The Caverns of Mare Cetus (29 page)

   "What are these things?" he asked as he brushed one of them with his gloved hand, the surface of the mineral seeming to flex at his touch.

   "They're called melondite," answered Arielle, stopping.

   Edison chuckled, stopping as well. "Melondite? Weird name, but I guess it fits. I've never seen any before."

   "They're pretty rare," commented Arielle as she glanced at the hundreds of small melondite groups that haphazardly dotted the walls. "They're only found in two other caves that I know of. They're a combination of hydroxides and mineral salts that are usually an indicator of surface seepage. If you think they look weird, you ought to press on one and see what happens. Hey, Rene, check this out."

   Renata stopped and turned around. She motioned for Hunter to continue. She walked back to Edison and Arielle as the others hiked past them. "What gives?"

   "Just watch," said Arielle, a smirk slinking across her lips.

   Edison began pressing his hand on a cantaloupe-sized mineral that was at the center of a group of about fifty.

   "Watch out," said Arielle as Edison put more pressure on the surface of the grayish-white globe.

   As the globe suddenly burst, a thin liquid squirted out toward him, catching him in the face and chest with a fine white mist. "What the hell?" He began wiping the powder off his face with his glove.

   Renata laughed. She had never seen anything quite like them nor had she ever seen Edison looking that comical.

   "They're called melondite for more than just their looks," said Arielle. "Most of them are hollow and soft. Some still have a lot of free water in their structure. Hell, if you got enough of them together and could keep them from exploding, they might make a comfortable bed."

   "But really?" asked Edison. "What are they good for?"

   Renata began blankly staring at some clusters of melondite, her mind suddenly becoming overwhelmed with numbers—countless, meaningless numbers that were racing through her thoughts at a frenzied pace.

   "Not much," said Arielle, shrugging. "The salts are of use in a variety of materials, but melondite isn't abundant enough to make mining feasible. And don't worry about the stuff you've been coated with. It's pretty harmless. It's mainly a mix of potassium, sodium, and calcium hydroxides." She turned and looked down the passage. "Hey, we'd better catch up with them. We don't want the lights going out on us now—spread this far apart." She nudged Renata. Then she nudged her again. "Come on, Rene. Let's go."

   Numbers continuing to pour through her thoughts, Renata turned toward Arielle. "Just let me get this stuff out of my hair." She handed her hardhat to Arielle, then began brushing her fingers through her hair as if she was trying to rid her head of spiders. She took the hardhat back from Arielle, peered inside it, then put it on.

   After many anxious steps, they caught up with Ramon, Devon, and Richelle, who were still quite a distance behind Hunter.

   "Shit," groaned Devon as she glanced at Renata. "Why does this happen to me? I don't need this now."

   "Just don't touch the melondite," quipped Arielle, looking at the splotches of powdery melondite dotting Devon's jacket. "It's nothing to worry about. It's harmless." She patted Devon on the back. "You'll be okay."

   "Yeah, yeah," grumbled Devon. "Easy for you to say." She dusted off the front of her jacket with her hands, then sighed. "This isn't good."

   "Neat stuff," said Ramon, grabbing Arielle's arm. "I remember you telling me you found some in the Alinax Complex. But was it this abundant?"

   Arielle shook her head.

   "Ramon, have you noticed anything unusual on the Vimap?" asked Renata.

   "So far, pretty typical stuff," he answered. "Nothing unusual, unless you want to call some minor air pressure fluctuations unusual. But that seems to have been the norm down here from what I noted on the logs."

   Suddenly Renata felt a hand on her back. She turned; Ramon turned. It was Devon. She had her hands on both of them.

   Devon pulled her hands away. "Sorry. I slipped."

   Renata put a hand to her forehead. She felt a little funny, lightheaded. She glanced at Devon. Something was up. She didn't know why, but she knew that. At least the numbers had stopped running through her thoughts. Could Devon have caused that? Renata hurried after Hunter, noticing the chasm was swallowing up more of the left side of the path, the path's right side bounded by a rugged, vertical wall. "Slow down," she said upon reaching him. "We're not in a race. Let the rest of us catch up."

   Hunter stopped hiking and took out his Vimap from his pocket. "According to the map, this path opens up about thirty meters past the chasm." He leaned back against the melondite-covered wall, dozens of globes bursting behind him, filling the air with a fine white mist. "Damn melondite. Never seen so much of it." He stepped away from the wall.

