Ringclimber

Chapter 14 - Return... For A Moment

The Rings are an indefinite plane, stretching off to the distant globe of Saturn. They are crinkled and seamed, with fragments glinting occasionally in the muted sunlight as they tumble.

Below the vehicle, the form vanishes into a chaos of jet streams rumbling silently with particles and dust. Sharon, then Anne, then Pat, then Erin... they slide into motionlessness, watching the Rings shift slowly below them. Sharon reads in the coordinates from the vehicle locator, and calls up the pointer on her visor.

She looks around at the others. "Okay. Everyone got their marks, now?"

"Anne, OK. I guess."

"Pat, OK."

"Erin, OK. Let's go."

Sharon nods to herself. "OK, everyone download the vector from me. Take the mark. Here we go."

They feel the thrusters throbbing against their backs, a faint whisper entering their suits over the sound of air and sensors. For a while, nothing changes. Then it seems that the texture of the scene is changing, slowly, revealing order, and lapsing back into chaos again.

Something blurs their sight. It is the first dust. It clears, but some of it clings electrostatically to the visors. The repellors come up, driving the dust away with their fields.

Then some small pebbles rattle against their suits. The rocks are beginning to rise toward them, but it is an illusion. It is they who are descending, entering.

Some of the rocks head upward past them. Then they are enveloped. In the dark for a moment, and then back to a whitish translucence. Then back to clarity again. They are in the Rings.

They are surrounded by particles, from pebbles to boulders. The sizes seem to increase with distance. The matrix is threaded with streamers of dust and grit like veins.

Sharon brings up Anne's frequency. "Remember," she says, "stay linked. In case we need to avoid something. What do you think?"

"I.. haven't really looked around much. I... I'm just trying to uh, make sure I'm on top of everything."

"Look around, that's half the fun."

Anne takes the moment and looks. It is a strange desert of chaos. "It's beautiful," she whispers. "I can't believe I'm really here."

The innumerable vast boulders of ice form an endlessly ramified cavern around them. The extrapolated fixes from the vehicle have begun to lose value, deteriorating with the long-term unpredictability of the ring interactions; now it is up to them. They hope they can receive signals that are unable to pass the Rings.

But there is silence or noise on all frequencies.

Erin drifts up against Sharon. "Let's try the echo beacon."

"All right."

The ice cave is a chute through which light flows intermittently, clocked by the rotation of the chunk among the others in the Rings. Trafton looks up to see the shadows of the rescuers shaft through the dust, and then wink out as the sun flees.

"Hello," he calls. "Can you hear me?"

"Who are you talking to, Kyle?" Alvarez mutters.

"There's somebody there. I'm sure of it. They're using the beacon frequency ...I thought."

"Kyle? This is Sharon Lazlo. Can you hear me?" The voice is hollow and echoing.

Trafton feels a sudden shivering. "I... I can hear you. Are you out there?"

Bulky figures are visible in the cone of light, which slips past and vanishes, leaving the lights from the newcomers to startle from the glossy walls. Anne steps to Alvarez, checks his suit. Then she leans over Trafton, who is somehow unable to move. He feels tears running down his ice-cold face.

Anne looks up. "I think we'd better get the bubble flashed and ready."

"Outside," Sharon snaps. "We can't miss the rendezvous, and we've got less than five hours."

Anne feels the illusion of cold seeping through her suit. "Right." She looks around. "OK, I'll go flash the bubble, you guys help get them outside. Take it slow."

Pat, Erin and Sharon power slowly up through the Rings, the bubble suspended between them. Anne works within, starting the heaters, opening the suits.

With Saturn a wall beside them, and the Rings a floor beneath, they wait, eyeing the storms on the planet, and the jet streams in the Rings; watching the slow procession and mixing of the particles.

Pat is breathing hard with excitement. They are drifting slowly into the shadow of the planet. Erin, beside her, looks over and grins infectiously. "What do you think?"

"I want to stay." She sighs. "I think I'll spell Anne. She ought to have another look before we go."

Sharon glances over from where she floats high above them, beside the beacon, outgoing comm down. She doesn't want them to see the tears on her face, or hear the sobs she is unable to control. She can't help but think of Rael, now. She is confronted with the awesome size of space, and the place where he had died, and the inexorable rules of natural law that will condemn them if they are inadvertently too far from the rendezvous. She looks down at the Rings, wondering what she would do if she saw his suit, drifting there, alone, grinding amidst the particles.

Anne steps out from the bubble into space. Her only comment is a sharp intake of breath. Erin looks on, smiling.

Moments later, Sharon has a fix on the rendezvous vehicle. It is directly on course, and so are they. They will be going home this time, after all.

In the silence of the ready room, the team waits for Anne's report. Sharon is leaning back in her web, as if studying the ceiling; Erin drifts by the window, looking back at Saturn, while Pat waits on the wall beside the door, snacking carefully from a bag, looking around earnestly.

The door slips away, admitting Anne who drifts to the handles. She immediately senses the atmosphere. "Hey, everything's OK. They're going to be fine."

"That's good," Pat replies.

"Am I missing something?" Anne asks.

Pat sighs and looks down at her food bag. Sharon rubs her hands through her hair. But it is Erin who speaks. "We're ... just remembering."

Sharon sits up and at the same time as her mouth is a violent slash, her eyes are warm, and almost bewildered. "I've had enough," she snaps. "I'm going back."

Erin raises her eyebrows. "Right now? Or do we have time for dinner, first?"

Sharon smiles derisively. "You know what I mean. I've been living with this for a year, now. I'm tired of wondering what I could have or should have or would have done differently. It's time for me to see if I can... do it. From end to end."

Erin grins. "Gordon will be happy. Of course, it will be hard on him, taking care of Michel for months, alone, but I know he'll understand."

"You don't understand. I'm going solo."

"No!" Pat cries, startled out of her complacency. "You can't do that."

"I'm not risking anyone but myself."

Erin frowns. "Gordon won't agree to it."

Sharon glares at her, lips drawn back. "I don't care. I'll do it some other way. With my own money if I have to. It's going to be my risk."

Anne moves to Sharon's side, and holds up a hand as the others are about to leap into the discussion. "It's up to you to do what you want. But don't rush into it now, not when you know what you want. Wait until you've passed this decision point. Then start planning." She hesitates a moment. "I'll help you any way you want."

The others are silent, ashamed.

As they float out of the vehicle into the corridor, Pat mutters to Anne, "And I thought I was the good cop."

Kyle Trafton sleeps in the web, liquid balance gradually being restored by the slow pumping of the IV. He stirs suddenly, violently, then awakens.

There is someone in the room, drifting silently in the dimness.

"Who are you?" he cries.

The figure moves into the light. It is Sharon.

"Hi Kyle," she says, quietly, smiling.

"Hi Sharon," he whispers.

"I'm going back to Earth, for a climb in the Andes. I wanted to see you before I went. I wanted to apologize."

"For what?" he asks, incredulous.

She meets his eyes firmly. "For that evening at the opening. I'm sorry."

He takes her hand and smiles weakly. "No offense taken," he whispers, voice dry and rasping. "You were right, weren't you? Or maybe you were wrong. It wasn't the people who let me down. It was the machines. Or was it me? I should have known better."

She is still, as if trapped in thought. Then she returns, looking at him with a strange, fierce, expression. "No, I was wrong. But now I know you better." She squeezes his hand and withdraws. "I'll see you later."

Content, Layout, and Images Copyright © 1999 by Mark Cashman except where indicated (NASA photos)