by Bob Lee
“There’s not too much more,” Roy said. “For near term, the oxygen and carbon dioxide systems are the most critical, and those are checked out. We should also make sure that the water manufacturer completely fills the storage tanks. People can only live about three days without water, so that’s of next importance. Then, we should use the bulldozer to cover the habitats to protect them from solar flares and cosmic rays. That’s for long term protection. How is the greenhouse situation, Chuck?”
“Everything is ready for the seeds once the water pipes are hooked up. That should only take a few hours tomorrow. Then the growing lamps have to be placed and wired in. That’s another few hours.”
“Good,” Jeff said. “Since the water manufacturer is working, we do not need to wait for the storage tanks to fill. And we can finish the greenhouse and bulldozing work ourselves. Brother Jacobs instructions are, if it is possible to move in tonight, then we will do so.”
“Now wait a minute,” Charles said. “What’s the rush? We can make sure that everything you’re going to rely upon for the rest of your lives is completed in another day. You really should wait.”
“I have my instructions. Please start moving the colonists into this facility now.”
“C’mon, let’s go talk to Jacobs,” Roy said with a sigh. “Although knowing him, caution will fall on deaf ears.”
Everyone donned their helmets again and trudged back to the Pegasus. Once inside, Roy confronted the colony’s leader. “Your second in command told me that you want to move in tonight, even if the living arrangements aren’t completed. You realize that’s not too smart, right?”
“Be that as it may, we are ready for the next stage of our journey, Commander. You have fulfilled your duty, once you convey all of us into our new home. How do you propose to accomplish this?”
“Well, you took away our original plan, which was to pull the Pegasus over to the habitats with the bulldozer and directly connect it so you could just step inside. We can’t do that now. And since your members don’t have any spacesuits, they can’t walk over there. We’ll have to use the rover from the Mars base to convey people a few at a time. If you still insist, we can start right away.”
“I insist, Commander.”
During this discussion, Charles looked over at Bonnie, who was hunched over in her seat near the back of the ship. “Excuse me, Commander Olstein, but shouldn’t we perform some ceremony for the dead preemie. After all, he was the first true Martian. We should do something.”
“Your right, Charles. It happened on my ship, so I’m responsible.” Turning back to Brother Jacobs, the Commander said, “Since you insist on moving everyone tonight, we should hold a short service immediately, while it is still light out. Charles, you get the preemie.”
“I insist that I and the father be present,” Brother Jacobs interjected.
“Hey, what about the mother?” Charles snarled back. “She should get priority.”
“He’s right,” Roy said. “So, it will be three of you for the service. Since you have three suits in total, I suggest you start swapping immediately. The light is fading fast.”
Charles walked over to the back of the ship where Bonnie was located. “Excuse me, Bonnie, but you should get up and put a spacesuit on. We’re going to hold a service for your baby.”
Bonnie looked up. “But I don’t know anything about spacesuits,” she replied.
“I’ll help you, Mom,” Jean said. “It’s easy. Just don’t forget to breathe.”
Charles looked at the young teen sitting next to Bonnie. It was obvious now that this was her daughter. The resemblance was unmistakable. There was another younger child on the other side of Bonnie who was also a miniature version of the mother. “That’s good advice, young lady. C’mon Bonnie. We should go up front. Let me help you up.”
When Bonnie, Jean and Charles had moved to the Pegasus’ airlock, Bonnie saw that Brother Jacobs had already donned George’s suit. The Commander handed her the other one.
“Here, let me hold your child while your daughter helps you,” Charles said.
Bonnie hesitantly passed the rolled up blanket with her dead baby to Charles, and then stepped into the spacesuit pants. Soon, she was ensconced in the top of the suit also, which was then sealed to the bottom part. Jean took the helmet, and started to place it on her head. “Remember, don’t forget to breathe,” she said to her mother.
