Life on Mars?

by Francis Plestor

their outer layers. Dorian turned his back on the maelstrom, until the pelt of marrain eased, but the screaming wind did not subside.

  He turned back to look along the tunnel. It was difficult to see against the force of the wind, but he was sure that he could see a blurred greyness up ahead; a blurred greyness that was the wind source and then it was gone, vanished, as if it had never been there. The shuddering of the marrain eased to a slight rumble and then that too abated to silence. Dorian stared ahead at nothing.

  Where the tunnel should have continued there was now nothing except darkness. He eased himself toward that darkness, his thoughts turning to Sulara, his fears trying to hold him back. Were Sulara and the younglings up ahead, or not? He felt the cold grip of panic starting to well up inside him. He forced himself to relax, lest he became paralysed by fear. He fought down the dreadful thoughts that wanted to flood his mind and made his way closer to the darkness, closer to his fears.

  The tunnel was completely sliced through. Dorian found himself at the lip of the shaft. He felt the temperature dropping. He looked down into nothing but bottomless darkness; he looked up and detected a faint light filtering down. It was a shaft that reached to the surface. It was as those from the squeeze of the lost had described and it had severed their tunnel completely.

  Dorian allowed his vision to adjust. The shaft was huge but their tunnel had only been clipped by its edge. He could make out a darker patch just opposite, no doubt where their tunnel continued. He felt a slight movement in the air as the warmer air from their tunnel leaked out and up the shaft. The temperature was falling and that was a danger in itself. He looked to his right and followed the contours of the wall; a perfect arc leading away and around to the other side. He knew what could be done. He remembered what his father had taught him but it relied on someone else being there, someone else who also knew what could be done.

  Penru, one of the youngers in Dorian’s group, appeared at his side.

  “What has happened?”

  “Don’t panic Penru, we will be fine,” Dorian said with a confidence that he did not quite possess.

  “It’s cold. It’s just like before; is it a sudden shaft?” Dorian could hear the fear and uncertainty in Penru’s voice.

  “It is indeed Penru; a sudden shaft indeed and while we speak it is stealing our heat.”

  “What should we do?”

  “Soon we will need to collapse the roof of this tunnel near the shaft.”

  “How will that help?” Penru replied, uncertainty in his voice.

  “Firstly, the effort will warm us all up,” Dorian said with a smile, “but more importantly it will stop any more heat from escaping.”

  “Oh, I see, I wouldn’t have thought of that.”

  “Don’t worry, you will next time, but first I need to check something. Can you join the others and move them about two of my body lengths back along the tunnel. Tell them what I just told you and I will join you in a moment.”

  “I can do that,” Penru said, a note of confident optimism detectable in his voice.

  Dorian strained to see across the shaft, staring at the slightly darker spot opposite, willing it to show him a sign. He thought he saw a movement, a slight lightening in the darkness, a brief flash of grey white. His heartbeat quickened and he called out. “SU...LA...RA...” across the desolate void. His voice seemed small in the cavernous shaft, his hopes fading into its enormity.

  “There’s no need to shout,” Sulara’s voice whispered in his ear. He instinctively looked to his right but no shy smile greeted him. All he saw was the shaft wall arcing away from him into nothingness. His imagination had tricked him. His momentarily elevated spirits nose dived into a crash of emotion. He could feel the hope draining away from his senses but then her voice came again.

  “Dorian, Dorian, speak to me Dorian, please let it be you.” She was there again at his side, her disembodied voice as clear and bright as he remembered. How was it possible? Was he losing his mind? He tentatively spoke to her voice.

  “I can hear your voice my sweetness, but I cannot see you.”

  “Then look across the shaft.”

  Dorian swivelled his head back to the void and stared once again at the darker blackness on the other side. There it was again; a slight change in the light, a movement, it really was Sulara. “How come we can talk to each other?” he queried out loud.

  “It’s the arc of the wall.” She explained. “It carries the sound all of the way around. I have noticed it before in some of the feed caverns. If you stood in the right place, you could hear the conversation of others as if they were standing right at your side. It’s a little spooky, but it happens.”

