Arrival (20 page)

“There’s more. We have no idea how well the pod is holding up down there. If it’s leaking, the contents could become damaged. If it fills completely, we may never get it off the bottom.”

“What’s in there?”

“All of my agricultural equipment and supplies,” Sara said. “And all of the seed stock we need to plant in order to feed the colonists when they arrive, not to mention feed ourselves while we wait for them to arrive.”

“Assuming they make it here,” Lynn mumbled.

“Lynn,” Maria scolded.

Lynn looked at her defensively. “Hey, I have to consider all contingencies here. There
is
a reason they sent both sexes on this mission.”

Sara turned to look seriously at Lynn. “Exposure to seawater would not be good for that stuff. The equipment might survive, but if the seed stock is exposed to that water, it could be ruined. The whole ag project would be over.”

“Okay, then we obviously can’t wait for the tides to go out,” Lynn agreed. “Get started on the suits, Frank. Mac and Tony can help you.”

“Besides me,” Tony asked, “who else is going?”

“It has to be me,” Frank admitted. “The pod’s floatation collar should’ve activated as well. If we’re going to have to trouble-shoot the pod’s systems, I’m the logical choice.”

“Very well, Frank and Tony are the ones to go.”

“Let’s get to work,” Frank announced as they all rose from the dinner table. “We’ll work right here.” Frank grabbed Tony’s arm and pulled him to the side, away from the others. “You do know how to swim, right?”

“Like I said… A little.”

* * *

The next day, Frank and Tony sat on the back bumper of the ATUV as Sara and Mac lowered their helmets down over their heads, locking them in place.

“How do you copy me?” Lynn asked over the comm-set.

“
Loud and clear,
” Frank assured.

“Tony?”

“
Ditto,
” Tony responded as he gave her a thumbs-up.

Maria came strolling up from the water line carrying a test kit. “The water seems pretty normal,” she announced. “A little saltier than Earth’s oceans and with a few elements the test kit cannot identify, but otherwise it’s fairly safe. I wouldn’t drink it, though.”

“
We don’t plan to,
” Frank replied as Sara and Laura began stuffing rocks into the men’s utility pockets to act as ballast against the buoyancy of their pressurized suits.

“These rocks don’t seem very heavy,” Laura observed as she finished stuffing them into Tony’s pockets.

“
Holy crap,
” Tony said as he struggled to get up. “
Try standing up with them.
”

“Safety lines are ready,” Mac announced. “Here, you better take this,” he said, lashing his sheathed knife to Frank’s utility belt.

“Are you ready?” Lynn asked over the comm-set.

“
No, but let’s get it over with,
” Frank insisted as he attempted to rise. Mac grabbed Frank’s left arm and helped him to his feet. The suit was unusually heavy and difficult to move in, having been designed for use in zero-gravity conditions. And the extra rocks they had tied to their belts and stuffed in their pockets to counter their buoyancy only made it worse.

After helping both of them to their feet, with one person on each side, they assisted Frank and Tony down to the water’s edge. Behind them, Lynn carried the two floats Frank had rigged to carry their comm-set transmitters on the water’s surface. Connected by a thirty-meter comm-line to their helmets, the floats would enable them to communicate with each other as well as with Lynn on the shore, since their comm-sets would not work underwater.

Taking one careful step at a time, the group made their way down to the water. The ocean was calm, the waves seemingly mild as they lapped gently at the sandy shore. Wading into the water to assist Frank and Tony was more frightening than they had anticipated. The water was cold, and the underlying currents were stronger than they appeared on the surface. The fact that none of them knew how to swim and had never even
seen
an ocean didn’t help.

Wading in thigh deep, Sara and Laura quickly tied the safety lines to Frank and Tony, and then retreated to shore. Mac handed the tow cable from the ATUV’s winch to Tony, and patted him on the helmet to wish him luck.

Tony looked over at Frank. “
Are you sure this is going to work?
” He asked through the comm-set.

“
I was five minutes ago,
” Frank admitted as he took his first step forward. He reached down to his chest control pack and added a little pressure to his suit, causing it to balloon slightly.

