Jungle (Colony Book 2), page 50
Still, nothing was infallible, and off-road vehicles were no exception. They’d have to take it nice and slow until they were sure there were no surprises waiting for them.
The skimmer would sidestep that, she thought, but it can’t hold nearly as much weight. And the vines would be a bigger problem from the air. She could see them from where she was seated, stretching across the gaps between the trees, like power lines in a shanty-town. Multiple theories had been put forth already as to how the thick vines had come to be suspended between the towering growths, but since no one had actually examined them closely, not one had emerged as the most “likely” explanation.
But with the skimmer left back at the hab, Kombes would be free to use it if something truly went wrong and someone needed medical attention. There would be time to use it for wider-ranging explorations later.
She glanced back at the clock once more, just as the digital number “flipped” over, time sliding ahead by one minute. Well, time to get geared up. She stood, collected her cleaning kit and the reassembled Uno, and headed for the armory.
Jake was already there when she arrived, stepping into his security suit with his back to the door. She paused for a moment, watching as he slid the suit up and over his shoulders. Pretty good tone on those, she thought. When he gets augmented, he’ll have quite a bit to work with.
Jake finished pulling the suit on and then turned, his face lighting up with surprise as he saw her. “Oh! Hey Anna,” he said. “I thought it was someone else.”
“Really?” she asked. “Guess I should have said something.” Except then I wouldn’t have gotten a look at that muscle tone … so … No, definitely not.
Jake nodded, his eyes breaking contact with hers as he saw the Uno hanging at her side. A grin broke across his face. “For me?” he asked.
“Sí,” she said, tossing the rifle to him. He caught it in both hands, fumbling with it for only a second before finding his grip. He held it up, running his gaze along the length of the barrel and running one hand across the white finish, before pausing and looking up at her with a frown.
“What about decon?” he asked. “That’s not going to hurt it, is it?”
“It shouldn’t,” Anna said, shaking her head. “I mean, if you go rubbing it around in the dirt or something and get gunk into all the little cracks, yeah, there might be a problem with cleaning it, but if you’re just carrying it, it shouldn’t be an issue.” Her answer seemed to satisfy him, and he turned his eyes back to the weapon, giving it an experimental look through the scope before turning and carefully setting it on one of the armory benches.
“What about ammo?” he asked as she stepped across the armory toward where her armor locker sat atop one of the benches.
“That’s the bad news,” she said as she popped the top off of the locker, revealing her somewhat disjointed looking armor. It almost physically hurt to see it in such a state. Especially after all the work I did to earn it, she thought. Then again, this job and the last could pay for a couple of sets of armor, so maybe it’s time for an upgrade.
“How bad?” Jake asked, sliding one half of his own armor up along one arm.
“I’ve only got eighteen shots left,” Anna said, picking up a piece of composite plate and attaching it to her skinsuit. “So you’re going to need to ration your ammo and watch your shots if something does happen. For the record,” she said, turning to look at him as she clicked another piece into place, “I don’t expect anything to happen that I can’t handle, but if it does, you’ve got eighteen.”
“Got it,” Jake said, sliding the other half of his chest piece up and over his shoulder, the two components meeting in the middle. “Don’t miss.”
“That’s a good start,” Anna said as her armor began to take complete shape. “Well, that and don’t forget to brace.”
Jake let out a laugh. “Yeah, no worries there. I still remember the kick this thing had on Pisces.”
“It’ll be worse now,” she said, pausing for a moment to look straight at him. “Your security suit isn’t quite as tough as your dive armor was. I don’t think it offers the same level of enhancement, either.”
“I thought about that,” Jake said, nodding. “This thing does have a ’brace’ mode that I might be able to wire in, though. Lock the suit’s major joints for a second before I fire?”
She thought about it for a second. “I’ve seen guerrillas do similar in a few places,” she said, nodding. “So it could work. If I remember right, you run the risk of burning the suit out.” A chest plate snapped into place. “But I guess if it came to that, you do only have a few shots, and we have a spare security suit.”
“So yeah, acceptable risk,” Jake said, his armor locking into place. “Need a hand with that?” he asked as she maneuvered a plate across her back.
“No,” she said as she felt it snap into place. “I got it. It’s a little trickier with the ‘fixes’ I made, but I’ve been doing this since I was …” She let out a short laugh. “Well, a really long time. Let’s leave it at that.”
Jake just shook his head. “When I get myself a set, I think I’ll go the extra mile and get the armor gantry.”
“It never hurts to be able to suit up yourself,” Anna said, glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes. “It takes practice, sure, but you never know when you might need your armor and not have a gantry around.” Only a few pieces left, now.
He nodded. “Fair enough.”
“By the way,” she said as she hefted the last piece locked it into place. “What did happen between Silva and Wells? Do you know? I just know Silva’s the one coming on the excursion today because of it.”
“I don’t,” Jake said, shaking his head. “Something about Wells mishandling one of the samples and messing up some sort of attempt at classifying some of the grass she brought back.”
