Mars Station Alpha

by Stephen Penner

  Gold crossed her arms.

  "Look, Dekker saw something," Stanton went on. "You heard him as we were getting ready to land. It might be the comm equipment. If not, maybe it's something else that will help us solve the mystery of the missing colonists."

  Gold frowned. "I don't believe you," she said simply. "You're not telling me everything. I thought you trusted me."

  Stanton wasn't sure why she thought that all of a sudden, but he felt bad nevertheless. "Look, I'm telling you the truth. Dekker saw something. It may help us figure this all out. That's all."

  "That's all?"

  "That's all." Stanton smiled broadly. He hoped she bought it.

  "Okay," Gold said finally. "I'll man the comm center to act as your home base and monitor your communications."

  "M— Monitor our communications?" Stanton choked. "I don't— That is, well." Then he tried smiling in a way he hoped was charming. "I thought you trusted me."

  Gold laughed. "No, Captain. I don't trust you at all."

  Stanton didn't know what to say. So Gold spoke again.

  "You'd better hurry and get into your suit," she teased. "You don't want to be late for your own excursion."

  Chapter 17

  By the time Stanton got to the entry bay, Petrov and Rusakova were already suited up and Dekker was trying to select which suit to use. He picked one and held it up in front of himself.

  "Does this make me look fat?"

  "Oh my God, shut up, Dekker," said Mtumbe. The entire crew had traveled down to the entry bay. Mtumbe was sitting on a small stool next to the control panel. His leg was mostly covered by his pants, but the gnarled scar stuck down below the cuff.

  Stanton walked up to Dekker. "Just pick a suit already. They're all the same."

  When Dekker hesitated, Stanton took the orange spacesuit from him. "I'll wear this one. You grab another one. Last one dressed has to clean Mtumbe's wound."

  Dekker looked expressionlessly at the captain. "That's not funny," he said.

  "Not very sensitive either," complained Mtumbe. "I'm right here."

  "Just pick a suit, Dekker," Stanton sighed. "We need to get a move on."

  "Well, I really liked that one," Dekker pointed to the one Stanton had taken, "but I'll just have to make do with another."

  He turned around and grabbed the suit nearest him. "I hate buying off the rack," he huffed importantly.

  Stanton turned his attention to suiting up and within a few minutes, Lin and Mtumbe were checking everyone's seals. Gold had walked in too, but was leaning against the wall by the door.

  Once the helmets were secure, Stanton tested the comm link. "Test, one, two, three. Rusakova, do you copy?"

  "Roger," answered Rusakova.

  "Petrov, do you copy?"

  "Da."

  "Dekker, do you copy?"

  "No, but I do wash windows and iron. I'll make someone a wonderful wife."

  Stanton grimaced. "Careful, Nils, or we'll leave you out there."

  Dekker thought for a moment, and smiled. "Roger that."

  "I'll monitor communications," Gold announced from her hiding spot by the door.

  "Monitor communications?" Mtumbe asked. "For what?"

  "For trouble," Gold answered. "Like what happened on the roof walk."

  "You mean like what you caused on the roof walk?" Mtumbe growled.

  Gold’s face started to flush and she looked to Stanton, but he just raised an eyebrow behind his helmet's face shield. Gold sighed.

  "Yes," she said. "Like I caused. I'm sorry about that. I don't know what happened to me out there."

  "I do," whispered Petrov, but it was picked up by the comm link and was broadcast to the others' helmets.

  Stanton didn't visibly react, but he continued to straighten out and double check his suit while he whispered back, "Hush, Petrov."

  Mtumbe stared at Gold for a minute, then that smile of his flashed onto his face. "Apology accepted," he said. "It can be overwhelming the first time you set out for a spacewalk. Or a Marswalk, I guess."

  Gold offered the smallest of smiles back. "Thank you, Commander. I'm sure that's all it was."

  "No it wasn't," sang Petrov to his spacesuited crew mates.

  "Shut up, Petrov," Stanton sang back.

