Lance got into the shower and looked up as he turned on the cold water. He let the eight-degree water pour down on him. He gave a startled exclamation, but forced himself to stay under the spray. He slowly turned up the water temperature. After soaping up his body and hair, he let the shower rinse off the foam. He then turned off the faucet, dried his skin, and knotted the towel around his waist. He walked back into his room, which he occasionally shared with Sarah. She preferred to spend some nights alone in her own cabin.
In his room, he pulled fresh underwear out of the closet and slipped into them. He then put on the athletic suit with the NASA logo, which served as work clothes for all of them here. He was a little surprised that nobody had called for him yet.
Because of their unscheduled holiday yesterday, they had twice as much work to do today. But everyone was very relaxed. He caught sight of Ellen on the monitor next to Mike’s seat. They probably had something to discuss, so he wouldn’t disturb them. Sharon was sitting at a table with a tablet in her lap. He saw various flow charts up on her screen. She might be working on their shift schedule.
Sarah was standing at a work table in the workshop. She had screwed a spade into a vise and was working on it with a file. “Good morning, sleepyhead,” she said cheerfully, not skipping a beat as she worked.
“Good morning. Have you been up long?” he asked.
“About an hour and a half. I need to polish up our garden tools a little,” she said. “If you happen to be bored...”
“No, not right now, but thanks for the offer. When Mike is done with Ellen, I would like to talk to him about our next excursion. We need to solve our water problem.”
“What about the deposits we found nearby?” Sarah asked.
“They’re down too deep. It would take too long for us to access them. In the long term, though, those deposits will be our life insurance.”
“So we need something to bridge the gap until then?”
“Exactly. MfE had promised to deliver water to us as needed, but the distance is too inconvenient and costly. In terms of energy expenditure, we’d almost be better off extracting water from the air or out of rocks.”
“Who do you want to take with you on the trip?” Sarah asked, setting aside the file.
“You, of course. Or Sharon. Depending on who has the time.”
“Don’t you dare!” Sarah said with a laugh.
Lance didn’t reply. He knew when it was best not to say anything. And she probably hadn’t really meant it like that either.
Ellen was still on the monitor when he swung back by the bridge. This time he didn’t leave again. Lance sat down in the seat for Mike’s second-in-command, which was empty most of the time. Practically the same array of devices was set up in front of it as at the commander’s seat. He studied them curiously. The thing to the left must be the radio. It was equipped with a whole array of scales, many more than the handheld radios they took along on their Mars expeditions. From here, you could even communicate with Earth—could have communicated, he corrected himself—as well as with spaceships in space, or with the satellites orbiting the planet and continuously transmitting the most recent data.
A red light was flashing on the lower right. Did that mean anything? Lance leaned forward to decipher the label: Incoming Call. He glanced over at Mike, who was still chatting nonchalantly with Ellen. He was listening at the moment. What exciting news did she have to convey? Mike was wearing earphones, so Lance couldn’t listen in.
But was it perhaps crucial for Mike to tend to the incoming call? There weren’t all that many possible communication partners by this point. The commander was talking to MfE already, so that narrowed the options down to Spaceliner 1 and the Chinese, neither of which should be ignored.
Lance got to his feet and walked over to Mike’s seat. Mike glared at him. Can’t you see that I’m in the middle of an important conversation? But Lance didn’t let himself be put off so easily. He leaned down and saw that another red light was flashing there. He pointed at it, and when Mike didn’t respond, he tapped him on the shoulder.
He finally got Mike’s attention. “What is it?” Mike asked in surprise.
“A call for you,” Lance replied. “At least, the words ‘Incoming Call’ are written underneath the light.”
“Shit. Since when?”
“I have no idea. For a little while anyway. You were in a serious conversation.”
“Yeah...,” Mike said. He leaned forward and flipped a few switches before pulling the microphone up to his mouth. “Mars NASA base, Commander Mike Benedetti,” he said formally.
“We know each other, Mike. It’s me... Ewa.”
Mike seemed to lose his ability to speak. It took almost a minute for him to reply. “The Ewa?”
“Ewa Kowalska, formerly with Mars for Everyone.”
“But how is that possible? You’re supposed to be dead. How many sols has it been since you left the base?”
“Almost forty.”
“That’s over five weeks. Nobody could survive that long outside,” Mike said.
“Apparently one can. At least I’m still alive.”
“How did you do that?”
“I was lucky enough to find shelter.”
“Shelter? We and MfE are the only ones here.”
“You’re wrong about that. There is also a Spaceliner spaceship full of supplies.”
Lance listened, fascinated. Yes, the corporation that had wanted to colonize Mars had sent an unmanned ship to Mars. Had Ewa somehow managed to find it?
“I can’t believe this. And you’re there now?” Mike asked.
“Not exactly. I was, but now I’m about a half day’s march from your base.”
“What did you just say?”
“You understood me. I’ll reach you tomorrow. And I’m bringing you a couple of presents.”
“Presents?” Mike asked.
Lance felt sorry for him. He would probably also ask stupid questions if he were in Mike’s position. It was incredible that they were talking with Ewa, and yet he recognized her voice.
