“Communication,” Robert Harrington answered, his hand resting against his chin as he sat in deep and previously silent thought. “Grav is on to something there. Everything in the Kompound is offline, but someone stationed in the rover could communicate with us via the rover and with Holly and Peter via their EVA suits’ comms link.”
“In that case,” Romesh mused, “couldn’t someone in here just put on an EVA suit and communicate with Holly and Peter that way?”
“The suits operate over a short range,” Holly said, answering bluntly but without any evident impatience for what was a reasonable enough suggestion despite being an obvious non-starter to most of the others. “The Kompound is several miles away. But with a rover right outside, that would be the intermediary we need. If something changes, like any of the Kompound’s data or even the video feeds somehow coming back online, it would be crucial for us to know that. Grav, it’s a good idea… but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re not fit to go in there. I’m sorry, but that’s where we are.”
Grav blew air from his lips and slowly shook his head, more disappointed than angry. That he was disappointed at not being allowed to risk his life — and that Holly thought it necessary to apologise for the fact that he couldn’t — said everything about Goran Vuletic’s undying commitment to ensuring the safety of Terradox’s innocent colonists. “So who?” he asked.
“Me,” Viola volunteered, looking at Holly as she spoke. “I was on Netherdox, too. And once we got back here, I was the one who operated everything in the old control bunker by myself when you needed me to distract Boyce’s guards with the falling drones. I might not be able to fight off Steve like you two, but I can do this job better than anyone else.”
“No,” Robert said, visibly regretting having backed up Grav’s idea of a third rover passenger now that his daughter was in pole position to fill the role. “I didn’t mean… Viola, it’s not safe.”
“If Bo says it’s safe, it’s safe!” she insisted. “And if it’s safe enough for Peter and Holly, it’s safe enough for me.”
Robert’s expression remained uneasy. “Peter…”
“Well,” Peter said, momentarily weighing it up. He would never have stood by while Viola entered Little Venus without him, but there really was no doubt that she was the most qualified person for the important communications relay job, just as he was the most qualified to provide Holly’s backup in dealing with Steve. “Robert… if Bo says it’s safe, it’s safe.”
Bo returned as Peter finished speaking, just too late to have heard what he’d said.
“We were just telling Dad that your idea is safe enough for me to be the one who goes in the rover,” Viola said, filling him in immediately.
“It’s safe enough for anyone,” Bo said, so matter-of-factly and absent of hesitation that it couldn’t help but reassure the others. “Dad, you must know that I wouldn’t send anyone inside if I didn’t know this would work, never mind Holly or especially Viola. Their problem isn’t getting to the Kompound safely, it’s dealing with Steve when they get there.”
“Exactly,” Viola said.
“And you’re not thinking of actually going into the Kompound, anyway, are you?” Bo asked. “I take it you’re going so you can talk to Holly and she can talk to us through you? Because if someone else is going all the way in, surely Grav or Peter would—”
“It’s Peter,” Holly said, taking the EVA suit from Bo’s hands. “Are there two more suits in the rover?”
“All of the other suits are hanging in the exit bay,” Bo replied, “right beside the rover. Everything is ready when you are.”
“We are,” Holly said.
Peter, standing next to Vijay Kohli with a reassuring hand on the boy’s shoulder, nodded decisively.
“Don’t worry, Dad,” Viola said, no hint of trepidation in her voice. “We’re ready.”
thirty
With no visual feeds or data to keep an eye on, everyone other than Christian Jackson made the short walk to the exit bay to watch the trio of Holly, Viola and Peter depart the safety of the Buffer in an effort to save the crew in the Isolation Kompound.
Christian remained in the observation room just in case some functionality returned to the Kompound’s outgoing communications system. Prior to the others temporarily leaving for the exit bay, he had quietly reassured Robert, father to father, that Bo’s idea to surround the rover with a small life-supporting bubble really would work.
