by C. Gockel
The two grappled with a clasp for a moment, before the doctor yelled for Rebecca to help. “Have to get out!” Dorothy screamed, flailing at the two women holding her.
“Get her up the ladder, inside,” said the doctor, trying to yank her up the metal rungs.
Rebecca wrapped her arms around Dorothy, the slick plastic of their suits making her slide loose. She tried to push her up the ladder, but it was too late. Dorothy unclasped her helmet and twisted it off. It tumbled over Rebecca’s own helmet and down her back onto the alien soil.
“Soil and Rain,” swore Dr. Cardiff.
Dorothy just gasped.
“Get her in the airlock.”
Rebecca shook her head and let go of Dorothy. She bent and picked up the helmet. “We can’t. You know the procedure.” She pulled a bottle of disinfectant from her pocket and sprayed the ring and interior of the helmet.
“We don’t even know if it’s breathable air!” shouted the doctor.
Rebecca calmly swiped the helmet with a soft cloth and then twisted back over Dorothy’s head, turning the clasps. “Oxwell and Titov finished their tests last night. It’s breathable, but we don’t know if there are harmful microbes—”
“So what, you want to just leave her out here to have a panic attack?”
Hackford sunk slowly onto her knees, still gasping, making herself as small as possible, pressing herself against the familiar metal rungs of the ladder.
“We have to report it as an exposure,” said Rebecca. “We can’t let her back into the ship until she’s been cleared.”
Dorothy had recovered her breath enough to begin screaming.
“We can’t leave her like this— the stress, if she has any abnormality in her heart or her brain—” Dr. Cardiff shouted over Dorothy.
Captain Stratton’s voice broke through on their filaments. “Everyone back to the ship. We’ve had an exposure. I need everyone back with their samples. Now.”
“Captain, what about Hackford?” Dr. Cardiff asked.
“You know the procedure.”
“She won’t last seventy-two hours like this. Not alone, certainly.”
“We can take shifts and stay with her,” said Rebecca.
Dr. Cardiff shook her head. Dorothy continued to scream.
“Can’t you give her something?” Rebecca asked.
“No,” said Stratton, “Not until the tests are finished. We don’t know how a sedative might react with whatever she’s been exposed to.”
“This is cruel and unnec—” Cardiff said, starting up the ladder.
“Don’t tell me what’s unnecessary on my ship!” shouted Stratton. “It’s my job to keep the crew safe. And that’s what I’m doing. If you have a problem with it, take it up with the Admiral when we get home.”
Cardiff climbed back into the ship, her face twisted with anger, ready to fight. Rebecca knelt next to Dorothy, one arm around the screaming woman’s shoulder. The radargram flapped under Rebecca’s knee. She watched the small buggy appear at the end of the landing zone and rattle toward the ship. The five scientists were unreadable in their clean plastic suits, the strange orange sun reflecting off their helmets so that their faces were invisible. Rebecca waited until they climbed past her and into the airlock before curling around Dorothy. She covered the sides of Dorothy’s helmet with her arms, making a dark, close shell. The woman finally stopped screaming and Rebecca pressed her own helmet against the other looking in. All she could hear was Dorothy’s ragged breath. At least she was still alive.
“Better?” she asked.
“A— little. Don’t move your arms. The sky— it’s so pale and terrible, so far away—”
“We should never have come here,” said Rebecca softly. “We don’t belong here. We’re meant to be out there. Safe.”
Dorothy sobbed. “Don’t say that. I just got scared. I just needed a little more time to get used to the idea. But don’t say that we shouldn’t be here.” Her glove scraped against the gravel and she picked up a small stone. “I don’t know what’s going to happen Emery, but I didn’t expect this. This is the first non-mined rock I’ve held in my entire life. I don’t even know if I’d recognize a natural stratification from an artificial one anyway. Somebody meant for us to find a planet. Our parents, their parents, somebody way back on Earth meant for us to land here. Otherwise, why keep training us like this? Why bother with geologists and entomologists? Why did you study anthropology? Because we thought we’d find somewhere. Because we thought we could learn to adapt to another place, another society. We’re dying up there, Emery. Can’t you see? This planet’s going to kill me because I couldn’t keep my head. Because I’ll go nuts if I lift up my head and see all the room around me without people, without ship walls. We’ve forgotten what makes us human. We’ve forgotten how to overcome. Whatever happens— the Keseburg needs this place, or one like it. And we need it soon.” Dorothy curled the stone in her hand and brought it to her chest, still hiding her face from the outside.
