“Julia, did you tell anyone else?”
She blushed. “Andrea and Chelsie.”
Benny groaned. “Might as well have posted it on the web, now the entire world will know.”
Luigi sighed. “Damn.” He hit the secretary page button again. “Miss Roberts, get me Andrea and Chelsie please. Now.” He sat back again.
“I'm in trouble aren't I?” Julia asked softly.
“Well, I did tell you not to say anything to anyone,” Benny growled and tried to glare. His heart wasn't really in it though.
Luigi exhaled noisily. Julia was looking down, subdued. Benny looked at his boss. “It was going to come out eventually, but we were hoping to get a little more time before hand. Frankly, I expected someone to have taken notice earlier than this,” Luigi said and shook his head.
“How did they build all that?” Julia asked looking up. That was the thing that bothered her. She'd noticed Tess and Mario doing stuff with the bricks but not that level.
“In shifts. Mario and Tess mostly.”
She nodded. “But how, I mean, the bricks?” She held up her hands helplessly.
“Nylon shredded from the parachutes for tensile strength. Mixed with duracrete in the mixer we sent on the first test MAV.”
Benny nodded. “That far back,” he replied. He whistled appreciatively. “Still could have told me,” he growled.
Luigi shrugged. “Water over the damn and down the river now bud.”
Andrea entered. “Miss Chelsie has left for the day.” The secretary said over the intercom.
Julia groaned, hands over her face. “Damn.”
Andrea looked around. “Let me guess, you spilled your guts?” she asked in mock disgust. She looked over to Julia. Julia nodded.
“Yes she did, to you and to Chelsie. I would like you to keep this information strictly confidential for now please Andrea,” Luigi ordered.
She sat down. “Too late, I overheard Chelsie on the phone with a reporter on her way out. That's why she is taking the rest of the day off. Something about lunch at a cafe...”
Benny groaned. “Damn!” Luigi shook his head. “Well, you were saying something about water over the damn and down the river boss? Well I think it passed the bridge and is heading out to sea,” Benny replied in disgust. He sat back and sighed. “I need a drink.” Julia sobbed softly.
He leaned over and rubbed her back. “It's okay kid,” he murmured. He tried to comfort her.
“Julia,” Luigi said softly. He waited for her to look up. “Believe it or not, but we expected to be found out eventually. This just puts a bit of a bit of a bind on us.” Which was true, the next launch was already on its way to the pad. They had less than a month to go.
Andrea gave him a cool look. “You mean it puts your tail in a ringer,” she said.
He sighed and nodded, not denying it. “Something to that effect. It is going to get a lot of people riled up at precisely the wrong time. Not that we didn't tell them in advance that this is a possibility.” He shook his head. “As far as Miss Chelsie, I think we will have to find her something... more constructive to do with her time since she is so hell bent on causing mischief,” he said and frowned; glad they had found at least one leak. He paged the secretary. “Get me the attorney and Miss Chelsie's number.”
She nodded. “I have it here.” Julia pulled out her phone and rattled the number off of her contact list.
Luigi jotted it down on a pad. “Miss Burns, never mind the number, I have it. Just the attorney please.”
“Miss Chelsie Havenforth? This is Doctor Luigi Irons. We need to talk.” He could hear diners in the background.
“Who is it?”
“The assistant director.”
“Crap,” someone said and then she hung up.
He sighed and looked at the phone, then hit redial. “Miss Havenforth I believe we were cut off.” He waited a moment. He could hear her hissing then making static sounds.
“I...going...tunnel, call back...later.” She hung up again.
He set the phone down. “Well. That would have been amusing at another time,” Luigi sighed as he shook his head.
“What she brushed you off?” Benny asked annoyed.
“Oh more than that, first she hung up on me, and then she tried to act like she was breaking up while going through a tunnel and hung up on me.”
Benny snorted. “You’re kidding. There isn't a tunnel around for miles!”
Luigi chuckled. “Yes, but I think that won’t occur to her for a few more minutes.”
