by Peter Smith
His eyes widened, and he turned his head backward, quickly spitting the wad of gum from his mouth. He snapped to attention, facing forward as several pairs of legs came into view.
Maria couldn’t help but roll her eyes at her husband. Alex rocketed up the ramp and jumped into his grandfather’s arms as he, her mother and someone she had never met before came down the ramp. Maria let her gaze linger on the newcomer, noting how tired they looked and the slight pale complexion they had to their skin but then turned her attention to her mother and father-in-law.
“Hey Dad” She said slowly, drawing out the vowel sound awkwardly.
Williams smirked at her as Alex embraced the muscular African American man, “Nope, still doesn’t sound right,” He said.
She nodded in agreement, “Yeah, just doesn’t roll off the tongue yet.”
Her mother stepped up to her and hugged her as Sean moved to David and slapped his father on the back. He looked up the ramp, “You missing someone pops?”
David shook his head, “He’s in a conference with the chiefs.”
Maria arched an eyebrow, “So I’m sure I lent you one of my planes and this isn’t it.”
David opened his mouth but Eva interrupted, “The Supreme Commander is concerned about security issues.”
She looked up the ramp, “That jack ass thinks I’ll spy on him?”
“Mrs. Patterson, the use of derogatory terminology for an ally is counterproductive.” Toby stated.
She was about to use another derogatory term for Tobor when her mother motioned toward their guest, “Maria, this is Ambassador Watney from the Mars delegation.”
Maria’s eyes lit up and then stepped up to the woman, stretching her hand out to to greet the Ambassador. The woman’s physical signs of distress making far more sense, “Ms. Watney, thank you for visiting our home!”
The shake Maria received back felt perfunctory, but she understood why, “Thank you.”
“I watched your reentry live, that’s an amazing ship you’ve got, how did you keep it in such great shape through all those Martian storms?”
Hurt flashed through her eyes as Maria looked into them. She knew what would come next, “They’re all new.”
A moment of silence hung between them as Maria recalled the records of her father’s attack on the Mars colony. She pursed her lips, “I’m sorry for what my father did.”
The ambassador took a deep breath and waved her hand dismissively, “Not your fault, it’s just hard to stand here, in this place knowing that he built it.”
“He never shared with me any information about your colony when I was growing up, he always selectively edited what happened to your colony,” Maria said, her eyes dropping to the floor, “I’m just glad you survived.”
Watney nodded her head, “We we’re lucky, we almost didn’t see the kill vehicles. If we hadn’t been pointing all of our telescopes at Earth, trying to get information on survivors from The Fall, we never would have.”
“Were you able to save everyone?”
She slowly shook her head, her eyes taking a distant look to them, “There were over a million of us when we detected the rods heading our way, we moved as much life support equipment as we could into the volcanic tubes a few kilometers south of the city but,” She stopped, her eyes narrowing as if she were trying to focus on something, her left thumb gently tapped at her ring finger, “No… no we weren’t able to save everyone but their sacrifice kept the rest of us from suffocating to death.”
Tears sprang to Maria’s eyes, “I’m so sorry” she said. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head to see Alex smiling at her, held in Williams’ arms, Eva and Sean right next to him.
“Are you okay mommy?” He asked, his little fingers gripping her reassuringly.
She nodded and lied to her son, “I’m okay little man”.
“I don’t hold any ill will toward you Mrs. Patterson, you weren’t responsible for his actions and anyway, that’s not why I came here, we have a problem.”
Maria quickly wiped the tears away, “Helping you is the least I can do, what do you need?”
“Any information you have about your father’s operations on Venus.”
Maria’s brow furrowed. Of everything she was expecting to hear, that was not it, “Venus, why would my dad have been doing anything on Venus?”
She turned and looked at her mother, who looked as perplexed as she did at the idea. Watney looked at them both, “You weren’t aware of the materials he sent to the planet?”
