Preparation and departure

I visit my locker, across the yard and a little ways down the path blueward. My utilities lay right where I left them. I strap the securing belt around my waist and do a little whimsical twirl to make sure everything is secure.

My hiking boots are neatly arranged at the bottom of my locker. I stare at them for a moment. "Auto," I say carefully, "I don't see my boots anywhere. Do you know where they might be?"

"Visual indicators show they are in your locker, where you left them after the last trip," says Auto. "Might I suggest you look there?"

I bend over and pantomime searching with my hands, moving them over the empty air just above my boots. "Auto, they are not where you said they'd be."

"My apologies, Marissa. I must be mistaken. That is very odd. Please wait a moment while I explore alternative possibilities...I have no visual indicators of your boots being present anywhere else in the polly. Perhaps they are under the bed where you slept last night?"

"Auto, never mind," I say. "I just found them. They were in my locker after all."

"That's a relief, Marissa," says Auto. "Please let me know if you need any further assistance."

I can't suppress a private little smile as I kneel down and slip my feet into my boots and feel the warm fabric envelop my ankles and shins. Some of the polly elders would be cross if they ever caught me teasing Auto like that. They would find it extremely disrespectful. Me, I've never seen the point of all the reverence. Auto is unimaginably impressive and knowledgeable, but he has his limits--for example, the way he receives every statement at face value. I love prodding at those limits, seeing how Auto is vulnerable. To me, it makes him feel more like a person. More like a friend.

My boots secure, I head to polly stores to add my usual loadout to my utilities. Following Auto's recommendation, I strap on an additional water canister and tuck a few packets of anti-nausea pills in my forward right satchel. I'm about to leave when I remember the collar. It's a fairly unusual item to add to a loadout--enough so that I have to inquire with Conrad, who's manning the stores today. He goes into the back rooms for a few minutes. While he's rummaging, I look up at the sunstrand a little nervously. Almost half-waxed, as near as I can tell. I need to leave soon.

Conrad returns triumphantly, the thin strip of metal links dangling from his hand. I thank him profusely and stow it away next to the pills.

"Auto, I think I'm ready to go," I say.

"That's good to hear, Marissa. I have two possible paths for you to take to Facility 23. First, you can walk directly counter-spinward, then turn blueward and ascend just below the Facility. Second, you can ascend blueward first, then traverse counter-spinward. I recommend the first option. It is a longer trip, but less treacherous. You will be subjected to the unfamiliar lower gee environment for a shorter period of time."

"Auto, let's follow the second option," I say. "You must learn to live a little." Secretly, I'm thrilled at getting to go lower gee. It doesn't happen nearly as often as I'd like.

"Very well, Marissa. It is not my body taking the risk. Proceed blueward."

I practically skip through the portal out of the stores and head further down the path leading away from the polly. The wheat field stretches to my left--spinward--curving up. It looks like Anna and Duran have been assigned to work the crops today, but they're taking a quick break to fuck beside the path, Duran lying supine on his back in the grass while Anna rides him to the completion of both. I greet them cheerily as I pass. I'd be tempted to stop and talk for a moment, maybe boast a little about my assignment today, but I've wasted enough time as it is.

A couple hundred ems beyond the edge of the wheat field, the path ends and the hills begin. The incline is gentle at first, a simple grassy slope. Soon, boulders begin to protrude through the ground, then more substantial walls of bare rock. Occasionally, I encounter an obstacle that can't be bypassed, but has to be surmounted through climbing. Fortunately, I'm quite good at that, my nimble fingers finding the smallest crevices where I can cling and support my weight--if only my bubs didn't get in the way. I sigh. Maybe I should have thought to grab a strap. Oh, well, it's too late now.

At least my body is growing lighter, even as the incline becomes ever steeper. I stop to rest against one boulder, wiping the sweat from my face and looking back. I'm a fourth of the way up towards the sunstrand. I can see my entire polly easily, laid out below--and neighboring pollies farther away--one up and to the left, another on the right.

"Auto," I say to take my mind off my racing heart, "what can you tell me about this sleeper?"