Others were also racing towards the source of the fire, having been trained to drop everything and focus on putting out any fire that started as quickly as humanly possible. By the time Jann and Gizmo had reached the food processing pods, it looked like the entire population of the colony was already there. The storage crates stacked along the inner wall of the biodome were completely ablaze. Flame blossomed out from the center of the stack and the air was filled with the oddly sweet smell of burning bio-plastic. Jann could see Xenon marshaling a group of colonists with water hoses. He shouted and waved as they wrestled with the apparatus. Finally a jet of frothy H2O burst out and the colonists began to douse the flames. It didn’t take long to get it under control, and within a few minutes the drama was over. As the colonists began to gather up the firefighting equipment Jann and Xenon tentatively approached the smoldering pile.
“How the hell did that happen?”
“I don’t know.” Xenon picked up a lump of melted plastic. “This stuff takes a lot to burn. You would need a sustained flame to get it going like that.”
Jann toed something on the ground, hidden in a mound of debris. She reached down, and with the help of a pen she had pulled from her pocket, she prodded the unit free from the pile, all the time covering her mouth and nose to try and lessen the effects of the smoke, and the sickly sweet smell of burnt bio-plastic. She poked the pen through a loop of charred wire that protruded from the unit and held it up. Xenon looked over at her. “What have you got there?”
Jann shuffled through the group of colonists that were busy cleaning up the mess, holding the unit out in front of her like she had discovered a dead rat and was disposing of it. She laid it down at the edge of the path just as Xenon came over. They both knelt down and Jann started knocking the dust and ash from the unit.
“I could be mistaken, Xenon, but this does not look like food to me.” She picked it up and examined it. It was small, about the size of a pack of cigarettes, on one side a charred circuit board was attached to a rectangular container which was split and broken.
“You think this is an incendiary device, you think somebody started this fire deliberately?” Xenon was now inspecting the device.
“Sure looks that way. But why would anyone want to do that?”
Xenon just looked at her blankly.
“We need to contact Nills, maybe he can shed some light on who might have built this.” She handed the device to Gizmo who took it gently in its metal hand. “Can you get some images off to Nills and explain to him what happened.”
“Will do,” said Gizmo.
By now some of the other colonists had spotted them and came over. “Is someone trying to burn the place down? Have we got some crazy pyromaniac on our hands now? Jesus, that’s all we need.”
Xenon looked around. “It’s okay, let’s just get this place sorted.”
He started getting the colonists busy again, issuing directions and organizing them into cleanup groups.
“Jann, may I have a word with you?” said Gizmo
She looked at the quirky droid. Generally when Gizmo said may I have a word with you, it was never good.
“Sure, Gizmo. Let’s go over here a bit and we can talk.”
They moved off away from the throng of colonists who were now busy sweeping, picking and sorting through the mess that was left after the fire. “What is it, Gizmo?”
“I cannot seem to raise a communication channel with Colony Two.”
“Has the fire damaged comms?”
“No. That would be highly improbable.”
“Then what?”
“I am being prevented from accessing it.”
“Prevented?”
“Yes, blocked. I cannot access a comms channel and what’s more, I cannot access any of the Colony One systems.”
“Are you serious?"
“I assure you Jann, this is not one of my attempts at humor.”
Before Jann could interrogate Gizmo any further, a colonist came rushing into the crowd. “Can someone give me a hand? The entrance door is jammed and I can’t get open, I need some help.”
Ever since Jann had been in Colony One, and that was several years, she had never seen the tunnel door to the biodome closed, save for one time when she herself had forced it closed, to prevent the demented Decker from beating her head in. So, if the door was closed then someone had to have closed it—deliberately.
“We’ll give you a hand. Gizmo come with us.” They dashed through the biodome to the far side and Jann could see the door shut tight. She threw her weight behind the locking wheel but it was stuck even with Gizmo and the other colonist helping her, there was no moving the wheel. What the hell is going on? she thought.
By now others had gathered around, and a sense of entrapment was beginning to build. They took turns to try and open it, but it refused to budge no matter how much muscle power was brought to bear on the locking mechanism.
Xenon arrived with a party of colonists. “What’s going on”?
“The door’s jammed, we’re locked in, there’s no other way out of here,” said one of the colonists.
“I think Xaing Zu have locked us in here deliberately,” said another.
“What? Why would they do that?” The colonists were confused.
“Gizmo can’t raise a comm channel or get access to any Colony One systems. The droid has been blocked.”
“Oh shit, they’re going to kill us all, gas us while we’re all trapped in here.” A sense of panic was beginning to build, as a number of them started to bang on the steel door.
“This is your fault.” A colonist pointed an accusatory finger at Jann. “It was you who convinced us to allow them in. We should have never listened to you. Now we’re all going to die.”
Xenon moved in front of Jann and raised a hand. “This is not the time to lose your cool. That isn’t helping anyone.”
The colonists were panicking, banging the door, shouting. Things were becoming ugly.
