He first had to find out the exact nature of the problem. This was why the control panel was equipped with a manual mode over which he could call up a diagnostic program. He knew how this helpful tool worked. In his work as caretaker, people always called him whenever an appliance stopped working. Some errors could be ignored, but unfortunately, a non-closing inner door didn’t fall into that category. In that case, if he opened the outer door while the inner one was still open, he would release all the air out of the entire subterranean settlement.
No, it wouldn’t be quite so drastic, he corrected himself. There had to be safety doors between the areas down there, which immediately closed at any drop of air pressure. But anyone who was standing close to the airlock and wasn’t wearing a spacesuit wouldn’t survive.
Come on, come on, he thought. The software was reacting slower than he was used to. It was almost as if the system was operating at close to its maximum performance limits. But that couldn’t be true. The entire city seemed to be fast asleep during broad daylight. It was so quiet.
The diagnostic menu finally appeared. Good. Oddly enough, the inner door was open, but it could theoretically be closed, too. In any case, its motors didn’t indicate any obstructions. The ventilation system was also functioning. The airlock had to pump out all its air before he could enter from the outside, and it had to be filled again before he could open the inner door. There were no living creatures inside the airlock chamber. As long as that was the case, the airlock could only be controlled from the inside. This prevented someone from accessing the chamber from the outside as long as someone—perhaps without a spacesuit on—was located inside.
Everything was in working order, but the lights were still burning red. Theo skimmed through the error list all the way to the end. He finally landed at an error that he loathed more than anything: ‘Unknown Error.’ He had encountered this several times while working down here in the quarters. The message simply indicated that the system had no idea what was wrong with it. And then he was supposed to solve the problem! He had only managed to do that one other time. In that instance, the outer insulation on a cable had partially melted. This had unexpectedly impacted another power line. He had only figured this out by changing out all the fragile cables, one after the other. There was absolutely nothing from that experience that was helpful for what he was facing now.
Theo pounded his fist against the panel, one, two, three times, until his frustration evaporated. Then he stood up again. This wasn’t the only airlock. There were at least three official entrances. And then there was a secret one, at least according to the rumor mill. The story was that the administrator could use that one to spring surprise visits on his subjects—or to escape from them if a revolt ever occurred. Theo didn’t know if there was anything to the rumor or not.
The next regular airlock wasn’t far away. He was soon kneeling down beside its control panel. These bulbs were also all burning red. This time, it didn’t take him so long to locate the error. The airlock chamber door was blocked. What had happened there? Theo searched through the error memory for the records. Two sols ago, the inner door had shut like usual. The air was released. Someone had probably wanted to go up to the surface. However, the outer door had remained closed. Theo clenched his fist. That meant that someone had spent two days trapped in the chamber. Whoever it was must have run out of air in their spacesuit a long time ago. Whoever that had been must have suffocated inside the chamber because someone had blocked the way out.
Someone? It must have been that thing from the rover. It had apparently taken control of the airlock access system. Hadn’t the administrator declared that there was no way that could happen? Theo had put his life at risk to halt the advance of the renegade rover. Pierre had lost his life in the effort. And the administrator had reduced that sacrifice to nothing by giving that thing the opportunity to slip through their hands! If Theo had known that there were no antitank missiles, that the city didn’t have any way to destroy his rover, he could have put a stop to the administrator’s machinations.
Or maybe not. At that point in time, the pistol had still been on board the robot. He fervently wished that he could walk over to the administrator and send a bullet through his skull. All right, his leg. But he himself deserved the bullet instead. He could have perhaps stopped Summers. What if the person in the chamber was Lance? Lance, whose baby was waiting for him back at the NASA base? He might have robbed the little boy of his father before the child could actually get to know him. He would never be able to look Sarah in the eyes again.
He beat his fists against the hard outer door. This time three hits weren’t nearly enough. He stopped when he felt exhausted. His fists burned.
There was still the third airlock. He had to at least give it a try. Maybe the entries in the error protocol weren’t right. He couldn’t see into the airlock. What if the man or the woman happened to have taken an extra oxygen tank along? He couldn’t give up yet. If he could open the third airlock, he might be able to somehow help the trapped person. There had to be tools inside that would enable him to open the inner door! Everything was now riding on him being able to get underground quickly.
“Theo, we need your help.” It was Maggie.
He stood up and turned toward the Spaceliner rocket. As he gazed at it, a small dust devil swept by in the space between him and the ship. Mars City was turning into a ghost town. “Where are you?”
“We’re still in the tube,” Maggie said.
“And Ahmed?”
“He can’t gain access. The system he’s supposed to crack seems impenetrable.”
Theo suspected the worst. “You can’t get out again, can you?”
“That’s the problem.”
“I knew it!”
“Yes, you were right. It was a trap, but we had to try.”
“It was my mistake,” the administrator admitted.
What had he just said? Theo waited.
“We should have sent Ahmed in alone,” Summers continued.
