Pom carefully refilled their canteens with tepid water from the reclamation vat, before relieving himself in the other end. He hit it with the flat of his hand, and the sound returned was disappointingly hollow. “We’ll run out tomorrow,” he said.

“I know,” Mei reluctantly admitted.

It’s bad, she thought while she opened the air filter of the buggy’s cabin and removed a bucket load of sand and dust. They had been traveling uphill, but if there was any water to be found, it would be in aquifers, and those were more accessible in low grounds. In addition, should the terrain get any more rugged, the buggy’s action radius would be reduced as well, reducing their chances of finding anything.

She had a pang of hunger and wanted to eat something, as she hadn’t eaten for three days. But she knew that if she did, her need for water would increase, and in any case, water would run out long before they would starve.

“Let’s go, we can’t be out here when the sun rises,” she said, as she climbed back into the vehicle.

They set off, climbing the gentle slope.

The sky turned from dark grey to metallic, then rose pink, then orange, and the sun crossed the horizon in the east. The ground under them was still cool when they first set out, but it grew warmer as the sun rose higher.

The sun had risen high when they neared the top of the ridge, the buggy’s battery all but spent. They had been climbing for at least two hours, and the only thing that lay before them was another ridge, equally as high, directly ahead.

Pom found himself slumping in his seat, fighting exhaustion. His long nap had done little for him. As he approached the peak of the first ridge, he steered the vehicle over to the base of a rocky outcrop and parked it in the shadow.

He drank a good mouthful of water, and his thoughts returned to him. He sat down for a moment and focussed then disembarking to begin setting up the camp. This time, mere moments after attaching the radio receiver to the screen of the solar array, it beeped.

Pom walked over and looked at the screen. His eyes had difficulty focussing, but he could clearly see that there was not just one signal this time, but two.

After waking Mei, he showed her the result.

“Two drop pods,” she said.

“They don’t contain any water” Pom lamented, already having checked the manifests for the transponder codes.

“True,” Mei answered, “But since the drop pods were supposed to land as close to the crater as possible, it is likely we have been traveling in the right direction.”

“I know that, but come on,” Pom said. “You’ve seen the dispersal area. We could still be hundreds of kilometers away. And even if we’re only thirty clicks out, we might not see or recognize the crater ridge and drive right past it.”

“Yes,” Mei agreed. “They need to be broadcasting and we need to be close enough to pick up the signal. Else we’re dead.”

He didn't respond, but instead simply turned back to the receiver and the screen. There were no new signals. Mei regretted her fatalistic observation. She tried to think of something encouraging to say, but nothing came to her. Pom simply moved away from the receiver and sat down in the shade of the vehicle.

"I'm going to take a nap," he said, "You should too."

“Actually, I want to know if we can see something from here,” Mei said, retrieving the binoculars from the buggy and climbing onto the roof.

She scanned the horizon, but saw nothing. An omnipresent blanket of dust and sand surrounded them. The only thing she could see was the endless expanse of yellowish-brown sand, stone ridges and the larger boulders that made up the surface of this planet.

"Can you see anything?" Pom asked after a few minutes.

"No," she said, handing him the binoculars. "You look."

He took the binoculars.

"Anything?"

"Not really," he admitted, "There's nothing but hills and sand as far as the eye can see."

Mei nodded and went back to the buggy to retrieve her canteen. She took a long swill of water and ignored the unpleasant aroma. There was only so much the reclamation filters could do.

“I see something strange,” Pom suddenly murmured.

“What are you saying?”, Mei asked, not having heard what Pom was saying.

“I see this strange red cloud,” Pom repeated.

Mei moved over, took the binoculars and looked where Pom pointed. Surely enough, from behind the third ridge to their north, a faint cloud of red smoke-like dust was rising upwards.

"Do you think something is out there?", she asked.

"It looks like it," he said. "Let's go see what it is."

He went to get in the buggy, but Mei stopped him.

“Don’t be crazy,” Mei said. “The sun is up and the buggy isn’t even charged sufficiently to get that far.”

"We can't wait around," he said.

Mei grabbed his arm and looked him in the eyes. The whites had started to turn yellow, and his pupils stood wild.

"Don't do anything stupid," she said, trying to calm him down. "I'm serious. You are exhausted and desperate. Keep yourself together. I don’t want to lose you!"

Pom shook, then nodded slowly, realizing his folly. They returned to the shade to drink more water.

They rested in their shelter until the sun set, Mei sleeping uneasily, fearing and half expecting that Pom would lose it and run off. She was relieved when the sun began setting. As she left her shelter, she saw Pom and the buggy were still there.

Pom was staring in the distance.

“That red smoke is still blowing,” he shouted enthusiastically.

