The Unknown

by Angel Wedge

  “Why would they do that?”

  “Because whoever built it didn’t want to drill farther? I don’t know. The official record says because it’s dangerous. Maybe they thought the kids, or the more adventurous Travellers back in the day, would want to go potholing and get themselves injured if they knew it was there. So they just walled it off, gave the reason as ‘safety’. Nothing there to get the attention of anyone who might be young and dumb enough to try it.”

  “You thinking what I’m thinking, Jas?” Pattison cut in, but didn’t take his eyes off the sign.

  “I’m thinking we could learn a lot from the Martians about cooperation and sharing information,” Jasper agreed. “If I’d known about that canyon, maybe I would have thought about what we’re both thinking now last week.”

  “You know your grammar there is pretty weak, right?”

  “Yeah, and you know what I meant. The words did their job. Seriously, this paranoia helps nobody.”

  “Wait, what’s the big deal?” Elle asked, “You’re talking over my head on purpose? What gives?”

  “The Captain said I’m not allowed to tell you,” Jasper grumbled, “I’m already on punishment detail for telling this jerk, that’s why I haven’t been to Kells again since the first time.”

  “Wow, that sucks.”

  “Tell me about it. O’course, I’m not missing anyone over there like you are. But I want to see this. Can I drop by your quarters later, see if we can draw this canyon on a map? Because I’m thinking a secret wall might not really be hiding what you think it is.”

  “You’re not making any sense,” Elle shook her head. “But, fine. I’ll give you the coordinates, if you tell me what the hell is going on. I won’t believe that Boo is hiding anything from me, and if one of the departments is keeping something big a secret – and I don’t really buy that – then the citizens of Kells need to know as much as we do.”

  “That’s why Brayden wants you out of the loop,” Pattison pointed out, “Anything we tell you goes to your girlfriend, and once a secret is known in Kells, pretty soon the whole city knows. If this does turn out to be a security/intelligence thing, like they’re secretly preparing for war or something, we need to figure it out before anyone else. And if it doesn’t, then how can we be sure until we know what the big secret is?”

  “I guess that’s kind of a point. But if the ordinary people of Kells don’t know, then they’re not our enemies. It’s like there aren’t any good answers here.”

  “How about you show me the points on this map, and I’ll tell you what I think, and then I’ll ask Bosẽ. That guy’s got a terrible poker face, can’t lie worth a damn. If I’m right, then between us we’ll be able to put something together. A guess at the truth. We can find out what the secret actually is, and then we’ll know if it needs to be secret or not. If it’s a threat that the Captain needs to know about, if it’s some cultural thing we shouldn’t be prying into, and if it’s a moral thing that the Martians deserve to hear the truth about.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” Elle muttered nervously. If she wasn’t speaking through a mic right next to her mouth, he might not have caught the reply at all. Then she was saved from explaining any further as the airlock door finally started to grind open. She ducked inside, leaving her glider parked up among all the buggies, with only a couple of cords and stakes to keep it from blowing away if the winds kicked up. She had to hope that this time, the scientists would keep their hands to themselves.

  But before she even got back to her room, she’d realised there was no point keeping secrets here. If Jasper thought he had a hint towards the big mystery of Kells, then he didn’t need to ask her. Nobody went to the canyon because they weren’t interested, but it was probably known to quite a lot of people in Kells. Boo had said the wall was just listed as ‘safety’ in the construction database, which presumably meant it wasn’t hard to search for. So if she didn’t help, Jasper could get the same information from anyone else who was allowed to fraternise with the Martians. Or he could pass it up to the chain of command. And if it was a big secret, then the senior officers posing the question would probably put their Martian counterparts considerably off-balance. Better just to let him look, and then they might all find the truth.

  In reality, Elle knew she didn’t need to be worried about possible retribution from some Martian secret society. Just like she didn’t need to fear war between the two cultures, because she knew both well enough to be sure neither of them wanted war. There was a reason both groups of scientists had started severing ties with Earth. All she was really afraid of was someone who thought there was a secret getting scared enough to make the wrong judgment. And of course, whatever was so far outside the norm that the Martian government felt they had to hide it. She couldn’t imagine what that could be, but surely knowing would be better than the alternative.

  * * *

  Day 42

  Four days later, the second ship roared through the Martian skies. It had less fuel to adjust its course than the first, and so needed to know the location of a landing strip that would support it before it even entered the atmosphere. There was a lot of stress among the ground-side construction crews, because this was the acid test that would tell them if they had done everything right. The pressure on them was incredible now, but they would soon know if all their efforts had been worthwhile. Because the second ship, originally known as Hephaestus, was beginning its approach.

  The ship blazed through the sky at nearly a thousand kilometres per hour, an incandescent aura surrounding it even in the thin Martian atmosphere. As it came over the horizon, it looked huge, like a falling mountain that could easily crush the camp. Of course, both ships were the same size, but the human brain wasn’t that good at dealing with large distances, or comparing a flying vessel to the cannibalised carcass of the one that had brought them here. The second ship contained their luxury provisions, of course, having capacity to store more than just the essentials, but that was because of the lower fuel payload, and reduced impact shielding, rather than any difference in external size.

