2058

The moon was full, and burned with the fire of a dying sun.

Zera drew the short straw that night and donned the ill-fitting protective suit before venturing into the barren wasteland she used to call home. Gravel crunched beneath the thick soles of her reflective boots, the sound muffled by her helmet but resonating in her teeth. Sweat dripped into her eyes. Her helmet, set at full opacity, restricted her vision even further. But the darkness was better than a wild case of moonburn on her face.

“I hate this,” she muttered into her comms.

“Everyone hates it, you’re not special,” Kissi said. “Keep going north.”

“You should come down here, Kissi.” In the distance, she spotted the tell-tale gap of the Pit. “Instead of hiding in that cushy computer room.”

“Lose a limb and you can join me—not that you could hang in here. This requires finesse, which no one has ever accused you of having.”

“What can I say? All brawn, no brains,” Zera huffed out. The heat surrounded her chest and compressed it, more like diving into the ocean than walking across the Earth’s surface. Loose ground shifted as she climbed over a short rise; whatever building this used to be, it was long gone, crumbled to dust in the unrelenting fire of the days. 

“Please tell me they just need surface minerals tonight,” Zera said.

Kissi was silent. Zera could picture her analyst rearranging her locs, ignoring the question.

“Kissi?”

“I don’t wanna say it,” she replied. 

Zera let out a prolonged groan.

“You could’ve warned me before I left.”

“There wasn’t time! I promise I’ll make it up to you when you get back.”

“I’ll put it on your tab.” She checked her wrist band, analyzing her oxygen and heat levels, as well as the charge in the tank she carried on her back. Did she want to use the energy to cool herself off now, or later?

She eyed the Pit in the distance. Later. Definitely later. 

“I’ve got you clocked at a kilometer out,” Kissi said. “Accurate?”

“Unfortunately,” Zera grumbled. “Need anything while I’m out?”

Kissi hummed. “We’re out of milk. And bread.”

“I’ll add it to the list.”

“Oh! And apples.”

“Oh no, those are way too expensive.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

“I know your salary, you can’t afford it.”

The moon was halfway through its ascent, so Zera picked up her pace. It was a particularly boiling night, and the sooner she reached her destination, the better. Another fifteen grueling minutes passed before she reached the lip of the Pit, its depths cool and inviting and just a little deadly.

“There you are,” Kissi said. The comms crackled as another line opened. “Okay, set your scanner for copper, nickel, and anomalies. You’ve got Lieb on standby.”

“If anything goes wrong, just count me dead then,” Zera said.

“Try not to do anything stupid, I’m really comfortable here,” Lieb said, his voice as deep and gravelly as the earth below her. He added a groan akin to a grandfather in a rocking chair, just for good measure.

“Ah, the sounds of an angel.” Zera sighed. “You know, you could always make a comeback out here. I get lonely sometimes.”

“We’re not supposed to waste resources. Don’t mess up so I can get a raise for conserving energy.”

“You’re certainly very good at that,” Kissi said, which earned another fatherly scoff.

Metal clanks reverberated through the suit as Zera unhooked the two-meter anchor pole from her back, the drill bit hitting the ground with a muted thud. She dragged it in a cursive spelling of her full name until it beeped for a spot solid enough to hold her, then pushed the drill lever and grabbed the wire from her thigh holster. Leaning into the pole, she used her weight to hold it while it drilled into the ground.

“Sounds extra hard tonight,” Kissi said.

“That’s what he said,” Lieb chimed.

“Not to you,” Zera grunted, losing her balance as the post hit its mark.

“Says who?”

“I’ll keep my sources secret, thanks.” With the anchor in place, Zera was able to hook the wire to her harness. The Pit lurked at her back now, an ominous gap threatening to swallow her. It was creepy as hell, but at least it wasn’t as hot as the other dig sites.

“Anchor set?” Kissi said.

“Yep. Stability?”

“Reading one hundred percent. Carry on.”

“Alright, going in.” She held the wire and leaned back, letting it take her weight while she was still within reach of the edge. When the anchor held, she loosened the wire and started her descent, avoiding the sensation of forgetting something. 

“Did you change your scanner settings?” Kissi asked.

“Of course I did.” Zera dug her boots into the brittle earth, her stance wide enough to keep stable while fumbling with the machine on her wrist band. The picks sheathed at her belt clanked as she shifted and the thin wire groaned.

“Jesus, did you forget your knife, too?” 

“Shut up, Lieb, no I didn’t.” She reached down to check her ankle just in case. Yep, still there. “Okay, back on the roll.”

