Green Grow The Rashes And Other Stories

by William Meikle

  ~-o0O0o-~

  The heads up told me that drilling would take another thirty minutes. And with the heater turned up full, I was cosy enough, despite the outside temperature of minus 65, a figure which meant nothing to me. Besides, I could always rationalise my decision to enter the cave mouth by telling myself I needed some respite from the lowering stars in the sky above.

  I stepped into the darkness, and got a sudden fright when my helmet switched on a bright light to show me the way. I felt my heart pound in my ears and had to steady myself to quell the impulse to flee. But two more steps took me in to the cave proper, and I almost felt at home. The walls were smooth, some weathering process over the millennia was my assumption, and the light from the helmet was bright enough to light my way for twenty yards ahead. The cave floor sloped downwards, and as I proceeded the temperature rose. It was when it reached minus four that I was given pause for thought.

  I might have discovered much more than just a source of ore. There was obviously heat here. And plenty of it.

  I went in further.

  Fifty yards in I had to turn off the suit heater. I also got the first indication that this was more than a simple cave. I found a number imprinted on the wall. It read:

  SUB LEVEL 25.

  The passageway was man made.

  As you can imagine, my heart rate was elevated as I went in further. We know from our history that we were not the only ones to go under; indeed we were communicating with some of the others for the best part of a century. But there has been no contact for more than two hundred years. The thought I might be close to meeting another human being made me descend even faster.

  There was still no sound beyond the increasingly distant grind of the drill searching for ore. Neither was there any light beyond what my helmet provided. But it kept getting warmer. The heads-up told me there was only the thinnest of atmosphere beyond my visor, but it felt almost as if I walked a corridor in the warren.

  I came to a junction and chose the right hand fork, heading deeper into the system.

  I found the first corpse seconds later.