“Those two,” she nodded over to where the two Alphas were sitting. “You can’t be serious.”
“Listen, they may look like a pair of dopes but they’ve way more experience out on the surface than anyone else here. And, if I leave them here, god knows what will happen to them, end up in a tank maybe.”
Anika, screwed her mouth up on one corner, “Hmmm, I suppose.”
“Anyway, I need you here… help keep the Betas from doing something stupid.”
“You stay, Nills. They respect you more. Let me go and find Dr. Malbec.”
“No, this is something I’ve got to do. I need to know for sure.”
“Okay, but be careful. If we lose you as well…” she placed a gentle hand on his elbow, “we’ll really be up shit-creek.”
The sound of the rover engine starting up reverberated in the cavern and they looked over. The mechanic gave them the thumbs up. Nills nodded back, then looked over to where Rachel and Becky were getting ready. One was holding an EVA suit, looking it up and down like she was trying to work out how to get in to it.
“This is not filling me with a lot of confidence,” thought Nills.
So it was that when the rover finally rumbled out of the airlock, Nills felt a deep uneasiness about what he was doing. How much was he putting the stability of Colony Two, and all that they had fought for, in jeopardy by his leaving? The situation was still volatile. Now that blood had been tasted, there was a faction within the Betas that wanted more.
He didn’t have to do this. Anika could have done the search. What’s more, Jann knew the risks when she charged off to stop Vanji, it was reckless of her. What did she have to gain? If it had been up to Nills, he would have let him go. Good riddance to him — and to Earth. But with Jann, he suspected it was personal, perhaps she had a deeper connection to the planet they had all left. In truth, none of the Betas had ever seen Earth and in reality they were more a part of this planet, this was their home. What did they care for a long forgotten world.
It didn’t take long before they could see a tall plume of dust rising high into the atmosphere. Rachel checked the map on the rover main navigation screen. “Looks like that’s coming up from the ISA MAV location.”
“You think they launched, is that a vapour trail?”
“I’m not sure, we never got to see a take-off. Remember we came here to stay. There was no going back for any of us.”
It seemed to Nills to take forever to close the distance to the location. But as the rover drew closer, they began to make out the charred remains of the MAV reveal itself from within the cloud of dust that shrouded the site. All around lay a thick carpet of crumpled metal and debris.
“It must have been some explosion. What a mess,” said Rachel as she brought the rover to stop, several metres away from the charred hulk.
“I think it’s safe to say, they didn’t take off.”
“No one could have survived that.” Becky looked at Nills.
He surveyed the devastation. “If Jann was caught up in that explosion then I think we’re looking for a body. Okay, let’s get out and take a look”
Rachel and Becky flipped down their visors and checked each other’s EVA suits with a practised, confident efficiency. Perhaps Nills had figured them wrong. In Colony Two they had come across as a pair of slackers, avoiding anything that looked like work. But now he was beginning to realise that this may have been just an act. The best way for them to stay alive was not be noticed by Vanji. Maybe they were a lot smarter than he had initially given them credit for.
They cleared the airlock and started scouring the site for bodies, and it wasn’t long before Nills found one. His heart skipped a beat when he spotted a pair of legs poking out from under a mound of wreckage. He tapped his helmet comms. “Over here, give me a hand.”
They lifted off a blackened wedge of fuel tank casing to reveal two bodies. “Samir.” Nills said as he knelt down to inspect the broken visor. “And Noome,” said Becky. “Looks like they were killed, see the wounds on the forehead. They were never going to leave, were they?”
“No. They were just pawns, a means to an end, nothing more.” Nills stood up, saddened for all the carnage that had taken place, but relieved it wasn’t Jann that they had found. They widened their search.
“Nills, over here. What do you make of this?” Rachel’s voice broke in to Nills’s helmet, he looked up so see her bending down examining a patch of ground, far away from the epicentre of the explosion.
