‘’Guys, the rover’s sonar is now showing what I can only call an underground lake, or even a sea: this lava tube connects with a salt water aquifer that measures over 200 meters from top to bottom. While our rover can still detect rock walls on three sides, those walls form a sort of ‘V’ and the opposite wall of this underground lake is too far to be detected by our sonar. This means a minimum width of 5,000 meter for this lake.’’
‘’Holy!… I can see a number of glowing dots swimming around this underground lake. This place is actually full of marine life!’’
‘’Frey, how much control wire do we have left loose?’’
‘’Uh, I am afraid that we are down to our last fifty meters of loose wire, Jason. Unfortunately, our rover designers were not expecting such vast underground water bodies on Mars. A completely new rover type, maybe even a manned mini-sub, will be needed to fully explore this underground aquifer. We never know: maybe all those inundated lava tubes interconnect with underground lakes or seas. This is all an extraordinary find.’’
‘’Agreed! Let me twist the rover around, to scan with its sonar the closest portions of this underground lake. Then, I will make the rover come back up. Damn, I can’t wait to show this to Jing!’’
Three minutes later, as Jason was making the rover go back up the vertical lava tube, something became visible, floating slowly down. His heart nearly stopped when he understood what it was.
‘’GUYS, I SEE WHAT MUST BE THE UNEATEN REMAINS OF THAT FIRST FISH, GOING DOWN TO THE BOTTOM. I WILL TRY TO CATCH SOME PARTS WITH THE ROVER’S MANIPULATOR ARM.’’
Now concentrated as he had rarely been before, Jason made the rover glide towards the biggest fish part while deploying its manipulator arm. Praying silently for success, he finally managed to solidly grab that fish part, then put it inside the samples box under the chin of the rover. He nearly yelled in triumph when he closed the cover of the box.
‘’YES! WE NOW HAVE A SAMPLE OF MARTIAN FISH! WE HIT THE JACKPOT TODAY, MY FRIENDS!’’
The three men exchanged high-fives, then Jason finished piloting the sonar rover back to the surface. The three astronauts teamed their efforts to pull the rover out of the water and put it back on their ATV’s trailer, then rewound its thin control wire in its dispenser drum, also laid on the trailer. The heating rod assemblies were also put back on the trailer. Their last act was to dip a long section of electrically heated flexible hose down the hole in the ice, anchoring one end to the rocky shore. They would now be able to come back in the near future to connect a heated water pipe linking the base’s desalinization plants with this inundated lava tube. They were jubilant as they started rolling back towards the base: due to the distance and twists in the tunnel, those at the base could not have heard their radio conversations, thus their fantastic discovery would let them spring one huge surprise and good news on their fellow astronauts.
13:26 (GMT)
Commander’s office, Ring ‘A’, Middle Deck
H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP, low Mars orbit
Janet Larsson was studying a productivity report concerning the hydroponic farms of the ship when her intercom buzzed, making her extend an arm and push a button.
‘’Yes?’’
‘’Commander, this is the communications room. We have a Priority One transmission from Mars Base One.’’
Janet stiffened at once on hearing that: it could be to announce some problem or even tragedy on the surface.
‘’Transfer the link on my work computer please.’’
‘’Right away, Commander.’’
Two seconds later, the face of Denise Wattling appeared on the screen of Janet’s computer. Her relaxed, even joyful expression put Janet at ease at once.
‘’Aaah, Denise! How are things going down on Mars?’’
‘’Better than we could have imagined, Janet. We now have proof that there is marine life on Mars.’’
‘’WHAT?’’
