First Steps (Founding of the Federation)

by Hechtl, Chris

  "Yeah, we were, but Wanda started complaining about our fuel use." He threw his hands up in the air. "It's not like we can't make more, we have the materials," he grumbled. "In fact we are, it just tapped it faster than we were making it for a while."

  Bower nodded. "Okay, so let's go back to the rovers. Can you rig a trailer?"

  Tess looked up. "Da, we have one I can use." She left to go get the rover and trailer.

  "As far as the heater coils..." The commander took Tess's station.

  "Yeah? You have an idea oh glorious leader?" Mario teased.

  "Well, I was thinking... what about the heaters in the parachute packs?" Bower asked thoughtfully.

  Mario blinked, totally taken aback. "Did I hear right? Parachutes?" Tess asked as she pulled up with the nearest rover.

  "Yeah, the parachutes need heaters to keep them warm so they can open." Bower waved to the Habs and fallen MAV. "Take the eight from those they won't be needing them anymore," the commander said. The Commander pointed to the MAV.

  Tess looked triumphantly at Mario who was feeling rather sheepish. "Damn, sometimes..." he sighed and shook his head ruefully.

  "Sometimes you’re so close to a problem you need an outside view?" the commander teased.

  "Yeah. Thanks commander. I'll get on it." Mario nodded.

  "I do it. I have to fix antenna anyway," Tess waved.

  "Take a few sandbags up with you while you’re at it!" The commander waved to her. She waved back. Li and Mario had decided to take a chance and put a few sand bags on the roof of each of the vehicles.

  "Commander, I can handle this if you want to give her a hand. There are some explosive bolts that she should look out for," Mario cautioned.

  The commander nodded. "Okay. I'll check in on you in a bit." He waved as he trotted off to catch up with the retreating Russian.

  "Okay, going to need to call home and get my genius little brother to whip up a blueprint," Mario said looking up to the sky.

  "I heard that," Tess replied. He smiled.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The commander watched them from the lip of the trench wall. The trench had taken on a life of its own, it was over nine meters wide, eight deep, and fifty meters long. "I think you got carried away," he said dryly and then chuckled.

  Tess looked up after she set a brick in place. "Nyet. Is for purpose." She indicated the growing brick wall. Stakes were driven in marking areas.

  "What are you doing?" the commander asked.

  "We're laying in a test cell," Mario replied.

  "Test cell?" the commander echoed as he walked around the edge to the ramp down into the pit.

  "Yes, we're testing in situ brick making for a possible Martian habitat." Mario pointed it out.

  "The Mackenzie Roman vaults?" the commander asked. Mario looked up.

  "Right. It's in our mission plan," Mario replied cautiously. Mario finished buttering a brick with mortar and then handed it to Tess. She carefully set it down on top of the wall.

  "How are you going to top it? A flat roof will cave in," Bower reminded him as he inspected the thing. The commander looked the wall over.

  "Arch," Mario replied as he finished another brick. "We're going to use part of that broken tank to form a preform so we can lay brick on top." He used his hands to mime out the arch.

  "How big is this?" the commander finally asked.

  "Three meters on a side," Mario replied.

  The commander whistled. "Damn." He took a brick and buttered it, then set it in place. Mario chuckled as he handed another to Tess.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  "How are we going to go so high?" Tess asked looking up the trench wall. They were at about one point five meters high, and she was starting to get concerned.

  "Well, remember when I made that thing?" Mario pointed to the set of pipes he had carefully cut and welded together from the parts of the aero shells.

  Tess nodded. "Is scaffold?" she asked smiling in understanding.

  He nodded. "Got it right away. Give me a hand." He waved to her as he walked over to the pipes.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  "Is working well," Tess smiled and waved to the first test cell. The three cubic meter vault was set up as with an airlock door on both ends. Shaping the bricks to fit had been an interesting challenge. This air test would decide if the two days of effort were worth it. Getting the airlocks out of the fallen MAV had been a challenge.

  "I hope this works. Are you ready?" Mario turned to Tess who nodded finger over the button.

