Nelson's Death Scene

     The sky was overcast with yellow clouds of dust.  Otherwise, the planet appeared normal.  Carter steered around a rock that blocked the way of the rover, and looking out at the horizon decided the term dust storm was inappropriate for the calm conditions that prevailed.  His leg was still wrapped, but had healed enough for him to move about.  The wrapping was underneath the liquid cooling garment.  He and Nelson were collecting the last of the surface experiments and were about ten kilometers from the lander when he brought the rover to a stop.

     Nelson pointed toward the volcano.  "I'll pick up the one to the west of us.  I want you to grab the one to the south.  It's about forty yards out."

     "I see it," Carter said as he rubbed the back of his neck against his helmet.  It felt good to be on the surface again.  The day had been productive and the rover was filled with devices and samples they had collected.  He climbed off the rover and headed for the science station, where he was to collect the magnetic targets and a gas chromatograph.  The targets were used to measure the magnetization of the Martian dust.  He was about twenty yards out when he heard what sounded like an explosion.  The sound came from behind.

     He turned to look and saw that the rear of the rover had disappeared beneath the surface.  The front end was sticking out of the ground.  A faint mist of dust was lifting up around the rover like a mushroom cloud.  He could see that Nelson had also turned to look.

     "What the hell's going on?" he asked.

     "I'm not sure," Nelson said.  "It might be a lava tube."

     "I thought we sounded this area."

     "We did.  Perhaps the tube is mostly collapsed.  We might not have picked it up then.  Stay where you are.  I'm going to check it out."

     He watched as Nelson took a step toward the rover and then flung his arms outward as he dropped beneath the surface.

     "Holy shit!" Carter exclaimed.

     As Nelson was falling he reached out to grab the surface and ripped his suit on a shard of basaltic rock.  Nelson struck the ground hard.  He had fallen seven meters.  At first he was disoriented and wasn't sure what had happened.  He was lying on his side and the ground had knocked the breath out of him.  Carter was yelling something in his helmet.  "I'm ok," Nelson said. "I'm ok."  He could not see anything.  It was dark.  He sat up and wondered why he was having so much difficulty breathing.  He heard a strange sound.  "Quiet," he said.  Carter stopped talking.  It sounded like air passing through something.  He suddenly realized that air was escaping from his suit.  He could sense the difference in pressure.  As his eyes adjusted, he was able to make out the hole through which he had fallen.  It seemed small.  He started patting his suit, feeling for the rip.  He knew that he probably had less than sixty seconds before he lost consciousness because of the pressure loss.  "My suit is ripped," he said.  "Don't move," Carter said.  "I'll be right there."  Nelson looked up at the hole and realized that it would take more than sixty seconds to reach him.  He started to feel faint.  He found the rip.  It ran down the right side of his suit and was nearly a foot long.  He pressed his arm down over the rip, hoping to slow the leak.  It would buy him some time, but not much.  He stood up and looked around.  He found the switch to his flashlight.  If it were a lava tube, it was a small one.  Some of the tubes on Mars were two hundred yards wide.  He could see the rover at one end of the tube.  He took a step toward the rover and fell.  The oxygen in his blood was evaporating.  He pressed hard against the rip.  He could feel the saliva on his tongue beginning to boil.

     Carter looked down at the ground and wondered what path he should take.  It seemed to him that the entire surface could collapse at any moment.  He looked at the rover and at the point where Nelson had fallen through and then at the volcano.  They were in line.  Of course they were. A lava tube would flow away from the volcano.  That meant he might be standing on solid ground.  All these thoughts had passed through Carter's mind in a matter of seconds.  He decided that if he were to fall through, he would fall through, and there was nothing he could do about it.  He ran to the spot where Nelson had disappeared.  When he was within several feet of the hole, he got down on his hands and knees to distribute his weight.  He crawled over to the hole and looked inside.  It was too dark to see anything.  He switched on his flashlight and scanned the tube.  He saw Nelson almost immediately.  He was on his side, not moving.