Size was not an issue given that far larger microspheres were already functional in his Botanical Gardens, Christian stressed, and Bo’s idea of assembling a new one around the rover before it left the comfortable surroundings of the Buffer meant that it would be even more stable than those which kept areas of the Gardens extremely hot and humid.
Now, as everyone but Christian stood beside the imposing rover, Bo patted the bottom of its door. “The microsphere is an insurance policy we won’t need,” he said, his tone as reassuring as it could be as his eyes and other hand focused on the large tablet-like screen via which he controlled the fabrication and sealing of a romobot cloak around the sturdy vehicle.
“How will we know when the bubble is ready?” Robert asked.
“It’s already ready,” Bo said. “I initiated it when I came to get the suit and at this size it only takes a few minutes for the cloak to establish. All it has to do is retain the atmosphere that’s already in here. That’s why I could make one here but couldn’t make anything out there quickly enough for it to be useful: in Little Venus, we could set up a bubble like this just as quickly but it would take a long time for the atmospheric conditions inside it to change enough to make it usable.”
Robert stared at the rover, looking for clues. “How do we know the bubble is working? How do we know it’s really even there?”
“Everyone stand back,” Bo said, ushering them further away until he was satisfied. He then tapped an option on the tablet.
Grav, tipping his head back and laughing in amusement, was the only person to react with anything other than open-mouthed wonder as both Bo and the rover disappeared in an instant. This tech was nothing that any of them were unfamiliar with, but up close and personal it was still an incredible sight to behold. “Fucking romotech,” he chuckled before remembering Vijay’s presence. “I mean, uh, crazy romotech.”
Vijay grinned, appearing more relaxed about everything than his father or any of the other grown-ups.
“Do we want it to be invisible?” Jillian asked. This was her first vocal input for a while and her voice remained weak with worry. “I think we do, so that Steve won’t panic if he looks out of a window and sees something approaching once it crosses the existing cloak, because without knowing who’s inside he might think he’s going to be attacked.”
“He is,” Grav said, “but you make a good point. I also say yes; and if Holly and Peter want the rover to be made visible, they can tell Viola and she will pass it on to us.”
“Agreed,” Holly said, holding her helmet in her hand. “We go in invisible. That way, we can always change our minds if we need to. If we go in visible, there’s no undoing that.”
“And you are driving?” Grav asked.
She nodded. “And there’s no more time to waste. Peter, Viola…”
“I’m counting on you like I’ve never counted on anyone,” Viola said, walking towards Bo and hugging him tightly. There were no tears forming in her eyes, only adrenaline pumping through her veins. “And this is when your brains finally pay off, okay? All those times I let you do my homework…”
Bo cracked a smile for the first time in hours. “Don’t worry,” he replied. “The tech is sound and none of this is theoretical; this rover has a proven capability to withstand the atmosphere if it has to, but the bubble will shield it, anyway.”
While his children were seemingly confident enough to share jokes, Robert Harrington’s expression reflected the weight of his fears. “Do you think Chase and Nisha would want you to do this?” h
e asked Viola, his voice trembling. “Or Marcel, Kim, Sara… do you think they would want three lives to be seriously risked in the hope of protecting theirs?”
Viola shrugged. “I wouldn’t want you to do it for me — any of you — but I know that you all would, without a second thought.”
Robert didn’t have a reply.
“That’s what makes this colony work,” Viola went on. “That’s what makes it thrive. ‘All for one and one for all’ isn’t just a catchphrase, it’s what makes us who we are. And don’t get me wrong, we’re doing this because they need us right now. But this isn’t just about keeping them safe; this is bigger than them and it’s a lot bigger than us. This is about Terradox. This is about the colony and everything we’ve all worked for. If they die, inside or outside that Kompound, everything is over — whatever happens to us. Spaceman risked his life for this place when we were dealing with Morrison and we did the same thing when we were dealing with Boyce. I’m not about to give all of that up because some meathead lost his mind over a flashing light.”
