Going Bold

Andrea found herself wondering what she was doing with her life, contemplating the choices and coincidences that brought her path to where it was. Then her feet hit the ground and she kept running. The Farrous was gaining on her, its loud bellows and the thunderous crash of its hooves grew closer and closer at a terrifying rate. Why did she have to run afoul one of those hulking beasts now of all times? She was nearly done with her part of the planetary survey and it was almost time for her to leave so the follow up teams could conduct more in depth studies.

But noooo of course she had to take one last stroll though the alien forest and run into the most dangerous animal she’d documented in her preliminary survey. Naturally she could kill it but that would be beneath her dignity as part of the Surveyor Corps. She was there to find new life not kill it and she had a perfect record on this expedition so far, despite the dangerous nature of her work. Since fighting was ruled out, flight was the only option and this huge beast was not happy with her in the slightest

The smashing and rending of vegetation drew closer and closer as Andrea kept rushing straight ahead. The rock face she remembered from a week back was close, but the dense vegetation and confused lighting under the canopy was masking anything more than a few meters away, even with Andrea’s extra sensors. The damp pats of ferns contrasted gently with the harsh whip cracks of thin branches, the harsh tugs of thorns, and the brutal thump of tree trunks as Andrea’s headlong rush transformed the greenery into a viridescent kaleidoscope gauntlet. Suddenly she had to catch herself as the rock wall seemingly leapt out at her face from the dense greenery. With no time to waste Andrea started to desperately scramble up the rock her nails extruding hardened spikes to grip at the surface and work into tiny gaps.

Within a handful of seconds Andrea was nearing the level of the lower forest canopy and not a moment too soon as the Farrous slammed into the rock below her with horrifying violence, the sound of cracking rock and shattering trees accompanied the blast of rock and wood shrapnel that sprayed the area and nearly tore Andrea loose from her perch with her fingers and toes all gripping desperately to the heaving rock face. With a bellow of frustrated rage the Farrous whipped its head up trying to dash Andrea from her place, but her position 10 meters above the loamy floor of the forest was just enough to put her out of reach

“Ha! Missed me big guy, now knock it off. Do I look like I want to compete for mates with you!” Andrea half panted and half yelled back as she resumed climbing again, soon reaching the top and hauling herself onto more even ground. She flopped down in relief, her enhanced body barely taxed by the rapid flight but the near miss left her a bit breathless anyway. “An exciting last afternoon, huh?” Lin asked in Andrea’s head. Lin was Andrea’s surveyor partner and friend, as a body independent intelligence she was currently sharing space in Andrea’s brain and implants. Andrea snorted and felt herself relax, after a few moments she climbed to her feet and gazed out from her newly gained vantage point.

Spreading out below them was a staggering vista of one of the forests on Ristula 4 this region of the earth like planet was a tropical rainforest lush and teaming with life ranging from titanic to minuscule. Andrea and Lin were the first people to visit in person and truly experience the beauty of the place from up close. At this point they’d been on Ristula 4 for about 5 months conducting preliminary surveys of the landing area for the in-depth study team that would follow in their footsteps. At this point they had a good grasp on the hazards and features of the area, though Andrea would definitely have to add an extra warning about the Farrous, it appeared as if they became far more aggressive at this time in the planet’s seasonal cycle, though that was a bit of an assumption and discovering the real reasons was definitely a job for the follow up team, she’d just add a note to be extra careful about situating any camps out of reach of the hulking herbivores and being particularly careful when working near them.

“Thanks for building out these claws for me, you saved me enough time to not get smashed.” Andrea thanked Lin out loud, preferring to converse normally with her friend unless discretion was necessary. “No problem Andrea, besides you were climbing for the both of us.” Lin couldn’t resist slipping in her own ‘unique’ take on humor. Fortunately Andrea enjoyed Lin’s way of lightening the mood and Lin was pretty good about not overdoing it.

Turning away from the sweeping views of the forest below to look over the peak of the rocky plateau Andrea and Lin both noticed something interesting at the same time. “You know the orbital and drone surveys of the top of this pillar really didn’t capture quite how porous it is, we should investigate it while we’re up here just to be thorough.” Lin suggested, matching her actions to her words by deploying a half dozen mini-drones from Andrea’s shoulders while Andrea signaled her agreement with a thumbs up and started to pick her way across the small plateau.

