This was a situation made worse by the destruction of the labs during the upheavals surrounding the ousting of Dr. Vanji. And it was further exacerbated by a disaster in the resource processing sector some time later. That catastrophe had nearly tipped the viability of the colony over the edge. A hydrogen leak in the lower cavern led to a devastating explosion. Twenty-six colonists died, including all of the Hybrids, except for Xenon—he was now the last of his species. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, most of the machinery used to fabricate basic components was also destroyed.
In the aftermath of this fiasco, the council had argued that the resources of the two colonies should be consolidated into one, it would give them a better chance of survival. But in the end it was felt that retaining both locations would provide them with a better defense against potential subjugation by any of the new forces now heading their way from Earth.
So, Gizmo II was parked as a half-built project and Nills’ mind turned to finding a way in which the two facilities could be more efficiently managed and maintained. The big problem was distance, they were over thirty kilometers apart, too far to EVA on foot. So the only way to go from one to the other was by rover, and that could take up to two hours, particularly with a full load on board. So for some time Nills bent his mind to the conundrum of affecting a speedier and more efficient, cross crater, transit. But he also had his own, more selfish, motivation for solving this problem. If he wanted to spend more time with Jann, then he was going to have to come up with a better transport solution. One that could take minutes rather than hours to cross the crater.
The solution, of course, was flight. But not winged flight, as the Martian atmosphere was too thin to make this practical. Nills also ruled out an airship type design for similar reasons. His idea—one which he’d had for some time—was to repurpose one of the landers the original colonists arrived in. Since they used retro-thrusters to affect a landing on the surface, they all came with methlox engines, tanks and a control system for stabilization.
However, it would need a considerable amount of re-engineering to transform it into a true flying machine—one that could traverse the crater. Since it only had the ability to move up or down, not sideways to any significant degree, he would need to add on a forward thruster, as well as lateral and rotational control. The fuel tanks were also too small, affording only a few minutes of burn time. So his first task was to dramatically reduce the weight by stripping it of everything that wasn’t directly required for flight, including the outer shell. Since he could operate it while wearing an EVA suit, there was no need to have it enclosed. By the time he was finished it had been reduced down to a bare chassis, just enough to support the four retro-thrusters, tanks and a rudimentary pilot seat of Nills’ own construction. The landing gear was permanently extended and the entire contraption looked like some experimental craft from the mind of a 50’s NASA engineer. It was nicknamed the flying bed or simply the bed, for short.
Fortunately, the retro-thrusters were not powerful enough to reach Martian escape velocity, so Nills had no fear of accidentally sending himself into orbit with it. But they were more than sufficient to lift the entire craft off the surface and then some—that took care of going up. For forward motion, Nills added a simple gas powered thruster on the stern of the craft. One of the advantages of a thin atmosphere was very little friction so this unit did not need to be that powerful to get a decent amount of momentum going, and once moving, it pretty much kept on going. He also added lateral thrusters to port and starboard to give him rotational control.
It used methlox—methane and liquid oxygen, as the propellant, and they still possessed the infrastructure to manufacture plenty of this, in both facilities. So Nills only needed to add enough additional tanks to travel the distance between the two colonies. After each trip it would be refueled and made ready for the return.
From Nills’ perspective, it was a thing of beauty. However, it was a view not necessarily shared by Jann, who, while she appreciated the speed at which it could traverse the crater, was not as convinced as Nills was of its mechanical integrity.
Nills walked over to where the bed now sat, its spindly structure silhouetted against the Martian sky, like some giant metal arachnid warming itself up with the rise of the morning sun. He clambered up the superstructure onto the wide, flat platform that served as the passenger area and sat in the pilot’s seat. He flicked on the power and pre-ignition check routines started to scroll down a central screen. It would take a few minutes for this process to complete so, as he waited, Nills looked up at the sky above him. Somewhere overhead a Chinese mission, Xaing Zu Industries, had just entered orbit. They would spend the next few sols slowing the craft down by using their main engines and the atmosphere as a braking system, going lower and lower as they slowed, until they had burned off enough energy to enter a stable orbit and prepare for landing.
For a long time now, the colonists had known this would happen, new missions, and new people arriving—all anxious to investigate the strange and exotic world of the colony. But he had mixed feelings about this intrusion, as did the other colonists. On the one hand these new missions would bring badly needed supplies and components that could not be manufactured in situ. And these supplies could ultimately make the difference between survival or death. Not that it was a quick death that faced the colony, but a slow death by a thousand cuts as each component failure would stress the life support a little further each time, until finally, it could no longer sustain its dependents. So Nills had welcomed these new missions, he was, on balance, looking forward to them.
However, Jann was not of the same opinion. In fact, she had an almost visceral paranoia as to the intentions of these new arrivals. It was not a view that Nills subscribed to, although he was not so naive to assume, for one minute, that their motives were truly honorable. No, he knew damn well what they were after—the so-called Janus bacteria. But, since it no longer existed, then what was the problem?
