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

by Gerald M. Kilby

  “Do either of you know Christian Smithson?” There was sudden silence. A definite reaction. One that signaled to Mia that, A: they did know Chris. And B: they didn’t much care for him.

  Marina looked around the canteen and then leaned in. “How well do you know Christian?”

  Mia considered this for a moment. “Well, judging by your reaction, not very well. He’s an ex boyfriend. He dumped me a while back, which is fine by me. But he ran off with some stuff that I’d rather like to get back.”

  Marina sat back. “You poor baby, how’d you get mixed up with that shit?”

  Mia shrugged.

  “Well, you’re better off without him, take my word on that. And you’re not the only one he’s robbed either.”

  “So where is he?” Mia asked.

  “You just missed him. He headed out on a run for MASS this morning, won’t be back for few sols.”

  Damn it, Mia thought. But before she could quiz them any more her slate pinged. She fished it out of her pocket, and read a message from Gizmo.

  I have completed my allotted tasks and have elected to seek refuge, in solitude I might add, within the confines of the rover, as it seems I am not to be trusted in public. By the way, in case you have not checked in, there is a package waiting for you at Central.

  Mia shook her head.

  “Problem?” asked Dexter.

  “No, just some droid issues, no biggie.” She shoved the slate back in her pocket and stood up. “Gotta go, nice talking to you all.”

  They said their goodbyes, and Mia headed for Central.

  11

  Dumb Droid

  The package was small, about the size of a box of chocolates, well-wrapped and marked Top Priority. According to the instructions on the rover screen Mia had to deliver this, in person, to Lab-B13, which was located very close to the maintenance area in the MASS research sector.

  It had all the hallmarks of Dr. Jann Malbec. A simple ruse to get Mia as close as possible to the location of the damaged rover, without raising any suspicion. That was the easy bit. The hard part would be finding the exact location when she got inside and then doing some investigating without being rumbled. But Mia had a pretty good idea how to do that from all her years of experience on the force. It was called acting dumb.

  The facility was at the far end of the Industrial Sector, and then some. It was a large isolated cluster of domes connected to the main reactor via a half kilometer long tunnel. One got the feeling that MASS wanted to be as far away as humanly possible, but still have an escape route.

  They followed the road that skirted the bulk of the sector, tracking along the rim on the crater wall. Further on, this road would lead out of Jezero heading east into the Isidis Plain, and then on to Elysium. But Mia and Gizmo weren’t going that far, it took them around forty minutes to navigate their way around to the main entrance of the MASS facility and dock.

  The rear airlock door of the rover opened and standing right inside the entrance was a guy with the bored look of someone who would rather not be here dealing with couriers.

  “What you got for us?”

  “Package for Lab-B13.” She handed him her slate.

  He glanced at it. “Okay, fine. I’ll take it from here.”

  “Sorry, top priority. I need to deliver it personally, see.” Mia showed him the line on the slate again.

  “Yeah, whatever.” He stood aside and let Mia and Gizmo, who was holding the package, into the facility.

  “You’re sure giving that droid a workout. Do you really need it to carry such a small box?”

  “Ah... it’s new, got to train it. You know how clunky these G2 units are when you first get them.”

  “Yeah, pretty dumb.”

  Mia was only a few paces down the corridor when he called out, “Hey, you know where you’re going?”

  “Yes, no problem. Thanks.” She picked up the pace.

  When they were out of earshot she turned to Gizmo. “There’s a lot of cameras around here.”

  “Yes, I have noticed.”

  “Come on, let’s get this delivered. Then we’ll see if we can get lost in this maze.”

  It didn’t take long to hand the package over to another bored looking lab tech. Mia realized then that this was generally how couriers were treated. Whether it was here on Mars or back on Earth. They were, for the most part, invisible to people. Nobody took any notice. She had to admit it was an elegantly brilliant way to move around incognito, except for the cameras. If someone got suspicious later, all they needed to do was go back through the recording and she’d be fingered. But at least the facility seemed to be devoid of people. The corridors were deserted.

