Everyone started picking up their personal packs, for these were the only other items that needed to be placed in the rovers. Stilicho walked over to where Matt was. “Matt, how’s your driving skills?”
“Pretty good,” Matt said. “I’ve been trained at tactical driving. Jason is also certified.”
“Okay,” Stilicho said. “I’ll have you drive the first rover, and Jason can drive the second one.” He turned to address the others. “Does anyone else have any training on defensive driving?”
Darian strode over to them, her pack slung over her shoulder. “I do. I was trained at Quantico.”
Stilicho knew he needed to decide quickly who he would be seated with for the next few weeks, at the very least. “Okay, you can go with the second rover.”
Darian sensed the repressed hostility between them. “Fine by me.”
The blue Martian dawn was breaking over the horizon, and the three vehicles soon made their way out of the now de-pressurized hangar bay. Matt drove the first rover, along with Stilicho, Chester, and Brian. Jason, Darian, Lisa, and Noah followed in the second rover. The robotic truck, which was nothing more than a motorized flatbed with a robotic guidance pod, brought up the rear of the small convoy.
Eridu Colony was situated at the flatlands between Cue and Negele Craters. The convoy drove southwards at a respectable speed of 60-kmh along the flat terrain that characterized the interior of the massive Hellas Basin, the largest impact crater in the entire Solar System. As soon as they got to the southernmost outflow of Dao Vallis at four hundred kilometers away, they would turn northwards, skimming along the northern edges of the Hellas Basin until they got near the southern rim of Terby Crater, then head up the steady incline and into the cratered highlands of Terra Sabaea, a journey totaling over a thousand kilometers.
Stilicho looked at his watch. He expected the convoy to cross into Terra Sabaea by tomorrow. A straight drive would have taken them seventeen hours, but he knew they needed to make a stop towards the evening to change batteries. Although the terrain was relatively flat, there would be added complications when they would have to slow down while travelling on the rockier areas of the basin, and he needed to add extra time to his schedule to compensate for the slowdown in speed.
Looking around the pressurized cabin, Stilicho noticed that Brian Kano was already asleep in the chair behind him. Chester Yoon was going through a checklist on his smartglass, while Matt was fully concentrating on the terrain in front of the lead rover. They were following an established route, but the winds and dust storms might have easily dislodged a boulder or two, and the ex-Navy SEAL wasn’t taking any chances as he had activated the lidar on the vehicle, making sure that it scanned the terrain ahead for any potential obstacles or pitfalls.
Placing his smartglasses over his eyes, Stilicho activated it. “Maia, you there?”
“Always,” Maia replied. “What can I do for you this morning, Stil?”
“I want you to take full control of the robotruck at the rear. If the truck falls behind too far, you need to let me know.”
“Yes, Stil,” Maia said.
“The four aerial drones at the bed of the truck will be under your control as well,” Stilicho said. “Program them to return immediately the moment radio contact with you is lost, okay?”
“Done,” Maia said.
“Also, in case we lose satellite comms, I want you to download all relevant files in regards to this mission to your direct memory banks, this way you can still give me an analysis in the event of a breakdown in the Mars relay network,” Stilicho said.
“Give me five minutes to download everything to my memory core,” Maia said. “If I am to retain only relevant files, then I can assume you won’t need me to retain entertainment modules like sports and all that?”
“Clear everything in your memory and history except anything related to the mission at hand,” Stilicho said. “Concentrate on downloading everything you can on Mars First, EVA emergency procedures, drone and robot engineering and operations, crab and skinsuit protocols, Martian survival, crime scene and forensics analysis and emergency combat medicine. Anything I’ve forgotten, just add them in for immediate access and collation.”
“One moment,” Maia said. “Done. Offline mode ready. Are you expecting trouble, Stil?”
“Based on everything you know about this so far,” Stilicho said. “What do you think are the chances that Karl Rossum somehow survived for two years, assuming he made it to the Mars First Colony site?”
“A very low percentage,” Maia said. “Perhaps no more than five percent. Karl Rossum was a brilliant programmer, but he had very little background in applied engineering, which would be important to know in order to maintain life support systems within a colony.”
“Let me ask you, Maia,” Stilicho said. “Is there anything that you think I’m overlooking?”
“You seem to have made your team well prepared for almost any eventuality,” Maia said. “Of course, I could not give you a more precise answer, unless I knew more about what is going on.”
“I’ve given you all I could,” Stilicho said.
“Then all we can do is continue onwards until we get more information,” Maia said.
Chapter 11
By the second day, the convoy was already traversing around the southern rim of the massive Huygens Crater wall. They were making excellent time, with Matt expertly leading the way. Stilicho had deployed a drone just ahead of the lead rover, in order to make sure the terrain just ahead of them would be stable enough for traveling at higher speeds. They had stopped the vehicles just before the second dawn to change batteries. The robotic truck carried a mobile battery charger, but they couldn’t deploy the solar panels on it, for it would have made the vehicle unstable when traveling along inclined and chaotic terrain. But since they had an adequate supply of fully charged batteries on the truck bed, all they had to do was stop and switch them. They could swap the drained batteries for fresh ones once they got to the waypoint charging stations.
