“Nills Langthorp, a pleasure to meet you. Please have a seat.” The old man signaled to an empty chair on the opposite side of the holo-table. Nills obliged.
He leaned in and studied Nills for a moment. “Incredible. To know of your existence is one thing, but to see you in the flesh is another thing entirely.”
“Let me guess,” said Nills. “Peter VanHoff, head honcho of the Colony One Mars consortium.”
VanHoff gave a thin smile. “Very good, you are correct. How did you guess?”
“To know of your existence is one thing, but to see you in the flesh, well…”
VanHoff stopped smiling.
“So what do you want with me?” Nills continued.
VanHoff waved a dismissive hand. “Later. In the meantime I just want you where I can see you, out of harm’s way.”
“Why, is there going to be some harm?”
VanHoff shifted in his seat. “It seems our Oriental friends are being somewhat obstinate. Things could get a little… fractious, shall we say. They have battened down the hatches in Colony One and are refusing to cede authority.”
“So they’ve given you the middle finger, then.”
“Mere petulance on their part. I assure you we will regain control of what is rightfully ours.”
“And what about the colonists?”
“That’s what we would like to know. Whose side are they on?”
“They’re on nobody’s side. They just want to live in peace.”
“Don’t we all, Mr. Langthorp.”
Nills stood up. “Well, it was nice talking to you, Peter. Let’s do it again sometime. Now, if you don’t mind I could do with a lift back.”
VanHoff laughed. “Fascinating. You are a character, I’ll give you that.” His face stiffened. “Now sit down, you’re not going anywhere.”
Nills surveyed the room, several of the crew were gathered around, ready for action. Nills sighed, and sat down again. “Maybe I could stay a bit longer, then.”
“Very good. Now, to answer your question. You are here for two reasons. Firstly, if the Chinese don’t cooperate, and accept the ruling of the courts, then we will simply take over Colony One through force of arms. What I need you to do is settle the clones down, and make sure they don’t do anything foolish.”
“You mean the colonists.”
“You know what I mean. Let’s not make this any more difficult that it needs to be.”
“What about Dr. Malbec? How are you planning to get her on your side?”
VanHoff’s lips tightened. “Leave Malbec to me. She is the primary cause of all this mayhem—and she needs to pay for it.”
Nills jumped up, leaned across the holo-table and gripped VanHoff by the lapels. “Over my dead body, you twisted little shit.”
The crew scrambled to drag Nills off. He let go of VanHoff, just as a few thousand volts from a cattle prod shot through his body. He collapsed back down on the seat, his arm was twisted back and held tight by one of the crew. VanHoff dusted himself off and regained his composure. “I see you are a little upset. I appreciate that change can be disconcerting for all concerned. But you’ll get used to it, eventually.”
The pain that had engulfed Nills’ body was subsiding and he too had regained some composure. “So what’s the second one? You said there were two reasons I was here?”
VanHoff smiled. “Ah… yes. Indeed I did. You see, Nills. You are rather special. You are the reason we are all here fighting on this godforsaken rock. You are the key—and you always were.”
“And what if I were to tell you to go shove it up your ass?”
VanHoff scowled and turned to Kruger. “Take him below and keep him secure.”
They took Nills and locked him in a small accommodation compartment on one of the lower levels of the craft. The room was compact, with a bed and not much else. He reckoned that it must have been regarded as first class digs on this ship, so he should feel privileged. The first half hour of his incarceration Nills spent examining every possible nook and cranny, looking for anything that he could find and use to his advantage. He didn’t find anything. Eventually he sat down on the bed and considered what his next course of action should be. That was assuming that he even had a choice in the matter.
So VanHoff had made the trip himself, that much was evident. But why would he do that? Nills wondered. Maybe it was simply a case of, if you want to do something right, then you just gotta do it yourself. Every effort VanHoff had made so far to acquire the Janus bacteria had been thwarted by Dr. Jann Malbec. So she was number one on his hit list, he even said so himself. On top of that he expressed a clear disdain for the clones in Colony One. Whether they lived or died seemed to be of little interest to VanHoff. As for Xaing Zu? They really had no idea how outclassed they were by the resources that COM had brought to the planet. VanHoff just didn’t care a damn for the lives in Colony One. Nills had to find a way to warn them. This was his number one task. Find a way to get a message to them—somehow.
Gathered around the holo-table in the operations room of the COM craft sat VanHoff, Commander Willem Kruger and several others of the crew. Kruger cleared his throat and spoke. “Phase one of the operation is now complete. Colony Two is in our control and the clone specimen Langthorp has been acquired. Time now to move on to phase two. Are we ready?”
“Please proceed.” VanHoff waved a hand.
“Raising a channel now, sir.” One of the operatives tapped several icons on the holo-table. A 3D rendering of the COM logo materialized and rotated. Channel open… waiting for connection… connection established. The rotating logo was replaced with a video feed from inside the operations room in Colony One. Several Chinese sat around a similar holo-table.
