Fable Hill

by Christopher Uremovich

  “Break it open,” Frank coaxed.

  Mia snapped the lock off the tin-like container and revealed several vials of unknown liquid. “Sample 1a,” it read on one of the vials with a black, tarry substance inside.

  “It says here that Sample 1a is crude oil,” Frank said.

  “That’s impossible . . . what do the other samples say?” Frank showed Mia the text, exactly how it had been scribbled in pencil:

  September 2, 1974

  Sample 1a: Class C crude (high sulphur %)

  Sample 1b: Class C crude (high sulphur %)

  Sample 1c: Class C crude (high sulphur %)

  Associated Gases:

  Sample 2a: methane gas (30ml)

  Sample 2b: methane gas (15ml)

  Sample 2c: methane/ethane mixture

  Sample 2d: ethane gas (Destroyed)

  Sample 2e: carbon monoxide

  “They must’ve brought it here for experiments,” Mia scoffed.

  Frank took a step backwards and shot Mia a perplexed look. “You can't honestly believe that. The proof is staring at us, right here!” Frank raised his voice, tapping vigorously on the discolored journal.

  “Where on Mars were these samples taken then?” Mia shot back. “Here? I don't see any equipment that can extract petroleum or natural gas, do you?”

  “I get that, but what if we were wrong about Mars all along? What if life never existed on Mars, not even microbes? How do you explain the existence of fossil fuels?” Frank pried. He could tell that Mia was becoming frustrated and combative, but he kept pressing the hypothetical. “What if all these years we’ve been made to believe . . . how do you know for certain?” Frank scattered his words, saying whatever came to mind.

  “The only way to prove something is with the scientific method, the only way. We can only speculate right now,” Mia replied.

  “People need to know about this place, that’s all I'm trying to say,” Frank concluded. Mia grudgingly agreed as they rummaged through more stationary, minutes turning into hours.

  “I found the name of the cosmonaut at least.” Frank’s voice interrupted the silence. “Vladimir Aksyonov.”

  “Strange, I haven’t found a single book or paper written in Russian.” Mia sat in a yoga position on the cold, hard ground with mounds of paper strewn about.

  The decision was made to retire for the night inside the old crew quarters. Frank made his bed on one of the crusty green cots that decorated the lava tube. Mia fell fast asleep, her loud, abnormal snores filling the rock-carved room, keeping Frank awake.

  Frank's mind raced with thoughts, colors, pictures, and memories of the day and past months on Mars. Right when he was about to cross the threshold into slumber, a loud creak from outside the room returned him to reality with a pounding heart.

  “This is ridiculous, I need to sleep,” Frank complained to himself. Getting up from his commandeered cot, Frank chose to explore the rest of the base. He couldn’t help but think that just around the next bend he would find three intact skeletons.

  He descended the catwalk to another flight of stairs and stumbled upon another abandoned room, access blocked by a row of vertical steel bars. As Frank turned to head back up he heard the loud, tearing sound of the fabric that acted as a temporary shield from the outside.

  Pressure decreased rapidly, creating a wild torrent of escaping air. Frank’s breath turned to icy, white clouds as the temperature took a nose dive. He booked it across the sketchy catwalk and lumbered on. Freezing Martian air infiltrated and burned his exposed skin, temporarily blinding Frank as his eyes lost moisture.

  No longer asleep, Mia lay prostrate on the floor, disoriented from the sudden loss of pressure. Frank quickly secured Mia’s helmet and donned his own before collapsing to the ground.

  His vision was hazy and he felt lightheaded. Nevertheless, the entrance had to be resealed. Summoning whatever strength he had left, Frank made his way to the other side of the base.

  Air continued to speed past his body, carrying with it dust particles and random trash. It didn't hit him until now: a feeling of fear. What caused the fabric to rip? he thought. The pistol was still at the bottom of his rucksack, now so far away.

  The fear continued to overtake him as he got to the first door before the long tunnel entrance. The other side was dark and foreboding. LED light seemed to cut the dark like solid matter.

  He reached the life support machine and entrance. The heavy canvas was torn down the middle in a perfect crease. Frank ripped the now-frozen pump from its stanchions and dragged it back to the main room of Fable Hill, hoses dragging across the dirt behind him.

