Cloud Field

By A M Russell

A group of scientists and adventurers set out to find the secret of the "Cloud Fields". The place is hidden in a slice of possible time and once you are involved it is impossible to get out. David takes his place on the expedition and finds himself in an inhospitable world where even one simple choice can mean the difference between life and death, or is it all an illusion? The chief scientist is a woman he is rapidly falling in love with; and soon it becomes clear that she has more than just a secretive manner. Janey is obsessed with finding something that proves her theories correct. How far each person goes depends on their willingness to risk everything. In time they will find answers and David has to make a terrible choice in order to save himself and his friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A M Russell
• Release date: Jun 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311527912

A M Russell

I write science fiction novels with themes of time travel and alternate realities. I live in Yorkshire; the middle of Britain. A life long fan of fantasy and science fiction - a geek who has read "Lord of the Rings" several times. My passion writing stories began early on after hearing "The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe" at Junior School. I have a persistent curiosity that keeps me writing. It is my passion, my obsession, and the way I keep my mind focused and calm. I have a breakneck speed for writing, but edit much more slowly! I love films, The Time Machine; Matrix Trilogy; Inception; anything that bends the mind. I would love to see one of my creations turned into a film; I explore the world space in my books as if it is a movie. Best thing about writing? Being an Original. Best drink? A nice cup of Yorkshire tea. Best Moment so far: Getting my first book on Smashwords!

Book preview

Cloud Field

by

A.M.Russell

Copyright © Anne Russell 2016

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Dedication

For Daniel

Lost in the field

Contents

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Eight

The End

One

The expedition was to be like no other Hanson explained. He looked up at me, all outdoorsy and confident nimbly lacing rope on the top of the pack.

'Here! Catch!'

Reflexively I caught the other coiled length of supple striped cord. Following his example, I used it to fasten the tent pack to a large rucksack.

'Whose is this?'

'That's yours.' Hanson bright eyed and expectant regarded me with undue patience. I couldn't quite shake the image of him and Marcia together on the bright green sofa engaged in a loudly flamboyant session... I was horrified when Janey and I accidentally walked in on them. Janey backed out flushing crimson with a gagging sob that I could still hear. Curiously I watched, wondering what Janey found so compelling about the bloke. Perhaps it was envy on my part. I shrugged and concentrated on the knot.

'Nearly done?' it was Marcia, resplendent in flame clingy jumper thingy. She looked tired close up though and picked at a nail distractedly.

'Just about.' Hanson responded looking at me.

'Oh. Right.' I took the hint.

In the kitchen Janey was jangling tea cups. She smiled cautiously.

'I think maybe I should quit the study Davey.' she picked up a carton of milk.

'Uh.... You mean you're not going on the expedition with the group? But I thought it's what you dreamed of?'

'You don't know Hanson.' she seemed almost amused, 'A week ago you were pushing pencils for a living. What do you know about it? About any of us?'

She was right. I worked in advertising. My decision to make some self-improvement wasn't working out quite as I'd expected. Janey confused me. Did she want to don the full cold kit and tramp across the ice bound wastes or not? I opened my mouth then shut it again. I did have a few sensible friends who advised not pointing things like that out to a lady you really didn't know.

'I'm sorry.' I stuttered feeling my colour rise... Something I was desperate to avoid from my first teen years. But Janey helped that awkward feeling resurface.

'Do you think we'll see any tribes people?' she asked and handed me a coffee.

'I suppose it's possible. Isn't that what this whole thing is about?'

'Yes. I guess.' she grinned, 'I think it's going to be fun.' she barged back to the corridor that led to Hanson's stacked boxes. I sipped. There must be a reason for the sudden change of heart. Her previous association with Hanson was clear even to me. I didn't have a girlfriend. I hoped fervently that I could keep it that way. It was all too intense for me at the moment. It made my teeth ache... But that could be in anticipation of our setting out tomorrow, or maybe the coffee I was drinking.

