Anika, was open mouthed for a moment. “Are you sure that’s okay, I mean, I would be occupying your seat?”
“Of course, sit.” She lowered herself into the wicker recliner and looked decidedly uncomfortable with her sacrilege. A mere mortal desecrating the temple of a deity.
“It’s okay, sit, I insist.”
“You are too kind, Dr. Malbec.”
“Don’t be silly, you’re injured, you need it more than I do.”
“Lars, would you keep Anika company here, while myself and Dr. Malbec take a quick tour?”
“Of course.”
Nills-Beta signalled to Jann to take a walk with him. When they were out of earshot he spoke. “You must forgive them, they see you as a deity, a god, if you will.”
“I’ve noticed it already, in Colony Two, the bowing and deference. I feel somewhat unworthy of such consideration.”
“It’s just the dreams we Betas have, they can do strange things to the mind.”
“What are they like, these dreams?”
“They are fragments of retained memory, from our Alphas, like snippets of encoded experience. At first they are vague, but as we age they become like memories. Memories of places we have never seen, of things we have never touched, of events we have never experienced.”
“Is it not difficult to deal with this… retained memory?”
“It is. For some it can be just too much, too confusing, they go insane. For others they manage them by creating myths. Like, of this place. We all have memories if it. I can tell you the exact layout of Colony One even though this is the first time I have set foot in here.”
“So why am I so special to them?”
“Colony One has become like an Eden, or Nirvana, or Heaven. Betas have developed a near religious significance with this place. Some believe it doesn’t really exist, it is just, literally, a figment of the imagination. However, when you showed up, it was like an angel had descended amongst them. A deity who had journeyed from the mythical Colony One. You can see how this would affect some of them.”
“I see. I should never have gone there. None of this would have happened if I had just stayed put.”
“Why did you come?”
“Oh it’s a long story, I was looking for a way out, a way to go home.”
“And did you find it?”
“Yes, I found it. Now I can go, get back to Earth.”
“But you’re still here.”
Jann laughed, “Sorry, but you remind me so much of Nills, it’s the sort of thing he would say.”
Nills-Beta smiled, “I’ll take that as a good thing, then.”
“Please do, he was a very good friend and… I’ve missed him… all these years.”
They walked for a bit in silence. Then Jann stopped and looked at him for a moment. “Tell me, Nills, what are you going to do now?”
“I’m going back.”
“But why? It’s extremely dangerous, god knows what’s going on in Colony Two by now.”
“They’re my people, I’m their leader. Without me they will be turned into slaves for Vanji’s Hybrid army.”
“You think Vanji is still alive, you think he is behind all this?”
“You met him, what do you think?”
“I don’t know, it’s possible. But those Hybrids are a very strange species. It’s hard to know what they think. Yet, if you go back, you would most likely be captured and killed. It would do no good.”
“What if I were to return with you, then the Betas would fight. They may rally behind me, but they would lay down their lives for you.”
Jann stopped for a moment as the realisation of what Nills was asking her sunk in. “You’re asking me to go back there? Are you crazy?”
“Think about it. We outnumber them, seven or eight to one. All they need is the will to fight. You can give them that will.”
“But how?”
“Your mere presence. The fact that you have returned, in their darkest hour, all those myths become real, they would be a formidable fighting force. They can gain their freedom, all because you have returned.”
“I… I need to think… I can’t rationalise this all now… we are leaving, for Earth. Home, Nills, I’m going back home.”
CHAPTER 17: Decision Time
Jann sat in the recliner on the central dais of the Colony One Bio-dome and considered her options. Nills had left her there to think about his request, Lars and Anika had followed him out. So she was alone now, with just her thoughts.
She had everything she needed to return home, she was no longer a bio-hazard, the MAV was waiting, all her ducks were lined up. Kayden and his crew couldn’t leave without her, as she was the only one who knew the launch sequence, and now that both rovers were at Colony One, the Hybrids couldn’t journey here that quickly, so she had time to think.
Earth, to walk in the sunshine, to feel the wind in her hair, to get wet in the rain. It was the simple things she missed. Humans were designed for Earth, it was their planet, home. She had dreamed of it for so long, but now that the time had come, she hesitated. What would await her there? She, along with Kayden, Noome and Samir, would be the only humans ever to have returned from Mars. Many had gone but none had returned, so far. No doubt she would become a celebrity of sorts. Shunted around from one interview to another. Sell her story, want for nothing.
Yet, they would be bringing back with them stories of Colony Two and the miraculous advances in genetic engineering that had been made there. Human cloning, genome manipulation, the secret of immortality. They would be returning with tales of Eldorado, the city of gold, of riches beyond your wildest dreams. And like the adventurers of old, there would be no shortage of private funding for return missions. Every mega-corporation the world over would pump money into Mars Stocks, betting on who would be the one to return this life-saving technology to Earth.
