Approaching Oblivion (Jezebel's Ladder Book 4) (26 page)

Because of
Sanctuary’s
orbital path, the second flight needed to take place exactly one L week after
the first. The ground team completed the dome of the spaceport a day early and
verified atmospheric integrity. Toby told the Olympus crew, “Inside, the
temperature is perfect, and the water in the pool is drinkable if we add the
standard pellets. In the domes and caves we can breathe with just a gas mask.
Over time, the greenhouses should scrub the carbon dioxide in the caves down to
acceptable levels. Of course, we’ll need to plug more of the cracks since the
missile strike made a lot of those fissures to the surface wider. Risa wants to
convert them into skylights if you agree.”

Waiting
in the shuttle hangar with Nadia and Red, Zeiss shrugged. “No objections. Why
do you need my approval?”

“The
mesa is windier than we anticipated, so we can’t farm algae up top. We can’t
farm it on the surface without drawing unwanted attention. I pureed most of our
starter stock to supplement our food supply, but no algae crop means we can’t
synthesize the acrylic here. Risa is hoping the others can convert some of
Sanctuary’s
algae stockpile into the necessary chemicals before you come down. You’ll have
extra mass allowance because the forklift and I aren’t on board. Since the
distillery will be up and running sooner, I can cover any extra fuel
expenditures.”

“Sure,
but Risa is our expert in that field. Will the others be able to synthesize
acrylic without her?”

“Risa’s
certain she can talk Rachael and Mercy through the extraction process.”

“Why
both?”

“We’ll
need to add a little lead to the mixture to block the heavier rays.”

“Will
that be enough?” Zeiss asked.

Yuki
interrupted from Olympus. “We think so, boss. I’ve been doing weather modeling.
When we’re far from the suns, the weather is cooler and calmer. Right now,
severe, sudden radiation events tend to generate windstorms, which reduce
visibility. During the expected peaks, we can shutter our windows like
hurricane season.”

“Well,
Pratibha will need to juggle the schedules, weight loads, and production plans,
but if she signs off, I’m game,” Zeiss said. “With Park and Yuki running Olympus, that only leaves Johnny, Oleander, and Yvette out of the loop for this next
launch. Is there anything they can do?”

After
chatting with Risa off camera, Toby replied, “Oleander can haul cargo. Johnny
might be able to do some of the plastic-reducing steps in his kitchen. It’ll
smell horrible, but acrylic skylights will give us natural lighting and enable
us to grow food inside. More plants will also help us scrub the air in the cave
faster so we don’t need to wear masks indoors.”

“And
Yvette?”

Toby
said, “If she could talk to me every once in a while . . . I’d appreciate it.”

“I
can’t order her to,” Zeiss said with regret in his voice. He clearly didn’t
want any of his people suffering.

Yuki
provided the thin veneer of duty they needed to nudge Yvette into communication
with Toby. “Maybe if we tasked Yvette with collecting trace elements for the
fabricators, she could give Toby her reports.”

“She’s
always exploring the foothills anyway. I could sign off on that,” Zeiss said
diplomatically.

“Thank
you both,” Toby said, terminating the connection.

****

Because
there was no storm, the second touchdown took place during the black of night,
without even the reflected glory of Daedalus to light the sky. Oleander had to
snap her night-vision adapter into place because Zeiss didn’t want any light
leaks to alert the natives. Without this requirement, they wouldn’t have needed
helmets for the landing.

“But
none of the L pandas are anywhere near us,” Nadia complained on the descent to
Elysium base.

“The
hand must not be seen,” Red recited. “We’ll have seventy-five minutes this trip
to unload. Herk spent the extra day leveling and marking the landing pad. This
should be a cakewalk.”

Nadia
snorted in derision. “Magi don’t believe in cake. Why does this area reek?”

Johnny
apologized. “Sorry. The last load ran late. The steam from that witches’ brew
for the acrylic got in my hair, and there was no time left to shower again.”

“No
showers where we’re going.”

“I
can wash it in a basin and give him a trim,” Oleander volunteered. “I cut hair
. . .” Embarrassed, she stopped. Talking about prison in front of the other
women didn’t bother her. Discussing it in front of the men did, especially
someone she wanted to impress, such as Johnny.

“That
would be magnificent,” Johnny said graciously. His hair was longer than hers
and had to be difficult to fit into the spacesuit.

Zeiss
said, “Keep the food somewhere easy to access. The advance crew hasn’t eaten
since yesterday. Toby collected some gourds for them to try, but I didn’t want
to court disaster. We can experiment when we’re not under deadline. Time for
our heavy lifters to gather in the forward airlock: me, Johnny, and Oleander.
The secondary lock is already full of skylight panels. Herk will retrieve those
with the floater. Our job is to offload everything from the cargo hold
underneath. We form a bucket brigade so that no one has to move more than a
step in the darkness. We’ll also make less noise. Risa will step into the line
the moment after she hooks up
Ascension
to the fuel pumps. Toby doesn’t
have enough muscle mass yet, so he’ll monitor the transfer of fuel from the
distillery to the shuttle. Nadia and Rachael will join us outside once they
fill the airlock with everything else we have in here. Red will handle the
countdown and watch the ridges on either side for thermal activity. If she sees
so much as a coyote, we all hit the dirt. Understood?”

Everyone
indicated assent. Oleander asked, “What if my radio goes on the fritz again?”

Red
replied, “Don’t worry. Opening the lens this deep in the atmosphere generates
its own weather. Z predicts Saint Elmo’s fire will appear at five minutes out,
and your two-minute warning for our departure will feel like a tornado.”

Oleander
snickered at a random thought as they squeezed into the tight airlock.

At
her elbow, over a person-to-person channel, Johnny asked, “What?”