  “Listen, Gizmo. I want you to start acting strange.”

  “Some would say that is how I normally act.”

  “Yes, well that’s not what I mean. What I want you to do is stop and start, then maybe spin around a few times, like your circuitry is acting up. Then stop. I’ll start poking and prodding you, like I’m trying to fix you. I might even give you a kick.”

  “And the point of all this physical abuse?”

  “I want to make it seem like you’re on the blink, screwed up your internal map of the facility—so we look like we’re lost.”

  “I have to admit, that is a reasonably good ruse, Mia.”

  “Thank you Gizmo. Now can you start going bonkers—for the cameras.”

  The little droid proceeded to stop and start, then it spun around a few times. Finally it went completely nuts, shaking and rocking with a ferocious pitch. Then it stopped for a brief second before racing off at high speed—towards the maintenance sector. Mia ran after it shouting, “Come back you dumb bucket of bolts!”

  She found it at a junction. One way led back to the entrance, where they had come in. The other was where they wanted to go. She bent down and started poking and prodding and cursing it. Then she stood up and gave it a good hard kick. Gizmo sped off again, right into the maintenance sector. Mia fell over clutching her foot. Not because she was acting, more because it hurt like hell.

  She managed to hobble down the corridor where Gizmo was now stationary. She whispered to it, “Where to now?”

  “According to my calculations, the only section of this facility with an airlock big enough for a rover is on the other side of that door.”

  Mia walked over to where the little robot was facing. There was a small window in it about head height. She peered in. Right in the center of a small workshop were the remains of the vehicle. It looked like the carcass of some recently excavated dinosaur with wheels. Mia peered around the space. There was no one there.

  “Come on, let’s go.” She cracked the door open and they moved inside.

  “Gizmo, I trust you’re recording all this.”

  “In 3D.”

  Mia looked down at Gizmo. “You can do that?”

  “Only when I am not acting dumb.”

  They spent some time walking around the rover, examining it. The entire back was blown off. Three of its six wheels were also gone. From what Mia could see, a good deal of it had been dismantled. Three long tables held dozens of burnt and charred parts. Each was labeled with some alphanumeric code that she could not make out. She picked up a small component that looked like a plumbing valve, then extracted a clear plastic zip-lock bag, and dropped it in. She turned to Gizmo and held it up. “Exhibit A.” Mia shoved it in her pocket.

  She took one last look around. “Okay, I think we’ve done all we can here. Let’s get out before we’re spotted.”

  They were about to leave when Mia’s attention was drawn to a door on what looked like a sealed room, like a spray booth in a car maintenance shop. She looked in through the window.

  “Gizmo, quick. Over here.”

  She pointed. “The EVA suit. Let’s check it out.” Mia tried to open the door but it was locked. “Gizmo, do you think you could hack this?” She nodded at a keypad beside the door.

  “My pleasure.” The little droid
proceeded to disassemble the unit with amazing dexterity. A few seconds later Mia heard a click, and the door swung open. She stepped in.

  The suit looked dirty and battered, a large crack ran across the faceplate. “Looks like the poor guy lost all his air through this crack.”

  “Unlikely,” said Gizmo.

  “Why do you say that? I mean, he did die of asphyxiation.”

  “Correct. But I calculate a breach of this type would take approximately one hour and seventeen minutes to evacuate a fully resourced suit.”

  “Well maybe his power unit failed.”

  “Again, unlikely.”

  Mia asked, “How can you be sure?”

  Gizmo reached up to the side of the suit, tapped some controls, and the suit lit up. Mia jumped back, startled. “Jeez, Gizmo. Warn me before you do that.”

  The robot interrogated the suit’s systems. Mia looked at it for a few moments. “So you’re saying he had little or no air to begin with.”