“Finally,” Lieb grunted. 

“Didn’t you dig up rocks in your past life? Where’s your patience?” Zera asked.

“Burnt up with everything else.” 

“Moon’s rising quick and Theta team is beating us, let’s go,” Kissi said. 

Zera didn’t need to be told twice—if the other team beat them back to the hatch, she’d rather stay outside and die with the sunrise instead of facing the endless harassment.

She kept one hand on the wire and the other on the wall while the blue lights of her scanner danced like stars on the gray dirt. The temperature in her boots dropped dramatically as she dipped below the moon’s sight, a welcome but limited reprieve from the heat. Inch by inch she descended, hoping and praying the scanner wouldn’t ding until she fully submerged.

At least one deity listened, and she got below the shadow line without the scanner sounding for the desired minerals or anything weird in the dirt. Her relieved sigh bordered on inappropriate, but she didn’t care, too busy sending some gratitude out into the universe. A tap to the top of her helmet reduced the opacity to zero, which made her search much easier. 

“Kissi?”

“All clear,” she said. “No dust storms in sight, nothing on the Richter. Anything interesting?”

“Nope.”

“Good,” Lieb said. “Maybe I can take my boots off.”

“Don’t jinx me.” Zera continued down, eyes and wristband both scanning the area. Once the initial adrenaline rush settled, the job got terribly boring, a slow race between the moon and the scanner. 

After an hour of scanning, stopping, and scraping, Zera sighed and said, “Tell me a story.” She had one mineral canister full after a lucky find, but a dry spell kept her second one pitifully empty. 

“Absolutely not,” Lieb said.

“She was talking to me,” Kissi said. “I’m the best storyteller around.”

“Oh, here we go.” Even though Zera couldn’t see Lieb, she could feel him roll his eyes. 

“Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a place with two moons.”

“Oh, shit,” Zera said. The blue lights stopped on a pocket of rocks, and she planted her feet and brought out the canister. “Was everything on fire?”

“No, these were normal moons,” Kissi said as Zera scraped into the canister. 

“Technically it would mean a normal sun.”

“Do you wanna tell the story?”

“You know higher-ups listen to these comms, right?” Lieb said.

“Yes, and later they’ll commend me for keeping up morale with our digger,” Kissi said. “Now, where was I?”

“Two moons.” Zera plucked the last bit of the deposit from the wall. Her underalls stuck with her sweat, the stretchy fabric sending puffs of warm air through the suit. 

“Right, two moons,” Kissi said. “And the two moons were also goddesses.”

“Didn’t see that coming,” Zera said. A few feet further, she found another deposit. “Jackpot.”

“Right? Not just one, but two goddesses,” Kissi said.

“No, I—never mind. What about these goddesses?” She excavated, racing against the fast approaching shadow line above her. 

“Oh, well they were the embodiment of good and evil, of course.”

“Of course.”

“This is the most boring story I’ve ever heard,” Lieb said.

“Maybe if you stopped interrupting me—”

Something sparkled in Zera’s headlamp as she visually scanned the area, nearly making her drop the pick and the canister. Nothing ever sparkled down here.

An anomaly? Anomalies were worth their weight in gold. If she could bring one back to the bunker…

She finished mining while Kissi and Lieb squabbled like geriatric siblings, the sparkly object winking in her periphery. The scanner didn’t pick it up, even when she pointed right at it, but it was probably because the angle was off. If she hurried, she could grab it and get out before they’d even finished their argument. 

With the full canister lidded and firmly attached to her belt, she turned her attention to whatever had the audacity to shine in this barren wasteland. It was only ten meters to her right, she could side step over to it, no problem. 

Kissi and Lieb were now discussing years of service, the story long forgotten. Zera moved, carefully crawling sideways using the handholds of diggers gone by. The wire groaned in protest as the angle steepened, but the anchor held fast. As she got closer, she saw something smooth and silver stuck in the rock. Oh, this would be good.

The anchor shifted slightly. Her body dropped a few inches, and her stomach dropped to her boots. 

“You good?” Kissi asked, coming out of the conversation at Zera’s strangled gasp.

“Yeah, yeah I’m good,” she said. “Anchor just shifted a little.”

“Get out of there,” Kissi said, voice sharp. “You’re at ninety percent.”

“It’s okay, it’ll hold.”

“Kissi’s right, any sign of trouble means get the fuck out,” Lieb said. 

“It’s fine,” Zera insisted. She shifted her weight, and the anchor held. “I think I found something.”

