“Yes, he thinks they can start the reactivation of the Research Lab tomorrow.”
“Good.”
“How’s Annis?"
“She’s returned to the HAB.”
“Why won’t she stay here? We really need to stick together.”
“I know, but there was no stopping her. Anyway, I have given her all the data from our sample analysis. She’s going to send it through to mission control tonight. Maybe the boffins back on Earth can shed some light on what it is.”
“And Decker?”
“The same. No change.”
Jann sighed and slumped back in the chair. It was late and she was exhausted. They sat in silence for a moment. Then Jann leaned forward and spoke very low. “Paolio. I want you to do me a favour.”
“Sure, name it.”
“If… if I should go like Decker, you know… succumb to this infection. I want you to… kill me.”
“Jesus Jann, that’s a bit dramatic… anyway, it’s not going to happen.”
“But if it does, you promise me you’ll do this.”
“It’s not going to come to that.”
“Promise me.”
Paolio looked at her for a moment. “You know I can’t promise that. I’m a doctor. My duty is to save life not end it.”
Jann slumped back in her chair again. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you, it’s unfair of me.” She looked back at the wall of paintings. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe it won’t come to that.”
“Let’s hope not.”
CHAPTER 20: RECALIBRATION
Nills examined the rows of overripe tomatoes. Some had already fallen from the vine and would be good for nothing except composting. He should have picked them at least three days ago. The beans needed tying up and he really should check the herb garden to see which plants had seeds ready to save. His carefully scheduled tasks were falling behind and now he was playing catchup. The arrival of the ISA crew had thrown a spanner into his world and created stress where before there was harmony. The rhythm that he and Gizmo had grown accustomed to was disrupted. A new dynamic had entered colony life and new demands were being placed on its resources. Deep down, he knew this would happen sooner or later. New people would come to investigate what had happened, or simply tempted by the lure of adventure. Still, it was good to be able to talk to another human. For a long time he was uncertain of his own sanity. Had he gone mad after all these years? That uncertainty had been put to rest now as he had truly survived — with his mind intact.
He thought of Jann, or was it Bess. He shook his head. He needed more time, it was too soon to contemplate such emotions. “Put it out of your mind,” he said to himself.
“Put what out of your mind?” said Gizmo, who was shadowing him as he worked.
“Oh, nothing, I was just thinking aloud.” He said, as he snipped a bunch of tomatoes and placed it in a box that Gizmo was holding for him. He stopped for a moment, looked around him and considered what he had achieved here in those three and a half long years.
In the beginning the agriculture at Colony One had been utilitarian. Scientifically calculated to maximise yields. The plants where the vegetative equivalent of battery hens. The bio-dome was a factory simply for producing food. But since the demise of the colony population high yields had become unnecessary, so Nills had set about creating more of a garden than a factory. Slowly but surely he had given over more space to his Eden. And slowly but surely it gave him purpose and fortified his spirit. He would sit for long hours, surrounded by the lush vegetation, listening to the sound of the water flowing in the pond and stare up through the dome roof into the night-time sky. It was at these moments that he realised you can take the human out of the Earth but you can’t take the Earth out of the human. He may be living on an alien planet, but all around him was the very essence of Earth, of nature itself, of what it means to be a living creature. He was more in tune with the eco-system on this dusty godforsaken rock than he ever had been back home. It had taken him 140 million miles to get back to the garden.
He wiped a bead of sweat from his brow with the back of his sleeve and set to work again. Both he and Gizmo spent their time harvesting and tending to the tomatoes as these were the most urgent. Then Nills turned his attention to building up the soil around a newly sprouting crop of potatoes as Gizmo went off to store the night’s harvest. The little robot returned just as Nills finished the last of his work.
“They are related, you know.”
“Who are? Replied Gizmo.
“Tomatoes and potatoes. They are both from the Nightshade family, which includes Deadly Nightshade, a highly toxic plant.”
“Interesting. I will make a note of that. Perhaps it may be a useful titbit to regurgitate when I am next put upon in polite company, and find myself wanting for a fascinating fact to toss into the conversation.”
Nills cocked an eyebrow and the little robot. “Indeed,” he replied. “I think we’re done here for tonight Gizmo.”
“The strawberries are sprouting new runners, should we not get these staked down?”
“Time enough for that tomorrow. There’s been too much excitement around our little garden these last couple of days.”
“Yes, it has been a rather dramatic interlude.”
“I’m tired now. Come, let’s sit a while and talk.” Nills put away his garden tools and walked into the centre of the dome. The little robot whirred along beside him. He sat down on a low chair fashioned from wood he had pruned from the fruit trees in the bio-dome over the years. It had a rustic artisanal look and felt perfectly in keeping with the verdant surroundings. Beside it, was a low table made from the same materials. Nills waved his hand over the holo-tab that was resting there. A three dimensional control interface rendered itself above the surface and he tapped several of the icons in quick succession. A series of screens materialised showing charts and data of the colony systems. Nills studied them for a while. “I see you have compensated for the additional oxygen requirement, Gizmo.”