Kruger cleared his throat again and spoke. “This is Commander Willem Kruger, of the Colony One Mars consortium mission. Please be advised that we have entered and secured the mining outpost, known as Colony Two, located at the northern edge of the Jezero Crater. In doing so we have now fulfilled the obligations required by the International Court of Arbitration for full ownership of the Colony One facilities to revert to COM ownership. Therefore, you are now trespassing on our property and we would be obliged if you would vacate the facility immediately. If you fail to do so within the next twelve hours then we will remove you by force. Do you understand this message?”
The figures around the corresponding holo-table in Colony One sat unmoved. There was a moment of tense silence before they replied. “This is Commander Jing Tzu, of Xaing Zu Industries Mars mission. We understand your claim is issued by a terrestrial court which we do not recognize. Therefore we see your request as invalid and furthermore your threats to use force are taken as an act of aggression against a peaceful enterprise. We have claimed this facility under salvage and, as such, are legally entitled to remain. Any attempt by your people to gain access will be seen as trespassing on Xaing Zu property and will be repelled, with force if necessary. Do you understand this message?”
Commander Kruger clasped his hands together and slowly leaned in across the holo-table. “You have twelve hours to leave.” The video feed went dead and they all took a moment before VanHoff finally spoke.
“What’s your assessment, Commander—are they bluffing?”
“We have to assume that they are not bluffing and have convinced themselves that they can hold it. Which means we need to reassess their capability and recalibrate our strategy to take control of Colony One.”
“We need to keep damage to the facility to a minimum. Rebuilding it is not something we have the resources for.”
“What about the clones?” said Kruger.
VanHoff waved a dismissive hand, “They’re expendable. We already have what we need.”
“Very well, then.”
“Just one request, Commander Kruger. I would like, if at all possible, that Dr. Jann Malbec be taken alive. I have a bone to pick with her, and it would bring me no end of pleasure to do it face-to-face.”
“U
nderstood, sir.”
11
Subterranean
The colonists trapped in the biodome made several futile attempts to get the door open, ignoring the broadcasts by the Chinese that persistence in their attempts would be met with violence. After a time though, it became increasingly evident to them that it was just not going to happen. They were trapped, held captive inside their own biodome, with no way to access the larger facility save through the door to the connecting tunnel. So one by one they wandered away.
Jann contented herself by retiring to her old wicker chair on the central dais. Some of the other colonists had also gathered around, but their mood was somber and resigned.
“I am really getting sick of this shit,” said Rachel, one of the few remaining original colonists. And who could blame her? Since landing on the planet, over a decade ago now, she had seen nothing but hardship and the constant attempts by others to manipulate and interfere with the very serious business of surviving in a hostile environment.
“You know, I had this naive idea once that things might get better,” she continued.
“Yeah, I know how you feel. It would be real nice if they all just left us alone,” said Steven, another long-suffering colonist.
“Isn’t gonna happen. We’re just too valuable to them,” Rachel replied with a resigned sigh. “We’re just a group of lab monkeys as far as they’re concerned. They want us for what’s inside us.”
They went silent for a while before Steven spoke again. “So, what now? What have they got planned? What’s going to happen to us?”
Jann couldn’t take this conversation anymore. It seemed to her that the colonists had resigned themselves to their fates and nothing she could say was going to change that. She rose from the wicker chair and went for a walk around the outer rim of the biodome. Gizmo followed beside her. After a short period of aimless meandering, Jann arrived at the place in the biodome wall where it opened out into a long tunnel. This was the fish farm. Next to it was another, similar tunnel, but this one was derelict, the roof structure had collapsed in on itself many years ago. There was still a door into it but it had been sealed up for a long time. This tunnel had originally been used for soil processing and had an airlock entrance out onto the planet’s surface. But this process had long been relocated to the cave system that Nills had discovered beneath the colony itself. Jann stopped and stared at the sealed door for some time.
“Gizmo, can you access Colony One schematics or do you need to be connected to the main systems?”
“I have them stored locally so, yes, I can access them.”
“Show me what you’ve got on this old tunnel.”
Gizmo projected various schematics onto the wall beside Jann.
“Wait, this one here—can you zoom in a bit more on this?”
Jann looked at the exploded diagram of the soil processing tunnel as it would have been when it was in operation.
“Do you have any schematics of the cave system beneath the biodome?”
“Not as such, Jann. These are hidden places. There were no maps or drawings created of them. Remember, it was only discovered during the collapse of the original colony. Nills never made any schematic of it. However, I could replicate a reasonably accurate rendering from my own accumulated sensory data.”
“Really, you can do that?”
“Of course. Let me show you.”
With that the droid began to sketch out the cave system. It took it less than a few seconds to complete it. “There, that is as much detail as I can access.”
Jann looked at it for a moment, examining the curved organic structure that the droid had rendered. “Can you overlay the derelict tunnel onto this drawing, in the exact location it would be?”
“Sure.”
Jann studied the resultant schematic at the point where the two intersected with each other for quite some time. “Can you zoom in on this section here, Gizmo?”
Jann pointed to an area on the diagram. “Wait. What’s that?”
“That is an access point.”
“You mean, there is a way down into the cave system from this tunnel?”