Bonnie saw a bunch of numbers and words appear on the visor as her daughter latched the helmet to the rest of the suit. She had no idea what they meant. Then she realized that she was holding her breath, and let it out and then hesitantly sniffed. She grimaced, as the suit smelled of body odor. She assumed it was from all the hard work that had been done in it the past few hours. “I’m okay,” she said to no one in particular. Since no one else had a helmet on, she was met with an eerie silence that was only broken by her breathing.
“Help me out, honey,” Charles said to Jean. “Can you carefully pull the stiches off this United States flag on my arm? I want to use it outside.”
“Sure,” Jean said. She stood tiptoe and bit apart the thread at one corner of the flag, and then quickly tugged at the stitching until it came loose. “Here you go,” she said, handing it to Charles.
“Thank you,” he replied. “This will mean a lot to your Mom.”
“Okay,” Roy said, lifting his helmet to his head. “Let’s all get going.”
# # #
Bonnie stood looking through her helmet visor at the makeshift grave. The astronauts had dug it using a pick axe and shovel, and then made a crude cross with the implements by affixing them with some cabling. The Commander had said a few words, and then that nice Charlie had placed the U.S. flag standing up against the base of the cross, held there by a small rock.
“I think we’re missing something,” Charlie said. He pulled his Gyrojet rocket pistol from the grip on his side, pointed it into the air, and fired it off three times. “You will not be forgotten,” he said, and then paused. “Bonnie, did you give your baby a name?”
“Peter,” she sighed. “His name is Peter.” She looked at the cross, the setting sun bathing it a bloody red. In fact, the red air and soil all reminded her of blood in this deepening gloom. She abruptly came to a decision and gritted her teeth. “I want asylum for me and my girls,” she said. “We can’t stay here with these people any longer.”
“What?!” Jeff sputtered. He strode over to Bonnie, grabbed her by the shoulders, and shook her. “What are you saying? I forbid it!”
“Hey, leave her alone!” Charles said. He grabbed Jeff’s arm and pulled it, trying to dislodge him. Jeff turned around and made a clumsy swing at Charles’ head. The gloved hand bounced off of the helmet with a clang. Charles did an awkward leg swipe, which managed to knock Jeff down. “I said, leave her alone!” he yelled, standing over him and pointing the pistol at him.
“Charlie, stop! He’s my husband,” Bonnie shouted.
“Husband? Him?” Charles sputtered.
“Yes, please don’t hurt him,” she pleaded. Charles looked in amazement at his gloved hand that was holding the pistol, surprised that he had pointed a weapon at another human being.
“Chuck, stop it now! Put the gun away,” Grant commanded. He looked at Bonnie. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, but there is no room at our base. We will already be overcrowded. There is simply no way to accommodate additional people. You’re going to have to stay here.”
“Wait, I’ll give her and her kids my bunk,” Charles said. “I’ll sleep on the floor downstairs.”
“No, Chuck,” Grant said. “It simply won’t work. The systems will already be strained with six people instead of four, and they’ll need to last us a number of additional years. She’ll have to stay here.”
“But she wants help,” Charles said.
Bonnie hung her head resignedly. “That’s okay. Thank you being so considerate, Charlie. I guess we’ll have to manage here with the others.”
Charles s
aw Jeff get up and glare at his wife. He could tell that the man would take his revenge later, but kept silent. There was nothing that he could do to help her further at the moment.
“You have almost fulfilled your contract, Commander,” Brother Jacobs said. “You and the Pilot must move us all to our new home now, and then you may leave.”
“Alright, sure,” Roy said in disgust. He beckoned to the others. “Ceremony’s over. Let’s start moving everyone into the habs. It’s been a long day and tempers are strained. The sooner we can get this over with the better. I, for one, can’t wait to get to the Star-Kissed base for a well-deserved rest.”
