The Maze of Madison (scifi story): Chapter Sixteen - Reset to Recycle to Retry

Chapter One: So it Begins
Chapter Two: Into the Dark
Chapter Three: Confounded by a Lock of Stone
Chapter Four: The Ponderous Path Home
Chapter Five: Fleeing the Immolation
Chapter Six: Weathering the Firestorm
Chapter Seven: An Aftermath of Exhaustion and Cinders
Chapter Eight: The Bitter Cold Night That Lasted a Month
Chapter Nine: Deals with the Dav-Vel
Chapter Ten: The Dav-vel's Due
Chapter Eleven: Without a Solution
Chapter Twelve: With Potential
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen: An Unsettled Union
Chapter Fifteen: An Unexpected Companion

Chapter Sixteen: Reset to Recycle to Retry

If anyone would have thought we were going through the gate with the supplies we had with a new person, they would have been really, really wrong. I might have been young. I might have been inexperienced. I might have been a conflicted and confused teen, but I had had it drilled into my head since I was able to first hear speech that one does not simply leave with not enough supplies. Living on an alien world with an alien ecology light years from Earth meant everyone always did things when they were always prepared. Or thought they were.

We had prepared for this trip, Tristan, Tobias and I for some time. We had taken enough supplies for weeks, if needs be, just in case. We had taken enough medical supplies, just in case, for three people. We had sleeping bags and self deploying tents for...three. We had even the most basic of protection for...three.

A fourth was not planned for.

That meant we needed more supplies. That in turn meant we needed a way to carry them. That meant we could not leave at that moment because we had to discreetly gather them and build their form of transportation. That was aggravating. That was all Cecilia's fault.

That girl was young. She was caring. She was obnoxious. She was impulsive. She was there and in our way.

AND She never failed to get under my skin.

She seemed to delight in that.

And that made our infuriating interaction all the more agitating.

After we tromped back to Tristan and Cecilia's home, we went through the whole exercise, AGAIN. We gathered the supplies we needed. We cached them, more secretively this time at their house. We then built Cecilia a bot to carry extra supplies.

Her bot was different. It was a carrier, but not a centaur. If anything it was more an beefy exoskeleton than anything. Her's had fewer arms, but the ones we gave her were for tool use...except when they were not. In a pinch, if she could handle it, she could have used the arms for fighting. We didn't think that would be necessary and all of us had needlers. AND Tobias had brought a real firearm just in case. Even so, be prepared was a mantra of every exosolar colonist, no matter the age. The prepared were almost never prepared enough and the unprepared were dead.

After all, we were on an alien world in the middle of an ice age and its ecology had just combusted. Which was natural. For that world. Our world. On which we were the aliens.

And then we were going to go into a cave with a lock made of a stone with who or what knows behind it.

We were not going to go unprepared whatever Cecilia may want.

13

Oy.

Cecilia groused loudly that she didn't like her exosuit. She liked to sneak. There was no way humanly possible to sneak in that suit. Tobias and I were not in suits. How come she had to be?!

The honest answer was while she was almost assuredly sneakier than Tobias and I, I didn't completely trust her and her judgment. She might have gotten into trouble and I couldn't have her three years younger decisions getting us in deep kimchee. I had to admit, to myself at least, if no one else, it was also to keep her from doing an sneaking on me and declaring I was cute again. Not on this adventure.

In two weeks we were set. We met at the gate and this time no one unexpected was waiting for us. I took that as a good sign. The sky was a light charcoal color instead of absolutely black. The air had a burnt flavor to it and would for many months in the future. No ash fell anymore though. Our breath curled and froze in the air like the fumes from a frost dragon.

I walked up to the pad to open the door. I was about to immerse myself in my booster to hack into the door and open it. We were not exactly going out on a sanctioned expedition. Only a handful of science teams had gone beyond and one of those had been ambushed and mauled. Anyone else was expressly forbidden from doing so by the mayor. Hence, hacking.

However, as I did so, the door popped open. I all but panicked and fell backwards. Tobias, fortunately, caught me. I looked up at him. He looked down at me. He gave me a bemused look and shook his head. He pushed me up and I looked back. Tristan was smiling: he'd beaten me to it. Of course, he had. And I should have simply let him do it. He might have problems communicating with the rest of us, but no one was better at computers.

I smiled back.

Cecilia was smirking.

And that erked me.

I turned back to the gate. I didn't ask everyone if they were sure. Either they would have walked through the gate with me or they would have not come.

I breathed out heavily, took a deep breath and walked through.