Plains of Utopia: Colony Six Mars

by Kilby, Gerald M.

  Gizmo led the way because its internal map knew the route. “This way. It’s not far. Approximately a half kilometer past this sector’s gateway.”

  The entire area seemed to be deserted, and they didn’t meet a single person as they navigated their way through the maze. A few droids passed by, but paid them no notice.

  The atmosphere processing plant was in fact a multitude of units scattered over a relatively large area. It sucked in vast quantities of the thin Martian air and broke it down into its constituent parts. This mostly consisted of CO2 from which the oxygen was extracted in a bioreactor. This ended up being the oxygen that the citizens of Jezero City breathed. It also purified the air within the city, filtering out impurities, recycling the buildup of CO and CO2, and storing the carbon element for industrial use.

  These gases were extracted using a multitude of processes: chemical, electrical, and biological. This meant that the entire area had a foul, acrid smell, and was probably the reason why there were no people to be seen anywhere.

  Mia and Gizmo eventually moved past this area onto yet another large, circular emergency airlock. It was open, as they all were, and they passed through it into an old and dilapidated industrial sector. They moved along a long, straight causeway that terminated around five hundred meters ahead of them. On either side of this causeway were large industrial units, all of which seemed to be closed up and abandoned. This was a sector that had suffered greatly during the Great Storm and had never recovered.

  “Perfect place to hide a bio-lab,” Mia said as she glanced around the area. It was at the very western edge of the city and stuck out like a finger from the city perimeter. This was designed to facilitate rover traffic to dock with the units. This meant that each one had its own surface airlock, perfect for smuggling goods in and out of Jezero.

  The lighting was dim, and a thin haze seemed to permeate the air as if the filters in this sector no longer worked. “I thought you said the air was clean here.” Mia glanced up at the curved roof. “Wouldn’t surprise me if the entire place is losing atmosphere.”

  “I said the APU sector was. We have just passed that.” Gizmo pointed ahead. “This way, it is just up here.”

  Finally, they came to a halt outside a wide entrance door to a gray, nondescript unit. There was no indication anywhere as to what its purpose might be, or might have been in the past.

  “Are you sure this is it?”

  “Are you seriously asking me that question?” Gizmo replied as it set about dismantling the door control panel.

  Mia didn’t reply. Instead she took out her plasma weapon, checked it, and held it in both hands, ready for whatever might be behind that door. “This place looks pretty beat up. I hope it still retains a pressurized atmosphere.”

  “It does,” Gizmo said as the door clicked, then whirred, then rose up.

  Mia kept her back to the side wall until it was high enough to crouch under. The space was dark, dusty, and deserted.

  Gizmo flicked on its light and swept it around the area. Not only was it deserted, it was completely empty except for some scraps of packaging that lay strewn on the ground.

  “Let’s check in there.” Mia jerked her head in the direction of the offices attached to the unit.

  Gizmo again dismantled the door control panel and gained access. Again, this area was empty and deserted.

  “Nothing,” Mia said. “Not a single goddamn thing.” She put her back against a wall and slumped down on the floor. “I don’t believe this. I was sure this was it.” She shook her head. “If we don’t find this pathogen soon, then the population is done for.”

  “We could check the exterior airlock. That has quite a volume. One could hide a considerable amount of equipment in there.”

  Mia perked up. “Of course. Gizmo, you’re a genius.”

  “I know.”

  They headed back out across the main floor area and over to the airlock at the rear of the unit. Mia kept the PEP weapon at the ready, her back to the wall as Gizmo hit the button to open the interior door. Mia wasn’t taking any chances. It may be that someone was here and decided to hide in the airlock; unlikely, but best to be prepared.

  The door split in the center with a slight hiss, and both sides retracted into the side walls, exposing a large, empty space.

  Mia sighed and lowered her weapon. “Nothing.” She sat down on the floor again. “Well, that’s it, Gizmo. I’m all out of ideas. Nowhere else to look. And even if there was, we’re probably too late.”

