Fable Hill

by Christopher Uremovich

  Concealed in secret, Frank revealed a bag full of confetti-colored, sugary nuggets of marijuana. His mouth watered as he meticulously rolled the bud in a moist tobacco leaf he kept fresh in a vacuum-sealed pouch. Hidden behind stunted stalks of corn inside the atrium, a single kush plant provided his personal stash.

  Frank took a long drag from his makeshift blunt wrap. The smoke filled the small space and quickly became overwhelming.

  “Ahem, ahem, ahem!” Frank coughed violently as smoke exploded out from under a mountain of blankets. His cover had been blown as he attempted to recover composure. “Ahem, shit . . . AHEM!”

  The main light of Frank’s room turned on and he fell from his bed. Amirah’s voice came over the room’s comm-link. “Sorry for startling you, sir,” she said.

  Frank took another drag from his blunt and blew smoke into the vacuum.

  “It’s quite alright, Amirah. What’s up?” Frank asked as he grabbed a Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni ash tray and snuffed out the cherry.

  “I didn’t want to wake the other crew members. A motion sensor detected movement, two minutes ago on the outer perimeter,” Amirah said with artificial concern.

  “Movement?” Frank asked in a hushed voice. A slight buzz had begun infiltrating his mind. “Like, a life form?”

  “Unknown,” Amirah responded simply.

  Frank stood up straight and firm. He grabbed his Colt 1911 and loaded an extended magazine of ten rounds. The slide shot forward with a loud click. Holstering the large .45 handgun, Frank ordered Amirah to bring up the CCTV footage in the control room.

  “I am sorry, sir, the exterior cameras have been powered down for the winter. Interior cameras only,” she replied.

  “Amirah, cut all lighting to the facility minus the heat lamps,” Frank said tactically. “And they said we didn’t need guns,” he whispered to himself, walking out into the main dome.

  It was dark, darker than usual, as whatever lights that buzzed before were now gone. Amirah switched from main comm-link to a small transceiver in Frank’s ear. He needed silence now more than ever. Whatever it was out there, Frank was determined to find out its identity.

  Thinking ahead, a pair of old combat boots graced the feet of his noisy titanium legs, muffling them as he walked through the atrium. Frank tip-toed his way to the control room. His head buzz had become a full-on high. First time I smoke weed in twenty years and this is what happens, he thought. The interior cameras revealed little. Even in infrared, nothing was detected inside the habitat.

  “Update me,” Frank whispered.

  “No movement is currently being detected. Shall I reset the sensors?” she asked him.

  “Do it . . . and Amirah?”

  “Yes, sir?”

  Frank paused for a moment as he watched the lone perimeter sensor blink red on the computer screen. “Don’t mention this to anyone,” he said finally.

  For the rest of the night Frank sat idle as a stone, staring out the atrium window. With pistol at his side, a lone sentry, he contemplated if there actually was anything in the darkness. Probably just the wind. Nothing can survive out there in this wretched cold, he concluded.

  Chapter 27

  1245 hours, Sol 305

  Ōme Station

  Earth Date: March 5, 2046

  “Smells like ass in here,” Mia exclaimed. She had entered Frank’s room and towered over him on the bed, clad in her spacesuit, minus the helmet.

  “Mehh,” Frank whimpered, slowly stirring out of a deep slumber, his pillow drenched in drool.

  “When was the last time you bathed?” she asked.

  Frank didn’t move but clung tighter to the blanket, shielding himself from dim, orange sunlight. “Come on, out with you.” Mia tore the blankets off, revealing a very naked man underneath.

  Mia swiftly averted her eyes with embarrassment. She saw a flash of Frank’s meat and potatoes and turned her head, shielding it with her hand.

  “You sleep naked? In this cold?” she asked. Her heart fluttered briefly. It was the first time she had seen another man naked since her late husband and it caught her off guard.

  “Did you like what you saw?” Frank asked, clearly irritated. Goosebumps attacked his bare skin and a shiver went up his spine. “I was so warm too,” he bemoaned.

  “You’re blessed, I’ll give you that,” Mia stated, her face still flushed from embarrassment.