Of course. Sacrifice the programmer. The administrator had earned this fate! The only bad thing was that the others hadn’t. He had to get them out somehow. “I’m coming,” Theo said.
“I’m not sure that will help anything,” Summers said, “but feel free to give it a try.”
Gladly, asshole, Theo thought.
“The outer door has shut, and there isn’t a control panel for it here inside. However, perhaps the error is still being indicated on the control panel at the maintenance entrance,” Ahmed said. “I can give you precise instructions for what you’ll have to do to hack your way in.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Theo said. He ran over to the rocket and searched for the hidden control panel. “Okay, I found it, now what?” he asked, out of breath.
“Theo, please calm down. We have enough oxygen for an entire day. If you’re frantic, you’ll make mistakes.”
Maggie is right. I have to calm down. Theo took a deep breath and exhaled. “Someone has been trapped in one of the airlocks for the past two days,” he explained then. “Every second counts for them.”
“Do you want to try to help them first?” Maggie asked.
“Absolutely not. Kuczinski will get us out first. It’s starting to get uncomfortable in here,” the administrator said.
“Kowalski. Theo Kowalski,” Theo corrected.
“Whatever. Just hurry up.”
The man was annoying the hell out of him. Couldn’t Maggie take his taser and shut him down for a while? “Alright, Ahmed. I’m calm now and can listen to you.”
“Good. You have a universal device on your sleeve.”
“Yes, I do.”
“We need it as an input medium, but we have to connect it to the panel. The administrator has the suitable cable for that, but we have that in here. You’ll need to improvise something.”
“That’s fine. How?”
“You need a two-core cable. Look around. Do you see something like that lying around?”<
br />
Theo scanned his surroundings. “No, nothing.”
“That’s okay. You have enough cable in your suit. You have a sharp knife in your tool bag, right?”
“Yeah.” Theo pulled it out, and as he did that, his eyes fell on the pistol.
“Good. Look at your left arm. Your suit has a seam that runs from your shoulder to the upper edge of your glove. It’s a double seam, and a cable is sewn into it that transfers the data picked up by the biosensor on your wrist.”
“Understood.”
“You need to pick out the seam and remove the cable. But, be careful! Make sure you don’t loosen the thread underneath the cable, or your suit might spring a leak.”
“Okay. Open the seam, free the cable, don’t damage the thread underneath. I can manage that. Other risks or side effects?”
“Your system will report you as dead to any remote query.”
“Okay. But people can see that I’m still alive.”
“If you aren’t sure about this, there’s another suit in the rover. Or you might find a cable somewhere in there. I won’t be any help to you if you want to do that, though. The range on my helmet radio won’t reach that far.”
Should he take the time to go back to the rover that was two kilometers away? He would lose time, perhaps too much time.
“No, I’ll do it here. Give me a moment.” Theo gripped the edge of his knife between his thumb and forefinger so that only two millimeters extended beyond them. He then started at the top of the seam. With one slow though forceful movement, he dragged the knife downward. He then checked his work. He hadn’t used enough pressure. In some spots, the cable was visible, though not in a way that would allow him to detach it from his suit.
Now for three millimeters of blade. He repeated the action. A glance at his universal device indicated that the pressure inside his suit was stable. What luck! The cable was now exposed. “I should just slice it out at the top and the bottom, right?”
“Exactly, Theo. You don’t need more than about twenty centimeters of length.”
“Good. Consider it done.” Theo removed the cable and examined it in his right hand. Now he was dead. It didn’t feel all that bad, to be honest.
“You need to strip the insulation off the ends of both wires, up to half a centimeter.”
“Okay.” He notched the cladding on one and yanked it off with a single pull. He repeated that process on the other three ends of the double cable. “Done.”
“Perfect. Your device has a universal output. Green cable in the left jack, yellow cable in the right one.”
“How do you know that they’re green and yellow?”
“Aren’t they?”
“Yeah. I’m done.”
“The control panel has some kind of jack socket. Green goes on the external pole. You need to push the yellow one in deep enough so it contacts the internal pole.”
“Ready.”
“Now turn off the universal device. The three-point pressure, alright?”
“My suit will shut down.”
“Yes, but you will start it up again immediately. When you do that, push all four corners so it will start up a special diagnostic program that we need.”
He used three fingers on his left hand to push the three corners on the screen. The device beeped, then shut down the life support system. The radio contact also broke off. He was now completely isolated. It wasn’t all that easy to press the four corners of the screen with one hand. Hopefully, the rest of the suit’s functions would start up, as well as the diagnostic program.
He heard the beeping resume. His suit was responding. On the universal device’s screen, an ugly menu composed solely of words appeared. “I’m back,” he reported. “Will this stuff on my little helper go away soon?”
“Yes, and after this, you can restart your suit with just three fingers.”
“Okay. Now what?”
“The cables are still attached?”
Theo checked the connection to the control panel. “Looks good.”
