"What is Eamonn doing?" Seth said.
"He’s scanning the communication frequencies for loose transmissions from the battle," Parker said. "Even out here, the relays aren’t transmitting. We can’t hit the Martian relays either. We are mute."
"Those relays are always up. To coordinate shutting them down would take a lot of planning," Seth said. "I am beginning to wonder if our arrival on Mars will be welcomed."
Parker shrugged. "We’re nearing range of short-way communications, so I guess we’ll find out shortly."
"Good, I can’t wait to get some answers from Mars. I’m going to help Eamonn hack some of those relays. I want to be on the bridge when we first contact Mars."
Gwen walked with a slight spring in her step through the corridors of the Protector. Soon, she would be back on Mars, and the thought excited her beyond her expectations. She had been so angry when she left that she thought of a return to Mars as an admission to her father that she couldn’t hack it on her own.
However, the crew was coming back with her, and confidence spread through her like a virus. She was bringing back an accomplishment . . . as well as bad news.
The invasion of Lunara puzzled her greatly. Eamonn suspected the motivation was a plot to kidnap her, but three battle cruisers parked over Lunara told her otherwise. Someone wanted Seth and Chloe and the metalor. But the identity of that someone was a mystery.
"Gwen," Seth said as he came down the corridor. His shoulders drooped, and the concern on his face pulled on her heart. The other mystery of the past few days was Mars Medical’s interest in Seth and Chloe. While Eamonn and Jan were worried about the invasion, after speaking with Parker, she intended to use her time on Mars to look further into the background of her friends.
She stopped in front of him. "How are you holding up?"
"Okay, I guess," he said, but it was easy to see that he was hiding something behind his words. "I have to ask . . . has Mars changed?"
Gwen could tell he was holding back. "Not sure what you mean by that. Mars is always changing. The terraforming project is moving along ahead of schedule, and the main colonies are in the midst of an economic boom."
Gwen knew that Seth’s effort to block out everything concerning Mars didn’t extend to the terraforming project. He often commented on Mars’s one great accomplishment that had been ongoing for the last two hundred years. It was the combined effort of all of the people, Aethpisian, Zephyrian, and the smaller colonies, to change Mars into a more hospitable planet, more Earthlike as Seth would say.
He eyed her, and she found some suspicion in his gaze.
"The algae farms extend to over eighty percent of the northern hemisphere now," she said. "And the oxygen and carbon dioxide factories number in the thousands. My father keeps reminding me of when we needed body suits on Mars. Now a simple breathing mask."
Seth shook his head. "The terraforming is all well and good for the planet, but the people couldn’t have changed so drastically. The raiders must still exist."
"What is really the problem?" Gwen asked. Perhaps confronting him, rather than Chloe, would get her some answers.
His eyes evaded hers. "I don’t know if I can protect Chloe anymore. She wants to return to Mars, but I don’t think I can."
"You are going to have to accept it. We will be there in less than a day."
"I know. I mean permanently."
She put her hand against his cheek to comfort him, realizing how hard it was for him to consider a return to Mars, let alone moving there permanently.
He pushed into her touch.
"The governments have provided opportUnity for everyone," she said, softly. "The raiders are gone, and she is safe."
He shook his head. "Her mind grows stronger. I can feel the conflict within her about my fears. I’m losing my grip on her."
"You shouldn’t have a grip on her. You are her partner, not her keeper."
"She is free to leave me."
"She loves you, so she can’t. Why can’t you let go of your pain? What happened to you?"
"How can I protect her now? Mars will always be unsafe to me."
She saw the turmoil churning behind his bright green eyes. "You ignore the past, but your mind keeps Mars in the past. It is safe now. Your mind is the cancer, not the planet. The crew and I will always be there for the both of you. I can help you overcome your fear of Mars."
He shook his head. "The crew has their lives to worry about. I must protect her myself."
"But you can’t do it by yourself. Do you see the pressure you put yourself under? You put the same pressure on Chloe, too, and you are driving her away."
