Ad Martem 12

by Giulia Carla Bassani

  A solitary tear made its way down his cheek.

  Then another

  and another…

  EPILOGUE

  Jordan was completely still. The last thing he had seen from the porthole, before focusing his gaze on the screen in front of himself, was the Odysseus II spaceship pulling away in the black of space. The entire structure vibrated threateningly while they were always more attracted by the Martian force of gravity.

  «Argus II, here. Starting the landing procedures» Anna’s voice articulated next to him.

  Jordan sighed as he prepared for the second landing of his life, but knowing that it was going to be the last one. Yet his mind couldn’t do other but travel backwards, bringing to light all the emotions and fears he had felt on that day so important. Two good years had passed since then. Well, almost three considering the trip back to the red planet. But still it felt like an entire life to him.

  For the two previous years he had lived with his mother and his grandparents in Sanford, a peaceful coastal metropolis at about fifty miles from Cape Canaveral. He stabilized there after visiting a great part of the terrestrial world with his mother, discovering exotic beaches, tropical and high mountains forests, canyons and deserts, from the ruins of ancient civilizations to the famous Egyptian pyramids. With NASA’s agreement, Jordan began to attend University like every boy of his same age and thus he had the opportunity to learn what it meant to be a terrestrial teenager, making many new friends at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For nearly two years he didn’t get to see Anna in person. Not that he had forgotten about her, he never could. Despite the amazing adventures he went through on a daily basis as he discovered himself and the world around him, every night, before sleeping, he spent more than an hour in video-chat with her. They told each other about their terrestrial days, their discoveries. Jordan felt like no one better than her, a Martian girl, could understand him. He thought again and again to that stolen and sincere kiss that trampled them both in a moment of total impotence and fear in front of an unknown and potentially dangerous destiny. Nothing, more than that moment, gave him the will to keep fighting, to resist, to reach the end; because finally he realized he had found something or, rather, someone who was worth it.

  He wondered in which part of the world she was, if she had met her distant relatives in Russia. Every time he thought about her or Yan, something weird within him happened. Despite he believed his new life in Sanford was beautiful, he felt a sort of melancholy, a lack. An almost frustrating remoteness. Every night he spent hours on his house terrace stargazing and when he noticed a star emitting a more intense light characterized by a reddish glow, he couldn’t move his eyes away. While nostalgia made his eyes twinkle, he wondered what was his real place in the universe. What was his purpose.

  The answer came just one of those evenings he spent studying the sky.

  «What’s my task in this life?» he had asked his mother, sitting next to him.

  «You know it» Laurie Williams had answered calmly, after a moment of silence.

  Jordan turned to gave her a look.

  «No, I don’t know it. I’ve come this far looking for an answer.»

  «It wasn’t necessary.»

  He frowned in confusion.

  «I’m not saying I’m not happy you’re here, on the contrary» she smiled, «But you already own an answer. You’ve always had it. And the journey itself you went on proves it.»

  Jordan thought. He lost his gaze in space before returning to grasp that vermillion twinkle hundreds of millions of kilometers away. And then he understood.

  «The purpose of my life is… having a life with a purpose» he whispered to himself. «Of course!» he exclaimed jumping in his chair and turning to Laurie, who observed him smiling. «This is what being human means, then! It means having a goal and once you achieve it, having another. What would we be if we had nothing to strive for? Everything’s clear, now. What made me escape from the Aresland that night? What made me get on that rocket? My being a human. My need to have a purpose. To have a destination.»

  He almost panted and pulled himself back together on his chair, losing his gaze once again in the sky.

  «Mum, I… I have to go back to Mars. That is my place.»

  Jordan was suddenly crossed by a tremble that resounded in the entire Argus II as if it had just been hit by a meteorite at full speed and only then he returned to his senses, reemerging violently from his thoughts. He was taken by a familiar sensation of heaviness and therefore he understood he had landed on the surface of Mars, exactly three miles away from the Aresland, in the Hellas Planitia. He breathed deeply to calm down his heartbeat and turned to look at the girl next to him.

  «You okay?» he asked.

  «I’ve been better, but at least I’m still conscious» she smiled knowingly and Jordan smiled back.

  «They’ll be here in moments.»

  The girl nodded. And that was right: in a matter of few minutes the hatch next to Anna was opened revealing a figure wearing the typical biosuit of the Aresland. There were no words to describe the joy Jordan felt in simply seeing that familiar suit again. The boy narrowed his eyes to make out the face of the person behind the visor, but it didn’t take much for him to recognize him.

  «Dad!» he exclaimed.

  «My my, look who’s back» Alexander’s sarcastic and amused voice resounded in his helmet, he reached out «Ladies first» and grabbed Anna to help her get out.

  Soon the hatch next to Jordan opened too and he recognized Viktor Taykeev right away who, helped by Alexander, made the boy get out.

