"Scenes of the soft fleshy humanoids invading the hives will make your exoskeleton rattle." Says <>@( of the Deneb Times.
"Really, could anyone believe that such monsters exist. It's absurd." Noted scientist ***##>,&%@ stated.
It was a glorious day. The first human beings to set foot on Mercury. The landing craft arced slowly out of orbit to an easy decent. Cameras were set out to record every moment. A first step was made, a flag was planted, a speech was made, and then the crew boarded the transporter to be carried to the base accommodations. And I was there to witness it all.Of course the mines here on Mercury have been in operation for thirty Earth years, and if someone hadn't noticed that history had not recorded a human being setting foot here, and if there had not been a landing craft left over from the Jupiter program, this event would not have happened until much later. But now it has occurred.
The base here at Mercury's north pole was the original mining operation site. It is now surrounded by a wall of solar collectors and a solar power tower rises majestically at the center of the base. Several processing plants refine ore brought in from the various pit mines nearby. Others produce products to be shot off planet by the mass driver. So much material has been processed and shot off that the base now sits on top of a high mountain, it originally was on a flat plain. AI surveying teams have thoroughly explored the planet to map the obtainable ores, and eventually most of the planet will be sent into space for colony construction.
Special modifications were made to the mass driver system to bring in the accommodations for the humans. Shelters, oxygen, food, and water ice were delivered to a small crater near the base. Tomorrow when the humans leave, the accommodations will be retained just in case any other human being wants to set a foot on the surface of Mercury.
Mark Goll.
I left the LEO transfer station from docking port three. For this trip my equipment was already packed in drop containers, so all I had was a simple disposable jump suit. A five foot four inch man in a paper bag. I had left all my personal equipment in a locker for my return. The liner that would take me to the orbital station at Ganymede carried three hundred forty seven passengers and several thousand tons of cargo. I would be part of the cargo. As I proceeded through the station to ship transfer tunnel, I handed my boarding pass to the steward, was ID scanned, and directed to proceed to the ships medical section. Several transfer tubes, an elevator, and down a corridor and I arrived at Dr. Nick Riviera's office. The good doctor informed that I was in the wrong place and gave me directions to cargo bay 37. At this point I got lost, but the ships computer tracking system found me and directed me to the proper location. A rather board medic was waiting to set me up in the metamorphosis pod. With just a quick greeting he proceeded to insert two IVs into my arm, tear off my jump suit, and stuff a breathing tube into my mouth. That pretty much cut off any conversation. I was already feeling sleepy as I slide into the thick warm liquid of the metamorphosis pod. A lot of genetic engineering had proceeded this day. Fully seventy five percent of my genetic code had been rewritten, so that now there were in fact several people living inside me. And now I would become one of them. To sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream....Woah! What a dream! I reach up to touch my head, CLANG! Opps! Forgot, I'm different now. I'm also out of the pod and in a zero gee cargo hold. I'm tethered in free space. Before me is Dr. Riviera in a space suit, we are in vacuum.
"Are you Ok?"
"I feel Ok."
"Take a few moments to check your new body out, and then we will take you to a low gee area for some coordination building exercises. There's a mirror on the wall behind you. Good luck on your journey."
"Thanks."
I use one of the tether lines to spin myself around. Now I know why they put the mirror behind me. Even though I helped plan what I have become, it takes a few moments for me to realize that the monster looking back at me from the mirror is really me. I count off the parts, and as I do, I instinctively begin to connect with them and understand their use. I have six massive legs beneath my carapace, they flex out. Four arms extend from my upper body, two of which are nearly as massive as the legs, but are intended more for digging and cargo handling. The two upper most arms end in delicate manipulators. As good as the best fingers. I untie the tethers suspending me in the middle of the cargo bay. A closer look at the, excuse me, my head reveals three sets of eyes. The front pair are huge to collect the dim light that will exist on Io, the rear pair are sensitive mostly to infared, and the one eye on top of my head is insect like to track the movement of satellites. The face is not something you would want to wake up to either. The massive mandibles are designed to crush rocks for analysis and sustenance. Radio antenna sprout for the place where my ears used to be. Like I said, not a pretty sight. The top of my carapace is also dished out to form a radar dish for long range communications. My exoskeleton is stainless steel. I am a gleaming monster designed to live in a totally hostile environment. I need no air, I eat rock, I am virtually indestructible.
A shuttle takes me and my survey instruments down to the surface of Io, and I wave good-bye, not to see another living creature for nearly three years. Of course I will be in constant contact with the thousands of humans in the Jupiter system, but the radiation, the sulfur and the alien landscape of Io is all mine for at least three years.
On the trip back to Earth, I will be again transformed. Four years from now I will be going to the ballet - as one of the female dancers in Swan Lake. Sometimes I do wonder who, or what I really am. Maybe one of my fellow clones has figured it out.
YOU AND THREE OTHERS HAVE CRASH LANDED ON THE MOON. BEFORE THE VEHICLE EXPLODED, ALL ABOARD PUT ON THEIR SPACESUITS AND THE ITEMS LISTED BELOW WERE SALVAGED. THE MOON BASE IS 40 KM AWAY (ABOUT 3 DAYS TRAVEL) IN A KNOWN DIRECTION, ACROSS A MOUNTAIN RANGE, BUT THEY CANNOT COME TO GET YOU. YOU ARE OUT OF RADIO CONTACT, AND NO ONE IS COMING TO RESCUE YOU. YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!! NUMBER THE ITEMS BELOW ACCORDING TO THEIR IMPORTANCE.
A FLARE PISTOL AND A BOX OF CARTRIDGES.
A 20 WATT UHF RADIO WITH SPACESUIT CONNECTORS
TWO ROLLS OF GRAY DUCT TAPE
A FOUR PERSON LIFE RAFT
FIVE GALLONS OF WATER WITH SPACESUIT CONNECTORS
20 DAYS OF SPACESUIT FOOD RATIONS
100 METERS OF CLIMBING ROPE
A W.W.II GOVERNMENT ISSUE FIRST AID KIT
A TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE MOON
SIXTEEN SPARE CYLINDERS OF SPACESUIT OXYGEN (A 4 DAY SUPPLY)
A TWO PERSON INFLATABLE MOON SHELTER WITH TP
A 45 CALIBER SEMIAUTO PISTOL
A WEEKS SUPPLY OF SPACESUIT BATTERIES
GOOD LUCK!
Email your answers to markgoll@wt.net. The correct answers are located on my commentary page,