The first team of scientists sent to work in the dome included a biologist, a geologist, a medical officer, an astronaut and a team captain. The mission of the first team was to introduce Earth-native plants to the biosphere, a difficult task given the barren nature of the soil. They were to determine the ability to grow food on Mars in a controlled environment.
Secondly, the team was to collect and examine several samples of rocks and minerals that can be found below the surface or upon it, this is Doctor Long’s specific task here. The main goal with this portion of the mission is to find raw materials to build buildings, products, and space craft.
According to the recorded information sent back to corporate headquarters, all preparatory work was completed successfully; the next bit would depend solely upon the ingenuity and creativity of the first team. Plant life would need to be established within the dome and manually pollinated to ensure that the plants produced the necessary food and oxygen to support sustained life on Mars within the dome.
We shall finally see how successful this venture has been up to now.
–Entry End–
The gentle wind disturbs the fine dust coating the plain around the rover that had been unloaded earlier. The personnel airlock door opens slowly; the glass appointed door gleams in the morning sunshine. Cardiff steps out of the airlock, and the outer door closes rapidly behind her. Looking out at the landscape through her suit’s helmet, she pauses for a moment before she bends down to dig her glove into the soft, clay-like soil on the Martian plain. Slowly she lifts the silt while sifting through it, allowing the fine dust to drift gently back down to the plain.
Several meters in front of her lay the mission’s solar rover, small enough to be carried in on the shuttle, yet spacious enough to carry the five person crew. The cabin does not have a clear hatch or any other protective shield from the elements, this rover is simply designed to move a few crew members a short distance. Polished aluminum canisters, filled with compressed oxygen, are packed tightly on the back of the vehicle, along with food, clothing, and other provisions.
Cardiff: Lawrence, are we ready to get under way?
Lawrence: Once again, we are ready. What is your bet on what we’ll find inside the dome?
Cardiff: The vivid green color within the dome is promising. I hope that the color is a result of the plants that they brought and not something else. Only time will tell. I am going to check a few more things before we get under way.
Doctor Long is the next out of the airlock. He bends over and runs his gloved fingers through the soft sand. A solitary black rock stands close by. Long finds this odd because much of the surface of the planet is littered with billions of rocks, yet this one is completely alone. After taking a brief moment to survey the landscape, Long, with his tablet in hand, jumps into the back seat of the rover.
Long pulls his binoculars from his gear bag, and focuses them on the distant glass dome. The solar array to the left of the dome appears to be alright, no major chipping or destroyed panels can be seen from this distance. Of course, this is no surprise as the satellite in a geo-synchronous orbit above has not detected any major structural damage. No major system damage seems to have occurred either.
The communications system within the dome has remained completely dormant for four years and has been completely unresponsive to transmissions from the satellite. No infra-red heat signatures could be seen from the satellite either, but this is expected as the pressure suits and the dome have all been designed to retain heat efficiently.
Doctor Mendez emerges from the shuttle with Doctor Ghent. The immensity of the present situation overwhelms their conscious minds. After several minutes of surveying the alien landscape, they join Long in the solar rig. Lawrence takes his place in the driver’s seat. After he completes the last set of systems checks, Captain Cardiff finally joins them with her bag and brief case in hand.
The rig begins to slowly hum away from the shuttle at a walking pace. One could walk from the shuttle to the dome, but the exertion would expend all of the oxygen that they had.
Quiet minutes pass as the rover rolls on. Minutes become hours, and the rover comes across a large dry river bed. The only way that one could tell what it once was is to notice the erosive force that water once had upon the rock. The solar rig carefully traverses the uneven terrain in the river bed. The wheels slide in the fine sand as the rig struggles to crawl up the other side. Doctor Long rests his helmet in his hands; his impatience is easily seen in his constant, nervous movement.
Long: Lawrence, would you like me to get out and push or something?
Lawrence says nothing in response, yet all smile behind their reflective masks. Everyone seems to be relieved to have finally landed, and yet the silence seems to reveal that they all are feeling apprehensive as well. After the rig ascends out of the river bed, its metal wheels press through the soft sand and over the crumbled rock.
As they finally ride over the crest of the hill in front of them, the original landing shuttle, left by the first expedition, lay dormant and in ruin. Some parts have clearly been removed from it either by intent or by force. The front of the first shuttle is well dug into the wild sands.
Lawrence: Looks like the other team made the mistake of parking on the wrong side of the tracks. Captain, did you remember to lock it all up before we left? I can see it now, we get ready to leave and we find the ship up on cinder blocks.
Long draws in a deep breath and rolls his eyes. His subtle head shake is noticed by Mendez, who simply smiles in turn at his gesture.
Mendez: It looks like this ship sank into the soft sand after some time, or the sand has blown in around it. Do we have time to check it out now? I am curious to take a look around inside.
