Mars Nation: The Complete Trilogy

by Brandon Q Morris

  The symbols flashed by for a very brief moment, always ten at a time for a tenth of a second. Her human consciousness wasn’t even close to being able to process bundles of data this size, partly because her biological signal transmitters simply took too long to do what Friday inside his chip was capable of working at lightning speed. The human brain also worked fundamentally differently. It filtered out a lot of information to let only the most essential things in below the surface. Here, on the other hand, every bit was equally important.

  Ewa was fascinated. The longer she watched herself, the more disconnected she felt from her own body. She was almost a little bit jealous. If she was controlling her body through her own consciousness, she would be writhing with pain in thirty minutes, tops. But now, there was no sign of any fatigue—unless she’d be paying the price once Friday had finished his work. If she had spent an entire day bending down and getting back up again, what would her muscles have to say about that? Friday seemed to be able to blend out their protest, an ability that Ewa didn’t possess. She was positive about that.

  But there was another aspect that had gotten her thinking. If this character—whom she called Friday—could so easily take control of her body, what did that mean for humankind? Are our bodies theoretically interchangeable? She imagined a human race that saw each member’s body as a resource. The same way people today used carsharing, they just might be able to share the same body in the future.

  It was pure wastefulness. A person’s consciousness spent one-third of its lifetime sleeping, which meant that on the Earth’s surface, one-third more people were walking about than were actually necessary. Used to be walking around, she corrected herself. She still hadn’t gotten used to the Earth as being lost. Here on Mars, they were far away from that problem—there was a lack of bodies rather than a surplus.

  Ewa felt a yawn coming on. Watching the monotonous movement patterns of her body was making her drowsy. But she needed to hold off. Friday was presently in control of all her muscles. She was briefly tempted to test her power of control. Would she be able to regain control only by utilizing her own strength? Friday had promised her that, but she didn’t completely trust him. At the moment, however, it only meant that she would interrupt his work.

  She closed her eyes. No, she wouldn’t do that. At the last second, she was able to inhibit the corresponding impulse to her nervous system. She needed to find a different way to disengage herself from this world. It was good training because this was one of her particular weaknesses. She wasn’t very adept at ignoring signals. Her preferred method was to pull a sleeping mask over her eyes and stuff cotton in her ears. But these options weren’t available right now.

  She needed to disconnect from her senses if she was going to get any sleep. That frightened her. It must have also been this fear that had prevented her from finding peace so many times before. At the same time, it was completely unfounded. It would only be a temporary separation. She just needed to pull her inner curtain to the side to block out the noise and brightness of the outside world. Ewa reached for that curtain. It was heavy and felt like leather. She pulled it between herself and her connection to the light and sounds. It was pleasantly dark, but not completely quiet, just the way she liked it. She lay in the warm sand and dropped off to sleep.

  Sol 108, NASA base

  “Ewa? Are you awake?”

  Who was waking her up now? Couldn’t she just sleep in? Something was tickling the sole of her foot. She pulled her knee up to her chest.

  ‘It’s me, Friday,’ the voice said.

  Now he had really done it. She opened her eyes. It was dim but not completely dark yet. Light was shining through a gap in the curtain. She could make out the outline of a person who was kneeling at her feet.

  “What are you doing in here, Friday?” Her question sounded less annoyed than deliberate. “These are my own thoughts. You shouldn’t be messing around here.”

  ‘You invited me in.’

  “I don’t remember that.”

  ‘You wanted me to wake you up. Since you’ve sealed yourself off from the external world, there were no other options.’

  Ewa propped herself up on her elbows and then noticed that she was naked. She jerked upright and crossed her arms over her breasts. “Please turn around at least,” she said.

  Friday did as she asked. ‘I’m leaving,’ he said, getting to his feet.

  Before he left the room, he cast one final glance at Ewa’s bare body. She glared at him angrily. He pulled the curtain aside. It must have been broad daylight outside. He left the room, closing the curtain behind him.

  Ewa stood up. She felt more refreshed than she had in a long time. Despite being naked, she lifted the curtain that separated her from the outside world. Light and sound broke over her, and she was suddenly back in her own body. Her bladder called, and she was hungry and thirsty. She raised her arm, causing terrible pain to shoot through her.

  “Shit, Friday. Did you do that?”

  ‘Do what?’

  “Were you just inside my dream?”

  ‘No, your dreams are closed to me. I can only control your action potential and your sensory impressions.’

  “You said that already, but is that really true?”

  ‘Yes, it is. But it’s interesting that you saw me in your dream. What exactly happened in it?’

  “You woke me up.”

  ‘Ah, that was probably inspired by a mental embodiment of your wishes. You wanted to be awakened, so your mind created someone to do that.’

  “But I was... Oh, forget it.”

  Friday had hit the nail on the head. She knew people who resolved to wake up at a specific time, and then they actually did it. She wasn’t one of them, but she could apparently pull herself out of her sleep somehow. Or Friday was lying to her. She didn’t want to believe that. If he could infiltrate—penetrate—her conscious mind, it would be worse than being physically raped.