   As they waited for the others, they both peered into the unfathomable depth of the chasm, which seemed more like a pipe driven into the very center of the planet. Perhaps fifteen meters across at this point, its walls were vertical but nearly blanketed with thick clumps of melondite that looked like barnacles on the hull of a ship. Except for what appeared to be a thin, long, upward-angled ledge a distance below them on their side, there weren't any other breaks in the walls.

   "Kalo Two estimated this hole at over five hundred meters," he said as he leaned farther over the edge. "That's a hell of a quick way to go."

   That thought unsettled Renata. "That's a deep hole. Let's get everyone together before we traverse it. Okay? Tengo que esta loca de remata."

   "What's with the Spanish?" asked Hunter. "Has Ramon rubbed off on you?"

   She was surprised. "What Spanish? Huh?"

   "You just said something in Spanish."

   "I did? I-I…"

   "Don't worry. Your mind must be elsewhere."

   She shook her head, then punched some codes into her Vimap. She watched as a profusion of numbers scrolled down the screen.

   Within a moment, the others had caught up to them, each explorer cautiously gazing into the precarious gash in the planet with a child-like fear.

   "Let's cross single file," said Renata, looking up. "The path is less than a meter wide all the way across. Ramon, do you want to take point?"

He seemed surprised. "You're asking me?"

"I'm on it," said Hunter, moving forward. "No offense, Ramon."

   Renata motioned to Devon. "Devon, you're second. Then Ramon. Then me, Richelle, Arielle, and Edison." She looked at her Vimap, numbers continuing to scroll down the screen. She cleared the screen, then shook her head as if that spider was back in her hair.

   "I'm fine with that order, Señorita Stone," said Ramon, "but let's rope up and use GCs, okay? Just in case a blackout catches us while we're crossing that thing."

   "Damn. You're right," said Renata. "I don't know what I was thinking. Ese hoyo justo me dejo boquiabierto."

   "On that I will agree," he said. "Around this pit, no one can think." He looked at Devon. "Don't you agree, sweetie?"

   She nodded. "Takes my breath away too."

   They spent a few minutes fixing harnesses and fastening belay clips. When they had finished roping up, Hunter began cautiously walking along the narrow path, glancing into the chasm as he did, his lights creating dazzling reflections on the bubbly, carpet-like melondite. When he had moved out a short distance ahead of Devon, he began examining the wall for a spot to connect his first gravity clip but was having a hard time finding a place because the wall was so thickly coated with melondite.

   As Renata watched him, she thought about the gravity clip he was trying to place on the wall, which looked like nothing more than a metal ring welded to a square, gray metal plate. Gravity clip was a misnomer since the clip was actually fastened with a super-strong adhesive that bonded its square base to the wall. Once secured, the clips were sure to stay put until released by a signal from the Vimap that disrupted the molecular fabric of the glue. She wondered how they ever got their name. The clips really didn't have anything to do with gravity at all, except to combat it.

   "Find a spot already" said Ramon as he took a few steps forward.

   "Hold on," said Arielle. "What's that noise?"

   Hunter stopped searching the wall as everybody looked up at the ceiling, which was about six body lengths above them.

   "Sounds like an engine," said Edison. He took out his Vimap.

   Arielle looked at Edison's Vimap display. "Whew," she said. "It's just Kalo Three. The passage above parallels this one. The robotic's going to go right over us."

   "Sounds pretty noisy," grumbled Edison as he scrutinized the ceiling. "Man, what's that thing running on?"

   "Uh, oh," said Renata as a dreadful, anxious thought crossed her mind. She examined her Vimap. "What's the weight of a Kalo?"

   "About 250 kilograms unloaded," answered Edison. "But what's that got to do with anything?"

   "I'm not sure," she answered. Suddenly a small rock hit her hardhat and bounced into the chasm. She looked up. "Uh, oh," spilled through her lips again. "This chamber looks like it eats into the passage above us. Since the Kalo's running with minimal sensors, it isn't going to be able to detect that." She immediately pulled up a cross-sectional profile of the area on her screen. "Edison. Look at this. The passage above us has less than a one-meter floor. A lot less. It's really nothing more than a thin arch."