"I know." His lip quivered.
She couldn’t conjure any words to soothe him. His fear had consumed him for a long time, and she hoped a short return to Mars would be enough to rediscover trust. Yet, an invasion loomed over their heads back on Lunara. Someone on Mars was responsible, and she had no doubt he would blame the entire planet.
She folded her arms around his head as he moved in close and started to cry. Somehow, she would find a way to comfort him.
"Captain," Parker said, opening the door to the captain’s cabin. He was excited to tell the captain of the progress he had made on the Protector. Overall, he thought it was running well above expectations.
"Mr. McCloud," Eamonn said, as he always did when Parker had some ship’s business to pass along to him.
Parker leaned against the bulkhead with one arm while putting his other arm in his stained cargo-pants’ pocket. "The hull containment issues have been resolved, and the shielding has been restored to a hundred percent."
"And repairs?" Eamonn’s hazel eyes flickered with concern. "What will we need on Mars?"
"Some hull painting and a new valve for the rear compartment. The stones did a number on it."
"That’s it?"
Parker nodded. "The engines didn’t receive any damage, and with quickdrives engaged, I was able to power down the thrusters completely, run a thorough diagnostic, and complete a half dozen minor repairs."
"Excellent work," Eamonn said. "We shouldn’t have any problems on Mars, then."
"We might," Parker said. "If Mars is in conflict, our weapons systems are painfully inadequate to survive a direct attack."
"You think we’ll find something wrong on Mars? I don’t see it."
"This is about Seth and Chloe and the metalor stones. Mars is using the meteor stones to reinforce metal. You have seen it on Lunara."
"I have, but what does this have to do with Seth and Chloe?"
"Perhaps Seth and Chloe are infected with the meteor stone dust. Seth is powerful and—"
"Your ideas seem farfetched, Parker," Eamonn said. "I suspect you have no evidence except the rumors about them, and tales of them being empowered by meteor dust are good for fiction. Why has no one else been infected by the dust?"
"They are special," Parker said with a bit of annoyance.
"You might be right about the invaders trying to get the meteor stones, but they spared us because of Gwen, whether it is the wrath of the chancellor or the ransom she provides."
"It isn’t a coincidence Mars Medical and this attack occurred at the same time. It is about Seth and Chloe, and we must protect them when we arrive on Mars."
"We’ll have to see the situation on Mars first, but you overestimate the value in the rumors you hear about those two."
Parker was confused about why Eamonn couldn’t see that Seth and Chloe were involved. It was so clear to him, and his theory about the metalor changing Seth and Chloe seemed plausible to him. But Eamonn made a good point, that no one else had ever been infected with the special abilities. What did make them special? He couldn’t wait to get to Mars. He knew the answers lay there. "Captain, we’ll be arriving on Mars in one day," he said.
Eamonn rose to his feet with a hop. "Excellent, we can start scanning the communication frequencies now. We might be able to pick up something locally."
Parker straight
ened his posture. "Gladly, any word at this point is welcome."
"Not if your ideas are right. Mars might be a dangerous place."
"Don’t fuel my paranoia, sir."
They both laughed.
"Understood," the captain said, placing his hand on Parker’s shoulder. "But don’t worry, Mars is safe."
The bridge of the Protector was silent. With earphones on, Gwen and Seth concentrated on scanning different frequencies for any communications from the relays. Roche sat idly in the pilot’s chair, occasionally checking the monitoring screen for any malfunctions.
Eamonn, confused and tired, studied the relay diagnostic logs from the Protector's database, but this turned out to be a waste of time as they were already out of date. He stood and smacked his fist against the top of the hull. The sound of the thud ended the long silence. "Jinx, all the relays are shut down."
"Yes," Seth replied. "That is the case. Gwen and I have found nothing with these scans."
Eamonn sighed. "Until we reach Mars, we should give up. They will be in short-way communication range in the next hour or so. Not thinking might be good for us."
