“I want to do the next one in person.”
“Now Odessa, you know how the board feels about jumping straight into live missions.”
“And you know how the people feel about real expeditions. They don’t think it counts unless someone is actually there. Besides we’ve scoped it out enough with the Suit.” Odessa walked around behind her desk, crossed her arms and starred out at the expansive jungle below. It stretched almost as far as the horizon, interrupted only by the sharp and distinctive peaks of the Jasper Mountain range. That was where she wanted to be.
“We haven’t been in with the Suit though. Is this about what the people want or what you want?”
Odessa turned back to face Silas, her partner and fellow expeditioner. “It’s what we all want. Just think, we could be the first to explore the canyons on Titan. Beat the Martians at something for once.”
He frowned. His green eyes were flecked with gold that seemed to shimmer brightly when he was annoyed. It was probably a bug in his contact lenses but whatever it was Odessa hoped they never fixed it. It made Silas’s eyes look like a strange star-filled sky.
Silas sighed. “I will talk to them but I make no promises.”
“Thank you.”
After Silas had left, Odessa checked the comments on her recent blog post: ‘Next mission might be done with no Suit!’
The Suit was a technology that allowed them to explore the canyon via a humanoid robot. While it made for some beautiful pictures and often an accurate view of what they would later experience in person, Odessa preferred to be surprised.
The response to her post was mixed. Odessa hadn’t been completely truthful with Silas. Oh there were groups of their audience who agreed with her, people who thought exploring by robot spoilt the human experience, but there were also many who thought not using the Suits was just foolish arrogance, and then there were those who thought humans should just stay out of the canyons altogether. She ignored them. They were people who had probably never even left Earth.
Silas returned a few hours later looking disheartened.
“Did they turn us down?” Odessa asked. The board controlled the funding so there was no expedition without their approval.
Silas shook his head. “They said your post sparked a lot of enthusiasm for a traditional mission. They’ve given us the go ahead.”
The hike up along the upper edge of the canyon was rough, especially in the bulky outfits they needed to wear. The air on Titan was corrosive so anything traveling outside, either robot or human had to be wearing a Class A Cocoon, also known as a Suit when containing a robot, or simply referred to as a Cocoon when worn by a human. Even their ropes and equipment had to be coated in a special spray. Water and sustenance was supplied via a capillary system embedded within the Cocoon.
They had previously used the Suits to investigate the approach but not the canyon itself. Even then, the Suits had only gone up to the peak and not down the canyon. The climb up was no easy feat. The crux was a section of monkey scrub followed by a short vertical wall. The monkey scrub was too thick to allow their feet to reach through to the ground. They simply had to scramble over the tops of the bushes which risked tearing the corrosive resistant material of the Cocoons. The plants on Titan could be as spiky as the ones on Earth.
The vertical section was not difficult but any wrong step would risk them tumbling down hundreds of metres into the canyon below. Odessa took her time, trying to keep three points of contact on the wall at any moment. Once or twice the wall crumbled off in her gloved hand leaving her grabbing at thin air. She made a mental note to look into that clawed glove technology that the Martian team used. She envied those born in the Mars colonies. They were born into a culture that really appreciated adventure. She was intent on showing them that the people of Earth could be just as brave.
She heard the falling rock before Silas’s warning. Luckily she was beneath a tree trunk at that point and ducked in close as a rock twice the size of her head went barrelling past. She laughed at the escape and continued onward.
They reached the top of the canyon just after midday. The first few drops were short and easy and they had plenty of rope. One waterfall spiraled into another and less gravity meant a gentler flow than they would have had on Earth. If you sat and watched it for awhile if felt like time had slowed down.
Odessa bounced down the falls, her feet sending small spheres of water high into the air. She looked up at Silas’s reflective visor with a grin and wondered if he was enjoying it as much as she was.
The canyon flattened out for a few hundred metres after the first section and they leapt from rock to rock making impossible jumps. With less gravity landings were also more forgiving but not completely without risk.
The canyon took a left turn and let in the sun. Water sparkled and Odessa could see several hundred metres onward where the canyon fell away into empty air. She could also see the entire jungle, miles below stretching out into the distance. That was probably the 200 metre drop, the largest waterfall they would do today. Odessa shivered with excitement. Before they reached it however, there was another double waterfall to do, 10 metres down, 3 metres across and then 40 more down.