“Don’t keep your hopes up,” Mei shouted back. “It’s probably nothing useful.”

“At least it is something that doesn’t look like more sand and rock!”

She went over to the receiver and checked the logs, as Pom began packing, eager to leave. The mystery signal was there again, much more frequent and stronger this time.

She pressed a few buttons and ran an analysis on the logs.

“It’s repeating,” she shouted at Pom.

“What?”

“Come look,” she waved.

Mei was sitting on the ground, her back against a rock. She was looking at the screen.

"See?" she said, pointing to the sections that had repeated at set intervals over several logs. "This is no natural phenomenon. Someone is trying to communicate."

"Are you sure that it isn't just a malfunction?" he asked.

"The equipment doesn't malfunction like this."

Pom pondered, but found thoughts hard to come by. "So what do you think it is?"

Mei looked at the screen, then out into the valley below. “We got to go there. There must be people…”

“Are you serious?” Pom exclaimed. “A signal does not translate to coordinates. You don’t have any idea where it is, or what it is!”

“We could drive a few kilometers north, check the signal strength, then go east, do the same thing. Then we have a direction.”

“With our shitty equipment and this kind of terrain?”, he said, throwing his arms wide as if to encompass all the hills and valleys. “We can’t measure signal strength objectively with this crap setup!”

“Then what do you propose?”, Mei snapped back.

“We go check that thing out,” Pom said, pointing wildly in the direction of the red plume.

“And just how do you think some smoke is going to save us now? It is probably just a volcanic vent. The signal is artificial. It’s our best chance for survival!”

“At least that cloud is something I can see! That signal of yours is a ghost!”

Mei looked at the screen and then back to the red cloud. She bit her dry, cracked lip, and it bled.

"It's right there! It can't be more than half a night’s drive away. I tell you what, at each ridge top, we set up the array again and check for your signal.”

“But we’ll be totally out of water when we get there…”

“And the longer we wait, the more water we lose. Come on,” Pom said, as he disconnected the solar array and started packing it up.

Mei nodded and got up, groaning. She was exhausted, but she had come to her senses.

Both choices were equally bad, and they had no alternative but to keep moving in the hope they would find water. They packed the shelters and drove off into the twilight. The buggy sped over the rocky ground as they raced down the hill into the valley. When they reached the second ridge, they stopped and looked out, but the smoke was lost in the darkness.

Pom held out his canteen. “Cheers,” he said, as he drank the last of his water, and so did Mei.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

They began setting up the array. When Mei connected the receiver, there was nothing. She hit the device, and waited. Eventually, the two drop pods showed up once more, but weaker this time. Of the signal there was no trace.

Mei waited a good ten minutes, staring intently at the screen, but it did not reappear. The wind began to pick up, angry and persistent gusts that slowly increased in intensity.

“Come on, let’s go,” Pom said.

Reluctantly, Mei disconnected the receiver. They barely got the array loaded on the buggy before the wind began to blow in earnest.

They went on their way, driving down the second slope. As they reached the valley floor, the rocks gave way to sand. They sped up a dunetop, and drove along its crest. The wind howled now, and soon there was sand all around them. The already dark sky darkened further as the buggy went down the edge of the dune.

Through the veil of sand, Pom could see something dark looming ahead. He drove towards it. He slowed down as he approached it, squinting through the sandstorm. It was a rock, black and jagged, protruding from the sand.

He stopped the buggy in its lee, and waited.

Mei looked irritated, but understood that they could not continue under these conditions. The sandstorm raged on for hours. The darkness was nearly absolute, but Pom could see the sand swirling around them. It was cold. Mei shivered, and he put his arm around her. She snuggled next to him, and they hoped the storm to end.

Mei woke up to find him still asleep. She nudged him awake. The sand still blew around them, but she could see again.

"Storm has passed. We need to get going," she said.

Pom grunted.

“Fine, rest a bit more,” Mei said, feeling light headed herself. She crawled over the seat and took the wheel, turning on the headlights and driving off into the darkness, beginning the long and arduous climb up the third ridge.

The sun rose as they crested the ridge. It was red and dim, and its light cast an ominous glow through the dust-laden atmosphere. Visibility was poor as Mei found a suitable spot to camp and started to set up the solar array.

When the radio receiver powered on, Mei’s heart froze. Along with the strange signal, three new broadcasted signals were detected. She could receive them clearly, and they revealed the location of the base, a little over forty kilometers to their west.

“Pom, wake up. We’re saved,” Mei said. “I’ve found the base!”

He was weak, and slow to wake up.

"Pom!" she repeated, shaking him.

He rolled over, his eyes still closed. He mumbled something in his sleep, and then grabbed her wrist. He opened his eyes, and looked at her.

"Mei? What are you doing here?"