The next morning, I was on my way to work. I had shared a delightful evening with Hanson and some more of the group. It involved vast amounts of tequila and a lot of cheap reminiscences. The weather had turned and the start day had been put off. Next week seemed a long way away. I flexed a bicep. Not a moment of note, hardly worth the trouble of comparing it. Athletic is the word for a build like mine, a euphemism for Skinny as I took it. But I could, as they say: Pull My Weight. Got it where it counted. I realised that Hanson with his easy leonine physique and rugged facial hair out-classed me in every way that mattered to the ego. He didn't seem to notice the other guys like George, Jared, and Aiden change position when he entered the room. As if they tried to match his broad beam and height by rolling back their shoulders and standing up a lot straighter. He had the self-assured manner of one who knows even among the strong he is to them a giant.

I tapped politely on the secretary's door when I went in. She beckoned me with an orange talon and smiled sweetly when she told me all was well. I didn't need to see the boss. I went down the secluded aisles to my work station. Most people said hello popping heads above the vegetation like monkeys in a jungle.

'I thought you were away this week?' my colleague Alex sprawled on an office chair chewing gum and throwing a yoyo at me.

'Yea.' I ducked.

'Is a woman involved?' Alex always thought there was a woman involved. He thought that the boss giving Alex the day off when he wanted to go diving meant that some woman had made the boss soften up. Alex pissed people off. But he could be utterly brilliant at spotting the only thing to convince a client to Do the Right Thing. Alex was into doing the right thing; except when he really wanted to annoy someone. I had earned his fledgling support by being unfazed by any insult or mad trick he could pull. That was why I felt I could do the expedition. I needed to graduate to another level. And since getting wet didn't appeal; I felt that the advert from the University, calling for places on this thing was the sort of manly adventure I could learn something from that gave me a bit of extra interest. An investment in self-advancement was what the boss approved of; that, and physical exercise. I thought I had it cracked.

'You look like shit you know.' Straight to the point as ever Alex lobbed a paper aeroplane at me. 'Memo.' he said, 'You better read it.'

'What does it say?'

'Am I your mama? Read it dork brain.'

I tried to think of something clever to say back, but Alex was called away by her of the orange garden rake ends about an assignment later today.

He had got a point. I made a mental note to avoid tequila in future, and pulled the sheet out flat. A general memo to all staff: we were to be summoned to the Golf Club by the boss on a particular day as yet undecided: advance warning of an epic kind. It was not optional. In fact, I suspected that refusal might prejudice future job prospects.

'It's illegal of course.' It was Alex come back smirking, 'But you'll be the party piece. Back from your trip. Tanned, and with stories of near death escapes to tell the old wind bags....' and on seeing my face; '.... The chair of the Golf Club, and his ageing stalagmites.'

'There's not much sun. I'm going north.'

Alex picked up a rubber and threw it at me. He was always throwing things when he couldn't think of a smart answer. On the plus side it did mean I was never short of office supplies.

Things got quiet after that, I spent most of the day correcting colours on a design. There would be time for more stimulating activity when the local meeting hole braced for incoming. Later, I felt the surge of gently opening doors and a decibel level to blot out the nagging insignificance of everyone's day.

I drank cider. Not because I liked it but because it was truly three hundred per cent less terrible than the watered down sink dribble they called beer. But the snacks were the best. And if an executive got caught in here it was with coffee that sent you into orbit. I never got over drinking one. That and the sheer humiliation of paper parasols kept me off the cocktails.

An hour later I went home and composed a cheery letter to my mother. She couldn't stand computers. And I liked the whole ritual of putting things in envelopes and sticking stamps on. I would cast it into the sea of a mystical journey to the environs of the postal system. I wanted to be that letter: to go into dark and unknown places. To perhaps get lost or redirected, and then emerge on a pristine morning and softly land in a cool hall. There she would lift me up looking so expectant, so pleased I'd arrived. And of that journey I would tell her; every difficult moment, every uncertainty; until at last I arrived safely in this fortress of peace and solace. Mum liked me writing. She was proud of me and talked about me to everyone. If I got sick I could go back on the train and go home to safety; and the kettle would be on in an instant. I hated this Being a Man stuff. I wanted so badly to eat all the biscuits in the tin, and then a huge pile of Pasta and then Mum's misshapen chocolate buns blurring into each other like friendly play doh.

*****

Two

I walked in on Marcia. This time the embarrassment was all hers. She was crying. Darkish smudges pooled under her eyes, and she looked blotchy. She immediately pretended to be doing something with plates and saucers and wedges of cheese. I could see from the way her jaw was working that she hadn't really finished her cry properly.

