At about three meters away, he could make out the names stitched onto their suits. It was two men, Shashwat on the left and Guillermo on the right.
“Guillermo,” Lance yelled furiously over the loudspeaker, “take your hands off our vehicle!”
Guillermo suddenly reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a black object. In his oversized gloves, it was hard to tell what it was.
“He has a pistol!” Sarah cried, just as he recognized it. Lance stopped in his tracks, as the man pointed the gun at him.
“Shit, they’re armed,” he said over the helmet radio.
“Don’t provoke them, Lance. Please, it’s not worth it,” Sarah said. He turned toward her. She had raised her arms and was slowly walking toward them. “Tell them that you want to talk to them on Channel 22,” she said quietly over the radio.
“Why? We’re using Channel 15.”
“Don’t ask.”
Lance activated his external mic. “Channel 22. Can we talk?” he asked loudly.
The two men seemed to understand him. They pressed a button on their helmets.
Lance heard a voice. “This is a surprise.” He didn’t recognize the accent, so it was probably Shashwat.
“Yeah. What lousy luck,” the second man said with a Spanish accent. Definitely Guillermo. He was the one pointing the pistol at him.
“Couldn’t you lower that thing, pal?” Lance tried.
“So that you could put me out of action? You must think we’re really dumb. Typical NASA arrogance. No, the gun stays where it is.”
“And what do you want?” Sarah asked.
“The same as you. The probe,” Shashwat replied.
“And while we’re at it, anything else you can do without,” Guillermo said. “The third segment of your Rover would fit perfectly onto ours. All NASA manufactured. How practical. Hahaha! I’m also sure you have more supplies packed than you’ll need for your return trip. Isn’t it NASA routine to pack twice as much as you might need, in case of emergency?”
Shashwat gestured at his colleague. They had presumably not discussed this. Scavenging the probe was one thing, but to rob the competition... Shashwat might have a problem with that. Or Lance might just be imagining things, and Shashwat actually wanted them to hand over the entire Rover. That would be a death sentence for them.
“Just slow down. You can’t really think that you can cause any damage with your puny pistol, Guillermo. Where would the oxygen come from that you need to ignite the gunpowder in your bullet?” Lance spoke with deliberate calm, hoping the MfE guys wouldn’t know that he was lying to them. He didn’t raise his arms like Sarah, but he didn’t move any closer to Guillermo either.
“What does he think he’s doing?” Guillermo asked his partner.
“Don’t get too cocky,” Shashwat said to Lance as he pulled his pistol out of his pocket. “This pretty little thing shoots great. The propelling charge holds its own oxygen. The lower gravity and the thin atmosphere give the bullet even more oomph.”
The bluff hadn’t worked, unfortunately, but they couldn’t just let the MfE guys walk all over them! First the Endeavour, then the probe and their supplies. Would they follow this up by showing up on their doorstep and demanding that they surrender their base?
“Whoa, everyone just take a deep breath. Nobody has to get hurt here,” Sarah interjected. “You have guns and we don’t. What choice do we have? We’ll give you what you want, and we don’t need to argue about it.”
What was this? Had Sarah already given up? She was right though, there was no point in arguing with two guys with revolvers. Why had NASA stopped arming their astronauts? Lance was furious, but maybe there’d still be a chance to turn the tables on them. Guillermo might not feel up to shooting someone, but then again, he could be an ex-Mafia hitman for all Lance knew. Hadn’t the MfE application process been open to anyone?
“Your colleague seems very sensible,” Shashwat said.
“We really just want the best for you,” his cohort said with a laugh.
The guys really weren’t making it easy for him to accept his humiliation. He saw Sarah amble over to the Rover out of the corner of his eye.
Shashwat must have also noticed her movements. “What are you doing?”
“I’m unfastening the back section for you,” Sarah replied. “I didn’t think you wanted to draw this out any longer than necessary.”
“Very true.”
Sarah unfastened the coupling on the one side, then walked around the Rover to take care of the other side. Was she up to something? Shashwat’s view was blocked by the cargo in the middle section, and Guillermo wasn’t looking her way since he was still pointing his gun at Lance.
It was growing darker minute by minute. Suddenly a shadow came flying out from behind the MfE guys. Lance had only seen something that crazy done by stuntmen in ninja films, but this time it was real. Sarah had used the low Mars gravity and nailed Guillermo in the lower back. The man collapsed on the ground. He tried to turn over and point his gun at Sarah, but she snatched it out of his hand as quick as a cat and pulled his body up as cover against the other MfE man.
“Sorry, Shashwat,” Guillermo groaned. Sarah was holding him tightly from behind.
“I think we have a stalemate,” Shashwat said as he aimed his pistol at Lance.
At the sound of the shot, Lance instinctively dropped to the ground. He then heard a shout of alarm.
“A stalemate? I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Sarah replied as Lance got back on his feet.
“Help! Help!” Shashwat cried. “My suit has a hole in it. I’ll suffocate!”
