Red Hope: An Adventure Thriller - Book 1

by John Dreese

  “Phew. I’m glad that’s over,” said Adam.

  The gravity of what they’d just accomplished matched the gravity holding them in their seats. They grinned from ear to ear. The crew knew that even if they went no further, they had just changed human history. They alone had just advanced our species to another planet.

  In a little over ten minutes, the astronauts would hear back from Earth.

  Chapter 16

  “Why is there so much static coming from the speakers?” asked Keller. He had a confused look on his face.

  Once they were on the surface, their communication with Earth relied on an intermediary satellite in orbit around Mars named Odyssey. It had been sent there years earlier, mainly to measure thermal surface data. If that satellite failed, they would only have a direct line of communication with Earth for a few hours every day. Adam was now concerned that the relay satellite was malfunctioning.

  Yeva’s frown turned to a grin. She laughed.

  “I think that static is the sound of cheering from Mission Control.”

  She was right. The sound of a hundred people clapping and yelling overwhelmed the microphones at Mission Control. Eventually, the crew could distinguish a voice talking over the cheers. It was the Mission Control Director speaking to them.

  “Okay guys, we can finally breathe!” said Mission Control over the speakers. He continued, “The entire room, no, the entire planet is going nuts down here. There is confetti falling in Times Square!”

  “They like us. I think they really, really like us,” joked Keller.

  Mission Control continued talking, “Hey guys, somebody here has a few words for you.”

  Adam raised his hand and said, “Be quiet everybody.”

  “To the group of men and women who just took our species from this planet to the next, you have my wholehearted thanks for taking on this audacious task and making it happen. Godspeed to your exploration, experiments, and a safe trip home.”

  And that was it. The culmination of mankind’s hard work wrapped up in a few words from the president of the United States of America. His re-election was now guaranteed.

  Mission Control started talking again.

  “Thank you, President Jennings. We have another message. This one is for Yeva.”

  For the next minute, the Russian president spoke directly to Yeva in her native language. None of the other crew could understand it. When she smiled and her eyes filled with tears, Adam realized it was something heartfelt.

  Mission Control knew the astronauts had a big job to do and decided to keep this talk short.

  “Those were some special words from the world leaders responsible for this mission. Crew, we’re going to sign off now, but we’ll be calling again soon. Little Turtle, out.”

  Adam was the first out of his seat, happy to walk with solid gravity again. He weighed a little over a third of what he did on Earth, but the constant gravity felt good and reassuring.

  “Congratulations, everybody. From now on, every step you take is history in the making,” said Adam in a fatherly tone.

  As much as they wanted to get outside and walk around, their first task was to make sure the life support systems were working. After that, they had to extend the pressurized hallway from the Little Turtle all the way to the Big Turtle which had arrived a few weeks earlier.

  The Little Turtle sat on four landing pads; each pad had powered wheels on the bottom. The entire vehicle automatically crawled slowly toward the Big Turtle until the pressurized hallway was near the hatch on the other side of the gap. Once everything was aligned, the hallway would extend, crossing the chasm between the two modules. The result would be an air-filled walkway between them. When the connection was made, it would virtually triple the available living space. That was the plan.

  Adam paused the hallway extension unexpectedly.

  “Hang on, everybody; we can’t extend the hallway until we drop the grounding cables. Otherwise, we’ll have all kinds of nasty static electricity problems when the hallway touches the other ship.”

  Adam lifted a small panel near the hallway hatch and exposed two red switches. He pushed the first switch down. Underneath the Little Turtle, a spike fired downward from an air cannon at high speed. It drove deep into the bedrock and dragged a steel woven cable with it. Adam flipped the other switch and a similar spike fired from the bottom of the Big Turtle. Both ships were now electrically grounded. Any static electricity buildup from the constant blowing winds would be dissipated easily through the cables and into the ground beneath.

  Adam returned his attention to making the extendable hallway cross the gap over to the Big Turtle. The astronauts watched out the windows as this delicate mechanical dance took place. The control computer took the lead to this waltz automatically.

