Casserine (6 page)

“Jake, I don’t want to be alone. I love being with you. You don’t have to go off into real exile to please me. Hey, what do you mean you might get tired of me in twenty or thirty years?”

“Nothing, my sweet,” Jake smiled innocently. “Listen, it never hurts to have some time alone. You could even go off for a few days. We would be in constant contact, and you really can’t get lost. If we wait until the Colonel sends us the new land vehicle, you can take it on a scout trip yourself.”

“You really are trying to get rid of me, aren’t you?” Adrian kiddedhim.

“Oh yeah, I plan on setting traps wherever you’re heading. Anyway, what do you think about my idea?”

“It might be good for a change, but I want to go together the first time. We don’t even know if we can trust this new gadget we’re getting. You already said everything breaks down here, if it moves on the surface.”

“Those studies you’ve been doing on the surface had something to do with them being able to come up with the proper shielding for it. It has always bugged the base they couldn’t come up with any way to have a moving vehicle here on the surface. They know whenever anything remains still, like our self contained living quarters, it takes very little shielding to prevent power losses. Something about those flux readings you took helped them make a breakthrough.”

“We did outfit the cave here just in time, so we were paying attention to our jobs. The Colonel liked your plan to nail the privateers. He sent down two more MAG50’s to place in different spots, so you don’t have to lug the one around everywhere. I’ve never really gone far enough to see anything like the pools of water and the plant life, you say exist here. I guess we have been kind of self absorbed,” Adrian admitted.

“It was fun while it lasted, but before we start tearing into each other any more, we better look into some activities we can do apart. I could go out on a little sojourn for a few days, starting tomorrow,” Jake suggested.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow,” Adrian quoted Juliet.

“Don’t start that up again,” Jake warned.

“I don’t want you to go until I can go too,” Adrian complained.

“Going together defeats the purpose of going at all. You’ll like me better in a few days.”

“I like you fine right now. Shall I show you?” Adrian asked provocatively, leaning into Jake.

“Love in the cave, huh?” Jake whispered as he enfolded her in his arms. “The last time we spent any time here together, you were in no shape for fooling around. We almost didn’t have a chance to have our first fight.”

“I have an idea Jake. Why not wait until we get the vehicle, and then I will ride out with you. I can drop you off.”

“Gee, that sounds inviting.”

“Good Lord, you two,” Colonel Risling groaned. “How do you put up with this?” He sat immobile on their porch, holding a teacup with two shaking hands.

“Colonel, you’re doing great,” Adrian said. “I couldn’t even crawl out here for two days.”

“Yes Sir,” Jake added, “and we appreciate you dropping off the tracked rover yourself, but why?”

Risling took another gulp of tea, as he watched the sunset with Jake and Adrian sitting on either side of him. “Although I see your sunset may be awe inspiring, why go through this gravity torture? Anyway, I just wanted to see what the hell makes a couple of young people maroon themselves out here on this torture planet.”

“Wow, thanks Colonel,” Adrian replied. “We’re glad you’re having such a good time.”

“What Adrian means, Sir, in her own obtuse manner,” Jake countered, leaning back and staring daggers at Adrian from behind Risling’s chair, which Adrian answered with a smile and finger wave. “.Is we’re sorry you don’t like it much here. At least you don’t have to stay longer. We really do appreciate you coming personally.”

Risling grinned. “Jake, you must be nuts staying here all this time, and I believe the disease may be infectious, because Byers here has begun sounding just like you. In any case, I think from now on, I’ll just say hello to you at the base.”

“How durable do you think our land craft will be?” Jake asked, changing the subject.

“All the tests we did in the gravity chamber, incorporating the surface readings Adrian sent us, proved you could probably make it all the way around the planet with only one fuel cell. We have panels for two others, as either back up for the main drive, or to use as power supplies for whatever you need on your excursions.”

“Can you make us a trailer to drag on the back so we… “ Adrian stopped, seeing Jake slap his hands over his face. “I was just kidding Jake, loosen up.”

“You two are beginning to exhibit signs of an honest to goodness married couple,” Risling laughed. “I had my doubts about this setup, but with the way you turned back a major threat together, and your ideas about exploration, I believe this may have been for the best.”

“What kind of speed will the rover do, Colonel?” Jake asked, ignoring the facial distortions Adrian performed behind Risling’s back. She made the universal sign language expressions, labeling Jake a suck-up, whenever Risling looked away.

“It only has a top speed of about twenty kilometers an hour, but you will not want to go faster than that anyway on this planet’s surface. The tread setup on the tracks will overcome anything. Only tipping the vehicle over will put them out of action. You would have to use a MAG50 to destroy them. The cab, we’ve armored against radiation, incorporates a self-contained life support system when closed up. The relays on the instrument panel will pick up any unauthorized approach to Casserine, and warn you well in advance. News concerning the last attack you foiled traveled fast. I believe it would be all right to go ahead and take off for longer periods of time. Let’s say a week to ten days. File a report of when you go, and we will patrol closer to Casserine until your return. You’ll be able to alert us from the rover.”

“It really sounds as if you foresaw pretty much any eventuality, Colonel,” Jake said as he endured another insulting facial barrage from Adrian. “Why all the support for this now?”

“We want all the information you can gather, Jake. We know the surface covering Casserine seems to be just as it looks, granular and mountainous, with very little vegetation. The readings we get of the atmosphere tell us there should be large bodies of water. The humidity stays around seventy-five to ninety-five percent here, and yet no real rain, and no large standing bodies of water. We would like to know where all the moisture goes.”

“I’ve wondered about that,” Adrian put in, finally giving up her trivial pursuit. “The air stays almost like a heavy mist most of the time, and yet as you say, it collects no where. Jake and I have dug into the surface a bit, and it feels and looks very moist after you get below the granular hard pack above.”