‘’Exactly!’’ replied Denise, grinning from ear to ear. ‘’A three-man team went this morning to plunge our sonar rover down one of the inundated lava tubes connecting with our cavern and saw at least two different kinds of Martian fish, one of which proceeded to eat the other one on camera. Our rover was later able to recuperate an uneaten part of that unlucky fish and bring it back to the surface. That biological sample is now being examined by our bio-chemist, Kwang Tse Jing. That is not all: our rover went down to a depth of 380 meters and found a huge underground lake to which the lava tube connected. That lake was too big to be measured by the sonar of our rover, but is over five kilometers wide and over 200 meters deep, from bottom to ceiling. Our base thus has access to more water than we could ever had hoped for. If such an underground lake proves to be a common feature on Mars, then the colonization of Mars will prove to be a viable project.’’
‘’But, that is fantastic news, Denise!’’
‘’It certainly is, Janet. I am now going to download a number of video and data files collected by our sonar rover, plus a preliminary report by Jing on the fish part we recuperated. Please confirm to me when you will have received all four electronic files.’’
Janet watched and waited as the said files appeared one by one as attachments to the transmission link.
‘’I now have your four electronic files, which are now saved on my computer and on the master computer server of the ship. I will have our experts here study them at once.’’
‘’Before we end this link, I would have a couple of requirements for your attention, Janet. From being mostly a geological survey mission, my team is now redirecting most of its efforts towards the study of life on Mars and on ramping up the local food production via full exploitation of our hydroponic gardens, thanks to the huge reserves of water we just found. However, most of my surface team composition is geared towards geological prospection and I have only one bio-chemist and one agronomist to deal with biology and agronomy work, plus one life support engineer and one medical doctor who can give them some limited support. I will need more people here on Mars if we want to fully develop and use our base. I discussed this with my team members and we agreed that we would need at a minimum one extra agronomist, two hydroponics technicians, one bio-chemist or biologist, one life support systems technician and one spacesuits maintenance technician. If they could be sent down to us via shuttle, I would be truly grateful.’’
‘’Well, with what you found down on Mars, finding volunteers to add to your team shouldn’t be much of a problem, Denise. You should be getting them in two to three days, at the most. If you have a need for some specialized equipment or supply that you don’t have, we will send it down at the same time. Anything else?’’
Denise’s expression then changed, becoming sober.
‘’Yes! Apart from sending up some of the Martian salt we extracted from the water here, I would request that one present member of my team be replaced and sent back to the ship.’’
‘’Let me guess: you want to get rid of Larkin, right?’’
‘’Correct! He has proved to be abrasive and uncooperative right from the start and shows little team spirit. Concerning my requests for more personnel, he was the only one to disagree with me and the rest of the team, asking instead for more geologists and survey equipment. We have been on the surface for barely a week and a few of my team members already want to knock his ass around, and this includes his own geologists! I frankly don’t understand how this guy managed to pass through the psychological selection tests back on Earth. If he stays down on Mars much further, he is liable to create some major friction within the team.’’
‘’Very well! I will talk with his boss on the ship, Doctor Denisovich, about his case. To return to your request for extra personnel, how many more people can you accommodate without problems down at Mars Base One?’’
‘’We could easily accommodate six more people in the visitors’ quarters module of the base. They would however need to bring with them fa
t suits and some extra reserves of rations.’’
‘’I will take care of all this, Denise. You should get everything within three days. In the meantime, I believe that I will have a pretty full day passing on your bombshell to our ship’s staff and to Earth.’’
‘’I can’t imagine why. I will call you if anything new happens down here.’’
Denise then cut the link, leaving a thoughtful Janet to prioritize in her head all the things she now had to do at once.
21:31 (GMT)
Saturday, May 7, 2044
Spacesuits dressing room module, Mars Base One
Underground rotunda, Melas Chasma, Mars
Denise was surprised to see eight figures in spacesuits walk in via the base’s main airlock, rather than the seven persons she expected. She was even more surprised when she recognized the supernumerary person in the group.
‘’Commander Larsson? I was not expecting you to come down on Mars.’’
The tall blonde, still looking young for her age of 51, made an apologetic smile in response.
