Fantasy Trope:
divination
Current Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars
and http://www.britishdowsers.org/whats_on/water_divining_dowsing_group.shtml
Moke “Keo” Khanthavong and Kyeh Sang-mi were just 16 when their
parents left on an expedition to Mars along with fifty other families. Robotic
builders have been at work and despite an unexpected scarcity of water,
everything is ready.
Now newly turned
adults, Moke and Sang-mi have been sent on a water search mission fifty
kilometers up an unexplored canyon branching off of the massive Valles
Marineris. They’ve trained for the mission for months – and nearly lost it when
three other older adults balked at letting “teenagers determine the fate of the
colony”...
Moke’s mother
had argued, “What do you mean, you’re afraid they’re going to screw up?” she
snapped at the tall, muscular physicist, Damon Eglesias. “They have more
invested in a future here than you or I do!”
The colony was
built at Capri Chasma, on the eastern end of the Valley. They’ve been assigned
to explore a branch of Coprates Chasma...
“It’s foggy,”
said Keo, squinting at the view screen. He fiddled with the controls, zooming
in and out; in and out. Sang-mi made as if to slap his hand. He yanked his
hands away, exclaiming, “I’m not a little kid!”
She sniffed,
“Could’a fooled me.”
“Hey! We’re
supposed to be working as a team here!”
“We are. You’re
doing annoying things and I’m trying to teach you that someday, someone’s going
to kill you when you do stuff like that.” Leaning back and crossing his arms
over his chest, he sulked until she said, “Now you really are acting like a
child – instead of just being annoyingly inquisitive.” He didn’t move. She
sighed and added, “Which is both one of your most endearing and useful
characteristics.”
Keo tried not to
grin, but failed, leaning forward to start fiddling again. Sang-mi said, “I’ll
still kill you if you don’t leave the focus alone!”
He stood up,
comfortable in four-tenths Earth gravity and unlikely to bounce around like
some of the adults did, and pulled something from a long pocket on his
overalls.
“What’s that?”
“A dousing rod,”
he said.
“A what?”
“Dousing rod,”
he said as he tapped one end and gently pulled it in half until it reached the
middle of the rod and stopped.
“To find water
by divination?” Sang-mi said, rolling her eyes to the roof of the marsbug. “You
have got to be kidding!”
He shook his
head, “What can it hurt? The probes couldn’t find the water they were hoping
for, neither had the other survey crews. It’s a simple concept.” He shrugged,
concluding, “Besides, if it doesn’t work, who’s gonna know?”
“Me,” she said,
dropping into a seat. “Rest assured I’ll let all of my friends know if this
flops...” Both of them blinked in surprise as the dowsing rod bent to the left
of the ‘bug. Sang-mi snapped, “Cut it out!”
“Cut out what?”
Keo said, his voice cracking, “I’m not doing anything!”
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