None of the men spoke. They looked across the opening to the far side, taking in the deep blue hues of hundreds of meters of freshly exposed ice, none of which had seen the sunlight for thousands, maybe millions of years.
“Damn,” Murphy finally said. “How deep ya think?”
“It goes all the way. How far’d we drill again?” Larue asked.
“Around two kilo’s.”
“Look at how deep that goes. Look how dark it is down there,” Murphy said. “Freaks me out.” He paused for a few seconds just looking deeper into the canyon.
The other two men looked at each other, sensing fear in their new first mate.
Then Murphy seemed to snap into action. “Ok. Let’s get ’em out and stretch ’em. I want one arm on each truck. And prepare the pumps,” he ordered.
“Yessir,” the men said.
Larue and Morrison returned to the crawlers while Murphy continued to stare into the darkness on his own. He waved a quick hand and the mining crew went into action inside the crawlers. He didn’t bother to turn around and watch as he stared into the endless depths.
Behind Murphy the mining teams were springing into action and their training was taking over. The machines they operated were equally proficient. From the frame of the two large crawlers began to descend the grinder heads. They were long tubular hoses with a large rotating drum on the front end, with protruding square teeth, designed for nothing more than pulverizing anything in its path and then sucking it toward the crawlers. They looked as if they could destroy anything in their path.
The large grinders lowered onto the frozen ground. When they reached the surface, the drums began to spin, and they slowly moved away from the crawlers toward the edge of the fissure. The tubes that kept them tethered to the vehicles followed behind.
Slowly, the large mechanisms at the front of the machinery began to speed up, rotating faster and faster. Murphy stood aside as the two massive grinder heads moved passed him and toward the canyon. From the safety of the cabins the two teams watched them clear the lip of the crevasse, and then drop below.
Murphy stood outside and made sure the grinder heads cleared the edge, then he began walking to his crawler. The mining teams watched him from the safety of the bridge, surprised for him to be so close to the quickly rotating grinders.
The tubes that bore the large beastly heads expanded from the crawlers as they went, stretching and unfolding in ways that lengthened them exponentially. They could reach easily into the depths of the canyon.
The surface of the ocean would be a long drop by their standards, but if they ran out of tubing it could easily be extended. A vacuum pump would force the substances pulverized at the heads up through the tubes and to the holding chambers. The operation was a marvel of modern engineering — a product of the large mining firms that demanded and paid for such modern ingenuity.
Murphy returned to his place inside the crawler, relieved to be inside the pressurized cabin. He opened his visor and took a deep breath, and the fear seemed to dissipate from his face. He relaxed inside with the crew. They needed only to wait now.
Johan sipped his coffee and remained in his captain’s chair. He had watched proudly as his team efficiently and methodically ran the operation.
“We’re dropping now,” Larue told him. “We’ll need a couple hours to reach the bottom,” he added.
Johan nodded and exhaled with a satisfied expression. He remained as disinterested in the details as ever.
The cameras on the heads of the arms were activated and began showing on the monitors as they descended into the darkness. The arms dangled from the ledge and into the fissure as they made their way. They were swinging ever so slowly back and forth, and the monitors above were picking up the subtle movement. The black and white and blue colors were crossing the screen over and over as the heads descended.
When the heads reached the farthest reaches of the canyon the lights were activated. There was a thick fog near the surface of the ocean that reflected into the monitors. Then without warning the heads finally contacted the water, and the monitors went nearly black.
“We’re swimming now,” Larue said to Johan, and there was another nod of the captain’s head.
The lights on the heads continued to shine straight down with nothing to see except the occasional bit of detritus crossing the camera lens. There did not appear to be any life, not that they were looking for any.
They watched for the bottom, or for any sign of what Johan had promised them, oblivious to anything else. Even before the heads reached the seafloor the crew began to see the flashing lights. They were pulsing, vibrating, and sending arcing waves of light beyond the cameras and into the distance.
The men were silent and still, watching. They were captivated by the display of lights. It had been unexpected.
“Captain,” Johan heard over the communications. “Are you getting flashes of light on your display?” Murphy asked from the second crawler.
“Affirmative,” Johan answered.
“Should we be concerned,” Murphy asked.
Johan didn’t immediately answer. The cameras continued to descend along with the grinder heads.
“Captain, are you still getting this?” Murphy asked him again.
Johan remained silent, and he stood and approached the monitors for a closer look. The men in the crawler came up behind him, looking into the camera feeds with curiosity.
It was a surreal experience. The miners were suddenly distracted from their mission as they looked at this world underneath them, curious as to what they were seeing. There were no words, not from any of them. They were as hypnotized as the scientists who had been down here days before them. They gazed into the mesmerizing display of lights, out onto the wonder of life. There was nothing but silence in both cabins as the images flashed across their screens. The thought of leaving this place undisturbed crossed each of their minds, but they were singularly afraid to speak or share their concern for disturbing what they were seeing. Beautiful flashes of light danced across their monitors, and still they waited for a reaction from Johan. They knew it was he who would decide.
