“They don’t want us in front of them, Jaen,” Berg pointed out.
“Got that,” Jaen said. “We’ll vector left. Head for that cluster of boulders. In the event we have to screen them, that’s our assembly area.”
“Got that,” Hatt said. “I don’t see much to screen them from.”
“Nothing on any of the passive sensors,” Berg pointed out.
“Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there,” Jaen said. “Space Marines, remember?”
“Lichenlike growths,” Julia said, kneeling the suit and flipping out a sample probe. The science suits had specialized sampling tools attached to the right “hand” of the suit. She used a scraper to pick up some of the growth off the rocks and slid it into a sample tube.
“Do you want to check out that red stuff?” Master Sergeant Ed Bartlett asked. The Bio Team Leader gestured towards the shoreline where massive waves hammered what was apparently a high cliff. The waves looked to be a couple of hundred feet high and the spray flew up higher than the boat.
“If we do, we’re going to have to be careful,” Julia said. “It looks worse than Antarctica. You slip, boy, and I’m not sure we’re going to be able to find you.”
“Noted,” Ed said. “But we are going to have to get a sample, right?”
“Yes,” Julia said, standing up. “But first we need to do random sampling of the area to see what sort of microgrowth is on the rocks. Then we sample out from the boat. Then we go down and see our little red friends. Frankly, I think we should be looking for a more lively world, instead, but I suppose you would call this ‘good training.’ ”
“Grapp,” Hattelstad said as his Wyvern went airborne.
Dr. Dean had, apparently, collected his samples and was now headed back to the ship.
Charlie had been crouched in a cluster of boulders watching for a threat that never came for a good six hours. So they were ready to head back. As soon as the science party was halfway down the hill they had bounded out to “screen their retreat.” At which point the reduced gravity had struck.
Moving in reduced gravity was always difficult. It was possible, if you were careful, to get more speed out of the armor by “bounding,” taking long strides that were impossible in Earth’s gravity well. It worked well on flat ground and could be done on hills. But you had to be careful.
In Hatt’s case, he’d taken one bound just a bit too far. He’d intended to hit a flat spot and instead intersected a boulder. His right leg went out from under him and for just a moment he was airborne. Then he slammed onto his back.
“Grapp,” he repeated.
“Like I said, watch the gravity,” Sergeant Jaenisch said, coming to a crouch near the fallen suit. Berg landed on the other side, tracking back the way they came.
“Charlie, status?” the platoon leader called.
“Just a slip, sir,” Jaen replied as Hatt got to his feet.
The Wyverns would have been impossible to get out of a position on their backs were it not for the design of the arms. While the human arm could not wrench behind its back with any strength, the Wyvern “arm” could. So Hatt simply slid his arm behind his back and flexed, rolling the Wyvern onto its stomach. From there, it was just a matter of pushing himself to his feet.
“Slick move, grease,” Berg said. “I suggest a new team name.”
“Turtle?” Jaen asked.
“I was thinking Grease,” Berg said. “But Turtle works.”
“Grapp you, rookie,” Hatt said.
“Methinks the lance corporal is offended,” Berg said.
“Methinks the lance corporal has point,” Jaen replied. “Let’s move.”
“Charlie, move east and screen bio team. Same deal, don’t mess anything up.”
“Seems like we always get point,” Hatt said.
“Shut up and move.”
“Well, that was a whole lot of nothing,” Jaen said, rolling into his rack with a sigh. “Twelve grapping hours in a Wyvern with nothing to look at but rock. What grapping fun.”
“View was cool,” Berg said.
“Some of us weren’t looking at the pretty planet,” Hattelstad said sourly.
“Then you weren’t looking for aerial threats,” Jaen snapped. “Yes, the view was cool. But I could wish they’d pulled us off in less than twelve hours. Man, I’m whacked. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” With that he hit the closure on his rack and opaqued it.
“I’m for bed,” Berg said, stripping out of his skinsuit. The blacksuit stank to high heaven and they were only issued one. He put the suit in a zipper-lock bag and stuffed it away in a compartment. “Damn, laundry’s not till the end of the week.”
“Stuff a nannie pack in with it,” Drago said, leaning out of his bunk. “It’ll be fresh as a daisy tomorrow.”
“Really?” Berg asked.
“Really, Two-Gun,” Drago said. “I guess we’ve all got things to learn.”
“Thanks, man,” Berg said, pulling the suit back out. He slid a nannie napkin into the bag and sealed the whole thing back up.
“De nada, man,” Drago said. “We were getting tired of the smell, anyway.”
Berg chuckled and sealed his bunk, lying back with his arms folded on his chest. Then he reached up and turned up the circulator before getting out another nannie nap. He was getting tired of the smell, too, but his next shower cycle wasn’t until day after tomorrow. He rubbed down in the confined quarters, then doused the light.
It had been a long day.
“Dr. Dean is busy trying to assimilate all the data we’ve collected,” Dr. Beach said, smiling faintly. “So I have asked Master Sergeant Runner to present the planetology report on Dean’s World.”
The post-survey meeting was taking place in orbit, everyone having decided that even space was a more hospitable place than “Dean’s World.” The wardroom was crowded with the boat’s senior officers, most of the heads of the science team, Miriam and Mimi. The latter two had turned up and, respectively, charmed and assumed their way into the meeting.
“Thank you, Doctor,” Runner said, looking at his notes. “Dean’s World is an atectonic rocky moon with marginal habitability. I’m gonna have to lecture.
“Earth is a tectonic planet. That means that it had continental masses that, slowly, move and recycle material through subduction, crustal folding and volcanism. The reason that this occurs is that there’s a chunk of crustal material, more or less the size of the Pacific, which is missing. Very early in Earth’s development Earth’s moon struck the planet with a glancing blow and picked up that material.
“Earth has deep oceans, which act as a heat sink and temperature regulator and constant tectonic processes refreshes the atmosphere. Furthermore, crustal material is able to ‘emerge’ because the water all flows into the oceans.
“In the case of Dean’s World, such a strike never occurred. Thus all the tectonic material is trapped under a solid crust. That crust is buried under an ocean that is more or less uniformly deep and relatively shallow. One of the reasons those waves get as high as they do is that the bottom is only about six hundred feet down, more or less everywhere.
“The only rocky land is where some volcanoes have burned their way through the crust and formed islands, more or less like pimples on a teenager’s face.
“Basically, it’s Mars with a better atmosphere and a bunch more water, probably because of the better atmo. That’s the planetology side. Bio?”
“It’s a Class Four biosphere,” Julia said. “Red chlorophyllic analogue. Very simple life forms. We didn’t get to do much sampling in the ocean but I’m perfectly happy letting follow-on researchers do that. No indications of Dreen genetics anywhere. The world’s clean, in other words. Be a decent place if we ever have to find a new place for penguins and polar bears. Well, except for the CO2, which would kill them in a few seconds.”