Dremiks (39 page)

The three men ate in silence, each busy with his own thoughts. Quickly finishing his meal, Tony rose and excused himself, shooting a quick look of apology at Swede. The other lieutenant nodded in acknowledgement. Once the door snapped shut behind Tony, Lieutenant Guttmann turned to his captain.

“I think that this timetable is too conservative, sir. I feel certain that we can have the dome repaired within three days.”

The captain sipped his coffee and eyed the lieutenant over the rim of the mug. He had used a heavy hand in dictating the engineers’ timetable, and he knew it. But, he felt the situation called for caution. He said as much. “Speed is unnecessary at this point. I won’t risk any more lives with unnecessarily ambitious plans. You will not push anyone to complete the dome any quicker than five days time.”

“Yes sir. However, the quicker the dome is finished, the sooner we can begin getting the science stations set up and ready the colony for settlement.”

“The extra two days will allow for contingencies and prevent accidents. It will also allow Dr. Fortunas to get more sensor data.” The captain brushed the crumbs from his food into his hand and dusted them back off onto his plate. He moved his dishes to the sanitizer and turned around to Swede, who was now standing. “Are we understood?”

“Aye, aye, sir.” Guttmann had little to gain by continuing the argument, but he felt, once again, that the captain was too restrained by caution and proper procedure.

“Very good. And, Lieutenant, please settle whatever disagreement you and Price have. I can’t afford to have my entire officer corps in sick bay.”

Swede finished his water and tossed the glass in the sanitizer. Despite his admonishment of Tony for being overly emotional, he couldn’t resist a level of frustration with himself and the captain. He had hoped the crash would show the captain that there were things that could not be predicted or dictated in his precious manuals. There was such a thing as being too logical and structured. Despite all that had happened in the past seven months, the best term to describe Captain Hill’s decision making process was still
plodding
.

***

“Hey”

Cassie glanced to her right where Maggie was just exiting a storage bay. “Hey back. How’s your head?”

The red-head frowned. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“You have this look,” the doctor replied.

“A look? I have a look?”

“Many. This one indicates you have a blinding headache.”

“Huh. Who knew?”

Cassie gave her a wry grin. “Apparently, everyone but you. Stop by and see me if it gets worse, ok?”

“Roger. Where are you off to now?”

The two women turned down a side corridor together before Cassie answered. “I’m off to brief a joint commission of military and civilian scientific crew regarding the effects of pressure differentials on human lung capacity. Then I have to meet with the Vice Chancellor and his aides regarding medical supervision of colonists during the initial on-planet period.”

“You know we have excellent communications systems that prevent you having to actually have these meetings face-to-face?”

“Yes.”

“I just mention it because there’s very little chance either of those meetings is going to go smoothly or stay on topic. Our communications do a remarkable job of facilitating conferences and committees. Helps everyone stay focused and without all the chit chat.”

Cassie sighed. “I am aware, yes. However, both of the parties in question requested face-to-face briefings.

“Ok. Just thought I would mention it, the facilitating. Because I like to facilitate the flow of information. I like to be seen as a facilitator.”

“Having fun with that word, are we?”

“Facilitate? Yes. Don’t you think it makes me sound helpful?”

“Only to people who don’t know you.”

“Ow. Thanks for that.”

“Anytime.” Dr. Ruger stopped before getting on the lift. “Hey, Maggie?”

“Mm?”

“Seriously, come see me if that headache gets worse?”

“Yes dear. See you at dinner?”

“Depends entirely on how well I facilitate a close to these nonsensical meetings.”

***

The next morning, Guttmann stood by Lander 2 supervising the initial equipment load. A good deal of room in the first trip would be taken up by medical and life support supplies for the workers who would be on the surface. Lieutenant Price walked around the perimeter, doing a pre-flight check. He was studiously ignoring Guttmann. Swede was dismayed that their easy friendship was suddenly strained, but he was too busy going through his own checklist to do anything about the tension.

