Fable Hill

by Christopher Uremovich

  “Maybe it's Roland and the others coming in from an alternate route?” Frank hypothesized, not without merit.

  “The only problem is the signature is different, Amirah can’t establish communications,” she stated.

  “Only one other option then, Renee. If it’s not aliens or Martian Bigfoot, it’s gotta be the Chinese.” Frank walked out of the control room. “They found us.”

  “Frank . . . wait. What do we do?”

  “What can we do? Notify Alexei of what’s going on and let me know when . . . whatever it is . . . reaches our outer perimeter,” he shouted as he hurried out of the control room and towards his personal quarters.

  Renee's scratchy voice echoed from across the habitat. “Should I contact Roland?”

  Frank rummaged through his belongings until the glint of steel caught his eye. He grasped the beefy 1911 pistol in his right hand and loaded a magazine, then holstered it.

  Outside the airlock, Frank bummed a ride from a nearby rover, sitting atop one of its solar panels. Renee maintained radio contact and Alexei was now aware of the situation. Frank could see Alexei in the distance, still constructing his workshop, unconcerned.

  The mysterious radar signature was now only fifteen kilometers from Ōme Station. Frank disembarked from the rover at the last sensor post, east of the habitat. He typed in a command prompt, ordering the rover to stand by and wait with him.

  “Be careful, Frank,” Renee said. “I sent Roland a message, awaiting his reply.”

  The surrounding planum was incredibly still. An eerie quiet enveloped Frank as he became alone with his thoughts of what might be beyond the horizon.

  “Frank?” Amirah’s soft, even, soothing voice broke the ear-ringing silence.

  “I'm here, Amirah.”

  “The anomaly has adjusted heading and is at an altitude of ninety-one meters. Airspeed is eighty-five knots. You should see it perpendicular to your current position looking south-southeast.”

  Frank appreciated the information and stepped down from the cement slab, his hand perched on the holster flap. The old pilot’s gaze caught sight of the mysterious object. His hand instinctively unlocked the holster flap and with one fluid motion drew his pistol in a low ready stance.

  Coming into view, the object began to circle Frank's position like a buzzard above carrion. He watched, mystified, pistol still at the low ready as the object darted past and went straight for the station.

  “Ōme, this is Frank, come in, Ōme!” he shouted, snapping back to reality before bringing the pistol's dovetail sights to eye level. Too far away, he thought to himself as he watched the UFO descend on the settlement.

  •••

  “Are you seeing this?!” Mia was elated. Her eyes transfixed on the milky blue rock, seeming to glitter in the Martian sun as she held it firmly to her breast.

  “Our first opal, I can't believe my eyes!” Mia exclaimed.

  Roland and Keiko made their way over and together admired the Martian gemstone. Mia added the rock to her research bag and turned the electric drill back on, jamming it back into the side of the alluvial fan. The drill chiseled away rock at breakneck speed.

  Mia continued to speak over the muffled sound of the steel drill bit hammering rock. “We all thought opal could be here, but it was never confirmed,” she said.

  “What does it mean?” Keiko asked. The young Japanese scientist moved regolith with a small spade shovel, taking strategic soil samples wherever possible.

  “It means this area had water at one point. All this shale-looking rock is sedimentary in origin,” Mia replied. Roland looked on with intrigue, listening to the conversation between the two women. A notification pinged inside his HUD. A message from Ōme, labeled urgent, sat in his inbox.

  “We don't know for certain how opal is created, but we know water and organics have something to do with it,” Mia lectured, only to be interrupted by Roland.

  “We received a distress call from Ōme. It was Renee,” he dropped the news on them.

  “Oh my god, what happened?” Keiko asked.

  “Did Frank kill Alexei finally?” Mia’s dark humor became lost on them.

  “They detected a UFO of some kind, Frank apparently made contact with it,” Roland said. The other two astronauts sat in silence, waiting for Roland to add more information.

  “Um . . .” Mia responded finally. “What does that mean? Are we heading back?” she asked.

  “A UFO? Like aliens? That’s so frickin’ exciting!” Keiko squeeled.