  «Privyet, milaya. Ti koroshò?[24]» he heard Viktor say addressing Anna, who was by now on the Martian surface.

  «Privyet, papa. Da, ya skuchala po vam[25].»

  «Good to see you again» Jordan said as Alexander helped him stand on the surface.

  They were sustained by the two men until they reached the rover parked at a distance of two meters. Jordan got onboard and sat next to Anna; in front of them, Alexander and Viktor occupied the driving seats. They had promised they weren’t going to say anything until they would reach the base and they would be all together, therefore they spent those ten minutes of the trip observing the familiar, desolate landscape that had been what they had always known for years. Jordan couldn’t explain how, but as he looked at that sand and those coppery rocks and that sky of a weak sepia colour, he felt good, complete. That was his element, it was right for him. Right like the warm bed that awaits you when you’re tired, right like a steaming plate prepared by your mother when you’re hungry. That was his place.

  When the second hatch of the airlock opened, Jordan was overwhelmed by a wave of joyful screams and claps. He took off his helmet and, without thinking, his gaze scanned urgently the small crowd in front of him until he found what he was looking for: a couple of dark, almond-shaped eyes.

  Without realizing it, he dropped his helmet and found himself walking in his direction, always faster, followed by Anna.

  «Nunki!» he shrieked in happiness, throwing his arms around his neck.

  It was like finding a brother again after a long time. All three of them stood hugging for several minutes while an applause started all around them.

  «Hey hey» he heard Yan say at a certain point and he pulled away, keeping him at arm-length. «I know it isn’t your fault if there are no showers in space, pal. But you smell terrible!»

  Anna burst out laughing and Jordan rolled his eyes.

  «Blimey, Nunki» Jordan sighed, «You have no idea how much I’ve missed you!»

  «I’m afraid I must admit the same» he spoke in a dramatically serious tone, «Commander Miles. But… a shower!»

  Everyone burst out laughing again and Jordan shook his head, hiding his face in his hands.

  After taking off the suits and having a shower for Yan’s joy, Jordan and Anna told them all their terrestrial adventure in a couple of hours. They had all reunited around the long table in the hall of the Ho
ng Se De Du. Again those smiling and friendly faces, again those cozy and circular rooms of the Aresland’s bases. Jordan was happy.

  «I’d like to say something» Jordan declared at the end of the tales, just before everyone decided to go to sleep. He gained the attention of all those present who were suddenly eating out of his hand. «On Earth not only did I visit spectacular places and did I get to know nature in its every form. Not only did I meet my mother after a long time, did I learn to live as a terrestrial, did I meet other guys of my age, no, not only this. I left with many questions and I’m… happy to be able to say that I’ve found my answers» he paused and raised his gaze on all the listeners. «Eventually I learned something: when you are in your mother’s womb, you have no certainties. You don’t know who your parents are, you don’t know where they are, you don’t know how you will be born and where you will live. At first you don’t even know if you are male or female. You know nothing about yourself and the world around you. You are sure of one only thing: when you are born, wherever and whoever you are with, you will call that place home, you will call those people mum and dad. You don’t care where you are, be it a city, an igloo, the jungle, a ship or even another planet. For you it will be perfectly normal. My stay on Earth has been wonderful, I must admit. But... I’ve always felt the lack of something, something that that place could not give me. What I’m trying to say is that... maybe Mars is not as fascinating as the Earth, but it’s home. And nothing or no one is ever going to change that.»

  THE END

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I’m happy to be able to say that this story is actually the result of a proper international collaboration, just the one you would need to get to Mars! There are people to whom I would like to dedicate pages and pages of gratitude, but I don’t want this section to become more extended than the narration itself, therefore I’ll try to be short and concise.

  Thanks, first of all, to Goran Nikolašević (Croatia) who, during the regional phase of the Odysseus Space Contest, where I presented my project of a Martian base, has asked me about the birth of children on the red planet. And thus the idea started to make its way into my mind. Thank you for having encouraged me and having believed in me since the very beginning.

  Thanks to professor Giancarlo Genta for writing the perfect preface to this book, preparing the reader to instantly dive into a Martian world. Thank you for your support and for believing in this story.

  Thanks to Roberto Johnson (Texas) and Bruno Bassani (my father), who have performed a huge work recreating in 3D the environments that I designed and where the story is set, in order to give me a more complete and exhaustive view on what I was creating and in order to improve the future presentations of this book.

  Thanks to Artëm Feofanov (Russia), Francesco Maio (Italy) and Dean Little (Australia) for having provided me with precious guidance in the field of aerospace engineering and having explained and taught me scientific topics that I haven’t had the opportunity to study yet. I owe you a lot for having solved many of my doubts and having cleared my mind on specific topics of aerospace that one day I myself will go through at University.

  Thanks to Thomas Gangale (Tonga) for the kind concession to use your Darian Calendar in my story.