“Surprises. And without any conditions. I have some things to make up for, but please do not interpret this as a bribe. If you want, I will disappear again afterward.”
“You’re going to disappear? Like the way you disappeared from the MfE base?”
“I was banished. Rightly so. But I won’t be going back there anymore. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The connection went dead.
“Sarah and Sharon, please come to the bridge,” Mike called over the ship-wide intercom.
Lance didn’t say anything. He fidgeted with his fingers, trying to process what he’d just heard. Ewa was back from the dead. He had thought all along that the punishment the MfE astronauts had imposed on her—to literally send her into the desert—had been inhumane. But she had voted for this option as well. Why was she coming back now? And why was she coming to them and not returning to her former friends? Because they are no longer her friends. The logic was self-explanatory.
Sharon and Sarah reached the bridge at almost the same time. Sarah had a brown smudge on her forehead. Lance pointed at it. Understanding his gesture, she wiped the spot with her sleeve. Sharon had brought along the tablet she had been working on.
“Here, folks, are your shift schedules for the next few weeks,” she said, setting the tablet down on Mike’s console.
“It would be a good idea to copy them over to your universal devices,” she added. “We’ll finally be able to get back to some kind of routine.”
“It’ll have to wait for a while,” Mike said.
“Why?” Sharon asked. “Does Lance really want to go out with me to find another old probe? Sarah was just telling me about that,” she said with a laugh.
“Not quite,” Mike replied. “We’re going to have a visitor.”
“That’s nice. From MfE? Where else?” Sharon asked. “They could’ve told us that yesterday, or did they just decide today? Since Ewa’s
departure, their organization seems to have become a little more chaotic.”
“You’re getting warmer—” Mike said.
“Out with it!” Sarah cut in. “Lance, if Mike just wants to play with us, you’re going to have to tell us what’s going on. I have a lot to still do in the garden today.”
“Fine,” Mike said. “Ewa is coming.”
Sarah and Sharon both whipped around to face him. They were obviously waiting on a twist, on a punchline that didn’t come. Lance thought he could see on their faces how the meaning behind Mike’s words slowly dawned on them.
“But Ewa’s dead, right?” Sharon asked, her voice markedly quieter than before.
“The woman with whom I was just chatting was definitely alive,” Mike said. “Lance can vouch for me.”
Lance nodded energetically.
“And you’re sure that it was Ewa?” Sarah asked.
“It was clearly her voice,” Mike explained.
“But you didn’t see her?” Sarah asked. “Maybe someone was playing a trick on us with an old recording. Did you ask her something that only she could know?”
“I don’t know of anything that only she and I would know,” Mike replied defensively. “I’ve only seen her a few times, and there were always other people around. Besides, we didn’t chat all that long.”
“And what did she say? Where is she? When will she get here?” Sharon asked, perching on the edge of Mike’s console as Sarah paced up and down the bridge.
“She came across the Spaceliner program’s supply ship, got inside somehow, and made off with some of the supplies,” Mike explained. “I’d bet the ship’s comp is pretty angry with her now.”
“Ah, the ship that that rude Rick Summers is tied to?” Sarah asked. “Do you remember how he was brash enough to advertise for a spy among us? The company behind that mission has enough resources to sustain Ewa for a while.”
“She’s isn’t there anymore. She’s heading our way,” Mike said. “She’ll reach us tomorrow, and she said that she’s bringing gifts.”
Silence. The only audible sound was the life support system. Lance glanced at his colleagues and detected uncertainty.
“I don’t know if we should let her in, either,” he said. “Ewa is guilty of multiple murders, as she’s personally admitted. What if she wants to simply continue on her spree? And even if she brings us the most amazing presents, wouldn’t that be some kind of bribery?”
“You could also view it as recompense,” Mike interjected.
“But she doesn’t owe us that,” Lance said. “If it’s owed to anyone, then it’s to her old MfE friends.”
“But she’s coming to us, and somehow I can understand her decision,” Mike said. “She can’t live at the MfE settlement ever again.”
“Does she want asylum from us?” Sharon asked. “What did she say?”
“She wants to talk to us and drop off the gifts,” Mike replied. “She said if we wish, she’ll head back into the desert and never return again.”
“That means she’s forcing us to make a new decision between life and death. That’s moral blackmail,” Sharon said.
“But what else is she supposed to do? Her reasoning seems quite logical to me,” Lance said. “We don’t have to make any new decisions. Ewa was legally sentenced according to the laws of her community. If we send her into the desert, we’re just following through on that judgment.”
“And if we let her stay here, we are nullifying that judgment. Is that fair to the MfE people Ewa has on her conscience?” Sharon asked.
“Perhaps we should ask the MfE folks. It would just be a call,” Sarah suggested.
“That strikes me as the coward’s way out,” Lance declared. “We should be able to come to a decision on our own.”
“Agreed,” Mike said. “Then I say that we defer the decision. We will invite Ewa in tomorrow and talk with her. After that, we’ll vote on her fate.”
Good idea, Lance thought. He expected the two women to protest, but they seemed content with that plan.
