Still, the idea of being trapped . . .
“I think we need suits now.”
Twenty minutes later, Tea and Taj had donned, sealed, and tested their suits . . . and penetrated the Keanu side of the membrane.
Now they were emerging into the junction. “Still no bars?” Tea asked.
“Zero.”
Never one to hope that bad news got better with delay, Tea plunged into the gauzy curtain without hesitation, praying that she would not find it blocked with tons of fallen Keanu granite.
She didn’t. Not that what she found was much better. “Oh fuck.”
There was no longer ice on the other side. The entire junction was filled with fog generated by puddles of water that were cooling and refreezing.... “Venture, Tea. Venture, Tea for Yvonne . . .”
She listened and heard no response, no change in the steady background hiss. “I’m open to suggestions,” she said to Taj.
“Volcanism?” Taj said. “An eruption of some kind?”
“Could be.” She ventured several steps away from the membrane, but not too far. “We knew Keanu wasn’t inert, so I suppose it’s possible. I don’t much like what that could mean for the vehicles.”
“That’s what we get for naming the vent Vesuvius.”
Tea couldn’t help laughing. “And you say I trivialize the experience of spaceflight.”
“I can no longer suppress my natural gallows humor.”
“Well, hell no. Given the circumstances.” During this exchange both explorers had put twenty meters between themselves and the membrane. “Problem,” Tea said. “If this heat was the result of a volcanic event out in the vent itself . . . where’s our camera and the cable?” Tea cursed herself for not asking the question earlier, but she had simply missed it; the items were gone, picked cleanly and taken away.
“Pyroclastic venting—”
“—Would have blown them sideways, yes. Though I’ve got to tell you, Taj, I don’t think you get a lot of pyroclastic pressure when you’re in a vacuum. Even so, I would think we’d see cut cable or a camera smashed against a wall.”
“Here’s something else,” Taj said. “Listen.”
The dominant sound in Tea’s earphones was her own near-panicked breathing. But, yes, there was a click-click-clicking sound, at the rate of almost one per second. “What is it?”
“Geiger counter. It’s on my chest pack.”
“Did it do that when we came through here earlier?”
“ No.”
“So now there’s radiation?”
“Low-level, and very inconsistent. The rate rises and falls every few steps.”
Tea considered this. “Heat, overpressure, radiation. Call me a pessimist, but it’s as if someone set off a nuke.”
Taj stopped in his tracks and turned toward her. “I think so, too.”
“The Architects have their own anti-missile system?”
“That would be rather less startling than most of what we’ve seen.”
Tea saw no point in going farther. “I’m not getting anything from Venture.”
“No response from Brahma.”
“If there’s serious damage to either vehicle, we are in a world of shit.”
Now Taj laughed out loud, a harsh, unfriendly sound. “We have been in a world of shit since we landed here!” He seemed more hunched over than usual. “Houston and Bangalore will be working the problem.”
“You guys have a rescue vehicle anywhere close to launch?”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“Good point,” Tea said. “But since we can’t go forward, I suggest that in the great explorer tradition, we go back where we came from.”
They made a quick return through both membranes to the Keanu interior and rover Buzz. Once they had opened their suits and removed helmets and gloves, Tea insisted that Taj share water and food. “We need it, and God only knows when we’ll have it again.”
“I was thinking of the others.”
“There’s not enough for everyone, no matter what we do. We’re going to have to find some sort of nourishment here.” Tea had not really considered the possibility until she heard herself say it. The thought frightened and depressed her. It was bad enough to consider the many ways you could die on a spaceflight—getting blown up or depressurized merely the top of the list. She hadn’t thought to add starvation.
She continued to remove her suit, then started in on the crusty undergarment.
“What are you doing?”
“Stripping.” It was clear Taj had no idea why. “So I can run better, Taj. We have no other way to contact Zack, so we’re doing it old-school.” She smiled. “They can’t be far, maybe a couple of clicks. I know they’re headed for the Temple. I can get there in twenty minutes.”
“So fast?”
“I ran the eight hundred in high school and college.”
“What should I do?”
“I’d keep working the radios. Come to think of it, let me see that dealie.” She gestured for Taj’s magic Zeiss radio/camera. “You know, we’ve got the rover as well as our suits. We should be able to talk to the vehicles and mission control without this.”
“Yes,” Taj said. “What is the point of your observation?”
“Let me take this thing.”
She expected an argument, but all the vyomanaut said was, “Be sure to bring it back.”
“Cross my heart.”
“Any other suggestions for me while you’re gone?” Taj’s English grew wobbly with fatigue, but he still managed to do sarcasm.
“Yeah, given what’s happened, make sure somebody doesn’t come along and tirejack the rover.”
Destiny-7 EVA manager Mariah Nelson and her team have worked TIRELESSLY to support suited crew ops on Keanu. Her conclusion is that all astronauts should have expired at least four hours prior to end of Stay-2. That they have not, at last report, indicates that we are breaking new ground. Please share ANY THOUGHTS AND INFORMATION with Mariah.
NASA MISSION OPERATIONS DIRECTORATE, STAY-2 SHIFT STATUS,
AUGUST 23, 2019
“Do you see it yet?”
Zachary Stewart’s ragtag team of five—there was no other phrase in his increasingly tired mind—had covered several hundred yards of Keanu real estate, heading deeper into the interior. They should have been closing in on the Temple.
“No,” Megan said. She had taken the lead, causing Zack to wonder if she was following some memory—or just being Megan, the woman who loved maps and happily gave directions. “If what Tea and Taj said was right, we probably still have a hundred meters to cover.”
Zack regretted not having Taj, or especially Tea, with him, at least to serve as cavalry scout. For that matter, he was also wishing he hadn’t left the helmets and suits behind at the campsite, even though they were nothing more than dead weight. Taj had been able to punch through the rock and membrane with his Zeiss radio, but even with Houston theoretically reachable, Zack would still have to be able to get a signal to Venture, and he couldn’t do that until he returned to the other side of the membrane.
No, he had put together the best plan for the circumstances. And dealing with both Megan and Tea was beyond him right now. They would all be back at the membrane soon enough....
For an instant, the glowworms went dark, as if they’d had their plugs pulled.
Natalia stopped. “What was that?”
“The beginning of night?” Lucas said.
Zack wasn’t sure the momentary shadow meant anything, until a gentle breeze started up and began to gust.