AIASP by Becker

AIASP

Alone in a Strange Place
By: Becker
February, 2008

I left my quarters early so I could see Reana one more time. She was more worried about my first deployment than me. The six minute shuttle to Atrium 6B glided to a stop. 6B was the tallest of the sixty atriums on Skyper. From floor to ceiling my data disk provided a measurement of 2,360 feet.

I was catching quite a few looks as I had decided to walk from the platform. PPP’s (personal propulsion pods) were the only means of travel on Skyper. Knowing I would be in stasis for the next fourty days, I decided to use my own propulsion for the 9 minute walk. I checked my data disk as I approached 6B and saw Reana was in the forest.

6B has two distinct geological attractions and learning centers. The Forest and the Farmlands covered each half of the atrium encompassing some 70 acres each. I picked up a pine cone and rolled it towards Reana’s feet. My cover had been blown as several of her 16 students had alerted her to my presence by pointing and motioning my way. “Please don’t mind Bryce.” she announced, “He was removed many times from his student groups back on Mars.” The group of 4 to 6 year olds chuckled in unison.

Reana gave her 13 year old apprentice Lona the lesson tablet and told her she’d be back in a few minutes. The forest was an amazing replication of real world fauna. None of her students had ever been on real land. Skyper was home to 650,000 military personnel and their families. Tucked in the Kuiper belt, this was humanity’s largest permanent military settlement.

“They could have added some color to that drab flight suit of yours” she said while holding my arm.

“I don’t think command has any interest in fashion.” I replied. “I just wanted to see you before we left.”

We walked to a forest ranger tower and sat on the bench near the entrance. At 26, Reana was brought to Skyper when she was 9 years old. Her Dad was Colonel Haives, the head of security for our floating home. I worked directly under him for the past 4 years. Colonel Haives was the one to approve my request for today’s mission. He always called me Son, and told me daily of his expectations for grandchildren.

“Dad says departure is definitely a closed event huh?” Reana asked with a hint of disappointment.

“It is just a routine mapping” I replied. “It’s not as if anyone cares this is my first flight assignment.”

“Well I think they should have made a big announcement and had a traditional send off.” She said while looking me over like it was my first day of school.

Traditional send offs and arrivals were large gatherings of the populace generally relegated for craft with several hundred travelers. These were craft coming or going to our home planet of Mars. Since 2115, the human race had all but left Earth. Some corporations still had mining operations but the 2.5 billion that survived the impact were the pioneers and terraformers of the only solid land I had ever been on.

“O.K. so I’ll see you in 94 days.” I said as I pulled Reana close to me. “We better get started on those grandchildren as soon as I get back!”

I felt all of her passion and love as we kissed. Somehow I always felt Reana was inside of me. Even when we were apart I could very much “feel” her with me.

“Lieutenant Bryce Miller, security branch Skyper 3 reporting sir” I said to Commander Paxon.

“Good to have you Miller. Colonel Haives speaks highly of you” the Commander replied with a warm smile. “Go ahead in. Captain Lane will give you a mission disk and get you in stasis.”

The Talo 5 was a 6 person craft. It was light and maneuverable designed for scientists to map and sample planets outside of our solar system. My maiden flight found me as one of 5 crew members. We were destined for an unmapped planet in the 17th southern quadrant of our galaxy. A scout probe had passed this smaller sized planet at 105au and returned signs of atmosphere and potential carbon based life. I was the sole security officer for the scientific team. Security was standard protocol on any craft leaving our solar system.

I had never been put in stasis before as the flights from Skyper to Mars took only 30 hours. Captain Lane walked me to the chamber and handed me the mission disk. I uploaded the data to my personal data hub.

“It will take about thirty minutes for you to be in full stasis” said Captain Lane. “You can browse the mission info for about 20 minutes before electronics go silent.”

Captain Lane was the lead scientist on this mission. She was a tall fair skinned woman with sharp facial features and dark eyebrows to match her hair. She made sure I was comfortable and pressed the button to encapsulate me. Not being a scientist, I browsed through the technical data sent back from the probe. The information was transmitted to Skyper 6 years ago. The estimates showed a surface temperature of a constant 53 degrees Fahrenheit. The planet was 72 percent the mass of Mars and maintained an equidistant orbit around its star. It did not rotate on its axis therefore it had a light and dark side similar to the Earth’s moon.
I was advancing to the atmospheric data when my PDD (personal data disk) went black. I began to feel sleepy and then there was nothing.

I awoke to the vibration of my PDD. The 40 day stasis seemed like a normal night of sleep as I rubbed my eyes. I felt a little cold as I laid in the chamber fumbling for my PDD, I wondered how close we were to our destination. As I drew the PDD closer, the screen was flashing a message. “Retrieval Beacon Set” Push ok for details. The message read as follows:
Retrieval Beacon has sent current coordinates to Skyper

Information sent: 21 March 2254 @ 13:30 hours

Verification from Skyper received 21 March 2254 @ 18:44

Recovery craft Juno IV deployment for retrieval………….pending.

