Ad Martem 12

by Giulia Carla Bassani

  «What… What happens?» Yan mumbled opening his eyes.

  Anna got up yawning.

  «I don’t feel good» Jordan said bringing a hand to touch his forehead.

  «What is it?» Anna asked right away, alarmed, but as if she herself was blocked by a pang, she brought a hand to her own head.

  «I feel tired, strong headache» Jordan panted, «You feel it too?»

  The girl nodded weakly, squeezing her eyes. Yan got up to sit with a lost look and passed a hand through his hair.

  «Hey, I also feel… I feel like» he took a deep breath and coughed, bringing his hands to his temples, «Like I can’t breathe.»

  At those words, Jordan widened his eyes.

  «Oh, no» he whispered before standing up suddenly, despite the pain, and flying into the cockpit.

  He threw himself on the driver seat and scanned the indicators of the Life Support System, looking for a leak. He watched many times again and again until suddenly his gaze stopped on the level of carbon dioxide. He went pale.

  «Three point eight percent! Holy Olympus!» he shrieked, rushing back to his friends and coughing.

  «The CO2 level in the air is extremely above normal, three point eight percent and seems to be increasing. Just know that at five percent we’ll die from intoxication!» he said in a hurry.

  «How’s it possible?» Yan asked, panicking.

  «I don’t know!» Jordan yelled back, heading to the back of the rover where there were the Life Support System machines. Jordan was certain the problem laid in the carbon dioxide absorber, a machine that looked like a big canister on the outside. He opened a hatch and found himself in front of all the machines, including the absorber. But the truth was he had no idea of what to do, nor where to start. And he didn’t have a lot of time. Anna reached him and looked up, where there was a receptacle. The system absorbed the rover’s air from there in order to purify it. But it didn’t seem different than the usual.

  «Jordan, you’re the expert in this field» Anna admitted shortly after, «Where might the problem be?»

  Jordan reemerged from the hatch and turned to look at Anna with a dishevelled look. With the tiredness and the pain in his head he didn’t know how long he was going to resist.

  «The thing is I really have no idea!» he exclaimed, «The absorber is the last one I expected to create problems. I mean, it’s an automatic system that absorbs, purifies, frees the purified air and expels the CO2 outside and goes on like that! Absorbs, purifies, frees, expels; absorbs, purifies, frees, expels…»

  «Stop it! Focus! We have no time!» Yan shouted to interrupt him.

  Jordan was crossed by an angry rage, but tried to repress it. Maybe too much carbon dioxide went to his head. He leaned with his back against the closets and, overwhelmed by an inexistent weight, he thought. He wondered what could be the reason that brought that machine not to purify the air. He felt his mind more and more foggy, sincerely he had no idea. He wondered if it really was going to end so and on the other hand he began to feel guilty for not really thinking about a solution. But he felt defeated, lost. He saw out of the corner of his eye Anna keeling over against a wall and sitting on the floor with her head in her hands, Yan had curled up on one of the chairs. Suddenly, a continuous bip bip began to spread in the rover. He imagined that the percentage had already exceeded the four.

  «Jordan, do something!» he heard Anna’s voice, far away.

  He began to lose his mind among various thoughts, apparently random, as if he was about to fall asleep. And inevitably the storm came back to his mind, the sand enraging around the rover and… and suddenly a light turned on at the end of the tunnel, an intuition, a hope. He realized he had his eyes closed and opened them immediately, pulling away from the wall.

  «The storm!» he said aloud, as trying to wake his friends up again. «It’s obvious, isn’t it? The debris must have blocked the expulsion of the carbon dioxide on the outside and the system couldn’t purify the air anymore!»

  «Of course» Anna acknowledged, struggling to get up again and beginning to gather the biosuits that had been piled up in a corner.

  But suddenly she stopped and turned to Jordan. One glance only was enough and they both understood. His helmet was broken and in order to get out of the rover he had to shut down the Life Support System. The truth of the matter was clear to all the three of them without the necessity to speak it aloud: Jordan was going to die both with or without the suit. The boy swallowed, feeling his throat suddenly dry and looked at the suits Anna held in her hands.

