Foothold, page 20
part #1 of Foothold Series
During this discussion Heidi had wandered further into the cave, and was now standing near the edge of the impact crater, peering up at the irregular rent in the roof of the cave. The others walked over to meet her.
“Heidi?” David asked.
Heidi was still intent on examining the hole in the roof, and wasn’t really paying attention.
“I’ll need to get up there.”
“Up there?” Nigel asked.
“I’m pretty sure we could roof over this hole without too much difficulty,” she said matter-of-factly.
“You mean…”
“Isn’t it obvious? We can live in here. We just need to patch the holes.”
“But, but… it’s so big,” Nigel replied.
Heidi beamed, her wide smile transforming her face.
“Yes, it’s perfect, isn’t it?”
“What about that?” Josh demanded, sweeping his arm at the extensive cave mouth behind them. Heidi looked thoughtful for a moment. “That’s a bit more difficult. But not impossible.”
David’s mind was spinning with the possibilities. Their colonization plan had called for using the landers as habitats for the first few years while they established an industrial base and could build subterranean living spaces, or erect domes. But this, this cave, would enable them to accelerate their plans considerably. “Thousands could live here,” he muttered aloud, scarcely recognizing that he had.
“Easy, Romeo, first we need to make some people,” Veronika teased.
David’s face developed a little color, prompting laughs from the others.
“You know what I mean. We could build a habitat large enough to expand into.”
Josh’s eyebrows lowered a little and eyes showed he was not cracking another joke. “It’s a bit of a fixer upper. I mean look at it. I can hardly see the far wall. Is it even safe?”
“We need to survey it properly,” Heidi replied. “But there is no reason why not. The rock is quite thick, look up there where the break is in the ceiling,” she pointed, “and that will be the thinnest part. And don’t forget the light gravity, which is why it is so big to start with.”
“What about the air?” Nigel asked. “Can we pressurize a space so large? Won’t it be leaky?”
Heidi’s eyes were looking up, and they could almost hear her thinking. “We don’t need to pressurize it, just remove CO2 and concentrate the oxygen. But conditioning the air in a space this size will be a challenge. We’ll have to build a large new plant for that, the lander units won’t be able to cope.”
“We can just plant,” Nathalie said, with a Gallic shrug. “Real plants, I mean.”
Heidi’s eyes widened – she hadn’t even considered a non-engineering solution. She nodded her head. “We’ll still need a conditioning plant,” she said, “To balance the air composition, but you are right, it won’t need to be large with plants oxygenating the atmosphere.”
Suddenly everyone was talking at once, or so it seemed, debating the possibilities. David turned around, surveying the space. For the first time he allowed himself a small amount of hope for the future, rationing it out like a child that had only an occasional treat, one small piece at a time. Here, he thought, we really could build something special. But first we have a lot to do.
“Tomorrow,” he said, interrupting the hubbub. “Tomorrow we’ll survey the cave and select a landing site.”
***
Later that evening David sat in the cockpit chatting with Grace, filling her in on the day’s progress. Grace was enthusiastic at hearing of the cave; not much had happened onboard Hope, they were now standing by to dispatch the landers.
“I miss you.”
“Yeah, me too,” David answered, aware that crammed into the shuttle there was no privacy to speak of. He hadn’t wanted to close the cockpit door and make an issue of speaking to Grace; but he missed being able to discuss things privately.
“We should be able to lay out a landing zone tomorrow. You’ll be down here in just a couple more days, I promise.”
Grace nodded, although her answering smile seemed a little forced. “Until then,” she agreed, signing off.
David sighed. There seemed to be an unlimited list of things for him to worry over, even though against the odds they’d made it all the way to Serendipity and things were looking up. Top of his list was seeing the landers down safely, especially the one with the most precious cargo of all.
Eastern Continent, Serendipity
May 2, 2109
The next day, their first new day on Serendipity, they were up early and ready to explore. Being crammed into a shuttle full of supplies meant that once one of them woke the others were quick to follow. They were all excited by the possibilities of the day to come, and couldn’t wait to get outside.
“We’ll divide into two parties today,” David announced. “Heidi, Nathalie and Nigel will survey the cave, with the objective of determining if it is safe. The rest of us will mark out a landing zone.”
The sun was rising over the lake as Heidi’s team set out; they carried packs with food and chargers for their masks as they were intending to climb the outside of the cave to start with, not a difficult prospect giving the gentle slopes of the surrounding hills, but not an exercise that they could complete safely within four hours.
David, Josh, and Veronika headed towards the lake. There was a broad plain descending in a gentle slope to the lakeshore about half a kilometer distant. The western side of the plain consisted of rocky slopes and outcrops almost down to the water’s edge, but the land was more open on the eastern side.
“Down there looks like a good spot,” Josh said, pointing to a flatter section of land a hundred meters or so away.
“Agreed,” David said, “let’s see what the surface is like.”
It was similar to their original landing site downstream; sand and shingle with an underlying base of volcanic rock. Searching around, they found an area that seemed ideal.