  Then Stanton pointed at the comm icon on the entry bay command glass. Lin saw the gesture and pressed the icon to connect the spacesuits' comm links with the station's comm center. One more icon and Stanton and the rest could be heard through the glass.

  "Once Dekker finally gets his suit on—"

  "I'm good!" shouted the Dutchman, suited arms spread wide to show everyone.

  "Okay, then," Stanton said, "Now that Dekker finally has his suit on, we're ready to go. We'll go through the south airlock to the station's rover. If everything is in order, we'll head out to whatever it was Dekker saw. We'll have our comm links on at all times so you can monitor for emergencies."

  Gold, Mtumbe, and Lin all nodded.

  "Gold will monitor communications," Stanton went on, "and Lin will station herself at the airlock in case we need quick access back into the station."

  Mtumbe shrugged. "What about me?"

  Stanton smiled. "You get some rest," he said. "And that's an order. You were practically dead yesterday."

  Mtumbe started to protest, but Stanton interrupted, "I said it was an order."

  Stanton knew that would be enough to sway his recalcitrant, but dutiful, second-in-command.

  "Aye aye, Captain." Mtumbe shrugged again. "I'll be in my cabin if anyone needs me." Then he thought for a moment. "Which one's my cabin? I spent last night in the sick bay."

  "It's the one next to mine," Lin said, with the smallest of smiles.

  Mtumbe nodded and headed off. Then he stopped again. "Which one is your cabin?"

  "They all look very similar," Lin agreed. "You will know it because I placed my Quan Yin statue in there. Your cabin is to the right of mine."

  Mtumbe gave a smile and a thumbs up. "Quan Yin. Got it."

  Then he turned to Stanton and the out-crew. "Good luck, guys."

  "Get some rest," Stanton ordered again. Then he activated the airlock to the equipment bay. He watched through the glass as first Mtumbe then Gold headed back into the station.

  He waited until he thought she was in the comm center then began yelling, "Gold?! Gold?! Where the hell are you?"

  Chapter 18

  "I— I'm right here, Captain!" Gold yelled as she turned on the comm feed. "Sorry, I was just talking to Commander Mtumbe and—"

  "Never mind that, we need help," barked Stanton.

  "What's the situation? Is a man down? Do you need a rescue team? Should I send Lin out to get you?"

  Dekker started laughing.

  "No, no," said Stanton. "It's not an emergency. We just need you to open the outer equipment bay door from the control room. The rover's operational, but all exterior entry pads seem to have been disabled. We can't get the doors to open and I don't want to come back through the airlock if we don't have to."

  "Well, I guess that explains why the key panel wouldn't let us back in yesterday from the roof walk," Gold observed.

  "Neh, poltergeist," murmured Petrov.

  "What did he say?" Gold asked.

  "Nothing," said Stanton. "Shut up, Petrov," he ordered.

  "Did he say poltergeist?" Gold followed up.

  "No," said Stanton.

  "Yes," said Petrov.

  "Shut. Up. Petrov," repeated Stanton.

  "The lady asked a question," Petrov defended.

  "Can you just open the bay doors please, Agent?"

  "Why does Petrov think we have a poltergeist?" Gold asked.

  "Because I saw it, dear lady," said Petrov over the comm link. "And because poltergeists like to sabotage things."

  "No more, Petrov," said Stanton. "That's an order."

  "He may have a point," Gold said, trying to sound casual. Stanton knew she was fishing for information. "The explosion, the word
carved in the wall, the comm equipment, my stumble on the ladder, and now the entry pads. A poltergeist would explain all that."

  "She is a smart woman, Captain," Petrov said with a chuckle. "You should listen to her more."

  "Thank you, Aleksandr," said Gold over the comm link. "I do feel better knowing I may have been pushed down that ladder."

  "I believe it was likely something far more sinister, Agent Gold," warned Petrov.

  "More sinister?" she asked.

  "Okay, we're done," announced Stanton. "No more of this talk. We have a mission to complete. You two can talk ghost stories after dinner tonight. Just open the door."

  "Come now, Captain," Gold protested, "I was just—"

  "Open the God damn door, Gold," barked Stanton. "Now! That's an order."

