Runaway World

The Bridge

     A few hundred kilometres further to the west lay the Mid Atlantic Cryovolcanic Ridge. Europe and the Americas were slowly drifting apart as continental drift continued, the Earth's mantle and crust not caring in the slightest that the planet had been cast adrift from the solar system. As the Atlantic widened, cracks opened up, not only in the sea bed, letting magma well up to form a chain of conventional lava volcanoes on the ocean floor, but also in the thick layer of ice that covered the still liquid deep ocean. Water, pushed up by the weight of the ice above it, gushed up through the gap to form cryovolcanoes. Like ordinary volcanoes but with water instead of lava and ice instead of rock. Usually the water just flowed, boiling in the vacuum and freezing as it lost its heat to the empty sky above, but occasionally forces in the deep ice caused pressure to build up in the water until something gave, and then water would be erupted into the sky with great force, sometimes carried hundreds of kilometres upwards before falling again as shards of ice.

     Somewhere to the west, such an eruption was happening now and there was snow falling around the halted caravan of hab-rovers. Not the light, fluffy snow from the old movies that drifted lazily and was carried sideways by the wind but hard needles of ice that fell with the speed and force of bullets in the vacuum, shattering where they hit the ground. Andrew and James felt it hammering on their heads and shoulders, trying to beat them to their knees. They forced themselves to remain standing, to remain under the overlapping sheets of armour, knowing that if they fell any shard of ice that found a gap would go through their surface suits and the delicate flesh beneath like a knife, not only cutting but also freezing them, maybe turning an entire limb as hard as marble. The only remedy then would be amputation.

     The surface consisted of gravelly water ice that glittered in the light of the distant sun so that it looked as if they were walking on diamonds. It danced as it was hammered by the continuing barrage and the impacts threw a constant haze of fine particles above the ground creating an almost ethereal spectacle, as if they'd somehow found their way to a strange, magical land of miracles. Above them, the sun was ringed by a halo where its light was scattered by the still falling ice crystals.

     "It's beautiful!" said James in awe. "Beautiful and deadly."

     "Maybe you'd better go back in," said Andrew anxiously as the barrage on his body reached a new intensity. "I didn't realise it was this bad. I'm pretty sure we can manage this without you."

     "Joe's only three years older than me and he's outside," James replied, pointing at two shadowy figures visible beside the next rover ahead. "I'll be okay." Without waiting for his father to reply, James began walking towards Joe and Philip, his head bowed as if he was trying to keep rain from running down his collar. Cursing under his breath, Andrew ran to keep up with him.

     Philip and Joe were busy removing one of the bridge segments strapped to the side of their rover. Each rover carried two segments, one on either side. James, joining them, began to undo one of the clasps holding the rear of the segment firmly in place and Andrew went to work on another. With Philip and Joe at the other end of the segment they soon had it loose and a system of helium hydraulics lowered it gently to the ground while the ice continued to fall, shards flying in all directions as they ricocheted off the latticed steel beams. Philip went to a control panel at one end of the segment, touched a couple of the controls and it unfolded lengthwise to three times its original width bringing large, steel wheels into contact with the ground.

     Li, his wife, Lungelo and his daughter, meanwhile, had unloaded the bridge segment from the other side of Philip's rover, unfolded it and were driving it forward, toward the wide crevasse that had halted the caravan. "These things were designed to anchor in solid ice," said Valentina. "How will they hold up in this loose gravelly stuff?"