Cloud Field

by A M Russell

  I laughed and tried to heave the spike.

  ‘Just get the trolley you ‘nana.’ said Janey.

  I did so and she helped me. We wheeled it in together. Jared looked up at us both. He seemed amused, and then looked grimmer as he looked past us. Hanson appeared. And suddenly it was back to the grind stone. If he was mad at Marcia he didn’t show it. Jared was watching him all the time; I think ready to intervene if he got Marcia cornered. I wasn’t sure how I knew but I felt there would be no more trouble from Hanson today. Expedition leader or no, even he couldn’t fight Marcia, Janey and Jared. I suspected that Oliver would side with Marcia given the option. He didn’t seem the Alpha Male type and would go along with the majority. I felt a mutinous sense of satisfaction that Hanson had blatantly been proved wrong in front of everyone. But I also realised that he wasn’t in charge because he was just such a powerful personality, there were merits to his leadership. It was possible that we would have cut some time off taking shelter if we’d followed Hanson’s advice last night. But panic had set in and we were out of options. I had the suspicion that the perpetrators of the move against Hanson would be punished in subtle ways I had yet to see in action.

  I dismissed this from my mind as we finished breaking camp quickly. Half an hour later we set off. We had to back track a little to get back to our planned route. But within twenty minutes we were heading downwards again and travelling along snow softened banks in which collapsed mounds indicated many entrances to the burrows we could have made camp in last night. It reminded me of a rabbit warren. This would need Bunnies 30 feet long if it was working to scale.

  We followed the edge of this banking as it curved towards to the east and then away and the ground flattened out. Before we had gone another twenty feet the snow ended abruptly. I looked back to see those ice cream mounds, then forward again to see a slightly gritty levelish plain with rocky outcroppings and a few bushes. This place was extremely exposed. It was if you like, a cold desert. If I half closed my eyes I could almost imagine balls of tumble weed and old wooden shack with a cowboy and a horse tied to a rail.

  Jared was pleased that at last we were putting in some miles at a speed greater than a delinquent snail. This was truly a wide open desert of orangey rocks on which scrubby looking plants clung to life. The illusion of a hot place was greater than I first supposed. And then, gloriously the sun came out. It illuminated mile after mile of rocks and dust, and new varieties of spiky plants. These were more vertical and slightly fan shaped. Rather like a miniature cactus. But they were a purple grey colour at the base changing gradually to a rosy orange at their ends. They reminded me of elaborate combs, or slices of melon seen edge on, balanced on a small occasional table. We didn’t stop to take a sample which I found disappointing. I wanted to know what they really looked like close up; if they were hard or soft, spongy or resilient, and if they had a smell to them. They looked as though they ought to. They only thing that I remembered smelling apart from meat stew and snow, was Janey’s perfume when she had leaned close to me this morning as I was doing the temperature readings for last night. I’d forgotten them as soon as I wrote them down, but not her scent. She smelled of fresh roses and just the faintest hint of minty toothpaste. I screwed my face into a serious looking mode and took a peek through the binoculars. No one appeared to notice my mind wandering. I decided to only indulge replay of brief joy when alone in my bunk. And felt a slight tingle of anticipation at being asked to do relaxation exercises with Janey at the next camp. Either tonight or tomorrow, depending what progress we made. We seemed to be clocking up the miles really speedily. We made a brief lunch/loo stop and then carried for some really hard hours travelling. I was just beginning to get bored when we stopped to let Joe swap to driving for a while. Jared curled up right in the back on one of the upholstered benches. Adam and Nikolas moved into the seat just behind me. Joe, our medic and all round fixer of things took us at a cracking pace and overtook the others. Marcia and Hanson both hailed us and told him to slow down. He just shrugged and carried on. A Little while later the buggy passed us with James at the wheel. I think after spending a night with Hanson’s Bad mood he’d resolved to ride in the other vehicle on this stretch. Our vehicle could take four more at a push; and the buggy could hold up to six. The Land rover took four comfortably and six uncomfortably. I amused myself for a while by working out how many were the maximum and minimum for each vehicle. I just come to the conclusion that 20 people could travel in reasonable comfort or 22 if they liked their knees rubbing. There were twelve in our group so we had the potential to pick up 8 people who were stranded. I guess I was always thinking of a backup plan. I chewed over Janey’s warning for a while. I think I was being a little easily led. Sabotage! I mean; this was just one of those scientific missions. Terribly altruistic: for the good of humanity, that sort of thing. I began to believe that perhaps Janey was as much a fantasist as my father had been. She was extremely attractive in a cool, unobtainable toothpaste kind of way. I felt disarmed by her… therefore I didn’t trust her. And dreaming about some creature you barely know! I slapped myself mentally a few times and “got real” as Alex put it to me only last week. He had made some cutting remark that the only woman for me was one who didn’t shave her legs and had eyebrows that met in the middle. I knew he was trying to insult me but I’d been trying to deconstruct what that might mean practically ever since.