'Do you want me to?' I pointed lamely at the door.

'What? No! Of course not you're not in the way.’ she turned away letting her hair fall in a curling sheet.

‘Is it tomorrow when we set off?’

‘Yes.’ she put biscuits on a tray.

I turned away and went to find Hanson. He was in the same place I had last seen him. Strangely he was tying the top of another pack. I looked around quickly with a feeling of déjâ vu.

‘You are worried about what you will have to carry?’ he grinned at me and stood up.

‘Yes.’

‘It feels light if it rests right on your shoulders.’

‘Why do we need so much?’

‘I think that is obvious…’ Hanson shook his head and produced a black cigarillo; ‘I mean we do need to survive out there.’

‘For how long?’

‘Well…’ he lit the short cigar with a battered metal Zippo, ‘I think we can estimate say three weeks travel....’

‘All together?’

‘No!’ he laughed and puffed out a fragrant cloud, ‘that’s travel outwards... Plus an extra week’s contingency, in case we’re slowed up; or something else happens. Then we need to camp at the edge of the borderlands and take all the readings necessary. The science bit of it all. So that adds up to five weeks. Then travel back.... plus, extra allowance in case of storms or accidents. We’ve got all the stuff packed now for twelve weeks out there.’

‘So we come back with supplies to spare?’

‘That’s the idea. Am I scaring you?’

‘No. Of course not.’ I lied quite well I thought.

‘Ok. Just got to get the torches and check all the cylinders.’ Hanson ambled away counting on his fingers. He seemed completely at ease now that the moment was imminent and all the waiting was over. He scared the hell out of me. I was sure that the contract was for only four weeks. Twelve weeks! But I thought about it and took some deep breaths and realised that this was the absolute max if everything went wrong. Calculating on nothing fouling up it was still seven. Which I felt sure was more than I had really expected.

I started to walk really quickly to the little cupboard they called a private room. I found the letter. It was clear. Three to four weeks. That was it. I was angry in a sour whingey way. I knew perfectly well that out there it didn’t matter what the damn paper said. If I chickened out; or if I got fussy at his stage, there were others waiting to take my place. Two of them were here already. They’d helped me sort out the various layers of clothing that would keep me from freezing. Or as George put it rather crudely It will stop your dick from snapping off.

An hour later my state of mind was utterly reversed. We’d toasted our maiden voyage with champagne, which I wasn’t used to. And Janey was sitting next to me on the blue sofa. The whole group was gathered. The brave, the strong, and in my case: the stupid. But now I didn’t care. It was amazing what a bit of bravado and booze could amount to. And Janey’s bosom heaving every time she laughed made me feel like one of the gang. No one was miserable, and everyone got up and shook hands and decided to get some sleep in a harmonious way that meant we all felt united in purpose. I saw Marcia smile too. I was feeling just a little bit too expansive and smiled at her. She blinked and turned away. But by then we were all moving out of the door to find our bunks and mentally prepare for the hearty breakfast later in the morning.

It was getting on and Janey didn’t seem to be anywhere about. I thought I had seen her talking to Hanson just before we turned in for the night. Marcia was in efficient mode and hadn’t seemed moved by her absence at the breakfast table. I was getting worried. I was just starting to imagine what twelve weeks would be like without her. It felt wrong. Marcia was better company when she wasn’t screwing Hanson. But Janey was a real scientist. She knew all about rocks and ice and earthquake readings. Some of the studies they would be running at the boundary edges were her whole plan. She was the operator, and the other stuff that was hitching a ride from the science bods too old to make the journey would be carried out by her. I’d thought she was depressive. Then she walked across the yard, in such a state of upbeat excitement that I didn’t quite believe it was the same person. She looked like a girl who’d been up all night, but not because of insomnia. The fresh light made her skin glow. The red snow suit clashed joyfully with her vivid pink hair band.

'You're late.' said George brusquely.

'No.' Janey gazed at her watch: which she wore on her right wrist; the other slender hand arching above what I now noticed as naturally shapely eyebrows.

'Ok people!' Hanson yanked our attention back to himself. 'You three finish loading that truck. Then I want everyone in Base for assignment allocation task coding.'

