Chaotic Terrain

Posted on Monday July 6th, 2020 @ 12:43pm by Lieutenant Shalmira Heddan

565 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Shakedown Cruise
Location: Strbase 47, Holodeck 2
Timeline: R&R

ON:

The sun, already little more than a crimson smear in the pink blush expanse of sky, darkened as the small moon Phobos passed across causing a brief partial eclipse. The shadows darkened beneath the jagged outcrops and jutting crimson regolith rock that made up much of Mars’ upper mantle. The horizon, already curtailed to 3km on the small planet, was shortened still from the towering vantage point of the southern escarpment of Elysium Mons. Though the dead volcano was not the tallest mountain on Mars, its southern face and that of the lesser volcano nearby, Hecates Tholos, were by far the more interesting to climb.

Shalmira cursed as her finger-hold slipped, miniscule grains of red dust (which Martian exo-geolists insisted on calling “fines”) poured between her gloved fingers and down the rock face like free flowing water. She used an old climbing arque technique with her left knuckles, hyperextending in a gap to take the shift of her bodyweight. She was free climbing with no ropes or anti-G devices to aid her. She looked over her shoulder and took a moment to admire the view down at the multi-cratered plains and broken lanscape eastwards towards the Hellas Planitia - what geoligists called Chaotic Terrain.

“You find this ludicrous pastime therapeutic?” Ensign T’rok [NPC] exclaimed as, not for the first time, the skeletally thin Vulcan slipped and slid down the incline accompanied by a small landslide of dust and rocks. “I fail to see the logic in climbing an extinct martian volcano which, as you are aware, has had a grav-lift since 2130 AD and, I may add, the major advances and advantages of modern transporter technology making this practise obsolete”

“That’s not the point” Shalmira explained, straining for a ledge that was just out of her reach unless she moved her already precarious position. She watched absentmindedly as a red pebble fell past her and down the gaping expanse of the overhang below until it faded from view. “Climbing is an excellent discipline as it frees the mind and trains the body”

“Ah yes, it frees the mind of such popular concepts as common sense and self-preservation. While training the body to prepare for multiple fractures and imminent death no doubt” T’rok mused sourly. “When you set the holodeck program for pre-colonized Mars I didn’t think I would be seeing the planet from the dubious vantage of ten thousand meters without the aid of so much as a rope”

“You are an incorrigible pragmatist, even for a Vulcan” Shalmira muttered. “What of the beauty and the freedom. A whole red planet where not a single sentient being has ever trodden or sought to ‘improve’ by terraforming and such...”

“Damn!” T’rok yelped as he suddenly lost his grip and fell, his hands scrabbling for the rock face as he tumbled towards the looming precipise.

“End program” Shalmira muttered Last time I go climbing with a Vulcan she thought. The impressive Martian mountainside and red cratered landscape faded from view to reveal the Starbase’s cavernous holodeck.

T’rok wiped dust off his gloves as he stood on the dark deck plating of the holodeck.
“At times, Lieutenant, I seriously doubt your sanity” the Vulcan Ensign muttered as he walked towards the holodeck exit.

Shalmira sighed as she followed the Vulcan, her thoughts for once, her own.

END

RSS Feed