  The hallway support wheels slowly rolled along the Martian surface leaving a rut in the loose soil. When it reached about half way, one of its support wheels ran into a rock on the ground that was just taller than it could climb. Normally, it would back off and try to roll around the obstacle. This was a wide rock though, and it was a serious problem.

  Adam frowned with irritation.

  “Crap, we didn’t plan on that. We have to get that hallway attached, or the mission just got more complicated; the airlock for external excursions is on the Big Turtle. We can’t exit Little Turtle without depressurizing the entire ship. And I’d rather not do that.”

  Yeva thought for a moment and suggested, “We need to push that rock out of the way, right? Perhaps we can use the mini-rover to nudge it?”

  Adam smiled and said, “Yeva, you are brilliant!”

  He walked over to the rover station and lifted the handheld control transmitter out of the wall caddy. Although the mini-rover was meant for surface exploration purposes, nobody said it couldn’t be used for a little rock bulldozing.

  Adam held in his hand something that looked just like any common radio-controlled toy transmitter. He pushed a button labeled Extend. A noisy ramp extended from the bottom of the ship until it pushed into the red dust beneath the ship. The rover itself resembled a small toy Jeep about three feet long. It rolled down the ramp and onto the ground. Adam pushed the throttle stick frontwards, and the mini-rover took off like a rocket.

  “Whoa! That little thing is fast!” yelled Adam.

  “Slow down there, cheetah,” laughed Keller.

  Adam used smaller stick movements and brought it back around, maneuvering it to be near the problem rock. He used the mini-rover’s claw attachment to grab the rock and roll it out of the way. As he did that, the hallway extension jerked back into motion and continued moving toward Big Turtle.

  Yeva smiled and said, “Aren’t you glad they kept that mini-rover in the budget?”

  Adam grinned widely, relieved.

  After a few more minutes of motion, a loud clunk was heard and the ship shook. They looked out the windows and saw that the hallway was now attached to Big Turtle, forming a bridge to their new living quarters. It was pressurizing and would be viable in a short while.

  Adam wanted to remove his helmet, but he knew that would be unsafe until they established that the hallway was now an airtight connection between two airtight ships. He opened the door on Little Turtle giving him access to the newly extended hallway. The sound of rushing air lasted just a few seconds; everything seemed okay.

  There were no surprises in sight or sound. He walked carefully to the other end of the hallway, each step causing it to bounce up and down like a cheaply built bridge. Adam found himself standing just outside the door on Big Turtle.

  He grabbed hold of the circular handle on the door and slowly spun it. It opened. He felt a blast of air hit his suit, pushing him backwards. He instinctively held his breath even though he was still wearing his helmet. Had he not been holding onto the door handle, the push of air would have knocked him down.

  Adam pushed hard on the door and peered in through the crack. He pushed it wide open and looked around, checkin
g a pressure gauge on the wall. He turned around and looked back through the hallway at the other astronauts. They anxiously awaited his next step. His hands came up, he took off his helmet, slowly at first and finally with a quick movement.

  “We’re home, kids. Take off your helmets and stay a while!”

  The next hour was a flurry of activity. Each astronaut got out their purple checklists and went through them meticulously. Adam was to check all of the safety systems and valves. Molly made sure the life support systems were functioning and that they had enough oxygen to supply their 30 day mission. Yeva was opening all of the exploration tool compartments to check their condition.

  Keller, on the other hand, was staring out the window at the red rocky landscape just a few feet away. To him, it looked like Arizona. Being on such a huge planet with only a confined place to survive caused his hands to begin shaking. When nobody was looking, Keller took one of his pills. He calmed down.