I didn't understand why Hanson was being so apparently pompous. We all knew about the Dog Tags. Each had our role and status programmed in, plus a chip that could be picked up by satellite. The theory was, if you got lost or separated from the group you could be found. There was also a pull pin that set off an electronic beacon in an emergency. It transmitted continuously on two prearranged frequencies your position and identity. The batteries would last for months. So if you're dead they still have time to get your body back before it's eaten George again with Aiden sniggering madly. Aiden was only kept at Base because he knew the equipment inside out. He'd lost most of what normal people would regard as sanity on a previous ill-fated mission. The end of his little finger on his right hand was missing from frostbite. But Aiden was to George what an encyclopaedia is to a librarian. Without him no fact could be checked. George was smart. Smarter I suspected than Hanson, but he took the role of base command because that way I told you so wasn't quite as confrontational as out there. Hanson unnerved me. I felt more confidence in George and even Aiden because they could send help if it all went to hell.

George held the bunch of tags. As each name was called we went forward. George fastened them around your neck as if he was bestowing an Olympic medal. From his expression I read a serious concern. Perhaps it was concentrated focus, or even a sense of annoyance that these pieces of technology might just be the souvenirs of an uneventful trip. I fervently hoped so.

'It's time to say your last goodbyes.' Jared nudged me. We all merged in the middle of the room and the ones who were going laboriously shook hands with the ones who were staying. This stilted ritual did nothing to alleviate the settled nausea that pooled in my gut. It was the acknowledgement of a course that no power could divert us from. The last few moments after that were horrible. The ten minutes of checking and rechecking before the vehicles moved in a smooth line out of the compound.

I was in the second cab of the bigger truck. It gave one an excellent view of the landscape. Jared was driving. I was nominally the direction finder. Hanson was driving the first Landy with Janey navigating. Two others were in the back. Neither was Marcia. She was in the third much smaller tough terrain car. She was to be the group's Chef in charge. They also carried the larger Med. packs and rescue gear. I guessed rightly that Hanson wanted to keep distractions out of his mind over that first rough and tricky twenty miles or so. We began to drop down and moved diagonally over ribbed hill spurs. Some of them were bouncing the suspension in slow sickening jerky movements. I tried to keep my eyes on the middle distance and not give way to groaning. Jared was a superb driver and kept us moving steadily onwards. After about twenty minutes of this the landscape gave way to rolling folds that we had to traverse like the curves on a chocolate flake. It wasn't as bad for the stomach but it was frustrating when I looked back and it seemed we'd hardly made any progress. Within another forty minutes we came to a short grassy incline that created a near horizon. This was what I was waiting for. The smudging clouds began to give way to some brighter patches as we climbed up and up this grassy treeless banking. It was further up than it appeared and as we seemed to get to the top it opened out temporarily into a flat tableland about two miles across. Where it ended there was another banking shorter than the first. I remembered it now and realised I had been anticipating the view like some corpulent tourist.

A short while later we stopped at the bottom of the second incline. Everyone got out of the transport to un-crease legs and arms. Janey stretched like a cat: unselfconscious and luxuriant. I was in the first stages of obsession watching her. I now felt oddly elated. The air here was colder and bracing. The flasks of hot milky coffee that seemed so unappealing when Marcia and James prepared them in the steel kitchen at Main Base became the taste I would forever associate with this place; in that time before I saw it - before the landscape unfolded into rolls of turf and bushes, and strange low heathery plants. When I finally saw it; that immense incline at the angle of a child's slide that just kept going and going... We had walked up the second shorter hill with our cameras and reached the lipped edge. From that high point the land angled down for miles and miles before it reached those strange plains. The land which yawned on to the horizon was criss-crossed with channels seemingly manmade. They were natural in fact and a larger scale version of the bone rattling land we had passed earlier. It was for me a baptism of sorts. That first chill of seeing a view that so many had talked about with awed wonder. You couldn’t see it all at once as the whole place was subject to bouts of dense mist. It danced like a drunk at a party. Like an unseen guest, it exhaled a breath of colder air that seemed to stir up into glassy columns the frigid mist of these undulating plains. It was wonderful and terrifying by turns. The anticipation of being drenched in the presence of these chilling clouds once we passed into the endless fields sent a prickle of exquisite fear that seemed to reach the ends of my hair. The long slope to the fields was a lot further than it looked. The perspective in this land distorted and foreshortened this craggy slide. Janey had told me as we drank coffee that it would take two hours to get there- to the Cloud Fields as she called them. She told me these things with a hushed reverence that no one else could possibly overhear. I was far too preoccupied with my own self-preservation at that moment to take in the meaning that dripped from the soft stroke of every word. But now I saw what she meant. This was better than another planet. No... It was another planet. Only then did I realise that for all of her science Janey held what was for me, a darker side. The visceral, perhaps even the spiritual desire to pit oneself against the vast, bleak open country that would soon be lost in the intimacy of silver linings aplenty. We remembered the mundane self-discipline then to contact Base, and strolled chatting back to our vehicles. Even from the radio transmission George sounded disappointed that we hadn't already made it further today. He urged haste to get to the first night’s camping spot. It was a rocky entrance to a deep cave that provided shelter from the weather. We went back to our convoy. Everyone checked their gloves and goggles and the oxygen link for the masks. We most likely wouldn't need it until much further across this ice field but it was reassuring in a comfort blanket kind of way.

