“Dear citizens of Mars Nation,” he began. “On Sol 92, we celebrated the establishment of our federation. All of you signed this.” Mike held the page up to the camera.
“It is an odd coincidence, but this day—today—is exactly ninety-two days since that moment. Does that mean anything? I’m not sure, but I do know one thing: Conceding to the demands of Administrator Summers would spell the end of our young nation. May I read to you what we vowed back then?”
He read a few sentences from their declaration. The most critical words were freedom, equality, and fraternity.
“What does that mean? It means that we wouldn’t just be giving up on our small nation if we allowed ourselves to be annexed by Mars City. I know that none of you want that. We would also be giving up on our values if we handed Ewa over as Summers has insisted. If she has committed a crime, then we should try her ourselves. But we won’t be handing her over—otherwise, we might as well just shred this piece of paper.
“In a moment, we will ask for your vote. Every Mars Nation member’s vote is of equal value. We don’t need an administrator to govern us. As you cast your vote, please think about this small, hopeful piece of paper, which represents the foundation of our society.”
Ellen smiled at him encouragingly.
They started the vote right away. Sarah, Sharon, and Lance voted, as expected, Mike’s way. Ewa abstained. Ellen then announced the results for MfE: three votes for handing over Ewa, the rest against it.
Mike was relieved. Now Mars Nation could send Rick Summers the response he so richly deserved.
Mars Nation 3
Sol 314, MfE Base
“Push,” Theo said, “and be careful!”
The triangular object began slowly moving toward him. He let the leading edge slide onto his gloved hands. The structure, created from panes of glass attached to a base, was surprisingly heavy. He took a small step backward, securing his grip on the base before the whole thing could slip off the bed of the rover’s cargo area.
“Okay, stop,” he said. “Now I need you over here,”
“Sure,” he heard Rebecca reply over the helmet radio. She leapt elegantly from the cargo bed and reached for the other end of the structure. The base, a thick plastic panel about three meters long and just as wide, could be carried quite easily by two people. On top of it, though, two rectangular panes of thick glass had been leaned against each other, forming opposing faces of a wedge-shaped structure that had been closed by attaching two triangular glass panels to the sides.
“Do you see the set-up area?” Theo asked.
“Yes, I do.”
They had leveled the area yesterday, and today they’d positioned the rover close to it. They were on the summit of the hillside that towered over their small settlement. The glass prism was going to sit up here like the jewel on a crown.
“And heave!” he commanded. In perfect unison, they lifted it clear of the rover and sidestepped the short distance from the vehicle to the chosen spot. “And down,” he said. They maintained level as they squatted to lower the structure to the surface. They laid it down as planned and straightened back up.
Theo took a step back.
Rebecca looked down the hill and waved. She’d seen someone watching them. The presence of the settlement was only apparent at second glance, since the majority of it was located underground.
“I’ll bring the first canister,” Theo declared.
This was the weakest part of his plan. They’d brought containers of water along, keeping them inside the heated rover. They were going to fill the glass structure with the water—quickly, considering the air temperature was minus 40. They didn’t have much time before the water would freeze.
“I’ll open the fill valve,” Rebecca said. This was the ‘division of labor’ they had planned.
Theo walked over to the rover and removed the first canister from the cargo area. He rushed over to the glass wedge, opening the container’s seal en route, and poured the water into the structure.
“It worked!” Rebecca declared. “Congratulations!”
“Thanks.”
The contents of the first canister had covered the bottom of the structure. He hurried back and forth between the structure and the rover, eight more times. He had calculated, of course, how much water they would need to fill it. The water level rose proportionately higher with each addition because the structure tapered from bottom to top. Theo wasn’t fast enough, however, with the last canister. The water froze before he could pour it, and he huffed in frustration.
“That should be okay,” Rebecca said. “Look—we’re only short by a couple centimeters at the top.”
“True,” he replied, glancing up at the sun. It was early afternoon, but its position was already fairly low. “Let’s drive back down,” he urged. He was excited. Nothing depended on this structure, neither their survival nor the fate of humanity. And this fact was precisely what made it so special. It was pure luxury.
They jumped back on the rover. Since she reached the vehicle first, Rebecca took the driver’s seat. They sped down the hillside. They had to take a long detour since the crater wall was too steep for a straight route. Theo held tight to Rebecca from behind to keep from being hurled from the bucking rover. It was a lot of fun being out and about with Rebecca.
She was also the inspiration behind his idea for the water-filled glass wedge. She had been speaking wistfully about the fact that they would probably never see a rainbow again. This structure should change that.
They reached the base of the crater.
“Please stop,” Theo said.
Rebecca brought the rover to a standstill.
Theo leaned forward and tapped the map screen beside the control panel. “It should be about here,” he said.
Rebecca restarted the engine. She drove slowly to the spot that Theo had marked on the map. “This must be it,” she said.
Theo checked the time. “Twenty minutes to go,” he said.
They stood side by side, their upper arms brushing against each other. It was impossible for them to feel each other’s warmth through the thick fabric of their spacesuits, but it felt to Theo as if he could. They watched the edge of the crater wall.