Roche jerked his head around. "What if we tried to use the old FSTAT system? The early developers of the colonies used those relays before the Black Widow was up and running."
Eamonn rubbed his chin between his thumb and index finger. "The FSTAT system still might be up."
"FSTAT?" Seth questioned.
"Before we were able to relay instantaneous communications, the early settlers and Lunara communicated using standard radio. The same way your CommUns work to communicate while on Lunara. The FSTAT system is how the information was relayed to combat the packet loss of solar flares and other astronomical interference. We should be able to log in." He rushed over to Seth’s terminal and called up the FSTAT system log in code. "The Protector is logging in now," he said, looking at the screen. "This is a good sign. We just made a connection."
"Will anyone be listening? These are old systems," Gwen asked.
"No one at the communications department or Mars Central is listening anymore. However, the ART SET program took over the relays after shutting down."
"ART SET?"
Eamonn rubbed the side of his head. "Astronomy Radio Telescope and the Search for Extraterrestrials program. They are a quasi-scientific group formed after we arrived on Mars. Their mission is to explore Mars and search deep space for signs of extraterrestrials and other astronomical wonders."
"I got a connection to the FSTAT frequencies," Gwen said. "Let me scan for activity." She adjusted the dials one by one while Eamonn and Seth used their headsets to locate any communications. After some time during which nothing could be heard, they were about to give up.
"Wait, go back," Seth said.
"Where? The computer didn’t read anything," Gwen said.
"Move back, slowly," Seth instructed as she turned the dial one frequency at a time. "Stop there. Listen."
Gwen and Eamonn looked at each other. Static filled the earpiece.
"Put the frequency up on the display screen," Seth said.
Gwen keyed in the command on her console, and the radio waves zigzagged on the screen.
Seth waved his hand at the screen. "Clear out all the static between the apexes of all the wavelengths. Put the results on the speakers. Let’s have a listen."
The sound filled the bridge with an eerie tone. "Bee . . . dee dee . . . dee bee . . . dee bee . . . dee." The same sounds were repeated in different cycles throughout the transmission.
"I don’t like the sound of that at all." The hairs on Eamonn’s neck stood. "Gwen, record this. That crackle is an encrypted transmission. Have the computer try to break the code with a sample of the transmission. Keep recording, no matter what."
Seth sat up. "Scan the other frequencies for similar hidden transmissions. This might not be the only one."
An hour passed, but they discovered nothing from the transmission. The computer couldn’t crack the code, and neither Eamonn nor Seth could figure out a pattern manually, either. Jan moved back into the pilot’s chair, and Chloe decided to help Gwen scan an array of frequencies for other hidden transmissions. So far they had found two additional hidden ones.
Alerts buzzed into Gwen’s headset. She turned on the communication channel. "Sir, I’m receiving a transmission . . . from Mars."
"Put it on the main speaker," Eamonn ordered.
"Lunara mining ship, Protector, this is Chancellor Damon Arwell of the Zephyrian government. Do you receive this transmission?"
"Zephyrian government. This is the Lunara mining ship, Protector. We receive you."
"Finally. We have been trying to contact you since you came into our range."
"Father, this is Gwen. We are all healthy here, but something terrible happened on Lunara. We’ll need your assistance with a landing pad so we can talk to you right away."
"Oh, thank the luck, Gwen, you are all right. The attack is all we are talking about on Mars. I worried you were a casualty."
"How did Mars hear of the attack?" Eamonn cut in. "We can’t transmit to anyone on long range. No one can transmit to Lunara."
"Captain Dalton. First, I thank you for saving my daughter from the invasion at Lunara Colony. I’m forever in your debt."
"Don’t worry about any debts, but I’m curious how Mars knows about the invasion."
"I’ll discuss in more detail when you arrive. But the short version, the Aethpisian government intercepted a communications from a renegade force a few days ago. We sent a squadron of ships to follow the attacking force."