“Are those the diamonds?” Morrison asked amid the silent room.
Nobody answered him.
“Is that what we are going to mine?” he asked in a lower voice.
The lights continued to flash an intoxicating display of pulses and waves. Nobody said anything.
Johan took a couple of deep breaths, analyzing the situation. The diamond structures began to appear more distinctly in the monitors. They were beautiful. Johan gazed into the screens intently, studying the structures and their forms. He analyzed the massive cathedrals of crystal, stunned at their sheer size. He paused for a mere moment, contemplating the actions to be taken. His crew began to wonder what he was thinking. He was taking longer than usual to give an order. There was hesitation, but it was brief.
Johan exhaled, and his posture seemed to relax. He had made a decision. “Alright, we have a job to do… There,” he said, pointing with his mug. “Those are our diamonds. Bring ’em up,” he commanded, and he sat down in his captain’s chair knowing his team would go to work with the same efficiency as before.
The men looked briefly at each other, confirming what they had heard, and they took their positions.
Murphy made some hand gestures in the second cabin. Like a trained military operation, the men directed the first grinder head right into a diamond structure and instantly began tearing it apart. The massive structure disintegrated into a pile of fractured crystals in a matter of seconds and was sucked into the tube leading to the collection bins. There was an audible cheer when the first diamonds were recorded headed to the surface.
“Crawler one, this is Murphy, come in crawler one,” he said into the comm-link.
“Crawler one here, this is Morrison,” came the answer.
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“Make way toward that larger structure, forty-five degrees starboard,” Murphy told him.
“Aye,” he said. Within seconds the arm was grinding its way through another large structure.
The creatures began flashing with more intensity upon the destruction. Several of them were caught in the heads, ground into the gears along with the structures they had been on. The lights began pulsing even faster, reaching a feverish pace.
A frenzied light display was suddenly and almost completely blinding the monitors inside the cabin. The sensors and monitors were quickly saturated, making it almost impossible for the crew to use their cameras. The miner’s lost use of the monitors in the blinding light.
“Switch to infra-red,” Johan said calmly. Within seconds the monitors changed hue, displaying a darker, monochromatic image. It had helped. They continued working.
Murphy saw his next target. There was a vent of some kind in the distance. It had shown up easily on the infra-red once they had switched over. From the cameras, Murphy could see a glint of mineral deposits. He directed his crew to send the grinding head towards the vent, and soon it was plowing through more rich deposits of diamond structures.
The heads ground and crushed the material and sent it up through the long and powerful vacuum tubes to the surface crawlers, and minutes later the men heard the first loud clanking sounds coming from the back of the crawler. Pieces of raw diamonds were beginning to fill the storage bins. They crashed into the metal bins like a hailstorm. As the first arrivals began coming up Johan sent Larue and Morrison excitedly to the back of the crawlers to inspect the treasure.
The two men walked to the back of the crawler. They scooped the material from the bins and into their hands. It shimmered as only precious diamonds could. Exuberance overtook them both. Larue picked up a football-sized diamond and began kissing it over and over. They stayed in the storage bins near the back, away from the rest of the crew for several minutes, longer than they should have, greedily looking over their treasure.
When several minutes had passed Larue left the storage bins to inform the rest of the crew at what they were finding. He carried his football-sized diamond with him. As he entered the cabin, he shouted forward into the open space, poking his head into the bridge of the massive crawler. He walked in with the diamond held high above his head, waving it at the other men, and he kissed it in front of them. There was a collective sense of disbelief at what they were witnessing.
“Look at this!” Larue yelled. “They’re real!” he shouted over and over. “Goddamn fuckin’ diamonds!” he yelled again with unbridled enthusiasm.
“Look at the size! Johan wasn’t shittin’ us! We got ’em, we got ’em!” he exclaimed. He laughed and looked upon his treasure with the unrestrained fervor of a man who knew he would never work another day of his life. He would be a king for the rest of his days, and the crew grew lost in their imaginations for what it meant for their future.
Sol 16; Mission time - 08:33
Hanson sat in his bunk, distraught over the latest events. He had lost his chance to captain his own rig. He was back in debt like he had been before. Then he noticed he had a message on his communications panel. He had sent that recording to his brother. He was filled with regret when he realized he had sent it in a blissful moment of optimism.
He checked the name. He was overwhelmed with emotions when he read it. ‘Jimmy Hanson’ it said. Suddenly it was real. Hanson thought about how long it had been. “What had his brother been up to all these years?” he wondered. “What would he learn if he opened it? Was he married…? Kids?” Questions swirled in his mind along with guilt.
He recalled the message he had sent a week earlier. His situation had drastically changed. What was he going to say now? “How could he tell his brother about yet another mistake?” He sat on his bunk staring into the blank monitor. “Things couldn’t get any worse,” he thought. Then he pressed the button. The screen went from dark to light. An image of a handsome, healthy young man came upon the screen.
