Mars Nation: The Complete Trilogy

by Brandon Q Morris

  Sol 45, NASA base

  “Enjoy!” Sarah crowed as she gazed proudly around the group.

  Lance carefully trickled two drops of dressing onto his lettuce leaf. He then picked it up by its firm, bright green stem and slowly pushed it into his mouth. He closed his eyes, then his mouth, until he could hear the crisp, fresh snap. He hesitated. The dressing spread across his tongue, the light acidity here, the smooth fat of the oil there, and a hint of sweetness at the tip. He began to chew. A lettuce leaf consists primarily of water and cellulose, its nutritional value hardly much more significant than a piece of paper. However, it felt marvelous in his mouth, especially since for months all he’d had to eat was prepackaged foods.

  He swallowed, opened his eyes, and picked up a radish. It was smaller than he had expected. “What are these called again?” he asked.

  “Rambo radishes,” Sarah replied.

  Lance chuckled and took a bite. His teeth cut through the tender skin. He stuck the entire bulb in his mouth and crunched down on it. He could feel the sharpness of the radish all the way up into his nose. “Rambos have a kick to them!” he observed.

  “That was my hope,” Sarah declared.

  Neither Sharon nor Mike said anything. They seemed to be lost in the pleasure of this first fresh meal.

  Lance thought about what all they could cultivate once they had enough space and energy. Nobody had expected for Earth to fall silent, which was why they had only been given a few seeds. Once they ran out of oil and vinegar there wouldn’t be any more. They would need to talk with the MfE crowd. They might have brought along a greater variety of plants. He thought there might be good chances of growing rapeseed to make canola oil, but it would be harder to produce vinegar.

  “Sharon, once we’ve used up the vinegar, could we possibly produce a chemical replica of it? In principle, it’s just citric acid, right?” Lance asked.

  “It’s mainly acetic acid, which should be easier to synthesize, in theory. But I’m afraid I don’t know the process. On Earth, it’s produced from natural materials. This problem shouldn’t be hard to solve, though.”

  “We absolutely need to expand our cultivated area,” Lance declared. “If we’re going to spend the rest of our days here, we need at least one highlight a day.”

  “We will,” Mike replied. “But the MfE folks get the robotic drill first. We promised them that.”

  “I was thinking about that, and won’t argue against it. They really haven’t had it easy,” Lance said.

  “In the meantime, we could expand our electrical production.”

  “I’m already on it, Mike, or do you have a new idea about that?”

  “Solar cells.”

  “But, we lack the resources to produce those ourselves.”

  “We wouldn’t have to. Think about all the abandoned Rovers sitting around here on Mars,” Mike said with a raise of his eyebrows.

  Lance put down his fork. How many automated exploratory Rovers had landed here over the past 40 years? There had to be 20 or more of them, just sitting around and waiting for someone to repurpose them. “That’s a splendid idea,” he said. “We just need to gather them up. Most of them belong to NASA anyway.”

  “We should harvest all the equipment from them. For spare parts,” Sharon suggested.

  “Could we please discuss this later? I would like to concentrate on this simply amazing meal for now,” Sarah implored.

  “Of course. Sorry for the disruption,” Lance said. “We’ll talk about it later.” He shut his eyes again and shoved the next lettuce leaf into his mouth.

  “Was there any data kept, back then, about when and where the probes landed?” Mike asked.

  They were all rubbing their full stomachs.

  What I’d give for a postprandial brandy, Lance thought. If they could produce methanol, why not ethanol? He and Sharon, the chemist, should take a look at the system together. Ethanol also worked great as a fuel source. “Unfortunately, we don’t have any. On Earth...” Lance said, then stopped in thought.

  Nobody said anything. Again. As soon as a conversation touched on the silent Earth, moods instantly darkened. Would that get better as the years passed? The problem was that they hadn’t been able to say goodbye properly. Lance’s thoughts turned to his girlfriend, who was waiting for him. No, who had been waiting for him. She’s dead, Lance, he told himself. On the other hand, Sarah was still alive. He needed to cut himself more slack.

  “We could just set off and look for them,” Sharon suggested eventually. “It is always better than just sitting around here.”

  “The surface of Mars is larger than the entire land surface of Earth,” Mike said. “We won’t just happen across the Rovers.”

  “There are some high-resolution photos of Mars that the probes took while in orbit,” Sarah replied. “They are so sharp that the old Rovers are recognizable on them. At the same time, it might take us a really long time to locate them on the images.”

  “I could try to write an algorithm that could search the photos for traces of the landed probes,” Mike said.

  “Then let’s get started! How long do you think this will take?” Lance asked.

  “Just give me two Sols.”

  Sol 46, MfE base

  Lance maneuvered the robotic drill into position right outside the entrance to the Endeavour. Enclosed in his spacesuit, he was sitting in the open Rover and steering the robot by remote control. Someone climbed out of the spaceship’s airlock. He recognized the ancient suit model being used by the MfE people. It was probably Ewa. The height was about right. At the same time, the suit was so bulky that the figure of the wearer was concealed.

  “Ewa, is that you?” he asked over the frequency used by the MfE people.