   "Omigod!" said Edison as he looked at the ceiling, the Kalo now sounding like a tank rolling above them. "Then that thing's like an elephant stampeding across a bamboo bridge…"

   Suddenly more rocks fell from the ceiling in a line from Edison to Ramon.

   "Hit the ground!" shouted Edison as he and Renata were pelted with a barrage of rocks. He waved to Devon, Ramon, and Hunter. "Hit the ground! That Kalo's shakin' the roof!" He shoved Renata to her knees.

   With Edison using his body to shield her from the rocks, Renata watched as Ramon fell to the ground on his stomach, but Hunter started back toward them, putting up his arms to protect himself. He caught his foot on a rock and tripped. Renata gasped as she watched him stumble over the edge and into the chasm. Instantly the rope snapped tight on Devon's belay clip, which had sensed the fall and had automatically clasped down on the rope. As Devon was dragged toward the chasm, instead of using belaying actions, she just flailed her arms and screamed. At once she was over the side.

   "Mierda!" screamed Ramon as the rope wrenched him forward and began dragging him toward the edge as he frantically worked to stop his slide.

   "Shit!" shouted Renata as she grabbed the rope, her Vimap flying wildly from her hands and over the edge of the precipice. Like she was on the end of a rubber band, she was yanked forward. She threw out her arms, grimacing from the shock as her hands slammed into the limestone floor.

   As she desperately tried to dig the toes of her boots into the hard surface while fighting against the ground with her hands, the rope suddenly stopped pulling her. She looked up. Ramon had managed to catch his leg on a large block that projected up near the edge of the path, stopping their slide.

   Edison grabbed Renata around the waist and raised her to her feet as he buttressed his foot against a block that jutted from the floor. He began pulling on the rope in front of her, bringing her body back with him as he did.

   Ramon secured his position with his other leg and began pulling up on the rope as well. "We've got you!" he cried. "We're going to get you up." He grunted loudly as he yanked on the rope.

   "This sucks!" cried Hunter, his voice echoing through every corner of the passage. "This really sucks!"

   "Sister!" echoed Devon's voice. "Help me! This is absolutely horrible!"

   Suddenly Renata felt Arielle and Richelle beside her, their hands grabbing onto the rope that stretched out before them.

   "Pull!" bellowed Edison. The four yanked on the rope, pulling it up a short distance. "Back! Back!" His muscles flexed, he pressed his forearms against Renata's body and pulled on the rope, bringing her with him, one step back, then another.

   "We're winning!" shouted Ramon as he struggled to his knees. "Stay cool. Give us some help. Grab anything you can get your hands into."

   "I'm trying!" cried Hunter. "I'm trying!"

   "Grab onto what?" cried Devon. "There's nothing here! The walls are made of mush!"

   "I think we've got them," grunted Edison as he stabilized his legs. His arms wrapped tightly around Renata, he pulled back with his weight, Renata continuing to move back with him. "We've got you!" he cried. "We've got the weight on this end. Hang on."

   Everyone pulled on the rope again, bringing it up a short distance. As Devon's left hand came up and grabbed onto a rock at the edge of the precipice, Renata sighed. She watched in relief as Devon's other hand came up and Ramon reached out, clasping it tightly.

   "I've got you…"

   "No!" cried Devon. "This can't happen now! This just can't happen! It's not fair!" She lunged at him with her other hand, grabbing onto his arm.

   Ramon teetered forward from Devon's weight.

   "Ramon!" cried Edison. "What're you doing? Pull her up, man!"

   "Come on, Ramon!" cried Arielle. "Quit playing around."

   Renata gaped as a ghastly, empty feeling exploded within her chest. "Devon! Oh, God. I
am
your Sister." At once a shower of rocks began to pummel the area near Ramon as if they had been spilled out of a bucket. Renata looked up. The ceiling! Part of it was collapsing.

   Just as a large limestone block broke loose from the ceiling, her eyes caught it. It tumbled as it fell and it landed on the outstretched rope. The rope snapped—like a whip. The four went flying back toward the wall. Renata's eyes wide with horror, she watched Ramon falling forward, both of Devon's hands hanging onto him. Then they were gone.

   As the most terrifying screams Renata had ever heard in her life reverberated through the passage, she slumped to the ground. Her heart. She put her hand to her chest. It was gone.