“Thank you,” Jillian said, stepping in over Robert’s silence and taking hold of Viola’s hand. The two had grown close in recent years, sharing a workplace and devoting themselves to providing the best possible start in life for the colony’s children, but Jillian had never foreseen a situation in which she would feel so indebted to Viola for selflessly undertaking such a risky mission. “I can never thank you enough for what you’re doing here. Peter, Holly… you, too.”
“We’ll get Chase out of there,” Peter promised. “But we need to do it now.”
Holly tilted her head, encouraging him to enter the rover. “We’ll see you all again before you know it,” she said, surveying the understandably gloomy expressions around the exit bay before turning and walking to the rover. She then paused, as though debating something, before ultimately removing the symbolic ‘COMMANDER’ badge she had been given by Yury and handing it to Grav.
Grav, physically aching with the frustrating helplessness that came with being outvoted by friends concerned with his physical condition and now being left to watch them attempt a risky mission without him, stood stoically with his arms loosely crossed and refused to accept the badge. “You will be back,” he said. “Six words, Hollywood: get in, get out, get back.”
Holly nodded curtly and lowered her hand, still holding the badge. The nature and complexity of her relationship with Grav was something most others struggled to get their heads around — especially Viola, as she had made known to them on many occasions. There was an obvious and deep affection; and while they didn’t always seem to be together, they were certainly never with anyone else.
Despite some recent disagreements, Viola had been extremely close to both of them for many years and was intimately familiar with the stories of the immense and costly challenges they had overcome long before they all unwittingly crash-landed on the then-undiscovered Terradox. She knew that prior to that day they had each seen things and done things — had to do things — that she couldn’t even comprehend, and she knew that their bond was built on forces she never would.
Sometimes, a nod said more than six or six hundred words ever could.
Before leaving, Peter approached Vijay and crouched to his height. “How high can you count, big guy?” he asked.
Vijay shrugged.
“Do you think you could count to ten thousand?”
“Easy peasy!”
“Twenty thousand?”
Vijay nodded, still confident.
“In that case, why don’t we have a race?” Peter suggested, ruffling the boy’s hair. “You try to count to twenty thousand, and I’ll be back here with Nisha before you get halfway.”
Vijay smiled. “One, two, three…”
“Give me a chance!” Peter jokingly complained, holding his hand out to let Viola into the large rover before moving towards the stairs himself.
Viola stopped briefly on the steps and looked down at Vijay. He looked okay for now, eased by Peter’s words, but she knew things were unlikely to go without any hitches and that having to endure some hairy moments along the way was a strong probability. “We really will bring her back,” she said.
“I know,” Vijay replied, high-pitched and totally confident. “Steve is strong but Peter is stronger. Leon Fish is strong, too, and Peter knocked him down with one hit!”
When no one else was looking, Holly handed her badge to Viola. Viola took it without initially realising what it was. “Just in case I don’t make it back out,” Holly whispered.
Vijay’s excited comment meanwhile lifted the air slightly for everyone else, drawing brief grins from even Jillian and Robert.
“Just remember that violence isn’t the answer, big guy,” Peter said, sending a wink Vijay’s way before stepping onto the rover’s stairs. “Most of the time.”
thirty-one
“This is like bungee-jumping off a cliff and hoping the rope doesn’t snap,” Viola said. She was fully suited up, helmet and all, as she sat in the middle of the rover’s three front seats.
“But in this case the ground is a giant mattress,” Bo replied from his seat in the observation room, his voice reaching the trio clearly via their helmets. “If the bubble is the rope, it wouldn’t even matter if it snapped; the rover is going to keep you safe.”
Bo’s finger hovered over the button to open the exit bay, which would allow the rover to pass through the first airlock at one side of the tunnel-like passageway before continuing to the final airlock at the border between the Buffer and Little Venus.
