“It’s beautiful,” Rebecca said.
“Just like you,” Theo replied
“Thank you,” she said.
She gazed unwaveringly at the prismatic colors while Theo stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Imagine that we’re standing on some Caribbean beach after a tropical storm,” he said.
“I can see it now. The sand is very warm and soft under my feet. The air smells like the sea.”
Sol 316, NASA Base
“Lance?”
“Yes, Sarah?”
“What do you get when you multiply 268 by 24, divided by 24.66 plus 56?”
He looked over at his girlfriend, who was sitting across from him at a computer. Why didn’t she just plug the numbers into the computer? However, what he was doing right now was so dull that he didn’t mind the distraction. He was supposed to be comparing the water and fertilizer quantities used over the past two weeks to the amount of food that had been harvested. This was actually Sarah’s task, since as the crew biologist she was responsible for the garden, but he was helping her. Lance mentally ran the calculation. Since Sarah hadn’t mentioned any parentheses, 268 times 24 divided by 24.66 came to roughly 260, plus 56, came to 316.
Today’s date! Lance jumped up. Of course, on Sol 56, they had… He walked around his desk and up behind his girlfriend before starting to rub her shoulders.
“Is it starting?” he asked.
“I think so. I’ve never been through this myself, but if another woman told me as her doctor that she was having pain like this, my diagnosis would be obvious. He seems to be super punctual.”
“We have to tell Mike and Ewa,” Lance said. “Hurry, and I’ll take you to sick bay.”
But Sarah calmly remained in her seat.
“No need to rush,” she replied. “I can still walk on my own.”
“Then I’ll head out,” Lance said, “and get Ewa.”
Besides Sarah, there weren’t any other doctors at the base, which was why Ewa had gone through childbirth training. As a trained farmer, she knew how to bring calves into the world. Sarah had laughed loudly and said that she felt like she was in the best hands possible.
Ewa wasn’t on shift at the moment, so Lance tracked her down in her quarters. This part of the subterranean structure still smelled like fresh paint. The rooms along here hadn’t been move-in ready until two weeks ago. Until that point, Ewa had more lodged than lived in a storeroom.
He knocked on the door, and she asked him to come in. Ewa was lying on an improvised bed, the frame for which she had welded together. A large, flat sack stuffed with dried grass from their own garden was functioning as her mattress, which was why her room smelled a little like hay.
“It’s starting,” Lance said without any additional greeting.
Ewa sat up.
“Just stay calm,” she said.
Sweat was trickling down his back although Ewa’s room was barely twenty degrees. What in the world was she talking about? What was happening now was the greatest miracle that the universe had to offer, and he was supposed to stay calm!
“Easier said than done,” he said, rubbing his chin.
“We’ll get through this,” Ewa answered. “Everything looks really good. The baby has developed extremely well.”
Ewa was right. Neither the low gravitational force nor the higher radiation seemed to have harmed the fetus. The ultrasound pictures revealed a well-developed little boy in every possible way. Lance was still worried, though. No human had even been born on another planet. And their medical capacity was limited. The expedition had been provisioned for a visit to Mars, not for a permanent settlement. In contrast to the members of the privately funded Mars City space project, which was also now located on Mars, his son wouldn’t be receiving any vaccinations or even the Vitamin K shot that was given to newborns right after birth. The relations between their base and Mars City were tense at the moment, since they had refused to pledge allegiance to the administrator there.
“Are you coming now?” Lance asked.
“In just a minute,” Ewa said. “I’ll change clothes and wash up well. You should do that, too, if you want to be present for the birth. Do you?”
He nodded. Of course, he did. He was going to be the first person to greet his son’s arrival on Mars.
The birth was noisy, stressful and bloody. And it stank. Lance was drenched in sweat. He sat behind Sarah as she screamed and pushed. Tears ran down his face, but the only reason he noticed was because of the salty taste in his mouth. He felt responsible for Sarah’s suffering while all he could do was watch. He was glad when she squeezed his hand so hard that it hurt, and when his legs fell asleep and started to burn under her weight. Maybe this way he could reduce her burden at least a little. Sarah was breathing at the rhythm that Ewa set for her. She was being an exemplary mother already in the first seconds of their son’s life.
One final scream, and they were done. Sarah’s muscles went slack, and Lance had to hold her firmly to keep her from sliding onto the floor. Her strength seemed to drain out of her body. He held her tightly.
“Do you want to do it?”
Ewa was holding a pair of scissors out to him. What was he supposed to do? He shook his head.
“The umbilical cord,” Ewa said. “It isn’t hard.”
She put the scissors into his right hand and told him what to do.
“Now,” she said.