Julia looked up alarmed. “What are you going to do?”
He shrugged. “I was going to try to call her off, but the first call I made I could hear her already at a dinner.” He shrugged. “That's out.”
“Ouch.”
“I think we need to transfer the young lady.” Perhaps our youth outreach program would be a good place for her... energy and ability to get the... message out.”
Benny winced. “You're evil boss. Have her go from town to town teaching kids? Ouch.” He shook his head in amusement.
...*...*...*...*...
“Yes mister president, there is only minimum risk to the team and the mission. They are doing the work in their off time, or by juggling schedules,” Luigi grimaced. The calls had come fast and furious when the story broke that evening. Some of the politicians weren't happy about being caught off guard. It also played merry havoc with their planned agendas.
Nick shook his head. “Better you than me,” he mouthed.
Luigi shook a fist at him. “No sir, we will let you know if the situation changes. Yes sir, I look forward to seeing you again. Thank you for your time sir.”
Luigi looked at the phone as he took it away from his ear, and then gently hung it up. He stuck his finger in his ear and rung it out a bit. “Reading you the riot act?” Nick asked sympathetically.
“Not the full version, I suspect I will get the full version in person,” Luigi sighed.
“Well, Zubrin is catching it too; he was on the phone for hours with the people on the Hill,” Nick reported.
“Great. All because that witch couldn't keep her big yap shut,” Luigi replied in disgust. He sighed noisily.
Nick shook his head. “We are getting a little flack from our treaty partners, but not any from the Chinese or Russians. Surprisingly.”
Luigi chuckled. “That is because both were briefed by their cosmonauts. The Han's send regular reports encoded and in their native Chinese dialect.” He held up his hand when Nick opened his mouth.
“No, I don't know what they are saying; I was too concerned that the busy bodies at No Such Agency were snooping at the time,” he sighed. “Now I wish I had paid more attention.” Nick nodded.
...*...*...*...*...
"Mario, you’re going to have to lead a tour of the vault," Bob ordered. Bob Zubrin himself was on the vid link. He sighed sitting back. "It's not like we didn't know it wasn't going to come out eventually, and the establishment is a bit embarrassed that they overlooked it in the mission plan." He smiled tiredly. Mario noted the bags under his eyes. The man had probably spent the past couple days catching hell from all sides. He winced.
"Do the recording and upload it to us for distribution," Bob finally finished. Mario nodded.
He clicked the pause button then the record. "All right Bob, we'll get it done, sorry you’re catching so much flack on this. You'd think politicians would have learned to read the fine print," Mario chuckled. "We'll do the recording first thing after chores in the morning." He nodded to the camera. "Good night, get some rest. Mars base out." He clicked stop, then send.
"Need some help?" Wanda asked.
He looked up to see her in her robe. "Ready for bed?"
She nodded. "Bob catching hell over your project?" she asked.
He sighed in disgust. "Yeah, Luigi told me it was bad, but they were expecting it," he replied then shrugged. "I don't see what the big deal is; we expanded the base with native materials."
Her face worked for a moment. "They may be concerned about it collapsing."
He gave her a disbelieving look. "They may think it, but I built it. I would never take chances with you or the team." He waved to the rest of the base. "The commander checked in on us, hell, everyone except you were in on it," he smiled and spread his hands.
She winced. "Yeah, I've been kind of preoccupied with what we're supposed to be doing."
He snorted softly. "Right, let's go to bed." He got up and stretched. "I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a long day." He tucked her under his shoulder and hugged her to his side. She smiled. He shrugged.
...*...*...*...*...
The press room was a mad house. Nick followed Luigi, Zubrin, and the President into the room. “All rise for the president!” the doorman called. The press quieted as they rose in a rustle of fabric and click of cameras. Flash bulbs made Nick's eyes water. The president took the podium and the trio stood behind and to his left.
