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Chapter 45

Chapter 45

January 30th, 2158 (station time)

The sun began its fall to the horizon.  Logan and Mike continued to following the marked path led them deeper into the large desert.  Running was feeling more and more natural, and the two were able to cover a great distance in only twenty minutes.

Logan wanted to study the images from the cave while they ran, but knew that this leg of the trip would be fairly quick.  Instead he watched the landscape change from rolling hills to flat white desert.  As the tallest hill began to fade from view behind them, a new landmark grew in front of them.  A tall rocky spire stood alone in a sea of sand.

They were two thirds of the way between the two landmarks when Mike began to slow.  "Satellites picked up a large rocky structure in the center of this desert," Mike said.  "The rover changed course to record information on the structure.  Its last data was transmitted from this spot just ahead of us."

Pinpointing the last spot were the rover had transmitted the information was not exactly accurate.  The spot was outlined using the augmented display in a large red circle about half a kilometer wide.  It was obvious that the rover was not in the circle, which was somewhat expected.  Mike turned and followed the right side of the circle observing for any visual clues.  Logan followed suit and went left around the circle.

The two met on the other side, neither having seen anything.  Walking half the distance towards the center of the circle, the two made a smaller arc, half the radial distance as the first.  The two met up once again with out having seen anything.

"Well," said Mike, "I'm not surprised.  After sending the transition, the rover would have continued on toward the rocky structure.  We should spread out about five hundred meters apart and keep going."

"Sounds good," Logan responded.

Mike entered a few prompts on his DNAC and a dot appeared on Logan's heads up display.  The dot indicated the starting point for the next leg of their hunt.  As Logan headed for the dot, he began to cycle through his various display, in search of something that might assist in finding the rover.

Just as he reached his starting spot, Logan found a sub prompt for GPR.  Each of the mech suits had been set up to do a variety of jobs.  GPR, or ground penetrating radar, was one such task.  The radar itself was probably still packed in storage back at the base camp.  Even if Logan had the radar, his mech didn't have the software needed to collect the proper data from it.

Logan wondered if he could use the existing hardware on his mech for a different purpose.  His mech was equipped with an extremely powerful electro magnet, and he wondered if it couldn't be used for a slightly different purpose.

"Alright," Mike said from his spot five hundred meters away.  "Lets begin."

Mike began walking and Logan did the same.  While watching, Logan used his limited knowledge of programming to build a simple command for the electro magnet.  This program was designed to do one thing, send out a magnetic wave every five seconds.

Next he adjusted the sensors on his mech to pick up any item that manipulated his magnetic waves.  In essence he had just created a sonar device that would locate nothing but metal.  Tentatively Logan activated the program.

For a brief moment, four seconds to be exact, nothing happened.  But on the fith second, there was a quiet hum as the magnet charged and then a snap as the magnetic wave was released.  Logan noticed the slight smell of ozone.

"What was that?" Mike called with a little concern in his voice.

As Mike finished talking, Logan's sensors began to display information from the wave.  Mike's mech showed up as clear as can be, as well as iron mixed in with the sand.  His first test had been a success.