Sol 344, Planum Australe
A giant, bluish-green tongue extended toward her. It was three kilometers high. Ewa had reached Planum Australe, the South Pole plain. Its edges reminded her a little of a glacier, although no water came from it. It was much too cold for that. The slope was not as steep as Ewa had feared, and piles of polar ice ran along its edges. This was good, since she wouldn’t have to search too long for an access point. She could just keep driving straight ahead.
However, because Friday had previously asked her so nicely, she did a preliminary check of the area. Ewa climbed off the rover and up a few meters onto the glacier. Using a two-meter long metal pole, she examined the firmness of the surface. She pushed the pole downward, aided by her suit’s amplifiers. However, the metal didn’t sink into the surface. Very nice, Ewa thought. Friday had been worrying for nothing.
She got back into the rover and set off as the cabin refilled with breathable air. “See, Friday?” she asked.
‘I don’t see anything.’
“You were worried for nothing. The ice is hard.”
‘I’m still worried.’
“You think that I did the measurements wrong?”
‘No, Ewa. The ice is going to change. Here at the edge, the plain is primarily composed of water ice. It’s as hard as steel at negative seventy degrees. But as you move farther into the area, the percentage of water ice declines. If the composition consists of too much dry ice, the substance becomes porous, and we might sink. If we don’t pay close attention, we might find ourselves five hundred meters below the surface level. We would never be able to escape a depth like that.’
“Great, I feel so much better now.”
‘I’m sorry, Ewa. We just have to check regularly to make sure that the ice is still solid.’
“And if we don’t.”
‘Then we should not stop again. As long as we keep moving, the dry ice should not sublimate so quickly that we would sink.’
“‘Should not?’”
‘Nobody has ever had any practical experience with this material. It will depend on our approach.’
“But how are we supposed to check to see if we are still safe? To do that, we’d need to stop.”
‘That’s true. We just have to hope for a little luck.’
“I would have preferred a more encouraging reply.”
‘I can understand that, Ewa.’
Sol 346, Mars City
Theo was sitting in the driver’s seat of the open rover. He was glad he didn’t have to ride along in the cabin of the other vehicle. When he and Christiane, who was sitting behind him, had climbed out of the enclosed rover, it had been well ventilated, but that wouldn’t last long. Out here, the only excretions he had to inhale were his own. He would have preferred to be driving with Maggie, but the administrator had insisted that she steer the enclosed rover. At least, this offered the advantage that she might be able to influence Summers somewhat.
Would that even be necessary? Theo had no idea what might be waiting for them in the city. What had happened? Whatever had seized control of the other rover might now be the ruler of all Mars City. But to what effect? It obviously had the power to kill people. It had the recovery crew on its conscience now. It had simply cut off the humans’ air supply. And what about the Chinese astronauts? They also ought to be counted among its victims.
But Mars City was complex. It would take more than just flipping a switch to suffocate everyone. Theo didn’t think that there was a single central control for all the city’s functions. The city was expanding rapidly, which was why the creation of living spaces had taken precedence over automatization. Presumably, the newly dug, relatively primitive living quarters were now the safest place that you could take refuge in the city, since everything there still functioned manually. At least, that was what Theo hoped was the case since that was where his friends were living.
He accelerated. The enclosed rover had a small head start. Theo steered slightly to the side so he wasn’t driving inside the cloud of dust the other vehicle was kicking up. “Any word from the city?” he asked over the radio.
“Nothing,” Maggie replied.
“And from the MfE, or NASA?”
“Our radio system’s range isn’t good enough for that. We would need Mars City to relay our messages, but they’re silent.”
“Shit,” Theo said.
“We’ll know soon enough what’s going on there.”
The enclosed rover drove relatively slowly, so it took them almost an hour to cover the distance. The vehicle came to a stop about a kilometer away from their destination. Theo parked his rover right beside it.
“We’ll go the rest of the way by foot,” the administrator announced.
Theo didn’t question this. His mind’s eye could still see the suffocated astronauts. Summers had to be scared that something might take control of the rover again and threaten him with a similar fate.
“We could take the open rover to get closer,” Theo suggested. They would be able to jump free from there if the vehicle went rogue.
“No, just leave it. Someone could still do a lot of damage with a light rover. The walk won’t hurt us.”
Theo climbed down. He picked up his tool bag, which was heavier than usual. The hatch on the enclosed rover opened, and the humidity from the escaping air froze instantly, creating a thin cloud that rose into the air.
Maggie was the first one to exit the vehicle. He held out his hand, and she jumped down the last three rungs. Ahmed followed her, looking tired. The administrator was the last one to leave the rover. His taser was dangling in full view from the belt of his spacesuit. He carried a bag over his shoulder.
“It’s up to us now,” the administrator said. Theo was already dreading a possible pep talk, but Summers just held the bag out to Ahmed. “Take this,” he said. “I packed up a few supplies and a mobile security terminal that will hopefully help us gain access to the city. I’m sure you’ll be able to make better use of it than I can.” Ahmed took the bag and nodded.