Stilicho’s neck was sore from sleeping on a chair; he preferred to lie fully prone on a soft, fluffy bed, but the increased pace meant that it was safer for him to remain in the front seat with fastened safety belts. The rovers had reinforced suspensions, but rolling the wheels over the occasional large rock made it a bumpy ride. He had a bout of motion sickness at the beginning of the trip, but he had gradually gotten used to it. The only other issue that bothered him was Matt’s constant farting, which he could hear and occasionally smell despite Matt’s miasma being muffled by his skinsuit and diaper. Since the journey started, Matt and the other security officers completely switched to liquid meal replacements, having brought along sealed bags of sand-colored powder, in which they would mix with water. The liquid meals contained all the nutrients and calories that people needed without having to eat any type of solid food. The only problem was that it changed their metabolism, and they would constantly emit flatulence. Matt had apologized during the first dozen times when he farted, but with everyone constantly saying that it was alright out of courtesy, he finally just let them out without warning by the end of the first day. Stilicho was constantly making adjustments with the rover’s ventilation system to make sure that the re-circulating air wasn’t directed at him.
The highlands of Terra Sabaea helped to form a ring of elevated terrain around the Hellas Planitia. Traversing onto the incline of the area was dangerous, but over the years, a ramp of smooth, hard-packed sand had been slowly constructed by ACE Corp’s robotic bulldozers, and once they drove into the higher regions, many parts of the terrain was now level, mainly interrupted by the occasional crater or glacier. After two days of almost nonstop driving, Matt went over to the backseat and dozed away while Brian Kano took over the wheel. Since the routes had been pre-positioned by GPS, the pace picked up a bit, with all three vehicles now going at a respectable 80-kph, though there were times when they had to slow down in order to maneuver around a particularly large cra
ter or a crevasse that blocked their way.
They drove for another two thousand five hundred kilometers before the sandy terrain ahead of them began to descend into the lower plains of the Meridiani Planum. Both the spaceship and the colony had windows, and the rover had a wraparound windshield and side windows. As he looked out across the rust-colored, rocky regolith, Stilicho was reminded of the time when he visited the Valley of the Moon in Jordan. The terrain was very much like what he was seeing, with the exception of the amber sky above. With almost the same day and night cycle as his home planet had, Mars began to remind him of Earth, as nostalgia for his birthplace began to merge with a slowly growing interest of the strange new world he was in. A few hours later, they saw the southern rim of the massive Schiaparelli impact crater at the northeast horizon.
Matt was back in the driver’s seat, his face a solid mask of concentration, despite the relatively smooth terrain ahead. A mild beeping noise began to emanate from the electronic map on the dashboard. “That’s the transponder from the outpost.”
Stilicho leaned forward, but he still couldn’t see it visually. “How far away is it?”
Matt glanced at the readouts of the HUD. “A little over a hundred klicks. We ought to be there in less than two hours.”
“We should be in range with their radios in the structure,” Chester Yoon said from the backseat. “Assuming there’s anybody there, of course.”
Stilicho used his smartglasses to interface with the vehicle communications system. “Attention, Meridiani Outpost, this is ACE Corp rescue team two, is there anybody there?”
The readouts on the dashboard proclaimed that the internet link with the outpost was working, but there was no reply. Stilicho repeated his message, but there was still no answer.
He heard Maia’s voice on his earpiece. “Stil, Sorry to interrupt, but I have something to tell you.”
Stilicho tapped his smartglass frame. “What is it?”
“I’m getting low bandwidth readouts on all levels as we get closer,” Maia said. “Packet loss is increasing due to interference.”
Stilicho frowned. They were starting to lose internet communications from the Mars satellite network. “Can you compensate?”
“I’m afraid not,” Maia said. “If this keeps up, we won’t have internet capability with the relay by the time we reach the outpost.”
Stilicho bit his lip. “Can you determine what’s causing it?”
“I’ve been running bandwidth checks on all the satellites, and they seem to be infected with some sort of virus that’s possibly hijacked their control systems,” Maia said.
Stilicho’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”
“I’ve tried to get rid of the virus, but then it tried to infect me,” Maia said.
“Well protect yourself then!” Stilicho said. “Have you been infected?”
“No, my anti-virus systems can adjust by wiping out any script or bot that exhibits bad behavior,” Maia said. “But the entire satellite network may be compromised, and they have blocked themselves off from my queries. Whatever is infecting the relay seems to be able to counter my moves when I try to find an access port I can get into.”
Brian Kano leaned forward until his face was close to Stilicho’s right ear. “What’s going on, who are you talking to?”
“He’s got a MAIA,” Chester said. “One of those brand new, advanced AI suites.”
Brian was impressed as he slumped once more into the backseat. “Wow, that’s impressive.”
Stilicho twisted his head so he could see everyone. “Listen up, guys. Something is messing up the relay network. I think it’s man-made, and they don’t want us communicating with Eridu Colony, or with Earth.”
“Who do you think is behind it?” Brian asked.
“This is just a wild theory, but since there’s confirmation that he did make it on this planet a few years back, I think it might be Karl Rossum,” Stilicho said.
