Oxygen Series Box Set: A Science Fiction Suspense Box Set

by John Olson

  She gritted her teeth, waiting for the rush of vacuum—the first and last sign she’d get of a torn suit. Her left side thudded against a rock and spun her around onto her back. A chilling, metallic scrape ran down her spine as her backpack slid across biting stone. She hugged the fossil to her chest, clinging to it with aching, trembling hands. For a long minute she slid, wondering if the lumps rolling across her back were rocks or torn pieces of her pack. And then ...

  Silence.

  The canyon that stretched out below her had rattled to a sudden stop, throbbing and swaying to the rhythm of her wildly beating heart.

  “Valkerie, come on!”

  A tug on her shoulder. Valkerie sucked in her breath as she started to tip sideways.

  “Help me get you turned around. I can’t get you around the bend with the winch.”

  “Bend?” Valkerie’s mind snapped into focus. Oh right, she was already at the top. Valkerie threw her weight to the side and kicked herself around to face the cliff. Slowly, still cupping the fossil in both hands, she clambered over the edge of the ledge as the winch drew her slowly toward the rover.

  “Go!” Lex unhitched Valkerie from the cable, yanked her to her feet, and pulled her into the airlock at the rear of the rover. The hatch swung shut and the airlock light glowed halogen orange.

  “Lex, I’ve found it!” Valkerie opened her hands a crack. Still there. All of it. It hadn’t even broken. “Life, Lex. Mars had life!” Valkerie looked up.

  Lex was slumped against the wall of the airlock, checking her DCM panel with her wrist mirror.

  “Two minutes. I only had two minutes left. You had five.” Lex pulled off her helmet and shook her head to dislodge the glistening tendrils of black silk that clung to her olive skin. She spun open the hatch that led into the rover.

  “Lex!” Valkerie took off her helmet and followed Lex through the hatch. “Don’t you even want to see it?”

  Lex whirled and turned smoldering eyes on Valkerie. “Don’t you even care you almost got us killed?”

  Valkerie took a backward step. “Lex, we found it. You and me. The two of us together.”

  “Two minutes. We were home free, but you had to stay inside dinking around. Do you have any idea how long you were in there?”

  “I told you to get back to the rover.”

  The look on Lex’s face told her what a monomaniacal idiot she’d been.

  Valkerie winced.

  “You could have been ... killed.” Lex’s voice broke. “I was so afraid you ... weren’t going to get out.”

  Valkerie set the fossil on the lab bench and took a step toward her friend. Me. She was worried about me, and I was worried about a stupid fossil. She’s not the same Lex who started this trip. “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” She pulled Lex into an awkward embrace—the best they could do in their bulky suits. “I ... When I saw the fossil ... I just didn’t think. Can you forgive me?”

  “We could have come back for it tomorrow.”

  “I can’t believe I was so stupid. As it is, I just ended up contaminating it.”

  Lex hesitated, and some of the old fighter‑pilot intensity flared in her eyes. Then it flickered out and she grinned. “So much for the history books. I guess we both mucked things up pretty bad.”

  “We?”

  “I stepped on the MoleBot remote. I couldn’t even get comm to work. If anything had happened to you ... Bob!” Lex broke away and clambered to the front of the rover. “Bob still thinks you’re trapped. Our comm went haywire.” She flipped a switch on the dash, and a strange rhythmic static filled the rover.

  Valkerie climbed forward and watched Lex work the controls. “What is it? Sunspots?”

  Lex shook her head. “Too regular. Probably a transmitter malfunction at the Hab. Buckle in. We’ve got to get back before Bob has an aneurysm.”

  Valkerie hurried to the back and eased the fossil into a sample bag. So much for her sterile technique. She sank back into one of the oversized bench seats and buckled her harness.

  Some friend she was. She hadn’t even considered that Bob might be worried. And Lex. She’d actually endangered Lex’s life. And for what? A pink rock. A simple halobacteria fossil. Lex had really been upset, and she’d tossed her concerns aside like a chunk of common regolith.

  The rover’s engines whirred to life, and Lex set off at top speed for the Hab.

  Valkerie stared out the window, watching a dead, barren planet transform itself before her eyes. Mars. It had once been a home. The rocks and dust ... Could they be just a blanket—Mars’s way of tucking her children in at night?