“This looks good,” David said. “We’ll deploy the transponders here.”
They each had a navigation transponder that would allow the landers to triangulate the area that they needed to land in; now they had to deploy them in a triangle around the site, two hundred meters in each direction, a task that would take them only another half an hour or so.
***
Heidi could not be happier; she had a problem to solve. Their route was taking them to the east of the cave and up a long slope to the roof. The footing was difficult enough that they were taking their time; the abundant scree on the sides of the hills could be treacherous.
Finally they found their way to the top and could see down to the cave floor, far below. Nathalie cautioned them not to approach too closely, before hammering pitons into the rock surface so they could anchor safety ropes. There was no second chance here; and with their numbers so few they couldn’t afford to lose anyone.
The main hole in the cave roof was roughly circular but uneven from being hit hard with a blunt instrument. Time had softened the jagged edges without disguising the violence of the collision.
Heidi peered over the edge without exhibiting any particular concern at the height, and then examined the rim closely. “There aren’t any signs of cracking or instability,” she said. “But I’d like to set up some instruments to check.”
“OK,” Nigel said, “I’ll set up the radar.”
They spent the next few hours examining the cave roof visually and with ground-penetrating radar, and then returned to the shuttle for a mid-day break.
“How did it look?” David asked curiously.
“Good,” Heidi answered enthusiastically. “The cavern is very solid from above, no significant weaknesses that we could find. We’ll take a good look inside after lunch.”
David nodded. “Good. The landing zone is pegged out. We’ll check the cave out, but in any case we could settle on this area for landing; even without the cave, it’s a good site. Grace and John are ready when we are.”
“Cavern?” Josh queried. “Did I just hear you call the cave a cavern?”
Nathalie shrugged. “It is too big to be a cave,” she stated. “It’s a cavern.”
Josh nodded thoughtfully. Cavern had a more impressive sound to it than cave.
They quickly finished their lunch before setting off again, all six of them this time, to thoroughly explore the cavern. Entering it for the second time, David was reminded just how massive it was. The dimensions were large enough to confuse his brain’s understanding of distance. He looked up at the entrance, which formed a shallow, rounded ‘M’ shape from where the lip of the cavern had sagged in the middle as it cooled.
“How exactly will we close the entrance?” he asked Heidi. Privately he had doubts, but he worked hard to keep skepticism from his voice.
She shrugged. “It will depend on what we can find. We don’t have the materials with us, so we will have to find something locally. Ideally, I think, plastic windows in an aluminum frame.”
“Aluminum? From here?”
“There has to be some, somewhere. Earth is full of it.”
David nodded. It seemed a difficult challenge to say the least, but if anyone could pull it off he’d back Heidi and John to do it.
“Any nearby?” he asked Nathalie, thinking of the orbital surveys.
“Some possible bauxite deposits. We’ll need some follow-up aerial surveys, and then we can send John out into the field.”
She was referring to one of John’s secondary skills as a geologist.
David looked again at the cavern opening. “OK,” he said, keeping his doubts to himself.
They continued their exploring and examination until the light started to fade, and then gathered again in the shuttle for an evening meal. It had been a tiring day, despite the lighter gravity.
“It’s structurally sound,” Heidi said between mouthfuls of reconstituted stew. “There is no reason why we could not live there now.”
“Apart from the lack of a breathable atmosphere, you mean?” Josh asked, tongue firmly in cheek.
“Apart from that,” Heidi agreed, oblivious to the gentle jibe. “We can’t seal the cavern yet, but we could place the landers inside for extra protection from the elements.”
David considered. Putting the landers in a cave had not been one of the scenarios prepared for by the team back on Earth. “Are you sure that it’s safe?”
“Perfectly. It is even safer than being outside, in the cavern we will be protected from…” she trailed off as she tried to think of things that could be a danger. “Storms!”
“Speaking of which, we haven’t seen any bad weather yet,” Nigel commented. “It’s been fine so far.”
Veronika’s voice was laced with scorn as she interjected. “We’ve been here yet for two days only. This isn’t London.”
Nigel winced. “The weather in England isn’t that bad,” he said defensively. “Wasn’t,” he corrected, his eyebrows drawing together, thinking of how it must be now. Veronika was quiet, realizing she had made a faux pas. “Sorry,” she murmured.
Changing the subject back to the cavern, David asked, “Can anyone think of a reason why we shouldn’t locate the colony in the cavern?”
No one could.
“I’ll let Grace and John know we can commence landing tomorrow.”
***
Nigel’s comment on the weather must have roused Serendipity’s weather gods as they were woken early the next day by torrential rain and winds lashing against the shuttle.
David peered out of the cockpit window at the grey skies and poor visibility.
“There may be a change of plan.”
“Do you think?” Josh joked.
“I’ll contact Grace and see how it looks from up there.”
“We can see a front moving over,” Grace said, “But it won’t last. I think we’ll have fine weather again by the afternoon.”
David looked doubtfully through the window. “OK, we’ll stand by.”
