The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1)

by Bob Lee

  “Yep, and good fences make good neighbors. All of this sand and thin atmosphere makes a pretty good fence, I would say,” Charles said.

  “Amen to that,” Commander Grant Stiles added. “On a final note, there were a few personal messages that came in, which you can check for later.”

  “Did I get anything from Terri?” Charles asked.

  “Your fiancée?” the Commander snorted. “She sent you three videos within the space of ten minutes. I think you’re in trouble.”

  “Probably,” Charles said with a shrug.

  “Now everyone shut up and have something to eat, and then get back to work. And don’t forget to sign up on the exercise sheet for the week. I’m not hearing nearly enough noise downstairs in the gym section.”

  CHAPTER 4

  The passengers aboard the Pegasus watched the view upon the monitor in awed silence. The asteroid that was to be their temporary home filled the whole screen. It looked like a potato slowly turning on a spit. Only this pockmarked potato had solar panels in two bands near each end, and the rest of the surface was covered in what looked like cables or webbing. There were blinking lights all around the middle of the asteroid. As the asteroid rotated, the passengers counted four large rockets arranged around the asteroid’s back third which apparently had been fired, as they had left large dark streaks along the flanks. At the front third of their new home, they could also see three small rocket ships standing on end. There was an antenna pointing forward from the asteroid, and at the other end what looked like a short tube with strobing lights. The Pegasus was heading for that tube.

  On the flight deck, Pilot Sam Tuttle prepared to dock with the giant object. She had just finished issuing the remote orders to the AB Cycler to spin the docking port. As she watched, the turning end slowly stabilized and opened.

  “I’m sure glad we don’t have to spin the Pegasus to dock,” Sam said to the Commander. “Those folks at Planetary Resources were pretty smart, having a docking port that could spin independently from the rest of the cycler. Could you image what it would be like for us and the passengers if we had to twist and spin the whole ship to match the cycler’s rotation? I’d be collecting vomit bags for hours!”

  “I heard that they also considered having us land along the circumference of the surface, sort of like a fighter jet landing on an aircraft carrier, but thought better of it,” Roy said.

  “I don’t know how these colonists would handle disembarking with that scenario,” Sam chuckled as she shook her head. “Pretty soon they would all have been plastered every which way to the inside of the Pegasus. No, letting us actually land inside the cycler without spinning was a great design choice. Plus, by being inside the asteroid, the Pegasus’ heat tiles will be protected from micrometeors on the way to Mars.”

  Roy nodded. “Your approach looks good,” he said as he monitored the heads-up display on the front windshield. “Velocity is a bit fast. Reduce speed by two fps. I’m dropping the landing skids now.”

  “Firing maneuvering jets,” Sam stated. The Pegasus slowly glided perfectly into the docking bay. Sam fired the jets once more to bring the ship to a standstill.

  “Initiating magnetic locks,” Roy stated as he flipped the proper switch. The Pegasus was pulled to the landing strip, and stuck with a thud. “Contact.”

  “Contact confirmed,” Sam said. “Sending confirmation to Houston.”

  The Commander turned on the rear speaker. “Fellow astronauts, we have arrived at our ride to Mars. Please remain seated as a bit of gravity will now be restored.” He issued the command to the cycler to restore the spin of the dock so that it matched the rest of the asteroid. As he did so, he felt himself slightly pressed into his seat. He spoke again to his passengers. “Since we are located in the middle of the cycler, the gravity from the rotation is very slight. It is less than that of the Moon. Please be careful as you unbuckle and gather your belongings. Pilot Tuttle will be back to assist you, and I will be at the bottom of the exit ramp. We will then all proceed to the end of the dock, where there is a ramp which will lead you to the main corridor. You will need to climb down a ladder in order to reach the Bigelow living modules.” Roy then selected the switch to open the outer door and extend the ramp. He turned toward Sam. “After you’re done getting them all out the door and directed towards the corridor, power down and then meet me in the briefing room.”

  # # #

  At the rear of the ship, Bonnie released her death grip on the seat’s arm rests. She looked left and right at each of her daughters. “We’re here! I can’t believe it. Do you think anybody wet their pants during that launch?”