# # #
Sergeant Wong sat inside the now reoccupied Mars One base composing his message to General Zhou. He had already received two messages on the ship while they were descending to Mars from the General, exhorting him to get started with finding any alien technology. As he carefully pondered what he would reply, the NCO could see the chief scientist scurrying around him, checking the various computer systems. Out of the base’s windows, in the fading light of dusk, he observed the Koreans scrambling around like ants who had had their mound disturbed. Some were frantically shoveling dirt onto the sides of the three living modules while another was driving the bulldozer and lifting Martian sand onto the top of the modules. Other Koreans were running back and forth from their Moon ship to the greenhouse with supplies to set up a vegetable garden.
“Exalted General,” the NCO typed, “with your foresight and planning, we have successfully landed on Mars and established ourselves. Power has been restored and the rest of the base appears to be in excellent condition. We will set out tomorrow to capture and secure the alien artifacts that are located at the coordinates that our spies intercepted from NASA and that you provided to me. As soon as this is accomplished, I will notify you with an expected delivery date. Respectfully, Sergeant Wong Sheng.”
The NCO turned towards the scientist. “Li Julong, come here. I need you to encrypt this message and send it to the General at our Moon base. I assume you have communications set up?”
“Yes, Sergeant. I just activated and checked the array. There was a problem with the wiring when it was built. They had hooked up some of the cables in reverse, and the only thing I needed to do was switch the connections. The Moon base should be able to receive us now.”
“Excellent. Send this, and then go outside and ensure that everyone finishes what they are doing. Tell them to be prepared to set out tomorrow morning. I want to take all hands in case we run into trouble, so the base will need to be secured when we leave. The two rovers should be able to transport all of us, and we will bring the bulldozer in case we need to excavate. We can also use it to transport anything that we find. I will be in my quarters. Notify me when everything is completed for today.”
“Of course, Sergeant. It will be as you command,” Julong said with a bow. He watched the retreating back of the NCO as the Sergeant walked over to enter a cabin, shutting the door behind him. With a sigh, Julong sat at the terminal. “Just one more thing for the glory of China,” he muttered as he encrypted the message. “Even millions of miles away, they still command my obedience.”
CHAPTER 43
The Master watched the video feed from the hopper as twilight descended on Mars. The three humans that he recognized from his previous monitoring of their base had departed in their conveyance. They had also taken two of the new humans with them as they left. No doubt they were taking them to their base. The rest of the humans that had recently arrived had moved into the newly erected habitats. Now was the time to execute his plan.
“Spit, send the hopper over to the habitats. We will signal these humans and entice one to emerge.”
“How would you like me to signal the humans?” Probe Spit inquired.
“Use the hopper eye. Have it emit a light, and then blink it on and off.”
Probe Spit’s programming insisted that, beyond simple obedience, it should also please the Master. The probe searched its database for various human communications methods. It eagerly offered suggestions. “Should I invoke a sentence that will blink using their Morse code sequence? Or perhaps the numbers 1,1,2,3,5,8,13 which they call a Fibonacci series?”
The Master glared at Spit with all four of his eyes. “They are primitives, Spit. Their puny brains probably do not have the capacity to instantly recognize what you are doing. Simply blink it on and off. They will see it and come.”
The biological portion of Spit was both chastised and disappointed. When the Master had requested it communicate with the aliens, its software programming had instantly brought up a myriad of techniques for sending pulses of light. It could have sent the mathematical digits of pi. Or perhaps the physical constants that the humans themselves had launched etched on golden discs and plaques with some of their own probes. Those numbers included items such as the hyperfine frequency of hydrogen, which of course humans would instantly recognize, would they not? Spit could also have transmitted a sequence of primes or the maximum number of pieces resulting from ‘n’ cuts of a circle. The biological portion of Spit had an innate sense of curiosity, and briefly wondered what sequence the humans would return if it sent one of these. The probe struggled mightily between its software programming to obey the Master, and its biological need to follow its curiosity. The programming won, at least this time.
“Of course,” Probe Spit replied. “I will institute the blinks to just go on and off right away.”