“Whatever it is, it ain’t worth it, kid. Don’t make me come drag your ass back here.”

“First of all, you’re only like, fifteen years older than me.” Zera made a solid base with her feet and tried to keep the pressure on the wire even. If she reached just right, she could grab whatever the thing was. “Second, I’ve almost got it.”

“I’m serious, Zera. Get out.” 

The wire groaned again, but she reached the object, a shock going through the suit as she made contact. Now she just had to pry it out. She wiggled it and some of the dirt gave way around it, but the thing stubbornly held its position.

“I’ve got it, I just need to…” She put a little more muscle into the wiggle, and the earth spat it out. “Neat.” 

The round, silver thing was extra shiny in her headlights, and heavy in her pocket when she dropped it in. Then the ground creaked, and a shiver traveled down the line.

“Oh no.”

“Zera?”

“You weren’t supposed to hear that.” 

Another shake of the line. A squeal down the metal. The cord gave, just a little. Problem was, it wasn’t supposed to give at all.

“Oh shit!” The anchor pitched forward. Zera stabbed her picks into the wall and jammed her feet into the dirt as the line slackened. 

“Zera!” Alarms from Kissi’s computer screamed through the comms. “Hang tight.”

“I’m on the way,” Lieb said, and Zera could barely hear the sound of him donning his gear over the rushing in her ears.

“Okay, I’ll just hang out,” she said, her voice an octave higher than usual. 

“The anchor stability is at fifty percent,” Kissi said. “It’ll hold as long as you don’t move.”

Zera nodded, though they couldn’t see it, and changed the helmet shield opacity to one hundred percent again as the heat slowly rose in her suit. The moon was nearly overhead now, and soon the edge of the Pit wouldn’t protect her. 

“Lieb, what’s the ETA?” she asked. 

“Eight. Shit.” The sound of a vehicle choking and backfiring made her wince. “Engine’s too hot. Gotta toss some water on it, so maybe fifteen. Hold tight.”

An awfully long time to hang on a wall. The anchor lurched again, dropping more of her weight into her already tired limbs. 

“I think I can climb.” It was a better alternative than waiting for her muscles to give out. “Kissi, can the roller work at fifty percent?”

“What? No.”

“You said that too fast.”

“I mean, it technically can, but you would have to take at least fifty percent of the weight. One wrong move and you’re gonna find out what’s at the bottom.”

“I can handle it.” She had no choice. She heard the car sputtered and died again, earning a few more creative expletives from Lieb. “I can do it, just keep an eye on me.”

“Always,” Kissi said. “I’m gonna manually override the roller, so when you give some slack, I’ll take it up.”

Zera smacked the button for her coolant. Cold spread through the tubes of her suit, chilling the sweat and making her shiver, which the already-loose dirt did not appreciate. With no choice but to proceed, she extended her arm as high as she could and swung the pick into the rock. 

Gravel rained down, and she instinctively ducked despite the helmet. An experimental tug found her hold better than expected, and gave her the confidence to sink the second pick in. The next step was finding a good enough hold with her foot to push up. 

“I think I got it,” she said, just as the first pick stripped all the dirt from its place. She just managed to adjust her stance before the second pick took too much weight and sent her plummeting to her death. 

“That sounded so confident,” Kissi said.

“Shut up and take up some slack,” Zera said through gritted teeth. The wire vibrated as the roller pulled at quarter-speed. Once it reached the maximum tolerance, it stopped, holding just enough of her weight so her arms didn’t struggle. 

Another two picks—this time with firmer test tugs—and she hauled herself up again, her muscles burning as she took her full weight. She called for Kissi to pull again and held her breath until it reached its end, as if that would help keep her buoyant against the gravity threatening to drag her down. 

The sound of an engine sputtering to life came through the comms.

“We’re up,” Lieb said. “Hang tight.”

“Doing my best,” she groaned, and heaved herself up again. 

It was slow going, but any progress was better than waiting for her arms to collapse. She could drown in her own sweat at this point. Even the outer suit stuck to her now, the weight of it making each movement harder. 

“ETA three minutes,” Lieb said, and Zera exhaled sharply.

“Take your time,” she said, because she had to be a little shit about it.

“I mean, I can if you want me to—”

“Stop it, we’re working here,” Kissi interrupted. “Not to freak everyone out, but I’m starting to get some seismic readings, so if we could focus—”

“Let’s go!” Zera said. She was close enough to hear the gears turning the reel. It felt like bad luck to think she’d almost made it, so she shut the thought out and focused on the next move instead. 