  Thanks to Martina D’Ademo (Italy) for having translated some dialogues from Italian to Chinese, language that I myself am planning to learn.

  Thanks to my Maths and Physics professor, Tommaso Marino, who periodically provides me with scientific material to work on; and to my Italian professor, Grazia Gamba, who has the patience to read everything I write since years already.

  Thanks to visual artist Eashan Misra (a.k.a. Mr Kalopsia) for creating the best cover picture I could ever dream of. Thank you for your patience and your enthusiasm while following my instructions, you were able to take my ideas and transform them into art.

  Thanks to Pamela Ward, professional translator, for kindly reading my translation to English of this book and giving me precious tips to improve it.

  Last but not least, I would like to thank my mother Daniela who, despite all my ideas and activities out of this world, still tolerates me.

  Thank you to everyone for contributing to the achievement

  of a dream!

  GIULIA CARLA BASSANI

  Born in Turin (Italy) on January 1st, 1999, Giulia C. Bassani studies aerospace engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin. As a space programs great enthusiast, she has already achieved important success, despite her young age. After winning the international phase of the Odysseus Space Contest with the project of an autonomous space base on Mars, she went on studying and analyzing the problems of living on another planet, until she decided to extend her project and set a story in that very base, in order to “test” the effective functioning of its parts. Keen on foreign languages, she speaks English fluently, she is studying Russian and has recently begun to learn Chinese. Ad Martem 12 is her first novel she published, a science fiction with solid scientific groundwork.

  INDEX

  Preface i

  Author’s Note vii

  Prologue 1

  ONE ~ 15 Virgo 239 ~ 9

  TWO ~ 196 sols before ~ 23

  THREE ~ 195 sols before ~ 33

  FOUR ~ 191 sols before ~ 48

  FIVE ~ 190 sols before ~ 66

  SIX ~ 189 sols before ~ 82

  SEVEN ~ 182 sols before ~ 97

  EIGHT ~ 181 sols before ~ 115

  NINE ~ 180 sols before ~ 127

  TEN ~ 179 sols before ~ 143

  ELEVEN ~ 178 sols before ~ 156

  TWELVE ~ 177 sols before ~ 169

  THIRTEEN ~ 176 sols before ~ 187

  FOURTEEN ~ 88 sols before ~ 203

  FIFTEEN ~ The sol before ~ 217

  SIXTEEN ~ The day after ~ 237

  SEVENTEEN ~ 24 days later ~ 253

  EPILOGUE 267

  Acknowledgements 275

  Biography 279

  “Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle,

  e questa siepe, che da tanta parte

  dell'ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.

  Ma sedendo e mirando, interminati

  spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani

  silenzi, e profondissima quiete

  io nel pensier mi fingo; ove per poco

  il cor non si spaura. E come il vento

  odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello

  infinito silenzio a questa voce

  vo comparando: e mi sovvien l'eterno,

  e le morte stagioni, e la presente

  e viva, e il suon di lei. Così tra questa

  immensità s'annega il pensier mio:

  e il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare.”

  G. Leopardi – L’infinito

  Published by Giulia Carla Bassani © 2018

  Printed by KDP

  * * *

  [1] Utro tebe: from Russian, “’morning to you too”

  [2] Da jia hao: from Chinese, “hello, guys”, literally “hello everyone”

  [3] Privyet: from Russian, “hello”

  [4] Zdravstvuy: formal Russian greeting, translatable as “hello”

  [5] Rebyata: from Russian, “guys”

  [6] Ochen’ koroshò, spasibo: from Russian, “very well, thanks”

  [7] O huoji: from Chinese, “Oh man!”

  [8] Zai zheli: from Chinese “Here it is”

  [9] Otlichno. Vstavay: from Russian, “Excellent. Stand up.”

  [10] Davay: from Russian “You go!”

  [11] Ya dolzhen… chto-to: from Russian, “I must tell you something”

  [12] Chto?: from Russian, “What?”

  [13] Ya… seychas: from Russian, “Not now”

  [14] Nyet… Yan: from Russian, “No, I need Yan as well.”

  [15] Ni… ma: from Chinese, “Can you come?”

  [16] Idi… zdaniye: from Russian, “Go to the Red Stone, Alexander is waiting for you. You have a job to do”

  [17] No… vremya: from Russian, “Why? Now’s my free time”
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  [18] Nyet… Idi: “No questions, go”

  [19] Rad… zdyes: from Russian, “Good to see you here”

  [20] Zaoshanghao: from Chinese, “Good morning”

  [21]

  Mimi renwu: from Chinese, “Secret mission”

  [22] Otvyeti, pozhàluista: from Russian, “Answer, please”

  [23] WST: Western Syrtic Time, fuso orario da 52.5°E a 67.5°E.

  [24] Privyet … koroshò: from Russian, “Hello, my dear. You OK?”

  [25] Privyet … vam: from Russian, “Hello, dad. Yes, I’ve missed you”