1

“Marta…you’ve got to come quickly…!” Priya was excited, unusually so for one normally so level-headed,
“Where’s the fire…?” she called back. They were back at their secret spot, the pool where she had almost drowned. Marta hadn’t wanted to return but when their next Mission out together had come ’round, Priya had insisted,
“You’ve got to get over your fear, Marta…! Once you’ve fallen off a horse, the best thing to do is to get straight back on…!”
Marta had, of course, never seen a horse, much less ridden one, but somehow when she tried to come up with arguments as to why they shouldn’t go back, her mouth just wouldn’t work,
“It’s over here, by these rocks…” said her friend, before disappearing again behind the boulders at the far end of the pool,
“Do I have to……?” but her friend had gone…
With very bad grace, Marta stomped over to the place where the other girl had stood… Once in the rocks she was immediately disoriented, but she couldn’t see anything unusual… There was no sign of Priya…!
“Priya…!” she called, “Where are you…? What am I supposed to be looking for…?”
“It’s over here…” came a distant voice “…use your ’face to guide you…”
She did so, and the direction indicator pointed her behind a particularly large boulder…further into the rocks…
She squeezed through the small gap between this boulder and its neighbour, and found herself in a narrow defile… The sky above suddenly seemed a long way away, just a narrow strip of lilac between the rocky walls that now towered above her head,
“Priya…! Are you sure it’s this way…?”
“Quite sure… Do hurry up…” Her friend’s voice was no fainter, but didn’t seem to come from any particular direction…it seemed to be all around her…
Something was not quite right! The pile of boulders had looked quite small when they’d entered the small canyon earlier on (and had so appeared on their previous visit…!), but now she found herself wandering in a rocky maze…! Priya’s voice sounded both close at hand and distant, but she couldn’t see her…
She tried to communicate with the other girl via her interface, but there was no signal and she realised she was lost once more,
“PRIYA…! WHERE ARE YOU…?” she yelled in frustration, the echoes mocked her concern…
Hesitating, unsure what to do next, she was about to turn back when a familiar voice came from behind her,
“There you are…!” her friend had stepped from behind a nearby rock,
“Priya, where were you…?”
“No time for explanations now…I must show you the babies…”
The other girl turned and headed into a small side canyon, leaving Marta no option but to follow…
The babies were asleep in a nest made out small rocks, snuggled into a fissure in the rock wall,
“Aren’t they gorgeous…” breathed Priya, who now carried a beatific smile on her face,
“Well…a mother would love them…I suppose…” said Marta grudgingly…
Priya ignored this and busied herself settling the tiny pseudo-crustaceans in their improvised nest… It was difficult to tell if they were awake or asleep, as lacking eyelids, their stalky eyes always looked the same… Marta could now hear the quiet hissing they made as they breathed, a rank odour indicated that one of them had evacuated its bowels,
“Now Marta…” admonished her friend, “You must remember, these are my children… Don’t try and take them away from me…!”
Marta promised,
“Would you like to hold one of them…?” Priya was holding the small creature out to her…this one was definitely awake, its beady eyes regarded Marta dubiously,
“Uh, no thanks…” she replied, recoiling in disgust,
“Suit yourself…!” Priya abruptly turned back to her maternal duties, dismissing her friend from her thoughts…
As she didn’t seem to be needed any more, Marta felt free to wander. She found herself in a large natural amphitheatre, without any recollection of how she got there. The rocky walls towered over her on all sides… The sky retained its lilac tinge, but there were no suns in the heavens… The canyon floor appeared utterly lifeless, no pseudo-plants or animals disturbing its pristine pink shale,
‘Weren’t they supposed to be collecting crusty DNA or something…’ she suddenly thought, ‘…well there’s nothing ‘round here…and where exactly is here, anyway…?’
There had been another point to their Mission, something they were going to do for Nurse Gee, but she could no longer recall what it was…
It was growing dark, and a cold wind blew in her face… The far wall seemed impossibly high, she had to crane her neck to see the top. As she approached this barrier she noticed there was was a narrow fissure piercing the rock face,
‘I guess this is where I must go…!’ thought the girl…
She squeezed her way through… For one horrible moment she thought she was stuck, unable to go forwards or back…but with a final effort she managed to free herself…and was astonished to find herself back where she started, in front of the pool, .
“What the…!”
She was now really quite afraid, fear joining the confusion she already felt…
Alpha 5 has no moon, but Prox was casting its silvery light across the black waters… There was no wind…no sound of any description… Something else was missing, for a minute or so she couldn’t work out what it was…then it came to her. The place smelled wrong, or to be more precise it didn’t smell of anything… The ever present aroma of cinnamon she’d been accustomed to everywhere she‘d been on A5 (with the understandable exception of the Pole), was now entirely absent…The place felt dead, completely lifeless and inert…
Without meaning to she stepped forward and found herself wading in the chilly water. Her forward motion was completely involuntary…she was reduced to the status of a curiously dispassionate observer… Within seconds the water reached her thighs,
‘…not the best time for a dip…’ thought the girl.
The unreality of the situation and her apparent helplessness seemed to be holding total panic in check, and.a sort of soothing apathy swept over her as she waded out further into the pool…the water had now reached her waist,
‘Maybe I should call Priya…! Perhaps she can save me again…’ the incongruity of this thought struck her as amusing…
She opened her mouth to yell for help, but what came out was no more than strangled croak… She tried her ’face again, ‘no signal’… The water had now reached her chest…
It was now really difficult to make any headway, but try as she might, the girl couldn’t stop her relentless progress into deeper water…
The water rose, above her shoulders, her neck…her chin…her mouth…her nose…
Finally, the waters closed over her head…she fought to hold her breath, but was obliged to give in, and the blackness filled her nose, her mouth, her lungs…
The pain was excruciating…a feeling of blind panic now overwhelmed her apathy…she could no longer feel the mud beneath her feet…the world receded…