  «Come on, let’s move!» he ordered reaching her and grabbing his own biosuit.

  «Jordan, you can’t!» the girl cried.

  Jordan stopped and looked at her straight in the eyes without blinking.

  «I can. It’s the only way. I’ll find something to plug the hole.»

  After slipping into his suit to his waist, he headed to the Atenavan’s bathroom, ignoring Anna’s twinkling eyes. He heard Yan encourage her to move on, he was grateful to him.

  In the bathroom there was a small toilet, a little sink and a closet above it. Jordan opened it and began to dig through, looking for some duct-tape or anything that could serve for plugging the hole in his visor, ignoring several packages of tablets, bandages and patches that kept falling into the sink and on the floor. Finally he found some cotton and a roll of thin masking tape. It wasn’t the best, but still better than nothing. He wriggled out of the bathroom and saw Anna and Yan were ready with their suits on.

  «Did you find anything?» the girl asked in a hurry, rushing to him with his helmet in her hands.

  Yan reached them.

  «Yes, help me» Jordan urged, beginning to rip some pieces of cotton.

  They placed it on the floor and inserted some cotton in the hole before sticking the tape both on the inside and the outside all the way down the crack, until they created a thick layer.

  «Thanks» Jordan uttered quickly and, without many compliments, he put on his helmet and sealed it.

  Yan passed Anna her helmet and they did the same. Jordan took a deep breath of good oxygen, provided by the tanks of his suit, and reached the cockpit to turn off the engine and the Systems. Eventually the pressure decreased to the Martian atmosphere level and Jordan observed the white tape on the visor before his eyes with some fear, hoping it would hold. It didn’t allow sight from his right eye. It seemed to hold, but he still didn’t feel so safe. He wanted to solve all of that soon.

  «It works?» Yan asked.

  «Yes, for now» Jordan replied firmly and all the three of them got off the Atenavan.

  They began to walk around it. The way it had come out of the storm was surprising. On the roof there were at least two centimeters of reddish sand and the sides were covered by a tiny layer of dust. Even the fierce inscription “Atenavan” didn’t seem so vivid anymore. Jordan reached the back of the rover and began to scan it, looking for a possible vent. Anna and Yan were right away at his sides and did the same. Everything was so dirty that they could barely make out the external hatch that hid the Life Support System. All the three of them got closer and began to clean the surface with their hands. Jordan knew that if they didn’t solve the problem, their life was going to end there. Returning onboard would be useless because the absorber would intoxicate them and sooner or later they were going to run out of oxygen in their suits. At that thought, Jordan froze. Speaking of oxygen, after the extravehicular walk, in the confusion of the storm, they had forgotten to change their tanks with the new ones that they had found in the closets! It meant that…

  «Are you okay?» Anna asked suddenly, noticing he was standing still.

  Yan turned to look at him too.

  «No, I’m not okay» he urged, lifting a flap with velcro on his arm, «I’m not okay» he repeated before observing a small digital screen. He winced. «Yan, how much oxygen do you have left?»

  At his words, he noticed his friend stiffening like he did before. Through the visor he thought
he had seen him going pale.

  «Oh, man» he mumbled, before controlling his right arm as well.

  «Don’t tell me that…» Anna began, but her voice died in her throat.

  «Holy Olympus, only fifteen minutes!» he admitted helplessly, fear in his voice. «What about you?»

  «Eight» Jordan replied and as soon as he finished to pronounce that word, the usual bip bip started off in his suit.

  But this time it wasn’t indicating a loss of oxygen, rather an almost total exhaustion.

  He had less oxygen than Yan because he had lost a lot due to the hole, while the girl had returned onboard almost immediately so she still had a good amount.

  «Why haven’t we thought about it before?» he heard Anna’s voice interrupted by a sob.

  She was behind him, he turned.

  «It doesn’t matter now, we got to find the vent!» Jordan tried to encourage both himself and his friends.

  Oxygen or not, they were going to die anyway.

  They spent the following three minutes scratching the dusty surface with their hands before Anna spoke breaking the silence.

