Earth's Last Angel (21 page)

The vessel, now sighting the laser beams, begins moving steadily along the invisible lines marking the boundaries, and setting them in place. One 50km thick slice of space is marked, the size and number of asteroids within recorded, and the process is then repeated for the next 50km slice down, until a cube pattern was formed.

‘This is like dot-to-dot, drawing,' Varik comments.

Frances laughs. ‘I've got some crosswords if you're feeling bored.'

Varik shakes his head. ‘Never bored in your company, Frances.'

She smiles and continues watching the monitor. When the vessel has marked its last section, the quadrant is designated number five, correlating with the number of their PV to simplify identification. The beacon, already containing the communication coordinates of PV 005, will only link with that vessel and no other. It is the primary benchmark to work from, and their muster point in an emergency.

‘Grid pattern completed' appears on the monitor. Nolack-1's voice returns with ‘Operation five registered.' Frances recorded the registration manually for extra back up.

She turns to Varik. ‘OK, now we can land this baby.

The crew of PV 005 buckles in ready for the descent into quadrant five. Even the twins are quiet as the prospecting vessel hovers to a gentle landing on the flattest area of the nearest asteroid.

Frances stands, and stretches. ‘OK, that's it for me for a while, guys,' she says. ‘It's all yours.'

Denise laughs. ‘I suppose you're going to laze around the oasis on a deck chair, are you?'

‘Yeah, shame it doesn't have a swimming pool.'

Denise watches Frances and Varik as they leave the flight deck, then turns her attention to the crew. ‘OK, it's time to move,' she says. ‘Anything you want to say first Sofia?'

‘Yes, be alert for ice on the rocks. We will be mainly marking out where the drilling will take place, but keep a lookout for surface ice. It will resemble permafrost, blue green in color, and will be formed like a crust on the rock. If you have any reason for concern out there, contact us immediately.'

‘Right, let's go suit up. AJ, you're with Dave.'

‘And let me guess, I'm with Ivan,' says DJ cheekily.

‘Lucky you're so cute, DJ' says Denise.

He grins. ‘Yeah, I'm the good looking rooster.' He fends off a punch from his brother.

‘OK, enough mucking around you pair,' says Denise. ‘Out to the dock now.'

She watches the two drillers and the trainees leave on the hover buggy, then returns to the flight deck. Thirz is holding Sofia captive with his usual techno talk. Denise watches the buggy seek out the drill site on the screen. The landscape is littered with rocks, some protruding like jagged towers, others flat and close to the ground. She wishes she could be out there.

She jumps when Mondok's face suddenly appears on the screen. ‘Mondok, you scared me.'

‘Geez, I know I haven't had much sleep, but I didn't think I looked that bad.'

Denise hears laughing. ‘Who's that with you?'

‘Tom. He's told me I have to take a break. I just wanted to make sure you all arrived safely first.'

‘That's sweet, Mondok. Now go have your break.'

‘OK, I'm going…catch you soon Denise.'

She smiles but he was gone.

Sofia manages to get away from Thirz's conversation, and joining Denise at the monitor. ‘What's happening?' she asks.

‘Not much,' says Denise, ‘They have begun marking out the grid.'

‘OK that's a good start.'

The ship to ship communications monitor opens and the long face of Ben peers into the flight deck at them ‘Hey, PV buddies, how you all doing?'

‘We're just great… ‘Denise replies warily ‘Is Kenny around?'

‘He's in his quarters at present, do you want me to transfer you?'

‘No, I'll catch up with him next time,' says Denise, ‘so why did you drop in?'

Sofia looks around in surprise. Those last two words were laden in sarcasm. She didn't realize there was so much animosity between them. Still, Ben could be irritating with his loud-mouthed egotistical attitude.

He laughs ‘Just a little healthy competition.'

‘There's no competition Ben, we are all looking for ice as well as minerals.'

‘So, how's my gorgeous geologist?' he asks ignoring Denise.

Sofia shoots him a withering look. ‘I am not your geologist! I belong with PV 005.'

‘You were so much better off here,' he says.

‘We are busy, Ben,' Denise interrupts.

