Arrival (22 page)

“Hurry Tony,” Lynn prayed aloud.

“Lynn! Get the ATUV down here!” Maria ordered. She knew that both of them were going to be hypothermic. There were a few jackets in the ATUV, but that wouldn’t be enough, they were going to have to get them back to the ship as quickly as possible and warm them up.

Tony swam as best he could remember, but he was tired, and he was also cold. He finally reached Frank and tried to grab him, but Frank was thrashing about like a madman and Tony had to push him away to keep from being pulled under himself. He turned to look at the shore. It was only fifteen meters away.

Tony waved his arm at the shore. Lynn saw him as she pulled the ATUV to a stop by the others, and immediately understood. “Give me Tony’s comm-buoy!” she ordered as she picked up his safety line.

Mac grabbed the buoy and handed it to Lynn. She quickly disconnected the tether and then tied the free-end of Tony’s safety line. “Can you reach him with this?” she asked Mac as she handed him the buoy.

“Watch me,” Mac replied confidently. He ran out into the water until he was thigh-deep himself, while Lynn prepared the rest of the line to keep it from becoming tangled. Mac heaved the buoy, sending it directly over Tony’s head.

The buoy splashed down a few meters past Tony. He grabbed it and tied it around his chest. Then he fought through Frank’s thrashing and grabbed him around his chest with his left arm. He held him tight, begging him to calm down. Then he waved his other arm at Lynn.

Maria, Laura and Sara pulled on his line, quickly drawing them in.

As they pulled Tony and Frank to shore, Lynn released the clamps holding the winch to the ATUV’s bumper, and dropped it to the sand.

Finally, Tony was close enough to stand up in the surf. He managed to drag Frank two steps toward the beach before a wave knocked them back down. Mac and Sara went running out into the water to help drag them to shore and into the ATUV. Maria and Lynn climbed into the back of the vehicle along with Tony and Frank as Mac jumped behind the wheel.

“Secure that pod as best you can!” Lynn ordered as they started to pull away. “I’ll send Mac back to pick you up!”

In the back of the ATUV, Maria and Lynn wrapped Frank and Tony in jackets, trying to keep them warm. Both of them were shivering and blue.

“Did you get the pod?” Frank asked through his chattering teeth.

“Yes, Frank,” Lynn answered. “We got it.”

* * *

Day 5;

This was my third day spent wandering the general area again, collecting rock samples here and there. I have determined that this valley was cut over countless centuries by the river that lay at its base. However, I suspect that some of the surrounding peaks were formed by geological or volcanic forces long before the river did its damage. All in all, it was quite an enjoyable day. I probably won’t have another day to myself for quite some time.

It seems Jack has determined our position relative to where he suspects the LRV would have landed. Unfortunately, it is at least four hundred kilometers away. Jack calculates that we should be able to hike there in about twenty days. Perhaps all those hours you forced me to spend on the treadmill will be of use after all.

Surprisingly enough, when faced with my reluctance to accompany him, Jack offered a compromise, agreeing to return to our camp if the journey becomes too difficult. But I fear history would judge me harshly if I chose not to strive forward and try to rejoin the others. However, despite Jack’s celestial navigation capabilities and his orbital surface scans, I worry that we may become hopelessly lost in the vast wilderness of this world.

I’m not sure if it’s my fear of history’s judgment or my own scientific curiosity that compels me to follow him on this journey, although I suspect it is the latter. The opportunity to study the geology of this planet over a broader area excites me.

Tomorrow, we will spend our day preparing for our journey, departing the following day. As rustic and dirty as our little camp is, I will miss its familiarity. But I suppose, if I can get used to this, I can get used to anything.

* * *

Lynn paced back and forth across the wardroom deck, unable to join the others in their evening meal. They had made it back to camp just before sunset. Frank had lost consciousness along the way, so Mac and Tony had carried him directly to the med-lab as soon as the vehicle had come to a stop.

Fortunately, Tony only needed a hot shower and a little rest. But Maria had been in the med-lab with Frank for over an hour, and Lynn was really beginning to worry.