  “Yep,” she replied. “I wanted to thank you in person.”

  “That wasn’t necessary,” Lance said. “We promised you could use it.”

  “Still...” Ewa raised an arm, and he could see that she was holding a small box. She walked over to the Rover. “As a small token of our gratitude, we wanted to give you this.” Ewa held out the box to him

  Lance took the surprisingly lightweight box.

  “No worries,” she said. “The family jewels aren’t packed inside.”

  “So what is it?”

  “Something much better. Seeds.”

  “Oh,” Lance said. “That’s really a wonderful gift. What kinds?”

  “Have fun checking them out. The sacks are all labeled.”

  “Thank you, Ewa, that really is very kind of you. Our own seeds are in pretty short supply. We had never planned to be here for very long.”

  “We had planned on that, but our plans didn’t work out all that well in the end.”

  “Maybe we’ll still find a happy ending somehow.”

  “I have my doubts about that,” Ewa admitted, “but it’s nice that you can stay optimistic about it. Here’s hoping you won’t be too disappointed.”

  “Thanks. How long will your drive take?”

  “It’s only about five hundred kilometers. We’ll manage that in about three days.”

  “Then we’ll see you again soon. We’re already making plans to expand our base. We’ll be able to plant your seeds after that.”

  “I wish you the best of luck.”

  Lance thought he saw something flash in Ewa’s eyes, but the woman spun around quickly and hurried back to the Endeavour.

  The NASA crew unwrapped the box from the MfE people after supper. Around twenty small bags were sitting inside of it, each of them inscribed in blue ink.

  “Pansies,” Lance read aloud.

  “We can’t eat them,” Mike said. “We can put those seeds away for later.”

  “Oh, flowers!” Sarah exclaimed. “And, Mike, pansies are edible. And they taste pretty good.”

  “Barley.”

  “Woohoo! We can make beer!” Mike cried.

  “We shouldn’t celebrate until we find the hops seeds,” Lance countered.

&
nbsp; ‘Hops’ was written on the next packet.

  “See!” Mike chortled as Lance grinned.

  “Carrots.”

  “We have those already,” Sarah said.

  “Tomatoes.”

  “Perfect,” Mike replied. “I can make us a pizza that will make you lick your fingers clean.”

  “What about yeast?” Lance asked.

  “It won’t be hard to make that from dried fruit,” Mike said.

  “Caraway... mugwort... wild garlic...”

  “It’s just getting better and better,” Sarah said. “We’ll soon be able to plant an entire botanical garden.”

  “...cannabis.”

  “That’s just like the MfE folks,” Sharon said.

  “Us, too. At some point, our painkillers will run out, and then we’ll be glad to have something to smoke,” Sarah said.

  Sol 47, NASA base

  Mike was pointing at a blurry spot against a reddish-brown background. “What does that remind you of?”

  “Is this a Rorschach test?” Lance asked.

  “I’m being serious.”

  “A three-leaf clover missing its third leaf?” Sharon suggested.

  “‘Clover’ on Mars? Not even close.”

  “A fly someone squashed with a fly swatter?” Lance said.

  “Haha!” Mike laughed. “Guess for real.”

  “Well,” Sharon said, “I’d say you’ve tracked down the Phoenix probe. It must’ve been sitting there for more than 30 years by now.”

  “Not quite the answer, but close.”

  “Then it’s the Insight, which was based on the same design as the Phoenix. When was that? 2018?”

  “No idea. I was still a baby,” Mike said.

  “So how did you recognize the Insight?”

  “From the photos of the probe. I found a book in our electronic library that describes the most important Mars probes up to 2030. The Phoenix looked very similar, but the Insight was the only one that landed so close to the equator, so it has to be that one.”

  “How far is it to that location?”

  “About 2,400 kilometers.”

  “Just a stone’s throw from here,” Lance quipped. “When do we leave?”

  “You’ll have to cross through a fairly major trench system to get there,” Mike warned.

  “A few ditches aren’t going to stop us.”

  “I’m talking about something many times larger than the Grand Canyon, Lance.”

  “Then we need to be adequately prepared. Can’t you write an algorithm that will take us along the least treacherous route?” Lance asked.

  “Can do.”

  “And there’s nothing closer than that?”

  “No, Sarah. This is the best I can do for now.”

  Sol 48, MfE

  Theo had waited a long time to catch Ewa out of earshot of the other crew members. “Why weren’t you honest with the NASA people about the location of our settlement two days ago?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When you met Lance to get the drill, you told him it was only five hundred kilometers away. Right?”

  “Oh that. I don’t know. At the moment, it seemed like the right thing to do. I didn’t want them to have second thoughts about their agreement. They won’t be getting their enclosed Rover and robotic drill back for at least three months.”

  “I don’t think that was a good idea. They’ll start to wonder when we keep them longer than they’re expecting.”

  “We’ll be long gone by then.”

  Ewa’s words sounded cold. He hadn’t known her to be so calculating. He knew that she would fight like a lioness for the MfE project, but was she capable of going too far?

  “Nonetheless, this won’t enhance their trust in us,” he said.

