“A small number. We are 2,500 at the moment. Perhaps five of us have studied and know Basalese.”
“Is your history with them complicated as well?”
Stu said nothing.
Conn recapped the conversation in English. By the time she was done, they had arrived at a large hollow. Machinery with display surfaces lined the far wall. Five Sidereals turned to regard the humans.
“Our environmental control center,” Stu said. It looked higher-tech than the rest of the settlement, but not as high-tech as Conn would have expected an alien civilization to be. At least, not one that traveled to Mars from somewhere else and colonized it.
Stu said something to one of the Sidereals in their language. The other replied. “He says he’s glad you’re upright and walking, and he’s sorry you got attacked.”
“Please tell him thank you, and ask him where our friend, the fourth human, is.” Stu did. The Sidereal replied.
“He will not answer the question.”
Conn blinked. “I’m sorry? Um, can you try again, then?”
“I don’t mean to say that he did not answer,” Stu said. “He said, I will not answer the question.”
“Can we find someone who will?”
“This is our . . . what is the word?”
“Leader?” Conn guessed.
“More presiding officer, but yes. If he says he will not answer the question, then he has a reason why he doesn’t want you to know where your friend is.”
Conn explained what was going on to Daniels and Izzy.
“Is he dead?” Daniels asked. Conn asked Stu.
“No, he’s safe. It is likely that he is with members of the other faction.”
“What other faction?”
“It’s complicated,” Stu said.
The presiding officer spoke again.
“He understands you have equipment to make an Aphelial portal outside. He says you are not welcome to install it here,” Stu said.
“That portal is our only way home. It needs to be built—and in a very precise place, so it syncs up properly with the portal on your larger moon.” Stu translated.
The reply came, “The equipment to build the portal will be destroyed. We offer you shelter here until you are able to leave by some other means.”
Izzy said, “ask him what he means by will be destroyed. Have they retrieved it? If so, why hasn’t it been destroyed already?”
“The equipment remains on the surface, for now. It will be destroyed,” Stu said, translating the reply.
“Where are our breathing bubbles and tanks?” Daniels wanted to know.
“Should I ask him that now, or will he figure out we plan to go build the portal? We plan to go build the portal, right?”
“I’m not staying here until they can get us home some other way,” Daniels said.
Conn told Stu, “we need someplace to recharge our pressure fields, and we want to know where the rest of our equipment is.”
Stu said something to the presiding officer, then said to Conn, “if your pressure fields charge by sunlight, you’re welcome to the artificial light in our hubs. Where the plants are. Now, this is me talking. I didn’t ask him about the equipment, or else he would realize you intend to go up to the surface and build your portal. I know where your equipment would be stored.”
“Thank you, Stu. Thank your presiding officer for us. I don’t think we have anything else to discuss with him.”
# # #
They decided to wait until the colony’s nighttime before trying to make it to the surface. “Escaping,” if that was the right word for it, when most of the Sidereals slept gave them a better chance of getting out without incident. After a few more short hours of activity, the colony wound down and the overhead lighting dimmed. The astronauts tried to be quiet so as not to disturb anyone as they went.
They needed their breathing bubbles. Stu had told them where to find them. No one guarded the three of them, but there was someone guarding the equipment. One Sidereal, not obviously armed or otherwise dangerous, stood outside the room where Stu had sent them.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Conn said as they huddled up to decide how to deal with the guard.
“I don’t either, but we need that equipment,” Daniels said.
“Let’s see if good old-fashioned audacity works.”
Breaking their huddle, they stalked up to the guard. Conn made a motion for him to step aside. He immediately complied.
“Audacity worked pretty well,” Izzy observed. “Are we that intimidating?”
“Or doesn’t he care, because . . .” Daniels tried the handle on the door. “. . . it’s locked?”
“You don’t speak Aphelial, do you?” Conn asked in Aphelial. No reaction. “Basalese?” Nothing.
“There’s no reason to have a guard here if we can’t get past the lock somehow,” Daniels said.
“Someone guarding a locked room is unheard of?” Conn asked. Daniels glared at her. “Try the handle again. Harder.”
Daniels strained against the handle, up and down. It didn’t budge.
Conn pushed him aside. “You’re worried about breaking it,” she told Daniels. Conn put all of her muscle and weight into trying to turn the handle. With a loud pop, something inside the door broke. The handle came off. “This door is made to keep a Sidereal out,” Conn said. “They've been in Mars gravity their whole lives. They’re weak, compared to us.” She felt around inside where the handle had come off, and unstuck the door. It opened.
“Sorry about the damage,” Izzy said to the guard, who looked on with disinterest. With what Conn could have sworn was a shrug, he turned and walked away.
“His job’s done, I guess,” Daniels said.
“Hope he doesn’t get in too much trouble,” Izzy added.
“You guys assume he was guarding the equipment from us,” Conn said as they entered the room and sorted out breathing bubbles and tanks. “Maybe he was guarding it from other Sidereals. It’s our equipment.” She looked over her breathing bubble. It still resembled a diving bell, but had a decent sized dent, and two stripes of duct tape.
