Theo knelt down beside her head. Her face still looked relatively natural. She must have been beautiful once. Her dark, open eyes were still very expressive. Her skin was as white as porcelain, and her mouth was perfectly shaped. However, her cheeks were hollowed out. Theo cautiously pulled up one of her sleeves. Her arm consisted of skin and bones. The body was extremely dehydrated. That couldn’t happen overnight. The six passengers had presumably died shortly after their launch, after which they were preserved in a dry, not very cold environment in which normal decomposition could not occur.
He described his impressions over the radio.
“So, you aren’t convinced there was an illness?” the administrator asked.
“I’m not a pathologist, not even a doctor, but I don’t see any signs of a dangerous infection. The Chinese must have died from something, of course, but only an expert will be able to give you the precise cause.”
“Naturally,” Summers said. “The woman won’t be going anywhere. Your assessment is reassuring. Now to the navigational area.”
“But what about José?”
“What about him? He must have suffocated, too. The computer is more important now.”
Yes, you idiot. Theo didn’t reply, but he stood back up. José was up in the front, lying behind two chairs that almost hid him completely. He walked over to the body and flipped him over from his stomach onto his back. Yes, that had to be José. He had almost managed to shut his helmet in time. His face was frozen. His skin was noticeably darker than his colleague Sam’s.
José must have come from a Latin American family. Perhaps an immigrant family from Mexico? Theo hooked his arms under the astronaut’s shoulders and carried him to the back of the vehicle, where he set him beside Sam. It occurred to him then that the rover might not always be lying steeply on its side. Was there somewhere that he could place the four bodies so they wouldn’t be jostled all around if that happened? He only needed a few ropes, but a quick sweep of the area didn’t turn any up.
“What’s going on with the computer?” Summers asked.
“I wanted to... uh, nothing,” he replied. “José suffocated as well.”
“That was obvious,” Summers said impatiently.
Theo sighed. I’m sorry, you four, he thought, but I can’t pay you my proper respects right now. He consoled himself by recalling that it was the thought that counted.
In any case, the path to the navigational console was now free. The screen and keyboard were attached to a desk-like structure. In the rover’s current situation, the screen slanted toward the right upper corner. He had to stretch to reach the keyboard. Theo had never worked on a computer like this.
He first checked the universal device on his sleeve. It was still working. Nonetheless, in terms of what happened to Sam, what was to keep that from happening to him as well? “Maggie?” he asked.
“I can hear you.”
“If I yell for help, you will need to lift the rover up immediately and let me out,” he said. “I won’t have much time by that point, three minutes max.”
“You can count on us.”
“Thanks.” He wiped some dust from his helmet, before recalling one last thing. “Oh, and I’ll say something every thirty seconds. If I stop—”
“We’ll lift the rover up right away,” Maggie finished.
“Exactly. Sam couldn’t call for help after a certain point.”
“Yes, I understand what’s behind your suggestion.”
“Excellent.” He took a deep breath, then reached up to press the power switch. One light, then two, began to flash. The rover’s computer was restarting. Theo tensely watched his universal device, but it didn’t indicate any fluctuations. Phew. So far, so good. “Ahmed, everything here looks normal. What should I do?”
The programmer dictated a few commands for him. Theo implemented them and reported on their outcomes. The orders grew increasingly complicated, but the result was always the same—OK. Or sometimes READY.
“That’s it,” Ahmed said eventually.
“And?” the administrator asked.
“The system is functioning optimally, as if it had just come off the assembly line.”
“That’s good, right?” Maggie asked.
“Considering the fact that it has three deaths on its conscience, I wish we had found an error. But the system truly is functioning perfectly. It’s as if it were freshly installed. There aren’t any data remnants, as you’d expect would gather during operation.”
“You mean that somebody’s tried to wipe away their fingerprints?” Maggie asked.
“I’m not sure. Whoever it was had the system under such good control that the outcomes aren’t revealing their actions.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the fact that the system looks brand new is suspicious in and of itself. If you want to hide the fact that you were secretly in someone else’s apartment, you remove your own traces, but you don’t clean the entire apartment so it looks as if nobody has ever lived in it.”
“That’s bizarre,” Theo said.
“Unless you don’t care what the resident thinks about your visit,” the technician said.
“Or you want to show how thoroughly you have everything under control,” the administrator added.
You must relate to that idea, Theo thought. However, the technician’s idea intrigued him. What if the visitor was so much more advanced that he didn’t care if they were on his trail?
“Who’s saying that whatever caused the problem isn’t still there in the rover?” Maggie asked.
“You think it’s still in here with me? Thanks.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” the administrator said. “I’ve just tried repeatedly to contact Mars City, but no one’s responding.”
Theo once again felt the cold through his suit. “What do you mean by repeatedly?”
“Over the past fifteen minutes, I have sent the same query at sixty-second intervals. Nobody’s answering.”
Sol 343, Mars City
“I’ve had it. I can’t do this anymore,” Theo said.