  Could some of those children still be alive?

  The static in the rover suddenly went quiet.

  Valkerie leaned forward. “Hey, Lex, what’s up?” She unbelted herself and walked forward, bracing herself against the lurch and sway of the rover.

  “The static’s gone. Bob must have fixed something.” Lex flipped the transmitter switch. “Bob, this is Lex calling from the rover. Val and I are on our way home.”

  Bob’s voice burst from the speakers. “Thank God! What happened? Is Valkerie okay?”

  The relief in his voice raised a lump in Valkerie’s throat. Bob was such a—

  “Hang on. She can tell you herself. In fact, I’m patching Houston in on this too. Val has an announcement to make, and I think they might be interested.”

  Lex stopped the rover and held out the microphone. Valkerie just stared at it. All this time she’d been searching ... she’d never even considered what to say if she actually found something. Whatever she said, it needed to be big. Significant. Poetic. What hath God wrought? A giant leap for mankind? How many generations would remember her words?

  Lex pushed the mike into her hand. “Val, go.”

  “Um ... Houston, this is Valkerie Jansen and Alexis Ohta calling from the rover. We have just discovered the fossilized remains of some halobacteria. The sample is approximately ten by five by three centimeters, milky white with pink striations. It was located in what appears to be an old thermal vent at the top of weeping fissure 342 of canyon 13. Um ... we are now heading back to the Hab, where we’ll do a complete analysis and send you our results. Over.”

  Valkerie lowered the microphone and shrugged. Cold, hard science. It didn’t capture the grandeur of the universe, but it was always an easy fallback when you didn’t have time to think.

  * * *

  Monday, March 16, 4:05 p.m., CST

  Josh

  Flight Director Josh Bennett felt like an army of ants had invaded his central nervous system. Life on Mars!

  “We are now heading back to the Hab, where we’ll do a complete analysis and send you our results. Over.”

  The Flight Control Room, which had been an oasis of quiet sixty seconds ago, erupted into cheers. Shouting. Dancing. Handshaking all around. The doors flung open and a stream of engineers and managers flooded into the room. EECOM bustled up the aisle and wrapped Josh in a hug.

  Josh planted a big kiss on her forehead and let loose with a whoop. Life! After nine months of labor they had finally found it! The big payoff. Mars was back on the map.

  And the crowd kept growing. Where had all the people come from? Nate Harrington, the Mars Mission Director, strode into the FCR, grinning like he’d just bought a van Gogh at a garage sale.

  Josh pushed his way through the reveling throng. A slap on the back from the Capcom, Jake Hunter. A high five from CATO. Josh turned and almost collided with Cathe Willison, the up‑and‑coming young engineer who had saved the crew’s lives barely a year earlier on the outbound journey. Josh raised his hand for another high five.

  She stepped back to let one of the flight docs pass between them.

  “You okay?” He had to raise his voice to be heard.

  “Better than okay. I just can’t wrap my mind around it all.” She scanned the crowd, an amused grin lighting up her eyes. “It’s amazing the difference a single fossil can make.”

  “Not just a fossil. It
’s another mission. And another, and another ... As long as we keep finding reasons to go back.”

  “And you want to be on one of those missions, don’t you?” Her rosebud lips were pressed together in a childish pout.

  “Absolutely! But that’s not for me to—”

  Cathe turned with a shrug and pushed her way down the aisle, swaying like a slender reed in a gentle breeze.

  He stared after her, wondering what that was about. She seemed almost sad, like she—

  “Okay, everybody, ice your jets! This ain’t Mardi Gras!” Nate Harrington was bellowing in Josh’s face. “Josh, I hope you haven’t forgotten you’re the Flight Director right now. Anyone who doesn’t belong in FCR needs to be out of here five minutes ago, or I start bowling heads. We’ve got a mission to run here, and God just upped the ante. Who’s Capcom?”

  “Jake Hunter.” Josh reached over and whacked Jake on the shoulder. “Jake, we need you!”

  Nate was swabbing his glistening forehead with a tissue. “Okay, Jake, you need to get on the horn to our boys and girls right now and remind them that there are some procedures to follow. Valkerie needs to keep that fossil in a glove box and follow sterile interface protocols to the semicolon.”

