Jezero City: Colony Four Mars (Colony Mars Book 4)

by Gerald M. Kilby

  “Here’s what’s going to happen, Lane. When MASS provide their report it will show it was caused by something outside anyone’s control. It will be put down to just one of those unfortunate things that happen every now and again. AsterX will be exonerated, not your fault after all, and that will be that.”

  Lane looked over at Jann. “How do you know that?”

  “It’s the oldest trick in the book, Lane. If you don’t want something scrutinized then you create a distraction. The more outrageous the better. Everybody starts jumping up and down, looking in the wrong place. So when MASS put this down to an unfortunate accident, everybody accepts it because they’re too busy arguing over whether AsterX was involved or not. It’s a sleight of hand. It’s what magicians have been doing for millennia. Create a distraction to distract the audience while the trick is played out behind everyone’s back.”

  Lane shrugged. “I still don’t get it. Why would they do that? Why go to all that trouble?”

  “Like I said, so that the trick isn’t seen.”

  “But what trick… wait a minute… are you saying they did this themselves, that it wasn’t an accident?”

  “No, I’m not saying that. At least not without any evidence. I’m curious about what game, if any, they’re playing.”

  They sat in silence for a while. Lane stared at the fountain. “Would be nice if we could pick through the remains of that rover they have locked away.”

  “What would you look for if you could?”

  “Oh… try and see where the main destruction occurred, do some analysis of the components to look for stress, for failure, maybe do some chemical analysis and look for traces of explosives or other foreign compounds.” He regarded Jann again. “But that’s not going to happen. They have it locked down tight, no way to examine it.”

  “What if there was a way for someone to get in, someone not technical, what would they look for?”

  This time Lane studied Jann’s face for a moment and a smile began to break across his face. “Don’t tell me you got someone on the inside?”

  Jann shrugged. “It’s purely a hypothetical question, a what if.”

  “Well, one could take a lot of photographs of the damaged areas, close ups of the various parts. Also any components they might have removed and put aside, even how those are arranged could give us a clue as to what they might be looking for. And since we’re speaking hypothetically, it would be even better to acquire one or two of these components and do some chemical analysis. In a hypothetically independent lab, of course.”

  “I see. Very interesting.”

  Lane favored her with a broad smile. “You’ve become a wily old fox, Jann. Back in the day you would skewer your enemies in the eye with that spear you used to carry.”

  Jann laughed. “Yes, but we’ve moved on a lot since then. Nobody wants to go back to those times.”

  In the corner of her eye she spotted two of Zebos’ minions walking toward them. Lane had also seen them coming and nodded to them. They stopped and waited at a respectful distance, not wishing to intrude, content that they had been acknowledged.

  Lane stood up. “Looks like I have to go.”

  Jann also stood and Lane threw his arms around her in a firm hug. He broke away, holding one of her hands in both of his. “Let’s not leave it so long the next time. Maybe when all these celebrations are over you and Nills will pay us a visit up at the space station.”

  “Yes, perhaps. We haven’t been up there in a while.”

  He shook her hand again and turned to go, but took only a few steps before he turned back. “Just one other thing. The EVA suit.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It would be interesting to have a closer look at the EVA suit the courier was wearing. Considering what you were saying about distractions. Everyone is talking about the rover. Nobody has mentioned the EVA suit.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Anyway, just a thought. Gotta go.” He turned and walked away.

  10

  Central Logistics

  Mia woke late the next morning to find the ore hauler she had talked to the previous night was long gone. She was disappointed, as she would have liked to pump him a bit more. But the way station was deserted now, so it was time to move on. She had considered heading up to the mining outpost deeper into the Nili Fossae gorge, then traveling on to the MASS research station about fifty kilometers further north. But that all changed when she received a message from Central Logistics, informing her that she should make her way back to HQ and await her next assignment as a courier. This was the department that controlled and managed all movements of goods and people around the sectors of the colony and its satellite installations. Since, strictly speaking, she was in the employ of Central Logistics, Mia was not surprised by this directive, but she did have a sense that Dr. Malbec might be behind it. So, Mia and Gizmo spent the early morning prepping the rover for its return journey, filling its tanks with oxygen and methane, swapping out scrubbers, loading it up with waste for recycling and doing a full systems check. Once done, Mia squandered no time in starting out on the long journey back to Jezero. If nothing else, it would give her time to think and digest what she had learned so far.

  Her conversation with the ore hauler the previous night had thrown up some interesting information. Nothing specific, just some noisy data. The courier had been a clone, that much she had already known. But what had also piqued her interest was why this guy had such a desire to return to Earth, and why this was forbidden for clones.

  It was not an issue for the colonists, nor for the contractors working for AsterX or MASS. In fact, if a colonist was not happy or not performing well, or even if they were just plain troublemakers, they would be shipped back at the first opportunity. But this was obviously something denied to the clones. At first Mia was annoyed at missing out on an opportunity to quiz the ore hauler further about it when Gizmo had interrupted them and stuck its big metal foot in it. But after spending a few hours talking to Gizmo on the long journey back, she was rather glad it did.