“Lynn,” Laura begged. “Would you please sit down and eat something?”

“No, thanks, I’m not hungry.”

“Well, would you at least stop pacing? You’re making me nervous. Besides, you’re going to wear a hole in the deck.”

Lynn didn’t notice Laura’s attempt at humor or her request.

“If he just would’ve listened to me,” Lynn lamented. “He wouldn’t be in there now.”

“He’ll be alright.

The door to the med-lab opened, and Maria stepped out, closing the door behind her.

Lynn immediately stopped pacing and looked at Maria. “How’s he doing?”

“His vitals are stable and his labs look good so far,” Maria explained, sitting down.

“What do you mean, so far?” Sara asked.

“He swallowed a lot of seawater, maybe even aspirated a little as well.”

“Yeah, but it’s just water, right?” Mac wondered, coming in from his workout in the next compartment to hear Maria’s report.

“Like I said before, there are a few elements in that seawater the test kit couldn’t identify. I don’t even know if they were biological or not. Besides, aspiration alone can be a very serious problem.”

“What could that do to him?” Lynn asked.

“Disease, systemic infections, electrolyte problems…any number of things.”

“When will we know?” Laura questioned.

“I should have a better idea by morning.”

“Is he awake?” Lynn asked.

“Yes, but he’s very weak right now. His core temp is still below normal, but it’s coming up slowly.”

“Can I see him?”

Maria looked at Lynn. She knew that it would be better to let Frank rest. But she could tell by the look in Lynn’s eyes that she needed to see him. Command was a terrible burden, especially for someone so young. “Okay. But only for a few minutes. He needs to rest.”

“Thanks,” Lynn said as she headed for the med-lab.

Lynn opened the door slowly, entering the room as carefully and quietly as possible. Frank was lying on the exam table in the middle of the compartment, covered by a special blanket that circulated a heated fluid through it. A clear, plastic oxygen mask covered his face, fogging and clearing with each breath. He had an intravenous line leading from his left arm to a bag of fluid hanging from a bracket attached to the ceiling. The tube was fed through an IV pump that controlled the flow of fluid to his body.

Lynn stood there for a moment, silent in the dimly lit compartment, afraid to say anything. A painful memory from her childhood came to her. She was probably five or six years old. Her mother was dying from low-gravity deterioration syndrome, an incurable disease at the time. Against her wishes, her father had forced her and her older brother to come to their dying mother’s bedside to say goodbye. Her mother had stroked her hair and made her promise to be a good girl, to take care of her father and brother, and to speak of her often to her own children on the new world.

The new world.
It was a glorious dream promised to all of the children of her generation, the last generation to be born and raised aboard the Daedalus.

Some new world this is turning out to be
, she thought bitterly as she approached the bed. Frank’s eyes opened slowly as she drew near. His skin was pale, his hand frighteningly cold in her own.

“Hey, Lynni,” he whispered from behind the mask.

“Hey,” Lynn fought back the urge to cry. His voice was so weak. None of his booming laughter or humorous quips.

“How’s the pod?”

“It’s fine. It’s sitting on the beach, safe and sound. Mac and Tony will tow it back in the morning.”

“Sorry.”

“For what?”

“I should’ve listened when you told me to come back in.”

“You’re right, you should’ve.”

Frank coughed. The indicators on his monitoring panel jumped a bit, worrying her. But they settled back down after he finished.

“Maybe I’ll listen better next time,” he promised.

“You bet your ass, you will.” Lynn squeezed his hand. “You just get better, you big lummox. We can’t afford to lose anyone else.”

“Aw, jeez, Lynni. I didn’t know you cared.”

“Who am I going to get to keep this ship running if you check out?”

Frank tried to laugh, but it only turned into a cough. “Maybe Sara?” he joked.

Same old, Frank,
Lynn thought. “Get some rest, Frankie. That’s an order,” she added firmly.

“Yes, ma’am,” he obeyed, closing his eyes.

Lynn placed his hand back at his side and backed away before turning to leave the room. He would be alright. Somehow, she just knew it. He had to be.

