The Descent

The Descent (The Original SciFi Challenge Story)

Note: This is the original short story which The Descent was based on. I've included it purely for you to see how a story can grow from one chapter to 60. Give it a read, if you like, and let me know how you think how it turned out as a full story.

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Denton Staxx sat at his desk, engrossed in the latest commentary from the Interplanetary Olympic games when a chirp in his ear notified him that a new case had been assigned to him. He tapped an area just behind his ear to acknowledge receipt. His attention drifted back to the holographic commentators hovering just inches above his desk. They were just about to get to the good part. The reveal of the Descent Pods.

The Descent was the highlight of the IOG. Although events like the Twilight Marathon pushed the contestants to the limits, Denton knew that the Descent was far more taxing than a sprint from the southern desert to the northern ice caps.

The double chirp inside his ear that followed thirty seconds later meant that the case was a matter of urgency and required his immediate attention. He sighed and acknowledged the notification. His continued ignorance of the case would only draw attention and that was something he didn't need.

He swept the broadcast to the side of his desk and opened up the case file. Several technical documents appear, filled with technical jargon that was outside of his area of expertise. Several circuit board schematics were included. Frustrated, he made a video call to the department IT analyst.

"Hey, Tanner, you busy?" Denton said after the customary greeting.

Tanner laughed. "Are you kidding? I'm buried up to here," he said as he stretched his hand as far above his head as he could. "These games are killing me."

"Sorry to have to add to the workload but I really need your help."

"That's what everyone says."

"It's a class 1 case."

Tanner suddenly perked up. "Class 1? Why didn't you say so already? That's enough of an excuse to avoid all these background checks. What's the problem?"

Denton gave him the case number and waited as he pulled up the relevant documents.

"This," Denton said and pointed to the documents floating in the air in front of him, "It is apparently of interplanetary security importance. I just can't understand any of it and I'll have more chirps in my ear here in a minute if I'm not moving along fast enough."

"Alright, I get the idea. Let's see, what do we have here?"

Denton watched as Tanner reviewed the documents and schematics. He let a few minutes pass before he interrupted. 

"So?"

"It seems to be some sort of software patch."

"A software patch? For what and what does it do?"

"The best I can tell, it seems to be for some sort of nav computer. It seems to be some sort of patch to change the navigational parameters it executes."

"And in English?"

Tanner looked up with an annoyed look on his face. "It means that the patch changes the destination coordinates for the nav system."

"Ok. So what are the coordinates?"

"Umm, let me see. Ah, here. The original ones are included, no doubt as a way to verify the right system is being patched. Let me pull it up."

Tanner's face disappeared and a map of the planet appeared. It quickly zoomed to a location Denton knew very well.

"The desert?"