"We have a signal from the base! The others are only forty kilometers away!"

She was afraid that Pom was hallucinating, but to her relief she could see the realization manifest in his eyes.

"Oh." he said weakly, but he smiled. “Good.”

"We need to charge up," she said, "but tomorrow morning we could be at the base. You just need to hold on, you understand?"

Pom nodded weakly. She put a hand on his shoulder, but his face was hollower than ever.

Mei worried about him. He was not doing well, and neither was she. Her throat and nose hurt from the dryness, as did her eyes. She felt dizzy but realized that if she would rest now, she would have trouble getting up again. She feared they would not make it to the base.

She looked at the buggy’s battery indicator. It was half full, its energy conserved last night in the sandstorm. Charging was slow, with the sun obscured as it was.

Mei knew they would not make it if they waited for full charge. They would have to go now.

She first tried transmitting to the base for several minutes, but as she expected there was no reply to indicate receipt. Packing the solar array on her own took half an hour. She went to see if the reclamation vat to see whether it had produced anything out of the remnant of moisture that was inside, and retrieved a small bottom of water. First she wanted to give it to Pom, but she stopped and reconsidered. He was incapacitated, and should she pass out, they would both surely die. She gulped it down.

"Mei?"

"Yes, I know. We'll go now. You just hold on."

She started the buggy and drove off towards the west. The dust blew up behind them as they sped along the ridge. Mei felt her eyes sting. She tried to blink it away, but it was little help, her eyelids dry. She could barely see. Focussing on the ground immediately in front of the buggy, she saw the peaks of the ridge were rocky, so steered the buggy carefully downhill. They were slowly making their way down, and she did not want to drive them off a cliffside.

A rocky gully emerged, and Mei steered into it. It offered a little shade, but the temperature was rising. Mei checked her clock. They had been driving for fifty minutes.

"Are we there yet?" he asked, groggily.

"No, but we're halfway," she lied.

"Oh," he said, and then he fell asleep again.

She drove on, squinting through the haze. The sun climbed higher in the sky and stars began to dance in front of Mei’s eyes. She couldn’t go on.

She steered the buggy over to the shade of a rock. Clawing at the control panel, she activated the buggy’s radio, but to no avail. It didn’t even pick up the signals of the base. She closed her eyes and waited for a few long minutes, then shook awake. I must keep going, she thought. Don’t give up.

The buggy pulled away, and then she saw it. From the top of a cliff face, streams of red dust blew across their path. It had settled on the dry rocks and left a red stain.

“Pom, your red smoke,” she said, but got no answer.

She drove out of the gulley onto another bed of sand, closer to the valley floor. Rather than continuing westward, she turned north.

Red powder covered the sand in front of them as far as she could see. Stopping the buggy, Mei opened the door. She ran her hand through the red stuff, and with a shock she realized she felt the unmistakable trace of moisture.

Determined, she climbed back in the vehicle, leading them further north. Driving was difficult, and she could hear the red substance clumping to their wheels as if it were mud and the air became laden with fog. Suddenly, the imposing structures of tall, red mushroom-like plants emerged through the gloom that surrounded them.

“What the…” Mei exclaimed. She avoided one and steered out of the way, only to have the buggy’s wheels sink into the soil up to its floorplate.

Mei was stunned. She opened the door and immediately saw how moisture began to condensate on her helmet’s faceplate. She could feel the cool, fresh air on her hands. Carefully, she got out. Her boots sogged into the marshy soil, but she could stand. She could feel the liquid under her soles, dropped to her knees and dug into the ground with her hands. After just thirty centimeters, water slowly started to fill the bottom of the hole.

Mei cast off her helmet and cupped the water in her hands, drinking greedily and uncaring of the potential consequences. The air was damp and devoid of the dry dust, and Mei breathed deeply. She took her canteen, covered the opening with a rag to keep the sand and red stuff out the best she could, and filled it.

“Pom, here,” she said as she returned to the vehicle and tried to get him to drink.

"No," he said, his voice slurring.

She grabbed the canteen and poured some on his lips. Then she opened his mouth and tried to pour the water inside. He sputtered and coughed, but she managed to get some down him. She repeated the process until he regained consciousness.

"What happened?" he asked.

"You passed out," she said.

"Are we at the base?"

“No… We’re in a valley. There are plants and water here,” she said, explaining how she had nearly passed out herself and followed the trail of red smoke in desperation. “The buggy is stuck now, though,” she concluded.

Mei went to get more water and afterwards the two ate a little from their rations. Pom felt sick and dizzy, but forced his sore throat to swallow.

"I think we should name this place," she said.

"Name it?"

"Yeah, you know, like the first settlers on Earth did when they landed on Proxima."

"You mean like ‘Pleasure Beach'?" he asked, and they both laughed.