  “How’s your progress?” Ewa asked.

  ‘Very good. I now have 647,390 data sets.’

  “Over halfway done?”

  ‘Yes. I’ll be finished by sunset.’

  “That’s good. My muscles are really sore.”

  ‘When I’m done, you’ll feel even worse.’

  “Thanks for those encouraging words, Friday. You don’t feel any aches and pains when I work?”

  ‘I can block them out fairly easily. The decision about which sensory inputs I process is all mine.’

  “I’m envious of that ability, Friday.”

  ‘Humans also have it at their disposal. You actually use it a lot, like when you are in a room full of people and are listening to a particular person in a conversation.’

  “I know,” Ewa said, “but it’s hard for me to deliberately utilize that ability.”

  ‘You humans say, “practice makes perfect.” After this, you’ll have ample opportunity to practice.’

  “Thanks a lot for that.”

  ‘You’re very welcome.’

  “I was being ironic, Friday.”

  ‘Irony is one concept I don’t get.’

  “You have plenty of time to practice right now.”

  ‘Then I thank you for that as well,’ Friday said.

  Ewa had to laugh. Had he meant that ironically or sincerely? Was Friday already practicing? “I’ll let you get back to work,” she said.

  She relaxed all of her muscles and moved a little outside of herself. A few minutes later, her body stood up and returned to scanning the symbols on the wall.

  Someone patted her leg. Had her subconscious already invited Friday in again? I hope I’m not naked again! thought Ewa as she opened her eyes. It was her own hand that was touching her leg. She was wearing a spacesuit and sitting against the wall, slumped over.

  ‘I’m done,’ Friday said through her mouth.

  He let her hand fall to confirm this. It was now resting relaxedly across her thighs, waiting for Ewa to resume control. She should actually be happy. T
he thing inside her head had kept his promise. But she was scared of the pain. As soon as she slipped back inside her body, the pain would be unbearable. It was as if she were standing in the shallow water of a cold mountain lake, and didn’t have it in her to finally submerge herself and swim away.

  She shook herself and dove headfirst into the water. The pain instantly engulfed her. However, she knew that once she had moved enough, she would get used to it. Her muscles had been acidified by monotonous movements, their smallest fibers shredded. Her body would repair the damage in the coming days. It wasn’t anything that would prevent her from standing up.

  Ewa pulled her legs up to her body, put her weight on them, and got into a crouching position. She took a quick gulp of air as she straightened up onto her feet. It worked!

  “Were you successful?” she asked.

  ‘I have analyzed 1,057,322 characters and processed them through various statistical formulas. I then entered the data into diverse models before comparing the final results. At the end of all this, I was left with three models that possessed sufficient significance. One of them wasn’t only significant, but revealed an actual logic.’

  “In other words?”

  ‘Yes, I was successful, with only one caveat.’

  “And what is that?”

  ‘The models don’t indicate if the logic I measured corresponds with reality.’

  “What do you mean?”

  ‘Imagine I had determined the statistical meaning of the word Abba. It was the name of a fishery.’

  “Ah, I see. You wouldn’t know if perhaps the word was actually referencing the twentieth-century Swedish pop group.”

  ‘It would be even worse, Ewa. I wouldn’t even know that there had ever been such a pop group. I’ve never heard of them.’

  “But the fishery was a certainty?”

  ‘Only in the context of this model. In reality, the fishery might not have ever existed either.’

  “So, how can we verify this?”

  ‘We are going to simply test it against reality.’

  “Do you have concrete ideas about how to do this, Friday?”

  ‘Yes. We’re going to search for a user interface for the mountain, give it commands based on our model, and see what the object does with that. If our expectations are met, then we will have correctly figured out the logic.’

  “That makes sense,” Ewa said, carefully walking up and down. “Do you have any idea where we can find a user interface?”

  ‘Not yet, but maybe the wall could give us a clue.’

  “How would it do that, Friday?”

  ‘All the characters that appear when you put your finger on the wall... they create a sort of universal encyclopedia, like Wikipedia. We just need to locate the entry about the object’s user interface.’

  “You want to search through the entire encyclopedia? How long will that take?”

  ‘A few seconds,’ Friday said. ‘I have saved the content and position of all the markings. I just have to check them.’

  ‘This will be easier than you think,’ Friday said after a while.

  “Really?”

  ‘You just need to stand next to the transparent wall and draw a certain pattern with your fingers.’

  “I can handle that.”

  Ewa turned toward the wall. The sun was already low over the horizon. She had been inside her suit for over a day. She sucked on the tube that provided her with liquid food, but the container seemed to be empty. Her stomach growled. The oxygen gauge was pointing at a quarter of a tank. Ewa sighed. Even if she were successful, she would barely survive.

  The NASA base might only be two hours away by foot, but according to everything she knew so far, she wouldn’t find any help there. The fissure had done its job. The drill vehicle’s cab was also destroyed. The sudden realization that she only had a few hours to live affected her surprisingly little. That might have been because of her exhaustion, or perhaps because she had simply encountered this situation too often over the past few weeks.

