“That’s exactly what I thought,” said Terran. “That’s also why we approached you guys first.”
“Mike and me, you mean? Our MfE friends also have a bone to pick with Summers.”
“Are you in touch with them?”
“I discussed it with everyone before meeting you here today.”
Terran fell silent and scratched his chin. “That... that wasn’t quite our plan.”
“Then you’ll need to alter your plan.”
“The problem is that Summers has a spy working for him among the MfE folks. We know that for sure.”
“Who is it?”
“That we don’t know.”
Now Lance was silent. Five of the men from Mars for Everyone were here, Theo, Andy, Ketut, Shashwat, and Guillermo. He wouldn’t have thought any of them would spy for the administrator. But there was no way to be sure, either.
“Maybe it’s one of the women,” Lance said finally.
“Maybe. We urgently need to test that.”
“Test it?”
“We’ve been spreading various versions of false information and checking which version is passed on to the administrator.”
“Have you done that before?”
“Yes, on board the Spaceliner. And it worked.”
“I see.”
“But for it to work again, now, you can’t say anything. Can I trust you?”
“Promise,” said Lance. “But who are you? If I’m to support you, I need to know who all is in your group.”
“I understand. I will discuss that with the others and introduce you to them at our next meeting.”
“We’ll be seeing each other again?”
“I sure hope so, Lance. I’ll send you a message with the time and place.”
Sol 327, Mars Machine
Ewa didn’t die. She woke up on the roof of the machine with her joints stiff and aching. Before sitting up, she glanced to the right and the left. Nothing around her had changed.
“Friday?”
‘You’re back! Oh, Ewa, I’m so glad!’
“Why? I was only gone for a little while.”
‘Look up.’
The sun had not quite reached its highest point yet, which meant that her body had been lying here for almost one whole day, unconscious the entire time. No wonder her joints hurt. Her mouth was dry, so she sipped on her straw.
“I didn’t notice that almost a whole day had passed.”
‘Two days,’ Friday corrected her.
“What? That’s impossible!”
‘But true. I was really worried about you. I was very close to disabling your biosensor and manually cutting the connection. But I was afraid you might not find your way back if I did.’
“Thank goodness you didn’t interfere.”
Ewa sat up. Shit! Her body must have relieved itself instinctively during her absence. And she wasn’t wearing a diaper! By now she should know to expect the unexpected. She had a real mess on her hands. Ewa groaned just thinking about it.
‘Problems?’ asked Friday.
“Yes, but nothing that concerns you.”
‘Were you successful at least?’
“Unfortunately not. We aren’t even slightly further along.”
‘What happened?’
“I was given a tour through the history of the planet. We misjudged the machine’s function.”
‘Slow down. It would be better to tell me everything in detail. Perhaps the solution is hidden in there somewhere. The thought pattern of the Mars inhabitants might have been so completely different that you may have sped right over the pivotal information.’
“Okay. But, in the rover. I need to clean up and find something good to eat.”
‘Of course.’
Ewa sat on the bed in her underwear and ate a dry cracker. It was delicious. She had found the package on the shelf under the bed. With every bite, she felt more and more like a person again. In her head, she filed through the images the machine had displayed for her over her biosensor. They were still unbelievably vivid. It was almost as though someone had taken a magical paintbrush and painted the innermost layers of her consciousness with it.
She swallowed her last bite.
‘Could we do it now?’ asked Friday.
“Did you listen in again?”
‘I couldn’t help it.’
“It was also just a joke.”
‘You seem to be in good spirits, Ewa.’
Friday was right. She really was in a good mood. And she hadn’t even been able to solve their main problem. The things she had learned were of no use to anyone. At the moment, it also looked as though she wasn’t going to be able to tell anyone about them.
“Yes, I feel good,” Ewa said. “Very fresh and renewed, as if my mind has gone through a complete overhaul.”
‘Who knows, perhaps the outside influence,’ said Friday.
“You mean, someone might have manipulated me?”
‘It isn’t impossible, though highly unlikely. Now, please fill me in on everything you experienced as you were lying there unconscious.’
Ewa told Friday what she had seen. The memories streamed back in perfect order, and she was easily able to put them into words, something that Ewa couldn’t remember ever experiencing before. It was as if she had been highly alert at every moment during that time. Was her brain really capable of such an achievement?
Friday simply let her talk. Ewa even had enough mental capacity to be aware herself as she gave her report. Fortunately, Friday didn’t interrupt her. He seemed to know that there was no need for any questions. The images in her head were of such perfect quality that they couldn’t have been natural. Then again, they also didn’t stem from a natural source.
Her report ended with her jump from the machine’s roof.
‘That was irresponsible,’ said Friday.
“It worked.”
‘You were just lucky.’
“No, I was pretty sure that it would work.”
‘Fine, Ewa. Now to our problem.’
“Have you thought of something?”
‘The solution is definitely not hidden in the history that was presented to you. Humans already know enough stories like that.’
