The children of venus, p.7
The Children of Venus, page 7
First of its kind, not only could the Infinite transfer people between the planet and station, it could travel within the atmosphere to multiple locations and landmarks. The true miracle was that it had no need to land on the surface to take them back to Venus station; it could launch to space from midair. A machine that could convert between space travel and worldly travel with ease. It was something Wilson only dreamed of in science fiction, and yet it existed.
“Get ready for the ride of your lives,” Cocteau said tucking her helmet under her arm. “I’ve got a few things to prepare as the Infinite’s just about ready. Make sure your EC’s powered up and set to your personal settings.”
She stepped away from them, taking a tablet from one of the SIC engineers and reading through it.
Wilson stood with Gomez and Bitiir, none of them speaking to one another. He fumbled with his EC, taking longer to input his personal settings rather than acknowledge them. He already had awkward encounters with both of them and preferred not to have another. They too, seemed to have the same idea.
“Alright, come on,” Cocteau gestured for them to follow. “Time to load up.”
There was a hatch along the side that created easy access into the cockpit of the Infinite. Within the cockpit were two rows of seats, two by two, cramped and surrounded by advanced dashboards. Wilson only had a basic understanding of it from their recent training. The idea was for him to know enough to get them back to Venus station if something happened to Cocteau or Bitiir, the ones who actually had advanced training in the Infinite’s functions. He doubted he if he actually could.
Wilson and Gomez took their places in the second row as Cocteau and Bitiir sat in the front with the main dashboard. A windshield spread across the front and roof of the cockpit, giving them a view of augmented operations and countdowns.
Wilson watched as Bitiir dialed into the dash in front of him. All that goodwill research and scientific betterment of mankind will end. . . just remember who’s in control.
He looked at Gomez pulling her safety straps over her head, brushing a hair out of her face. We are scientists, you and I; we understand our obligations. . . I simply cannot let SIC take that away from mankind—away from me. . .
Something burned inside Wilson. Bitiir’s and Gomez’s words repeated incessantly in his mind, battling one another to occupy his thoughts.
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to send a medic instead of a lawyer,” Wilson said defiantly. “You know, if something happened to one of us down on the planet. Something unfortunate.”
“Oh, you know you would miss me down there,” Bitiir said. “Plus we have two doctors aboard.”
“Not medical,” Wilson said under his breath.
“Knock it off you guys,” Cocteau said, pressing a headset against her ear. “I am trying to listen to this channel and you are making it impossible with your passive aggressive shit.”
Wilson scowled. “Is it really arguing if it’s passive aggressive?”
Cocteau growled. “Don’t be a smart ass.”
Bitiir applauded. “Yes, Cocteau, you take charge now.”
Cocteau looked at Bitiir and glared. “Don’t be a kiss ass.”
“You know, let’s just not talk to one another unless it has to do with the mission,” Gomez said. “I think that would be best.”
“You always know best,” Bitiir scoffed. “Don’t you.”
Wilson couldn’t help but smile. “Dr. Gomez, you really are the only good person here.”
“She’s right,” Cocteau barked. “Shut-up!”
“Captain Cocteau, do you read?” a voice came out of her headset.
“Yes,” she said. “Sorry, please continue with the countdown.”
Cocteau continued to press buttons as Wilson sat back, waiting for the final countdown to begin. He stared absentmindedly into his gloved hands.
He remembered holding her hand. A dearly beloved, parted from him.
It will be over soon, her voice echoed, the woman in a distant memory. Her laugh rang just as musically as it always did. “Don’t let me be the end of your life. . . You will see me again when you least expect it.”
“Final countdown about to initiate,” Cocteau said.
An alarm sounded and Wilson glanced through the windshield. SIC engineers ran for the exit, clearing the landing bay.
“Brace yourself folks, it’s going to be rough going down,” Cocteau clicked on signals flashing across the glass. “Venus has a thick atmosphere.”