  Gizmo’s head twitched. “That’s interesting.”

  “What… what’s interesting?”

  “Very unusual.”

  “What, Gizmo?”

  “He had less than seven percent oxygen reserve when he exited the rover. Someone had intentionally depleted it several hours earlier.”

  “How can you know all this, Gizmo?”

  “It is tracked in the EVA suit’s log.”

  Mia’s brain tried to digest the ramifications of this revelation. Two things were clear to her. One was that Dr. Jann Malbec might not be as paranoid as Mia had originally thought. And the second was, they needed to get out of here as soon as possible.

  “Say, what are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be in this sector.” Mia spun around to see the same guy that had met them at the airlock. He must have been monitoring the camera feeds. Maybe he wasn’t as stupid as he looked.

  “Oh… thank God you found us.” Mia clutched at her chest. “I thought we’d have to stay the night here.” She turned to Gizmo. “I don’t know what’s happened. My droid has gone bonkers. It must have blown a fuse or maybe it’s having an existential crisis.” She looked at the guy to see how all this was going down with him. He looked confused, but Mia could sense the same whatever attitude was beginning to get the upper hand. So she kicked Gizmo.

  “Dumb robot lost its internal map! We’ve been wandering around trying to find our way out.”

  He moved over to take a closer look at Gizmo. “Yeah, some of the newer ones can be a bit sketchy. I haven’t seen one like this before,” he bent down to examine the droid.

  Gizmo took off at high speed, out the door. Mia and the guy chased after it. “See, I told you,” panted Mia. “Totally nuts.”

  By the time they caught up with it, Gizmo was back at the entrance airlock of their rover. The guy stopped and had to lean against the wall to catch his breath.

  “Well, would you look at that. It found it’s way back after all.” Mia turned around to see what he was doing. He was still getting it together.

  “Sorry to put you to all this bother. I think I can manage from here.” She backed towards now open airlock. Gizmo was already inside.

  “Hey… wait a minute.” The guy had regained the use of his body and he was approaching her.

  “Yes?” she said with a big smile.

  “A bit of advice. Don’t let them stick you with that droid, even if they fix it. It will be nothing but trouble. Make sure you get a different one.”

  “Sure… I’ll remember that. Thanks.” She turned back to Gizmo in the airlock, and gave it another kick. “Come on you dumb droid, let’s get going.”

  12

  Smoking Gun

  The lift door of Dr. Jann Malbec’s living quarters opened with a ping and in stepped Nills Langthorp, to an immediate embrace. It took a few minutes for the pair to disentangle themselves.

  “Miss me?” he said with a smile.

  They embraced for a few more minutes.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “What took you so long? I was expecting you at the council meeting.”

  “Oh… the usual technical issues. It’s not an easy job keeping the wheels of the Industrial Sector running like a Swiss watch.”

  They migrated to the large panoramic window. Nills sat down and looked out at the Jezero City skyline.

  “I am really envious of the view you have here, Jann.”

  She sat down and poured two glasses of the best colony wine. She handed one to Nills.

  “You can always move over here.” She raised her glass.

  Nills smiled. “Yeah, but who would keep the machines running over at Industrial?”

  Jann looked wistful. “Sometimes I think you love your machines more than you do me.”

  Nills’s face reconfigured into a dismayed expression. “That’s absolutely not true. I love you both equally.”

  Jann threw a cushion at him, nearly spilling his wine. They laughed together.

  “Speaking of machines, where’s Gizmo?” Nills looked around.

  “On a mission.”

  “What? You let him out on his own?”

  “He’s perfectly capable of looking after himself.”

  “But, Jann, we talked about this. It’s not about Gizmo, it’s about letting a semi-sentient robot, armed with plasma weapons, go wandering around. You know they’re just waiting for an excuse to lobotomize him.” He pointed in the direction of the council chamber.

  “Relax, he’s in disguise.”

  Nills sat back and took a long slow look at Jann. “Okay, what are you up to?”

