Colony Mars Ultimate Edition

by Gerald M. Kilby

  The tunnel was dark, but thankfully short, only a few meters deep. At the end was an airlock, and judging by the illumination coming from the control panel, it was functioning. She advanced to face the door. A ripple of fear cascaded through her as she examined the panel. She pressed the open button and stood back. The door silently moved inward to reveal a surprisingly large area. It had an inner door at the far end but, oddly, two other doors on either side. Jann considered there might be several routes into this airlock from the mine. It made sense, as this was an escape hatch, presumably for emergencies. She stepped in. The floor was dusty but she could make out the footprints, heading from the door at the far end. She decided this would be her exit. The outer door swung closed and the airlock began to pressurize. Due to its large internal volume it took somewhat longer that the one back in the colony. Jann waited anxiously. She was committed, no going back now. Finally the light went green and there was a momentary pause before the inner door opened.

  Four people stood at the entrance, in full hazmat suits. Jann froze as two of them rushed forward and grabbed her arms, pinning them behind her back. She struggled and kicked, but the bulky EVA suit made it difficult to move. They looped a metal band around her waist and she could feel it pulled tight, trapping her arms. She twisted and tried to pull them out, but it was no use.

  When they were satisfied she was secured, a third person advanced. He reached up and unfastened her helmet, pulling it off her head. “Get me out of this,” she shouted as she kicked out at her assailant, aiming for his groin. But she was too clumsy, and he sidestepped her easily. He raised an arm and Jann could see he held a small syringe. Jann struggled but the two others had a firm grip on her. She felt the needle jab into her neck. “Bastards,” she managed, before all consciousness drained out of her.

  5

  Incarceration

  Consciousness came to her in waves of ever increasing clarity: light, sounds, a sensation of being trapped. Jann woke to find herself bound to an operating table. Her feet, hands and body were strapped down tight. She turned her attention to her environment and saw that she was in a small room. It was stark, save for some medical equipment of indeterminate function. She lifted her head further to fully examine her situation. It was not good.

  The wall in front of her was made from a semi-transparent glass, and she could make out the vague shapes of people moving around on the other side. She struggled against the bonds again, this time with such ferocity that the table shook with her rage. The figures noticed her activity and the glass wall became a little more transparent. She could now see several people sitting at workstations, facing her. One was standing looking straight at her. They all wore white lab coats and odd looking face masks. The standing figure spoke; Jann thought he must be in charge.

  “Please, do not be alarmed. We need to restrain you for your own safety.”

  Jann strained against her bonds again. “Get me out of this.”

  “If you insist on struggling then we must sedate you again.”

  Jann stopped. “Who are you? What do you want from me?”

  “All in good time, Dr. Malbec.”

  “How do you know who I am?”

  “We know a lot about you. We have been observing you for quite a while.”

  Jann shook the table again. “Get these off me.”

  “That is not possible at present. You see, you are a biohazard and as such a contamination risk to us. Please remain calm. You will feel no pain while we conduct our experiments.”

  Jann fought her bonds with all the strength she could muster, the entire room shook with the violence of her struggle.

  “I’m sorry but you leave us no other option.” With that, the window dimmed and Jann heard a pump kick in. She looked for the source of the sound and found it was coming from a unit beside her head. From this she could see a clear tube running into her neck, a blue liquid flowing through it. She slowly felt her muscles relax and all consciousness drain out of her—again.

  Jann woke with a start and sat bolt upright. Light blinded her and she shaded her eyes to look around. It was the same room but the operating table and the medical equipment were gone. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized she was no longer restrained. She was lying on a small bed, a pair of soft shoes and a bottle of water on the floor next to her, and nothing else. She stood up, feeling a little shaky, and moved over to the window. It was dull and cloudy, she couldn’t make out anything on the other side. She rubbed her wrists, they were bruised and cut where she had tried to free herself from the straps that restrained her. She sat back on the small bed. It was clear to Jann that Colony Two was very much alive and well.

  The sols passed, one by one. She could tell only by the light in her room dimming at night and growing brighter in the morning. It was a strange light. There was no specific point of origin, it seemed as if the entire upper half of the room glowed with an even luminosity. It had a reddish hue, like the daylight on Mars. At night the light didn’t switch off, it simply dimmed slowly over time, like a Martian dusk. But it was never totally dark. At night she could make out the constellations of the nighttime sky. It was like camping out. At one point she reached up and touched the wall, just to check that she was not imagining it. That all this time, she was really outside, as if that were even possible. But she needed some way to anchor her mind to reality. It gave under the touch of her fingers and felt soft, almost velvety. Jann considered that it might be bioengineered. Some sort of phosphorescent living organism that grew across the roof of the room.

