Mars Nation: The Complete Trilogy

by Brandon Q Morris

  The blonde commander joined Ellen. The two of them stood close together, and Theo could see their lips moving. That meant they must have switched over to a private radio channel.

  Theo turned toward the Endeavour, which stood glittering in the sun about 500 meters away. Today was an especially low-dust day. He waved at Rebecca and walked over to the enclosed Rover that was parked beside the ship. He couldn’t climb into it from the outside, but had to first re-enter the ship and then access the Rover through the pressurized tube.

  The cabin was their medical station. If you ever needed to find Gabriella, she was almost always in there. She had set up her bed beside her most critical patient, Andy, who was still unconscious. Gabriella was tending to him with great devotion. She was a good doctor.

  “How’s Andy doing today?” Theo asked.

  “Speak to him yourself, please. It’s important that I’m not the only one he has to listen to,” Gabriella urged.

  “Do you think it helps?”

  “I can’t prove it, but imagine being trapped inside yourself. You can perceive everything, but don’t have the power to actually react. You would be happy if someone talked to you.”

  “That’s what it’s like for him?”

  “Oh, Theo, I don’t know for sure. He might never regain consciousness, but I’ll take care of him as long as I can.”

  “And how are things for you?”

  “Is that really important? I’m a doctor, so it’s my profession. And it’s nice to do more than just distribute bandages and headache medicine. But I appreciate your question. Now talk to him.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  Theo looked over at the entrance to the Rover’s cabin. It would be nice if Rebecca would materialize there. Conversations like this were more comfortable for her, but she didn’t appear on mental command. He walked over to the head of the cot, pulled a stool over, and sat down.

  “Hi, Andy. It’s me, Theo.”

  Of course, Andy didn’t answer. Theo watched his face, but nothing moved. He might as well be talking to a wall.

  “I don’t know if anyone told you yet, but we’ve just arrived at the site of our new settlement. You’d like the crater.”

  Theo decided to include the less savory bits of news as well.

  “To speed things along, Ewa arranged for us to hijack the NASA spaceship. Steal it, to be more precise. I didn’t agree with that, but the majority voted for it. What would you have said to that?”

  Andy didn’t respond.

  “Yes, it’s a difficult question, I admit. But we always wanted to establish a new, free society based on morality and justice. And now our settlement has a birth defect. It wasn’t right for us to steal the ship from our rescuers, even if they didn’t necessarily need it right then.”

  He brushed a strand of hair from Andy’s face and then caught sight of a damp rag in a shallow bowl. Theo dabbed the patient’s dry lips with it.

  “I’m sorry you have to listen to my whining, but I really am worried about the evolution of our crew.”

  On which side would Andy have stood? They were two very different people. Andy’s behavior had always been cool, logical, and cautious. Theo, who saw himself as a survival artist, didn’t always give a lot of thought to his actions, but he was bold. Nonetheless, he felt like he and Andy shared one particular characteristic, that they were both obstinate and preferred to not have other people’s opinions foisted upon them.

  Andy presumably would have voted against the theft. But that might be nothing but wishful thinking on his part. It was impossible to know.

  “What I would really like to hear is who did this to you,” Theo said.

  This was the one thought he kept trying to suppress. The surface of Mars was a lethal place, that was a given. In that light, you could say that Andy had been very fortunate. However, the presumed way in which the accident had occurred seemed more and more unlikely the longer he thought about it.

  “Man, Andy, did you really go outside without checking your oxygen supply? You’re always so careful about everything. Solo excursions outdoors aren’t even permitted. You really ignored all the rules about that?”

  And yet, that had to be what happened. The facts seemed incontrovertible. If that wasn’t true, then they must have missed something. Theo propped his arms on his knees. Andy was breathing very evenly, as if he were just sleeping. If Theo pinched his arm he would wake up, and the nightmare would be over, right? They wouldn’t have stolen the Endeavour. They could begin their new lives without any stain.

