All Fall Down (12 page)

           
In the hangar the Colony's ships were arranged in bays around the central landing area. There were aircars for short surface travel. Cargo ships for near space travel, usually used to dock with visiting supply ships. There were some personal space craft and larger transport craft. Over in one section were several Needle-class defensive ships. Technicians moved cargo and parts around using exoskeletons, mecha. At eye level and just above, the hangar could have been part of any space port or Habitat. The hangar roof was undecorated, bare rock, with some power and comms cabling, leading to the protective shielding and doors at the surface entrance.

           
He waited for Sophie to take him to the surface, where he intended to visit the site where the colonist, the scientist had died.

           
Technicians in light grey overalls worked at various craft, performing maintenance checks or in the stages of loading or unloading cargo crates heavily decorated in official seals and warnings. Win had no doubt these contained the precious minerals which were key to growing, nurturing and keeping alive the AIs which oversaw human society. Collected in the corners of the hangar, and in a light patina on unmoved equipment, was Fall's dust. It crept in and moved everywhere within the Colony.

           
Robots milled around, following technicians, assisting with repairs, or scurrying away on errands. The hangar thrived with activity as much as the corridors. The extra space above the central Hangar area lent an echo, giving the space a feeling of greater activity from its magnified and distorted sounds.

           
Win looked around for Sophie Argus. A technician came up to him. Win saw the woman look at his MI insignia on his uniform before speaking, “Yes, Sir, can I help?”

           
“I am meeting your Operations Director, Sophie Argus. Is she here?”

           
“This way, Sir, follow me.” The technician led him across the huge landing area, which was scorched in places from landing and take off thrusters. Lights and lines patterned the floor, to lead ships to their designated bays. Win followed the technician to his right, to an aircar already prepped and powered. “If you'll just wait here, Sir, she'll be right along.”

           
“Thank you.” Win leaned against the aircar and surveyed the hangar. He wondered which of these people was last to see the dead colonist before she'd gone to the surface, and how they'd allowed her to walk back when the storm was due in.

Double sunlight made the sky a fresh mint-white colour.

           
The aircar descended side on to the inselberg. Win peered out of the polarised window. The top surface of the inselberg was smooth, polished by Fall’s eternal storm. Here and there deep crevices cracked the surface widthways. Win saw that the lee side sloped easily to the ground, a profile created by the storm. The rock’s trailing edge formed a cliff, giant boulders littered the cliff base, and a few rock needles remained in its protective shadow.

           
After the aircar had settled Win left through the rear hatch and walked over to the crevice where the scientist had died. Though he wore goggles and was fully protected, Win squinted into the crevice, and up its starkly lit sides. There were two suns obliterating his shadow from directly overhead.

           
Behind him, standing impassive by the aircar was Sophie. Like him, she had on a full environment suit, rated for twin sun radiation. Her eyes, too, were protected by the polarised goggles built into the light face mask, and on top of that she wore light, sandy coloured robes. Win thought they both looked like the bounty hunters of old.

           
In front of him was the incident site. A crevice in a rock island in a planet-wide desert. Win felt the thick sand beneath his feet give way, dust drifted from his feet. He walked a few more steps onto the bare rock deeper in the crevice.

           
The bead in his ear relayed Sophie’s voice, “The suit will protect you as long as you keep it intact. Don’t expose any part of the inner lining or your skin.”

           
“Thank you. Can you talk me through the scientist's last known movements?”

           
“We had Doctor Maki's signal walking from due south, directly along the side of the cliff face and going to a science experiment site a couple of kilometres south. We lost her signal at the crevice where you're standing. Probably just inside.”

           
“Sheltering from the storm?”

           
“We think so.”

           
“And where is the body being held now?”

           
There was silence. Not for long, just a second or two, but Win noticed it. “We never found it.”

           
“I'm sorry, Ms. Argus. I was under the impression the scientist had died of exposure.”

           
“Her Colony tag's last transmission showed her clothing was gone and her skin was exposed to the sun and storm. It registered her heart stopping, and then we lost contact with it.”

           
“And you've never found the body? This wasn't in the report.”

           
“The storm is very violent, Commander. Wind speeds reach six hundred kilometres an hour. The body could be on the other side of the planet by now.”

           
“I see.”

           
Win shrugged a shoulder bag to the floor, then bent to take out several sensors resembling black pebbles and spheres. Within seconds the spheres lifted off the floor and sped out of sight, taking up positions above and inside the crevice.

Win placed a palm on each black pebble. They split apart into different shaped sections: first into small connected cubes, then deforming, stretching, flattening, spiralling, curling or oblating. Win saw Sophie walk into his field of vision, off to his left. His sensors looked organic, chitinous, a collision between insect DNA and automata. All automata had, by law, to look artificial, to look like the clunky naïve designs of centuries before, to reinforce the separation of organic life and constructed help. Even the AIs – from the Starquakes, down through the PlanetStars, EarthMinds, HabMinds, HiveBodies and ShipsBosuns – had to be educated to present themselves as strange, different, exotic, not-human, when they used holographic avatars.