“Jack, it was really good to hear from you. Congratulations on getting your own rig. I have to tell ya, a lot of us weren’t sure you were alive. It’s hard to know, your line of work, you know… Wasn’t even sure I wanted to know. I guess I never wanted to think about it. I always just pictured the best for you out there. Now I see I was right.
I wondered why you never sent a message. I guess it’s easy to get caught up in things out there. I’m sure it’s hard to know where to start after some of the things that had happened to you. Sounds like you have put a lot of work into making things right out there. Good to know you are on a path that you see working out.
When you get your own rig, be sure you run things the way you want to. Do things your way. You deserve that, Jack.
Things are good here. I’m married, two kids, Macy and J.R. The “J” is for Jack by the way… doing the pilot thing for a local transport. Never did get into the circuit, but the race training sure has its privileges. I get the best routes, best cargo, best transports. I’m the fastest transport runner we’ve got…
Hey, if you are going to be coming back here on your own rig be sure to let us know. We should set something up. There’s no way I would miss it. It’ll be fun to hear about what you’ve been doing way out there. I bet you have some crazy stories.
It’s good to hear from you. Keep in touch. Let us know when we can expect to see you. Love you, Jimmy.”
The screen went blank, and Hanson lowered his head. He hadn’t heard his brother’s voice in ten years. His heart was racing with memories. “His little brother, a Dad…?” It was hard to believe. “Married? Two kids… one of them named Jack?” He pondered how much had changed… How much catching up he had to do.
He looked at the picture of him and his brother on the beach. They were just kids then. He realized nearly as much time had now passed since he last saw his brother as they had spent together as children. He’d been away almost half of his brother’s life.
He leaned back on his bunk, and it hit him just then. He’d have to take back what he had said to his brother. He wouldn’t be able to visit Earth, not for a very long time, maybe ever. He wouldn’t be going to see him, or his wife, or his kids. He felt the guilt of disappointing his brother again.
Time passed in his bunk room. The emotions swirled inside him. Anger surfaced and he would throw something. Sadness, and he’d resign himself to his bunk. It was torture being stuck in his bunk room with this message on his console. It was torture having his friends gone to the fissure without him, and there was nothing he could do about it.
He reached up and placed his finger on the response button. He held it there for just a second, wondering if he could ever tell his brother what had just happened to him. He lifted his finger and moved it over one spot, then depressed the button that was nearby. Shortly after a message appeared on his screen that read ‘message deleted.’
CHAPTER 18
Sol 16; Mission time - 07:25
Mara was still sleeping when the alarms woke her. The buzzing sounds and distant sirens violated the quiet sanctuary inside her bunk room. Emergency lights flooded the hallway outside with a harsh glare that came in through the small transom window above the door. Instructional bulletins began filling the screens in her room, scrolling rapidly across the monitors.
She sat up disoriented and not fully awake. She was certain it was a drill, or a test. She heard footsteps running down the hallway outside her room. Suddenly there was cause for more concern.
She stood up in her t-shirt and walked to the doorway, peering around the corner towards the sparsely lit mess hall. A figure ran quickly across the opening at the end of the hallway. She caught just enough of a glimpse to know it was Reese.
She grabbed her jumpsuit and threw it on as fast as she could. She walked to the end of the hall and hung her head around the corner. She could see the e
ntire facility was dark, with only sparse emergency lighting. The usual hum of computers and ventilation and machinery was gone, replaced with buzzing alarms. She saw Dr. Aman and Reese at one of the main consoles.
“The emergency is only for emergency,” she heard Dr. Aman saying. “We need to use the primary.”
“This is an emergency,” Reese answered. “The primary runs directly through the Zephyr. And we’re not getting anything from there right now. We use up the primary batteries and we’ll be on back-up whether you like it or not by dinner.”
Mara stood behind them.
“Mara,” Dr. Aman said. “We are not getting power from the Zephyr. Primary battery is running essential systems but won’t last long. Reese wants to switch to back-up.”
“Did they cut the power?”
“I’m trying to find out,” Reese said as she ran a systems check.
“They must be leaving,” Mara replied. She walked the short distance to the window and looked at the Zephyr. The massive rig was towering over the Hab from a hundred meters away. The intricate framework of industrial steel and corrugated aluminum panels were illuminated in the night-time sky by dozens of lights scattered along its frame. A diffuse yellow-tinted glow surrounded the base of the facility, turning the ice below into a softly glowing platform of light. The dimly lit path of lights that had led her to the Zephyr for days were now dark. There was no activity to be seen.
“They appear to still have power at the Zephyr. You sure there is not something else wrong? It doesn’t look like they are readying for launch,” Mara said.
“Sure they are. Johan said they were leaving today,” Dr. Aman reminded her. He continued to study the diagnostic readouts. “We are currently low on water and fuel, but he said he would top us off before he left.”
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