Mars Descent (Cladespace Book 2)

by Corey Ostman

  “Would you like to see what became of ours?” Planar said, smiling. “We would be extremely pleased if The Tim accompanied you.”

  “Yes, Planar, take us now,” Richard said.

  Grace saw the giddy look in Richard’s eyes. The fire of his Essex quest burned brightly, especially now that he was close. And an advanced robot like Planar must be thrilling to him. He loved Mazz, and he was falling under Planar’s spell, too. Anna seemed to have the same enthusiastic look.

  “Not so fast. We need to discuss this,” Grace said. She turned to Planar. “Alone.”

  “Planar, would you wait for us in the hall?” Richard asked.

  “No,” Grace said.

  Richard frowned. “Fine. Planar, would you wait for us outside the ship?”

  “Of course,” Planar said, donning his helmet.

  Planar got off the table and walked into the airlock. Grace waited until the airlock depressurized before she spoke.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea, Richard,” she said. Part of her wanted to go, but she voiced caution to see his response.

  Richard shook his head. “Of course we should, he—”

  “He took a shot at you, Richard,” Grace said.

  “We should go,” Anna said. “My father told me about the Essex. Do you realize what kind of robots they were?”

  “I’m interested,” Raj said, “but we should take our time. One hundred thirty-seven. Do we really want to go up against that?”

  Good, Raj. Help me out.

  Richard walked over to Grace. “After all this…is that what you really think? We shouldn’t go?”

  Grace looked at Richard. He was pushing so hard to return. “Why ask me? Your mind is made up.”

  “Of course it’s made up. My grandfather,” Richard said. “For twenty years I’ve been searching and—” He wiped his hand across his forehead. “We’re so close.”

  “Surely you don’t think he’s still alive?” Anna asked. “He’d be, what?”

  “Ninety-four,” Richard said. “But you don’t understand. I know he’s probably dead. But I’ve been searching since he disappeared. I owe it to him. He’d have done the same for me.” Richard slumped against a wall. “For years I had no luck. Trips down here, and probes. Paying people. It wasn’t until the robot exodus that I had an idea where to look.”

  “The exodus was a clue?” Grace asked.

  “You saw for yourself in Gusev, Grace. My grandfather knew twofers. Really well. Better than I ever did. That, and the thorium drive, which could have continued working. The fact that there’s nothing down here except the wreck. I couldn’t connect them definitely, but I had a feeling in my gut.” He laughed softly. “Besides, it was a good time to get out of Elysium.”

  Grace folded her arms and looked at Richard. “Before we take one more step, what do you think we’ll find?”

  Richard’s eyes met hers. “About the Essex twofers?”

  Grace dipped her head.

  “It began with my grandfather tinkering with Mazz,” Richard said. “As long as I can remember, Mazz has been a member of our family. Always more than just a twofer. That was Archie’s doing. Archie was many things to many people, but he was an exceptional roboticist.”

  “Raj said that your grandpa got Mazz as scrap from an earlier Mars mission,” Anna said. “Are you saying he adapted Mazz’s original programming to create a domestic twofer?”

  “More than that,” Richard said, reaching for a panel and switching on an external camera. “More than I’ve told you all.” He looked down into his helmet. “The Essex twofers were my grandfather’s biggest experiment. He felt that if he increased the density of their neural mesh, the resulting twofer would have the same capabilities as a human.”

  Grace watched Raj as his focus shifted from Richard to Tim.

  “Did it work?” Raj said.

  “Too well. The Essex twofers worked perfectly. And they were immediately shunned.”

  “Because of their calculating ability?” Anna said.

  “No. Archie obviously didn’t care too much about aesthetics when he gave us Mazz, but he made the Essex twofers look human. Anna, have you heard of the uncanny valley?”

  She shook her head.

  “I have,” Raj said. “Long ago, a roboticist coined that term. Humans are repulsed by things that look not quite but nearly human.”

  “That was the problem,” Richard said.

  “But how come I’ve never heard of Archie Archdale in terms of robotics?” Raj asked.