“They’ve got to know we’re going to try and build the portal if we get outside,” Daniels said. “They’re definitely going to figure it out now.”
“Then we’d better hurry,” Conn said. They slung their tanks over their backs, but carried their breathing bubbles until they needed them.
“Which way is outside?” Izzy asked.
“Do you remember where you came in?” Conn asked.
“It was at the end of a long corridor that led to a hub,” Daniels said. “Which one, I don’t know.” He looked at Izzy, who shook her head. “We passed through two hubs on the way in.”
“Great,” Conn said. “Follow me.”
“Where?”
Conn led them into a hub. Water dripped onto the strange foliage in the center. Shadows formed unfamiliar shapes without the plants’ artificial sunlight on. Several corridors led away. Conn squinted, looking for the one with the particular symbol she remembered.
They darted down the corridor Conn picked out. Soon they were back in front of Stu’s door.
Conn made to knock, then hesitated. “I wish I knew whether they knocked or did something else to get someone’s attention,” she said. “I hate to scare his family.”
Daniels leaned in and rapped on the door. It was made of some alloy that didn’t carry sound well. He rapped harder.
After a time the door opened, and Stu stepped out, closing the door gently behind him. “You need to know how to get to the surface,” he said.
“That’s right,” Conn said. “We’re very sorry to wake you, and we hope we didn’t scare anybody.”
“I’ve been giving it some thought,” Stu said, Conn translating for the other two. “I don’t think you ought to build your portal. I think you should stay here.”
TWENTY
The Portal
July 6, 2039
Conn blin
ked. “We don’t have any other way to get home,” she said. “Once we’re gone, do what you want with the portal—Stu, all we’re trying to do is to go home. Surely you can help us do as little as that.”
Stu looked troubled, although Conn mused that it was probably her imagination. He probably had facial expressions and body language that were as alien as he was. “I’m not naive. I understand your people are coming, and we can’t realistically stop them. But Mars is a big place. Perhaps if you built your portal someplace far away . . .”
“That’s what we’ll end up doing,” Conn said, glancing sidelong at Daniels. “We have to build this one here, so it syncs up with the one on Phobos. Once we’re gone, though, we’ll convince people to avoid this area. You have my word that I’ll do whatever I can to make that happen.”
“To be frank, Conn, your people do not have a history of respecting indigenous life in places you wish to occupy and exploit.”
Conn wondered how the Sidereals had studied Earth history. Avatars, like the Pelorians?
“But it’s as you say: Mars is a big place,” she said. “I would be foolish to deny what you say about our history, but believe me, in those cases we’re talking about a finite amount of room. You’re the only twenty-five hundred-some beings on this whole planet. We’ll keep away. I’ll do everything I can to make sure of it.”
“We’ll help, too,” Izzy said, glaring at the silent Daniels. Conn had caught the other two up.
“We just want to go home,” Conn said.
Stu sighed. Conn was sure of it. “Very well. I’m trusting you, Conn. I’ll help you get to the surface, but you must keep your end of the bargain.”
“You can count on me, Stu,” Conn said.
Stu led them, back past the hub nearest his home, through another corridor that curved and wound. Another hub, another corridor, and at the end of it, a set of stairs. They ascended, Conn estimated as much as five stories, then came to a door to what Stu said was an airlock.
“The door must be sealed from this side,” Stu told them. “That’s why I had to accompany you this far.”
“We really appreciate it, Stu,” Conn said. “Thank you. I won’t forget my promise.”
Stu gave what looked like a grim smile, then saw the three astronauts through the door, gesturing for them to put their breathing bubbles on. They did so, then closed the door behind them as their bubbles filled with O2. It was dark but for a soft artificial light on the wall opposite, where another door could be made out. They heard a clunk and a clang from Stu’s side of the door. About a minute later, they saw the light go out and another come on. They intuited that it meant the airlock was ready. To be as safe as possible, they waited another two minutes.
They opened the door, Conn hoping it didn’t explode because of a pressure difference, but nothing happened. They faced a short corridor that led to another set of steps, and at the top of those, they saw dust swirling in the Martian wind. They ascended.
The sun was two hand widths from the horizon, the sky just beginning to turn the slate-blue of a Martian sunset. The daylight was incongruous coming from the artificial Sidereal nighttime.
In spite of the wind, smudgy tracks still led to and from where they had left the lander/rover and the portal parts. That together with Daniels’ and Izzy’s memories led them to the lander after twenty minutes. Inside the lander, the astronauts could fully charge their O2 tanks. Conn spoke to Ginny in orbit and caught her up on what was going on.
“Conn, be advised that if you can get the portal working, the US military is prepared to come through immediately to secure it.” Conn glanced at Daniels. Izzy’s tanks were filling up, and she and Daniels murmured to one another and likely to their command module.
“Advise them that there will be resistance, possibly armed.” Conn didn’t know if that last part was true, and she didn’t want anyone to find out. “I can guarantee that if they build the portal on the other side of the polar region, they will be undisturbed. That’s really their best long-term bet.”
