Trust Is Such A Fragile Thing

Trust Is Such a Fragile Thing

The tiny scout ship made the final orbital adjustments before descending through the clouds of Damion IV. It was big for an Earth-like planet and the swirling atmosphere ran a bit heavy with the Halogen gases. But it was breathable and that would make the task ahead much, much easier.

Out of habit, Derek stared intently at the instruments to make sure the adjustments were within tolerance. The margin of error with these little runabouts was tight and a course variance at this altitude would mean wasting valuable fuel getting to the ruin.

"Alice, run the final approach vectors please and report status".

Alice was one of the latest BioComputers being put out by the BioTech comglomerate back on Mars.
Synthesizing life proteins in silicon was the breakthrough of the century and ranked right up there with the Faster Than Light drive. And, as with almost all such monumental discoveries, a couple of engineers stumbled upon the process while terra-forming of Mars some 60 years ago. Alice is the 6th generation and is so human-like, it’s scary.

Alice reported, "Final approach vectors calculated and entered. Ground Station Gizmo has cleared us for landing. Everything checks out Derek, but if I were you, I would have the injectors balanced at the first opportunity. Number 3 is running a bit light. It's fine for now though. ETA is 4 minutes."

Thanks, Alice. Please make the appropriate log entry for the maintenance crew back at the ship. Right now, I have other things on my mind". And then, mostly to himself, "...like what am I going to say to Donna."

"Log entry made.” And then, “Are you referring to Doctor Allison?" Alice dutifully replied. " I could offer some suggestions from my Pyscho-Social databanks. For example, you could..."

Derek cut Alice off. "Yes I was referring to Doctor Allison, but I'm afraid you couldn't relate very well to my problem. I’ll handle this myself, thank you."

“Anything you say, boss.”

Damion IV had the almost unique distinction of having artifacts left over from an alien civilization which, in this case, had vanished long ago. The research ship, Aristotle, had been sent out from Mars to study the ruins after their discovery nearly a decade earlier. Not much had been learned from the various sites, but that was okay. The ship was to stay as long as necessary and it might take another fifty years or so before someone could piece together anything useful.

Derek was lucky to be among the few chosen to study the site. As a Mission Commander, his credentials were among the finest in the fleet, but he still couldn’t help feeling guilty about the others who would give half their life for the opportunity to study an alien race. Although telemetry hook-ups were almost as good, exploring a ruin in virtual reality was no substitute for hands-on. Even so, opening up the telemetry channels was today's mission and his part in it is to complete the installation of the ground station link.

The ship glided smoothly to the landing pad with a minimum of effort and landed neatly next to the Donna’s ship. Donna, as chief engineer, had selected this area as the most promising site and had affectionately named it Gizmo after her feline pet. She had arrived with her team last week to start the prep work. There was what seemed like miles of tunneling and structures under the planet’s surface that needed lighting, sensor arrays, and tracks for the transports. Although robots did most of this work, they needed an occasional push to keep them moving efficiently and Donna excelled at getting the most out of the mechanized beasts.

Derek opened the air lock and started down the ramp. “Button ‘er up, Alice. It looks like we’ll be here awhile.”

“Acknowledged. Implementing Ops Procedure 5 on your mark.”

“Mark. Let’s make check in time every 12 hours starting at 2100 hrs tonight.”

“Acknowledged. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, big boy...” Alice said ending with a surprisingly humanlike chuckle.

Shaking his head, Derek made a mental note to check Alice’s ‘social’ subroutines. Her attempt at humor left a lot to be desired.

As he made his way to the nearest cone-like structure that marked the entry to the tunneling underground, he started playing over in his mind his next meeting with Donna. She would have been alerted to his arrival and is probably on her way to the make-shift crew lounge to meet him. At least he hoped she was on her way. Although it wasn’t like her to inconvenience anyone, she certainly wasn’t beyond keeping him waiting – especially in her current frame of mind. He wasn’t exactly on her good side right now.

It had all started on the trip out. Although Derek normally shied away from shipboard romances, Donna was different. He fell instantly in love with her when they had met during the pre-launch meetings back on Mars. She was tall with reddish blond hair, brown eyes, and slender figure. And she literally lit up a room with her striking looks, electric smile, and engaging conversation. Her touch made him feel special, even if he were across the room or on another planet.