“Now,” Theo said.
The sun was on the verge of disappearing behind the crater wall. This was the moment. Its rays reached the glass wedge, which, functioning as a prism, split the light into its various components and a rainbow appeared, small but clearly visible. The sun’s light was much weaker than on Earth, but as twilight settled around them, the rainbow became all the more distinct.
“It’s beautiful,” Rebecca exclaimed.
“Just like you,” Theo replied softly.
“Thank you,” she said. She gazed unwaveringly at the prism-generated colors.
Theo stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Imagine that we’re standing on some Caribbean beach after a tropical storm,” he said.
“I’m there with you now. The sand is warm and soft under my feet. The air smells like the sea.”
Sol 316, NASA Base
“Lance?”
“Yes, Sarah?”
“What do you get when you multiply 268 by 24, divided by 24.66 plus 56?”
He looked over at his girlfriend, who was sitting across from him at a computer. Why doesn’t she just plug the numbers into the computer? he thought. However, what he was doing right now was so dull that he didn’t mind the distraction. He was supposed to be comparing the water and fertilizer quantities used over the past two weeks to the amount of food that had been harvested. This was actually Sarah’s task, since as the crew biologist, she was responsible for the garden, but he was helping her. Lance mentally ran the calculation she’d posed. Since Sarah hadn’t mentioned any parentheses, 268 times 24 divided by 24.66 came to roughly 260, plus 56, came to 316.
Today’s date! Lance jumped up. Of course, on Sol 56, they had... He walked around his desk and up behind his girlfriend, start
ing to rub her shoulders.
“Is it starting?” he asked.
“I think so. I’ve never been through this myself, but if another woman told me, as her doctor, that she was having pain like this, my diagnosis would be obvious. He seems to be super punctual.”
“We have to tell Mike and Ewa,” Lance said. “Hurry, let’s get you to sickbay.”
But Sarah remained in her seat. “No need to rush,” she replied calmly. “I can still walk on my own.”
“Then I’ll head out,” Lance said, “and get Ewa.”
Besides Sarah, there weren’t any other doctors at the base, which was why Ewa had gone through childbirth training. As a trained farmer, she knew how to bring calves into the world. Sarah had laughed loudly at that and said that she felt like she was in the best possible hands.
Ewa wasn’t on shift at the moment, so Lance tracked her down in her quarters. This part of the subterranean structure still smelled like fresh paint. The rooms along here hadn’t been move-in ready until two weeks ago. Until then, Ewa had more lodged than lived in a storeroom.
He knocked on the door, and she invited him in. Ewa was lying on an improvised bed, the frame for which she had welded together. A large, flat sack stuffed with dried grass from their own garden was functioning as her mattress, causing her room to smell a little like hay.
“It’s starting,” Lance said without any other greeting.
Ewa sat up. “Just stay calm,” she said.
Sweat was trickling down his back although Ewa’s room was barely twenty degrees. What in the world was she talking about? What was happening now was the greatest miracle that the universe had to offer! And he was supposed to stay calm? “Easier said than done,” he said, rubbing his chin.
“We’ll get through this,” Ewa answered. “Everything looks really good. The baby has developed extremely well.”
Ewa was right. Neither the low gravitational force nor the higher radiation seemed to have harmed the fetus. The ultrasound pictures revealed a little boy who was well-developed in every possible way.
Lance was nevertheless worried. No human had ever been born on another planet. And their medical capability was limited. The NASA expedition had been provisioned for a visit to Mars, not for a permanent settlement. In contrast to the members of the privately funded Mars City space project, which was also located here on Mars, his son wouldn’t be receiving any vaccinations or even the vitamin K shot that was customarily given to newborns right after birth. The relations between their base and Mars City were tense at the moment, since they had refused to pledge allegiance to the administrator there.
“Are you coming now?” Lance asked.
“In just a minute,” Ewa said. “I’ll change clothes and wash up well. You should do that, too, if you want to be present for the birth. Do you?”
He nodded. Of course he did. He was going to be the first person to greet his son’s arrival on Mars.
The birth was noisy, stressful, and bloody. And it stank. Lance was drenched in sweat. He sat on his heels supporting Sarah on the plinth as she grunted and pushed. Tears ran down his face, but the only reason he noticed was because of the salty taste in his mouth. He felt responsible for Sarah’s suffering while all he could do was watch. He was glad when she squeezed his hand so hard that it hurt, and when his legs fell asleep and started to burn under her weight. Maybe this way he could reduce her burden at least a little.
Sarah was breathing at the rhythm that Ewa set for her. She was an exemplary mother already in these first moments of their son’s life. One final shout and they were done. Sarah’s muscles went slack, and Lance had to hold her firmly to keep her from sliding onto the floor. Her strength seemed to drain out of her body. He held her tightly.
“Do you want to do it?” Ewa was handing a pair of scissors to him.
What was he supposed to do with it? He shook his head.
“The umbilical cord,” Ewa said. “It isn’t difficult.” She put the scissors into his right hand and told him what to do. “Now,” she said.
