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

by Gerald M. Kilby

  “Those who can will also come over here for the celebrations. Others are going up to their space station to watch the terraforming event from orbit.”

  “Can you get Evon Dent to issue a directive to clear everyone out of HQ?”

  “Yes, I think that’s possible. I mean it’s going to happen later today anyway.”

  “Good, do that. Gizmo and I will find a way in and get that black box. Then, maybe we can get some answers.”

  18

  Droid Down

  Mia had taken over driving the rover. She reckoned she had to learn sometime, but in reality it was simply to break the boredom of the return journey. She still had her EVA suit on but had removed the helmet and gloves. She couldn’t wait to get out of it, but for the moment she thought it prudent to keep herself wrapped up in it—just in case.

  As they approached the Industrial Sector, she was happy to see that the normal sol-to-sol traffic was greatly diminished. Citizens had been making their way to Jezero City for the celebrations, and the population of the outlying facilities had thinned out. Those that were not citizens, the contractors and tourists, were not obliged to be at the main city, but most who could had elected to head over and join in the festivities. Of course some of those lucky enough to work for the Mars Alliance Scientific Survey could disembark from the planet up to their orbiting space station where they could watch the event unfold in real time. As Mia and Gizmo moved further into the crater, she could see the liftoff of one of these transports. Hopefully Jann had managed to get most of the staff at the MASS HQ cleared out by now. All this movement of people left the crater feeling oddly empty. This suited Mia, as she was less likely to be stopped and boarded by the Colony authorities that wanted to find her and the rogue robot, Gizmo.

  As they approached the leading edge of the Industrial Sector, Mia turned right off the main road and headed for the MASS facility. She could see its domed roof rising up as they got closer. The long curving rover dock was completely devoid of vehicles. The place must be deserted, she thought. Good.

  “Gizmo, can you take the controls and bring us in?”

  “Certainly. Anywhere in particular?”

  “I don’t suppose it matters.”

  Gizmo reversed the rover up to the first available bay and docked. Then followed the usual humming of motors and clunking of gears as the rover connected up to the main facility. There was a momentary flicker as power was transferred from the rover to the central systems.

  Mia hesitated for a fraction of a second as she considered getting out of the bulky EVA suit before entering the facility. But leaving it on had its advantages, even without the helmet and gloves. It offered some protection from attack, although it made her less agile. On balance, she decided to leave it on.

  The rear rover airlock opened up to an empty space, much to Mia’s relief. It seemed everyone had taken up the opportunity to clock off early and enjoy the festivities. So far so good. They slowly made their way through the facility to where the remains of Jay Eriksen’s rover were located. As far as Mia could tell nothing had changed. Everything was pretty much as she and Gizmo had last seen it. They split up and started searching.

  Like a black box in an airplane, it was not in fact black, but bright yellow, so in theory it should be easy to spot. But after a few minutes of searching, both the interior of the rover shell and all the components arrayed on the workbenches, they couldn’t find it. This came as no surprise to Mia. She had pretty much regarded this plan as only a few notches above futile, considering the first thing anyone would do would be to hide the evidence of the rover’s journey history.

  Mia turned around when she heard the door to the maintenance area open. The facility was not completely empty, there was someone else here. Her first thought was to hide, but she was too late. Standing right in front of her was the same guy she had met in the airlock entrance on her first sortie to the MASS HQ. She stood still for a moment deciding what to do, then she waved and said, “Hi.”

  He did a double take and Mia could almost see the wheels in his brain turning, trying to figure out what to do, or say.

  “How come you’re not over at Jezero City enjoying the party?” she ventured.

  “Eh… someone’s got to stay here,” he managed hesitantly by way of reply.

  “Say, you didn’t happen to see a bright yellow box about so big lying around here somewhere?” Mia did a box shape with her hands.

  “Eh… well, yeah. There’s one in the control room over there. It’s kinda hard to miss.”

  “Gee, thanks. I’ll make sure to mention you to Evon Dent when I meet him later. You’ve been a great help.” Mia started off toward the control room. Well that was easy, she thought.

  “Wait a minute, who are you anyway? There’s not supposed to be any people in here.”

  Then again maybe not. She turned back and walked toward him.

  “Look, you’re a nice guy, but I’m in a bit of a hurry, so please don’t take this personally.” She punched him square in the face. He dropped.

  “Gizmo?”

  The little robot whizzed in beside her and scanned the prostrate form on the floor. “I see you have been busy.”

  “Find me some zip-ties or something to tie this guy up with.”

  Soon, the hapless MASS employee had been trussed up and parked against a wall. Mia and Gizmo were in the control room where the little droid was interfacing the black box with one of the room’s terminals. Mia watched on the main screen as Gizmo set to work interrogating its database. Lines of code scrolled down the monitor, interspersed with a multitude of windows opening and closing in rapid succession.

  “Access granted,” said Gizmo as the screen displayed an itemized list of Jay Eriksen’s itinerary during his short employ with MASS. And it was short. Mia counted no more than seven lines. Starting four sols before his fatal journey up to Nili Fossae.