“They certainly would have died out at some point.”
‘For sure. They had no other alternative. The Earth wasn’t quite so far away at that time. It wouldn’t have been any more livable than Mars is for us today.’
“But we are still attempting to survive here.”
‘Yes, Ewa, and there you can see how much more advanced the Mars inhabitants were versus modern humans.’
“You old skeptic.”
‘I am a realist, Ewa. But that’s not what matters here. Even if you haven’t seen a solution for our problem, in my opinion, we have some important clues.’
“And they would be?”
Ewa felt cold. She considered whether she should turn up the heat or put on something warm to wear. Spotting her comforter, she lay down on her cot and covered up.
‘You looked at screens several times, and then the last thing was that sphere with the map of Mars. There is a common thread.’
That was correct. The maps had all looked very different from one another, but one specific area had always stuck out.
“The South Pole,” she said.
‘Exactly,’ Friday answered. ‘The South Pole is now covered by an ice cap many kilometers thick. But underneath it, there are supposed to be lakes with liquid water.’
“You mean, the Mars inhabitants have survived there?”
‘I don’t consider that possible. They would have left their traces everywhere. No, they died out a long time ago, but they must have migrated there during their last few centuries. You are looking for a miracle. Maybe we’ll find something among the things they left behind that we can use against the administrator.’
“So, we should head to the South Pole?”
‘That’s what I would do, Ewa.’
“
Then we should set off today—now.”
‘Don’t you want to rest first?’
“No, Friday. I’ll put the rover on autopilot, so we can set off immediately.”
Sol 328, NASA Base
Sarah heard a metallic droning. Its tone was so deep that she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Or had she dreamt it? The sound returned. Sarah looked at the clock. She was now on duty since Sharon had ended her shift a short time ago. She sighed, got up, and wrapped her jacket loosely around her shoulders. Michael was sound asleep in his bed. The noise, however, didn’t seem like it was going to go away on its own.
In the corridor, Sarah noticed that the sound could only be coming from the airlock. Someone was trying to get in. Since no one was answering through the radio transmitter, it must be uninvited guests. Or was it Ewa, perhaps, in some kind of need? Sarah reached the inner chamber. In its current mode, the airlock could only be opened from the inside. Sarah quickly released the outer chamber. The noise stopped. The indicator light on the control panel showed that the chamber was filling with breathable gas. A few moments later, the inner chamber opened.
Sarah took a step back. She recognized a Spaceliner suit, like the one Ewa wore, but it didn’t contain a woman. It was a man with a noticeable paunch. He was followed by another man who was about ten centimeters shorter. Sarah waited for the men to take off their helmets. She felt a hand on her shoulder and flicked a startled glance over her shoulder. Their visitors had obviously awakened Sharon, who was now standing beside her.
“Please excuse the intrusion,” the portly man declared.
“You don’t have to apologize,” the shorter man corrected him.
Sarah looked for name badges on their suits, but didn’t find any.
“I was raised to be polite,” the first replied.
“If you’re too friendly, they will be disrespectful,” the shorter man replied, casually pulling a weapon from the tool bag attached to his suit.
“I don’t think so. You two ladies are sensible, now, aren’t you?” the stout man said, glancing first at Sarah, then at Sharon. He’d initially seemed more likeable to Sarah than his partner, but closer scrutiny of his eyes revealed an almost palpable arrogance.
“That depends on what you want,” said Sharon.
“We don’t want anything at all from you,” he replied.
“That’s not true,” corrected the shorter man, once again. “We’re here for information.”
“About what?” asked Sarah.
“That’s better,” said the large man. “The sooner we get what we need, the sooner we can get out of here.”
“That is, unless you’d like us to stay,” said the shorter man. “You’ve had to go a long time without your men, so there must be something that needs fixing, or maybe you have other preferences.”
Sarah struggled to keep from bursting out in laughter. From which zombie cemetery had the administrator dug up these two guys? The scene reminded her of an old film—a low-budget one.
Sharon was apparently able to control herself a little better. “Well, what do you want to know?” she asked.
“We heard there was supposedly some sort of interesting machine in the area,” said the fat man, inflating his cheeks and puffing as he exhaled.
“What kind of machine?” asked Sharon.
“Let’s not beat around the bush,” he replied. “Our sources are trustworthy. Don’t try to fool us.”
“If you know everything already, why are you asking us?” retorted Sharon.
“We don’t know its exact location.”
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Sharon. “What is this machine supposed to do?”
“We think that it takes carbon dioxide from the ground...” The shorter man shut his mouth after the fat man elbowed him.
“Ah. Well, like I said, we’ve never seen it,” Sharon said, turning around, about to walk away.
“Don’t move when we’re talking to you,” said the shorter man, grabbing her hair and yanking her back.
“Let go!” Sharon screamed. She looked about ready to attack him.
“Stop it,” said Sarah. “She didn’t deserve that.”