‘’I am sorry if I surprised you with my visit, but I thought that we really needed to speak in private, face to face. Don’t worry, it’s not about your performance on Mars, which has been exemplary to date, but rather about the giant steps your team accomplished in so little time. As a result, I intend to counsel to Earth to accelerate the program and jump to Phase Two as quickly as feasible. But, before we speak in private, let me present you your new team members.’’
Janet then half turned around and patted the arm of a big man wearing a short, well-trimmed beard sprinkled with gray hair.
‘’First, here is the senior addition to your team: Doctor Roman Denisovich, our chief planetologist and geo-physicist. He will be replacing Mister Larkin here on Mars. Talking of Larkin, where is he? Shouldn’t he be here, in his spacesuit and ready to leave?’’
Denise made a pinched expression at that question: Larkin had been less than fun to deal with during the last three days.
‘’He is in his room, playing sulky. I told him a half hour ago to get ready but he has still not showed up to the dressing room.’’
‘’This is childish! If he doesn’t show up here in a minute or so, then I will go get him and will drag him out if need be.’’
‘’Let me do that, Janet.’’ then said Roman Denisovich. ‘’He is part of my planetology department, thus is my responsibility.’’
The big Russian, his two pieces of luggage still in his hands and still wearing his spacesuit, then walked out of the module to go down the central hallway. Both Denise and Janet followed him with their eyes for a moment before Janet pointed another new arrival, a fairly young and also most pretty woman of apparent Middle East origin.
‘’Well, let’s forget Larkin for the moment and let’s continue with the presentation. Here is your new biologist, Doctor Layla Shapour.’’
‘’Pleased to have you here on Mars, Doctor Shapour.’’ said Denise while shaking hands with the newcomer, who was in her mid-thirties.
‘’And I am certainly please to be here and have a chance to study firsthand samples of alien biology.’’ replied the Iranian biologist. Next, Janet presented a medium-built man with short black hair who looked to be close to his fifties.
‘’This is Antonio Verdi, the extra agronomist you asked for. He will be assisted as well by Jodi White, a hydroponics specialist and agronomist, and by Pedro Alvarez, another hydroponics specialist and also a botanist.’’
Denise shook hands with the two men and one woman before Janet presented the last two newcomers, both women.
‘’And, finally, this is Gita Sukarno, your extra life support technician, and Winnie Bosango, your new spacesuits maintenance technician.’’
‘’Pleased to have you as part of my team, ladies.’’ said Denise while shaking their hands. Gita Sukarno, an Indonesian if she went by her name, was young, graceful and beautiful, all attributes that should attract the incorrigible Viktor Ponichnikov to Gita. As for Winnie Bosango, Denise, who was already tall by female standards, had to crank up her head to look into the eyes of the 186 centimeter-tall African woman.
‘’Miss Bosango, you could easily fit into a professional female basketball team, if I may say so.’’
The tall Kenyan woman, who seemed to have a lean but fit body, smiled at her remark.
‘’You are not the first one to say that to me, Miss Wattling. However, I never had much interest in basketball and am instead more attracted to technical work.’’
‘’Were you able to get a fat suit that fitted you before leaving the ship?’’
‘’Find, not really! However, we were able to modify in a hurry a fat suit so that it could fit me.’’
‘’Excellent! Well, if you will all take off your suits, I will then lead you to your respective rooms. In the meantime, our ATV drivers will load a cargo of Martian salt and bottles of liquid argon aboard your shuttle at the same time that they will unload the supplementary reserves of rations that were brought down with you.’’
While the newcomers were getting out of their spacesuits and then donned their ‘fat suits’, Janet went with Denise to the nearby command and control module, where they spoke alone for a few minutes before coming back to the spacesuits lockers module. There, they saw that Steve Larkin was also in the module and in the process of putting on his spacesuit under the watchful eye of Roman Denisovich. Janet gave a thankful nod to Denisovich, who nodded back: the last thing that Janet had wanted to have to deal with on this mission was with a case of problematic crew member.
