Planetary: Mercury, page 31
“You’ve said that for years.” She walked out of the bathroom with a small bag in her hands.
Al wrapped his arms around his wife and kissed her on the nose. “I know. But, I mean it. There are two promising trainees making their way through the course. If they get to the end, I’ll take an entire month off and we can go wherever you want.” He saw the disbelief in her blue eyes. He bent down and kissed her, pulling her tight to him. The thought of taking her to bed and making love until morning crossed his mind. Instead, he ended the kiss and let her go.
“We’d better get going or we’ll be late for our flight.”
The Mercury terraforming project was the largest one he’d been to with Claire. There had to be a hundred thousand people stationed on Mercury, which was quite an accomplishment considering the drastic temperature range of the planet. The module itself was a solid walled dome that protected the tender plants from the harsh conditions outside. Thousands of bulbs overhead provided artificial light on a schedule similar to Earth.
Her apartment was set-up in the Ag modules. There were twelve apartments around the perimeter of the dome. The air was tinged with the smell of death and decay from the compost bins on the far end. A couple dozen gardeners were clearing out the dead plants to make way for new ones.
Claire led him to a lush, green area of the ag model. “This is where I made my breakthrough. All of the plants were dying and then three weeks ago they began growing again. We don’t know exactly why, the ph levels, feeding and watering schedules are the same throughout the area. It’s possible that the species in this area are better suited to Mercury’s environment. We can only do so much to temper the effects of being this close to the Sun. By the end of the month we should know if we’ll have a working model again. If not, we’ll have to evacuate, since it’s far too expensive and impractical to ship in food and supplies for a hundred thousand people on a regular basis. A skeleton crew would have to stay to maintain the facility and my team, of course, would stay to get the Ag model back up and running.”
“Very nice, dear. But, I’m a bit more concerned about the killer that’s running about.” Al carried the luggage into their suite and set it on the bed.
Claire immediately began unpacking. He was only going to be there a week, but she went through the work of hanging up his shirts and putting his underthings in the empty drawer she left for him. The apartment was plain and functional. The walls were bare.
“Stop worrying. We are safe in here. This is the most guarded area in the entire project. Besides, there hasn’t been a death in two weeks. The commander thinks the killer may have left the planet when the new security measures were put in place.” In one smooth motion, she removed her t-shirt. “We’re here to celebrate our anniversary.” She reached around with one hand and unhooked her bra, letting it fall to the floor. “I thought, maybe, we could spend the rest of the day doing that.” Her hands worked the button of his slacks, a wicked smile on her lips. He let out a gasp when she dropped to her knees.
Claire was bent over, her gloved hands digging in the dirt of Section 5. Al stood back admiring the view of her backside in the form-fitting jeans. Age hadn’t done a thing to detract from that view. Lust spread through him, almost making him forget why he’d went looking for her.
“Honey, another body was found.” He eyed the other people in the area. “I don’t want you out here alone.”
She looked over her shoulder at him, a smile on her face. “Come take a look.”
He walked over to her side and looked down at the small green sprout poking through the soil. It was a single stem with two small fuzzy green leaves. “Nice. Now, come inside.”
“That’s it? Nice? It’s the first cucurbita mercurias to be grown in an ag model. One plant can feed millions. We’ll be able to grow it anywhere in the galaxy.”
“That’s great. Let’s discuss it inside.”
She stood, pulling off her gloves. “I thought you’d be more supportive. This is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.” She walked toward the apartment, her back rigid.
“I am supportive of your work, Claire,” Al said, following her. “I just don’t want you out alone when there’s a killer running loose. Besides, I’ll only be here two more nights and we’ve hardly spent any time together. I’m sure your plants can spare you for a few hours.”
“Fine.”
He caught her by the arm. “It’s our Anniversary, Claire.” His voice was low, pleading. “I’d like to take you out to dinner.”
She gave him a half smile, then walked past him into the suite. “Let me get a shower first.”
Al sighed as he followed his wife inside. Her tone said everything. It would be a long night with her sulking, ending with him on the couch.
“Come on, Claire. It’s my last night here. Can’t you leave those damn plants for five minutes?” Al tramped through the fields in the dark ag model toward the figure at the far end. In two days, the plants in the dome had grown more than a foot. He trampled as many as he could on his way to Section 5.
“I’m rethinking taking time off to travel with you. If all you’re going to do is work, then there’s no point.” He didn’t feel the need to keep his voice down, the Ag model was deserted except for them.
“Al, go back inside. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” From her position knelt on the ground, her back to him, she waved him away.
“Claire, what is going on?” He picked up the pace. “Who is that?”
Lying on the ground, by her knees, was a young girl, maybe 9 or 10, bound at her ankles and wrists and a dirty rag covered her mouth. Her dark eyes were wide with fear. Claire held a curved knife to her throat.
“Claire?” He swallowed. The anger that had been there moments before was replaced by confusion and fear. The woman he looked at couldn’t be his beautiful, loving wife. She would never do something like this.
She sat back, removing the knife from the girl’s neck. Tears in her eyes. “It’s dying.”