“Platform is cleared, captain,” said the voice in Cocteau’s intercom.
“Helmets on,” Cocteau ordered. She pulled off her headset and switched it for her helmet.
Wilson took the helmet from his lap and locked it in place over his head. Although the cockpit would’ve been enough to protect them, they wore helmets as a safety measure if something happened during the transfer.
“Landing bay cleared,” said that same voice that had been in Cocteau’s headset, but now sounded in their helmets. This would be how they would communicate for the rest of the mission. “Final countdown initiated.”
“Gotcha,” Wilson said, testing out his intercom. “Everyone got that?”
“We got you,” Gomez responded.
“T-minus—” the final countdown began. The bay doors in front of the infinite slowly parted.
First, there was light.
Blinding sunlight filling the entire bay. Wilson squinted, hearing the signature trill of his EC charging, already soaking up whatever energy it could from the solar light. The bay doors finished opening, the entire sight filled with a vision of the swirling glow of the sulfur yellow planet.
Although Wilson knew it was his imagination, he could feel the heat of the fiery inferno emanating, pulling them in.
Then a whisper.
Marshall. . . you will see me again. . .
“What?” His heart skipped. It was the same whisper he heard from before, calling to him. He heard it clear as day, but not from intercom in his helmet. The whisper was everywhere, as though it were sent from the planet below.
Marshall. . .
“Did you hear that?” He surely couldn’t be the only one to hear it.
“Hear what?” Gomez said.
“I hear a lot of things,” Cocteau said. “And your voice shouldn’t be one of them right now.”
“Never mind,” Wilson said, dismissing the whisper’s existence. Stress. That’s what it was. Stress from the mission. “It’s nothing,” he told his team and himself.
He’d been ruminating about her since that night he heard the whisper in his quarters. The closer he was to the planet, the more his late wife was on his mind. He avoided thinking her name, hoping it would stop the intrusive thoughts. It was getting harder to distract himself from her memory. Not that he ever tried to forget her, but distractions always made things easier.
Everything around them rumbled, the infinite vibrating. The sounds of the transport preparing to take-off overtook everything. Wilson could no longer hear the countdown.
“Ready to drop into hell?” Cocteau’s laugh was drained out. Was she actually enjoying this?
Sudden pressure and Wilson felt like they were falling. They were no longer in the bay, but speeding forward, plunging into the great hostile before them. Wilson only saw space for a moment as his vision blacked out, the immense pressure increasing.
Darkness. Everything silenced as he felt a weight pull at his eyes, keeping them shut.
Wilson forced his eyes open. Red and yellow sparks drifted across the windshield, everything around them becoming a firestorm.
The force of gravity along with the Infinite’s thrusters pulled the transport into the planet’s atmosphere.
“Heat shields holding!” Wilson barely heard Cocteau yell. Everything was heating up and he heaved each breath. Perspiration stuck to his arms and face. He could no longer see out the windshield, the fiery atmospheric blaze devouring them.
“Slowing descent,” Cocteau announced flicking up some switches. “Successful penetration of the planet's atmosphere.”
They jolted forward and the blaze died.
Wilson panted, feeling like he just ran ten miles in a matter of minutes.
“We made it?” He looked around. The Infinite was gliding steadily through a thick, sickly yellow clouds—the Venus haze.
Guiding systems flashed on the glass in front of Cocteau.
“Looks like sleeping beauty decided to join us,” Cocteau said. He could feel the smirk in her voice.
“Um yeah,” Wilson was confused. “These new transports are really something else, getting here so fast.”
“Fast is a relative term,” Bitiir said. “If you remember from training, it takes a lot more than a few minutes to go from the station down to the planet.
“What are they talking about?” Wilson turned to Gomez.
“You—a—sort of passed-out for a bit,” Gomez said uncomfortably. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” he huffed. Humiliation stung his chest. He felt like he blackout for only a moment, but it must’ve been for an hour or two. Back in the early days of space travel, shuttles would take twenty plus hours to go between an orbiting station and a planet below. SICs name went big when they announced their transports could do it within a couple hours.