Cardiff: Sorry, we won’t have time for that today. We need to assess our living arrangements first. Then we’ll go sight-seeing.
What seems like hours of riding finally produce the dome up close as it crests over the final hill. Several minutes later, the team finally pulls up to the south entrance to the dome. The view of the inside still remains quite distorted from the outside. Dust-covered glass is eagerly brushed off with gloved hands, and yet the view still is not clear enough; there are several layers of glass to get through to see inside.
Lawrence finishes parking the solar rover. The faint humming sound of the motor fades into the stark silence of the background. Cardiff walks back to the rover, where Lawrence is still seated.
Cardiff: Should we take a quick walk around the outside to check the perimeter?
Lawrence: Since I already know that you are asking that rhetorically, sure.
Cardiff turns around and points to Mendez.
Cardiff: You and I are going to circumvent the dome counter-clockwise.
Lawrence gets out of the seat; his first step out of the rover sinks a bit in the soft sand. He looks down at his boots and realizes that the trip around the outside of the dome might be a bit laborious in this soft sand. Lawrence pushes out of the deep sand, over to where Long and Ghent are standing. They are both still trying to make out some sort of view of the inside.
Lawrence: Well, doesn’t look like anyone has been using the front door… Maybe we should check around back.
Long: Or we could just try to open the door. Yeah, I think that just opening the door will probably be best way to get in.
Lawrence: That isn’t sarcasm I detect there Doctor, is it? Keep your shirt on. We will need to walk around the dome clockwise, just to make sure that everything is on the up and up before we get inside.
Long: Okay, let me know how that turns out, I am going to take a look around here.
Lawrence: Alright. Doctor Ghent, are you coming?
Ghent: Surely.
Cardiff and Mendez have already begun their ascent up the hill to the right of the airlock. Several large rocks cover the hill; they use these rocks to climb on as the sand presents a formidable obstacle. Lawrence begins his portion of the inspection to the left; he looks u
p at the enormous heap of glass to check for visible cracks.
Ghent: Mr. Lawrence, can you even fathom the scale on which this dome was constructed?
Lawrence: Nope, this thing is huge. I’d like to get up on top, just to take a look at the view.
Lawrence takes a glance back over his shoulder, and watches Long as he makes his way back down the road. Small and medium sized rocks seem to be absolutely everywhere, the two carefully step around these in the garden of obstacles. A bright glimmer from his left catches Lawrence’s eye; the solar panel array to the west reflects a bit of the sun’s light onto his helmet, almost blinding him.
Ghent: I think that it is safe to say that we should have power; the solar collectors look fine. Mr. Lawrence, what brings you out here to this barren wasteland?
Lawrence: A rocket.
Ghent: Right.
Lawrence: So, Doctor, what brings you out to Mars?
Ghent: I needed a change; I fell into what you might call a “rut”.
Lawrence: Fair enough. Just watch out for the ruts around here, I hear they are pretty deep and dark.
Ghent: Right. Why did you decide to come out to this cold and desolate place?
Lawrence: Mars seemed like the most unassuming place to go, so here I am.
Ghent: Cryptic. The beautiful thing about the past is that everyone has one, whether or not they are willing to admit it is another matter altogether. I think as long as one is willing to take responsibility for where they are, and where they are ultimately going, they are alright. No matter how fast you run, you can never flee yourself, remember that.
Lawrence: Careful, you don’t want to wind up on the short list with Long and Mendez, do you? Well, how I got to where I am isn’t entirely my fault, but I did play my part.
Ghent: That is a bit cliché, isn’t it? I don’t believe in fate. If there is such a thing as fate, then I am the master of mine, and not vice versa.
Lawrence: I think that maybe you are missing my exact meaning.
Ghent: Well, I think I have a few minutes before my next engagement, so why don’t you regale me?
Lawrence: It isn’t the sort of thing that I would feel like discussing over the radio, maybe once we get inside I’ll tell you.
Ghent: Wow, look at that. You would think that after travelling a million miles from home you wouldn’t find litter.
Lawrence: Miles?
Ghent: Sorry, it is an old expression. Anyway, why would someone bring a bottle all the way out here, just to throw it in the sand back behind the dome?
Ghent walks over to the brown glass bottle, lying in the sand, and picks it up. He inspects the bottle for a second, rubbing his other gloved hand over the faded label. With his right hand, he pulls the bottle back over his shoulder and flings it out into the distance. The bottle shatters as it collides with a black rock. Glass shards coat the rock, giving it a sparkly appearance.
Lawrence: Why did you break that bottle? You never know when you might need a bottle, especially out here.
Ghent: Oh, I don’t think we’ll need that one. We have plenty of containers. Dust to dust.
Lawrence: Well, this is the north side of the dome. Where are the others?
