Bleak Page 10

  Aside from Sandra, who tended to Ben, Dr. Nathan Gale was working. Finch could see that. Nate never stopped moving. He had set up his tent, a table outside, two lights, and his tablet. He worked there for a while and then he simply disappeared into the wooded area.

  Was he nuts?

  Gale grabbed his equipment, tucked it under his arm and with a light in hand walked into the woods.

  Finch gave him a few minutes, then keeping his distance, followed him not only out of curiosity, but for safety’s sake.

  “Good evening,” Finch called out, announcing his presence as he made his way to Gale, who wasn’t far from the edge of the cliff. “What did I say about going out in pairs?”

  “Sorry.” He lifted his shoulders.

  Finch walked toward the cliff’s edge. The ocean didn’t roar like it had in the day, but it was still loud and a cool breeze was steady. The moons were bright and lit up the fierce body of water. No longer was there a beach below, the water moved into the cliff, crashing its waves against it.

  “Holy God, look at this.”

  “Rose about a hundred and fifty feet, I suppose,” Nate said. “How is Ben?”

  “Stable. Not out of the woods, I’m afraid.”

  “Do we have what is needed to provide care?”

  “Not everything,” Finch said. “But Sandra is doing her best.”

  “I believe that.”

  “And … speaking of working … how are you?”

  “Working.” Nate forced a smile. “Everything right now, everything I come up with is pure speculation. I won’t have anything concrete for a couple days. I have to study data.”

  “And that is?”

  “Right now, the soil. One of our jobs is to determine if things can grow. Which they can, obviously.” He indicated to the trees. “Except on the dead strip.”

  “The dead strip.”

  “The dry dirt and rock area where we landed. We landed in a hundred-foot section, but I suspect it’s wider in some spots. According to the satellite pictures and the ones I took on approach, this strip goes south another thousand miles and north until it hits the tundra.”

  “Do you have any indication why it’s dirt.”

  “Yeah, it’s a thrust fault. Laymen definition is a crack in the crust.”

  “That’s a huge fault.”

  “Yeah it is. It also contains quantities of manganese nodules, phosphorites, and metal deposits.”

  “Okay,” Finch sung the word showing his confusion. “This is different how from where we stand?”

  “The balance of minerals. Plus, I believe there is a lot of seismic activity in the fault, which stops a lot of growth. Sort of if you park your car in the same spot in the grass all summer. All of this is important. This instrument here …” He lifted the tool that looked like a hand drill. He pulled a faux demonstration holding it over a tube in the ground. “This probe is designed to prevent contamination.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “We don’t want to pull anything from the surface into the sample because it won’t give us a good look at how long ago whatever happened, happened.”

  “How far down does it go?”

  “It’s a NASA thing, a hundred feet. Maybe more.”

  “So about a third of our cliff?” Finch asked.

  “Yep. And that cliff and my samples all kind of go hand and hand with what I am thinking.”

  “Which is?”

  “That it’s not a cliff.”

  Finch cocked back a little and blinked. “Not a cliff.”

  “I believe it is a continental shelf.”

  “Why does that sound familiar?”

  “Ever go to the ocean and it just goes from deep to really deep?” He waited for Finch to nod. “Well that’s the shelf. It drops drastically. Continental shelf.”

  “Our cliff is something you’d see in an ocean?”

  Nate nodded. “At one point this entire area was under water. And the craziest part is … it wasn’t that long ago.

  In The Clutch – Curt's Journal

  May 17

  We did it.

  We landed.

  A part of me was fearful that when we went through the Androski we would sail into open space, nothing in front of us and the Noah not even seen.

  There she was. A big beautiful planet.

  That was, of course, after her moon nearly swallowed us alive.

  We used all of our power resources to escape the gravitational pull of the moon, and with just enough power to land on Noah.

  Upon arrival, my first thought was the word virgin. The planet had never been harvested, never seen a life-form other than vegetation. It seemed untouched and new.

  Something felt off to me. I felt unwelcomed.

  Sure enough, the planet tried to wash us off the surface. It could have been that we placed ourselves in harm’s way. That bad luck had us landing in the wrong spot. But I genuinely felt the planet didn’t want us.

  I can’t see or sense the advanced civilization that Dr. Gale insists was here.

  Although I am no expert, surely there would be traces of a civilized world. Unless it is buried beneath thousands of years of dirt and rock, I don’t believe it’s here.

  We are the first intelligent life force to step foot on this planet.

  I believe that.

  However, it remains to be seen. This was only the first day. We have a lot more exploring to do.

  SEVENTEEN

  It was a positive start to a new day.

  Power had been restored to the Omni enough for coffee, and Ben groaned in pain, indicating he had regained consciousness. Then he was propped up at his request and moved to the area where everyone had gathered for breakfast.

  “Another three or four hours …” Finch looked up to the sky. “Omni will be functional.”

  “For how long?” Sandra asked.

  “Depends,” Curt answered. “If we power her up, an hour or so. Then it’s back to square one.”

  “When can we lift off?” Sandra asked.

  “Four days,” Ben groaned out. “Give it four days.”

