Discovery

by Paul Rix

  "Eden is doing great too. We have an issue with aquaponics where we have a leak, but I've got Harry and Nicola mopping that up at the moment. It shouldn't have an impact though."

  "That's good to hear. And the crew?"

  "Not as excited as I'd like them to be. Lots of gripes about lack of personal space and inadequate resources. It's like traveling with a ship full of infants."

  Winter's laugh didn't help the commander's mood on the subject. "It looks like I have the star pupils on Endeavour. They're quiet but not mean. The good news is we have Mars in our sights and she's looking beautiful. Satellite imagery of the landing zone is not detecting any adverse atmospheric conditions that could cause dust clouds. At this stage, it's likely we'll be going for a direct landing. I'll check on before your maneuver but keep me informed if any issues arise."

  "Will do, sir. Eden out." Lars switched off his monitor and reluctantly headed back to see how Harry and Nicola were progressing.

  Harry and Nicola King were the only married couple on the mission. Now in their mid-forties, they'd originally met while studying for a Plant Science BSc at Canterbury Christ Church University. Their shared passion in plant genetics and microbiology had soon made them inseparable and it was no surprise to anyone that they'd qualified top of their year. They had both gone on to study for master's degrees and worked together at a bio pharmaceuticals company with the aim of improving crop yield to support the ever-growing population on Earth. It was there, when Nicola turned thirty, that Harry had asked her to marry him.

  Their work had been noticed by NASA. They'd had a number of successes in being able to dramatically increase the yield per acre and produced a number of papers, even performed a TED talk on the subject. Initially they had been extremely reluctant to even speak with NASA representatives. The failure of Expedition One had put a huge question mark over the viability of safely landing on Mars. Let alone colonizing it. But the upgrades to the systems architecture, combined with a wealth of testing on the Moon reduced some of their fears. Once the space agency had promised further funding for their research and allowed the Kings to design sixty percent of the proposed experiments, they were finally convinced to set up the infrastructure on Mars. After all, they could always return to Earth after two years. Harry had been the keener of them to agree to the mission and after some gentle persuading, Nicola also came around to the idea. After all, their work would be benefiting the chances of mankind successfully colonizing another planet. And that legacy was too hard to resist.

  By the time Commander Anders returned, the Kings had collected the remaining fluid and returned it to the irrigation system. Rashid had also returned and was half hidden under the aquaponics bay as he carried out his repairs.

  "Excellent work, both of you. Does that mean we'll still have something to eat in a few weeks?"

  Harry smiled, and gave a mock salute. "Have no worries, Mon Capitan. You will soon be eating green beans and lettuce. We know that everyone is looking forward to fresh vegetables after the months of processed meals."

  ***

  While the excitement was happening in the agriculture lab, Thomas Redmayne Ph.D. was locked away in his science lab, preparing a new round of experiments on four mice. As Expedition Two's chief scientist, he was beginning to resent some of the menial research he was being asked to do. In his opinion, much of it was more suited to Grace Cooke's skills over on Endeavour. Although she also had a full roster of experiments to conduct, it would allow him more time to focus on more important research. It was bad enough that she'd been assigned to Endeavour and would be setting foot on Mars before him.

  As he brooded over the situation, he roughly grabbed one of the white mice which was helplessly flailing its legs. Without any hesitation, Redmayne injected the mouse with a radioactive compound before placing it back in its tank and sealing the lid. After taking a few notes, he repeated the exercise with two of the other mice with different concentrations of the compound. He knew that the mice would be dead within a week. The fourth should survive, at least until the next experiment.

  His dark thoughts were interrupted by Emily Pope hesitantly knocking on the door to his lab, her face peering through the glass window. She was by far his favorite crew member. He found her blue eyes, wavy brown hair and tight lips exciting and erotic. Add to that her understated intelligence and she could have been the perfect woman for him. He considered it such a waste that she was married.