“Thank you for coming ladies and gentlemen,” the President said. The President looked around and then to the front where the teleprompter was strategically located. “Three days ago an unauthorized release of information was given to the press.” He seemed to exude outrage and patience at the same time. Neat trick. Mario thought to himself as he watched. He'd caught the alert from Mission control at breakfast before they started the tour. Most of the crew were here to watch it. He moved to one side to allow Wanda to climb into his lap.
“For the past few months the team on Mars has been building a series of Roman vaults to test building structures with native materials on the Martian planet. In a few hours we will receive a video tour of the vaults and explanation on how they were constructed.” He nodded. “We can only admire their courage and dedication.” He paused for a moment. “I will take a few questions then we can continue.”
He pointed to a reporter in the back. “Miss Debra Day, CBS. Sir, this is an unexpected development, was this put on to regain public attention?”
The president looked over to Luigi who sharply shook his head. “No, this was not staged in anyway. If you will look over the Mars mission plan, you will find this and other similar plans in the optional mission package.” The president smiled a patented sheepish smile. “In other words we were told about it, but it was buried in the fine print,” he said disparagingly. Several reporters laughed at that.
“Mister President, Mark Woods, New public Web, Will this change the future mission plan?”
The President nodded. “It definitely shows that mankind can make a home in the most wild and inhospitable places. If the vaults are viable as we have been told then mankind is on its way to establish a new home on a distant world.”
He smiled at the cameras. “For the first time in our history, Mankind is stepping out, stepping to the stars ladies and gentlemen. I for one am truly humbled by the strength, courage, and dedication our pioneers are showing. They are true heroes.”
“Heroes hell, he is still pissed,” Mario grumped. Wanda shushed him.
“This mean the Hans will help out more now?” Tess asked as she shifted behind him.
“Don't bet on it. I bet they will be talking with home for days,” Mario sighed.
“Burning up the bandwidth,” Wanda sighed in agreement. “Great. Hi commander care to join us?” Tess waved to the commander who had been watching from the doorway. He nodded.
“Press conference on us?” the commander asked. Wanda looked up and rolled her eyes, then returned to watching the conference.
...*...*...*...*...
"All right Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Mars base. This is going out as a Three D recording so those of you at home can view it with the proper equipment." Mario held up a set of goggles. "You can view it with a set of these, or if it is broadcast as a video, you could view it with a cheap pair of paper 3D glasses you can get from a movie theater," he said and then nodded. He'd just finished prebreathing and was ready to rock and roll.
"All right, let's get started shall we?" Tess followed him into the airlock. He put his helmet on and sealed up. They checked each other. "Okay, all set, airlock is depressurizing now. Unfortunately we haven't built the connecting tunnel to the habs yet, we've been focusing on the vault interior. The vault or warren as some have called it is made up of three roman style vaults. Check out the Mars Foundation website for more on that."
Tess followed him to the first test cell. "This is the first test cell the commander, Tess, Doctor Li, and I created. It is a simple three cubic meter vault. As you can see it has a half cylinder ceiling." Mario used his hands to trace out the arch. "We took the airlock doors from the crashed MAV to turn this into an airlock. Come on, let's go inside." He opened the door and they went in.
Tess panned the camera around. They'd used the slurry to coat over the plastic resin as a sort of drywall. It wasn't perfect but it did make it look a little better.
"As you can see we've built a sort of mud room here using the components from the salvaged MAV. We created a bench with bricks, and installed life support." Mario took off his helmet when the light turned green. "See? Air." He breathed in and out. "Unfortunately due to the large volume it is taking time for the salvaged heaters to heat the vaults." He opened the inner door. His breath immediately clouded as he stepped through the threshold.
"It is a bit dark in here, but I think the camera can adjust," he said. He hit the lights. "It is still a work in progress; we need to complete the supports for the second floor." Tess panned up to the darkened arched ceiling above. "Right. The first two vaults will be two stories, the bottoms will be living quarters, and tops will be labs or sleeping quarters." Mario waved to the arched door to the next vault. "In here we have the kitchenette. The MAV had a tiny microwave and convection oven and some storage for food and for the samples. We've adapted all of it for this. Hopefully we can replace or expand on this start down the road..."