  “Well, I sent a reply message and am awaiting a response. Could just be a mistake. You know how paranoid Renee and Frank can get.”

  “If we have to pack up and leave right now, they better well have found ET, I swear . . .” Mia said with sincerity. Keiko chuckled to herself, her visor darkening as a ray of sunshine poked through the virga and struck her visor.

  •••

  Frank wheezed and coughed as he sprinted back towards the station. Renee had remained silent on comms and he could see Alexei calmly walking towards the now-landed craft.

  “It's not an alien craft,” Alexei blurted when Frank was still 300 meters away.

  “I can see that,” Frank rasped.

  Standing amongst pillars of floating dust particles, an aircraft, human in origin, lay before Ōme Station. Frank arrived as Alexei finished a walk-around of the still unidentified aircraft.

  Renee remained inside the habitat as was becoming customary for her. She communicated with them from the control room and observed with CCTV.

  “This thing is massive.” Frank caressed the fuselage with gloved fingertips.

  “It has to be massive to achieve lift in Martian atmosphere. Come here and look at this,” Alexei demanded.

  Frank strolled around the diameter of the aircraft to an awaiting Alexei at the rear. A dust-caked logo imprinted on the tail revealed the previous owner.

  “NASA?”

  “I suspected as much. It's from the Dreiton Mission,” Alexei knew. “The Dreiton Mission used an experimental aircraft designed to study Mars’s atmosphere and topography. I believe it launched in 2019,” Alexei said. “From the looks of it, rechargeable lithium ion batteries with a solar cell matrix.”

  “So it's an old space drone,” Frank said.

  “Essentially, yes.”

  Frank informed Renee of the discovery and spent the remainder of the afternoon studying the craft in detail. Alexei returned to his personal construction project. Even after sundown, generators burned as the Russian scientist slaved on, still without sleep.

  Chapter 23

  0620 hours, Sol 28

  Ōme Station, Lyot Crater

  Earth Date: May 31, 2045

  Amirah awakened the crew to the arrival of Roland and the others. Frank and Alexei met the estranged crew outside the main airlock, jogging towards their incoming MEV to help offload.

  “We’ll pull round back and use the loading dock,” Roland called out. Frank was relieved to hear his team lead’s voice again. It had been too long cooped up with Alexei.

  “Hey Frank.” Mia's sweet voice came through like music to Frank's ears. Just as Frank attempted to key his mic in response, he was interrupted by Alexei’s and Roland's radio chatter.

  The MEV came to a complete stop outside the station’s loading dock. A retractable skid connected to the back end locked in place. Keiko and Mia opened the back hatch and began chucking polyester bags. Each bag was filled to capacity with assortments of rock and soil samples.

  Mia tossed a small baggie to Frank, who juggled it before finally catching it. “What’s this?” Frank asked, looking intently at its contents.

  “Martian gemstones!” she enthused.

  Frank marveled at the contents of the bag. He noticed a bright green rock, almost neon in color. Frank inquired about the rock.

  “And this?” Frank asked, holding up the bag.

  “Peridot,” Mia replied, tossing a half-filled polyester bag towards Frank, who caught i
t cleanly this time.

  Interesting, Frank thought. He began daydreaming of what mysteries awaited them further outside Lyot Crater while the crew finished offloading the MEV.

  Later that day, Roland called a meeting of the crew inside the conference room. Sitting at the table, Frank played with his beard growth while others sipped coffee and chatted amongst themselves.

  Walking in, Roland switched on the LED overhead projector. Displayed on the wall, Roland introduced his 659 solar plan, which alluded to the number of sols left in the Martian year.

  Before Roland could speak, Frank raised his hand. “Yes, Frank?”

  “Sorry, sir. Do we have any further information on why an old NASA drone landed at Ōme?” he asked before sitting back down. In the military it was customary to stand when asking an officer a question and Frank was unable to shake the habit.

  “I’ve contacted mission control. They relayed to me that they are looking into the matter. Until then we aren’t going to touch, move, or otherwise harm that plane until we receive more information. Is that understood?” Roland bellowed.

