~ Nitrogen Haze ~
From Nitrogen Haze – Chap 13 of Ripples from the Past
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About 1,700 Words
Delmus had attended the standard briefing for the new miners of Sessana. It had been the usual talk about the importance of following safety procedures at all times. Basically it boiled down to not doing anything to let the deep cold into their habitation. His attention had drifted a bit during the details about using an all-terrain suit. After the briefing, he wandered into the communal dining room, in search of breakfast.
“You should pay attention; it might save your life.”
His old friend Flip from Pineus 8, looking at his uniform of The Guard, as though he suspected Delmus might have stolen it.
“Flip, I didn’t know you were a deep cold miner.”
“Haven’t done it for a while, but the money being offered was just too tempting.”
Flip wasn’t good at hiding his curiosity, looking Delmus up and down, as if disbelieving his own eyes.
“Maybe it’s none of my business, but you were a mining engineer the last time we met, a good one. What game are you playing ?” Flip asked.
“Oh, I enjoyed my time on Pineus 8, but I was there on empire business, sorry I can’t tell you what. Is Lois still running ok ?”
“Was when I left. I meant it though, empire warrior or not, you should listen to all the briefings. If a miner with twenty years service can listen, you can.”
It had been a long time since anyone had told him off, not counting Luri of course. Delmus didn’t much like the experience.
“I can survive in space without a suit.” Said Delmus. “They make us pretty tough, when we join The Damned.”
Still not the respect he was used to, Flip still looking as though he’d offended some sacred creed of the miners.
“Delmus, I’m only saying this for your own good. You’re confusing a lack of heat with deep cold and they’re different creatures, trust me.”
His mind did a few cartwheels, but he knew Flip was a good mining engineer, one of the best. Delmus decided to listen to what the Algarian had to say.
“Ok, ok, we’ll get some food and you can explain why the vacuum of space, isn’t the same as deep cold.”
The dining room was busy, full of miners getting to know one another, while seeing what sort of food they’d be living on for weeks. No self-service, or much choice, but the food did look and smell good. They found an empty table and carefully tried a small amount of the food.
“Hey, pretty good.” Said Flip.
“Better than on Pineus and that wasn’t even free.”
By the time half his plate was empty, Flip was ready to impart his words of miner wisdom.
“Sorry if I’m stating the obvious.” Said Flip. “There is nothing in space. A few particles roaming about, but basically as close to a complete vacuum as you’ll find. Deep cold is different Delmus and far more dangerous.”
“Flip, you’re beginning to sound like a street corner doomsayer.”
“I know at least five miners sat here today, who have an artificial hand.” Said Flip. “They make them well these days, not easy to spot. They’re the lucky ones, the others who touched something seriously cold, never survived. There is an atmosphere, of a sort out there Delmus, all sorts of gases that only co-exist because they’re too cold to react with each other.”
“I had the nitrogen haze lecture back on Mendera.”
Flip actually banged the table, gaining them some attention. Children looking at them too, though they were supposed to have been left in orbit.
“Big as you are, we’re going to have to fight this out, if you won’t listen.”
“Yeah sorry Flip, I will pay attention.”
“I’ve heard fire fighters talk about fire being like a living thing, once it gets a real hold on a building. They’ll tell you it follows the ceiling, as if it’s intelligent. I don’t know about fire, but Nitrogen can act like a living organism. It hates to be cold, especially when the temperature drops close to absolute zero.”
Despite all the experience brought by a long life serving the empire, his friend was beginning to get to him. Flip was the expert after all, the mining engineer who’d worked on deep cold planets.
“It wants heat Delmus, your heat.” Flip continued. “Just a fraction of an inch of exposed skin is enough. If you’re lucky it’ll just grab the heat from a hand. If you’re unlucky it will drag the life right out of you, leaving a lifeless, frozen husk.”
“Fine Flip, job done, you’ve worried me.” Said Delmus. “I’ll be careful, especially now there are kids here. I thought they were going to remain in orbit ?”
“It appears the rules changed and we do have the space.” Said Flip. “They’re bringing all the families down here. It means a few of us moving rooms, but we hadn’t had time to settle in anyway.”
