The Caverns of Mare Cetus (3 page)

   "Coordinates locked in, autolander enabled," said Renata.

   "Right behind you," answered Garrett through her com.

   Hunter looked at his viewscreen. Only a few thousand meters below them were numerous grayish-brown hills dotted with dark red granite boulders that appeared to have been dropped out of the sky.

   After a few minutes, the ship slowed dramatically, and Hunter felt his seat restraints tighten. With Renata barking out flight stats to Garrett like the captain of a battleship preparing to fend off an attack of kamikazes, the ship began rapidly descending. Then it slammed into the surface, a heavy vibration resounding through its superstructure.

   "Garbage!" exclaimed Renata, hitting her fist on her keyboard, her navigation screens responding with scores of blinking error codes. "These auto-nav systems are garbage." She wheeled her seat toward Hunter and released her seat restraints.

   Hunter released his restraints and raised his hand. "Don't worry, Renata. We're down. In one piece. That's all that matters."

   "How's everybody doing over there?" asked Garrett, his face flashing on four forward visual displays. "We had a real butt-buster here."

   Renata turned her seat toward one of the screens. "Same here. Worthless navs."

   "Edison's already on his way," said Garrett. "He's always the first on the ground."

   "Hatch open," said Renata. She pressed a button, and the large white door on the starboard side, between seat rows three and four slowly slid open.

   Hunter looked out the open door, the barren, bleak surface of Mare Cetus greeting him. After a moment, the towering, muscular Edison March stepped up to the doorway, his dark brown skin contrasting sharply with his slate gray jacket and pants—the color everyone in the party was wearing—the other company standard issues typically being forest green and indigo blue.

   "Edison!" exclaimed Trent. "What do you say, my friend?"

   Edison tugged on three long gold chains hanging from his neck. "Not much," he said in a deep, husky voice. "Damn cold here, as usual."

   Hunter stood up and stepped to the doorway, Renata directly behind him. Edison backed down the steps, and Hunter set his feet firmly on the planet of the caves. He took a deep breath, the frigid air chilling him. Most of the windswept landscape surrounding them was flat like a pancake, but in the distance he saw the grayish-brown hills they had flown over just moments before. They were composed of a series of bedded rocks, their appearance resembling a bunch of mattresses neatly piled on top of one another at a forty-five degree angle. In the opposite direction, a chain of impressive, rugged, snowcapped gray mountains abruptly broke the extensive plain. Like the low hills, they were comprised of massive, angle-bedded rocks, and even at their distance, Hunter could make out the contacts between some of the layers.

   Hunter kicked up some dirt with his boot, then looked at the Rigel. The retractable-winged, jet-shaped craft, which had two forward canards in front of the wings and a tall vertical stabilizer, was covered with hundreds of brightly reflecting white solar panels, and the assortment of needle-like sensors and meteor detection antennae extending out of its nose gave it a fearsome appearance. The Jumper's four massive black support struts were planted firmly on the ground, a trail of steam spewing out of its three large tail engines, strong gusts of wind carrying it off into the cloudless sky. After the others exited the Rigel; the two women and Ramon began walking toward Hunter while Garrett stopped to scrutinize a front panel of the Jumper.

   "Well?" asked Edison, his eager brown eyes expecting a response.

   "Let's get everyone together." Hunter slipped on his sunglasses. When the others had gathered around him, he flashed a green laser of light on a nearby group of bluish-gray boulders that had a tall metallic pole standing in front of them like a soldier guarding the gate of a military installation. "The entrance is between those rocks, where that SIP is relaying climate info. Only one other entrance is known. I guess I don't need to expound on this being the only entrance that's ever been explored by humans…"

   "Yeah, you don't," said Arielle Talarian, a hazel-eyed geologist of moderate height whose near-perfect complexion was delicately framed by thick, wavy light brown hair that was highlighted with streaks of blond.

   Ignoring her, he began to elaborate on the previous robotic studies of the cavern. When he got to some of the circumstances regarding Sid's mission, Arielle humphed in indignation. "What's your problem, Arielle?"

   "I've heard all this crap already," she said as she fidgeted with a thin sapphire ring on her right index finger. "What about STEPS?"

   "Oh, yeah," he said, "STEPS."

