Deeper Into the Void (22 page)

With the tablet in hand, Long returns his helmet to its proper place on his shoulders and walks back to the airlock, along with the other two. Outside the moving winds begin to drive the sand and dust upward as it moves in waves.

Chapter 26

T
he darkness of the world outside the dome seems to swallow up the dim lighting given off by the exterior lights mounted on the buildings within the dome. After removing the metal shard from the power supply in the utility control center, the crew returns to the plaza.

The lights shining from within the hallway leading to the control room illuminate so brightly as to dull the scene outside the building.

Ghent is the last one to enter into the hallway, and he sees the exterior door shut behind him. As he walks through the interior doorway leading into the control room, he looks up at the screen. His attention is drawn to the same item that everyone else is looking at already, a single journal entry is prominently displayed upon the screen, the author: Lawrence.

Captain Cardiff looks down at her timepiece on her wrist and checks it against the time stamp of the journal entry. Cardiff reaches for the armrest on her favorite chair in the room and feels her way into it.

Journal Entry
Jim Lawrence
Year 15, Day 42

Today, I was out on foot trying to find my crew. I spent hours looking for them; no one was in the dome. No one ever is. A couple of days ago I was able to get into the dome, it was dark outside so I figured that everyone would be there. I searched high and low, I could find no one. Oddly, I found Mendez’s pressure suit hanging up on the window in her room, where could she have run off to without her suit? I found the gun that I discarded in the sand and placed it in Cardiff’s room after cleaning it.

Anyway, I spent the night in my room and had hoped to find everyone else during breakfast at 0800, just like every other day. No one ever came to the mess hall, I waited for two hours. Later that day, after returning to the dome after another fruitless day of trying to find my team, I checked all of the rooms again.

It is so quite here, I can hear my own heart beating and the sound of my own breath. I miss my time aboard carriers, while I was still in the Navy. The sound of machinery and men hustling all of the time made you aware that you were somewhere. Yes, I didn’t always sleep great, but I knew that I was. Here I cannot be so sure. The sun rises and sets each day, every day is another day filled with loneliness and solitude.

I was beginning to think that my team had all died, or become lost at the very least, until today that is. While I was out and about searching, I saw the Reconciliation taking off. I was in the distance, walking as I usually do, and heard the engines firing up. I immediately looked toward the sound; the ship hovered for a couple of moments, and then the ascent followed. I ran down the hill toward the plain where the ship had been, waving my arms and shouting over the radio. All I could say over and over in my mouthpiece was “wait for me!”. It almost seemed as though someone had heard me, because the ship seemed to slow for a moment. It only paused for a brief moment before resuming its ascent. Why would they leave without me?

The last thing that I could see was the ship moving forward again; it sped away into the distance. Minutes seem to have passed, the course seems to have derailed, the ship drifted, with full force into Olympus. The antimatter fuel inside collided with the container and an intense blast blinded me from a distance and then knocked me onto my back. Rock and brimstone rained down from the sky in the wake of the explosion. After the smoke and dust cleared, it was clear that the explosion had melted the portion of the mountain that it collided with. Ash and cinder still continues to rain down, just like in my dreams.

Now I know that I am the last alive. I am without a way to get back to Earth, and without another soul to pass the time with. The day’s eclipse casts a shadow of doubt upon this whole place. This is the end for me, I think.

–End Entry–

Cardiff pulls out a pen from her chest pocket, it spins through her fingers, back and forth. Her eyes are fixated upon the screen, but her mind is not focused on what has been written there.

As everyone else leaves the control center, Mendez can only nod in an irritated manner, with short motions up and down. She sits back down in her usual spot and stares at the journal entry in front of her. She waits for the sound of the outer door closing, and then gets up and closes the interior vault door, locking it from the inside.

Hours pass and the lights in the dorm rooms turn off one by one in the passing of the night. Long lays awake in his bunk, holding fast his pillow in his hand. His mind races through the events of days past. At this point, he is so confused as to believe just about anything. Thoughts of self, and self-purpose wander aimlessly through his mind. A troubled mind gives up trepidation as readily as a parent gives up their child.

No one is going to be sleeping tonight. Strange sounds outside of the windows and recollections of events, which may or may not have been real, keep everyone alert and awake. Hours pass, not a second passes without it being noticed specifically, each second feels like an eternity as each one passes into the night.

A rising sun marks yet another day, day 43 in the fifteenth Martian year. On Earth, the mission is kept a secret from the masses. Another problem-plagued mission means nothing to the average person back home.

Exhausted and deprived of sleep, the team members all roll off of their bunks, and get ready for the day. Cool water from the tap is splashed onto faces, faces that will never feel this cool Martian water again.

Gear is silently gathered and preparations are made for the journey back. The cool morning air brings yet another light rain shower inside the dome as the morning sun heats the dome in preparation of the day to come.

Completely unnoticed, and unbeknownst to anyone, the sun is slivering away, inch by inch. The morning sun, while almost full, shows signs of resignation and withdrawal behind an undiscovered ball of rock, hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

Chapter 27

Year 15, Day 43

C
ardiff stands in front of the mirror mounted above the sink. She stares for several minutes into it, studying her reflection in her moment of introspection. Her gun sits on the edge of the sink basin; the ammunition clip sits on the other side. She checks her weapon and calmly slides the clip into the well in a simple motion. The sound of the gun being loaded resounds through the hallway.

