“Relax.” Kira grinned at me. “I’ve done this dozens of times. It’s not that bad.”
The last thing she removed from her pack was the impact pistol she had used to get me off the broken bridge. Kira double-checked that a bolt was loaded and secured to a shorter length of CNT that was also rigged to the harness.
“Besides, this will be a lot easier with two people. Normally I just tie off on that rock.” She motioned to a nearby boulder with an eyebolt protruding from it.
“Tie off? What are you talking about?”
She handed me the longer line and explained that it was a back-up safety measure in case something went wrong with the pistol.
“Not that I’m expecting anything to go wrong,” she said. “I’m basically just going to dive in and anchor to the ground. Then I’ll pull myself into the shaft. You’re my belayer. Just keep feeding me line as I descend.”
“How far down?”
“Not far. A dozen meters, twenty at most. Once I’m done, I’ll give a little yank. That’s your signal to start pulling. Got it?”
“Yeah, I still think it’s crazy, but I’ve got it.”
“The only tricky part of the return is getting out of the whirlwind. I’m going to need you to pull really hard. I want to avoid getting sucked up too high into it.”
The whole maneuver seemed strange to me, but I couldn’t help but being impressed with Kira’s sense of adventure.
“Okay.” She checked her gear one more time, then flipped down her goggles and readied her impact pistol. “Here goes nothing.”
As she moved closer to the outer edge of the whirlwind, the swirling air tossed her hair around and flapped the fabric of her jumpsuit.
“One-two-three!” Kira dove into the whirlwind and let out a loud yeee-haaa!
Almost immediately she was lifted up into the whirlwind’s core, but she didn’t rise more than a few meters. Her anchoring procedure worked.
“You’d never catch me doing anything like that,” TenSix said.
I ignored him and watched as Kira was spun around by the whirlwind. But soon she got control of the line and I could see her pull herself down towards a dark spot in the ground. And then she was swallowed up by it.
“Looks like Dr. Lark made it into the lava tube,” TenSix said.
I tightened my grip on the line and made sure my feet were firmly planted on the ground. How long would it take her to collect the sample? I thought back to the other times I had witnessed Kira do her work. It seemed to vary. Maybe between three and five minutes, if I remember correctly.
“How long has she been underground?” I asked TenSix.
“I haven’t been timing her. What do you think, I’m always timing everything?”
“Some bots do.”
“Fine. I’ll start timing now.”
I carefully pulled the line—just barely. I wanted to make sure there wasn’t any extra slack, but at the same time, I didn’t want to pull Kira off her feet just when she was collecting a valuable one-of-a-kind underground fungus sample or whatever.
“How long has it been?” I asked.
“Four minutes eighteen seconds.”
“Okay, she’s probably finishing up soon.”
“If you say so.”
I don’t know why I was so worried. I just had a bad feeling. But it was probably nothing. Like Kira said, she had done this dozens of times.
The CNT line remained slack in my hand.
Maybe she was having some trouble with the sample?
“Time check?” I asked TenSix.
“Six minutes, four seconds.”
Hmmm. Definitely on the outer range of what I was expecting.
At the ten-minute mark I began to get seriously worried. It was dumb that we didn’t have comm units to stay in touch, but Kira was so used to doing these collections solo, she only brought one — and left it on top of her pack.
“Are you getting concerned about Dr. Lark?” TenSix asked.
“A little. Should I be?”
“I’m not sure what type of collection units Oeri-USV uses, but my team rarely spent more than five minutes withdrawing a sample. Perhaps Dr. Lark has suffered a myocardial infarction.”
“What? Why would you say that?”
“During breakfast I noticed that her heart rate was elevated and a bit erratic.”
“That’s just the effect of her leptics.”
“Filthy habit.”
“I know, but I’m sure her heart is fine.”
“Could be a blood clot then,” TenSix said.
“Why are you even speculating about health issues? You’re not a med bot.”
“It’s kind of a hobby of mine.”
“Tensors have hobbies?” I asked.
“It was an—”
“Let me guess. Another upgrade?”
“Yes.”
I shook my head. “Time?”
“Fourteen minutes, eleven seconds.”
That wasn’t good. “I’m going in,” I said. “I need to check on Kira.”
“How? You are not equipped for the descent.”
I looked through the pile of equipment Kira had left. It was probably too much to hope that there was a second impact pistol, goggles, and thermal suit. But I could use Kira’s expedition jacket. Even though it was way too small, it was better than nothing. I also grabbed a light stick, my hand lamp, and a medpak just in case.
I began fastening the end of the line to the eye bolt set into the rock. “How hard can this be? Kira said she soloed this before.”
“Yes, with protective gear and an impact gun. How are you going to counteract the force of the whirlwind and get down into the lava tube?”
“I’m heavier than her. I bet I can just kind of tuck and drift down.”
“Clearly you have no sense of the kinetic energy produced by the shakah-nua.”
“Yeah, and I’m not going to let you tell me either.”
“In that case, do you have a next of kin I should notify?”
“Very funny.” I had made up my mind. Kira was in trouble and she needed me. “Now, step aside. I’m going in.”
The little bot continued to block my way.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked.
“I’m going with you.”
“What? You think I’ll be tossed around in there? You’ll probably be launched into orbit or something.”
“Not if you lash me to your body. I’ll add to your mass by twenty kilograms. That will increase your odds of accessing the shaft.