And whose life would it be saving? It wouldn’t be the poor, or the downtrodden, or those on the margins. It would be the preserve of the very wealthy. The rich would have eternal youth, a new strata of super-elite would be created.
Then, there was the fact that Earth had left her for dead up here. No funding available for a rescue mission for her, she was expendable. What was the cost of her life? Not that she could blame them, really. After all, she was in no danger of dying and the popular consensus by the general population was there were better things to spend billions of tax payers money on than rescuing a foolhardy astronaut. She knew the risks, she would have to live with the consequences.
Her other option was to go with Nills, back to Colony Two. To what? Death, the horror of the recycling tank? His assertion that her presence would galvanise the Betas into revolution seemed nothing more than fantasy to her, simply wishful thinking on his part. Jann could not see any way that they would get more than two feet inside Colony Two before they were killed.
As for the plight of the Betas, she had no doubt that they revered her in some way, but would that be enough to overcome well armed Hybrids, no matter how much they outnumbered them? They were timid and deferential by nature, or maybe nurture, either way she doubted they had the collective balls to put up a fight.
So what would be their fate then? Subjugation, slavery, genocide? It would be one of them. At best they would be domesticated humans, used as beasts of burden, work horses for the superior species that was Homo aries. Did they deserve that? They may be clones but they were still human, and Homo sapiens at that, her species.
And what of Vanji? Was he still alive? And if so, what was his game plan. She had the distinct feeling that, somehow, he must be behind all this. He wanted to create his advanced race without hindrance or moral sermons from the council members. But then again he could be dead, along with the others. And why should she care? What were they to her that she should forego her one chance of returning to Earth?
She also had a third option. Stay here in Colony One and take her chances. She sighed, stood up from the recliner and walked over to w
here she kept some of her personal belongings. It was a storage box she had refashioned into a kind of table. She opened it up and pulled out a small holo-tab. It was her ISA mission manual, it had everything she needed to launch the MAV and return to Earth. She shoved it into a pocket on the side of her flight-suit and headed out of the bio-dome, probably for the very last time.
CHAPTER 18: Ready to Leave
“Where’s Nills?” Jann entered the common room to find Kayden sitting at the table. The remains of half-eaten plates of food were scattered around it like the aftermath of a party. Kayden looked up. “The robot is giving him a tour.”
Jann relaxed, “Okay.”
“Are you ready? We need to start helping with the tanks, time is marching on,” he said.
“Not yet. I need to show you this first.” She took the holo-tab out of her pocket, cleared some space in the table and switched it on. Icons danced in the air above its surface, she tapped one and a 3D rendering of the MAV was displayed. She tapped again and a schematic of one of the fuel tanks broke off from the main diagram. “As you know, the fuel tanks are built on trolleys. However, once they are all filled and checked they can be connected together, like a train, and the rover used to pull the whole lot over to the MAV.”
Kayden nodded.
“Each trolley has a hydraulic arm to lift them individually into position. They fit in like this.” She tapped the 3D rendering of the tank. An animation played showing how it locked into position on the MAV and detailed the connecting points. “Once you’ve got them all into position you open the valves here, using this exterior control panel.”
“Okay, looks straight forward.”
“It is, it was designed that way. Nothing too fiddly to operate wearing EVA suit gloves.” She tapped the MAV again and this time it zoomed into the cockpit.
“You enter the MAV through this hatch here. Over on the main console is the switch that activates the MAV power system. Once you flip that on the flight dash should light up like a Christmas tree. Tap the main screen and it will ask you to enter a code. The code is four zeros.”
“Four zeros?” asked Kayden incredulously.
“It doesn’t need high security. Let’s face it, who the hell is going to steal it out here?”
“Makes sense. Go on,” said Kayden.
“The MAV will then run a diagnostic routine on all flight systems. You can override any alerts, unless they are mission critical. Assuming all goes okay, it will then try to contact the Odyssey.”
“The orbiter?”
“Yes. The launch is controlled from the Odyssey computer systems, it’s all automatic, you don’t have to do anything from that point on, just sit back and wait.”
“How long?”
“Hard to say, could be a few minutes, could be a few hours?”
“Hours?
“Yes, the Odyssey orbits every five hours, so depending where it is you may have to wait. It will calculate the launch time to intercept.”
“That could be a long wait.”
“Once the MAV makes contact and the trajectory worked out, it will start to count-down. Then you’ll know how long.” Jann tapped another icon and the 3D image was replaced with a diagram of the Odyssey in orbit around Mars. “Once you reach the correct altitude the Odyssey will also automate docking. You don’t have to do anything.”
“I like that bit,” said Kayden.
“Lastly. Now that the MAV has docked the Odyssey knows to prepare for return to Earth.” She tapped the rendering of the spaceship and the view zoomed into the flight cockpit. “You will get confirmation on the main console here. Now, you may feel that nothing is happening, because the EM Drive is pretty slow to get going, but it will be accelerating the craft around a number of orbits until it reaches escape velocity and… well, next stop Earth.”
