Ultimate Adventure Novel: Mars

by David Borgenicht

  A few second later, you and Nico are staring at a tangled mess of metal parts. The robots are in pieces, and so are your reputations as hardworking, serious junior astronauts. Your reckless driving just cost the Mars Program thousands of dollars in damages. The only thing racing now is your heart, as you imagine telling Commander Wen about the accident, and thinking about what the consequences will be. Talk about crash and burn!

  Three weeks later, you’ve learned more about goats than you ever wanted to know. You’ve memorized the name and age of each of the seventeen goats in the dome-shaped greenhouse they inhabit. You’ve observed their eating habits—which basically amounts to devouring anything and everything they can get to—and figured out that they always smell really, really bad.

  You wonder about the reasoning of the scientists whose idea it was to bring goats to breed on Mars for their milk, fur, and meat. They eat so much and cause so much damage by

  chewing through stuff that it might not be worth it to keep them around in the long run. But that’s where your job comes in—you’re supposed to track the goats’ weight, food intake, and all their habits so a future decision can be made about the breeding program. You’ve been keeping a detailed log of each goat’s actions, including their naps and bathroom habits. Yawn!

  Frankly, you’re starting to get a little bit jealous of Nico, who’s been telling you each night at dinner about his exciting expeditions. The latest is that he was lucky enough to get a ride on a scouting plane over the Martian terrain.

  “We got to see the Valles Marineris, and it was awesome!” he told you last night. Valles Marineris is the biggest known canyon in the entire solar system, which makes the Grand Canyon on Earth look like nothing more than a little crack! You can’t wait to see it.

  All you could report back was how many times Sophie (yes, that’s one of the goat’s names) had butted her sister Coco in the head.

  Now it’s late morning, and you’re leaning against the wall of the goat facility imagining that you’re on a scouting mission. You’re soaring over the Martian frontier in a plane, getting an aerial view of the famous Valles Marineris canyon, and then…

  BAAA!

  You’re rudely awakened by Bubba, your least favorite goat. Bubba always seems to be the hungry one, who feels the need to remind you that it’s time to eat. You much prefer goats like Coco who never get bossy or pushy at feeding time.

  Come to think of it, where is Coco anyway? You haven’t seen her in a while, and quickly go through goat roll call. Sophie, Brent, Heidi, Zara, Ashley, Jacob, Miles, Hans, Yao, Vladimir, Anna, Farid, Edward, Luca, Rosco, Bubba…but… no Coco!

  You run through the list a second time and check all the name tags, but Coco is still missing. Where could she have gone? Then you see a small hole at the back of the pen. She must have chewed through the wall and snuck out!

  You can’t believe you have managed to lose a goat. You race around the greenhouse, but don’t see the goat anywhere. As you’re running, you bump into Julie, who’s studying some ferns.

  “Hey, partner! What’s the hurry?” she asks.

  Julie might be able to help you find the missing goat. She’s really great with animals, since she grew up on a farm. But, if you admit that you messed up on the easiest job around, how will you ever be trusted to go on an expedition, which is much more challenging? Maybe it’s better to just try to find the goat on your own.

  TELL JULIE ABOUT THE MISSING GOAT.

  KEEP SEARCHING ON YOUR OWN.

  You’re having an amazing time playing in the Mars Flight Basketball League. You hardly think about the expedition that you missed, and you don’t mind too much when the days go by and you still aren’t invited on another one. While watching the basketball team do all sorts of crazy acrobatics while shooting the ball, you get the idea of starting up an official gymnastics troupe. Maybe with Nico’s help, you can build an enormous trampoline!

  The next morning you go to check on Nico, who is still busy working on the telerobots in the warehouse. You’re hoping you can get him excited about the idea of the gymnastics troupe.

  “Hey, Nico!” you say. “I was wondering if you have time to help me build a giant trampoline for the recreation dome.”

  “A what?” he asks you.

  “A trampoline. You know…the big things that people jump on? Like for gymnastics?” you reply.

  “I know what a trampoline is! I’m just surprised that you’re asking me right now. Do you know how much work we still have to get done? Man!” he mutters.

  Wow. You’re surprised by the tone of his voice. Nico is usually so friendly. Maybe he’s a little bitter that he’s been stuck working with the telerobots and hasn’t been able to have as much fun as you’ve had recently. You make a note to invite him to try out the new trampoline after you find a way to build it.

  But you never get a chance. A few days later, Commander Wen comes to see you, looking grave.

  “I’ve noticed a pattern that concerns me. First you chose basketball game over going on a resource expedition. Now you’re focusing your efforts on recreation, not work. Is that right?” he asks.

  “Um, I did take some time off, but—” is all you can stammer.

  “Every person on this team is essential to the success of this mission,” Commander Wen interrupts. “Everyone must work extremely hard. You may have already put our mission behind schedule. I’m afraid this is going on your record and could affect the decision to keep you in the program going forward.”

  You’re back on goat duty until Commander Wen decides you’re ready to prove yourself. You can forget basketball. For the next two months you’ll only be dribbling, shooting, and slam-dunking with a team of eighteen smelly four-footed animals. Game over.