As Odessa touched down at the base of the next waterfall she looked around. They were truly trapped now. Before this drop, the walls of the canyon had been steep but they could have managed the scramble out. Now they were surrounded on both sides by almost vertical walls lined with the common red vines of Titan and the occasional overhanging tree, too steep and fragile to climb.
She waited until Silas was down and then she splashed him with water.
“Hey!” he exclaimed, but she could hear the laughter in his voice.
The nice thing about the Cocoons was that at least they kept them warm and dry.
The pair stood as close as they dared to get to the top of the big waterfall, looking out at the Jungle below but not able to see to the base of the waterfall. It disappeared down into the unknown.
“Do you want to do this one or shall I?” Silas asked her.
“You can.” Odessa replied taking a seat on a nearby rock. Silas had always been braver than she was. Looking at where the water disappeared over the edge both enticed and intimidated her.
Silas put in a bolt several metres back from the edge. None of the trees were quite close enough or solid enough for a natural anchor and the drill was faster anyway. He would use this anchor to get out over the top of the waterfall where he would put in another anchor.
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Their two 80 metre ropes meant they would need to put anchors in on the face as well. Odessa hoped the rock would be solid.
She watched Silas abseil out the edge where the water disappeared. He peered down and then pointed across to the other side. She heard him speaking to her through the radio in her helmet.
“I think that side will be better, it’s clearer of the water.”
Odessa nodded and gave him the thumbs up.
Still on the rope, Silas waded across. He moved slowly so as not to slip and go flying off the edge. The rope would likely have stopped him from falling, as long as he held on, but he’d also be directly in the flow which would make it harder to climb back up.
Silas made it to the other side without any problems and started drilling into the wall.
Odessa gazed out at the view. A part of her wished the Cocoons were more fitting, bringing her closer to the environment while still providing protection from the corrosive atmosphere. The Martians had recently been using a new suit like that. Apparently, even though it was thinner, it provided better protection as well as more maneuverability. It also had the awesome feature of passing sensory input directly to the user. Odessa thought about how glorious it would be to feel the wind again, without having your skin burn off and without having to make the long journey back to Earth. There was a room at the place where they were staying which blew hot air at you from grates in the wall. It was supposed to vary to match the feel of natural wind but it never quite felt the same to Odessa. Silas, on the other hand, had greatly enjoyed it and spent any moment he could in there just meditating on the sand covered floor.
Silas indicated to her that he was ready for her to come out. Then he began his own descent.
Odessa moved slowly, double checking she was on the right side of the rope. The waterfall began with a slight incline and Odessa was careful to make sure each foot was solid before she shifted her weight. Apprehension filled her stomach until she reached the edge and was able to see all the way down. She clipped herself into the anchor and only then did she relax. She studied the drop and saw Silas, a good 80 metres down putting in the next anchor. The water cascaded noisily down beside him. It would have been impossible to hold a conversation here without the radios. Her apprehension was replaced with complete awe. Not knowing what was coming frightened her but when fear was replaced with wonder the contrast made her feel like she was soaring.
She tied the second rope to the end of the first. That would be the pull side. She waited until Silas had put in the first bolt and was off the rope. She double checked that the rope would pull then she put the descent side of the rope through her figure eight, once again cursing the thick gloves of the Cocoon. Then she abseiled down to Silas.
Silas had put in a double anchor this time so she clipped into the same one as him, leaving the other for the rope. He slid as much of the pull end of the rope as he could through the other anchor and then tied it off so they wouldn’t lose the rope once he pulled it down from above.
Once the new abseil was set they repeated the process all over again. This time Silas took much longer to find a good spot for the anchor.
“The rock is crumbly” he told her over the radio. “The other side looks good though. I’m going to try and swing across.”
“Okay.” she replied as she studied the flow of the water. She held her hand out and touched it. It never felt quite as powerful as she expected and there was something mystical about the way it moved in slow motion. Less power meant Silas could probably get across it fine. The drill would come in handy here too.
Despite its name, what it really did was pulverize the rock and place the bolt in one go. It would also perform an automatic check of the stability of the rock and refuse to place a bolt if the rock was no good. One could override this setting and have it put in a bolt manually but it had proved life-saving in the past so they found it was generally best to use the automatic mode unless there was no other option.