“Attention.” A disembodied voice echoed out from the overhead speakers and reverberated around the biodome. “Please be calm. We have secured you in the biodome for your own protection. Do not be alarmed. You are safe in here while we negotiate this transition.”
“Screw you,” a colonist shook her fist at the speaker. “Let us out of here, you bastards.”
Xenon signaled to Jann and they took a short walk, out of earshot of the other colonists. “COM must have landed and Xaing Zu knew about it. My guess is the fire was a way to get us all in here. They knew our emergency fire protocols, knew we would all drop everything and run in to the biodome.”
“But why?” Said Jann.
“To get us all out of the way while they prepare to defend the facility.”
“They’re not going to let COM have access, are they?”
“Unlikely.”
“This is not good, Xenon.”
“No. I fear we are trapped. They have tricked us, and now we are powerless to intervene.”
9
COM
Of the three heat exchangers that provided power for Colony Two, only one now functioned, and that had broken down twice in the last month. Nills used the other units that were offline to scavenge parts, just so he could keep this one going. Systems were breaking down all the time. Already they had shut down significant areas within Colony Two, they simply did not have the resources to keep everything maintained. Worse, this technological disintegration was also being mirrored in the slow physical and mental degradation of the colonists.
Nills had hoped that the arrival of Xaing Zu and COM would bring with them sufficient supplies and spare parts to enable, at least, a partial rejuvenation of the colony. But what the Chinese brought with them was merely a drop in the bucket. Nills felt that they were just paying lip service to the requirements of the colonists, as if in reality, they were not that important. Perhaps he had been naive, as Jann had often said to him. You’re too nice. Nills. You believe that humans are genuinely goo
d. But in my experience, everybody wants something, and it's generally not your well being. He found it hard to be that cynical, even if there was a grain of truth in it. Yet, soon COM would land, if they hadn’t already. It was hard to know as the communication was as sparse as it was terse. They had offered to bring supplies and badly needed spare parts. Hopefully they would be true to their word and Nills could get his hands on these, before everything went to rat-shit.
Nills checked the seals on the replacement pump one last time, and then nodded to Anika, who was monitoring the starters for the heat exchanger on the control panel.
“Can you try it again now?”
With that, Anika set the controls to activate the newly replaced pump and reroute pressure back into the turbine.
“Okay, here goes.” She hit the switch, and slowly the turbine started spinning up. She gave Nills the thumbs up. He gathered up his tools and joined her over at the control board, checking stats on the readouts.
“Okay, it’s back up again, but for how long, who knows. Anyway, let’s close up shop here, and head back up to operations. We’ll see if there’s been any news on COM.”
With the colony being low on power for the last while, the temperature inside had dropped noticeably. It didn’t help that a sandstorm had been building outside, reducing the efficiency of the solar array field. If Nills and Anika hadn’t managed to fix the heat exchanger they would be in real trouble. It seemed to Nills that the threat of these life-and-death scenarios were being overlooked in the climate of uncertainty that had enveloped the colony ever since the arrival of Xaing Zu. When Nills finally arrived in the operations room, he had wrapped himself up in a long brown coat that he had become very attached to. It was old and worn and how it came to be here, in the colony, or even how it came into his possession he had long forgotten. Holburn looked up from his console when he spotted Nills entering. “Good work on that heat exchanger, not a moment too soon either. Storm is getting pretty bad out there. Any longer and we’d be running on fumes.”
“Any word on COM?”
“Yes and no. They dropped out of orbit about two hours ago, but I’ve had no comms and no confirmation of touchdown.”
“You think the sandstorm is affecting comms?”
“Possibly. It can do that, if it gets bad enough.”
Nills sat down at the table and shoved his hands into his coat pockets to get some warmth back into them. “Did you try to contact Colony One and see if they’ve heard anything?”
“I can’t get through to them either.”
“This is not really going to plan, is it?”
Holburn looked over at Nills and shrugged. “Could be worse, maybe COM crash landed and everyone is dead.”
Nills gave him back a sideways grin. “Problem solved, then.”
“Oh, nearly forgot.” Holburn passed a holo-tab over to Nills. “One message did come through, about an hour ago, from your friend, Lane Zebos, AsterX.”
Nills picked up the tab and tapped an icon. It was a video message. Nills tapped again to bring it up on the main screen. It was a head and shoulders shot of the AsterX CEO inside their cramped spacecraft. Of all the expeditions en route to Mars these guys were definitely the poor cousins. But, they were also the least threatening, concerning themselves more with the mineralogy and the technical capabilities of Mars, and Colony Two in particular. Understandable, considering that they were a mining company. Where Jann, Xenon and the rest of the council had concerned themselves with countering the machinations of Xaing Zu and COM, Nills had found Lane Zebos to be more like himself. Interested in the technicalities of the colony: its functioning, its resources. They were also the only one of the three that took a deep interest in bringing what Nills had wanted in terms of equipment, supplies and spare parts. But since they were not seen as a direct threat, the council had spent very little time communicating with them, leaving it to Nills to deal with their queries. As a result Nills had built up a reasonably friendly relationship with Zebos, who was now on screen.