  Gold was silent for a moment. "Captain?"

  "That's an order," growled Stanton. "Can you ever just follow a damned order, Agent?"

  Gold was quiet for a moment. Then she said simply, "Yes, sir."

  The equipment bay doors buzzed and began to swing open. Following Stanton's outburst, everyone was quiet. They all climbed silently into the rover and Stanton drove out onto the Martian landscape.

  "Captain?" Gold said over the comm feed once they had cleared the station.

  Stanton hesitated, then responded, "Yes, Agent Gold?"

  "Given the information just conveyed," she announced, "and my concerns for the stability of the person who conveyed it, I am hereby terminating all communication with Earth, except through me."

  She waited a moment, then added, "That's also an order."

  The others looked at Stanton, even as they bounced over the red rocks. But Stanton stared straight ahead as he drove the rover.

  "We’ll see who’s in charge of communications, Agent," Stanton said. Then he reached up and turned off his comm link's distant feed back to the station.

  Petrov smiled and followed suit. Dekker did too. Rusakova hesitated, then turned hers off as well. They could now speak to each other, but their transmissions would not relay back to the station.

  "I am not sure this is a good idea," worried Rusakova. "Decisions made in anger are seldom wise."

  "Anger, my dear Oksana?" Petrov laughed as Stanton smiled broadly. "There is no anger. That went exactly as planned."

  Chapter 19

  "What do you mean?" Rusakova asked as the rover continued its trek across the Martian landscape.

  They were headed east from the station, toward a small valley beyond a rise. Mars Station Alpha was built on the edge of the Amazonis Plains, one of the largest and smoothest plateaus on the planet. Geological evidence confirmed water once flowed on Mars and this was likely the southern shore of Mars’ vast northern ocean. Sitting in the shadow of Olympus Mons, the station was essentially beachfront property for an ocean that had disappeared a billion years earlier.

  As a result, while the land immediately surrounding the station was exceptionally smooth, it soon gave way to the hills and ridges more commonly associated with terrestrial landscape. The rover was a six-wheeled, solar powered device, designed specifically for this kind of mission: exploring a place too far to reach safely on foot.

  Stanton found the expanse of the landscape a bit disorienting. Although there were ridges and hills and rocks, everything was the same rusty orange color, even the towering mountain Olympus Mons that dominated the horizon. So although they knew where they were headed roughly, the landscape seemed to offer no other landmarks for guidance.

  "Do you mean you tried to get Gold mad at you?" Rusakova asked again.

  "I wanted to be able to talk with the three of you in confidence," Stanton explained. "Agent Gold insisted on monitoring our communications. If I had refused, she would have been suspicious. Similarly, if we had just turned off our comm feed for no reason, she would have known that we didn't want her to hear us. As it is now, she thinks we turned them off out of anger."

  "I was not trying to make her angry," Petrov said. "I was just telling her what I have seen."

  Stanton looked over at the cosmonaut. "Please don't start again, Petrov. I was going to get angry about opening the equipment bay doors, but the ghost thing was way better. Still, that doesn't mean I want to hear more about Russian ghost legends."

  "All of this trickery is very confusing," Rusakova said. "Why are we really out here?"

  Dekker answered that one. "He wants to see what I saw."

  "And what did you see?" asked Rusakova.

  Dekker raised his hand and pointed ahead as they crested a large ridge.

  "That."

  Chapter 20

  Ahead of them was the red palette version of Salisbury Plain.

  Large rectangular stones, some over three meters tall, were tipped upright, arranged in an irregular semicircle. There were seven total: the tallest in the middle, with three on each side of descending height. The smallest end stone was less than two meters tall. In the middle of the semicircle was another stone laying flat, partially covered in the Martian sand that constantly blew through the thin carbon dioxide atmosphere.

  Stanton parked the rover and they approached the monument on foot. All the stones were worn and rounded. They looked ancient.

  "Oh, my dear God," Petrov gasped over the comm link. "There are ghosts here. There was life here. And their ghosts stalk us now!"

