Colony Mars Ultimate Edition

by Gerald M. Kilby

  “True.”

  “Good. So we need to deal with this… courier problem, head on.”

  Blake nodded his approval.

  “You’ll need to go down there again and get this issue tidied up. And I need to keep the MASS board up here on track for the event. Already certain parties are spooked.” He lowered his voice again. “There’s talk of canceling.”

  “I know, I heard. But it’s just talk.”

  “Maybe, but let’s not give them any more excuses.”

  Kane looked back down at the screen as the video replayed. “So what else do we know about her?”

  “Just what’s in her official profile.” Blake tapped an icon on the table screen and several documents appeared. Kane began to scan through them.

  “One other thing, might be useful—then again, it might not. Her boyfriend is none other than Christian Smithson—and he just dumped her.”

  Kane lifted up his head and looked at his security advisor. “Interesting. But I can’t see how that’s going to help us.”

  “Maybe not. But the word is she’s trying to track him down. Apparently he stole something from her, and she’s desperate to get it back.”

  “Really? Maybe we’ve underestimated Christian. Speaking of which, where is he now?”

  “In HQ, awaiting transport up here to the station. In fact it was he who brought this video to my attention.”

  “Do I detect an effort on his part to curry favor with us?”

  “My thoughts exactly, considering he just shopped his ex-girlfriend.”

  “Hmmm… If that’s the case, then I think we should keep him closer to us while this mission... plays out.”

  “I think it would be good to get him out of the way. However, we could let Mia Sorelli think he’s actually holed up somewhere… isolated, but accessible.”

  “Ahhh… I see where you’re going now, very good, that could work.”

  “She would try and head out there, she might even break a few rules along the way. Good opportunity for an accident.”

  Kane smiled. “A bit like our other friend.”

  “Exactly, and if we plan it right then we might be able to add more weight to AsterX’s technical incompetence.”

  Kane thought for a moment. “Okay, do it. But get it done quick. We have a lot at stake here.”

  Blake nodded. “Consider it done.”

  14

  Harsh Environment

  Blake Derringer disliked being on the planet’s surface, he found himself ill suited to the one-third gravity environment. These frustrations emanated mainly from the disruption it caused to his finely honed physical training schedule. All that he had trained his body to do seemed to be pointless in this feeble gravity. What good was it, in a place where everybody could do exceptional physical feats, lift extraordinary weights, jump great heights.

  The MASS space station, on the other hand, had an almost perfect one gee setup. The artificial gravity produced by centrifugal spin meant there was a fractional difference experienced between the upper and lower body. This had not hampered him in any way and most people on the station never even noticed it.

  But he had not been brought here as security advisor to Kane Butros, so he could spend his time training. He was here to do those things that other people couldn’t, or simply wouldn’t, do. Wet work, as he liked to call it. Although in the strange and exotic environment of Mars, there was very little wet involved, such was the vast range of possible ways in which a person could die up here, the opportunities for creativity were endless, and it pleased him that he was practicing his craft in a hitherto unexplored arena.

  There was also the money, of course. By the time he finished his contract and returned to Earth he would be very very wealthy, enough to retire and live the good life, several times over. But his work was not something he wished to retire from. It was an art form, in his mind—something that just gets better with age. So he put up with the one-third gravity and began to see it as yet another opportunity to express his creativity in his craft.

  He had traveled down to the surface in one of the many MASS transports and had rendezvoused with a contact in the Industrial Sector. Having studied the requirements of the assignment, he devised a plan that should deflect attention away from the true nature of the unfolding crime. His contact had already furnished him with an ID as an AsterX maintenance technician, a passcode for their mainframe and a small thumb drive.

  Blake made his way to Central Logistics using his newly acquired ID to gain access to the maintenance area. He kept his head down and spoke to no one, so as to attract as little attention as possible. After a while he made it to the maintenance airlock, donned an AsterX tech EVA suit and ventured out on to the planet’s surface. He was looking for the rover used by Mia Sorelli, and found it quickly, exactly where it was supposed to be, connected to the umbilical for Central Logistics. He needed to hurry now, as he only had a short window of opportunity in which to execute this part of the mission.

  Entering the empty rover via the side airlock in the docking port, Blake removed his helmet and sat down in the cockpit. After a few minutes he had successfully accessed the rover’s main control system and uploaded the file contained on the thumb drive. With this phase of the setup now complete he needed to get moving so he would have a chance of accomplishing the second phase of the operation.

  Seventeen minutes later Blake Derringer sat in the canteen in courier central surveying all the comings and goings. If the information he had been given was correct, then he shouldn’t have long to wait. His big fear was that he might be too late and have missed his opportunity. But just when he began to harbor doubts about the validity of his intel, his mind was put at rest at the sight of Mia Sorelli entering the busy canteen. He waited and watched from an inconspicuous corner as she loaded up her tray from the food dispensers and made her way to an unoccupied table at the back of the canteen. It was time now for Blake to put his game face on. He grabbed a bar and a drink from the dispenser, walked over to where Mia was sitting, and took a place on the opposite side of the table, two seats down. He nodded to her. She nodded back.