“Yes, Nills. Several adjustments needed to be made to accommodate the additional earthlings.”
“Very good. Everything looks nominal.”
“I would suggest we need to recalibrate our food production process at some point. They could eat us out of house and home.”
Nills scratched his chin. “This is a concern. However they have brought their own supplies. Enough for a hundred days I understand. Since two are dead and one incapacitated then this could stretch for longer. So that gives us some time to increase our planting.”
“Do they know yet that they will not be returning to Earth?” said Gizmo.
“It is only beginning to dawn on them. The problem will be how they are going to react when they do finally realise.”
“Will they be disappointed?”
“Hopefully it’s just disappointment and nobody starts getting crazy — doing something stupid.”
“Yes, that would be most unfortunate.”
Nills was now looking at a recording from one of the many cameras in the bio-dome. It was from a few hours earlier and showed Annis Romanov jogging around the path along the inner wall. She was panting and pushing hard. He studied her face as it swept into full view, he paused it. “We need to keep a close eye on her Gizmo.”
“Is she dangerous?”
“Unpredictable. And we don’t like that do we?” He turned a looked at the robot.
“No, we like a place for everything, and everything in its place.”
“Exactly.” He returned to the screen and tapped another icon. The recording of Romanov extinguished and was replaced by a direct video feed from the accommodation module. It was of a naked Dr. Jann Malbec preparing to have a shower. Nills flinched, his finger hovered over the camera control to switch it off and not intrude — but he lingered. He was drawn by the beauty of her poise, the arc of her neck, the curve of her spine. A memory stirred within him.
“Is she dangerous too?” said Gizmo.
&n
bsp; Nills tapped the off icon. “No, no, she's just… never mind.” Nills head slumped and he looked at the ground for quite some time before reaching up to wipe a tear from his eye.”
Gizmo moved closer to his master and spoke in a surprisingly low tone. “Is it Bess again? Your eyes always water when you think of her.”
Nills cocked a smile and the quirky robot. “Yes, Gizmo, I miss her and… well, she reminds me of her.” He wiped his face again, shook his head and tapped another icon. This time a feed from the Medlab showed Paolio examining the stricken Decker. Nills sat back in his chair and watched it for a while. From a pocket in his flight-suit he took out a small metal box. He carefully opened it up and proceeded to roll himself a joint. He lit it, took a long drag and settled himself back into the wicker recliner. He watched the doctor take a blood sample from the commander and prepare it for more tests.
“Gizmo.”
“Yes Nills.”
“I think tomorrow Its time to give you an upgrade.”
“Excellent, what sort of upgrade?”
“I think maybe a weapon or two might come in handy.”
“Splendid, I do love playing with new gadgets.”
CHAPTER 21: LIES
Peter VanHoff scanned the lab report sent by first officer Romanov in her most recent communication. It was a blood sample analysis done by Dr. Jann Malbec on the ISA crew and the sole colonist Nills Langthorp. It was Malbec’s identification of the bacterial infection that interested him most. He was impressed. It was clear that his geneticists on Colony One had been busy, as this was evidently their work. What intrigued him, however, was the fact that Nills Langthorp showed no signs of the infection. And what made this even more interesting was Romanov’s observation of his youthful appearance. Clearly then, this bacteria had been an earlier attempt. They had come close, but the side effects where disastrous. He put the report aside, stood up and paced.
The intention had always been to return the science team. There was only so much that could be done remotely. Although, that turned out to be quite a lot. Nevertheless, acquisition of the active biology was the end-game. The other reason was that it was difficult to get a team assembled with any depth, if the mission was simply one-way. They just wouldn’t go. But offer a return mission and then COM would have its pick of the best talent. They had been working on developing their own return mission for quite some time. But all that stopped when the colony fell apart. And with no more money coming in, it was left to wither on the vine. Getting into bed with ISA had been the only option left.
He waved a hand over the holo-tab and touched the icon to summon his second in command. A few moments later the avatar that was Nagle materialised in Peter VanHoff’s field of vision and spoke.
“Good evening Peter. How are you feeling today?”
“I told you not to keep asking me that.”
“It’s just a greeting, nothing more.”
Peter grunted. “Have you seen the infection loads in the report?”
“I have.”
“The survivor Nills Langtorp is clean.”
“I notice this, very interesting.”
“This is all the evidence we need. I suggest we move forward our plans.”
“I concur. I have also come to the conclusion that the mental state of our agent is deteriorating. At this rate we may not get another chance.”
“Yes, I did notice her load was higher than the others, barring the commander of course. How is she holding up?”
“So far, so good. But that status may change very quickly the longer she is exposed. She is becoming more paranoid of Langthorp and the colony in general. She keeps referring to it as a Leper Colony. Also, Malbec is trying to convince her that returning to Earth would be catastrophic.”
“Yes, well it would be — if we were going to let her live.”
“My thoughts exactly. So I think we need to act now to secure the Analogue and complete the mission.”
“You have a plan then?”
“Yes, it is as simple as it is elegant. Fortunately, Romanov’s current state leaves her exposed to straightforward psychological manipulation. In essence I plan to lie.”
