Colony Mars Ultimate Edition

by Gerald M. Kilby

  “VanHoff and the remains of the Xaing Zu crew both took off from the planet within a few hours of each other. COM evacuated their people from Colony Two, but the rest of their respective crews were stranded here.”

  “Did they get back to Earth?”

  “Yes, I’m getting to that. Anyway, we sorted out the mess, purged the colony environment of the bacteria and brought the infected back to reality. But we almost had to abandon this place.” He waved an arm around. “Too much damage to sustain a full environment. So we moved most people over to Colony Two. The stranded COM crew are over there. We kept the stranded Chinese here. One was a biologist, so we thought he might help with putting you back together, Jann.”

  “Was Earth alerted to what went on, I mean, did they know what COM and Xaing Zu were bringing back with them?”

  “Oh, yes, yes. We were in constant communication with them. They knew all right.”

  “And?”

  Nills scratched his chin again and sneaked a glance at the others. They were staying silent, preferring to let Nills break the news. “Well COM were first to return. You have to understand that VanHoff and the crew were the first humans ever to have traveled to Mars and returned. There was a media shit storm. On top of that, rumors began to spread that he had returned with the secret to immortality, you know how these things get blown out of proportion.”

  “But the Janus bacteria, they did purge the spacecraft environment before they landed?”

  “Yes, but…”

  “Don’t tell me it got out?”

  Nills said nothing, just looked over at Jann. “It got out.”

  It was Jann’s turn to be silent and the realization sunk in.

  “They think it was the rover. Its internal environment was not part of the COM craft’s main systems. So they simply overlooked it. And that’s where they think it started.”

  “What’s the situation now?”

  “Not good.”

  “Not good?”

  “At first they had a strict quarantine in place, but… I don’t know, someone opened something they shouldn’t have. I don’t know all the details because they tried to hush it up at first, not cause a panic. But after a few weeks it was infecting the local population around Cape Canaveral.”

  “No.” Jann put her head in her hands and began to rock back and forth. “No, no, no.”

  “I think maybe that’s enough for the moment, Nills.” Dr. Foster was getting concerned. “Let me give you something to help you rest.”

  Jann jabbed an index finger in the doctor’s direction. “Don’t even think about it. I’ve been out of it for too long.”

  Nills stood up. “It’s okay. She needs to hear this.”

  The doctor backed down with a shrug of her shoulders.

  “What about the Chinese? Were they okay?”

  Nills sat down again, this time on the edge of the bed beside her. “No, they didn’t escape either.” He shook his head again. “I’m not sure of the full story there. They’re very secretive. But again a week or so after they landed people started to go crazy.”

  “Jesus Christ, this is a mess. What have I done, Nills, what have I done?”

  “It wasn’t you that created this thing, Jann.”

  “But it was me that released it.”

  “Well, I for one, am damn glad you did, otherwise I would still be a lab rat… at best. At worst I’d be dead. So don’t beat yourself up over it. How many times have you tried to stop them?”

  Jann rubbed her face with the back of her hand. “They just wouldn’t stop, would they? Not until they screwed everything up.” She shook her head and looked up at Nills. “So what’s the situation now? Did they get it under control?”

  “Eh… no. Not as such.”

  “What… tell me, what?”

  “They knew how to kill it, you know, saturated oxygen at low pressure. That may be easy to do up here, inside a sealed environment. But on Earth… not so easy. No sooner had they brought the infected in and cured them, they would get reinfected as soon as they went outside. It’s in the open… can’t stop it. All they can do is slow the spread. But eventually it will be everywhere.”

  “How long?”

  “The World Health Organization just sent us their latest report.” Dr. Foster finally had something to add. “The current infection sites are localized to the area around Florida in the US and Wenchang in southern China. But new outbreaks are happening in Europe, Russia and South America. These outbreaks will start to rise exponentially over time. They estimate the entire planet will be infected within six to eight months.”

