Driving home for Christmas

“Gaelic. Hey, Gaelic. Wake up.”

In the darkened room a figure stirred. The blanket on the bed moved, uncovering a pale face from which came a reply - a drawn out “What?”

The relatively small being standing in the entrance to the cramped cabin hastily explained: “We have a bad situation again with an exploration drone. It is urgent.”

The one known as Gaelic groaned and threw back the cozy covers, revealing more pale skin. The inhabitant of this living quarters was a human woman - one that wasn’t fond of how the other beings on this space station disregarded her need for undisturbed leisure periods. It was especially irritating on this night as it led into a highly regarded holiday for most humans.

She got up from her bunk and put on the first random clothing items she got her hands on, finishing the task of preparation for work by pulling a tight-fitting sweater over her head. Her voluminous head of hair gave resistance to this particular piece of clothing, but that was a fight she won quickly. The red strands bounced happily upon being freed and Gaelic was ready for work.

“Good morning Neyhall”, she said to the smaller being that had woken her up as she followed them along a curved corridor.

A little while later the duo had reached the communications room, which was the main hub for all activities regarding the exploration drones driving, floating and swimming on the planet below.

Two more beings also of the species Atun’gekai had been in obvious anticipation of Gaelic’s arrival and immediately greeted her by waving with slightly too much emphasis to appear natural. She nonetheless waved back and then waited for Neyhall to explain the situation.

“Look here”, Neyhall pointed at the large central screen that showed a map of some mountainous terrain that they zoomed in on a nondescript place, “Angua had a failure of the autonomous drive system and we were unable to resolve it. Her location in this sector puts her at high risk towards an extreme weather event we anticipate to develop within this day.”

When the small alien had used the nickname for the exploration rover that Gaelic had given them in private to replace the original the alpha-numerical designation, she couldn’t stop a smirk that then only grew wider as they also used proper pronouns for the machine.

“But Angua was among those with the production issue. We fixed her already, didn’t we?”

The other two aliens mirrored Neyhall’s gestures of frustration. “We think the secondary control unit had an unrelated failure. And because of your custom patch, we could not switch back to the primary.”

“Oh.” Gaelic scratched her head and then smoothed down some of her locks out of habit. “Can we not spare the resources for a pickup in this situation? What is the urgency?”

A short multi-tonal squeal came from one of the other Atun’gekai - which Gaelic knew was actually the language of this particular pack.

When these little guys remained together long enough to become unified, they commonly developed a very condensed way of speaking that was understandable by only the members of that pack.

The central screen switched to a different view and displayed a schematic view of a yellow planet with a number of marked items in orbits of various heights and in various positions around it. There were several dots prominently marked with a crossed out satellite dish icon in orbits similar to the station but with an angular offset.

Neyhall spoke and did not hold back the gestures, moving their six slim arms. “We have exactly an hour before we lose communication to Angua and during the blackout the weather event will come upon her. It is already not possible to send a lifter as the winds make it unsafe. That is the urgency.”

“So you want me to roll back Angua’s patch?”

“Yes, that is our decision.”

For a moment Gaelic pondered the issue as her mind was still numbed by the cobwebs of her interrupted sleep. “She won’t survive the terrain if it’s the primary control unit that’s driving her. If it won’t make her straight up tumble down the mountainside, it will most likely tear the wheels and suspension to shreds before she is anywhere close to safety.”

The three gave each other a quick glance, their large fully amber eyes glinting with the weight of unspoken words.

“We have accepted the risk of this outcome to be lesser. There is a suitable place of shelter within manageable distance from Angua’s current position; it is possible she will make it there mostly intact.”

“Hm”, was all she replied while she sat down at the nearest station to pull up a map of the sector Angua was exploring.

The yellow planet with a name utterly unpronounceable by humans always reminded Gaelic of Venus. It was a pretty much inhabitable hellscape of heat and pressure that only had value because of the extreme surface conditions that enabled the formation of most exotic chemical compounds.

She had originally come to this outpost because it was very much out of the way of the bureaucratic influence of most citadel species and offered a rather uncomplicated way for her to join in to a scientific endeavour that was yet out of league for humankind even though it was underfunded to the point of operating with a skeleton crew. This mission also aligned with her experience in mechanical engineering of ground vehicles and her programming skill had been a boon as well.

As she looked at the terrain between the exploration drone and the shelter - which was the mouth to an extensive cave system they had found weeks ago - she slowly cracked her fingers one by one. Losing Angua would be a large setback as she already was doing double-pace to cover additional sectors and currently resided in the former mission area of Letice.