  Jann returned the look. “I found someone, unencumbered by any affiliation, to do some snooping around.”

  Nills remained silent and sipped his wine.

  “She was an investigator back on Earth, so we set her up as a courier and gave her Gizmo disguised as a G2 unit. And don’t worry, we got rid of the weapons.”

  Nills said nothing as he digested this information. Finally he said, “How did Gizmo react to that?”

  “Not very well. I will not enjoy this.” Jann put on her best Gizmo voice.

  “Ha… it’s nearly worth it to hear his reaction.” Nills almost spat out his wine he was laughing so much. “So, you still think that rover accident was… not an accident?”

  “Don’t you?”

  Nills put his glass down, sat back and looked out the window. “To be honest, I don’t know what the heck is going on anymore. There was a time when you and I, and the others, knew every little detail of colony life. But now, we’re no longer needed, or wanted. We’re the past. The future of the colony is with the new blood.”

  “That doesn’t mean we should sit back and ignore the potential threat to our world.”

  “No, no,” he agreed. “You’re right, it doesn’t. But my point is still the same. I really don’t know what’s going on anymore.”

  Jann activated the tabletop screen. “Well here, maybe this will help you.” She tapped an icon and a series of images slid open and arrayed themselves across the screen. Nills bent over to get a closer look. He touched an image, rotated and expanded it. He cocked an eyebrow at Jann.

  “Where did you get these?”

  “Mia and Gizmo. Our intrepid undercover team. She talked her way in to the MASS maintenance area.”

  “She’s good, I’ll give you that.” Nills went back to studying the images.

  “So what do you think?”

  Nills scratched his chin as he examined an image of the rover carcass. “Massive explosion, probably the fuel tank. It opened up the rover like a can of beans in a microwave.”

  He flicked across a few more images. “I’ll need to take a close look at these. Maybe get some clues as to why it blew up. But don’t expect anything conclusive, it will just be speculation. It’s a pity they won’t allow us physical access to it so we could do our own investigation.”

  “Would this help?”

  Nills looked over to see Jann holding up a clear
plastic bag containing the charred remains of some component. He reached over and took it gently from her.

  “You think you could do some forensics on it?”

  “Looks like an oxygen regulator valve.” He turned it over in his hand. “I suppose we could run a few tests on it, check for trace chemicals, that sort of thing. Not sure if it will tell us much, though.”

  “There’s something else.” Jann leaned in.

  “Gizmo managed to access the EVA suit diagnostics. It turns out that when he escaped from the rover his suit was damaged, but not enough to prevent him making it to the way station. It seems that he had little or no air in the suit. It was hacked to make it look like it had a full tank.

  Nills put the part down on the table. “Holy crap. Well that’s a smoking gun if ever there was one.”

  “So you see, someone did try to kill him.”

  Nills shook his head in dismay and looked at Jann.

  “So where is… Mia now?”

  “Over at Central Logistics, talking to couriers, trying to get some clues as to the last movements of Jay Eriksen. It’s the only way to get some idea of what he was up to, since we don’t have access to the MASS database.”

  Nills flicked through some more photos. “You know, there is a way to find out what he was doing before the explosion.”

  “How?”

  “The MASS database is restricted, so we can’t get access to it. But Gizmo can. He can hack pretty much anything. But it would mean getting back into MASS HQ and finding a terminal. You think Mia could engineer that?”

  “I’ll run it by her.”

  “Just tell her to be real careful with Gizmo. If the council were to find out it’s roaming around it will just give them an excuse to have it dismantled. They hate that robot.”

  “Don’t worry, it will be fine.”

  13

  MASS

  Three hundred kilometers above the planet’s surface, the MASS space station orbits the planet every one hundred and twelve minutes, passing directly over Jezero Crater and then tracking across both poles in turn. It is the central command for the survey mission, communicating once every orbital period with all assets on the ground.