Planetfall 01 - Planetfall by Emma Newman

Author:Emma Newman [Newman, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

22

FOUR HOURS LATER, when the majority of the colony is asleep and I’m kitted out with another protective coverall, my smart-goggles and freshly cleaned filter mask, I leave the house.

Initially it feels like I’m headed for my secret hollow, only with more fear mixed into the excitement than usual. Now that it’s time to actually plant the seed, I’m more focused on the practicalities of what I need to achieve, rather than the ethics tangled up in it all. I just hope everything goes as smoothly as Mack thinks it should.

I pass the curved tendrils hiding my secret entrance and walk farther around to the back of the city.

We argued when I practiced this climb at his house. It has to be one of the most difficult and inefficient routes to the front entrance, but, as Mack said, it isn’t about efficiency; it’s about not being seen by the people holding the vigil outside the entrance. Climbing over the top from the back of the city means no one will see me as I make my ascent, and once I’m at the top, my descent down the other side will be masked by the lower tendrils and the darkness. Mack showed me various simulations he’d run, proving that, thanks to the angles involved, the route makes it very unlikely that I’ll be seen by either the people on duty or a random passerby who happens to look up at the wrong time. Like he said, he’s been doing this for years. It’s still inefficient as hell though.

God’s city towers above me, directly between me and the colony now, the grasslands at my back. I don’t have any filters or enhancements active on the goggles at the moment, but my eyes have dark-adapted sufficiently during the walk to pick out more details at the base of the tendril I’m standing in front of. I shrug the pack off my back and kneel down to sort the contents. Inside there are three climbing ropes, clips and a climbing harness. Underneath those are crampons that I can strap over my boots, capped with the roughened surface of ultra-velcro instead of the metal spikes we’d use on the mountain, and a small box with the seed inside. I had to smuggle it out of Mack’s house once he was finished with it, for fear of Carmen’s watchful gaze spotting him delivering something to me.

I resist the temptation to open the box and check that it’s in there. I put it in there less than an hour ago. I have to redirect that nervous energy toward getting my climbing gear on and checking the harness straps, buckles and crampons. Twice.

Once I’m satisfied, I kick the tendril I’m standing next to very gently and don’t pull my foot away after contact. Instead, I move as if that foot is on the first rung of a ladder, to see if the friction provided by the u-velcro is good enough to prevent my foot from sliding down to the ground.

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