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(Page 2 of 6) Out Of The Cold by John Cave
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"What's going on?" A voice rang out from behind me "A bit jumpy aren't you?"
"Sorry Sonia!" I said "I guess this place got to me for a minute there. Is everything okay with the ship?"
"Yes, everything is fine and locked down. We can be ready for lift of in less than thirty seconds and with that jump you just did then, I am wondering whether we will need to be that fast".
Sonia Lyrid had been my co-pilot for seven years, she was also a qualified geologist which would be useful on this trip.
"The rest of the team are picking up their equipment and will be here in a moment. Seen anything yet?" Sonia continued.
"Nothing really, but the light reflecting off the walls of the cave kind of reminded me of the lights we'd seen on the Hale film" I replied.
"Well, light reflecting through water in the air is how we get rainbows on Earth. This is almost certainly the same mechanism for producing the light show that you've seen in the cave!" she explained.
"I guess you're right!" I said trying to sound convincing. I don't think I even managed to fool myself, never mind Sonia.
The rest of the team joined us in the mouth of the cave. The cavern in front of us was enormous, it would take a week at least to search the cave if we did the search on foot and these space suits didn't make movement any easier. These were the newest spacesuit design built to withstand the radiation given out by Jupiter which would be lethal to anyone wearing the old spacesuits they wore on the Apollo missions to the Moon. The equipment they had brought with them amounted to little more than four suitcase size cases. They were filled with gadgets for detecting movement, light and life processes.
"Okay" I began "we'll split up into three teams and we'll check the cave for anything out of the ordinary".
"Out of the ordinary?" asked Geoff Harrod, one of the scientists.
"Just look for anything that isn't made of ice!" I continued "I haven't got any clue as to what produced the lights that were in the Hale film but keep your eyes open and stay alert!"
I took Roy Harrod, Geoff's brother; he was a radio expert and Andrew Short who was the group doctor. We set of into the cave and headed straight ahead into the open cave, whilst the other groups set off in other directions. We had been walking around for what seemed like a very long time, when Andrew started to moan.
"We have been walking around in this cave for over an hour now" he began in his strong Scottish accent "can you at least tell me what we are supposed to be looking f.."
Andrew hadn't finished his sentence when a shout from another part of the cave started us all running in the same direction. We all met up near an alcove on the south wall of the cave.
"What's wrong?" I asked as I approached the group.
‘Look!" said Sonia pointing at Margot Kidd, the other astronomer.
Margot was standing in the alcove; bolt upright with her arms down tight at her sides. It was when I tried to look at her face that I noticed what everyone was concerned about.
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