“You more than passed-out,” Cocteau didn’t sound worried. “You were down for the count. Rough night, huh? Don’t worry smart-ass, we’ll be careful not to wake you next time.”
“Ha-ha,” Wilson said coldly.
He didn’t want to admit it, but he wanted to impress them, prove that he was right for this mission. More than anything, he wanted to show-up Bitiir. He was getting used to Cocteau’s taunting, but Bitiir’s silent gloating made everything burn within him all the more.
They floated through the Venus haze, guiding systems flashing as Cocteau dialed into the dashboard every so often. Their surroundings were surreal, like they were floating through an unending cloud of jaundice fog.
Static sounded in their helmets.
“Venus command. . .” a garbled voice with more static.
“I knew this would happen,” Cocteau said. She was using that voice where Wilson couldn’t tell if she was sarcastic or serious. “They’ll still be able to monitor and listen, but I don’t think we’ll be able to use two way communication. Great day for flying, isn’t it?”
“Should we go back?” Gomez asked. She sounded disappointed at the idea.
“No need,” Bitiir said. “We expected this to happen.”
“Isn’t that kind of dangerous?” Wilson asked.
“Who ever said this mission was safe?” Bitiir chuckled. “That’s why we hired the best of the best. Orders are to keep going if this happened. It was unavoidable with the thick atmosphere and all. We’ll be extra vigilant to check-in at rendezvous times.”
A signal chirped on the dash.
“Destination approaching,” the pleasant electronic SIC voice sounded around them.
“See, not all is lost,” Bitiir said.
The Venus haze cleared just enough for Wilson to see.
Ahead of them, gleaming through the vaporous clouds were three massive disc-shaped silver solar balloons. So dauntingly big, they made the Infinite seem like a child’s play toy.
More haze cleared and a floating city emerged beneath the balloons.
Wilson held his breath. He’d never seen anything of the like. The city hung steadily beneath the balloons, the shadow of buildings growing like industrial stalactites. The buildings were all interconnected by maintenance corridors, making the city a human formicarium.
NASA named the city Cerberus, guardian to the planet and the shining jewel of NASA’s colonization successes. The three solar balloons that held the city afloat gave to its name all the more.
The VACC program created these air cities. Although abandoned, the cities still floated aimlessly in Venus airspace. Within them were research labs, living quarters, and all equipment and supplies that NASA couldn’t afford to bring back after the project was defunded. Cerberus was one of two cities Wilson knew of; a ghost of a dream.
As they approached, the Infinite dropped in elevation and Wilson saw columns of scaffolding surround the city, shivering in the torrent of winds.
Sun rays peaked through the clouds, shining on various docking bays that held airships, no longer in use and unable to operate. They glittered with the same silver solar material as the balloons, back propellers eaten away from sulfuric gasses and lack of maintenance. Wilson wondered how NASA ever funded such a project. He mourned the airships, knowing they were all empty shells.
He glanced at Bitiir.
“Awe-inspiring, isn’t it?” Bitiir said.
“Yeah,” Wilson answered. He looked at the insignia on his suit, anger quickly replacing the empty mourning. A cold desire for retribution chilled the core of his chest.
“Of course, innovation would’ve never allowed it to last,” Bitiir said. “The city was a good first step, but could never be the permanent solution. Too much maintenance and too expensive. Just look! The airships are already falling apart. There’s no telling how everything else held up.”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” Cocteau said, flicking switches. “Preparing to dock.”
“The dock should hold,” Gomez said. “It hasn’t been that long since SIC checked. Should be safe enough.”
“I hope so,” Wilson said.
Cocteau steered them into an empty dock, one meant for an airship. The design of the Infinite made it slip easily onto the dock, better than a glove.
