Mars Nation 3

by Brandon Q Morris

  A half-hour later they were standing in the red sand underneath the brown sky, which was lit by a reddish sun.

  “Ahmed, are you coming?” Theo asked.

  The programmer nodded. They walked around to the back of the rover. This was the location of a compartment that was continuously heated to above freezing by the life support system, as well as various engines. The space had been designed to hold items that needed to be used outside in an unfrozen state. There was no way that the designers had ever imagined that someone would use this compartment to hold a dead body. However, it was the only way that they could remove the suit from Pierre without having to take him into the rover’s cab.

  “When we open the door, we have to work quickly,” Theo said. “Otherwise, he’ll refreeze on us.”

  “I know,” Ahmed said.

  “Let’s do this!”

  Theo turned the two handles that operated the latch. He let the hatch fall downward before grabbing hold of the suit. Everything was going according to plan so far, he realized. Yesterday, it had been much harder to maneuver the rigid body into the compartment. A moment later, Theo was holding the torso, while Ahmed gripped the legs.

  They set the body on the ground. Working swiftly, Theo concentrated on opening all the zippers on the upper body. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Ahmed had already removed the boots. Theo was going to take the helmet off last. The head wouldn’t freeze so quickly that way, he thought. The real reason was that this way he wouldn’t have to gaze directly into the dead man’s face. Gloves, check. Theo then extracted the left arm by pulling the suit sleeve forward. The body reminded him of a giant baby. Right arm, done.

  “Can we turn him over?”

  “Just a second,” Ahmed said as he yanked the toolbelt out of its loops. “Now!”

  They flipped the dead man over. It was a good thing he was still wearing the helmet, as otherwise his face would now be pressed into the dirt. Who would end up wearing Pierre’s suit later on? Theo didn’t want to know. At the same time, he was now wearing an LCVG that had once belonged to another dead person. The world really had gone to hell. They pulled off the lower and upper sections of the suit together.

  “Ready?” Ahmed said. His question sounded like a combination of assessment, hope, and inquiry.

  Theo shook his head. “The LCVG,” he said.

  Ahmed gazed at him in disbelief. For real? his eyes asked. They really had to remove the dead man’s underwear? Theo nodded, and the programmer understood. At a basic level, it was a stupid waste of resources that they were burying the bodies instead of reprocessing them. Why wasn’t the administrator insisting on recycling them? Could he possibly possess some shred of decency?

  They quickly removed the heated underwear from the body. Theo didn’t watch the arms carefully and bent the wrists that were now partially frozen. He had to straighten them to pull the sleeves of the LCVG over them. He felt the dead man’s joints crack as he did this. Theo assured himself that it had been the ice snapping.

  After they were done, the man lay in front of them in his undershirt and boxers.

  “Those, too?” Ahmed asked.

  Theo shook his head. That really would be too much. He gestured at Ahmed, and they carried Pierre over to the grave, where the other four bodies were already resting. The guard was given a spot right on the edge. Without his suit, he looked almost skeletal.

  That was it.

  “Administrator, would you like to say a few words?” Theo asked over his helmet radio. “We will fill in the grave afterward.”

  Summers didn’t reply.

  “Mr. Summers?”

  No response.

  “Go check on him, Theo,” Maggie suggested. “I think the five of them have earned a decent send-off.”

  “Alright.”

  Theo walked over to the enclosed rover. The hatch was open, and he climbed up the ladder. Summers was sitting at the radio equipment. Theo couldn’t make out what he was saying, since he had switched over to a different frequency. Theo couldn’t see his face clearly through the visor, but either way, he didn’t look happy.

  “Administrator?”

  Theo touched his shoulder. Summers jerked, his right hand reaching for his pocket. That’s where he must keep his taser, Theo thought. “It’s okay,” Theo said. “It’s just me.” He saw Summers murmur something under his helmet. He had apparently forgotten to switch frequencies. Theo pointed at his ear.

  “Sorry about that, Kowalski. I didn’t notice you come in,” Summers finally said.