“Excellent. It’s time to bring home the bacon then.”
***
Annis paced the HAB floor with a deep primal rhythm, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. She waited out time in measured steps. Each one closer to a reply from Earth. It should come soon.
The comms unit chimed an alert. A message had arrived. Annis broke her step, wheeled towards the unit and tapped receive. The avatar that was Nagle materialised before her and shimmered like a fiery beacon, a light in the darkness of an alien world. It spoke…
‘We understand your concern, first officer Romanov, and concur with your hypothesis that the colonist, Nills Langthorp, is in fact the cause of this infection. We have long suspected that he may have even instigated the collapse of the colony. From Dr. Malbec’s analysis, which you sent back in your report, we have ascertained that he, and the rest of your crew, are now all contaminated with a highly malign form of leprosy. However, you may remember the inoculations that our medical team administered to you before you departed. These were to provide a certain level of biological protection. Suffice to say, they are working and fortunately you are not contaminated — thus far. Nevertheless, the longer you stay on the planet the less effective this protection will be and your life will be in increasing danger.
Therefore, it is imperative that you acquire the Analogue now and prepare the MAV for your return to Earth. You must also ensure all contaminates have been eradicated by destroying the research lab. Forsake all thoughts of the others as they can no longer be saved. You must save yourself. You are all that is left of the mission. We have the utmost faith in your abilities to fulfil this difficult operation and return to Earth with the Analogue.
Good luck and God speed.’
The avatar that was Nagle faded and extinguished itself. In its place was left an empty space that was now being filled with the frenetic thoughts of First Officer Annis Romanov. “Return to Earth, leave the others, destroy the colony? Did she hear this right?” She paced over and across the HAB floor, bisecting it in a steady even pace, all the time thinking on the new mission requirements. She was not contaminated — Malbec was lying. She could still get out of this alive, and she could get out now.
Assuming that the Research Lab came back on-line, acquiring the Analogue would be simple. Preparing the MAV for launch without alerting the others would be a much more difficult task. What she needed was a distraction in Colony One, something to keep them all busy and buy her enough time. She required around thirty minutes to prepare the craft, another hour to move the six fuel canisters from the manufacturing plant and attach them, then another twenty minutes or so, to run the pre-launch diagnostic. Around two hours in all.
She moved into the HAB airlock and donned her EVA suit. Time to head back to Colony One, hopefully for the last time. She closed her visor and hit the button for the outer door. Once the pressure was equalised she stepped out on to the surface and walked towards the seismic rover. Its surface already covered in a layer of dust. From the rear storage hatch she extracted four explosive charges and placed them into a pocket in the front of her suit. “This should be enough of a distraction."
CHAPTER 22: RESEARCH LAB
Nills and Gizmo where in the operations area studying a three-dimensional schematic of the Research Lab systems. They had been working on it all morning. Each time they tried to power up the lab, fail-safe circuits would kick in and power would die. And each time they would analyse the results and try to isolate the problems. Nills zoomed in on one of the four modules attached to the main Research Lab. “This seems to be the problem area, something in there is tripping the power every time we try and boot up.”
“If my analysis of the circuitry is correct, and it generally is, then I would have to postulate that it already has some power,” said Gizmo.
“Well, we’ve known for a long time that the main lab has been using a little power… for something, god knows what. But this is new.” Nills looked over at his robotic friend. For a long time his careful husbandry of Colony One resources concluded that the facility used more power than he could account for. He made many attempts to identify this anomaly, to no avail. In the end he and Gizmo simply factored it in to their calculations and lived with it. “Could this be the source of the power suck we’ve been seeing all this time?”
“I think you could be right. It is consistent with the 2.1% additional power we have been calculating.”
“It’s no wonder we couldn’t find it. What the hell is going on in there?”
“Something so important that required it to be integrated with the low level life support. Something they did not want switched off.”
Nills looked back at the schematic and drew his finger along a circuit line, pointing out the power connections to Gizmo. “I think we need to disable here and here, and re-route through here. Then we can try life support again.”
“Roger that, Captain,” said Gizmo. “Reconfiguring circuits now — ready.”
“Okay, here goes.” Nills tapped a few icons on the table and full power was again routed to the Research Lab. The schematic lit up with a series of red alerts all across the power circuits. “Shit. Well that didn’t work. We’re still getting a lot of shorts. I suppose it’s to be expected with a unit as complex as this lying in deep-freeze for the last three-and-a-half years. Gizmo, can you identify the new problem area?”
“Working on it.” Circuits on the schematic flashed and danced as Gizmo reconfigured lab systems and rerouted connections. This went on for quite a while. “Okay,” it said, “try it again.”
This time no alerts flashed. “Looking good, Gizmo. I think you have done it. Modules two and five are running hot, though — wait, looks like they are stabilising.
“I estimate with the current power consumption we would have thirty five hours and forty six minutes of supply from the remote power unit we’ve set up,” said Gizmo.
Colony One Mars: A SciFi Thriller (Colony Mars Book 1) Page 14