Aubade: Chapter 10
Sandstorm Nightmare
Hello and welcome You — who clicked on this link. Read a little bit more! Hop onboard Aubade — a sci-fi serial. It has a bit of everything, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. And yes, there’s action, mystery and futuristic tech and yes, there’s romance too! All you need, right? Here you can read more about how it all began and the why.
What’s it all about?
You’re a woman who’s woken up out of stasis and you find yourself onboard the spaceship Aubade escaping Earth. Forever. Last thing you remember is going to bed. On Earth.
Sandstorm Nightmare
She held up the dagger and let the bathroom light reflect off of it. She wished she could remember the different design styles of weapons originating on the Coast. There were so many handcrafted styles and designs, almost one for each village. The ornate etchings with maritime themes near the handle were the tell tale signs of a Coastal dagger.
She studied herself in the mirror as she held the weapon in front of her face in a pose and then she resumed her Aubade persona. Then she walked to his bed and put the dagger in its sheath under Stapleton’s pillow. This was really the only item she truly owned here but she couldn't keep it.
Jack was already waiting with Stapleton in the front room. Jack's night escapade had turned out to be a stupid prank joke. A bet that Jack lost in a game of cards. Both seemed to be in a sour mood and only nodded toward her as she entered. They would skip breakfast due to the difficulty of keeping anything down after the shuttle rides. Even the most jaded of the crew became nauseous during these short rides. There were theories of altitude sickness and magnetic distortions that amplified the misery of an already too bumpy ride.
Fleur and Stormare were at the communication booth and handed them their helmets and gear. They weren’t very talkative but Fleur was perhaps the most optimistic person Sara had met so far on this journey. She tapped Sara’s shoulder and chuckled:
“Good morning! I see you’ve been paired up with the finest representative we have here!”
Jack tugged at Sara’s suit and secured all the apparatus. He gave her a quick glance, and she saw that his eyes were bloodshot.
"You O.K.?" she whispered nervously.
"Never been better!" he laughed back. "How 'bout you? Did Stapleton give you any peace? I heard he had to run out in the middle of the night to deal with some asshole..."
Sara rolled her eyes at him and thought to herself if only Jack knew!
Stapleton and Stormare called them over to review the route and weather prognosis and establish communication with the civ compound. It was an unusual and unpredictable weather pattern on this planet, and currently it was in a calmer phase so they determined it to be a window of opportunity.
“You better get going before anything changes,” said Stapleton and Fleur nodded in agreement. Sara noticed that both of them looked on the verge of nervousness. Vince gave her a soft punch on her shoulder as a farewell and nodded his head in some kind of encouragement. They put on their helmets and stepped into the vehicle.
“Five minutes estimated drive time. Have fun!” said Stormare before they closed the doors. The civilian compound was also on the channel and a voice announced:
“Ready to receive you in five minutes. Have a safe drive.”
They needed oxygen masks during the mere five minute ride. The terrain was a hazy cheese-yellow. Rocks and dust stood out crisp and clear in some spots while other dents in the road took the most experienced driver by total surprise. Just as they managed to avoid one rock and had given each other a quick smile of relief, the next hidden rock would jolt the shuttle to an almost forty five degree angle. It was not pleasant.
About three minutes into the short trip Sara noticed a foggy layer over the nearby liquid deposit.
"Look, it must be fog. It seems so thick, look, it almost swirls. Amazing!"
Jack took a quick glance in the direction.
"Never seen that kind of cloud layer here before, seems a bit thick for it to be fog." She kept looking at it and realized it was moving toward them.
"Watch out, it's heading our way. Come in, Stormare, we're observing a thick rapidly moving cloud or... dust layer, please advise."
She thought it best to alert them since this was a new phenomenon. She had barely called out the message before the thick yellow cloud of dust enveloped them and they lost all visibility.
