by gerald hall
Parting Gifts
Book #5 of the Unwanted Gifts series
By Gerald L. Hall
Dedicated to my wife who is known to all as ‘Rev Bev’. She’s the good Shepherd that this old ‘sheepdog’ has been working together in love with for over twenty-three years. She has been and continues to be my ‘walking, talking miracle’.
Copyright Pending 2019, Gerald Hall
Image credits: NASA
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission by the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Prologue
NASA Planetary Sciences Office
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California
November 13, 2039
Less than a day earlier, sensors onboard several solar observatory satellites picked up signs of a massive solar flare erupting from the surface of the sun. The solar flare ejected millions of tons of high energy particles from the solar surface in what was commonly known to scientists as a Coronal Mass Ejection or CME. Observatories from all over the world then turned their telescopes to study this phenomena. It took less than an hour before these scientists were able to determine the power and direction of the CME. Much to the horror of many of these scientists, they determined that the most intense portion of the CME was heading directly for Mars.
Earth itself had been hit by CMEs before. Fortunately, Earth had both an atmosphere and a powerful magnetosphere to protect it from much of the fury of those maelstroms of highly charged particles. Even so, the power of some CME events on record was so extreme that it caused not only the Northern Lights to brighten the night skies over Michigan, Wyoming and North Dakota but also to short out portions of the electric grid, damage multiple orbiting satellites and degrade communications on a global scale. However, for the most part, people on Earth simply continued on without noticing much of an impact on their lives.
But the situation on Mars was far worse. The Red Planet had neither a thick protective atmosphere nor the shielding of a magnetosphere to deflect the power of a CME. Moreover, this particular event was one of the most powerful CMEs that the scientists at NASA had ever observed. All of this spelled doom for the colonists at Hebes Chasma.
There were over two-dozen engineers and scientists standing silently in the control room anticipating the worst. A large digital clock in the corner of the main display showed when the CME was due to strike Mars. Everyone in the control room knew that every human being on Mars would soon be dead after this happened, either directly from the radiation that would be washing over the Martian surface or in the hours afterwards from the failure of the colony’s fragile life support systems. All of NASA’s readings of the CME confirmed that it was powerful enough to fry every significant electronic device on the planet’s surface anywhere within a thousand kilometers of Hebes Chasma.
Carolyn Evans felt sick to her stomach as she thought about the more than thirty thousand colonists on Mars awaiting a certain death. She quietly prayed for them as she watched the clock count down.
A couple of workstations down from Carolyn, Theodore Benson looked over at the screen with a sneer on his face. He had made it clear with the rest of the people still working at JPL that he had no love for any of the people in the Eastern Alliance, especially not the polymaths that had been born there a couple of decades earlier. Ted Benson considered himself one of the brightest scientists in the entire country with an ego to match. But that was before more than ten thousand extraordinary young men and women began to appear in the Eastern Alliance.
“Those ‘big-brained’ intellectual fascists should have considered the possibility of this before they rushed off to settle on another world without any kind of real protection against this sort of cosmic event. They were all supposed to be so damned smart. But rather than try to fix things here on Earth, they all ran away to Mars.
I guess that they are going to end up paying the ultimate price for their arrogance now.” He pointedly noted.
“Please have a little sympathy for the people on Mars. They are still human beings just like the rest of us, Ted.” Carolyn replied with a glare at the young astrophysicist. In spite of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory being located in the Western Republic, a lot of the people like Carolyn who still worked there had originally come from the Eastern Alliance before the secession of the Western states. The Easterners had chosen to stay at JPL to continue what they considered vital scientific work. They kept in contact with the portion of NASA that remained in the Eastern Alliance and continued to exchange research information in spite of the disapproval of many within the Western Republic.
There were still some people working for NASA who thought that manned space travel was still a waste of resources that could be used for other programs with more applications back home on Earth. Ted was one of those people despite his chosen specialty of endeavor. His views reflected those of many people living in the Western Republic also.
Everyone in the control room continued to watch the large video screen and countdown clock on it. The heavy tension in the air was seldom broken by anyone who dared even to speak in view of the impending doom for tens of thousands of Martian colonists.
As everyone watched, the clock silently passed the predicted impact time for the first elements of the CME to strike the Martian surface. But everyone knew that it would be another twelve minutes and forty three seconds before any signals from Mars to reach Earth afterwards. This included any images of what was happening on Mars currently as a result of the cosmic hammer blow of charged energy particles hitting its surface.
The countdown continued because now everyone was waiting on the first data coming from the satellites watching Mars. They had the same time lag because, even at the speed of light, the distance from Mars to Earth was so large that it would still take nearly thirteen minutes before anyone on Earth would learn what the effects of the CME on the Martian surface were.