  “Do not give up hope just yet. The entire Jezero City security services are actively searching for it. They may get lucky.”

  “And what is the probability of that?”

  “Difficult to say with any accuracy. But my best guess would be less than 1%.”

  26

  Breakdown

  Jann kept watch at the doorway to the network room while Nills contacted Capt. Aby to give her the details on the tunnel along with the strength of the Xenonists’ defensive position. Xenon stood alongside her, and she could feel the tension radiating off his body like an electrical charge. He was edgy, wound up tight, ready to bolt off again. She really hoped he wasn’t going to do anything reckless. At least, no more reckless than what they were already doing.

  Jann’s thoughts shifted to the cloning cavern with its rows and rows of tanks disappearing off into the darkness. How has it come to this? she thought. To have created a clone army without a single person in the Council knowing about it. Someone had to have known. It just wasn’t possible to keep all this secret. But maybe they didn’t think it would escalate all the way up to Argon’s genocidal finale. Too late now, she concluded. Unless the release site in Jezero could be found in time, then…

  “Done.” Nills’ voice broke through Jann’s thoughts. “And two more MLOD transports are on their way. They’ll be here soon, and Aby says once they land they will storm the enclave.”

  “Okay, good.” Jann nodded and turned to go, but Xenon stopped her.

  “You don’t have to come with me,” Xenon said, looking from her to Nills and back. “This is something I have to do, something I should have done a long time ago. You stay here, hide out until the MLOD break through.”

  “Not a chance,” Jann said, casting a glance at Nills.

  “Sorry, Xenon. Looks like we’re all going down together,” Nills said with a grin. “Lead the way.”

  Again, Xenon’s intimate knowledge of the facility, with its multitude of passages and stairways, enabled them to move fast, without detection. He finally brought them up a narrow stairwell that opened out into a large industrial pump room, where the irrigation system for the primary dome was operated. It was dark and humid with a dank smell. It hummed and gurgled with the sound of a myriad of motors pumping water through a labyrinth of pipes.

  Xenon moved in behind a large cylindrical water tank and gestured for Jann and Nills to follow. He pointed ahead, down toward the far end of the room. “Just up there is a service door leading into the primary dome. It brings us out around a meter below floor level into a kind of stairwell, so it has good cover. To the left is a short set of steps that leads to the floor level, very close to the entrance to the viewing chamber. There’ll probably be guards there.”

  Jann nodded and pulled the plasma weapon out from her waistband, as did Nills. They slowly made their way through the pump room, all the time scanning the area for any workers that might be hidden behind some tank or other. They had just reached at the door when they heard, and felt, an explosion from somewhere deep within the complex.

  “They’ve started the assault. We better hurry before the fight comes to us,” said Jann.

  Xenon grabbed the door handle and gently opened it, peering through the crack as he did. “All clear,” he whispered, and they moved out into the lush, verdant biodome.

  They were well concealed in the low stairwell, with thick vegetation all around. Xenon was about to head up the short steps when Jann grabbed his arm. “Wait,” sh
e whispered. “Better let myself and Nills take care of the guards. Stay here until I give you the all clear. Okay?” Jann poked a finger at Xenon. “And don’t go doing anything stupid.”

  Xenon hesitated for a beat, then screwed his mouth up and gave her a curt nod, stepping aside to let her and Nills pass.

  Jann kept low as she moved up the steps. Her view of the entrance was obscured by dense foliage, so she reached out with her free hand and pushed back a large leaf to get a better view. Nills moved up to crouch beside her.

  “Doors to the viewing chamber are open,” she whispered. “Two guards outside. Both sitting, looking bored. That’s all I can see.”

  Nills inched his way forward and snatched a look. “Okay, I’ll take the one on the right. Nice and quiet. Let’s try not to alert anyone in the area beyond.”