  Frank shut the nearest door behind him and frowned at the sorry state of the pump. It was frozen solid and he had no way of hooking up the exhaust vents anymore.

  Air still appeared to leak, but that was solved as Frank returned with a roll of duct tape. He taped a hardened layer over the door, sealing it and returning a stable but now unbreathable atmosphere and pressure.

  Distraught and exhausted, Frank returned to find Mia right where he left her. She was responsive and her transceiver functioned again, using it to thank Frank for his quick actions.

  “I’m sorry we have to sleep in our suits tonight,” Frank said.

  “It’s quite alright. If not for you we would be dead. I’ll take alive over dead . . . . Ahhh!” Mia sighed deeply, breathing in sweet oxygen.

  Frank’s stomach growled and rumbled with intense hunger as he got comfortable next to Mia on the ground. He moved in close and the two huddled up against each other.

  In the darkness of the room, Frank’s radio crackled and Mia’s sleepy voice whispered to him: “It’s called Abiogenic petroleum . . .”

  Frank stayed still and silent, waiting for Mia to talk again. He nudged her a bit and she woke with a twitch.

  “It’s the theory that petroleum is formed in the Earth’s mantle and not from decomposed organisms . . .” Her voice drifted away.

  Chapter 32

  1206 hours, Sol 311

  Ōme Station

  Earth Date: March 11, 2046

  Alexei surveyed the windswept plain at Ōme Station from a distance of eight hundred meters. Another large dust storm appeared to form in the valley to the west. Dust accumulated in large clouds above the mountains but never seemed to cross over.

  Two Sakura capsules maintained at a three hundred meter distance, sitting idle with cockpits exposed to the elements. Alexei hitched a ride between the two capsules, sitting on top of a rover’s solar panels.

  Watching intently at close proximity, Keiko observed Alexei with her back against a Martian boulder, the only large object for miles in any direction. She watched Alexei work in secrecy, towing a tarp-covered object to the first capsule and stacks of bismuth to the second. Alexei was forced to work under helmet light as sol 311 was the darkest sol of the Martian year.

  “What’s under the tarp?” Keiko asked as she sipped on her water straw.

  “I can’t tell you yet,” Alexei replied.

  “Ok, what’s that you’re putting in the second capsule? Can you tell me that?” Keiko scorned.

  “Bismuth ingots,” Alexei replied. “I need them for the isotope bismuth-209.”

  “How did you get a hold of that much bismuth?” Keiko asked. Her upper lip tickled from what she thought was snot. Keiko lapped at the annoying sensation only to find it tasted like copper. Keiko attributed the dry Martian winter to be the cause of her frequent nose bleeds, but the inhalation of opioids seemed the more obvious reason.

  “Came with the Ogaki lander. Anything else you would like to know, Ms. Tajika?” Alexei replied with sarcasm. He finished offloading the bismuth and headed towards a third object with a similar three hundred meter spacing from the nearest capsule. His suit hardened with ice.

  “What’s that thing?” Keiko said, alluding to the third object. It was much smaller than a space capsule, about the size of a beach ball.

  “What thing?” Alexei said.
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  “That metallic ball, what is it?” she said again.

  “Oh, this?” Alexei replied, knowing full well what Keiko meant.

  “Yes, that. Stop messing with me! You always mess around, this is serious!” Keiko cried out. She could hear him keying his mic and laughing, which enraged her even more.

  “Oh, calm down. Don’t you realize this is a defining moment in human history?” Alexei expressed. He bent down and cradled the metallic, spherical device.

  “For your information, this is a diamond anvil cell. Inside this hunk of titanium alloy is a teensy-tiny bit of lithium-6,” Alexei explained.

  “Then what happens?” asked Keiko.

  “The device crushes the isotopes and heats up to thousands of degrees. Then once the isotopes are ready, I fuck it with antimatter. Big annihilation ensues,” Alexei replied.

  “Sounds stupid. It will fail,” Keiko ridiculed.

  “You’re stupid. It is only the last phase in a three-phase system. Everything must happen at the exact moment of det—” Alexei cut off at the last second. He had almost revealed his secret but stopped himself in time.