           
Win had designed his sensors to be as independent as possible, and to be functional, rather than aesthetic. His environmental background meant he looked to nature – Old Earth, Xenoalgae and NeoXenes – for his inspiration. Entomology, the insects of the worlds of humanity, proved endlessly resourceful. And so his sensors resembled them.

           
One of the sensor automatons walked towards the rock face, each leg, each step, testing micro-seismic variations in the ground as it moved forward. Of the other two automata, one flew on dragonfly wings, and the other scurried up Win’s robes, perching on his shoulder like a protective scarab.

           
Sophie disappeared from his view, returning to the aircar.

           
Win walked forward. The overhead sun light made the rock walls in the crevice almost bone white. The minerals in the rock must be reflecting or refracting the light. As he walked, taking deliberate, measured steps, the rock walls gradually filled his view, surrounding him on both sides. He entered the steep sided valley.

           
“Sophie, have you a topological map of the rock island?”

           
“I'll send one to your suit. But it’s out of date.”

           
“Thank you.”

           
In his goggles, a forced perspective three dimensional map of the inselberg appeared. Using eye commands he zoomed into the valley he stood in, matched his position to the projection, then instructed his suit’s computer to track him using Fall’s satellites and its built-in motion sensors. He built a holo as he moved.

           
Win looked from side to side. The map was indeed old. Most of the crevice’s walls had changed shape. His shoulder sensor measured changes of over ten percent in width, rock wall topography and micro-fracture length and density.

           
He started his slow walk again. Just ahead he could make out one of the black spheres. They were recording all data as a back-up, triangulating his position, and creating their own holo of the area. They also gathered gravimetric information. After ten paces he stopped and took a brief look backward. His walking sensor was carefully following. He watched it lower a device to test for biological markers.

           
The automaton's shape was based on the leaf bugs of his home planet Ma’Fung. Unlike its inspiration, the automaton’s legs were capable of extending to two metres in length, which made it look spindly, unstable, like an Old Earth stick insect.

Win walked slowly through the crevice. His goggles automatically adjusted to the fluctuating sun glare and reflections from the rock faces as he wandered from side to side. His thoughts wandered to his wife, Xiao-xing and his son, Hong-xian. He should be with them now. The last time he'd seen Xiao-xing, her hand had been on Hong-xian’s shoulder, both of them waving at him as his pod started its ascent up Ma’Fung’s ancient space elevator. He had waved until he knew they could no longer see him. When he was high enough, he had seen the sun break the horizon line, slightly north of their position due to Ma’Fung’s eccentric attitude and orbit. The glare from the northern snows had caught him by surprise. A giant blossom enveloped the world. Around him the rock walls gleamed like that morning snow from afar.

           
Win pulled the robe sleeve aside on his left arm, and tapped at the control band set into the suit’s outer layers. He recorded his personal log, detailing the environment.

           
“Sensor one, sample wall material.” The leaf bug behind him pulled up its ground sensor, ambled to the rock wall, and scraped rock samples onto its body, which quickly disappeared.

           
Win walked back to the crevice opening and looked out to the desert. He took a step forward. Would the crevice have been a shelter, or a wind tunnel? Had she gone in thinking she would be safe? But then why remove her clothes?

           
“Log. Suppose I am the colonist. I am trying to get back before the twin suns bake me inside my suit. I have battled through the storm. I cannot see my way, except that my goggles must be projecting a path to follow. I’m tired. I am probably thinking about how to explain why I’m late. And knowing how late I am, and how much danger I'm in, I still stop. Why? To see something that makes me want to risk being baked inside my suit? Why not call out an aircar?”

           
Win stepped further out of the crevice, turned and walked back along the side of the inselberg. After some metres he turned, put his head down, and started to trudge though the sand. Away to his left, he saw Sophie exit the aircar. He dragged his feet in the sand, trying to feel the heaviness of the shifting ground, how it might feel if it was still fluid during the storm, how tiredness might affect his steps. He paused for a few moments pulling the robes tighter around his face mask, so that only his goggles peered out.

           
Win pushed his feet through the final few metres of sand, came level with the crevice entrance, and carried on. After a further two metres he stopped. “Sophie, I think I would like to return to base now, thank you.”

Kate and Djembe entered Fall’s Central Operations Room on the bottom floor of the Colony. When they arrived the security holos were showing Win looking around the main hangar bay.

“We don’t have many visitors, you know. Excuse me watching your colleague. It was a vendetta killing last time as well, wasn't it?”

Kate turned to the man talking. “We haven’t been introduced.” She smiled, “General Leland, Military Intelligence.” Kate put out her hand.