  Frank rolled out of bed and walked over to the bathroom to begin his morning routine, undeterred by Mia’s looming presence.

  “We have new orders. Roland wants us to establish a secondary water point now that we have the parts,” Mia explained.

  Frank scoffed to himself as he began brushing his teeth and urinating. “You’re gross,” Mia said, deciding to not look away any longer.

  “Hey, you’re in my room, missy,” Frank responded. “So where are we going?” he asked.

  “Edge of Lyot Crater I’d imagine. More ice, possibly glacial in origin.”

  The flimsy plastic toilet shook as it suction-flushed, without water, its contents. The pipes led to the black water tank to be used in the aeroponics system and as compost.

  “I’m telling you . . .” Frank said between swipes of his toothbrush. Foaming toothpaste dripped from his mouth. “We need to check out that borehole that was drilled. Imagine if this whole time there’s been an aquifer under our noses.”

  “Look, just get dressed and ready to go. We’ll discuss it later,” Mia said. Frank acknowledged but made no effort to get ready any faster.

  “Oh, one more thing,” Mia said, stopping short of the doorway. “We have to take Renee with us.”

  Frank laughed out loud. “That’s funny, she’s never left the habitat,” Frank replied as he spit the contents of his mouth into the sink.

  “Well, we have to convince her to come. Roland wants her to start contributing to the missions.”

  Frank, still naked, locked eyes with Mia. She gulped nervously. “You’ll have an easier time terraforming Mars than convincing Renee to leave the hab,” Frank pointed out, taking two steps closer.

  “We . . . uh, we have t-to try,” Mia stuttered. She couldn’t help but take a peek . . . or two. He looks like a cyborg with a dick. She disengaged from the conversation and left, a smile still on her face.

  Minutes went by before Frank finally emerged from his room, fully clothed in his spacesuit, helmet tucked snugly under his right arm. They found Renee inside the medical room with headphones, watching an old TV show.

  Frank grabbed Renee’s rucksack and began putting essential items inside. Mia gently touched Renee on the shoulder, causing her to jump out of her seat.

  “Oh, Mia . . . what’s up? I was just watching . . .” Renee began explaining but quickly turned her attention to Frank.

  “Why are you packing my stuff?” she asked.

  Taking advantage of her passive nature, Frank tried a different approach, one he learned while in the service.

  “No time, pack your things. We have an urgent mission, Renee, and you have to come with us.”

  “Um, ok . . . well . . . I don’t . . . uh,” Renee stumbled about her desk, grabbing objects seemingly at random.

  Mia struggled not to laugh and knew it would ruin the charade if she did. She covered her mouth for a moment and gathered herself. Renee became a bit frantic at Frank's aggressive behavior and attempted to resist him. “Hold up a second, Frank, this is happening too fast, I need an explanation!” she cried.

  Setting the bag down gently, Frank sat down with Renee and brought himself to her level. “Listen, Mia and I are being sent on a mission to find us, Ōme Station, more water. To do this requires us to leave the habitat and travel in dangerously cold conditions. We need your expertise as Chief Medical Officer, in case anything were to go wrong out there.”

  Mia looked on with intrigue, her mouth slightly ajar as Renee processed the gravity of the mission. Her face turned paler than it already was with anxiety.

  “Hyp
othermia. We can't afford to take any chances, ma'am,” Mia joined in and flashed Frank a side wink.

  The outer door of the airlock opened with a frenzy. Pressure from the release of atmosphere caused the ground to kick up large amounts of ice and dirt. Frank shielded his visor with his hand and together the threesome exited the relatively warm and inviting confines of the habitat.

  Outside, wind speeds were palpable, exceeding 100 kilometers per hour. Frank could immediately feel the drastic drop in temperature, even checking and rechecking his suit’s systems to make sure they were operating optimally.

  “You feel that cold? Whew!” Frank hollered. His suit’s internal temperature shifted from 80°F to 45°F in a matter of seconds.

  As the three astronauts made their way to the ice-covered MEV, Alexei could be seen wheeling an inconspicuous crate away from the lumbering Ogaki V lander. As they neared, Frank caught sight of hazardous materials and nuclear waste symbols on the sealed crate.

