A Short Excursion

Tom Archer is the hero of “Angels Descended” (the novel I have in the works) and a man of fairly singular talents. This short piece came about when I was thinking about one of those talents, and a photoshopped picture I saw on Space.com. I don’t really know what prompted Tom to embark on the trip I describe below, quite possibly it was nothing more than wanting to see what he saw. Maybe one day I will find out and write about that too.

A Short Excursion

     Tom Archer was standing at the base of the steps that lead from the deck at the back of his house down to the garden. He took a few deep breaths, savoring the cool night air. He was wearing a silvery-white high altitude pressure suit and a green REI back pack. On the bottom step rested the suit’s helmet.

     Tom gave the zippers, buckles and straps on the pressure suit one final check. In his back pack rode an air bottle, sufficient for about 35 minutes, a hose from it snaked to a connector on the chest of the suit. Attached to his belt was a camera bag and in it was his Nikon with a 300 mm telephoto lens. On his left wrist was a Tissot diving watch, with the count down timer set for 15 minutes. The time was 12:40 AM.

     He bent over and picked up the helmet. Without any hesitation, he slipped it on over his head and locked the neck ring into place and closed the clear visor. Reaching over his shoulder he turned the knob on the regulator of the air bottle and felt the suit inflate a little. The air was very dry.

     The night sky was crystal clear and moonless. Mars, just a ruddy disk, was well above the horizon. Archer looked up at the little planet, many millions of miles away and cleared his mind of all but it. All of his time over the past few days had been spent studying maps of Mars and the location of a wheeled robot named Spirit.

     Earlier that afternoon in the comfort of his study, surrounded by maps and charts of the red planet, he decided to make the trip in several steps. The first step would get him close, perhaps as close as the Earth is to the Moon. The next step would put him somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 miles from the surface. From there he knew he could go straight to the surface.

     Tom was ready. He pressed the start button on the watch timer, the second hand began to move, as it counted down how long remained of the first half of his air supply. His only thought was of a Mars as big as the Moon. All other thoughts had been banished. With hardly any conscious volition, he triggered his teleportation ability and vanished. The garden was empty.

     From a perch above the deck in the kitchen’s greenhouse window two cats watched, unmoved by the disappearance of their master.

     This teleport was like no other attempt he had made. Trips about the Earth could be completed almost without delay. Two minutes into the trip, Archer was fighting back the urge to panic. Never had a trip taken him this long. His senses where being assailed by conflicting surges of light, darkness, heat and cold. Tom knew that he must endure, failure to do so could cost him is his life.

     A virtual lifetime later, Tom materialized some 400,000 miles from Mars. He looked at his watch, He had 4 minutes, 45 seconds remaining before he had to begin the trip home. The view was like nothing else he had ever seen. Carefully, as the arms and legs of the suit had stiffened a little from the internal pressure, he took his camera from its case and snapped a few shots. Thumbing the review button, he looked at the captured images and checked the clarity. The shots were keepers. The time now read 4 minutes 15 seconds. It was time for the second step.

     Much to his relief this jump was over in about 10 seconds. Mars loomed large through the visor. A couple more quick snapshots and he jumped the third time.

     And he stumbled. Archer began a slow fall. He hadn’t given any thought at all to the fact he would be two thirds lighter when he arrived on Mars. He went to one knee and put is free hand down to steady himself. With the other he raised the camera to his visor.

     Tom began to snap pictures of the alien landscape. Carefully, he moved from his knee to a standing position and turned in a slow circle as the camera clicked away. The sun was high in the sky, but dim, nothing like high noon from Earth. Tom snapped a few with the sun in the frame too.

     With the pictures taken, Archer turned to his primary task of finding Spirit. As he scanned the horizon with his eyes, he reached out with his mind, listening for the hum of electric motors. For almost a minute he scanned and found nothing, then, suddenly, nearly a mile to the south the familiar hum could be heard.

     Mentally, Tom squinted. He needed to know which way Spirit’s cameras were facing before he teleported up next to it. Satisfied he knew where not to arrive, he teleported again.

     Archer materialized 10 feet from Spirit, his first thought was that it in person it seems much larger than it’s roughly five feet high and long and seven feet wide suggested. Tom had judged his approach perfectly, his shadow was behind and away from the rover, and he was out of the view of any of the cameras. A quick glance at his watch showed about three minutes remaining. He prepared to take more pictures. The camera’s memory card was showing about half full.

     After a dozen or so shots, he cautiously took a few steps, careful to step onto rocks where ever he could. Much better, now he could see the task Spirit was working on. It had a soil probe out and several small grooves where visible on the ground from where it had lifted samples. Tom took a few pictures, zooming in on the various parts of the robot. The resilient machine’s solar panels had a fine layer of dust on them. With a grin, Tom exerted his rather weak telekinetic power and slowly swept the dust from the cells.

     Another glance at his watch showed that he was almost out of time. There was one more picture that he wanted. Tom teleported back about 50 yards. Now, Spirit was silhouetted against the sky. Carefully, he sighted in and snapped a series of 10 pictures. Then, reluctantly, he replaced the camera in the case on his belt.

     It was time to clear his mind of the here and now, and prepare for the trip home. This trip would be one step, as he knew exactly where he was going.

     “Good bye, Spirit,” He whispered, words only his ears heard. Then he vanished.