Mars Wars - Abyss of Elysium

by Abyss Of Elysium (Lit)

  "You don't remember?" she asked, sitting on the edge of her bed. He shook his head.

  She smiled lightly. "Bob and I managed to carry both of you to Francis' quarters. You were totally out but Francis could point and stumble. We put you to bed and left."

  "Just who the hell is Bob?" he asked, though he already knew.

  "Bob Kerry, and why are you so angry?" she asked innocently.

  "You don't know?"

  "No, I don't," she snapped back.

  He looked into her eyes which made him even angrier. He loved her desperately and wanted her more than he had ever wanted her before. The confusing web of emotions forced him to think again of the realities of his responsibilities. His headache and dizziness returned. The whole scene was making him literally nauseated. Without another word, he turned and left, slamming the door behind him. He knew it had been a poor scene and an even worse exit. But throwing up on her probably would have made for an even more inauspicious ending.

  Ashley walked quickly to the door to call him back, then sighed and lay her head against the frame. Things were clearer to her now. She had honestly not intended to anger him, but she was surprised and hurt that he had distrusted her.

  Peter walked straightaway to the dining hall. As soon as he turned the corner he saw Bob Kerry sitting at a table alone, drinking coffee. Just as Peter turned to walk away, Rat spotted him.

  "Dr. T! Good morning."

  "Good morning, Rat," Peter said, turning around and walking over to Kerry's table. He said nothing as he sat down across from him.

  "Quite an early riser for the shape you were in when we put you to bed last night," Kerry said, sipping his cup of coffee.

  Rat stepped over and poured Peter a cup of his own. "Just as you like it, Dr. T."

  "Thanks, Rat. And don't call me that."

  "No offense," Rat replied, walking away.

  "Dr. T?" Kerry asked, with a smile on his face.

  Peter shrugged and shook his head. He was not in his best form, and hardly knew what to say to Kerry, though he knew he had to try something. Separating his personal life from his leadership role was something he had never anticipated dealing with.

  Kerry sat looking at him over the steam of his coffee with a blank expression. If anything, he appeared to be measuring Peter up. Kerry's coveralls appeared to be wrinkle free and he looked fresh and rested which was more than Peter felt, even after a hot shower. He had a pair of small headphones draped around his neck as he stared at Peter with his precise eyes.

  Kerry finally broke the ice, aiming straight for the issue that clearly separated them. "Ashley’s a beautiful woman," he said first, watching carefully for Peter's expression. “She told me more about you than I wanted to know," Kerry said mercifully. "And I think you’re a very lucky man."

  At once the internal pressure was relieved. Peter felt instantly liberated, delighted - and like a total ass. He looked at Kerry's face for the first time. "Thank you. I appreciate that," he admitted.

  "I knew you would; you had to. Don't get me wrong, my friend; I’ve never been a chivalrous person. But I have eyes, and know a stupid move when I see one. I don't think I want to start off on the wrong foot around here. It would be witless and selfish for all concerned. Besides, even if I didn't feel that way, Ashley’s smarter than that."

  Then Kerry smiled and Peter knew he wanted to say more, but was mulling it over. Finally Kerry said what Peter knew he was about to say. "But don't screw up. You've been warned."

  Peter laughed under his breath. He appreciated the empathetic honesty and respected it.

  "Eros alone has brought down more kingdoms than you have fingers and toes to count," Rat said from behind them. "Let it not bring down this one down, as well."

  Peter spun around to see who else had been eavesdropping. Rat stood alone with a coffee pot in his hand. "Need a warmer, boys?" he asked with a sly wink. They tactfully waited for Rat to leave before resuming their discussion, of which Kerry was anxious to begin.

  "Now that we’re less interested in killing one another, let's get down to business. What exactly is the state of affairs here?"

  "How do you mean?" Peter asked. "Politically or what?"

  "Let's start with life support."