  “Elysium Dome gave him an ultimatum: destroy his new twofers or face expulsion.” Richard’s voice dropped to a whisper. “He chose the latter, and he went with his creations. Based on Grace’s snooping, I know now that he went to Gusev for a while before heading south.” Richard sighed. “He told me he left one copy of the neural map for safe-keeping, but never told me where.”

  “So your grandfather was—” began Grace.

  “Their father,” Richard said, watching Planar in the camera display. “And if this magnificent twofer is any indication, he came through the uncanny valley and now there are two sentient species on Mars.”

  Richard turned back to Grace.

  “Now you know why I need to see the Essex.”

  Grace nodded. “Look, I agree we should follow Planar. I just wanted to be sure we were rational about it.”

  “I should point out, too, that it’s not entirely up to us. Not even Richard,” said Raj.

  Confusion washed over Richard’s face. “Who?”

  Grace looked at Raj, and they both pointed to the PodPooch.

  “Tim.”

  Richard laughed. “The dog gets a vote? You’ve got to be kidding me. We’ll have Mazz along.”

  “Mazz lost comm with the Scout almost immediately, but I did not. I should go,” Tim said.

  Richard stared. “The PodPooch is an AI.”

  Chapter 31

  After a brief update for Wragg, the group joined Planar outside the Scout. Planar nodded his assent once Tim stepped through the airlock. The twofer turned silently toward the crevice they’d already traveled.

  The hike seemed shorter than the first time, and while Grace kept her hand on her phasewave, she also took the time to absorb the cave, a massive and dormant geyser flume. Materials and scarring left behind by the thrust of a gas pressure release pointed the way to the surface. She knew that with large geysers, the spiderlike surface formations created by ejecta could be seen from telescopes on Earth. She walked a path of crystallized violence, an ancient birth canal.

  The group passed the spot where Planar had first appeared. The fissure continued forward some fifty meters, then fell abruptly, a chasm cutting off their walkway.

  There didn’t appear to be a way across. Grace looked back, but Planar was lagging behind, courteously answering Richard’s questions. She stared for a minute at the place where the lighter cliff face on the opposite side met the darkness of the flat above the level of the ridge.

  “Tim, I think I just saw a movement on the other side. Do you detect anything? Hear robots?”

  “Nothing,” Tim said.

  She blinked through her visor and selected IR ENHANCE, but still couldn’t make anything out. Only the flat expanse, which registered as a differential in contrast.

  Planar and Richard caught up with them.

  “What’s this?” Richard said. “Is there a way around?”

  “We should—” Planar began.

  “Planar, do your people live on that shelf over there? I thought I saw one for a moment.” Grace pointed.

  “No, they do not.”

  Planar followed her line of sight and stared intently.

  “There is someone there,” he said softly. “Do you have any missing crew?”

  “No,” she said. “Not a twofer?”

  “No. Human.” Planar looked again. “I do not think we are visible, though. The human is looking in a different direction, and I have had to magnify beyond your visual cap
acity.”

  Grace selected private communication with Raj.

  “Someone is across the chasm. This could be whoever piloted the other ship,” she said. “But it could also be one of the robots. I don’t know if we can trust Planar.”

  Grace heard a brief crackle in the transmission.

  “You can trust me,” Planar said. “None of our generations has lied, nor have we acquired the practice. Nor the need.”

  Dammit, Grace thought. So Planar had access to their comm network. Did he read minds, too? Step right up, ladies and gentlemen. Planar the Magnificent! He walks, he talks, he tells your fortune. He hacks your comm circuit. Grace knew the sarcasm was her way of coping. A respect for Planar was beginning to dawn, or at least a respect for his capabilities. She had no choice but to trust him.

  She turned to Planar. “Can you describe him? Does he have a weapon?”

  Planar scanned the horizon again.

  “He is wearing the same model pressure suit as your Anna. I cannot see his face,” Planar said.

  “You keep saying ‘he,’ Planar. So it’s a man?”

