Rocket Dawn (Space Force Book 1) by Richard Tongue

Author:Richard Tongue
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-18T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

​The group scrambled out of the jeep, onto the desert floor, Cruz leading the way as they walked across the endless expanse of sun-bleached dirt, towards the beginnings of a deep arroyo, cut into the rock by centuries of now-forgotten erosion. It was a beautiful sight, but nothing that Knox hadn’t seen a hundred times before. Looking at Cruz, he presumed that was the point.

​“Tom, you’re going to be a little ahead of the game here, but for the rest of you, I’ll explain what you’re going to do first. I want you all to collect a suite. Ten rocks that tell the story of the landscape, that can be used to uncover the hidden secrets of the earth. In the old Apollo days, you’d have ten minutes to get them, but I do things a little differently. I’m giving you an hour.”

​Maxwell smiled, and asked, “Sounds easy.”

​“Except that I expect you all to fully document every sample you take. That means pictures of the sample in situ as well as the surrounding area, as well as written notes that I will be grading when you get back.” She smiled, then said, “If it makes you feel any better, this is how I start every freshman field trip, and you’ll really be working hard to screw up as badly as some of the students I’ve brought out here.”

​“An hour, then,” Knox said.

​“After a fashion. Each of you takes a cardinal compass point. I don’t mind which. Then you walk for ten minutes in that direction, which should take you about a mile away from camp, and you start your sampling there. That means I’ll expect you home in an hour and twenty minutes, and the last one back does the washing up tonight. While you’re having fun out there, I’ll get our camp set up. It’ll be getting dark by the time you get home.”

​Looking around, Murphy replied, “Not that much light now, Professor. Can’t we do this tomorrow morning?”

​“Sure we can, and you will, and I hope with greater skill than you’re likely to demonstrate tonight. I want a chance to go over everything while we’re eating supper, and besides, we don’t have much time. The General wants you back in sixty-three hours from now. He was quite specific. We’re going to use every single damned moment of that, because I’ve got to find a way to turn you into trained observers. You aren’t going to become geologists. Not in that amount of time. I wouldn’t expect that. We’ll have people in Mission Control to help, but you’re going to have a long enough transmission lag that you’ll be largely on your own resources out there.”

​“Come on, gang, let’s get moving,” Knox said. He glanced at his watch, and said, “I make it ten minutes to seven. Professor, make sure you start a fire. Just in case anyone gets themselves lost in the canyons.”

​“All you’ll have to do is follow the smell,” Cruz replied. “My trail stew is legendary.

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