The Caverns of Mare Cetus (30 page)

Chapter Eight

Some Facts about Mare Cetus

Planetary Axial Tilt: 20.88°

Length of Mare Cetus Year: 342.785 Mare Cetan days
Surface Area of Mare Cetus: 498,537,974 sq. km
Surface Area of the Oceans: 404,912,542 sq. km (81.22%)
Surface Area of

the Continents: 93,625,432 sq. km (18.78%)

% of Land Surface Area Centered At

Continents:

Adriatica 17.6% 16,478,076 sq. km 14.6°S
Frigia 14.4% 13,482,062 sq. km 85.6°N
Kallana 11.3% 10,579,674 sq. km 44.1°S
Lucina 8.9% 8,332,663 sq. km 22.7°N
Marranna 7.5% 7,021,907 sq. km 37.3°N
Orbea 11.1% 10,298,797 sq. km 3.2°N
Scythia 12.6% 11,796,804 sq. km 8.5°S
Tethea 7.6% 7,115,533 sq. km 14.8°S
Zelkova 9.1% 8,519,914 sq. km 52.5°S

% of Water Surface Area

Oceans:

Dunkleosteus 15.4% 62,356,532 sq. km
Gyrodus 34.6% 140,099,740 sq. km
Isurus 20.3% 82,197,246 sq. km
Toxotes 12.4% 50,209,155 sq. km
Xenacanthus 17.3% 70,049,870 sq. km
Highest Elevation: Mount Celsa 9,277 m / 30,436 ft. (Adriatica)
Largest Lake: Lake Iunctus 521,333 sq. km (Adriatica/Lucina)
Highest Temperature: 43.6°C / 110.5°F (Orbea)
Lowest Temperature: -110.9°C / -167.6°F (Frigia)
Average Temperature: 9.9°C / 49.8°F

   The air was thick with nauseating clouds of melondite dust that had been spewed up by the fall. A few rocks still trickled from the ceiling like the waning raindrops at the end of a violent thunderstorm. Renata was lying on her back, one of Edison's huge legs stretching across her own. Her eyes mesmerized, she gazed in shock at the murky, crater-shaped hole that now showed through the ceiling of the passage.

   Edison pulled his leg off Renata's legs, then sat up and groaned.

   Renata sat up and began coughing, a painful emptiness stabbing at her chest. She unfastened her rope and began crawling timidly toward the edge of the precipice, fearing what she knew she would find. As she peered into the foreboding pit, seeing only thick, silky clouds of dust slowly twirling past each other as if they were attached to a maypole, she grimaced. She began searching vainly for any change in the grayish-white clouds, for any sign Hunter, Devon, and Ramon might have fallen on the ledge she had seen and had managed to elude the inevitable death awaiting them at the bottom. Becoming engrossed in her search, she didn't notice Edison had crawled up beside her.

   "Damn, it's a blizzard in there," he said, his voice low and serious.

   "Hunter!" called Renata, her hoarse voice echoing through the cavern. "Hunter! Answer if you can! Anything at all!" She continued her search and began picking out a few grayish-black limestone blocks poking through the clouds like the tips of craggy mountain peaks. "Just let me see something," she murmured, "something to show me they're alive."

   Arielle crawled beside Renata, took one look over the edge and burst into tears. "Ramon! Oh, my God! Oh, my God…"

   Renata called to Hunter again, then Devon, then Ramon, her cries increasing in strength and urgency. Then she felt a tugging on her pant leg. She looked back toward her legs.

   Richelle, her face, hair, and body covered with melondite dust, was lying on her stomach, her head pressed against the ground, her arm stretched out, a Vimap in her hand. "I-I-I c-c-can't come any cc-closer right now," she stammered. "T-t-take this. See if you c-c-can locate them."

   Renata reached back and took the Vimap and watched as Richelle used her arms to push herself backward toward the wall. She pulled her dusty hair away from her face, brushed the dust off the screen, and began running one search program after another, finding nothing, learning nothing. Not surprisingly, even her own HID didn't register anymore.

   "It's those Kalos," said Edison as he looked at the screen. "They've fried our Vimaps. We're only seeing what they want us to see."