Poor, unfortunate Letice - she had only been the first victim to the previously dormant production error with their autonomous control unit as she had taken a crash down a massive crevasse and become unrecoverable. Several other ground vehicles kept breaking down or were lost in similar fashion before Neyhall had found the underlying issue.

Gaelic collected her thoughts. “Have you considered all options? Maybe we can send Angua to bury herself into some loose ground beneath the rock spikes. That could offer enough protection.”

Neyhall came over to her, the other two mirroring the movement until she was surrounded by the pack. “This area is unstable. Rockslides will be likely and Angua will not be safe. Please roll back the patch.”

“How about we just set her to dumb-drive forwards and send her area scanner data up here to manually give her fixed waypoints?” After seeing the non-reaction of the Atun’gekai, she felt the need to add: “I saw the messed up interpretation of the sensor data that misled Letice; I really don’t trust that control unit.”

“There is not enough time to follow this plan through and the risk would be substantial. Straight up taking manual control of the driving process would be a better prospect in this case.”

“Wait what?” Gaelic jolted into a straight sitting position in surprise. “Can we manually drive the ground units?”

There was a longer glance between the trio. Neyhall held up a small portable screen, holding on to it by using three of their flexible arms like fingers. They showed a schematic of the exploration drone - a vehicle with four axles that were arranged in a pair at the front and back, a complex suspension and a raised base that carried the segmented hull.

Appropriate for the dense atmosphere of the yellow planet, its shape was highly aerodynamic in all directions with instruments hidden under covers with flowing lines. This design made Gaelic think of the ground vehicles as sports cars with the terrain capabilities of an 8x8 trial truck.

Neyhall extracted a view of the base without the added hull and explained: “In theory. There is a diagnostic mode of the motor vehicle base that can be used to slave its basic movement controls to a compatible external device. It is primarily used for testing functionality and diagnosing hardware issues.”

“Why isn’t that in the technical specifications I was given?”

“It does not interfere with and is not relevant to the workings of the environmental analysis equipment and the autonomous drive capabilities; it is an integrated part of the motor vehicle base and possesses a separate short-range latency-free communication method.”

Now Gaelic shot up onto her feet, looking down at the smaller alien beings with wide eyes. “This is absolutely relevant!” Pulling herself together, she asked more calmly: “What is the range of that thing? Can we establish a link?”

“Yes, we are within 75 percent effectiveness.”

“Is it possible to send anything else through that diagnostics comm channel? Data from the terrain sensors and stuff?”

Neyhall exchanged a few of their characteristic squeals with their packmates and it took a moment before they spoke to Gaelic. “Indeed it is. It will only support little bandwidth though.”

She tilted her head. “If we take only the optical cameras - will sending a video stream work? I’d just need visuals of the surroundings.”

“Their sensor output can be filtered and compressed at the source. This should be well within the capabilities of the communication system.” Neyhall fumbled with their fingerless limbs. “What is your plan, Gaelic? We cannot follow.”

“Well, there is a very popular thing called FPV drone racing where I come from, which means taking remote control of a flying or ground based vehicle and steering it through a specially set up course to compete against others in doing it the quickest. All while limiting the pilot’s view to the drones onboard cameras.”

Gaelic threw back her hair. “I don’t want to brag, but I’ve been a multiple time local champion and even competed in some international tournaments. I even got the chance to fly a drone in space, which was absolutely ama-” She broke herself off. “What I want to say is that I am used to controlling drones manually. I am confident that I can drive Angua to safety, even if she is a couple sizes larger than what I am used to competing with.”

The three Atun’gekai quickly discussed this proposition amongst themselves by speaking only two words. Then Neyhall addressed Gaelic: “We have not heard of humans being able to do this, but you have previously shown extraordinary abilities and we conclude that your judgement has always been a well-founded one. We will proceed with your plan.”

“Aw thanks you guys.” Gaelic resisted the urge to give Neyhall a hug as this was the highest praise she had gotten so far out of this pragmatic trio. She instead quickly set out on setting her idea in motion. “Okay, let’s get the numbers on this trip and set up a control station for me. Can you bring me some portable screens so that I can have a wide field of view and a suitable input device with continuously adjustable inputs for steering and acceleration? And get that connection to Angua going please.”

Neyhall and their pack-mates buzzed off simultaneously, each of them handling a different part of the tasks without even having to organise it amongst themselves.

Meanwhile, Gaelic sat back down at the too small control station and measured out a possible path to calculate the driving distance against the remaining time until communication blackout. It turned out the speed Angua would have to maintain in order to make it would be near her maximum possible travel speed.

“This will be a close one. We need to get Angua moving right away”, she exclaimed towards no-one in particular.