Lance realized what Sarah had done. The man’s spacesuit now had a hole in the upper sleeve where Sarah’s bullet had penetrated the suit. Shashwat dropped his gun and was now trying to hold the hole closed with his other hand. Guillermo, who was still lying on the ground, didn’t react.
“Do I really have to do everything myself?” Sarah asked.
She strode over to Shashwat and kicked the pistol that was lying at his feet over to Lance who picked it up. She opened her tool bag and pulled out her emergency spray.
“You don’t have something like this with you? I guess it’s one of those fucking NASA luxuries,” Sarah said, “but sometimes it comes in handy. Shall I?”
“Yes!” the man shouted. “Quickly!”
“Say ‘please.’”
“Please.”
“And you won’t ever steal anything again.”
“I won’t.”
“What won’t you do?”
“Steal anything.”
“Won’t those parts fit in a complete sentence?”
“Please, I won’t ever steal anything again.”
“Good,” Sarah said as she pressed the spray nozzle. A white repair foam welled out of the nozzle. “Turn around, please.”
The man turned. Sarah lifted his arm a little, and he cried out in pain.
“I have to do that. The hole is located in a wrinkle,” she said. “The spray can only seal it if the fabric is pulled straight. But I’d be lying if I said I felt particularly sorry about this.”
“Thank you,” the MfE man said.
“And now for you,” Sarah said as she walked over to Guillermo. “What should we do with you?”
“Please don’t do anything to me. It wasn’t my idea. The theft, I mean.”
“Yes, it was,” his colleague blurted out.
“In that case, I’ll have to blow your brains out,” Sarah said, though she didn’t raise the gun.
“Please don’t,” Guillermo said. “I’ll do anything you ask me to.”
“Good idea, though that wasn’t what I was thinking. That was just revenge for the fear that had to be pumping through my colleague Lance’s veins. I suggest that you two pretties drive back to your settlement and convince your boss that it would be a good idea to give the ship back to the NASA people.”
Lance was impressed with Sarah’s performance. He had never seen her
like this. All that was missing was a whip dangling from her hand.
“That... won’t be so easy,” Shashwat declared.
“At least try. I’m sure you aren’t the only ones who’d like to do that. If I come and visit our ship and hear that you didn’t even try, I’ll remember that you owe me. Got that?”
“Yeah,” Guillermo replied.
“Oh, by the way, I’ll need a small token of collateral from both of you.”
Lance wouldn’t have been surprised if she demanded they hand over their little fingers or the souls of their firstborn children.
“Yes?” Shashwat asked.
“Our radio bit the dust on our drive out here. We haven’t been able to communicate with our base for the last part of our journey, and you won’t be able to do that during your return trip. That seems fair, right? Coincidentally, it should fit perfectly in our Rover. After all, it’s all NASA technology.”
“Of course,” Guillermo said. “We can manage without it.”
They drove through the darkness for half an hour before they set up camp. Despite how the altercation had panned out, it didn’t seem like a good idea to spend the night close to the MfE people. After all, they didn’t know if the two men had other guns hidden in their vehicle.
“Rover to base, please come in.” Sarah was speaking into the microphone. They could finally relieve their friends’ anxieties.
“Base to Rover. Sharon here. It’s great to hear from you! What happened? Are you two alright?”
“Everything’s just fine. We’ve had a few interesting days, but we’ll fill you in when we get back.”
“Understood. Mike was convinced that MfE had something to do with your disappearance.”
“That’s not quite what happened. A rock destroyed our radio.”
“But you were able to repair it?”
“Kind of.”
“Alright. Well, I’m just glad you’re safe and sound. We were really worried.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
“It wasn’t your fault, but it’s good to be back in touch. We have some interesting news for you as well.”
Sol 61, MfE base
“We haven’t heard from Shashwat and Guillermo for two days now. We have to do something,” Rebecca said.
The group had gathered in their new command center for the first time. Even Gabriella was there, having decided to leave Andy alone on his sickbed for a short while. They were still only twelve in number. If this keeps going, Theo thought, our Mars for Everyone project will literally be dead by the end of the year.
They had to do something. Today. He had filled Rebecca in on his suspicions and asked her to prolong the discussion about the disappearance of the open Rover as much as possible. He was planning to do something that he didn’t want anyone to witness. Theo looked around the group. Ewa was sitting on a stool with her arms folded, while Ellen sat cross-legged beside her on the floor. She had become Ewa’s personal aide-de-camp.
Theo belched loudly and deeply, something he had practiced for a long time. He then grabbed his stomach, and without another word, ran out of the center.
“Do you need help?” Gabriella called after him.
“This morning he...”
He couldn’t catch Rebecca’s last words. The subterranean passage that connected the command center in the finished base with the Endeavour had a bend to it. Theo ran as fast as he could. He would have the ship to himself for the next few minutes. Rebecca would send him a signal when the meeting ended.
He climbed up into the ship and then into the Endeavour command center. Breathless, he sat down in the pilot’s seat and pulled the keyboard in front of him. He clicked on Andy’s user name and waited for the password request. The last time he had been here, he had tried three more of the twenty possible combinations of eight adjacent characters. The computer would still only allow him three attempts before it would temporarily lock him out. Theo was on pins and needles. He was already up to the 17th variation! But what if Andy had used a combination that involved a line change, like 890-QWER? No, he was too lazy for that. Hopefully!