“Ouch,” Anna said, frowning. “She can’t be taking that well.”
“No,” Jake said. “I’d imagine not. You know I did some digging into Daniel’s background?”
“You did?” she asked, surprised. “How’d you manage that?”
“Well, it wasn’t hard. Turns out, while he’s not a legend he’s kind of getting there. A good chunk of the xenobotany papers stored in the hab’s systems have his name attached to them.”
“Oh.” It was all she could think of to say. “So he really is a bit of a legend, then.”
“Yeah,” Jake said, nodding. “And if he’s accusing Jane of screwing things up …”
“One way or another, it’ll probably create tension of some kind,” Anna said, plucking her helmet up last and eyeing it for a moment before slipping it down over her head. It still felt bulkier and heavier than she was used to, though the expanded communications suite didn’t really add that much weight. She watched as it powered through the suit’s start-up sequence, all checks coming up mostly clear. There were still a few odd dead spots that she’d never been able to get working quite right, even when she’d gone back over them with additional nano-patches.
“Guess I could have been doing that the last few days rather than watching shows or reading for pleasure,” she said, turning back to look at Jake.
“Hey,” he said, spreading his hands. “I’ve been doing plenty of that too. Our job here isn’t the most intense thing I’ve ever experienced. Not so far, anyway.”
“Right,” she said, pulling her FOX-9s from her locker and syncing them with her suit before attaching them in place. Extra magazines went into her suit’s pockets, followed by her knife to its sheath on her shoulder. “Just alien.”
She took a last look around the armory, making a final check to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, and then nodded. Ready to go.
“Oh,” Jake said as he opened one of her duffels, pulling out the square, blocky ammunition for the Uno. “Good thing you’ve got that tougher comm unit. Karabou finally figured out what sent her sensor net haywire yesterday. Get this: it was a surge.”
“A surge?”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding as he clipped one of the blocks into the back of the Uno. “Whatever interference it is that’s been causing so much trouble for our equipment spiked for about twelve minutes.”
Anna paused. “That’s actually kind of serious. And it was strong enough to disrupt the signals from her sensor net to the hab?”
Jake nodded. “A little, yeah.”
“And she has no idea what caused it?”
Jake shook his head. “The commander checked with the satellite to see if there was some sort of solar flare or something that could account for it, but it hadn’t noticed anything. It did see a storm front heading our way, but nothing about why the disruption would get worse.”
“Did it pick up any of it?” she asked, and then motioned toward the doorway to the rest of the hab.
“Just a spike in how much interference it faced in orbit, apparently,” Jake said, following her as she walked out of the hab. “I hadn’t heard any more about it since then, but if it happens again …”
“We’ll get to see how well this thing holds up,” she said, tapping the module once more with her finger. “Though if it comes to that, I’ll just order the team to turn back. Study or not, I’d rather stay in contact until we’ve got a better idea of what’s waiting for us out there.”
As she neared the airlock she could hear someone else—or maybe several someones—chatting away, and as she stepped into the hall that the airlock intersected, Botha and Lankiss looked over at her before going back to what they were saying.
“—of the leaves in particular,” Lankiss was saying, gesturing with both arms. “I’m fairly certain there must be something to the makeup of either them or the trunks to get this sort of interference.” The word caught Anna’s attention. “Though the leaves seem more likely, given the broad dispersal pattern.”
“Excuse me,” Anna said, catching their attention as she and Jake stepped up to the group. “But were you talking about the interference?”
“Possible causes, yes,” Lankiss said, nodding. “I have a theory that the jungle plant life itself may be responsible for it.”
“How?” Jake asked. “You don’t think that the plants themselves are emitting radio frequencies, do you?”
“It could be possible,” Lankiss said, her accent putting a strange emphasis on the word “possible.” “Electrical conductivity has been seen in a variety of lifeforms, including our own, though that is limited to the nervous system. There are plants that communicate using chemicals, pollens … electrical transmissions of some kind could be possible.”
“Alternatively,” she said. “There could simply be a large amount of metal substances in their make-up which could be reacting to the planet’s already active magnetic field. That would be a much simpler, straightforward explanation. But to get a good idea of whether or not either of the theories is correct, I’ll need samples.”
“You might have to climb pretty high to get some of them,” Jake said. “Have you gotten a good look at how tall some of those trees are? And they don’t have any branches on the lower sections.”
“I’ll think of something,” Lankiss replied. “If all else fails, the ATVs do have climbing equipment listed in their equipment lockers.” Footsteps echoed down the hall, and the group turned to see Commander Ikeda step into the hall, already completely clad in her environment suit.
“Tames, Neres, Lankiss, Botha,” she said, greeting them each in turn. “Anyone seen Silva?”
“On his way,” Karabou said, plucking her helmet from her hip and slipping it down over her head. There was a moment’s pause as the suit connected her systems, the seal forming, and then she spoke again, her voice now distorted as it came through the external speakers. “He was just getting ready when I passed by the botany lab.”
