Selected Stories: Volume 1
Page 42
Somehow, her words about Boris Tiban did not reassure Rachel.
The noise of the storm muffled again, grew louder as Cora opened the outer door, then finally resettled into relative quiet. Rachel found herself alone with the newborn baby.
She had to push the crawler into overdrive to break free of the avalanche rubble. The vehicle groaned and lurched as it heaved over boulders, bucking from side to side. Rachel wished she had strapped herself in. Unsupported on the floor, the baby in the environment suit slid over to one corner and came to rest against a passenger bench. She could not hear the infant’s cries over the sound of the storm and the straining engine.
“Come on!” Rachel muttered to herself, pounding the plastic control panel. The effort sent a wash of dizziness over her. Her jaws chattered in the cold. The back of the crawler rose up at an angle over the worst of the obstacles, then she found herself free of the rock slide.
She slid the protective plates aside so she could see her course, though the storm made that nearly impossible. Using less caution now, she increased the crawler’s speed, trusting the vehicle to crush medium-sized rocks under its treads so she would not need to pick a path around them.
The chasm walls lowered and the floor widened within half an hour. She felt the urgency slackening as confidence grew; she would be out on the flat slope of Olympus Mons in a few moments, and she could use the guidance gear to choose the most direct course back home. She eased the crawler to greater speed.
She turned around to glance at the baby, to make sure it had not been injured.
Then Boris Tiban sprang out in front of the vehicle again and bounded onto its sloping hood. The dust swirled around him, but he seemed to draw energy from the storm. He hefted his metal staff over his head like a harpoon. The expression on his face made him look like a savage beast from the wilds of Mars.
Instinctively, Rachel ducked back. She did not think quickly enough to slam the protective plates over the windowports.
Boris brought the pointed rod down with a crunch in the center of the trapezoidal glass plate. A white flower of damage burst around the tip, and a high whine of air screamed out as he withdrew the staff. He brought the tip down again even harder, puncturing another, larger hole through the thick glass.
Rachel heard the wind’s roar and a distant howl that might have been triumph from the adin leader. “Stop!” she shouted, expending precious air. She yanked back on the control levers, bringing the crawler to a sudden halt.
The lurch tossed Boris Tiban from his perch, and he rolled nearly out of sight a few meters away. He staggered to his feet, using the metal staff.
She slapped at the control panel. The brilliant high beams on the crawler stabbed out like an explosion of light. Boris froze, blinded. He wrapped a forearm over his eyes.
Rachel could have accelerated the vehicle then and crushed him under the tread. But she could not do it. She stared at him, listening to the scream of escaping air from the puncture holes. She had created Boris Tiban and exiled him here. He had survived everything Mars could throw at him, and she could not kill him now.
Still unable to see, Boris staggered toward the crawler, raising his staff to strike again.
Cora appeared out of the whirlwind, stumbling and off balance—but perhaps only due to the wind, for she looked stronger than she had when she departed from the crawler. She kept her back to the bright lights.
Boris seemed to sense her presence and turned. He blinked at her in astonishment. Before he could react, Cora snatched the pointed metal staff out of his hand. Delayed by surprise, he did not grab it back immediately. He turned, as if shouting something through the storm at her.
Then Cora shoved the staff through his chest. In the low gravity, her strength was great enough for the thrust to lift him completely off the ground. The spear protruded from his body, puncturing the second set of lungs that rose like a hump on his back. Then she tossed him away from her.
Rachel slapped the palm of her hand against the largest hole in the windowport, picturing herself as the legendary Dutch boy who put his finger in the leaking dike. Instantly she felt the biting cold and the suction tearing at her hand, trying to rip it through the hole. She screamed.
Cora had fallen to the ground outside, but she staggered to her feet and stood in front of the vehicle. She made frantic motions with her arms. Their meaning was clear: Go! Now!
Rachel tore her hand away from the windowport, leaving a chunk of meat behind that dribbled blood and slurped as it was sucked outside. A frosty red smear coated the white cracks in the glass.