The good news is we have embarked with all of the items you have requested. Some are bit hard to come by, but where we couldn’t source the exact item we have endeavored to acquire a substitute. I’ve also added in a little gift for you. You’ll see it on the manifest attached. Nills started reading down through the list.
That’s the good news. The bad news is we won’t be in Mars orbit for another eight weeks, give or take. It took us a long time to secure the necessary oversight. But we’re on our way now, so see you all in two months. That’s it for now. Will keep you posted. The message ended.
Anika had entered the operations room as the Zebos message was on screen, and had taken a seat beside Nills. “So what’s the little gift, then?”
Nills pushed the tab over to her and pointed to the last two lines on the manifest.
“Ten kilos of Blue Mountain coffee and a case of twenty-five year old Scotch.” Anika read it aloud.
Nills smiled. “I, for one, cannot wait. I count the days until they land.”
“What, nothing for the girls? You know, silk stockings, a few ounces of Coco Chanel, perhaps.”
Nills took the tab back, looked at the list again, and spun it back to Anika, and pointed at an entry higher up in the manifest. It read, 5lbs Belgian Chocolates. “Your favorite, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Oooh…” said Anika.
“Hey guys, you’d better take a look at this.” Holburn’s fingers danced across the face of his control pad and a new image materialized on screen. A ghostly cloud of dust filled the monitor and from its center an image of a rover emerged, moving slowly towards them. The trio watched in silence for a few moments.
“That’s outside the main airlock here in Colony Two.”
“Yep, but that’s not one of our rovers, too big.”
“COM?” Said Nills.
They looked from one to the other. Then comms burst into life.
Colony Two, this is Commander Willem Kruger, of the Colony One Mars consortium, seeking permission to enter.
“Holy crap,” said Anika. “What do we do?”
Nills stood up. “Goddammit, this was not part of the plan. This was not supposed to happen.”
“What are they doing? Why didn’t they contact us and let us know they were landing?” said Holburn.
“Because we would be better prepared. They want us off balance.”
“So what do we do? Tell them the store is closed, come back tomorrow?” said Anika.
“No, it makes no difference whether it’s now, tomorrow, next week. We have to face this sometime, may as well be now.” Nills was on his feet now. “Holburn, tell them we’re opening the airlock. Anika, you come with me. We’ll gather up the reception party and meet them in the main entrance. Make sure everyone is armed.”
Nills realized they had been thrown a curveball. What everyone thought COM would do, they had just gone and done the opposite. He should have known not to trust them. They were trying to gain the upper hand and they knew that leaving them outside on the surface was not an option. At least not a very good one.
“Are you expecting trouble?” said Anika.
“You need to understand that as far as the people in that rover are concerned, they own this place, and everything in it. That includes us—you, me and everyone in here. So yeah, I’m expecting trouble if we don’t do what they want.”
By the time they got to the entrance cavern other colonists were beginning to gather. The COM rover had been left waiting outside the entrance airlock, as the colonists got themselves organized. Anika was now distributing weapons from one of the storage rooms at the back entrance cavern. These were mainly railguns, kept primed and ready for action.
“I want two up there, high on the gantry, one on each side. And two more at the back of the cavern, high up on those storage crates over there. Keep your weapons visible, let them see we’re armed.”
As the colonists left to take up their positions, others gathered round Nills
and Anika who had taken up a central position facing the airlock entrance.
“Okay, let’s do this.” Nills tapped his earpiece to talk to Holburn, who was monitoring the situation from the operations room. “You can open the airlock now.”
From inside the cavern they could hear the rumble of the exterior door opening to expose the inner airlock to the maelstrom outside. A few moments later they heard the rumble again to signify that the COM rover had now entered. A few tense moments passed as the volume within was repressurized and the dust and sand purged through the scrubbers.
Nills tapped his earpiece again. “Tell them to exit the rover inside the airlock before we open the door.”
Nills looked up and around at the people he had positioned on high ground within the cavern.
“Okay, everyone ready?”
A chorus of ready echoed around the space. Nills turned back to face the door and tapped his earpiece again. “Okay Holburn, ready when you are.”
Anxious moments passed as they waited, and waited. Finally they heard motors kick in as the inner airlock door started to rise to reveal six COM crew members in full EVA suits—all armed to the teeth.
“Holy crap,” said Anika.
Nills raised his hand and stepped forward. Then one of the COM crew popped open his visor, and stepped forward.
“Welcome to Mars,” said Nills. Then he pointed at them. “Now I would ask you to put down your weapons as they are not allowed inside the colony.”
“I am commander Willem Kruger, and you are?”
“Nills Langthorp.”
Kruger looked around the entrance cavern, spotting the elevated positions of the weapons that were trained on them.
“Ahh... The famous Nills Langthorp, in the flesh. Do you realize that you’re a legend back on Earth?”
Nills took another step forward. “I would appreciate if you would put away those weapons.”
Colony Three Mars (Colony Mars Book 3) Page 5