Authors: Wade Andrew Butcher
Chapter 32
When the time came for the primary star to rise above the horizon, the sky darkened instead of becoming lighter. A haze thickened in the air until the light from the ever-present second star had been smothered. It was darker outside than Eva had ever seen since the arrival, and even she and Quasar were having a hard time discerning any of the plant life or topography through the south-facing windows.
Toward the lake on the shore in the distance, Eva could see flickering multicolor lights on the beach. She pointed them out to some of the others, but they could not see them. Whatever it was, Eva was the only one detecting the unknown phenomenon. She was curious and wanted to show Quasar. Eva knew she could also see the same things. By the time Eva got to her, the lights were gone. They were so faint that Eva doubted her own sighting and dismissed it as nothing. The outside was once again featureless and black as the air continued to thicken.
The doors were opened out of habit and many made their way to the outside under the cover of Taurus. The temperature was frigid with a blistering bite so cold it felt like a burn. Through the long cavern created by the surface of the lander, Eva could see the far-away figures of some who had exited to observe the exterior conditions. Looking eastward, they stayed within the reaches of Taurus under the shelter it provided and continued to gaze in the direction of the anticipated sunrise.
Eva went outside briefly before Quasar grabbed her hand and escorted her back in. She caught a glimpse of the sky to the east before Quasar pulled her inside. Instead of a rising sun, pitch-black clouds approached from the east, and there was something unusual that she had never noticed before, wind. The air was moving fast.
It gathered momentum until it was making noise as it rushed under and around Taurus. It quickly got louder until the sound made it difficult to hear anyone speak. Eva heard people yelling to communicate at close range and shouting in vain to those trying to make their way back to the lander. Within moments, the figures of the people in the distance were running back, but the increasing winds tried to push them sideways. Some of them fell over before regaining their stride. The last few of them had to crawl along the ground to lessen their resistance to the moving air. Finally, the doors were closed.
Eva followed Webster and Nikolaj down the hall, retracing the beginning of the full-circle she had walked before. They were going to have a look from a southeast facing window. There nothing to do except watch the storm approach and trust that the strength of Taurus was plenty to withstand such an event. Eva was not comforted by the fact it was designed to withstand atmospheric entry despite its ability to float its way down to the planet surface. The noise of the outside winds could not be ignored.
The storm was violent. All the survivors who were not sick watched from the southeast arc as lightning flashed. Noise of the wind was interrupted by the electric discharge exploding onto the ground. The cadence of the thunder grew more rapid, and the claps got louder and louder. It increased until it was close, and then the storm was over them and surrounded the lander on all sides.
Eva did not like the lightning and turned away to run but realized she did not want to be alone. She grabbed Quasar by the wrist and tugged for her to follow. Quasar resisted and said she did not want to leave the others but relented when the dread on Eva’s face was evident. They went back down to the bottom hall away from the windows. Eva sat on the floor and covered her ears to avoid hearing the constant barrage of thunder.
“Eva, I think it’s normal,” Quasar said, sounding unsure of her own words. She sat to console her younger clone twin.
The sights and sounds of the storm were not normal to Eva having spent her whole life in the dead calm of space. Before resigning that the adults had more experience, she realized they were witnessing their first storm also. The difference was they were watching in awe while she was afraid. Her latent memories seemed unreal, more confusing than helpful in hardening her from the previous experience of her predecessors. Her fear turned to regret because she was not raised to be weak-minded and lacking of courage.
The storm lasted a long time. Eventually the light started to break through the clouds. Daytime arrived although the suns were not visible. The wind continued, and the trees in the forest tilted at an angle amid its force. When they stood up straight once more, the doors were opened.
…
There was work to be done before the sweltering heat of the late day was upon them. The waterfall was a two-hour walk away, and it was determined to be their best chance of long-term fresh water supply. The water of Tar Lake was dark with sediment and dissolved solids, while the feeds from the mountain streams were clear and better suited for a drinking supply. Eva listened while it was discussed in the cavern under the lander. About forty people were gathered to make the trek to the waterfall. Nikolaj addressed the gathering.
“We have to think about our long-term survival. In another generation, we will have lost our ability to fly Taurus and to do it now would be risky. Our days in space are over. This is it. This planet is the best it’s ever going to be. If you ask me, it’s not bad. Not perfect, but not bad. We have water we need to harness. That’s the priority. We need to grow food, too. We need to figure out some construction materials and for that we need to collect what we can from the Gambler remains. We have lots to do, but we need to focus on them in the right order. First is the water. After we develop some way to recover fresh water, we will go exploring and go to Gambler.”