  “Moment of what exactly?” asked Keiko, but no reply came.

  Alexei finished attaching lift bags to the sphere and cut the grounding rope, sending the sphere into the sky. Filled with regular station air, the sphere did not float above a certain height, instead hovering a kilometer above the ground.

  With the push of a button, both Sakura capsule main hatches closed in synchronization. Alexei sped away, sitting atop one of the rovers. His destination deviated away from Ōme, heading in the direction of a third Sakura capsule, far to the south.

  “Wait! Let me come with you!” Keiko cried out, but only static and echoes replied.

  Keiko got up from her perch. With her crutches she made her way towards the first capsule, her curiosity motivating her to crutch faster. In the distance she could see the MEV driving towards her position.

  She arrived at the first capsule and climbed atop one of the landing gears to get a better view. Inside the capsule was completely dark. Keiko used her helmet light to illuminate the interior. To her surprise, the capsule appeared stripped of all its electronics and furniture, everything but a single, solitary object.

  “Oh my god,” Keiko muttered to herself. She knew instantly what she was looking at and it sent her heart into a free fall.

  Keiko helped herself down the landing gear. Her boot slipped as she tried to grip the smooth metal surface, causing her to fall on her buttocks.

  It was then that Roland arrived with the MEV. All six wheels ground to a halt right in front of the capsule, spraying Keiko with sand. Keiko crawled towards the vehicle as Roland got out and helped her to her feet.

  “We gotta get out of here!” Keiko screamed. “Get me out of here . . . the capsule! The . . . the—” Roland struggled to understand as she frantically tried to explain the urgency of the situation.

  “Calm down, Keiko. I don’t want you underneath the rocket exhaust in case of launch, it’s not safe,” Roland said.

  The keying of Roland’s mic caused Keiko’s own transmissions to be interrupted. She clawed at Roland’s suit and made a dash for the MEV, falling down in the process. Roland helped her through the rear airlock and closed it behind them. As he assumed the controls he could see the incoming radar signature of a spacecraft.

  It was the stolen Sakura capsule. Roland watched through the thick windshield as Frank and Mia landed several kilometers away on a high relief.

  “The prodigal sons return,” he uttered.

  Keiko removed her helmet and shouted expletives at Roland, telling him what she saw within the capsule. Roland’s expression turned pale. He stomped on the accelerator and the MEV sped away in a wave of sand.

  Frank exited the capsule, followed closely behind by Mia. He had landed the Sakura on an elevated portion of Anatoli Planum to the southeast of the habitat. Ōme could be seen in the distance, looking no larger than a house.

  “You and landing so far away, man. It’s getting on my nerves,” Mia scolded. Frank held up his arm, stopping Mia in her tracks.

  “Something is happening. Look.” Frank pointed below. A dust cloud trailed the tiny MEV as it sped away from the two capsules and floating diamond anvil cell.

  “Alexei’s experiment. Is that him speeding away?” Mia wondered aloud.

  “Probably. I doubt Roland or Keiko would help him in any way,” Frank said. He used his HUD rangefinder and zoomed in on the experiment area, panning towards Ōme Station and then out towards the western hills.

  “I just see the MEV,” Frank said.

  “Well . . . let’s go and face Roland’s justice,” Mia said.

  “After what we show him, I don’t think he’ll be mad anymore,” Frank said. The two crew members descended the sloped terrain towards the level planum, still several kilometers away from even the test site.

  •••

  Alexei took a deep breath inside his spacesuit. His synchronized timer showed T-minus fifty-nine seconds. Everything would have to line up perfect. It was the culmination of twenty years of research, with previous decades of research done by his father and other Russian scientists. All of it was about to come to fruition.

  Alexei stood there, still as stone, fantasizing about what was about to happen, the statues that would be erected in his honor, immortalizing him for all time. At T-minus thirty seconds, Alexei activated his first phase, which was actually a pre-phase. A small sounding rocket lifted off from Ōme Station, its trajectory leveling out as it blazed south and disappeared beyond the central uplift.