  Yeva had the delicate task of dropping the Mars small space exploration vehicle, or sSEV, from the Big Turtle housing module. The astronauts referred to it as the golf cart. Although NASA had developed surface exploration vehicles for future missions, the sSEV was a quickly-developed smaller version to fit this mission. It literally looked like an open-air golf cart with big wheels and solar panels on top. It had to be slid out on extendable rods where it would drop onto the surface. This golf cart is what the astronauts would use to drive around during their external excursions; it was their main vehicle.

  Yeva sat down at the control panel by the airlock. This gave her a good view outside. She could see the golf cart pinned against the side of Big Turtle. She pushed the toggle switch labeled Extend; two large rods extended from the side of the ship carrying the golf cart with it. Next she pushed the button which would release the golf cart. The rods bent down and the cart slid off. It dropped to the ground and bounced a few times. Fortunately, they couldn’t hear the banging and clanging due to the thin atmosphere.

  As everybody worked, they began to notice a silence that had befallen them. Nobody was talking; they just did their tasks.

  Adam broke the silence.

  “Okay, everybody. Let’s gather around for a meeting.”

  The astronauts walked over to the dinner table which was rigidly bolted to the floor. They were still wearing the lower portion of their pressure suits.

  Adam spoke in a fatherly tone, “Once we finish these tasks, I think we’ll be in a good spot to start the first phase of our exploration. Yeva and I will go out first. If the golf cart is working okay, we’ll drive around to examine the condition of the two Turtles from the outside. After that, we’ll go find the Curiosity rover and take a look at the fossils and the pyramid. Sound good? Great.”

  Prior to leaving Earth, the astronauts had secretly decided who would be the first to step down on Mars. To help choose, they had taken a bowl of pennies and each astronaut chose one. The penny with the oldest year decided who would go into the history books as being the first to walk on Mars. Yeva and Adam both picked pennies minted in 1973, the oldest pennies chosen. Never before had two cents been more valuable.

  After some discussion, they decided both would descend the ramp together at the same time. A coed landing of sorts. Nobody was happy with this compromise.

  “It’s a green-eyed conspiracy,” complained Keller, referring to the fact that the two astronauts with green eyes, Adam and Yeva, would be the first people to walk on Mars. Keller and Molly were not happy about the arrangement at all, but they accepted it for what it was. They were on Mars now and they couldn’t change plans. Most importantly, the arrangement was a closely held secret. Nobody outside of these four astronauts knew who would be first.

  Adam wanted to be the one in the history books, though. Partly out of a sense of pride, but mainly because it would guarantee a constant stream of speaking engagements and endorsements for the rest of his life.

  While moving supplies around the ship, Keller pulled Adam aside to see if he could convince him to trade places. Keller wanted that initial step on Martian soil. He looked over his shoulders to see if he could talk to Adam in privacy.

  “Look, Adam, I have an offer for you.”

  “Oh yeah? I’m listening,” responded Adam half-seriously. He was transferring a stack of supplies from one cabinet to another.

  “I will pay you two million dollars if you allow me to walk out there in your place. I’ll go out there with Yeva.”

  Adam looked at the floor, soaking in the offer.

  “That’s a tempting offer Keller. Really. However, I think the potential payoff from being the first would far outweigh two million dollars. Besides, we may not even make it back. Then your money would be worthless to me.”

  “What about your family?”

  Adam halted what he was working on, so he could think.

  “My family already has the million dollar bonus. Thanks to you, right?”

  “Well, what would it take?” asked Keller.

  “I’m afraid there’s nothing you could offer. Sorry, Keller.”

  Keller rolled his eyes and turned away in disgust.

  After the astronauts completed their task lists, Adam and Yeva prepared for their monumental trip. They put on their suits and tested the valves to make sure the pressurization was working properly. The four astronauts walked toward the airlock vestibule.

  Adam and Yeva ducked through the airlock door and stood in the cramped room, staring at the external hatch. On the other side of that flimsy metal was the harsh atmosphere of Mars, with temperatures sometimes reaching -100 degrees Fahrenheit. Molly closed the door behind them, essentially locking in their fate. They could feel their hearts pounding.