  “Eww, Mom, gross!” said her eldest daughter, Jean.

  “Well, I’m just asking,” Bonnie said. “Don’t either of you have to go to the bathroom?”

  “If we did, it’s too late now, dontcha think?” Jean said, rolling her eyes. She pointed up front. “Pilot Tuttle is already helping everyone unload.”

  “Oh, you’re right. I guess we’d better get Lucky and Lotus unstrapped and out of their cages.” She reached over and unbuckled Julie and lifted her up out of the seat to pass her over the cage on her side and into the aisle. “C’mon honey. Get Lotus ready, please.”

  As her daughters got the animals going, Bonnie climbed over the cages to get to the compartments with their belongings. At the last second, she remembered the final set of directions that Jeff had told her just before launch. He would be very angry if she forgot this, and who knows what he would do if she embarrassed him. “Don’t forget to put the ankle weights on each of their legs,” she called to her daughters. “We don’t want them jumping all over the place in this light gravity.”

  Soon she had everyone going down the aisles towards Pilot Tuttle. “Remember, stay together. This is a brand new place, and we need to be able to help each other if something happens.”

  “Mom, nothing’s going to happen,” Jean said with a groan. “Would you stop babying us?”

  “Hush, this is what moms do,” she told her daughter.

  As Bonnie reached the exit door, Pilot Tuttle turned towards her. “You’re the last ones, Ma’am,” she said. “Just follow the crowd. Make sure to use the rails or handholds if you need them. Gravity will be very light until we reach the living quarters.”

  Bonnie carefully went down the ramp and looked around. The hangar she was in was lit with a lovely muted blue lighting. It was also just barely large enough to hold their ship, which seemed to be sitting on a giant round platter. ‘The Called’ were all walking in a row towards another ramp at the far end of the hangar, and going through a large hole in the middle of the wall. “That must be the main corridor,” she said to Jean and Julie. “Let’s go see our new home.” They queued up behind old Sue, who was currently the last person in line.

  As they reached the top of the ramp and stepped through the hole in the wall, Bonnie bumped into Sue, who had abruptly stopped. Sue started shouting, “Harry and Henry! You get down this instant!”

  Bonnie peaked around Sue. To her surprise, she saw the Hampton twins standing upside down on the ceiling of the corridor. The corridor was really just a large long tube with a handrail running along each side. It was lit with the same muted blue light that had illuminated the hangar.

  “How are they doing that?” Bonnie asked.

  “Honestly, Mom, don’t you understand anything?” Jean snorted. “It’s obvious. We’re in the middle of the asteroid, and its slow spin is holding us against what we think is the floor. But anywhere could be the floor. I bet we could even run along any of the walls if we wanted to.” With that, Jean handed Lucky’s leash to Bonnie and climbed onto the side railing. Then, seemingly miraculously, she stood up sideways and started running towards the twins!

  “Me too, me too!” shouted Julie as she started to climb onto the railing.

  “Oh no you don’t, Missy,” said Bonnie as she dropped Lucky’s leash and grabbed onto Julie. “Daddy will be very mad if he catches you.” Sh
e looked back up just in time to see Jean dive into the two ten year old twins and throw them downward and back towards their parents. Jean then came running back while loudly laughing, upside down the whole way.

  “Hey you guys, why are you both hanging upside down?” Jean giggled. With that, she squatted, jumped, did a tuck and spin, and floated slowly to a landing in front of her mom and sister. “Ta-da!”

  “Very funny, young lady! Don’t let me catch you pulling a stunt like that again,” Bonnie said wagging her finger. She looked up ahead, and was relieved that she didn’t see her husband. She surmised that he must have already gone on to their living quarters. “Here, take the leash back and try this time to walk in a straight line for a while.”

  Old Sue turned around to face Bonnie. “You know, I think these kids are going to adjust to our new living conditions a lot faster than we are,” she said. “But at least my arthritis is feeling a lot better. I can almost walk normally already! Pretty soon I might try hopping to the ceiling myself,” she laughed.

