Tribulation by Kaz Morran

Author:Kaz Morran [Morran, Kaz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780993936302
Published: 2019-04-21T22:00:00+00:00

***

“Fuck off,” Ronin told Anton. “It’s not mutiny.”

“Insubordination then,” said Taiyo in support of the medic, but not before backing several paces away from Ronin. Taiyo felt a little more confident about speaking up against Ronin now but still knew to tread carefully.

“No, insubordination is arguing with your commander’s orders.”

Walter polished off a water bottle and chucked it into an open crate. “We’re being proactive, bro,” he assured Taiyo and gave his shoulder an affectionate squeeze. Walter and Ronin were the only ones in favor of heading north.

They hadn’t explored the back wall yet, and no one doubted T3 would send them there eventually. But given the flood warning, it seemed obvious to the rest of the team that to wait for T3 to give the official order before setting off on an expedition.

“Fine,” Taiyo said. It wasn’t worth going against his commander or dividing the team over. It was less than eight hundred meters away, the work would be interesting. There might be more cave art, and they’d get to record and sample the environment. They might even discover something living down there with them.

They did the necessary flood prep before heading out. Anton and Nel packed away the hammocks and stacked the crates to keep them from floating off, Kristen readied the diving gear—just in case—, Walter scooped dust into THRONE bags to use as sandbags, and “consulting” duties fell to Ronin.

Taiyo put the topographic map he and Nel had made with their bot on 3D view, added layers and grids, populated it with cubes to represent the crates, and then built virtual pyramids and stairs to confirm once and for all they could not reach the chimney.

But that made Taiyo think of something else. What about strapping a bunch crates together with the climbing ropes to build a raft? In a worst-case scenario, they could rise with the water up to the chimney and crawl through to the outside.

He looked up from his screen and saw Ronin’s silhouette pacing bull-like beneath the floodlight. Making a raft would delay their hike northward, likely instigating another bout of Ronin-rage.

Taiyo resigned himself to coloring some of the cubes red and arranging them into the shape of a rocket. Then he doodled an alien smiley face in the window. In spite of the flood risk, he felt no real sense of urgency. NASA, JAXA, ESA, and the CSA wouldn’t have overlooked such an obvious threat, so whatever flooding was on the way wouldn’t be a big deal. Then again, the agencies weren’t directly conducting the project. T3 was.

Everyone’s phones pinged at once.

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