  Mia probed the droid for information on the history of the clones as well as the UN agency involved in the Mars scientific survey, and had become so enthralled by how much it knew that she lost track of time. Two things about Gizmo began to fascinate her. One was its depth of knowledge. She’d had no idea it possessed such an encyclopedic reservoir of information on the colony, all the way back to when the first bootprint was stamped onto the surface. The second thing that fascinated her was the fact that it regurgitated this information without bias of any sort. It had no opinion, no agenda, no social or religious allegiance. What it gave her was pure data. From Mia’s perspective it was the perfect witness. So, from what the little robot was telling her, and from what she had known herself, she pieced together a history of the Pioneers—the clones.

  The first humans to populate Mars came on a one-way ticket. There was no going back, they were here to stay. This suicidal colonization project was funded by a kind of reality TV franchise. Surprisingly, it worked for a while. That was until the population of Earth got bored and the money started to run out. So a new source of funding was sought and this turned out to center around setting up a genetic research lab, for doing research that was ethically forbidden on Earth, namely human experimentation. This did not go well, as a rogue genetically modified bacterium escaped into the colony environment, infecting the colonist population with an incurable psychotic malaise. Most died during this period. But then it got even weirder, as the stored DNA of these, now dead, colonists was used to create the clones. The Pioneers.

  Mia had been aware of the rogue bacterium, as it had made its way back to Earth and started to infect the population there. She vaguely remembered that a way to kill it was found quickly so its effects were minimal. All that happened shortly before Mars had gained its independence. But what Gizmo was telling her seemed to have taken place long before any of this.

  “But if all this
happened almost twenty years ago, like you say, Gizmo, then how come all the clones look like they’re thirty-five?”

  “Grow tanks.”

  “Grow tanks?”

  “It was a technology developed whereby the original DNA could be utilized as a biological blueprint to reconstitute an exact human replica from a stem cell biomass. This process was accelerated so that the resultant being was, to all intents and purposes, fully grown.”

  “Holy crap.”

  “Indeed.”

  “So why the hangup over Earth, why can’t they go back?”

  “A side effect, if you will, of this process was retained memory essence. In simple terms, many could remember significant elements of their previous incarnation. In one way this was fortunate as they still possessed the skills of the original. An ethical problem arose after the colony came back online and was no longer conducting clandestine experiments. This was a result of the families of the original colonists, after presuming their loved ones were dead, discovered exact replicas of their loved ones existed as a result of experimenting on the colonists.”

  “Yes, I can see how that would go down.”

  “So, once the clones had regained control of the colony they made a pact to never return to Earth. They would stay true to the ideals of the first colonists. Hence the reason they prefer the title Pioneers.”

  “That’s quite a story. How come this isn’t more widely known? I mean, this is the first time I’ve heard it.”

  “It is all there if you choose to look deep enough. But they do not talk about it much, and it is never mentioned in any public profiles of the colony.”

  All this new information was fermenting in Mia’s head as they made their way down the ancient riverbed and into Jezero crater. The terrain eventually flattened out and about half a kilometer into the crater the road forked. The right would lead them to Jezero City, but Gizmo took the left fork. This would take them to the Industrial Sector and the location of Central Logistics HQ.

  The Industrial Sector was situated approximately thirty kilometers north of Jezero City on the far side of the crater. The very first colonists had discovered an extensive cave system with a small entrance at the base of the crater rim. It was mineral rich so, over time, they sealed up the entrance with a massive airlock, created an atmosphere inside and began to mine it. But it had a dark past as the clandestine location of most of the genetic experiments that had taken place here. After the demise of the geneticists, the outpost went through a period of decline as essential maintenance resources from Earth became scarce. At one point the colonists had considered abandoning it and consolidating at what was now called Jezero City. But it was independence and the collaboration with the asteroid mining corporation, AsterX, that had breathed new life into it.

  As a reward for their assistance in helping the fledgling colony state gain independence from Earth, AsterX had been granted exclusive rights to use Mars as a waypoint en route to the exploration and exploitation of the mineral resources of the Asteroid Belt. All the extracted ore was returned to Mars and processed in the refineries of the Industrial Sector before being shipped back to Earth. This was the main economic engine that financed the colony and enabled it to prosper greatly.

  The old cave system had been expanded enormously since then, with new additions to the existing facility spreading out across the surface of the crater. There were shipyards, for the building and servicing of all manner of craft that plied the trade routes from Earth, Ceres and the Asteroid Belt. Around these shipyards were small factories that processes the raw materials that fed the expanding colony’s insatiable needs. Regolith from Nili Fossae was processed into the cement that fed the large scale 3D printers that worked 24.5/7 building the vision. Ore from Elysium ended up as steel and aluminum, rolled into sheets or extruded into the myriad of shapes needed by the designers of the ever more complex structures. Sand and silicas were transformed into glass and ceramics. Chemical reactors produced methane, oxygen, hydrogen and a raft of other gasses by the ton. It was a busy place.