We rolled up the banking with a sober anticipation of what lay ahead. The Land Rover reached the peak on the lip of the hill, and then tipped downwards. We were next. I twisted around in my seat to see the big wheeled terrain buggy grip the nobbled edge and lean further and further over until I felt it would be falling and rolling towards us.

'How steep is it?' I hoped my voice sounded level and curious rather than worried.

Jared straightening the wheel flashed a grin at me.

'Joe! Pass Davey the other map!'

The other man dropped it into my hand. I spread it out on the shelf in front of me.

'Just keep an eye on the altimeter.' Jared turned smoothly, 'If anyone starts to feel dizzy take a snort from the mask. If you wanna chuck, we stop! Ok!'

'Yes Boss!' It was one of the others travelling with us. A skinny grinning undergrad called Curly Pete. He kept his hair short so he could hide at parties. Women existed who would pay serious money for curls like that. A least that's what I'd been told. I remembered Janey's hair was quite straight with a hint of curve to stop it being too severe. I shook my head and stared hard at the map. This was like going down into the sea bed but with no water in it. I calculated that it was about one in four feet on average. This was the kind of hill where you checked your brakes before descending. Some bits looked steeper. Some even steeper still: like the pitch of a roof on a Victorian terrace. Those we circled around, carefully taking a route that avoided tangled bushes and sudden sharp drops. I realised what it reminded me of - the grassy banking that descended below cliffs to near the sea shore, but without the sound of waves and gulls, and breezy freshness mingling seaweed, salt and fish. Come to think of it, it didn't seem like it at all. We went over a bump. Joe swore and Jared fought with the gears. He got us moving again. Momentarily I had seen the buggy's wheel through our back window. We began to traverse diagonally to take the drop more safely. I wished I was in either the front or back of the three not sandwiched here in the middle. In the jam whatever happened. Jared must have seen my face.

'Davey snap to it. Reading!' I read the mark on the dial; and then the second electronic one. They matched. Jared grunted satisfied and glanced at his watch. I breathed in slowly to calm myself again. This wasn't going to end for a while. I concentrated on the dials and gave Jared the reading every five minutes. Suddenly we stopped. Just ahead and to the left was an overhang that jutted out into space like an undercut worn away by the tide. I was warm in my gear but my breath had started to mist in the air of the cab.

'Get the heaters going girls' said Jared casually. Joe and Curly Pete passed Jared's mask over as warmer air began to circulate. Jared went outside and stood forward of us with the other driver and Hanson. I couldn't tell whether this was an unexpected hitch or not. There was a lot of pointing and turning around and gesticulating going on. I could just spy Janey's red snowsuit in the front seat. She was very still. Then she moved. I could see her tracing a finger across the map. Jared got back in the driver’s seat bringing a momentary rush of refrigerated air into our now warm transport. It was not actually as warm as all that. Just enough to compensate for us sitting still inside the vehicle: - and to stop the windows icing up.