  Just as I was forming yet another hypothesis on the nature of Alex’s past experience we stopped. Everyone got out. There was something worth seeing. An Ice Lake that was glowing like that mirror of the God’s in some mythological tome. We stood with a hushed awe. Bright like polished gold. The time of day and the sunlight made this a rare treat. Nikolas spent a good ten minutes getting plenty of shots. We moved on just as clouds started to gather, and the sun was westering. This time there was nothing to worry about it was still early, relatively speaking. We would make our planned camping spot ahead of schedule today. As we approached I saw it was a rocky compound that had a gap just wide enough for the vehicles to pass within. We would be under the big dome tonight. As soon as camp was set up and dinner was on the go I asked Hanson permission to go and take some pictures of the lake. I went out to see the setting sun beginning to melt into a rainbow of colours in the smoking haze. This reflected perfectly in the icy pond that stretched several miles. I could just make out what I took to be rocks at the other end. It was the size of a Scottish loch. I asked Nikolas about it.

  ‘Oh we’re at the top edge of something that goes down for miles. I believe there’s a probe under the ice somewhere.’

  ‘Underneath? How?’

  ‘I think it partially melts in summer if it’s very mild. It’s been down there for five years. But don’t quote me on that, it could be longer.’

  I took a few pictures and stood looking out as the minute changes of light overtook the reasonable tolerance of my camera. Nikolas was still taking shots with his super digital on a sturdy tripod. I asked him about this.

  ‘Oh! It’s taking a shot every 30 seconds. I’m doing a time-lapse sequence for the University.’ he handed me some chocolate, ‘They're the ones who are paying me.’ he added, ‘And don’t say anything about the cocoa to Hanson. He’ll kill me.’

  ‘Are you on some sort of strict diet?’

  ‘No idiot. It’s to stop smudges getting on the lenses.’

  ‘Oh.’ I chewed gratefully. I was happy watching the sunset knowing that Alex had developed in me an immunity to such comments. The light was just getting to the point where it was difficult to see if you were myopic. I was blessed with good night vision as was Nikolas. Suddenly I shouted out and he pointed. Some strange dark shape had moved quite suddenly no more than ten yards from where we were stood. And unlike in stupid films, where most of the characters either disappear, or meet their demise in inventively unpleasant ways, we didn’t immediately split up and go and investigate; and leave the equipment to be fiddled with by an unknown enemy.
/>   ‘Here. Take the camera bag, and that case.’ Nikolas didn’t glance at me but kept his eyes towards the strange movement that we had seen. I obeyed without a word. He picked up the tripod and camera all in one and with a loose waterproof bag slung across his shoulders began to walk backwards a step at a time scanning from side to side and all around. When we got into the circle of illumination at the entrance Nikolas hailed Hanson on the head piece he was wearing. He didn’t really need to bother. Hanson was near the entrance anyway; and Nikolas was shouting… the only real sign that he was freaked out by what we had seen.

  Hanson helped carry the camera and set the tripod down in one of the inner pods.

  ‘They’re out there again!’ Nikolas was saying to Hanson.

  ‘Who is?’ that was Adam.

  ‘What going on?’ Janey came out with something technical in her hand that had wires dangling from it. Oliver and Jules followed her.

