Tumbler

by Brand Gamblin

  Libby frowned as the three boys bounded away, "You're not going to concentrate the search based on that, are you? You could be getting false signals from radio signal echoes."

  The man turned to her, and she was struck by his kind, weathered face, "Yes, but it's better to start people looking in all directions from a strong source, than it is to have them start their search from an area with no response."

  Libby couldn't argue that, so she bounded off in the one direction the boys didn't pick. As she bounced around the surface, she confirmed that it was mostly copper. Nobody had bothered to mine this, probably because it was so riddled with holes. However, she could feel about the same gravity pull that she felt on Ceres pull on her as she bounced. Libby briefly wondered what kind of ore was at the center of this mass. Was it molten or static? Was it really iron down there, or was something more massive at the center of this?

  Libby stopped suddenly, as she realized that these were exactly the kinds of questions Dora must have been asking when she decided to go searching through the cave system. So, okay, think that through. Where was the best place to enter, if you wanted to find the core? It wouldn't have been where they found the runabout. That spot was probably just where she parked because it had a flat area with a good spot for tethering. After that, Dora must have gone . . .

  Then she had it. Dora would have felt for the gravitational pull. Libby closed her eyes and let go of the ground. After a moment, she felt her suit sliding against the surface. She opened her eyes and looked at the direction she was moving. Calling that direction North, she immediately started bounding that way. She jumped over a couple of cave entrances as she felt the draw get incrementally stronger. Ever more intense, ever more powerful. Then, when she thought it was about as strong as it could be, she dropped into one of the cave entrances.

  Inside, the cave split off in three directions. The gravity was still light here, and it was hard to tell which direction brought her closer to the center. She guessed at one direction, then let it pull her in another direction, down another round tunnel in the rock. The tunnel glowed green in the light of her headlamp, as she bounced and fell through the asteroid.

  On the local station, she could barely hear the news as Miriam joined them. She could hear Miriam giving instructions on how each person should take a cave entrance, and report back any branches that they found. They were to mark each branch with an ID number, which Miriam would record. Based on those numbers, they could search the whole rock without ever accidentally duplicating their search.

  Libby suddenly felt guilty about taking off on her own. She wanted to tell them where she was, let them know about her gravity theory. But she was too far in now, and if she went back, she'd have to take a number and get a random tunnel to check. Besides, there were a lot of people trying the other plan, what would one more person in that search matter?

  So she continued sliding down tunnels and crawling ever closer to the center. The descent became tighter, harder to move around. In a way, it was exciting, because it indicated a more massive core. It meant she was getting closer to the center, which meant she was probably getting closer to Dora. However, it was also more unnerving, because she was constantly afraid that she was on the wrong track. What if she got stuck?

  Crawling through a narrow space on her belly, she suddenly stopped and thought about that. What if she did get stuck? This wouldn't be a single-person rescue any more. She would need to be rescued as well. How incredibly embarrassing would that be, for them to have to re-start the search just to find her.

  That was enough. Libby changed her mind and decided to crawl back to the surface. She would tell them about her theory, her guess as to where Dora was. They would send more people down here, they could spread out easier, and find her quicker.

  Libby started shuffling backwards out of the crawlspace, pulling out of the crevice, when she suddenly felt the ground underneath her give. Her eyes shot open and she held perfectly still. Every miner knew that feeling, knew what it meant. This space wasn't stable. The rock wasn't solid. It could give at any -

  Libby didn't feel the ground fall out from under her, she just felt the pressure of the crevice suddenly ease, and she was falling. The entire cave floor under her fell apart, and she dropped eight feet to the cave floor again. At one-third G, that wasn't as bad a fall, but it still knocked the wind out of her as she landed on her stomach.

  She stood up slowly, coughing. Okay, this was a whole new game now. No more kidding around. If this rock wasn't stable, there was no way of telling what their search could turn up. They were making marks on the tunnels up above, giving them ID numbers, assuming that the tunnels would still be around. But they were running down the tunnels, without checking stability. People could be breaking legs even now as other cave-ins occurred.

