Proxima Trilogy: Part 1-3: Hard Science Fiction

by Brandon Q Morris

  He was not wrong, as he has reached his first destination. Adam looks at the fascinating shapes of the ice surface. The ice did not freeze in the form of a solid wall. He can see ravines and rocks in bizarre shapes. Below the ice there must be currents of water with different temperatures that shaped these forms over long periods of time. Adam orders the camera to take as many photos as possible and generate a map from them. He slowly floats by this fantastic landscape and imagines himself walking across it upside-down. At the same time, the small computer in his suit compares the 3D map being created with the infrared images taken by Valkyrie. There must be matching areas, he just needs to have a little patience. Adam looks at the arm display. He has been on his way for less than half an hour. So far, the rescue operation is working fine.

  Then he hears a ‘ping’ in his ear. The computer found a match. From now on, he has a guide. Adam turns in all directions. The display is sending him northward. His heart is beating faster. Finally, a specific trail! He starts swimming faster. Ten minutes later the device on his arm vibrates. It must be around here. He looks at the ice statues above him. One of them looks like it is showing the planet the middle finger. He doesn’t have to put up with that. He touches the ice and crumbles it into small pieces. The ice layer is not very stable here.

  Then he discovers a hole. He makes sure by looking at the display. This is the spot, this is where Marchenko 2 obviously dug into the ice. He looks at the opening. Its diameter is about 80 centimeters. Should he venture inside? He feels a shiver running over his skin. He would fit into it, including his pressure suit and the oxygen container. Yet once he is inside the tunnel, he will not be able to turn around. While he does not suffer from claustrophobia, the idea of crawling into a dark, narrow tunnel extending for kilometers gives him the creeps.

  Does he have a choice? He thinks of Eve and their real Marchenko who might be up there, needing him. Or maybe not—perhaps they had long ago forgotten him, convinced he was dead. No, that is nonsense. Even if they believe him dead, which is very likely, they certainly would still think of him. With a little bit of luck he will be with them in an hour. He just has to squeeze through this tunnel. One more deep breath and then he starts out.

  The hole in the ice is as frightening as it looked from outside. A minute later Adam seems to suffocate, until he realizes he has involuntarily held his breath. He wants to make himself as thin as possible and only takes shallow breaths. Come on, Adam thinks, there is enough room. I have to breathe, breathe, breathe. The self-hypnosis works perfectly. The fear does not leave him, but it retreats into his stomach area.

  Suddenly he feels he has to relieve himself. He clenches his muscles. The tunnel stretches ahead of him. Adam cannot swim as fast as before, because he lacks space. He makes wave-like motions with his legs and uses his arms to push himself forward against the ice walls. How thick is the layer that he has to pass through? Does Marchenko 2 suspect he is following him? Certainly not, as he believes him safely locked inside the submarine. Well, nobody should underestimate him.

  Adam looks at the display. Now he has been inside this tunnel for 25 minutes. His anxiety is now very far away. His stomach is in knots and keeps his fear down, where it belongs. Suddenly the corridor ends. For a moment Adam looks down instead of up, and as if fate has been waiting for it, it places an obstacle in the tunnel. Damn! What now? He drums his fist against the ice, but in vain. Calm down, Adam, he thinks, it is too early to give up. He actually manages to calm himself. He moves his fingers across the blockage. The area is surprisingly smooth. Nature cannot have created the obstacle.

  There are slight gaps at the edges on the right and left sides. The block of ice fits the tunnel very well, but not perfectly. Marchenko 2 must have placed this thing here. Did he do this to prevent anyone from following him? That would be very clever. Adam has underestimated him. And this is the worst aspect of it: Unless he comes up with a really good idea, the plan of Marchenko 2 will succeed.

  Adam is thinking hard and has the feeling his little gray cells are overheating. He definitely must make it through here. What does he have available? If this is an artificial obstacle, it cannot be very large. He tries to imagine Marchenko 2. The robot must have cut this piece of ice out of the wall. During this project, he probably was in the tunnel himself, so there was not much space.