An audible gasp would be heard in the room as the first data began to come back from Mars and all of the sensors observing it. On one of the screens, a young woman could be seen on the screen broadcasting from Mars after the time of the CME’s predicted impact.
“This is Doctor Juliet Herbert here at Hebes Chasma Colony Central Control. We are all still alive and well here though we are currently feeling some unexpected seismic activity right now.” Doctor Herbert said with a relieved expression on her face. From the Martian colony video feed, cheers, laughter and even some happy crying could also be heard in the background.
“That’s just not possible.” Someone in the JPL control center said.
“What’s not possible?” Carolyn asked.
“All of the telemetry from the colony at Hebes Chasma is completely normal. They should be having at least some malfunctions from that heavy of a radiation dose. By all rights, the CME should have actually fried nearly every electronic device in the entire colony. But everything appears to be just fine.” Aaron Cochran, the engineer in charge of Space Engineering sciences reported.
“Did someone screw up the calculations about where or when the CME would hit Mars?” Ted quickly asked.
“No. The numbers are completely accurate, Doctor Evans. the CME had to have reached the Martian surface over thirty minutes ago according to our latest calculations.” One of the other scientists in the control center reported.
“What the hell happened out there?” Ted asked in wonder as he looked at the stream of images and information that was continuing to arrive from Mars. They were receiving video streams of hundreds of
happy colonists in addition to the telemetry.
“Somehow, I don’t think that Hell has anything to do with what happened out there, Ted.” Carolyn said with a look of awe on her face as she watched the data coming in. Mass spectrometer, thermal, radiation and other energy readings were coming in now from a variety of terrestrial and space-based sensors.
“Look at that brand new thermal hot spot on the surface near Hebes Chasma. That wasn’t there before the arrival of the CME.” Johann Barnes, another one of the scientists from the East Coast, that like Carolyn, found themselves essentially stranded within the Western Republic, pointed out on one of the displays.
“Was there an asteroid impact there? We haven’t observed a volcanic eruption on Mars since Mankind first started looking at it through a telescope. Everything that we have observed about Mars indicated that it was relatively stable geologically. We have seen some indications of some underground thermal activity in the past. But we haven’t observed anything breach the surface, especially in the vicinity of the Martian colony at Hebes Chasma.”
“I know. But a CME wouldn’t heat up just one small spot on a planetary surface either, at least not naturally. We are also getting additional information from our observatories and satellites. There has also been a significant change in the Martian magnetic field.”
“What magnetic field? The Martian magnetosphere went dormant millions of years ago.” Ted retorted while looking closer at the new data that was coming in.
“Well, something has happened because we are now seeing charged particles from the solar wind being deflected around Mars by something that looks very suspiciously like a real, live planetary magnetosphere.”
“That can’t be real.” Ted said in utter disbelief.
“That’s what people also said over twenty-five years ago over on the East Coast on two different occasions. I think that we are possibly looking at a third ‘Event’. It is certainly something beyond even the supernatural, just like what happened before.”
“But those all happened on Earth.”
“And we still don’t know what or who was responsible for them. But I can’t think of any other explanation at this point. But it is certainly possible that whatever caused the two Events on Earth could now be residing on Mars or at least has just paid it a visit.” Carolyn said with tears of joy in her eyes.
“If Mars has somehow regenerated a magnetosphere, then the idea of terraforming Mars is no longer a pipe dream any longer. The colonists just need to add more heat and maybe a few billion tons of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and some carbon.” Ted admitted.
“Aren’t you afraid that the Martians might then induce a greenhouse effect there, Ted?” One of the other Eastern Alliance scientists sarcastically asked.
“Well, I doubt that even those ‘fascists’ will be able to add enough material to the Martian atmosphere to fully terraform the planet, much less create a full greenhouse cascade event.” Ted mumbled. He had frequently talked about planetary climate change and mankind’s role in it, especially charging that greenhouse gases would cause a runaway greenhouse catastrophe for the Earth’s ecosphere.
Ted never bothered to mention how temperatures had still not recovered fully from the nuclear autumn that had occurred after the Indo-Pakistani nuclear exchange nearly a decade earlier. He also failed to account for the significant reduction in industrial activity after the massive loss of life worldwide that happened during the nuclear autumn either.
There simply weren’t nearly as many people around to work in the factories or the purchase their output. Out of the people who had survived the nuclear autumn and the various conflicts since then, there were more than a few who did not care at all about greenhouse gases, global warming or any other element of Western sensibilities. These people were now waging war upon the West all around the world.
Chapter One:
CME Impact Site
Hebes Chasma, Mars
December 15, 2039
It had been little more than a month since the mysterious event on Mars that saved the entire population of the Hebes Chasma colony from certain death. The shock of what happened even caused a temporary pause to the conflicts that had raged in multiple parts of the world as mankind wondered what saved the colony on Mars and began a profound change in the Red Planet.