  The unfortunate thing was that, having discovered the stability problem, she couldn't get back to them to tell anyone. She looked up at the hole she had fallen through. She jumped for it, and grabbed at the edge. As she tried to pull herself back into that crevice, the ground fell apart in her hands. Of course, she thought, copper was malleable, and whatever it was mixed with had made it brittle. This whole system was unstable.

  Libby prepared to make another jump, to try and back out of the tunnel system again, when she heard a voice crackling in the local circuit. She stopped, and listened to the quiet signal through the static. She could hear, faintly, a voice. It was on the local circuit!

  Libby started walking down the new tunnel, listening for that signal. As she headed down the tunnel, it got stronger. She had to move slowly now, testing each step for the malleable floor. She squeezed through another low ceiling, and finally recognized the signal as someone singing.

  "- marched them up to the top of the hill, and he marched them down again. And when they were up, they were up; And when -"

  It was Dora's voice. Libby shouted into the radio, "Dora, this is Libby, can you hear me?"

  There was a pause, a break in the song, then she heard the voice say, "Tumbler?"

  "Yes, it's me, honey. Where are you?"

  "Tumbler, Libby, it's you! I'm trapped. I don't know where I am. I came down using the old song, but then the roof caved in, and now I can't get out." The girl's voice was excited and relieved, but Libby could hear how tired and strained it was.

  She walked around the new cave she'd been dropped into, listening for the signal strength, "Honey, how are your suit's resources?"

  "Pretty bad. I'm surprised the radio still works. I think I ran out of air a while ago." The girl's voice was distant and floaty, as though she was having trouble staying awake.

  "Okay, honey, I need you to keep talking, so I can home in on you."

  "Okay." After a brief pause, Libby heard the girl start up again, "The grand old duke of York, he had ten thousand men -"

  Libby switched over to the REC channel, and heard it calling out. She hoped someone near the surface would be able to pick that up.

  As she crawled in the direction of the signal, she flipped back over to the local station. Dora was slowing down, losing focus. Libby pulled herself through the cave, exhausted, and called out, "Honey, you said you found your way down here with a song? What song?" She pulled a rock out of her way and found a larger area beyond it. As she pulled herself out of the crawlspace, she tried to keep the girl talking, "It couldn't have been the Grand old Duke of York. That one wouldn't make any sense."

  Dora stopped as she thought about that, then seemed to shake herself awake, "Oh! No, that wasn't it. I was singing that old song, a lullaby really. One to the left, and one to the right. Two to the left and two to the right. Close your eyes with all your might and . . ." She paused for a second, her body trying to take a breath and choking on it a little, "I used that to decide which tunnels to take as I descended. Then, when I got to a stopping point, I couldn't find my way back up." She paused again, "That song really doesn't work well with backtracking your steps. I should have tied a rope to myself o
r something." The girl's voice started to dwindle again, “But then I might run into the minotaur.”.

  "Dora?"

  The girl suddenly spoke up, like she was awakened from her sleep, "I don't have a rope! I couldn't have tied a rope to myself. I . . . anyway, while I was trying to come back to the surface, the ceiling caved in behind me. I tried to run away, but it pinned my leg."

  "Are you okay?"

  The girl's voice wandered again, "It's only like that because it's not pure copper. If it was, this whole thing would have bent in on itself under the gravity. But there's some other alloy that's making it hard enough to stay in place . . . but it's brittle, like shale, maybe. Not iron. I thought it might be iron, but it's not."

  "Honey, is your leg okay?" Libby came to a dead end, but she started feeling around the walls and floor of the cave. It did seem to give a bit under her weight.

  "It hurts a lot, but it didn't tear the suit. So, that's good at least." Libby could picture the little girl's eyelids fluttering as she fought off sleep, "It does hurt a lot, though."

