Freefall by Jana Williams

Author:Jana Williams [Williams, Jana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781999408619
Publisher: Jana Williams
Published: 2018-08-22T22:00:00+00:00

Elle stood examining the lake through her spyglass. She was particularly interested in the areas closest to the bluff. In her mind, if Azure Lake really were like a lake, the bottom would be closest to the surface over near the “shore.” She was scrutinizing the shoreline to see if there were any visible indications up here of what might await her down there. There was nothing to indicate any place on the lake was any better for a descent than any other.

She needed a place to tie off her descent rope and the pod seemed as good an anchor as anything. Anchoring her long piece of rope to a strut just inside the pod’s doorway, she walked backward away from the pod, playing out the anchor line, ensuring it didn’t tangle. Elle had read that on Earth there had been old growth forests with trees that grew as high as 150 meters. She hoped Azure Lake was not a Sitka Spruce type of moss forest; she didn’t have that much rope.

She’d also read of Bristlecone Pines over five thousand years old in Nevada, in the North American southwest region. Scientists had devised multiple methods to tell the age of a tree. A core wood sample could be cut out of the tree’s center, and the growth rings that indicated a year’s growth could be counted. Or a scientist could hack off any piece of the tree and burn it. Afterward, a lab could do a carbon-dating test on the remaining charcoal that could estimate the age of the tree fairly accurately. This method was pretty much out of the question for Elle at this moment in time, due to her reluctance to contact the Station and its computers.

But she was wildly curious to know just how many eons Azure Lake moss might tally, if it could be tested in some way. On Earth she had read there were clonal clumps of trees that were as much as eighty thousand years old. Really. Of course the individual trees themselves weren’t that old, but the mass of roots that spawned them had survived for millennia. Often the root systems were miles wide beneath the surface of the soil. Elle secretly suspected that this was the case with Azure Lake. She wanted to have a look, to see if her suspicions had merit.

Not finding any entry point that seemed more promising than any other didn’t stop Elle. She simply strode away from the pod a short distance and linked the anchor line with another length of rope at her feet. She fed the second line through a belaying bevel in her climbing harness and slipped her sling-bag over her head and shoulder, adjusting the bag so it sat in the middle of her back and clipping it in place. Then she slung her rebreather around her neck and pushed it behind her too. Finally she slipped her headlight onto her head.

She took one final look around, then bent and used her hands to part the surface of the mossy mass at her feet.

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