Manchineel - Sample Collection

I’m grateful when Dr Cho tosses me some headache tablets as she leaves for work. I wonder over to the replicator and select porridge and black coffee.

Feeling a little better, I follow my wrist com’s directions to a hover tram and head to the command room at the cargo bay. I’ve been there before and the journey passes by in a hazy blur.

I’m given a small operations compartment and assigned a rover for sample collection. Officially, I’m collecting rock samples for analysis back on earth. Unofficially, my orders are to require a sample of water from the outside of the dome. Scientist back on earth think something is being covered up here on Mars. Whatever their fear is, it’s enough for them to send me to here to find out and pay enough for both mine and Laura’s futures.

When I arrive at my assigned compartment, I take a seat in front of a bank of screens. It all looks familiar. I have front and rear views of the planet’s surface in real time on either side of a digital map showing my rovers’ location. Everything else can be operated from the VR gloves I attach to my hands.

Sample collecting is a laborious task, but after an hour of sifting through rocks, I’m convinced no one is paying any attention. Now’s my chance. I drive the rover as close as I can to the outside of the dome’s walls but soon realise, collecting a water sample is going to be tricker than I first thought. Large sand banks have developed on this side of the Dome structure, making it impossible to get near with a heavy vehicle such as this. I’ve ventured out of the recommended safety zone. I’m alerted by the persistent flashing on my control screen that’s starting to give me a headache. To make matters worse, a pop up informs me there’s a storm fast approaching. This will have to wait for another day. I decide to abort my mission and head the rover back towards the safety of the cargo bay.

The storm comes quickly and with a fury. My control screens go blank as the magnetic interference hits. It would be sensible to stop and wait for it to pass, but I can’t risk being discovered out of the recommended safety zone, I will arise suspicion. I’m left with no choice but to drive the rover blind in the general direction of the cargo bay. It’s going fine until I suddenly lose contact with the vehical altogether. My frustration gets the better of me and I bang my fist down hard on the table. I’m left with little choice but to wait for the storm to pass. I take to pacing up and down the small pod but it doesn’t help calm me. I need to know where the hell that Rover is.

After what seems like an eternity the storm starts to clear and I return to my controls. Desperately searching the screens for any sign of life. They suddenly flick on. I’m not greeted with the scene I was hoping for. Looking on in horror, the rover precariously balances on the edge of an enormous crater. It’s nose dipping in and out like a see-saw in a kid’s playground.

My stomach lurches but I might be able to pull it back, waiting until the back tracks almost touch the ground I reverse with full power.

It’s no good, all I achieve is an enormous dust cloud. The tracks can’t find purchase on the sandy surface. My mind whirls through ways to solve this dilemma. I stare at the screens debating what to do, but the nose dips down again, a tremendous gust of wind pushes the rover over the edge. It tumbles into the dark abyss.

“Shit, shit, shit.” I scream.

I put my head in my hands. This is not what I needed. If only my head wasn’t so fuzzy this never would have happened.

Ater a few deep breaths I compose myself and decide to turn on the last recorded video feed taken from the rovers on board cameras in case, by some miracle, the vehicle may have landed on a protruding ledge. It pops up on the screen, the shaky footage shows black interspersed with an orange sky as the rover tumbles over and over in the crater until it hits something solid. The cameras glitch a couple more times before going blank.

I turn on the live feed, at first there is no response, but I keep trying each camera separately until the front camera momentarily flickers to life.

The signal is very weak the rover must be at the bottom of the crater. The image shows a knurled black tree with a thick trunk and branches reaching up with spindling fingers. It glistens in the dim light, as if covered in a thin film of oil. In the foreground something large and white takes up the corner of the screen. At first a think it’s a rock but as I zoom out, to my horror I realise it’s a human skull pierced by a dark twisted root.