  They stealthily picked their way through the dense vegetation, keeping low and out of sight. Nills took a route to the right, Jann to the left. She finally arrived at a point well within range of her plasma weapon and scanned the foliage for any sign of Nills. He popped his head out from behind a tall, leafy bush some distance away and signaled that he was ready.

  Jann dialed her weapon up a notch or two from stun, nodded to Nills, then took aim and fired. She wasn’t taking any chances, wanting to make sure her target would go down and stay down.

  The blast slammed into the back of the guard’s head, spinning him around, and he collapsed face-down on the dais. His comrade made the mistake of standing up instead of hitting the floor, and Nills’ shot hit him square in the back. He too went spinning, and collapsed on top of his buddy.

  It was then that Jann heard more plasma weapon fire, coming from the far end of the dome. The MLOD forces were almost here. But before either she or Nills had moved out of their position, Xenon came running up the central path and bounded onto the dais. Shit, thought Jann. He’s going in there alone. He’ll just get himself killed.

  Yet before he had taken more than a step on the dais, a massive explosion detonated inside the chamber, flinging a cloud of smoke and debris back out into the dome, and sending Xenon tumbling down the path.

  “Noooo…” Jann screamed, as she stood up and rushed to the dais. Nills had also emerged from cover and was tending to Xenon.

  “Goddammit,” Jann shouted back at him. “I think they just blew themselves up, rather than be taken.”

  A decompression alert started squawking, and the isolation door began to close across the entrance to the viewing chamber, sealing it off. The explosion must have damaged the structure, and it was now losing atmosphere. Any hope Jann had of finding someone alive in there, someone who knew the location of the release site, was fading fast.

  She ran toward the closing door, but felt a strong hand grab her arm and haul her back.

  “It’s too late, Jann,” said Nills as his grip tightened. “You’ll just get yourself trapped in there.”

  He was right, of course. And slowly Jann felt the fight drain away, only to be replaced by the realization of defeat. Any hope she had of finding the location lay dying on the floor of the chamber. She slumped down on her knees and buried her head in her hands. All around her the sound of battle raged, weapons fire, shouts, and the squawk of the decompression klaxon. She felt Nills’ arms wrap around her shoulders. “We can’t stay here. Too dangerous, gotta move. Come on.” He tugged at her, she stood up, and allowed him to guide her down from the dais and into the cover of the service stairwell.

  “We blew it, Nills. Mars is done for. Everything we’ve ever fought for is now all for nothing.”

  “No, I won’t believe that. There is still hope, Jann. The MLOD in Jezero are searching every nook and cranny, they may yet find it. There is still hope.”

  27

  APU

  “We’ve failed, Gizmo,” Mia said, sitting on the floor of the empty industrial unit with her back to the wall, her knees up under her chin.

  “There is still time,” Gizmo offered.

  “No, Gizmo. There isn’t. At least not enough.” Mia stood up and kicked an empty crate in frustration. “Dammit. I was sure this was it.”

  Mia stood still for a moment and stared down at the floor of the unit. The crate had moved slightly and exposed one corner of what looked liked a hatch. “Gizmo, come over here and give me a hand moving this.”

  Between them they pushed the crate off to one side, revealing a square, airtight hatch, wide enough for a large human to fit through.

  Gizmo examined it. “Interesting,” it said as it reached down and turned the recessed handle. The hatch cracked open.

  A crudely dug shaft descended approximately five meters down, with a ladder attached to one side. The droid scanned the interior. “Most irregular. I have no record of this on any official Jezero City schematic I possess.”

  Mia pulled out her plasma weapon again. “Irregular is good, Gizmo. Irregular is what we’re looking for.” She began to climb down the ladder. The droid followed.

  At the base, a horizontal shaft opened up, tall enough for a person to pass through by stooping down a little.

  “Perhaps I should take the lead,” suggested Gizmo, flipping on its light.

  “After you.” Mia gestured with a free hand, and they moved off down the tunnel.