With the lip of the Pit in sight, she started climbing faster, as if she could climb out before the earth noticed and gave way. The sound of Lieb’s rescue vehicle carried past the scorched earth and tumbled over the edge into the Pit. She was so close to the top she could feel the vibrations in the ground. 

Vibrations. The car wouldn’t cause vibrations. She was well and truly fucked. 

“Hurry, we’re nearing failure and the Richter scale is climbing,” Kissi said.

Zera could no longer waste her breath on a reply, and instead drove the picks into the shuddering wall to propel herself upward. It was more of a mad scramble than a climb, a race against the Richter. The reel turned and the wire squealed. The top of the pole appeared over the edge of the Pit. If she could just reach the edge before the quake hit…

Another centimeter appeared.

Then another.

The vehicle’s rumbling stopped, but the ground’s trembling continued. Suddenly the top of the anchor moved down faster than Zera was moving up. Kissi swore loudly in her ears. The vehicle door slammed. 

The anchor broke free. 

Zera’s weight dropped and her exhausted arms screamed. Time slowed as the wire slackened. Would the anchor hit her? Or just pull her down with it?

The anchor weighed fifty kilograms. She weighed approximately seventy kilograms. If she estimated the distance to the top of the Pit to be ten meters and the anchor fell at the velocity of—

“Zera! Jesus Christ, climb!”

Lieb’s voice, now in the same space instead over the comms, broke her panic-induced physics reverie. He hung over the edge with two picks of his own, the blades sunk into the ground and holding her original anchor like chains on a swing. He actually caught her. 

“Any day now!”

“Right! Kissi, let’s go!” 

She resumed her climb. Though the wire shifted and shook, Lieb managed to keep it just stable enough for her ascent. Each swing of her picks made her back ache, and her sweaty hands slipped in her too-large gloves. Everything from her shoulders to her fingertips was cramping, and she still had five meters to go.

“Zera!”

Right, focus. 

“C’mon, kid, you’ve got this.”

It was probably the nicest thing Lieb had ever said to her, and she was too tired to point it out. Dammit. 

Her breath came in deep, gulping gasps as her muscles screamed for oxygen. The impending quake made her hands go numb. But she climbed and climbed, never entertaining the alternative.

“Grab my hand!”

Zera pushed up as far as she could and slung her hand up, crying out as she missed. Black surrounded the edge of her vision as her panic skyrocketed.

“Again!” Lieb interrupted her before she could spiral. Using the near-last of her energy, she climbed one foot higher. Then, with the absolute last of it, she reached again for his forearm. 

An embarrassing sound of relief exited her mouth as her hand made contact and the rubber of her gloves stuck to his sleeve. He dropped the pick and grabbed her so hard she’d likely bruise through the suit.

“Unbuckle!”

She unhooked her harness and reached for his other hand. For one second, Lieb was the only thing keeping her from falling. The thought made her already-shaken head swim.

“Push!”

Zera somehow found enough energy to push with her legs as he hauled her toward the edge. She bumped both picks and the anchor as she rose, and she didn’t even have enough time to hope they didn’t grab her before Lieb rolled and pulled with his entire body. 

“You’ve gained weight,” he grunted as they tumbled onto the hot ground. The anchor, now free from its hold, clattered and clanged as it tumbled into the Pit. 

Silence. Stillness.

Zera rolled onto her hands and knees, truly intent on standing. But the quake hit, knocking her flat on her stomach and forcing the air from her lungs. She’d forgotten about it, with the drama of the last few minutes.

The ground rolled, and large chunks broke off the edge of the Pit. Zera grabbed Lieb’s arm and shoved him away from the encroaching edge. Every time they tried to stand, the quake knocked them down, like it wanted to Pit to catch them. 

“Almost over!” Kissi’s voice broke through the melee. Did she mean the quake, or Zera’s survival?

Just as the new edge of the Pit reached their boots, the quake slowed and stalled. Zera laid on the quiet ground, the aftershocks shaking her brain as adrenaline slowly buffered from her blood.

“I’ve never been so happy to see your face,” she said. Lieb’s suit had a shadow on it from where he lay on the hot ground; Materials would be pissed.

“You can’t see my face.”

“Exactly.”

“You get my girl?” Kissi asked.

“No, I let her drop.”

“No need to be an asshole.”

“‘Thank you, Lieb,’” he mocked. “‘Thank you for driving out here in the middle of the night and saving my life. Thank you for pulling me out of the abyss.’ Oh, you’re welcome, Zera. Any time. Anything for you.”

