Salticid [Scifi Short Story]

Part 3 of 3 - Cold Snap

Salticid PART 3 of 3

by Christopher T Garry

Deming and his daughter waited for two days for a break in the weather or some change in the lighting. An artificial dawn might have shown itself, if they were wrong about this being the collapsed cavern. On the morning of the second day in the tunnel, it was still as lightless as the surface of Jesson VII would be above them. That evening, the weather did clear long enough to allow a visual inspection of the ceiling. Ari was excited to see the silhouettes of crushed rock and ragged cliffs against the backdrop of a faint starlit sky. 

The expansive view was crisp and startling. It was as if they were viewing it all from one end of the bottom of a broad canyon. Deming's sharp eyes took in all they could and Ari processed the image stream. This was a unique opportunity to analyze the makeup of the cavern superstructure now that the ceiling had been crushed to the cavern floor. There were no construction supports or any artificial structures in the torn cliff wall surfaces. In the fields below them there was some sign of the wreckage of their Catalyst PF-324's cargo bay on top of expansive mounds of ceiling debris. If there were any signs of the cavern being manufactured or artificially supported, Ari could not tell from here at the exit from the first tunnel. With the clear air, the temperature had dropped dangerously and Deming and Pelly did not expose themselves for more than a few minutes. It was back to waiting for the warmer winds to blow under ceaseless clouds.

They slept a third night huddled around each other. They talked quietly about food, supplies and how to get across the frozen cavern waste. It would be a gamble to press on, since they were nearly out of food. Finding the next tunnel would be brutal in the unrelenting cold. They simply did not have enough clothing to last more than maybe thirty minutes in the typical storm condition that beat down from the exposed surface.

A plan emerged. Deming would take extra clothes from Pelly, leave her behind, deep in the tunnel for warmth, then explore the ice cavern as quickly as possible following the left wall. He estimated that the next tunnel would lead to a lower elevation and so surmised that, to find it, he would have to stay about fifty paces back from the highest incline of the ascending cavern wall. This plan would take him on a wider swath. It was more dangerous given the visibility issue, since he would lose his reference point completely in the dark. He would run for ten minutes to see what he could find and then run ten minutes back, regardless. The guidestone had a range of about five paces. 

###

Pelly prepped him from inside the tunnel.

"You look overstuffed," Pelly said, trying to close the buffered layer over his chest. "Do you have the guidestone where you can get at it?" 

"Yah," he huffed, out of breath from struggling in the tight space of the tunnel. "This is making me sweat already."

"All right," and she handed him the last of the water in his bottle. She had been distilling most of yesterday, using the ice delivered by the incessant storm and torn roots gathered at the exit. 

He finished it, handed the bottle back and smacked his hands together, convincing himself he was ready.

"Remember: ten minutes out, ten minutes back. Make sure you look into the tunnel to verify it's good to go. Don't get turned around. Take your time. We can do this more than once, if you're careful." She rested her hand on his cheek and he paused for a moment to let her have a read of how he was doing.

Ari marveled at how motherly Pelly could be. Sensitive, intelligent and dedicated, she would be an excellent parent someday. She suspected Pelly was interested in a piloting role in order to have her duties keep her at a distance from other people, as opposed to her physician father, who was often elbow deep into people. It seemed to suit her well enough. In that regard, maybe parenting would not be ideal. From what Ari knew of human children there was hardly an off-switch for them or retreating for quality time, although, admittedly, Pelly was nearly opposite. Maybe her children would be temperate and brilliant like her.