  “You new here? Haven’t seen you around before.” He gave his best smile.

  “Yeah, just a few sols.” she replied.

  “You like it?”

  Mia looked up at him. “It’s okay. I get to see more of Mars this way.”

  He nodded and let a moment pass. “Terrible tragedy about that guy up at Nili Fossae.”

  “Yeah. These things happen, I suppose.”

  “It’s a very harsh environment here, people forget that. It’s very tough on machines. I’m just back from way station 29, and there’s a guy going to be stuck there for a few sols because his rover broke down. It happens all the time, a lot more than they let on.” He jerked a conspiratorial thumb in the direction of Central Logistics HQ.

  Mia said nothing, just offered a slight nod.

  “Poor guy, I feel sorry for him. Christian, I think his name was.”

  Mia’s ears instantly pricked up. “Who did you say?”

  “Christian Smithson, I think. Why, do you know him?”

  “Yeah.” Mia looked down at her food for a moment. “I thought he was heading up north.”

  “Well, he’s not going anywhere until they fix his rover.” Blake laughed and shook his head.

  “So where did you say he was holed up?”

  “Way station 29. It’s about a hundred and fifty kilometers out of Jezero, in the Isidis Basin, and he’s gonna be there for a while. Like I was saying, it’s a harsh environment.” He sucked down the last of his drink and stood up. “Anyway, nice talking to ya, see you around.” He saluted.

  “Yeah, thanks.”

  As Blake Derringer left the canteen, a brief smile cracked his face. The trap is set, now let’s see if she takes the bait.

  15

  Way Station 29

  “We’re going to way station 29.” Mia moved quickly down the connecting corridor leadi
ng from Central Logistics to her rover. Gizmo was moving along beside her.

  “This is not a scheduled trip,” said Gizmo.

  Mia stopped abruptly. “If your… programming, or whatever it is, won’t allow you to go, that’s fine, you stay here. But I’m going.”

  “This is most irregular, Mia. We have no clearance to embark on this trip. I suggest you allow me to pass a message to Dr. Jann Malbec and she can evaluate the risk/reward inherent in this endeavor.”

  “You do whatever you like, I’m going. It may be my only chance to catch up with this guy.”

  “Perhaps if you explain the nature of the operation so I can present all the data for analysis.”

  Mia threw her hands up in the air. “Why am I explaining myself to a robot?” She stopped and looked at Gizmo. “Look, you infuriating bag of spare parts, this guy did me wrong. I don’t expect you to understand that, but the only reason I took this gig in the first place is so I could track him down and get my stuff back.”

  “I see.”

  “No you don’t, Gizmo. You’re a robot, okay. Now I’m going, with or without you.”

  “And how are you going to operate the rover… pray tell?”

  “Stop, go, left, right. How difficult can it be?” With that Mia moved off to the airlock door of the rover. Gizmo hesitated for a moment, then followed her. Mia looked back.

  “So you’re coming then?”

  “I am afraid you leave me no choice. My responsibility is to ensure your safety. So this prerogative overrides any others.”

  Mia smiled at the little droid. “Well, that’s good to know. Come on then, let’s get moving.”

  They got the rover powered up and detached from the umbilical with no problems. But she had only moved a few meters when the comms burst into life.

  “This is Central Logistics, this vehicle is not scheduled for operation at this time, please state your intentions.”

  “Eh… we’re en-route to way station 29, you should have it in your system,” said Mia.

  “I’m sorry, we have no such record in our inventory. I insist you return to the docking hub and await further instructions.”

  Mia gave Gizmo a conspiratorial glance, winked and started talking in broken sentences into the comms. “This… high priority… top command… by order of… council… serious shit.”

  “Sorry, you’re breaking up, please repeat.”

  Mia switched the comms off. “Okay Gizmo, let’s hit the road.”

  The rover moved out from the central docking hub and joined the main traffic heading out of Jezero crater in the direction of the Isidis Basin. Mia estimated the trip would take over three hours, so she sat back and considered what she was going to do once she confronted Christian. Maybe she had been mistaken, maybe he didn’t take her stuff after all, maybe it was still in her accommodation pod, having fallen down the back of some unit. Or maybe she had just misplaced it herself and it would show up next time she did her laundry or some other random chore. She would look a right fool, going all that way to confront him only to realize she had judged him wrong. Doubt began to creep into her thoughts. She had spent all this time and energy finding a way to get to him. Now that it was within sight, she wondered if what she was doing was right. But then again, he probably did steal it. Even Dexter and Marina, in the canteen said he was no good, things went missing when he was around.

  “That is strange.” They were nearing their destination, but it was the first time Gizmo had spoken in well over an hour.

  Mia looked across. “What is?”

  “I am reading anomalies in the power distribution controller.”

  Mia looked at the robot.

  “Fluctuations inconsistent with acceptable component tolerances,” it continued.

  “Can you just cut to the chase, Gizmo? Is it good or bad?”

