Burying Closterval

By Sean Monaghan

Jeff Cougan picks himself up out of the snow and dusts down his clothes.

The start of a very bad afternoon.

Far from Earth, with a big payday on the horizon, Jeff needs to get back to the installation. Fast.

Set everything right.

Will he be able to fix things? Will he be able to live with himself?

A science fiction story that asks the question, how can we stay true to ourselves?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Triple V Publishing
• Release date: Dec 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223370963

Sean Monaghan

Award-winning author, Sean Monaghan has published more than one hundred stories in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and in New Zealand, where he makes his home. A regular contributor to Asimov’s, his story “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles”, set in the art world of Shilinka Switalla, won both the Sir Julius Vogel Award, and the Asimov’s Readers Poll Award, for best short story. He is a past winner of the Jim Baen Memorial Award, and the Amazing Stories Award. Sean writes from a nook in a corner of his 110 year old home, usually listening to eighties music. Award-winning author, Sean Monaghan has published more than one hundred stories in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and in New Zealand, where he makes his home. A regular contributor to Asimov’s, his story “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles”, set in the art world of Shilinka Switalla, won both the Sir Julius Vogel Award, and the Asimov’s Readers Poll Award, for best short story. He is a past winner of the Jim Baen Memorial Award, and the Amazing Stories Award. Sean writes from a nook in a corner of his 110 year old home, usually listening to eighties music.

Book preview

Burying Closterval

BURYING CLOSTERVAL

SEAN MONAGHAN

Triple V Publishing

Copyright © 2023 Sean Monaghan

All rights reserved.

Published by Triple V Publishing

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Cover illustration

© Luca Oleastri | Dreamstime

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Originally published in 2013 under the byline Michael Shone.

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Discover other titles by this author at:

www.seanmonaghan.com

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This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and incidents described in this publication are used fictitiously, or are entirely fictional.

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No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, except for fair use by reviewers or with written permission from the publisher. www.triplevpublishing.com

BURYING CLOSTERVAL

Jeff Cougan picked himself up out of the snow and dusted his jacket and over trousers down. The toboggan lay canted in a hole, the engine still running. The onboards should have picked up the hole long before he got to it, and directed him left or right. Potentially they might have. His attention had been elsewhere.

Looking around the ice plain and sky, trying to pick out a landmark. The distant Murchison Mountains were still blue in the haze and he couldn't pick out any distinct peaks. Thirty miles off. He still had two hours before sunset.

The toboggan's cowling was cracked and twisted, but he figured he could shove it back into shape once he got the machine out of the hole. The toboggan had a tool kit.

He was on the way back from burying Closterval. The man had gotten careless and stupid. His own fault really. Cougan had cut a hole in the fastest moving part of the ice, well away from regular surveys, and dropped the body down. A couple of burrowing charges followed, bringing the rest of the hole down around the body. Cougan had followed that with a delayed melt charge. It would go off in a half an hour and raise the temperature slowly, and vibrate, turning the blocks into slush. By morning the whole mass would be frozen over again and Closterval would be hidden for decades. The crushed and ground remains might emerge at the terminal face in fifty years, unrecognizable.

Now Cougan had a bigger problem. He had to get back to the installation and change the logs. Closterval had to be recorded as having left. He wouldn't be missed for a couple of weeks--like Cougan, the prospector worked independently and out on the long lines. Cougan had bought a code from a programmer with a gambling problem, a code that gave access to some pretty deep levels of the installation's systems. Enough to change duty logs and activities. He didn't touch his own, barely touched anything, but a case like this was exactly why he needed the code.

It would be almost like Closterval had never even been here.

If Cougan could get back.

He knew he should call it in, but then Selina would just chew him out again. He needed a clean record to be able to draw his bonus, and this year he really needed that bonus. One more reprimand would kill it.

The hole was nothing more than a drip shaft. Since coming north of the Murchisons, they'd found bunches of them. Melt water ran along the surface in summer, they figured, and met tiny open