The food smelled good, but I have to say that after riding the skyhook I wasn’t all that hungry.
Steel started right in, “The first thing we have to do is locate the fixed ropes we left. This has got to be the right place, but it looks different to me.”
Archie replied, “I know. Me, too. It’s been a long time. We may be farther from the edge than we were. I thought we could see the cairn from the pickup point last time.”
“No, I don’t think so.” Steel took a bite. “Anyway, we’ll find it. It may have gotten knocked over. Remember, it’s been four decades.”
I asked Alice, “Do you recognize anything?”
She shrugged and then spoke around a mouthful of hash, “Kind of. I was pretty young. It seems the same.”
“We’ll find it,” Steel repeated.
“I think it’s best if we don’t start speaking in dialect until we get down to the plateau, same as last time,” Archie said.
“Right,” Steel agreed, “too much alien technology up here. We’d just confuse ourselves. But when we get down,” she looked at Alice and me, “we must stay in character.” We nodded. “It’s not just the way we talk. It’s the way we act.”
“No public sexuality,” I said.
“No public touching,” Steel corrected, “except handshakes. Women who know each other can embrace when they greet, but we won’t know anyone so that won’t be an issue. Other than that, nothing. No back rubs, no erogenous massage, no fondling. Nothing.”
“If you just think of yourself as constantly tense and frustrated you should do fine,” Archie put in.
“And we need to remember that males have the power here. Women are subordinate. Men run the government; men run the families. From church elders to elected officials, the power structure is male.”
Alice and I nodded again. It was going to be a challenge putting this over. We had to stay constantly alert, on our toes, concentrating—while appearing relaxed.
I remembered going to an open-air museum on Earth once, in Europe somewhere or maybe North America—no, it had to be North America. It was the re-creation of a colony where somebody had landed on a rock and started some traditional holiday or other and later they named an automobile after the colony (I’m sure I’m getting this all confused)—but anyway, everyone there dressed, spoke and acted as if they were in the seventeenth century. If you asked them a question that required knowledge of later times to answer, they’d just stare at you quizzically or try to answer using only what they would have known in that time. I had been fascinated and amazed at how well they’d pulled it off.
Now I was going to have to pull it off.
We finished the meal, suited back up and started hauling pallets of provisions out the airlock. We’d have to stock twelve different camps; it would have been a lot more but we were going to use powered jumars coming back up that would speed up the trip immensely. On the way down we’d be rappelling more often than down-climbing. Still, we figured it would take us about a week to make it to the bottom. The plateau was around two thousand meters in elevation; where we were at the summit of the escarpment was almost sixty thousand. A long, tough climb any way you sliced it.
The cairn turned out to be almost five hundred meters south of us. The little transponder they had left in it had died years ago so we had to find it by casting around. Fortunately we knew it was close to the edge of the cliff, so we were searching a line, not an area.
But what a view! The escarpment dropped in a series of cliffs and scree slopes. We were standing on good, solid crystalline rock (mostly granidiorite and schist) that fell initially almost two thousand meters in near-vertical cliffs, broken here and there by narrow ledges. At the bottom of this first drop, piles of scree descended at a forty to fifty degree angle before the next cliff cut them off. We’d get almost half-way down the escarpment before we started running into any significant amounts of snow; up this high, the atmosphere was simply too thin to support much precipitation. As I looked down past the fifth or sixth cliff band, I could see the atmospheric haze start to build up. Lines started to get a little softer, and the snow and rock took on a bluish tinge. I could easily see the curvature of the horizon out past the plateau and the ocean—I could see the band of atmosphere wrapping around it like a diaphanous halo. It was different than flying or being in orbit; we were actually standing on the ground. We would be walking from where we were down into the biosphere of the planet, descending into the soup of air and water the Edenites called home. I’d never experienced anything like it.