That struck Eamonn as odd; they hadn’t caught any squadron of ships on radar during their journey to Mars. He wondered if the Protector's radar problems were related. "How do you know of your success? The invasion force was of significant size."
"Minister Cortez is confident we took back the colony. With the communications down, we are unsure of the exact details of the battle as of yet. We only get short bursts of info through our government channels."
Jan blurted out, "What about Ty Falloom? Is he all right?"
"You will excuse my pilot," Eamonn said. "Ty Falloom is her husband." He eyed Jan as if he understood why she spoke out, but then he narrowed his eyes to tell her not to speak again.
"No information has come about survivors or casualties, but we expect it soon. My best are working on the communications array, which was also damaged during the small skirmish on Mars."
"Someone attacked Mars?"
"Yes, our orbital communications array and the Mars Central Communications building were targeted. All coordinated with the invasion of Lunara."
"This is a larger attack than we thought. Any suspects?"
"No one has claimed responsibility yet, but our intelligence is gathering leads. We should discuss further details in a more secure manner."
"I understand."
"Check your ship messages. My team sent priority clearance to land at Trivium Port. We will see you shortly," the chancellor said.
"I look forward to meeting the minister, and you, Chancellor. Protector out."
Eamonn wondered why Mars had kept Lunara unaware of the invasion force, although he knew that Lunara’s concerns didn’t matter to Mars. Still, it was odd. The chancellor seemed more concerned with Gwen’s safety and pleasantries than with the attacks on Lunara.
But maybe he was overanalyzing the situation. Lunara was safe again. The return to Mars wouldn’t be so stressful in the end, and perhaps he could finally close his regretful chapter with Madelyn. It had nagged him for far too long.
Part II
Chapter 10
Dawn glowed on the red planet of Mars.
On approach into the thin atmosphere, Eamonn ordered Jan to pass through Phobos and Deimos, the two small moons orbiting Mars, and come into range of the reconstruction efforts to the communications array. A procession of ships, all marked with Mars Central emblems, streamed to and from the array like a tether line to the s
urface. The urgency and the grandness of the repairs gave the crew hope for Lunara. If the Lunara rescue mission was half as amazing, Lunara should be back under control, which would mean they had come to Mars on a fool’s errand.
On entry, the atmosphere glowed pink in the early morning sun, as if Mars were extending them an odd invitation. Jan guided the Protector around the clouds, keeping a fair distance from the local space traffic. Eamonn ordered her underneath the final layer, and the Martian surface displayed for the first time in full detail. Multiple shades of red beamed up into the cockpit from the Martian surface: from the dark rusty red of the rocky south to the lighter reds of the equatorial dunes. The massive Martian chasmata, deep elongated depressions, became visible and no longer appeared as shadowy blotches on viewscreen. Instead, the varying red channels exhibited no bottom. To their port side, the longest of all the chasmata, Valles Marineris, extended over one-fourth of the planet. Olympus Mons, towering in the distance, dominated the landscape, stretching some twenty-four kilometers above the surface and marking the Protector's route to Trivium Port.
Eamonn chewed his lower lip as the Protector veered to avoid the oncoming giant mons and slowed as it came to the Lomarett Corridor—short lowlands nestled between Olympus to the north and three lesser mons, Ascraeus, Pavonis, and Assay, to the south. He had thought about Madelyn Green quite a bit since he knew he was coming back to Mars, and when the chancellor told them everything was safe, his curiosity about seeing her had turned almost into an obsession. He hadn’t stopped thinking about her. He wanted to rectify what he did to her and bring her back to Lunara.
After the Protector soared through the corridor into Elysium Planitia, he smiled as the alien quality of the Martian surface disappeared. Northward lay the planitias, flat lands with low elevation. The red surface of the Martian soil mixed with the green algae of the oxygen farms created the illusion of forests in the distance. A habitable, life-rich Mars intoxicated him; hope coursed through him for the future of humanity.
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