She stepped out of the med-lab and quietly closed the door before pausing to lean against it for a moment. She could feel the others in the next compartment, waiting for her to return, waiting for some sign of reassurance that their friend would be all right. So she wiped the tears from her eyes, gathered her composure, and confidently strode back into the wardroom to tell her crew what they needed to hear.

CHAPTER SEVEN

By the next morning, Frank’s condition had improved. His body temperature was back to normal, his labs remained unremarkable throughout the night, and he showed no signs of any complications from the aspiration of so much seawater. After breakfast, Maria, dumbfounded by his remarkable recovery, had reluctantly allowed him to get up and move about the habitat. But it would be a few days before he was back to full strength again.

Without Frank to lead a second work team, their productivity was cut in half. Lynn decided to make the best of the situation by getting everyone involved in one project.

The better part of the day was spent erecting the communications tower, one piece at a time. By sundown, the tower was fully functional, increasing their communications range, and adding a full meteorological sensor package that would help them document and eventually forecast the weather.

By the time they sat down to dinner, Frank was strong enough to join them. The conversation was light and cheerful, mostly good-natured teasing about Frank and Tony’s adventures in the ocean.

It seemed that they were settling into a routine. As usual, Mac and Tony spent their evening on the resistance gym, while Sara pedaled away for hours on the exer-cycle. Adia had become a member of the movie-watching group along with Maria and Laura. Lynn preferred to spend her evenings reviewing the mission protocols, trying to plan ahead as much as possible. They were still missing two of their crew, and although they now had two fewer planets to survey, and therefore, far more time to complete their mission, the loss of manpower and scientific expertise would make things difficult.

* * *

Day 6;

We spent the better part of today preparing for our upcoming journey. Jack was quite proud of his makeshift backpack design. He used the straps from a couple of daypacks and a flight seatback as a frame, then attached several small survival kit bags along either side, with one large bag down the center. With the addition of a waist belt fashioned from a few more daypack straps, the packs were ready. In fact, they were actually comfortable to wear, even with a bedroll and tent kit tied across the bottom. Despite how comfortable they felt, Jack warned that they would not feel as comfortable after a few days of lugging them through the wilderness.

I managed to work a few improvements of my own into the design. I added headrest pads, that I pulled from the flight seats, along the bottom of the pack. Three pads, forming a curve, will place the pack’s weight more squarely on our hips, making us able to comfortably carry even more weight. Jack was so pleased with the idea that he quickly incorporated the hip pads into his own pack.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to carry everything, although Jack certainly did try. It took us several hours to settle on a packing list, and despite my protests, we were forced to sacrifice scientific capabilities in favor of the basic needs of life.

Due to the weight, we have decided we must take our chances with the unknown elements detected in all the water samples taken thus far on this world. It is a risk we would have been forced to take, even if we remained here, as we would eventually run out of clean water either way.

After deciding on an initial walk/rest schedule of one hour of walking followed by fifteen minutes rest, Jack has begun mapping out the first leg of our journey. We are fortunate that the first few days of our journey will be across relatively flat terrain, as we are far from having fully recovered from four months in microgravity.

* * *

“Has anyone seen Frank?” Lynn asked.

“Last I saw, he was headed forward,” Maria answered, her eyes glued to the video screen.

“Thanks.” Lynn turned in the direction Maria indicated, wondering what Frank was up to.
He should be resting,
she thought. It did appear that Frank was nearly back to his old self, but despite his miraculous recovery, Maria still wanted him to take it easy for a few days, just to be safe. She was worried there might be some residual side effects due to the unknown elements in the water that he had swallowed when he had almost drowned. And those side effects could take days, or even weeks to manifest themselves.

Lynn made her way forward between the science and medical bays and into the passenger corridor. As she was about to head down the stairs to the lower deck—which they had nicknamed the storm porch—she noticed movement in the cockpit. “Frank?”

“In here.”

“What are you doing?” she asked as she entered the LRV’s cockpit.