  ‘It’s one of our “Visitors” again.’ said Hanson, he smiled rakishly and shrugged, ‘We were expecting this sooner or later.’ he seemed calm and in control now that everyone else was perturbed by the news of these strange creatures. I suddenly remembered our sighting from the big transport before we fell through that rocky spout. I thought that perhaps Jared had not told Hanson about this. I certainly hadn’t. Everyone was looking at each other as if this was the first news of this type of thing on this trip. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. I felt that if there was a time to mention our previous encounter then this wasn’t it.

  ‘Ok!’ said Hanson suddenly; in an I’m-getting-your-attention kind of way, ‘This is real kiddies. From here on in no-one goes out on their own. Got it! And everyone signs out and signs back in if you leave camp for any reason. That includes equipment…’ at this Nikolas groaned; Hanson blinked and continued, ‘One signature per set if it’s your own stuff, batteries counted as separate.’

  ‘Why is that?’ I quietly nudged Jared who came up softly and stood just behind me.

  ‘Because Batteries means power, means survival.’

  I spent the next ten minutes trying to see the possible uses of one small camcorder battery in a life threatening situation. I thought perhaps if you bit it hard you might get a small shock. You could put it inside a cheese sandwich and leave it out for someone to wolf down. Hanson’s rhetoric on the merits of “being careful” & “being safe” slid over me like ice-cream on a kid’s slide. I was perfectly protected. That’s what came of being a complete coward. I blinked and looked around. Pools of light overlapped each other, and somewhere a radio was playing; maybe a track on an MP3 player. I really wasn’t clear about what signals would travel round here and which ones wouldn’t.

  Janey was walking towards me and everyone could be seen doing whatever they wanted in the wind down after dinner.

  Dinner? I must have had dinner. I held my breath suddenly disturbed by this weird time dislocation. I traced things back from the moment I was in. Back… and back, and then before that. Yes. I had just come out here after eating that last slice of pie, redcurrants and sweet cherries with custard. And before… I was having a mountain of pasta bolognaise. Marcia was joking about how much pasta Curly Pete could eat. He responded good naturedly with an offer to finish hers off in typical student-like fashion. Before that I’d put my camera away and washed my hands. I was helping Nikolas take down the tripod and store the photographic equipment before that. And that took me back to Hanson talking. I came back out here a moment ago because of… what? I wanted to remember something. I wanted to recall something I wasn’t paying attention to at the time. I needed to find the clue to a feeling I’d begun to have over dinner. Hanson said something that made me really question what was going on. My mind had stored it and sent my conscious mind a note to say “check this out”; so that is what I was doing. I shivered. Janey was holding two steaming hot drinks. She handed me one wordlessly and stared out of the little Perspex viewing window with me. Strangely a few stars were visible. I sipped. Coffee with cream; hot and delicious.

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘You’re welcome.’ she said and carried on tilting her chin upwards as she looked, and back down as she took another sip.

  ‘Janey?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘What did Hanson say about…? Umm… you know?’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean.’ she said mildly, ‘if you tell me what he said, I’ll tell you what I thought he meant.’

  ‘I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to remember. You will think me really stupid now I suppose.’ I hoped being self-depreciating tone would help keep me in Janey’s list of people who weren’t complete twerps.

  ‘Actually.’ she said looking intensely thoughtful, ‘I know what you mean. He says a lot of things. But some just stand out as being really discomforting.’ she turned to me then and smiled brightly. ‘I wouldn’t let it get to you, if I were you… best to sleep on it. Everything will look better in the morning. And if you remember the thing you were thinking of you can ask me about it then.’

  I was then that I realised that people like Janey and Hanson were just too clever for me. There was no way I was going to say anything to her later. The moment would be lost.

  She went back inside then which lifted a sense of oppression that had begun to gather at her last statement. And I saw Hanson in my mind’s eye speaking and saying “the extent of the personal risk that each person is willing to recognise in themselves.” All so much voodoo crap really. But it felt like a warning, or a threat, or maybe even; however remote it might seem, a helpful reminder.

  *****

  Four

  Three days later, or was it four? I had just put the spikes into the ground with Curly Pete's help.

