Arrival (16 page)

“The book says we travel in pairs, Skipper,” Mac reminded her.

“You’re the equipment mechanic, Mac. Besides, it’s only four kilometers back to the LRV, and all of it downhill.”

“You’re sure you can find your way back?”

Lynn held up her data pad. “I can use the ship’s reactor signature as a homing beacon,” she explained. “I’ll be fine. Now go. That’s an order.”

Mac didn’t have to be told twice, and was off and running once more.

“
Are you sure?”
Frank asked.

“Yes, I’m sure. Mac’s on his way to you. I can be back at the LRV in less than an hour if I hurry. I’ll check it out and get back to you. If I can’t fix it, you’ll still have time to get back before dark.”

“
Copy that!
” Frank responded. “
We’ll finish unpacking the ATUV kit and wait for Mac.
”

“
Don’t wait for me,
” Mac argued, “
start building!
” Mac knew the situation, and he didn’t want them to delay completion of the ATUV for his sake.

* * *

Lynn had moved at a brisk pace nearly all the way back, stopping only once to answer Frank on the comm-set when he reported Mac’s arrival at their location.

As she approached the LRV, she could see dark clouds drifting in over Sherwood Forest from the shoreline. She slowed her pace back down to a fast walk just before she reached the LRV, trying to catch her breath before she arrived. Every muscle in her body ached.

She immediately circled around the tail of the ship to its starboard side, heading straight for the power distribution panel Frank had mentioned. “Maria? This is Lynn. I’m outside the LRV now, starboard side. I’ll check it out.”

“
Great!”
Maria responded.
“
Do you need us to do anything in here?
”

“Yeah,” Lynn teased, “don’t let Sara touch anything.” She was kidding, even though there was probably a little bit of truth in there somewhere.

“
Very funny,
” Sara retorted.

Lynn opened up the access panel on the side of the ship. Inside, she found at least eight of the fifteen main power bus circuits had been tripped. “Jesus, Sara! What the hell did you do?”

“
I, uh, I think I crossed the polarity on the hot leads. Accidentally of course.
”

“Of course,” Lynn snapped back. “What were you thinking?”

“
I used to fix these things all the time back on the Daedalus,
”
Sara said defensively.

“Well we aren’t on the Daedalus, now are we?” Lynn quipped as she reset the tripped breakers. “Maria? Make sure everything is turned off in there before I try turning the power back on.”

“
Already done, Lynn.
”

“Okay, I’m going to turn the main power back on.” Lynn pushed the reset button next to the circuit panel, and then flipped the cover back over the button. A few seconds later, there were several noticeable clicks as the main buses opened up and sent electrical energy back into the interior of the LRV. Lynn could feel the humming of the circuits functioning properly as she closed the access panel and locked it down. “Go ahead and start turning things back on,” Lynn announced confidently. “You should have power now.” Lynn stepped back from the ship and looked up to see inside the habitat bay windows. It was getting cold outside, and the wind was picking up. Lynn looked up at the clouds passing overhead, wondering if it was going to rain again.

“
We’ve got power in here,
” Maria announced happily. Lynn could hear the cheers of Laura and Adia in the background as lights started flickering to life inside the ship.

* * *

Mac’s arrival had not helped. They were completely confused. The assembly instructions made little sense, as they had been written by the Japanese firm that designed and manufactured ATUV’s back on Earth decades earlier.

Mac had managed to separate the parts into groups: power plant, drive train and engine, control mechanisms, and finally, frame and body.

“
Frank, Lynn.
”

“Go ahead, Lynn,” Frank responded, relieved to have an excuse to be away from the ATUV, even if only for a moment.

“
You were right about the main distribution panel. The power’s back up now.
”

“Great!”

“
How’s it going out there?
”

“Well,” Frank answered, scratching his head. “We’re having a little trouble. Seems the ATUV doesn’t go together exactly like the plans say they do.”

“
Can you finish it up today?
”

Frank looked at Mac and Tony, who were arguing about which pile a wiring harness belonged in. “It doesn’t look that way.”

“
Maybe you’d better come in and start fresh in the morning. It’s getting cloudy, and I’m afraid it might start raining again.
”

“Copy that. We’ll secure the site and head back.”

“
Copy that.
”

“Okay, boys. You heard the lady. Let’s pack it up and head home.”

“Shit, Frank!” Mac complained. We just got this crap organized! And now you want us to put it back?”

“Hey, it wasn’t my idea.”

“There’s no way we’re gonna get everything back inside that pod, Frank,” Tony pointed out. “That thing was packed by a whole team of professionals who had a packing plan to work from!”

