,” he said.

  “Funny, I had pictured you being sucked out of an airlock, or shot with a grappling hook,” she joked.

  Hanson laughed. “You may be more right than you know…”

  “I’ll make a run for the rover before I freeze to death here,” she told him. “You think we could get back to the Hab in under 10 minutes?” she asked. She began looking around the available space in the shelter to make better use of it, trying to get some distance from him, but there were only inches to spare.

  “As long as there are no fissures to avoid, maybe,” Hanson said. “We would have to find a lucky stretch of smooth ice to get us back that quick.”

  Hanson rested his head back down on the ice. He shifted his weight again, pressing himself up against Mara.

  She shifted in response. “Really?” she asked. She tried the comm-link again. “Hab One, this is Mara. Come in Hab One,” she said into her headset.

  “Mara, this is Dr. Aman. Radiation is still very high. Do not leave your shelter,” he told her.

/>   “Just checking,” she told him. She took another deep breath.

  Hanson felt her shift her weight around on the ice. He seemed amused at her discomfort. “Remember, you volunteered for this,” he said.

  “I didn’t agree to be stuffed in an iceberg with you,” Mara replied as she moved around again, more frustrated than ever.

  Hanson didn’t rush responding to her. “I guess it’s worth it to get all the credit for finding life on another planet,” he finally said.

  “It’s a moon,” Mara corrected.

  Hanson raised his head to check and make sure she was being serious. He deemed she was not joking around. He raised his eyebrows but otherwise didn’t say anything, then returned his head, content not to be bothered by it.

  “And I don’t want all the credit,” she continued.

  “Oh c’mon,” Hanson continued. “You were there at the party. All the toasts and newspapers and magazines and videos. I guess it’s worth several years of your life for something like that. It’s an honor, you know,” he continued, his gaze was fixed on the icy ceiling just above him. “You’ll be a hero when you get back. In the history books, forever. It’s an honorable distinction.”

  “That’s not why I am here. I just want to study the life down there,” she told him. “There is something amazing going on down there, and I want to know more about it.” She took a breath. “Those animals are smart. They react in a personable way. You can see it in their behavior. They’re like nothing I’ve studied,” she said.

  “Well, enjoy the attention while you can. Look at me. I’m a ruff-neck. Always will be a ruff-neck. I’ll probably die out here. I’ll be buried on an asteroid like my friends.” Hanson sighed and nestled himself in place on the ice with his hands fixed across his chest.

  “You don’t really expect to die out here, do you?” Mara asked.

  “It’s more likely than not,” he answered dismissively. “Did you know your body doesn’t decompose out here? There’s no oxygen, no bacteria… You just… dry out I guess. Forever.”

  “I didn’t know that, and I especially didn’t want to at the moment either,” Mara responded.

  Hanson ran his glove over the cool white ice over his head, examining it, as if he was looking through it, seeing something deeper in the grains of frozen water. He took a minute to come back from his thoughts.

  “You know, I’d kill to make a difference in the world like that. To be in the history books. I’d take care of my men, make sure they were taken care of.” His eyes looked up to meet Mara’s, gauging her reaction.

  Mara sat up to him. “Then why don’t you? If you don’t like it here, you can leave. You have a choice to do anything you want,” she told him.

  Hanson sat up with her. “I’m not here by choice like you are, Mara,” he said. “I didn’t have a chance to volunteer like you did. And I’m not here for glory and fame,” he continued. He laid back down with his hands over his chest again. “I told you, I have some things to take care of.”

  Mara’s face distorted into a frown when he mentioned the fame he expected she was getting, but she let it pass. There was a brief pause, but she wanted to know more. “What kind of things do you have to take care of? Your crew? You would stay here for them even if you wanted to leave?” she asked.

  “It’s not just the crew. I do want to look after them, but let’s just say I have financial obligations,” he said. His eyes were staring blankly at the ceiling just inches above his face.

  Mara thought she had a good idea of what financial obligations meant to a man like Hanson. She assumed he’d gambled his savings away, exactly like what she had seen happen with Larue at the rail-gun. She thought about how Johan had taken that young man’s piece of platinum. “It was probably a year’s wages, maybe more,” she thought. And he’d gambled it away on a stupid game, on one stupid bet.

  She grew angry. She imagined how Johan tempted the boys to gamble their wages away. She thought about how he would entice them to play by setting up games and access to liquor. He’d put the temptation out there for them and then watch as the money came in and young men threw away their hard work. She remembered him taking house percentages on the bets too. She thought about what a racket it was having men trapped on the rig, with nothing else to do, temptation handy, and buckets full of precious metals laying around. She grew incredulous thinking about it; about the scheme. She needed to say something.