  What if he assumed that Andy’s condition wasn’t due to dumb coincidence? Theo tried to stay on this line of thought. In that case, there must have been some deed that had at least paved the way for the accident to happen. But the trail of evidence had long since been swept away. Theo wouldn’t have an opportunity to examine the landing module. However, there had to be a second precondition for his theory to work—a motive. Andy must have been an obstacle for someone. Maybe it had to do with something in the past. If that were true, Theo might as well give up. He didn’t know Andy well enough, and he didn’t have access to the archives on Earth anymore.

  But what about a reasonable motive? Everyone knew that Andy was an excellent programmer. Had he discovered something that had condemned him to this? There was only one way to figure that out. He would have to go through Andy’s notes, but in such a way that the potential culprit wouldn’t realize what he was doing. Could he enlist Rebecca’s help in this? Theo would have liked to share his suspicions with her. This might help him get his ideas off the ground, since he trusted Rebecca’s opinions. But there was also a risk tied to this course. Although he couldn’t imagine her guilty, she was also a potential suspect, objectively speaking. So he was on his own in this. He was used to flying solo, but he had also now learned how much he enjoyed sharing things with Rebecca.

  “Take care of yourself, Andy,” he said. “It’s time for me to see if there’s anything I can do to help you.”

  He thought, for a microsecond, he saw Andy’s right eyelid twitch, but he might have been wrong.

  “I’ll see you later, Gabriella,” he said in farewell to the doctor.

  His next destination was the Endeavour’s command center. Theo glanced at his watch. His visit with Andy had lasted twenty minutes. Ewa and Ellen had to still be out inspecting the building site. This might be an excellent opportunity to get started.

  He climbed up the ladder and found the center empty. Perfect! He sat down in the pilot’s seat, pulled the keyboard in front of him, and activated the screen. He selected Andy’s user name before hesitating in surprise. He was sitting in the Endeavour, but Andy had never flown this ship. Why would his data be located here? Maybe someone had transferred the data from the Santa Maria’s system into the new system onboard here. That would be convenient for everyone.

  Beeeeep! The computer was now asking him for the password. Theo felt relieved. That really wasn’t a problem. He had watched Andy type in his password once and had been amazed that he’d used a series of adjacent keys.

  “We’re the only ones here,” Andy had said with a laugh. “The system is protected from an outside attack, and I have such a lousy memory for passwords.”

  Theo entered 12345678, knowing the system required that passwords be at least eight characters in length.

  “Access denied.”

  23456789.

  “Access denied.”

  34567890.

  “Access denied.”

  Now he had to wait thirty seconds until he could try another password. He studied the keyboard. There were about twenty possible combinations of adjacent keys. He would try them all. As the countdown ran, Theo leaned back.

  He suddenly heard footsteps behind him. “Is someone up there?”

  It was Gabriella’s voice. Theo hit the keys required to close the input screen and then straightened up in the seat.

  “Oh, it’s you, Theo. I didn’t think you’d be up here.”

&
nbsp; “I’m waiting on Ewa,” he said. “Have you seen her?”

  “No. I thought she’d be here. I wanted to ask her something, too.”

  Theo was surprised. If that were the case, why had Gabriella just asked if someone was up here? If he were looking for someone, wouldn’t he ask if that particular person were somewhere? The doctor was acting oddly, but she probably thought he was, too. After all, they had both heard Ewa praising the building site over the ship’s radio system. Just like him, Gabriella might have assumed that the center would be empty. Should he confide in her? Could she possibly be looking for the same information he was? But the risk would be too high for him. If she was responsible for the accident... Theo didn’t want to go there. A patient in the hands of his murderer—hadn’t that been the plot for far too many thrillers?

  Theo stood up at the same moment that Ewa stuck her head through the hole in the floor that led to the lower level.

  “A secret conversation, or are you waiting for me?” she asked.