  Food came to her through a hatch in the wall. The table would first extend then a side panel would open and a tray of food slid onto it. The first time this happened she cowered in a corner on her bed, then sat and looked at it for a while before moving over to check if there was anything she could use as a weapon. There was nothing, no utensils and the dishes were made from some flimsy paper-like material. She picked it up and flung it at the window. But by sol three, she was hungry and sat down to pick at the food. It consisted of salads and some vague, nutty rectangle, presumably protein. She took a tentative sip of water. It tasted fresh and clean, so she drank it all.

  Sometimes she could make out vague shapes moving behind the dull window. She would scream and shout at them, bang her fist against it. But it was useless—there was no response.

  It was early on the forth sol when the door finally opened and in walked a tall, dark, elegant man. Behind him were two others wearing black, one carried a tray of food, the other a long metal bar. They were male, Caucasian, and looked identical.

  “Dr. Malbec, you’re finally awake. My name is Dr. Ataman Vanji.” He extended a hand towards her.

  Jann froze for a moment. “The geneticist from Colony One?”

  “Ahh, you’ve heard of me? Yes, one and the same.” He shook her hand. “My apologies for the unfortunate nature of your welcome. But we needed to be sure that you were clean.”

  “Clean?”

  “Please, eat.” He signaled for the other man to bring forward the tray. He waved a hand over a wall panel and a small table slid out along with a bench on either side. He placed the tray on the table.

  “We needed to ensure you were free of the infection. That’s why we had to keep you locked up here.”

  Jann was finding it difficult to formulate any sort of a reply. She stood with her back to the wall, ready to strike at the first opportunity.

  “You know about the infection, don’t you? Some of your crew succumbed to it.”

  “Yes,” she managed.

  Vanji waved a dismissive hand in the air. “It was an error on my part that allowed it to escape into the general environment, before it had been fully developed.”

  “You can kill it?”

  “Oh yes, quite easily really.”

  “How?”

  “As a biologist, Dr. Malbec, I’m sure you are aware of the toxicity of oxygen to certain life forms?”

  “Well, yes.”

  �
�Expose the bacteria to a low pressure, one hundred percent oxygen environment for twenty-four hours and it is dead. Expose an infected human to the same for thirty-six and they too are free of it. Simple.” Pressure, of course. Why didn’t I think of that? she thought as she slumped down onto the edge of the bed. How could I have been such an idiot not to have tried that? Oxygen toxicity was an obvious experiment, and she had tried it several times, but not in combination with a variable pressure environment. All these years, all the hopeless experiments, and now she had her answer. Just like that.

  “That’s why we needed to keep you sealed in here for a few sols. Come, let me show you what we have done here. I’m sure you have many questions.” He stood back and held the door open, inviting her through.

  Jann took a moment to compose herself. The shock of what she had just discovered was still reverberating around her mind. Finally she stood up and looked from the door back to Vanji, and then at the two guards standing behind him.

  “Come, you have nothing to fear, and as a biologist, I’m sure you’ll be fascinated by what we’ve created.”

  Jann took a tentative step towards the door. Vanji had already walked out, leaving the two guards behind. She followed him out into a long, wide corridor hewn from the rock. The walls were rough. Above her, the roof was curved, with the same strange illumination. They walked side by side, the two guards following behind.

  “How did you survive? All this time, it must be, what, six years since the sandstorm, since Colony One went offline?”

  “We got lucky. Originally we only had solar power, but this whole area beneath our feet,” he gestured towards the floor, “has considerable geothermal activity. Aerothermal, to give it its correct terminology, seeing as we are on Mars.”

  “You mean it’s hot?”

  “Not exactly hot, but there is a significant temperature difference between the surface and the lower galleries of this cave system. Enough for us to sink deep bores and create a heat exchanger—in fact, several of them. So we were able to generate our own power. That’s what saved us. Not only that, it enabled us to create what I’m about to show you.”

  They came to a stop in front of a metal door set into the rock. Vanji swiped a hand across the control panel and the door opened to reveal a lift. They stepped inside. It was both wide and tall, its interior sleek and well engineered. Jann could feel the lift move a short distance before it came to a soft halt, then seemed to move sideways. Finally the doors opened into a large cave filled with desks, seating and personal items. It looked like Vanji’s own private space.

  “Please,” he gestured towards an armchair. “Have a seat. Are you hungry? I can have some more food brought to you if you like.”

  “No I’m fine, thanks. Where are we?”

  “This is my humble office. It’s where I live, really. Let me show you the colony.” He moved over to long flat wall and swiped a control panel. Slowly the wall illuminated. Jann thought it was a screen at first. But it was a window, presumably made from the same material as the one in her room. She stood up, moved over to it, and looked out. “Oh my God.”

  “This is a window into our world. Down there is the soul of Colony Two.”

  Below her, a vast cavern stretched into the distance. The floor was covered with vegetation and plant life. Here and there she could see small ponds and streams. It was like a lush parkland. Overhead, the cavern ceiling had the same strange illumination. The entire ceiling was light, a diffuse reddish illumination. Strange and incredible, it was like being outside. What startled Jann the most was the population. Throughout the cavern she could see groups of colonists going about their business: planting, harvesting, tending. With just a cursory look, she estimated there must be at least a hundred people down there. How could this be? She turned to Vanji. “All these colonists, where did they come from? There was only supposed to be a few dozen working here when the sandstorm hit.”