   "Ramon's gone!" wailed Arielle as she grabbed onto Renata. "Hunter's gone. And that poor dear child. God, why did we ever come here? Why did I treat him so badly? Ramon, I'm sorry, so terribly sorry…"

   As Renata hugged Arielle tightly, Renata's eyes welled with tears. During her worst confrontations with Ramon, she often fantasized about how it would feel to have him vanish in the musty, lifeless depths of the caves, to see him ignorantly walk off on his final expedition. But seeing the agony Arielle was going through now, she wanted to hide her face, take back every malicious thought. She began consoling Arielle, watching the tears roll through the dust that covered Arielle's face, appearing like muddy streams crossing a plain.

   "He's gone!" cried Arielle, her body shuddering. "Oh, my God. He's gone." She pressed her face against Renata's shoulder, continuing to weep, deeply, agonizingly.

   "Do you think there's any chance they might still be alive?" asked Edison, his words fading. He sat up, removed his hardhat, and held it on his chest. Tears in his eyes, he lowered his head as if in mourning.

   "Take her," said Renata, Arielle's harsh, pitiful cries scorching her nerves. "Please. Get her away from the edge."

   He took Arielle by her arm and led her back to the wall.

   Renata leaned forward and peered into the pit again, noticing the dust clouds had begun to dissipate. Still, as far down as her symotes would shine, she saw only melondite covered walls and a few outcrops jutting into the pit. Then at once she thought she could make out the ledge. Her heart raced with anticipation as the dust rapidly cleared, as if it was being sucked out with a vacuum. She quickly searched the ledge, seeing no trace of the three or any of their equipment.

   She held up the Vimap and pressed a button. A telescopic image formed on the screen. As she manipulated the image with her finger, she tried to zoom in on the bottom of the pit, but the view seemed to stretch into an inky infinity. "Where's the light from their symotes?" she muttered. "Why can't I see it? This doesn't make sense. Could they be covered with debris? Five hundred meters deep, my ass. Stupid bastard robotics." Using the Vimap, she shot a laser of yellow light down into the pit, then looked at the screen, shuddering when she saw the laser had measured the depth to at least one thousand meters. "There's nothing left of them—is there?" she said softly, choking back her tears. She adjusted the image to its highest resolution and continued to search into the depths of the pit, but she saw only blackness. Dismayed, she scanned the ledge again, immediately realizing the steep upward angle with which it jutted from the wall. She spent some time looking for anything she might recognize—a Vimap, a glove, a hardhat, even Devon's earrings. Finding little more than shattered globes of melondite that had likely been ruptured by the falling rocks, she stepped into the image and brought the ledge right up in front of her face. Even though her heart told her the search was futile, she began methodically scanning every centimeter of the ledge, from one end to the other. She wasn't searching for them anymore, she was searching for herself—for her own desire to find just one item she could associate with Hunter, Devon, or Ramon.

   Totally spent after scanning the pit for quite some time, she stepped out of the image and sat back despondently. She ran more search programs, but the identification screen remained blank, cold, barren, as if all of them had been erased from existence, their lives absorbed by the lifeless caves.

   She clasped her hands together on her lap, lowering her head. "Goodbye, Hunter. There was a spark between us, but now it's extinguished, forever, like so many of my dreams." She made V's with her index and middle fingers on both hands, then linked them together, saluting them with the Novian sign of reverence and admiration. She sat silently for a time, an occasional tear tumbling down her cheek. Then she raised her head. "Goodbye my mysterious Sister. And you too, Ramon. No puede haber pollo en corral y en cazuela."

   She stood and walked over to the others. Edison was sitting against the wall, the grieving Arielle lying on his shoulder, but Richelle was looking along the path as if searching for something, her eyes appearing vigilant, mistrustful.

   As Renata wiped the tears from her eyes, she realized how much dust was on her face. She took off her hardhat, set it down, and began washing off the dust with a canteen of water. "We need to go," she said when she was done.

   Arielle shook her head. "No. I'm staying here."

   "You can't do anything for Ramon by staying," said Renata.

   "It doesn't matter," choked Arielle. "Nothing matters."

   Renata knelt beside Arielle and took her hand. "Ramon wouldn't want that."

   "I know." Arielle laid her head against Renata. "But I just can't leave him. And I don't know how you can just walk away. I know how you felt about Hunter."

   Renata sighed. "I can't deny I wish I had shown him more of the way I felt, but I can't let myself carry guilt for something I can't change. Hunter would understand that. And knowing our situation, he'd want me to go on. Give me your hand." She took Arielle's hand.