  Friday had pointed out that practice makes perfect. Or was this the result of her overstimulated imagination? The line between reality and dream seemed to be slowly blurring. She patted her left side. The pain confirmed that she wasn’t dreaming right now.

  “Now what?” Ewa asked.

  ‘It’s quite easy. You are going to draw two horizontal lines on top of each other.’

  Ewa raised her arm.

  ‘Wait a second. You have to do this quickly. Don’t hesitate. After you draw the horizontal lines, you need to add two vertical lines above them. The left one has to cross both horizontal lines, but the right one shouldn’t touch them. Then I can visualize the character clearly.’

  “Let’s do this.” She drew a line, another above it, then one that bisected the first two, and a final one to the right that ended before reaching the upper line. Done.

  The wall flashed briefly. Her command had been accepted. The background faded away, all the way down the entire length of the room. Ewa suddenly found herself standing inside an elongated hall with a gray ceiling. “Wow,” she said.

  In front of her, a screen appeared that reminded her of the drill’s control console. Of course, she couldn’t read the writing, but she intuitively thought she understood the meaning of some of the squares. The buttons and levers glowed in various colors, though red was missing altogether. The optical range of the builders might have been limited to the shorter wavelengths, which meant that the Red Planet must have looked black to them.

  ‘You should kneel down,’ Friday said. ‘The object’s builders weren’t as tall as you. The most important switches are located at floor level. Do you see the square flashing in alternating blue and yellow? If I understand the writing correctly, you can use that to accelerate.’

  “And if we’re wrong about that?”

  ‘Ah, the software was certainly planned with dummies in mind. A gigantic object like this won’t let itself be destroyed by the pushing of a few wrong buttons.’

  “It’s on you.” Ewa leaned down and tapped on the square. The background vibrated, and then she felt a soft jolt. The mountain was traveling a little faster. It had worked! She was the queen of the mountain! Ewa imagined herself flying the mountain around the entire planet. All she needed to do was fly a wide arc around the NASA and MfE colonies. She would run out of air in a few hours, though.

  She felt the object jerk in the opposite direction. The mountain had slowed back down. “What was that, Friday?”

  ‘I’m not sure. Maybe you have to keep pressing the button.’

  Ewa tried that. The mountain increased its speed again, only to slow back down. “Something’s putting up resistance,” she said.

  ‘Let’s try it with a different command,’ Friday suggested. ‘In the row above that one, you’ll see something that looks like an egg. Its point is leaning toward the left.’

  “Let me guess. I should be able to steer to the left with that.”

  ‘Exactly. That’s what the encyclopedia says at least.’

  Ewa pushed the button. The screen reacted, and she instantly felt the change in direction, a slight pull to the left. Friday was right. But three seconds later, the structure adjusted itself back to the right. They tried several other commands but the result was always the same. Something was supervising their commands and rescinding them. It had to be the autopilot, which had priority of rank over the manual controls.

  Damn it. The ‘Queen of Mars’ had already been deposed. And Ewa was out of ideas. “Do you have any other suggestions, Friday?”

  ‘Not at the moment. I’m sorry.’

  “How do I make the wall transparent again?”

  ‘With the same character as before.’

  Ewa drew the same horizontal and vertical lines. Suddenly, she was standing at a giant window again. Take care, Mars. There’s nothing else I can do for you, she thought.

  “Ewa, please come in,” Mike called over the helmet radio. She looked up and saw th
e NASA drone.

  “I’m here,” she replied.

  “That’s good to know. We were getting worried. This morning we had to bring the drone back to recharge, and when it got back, you were nowhere in sight.”

  “I’m still doing just fine.”

  “‘Still... just fine?’”

  She explained that she only had enough oxygen for the next few hours and described the problems she had run into when trying to control the object. “I have no idea how to make the thing stop,” she said.

  “It’s not your fault that the control program is so obstinate. The fact that you’ve even figured out how the mountain functions is a huge accomplishment,” Mike said.

  He doesn’t know that I had help. There’s no longer any reason to tell him about that. “I know, but it’s horrible to not be able to do anything,” she said evasively.

  “Wait, Andy wants to talk to you. I’m connecting the call via radio right now.”

  Ewa suddenly felt cold. The man she had betrayed and tried to kill twice wanted to speak with her. How would that go? Her fingers trembled.

  “Hello, Ewa,” Andy said in greeting.

  His voice sounded normal, as if it were an ordinary thing to converse with your attempted murderer. What was Andy feeling right now? Was he forcing himself to be low-key in order to have this conversation? Were his fingers clenched tightly around the edge of the desk? She couldn’t tell.

  “Hello, Andy. What’s going on?” she asked.

  “You mentioned something about an autopilot that was blocking your commands.”

  “Yes.” Andy’s voice was giving her hope. It sounded as if he had an idea. And whenever Andy’d had an idea in the past, it had always worked out.

  “Algorithms, programs, and automatic systems aren’t magic. Software always has a physical foundation. A computer, a small chip, something like that. If you can destroy the foundation, the program will die.”