“
Are you as nervous as I am?
” Tony asked.

“
Let’s see, dry mouth, palpitations, clammy skin. Yup, I think so.
” Frank looked at Tony, then back at the sea.

Lynn and the others were now back at the ATUV, wondering why Frank and Tony hadn’t gone in yet. Only Lynn was wearing a comm-set and could hear the chatter between the two of them.

“What are they doing?” Maria asked.

“They’re, uh, talking over their entry strategy,” Lynn answered unconvincingly.

“Looks more like they’re having second thoughts,” Laura observed.

“Man up and get wet, you chickens!” Mac taunted from the shore, even though they couldn’t hear him through their helmets.

“Mac!” Maria scolded.

“They can’t hear me,” Mac defended.

Just then, Tony put his right arm up in the air and raised his middle finger. Lynn and Sara looked puzzled, as they looked up to see what Tony was pointing at.

“What does that mean?” Lynn asked.

“It means he heard him,” Maria answered as she smiled at Laura and smacked Mac in the chest with the back of her hand.

“Wuss!” Mac jeered.

Frank and Tony started to move forward, taking small and careful steps. Gradually they shrunk away until only their helmets were above the water. Maria had Frank’s safety line and Laura had Tony’s, while Mac was paying out slack on the tow cable.

Frank’s breathing became rapid and shallow as the waterline crept up his faceplate. And then with one more step, the pastels of green and brown transformed into brilliant fluorescence in every imaginable color. “Oh my God!” Frank exclaimed, his breathing becoming erratic.

“
What is it, Frank?
” Lynn inquired, “
What’s wrong?
”

“It’s incredible!” Frank gasped. “You wouldn’t believe this! The colors!” Frank looked around excitedly. Everywhere around him were vividly-colored plants, swaying in the currents. The sound of his suit’s ventilation fans became more prominent after he had submerged. It was strangely quiet under the surface, so much so that Frank became aware of his own breathing, forcing him to try to exert some sort of control over his respiratory patterns.

“The visibility is excellent,” Frank announced as he looked over at Tony to his right.

“How are you doing, Tony?”

“
Fine!
” he answered joyfully over the comms. “
Man, this is unbelievable!
”

“You said it!”

“
Guys?”
Lynn interrupted. “
Maria wants to know if your suit temps are holding steady.
”

“Tell mother Maria to stop worrying!” Frank teased. “We’re doing great, right Tony?”

“
You bet!
”

“
Okay, guys. Just keep your minds on the task at hand.
” Lynn urged.

“Party pooper.”

“
And remember, those are spacesuits, not dive suits. So take it slow and easy.
”

“
Frank, I just saw a huge fish over there! It was red and gray and yellow, and it had long fins on it! It had to be at least a meter long!
”

“Hey, all I wanna know is did it have any teeth? And if so, did it look hungry?” Frank laughed.

They continued on their trek across the ocean floor. After about fifty meters, the sand began to give way to coral and rock. Another fifty meters, and the rocks grew into mountains and canyons.

“
Hey Frankie! If we don’t find that pod pretty soon, we’re gonna run out of rope,
” Tony warned. “
We’re getting pretty deep here. We may run out of tether for our comm-buoys as well.
”

“This terrain is getting a little difficult to move across.” Frank stopped and looked around, scanning from left to right. He tilted backward slightly looking up at the surface of the water. “The visibility is getting worse the deeper we go.” Frank looked at the markings on his comm-buoy tether. “We’re about fifteen meters down right now. We must be losing the light.”

“
How the hell are we going to see anything?
”

“
Lynn, about how far out are we?
” Frank asked.

Lynn went over to the towline and checked the markings. There were colored bands painted onto the rope every meter. A blue ring indicated one meter, red was five, yellow: ten and white: fifty. The set of lines nearest the water were one white, four yellow, a red and two blues.

“Frank? You’re about ninety-seven meters out.”

“It should be only a few meters away,” Frank said as he looked about. “We should be able to see it from here.”

“
Try moving laterally, maybe something is blocking your view,
” Lynn suggested.