  Hunter nodded and pushed his way to the Capcom station.

  Josh put two fingers in his mouth and whistled a long, piercing shriek that got everyone’s attention. “Okay, people, we’re all excited. We just made the science breakthrough of the century. Anyone who wants to party, I’m buying drinks tonight at The Outpost. But right now, we’ve got a mission to run, and Nate’s promising to tickle anyone who doesn’t belong in here with a red‑hot poker. So take the party outside.”

  The room cleared almost as fast as it had filled up.

  Josh looked back at the big, soundproof glass wall that separated the tourist section from the Flight Control Room.

  Forty‑odd people in Bermuda shorts and sunglasses were giving them a standing ovation.

  Nate grabbed Josh’s arm. “The Outpost is gonna have to wait for another day. Tonight, we’re doing the biggest press conference since Orson Welles did his War of the Worlds shtick. And tomorrow, we’re going to Congress to get back all that money they took out of our hide. We will fly the Ares 14. And it’s not going to take another twenty years either.”

  Josh nodded and reached for his phone. “I’m calling the networks now.”

  * * *

  Monday, March 16, 5:45 p.m., Mars Local Time

  Bob

  Bob paced the length of the suit room floor. What was taking the girls so long? They should have been back five minutes ago. He started to turn around, but his foot shot out from under him on the wet floor.

  Bob picked himself up and turned to the door. “Kennedy, you left a mess in here!”

  A metallic rattle sounded from the supply room they’d converted into a greenhouse.

  That was where Bob had found Kennedy hiding after Lex’s call. He’d claimed to be watering the flowers, but Bob had checked. The soil was dry in every pot but one. Watering the flowers—oh sure. When Valkerie and Lex were in trouble. Right after Bob had supposedly tried to kill him.

  Made perfect sense.

  Bob shook his head and pulled a towel from the lockers to swab up the water. It gritted across the floor like semi‑fine sandpaper. So far the Martian dust was the biggest problem they had faced on the mission. Micron sized, laced with peroxides, the stuff worked its way into every nook and cranny of the human body, every seal on an EVA suit. They’d all developed painful rashes and had gone through their first set of suits in a month before they realized what was chewing everything up. Now every EVA had to end with a wet scrub.

  Another metallic clang rang through the Hab—the sound of the rover hot‑docking.

  Bob jumped to his feet and tossed the wet towel into a bin. He wiped his hands on his coveralls and hurried out to the airlock. He spun open the hatch wheel and pulled open the inner hatch.

  The exterior hatch swung open, and Valkerie stepped into the airlock. Her dark blond hair was matted to her head in a profusion of damp curls. Her shoulders sagged with fatigue, but her eyes looked radiant. Bob had never seen her so excited.

  “Valkerie.” He took a step toward her, then stopped. “I was so worried.”

  Valkerie’s grin put the flutters in Bob’s chest. “Thanks for sending back the Mole. You saved my life.” She took a tentative step toward him, then stopped. “Wet scrub! We need to get cleaned up first. Then we’ll talk.”

  Bob dropped his outstretched arms to his sides and awkwardly wiped his hands on his coveralls. Then we’ll talk … These days we’ll talk was never good. When was he going to learn? He had to listen to the words coming out of her mouth—not her mouth or her lips or her mesmerizing eyes …

  “Valkerie!” Kennedy squeezed past Bob and wrapped Valkerie in a big hug. “You had us worried sick. Don’t ever do that to me again.”

  Bob felt the heat rise in his face. “Don’t do that to you? I was the one who wanted to go out after them. You were watering flowers in the supply room.” He reached over Kennedy to put a hand on Valkerie’s shoulder.

  Anger flared in her eyes. “What part of ‘wet scrub’ are you two unclear on? There’s a reason for the protocols, so both of you just back off.”

  Lex poked her head into the airlock. “She’s not kidding, guys. This is serious. Quit clogging up the works.”

  Bob leaned toward Valkerie. “We need to talk. Soon.”

  Her eyes lasered into his. “For the last time, can you give me some space to clean off this wretched suit?”