  "Let's get this show on the road then." She smiled and pushed the button. Eagerly they watched the gauges. "Air coming in... looks good. Small leak maybe? I thought it would climb faster," Tess commented.

  "Too soon to tell. With it partially buried we will have a hard time checking. My money is if it is going to leak it will be around one of the doors," Mario replied. The test crew back on Earth had determined that that area would be a major weak point.

  "What's going on?" Commander Bower asked. Mario turned.

  "We're doing a test on the first cell. Sort of a proof of concept," he replied. The air level climbed to twenty percent.

  "Oh." The commander came over and checked the airlock door over. "Is it working?" he finally asked. He was starting to realize something was going on a bit more than what he'd originally planned on or seen in the flight plan. The flight plan was flexible, with dozens of supplementary plans for various contingencies. He'd have to look this particular one up sometime soon. Mario nodded. "Well, I can tell from here you have a leak," the commander pointed.

  "How can you tell?" Tess asked.

  Mario grimaced. "The dust right?" he asked, catching on when he saw a puff.

  The commander knelt then picked up a handful of dirt. Gently he let it slip through his fist around the door. Near the bottom right edge it started to blow outward. "Yeah here's one," Mario sighed.

  "Should we stop?" Tess asked.

  "No, let's see if we can find any more," Mario replied. He ran his hand around the seal trying to feel a leak.

  "Careful there Mario, if that door blows out under the pressure..." The commander cautioned.

  "We used guy wires to wire it into the structure," Mario replied. Still he wasn't going to stand directly in front of the thing. He grimaced. "I can't feel anything. I need a strip of paper or plastic to act as a probe." he sighed and picked up a handful of dirt. If water would stay liquid he'd try the soapy water test. Unfortunately that wasn't an option here.

  Carefully he let it go around the right side of the door jam. "Yeah, several leaks." He looked over the Tess.

  "Is holding at twenty percent," she reported.

  Mario shook his head. "Well, I can't find any more on the left side," The commander said. "We can check the other door then call it," he said. Mario and the commander moved to the other side. "I have one, no two leaks here, one on the bottom, and one on the lower left," the commander said a few minutes later.

  "Damn!" Mario sighed.

  "You did not expect it to work perfect first time did you?" the commander asked.

  "I was hoping," Mario grumped.

  "Well, the good news is you only have four leaks we can detect. Plug them, add another layer of caulking to be sure and then try again," Bower said. The commander got up and stretched. "I'm going out with Wanda to check a ridge east of here. We'll be back by nightfall," he said. He waved to them.

  Tess was already cutting the life support. "Plastic?" she asked.

  "Yeah. Enjoy playing taxi driver Commander." Mario waved to the commander and Wanda as they climbed into the rover. "Okay, Lets go eat and see if we can load a caulking gun with some goop and give it a shot."

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Wanda looked over Li's shoulder as he tapped at a rock. "Is it just me or does this entire area look like fossilized coral?" she asked. She much preferred going out with Li or Yung Lin. No offense to Bower or the others but they just didn't have the training or expe
rience. They tolerated the work but were more interested in getting it over with so had to be watched in case they overlooked something important.

  He shrugged. "We don't know. No proof. Must have tests."

  Wanda sighed. "We need a dedicated Paleontologist and Paleobotonist here you mean." She bit her lip, now regretting not having a full degree.

  Li tapped for a moment then looked up. "In my opinion, is true, is coral." He waved to the ridge line. "There is shore. We are within forty meters of it, so possible."

  Wanda nodded. "But we can't say it is because there is no conclusive proof," she sighed. Li nodded. "We’re Marvin Martian when you need him?" she asked. She looked around as Li smiled catching her humor.

  "We will keep working," Li said and then shrugged.

  She nodded. "Right, I'll go get some more evidence bags." She went back to the rover.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  "How do we make the arch?" Tess asked nibbling on an apple slice.

