Below the Snow

Finally the radio buzzed and cracked, and over the howling noise of wind Denis's rough voice rasped:"Touched down smoothly on the ice field. GPR registers hidden crevices under the snow drifts but they should be well covered. Got a strong breeze but good visibility. Preparing the sledge and buckling up for the ground mission now. Over."

Jiri let out a soft sigh, her gaze still glued to the display from where she had observed the explo-pod descend all the way from their ship to that ice shelf. She hadn't even noticed she had held her breath in anticipation.

"Alright. We see you on the screen, Denis. Take care and good luck! Over," she answered with a smile as she followed the tiny black dots scoot over an otherwise blueish white background. Again the radio cracked.

"No worries, Captain, we got this covered. It's only ice and snow, right Silv? Let's move. Over and out," Denis bellowed.

Relieved Jiri leaned back in her seat. "Roger and out..." She shouldn't be so tense. Where there was ice, there was water. And if the samples turned out to be contaminated, their water-processing unit would just do what it was built for. Denis had a water tank on board his sledge, but he would probably have to go down there several times to fill up their stock. If only they hadn't been thrown off the hyper stream! Then they wouldn't have been stranded in the outback of space, low on supplies.

Jiri really wished she could spare more crew members to accompany Denis into the inhospitable ice. Yet the twins dwelt at the sickbay and Jiri needed Tahrim and Kim to keep the ship orbiting this uncharted planet of ice and cold and tend to the sick. But at least Silv's conscience was downloaded into her external core so Denis was not alone in the cold.

Jiri blinked as the radar picked up a signal she couldn't identify.

".... Denis? Stand by, we read a strange signature near your landing site. Denis? Silv?"

Radio silence. Jiri threw a nervous glance at the UI of Silv, but of course the AI was offline when she was down there with Denis. But that glance was enough – the black dots on the white landscape disappeared from sight.

"Denis!" Jiri exclaimed, dared him to answer as she frantically zoomed in and out in the hope to detect her crew member. But to no avail. And he stayed silent.

For a while Jiri stared at the screen, chewing on her thumb, waiting on any sign that Denis was alright. But when nothing came forth, she typed furiously on the console, trying to reach Silv.

"Core disconnected. Signal not found. Load backup core?"

Jiri grumbled and pressed "no", then turned back to the screen. Five minutes passed in which Jiri repeatedly tried and failed to contact Denis or Silv, then ten. She grew increasingly unsettled and after another thirty minutes she decided.

Her voice echoed steadily over the communication system of the ship: "Alright. Listen, team. We need Denis back, we need water and I'd loath to load a backup of Silv. So here goes: Kim will stay aboard to keep our lady on orbit. I hate to do this, but Ben, Jen, you two have to accompany Tahrim and me. I know you are sick, and under normal circumstances I would have you stay in bed. But if Denis is in trouble, he might need all the help he can get." She paused and sighed. "I don't know what's out there. But we have to take that risk, for Denis's sake, and for our sake. So gear up and meet me at the decompression chamber."

Ten minutes later the four of them squeezed into the second explo-pod and buckled up for their descent. Jen's helmet fogged up as she coughed repeatedly and Ben swayed in his seat as if he was about to keel over. Jiri shared a worried glance with Tahrim; he shook his head then pushed the buttons and the pod dropped into the atmosphere.

The ride was as rocky as it always was, but the pod touched down successfully at the estimated landing site. They clamoured out of the explo-pod and were instantly met with a cold, sharp wind. Jiri's helmet stats displayed a -50,5°C; their suits could handle that, no problem. But where was Denis? And where was his sledge? It should have been right there.

"This..." Jen's coughing sounded even worse over the radio as she monitored the GPR, "this is weird."

Ben flailed his arms as he looked around then shouted over the radio: "Denis! Where are you?"

"It's no use." Tahrim huffed and in the meantime searched the landing site.

Jiri let her gander wander, but from horizon to horizon she saw nothing but ice and snow, and the breeze tugged and pushed at her suit. Her GPR picked up the hidden crevices Denis had talked about. Maybe her crew member had fallen inside one of them. But the ground seemed solid and there was no sign that the ground had caved anywhere, or traces in the snow she could have followed. There was just the ice shelf. She trudged through the snow, following the signal of the crevices, trying again to connect too Silv.

"Signal not found."

Of course not. Jiri grumbled into her suit. Then she suddenly slipped and tumbled down some sort of ramp until her midriff bumped into something hard. She groaned and rolled on her back. Then she looked around what hit her and saw...

"Guys! I think I found something," she voiced with growing excitement and she inspected the metal hatch in the ground, then tried the heavy lock. With a moaning sound it clanked open. She peered inside and saw dimly illuminated structures...

"Tunnels!" she gasped, "There's civilisation down here!"

After that only radio silence. And Kim remained on the ship, waiting, hoping for any signs from the crew, draining the last pack of water...