  His first sol started from the AsterX maintenance yards, where he picked up a recently serviced rover. From there he made his way to a MASS research station at the very edge of Jezero. Mia tapped an icon to get more information on this. It was marked as simply Biotech. He stopped for less than an hour before heading out of Jezero and north to another MASS facility. This was labeled ‘TNCP.’

  “Gizmo, have you any idea what that is? Mia pointed to the cryptic acronym.

  “Thermo-nuclear central processing.”

  Mia raised an eyebrow at the droid. She went back to following the trail.

  Jay Eriksen spent a night in this facility before making the return journey all the way back to Jezero City, where he spent two sols parked at one of the rover docks on the outskirts. What was he doing there for that long? After that, he journeyed to MASS HQ for a one hour stop before embarking on his final, fatal trip up to Nili Fossae. The itinerary ended there. Mia sat back and scratched her head; she really needed a shower.

  “Does this have an audio recording? I mean does it record the conversations in the cockpit?”

  “Yes, it records as much data as possible.”

  “Can you go back to when he arrived at the TNCP, and then to when he was leaving it?”

  Mia listened as scratchy audio of the dead man’s conversations echoed around the control room. Mostly it was just mundane data, but one phrase caught her attention. It was the same time as he was undocking from the TNCP. Some controller was speaking to him. …and remember, Jay, this needs to be in position, and all set up before the terraforming event, otherwise it will all be for nothing.

  Mia sat in silence for a moment as the wheels of her own brain began to work. Finally she turned to Gizmo. “What goes on in TNCP?”

  “It coordinates all nuclear activity on the planet. Including monitoring, storage and reprocessing.”

  “Would that include the terraforming event?”

  “Not the event itself. But they would have oversight of all the nuclear devices.”

  Mia began to think the unthinkable. “How big are these devices, Gizmo? I me
an, could one fit in a rover?”

  “Quite easily, they are not very big. Easily managed by one person or a G2 unit.”

  “Oh shit.” Mia stood up. “I don’t believe it.”

  “What?”

  Mia shook her head. “Tell me if you think this is rational, Gizmo. I think Jay Eriksen has hidden a nuclear device somewhere in Jezero City, and it’s linked to the terraforming event later this sol.”

  “That is indeed consistent with the data.”

  “Oh my god. Quick, you need to get this information to Dr. Malbec now. And tell her… she has got to stop that detonation from taking place… somehow.”

  Gizmo was silent for a moment. “Done.”

  “Okay, let’s get the hell out of here.”

  They made their way back to the rover without incident. Mia considered it was probably time to head back to Jezero City, even though the council were actively looking for them. But with the new evidence that Mia had uncovered, that would change and more resources would be brought to bear. But time was running out. The terraforming event was going to take place in less than seven hours. Mia wasted no time in getting herself strapped in to the cockpit as Gizmo took the controls. But when Mia glanced out the window she could see another vehicle had docked while they were inside the HQ.

  “Gizmo, looks like we’ve got company.” She pointed. “Let’s get going.” But the rover didn’t move. “What’s wrong?”

  “Manual control has been overridden by the central systems.”

  “Can you hack it?”

  “Working on it.”

  Mia waited getting an uneasy feeling. Then a horrendous grinding noise emanated from the outside of the rear airlock.

  “Gizmo, hurry… I think someone is trying to get the airlock door open.”

  The rover burst into life and lurched forward, disconnecting from the dock.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here.” Mia flipped on the rear view monitor, and watched the MASS HQ building recede into the background. “Who the hell was that?”

  “I think the individual we left at way station 29 might have found a way to communicate with MASS HQ, or even found a way back here.”

  “Goddammit.” Mia hung on to her seat as the rover sped across the open terrain. They were heading past the AsterX maintenance yards at the very edge of the Industrial Sector, around half a kilometer away. The ground suddenly got a lot rougher as Gizmo had taken them off-road.

  She was beginning to breathe a little easier when something big hit the rover and Mia saw the world spinning through the front window. The rover tumbled over and over before coming to a rocky halt, right way up.

  “What the…” She found herself lying flat on her back in the center aisle. Alerts were flashing all across the dash.

  “Decompression!” Gizmo blared. “Get your helmet on.”

  She looked around. Where the hell is it? Both her helmet and gloves had been flung around the interior of the vehicle when it cartwheeled. She spotted it lying against the rear airlock and crawled back to grab it. She could feel the skin on her face stinging and her breathing was labored. She took a deep breath and held it, then she wondered if that was the right procedure during decompression. Would her lungs explode? Screw it. She grabbed the helmet and snapped it on, along with the one glove that was still inside it. Where’s the other one? Her EVA suit wouldn’t boot up without it.

  The rover jolted forward and stopped again. Gizmo must be trying to restart it. Shit, shit, where’s that glove? She found it wedged behind a storage container, grabbed it and clipped it on. Her suit came to life and immediately registered the decompression and flipped her visor closed. Mia exhaled and took a tentative breath as she looked up to where Gizmo was still trying to get the rover moving again. The little droid’s head flipped around as the emergency hatch blew out. Mia was thrown forward as the last of the cabin’s air evacuated.