  With that Mia experienced a complete brain whiteout. An intense blinding flash seemed to emanate from inside her head. At the same instant every muscle in her body spasmed in an uncontrollable convulsion. Then she blacked out.

  When Mia came to, the first thing to register was that it was unbelievably cold. A shiver ran through her body and she started to shake uncontrollably. She got a grip on her body, literally—folding her arms around herself and rubbing some feeling back into her torso. Her breath condensed and she could see fine ice crystals feathering across the edges of the rover windshield. Mia looked over to where Gizmo was docked in the cockpit. It was still and silent.

  “Gizmo?” She reached over and touched the droid. Its metal shell was icy to the touch. “Gizmo?” The robot didn’t respond.

  What the hell just happened? she thought. She examined the rover dash. Everything was dead, no lights, no readouts. No power? Only then did she begin to realize how serious her situation was. How long have I been out? She couldn’t tell. It was long enough for the rover to lose a considerable amount of heat, but with no power that probably didn’t take very long. That also meant the oxygenator was out, and CO2 would start to build up in the cabin. How long have I got without power?

  “Gizmo?” She shook the little robot again, but still no response. What could she do? She had no idea how to get the rover booted up again, even if that was possible. She had no way to even broadcast a mayday. Without Gizmo her chances of survival were slim to none. Well, this is it, she thought. I’m going to die chasing down some ex-boyfriend. She laughed. I never learn, do I?

  Maybe I should get up and move around, warm myself up a bit? But then she would be using up more oxygen. So she had a choice, of sorts. Die from hypothermia or die by asphyxiation. She laughed again.

  The EVA suit? Maybe it was still working. Worth a shot. She got out of the seat and made her way to the back of the rover where the suit was stored. She hit the power button, it booted up, lights and readouts illuminated the dim cabin interior. Thank God.

  Mia started putting it on, but it was difficult as her hands were numb and her body ached. She finally clipped on the helmet, leaving the visor open and checked the stats. Power was at 56%, but oxygen was only 3%. Shit, how is that possible? Then she remembered the diagnostics Gizmo had run on Jay Ericksen’s EVA suit. It had been tampered with, sabotaged. She had bought herself a little extra time, nothing more. She turned up the heater settings, at least she would be warm when she died.

  It took only a short while for some feeling to return to her numb body, the worst of the shivering had stopped and Mia could now begin to think straight. She left her visor open, choosing to use up the remaining oxygen in the rover before switching over to her EVA suit. She moved back to the cockpit and looked out the window. All around her was a flat desolate landscape. She had no idea where she was, or how far they were from way station 29, having totally relied on Gizmo for that. She looked down at the droid. Whatever happened to the rover must have affected the robot too. Some power surge probably fried its innards. It was only then that Mia realized how much she had relied on it. She was a complete fool to even contemplate this journey without it. If only there was a way to reboot it, she thought. Perhaps it wasn’t dead, maybe it could come back online.

  Mia started to examine it, looking over its metallic body, searching for something that looked like an access panel. She really had no idea what she was looking for, though. In reality she was clutching at straws, so after a short period of investigation, she gave up. There was nothing that seemed obvious to her, she simply didn’t know enough about engineering to even begin to know what to look for. So Mia resorted to the only thing she could do. She gave it a kick. It rocked a little, but there was no response.

  “Gizmo. I could really use your help right now.” Nothing. It was no use, it was dead. So Mia launched one last massive kick. She had gotten some force behind it and the little robot was jolted out of its docking port in the cockpit. It rocked a little then went berserk. Shaking and spinning, its arms moving in all directions. Then it stopped.

  Mia fell over on her ass. A result of both the kick she had given it
and the shock of the response. “Gizmo?” she ventured, not sure what to expect.

  The little robot’s head twitched. “Mia, I seem to be missing a significant time period.”

  “Gizmo, you have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice.”

  “Why thank you, Mia. I too am very pleased to find you still functioning.”

  “What the hell happened?” Mia had managed to get herself upright again.

  “A massive EMP.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Electromagnetic pulse. It has destroyed the rover’s control systems and rendered it inert. I am afraid the rover is no longer viable. It has no functioning power source.”

  “What happened to you?”

  “Fortunately, I am hardened against an EMP attack. However, I was unable to physically function while still docked with the rover’s systems. Once you managed to undock me I regained motor control.”

  “Someone deliberately set some device on the rover?”

  “My initial analysis suggests it was programmatically engineered.”

  “I have no idea what any of that means.”

  “Someone hacked the rover’s systems and reprogrammed it to override safety protocols and generate its own EMP.”

  “So what you’re saying is, someone just tried to kill us.”

  “Precisely.”

  “So Dr. Malbec was right.” Mia’s voice was low, as if she was talking to herself.

  “This would be the logical conclusion.”

  Mia sighed. “Can you get the rover going again?”

  “No, it is beyond redemption. There is nothing I can do to reanimate it.”

  “Great. So where the heck are we?”

  “Approximately fifteen kilometers from way station 29. It’s a long walk but it is possible for you to make it.”

  “I don’t think so. My EVA suit has also been hacked, I have less than 3% oxygen.”