Smiling,
she answered on the same private link, “We’re the UFOs now. The aliens will be
telling campfire horror stories about humans from outer space.”

“No,”
Johnny said. “My people faced such things long ago. In Rome, we would become
the subject of myths.”

“I
don’t feel like a goddess.”

“You
look like one,” he countered softly.

An
Italian gentleman, Johnny always did know how to make a woman feel special.
This time the compliment made her stomach flutter. They had spent months
circling each other, their mutual attraction drawing them ever closer. Keeping
things strictly physical, the word ‘love’ had never been mentioned. Several
times during his girlfriend Rachael’s Olympus shifts, he had fooled around with
Oleander in secret. The adrenaline rush had been fantastic, but with Lieutenant
Rachael in Elysium 24/7, they might never get that chance again. The affair had
to be over. Oleander was resigned to life as a nun until the testing was
completed. However, her body craved his touch like it had cigarettes—just one
last long, slow, sensuous drag. She remembered the long soak in the hot tub,
blindfolded, and the chocolate-covered fruit he fed her.

The
thump of landing and the hiss of the door release jolted her out of this
fantasy.

The
unloading went without a hitch, almost boring.

****

In
the predawn moonlight, Oleander lay on the floor of the distillery control room
in her sleeping bag. The new room was climate-controlled, and the walls were
thick enough to block out the sounds of construction that reverberated
everywhere else in the complex. She could ignore the burbling sounds of liquid
and the faint methane smell by telling herself it was a faulty toilet. This was
the closest thing to privacy she would see on Labyrinth. For some things,
satellite views weren’t detailed enough, but traveling in-the-flesh was too
dangerous. At the beginning of her career in space reconnaissance and rescue,
she had read an alien page that enabled her to leave her physical form behind.
Relaxing, her perceptions rose out of her body. Floating dreamlike over the
alien desert and jungle landscapes, she scouted several potential paths down
from the mesa.

That
afternoon, she helped Toby into the shimmer armor. Everyone watched the
opalescent scales shift to swirls of golden orange until he blended into the
mesa’s sand and stone perfectly. Oleander couldn’t detect him with her physical
eyes until she was a meter away. Returning to the glorified utility closet for
privacy, she could use his mental signature to find him with ease.

Normally,
she would watch him Out-of-body while the world slept, but for descending
cliffs he would need daylight. Oleander used a combination of satellite, radio
beacon, and binoculars to track him. They established a shared communication
channel that recorded every word, with timestamps using the new
language-decoding software Lou’s team developed. Zeiss insisted on this in case
Toby picked up panda chatter in the distance. Mostly, it recorded Oleander
warning people she was going on a bio break or Toby logging his alien-biology
observations.

Agreeing
with her choices of the best paths, Toby marked unwanted routes down with white
chalk so she and Herk could eliminate them with explosives during the next
storm. Ironically, as the only person with mining experience, she was stuck
above ground while others shaped the base interior. She stood watch as Toby
used a machete along the easiest descent. He wasn’t very good at fashioning
bridges of safety rope in the dangerous sections. The first time, she had to
climb down and show him the technique. Eventually, Herk would install
drawbridges in these gaps. At the second gap, Toby dropped his rock hammer off
the cliff. She had to lower another bag of climbing equipment down the side of
the mesa. She said nothing of this embarrassing event on the record, passing
the bundle off as additional cold water. He went through enough liquid in the
heat that people didn’t think twice.

After
sundown, which only took four hours after ‘noon’ on this world, she flew cover
on him Out-of-body, taking every step with him and watching his back for
predators. At the end of the shift as she helped him out of the hot armor in
the spaceport, Toby thanked her. “I want you to know that I trust you with my
life.”

“Just
doing my job, convict,” she said with the same tone guards had used with her.

“I
mean it. Technically, we’re going to be alone most of the time like we are
now.” Oleander froze, aware that he was correct, and he was in violation of his
parole agreement. In fact, he had his sweat-stained shirt stripped off.

“I
think we need lockers in here, or maybe in the distillery. That would be a
better place for you to change. We could install a second door to keep the air
inside breathable,” she babbled nervously.

“If
you’re worried, you can have other people monitor the link, but I swear I won’t
harm you. I’m assuring you because we have to rely on each other seamlessly.”

“Okay
. . . I believe you because you can’t lie, but what happens when you run out of
your medication in the field? How do I know you won’t ambush me then?”

“You’re
not my type.”

“I
didn’t know rapists had a type.”

“I
give you my word I will never touch you or consider you in that manner. Since
your talents complement mine so well, I will do anything in my power to keep
you safe.”

“Thanks?”
she said, feeling like a cat had just offered her a valuable dead bird.

Having
said his piece, he offered no further conversation for the evening, for which
Oleander was grateful.

****

The
next morning while a roll of solar fabric recharged the shimmer armor, Oleander
explored the base of the mesa in astral form, locating the missing rock hammer
and a few small caves along the river. Risa agreed to put in some modifications
to the distillery dome. If nothing else, they needed somewhere outside the main
complex for Toby to store his biological samples, and the distillery was the
only building outfitted for hazardous materials.

Meanwhile,
Herk kept Toby company, helping him to attach a water bladder and drinking tube
to the back of the armor. Herk also helped the nanobiologist fasten a bottle to
the suit’s belt.

“It’s
called a camel pack,” Toby explained. “I’m going through water too fast to rely
on tablets. This bottle has a built-in nanomesh filtration system so I can
restock in the field.”

“I
know. I’ve used these before during earthquake relief,” Herk replied.

“I
forget you were active-duty military for a while.”

“While
you’re below the mesa, I’ll keep watch of you through the sniper rifle.”