We spent the next six hours or so hauling all the supplies over to the cairn. Landing half a klick away from it had put us behind schedule. Archie and Steel debated whether we should spend the first night on top (putting us even more behind schedule) or trying for the first hut with what we had left of the day. Steel ultimately decided that we should press on. We’d landed in the early morning, local time, so we had another six hours of daylight left.
We were all a little tired from hauling. Even with powered suits, which negated the extra weight of wearing one, you still had to muscle around the mass every time you changed direction. They were well designed, so you really didn’t notice it at the time, but after a while it wore on you.
The first drop would be the toughest because we had the most supplies with us. We’d drop off a container at each hut. There were four of us (and I wished Ham were with us, but we had to leave him on the ship for obvious reasons) so we each tied into three containers for the first rappel. They would dangle below us on our way down. The other thing I wished for was a portable Musahdi lift, but high-energy gravitons have such a distinctive signature that Traffic Control would have been all over us.
When we were all rigged up it was time to decide who would go first. Steel took the honors. Alice would follow her down, then me, and Archie would bring up the rear. Steel snapped two carabiners into the descender and her harness and backed toward the edge. After she was in position, we carefully lowered the three containers that were also tied into her harness over the side. She continued backing up until her feet were on the edge and worked her way over. When she had her feet planted on the side of the cliff with her weight below the lip, she waved to us and kicked off.
It was a straight shot six hundred meters down to a nice little ledge about two meters wide. Archie, Drake and Steel had rigged ultra-lines when they were doing their research project—basically just bundles of super-long-chain polymer molecules wrapped in a sheath that’s opaque to ultraviolet rays, impervious to cosmic rays, and oblivious to attacks on its character. The stuff lasts forever and you can use it in lengths up to a thousand meters or so. Still, six hundred meters is a long way, especially when it’s vertical; Steel dwindled to a speck bouncing rhythmically off the face long before she reached the ledge.
[There’s a bump about a third of the way down,] Steel’s voice said over her system, [The crates got hung up on it for a minute. I had to swing out pretty wide to clear them.]
[I understand,] Archie answered.
[You can’t really see it coming. Just be aware.]
[Roger.]
We waited for about ten minutes before we heard her say, [All right. I’m on the first ledge. Send Alice down.]
So Alice hooked in and we backed her up to the edge, lowering her three crates over the side as she went. She placed her feet wide on the lip and started to lean back, letting the line take her weight, then stopped. Glancing down between her legs at two klicks of nothing she said, [Just a second,] and started to stand back up. She pulled herself away from the edge and turned to Archie, [You’re sure I came up this when I was ten years old?]
Archie laid a gauntlet on her shoulder. [You and Jacob both,] she said. I guessed Jacob had been the name of her brother.
[Boy, it’s ...] she looked over the edge again, [it’s a long way down, you know?] She laughed nervously.
[It’s all right,] Steel said, far below us but sounding no farther than our own breathing, [You kn
ow how to do this, Alice. Just take it one step at a time.]
[That’s right,] added Archie, [As long as you’re tied into the harness you can’t fall. Even if you let go of the rope, the descender will just brake you to a stop. The worst that can happen is you turn upside down, which is disconcerting but not dangerous. Just grab back onto the rope and pull yourself upright again.]
The image of me dangling upside down halfway down a two-klick cliff face came into my mind. It didn’t reassure me, and I wasn’t sure why it would reassure Alice, but she said, [Yeah, I know. I’ll be all right.] She took a breath and gathered herself. [I guess, if I’m gonna see Dad ...] She took another breath. [Okay. I’m okay] and she started backing toward the edge again.
She didn’t make it quite as far the second time. She came back up again and said, [Boy, I don’t know if I can do this.] She sounded pretty shaken. [It’s not like the simulators, you know? It’s—it’s ...]
[It’s all right, Alice,] Steel’s voice again, [just take a minute. We’re not in any hurry. Getting over the lip is the scary part. After that it’s really fun. You just have to trust your equipment.]
[Right,] Alice answered, trying to sound brave.
[Hey, it worked for me!] Steel said jovially.