A moment later one of the Atun’gekai put down two screens. Gaelic arranged them herself, widening the possible field of view of the single screen of the console. Another two screens were put down and she squeezed them onto the available desk space to cover her peripheral vision.

As they put down a small device in front of Gaelic, Neyhall explained: “This is an input device with the capabilities you requested.”

The device turned out to be a small board with various switches and buttons. But most prominent were a row of sliders with short knobbly red sticks. It obviously belonged to some other machines, as everything on it was labelled.

“What I would give for even a mediocre gamepad right now”, she sighed. Gaelic then pointed at the two leftmost sliders. “Can you map this one to drive motor power from zero to one-hundred percent and this one to brake pressure the same way? Make this button switch between forwards and backwards acceleration.” She then switched over to the other side of the board and continued: “I need this one to control the steering angle of the two front axles with the top position being the furthest towards the right and the bottom the furthest left. Please make sure it’s a linear translation.”

Neyhall nodded - a gesture that they had learned from Gaelic - and one of their pack-mates began inputting information at the adjacent console.

“Also, lock steering on the back axles and disable whatever makes the suspension react proactively, that won’t be able to keep up and will only interfere.”

The screens blinked into life at that moment and showed her the view of a desolate landscape covered in a light fog that made wisps of vapour blow past Angua’s front. Tiny white dots were carried with the wind as well and they reminded Gaelic of snowflakes even though they most likely were some weird atmospheric condensation.

The surroundings of the machines were compressed into the five screens, giving Gaelic a 360 degree view. On the lower edge she could even get a glimpse of the top of the eight wheels the drone was sitting on. The rough thread on their rounded profile was visibly chewed up.

“The controls are set up.” Neyhall pulled her out of her stare.

“Can you give me a pitch and roll indicator onto the front screen? If possible, add in the vehicles safe limits as well.”

While they were working on that, Gaelic tried the sliders to see the movement translation. The two rows of front wheels turned side to side to her satisfaction. Though upon raising the engine power, Angua jolted forwards surprisingly quickly, which she was able to stop with the brake control slider, giving the drone another harsh jolt as it came to a rest again.

“Wow, these are not made for subtlety”, she murmured to herself.

“They are made for diagnostics”, Neyhall commented unprompted.

Suddenly two small bars popped up on the side of the frontal screen. The filled in part indicated the angle the drone was standing off-center in the two respective axis for pitch and roll. It was unconventional, but Gaelic could work with that.

She turned to the trio and said: “We don’t have much time for testing. Give me a safe path across the mountain side and be ready to make adjustments to the controls on the fly.

Neyhall nodded, their flat head bobbing up and down in an exaggerated fashion.

On the surface of the yellow planet, four tons of metal and plastics got moving with a sudden jerk that made the eight wheels momentarily spin on the flat rocks of the rough surface. The exploration drone named Angua slowly picked up speed, pushing through the dense atmosphere and sending rocks flying as she skipped over large cracks that made the suspension work strenuously.

While she first evaded bumps and holes clumsily, slipping dangerously and steering erratically to get back on her previous course, Angua’s driving continuously became smoother. All the while the visibility got worse as the incoming weather pushed more of that white compound to condense into lightweight flakes.

Still, the large machine steadily gained speed, leaving the not-snow whirling in the turbulent air as it pushed along on an invisible path.

Back in the control room, Gaelic had pearls of sweat on her forehead as she gave this task her full concentration. She had figured out the kinks of steering Angua and was now pushing her forward as fast as she could. The visibility on the yellow planet was notoriously poor and had only gotten worse - she had to watch out for any obstacles that popped up with barely an advanced warning.

Being absorbed like that, she had not noticed the time passing during which all three of the Atun’gekai were utterly transfixed on her.

“Gaelic, how are you doing that?”

“What?” She gave the pack a quick sideways glance. “You mean evading in time?”

“No, just…”, Neyhall paused. And for the first time someone else of the pack addressed her, the surprise of it nearly making her look away from the screen for too long.

The smallest of the three said in a soft voice: “You are obviously controlling Angua. But what you are doing does not seem to translate into what we can see happening on the screen.”

Gaelic swore soundlessly as she evaded a jagged edge that was half as high as Angua’s wheels at that moment. “I’m just driving. The sliders are unconventional, sure - but it’s fine since I’m not going that fast.”

“You are moving Angua at the maximum safe speed.”

“But that isn’t even 30 kph. Only Angua’s size and the poor visibility makes it difficult. With the equipment I’m used to and one of my racing buggies I could probably do more than double that right now.”

Since there came no reply, Gaelic added: “Talking of speed, what’s our remaining time until blackout? Can we make it?”