His ruminations were broken by a message flashing on the control screen. Ready! It had run through all the checks, time to lift off. Nills settled himself deeper in the pilot’s seat, strapped himself in and hit the ignition button. He could feel the vibrations of the pumps kicking in up through his spinal column. It increased in intensity until the control screen flashed Ready to rock!
On either side of the pilot’s seat, mounted onto the rudimentary armrests, were two simple joysticks. One on the left was simply up/down. This was really the business end of the machine. It was also the moment that Nills loved the most, so he hesitated slightly so as to savor the moment, then he gently pushed the joystick forward.
A massive cloud of sand billowed up and around the craft, completely obscuring his view. The vibrations increased dramatically and, if he had not been strapped in, he would have been bounced off the platform. The dust cloud thickened as he nudged the joystick further, delivering more propellant to the engines. So dense was the dust cloud, that he was never quite sure when he was airborne until the craft exited out through the top of the plume.
He was now fifteen meters or so up from the surface and still rising. When he reached around thirty, he throttled back to hover the craft at this altitude and took a moment to survey the area. It was a clear morning and he now had a commanding view across the Jezero Crater. He nudged the joystick on his right side to rotate the craft in the direction of Colony One, then pushed forward on the same stick. The machine moved off, slowly at first, but all the time picking up speed as it flew over the crater’s surface. It would take him less than fifteen minutes to make the trip.
His heart gladdened at the thought of being with Jann again. They had been apart for quite a while, as she spent most of her time holed up in the medlab of Colony One, while he saw to the engineering and maintenance demands of Colony Two. He looked skyward again, as if to catch a glimpse of what was to come. For better or for worse, things were about to change. A new era was now unfolding, one where the humanity of the colo
ny, and all those who called it home, would be truly tested.
3
Council
After Nills had picked her up, the trip back across the crater for Jann had been uneventful. That is to say, the bed didn’t blow up en route. She even began to enjoy the ride, as some moments were truly exhilarating. And it was in those moments that Jann felt more alive than she had for a very long time. Perhaps she had spent too many hours cooped up in her lab, staring down the barrel of a microscope, so to speak. All the time looking inward—seldom outward.
Now though, she was glad in a way that the first of the new missions had finally made it into orbit. At least it gave her an excuse to leave her darkened room and engage with the world, with Nills—she had missed him too. But before any intimacy could pass between them there was a council meeting to undertake. One that required her full attention, because what was decided now could dictate their very survival as a self-governing human colony.
The post revolution colonists had initially established a kind of governance by general consensus, where everybody’s voice was heard. This had the advantage of minimizing arguments and fostering an inclusive and harmonious environment. In a sense, it kept everybody in the loop. But as time passed, and decisions on strategy and resource allocation became more important, a new council of sorts began to manifest itself. First to rise to prominence were those who had the knowledge and expertise in the functioning of various sectors of the colony infrastructure: biotech, agriculture, engineering, medical, communications, et cetera. Then there were those that the colonists simply held in high regard, such as Dr. Malbec. The Hybrid, Xenon, was also one such. He was viewed by all as a considered thinker, never rash, one who carefully analyzed the various options and possible outcomes. So, when a final decision needed to be made on some tricky issue, it was generally he they would turn to.
They had now gathered in the same council chamber, overlooking the vast central cavern in Colony Two, that the original council of Dr. Vanji had occupied. But this council was markedly different. For one, all were welcome regardless of perceived status in the colony. Secondly, there really was no official hierarchy, save for Xenon sitting at the head of the long stone table. He had taken to donning a dark robe for these sessions, like a Victorian judge. He sat now, as mediator and final arbiter—should that be needed.
In the center of the table, a 3D rendering of the planet Mars rotated, and around this, the current estimated orbital position of the Chinese Xaing Zu Industries spacecraft. Holburn, who knew most about these things, hence his elevation to the role of systems tech, was currently explaining the orbital mechanics that the Chinese crew was undertaking.
“They have to execute several elliptical orbits, using both their main engine and the atmosphere to help slow them down.” They all watched as the spacecraft’s planetary transit was drawn out in ever decreasing ellipses.
“It will be a few more sols before they’re in a position to contemplate landing.”
“So, how long is a few more sols?” Anika pitched in with the question.
“They estimate three sols to reach optimal orbit. Another one for systems checks and prep.”
“Four sols,” she replied, and left the words to hang in the air.
The council were all silent for a moment. Their collective gaze fixed on the slowly rotating orb.
“And how long before COM gets here?” It was Jann who finally broke this moment of communal contemplation.
Holburn consulted a tablet he was holding. “Around fourteen.”
“COM are the people we need to worry about the most. Now that they’ve won the court case to regain ownership of the Colony, all they have to do is set foot in either facility, and it all reverts to them.” Anika made a wide sweeping gesture with her hands. “Including everything that’s ever been developed here.”