  “Gender does not matter to us as it relates to our societal order,” said Planar, turning to look at her. “I was following your protocol. You have consistently assigned that human a gender. I cannot tell at this distance.”

  Grace was about to respond when her ptenda issued a muffled beep. She brought the back of her clenched fist to the front of her helmet, then smirked at herself. The ptenda was there, on her wrist, inside her suit. She grumbled, trying to tap the ptenda through the fabric. No luck. The ptenda beeped again.

  “What are you doing?” Planar said.

  “My ptenda is—what are you looking at?”

  The robot had been staring at her. At Grace’s question, he resumed looking across the expanse. Before he turned, she caught a fleeting look of embarrassment on his face.

  “I’m sorry about staring. I saw your odd movement and the expression on your face. I haven’t had the opportunity to study humans closely. Your skin looks…fragile. It is so thin, and crinkles when you have thoughts.”

  “Never mind. Just trying to get to my ptenda. Keep your eyes on that human.”

  Grace realized that she was equally curious about his skin. Was it real? It didn’t look mimic. It didn’t even look like the robots she’d seen in the Gusev store. It was flawless and dark, and Raj hadn’t noticed a difference from human skin when he touched it. How did they—why did they want to look human?

  “Grace, what is that beeping?” Raj’s voice interrupted. “I can hear it over your comm.”

  “It’s my ptenda.”

  “Well, could you turn it off or answer it? It’s hard to make out what you’re saying—I feel like I should be racing to defuse a bomb.”

  “Thanks for the imagery, Raj, but the damn thing’s on my wrist inside the suit.”

  “Cloisterfolk and tech,” Raj said, chuckling.

  Interspersed with the beep were snippets of noise over the comm. Was she hearing chuckles from other circuits, too?

  “Hold on a sec,” Grace said, her voice a growl.

  Some days she wore her ptenda on her right wrist, some days on her left. Today she was a lefty. She grabbed the left glove and tried to pull her left arm inward. Grace hadn’t realized she’d been perspiring. The left glove was stuck to her hand.

  “Would you like me to—” Raj said.

  “No, let me do it.”

  She wriggled her fingers and pulled. Tight, but then…snap. Her hand sprung free. Grace looked down at her left glove, nicely inflated by the pressure suit. Almost like her hand was still there.

  Grace maneuvered her upper arm inside the suit. Her elbow pushed against the shoulder joint and stopped—it wouldn’t go any farther. The ptenda bleeped again. Why hadn’t she set the demon device up with a voice command?

  “Here, Grace”, Raj said, “hold your left arm up and try it again.”

  Raj held the arm steady as she made another attempt at getting her arm completely inside the suit.

  “I can help,” Anna said, grabbing Grace’s suit near the left shoulder.

  Grace moved her shoulder. Ok, the elbow was past the joint. Perhaps this would work.

  “Is it an alarm? Why aren’t our ptendas going off, too?” Anna asked.

  There was enough slack in the forearm of the suit to allow her to pull her entire left arm across her chest. Could she pull her arm out and get the ptenda up to her face inside her helmet? Or would the ptenda snag on the controller unit and fall into a leg?

  “Don’t fall, you son of a buck,” she hissed to herself as she tried to finesse her arm up. She wriggled her fingers through the rigid neckpiece to her forehead, then twisted her hand so she could see the display.

  “What are you going to do, Grace?” Raj said. “Work it with your nose?”

  In the tight confines of her helmet, the beeping was loud. She hummed low in her throat to offset the noise. Where was the disarm function? The screen was so close to her face that it was out of focus.

  “It can’t be a message from the ship. We’ve lost all communications,” Raj mumbled. “The only other thing I can think of is a…”

  She was about to touch her nose blindly to the keypad when the piercing blue display locked focus. The alert was winking a color code of her own devising, programmed two weeks earlier.

  “…proximity alert,” Raj said as he lazily kicked a stone.

  The world shrank away as her mind wrapped around the words hovering before her eyes. An adrenaline surge and her pounding heart caused a familiar throb in her throat and temples.

  “Everyone,” she said, her voice quavering slightly, “Proximity alert. Remember, my ptenda was pair bonded—with Quint Brown.”