Flip actually grabbed his arm as he stood up to leave.
“I’ve heard that strange things happen as the temperature gets close to absolute zero, impossible things.” Said Flip. “Perhaps some weird things start to happen as the temperature drops close to that point. I’ve seen nitrogen do odd things Delmus, be careful.”
“Ok Flip, as I said, you’ve convinced me.”
Delmus went to his own quarters, intending to spend the day reviewing base security. Instead he felt a need to face the worst Sessana was likely to throw at him. Flip was right in a way, deep space wasn’t the same as a frozen landscape, where everything was trying to drag the heat out your body. Delmus had never stood on a planet like Sessana, there had been no reason to.
“No time like the present.” He muttered.
Delmus moved himself to the roof of one of the few buildings remaining from the days when Sessana had been the home world of the Terak. The building was a ruin, but the roof gave him a good view of their base and the area to be mined. He was alive, as he knew he would be, it takes a lot to kill one of The Damned.
“That… Is unexpected.”
His voice sounded strange, several times deeper than usual, though that wasn’t unexpected. He sent what he was seeing to Chlo, to be added to her vast database of information regarding the imperial guard, The Damned. There was a slight blue glow over his skin, like a form of bio-luminescence. There was no life on Sessana though, none at all, not one solitary bacteria.
“The atmosphere is trying to take heat from your body and succeeding, slightly.” Chlo told him. “Not much heat and well within your ability to survive. It shouldn’t interfere with your abilities at all. The glow is strange though, completely………………”
“Unexpected.” He offered.
“Yes Delmus, unexpected.”
“I met a miner here who says the nitrogen in the atmosphere can do weird things, even act like a living thing.”
“Miners always invent their own folklore and superstitions.” Said Chlo. “Most are just ways for their minds to cope with staggeringly hostile working conditions.”
“But the blue nitrogen glow is odd.”
“Yes, Delmus and unexpected. I will work on the problem and let you know my conclusions.”
“Thank you.”
Work on indeed, she was confused and Chlo being confused was rare. Delmus was determined to ignore the glow and the feeling of something biting at his skin, which was probably all his mind anyway. He dropped off the roof and walked round their habitation. Eight floors of incredibly strong prefabricated habitation, identical to the one on Boomers. A secure world for the miners and their families, protected by an impenetrable energy shield. For no reason other than bravado, Delmus found a pool of frozen methane. It didn’t really freeze, more like a weird state of constantly being between liquid and solid.
“You need to do this !” He told himself.
His bare hand melted the methane crystals, causing a cloud of steam to rise from the pool. Methane steam of course, still cold enough to kill most people in seconds. Not Delmus though, who pulled his hand out of the pool and didn’t feel even the slightest hint of pain.
“Fuck you Flip, giving me the jitters.” He muttered.
Delmus returned to the habitation, arriving next to a long planter, full of flowering plants under their own miniature sun, an ultraviolet bulb. Some colonists thought such things were there to clean the air. In reality they tended to be there to soften edges and simply look pretty.
“It’s daddy !” Called a young child.
“You got the wrong guy kid.” Said Delmus.
It was instinctive to bend down and put his arms out though, to grab the young girl. Tiny, barely able to walk properly, she hurtled towards Delmus. Her mother was actually smiling at him and shaking her head, as if apologising for her child. Then, before his hand touched the child, he remembered what Flip had told him.
“No ! Keep back !” He yelled. “I’m not your father !”
The child crumpled into a heap, crying. Her mother scooped her up, glaring at him.
“I’m sorry…….I………….” He began.
His hand touched just the tip of a leaf and the plant died. Delmus watched in disbelief, as a blue glow went down the stem of the plant, right down to its roots. A fraction of a second and the plant was a lifeless stalk.
“I am so sorry………. I’m just not used to…..deep cold mining.”
“Then you shouldn’t be here.”
He tended to agree with the child’s mother. If Flip hadn’t decided to have breakfast with him that morning….. Delmus left the mother to soothe her daughter and went in search of Flip. He owed him an apology and several drinks, while he asked him a lot more question about the perils of deep cold mining.
~ ~
~ The End ~
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