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‘Down and down, and down and down, and down and down, I go…’ with a mental start, Marta returned to a kind of awareness…It no longer hurt…
The waters were as dark as pitch…but somehow she felt she could see for a thousand kliks,
‘Am I beyond death…?’ thought the girl, as she sank dreamily through the now-tepid water…
A pulse thudded in her head, or at least she thought it was in her head,
‘…proof positive that I am still alive, perhaps…’
But the sound seemed to be all around her…she felt suddenly warm and comforted, a memory swam unbidden into her mind…she was a child again, lying in her crib…looking up at something sparkling above her head…blurry shapes moved just out of reach…incomprehensible sounds filled her ears…
A sea snake came swimming, undulating through the dark waters of her reverie. Its narrow reptilian head gazed at her… Its narrow reptilian thoughts filled hers…
It seemed to (but did not quite) say,
‘I am the worm that flies in your night,
I am your desire, your fear, and your delight…’
To her intense embarrassment Marta felt a strong feeling of arousal…her crotch itched…
Some sort of response was clearly required, but how does one respond to a vision,
“Serpent, what business do you have with me…?” she ventured, the words sounding impossibly pompous…
The creature appeared to shimmer in the dark water…it did (and did not) say,
‘I am the mother…you are the child…your thoughts are mine…mine are now yours…the weight of the millennia has been lifted…you are now at one with Time…’
The sleeper stirred, her eyelids fluttered….but the umbilicus clamped even more firmly to her belly, and sleep claimed her once more…………

