Astronomicon 1: Inception Point (Finished)

34 - The Crevasse

Chris immediately realised that the buggy was off balance. With only one passenger, it leaned worryingly towards the right which meant the wheels could not touch down at the same time. He reacted by trying to lean to the left as much as his seatbelt would allow but it did not make any difference.

The driver's side wheels struck the rock surface on the other side, bounced heavily and lost all forward momentum. With the steel cable pulling the other way and the buggy leaning on two wheels, he felt the beginning of a roll back towards the precipice. If that happened, he would never get enough momentum to drive onto the ledge again, so he hit the accelerator and turned the steering control into the lean.

The two wheels in contact with the ground pulled the buggy forwards and clear of the precipice but tension from the steel cable kept the passenger side wheels clear of the ground and pulled it around to the left. He was about to shout to Fletcher to wind out more cable when Fletcher did it anyway.

He eased off on the accelerator as the raised wheels dropped gently onto the rock. After checking the buggy was safely clear, he turned off the motors and unhooked the steel cable. He signalled to Fletcher to wind it back in a little before he swung it back. Anil caught it on the other side and hooked it onto the four-seater buggy which he had already moved into the position ready to swing.

"After this buggy, let's get some supplies across in the cargo nets. Anil and I can begin reloading the buggies this side that way," shouted Chris back to the crane side.

"Any advice before I do this?" Anil shouted back from the driving seat of the four-seater.

"Yeah. Lean into the centre as much as you can. You want to keep it balanced when the wheel touches down this side," Chris replied as he drove the two-seater out of the way.

"Okay. Here I go then!"

Before he hit the accelerator, Anil moved one of his legs into the passenger footwell and leaned heavily to the left in his seat. He gained speed faster than the two-seater had and shot over the precipice still horizontal for a couple of metres before gravity won and the buggy bounced on the bottom of the cable. It jerked from side-to-side for a moment, losing some of its forward momentum and causing the crane to groan worryingly.

Chris was worried that it would not make the distance. It continued to slow as it swung upwards on the cable, but carried just enough momentum to deposit all four wheels neatly on the edge of the precipice. Better prepared this time, Fletcher eased out more cable as Anil drove cautiously putting a safe distance between the buggy and the drop. After unhooking the cable, he parked it alongside the other buggy.

Swinging the cargo nets across turned out to be more difficult. The first attempt resulted in a bulging net dangling uselessly in the middle of the gap. Fletcher had to swing the crane boom back to his side to retrieve them. A brief discussion created the idea of tying a length of rope to the net and throwing that across first. That gave Chris and Anil a way to catch the swinging net without risking being pulled into the crevasse.

With a reliable system, they swung net after net until all the supplies were safely across.

"What do we send over now?" asked Lucy. "Do we start sending people?"

"How are we going to get the last person across," asked Kate.

"Okay then, if Lucy, Kate, Melissa, Diego and Amanda swing across one at a time in the net then Fletcher can bring the flatbed buggy across."

"Someone needs to man the crane, Commander," Fletcher replied. "I can't land a buggy if no-one's here to give some slack on the cable."

"If you stay at the crane controls and someone else drives the flatbed. Would that work?"