There was no reason why they couldn’t delay, he thought. Other than he just wanted to get the landings done, to eliminate one more potential disaster from his list of things that could go wrong. Sighing mentally, he corrected himself. “Grace, we’ll postpone until tomorrow. Even if it stops soon, I want to be sure the ground is solid.”
“Roger that. Understand postpone until tomorrow. By the way, we’ve changed our shifts to sync with your day.”
“Good thinking.”
They were still operating on Earth time themselves; they hadn’t even thought of how they would account for local time. Serendipity rotated somewhat faster than Earth, and a day was a little over 21 hours Earth time.
This day, however, seemed to drag on forever, and David found himself wishing he were less risk-averse more than once, as the rain cleared rapidly late morning, just as Grace had predicted.
“I suspect that the weather here may be a lot like tropical areas on Earth,” Nathalie said. “With the high temperatures and humidity we can expect sudden downpours.”
“And storms?” David asked.
Nathalie nodded in confirmation. “Like today. Short and intense.”
“Can we return to the cavern?” Heidi asked. “As we’ve got time to spare, I may as well start on a detailed map.”
“OK,” David replied. “That makes sense. We can all go, and explore the area in teams of two.”
Nathalie flashed a smile and turned to rummage in her pack. In a trice she had stripped off her ship suit and re-clad in shorts, sandals and a saucy little crop top. David, Josh and Nigel gaped before Josh and David remembered they shouldn’t be. Nigel continued to gape because he knew he could.
“Quoi?” Nathalie asked, pretending that she had no idea she was suddenly the center of attention. “It is very hot outside, n’est-ce pas? My skin does not need a mask.”
“She’s right,” David said, recovering his composure. “We don’t need to wear uniforms… and it is like summer out.”
No more encouragement was needed, and everyone else stripped down to cooler clothes. The ladies in the party seemed to have applied more forethought to the situation, thought David ruefully; they looked as ready for the beach as for a day’s work.
Heidi and Nigel headed for the cavern; Veronika and Josh elected to explore the hills to the west, leaving David and Nathalie to head down to the lakeside.
“If we go east we could make it to the lake outlet and back,” Nathalie suggested. David agreed and they hiked along the shore to the place where the lake drained into the river, on its way to the larger lake to the east.
“We need some more names,” David said as they walked. “There are three lakes here, and “Lake Middle” doesn’t have a good ring to it.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Well, I’ll start with Landfall for the place we planted the flags; not at all original but I don’t see that place ever being a city, more just a landmark that people will go to visit someday. As for the lakes…”
“If it were up to Josh, we’d have Lake One, Lake Two and Lake Three,” Nathalie snorted.
“Hmmm,” said David, not sure that Josh’s unimaginative name suggestions were that bad. “Perhaps we could take a lead from your planet names and name the lakes after famous explorers, what do you think? We could pick one from each of our home countries.”
“Oui, that works for me. You first.”
David blinked at unexpectedly having the idea turned back on him. “Ah, well… I guess if we rule out astronauts because we’ve already named moons after them, then, that leaves… Lewis and Clark,” he said, picking the first two names that came to mind.
“Sooooo… Lake Lewis or Lake Clark?
“Hmmm. Can’t really have one without the other.” David frowned in concentration. “Perhaps we’ll save them until we find a pair of something. How about Lake Boone, after Daniel Boone?”
“If you say so,” Nathalie replied, not really knowing who Daniel Boone was.
“My turn. This lake I name Lac Cartier after Jacques Cartier. He discovered Canada,” she explained at David’s turn for a blank look. “Veronika can name the other one,” she said dismissively, as though the whole exercise was somewhat beneath her.
They had completed the first half of their journey and now stood at the banks of the yet-to-be-named river, where it drained Lac Cartier.
“I think we’ll let Nigel name the river,” David mused. Nathalie wasn’t paying attention, instead stood with one hand shielding her eyes from the glare of the sunlight reflecting from the river as it flowed steadily towards Lake Boone.
“You know, I think this river will be navigable most of the way to the sea,” she remarked. “That will be useful later.”
David nodded, agreeing. “It’s often easier for colonies to move by water in the early stages.” He turned and looked back towards the shuttle. “We’d better head back.”
Over their evening meal they compared notes. Heidi was happy because with the aid of their survey tools she’d scanned the entire cavern; they now knew that it measured nearly 150,000 square meters and that the roof was over 40 meters high at its highest point.
“That’s massive,” Grace exclaimed, listening in. She and John were in the galley back on the Hope, joining in via video link. “Enough for a small city almost.”
Veronika’s voice was dry as she reinforced her earlier quip.
“Enough to keep us busy, for sure.”
The others smiled. It wasn’t something they talked about, but of course after establishing the colony facilities, they had to work on the people. But it was going to take a long time for them to fill the cavern no matter how prolific they were.
Nathalie told about the hike to the lake outlet, and mentioned the names for the lakes. The others were in agreement with the idea. They all realized that they had an entire planet to name; there would be many opportunities for all of them.
“In that case, the other lake shall be Lake Bering,” Veronika said, and raised an eyebrow towards Nigel.
