by gerald hall
After docking Manassas at one of the asteroid’s new airlocks, Arthur went inside to one of the pressurized chambers that had been mined out shortly after the asteroid’s arrival. A small number of offices and living quarters had been built inside of those chambers for the benefit of the personnel working inside of the asteroid.
“We are making great progress in the mining operations inside of Asteroid 1511A.” Arthur told the Martian colonial manager for dome construction. Tyler Sykes was a relatively new arrival to Mars, having only arrived just four years earlier. Tyler was not one of the polymaths but he was still brilliant in his fields of specialty construction and metallurgy.
“That’s great news. We need all of the high-quality nickel-iron that we can get to build the framework for the next five domes. Some of the excavation patterns are a little odd though. Those interior rings that you have had my people hollow out are particularly curious.”
“We are going to get you as much as we can. But we are still only going to extract a relatively limited amount of metal from within that asteroid because of certain other considerations. We need to maintain its structural integrity as much as possible for other projects that we have in mind for it. In fact, we are going to begin putting in pressure doors and pressurizing many of the mining tunnels within the next six months.”
“That’s what I have heard. With that big of a rock, we will still be able to pull a fair amount of metal out of her while still keeping her plenty solid. The polymaths seem to be taking a special interest in that asteroid and whatever all of you have planned for it. All of you are pretty close-mouthed about what you doing up there though.”
“Well, we are working on a special project that could change the future of humanity. But we need to keep what we are doing as secret as possible. That includes those interior ring chambers that we have had you dig out from within the asteroid. You see, there may be some people who would object to what we are devoting so many resources towards.”
“Well, not even SALI will tell me anything about what you and the other polymaths are up to, I’m afraid.” Tyler laughed.
“SALI has been pretty working on this project too. But she has her instructions too, sorry. I am glad to hear that she still knows how to keep a secret though.”
“That’s alright. With all of the crap going on back on Earth, I wasn’t doing a lot of construction back there except for building bunkers. The domes that we are building here are going to be a thing of beauty. That’s something that a guy like me can be proud of.”
“We are certainly proud of the work that you are doing here. Someday, these domes of yours won’t need to be holding in air. They will be more focused on keeping out rain after our terraforming efforts are complete and the entire surface of this world is livable without suits of any kind.”
“I can live with that. When that happens, it will be quite a sight to see.”
“Hopefully, you will all live long enough to see that happen to.” Arthur replied. Tyler didn’t notice that Arthur didn’t say ‘we’ though. The polymaths had different plans for their future already.
A few minutes later, Arthur was back aboard Manassas and returning to Hebes Chasma. As soon as he stepped foot through the airlock back into the main colony facilities, Arthur was met by Sandy Merriweather-Clarborne. As soon as he saw the petite woman with blonde-curly hair with that intense look on her face, Arthur knew something was wrong.
“Something terrible has happened on Earth.” She said.
It didn’t take much to figure out that if the polymaths were worried about something on Earth, it also had something to do with Deborah. This was especially true with the earlier request for the rest of her family and closest friends to be given priority passage to Hebes Chasma.
Sandy quickly explained what had happened in Ashley, Ohio. Arthur felt like he had been kicked in the stomach himself because of all of the people that he knew who lived in that town including Deborah’s entire family.
“I will immediately contact all of the ships en route here and all of the evacuation centers. We will find out who made it out of there. Hopefully, most of them made it out of there before it was too late. Does Deborah know yet?”
“Yes, she knows.”
“Well, I will make every effort to find out. Then I will get every single one of those people at the front of the waiting line and on a ship coming here to Mars as quickly as humanly possible.”
“Thank you, Arthur. You know, the people of Ashley put up a hell of a fight against the jihadists. We heard the reports about how that one little town stalled the Caliphate’s advance for weeks. I’m actually not surprised that it came to this. That’s why we all came here and why we will all be leaving here when our preparations are complete. We can’t have any part of this conflict any longer. We also can’t take the chance that Deborah will take a much more direct role in it. If she does that, it will destroy her.”
“I know. None of us want that to happen. Thank you for letting me know. I will be adding that to the thousand other things that I have to accomplish today.” Arthur said with a tired smile before giving Sandy a quick hug and then quickly walking to his lab.
A flurry of messages were immediately sent to all of the evacuation centers in the Eastern Alliance. They reinforced the priority that Hebes Chasma wanted for these particular people. So Alliance officials redoubled their efforts to find as many of the designated people as possible. With all of the help that Mars had given to the Eastern Alliance in the latter’s struggle for survival against the Islamists, no one wanted to deny the Martians what they asked for.
Chapter Thirty Seven:
Eastern Alliance Evacuation Center
Charlottesville, Virginia
August 18, 2048
“You are being moved to the very front of the departure line along with the rest of your family, Sir. A gravity shuttle has been diverted from another mission in order to pick up your family and some other people. ” The Alliance official told Nathan Marcum and his fiancé. A few minutes later, his twin sister Nancy and her family joined them.