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2

“Jorge…! I wish you’d come away from the edge…the crevasse is dangerous…!” called Marta,
“Yes, stop showing off…” Priya had joined her…
She was back at the Pole…they were all back on the Polar Barrier… Marta and Priya had been as surprised as anyone else at the Nurses’ sudden and inexplicable volte face, but not wishing to look a gift horse in the mouth they had thrown themselves wholeheartedly into preparations for the second expedition…
Then they’d had the most incredible and unexpected stroke of luck…the crevasse, that they had thought lost for ever after the storm, had suddenly and unaccountably opened up again…bigger than before… So large in fact, that Earthcom downlink had located it from space. This event had occurred days before their departure and had added new urgency to their preparations, as not only would they be able to continue the experiments they’d started on their last trip, but they would have to do a more complete survey of the crevasse and its presumed contents. Marta was hoping against hope that it was the same crevasse, and they would be able to find the remains of the pseudo-crustaceans she had glimpsed so fleetingly two months before…
Marta and Priya watched like proud parents as the boys indulged in an impromptu snowball fight… Marta smiled at Jorge’s characteristic loping gait…his narrow head bobbing up and down as he dodged Han’s snowballs and bent to scoop up more snow to make his own ammunition… Her man, at nearly two metres tall, towered over Priya’s more diminutive partner,
“That was fun…” Jorge was breathless and covered in a layer of fine ice crystals when he finally made it over to where the girls were standing,
“Now you’ve finished larking about, perhaps you can help us do some work…” said Priya,
“Yes, we’re not here to play…” added Marta, “…this is a serious scientific expedition…!”
They had decided send a miniature drone cam, similar to those used by media organizations back on Earth, into the crevasse first, in order to scout the lie of the land… Hopefully it would be able to re-locate Marta’s crusties…and they could then plan their own descent.
They settled down to the serious work of preparing the drone for its mission. As gadget man, Han took the lead in fine-tuning the tiny machine’s programming. Although Han would have ultimate control via his interface, the drone was semi-autonomous, and would essentially fly itself around the crevasse, following a preordained search programme,
“I think that’s it…” he said with a satisfied expression on his face, “…we’re ready to launch…!”
The others settled back to watch the show. They would all be monitoring the drone cam via their ’faces, and stood ready to make suggestions and give directions if and when the drone found something interesting…
It was a lovely day up on the Barrier, hardly a breath of wind, and it was actually quite warm… As well as Alpha B, its larger sister star was also in the sky… Although, of course, too distant to have real effect on the temperature, Alpha A glowered on the horizon like a fierce blue-white searchlight,
“OK, lift off in one, two, three…and we’re off…telemetry is fine…control now handed over to drone AI…preparing to insert into target objective…”
The girls smiled at each other indulgently, humouring Han’s techspeak… Marta triggered the camera feed with her interface, and was immediately disoriented by the sudden shift in perspective provided by the drone’s POV… The little machine had reached the edge of the crevasse, it then nosed down and abruptly dived into the void… It was like dropping off the edge of the world, and Marta gasped as she seemed to leave her stomach behind…
Both Jorge and Han smiled indulgently at her. They, of course, had anticipated this manoeuvre…
The tiny craft was now racing along parallel to the great ice wall of the crevasse, its tiny searchlight throwing back dazzling reflections,
“Perhaps we could slow it down a little…” suggested Marta,
“OK…” said Han, who appeared slightly nettled by the suggestion,
‘Doesn’t like me questioning his decisions when it comes to technical matters….’ she thought, ‘…still, sod him…! This is important…’
Now that the dizzying pace had abated, it was possible to make out some of the detail of the crevasse… The void below disappeared into apparent infinity, and apart from the odd fissure in the ice and the suggestion of a ledge, the walls appeared featureless and unchanging…
After half an hour of fruitlessly cruising up and down the frigid immensity of the crevasse, Marta was beginning to give up hope… Then she noticed something dark, embedded in the nearer ice wall,
“Hey, I thought I saw something…! Can we go back…?”
With barely concealed impatience, Han brought the drone to a halt and turned it, so it could retrace its path,
“Slowly, now…” said Marta, “…I think it’s about one hundred metres back, just above the flight path of the drone…”
The drone had dropped almost to walking pace… Han guided it carefully up the ice face…they could see a ledge about two metres wide…the ledge ended abruptly several metres to the left…and then, wonder of wonders, the rope, still secured by its piton to the ice wall, that Marta had been forced to cut,
“This is it…! This is the place…!” she felt euphoric, now at last they would believe…
The drone’s cam picked out dark shapes that loomed mistily, contained in their icy prison…but the glare from its searchlight meant that no details could be discerned…
Marta high-fived Priya and Jorge in her elation…..but Han hung back…..
“I’ve marked the place…” said the boy, “…I’ll bring the drone back…”
“I think we’ve done enough for one day…” said Priya, “…We can come back tomorrow with the winch and the ropes, and make our descent…
That evening’s dinner turned into a party…even Han seemed to be enthused… Later there was a particular fire to Marta and Jorge’s lovemaking, once they had made their excuses and retired,
”Shhh…they’ll hear…!” chided Jorge, but Marta didn’t care…this was her day, and tomorrow promised to be even better…

