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Athens (Chapter 4)
Posted By: QuickTactical<quicktactical@hotmail.com>
Date: 2 March 2008, 7:56 pm
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Chapter 4
8.27.2520, 15:00 (Athens Time)
5 Miles North of Columbus
"Settlement One"
Michael eased the Warthog to a stop at the edge of the camp. With the sun shining down on him, he climbed out of the vehicle and stepped to the ground. The other three designers with him followed.
The settlement, officially known as "Expeditionary Settlement Site One", or unofficially as "One", consisted of a dozen drab, white prefabricated buildings. Each housed a different group of terraformers that were approved to live on the surface for their work's sake. The camp was located only five hundred feet from the ocean in a typical grassy field, but a hill prevented view of the water. The breeze of the ocean still tossed the grass and ruffled Mike's clothes.
The structure housing the planet surface design team was closest to where he had parked the Warthog. He opened the door to the rectangular-shaped building.
The first room was nothing but workstations, desks with computers and swivel chairs. Pinned up on the wall were several maps and sketches, and the largest map detailed the area around the Columbus for a hundred square miles. "One" was a black dot five miles north of the landing site.
Michael found his workstation and logged on to the computer. He loaded up a map of the region and scrolled to where he had just returned from scouting, about ten miles to the southeast. There was a strange feature in that area, a large pile of boulders on top of a large hill. There was nothing else like it on the whole continent.
He entered some notes about the rest of the area. He left it at that, for he was no mineralogist.
But he thought to himself about the rocks. There were, of course, other rocks strewn all over the small continent, but this pile almost seemed intentionally set there, as if it were hiding something. He dismissed the thought as pure fantasy.
After logging off, he went to the back of the building where the bunks and supplies were. No one else was there because most of the design team was working on designating major roads to be plowed by the earthmovers. The dirt road created by Warthog tracks between One and Columbus was to be paved within a week.
Mike hadn't gotten any sleep the last night because was up late studying photos of the planet. He was looking for anything interesting, but there seemed to almost nothing but grass. Mike wasn't educated in eco-systems, but he couldn't help but wonder how the planet remained habitable with nothing but grasslands and oceans. Only one volcano was on the planet, located in the smaller continent of Prinlor.
"Hey, Mike, you got a visitor," said Charlie, who popped his head into the barracks. "She isn't half bad looking either."
Mike immediately stood up from his bunk and turned to see Sarah come in.
"Hello, Michael," she greeted.
"Hi," was all he replied.
Charlie was still in the room. Mike glared at him until he chuckled, leaving.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"I figured you could use some company," she said. He looked down at his feet and thought about where this relationship was going. For the last month they had had lunch together and had gotten to know each other very well. She seemed to like him more every day, and Mike had already felt a tingle of deep desire.
Two weeks ago, she invited him into her quarters after lunch, but out of fear of how fast it happened, he politely declined, saying he had urgent work to do. That night he was angry with himself for not having taken the opportunity. He blamed it on not having a relationship for many years.
Then last week the design team, later than expected, moved into the first outdoor settlement. She was sad to see him go. She had no idea how much worse Mike felt.
"I know what you're thinking," she said. "We can stop whenever you want. But I already got permission from my supervisor to take up barracks out here. I supposedly need to take soil samples and study them," she added playfully.
Mike looked up with a grin on his face. He had made a decision. "Let's take a walk."
She nodded, and Mike stood up to put a couple of towels in his rucksack along with two sandwiches and canteens.
As they headed through the front room, Kurt Stromsfield gave Michael a curious look.
"Hey, Sarge. This is Sarah Howell; she's new in camp. I'm just going to show her around. That okay?"
Stromsfield knew Mike got his daily work done early every day, and so had no reason to prevent him from going outside with this pretty girl. He waved them out and Sarah and Mike walked outside through the camp.
They went through the tall grass to the beach, where Michael laid out the two towels on the white sand and sat with Sarah, looking at the waves lap up against the shore. The wind never blew strongly, but was enough to pick up the millions of grains of sand.
On any other colony, it would have been strange to see the couple enjoying their sandwiches on the beach in their UNSC uniforms. But it was regulation they be worn during duty hours, which on Athens was from 08:00 to 16:00. Mike had been surprised to learn that the slow rotation of Athens allowed a similar timescale to Earth's.
They talked about the years ahead. It had been officially announced that day that fully terraforming the soil of Athens to make it of any use to farmers would take five years. Until then Sarah and Michael would have to keep their relationship unofficial as the work continued.
Regulations be damned, Michael thought. As the night sky darkened and the stars started to shine, Mike took Sarah in his arms gave her a long, sweet kiss. He had not felt so good in years.
At this point it wouldn't be wise to go beyond that physically, but right there Michael said what he had wanted to since the first day he saw her.
"Sarah, will you marry me?"
Without hesitation, she said, "Yes," and kissed him again.
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