  “What’s in the box?” Frank asked.

  Alexei, his suit covered in ice crystals, tapped on the boxes nuclear symbol and kept on walking.

  “What’s wrong?” Mia asked. “Why’ve you stopped?”

  What is so damn secret? Frank stood awkwardly still.

  “Let's keep moving, it’s cold out.” Mia pushed Frank onward with Renee visibly struggling in the background. She shivered uncontrollably, her arms crossed in a defensive posture.

  The MEV took an enormous amount of time to get started up. Its quad core lithium-ion power pack was glazed over with solid ice. Luckily for them, it would take more than ice to stop the MEV. Inside the cab, an old school nickel-cadium battery provided the necessary juice to jump-start the exploration vehicle.

  Frank sprayed the electric engine with a calcium chloride deicing agent, sublimating the ice into white gas.

  The team traveled east across the icy expanse of Anatoli Planum, making deep, staggered tire grooves along the way. It was a relatively simple journey, except the inside of the cabin remained below freezing with heaters doing little to help.

  Renee kept her helmet on, relying instead on her suit’s insulation to keep warm. “Stay on this course for half an hour, hook right once we reach some foothills,” Mia said. Her breath spewed condensation as if smoking a cigar.

  “Aye aye,” Frank replied, his nose and ears a bright ruby red.

  “I'm not one of your Marine Corp mates,” Mia scolded, rolling her eyes.

  Frank smirked with satisfaction. It may have been cold but he was having fun and had high spirits for what lay ahead. “We really should have ventured west. You know, checked that borehole for an undergrou—”

  “Underground aquifer, yeah, I know,” Mia said.

  “I was going to say cistern, but alright, aquifer works. You know, this trip would be a lot better if you cheered up a bit, be happy? Lots to be thankful for,” Frank smiled warmly.

  Mia stared him down. She created a fake smile with her fingers and joked. “Like this?” she asked.

  “I guess sarcasm counts as a form of happiness,” Frank stated. Mia followed up with a genuine laugh and shook her head while hiding her emotions. It was just too damn cold for genuine optimism.

  Thirty minutes later they arrived near the edge of Lyot Crater’s inner ring, containing miles of rolling hills and infinite amounts of trapped ice. Stopping for a short halt, Frank consulted the satellite positioning system to get a good layout of the area. It was then that Mia made an interesting discovery.

  “Look at this,” she said, handing her tablet over so Renee and Frank could see.

  “Those areas in green are methane, dark green is concentrated methane,” she replied.

  “Cool, what does that mean?” Renee shivered.

  “The great mystery of Mars: why is there methane detected on the planet?” Mia stated.

  The mission continued as planned with the three astronauts spending the afternoon sampling surface ice. Dry ice seemed to dominate surface deposits. They had to dig deeper for normal ice. Frank fired up the retractable crane and used it as an improvised drill.

  The edges of the inner ring were soft, and large clumps of regolith broke apart with ease. With just the slightest touch, the forks of the crane dug deeper and deeper through the dirt, shattering ice with every thrust. Eventually, the forks could delve no deeper; something solid had halted progress.

  They had struck an infamous Lyot Crater glacier. For the past sixty years it had been fabled but never proven that glaciers existed deep within the sprawling, northern crater. Now it was confirmed.

  Frank volunteered to exit the MEV and analyze the hole. Debris still lingered in the air; hydrated silicates mixed with ice particles twinkled like glitter. It only took one look inside—the entire cavern was a solid wall of ice.

  “It’s a glacier alright,” Frank transmitted back to the vehicle.

  “Sounds good. We need to start heading back,” Mia replied in earnest. The sun had begun to darken already at 1500 hours. What looked like brown cumulonimbus clouds in the distance foreshadowed the first global dust storm of the Martian year. Sands billowed and formed like smoke, snaking towards the MEV, making it insignificant in comparison.

  “Leaving sounds like a good idea,” Frank replied as he climbed back into the MEV's airlock.