“Thank you, Lieb.” She pushed up and dragged him to his feet and into a hug which lasted just long enough to make him uncomfortable.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re getting soft.” He gave her shoulder a rough pat before weaseling out of her grip. “What did you grab that was so important?”

“I don’t know.” She dug into her pocket. Turned out, it was an old-fashioned pocket watch, half the silver tarnished black. Grime and dirt cemented the seam shut, and her gloves were too thick to pry it open. Never mind—her knife would work just fine later. 

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Lieb said.

“What is it? It better be good,” Kissi said.

“Just some stupid pocket watch.”

“Well I didn’t know it was stupid before I grabbed it,” Zera said. “We’re told to grab anomalies. I spotted an anomaly, so I grabbed it.”

“The scanner picked it up?”

Zera paused.

“Sure, let’s go with that.”

“Zera.” The admonishment made Zera flinch.

Lieb’s air left him in a slow, frustrated wave. “I hate you sometimes.”

“Thank you for saving my life.”

“You’re not welcome. Get in the truck.”

The rescue vehicles had no air conditioning, but they could at least roll the windows down to get some semblance of a breeze through the stuffy cabin. Protocol dictated the helmets had to stay on if the windows were open, but protocol didn’t specify they couldn’t crack the faceshield, just a little. The moving air, though scorching, was monumentally better than baking alive in the suit. 

Kissi cleared her throat. “Just so you know, Theta and Epsilon both made it back already.”

“Did any of them nearly die?” Zera asked.

“No, but—”

“So we still win.”

“You nearly died trying to grab a fucking pocket watch, we won exactly zero things,” Lieb said.

“I didn’t just try to grab it, I successfully grabbed it.”

“Both of you shut up.” Kissi’s sharp words snapped their jaws shut, and they bowed their heads as if she were physically there. They spent the rest of the trip in silence save for the shifting of the gears, though Zera felt Kissi’s disappointment through the comms and dreaded the lecture waiting for her. 

The moon was on her descent now, glaring angrily at their backs as they pulled into the hatch. Squeaks and squeals sounded entirely too loud in the enclosed space as the doors shut behind them, and Zera unbuckled and pulled off her helmet as soon as the light faded. 

The first breath was so good it made her believe in love again. Cool, sterile air soothed her roasted innards and settled quickly into her sweat-soaked uniform, sending chills slithering down her spine. Before she could stop herself, a satisfied groan escaped.

“Ew, stop that,” Lieb said, glaring from the corner of his eye. She gave him a bright smile, then promptly raised a finger. 

His retort was cut short as the door slammed open. Kissi leaned against the frame, her hand over her heart as she took them in.

“You scared me half to death. Don’t be stupid like that again.”

“I wasn’t stupid, I was doing my job.” Zera tugged off her gloves and hooked them to her belt, an excuse to move her hands and avoid eye contact.

“You did it stupidly.”

“See, I told you,” Lieb said. 

Zera turned to find Kissi in her personal space, and in the blink of an eye she wrapped Zera in a tight hug.

“I’m disgusting right now,” Zera reminded her. Sweat dripped from her short, dark hair, and with every movement warm air puffed up from her suit and into the cooler environment.

“I don’t care.” Kissi pulled back, the corner of her uniform damp from the contact, and smacked Zera with the back of her tablet. Her dark eyes shone in the low light. “You realize if you die out there, I have to sit and listen to the whole thing, right?”

Zera had forgotten that. 

“Sorry, I’ll be better next time.” From now on, she was triple checking her anchor, and avoiding any anomalies the scanner missed, no matter how shiny they looked. 

“Fuckin’ better,” Lieb muttered. “Did you at least get what you went for?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I did.” She unhooked the tubes from her belt. “Our little adventure wasn’t a total wash.”

“Debatable.” He put his helmet in the locker, then reached for Zera’s and shut them both in. “I’m heading to Medical. Kissi?” 

He held out his wrist, and Kissi took the small, circular device from her belt and laid it on top of his band. When the light turn green, he stomped through the open door. Kissi gestured for Zera’s hand and scanned her in too.

“I guess I should drop these and head that way too.” Zera shook the canisters so the insides sounded like the rain recordings that played through the speakers some nights. 

“Yes. Tell them to check your head.” Kissi spun on her left leg, swinging the prosthetic one around before setting off. Zera followed, the aches and exhaustion settling in with every step deeper into the compound. The low light made her brain buzz, and made each step off kilter no matter how solid the ground.

Perhaps getting a head check wasn’t a bad idea.