"Hey! Stormare, we're in a piss-yellow sandstorm, get us out of here please." Jack sounded a bit nervous and Sara was already so sick to her stomach that it took great effort not to throw up. Their positioning system indicated they were within 500 meters of the civilian compound so they held their course. It should take them about two more minutes according to the autopilot.
"Come in, come in, Storm. Civ compound, come in? Anyone hear us?" Nothing. They had lost all communications, including their positioning system.
They kept calling both the structures without success. A couple of minutes later Jack had to turn off the autopilot because their front wheels were touching water. Somehow they had driven toward the enzyme deposits!
"What the hell is this?" Jack exclaimed and hit the brakes. They both jerked forward and grunted as their intestines complained.
"Is it an electromagnetic storm?" asked Sara.
"Must be. I knew this place was too pretty and cozy to be true. OK, so we just have to trace ourselves back from this piss pond toward the buildings. I think these directions should be about right."
Jack was tense and kept bolting his fist on the steering wheel. He kept sighing small heaps of air. Sara was pretty sure they were heading in the right direction. She was aware of the geographical features near the buildings, and there was only one water deposit this close, so it must be it. What she couldn't understand was how the shuttle could have been so off. Could it have been off already from the second they set out? But they had followed clear landmarks and the civilian structure was almost visible all the way from the defense structure.
They turned around and headed toward what they hoped would be the civilian compound. They systematically drove in what they both calculated to be a well-triangulated pattern. They tried to use landmarks, but the yellow dust storm was more viscous than any dust they had seen. It was almost talcum soft and fine and it lingered in spots for unnaturally long periods of time before it began to settle in tiny vortexes.
It was mesmerizing to watch, especially when daylight seeped in and lit up the millions of spirals around them. If it weren't for the limited air supply they both would have loved to watch the show. But Jack began to breathe more heavily than normal and it was worrying Sara.
"Aren't these supposed to last at least 30-40 minutes?"
"At least. I just checked mine and it seems to be close to empty. The reading must be off." He was touching his throat through the suit and she could see how each breath required more effort. She checked her own oxygen supply and she had over 20 minutes to spare. But they needed to find one of the buildings soon.
They both agreed to talk only if necessary, so they could conserve the air supply. When the car had tilted several times in a row from hitting rocks, Sara began to worry.
Jack was obviously in worse shape than she, and she feared he was about to faint if he didn't get more air. A quick glance at Jack told Sara that he was deteriorating fast. She was combating severe nausea and had a difficult time moving her head for fear of throwing up. Any sudden movement escalated her sense of ill-being. Jack's breathing was now a loud and coarse, repetitive gasp. They needed assistance rapidly.
"No more air!" Jack was grabbing his mask and Sara made a quick decision.
"Stop the car," she demanded, "we'll switch. I'll drive, and here..."
She disconnected her own supply and his and reconnected her supply to his, "breathe this for a while."
In the few seconds without oxygen supply she could smell the yellow dust. It was a sulphuric and acidic stench that dried out human lungs with less than a few breaths. He didn't stop her and took in several deep breaths of air before he calmed down a bit. He kept driving with one hand and holding the mask with the other. An unexpected larger boulder stopped the car altogether and they had to fight their way out of a large ditch for another few minutes before they managed to get out.
"You have to let me drive!" Sara was beginning to panic. She needed to get the mask back so she could breathe herself. Finally he relented and they crawled past each other and when seated behind the steering she had to grab the mask for some real air. It was an immediate change. How incredible that a few breaths seemed to open up the lungs so clearly!
She was given a quick burst of energy and managed to get the shuttle to obey her directions. Jack was more or less slouching in his seat, chest heaving in a fast paced frenzy. She was beyond fear. It was clear that he would not last much longer, and she herself was barely conscious. She counted breaths and made sure they shared equal amounts, but she did give Jack two more breaths than her each time. She kept driving in the direction she thought felt right. What a foolish way to act, she thought, but it was the only way of reasoning left. The navigator had given up, they had no communications channels available, and the air was a yellow pissy soup.
