Colony Three (PAUSED)

En Route

En Route

The ice is slick under my gloves. The headlamp has a strong white shine, and I'm grateful for the light down deeper in the crevasse. Here and there in the wall I can see bits of metal and wood, jutting out of the ice at angles, or lying in small holes.

'The station must have really fallen,' I think, because the debris it left behind are in quite violent shape. Ice and snow drifts overhead and falls on me, tiny taps and pats on my head. Bits land on the ridges of my eye-sockets and melt, sending freezing water streaming into my eyes.

Above me, the darkness presses down. Daylight isn't for hours more. My temples throb and I fumble, swinging side to side on the line.

I lash out with the axe and catch ahold of the wall, steadying myself. My head pulses again, but not as strong. I need to sleep too. My vision wavers a bit, but that could just as easily be from the darkness as from lack of sleep.

I keep up the descent. Strangely, the ice is slick even down here, a few thousand feet down. Maybe a drain from the camp...? I cringe and swipe at my eyes. Hopefully not. Anyway, wouldn't that have frozen by now? Any liquid water should have frozen by now.

I shake my head and slide down another few feet. My headlight swings in the motion, and I loose concentration for the hundredth time.

***

Several more hours pass, and several more bouts of head-throbbing pain, before I stop. Fathers soldiers won't be able to descend much faster than me, but if I don't rest...

A jagged piece of corrugated metal shields the entrance to a small gap in the ice. It's easily tall enough for me to stand, and several feet deep. It's also right behind the cable.

I shimmy around the cable, the wire bucking and twisting beneath my fingers, and slide into the cave.

My Exposure suit gets a place on the wall, hanging from a chunk of rock frozen in the glacial ice, and I slide into the sleeping bag. It's not exactly warm...but it's almost as good as my 'bed' back at the Colony, where I have gasoline heaters.

***

This is taking longer than I thought. I can feel people descending above me; their movements make the cable shake. I try to speed up.

The hours blur together. Ice and rock, with the occasional piece of metal wreckage. When my feet touch the bottom, absolutely covered in concrete debris, I can barely stand.

The cable wobbles next to me. Time to get what I, or rather, what Father wants down here. I flash the headlamp around in the dark.

Interspaced with the rest of the wreckage are books and notepads, covered in Anglish scrawl. I may speak the language, but I can't read more than a few words. I grab one of the books, barely damaged, because of the picture on the front.

Rows of green plants, tall, with broad leafs and tassels of yellow on the tops. A machine, almost like a rover, is moving between the plants. A thin trail of smoke spirals up out of its exhaust vent.

I slide the book into my bag and start to scale the chunk of concrete. Something tugs at my midsection.

I whirl, but find only the cable, and my harness still strapped to it. I fumble with the clips, shaking with adrenaline relief. I knew they couldn't have gotten down here that fast, but still...

I scrape my Exposure suit on the rock, tearing a few of the tightly woven threads covering the knees. *Damn.*

A light distracts me from the damaged section. It's a few yards away, presumably wedged between several blocks of the concrete. As scramble over to it, something pokes at my brain.

I reach the light when it dawns on me.

There's no station.