  “Theo, in case you haven’t noticed, trust isn’t exactly our most urgent problem. Right now, our main priority is survival. The NASA base is excellently equipped. We don’t need to worry about them.”

  Thirty minutes later, Ewa called the entire crew to the command center. It was very tight. For the very first time, Theo missed the weightlessness that had enabled him to just float above the others. What was Ewa up to, and why hadn’t she told him about this beforehand when they’d been chatting? He had always thought she trusted him. Was this because he hadn’t given his blessing to her deception of the NASA people?

  “I won’t keep you long, I promise,” Ewa began, “but I need your input on an idea. You all know how far away the crater is that Theo and Rebecca so amazingly found for us. Applause for the two of them, please!”

  Everyone clapped.

  “If we travel there by land, the trip will take us an eternity, and once we get there, we—fifteen people and more than a few animals—will have to live inside the cabin of the enclosed Rover until our first accommodations are ready. I think that’s inhumane.”

  Theo suspected he knew what Ewa was about to suggest. He couldn’t help hoping though that she had a completely different idea up her sleeve.

  “It is particularly inhumane because there is one possible alternative. We could launch the Endeavour, and in a few hours we could land at the site of our future settlement. We would have instantaneously functional lodging, and perhaps within four weeks or so, we could even return the spaceship if we wanted to.”

  Theo cut in loudly. “You want to steal the Endeavour?”

  “I want to borrow it for a period of time. The NASA people don’t need it either way.”

  “Then why don’t we just ask them?”

  “Because they might say no and prevent us from being able to implement this plan.”

  He couldn’t think of a counterargument to this logic, except for the moral one. “Those people saved us! Without them, we’d be stranded up there in space and presumably long dead. They’ve lent us two Rovers and their robotic drill. And you want to repay that by stealing their ship?”

  “This has nothing to do with gratitude or ingratitude. Our lives are at stake here. The NASA base is excellently provisioned. In the short term, they will be able to do without what they’re letting us borrow, including the Endeavour. It won’t hurt them, but it will help us enormously. What’s the harm in that?”

  “I’m sorry, but this is just too underhanded for me.” Theo realized he no longer understood Ewa. How could someone argue so cold-bloodedly for betrayal? This wasn’t the Ewa he knew.

  “That’s your prerogative,” Ewa shot back. “This was why I didn’t make this decision on my own. I would like to put this to a vote. There are 14 of us, 14 votes. If the majority vote for my plan, we’ll carry that out. If there’s a tie, I’ll abstain.”

  Ewa really was clever. She was giving the no votes a tiny advantage. In reality, a tie wasn’t a ‘yes’ for her, but she had painted the situation as if she would graciously sacrifice her right to vote.

  “Does anyone here want a secret ballot?” she asked.

  No one spoke up.

  “I would like to suggest that you call off this insane plan without putting it up to vote,” Theo declared. “It is deeply immoral, as well as incompatible with the goals of our initiative. We want to establish a settlement in which we don’t repeat the mistakes of the old world. Theft isn’t the right way to begin everything. Where will it land us?”

  “If we don’t do this,” Ewa replied, “there might not be anyone left to build the settlement you’ve been dreaming of. We can’t just think about the future. The future will take root in our brave decisions today. Let’s vote now.”

  Theo shook his head. They were about to make a huge mistake, but the others seemed to agree with the vote.

  “How do things stand? Who is for my plan?” Ewa asked, lifting her own arm.

  Theo looked around the group. Two, then three arms raised. Gabriella, the doctor, also voted yes. He hadn’t seen that coming.

  Soon there were ten yes votes. Ewa had won. She asked for the no vote anyway. Theo raised his hand, as did Rebecca. He was glad for that. Iris and El
len hesitated, but they then added their hands to his side. He gazed at them gratefully, even though the result was clear.

  Maybe he was naive. He had always assumed they shared a mutual vision of how to shape a better world that was no longer possible to achieve on Earth, but was attainable on Mars. This dream had just shattered in front of him. Rebecca placed her arm around his shoulders.

  Sol 48, NASA base

  “That’s our goal,” Mike said, pointing at a small, black ‘x’ on the blue background.

  “As you can see from the color, that spot is on a similar elevation to our base, located in an elongated valley. But unfortunately...,” he gestured at a crosshatched, yellow-and-red area, “between here and there, there’s a small obstacle—a spur of the Valles Marineris, a huge trench system.”

  “A spur?” Lance asked.

  “The area is called Hebes Chasma. It isn’t connected to the Valles, which are located south of it, so it isn’t a spur in a real sense. It’s also only six to eight kilometers deep.”

  “Only six kilometers? Child’s play!”

  “The Valles are up to nine kilometers deep, Lance.”

  “And there’s no way around them?”

  “I have mapped it all carefully. Of course, you can get around any obstacle, but in this case, this would significantly prolong your travel time. If you cover two hundred kilometers a day, including the detour, it would take you about a month to get there and back.”

  “So what? We’ve got the time. There’s nothing to do right now as it is,” Lance replied.

  “That’s true,” Sarah agreed. “We should find a way to productively use the time we’re waiting until we can get the drill back.”