  Libby grabbed hold of the wall, and stomped down as hard as she could. When it gave way, she hung on to the wall, and checked the distance before falling through the hole she had created.

  Landing softly in the crevice, she noticed something in the distance. Down the irregular tunnel, she could see something glint against the green of the walls. Another light!

  Libby bounced over to it as fast as she could. The only other headlamp that could be down here was Dora's, so Libby knew she had to be getting closer. As she headed for it, she could see a recent cave-in before her. She climbed over the rubble carefully, holding on to the cave walls. She placed each foot delicately, worried about stepping on Dora's foot.

  Then, at the bottom of the pile, she could see Dora, lying on her stomach, one leg covered in rubble up to her knee. She shouted, "Honey, I see you!" but got no response.

  Chapter 12

  Libby scrambled down the rock pile, and bounced over to Dora's side. She couldn't read the health info that was displayed on the front panel, because Dora was lying on her stomach, but she knew what the first order of business was. She reached back on her own suit, and disconnected the air pressure hose from her suit. As soon as it lost connection, clips on both sides of the connection snapped shut to keep the air from spilling out. Libby reached over to the girl's suit, and attached her line to the auxiliary air clip. She couldn't hear the hiss of air being transferred or feel any pressure drop, but she thought she could see Dora's suit shift a bit as new air rushed into the suit. She watched as her air pressure gauge dropped to half, then one quarter pressure. After that, she reattached the air hose to her suit, and reached for her power line.

  Libby paused with her hand over the power line. She wasn't really sure what would happen when she unplugged it. She figured she'd lose the radio, but what about the scrubbers? What about her headlamp? Health monitors? How would she be able to help Dora if her suit was shut down?

  Then Libby realized that, whatever effect the power loss must have on her suit, Dora was probably dealing with worse. She frowned and yanked at the cable. Libby's suit shut down with an audible whir, and the headlamp winked out. The sudden silence made her ears pop, making her wonder if the pressure in her suit was dropping. For a panicked moment, Libby thought the air was getting harder to breathe. Suddenly, a dim red light flooded the inside of her helmet, and the headlamp flickered back into dim view as emergency power systems came online. Libby found the auxiliary power connection on Dora's suit, and plugged her suit into it. As she heard her air scrubbers start rattling slowly on emergency power, she swiveled the arm of her suit around to look at the direct battery monitor. She watched as the percentage indicator on her arm went from green bars to yellow. As the power went into the low yellow bars, Libby detached the power, and switched it back to her own. She shook Dora softly, saying over the radio, "Come on, honey. I need you to stay awake. Come on, talk to me." She leaned forward and knocked her helmet against the girl's, hoping to make a loud enough noise.

  She couldn't hear Dora, but she saw one arm move, like the girl was trying to get up. Libby started digging at the rocks covering the girl's leg, removing the pressure from the top rocks first, before uncovering the leg itself. She was careful not to touch the leg, for fear she might make it more painful. Dora's foot was bent at an odd angle, so Libby didn't want to get near it. She didn't know what to do if it was broken.

  Libby looked up from the cave-in. The tunnel opened up again beyond Dora, and it seemed to be big enough for the both of them to walk through. The light from Libby's headlamp reflected sour green off the walls, and faded in the distance. But at least the tunnel was headed upward in that direction. Given that neither one of them knew where they were, or where they were going, any direction was good, as long as it was up.

  Libby took one more look at that twisted foot, and lifted the girl in her arms. She didn't know what the gravity was down here, but the girl didn't seem too heavy, so that was good.

  Dora still seemed to be sleeping, though, and that wasn't good. Libby shook her a little and said, "Honey, you need to wake up. You've got to keep talking." As she started carrying Dora upward, Libby wondered about that. In the videos, people were always telling injured teammates to keep talking, don't go to sleep. But was that just for videos, or was that real? Libby took a deep breath, and decided that the best she could do was to get Dora out of there, and turn her over to someone who knew what to do.

