by Bob Lee
Charles got up and stretched. “Well, I might as well check on the plants in the greenhouse,” he thought. “It will take a few hours for Brad to program the rover and for it to make its way over to that crater.”
CHAPTER 8
As Bonnie entered the central habitat module, she noticed that almost everyone was already there and sitting on the floor, facing forward. Up front were Brother Jacobs and the two astronauts. Bonnie automatically seated herself at the rear of the group with the other Bronzes, while her husband Jeff walked up to the front. Bonnie’s girls were already sitting with the people in front of her.
“Welcome, my children,” Brother Jacobs said, holding both arms out wide. “We have completed the first steps of our journey, yet we still have much to accomplish. First, let us put our arms around each other and give thanks.”
Bonnie put her arms on the shoulders of each person to her left and right. They had performed similar rituals in the years leading up to this trip, and everyone knew what was expected.
“Thank you, oh Great Consciousness, for leading your children away from the hotbed of strife that has been our home for so long,” Brother Jacobs intoned. “We have started our journey to you, and hope to find you in our new home. Hear us, and give us clues so that we may come directly to you in the months ahead. We have risen!” he shouted.
“We have risen!” the congregation moaned as they swayed left and right.
“We are flying!” Brother Jacobs shouted again.
“We are flying!” the group cried in response, as they all raised their hands in the air.
“We will arrive and merge!” Brother Jacobs screamed, and ran to the group, urging them all to stand up.
“We will arrive and merge!” they all yelled as they jumped up and joined in a group hug, laughing from excitement and relief that the first part of their journey was completed. Although this last was a new line in their incantations, they all immediately understood its meaning. For many years, Brother Jacobs had told them that they would go on a great journey to merge with the ‘Galactic Consciousness’ and reach a higher plane of existence.
“Sit, my children, sit,” Brother Jacobs said as he went back to the front of the module. “Commander Olstein will provide us a short briefing about our new abode, and then we will be handing out the work assignments. As the Commander speaks, perhaps some of you could go to the kitchen area and hand out our first supper to everyone. Our first meal has been provided in packages and needs no preparation other than heating.”
Bonnie and a few other Bronzes rose and walked over to the left wall. Since there were no doors to the multiple partitions, they would be able to hear the briefing while in the kitchen area. On a counter were stacks of packages.
Old Sue walked up beside her. “Well, get a load of these choices: linguini with garlic and clam sauce, hot pastrami on rye and chicken a la king. I hope there’s a fan in here because these will sure stink up the whole place.”
Bonnie laughed as she picked up two of the linguini packages, since she figured that Sue was probably correct. In front of her were three heating compartments. She placed the packages in two of them and pressed ‘reheat’ while Sue selected one of the chicken packages for heating. As the electronics started with a low hum, they both turned around to listen to Commander Olstein.
Roy Olstein surveyed the group in front of him. They seemed to him to be doing much better than he had expected, given the uniqueness of the voyage and their lack of training. “I guess they have their faith to sustain them,” he thought. “Personally I would prefer the training. I still can’t believe they didn’t brief us about this when we took the assignment. Well, I guess I’ll need to keep the explanations non-technical. But first, I’ll also need to make sure they don’t start out by being complacent.”
“Fellow astronauts,” Roy started. “It may seem nice and cozy in here now, but you need to be aware at all times that space can kill you in a matter of moments. You need to start thinking like astronauts as of right now. That starts with understanding all the safety precautions, and knowing where the emergency equipment is located. This central module has fire suppression equipment next to the tunnels that connect to your residence modules. The equipment is behind each of these big red doors,” he said as he pointed at hatches in the walls at each end of the module. “There are to be no open fires at any time. Fire is one of the most dangerous things that can happen in space.”
Julie waved her six year old hand in the air. “There are candles in my room. Why are they there if we can’t use them?”
“That’s very astute of you to notice those, young lady,” Roy said, nodding. “Those are oxygen-generating candles, and there are some in every cabin. They are to be used only for emergencies, such as if we have a breach in the walls or there is a problem with the air. In the old days, they used to be packaged as ugly canisters, but now they are designed to look like real candles.” Roy avoided telling them that in the old days, the candles burned at 600 degrees, and on a submarine during an emergency one had even exploded. He wanted to make sure the members were cautious; he didn’t want them paralyzed in fear.
Roy continued, “Remember, Pegasus is also your life boat. If there is an emergency, you will be told to evacuate up the ladder and back down the tunnel we all came through. Sit in the Pegasus with the door closed. I and those with spacesuits will handle the event. Make sure you have an emergency evacuation bag packed at all times with essentials, such as any medications.”
Bonnie made a mental note to herself to prepare a case with clothes and toiletries when she got back to her room. She also thought that she might skip dinner, as the smell from the food packages was making her a bit queasy. She swallowed hard, and forced herself to pay attention to the Commander.