“Yeah,” Frank thought aloud. “You might be right about that.” He considered their options for a minute. “Okay, let’s move just the electrical stuff back inside. There’s not very much of that, and they’re the only things we
don’t
want to get wet…at least not until they are installed. We can leave the rest of it out and cover it up with the packing cloths. We’re on high ground anyway, so it’s not like they’re gonna get flooded or anything.”

Within thirty minutes they had everything covered up, the electrical hardware back inside with the pod hatch closed and latched. Picking up their packs, they began their hike back to the LRV, moving quickly to try to beat the sunset.

Ten minutes later, it began to rain. None of them had thought to bring foul-weather gear along, as the skies had been sunny with only broken clouds when they had first left the LRV just after lunch. The rain slowed their progress, especially since they were walking against the wind. The biting gusts chilled their wet bodies, and the rain felt like tiny needles stinging their arms and faces.

Before they were even a third of the way home, the weather had gotten so bad that they could barely see five meters in front of them. The wind was so strong that it was all they could do to keep from being blown over, let alone make any headway along their course. They weren’t even sure they were still on course half the time, as the lightning was interfering with their ability to track the LRV’s homing signal. To make matters worse, it was rapidly getting dark.

“This is insane!” Frank cried above the howling winds. “We’re never gonna make it back to the LRV at this rate!” He pulled out his data pad to get a reciprocal heading back to the cargo pod. “We’re going back to the pod! We can hold up inside it for the night, and hope this blows over by morning!”

“Are we gonna be able to find it?” Tony asked.

It was a good question. “We’ll fan out! Tony, you go to the right! Mac to the left! Just to the edge of visual range! Watch me for course corrections! And keep your eyes peeled for the pod’s flashing red strobe on top! If you see it, call out!”

“Got it,” Mac responded.

“Now let’s go find that thing before we freeze to death!”

They turned around and started back, the wind coming at them from behind now instead of stinging their faces. Mac and Tony each veered away from Frank until they were flanking him on either side, about ten meters, afraid to venture further away for fear of losing sight of him.

Frank could feel his fingertips going numb from the cold as he clutched the data pad with both hands, holding it up in front of him. He knew that if they didn’t find their way back to the cargo pod, they might not last the night. Inside the pod, they would at least be sheltered from the storm. But first, they had to find it.

* * *

Will immensely enjoyed collecting samples. He had at least twelve good chunks of surface rock, and a few samples of soil that he was just dying to get under the scanner head on Jack’s data pad.

He was awfully tired, however, and as he approached the campsite, he wondered if he might be better off to just eat dinner and go to bed. As he trudged up the hill, the red and white parachute canopy dyed the sunlight and bathed the campsite in colors of pearl and red, giving it a predominantly pinkish hue.

As he closed the distance, Will looked around for Jack, finding him asleep in the grass just beyond the canopy’s perimeter. Will walked up to him, waking Jack from his nap with the sound of his approaching footsteps.

“Are you okay?” Will asked.

“Uh, yeah, fine,” Jack assured him as he woke. “Why do you ask?”

“You look kind of red.”

“What?” Jack suddenly became aware of a strange stiffness in his face.

“Around the face.”

Jack cautiously poked at his face with his fingers. It was abnormally hot, and painful to the touch. “Oh shit. I think I’ve got a sunburn.”

“A what?” Will asked, unfamiliar with the term.

“Sunburn. A first degree thermal burn, caused by prolonged exposure to solar heat or radiation,” Jack explained, quoting straight from the medical emergency training manual.

“Never heard of it,” Will admitted.

“It was pretty common back on Earth,” Jack explained. “Especially in the middle latitudes and on beaches and such. Anywhere the sun shone brightly.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Yes, actually. It does.”

“What can you do for it?”

“Not much, really. Drink a lot of water. If we were back on the Daedalus, I could put a topical cream on it, I suppose.”

“If we were back on the Daedalus, this wouldn’t have happened,” Will pointed out.

Jack rose to his feet. He felt a little weak, and a little dehydrated. He followed Will back to the camp to get ready for dinner. There was only about an hour of sunlight left, and Jack preferred they get everything secure for the night before it got so dark that they needed to use the battery-powered lights. Energy was a valuable commodity, even with the solar panels he had deployed on top of the capsule. Better to conserve every drop rather than to squander it.