There was a lot of disturbance. The sand had been trampled and shifted from its natural state. A set of parallel caterpillar tracks led into the spot where the three of them now stood.
“What sort of machine would make tracks like that?” Rachel pointed off along the lines. “Looks like they came from the direction of the colony.” She bent down to examine them more closely.
“It’s not a rover or a quad-bike.”
“I know of only one thing on this planet that could make tracks like that,” said Nills.
“What’s that?”
“Gizmo.”
CHAPTER 25: Dust Devil
When the initial shock-wave from the detonation hit Gizmo’s sensors, it did exactly the same thing that any human would have done — it ran like hell. The difference, of course, was the little droid’s ability to analyse and compute at speeds a human could not even comprehend. In a fraction of a nano-second it had calculated speed, force and acceleration of the impending shock-wave. It then extrapolated, from the multitude of possible options it had, the best direction to run. Or, in this case, the least worst direction to take. So as the first rocks were being torn from the gallery roof Gizmo had decided to move back down the entrance tunnel — at full speed.
Yet, this was still not enough for it to escape the impact completely. The explosion hit the little robot with sufficient force to knock it over and send it tumbling down the tunnel for at least twenty-five metres. Gizmo’s systems went into the robotic equivalent of a nervous breakdown. Energy spiked, sensors overloaded, circuits fused and data corrupted.
It finally came to rest half way down the tunnel, flat on its back. Even for Gizmo’s speed of thought it took quite a while to reassemble its brain function and figure out the extent of the damage. The first thing it did was assess the state of its systems. Several sensor inputs were gone: Infra-red, Ultra-violet, Radiation. It still had ultrasonics so it could still determine range and proximity. Its radio antennas were history so no comms, and no way to connect with the broader data environment of Colony Two, or anywhere else for that matter. But its tracks were intact so it could move. Its power source was also intact. However, one of its arms had suffered severe damage and was not responding to any signals, it was still attached, but totally dead. After it made a full inventory of its remaining capabilities Gizmo turned its attention to — what to do?
The little droid analysed the situation. Jann, Nills and the Betas were on the other side of several tons of rock, assuming there were still alive. Gizmo put that at an approximate 56.4% probability. It could try and dig its way out. But it did not have enough power to complete the task. So it eliminated that as an option. Another option was to simply put itself into sleep-mode and wait it out. Someone would find it eventually. It seemed like a reasonable choice but it was the least productive.
However, it could still get back out on to the surface, through the entrance airlock at the far end of the tunnel. And then what? Try and get back into Colony Two by some other route? Or, it could simply return to Colony One. It was a long journey for the little robot, and it would take a few hours, but it would have just enough power to complete it. There was much to do back in the colony, and it was being left unattended so maintenance tasks would only increase the longer it was left idle. Gizmo made its decision. Of the three options open to it, returning to Colony One was the most productive. It powered up its tracks and sped off down the tunnel.
Once out on the surface of the crater basin Gizmo adjusted its speed to maximise power c
onsumption. If it went too fast it would use too much power and not make it, too slow and its other systems would consume more energy than necessary. So it moved across the crater at a leisurely pace — for a robot. But even at this speed, its tracked wheels kicked up a tall tail of dust high into the Martian sky. It looked like a dust devil dancing across the plateau.
It had taken well over an hour to traverse most of the area, and it was nearing Colony One when its ultrasonics detected an atmospheric disturbance. A waveform of an amplitude compatible with an explosion entered its silicon consciousness. Gizmo searched its internal map of the crater to ascertain where it might have emanated from. The only thing it had was the location of the ISA ascent vehicle. Gizmo stopped. This new data required further analyses. It had estimated it would still have approximately 7.63% power remaining when it finally entered the airlock at Colony one. To detour via the source of the explosion would use up a further 2.7%. This was within limits, so the little robot altered direction and headed for the site of the MAV.