After the launch, their professional relationship quickly developed into a close friendship. The night they became lovers is still etched deeply in his memory as one of the most happiness times in his life. They made love 24-hours a day – sometimes together, but most of the time while they were apart. He thought of her constantly. He thought he even might be ready to make a commitment and ask her to marry him.

But then along came Ursula. She had been selected as the mission’s Chief Exobiologist and had developed a ‘thing’ for him. He was flattered, to be sure, and couldn’t help wondering where things might have ended up if he hadn’t met Donna. Even so, the idea of having both women secretly excited him. Ursula was a statuesque blond with deep blue eyes and full, sensual lips. She could have her pick of any of the available men – and probably half the women - on the mission, but had inextricably chosen Derek as the object of her ample affections. He resisted valiantly, but saying ‘no’ only seemed to fan Ursula’s flames and he started doubting his readiness to settle down with one woman.

On the night before leaving for Gizmo, Donna had caught Ursula and him on the Aristotle’s forward observation deck – a place known for its rather romantic ambiance. He had actually been waiting for Donna when Ursula had happened along and had asked him to help her remove something that was in her eye. Before he could politely refuse, she moved in close - their bodies touching. Her smell was intoxicating and he found it exceedingly difficult to concentrate on the business at hand. He was becoming fully aroused and part of him wanted to stay, but part of him also wanted to run. Her halfclosed eyes seemed to have a language all their own and if he answered their silent questions, he was going to be in big trouble.

He could only imagine what the scene must have looked like to Donna. Here he was hunkered down with Ursula in an apparent embrace with the smell of passion in the air. Needless to say, Donna left without a word and his repeated pleas that night and since went unheeded. But he really couldn’t blame her. If their positions were reversed, he doubted that he would have understood either. Blind trust was such a fragile thing.

Oh well. Explanations aside, he would just have to take his lumps. After all, he was here to do a job and winning the love of his life wasn’t it. Feeling the twinge of guilt again, he thought of all the people back on Mars that were waiting with bated breath for the telemetry links.

He reached the shaft leading down to the first level and proceeded down to the crew lounge area. Temporary shelters were set up at the base of the shaft that served as sleeping quarters, kitchens, and storage areas. One of these was designated as a lounge for senior personnel.

Donna was curled up in a recliner along the far wall of the shelter staring out the window that faced down the tunnel. Since only a few of the lights were up, the view was a gloomy one and it seemed to match her mood. A mood that Derek, for some unknown reason, was reluctant to break.

“Hey”, Donna blurted. “Welcome to Gizmo”.

He sat down on the couch-like thing that was situated at right angles to Donna’s recliner. “Hey yourself. Nice place you got here.” He paused, then added, “Do you offer seasonal rates?”

She rewarded him with one of her gorgeous smiles. “Yes. As a matter of fact, we are running a special this week. A ten-year lease for the price of one. How’s that?”

“I’ll take it. Any perks included?”

“Yeah.” The smile turned cold. “You get the one next to Ursula’s.”

Their eyes locked and neither wanted to look away. At least not yet. Both were searching for the love they shared to emerge.

“Ah...I don’t want that one. I want to share yours. As man and wife.” There. He said it. Ready or not, he wanted commitment.

“Not so fast, Bosco”, she said. “What about Ursula? It’s common knowledge around the ship that she’s out to get you.”

“I know she wants me, but ‘wanting’ and ‘getting’ are two different things. She’ll get over it” The more sincere he wanted it wanted it to sound, the phonier it sounded.

Realizing Donna wasn’t buying it, he added, “Ok. I’ve done everything but space her. What more can I do?”

Donna’s mental gears began to churn, but was stopped by the door opening behind them.

“Ah. Hi Ross!” she said. “Thanks for coming out the tombs to join us”.

Derek turned to greet Ross, the landing team boss. He was a tall hunk of a man with dark hair, broad shoulders, and an easy smile. He glided gracefully across the room and gave Donna a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. Derek wasn’t sure, but thought he saw Donna kiss Ross back.

“Whoa, “ He thought. “What is this all about...?”

Suddenly feeling threatened, Derek searched Donna’s eyes for a hint but found none.

“Hi Donna...Derek”, Ross said. Then turning to Derek, “Did you have a good flight down?”