  As it came closer to the ground, the fireball became a craft with a blackened lower hull, and a few tense minutes later it was resting, hull plates smoking slightly at the end of a runway that had cracked under the impact pressure. It wasn’t a perfect landing, the turbulence had affected them more than they’d predicted, but nothing outside the mission parameters. An hour later, there were already engineers pulling up the landing strip, working out how many of the segments could be reused to make a strip for the third ship in the next hundred days, and how many new ones would have to be fabricated.

  The two Mission Commanders met up in a buggy, which had been carefully swept for any kind of unauthorised tracking equipment. They had more satellites deployed before the lander module dropped this time, and there was now a reliable, constant radio channel open to Earth. That meant they had to take extra care if they wanted to know that the sponsors and a hundred other corporate executives weren’t listening in on every conversation. This was when Commander Dorchev finally learned the truth about the Martians; about the contact between Camp Wayland and Kells, and all the negotiating that had taken place before he even arrived on the planet. It was a lot to take in.

  Over the next few days, the crew of the second ship moved down to a circle of cabins spread on the ground. This time, there would be nobody remaining in the last few shipboard rooms until labour was available to move them; the Martians – old and new – were able to lend a hand, and with the first ship’s aeroponics and power facilities temporarily supporting both camps, it was possible to prioritise habitation modules. Scientific teams could take their labs out of the ship when they needed them, and then the scaffold that had held it all together in space could be broken up to yield additional metal and ceramic trusses to support the second landing strip.

  Everyone was eager to see what the sign by this new camp would say. If it became Camp Hephaestus as soon as they were on
the ground, that would be a sign that they were more loyal to the plutocrats of Earth than to their fellow explorers. And a few of the scientists watched in silent anticipation as the ship’s large nameplates were jockeyed into position, leaning against the cliff. Then the protective coverings were pulled away, and the crew of the second ship had a name for their new home.

  ‘Camp Wayland: Garden Quarter’

  There were cheers from most of the crew, and most of their neighbours. The letters were painted on the back of the original nameplate, repurposed now to show the solidarity of the two commanders. They would not be ships with different corporate backers, forced to work together but also to compete for their share of funding and resources. They were allies, working together in open defiance of their masters back on Earth. They were one community, districts of a town rather than separate camps.

  Jasper wasn’t the only one to see this as a sign of hope, as well. If the first ship was the scaffold of the new colony, it would need all of the remaining ships to make four quarters. By choosing that name, they were expressing the hope that the whole fleet would want to fly a Wayland flag.

  It wasn’t long before the arrival of the second ship started to cause problems, though. There were more than a few officers aboard who had the idea of ruling a new territory, free from the influence of Earth. And they were not at all happy about the prospect of sharing their new planet with those who had come before. Maybe the cities could be allies against Earth, but that would need trust. And the new committee clearly made it known that a city with an unknown secret was, to them, an enemy. Captain Berkoff and Major Stanleigh spoke tersely, if at all, at meetings with the Martian leaders, and when they were in the boardroom with only the leaders of the two ships, they counselled espionage. If espionage failed, then sabotage, and if that failed, then war.

  Jasper didn’t follow the orders coming down the chain of command. He knew any comments he submitted through the normal channels wouldn’t be taken seriously, because he already had a reprimand against his name after his first, unauthorised visit to Kells. So he called Elle as soon as he learned about the new ship’s hostility towards their neighbours. It was a distrust that could so easily lead to a disaster, some outright act of aggression that would forever end their current informal relationship. She couldn’t argue with that; if the Martian secret was going to destroy everything they had built, there was no choice but to find out what that secret was.

  They took the glider. It was supposed to be secured under the new exploration rules; vehicles were reserved for those who had legitimate work-based reasons to explore the surface, and trips to Kells were only for the politicians who had an appropriate authorisation badge. But the glider wasn’t compatible with the camp’s computer systems, and had neither an electronic nor a physical key that could be taken away. They’d put heavy chains around a couple of the struts instead, mooring it to the side of the camp security building. And that would have been an entirely appropriate security mechanism, like a bike chain, if the vehicle hadn’t been a construction toy. It took Elle all of eight minutes to remove a couple of redundant pieces and leave them chained to the wall. Then they were racing across the desert, and Elle switched her tablet to a frequency just a couple of channels outside the range that the camp’s radio systems could use. The tablet was Martian-made, of course, but nobody had ever thought to check that.

  “Boo, can you hear me?” she whispered into the mic, and then caught herself and continued in a more normal voice: “Sorry, can you hear me? We’re on the way to Kells, and Jasper wants to talk to Boz again. There’s major drama going down in Camp Wayland, and the idiots who want to declare war are starting to get taken seriously. We’ve got to stop this before it goes too far.”