‘OK, going now to friendlier people,' He tunes out.

When the drillers return later that day, the PV came to life, with the twins exchanging stories and Dave and Ivan trying to be heard over the top of them.

‘Some quiet, please!' Denise yells. ‘AJ, DJ, go chill out for a minute.'

‘Ok,' they says and burst from the room into the biosphere.

She turns to Dave, ‘how did it go?' she asks him.

He shakes his head. ‘Marking out went well, but no sign of ice yet.'

‘And was AJ following your instructions?'

Dave smiles, the wrinkles creasing further in his face. ‘That boy is full of questions.' He laughs then. ‘He wanted to know all the nitty gritty of how the rig worked. I told him it was like a giant apple corer, and he didn't know what an apple corer was.'

Denise laughs. ‘Well, they did go out of use over 100 years ago!'

Dave shoots her a look of mock hurt. ‘So, are you saying I'm old?'

‘Let's say you've got a few years up on us,' she says. ‘But you certainly hold your years well.'

He grins ‘That's what Mandy says, too.'

‘She's your wife, so she's biased,' chirps in Ivan.

‘Ivan, how did DJ work out?' asks Denise, quickly.

‘I think I got the evil twin,' he replies.

Denise frowns. ‘There is no such thing as an evil twin, Ivan.'

‘Well, no, what I meant was he's a smart alec, and thinks he can't learn anything from me.'

Denise is guessing that it is more likely a personality clash. She knows Ivan is tough on his trainees, which is something AJ could deal with much better than DJ.

‘Do you think you could handle DJ?' she asks Dave.

He laughs. ‘Bring him on. I was a smart alec know it all, myself l when I was younger. The only difference now is, I do know it all!'

‘Perfect,' says Denise, beaming. ‘They'll swap tomorrow then.'

It is going to be a long three months. Denise wants everything to go as smoothly as possible. She looks up as Sofia enters, followed closely by the twins.

Val stands at the entrance of Murple Bubbles and watches Gene, intent on taking an order. It still surprises him that Gene had chosen to own and run a café, though he supposes there really isn't any other choice for her here on the ship. She looks over at him and motions for him to come in. He dodges some low hanging wind chimes and sits on a chair in the corner.

‘Hello stranger,' she says smiling, sitting down opposite him.

‘Yes, I know, it's been a while.'

‘Two months,' she informs him, ‘but who am I to talk?'

‘I've just been so busy, what with getting the prospecting vessel's out on the survey, and business side of it here.'

Gene waves her hand at him. ‘Don't worry about it. You're here now. What would you like?'

Val smiles, ‘Just some conversation with a beautiful lady.'

Gene laughs. ‘You're as smooth as your son.'

‘Tom? You probably know more about him now than I do.'

Gene sighs. ‘I haven't seen much of him either since Melissa started working as an intern at the medical center.'

‘Melissa is the girl he is going out with?' asks Val.

‘Yes, she was one of my waitresses. Lovely girl.' She gives Val a stern look. ‘Now Val, don't you go organizing their marriage. He's still young.'

Val laughs. ‘You would keep him unmarried forever if it were up to you, Gene, but enough about my son.' He leans back and gazes at her. ‘I want to know all about you and what you've been up to since we last met.'

Gene smiles and shakes her head. ‘I don't think you've got that much free time right now, Val.'

Denise sits on her lazy chair near the pond and gazes into the water. She has been spending whatever time she could with her fish, Tiger, and her meditation. It had been two months and there's still no sign of ice. The crew is starting to be short with each other, while the other prospecting vessel crews are wagering on who will be the first ones to find ice. Denise just wants peace restored to her prospecting vessel.

Mondok's strained face when he appears on screen confirmed how serious the situation is. If there is no ice, the project would be for nothing. All the planning, finance, toil, and secrecy all wasted. She watches the striped carp swimming close to the edge. ‘Wish upon a fish,' she thinks then laughs. ‘You're losing it, Denise.' She closes her eyes and dozes.

She wakes with a start and sees Sofia standing there.

‘The drill crew have called in, they are on their way back right now.'

Denise checks her watch. ‘There's still an hour left of the shift.'

