Chapter Ten

By the time their morning alarm went off, Ludwig had worked his mind into knots. Much of the stress came from how little time remained in their mission—three days and two hours now that their day had officially started. With so little time left, Ludwig was consumed by fears of unforeseen obstacles that might arise at Site Alpha or along the way, potentially derailing their mission entirely. And then there was the looming question of how to manage a cohesion partner he was now genuinely afraid of. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to fail the mission. But both felt like very real possibilities.

When Ludwig forced himself out of his cot, the metal frame creaking slightly beneath him, he was surprised to see Djawadi already up, sitting at the edge of his bed. It was ironic—after weeks of nagging Djawadi to stop sleeping past wake-up, Ludwig now found himself wishing for a few moments alone before facing him.

“I have a proposal,” Djawadi said.

Ludwig sighed, pressing his fists against his eyes, trying to ease the headache he hadn’t even realized was there.

“I can’t believe I’m suggesting this, but I think we need to establish a new basecamp closer to Site Alpha.”

He met Djawadi’s gaze. “Are you sure? What about your claustrophobia?”

Ludwig wasn’t sure what to think. It was a sound suggestion—it would save them hours of hiking back and forth between Site Alpha and their current base camp. In fact, it might be the change in plans they needed to ensure mission success. But what was Djawadi’s angle?

“I know, I know. But at least we won’t have to worry about such a long hike each day. That means more time working at the site and gives us more of a cushion in our window.

“Plus,” he continued, “we’ll have all of our backup equipment right there in case something goes wrong.”

Ludwig sighed. Now that he’d heard the plan, he had a hard time envisioning it being done any other way. It was an option he’d considered yesterday but dismissed, not wanting to exacerbate his potentially violent partner’s condition. A paranoid part of him didn’t like that Djawadi was the one suggesting the idea.

Even if it was their best bet. “Are you sure you’ll be able to handle it?”

“No,” Djawadi admitted. “But what other choice do we have?”

Ludwig nodded. “Let’s do it.”

Djawadi nodded back. “So, we pack up today, try to get one more really good night of sleep, and then hike down there tomorrow to establish the new camp?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ludwig said.

To his credit, Djawadi immediately went to work, doing a quick inventory of the equipment they’d need to bring with them. Ludwig sat on his cot and watched him work, trying to muster the motivation to help. But in truth, he was feeling extremely on edge now that he’d agreed to go even deeper into the caverns with a man he felt unsafe around.

To his credit, Djawadi immediately went to work, doing a quick inventory of the equipment they’d need to bring with them. Ludwig sat on his cot and watched him work, trying to muster the motivation to help. But in truth, he was feeling extremely on edge now that he’d agreed to go even deeper into the caverns with a man he felt unsafe around.

Ludwig had never felt such an intense loneliness before. It felt like someone was sitting on his chest, and though he told himself to stand up and start working on something to take his mind off it, he just sat there. It was sobering, sitting in that festering loneliness, realizing just how reliant he was on Djawadi for his survival. It was strange, sitting in that loneliness, avoiding the realization of something his primal nature already knew—he was genuinely in danger.

And on top of it all was the mission—the mission they had to complete.

“Goddammit,” Ludwig whispered to himself as he stood up from his cot.

An hour later, they stood in the airlock, suited up, each carrying two large cases of equipment. Once Djawadi’s mission-ready indicator light flashed on Ludwig’s view screen, Ludwig started the manual depressurization sequence he’d created, and they both crossed the threshold of the airlock into the caverns.

The hike to Site Alpha was as strenuous as they had expected, though nowhere near as grueling as their trek to Beta Site. They still took several breaks at Djawadi’s request. During one such break, about halfway to the site, Ludwig noticed Djawadi’s hands shaking. Moments later, Djawadi stood up and said, “Let’s go.”

“We can rest a few more minutes,” Ludwig offered.

In response, Djawadi picked up his two cases of equipment and began walking away, failing to mask a slight, awkward stumble as he did.

“Fair enough,” Ludwig muttered under his breath.

It was 0300 hours when they reached the shaft leading down into Site Alpha. They set their cases down and walked to the edge, peering into the darkness below. Of course, they couldn’t see far. Even with their lights shining down, the shaft was too deep to reveal the bottom. Ludwig thought he caught a slight refraction of light where the water might begin, but he couldn’t be sure.