  It ran in a straight line for around a hundred meters and had clearly been hastily dug. The walls were rough-hewn, with the roof supported by standard extruded beams used in mining. Along the sides, automatic lighting had been hastily rigged. The floor was flat but dusty, which got kicked up by Gizmo’s tracks. Mia pulled her scarf over her mouth; exposure to raw Martian regolith came with a health warning. There were a lot of compounds in it that were dangerous to breathe in over a prolonged period.

  The tunnel finally came to an end, with another short vertical shaft leading upward. A ladder ascended along one side to another hatch, similar to one they had entered through. Mia climbed up, turned the locking wheel, and pushed it open a little. There was a slight hiss as she did, indicating a pressure differential.

  The first thing to assault her senses was the noise of machines, and then a chill hit her face. The air was dry and caught in her throat, and she coughed. She could see a large industrial area, forested by pipes and ducting, but no people. She opened the hatch fully and climbed out, quickly followed by Gizmo.

  “What is this place?” Mia asked as they extracted themselves from the shaft.

  “It is a section of the atmosphere processing unit. This area pumps clean recycled air back into this sector of the city.”

  “Good place to release a pathogen,” said Mia as she stood up and began to look around. The space was cavernous, with a high ceiling, yet it was packed with indefinable industrial units all interconnected with a myriad of ducts and pipes.

  “We’ll never find anything in here.” Mia glanced around, trying to find something, anything that would give her a clue. Then she looked down and spotted a faint trail of dusty footprints leading out from the hatch.

  “Gizmo, look here.” She crouched down and ran a finger through the dust. “They’ve left us a trail.” Mia then froze. “Shit. You hear that? Someone’s talking.”

  “I sense two distinct voice patterns, approximately three point four meters in that direction.” Gizmo pointed dead ahead.

  “They could just be workers. They might even help us.”

  “It is possible, even probable.”

  “Come, let’s follow these footprints. Keep quiet, and try to eyeball the owners of those voices before they see us, just in case.”

  “A wise precaution, Mia.”

  They treaded their way through a gap in the machinery, but the trail disappeared. This area had higher foot traffic, and so the footprints had been eradicated. Gizmo scanned the floor and pointed to another tight gap between two large units. “Over there.” They picked up the trail and squeezed themselves through.

  The footprints ended again. Not because they were erased, but because this was the final destinat
ion. A large air duct, mounted at head height, bisected the area.

  “Air outflow duct,” Gizmo informed as it ran its light along the underside.

  Mia did the same with hers, moving in the opposite direction. “Gizmo,” she whispered, “I think I may have found something.”

  Strapped to the underside of the wide metal duct was a silver metal canister around the size of a fire extinguisher. Attached to that was an assemblage of exposed electronics, twisted pipes, and a small, old-fashioned digital display. Mia leaned in and blew the dust off its face. Several groups of numerical data were displayed, but the one that stood out was a timer, counting down: 9:47, 9:46, 9:45…

  “I would not interfere with that if I were you,” Gizmo said as it lowered itself into a position where it could scan the apparatus.

  “Can you stop it, disassemble it in some way?”

  The droid twitched a little as it analyzed. “Anti-tamper device. See here.” The droid pointed at a section of electronics, but it all looked the same to Mia.

  “I’ll take your word on it. So how do we stop it?”

  “The gas discharge is attached to the duct here, via this pipe. I should be able to bypass the tamper switch, then I can remove it from the duct. But it will still be active.”

  “Could we bring it outside, onto the surface? It would be harmless in the Martian atmosphere.”

  “8:35. I concur. With the time remaining, that is our best option.”

  Mia shuffled out of the way and let Gizmo get to work.

  The droid took its time, carefully analyzing the makeup and arrangement of the device, to the point where Mia was about to tell it to hurry up. She became so wound up that she didn’t hear the two guards approaching until one shouted out. “Hey, what are you doing there?”

  Mia turned around, raised her hands, and walked out toward them. “This is a critical emergency. Get a message to the MLOD and tell them we have found the pathogen release site.”