  “Yes, sir,” the room replied in lazy unison.

  “Good. As you know, we have about sixty-two sols left of the summer season. After that, we will enter autumn. What this means for us is lower temperatures, reduced sunlight, higher wind speeds, and the chance for our first dust storm,” Roland briefed. “Now, make no mistake. Autumn won’t be much different than summer as a whole, but will facilitate changes to the planet slowly over time. Once winter hits, we will be in a whole new ball game: extreme weather, drastically reduced sunlight, planet-wide dust storms, and, probably worst of all, -115°C temperature, average. Our suits’ temperature controls and insulation, as advanced as they are, won’t be able to handle those temperatures for long periods of time. Which means we must conduct the vast majority of our exploration goals before winter gets here,” Roland said, flipping through slides.

  “That leaves us roughly 200 sols to conduct exploratory missions,” Roland continued on, going through each slide and briefing on the current data and trends.

  “Mia, the floor is yours,” Roland said, his portion of the briefing completed.

  “So far we’ve conducted two really successful missions, exploring our own little local area on Mars,” Mia opened in her remarks.

  “Meh,” Alexei opined. Keiko went for a fist bump in agreement but was awkwardly left hanging.

  “As demonstrated by our last mission, which lasted seventy-eight hours, we can in fact conduct large, long-duration missions without any major technical difficulty. How that will work when winter hits is still up for debate. I intend to take us a bit further out, away from Lyot Crater while we have the weather on our side,” Mia added. “I’ve codenamed our next mission Search Light. Our objective will be these four areas here, outlined in red within the Syrtis Major Quadrangle.”

  Alexei interrupted her as the other astronauts began whispering to each other in much confusion. “Talk about sprinting before crawling. Syrtis Major is like two thousand kilometers away! There’s no way, Mia. Captain, are you going to allow this?” Alexei complained above all the chatter.

  “It’s actually 3,029 kilometers, and then another 700 to the final objective, and yes, it’s been approved by the captain.” Mia puffed her chest and glared around the room.

  The others immediately panned to Roland for clarification. “I’ve approved the mission, but not before consulting with the brass at Nagoya. They agreed with Ms. Beckham’s plan and gave the green light,” Roland said, clearly caught off guard with the sudden drama. The voices in the room picked up again as Alexei and Mia argued with one another.

  “Stop, be quiet!” Roland shouted. “I too have my doubts about the feasibility of this mission. It’s very dangerous and risky, I know this. However, coming to Mars in the first place required great risk. We cannot operate on Mars without taking risks, it’s impossible. But it’s the intelligent, well thought out risks we take that get green lighted and Mia’s plan is solid. So shut up, stop arguing, and let her continue with the briefing.” Roland commanded respect from the room. “Go ahead, Mia.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Mia said, fixing her hair and composing herself.

  “As I was saying before, there will be four objectives, the primary being the dormant volcano complex located here at Nili Patera and ending here at Meroe Patera.” Mia laser-pointed and identified each location on the slide map. “This includes the higher elevations on the plateau as well, not just the chasm.”

  Switching slides, Mia continued on. “Next two are secondary objectives: one where Isidis Dorsa meets the Syrtis plateau, and another further out into Isidis Planitia.” She paused and took a drink of water.

  “The final objective is tertiary and optional. Barring any unforeseen issues, we’ll make our way south into Zarqa Valles and wrap things up there before returning home.” Mia continued briefing on the logistics of the trip, taking another fifteen minutes before opening it up for questions at the end.

  “What’s our exit strategy if something goes awry? If we have the airship, the MEV can’t make that kind of journey over that kind of terrain,” Frank asked.

  Mia began to answer but was cut off by Roland. “You’re right, the MEV can’t make that kind of journey, so I’ve authorized the use of a Sakura capsule in case of emergency. The Yamada will send us a capsule by air brake and parachute. We will then use the shuttle to return to the Yamada, refuel, and land back at Ōme,” Roland said.

  “Nice,” Frank replied.

