Deeper Into the Void (8 page)

Chapter 8

L
awrence drags four oxygen canisters into the airlock; the loop built into the top of the canisters allows him to wrap his gloved fingers through them, this way he is able to hold more than one at a time. He sets them carefully on the ground in the small portal, he walks back over to the atmosphere processor, which fills the empty oxygen canisters and is located within a few meters of the airlock for convenience. He picks his helmet up off of the large aluminum machine as he walks back toward the airlock; he twists the helmet securely onto his suit.

Long trudges along the pathway in his pressure suit, his helmet is in his left hand and his heavy canvas bags are in his right. Lawrence stands in the airlock doorway, awaiting Long’s arrival as he slowly makes his way down the path toward him.

Long finally joins Lawrence in the airlock, and Lawrence presses the control panel inside the airlock. The door starts to close behind them, Long hurriedly drops his canvas bags and twists his helmet on. If he had waited a few more moments, then the air rushing out of the airlock would have killed him.

Long reaches up to his wrist, and opens the computer control panel on his suit. He touches a couple of points on the smooth glass panel, and he picks his bags back up again. Lawrence grabs the oxygen, and follows Long out of the airlock as he starts walking toward the heavy rig, which also happens to be the only rig.

Lawrence loads his oxygen cylinders on the back of the weathered rig. He stops just after loading the third canister on the back; the quick movement of the thin air around attracts his attention. Small swirling vortexes of sand roam in their fury out on the plain below. Lawrence squints to get a closer look at one of them as it traverses the empty plain. Within it appears to be a raging blaze, smoke and ash look like they are pouring out of the top of the dust devil. “
What?”,
he hurriedly throws the last canister onto the back of the rig before running alongside it up to the seating area. “Hey Long!”, Lawrence realizes that Long has just muted him on the radio, so he climbs up into the rig and grabs Long’s arm as he sits quietly.

Long turns to look at Lawrence, Lawrence points out into the distance, where he had seen the oddity; Long looks on and shrugs his shoulders. Long takes a moment to unmute Lawrence, and replies quite calmly, “Cool, we have those back home you know.” Lawrence turns to look at the dust devil that he had just pointed at; nothing out of the ordinary appears out on the horizon.

“Of course!”, Lawrence finishes crawling into the driver’s seat and presses the “on” button on the control panel.

The rig once again pulls away from the dome and begins to roll down the road. Countless rocks seem to float in an endless sea of rust-colored sand as far as the eye can see. The sun rises higher into the sky, shrinking the shadows that these rocks cast. After several silent hours of driving, Lawrence and Long finally arrive at the site that they have been tasked with sampling.

Lawrence completes his check in with Captain Cardiff and double checks the brake as the large rig is parked on a slope. It would take quite some time to fix the rig, or even longer to get a replacement if the rig drifted downhill and fell off of, or into something.

Sentries and guardians, the tall rocks stand watch over the entrance to the opening. The descent into the volcanic tube is obscured by windswept rock formations. Towering above the plain surrounding them, the rocks appear as bent blades projected upward. Pillars of sandstone have been carved by the wind that rages through the openings. The walls remind Long of overgrown crinkle-cut French fries with the serrated edge.

In the distant background, Olympus Mons’ cauldron is almost visible, toward the top is cloudy, and the dry ice that covers the peak is shrouded in those clouds. Otherwise the sky is light red and the sun’s light illuminates the vast slopes in all directions. Large boulders and smaller rocks litter the landscape. This silent audience casts their shadows out upon the sand, and gives a variety to the otherwise plain sea of sand. Lawrence navigates his way through the series of twists and turns that lead to the opening below, over to where Long is standing, waiting. Long has finished anchoring the descent line several meters away from the opening.

Long carefully straps on the repelling gear. Lawrence follows suit, as he too gets into the repelling gear. The light, sampling gear and additional air reserves are all secured to the line, which is then slowly dropped down into the chasm below, disappearing into the darkness.

Holding his hand out, palm upwards, Lawrence gestures to Long to begin the descent.

Long breaks three glow sticks and throws them down into the hole a second time to ensure that the descent is still safe enough to attempt without more repelling gear. Several seconds pass before the faint lights below stop moving.

Lawrence shakes his head back and forth, and then he walks backward off of the edge as he begins his descent. Long follows Lawrence shortly after he disappears over the edge into the abyss.

After descending vertically about 80 meters, the shaft begins to level out, level enough to walk down while holding the rope. As they stand, holding tightly to their ropes, they notice the glow sticks that they had dropped, lighting up the pitch blackness of the tube. They both reach for their helmets to switch their helmet lights on. These lights affixed to their helmets provide a small tunnel of light, allowing them to be able to see down the passageway a few meters.

After several minutes of walking through the abysmal darkness, they stumble upon an area of the ground that is covered in dry ice.

After several meters of extra cautious steps, the two arrive at a juncture between tunnels that go off toward the right and to the left, and one that descends down vertically and then horizontally.

Each tunnel that lay ahead is slightly smaller than the tunnel in which they are currently standing, the tunnel they are currently standing in is about six or seven meters in diameter. The next largest tunnel, the tunnel on the right is only about 3 meters across.

Lawrence fastens the guideline with his hammer into the rock face; he then fixes the spool of guideline onto his utility belt. With the guideline in place, the two walk into the tunnel on the left. After several meters of walking down the tube with their hands on the walls, Lawrence pulls his gloved hand back into the light in front of his helmet.

Long turns around to look at the find that Lawrence has pointed out, and looks at his own glove. Long brings his own up to his helmet, almost touching his helmet. He rubs his fingers together to determine the consistency of the stuff on his hand.

After scraping some of the orange-brownish substance into the vial, Long replaces the lid and puts it in his sample bag. The two begin to walk further into the tunnel, treading carefully to avoid ice patches. Long looks back over his shoulder at Lawrence.

Long watches Lawrence make his way down the tunnel from a few steps behind him. The tunnel is relatively well lit immediately around them; it is now much smaller than it was closer to the surface. The tunnel wanders to their right and back to the left again. The walls of the tunnel appear to be closing in on them as they venture further into the belly of rock. After what feels like kilometers of walking, but is really about one, the pair can barely stand up straight in the tunnel. The light that Lawrence holds creates a large shadow of Long in front of them.