“I guess that we just got bumped up to first class after having waited here for four months. I wonder if the rest of our siblings are going to get the same treatment?” Nathan playfully asked.
“Maybe, but I also learned why we were all picked out for early departure. Something very bad happened in Ashley.” Nancy said with tears forming in her eyes.
“What happened?”
“They are all dead, Nathan. The jihadists killed everyone in town a few days ago. It was hit by a gas attack in the middle of the night.”
“Mom and Dad?” Nathan asked, clearly in shock.
“You know that they wouldn’t leave the house and all of their friends there.” Nancy explained.
“You’re right, Sis. Mom and Dad considered it all too important to continue to serve the people there for as long as they could. I pray that that they didn’t suffer during that last night. But I also wonder if anyone else got out before it was too late.”
“I don’t know, Nathan. Most of us left Ashley long before it became part of the front lines. But there continued to be a stream of refugees coming in from the front lines. There was always a chance that some survivors from Ashley were en route to one of the evacuation centers.
At very nearly the same time, Marilyn and her children finally arrived in Caldwell, Ohio. They were very tired and hungry by the time that they arrived. But just as soon as they registered with the evacuation center there, the clerk’s eyes widened after looking at her laptop computer screen. The older woman immediately picked up her cell phone and made a call. Marilyn couldn’t hear what was being said. But she could tell from the clerk’s reaction that someone in authority was on the other end of the call.
“Ms. Barnes. Would you and your family please come with me?” The clerk quickly said.
Marilyn and her children were quickly ushered to a tent in another part of the evacuation center. The accommodations were obvi
ously a step up from what most of the refugees were living in.
“Ms. Barnes, we are all very pleased that you were able to make it here alright. We were very worried about you after the WMD attack on Ashley. You and your family will be given passage aboard the first available gravity drive shuttle, no questions asked.”
“When is the next gravity shuttle arriving here?” Marilyn asked.
“We expect to see one arriving just before daybreak tomorrow.” You won’t be able to see her coming down from orbit since we want to prevent any interception attempts by the Caliphate or the Arab Brotherhood. But by tomorrow afternoon, you and the others will be on their way to a waiting interplanetary transport. She will take all of you to Hebes Chasma.
“We have some other survivors from Ashley here with us, Sir.” Marilyn told the evacuation official.
“Ma’am, we will do everything that we can to take care of them. We have all heard about what you and your friends did in the fight against the jihadists. You made us all very proud. I want to offer my personal thanks to you in addition to my condolences to you for your loss.”
It was still dark at four-thirty in the morning when the gravity drive shuttle Ceres almost silently landed at the Caldwell landing site less than two hundred meters from the interstate highway that had been also serving as a makeshift airstrip for the few remaining Alliance fighter-bombers. Marilyn and her children joined seventy-five other young men, women and children in quickly boarding the large ovoid-shaped spacecraft. Less than an hour after it landed, Ceres quietly lifted off and accelerated into the sky just before first light.
“We are carrying a lot of passengers and cargo for this run, ladies and gentlemen. That means that we cannot carry enough food, water and oxygen for everyone for the entire trip. We will be travelling fast, but not quite that fast.” Ceres’ captain, Lita Carter, told her passengers shortly after liftoff.
“So how are we going to make it out there?” Lissette asked.
“Courageous is equipped to put all of her passengers into therapeutic torpor. That is essentially an induced coma that will significantly reduce the amount of life support that each of you will require. Don’t worry. It is perfectly safe. It takes less than an hour to wake someone up from this process. Basically, you go to sleep before we leave Earth orbit and when you wake up, you are at your destination. You might lose a few pounds along the way, but you are still perfectly fine.
We also constantly monitor everyone who is sleeping during the trip and have medically trained personnel who stay awake during the trip in the exceptionally rare case that there is a problem. We take great pride in bringing everyone to their destination safely.”
“So I don’t need to worry about bringing some good books to read on the way there.” Marilyn joked.
“Oh, you are more than welcome to bring some books with you. I know that they are a little massy but we, at Hebes Chasma, welcome having some good old fashioned paper books there. While we have access to millions of books in electronic form, there is still just a special joy in holding a real book in your hands.”
“Well, I am glad that I kept some of my books in my luggage for the trip then.” Benjamin said with a huge smile.
“Well, I’m glad that we were able to get the hell out of there before the Islamists launched another missile strike at us. We’ve had to dodge three of them already since arriving in Earth orbit this time.” Lita replied.
The gravity drive shuttle Ceres docked with the Mars Interplanetary Transport Courageous less than an hour after leaving the Caldwell evacuation site. More than forty men, women and children then left the vessel that brought them to safety from the horrors of war. The Ceres joined her sister ship Io that was also docked with Courageous after picking up another load of carefully selected refugees.
Everyone had been issued a pair of lightweight magnetic overshoes to put on over their footwear. This enabled the newcomers to be able to walk relatively normally in microgravity. After being directed to the large interplanetary vessel’s mess area by one of Courageous’ crew; Nathan, Nancy and their family members quickly saw another familiar face waiting in line for a meal.
