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AD 2504 Term 3
Mission Briefing: Investigate Star System JUC-2239 for suitability for colonization. Prepare survey results, make formal recommendation.
Ship: JSS Extrapolator, Corvette Class, Hyperdrive mkII
Pilot: Liza Kantry
Ground: Sodo Coetzee
Sensors: Eduardo DeLeon
Specialist: Dr. Abbantine Leeds (Geologist)
Previously: Liza learned to lead and Jerrick showed his true colors.
In This Episode: When the ground man runs into trouble on the surface of a world, Liza has to make a decision with no time to spare.
INDEX | Mission 1 | <(Mission 2) Previous | Next (Mission 4)>
All Smiles
The system they had arrived at was sparse. Liza called them ‘desert systems’, because they were so barren. It was a red dwarf system, with a couple rocky worlds in the inner orbits and a single big Jovian world in the outer orbit. Their new ground man, Sodo Coetzee, was standing over her shoulder watching the data for the system come through on the screens.
“Well, what do you think? Where do you want to start?” Liza asked.
“That one there. The preliminary readings suggest an atmosphere, so we will start there and get the others after.”
She didn’t have to turn around to tell he was smiling. He seemed like the happiest man she’d ever met. “You got it,” she said.
“You are the best!” he tapped her chair approvingly.
As Liza pulled up the Navigation tools to calculate their orbit, she asked, “How do you do it, Sodo? You’re so positive. I don’t think you’ve stopped smiling once since you boarded, and everyone else is so stressed.”
“The key, I think, is not to be stressed.”
Liza couldn’t help but laugh and turned around. “No but seriously!”
“I am serious!” he put a hand on his chest, feigning offense. “Why would I lie? If there is a problem I cannot control, why would I waste energy worrying about it? If there is a problem I can control, well, why would I waste energy worrying about it when I can control it?”
“All the stuff with Theyst feels like stuff people can control. The whole plebiscite deal.”
“Just because you can vote doesn’t mean you have control. The outcome is very much out of your hands. And mine! So—what can I do? I tell you—I smile! It will make you feel better, and will make everyone around you feel better.”
“So you’re not at all worried if Telluria votes to take the plebiscite?”
He scoffed, waving his hand in exaggerated dismissal. “If they asked me? I would tell them. I would say—you know what I think? I will give you a piece of my mind! But, no one has asked me. So, I will do what I can, see what happens. Then, I will do what I can. And then I will see what happens. And so on and so on. You see? Easy!” He smiled wide. “Nothing to worry about. As for me, I will worry about the next thing I can do. Which is to go down to this world. How long do I have?”
Liza turned back to her controls. “Maybe three hours?”
“Lots of time! I will walk slowly.” He spun around on his heels, and began to walk in slow motion, whistling a tune.
Liza smiled. Sodo was a refreshing change of pace compared to Jerrick. She might be the youngest on the crew but she’d lived long enough to know that not all optimism was warranted. Maybe she could afford to let a few worries go.
Whether they talked about it or not, it was clear the Plebiscite was on everyone’s mind. In the months between missions, Theyst had announced it’s intentions to elect a local governor for faster action on their pet projects. The Jovian Union, so they said, was so slow to address their needs. Liza spent the off-season at home on Mars, so most people she talked to were offended on behalf of the Union. She was sure Jerrick would be cheering in the streets. It was refreshing for Sodo to be…well, detached from it all. He was the first person she’d talked to who shrugged when it came up.
She shook her head, shaking loose all the thoughts which kept her from the mission at hand. Theyst was out there. Here—she needed to get The Extrapolator to orbit.
It was eerie quiet on the Extrapolator while Sodo performed his survey. Everyone was occupied with their work—Eduardo scanning all frequencies for any signals; Dr. Leeds examining the chemistry and geology of the planet; Liza using the observation station to find interesting landmarks.
The work was, perhaps, a way to avoid thinking about the other dominant topic. What could anyone do but worry?
Liza was almost relieved when the radio crackled to life.
“Extrapolator, this is Ground!”
Liza jumped at the radio, fumbling it in her hands a moment before she got a firm grip. “Extrapolator, go ahead Ground.”
“I see a…weird feature, a ways to the south. I am going to explore it.”
“What is weird about it?”
“It could just be a rock formation, but if you were to ask me what it looked like I would tell you it looked like a lighthouse. It is a very distinctive shape—I am surprised to see it here.”
“How far away from you?”
“Not far. If you watch on the bodycam feed I will show you.”
Liza rushed back to navigation where she could have a better handle on the camera feed and cycled through to the bodycam.
“I’m watching.”
“Okay, do you see it? Over that way, it’s on the crest of a hill, kind of a solid rectangle with a…structure on top, that gives it that lighthouse look.”
He was right—if it was a natural formation, it would be more surprising than if it were constructed. “I see it,” she said.
The tower kept growing taller as Sodo got closer. Sodo was already a tall man, so seeing the feature grow as he got closer had an intimidating effect.
“I am here now, I can almost touch it. It has moss growing on the north face, you see?” On the feed Sodo brushed his spacesuit over the mossy growth. “It is hard to tell if this is rock or metal, it is very old.”
He placed his palm on the surface, and splayed out his fingers. Something surprised him, and he jolted.
“What, what is it?” Liza asked urgently.
“I felt something…something inside, like a vibration or something mechanical. There’s a light at the top, where the dome is. I wonder…if I can climb up I might be able to get a good recording of it, if nothing else. I should have brought my tools, maybe I could get a sample.”