  “What’s up?” Julie asks you when you don’t initially respond.

  “Um, nothing! That compost looks great. See you later!” you say, and then dash off, leaving Julie wondering what’s going on.

  You search the greenhouse high and low, and can’t find the missing goat anywhere. Finally, when you’re about to give up, you spot a furry little tail sticking out from behind a crate.

  “Aha! I’ve got you!” you say, taking a step closer.

  Coco turns around and sees you approaching. You look straight into her big brown eyes and beckon her in a hushed voice. Then you see another little head peek out—it’s a new baby goat! Coco obviously snuck off to give birth. Wow!

  “Coco! Coco! Come here, girl!”

  She looks at you a moment longer, starts to take a step toward you, and then…bolts in the opposite direction. The baby goat takes off after her. You’ve been watching the goats for a while now, but you’ve never seen any move that fast or bounce so high! In the lower Martian gravity, Coco and her kid seem to be flying with each step, and as you chase behind them, you hope no one can see you scrambling after hopping goats!

  You are panting, out of breath, and ready to quit when you see what you feared most—Coco is heading toward Julie’s prized prehistoric species seedlings. No! She could eat her way through those in no time! You have to move fast and get her. What should you do—try to scare her into running away from the garden, or let her nibble on a precious plant and sneak up behind her and grab her collar?

  DECIDE TO SCARE HER.

  DECIDE TO SNEAK UP BEHIND HER.

  As night begins to fall and there is still no sign of the rescue team, you, Cooper, and Victoria huddle around the rover. You use the cables from the vehicle to plug your space suits into the power source, which, luckily, still has enough fuel in it to keep running. Then you crank up your suits to the maximum heat setting to get you through the incredibly cold night. To avoid draining the power of the rover, you turn off the lights and sit in the blackness of the Martian night. And wow, is it dark! Even though Mars has two moons, they don’t offer much in the way of light like Earth’s moon. Cooper and Victoria are just a couple feet away from you, but you can hardly make out their shapes.

  “We
sure could use a campfire,” you say.

  “Do you guys wanna tell ghost stories?” Cooper jokes.

  “This is scary enough already,” Victoria replies. “Let’s get some rest and hope for a rescue team in the morning.”

  Early the next morning, you wake up grateful that the rover kept your suits powered up through the night. You hear a sound, and you look up to see another rover approaching. It’s a rescue team!

  As the rover gets closer, you can see Nico and several others waving at you. You’ve been found!

  “Thank goodness!” Victoria shouts, pulling the plug out of her space suit.

  “Are you guys okay?” Nico asks as he jumps out of the rover. “We were so worried!”

  “We’re okay,” you answer. “But Cooper and Victoria are injured. We need to get them back to base as quickly as possible.”

  “Let’s get moving, then,” Nico says. “Don’t worry. You guys will be safe at home soon!”

  You know what he means, but you still can’t help thinking, it’s not really home.

  Back at base an hour later, you are greeted like heroes by the rest of the crew. You realize that even though your expedition went bust, the fact that you survived is reason enough to celebrate. But once all of the excitement and relief at being back safely is over, you can’t stop replaying the accident and the experience of being stranded over and over in your mind. You are really shaken up by it, and it’s made you extremely homesick…for your real home, on Earth. You decide you don’t want to go on another expedition again. You really just want to get back to the planet you know and love best. In the meantime, you’ll do what you can to help out the Mars Program, but you let Commander Wen know that you’d like to hitch a ride on the next supply ship headed home.

  You set off in the direction of the distant lights of the Mars settlement. The faint light of your wristwatch glows slightly, giving the Martian landscape an eerie, haunted feeling. If you believed in alien monsters, you’d be pretty scared right now! But luckily I don’t believe in alien monsters, you say to yourself. You step carefully over the rocks you can see, stumble occasionally over a few that you don’t, but manage to stay on your feet and to make slow progress.

  You can’t wait to get back to the settlement and finally send help for your friends. But at this point, you are thinking of yourself, too—dreaming of changing out of this bulky space suit into some comfy sweats, drinking some hot chocolate, and getting a good night’s sleep. You don’t remember ever being this physically or mentally exhausted in your life.

  After you’ve been walking for about fifteen minutes, the lights you are heading toward don’t seem to be getting any closer. But the light on your watch is growing dimmer. This battery is starting to die too! You quickly try to pick up the pace, before it runs out completely.

  Suddenly your boot hits a small ditch you didn’t see. You trip and start to fall, and put your arms out to catch yourself from landing flat on your face. You manage to prevent a major impact, but hear a very scary sound. CRACK!

  Not alien monsters, but worse. It’s the sound of your helmet hitting a rock and your visor cracking ever so slightly. Unfortunately, a crack is all it takes. As the pressure in your suit drops, your body cramps from the effects of rapid decompression, and you lose consciousness. You’re lucky you won’t feel what happens next.

  You feel a little bad for rejecting Nico’s plan, but you don’t want to take any chances with dynamite.