  What can Adam do about it? He could get rid of the ice using sufficient heat. However, he cannot generate heat, at least not enough to melt this plug. So he has to apply mechanical force. Marchenko 2 pushed the plug into the tunnel, so Adam has to reverse this. He presses his arms against the side walls and pushes with his feet. It doesn’t work. His feet slide off.

  Adam rummages through the tool bag on his belly. He finds a screwdriver he can use as a chisel, and a pair of pliers, but no hammer. Just to try it, he puts the tip of the screwdriver in the gap between the tunnel and the obstacle and hits it with the pliers. This has some effect, as a little bit of ice splinters off, but it is not enough. This way it is going to take him several hours.

  The water and his suit hinder him, because he cannot strike with full force. Therefore, he somehow has to get rid of both. Adam feels behind himself. There is the container with his air for breathing. He opens the emergency valve and lets some air escape. As long as the obstacle is still firmly in place, he can work more comfortably inside an air bubble below the ice. He watches the gas which rises toward the plug in big bubbles. The bubbles join and form an increasing air layer.

  Adam turns off the valve, just to test. The layer is not entirely stable, as a little bit of air moves upward through the gap around the obstacle. He will have to keep the oxygen container slightly open. This also mean he has to hurry. Who knows how long he will need air to breathe? Whatever he lets escape from the container won’t come back. If he wants to get rid of the obstacle he has to take this risk, and it is the only way. When the air layer is thick enough and the water has been displaced sufficiently, he quickly takes off his helmet. Otherwise he might use up additional oxygen through the hose.

  Soon half of his upper body is free. Adam decides this should be enough. He peels off the top part of his suit. It is cold, but he has no time to shiver. The helmet floats next to him, and its lamp bathes the scene in a flickering light. It smells of salt and sea. Yes, now he can strike forcefully, using all his strength. He starts widening the gap around the obstacle using the screwdriver as a chisel. Small pieces of ice hit him in the face. He blinks to avoid getting chips in his eyes. His nose is runny due to the cold and the exertion, but he can’t deal with that now.

  After ten minutes he tries to move the ice block, but it is still not possible. Before his next attempt he chisels two footholds in the side walls of the tunnel so he can push better. Even so, the plug is still stuck too firmly. He continues working for another quarter of an hour. A glance at his display tells him his air supply has shrunk to two hours. He hopes it won’t be far now.

  Marchenko 2 would have placed the obstacle shortly before the end of the tunnel he drilled, at least that is what Adam hopes. The work is getting increasingly more difficult. He takes another look at the gap. On both sides he has dug in for about half a meter. That has to be enough! Adam puts his feet in the footholds, lowers his head, and pushes his shoulders against the block of ice. Heave-ho! Ha! Something is happening. The plug has moved, just a little, but that’s a good sign. Once it is out of the way, Adam’s air bubble will disappear.

  To be on the safe side, Adam pulls his suit back on and puts on the helmet. Then he once again pushes with full force against the ice from below. It is finally working! The thing is moving. He has won! Air bubbles rise and make it hard for him to see. It is obvious, though, the obstacle is moving upward.

  How far will I have to push it? Adam just manages to form this thought when the ice slips away. He seems to have reached a cavity. Suddenly the ice block is no longer heavy—quite the opposite, the ice has a lower density than the water and floats up. For a moment Adam
is frightened because the tunnel continues after the cavity and the block moves in front of it. Yet now it no longer presents a problem. He can simply push it aside and continue his ascent.

  Brightnight 36, 3876

  “Gronolf Carriontooth, you are the best. I am proud of you.”

