Landing Site near Invictus Biochem Outpost
Petria (Lunara III)
Lunara Star System
Captain’s Log, June 24th, 2330. On Doctor Tannehill’s recommendation, we are executing a suborbital flight to the southern polar region to obtain an ice core sample. This will provide historical climate data to aid in our analysis of the alien tissue samples while only minimally impacting the mission timetable.
Captain Grace Varley considered the fog shrouded valley as she waited for Sam to finish plotting the course for their hop to the polar ice cap. A dreary rain had settled in after the sandstorm passed, depositing a toxic glaze of sulfur tetrafluoride over the landscape. She supposed this weather offered some insight into the the accumulations inside the cave system – the natural drainage of the high valley walls all around the outpost channeled runoff into areas like the caves.
Any hopes Grace might have harbored of a respite from the storm were dashed once Sam broke out from the cloud layer. The storm system stretched on for hundreds of miles, with the southerly parts even occasionally flashing with lightning.
“I’m of half a mind to detour to the north pole,” Grace said to no one in particular.
Tannehill was quick to voice her objection, pointing out that the whole reason she wanted a core from the south pole was because of its proximity to the outpost – and the cave. Accepting the argument, Grace told Sam to ignore her thinking-out-loud and maintain course. Not much long after that, Intrepid dipped back into the clouds and settled onto a clear spot amidst the frozen dunes.
Heading after from the command module to retrieve Heller, Grace caught sight of Cora Coe, cleaning one of the large panoramic windows. For certain values of ‘cleaning’ at least, since she was spending at least half her time paused and watching the rain and lightning.
“Not exactly Paradiso,” Grace offered.
To her credit, that interjection didn’t take the younger Coe by surprise. Instead, she answered, “no, but I think it has its own charm. This rain is the equivalent of 94 degree water. Practically scalding, if it wasn’t so cold. But a few degrees warmer and all this,” she waved at the sheeting rain, “boils off.”
“I was fixing to commiserate with you for pulling the grunt job, but you make it sound like you’ve got the best seat in the house.”
Grace’s words were punctuated by a dramatic flash of lightning, and Cora accompanied her words with a smile. “I’m not going to pretend I get really excited about window-washing, but at least its the sort of job where I can appreciate the scenery and think about what a wild place we’re in.”
The Captain nodded at that, “sounds like a good attitude. Well, time for me to go stand in that mess. Keep up the good work.”
Retrieving Heller from the ship’s office, Grace took a second to review the day’s work plan. Rather than just getting a simple water sample, Doc wanted ice cores, and that would call for somewhat more cautious work. They’d start by setting up a drilling unit and a power supply. Solar was out of the question with the thick cloud cover, but a wind turbine should work perfectly.
“And grab some breakfast before we leave,” he concluded.
“I already had breakfast,” Grace shot back before she thought things through, adding, “so let’s call it brunch.”
“Yeeeah,” Heller smirked, “you almost didn’t think it through, did you? You’ve been out of the mines for too long. We’re going to be out there for a long time, and you won’t be breaking your suit seals for a snack in this atmosphere. So fill up.”
Grace slipped into the galley just as Barrett was leaving through the opposite hatch – but not before he turned and pointed to a container by the stove. “That one’s yours, boss.”
Examining the contents, Grace called back to the quickly retreating Barrett. “Ham and cheese? I didn’t know we even had any ham onboard?”
Barrett shrugged. “Might be that somebody snuck a few packs of synthameat into the fridge before we launched. Eat up!”
She did just that, washing it down with a pouch of tea before rejoining Heller in the ready room. Once they’d checked each others’ suits, they took the rover out of the garage and did a quick scan of the horizon.
“I got nothing on the scanner,” Heller said. “Looks like we’re going for a drive. You watch the terrain and I’ll watch the sensors – there’s gotta be deep ice deposits around here somewhere.”
A few minutes after they cleared the landing zone, Heller pointed a bit to the left. “That way, five hundred meters. I’m reading a big outcropping, might be what we’re looking for.”