  “Then we can get you home,” Sandra said.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Four days is not enough,” Nate said. “Not at all. We need to not only test the soil more inland, we need to determine the other hazardous conditions of this planet.”

  “Ben needs to get home,” Sandra insisted.

  “I’m fine,” Ben said.

  “Yeah, right,” Sandra snapped. “You aren’t, and we can do what we can, but when they send a terraform team here and colonists, they’ll learn all they can. Ben’s health is more important.”

  “I’m fine,” Ben repeated. “Another day I’ll be walking around.”

  “See.” Curt pointed at him. “That’s one tough guy. So, here’s my question, Nate. You told us this entire area was under water not long ago.”

  “No more than a hundred years, probably less, yes,” Nate replied.

  “How is that possible?” Curt asked. “Something like that seems really drastic.”

  “It is. But there are things that could happen. This was a major geological event,” Nate answered. “Massive fault activity …” He pointed to the sky. “That blue moon. It could have moved in orbit causing a drastic change in tides.”

  “Fault activity,” Curt said. “Like this fault you said we’re on, the same one we’re going to drive on?”

  “Yes. I’m not promising we won’t have seismic activity along the way. We may,” Nate said.

  “How far along this thrust fault are we traveling?” Finch asked.

  “I think we should go about two hundred miles south then head west,” Nate replied. “Looking at my photos, I believe if we go further inland that’s where we’ll find signs of a previous civilization, if there was one.”

  “Because of the change in oceans?” Finch asked. “Got that.”

  “Three hundred miles?” Curt asked. “You realize the rover, top speed, ful
ly loaded only goes forty miles an hour. Power dies out after six hours. Adding time to recharge, we’re talking at least two days there and two days back.” He looked at Sandra. “Ben can’t make that journey. Are you okay with staying here that long?”

  “Do I have a choice?” she asked.

  “Go,” Ben told her, “I’ll be fine by myself.”

  Curt laughed. “I don’t think so.”

  “I’ll stay,” Rey said. “Honestly, if you want, I’ll stay and watch Ben.”

  “You’re our historian,” Finch said.

  “Anyone can don a cap with a camera and press record,” Rey replied. “I can stay back with Ben. And I can start the ship should you guys not return in the five-day window of no communication.”

  Sandra shook her head. “No. As much as I want to go with them to explore, Ben could have complications.”

  “I’m fine,” Ben said.

  “Will you stop?” Sandra snapped. “You aren’t fine.”

  “Considering yesterday you had me for dead,” Ben said, “I’m doing fine.”

  “As much as I do believe Ben will be fine,” Finch said, “Sandra has to stay. That’s her job. We will also stay in radio communication for as long as we can. Dr. Gale …” He turned to Nate. “Chart our course. The rest of you pack a sack. We leave in twenty minutes.”

  <><><><>

  Rey hadn’t a clue what all to bring. She didn’t foresee having to change her clothes too much, and the food supply was completely a separate thing. Something Colonel Finch was handling. So, she packed simply. A change of shirt, an extra pair of pants, that survival pack she had yet to open and her camera.

  While she was excited about venturing out into the new world, a part of her just wanted to stay back.

  The thought of riding along in the buggy made her dread even more about being a dead weight. What would she have to contribute? It was the same old, same old with her, and she was starting to get irritated with herself.

  She carried her stuff to the buggy and Curt took the bag for her. When he placed it in the back she saw the bottle in there. Rey probably wouldn’t have thought anything of it had he not told her about his problems. She flashed a smile and stepped back, looking around. Nate was standing by the rod he set up as a sun dial for telling time talking to Sandra.

  “Thoughts?” Finch’s voice came from behind her.

  Rey jumped a bit. “Sorry.” She smiled. “You scared me.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “That’s okay. What were you asking?”

  “You were deep in thought.”

  “Not really,” she said. “Just looking around. Nervous about venturing out. Self-fighting with myself because I can’t figure out why I am on this mission.”

  “Feeling useless?” he asked.

  “Yes, I am.”

  “You weren’t … you weren’t talking to Curt, were you?”

  “No. Why? Did he call me useless?”

  “He made … never mind.”

  Rey grunted. “See.”

  “Not see. I’m sure Ben would totally argue your self-diagnosis of being useless. In fact, if you sit on your ass the rest of the mission, that one act of valor was enough for me.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Aside from that and being our camera woman, you’re the face of the people. All of us are looking at this scientifically. You are here to look at this from a colonist perspective. Would you, could you live here?”

  “Sounds a little Dr. Seuss. Would you, could you live right here?”

  “Would you, could you eat a pear?”

  Rey stared at him.

  “Sorry that was the best I could come up with. You’re the creative one. That essay …” He whistled.

  “Yeah, about that. I really didn’t—”

  “Shh.” He held up his hand. “Quit selling yourself short.” His eyes drifted beyond her. “Looks like we’re ready to go.”

  Rey looked over his shoulder, Nate and Curt were getting into the Buggy.

  “Damn it,” he said. “I wanted shotgun.”

  Rey smiled. “He says he needs more than four days. Do you … do you think he can get all he needs in the little time here?”