  Entrenched in this hive of industry was Central Logistics. Its sole purpose was to distribute goods throughout the entire colony and its satellite outposts. Raw materials from the Industrial Sector, food from the agri-domes in Jezero City, specialist supplies from Earth, water from the processing plants out at Isidis, ore from the mines. As well as provisioning the multitude of way stations and outlying research stations. All of this required a small army of couriers and vehicles to haul goods from A to B. From the big ore-carriers to specialist containers for transporting liquids and gases, to pressurized rovers for transporting food and other perishable goods that could not withstand the rigors of a 0.6% atmospheric pressure and outside temperatures of minus sixty.

  Gizmo backed the rover into a free docking station connecting them to the main hub at Logistics. That same instant the screen in the rover dash lit up as the central mainframe communicated with it, assessing its systems and resources, and scheduling the next tasks for the crew.

  Mia read the screen. They were to unload the spent supplies brought back from the way station and take them to the reprocessing center. That would be Gizmo’s job. Good, she thought, that will keep it out of trouble for a while. Mia, on the other hand, was to report to Central to pick up a package for delivery to the MASS HQ. Excellent, looks like Dr. Malbec found me a way in. HQ was where the remains of the wrecked rover was stored, so delivering there would at least get her moving in the right direction with the minimum amount of suspicion. The problem was the MASS sector was a sizable facility, and Mia still did not know the exact location of the rover’s remains. And even if she did, she would still have to find a way to get past security.

  The pick up wasn’t for another hour. The rover needed to be fueled and given the once over. This was done automatically but still took time. So Mia decided to head for the canteen. She was hungry, and she also hoped she might get an opportunity to talk to a few other couriers.

  “Now remember, Gizmo, try and act like a dumb G2 unit. We’re in the hornet’s nest here, okay?”

  “I shall do my best, difficult as that may be.”

  “And take your time doing this unloading. I don’t want you hanging around me in the canteen.”

  “I sense I am being shunned.”

  Mia raised a finger to the robot, like a teacher making a point to an errant child. “Be good, okay?”

  “Define good?”

  “Oh for heavens sake, Gizmo, just… don’t communicate with anyone.”

  “If you insist.”

  “I do. Now, I’ll let you get on with it. I’m going to eat.”

  The canteen was spacious. It was early evening and the main shift of the sol was over. Half a dozen couriers were milling around, some eating, some just chatting. Mia headed to the food dispensing machines and placed her palm on the ID pad. It scanned her hand and then displayed her name along with a mug shot, and gave her the green light to make her selection. She grabbed a few energy bars, an apple, and a carton of juice, then turned around to decide where to sit. She was keen on not drawing too much attention to herself, to blend in with the ebb and flow of the crowd. The tables were in long rows with enough seating at each for around a dozen people. She picked an empty one and sat down in the middle. It didn’t take long for someone to bring their tray over and sit down opposite her.

  “Hi, haven’t seen you around here before.” He was a tall frizzy haired guy with an easy smile and a bright face. He reached over and offered his hand. “Dexter.”

  “Mia,” she shook his hand. “Yeah, I’m new. Just started a few sols ago.”

  He looked around and gestured with both arms. “Welcome to courier central, where the great problems of the universe are discussed, and sometimes even solved.” He touched a finger to the side of his nose.

  Mia smiled back. “Good to know.”

  “So what route have they started you on?”

  “I’m just back from delivering supplies to the
way station at Nili Fossae.”

  Dexter’s eyes widened. “Really? They don’t normally give such a challenging journey to rookies. It took me three months before they let me out of the crater.”

  Mia decided it was best not to comment on it. Instead she changed direction and tried to get him talking about himself. “So you must have been everywhere by now?”

  “Oh yes. I’ve done the Elysium route several times, even been up at the MASS research station in Utopia Planitia.”

  “What do they do up there… at the research station?”

  “I don’t know, something to do with the nuke experiment.”

  “Is that where they’re doing it?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I heard it was further north, near the ice cap.”

  “That must be quite a journey.”

  “It’s a bit boring, to be honest. Lots of flat featureless land. The only thing to break up the horizon are the way stations, and boy are they a happy sight after seven hours of traveling across nothing but flat emptiness.”

  Before Mia could think of a reply, another woman sat down beside Dexter with a flourish. She leaned across the table. “A word of warning,” she jerked a thumb at him. “Our resident Romeo. he hits on all the new girls.”

  Dexter rolled his eyes. “Jeez Marina, thanks. Now why you have to go and say that, eh?”

  Marina laughed and slapped him on the back, then tipped her head at Mia. “Just joking, he’s really dead on, got a girl over at Jezero he’s really sweet on.”

  Mia could see Dexter was taking umbrage. “Yes, I do, thank you Marina.” He turned to Mia and jerked a thumb back. “Mother Superior is what we call Marina around here. Mainly on account of her advanced years.” He tapped his head. “Going a bit senile.”

  They bounced off each other in this vein for a while and Mia zoned out. When they finally settled down into what passed for rational conversation between this pair, Mia decided to venture a question.