“Just tinkering around a little.” Frank had removed one whole panel from the aft bulkhead where most of the radar and engineering electronics were housed.

“Shouldn’t you be resting?”

“I’ve had enough resting,” he complained. “I
need
something to
do
.”

“So you thought you’d tear apart the cockpit?”

“I was just checking out the radar gear, thought maybe I could figure out a way to fix it.”

Lynn knew what he was up to. He had refused to accept his friend’s death, and although he had apparently set it aside in lieu of more immediate concerns, she knew his denial would eventually catch up to him.

“You know,” Frank offered, sensing what Lynn was about to say, “when I was out there, under the water, no suit to protect me, struggling to reach the surface before my breath ran out… I felt
alone
.” He looked directly at her for a moment. “I mean
really
alone, Lynn. Just me against the environment.” He looked away, his gaze focused out the windows momentarily before he resumed his work. “I just needed something to do for awhile,” he explained, obviously not wanting to speak further on the subject.

Lynn watched him work for a minute, contemplating what he had felt out in the cold sea. She had never known what it felt like to be truly alone. All of her life, there were at least twenty people within range of her voice. No one on board the Daedalus had ever been alone, short of taking a shower or using the bathroom. She tried to guess what he was thinking. He was afraid that Jack was out there somewhere, feeling as alone as Frank had felt in that water. And despite the overwhelming odds against Jack and Will having gotten out of the Icarus alive, Frank didn’t want the idea of Jack’s loneliness on his conscience. Frank really should have been resting, but his
mind
needed time to recover as
well
as his body. If that meant letting him tinker with the fried radar system for a little while, then that was fine. He would return to his work when he was ready. His conscience wouldn’t allow him to do otherwise.

* * *

Although he felt fine, Frank took advantage of another day of rest ordered by Maria to spend more time working on the radar set.

The rest of the team spent the day erecting structures packed in the cargo pods, the first of which was the ag-hut. Like the rest of the structures they were to build, the ag-hut was a kit of carbon-fiber poles and a hollow, plastic shell. After assembling the carbon-fiber arches and cross pieces, the hollow, plastic shell was fitted over the frame and secured in place. Individual chambers within the hollow shell were filled with a special, pressurized foam that would quickly cure into a hardened, porous fill that served as insulation while offering additional rigidity. Unlike the other utility-huts, sections of the ag-hut’s roof were covered with only a clear, plastic film to allow natural sunlight into the greenhouse areas of the lab. The ag-hut itself was divided into several sections to allow various agricultural experiments to be conducted in controlled growing environments. Within this structure, it would be Sara’s responsibility to determine which Earth crops would grow in Cetian soil and atmosphere, and which ones would grow in Earth soil and Cetian atmosphere. She would also grow crops to sustain themselves and the other colonists for the first few months of their lives on the new world, assuming they chose to settle on Tau Ceti Five.

They were able to assemble and skin-out two additional smaller utility-huts before sundown. They would outfit the huts tomorrow, giving the crew a tool shed and storage shack by the day’s end. After that, they would only have the bio-lab, genetics-lab, and two more utility-huts to construct before their little encampment would be complete. After that, Mac and Tony would be able to concentrate their efforts on establishing a safe water supply and a waste recycling facility. They would not be setting up the main power plant for some time. Since the LRV would not be flight-capable before the Daedalus arrived, they would simply use the reactors on the LRV as their main source of energy for the encampment.

Frank had continued his work on the radar set into the late evening until Lynn had practically ordered him to turn in for the night. Despite Frank’s best efforts, he and Lynn both knew that he would not be able to repair the radar set without spare parts. But Maria had advised Lynn that it was therapeutic for Frank, so she had decided to leave it alone for now.

* * *

Day 7;

Early this morning, we loaded everything we could not take with us back into the escape pod and closed it up. Jack said he wanted to protect everything in case we were forced to abandon our journey and return to camp. I was surprised, and I will admit, somewhat relieved to know that Jack was at least keeping that alternative in mind.