Leroux finally emerged from the ship with the medical supplies, followed by Titov and Alice carrying the portable lab. “Oxwell,” she said, “Help me get the isolation chamber up.”
Alice and Titov unpacked the kit. A flap of loose plastic went up and began closing them in. Dorothy lifted her head and her breathing slowed as the translucent material made the world around them a jumble of bright colors without shape or meaning. “Thanks for staying Emery,” she said. She held out a hand. “I’ll take a look at that radargram now.”
Rebecca nodded and handed it to her. Leroux and Oxwell rolled a metal cot into the small plastic room, unfolding a plastic floor covering and beginning to seal it. Rebecca left to give them more room. She slowly climbed the ladder into the ship and went through decontamination. It was early in the day, but nobody seemed in the mood to continue working. She flipped through the photos of the lake site on her filament feed half-heartedly. She traced the rough lines with her eye and then shook her head. It wasn’t going to be structures. They never were. Not in all those hundreds of years. Titov would tell her the metal piece was just a fluke, just some natural formation that her mind insisted was special and significant. They were just so desperate not to be totally alone. One solitary ship of life limping through space. She closed her eyes.
“We’re dying up there, Emery. Can’t you see?” Dorothy’s voice echoed in her head.
Maybe that was okay. Maybe it was right that they dwindle, peter out. Maybe sentient life was the anomaly, not the rule. In all these years, in all these generations they’d never found a hospitable planet. Spixworth had been incredulous, but Rebecca was starting to wonder. If life like ours is so normal, we ought to have found it somewhere. We ought to have colonies from here to Earth, she thought. Instead, Dorothy was sitting in a claustrophobic plastic bag, waiting to see if she’d die. Just for thirty seconds of unfiltered air.
Chapter Eleven
“There we go.” Titov adjusted the small photo frame next to the cot where Hackford sat. “Brought you dinner too.” He unzipped his suit pocket and pulled out a foil packet and a small flask. “Corn and bean mash,” he made a face and handed it to her. “And—”
“Cosmic glug?” asked Hackford.
“Shhhh. Don’t want Leroux to hear,” he said.
“I’m right here,” said Leroux without looking up from the reports on her feed.
“Is it— okay?” asked Hackford. Leroux glanced over and snorted.
“That’s it?”
“It’s all she needs,” said Titov.
“Not if it’s as weak as your last batch,” laughed Leroux. “It’s fine Dorothy. Just— don’t tell the captain. And eat.” She went back to the reports.
Titov bounced his knees nervously.
“Tell me about outside,” said Hackford. “I didn’t really— I couldn’t look.”
“Well, I mostly took air and soil samples today, but only nearby. The field lab’s set up on a nice grassy area. There’s a river on one side.
Emery took some water samples. I think she picked up some stones for you too. Oh—” He fumbled in his pocket for a moment. “I almost forgot. Sorry— everything happened so fast today.” He pulled out a small glass case. “Emery found this in her samples. She wants to know if it’s natural.” He handed it to her and she squinted at it. It glinted and she clicked her feed to magnify her view.
“You do a chemical analysis yet?” she asked.
“Gold and copper alloy. It’s seen heat, but—” he shrugged. “Lightning strike? Volcano? Your area, not mine.”
She twisted the container to examine it. “I don’t think so. Where did she find it?”
“River bank. She said she didn’t think the indents were erosion, but wanted to check with you. I don’t know how it would make that shape though.”
Hackford shook her head. “Those aren’t like any erosion marks I’ve seen. She sent me some radargrams…” She trailed off, calling up documents on her feed. Titov patted her knee.
