DEATH: DESCENT 2
ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE END?
Picking up almost immediately after the cliffhanger ending of Diathesis...
The saboteur Maria Rodrigues is on the rescue mission to the Goddard station on Iapetus, as the fated Ismud approaches Saturn.
On Earth, Richard and his sister, Elyse, are caught up in a murderous manhunt as the Chinese secret services try to cover their tracks; while the enigmatic Charles prophesies doom and gathers a cult-like following.
In Earth orbit, the psychopathic Li Qiao befriends the hidden genius developing the next stage in human evolution; while from their station they observe a visitation from an alien species, horrific in its silent and pragmatic mandate...
...and an Arctic research team are immersed in visions of the end.
Reviews for Diathesis
"Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception."
Carl Sagan
Activist Maria Rodrigues shows her true colours...
I’m halfway through my second stride when a pincer grabs my arm, crushes down, hauls both of us up. There’s a hiss of escaping air, sealant injection, my arm buckles, contorts, I scream as everything in my helmet goes red, alarms sound. Fanni screams but it’s strange, smothered.
‘Fanni? Maria?’ Amber asks.
I look down, a transporter has us, accelerates towards the refinery hopper, small globules of red lubricant fall in its wake. Fanni’s at the end of the pincer, helmet crushed, egg-shaped, faint cracks bubble blood, sealant, mist.
‘They’re going, chief, bio-monitors falling,’ JJ says.
‘Refinery, the bots got us, Fanni’s, she’s –’
‘We’re coming, hold on,’ Amber says.
The transporter stops, dumps us into the ore hopper full of rubble. I land on top of Fanni, both of us carried toward the rollers. She’s conscious, struggles, grabs my hand and locks our gloves together. The pain through my shattered arm is indescribable. I reach out with my free hand and unclip her glove; it pops off, I scrabble back, send my boot into her visor, feel it crack, start to give.
‘Two minutes, hang on,’ Amber says.
Rubble cascades over us, tears holes in my suit, crazes my visor as we’re dragged forwards, down, closer to the rollers. Fanni’s buried to her waist, my pressure alarm sounds, sealer seeps outwards past my nose. I kick harder, watch a stream of ice spurt from her helmet seal.
‘Just lost Fanni’s telemetry,’ JJ says.
The hopper shudders, Fanni weakens. I claw my way to the top of the ore, ignore my arm, the leaks, stand, balance as my air starts to fail, as I start to black out. We’re at the rollers, there’s a beam above my head, I grab it with my good arm, aim one last kick at Fanni as she’s drawn in. Her visor shatters, flies away; she stares at me, hair blown out with her oxygen, moves through the rollers. I lock my suit joints, faint.