“Although much is recycled, water and air inevitably gets lost to space in these habitats, and so we will need to make periodic trips to the surface of the asteroid to collect water,” Roy explained. “Pilot Tuttle and I, as well as those of you with spacesuits, will make excursions each month to check the mining machines and reload the hoppers that extract these vital resources. You may have noticed that some of the asteroid is covered in webbing. That is for safety. Every spacewalk will require those of us outside to clip to the webbing and use it as handholds.”
“I and the other Platinums are ready to assist, Commander,” Jeff said.
“Thank you, sir. Please be aware that we will be instituting strict protocols for spacesuit safety,” Roy said. “You will need someone that you trust completely help your don your suit as well as check its systems before and after every walk. Since the supply team was here recently, our first walk is a month away, and so we will have time to practice suit protocol before then. Pilot Tuttle and I will also need to check the three Mars supply ships that are docked near the nose of the asteroid.”
One of the ‘Called’ members raised his hand. “Excuse me, Commander. How did the supply team get all of these modules set up?”
Roy decided that having discussed emergency preparedness, he could safely move on to a brief description of the asteroid cycler. “We call this asteroid the Aldrin-Bigelow Mars Cycler, or AB Cycler for short. It is named in honor of Buzz Aldrin, the second person to step on the Moon. Most people do not know that Buzz had a Ph.D. from MIT and was accepted as an astronaut due to his work on how to perform an orbital rendezvous. Then, many years after leaving NASA, Buzz came up with the initial idea for orbits that allow a space station to go around the Earth and Mars, going back and forth like a shuttle bus, without needing any fuel. It takes six months for the cycler to reach Mars.”
Jean interrupted the astronaut. “But then why isn’t Earth at the top and Mars at the bottom of that big clock on the wall?” she asked. “Mars looks to be at about four o’clock.”
Pilot Sam Tuttle stepped in. “Think of Earth and Mars as moving around the Sun as if they are on a large racetrack. Earth is on the inside, and moving much faster. By the time we reach Mars, the
Earth will have passed Mars by, and so it will take the cycler another twenty months to catch up. We all need to get off at Mars, because it’s a long time going back! Thus the clock is showing the six months to Mars, but the twenty months back to Earth. We hope to create another cycler at some time in the future that takes twenty months to get to Mars, but only six months to get back to Earth. Then people going to Mars will catch this cycler that we are on, sort of like an ‘up elevator’ and take that other one as the ‘down elevator’ when they wish to get quickly back to Earth.”
“And the actual orbit the cycler makes is a bit more complicated,” Roy said. “It does a sort of ‘dosey doe’ with the Earth three times before heading to Mars. Planetary Resources used the first pass to dig out the space for the modules and set up the mining equipment. The second pass was used by Bigelow Aerospace to install the living modules. You might remember that Bigelow has a number of inflatable space hotels orbiting Earth, and these here are similar. Thus the cycler’s name: the Aldrin-Bigelow Cycler. The third pass the asteroid made with Earth was where we joined the cycler. The Mars orbit actually looks like a pretzel, and the cycler passes Mars twice before heading back to Earth. The clock here shows the times of last approach to each planet, which are the last chances to join or exit the cycler.”
Bonnie wasn’t sure she was following all of this. The smell of the food was definitely making her stomach do flip flops and her head was starting to hurt.
“Thank you for that summary,” Bonnie’s husband Jeff Chiswick said as he strode forward and faced the seated members of the group. “Now, although we all were successful in helping Brother Jacobs acquire the funding for our trip, we also had to perform some creative bargaining. You’ll probably have noticed that most of your cabins have no power. As part of the contract for our ride on this asteroid, we need to complete some of the module construction.” Jeff pointed up with one hand at the wires hanging down from the holes in the ceiling, and then held up a stack of papers that he was holding in the other hand. “I have here a list of assignments. Most of the men will be involved with the wiring and creating doors for the partitions in this room. The women will be assigned food preparation. We could also use some decorating of these bare walls and a play area for the children. The youngsters will be charged with creating pens for the animals and laying down dirt that others will bring in from the asteroid, as well as cleaning up after the animals.”
Old Sue turned to Bonnie. “Are you alright, Hon?” she said. “You’re looking awfully pale.”
Bonnie was definitely not alright. She was dizzy and about to throw up. She frantically looked around. There were too many people in the kitchen area, and she didn’t dare interrupt Jeff’s discussion, so she ran back in the direction of her cabin. As she crawled through the tunnel, she knew that she wouldn’t make it back in time. “I can’t throw up here in the tunnel!” she thought. “Jeff will be so mad.” As she emerged, she remembered the door labeled ‘Head’ that was there on her left, and quickly entered, just in time. She bent over and proceeded to retch into the bowl. Nothing but a bit of spit emerged, but the dry heaves continued a while. When the worst was over, Bonnie turned on the fan, closed the lid, kneeled down and laid her cheek on the cool commode.
CHAPTER 9
Charles made the short walk to the greenhouse that the astronauts had erected next to their Mars base. The long, low greenhouse looked just like the poly-tunnel hoop houses found on Earth. Before the mission biologist entered, he turned around and looked at their habitat. It was squat and round with a flat top. For years, the designers had referred to this as the ‘tuna can’ style habitat. The advantage of this design was that the hab fit perfectly on top of rockets being launched from Earth. Charles shook his helmeted head. “Someone back at NASA must have had this tuna can shape in mind when they decided to label our base the ‘Star-Kissed’ habitat,” he thought with a grin.