   "And your inability to follow them." She looked up. "I want to discuss STEPS. Now. You've been promising me the entire trip we'd do it."

   Hunter sighed in exasperation. "Now? Come on. They're not a priority."

   Arielle's face grew angry. "You're not putting me off again. Or you're going to be needing a geologist. Understand?"

   "Come on, Arielle. We don't have time for this."

   "By the books, Hunter. No STEPS. No geologist. Section 3. Discussion of STEPS prior to a mission." She turned around, as if expecting to get some support from the others, but only Edison stood behind her. The others had dispersed to their duties. She turned toward Hunter. "Gutless sheep. They'll thank me later. I want a complete review. Now."

   "You, too?" asked Hunter, eyeing Edison with annoyance.

   "We've got the time," said Edison.

   Hunter shrugged. "Okay. Coffee's on me." He turned and headed toward the Canopus, and they followed him into the ship.

   After what seemed to Hunter like days of exhausting engagement over STEPS with Edison and the hostile Arielle, he stepped out of the Jumper. The wind had died down considerably, but it wasn't much warmer. He began to inspect the array of equipment scattered near the Canopus, which included the nuclear powered Series Seven Kalo robotics. The Kalos were designed to transmit maps and displays to hand-held computers the party would take with them into the caves. The robotics, which looked somewhat like armored, egg-shaped greenish-gray tanks topped with a disk-shaped signal guidance module, were state-of-the-art in cavern exploration and were equipped with the most advanced Kalo Corporation electromagnetic mapping, graphic display, and scanning devices, as well as government-required biodetectors. With their mobility and sampling appendages currently pulled inside them, the bear-sized robotics didn't provide even a hint of their capability to navigate through the most difficult of passages.

   As Hunter looked over the Kalos, he noticed one of the four robotics was missing. Concerned, he quickly went to Trent to find out where it was.

   "Things have been STEPPING along in your absence," chuckled Trent as he perused his Vimap computer, an acronym for VisuallyIntegrated, Intelligent Mapper, Analyst, and Polysimulator. "Garrett sent in Kalo Two a few moments ago. I've programmed the others to follow at specified intervals."

   Hunter nodded in approval, then glanced at Kalo Three, which had just started moving toward the cavern entrance.

   Trent began rattling off his detailed checklist of equipment and supplies. Each party member was outfitted with standard exploration and rock climbing equipment, as well as fabric-frame, watertight backpacks to carry their equipment, a couple days worth of food, and other personal items. Since the supply procedure had changed from previous missions, Trent ran through the operational procedures for a prototype airborne carrier, called the BAT, which would shuttle in food, water, and other supplies from Robotic Transports, or RTs, that would lag behind in the caves. The BAT would also shuttle back to the Jumpers with refuse and discarded items that were picked up by Small Robotic Collectors, or SRCs—the garbage cans of the mission.

   Once Hunter was satisfied with Trent's checklist, he gathered the group around them for his final briefing. It was then he noticed Garrett holding a sleek gray short-barreled rifle. "What's that for?"

   "Protection," said Garrett. "Model G40. Lithium Particle Pulse."

   Hunter laughed. "Protection from what? Each other?"

   "You tell me," said Garrett as he peered along the rifle's barrel.

   "What are you talking about?"

   "You've heard the stories about what happened on the Severon Mission."

   "Who hasn't?" snapped Hunter. "That gruesome mess poisoned all exploration on this planet. But I've also read the reports that resolved it. An engineer went flaky and raped one of his coworkers. Then he cut her up with a knife and tried to commit suicide, later claiming from his padded cell she had been infected by something in the caverns. Infected. Right."

   "The rape was never proven," said Garrett.

   "ORB DNA tests proved it," said Hunter.

   "That he had sex with her, yes, that he raped her—think again. They had been having an affair for years. There was no evidence of an assault."

   "Are you crazy, Garrett? She was found bound and gagged. He had savagely cut her at least two dozen times. What more do you want?"

   "Answers," said Garrett. "Like why they found him standing over her body with not a drop of blood on him? Why did he cut her in so many different places on her body? Why weren't there any defensive wounds on her—anywhere, despite her hands being loosely bound in front of her?"