  “Ah, yes. This may come as surprise to you but most of these people are in fact clones. They are my most magnificent achievement: loyal, trustworthy and eternally young.” He faced the window and opened his arms wide as if to embrace his creation.

  Jann was silent for a while as she tried to comprehend this. So Gizmo was right about clones after all. She should have known, it always was. The colonist that arrived at the airlock at Colony One must have been one of these. But why did he go there? Was he trying to escape?

  Vanji turned back to Jann. “I know it’s a lot to take in. But give it time and you will begin to understand the society we have created here.”

  Jann looked up at him. “I’m sure I will, but right now I just want to get back to Colony One as soon as possible.”

  “Ah… well, you see that’s not possible.”

  Jann stiffened. “What do you mean?”

  He looked down and rubbed his chin. “Your arrival here has created something of a dilemma for us. Our existence here is secret and… well, you jeopardize that.”

  “But how?”

  Vanji waved a dismissive hand. “The how is not important at the moment. What is important is your future here.”

  “What? I’m not staying here.”

  “That is not for you to decide. There are those on the Council who demanded you be recycled. But since you’re a biologist I think you will make a great addition to our team.”

  “Recycled? You mean… killed?”

  “Not a term we use here. We treasure life; it is a precious resource on Mars. We do not kill, we recycle. You see, our philosophy here is that the soul belongs to the person but their biology belongs to the colony.”

  “So, what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that this is where you live now, until the time comes for you to be… recycled.”

  6

  Biology

  After her meeting with Vanji, Jann had been taken, under guard, to a different room farther down the long corridor. She was unceremoniously shoved inside and the door locked. The room was like the corridor, hewn from the rock, a cave within a cave. It was spacious, but furnished only with a bed, a desk and a seat. All of which were fabricated from bio-plastic. The ceiling was high and had the now-familiar lighting covering the ceiling. Again she had the disjointed feeling of being outside. She presumed this was now her room for the foreseeable future, however long that future might be.

  On the table was a handwritten note. Place your palm over the touch plate on the desk to activate. To activate what? she wondered. Inspecting the surface, she found it to be smooth except for a small frosted glass to one side. She placed her palm on it and a 3D image of Mars projected upward and rendered itself just above the desk. ‘Welcome Dr. Malbec. Please relax and enjoy this presentation.’ The rendering of Mars grew larger and started to rotate. It zoomed in on the Jezero crater and then on the location of Colony Two.

  ‘In the beginning…’ The voiceover commenced. It was a history lesson. Jann sat down and paid attention.

  The mine was first established by the early colonists, over ten Earth years ago. Initially they open cast for metals and silica but eventually sealed the cave system and created a pressurized atmosphere inside. This single act radically transformed the place and in many respects, as a Martian habitat, it was far superior to Colony One. It had heat from aero-thermal activity deep below the surface. The rock and regolith were free of toxic perchlorates, and the millions of tons of rock above made a perfect radiation shield. No wonder Vanji regarded it as being the perfect crucible in which to forge his vision of humanity. The vast cavern that Jann had witnessed from Vanji’s lair was only one of many, a great many. What they had accomplished here was staggering. Not least the incredible advances that they had made in genetic engineering, particularly in human cloning.

  Yet, the know how to clone a human had already existed, at least in theory. However, it was the ultimate scientific taboo. No scientist in their right mind would touch it. The repercussions of such experimentation would, at best, destroy a career instantly. A
t worst it would come with a hefty prison sentence. It was banned outright. But of course, that was on Earth, this was Mars. ‘The only law on Mars is your own.’ She remembered that first day in Colony One with Paolio, wandering around the biodome. “We’ve come a long way since then, Paolio,” she said to herself.

  When the presentation finished, Jann sat for a while digesting all that she had gleaned from it. What interested her most was not so much what was said, but what had been left unsaid. Even if Vanji and his team had successfully developed a human clone, it would be a mere baby. All the colonists she saw in the cavern were adults. So how was this possible? And the numbers suggested that there must be more than one clone of the same person. Multiple copies, all created from the same source.

  Then there was the secrecy. No one knew this place existed as a functioning colony. Not even Nills. He seemed convinced that no one could have survived the great storm. Or was he also in on it, part of the conspiracy? He had tried hard to hide his own existence from the ISA crew, maybe he knew? But she realized this was not possible. Because what Nills knew, Gizmo would also know, and the little robot had scant data on Colony Two. She gave a thought to Gizmo, even felt a twinge of sorrow for it, tending to the garden in the vast biodome of Colony One, all alone.

  Jann had no answers to any of these questions. So she turned her attention to examining the room. Specifically, how to get out. But after a brief period of testing and prodding she gave up and lay down on the bed. She needed to think.