Dreams of Jupiter

Part 2 - On the Ground

A mid-sized craft with the capability of maneuvering in an atmosphere, the Cormorant eased towards Sedna's ice-and-rust surface, thrusters balancing her against the dwarf planet's rotation and enhanced-but-still-weak gravity.  Then, with a blast of compressed gas to dust off her landing zone, she dropped the final dozen metres to the surface, her sturdy landing legs absorbing the impact with only a slight flexing.

As soon as she was down, the heavy cargo airlock door was dropping ramp-style onto the icy ground.

"Okay, people, our marker is the initial survey team's comm cluster, approximately one hundred metres straight ahead," Ardie said into his helmet comm as he quickly strode down the ramp, the dwarf planet's artificially enhanced gravity holding him solidly to the ground.  With minimal atmosphere, there was nothing to block their view of the communications array the survey team had left behind, a spindly tower some 100 metres directly behind the Cormorant.

"Just beyond is the entrance into the test bore the survey team did into the ice mantle.  We'll find our camp about twenty metres down."  He paused to turn back to the rest of his disembarking team.  Shielded against the hard radiation and absolute zero temperatures of space by their enviro-suits, each a metallic collection of scalloped edges and curves that blended into a seamless  whole, they were quickly descending the ramp behind him.

For good reason: they had only five minutes to get clear of the Cormorant before their window disappeared.  After that the ship would be forced to take off or risk getting caught in the next acceleration surge by the tether ships.

Thankfully the team had drilled several times specifically on their exit protocols.  Only a few seconds after dust off and the ramp's descent, the entire team was on the icy ground, gear in hand and ready to go.  Ardie quickly waved them towards the marker before keying his comms to contact the ship.

"Cormorant, this is Braun.  My team is clear of the ramp," he reported in clipped tones.  "You can pull in and lift off."

"Roger that, Doctor," the Cormorant's captain quickly replied as the ramp started to climb back into it's sealed position.  "VTOL thrusters are firing in five, four, three, two, one, mark."

As the captain had counted off, Ardie had turned and quickly jogged to where his team was making their way to the marker.  That way he was well clear when the thrusters fired, sending blasts of energy downward to jump the Cormorant off Sedna's surface.  She then activated her main drives and quickly climbed out of Sedna's weak gravity field.

Before she was out of sight, Ardie got one last transmission.

"Good luck, doctor, to you and your team," the captain said.  "Command says to remind you that you're now on the clock.  T-minus 19 hours and fifty two minutes to Jupiter orbital insertion."

"Thank you, captain," Ardie replied, pausing to glance up at the rapidly receding silver dot that was the Cormorant.  "Safe journey to you."  Then he was turning to follow his team as they approached the comm array.

Having trained in low gravity for the better part of a year, it didn't take the team long to get the hang of moving quickly and efficiently in Sedna's low G.  Which was good, since the local gravity was less than that of Earth's moon despite the G-enhancing graviton pylons the corporation had studded the surface with in preparation to turn the dwarf planet into a viable mining colony.  While it made carrying their heavy gear easier, hopping across the landscape posed a great number of risks to life and equipment that Ardie would rather avoid.

So they stayed as close to the ground as possible and, in doing so, reached the marker with gear and the team intact.

"Here's the bore," Tomasz, the team's geologist reported from a few metres beyond the array.  He shone a light down the hole, which was a good two metres across.  "And it looks like the survey team put some rung steps into the ice."

Using the rungs in low gravity, it didn't take the team long to reach the chamber the survey team had hollowed out some 18 months earlier.  Nearly twenty metres long and wide, and five metres tall, it was more than large enough for the fifteen person team to be comfortable in.  Which was a good thing, since they would be spending the next twenty hours there while they monitored the dwarf planet's stability during its transition from its lonely home on the outer fringes of the system to deep into the solar system and Jupiter orbit.

"Stefan, set up the wall field," Ardie directed as he began unshipping equipment from the duffel bag he had been carrying.  "Geo teams, let's getting moving.  I want the seismic spikes down and reporting back in ten minutes."  he paused to call up his suit chrono.  "We are counting down to the next acceleration pulse now!  T-mnus three minutes, twenty seconds on my mark.  Mark."

He had a heavy duty, cold-resistant tripod up by the time his second-in-command, Doctor Stefan Arcenaux had the field gun ready.  Resembling a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, the field gun fired spike-tipped cylinders holding small particle field generators.  With practiced precision, Stefan put one cylinder into each corner of the chamber's open end.  Then he was using a control unit on his hip to activate the cylinders, synchronize them and bring the particle field on-line with a shimmer of light.

Stefan paused to visually inspect the wall of light that now sealed the open end of the chamber, dividing it from the test bore beyond.  Then he was turning to Ardie, who had completed putting up another complicated piece of equipment on top of the tripod.

"Wall field is up, Ardie.  Now, once we get the thermal barrier up, turn the heat and air on, and buffer our systems, we won't die if our suits fail."

Ardie sighed and shook his head before looking over at his long-time teammate and friend who had joined him on nearly a dozen offworld expeditions.  Expeditions on which Stefan had to mention dying at least ten times per mission.

"What is this preoccupation you have with dying, Stefan?" he asked, "I think living is much more attractive."

His friend quickly returned his look with one of his own.

"Perhaps it's your proclivity for going offworld into the vacuum and cold of space, Ardie, where we stand a good chance of dying," Stefan retorted.  Which prompted Ardie to shrug.

"Well, evolutionary biology says that women are attractive to a man who is steady in the face of danger.  So I recommend an unsafe environment.  A seedy bar on the wrong side of the tracks.  Picnic near a lunatic asylum.  A wine tasting on skid row.  Or a job that has you working in the most dangerous of environments for the betterment of all Human kind."

Stefan snorted at that.

"You're not doing it for a woman, old friend.  You're an adrenaline junkie, pure and simple.  Surprising, in this day and age."

"Well, when you no longer have wilderness on your home planet to find a place where you can test yourself against the elements, you have to go into space," Ardie replied rather practically.

Before either could continue their conversation, one that had the weight of having long-standing arguments attached, the wall field at the end shifted before one of the two geo teams Ardie had dispatched earlier, stepped through.

"Mid-level spikes are placed, doctor," their leader quickly reported.

Nodding in acknowledgement, Ardie turned to the display on the device sitting on the tripod.  He nodded a second time, this time in satisfaction, to see data now coming in from the first series of monitoring spikes set 100 to 200 metres down the bore.

"Just in time," he said.  "The tether ships should be starting their next acceleration phase right about ... now!"

Right on cue a pulse of transmitted tension made the ground beneath their booted feet shiver.

"There we go," Ardie said with a smile.  "Just what we expected ..."

Without warning a hard 'crack' was felt as it made the chamber shudder.  Then their world was getting turned upside down by a massive surge coming from every direction.