Two of his own engineers and three of the structural engineers from the colonist crew would be accompanying him to the surface. The four men and one woman stood nearby, waiting for their turn to climb aboard the lander. Dr. Ruger finished supervising the loading of the medical equipment and was now going over the emergency procedures with each of the engineers. Swede had a feeling that her insistence on ensuring that everyone was prepared for the worst-case scenario was not helping anyone’s mood. Also not helpful was the captain’s presence on the walkway above, frowning down on everyone like a malevolent heavenly host. The entire bay fairly reeked with tension and unease. It was not a good beginning for their first civilian foray to the surface.

Finally, it was time to make sure everyone was seated and strapped in. Price and Guttmann entered last. Price strapped himself into the pilot’s seat, and Guttmann took the co-pilot’s seat at his side. As with all ISA officers, Guttmann had basic flight training, enough for him to help with take off and simple maneuvers. He helped Price check the com systems as the bay was cleared and depressurized. O’Connell’s voice came over the com and cleared them for departure. The lander glided out of the bay and dropped down to fly around the
Hudson
.

Tony focused all of his concentration on the navigational and electromagnetic sensors. They’d plotted the optimum window for entry into the atmosphere, when the residual dust storms and magnetic fluctuations were at their least threatening. He angled the nose of the craft downward and began the slow process of initial entry. They dropped through the first magnetic wave. The passengers behind him gasped. Price had anticipated the stomach lurching drop, but the others had no way of knowing it was coming. He noticed Swede giving him a glance, but Price was too busy sliding the craft sideways through another magnetic field to comment. His hands glided over the controls, frantically adjusting pitch and the computer’s AI decisions.

The AI of the lander’s piloting and navigational systems had been modified with the data from O’Connell and Price’s landings. Designed to help control the craft during atmospheric flight, the artificial intelligence systems were proving to be more of a hazard than a help. The ship’s computer wanted to drop and roll the craft through the magnetic barriers, but such a maneuver would have increased the friction on the exterior surfaces past the safety limits. When the AI wasn’t trying to kill them all in a lurching barrel roll, it was trying to overcorrect Price’s side-slipping. Unfortunately for both Price and the computer, he was
intentionally
yawing the craft.

Guttmann leaned over and turned off the radio and com signals. “Reaching the point of greatest interference. Nav system shut down in 1 minute.”

“Affirmative.” Price pulled back on the stick and the lander moved upward a few feet before yawing sideways again and then diving. “Shut them down now.”

Guttmann flipped the switch. The landing craft’s computers and outboard sensors went black.

“This is the fun part folks. Hang on please.” Tony’s voice showed none of the glibness of his words. His fist tightened to a white knuckled grip on the control stick. He inhaled sharply and pushed the engines to their fullest power setting while increasing the angle of descent to more than sixty degrees. He no longer intentionally moved the ship sideways, but it slipped that way none-the-less. He fought for control and then gave up and rolled them into a tight, descending, roll towards the surface. An access panel popped open above the female engineer’s head. She gave a short shriek of fear. Tony looked wordlessly at Swede and jerked his head towards the back.

Swallowing his own unease, Swede un-strapped himself and lunged towards the dangerously swinging bit of metal plating. He latched it back into place and turned back towards his seat. Anchoring himself on each seat as he passed, he lost his footing for one brief second and slammed his knee onto the deck before he made it back. He rubbed his knee and swallowed a bit of bile as he glanced out the nose portal. The dusty blue clouds cleared to show the sandy surface spinning rapidly toward them.

Tony pulled back on the dive as he adjusted the yaw rate and slowed their roll. He grinned at Guttmann and flicked back on the AI navigation and the radar. Checking their position, he corrected their course and nodded again at his co-pilot. “Go ahead and switch coms back on. Let
Hudson
know we’re down safe, and ETA to dome site is five minutes.”

Swede relayed the information, which was greeted with a terse acknowledgement from O’Connell. Their route took them over the crash site. He looked down with grim interest at Lander 1. He meant to propose a mission to repair the wrecked lander as soon as the manpower could be spared. The colony would not be easily established without the use of all three of the
Hudson’s
landers to ferry cargo back and forth to the surface. O’Connell would want to finish her mission and that meant retrieving her busted ship.