  Through the gap she could see a suited figure raise a handheld weapon and fire at Gizmo. The little droid was encased in a bright flashing cage of electrical craziness. It sparked and shook as its circuits were battered by the plasma blast.

  Gizmo, no! Mia shouted inside her suit. She went back down the center of the cabin, away from the source of the blast. Going forward was not an option, her only chance now was to get out and on open ground. She didn’t want to be trapped inside. She opened the rear airlock and Gizmo was hit by another blast from the plasma gun.

  A few seconds later Mia fell out onto the dusty Martian surface and scrambled to get to her feet. On her left she could see the rover that crashed into them, it was only a few meters away and looked to have suffered only minor damage. She made a dash for it, and had just set one foot inside its airlock when she felt a thump on her left shoulder. He suit screamed alerts and its systems went into shutdown. Goddammit. She closed the outer door and hit the compression button, just as her suit died. She must have taken a direct hit, but the energy from the plasma burst dissipated through the suit rather than through her. Mia charged into the cockpit and began to reverse the rover as fast as possible. She could still see the figure out on the surface running after her. He raised his weapon and fired again. A bright flashing energy ball burst across the windshield, but it held. Mia spun the rover around and gave it maximum throttle as she sped off towards the AsterX maintenance yards.

  By the time Mia drove up to the main entrance doors her left shoulder had gone numb and all down her side she had a tingling sensation. She must have taken more damage that she realized from the plasma weapon. She was not that familiar with how they worked, all her training had been in ballistic weapons. But they were extremely dangerous in the pressurized confines of space. You were more likely to kill yourself rupturing whatever containment was keeping you alive, than inflicting any damage on your target. Pulsed energy plasma (PEP) was a lot more useful. It used a high-energy blast, and had the advantage of being non-lethal if necessary. Mia doubted that her assailant had set his to stun. The only reason she was still standing was because of the rugged EVA suit.

  Another advantage of PEP weapons was that they could fry any electronics that happened to be in the way of the blast. So Mia reckoned that Gizmo was probably a goner. There was just no way it could have survived several direct hits. She felt its loss. Poor Gizmo, she thought. She had grown used to its quirky ways, even grown to like it. But now it was gone, she was on her own, and being hunted down—it would only be a matter of time before the attacker caught up with her. She had only a few minutes head start.

  As the entrance doors to the maintenance yard came into view, Mia considered that there was nothing stopping her from driving somewhere else, back to Jezero City maybe. Why was she coming here?

  The rover died. What? No, not now. Mia thumped the dashboard in frustration. It flicked on and off a few times then came back online. Her decision was made. She pushed the throttle and headed for the yard entrance. Her EVA suit was shot and this rover was on the way out so she really had no other option. The massive entrance doors opened automatically as she approached. The volume of space inside the airlock could accommodate at least a half dozen rovers and then some. Mia drove in and the outer door began to close. It took a few more minutes before it could be pressurized, then the inner door opened to reveal a huge area full of machines of every conceivable shape and size, most in various states of disassembly. Mia got out and started threading her way through the maze.

  “Hello?” she shouted o, her voice echoing off the high domed ceiling. “Anyone there?” There was no answer. As she expected, all workers had decamped to Jezero City for the celebrations. Mia was on her own. She froze. She thought she had heard something, movement maybe. She listened intently—there it was, a hum. The sound of the airlock doors opening again. She ran.

  Mia was finding it hard to move fast as her left side was dull and numb, as if she had been sitting on her leg for a while and it was having trouble getting blood recirculating. She hopped more than ran. This is no good. She could not outrun
the threat. The only other options were to hide, or to make a stand. There were plenty of places to hide, but Mia knew that it would just be a matter of time before he found her. She was a wounded animal being hunted down. The only option was to fight back.

  Mia looked around, trying to find something to use as a weapon. There were lots of heavy tools, good for bludgeoning. But in her weakened state how much force could she bring to the battle? Something sharp would be better. A spear, maybe. That was Malbec’s weapon of choice; she had developed a lot of skill with it. Legend had it she could skewer a victim through the eye at fifty paces. But Mia did not have much time to think about the merits of various weapons. Whatever she could find quickly would have to do.

  In the end it came down to a long thin flat-headed screwdriver. It had a stem at least twenty centimeters long, presumably for getting to screws in very inaccessible locations. Mia was going to press it into service as a stiletto. She also grabbed a handful of bolts and shoved them into a pocket. Her next move was to find a good place to launch an attack. She was looking for height, an place where she would have the upper hand, where she could land on top of him and use her momentum to drive home her weapon. She clambered up the side of a parked rover, lay down flat on the roof, and waited.

  In the distance she could hear the hum of the airlock doors operating again. Was he leaving? That didn’t make any sense to her. Then she heard a shuffling sound. It was close, only a few meters away. She took some of the bolts out of her pocket and threw them on the workbench beside the rover. It had the desired effect. The shuffling stopped and she could just make out his shadow coming closer to investigate the source of the sound.