# # #
Brother Jacobs sat in his new stateroom. Its layout was a duplicate of the one on the asteroid, since it had been provided by the same Bigelow manufacturer. Only this room was without the beautiful glittering metal that had been excavated and applied to the previous one. It was drab in comparison.
He turned on the large screen that was situated on the wall of his cabin and set it for a view of the outside surface. The sun had set, and as he looked out at the darkness, he contemplated the activities of the past twenty-four hours. He had certainly gambled by taking the ship, but it had all worked out. He and his flock were settled, and the meddling astronauts had been sent on their way. It was a shame that the baby had not waited to be born on Mars. It would have called to the Great Consciousness like a beacon, but now, Brother Jacobs wondered what it would take. Perhaps it would need a different sacrifice. He wrung his hands in anticipation. “When will the sign come?” he thought to himself.
The colony leader bowed his head and quietly prayed in his own fashion. “Oh Great Consciousness, open to me the gates of righteousness and I shall go into them, and praise You. This is the day You have made for me, and I will rejoice and be glad in it. Show me the light, and I will praise Thee.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a light out on the surface of Mars. He looked up at his screen. There was nothing there. “Did I imagine it, or was it one of the Martian moons starting to rise?” he thought. But no, the light was on again. Then it disappeared once more. “It’s blinking!” he realized. “My prayers have been answered! It is an emissary of the Great Consciousness!”
He turned on the habitat-wide intercom and spoke. “Platinum One, please come to my quarters. Brother Jeff, I have great news to convey,” he said excitedly. He immediately disconnected and paced back and forth while waiting for his second in command to appear. A few moments later, there was a knock at his door. “Enter,” he said.
“What is it, Brother Jacobs,” Jeff said breathlessly, for he had hurried over immediately when he had heard the call. “I could use some good news after my no-good wife humiliated me outside.”
“Put that behind you, for behold,” the leader said, pointing at his screen. “It is a visitation! Did I not speak the truth about the Great Consciousness calling us?”
Jeff looked at the screen in amazement. Out on the surface of the planet, a small light blinked on and off. “What is it?” he asked in wonder. “Can you make the image larger so we can see?”
Brother Jacobs fiddled
with the controls, and soon a large silhouette of the hopper could be discerned. In the dark, it appeared as a small rounded torso with a smaller head. Atop the head, multiple spikes stuck out. The light was blinking in the middle of its shadowed head.
Brother Jacobs spoke in a sonorous tone. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse. His eye was as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. In righteousness he doth judge and make war.”
Jeff had read enough of the Bible to recognize that the passage was some sort of extract from Revelations, and a tingle went up his spine. “Amazing,” he said. “It’s here for us on the first night. It knew we were coming.” He turned towards his leader and asked, “What should we do?”
“You must go and meet the emissary, of course,” Brother Jacobs responded in a matter-of-fact tone. “You failed me once and did not provide the first newborn on Mars, as I had asked you. And yet, the Great Consciousness still came. He calls for you. Here, now, you can redeem yourself in His eyes.”
“I? But the great honor should be yours, Brother Jacobs!”
“You must let it lead you, Platinum One. If I am to be contacted, it will request to enter our abode. If it is here for you, it will want to take you to the Great Consciousness.” The leader walked over to Jeff and held him by the arms with both hands. “Think of the honor! If you are to go, use the rover to follow it. I will monitor everything from here. As the Commander instructed us in his final words, the rover has video capability, and our home has a radar system that can track it. I will stay in constant touch with you over the radio and provide any messages for the Great Consciousness.” He leaned over and kissed Jeff on both cheeks. “Go, my son. Put on your suit and go now. I will be with you all the way.”
Jeff walked back to his cabin in a daze. It was almost too much for him to take in. He opened the door, and entered. Bonnie was cowering in the corner, holding their two girls. He ignored them all, and went over to where he kept his spacesuit and started putting it on.