  "Calm down, Aleksandr," Rusakova said, patting his shoulder. "There is likely some other explanation for this." She paused. "Although I'm not sure what it is."

  "So this is what you saw, Dekker?" Stanton asked. He was focusing on the mundane process of how they came to find it because he didn't want to contemplate the enormity of the significance of the site itself.

  Dekker nodded for several moments before finally answering, "Yes, Captain. I wasn't exactly sure what I saw from above as we flew in. It looked architectural to me somehow. But now that we're standing here, there is no doubt. This is what I saw."

  Rusakova frowned. "Why have we not seen this before?" she demanded. "Satellites have mapped every square centimeter of Mars. Surely this would have been seen."

  Stanton thought of Gold suddenly being added to their mission.

  "Just because the people at the top see something," he said, "doesn't mean they let anyone else see it. People have been claiming they've seen structures in Martian satellite photos since the days of the original Viking explorers almost a century ago. Maybe our higher-ups know all about this, but just never told us."

  "That's a pretty sick joke," Dekker said.

  "Do you think the first crew found this too?" Rusakova asked.

  "Maybe," contemplated Stanton.

  "Maybe they reported back but Command squashed the information," Dekker suggested. "In fact, maybe they didn't really disappear when Mars went behind the sun. Maybe they sent communications but Command hid them from the world. Maybe Command made sure they never made it back to Earth to tell the truth!"

  "Command had nothing to do with the colonists disappearing," Stanton shot back, although he wasn’t completely convinced of his words. "We don't know yet what happened to them, but I will not brook suggestions that our Command intentionally sabotaged the mission, and sacrificed the lives of those colonists, just because some information about a Martian Stonehenge might be hard for some of the public to swallow."

  "It does explain Agent Gold's presence," Rusakova observed.

  Stanton had no reply.

  "Maybe Command did nothing to the colonists," Petrov offered. "Maybe the colonists found this and did something to anger the ghosts who rest here."

  "Knock off the crazy talk, Petrov," said Stanton. "This is serious."

  "Oh, but I am very serious," responded Petrov. "You said you did not believe in ghosts on Mars because there was never life on Mars. Well, now you know better. Do you still believe there cannot be ghosts here?"

  "Even if this was made by Martians," Stanton argued, "that would have been billions of years ago."

  "Let me ask you, Captain
," said Petrov. "How long do ghosts survive?"

  Stanton just stared at Petrov, unsure how to answer him.

  Meanwhile, Dekker climbed atop the central stone and raised his arms over his head. "I am the High Mighty Priest of all of Mars!" he declared. "Woe be to those who sully my shrine!"

  "Stop goofing around already, Dekker," said Stanton. "I want to see what we can learn about this place."

  "I am the Oracle of Dekker!" He ignored the captain. "Ask me a question, any question, and the spirits of Mars past shall speak their answer through me."

  "You should not ridicule spirits," Petrov warned. "There are things we do not understand but which exist nonetheless. Respect them."

  But Dekker danced up and down on the rock, waving his arms and mimicking ghost noises, "Oo-ooh!"

  "Ignore him for now, I guess," said Stanton. "Let's go take a look at that first stone there."

  Stanton turned toward the ruddy stone when Dekker suddenly said, "Hey, did anybody else just get really cold?"

  "Oh, shit," said Stanton, looking back to his crewman.

  Dekker’s suit was failing. It wasn't properly inflated any more. Instead, it hung loosely like a jacket and slacks.

  "Aw, crap," Dekker said as he started coughing against the carbon dioxide seeping into his spacesuit. "I knew I shouldn't have bought off the rack."

  Chapter 21

  Stanton ran over to Dekker and turned his air valve all the way open, just as he'd done for Mtumbe.

  "Hang on, Dekker!" he shouted. "We'll get you back to station in time."

  Dekker coughed and smiled weakly, but it wasn't working as well as it had with Mtumbe. Mtumbe had had a single tear in his suit at the bottom of a pant leg. Dekker’s suit was suffering from multiple points of failure. Carbon dioxide was seeping in at every crevice, including right where his helmet connected to the suit.