strength. No, he thought, not Sulara; she was more level headed than he could ever hope to be.
Time moved on and Dorian’s excavation moved with it. Slowly and carefully he progressed toward his goal. He was conscious of the shaft. If he went at it too quickly and met the shaft, he could easily tumble in, just as Juma had at the great feed cavern. He smiled at the memory. Keep thinking and keep going, he played back many memories in his head and developed a good rhythm that drove him inexorably forward. Then he hit the wall, the wake wall, the wall that wants you to stop and rest, and, if you do, you take a deep, deep rest. He banged his head against the tunnel wall to ensure that he was not already at rest. The pain from it assured him he was not; in a rest dream nothing hurt that much.
Having no one else to talk to, no Juma this time, he began to talk to himself. Reciting the histories in order to keep himself in the wake. He fell sideways in the excavation, his head coming to rest against the wall. He heard the histories still being recited, even though he had stopped. He realised he had succumbed to the wall, that he was rest dreaming and there was nothing he could do. But it was a nice rest dream. Sulara was telling the histories. He must be in a squeeze. Tiny flecks of marrain dropped on the floor; he felt them tickle his head as they fell. Felt? Marrain? Floor? He swivelled his head right. The wall was crumbling as he watched. He was not rest dreaming. It was Sulara! Reciting the histories as she excavated right into his tunnel! They had made it!
“Hello stranger,” Sulara said, tiredness evident in her voice. “You hit the wall yet?”
“Hit it and then you came through it,” Dorian rejoined. “Can we just snuggle up and rest now? I’ve had enough of this wake.”
“Agreed.” Sulara continued to excavate out the join in their tunnels. “You will be oldener soon, so you will need your rest.”
“I thought we agreed; first responsibility younglings, then maybe oldener after that.”
“You’re right, we did. But what you don’t know is that the first responsibility is already at hand.”
“You mean, that is, really?”
“I thought Limura if it’s a girl and Limur if it’s a boy. What do you think?”
“I think you’re beautiful,” he said.
They excavated out a large enough hollow for them both to snuggle down for a deep rest, each of them basking in their mutual glow.
****** ****** ******
The shift supervisor and renowned exobiologist, Doctor Frederick Hanzfeld, came into the operations room for the current Mars rover, ‘Optimism’. He walked over to the bank of monitors that were currently being manned by two science graduates, Chad and Jemima.
“Anything happening guys?” Hanzfeld enquired.
“From the drill samples we have been getting a few more trace readings that seem to suggest a very, very low concentration of some organic material,” Jemima piped up eagerly.
“Suggestive of?”
“Possibly some sort of mixotrophic algae but we would need a bigger sample to be sure”
“Anything else?”
“We had a sample come through with anomalous nitrogen and carbon readings but it was microscopic. Could be a fault in the data,” Chad chipped in.
“Just the one?” Hanzfeld pressed
“Just the one so far,” Chad stated optimistically.
“Log them, write them up and let me know if you get any more of the anomalous nitrogen and carbon readings.”
“You think it could be significant?” Jemima enthused.
“Probably not,” the supervisor conceded, “but located near to the samples suggestive of algae, there is just a chance that it could be microscopic nematodes that would feed on them. Their excretions are nitrogen rich which would help perpetuate the algae in a sort of symbiotic relationship.”
“Wow, like, real life on Mars!” Jemima exclaimed.
“Microbial worms; hardly the space bar in star wars,” Chad contributed with a hint of sarcasm.
“Life is Life,” Hadzfeld commented as he left the room.
****** ****** ******
At that moment Dorian thought that life was wonderful. Here he was with his love, his life; older, wiser and stronger in spirit. Filled with the thought of younglings, he was keen to rise to the challenges ahead.
Next wake, he thought, is the first wake of the rest of my time and, no matter how long or short that time might be, I will try to savour every moment of every wake. Life is wonderful, he pondered: life is truly full of wonder.
The end
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