“I’ll advise them,” Ginny said. “Is Ryan OK?” Conn had already mentioned he wasn’t with them.
“We’re told he is,” she said. “No reason to doubt.”
“How are you going to find him?”
“I’m going to ask nicely,” she said. “These Sidereals don’t want to be our enemies. They seem to just want to be left alone. For now, we all need to pitch in to build this portal. If we can’t do that, it doesn’t matter where Ryan is.”
It took about forty-five minutes to charge all three sets of tanks. After that, the lander was depressurized to ambient Mars pressure, and the astronauts set out for the pile of equipment that with luck would become their portal home.
They went to work, Conn pitching in as best she could by handing parts to the other two, who had put the portal together a hundred times in training. Conn also kept an eye on the horizon in the direction of the Sidereals’ underground settlement.
After another forty-five minutes, the portal was a shadowy arch in the Martian twilight. They had assembled the structure despite broken equipment, thanks to duct tape, but some of the electronics had been damaged beyond repair. “I have a spare circuit board here,” Daniels said. Izzy nodded. Daniels clambered aboard the Yars’ Revenge to attack the circuit board with some solder.
The women sat on a boulder and faced the direction of the Sidereal settlement, just in case. Conn wanted to talk to Izzy without anyone listening in, so she had Izzy change to Bluetooth.
“So,” Conn said. “Daniels.”
“You don’t like him,” Izzy said.
“Pretty sure he tried to kill me,” Conn said.
“I know, and I tried to get him off the crew,” Izzy said. “I stopped short of resigning myself. I wanted this so bad.”
“I know what you mean.”
“Do you think I’m in danger? Or Sergei?”
“I think he was ordered to kill me, by people who stood to lose if I was alive. Unless you find yourself in the same situation, I wouldn’t worry about Daniels. He’s a Captain America-type. Lives to do what the government tells him to. The majority of the time, it’s good things. He was a chore to date, though. Very traditional, very sure of men’s and women’s roles in relationships.”
“Ugh.”
“Yeah.”
Incongruous against the dead Martian landscape, Conn saw two pairs of lights wink into existence in the direction of the Sidereals.
“Crap,” Conn said, gesturing at the lights. They switched comm channels back. “Daniels?” How’s it coming in there?”
“I just radioed you a status report, Conn. Weren’t you listening?”
“He found a likely circuit board and is soldering it into something you can use,” Ginny said.
“How much longer?”
“Ten minutes.”
“We may need your help before then.” Conn told Daniels about the lights.
The women were up off their boulder. The lights were in flight, not coming by ground, and growing larger as they watched.
Conn motioned for Izzy to come with her, and they stood a few meters in front of the portal. To do any serious damage, whatever the lights were would have to go through them.
The lights resolved themselves into the shape of two drones, each a rough disk, each almost but not quite a meter in diameter. Conn waved her arms over her head. Making sure whoever was operating the drones could see them—or the drones themselves, if they were automated.
Facing down a pair of Pelorian drones—or Aphelial ones—Conn would have been intimidated. Maybe it was because of how low-tech the Sidereal settlement was, maybe it was because of how desperate they were to get home, but Conn felt like the two of them could turn these drones back where they came from. She held her hands in front of her, a gesture she hoped registered as that’s far enough.
The drones hovered a few meters before them, about three meters off the surface. For a time, the drones and the astronauts stared one anot
her down.
Conn tried to think of what to do next. Talk? In what language? On what frequency?
“I like our chances of running out of air better than theirs,” Izzy said. Conn grunted.
Without warning, one of the drones spit a burst of energy over their heads. Conn flinched, then looked behind her. They hadn’t hit the portal. But it was clear they were ready to.
Now Conn was intimidated.
TWENTY-ONE
Defense
July 6, 2039
Conn faced down the drones, with her heart hammering. How far were the Sidereals willing to go to keep the portal out of their neighborhood? Far enough to injure the astronauts, or worse?
“We can’t fight them off,” Izzy said.
“I wish I had a baseball bat,” Conn said. One of the drones waggled. Conn braced for the energy burst, but nothing came.
Conn turned to Izzy. “We can fight them off,” she said.
Izzy asked, “How?” as Conn squatted down, eyes not leaving the drones. She felt around for a rock. She found a likely one.
“We’re at thirty-seven percent gravity,” Conn explained. “Our muscles developed in one hundred percent gravity. Put them together, and these things—“ she reared back and launched the rock at one of the drones—“are big, fat bullets.” She missed.
Izzy bent and found a rock, and threw it. She also missed.
Conn tried again. This time, she hit one of the drones head-on. It caved in, sputtered, and dropped to the ground.
The women high-fived. Izzy took another shot at the second drone, and missed.
Conn had another rock ready to go when she saw the drone rise and inch forward. It was going to shoot out the portal over their heads.
The drone rose to four meters off the surface, and climbed from there. It closed the distance between it and the astronauts.
Conn acted before fully forming a plan. She ran forward, driving her legs as hard as she could. Just as she was about to pitch forward onto her face, she leapt.
She reached the drone easily. She grasped it by its outer edges. Her face almost touched the leading edge.
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