“Good idea. Tony, you move right, I’ll move left.”

“
Copy.
”

Frank sidestepped slowly to the left, continuously scanning for the missing pod.

“
I’ve got it!
” Tony cried. “
Two o’clock, about twenty meters.
” Frank moved quickly over to Tony.

“Where? I don’t see it!”

“
Over there…wait for it. There’s something moving in the water in front of the light.
”

Frank waited, staring through the silent, murky water. Then it came… Two flashes before it disappeared again. Then another two flashes. “That’s it! We see the pod’s strobe! We’re moving toward it now.”

Moving across the ocean floor was more difficult now. They had to pick their course through canyons between the reefs. And they had to think about their tethers as well, to avoid getting them caught amongst the rocky coral.

Five more minutes and they were there. The pod was sitting against the side of a coral shelf at a slight angle. It had struck the shelf on the way down, breaking away large portions of coral that now lay scattered. The main chutes were drifting harmlessly in the current behind and above it.

“Tony, go topside and disconnect the main chutes. We don’t need the drag. I’m gonna open up the control panel and see if I can activate the collar.”

“
I’m on it.
” Tony climbed up the side of the pod, using the ladder rungs built into the hatch faces. It was tough going, especially while pulling a tow cable behind him. He had to hook the cable onto one of the rungs, use both hands to pull himself up one step, and then move the cable up to the next rung.

Meanwhile, Frank removed the retaining screws from the control access panel on the other side of the pod. Once he got the plate off, he punched in the code on the keypad to gain control of the system. After his command code was accepted, he scrolled through the short command list until he found the command to inflate the collar. Good thing they made it waterproof.

“I’m ready down here, Tony. How are you doing up there?”

Tony had just finished detaching the last of the main chute lines. “
Standby,
” he said as he pulled the tow cable up to one of the chute line hook-eyes. “
I’m hooking the cable up now.
”

Frank watched from below as Tony slipped the hook around the eye, and spun the locking collar down tight.

“
Okay,
” Tony announced as he gave the cable a test tug. “
The cable is secure. I’m coming down.
” Tony moved down off the top of the pod, making his way down the side. He jumped the last meter, floating down gently to the seafloor. “
Okay, I’m down.
”

Frank depressed the enter button. There was a hiss of pressurized gas as the cover plates blew off the lower edge of the capsule just above the heat shield seam. Slowly, the collar began to extrude from the sides of the pod as it inflated. As it neared full inflation, the capsule began to right itself. Dust floated up as it was pushed off the seabed. Then, the pod rose upward, leveling off about three meters above the seafloor.

“Would you look at that!” Frank boasted. “Lynn! It worked! The pod is floating a few meters off the deck! Start reeling her in!”

“Why isn’t it going all the way to the surface?” Lynn wondered.

“
I’m not sure,
” Frank admitted over the comms. “
The floatation collar may not be fully inflated.
”

“Can you fix it?”

“
No chance.
” Frank insisted. “
This will have to do. It’s high enough to clear the rocks, at least.
”

Lynn turned to Mac. “Start the winch, Mac. Slow and easy.”

Mac started the winch, slowly winding the cable in. The nose of the ATUV sat down slightly as the cable became taut.

As the cable came up off the seafloor, the pod began to tip over. It stopped at a forty-five-degree tilt as the buoyancy of the righting collar fought the cable’s attempt to pull it onto its side.

The ATUV’s nose sank deeper as the weight of the pod pulled against it. The winch complained at the pod’s mass, whining loudly as the motor labored under the stress.

The pod moved slowly across the seafloor as Frank and Tony walked along beside it, each with a hand against the side of the collar, gently guiding it over the peaks of the mountains lining the seafloor.

“Keep taking up the slack on our safety lines as we come in!” Frank instructed. “I don’t want to get tangled up in them as we go.”

As they walked in, Tony heard a strange sound coming from somewhere inside his suit. It was a
squishing
sound. That’s when he noticed. “Uh, Frank? My feet are wet. I think I’ve got a leak somewhere.”