Searchers, p.14
Searchers, page 14
“No, not so bad. Now, once you’re fully out of the airlock, I want you to disconnect both your tethers.”
“What? But you told me to always keep myself tethered.”
“You won’t float off into space. But if you keep your tether there, you’ll get it all twisted up around the axis itself, and that would be bad.”
Thomas floated facing her, on the other side of the partially closed-off space, turning around in a slow circle. His tether was secured to a railing beside him. “Release the tether, then push off towards me.”
Slowly, reluctantly, Miya did as she was told, and pushed off. Suddenly, the world was twisting around her in opposite directions, and her stomach threatened to rebel. The thick metal cylinder of the axis was a big, scary turning thing beside her as she floated towards Thomas.
“Eyes on me, and it will pass.”
Miya stared straight ahead, and her stomach slowly settled. Thomas caught her arm with practised ease, then grabbed her tether and clipped it onto the rail beside him.
Miya took a deep breath and slowly smiled. She stared back at the open airlock as it turned in a slow circle around the axis. “I’m outside the Ark. In space.”
“Take a couple moments if you need to,” said Thomas. “But not too long. We’ve only got half an hour of air in these tanks, but it’s more than enough to do the job.”
Miya turned and followed Thomas through an opening in the wall, sliding her tether along the rail. Once inside the next enclosed space, Miya took in a sharp breath. She looked up, and up, and … up. Finally, she saw a thin slice of stars just past the edge of the cluster of massive round tapered pipes that stared off into space. Telescopes.
“Oh, wow. Wow!”
“Yeah,” Thomas came up beside her. “I could watch them all day if I had enough air, but the suits start to get pretty cold after about twenty minutes. But we can look from inside, where it’s warm. Now, let’s go and make the adjustment.”
Thomas pulled a thin brass wrench out of a pocket of his space suit and nodded towards the bright red arrow, pointing to a small opening in the floor that exposed a small shaft. The wrench was tethered to his suit, she noticed.
“I’ll just watch from here,” Miya said.
“Whatever you say,” Thomas said, then slid his tether along the railing, moving slowly under the base of the telescopes to make the fine adjustment.
“I’m n-n-never going to make f-f-fun of you again,” Miya’s teeth chattered as Thomas pulled off the top of her suit and slotted it into an empty rack. Ice had already formed around the metal seals.
Thomas unsealed her left suit leg and pulled it off. “You promise?”
“J-j-just until I’m warmed up,” she shivered. “That was really c-c-cold.”
“I told you,” Thomas smiled, pulling the waist section off her and stowing it away. Now Miya floated in her skivvies in the middle of the changing room. Thomas chuckled.
“What?” Miya glared at him. “You’re going to make fun of me now? I almost froze to death out there!”
“Hardly.” Thomas closed a strap over a rack of legs and arms. “You’ll warm up. And you did great out there. I’m impressed.”
“Stop making fun of me.”
“I’m not. I literally shit my pants my first time. You obviously didn’t.”
Miya glanced down at her clean shorts, if a little sweaty. “You’re lying.”
“Nope,” Thomas shook his head, grabbing a nearby anchor point. “Things go everywhere in zero G. It leaked out all over. I had to clean it up, all of it.”
“You so not had to clean up your own shit from inside a space suit.”
“I did. I wouldn’t recommend it. So, well done you.”
“Huh,” Miya accepted his outstretched hand so she could grab a rail herself. “Well, that’s something.”
“Yes,” Thomas grinned. “You definitely are. Now, let’s go get a nice, warm dinner at a decent restaurant, and a hot drink. Well … a warm one, anyway.”
“Shut up,” Miya grinned from ear to ear, her hair fanned out around her head in a dark halo. “Just shut up. You didn’t nearly freeze to death. I’m getting a hot drink, really hot.”
“Whatever,” Thomas smiled as he pulled himself down the central corridor back towards the waiting lift.