Blood dripping from her torn palm, Rachel found the metal tape and pushed several pieces over the punctures in the windowport. The tape dug into the hole, pulled toward the outside. She added a second and then third strip of tape over the punctures, and then began to breathe easier.
Outside, red dust had begun to pile around the body of Boris Tiban. Already Mars hurried to erase all traces of the intruder. Boris had thought himself invincible because he could withstand the rigors of the harsh environment. But Mars had not killed him—a human had, an adin human.
Hours later, she continued on a straight downhill course. The slope of the volcano offered a relatively gentle road, scoured clean. The wind continued to hammer at her—such storms rarely let up in less than four days—but it no longer seemed such a difficult thing to withstand.
The layers of metal tape sealed the punctures in the front windowport, but air still hummed out. The compressors kept laboring to fill the crawler with air; the heaters warmed the interior as fast as the Martian cold could suck it away. Rachel hoped she could remain conscious for as long as it might take.
The indicators showed the general direction of travel, though the storm and the iron oxide dust in the air could ruin the accuracy of her onboard compass. Boris had smashed her antenna, so she could not pick up the homing beacons of any nearby settlements, nor could she send out a distress signal.
But if she continued down to the base of Olympus Mons, she might encounter one of the dva materials-processing settlements that tapped into leftover volcanic heat, unleashing water from hydrated rock, smelting metals. She had been squinting through the dust for hours—and hoping. She could barely hear the baby crying inside her suit.
Rachel thought her eyes had begun to swim with weariness when she finally saw the yellow lights of a dva encampment. The squat, smooth-curved walls made the outbuildings look like hulking giants. Much of the complex would be underground.
Rachel let herself slump back in the driver’s chair.
She had made it back with the baby. She had returned to her world, when she had intended to be gone forever. Rachel felt a moment of bittersweet failure, wondering now if she could ever have stood alone and faced the onrushing wall of the storm, to let it carry her away into death.
And what would have been the point? An empty gesture for no one but herself.
There was no use mourning the completion of a job well done. Strong people found new goals to achieve, new challenges to face. Weak people bemoaned the loss of great days. Beside her on the crawler floor, this new baby was trying to be strong, to survive against all odds. Rachel Dycek could be strong, too, stronger than Jesús Keefer or the UN administrative council. Adapt to the hostile environment, and defeat it, Boris Tiban would have said. Humanity, in all its forms, would never be obsolete. Rachel would not be obsolete until she surrendered to obsolescence.
Ahead, the dim yellow lights of the dva settlement looked as welcoming as a New Year’s tree. The cold air of Mars whistled outside the windowport of her vehicle, moaning as it tried to enter through the metal tape. But she would not let it harm her.
She had work to do.
Previous Publication Information
“Memorial” © 2018 WordFire, Inc. First published in Reflections, 1978.
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“Rough Draft” with Rebecca Moesta © 2005 WordFire, Inc. First published in Analog, January/February 2005.
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“Combat Experience” © 2017 WordFire, Inc. First published in Brothers in Arms: Stories Inspired by Richard Matheson’s Beardless Warriors, ed. Barry Hoffman and R.C. Matheson, Gauntlet Press, 2017.
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“Escape Hatch” © 2014 WordFire, Inc. First published in Five by Five 3: Target Zone, ed. Kevin J. Anderson, WordFire Press, 2014.
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“The Next Best Thing to Being There” © 2017 WordFire, Inc. First published in Avatar Dreams, ed. Kevin J. Anderson and Mike Resnick, WordFire Press, 2018.
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“Terminal” © 2017 WordFire, Inc. First published online in Seat 14C anthology, ed. Kathryn Cramer, XPRIZE Foundation, 2017.
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“Collaborators” with Rebecca Moesta © 1995 WordFire, Inc. First published in VB Tech, July 1995.
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“Change of Mind” with Peter J. Wacks © 2015 WordFire, Inc. and Peter J. Wacks. First published in Pulse Pounders, ed. Kevin J. Anderson, WMG Publishing, 2015.