  'Time for dinner!' he exclaimed cheerily. I had come to the conclusion early on that his dustbin-like approach to food was really the right one. He went to parties for the grub, not the nubile first years who were still offering their wares to all comers.

  As we sat down to eat I reflected on the universal nature of the humble spud. How in its many forms it was utterly comforting. We had mash. Nikolas and Jared and Joe were all modelling it with their forks. Hanson and Oliver were having another serious and technical conversation that I couldn't follow.

  'Jargon! It's for the big men with the big attitude.'

  It was Jules. I think this was the first time he'd spoken directly to me.

  'I assume that you're not including me or yourself in that group?' I stabbed a rehydrated carrot.

  Jules grinned in a lopsided way, 'He warned me how direct you are. I guess I'm happy about that. I'm the one they brought along to make the numbers up. Just scraped in at the last minute. What about you?'

  'Oh..,' I was still chewing a stringy bit, 'I applied six months ago.'

  'Taking a sabbatical from work?'

  'Well yea. My boss is keen on dangerous sports... And other stuff.' I'd finally got rid of that carrot, and added rather unnecessarily, 'I have a friend at work that goes diving.'

  'I take it that wasn't your sport of choice... Or you wouldn’t be here?'

  I thought for a moment... Actually it would have been fun to be dangling my feet over the side and enjoying a few decent beers with Alex. And from the way he described it you would think actually going under water was akin to some sort of spiritual revelation of a transformational kind.

  'Actually I'm not sure if I really should be doing this.’

  'Ah!' Jules lowered his voice, ' not got the bug yet then?'

  'What?'

  'Most of them...' he waved his knife roughly at the rest of the table, 'are on their 5th or 6th trip.'

  'Joe?' I pointed with my fork.

  'Fifth.'

  'Adam?'

  'That would be the fourth.'

  'Nikolas then?'

  'Only the second, not yet addicted. There's still hope.'

  'Ok, Curly Pete?'

  'First, like you'

  'Jared?'

  'Uh.. Seventh I think
. Oliver too.'

  'That leaves James, Hanson, the ladies and you.'

  'So... James, sixth; Marcia, Sixth; Hanson, Seventh; Janey, Eighth.'

  I was surprised, 'So Janey has been out here more than Hanson.'

  'Yea... She's the divine Alchemist of this place. The way it works means that the head scientist can't also be the team leader. Get it!'

  'And what about you?'

  He stared at me. He had really strange eyes... Reminding me of my mother's cat, 'I was the same as Janey. I was eighth too.'

  'So the addiction?'

  'Is impossible to escape. It's like going back again and again to climb a mountain. You just keep going until it stops you.'

  'Stops you? You mean like Aiden?'

  'So you do have a dark side. Yea, exactly like Aiden. Ask Janey if you want to know more about it.'

  'Huh; thanks...' I looked at my last three meat balls sitting on the mash and thought of our little spaceship styled cars and truck trundling across the ice. In a few moments they disappeared.

  Marcia came round with spoons. That meant another fabulous pudding. It was treacle sponge and custard which I love. Janey's coffee was the only thing that could unstick my jaws and re-oil my brain. In fact it was the only thing that added a dimension of reality to an otherwise strange trip. The other time was when I was alone in my little pod and everything was really quiet. I'd started writing in my small leather bound journal. I liked to write longhand rather than into a computerised device. It seemed more adventurous by the light of my tiny lantern. I had begun three days ago at the lake stop. Marking the days since our first official "encounter" seemed significant. I didn't mention the other unofficial one, not even in here. I kept it as superficially factual as necessary. I imagined Alex reading it. That neutralised the strangeness of what I felt inside. I found myself missing his insults and wild suggestions. And even the near misses with sharpened pencils that he lobbed at me when the boss was being really cantankerous. That was at night when I could wrap myself away as if I was at my own place. I started to pretend that I could hear the faint noise of traffic from the Main road just off the street I lived on. When I heard the wind against the outside of the dome, I heard instead the sheeting on next door's greenhouse filling and emptying in the breeze of a summer night. I was funny how the only connection I had to home in my waking hours was that trace of scent that Janey wore; roses that grew on the fence and were tended by an older Lady who was my other neighbour.