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They’d had an argument on the ice, about who would go down first…but she had stood her ground, and eventually Han had backed down…
So here she was again, dangling in mid-air as the winch lowered her into the void…it seemed much deeper than before… The icy ledge rose to meet her feet, and Marta clipped a new line to the original piton still firmly embedded in the ice…
The crevasse was now broader and hence full of natural light…she didn’t need her torch to take in the detail,
“Are you getting all this…?” she said into her throat mic,
“Yes, it’s coming through really clearly…” replied Priya,
“No sign of the first crusty…” said Marta, “…I guess it must have fallen into the crevasse when that part of the ledge collapsed…” she paused,
“But, I can see the others really clearly… Are you getting this…? It’s really incredible…I thought there were just two of them…but it’s more like an army…and they’ve got all sorts of things with them…like you wouldn’t believe…”
She could scarcely credit what she was witnessing…and the clarity of what she saw…! It was like there was no ice between her and those entombed, but she could feel the slickness of it under her gloved hand,
‘No, that’s impossible…’ the creature nearest her was starting to move,
“Guys, this is really weird…! Are you getting this…..?”
“Pictures just cut off…” said Jorge, “Marta…are you alright…? Do you want to come back up…?”
“I think that might be a good…”
Her words were suddenly drowned by an appalling noise…as if the crevasse itself was groaning…cracks and fissures suddenly raced across the ice wall…the air was filled with flying ice splinters… Marta could hear Jorge shouting in her ear…but couldn’t make out what he was saying…
With a roar, the ice wall disintegrated as the crusties burst from their shattered prison… Her last memory was of the nearest reaching out to her, before the ledge collapsed, precipitating her into the void…

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Her fall appeared almost infinite…so long, in fact, that she’d ceased to be afraid… Was she falling at all…? In this featureless emptiness it was impossible to tell…! She eventually concluded that she was hovering in some formless grey immensity…the ice walls had disappeared…if indeed they had ever existed…

And the grey void became a grey plain, beneath a grey sky, on which she walked forever… The stony ground hurt her feet… There was no sun, no sign that one had ever shone… No breezes blew, and there was no sound apart from that made by her own feet…
And when she closed her eyes…in the cold glitter of the stars, Marta saw Jormungandr… The Midgard Serpent encircled the cosmos, consuming its own tail for all eternity…………