“Good,” Ikeda said. “We’ve only got a few hours before the sun starts to set, and I don’t want to risk getting caught outside after dark. Especially with that storm bearing down on us.”
“Storm?” Naomi asked.
“Yeah,” Ikeda said, stepping past the group and sliding the interior airlock door open. “Satellite’s starting to get a better read on the weather patterns around here,” she said as she stepped inside. The rest of the group moved to follow her one by one. “And just in time, too. One of those storms like the one we passed through on the way here is coming this way, should be here just around sunset.”
“Which direction is it coming from?” Karabou asked as she sat down on one of the airlock benches.
“From further down the valley,” Ikeda replied, tapping at a display on the side of the airlock. She held down a button, then leaned up close to the small screen. “Silva, if you don’t get here in the next two minutes, we’re leaving you behind. Got it?” Her words echoed through the hab, relayed by the intercom system.
“Anyway, if the sat is right,” she continued, stepping away from the display. “The storm will be on us in about five hours.”
“Any idea how bad a storm it’ll be?” Jake asked. The commander shook her head.
“Unfortunately, no,” she said. “Give us a few exposures, and the sat’s software will have a rough idea, but for now all it can tell us is that it’s approaching and give us an ETA.”
“What about a size?” Karabou cut in.
“Well … and that,” Ikeda said, a slight flush coming to her cheeks. “Sorry, I should have mentioned that. Unless it dissipates as it travels, it’s going to last at least eight hours.”
Anna let out a low whistle. “That’s some storm.”
“Where longevity is concerned,” the commander replied quickly. “For all we know it could simply be a downpour. I aim to have us all back in the hab well before it arrives.”
“Still …” Karabou said, a thoughtful look on her face. “This could be good. A lot of animals and plants react when weather conditions shift. I should plant a few more sensors.”
“Feel free to,” Ikeda said as the grey-haired visage of Silva appeared at the entrance of the airlock, his helmet still hanging freely around his waist. “And there you are. Joined us at last.”
“Eh,” Silva said, waving a hand as he crossed the airlock and took a seat near the door. “We’ve still got plenty of time. And I was working, trying to fix what Wells—”
“Silva, I heard it once already,” Ikeda said, her hard tone cutting the man off. “I don’t need to hear it again, understood?”
“I …” Silva began, but his voice tapered off as he saw the no-nonsense glare the commander was giving him. “Fine.”
“Good,” Ikeda said, looking around the room. “This is everyone, so someone close up that door and let’s get this walkabout underway. Everyone remembered to install a fresh filter, right?” A chorus of nods and comments of confirmation came back at her as Jake leaned over and slid the airlock door shut. A moment later the light above the hatch went green. The room was sealed.
“Final checks?” Ikeda threw her eyes around the room, passing over each of them. “Everyone green to go?” One by one each member of the team responded, Anna nodding in turn as the commander’s gaze passed over her. Thankfully, her own filters were self-renewing. Expensive, but she never had to change them. Not that she expected to get much use out of them. Morel had proven that there was enough oxygen in the atmosphere to easily breathe, but until they were certain that there was no immediate threat to be had in breathing the air, either from unknown toxins, microbes, or any number of dozens of other possible threats Morel had warned against, their suits would only be screening out oxygen to supplement their own air supplies as needed. Eventually, if things turned out well, they’d graduate to simply straining the air, and maybe even exposing skin to it. But for the foreseeable future, supplementing their existing supply was as far as they would go.
The outer hatch opened with a faint hiss, air rushing around the gap as Ikeda slid the door to one side. Instantly Anna’s visor tinted, the bright sun outside making it a necessity. One by one they each filed out of the airlock, some taking a moment to adjust to the slightly lighter gravity, others simply moving for the side of the bio-hab with a clear purpose.
The garage was on the end of one of the bio-hab’s “arms,” a long, rectangular unit with a pair of heavy but carefully balanced metal doors sitting at the top of a foldable ramp. One of the doors slid upward as Ikeda tapped the controls, revealing an interior that could have been a workshop on any part of an inhabited world. Two durable ATVs sat to one side on wide, segmented tires, their surfaces painted a gleaming white—though there were scuff marks here and there, signs that these particular units had been used before. Each tire was mounted on an independent suspension arm, giving the unit a flexible amount of clearance while still keeping it low to the ground. Large cargo racks were mounted both in front of and behind the driver’s saddle, each with grips attached so that, if necessary, as many as four other people could ride the vehicle.
All in all, it was fairly reminiscent of the ATVs Anna had seen used all across Earth in more difficult to reach locations. She eyed one of the cargo racks, noting a set of rails set along its length. Looks like you could widen it if you needed to, she thought. Go from four feet across to six, maybe seven feet across. About as wide as it is long. Handy if you need to carry something back … or someone.
A length of cable ran from the ceiling down into the center of each ATV, plugging in just behind the steering bar and keeping each of them fully charged. Anna walked up to one of the machines and glanced at the readout. Green, she thought, eyeing the full bar. Good. That’s a couple of days’ worth of power, at the least. They’d barely put a dent in it.