“Well, now that I’ve given you a mystery to occupy yourself, I need to go make a video log for Peter. I promised.”
Hackford smiled. “Thanks, Andrei. I really needed a visit.”
“Don’t mind me,” sighed Leroux, “I’m apparently just corn and bean mash.”
“You didn’t bring her glug. Gets the ladies every time.”
Leroux wrinkled her nose. “Blech. It’s practically dishwater. You have any more?”
Titov laughed. “Captain Stratton’s got the last of the stash. Unless Blick finds some alien fruit, that’s it until we get back.”
“I think— tell Emery I want to keep this for now,” murmured Hackford. “I’ll— I’ll call her in a while.”
“You find something?”
“Something . But I don’t know what yet,” said Hackford.
“Emery, wake up.” Rebecca shifted on the narrow bunk and pulled the thin blanket back over her shoulder. “Emery, are you up? It’s important.”
Rebecca sighed and reached a heavy hand up to the media filament. “Yeah— I’m here. What’s going on?”
“The radargram you gave me— did you calibrate the equipment first?”
She rubbed her eyes. “Yes, Captain Stratton did a systems check just outside, and then we did another when we reached the valley while the others were setting up the field lab.”
“Is there more data? Did you file it in another place?”
“No— you have a printout of everything. At least, not radar data. We found a piece of metal near the river, but it was loose. I thought it might be shaped, but for all I know, it develops that way here. You can see the pictures on the feed.”
“No need. Titov left it with me this afternoon. Looking at it right now.”
“Ah,” Rebecca yawned. “I wanted to get more from the radar, but Captain Stratton didn’t want to go beyond the landing sector just yet, unless we had a good reason.”
“I think we have a good reason, Emery.”
“What’s going on? I was able to make out some underground pockets but you know I’m rubbish at interpreting those things.”
“I’m not certain, but I don’t think they’re just pockets. They’re too large and too regular to be natural caverns. The only other thing I can think is that they are some kind of volcanic vent, but the surrounding material isn’t right.”
“Maybe it would be different here.”
“It shouldn’t be. The elemental makeup is very similar to records of Earth. Other things may be different— the plants, that spiky animal you found— the microbes. But the bones should be about the same. No, I don’t think we’re looking at a volcano. I think they might be tunnels. Really big tunnels.”
“Could it be the river? Some underground tributary?”
There was a pause. “I don’t know. It’s possible, but water wear is often oddly shaped. It follows the path of least resistance. If it were water, it should be bumpy or winding. But this— they look almost regular . Same size, same shape, smooth lines. And there’s something else. It’s hard to tell from just the radar, but they go pretty deep, deeper than the range of our equipment. Maybe deeper than the water table. That doesn’t happen, at least, not without some kind of mechanism to keep the water from flooding them.”
She swung her legs over the side of the bunk. “So we’re looking for, what? Giant moles? Snakes? Rabbits?”
“I— I don’t know. I’m not an expert, you’ll have to show Martham. I don’t think we’re going to be sure without going down there. Where did you find the metal piece?”
“I was taking silt samples on the riverbank and it got sucked into the hose. It looks— shaped. But Captain Stratton and I searched the area for hours and didn’t see anything else. Of course, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there, just that I need more time and equipment to find it. But the Hardcoop didn’t send back anything that would lead me to expect any kind of settlements. No structures, no electrical traces, no dams or large collections of metal.”
“What if it was all underground? Could the Hardcoop find it?”
“I suppose small settlements wouldn’t show up, but there would still be signs. Where would they put their waste products? I would expect some kind of water system or food production would be on the surface.”
“You’re assuming that they would eat the same things we do and process it the same way.”
“And you’re assuming a single piece of metal and a hole in the ground means advanced society.”
“I’m not assuming anything, Emery. I’m just intrigued. If there were someone here, maybe they could help. Maybe we wouldn’t be so alone. And— and you’ve been kind to me. I want to see something good happen for you. I don’t want the others to question your value anymore. Would it be so bad if there were others here?”