Alice laughed, [That’s true.] She was still breathing heavily.
[Take your time,] Archie counseled.
“Yeah,” I added, “Think of it this way: the longer you put it off the longer I get to put it off.”
She laughed again. [I guess I am kind of holding up the show.]
[Not at all,] Archie said, [We have plenty of daylight left. If worse comes to worst the Captain can jumar back up here and we can spend the night on top. Try again in the morning.]
[That’s right,] Steel echoed.
Alice took a few deep breaths and said, [No, that seems silly.] She looked around for the crate, but it was out of sight behind a low rise. [Let’s just do it.] And she turned around again so that her back was to the edge.
This time she got to where she was squatting over the abyss, her weight mostly on the ropes, when she quickly pulled herself back up.
[Boy,] she said, [I just—I just feel like I’m going to fall right over and crack my helmet open on the rock.]
Archie put a gauntlet on either shoulder this time and said, [I wouldn’t worry about that. These suits are pretty tough.]
[It just feels so—so—You know? When you’re right there on the edge, you feel so out of balance, you know?]
“That’s because your rappel point is between your feet,” I offered. “I hate rappelling right off the top of something, because there’s nothing taller than you to tie off to. You’re right; it makes you unbalanced for a minute.”
[But as soon as you get over the side, and your center of gravity is lower than your anchor, you’re fine,] Steel added.
Archie agreed, [That’s right. That feeling of toppling goes away as soon as you’re sitting in your harness. Then you’re just ... sitting.] She laughed.
[Hey, how’re you guys doing down there?] It was Yuri.
[We’re fine,] said Steel. [Just a little momentary setback.]
[What’s up?] Yuri asked.
[I guess I’m being a problem,] Alice answered.
[No, you’re not,] said Archie, [You just take it easy. Take your time. You’ll be fine.]
[That’s right,] Steel agreed.
[Gummin’ up the works again, huh kid?] Yuri asked.
[Yeah.] Alice’s voice was still anxious, but you could tell she was starting to relax a little. [I’m just being a coward. I’m scared to go over the edge.]
[Well, you know what I always say ...]
[What’s that?] she asked.
[KOWABUNGA!]
Alice laughed, [Oh, yeah? Then you come down here and jump off this stupid cliff!]
[No, thanks,] he replied, [I’m always braver when everyone else is in danger and I’m some place safe. But I’ll tell you, Tamika and I just had some really great sex, if that makes you feel any better.]
[It does, it does,] Alice replied, [It really does.]
[It certainly makes me feel better.] That was Tamika’s voice.
[Well, let’s just bring everybody in on this,] Alice said, [This is getting embarrassing.]
[Sorry,] Tamika answered, [we were just monitoring you. Are you going to be okay?]
[Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine,] Alice protested, [I’m beginning to think it’ll be easier to go over the cliff than to continue this conversation.]
[That’s the spirit!] Yuri cheered.
[Whatever you think,] Archie cautioned, [If you feel up to it, we go. If not, we can come back and try again tomorrow.]
Alice came to a decision, [No, I can’t see this getting any easier if I back out now.] She checked her rigging. [Okay, let’s go.] She backed up to the edge again. [See you in the Great Hereafter,] she said, and backed over the lip. She had one bad moment, just at the point where her center of gravity shifted, but then she was fine. She sat in her harness for a moment, getting used to the feeling, then she said, [You’re right, Captain! This is fun! What a view!] and she dwindled away to insignificance.
Chapter 19
Getting down was just a tremendous amount of work. The hardest part was wrestling those damn crates down the talus slopes. After a while it seemed like they would deliberately seek out places to get hung up; we were constantly and endlessly pulling them out of holes. The way a talus slope is structured is determined by the fact that the bigger a piece of rock is, the farther down the slope it rolls. So up at the top (which would be right at the bottom of the cliff we’d just rappelled down) we’d be working on a steep hillside made of stuff the consistency of gravel or even sand. By the time we got to the bottom (which, in this case, was the lip of the next cliff we had to go over), we were working around pieces of mountain, ranging from maybe a meter across up to some the size of buildings. It seemed to go on forever; the only bright spot was that we lightened our burden by one crate with each hut we supplied.