The window pane met her forehead with a lack of mercy. Jack's limp body followed the laws of inertia in a rag doll fashion and ended up twisted between the dashboard and the seat. They were finally home. She could tell it was so because she heard someone say:
"...looks OK, but he needs immediate transfusion! Move! Move!"
It was so comfortable. She was determined to not open her eyes because this moment felt so much like the morning she and Peter had visited the Farm and overnighted in a small cottage. The sheets were so soft and it was the only morning in her entire life that she had woken up to see nature outside her bedroom window, from her bed no less! The absence of duty, the distance from everything that remotely mattered to her, left her with a feeling of lightness. It was the only time she and Peter stayed in bed the entire day. A day when none of them even felt a moment of pull toward their duties. It was only one day. It was the most comfortable day in her life.
She opened her eyes and saw them work on Jack. They were cutting off his shirt and attaching equipment to his torso. She noticed how his muscles, even if toned, were lacking tension and creating small ripples in his flesh as the MTs were moving him.
It was difficult to grasp what was happening. She saw his convulsion as they stuck a tube down his throat. No sounds reached her since she was in a different room, but through the window she had a full view. Sharp disoriented sensations came over her and she had to return her head to a more relaxed position. Someone was quietly speaking to her, but she couldn't focus on it. The only thing she saw before her were the pale rippling motions of human flesh being bent and turned as it struggled to stay alive.
She threw up several times. The headache was worse than the nausea. It wouldn't leave her alone. The white specks in her field of vision left her unable to see what was going on in the room next to her. She was not either entirely sure if she could speak coherently. It sounded alright to her but no one seemed to respond or understand. Or perhaps they did but whenever she asked about Jack she did not hear the responses. Someone was holding her forehead gently and it felt so soothing.
He was sleeping. She knew he was alive, because he had a small oxygen supply attached to his nose and all the other devices were gone. He was alive. She felt happiness for someone she barely knew. A joy even. All she was able to do was to shift to her side to get a better look at him. She would be there for him because she had promised.
"As long as you get plenty of rest and enough supplements we can let you go," Dr. Renni said in his very matter of fact way. His voice always made the listener feel confident that what was said was the truth.
"In fact, the concussion was quite severe. We did all the transfusions we could but ultimately the brain needs its own time."
"I just want to lie down in my own bed," Sara quietly said, realizing afterward that she had not thought of the library backroom as her own before now. That was her home.
"Come back for a check in tomorrow. We want to see how those particles settled."
"Particles settled? What particles?"
"Both of you were exposed for over twenty minutes and interestingly the particles latched on to your mucous membranes. We had a hell of a time figuring out how to extract such small particles off of such a large area. But Evelydia is our genius here," Dr. Renni laughed heartily without so much as giving any explanation of what those particles really were.
"What about Jack? How is he?" Sara tried to look beyond the sliding door, but could only see a stream of light.
"He woke up today. He'll be fine. Lots of particles. Lots of them. Evelydia, that was quite a job wasn't it?" Sara wondered how Renni could have made it onto Aurora with such poor communication skills.
"I want to see him."
"Well, actually... Well, what do you think, Evelydia? Maybe you can take Sara on a short walk to see if she is ready to leave? Take her by his room. He did ask about her, remember?"
She felt a jolt when hearing that. He had woken up, and asked for her. Incurably analyzing as she was, she immediately followed that thought by wondering why she would find herself so concerned about him. He was an ally. A resemblance of a friend here. She wanted to cultivate this friendship because she knew now she was stationed in the building she least belonged to.
Jack was sitting up, but with his eyes closed. As she neared his bed he slowly opened his eyes without moving his head. His hair was a messy nest and he needed a shaving. He managed a smile:
"Hey there Amazona. I think I'll take back my bet, you did deserve that knife after all..." his voice muffled into a dry cough.
She reflexively patted his leg and smiled back:
"Thank you, but save your compliments for when you feel better. Very glad to see you alive."