From a distance Gizmo could detect the dust cloud surrounding the site. And even with its limited sensory input it ascertained that not much was left of the launch craft. As it moved closer Gizmo bounced ultrasonics off the burnt out husk. It determined that the rover was the most likely initiator of the destruction. Someone must have crashed it into the MAV. Gizmo scanned the area looking for more data to work with, its power was running low so it hadn’t much time to waste. It found nothing to warrant any further investigation. Whatever happened was over, time to move on, nothing to see here. So it turned and made for Colony one.
At around seven hundred metres from epicentre, Gizmo sensors picked up a new object, a body shaped form, lying on the ground. The robot moved as fast as its power mode would allow and stopped at the site of the prostrate form. It would have liked to access the Colony One systems and get some data from the EVA suit’s bio-monitor. But Gizmo’s antenna array was long gone so it couldn’t tell if the person was still alive or not. With its one functioning camera it scanned the face behind the visor, it was Dr. Jann Malbec.
“Well now, Jann,” it said to itself, “you do seem to be in a spot of bother.”
Gizmo could not lift her with just one arm, but it could drag her. However, there were two problems with this. One, it would be risking damaging her suit, and killing her for certain if it ripped it enough to lose pressure. And two, it would be draining power fast with the added energy requirements of hauling a body.
But, it was here to assist, that was the little robot’s motto, so assist it would. Gizmo reached down, clamped a metal hand onto the shoulder strap of Jann’s EVA suit and started dragging her towards the airlock.
Power drained at an alarming rate. Worse, it was slowing down, too much torque was needed. It realigned its circuits and shutdown all but its most essential systems. It kept moving, inching its way slowly to the airlock door.
The final power requirements needed to drag Dr. Jann Malbec up the ramp and into the airlock were virtually all that Gizmo had to give. The outer door closed and it sensed the airlock pressurising. Then, with the very last few milliamps of its resources it reached down and popped open her helmet visor. It was all the little robot was able to do, it had done what it could, it had no more left to give.
CHAPTER 26: Schism
“Gizmo?”
Nills looked up and smiled. “Yeah, it’s a robot, it must have survived the rock fall.”
“A robot?”
Nills waved a hand, “It’s a long story, I’ll explain it to you some other time.” He stood up and examined the site. “See here,” he pointed, “it came to this area, moved around quite a bit, and then headed off in that direction.” He stood up and pointed off in the distance.
“The tracks look very different though, like it was dragging something behind it.” He bent down again. “See the way there’s a deep trough gouged out of the sand. Must have been something heavy.”
“A body?”
Nills stood. “Maybe. Let’s take the rover and follow it, come on.”
It didn’t take Nills long before he realised the tracks were heading for Colony One. When they arrived at the facility, they parked up the rover and followed them on foot, right up to the main entrance airlock. As Nills pushed the button to open the outer door, he did so with a deep sense of trepidation. Was it Jann’s body that Gizmo was dragging?
It took a few moments for the airlock to pressurise and the inner door to open. Standing in front of them was Gizmo. It waved a metal hand, “Greetings Earthlings”
“Gizmo, you’re alive,” said Nills as he popped open his visor.
“Technically no, since I am a robot. But I am operational, well mostly.” It tried to move its damaged arm which just made a low grinding noise.
“Where’s Jann?” Nills had his helmet off by now.
“You will be glad to hear that she is alive and well, and in the bio-dome.” It raised its good arm towards the connecting entrance.
Nills removed himself from the EVA suit in seconds and ran through the tunnel, past the rows of hydroponics and out on to the central dais, just as Jann was stepping out of the pond.
“Jann.”
She looked up and smiled. “Nills, what took you so long?”