  Redmayne knew that his own rugged looks and intense blue eyes were attractive to women. He'd had no lack of attention from females over the years but had never found one who came close to his intellect. Emily was probably the closest to being his ideal partner but had made it blatantly clear early on that she was not interested in him.

  He floated over to the door and unlocked it. "What do you want?" he asked brusquely. "I'm in the middle of my experiments."

  Emily was used to Redmayne's manner and had long ago learned to ignore it. "Commander Anders wanted to know when you'll be providing your revised itinerary as part of the preparation for landing. Do we need to make special provision for any of your ongoing experiments?"

  "He could have asked me that directly."

  "The commander is dealing with an issue the Kings have with their aquaponics system. He sent me instead."

  "Thanks, Emily, I'll inform the commander when I'm ready to give an answer." Redmayne closed the door and turned back to his computer, entirely missing the tirade of expletives coming from Emily's mouth.

  ***

  "Commander Anders. I just sent you the information you're after." Redmayne pulled himself into Anders' cabin without waiting for an invitation and hovered in the middle of the room

  Anders was annoyed by the sudden intrusion but knew it was pointless raising any objections. Instead, he replied, "Thanks Tom. I assume there aren't any nasty surprises in there for me."

  "Of course not, Lars. You know how I like to make life easy for you."

  Anders couldn't tell if Redmayne was being serious. From day one, he'd been unable to read the man but always had a gut feeling that there was more to him than met the eye. To be fair, Redmayne was very supportive to him and always first to offer clear thoughts on any problems that arose. He wasn't sure he would have been so confident in some of his decisions without his chief scientist's assurances.

  "Is there anything else, Tom? I assume you're here for a reason."

  Redmayne gave a knowing smile. "Perceptive as always, sir. Yes, I wanted to know if you'd made any further requests to Ground Control to delay Endeavour's landing in favor of ours? The more I think about it, the more sense it makes to be able to get on the ground and set up my experiments in a pristine environment, before those idiots contaminate everything within one hundred miles."

  Anders was expecting the question. It was one Redmayne had asked on numerous occasions. "General Stockton denied the request. Again. It's no use asking any more. Ground Control have been explicit that Captain Winter and his crew will be landing as scheduled."

  Redmayne looked deflated. If he thought Anders hadn't been forceful enough, he kept it to himself. "That's highly disappointing. The general is being extremely short-sighted. Not only because of the risks to my work but also overlooking you to be the first man to set foot on Mars. Winter is only there because of public relations. You should have been chosen through merit."

  "It's kind of you to say so, Tom. But we both know that's not true. Captain Winter has had a long and distinguished career. He deserves every honor he is going to receive."

  "Okay, Lars. I won't ask again. But I do believe it's a missed opportunity." With nothing more to say on the subject, Redmayne immediately headed back to his lab, leaving Commander Anders to contemplate if maybe he should be the first man on Mars.

  Chapter 6

  The following day, Georgia and Captain Winter were strapped to the running machines, halfway through their daily run. Even though Winter had never learned to enjoy running, whether on Earth or
in space, he had learned from his missions on the International Space Station that the time allowed him to work through problems in more detail without being interrupted.

  This morning, he was concerned with the latest telemetry from one of the supply ships, Aquarius. The guidance systems were not performing entirely as planned but were still waiting operational limits. Ground Control had suggested rebooting the systems but Georgia, as mission specialist for those systems, wasn't entirely sure a full reboot was necessary.

  "There's not much we can do when we're only four days out from Mars," Winter commented, his breathing sounding slightly strained. "But I don't want to leave it to chance and risk losing Aquarius and its supplies. Tell me why we don't need to reboot."

  Georgia couldn't remember the last time she'd run with the captain, but she was pleased he was asking for her opinion. "It's exactly the same guidance system as the other two supply ships and, for that matter, Endeavour and Eden. Aquarius is the only ship experiencing anomalous energy spikes. I think those spikes are causing the guidance issues, not the system itself."