“Then please input exactly what I tell you.” Ahmed dictated an entire series of commands with varying parameters that Theo gradually entered. Typing on the device’s screen keyboard wasn’t all that easy with gloves on. The results didn’t seem to make the programmer happy, since he grew quieter with each passing minute.
“Forget it. It’s not helping,” Ahmed said.
“I’m confused.”
“It’s not your fault, it’s mine. The simple bug from earlier is no longer there. And none of the other common security loopholes are, either. I’d have to analyze the entire system to find anything else.”
“But you can’t do that.”
“No, I’d need a level of access that I don’t have right now.”
“Shit.”
“Exactly, Theo. I’ve failed.”
“Take a breather, Ahmed,” Maggie said. “We crawled in here voluntarily. Nobody could’ve guessed that we’d be trapped in here. I don’t understand it, either. Why?”
“Whoever’s in control here has apparently tried to hamstring us,” the administrator said. “I’m not sure of the motive behind it. What would someone gain from all this?”
“Maybe we’re overthinking in terms of human motives,” Christiane cut in.
Theo stuck his knife back in his tool bag. As he did that, his hand brushed against the pistol. Could he do something with that? He pulled it out and took a few steps back. Nobody could see him. He loaded the gun and aimed at the panel. If only he knew more about firearms! Would he be able to shoot enough holes into the metal plate that he would be able to remove it? It didn’t seem all that likely. The spaceship could handle heat up to three thousand degrees. The metal had to be very resistant.
And what if he hit the control panel? It would be destroyed, and he would never be able to open the door. No, he needed to keep the gun for later. He would use it eventually. But did he really want to? He tried to imagine his life as a novel. If that were the case, he would have to use it due to the rules of plot development. Every weapon that the reader encounters has to be used. What nonsense. But his life wasn’t a novel. Unfortunately.
Theo took a deep breath. “I can’t help you right now,” he said. “I’m so very sorry.”
“Yes, I agree with you,” Maggie said. “We’ll try the upper door again.”
“I’ll try to open the third airlock. And, Administrator, is it true that there is a fourth airlock reserved for your own special use?”
“How do you know about that?” Summers asked.
“There’s a rumor going around about it.”
“You shouldn’t believe all the rumors out there, but this one happens to be true. There’s an emergency entrance and exit over one of the greenhouses.”
“Which one?”
“7C.”
“I’ll find it.”
“But you won’t be able to just get in. You need the security tablet that I have with me.”
“I’ll check it out. What do I need to pay attention to there?”
“The airlock is made of glass, which is why it isn’t noticeable. From above, it looks like a totally normal greenhouse.”
“And the control system?”
“There isn’t one, but on the side of the greenhouse, you will find the control panel for the light system. This panel also controls the airlock.”
“Very subtle.”
“Indeed. Very few people know about it, Kowalski, so keep this to yourself.”
“I’ll look around. I’ll keep quiet about it, Administrator, for the rest of your life. If I can’t find a solution, that promise won’t last past tomorrow.”
That might have been a cruel thing to say, but that man deserved a slow death by suffocation. If only he could get the other three people out of the tube!
Sol 346, Planum Australe
Drive for two hours, stop, check the solidity of the ice, drive another two hours. She had carried out this procedure diligently. The water content of t
he ice was higher than Friday had assumed it would be, and this stabilized the ice cap. However, Ewa knew that this would change eventually. She exited the rover and suspected right away that the time might have come, or it wasn’t far off—as soon as she stopped moving, her boots sank several centimeters into the ice. The surface looked as stable as ever. In the sunlight, it glistened reddish-gray, but it acted like quicksand.
While Ewa used the measuring pole, she had to walk around slowly so her boots didn’t transfer too much heat to the surface. She placed the pole on the ground and didn’t even need to push on it. It slid straight into the ice under its own weight. Ewa had to hold onto it to keep from losing it. That didn’t look good. The surface had now become her greatest enemy. Ewa climbed back into the rover. The ladder had already disappeared. She yanked the door shut and ordered the computer to set off immediately.
Ewa sat down at the controls and pulled up the rover’s technical data on the screen. How heavy was the vehicle, and how large was the tires’ contact area? She needed to reduce tire pressure. The settings were hidden in a submenu. Ewa selected the lowest technological setting possible.
She then returned to the main menu. They had to drive faster to keep from sinking! The computer set the highest speed limit at 25 km/h. Ewa checked the radar images of the area. There had to be more images in here. She increased the speed limit manually, but the value immediately jumped back down to 25. Shit, why isn’t the computer obeying?
Then she remembered. The front tires were still covered in snow chains. A speed limit for those must be set somewhere. She searched frantically through all the settings menus and deactivated all the safety protocols she found, but the rover still didn’t drive any faster. This couldn’t be happening! She stopped the vehicle so she could search for the cause in peace, but that wasn’t a good idea. Ewa noticed quickly that the rover was sinking.
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