"Thanks for your confidence!"
"You're welcome," she said teasingly. He grabbed hold of the sides of the bed to prop himself up better. She could tell that his strength was not as before. How much had been sucked out of him in these few days?
"At least it was a memorable trip!"
"I think that might be Stormare's title for the trip recorder show which I am sure he is showing all your brothers right now." Yes, Sara was sure their escapade was already making the rounds in all the private quarters. She knew people were already starved for entertainment. No matter how bizarre or simple the old recorded shows in the archive were, they never measured up to real life entertainment.
Sara and Jack had just provided a horror comedy that would be rewatched and laughed over for months. Everything from the scandalous comments about the texture of the yellow dust storm, to the revolting ending where both of them are shown as two lifeless shapes, sagging toward each other as some broken down supporting beams in a collapsed structure. Sara wondered what Stapleton was doing.
Jack closed his eyes again and let his body sag back into the pillows.
"I'll give him a spanking as soon as we get back." He was falling asleep. They still had to keep him on painkillers. He had several fractures that were calculated to heal within the usual five days, but since the lung tissue also was severely damaged it slowed down the healing process.
"I'll be back later on, they're dismissing me now. Anything I can get you?"
He just shook his head and remained quiet. But just as she was leaving he croaked:
"A hug would sit nicely."
She felt herself tense up at the intimate and surprising request. This was not appropriate behavior and Evelydia would be shocked if she saw anything like that happen. Sara walked up to him, bent down a little too close to his face, while keeping an eye on Evelydia who was busy at her notebook.
"Jack, have you heard of the expression 'if you wait for something...'"
"Good!" he smiled with a groggy voice.
"Exactly!" Sara whispered.
Sara nodded to Evelydia who had remained in a nearby room to check on another patient. They walked over to Sara's quarters together. Evelydia wanted to make sure Sara was strong enough to manage on her own.
"Come back tomorrow morning for a screening," Evelydia advised her.
"Of course. Thanks Evelydia." She noticed that Evelydia was lingering a bit.
"Would you like to look around for a while? There are so many things to trawl through here, you could stay here for eons and still not scratch the surface." Evelydia smiled and shook her head.
"Thank you, I will take you up on your offer one day, but what I am curious about, if you don't mind, is the Defense crew. What are they like?" Her voice seemed to open up in a more lively tone. "Is it true that they are all carrying permits?" finally slipped out.
So that's what it was all about. This fascination with Defense was nothing new. Sara had been aware of it since a small child, but then for other reasons. Her profession had of course led her into a midland between two very different groups. To her it was not as perverted as it must seem to Evelydia. Since Sara had inadvertently happened to be immune to suppressants she was, in a way,
much closer to them than her own people.
"Yes, it is true," Sara replied. Evelydia thought for a moment before continuing:
"And is the intention to let them continue like that, here?"
"I have not heard of any intentions otherwise, and besides, they are here to blaze the way for us, to protect us when needed and that, as you know, might come in handy."
"Yes, of course," Evelydia hastened to say before adding: "but are you sure it's safe?" She seemed genuinely worried. Sara smiled and replied:
"Keep in mind that I spent three nights there recently, without any harm done to me, and I was in the presence of the most fearsome looking of their crew. Their manners are fully civilized, and quite frankly not much unlike our. Actually, I met two women who were very nice!"
Sara tried to say all this without bursting out into laughter when she saw Evelydia's facial expression.
"Surely you're trying to play a joke on me! I once had to complete an emergency scan on one of them, and I had to call security when he began making very perverted comments!" Evelydia shook her head in a mimic of disgust.
"I assure you, nothing happened to me while I was there. They were all perfectly cordial."
"I also heard they barely ever use holos. Well pardon me for even thinking this out loud, but what must they be doing instead?" This made Sara raise her eyebrows. These were quite outspoken thoughts indeed. But Evelydia was an MT after all, who had seen and done many things others wouldn't have. But still, could this colony already have developed a clear and more outspoken rift? Stapleton had been such a fool, thought Sara, for wanting to live separately. It just helped feed the rumors.