“Don’t get too ambitious Sodo, that’s pretty tall. If you fall you’ll be in a tight spot.”
“Ah, what could go wrong, eh?”
“Don’t say that!”
She heard Sodo laugh over the radio. She was sure he was smiling. He reached up, he could only just reach a ledge and start to hoist himself up.
She watched on his shoulder cam as he got one hand up with a firm grip, and tried to get his other hand. An insect-like creature crawled over his hand. It had a long tail raised in the air, like a scorpion…
“Sodo…”
It plunged its tail into Sodo’s hand. She watched the feed silently as he lurched away and stumbled onto the ground, flinging the creature away.
“Liza—I’ve been, I don’t know, stung.” He breathed heavily into the radio. “It hurts like hell, my suits seal is broken now too.”
Liza’s hands were shaking again.
“Liza? Extrapolator, are you there?”
“Here. We’ll get you. Get back to the landing site. Treat it like a snake bite, okay? You’ve got a basic field kit with you—we’ve got the rest. We’ll get you.”
“Copy that.”
Liza realized that she was standing. Her mind was racing. They needed to get Sodo off the planet—but the medkit was on the Extrapolator. She could bring the shuttle back and then go to him, but that wasted precious time. She could send the shuttle down and bring him back, but that was still a lot of time. Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could you let this happen?
She rushed quickly down the hall to Eduardo and Dr. Leeds. “Hey, Sodo’s in trouble,” she announced.
Ed’s head popped out of sensors immediately. She heard Dr. Leeds sigh quietly before asking, “What’s the matter?”
“He’s bit, or stung—possibly poisoned, we have no way of knowing. He’s got a basic field kit but we’ve got the advanced one that can handle this kind of thing. How far are we from the drone shuttle?”
Eduardo stammered “I, uh—”
“I don’t know,” Dr. Leeds said, hands on her hips.
“We need the fastest way to get the medkit to Sodo. That’s either sending the shuttle down to him to get him and bring him back, or bringing the shuttle here first. We need to find out how far the shuttle is.”
Eduardo jumped back to his computer, “On it, one second.” he said.
Liza crossed her arms to keep her hands from shaking. Not again.
“Eduardo popped his head out. Takes about 40 minutes to get the landing sequence going. We’re twenty minutes from the drone shuttle.”
Liza scrambled to do the math in her head. If its 40 minutes down then that’s 40 minutes back, that’s 80 minutes. If they recall the shuttle, that’s 20 minutes and another 40. If they send someone with the medkit they can get it to him on the ground for the return journey, that’s twenty minutes sooner than waiting for Sodo to get back to the ship.
Liza turned and ran back to navigation to enter the command.
“Wait, what’s happening?” Eduardo called after her.
“We’re bringing it back. But that means—”
Shit. Someone has to go down.
She entered the command and scanned the camera feed to confirm the drone shuttle was on it’s way back. More waiting.
She radioed down to Sodo: “Ground, this is extrapolator.”
Heavy breathing answered. “Ground.” Sodo seemed to say through gritted teeth.
“We can’t get medical to you faster than one hour. Hold tight, don’t move. We’re working on it.”
“Copy.” He grunted.
At last, Liza stood and faced Eduardo and Dr. Leeds, who were staring at her from the other end of the hall. She remembered that look, when they encountered the spaceship on the last mission. When she asked them to help her decide what to do. When they wanted her to lead. She hated that look. But she wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.
She made the call: “Eduardo, suit up.”
Liza watched Eduardo’s whole 40 minute descent to the surface from the shuttles cameras. She paced as Eduardo stabilized Sodo and helped him through the airlock before following himself. She watched the shuttle take off almost immediately.
She rushed to the radio. “Eduardo, talk to me.”
“I’m busy—hold please.”
Eduardo didn’t check in again until the drone shuttle docked. When the airlock doors swung open, she could see why. Sodo was unconscious, Eduardo had cut the sleeve of his space suit to reveal his hand, and had applied a tourniquet.
“I gave him the antivenom the second we were in the shuttle. We may just need to let it work.”
The Extrapolator was too cramped for a medical facility, so they lay Sodo’s tall body down on the floor of the shuttle bay, where he lay unconscious. Liza paced nervously. Dr. Leeds stood down the hall where she could see what was happening, biting her nails. Eduardo worried over Sodo paternally.
After twenty agonizing minutes of waiting, Sodo woke up. He looked up, and smiled. “See, nothing to worry about,” he said, faintly. The swelling had gone down in his hand.
“How do you feel?” Liza asked.
Sodo flexed all his fingers. “Sore, stiff, but—I get to keep my hand. Always a good day.”
“You’re lucky to be alive, could have been a lot worse.”
“No, no, I wasn’t worried. There’s an angel on this ship.” He climbed to his feet, and reached over to the lockers, and touched his good hand to the winged horseman carved into the locker. “How can you worry when there’s angels around?”
To be continued…
Thank you very much for reading! This is Before The Maps Are Final, a science fiction adventure episodic serial set in the Sandbox Earth Universe. This will be a serial publishing every week, for a tentative total of twelve episodes. Please subscribe to be sure you don’t miss an installment sent directly to your inbox!
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God bless!
AJPM
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Soto's outlook is refreshing. Am I wrong in thinking that there's a significance in his name, or am I just weird? I could be just weird: I'm still early-stage caffeine, if you will. :)
I love how you started us with a grizzled vet and immediately swapped him out with a green pilot-leade. Seeing her slowly grow into her own is fun. We will watch her career with great interest, as they say.