Maria turned back, “No, I knew from what I discovered when going through our family database that he had been expanding on the old GPS network and putting even more communications satellites into orbit. Other than that and an interest in the deep space telescopes at the Lagrange points I wasn’t aware he had done anything else.”
The ambassador nodded and Maria continued, “Can I ask why you think he was interested in the planet.”
Watney’s hands moved through the air. Maria assumed she was using her virtual vision. With a flick of the woman’s wrist, Maria received a file and accepted it. Data from several observation satellites in orbit around Mars and from telescopes on the planet’s surface flooded in front of her. Maria furrowed her brow, “What the hell?”
Sean cut in, “So can you share with the rest of us, we have no idea what you’re looking at.”
Maria absentmindedly flicked her hand over her shoulder, sending them the file. Williams whistled as he reviewed the data and Sean scoffed, “It’s all just spreadsheets, what does this mean?”
Maria ignored her husband, far too engrossed in what she was reviewing, an icy chill gripping the base of her spine. What else from the man’s legacy was she going to deal with? Her mother explained to Sean what it was they were reviewing, “Jacob was sending a lot of mass to Venus.”
“How much is a lot?” Sean asked.
“The equivalent of several of this Spire.”
“Crap.” He muttered astounded.
“Daddy you used a bad word” Alex said admonishingly.
“Sorry buddy, daddy needs to do better,” Sean quickly responded and then a second later, “Hey your mommy said a bad word too why didn’t you say anything to her.”
“Don’t drag me into this” She mumbled as she traced many of the flight paths of the interplanetary shipment back to a location deep in the Atlantic Ocean, directly on the equator. She accessed her satellite network over the area and tasked a device with getting her a real-time image of the sea there. She didn’t have to wait long for the AI informed her it had detected an object in one of the grid squares she had ordered searched. She pulled up the imagery and saw a massive floating platform with a large central building. That was likely where the rockets and sensitive equipment were stored to protect them from the storms that roiled across the ocean. Her eyes drifted to the dozen launch and reception pads that were arranged in a honeycomb design around the central facility.
“Toby” She said.
“I will depart immediately from our Havana base and investigate the launch facility.”
“Be sure to take a platoon with you, remember the last time we investigated one of dad’s black sites.”
“Understood” her friend said, continuing to stand behind them.
“Hidden launch facilities aren’t what we’re concerned most with, refer to the data from Venus itself.” Watney said.
Maria shifted to that portion of the file and her eyes went wide, “How many of them are there?”
“What the hell?” David grumbled, seeing what Maria had a moment earlier.
“Grandpa, you and daddy have potty mouths,” Alex admonished.
“It’s okay buddy, I’m a Marine, bad words are a part of our religion.”
“Twelve as of this moment, but if the rate of construction continues, we should see another within two more weeks.” Watney said, answering Maria’s earlier question.
Maria’s mother spoke up, “They clearly aren’t normal bu
ildings, the data shows that they are extruding much hotter air from their pinnacles.”
“Which comprises higher concentrations of nitrogen; oxygen and argon than there should be.” Watney added.
“I want to see” Alex cried, reaching for his grandmother.
Eva took him but apologized, “Sorry buddy but you aren’t old enough for your contacts.”
“That’s not true, Toby said we can make them for me.” Alex whined.
Tobor’s smooth voice responded, “That is incorrect young Patterson, my exact statement was ‘We posses the ability to make virtual interface contact lenses for eyes of any shape or age’.”
Maria held up a finger, “I told you I don’t want you wearing contacts until you’re a teenager…” she trailed off and then said, “What was he doing?”
Watney sighed, rubbing at her forehead. Maria didn’t think she was exhausted with the conversation, just the constant strain upon their body, “Forgive me.” She said and quickly followed it up with a statement, “We believe he was trying to alter the atmosphere of Venus.”
Maria’s eyes widened, “He was trying to break up the cloud layer by forcing hot air from the surface into the upper atmosphere where it would radiate away its heat.” Her tone a mixture of shock and awe.