He manipulated the scissors with his right hand, still stabilizing Sarah between his left arm and his body. The umbilical cord offered little resistance. He had now separated his son from his mother. Lance suppressed a sob. It was a farewell and a hello. He never would have thought that this would be so... so dramatic.
“Can you help her onto the cot?”
Ewa took a few steps to the side to take care of the infant. Lance didn’t think he could stand up to take Sarah to the cot, but he somehow managed it. When she was finally lying down, he brushed her hair out of her face with his index finger. She looked utterly exhausted, but nonetheless beautiful. Her eyes opened, and she shot him a little smile.
Ewa brought their son over and showed him to Sarah. He was wrapped in a white towel, and when Ewa held him up to Sarah’s face, he started to cry. Sarah smiled as she reached up to take her newborn son.
“He doesn’t mean it,” Lance said quietly.
“I know,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around their son.
A ringing sound went off in the background. Lance ignored it. His son was simply too amazing. He would never stop gazing at him. Someone touched his shoulder, and he spun around in surprise.
“Mike needs you on the bridge,” Ewa said.
“Is it—”
He didn’t finish the question, since Ewa’s face provided the answer. A horrible fear washed over him, such as he had never known before. He suspected this reaction was the result of now being a father. Would it always be like this? He straightened up. “I have to go see Mike,” he said.
Sarah just nodded.
“I have no idea what he wants from me,” he said, although Sarah hadn’t asked. With that, he turned around and left the room.
“What’s going on?” Lance asked as he stepped through the door.
Mike whipped around to face him as Sharon leaned against the right-hand wall, fiddling nervously with her belt. “We’ve received an emergency signal from the MfE,” Mike replied.
“‘An emergency signal?’” Lance echoed, afraid he could guess what he was about to hear. As terrible as it sounded, he found himself wishing a meteorite had hit the MfE base, or that perhaps an epidemic had broken out there. It would be horrible, but it wouldn’t affect his newborn son.
“An attack. Ten armed assailants from Mars City. Summers sent them.”
“Were there fatalities?” Lance felt himself growing cold and clammy. The sweat on his back felt disgusting. He needed to shower and change clothes.
“No. Ellen decided not to put up a fight. They wouldn’t have stood a chance. The entire MfE base is now occupied.”
“That was prudent,” Lance said. Mike was involved with Ellen, and now he’d learned the woman he cared for was in the hands of a ruthless enemy. Lance wiped his forehead with his bare hand, rubbing the perspiration onto his pants. “Is there anything we can do?” he asked.
“No,” Sharon said, shaking her head. “They’re too far away.”
“We have to consider how we’ll respond to the attack,” Mike declared.
“We’ll fight,” Lance said. However, as he uttered these words, they seemed to lose their force. What would they fight with? There were just the five of them. No, make that six. And that fact made the decision all the harder.
“I don’t know if that would be smart,” Sharon said.
“My first impulse is that we’d need to defend ourselves, too,” Mike said. “But imagine what would happen if Summers’ people show up at our base. He might send fewer of them, but if we fight back, there would be losses.”
“He’ll send more than he did to the MfE,” Sharon said. “We have forewarning. Summers will be reckoning on countermeasures. He made a smart call to take out the MfE first. They have three times as many people as we do. The element of surprise was a bigger factor where they were concerned.”
“Summers is an asshole,” Lance said.
“A powerful asshole,” Mike c
orrected him.
“Boys, this isn’t helping us,” Sharon cut in.
“How much time do we have?” Lance asked.
“Hard to say,” Mike declared. “If Summers sends the same people here that he used against the MfE, we might have a few days.”
“But he might have sent us our own attack team,” Sharon interrupted. “It could show up here at any moment.”
“You’re forgetting about our surveillance drones,” Lance said. He had stationed three automated drones at a distance of 20 kilometers from the base to notify them about unusual incidents. “They will give us about two hours to react.”
“If they pick up on the enemy,” Mike said.
“I’m assuming that they wouldn’t come on foot. And every vehicle produces a clearly visible trail of dust.”
“That’s true,” Mike admitted.
“I suggest that we give ourselves until tomorrow to consider if we want to defend ourselves or not,” Sharon said.
“And in the meantime, we should go ahead and prepare our defenses,” Lance said.
“Agreed,” Mike replied.
Sol 316, MfE Base
“Alright now, you men need to calmly climb in,” said one of the men in the modern Spaceliner spacesuits, pointing at the airlock on one of the enclosed rovers.
Theo glanced back. Rebecca wasn’t in sight. He hoped that she was doing okay. He recognized Andy and Ellen. Her arm was wrapped around his shoulders. She was probably trying to convince him to not fight back. Her decision to raise the white flag hadn’t met with everyone’s approval. Theo had supported her. They wouldn’t have stood any real chance against ten armed attackers. But what would happen next?
Somebody suddenly shoved him from the side.
“Hey! You’re supposed to get in there. Didn’t you hear that?”
Mars Nation: The Complete Trilogy Page 57