“Hello there, little sister.” Nathan quickly said as he ran up and embraced Suzanne.
“I’m sure glad to see you and Nancy. But I have a little surprise for you guys as well. Look who came up on the gravity shuttle after me.” The youngest of the Marcum children said before pointing at three others who were walking up with huge smiles on their faces.
“Well, I’ll be….. I didn’t think that I would ever see you again, Marilyn.” Nancy happily said as she gave the older woman a warm embrace.
“Jeff Knox insisted that I get out of Ashley and take my kids with me before things got any worse. Unfortunately, Melanie was killed before I left. He was still directing the defense of the town when they got hit.”
“What about their kids?” Nancy asked.
“I don’t know yet. I didn’t see them in Caldwell before the gravity shuttle came to pick us up. But they had moved out of Ashley well before the jihadist attack. I hope and pray that they are alright. I also hope that they will be able to make to Mars to live there without having to worry about those damned jihadists.”
“Benjamin and Lissette, I am sure glad to see the two of you again. I know that you hate having to leave behind that business that you two built from scratch.” Nathan noted.
“Well, we can always start over on Mars. I hear that they always have a need for some good engineers. I’m sure that we can find something useful to do there. Right, Sis.” Benjamin enthusiastically replied.
“Yes, I’m sure that we can, Benji.” Lissette replied while putting her arm around her brother.
“I see that most everyone managed to bring their significant others with them for the trip.” Marilyn said.
“Well, at least some of us have. A few of us still have not found the right person to settle down with yet.” Lissette noted.
“Oh, I’m sure that you will find someone on Mars. It’s a whole new world with a lot of very good people on it.” Nathan said with a smile.
“It is still a shame that not all of us were able to make it here.” Marilyn said, looking down as she thought of her unsuccessful attempt to get Joshua and Cynthia Marcum to leave before the attack.
“I know. But you can’t blame yourself, Marilyn. I’m sure that you did everything that you could possibly do. “Nathan said as he reached out and put his hand on the older woman’s shoulder in an attempt to show that he held no malice towards her.
“It still doesn’t help much. They were not only your parents, Cynthia and Joshua were my friends too for a very long time. Every day, I still find myself looking around and imagining myself at my store and your mother coming in to work. She was just a joy to be with. Your father did so much for our town too while he was the pastor and even after he retired from the ministry and returned to live there.”
“I also remember how much you and Melanie Knox meant to my mom and dad too, especially Mom. She would be especially happy that you and your kids made it to safety. That is just fine with me, I assure you, Marilyn.” Nancy interjected as well.
“Thank you, Nancy. I just that things ended up differently.”
“I guess that it is time for us to take that four month long nap now.” Nathan told his siblings as they waited for the ship’s doctor to prepare the Theraputic Torpor modules for everyone after the passengers had finished eating one last solid meal.
“Well, at least it is going to be a relatively fast trip. One of the ship’s crew told me that Courageous is one of the Martian transports that has been fitted with what they call an M2P2 drive. I guess that it creates a sort of magnetic sail that allows the ship to continuously accelerate away from the Sun and towards Mars. Using this device, this ship can cut off at least two months from the normal time that it takes to travel from Earth to Mars.”
“Sounds good to me. I don’t want to sleep away too much of my life on the wa
y to Mars.” Suzanne Marcum replied.
“Don’t worry, little sister. They say that when we are asleep, even our aging process slows down too. You will still be just a kid when you wake up.” Nathan joked.
“And you will still be an annoying big brother when you wake up, I’m sure.” Suzanne quickly retorted to the amusement of her siblings as they got ready to take a nice long sleep.
As most of her adoptive siblings prepared to travel to Mars, Deborah Marcum was greeted at the door of her quarters by her old friend Arthur Wheeler. His expression was initially positive as it usually was when meeting Deborah, but she could tell that there were still something unsettled behind his smile.
“Deborah, we have some news for you. I have to warn you that not all of it is good, though the vast majority is.”
“Tell me the bad news first, please.” Deborah asked after a few moments of silence.
“I am sorry to say that we have confirmed that both of your parents did not leave Ashley before the chemical weapons attack that the Caliphate launched against that town. Also, Jeff and Melanie Knox are also among the missing and presumed dead.
But I am very happy to say that the rest of the Marcum family in addition to Marilyn Barnes and her children have all been located. They are either already onboard one of our transports or are about to be transported from the surface. I also believe that several of the younger members of the Knox family have also made it to the evacuation centers. We will get them aboard a ship at the first opportunity.”
Arthur saw tears welling up in Deborah’s eyes. For a moment, he was a little nervous. He was now aware of what Deborah was capable of, especially after the incident with the CME that almost ended the lives of every man, woman and child living at Hebes Chasma.
“Are you OK, Deborah?”
“Yea. I’m alright. It just hurts not being able to see them again. I know that they loved me to death just as though I had been one of their own children. Of course, I am angry. But that is one emotion that I must keep under control at all costs. The consequences for myself and everyone around me if I choose to allow my anger free reign would be beyond anyone’s worst imagination, I assure you.”