Warming Up
“Hey, Miya!” a voice called out.
Miya automatically turned her head away. They’d briefly been swamped by oglers hovering around their table, but they had finally drifted off to do whatever they’d been going to do, wherever they were going.
“Miya! It’s me, Zac!”
Miya turned around. Zac stood a few steps away from the table that Thomas and she shared. A table for two. “Oh, sorry, Zac. I didn’t mean to be rude, it’s just we had — can you believe that some of them wanted our autographs?”
Zac took a step back. “Hey, I don’t mean to intrude.”
“Nonsense.” Thomas got up from his seat and slid a spare chair over from the empty table next to theirs. “Have a seat, please. I’m glad to finally meet you, Zac.”
“You are?” Zac blinked, then hurriedly sat down. People were staring at him.
“Yes, of course,” Thomas smiled. “You’re a good friend of Miya’s, right?”
“Best friends,” Miya nodded. “Since I was ten.”
“Nice,” Thomas nodded. “It’s good to keep in touch with your friends. Selection doesn’t mean everything from before has to end, right?”
Zac looked back and forth between Miya and Thomas. “I guess not. Miya?”
Miya flushed. “Of course not. I mean, we all went out last Saturday, right?”
“Right,” Zac nodded. “That was fun. Like old times.”
“Old … times,” Miya said slowly. “I’m still the same person, Zac.”
Zac paused. “You’re Selected now, Miya. You’ve got this fantastic new job, and a fantastic life partner and…”
Thomas raised an eyebrow. “She did her first space walk today. Did you know that? On her very first shift, too. Quite impressive, our Miya here.”
Zac’s eyes lit up. “Oh, wow! A space walk? That’s amazing!”
Thomas took a sip of his synthehol wine. “She did great.”
Zac grinned from ear to ear. “But of course she did. She’s … Miya.”
“My thoughts exactly. You two should have dinner sometime.”
Miya choked on her drink. “What? Where did that come from?”
Thomas stared at her blankly. “I just thought it would be nice for the two of you to catch up.”
“But … I’m married now,” Miya stammered.
“I’m only suggesting dinner,” Thomas frowned. “Nothing‘s wrong with eating. What were you thinking of?”
Miya’s cheeks burned. “Nothing. Dinner sounds fine. Say ... Thursday?”
Zac swallowed, glancing nervously between them. “Uh … I don’t know. Maybe it’s not a good idea.”
“Nonsense, Thursday sounds perfectly reasonable to me,” said Thomas. “Plenty of restaurants open to all ages, plenty of choice for a decent meal. No, you two should catch up. I’m sure you’ve both got a lot to talk about. Friends should keep in touch. Yes, Thursday.”
Miya blinked. “Okay, then.”
“Thursday,” Zac nodded. “Okay.”
Thomas smiled. “Wonderful, that’s a date. Well, I don’t mean to be rude, Zac, but I see that they’re coming over with our dessert now. It was great to finally meet you.”
Zac looked over his shoulder and hurriedly stood up, shifting his borrowed chair back to the next table before the servers arrived. “It was an honour to meet you, sir.”
“Zac,” Thomas called out. “Don’t be a stranger. And I mean that sincerely, you know where we live.”
Miya just stared at Zac until he disappeared from sight. The servers had already set down their desserts and demurely withdrawn. She turned and hissed at Thomas. “What the hell was that all about?”
Thomas cut into his slice of cheesecake with the side of his fork. “I’m just helping.”
Miya shook her head. “Helping with what?”
“Helping maintain relationships. He seems like a nice young man.”
“Well, he is.”
“Good. Now please, enjoy your dessert. I’d like to go home. It’s been a long day. Space walks always tire me out.”
“Good night,” said Miya, leaning against the door frame of her room.
“Good night,” Thomas smiled as he came up to her door. “Dinner was very nice. And good job on the space walk, I mean that.”
“Thanks. I know you really mean it this time. That you’re not teasing me.”
