Porcupine - Chapter One

arriving at G1S7TN00107, nicknamed Porcupine

         JarrX frowned at the menacing landscape that appeared on his viewing screen. The strange jutting rock formations took on the shapes of his childhood horrors. On every side there were demons and monsters that only an active imagination could see. JarrX shook himself or was it fear that made him shiver? "Get real," he muttered to himself, using a favorite phrase of his grandfather's.

         Thinking of his grandfather made JarrX feel more secure. The old gentleman would have enjoyed standing there and pointing out great events in history or scenes from his favourite stories. JarrX grinned at the thought of his grandfather standing on any planet other than Earth. He would most certainly not have been agreeable to sitting on this huge asteroid-like dwarf. His grandfather's stories had all started with the same phrase: "Before they discovered that man could travel faster than light and when we still thought we were the lords of the universe, …" JarrX still enjoyed hearing the stories even if he did not agree with his grandfather that Terrans were meant to live on Earth and not among the stars.

         JarrX had become a galactic prospector for the Jamieson-Thadz Mining Company when he was only twenty-three. Three years after graduation from the apprentice program, JarrX had earned the position of a top prospector, a fact that ensured an excellent salary and numerous benefits. He had worked hard to reach that rank and continued to strive to outperform the other prospectors. Otherwise, he would not have been allowed to explore the surface of G1S7TN00107, nicknamed Porcupine, completely alone. The thought of the minor planet's name made JarrX grin. He had never seen the extinct Terran animal of the same name except in an old picture book in his grandfather's library. He still found it hard to believe that so strange an animal could ever have existed. Well, maybe several million years ago when the dinosaurs had roamed the surface of Terra. Grandfather used to claim that he had actually seen one, porcupine that is, along with other strange creatures. JarrX never knew when his grandfather was ‘joshing’ him or not.

         JarrX spotted a clearing among the jutting rocks and settled his small landing craft down with expertise. He signaled the larger ferry that he had arrived safely and requested a return trip for a fortnight later. He had always liked the sound of the word fortnight. The way it rolled around in his mouth felt right. His teachers had insisted on the use of the term hectopo, meaning a hundred photoras or a hundred thousand photosecs. Grandfather insisted these terms were too hard to relate to Earth time, so he had taught the old time measurements to his young grandson.

JarrX checked his instruments for signs of unusual gases in the atmosphere or strange lifeforms. The readings agreed with the previous recordings �" almost Terran atmosphere and no signs of sentient life at all. The oxygen level was lower than he preferred and the gravity stronger but it was serviceable. He ordered the computer to use its external arm to scoop up a soil sample for his use. When the sample appeared, JarrX separated three small amounts into dishes and put them into the soil testing device. He knew how to do these tests himself but he would take as much as thirteen photoras or almost a Terran day to complete them. The computer, on the other hand, would do the necessary tests in just under one photora.

         A lone wind rang through the rock peaks outside his craft. The eerie sound, like that of a lonesome wolf pup, set his nerves on edge. “It's only the air masses moving across thin crevices”, JarrX reassured himself. He felt a rare sense of loneliness overtake him. Maybe he was missing Jalleenast. An image of his lovely friend came to JarrX's mind. Jallyeenast, or Jally as he called her, was a typical Lucianite, standing a willowy two metres tall with milky-white skin that glowed in the moonlight. Large pale blue eyes filled her tiny face, almost eclipsing the tiny nose that Grandfather would have called pud. Or was it pug? He could not remember. Jally's shimmering grey hair was always held tightly to her head in several loops and knots. He had seen Jally let her hair out of its pins only once. That was when he had begun to suspect that he was in love with the beautiful prospector.

         JarrX sighed. There was no room in a top explorer's life for commitments. Both he and Jally had to earn their ranks continuously. Neither could afford to lose their hold on their tenuous positions until they had enough merits and credits to afford a more relaxed pace. This strange planet alone would gain him a sizeable investment. Once he had assured himself of a comfortable lifestyle, he would consider an alignment with a woman. Maybe by then, Jally would be ready to settle down as well.

         JarrX still had some time to wait so he leaned back in his seat. He could tell himself a story. Which one would suit the length of time he would be waiting? The story of Bonny Prince Charles encouraged patience, or was it persistence? He wanted something with a little more humor. Tom Sawyer and the Whitewashed Fence was just the story to relax him and to pass the photosecs. He closed his eyes and listened to Grandfather's husky tones telling the story. Just as Tom was handing his tickets to the preacher, an alarm bell rang. JarrX sat up quickly and looked about the room for a problem. The three soil sample trays slid out of the tester so JarrX called up the results onto his viewer. The soil showed slightly positive on the gamma test, midrange on the acidity test, and high on the mineral traces test. This almost made Porcupine too good to be true. Now all he had to do was try to find large deposits of the needed minerals that could be mined at minimal cost.