"I saw them sit down to lunch together," tried Sara.
"Lunch? If I may speak on this as well," the voice had now taken on a much more loud and authoritative sound that Sara hadn't noticed before, "we, we haven't even been able to sit down to breakfast, lunch or dinner as a group yet, how can they be? Our food is still a messy gruel. It makes you have to wonder out loud who chose those engineers. Indeed it does make you wonder."
Sara decided immediately to not say anything more about the Defense crew lunch she had attended. Instead she began walking toward the door to pretend to adjust her receiver, and said:
"Evelydia, thank you so much again for all your kindness and help. I am sure everything will be sorted out. Captain Meadows, I am sure, has a good reason for setting his colony up the way he does. Every part has been carefully pre-calculated, no matter how strange it may seem to you and I."
Evelydia seemed genuinely calmed by hearing this.
"You're welcome, and thank you for your wise words. I think I have not quite adjusted evenly yet. I felt very even when I awoke onboard Aubade but this whole transition has really forced me to adjust my intake, and it surprises me!" Again, it surprised Sara that someone on suppressants would be this open.
"Don't worry, do what you have to do to stay even. I am sure Dr. Renni..."
"Please don't tell him what I just told you! Please!"
Sara saw that Evelydia's range of emotions were clearly in need of some severe finetuning. She wondered how many other crew members were exhibiting the same symptoms. It was not necessarily a desirable thing to have a whole colony of emotional wrecks during such a crucial time in the birth and establishment of their new colony. Captain Meadows really needed to join his crew and fast.
"Of course not," without thinking Sara placed a hand on Evelydia's arm. Evelydia immediately jumped back. Sara hastened to remove her hand but did not apologize. Instead she said with a calm voice:
"Of course I won't tell anyone. Think of me as your friend. Friends can confide in each other." Evelydia regained her usual smile and said:
"Thank you Sara, my friend." She was rubbing her arm on the spot where Sara had barely touched her.
"I better go back to my patients, but I will see you tomorrow." She smiled a nervous goodbye and left the library.
Her notebook was alerting her. Stapleton was on her private com channel. He looked alert and calm simultaneously. His dark hair had received a cut and he was clean shaven. He got straight to the point:
"How is he?"
So, no worry or concern for her. He was back to the cold and stern authority. She pretended as if nothing had occurred and responded calmly:
"He'll need a full week before he can get back on low-stress duty. His lungs are very damaged and the fractures aren't helping. They've been using all the nanos allowed but it still has been quite slow." She saw his face turn into disappointment.
"Damn!"
"I know. It was pretty bad out there." She wasn't sure how to explain the terror they had experienced. And it had been his idea to place the defense team in a separate building over five minutes away. Foolish, she thought. Stapleton was looking at something off screen but he was nodding affirming that he was listening. He looked back up at her and said:
"I'm coming over tomorrow. The storm has died down during the last hour and communications are crisp. We think it’s over."
"That whole stretch between our buildings needs foolproof work. It really is madness to risk losing more people over it. Why did you even..." she had to bite her lip not to continue. She was, after all, speaking to her Commander. But knowing that Jack had not been sober for all that many hours before such a demanding task, it had been foolish to send him out. It also felt hurtful to think that Stapleton had such little consideration for her.
But she saw that he had understood her and gave her an angry look:
"Look, I don't need to explain anything to you. What happened out there was a damned surprise to us all. We're working very hard to correct all foreseeable problems. This place is as new to us as it is to you. Your frustration is understandable, but won't get us any further. I sent my best man!"
He leaned over as if to close the connection but took another look at her and added:
"Meet me at the port at 800."
Sara had time to open her mouth and began saying “Wait!” when he closed the line.
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This was an enjoyable - and a pulse-racing - read indeed!