  His face turns pale, as always happens when he gets nervous. It is a great honor, he realizes, having been called to stand in front of the general—his father. The other cadets received their awards from their commander. Being face to face with his father again in this setting is an indescribable feeling. Gronolf feels unsure. Can he show signs of how happy he is, or would he embarrass his father in front of the other officers? For safety’s sake he keeps his four arms behind his back, a sign of reticence. His father knows best how to behave. If he does not find it appropriate to show emotions, he would have a reason.

  “Yes, sir!” Gronolf answers, according to regulations. He has finished eight years of training and is itching for the chance to finally travel in the new capital ship. It can be seen every evening on the beaches, when the twilight fog approaches the land and the projectors beam current news onto the fog banks. A thousand cycles ago, it is said, the astronomers discovered the world called Single Sun. The project has been going on ever since. But it was only about a hundred cycles ago, back when the Matter Scientists discovered dark matter and how to use it, that the idea of reaching this strange world in a period shorter than the lifespan assigned to his people became a possibility.

  “Dismissed,” his father says. He follows his comrades into the catacombs.

  “Gronolf Carriontooth, your presence is required,” a voice resounds through the corridors.

  Gronolf looks around. Where did the announcement come from? There are no loudspeakers on the masonry ceiling. The others keep walking on stubbornly. They either did not hear or they are not interested. And why does someone call him by way of speech?

  “Gronolf Carriontooth, your presence—”

  “Yes, I can hear you,” he interrupts the announcement. His voice is surprisingly deep and echoes much less than he would have expected in a basement corridor.

  “You have to wake up, Gronolf.” Is that his father contacting him in this old-fashioned way? That would be just like him, if mother’s stories are to be believed. But what is he talking about? He is not sleeping, he is walking through the corridors of the training camp, wearing combat equipment. Suddenly he feels a chill on his feet. He gazes down at his body. He is standing in water up to his knees! What happened? And he is alone. Where did the others disappear to? A strong wind is blowing against his face. He emerges from the tunnel. Gronolf wants to hold his touch-hands in front of his sensitive stomach skin, but they don’t react. They stay where they are, where he hid them from his father, behind his back. The wind is getting stronger and the water is rising.

  “Gronolf Carriontooth, the command center needs you,” the voice says.

  It must be right next to his ear.

  “Starting manual awakening.”

  At the same moment, bright light shines into the corridor. It comes from everywhere. The glare is so intense that the corridor disappears. Only the light and he himself exist, and he bathes in the brightness. Then the rays retreat.

  He is lying in a sleeping capsule. Suddenly his brain fills with memory fragments. He jerks, trying to sit up, but the couch won’t release him yet. That’s completely normal, he reminds himself, hoping to calm his racing heart. You are disoriented, Gronolf, because you slept for so long. You have to get up now, because the command center needs you.

  May 9, 19, Marchenko 2

  The exploration of the building can wait. Marchenko 2 dives back to the bottom of the ice cave, where he had discovered the strange piece of trashed technology. The thing looks like a reptile that had its tail and legs chopped off by someone. The fractures are uneven, so there was obviously violence involved. One can still see the rudiments of what must have been six limbs. It is also obviously not a living creature but a piece of technology. Somebody built this thing, and he has an idea who that somebody was.

  How long has it been lying down here? It is still radiating some heat. The control unit is probably in standby mode. The thing is sleeping. Marchenko 2 examines it from all sides. When he looks at its surface under extreme magnification, the traces of nano-fabricators are obvious. There is only one other person on Proxima b with access to this technology. The other Marchenko probably built this object as a scouting unit. It must have been involved in a conflict with the security mechanisms of this building. So things did not go so well. This tells him he has to be careful during exploration.

  He turns the object around to look at its lower side. Here he finds some nano-fabricators still active. Too valuable to leave them here, he thinks and scratches them off. He can have some of his own fabricators reprogram these. Otherwise, the scouting unit seems to be just scrap metal. He wonders whether he should take out its memory unit to analyze it. Perhaps it can tell him something about the plans of the other Marchenko, or at least his current location. It is probably encrypted, though. He analyzes the structure of the object. It appears to be made from a single block rather than from individual parts—typical for something produced by nano-fabricators. The surface is very hard. He would have to produce a tool first in order to get to the memory unit. And how would he handle the encryption? He decides to take care of this thing on his return trip. Once he has liberated Eve from the bonds of the other Marchenko, he will have plenty of time for dealing with lesser problems. He arranges the object in such a way that he will be able to find it again quickly. For that purpose he places other pieces of debris in a circle around the thing.