‘’You may take off your suit, Roman: I will take it from here.’’
‘’Thank you, Janet.’’
The commander of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP didn’t miss the resentful quick look Larkin threw at her then and promised herself to put the geologist back into his proper place once back on the ship. Whether Larkin would acknowledge it or not, the fact was that he was his own worst enemy, as he had shown that he was utterly incapable of controlling his giant ego.
CHAPTER 11 – PHASE TWO
13:14 (California Time)
Monday, May 16, 2044
Headquarters of the Mars Home Project
Vandenberg Space Center, California
U.S.A.
Robert Lithgow, Chief Manager of the Mars Home Project, warmly shook the hand of Wang Lao Xi, the head of the Chinese Space Agency, when the latter arrived in the main conference room of the headquarters.
‘’Xi, it is a pleasure to see you here. I hope that things are going well now at your own space center?’’
‘’Well, we were scared for a moment that our space center could end up under water after that barrage broke but, fortunately, a second barrage downstream held and stopped the flooding from spreading. We are now effecting some urgent, major work to repair and reinforce the barrage that broke and are also digging a diversion canal that will make any future excess flow detour past our space center.’’
‘’I am happy to hear that, my friend. I must say that we had our own share of water trouble in the United States in the last few months.’’
‘’Yes, I heard about the demise of the Saint-Lawrence Seaway locks, when the rising seas overflowed part of them.’’
‘’Well, enough said about natural disasters! Let’s sit down and talk about some good news concerning our project.’’
Walking Xi to his designated seat, Robert then went to his own seat and sat down before looking at the six other persons sitting around the table.
‘’I believe that you all had ample time to read and view the reports and video recordings sent by our surface team on Mars, so I won’t waste time talking further about them. Instead, we are here to decide our next actions in the project. You all know what the preplanned phases of the project were and I believe that we are now at the point when we could launch Phase Two of the project, meaning the expansion of our initial surface base on Mars and of i
ts crew. Phase Two also meant the sending of the first permanent residents for our Mars base, astronauts that would stay and live there for the next few years on Mars and would help develop true production facilities on the surface, facilities which would start to make our base self-sustaining. Now, this Phase Two was planned to take over four years at a minimum before we could jump to Phase Three, but our initial team on Mars has accomplished miracles, helped with a large dose of good luck I must say. However, their quick progress outstripped the construction of our second interplanetary spaceship, the H.S.S. MIR, which means that we have to think about alternate solutions to send extra equipment and supplies to the surface of Mars. The floor is now yours.’’
The six national heads of space programs looked at each other for a moment as they thought about the problem presented to them by Lithgow. Misha Borisovich, the head of Roskosmos, finally spoke up in a careful tone.
‘’The cargo landers for the H.S.S. MIR are already built and waiting on the ground to be sent to the ship once it is completed in orbit. Why not put them on top of dedicated vertical boosters and launch them directly from the ground? Since they are not inhabited, their carrying boosters would not need to have such luxuries as giant rotating rings and food supplies. Also, by not having a human crew, they would only need conventional rocket engines, rather than nuclear and magneto-plasma engines, and would thus be much more economical and quick to launch, albeit their trip to Mars would take longer.’’
Lithgow, like the others, nodded his head in approbation on hearing the Russian’s proposal.
‘’A nice, practical idea indeed, Misha. I like it!’’
‘’I like it too,’’ said Maria Cardona, of the NASA, ‘’but I believe that, with what we know now about the surface of Mars and the conditions there, that we should start designing new, purpose-built cargo landers that could help enlarge our base by rolling into the underground rotunda that shelters our Mars Base One. I know that our present cargo lander design allows that already, but if we could produce something larger but still able to roll inside the rotunda, then connect it to our present base, then it would open some fantastic new possibilities to us.’’
A Mars Odyssey Page 15
