Astronomicon 1: Inception Point (Finished)

15 - Sea of Gravel

Having lost the first half-an-hour of the day getting first their rucksacks and then themselves out of the crevasse, the group knew they would have to keep up a decent pace to get to the next module before nightfall. No-one was pleased that the initial few kilometres, at least, would be trudging through the rippled, grey gravel that sapped their energy and gave them little sense of progress.

As they walked, Chris tried out different angles and positions for his feet, adjusting his gait to establish if a change in their walking style might make it easier to walk without their boots sinking so much, but nothing seemed to make much difference. It was just going to take determination to get them across the energy-sapping gravel.

He wanted to keep everyone walking for the first three hours without any breaks, finally stopping for a short break at lunchtime. It soon became apparent that was not going to suit everyone. After an hour, members of the group were complaining about aching ankles and dehydration, and Fletcher seemed to be developing a worrying cough. Chris urged them on for another half-an-hour and then reluctantly called a halt to sit down, rest their legs and take on some water.

He gave them ten minutes and then upset everyone by setting off again. The drink of water had fixed Fletcher's cough, but Chris suspected that was likely to return soon. If it was, as he suspected, caused by the combination of super-dry air and sub-zero temperature, then he knew they did not have enough water on them to counter it for more than a couple of days. He hoped he was wrong, but the chances were if they did not find some way to breathe warmer, higher-humidity air every so often, more people would be coughing too.

"Fletcher, put your hood up."

"No need, Commander," Fletcher replied indignantly. "I'm not even close to being cold."

"Well, at least pull the face scarf up over your mouth. We should all do that."

"I forgot about that," said Lucy. "One of the worries they had back on Earth was that the membranes in our lungs would dry out. What did they call it?"

"Khumbu...the Khumbu cough, I think," replied Kate. "It won't affect everybody. Some are more susceptible than others."

"Yes, but we can't predict who might suffer from it, so it's best to assume we all will until we prove otherwise," said Chris.

He pushed the group on for another ninety minutes, dragging them along at an uncomfortably fast pace, determined to make good time. His own ankles had progressed from aching to outright hurting over the last hour and his thigh muscles were not much better. A longer stop for lunch would give them some more time to recover but he reckoned everyone would still be aching when they set off again.

"How easy will it be to get at the equipment in the next module?" Kate asked Chris once they were sitting eating.

She had moved across to sit next to him as soon as he sat down in the gravel.

"Hard to say," he replied. If she's crashed like the last two, our supplies could be spread out over the surface. If she's landed as designed, it depends if the side-ramp survived passing through the atmosphere and will still deploy correctly. If not, there's still the hatch near the top, although that could be tricky if she's on her feet. It might be twenty plus metres in the air."

"That's a long way to climb," she sighed.

"It's a long way to lower all the supplies we need too," he added.

"Is any of this going to be easy?" she asked despondently.

"It's a major feat of engineering that we're here at all," he replied. "Any number of things could have gone wrong and almost all of them didn't. The collision on the final approach to the planet was seriously bad luck, but we're still here."

"Why did it have to take out the landing beacons?"

"It was bound to take out some systems," he replied. "It did a lot of damage. We were lucky it didn't depressurise the Command Module."

"If just one of those beacons had survived, we'd have built shelters by now and we wouldn't be trekking across the planet like this."

"That would have been nice," he conceded. "But look at the Uranian. They're not going to get here at all."

"What exactly happened there?"

"I don't know," he shook his head sadly. "All I've been told is that due to some 'terrorist event prior to launch', she won't be coming."

"I hope the crew were okay."

"Me too. They're probably livid that they did all that training and now they're stuck back on Earth. Something probably happened before they were on board, would be my guess. I'd like to think that control would have informed us if it was worse than that."

"I'd love to know just what is going on back on Earth," she sighed before taking another bite of her dried food.

"Once we're set up and get one of the U.L.R.s running, they can send us all the latest news. But until that's in place, we're making all our own news here."

"More than news, Commander. We're making history!" added Fletcher.

"Indeed," Chris laughed. "Here's to the beginning of one of mankind's greatest adventures."

He raised his water bottle as if it was a wine glass and most of the others did the same.

Lucy, who had been standing and staring at the horizon ahead of them for a few minutes while she ate, walked back to them and said, "I think I can see the supply module."

"From here?" Chris replied.

"Melissa says it's less than three kilometres further on," she replied.

"Where?" Chris asked, stuffing his part-eaten food sachet into his H.E.P.O. pocket and getting to his feet.

He had temporarily forgotten about his aching ankles but standing on them renewed the discomfort.

"Right on the horizon," she pointed. "Look at those three mountain peaks in the distance, the tallest ones. Track down the right side of the left-most one and there's something shiny; just a speck."

"You're right. That could be it. At least this one is this side of those mountains."

"It's a long way this side of the mountains," said Lucy. "The big question is, will we get there before nightfall?"

"We can do it, can't we?" asked Kate, arriving beside him.

"How long have we got left, Melissa?" he called out.

"Time or distance?" she asked.

"Both!" said Lucy.

"Three-point-six decs, that's slightly over two hours. The distance is two point seven kilometres."

Chris looked back at the horizon. "If we can manage two kilometres per hour, we'll get there with time to spare."

"We'll need time to spare," added Kate. "We don't want to be setting up a camp after the temperature plummets."

Having an endpoint in sight renewed their enthusiasm. They walked on for an hour with greater vigour but that began to wane noticeably as they became aware that the gravel plain was not as level as they had supposed. The further they progressed, the more pronounced the upward tilt became. Under more normal circumstances back on Earth, it would not have been an obstacle but here, with already tired legs, the thin atmosphere and lower temperature, it was seriously taxing them.

The shiny object on the horizon gradually grew into the landed supply module that was shown to them in three-dimensional models back on Earth, standing vertical, resting on four, large landing feet and glistening in the weak, pink sunlight. The view seemed to improve the group's mood and they made better time. There was an estimated hour's daylight remaining when they finally reached the base of the module.