Runaway World
During the final decades of the twenty first century, a rogue brown dwarf star passed through the solar system and its gravity threw the Earth out of orbit around the sun.
Two hundred years later, when the atmosphere has finished freezing onto the surface, explorers from the last refuge of humanity venture out to see what's become of their world. Things looks bleak. Mankind faces a future of huddling in whatever warm refuges it can make for itself until the Earth's core goes cold, but then a discovery is made. An opportunity exists for mankind to leave the planet and find its destiny among the stars, but to do so requires an all or nothing gamble and losing would mean the end of the human race. Some want to take the gamble. Others don't, and so conflict and violence breaks out as the survey teams explore a planet transformed out of all recognition...
Here is an extract from Runaway World.
Suddenly the ground shook again and the crevasse opened wider, like the maw of some great beast trying to force the rover down its gullet. The rover slid and scraped another two metres down into the darkness and James swung back and forth on the end of his tether, his shoulder bumping into the side of the cliff to send him spinning. Andrew grabbed the tether as Philip and Joe braced themselves to hold him. Andrew began pulling to bring his son back to the surface, his injured hand throbbing with pain.
"I'm okay," said James, though, as the new tremor ceased. "Lower me down."
"You sure?" asked Philip.
"I am. Lower me down."
His heart hammering with fear, Andrew let go of the tether to allow Philip and Joe to continue lowering his son. A moment later James was standing on the upward facing rear end of the rover. He knelt down and reached for the door controls.
"How you doing, Val?" asked Philip.
"I'm standing on the back of the chair. I can reach the door but I can't pull myself up. I'm not strong enough."
Philip swore under his breath. "Listen, you need to be wearing a surface suit. We can't get you out unless you're wearing a suit. You understand?"
"Yes, but I can't!"
"You have to try, Val! Do you understand? You have to try!"
Sounds of sobbing came over the intercom. "I'll try again," she said at last.
"Can we pull the whole rover up?" asked Joe. "We've got a tow strap attached..."
"It looks pretty solidly jammed in," said James. "Maybe if we attached heat pads to melt some of the ice..."
"That's water ice, don't forget," Philip reminded him. "You'd have to heat it to nearly three hundred kelvin."
The outer airlock door opened smoothly and James lowered himself in. "I'm going to have to undo the tether," he said, standing on the inner door. "I'll attach another tether to the inner eyelet and lower myself down to the cockpit."
Andrew felt his heart hammering with fear as James placed the loose end of the tether outside the airlock to sit on the hull. Then the outer airlock door closed. "Attaching tether to the eyelet," he then said. "Opening the inner door. Hold on, Val. I'm coming."
Andrew imagined his son lowering himself into the rover like a spider on a strand of silk, passing the doors to the kitchen and the equipment storeroom. "I can see Anna," he said. There was a strange tremble in his voice. "Looking up at me."
"Can you see Li?" asked Val anxiously.
"I'm very sorry," the boy replied, the quaver in his voice growing worse. "He's... He's dead."
In his mind's eye, Andrew could see Val's eyes widening with shock. "Are you sure?" she said.
"Yes," James replied, his voice now unnaturally calm as he struggled to control his emotions. What had he seen? Andrew wondered. He cursed himself for not going in James's place. He cursed his throbbing hand. This was a job for a man, not a boy. James should never have seen whatever it was he had seen. He should never have had to carry such a memory at such a young age.
"Got you, Val," said James a moment later. "Hold onto me. Okay?" Andrew imagined his son standing on the bulkhead separating the living room from the cockpit, reaching down to the door that was now a hole in the floor.
"Yes," Val replied.
"Okay, I'm going to pull you up. Ready?"
Suddenly the ground lurched again. Andrew was thrown sideways and struggled to remain standing. He stared at the tow strap, expecting to see it pull taut as the rover slipped further down the crevasse, but it remained slack. What was going on? Beside him, Philip had fallen and was being helped back to his feet by Joe before frostbite could set in. Andrew went over to help, and then the three of them stood in a triangle, hands on each others shoulders for support as they waited for the new aftershock to end.
When the ground was still again they returned to the crevasse, and Andrew's heart leapt into his throat at what he saw. The crevasse had narrowed by nearly a full metre, crushing the rover's hull between the two vertical walls of ice. Even as they watched the gap narrowed again, the rover's hull buckling further as it was crushed like a bug in the jaws of some colossal beast...