  “War? Boz? What’s going on, pet?” Boo’s normal confidence was shaken for a second, “Okay, I can sort that. But this had better be interesting, or you’re going to need some punishment.” Elle blushed crimson, but didn’t say anything. Jasper politely refrained from making any jokes either, which was a sure sign he was serious about this.

  Leader

  An hour later, there were four of them sitting in an otherwise empty room in one of the lower levels of Kells. Space was at a premium here, so it made no sense to have empty rooms going unused. So the school classrooms, council meeting rooms, conference rooms, and any other kind of generic space with tables were all interchangeable. And free for anyone to use, if they weren’t booked by one of the city’s institutions. The first thing Jasper had to do was to roll out a map on the table; one of the printed copies that had been made available to the first visitors from Camp Wayland.

  “See this space here?” He pointed at the diagram, “There’s an underground facility there, right?”

  “There’s nothing on the–” Boo started, but Jasper was looking straight at Bosẽ, who was looking about as nervous as it was possible to get. Like he was expecting torture at any minute.

  “Look,” he spluttered, “There’s just been a social order issued. Talking about technology is fine, but any discussion of the city layout, vulnerable spots, or potential targets in the case of an Earth invasion is–”

  “Military targets?” Boo snapped, “You know as well as I do there’s nothing sensitive in Kells. We don’t do war. And yeah, we had an order. But that doesn’t mean anything if they’re just asking what’s in a space of empty rock. If you’re that nervous, we can just check the planning database. Every cave, every tunnel, is registered on the computer, and checked over by the Infrastructure board to make sure that the whole city is stable. It’s the only way to be sure, underground, that you’re not threatening the safety of a chamber above.”

  “Yes,” Jasper nodded, “But I see the city edge here is quite sparsely occupied, and slightly concave. I wonder, can you check for rejected applications for construction?” Boo blinked, not understanding, but she checked. While Boo’s fingers danced on a tablet computer, Elle stared at the map and wondered if she was starting to see what Jasper had managed to grasp so easily.

  “That’s where the cave is,” she pointed at a spot just off the edge of the map. “It could be just chance, the places people have applied to build something. But around most of the city, people have built little chambers a distance from the main part of the city, allowing the streets to branch as Kells grows. But there, I don’t see any single buildings sprouting out to leave a space for future growth. Almost as if someone’s drawn a circle on the map and forbidden all building permits within it. Maybe because there’s a natural cave there, or a structure that’s been omitted from the map for some reason. Connected to the walled off cave in our canyon.”

  “Yeah,” Bosẽ nodded, “You got it. I don’t know how you figured it out, but there’s a huge cavern there, stretching right down. There was like a dozen guys working on it, and it was supposed to be this important monument on my resumé. But then they told me never to admit it even exists. That there’s something there, and they can’t tell everyone about it yet. I agreed, but I never understood. Please tell me it’s not some kind of secret… weapon, or something?”

  “We have no idea,” Jasper answered, “But the top people in our camp know there’s some kind of secret. They think it’s something your leaders are keeping from you. And they’re worried, because that means they see this city, and the others, as potentially unstable. Vulnerable to revolution or coup. They’re nervous. And the officers on the second ship that recently arrived aren’t quite the same kind of liberal leadership we’ve enjoyed so far. They’re wondering if a big secret that Kells won’t reveal means it must be a weapon. They haven’t got a clue, but they’re talking about going to war over this.”

  “But… war? Shouldn’t you be back in your camp then? Preparing weapons, or whatever you do before a war?”

  “They’ve not told us yet. But I don’t want to end up on opposite sides over this secret, whatever it is. And I don’t want to see you branded a traitor for talking to me. I don’t want to cause any more tr
ouble than I already have. So I’ve decided, we need to solve the riddle. If we know what the big secret is, then we can tell those Captains. I bet it’s no weapon, that just isn’t the Martian way. So once we know what it is, they’ll have no reason to attack. Without manipulating everyone else’s fears, there’s no way the warmongers would be able to get any power.”

  “So we just have to uncover this secret,” Boo pondered, “And you’re right, there’s been a dozen construction applications in that area. But they’ve all been turned down. Some by the Research department, for fear of affecting unusual strata that they want to examine. And others by Infrastructure, because of conflicting plans for the same location. Where two supplicants file plans at the same time, they’ve been rejecting both rather than choosing the most beneficial one like they’re supposed to.”

  “I might…” Bosẽ started, pausing nervously, “Just might, I’m not sure, I might have a keycode that will still open one of the access paths. Late night working, odd shifts, trying to cover for other engineers. You know how it is when some bureaucrat wants to divide up the hours in a dumb way, right? So one of the doors had some codes in it that were never supposed to be there.”

  “Let’s go,” Boo nodded.

  “Just like that?” Elle was less certain, “You should think about this. I mean, you could get in so much trouble. Wouldn’t it be better letting us handle it, so if we get caught by whoever these researchers are, we’re just enemy infiltrators?”

  “No. Because I’m not going to lose you. And because we’ve got so many different skills between us, if there’s any problems along the way, it might need me to solve them. Four of us together, I bet there’s nothing we can’t handle.”