  “Who, Nate?”

  Rey nodded.

  “He doesn’t need any more time. I think he has his answer,” Finch said. “Okay, so he doesn’t have percentages of this mineral or that, but does he really need more time?”

  “I would think so.”

  “Not really. I mean, the whole purpose of this mission is to see if this planet is suitable to live on, to colonize. Well, we’re here, right? We’re alive. I think we found our second Earth. And I don’t know about you,” he said, “I for one cannot wait to get home and tell everyone. At least there’s some hope.”

  EIGHTEEN

  Nate never really had problems with people. However, he was exceptionally irritated as he rode in the back seat of the buggy with Rey.

  First, he was seated in the front, then he was booted to the back by Curt who was booted from the driver’s seat. To top that all off, they paid no attention to anything he said.

  “You just went the wrong way.”

  He’d rub his temple, while staring at his tablet.

  They ignored him.

  “She’s handling well,” Finch said to Curt. “Nice job.”

  “Considering the last time I built the buggy the wheel fell off,” Curt replied.

  “Eh, these things pop together like Lego.”

  Both Finch and Curt laughed.

  Mouthing a ha, ha, ha, Nate shook his head and he heard a small snicker come from Rey. He looked at her. “What?”

  “You’re funny.”

  “No, I’m not. I’m pissed.”

  “I know.”

  “See.” He leaned over with the tablet. “This blue dot is where I marked where I think we landed. We’re supposed to be going down this route, the undeveloped path.”

  “How do you know we’re still not on it?” Rey asked.

  “Because we’re headed more west. We need to stay south.”

  “How do you know we’re not? A different planet? I mean, Earth’s magnetic field is what tells us north and south.”

  “This has a magnetic field here.”

  “Yeah, but how do you know we’re not going south?”

  “One … we veered off. Two, because the needle on my compass points north and we’re going west,” he said.

  “How do you know north is north?’

  He huffed out and scooted over.

  “I’m just saying …”

  “Please don’t,” Nate asked, then leaned toward the front seats. “Gentlemen, why are we not going on the path I suggested?”

  “You said we need to go south west,” Finch replied. “That’s what we’re doing.”

  “I planned a route,” Nate told them. “You knew that.”

  Finch nodded. “Yes, I did. We followed it for a while.”

  “Not enough.”

  “Nate,” Curt said. “You had us on a thrust fault. I looked at the imaging, I found another that was going west. What’s the issue?”

  “The issue is I laid out the route. I was basing it on geographical regions.”

  “Are we looking for something specific?” Finch asked. “I thought this was just exploring?”

  “We are,” Nate said. “But there were places on the imaging from the satellite that could have been civilizations. Plus, areas I believe are water regions. Areas that could be conducive for stopping for the night. This isn’t a vacation and there are reasons I am here. This right here, this expedition, is one of them.”

  “What do you want us to do?” Curt asked.

  “Stop the buggy and turn around,” Nate said. “We haven’t gone that far. Stop before we get too far off the beaten path and get lost.”

  “Map the route. We’re not stopping.”

  “Stop the buggy.”

  “Maybe we should stop,” Finch said.

  “No, don
’t stop,” Curt said.

  “Stop the …” Nate paused when the buggy shook.

  “Shit,” Curt said. “The wheel.”

  “Guys,” Rey called out.

  “I don’t think it’s the wheel or the buggy,” Finch said. Holding onto the wheel caused his entire body to shake.

  “It’s not the buggy,” Nate said. “It’s an earthquake.”

  “Guys!” Rey screamed.

  Nate looked at her, then saw she was turned in her seat. When he looked behind him he could see why she shouted.

  The entire dirt-based area, which was nature’s own roadway, split. Like a wide-open mouth with no foreseeable bottom, the dirt dropped into the hole, and the entire pathway melted away before their eyes.

  “Get off the fault,” Nate told Finch.

  Finch raised his eyes to the mirror. “Oh, shit.”

  “Pull off.”

  The ground shook violently, bouncing the buggy up and down and almost out of control. Finch jerked the wheel to the right and off the path. The earth was uneven and the buggy sailed over rocks, landing on two wheels before it slammed hard to the ground.

  Nate bounced forward then back from the sudden stop, then jumped from the buggy. His balance was off and he extended his arms to try to stay upright. Walking was too difficult and he made his way back to the buggy, holding onto it for support as he watched the fault vanish as it passed them until it finally stopped a hundred feet away.

  “Everyone okay?” Finch asked.

  They all responded they were.

  “There are reasons,” Nate said, “we stay the course. This entire area could be unstable, as soon as the Omni is powered enough to move, we have to move inland.”

  “Fucking planet,” Curt blasted. “Seriously. We aren’t here even twenty-four hours; it tried to drown us, then bury us. It’s almost as if it has a mind of its own and it’s tossing everything at us.”

  “Tell me about it.” Finch scratched his head. “Makes you wonder what the hell else can happen.”

  <><><><>

  Ben tried to laugh but grabbed his chest and stopped.

  “Easy there,” Sandra said, adjusting his covers.