She got back to their base camp late that afternoon, just before the acidic rains and then the sandstorms were scheduled to start. Their suits and vehicles could survive those harsh conditions. The Expedition had verified that through extensive orbital surveying before the research team established bases planetside. But it was better to get under a fixed roof to get the maximum life out of their equipment. The Expedition didn’t often get resupply shipments from Penrose University.

  Their sector’s base camp was a spartan construction. Three single piece habitation modules linked end to end. Their laboratories were right beside them and arranged in a similar manner. And then there were a couple equipment sheds nearby. All of them had a sturdy dome shaped build and sat atop a metal platform on stilts. Just like with the tower, there was very little footprint to clean up when they finished their study and hauled everything off world.

  Everything was designed for job function and not comfort. This was a working site. They got their rest up in the clouds. She didn’t mind the lack of amenities as long as she stayed busy. And she had taken up the study of meteorology to pass the time when the weather forbid outside work. But she could perceive some in her team were ready to go back in the sky.

  Brad Everett, one of her grad students, and an android they called Pancho was outside on the platform when she got back, and he came over to the ramp just as she did. There was a lot more empty space on the platform now.

  “You’re back just in time,” Brad said. “We finished stowing all the solar arrays and switched station power to the ‘jenny’. We’ll pollute this pristine air with some combustion fumes. Given what’s coming, I don’t think it’ll make any difference.”

  It certainly would be a drop in the ocean. “No, it won’t. Is there anything inside we still need to do?”

  “No, doc, we’re as ready as can be. Dinner will be within the hour and it looks to absolutely pour in fifteen to twenty minutes, so hurry up any last outdoors work you’ve got.”

  “I should be inside by then,” she said while assisting her hauler bot up the loading ramp. “I just have to organize the new ground core samples.”

  “I’m your huckleberry,” Pancho said. “Go inside and get in your casual dress.” His eyes exuded a masculine confidence, as did his strut.

  Pancho and Ringo, their other android on the team, were among the most advanced models available. Their appearance and mannerisms were so impressive that it was impossible to identify them as androids by eyesight alone. Until you witnessed their physical abilities.

  They had also developed speech and mannerisms heavily influenced by gunslingers and outlaws in historical film. That was a curious development. She suspected it was because they were aware of their dual purpose on the mission. It had disturbed her at first but she had now grown to like it. They had personality.

  She suspected their emergency programming was the source of their interest in outlaw culture. The androids didn’t just help them with the grunt work of surveys and maintenance. They also amounted to a deterrent force. A petty warlord controlled this region of space, and they wanted him to know that there would be a cost to attacking the Expedition science team. The team’s androids were some of the most advanced combat models available – far more so than anything the warlord possessed.

  The androids’ human likeness made them easy to relate to and she didn’t like having them doing all the work. But she also knew that they likely only had minutes before the weather got bad. Black clouds filled the sky above. A faint glow of sunlight still shined through on the horizon, but it would soon be gone. And then there would only be darkness, thunder, wind, and rain. “I’ll split it with you.”

  “Deal,” he said, smiling. He turned to Brad. “See how Shanita is doing with dinner. We’ll be in shortly.”

  With him at her side it would be an easy task. They entered the “Core Samples” lab and sorted the soil cores she had taken for analysis. The flora of the world was very primitive – bark, roots, leaves and such were all in primitive forms. Cyanobacteria and algae had long ago transformed the surface of the land into proper soil. But that covering had only been skin deep. Beneath that the world had still been composed of lifeless regolith. But now these primitive roots and mycelium, and their supporting microbial ecosystems, were starting to change the ground many centimeters down.

  That’s what they were here for – documenting how the world changed.

  Pancho cataloged each of the samples in an instant using his wireless connection with her PDA (for the cores’ GPS coordinates) and the lab’s computers, and then they ordered them within the automated testing stations. The machinery would run the analysis while they bunkered down from the storm. Efficient work.

  They soon finished putting the expedition samples in their ordered trays and then locked the sheds. The rain had just started, a blackened soot filled sludge, and they walked fast to the habitation section’s airlock and the decontamination section. They managed to avoid the worst of it but they could already see the whole facility would be filthy once the storm was over.

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  She verified Pancho had sealed the exterior door behind them. “Beginning decontamination,” she warned.

  They both stood still while EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lamps illuminated and nozzles sprayed them down with steam. It only took seconds before any alien microorganisms on their exosuits were dead husks. Dark puddles made from the filthy rain covered the floor but were soon sucked away into the drains.

  Pancho cracked the seal of his helmet as soon as the procedure was over and started to remove the suit. “We might have to relocate to a new site after this.”