“Oh, how so?”
Miya shrugged. “It’s nothing. Forget I said anything.”
Thomas frowned. “I’d like to know.”
Miya sighed. “Well, when you’re teasing me, the sides of your mouth turn up in an odd way, the left a little more than the right.”
“I see. And when I’m not teasing you?”
“Your eyes.” She stared at him intently. “There’s something … when you’re sincere and not completely full of shit, the edges of your eyes crinkle up, like tiny bird’s feet.”
“Really.”
“Just like you’re doing now.”
“I see. Well, that’s good to know.”
“Now you’ve got the mouth thing happening again.”
“Good night, Miya,” he shook his head, smiling as he walked down the hall towards his room. “Sleep well. We’ve got a busy day of staring at screens tomorrow, finding lots of nothing.”
“Good night, Tom,” Miya whispered as she closed the door to her room.
Searching
“43.54153, -119.50382, nothing.”
“Very good.” Thomas looked over Miya’s right shoulder.
Miya leaned back in her chair and rubbed her eyes. “Very good? I’ve found absolutely nothing!”
“Well, you’re getting pretty good at it.”
“There’s that mouth thing again.”
Thomas pulled up a chair and sat down beside her. “I told you what this job was like.”
“Yeah,” Miya stretched. “Only another twenty years of this to go. Great.”
“Unless we find a patch of green.”
“Then everybody’s happy.”
“They’ll be ecstatic. But some day, we’ll find it.”
“That last sample looked close, though.”
“You have to look really closely.”
“The images are quite detailed already. I mean, how does Oversight get such detailed imagery?”
“Big sensors, I guess. But see here? That bit of green is just a rock. A bit of jade, I think. The one you got all excited about before lunch was mariposite. But they’re all rocks. That’s mostly what Oversight sends us to look at. Bits of green that need further checking. The human eye will generally find, or discount, what a machine won’t. So if anything is green, it’s sent to us to check.”
“Great,” Miya sighed, then leaned forward to pull up the next image. “Lots of green rocks, tempting us with their pretty colours.”
Thomas shrugged. “If you mark it as a rock, then Oversight won’t show it to us again. Rocks don’t tend to grow or move. Not often, anyway, but there is the occasional slip or rockfall.”
Miya turned to face him. “You mean I was supposed to mark the last hundred images as rocks?”
“I thought you were paying attention when I walked you through the procedure. The button to mark an image as having just rocks is over there on your left.”
“Aww, crap!” Miya dropped her head onto the console. “Now I need to do them all over again!”
“Not today. But they will show up again in future scans, unless you mark them as rocks.”
“And you Searchers have been doing this and marking green rocks for how long?”
“At least five hundred years. There wasn’t any point in the first half millennium.”
“That’s a lot of rocks.”
“It’s getting better. It took three hundred years for someone to decide to add a button to mark images as just being rocks, instead of just skipping them and having them come back later.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Nope.”
“Idiots!”
“I’m part of the club. It took me a week before I remembered to use the button. You catch on quick.”
“So some of the stuff I’m looking at is stuff that you may have missed?”
“Me or the other Searchers. It gets pretty repetitive. Sometimes we forget to press the rock button.”
“Amateurs,” Miya groaned. “There has to be a simpler way to do this.”
Thomas smiled. “Just remember to press the button. It helps narrow things down over time. And some day, we’ll find something green that’s not a rock.”
“Whatever,” Miya sighed, pulling up the next image. “Rock —“ slam “— rock —” slam “— rock—“
“Hey!” Thomas caught her left hand. “Take it easy on the button, and go slower, study the image. The only thing worse than not marking a rock is accidentally marking something that might be alive as a rock.”
Miya sighed. “How do I go back?”
Thomas pointed. “That button over there. But be gentle with those buttons. They’re supposed to last—“
“A thousand years, I know.”