The mini-drones spread out and began to scan a detailed record of the area as Andrea took her time strolling a meandering path, pausing from time to time to check out interesting plants, animals, and rock features. Suddenly she stopped and said “Well look at this, we almost left the planet without finding a good cave to explore, Jorge would have given me shit for ages if his team found this right in our survey area and we missed it.” The ‘it’ in question was ahead of them and hidden from almost every angle, a fairly large opening into the rock. Lin directed a pair of the mini-drones to immediately start mapping the opening and any deeper cave structure it might lead to. Never one to hold back from seeing something new, Andrea broke into an excited jog to join them.

As they drew closer Andrea began to see farther and farther back into the rocky aperture until the main passage seemed to curve down and around out of direct sight, though one of the drones was already disappearing around the bend and Lin was seeing the passage as it continued. Andrea deliberately disabled her feed from the foremost drone, sometimes she liked to see things for the first time in person without having the view spoiled with an advanced screening. Lin could always bring anything relevant to her attention if needed.

“I’m getting close to the level of the forest floor outside the plateau with that lead drone Andrea, and it looks like this cave keeps going, I’ve finished mapping the top of the plateau so I’ll bring the other 4 drones back to you and we can keep exploring, though we do need to be back in camp in 6 hours to chat with the study crew as they enter orbit” Lin stated

“It’s about a 2 hour hike from the plateau to camp so we can keep exploring for about 2 hours before we need to turn around, hopefully we’ll find something exciting!” Andrea enthused

Andrea had always had a passion for exploring new places and pushing her, and sometimes others’, limits. It had gotten her into a fair bit of trouble when she was younger, but eventually she’d found the perfect place to harness her passions for adrenaline and curiosity, the Surveyor Corps; dedicated to the ethical exploration of the universe. People who felt out of place in more regimented parts of society, but who didn’t reject outright the value of a code of conduct, were the majority in the Surveyor Corps. Most felt more at home on their own and unbound by overzealous scheduling. The edges of known space and beyond were dangerous even by the already hazardous standards of the universe, but alongside that danger came freedom to pursue her curiosity and thirst for excitement with few fixed deadlines and little direction beyond the directive to learn, and explore while not being a selfish monster.

Andrea and Lin continued down into the cave as it coiled down below the forest floor and deep into the rock, the 4 trailing drones catching up quickly and landing on Andrea’s shoulders again. After about half an hour the passage began to widen until Andrea’s spread arms could no longer touch both walls at once, it continued to widen and then level out over the next 10 minutes as they continued to walk.

“Woah!” Lin exclaimed “You’re about to see something really neat Andrea!” Perking up even further Andrea strode forward at a faster pace, the passage seemed to have a change in lighting up ahead as it continued to widen. Andrea switched off her low light, infrared, and echolocation visual overlays and confirmed that a blue and purple glow seemed to be coming from ahead. Suddenly the passage’s walls seemed to fall away and the ceiling to loft upwards

Andrea had entered a vast chamber filled with mushrooms and fungi, many of which were glowing in entrancing shades of blue, green, and purple lighting a subterranean fungal forest that was vast enough that it disappeared into a horizon. “This is beautiful.” Andrea whispered. Hushing her tone even in their shared mind space Lin murmured back. “I think that Farrous did us a favor. This is spectacular.”

Andrea began deploying mini-drones from her shoulders 8 of them joined the 2 that were already beginning to probe the edges of the fungal forest and sweep along the cave walls to either side. “We only have about an hour till we need to leave! There’s no way we’ll even be able to scratch the surface of what amazing things might be down here!” Andrea lamented.

Lin comforted her “That’s how it is being in the Surveyor Corps, the whole point is to only scratch the surface to make sure it’s safe for others to dig deeper. Besides we both know you’d be desperate to get off the planet within six months if you actually changed over to a planetary study team. Let’s see what we can and then we’ll go get ready to look for something even more spectacular somewhere else.”

Andrea perked up “You’re right Lin, I was ready to move to the next planet when I woke up this morning, lets take a look around down here and then we can prod Jorge to tell us more about it sometime, after they’ve gotten down here with the study team.”

Having mustered fresh enthusiasm, Andrea turned her imaging overlays back on and proceeded away from the passage back to the surface and into the dense mushroom forest ahead, the hum of insects and mini-drones providing musical accompaniment the whole way.