   "The Commander's gone," said Edison, his head and shoulders slumped forward. He slammed a large rock on the ground in front of him in exasperation. "He's gone."

   "But we're not," said Renata. "Edison. Take my hand."

   Edison looked at her with reluctant, quizzical eyes, then grasped their hands with his own.

   "You too," said Renata, staring sympathetically at Richelle.

   Richelle put her hand on Edison's.

   "Now squeeze," said Renata as she squeezed Arielle's hand.

   Edison and Richelle squeezed as well.

   "Feel the warmth," said Renata. "The flesh, the life. Unlike everything around us, we are alive. Remember, it's only the continuation of our lives that will keep the memories of them alive. Nothing else."

   Sniffling, Arielle managed a pathetic, forced smile. "You're right, Rene."

   "I'll leave a locator here," said Edison, pulling his hand away. "Explora should give them a proper burial." He took a small, seamless white disk from his pack and engaged it, attaching its flat side to the wall.

   Arielle removed a thin gold chain that been hanging inconspicuously around her neck. Her eyes glazed, she hung it on the locator and began sobbing. "I'll always remember you, my love. Always. And Hunter, even though we had our differences, you saved my life. Now I'll never be able to repay you. And Devon, you were young, way too young." She wiped her nose with the back her hand.

   As Richelle began taking out her shimmering emerald-green dioptase earrings, Edison removed one of his heavy woven gold chains. He hung it over Arielle's necklace, and Richelle set her earrings on top of the disk's thin edge.

   Then it dawned on Renata—they were staring at her. A bit taken, she knew what they wanted. "I don't wear jewelry in the caves."

   "You've got to have something," said Arielle. "Something dear to your heart."

   Renata glanced at the thin diamond-studded watch Lance had given her. Though it often reminded her of the pain she once experienced, she still cherished it as one last flickering candle of her dreams. She looked at the three again, their eyes filled with both impatience and sorrow. She reluctantly removed her watch and placed it on the locator as tears fell from her eyes.

   The four stood in silence as they gazed at the chasm. After a moment, Richelle spoke. "Isis needs us."

   "Let's get rid of this evil." Edison gathered up the rest of the rope, then heaved it into the pit. "Let the caves have it. We'll take our chances without it."

   Renata was disturbed Edison had just thrown away a useful rope, but she held her tongue. She picked up her hardhat and put it on.

   "Edison, what about your Vimap?" asked Richelle, noticing it setting against the wall.

   "Grab it." Edison took some cautious steps out along the narrow path. "Grab my hand, Arielle. We're just going to stay close to the wall. I'll be damned if I'll use a rope around this pit of death. We'll just hang onto GCs." He slammed a GC through exploding melondite clusters, fastening it against the wall. Then he firmly pressed another through some clusters on his left, causing more dust to fly.

   Renata watched Richelle pick up the Vimap and slip it into her pocket, then broke her gaze and took Arielle's other hand.

   After a short time, with the help of a number of well-placed gravity clips for anchors, and with a few nervous moments as Edison lost his balance once and began teetering back toward the pit until Arielle grabbed onto him, they had reached the other side of the chasm. They began hiking in earnest again, the passage quickly widening as the chasm receded.

   Renata glanced back, noticing Richelle had lagged a distance behind and was standing near the edge of the chasm. "Come on, Richelle!" she called.

   Richelle turned and waved, then began to hurry toward them. When she reached them, she walked right in front of Renata without saying anything.

   As Renata began hiking behind Richelle, visions of Hunter wafted through her weary mind. She saw his confident smiles, his contemplating stares, his bright enthusiastic eyes, but more she saw the looks of sincere friendship he had shown her, despite what she had done to him by taking command. She realized now how much she was going to miss him, how much they needed him.

   The group glumly pressed forward, the passage continuing on a slow loop to the right. As Renata repeatedly tried to raise Trent on her com, she also began to pay close attention to the readouts on the Vimap Richelle had given her, though her concentration seemed to be continually broken by Arielle's sporadic bursts of sobbing.

   Time passed. When they reached the side passage that led to Trent and Isis much sooner than she had expected, Renata stopped and examined the map. She ran her index finger over passage reference points on the screen, highlighting each stretch in blue as a series of measurements flashed up beside them. As she examined the readouts, she shook her head.