Symbiosis Chapter 1

Enceladus, by Franklin Chan on Deviant Art

Thomas Jackson hesitated before entering the airlock. If his environmental suit had the slightest imperfection he’d be dead in sixty seconds, or in all likelihood, less. The LED thermometer on the indoor wall indicated the outdoor surface temperature had only risen to negative 200 C.

“What’s wrong?” Tom looked at his impatient partner through a slight haze of hail scratches on the helmet visor.

“Minus two hundred?” Tom asked. “Are you sure these suits are adequate?” He peered out the heavy windows of the airlock. Even through the particles of ice and rock that made up the E ring, Saturn bloomed in warm colors of golden brown, green, blue, peach, even lavender. It was most certainly warmer than minus 200.

“Well of course. They were made on Enceladus to use on Enceladus. Come on, isn’t space a lot colder?”

“Not necessarily.” Tom pressed a button to unlock the interior door, let his partner enter first, then followed him. The door sealed behind them automatically and the exterior door opened. He stepped onto the near impenetrable mantle of ice, putting his feet in shallow, permanent depressions of the men who’d come and gone via the airlock for nearly a decade.

The few times Tom Jackson had ventured onto the surface of Saturn’s little moon, Enceladus, had left him wanting for the sunny, warm shores of Old San Diego on Earth that he called home, which seemed like a lifetime away. From the south pole of the moon, Saturn was always visible, however sometimes they looked through the rings to see it, other times they looked down upon the rings. With virtually no atmosphere on the 500 kilometer moon, the black sky full of stars offered a pristine, magnificent backdrop for the stunning Saturn.

Glare from the frosty, glacial surface blinded both of them at first until the polaroid visors snapped down in response to the luminosity. Tom saw their hired rover vehicle a few meters ahead. The driver emerged, calling to Tom’s companion.

“Erik Smyth!”

They loaded their mining gear, clambered into the rover, still in cumbersome environmental suits, for the hour ride to a steam plume about twenty kilometers away. Tom watched as the rectangle black box of the airlock, poking up from the icy surface, slowly shrank in the rear window.

“I hope this is worth all the trouble,” Tom said, tugging at tight spots where the ‘one size fits all’ EV suit wasn’t fitting. The suits were made for the average scientist, who, Tom assumed, didn’t spend a lot of time in the gym’s weight room. The back was tight, the arm holes tight, the middle baggy and the legs a little shorter than he would have liked.

“At the price musgravite is fetching? You’re kidding, right? No one wants diamonds anymore. I earn a year’s wages out here bringing back just three carats. You thought red diamonds were rare? Not compared to these.”

“I just want a stone for Rianya. I don’t want to be a gemologist.” Tom had spent enough time on his wife’s home planet digging up volcanic geodes only to find out they were considered unlucky, and he didn’t care to repeat that adventure.

“No kidding, Tom, I get a hundred grand a carat for the bigger ones.”

“That’s obscene.”

“Yeah, not once you see what we have to do to get them!”

“We’ll be there in a few minutes,” the driver said over the intercoms. Erik gave the driver the best thumbs up possible while encased in a bulky orange glove.

With all their climbing and drilling gear piled a half kilometer from the geyser, the driver left them to their adventure near the south pole canyon formations, appropriately called tiger stripes.

 “Does she know that’s why you came out here?” Erik asked while Tom checked the oxygen and environmental controls on the back of his friend’s suit. He tugged on connections and pinched at all the possible damage zones. All was good; he slapped Erik’s shoulder then turned around for a reciprocal equipment exam.

“No. I think she’s so happy to get me out of the apartment she doesn’t care why I’m gone.” Erik jerked on Tom’s suit and destabilized him off his feet a few centimeters.

“That ridgeline looks promising, you think, Tom?” Ahead of them a twenty meter, fiercely white escarpment marked the top of a gorge running north and south for about twenty kilometers.

“You’re asking me?”

The two men dragged their drilling and climbing equipment by sled and set up on the sunlight side of the gorge that plunged two hundred meters down.

“Watch your footing, Tom. The ice is 30 kilometers thick up north but the water is near the surface in these gorges. That means the stones will be easier to find than on Earth.”