  The familiar red flash of an awaiting voice message illuminated the driver’s side console. “Attention astronauts: Weather condition delta has been declared. All crew return to Ōme Station immediately,” Amirah modulated.

  Peeling out in six-wheel drive, the MEV accelerated towards the west with great haste. Frank wasted no time, his rear view cameras showing the impending dust storm, barreling towards them with speed. It looked as if a hundred giant, sand-covered horses were galloping towards them.

  With only fifteen kilometers to go, the sands of Mars licked the back side of the MEV, quickly surpassing the vehicle and shrouding it. No sun broke through the wall of dust.

  “Good thing we don’t have solar panels,” Frank said. A torrent of swirling dust surpassed the front windshield, making it impossible to see. “Switching to virtual map.” The windshield darkened and a holographic display projected a three-dimensional environment. It wasn’t incredibly sophisticated as all contour lines were drawn in green spectrum, simulating depth.

  “That’s pretty cool,” Renee said.

  Frank was now able to navigate the terrain with ease. A blue pylon even marked the location of Ōme in the distance. Just as the mood began to relax inside the MEV, the entire system crashed. Frank tried in vain to reboot it.

  “It’s no use. We lost our connection,” Frank said.

  “Just going to have to wing it. Keep heading west and we should run right into home,” Mia said.

  “I think we should stop and wait for the storm to pass, Mia,” Renee argued. She seemed alarmed at the recent development and was at the edge of her seat.

  “This dust storm could last for weeks, even months,” Mia said. “We have no choice but to push forward.” They drove for what seemed like an eternity before Mia made Frank stop. “If we go any further we might fall right off a cliff. We’ve obviously missed the station.”

  Frank let out an exasperated sigh. Only dust in the wind could be seen in front of the vehicle. Like being under brackish water, the reduced gravity gave the outside world a surreal submerged vibe.

  For several hours they waited out the storm, attempting to make contact with Ōme every half hour, to no avail. The temperature outside began to drop as night set in. The heater inside the MEV worked overtime, struggling to keep a stable temperature of 0°C. With every hour that passed, the temperature inside the MEV could drop by three degrees.

  The sand that had previously been a fury had calmed and turned into a haze. As if by an enormous stroke of luck, a bright search light cut through the soupy mix. Frank peered through the camera but couldn't see anything but an orb of light. “I'm going outside,” he said.

  Opening the airlock,
Frank's feet found the ground, sinking up to his ankles in an apparent sand dune. He could feel the cold pressing against his suit, like swimming in frigid waters with a wet suit. The orb of light got closer and closer until finally revealing itself to be a small rover, a betavoltaic rover to be exact.

  The little rover, no bigger than an ATV, used beta radiation from strontium-90 to power and heat its instruments. For the past two decades it had been roaming the surface of Mars and was one of the only rovers still functioning when the Yamada arrived.

  “You beautiful machine!” Frank cried out with immense joy.

  The rover stopped in its tracks and flashed its headlights to acknowledge Frank's presence. It led them back home, just three hundred meters away.

  Chapter 28

  0800 hours, Sol 306

  Ōme Station

  Earth Date: March 6, 2046

  The crew awoke to an unexpected meeting by team lead Roland. Routine items and issues were discussed at length, with the usual coffee-fueled bickering amongst the crew to start the morning off right.

  Roland saved the water issue for last, as they were starting to experience shortages from frozen pipes. What had been a fount was now a trickle of an ethylene glycol-tainted slurry that had to be distilled before consuming.

  “We will send two teams, one to tap the borehole and the other to establish a water pump at the newly-discovered glacier,” Roland laid out the plan.

  Alexei complained that he needed to finish his research and said he would abstain from the new mission. As he got up from his chair to leave, Mia blocked his way.

  “No. Enough secrets!” she shouted with an uncharacteristically high pitch. “Everyone here deserves to know what’s going on inside that workshop of his.” Her amber eyes latched onto Roland’s baby blues, pleading with his soul.

  Alexei continued towards the doorway, but was shoved back by Frank, who stood steadfast at Mia’s side.

  “Answers, now!” she shouted once more. The room got quiet as Keiko and Renee looked on helplessly.