What was the point of packing up supplies? Theo wondered. The rover didn’t have a tent on board, so they couldn’t take off their spacesuits. All they could consume was what the suits provided—water and that slimy nutritional blend. This wasn’t exactly a cozy hike ending with a bonfire. But he didn’t say anything.
They strode up a low crater wall. They should soon see the outline of both Spaceliners. The rockets lifted their elegant noses into the dusty sky. That was their destination. These were the only parts of the city in sight. Most of its features were flat—like the greenhouses—or else buried underground.
Theo didn’t recall seeing the city from a distance as great as this. Of course, he knew what it was supposed to look like. Nonetheless, he had imagined it differently. There were neither city walls nor watchtowers. What the administrator so loftily called his Mars City was composed of the two landed spaceships and a few caves dug by the city’s residents. The human race had really come far over the past thirty or forty thousand years. And even that might be taken away from them by the thing running around the planet, the thing whose nature they didn’t even understand.
“Hey, Theo,” Maggie said.
“Yes?”
“You look so... dejected. What is it?” She had seen through him even though his face was concealed behind his visor. He needed to pull himself together.
Theo straightened his shoulders. Had his walk given him away? “It’s nothing,” he said.
“Got it,” Maggie replied.
This isn’t one of my better moments. She means well. He gave himself a shake. But it didn’t really matter what the administrator thought of him. “It is somehow impressive to see what all we have achieved here,” he said.
“We’ve survived where no human life is supposed to be possible,” Maggie said.
“For what reason?”
“I don’t know. Not yet anyway.”
“You think there’s a reason for this, and that it w
ill eventually be revealed to us?”
“There’s no guarantee, Theo. That’s what makes life so exciting.”
“Exciting, sure. I sometimes wish I could have a little less excitement.”
Up close, the two Spaceliner ships looked both impressive and out-of-place, like skyscrapers that somebody had built in the desert.
“Be careful,” the administrator said.
As if there was some concrete threat out there! They were safer here than they had been in the desert. Theo looked for the airlocks that led down to the living spaces and storerooms. They appeared to be randomly scattered around the area. For safety reasons, they had been located a good distance away from the two spaceships in case one of the ships needed to be launched. However, there were also subterranean tunnels through which people could reach every possible spot in Mars City without having to put on a spacesuit.
Where were the citizens hiding? Three-quarters of the settlers had already moved off the ships. Why weren’t any of them up on the surface?
“Away team here. Can anyone hear us?” Maggie asked over the radio.
Theo stayed where he was standing and listened. No answer came. “The quarters are well shielded against cosmic radiation, so our helmet radios won’t get through,” he said.
“But the people on the ships should be able to respond,” the administrator replied. “Each of them has a spacesuit whose communications links shouldn’t be blockable from the outside, just shielded.”
“Could it be that there’s no one left on the ships?” Theo asked.
“We should check first. I had my best people on the Spaceliner, and that was where the bridge was located,” Summers said.
“Is it possible that something has killed everyone here?”
“No, Theo,” the administrator said quite calmly. “The life support system isn’t so broadly centralized for that to be possible.”
They walked over to the rocket standing on its sturdy landing legs. Theo wiped a little Mars dust off its hull. “It seems to be electrostatically charged,” Theo said.
“Yes, that’s normal. The wind creates constant friction against it,” Maggie replied.
Theo glanced up. The ship’s outer shell was massive. He located an airlock hatch about five meters above the surface. “It doesn’t look like there’s an entrance around here,” he said.
“Right, it doesn’t look that way,” Summers affirmed.
Ah, that means there’s probably a maintenance access point, Theo thought.
A few moments later, the administrator located a control panel concealed behind a metal plate. “For engine inspections,” Summers said. “Ahmed, my bag, please.”
The programmer handed him the bag, and Summers removed a small tablet and an adaptor module with numerous little cables. “One of these should fit,” Summers remarked. He inserted the module into the tablet and tested one cable after the other.
“Ah, this one works,” he said. He turned on the tablet and tapped around on it. “Damn it, wrong protocol,” Summers continued. “The door controls want something from me, but I’m not sure what.”
“Have you established an encrypted connection? And does your tablet have the most recent certificate installed so the system can recognize it?” Ahmed asked.
The programmer’s questions sounded like gibberish to Theo, who considered himself fairly knowledgeable when it came to computer systems.
“I don’t know what that means, so it won’t help me,” the administrator admitted. “Could I ask you to take over? Your knowledge in this area is greater than mine.”
The programmer nodded and took the tablet from Summers. “I can’t promise anything,” he said. “We’ll only gain access if someone else has screwed things up.”
“That’s clear to me,” the administrator said, “but people always make mistakes, so I’m very optimistic.”
Theo took a deep breath. What should he do while they were waiting? He could walk over to the subterranean quarters and examine the airlocks. Maybe they could get into the ship faster if they used a detour. “I’m going to go check out the airlocks,” he said.