Lieutenant Price banked the ship and fired the thrusters briefly before setting her down in the shadow of the cracked atmosphere dome. He and Guttmann both leaned over to peer out the portal and up at the structure towering above them. The great curving surface stretched over a diameter of four hundred meters to make a perfect circle. The curving ribs were interlaced with supporting beams and great gleaming panels of a glass-like material. All of the exposed metallic surfaces showed signs of extreme environmental wear, as if they’d been sandblasted every day for one-hundred years.

The great gaping hole was located above and to the right of the main entrance. It stretched in a jagged twist of broken beams and panels for seventy meters across in every direction. Most of the beams were bent upward and outward, as if the hole had been caused by an explosion from within. To repair the broken area, they would have to initially cut away the weakened supports, making the hole even bigger. From the ground looking up, the job seemed much bigger.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Dremiks colony. The temperature outside is a balmy 85 degrees Fahrenheit. We’re two hours from peak daylight. Please remember that daylight on this part of Dremiks lasts for sixteen hours with a fourteen hour night cycle. The moon Najif will rise in twelve hours with the corresponding storms starting two to three hours before hand.” Price paused for a moment and checked the chronometer. “That gives you about nine hours of daylight before the storms move in.”

Swede released his safety straps and checked that his collar transmitter was working. “All right everyone, you heard Lieutenant Price. We have nine hours to get the bunker assembled and get an initial estimate of what we are facing. Everyone please make sure your medical sensors on your collar are transmitting. I don’t want Dr. Ruger harassing me every five minutes because one of you has gone off the grid. Absolutely stay together. If you wander off, you lose all hope of protection out here. Let’s go.” He popped the back hatch and walked down onto the rocky sand surface. Each of the engineers followed him. Several looked around tentatively, while two had their eyes locked on the dome. Price followed, his step jaunty, his eyes taking in everything. He flipped the switch to unlatch the cargo straps and everyone, including Guttmann, jumped at the unexpected sound. Tony grinned and shook his head. “Engineers.” The quip was accompanied by a wink at Swede, who took it with good grace and a nod.

The moment passed and Price tossed his fellow officer a taser stick and pistol. They walked up to the metal door and stopped to look at each other.

“Suppose we should knock?”

Swede laughed, causing more jumpy responses from the engineers behind him. “I’m sure they know we are here by now.” He looked the doorway up and down. “However, I’m not entirely sure where the door handle is.” The door was completely smooth, with no ridges, grooves or touch pads that would indicate a locking mechanism. He reached out and placed his hand lightly on the surface. Feeling nothing at first, he pushed hard on the door. It did not budge. He removed his hand and looked down at the fine layer of grime. “Nice security system… no way in it seems.”

Tony reached down to his belt and pulled out his tablet. Waving it briefly in front of the door he glanced down at the hand held device, frowned, smacked it in the universal gesture of mechanical frustration and scanned the door again. “Well, to make matters worse, I can’t even tell you what the damn door is made out of. The scanner doesn’t read it at all.”

Colonist Dubois walked up and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. “I’m not sure what that door is made out of, or how to get it open, but that,” she pointed at the massive bay doors nearby, “is made out of good old Dremikian cordonlance. If it won’t open we can cut through it.”

A bit sheepish, the officers turned to the black-haired woman and nodded. “Right then. New entry point.” Tony shouldered his pack and walked towards the bigger bay doors.

A bit of blow torch cutting of the hinges later and the door collapsed inward with a rush of dust and soot. The team members stepped into the semi-darkness. The panels above them were so scratched from the abrasive, wind-driven, soil that the sunlight was wavering and filtered. They stood inside a large open space that might have one time served as an entry point for supplies into the contained space. Everything was covered with dirt. Signs of decay were everywhere. Fourteen meter metal walls jutted up from the floor in random places. Forty meters further in, they could make out the faint outlines of collapsed walls. The small party stood in the large rectangle of light formed by the now missing bay door and stared in wonder. No one spoke. There was a sepulchral quality to the place that demanded silence and awe.