  “We’ll come back with a larger team and see what they think about extracting the ice,” you promise.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Nico says good-naturedly. The rest of the way back to base, you eagerly chat about how excited the team is going to be about the big discovery. And they are excited! Commander Wen immediately organizes a follow-up team to go out and mine both the ice and the permafrost you’ve uncovered.

  “This is really going to help expand our water supply,” he tells you with a look of pride. “Good work!”

  But then he goes on to tell you that you’re going to be building bricks for your next assignment, and not going out with the follow-up team.

  “But sir, shoudn’t I help finish the job?” you ask.

  “You’ve done your part, and we’ll take it from here. Remember, we all have to rotate between the expeditions and routine work,” he replies.

  You’re pretty disappointed, but guess he does have a point. You can’t expect to cruise the Martian landscape and make discoveries every day, can you?

  CONTINUE...

  You set up a remote camera and do a survey of the damaged habitation compartment from your computer. It’s clear that the fire burned out a control panel, which is probably what shorted out the communications system. Moving the camera closer to the sides of the spacecraft, you examine the blackened walls. It seems that Aneesa’s initial feeling was correct—that everything’s okay and that the black film is just from the smoke and will easily wipe clean.

  “Everything is checking out fine on my end,” Aneesa says. “I think we’re ready to repressurize.”

  “Hold on. I just need to inspect one more thing,” you say. You measure the curve of the spacecraft walls to check for thinning, and the reading comes out in the normal range.

  “It’s normal. What do you think?”

  “We’ve got to get the crew out!” she says. “Let’s do this!”

  You can’t help but feel that Aneesa is rushing things, and part of you wishes you had just gone on the space walk, but it’s too late now. Your mind races through all of the checks that you did as Aneesa starts the repressurizing. And then you suddenly realize what you forgot to do—check the exterior of the spacecraft using laser sensor imaging.

  “Aneesa…wait!” you shout. But you’re too late. The laser sensor imager would have alerted you to the fact that the heat from the fire warped a couple areas, which knocked some tiles off the spacecraft. You also would have spotted the damage if you’d gone on your space walk. But now you realize too late that the weakened walls of the spacecraft can’t contain the pressure of the gas. Suddenly there’s a gaping hole in the side of the ship, and the next thing you know, there’s a giant explosion. Fire Star is breaking up…

  Lights! That means that the Mars Colony is only about a mile up ahead! You almost want to shout with happiness, and start to jog back to the base.

  But as you hurry along, your flashlight starts to flicker. Uh-oh. Then, it goes out. Argh! What horrible timing! You’ve come so far and are in the homestretch, only to be slowed down again by, of all things, a stinking battery.

  You need some light to make your way back, or else you’ll be fumbling over rocks and craters in the dark. Luckily, you were trained on how to tap into your space suit’s power reserves for emergency use. If you sit down and try to work it, you could wire the flashlight to your suit and get enough juice to light your way back to base. But it’ll take time to get

  everything connected, especially because it’s been a while since you went through the exercise, and you’ll have to work by the faint light of your wristwatch.

  Wait a minute. You look down at your watch. What if you forget the flashlight and just use the light of the watch to guide you? It’s not very bright, but it could be enough to help you for just the short distance you have left. And you really don’t want to delay getting back any longer.

  TAP INTO YOUR SPACE SUIT FOR POWER.

  TRAVEL BY THE LIGHT OF YOUR WATCH.

  You take photographs and video of the rock with the telerobot, make careful notes of your location, and collect samples of soil and other rocks in the area. But your mind isn’t really on your work—you can’t wait to tell Julie about your discovery and bring a team to visit this site.

  Back at base, you find Julie in the laboratory and show her everything.

  “Wow,” she says, but then adds, “It’s really hard for me to confirm much with just this. I’ll talk to Commander Wen and see if we can put another expedition together. Are you confident that
it’ll be worth it?”

  “Yes,” you reply. Although with every passing moment, you feel a little less sure.

  Commander Wen approves the expedition. On the drive out to the spot, you imagine the look of amazement on Julie’s face when she sees the rock, and the pride in Commander Wen’s voice when he commends you for spotting a universe- shattering discovery!

  The rover pulls up to the location you’ve marked and everyone piles out, carrying loads of equipment like cameras, rock cutters, extractors, and containers. You lead the team over to the rock and point to the stromatolite with a flourish.

  “That’s it?” Julie asks, peering down at the rock.

  “Yes,” you reply.

  “Hmm,” Julie says. You hold your breath for what’s coming next.

  And then Julie starts to laugh—really hard. “This isn’t a stromatolite,” she gasps between giggles, before she manages to calm down. “Ivan and Helena could’ve told you that right away.”

  Yikes. You look over at Commander Wen, and he hasn’t cracked a smile.

  “This is no laughing matter. Do you know how many resources were wasted on this wild-goose chase? Fuel, manpower, lost time…”

  You should have known better. In your quest for a discovery, you were too eager. Now, you’ll be making up for the losses to the mission by working overtime, making bricks for habitats for a long time.