  At that moment Dorian was suffused with happiness, relief and hope; the mechanics of their communication somehow less important than fact of it. All was not lost; they could be together again. Now that there was another who knew what could be done.

  “You remember what to do?”

  “Like it was yesterday,” she replied

  “I estimate two body lengths back. You?”

  “Seems about right to me. But Dorian, we’re losing heat; I can feel it seeping out up the shaft. If it gets too cold, we won’t be able to excavate, we’ll…”

  “Not to worry,” he cut in, hearing the terror creeping into her voice at the thought of a cold icy death. “Collapse the tunnel roof near the shaft and the warmth will be retained; it can’t seep out through the marrain.”

  “Got it.” Her voice was once more full of hope. “I don’t remember your father teaching us that.”

  “No, but he did teach us that sometimes you just have to work it out for yourself.”

  “You’re oldener before your time Dorian.”

  “And you are the best thing that ever came into my life, so let’s get cracking. I couldn’t bear to lose you now.”

  “No chance,” she said. “One little….no make that one enormous shaft isn’t going to keep us apart.”

  Dorian was filled with pride and happiness; his hope had been replaced by certainty, his strength returned, his salvation awaited. He returned to the waiting youngers. He could see that they had lost a lot of heat, they seemed lacklustre and down.

  “What have you been doing? We thought you were going to throw yourself into the shaft.” Penru said nervously.

  “Sorry to be so long. I just had to make sure that we could create a bypass.”

  “Bypass?” Penru queried.

  “You warm yourselves up collapsing the roof and then I’ll explain. We don’t want to lose any more heat, do we.”

  The youngers eased themselves forward toward the lip of the sudden shaft, not keen on the idea but knowing that it had to be done. As they worked they seemed to revive somewhat with the effort, their cold bodies warming up as they excavated. When they returned they found Dorian in an excavation of his own. Penru gently nudged him to get his attention and he joined them in the main tunnel.

  “Roof’s collapsed. We’re no longer losing heat. What now?” Penru, it appeared, had become the official spokesman for the group.

  “Now,” Dorian responded, “you are all going back to the last feed cavern. There you can feed and rest. Next wake return here and we will all progress together and rejoin the squeeze.”

  “And you Dorian, what are you going to do? You need to feed and you need to rest too.” Penru sounded alarmed.

  “Don’t worry Penru. I’ve gone without rest before and I will feed on the knowledge that we are all going to be OK. I just spoke to somebody on the other side of the shaft.”

  “Spoke! How?”

  “That’s another story, but I did. They are excavating a tunnel as I am. Our tunnels will meet and we will bypass the shaft.”

  “How do you know they will meet?”

  “Because we were both trained to do this by my father. It’s how we negotiate subsidence voids or a roof cave in. We excavate a new tunnel from each side. The angle of the tunnel is halfway between facing the tunnel wall and lookin
g straight up the tunnel. With a void, you have to come back far enough so that your excavation clears the edge of the void. I don’t want to tunnel straight into that sudden shaft. Here we estimated that two body lengths back from the shaft would give us the clearance we need. But, of course, you need to know that there is someone tunnelling from the other side. If you keep the tunnels level they should intersect. Simple!”

  The youngers did not look convinced. They clearly did not think it was quite so simple.

  “Trust me,” Dorian said, “it works. I have done it before.” He did not feel it necessary to tell them that he had only done it as a training exercise with his father and Sulara.

  “Look, you all go back to the feed cavern. I’ll be here waiting for you at next wake.”

  The youngers moved away back down the tunnel toward their last feed cavern. It was a long way to go, but when they got there they would be able to feed and rest. Dorian watched them on their way. They were tired, they were not completely convinced, but he could tell that they were mentally a lot better off than they had been earlier, now that they had hope.

  Dorian turned back to his excavation. It was going to be a long hard slog. He needed to pace himself. No point in going at it in a rage and using up all of his energy. He needed to take his time, be methodical, take breaks and conserve his strength. It could be done It would just take time. His thoughts turned to Sulara. She had just as arduous a task as he did. He hoped she was not letting desperation overcome her and sap her