  Jann looked at her and shook her head again. “Why did you leave me in this state for so long?”

  “We had no choice. We had to get the brain swelling down, and that meant induced coma.”

  “But for so long…”

  “Your physiology is… unusual. I’m not an anesthesiologist, I had to be sure you would get the best chance of healing before taking you out of it. My duty is to the patient.”

  “You should have done it sooner. Earth would not be in the dire situation that’s unfolding now.”

  “Well, I don’t see how that would have changed anything.”

  Jann looked over at her. “Using a saturated oxygen medium is one way to expunge the bacteria from the environment—but there’s another way to kill it.”

  There was silence for a moment as they digested this new information.

  “Another way?”

  “Yes, Nills. What do you think I’ve been working on, holed up in my secret lab? I’ve been studying it, testing, probing. But mostly trying to find a way to control it. Ultimately I stumbled on another way to kill it without killing the patient in the process.”

  “We need to get this information back to Earth. This is great news.” Dr. Foster was now visibly animated. “I need to tell the others.” And she ran out of the medlab.

  Nills sat on the edge of the bed and a craggy smile broke across his face. “I can’t believe you’re back—just like that. You are an extraordinary human, Jann.” He reached in and gave her a hug. “You really don’t give up, do you?”

  Jann sighed. “It’s this cursed bacteria, Nills. It’s defined me. The life that I had has been wrenched from me because of it. It mutated my biology and gave me… superpowers, I suppose. But look what it’s taken from me—from you, and all who live up here. Trapped us all in a never ending cycle of fear and conflict.”

  “It’s gone from here now. We purged the colony. It doesn’t exist anymore. Unless you have another secret stash somewhere.”

  “No, I don’t. No more experimenting. We need to make sure it’s gone from here forever. But even with that, we’re back to where we started. COM and Xaing Zu may be gone, but there will be others. Don’t you see, nothing changes?”

  Nills shoulders slumped a bit. “That’s a very pessimistic view, Jann.”

  “It’s the truth, Nills.” She reached and placed a weak hand on his arm. “You know it is.”

  Nills lowered his head a little. “They’re not all like that. AsterX aren’t interested in… genetics.”

  Jann sighed, “Oh Nills, you may be a technical genius, but you can be very naive sometimes. You trust people too much.”

  “Perhaps you’re right, but then again, you can be a bit paranoid. No offense.”

  Jann laughed. “Yeah, but it’s hard not to be when everyone is trying to kill you.”

  “Well they haven’t managed to do that just yet, and the good news is you know how to kill this thing. Looks like you get to save the world—again.”

  “Maybe.”

  “What do you mean maybe?”

  “I’m still… confused.” She shifted in the bed, trying to move. “My body feels like lead.”

  “But you’re cognizant… it’s amazing.”

  “Yes, yes, a bit disoriented, that’s all. Listen, Nills, before I do or say anything, we need a council meeting. And before that you need to tell me everything that’s hap
pened.”

  24

  Pandemic

  Nills wasted no time in bringing Jann up to speed on all that had happened, not just in the colony but also on the spread of the bacteria back on Earth. It was during his enthusiastic explanation of the intricacies of the asteroid mining exploits of AsterX that Jann began to lose focus. She was finding it increasingly difficult to keep track of the information. Perhaps it was merely a symptom of the dry subject matter, or more likely a manifestation of her own physical frailty. She could only keep her concentration for a relatively short period of time before losing track. She needed to rest. So Nills left her in peace, with strict instructions from Dr. Foster not to let anyone disturb her.

  Now that Jann was left to her own thoughts she slowly began to realize that, ultimately, she had failed. All her efforts to protect Earth, her home, from the ravages of the Janus bacteria had come to nothing. It was now raging across the planet, doing exactly as she had predicted. Sending the people into panic. It was not just that it would turn one third of the population into homicidal psychotics, they in turn would probably kill at least another third. Whoever survived this holocaust would be living in a world devoid of utilities as industry and institutions ground to a halt. Law and order would break down for a while before any sort of equilibrium was reached—if at all.