I slammed my forehead hard on the chamber shell as I instinctively tried to sit up. I lay back down while the stars I was seeing slowly faded away. I checked my PDD again. “What the hell did this message mean?” The details button was now flashing. I had never seen this option before.

Stage 3 catastrophic failure of Talos 5. 21 March 2254 @ 13:22 hours

5 of 6 stasis chambers occupied and jettisoned at 96,306 feet

1 of 5 retrieval beacons activated. 4 of 5 failure to activate

Press here to open chamber

I stopped just before touching the button. “Where am I?” I thought to myself. I didn’t feel like I was moving or worse yet floating in zero gravity. The stasis chamber is fully enclosed keeping me from seeing out. I instinctively began to rock. First left, then right, harder now as I began to get a rhythm going. I could tell I was on a solid surface. The insulation of the chamber did not allow me to hear the surface. I contemplated just pushing the button. Instead I pressed “main menu”. The same three choices prior to entering stasis were now on the screen. “My Data”, “Talos 5 Info”, and “Messages (0) new”.

The chamber gave off a hollow and distant sound as I blurted out “You only live once Miller” I pressed the screen where it read “open chamber”. The light first began to shine near my stomach as the chamber halves silently opened away from one another. I began to see a sky. It was a pale yellow color similar to the aspen trees in the forest of the atrium on Skyper. I kept my head pressed back and could feel my body tense. When the hatches stopped I paused in this position. I remember the message saying jettisoned at 96,000 feet. “Had I made it to the surface from that height?”

I inhaled deeply knowing this would be either my last breath or worse yet a countdown to my demise. I felt no effects. There was a distinct smell. It was similar to the smell of steam in a very hot shower. I braced my hands on the chamber floor and sat up. I had made landfall.

They weren’t trees rather 3 to 4 foot tall stalks similar in appearance to wheat. Each stalk had a distinct white bulb at its top. The swaying stalks faded to the horizon in every direction I looked. I scanned upward to find the sun. From Mars, our sun is far brighter than this one. While it appeared 3 times the size of ours, it was distinctly faint as though it were on its last legs. There were no clouds rather a haze that encompassed the entire sky. The yellow color was consistent throughout. There was a breeze and it came and went like all others. I got to my feet for a better view.

You could see the wind before you could feel it. The stalks from afar would begin their sway and the breeze would follow. The chamber and chute had flattened my immediate area. The ground became the most interesting feature to me. Pure white. I reached down over the chamber to give it a feel. It felt like a ceramic or plastic of some kind. There were no granules and the surface was smooth and flat, more like a floor than land. The stalks were embedded but looked almost as though someone had glued each one in its place. I stepped up and out of the chamber and planted my feet on the surface.

I reached for the closest stalk to examine the white bulb on its top. The stalk was perhaps 3 inches in diameter and the bulb was the size you’d make by cupping both of your hands together. The casing on the bulb was rock solid and would not separate from the stalk despite all of my effort. I knew the chamber had an emergency kit and perhaps some tools. I bent at the waist and reached for the kit. “What a poor design” I thought to myself struggling to release the 3x3 box from the chamber’s wall. I finally got it loose at the cost of losing my exterior belt holding my PDD, illuminator, and hydration tabs. I tossed the belt in the chamber and turned my attention to the kit and the stalks.

Sounds are usually heard first. This was different. My body began to vibrate from its core. Then I heard the rumble. I looked out to my right and watched the stalks disappear from view. This coming sound was laying the stalks flat. The ground moved in rapidly increasing waves. I swung my attention to the chamber and watched it rock from the effect. The sound and vibration began to disorient me. I felt the first rush of the wind as the rumble became more intense than anything imaginable. I knew my only hope was to dive in the chamber, close the hatches and ride whatever this was out.

I reached for the opening just to see the chamber begin to roll away from me. The sound was on top of me now and I needed to get in that chamber. I took two running steps and was driven to the ground with a tremendous thud. I flattened my body on the planet’s hard surface and grabbed for the stalks. The force ripped my hands from their clutch as I was violently being thrashed at an incredible and uncontrollable speed. The stalks were incredibly rugged and I was actually skimming over them as they bent beneath my weight. My ears were exploding as the sound became deafening.

I was slowing now but it defied everything I knew. The roar was more intense and the force of the wind may have been 300 miles per hour. I came to a sudden stop and could only feel a force pinning me down. The speed of the wind did not allow me to open my eyes and the rumble just continued. I felt like I had been buried under sand. I could not move any part of my body. Breathing became difficult as this unknown force pressed me harder on the ceramic surface. I’m not sure how much time passed as I flirted with consciousness.

I was face down on the cool ceramic surface as the roar began to subside. The wind I felt above me would not enable me to stay on my feet even if I were to be able to free myself from the force pinning me down. I was able to move my head just enough to see that I had been engulfed by the stalks. I could now feel them all over my body. I could see the bulbs from their tops had affixed themselves to the surface while the stalks lay over my body. Looking past the ones I was entwined by, I could see nearby stalks and their bulbs laying completely flat on the surface unaffected by the wind.

