By David C. Daoust
The howling wind raged over the endless dunes. The air was thick and dark as the sand storm ravaged the region. Colin Vice raised his arm to try and block the latest blast of streaking sand laden wind that overtook him. He could feel the sand as it blew within every crevice of his wardrobe. He managed to cover his nose and mouth with spare clothing, though he had not thought to bring anything to cover his eyes. He blinked away the tiny granules that struck his eyes. The sand fell away, barely bothered him at all, though it did blur his vision enough for him to try and guard against it. Compared to a normal man, it was barely a minor nuisance. While he appeared ‘normal’, Colin was anything but. Ultimately, he was manning a device that his mind was currently jacked into.
A device called a holomech which Colin was forced to walk from his broke down starship, through a seemingly endless waste, to reach the toppled port town of Grady. A walk, while incredibly long, could have gone easier. Unfortunately, the endless wastes decided to put up a fight.
For the most part, Colin tried to avoid checking his maps of the moon. He likened it to staring at a clock to make the time go faster; doesn’t help, and it’s crazy boring on top of that. Yet he could not believe the distance he’d covered so far, and still, no Grady. He suddenly worried that he’d been turned in the wrong direction in the storm.
Arm still held over his eyes as he leaned into the latest torrent of sand filled wind, he pulled out the small handheld device which he carried tucked away in his pocket. He flipped through maps of the moon; his course proved accurate. He was still a ways off his goal, yet headed in the right direction. It probably felt longer, because last time, once the trek was finally over, he felt so much relief, that he’d forgotten just how much he had to push himself. Now, that he was forced to go through it all again… well, every time it felt like, ‘this is just too much’, he told himself it must be nearly the end. Yet he’d climbed every dune, again and again, only to find nothing but a distant horizon. That was before the sand storm and its wall of wind filled sands, of course.
At last a lull came in the storm as the ever present whirling wall of sand receded to reveal the small moon of Twin Crown around him. What had previously been a sea of endless dunes, gave way as the terrain came against rocky ridges of a canyon. The sands blew hard against great cliffs, through narrow corridors, and blasted over ridges. The solid rock cut jagged through the open desert. Most people would have to skirt around the canyon. Colin knew he could just work his way across the many great boulders and rocky outcroppings that made up the canyon… again.
The sand storm had, at last, abated. Abruptly and unceremoniously the environment returned to the clear blue skies and endless rock and sands that was all too familiar. Colin pulled the cloth from around his neck and shook the sand free of it. Kicked more sand from his boots and shook it from the rest of his, very real, wardrobe.
He hiked up onto one of the highest ridges. He got a clear view of the surrounding lands at last. No sign of Grady. He sighed. He sighed again even louder, as though his discontent may not have been lodged and recorded with the universe, or even noticed by the vast population of nothingness that surrounded him. He pitched forward and let himself fall from the cliff as though he’d finally had enough of this life. He let himself just drop.
He twisted around and landed on his feet at the last moment though, the lattice barely protested as he collided with the ground. Colin chuckled as he got his bearing on the lower outcropping of rock. It was a much longer drop than a normal man would attempt, though probably wouldn’t kill that normal man, maybe break his legs.
Colin could not be harmed while he possessed this device. He was, after all, a walking talking force field, projected by a small mechanical device embedded within the solid light lattice that made up the rest of his body. If the Holomech was damaged, he would only be thrown back to his natural body that was safely tucked away in stasis. And that only happened if his Mech was compromised, either disconnected or somehow destroyed.
The holomech had its limitations; the device could only change into preset forms of solid light lattices. And the process of setting a form was- artistry in itself.
Colin’s form was not just a cast projection made solid. It was a construct, a literal ‘lattice’, intricately built and layered; a solid skeletal form under an intricate support system. It was dense, and heavier than one may expect, with a fine layer of mesh that looked, and felt, like flesh to the touch. It was a mind bending feat Colin pretended was just every day ware, even though the amount of people that had witnessed the tech… could be counted on his fingers.
The size of his particular lattice was actually an achievement of some regard to the small community that actually knew anything about the technology. The limitations came with the range of motion; the more complicated the structure became, the more limited the size was restricted. Although simple forms, with limited mobility, could reach a much grander size. It was a trade off, size for complexity, or complexity for size. These solid light engineers researched new ways of beating back these limitations every day. The majority of such researchers could only construct complex lattices no bigger than moderately sized animals at best.
The design Colin was using had blown them all away, though they’d probably never know it. It was a breakthrough in the field, which the Organization had managed to acquire before the inventor wasted it on anything foolish. The inventor himself was living the sweet life, on the Crucible, after being paid a fortune to build and maintain Colin’s setup. The ‘sweet life’ for this particular man, involved an inordinate amount of whiskey.
Colin continued on his way over the canyon, leaping from outcropping, to crag, and dropping to boulder again, though without the over dramatic pantomime of his first drop. He finally reached the far end of the canyon, where he’d have to start working his way back up. He’d angled himself to a natural ramp-like formation on the other end of the canyon. Yet, as he was about to leap to its lowest point, he was surprised by what he spotted down below him.
In the rocky uneven crevices of the distant canyon floor, he found a massive hole. Not just a natural gap or opening, it was cut, neatly, into the aforementioned uneven crevices of solid rock. He could see massive supports structured within, that brought him to a simple conclusion: a mine shaft.
“A mine shaft?” he questioned aloud, as though it was crazy. This canyon was just not accessible to a normal human, which was just the simplest, most obvious, fact that bulked his reasoning for anyone to try and mine here.
Colin ducked back, quickly, as sudden movement could be seen in the shadowy recesses of said mine. He dropped to his belly and crawled back into position, to where he could see the sight below.
A massive metal spider appeared at the entrance. It was one of the battle drones that had wrecked Grady. Colin noted this, just as a dark shadow suddenly passed overhead. Colin was wise enough to hold still as the second drone, flew directly over him to meet the arachnid-like machine at the entrance.
The arriving drone dropped a massive load of mechanical parts, trapped within a net, to the ground. From what Colin could tell, they were parts of other battle drones, which the first spider collected and dragged down into the shaft. The other drone flew back into the air, again passing directly over Colin, as he lay unnoticed on the solid rock.
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