The third day was the worst: the jet stream hit us. Marcus warned us that it was shifting north and we’d probably get a piece of it, and boy did we! It was impossible to rappel; we were lucky to get back to the hut. We had to sit there most of the day listening to the walls ring and hoping the whole hut wouldn’t launch into the void. It was so loud you couldn’t talk; you couldn’t think. Fortunately we were all exhausted so we slept most of the time. The next day the stream headed back to the south and we set out again.
Around fifteen thousand meters we started to hit patches of snow. A little lower the snow covered everything that wasn’t vertical and lowering the crates became a breeze; we just glissaded them down the snow slopes and then glissaded right after them. Of course, by that time we’d dropped most of them off at the various huts, anyway.
As the going got easier our spirits lifted considerably. It’s hard to describe what it felt like to look up and see the tens of thousands of vertical meters we had descended—glistening, fractured rock faces soaring to the zenith, achingly defined in the harsh, unfiltered sunlight of the stratosphere—and then turn around and see cliff upon cliff upon cliff falling away, fading into the blue haze of the thicker air beneath us. The scale was almost too vast to encompass. We’d get into arguments over whether or not the plateau was looking any closer, pointing out details we thought we hadn’t noticed before. But the horizon would be a little nearer after each day’s work; more of the ocean would disappear beyond it. The angle at which we viewed the tawny rock tableland below would get a little bit more oblique. The day came when the ocean disappeared all together, dropping below the edge of the plateau, and our impression of the planet changed from one of land defined by water to one of endless, endless rock. Rock defined the world before us; it filled the sky behind us. It held us and dominated us and overpowered us.
A kind of giddiness overtook us when glissading took the place of those back-breaking talus slopes. The ordeal of descending was transfo
rmed into a vacation as we went sliding down the mountain on our butts—sparkling, lacy rooster-tails of snow bursting from the pikes of our ice-axes like fireworks celebrating the ease of our descent. What would have been hours of hard labor up above became minutes of exhilarating fun, bouncing and caroming over sun-cupped snow. We just had to make sure and control our descent with the ice-axes, using them as both rudders and brakes.
Each new slope became a new artistic challenge. Another cliff had been negotiated, another danger had been overcome. Nothing to do but sit down and let gravity do the work. As we got more confident in the use of the ice-axes, we took the slopes faster and faster, making up all of the time we’d lost up on top. We were truly playing. Laughing and whooping, catching a little air as we went over small, natural ski-jumps, we flew down the escarpment like mountain sprites, completely at home in our world of precipices and steep snow. We had it licked. The mountain was ours.
Steel and Alice clapped and laughed as I swerved to a stop in front of them, sending up a spray that pelted them from head to toe. We were still up around ten thousand meters, two thousand higher than Everest. The next cliff we had to go over started twenty or thirty meters behind them, beyond a sequined snowfield. The hut we would spend the night in was at the bottom of the cliff, about eight hundred meters below. The wind was calm, and the weather was great. There was a small storm system building to the west, but it wasn’t a worry. One more rappel and we’d be done for the day.
As I stood up I looked up the slope to where Archie was descending. I couldn’t actually see her; she was lost in the flume of snow her heels were kicking up as she zipped down the hill. She was really moving. There were a couple of little jumps where you could grab some significant air and as she went over the first one we saw her explode out of the cloud she was creating, hurtling out into the void before she bounced back to earth. We couldn’t really see, but she seemed to hit the second jump a little sideways. It became clear that she had after she emerged from her snow cloud with her body perpendicular to her direction of flight. She hit pretty hard and started to roll. We waited for her to self-arrest, but she never did. She just kept tumbling down the hill. Then I saw her ice-ax flopping around her.
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