“Let me take over,” Ahmed offered.
Theo handed him the pickax, and the programmer continued the project. They were trying to dig a grave. They had righted the toppled rover yesterday and brought it back online, but they still needed to remove the four bodies from it.
“Mars obviously doesn’t want to take them,” Ahmed said, gasping.
Little splinters of packed sand flew all over the place. A small cloud of dust had already formed around the programmer. The wind was still today, and the sky was practically clear.
“We need something to thaw the permafrost,” Theo suddenly heard Maggie say from behind him.
“Ah, good morning,” he said. “Sleep well?”
“Okay, I guess. I’m no longer used to sleeping in a small space with five other people.”
“I only slept about two hours myself,” Theo said.
The life support system had been running at maximum capacity all night long, but it still hadn’t managed to provide them with a relatively low-odor atmosphere.
“Has Summers said anything?” he asked. Yesterday, the administrator had strictly forbidden their return to the city.
“He doesn’t want to go back until we have an explanation for what is going on there,” Maggie said.
So, no news. But why were they actually allowing themselves to be commanded by Summers? They were four against one, at least, if Ahmed and Christiane, the technician, joined their side. He didn’t question where Maggie’s sentiments lay.
Theo pulled Maggie aside. The administrator might be listening in on their radio link. Theo pointed at the ground before using his foot to write one word in the red sand: Revolt?
Maggie shook her head before wiping away his question and writing her response, Taser! and quickly erasing it.
True. He nodded in understanding.
The administrator had cold-heartedly utilized his weapon yesterday. Th
ey would need to overpower him while he slept. And then there was the question of what would happen after their return to Mars City. Wouldn’t the security team capture them? The majority of the city’s residents seemed to be loyal to the administrator.
“Good morning!” Theo turned around and recognized the technician. She had introduced herself to him yesterday. Christiane was from Germany, from Berlin, though you couldn’t tell it from her English pronunciation. “Do you have anything for me to do?” she asked.
“Here, have a turn with the pickax,” Ahmed said. “I need to rest for a moment. For some reason, my suit’s muscle amplifiers aren’t helping.”
Theo smiled. Without artificial muscles, they wouldn’t even be able to dig a ditch here. “You don’t need me right now? Then I’ll go check on the other rover.”
“I’ll come along,” Maggie said.
The open rover with which he had stopped the other rover sat on its side next to the ridge of the crater. A leg inside a spacesuit stuck out from under it.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Theo said. “You didn’t even recover him when you got here?”
“Summers didn’t want to. He was dead, and you were lying a few meters away.”
“Did Summers also want to leave me lying there?”
“No. He needed you as a witness.”
“It was my lucky day, then.” Theo came to a stop close to the front of the rover. The vehicle was significantly lighter than the enclosed rover, but there were only the two of them here. “Can you grab the back end, Maggie?”
“Shouldn’t we try to get him out first?” She pointed at the leg.
“You’re right. I’ll pick up this end of the rover, and you can pull him out.”
“I’d prefer it the other way around, if that’s okay with you.”
Theo sighed. Why did the others always think that he didn’t mind dealing with dead bodies? “Okay,” he said, kneeling down next to the leg.
“Now!” Maggie cried. She lifted the rover.
Theo yanked hard on the leg. The body seemed to be frozen to the ground.
“Do you have him?” Maggie asked.
“Just a second.” He channeled all his strength into his pull. His hip protested with a flash of pain. One more yank, and he fell back on his back with the body upside down in his arms. He gingerly placed the dead guard on the ground and examined him. His name was Pierre. That’s right, and he was Canadian.
“Someone told me after I woke up that his helmet was damaged.”
“Could be. I don’t remember,” Maggie said softly.
“His helmet isn’t damaged. The man might have still been alive!”
“Oh, shit. Everything was in turmoil. In any case, his biomonitor was no longer showing any vital signs. But you’re right, we should have looked more closely.” Maggie looked sincerely upset.
Theo took a deep breath. “We’ll bury him with the other four,” he said.
“But we have to get him out of his suit first. And to do that, we have to thaw him out.”
“True. The suit is valuable.”
Theo wished he could wipe off the cold sweat that had formed on his forehead. His suit’s life support system couldn’t keep up. At least, he was no longer sweating. “There’s time for that,” he said. “Let’s set the rover upright again.”
Maggie stood behind the back axle, and he walked to the front section. “On the count of three,” he said. The rover slowly rolled back up on its tires. The steering rod pressed into his stomach. He heard Maggie groan over the helmet radio. And then, the vehicle was upright.
Theo walked around it to check out all four sides. “Looks good,” he said. He really was satisfied. A couple of metal sheets up front were bent, but nothing seemed to be broken. If they were lucky, Theo would be able to climb aboard and drive off. Once he did that, they wouldn’t need the administrator to make their way back to the city.
