Chocolate Chip
27 Nov 2016Mara Korine
The Roswell jumped into the rendezvous system without ceremony. The star was dim and red and not much bigger than a brown dwarf. Mara was to be dropped off on the outermost planet with a rover to wait for Jim's rescue. Pirates, it was said in her family, were the lowest of the low. Fiends, thieves, and murderers the lot of them and there was no distinction between those that held your life for ransom and those who might simply dodge taxes. Which Mara found highly hypocritical as her father's social circle made a point to avoid them as often as they could. The only difference was that they were rich enough to afford the loopholes that had been designed for their benefit. There were no such affordances to those with less and Mara was learning that those below the board were more complex than they'd ever considered. She floated in her cabin, watching through the little window at the black expanse considering this for the first time. She led a life insulated until very recently and she had slipped into the underworld without realizing it. There were problems to solve, and contacts that she had made and this is where they led her. To stow away on a smuggler's ship until they reached the drop off point, only a matter of light-seconds away now, and then pay for another smuggler to hide her for a number of weeks. Of course, there were extenuating circumstances. Someone was trying to capture her or worse. She had been held at gunpoint for the first time in her life. It was understandable that she would go along with those who had experience with this type of thing. Mara was sipping a juice packet and considering how different her parent's picture of smugglers was to the reality of Robert, Flea, and Jim. Robert was smart and proud. Flea had a heart of gold. Jim was handsome, capable, and kind. These were not the bloodthirsty criminals she'd heard stories about. They were good people who were perhaps a little misguided but Mara found it impossible to judge them. She certainly had no right, nor did her parents she found on reflection.
"Sixty light-seconds. We'll be coming in for landing soon." Came Roberts voice through the comm system.
I've got a minute before I need to be strapped in. I should get up front.
Mara propelled herself to the cockpit and found Robert in the pilot seat, with Flea taking the sensor station.
"May I ask a favour of you both?" she asked, "I've written some letters. I'd like for them to get to my family. Could you send them once you reach the bubble? I know I can't send anything from here, or from Jim's ship while we are hiding and I'd like for them to know I'm ok and to expect silence for a while. I can't bear for them to worry."
Robert agreed and said it would be no problem. The ship was lowering itself into the planets gravity well. The planet was a small, icy world. It was beige and spotted with dark brown areas. It reminded Mara of chocolate chip ice cream. The planet needs a giant waffle cone! Mara chuckled to herself as the ship closed in on the surface. There were few craters Mara noted. Is the surface new, or did it manage to avoid the planetary bombardment phase of this solar system? The world expanded in appearance as they approached until it ceased to be an object in the sky and rather took on the perception of being the ground beneath them. Robert piloted the ship expertly and there was no trouble. They all felt the first tug of gravity as the ship slowed below escape velocity. Mara also felt the excitement of exploration. It was a curse that dragged her across the galaxy. She wondered if she could learn why there were so few craters before Jim arrived.
The ship touched down and it was time for Mara to collect her bags and say goodbye to Flea and Robert. She thanked them both earnestly for the incredible rescue, and for the fine company. She collected her bags and headed to the loading bay. Mara was not normally a tactile person but she felt inclined to give them each a hug before she was loaded into the rover and dropped onto the planet's surface.
"Thank you both again. Please don't forget the letters!"
"We won't forget Mara, take care," came Roberts voice over the radio.
"Maybe we can meet again!" suggested Flea as the Roswell powered its thrusters scattering sand and pebbles in all directions away from the ship.
The ship rose in the sky until it became a point and then it was gone. I'm used to solitude. This is fine. I just need to not think about how I don't have a ship to leave this rock. Jim will be here within a few hours if all goes well. I should find the pick up coordinates first, and then do a bit of exploring nearby.