  “No problem. We’re done with the grave outside. Would you like to say a short eulogy?”

  “Uh, you know... the men are all dead as it is. I don’t believe in an afterlife. Why don’t you do it? I’m sure you knew them better than I did.”

  Theo shrugged. “Whatever you want. Good luck with trying to make contact.”

  The administrator turned back to the radio equipment.

  Theo hoped he could convince Maggie to make the final speech. He wasn’t the best person for something like that. He walked up toward the hatch. As he did so, his eyes fell on the radar. A light was flashing on the lower edge of it. He stepped closer. A bright dot was wandering across the screen. Theo superimposed a map underneath it. That wasn’t all that far away! If the equipment wasn’t in error—which was unlikely—then some visitor was moving around out there, someone who hadn’t tried to contact them. Whatever it was, it was moving quickly, perhaps 20 km/h, but it was heading straight for them. Its destination might be Mars City.

  But he had the lightweight rover! And the grave? He decided that it would have to wait. What were a few minutes when compared to eternity? He would have to be fast. Theo practically jumped out of the hatch and sped down the ladder. He then dashed over to the rover.

  “Where are you going?” Maggie called after him.

  “I have to take care of something!”

  “Um, excuse me? What about the eulogy?” She now sounded seriously pissed off, but he didn’t have time for lengthy explanations.

  “Later,” Theo called.

  Out of breath, he jumped into the driver’s seat and started the rover. Where had the radar just indicated the visitor was? He quickly got his bearings. Right, he needed to plot a trajectory from Mars City. Isn’t that the direction of the MfE base? But the dot on the radar had been much too small to be a rover. It might be a lone person, but there was no way a human could do 20 km/h through the desert. What else could it be? What should he be watching for?

  The question answered itself soon enough. Nothing else ever moved in the barren Mars desert. No tree, no bush, not even a dry leaf wafting in the wind. This made the reddish silvery sphere that was rolling and bouncing through the area all the more noticeable. What was that thing? Theo had never seen anything like it. It didn’t look like it had been made by humans.

  He roughly calculated the course that the object was taking, then slowed down the rover. He was moving too quickly. Would that thing let itself be easily captured? He picked up a little speed again. He needed to be ready for whatever the encounter might be. How could you stop a machine that didn’t want to be stopped without destroying it?

  He then remembered the tent. Every open rover was equipped with a tarp that its passengers could spend the night under in case of emergency. If he could manage to throw it over the object, he should be able to catch it. He drove on to the projected intersection point, jumped out of the rover, and quickly pulled out the tent. He let the tent platform fall to the ground and folded the tarp in such a way that he could easily throw it.

  Alright, visitor, I’m ready, he thought. And it was time. The ball, which seemed to be made up of numerous, overlapping steel wheels, was jumping and rolling toward him. Theo felt like a cowboy who was supposed to lasso a wild stallion. But unlike a cowboy, he would only have one chance, since the bouncing ball seemed to be moving faster than the rover had been. If he didn’t nail his toss, he would lose it.

  Theo took a
deep breath. The ball drew closer. He had to deploy a suitable amount of force at the right angle and at the optimal moment. One... two... three... Now! Theo threw the tarp, which unfurled and sank like an oversized cap over the sphere. It worked! Theo leapt down from the rover. Score! The ball jerked back and forth, becoming increasingly tangled up in the fabric. Theo made sure that it didn’t escape. He opened the tarp from behind and reached through it until he could grasp the thin metal of one of the wheels. He then pulled the struggling object out from under the tarp.

  Theo was a little disappointed when he discovered the conventional electronics inside of the ball. It hadn’t been constructed by extraterrestrials. He then caught sight of the duct tape. If something isn’t holding together, then you haven’t used enough duct tape. His father had used this mantra every chance he got. Some astronaut must have broken out the duct tape. This meant that the object came from NASA, from MfE, or from Mars City. Since the latter was its destination and it was coming from the direction of the MfE base, his friends must have sent this machine off. He thought instantly of Rebecca, and his heart grew warm. He hoped she was doing well!