A moment of truth came just before departure. Jack wanted to leave a note behind to direct any would-be rescuers to our course. With no other means about, I was forced to reveal the existence of my journal, and allow Jack to use a blank page from the back. Surprisingly, Jack already knew about my journal as, apparently, did the rest of our crew. Even more surprising was that he did not find the idea of a handwritten journal the slightest bit amusing. Jack had actually complimented the effort, and said that it would undoubtedly become a significant part of Eden history in the future. I admit, I had never considered that possibility. I had always assumed it would remain a family heirloom, continuously handed down from father to son over the decades until the thick journal was filled from cover to cover. The idea of my thoughts and feelings being scrutinized by the masses is a bit frightening, to say the least.

We began our journey by following the same route we had taken a few days earlier when we went down to the river to collect water samples. It was not necessarily the most direct route, but since it was our first attempt at carrying our fully-loaded packs, the route’s familiarity had its advantages.

Following Jack’s schedule, it took us two rest stops to reach the river. It took us half that time previously without the packs. Jack surmised that the river would run downhill and lead us out of the valley and into the flatlands at the base of the hills. After a third rest break, we followed the river’s banks like a trail map all the way down.

After stopping for lunch at the base, we struck out due west across the open plains. Our progress was slowed slightly by the tall grass, until we came across a migratory path that had probably been stamped out by some yet to be seen large animals.

As we hiked across the plain, it seemed as if the mountains completely surrounded us. Ahead of us in the distance there were more hills, with higher mountain ridges on either side. Based on the orbital scans, Jack is confident that our best course lies across those hills, then between the two mountain peaks on either side. The scans showed another river flowing through those hills, with yet another expansion of flatland on their west side. Beyond that, there is another mountain range of considerable altitude that we will have to cross in order to reach the western coastline. Unfortunately, there appears to be no way around it without at least tripling our transit time.

By dusk, we had traveled a mere ten kilometers, a much slower pace than Jack had hoped. Hopefully, as time passes, we will become stronger, and we can make up for lost time.

What neither of us had anticipated are the numerous aches and pains associated with cross-country backpacking. As I write this entry, my muscle cramps and aching joints are so severe that the analgesics we both took more than an hour ago have provided little to no relief. I suspect it will take me some time to find sleep this night, but when I do, it shall be most deep.

* * *

Day 8;

Day two of our journey again found us trudging through the tall grass of the plains. Other than a few dozen varieties of annoying insects and the warmer climate of the lowlands, our travels thus far have been uneventful. Surprisingly, the hiking itself has been nearly as therapeutic as the painkillers we took last night.

In the afternoon, we spotted a large, short-haired animal hiding in the grass along our course. After observing the animal from behind a large rock, we determined that it was an herbivore, thanks to some useful information from the survival guide on Jack’s data pad.

This evening we pitched camp beside a small stream. As we dined on another entree from the dehydrated food supplies, we boiled a few liters of stream water to replenish our stock for the next few days. It is an extra burden to carry several days’ worth of drinkable water on our backs, but we do not want to get dehydrated.

Even though I now know that Jack is aware of my journal, I still prefer to write in private. Admittedly, I find myself avoiding discussing personal matters. Do not think for a moment that because I say it less, that I do not miss you more and more with each passing day.

* * *

The hour is quite late. I was awakened by a noise in the distance. It was a rustling sound in the distant bushes, similar to what I had heard the first night in our crash-site camp. The noise did not wake Jack, so I took it upon myself to investigate… Imagine that? With my light I searched the area in the direction of the noise, but found nothing. I suspect the sound was made by some curious animal, intrigued by our presence, yet too frightened by the campfire to approach for a closer inspection. I’m not sure what I would have done if I had seen the animal. If it were a large animal, one that I would have to defend myself against, would I be able to do so? At Jack’s insistence, I have been wearing my side arm, but I’m still afraid of using it. Nevertheless, I hope I would be brave enough to use it should the need arise. Fortunately, the rustling stopped rather quickly, no doubt because of my searchlight. And so I sit here, listening. It is quite astonishing how quiet it can actually get at night.