Lawrence looks on, toward the east side, and can see Cardiff and Mendez rounding the corner. The large hill behind them, where they are walking from, creates a beautiful backdrop to the dome. Shadows from jagged rock and outcroppings on the hillside add variety to the noonday view. As the women approach, Lawrence calls out to Cardiff over the radio.
Lawrence: Did you find it?
Cardiff: Find what?
Lawrence: That thing that you were looking for. You know, the reason we walked all the way around the dome.
Cardiff: If you mean problems, I didn’t see any.
Lawrence: In that case, neither did we.
Cardiff: Okay, well let’s head back the way you guys came. The way we came provides a solid workout.
Lawrence holds his hand out, with palm up, to beckon the others to head back the way that he had come. Each of the four walks in a tight cluster, avoiding the jagged rocks that threaten to tear their suits. Without uttering a single syllable, the team returns to the south side of the dome. A light breeze whips up some dust as they round the last bit of the dome.
Long has occupied himself by throwing a rock high into the air, and running to catch it as it falls. The rest of the team catches a last glimpse of this game as he notices their return; the rock that he had just thrown falls toward the rover, striking one of the solar panels.
Lawrence: Long, you’re lucky that you didn’t just break that solar panel just now. Don’t tempt fate.
Long: Sure, that coming from the man who lives on the edge all of the time.
Lawrence: You don’t know anything about me, don’t pretend like you do.
Cardiff: Alright, everyone has their own opinions.
Don’t let them get in the way out here. Stay away from making judgments; they will be the biggest obstacle you’ll face in reaching where you want to be.
Mendez: Captain, I am pretty sure that you are asking the impossible. People cannot avoid judgment; we like or dislike absolutely everything. Anyone that tells you that they are being completely objective is lying to you, or they just don’t know any better.
Lawrence: Fair enough. Just to be honest, I don’t like you Mendez, and I don’t care much for you either, Long. Ghent, I don’t know about you yet.
Cardiff: Alright, whatever. Lawrence how do you feel about getting that heavy airlock door open? Oh, wait; I really don’t care about how you feel about it, just do it. Don’t be so pretentious.
Lawrence chuckles a bit over the radio. A “sure thing” is the only response that she’ll get from him on the matter. The airlock hard-lock indicator light is barely visible beneath the heavy layer of dust on the control panel. Accessing the main airlock controls proves to be quite difficult as the outside is plastered in thick dust.
After several long minutes, Lawrence manages to free the controls of the Martian dust long enough to manually open the outside airlock door. The sand stacked up against the outer door is difficult to remove; that is until the door seal is released, sending the sand flying out violently in all directions as the pressurized air rushes out.
Infinitesimal as the airlock appears in contrast to the rest of the structure, the tubular airlock is still sufficient to fit all five team members and their gear all at once. The outer door on the airlock shuts with a grind at first, followed by a subtle thud sound. The next sound that is heard by all is the air rushing through the pressure vents into the airlock. After the rushing sound of air ceases, the team just stands; everyone just looks around anticipating the next phase of the airlock procedure. After a brief moment of waiting, they grab at whatever they can on the inner door. The door slides slowly from right to left with considerable effort from Long, Ghent and Lawrence.
The path, upon which the crew is currently standing, will take them up the slight incline over to the buildings on the right. The buildings are quite simple and modest in appearance; not much time and effort was spent on the architecture or design of the buildings to make them more appealing. They are a simple rust red color of brick. Most of the buildings are adorned by frequent windows to take advantage of the natural light. The roofs are all flat, and aside from a few minor details, the buildings look more like adobe and less like a corporate outpost on Mars.
There are a total of six buildings within the complex, all surrounding a central plaza in the center. The laboratory, storage building and main utility control center are all along the right hand side. At the back of the complex is the dormitory building, which includes the lavatories and private sleeping areas for ten people. The two buildings on the left of the central plaza are the control center, and the mess hall.
To the left of the airlock, on the other side of the dome, the pond lay peacefully. Neither a wave, nor a single ripple in the massive body of water disrupts its mirror-like appearance. B
ehind the pathway, which connects the pond to the plaza, is a vast area covered in a variety of different larger plants, such as small trees and large bushes. In front of them lay a reddish-brown field of dust and sand, littered with small grasses. Almost all of the rocks have been collected, in years past, and hauled outside, the largest rocks were simply moved down by the pond.
The garden area is laid out close to the airlock, up above the path that leads to the plaza. The ground slopes up slightly from the pond until it reaches the highest point just beyond the buildings at the plaza.
Ghent: The plant life has taken a surprising hold here inside the dome. I had thought that the soil was too barren and devoid of nutrients for these plants to even grow.
Lawrence: Yeah, it’s a real scientific miracle.
Deeper Into the Void Page 3