  "The arch? Oh you mean for the full size vaults?" Mario asked sitting back. They were alone in Hab one; Doctor Han was in the hab two lab while the others were out exploring and gathering samples.

  "Vaults? As in plural?" Tess looked at him in surprise.

  He smiled. "What? Like you thought we would just stop at one? Why make one when we can make more?"

  She smiled. "Okay, if you think you are up to it. Shoot. It still does not answer my question though. Using an empty cylinder tank worked for the test, but for something full scale?" They had finally licked the test cylinder. It still wasn't perfect but it did work. Spraying both the inside and out with the plastic resin would hopefully keep it from leaking over time.

  Mario had given her some literature to go over. According to the article she had screened any water vapor would freeze against the walls. That could be bad, the expansion could weaken the structure... or good in that it filled any voids and sealed them. They'd have to see what time said about the project.

  He chuckled. "Okay, we had this problem back on Earth. The Mackenzie discussion group looked over how the Romans and other ancient builders worked it out. They built a scaffold form then placed the bricks on top." She nodded as he used his hands to pantomime the design. "We can use sections of the MAV hull. The lower panels actually. They will limit our width to an eight meter diameter arch though," he explained.

  Her eyes were wide as she looked out the window to the MAV nearby. Now she understood why he wanted a nine meter wide trench. "I didn't think of that. Can it work?"

  He smiled. "Luigi and I tested it with a few others. It will, but getting it together can be tricky. We will need six panels to form an arch, along with attending hardware. Fortunately panels E1 to F3 should work," he said slyly. He handed her a computer tablet.

  She looked at the plan. "I thought that the truss here was structural."

  He smiled. "Oh it is, but it is redundant bracing used in case of a hard landing. No problem now." He waved. "We can get two of the panels from the crashed MAV, the rest from the other two."

  She nodded. "Okay. So we bolt them together, what about lateral bracing?" she asked. She motioned with her finger across the arch.

  "That is the tricky part I mentioned. We talked about taping some tool handles together..."

  She shook her head. "No, will not work. Tape compresses together, is not what is needed. Need..." She motioned with her hands.

  "Compressive strength in the other plane you mean?" he asked. She nodded. "Yeah, I get you. Any ideas?" he asked. This was where they had an obvious void in their plan.

  She thought. "Let us take out panels, perhaps something will pop up. Maybe wire?"

  He rubbed his chin as he she set the tablet down and followed him to the lock. "Maybe. Maybe..."

  ...*...*...*...*...

  "Well, this stinks," The Commander grumped as he sipped his coffee and looked at his tablet.

  "Oh? Sorry, Wanda's hogging the shower again." Mario came in and rolled his shoulders. He had a towel over one shoulder.

  "Just finished your morning workout?" the Commander asked.

  "Yeah, both of them," Mario grinned. The Commander chuckled. It wasn't like Mario needed a work out, or like any of them did. But NASA insisted. Something about getting readings from the sensors they wore while working out and comparing it to their base line and to their suit telemetry.

  "So if it isn't me, what stinks?" Mario asked pouring himself a cup of coffee.

  "Oh, Mission control. They are afraid another storm may be approaching so they want us to stick close to base." The Commander sighed as she scowled down at the tablet computer.

  "So? Wanda and the Hans can get caught up on all the samples they've spent the past six months collecting," Mario replied and then shrugged. He sort of missed his wife. Sort of. The whole absence makes the heart grow fonder did make up for it though, he thought with a smirk.

  "Yeah, but what about the rest of us?" the commander asked shaking his head.

  "Well, If you want to split the chore list with me to keep busy, I wouldn't mind," Mario suggested. Mario spun the chair around and sat down so the back was in front of him.

  "Chore list?" The commander waved to the little roomba robot on the floor. "The robot cleans the floors... We have a dishwasher..." He waved.

  Mario shook his head. "They still need to be maintained, and loaded and unloaded," he explained patiently. He pointed to the robot. "The robot can clean the Hab, but it can't get into tight areas, and it doesn't do windows." He pointed to the dishwasher. "The dishwasher doesn't do any good unless it is loaded and unloaded." He waved them aside. "There not my chores anyway, I have to check out the hab and Mav electronics."