Theo had reached the nineteenth combination, ZXCVBNM<, and it finally worked! He now had access to Andy’s projects and files. What had he been up to? Most of all, what had been so sensitive that he had decided against saving it among the publicly accessible files?
Theo went through the lists. There was a directory with personal photos. He glanced through them. Andy might have concealed other files there, but these really were just pictures. An older, gray-haired woman flashed by. Was that Andy’s mother? Right underneath the photo folder was one for music, which Theo also checked. The Eagles? He chuckled. He wouldn’t have taken the gifted programmer for one of their fans. He, at least, had stopped listening to such old music by the time he turned twenty-five. It wasn’t surprising that Andy had an extensive video folder. What also didn’t surprise Theo was the fact that Andy was a fan of the old Star Trek movies. He briefly considered copying the videos, but that wasn’t why he was here.
The fourth primary folder was simply titled ‘Projects.’ It contained a wide array of document types—software source texts, sketches, tables, texts, and a few data types that Theo didn’t recognize. Where should he begin? There had to be around 900 files here. It would take way too long to work through them, so he plugged in a memory chip he had brought along and copied the documents. He would go through them this evening at his own pace.
His communicator vibrated. It was Rebecca’s signal. He didn’t have more than 20 seconds left. The memory chip was full, and Theo logged out of Andy’s account. What about the clues he was leaving behind? The system log would indicate that someone had accessed the unconscious Andy’s files on this computer today. If Ewa noticed that, she would immediately remember his absence from the meeting, but he was out of time.
Theo pushed the keyboard back in place, jumped up, and climbed down the ladder. It still smelled like the animals that had lived down here for some time. The toilet was attached to the wall of the lower level. He quickly locked himself in the tiny cabin, and when he heard the sound of footsteps outside, he loudly gagged several times. He decided not to rinse himself off. His rushed actions had made him sweaty, but that would just substantiate his story about having indigestion.
He slowly made his way back down the corridor to the base. Ellen passed him and wished him a speedy recovery. He then ran into Rebecca, who noisily expressed her concern for him before dragging him into his new cabin.
“Did you do it?” she asked after she had shut the door.
“Hopefully I got all the pertinent data out,” he replied.
They had to be careful. For all Theo knew, Ewa might have installed listening devices in the walls during the construction phase.
“I hope you feel better soon,” Rebecca said. “Should I check on you this evening?”
Theo reached into his pants pocket. It was empty, and he felt the room grow hot. In his hurry, he had forgotten to extract the memory chip. “Shit,” he gasped.
“Oh, that too?” Rebecca asked.
He drew the outline of the chip in the air, but she didn’t get what he meant. He searched frantically for his tablet. He typed, ‘Memory chip still in the computer,’ showed it to Rebecca, and deleted the text.
Rebecca grew pale and sat down on his bed.
“Have you caught what I have?” he asked.
She shook her head and then stood up quickly. “I’ll get you something from the doctor,” she said.
Theo was about to protest. She shouldn’t put herself in danger because of him! But Rebecca had already left the room.
Now he’d done it. He walked up and down the room. Three steps to the left, three to the right. That was all the space he had. He sat back down on his bed. His knees began to tremble of their own accord. He pulled off his boots and stretched out on his mattress. It was torture to have to just sit here and do nothing. If only he could see what was going on! He massaged his wrists and
leaped to his feet just to sit back down again.
An eternity later, someone knocked at his door. “Please come in,” he said.
It was Rebecca. She closed the door behind her and held her fist out to him. “Your pills,” she said as she triumphantly opened her fingers.
Theo saw the two white tablets—and his memory chip. “Thank you,” he said. “Thank you so much. I should hug you for that.”
“I’ll take a rain check on that,” Rebecca replied.
For another eternity, nobody said anything, but then they sat down next to each other on the bed.
“I ran into Ewa with the doctor when I went to ask for the pills. Their conversation was pretty interesting. Gabriella was explaining that she had run an EEG on Andy a few days ago and that she had detected some conspicuous activity in his frontal lobe.”
“Is that good news?”
“Gabriella thinks so at least. Sometimes patients wake up after such indications. Ewa was skeptical. She thinks it might just be one last gasp.”
“That is really interesting,” Theo replied. “I think I’ll take the pills now and sleep a little while. I’m sure I’ll feel better by this afternoon. Want to meet outside around sunset?”
“Sure, Theo,” Rebecca said, smiling.
Theo activated his tablet and switched it offline before plugging in the memory chip. Almost 1,000 documents made for a ton of stuff. He wouldn’t be able to make sense of the software source texts anyway. Those probably had something to do with Andy’s hobby programming projects.
Two of the file names looked interesting, ‘MainEngine.diff,’ and ‘Module.diff. That had to be related to the Santa Maria, their spaceship. He opened the smaller Module.diff file first. It was empty. Andy had saved it that way, which was strange.
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