“I’ll give it a test run,” he said. Theo took a seat on the driver’s side. The seat shell also seemed to be bent. Something was poking into his back muscles, but that shouldn’t be a problem for the short drive to Mars City. He flipped on the ignition. The machine reacted as usual. The navigational screen had a crack, but everything was legible. The fuel cell was almost full, which meant he could drive several hundred kilometers on it. The electric engines on the tires were also very robust, and even if one of them stopped working, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
He pressed the gas pedal. The rover shuddered forward. “Hey, it’s driving!” he shouted.
“I see that.”
He turned off the computer and stepped down. “We might need the rover later on.”
“We should take him with us.” Maggie pointed at the dead astronaut.
Theo walked over to him and loaded him on his back.
“Aren’t you ready yet?” Summers asked.
Theo cringed. He refused to turn around, otherwise he would run the risk of boxing the administrator’s ears—except the man’s helmet was in the way. The ditch was now about half a meter deep. They were still a long way from having enough room, especially now that they had five bodies. However, there was still enough time for the digging considering that they still had to get the guard out of his suit.
“How do things look in the city?” Maggie asked.
“They just aren’t responding,” replied the administrator. “Something has gone terribly wrong there.”
“We should investigate,” Theo declared.
“No, it would be better to wait,” Maggie said. “We’re safe here.”
Why was she suddenly so afraid? Then again, maybe she was just thinking strategically. If they wanted to overpower Summers, they could only do that while he was asleep.
“Alright,” Theo said. “We should wait out here until the city has resolved its problems.”
Sol 343, MfE Base
Someone knocked on her door. “Come in,” Rebecca said.
She wondered who would visit her at this late hour. As the door opened, she recognized Ellen. However, she had never seen Ellen like this. She was wearing a very clingy nightgown that shimmered like silk. It looked good on her.
“Sorry to disturb you.”
“I was just reading anyway. What can I do for you?”
“I didn’t want to make the others nervous, but I noticed something today.”
That was interesting—so had she. Nobody had called in from Mars City today. Normally, they had been checked on every day and usually the Spaceliners sent them a new list of tasks. “You too?”
“What do you mean, Rebecca?”
“There was no communication with the city today.”
“Exactly. And did you notice, no one was able to do the mandatory check-ins?”
Ellen sat down next to her on the cot. “That doesn’t have to mean anything, of course,” she said, “but it’s quite unusual. Especially since...” She stopped talking.
Very effective, Rebecca thought, slightly amused. But she played along. “Especially since...?” she asked.
“Especially since they didn’t respond to my call.”
“You contacted them?”
“Just now, from the bridge. I was actually glad they didn’t bother us today, but then I kept feeling concerned about it, too.”
“And?”
Ellen slid closer and whispered, “No answer.”
“Nothing at all?”
“Not even an auto response confirmation. It looks like all their systems are offline.”
“Hmm. I wish the administrator all the worst,” Rebecca said, “but if something bad has happened, our men are also affected.”
“I know,” Ellen said. “Which is why I didn’t want to make a big deal about all this.”
“If they haven’t contacted us by tomorrow, we’ll have to discuss this officially.”
“I’m afraid you’re right,” Ellen said.
Was that it? Or did she have something else on her mind? Whatever the case, Ellen remained sitting. “A
re you doing alright?” Rebecca asked, glancing away.
Ellen ran her fingers through her hair. Was she... embarrassed? Rebecca had never seen her like this.
“Should I... should I stay here for a little while?” Ellen eventually whispered. “I thought...,” she didn’t finish the sentence.
Now I understand. Rebecca felt amused, though she tried to not let on as she spoke. “This is very flattering, Ellen, and you look very pretty in your nightgown, but this isn’t quite my thing. It’s nothing personal, okay?”
Ellen’s face turned pink. “Of course,” she said. “I just thought that since you were so thoughtful and nice to me...”
“I like you, Ellen, and I like being friends.”
“Thanks. Of course.” Ellen stood up. “Please don’t hold this against me,” she said as she reached the door.
“No worries there. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Good night, Rebecca.”
Ellen shut the door behind her. Rebecca still felt amused. She hadn’t known about this side to her friend. Wasn’t she in a relationship with Mike from the NASA crew? Ellen apparently didn’t view it as exclusive, but that wasn’t Rebecca’s business. She preferred to think about Theo. What might have happened in Mars City? Had there been some kind of catastrophe, like a meteor strike? But wouldn’t they have known if that had happened? Maybe there was just a communications error over there. She shouldn’t make herself crazy about this. And if there was anyone who could survive a disaster, it was Theo.
It took Rebecca a while to go to sleep. Once she did, she dreamed about needing to butcher a chicken that kept running away from her.
Sol 344, Mars City
Nothing had happened, and it was all his fault. They had agreed to keep watch on shifts in order to take Summers by surprise while he slept, but who of all people had slept deep and long today? Theo slammed his fist against the wall.
“Didn’t sleep well?” Maggie asked.
“The opposite,” he replied.
“Then you should be happy, since you won’t be able to get a good night’s sleep every night.”
Mars Nation: The Complete Trilogy Page 76