One More Time; A collection of writings

Outlander

"Outlander, this is Holliday, approaching the target location in three minutes. What's my status?"

"Copy that, Holliday. You are clear to approach, but use caution. That meteor shower really tore up the terrain the other day."

The voice of my Expedition Commander crackled in my suit. She was trying to be casual but I could hear the excitement peaking through in her tone. Who could blame her? Almost three hundred years of space exploration, dozens of colonies established, moons terra formed, and this could be it. And Jack Holliday would be the name written down in history. I was excited too.

"Copy Outlander." The reminder made me realize how fast the LTV had been traveling and I eased up on the accelerator. I didn't notice how hard I had been shaking until I came to a stop a few feet from the ridge of a large crater. I didn't move at first, gripping the steering wheel and taking in my surroundings. The sky was too hazy to see much of the stars through the atmosphere, but he could just make out the curvature of Saturn and her rings over the horizon.

"Your heart rate's up. Take a deep breath, Jack. You got this. Imaging shows the target has not moved since it was first spotted. You're not in any danger." Her voice was gentle and reassuring. I was grateful for Cham trying to calm me down. I closed my eyes and took in a few deep breaths until my muscles relaxed.

"Yeah I know. It's good. I'm good. Everything is good." I shook out my hands and tapped an icon on my wrist band twice. "Eyes on. Can you see me Outlander?"

"Affirmative, Holliday, we are receiving visuals."

I stepped down off of the vehicle and retrieved my equipment bag from the back end. When I reached the lip of the crater I peered over the edge. It wasn't a particularly large crater, less than half a mile across, but it was deep. It looked more like it had been burned out of the ground by a massive laser than created by an impact. My target lay near the center of the crater over 200 feet below me. I could just make out the black humanoid shape.

"Target sighted. Setting anchor and beginning descent."

I removed the climbing gear from the large black bag, setting it down on the edge and hammering a large metal spike into the rock like ice floor. I secured a thick climbing rope to the loop on the anchor in the ground, clipped on to my utility belt, and began to repel slowly into the dark depths of the planet.

I spoke a voice command to my Artificial Protective Environment Suit as I went.

"Blackbox begin recording. Titan date 4.16.2254 8:43 A.M. Lieutenant Jackson Holliday. I am descending down into a crater created during a recent meteor shower approximately 16 miles southeast of Outlander Station to investigate an object of unknown origins that appears humanoid in shape and size. Satellite imaging shows no movement in the 2 days that have passed since its discovery. See files of Commander Saanvi Cham for more information. I am reaching the floor of the crater now."

As my weighted boots make contact with the surface I turn to face the target. At this much closer distance I could make out the creature more clearly. It was dressed in a black suit very similar to my own. Two arms, two legs and a head. It lay on its side with one underneath stretched upwards facing away from me. The suit seemed surprisingly in good condition despite spending multiple days exposed to the harsh weather of Titan. When I got closer I turned on the lights attached to my helmet and saw that the suit it was wearing was not just similar to my own, it was the same APE suit issued to Outlander personnel.

"I am approaching the target. It appears to be terrestrial in origin. It's wearing a black APE suit with a clearly visible Outlander insignia on it's right shoulder. Commander, do we have any reports of missing residents? Anyone who might be out on an away mission and hasn't checked in recently?"

"Let me check" She responded quickly. " That's a negative, all 34 residents are accounted for. You're the only one off base right now. Maybe somebody snuck a suit out somehow?"

I kneeled down next to the body and rolled it over onto its back. "I don't see how that's possible. All suits need to be checked out and logged in two different computer systems. Plus you know how difficult it is to put one of these on by yourse-" I opened the visor and recoiled. "Oh fuck. Cham. Are-are you seeing this?"

I naturally recoiled as I stared down at what was clearly a corpse, stupified by what I was seeing. It wasn't the death that stunned him, however. He expected whatever he found to be at the very least inert. It was the recognition that soon had his vitals alarm sounding off in a cramped monitoring room miles away.

After a moment of silence, Cham spoke in an incredulous voice. "What the hell? Do you have an older brother or something? How could I have not met him before, we've been here a year already! God I'm so sor-"

I cut her off mid sentence, panic evident in my voice." I don't have any brothers, Saan! I don't have any brothers and my dad is on a wind farm in Argentina! So why the hell , does this corpse that fell out of the sky look like me?!"

A  I was practically screaming by the time I finished, subconsciously backing away from the source of my ire at an increasingly rapid pace until I was flush with the Creator wall.  Nothing had ever so deeply unsettled me as this. I had stared down into my own face, identical down to the small scar on my cheek. But the man in the suit seemed older, more grey in his thick black hair, more wrinkles around his empty hazel eyes. It was like looking at his own death, not knowing how or when it would happen, but realizing it wouldn't be long before the unavoidable.

I felt the cord I had climbed down bump into my helmet and it spurred me into motion. I tuned on a dime and scrambled to clip my safety onto the line. At the same time I had Commander Chams insistent voice in my ear. "Jack what are you doing! You can't just leave the body there, we need to get it back to base. Run some tests, see what killed it, what it is. "

"Nuh-uh, no way, nope. I am out. I am not about to haul that thing all the way back to Outlander by myself, no. You get Kash and his team out here with a bio tent setup but I am getting out of here." I rambled as my shaking hands struggled to attach the motor lift.

"At least do a black box transfer! I can go through the logs while Kash gets the outpost set up. It's probably all explained there. You don't even need to touch it, just get in range and press the emergency retrieval-"

I cut her off, taking the few steps back towards the body that I would need and pawed the appropriate icon on my hud. "Yeah, yeah I know how to do a BB transfer. We did the same orientation." I  impatiently bounced on my feet while I waited for the progress bar to fill in my vision.
" Damn file is huge. This is taking forever."  As soon as I heard my interface chime it's completion I turned back around successfully clipping my harness and motor lift this time. "Alright I got the box I'm going to leave a beacon next to the Crater and head back, this is all too much for me."
" Alright, alright." Cham replied " Thank you. We're going to figure out what's going on here, ok Jack?  This is weird as shit, but it's got to have an explanation."

"Yeah, sure." I grumbled as I mounted the rover and began heading back to safety, mind lost to thoughts of doom.