  "As you can clearly see, it’s stable now. But in a controlled, bioregenerative hybrid, like our system, stable is a relative term," Peter began, referring to the system that kept them alive on Mars; the Controlled Ecological Life Support System. "The state-of-the-art CELSS system here is the same vintage as the one on your spacecraft, although it’s a very different hybrid, obviously. The system’s not quite balanced, as you’re aware. CELSS requires large amounts of energy which we must constantly supply. And there’re losses every time we go out the airlock or spill something outside.

  “We’ve lost the supplies in orbit so we automatically go on rations until the next supply run. If it doesn't arrive, we’ll all be dead. We begin rationing after free time tonight. It's going to get cold. And as we reduce the temperature and food, our metabolism will increase to conserve heat and we’ll all get hungry."

  "What's my job?" Kerry asked straightaway.

  "I don't know," Peter said, lowering his coffee to the table and propping his folded hands in front of his face. "What do you do?"

  "I fly spaceships," he replied abruptly.

  "Sorry; fresh out. We ran out of those just the other day," Peter quipped instantly. "But Rat could use some extra help in the kitchen," he continued with a flat expression, rolling his thumb over his shoulder as he laced his fingers behind his head.

  "My daddy always told me it was stupid to mess with the head Kauhuna's woman," Kerry replied, laughing. “Now I see he was right.”

  Peter smiled widely, then returned the laughter.

  "There are some people around here who could party at a death watch," Francis said, slowly walking up to the table. He sat down in a slump beside Peter. "I have this evil taste in my mouth that’s vile beyond description," he said, raking his tongue around in his mouth. "I’ve already brushed the enamel off my teeth and it still won't go away."

  "Just a bad taste? That’s not so serious...," Peter said.

  "Oh, did I forget to mention the headache? Anybody got any elephant tranquilizers? Is there a revolver in the house?" he moaned. "If you'll recall, Rat said his moonshine was made from garbage," Peter reminded him. “He’s a certified genius, remember?”

  "You boys weren't complaining last night," Rat yelled out from his kitchen.

  "That man must have one damn good set of ears," Kerry said. Then he laughed again and looked at Peter and Francis. "I have a confession," he began. "I was actually afraid that you guys, er... this community was going to, ah... confine me when I arrived."

  "Then why didn't you go back to earth?" Peter asked.

  Kerry smiled, and admitted, "Because I felt like I had a better chance here. And, you know, I'm glad I did. I can see things are going to get tight here, and I feel like I can contribute something useful."

  "Well, I have a confession to make," Peter returned. "I came over here this morning and sat in front of you with the clear intention of feeding you a knuckle sandwich. I'm glad I didn't."

  "Now that you boys have kissed and made up," Francis said, putting his head down on his folded arms, "would someone please beg the Rat to fetch me an aspirin?"

  20

  eter abandoned Kerry to a full blown tour of BC1 under the guiding hand of Geoff Hammond. He sucked in his pride and went off to find Ashley, discovering her in the biology office which sat adjacent to the community's fields of crops. It had wide windows facing the enclosed expanse of food plants growing under both sunlight and artificial lights. The hydroponic system's plant trays were right next to the glass wall adjacent to Ashley's desk, so that her office looked like a huge, brilliantly lit terrarium.

  She sat at her desk reading, her white cotton lab coat buttoned nearly all the way up to ward off the creeping cold of the labs. As Peter walked into
her office, she passed him that deadly look that only a woman can give a man when something serious is on her mind. She stared at him momentarily over her full, metal framed reading glasses, just enough to stand his hair on end, then back to her document displayed on the projected screen suspended before her eyes.

  "Yes?" she asked, her frozen mood hanging like a rotten iceberg ready to calve at any minute, and rain ice shards all over the room.

  "Let me get to the point," he said, standing in front of her desk, feeling like a truant ready to catch the paddle across both bare cheeks.

  She didn't reply, just flicked her eyes at him again, then back to her document.