'Ok we're going to arrive later.' Jared didn't sound surprised. 'We won't fit.' he added looking at me as we stared at the overhang. I was getting used to jolts of various sorts today and didn't react. Actually the prospect of rolling in late with camp already set up and dinner on the go made me feel quite cheered. I was in some ways relieved that I didn't have to watch the painful pavane played out as Marcia tried to get Hanson to be alone with her after a whole day of separation. I began to think that after all it was Janey who really commanded his attention. That was nonsense I knew. Or was it? Hanson had always reacted with an overreaching normalcy around Janey. I began to wonder if after all it was my own imagination that there had ever been anything between them. My attention was engaged then for the next hour and a half with a set of manoeuvres only made possible by Jared's ability apparently to do things that could be considered impossible: starting with a neatly executed three-point turn with almost no extra room to allow clearance for our huge quadruped. The small buggy backed up a way to allow us to pass back up the hill, and then round some more of those damned deceptive bushes. This led to a narrow cut that took us down about fifty feet to the right of the direction we had originally been travelling in. I was relieved to realise that the incline wasn't as steep here. But these deep grooves led us out of the way, so our detour would bring us out five miles away as we reached the shallower slopes that began to flatten out into the ice fields proper. At this stage I began to cheer up. The view was again unencumbered. I saw what we were looking for - a set of rocks that struck upwards like enormous chimney pots or rolls of carpet stacked on their ends leaning slightly into each other. We adjusted course and the lads started to sing silly songs as we bumped and bounced our way towards our land mark. A weak light illuminated the freaky landscape revealing iridescent sparkles on the low spiky bushes and stray rocks. Ice. Frozen for longer than any of us had been alive. Well the stuff in the ground anyway. After five verses of On Ilkley Moor. Adam cried out from the back seat. We all fell silent simultaneously. Something had darted across our path. About a hundred yards ahead a figure had crossed from a stack of confused vegetation and run into another channel. One we weren't heading for. Jared slowed but didn't stop. He pressed something and I heard the heavy thunk of central locking. We had the headlights on and I suddenly realised how dark the place had become in the last ten minutes. The sun was lower in the west and seen through a haze that diffused the evening light. It looked like ground glass and smoke. I began to feel distinctly edgy. We were too low now to see our landmark and had to rely on navigational equipment and Jared's driving skills.

Then darkness fell. The undimensioned; the heavy drape of a night creating power for whatever was out there. I saw in the arc of our headlights the strangeness of the spiky prickles on outreaching branches that seemed to meet together in front of us. We slowed right down. The rocks grew taller on either side. The scraping rattle of icy branches ground and creaked down our sides. Adam and the fourth guy Nikolas checked continually the side windows and gave Jared an Ok every few seconds. Then we came to a part that was so thickly obscured that I didn't think it possible for us to get through. There was a grinding hideous metallic groan, and then we dropped forward five feet. Jared stopped the engine. We were swaying in space; tipping further forward at each bone chilling creak.

We were nose down now. I gripped the harness and braced myself. The lights stared into darkness. We were almost at ninety degrees now. I fully expected to fall and be crushed. Abstractly I wondered how much it would hurt. Curiously I wasn't scared now one's expiry seemed utterly inevitable.

'Davey!' Jared hissed; 'Please press the orange lever.' He was reaching across with one hand, but firmly encased by the five-point harness, it was just out of reach from the driver’s side.

I obeyed. There was a whizzing hiss like a firework. And sure enough a light dropped from the nose and spiralled down leaving a trail of smoky afterimages. The drop was a good thirty to forty feet. The beam burned brighter as it came to rest. Jared worked the controls on the right side of the centre panel. 'Sixty-five' he said.

'Is it strong enough Joe?' asked Curly Pete. He sounded quite conversational.

'Uh? Yea. Should bounce really well.'

Bounce... I didn't like the sound of that.

Adam and Nikolas hadn't spoken since we stopped; and Jared now stared silently into the chasm before us. It appeared as if we could hang here indefinitely. That was until a high whining creak was party to a sudden jolt down of a few inches.

'We need clearance to inflate it.' That was Adam.

Clearly we were wedged in too tight to do the inflating of the things we were supposed to go space hopping on. At that point I really began to wish I'd bothered to read the transport manual. Dying of ignorance through experiences outside of any possible prediction; would be considerably less humiliating than dying in a state of willed ignorance because I hadn’t read the stupid instruction book. But it looked like I was about to find out the true meaning of Pancaked. The fellas thought it very funny. They had laughed even more at the disconnected finger that had been mistaken for another appendage (allegedly). Suddenly, with a brain lurching roll we were upside down and falling. I had the briefest sensation of my stomach being left behind before we met it going back up. Then with a truly vomitus thud we landed. I heard a hissing as shock absorbers let us down the last little bit. I opened my eyes. I was the right way up to judge by the way my tag chain was hanging. There was a cough from the back, and a groaning sound. Jared popped himself out of the front seat harness. He shoved open the door hastily, and tumbled out without a mask. The door swung almost to. What followed was not a pleasant sound. Joe got out with his mask on and took Jared his. A moment later, I could hear them talking. I couldn't hear what they said, but what struck me was the dull interior sound their voices made out there.

