Astronomicon 1: Inception Point (Finished)

36 - Command Decision

"Lower me down!" Chris shouted to Fletcher.

"Into the crevasse?"

"Yes! Winch me down. Now!"

Fletcher pushed the lever and the crane's winch began to wind Chris steadily down at the motor's maximum speed. The icy-cold steel cable rasped at his fingers, but before he could wrap his arms around it instead, his boots landed heavily on the small rocks at the bottom. He unclipped the crane cable and hurried across to Diego's crumpled form.

Diego had landed on his side with his leg folded beneath him at a gruesome angle. Chris dropped onto his knees and leaned across him. He could see immediately that he was dead. His skull had not withstood the impact with the jagged rock beneath his head. Blood and what looked like brain tissue had splattered across the surface.

Chris was about to shout the expected sad news up to the others when Diego's eyes flicked up and looked directly at him. Chris froze, too horrified to know what to do.

"Help," Diego croaked faintly.

"How the hell are you still alive?" Chris replied, mentally kicking himself for his monumental lack of tact.

He pulled off one of Diego's gloves and grasped his hand in an attempt to be comforting. Diego's broken skull, apparent brain damage, smashed legs and who knew what other terrible injuries inside his H.E.P.O. put him way beyond the worst injuries that his crew could hope to deal with. Taking into account that they would have to lift him out of the crevasse and drive him back to the Command Module across rough terrain with nothing more than a first aid kit to keep him alive, Chris knew there was no point even trying.

"Hurt..." Diego croaked, his eyes rolling independently.

"Yeah, you're pretty badly bashed up, but it looks like your H.E.P.O.'s padding saved you from some of it. I'm just going to get you something for the pain."

"Com... Comman..."

"Hold in there, Diego. I'm going to make the pain go away. I'm sorry, this may... hurt a little."

Continuing to hold Diego's hand with his left, he slid his right hand into his front pocket and gripped the Glock 19 that rested there. Being careful to keep it out of Diego's line of sight, he moved it up to Diego's neck and held the end of the barrel near the base of his skull.

"Sorry, Diego. You won't hurt anymore." Chris closed his eyes and gripped Diego's hand more tightly as he pulled the trigger.

The resulting crack was deafening, reverberating for what seemed like an age between the walls of the crevasse. He had pushed the pistol back into his pocket before the echoes had fully died away. He had no regret for what he had just had to do, but he had no wish to dwell on it either. He hastily closed Diego's still open eyes, then zipped his H.E.P.O. hood up right over his blood-spattered face.

The cold of the planet hit Chris, reinforcing the regret that he had left his gloves behind.

* * *

"You shot him!" Kate shouted at Chris as he landed back on the rocky edge.

She punched him surprisingly hard in the shoulder, making him glad he was still holding onto the cable. Anil helped him disconnect himself from the cable and then held it for him while peering over the precipice at Diego's form below.

"There's no way he could make it," Chris replied quietly. "What else could I do?"

"Why the fuck have you got a gun, anyway?" she demanded.

"The alternative was to leave him down there in agony or try to move him, causing even more pain, knowing full well that he was way beyond our current medical capability to help him."

"Surely we could do something for him?! Even if it was just giving him something for the pain!"

"I did... I stopped his pain."

"You know that wasn't what I meant! We could have at least tried to lift him out."

"His brain was splashed over a rock!" Chris raised his voice but regretted it at once. "I don't see how we could move him without killing him instantly."

"He was basically already dead, Commander," added Anil.

"We need to get Fletcher across, finish loading the buggies and get back to the others before darkness falls. Melissa, how long have we got now?"

"Melissa's only barely conscious," Kate replied quietly.

"Can anyone else look it up?" he asked, accepting his discarded gloves from Amanda.

He rammed his almost numb hands into the gloves as quickly as he could while Kate pulled out the navicom. "I forgot. How's she doing now?"

"We've still got no idea what's wrong with her. She varies between staring into space and clamping her eyes shut and mumbling to herself. And we've got just under three hours of daylight left," she reported.

"And how far have we got left to go?"

"Just over eight kilometres to the Command Module."

"If we go now, we can make that before dark, even with those mountains in the way." He gestured towards the first mountains they had crossed after leaving the Command Module.

It was just a few hundred metres across the gravel until the broad slope that led up into the low mountains.

"Can we come across now?" Fletcher called from the other side of the crevasse.

"We're feeling lonely over here," added Lucy.

"Don't worry," Chris replied, "We won't go without you!"

He patted his gloved hands together, trying to get some feeling back in his fingers. "Anil, let's get a cargo net and a rope back over to them."

"So, we're definitely leaving the crane behind?" Kate asked.

"Well, it can't lift itself across," he replied.

After Fletcher and Lucy were swung safely across in the net and all the supplies were again securely loaded, they all climbed back into the buggies and set off on what Chris hoped would be the final leg of their expedition. Fletcher took over the driving of the flatbed buggy.

Chris figured the best route back would be the reverse of their original route through the mountains. If nothing else, it would avoid any unknown affecting their progress. Now they were mobile, it should be easier too.

They had barely progressed up kilometre up the gentle gravel slope between two of the lower peaks in the range when Kate called out to Chris from the back seats. She struggled to be heard over the sound of the buggy's wheels crunching through the gravel and ended up shouting.

"Melissa's getting worse, Chris. I think we need to stop."