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Rain

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  Copyright 2016 Phil Wheeler

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  Journal: day 1

  My name is Jack Timmerson, and this is my journal. I have been assigned to Sarguss II as Technician 1st class. I am responsible for running the pumping station located on the planet, and if anything goes wrong I fix it. I am numero uno, the man in charge. Sounds impressive until you find out that I am also the only person on the station, on the planet in fact, and the pumping station is completely self-repairing. I am the proverbial third wheel, an appendix assigned more from tradition than need.

  Earth: Two years earlier

  The human race had almost ended its sovereignty as the dominant species on earth. Centuries of pollution and wanton ecological madness had seen to that. They had tried to fix it, they really had tried; the atmosphere was actually in pretty good shape. The trouble was the water. That was beyond fixing. They’d stopped the pollution, but not the water consumption; free water was disappearing faster than it could be replaced. More and more water was being diverted from lakes and rivers to agriculture, industry, and humanity’s insatiable need and desire for it. On a world that was 75% covered with water they were dying for the lack of it. Some genius had come up with a way to desalinate the oceans. That was all well and good but the oceans, just like everything else, were a limited resource and part of a closed ecosystem. The planet was dying, terminal, irreversible.

  The first water riots had started over a century ago. They were growing worse as the water grew scarcer. Not a day passed without one and the world council had adapted harsher and harsher means of dealing with them. It was now a capital offense to participate in one, and thousands had died in the street from the effects of gas and bullets. It didn’t help, the people were too scared, too hopeless, and the rioting continued.

  Then a miracle happened.

  Dr. Henry Fredricson, NAS Spokesman – speaking at the opening of the Space Elevator

  “Certainly, nanoscience and technology isn't a secret. It's about the ability to see and to control individual atoms and molecules. Everything on Earth is made up of atoms—the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the buildings and houses we live in – our own bodies, but something as small as an atom is impossible to see with the naked eye. In fact, it’s impossible to see with most microscopes. It is only within the last century that the microscopes needed to see things at the nanoscale were invented. Making materials at the nanoscale level takes advantage of their enhanced properties; such as higher strength, lighter weight, increased control of light spectrum, and greater chemical reactivity than their larger-scale siblings. The Space Elevator was made possible by using nano-engineered carbon tubules for its creation. One end is anchored to a large station in the ocean, and the other end to an asteroid already in orbit. The cable running between these two points needed to be made of the strongest, yet lightest, material possible and nanocarbon fits the bill perfectly. With this elevator mankind will be able to receive water from Sarguss II.”

  Journal: day 105

  It’s raining again. That isn’t unusual, of course, it rains here all the time. Every day. Incessantly. Constantly. Maddeningly. It rains.

  Earth: Dr. Henry Fredricson, NAS Spokesman

  “On earth, the record for rainiest place was Cherrapunji, a land of beautiful mountains, waterfalls and valleys that is home to about 10,000 people on a plateau overlooking the plains of nearby Bangladesh. An average of more than 460 inches (nearly 40 feet) of rain fell every year; with about 90 percent of this during the season known as the southwest monsoon; the month of July alone brought an average of 120 inches of rain every year. The sun shined on average only 10 to 15 days of the year. That was how it used to be, the region is now subject to droughts and rainfall is down to less than 200 inches a year.

  Sarguss II is a water planet. It has little indigenous life forms, mostly in the oceans, and is an answer to the prayers of Earth. On earth, water is the only substance that occurs naturally as a solid, liquid and a gas. It covers less than 65% of the earth, down from over 75%, and 97% is undrinkable because it is saltwater. Only 3% of the world’s water supply is fresh water, and the remaining frozen water is untouchable without destroying the planet. Sarguss II is 81% covered in water, and nearly 40% is fresh, and with the Space Elevator it is easily harvested.”

  Journal: day 317

  It rains every day here. Every now and then it slows to a trickle and the sun peeks through broken clouds for a few moments, but mostly it falls in great torrents of rain; constant, pounding, maddening. I listen to it, day and night, as it falls outside. The sound of it hitting the metal roof is a constant. Ting, ting, ting, it goes day after day and night after night. Ting, ting, ting, it goes in a staccato beat, each raindrop a note of shortened duration separated from the notes that follow by an infinitesimal silence. I believe that it is that silence that is driving me crazy. I listen for it, hoping against hope that this time it will continue. But it never does – ting, ting, ting.

