Runaway World

The Fracture Zone

     Andrew took off his armour while he was still in the airlock and activated the radiant heaters to begin warming it up. He bent down to look at the shoulder area and saw a tiny sliver of water ice lodged between two steel plates, still too cold to begin melting. He straightened up, opened the inner door and stepped out.

     Susan was waiting for him in the outfitting room and immediately began helping him out of the surface suit. He heard her give a sharp intake of breath when she saw his shoulder. "You idiot!" she said furiously. "What were you thinking of?"

     "How's it look?" he asked.

     "Nasty. It's going to hurt when it warms up. You'll need painkillers. Maybe it'll teach you not to do something so stupid again."

     She helped him out of the rest of the suit and took him into the kitchen area. James was there in his bare skin, standing while Jasmine applied thermal cream to the frostbitten areas of his back. "You okay?" asked Andrew anxiously.

     "Fine," James replied. "What about you? Mum sounds quite upset."

     "Upset is right," said Susan. "You finished with that?" she asked Jasmine.

     "Just about," Jasmine replied, handing the tube of cream over. Susan took it, squeezed a large dollop into her hand and smeared it onto the large cluster of blisters that had appeared on Andrew's back. It immediately began to feel warm, which then turned to stabbing agony as the frozen skin began to revive. Andrew, driven by his masculine pride, struggled to give no outward sign of the pain.

     "Be as quick as you can," he said. "We've got to take the bridge up again when we're over it."

     "Don't even think of going out there again!" warned Susan firmly. "You're in no condition."

     "I can't leave the others to do the work. That's not fair."

     "I'll do it."

     "You can't go out there!" declared Andrew firmly.

     "Why not?" demanded Susan. "Because it's too dangerous?"

     "I'll be okay to go out again," said James confidently. "The others know what to do. All I've got to do is lend a helping hand where necessary."

     "Nope," said Jasmine firmly. "My turn. Right, Dad?"

     "You sure you're up to it?" asked Andrew. He went to look at James, studying his back and shoulders. Then he turned him around with a hand on his shoulder to look at his front. It didn't look too bad, he was forced to admit. A few small frostnips that should heal in a couple of days without leaving a mark to show they'd ever been there.

     "Sure," Jasmine assured him. "If a fourteen year old boy can do it, so can a sixteen year old girl, or are you going to get all sexist on me? It should have been me the first time."

     "It's an innate part of human nature for men to want to protect women," said Andrew. "Especially daughters. If you came back with a cold burn like this one..." He indicated the one on his back."

     "You'd smear some cream on it and tell me to take it easy for a couple of days," the girl replied, smiling sweetly. "So I can go, right?"

     Andrew nodded reluctantly and Jasmine grinned happily. "You're done," she told James. She handed him the tube of cream and began stripping off her clothes.

     "Dad," came David's voice from the cockpit. "It's our turn to go across. Shall I go?"

     "Let the autopilot do it," Andrew replied. "Do you know how to turn on the autopilot?"