“Why would he have wanted to break up the cloud layer?” Williams asked.
“Venus is experiencing a runaway greenhouse effect, there’s too much carbon dioxide and other insulating gases in the atmosphere. Any heat that slips in from the sun and volcanic activity gets trapped near the surface by the thick cloud layer. It just keeps getting warmer and warmer, it’s too hot for people to operate or live on the planet.” Her mother explained.
“And that heat is essentially holding a loft the cloud layer, keeping it in place. If he could reduce the pressure near the surface, some of that cloud layer might break up and allow even more heat to escape. Even if that fails, he’s somehow converting CO2 into Nitrogen and Oxygen. That would eventually remove enough greenhouse gases from the air to allow for the cloud layer to break up.” Maria said.
“How is he powering it?” Sean asked.
Watney looked at him, “It’s likely an elegant system that provides for its own power needs, he’s essentially created a straw from the upper atmosphere where the air pressure is weakest to the high pressure surface.”
“He created a vacuum” Williams said proud that he had figured something out without the women having to explain it to him.
“In effect yes, physics is doing most of the work for him, I imagine the base of these towers is probably much larger than the top of them, to help maintain the pressure by constricting the air flow as it loses heat.”
“So he’s trying to terraform the planet,” Sean said.
They all looked at him and he stared back awkwardly, “What?” He asked suddenly unsure of himself, “I read.” Sean said defensively.
Maria smirked, “Debatable, and since when do you read anything other than technical specs and manuals?”
He looked around at the arrayed faces, all focused directly upon him. His white skin reddened slightly, “It was before we started dating and I figured, well you're into all that nerd crap so I should see what it’s all about.”
Williams snickered and her mother backhanded him across the stomach. Maria shook her head, “That was almost sweet, we’ll need to talk about how you kept this from me later, we could have been reading together.”
He looked uncomfortable, “You’re into Arthur C. Clarke, I’m more a James S. A. Corey kinda guy.”
She rolled her eyes, “Of course you are.”
Watney cleared her throat, “While I appreciate a stimulating discussion on literature as much as the next person.”
Maria nodded, “Yes I’m sorry, all of this is new to us. I regret we can’t offer more help right now. If you’re open to it, I would like to collaborate with you on sending some probes to the planet. Lets see if we can't find out what type of automated sequence is operating down there.”
“If it is terraforming the planet, maybe it’ll be an option for your people in the future.” Sean said.
Watney shook her head, the word ‘no,’ being formed by her lips, “After our experience, we’d prefer not being at the bottom of a gravity well in relation to Earth.”
The ambassador looked at Maria, “Are you sure you know nothing, maybe a bit of data you’ve overlooked?”
Maria flicked her hand toward Watney, “That’s every byte of information I have on my father’s space programs. You’re welcome to dissect it to your heart's content. After what he did to you, I completely understand your skepticism and trepidation.”
Watney took a deep breath and this time Maria felt that it had nothing to do with the oppressive effect of Earth’s gravity on the woman, “Thank you” she said, a smile slowly stretching across her face, “The phrase ‘Never Again’ has a special meaning with us.”
A new voice boomed into existence, calling all of them to look up the loading ramp, “For our people too.” Supreme Commander James Kellen said as his combat boots hammered the metal he was walking atop.
“Ambassador, if you’d, like this transport is ready to take you back to Kennedy Space Center.” He said as he stepped onto the concrete of the hangar.
She nodded, exhaustion setting in, “I would like to rest for a while.”
Kellen looked at her, “We need to have that conversation now.”
Maria suppressed the annoyance from the general's arrival and held up a finger, quietly telling him to wait. She looked back at Watney, “Will it be possible for us to speak again, I’d love to hear more about Mars and your time in space.”
Kellen’s right eye twitched just a fraction, as the older woman reached out gripping Maria’s hand, “Another time perhaps, we’ll be departing soon to get back home.”
Maria fought back the wave of loss that came with the statement, “At least allow me to provide you with a QEC so we can share our findings with you.”