  “That’s nice, Sue. I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Bonnie said. “Look, the line’s moved and we’re behind. Let’s hurry up.”

  As she approached the end of the corridor, Bonnie saw the Commander helping each person go down a ladder in the floor. As she reached him, the Commander said, “I think you missed what I told the last of your group. This ladder will take you down to the living module. Please be careful as you go down, since the gravity will increase with each rung. The module is situated further towards the outside of the asteroid, and so the spin there is faster. When you reach the bottom, you will be at one third Earth gravity, which is what it will be like on Mars. One of your members should be below to direct you to your rooms. We will hold a meeting for everyone in the briefing room in one hour.”

  Commander Olstein looked at Lucky and Lotus. “There’s no way you’re going to be able to carry the animals down yourselves, Ma’am. Perhaps you should go down first, and I’ll come down with the goat, leaving the dog with your children. Then I can climb back up and carry the dog down.”

  “Thank you, Commander,” Bonnie said as she started carefully climbing down the ladder while holding her luggage with one hand. When she reached the bottom, she turned around. She was in a large room with bare white walls, except for two large circular clocks. The clock titled ‘Earth time’ showed a time of 2:15. The other clock had a large dial with one hand and the title of ‘Cycler Orbital Stages.’ There were many labels in different places on the clock, the most prominent being ‘Earth perihelion’ at the top and ‘Mars perihelion’ at the four o’clock position. The hand was just past the top label. Bonnie briefly wondered why the Mars label was not at the bottom. “Oh well, I’ll have lots of time to learn all about things like that,” she mused.

  As she scanned the room, she noticed that the ceiling of the large rectangular room had squares missing and wires dangling down through the holes. On her left were a few rooms with no doors and some free standing walls. On her right, it appeared that the whole wall was missing from the room. Instead, there was a curved expanse that looked like a gray quilt, since it was composed of multiple square sections. At the far end of the room was a table behind which were sitting the Platinums and Brother Jacobs. The members of the Called were filing past the tables, picking up papers.

  Bonnie heard a slight hiss behind her, and turned back around. The Commander was sliding quickly down the ladder, his feet on either side of it and Lotus tucked under one arm. He landed lightly in front of her, turned around and placed Lotus on the floor. “Here you go, Ma’am. I’ll be right back,” he said.

  “That was pretty impressive Commander. I thought you would struggle carrying Lotus.”

  “Nah, I learned how to slide down ladders while half asleep and carrying equipment when I was stationed on Navy carriers,” he said. “I’ll be right back with your dog.” He turned around and scampered back up the ladder in no time.

  Soon, Jean, Julie and Lucky had joined her and they approached the table at the other end of the room. “Hello, George,” she said.

  George Biggs was Platinum Two. Like Bonnie’s husband, he was tall and handsome, with blue eyes and brown hair in a buzz cut. He was holding a piece of paper with a list of names.

  “Hello, Bonnie. We’re going to be neighbors. You and the kids are in Module 1, Suite A-1. I’ll be right next door in M-1, A-2. Here, take one of these,” he said. “It’s a schematic of the living modules.”

  Bonnie took the paper and looked at the image. At the top was the label “Bigelow Aerospace” with “Genesis IX: Space for Living” underneath it. There were three objects in a row that looked sort of like blimps. The middle blimp was hooked to the other two at its ends by short equal signs. The blimp on the left was labeled Module 1, and the one on the right was labeled Module 2. The one in the middle was labeled Central, and someone had written in pencil an ‘X’ near its right side. It had the words ‘You Are Here’ with an arrow pointing to the X. Near the left end of the blimp labeled Central was a small circle with the words ‘Egress Ladders’ under it.

  “Huh, nice map,” muttered Jean who was looking over her shoulder. “I think Julie could have drawn a better one with her crayons.”

  “Hey, be nice, Jean,” scolded Bonnie. “This is our home for the next six months.”

  “Yeah, great,” Jean said as she looked up at the holes in the ceiling. “The Taj Mahal it ain’t. Anyway, I see where we have to go,” she said, pointing across the room. “There’s a hole behind the ladder we came down. We have to crawl through that. The map shows that A-1 is all the way at the end.”