“What is?” He kept his voice low as if talking to a distraught toddler. He squatted next to her, keeping an eye on the knife. His heart thumped as he placed his bet that she wouldn’t hurt him.
“The cucurbita mercurias, it’s dying. I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to feed it again until after you were on your way back home. I had hoped that you wouldn’t have to know about the sacrifices I made for my research.” Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Come on, Claire, don’t do this. It’s just a plant.”
In one quick motion, the knife tip was at his throat. He resisted the urge to flinch as it came at him.
“It’s not just a plant.” Spit flew from between her clenched teeth. “It’s everything I’ve been working towards my entire career. This breakthrough was to be mine. I would be remembered, not as just some nameless scientist who replicated other’s work, this would put me in the history books as a pioneer.”
“I get it. I really do. But, Claire, you can’t do this. You can’t kill people so that you can be famous. It’s wrong.”
He wrapped his hand around hers and gently guided the knife away from his neck. He extracted the knife with his other hand and tossed it on the ground. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he realized that his dear, sweet, beautiful wife was a murderer. He pulled her to him, trying to reclaim the woman he had been in love with for twenty-five years.
She pulled away from him. “It needs her blood to live. Her small sacrifice will save millions of people.”
“You can’t do this, Claire. I won’t let you. She’s just an innocent child.” He reached to take the girl’s hand.
Claire grabbed the knife. “No!.”
Al intercepted the blade as it slashed down toward the girl’s neck. It left a jagged cut along his forearm. Blood ran down his arm, dripping onto the ground.
The leaves on the shriveled plant lifted upward as if in a time-lapse movie. It stretched its vines outward, growing several inches, sprouting new leaves and sending out young tender vines across the dirt.
Al scrambled backward away from the plant. He didn’t want the thing touching him. He didn’t know if it could harm him, but he wasn’t going to take the chance.
“See, it needs blood to grow.” Claire’s face lit up as she watched the plant come alive.
“Not this way.” Al stood. “Not a little girl.” Al stepped closer, grabbed the girl’s arm with his right hand and pulled her to her feet. He hauled over his shoulder before Claire could stop him.
“You can’t take her. I need her! The plant needs her!” The high pitched tone of her voice was that of a mad woman. His wife—his kind, sweet beautiful wife—had become a psycho. How could he not have seen it?
With a strangled scream, Claire raised the knife and came at him. He caught her squarely in the chest with the palm of his hand, sending her backward. He didn’t want to hurt her. He just want to stop her from killing the little girl.
She fell backward, dropping the knife to the ground. She gasped as the blade sliced up through her kidney, curving into her internal cavity. Blood pooled around the plant she had so dearly wanted to see grow. Leaves sprouted in all directions.
“Nooooo.” Tears slipped from the corners of Al’s eyes. He set the girl down, quickly untied her, then rushed to his wife’s side. “Oh, Claire.” He held her long after her body went limp. “My dear, sweet, Claire. You had everything, why did you want more?” He said to the lifeless body. Even in death she was beautiful. He kissed her forehead.
Like a green monster, the plant sent out runners toward the pool of blood, grabbing onto Claire’s lifeless body. He scrambled away, leaving her body behind. From a distance, Al watched the plant’s roots burrow into her skin, feeding off of her. Within minutes, she was buried under the vines and leaves of the plant she gave up everything for.
Through a stream of tears, he watched the cucurbita mercurias spread and grow. Bright red flowers blossomed on the vines. Claire’s favorite color.
“Sleep well, my love.”
About the Author
Dawn Witzke is a freelance writer, graphic artist and master level procrastinator. She is the author of Path of Angels and can be found over at her blog, Books & Art, where she randomly posts artwork, book reviews and writing. http://dawnwitzke.com
THE WANDERER
David Hallquist
The Wanderer fell towards the distant star; a bright spark against a cloud of blackness. A great disc shone dimly around the fiery sphere. Close examination revealed clouds of small proto-planets, streaming off long tails of material that glowed in the light of the newborn star. Back where the Wanderer had fallen from, brilliant young blue stars blazed, lighting up wispy clouds of hydrogen gas to fluoresce in hazy pink and pale blue-green nebulae. The song of the stars wailed though the hydrogen radio bands, weirdly distorted by the great clouds of the stellar nursery.
This celestial glory was neither the origin nor the destination of the Wanderer, though. It had come from much farther away, drifting though distant eons of eternal night, freezing cold and deadly radiation towards a concentration of gasses that had been calculated to form a new stellar cluster. The young destination star was still mostly shrouded in the deep, black column of condensing gasses, mostly carbon but thickened with dust and the particles that housed the seeds of life.
Ever so slowly, the infant star’s gravity clutched at the Wander, dragging it inevitably closer. As the ancient messenger began to fall past the sleet of dust and comets towards the star, it began to awaken…
Waking up in zero-G always gave Gabriel Marius a head-cold. Decongestants, nasal clips or micro implants just didn’t help. All of the blood and fluids wanted to pool in his head, and made it feel three times too large. Then, there was the sensation of falling. Of course he wasn’t really falling… oh wait, he was. The Caduceus was falling straight down towards the hungry fires of the Sun… mostly. It would miss, of course, mostly miss, and only come close enough for the Sun’s blazing heat to melt lead. The Caduceus had to get close enough for Mercury’s gravity to capture it, at the same time the plasma engines fired to slow the ship and bring her into orbit.