Brian and Chester gave each other a surprised look, but remained silent.
Matt glanced at Stilicho for a brief second before turning back his attention to the terrain ahead. “The robot guy? He disappeared, didn’t he?”
Stilicho nodded. “He smuggled himself over to Mars. His last message was that he was going to find his son, who supposedly died out here at the Mars First Colony. We know he got to Eridu and took a rover. That was two years ago.”
Brian made a low whistle. “So you think he’s out here somewhere and he’s gone nuts?”
“It’s a slim possibility,” Stilicho said. “Maia told me that the relay is infected with some sort of advanced virus. Everyone is usually accounted for in the colony, and he was the only one who wasn’t.”
Brian nodded. “And Karl Rossum was known to be a genius when it came to programming software. I get you. So we have a suspect.”
Chester scratched the back of his head. “So you guys think he’s some kind of serial killer? I read everything about the guy and he’s one of my heroes. Karl Rossum was the reason why I took robotics as a major in college. The guy is an academic and he’s brilliant, but I just can’t see him as a murderer.”
“It all fits though,” Brian said. “If the virus in the relay has his signature on it, then he would be the primary suspect. But knowing what I now know about this planet, it would be very hard for him to survive by himself out there for two years.”
Matt kept his eyes straight ahead, but he was listening to what everyone was saying. “I’d like to secure the outpost when we arrive, if that’s okay with you, Stilicho.”
Stilicho nodded. “I got no problem with that.”
Matt punched up the radio communications with the rover following behind them. “Rover-two, you reading me, over?”
Darian answered. “Loud and clear, rover-one, over.”
“Jason and Noah, prepare for EVA,” Matt said. “We’ll be coming up to the outpost in about ninety minutes. Jason, you can go with a skinsuit. Noah, have you got the gyrojet rifle mounted on your crab suit, over?”
Noah’s voice instantly came online. “I can mount it with Jason’s help once he’s outside, over.”
“Okay,” Matt said. “The three of us will do EVA first. Once we secure location the others can follow. Jason, start your pre-breathing prep now, over.”
Jason voice answered. “Roger that, over.”
Matt slowed down and placed the vehicle on autodrive before he switched places with Brian. Once he got to the backseat, Matt opened a side cabinet and took out an oxygen mask. Placing the full-faced mask on, he activated the controls and began to breathe in a pure oxygen mix while doing stretching exercises. The last thing he wanted was to get the bends while walking around in a skinsuit on the planet’s surface.
The waning sun cast a bluish glare over the horizon. Dusk had set in, just as they finally saw the outpost up ahead. Brian was still in the driver’s seat, and he slowed down while activating the vehicle floodlights, illuminating the sandy terrain up ahead. Matt was already suited up as he waited inside the rover’s airlock, ready to step out into the Martian atmosphere. Despite the chilly air inside the cabin, a few drops of sweat trickled down from the top of Chester’s forehead as he nervously kept his eyes peeled ahead.
Stilicho squinted while staring at the building just in front of them. The place had no windows so they couldn’t tell if anyone was inside. He had Maia fly a drone to scan the place even before they got within visual sight of the habitat, but there was no reported outside activity. He wasn’t too worried since the first rescue team had made it this far and they did send a routine message to Eridu before they set out again; only after they had left the outpost did the communications with the first rescue team end.
Brian stopped the rover just twenty meters away from the airlock entrance of the outpost. “Rover one at full stop, over.”
Matt’s voice came over the intercom. “Proceeding with EVA. Exiting vehicle now, over.”
The three of them swiveled their heads to the left as
they saw Matt come out from the rear airlock. He was carrying a bullpup-styled military carbine, its magazine located behind the pistolized trigger. Matt bounded over until he was just behind the left front wheel of the rover, and he pointed his carbine at the airlock.
Less than ten seconds later, Jason’s voice was soon heard by both rovers. “I have exited vehicle. Mounting gyrojet rifle on Noah’s crab suit. Give me two minutes, over.”
Stilicho punched up the controls on the dashboard and shifted cameras over to the second rover’s viewpoints. The livestream video showed Jason kneeling on top of the roof, as he placed the large rifle onto a mount that was attached to the crab suit just below him. His thick gloves made precise handling very difficult, but Jason had been trained extensively, and he pulled it off with twenty seconds to spare.
Jason’s voice was punctuated with heavy breathing, but it carried a sense of confidence. “Weapon attached. Can you get a link on your HUD, Noah, over?”
Noah’s voice was calmer, owing to the fact that he was just sitting in his crab suit the whole time. “Affirmative, link active. Detaching from rover now to begin my EVA, over.”
Everyone watched in silent awe as Noah jumped down from the rover’s chassis and onto the Martian soil. Even with the bulky crab suit, he bounded over to where Matt was located without any difficulty. With his overwatch in place, Matt and Jason hopped over, using long strides until they reached the sides of the airlock.
Matt stood beside the sealed pressure door, his weapon at the ready. “Opening outpost airlock in three … two … one.”
The Piranha Solution: A Hard Science Fiction Technothriller (Ace of Space Book 1) Page 14