“Yeah. Piece of cake. Can’t really mess up too much with Alice around.”

“Great. Not sure how much of this you already went over with Donna, but there’s a bunch of things I need to go over with you. You ready to get started?” Ross asked Derek.

“Yeah, sure”, Derek said. Donna took her cue and got up to leave.

“I got some work of my own to do. See you boys later”, she said and gave Ross’s shoulder a squeeze as she left.

The rest of the day was spent going over the work that was done so far and the things that still needed to be done. The master schedule called for the telemetry link to be activated the day after tomorrow at 0600 hours local. No one was sure what that meant in Mars time, but everyone knew that the link-up was anxiously anticipated. It was being billed as the event of the century. The team of leading archeologists was due to arrive at Gizmo tomorrow and that’s when the real fun would start juggling the needs of about a hundred inflated egos.

Derek broke off the meeting with Ross and, taking the layout chart, decided to inspect the tunnel. He commandeered a personal transport called a PT that was specifically designed to roam around in the Damion IV’s tunnels and started down the main passage. It stretched like a four-lane thoroughfare into the inky nothingness. As you would expect, the place had a ‘old’ smell to it, sort of like a basement that hasn’t been opened in several years. Derek could feel the movement of air on his cheeks, but its source was another mystery to be solved once the exploration began in earnest. Side tunnels branched off the main tunnel at oblique angles and extended for several thousand meters in all directions. The side tunnels housed the alien structures that reminded Derek of the old adobe buildings of the American southwest. But these structures were made of a metal alloy similar to steel, but lighter and more pliable. None have yet been opened and that would mark the true start of the excavation job ahead of them.

Per the briefing by Ross, most of the installation work had been completed. The lighting has been set in the proximity mode – meaning that they will only turn on when sensing movement within a specified distance. These were set for 100 meters.

As usual when alone, Derek’s thoughts turned to Donna. She really looked good today, but her behavior towards Ross was disturbing. Have they become an ‘item’ during their week’s stay here at Gizmo? Was he so easy to forget?

Still moving down the main tunnel, Derek noticed the robots working far ahead at the tunnel’s end. They should be installing the last of the lights, sensors, and tracks. He stopped the PT and started to turn back when he noticed what appeared to be a doorway off the main tunnel. As far as he knew, this was the only one discovered so far. Tunnels, yes. Doorways, no.

He got off the PT and walked over to the doorway. It was big – about two meters high and twice that across. And featureless. If it wasn’t for the slight seam marking the door’s outline, you wouldn’t even know it was there. Pulling out the communicator, he signaled Ross.

“Ross here. What’s up?”

“Ross, Derek here. I’m about 4 kilometer’s up the main tunnel and found what looks like a huge door. Know anything about it?”

“No. Can’t say that I do. I wasn’t personally that far into the tunnel, so I wouldn’t know about it first hand. No reports from anyone on the team or from any of the robots either. Pan the camera so I can see what it looks like."

Derek panned the camera in the communicator across the doorway. “There. See it?”

“Yeah. Wow. Imagine that. Wonder why we didn’t find it before?”

“I don’t know. How ‘bout checking the robot recordings and see. I’m at the 4.119 marker.”

“Ok. I’ll get back to ya...”

Derek continued running his hands over the seams of the door. At first no reaction, then there was a slight hum and a slight increase in temperature.

“Whoa....” he thought to himself. He stepped away from the door and waited. The hum grew louder and the door started to slide open leaving a black rectangle in the tunnel wall.

“Wow. That’s strange...” he muttered aloud. “Wonder why no light shines in the doorway.“

The communicator chirped and Derek acknowledged the incoming call.

“Derek. Ross here. I looked over the recordings that the robots made when working in that section of the tunnel and nothing shows up. Figures, huh?”

“Yeah. Well, the plot thickens. Take a look at this.” Derek said while sending Ross the images of the now open doorway. “What ‘cha think?”

“Hmm...Not sure.” Ross replied. “I’m coming down there.”

“Sure. Just keep this quiet for now. OK?”

“Ok. On my way”

Derek closed the comm link and cautiously approached the doorway. He held up his hand near the inky blackness and felt nothing. He then slowly inched his hand closer. Still nothing. The plane of the doorway seemed almost solid but he instinctually knew that it wasn’t.