Her fears focused on the fact that the Colony One Mars consortium had taken the International Space Agency through the Court of Arbitration to regain ownership of the Colony. And they had won. But there was one caveat, they physically needed to set foot inside either of the facilities before it would all legally revert to them.
“And what happens then? Where does that leave us? Are we all just products of COM’s bioengineering division? I mean, will COM own us—physically?”
“That’s why we should keep these bastards out. I’m not going to end up as a lab rat.” It was a voice from the crowd of colonists that had packed themselves in to the council chamber and taken up standing positions around the walls.
“What choice do we really have? We can’t survive, long-term, without critical component supplies from Earth. And once they land, how long could we realistically keep them all out, even if we wanted to?” Nills gestured at the mass of colonists.
“We have no choice but to let this play out.” Jann’s voice was calm and measured. “I for one, have no love of COM. After all, it was me who prevented Dr. Vanji from leaving, and I also scuppered their original plan. So they’ll have it in for me, first and foremost. But there’s no point in hiding from it. Nills is right, we have no future in isolation, we’ll all end up dead anyway.”
Before anyone else could reply, Xenon rose, extended his arms slightly, palms facing out, and spoke.
“It seems, on balance, we have no choice. We must embrace this challenge and try as best we can to assimilate the newcomers. Only then do we have a future.”
There was another moment’s contemplation by the ad-hoc colony council while they all considered the words spoken by the Hybrid.
“However, that doesn’t mean we should make it easy for them,” he finally said before sitting down.
Jann now took up the baton again. “Our immediate issue is how best to prepare for the imminent arrival of Xaing Zu Industries. And let’s face it, their intentions are clear, they’re after the exact same thing as COM. Acquire the genetic knowledge that extends human lifespan and return to Earth with the prize—and achieve this before COM land and reclaim ownership of the facility.”
Holburn deactivated the 3D holograph of the planet and sat down. “And what if they don’t?”
“Don’t what? Find what they’re looking for or leave when COM arrive?” said Anika.
“Both, I suppose.” He gave a vague shrug.
“The knowledge that they, and COM, seek resides in all of us, it’s now part of our DNA. How they plan to divine its properties is not clear. But my fear is that it will involve invasive examination on… selected subjects.”
“I’m not going to be a goddamn lab rat,” came a voice from the assembled mass of colonists.
Jann raised her hand to silence the outburst. “Even with this, the likelihood of Xaing Zu discovering anything substantive in the time they have available is minimal.”
“Meaning they will not be inclined to depart when COM arrive,” said Holburn.
“Precisely. So at that point I would envision a face-off between the two parties.” Jann replied.
“And therein lies our opportunity,” said Nills. “If we can pit one against the other, then…” He made a gesture. “Divide and conquer, as they say.”
Again there was a moment’s contemplation by the council before Xenon leaned forward and spoke.
“It would seem then, that this is the point where outcomes become uncertain, and thus open to considered manipulation for our benefit.” The council all nodded at this summation of the situation.
“So, what do we know of their respective numbers and resources?” Anika pitched her question at Holburn.
He stood up, tapped an icon on his tablet and a 3D rendering of the Chinese landing craft materialized in the center of the long table. “There are eight crew,” he began, “generally referred to as taikonauts. The commander is Jing Tzu. A highly regarded individual. Two are flight and systems, two are scientists, presumably geneticists. That leaves three that are, well, probably military.”
“Weapons?” said Anika
“Unknown. But we should assume they�
��re packing something. Also, and this is curious, they have no transport with them. So they’ll be relying on us to move them between facilities.”
“Why do you think that is?” Said Anika.
“My guess is that they’ll have full fuel tanks, ready to take off again at a moment’s notice. So they’re trimming as much weight as they can elsewhere. Not having a rover would be a considerable saving.”
“And COM?”
Holburn tapped a few more icons on his tablet and the Chinese craft was replaced by the COM lander. It was enormous by comparison, and there was an almost audible moment of awe from around the table when it rendered.
“As you can see, this is a much larger mission. Twelve crew. We have little information on who or what they are bringing with them. But it’s safe to assume, judging by the size of the craft, they’ve brought everything and the kitchen sink.”
“Weapons, rovers?” said Anika.
Holburn shrugged. “I would guess, all of the above.”
“Okay,” said Jann. “Let’s focus on Xaing Zu first. The plan is to meet at the landing site and bring them all to Colony One. That’s where the research lab is, that’s where they want to start.”
“Then we should put on a show of force. We’ll bring both rovers and the bed, and have some of us visibly armed, just to let them know we won’t be a pushover,” said Nills.
“I will endeavor to be as open and transparent with them as possible regarding access to the research lab. Let them see that the knowledge they seek no longer exists. Maybe then they’ll be satisfied.”
“And if not?”
“Then there is still a population of around twenty-five over there, it won’t be that easy for them to try and coerce us.”
Colony Mars Ultimate Edition Page 34
