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sheets in the chute before retrieving a fresh
coverall and socks. It was easy to take for granted how everything was cleaned
every day; so unlike home. I didn’t bother getting fresh sheets. I would do
that later. Dressed, I slipped into rubber shoes and padded down to breakfast.
Off-world news muttered from the TV screens in the dining room while I came to
with yoghurt and coffee. Cynthia, as ever, tried to talk to me, but I just
smiled at her stories of outrage and disappointment as if she was trying to be
funny. It took the heat out of it.
    She
touched me on the arm as we parted. “Good luck today,” she said. Her hand was
warm and dry on my exposed skin. “Make it work so we can all go home.” She
locked eyes on me and I knew she meant it, like she was insisting and not
asking. I was suddenly fully alert.
     
    Suited
up in the Raincoat, I moved towards the airlock along with Iris and George.
They were dressed the same as me, in a dark waterproof one-piece which we had
stepped into, minus the rubber shoes but still wearing our coveralls. The
Raincoat, as it was called, was moulded into a pair of boots and the whole
thing was sealed with a cone of clear laminate placed over our heads to protect
us from the deluge. It would keep us dry at least.
    “Comm
check,” I said, looking at Iris. “You receiving?”
    “Roger,
Team Leader,” said Iris, blinking in approximation of a bow. Dark eyes
fluttered back at me.
    Our
comms were voice activated and simple Bluetooth into our in-ear ‘phones. In
between us speaking they emitted a low-level frequency to cancel out the rain.
Teeming rain on a laminated helmet is pretty loud and the headphones did a lot
to help. George gave me a silent thumbs up to let me know he had heard us both
talk. I looked at him and cocked my head slightly. “Lemme hear you, George.”
    George
swallowed. “Hearing you five by five.”
    I
nodded at him and we got our gear together. Iris gave me a sly smile through
heavy eyelids. She picked up her case and handed me mine. George punched the
airlock door button and out we went to the Buggy with the door closing behind
us. Up at the window, I saw the tech guy in his hard hat and coverall watch us
leave. Iris drove. The Buggy was electric powered and had room for four and our
gear. Under its canopy, it looked like a wide golf kart with an exaggerated
suspension system.
    We
left the group of interconnected modules we called the dome, driving along a
cleared track. Balloon tyres on the vehicle rolled over the mud. Already the
jungle was beginning to encroach onto the swampy road. And the rain came down
as always. Nothing can compare to the rain here and nothing can prepare you for
it either. I’m a meteorologist by training, and had prepped and delivered the
crew briefing on the journey out, but nothing got me ready for how much and how
relentless it was.
    This
planet, then as now, has one massive continent in an otherwise watery world.
There are other small outcrops of islands, but they’re just rocks. At over
twelve million square kilometres, it stretches from close to the equator to
near the arctic zone. Vast storms hammer the planet but because an ancient
asteroid impact carved out a massive bowl in the ground, this jungle was
shielded from the worst of the wind. However, the terrain made masses of rain.
A ten thousand kilometres high mountain range to the west acts like a massive
barrier to typhoons, while the ranges in the other directions lift up clouds to
deposit millions of litres of rainfall. Why this tropical bowl didn’t just fill
up with water was being investigated by geologists in the south.
     
    “Wake
up, George,” I said and tapped him on the knee. He stirred and smiled and
stretched as he got out from where he was sitting. I could never sleep in this
downpour.
    Iris
had turned the buggy around to face the dome again but we were at the end of
the track. I had to steel myself before getting out from under the canopy. I
felt the