Arrival (14 page)

“Because there are no walls!”

“What do you need walls for?”

“I don’t know, protection?”

“Okay, that’s understandable. So you don’t feel safe out here, right?”

“Right,” she admitted.

“And you felt safe back on the ship, right?”

“Yes,” she nodded.

She was beginning to calm down. Tony knew he was going in the right direction. “Well, think of this planet as one big spaceship.”

“What?”

“Yeah, just pretend like you’re back on the Daedalus, and you’re in the garden bay, going for a stroll to unwind after a long day in the genetics lab.”

“This isn’t the garden bay, Tony,” Laura said skeptically, raising her eyebrow.

“Yes, it is. When you think about it, this is
all
one big spaceship.”

“Tony, you’re being silly. You don’t expect me to think of this planet as one big spaceship, do you?”

“Why not? The atmosphere forms its walls, its ecosystem is its life-support. It’s just one big spaceship, and it happens to be in a stable orbit around the Tau Ceti star. You’re just standing in one of the ship’s
gigantic
garden decks.”

Laura opened her eyes and looked at him.
He is a dear boy
, she thought. He was trying awfully hard to make her feel better. And she
was
feeling a little better. Not because she was thinking about the planet as one big spaceship, but because this kind-hearted boy, young enough to be her son, was trying so hard to
help
her feel better.

His words did have some truth to them. The planet had been here for millions of years. Living creatures had been born, lived out their lives, and eventually died here. She was probably safer here than she was hurtling through the galaxy on a seventy-year-old spaceship. Suddenly, she felt rather silly. She closed her eyes again and took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She lifted her head up and opened her eyes, looking out bravely across the land for the first time. Sherwood Forest was beautiful, sprawling out not ten meters in front of her. She could hear the waves crashing beyond the forest. Strange bird-like creatures soared overhead. She could hear the buzzing of insects and the cries of distant animals as they went about their daily activities. She still felt uneasy in such wide open spaces, and was unsure that she could continue.

Laura closed her eyes again, breathing deeply as she listened. There was a symphony of life all around her. Her lungs filled with clean and crisp air each time she inhaled. After a few moments, she opened her eyes again and looked up. The sky was brilliant and pure, and stretched from the mountains on either side, and to the tips of the forest in front of her. She could easily imagine the brilliant blue dome over the gardens on the Daedalus, their edges painted with the very same mountains. She lowered her eyes and surveyed the area briefly.
What a marvelous collection of specimens I will find here,
she thought.

Tony let go of her hands and took a step back, letting her stand on her own. “Are you going to be all right?” he asked.

“Yes,” she assured him, a genuine smile warming her face. “I’ll be fine, thanks.” She lifted the data pad up and pointed herself in the right direction. “This way,” she instructed, as she dropped the data pad to hang at her side and began marching off carefully toward the forest.

* * *

“Nine hundred ninety-nine… One thousand!” Sara counted off, stopping dead in her tracks. “That’s one kilometer, plant the first stake right here,” she commanded, pointing to the ground at her feet.

Mac dropped the bag of sensor stakes to the ground and bent over, panting.

“Are you
tired
already?” Sara challenged.

“Yeah, a little,” Mac panted.

“Really? I’m not tired at all.” She was lying. She wasn’t winded, but she was tired, mostly in her legs and calves. But she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a jab at him.

Mac looked at her out of the corner of his eye with resentment. “Try carrying that bag for awhile,” Mac suggested.

“Well,” Sara mocked, “I thought a big strong man like you wouldn’t have any problem carrying such a small bag.”

Mac just looked at the ground and smiled, she was baiting him, and he knew it.

“Maybe you should’ve spent a little more time on the treadmill and less time on the resistance machines?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Mac admitted, too out of breath to argue. He reached down and pulled the first stake out of the bag on the ground. Holding the stake with both hands at the top of the shaft just below the scanner head, Mac raised it up as high as he could, then drove it into the ground with a loud grunt. Sara couldn’t tell if it was the grunt or the force with which the stake pierced the ground that startled her, but she stepped back.

The ground was still soft from last night’s rain, and the stake drove at least half a meter into the ground. Mac adjusted the stake using the built-in leveling bubbles, ensuring that the stake was standing perfectly straight. Next, he folded out the driving handles, positioned himself with his feet on either side of the stake, and pushed down on the driving handles with all his might, twisting the stake clockwise to screw it into the ground.