Webster chimed in, “The seasons haven’t changed yet. It is going to get colder. We don’t know by how much.”
“Yes, that’s true,” Nikolaj nodded and continued, “But for now, we are lucky enough to have Taurus for shelter. We can make full use of the reactors if necessary for heat. For cooling, that’s another issue. Right now, we can still use the chillers on Taurus. But we need to explore.”
“Why do you think flying Taurus is risky? I think I can still do it with little help and the benefit outweighs the risk,” Ensign said. He was the only full-time pilot remaining among the survivors, trained in the workings of Taurus and the delicate balance of flying with the gravity shields.
“Imprecise moves could hurtle the vessel out of the atmosphere never to return with the gravity shields activated,” Nikolaj said, “and that’s only the beginning.
Any
failure that risks our only shelter is not worth it.”
Ensign frowned at the vote of no confidence in his ability as a pilot, but Nikolaj ignored him. The meeting was adjourning while a small party assembled to walk to the waterfall.
Eva followed Nikolaj and Webster along with some others to the waterfall. The walk was slightly uphill, a very steady and slow incline on the plateau that bordered the lakeside cliffs. They arrived at the waterfall and looked down as it flowed from the mountains and poured with great force onto the lake below. The rumbling sent vibration through Eva’s body like she had not felt since Gambler fired its engines to slow for the approach to Beta.
Webster questioned rhetorically, “We knew there was water here, but who would have expected this?” Everyone knew that Taurus honed in on a beacon left by probes centuries before Gambler left Earth. They had not found that beacon, and Eva heard some earlier speculation that it was in the lake, but it didn’t really matter. They were pondering how to collect from the raging fall.
After a short pause Webster said, “We could siphon from the river down to Taurus, but we don’t have the materials to build a pipeline.”
Nikolaj and the others nodded in silence. One of the others suggested launching Taurus and landing it again just up the hill there by the falls. Nikolaj dismissed that idea.
“We can reroute the water. We’ll have to dig a little bit at a time, making a trench from here back to Taurus,” Nikolaj suggested.
Webster kicked the ground as he listened. The ground under his feet was rocky, and he looked up to Nikolaj.
“Explosives,” blurted Eva.
Nikolaj looked at her and smiled. It was the first time he had ever done that. “Can we make some?” Nikolaj inquired of Webster.
Webster thought for a moment and said, “Yes, I think so. We need to go to Gambler. Fuel cells.”
Eva was tired on the walk back to Taurus and slowed behind the others. They did not wait. The hike to Gambler would come soon.
Chapter 33
Nikolaj waited until the cool morning of the next betaday to start the journey. He did not want to take all of the strongest and leave the weak, so he requested that Webster stay behind. They argued about it for a while, and the argument seemed to end about the time Quasar said she was going to stay behind by Taurus to help the others. Nikolaj assured him they could gather what they needed.
Eva wanted to go, but this time he wouldn’t let her. The walk was going to take at least the better part of the cool portion of the day. There was danger in being stranded without shelter toward the end of their day, but he took a calculated risk that somewhere in the mountains they could at minimum find some shade.
Only twenty remained at camp. Some of them were sick. Eva felt a little uneasy at the thought of half the group being separated, but Quasar and Webster remained, so that made her feel a little better.
There was a thick fog over the lake that day. The vapor spread across the lands in the chilly weather. The moisture from the storm left the air soupy and wet like some hybrid state of atmosphere in between liquid and gas.
Webster took a cot from under Taurus. Eva followed him. He looked in a hurry, like he did not want to be bothered, so she stayed at a quiet distance. Webster was trying to carry too much and left a trail of debris consisting mostly of branches he gathered from the forest. They emerged from the cavern across the rocky surface by the lake and descended down through one of the passages to the shore. He dropped the inflatable mattress on the ground beside the remaining pile of branches and vines he collected.
Eva could barely resist the urge to ask what he was doing, but she just watched thinking it would be made apparent soon enough. After making an arrangement of vines on the sands, he lined the branches up in a row across the vines and placed another layer of shorter branches over them in a crosshatched pattern. Then he placed the bed on top. He likewise arranged branches on top of the bed and threw the vines across. He tied the vines in knots.