Without a ship in orbit to track her position, the coordinate readout was not accurate. The computer did the best it could to track distance and orientation but it would get things wrong from time to time, especially if she drove through tricky terrain. She had the coordinates to guide her, and they had picked out a spot at the base of a gorge. She could visually spot it when she got near enough. She had been dropped off close by, but it was still an hour before she spotted the gorge. From the sky, things were easy to spot but from the ground, there were a frustrating amount of hills and dips to obscure her view. She had always found her perspective of things changes when she was on the surface as well and something she might recognize from high up looked alien and wrong from a lower vantage point. Mara drove to where she felt she should park, and dropped a radio transponder. There, now even if the computer doesn't track my position I can at least follow the radio signal back here. Three hours to pick up.
Being idle had been bred out of Mara at a young age. She started taking soil samples and determining how long they had been on the surface. The ground around the rendezvous point was relatively young. It was less than two million years old in any case. This was the lighter regolith, and she wondered if the darker patches were any different. She ventured toward a mound of dark soil she'd seen on the way in. It was half an hour before she arrived and began taking samples. This soil was even younger than her first samples. I wonder if these hills are pingos. I wish I had a drill to take core samples with. She explored in a semicircle, keeping the pick up spot within a ten-minute drive. Several other hills and ledges where the ground seemed to have been upheaved, leaving layers of geologic history exposed for the reading told their stories to her. Mara noted that the layers on this part of the world were very thin which, she thought, was evidence for a very dynamic world. The ground, here at least, was completely resurfaced every few million years. The dim sunlight was casting longer shadows now and it was time to return to the spot she was expected to be.
The rover shuddered as she started off. That is odd, I've never felt a rover shake like that. She drove over the pingos and through sloping hollows until she felt the shuddering again. That was not the rover! These are quakes. I need to get back. She pressed on as fast as the rover would allow, now jumping over the pingos. The lights in the cabin would flicker when she landed hard, but she had plenty of fuel and the car was in good shape. Two more hills to go, and she would be able to see the spot. The transponder was pinging, its signal loud and clear. Another quake shook her as she climbed the next hill, and the ground erupted beneath her. The rover was tossed to the side along with the ejecta, and after hitting the ground hard rolled to a stop nearly, but not quite, upside down. The lights in the cabin had gone out, as did the console and everything else that required power. The air inside was already starting to feel chilled. Mud and debris obscured the view from the rover and all Mara knew was that she'd driven through a cryovolcanic eruption and that she was upside down, and without power. Nothing she could try from the seat yielded any response from the car and she unbuckled herself and dropped to the ceiling. Inspecting the interior with a flashlight brought her similar satisfaction.
It's probably something broken with the power system. I'll have to go outside to look. She unstrapped the emergency toolkit from behind the pilot seat and triggered her flight suit to enter hazard mode. In an instant, a flash of material sprang from her collar and tightened around her head and a plastic compound sprayed in an arc around her face, solidifying into a face shield and sealing her off from the vacuum outside. Mara unbuckled the emergency toolkit from behind the seat and propping herself up by hooking one of the seatbelts around her foot, reached up and unlocked the emergency exit. There was a hissing sound as the air in the cabin was vented outside and soon the hatch began to sag as pressure no longer held the hatch closed. Mara unlatched it the rest of the way and the door swung down into the car. She tossed the toolkit up and out and then climbed through herself.
"Life support system nominal, seven minutes remaining," declared an automated voice in Mara's suit. These suits were not meant for extended activities. They were designed to give you time to gather your essentials and get to a rescue pod. Mara grabbed the toolkit and set out to inspect the rover. If she could get the power plant started she would be fine. The ground was a hardening slurry of icy mud, and the rover was plastered with it. Mara had to take care to not let her feet sink too deeply to avoid getting stuck and become trapped forever. "Life support system nominal, six minutes remaining," came the voice again.
Right. I don't have much time to waste. The lights had been flickering when I would hit the ground. That wouldn't be the power plant, it sounds more like a connection between the power packs and the rover's systems. I'll start with the batteries.