He spent nearly an hour leading the tour before winding it down with a thank you for watching good night. Tess shut the camera off and nodded. "Do you think we should have scavenged more lights? It is sort of dark." the commander asked coming in behind them.
"Yeah, it is. But Wanda needs them on her dig site, and the rest would have to be pulled from the habs or from our spare parts... I'm not happy about that," Mario replied.
The commander nodded. "Yeah, me too. Okay, let's use this then." He waved to Tess who nodded and walked out.
"Think it will help?" Mario asked.
"I hope so. I doubt it, not everyone is keen on this project." The commander waved to the ceilings. "Oh don't get me wrong, I love it. I wish our stay was longer, or that my family was here. We could really turn this place into a home," he sighed. "But either way, we're going to catch some flack form it." Mario nodded. The commander sighed.
"Yeah, better batten down the hatches and be prepared," Mario nodded grimly. "Well, they're going to show it to the hill, treaty partners, and admin before it is released. Hopefully we get some positive feedback," Mario said and then shrugged. It was after all, now out of his hands.
...*...*...*...*...
"Ladies and gentlemen we are about to bring you pictures from the Mars base. This unauthorized experiment is being conducted by Mario Irons and some of the crew. As you can see from these screen shots we are showing you it is a dark, dank dungeon that they expect people to live in. So cold that their breath can be seen here..."
Mario grimaced. "Screen shots?" He turned to the commander who shrugged helplessly.
"First amendment. They can use what they want and spin it the way their bosses want," the commander replied, clearly as disgusted as he was. Mario sighed.
Tess shook her head. "Is not right. We worked hard on dis." She waved angrily.
"Well, Luigi is putting the cad drawings, virtual sim, and raw video up on our websites, with mirrors to follow. In fact he complained that they are being swamped with traffic. A bootleg has turned up on Vimeo and YouTube... He is letti
ng them go. I think he even contacted Hulu to put it up there as well," Mario replied.
"So the web will see it for what it really is?" The commander asked.
"Yes, but I was thinking. We should take that panoramic camera and laser range finders we used for the Sim project and do some interior shots of each...." Mario suggested.
Tess brightened. "DA! IS good! We should have thought of earlier!"
Mario chuckled “Better late than never,” he said.
...*...*...*...*...
"What the?" Mario sighed as he checked his e-mail. His cousin Eli had sent him a link to a video game mod of the vaults. He frowned. "Like I can surf the net from Mars you ninny." He shook his head. "Time to give Luigi a ring," he muttered as he set up the webcam. "Luigi, what's this about a FPS mod of the vault? I think your Sim got hacked. Check it out for me will you?" He saved the video file and added it to the daily upload log.
Sometime later he checked his mail and got a response. "Mario, um... I hate to break it to you but a kid named Billy and I did it a month ago," Luigi replied. Luigi looked embarrassed. Mario growled. "It is a bit of viral marketing, keeping people interested in Mars," Luigi explained. He shrugged. "It's actually pretty popular, the kid did good. He's gotten into the college computer sciences program and has an internship with us. His application for astronaut training just crossed my desk a day or two ago too. I had to pass it over to Nick and Zubrin so I won’t be accused of nepotism or favoritism," he sighed and rolled his eyes.
"The kid is good though, he's mastered all the Sims when they first came out. The real ones, not the watered down public versions," Luigi said and then smiled. Mario nodded. "He's a hands on kid, built his own PC when he was eight, knows computer languages, and is absolutely insane when it comes to programming." Luigi chuckled. "We've set up a copy of the Mars Sim in Second Life. I'll send you a copy of the mod so you can load it into Halo ODST or Starcraft two." Luigi grinned. "Later bro."
·Chapter 11
Asteroid encounter:
"So the asteroid will pass us by?" Nick asked Luigi carefully. He for one didn't want anything else going wrong. He was fairly sure Bob and Luigi hadn't expected the vehement reaction from the vaults.
First Steps (Founding of the Federation) Page 23