In Search of Moisture by riddleofsteel

In Search of Moisture
by
© riddleofsteel

As he walked along small clouds of yellow dust rose with every footstep. The crusted dry surface of the soil gave way under his weight exposing the fine powder beneath. Keith shifted his pack and stopped to vacuum the sweat from his face and neck. Scanning the distant horizon he noticed there was not a single distinguishing feature. It had been millions of years since this ancient sea bed had dried out beneath the amber sky and twin suns. He had been on the planet long enough to know that he was not going to liquid water out here. In fact no trace of moisture of any kind had ever been found on Ramos 3.

It was the minerals that had brought Keith and his friends to Ramos 3. Planets in this quadrant that could support humans without expensive pressure suits and specialized equipment were rare. Even more unique was that Ramos 3 was a treasure trove of minerals. Gold, platinum, transparent aluminum, diamonds, pure carbide nodules and even pure nuggets of titanium lay strewn over much of the planet's surface. The main draw back was that water was simply not available here. There was abundant oxygen but the lighter hydrogen gas need to to combine with oxygen to produce water had completely escaped from the planets atmosphere. Then there was the planet's location. They had made the sub-space jump from the core systems at better than twice the speed of light. Even at that velocity it had taken over a year to get here. Keith thought of his broken down speeder back at the foot of the mountains. Damn rotten time for an inducer to burn out. Piled in the back of the speeder was a pile of diamonds the size of a mans fist. Not just industrial grade either, gem quality. He laughed and thought he would trade every one of them for a 2000 credit transducer or a canteen of water. He was only crossing a small area of the ancient sea bed but it seemed endless. The mountains behind him had almost disappeared below the horizon. Ahead of him, over the horizon, was an island of rock in this flat desert. If he could make it to the rock and climb high enough his communicator might have enough range to reach the ship. Without an ionosphere to bounce radio waves off of the only radio communications on Ramos 3 were along direct line
of sight. From the top of that huge rock he hoped he could
see the ship.

It was dark when he reach the rocks. The temperature had gone from 100+ in the boiling sun to below freezing with a stiff wind. By the time he reached the shelter of rock the only thing he could think of was getting out of the wind and
sitting down on something beside the flat ground. He found a place where there was a deep cleft in the rock face. He used his light to pick his way thru the piles of rubble and loose stones. the geologist in him found it ironic that that the rocks around him had been laid down by the action of water millions of years ago. Now the wind that whipped the basin completely dry. In fact without the protective cream that he had been rubbing on his skin all day he would be a mummy by now. He removed the mouth piece from his re-breather and check the water collection bladder. The total volume of the water vapor he had breathed out had collected here. He dropped in a couple of small flavor pills to kill the plastic taste and drank deeply. His mouth was not dry due to the re-breather but his body needed moisture badly. He silently cursed that he had elected to leave his still suit at the ship. You get lazy when you have a fast speeder. Places hundreds of miles away are reachable in hours. He had never gotten used to its tight fitting confinement or drinking its sweaty tasting water. Plus it stunk. Now amount of cleaning ever got it to wear it did not offend his nose. Oh well, he had to make the best of the situation. Tomorrow he would climb the rock and try to send a message. For tonight he would hole up her and set off a thermite torch for warmth.

In the reddish glow of the torch the small area of the rock cleft seemed kind of homey. Keith leaned against the rock and slowly chewed a fruit bar as he watched the steady glow of the torch reflect off of his thermal blanket. Around the floor of the cleft mineral crystals and smooth metal faces bathed in the light as Keith drifted off to sleep.

Keith woke several times during the night. As tired as he was he had never been much for sleeping on the bare ground. The thermal blanket was little more than a layer of reflective poly viny. No padding for comfort. When the sun came up he had been tossing and turning all night. As he stood up he knew he was in trouble. He pulled back the blanket and looked in horror. In the area where he had been sleeping the yellow soil was wet!! During the night he had rolled over on the re-breather bladder and it had been ripped on the sharp mineral crystals. He quickly checked the contents of his canteen. With less than one quart of water left and no bladder for the re-breather, Keith, for the first time considered he might die out here. He considered routing the re-breather output into the canteen. Then the thought of spilling what water was left made him tighten the lid and forget that.

Then he considered the wet ground. Some type of still or digging it up and squeezing it dry. As he watched the soil drying fast Keith sat down and felt the despair rise in his chest. He had several hundred feet of rock face to climb in 100+ degree heat and dry air with no re-breather with less than one quart of water. The wet soil was almost dried out now. Only a small area in the center still contained moisture. Probably the first water to hit this soil in what, a million years, or more. Suddenly there was movement in the still slightly damp soil. Keith's jaw fell open. There was no life on Ramos 3. Detailed scans had ruled it a sterile planet. Dead for eons, no life. But he has seen movement. Perhaps something had been awakened by the water from his re-breather bladder.