  Marchenko 2 looks up where the entrance to the alien building is waiting. Adam is probably awake by now. The boy will wonder where he went. He had better hurry, before Adam does something rash. While he locked him inside Valkyrie, Adam isn’t stupid—Marchenko 2 would not be surprised if he found a way to communicate.

  He moves slowly upward. Here, in the water, his current shape is practical, but the building probably won’t be full of water. Therefore he definitely has to adapt his form. Marchenko 2 starts to grow four appendages. He intends to use these for running, walking, gripping—whatever is required. He will keep the flexible outer membrane, which has helped him move swiftly through the water. The question is, how will Eve react to his shape? A squid on four legs—she will never recognize him. Yet he will need her trust, he needs her to follow him. It would be best to change the uppermost part of his body so it resembles a human head.

  The moment he enters the building through the opening, his mood changes. A moment ago he was in the ice ocean of an alien planet—in a by-now-familiar environment where he feels he knows any possible dangers. Now, however, he is inside an edifice created by an unknown species. Here he cannot and must not take things for granted. Even if something seems familiar and looks harmless, it still might pose a danger. He is very strong-bodied and hard to destroy, yet a feeling comes over him which he has not experienced in a long time—an animal-like fear.

  He will not—must not—court danger unnecessarily. Therefore the first priority is to check his surroundings. Marchenko 2 scans in all directions. He is close to the bottom of a dish-shaped area. Close ahead of him he sees a jagged hole with a diameter of about one and a half meters. It is the start of a canal leading into the depths of the building. He sees several similar passages, but they are covered with grates.

  Marchenko 2 swims upward. The water is approximately ten meters deep. From its surface his scanner shows him a dome about ten meters above him, where several other canals end. They are not locked, but impossible to reach. He has no choice, and he doesn’t like that. Could this be a trap? He wouldn’t put it past the other Marchenko to have expected unwelcome visitors. On the other hand, it would be a rather obvious trap. He can exclude the possibility that the creators of this building had anything to do with it. They would not have destroyed the grate over th
e canal in such an unprofessional fashion. Of course it is also possible that these signs of damage are ancient. So far, he has no indications that the building is still active. However, the other Marchenko and Eve can’t be far from here, as the presence of the trashed scout unit tells him.

  Marchenko 2 floats down again. The dark canal is directly in front of him. When was the last time he was so afraid of something? Yet if he wants to reach Eve, he has to go through it now. He surges into the hole with a powerful movement of his outer membrane. It is strange: Even though it is just as dark here as it is outside, and even though he has enough space for his slim body, he feels uncomfortably cramped.

  He swims ahead slowly. Of course nothing happens. After one minute he calms down completely. It was silly to imagine a trap. The other Marchenko does not even know he has been in contact with Adam all this time. The passage bends and then leads upward at a 30-degree angle. Gradually, the water grows warmer. He swims against the weak current. The reservoir probably serves as a cooling system, because it sits directly over the ice. What needs to be cooled in this building?

  The water temperature has risen to 15 degrees. In addition, the concentration of dissolved radioactive salts is increasing. He examines the walls of the passage. It is covered by a thin layer of sludge that must have been too heavy for the current. The layer contains heavy metals, and some of them are indeed radioactive. Does this building contain a working reactor?

  Meanwhile, the canal rises upward more steeply, at 60 degrees. He has to work harder while swimming against the current. He reaches an area where the walls are clean. The canal is slowly becoming narrower. From the side, another passage joins the canal, but it is covered by a grating.