  «Here! Here there’s something!» she exclaimed.

  Jordan and Yan turned quickly to her and got closer. At the bottom, in the dust, a rock was leaning out of apparently nothing.

  «Yeah, it has to be the right one» Jordan commented approaching and beginning to clean all around it.

  «Jordan, I’ve got only ten minutes left!» Yan whined.

  Without the need to check, the boy figured he had only three.

  «Shut your mouth up and help me out here!» he shouted.

  He decided not to remind his friends how many minutes of life he had left, he didn’t want to scare them. Anna, who had already understood his intentions, began to help him to crumble the rock and soon Yan joined the efforts. It was a fight against time. With six hands everything was quicker, the rock was ripped up and they quickly cleaned up the pipe with their fingers, dropping on the ground all the debris and the dust. Without another word, they rushed to the entrance of the rover. Jordan was by now keeping his breath and inhaled slightly once every ten seconds. They threw themselves inside, but he felt like he wasn’t able to do anything else. He keeled over against a wall in a corner and took a deep breath. With his last forces, he managed to look at the screen on his arm and realized it had been his last breath of oxygen. He imagined that Anna or Yan had gone to turn on the engine because he perceived the floor quivering under him. He still had to wait for the Life Support System to be fully reactivated, he had to wait for all the air to be breathable again, with the right levels of CO2. When he began to perceive a pain in his lungs and the need to breath became unbearable, he seriously thought that time he wasn’t going to make it. He didn’t know why, but his thoughts converged to the picture of his mother and he in his pocket. He was still wearing it. His mum was with him. He tried to imagine her face, her reassuring smile, and subconsciously asked her to help him. But he wasn’t afraid anymore.

  He felt like he was about to fall into a deep sleep when something shook him violently and he breathed. He breathed because he didn’t want to give up just yet and he clung to his life. Realizing he wasn’t dead yet, he opened his eyes and noticed he wasn’t wearing his helmet anymore. Anna and Yan were kneeling next to him, still wearing their suits, their helmets were scattered on the floor. He coughed a little and breathed deeply once again. They smiled to him.

  «You did it, commander Miles» Yan announced jokingly, but finally calm.

  «I did it?» the boy repeated, unbelieving, feeling euphoria growing inside of him. «It’s working?»

  «Perfectly» the girl confirmed.

  Jordan turned to look at her and saw a tear running down her cheek and meeting her lips, curved up in a smile. A smile opened up on his face as well, inevitably. He shook his head.

  «Ah! Come here you two!» he exclaimed smiling widely and holding out his arms.

  The three hugged tightly, aware of having just escaped a deathly trouble and happy, extremely happy, to be still there and to be able to continue their journey. Anna’s cheeks were beaded with tears of joy, of faded fear, of past danger.

  Jordan felt his eyes lucid as well, but he put all his efforts not to let out a single tear. He would never cry, he never cried.

  They continued to move in the same direction for six more hours, as always taking turns of two hours each. The optimism, as well as hope and enthusiasm, became part of breathable air inside the Atenavan when on the satellite map of the on-board computer they saw the Huygens Crater appearing and getting closer. Yan made a quick calculation and declared they had only three hours left before reaching the crater and four more to park the rover definitely at the Rubentes Terrae. They had a break from 12:00 am to 1:00 pm to have lunch together and then they restarted right away.

  Time seemed to pass as quickly as the meters that increased on the altimeter, with the rhythm of Jordan’s cheerful music which, at last, began to please even Yan. Anna was at the wheel when the rover stopped. They had arrived at the edge of a crater, so immense that all the others they had met on their path looked like puddles in comparison.

  «Ladies and gentlemen, the Huygens Crater» Jordan announced solemnly in front of that breathtaking view.

  «We made it, after all» Anna commented rubbing her hands, probably sweaty, on her pants.

  «It was worth it, after all» the boy added and turned to her.

  Their eyes met. Jordan thought they looked even bluer than the usual, he felt mesmerized.

