Astronomicon 1: Inception Point (Finished)

17 - Reflection

The only reason any of them woke the following morning was the shrill beeping of the alarm that Melissa had set on her navicom. They roused themselves grumpily and had breakfast and a drink before reluctantly repacking their rucksacks and leaving the comparative warmth of the shelter.

"We're eating too much food, you know," announced Lucy as they set off away from their camp.

"We are?" Chris replied.

"Yeah, three sachets are enough for one day," she explained. "Not a day here, but a twenty-four-hour day. They are supposed to each replace an entire meal, so our food intake is probably double what it should be."

"You're right," said Chris. "But we're exerting ourselves a lot and working in sub-zero temperatures. I think we need it."

"I definitely need it," Fletcher laughed, patting his stomach appreciatively.

"We just restocked our rucksacks from the bag you brought out from the supply module. We're fine."

"You're not worried about running out before we've got an alternative food source ready?" she asked.

"No. We've got thirty tons of food in the module behind us and there should be the same amount in the next one."

"And, I hope this isn't too soon but, a lot of our team have died," added Kate. "What we've got will last longer than it was expected to anyway."

"Fair enough," Lucy shrugged. "Just don't say I didn't say anything."

"Duly noted," Chris smiled.

Over the next kilometre, the gradual upward slope in the gravel ended. After a short plateau where the ripples in the gravel seemed to be more pronounced, the terrain ahead of them began to slope very slightly downwards. Soon it was enough to improve their speed a little.

Ahead they could see huge mountains, much larger than those they had already passed through, rising on the other side of what now seemed to be a very shallow valley. A line of contrast snaked its way across the lowest point and Chris hoped it was not another crevasse; he still had the bruises from the last one.

With five hours of decent sleep behind them, a restock of their rations and gravity working a little in their favour, spirits were higher, and they made excellent progress. Chris noticed when ninety minutes had passed but, as no-one was complaining, he decided not to mention the morning break and kept them walking for longer.

It turned out that the first complaints did not begin until almost lunchtime. He pushed them onwards, telling them that he wanted to reach the bottom of the valley before they ate. They offered minor resistance, so the group kept moving for a while longer.

"There're loose rocks ahead of us," Lucy announced after a few more minutes trudging.

"I'd noticed," Chris replied. "Maybe we're nearing a change in the terrain. It would be good to get a break from this damned gravel. Why gravel anyway? Why not sand?"

"Would sand be better?!" laughed Lucy. "We'll need a geologist to explain why there's so much gravel."

"I want to see what's at the bottom of the valley," announced Kate. "It's looking like a river from here."

"It's not going to be a river on this planet," Chris replied. "Any water would have evaporated long ago."

"There's only four hundred metres to the wavy line," Melissa reported, studying the navicom.

"Okay, let's just get there, then stop for food. My legs won't take much more," said Chris. "Melissa, how far then to the next module?"

"From the wavy line? Erm...we've done just over five, so it will be about six to the module."