After he entered and cycled the greenhouse airlock, he took off his helmet and gloves. This section of the greenhouse was Earth normal atmosphere as well as containing supplemental growing lights. In here, he tested plants for their ability to thrive in treated Martian soil. He was testing cool weather root crops like beets and carrots, as well as leafy plants like lettuce, spinach and Swiss chard. He bent over and pulled a few of the beets and carrots. “The carrots are doing well,” he thought, “but these beets are pitiful. No wonder Serge complains so much. I think I’ll plant some over by the edge of the greenhouse where it’s colder. Beets supposedly taste best when subjected to a few weeks of frosty weather.” He also decided to add a bit more of the small amount of the nitrogen fertilizer the astronauts had brought to Mars. This environment section of the greenhouse was similar to what the approaching colony’s greenhouse would consist of, and so the NASA plan was to transmit his findings to the group after they landed.
Charles put on his helmet and gloves, and moved to the next section of the greenhouse. In this section, he was testing genetic modifications to the plants that would allow them to deal with increased contaminants in the soil of Mars, as well as lower atmospheric pressure. He had modified the genes for the stomata of the plants. Even though the Mars atmosphere was almost pure carbon dioxide, because of the low pressure, he had had to tweak the plants’ DNA so that they would have more of these leaf openings. This would allow the plants to be able to bring in enough of the carbon dioxide in spite of the low pressure to perform photosynthesis. He had only Swiss chard in this section, with each row of plants having a different genetic modification that varied the number of the stomata on each leaf. “It looks like row 5A is doing the best. I think I’ll take that as a base, and try some modifications of that one,” he mused. He pulled a few of the plants from this row to take back and examine under a microscope.
As Charles was about to go through the door to the final section of the greenhouse where he was testing genetic modifications for plants to survive in unmodified Martian soil, his helmet radio squawked. “Hey, Chuck, you better get in here. We have a problem.”
# # #
“Warning, Warning, Alien machine approaching,” the hopper transmitted.
Probe Spit could see from the hopper video feed that the alien robot was nearing its crater, with the machine’s eyes and threatening light weapon pointed directly ahead. It was a bit surprised that the mechanism had taken so long to approach, as it seemed to weave and stop at every depression in its path. But that had given the factory enough time to finish both of the electro-biosynths.
The probe released the electro-biosynths with the instructions to incapacitate the alien device. The synths could find their own way. They were long and skinny, and would move under the soil using hundreds of tiny claws along each side of their bodies. Although they had two eyes for stereo vision, while underground they would use a third parietal eye that would be just above the surface.
Spit watched the hopper video feed as the almost imperceptible raised soil tracks of the synths approached the menacing alien machine. The synths split apart and came at the machine from each side. At the last second, they emerged and bit into the slow moving treads and chewed. Although the treads attempted to shake them off, the synths just kept chewing as they rode around on the treads. As soon as the tread on the right separated, that synth lunged up. Gaping its mouth wide, it grabbed onto the alien’s neck and pulled sideways. The whole machine teetered and then fell over.
Instantly the other synth released its hold and wrapped around the rear section protruding above it. It then released its store of electricity in one huge jolt. The treads on the alien machine stopped. The synth on the right then wrapped around the front of the machine, and released its shock to ensure destruction. Then, per programming, the two synths reburied themselves and returned to the safety of the crater.
Probe Spit was satisfied. The programmers would be proud; it had assessed the situation and acted correctly. It would now monitor events to see if the alien machine revived or if additional machines were dispa
tched to threaten it. If nothing additional approached it within three of this planet’s days, it could proceed with the next phase.
# # #
Charles arrived to find the other three astronauts huddled around the equipment. “What happened?” he asked.
Brad turned around to look at him. “The rover just went dark. I had programmed its approach to that crater, and it was in autonomous mode as it worked its way around any rocks or holes that it detected. I was watching the monitor now and then while I was running on the treadmill across the room. I think I saw the image tilt and then everything went dark.”
“It might have missed detecting a rock as it was moving and tipped after running over it,” Commander Grant Styles suggested.
“That type of accident might have caused the monitor go dark,” replied their technologist Sergey, “but all the instruments are now dead, as if the whole mechanism has shorted. That should never have happened, even if it fell over. There are too many redundant components. I can’t get a response from any of the various instruments. I’ve even transmitted a hard reboot three times, but with no response.”
“Can you run back the video feed we have stored here?” Charles asked. “Maybe we can spot something that caused it.
“Da, good idea,” Sergey stated. “I will start the feed from five minutes before the incident.” He tapped a few keys and the monitor came to life. In the distance, they could see the raised ridge of the crater that was the rover’s destination. The rover moved slowly forward and then stopped in front of a small rock. It then turned slightly right, moved forward a few feet, and then stopped and turned back towards the crater. It then proceeded forward again. The way ahead looked clear.