‘Davey. Hey, come out here.’

I obeyed. The bitter cold would have stung my throat if I wasn’t wearing the mouth piece. But a wonderful sight met my eyes; a wall that sparkled and glistened with gold and blue lights; metallic, yet liquid with some substance.

‘Look at that!’ said Nikolas.

We all turned and there was the scattering fantail of phosphorescent colour that swirled down columns of rock. From my point of view there was something even better - a clear route to our destination. From there the bobbing light of a lantern approached us, unmistakably familiar and shining with a piecing yellow-white flame visible in the blue chill of sundown.

‘Bloody Hell!’ said Curly Pete looking back up the way we had come. It appeared in the last hint of light that a huge spur of rock had fallen and blocked the gap. All around were scattered great chunks of the spiky plants that had gripped us so menacingly. Lucky Escape didn’t really explain it.

‘It’s an effing Miracle!’ Adam had unclipped his mask and his breath spread and seemed to hang in heavy clouds and start to drift downwards like a miniature snow shower.

Jared came and stood next to me as we waited for our lanterned companion to reach us.

‘Well, we made it this far.’ he looked at me curiously, ‘You didn’t think...?’

‘No.’ I said quickly.

‘No. Me neither.’ Jared’s eyes showed he was grinning, ‘But just in case you did think you were going to…’

‘Going to?’

‘The thing you weren’t thinking.’

‘Uh huh?’

‘I was thinking it too.’ and still looking at me ‘Get a sample Joe!’

‘Ok.’ I said. Jared smacked me on the arm and said to the other who had just approached, ‘A bit unconventional I’ll admit… but we did get here as agreed: before eight.’

‘Well after eight there’d be no chocolate left!’ the figure held high the light to reveal a very statuesque Marcia. Her expression was unclear with part of her face covered. I was surprised to see her. At the same time, I wasn’t quite ready for Hanson, so it came as quite a relief. Marcia in witty mode meant that things were going well at the first night’s camp.

‘Someone to walk with the Lady.’ said Jared.

‘Uh. I will.’ I said and joined her in front of the now softly resting long truck. I looked at the sides with puzzlement as the others got in. Not a scratch.

‘There’s a lot of space technology built into this baby.’ said Marcia, ‘It will take a lot more than one small drop to put a mark on the shell.’

‘Have you seen that before?’ I indicated the phosphorescent stuff as we started to walk ahead and Jared followed in first gear.

‘Yes. There’s plenty of it. It’s a kind of fungus. But it normally doesn’t grow so profusely. The other is rock deposits with ice on top.’

‘Everything has ice on it.’

‘There’s more than just ice. There are minerals out here that would fulfil the avarice of most ambitious men.’

‘You mean gold?’

‘I mean that all this has to be for more than the adventure… the exploration for the sake of it. Investors need a good return.’

‘Are we taking any back?’

‘No. Thank God! We are a purely scientific mission. The problem is not the abundance of things like that…. it’s rather the danger of local interference in any umm… digging.’

‘You mean people?’ I was dying to know more.

Marcia looked at me with a new expression in her hazel eyes. Pity? Or concern? ‘You really shouldn’t be so naïve Davey. It’s all about the Cash in the end. You know that.’

She was right. I did. I felt hypocritical. Greed, as Alex had always told me was the fuel for the advertising industry. Out here I thought the rules had changed. Perhaps they had, but we weren’t far enough away from civilisation yet for them to become irrelevant. Chastened, I resolved not to enquire about the exact basis on which we had been supported in this science trip. Bizarrely, I felt if I didn’t know I could keep my motives pure. Float in a high minded way above such things. It was nonsense. But I didn’t want the magic of raw near-death experience that had so scrubbed me clean of a desire for self-aggrandisement, to be dissolved