  Adam leaned toward the door and slowly rotated the handle. They heard the sound of air leaking, but it only lasted for a few seconds. Adam and Yeva stepped proudly out onto the catwalk. Stretched in front of them was a surreal landscape like no other. The common description of it looking like Arizona is not correct. It’s as if a huge landscape of bedrock was sprinkled with red sand, dust and loose rocks. On Earth, even the harshest desert shows some sign of life. They could see for miles in every direction here, and there wasn’t a single living organism. This place had been dead for a long time.

  “It’s so beautiful and so lifeless,” said Adam.

  He turned his head and looked up at the roof-mounted video camera. It was beaming their images back to Earth. He waved. Billions of people were watching.

  They both stood there looking down at the Martian soil. It was only three feet below them at the bottom of the ramp. It looked so inviting. History was so close. Adam’s usually complacent ego was going into overdrive. He ruminated about sharing the spotlight of history. Adam’s repressed arrogance flared. He had no choice.

  Yeva turned her head just in time to see Adam leap forward past the end of the ramp and land on the ground. His boots kicked up a puff of dust. It blew away in the thin Martian breeze.

  The ground was as solid as if he’d landed on Earth. He stood up, soaking in an ocean of pride. In that brief betrayal of Yeva, he became the first human to step foot on another planet, ensuring his historical legacy. In five minutes, billions of people would see him become a legend.

  Adam turned around and looked at Yeva. She stared at him with a look of crushing disappointment. She would always be known as the second person on Mars. In other words, she would be unknown. She assumed he had always planned this move.

  Yeva’s look of disappointment changed to rage. She reverted to her Russian and said, “Vy nakhodites' na vershine moyego spiska kormy!”

  Adam raised one eyebrow and said, “That didn’t sound like an endearing phrase.”

  Adam could take her derision - for now at least. Only his crew knew what was supposed to have happened, so he was still a hero to Mission Control and to the billions of people watching.

  He pushed the glove-mounted button that opened his microphone up to the Earth video stream feed. He looked u
p at the camera and said what Neil Armstrong had meant to say all those years ago when he first set foot on the Moon; Adam added a bit of political correctness too.

  “This is one small step for a human and one giant leap for humankind.”

  Adam’s name would be an answer on game shows. It would be an answer in Trivial Pursuit: Mars Edition. From this moment on, his family would never want for money or medicine. And all he had to do was violate a promise he had carried for many millions of miles.

  Adam looked over at Yeva again. He said, “I am sorry Yeva. I had to do that for my family. It’s hard to explain.”

  Yeva was still stunned, unmoving. She walked down the ramp and stopped before reaching the dirt. She lifted her boot carefully and set it down firmly on the red dust. When she set the other boot down, she looked up at Adam and said, “You can rot for all I care. Now, let us go finish what we came here for.”

  They walked toward the golf cart. Yeva pushed Adam out of the way as she hopped into the driver’s seat. She looked at him and said, “I am driving.”

  Adam climbed onto the passenger seat.

  They both reached behind their seats and pulled out an American and Russian flag respectively. They leaned out of the golf cart and jabbed them into the red sandy soil.

  Adam started laughing.

  “Now what could possibly be funny?” asked Yeva.

  “Did you ever notice that the first two people to walk on Mars are named Adam and Yeva?” asked Adam.

  She stared at him motionless.

  “You know, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden?”

  Yeva looked at him incredulously.

  He quickly added, “Granted, this place is hostile and deadly, so it’s not really like the Garden of Eden, but still, it’s a funny coincidence, right?”

  Yeva was thinking. She finally spoke.

  “I would like to remove one of your ribs and beat some sense into you with it.”

  A profound silence emerged. The smile left Adam’s face.

  “Okay, um…, let’s get moving I guess,” he said.

  Yeva powered up the cart and drove a slow circle around the Big and Little Turtles to inspect their condition. Everything looked good except for the parachutes that were lying down on the ground. Yeva pointed at them and looked at Adam for his input.