When he started dragging the apparatus to the water, Eva could see his purpose, although she still did not understand his motivation. He had made a raft. With another branch in his hand, he walked the raft into the water getting his legs wet in the cold, murky liquid. He stood on top of it and pushed his way out into the water.
The device became unstable. Sinking partially, the beams in the raft became loose and the vines came undone. The branches floated alongside him as he started to lose his balance. He fell into the cold water, still not above head level. He stood up uttering words Eva had never heard and stormed out of the lake, towing what was left of his contraption.
He sat in the sand, cursing the whole time and ignoring Eva. He shivered ferociously as his enhanced nervous system absorbed the cold temperature that would have been uncomfortable to anyone. He collected what was left of the vines and branches and began to tie them together one at a time. He had not given up, but Eva had. She left him in his angry state by the shore.
She walked back up to the rocky ground by Taurus, and she was alone. She could not see the lake behind her through the fog, which suppressed her dark vision and made everything a uniform bland color. It was as if she was wearing a blindfold. The fog had gotten so dense that she could not even see the massive Taurus in front of her.
She continued in its direction to realize that she had been walking over vines. Thinking she was approaching the cavern, Eva made her way east by accident and found herself in the middle of the field. When she tried to right her course, she kicked something in her way. She crouched to determine the identity of the impediment. With her face lowered closer to the ground she could see that she had stumbled into the graveyard.
Fedora’s dead face, partly rotted, gazed into hers. Eva was frozen with a blend of dread and curiosity at the familiar expression. The corpse looked at her as if to convey warning. A second of that visage was enough to burn into her memory forever. She screamed and jumped back with the intention of running, but before she had taken two steps, she tripped over the second corpse that she had forgotten was there.
Eva was lying stomach down in the vines surrounded by the grotesquely foul stench that surrounded the bodies. She put her hands to the ground to lift herself up and resume the hasty departure, but when she did, something jolted a sting through the top of her hand. She reflexively jerked it away and fell to her side to see the source of the sudden pain.
An insect the size of her thumb revealed itself from under a leaf on the vine where her hand had been a moment before. Green in color, it was a near perfect imposter of a leaf. She could see it because it had a heat signature different than its surroundings, but it was too late. Her hand throbbed in stinging pain from the venom excreted by the legs of the insect. Like the fangs from the mouth of a snake in a world she had never known, the tips of its appendages penetrated her skin and left twelve perforations through which the poison was administered. Before standing, Eva saw another. Several appeared as hotspots on the ground and began to scramble around her. She sprang to her feet crying and ran through the milky air back in the direction she hoped was the ship.
She was disoriented, but she was able to find her way back. Eva had not run in the precise direction to arrive at the main cavern, but rather under the east edge of Taurus somewhere. She followed it around until encountering some of the others. With her heart pounding, she collapsed to the ground crying and holding her hand. Quasar heard the panic and she came to Eva’s side quickly.
“What happened?” Quasar asked with urgency.
“I was bitten,” Eva said holding up her shaking hand.
“A betaspider,” Quasar mumbled. She knew immediately what had happened. She sighed in frustration as if disappointed in Eva for allowing the injury, which made Eva cry harder. The thought of upsetting Quasar was more troubling than the poison in her hand.
Eva did not have much time to ponder the misdeed. Her heart raced, and her hand burned as the pain spread into her arm. Her vision became blurry. Pressure in her head built until it felt like it would burst. The sights around her grew faint until she could not see at all. She blacked out.
In her intoxicated state, Eva had nightmares that seemed to last an eternity. She saw images of the insects, which became larger than her in the dream. Their dozen legs were like swords, their eyes were an evil shade of red, and their antennae flickered in front of them in her direction, sensing her presence and targeting her for destruction.
She dreamed of sea creatures of all shapes and sizes. They were in a mix, some she had never seen before with some that were familiar. Dawdlers, like the ones that appeared from the lake, swam around her in mid-air. They waved their arms in all directions. They reached for her and wrapped her up, tossing her back and forth as if she was the object of a game.
Eva dreamed of life on Gambler, but the memories were not of the comfortable setting she once knew. It was a dark place, with strange and wicked people lurking around every corner. They eyed her intently, and she could not escape in any direction without being watched.
Then her imagination went dark as she entered a deep sleep.