The shaft wasn’t perfectly vertical—it angled slightly the deeper it went. While the incline was still too steep to significantly ease the descent, it might make climbing back up just a bit easier.

Ludwig leaned further over the edge, angling his light in the hopes of spotting the water line. But then he became aware of how close Djawadi stood beside him—and how easily his partner could push him over the edge.

He quickly leaned back and stepped away from the edge, stumbling slightly in the process.

“You okay there?” Djawadi asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Yeah,” Ludwig said, forcing a chuckle. “Tried to see the water line and almost went right over the edge.”

“Well, should we head down there?” Djawadi asked.

“Why don’t you set up the habitation pod? I’ve got something I want to put together,” Ludwig said.

“Oh, I just assumed we’d set it up at Site Alpha so we wouldn’t have to climb up and down the shaft every day.”

Ludwig shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’ll strain the pod’s life support more if it’s exposed to the corrosive gases down there.”

“It’s rated for that,” Djawadi said. “And climbing up and down this shaft every day is not going to be fun.”

“I’ve got an idea for that,” Ludwig said. “I went through our climbing equipment earlier and found some simple pulleys for offsetting our weight. That’ll already make getting up and down easier once everything’s properly anchored. But if I can rig one of our power drills to act as a motor, it should do most—if not all—of the work climbing up and down the shaft. That way, even if one of us gets incapacitated, we’ll still be okay.”

Ludwig didn’t mention that he’d come up with this plan explicitly because he feared the worst from his partner and wanted another way back up if something went wrong.

“You really think one of our little power drills can handle that? We’re way too heavy.”

“That’s what the pulleys are for,” Ludwig responded, a smile growing on his face. This was his favorite part of being an engineer: seeing a problem and solving it with a simple solution.

Djawadi still looked skeptical.

“Trust in the engineer,” Ludwig said. “I mean, this is ancient engineering too, we’ve been using simple pulleys and motors to run the world since the dawn of humanity. Why don’t you get the pod expanding and stow our equipment while I work on this?”

“Be my guest,” Djawadi said.

Ludwig set to work on his pulley system. It was satisfying to focus on something simple yet effective for the task ahead. He even managed to let go of some of the primal fear gnawing at him—though he still ensured Djawadi stayed within his line of sight. While the engineering for the pulley system was straightforward, he couldn’t resist adding a few sensors to track load capacity and include some fail-safes.

An hour later, the pod had finished expanding. Djawadi called Ludwig over to help assemble the airlock and attach it to the pod. Once the airlock’s framework made contact with the FLUX, they activated an electric charge, allowing the FLUX to expand again. The airlock’s hydraulic rods began the slow process of stretching the pod material over its structure. With an hour remaining for the airlock to fully adhere, Ludwig felt eager to return to the shaft and resume work on his pulley system. But he was starting to feel hungry, so they took a break to eat.

Since they couldn’t take their helmets off until the airlock was finished, their dinner consisted of the affectionately named protein slurry, fed to them through their suits. Ludwig opted for chicken flavoring, after his bad experience with the lasagna flavoring the last time they’d eaten suit rations. After eating, they checked on the pod and noted the airlock expansion was progressing smoothly.

“I’m almost ready with my pulley system. You up for helping me rappel down and add some anchor points before we call it a night?” Ludwig asked.

“Let’s do it,” Djawadi said.

“You’re not too tired?”

“I can rest when this is done,” Djawadi replied, his tone carrying only a hint of grimness.

Before descending into the shaft, Ludwig finished assembling his pulley system and bolted it into the cavern rock. Once secured, even if other climbing anchor points failed, they should remain safe. If his math was right, the contraption could handle about five hundred pounds of weight before slippage. With the pulley system in place, Ludwig had Djawadi help him set up the first two anchor points at the edge of the shaft. Afterward, he ran the rope through them and fed it into his pulley system.

Pleased with his work, Ludwig donned his climbing belt, clipping it into the existing equipment on his suit, and fed the rope through it.

“Ready?” Djawadi asked, walking over to him.

Ludwig nodded and handed a climbing belt to his partner.

“What are we supposed to say? On belay or something like that?” Djawadi asked while fastening his climbing belt.