  “Ok, if there are no more questions we will adjourn. Remember, mission start date is sol five-eight, mission length will be one week,” Mia finished.

  For the remainder of the sol, no real work was done. Roland, Mia, and Keiko had returned to their quarters shortly after the briefing. Loud and obnoxious snores reverberated throughout the habitat. Frank got a cup of coffee from the kitchen and proceeded to meander around the hab. It was late in the afternoon and no one else was around, every door in the living area shuttered.

  Inside the atrium, a lone chair positioned next to the crescent-shaped dome wall seemed to call Frank’s name. He made himself comfortable, kicking his metal feet up onto a random ledge built into the solid polymer frame. Frank took a sip of his stiflingly hot coffee and breathed a sigh of satisfaction. The last thirty days have been non-stop hard work. It’s nice to finally sit back and relax in quiet, he thought.

  Frank peered through the dome’s acrylic glass. It was fairly transparent and had a frosted appearance. He could make out the shape of the Dreiton aircraft outside, sitting motionless right where it originally landed.

  He remembered Alexei attempting to turn it back on without any luck. Alexei had commented that the power cells were probably fried after being in a low-power state for so long. Frank thought about that comment and dwelled on it for several minutes. Why did this old Mars craft suddenly land here? How did it know to land at Ōme? Why now? Am I the only one who thinks this shit is crazy? he thought.

  Frank retrieved his notes on the Dreiton and accessed the internet from a tablet computer. He read from several websites and found surprisingly little information on the mission, considered a failure in 2019.

  The Dreiton Mission was an unmanned experimental reconnaissance mission undertaken by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program in January of 2019.

  Sent as a precursor to the highly publicized Mars 2020 rover and subsequent orbiter, the Dreiton used a low-cost reusable rocket and took 9 months to reach Mars orbit.

  The payload of the mission included a prototype Mars plane codenamed Dreiton-1, and a series of experimental navigation beacons.

  The Dreiton-1 plane was dropped from low orbit in a sealed aeroshell that deployed once in atmosphere.

  Dreiton-1’s propulsion systems included an electric motor and hydrazine rocket package. The Mars craft was powered by 4 re-chargeable lithium ion batteries using a solar array to harvest energy. Materials for construction included a
prototype laminate composite.

  Unfortunately, the mission was a failure after NASA lost contact with the plane after only 48 hours in atmosphere. Several pictures and a few navigation maps were gleaned from the experiment and the scientists working on the mission were reassigned to the Mars 2020 mission.

  Rather unexpectedly, the website Frank accessed became unavailable and he could no longer go back to it. He ran the troubleshooter and saw that the internet had crashed.

  “Figures,” he whispered to himself.

  Venturing into the empty control room, Frank accessed the computer’s radar history. Only three maps had been saved by the computer. Frank uploaded them to his personal hard drive so he could analyze them later. Logging off the computer, Frank made his way back to his personal quarters and shut the door.

  Immediately upon entering the room, Amirah hailed his short-wave earpiece. “Frank, what are you up to?” she mused.

  “I’m trying to find out where this plane came from,” he told the AI.

  “Can I be of assistance?” she asked politely.

  Frank brimmed from ear to ear. “Well, if you have nothing better to do,” he said.

  “From my observations it would seem the craft began its journey from somewhere in the Dioscuria area, some 400 kilometers east of our current position,” Amirah helped.

  “Wow.”

  “What’s the matter?” she asked.

  “Nothing really, I just thought this would be some complex thing and you come solve it in like two seconds,” Frank said.

  “What can I say, I aim to please,” Amirah said in her lovely middle eastern accent. Frank blushed a bit as he thought it strangely arousing.

  Chapter 24

  1200 hours, Sol 56

  Ismeniae Fossae

  Earth Date: June 27, 2045

  “You see it, right? You see how the two craters meld together, they intersect?” Mia asked excitedly. Half her body hung outside the gondola, camera slung and at the ready. She snapped pictures as the airship Goza skimmed above the surface of Mars. Keiko, deathly afraid of heights, hung onto her chest harness for dear life, nodding as Mia gave free lessons on terrain and topography.