  “Gabriella wanted to ask you something,” Theo said. “I’ll give you two a little privacy.” He walked over to the floor hatch, planning to leave the spaceship. Hopefully, the doctor wouldn’t delay him. He didn’t feel up to concocting a plausible excuse for Ewa about why he presumably wanted to talk to her.

  “It’s about Andy,” Gabriella said. “I’d like to run a few more tests on him.”

  “Really?” Ewa replied, clearly interested in what this might mean.

  Theo was glad he was no longer needed. He climbed through the hole and down the ladder before exiting the ship via the airlock. He would have to try to access Andy’s data some other time.

  Sol 56, Hebes Chasma

  Sarah carefully let the Rover roll to a stop. Lance gazed over her shoulder. The map on the control console indicated that the escarpment must be somewhere close in front of them. It was a good idea for Sarah to stop here until they could figure out the condition of the slope.

  Lance got out first. He stamped his legs and stretched. His thighs throbbed, but they felt better than they had yesterday. His body seemed to be getting used to the new strain. And the custom-tailored NASA suits were worth their weight in gold. Back on Earth, they had trained in the old, bulky EVA suits. He had never known before then how many places one could develop bruises or abrasions.

  Sarah followed him. She turned back, leaned over the control panel, and pushed a few buttons. She then extracted the ignition key and stuck it in her pocket.

  “You don’t need to take it with you. Nobody will steal it.”

  “Sure about that?”

  Bullseye. If only she hadn’t reminded him. And yet, the existence of an ignition key still struck him as weird. The modern electric cars on Earth only needed their drivers’ fingerprints to operate the doors. But Lance remembered the arguments of the NASA engineers, ‘the more modern the technology, the more quickly it could fail.’ In an emergency, a real key could be recreated from a piece of iron.

  “No,” Lance said aloud as they reached the escarpment.

  “No?”

  “We can’t cross this in the hours left today.”

  Sarah nodded. Hebes Chasma stretched before them, a gigantic canyon. It ran for several thousand meters downhill. The bottom was about 20 kilometers wide, and in the middle of the canyon rose a mesa that was almost as tall as the opposite side of the Chasma.

  “That’s insane,” Lance said. “The Grand Canyon would fit inside it.”

  Sarah pointed downward. “Our route will take us west, past the mesa. About 90 kilometers beyond that point, we should find a drivable passage that will take us back up to the plateau.”

  “I don’t see anything here I’d call drivable,” Lance declared.

  “Mike sent us the latest satellite pictures. We came in a little farther south than planned. We’ll need to head that way to find the spot to descend with the Rover.”

  Lance knelt down on the ground and brushed the surface with his gloved hand. This area was covered with a very thin coating of dust. As he rubbed at it, a hard, dark material appeared. “Could be volcanic,” he said.

  “The scientists think that, too. At some point during the greatest period of tectonic activity, a fissure was created.”

  “But one so wide?”

  “That could’ve been caused by the water that might have flowed along here at one time. That’s at least the theory,” Sarah explained.

  “Back then, Mars must’ve looked damned different.”

  “Maybe. We don’t know. If life never developed here, then it probably looked like it does today, just with water.”

  “That’s what you believe, Sarah?”

  “I believe you’re a nice guy, but that’s all I believe for the time being. At some point in the near future, I hope we can find the time to seriously look for traces of lifeforms.”

  Lance started frantically stirring up the sand. Sarah moved closer, curious. He waited until her foot was within arm’s reach, and then he struck. “Hey, I’ve found life on Mars!” he exclaimed as he stood up and hugged her.

  “Should we perhaps continue our research inside the tent?” Sarah asked after a minute of silence. “I’ve heard that life thrives better in oxygen atmospheres.”

  “Who am I to contradict anything a degreed biologist says?”

  Sol 57, Hebes Chasma

  Lance tugged on the strap that held the tent to the Rover’s bed, making certain it was tight. He took a step back while Sarah checked to make sure everything was secured. They had agreed to do things this way. If they lost the tent—or any part of their provisions—on their descent, it would be a real disaster. Regardless of how comfortable their suits were, spending two weeks in them would be absolute torture, if even possible.