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3

Life was slow and varied little on the estate.
Every morning Marta was woken by the wet nose of the white dog which now slept in her cabin. The lady of the house had told her that the animal had just turned up out of the blue about three months before… She thought it was the same one that they’d encountered (and fed) during their flight from the city…but she couldn’t be sure…
Marta had no recollection of how she herself had come to be at the estate… She had just woken up one morning to find herself here, with no memory of any place else. Her host acted as if none of this was in any way unusual,
“I’m so glad we have had the opportunity to meet at last, Marta…” had been her cryptic words on that first morning…
The estate might as well have been hermetically sealed for all the interaction it had with outside world… The driver occasionally took the ancient limousine to the nearest town, mainly to get news of the wider world. But, in truth, they had everything they needed right here. Her host had said that the driver and and the other male member of the household had made a number of trips in the early days to obtain the things they lacked…but essentially the estate was self-sufficient…
The status of the driver’s companion on these errands was unclear… Once, her host had referred to him as ‘her manager’…but Marta guessed that he shared her bed…
The couple (if that was what they were….), the driver, the cook and a housekeeper (both women), and two middle-aged male farm hands, collectively made up the little community,
“What’s it like…in the city…?” Marta had wanted to know,
“Bad…!” had been the manager’s terse reply, “…law and order have broken down completely, people are starving…outbreaks of diseases not seen in fifty years have decimated the population…”
Things were better in the countryside…but not by much…! Curiously, none of this anarchy was ever visited on the estate…other people just didn’t seem to come near…
She was aware that she was a stranger here, but didn’t rightly know where here was… To the people of the estate, the city was the city, the countryside was the countryside…no further clarification was deemed either necessary or desirable…
The dog had by now climbed up onto her bed, and was insistently lifting up her arm with its snout,
‘Time to get up, clearly…’ she concluded.
She had taken to saving scraps for the mutt from her meals, and had prevailed upon the driver to buy her a sack of dog biscuits on his last excursion…but now the dog would want a walk…
The animal had once clearly been a prized household pet, what remained of an expensive collar still hung ‘round its neck… It clung desperately to the girl…
Out in the world it was a lovely day, the rain and clammy humidity of recent days having given way to bright sunshine, and a cooling breeze from the south east… Marta crossed the yard with her faithful companion at her heel…she waved to the cook, tending her kitchen garden…the woman, whose name was Maria, waved back…she was friendly, and approachable…unlike the housekeeper, who hardly seemed to speak… Hens were pecking at the dirt as she reached the gate… She paused to breathe in the clean country air, before heading out across the fields…
About a third of the farmland on the estate was still being worked, growing the crops, and raising the animals that they eat… It was harvest time. Marta could see the two farm hands hard at work over in the next field… One was driving an ancient, but evidently still serviceable combine harvester…while the other followed in a tractor and trailer picking up the sheaves of corn… Marta waved at them but they didn’t appear to notice her…
On the other side of the field she was traversing, the managed part of the farm abruptly ended in a broken-down fence… Beyond stretched hectares of sugarcane…now run completely wild…
Her dog was racing hither and thither, chasing down scents, and generally having a whale of a time… Once it ventured too close to the untamed area for her liking, and she called it back…
After about an hour of aimless wandering, she was startled to hear her name being called,
“I thought I’d find you out here…” it was her host…
The woman was about her height, although she generally wore heels that made her seem taller… Today, she was dressed sensibly but elegantly, like the countrywoman she had become… It was difficult to guess her age, but Marta would have placed her in her mid-to-late thirties… To Marta’s eyes she was very beautiful, and had the confidence and assurance in her own skin that comes with age and experience…the girl felt acutely envious of her…and painfully aware of her own gauche inadequacies,
“I thought it was time we had a talk…” said the woman. Marta said nothing…in truth she couldn’t think of anything to say…what could she possibly contribute that would be of interest to this fabulous creature,
“Marta, are you happy here…?”
The girl mumbled at first but then spoke up clearly and said ‘yes, she was very happy here…happy with the dog…and the walks, and the countryside…more at peace with herself than she had ever been…’
“Yes, I was afraid of that…” the other woman paused to gaze seriously at her… Marta suddenly had this overwhelming sense of recognition, although she was sure she’d never met the woman before she had come here…
The dog had suddenly become very quiet and ceased its endless circling,
“You realise, of course, that you can’t stay here…!”
Marta realised no such thing…she couldn’t imagine being anywhere else…or there even being other places…!
“But…why do I have to go…?”
“It’s difficult to explain…but I will try…!” the older woman paused and seemed to gather her strength,
“You and me….we’re like different sides of the same coin…it is just not possible for us to exist together, in the same space, for too long…”
“I don’t understand…” she was at a complete loss,
“In time you will…” said her host, “…and I hope the realisation will not be too troubling…! But the simple fact of the matter is that you must go on…while I sadly can go no further…”
Marta now noticed that field in which they were standing was growing misty, becoming more insubstantial by the second…only the dog and her host remained in sharp focus…
The older woman seemed to retreat, as if reality had just zoomed out…her voice muted as if heard from a distance,
“I am so glad we had the opportunity to meet…albeit for so brief a time… I do love you, Marta and I wish you every happiness…although I do not envy you…” the woman reached out her hand, “…I’ll light a candle for you…”
Marta reached out too…but the ever-widening gap meant she could do no more than brush the other’s fingertips…before they were swept apart… She noticed a tear in the other woman’s eye…before the greyness engulfed her again…
She was on the grey plain, and knew she had always been there…the dog, faithful to the last, lay at her feet…it raised its head mournfully to look at her…
Marta bent and embraced the dog, burying her face in its shaggy coat, feeling its warmth, breathing in its scent for one last time…before rising and turning to leave… There was a light shining in the distance, and it was towards the light that she knew she must head…
The dog, recognising the inevitable, let out one small whimper before settling on its haunches to watch her go…
Her tears flowed freely, but the girl was determined as she walked towards the light……………..

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Chapter 19. Recovery >>