         First, he would have to set up a base from which he could work. The ship would be one base, but he would need another to cut down on the possibility of being caught out on the freezing surface at night. JarrX considered using some of the ship's fuel to search for another suitable place. He had enough to get him to the ferry plus enough to last about five hectopos of living in the ship. He was not planning on staying more than three hectopos, so he had more than plenty to spare. However, that was not a great margin if the ferry missed him or forgot him and he knew of surveyors who had frozen to death on planets because of just those circumstances.

JarrX calculated the kilophotosecs of daylight left. Grandfather always called them killjoys which always made JarrX laugh. Most people used the common term - photoras. Porcupine had approximately twelve and a half photoras to its full day. He had just enough time to pack the airsled with his tools and a shack. When the sun rose again in about six photoras, he would just add some food to a backpack and then he would venture out. The air could sustain him without special equipment. He might tire easily because of the thinner air and the slight increase in gravity but he had survived worse in the past. He preferred to save his airpacks for those times when it was absolutely necessary. They were too expensive to use haphazardly, and a prospector’s pay could be chewed up quickly by unnecessary expenses.

         JarrX unlatched the safety locks on the airsled and lowered it to the ground. Then he opened the hatch of the ship to carry his tools and the shack parts out. Lashing the boxes of varying sizes was never easy, no matter how many times he did it. There was always one box that had not been repacked properly causing a slight imbalance in his set plan. He sweated in the remaining heat of the day. As the job neared completion, JarrX found that his damp skin was becoming chilled. He looked up to see the sun start to slide below the horizon.

         JarrX spent the night in his shuttle ship eating a light supper and sleeping in his chair. The sun rising on the other horizon woke him. With the sun came the unearthly winds again. He was definitely going to be happy to leave this dwarf planet. JarrX included several packages of rations along with three canteens of water and a first aid kit in his backpack. He had trained himself to go for long periods without food and water but he preferred to be prepared for any incident that might arise. JarrX activated the security system on the shuttle and set off between two outcroppings that formed a dark tunnel. The air was even colder than he had expected. A blast of wind caught his breath, reminding him of the wintry days at his grandfather's house in the north country on Terra. JarrX thought about those days spent with his favorite relative as he walked behind the sled, occasionally checking the readings on his spectrometer and the electromagnetic petrogram. He did not want to pass over any veins without noticing them.

JarrX had been born to Terrans in the twenty-second AGA year. AGA was the term that residents of Earth used, meaning After the Galactic Arrival. Actually the Intersystems year was now 9330, but Terrans had difficulty accepting that someone had started counting years that long ago. Also the Intersystems year was slightly longer than a year on Earth causing a shift in thinking that some Terrans had not be able to accept. Grandfather was not the only one who refused to use photosecs, photoras, and hectophotoras, but instead had clung to minutes, hours, days, and weeks. But then again, JarrX had never heard anyone except Grandfather say fortnight for fourteen Earth days. He often wondered if Grandfather had invented the term as a joke of some sort.

         Grandfather was very insistent on maintaining the old ways. Not that he disapproved of all of the many new innovations or the efficiency of the institutions of the Intersystems Thing. The Thing was an excellent parliamentary system that made a great number of the problems with Terran politics obsolete. JarrX had imagined himself as the Chair of the Intersystems Thing as a kid but rocks and minerals had enticed him to study geology at university. He still could become a representative at the Thing once he turned thirty, but he had to solidify his position as a geo-explorer first before embarking on a second career. He wondered anew what his grandfather would think of JarrX campaigning for election in the year 9339. Grandfather was not thoroughly enamoured of the changes that had come about when Earth had joined the Intersystems Alliance, and he was quite vocal about his grievances. Grandfather always prefaced his complaints with the rider: "I know they helped bring peace to the nations of the Earth, but …" Everyone who knew Grandfather knew that the "but" signaled another objection about some change or other. Grandfather's most common grievance was JarrX's name. JarrX's father was James Wellington IV and it had been expected that the new grandson would be the Fifth. JarrX's parents, however, in keeping with the popular fad of the time, had given him a galactic name. Grandfather had still insisted on calling him Jimmy or Five when they were alone.

         James the Fifth had spent every school vacation living with James the Third in a magnificent old house filled with numerous rooms and halls. It had two staircases, one of which had been for the servants when Grandfather was a young lad. In those days the house had belonged to the newly wealthy James the First. Even that story was part of JarrX's collection. His great-great grandfather had been a prospector who had discovered a rare metal hidden in the north country. JarrX’s admiration of this man added to his choice of studying to become a geological surveyor himself.