  But Nills was right. She didn’t create this thing. This was the product of humanity playing god, of technology without bounds. And what were the colonists but guinea pigs for their creators’ experiments? They had been used and grossly abused. Goddammit, she shouldn't even be here. If it wasn’t for McAllister getting sick, well… she would be sitting happily back on Earth instead of trying to fight for the right of a handful of humans, on a far off planet, to live in peace.

  She thought of home, of her father’s farm. How she longed to walk the hills again, in the fresh clean air, with no need for EVA suits and life support. All the things the Earthlings took for granted. They didn’t know how good they had it, always wanting to go one step beyond. How she would love to swim in a lake again, like when she was a kid. Those were happier times. How she missed them, the simple things: air, water, grass—and family. All gone now, no one left but her. Her father’s ashes sat in an urn on some dusty shelf in the Green Mountain Crematorium, the funeral directors in the local town. She knew the son, Freddy Turlock, she went to college with him. I wonder if he’s still there, in the family business, or has he moved on, like me? She laughed to herself at the thought of meeting him. So what have you been up to, Jann?

  Oh, I’ve been up on Mars for a while. Trying to save a colony of clones from enslavement.

  Really, and how did that go?

  It was not right that his ashes be stored in some dusty drawer and forgotten, she would claim them and bring them back to the farm when she got home. That’s what she would do. But, that was just a dream, a fantasy. She was here on Mars, no getting around that fact. If this place was going to be her home then she would make Earth respect it and its people. If all they wanted was to battle for control of Mars, well that wasn’t going too well for them right now.

  Jann could sense a window of opportunity opening in the midst of the carnage that now infected planet Earth. Was it crazy for her to even contemplate this? But they might just be desperate enough to do it, she thought. It’s not hard to imagine what people will sacrifice to save themselves from the abyss. Time was of the essence. She needed to act quickly. And above all, what she needed to do was convince.

  She awoke to find Xenon sitting beside her bed. His thin aquiline face broke into an elegant smile when he realized she was awake. “Jann, nice to have you back.”

  “Xenon, I thought… you were in Colony Two?”

  “I was. But since you have requested a council meeting, and are in not any position to travel yet, we decided to come here.”

  “Oh… yes, meeting… that’s right. Sorry… I’m still trying to get… my head together,” she looked over at him. “Literally.”

  Nills arrived, followed by Dr. Foster. They must be monitoring her remotely, keeping an eye out for when she awoke. She sat up as the doctor fussed. Jann swung her legs off one side of the bed.

  “No, you’re not ready to move yet, you need to rest.” Dr. Foster was trying to gently push Jann back in.

  “I’m getting out of this bed, even if I fall flat on my face and have to crawl on the floor.”

  “Wait a minute,” Nills stalled the protest. “I have an idea. Just stay there until I get back.”

  Jann decided to wait, but she still had her legs over the side. A minute or two later Nills returned—with a scrapyard wheelchair.

  “I recognize that,” said Jann. “Paolio’s old chair.”

  “That’s right, it still works. Come on I’ll help you in.”

  By now Dr. Foster had conceded defeat, so she helped Nills guide the determined Jann onto the seat. Jann fiddled with the joystick, the wheelchair jumped back and forth as she gained a feel for it. Finally she looked up at Nills. “I’m starving. What’s there to eat?”

  Nills laughed. “Come on then, let’s go find something.”

  Jann moved herself to the table in the common room, while Nills organized some food for her. It was only when she started to eat that Jann realized how hungry she was, it seemed she couldn’t get the food in fast enough. Dr. Foster was also at the table, she looked on at this ravenous exhibition with a visible air of concern. Jann considered starting to cough and splutter and clutch her chest, just for a laugh, just to see how Dr. Foster would react. But, in the end she was too hungry to sidestep into amateur dramatics.