"I don’t know about that," she said, grinning. "We could call it the ‘Valley of Red Soil and Water'."

"Too long," he said. "How about the ‘Valley of Hope'?"

"That sounds about right," she said.

“I’ll go explore our valley a bit,” Mei said. “You take it easy.”

Mei hopped out of the vehicle. The buggy had sunk into the soil, but Mei judged that it was not in danger of sinking deeper now that its weight was spread out. She walked around and inspected one of the mushroom-like plants. It towered several meters above her, with its stem a pale white and a top of intense red-pink. She felt grateful and in awe, as the strange plants had saved her life with their mere presence.

"Thank you," she mumbled, somehow expecting the plants to understand.

Mei walked further onwards. Not far from the vehicle she found a much larger mushroom, surrounded by a circular pool of water. Water welled out of the plant, and from its top, it released a mass of red spores into the air, drifting upward. Mei realized that the smoke they had seen was originating from the blooming of these plants.

She removed her oversuit and threw it in the pool to wash it, then waded into it herself to remove the grime from her body and wring the reek of a week’s accumulation of sweat from her clothes. Her skin was rough and leathery and her bruises had turned green.

She heard a crackling sound and turned around. Through the mist of red dust she could see a figure approaching her. She realized it was Pom, who was waving at her.

"Hey, where did you come from?" she asked, not bothering to cover herself as she rinsed her hair.

"I followed your tracks," he said, pointing at the trail she had left in the soil. "I wanted to apologize for being so grumpy."

"No problem," she said. "I'm used to it. Now come and get washed, this stench is terrible..."

“If we had made it to the base, ARI would probably have quarantined and decontaminated us,” Pom laughed.

“Yeah well, it will do that anyway since we’re wallowing in alien plant stuff...”

Pom stumbled into the pool. Mei held out her hand and helped him up, then pulled him close and wrapped her arms around him. He looked into her eyes and they kissed briefly, then she helped him undo his clothes.

Pom laughed as Mei cast water over his parched skin and began scrubbing his back. He turned around and returned the favor.

The two of them laughed as they played in the water for a while.

After returning to the vehicle, they deployed the solar panel. Mei ate her unfinished ration, while Pom hung their oversuits to dry. Then they began to deploy the shelters and set up the camp.

“We should recover for another day and dig out the buggy tomorrow,” Pom said.

“Agreed, it shouldn’t be too hard. First we should take some medicine, though,” Mei said, as she ran through the medical supplies. She tossed Pom a pack, then took some herself.

“What is this,” he asked, his eyes not yet recovered enough to read.

“It’ll help you flush out the toxins that have built up as a result of dehydration.”

They both drank more water before turning in for the night.

Mei woke up to the sound of Pom snoring.

She got up and stretched, then went outside. The sky was still dark but clear, and the stars of Messier 39 shone bright overhead. She walked around the campsite, stopping to look at the alien plants, running her fingers through their fibrous structures on the ground. She picked a few and put them in a sample box, then went to the buggy to get more painkillers, as her body was far from healed from the ordeal in cryo and the general numbness had once again turned into stinging pain overnight. She felt ravenous hunger, and decided to make soup from a dry rations pack and water.

The sky began to pale, as dawn approached. The air had cleared, and she could see the carpet of pinkish-red that made up the valley floor. The plants began blooming again, and more red pollen went up into the air. The stuff had gotten everywhere, as it stuck in Mei’s hair and both their shelters and the buggy were soon covered in red dust. Mei sneezed and went to get her helmet to at least benefit from its filter. Then she began to dig out the buggy, sticking metal track plates under the back wheels to prevent the soft soil from swallowing it whole.

She stopped for a moment to watch the sun rise. It was a radiant yellow-white, and through her visor’s filters she could feel its warmth on her face. This is a beautiful world, she thought, and she felt sad that so many others that had come on their journey to search for paradise would not get to experience it.

She finished digging out the buggy, then went back inside to eat some more rations and take more medicine. Her headache had gotten worse, but her weakness and lethargy had gone. Pom woke up, and together they went swimming in the nearby pool. In the late afternoon, they broke camp and headed west.

Mei drove for several hours, until the valley began to widen out into a rocky wasteland. The crater that contained their base was clearly visible against the backdrop of the setting sun, that appeared as a radiant beacon just above the ridge.

They stopped on a small hill, hoping their signal would get through this time. After a few long seconds, the buggy transceiver finally connected to the base antenna masts. ARI answered cheerfully, before patching them through to a tearful Elisa.

Leaving their buggy in a narrow gorge cut into the crater ridge, one of ARI’s drones came up to guide them down into the base.

Valley of Hope [https://i.postimg.cc/Wz5q9Fy8/cygnusplants2.png]