Neyhall took to speaking again. “The remaining time will not suffice for you to reach the designated shelter. We have to use it to-”

“Can you make her go faster? Give me more power?”

She noticed them glancing at each other. Neyhall offered: “The drive motors can be overvolted with low risk of adverse effects. We will do the modifications to the motor vehicle base and disable the rotation limiters.”

Gaelic exhaled slowly through pressed lips and then gave the Atun’gekai a curt nod. As she noticed a sudden burst of acceleration, she whispered at the screen: “Come on, Angua. Show me what you’re truly capable of and I’ll do my best to bring you home.”

The weather had worsened considerably as dense groups of the white flakes dropped from the sky, covering the ground in a treacherously calm blanket. Angua blasted through it ferociously, blowing dense clouds into the air and leaving a trail of momentarily clean rocks.

Though it was clear that the not-snow had a dangerous side-effect - Angua’s wheels began slipping more and more when swerving around obstacles and it caused her to oversteer more than once.

It had become hectic in the control room. Neyhall kept reading out the numbers and it was clear that despite moving faster, Angua would not make it in time.

Gaelic’s was fixed on the screen, but she could stop looking for solutions. “Is there any way to make her faster?”

“The energy output of the internal power plant is fully utilized and every non-essential system is disabled. There is nothing more available.”

“What about the drive path? Can we cut it short somehow? That wide bend maybe?”

Neyhall gesticulated wildly, which Gaelic only saw in her peripheral vision. “This path is already optimized for range. We consider it to be highly unsafe because it is only evading the largest of the impassable terrain formations.”

“What am I evading there then?”

“A fissure of which Angua’s instruments were unable to measure the lowest point.”

“How wide is it?”

“We don’t understand how this is relevant, it cannot be traversed.”

Gaelic locked her eyes with theirs for a split second before turning back to the screen.

A moment later that soft-spoken pack member spoke up: “There is a narrow part where the opposite plateau is sunken down. We will give you a new path across it.”

There was no-one present on the surface of the yellow planet to observe the spectacle that was about to unfold. A massive eight-wheeled vehicle was racing down a soft slope towards a bottomless crevasse. It was nearly obscured in the cloud of white powder it forced high into the air by pushing the heavy atmosphere out of the way.

Angua blew over rock edges and potholes like they were nothing in her effort to continuously break this planet's land speed record. As she reached the edge of the fissure, even the mild change in the ground angle slammed her wheels upwards and compressed the suspension to its minimum.

The tiny ramp gave Angua a skywards kick as she lost ground contact and blew over the total darkness below. For several breathless seconds, the four ton vehicle soared freely before it slammed into the ground on the other side of the crevasse at an angle.

A yell escaped Gaelic’s lips as she forced the exploration drone to straighten out again. There now was a relatively easy path ahead of her down into a valley that led directly into the safety of the cave.

Behind her, the soft spoken Atun’gekai said: “There are two minutes remaining.”

“Come on, Angua!” Gaelic was leaning forward unconsciously, not even having to look at the controls anymore as she sped through what more and more looked like a heavy snowstorm. Only the forward screen gave her any visibility of the surroundings, the others obscured by the flurry of white flakes.

Another voice quietly spoke from behind her, one that she also heard for the first time on this day. “Come on, Angua.”

Ignoring anything but the largest of boulders, Gaelic kept up the speed by just going as straight as possible. The video stream shook heavily from the rough goings.

“Less than one minute. We may lose the stream at any point.”

There only was a digital representation of her destination, as the rock face was invisible behind a dense white curtain. Her gaze was fixed on the counter below, showing her the decreasing distance. Several times she had to force Angua back on course after some invisible obstacle pushed her this way or that.

The soft voice had nearly turned into a whisper: “There are only seconds left.”

Gaelic was driving blind at that point and made the call to brake on pure feeling. She pushed the second slider up and kept countering the erratic movement caused by the unequal grip of the eight wheels as Angua skidded the remaining distance to the last waypoint.

Just as she thought she was able to discern the mouth of the cave, the heavy snow gave way to darkness before the video stream cut out a split second later.

Taken aback, Gaelic turned towards the pack with wide eyes. Neyhall quickly explained: “The connection is lost. But we had locked in the brakes as Angua entered the cave. She is safe.”

She jumped up with a yell that startled the Atun’gekai. “Hell yeah! Fuck you Yellow Planet for trying to take another one. Not this time!” Still beaming with excitement, she addressed the pack: “I consider this my Christmas present for this year. If you’re looking for something to give me for my birthday next month, just let me drive again.”

Neyhall gave her a nod. “That was very impressive, Gaelic.”

This time she couldn’t hold back hugging them.