  “Johan shouldn’t be letting those boys gamble their hard-earned money,” she finally said.

  Hanson heard her, and sat up quickly. “That’s just a game, Mara, for fun. No harm in it,” he said.

  “Yeah, until someone ends up owing their life savings to him,” she snapped.

  There was a brief pause. Hanson thought about her comment, not sure what she was getting at. “I’m not here because of gambling,” he told her. He laid back down on the ice, trying to relax.

  Mara was on her side looking at him, propped on her elbow. Her curiosity had been piqued. She watched him try to relax, but he was shifting around more than ever, more uncomfortable than ever. She waited for him to tell her more, and she hoped to not have to ask, but he remained silent, knowingly tormenting her with his secret.

  She finally asked him. “What financial obligations do you have that would keep you out here, if it’s not gambling?”

  Hanson sat back up again, and she saw a flash of contented satisfaction that he had tempted her to ask the question. He remained silent as he situated himself on the cold ice. He still wasn’t sure he wanted to say anything, but then he sighed and spoke rather frankly.

  “There was an accident,” he said. His eyes raised to hers as he finished.

  “I cost Astromine a large settlement — damaged one of their crawlers. I’ve been assigned to Johan until I pay off the debt. Johan determines when I leave, or if I do.”

  Mara was immediately angry for him. “That’s ridiculous. What kind of accident?” she asked. “There are laws against…”

  Hanson raised his hand before she could finish. “Regulations don’t do much good out here,” he said. “Astromine has me listed as a debtor and a criminal. They have more jurisdiction out here than anybody. If I tried to leave, or go back to Earth, I’d be caught and sent to work until the debt is paid off. That’s just how things work out here.”

  Mara was stunned silent. She was realizing that she had no idea what the conditions were really like in the mining industry. It had struck her as horribly unjust. Her face contorted in anger. “There are people forced to work out here?” she asked. Her expression was disgusted and her voice angry.

  “Some of us,” Hanson answered.

  “How has this gone unreported?” she asked him. “You’ve been out here twelve years? How old were you? When your accident happened?” she asked.

  “Twenty. I was just twenty years old. Had been on the job about a year,” he said. He paused and sifted some icy powder at his side. With nothing better to do he kept telling the story.

  “I signed on to make some quick money for my little brother. He was a good pilot. I wanted to help him get onto the professional circuit, buy him some top-line equipment. He was ready to go up against the best. I helped train him, you know. But, he wasn’t old enough to join Astromine, and there weren’t any other jobs for a sixteen-year-old, so being the older one, I signed up to make a few credits for him. I left on the Zephyr with Johan for a short trip, and it was the last time I ever saw Jimmy. He’s nearly thirty now.”

  Hanson shook his head when he heard himself say it. “Can you believe that?” he said, forgetting who he was talking to. “I probably wouldn’t even recognize him.” He laid back down on the ice and folded his hands over his chest again.

  “That’s not right,” Mara said to him. “Nobody should be made to pay off a debt like that. There are other ways,” she began saying, not even finishing her senten
ce.

  Hanson laid still next to her. She could see in his body language that he had resigned himself to a life out here, laying down like he was surrendering. He had accepted this fate, hopeless to think of anything else. Then he took another deep breath and began to tell her more.

  “Johan told me I’d get my own rig after this mission. All I need to do is finish this and I’m set at the next colony. That’s all I need to do; finish the mission. One more time… I get out of this and I’m golden.”

  “But what about your brother; your family on Earth?” Mara asked.

  “Jimmy is all I have, and he’s doing fine. At least the last I heard. I’m not sure he wants to see me. My reputation after the accident hasn’t been the best. I really let him down.”

  “Your reputation? What kind of accident?” Mara asked.

  Hanson let out a scoff of air, as if he could erase the memory with it. He didn’t answer right away, choosing his words carefully. Mara began to wonder if he’d say anything, but then she finally heard him.

  “It was on Pallas… We sent a few of my buddies into a vein below the surface. We had hit some pockets of gas before. We knew about it, but I noticed one of my friends was carrying a live burner as they were going in. I didn’t even have time to warn them. They were all killed in the explosion,” he said. Then he turned to look at Mara for her reaction.

  “Why is that your fault?” she asked. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Hanson nodded at her, but he wasn’t finished. “The second I noticed the burner I moved my crawler between the vein and a large group of miners standing outside… you know, to shield them from the blast. The explosion blew through the cab and I spent two weeks in med, but I shielded the miners. I saved ’em… I was the only one hurt outside the mine.”

  Mara felt very confused. She was having a hard time understanding why any of this would be pinned on him. She waited for him to say more, and he turned to her on the ice.