“Easier? With EV suits, minus two hundred degrees and four hours of life strapped to your back?” Erik chuckled and nodded.

“Well, the gravity is lighter out here. Not sure if that’s better or not.”

Tom stood on a narrow shelf half a meter down from the plain and several meters up from the valley floor. He jammed an axe into the wall then twirled an ice screw into the frozen cone, threading a rope through the eye and turned to pick up the axe when his footing slipped a couple centimeters. He gripped the rope and steadied himself.

“You okay, Tom?”

“Yeah, the ice is slippery.”

“And thin,” Erik reminded him. He turned back to the ice cliff. Thin was what Tom had been thinking when—

The ice cracked and split open half a meter under his ice platform before he could finish his thought! A sinkhole several meters deep swallowed him whole and Tom tumbled relatively slowly into the icy shaft. He clutched at the rope but his grip was compromised and it slid easily through his hands. Liquid water splashed up at his feet where the tube had narrowed enough to stop his fall but it froze almost instantly at the surface.

Tom scrambled and clawed at the sides while he sank but every bump and groove failed him. The bright white of the surface vanished and he plunged deeper into the grey hole. He shouted for Erik as he dropped. Inside his heated suit a cold sweat erupted, he shivered, and every muscle froze, his knees locked, his stomach stone hard. Seconds seemed like minutes before he heard Erik call his name.

“Thin ice!” he shouted in his microphone. “Erik, help!”

“Don’t yell, Tom! Save your breath. I’m coming!”

Tom could hear his pulse banging in his ears like a kettle drum. He wasn’t sure how far down he was, but his chest was compressed and his arms cramped up against his body leaving his hands as useless flippers against his shoulders. At least he wouldn’t sink any further since the hole had closed up around him.

The petite porthole of light at the top abruptly went dark as Erik looked down the hole, his helmet blotting out the little light he had.

“Did you break anything? Arms, legs, neck? Rip a hole in your suit?”

“I’m not sure, but I think I’m just stuck. How in hell far down am I? I can’t tell.”

“Stay calm, I’ll get you out. About nine, ten meters.”

“Are you kidding?!” Another shiver launched from his neck and shot down his shoulders and arms at the same time racing up to his skull. “Ten meters? Are you sure?”

“Tom, just shut up, you’ll use up all your oxygen.”

“That’s comforting,” he grumbled. “Hurry up, I’m getting cramps! It’s hard to breathe.”

The head disappeared and the white streamed in again. The sun visor on his helmet had come down over his eyes and at the mercy of his environment he was helpless to move it. His com had gone quiet and the silence was deafening.

“Erik? Are you there?” His earphone clicked.

“I’m here; I’m calling the outfitter. I’ll need help. Sit tight.”

Well that was a stupid thing to say. Where did Erik think he was going? With his chest compressed he had to take shallow, rapid breaths. He knew long and slow was best, but he couldn’t get the air in, much less out. All this just because his wife wanted a rare stone, but she rarely asked for anything at all. A musgravite stone would be an ideal anniversary gift since gems were graciously prized as gifts on her planet. Since musgravite had been found on Enceladus it had become incredibly popular on Earth set in silver, rhodium, and platinum jewelry.

It wasn’t her fault he was stuck in the damn ice shaft. She’d only expressed interest. It was his fool brain that decided to tackle a challenge that was beyond his abilities. Boredom had tiptoed in after months inside the moon, waiting for Earth to calm down since they’d left.

“Erik?” but only static crackled in his ear. Vulnerability was  his least favorite emotion. Fear, hate, love, guilt, they all had a reason to be, but depending on another person for your life hadn’t been Tom’s role in at least twenty years. He was the captain of his ship and responsible for all souls aboard in all circumstances, not the other way around.

He tried to move into a more comfortable position but his efforts only used oxygen faster and made carbon dioxide. Lithium peroxide packs only lasted so long. He had to take his own advice and stay calm while someone tried to get help. If he could just move a slight bit!

“Tom? You still there?”

“No, I left five minutes ago.” The light blotted out again at the mouth of the tunnel as Erik peered over the edge at him.

“A rescue unit is on its way out. It, uh, might be a little while.”

“How long is ‘a little while’?”

“Forty minutes, at most. Our driver turned back before he got to base. How’s your EV status?”