They sat for a while in the central dais and talked. The little robot had saved her skin, for the second time, it was becoming a habit. Jann had woken to find herself in the Colony One airlock. She crawled her way to the Medlab, patched herself up and, when she managed to regain some strength, dragged Gizmo off to its recharging station. But, she had no way to communicate with Colony Two, to let Nills know she was still alive. Even though Kayden had had some way to do it, she couldn’t find it. Also, she had no transport. One rover was in colony Two and the other a charred metal husk. She had considered trying to drag back the quad-bike but now that was not necessary. Nills had come.
He filled her in with all that had happened as Rachel and Becky spent their time wandering around the facility, simply remembering things. Looking at this and that and sharing stories of times past. Nills had forgotten that they would have lived here for quite some time. Perhaps they thought they would never see it again.
After a time Nills decided he needed to report back to Anika and let her know they were all okay. He took his leave, donned his EVA suit again and headed out the rover to use the comms. As he sat down in the rover cockpit Nills gave a satisfied sigh, things had worked out. Jann was alive and some sense of control could now be established. He flipped the comms unit on. “Colony Two, this is Nills, over.”
Static filled the rover. He tried again. “Colony Two, this is Nills, are you hearing me?”
“Nills, where are you?” It was a voice Nills didn’t recognise.
“At Colony One, We found Jann, she’s fine.”
“That’s great, but you better get your ass back here as quick as you can.”
“Why, what’s going on?”
“It’s Alban. He and a few others have taken the geneticists and the Hybrid leader down to the tanks. I think they are going to recycle them. We can’t do anything to stop it, you need to get back here… like now.”
“Fuck,” said Nills.
Jann could sense something was wrong by the look on Nills’s face when he returned.
“We’ve got to get back, now… this minute.”
“Why, what’s going on?”
“Alban. I warned him not to do it, explained all the reasons, I thought he understood.”
“What, Nills… do what?”
Nills stopped for a moment. “They are going to tank the geneticists… and the Hybrid leader. If they do then all that knowledge will be lost to us. I explained to him the reasons why we need them, but he is just blinded by hate and revenge.”
“Shit.”
Nills wanted the Alphas to come back with him but Jann intervened. A leader he may be but the subtleties of politics were lost on him.
“They have to stay here.” Sh
e argued.
“But why? They’re on the same side as us, they could be useful?”
“No offence guys,” she turned to them, and opened her hands out for emphases, “but you’re Alphas. Your presence with us will only confuse the loyalties of those we need to rally.”
They both gave a look of relieved acceptance.
“Also, I doubt you’d be much good in a fight?”
They stood silent, like two school kids being chastised. But, they were no fools either, they had not survived this long by sticking their necks out.
“That’s settled, you stay here and try not to break anything. Gizmo, keep an eye on them.”
“Certainly, Dr. Malbec.”
CHAPTER 27: Xenon
Jann pushed the rover hard. It bounced and rocked as it sped across the expanse of the Jezero crater basin. Nills had managed to contact Anika, the situation was delicate, but had not deteriorated — yet.
Alban and a small group of Betas, those who had argued most for retribution, had seized their chance while Nills had gone to look for Jann. With her presumed dead, a momentary power vacuum had opened up and they rushed in to fill it. It was a wild sort of counter-rebellion, it was mob rule.
They had argued with the Betas holding the captives and demanded they be handed over. Anika had tried to talk them down but she wasn’t getting any support. So, rather than see Beta fighting Beta, she had to back down.
Then followed a period of confusion as they debated what they would do to them, now that they had the upper hand. In the end they had taken all of the remaining geneticists and Xenon, the Hybrid leader, down to the tanks. They would be made to pay the price. Justice would be served.
But they had not thought it through. It was not a quick death, not a hanging or death by firing squad. The counter-revolutionaries had barricaded themselves in the birthing room hoping to wait it out. Waiting for the point after which the body may be technically alive, but incapable of sustaining life outside the tank. How long this was? No one was really sure, but it was several hours at least. Although, it would still take a few weeks to fully dissolve a live human in the tank.
Colony Two Mars: A SciFi Thriller (Colony Mars Book 2) Page 15