Provided nothing went wrong… that the solar shield deflected the deadly light of Sol… that the coolant systems functioned properly… that they didn’t run into a solar flare… that the braking maneuver brought them to Mercury and they didn’t go careening past into the darkness. His training as an engineer made it all too easy to imagine all the things that could go so terribly wrong. Still, it should all work. It had all worked before… most of the time, anyway.
″Dr. Marius″ the soft voice of the computer said, ″there is a call from your family stored, and the Survey Team has set your appointments after landing.″
″Thanks, Caddy.″ he mumbled, finally opening his eyes. The sleeping bag hung from the wall, or floor, or ceiling, really it didn’t matter. At least seeing his workstation hanging upside down didn’t make him want to puke any more. Light panels, bare white walls, and cables made up the rest of the spartan room; the other three sleeping bags were empty. There were no other passengers on this trip to Mercury; and the crew had their own quarters.
There should be windows. He knew that any windows would compromise the insulating hull, and the magnetic fields that hovered over the ship’s skin, protecting it from the Sun’s particle flux. Any of the panels could be made into view-screens, it was true, and show him everything that a window’s limited view could not. Still… a proper spaceship ought to have windows.
Shaving and morning rituals were all different, and using a tiny hose while floating inside a bag never felt like a proper shower. Still, after that and a hot bulb of coffee, he felt ready to face the world, or even the Solar System.
With a quick command, he set the light panels to function as view-screens, and the room transformed. The wall panels appeared to showthe depths of star-shot space in every direction. A great dark circle dominated one direction, with pale strands of light streaming slowly forth from its circumference. The sun-shield seemed to almost strain against the fierce light. Off to the side was the blazing crescent of Mercury, glaring at him with a hard, fierce brightness that the gentle Moon had never had. And there, right where he predicted it should be, was a warm, blue star… home.
He needed to see home again. Canceling the imagery around him, the close walls of the room returned. He floated over to his workstation, and activated the latest message from his family. The images of his family, and the mundane news from home were like water to a man in a desert. It had only been two months aboard ship, and his mission was still about to begin. Focusing the camera, he sent his reply.
″Hey Princess, Happy Birthday from space! I want you to know how proud I am of you, and how much I miss you. Yes, that does look a lot like the rocks on Mercury do. I’m sorry I won’t be allowed to bring home any Mercury rocks for you; those are all going to be examined by some science teams. Still, we can make a trip to a center studying them someday. I’ll be home next year for your birthday. You’ll be so big then, I’m not sure I’ll recognize you!″
″Laura, honey, the new fencing is fine, and should prevent any flood damage next time. Really, it looks great. As to why they need me to fix work on site; this is a very special circumstance. These aren’t just any computers I’ll be working with, and the solar interference and distance makes telepresence completely impossible. Also, the nature of the work is sensitive, please don’t ask. This should be the last time I have to take a long trip like this though, thank God. I cannot begin to tell you how much I miss you all, and long to return. Please keep the messages coming; I love you all.″
He ended the message, and loaded it into the send queue. When the Caduceus detected a break in the Solar weather, in either hours or weeks, it would transmit the data-package towards the distant Earth.
Gabriel got up from his workstation and floated across the room and down the co-axial main corridor. As he floated down the long corridor he could not escape the zero-G sensation of falling. You’re falling, his mind tried to tell him, falling down this shaft… falling towards the Sun…
The Wanderer fell towards the young star. Crossing the ice-line, volatile gasses and water sublimated off of its surface as the star’s light warmed it. Gas and vapor blown by the stellar wind formed a long tail, tuning the ship into a comet. Mixed in with the water and dust were the spores of life: spores for the dormant cells that would colonize the forming star system.
A greater change began inside the Wanderer, as the star’s light triggered the awakening process. Radioisotopes were brought together in proximity to provide the heat and energy for the slow changes to come. Its interior warmed, then melted, forming a churning dynamo of liquid metal. Microscopic components, now free to move about the molten center, began to join and interact, forming the basis for a computing network.
The computer was self-generating and self-organizing, much like the organic life that had made its distant progenitors. Each of the microscopic components came together in a ever-changing and adaptable system. Essentially, it was alive, but a life of nanocrystals and liquid metal rather than cells and water. Ultimately, the Wanderer should be able to function and adapt to a wide variety of circumstances, as it was impossible to predict what it would encounter when it reached its destination.
Finally, he had reached his destination. Ice crystals evaporated off of his space suit as he climbed out of the automated landing capsule. He’d have to walk from the blasted rock of the landing field to Hermes base. Fortunately, Hermes Base had sent two men out in space suits to help him back to the base. They helped Gabriel out of the cramped capsule, and then he stretched and looked around Mercury for the first time.