In her pressure suit, she stands before the mirror. She straps her side-arm on to her hip and leg. She retrieves the loaded gun and slides it carefully into the holster. She rubs her eyes and the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. She stands calmly, looking at herself, drawing in a deep breath of air, and slowly exhaling it out. The sensation of butterflies in her stomach is a sensation that she has become unfamiliar with. Her vast experience has provided her with confidence in action, and in her personal life as well. What has become necessary is now something that she could never see herself doing.

Whatever the consequences, she decides; her team will be returned to a safe environment before any further tragedy has an opportunity to strike. Her heavy-laden mind, now burdened with the decision that she has made, feels warped and unresolved. This feeling only adds to the anxiety that she feels. Stark quiet is interrupted abruptly by a loud wrapping knock at her door.

Cardiff walks to her door and opens it, she is unsure exactly what Long had said through the door. With the door opened, she repeats back to him what she thinks it was that she had heard through the door. His simple response is a reluctant nod of the head.

Cardiff walks back to her bunk, where her bag has been staged, and grabs the strap of her personal bag and swings it over her head, shouldering it firmly. Another deep breath and she begins down the well-lit hallway leading out of the dormitory building for the last time.

Mendez is sitting quietly on the step below as Cardiff opens the door to the plaza. Cardiff looks down at her and smiles.

Mendez returns the smile, and gestures with a simple nod that she is ready to leave. Long waits at the bottom of the steps, he looks up the steps and gives a simple “after you” gesture with his left hand in the direction of the control center.

Cardiff grabs her bag, and tosses it down the steps at Long. She gives him a warm smile as he catches the bag. He returns the half-grin and begins walking down the plaza toward the path.

Mendez simply points down the hallway into the mess hall. Cardiff begins her short walk over to the mess hall.

Ghent has been sitting on the bench in the mess hall, nervously fidgeting with his fingers. As Cardiff enters the mess hall, Ghent does not look up at her. He simply sits quietly, continuing to fidget with his fingers. Ghent holds his helmet in his gloved hand. He is clearly ready to leave, but Cardiff can tell that he doesn’t plan on leaving with her.

Reluctantly, Ghent gets up off of the bench and walks down the hallway with Cardiff. He follows Cardiff as she calmly walks across the plaza over into the alley-way between the back of the lab and the utility building. She comes to a stop in the shadow of the building and turns to watch Ghent as he follows her into the alley.

Ghent squints as he moves around the bush; his hands are parting the foliage in search of this new plant. His head is hunched over as he feverishly searches. A confused look appears on his face, and his eyebrows scrunch to clarify his bewilderment. He freezes completely as the faint, yet clear click sound causes his heart to sink. He slowly turns his increasingly concerned face back toward Cardiff. He now looks down the barrel of her gun.

Bursts of bright light illuminate the alley-way; round after round is expelled from the weapon. Cardiff calmly returns her weapon to its holster, and then walks into the utilities room. The door is swung open quickly, and the lights come on with the quick and deliberate swing of the switch on the wall next to the door. The pumps and filters are all ignored, Cardiff walks back over to the power breaker box that she had become familiar with already. Out of her pocket comes the metal shard that she had removed just yesterday.

Placed securely in between her gloved fingers, the shard of metal is pressed swiftly, yet carefully, back into the hole in the metal breaker box. Flashes of bright light and foul-smelling smoke are propelled out of the breaker box. The electrical is shorted out to the control room again.

Cardiff steps back out into the light of day, and looks to her left. Ghent lies on the ground, holding the various wounds that he has acquired as best as he can.

In the red sky above the dome, the blazing solar inferno scorches onward into late morning. Shadow on the plain appears in the far distance, its darkness moves silently across the landscape, and the backdrop of dust is driven in a building wind. Each rock on the face of the land quivers as the planet begins to groan. Slowly, the round shadow engulfs the sun.

A silent malevolence moves upon the dome itself. Black darkness opens its gaping mouth to swallow the dome. The shadow continues along the landscape, moving out toward the horizon. The red sky fades into the translucency of night. A dim halo of light around the shadow is all the sun can manage to shine upon the dry and barren land. The very fabric of time seems to congeal in the growing void of light.

Almost as if it were a large machine that has come to a complete stop, the Martian landscape makes a loud cracking sound. Sand and dust are propelled dozens of meters into the open sky from the crevices and holes in the landscape. Geysers of dry ice, lying dormant under the ground, sublimate, driving the sand upward.

Outside, Mendez and Long wait patiently for Cardiff as they watch the spectacle unfold all around them. The rocks around the rig begin to vibrate as if in unison, and they watch walls of sand rise into the air in the distance. Curtains of grit and grief are drawn to surround the horizon in every direction. The remaining light from distant points on the horizon fades.

Cardiff finally emerges from the airlock.

In the large rig, Cardiff switches the rig systems on as she finishes climbing up and in to her seat. The rig’s main lamp is switched on automatically; the path in front of the rig becomes clearly lit. In this dark, the world appears small and simple.