“Wait, I’ve got it,” Ahmed replied.
“What? That was fast,” the administrator said. “You must be good at what you do.”
“It was surprisingly easy,” Ahmed said softly.
Theo could feel the programmer’s uncertainty. Was this a trap? “Too easy?” he asked.
“Kind of like someone hid the key under the doormat.”
“And how likely would something like that be?” Theo asked.
“I’m not sure,” Ahmed said, shaking his head slowly.
“I know a lot of people who stick keys under their mats,” the administrator said.
“The programmer might have been lazy enough to leave a back door in place in case he didn’t renew the certificate early enough,” Ahmed said.
“Laziness is an important human motivator,” Summers said. “Most inventions were created as a result of sheer laziness.”
“What do you think, Ahmed?” Theo asked. “Is this a trap?”
“It’s hard to say, really. I’ve exploited a fairly stupid error, but programmers make stupid errors, too. And if he was under pressure because the launch was coming up quickly or he needed to hurry home... but the program code can also be manipulated.”
“We’ll never know if we don’t turn the key,” the administrator said.
“We could try to get through the airlocks,” Theo suggested.
“Know what, Kowalski? Give the airlocks a try, and we’ll go right in here.”
“That’s a good idea,” Maggie said. “Then we’d still have you in our back pocket if something happens.”
“Exactly. If you aren’t successful, just wait for us in the rover until the problem is solved,” Summers replied.
Theo nodded. Yes, that sounded like a good plan to him. Even just the thought of finally being alone again pleased him.
“Ahmed, can you open the door for us?”
“Indeed, Mr. Summers.”
The programmer tapped several spots on his tablet. The red lights on the control panel turned green. Then, one of the steel panels located on the interior edge of the pillar slid downward, and an entrance appeared. Theo had to lean down to see anything in detail. Maggie shined her helmet light into the space. They saw a tube with a diameter of about a meter that headed upward at a slant. Handles were attached along its back wall. The tube was clearly there to provide access for a technician.
“Let me go first,” Christiane, the technician, said.
Theo was just as shocked as the others.
“I know my way around. I did maintenance on the engines when we were still en route in space,” she said.
“Good,” the administrator replied, motioning for her to go ahead.
Christiane waved goodbye to Theo and climbed into the tube. “It’s surprisingly spacious. You’ll see,” she called over her helmet radio from inside.
“We’re on our way,” the administrator said. “Ahmed, Maggie... would you be so kind?”
The two astronauts crawled into the tube as well.
“Good luck!” Theo called after them.
The administrator also disappeared eventually. Theo could only see his boots as the metal panel slid shut again. “Can all of you still hear in there?” Theo asked by radio.
“Loud and clear,” Maggie replied.
That was very strange. Why hadn’t any of the over 20 individuals who had to still be living on board the ship responded to their communication attempts?
“Things look okay in there?”
“We’re at the end of the maintenance tube. There’s another hatch here. Beyond it is a space that is connected to the ship by an airlock,” Maggie explained.
“But you’re still in the tube?”
“Yes, it wasn’t all that easy to let Ahmed by. He’s now messing around with the hatch’s control panel.”
“This time no one left the key under the
mat?”
“No, Theo.”
“I can’t help with anything, but I’m getting goosebumps all over the place.”
“Just stay calm. Ahmed won’t leave us hanging. He is really very good.”
It was hard for Theo to keep from contradicting Maggie. What right did he have to destroy the hope she had? “Got it. I’m standing right beside another airlock now, and I’ll try my own luck with it.”
“I’ll call in when there’s news,” Maggie said.
He found himself in front of a brick-like platform at the center of which a recessed metal plate was mounted. It was the outer airlock door. He knelt down and touched it. The plate was smooth and plain. Right up against the edge was a small, raised circle that contained the following inscription: ‘Do not step here. Maximum weight: 200 lbs.’
Was that for gravity on Earth or on Mars? And who would give a weight in pounds? Three additional words were located below the warning: ‘Made in China.’
Theo wasn’t surprised. Spaceliner’s owners had naturally bought from there, where the costs were the lowest. Unlike the MfE, they had at least paid attention to quality. He pounded on the plate. He didn’t hear anything, but he also didn’t feel any vibrations. The piece of metal was massive. He didn’t believe that its maximum load capacity was two hundred pounds. The weight limit probably applied to the hinges, since the plate merely sealed off the airlock chamber. If he could override the opening mechanism, he could flip it up and climb into the airlock.
If. He took a step to the side. The controls that could release the panel were located next to the opening. Under normal circumstances, it should be enough to press the request button. This would cause the inner door to close and the air to be pumped out of the chamber. After a minute at most, the outer door could be opened. However, he had already noticed that all four bulbs on the control panel were glowing red. That wasn’t a good sign. It meant that the airlock had been taken off-line because it had registered some kind of error. This could occur if someone had put an object inside that prevented the inner door from closing. Or if the airlock’s diagnostic program indicated a software error.
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