         JarrX’s musings on his lineage were interrupted when the tunnel-like pathway opened suddenly onto a plain of granulated stone similar to Earth’s sand except for the deep rust coloring. JarrX halted the airsled to appraise the terrain. In every direction the land was populated with fascinating rock outthrusts. JarrX thought about his classes on formation of planets trying to imagine the sequence of events that created such a display. Off to his right was a natural sculpture of Don Quixote's emaciated horse, Rosinante. JarrX could make out several other animal, along with a few human, forms. The shapes of the jutting configurations were so different from one another that JarrX expected that he would have difficulty finding two the same. It was beautiful and yet somehow ominous. He considered naming some of the more significant outcroppings except he knew that Jamieson-Thadz would either rename them or ignore the concept of naming them to use grid variants.

         JarrX stopped to locate his position in relation to the ship and the sun. He had traveled in a closely perpendicular path to that of the sun. Now he chose to cross the deserted landscape with its incredible views. He would lose the daylight hours faster with walking toward the sun, but he would also avoid prolonging the heat. Passing between some of the rocky sculptures became difficult because JarrX was not able to judge them properly from behind the airsled. He climbed onto the craft and rode it like a magic carpet, skimming across the landscape at a slow enough pace to keep his instruments reading and storing data.

         JarrX hummed a cowboy ballad to himself. When he had been very young, JarrX had felt an affinity for the stories about cowboys, especially about the Lincoln County Cattle Wars. He had told his grandfather that he was going to be a rancher and ride the range when he grew up. Grandfather had just hugged him. It was years before JarrX discovered that cattle were no longer raised on open grasslands but housed in dingy sheds designed to fatten them quickly. The closest thing anymore to an Old West character was the lone gold miner - the galaxy still needed prospectors.

         A movement at the corner of JarrX's eye brought his attention once again to the present. He checked his instruments for any registration of life. Must be the wind, he muttered, then realized that the lack of any breeze was making his sweat cling to his skin except where it had pooled and formed droplets. JarrX considered speeding the motion of the airsled to create a draft. The extrusions of rock were too closely assembled to allow any excessive speeds but he could move somewhat faster. JarrX took a sip from his canteen and realized that it was almost empty. He did not remember drinking that much water. No sign of a spill showed on the top of the box that the canteen had lain on. He would have to be more careful about his water consumption.

         About one and a quarter photoras before sunset, JarrX found a small clearing among several rocks that resembled trees. It would be just like camping out in the woods behind Grandfather's house. JarrX halted the airsled and unpacked the equipment that he had brought. He laid out the walls of the surveyor's shack with their bottom corners touching at the points where they would eventually be joined. One thing he had learned to appreciate about working for Jamieson-Thadz was that they did provide everything a prospector needed, at a cost, of course. On a couple of his expeditions to larger planets, JarrX had met surveyors from other mining companies. These other surveyors had moaned about the lack of available equipment or the exorbitant prices they were required to pay. Twice he had been forced to deal with robbery attempts. JarrX drove the supporting rods into the surface of the planet. The stony crust of the surface made the job difficult. When he had attached the surface beams and the wall supports, JarrX raised each of the walls in turn and affixed them with the special joiners. Before he set the front wall up, he inserted the roof beams into the side wall supports. The roof panels were light but awkward to handle alone. Luckily his airsled had a crane arm. The sun had set by the time JarrX had secured the last panel in place. He was chilled through to the bone, as Grandfather would say.

         JarrX inspected his food supplies and was pleased to find that he had brought along some chocolate mix. He would have a hot drink with his supper to warm himself. The airsled was quickly lashed to the nearest outcropping of rock and the most important items hauled into the shack. After two protein bars and a hot cup of chocolate-flavored water, JarrX found himself too tired to do anything more than crawl into his sleeping sack. The night provided no rest for JarrX despite his weariness. He drifted from dream to dream without experiencing any of them long enough to enjoy them. Images floated past his dream body as if he was flying without the aid of an airsled or shuttle ship. He constantly felt the need to dodge the closer images to avoid collisions. Twice he woke with his heart pounding from fear, although he could not remember why. He greeted the morning with mixed emotions.

         Before eating his breakfast, JarrX checked his position. He had managed to travel a good distance the day before. He scanned his surroundings. It might be feasible for him to search this vicinity and then return to the shuttle the next day. With an empty airsled, he could quickly return with rock samples to put into the testers and return with fresh food supplies to start out again, if he found nothing of interest during the day ahead. Having determined his plans for the next three days, JarrX set about gathering together his tools and packing them onto the sled. He made a mental note that his first canteen was already empty as he prepared his breakfast. He would have to ration the remaining two canteens in order to carry out his scheme. If he found any source of water during the day, he would add it to the samples to be tested. He put a few protein bars into his pockets, slung one canteen over his shoulder, and climbed onto the airsled. A whistle behind him made JarrX turned in surprise. There is no one here, he scolded himself.

As he pulled away from the shack, JarrX could not shake the feeling that someone was watching him. He regularly checked over his shoulder and stared at his detection devices. It did not matter that the instruments showed no signs of life. Yet somehow he knew that he was either being followed or kept under observation.