  “Looks good,” Sarah said.

  She then climbed into the driver’s seat. They had drawn straws to see who got to drive the Rover first—and he had lost.

  Compared to the desert tour of the past few days, the trip down to the base of the canyon promised to be a real adventure. Lance took his seat behind Sarah and then clipped his safety line to her. If the Rover tipped over, they would need to be able to jump out quickly to keep from being buried underneath it. The line would provide at least a little security from plunging all the way down to the bottom. But both of them were fully aware that they simply couldn’t make any mistakes.

  They started out driving northward along the edge of the canyon. Lance appreciated the view of the Hebes Chasma. The mesa in the middle of the valley really looked out of place. Its sides were as steep as those of the canyon itself. It looked as if a giant had thrown a chunk of dough into the Chasma. It was a shame they weren’t on a research mission. He would have enjoyed examining the surface of the mesa. It had supposedly been formed by the sediment deposits from a body of water. That had to be the ideal site to search for fossils from Mars’s fertile period!

  “I think this is it,” Sarah said, breaking into his thoughts.

  His eyes followed her outstretched arm. The edge of the canyon seemed to be missing a kilometer-wide chunk, as if a plummeting meteorite had grazed the slope. But this wasn’t just a simple collapse of the canyon wall. It was more likely that a side valley had developed over a more extended period of time.

  Sarah steered the Rover a little toward the east to enter the gap at a more optimal angle. From this perspective, it was apparent what had created the valley. A massive gush of liquid water must have flowed into the canyon. Lance tried to imagine what the landscape must have looked like 3.5 billion years ago. Early on, perhaps there had been a spectacular waterfall here. The spray must have been full of rainbows on clear days. As the years passed, the water had eroded more and more of the hard substrate. The climate on Mars had eventually changed so much, growing increasingly colder, that the once-denser atmosphere had frozen, making the process irreversible.

  “Can’t you just imagine the giant waterfall that must’ve existed here once?” Sarah asked, seeming to rea
d his mind once again.

  “It’s a shame we got here three billion years too late,” Lance replied with a smile.

  “Or a few centuries too early.”

  “Do you think that water will flow here again someday?”

  “Maybe not up here, but perhaps down there?” Sarah said, pointing at the canyon floor.

  “We’ll never manage that. There are way too few of us.”

  “Don’t say that. Homo sapiens started its trailblazing on Earth with relatively few individuals.”

  “So we’re something like Adam and Eve?”

  “If you want to put it that way. In any case, there are realistic projections about how we can reestablish the carbon dioxide atmosphere. The greenhouse effect would elevate the temperatures so much that water could exist in liquid form on the surface.”

  “I’ve read about that,” Lance said. “We’d have to build giant mirrors and launch them into orbit over the South Pole to concentrate the sun’s rays and thaw the frozen carbon dioxide. But with just the four of us?”

  “Yes, that would be a problem. We couldn’t do that without the MfE people.”

  “Or with them, either.”

  “You’re right about that, I’m afraid.”

  “I suggest that you hold on tight now,” Sarah said.

  Lance followed orders and then felt the Rover tilt forward. Sarah was driving at a walking pace as the surface grew steeper with each meter. Lance sat up straight. He felt a strong need to lean back. The substrate was comprised of a thin layer of loose rubble. The Rover weighed enough that the tires spun the sand, dust, and gravel to the side, finding traction on the volcanic stone. All four axles had brakes, which meant that the back section with its load didn’t shift much. After approximately 300 meters, the incline was so steep that Sarah began to drive in a serpentine pattern. Lance had to commend the Rover’s builders. The vehicle’s axles gave the tires enough play that the machine moved down the slope like a mountain goat. The view was still magnificent. Lance couldn’t see enough of it.