  But where had they gotten this thing that had to be some kind of research robot? And what was concealed under the duct tape? Theo suspected that he should figure out the answer to those questions here and now, and not once he had rejoined the others. If Rebecca and her comrades had dispatched a robot unannounced, then they had some specific agenda in mind.

  Holding the robot between his feet, Theo searched for the power switch and turned it off. The robot made a few noises that sounded so piteous that he immediately wanted to turn it back on. Theo peeled back the duct tape. His MfE friends had made liberal use of it in securing the package to the robot. Then it took him another 15 minutes to free the object from the packing tape. It was a pistol with ammunition. That was crazy. Where had they gotten it? He counted the bullets—60! He could incite a revolution with those, or at least keep the administrator in check. What kind of range did the taser have? Ten meters? The pistol would definitely cover a greater distance.

  Of course, it would be better if he didn’t have to use the weapon. Theo packed it into his tool bag for the time being. He then loaded the robot onto the cargo area and tied it down with the tarp. He packed up the tent platform as well and then returned to the others.

  “What was that all about, Theo?” Maggie said in greeting. Her voice, although seeming composed, carried a sharp undertone.

  He had never seen her so angry. “I’m sorry about that. I had to take care of something.”

  Ahmed walked over to the rover and pulled back the tarp.

  “See that? It was rolling all by itself through the Mars desert, so I had to rescue it,” Theo explained.

  “Aw, how cute!” Christiane exclaimed.

  “You can’t just leave us standing around,” Maggie said. It sounded like a threat.

  “Speed was of the essence. This little guy was whizzing along at twenty kilometers an hour, and I didn’t want it to get away from us,” Theo replied.

  “Still, one word would’ve been enough,” Maggie admonished.

  “What kind of word? What’s going on?” For the first time ever, Theo was glad that the administrator was sticking his nose in. He must have given up on his communication efforts.

  It might be a good idea to change the subject, Theo figured, so he asked, “Still no word from Mars City?”

  “Total radio silence, very unsettling,” Summers replied.

  “But you still think that everything will work itself back out?” Maggie asked.

  “No. I now think that we should go check on the situation.”

  “Then let’s bury these poor souls and head back.”

  “No, Maggie, I’ve given this some thought. We’ll depart tomorrow before sunrise. The sun will be setting soon.”

  “It might be a good idea to slip out when it’s dark.”

  “No, I don’t think so. I want to be able to see my opponent in front of me. At night, we would find ourselves scared of every shadow.”

  I wouldn’t be, but you would, Mr. Summers, Theo thought, keeping it to himself. Maggie glanced at him as if she’d had the same thought. She no longer seemed to be mad at him. Theo hated it when people he liked were upset with him. When he finally told her about the weapon, she would forgive him completely. But now wasn’t the right moment.

  “Of course, we understand that, Administrator,” Maggie said.

  Theo had to remember that officially speaking, the pilot was always entirely on the administrator’s side. He’d long enjoyed her support. Of course, she had to fulfill this role.

  “Theo, could we finally start our small funeral?” Maggie asked.

  “One moment, please,” the administrator said. Then, pointing at the robot, “What have you found here?”

  “It must be a robot from an earlier Mars mission. He showed up on the radar, and I picked him up,” Theo explained.

  “An earlier mission?”

  “We’ll have to examine it more closely, but the thing must have been sitting around here for at least thirty years.”

  “It looks pretty clean.”

  “Yes, Administrator, the constant, mild wind has polished the rims to a gleam.”

  Summers walked over to the robot and leaned down. “It’s crazy how well-preserved it is,” he remarked.

  “You can see how damaging the humidity on Earth actually is. Things here corrode much more slowly,” Theo explained.

  “We’re lucky that we landed here,” the administrator said with a chuckle. “And here,” he reached into the center part of the robot, “is even some duct tape residue. Feel that. It’s still sticky. After thirty years!” He motioned at Theo, who advanced obediently. “Look here! Touch it.”