  It has been 317 days since my arrival, and earth has forgotten about me. I know that because I have not heard from earth in all that time. I arrived just weeks after the completion of the Space Elevator on Sarguss II, and days after the pumping was started. In fact, I arrived on one of the same ships that would take the first payload back to earth.

  Earth: Dr. Henry Fredricson, NAS Spokesman

  “100 billion deciliters, 2.64 billion gallons of salvation will travel up the elevator to awaiting ships, and be brought to our parched planet. There it will be downloaded on another elevator into the ocean. The unnaturally high saline content of the oceans brought on by our interference will eventually stabilize and the planet will be returned to a balanced state. Subsequent loads will be shipped back and the lakes and rivers will be replenished as well. At least, that is the plan.”

  Journal: day 418

  There are 343 quintillion gallons or, put another way, 343 billion billion gallons of water in earth’s oceans. At least, that is what we started with. That number is down to about 300 quintillion gallons, give or take a few billion, a loss of 43 quintillion. I don’t know that anybody did the math. Divide that 43 quintillion number by 2.64 billion and you would need 16.5 billion trips to fix the problem. Each trip takes 373 days one way. All of that had little meaning to me, though, I am stuck here and the earth has forgotten about me.

  Journal: day 420

  My tour is two years; that is the approximate time it takes for a round-trip to earth; the planet could only afford one fleet of tanker ships. The ships aren’t due for almost another year, and I don’t think that I will last that long, because I think that I am losing my mind. It’s the water, you see, there is no escaping it. It isn’t just the sound, the incessant ting, ting, ting, the water is everywhere. The engineers that constructed the modular station took into account the constant rainfall, but they had no way of knowing how pervasive water can truly be in a situation like this. It was unlike anything that could be replicated on earth. Water is the universal solvent. Over time, water can wash away anything, get into anything, and damage anything. Even a sealed unit such as this station is not impervious to it. Water can wash away a mountain, all you need is time, and water can invade a metal box. Water is seeping into every corner of the station, damaging circuits and ruining walls. It isn’t too severe, nothing that couldn’t be dealt with, but it is another constant reminder of its presence added to the
ting, ting, ting on the roof.

  Journal: day 421

  I am starting to see things; outside, through the glass. I catch quick glimpses of things moving in the rain. Alien things. I have no desire to go outside and find whatever it is; I don’t want to be in the rain. It is bad enough that I must listen to it on the roof – ting, ting, ting – but to actually have it touch me would be too much.

  Journal: day 425

  I heard hammering in the night. It isn’t the rain, it is non-rhythmic, and the shelter shudders with each blow. I feel that I must go outside and see what is happening. I am afraid.

  Search & Rescue on Sarguss II – 328 days later

  “We found him outside, about 100 feet from the open entrance. He was just sitting there looking up, and his mouth was open.”

  “How did he die?”

  “There is no way of knowing that. It’s been almost a year and the body is badly decomposed; there is evidence of scavenging by the indigenous Phyllophaga.”

  “Phyllophaga?”

  “A scarab-type beetle found on this world.”

  “It almost looks like he drowned, his head back like that. Maybe he committed suicide?”

  “Hard to tell, mostly the body is reduced to bones and connective tissue. There is no biomass available for diverse insect colonization. Normally, over time the bones would bleach with exposure to sunlight and eventually begin to exhibit cracks, but in these conditions of constant rain nothing is for certain.”

  “Thanks doc, take the body up to the ship. I have to see if I can repair the damage he did to the pumping station. He must have gone mad at the end.”

  Epilogue

  The damage to the station was too severe to repair without getting the spare parts from earth. It looked like someone had taken a gigantic hammer to it, and the system could not fix itself due to the catastrophic nature of the damage. Why Timmerson had done it, for he was the only one who could have, was a mystery. The suspicions of alien creatures outside in the rain and the pounding noises in the night from Timmerson's log were dismissed as the ravings of a lunatic; there were no indigenous life forms on the small land masses of Saguss II capable of inflicting the damage sustained by the station. His log painted a portrait of a man slowly driven insane by the conditions on Sarguss II; that would have to be addressed. Next time, for sanity’s sake, they would need more that one man to populate the station. Maybe a couple would be better?

  ***

  Somewhere in the depths of the ocean on Saguss II:

  “Do you think that more creatures will come?”

  “I do not know, but if they do we will destroy whatever they bring. This is our world, and we will defend it to the last fin and gill.”