Kayden was silent for a moment, looking at the projection and nodding. Then he sat back and looked at her. “Tell me, why did you never return before now? You could have left anytime.”
Jann rubbed the top of her head, her hair had grown quite a bit so it no longer had that soft velvety feel to it. “I couldn’t. I was a bio-hazard, remember.”
“Even so, you could have just gone, taken the risk, what could they do once you arrived in Earth orbit.”
“Blow me out of the sky, most likely. Or at best, if they actually let me land, contain me in a hermetically sealed bubble, where I would spend the rest of my days being poked and prodded by scientists. No thank you. I’d rather stay here.”
Kayden nodded, “Yeah, I see your point.”
“Which reminds me. I need to send a report back, let them know the MAV is returning. I’d like to be a fly on the wall when they hear the news about Colony Two, and all that.”
“Eh… I would suggest holding off on that for the moment. We can do it from the orbiter. We haven’t lifted off yet, so best not to tempt fate.”
“Don’t tell me you are superstitious.”
Kayden gave a laugh, “No, it’s not that… just… I think it would be better. After all we still have to persuade them that we are not carrying back the pathogen.”
Jann thought about this, “Well, I’ll leave it up to you. It doesn’t matter to me now anyway. I’m not coming with you.” Jann switched off the holo-tap and handed it to Kayden. “Here, this is all you need.”
“Not going? But this is your chance to go home, isn’t that what you wanted?” Kayden looked shocked.
“I thought I did, but you know what… I decided I like it here.”
“You may never get another chance?”
“So be it.” She waved a dismissive hand in the air.
Kayden stood up, clutching the holo-tab with both hands. “If you change your mind. You know where we are.”
“I won’t, but thanks.”
He stood for a moment, just looking at her, before nodding and walking out of the common room.
Jann sat for a while before she noticed Nills-beta standing in the doorway to the galley. “How long have you been there?”
He moved over to her and sat down. “Long enough.”
So you heard all that?”
“All that I needed to. You’re not going back to Earth, then?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Does it matter?”
“No, I don’t suppose it does. So what now?”
“You tell me?”
“A little counter-revolution maybe?”
“Count me in. When do we start?”
“I think we already have.”
CHAPTER 19: Weapons
Nills-beta wandered around the main Colony One workshop, examining the various artefacts scattered over every available surface. Part of him felt like he was intruding on the sacred space of a dead relative, a feeling which held some validity. But part of him also felt like he was home, such was the familiarity he had with this workshop. His Alpha had worked here, probably where he build the small robot, Gizmo, that now seemed to have attached itself to him, perhaps sensing that its creator had at long last returned and, like a faithful dog, was not going to let him out of its sensory range again.
“It is just like old times, Nills,” said Gizmo.
Nills cocked an eyebrow at the eccentric machine, marvelling at its creator’s skill. The very same skill that lay within him. The original Nills had attained legendary statue amongst the Betas. It was rumoured he was still alive, which made Nills-beta the only clone of a living Alpha. This made him someone special within the colony and, in a sense, leadership had been foisted on him rather than acquired by rite. That, and the extraordinary engineering skills that he had inherited, all added to his prominence in the community. ‘There was just something about him.’ Was the oft used refrain by the Betas. But how much of this was valid, and how much was simply amplified by the myths and legends that propagated through Beta society, was anyone’s guess. Nonetheless, without the creation myths they would never have had the spiritual strength to contend with their dre
ams, their memories, their ethereal past.
It was this same spiritual affinity that he was banking on when they returned to Colony Two. That, and the hope that Dr. Jann Malbec’s return would galvanise the Betas to ferment revolution. If he was the de facto leader, then she was the spiritual leader. But again, this was by dint of myth rather than physical reality. Not that it really mattered. If it worked then… good. If not then… so be it.
Jann had gone off with Lars to prepare the rover and EVA suits, they needed everything to be working at a hundred percent if they were to have a chance. Kayden and the Alphas had decamped to Dome Five to get ready for their own departure back to Earth. He gave them no more thought, good luck to them.
That left himself, Gizmo and the injured Anika. His own injuries were minor and healing fast. Anika, however, had sustained a more serious injury from a rail-gun dart in her upper right thigh, but that too was healing fast and she was already able to put some weight on the leg. Hopefully she would be able to join the fight.
If they were to have any chance of gaining access into Colony Two then the thing they needed were weapons. Nills and Anika scanned the area for anything they could use. Simple heavy bars or knives were not going to be enough, what they needed was to manufacture something more lethal, and quick.
“So what are we looking for, Nills?”
“Coils, capacitors, anything we can make rail-guns out of.”
“What about explosives, they seem to be very popular in human wars?” offered Gizmo.
“Yeah, now you’re talking, Gizmo, what have you got in mind?”
“I’m eighty-six point seven percent certain I can concoct something usable from the myriad of chemicals we have here in Colony One.”
“Excellent, get to it then.”
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