  She wondered about that herself while getting out of her exosuit. A freak weather interaction was funneling all of Vulcan’s fury in their direction and their site was going to look much more like places much closer to the LIP. They would certainly need to survey the area after the storm to assess the impact. But if the damage to the site was severe then there wouldn’t be much else to do around here for a while.

  Pancho continued to muse out loud. “The research assistants could use a break. And I think spending some time in the clouds could refresh you as well. Increase the whole team’s productivity at the next site.”

  Maybe so.

  She passed him a silent smile and nod as she placed her suit in its tray and then followed him into the habitation area. Amar met her at the entrance to offer a cup of hot tea. It was a welcome sight after the day’s survey and the knowledge of what their night would be like.

  “Thank you, how bad does it look?”

  “Check it out,” he said with an excited smile. He beckoned her to follow him to their weather station. Shanita and Brad were already there grinning and joking in soft tones. She looked at Pancho to gain his attention and then followed Amar.

  The heaviest cloud cover she ever saw on the satellite feed covered her site. And the exterior cameras hardly showed anything. And it wasn’t because of the dark cloud cover. The research site had exterior lighting to illuminate the place, but that light barely penetrated the wall of darkness made by the ash filled rain.

  She shook her head while sipping her tea and discreetly looking at each of her teammates. They were grad students attached to the mission. Mere youths, they didn’t seem to understand the seriousness of the situation. They seemed excited. The lost opportunity was as far from their minds at this time as sunlight was to their sky.

  Shanita was sitting at the comms station and saw her, and then she spoke something into her microphone. She seemed to get a response and then motioned for Carmela to come over.

  “It’s Tanner,” Shanita said once Carmela was near. “He wanted to speak with you before the storm got bad.”

  Dr. Justin Tanner was the Expedition’s Program Director. The big man in charge. He likely wanted confirmation of where they were with implementing safety procedures for the storm. The fact that she saw Shanita signal to him first told her that he had already tried to reach her before.

  His voice came in over the comms channel. No visual. The storm must be seriously degrading the effective bandwidth.

  “Hi Carmela, I tried to call you before,” Tanner said. His voice came in fine with no distortion or cutting out. It was serious and portrayed urgency.

  “I just made it back. We got all our daily activities completed and all equipment brought under shelter.”

  “That’s good,” he said. “I just want to make sure you’re prepared. Our weather satellites and aerial drones indicate that all of Vulcan’s high altitude particulate matter is about to drop on you. The storms have picked up a lot of desert sand too.”

  “Any danger from the ash’s temperature?” She guessed not because it had days up in the high atmosphere to cool.

  “No,” he said. “It’s still warm in the high atmosphere. But it will cool further as it falls and mixes with the precipitation in low level clouds. And the good news is that this prevents upwelling and almost makes it impossible for tornadoes to form.”

  “That is good news.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “But you’re still going to get tons of ash and sand dropped on you. And wind gusts may reach hurricane levels. I know the chances are remote. But I want you to prepare for a structure collapse. Be ready to relocate into one of the other domes.”

  The design calculations show we can endure this. “Okay, we’ll be ready. Just in case.”

  “That’s what I’m asking…just in case. I have a rescue crew on standby and we can be at your location as soon as the storm front passes.”

  She now began to wonder. “You haven’t seen anything that threatens our safety?”

  His voice changed to irritation, as if outraged that she questioned his decisions. “Of course I haven’t. But we haven’t come all this way just to fail at the first unforeseen event. Just do it, Doctor Vazquez.”

  “We will,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure we have the same picture you do.”

  “You do for now,” he said. “I can’t promise your signal from the weather satellites won’t cut out. You might be under a comms blackout in an hour or two. And the worst of the storm is going to last for most of the night.”

  “We’ll get rest as best as we can.”

  “Sleep in your suits,” he said. “As a precaution.”

  She looked around at her team members, noting their quiet disgruntlement. “I’ll make sure we do. It’s the right thing.”

  Tanner wished them well and logged off. “He is right,” she said to her teammates while sitting down to better investigate the weather data. The satellite and tower data showed that the air was already dangerous to breathe further north due to high particulates. Those same particulates would also threaten their generator.

  “Pancho, do you mind watching this station and shutting down all lab analysis when the danger level particulates arrive? I want our work saved in a known state for when we pick back up. But I also want to make progress.”

  “I’d be proud to, ma’am,” he said. “I’ll keep watch over the generator too, and switch to batteries when needed.” He took a seat at the weather station and logged in to the main system to access controls. He used the keyboard this time, preferring to act human.

  She beckoned the others to their cramped dining table. They might as well get supper done and cleaned up before the worst of the storm arrived. She knew this one coming would be beyond any of the simulated inclement weather exercises they had conducted.