“Correct. I remember Nills discussing this access route. There is a 72.3% probability of it still functioning, assuming the tunnel has sufficient integrity to hold one atmosphere of pressure.”
Jann looked at Gizmo. “Well, there’s only one way to find out. I need you to go find Xenon. Don’t tell anyone else what we’re planning here. Just say I need him, and bring him here, okay?”
“Sure.” Gizmo sped off through the dense vegetation of the biodome to seek out Xenon.
It didn’t take long for them to return, and Jann had Gizmo project the schematics again for Xenon, so she could explain to him what her plan was.
“I think there may be a way to get out of here and make contact with Colony Two. There’s an access route from this old derelict tunnel into the subterranean cave system that is now used for soil processing.”
“I see.” Xenon scratched his chin. “But I don’t understand how that can help us. There’s nothing down there except some autonomous machines and an airlock out onto the surface that the soil harvesters use. There are sections that don’t even have an atmosphere.”
“Yes, I know.” Jann lowered her voice. “But there is an area down there, a secret area, an area that the original Nills used to hide out when the colony was going to hell, during the first wave of infection. If I can get in there, it has the systems that will enable me to see what’s going on in Colony One, and possibly contact Colony Two.”
“A secret place?”
“It’s a long story, Xenon. But trust me, it’s there.”
“I see. So how can I help?”
“Well, we need to open this door. Gizmo has run the numbers and calculated a high probability that the access point still functions. However, there may not be an atmosphere behind this door. So we’ll need to edge it open slowly until it sucks in enough air from the biodome to equalize the pressure.”
“It’s worth a shot. But you’re forgetting one thing.” He looked up at the roof of the biodome and pointed. “This place is covered with cameras, see there’s one over there.” He pointed to a small opaque hemisphere attached to the superstructure of the roof. “They’ll see everything we’re trying to do.”
“Then we need to take them out.”
“How? They’re too high up to reach.”
“Leave it to me.” With that Jann disappeared off through the vegetation. Over to where the hydroponics were arrayed in neat symmetrical rows. From one of the beds she pulled out half a dozen long, thin aluminum bars that had been used to support the growing plants. She brought them back to where Xenon and Gizmo were waiting.
Jann hefted one of the thin bars over her shoulder, took a step back, and launched it straight at the camera. It buried itself dead center, plastic shards falling onto the floor all around.
“Okay, that’s one. Let’s go find the others.”
After about half an hour, Jann had managed to take out four cameras at different locations around the biodome. She also managed to acquire a number of other colonists who were keen to know what she was up to. She brought them back with her to the sealed door to the soil processing tunnel and outlined the plan. They also acquired a number of steel bars that they could use to help lever the door open against the one atmosphere of pressure inside the biodome.
Word spread around the captive colonists that Jann Malbec had a plan—hope had returned. But for some, it was not hope they saw, but recklessness. Exposing the biodome to the exterior environment could mean disaster. As a consequence, a crowd had gathered and far from acting as a cohesive unit, in their own best interest, they squabbled and bickered. Jann was now concerned that this would achieve nothing other that to attract the attention of their Asian overlords.
It was Xenon who finally managed to establish some rational thinking amongst the group. “We must try. Otherwise we are at the mercy of those who regard us a
s laboratory experiments. That future is not one that I wish to contemplate.”
It was through this line of dialogue that order in the biodome was restored, even if it was somewhat reluctant. It was agreed that the bulk of the colonists would disperse and act as normal, whatever that meant within the constraints of the current situation. This left Jann, Xenon, Gizmo and around a half dozen others to wrestle with the door into the derelict tunnel. Gizmo, for its part, had calculated the probability of the area behind the door having integrity compatible with sustaining one atmosphere at approximately 67.54%. But, as the little robot was no longer connected to the main Colony One systems, this had been derived with greatly reduced computational power. Nonetheless, it was good enough for Jann.
She spun the locking wheel on the door. Xenon and a few others rammed a number of the steel bars into the doorjamb to act as levers.
“Okay, see if it will move.” Jann stepped back.
A gap appeared as the colonists applied leverage, it hissed with the sound of air escaping into the space behind.
“Keep it open, let it fill.” Jann had now thrown her weight into the mix.
The hissing increased and the gap became larger. It grew in intensity as they applied more pressure. The colonists all groaned with the physical exertion expended to keep the door from slamming shut.
“How long do we need to keep this up?”
“Just keep it open.”
“What if it doesn’t stop?”
“Just shut up, and keep the pressure on.”
After what seemed like an eternity of physical endurance, the hissing slowed. Jann smiled. “Listen, it’s holding. Come on, push harder.”
When it came, it was almost instant. The pressure equalized and the door swung open in one swift movement. Two of the colonists lost their balance and went sprawling across the floor. Gizmo switched on its floodlight and illuminated the long forgotten tunnel. Ahead they could see where the roof had collapsed. It was only around ten meters in. There was nothing else in the space save for dust and crumpled metal roof structure. But it held the pressure, the tons of Martin dirt overhead creating an effective seal.
Colony Mars Ultimate Edition Page 39