The device hadn’t always been so useful. It used to take so long to check that people would often switch to manual mode in frustration, but these days it was fast enough that Silas could swing across the waterfall, place an anchor while moving and then clip into it on the second swing. For Odessa it was even easier. Silas simply tied the end of the descent rope to the anchor so it worked as a guide line when she abseiled.
As she lowered herself down the final pitch Odessa could see the problems with the rock. It was coated in a wet red moss and very crumbly. Every time her foot landed on the wall a large chunk would go crashing down into the water far below. She was glad the upper part of the falls hadn’t been like this.
By the time she reached the bottom of the waterfall Silas was already at the top of the next pitch, about a hundred metres on.
“Last one I think” he told here once she caught up. He sounded relieved.
He had trouble finding a good spot near the top of the waterfall so he placed the anchor a bit further back than usual. Odessa went down first.
It was another double waterfall but this time it was a bit different than the others. The middle section where it flattened out was a small pool that flowed beneath an archway into a cave and then back out again. The waterfall flowed sideways into the cave but they could see a straight line all the way out so Silas didn’t bother with a second anchor at the exit of the cave even though the entire pitch was about 60 metres. This was something that proved to be a mistake. When it came time to pull the rope they found they could not pull it quite at the right angle. The rope was stuck. Even both of them pulling on it with all their combined weight would not free it.
“Did you check that it pulled at the top?” Odessa asked.
Silas nodded.
“Perhaps we should just leave it.” she suggested. That had been the last waterfall after all.
Silas shook his head. “I’ll climb back up and see if I can loosen it, or put in another bolt.”
Odessa nodded. They had plenty of daylight still, even though days on Titan were slightly on the short side.
Silas pulled out his ascender and began his climb.
He was almost at the archway when the rope suddenly came loose on its own.
Odessa watched in horror as Silas fell with a loud crash into the shallow pool below.
She stumbled over the rocks in her rush to reach him.
He was pulling himself out of the water as she reached the shore.
She froze. He wasn’t moving quite right. His limbs jerked weirdly as if they were sticking and then suddenly coming loose.
“Silas your Cocoon!” she cried as she noticed the tear.
He stopped and looked down at it. “Oh.”
They had Cocoon repair kits but the nonchalant tone of his voice gave her pause.
“Oh?”
“It’s alright.” He removed his helmet.
Odessa stared. He hadn’t been wearing a Cocoon after all. He was wearing a Suit. A robot stood in front of her. The real Silas was elsewhere, perfectly safe.
Anger replaced her concern.
She turned and walked away. She had gone almost a hundred metres when she realised they would probably want the Suit back.
She turned around went back to help Suit Silas fix his Suit in silence. There was obvious damage to the robot’s joints but it seemed able to walk and at least now that they had patched the Suit the corrosion would be minimal. It didn’t make her feel any better. She was so angry that she didn’t speak to him for the whole journey back.
By the time she got back a lot of her anger had dissipated and when she saw the real Silas standing there uninjured she ran up to him and threw her arms around him.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were using the Suit?”
“I’m sorry. You wanted to do a traditional expedition and you always think I’m so brave. I...”
“I lied.” she admitted. “It wasn’t for our audience, I just wanted to be there, for real.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t mean to force you to.”
“I know, but I’m getting old, I don’t enjoy it like I used to.”
She laughed at that. “You’re only a year older than me and barely a hundred and two, you’ve half your life left.”
He nodded. “I still like doing it, just less of the pure exploratory stuff. After that incident on Mars, I’ve just become a bit more cautious.”
She nodded and thought about how she’d felt when she’d seem him fall. “You know I think I worry more about you than me when we’re in the canyon.”
He laughed and nodded. “I feel the same about you sometimes but I also don’t want to make you use the Suits if you don’t want to.”
“Well how about a compromise? You use the suits and I’ll go traditional but you lead the hard moves. That way I get to be there but your Suit takes the risk. And maybe I’ll get one of those skinny Martian ones.”
He smiled contently and reached out to gently tuck a strand of her blue hair behind her ears. “That sounds like a plan.”
She wrapped her arms tight around him. “I love the risk but it’s good to have choices too.”