  "Do you know what's causing the energy spikes?"

  "That's the confusing part. The energy spikes are a reaction to another energy source emanating from outside Aquarius. I've double-checked the numbers with Ground Control, and they stack up. So, a system reboot will make no difference at all."

  Winter pressed stop on his machine. Picking up a towel to wipe sweat from his face, he asked, "Any theories?"

  "Mars is still too far away to have any effect. Maybe there's an energy leak from one of the other supply ships, but the data doesn't back that up. I could suggest there's another craft nearby, but we know the Russians are over one week behind us. Unfortunately, we don't have the sensors to pinpoint the cause."

  "Honest assessment. Are you concerned?"

  Georgia stopped her machine. "I'm frustrated I don't have an answer. But I have no concerns about the reliability of the guidance system."

  "Okay, I trust your judgment on this. But monitor the telemetry closely. If there is a bug in the system, we'll need it fixed before touchdown."

  Georgia was about to reply when Joe Mancuso's voice boomed over the internal communications. "An ultra-fast coronal mass ejection has occurred. We've just been advised an X8-class solar flare has been detected and heading in our direction. It's going to hit in just under twelve minutes. Everyone head to the refuge until further notice."

  Recognizing the seriousness of the situation, Georgia and Caption Winter immediately unstrapped themselves and headed to the corridor leading back to the refuge, situated between the living quarters and the hold.

  The crew quickly gathered their immediate belongings and calmly headed for the refuge, which was protected by a thick layer of tungsten as well as the primary water tanks. At the same time, and to further protect the crew from the bombardment of solar radiation, Mancuso oriented Endeavour so that the engines and fuel tanks directly faced the fast-approaching solar flare.

  There had been fortnightly training drills for this scenario and in less than three minutes everyone was in the refuge, waiting for the solar flare to strike. All critical inboard systems, except for life support, were switched off. Eden's crew were advised to move to their refuge despite it looking as though they were safely out of the path of the solar particles.

  "Two minutes until impact." There was a nervousness in Winter's voice. An X8 flare was at the top end of what the refuge had been designed to withstand. A potentially lethal dose of radiation was about to envelope the ship, and possibly affect onboard systems. While his main concern was the crew's safety, he was worried that some of Endeavour's critical systems could be disabled this close to Mars. "Joe, I should have checked but are all systems turned off and the communications array retracted?"

  Winter could see that Mancuso was mentally running through all the activities he'd completed. As soon as Mancuso's jaw dropped, he knew something was wrong. "Fuck! I can't remember what I did with comms! I need to check."

  Winter raised his hand in protest. "No, it's okay. You stay here. I'll deal with it." Without waiting for a response, he opened the heavy tungsten door, quickly making his way back along the ship's corridor, which was now bathed in red emergency lighting.

  "Damn," he thought, "if communications fail then we'll have to abort the mission." He returned to the flight deck to key in the commands that would rotate the array out of danger. Nothing happened. He tried again, but with the same result.

  "Georgia!" he shouted through to the refuge. "The computer is not responding to commands. I need your help. Get up here fast."

  As soon as Georgia reached the flight deck, she could see that the captain was in trouble. Winter moved out of her way to allow her to assess the problem. She keyed in a string of commands, but still there was no reaction.

  "Get back to safety, Georgia. We're too late. The computer's not responding, and we've run out of time. We can repair comms when it's safe."

  "Right behind you, captain. Let me try one more sub-routine."

  As Winter drifted back to the safety of the crew quarters, Georgia tried one last trick up her sleeve. She was desperate to succeed and knew that it would take days to repair the damage caused by the flare, if repairs were possible at all. It would fry many electronics systems. This time, a green light signified she'd been successful, and the comms array was retracting. Relieved, she pushed off in the direction of the refuge. At that same moment, the alarm signaled that she was out of time as the solar flare hit and enveloped Endeavour.