Once the stake was at least one meter into the ground, Mac folded up the handles again and extended the scanner head until it was at eye level. “It’s all yours,” he announced, stepping back from the stake.

Sara looked stunned. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ve taken care of the hard part. Now it’s your turn,” Mac announced as he plopped down on the ground next to the bag of stakes to rest.

“Very well,” she agreed, stepping up to the sensor head. She examined the device for a moment, pretending to inspect it, as if she were following some sort of protocol.

Mac pulled out his water bottle and took a long drink as he watched Sara try to figure out the scanner head. “Problem?” he asked.

“No problem,” Sara lied. She flipped a switch on the control panel, hoping it was the activation switch. The sensor head let out a loud, beeping alarm, and she quickly switched it off. She tried pushing a few other buttons and then switching on the device, but still the same annoying alarm sounded. “Shit,” she grumbled under her breath.

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Mac asked skeptically, already knowing the answer.

“Of course… Well, no, not exactly,” she finally admitted. She turned around and looked at Mac. He was lying on his left side, propped up on his elbow. He was holding his water bottle in his hand and looking very smug.

“God, I hate you!” Sara exclaimed in frustration.

Mac threw back his head and let out a hearty laugh. It was actually an attractive laugh, Sara thought. Not his usual smug snicker, more genuine and warm. “That’s no way to ask for help, Sara,” he chuckled as he hopped to his feet.

Sara stepped back from the stake to give Mac room.

“Stay here, you might as well learn how to do this.”

Sara hesitantly moved close enough to see what he was doing.

“First, check the frequency number on the display against the one printed on the side, they’ve gotta match,” Mac explained, pointing at the numbers. “Next use the mode button, and the increase and decrease keys to set the various parameters. That’s why it was beeping at you, because you hadn’t set those yet.”

The stake was a little high for Sara, so she stood on her tip-toes to see, placing her left hand on Mac’s right bicep to steady herself.

“First set the scanner deployment pattern, one-kilometer radius, ten-degree increments. The unit will automatically set its range based on the deployment pattern you select.” Mac advanced to the next parameter. “Then select the control mode, individual, chain, auto, or remote. We’ll use the default so that it can be controlled from the ship.”

Sara was surprised that Mac actually sounded intelligent as he explained the apparatus to her.

“Then we set the scan mode, sweep, pulse or wave,” he continued, selecting sweep. “And finally, we set the report mode, periodic or alert.”

“I understand periodic, but what’s alert mode?”

“It means it only reports when it senses something within its scan area. That’s what we’ll use.”

“If we want it reset to something else, do we have to come back out here to reset it?”

“No, but only because we selected ‘remote’ as the control mode.” Mac finished setting the scanner, closing the cover over the buttons. “Okay, we’re all set,” he announced as he flipped the switch. “Voila!”

The light on the scanner head display began to flash every two seconds.

“One down, eighteen more to go,” Mac said, stepping back from the scanner head.

Sara stepped back from the scanner’s stake, watching the light flash. “So this will tell us if there’s something moving?”

“Yup,” Mac assured her as he picked up his bag of stakes. “As long as it’s within range.”

“How far is that?”

“It’s set for a half-a-click.”

“Click?”

“Kilometer. Once all the scanners are in place, we’ll have a monitored area of a click and a half around our camp. Nothing will be able to sneak up without us knowing,” Mac explained as he slung the bag over his shoulder.

“Pretty slick little device,” Sara commented.

“Yup,” Mac agreed as he stepped up next to her. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Sara agreed.

“Okay, set that thing for a circular course, and let’s head out. I don’t wanna be late for lunch!”

“Of course not,” Sara laughed.

* * *

Tony and Laura marched along through the tall grass, their breathing a little heavier than expected. Laura kept peeking at the data pad every other minute or so, making sure they were staying on a circular course.

“So, you’re not married?” Laura asked in between breaths, even though she knew he wasn’t.

“Nope.”

“Got a girlfriend back on the ship?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“No reason, why do you ask?”

“Just seems strange, a young, good looking guy like you. I figured you’d already be paired off.”

“Nope,” Tony answered bluntly as he trudged through the wet grass. “I guess they didn’t want to pair us off before we left…to make it easier on us, I suppose.”

“Us?”

“Mac and I. He hasn’t been paired off yet either.”

“I just figured it was because he’s such a jerk.”

“Oh, Mac’s not that bad,” Tony defended. “He just likes to see people react, that’s all.”