“Oh well...here goes nothing.” he said softly.

Holding his breath, he stretched his fingers forward toward the plane of the doorway and, to his horror, watched as his fingertips disappeared into the doorway. Almost as a reflex, he pulled back his hand and stared at his now-whole hand. The blackness had a slight surface tension and felt cool to the touch, but otherwise, he could identify no other ill effects from his experiment.

Reaching out again, Derek plunged his whole hand into the opening. As with his fingertips before, his hand disappeared. Other than what seemed to be the same ambient temperature, there was no sensation or indication of what lay on the other side.

Pulling back his hand, thoughts began swirling in Derek’s head. Should we check this out now or wait until the pros get here with the proper equipment? Can this be dangerous to the mission? Maybe we should move the telemetry link here and let the boys back on Mars in on this. In any event, guess Donna should be brought into the loop.

As if on cue, the whine of a laboring PT signaled Ross’s approach. He parked next to Derek’s PT and started eyeing the doorway. For an instant, the image of Donna wrapped up in Ross’s arms flashed in his mind and he felt his stomach twinge a bit. Derek knew it was wrong to feel any animosity towards Ross because of his familiarity with Donna, but his presence on this mission was suddenly becoming more and more irritating. But he was an outstanding team leader and his expertise was sure to be needed in the days ahead – especially with this latest doorway anomaly. No. Expertise aside, Derek still wanted to push his face in.

“Wow. The videos didn’t do this justice.” Ross said after he completed his initial inspection.

Derek filled in Ross regarding his hand experiments and added, “It seems like a energy field of some kind that spans the plane of the doorway. Acts like a curtain of some sort.”

“Hmm...Let’s try something.” Taking his communicator, Ross established a link to Derek’s communicator and then passed his through the doorway. As soon as the communicator disappeared, the link dropped.

“Interesting. Looks like it blocks light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation.” Ross mused.

“That’s a shame. It would have been nice to see what’s on the other side.” Derek ventured.

Suddenly, on impulse, Ross pushed his head through the doorway barrier before Derek could react. Several seconds went by before Ross’s head reappeared.

“Well?” asked Derek expectantly. “Apparantly, you didn’t suffer any ill effects. What did you see?”

“Nothing. It was pitch black. Couldn’t see my hand in front of my fact.” Then he added, “But there’s breathable air there.” Ross then went to his PT to get a flashlight.

“Think I’ll try it again with this”, he said holding up the lamp.

Ross leaned over again through the doorway. The effect of seeing half of his body disappear was still disconcerting.

After a nearly a minute, Ross straightened back up. “There’s a tunnel on the other side. Just like this one.” he reported.

“Yeah? That’s strange. From the echo soundings, there’s solid rock for at least a kilometer along this section.”

“Yeah, that IS strange.” Ross then added, “There’s something else. On the way out here, I noticed a lot of these doorways showing up. Seems like they become visible if there’s a ‘body’ near them. You know, a walking, talking, breathing body. A robot doesn’t seem to trigger them.”

Derek weighed all the factors and made a decision. “Ok. As tempting as it is to check this out further, let’s hold off on doing any more experimenting until we can get the full team down here. There’s just too much going on right now to risk delaying the link activation the day after tomorrow. Besides, we need more heads on this to properly size up what we have here. Agreed?”

“What? Why do we have to wait on this? It doesn’t seem dangerous and this is just the kind of phenomena to get Mars humming. I say we bring up a couple of my guys to check out the tunnel on the other side.” Then he reconsidered. “Or a least a robot. What’s the danger there?”

“No. We’re gonna wait.” Derek said with finality. Walking toward his PT, he added, “Now, let’s go back and bring Donna up to speed so that we can brief the department heads back on the ship. We can give them the overview now and then fill in the details when they arrive tomorrow.”

Ross just stood there with indecision written all over his face. All he could manage was an ineffectual
“But...”

“But nothing” Derek said. “Let’s GO!”

Derek waited until Ross got into his PT and started back towards the crew area. As he started to accelerate down the tunnel after Ross, he noticed that the door slid silently back in place.