“My plants are awaiting me,” Sarah said in farewell.
“I have the new data from the Mars Express 2 satellite that I need to integrate into our offline map material,” Sharon said.
Mike stroked his imaginary beard. “It wouldn’t be wise to call Ellen now, would it?” he asked Lance.
Lance shook his head. “She’d notice something was up.”
“Right. Well, then I’ll try to double-check Ewa’s story. It will supposedly take her forty sols to travel from the MfE base to the supply ship and then to us. I wonder if that’s even realistic.”
“Do you have the location for the supply ship?”
“That’s the weak point. The corporation never publicly revealed that information, but maybe I can at least find some clues in the databank. The Mars satellites must have observed the landing.”
“Good luck with that! I’m going to clean the filter for the life support system,” Lance explained as he slowly walked off the bridge.
The conversation he had wanted to have with Mike about an expedition to search for water deposits could be postponed.
Sol 102, NASA base
Sharon’s new shift schedule should have started today, but because of the anticipated visit, they were all on the bridge by eight o’clock. Lance was the last one through the door.
“In case you’re also about to ask,” Mike said in greeting, “no, Ewa hasn’t radioed in yet.”
“The external cameras aren’t picking up anything yet?” Lance asked.
Mike shook his head. Lance sat down in a chair on the edge of the room and twiddled his thumbs. Sharon was sitting in the seat beside Mike, while Sarah paced.
Suddenly Sharon jumped to her feet. “You’re not serious, are you?” she asked.
“What are you talking about?” Mike fired back.
“We’re just going to sit around here and wait? There’s so much to do.”
“You’re doing it, too.”
Sharon gazed at Mike without saying a word, then left the bridge.
Lance also stood up, though he didn’t really want to tend to the KRUSTY, as was on the schedule for him today. The ‘Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling TechnologY’ was self-maintaining. All he could do was read off the various values and enter them into a databank. No, he would wait for Ewa up on the surface.
As he opened the bridge door, Mike called after him. “What are you going to do?”
Lance pointed upward.
“He’s on KRUSTY duty today,” Sarah explained for him.
Mike nodded, and Lance left the bridge. His spacesuit was in the workshop. He fetched it and began a quick training routine. He had recently started going off base occasionally without exercising beforehand. It was supposedly dangerous to do so because of blood nitrogen levels, but he hadn’t experienced any side effects.
Thirty minutes later, he was standing in the airlock, all suited up. If he was going to service the KRUSTY, he would have to go outside. At the same time, his colleagues would start wondering if he wasn’t back in fifteen minutes. The longest part of this job was the walk to and from the reactor.
But Lance planned to completely ignore the KRUSTY today. He already had the values he was supposed to write down memorized. They hadn’t changed significantly since the reactor had been activated. The technology was quite well-engineered. Years ago, people had gotten goosebumps at even the thought of a nuclear reactor. Fortunately, that time was past. They would be pretty much lost on Mars without the KRUSTY, which provided the majority of their energy. They would be finding out exactly how lost they would be in a relatively short time, since the reactor was designed to last for only a decade.
The red light stopped flashing and burned steadily. That meant that all the breathable air had been pumped out of the airlock. Lance pushed the button to open the door, and the hatch panel slid to the side. A little dust rained down onto his helmet. Lance used the ladder to climb out of the airlock.
&n
bsp; The view still felt foreign to him. The spaceship Endeavour, which had brought them to Mars, had towered into the sky to the left until the MfE crew had stolen it. They were being allowed to keep it until their base was completed. Therefore its old spot was empty. Lance wished the Endeavour was back already. It was a pragmatic desire, since from its command deck, he could have had an outstanding view of the surrounding landscape.
He looked around. Anyone who didn’t know that humans lived here would hardly notice anything different. The primitive turbine, a few antennas, and the KRUSTY set farther back were the only things that rose noticeably above the surface level. The base was practically invisible within its regolith. He noticed someone pushing aside the garden module’s covering. That had to be Sarah. To conserve heating resources, the garden’s transparent roof was covered during the night.
Lance felt chilled. It was quite chilly out here. Of course, he wasn’t sensing the actual surface temperature right now, which was about minus twenty, but the colder it was, the longer it took the suit heater to reach a comfortable warmth. He increased the temperature on his suit via the universal device on his arm, before doing a few knee bends.
He caught sight of the pavilion to the east. What a crazy idea, he thought. A small glass box filled with breathable air, it could be reached via a subterranean tube that connected it to the station. This allowed them to indulge in the illusion of spending time on the Mars surface without their suits. Lance understood what fascinated Mike and the others about this addition to their space. It was the illusion of freedom. After all, they would never—not for as long as they lived—be able to move around the planet’s surface without technological support.
When would Ewa get here? And what would give her away? He imagined her driving a rover. Maybe she had even hitched a second one to it to transport more provisions. The NASA base might be lying hidden underground, but there were enough clues around to indicate to Ewa that she had reached her destination. Even if she overshot her mark and accidentally drove on top of the base, that wouldn’t be a problem. The roof was stable enough to protect the crew underground from small meteorite strikes.
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