A Cold Wind Blows by Gavin E Parker

Author:Gavin E Parker [Parker, Gavin E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Space Opera
Publisher: parcom entertainment
Published: 2016-06-20T23:00:00+00:00

Three

The following night Vic was more settled. He was friendly enough, though maybe a little subdued. Kim hoped he’d noticed that she hadn’t mentioned his story to the others during the handover period. She had remained true to her word.

They decided to split up that evening. Vic would take on Research. There were a few minor tasks requested by researchers and he would take care of those while Kim had the less onerous task of wandering through the production domes. Ostensibly, she would be looking for any issues arising but in reality was just providing a human presence to assuage insurers.

At night the domes were under a low intensity light, calibrated to mimic moonlight on the plants’ native Earth. The low lighting would have made for an exceptionally pleasant stroll but a sense of isolation was always close by, the more primitive elements of Kim’s brain telling her to be wary of potential hazards that were an impossibility in the tightly controlled environments she was in. There could be no predators hiding in the fields of corn, no beasts of prey using the dark recesses of the domes to their advantage.

She still found herself looking over her shoulder occasionally. Though she knew that the strange sounds she sometime heard - cracks and creaks and snaps - had to have logical, mundane explanations she still felt a fast shock of fear each time she heard one. She stopped herself from calling out, ‘Is there anyone there?’ but it took effort.

Having toured the outer production domes she made her way to Research. She expected to find Vic in Research Dome 12, but he wasn’t there. “Vic?” she called out hopefully, but plainly the dome was devoid of human life.

She circled round the edge, making a full sweep, then exited the way she came in. She traversed the connecting tubes and made her way to Dome 14. “Vic?” she called again at the entryway. There was no reply. Cautiously, she entered. She inched her way around the edge calling out, “Vi-ic,” in a sing-song voice. At around a hundred degrees from the door she stopped. The dome was filled with a high-yield wheat and it was ready for harvest. It was a beautiful golden brown, though it appeared grey in the half-light. She looked at it for a moment before turning to the view outside. It was the same vista that had entranced her so the previous evening. She tried to make out landmarks in the city but soon gave up, preferring to look at the Martian desert, feebly illuminated from the light spilling off Marineris. As she looked at the dunes and rocks she thought about Vic’s story. She figured that Vic was sincere in his beliefs but his beliefs were just plain wrong. Outside of the inhabited areas Mars was a massively unforgiving environment. No life could be sustained there, even fleetingly. The poor commander from Earth, who had run out into the Martian wilderness more than three years ago now, would have perished within hours.

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