     "Tom, I can see you," Carter said.

     There was no response.

     Carter looked for a way down but did not see any.  He then thought of the rover.  He might be able to enter the tube by the hole created by the rover.

     "Carl, are you there?"  He pressed the emergency beacon.  He backed away from the hole, stood up, and ran for the rover.  Glancing at the data displayed on his heads-up, he wondered how much time had passed.  Nelson had said something about his suit being ripped.  If that was the case, he had to reach him quickly.

     Upon reaching the rover, Carter saw immediately that climbing down would be difficult.  The rover was nearly vertical.  Without hesitating, he stepped on the front grate and started to climb down.  The bulkiness of his suit complicated his descent and made it hard to move quickly.  He was about half way when Endicott came online.

     "What's going on?" Endicott asked.

     "Tom just fell through a lava tube.  I think his suit is ripped."

     "A tube," Endicott said slowly as he attempted to comprehend the implications.  "Where are you?"

     "I'm entering the tube.  Bring up Tom's bio.  I need to know how he's doing."

     "Hold on."

     The rover started to move and Carter wrapped his arms around the top of the driver's seat.  It fell about six inches, then stopped.

     "I'm showing a pulse, but it's weak.  Yours just jumped off the scale.  What happened?"

     "Nothing.  How much time do I have?"

     "It depends mostly on how quickly his suit loses pressure.  Did he say how large the rip was?"

     "He didn't say."

     "How long ago did he fall through?"

     "A couple of minutes.  I don't know.  Jesus, I wasn't keeping track."

     "You probably don't have much time," Endicott said, as he considered how he could best direct Carter.  "You'll need to stop the leak.  Do you have anything that you can wrap the rip with?"

     "There's an empty collection bag in the rover.  I can use that."

     "Good.  Your first priority is to stop the leak and restore pressure to the suit."

     Carter was several feet from the ground when he decided to jump.  He landed hard and the splint dug into his flesh.  He had forgotten about his mending leg.  Although the pain from the splint quickly subsided, he cautiously placed his weight on the leg.  It seemed fine.  He went over to the rover and pulled out an armful of cloth from a bag in the rear.  He turned around and shined his flashlight down the length of the tube.  He thought he could see Nelson's suit but he wasn't certain. Nelson would be about twenty yards away, which was about where he thought he saw the suit. The walls of the tube were reddish black and porous.  They formed an almost perfect circle, but there was evidence of collapse.  Portions of the tube had filled with rock and he saw that he would have to climb around some of it.  He shined the flashlight on the ground before him and walked hastily in the direction of Nelson.  The basaltic rock looked sharp, and he was careful as he made his way around the edges that protruded from the wall.  He occasionally glanced up at the ceiling to reassure himself that it was safe.  Looking at the time, he estimated that more than five minutes had passed since Nelson had fallen.  This was not good, he thought to himself.  Not good at all.  He quickened his pace.

     "How's his pulse?"

     "I'm not getting a reading," Endicott replied.  "But it may be too weak for the suit to detect.  His body temperature is dropping."

     "I see him."  The body was curled in a fetal position.  Carter stepped over a rock and bent down next to the body.  He turned the helmet so that he could look inside.

     Carter froze in shock.

     He had once been to the site of a crashed jet and had found the pilot's helmet hanging on a limb of a tree.  The inside was blood red and contained tiny clumps of gray matter and several strands of black hair matted together.  No other trace of the pilot had been found.  The Navy report concluded the body had disintegrated upon impact.  The revulsion and shock he had felt when he had looked inside the helmet had sent him to his knees.  But the bloodstained helmet with the pieces of brain was not nearly as horrible as the sight he now gazed upon.  The eyes that stared back at him were lifeless and were covered with a thin film of liquid that bubbled.  The skin was blistered.  Red foam was dripping from the mouth.  Carter staggered backwards and fell.