  «Keep your comments for when we’ll be safe at the Rubentes Terrae, please» Yan spoke up and he almost winced, dropping his gaze to the floor and huffing silently. «We have four hours of descent left and then ascent again, anything could happen. Anything really, like, I don’t know, we could be hit by a meteor or something.»

  «Don’t jinx it!» Anna exclaimed laughing and switching seats with Jordan, who was going to drive.

  «Honestly, I wouldn’t be impressed at this point» Yan resumed, amused.

  Jordan simply chuckled.

  The altimeter showed 2853 meters, probably they had never been so high. And as soon as Jordan restarted, the number began to decrease.

  They travelled peacefully for the following four hours, enjoying the sunset right in front of them. With the passage of the hours, everything became greyer, darker, more unified. Eventually there was no more difference between the land and the sky.

  And the far sun, white and perfectly round behind the dusty haze, surrounded by a light blue blaze more and more intense, disappeared, swallowed by the horizon, as well as its every celestial glow.

  TWELVE

  ~ 177 sols before ~

  Actually nothing else happened. By now the nocturne darkness reigned. It was almost 8:00 pm and they hadn’t had dinner yet because they were sure they were close to the Rubentes Terrae. And in fact it didn’t take much for Jordan, Anna and Yan to find themselves struggling to make out an obscure building that blended in with the night.

  «I reckon we’ve arrived» Jordan said after several minutes of silence.

  «It gives me chills» Yan commented while driving.

  «What did you expect? Obviously everything’s shut down since it’s unoccupied» Anna pointed out addressing Yan.

  Jordan himself perceived a chill running down his spine. Silence returned until the headlights of the Atenavan illuminated a wall of the Rubentes Terrae and they didn’t stop until they were right in front of it.

  «Who knows where’s the entrance» Yan wondered, frowning.

  «Surely there has to be an airlock on another side, Nunki» Jordan assumed, «Let’s get off the rover.»

  Anna sent him a cross-eyed look and Jordan noticed it. He knew she was still worried for his helmet and that he still risked. But Jordan was quite sure that that plug of cotton and duct-tape would hold at least until the airlock. All the three of them moved to the central body of the vehicle to put on their biosuits for the um
pteenth time.

  «Are we bringing those?» Yan asked, nodding his head at the containers while slipping an arm into a sleeve of the suit.

  One of the three had been completely emptied, the second was still half full, while the third hadn’t even been opened.

  «Not for now, they would hinder us in case of emergency» Jordan replied, «And anyway the Rubentes Terrae’s instructions said the base is provided with supplies, isn’t it?»

  «Yeah, kind of» Yan scratched the back of his head.

  Once they were ready, they turned off the engines and got off the Atenavan. They walked around the structure with rectangular sides of Rubentes Terrae until they found a sort of cubic room leaning outside from a wall. They opened manually the external hatch as well as the internal one. The inner pressure was the same as the outer one because it was inhabited by nobody and all the Life Support Systems were turned off. There was no electricity and so all the doors, usually automatic, didn’t open on their own. Luckily enough they had automatic torches on their helmets.

  «Interesting» Jordan commented sarcastically once they were closed into that dark base. «Now what?»

  He looked around himself with a lost expression until he suddenly heard a noise that reminded a loud yawn and eventually he noticed all the lights were turning on. He turned. Anna was pressing buttons and pulling handles on a console right next to the airlock. When she finished, she turned to her friends.

  «What, you don’t read? Page three of the instructions for the Rubentes Terrae, part one» she shrugged.

  «Blimey, Anna. What would we do without you?» Yan asked, mocking a worried tone.

  Jordan shook his head slightly and returned to look around himself.

  «I wonder the same» Anna replied. «However, all the levels are stabilizing, within a couple of minutes we’ll be able to take off the suits.»

  Right in front of the airlock there was a big staircase, built with the same material of walls, leading to an upper floor. In the cupboard under the stairs, a little room hosted the hygiene facilities. In front of it, a bigger room was the kitchen, with a small table in the center, directly linked to a dorm with three couples of bunk beds. Jordan and Yan were in the kitchen inspecting the various containers, similar to those they had brought, looking for something to eat for dinner. Anna arrived removing her suit.