Few people could positively identify what exactly happened, much less who was responsible for it. Slowly, the people back on Earth returned to whatever they had been doing just prior to November 23rd. But for the colonists on Mars, this was only the beginning of the changes in the world that they now called their own.
Early that morning, four figures wearing spacesuits stood on the edge of a hill about a kilometer away from the point of impact. These people had traveled aboard one of the colony’s small wheeled buggies to observe the event site from a nearby ridgeline. The colonists looked down at the cone of what appeared to be a miniature volcano that was spewing molten lava, smoke and most importantly, steam. In the past few weeks since the CME, the volcano had already reached a height of over three hundred meters and continued to grow. The focused energy from the CME had apparently not only punched a hole in the planetary crust but had also penetrated a subsurface layer of ice as well.
“This is astounding. This is the first volcanic eruption that mankind has ever witnessed on the surface of Mars. I’m sure that everyone on Earth with a telescope is also looking at this right now.” Gloria Temple commented with a sense of awe as she looked out at the one hundred meter tall cone of lava and ash.
The dark-haired young Hispanic woman had been one of the many astounding children to have come out of New York after the Second Event, excelling in her academics, earning multiple degrees at MIT and elsewhere. Just out of sheer curiosity on Gloria’s part, one of her advanced degrees was in volcanology while another was in extraterrestrial geomorphology.
“There are also other volcanoes that have erupted elsewhere on Mars since the CME struck. Somehow, I have a feeling that you are going to want to spend a lot of time here at this particular one, Gloria. This is Ground Zero for the point where the concentrated energy from the CME struck the Martian surface.” Timothy Clarborne noted with a smile as he stood beside Gloria, watching the spectacle with his own ideas in mind.
“Yes, our instruments on Phobos and Deimos have even discovered that the Martian planetary diameter has increased slightly due to thermal expansion. This has to be from the increased temperature of the core. Tim, I’m still sure that you are more than eager to get down there to Ground Zero and set up your ‘toys’ as quickly as possible.” Gloria teased.
“Of course, I do. We all know that this is also an incredibly opportunity for us. We have plenty of both heat and water here. All we have to do is build something to harness them to create electrical power from them. All of you know how badly we need that electricity for the colony’s future.” Tim’s North Carolina drawl still clearly evident as he passionately spoke of utilizing the potential geothermal energy there.
Tim had also earned multiple advanced degrees before coming to Mars with his extended family. But even as a child, he had played with generators and electrical systems. He had even helped set up wind power systems that several communities in the North Carolina Mountains utilized to help them get through the Great Nuclear Autumn. Since arriving on Mars, Tim had been kept very busy working on upgrading the Hebes Chasma colony’s power production network.
“We have to start small though because we can’t exactly have a large electrical power generation station shipped here from Earth. We also don’t have a large industrial production base here either.” Arthur Wheeler interjected.”
“We should still be able to make all of this happen with our available resources though.” Tim confidently replied.
“That is fine. Just make sure that you aren’t cannibalizing any of my gravity drive shuttles in order to build your toys. I need every one of my ships running if we are going to be able to continue our runs to Earth.” Ar
thur warned.
Tim smiled as he answered to Arthur’s concern.
“You don’t need to worry about that. We can build a small steam turbine using 3-D printed parts. The materials for the turbine will be built completely out of available resources. Then we hook it to a generator that we also can produce from a combination of existing components and the 3-D printed parts that we manufacture locally on Mars. We then utilize the steam produced down there by the impact site to turn the turbine and operate the generator.
Once we build one complete geothermal power generation set, we can use the electricity that it produces to build four more. The power generated by those four can be used to build sixteen more along with additional manufacturing equipment for other products. That can give us the reliable base power that we need to truly expand the colony and provide it with the energy security that we have lacked since the beginning. We have the raw materials, knowledge and the basic machines needed to get this process going already though. We can also defer resuming that solar tower project for a while now that we have this reliable new source of geothermal energy to draw from.”
“You and I both know that we are not going to get much more of anything from Earth except refugees anyway. The Caliphate and its allies are just making too much progress in their war against the West. We need to get additional power production up and running locally as soon as possible so that we can prepare for all of the new arrivals.” Gloria interjected.
“I know that Mars is astounding even us with the rapid changes to its environment ever since the CME arrived. But this world will still not support life on its surface for quite a long time to come. We have to work even harder to build a home for all of the people who will be coming here.” Tim responded.
The fourth member of the group hardly said anything at all as she watched everything that was happening. But Deborah Marcum-Sorenson knew more than anyone else about what had occurred. But she didn’t dare tell anyone except her husband Peter.