  "I'm an idiot and a fool and I came to apologize," he said, wanting to get it out and over with as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for Peter, God did not wire the female brain with as much matter-of-factness when it came to matters of the heart.

  Without speaking, Ashley turned off the display, folded her glasses up and placed them neatly in their case and walked toward the door. "I’m not interested," she said with a steady, evenly guided delivery.

  Peter jammed his palm into the door so she could not leave.

  "Okay. What penance do I have to pay? Oh, what price my sins?"

  She looked supremely put out that he stood in her way, sighed heavily and sat down in an office chair.

  "Peter, it's not so much that you acted like a fool, but that you demonstrated your lack of trust for me. That's what really hurts. I expect more from you - from us!"

  "Like what?" he said with a little too much spin on the "t".

  "Trust, for one," she said, her voice still plenty angry. “I love you; why would I hurt you? Would I be fool enough to hurt you on purpose right in front of you and your friends and the whole community? Give me a little credit, for heaven’s sake!"

  Peter shook his head and looked away from her penetrating, angry eyes. Every word was true, and he knew it.

  "I'm sorry. I was wrong," he admitted as truthfully as possible. "I made an idiot out of myself, and I apologized to all parties this morning. Actually, I came in here looking for some sack cloth and ashes. The Rat gave me the cloth. How about some ashes from your biomass incinerators?"

  She smiled despite herself. She stood and walked slowly over to where he leaned against the door.

  "Can you give me one good reason why I should forgive you?" she said as sincerely as she knew how. "Just one?"

  He looked intensely into her beautiful eyes. Then he grasped her chin with his hand and pressed his lips tightly to hers. With his free hand he locked the door behind him and in his most sincere and candid way, he gave her the one good reason she would accept without reservation.

  ationing began at BC1 in phases. The first comfort that felt the pinch was the heat. The plan was to reduce the temperature by a quarter of a degree per sol which would save BC1 several percentage points on daily energy consumption. The community’s temperature was to be lowered to a barely acceptable 11 degrees centigrade (52 degrees F). To combat the cold, orders were issued that all personnel were to continuously guard against hypothermia by wearing layered, heavy clothing and doubling blankets on beds. Other energy saving methods were instituted: limiting showers to once every four sols (they had been allowed one every other sol), reducing light levels and severely restricting exits outside from the pressurized compound.

  Other ration methods fell under the axe: food, water and air were restricted at once. In order to keep CELSS operational at its maximal efficiency, every resource had to be cut back to its limit.

  The Closed Ecological Life Support System on Mars was a wondrous assembly of complex interconnected parts, all of which had to work perfectly together to share the load of life support for the community. As head of BC1 biology, Ashley was in charge of the CELSS system.

  One of the major parts of the CELSS system consisted of the BC1 food supply in the form of crops. The CELSS crops supplied an abundant and rich variety of foodstuffs from wheat, soybeans, peanuts, potatoes and tomatoes, as well as a dozen other major crops. The plants in turn absorbed the carbon dioxide from the humans and provided life-giving oxygen in exchange. The inedible part of the plant harvest was directed into a complex set of vats that turned the cellulose into edible sugars. Genetically engineered bacteria thereupon turned the sugars and cellulose products into artificial meats and dairy products of more than a hundred different flavorings.

  The final products of the humans and the plants were called "wastes" before the turn of the twenty first century. But because of the pioneering work of Dr. William Knott III and his group of researchers done at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in the late 20th century, these endproducts became identified as "resources". On earth and in space, NASA taught one of the most critical lessons of all space spin-offs; that the human community could not afford to lose anything - all materials and their products were ultimately valuable resources. Hence, when the materials turned the circle in the BC1 system, they all were recovered by what they called the Resource Recovery System. There were no wastes on Mars and therefore, no waste processing subsystem.