He squeezed the handles. There was little resistance. He had now separated his son from his mother. Lance suppressed a sob. It was a farewell and a hello. He never would have thought that this would be… so dramatic.
“Can you help her onto the cot?”
Ewa took a few steps to the side to take care of the infant. Lance didn’t think he could stand up in order to take Sarah to the cot, but he somehow managed it. When she was finally lying down, he brushed her hair out of her face with his index finger. She looked completely exhausted, but was nonetheless beautiful. Her eyes opened, and she shot him a little smile.
Ewa carried over their son and showed him to Sarah. He was wrapped in a white towel, and when Ewa held him up to Sarah’s face, he started to cry. Sarah smiled.
“He doesn’t mean it,” Lance said quietly.
“I know,” she whispered.
A ringing sound went off in the background. Lance ignored it. His son was simply too amazing. He would never stop gazing at him.
Someone touched his shoulder, and he spun around in surprise.
“Mike needs you on the bridge,” Ewa said.
“Is it…”
He didn’t finish the question, since Ewa’s face provided the answer. A horrible fear washed over him as he had never known before. He suspected this was the result of now being a father. Would it always be like this? He straightened up.
“I have to go see Mike,” he said.
Sarah just nodded.
“I have no idea what he wants from me,” he said, although Sarah hadn’t asked.
With that, he turned around and left the room.
“What’s going on?” Lance said as he stepped through the door.
Mike whipped around to face him as Sharon leaned against the right-hand wall, fiddling nervously with her belt.
“We’ve received an emergency signal from the MfE,” Mike replied.
“An emergency signal?”
Lance could guess at what he was about to hear. As terrible as it sounded, he found himself wishing that a meteorite had hit the MfE base or that perhaps an epidemic had broken out there. It would be horrible, but it wouldn’t affect his newborn son.
“An attack. Ten armed assailants from Mars City. Summers sent them.”
“Were there… fatalities?”
Lance felt himself grow cold. The cold sweat on his back felt disgusting. He really needed to take a shower.
“No. Ellen decided not to put up a fight. They wouldn’t have stood a chance. The entire MfE base is now occupied.”
“Is there anything we can do?” he asked.
“No,” Sharon said, shaking her head. “They’re too far away.”
“We have to consider how we’ll respond to an attack,” Mike declared.
“We’ll fight,” Lance said. However, as he uttered these words, they seemed to lose their force. What would they fight with? There was just the five of them. No, make that six, and that fact made the decision all the harder.
“I don’t know if that would be smart,” Sharon said.
“My first impulse is that we’d need to defend ourselves, too,” Mike said. “But imagine what would happen if Summers’ people show up at our base. He might send fewer of them, but if we fight back, there would be losses.”
“He’ll send more than he did to the MfE,” Sharon said. “We have forewarning. Summers will be reckoning on countermeasures. He made a smart call to take out the MfE first. They have three times as many people as we do. The element of surprise was a bigger factor where they were concerned.”
“Summers is an asshole,” Lance said.
“A powerful asshole,” Mike corrected him.
“Boys, this isn’t helping us,” Sharon cut in.
“How much time do we have?” Lance asked.
“Hard to say,” Mike declared. “If Summers sends the same people he used against the MfE to us, we might have a few days.”
“But he might have sent us our own attack team,” Sharon interrupted. “It could show up here any moment.”
“You’re forgetting about our surveillance drones,” Lance said. He had stationed three automatic drones at a distance of twenty kilometers from the base to notify them about unusual incidents. “They will give us about two hours to react.”
“If they pick up on the enemy,” Mike said.
“I’m assuming that they wouldn’t come on foot. And every vehicle produces a clearly visible trail of dust.”
“That’s true,” Mike admitted.
“I suggest that we give ourselves until tomorrow to consider if we want to defend ourselves or not,” Sharon said.
“And in the meantime, we should go ahead and prepare our defenses,” Lance said.
“Agreed,” Mike replied.
Sol 316, MfE Base
“Alright, the men now need to calmly climb in,” one of the men in the modern Spaceliner spacesuits said, pointing at the airlock on one of the enclosed rovers.
Theo glanced back. Rebecca wasn’t in sight. He hoped that she was doing alright. He recognized Andy and Ellen. Her arm was wrapped around his shoulders. She was probably trying to convince him to not fight back. Her decision to raise the white flag hadn’t met with everyone’s approval. Theo had supported her. They wouldn’t have stood any real chance against ten armed attackers. But what would happen next?
Somebody suddenly shoved him from the side.
“You’re supposed to get in there. Didn’t you hear that?”
Another of Summers’ men. Theo had to hold himself back from beating the arrogance out of the other man. The man was holding his gun so awkwardly that he could have easily overpowered him. But there were seven other men who could put him out of commission. Two of them seemed to be down with the women in the underground quarters. He waved at Andy before turning around and climbing into the airlock.