“Besides,” Peter mused, “this is more like Russian roulette. When a bungee rope snaps, you have a moment of knowing you are falling. When there’s a bullet in your chamber… instant.”
“On that note…” Holly said, breaking a momentary silence. “Bo, open the bay so we can head into the chamber.”
A thick wall-like barrier in front of the rover began to slowly recede into an even thicker wall.
“Done,” Bo said. “Okay, Holly… what I want you to do is move forward at a steady speed. I’ll practice moving the bubble at the same rate. There’s nothing out there on the surface that could possibly cause you to slow down or speed up, but I’m going to need you to tell me before you adjust course even slightly.”
“Did you just say practice?” Viola asked. “You need to practice?”
“I should have said ‘rehearse’,” Bo said.
Viola sighed. “Because that’s so much better…”
Holly started the rover’s engine, keeping Bo informed of everything she did, then slowly moved the rover forward. She built up to a brisk speed before allowing it to cruise. “This passageway isn’t wide enough for me to veer left or right, but I’m not planning to do that out there, anyway,” she said. “Well… not until the very end, when I’m parking. Until then, straight as an arrow.”
And so the rover continued, straight as an arrow, for the short time it took to reach the final airlock.
“Ready when you are,” Bo announced.
“Before you press it…” Holly said, breathing slowly. “For the love of God, make sure the first airlock and the exit bay’s door are both sealed.”
“They’re sealed,” Robert Harrington’s voice called back. “All of the backup locks that we opened before you reached them, too. All sealed.”
Robert’s input eased Holly’s mind, reminding her that Bo wasn’t alone in the observation room — that he had Christian and Robert at his side, two men highly knowledgeable in atmospheric manipulation. Romesh’s area of expertise in the biochemistry of primordial life was less immediately helpful, as was Jillian’s psychologist skill-set, but both were there and both were willing the rescue crew to succeed with every fibre of their being.
Vijay, meanwhile, was still counting.
“On three,” Bo said. He then pressed the button, this time right on cue.
“It’s already opening,” Peter called. “Bo, I can see outside! That means it’s all c
lear, or the bullet would be out of the chamber and lodged in our brain by now!”
“And look at the rover’s readings,” Bo replied enthusiastically. “Green all over! The bubble is working. So the rope held, and there’s a mattress on the ground. No more leaps of faith, Holly… just drive.”
Despite the green readings and the comforting size and sturdiness of their rover, the trio inside couldn’t help but feel uneasy as they ventured across the barren and hostile landscape of Little Venus. They had a drive of several miles ahead of them, but it wouldn’t take long.
“How are you doing with the bubble?” Holly asked after a few minutes. The Kompound, always visible through the one-way cloak which hid the Buffer from the test crew’s perspective, now loomed large through the rover’s front window. “Nice and easy?”
“I’m just sliding my finger along the path of your rover on the control map,” Bo replied. “You’d know if I slipped up because your external readings would all go red and you’d see warnings in your HUDs about the atmosphere outside the rover. But the rover would keep you safe. The only potential challenge comes after parking, because you have to manually open the Kompound’s hatch with the access code. There’s no way you’ll be able to get inside unless the bubble holds up — and if you left the rover without the bubble in place, you’d be dead as soon as you opened the door. So we’re counting on the bubble for saving the others, but you three are in no danger as long as you stay in the rover.”
“Holy hell,” Robert moaned, very suddenly.
“What?” Holly, Bo and just about everyone else asked in unison. Fortunately both Holly and Bo were able to maintain their steady focus on the rover’s journey while asking.
“I can’t believe I didn’t make this clear,” Robert went on. “Holly, Peter… when you get inside, do not take your helmets off. The air inside the Kompound is not air you want to expose yourself to without gradual acclimatisation. It’s the composition… it’s perfectly breathable and tolerable for extended periods, obviously, but it’s not what you’re used to.”
Terradox Quadrilogy Page 80