  When Alexei saw that it was good, his timer now at zero, he climbed into his own space capsule and pressed the main launch button. He watched his experiment from the comfort of his very own captain’s chair. Here we go, he thought.

  Frank stopped dead in his tracks to admire the spectacular double launch of Sakura capsules. Both rockets spewed ferocious plumes of flame that swept a third of the planum with rocket exhaust. Mia couldn’t help but stare as well, both she and Frank standing motionless.

  As if frozen in the annals of time, the planet seemed to stop. Every particle of dust was still, every astronaut transfixed on the two capsules. Even Roland and Keiko, now back at Ōme Station, climbed out of the MEV to watch the dual capsules ascend.

  Without warning, the entire sky lit up in an intense flash of white hot light. Frank looked away, covering his visor with his hands. He could see the bones of his fingers clear as day, even through closed eyelids. Mia was not so lucky. Her helmet was tinted to the maximum setting but it was too late, as the light seared her retinas to a crisp.

  The initial heat wave from the blast scorched the surrounding landscape, turning frost to vapor. The ice on Frank’s and Mia’s spacesuits disappeared into wispy vapor gas, the outer layers of their suits warped from the heat and expelled smoke.

  Frank pulled Mia to the ground and jumped on top of her, shielding her body from the impending shock wave. It came suddenly, blasting away the two astronauts nearly thirty feet, their suits scraping across the ground.

  Suit systems scrambled as the electromagnetic pulse fried all electronics in the area. The Nagoya spacesuits were built as Faraday cages and had backup systems that rebooted automatically. Frank struggled to see through the static that was now his HUD. An analog system took control of his suit’s life support and the static dispersed, but the HUD was gone.

  Frank peered through tinted glass, a large ball of white light still singeing the sky. Blue ionization emanated from where the second capsule used to be, now destroyed. Frank’s eyes adjusted a bit more, revealing a large spherical hole with warped outer rings and a black abyss in the center.

  Blue-tinged radiation fed into the giant hole, keeping it open. Frank couldn’t believe his eyes. This three-dimensional rift in the sky sat just two kilometers away from the nuclear fireball, now an umbrella-shaped storm of dust. It rose high into the upper reaches of the atmosphere
and into space.

  Giant dust clouds rose steadily from the plain and blotted out what remained of the sun. Heat lightning raged near the epicenter as the core cooled rapidly. Interim fires breathed their last, turning to black smoke.

  Frank grabbed ahold of Mia’s arm and wrapped it around his neck. He grabbed her inner thigh and, with fleeting strength, heaved her limp body in a classic fireman’s carry.

  “Hang on, Mia!” Frank said to himself. “Hang on.”

  Frank ran towards Ōme Station as fast as his titanium legs could handle. The added weight on Earth would have been too great, but on Mars it added little additional stress to Frank’s metal joints.

  As dust and smoke blew past, Frank caught sight of Alexei’s Sakura capsule between pockets of visibility. A rocket plume trailed the capsule as it soared past the nuclear umbrella cloud and into the heart of the darkened portal.

  Frank kept on running, gazing up at the portal after every short burst of energy. The capsule seemed to stand still inside the center of the hole, its engines still hot.

  An intense heat struck Frank’s face. He could feel it through the multiple layers of his suit. The area ahead was still dangerously irradiated. Frank pivoted and turned back, his run turning into a light jog and then a heavy walk.

  Frank breached the lower dust layer as he galumphed the final leg to the waiting Sakura capsule. He dropped Mia to the ground and collapsed onto the stairs of the capsule. He was surprised to see Alexei’s capsule still traveling through the portal. It looked as if no progress had been made at all. Frank caught his breath and strength before lugging Mia’s body inside the capsule.

  It was at that moment, like a vacuum, large amounts of dust and debris were sucked back in towards the portal. Its walls of light swirled smaller and smaller until finally the dark center returned to the normal butter bourbon-colored Martian sky, Alexei’s capsule no where to be found.

  Frank cranked the restart lever on the capsule. To his surprise, the entire system rebooted itself and the capsule came back online. “Thank you, God,” Frank uttered. Oxygen filled the cockpit and Frank removed his helmet and choked on fresh air. He tended to the still motionless Mia and cradled her in his arms.