Grace followed Heller’s directions, course correcting here and there, until they crested a hill and finally got eyes on the anomaly. It was indeed a tall pillar of ice jutting out of the ground. The two closed in before disembarking to take closer readings.
“Tell me you’ve got a place to drill,” Grace said, but Heller gave her a quick shake of his head.
“This is all relatively recent formation… in fact, if you were looking for copper ore, you’d be in luck. We’re standing on a huge subsurface deposit.”
Grace groaned a little, “I guess we’re getting back in the rover then. How’s your suit’s heater looking.”
“Still nominal, no warnings. But we shouldn’t stray too far from the LZ in case this weather gets worse.”
About half an hour later, a quiet “shit,” hissed out of Heller’s mouth.
“What is it?” Grace asked.
“My heater just started pinging a warning tone. Here, straight ahead, there’s a cave in that hill side. We need to get into cover and see if we can let the storm peter our a little.”
“And check the batteries on your suit,” Grace added.
Skidding to a halt at the mouth of the cave, Grace and Heller moved fast to get into cover, even as the rather concerning characteristics of the entrance came into full view.
Grace vaulted over an upturned cart of… rocks? Eggs? She hoped rocks. Even as Heller slowed a little.
“Um, boss, maybe we need to find a different—“
“Not now, Heller, you need to get into shelter so I can check your suit.”
Reluctantly, he followed her and they descended into the cave.
“You know, Heller, I’m thinking this planet is a lot less dead than the scanners let on,” said Grace as she entered a cavern full of luminescent growths.
“Do you hear that?” he asked.
Grace nodded slowly. “Yeah, sounds like something’s moving, like shells rubbing against the rocks. But I don’t see anything. OK, suit lights on, heads on a swivel.”
Despite the strange noises seeming coming from all around them, neither Grace nor Heller could see any sign of movement. Still, reaching the back of the cave they came across another very interesting sight.
“What is that?” Heller said, “a fossil?”
“I think so,” Grace agreed. “I wonder if this is one of the life forms from that earlier epoch that Sarah talked about.”
The two of them checked the cave from the stem to stern once more while they waited for the storm to abate, but they never found any sign of the source of the noises… or of whatever happened to the clearly very human explorers had been removing the egg-like objects from the cave.
Weighing the relative odds that they’d just left in a hurry or that they’d fallen afoul of some lurking menace, Grace gave Heller’s suit a quick safety check, and once the rain had let up a bit and his readings normalized, she decided to spend no more time in the eerie cavern.
But an hour later, the storm was back at full strength, and this time it was Grace’s turn to hear her suit’s warning ping.
“OK, Heller, last call on the scanner. If you don’t get something in the next fifteen minutes, we’re scrubbing this excursion.”
As Intrepid came back into view, Heller said, “hang on, showing another cave a kilometer to the north.”
“Nope,” Grace shot back, “we’re done here. I don’t need either of us out of action with frostbite.”
Checking her Chronomark, Grace realized a bit to her dismay that they’d only been out for a couple hours.
“Damn,” she commented, “that felt like we spent a whole shift out there.”
Heller laughed, “I’m sure having a thousand alien eyes watching you in the dark didn’t help.”
“Please do not put that image in my head,” Grace said. “But… let’s take a breather and see if the weather clears in a few more hours. If we can do it safely, I don’t object to giving this another shot.”
Taking a cue from Cora’s appreciation of the storm, Grace ascended to the observation deck – and found herself face to face with Jasmine Durand, who had evidently had the same idea.
“Uh, hey,” Jasmine said awkwardly.
“Yeah, about yesterday,” Grace started.
“That was weird, right? I thought that was weird.”
Grace shrugged, “now you know how I felt the first time. I’m sorry I dropped that all on you. I just… I just didn’t know how else to answer your question.”
“I don’t know if I’m at a place where I can be all ‘no worries, cap’n, all’s forgotten and forgiven,’ considering, you know, but… I meant it when I said thank you. And I appreciate that you trust me… kind of? I feel like, if our places were switched, I’d be afraid you’d want to get back at me for what went down at the Key.”