“Tapping into the city’s docking systems,” Cocteau announced. “Bitiir, I need you to start putting in the access codes.”
“Got it,” he said, typing into the touch screen on the dash. Augmented signals flashed across the cockpit window.
“Fingers crossed,” Gomez said.
“Why?” Wilson leaned forward trying to see the access codes. He knew he didn’t need to know them, but the feeling of knowing something SIC kept from him made him feel elated.
“SIC’s been keeping an eye on the air cities,” Gomez said carefully, “but their life support systems haven’t been in use for quite some time. If we can’t get the systems to power on, we won’t be able to safely connect the transport to the city. We’ll have to return to the station.”
“Regardless, we’re keeping our helmets on,” Cocteau said, focusing on her task of hacking into the city’s systems. “The life support will be enough for us to finish docking, but not to walk around like it’s a holiday. We’ll still need to flush the cockpit of the transport with clean oxygen before we return to Venus station.”
They waited as Cocteau and Bitiir continued to type into the dashboard.
“How does he know how to hack into the city?” Wilson said. “Isn’t that the job of a computer tech?”
“Because I’m privy to certain information that most aren’t,” Bitiir said, also focusing on his task. “Ah-ha!” he exclaimed and pressed a button. The dock began moving upward.
Wilson looked up and saw the shaft above slowly part.
“Really, what would you people do without me here?” Bitiir laughed.
“Oh I can think of a lot of things,” Cocteau said.
For once, Wilson fully agreed with her.
“Don’t be jealous,” Bitiir said. “After all you’re not the jealous type—not with your temper. That’s more of Gomez’s thing, isn’t it?”
Gomez said nothing.
“You’re one cocky son-of-a-bitch,” Cocteau said. “Shut up before you piss-off everyone.”
“Have it your way,” Bitiir said. “I’ve put up with enough abuse. You’ll all appreciate me eventually. Wilson’s learned to.”
Wilson held his breath, knowing that anything he said would only backfire at this point.
They continued to rise into the parted shaft above them. It seemed awkward, their transport going through an entrance made for giant airships. Cocteau kept reassuring them it was safe, at least as safe as SIC deemed.
White lights suddenly came on around them as they came through the opening. The shaft below closed.
“Air flush and cleanse in progress,” the pleasant voice on the dashboard announced.
“Remember, doesn’t matter what that thing says,” Cocteau said unstrapping herself, “life support systems here are not stable. Keep your helmets on and let your suits do the job of filtering and cooling the air. Revert to your oxygen only in an emergency. Those air tanks are for the descent and for the surface. Once I open the hatch, until we can properly flush it, the air in the Infinite will be contaminated.”
“I was only able to get us minimal emergency power for this section of the city,” Bitiir added. “Just sufficient enough to keep us docked and to power essential functions at central command.”
“Good,” Cocteau said. “We’re not staying long. Our next objective is to anchor the city’s location through the command room. Then we’ll take a maintenance shaft to begin our descent to the mountain. From there, Gomez and Wilson will take over for their survey. Stick together. No wandering.”
Cocteau pressed the necessary codes and unlocked the escape hatch to the Infinite. With a twist and kick to the hatch, the cabin depressurized and opened. Cocteau jumped out first, followed by Bitiir, then Gomez. Wilson jumped out last, still feeling uneasy about his ‘temporary’ equipment from SIC.
Their feet echoed. Even though the bay lights were supposed to light their way, Wilson wished they were off. Seeing the sheer size of the docking bay, empty and lifeless, made it all too morose. As though they were walking through a graveyard with no gravestones.
“This way,” Cocteau said, leading them through an opening. They entered a narrow, poorly lit corridor, the dim emergency lights seeming to fade as they continued.
Ahead was another dimly lit entrance.
“We’ll cut through there,” Cocteau pointed toward the end of the corridor, “the courtyard. Straight across it will be the command center. Remember, stay together. No distractions, no detours.”