  She tapped the ptenda with her nose and the beeping stopped. Her heart didn’t.

  “What do you mean, bonded?” Anna asked.

  “It means his ptenda is near,” Grace said.

  “But we watched his ship explode,” Richard said. “He died.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” she said. “That’s his ptenda.”

  Grace pulled her hand out of her helmet, the ptenda scraping across her chin. She pushed her arm back into the suit. It proved far easier getting it back into the sleeve than removing it.

  She looked across the chasm and saw a tiny heat signature in her IR display. Quint. Or someone with his ptenda. She drew her phasewave and flicked the setting of the wheel until it stopped.

  “You all should fall back to the fissure. I will—”

  Wait. Her helmet was showing an aspect ratio change. The IR image shimmered, fuzzy around the edges. The heat signature moved rapidly. She knew what would happen next.

  “Everybody! Down!”

  The stone wall on her left took the full brunt of the phasewave blast, sending tiny shards in all directions.

  “His phasewave’s in recycle. Fall back into the fissure. Now!” Dust was everywhere.

  Richard, Anna, and Raj sprinted away with Mazz, Tim taking up the rear.

  Planar laid down on the ground so that most of his body was protected by a large boulder. He lifted his head so that he could see past the rock. Grace crouched next to him.

  “What’s Quint doing?”

  “He seems to be manipulating something with his hands,” Planar said.

  “I need to see him,” said Grace.

  “Our software may not be fully compatible.”

  “You spoke on our comm. I’ll take the chance. Upload your view.” She looked back at her retreating friends. “Tim?”

  “Yes, Grace?”

  “Planar’s going to share his view with me. Be a good dog and act as a firewall?”

  “Woof.” The firewall activated on her face screen.

  “Ok, Planar,” she said. “Bring it.”

  Grace, inflamed with conscious purpose and reflexive training, scanned across the chasm. Suddenly her IR rippled, and the display was enhanced with Planar’s data. She could see Qu
int’s phasewave still glowing brightly, a brilliant spot in an otherwise dark field of view. It waved wildly back and forth. He didn’t have much in the way of tactical training, Grace realized. Even first year cadets knew to keep their muzzles pointed down when not firing.

  Good. Grace went to one knee and aimed her phasewave at Quint. A simple shot to the gut or the cavern ceiling would take him out, but she wanted him alive and disarmed. So. Twelve centimeters to the right of that heat blip. He was right-handed.

  She pulled the trigger and sent three blasts leaping across the chasm. The field lit Quint’s outline and his body seemed to shift. Had he fallen backwards? Forwards?

  Grace stood up, willing her vision to clear. But the ghostly blur of Quint was shrinking, folding in on itself. The IR outline vanished. Her target had either dropped to the ground or fled the area. She was seeing no movement of any kind. Certainly no more phasewave fire.

  “Planar, can you see him?” she said.

  “You have my vision,” said Planar. “He is out of our field of view.”

  Planar stood and scanned, swiveling his eyes while his body remained rigid.

  “We have to get over there.”

  “I will show you,” Planar said.

  Grace looked at him. A couple of questions kept banging on her forehead. If the robots knew the Scout was coming, why didn’t they know about Quint? Or did they know? He certainly wasn’t being shepherded by robots, as Grace and her people were. Yet Planar had allowed Grace to fire on Quint. Or had he allowed her to fire, knowing she wouldn’t hit?

  Grace walked back to where the rest had congregated. Tim and Mazz stood just inside the fissure. Raj had his arm around Anna. Richard paced. The humans were visibly frightened.

  “Everybody in one piece?” she asked.

  “That can’t be Quint,” Richard said.

  “It is,” Grace said. “Or someone with his ptenda, but I’m not going to call a horse a zebra until I see proof otherwise. Point is, he got here before we did. We should get over the shock of how.”

  She looked at Anna. She was badly shaken. “You ok?”

  Anna nodded and offered a feeble smile. “It’s just…not again.”

  “What does he want from us?” asked Raj.