  The Commander's eyes widened. "Okay, I'm in," he replied. Maybe he could get some Sim time in.

  Mario chuckled. "Yeah, I thought playing with the computer would get your attention. If you want to check the MAV's out, that will free me up to do some more bricks and get an early start on the next wall for the vaults."

  The Commander nodded. "One of these times I should check them out," he replied. He hadn't checked it out since they'd finished the test cell a month or so ago. He'd thought they had finished with it. Gotten bored with it or something. Apparently not.

  "Sure, finish the diagnostics, clean the MAV windows, then come over and give me a hand," Mario invited and then he smiled mysteriously.

  "You're on," the Commander replied getting up.

  “Mario do you have to spend so much time working on equipment?” Wanda griped as he carried a cable stringing it out to the vaults. They needed more light in the vault now that they were almost finished.

  “Magnificent desolation,” Mario answered absently as he moved along.

  “No I mean it!” She grabbed his arm and pointed up to the sky. He looked up to the night sky to see Phobos passing overhead.

  “Yeah, Phobos.” He shrugged. “It passes west to east instead of the usual east to west like other moons.” He shrugged as he went back to work. “Something about it moving really fast. Ask Luigi he knows.” He went back to work. He heard her sigh and looked up.

  “Look at that rock formation, or this one!” she said. She picked up a rock.

  He shook his head. “You're really going to go on about this aren't you?” he asked. He shook his head. He understood that they had different interests and accepted it. Apparently she didn't... or at least right now she didn't.

  “Well, you just don't get it. That cable, the boxes, the ships, their just things! This is what is important! The history of a new world!” she replied heatedly and then waved the rock under his visor. He reared back away from it.

  “Watch it those things can breach a suit,” he growled pushing it away. “Look honey, it's a rock. Okay, it has some significance with the history of Mars. BUT.” He held up the cable. “It wouldn't matter a hill of beans without this. The equipment. It has its own history and is making history. It is keeping us alive remember?” He tossed the last coils to the vault's air
lock door then gave her his full attention.

  “They fighting again?” Commander Bower asked over the channel. The others had noticed that Wanda had been picking fights with Mario when she returned to camp. She didn't like his preoccupation with things other than her when she was around apparently.

  “Da,” Tess replied.

  Mario grimaced. “Thank you peanut gallery.” He held up a hand. “Switch to channel.” He held up three fingers. Dutifully Wanda typed in the change so they could be on a more private frequency.

  “Wanda, every solid object we have was once a part of Earth. Rocks before we applied our imagination to it to shape it to our will.” He waved to the Habs. She shrugged silent. “Just because we don't share the same interests in the same intensity doesn't mean we can't get along or appreciate each other's likes and dislikes. You should know this by now,” he patiently tried to explain to her.

  “I guess we have to agree to disagree?” she finally asked.

  He chuckled. “That's my girl,” he replied and hugged her.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Mario grimaced as he polished the lower lab window. "Damn, I wish we had gone with that NASCAR idea," he sighed. Doing the chores was taking a lot more time than he'd ever wanted to do.

  "What Nascar idea honey?" He looked around then spotted motion on the other side of the window. Wanda had a headset on. She was always contrite after an argument had boiled over.

  "Hi beautiful," he said. She smiled. "Well, a tech pitched an idea to use tear away plastic strips over the windows like they do in racing. When a layer is filthy, tear it off," he explained. She busied herself with an experiment.

  "Wouldn't you have to put another layer on?" she asked after a moment.

  "No, you stack them one on top of the other. We could have twenty or thirty layers. That's not the problem though, it's the heat. We were afraid that if we did that the plastic would melt or freeze in space," he said. He shrugged.

  "Yeah," she replied with a snort.

  He smiled. "Not that I don't admire the view, but I gotta get back to work." She blew him a kiss as he climbed down chuckling.

  ...*...*...*...*...