Sharon leaned against the wall and tried to catch her breath. Sarah was glad that it hadn’t escalated into a brawl. There was no playing games when a weapon was involved, even if Sharon was a qualified martial arts instructor.
“You seem to be the more reasonable one here,” said the fat man to Sarah. “It looks like you seem to get that we have the power to determine whether your child grows up to see its father or not.”
You pig, Sarah thought, keeping silent.
“What’s with the machine then? All I need is a general direction.”
“North,” said Sarah without thinking. She couldn’t bring herself to give the man the correct answer.
The fat man nodded his head. “Ok, fine,” he said, “we’ll see about that. And it had better be the truth, or else.” His radio buzzed, and he took the call. He listened for a moment, then smiled sheepishly.
“Müller?” the shorter man asked.
“Yeah, Müller.”
“North, you said?” the fat man said to Sarah.
“Yes, north,” she confirmed.
“Except that our colleagues have found vehicle tracks going in a completely different direction, leading out into the desert.”
“We’ve also driven in the other directions, of course.”
“But to the north, the terrain is as smooth and clean as a baby’s butt,” said the fat man.
“We purposely covered those tracks.”
“You’re lucky that I don’t hold a grudge,” said the fat man. “Come on, Tanner, we’re going.”
“It was nice chatting with you,” the shorter man said as he entered the airlock.
The fat man followed him without another word. Neither of them had put their helmets on yet. Sarah briefly considered bypassing the airlock controls and letting the two of them suffocate. But that would be murder and, almost worse, she would be lowering herself to their level.
“Hopefully, Ewa has already left,” said Sharon.
Sarah faced her colleague and hugged her. She just now realized how much strength this visit had cost her. She was glad that she at least had Sharon here with her.
Sol 328, Mars City
It was time for the next meeting in the fitness room. Again, the door seemed to be locked from the outside as if by magic. A man and a woman were standing at the weights. Lance didn’t know either of them, but the woman looked slightly familiar. He must have seen her once at NASA.
She approached him. “I’m going to make this short and sweet. I’m Jean Warren.”
Of course! She had made a name for herself at NASA for having manually coupled a passenger capsule with the space station after a complete failure of the electrical system at the station.
“I know you,” said Lance.
“I was the captain of the Spaceliner,” she said.
“That too, but I mean from your days at NASA.”
“Oh, that.” She laughed.
Now the man also approached. He looked slightly younger than Jean and introduced himself as Isaac McQuillen. “I’m a biologist,” he said.
“Still?” asked Lance.
The man regarded him quizzically.
“Well, as an enemy of the administrator...” Lance said, the question evident in his inflection.
“Oh, Summers hasn’t picked up on that so far,” said Jean. “Isaac is our connection to the scientists.”
“That’s good,” said Lance. “Where’s Terran?”
“He couldn’t come today. It wouldn’t look right if he were to meet with you over and over again. And you should meet the rest of us anyway.”
“I am glad to,” said Lance. “Actually, I’m thrilled. You guys are giving me a bit of hope that we will solve this problem.”
“It won’t be that fast,” said Isaac.
“One ste
p at a time,” said Jean. “Today, we are going to start with a different problem.”
“The informant,” said Lance.
“Exactly,” said Jean. “We have prepared a little something. Your job would be to speak to each of the MfE guys and give them a piece of information.”
“About what?”
“One of the storage rooms contains secret files on the conspirators.”
“But how am I supposed to know that?”
“As a cleaner, you have access to everywhere. You will just tell them that you inadvertently found something that seemed strange to you. That should be enough.”
“And what’s supposed to happen then, Jean?”
“Of course, you will tell each of them a different storage room. We will observe the rooms. When that specific room gets inspected, we’ll have our informant.”
“I don’t know,” said Lance, “it feels... awkward. As if I were an informant too.”
“I know what you mean,” replied Isaac. “It’s called a guilty conscience. The administrator is making us all do things we would otherwise never do. Just for that, he deserves to be removed.”
“I hope this bit helps,” said Lance.
“It will certainly bring us a step further. We need to know who we can trust.”
“Man, I would put it all on the line for Andy and Theo.”
“I’m sure I would feel the same,” said Jean, “but you can’t see inside their heads.”
“No, I sure can’t,” said Lance. “When should I begin?”
“As soon as possible,” answered the former captain. “We’ll have our eyes on all five storage rooms starting immediately.”
Sol 329, NASA Base
Sarah was sweating. It had been a long time since she’d last undertaken such a strenuous journey. She not only needed to cover the trek to the machine, but to do it in such a way that the artificial mountain shielded her from any possible Mars City spies. Sarah set off before sunrise after the two women had tossed a coin. Sharon would stay back and watch Michael, feeding him during the day with pumped breastmilk. Actually, Sarah hadn’t wanted to take any risk that something might happen to her outside, which would result in Michael growing up without either of his parents, but today the prospect of getting out of the confining underground rooms and finally seeing the horizon again was simply too enticing.
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