  The council meeting could not be held until all members had arrived. Xenon had already left in the rover to ferry across the remainder, which would take a few hours. Jann planned to use the intervening time to get a better understanding of the intentions of the asteroid mining company, AsterX, and its charismatic CEO, Lane Zebos. Her concern, apart from her natural state of distrusting anyone until proven otherwise, was the fact that Nills seemed to be besotted by them, particularly Zebos. They were thick as thieves, always talking, discussing, debating. Perhaps it was just a natural maternal instinct within her to feel a need to protect those she loved. Not to see them hurt by false promises and duplicity. After all, AsterX, like COM and Xaing Zu Industries were not here for the scenery.

  She pushed the empty plate away, lifted up the coffee with both hands and sat back in the chair. She took a sip of the astringent brew, and raised it up towards Lane Zebos, who had been sitting quietly across from her. “Nice coffee, thanks for bringing it.”

  “No problem, it’s Blue Mountain. I thought Nills would really like it.”

  “Indeed. So tell me, Lane. Why are you all here?”

  There was a sudden silence around the common room, everyone stopped talking and readied themselves in anticipation of the bout that was about to take place. Jann Malbec was back, and she was now going to haul Lane Zebos and AsterX over the coals. No more mister nice guy, the free ride was over.

  “Our mission is to salvage the Odyssey on behalf of the ISA.” It was Lane’s sidekick, Chuck Goldswater who answered. Lane raised a hand to silence him.

  “That’s just one element of it. The real reason we managed to get the governmental oversight we needed for this mission was to bring you back home.”

  “Well, that’s very kind of you to come all this way just for me. But it looks like Mars is a much safer place to be right at this moment, what with Earth undergoing the zombie apocalypse.”

  “You said you knew how to kill it. We should get that information back as soon as possible, the longer we wait the more people will be affected.” Dr. Foster saw her opportunity to push Jann.

  Jann sipped her coffee. “So you’re just helping the ISA out, is that it?”

  “We’re a mining company. Our business is the extraction of physical resources for profit, it’s very simple.”

  “So you want to mine on Mars?”

  “No, n
ot exactly.” Lane leaned in and pointed vaguely skyward. “Out there, in the asteroid belt, lies the greatest untapped wealth in the solar system. We’re an asteroid mining company, so our mission is to investigate whether Mars can be a waypoint for the exploration of the belt. Our objective is establishing a base on Ceres. From there we can investigate suitable asteroids for mining.”

  “So why cozy up to the ISA, surely they’re no longer viable as a space exploration entity?”

  “As far as they’re concerned, you’re still an ISA astronaut, on a mission.” Chuck blurted.

  Nills had joined the group around the table, but had remained silent until now. He burst out laughing. “Ha… you obviously haven’t been reading the newspapers lately.”

  Lane gave his sidekick another look, to imply he should let him do the talking from now on. “Perhaps it was a naive dream to imagine that cooperation between international space agencies was the way forward for space exploration. That dream ended when COM landed the first settlers on Mars. I remember watching those landings. I was a kid then, it was what inspired me to pursue a career in space engineering. Even then I could see the future, and it belonged to corporations, not governments. But it is still a fallacy to assume that the privateer has it all their own way. There are laws governing what we do and how we do it, namely the Outer Space Treaty. And where there are laws there are politics. So in a sense, government still controls the exploration of the solar system. Those corporations who have the ear of government are those who will be the chosen few. Like a royal seal or a blessing from the Pope. It’s almost medieval.” He waved a dismissive hand. “It’s very frustrating.”

  “So you needed to get into bed with the ISA so you could get oversight?”

  “Correct. You see, AsterX are small fry. China is so powerful it can do whatever the hell it likes. COM too has become a monster, taking up a lot of political bandwidth. Their involvement with the ISA was the worst thing that the international space agencies could have done. It fractured them technologically. But they still have significant political clout, with tendrils leading right in to the heart of the UN itself. They can, and do, effect changes to the Outer Space Treaty.”