“Honestly? The thought’s crossed my mind once or twice. But every version of you I’ve ever known has been trustworthy. And my gut says that’s true for this version, too.”
“Um, thanks. Again. So I saw you come back in a hurry. Find something interesting out there?”
Grace shrugged. “More native life forms. A lot of fossils, too. And a lot of extremely cold rain. We’ll go back out for another run if the weather lets up.”
They tried to keep up the conversation a while longer, but it kept falling into awkward pauses and eventually Grace just found a comfortable spot on one of the couches to gaze out the window. After a few hours things seemed to have cleared up considerably, and she joined Heller out by the garage.
“What do you think?” she asked.
Heller though for a second before nodding. “Big improvement. Let’s head for the north cave and get some readings. Maybe our luck’ll turn around.”
By the time they passed the third heavily contaminated ice field, Grace was starting to suspect that Heller had jinxed them. Nothing they’d seen was suitable for what Dr. Tannehill needed. Still, they reached the cave eventually, and after parking the rover they ventured within.
“Careful,” she warned, leading the way, “that smoke is fluorine gas – very reactive.”
Heller chuckled, “I do in fact know what fluorine gas can do to a pressure suit.”
“Fine, smartass, but watch out anyway. I don’t want to have to haul you back with a busted pressure seal.”
After ten or fifteen minutes of progressing deeper in to cave, Grace heard Heller mutter, “this place is a maze.”
Nodding in agreement she said, “yeah, though its well sheltered from the cold. If I was going to set up an outpost down here, a cavern like this would be great. No sign of water deposits, but let’s see what we can find a little deeper.”
They spent some more time exploring and taking samples, but ultimately returned to the rover. Before climbing in, Grace turned to appreciate the horizon.
“Hello, sun,” she said, “I missed you.”
“That is indeed a hell of a view,” Heller concurred. “And it looks like the storm’s truly moved on… got another cave about a click further north. Want to try it?”
“I’m starting to doubt that these caves are going to pay off, but let’s see if we find something worthwhile on the way. That said, if the rain starts up again, we’re turning back immediately. Understood?”
“You’re the boss… and the driver,” he conceded as Grace shifted the rover into gear.
When all was said and done, they checked not just the cave Heller had spotted, but a second one, as well as taking advantage of the dramatically friendlier weather to work a large search grid over the dunes, all with no success. It’s not that they didn’t find water: shallow surface deposits of ice were everywhere. The problem was that any accumulations deep enough for ice cores were shot through with pressurized fluorine vents, heating the water into a slurry and mixing it with the pervasive surface contaminants… and removing any value it had for historical analysis.
With night setting in and her stomach telling her it was past time for a meal, Grace reluctantly called off the search and started the drive back to Intrepid. Tannehill was waiting just inside the airlock, clearly eager to learn how the excursion had gone.
“How’d it go?” she asked.
“Well, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news,” Grace answered. “The good news is that we found more native life forms. Cave dwellers like before. We also brought back a lot of mineral and natural gas samples. The bad news is that the water table is severely contaminated for miles around. There’s nothing here for us to do a core drill on.”
“Damn,” Doc said, “that’s disappointing. Still, I’ll take the life forms as a consolation prize. You got extensive scans, I assume?”
Heller nodded, “there was something moving in the cave. We never spotted it, but we scanned every inch of the place. The data’s in the suit recorders.”
“Alright, I guess I’ll call it good enough for Constellation work then. Captain, you can leave the rest of the survey report to me. I’ll, ah, give it my biologist’s expert flair and make sure I highlight all the most important findings.”
“That works for me,” Grace agreed, before she slipped past Tannehill into the pantry for a much needed sandwich and beer.
End Log
Days Elapsed: 2
Fuel Consumption: 0 kg
Fuel Obtained: 0 kg
Fuel Remaining: 446.5 kg
Injuries Acquired: 0
Lifetime Injuries: 1