“It sounds crazy, Colonel,” Jake added, “but Casserine seems to absorb everything, including power and moisture. We put a container outside for a day, and when we check on it, its full of water, and yet nothing on the ground around it shows any sign of water.”

“That brings me to what we would like on your little excursions. We have scanned and mapped the surface all around the planet. We want you to use the guidance system on the rover to go to three areas where we show readings of vast caverns beneath the surface. I brought you discs to feed into the rover’s control guidance system, which will allow you to journey right to the spots we think might be the most accessible.”

“Accessible to where we are, or accessible to what you want checked?” Adrian asked.

“Both, Lieutenant,” Risling replied. “Each area has a mountainous surface, and yet we show hollow areas below the surface. We have scanned the areas numerous times, always with the same readings. You two will have to use common sense and good judgment. I do not want anything to happen to either of you, but we have plans to colonize Casserine possibly. We have developed improved gravity suits to ease the period of adjustment to Casserine’s gravity. They incorporate much the same shielding as the rover, and we can use the suits in conjunction with living quarters we can gradually adjust too.”

“I never would have figured anyone would be interested in this place,” Jake said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “It presents a whole new set of problems.”

“With implementation, or your urge to be alone,” Risling chuckled. “Yes, I am well aware of how you feel about this place from the questioning I have included in your psych evaluations. I can count on you to honestly evaluate this, can’t I Jake?”

“Yes Sir,” Jake said without hesitation. “I was just thinking of the logistics of your suggestions, and the fact Adrian and I might want to have a family, and.”

“Jake?” Adrian squealed. “You’ve really had a thought like that by yourself?”

“I am not totally oblivious to the normal course of life, Tonto,” Jake grinned at her as she came over and sat on his lap. She put her arms around his neck and clung to him with a fervor he returned.

“Well, it would seem I have two motivated explorers after all,” Risling said, smiling at the two, “instead of the hermits I feared would hold back my idea.”

“Colonel,” Adrian said turning to look at Risling, “Jake doesn’t have the mindset or the imagination to be anything but motivated.”

“Oh thanks, Adrian,” Jake said, putting a neck pinch in place with his hand that immediately had her squirming. “From now on, if I want a character reference from you, I’ll tweak those little elf-like ears of yours.”

“Okay, you two,” Risling said. “Quit fooling around, and help me get out of this chair, and back onto the blessed craft which will take me out of this planetary torture chamber.”

“Are you going to do something, or are you just going to stand there shaking your head?” Adrian asked him as she hung suspended upside down, looking at a disbelieving Jake through the open window of the rover. He could see she had taken off and ran one side up a rock outcropping and turned the wheel, flipping the rover onto its top. He reached in past her, and turned it off.

“I have been gone for three minutes, Tonto, three minutes inside the quarters. You said you would like a cup of tea, so I naturally volunteered to get the tea for us. I come back out and you’re upside down in the only moving vehicle we have.”

“Your point being?” Adrian rasped as the seat harness dug into her a little more.

“I should have said touch everything on the control panel while I’m inside doing your bidding, but no, stupid me, I say don’t touch anything Adrian until we go through the manuals.”

“It was an accident, Jake, I.”

“Don’t you even go there,” Jake said, pointing his finger at Adrian’s reddening face through the window. “I swear I will leave you right like you are for the next two hours.”

“You’d do that to the future mother of your children?” She asked indignantly. “You brute.”

Jake braced himself under her as he hit the release on her seat harness. Her weight staggered him, but he eased her down and out of the open hatch. Jake went to one knee and rolled her off his shoulder into a sitting position, handing her the tea he had brought out. He sat down on the ground next to her and sipped from the cup he had brought out for himself. “Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Stanley.”

The tea shot out of Adrian’s mouth and nose as she heard the line from an old black and white movie disc of some comedy characters, named Laurel and Hardy. Jake’s friend Dougherty had brought them when the

Tennyson had arrived with the land rover. They had watched it after he left, laughing uproariously at the simple gaffs the two of them made. Adrian choked for the next couple of minutes as Jake laughed and patted her back.

“I…I’m go. going to get you for this, Ollie,” Adrian spluttered, wiping her face with a cloth Jake handed her. “You did that on purpose.”

“Your point being?”

“Get me another cup of tea.”

“You didn’t say the magic word, Gracie.”

“The next magic words I utter will be don’t forget your helmet on your way to the cave.”

“I will get your tea right away, mistress. Will you be drinking this cup, Miss, or cleaning out your nasal passages with it?” Jake ducked the slap at the back of his head, and used the momentum to get started for the living quarters. He stopped momentarily as he looked around.

“What?” Adrian asked.

“I was looking for something to tie you up with until I can getback.”

“Very funny, shall I call ahead and make your reservations at the cave, Mr. Funnyman?”

“I’m going. At least I don’t have to tell you to not touch anything. You’ve eliminated that option,” Jake informed her as he walked away.

Jake spent the next hour and a half rigging up a series of pulleys to ease the rover back right side up. Using the rocks around them for support, he took up tension on one side as he let off on the other until the rover eased back onto its treads. He looked it over for any obvious damage while Adrian comically folded her arms over her chest, and tapped her foot as if late for an appointment. He looked up at her sideways.

“Well?” She asked impatiently.

“Well what?” Jake replied.

“Are we going for a ride or not?”

“We could have been on a twenty kilometer excursion if I would have ignored your demand for a cup of tea.”

“Fine, now, are we going for a ride, or shall I get you your walking stick and helmet, Mr. ‘I Will Keep Ragging Adrian Until I Get Sent To The Cave’. I’m driving too.”