“I’ve only rock climbed twice in my life, and both times were more than twenty years ago,” Ludwig replied. “So no, I don’t remember. How about when I need more slack, I’ll just say ‘down’ through the radio. If I need you to help pull me back up, I’ll say ‘up.’”

“Seems simple enough. And if you’re in trouble?”

“I’ll say, ‘I’m in trouble.’”

Djawadi chuckled.

Ludwig added, “I shouldn’t need to, but if I’m ever off the rope while installing a new anchor, I’ll flash a red light on your visor display.”

Djawadi nodded. “Works for me.”

Ludwig helped Djawadi feed the rope through his belt and then his own, assisting him in coiling the extra rope to avoid any slack. The coiling was mostly for show; Ludwig didn’t want to rely on his partner for safety during the climb down. He might have been able to suppress his fear of Djawadi while working on the pulley system, but he wasn’t a fool. Even if Djawadi attempted sabotage, the pulley system acted as his failsafe. If there was any slippage—or if his partner deliberately tampered with it—Ludwig’s suit would alert him, giving him time to react. And it wasn’t as though Djawadi could simply cut the rope; its fibers were metal, requiring either a plasma torch or hours of work with a hacksaw.

After double-checking that the rope was securely fed through the first two anchor points, Ludwig took a few quick breaths to psych himself up for the climb.

He nodded at Djawadi, standing at the edge of the shaft. “Here goes nothing,” he said, then stepped backward over the edge.

Over the next two hours of placing climbing anchors, Ludwig made steady progress and found his rhythm. Every three meters, he pounded a new anchor into the rock, paired it with the computer to check its stability, and then moved down to repeat the process.

He was nearly at the waterline when he had to replace an anchor that wasn’t completely secure in the rock. Considering it was the first time he’d encountered this issue, Ludwig felt things were going quite well. Djawadi had even turned on some background music as Ludwig climbed, filling the silence between their sparse conversation. Ludwig relished the work—it was physical enough to be strenuous but not overly taxing. Even when he occasionally unnerved himself by looking up the shaft to see Djawadi’s figure standing over him, it was a symbolic fear—one he could set aside by focusing on his task.

Once Ludwig reached the waterline, he noticed the steam rising from the boiling water. He dropped a sensor into the water, and when the readings came in, he wasn’t pleased. The water was well past its boiling point on Earth, meaning it was nearly double the boiling point on their planet—and that was just the temperature. The current at the bottom of the shaft was so strong he wouldn’t be able to swim against it. The first twenty yards underwater would be manageable, but closer to the bottom of the shaft, he’d be entirely at the mercy of the current.

The computer used some of the sensor data to map the water current in relation to the cavern map. Interestingly, the current appeared to be rising from the water table beneath Site Alpha and flowing through a small tube at the bottom of the shaft. Once it entered the shaft, the current became chaotic—rushing through the bottom, slamming into the shaft wall, and churning in a violent whirlpool before slowly seeping into porous cracks and entering other tunnels, continuing like a dangerous boiling river.

If those cracks at the bottom of the shaft ever became plugged, the shaft would completely fill with water, flooding Site Alpha and their camp higher up the shaft—and their pod was definitely not rated for that. Of course, such a scenario was extremely unlikely without significant intervention, but the idea remained unsettling.

Well, if Ludwig wouldn’t be able to swim against the current, his only option was to climb all the way to the bottom of the shaft and use the floor to pull himself across to the other side. With the water pushing against him the entire time, he would need to place anchors as he went then so he could rest along the way.

If he didn’t set the anchors and lost his grip, he risked being slammed into the shaft wall by the current. But if he succeeded in reaching the other side of the shaft’s bottom and climbed up the far end, he would emerge into the cavern where Site Alpha awaited.

“Everything good?” Djawadi asked.

Ludwig realized he must have been frozen in thought, considering how to approach the task. “Yeah. Just be ready to haul me back up if you feel sudden slack in the rope. The current’s going to be a bitch to deal with.”

“You need me to do anything? Maybe I can help?”

“No,” Ludwig said. “Even if you could, it’s probably safer if only one of us is down here until all the anchors are in place.”

“Fair enough. Just be careful.”

Ludwig shook his head at the grim irony of feeling more at ease with the dangerous task ahead than with the partner who’d just told him to be careful. With that thought, he signaled for the pulley system to ease him into the water.