“Everything’s running for now.” Who knew how long his energy supplies would last to maintain minimum body temperatures and blood oxygen levels.

“Just hang in there, we’ll get you out.” Erik’s head moved and the light illuminated the tunnel to a bluish gray haze, nearly translucent at the top but smoky grey around his head. A disk of black marked the exit goal. The com fell silent again and Tom was alone with only his own confounding thoughts for company. Stupid ice, stupid stone, stupid Tom for risking his life over a crystallized mineral. A cup of hot black coffee started to brew in his mind until it became a craving, an obsession.

“Erik?”

“What?”

“I just wanted to know if you were there.”

“I’m not leaving. Why don’t you take a nap?”

“Are you kidding? Sleep down here?”

“It’ll conserve your resources and the time will pass quicker,” Erik said. “At the very least stop talking. I’m not leaving you in the hole. Trust me.”

“Okay, I guess there’s not much else I can do. But my feet are pretty cold, I think they’re in water. I heard a splash when I stopped falling.”

“Your suit will protect you.”

Now, planet-use EV suits were not the same as space-use EV suits. Planet EV suits always assumed you were on the ground and simply weren’t as heavy duty, nor custom fit, as what they kept on board a ship. Nothing he could do about it; it was what it was. Tom started to shake, his teeth chattering; his body tried to yawn for air but the Machiavellian ice burrow refused to yield, perhaps as revenge for taking musgravite out of its depths.

He wanted to scream, but Erik was right. He was suddenly exhausted, sleepy, and fuzzy around the ears. A twenty minute nap would be okay. He was on… Enceladus? Or was it Titan? He’d wanted to get something, but nothing was worth this. His wife was worth this. But she wasn’t out here. She was in their apartment with their daughter, safe, warm, where they belonged.

Tom floated, weightless, skimming across the icy landscape of blinding white. He wanted a rock. A greyish purple rock. A mineral, a crystallized mineral, but he didn’t see any. He was in a cave, a freezing cave of ice, and the air was thin. Rianya was already there, waiting for him. Was it her or someone else? Her face was dark, blurry. Fire surrounded him inside a space capsule; he was sweating, water droplets hit his face, he splashed into the water, bobbing helpless, drowning!

“Tom, wake up! Tom! You have to wake up!”

He woke with a start and shivered from the cold penetrating his bones.

“What! I’m drowning!”

“Tom, you’re in the water. Move your visor, you’re going to have to climb out!” That was Erik’s voice. He could feel himself floating but the water surrounded him, and it was more slush than liquid. He had a free arm; he reached for his sun visor and with a stiff arm he overrode the automatic ‘down’. Water splashed on the helmet and slowly sank down in large drops.

“What the hell?”

“Grab the pole, Tom, the pole, in front of you!” Erik told him. He turned his head to look for a pole, and banged smack into a long single strip of aluminum with rungs on each side. He tried to put his feet on the lower rungs but he had no control over them.

“I…I can’t move my feet.” His legs were weak, his left arm ached, his right arm was paralyzed. He listened to Erik’s one sided conversation with the people on the surface.

“More nitro,” his friend told someone. Nitro? “Get ready, Tom, LN2 coming down.” Tom looked up and thought he saw a fluid coming his way, of some sort, and as it hit the water it turned to a steamy fog. He was more mobile suddenly, and grabbed at the pole. His arms and legs ached but he could move them a little if not with the best coordination. He took a few deep breaths, the first in quite some time, and realized he was in a damn ice tunnel. Out…he wanted out!

“Come on, another five or six meters,” Erik said. Shivers shook his body all over but he kept climbing. He was finally out of the water but still in the hole. Something hit him on the top of his helmet.

“Captain Jackson, grab the rope,” an anonymous voice said in his ear. Tom looked up and pulled a noose down around his body, got under his arms somehow, with considerable struggle. Now he had the pole and some support. It would just be a minute and he’d be out of the frozen shaft. Had his heater gone out? He was so unbearably cold. Was the oxygen still pumping? His brain wasn’t answering his questions. Out. He had to get out.

He concentrated on bending his knee to climb another rung when something held it back. He strained against the bond and his leg jerked free! But like plunging through the ice of an arctic lake his body rapidly turned cold.