Retaking Elysium by M. Darusha Wehm

Author:M. Darusha Wehm [Wehm, M. Darusha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-9951048-4-6
Publisher: in potentia press

“Watch out!”

The chunk of Martian rock flew past Lisa Marie’s face, centimetres away from her nose, and smashed into the digger robot working next to her. It shuddered to a stop, internal machinery calibrated to shut down automatically when it was damaged. In what felt like slow motion, she turned toward it to see the indentation in the bot’s chassis, a shallow crater the diameter of a dinner plate. She remembered to breathe as the sound of shouting voices came to her as if from the bottom of a well.

“Are you okay?“ Her workmate, Nicos, shouted into her face as he grabbed her by the shoulders. She took stock of her body.

“Yes,” she said, once she thought it was true. “It missed me.”

Nicos let out a breath, still gripping her shoulders. “That was close. Look at that dent. That could have been your head.”

“What happened?” she said, still staring at the broken bot.

“That’s what I want to know.” The shift supervisor, Sanders, strode over to Lisa Marie, her heavy brows meeting in the middle of her forehead. “The debris alarm was going off for half a minute before that boulder went flying. What were you doing here? You need a hearing check?” That last question could have been said with a nasty irony, but it was clear from Sanders’s tone that she meant it. The heat had gone from her voice and her role as the caretaker of her staff had clearly reasserted itself.

Lisa Marie shook her head. “My hearing seems fine. But, I didn’t notice it so… maybe?”

Sanders sucked her teeth and dug out her handheld. She poked at it harder than was necessary, maybe taking out some of her frustration on the defenceless device.

“I’m booking you in for medical. Just in case, okay? That was too close and it shouldn’t have happened. I need you 100% on this line or not at all, understood?” Lisa Marie nodded, still not entirely sure what had just happened. “Go home. Medical’s first thing tomorrow, then we’ll see.”

“Okay.” She grabbed her stuff and turned toward the roughly hewn tunnel from the new dig site back to the main mine and the train station.

“You need a hand?” Nicos asked, falling into step beside her.

“No thanks,” she said, “I’ll be fine. Don’t lose your shift on my account, really.” He looked at her, clearly debating with himself if he believed her, then finally nodded once and turned back to the site.

She made it home with no further incidents, except a knot of anger at herself growing ever larger.

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