  She continued up the tunnel incline, squeezing through narrow parts, and crawling carefully where needed. She seemed to be climbing for a long time, though she didn't want to look at the dim clock in her helmet display. Occasionally, the tunnel would split off into different directions, and she always chose the one that seemed to head upwards. Libby shook Dora periodically, checking with her, "You're not asleep, are you? Stay awake, honey. Keep talking to me."

  Even though the girl didn't weigh much, it was hard climbing and carrying her through a tunnel which was becoming progressively smaller and thinner. She had to maneuver differently with the girl, had to squeeze through areas carefully, paying attention to that foot. Fatigue was pulling her arms down, making her think about switching to a fireman's carry. Her diminished power and air made the carrying more difficult, made her breathing more ragged. She wished she was in her work suit, with the rag tied to the inside, so she could wipe away the sweat. It was starting to get hot and humid inside. Libby could hear herself breathing hard, and dry swallowing against the work. She didn't want to look at her air gauge, and she really didn't need to. The blinking red light was hard to ignore. She had already turned off a few of the warning message systems, but there was no way to disable that one.

  As they continued to climb, the tunnel widened into a cave-in ahead of them. Libby put Dora down on the ground and started checking out the cave-in. She tried to find an open spot, tried to make sure the roof was stable now. She looked back and forth, climbing around the cave, casting her headlamp all around it. As she prodded at the cave in, she called out again, "Dora, honey? You still awake?"

  The girl slumped against the cave wall, "Yeah. I'm fine." Her voice was still drowsy and distant, "You know, Tumbler, you're nice."

  Libby found a largish rock that looked like it would move, so she started to pull on it, "Well, thanks, honey."

  "You're not scary."

  Libby chuckled at that. She felt a little give in the rock, and smiled as she said, "Thanks. You're not scary either."

  The girl's voice lilted softly, "Everybody is scared of you, but I'm not."

  The rock gave way suddenly, and Libby nearly fell backward, more with shock at the statement than with the exertion. "What- Who's scared of me?"

  The girl's eyelids were slowly drooping, "Not me. They might be. Some are sad for you, but most are scared because you're so mean."

  Libby frowned at the girl for a moment, then turned back to the work, "Well, it's not as easy as that, honey.
"

  Dora waved a hand flippantly, "I tell them, you're not a mean person."

  Libby nodded as she pulled back one armload of rocks after another, "Good. Thank you. I appreciate -"

  "You just hate us."

  Libby stopped and turned to face her, shocked. "That's just not true, Dora."

  The girl nodded in her suit, so small a movement, it didn't even move the helmet, "It's okay. You hate all of us. You hate us because we stole your - " the girl was losing consciousness again, "Because – your," Her head dipped and she fell back asleep.

  Libby started over to her, then thought better of it. Maybe those videos were wrong. After all, she was running out of air, right? It couldn't be a good thing for her to keep talking.

  But as she turned back to the cave-in, she couldn't help wondering what Dora thought they had stolen. Not her money, surely. She had watched every penny she'd earned since getting here, and it was all accounted for. Maybe the girl thought they had stolen her opportunities? Did they really feel bad about her being stuck out here?

  Libby broke through, and thought for a moment that she saw light at the end of the tunnel. She waited, turned her headlamp off, but didn't see it again. Crawling forward into the tunnel, she was surrounded on all sides by rock. It felt surprisingly comforting, like the warm rock surrounding her was protecting her, insulating her. Lying face-down on the top of the rubble, she couldn't help thinking how relaxing it was. She thought about just taking a nap there. Wouldn't she need her strength for the rest of the trip? She set her arms down on the rubble, turned her head sideways to lay it down on the visor of the helmet, and relaxed for just a moment. . .

  Then she started at a sudden noise. It was coming from the local radio frequency. She looked back over at Dora, but she couldn't turn around to face the girl. Besides, she could hear Dora sleeping peacefully on the local channel. Libby held perfectly still, and listened as hard as she could. Barely, she could hear other voices. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but it was definitely people.