Jack wasn’t looking forward to dinner. Energy bars and dried fruit were not his idea of an evening meal. However, he was anticipating a good night’s sleep. Every part of his body felt tired. He had no idea how much of it was gravity-induced fatigue, and how much of it was trauma-related due to their abrupt landing early this morning. Whatever it was, he hurt. He only hoped a good night’s sleep would be enough to make him feel better.

* * *

Sitting in her usual seat on the flight deck, Lynn watched the rain outside. The sun had set nearly an hour ago, and the downpour had steadily grown heavier. She had expected the men to return before dark, but hadn’t heard from any of them in spite of her repeated hails over the comm-set.

“You know,” Maria spoke up as she stepped through the hatch, “you’re going to hurt Laura’s feelings.”

“Excuse me?” Lynn responded, not expecting a visitor.

“She made a superb pasta salad for dinner. I’m sure she’ll be insulted if the ‘Captain of the ship’ turns her nose up at it.”

“Oh. I guess I’m just not hungry yet.”

Maria knew she was lying. She made her way forward, ducking under the various monitors and conduits running along the abnormally low ceiling of the flight deck. “I’m sure they’re alright,” Maria told her as she sat down in the left seat. “They’re all capable, well-trained men.”

“Yeah, I know,” Lynn agreed, still staring out the forward window. The heavy rain was making it difficult to see any detail outside the LRV. Sherwood Forest was a distant blur of tall, entangled shadows. “You know,” Lynn started without looking toward Maria, “before command fell on me, I was desperately hoping for an opportunity to prove myself, to show everyone what I could do. Then, when it happened, it was so sudden and the transition was so fluid, that I never had a chance to think about it. I just
took
command.” She took a deep breath, “God, I was so scared.” Lynn turned her head to look at Maria. “Then, after we got down safely, I started to think, ‘I can do this, I can lead these people.’” Lynn looked down at the floor for a moment before continuing. “Then I saw how they made up Jack’s bed.” Lynn paused at the mention of his name. “That’s when I realized how truly serious this responsibility is.” Lynn looked at Maria again, hoping to find some comfort. “How can I lead them, Maria? How can I send them out on assignments knowing that they might not make it back?”

“Command is not an easy job, Lynn.”

“Jack sure made it look easy.”

“Yes, well, I’m sure that Jack also had his doubts now and then. It’s only natural.”

“I don’t know,” Lynn disagreed. “I think he knew exactly what he was doing.”

“Maybe. But he also had a lot of sim-training that the rest of us didn’t have. I’m sure that helped a little.”

“I wish we would’ve brought the simulation software along with us,” Lynn joked. “I could use it right about now.”

“Lynn, all you can do is your best. That’s all anyone can ask of you.”

“But I don’t have all the answers, Maria. Not like Jack did.”

“Lynn, Jack didn’t have all the answers. But he did know who to ask to get them. You’ve got a ship full of trained experts on nearly every relevant area of study. Don’t be afraid to use them. Ask their opinion, and they’ll give it to you. And they’ll respect you for listening to them.”

Lynn turned her attention back to the forward window again. “You sound like Frank.”

“You know,” Maria continued, “if you don’t mind my saying, you shouldn’t worry so much about appearances.”

“What do you mean?” Lynn asked.

“It just seems that you’re always so concerned with
appearing
to be in control. Like you’re playing the
role
of commander, instead of just
being
in command.”

“I’m not sure I’m following you.”

“You don’t have to prove anything to anybody, Lynn. Nobody is judging you here. They’ll follow you because you are in command, not because you look like you should be.”

“But what if they think I’m making the wrong decisions?” Lynn worried.

“This bunch? Oh, they’ll say something. They’re not drones, and they’re not blind either. But they
are
smart enough to know that only one person can lead; only one person can have the final decision. And they know that
officially
, that person is now you.”

Lynn mulled Maria’s words over in her head for a moment, as she watched the rain cascade down the forward windows. “I don’t know,” she disagreed. “Whenever I questioned one of Jack’s decisions, all I got was a scolding.”

“That’s because your timing stinks. There’s a time and place for everything.”

“My timing?” Lynn asked, suspicious of where Maria had heard this information.

Maria knew what Lynn suspected, and decided to violate a confidence, just this once. “I’m not just a physician, you know. I’m also the ship’s counselor.”

Lynn smiled. She couldn’t think of a better person for the job. Maria had a motherly quality that made people want to open up to her. Somehow, she was able to get people to discuss what was bothering them without actually asking. Lynn couldn’t figure out if it was her warm, friendly face, her personality, or the way that she spoke with you instead of at you. It’s also what made her a good physician. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Lynn admitted.