  The Resource Recovery System fed these resources to bacteria in what were called bioreactors. The ‘biological reactors’ reduced the products into carbon dioxide for the plants and a sludge which was turned by automated systems into tiny pellets and fed to the fish in the community aquaculture laboratory.

  The fish were raised and harvested, while the water from their tanks was continuously circulated through what the colonists lovingly referred to as the "salad fields", consisting of lettuce, radishes, carrots and cucumber vines. To keep the tanks from building up toxins, a part of the system was circulated through to the Resource Recovery System, and periodically, some of the sludge was burned (or combusted) in high temperature incinerators to reduce the level of complex organics that could harm the living systems.

  The CELSS system was miraculous, but periodically "ran down". The system continually cycled with just the right amount of materials - water, energy and carbon - but these materials were slowly, daily, lost to the Martian environment. The domes were as tight as human engineering could make them, but there was some seepage through microscopic cracks and leaky door seals. Every time someone went out of the airlocks, air and water vapor were lost. Each trek outside the enclosure in a space suit or a MAT caused some precious resource to be lost.

  To maintain its system balance, the CELSS system relied on reserve materials. The most important of the reserves was water. Water was almost nonexistent in the Martian environment. While adequate oxygen could be produced, and some fresh water was available from water that passed through the leaves of the plants, condensed on the sides of the glass CELSS domes and was then purified by high energy radiation beams for drinking and potable use, water also had to be shipped in from earth in enormous quantities to maintain the system balance.

  The community produced oxygen in two ways. The system was designed to maintain more photosynthetically (plant) produced oxygen than the human population actually used. If necessary, another system was in place that could produce oxygen by wetting Martian soil, which released a barely significant volume of raw oxygen from natural superoxides bound chemically on their surfaces. These two systems produced enough oxygen so that there was never a problem supplying the human population with these commodities.

  The CELSS system was the single most significant energy user at BC1, but such was the price of survival. The energy at BC1 was almost exclusively provided by the Kjellman-Matsudaira Solar Cells (called KMS Cells). These special, micro-thin gallium arsenide cells were invented by the Kinji Matsuhara, Bob Kjellman research team in the early 21st century, for which they earned the Nobel Prize in Physics. They were very high efficiency cells which were sprayed onto a thin film of plastic, making them lightweight enough to be transported to Mars to provide adequate power needs for the community. The BC1 power plant consisted of power regulators for the KMS Cells, batteries for dark period power distribution, and ev
en emergency auxiliary power units (APU's) for use in dire situations.

  The decision was made to ration power to conserve the battery life; not because of limited sunlight, but because the batteries only had a given life span and when they were gone, they were gone. It also appeared that the closest supplier, millions of kilometers away, was apparently out of business. During daylight hours, allowances were made to use power above the conservation limits, but only if the regulators could shunt the power directly to the user without having to cycle it through the batteries. This was a special demand that required specific wiring, so each petition was considered based on the warrants of the request and the impact on the community.

  There were many different kinds of CELSS systems. BC1 had settled on theirs based on the direction of research and development in NASA since the early 1980's. NASA had chosen to go with the primary life science approach, as opposed to a primary physiochemical approach. In BC1’s case, the system relied almost exclusively on living systems to cycle materials. In the physiochemical approach, the systems relied on raw energy and chemical conversion systems to cycle materials. The systems were radically different. The Soviets had chosen the physiochemical method which used slightly more energy.

  Peter's approach to leadership was conservative in its foundation but radical in its approach to solving their emergent problems. Foundationally, he based the community's government on a cascading series of assumptions. The first of which was that the community was still an American base and would fall under the United States Constitution until the community found that the United States no longer existed. Secondly, the community was to remain a Democratic Republic and he could be voted out of the leadership position by a majority vote at any time. Thirdly, the existing regulations regarding discipline were still in effect and the authority to lead still rested under the original regulatory charter. The colonists had all come here under this assumption; but if they so desired, the community could change the rules as a majority.