Mara headed for the battery packs and found them to be dislodged and malformed. She found that the brackets which secured the batteries to a shock absorbing system had broken and in the crash, the batteries had broken free - shorted out and melted. The situation was overwhelming to Mara and her attention drifted into a foggy daydream.
"Life support system nominal, four minutes remaining."
Chocolate chip ice cream. When I get home, I'm going to have an entire tub of ice cream to myself. With hot cocoa.
"Life support system nominal, three minutes remaining," advised the suit, and a tremor warned that the planet had not yet finished its upheaval.
Mara's attention returned. She could seal up the cabin and repressurize it. Without power, there was enough oxygen for an hour. Or she could take one of the tanks with her and set out on foot. The volcano was bubbling and oozing more mud, and Mara was certain the rover would be buried before long. She had to get off of its slope. The oxygen tanks were on the outside of the rover, just behind the cabin. It took her two minutes to disconnect the supply hose and the suit was warning her that the air had run out before she connected it to the recharge port on her suit. Thank goodness they used a standard connector on this car. With the life support refreshed, Mara collected her things from the car and strapped what she could to her back. The rest she would have to drag on a sledge, along with the oxygen tank. She wouldn't make it to the rendezvous point on seven minutes of air and she could fix the hose to her recharge port. Mara fashioned a sledge from a piece of panelling, and the seat harness from in the cabin. I'll need the emergency locator beacon as well. That way Jim can find me. I can tune the radio in the suit to pick up the transponder signal. I should be good with that. The rover was being pushed further onto its roof by the encroaching mud flow as she set off with everything she could carry.
The ground felt more solid as she retreated from the volcano. Mara had walked fifteen minutes and halfway to the pick up location when it erupted again, spewing mud and ice hundreds of meters in the air. It was impressive and backlit by the setting sun. Mara was fixated. There was no atmosphere to serve as a backdrop, but the red light caught and outlined the spray of rocks, gravel, and mud. It shimmered dark and red like burning embers against the black sky. The flaming ice of a distant world. I wish I could take a picture of this. Her reverie was interrupted by her being pelted first by a small stone, and then by a spray of sand. Oh no! I'm still not far enough away! She began bounding away as fast as she could in the low gravity. Mara felt like she was being held back by molasses. The setting sunlight shifted until only the hilltops were lit, and then even they were abandoned by the light. Mara was in total darkness aside from the lights provided by her suit. She was being pelted by more stones. A very large one must have landed very near her as she felt a deep thud through the ground. She activated the emergency beacon and hurried. One more hill to climb and she would be in sight of the spot, were there light enough to see that far. Mara was close. She felt an intense pressure and had the wind knocked out of her.
Mara was disoriented. It was hard to breathe; when she tried a pain in her chest flared and prevented her from continuing. I've been hit by something big.
"Life support system critical, systems non-functional. Pressure leak detected," informed the suit.
With effort, Mara turned on her side and inspected the air line. It had been smashed off by the rock and was damaged. The air tank could not supply her with any more air, and her suit was leaking fast. Mara turned onto her back and looked up at the night sky with pebbles and mud raining down on her. She watched the stars and tried to breathe. The air was thinning with each breath. She spotted a ship flying in for a landing. Jim is here. I hope he picks up the beacon before it's too late. She picked herself up and grabbed her instrument case and left the sledge with the now useless air tank. I've got a couple of minutes to get to the top of this hill.
Her ribs were bruised or broken, Mara couldn't be sure. Carrying on was painful and with every meter, her focus was lessened. She started to see floating stars in her periphery, which progressed to a tunnel vision so constrained that she could barely see what was in front of her. She wouldn't make it to the top before she lacked the strength to pull herself forward any longer. Mara was gasping and thinking of how her family would receive her letters in a couple of weeks time and that they would read that she was ok. She realized they might not be looking for her for months and hoped they would forgive her as consciousness slipped away.