The sound became manageable now and the wind stopped in an instant. The stalks kept me pinned for another 20 seconds. Instantly I felt their collective release and my compressed body seem to come to life.
All the stalks sprang back to their original positions and began their rhythmic sway as I had seen before. I took an inventory of my body and concluded I could stand. I felt a sharp pain on the bones behind my ears. The rest of me seemed to be intact. I looked in the direction I thought the chamber with my PDD may have been blown. “Did the stalks stop the chamber as well?” I hoped.

I felt unbalanced and sat back down to contemplate my next move. As I began to evaluate my situation I felt compelled to examine the closest stalk. In my sitting position the white bulbs were slightly above me. I pulled on the stalk to bring the bulb in closer view. The stalk wouldn’t budge. When I released my grip the stalk returned to its gentle swaying motion.

I put myself in a kneeling position to be at eye level with the bulbs. I reached out for the closest one and felt its glass like surface. It was remarkably similar to the planet’s surface. I brought my other hand up and cupped the bulb. I felt it warm between my hands. Before my eyes the white bulb began to take on an opaque pinkish glow. Something was happening. The bulb began to pulsate and the pinkish color intensified. A gray vertical line began to appear at the bulbs center. The line grew darker and began to rise from the bulbs surface. It looked like a seam was appearing. I held on to the bulb and began to feel it expand outward. I let go just as the bulb began to open.

The unexpected is often the hardest to describe. The bulb opened to reveal a single being I would describe as primitively human. No bigger than my thumbnail with a tail similar to the extinct chimpanzees from Earth days. The skin was smooth and colored like my own. The being was not frightened by my presence in any way. We looked at each other and it raised both arms above its head. I wasn’t sure what the gesture meant so I instinctively mimicked the movement. The being then turned and walked to the far side of the bulb. It stood next to 4 miniature stalks identical to the ones that blanketed this planet.

I watched for a moment as it began tending to the miniature stalks. The tiny white bulbs were difficult to see but I could tell they were the objects of this beings full attention. In the center of the bulbs floor was a small black hole where it seemed to be attached to the stalk. I raised my right hand towards the opening to see if I could make physical contact with this strange creature. Just as I was going to put my index finger inside the bulb, the being shot down the little black hole.

No sooner had the creature slinked into the base of the stalk the bulb sealed itself shut in the blink of an eye. I reached for it again with the same cupping motion. This time it felt lifeless. I turned to another in hopes it too would open. Again the bulb did not respond to my touch.
I knew I needed to find the chamber so I began to trudge in the general direction it had been blown. I continually stopped and repeated my attempts to open another bulb. Unsuccessful, I finally reached the chamber. I was thankful my belt containing my PDD was still inside. I lifted my PDD from the belt to see the screen flashing.

Juno IV deployed for retrieval 22 March 2254 @ 02:00 hours

Arrival at beacon 27 March 2254 @ 07:54 hours

Remain @ beacon for retrieval


I breathed a sigh of relief.

I had five days to remain

Alone In A Strange Place


Becker

reply to post by Skyfloating


haha you're too fast. I was posting the ending!

ooops...I only read the first post and thought that was the story. OK...will finish reading later.

Alright...you´re writing style accomplishes a temporary displacement of my mind to that place/time. I glimpsed a realistic scene of that time from the eyes of that person. Solid sci-fi.

reply to post by Skyfloating


Thanks Sky I appreciate your kind words.

Becker

[edit on 15-2-2008 by Skyfloating]

Great stuff Becker.
Very surreal and enjoyable.

I loved your story. You write from now on , I read. Thank you for the journey.

Very good story.....well written, with great depth and detail..

I want to know more about the creatures in the bulbs...and the bulbs within the bulbs...did they have creatures inside them....yep, was paying attention on this one....though my head hurts now.

Feels like this is part of a bigger picture, have you worked on other stories like this before....just alot of detail for a short story.. very good.

Regards,

JQ.

reply to post by John Q


Thanks JohnQ and Antar. You are both very kind.

JohnQ: I have most of this laid out for a full length novel. I just wanted to see how the concept would play. Plenty more on the creatures in the 5 day wait for the rescue.

Antar: You get free copies for life!

Thanks again,

Becker

[edit on 16-2-2008 by Becker44]

Hi Becker,

Thats really cool its going to be a novel, when you finish it (when ever that is) would you post it on this forum, I for one would love to read it, sure others would to...

Just a thought, no pressure...

Take care,

JQ.

What a great read! Well done.

mojo

Excellent writing! The lifeform was both believably crafted and whetted my curiosity. I could easily see this as being a larger story.

Thanks Mojo and BTS,

I think the full novel may be ready in a month or so. I'll give you both a shout when it's the final draft.

Perhaps I can enlist yours and others help in tightening the final up.

Thanks again for the kind words.

Becker