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“Reflections in a Magnetic Mirror,” with Doug Beason © 1988 WordFire, Inc. and Doug Beason. First published in Full Spectrum, ed. Lou Aronica and Shawna McCarthy, Bantam Spectra, 1988.
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“Mammoth Dawn” with Gregory Benford © 2002 WordFire, Inc. and Gregory Benford. First published in Analog, July/August 2002.
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“Job Qualifications” © 2008 WordFire, Inc. First published in Future Shocks, ed. Lou Anders, Roc, January 2006.
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“Paradox & Greenblatt, Attorneys at Law” © 2005 WordFire, Inc. First published in Analog, September 2005.
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“Prisoner of War” © 2000 WordFire, Inc. First published in The Outer Limits: Armageddon Dreams, ed. Kevin J. Anderson, BSV Publishing, 2000.
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“Log Entry” © 2006 WordFire, Inc. First published in Space Cadets, ed. Mike Resnick, SCIFI, 2006.
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“Music Played on the Strings of Time” © 1993 WordFire, Inc. First published in Analog, January 1993.
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“Newts” © 2008 WordFire, Inc. First published in The Best of Jim Baen’s Universe #2, ed. Eric Flint and Mike Resnick, Baen Books, 2008.
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“Ghosts of Mars” © 2018 WordFire, Inc. First published in Daily Science Fiction, 2018.
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“Human, Martian—One, Two, Three” © 1993 WordFire, Inc. First published in Full Spectrum 4, ed. Lou Aronica, Amy Stout, and Betsy Mitchell, Bantam Spectra, 1993.
About the Author
Kevin J. Anderson has published 140 books, 56 of which have been national or international bestsellers. In 2012 he launched his humorous horror series of mysteries featuring Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., who has starred in five novels and numerous short stories, even a graphic novel. Anderson has written numerous novels in the Star Wars, X-Files, Dune, and DC Comics universes, as well as unique steampunk fantasy novels Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Lives, written with legendary rock drummer Neil Peart, based on the concept album by the band Rush. His original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series, the Terra Incognita fantasy trilogy, and the Saga of Shadows trilogy. He has edited numerous anthologies, written comics and games, and the lyrics to two rock CDs. Anderson and his wife Rebecca Moesta are the publishers of WordFire Press.
If you liked Selected Stories: Science Fiction, Volume 1, you might also enjoy these books by Kevin J. Anderson:
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Resurrection, Inc.
Climbing Olympus
Hopscotch
Blindfold
Other WordFire Press Titles by
Kevin J. Anderson
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Alternitech
Blindfold
Climbing Olympus
Clockwork Angels: The Comic Scripts
Dan Shamble 1: Death Warmed Over
Dan Shamble 2: Unnatural Acts
Dan Shamble 3: Hair Raising
Dan Shamble 4: Slimy Underbelly
Dan Shamble 5: Tastes Like Chicken
Dan Shamble Collection: Working Stiff
Gamearth #1: Gamearth
Gamearth 2: Gameplay
Gamearth 3: Game’s End
Hopscotch
Resurrection, Inc.
The Saga of Seven Suns, Veiled Alliances
The Saga of Shadows, Whistling Past the Graveyard
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By Kevin J Anderson & Doug Beason
Assemblers of Infinity
Craig Kreident #1: Virtual Destruction
Craig Kreident #2: Fallout
Craig Kreident #3: Lethal Exposure
Ignition
Ill Wind
Lifeline
The Trinity Paradox
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By Kevin J Anderson & Rebecca Moesta
Crystal Doors #1: Island Realm
Crystal Doors #2: Ocean Realm
Crystal Doors #3: Sky Realm
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Star Challengers #1: Moonbase Crisis
Star Challengers #2: Space Station Crisis
Star Challengers #3: Asteroid Crisis
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Kevin J. Anderson & Neil Peart
Clockwork Angels
Clockwork Lives
Drumbeats
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Our list of other WordFire Press authors and titles is always growing. To find out more and to see our selection of titles, visit us at:
wordfirepress.com