  “You’re right,” Theo said. “It’s still sticky.”

  “Are you sure that there wasn’t anything stuck in there when you found it?” Summers asked.

  Theo could hear the overt threat. He hadn’t prepared himself for a discussion like this. If only he had concocted some story about what might have been attached there! And nobody could come to his aid since he hadn’t told anyone about his discovery.

  “No, I found it looking just like this, Administrator.”

  “And if I took the rover and searched the area for duct tape remnants, I wouldn’t find any?”

  “I didn’t see any when I found it.”

  “Then everything’s fine, Kowalski. You seem like an honest soul. Otherwise I wouldn’t have brought you along despite dear Maggie’s recommendation. If you’re anything other than that, it would be unfortunate for all of us.”

  Theo had to keep himself from exhaling a sigh of relief. He’d played it very cool. The pistol was tucked inside his tool bag, and nobody knew about it. The administrator was just bluffing. He was probably too lazy to head out across the desert in search of duct tape, and hopefully none of the others would rat him out. In the end, all that remained out there was a little bit of tape!

  “I would like to go ahead and close the grave,” Maggie said.

  “Of course. I didn’t mean to hold that up. Good luck!” the administrator called as he hurried over to the rover.

  Was he going back to his radio efforts? Theo wondered.

  They arranged themselves around the grave. Maggie said their farewells to the dead. Where they came from no longer mattered. They were people, and all of them were equally far away from their birthplaces. The ones standing here were merely lucky enough to have survived until now. Was it really a matter of luck? Theo wasn’t a pessimist, but everything seemed on the verge of collapse. In a few weeks, he might be envious of the five here in the ground when he started to die a painful death as the last bit of breathable air dwindled away.

  He shouldn’t think about that. Rebecca would rightly fuss at him for doing that. Theo shuffled his feet a little until Maggie finished her eulogy. Then, each of them tossed a handful of Mars’ dirt into the grave. They filled th
e hole by shoveling the material they had removed earlier back into it.

  Packing the ground down firmly by stepping on it wouldn’t work here, but Christiane had a better suggestion. She walked over to the rover and fetched a pail of warm water from the inside of the cabin. If she hurried, it wouldn’t be frozen before she reached the grave. Theo watched her as she strode back quickly, causing the water to slop out of the bucket. The traces she was leaving behind would be visible for many years to come, until the ice eventually sublimated.

  She finally reached the grave and poured the water over it, which would hold the dust together. New permafrost would form over the dead bodies. For the foreseeable future, their bodies wouldn’t decompose. The bacteria and microorganisms inside them, the ones that would otherwise destroy their former hosts, couldn’t handle the Mars chill, and despite their intensive searching, humans had yet to find any bacteria on Mars. These bodies would lie here in the darkness for a very long time.

  Maybe recycling wasn’t such a bad idea after all. He would tell Rebecca that he now wanted to be turned into topsoil for the plants being grown for the Mars colony.’

  They boarded the rover for the night. The stench from five long-unshowered, sweaty people would soon permeate the cabin again. Space travel isn’t for princesses, Theo thought. Christiane climbed up the ladder in front of him. She handed Pierre’s empty spacesuit to Ahmed, who was standing in the hatch. Theo was the next-to-last person to board, with Maggie behind him.

  The former pilot suddenly grabbed his shoulder. With her foot, she drew a picture of a ball in the dust. Theo nodded. He wiped the ball away and made a rough sketch of a pistol. Maggie’s eyes grew huge. He quickly rubbed out the drawing. They might not need the weapon. It would be better if they didn’t. Whatever had taken Mars City off-line could eventually pose a threat to the MfE base.

  Hadn’t a common enemy, time and again, forged bonds between people? It was actually sad. Humans had advanced so far, but they always needed an external threat to force them to cooperate. Or was he being unfair toward the human race? Was he perhaps being blinded by the actions of those who pursued very egotistical motives? They would see, maybe by tomorrow.