The rover smelled unpleasant. Not surprising considering that five men had spent several days in here, he thought. One of them was waiting for him inside. He signaled for Theo to take off his spacesuit. If only the guy wouldn’t wave his gun around so much!
“Man, that’s dangerous!”
Theo couldn’t stop that from slipping out. If a bullet was fired and went through the external wall, they would both be toast!
“That’s my business,” the man said in a thick Texas accent.
Some people never learned how dangerous guns could be in a world without breathable air. He just preferred to not be around that kind of behavior.
The man pushed him toward the back of the cabin. Why didn’t he just say what he wanted and why? Ah, at the rear of the vehicle was another airlock that led to the second rover. Theo was about to lean down and reach for his suit when the Texan shoved him again. Got it. You don’t want me to take my suit along. Theo had to acknowledge that the rationale behind this was quite clever. If they stuck all the MfE men in the second rover and removed the airlock, they’d be cut off from every possible escape route. No one could leave the rover without a suit. They would be able to transport them across the Mars desert without any kind of security watch.
But this would be torture for the prisoners. The trip would take at least four or five days, maybe longer. And they would have to spend the time together in cramped quarters, without any privacy whatsoever. And the sanitary facilities would be very primitive. Would they provide them with enough food and water? Of course, they would. The administrator was following a specific strategy. Every life had a role to play. The larger the gene pool was for his colony, the easier it would be for it to survive. If the man weren’t such a huge asshole, they might have agreed to join him before now. It would have been reasonable. It didn’t make sense to maintain three separate human settlements on this planet.
“Can’t you hurry up?” the man behind him called.
Theo didn’t let this ruffle him. He was about to exit the tube when he heard Andy’s voice.
“Don’t touch me!” Andy shouted.
“I’ll touch you whenever I want to,” the Texan replied.
Theo stopped. He knew what this expression really meant. The man wanted an excuse to pick a fight, and he was just waiting for the right opportunity to hit Andy. The delicate Georgian probably looked like easy pickings to him.
“Don’t even think about it,” Theo yelled. He could be at Andy’s side in three seconds.
“Keep out of this,” the Texan said. “It doesn’t concern you. Have you already forgotten who’s got the gun here?”
That did it. Theo strode back down the tube. The man was aiming at him, but he didn’t stop.
“You’d be a dumb ass to fire,” he said. “But hopefully you already know that.”
The man lowered his weapon.
“Fine,” he said. “Just go! Into the other rover. We’re about to leave.”
Rebecca was waiting on the bridge, but she didn’t know why. What was happening on the surface? What was the administrator going to do with the men? Nobody was answering her questions. Two armed guards were stationed down here with the women. They were walking slowly down the corridors, making lewd, immature jokes as if they had never seen a woman before. Regardless of their weapons, if they wanted to, the women could take out the two jokers any time they chose.
But that might put the lives of the men at risk! That had probably been the administrator’s idea to begin with. If he separated the two groups, he could use the one as a pawn against the others. Rebecca was afraid that his plan might actually work.
The two strangers showed up on the bridge unexpectedly. It was obvious that they were listening to the little button in their ears.
“Alright, people,” one of them finally said. “We’re going to leave you on your own. Twice a day, you’ll need to contact the office of the administrator to receive your daily duty roster.”
“And what’ll happen to our men?” Ellen asked.
“We’re taking them with us. They will be put to good use in the city.”
“But you can’t…” Rebecca started, then stopped as soon as she realized what she was saying. Of course, they could.
Ellen placed her hand on her upper arm.
“Good, ladies,” the other man said. “And if any of you find yourselves needed a real man, just call for Jack.”
The other man slapped him heartily on the back.
“You’re married, bro,” he said.
The men fastened up their suits before leaving the bridge through the airlock. As soon as the light attached to the lock chamber glowed green, Rebecca followed them in her spacesuit. But she was too late. A trail of dust indicated that the three vehicles had already driven out of the crater, heading eastward. She waved after them in the crazy hope that maybe Theo could see her through a telescope. She then caught sight of the colorful flecks of light around her. She turned around and saw the daily rainbow. She would see Theo again. There was no question about that.
Mars Nation 3 will conclude the trilogy around Christmas 2019. You can pre-order it here:
hard-sf.com/links/818245
Brandon Q. Morris
--
www.hard-sf.com
[email protected]
Translator: Rachel Hildebrandt
Editing: Marcia Kwiecinski, A.A.S., and Stephen Kwiecinski, B.S.
Cover design: Audible Germany
Mars Nation 2 Page 31