“I see,” Laura stated as she stopped to look at the data pad again.

“Why so many questions?”

“Just curious,” Laura said casually, continuing on. “We’ve got about another twenty meters to go.”

Tony pulled out his canteen and took a drink. Laura was going somewhere with this line of questioning, he just wasn’t sure where.

“So, how old are you?” Laura asked.

“Twenty-one. And you?”

“Not twenty-one,” Laura laughed.

Tony was getting curious, and decided to take a stab in the dark. “Well, do you have a daughter you wanna set me up with?”

Laura stopped in her tracks and spun around to face Tony. “I’m not that old!”

“That’s not what I meant,” he assured her quickly.

Laura continued walking. After a few moments of silence, she decided she had danced around the issue long enough. “So, Tony,” she started. “Have you given much thought to who you would like to be paired off with?”

“No, not really. I mean, there are a few girls back on the ship I have thought about, but no one seriously.”

“What about Adia?” Laura boldly asked.

“Adia?” Tony responded, surprised.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed how she looks at you.”

Tony was shocked. He hadn’t noticed. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No, it’s true. I’ve seen her.”

“Really?”

“I’m sure she is quite fond of you,” Laura continued. “I think you would make a cute couple.”

“I don’t know,” Tony said dismissively, trying to play down his interest. “I’ve always pictured myself with someone a little more…independent. Someone a little more outgoing. I mean, Adia seems so reserved.”

“She’s not as reserved as you think. I know her mother quite well. Adia’s just intimidated by the rest of us. She was thrown into the mix at the last minute, remember. And she doesn’t have the training the rest of us have.”

“I guess it would be a little intimidating,” he admitted.

“You’ve never thought about her? As a partner, I mean?” Laura stopped and glanced at the data pad. Noticing he had not responded, she turned around to look at him. “So you have!” Laura exclaimed, noticing Tony’s complexion turning red.

“Well, maybe once or twice.”

“Good. Just don’t overlook her, that’s all I’m saying.” Laura looked at the data pad again. “This should be good enough. Let’s plant another stake.”

Tony pulled the bag off his shoulder, removed a stake, and dropped the bag to the ground. “Adia, huh?” he said to himself as he positioned the stake for insertion.
Mission accomplished,
Laura thought to herself.

* * *

“The power bus for the radar set is fried,” Frank reported as he approached Lynn. “It’ll take months to repair, if it even can be repaired.”

Lynn pushed the access panel closed and turned the latch to lock it in place. “Could you reroute it, maybe use a redundant bus from another system?”

“Maybe, but I’d have to find one that matched perfectly,” Frank sighed. “Not likely.” He sat down on the side of the hill to rest, drinking from his water bottle.

Lynn continued scanning the fuel lines she was inspecting. “You know, Frank. This morning made me realize something.”

“What’s that?”

“I could probably use your help in making decisions now and then.” It wasn’t an easy thing for Lynn to admit. But she knew it was true. She didn’t really want this command, but she was afraid that if she handed it over to someone else, she would be sabotaging her career.

“I’d be happy to help whenever possible,” Frank assured her.

“Thanks.”

Frank took another drink of water. “Mind some advice, as long as you’re asking?”

“Not at all,” Lynn assured him, a little surprised. She hadn’t meant immediately.

“In the future, it might be a good idea not to assign Mac and Sara together on the same detail.”

“Why?”

“She’s been complaining about Mac the entire trip. Jack was putting her off, hoping that once we got down to the surface, the extra elbow room would help cool things down.”

“Really? I didn’t know,” Lynn admitted. “I’ll try to remember that,” she promised.

“Well,” Frank said as he rose back to his feet. “I’ve gotta get back to work if I’m gonna finish these inspections by lunch time.”

“Okay.” Lynn watched as Frank walked back around the tail of the LRV. She had never thought about possible personal conflicts between crew members before. It only served to remind her of how many things she didn’t know about command.

* * *

After realizing he would not be able to repair the transponder, Jack had set his mind to constructing some sort of base camp instead. He had constructed a canopy by draping one of the escape pod’s parachutes over the top of the capsule, and securing it to the ground with stakes and rocks. The other chutes he used for ground cover, anchoring them with rocks.

Will had stripped all of the flight couches from the floor of the pod, leaving it bare. Using only the seat backs, he constructed two makeshift beds on the floor of the pod, covering them with the extra sleeping bags to cover seams between the cushions.