He took the blade of his knife and poked at the still moving soil. It responded. The thought of discovering life here on Ramos 3 thrilled him. He leaned over and tried to scrape back the soil to reveal his discovery. Without his re-breather each breath Keith expelled was a plume of moisture. In his effort to dig out what ever was in the yellow soil he breathed heavily over widening hole. Then suddenly, in an explosive leap, a fat corkscrew shaped larva drove itself upward into the source of the moisture. Keith fell back and tried to pull the worm from his mouth. Even as he desperately tried to remove the worm it wedged itself into his throat drawing water from his body and swelling. He writhed in pain as it made its way deep into his lungs. As he gagged and coughed he could feel the worm settle in his chest. Then as suddenly as it had happened it seemed to be over. The pain stopped and other than an uncomfortable tightness in his chest it was like he had awoken from a nightmare. Panic rolled over him in waves. He knew what had happened and why. The entire trip from the the ship had been an exercise in sloppy practice. Alone, miles from the ship, no still suit, no backup transport a recipe for disaster. Now he was infected by some kind of damn million year old alien boring worm. His only hope was to climb and get a message thru to the ship. The effort of the climb go the worm to stirring. He stopped often to cough heavily and gag. At the summit he tried the communicator.

"This is Keith. Come in mining base."

"Come in please!!"

"This is mining base. Damn Keith, were the hell are you
man?"

" My speeder burned out an inducer at the foot of the mountains to the south."

"I am at an out cropping of rock 50 miles due south of base.
I am low on water and need help ASAP!"

Keith thought about telling Dave about the worm. Something told him he might get help faster by not bringing it up.

"The other speeder is up north. We will be there as soon as Joel gets back."

That was it. He just had to climb down and hang on until Dave and Joel arrived. His mind raced on how he was going to go about getting the worm out of his chest. What was its life cycle? What did they have in the ships med section he could use?

As he climbed down the worm was strangely quiet. Once at the bottom thirst drove Keith to try and drink. The first swallow was followed by intense pain. Sensing water the worm bored a passage between Keith's windpipe and his esophagus to be in place for the next drink. The pain was almost more than he could bear. He tried to drink again to quiet the burning in his chest. The pain this time was so great he passed out. As he opened his eyes he could see the canteen. It was open laying on its side. Keith did not know if there was any water left or how long he had been out. Then he saw a strange reddish fly. Fly? He wondered at the inconsistency of seeing a fly on a planet that was supposed
to have no life. It had a rounded body and four swept back wings. Rather than legs it seemed rest on three spikes that protruded from its body. It had no eyes but did have what seemed to be a single antenna with a curious comb shaped appendage. The bug or fly was very interested in the open canteen. It circled the canteen clearly homing in on its open mouth. It flew into the canteen twice its original size and emerged buzzing lazily with its load of water. The creature
flew over to an area of loose yellow soil and began to deposit its eggs.

Keith sat up and instinctively held his chest to try and deal with the pain. He felt a weird tickle in the back of his throat. He coughed and the tickle moved up into his nose. Suddenly a small reddish fly crawled out of his nose and flew away toward the open canteen. Horrified, he suddenly realized he had become the host for a ground dwelling larva that had survived for eons in the dry soil of Ramos 3 until an tiny oasis of moisture had come along. It dawned on him that these creatures could continue to multiply and increase as long as there was water and hosts.

By the time Dave and Joel reach the rock Keith was no were to be found. They called and called but no one answered. When they finally found Keith in the cleft of the rock he was so emaciated and dried out they barely recognized him.

"What's with these flies?" Dave said.

"I thought Ramos 3 was life sterile"

"You know what this means" said Joel

"What?"

"We will have to go thru isolation and all that shit when we get back. Plus there will be an investigation on ole Keith
here."

"Damn! One of those bastards flies just flew into my nose."

"Gross"

"I guess I swallowed the damn thing"

"Let's get Keith and get out of here man this place gives me the creeps."

"There is a window tonight. If we can get into orbit this afternoon we can power up and make the hyper jump by then. Then its into the sleep pods for a year and we are back home with a cargo hold full of diamonds and titanium nodules.
Thats pure profit man!"

"Dave"

"Yeah Joel"

"Let's not mention the flies man"

"Its to Earth, back to blue skies and water for us."

"Water and people."

"Yeah"