Watney nodded and broke their connection, “Thank you Mrs. Patterson.”
“Not a problem, I’ll be sure to have it delivered to your ship at Kennedy along with instructions on how to make your own. A very small down payment on the debt my family owes you.”
With that Watney nodded appreciatively and trudged up the ramp, her muscles weakened from nearly twenty years of Mars’ weaker gravity and the zero g of space flight. She stopped and turned, “Robinson.”
Maria’s brow furrowed, “Excuse me.”
“You and your husband were discussing authors, I think you’d both like Kim Stanley Robinson, my husband and I both did.” With a weak smile, she turned and walked up the ramp and out of sight.
Maria looked at Kellen, “Now we can have that conversation General.”
“Respectfully, that’s a load of horse shit.” Maria stated, her eyes never leaving Kellen’s.
She could see Sean tense from his seat between both she and his superior officer. Williams who was sitting slightly behind the general looked up to the ceiling, silently mouthing the words, ‘sweet Jesus’.
Kellen leaned forward. She wasn’t sure if the movement was merely him trying to process his own emotions at her rather forceful disregard for his position, or if he was trying to use his size to intimidate her. Not that it would have worked.
After facing off against the likes of Jeffery Chen, there were few men or women alive on this planet that could hope to chip away at her mental resolve the way he had. It didn’t help that Kellen’s strength lay more in his ability to interpret data effectively and calculate solutions rather than bench pressing his problems away. Honestly, she didn’t think there was more than twenty pounds difference in their weight.
“You should look up the word ‘respectful’ Mrs. Patterson.” Kellen said, his jaw tense.
She smirked and leaned forward, “My first inclination was to tell you to shove it up your ass, but I didn’t, pretty sure that signals I understand the mea
ning of the word.”
Gentle finger tips rested against the middle of her back. The fingers belong to her mother, serving as an important emotional anchor and attempting to tether her to more professional behavior. Maria wasn’t in the mood.
Kellen shook his head, “Why do you insist on behaving like a child?”
“Why do you insist on being a warmonger?”
His fists tightened, “Do you think I want this?”
She sat back and laughed, “You have literally done nothing but take advantage of my attempts to create a lasting peace. Did you even give the peace accords in Kauai a chance before you came up with your little plan to cut off the Russians from global trade?”
“More time than they gave it since they nearly killed Mr. Dawson and I just seventy-two hours ago.”
She shook her head, “No, don’t deflect from your betrayal by bringing up there’s.”
Kellen looked as if he wanted to stand up from his chair, “I didn’t betray you Mrs. Patterson if anything I have been nothing but accommodating to you. I gave your peace process a chance, in fact my partner is still in Kauai trying to keep our end of the proceedings alive with Trotsky. But neither myself nor Director Canine believed for a second that they would keep up their end of the bargain and honor the armistice.”
Maria’s hands covered her face and slipped down it, stretching her expression of annoyance out as they did. Her disgust was audible as she let out a frustrated sigh. Her elbows dropped to the tabletop and her hands spread open as if beseeching the heavens for help, “Are you really going to bitch about them attacking you when you were literally planning an attack on them?”
This time Kellen stood, “How many times do I have to say it, we knew they wouldn’t honor their end of the agreement.”
She rolled her eyes, “How about you say it enough times until it sinks through your skull how asinine that logic is. I guarantee you Trotsky was having the same discussion with his advisors and some ass hat in that room, probably saying the same crap you’re spewing right now.”
James opened his mouth to respond but Maria bulldozed over him, “How the hell are we ever going to achieve a level of lasting peace on this planet if men such as yourselves aren’t ever willing to take the chances necessary to let it come to fruition. People like you and Trotsky are the reason the Israeli/Palestinian conflict never ended. Why Republicans and Democrats almost took America to the brink of a second civil war. Get it through all of that military indoctrination, there cannot be peace until you accept that your enemy is capable of peace.”