Derek then called Donna on the communicator and asked her to meet them in the senior lounge. He hinted at the discovery but didn’t go into details, opting instead to show off his authority over Ross a little in front of Donna. Was he acting juvenile? Yes. But this might be just the thing to win back Donna’s interest in him. What woman could resist the aura of power personified? He was just glad Ursula was still back on the Aristotle.

Donna was waiting for them when they arrived at the crew lounge. Although dressed in the standard crew jumper suit, she looked wonderfully inviting.

“Ok. What’s up?” She asked excitedly looking first at Derek and then at Ross. “What did you find?” Derek spoke up first. “The keys to the kingdom.” he said jokingly. Then added as he made his way to one of the couches, “Here. Let’s get comfortable and we’ll fill you in.”

Afterwards, Donna was even more excited. “Wow! When do we check it out? You know I could reprogram a couple of the robots to act as our ‘point men’ – so to speak.”

Ross chimed in, “We don’t. At least not yet. His majesty here wants to wait for the posse to arrive tomorrow from the ship. Guess he doesn’t think we can handle it...”

Donna’s face fell as she looked searchingly at Derek. “What?”

Derek immediately became defensive. “Well, it’s not that I don’t think we can handle it. It’s that we shouldn’t go at this without thinking through all the options and ramifications. And, we can best do that by getting the guys back on the ship involved.”

“Oh...” said Donna. The air seemed to have been taken from her sails. “Guess there’s no harm in waiting a couple more days. Sure would have liked to have moved on this though.”

She looked at Ross and added, “Come on, Ross. Let’s go prep a couple of the robots. We can at least get them ready.”

“Sure thing, boss. Right behind you”.

Derek watched them go. In a way, he wanted to go with them – or at least with Donna. He missed her and he wanted his old life back.

*****************************

The next couple of days were busy but past without incident. Activating the telemetry link had far less fanfare here at Gizmo than it did on Mars. As long as it worked, Derek was satisfied and no one’s feathers got ruffled out of place.

The full landing team was now planet-side and firmly entrenched at Gizmo exploring the alien structures in the tunnels. Some very interesting artifacts were turning up and some whiz kid even made a first cut at translating their language.

Ursula was as affectionate as ever. In no time at all, she was knocking on his door wanting to borrow the proverbial cup of sugar. This certainly hadn’t helped with his relationship with Donna. She still avoided him like the plague and seemed to be ever more infatuated with Ross.

But now Derek could turn his full attention to the mysterious doorways. Not much more has been done to figure out what they were all about and it was time. At least, he could see Donna again.

He had planned a kick-off meeting this morning after breakfast but had to delay it until after lunch to settle a squabble between two of the archaeological team leads. He was just getting ready to leave his quarters when his doorbell chirped. “Oh no”, he thought. “Not Ursula again...”

Opening the door, he started in on his excuses. “Listen Ursula, I’ve was just on my way...”. Much to his delight, he then realized it was Donna – not Ursula.

“Oh, hi. Thought you were my nemesis.” he said smiling. “Come in”

“Hi. Ah...thought we had a meeting this morning?” she asked while stepping in the small apartment.

Derek closed the door behind her. “Yes, we did. Had to delay it though. Didn’t you check your email?

“No. Something’s wrong with my PDL. I dropped it in some water and it hasn’t been the same since.”

She sat down lazily at the foot of the bed, crossed her legs slowly and asked, “So, when are we meeting then?”

“Ah...after lunch. In the Senior Lounge.” He had caught her scent when she came in and it was working its old magic.

“Oh...”, she said. “Ah...Derek. I wanted to talk with you for some time now, but there never seemed to be the right moment. You know how it is...”. She then leaned back on the bed and uncrossed her legs.

“Yeah. Pretty hectic the last couple of days.” He walked slowly over to the bed and sat down at its head.

“Well, I wanted to say that I’m sorry. I behaved very badly towards you for no good reason.” She reached over and laid her hand on this thigh. “After all. We shared something good, didn’t we?”

“Yes. We did...ah...share something good.” He reached over and started stroking her hair. “I’m sorry too. I should have been more forceful in rejecting...ah....my nemesis.” He then started caressing the back of her neck.

She closed her eyes and moaned ever so softly. That was his cue. He gathered her in his arms and kissed her. Softly at first, but then with increasing passion and urgency.

“Welcome home, sweetheart”, he whispered.