Slowly, the storm subsided. As the roar of rainfall died to a patter, the sound of rushing water took over. Liu stepped into the driver's bubble and watched the new river as it coursed away from the mountains. The storm stood ominously, a tower of grey vapor in the sky to the east.

The torrent of rainwater began to dry up within the hour, and the Iapetus was finally able to embark. The six wheels struggled to make headway in the wet, sludgy ground, but still the rover rolled forward. It seemed that the small bump of the hill took far too long to sink below the horizon. Liu gazed out of the driver's bubble, not once touching the controls, as the Iapetus made its slow, arduous way through the mud, studying the horizon closely. Gaea had nearly twice the diameter of Earth, making the horizon unsettlingly distant.

On closer inspection, Gaea was a very disorienting place. Having been locked in the confined of the Facem for six years, it had evaded her notice for some time, but looking at the raw planet in its raw form seemed to bring up memories of Earth, and all the alien differences came into stark focus.

For one, the sun was very dim. It was certainly hot enough, and even now seemed to beat down from its perch on the tops of the mountains. But the light it gave off was surprisingly weak. Liu could almost look at it without causing herself any pain. There was also the impossibly wide horizon, large enough to look vaguely bowl shaped. Ironically, it made her feel claustrophobic. And of course, the pull of gravity, like bricks tied to her legs and arms, sucking her down.

The first few hours of the expedition were silent for the most part. Liu and Amit did what they could to make small talk. She learnt that he lived in Jing-Jin-Ji before the Facem, shared some stories from back at Copenhagen, but the conversation inevitably tapered out, sputtering out in the constant whine of the rover and the oppressive crush of the planet's gravity. Eventually, the two scientists retreated to their own corners of the Iapetus.

After a restless night, full of light and worry, Liu woke to find the city of Eridu gone. Nothing but empty, flat desert surrounded her on all sides, with the mountain range looming in the distance.

Amit spoke from within the rover.

"We'll be stopping sometime soon. I hope you got all your equipment ready."

Liu grunted an affirmation and turned back to the panorama outside.

The Iapetus, being an exploratory and scientific expedition, would stop once every few hundred kilometers to allow the two scientists to run tests and take samples. The hope, at least for Liu, was that the initial tests for biological activity had not been careful enough. She would be the first to find life from outside Earth's biosphere.

But maybe not here.

As Liu left the rover, she was struck with a stinging barrage of sand and dust. The desert was a bowl with her at the bottom, and the wind blowing from every direction. Liu and Amit hurried to scoop up dirt and insert little probes into the cracked soil. Excitingly, the sand immediately below the surface was dark with moisture, from yesterday's storm. Maybe something could grow here.

Awkwardly shielding their faces with their arms, the two scientists struggled back into the rover, bringing with them a few bags of samples, data, and a flurry of loose dust. After a quick shower to wash of the grit, Liu sat at one of computer monitors and began picking apart the information.

The hours trickled by, uncounted by the sun or the landscape outside. Still the Iapetus rolled, and the wind howled, and Liu studied the screens, until finally she found her answer.

GaeaWhere stories live. Discover now