Rebecca reached for her uniform. “For them or for us?” she asked. “I don’t think there are many people who would assume that whoever was here would be friendly and willing to help us. And I think most of the people on Keseburg would say they didn’t care and try to settle here anyway, regardless of what it meant for whoever was already here. We’re just desperate enough to try and just equipped enough to do some real damage. Yes, Dorothy, I think it will be very bad if there are others here.”
Hackford was silent for a moment. “Do— do you want me to forget about it? Tell the Captain it’s just a natural cavern?”
“No— we have to know. We can’t just pretend it isn’t there, especially if it turns out to be something man— uh, alien-made. Later settlement research would find it anyway.” She sighed. “Right now, we’re small. Just a curiosity. A few lost souls wandering around a foreign place. If there is someone here, we probably won’t appear to be a threat. Strange, yes. Scary even. But not really a threat. Once we are here in larger numbers though…”
She stood up and started dressing. “You want some company out there?”
“Leroux is out here with me. She’s sleeping in her suit. I tried to get her to go to bed, but she refused. Maybe if you took her place for a bit?”
“Wake her up and send her in. I’m getting dressed now. I want to see what you’re looking at.” She slid a leg into her plastic suit and fought another yawn. She checked the seals after sliding the other leg in and pushed an arm into the top of the jumpsuit.
“You ever read novels, Emery?”
“Sure, I like the ones that have love stories.”
“What about the space ones?”
She laughed and slowly sealed the front of her suit. “Those? They are so old-fashioned and unrealistic. Some of them have people zipping around space like magic. They make me think the Earthlings believed we’d have made it this far within a year or two.”
“Yeah, they’re hokey, sure. And a little naive. But they didn’t know any better. And behind the magic technology and the weird speech patterns, there are decent stories. I always liked the space ones. Especially the ones where aliens came to Earth.”
Rebecca tugged on a boot. “Wish they wo
uld have done it for real, would have made our lives much easier.”
“Not according to the Earthlings. It was always bad when the aliens came. Well— almost always. They always wanted to destroy the humans, take the planet for themselves. Or use us as slaves or food or whatever. Or even just— they’d study us, do experiments. It was always bad.”
She began walking toward the equipment lock. “Makes sense, I guess. Colonization has a pretty brutal history on Earth. It would be normal for people to fear it.”
“You know that animal you found this morning? That porcupine thing?”
“Sure. But I think it found me.”
“Martham’s got it in a glass tank and won’t feed it. She says she’ll release it in the morning. But there will be more. Other things in tanks. Oxwell will have to expose them to things, to see if we can live together. Someday someone’s going to try killing and eating one.”
“Yes.”
“Rebecca— we’re the aliens. We’re the colonizers. We’re the bad thing that’s going to happen to this planet.”
She twisted the helmet on and pressed the airlock button. “I know,” she yelled through the hissing. The door slid open and the dark planet lay before her. She paused for a moment at this first glimpse of natural night. One that would end, unlike all the others in her life on the Keseburg. What would a sunrise be like? She turned to face the ladder and climbed down. “Martham would tell you that there is always some violence when two or more organisms compete for the same niche. In some ways, it’s the natural order. Organisms evolve to share those resources, or one of them dies out. Are we so different from an invasive species back on Earth? Are we just one of Blick’s dandelion puffs blowing across a million miles to find better soil?” She backed away from the base of the ladder a few paces, looking at the Wolfinger’s dingy hulk. “Or are we something worse?”
“Flaming core, you two are depressing.” Spixworth’s voice floated over the feed.
“Sorry, Nick, didn’t know anyone else was up,” said Rebecca with a smile.
“Someone’s got to babysit Spike and the rest. Trying to see if any of the specimens are nocturnal. Didn’t think I’d need a stiff drink for that until you two got into it. I can understand you, Dorothy, nothing to do all day except stare at plastic sheeting. And not in a sexy way either. But Rebecca— cheer the hell up.”