Sofia shrugs. ‘They said they have something to tell you. I asked them what it was but they just said they would tell you when they got back.'

Denise leaves her chair and goes straight to the flight deck. ‘PV to drill crew, Denise here, what do you think you're doing? This is not a holiday,' she snaps.

Dave's voice comes through. ‘Trust me, Denise, we have a very good reason.'

‘There had better be, Dave,' she warns. ‘I'll be waiting on the dock for it.'

The moment the buggy glides to a halt, and the air lock closes behind them, the twins are the first out. ‘We've found it!' they yell.

She stares at them. ‘Really? Ice?'

Ivan and Dave followed them, laughing. ‘You wouldn't believe it. The ice isn't on the rock, it's inside it.'

‘How did you find it then?' Sofia asks.

‘Go on, DJ, you can tell her,' says Dave, smiling at his excitement.

‘I was digging into a crack in a rock I found and Dave saw the ice in there.'

Dave nods. ‘Yes, and I was going to growl at him for wandering off with my tools, and there was the ice just oozing from the crack, we drilled a couple of holes and bingo! Solid ice down to 62 meters we'll have to drill a new pattern to see how big it is.'

‘Well, you're forgiven for ignoring orders this time,' says Denise. She knows that if they had messaged that news from the buggy, everyone would know immediately.

‘I thought you and Sofia would want to make the announcement.' says Dave.

Denise smiles affectionately at him. ‘You really are a know-it-all, Dave.'

On the flight deck monitor, Kenny sees the drilling crews trekking across the rocky ground of the asteroid. He smiles when he thinks of Bekky waving. She knows he would be watching them leave. He's is bothered that Ben has gone out again in the buggy. His blatant flirting with Bekky is beginning to annoy him. He doesn't want her returning stressed out. Her time out there is giving her some respite from the tensions on PV 013. George, the tall southern Mazuban, is soft spoken and gentle with her, but George is soft spoken with everyone, even Chaze and Drummer who ribbed him about his accent and his height. George just ignores them. Kenny wonders how long he could endure the taunts.

Kenny remembers the announcement that Denise and Sofia had made about finding ice. I must congratulate them, he thinks. He looks over at Chaze leaning back on his seat in the cockpit.

‘Wouldn't it be more comfortable in the biosphere?' Kenny asks.

Chaze didn't even look at him. ‘Davis and Helena are in there.'

‘That doesn't mean you can't be.'

He turns and smiles at Kenny. ‘I might miss something.'

Kenny knows he can't call while Chaze is there. It will get back to the others and the announcement has already caused tension, though only with some of the crew, Ben, Chaze, Drummer and Enzot. They had been so certain they would find ice first, and now there were bad vibes in PV 013, though they still hold hope of being the first to find a viable ice body to build a city on.

‘OK, if anyone wants me, I'm going to my quarters for a while.'

Chaze nods and flicks through a muscle magazine.

There is no sign of Davis or Helena at the biosphere. Kenny enters his quarters and, going to his study, opens communications on the monitor. Damn, he thinks. Denise must be on the flight deck. He could call her there but everyone will hear and Chaze could be tuned in. Kenny leaves a message for her to call him in the evening. He knows she will. Besides Bekky, Denise is the only one he could completely trust now. Although the tall south Mazuban was quickly becoming their ally, he still didn't feel he could reveal his suspicions to George just yet, and that's all they are… just suspicions.

After the announcement of the discovery of ice, the crew of PV 005 have permission from the captain to take the day off. ‘Laze around, have a party,' he tells them.

‘Pity we didn't bring any balloons,' Denise says to Sofia.

‘You didn't stash away some bourbon by any chance, did you, Denise?' Varik asks with a sly grin.

She shakes her head and smiles. ‘Cups of tea and coffee everyone?'

Denise wonders why she didn't include supplies for celebration. ‘Face it, Denise,' she thinks, ‘You didn't think PV 005 would find the ice, and certainly not where it was found.' They had all gone out there with only the thought of working hard to find anything, well except for the twins. It was just a big adventure for them. She remembers her wish at the oasis. Good old Tiger, she thinks. He really is a lucky carp.