“What? Not that long, but at least fifty. Buttons need to be replaced regularly, they get used a lot. Just — be gentle. Don’t use all of your Amazon strength to vent your frustrations at not finding anything. It’s just a keyboard. It’s not the keyboard’s fault.”
“Amazon,” she snorted, going slower and more carefully.
“Well, generally they’re supposed to have been taller, but I’m pretty sure you’ve got their strength.”
“Shut up, or I’ll bend you like a pretzel.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Uh-huh, snap you like a twig. Your spindly pipe legs and arms wouldn’t stand a chance against my short Amazon-ness.”
Thomas grinned. “Now, you shut up and get back to work. I’m already getting hungry.”
“Then get marking rocks, so we can both go have dinner. It’ll go by twice as fast.”
“Fine, I’ll help too. And you’re not really that short. You’re only thirty centimetres shorter than I am. About average for a girl.”
“You called me short, before.”
“It’s just because you’re so well-muscled from working in the lower levels. Your proportions are slightly off, but I don’t mind. And you’re doing well, by the way. You learn quickly.”
“Humph.” Miya pointed. “There’s one button that looks all shiny, like it’s never been pressed.”
“Oh, it’s been pressed a few times, long ago, but they were all false alarms. That’s for when it’s not a green rock and maybe something growing, but you must be careful before you decide to press it. That will send down a sampler pod. We don’t want to waste those.”
“Oh,” said Miya. “So that’s the life button.”
“Yeah. The most important one of all.”
The next morning, Thomas sat at the kitchen table with a grin on his face.
“What are you up to?” Miya frowned as she set down a bowl of cereal, then went to get her cup of tea from the kitchen.
Thomas was still grinning when she sat down and began eating.
“What?” Miya looked up at him, her mouth full.
“Nothing,” Thomas smiled. “I just like watching you, that’s all.”
“Creep. Pervert.”
“You’re my wife.”
“We have different bedrooms. I’m not sure what we are. I wish you’d stop looking at me like that.”
Thomas looked away. “Fine. But I can still hear you eating.”
Miya set down her spoon. “Look, I don’t know what you’re up to. I’m your wife. You should be able to watch me dance around naked all over the apartment if you wanted to. But you don’t.”
“Are you sure?” Thomas smiled.
“Mouth thing,” Miya warned. “Stop it.”
Thomas put on a more sober expression. “You could, you know. Dance naked around the apartment. I wouldn’t stop you.”
“Fine.” Miya stood up and pulled off her socks and shorts. “If that’s what you want.”
“Stop it, Miya.”
With a sigh, she kicked away her shorts and socks and sat down in her underwear and top. “Needed washing, anyway.”
“I really like you, Miya.”
“Uh-huh,” she picked up her spoon and resumed eating, smacking her lips loudly. “That’s just so you can hear me eating, by the way.”
Thomas smiled. “I think I got that.”
“After breakfast, I’ll do the dance. Right now, I’m hungry.”
“What dance?”
“The naked dance.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
Miya spooned another mouthful and continued chewing. “Uh-huh. Maybe I want to.”
Thomas shrugged. “You’re being overdramatic.”
Miya pulled off her shirt and bra and tossed them onto the floor. She glared at him. “Is that overdramatic enough for you?”
Thomas just shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
Miya grunted. “Yeah, I’m not much to look at, am I? All stocky and overly muscled. Maybe that’s what it is.”
“You’re beautiful, Miya.”
She stopped chewing and looked at him. “Liar.”
“You are.”
“Then have me right here, right now. On the table, on the floor, whatever you like. Because I like you too, and I mean like a lot, but I just don’t know what the hell this thing is we have.”
Thomas leaned back in his chair, waiting for crockery to fly. Miya sighed and scooped up the last of the cereal and chewed it. Then she crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him.
Thomas shifted uncomfortably. “What?”
Miya continued to stare.
Thomas began looking around the room. “What?”
Miya nodded. “Stand up.”
“What?”