  “Before you go, tie up Lotus over there in one of those rooms. We’ll have to set up a pen for her later,” George said. “And pick up an emergency procedures sheet from your husband at the end of the table.”

  Bonnie took two steps to her left to stand in front of her husband, Jeff.

  “Wasn’t that part of our trip just fantastic, Honey?” Jeff said, hopping up and down on his seat. “Here we are, speeding away from Earth and you can hardly tell. I told you it would be a glorious adventure, didn’t I? Can’t you just not stand it, waiting to see what happens next?”

  Bonnie didn’t quite know what to say, but had to admit that Jeff’s enthusiasm was infectious. If she thought about it, it really was a glorious adventure that she was on. If only she didn’t have to worry about her children, she would have felt much better.

  Brother Jacobs stood up and reached forward, grabbing both of Bonnie’s hands. “My dear, I know this must seem overwhelming,” he said. “But I am here for you. I am here for all of you. Keep the faith.” He leaned further forward and kissed her on the top of her head. “Go now. Settle in. We have much still to do. There will be a meeting here for all in one half hour, where we will outline our next steps.”

  Jeff handed Bonnie a small pamphlet labeled ‘Emergency Procedures.’ He then said, “Make sure to read these. There’ll be a quiz later,” he laughed.

  Bonnie looked down at the top page of the sheet she had been handed. The first item on the list said, ‘Know where your spacesuit is located at all times.’ “So much for that,” she thought. “Hopefully the rest of the list will be a bit more useful.”

  Bonnie turned around, and noticed that her daughters had already taken Lotus to one of the rooms and were headed towards the ladder they had descended. She picked her bags back up and hurried to catch up to them. She had to detour around a hatch in the floor by the ladder, which she hadn’t noticed before. Jean was lifting Lucky and shoving her through a small hole in the wall at about waist height.

  “We have to go through that?” Bonnie questioned.

  “Of course, Mom! It’s right on the map,” Jean said. Jean lifted her sister to the hole and then pushed her butt. “C’mon slow poke. You’re in my way. I want to get to our room.”

  As her daughters disappeared through the hole, Bonnie ducked and crawled in after them. The passageway was only about five feet
long, which only took her a few seconds to traverse. When she came out the other end, she saw her daughters running to the end of a hallway. Along each side of the hall were rooms. The first door on her left had the word ‘Head’ on it. The one on the right said ‘Showers.’ There were more doors down each side of the hallway.

  Her children had already opened the door at the end of the hallway and disappeared. Bonnie walked deliberately forward with her shoulders squared as she passed the other doors on each side. Not knowing what to expect, given the incomplete nature of the Central module, she took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold into her new residence.

  CHAPTER 5

  Lunch was over, and Charles climbed back down the ladder to the work section of the habitat. He was excited, as this was the first drilling expedition for the Mars rover. He wondered whether it had uncovered anything. As he alit at the bottom floor of the hab, he glanced over to his left at the exercise wedge section of the circular room. There was the treadmill with the bungee cords to hold the runner down as he ran. Next to it was a rowing machine, which he had specially requested for this trip.

  There was a big debate at NASA about whether the one-third G of Mars was adequate to hold off bone loss, and so they had mandated as much exercise be done while at Mars as during the weightless journey there. Charles had insisted on a low impact rowing machine as an alternative to that endless jogging that they were required to do. He had rowed on the crew team in college, and had found the rhythm of the ergometer chain as it spun the flywheel quite soothing. But NASA required that he perform specific pieces at incredibly high stroke rates until he was aching and exhausted as part of the arrangement. “Hand it to NASA to suck the fun out of everything,” he thought. “At least those of us here haven’t lost our sense of humor.” He looked at the exercise bench next to the rower. A metal bar for bench pressing sat on the bench. It had a huge round Martian rock located on each end of the bar. On each rock was stenciled ‘500 lbs.’ in magic marker. “That photo we took of our geologist Brad while he was standing in his underwear holding the bar with the rocks overhead was shear genius,” he laughed to himself.