  There was a strange buzzing sound in the cabin and her whole body started tingling. She could see hundreds of black dots appear in her eyes as the charged particles coursed through her brain, destroying brain cells in their path.

  "Oh shit," were her last thoughts as she passed out.

  Chapter 7

  Approximately nine hundred and fifty thousand miles away, Eden avoided the main brunt of the solar flare. As soon as it was safe to leave the refuge, Commander Anders had the crew perform a complete systems check. Within an hour, all critical systems were deemed operational and the commander was able to send a report to Ground Control.

  The main concern for the botanists was any long-term radiation impact on the plants. The Kings had spent all of their time in the refuge, helpless and frustrated that their work may be destroyed. The walls of the agriculture lab weren't as well shielded as the refuge and there was not sufficient research to tell what damage cosmic rays could have to the delicate nature of the plants. It wouldn't necessarily be a disaster if the crops were inedible. However, if the plants were decimated there was a very limited supply of seeds until Expedition Three arrived in two years' time.

  After a tense thirty minutes frantically analyzing a record of the radiation levels, Nicola confirmed, "Radiation exposure doesn't appear to have spiked into the red. We dodged a bullet this time and the crop should be safe."

  Harry breathed a sigh of relief. "The equipment remained fully functioning too. And no more leaks."

  "Thank goodness for small miracles," agreed Nicola. "I dread to think how Endeavour got on. They were in the eye of the storm and had very little time to react."

  ***

  On the flight deck, Anders was trying to regain contact with Endeavour, but was receiving only static.

  "No need to worry yet," he said to his co-pilot, Emily Pope. "Captain Winter may still be experiencing the effects of the solar flare. Keep listening out for them while I report to Ground Control from my quarters. Let me know as soon as you receive a response."

  "Yes, sir. Is there any other action we can take?" Emily was almost pleading with Anders to do more, betraying her young age and lack of experience.

  "I'm sorry, Emily. There's not much we can do out here. We have to trust that Endeavour survived. I'm sure they'll make contact as soon as they are able."

  Anders slid from his chair and floated effortlessly to his cabin, sliding the door closed behind him. But before he could s
end an update to Ground Control, there was a knock on his door. "Captain? It's Tom. Do you have a few minutes?"

  "Come in, Tom."

  Tom floated in and grabbed a handrail to steady himself. If he has any worries, he's certainly not showing them, thought Anders who knew that the chief scientist was more interested in proving his research than empathy for people. "I wanted to let you know that I was able to monitor the strength of the solar flare that Endeavour encountered. It was an X-twenty-class flare, far more powerful than any spacecraft has previously experienced. The dose of radiation the crew just experienced is far higher than they were expecting. Or what any of our ships were designed to withstand. The refuge may have provided sufficient protection, but it's not guaranteed. The shielding on many of the electronics systems will not have prevented damage. Have you been able to establish contact yet?"

  Anders' concerns for the safety of Endeavour and her crew suddenly increased. He absently rubbed the stubble on his chin and replied, "Not yet. We've tried several times to make contact on different channels but with no success. I've left Emily with the task while I make a report to Earth. Forward me your readings and I'll add them to my report."

  Thirty minutes later he returned to the flight deck. "Any news?" he asked, knowing the answer already.

  "Nothing yet," Emily Pope replied, slowly shaking her head. "I have telemetry from both supply ships to confirm that they are still on course with all systems nominal, although Aquarius is continuing to drift marginally."

  Anders knew that there could be a dozen reasons Endeavour hadn't been in contact because of the solar storm, not all of them catastrophic. He had to retain hope until he knew for sure otherwise. Redmayne's readings on the flare confirmed it was highly likely that systems would have been affected. Perhaps communications was one of those systems. He hoped that the crew would be able to correct the system failures at the earliest opportunity. It was just a waiting game.