  Kennedy spun around and pushed Bob out of the airlock. “She’s right, Kaggo. I’ll take care of it.” He swung the hatch shut.

  “Wait a minute!” Bob stood outside the hatch and peered in through the small window.

  Kennedy was spraying Valkerie’s suit, the water flying out at full pressure. A streak of mud blasted the window.

  Bob jumped back. “Hey! Turn down the pressure a little, will you?” He banged on the hatch. Kennedy was going to make a swamp in there if he didn’t take it easy. What was it with Kennedy and water? What was it with Kennedy, period? Bob cracked open the hatch. “Turn down the—”

  The flow of water stopped.

  “Do you have any idea how much water you just wasted?” Bob tried to sound reasonable, but it wasn’t easy.

  “Had to.” Kennedy stepped out of the airlock and headed for the corridor. “You saw how dirty Valkerie was. I couldn’t ignore the risk of contamination.”

  “Oh, right.” Bob hands tightened into fists. The only thing contaminating Mars was Kennedy.

  “Bob, what’s gotten into you?” Lex stepped out of the airlock and started shucking off her wet EVA suit. “Every time Valkerie and I leave you and Kennedy alone, the two of you fight like gamecocks.”

  “It’s not me. It’s him.” Bob checked the corridor to make sure Kennedy wasn’t skulking about. “He disappeared on me while I was working on the fuel factory. Didn’t say anything. Didn’t even answer comm. Just that awful breathing thing he does.”

  “So where was he?” Valkerie’s muffled voice filtered out from the middle of her EVA suit as she wriggled her way out of it.

  “In the ascent vehicle. He said he was doing maintenance on it. Whatever that means. Oh yeah, and then I found scratches on one of the MAV’s support struts—like somebody ran into it with the rover. And guess who tried to blame it on me, even though he was the last one to refuel?” Bob helped Lex hoist her suit back into her locker. “And then he claims I pushed him from behind and tried to kill him.” Bob held up Kennedy’s helmet for the women to inspect.

  “So did you?” Lex took the helmet from Bob and ran her finger down the scratched Plexiglas. “Push him, I mean?”

  “No!” He turned to Valkerie for support.

  She was looking back toward the airlock, her expression a million miles away.

  Bob felt uneasy. “Valkerie, I think we need to talk.
Alone.” He looked to Lex with what he hoped was an apologetic expression.

  She gave him an encouraging nod. “I’ll be upstairs changing for the press conference.” Lex stood and made for the door.

  “Press conference?” Bob said. “Oh, right. For the bacteria thing. Where is it? Can I see it?”

  Valkerie just sat there. Staring.

  “Valkerie?”

  “Yes?” She stood suddenly and started to move about the suit room.

  “Uh ... I was so worried about you today. It scared me to death.” Careful, Kaggo. Don’t crowd her. “I thought I was going to lose you and ... I couldn’t bear it if—”

  “Bob, I wish I could talk. I really do, but I have to figure out what to say for the press conference. I have so much work to do, I don’t even know where to start.” She ducked into the airlock hatch and disappeared into the rover.

  Bob turned to follow her but stopped and sank back against the wall, tracing the long scratch in Kennedy’s visor with cold, wet fingertips.

  * * *

  Monday, March 16, 11:30 p.m., CST

  Nate

  Nate Harrington rubbed his sweaty palms on his pant legs. Two more minutes till the media feeding frenzy.

  It was 11:30 at night. Normally the Johnson Space Center would be quiet at this hour. The parking lots would be mostly empty—just the night crews for the Space Station and the Ares Mission and a few engineers who never seemed to sleep. Nate would be getting some actual work done in his office.

  But not tonight. Not after Valkerie’s discovery. The rock that rocked the world. He’d never seen such a PR piranhafest. NASA Discovers Life on Mars. The six‑o’clock news hour had lasted four hours. A live video feed with voice‑over from Valkerie. A question‑and‑answer session with the whole crew—carefully choreographed to work around the forty‑minute radio time delay. By 10:00, there were photomicrographs of the new halobacteria on the JSC Web site and on every TV set in the world. At 11:00, they’d put together a full media show here in Teague Auditorium, and the place was swimming with news‑droids. Nate hadn’t seen anything like it. The crew hadn’t created this much excitement since they’d died.