   "Jesus, man! She was unconscious when he attacked her…"

   "And why was there a Vimap in her hands, facing her, running an analysis for organic contamination?"

   Hunter laughed—mockingly. "You make it sound like she was a willing participant. I suppose she told him just where to open her up too…"

   "Stop it!" exclaimed Isis Sandalo, a petite Asian biochemist with short black hair that was parted neatly down the middle. She hit the hardhat she was holding in her hand with the side of a geologist's hammer. "We've all heard this already. It's sick. You don't need to describe it again."

   "Yeah," said Ramon. "It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it."

   "I didn't think anything could do that," said Renata.

   "Good one, Renata," said Ramon.

   "Knock it off," said Hunter, putting up his hand. "Look, the guy was a raving psychotic. CPPs proved that."

   "But you forget previous profiles showed he was a very sane inorganic chemist," said Garrett.

   "So much for the profiles," said Ramon. "I have to agree with Hunter. The guy was a nutcase."

   "Is that what you think, señor?" asked Garrett.

   "Yeah. That's what I think. For him to do what he did, he had to be a nut. What I can't figure out is why we're wasting our time even talking about him."

   Arielle stepped up behind Ramon and put her hands on his shoulders and began kneading them with her maroon-polished fingernails.

   "Hey. Cut that out," he said as he pulled away from her.

   "I think Garrett's making some good points," said Arielle. "Whether you do or not. I want to hear more." She stepped up to Garrett. "Why do you say he wasn't a flake?"

   "Because Severon management tried hard to bring out a Mendrax to investigate him. For reasons I can't go into, they wouldn't have done that if they thought he was insane. Unfortunately, the Novies put a stop to Severon's plans. It's been rumored the Novian Government wants no part of the Mendrax, but I can't go into that either."

   "A mendrac?" asked Isis. "Isn't that a Novian animal? Looks like some kind of goofy rodent? How the heck can a mendrac investigate anyone? What does any of this have to do with Severon?"

   "He said Mendrax," said Ramon, snickering. "And that's even more goofy than your armored, spike-tailed, four-eyed rodent. The Mendrax are delusions. They don't even exist."

   "Delusions?" asked Devon. "A Mendrax is a delusion?"

   "Hey," said Ramon. "She really does talk."

   Devon stared at him blankly. "So I do." She pushed back her wavy brownish-black hair from her face.

   "You must not read any fiction, kiddo," said Ramon. "You've never heard about the Mendrax and their concubines? They were supposed to have been some kind of Amazon warriors that fought in wars on Earth about fifty years ago. But it's all a bunch of BS. Even Achilles is more real."

   "Achilles?" asked Devon, her eyebrows narrowing. "You think he was real? You're the one who's deluded then."

   "Enough already!" exclaimed Hunter, eyeing Ramon and Devon with annoyance. "Let's trade fables another day." He turned toward Garrett. "Ramon's right. The guy was a suicidal nutcase, nothing more."

   Garrett scoffed. "When have you heard of some guy trying to commit suicide by cutting his arm to the bone?"

   "Suicide isn't an art to a psychotic," quipped Hunter.

   "From what I've heard, he was thoroughly convinced about something being inside her and worried about it getting inside of him."

   "Bull. Nothing was ever found."

   "What about their blood chemistries?" asked Garrett.

   Hunter sighed. "Big deal. He had a rare blood disorder, and her system had traces of drugs that Vimap logs proved he had given her."

   "None of which could be concluded to have resulted in the chemistries that were found. No. You're wrong. There was something more at Severon."

   "Then tell me what it was," said Hunter.

   Ramon had taken off his hardhat and mussed up his dark brown hair with his hand. "I think it was a monster. It looked just like this." He opened his eyes wide, contorted his mouth, and held up his hand, making it look like a claw.

   "If I knew that," said Garrett, "we wouldn't be discussing this now."

   "Come on, guys," said Isis. "Let's can this conversation already. Just thinking one of you guys might pop a cork like Powell did gives me the willies."

   "Powell?" asked Trent. "Powell was on Sid's mission. That was an Explora mission. Parrolli was the guy on the Severon Corporation mission."

   "What's the difference? They both stink." Isis stepped up to Garrett. "That's one lethal piece of hardware. Can I hold it?"