Helium 3: Death from the Past (Helium-3 Book 2)

by Brandon Q. Morris

  “Just go already, you stubborn mule!”

  Maxim Goncharov pressed the accelerator down and clenched the handlebars tightly with both hands. Dense clouds of dust rose on both sides of the rover, but it wouldn’t budge from its spot. Nothing was helping! Maxim dismounted, swinging his left leg over the rear end of the vehicle, which looked something like a moped except that it had two seats and four wheels. He stood to one side and felt his boots sink a few centimeters into the moon dust.

  Always the same story. How many times had he gotten stuck in this same trench? Continuous bombardment by radiation and meteorites from space had transformed the regolith—the loose, rocky covering on the moon’s surface —into dust. Gravity gripped the uniformly gray material and pulled it down the sides of Mons Malapert, which lay in front of him, and the stuff was continually accumulating in this trench that didn’t even have an official name because it was at most 20 meters deep and astronomers on Earth had never even noticed it before. And, the stupid thing was located right in the path between the moon base and the solar panels on the mountain’s summit.

  “Ken, do you copy? Maxim here.”

  All he could hear on the radio channel was noise. Why was he always counting on miracles? Since this side of the mountain had a protrusion that blocked a direct line of sight, he knew he shouldn’t have bothered trying to call the base. The moon has no ionosphere to reflect radio waves, so there was no way for his signal to reach the base without a direct line of sight.

  Maxim took a few steps away from the rover. The ground was still very soft here, he noted with a deep sigh. Once again, this was going to be a lot of work. In the three months since beginning his stint at the base, he had already cleared the moondust from this trench three times. The solar panels on the summit supplied the station with vital energy, so one of them had to check the panels every day for signs of any potential problems. If those down on Earth would just keep their word and send them the equipment to set up a WLAN here, they wouldn’t have to drive out to the panels every day! But the repeaters they needed were still at some spaceport, waiting for their transport to be launched.

  He would just have to call Kenjiro from some place higher up. The sooner he reported what needed to be done, the quicker he could get Yue in on the plan. How long would it take for them to get to him this time? Since they were constantly understaffed, they were behind by at least six months in upgrading the base. Actually, Unity should have been fully autonomous by now. But they were still a long way from that. How long could they survive without fresh supplies from Earth? Two weeks?

  Maxim banged on the plastic of the handlebars. There was no sound—no atmosphere equals no sound. But as unfriendly to life as the moon was, at least its low gravity was sometimes helpful. Maxim positioned himself next to the rover. The vehicle had an Earth weight of about 200 kilograms. He found a grip under the rear seat cushion with his left hand, and with his right, he grabbed a handlebar.

  “And... push!” he shouted to himself as he tried to move the rover out of the dust.

  “Ow!” The right front wheel banged against his shin, causing Maxim to clench his teeth. That was going to leave a bruise. Even at a sixth of its weight on Earth, the rover was still no feather. There was a hissing sound in his helmet. His spacesuit had automatically activated the cooling system. Maxim tried to slowly walk backward, still clutching the rover and trying to drag it free. His arm muscles hurt. He should’ve been more faithful about his exercises. Yue, the master and manager of all the numbers, was always warning him about that.

  Then he hit an obstacle. It must have been a stone hidden under the moon dust. The heel of his right boot banged against it. The backward movement that his body had been intuitively expecting was arrested in mid-step. Maxim had to react with his left leg—he needed to tighten those muscles as quickly as possible to stabilize himself, but he didn’t react soon enough. His center of gravity moved downward toward where his feet were. His knees buckled, he lost his balance, and he fell.

  Everything happened in slow motion. Gravity wasn’t dragging him down as strongly as it would have on Earth, but it was just as relentless. Only a miracle of physics could have stopped him from falling. First, his rear end hit the ground. At least the moon dust cushioned his fall a little. He had instinctively let go of the rover so that he could try to catch himself by putting his arms behind him, but he hadn’t done it quickly enough. He wasn’t able to stop his fall with his arms. His whole body toppled onto the ground like a fallen-down tree, and the rover, which he had started to drag down with him before letting go, fell onto his abdomen and pushed him further down into the dust with its additional 35 kilograms of weight. Something snapped in his right arm.

  This can’t be happening! He tried to pull his arm out from behind himself quickly—bad idea! The pain almost made him black out. His field of vision narrowed to a tunnel, and he felt the contents of his stomach making their way back up, but he quickly focused on his surroundings with all the energy he could muster.

  He couldn’t lose consciousness. He must not vomit. Who knew what had happened to his suit in the fall? If he blacked out, he might never wake up again. The fear of that kept him alert. His pulse slowed. Maxim started breathing once more. He lay on his back and stared up into the blackness of space. The suit wasn’t giving him any warning signals, so it must not have been damaged. Everything was going to be okay. He would rest there for three minutes, and then he would slowly get up and make his way to the summit.

  Three minutes turned into five, then seven. Maxim counted the seconds. He wasn’t about to move his arm to check his watch. Why did it have to be his right arm? He would have to gather all his strength. As soon as he moved, the pain returned. Carefully he moved his chin to his chest. There she was—Earth. The sides of Mons Malapert were among the few places on the moon that had nearly continuous illumination from the sun, and thus were almost always visible from his home planet. That was one of the primary reasons the base had been built where it was. The Earth was 385,000 kilometers away, just a short hop on the grand scale of space, but it was much too far away for them to reach. Irina was waiting for him there. They’d only gotten married two years ago. She had a birthday coming up and he had promised to be back with her for the one after that.

  Maxim groaned and turned his head slightly to the left. The sun shined there like a white gemstone, lighting up the mountain nine out of every ten days. That was why the solar panels had been placed on the summit. He was supposed to be checking them in a few hours.

  There, that would have to do. He closed his eyes briefly to collect himself.

  One. Two. Three.

  He used his left arm to support himself and sat up. The rover slid a little way downward and came to rest on his legs. Instinctively the muscles of his right arm tried to follow his movements. Pain shot upward from his lower arm to his right shoulder. He groaned again. At least Wayne was far away and couldn’t hear him. The American would’ve liked this opportunity to make fun of him. Nonsense. He would’ve been happy to see anyone—even Wayne—coming toward him on another rover at that moment, preferably on the cargo rover that they usually used just for moving the raw materials for the 3D printer. If he could make it into the back of the cargo rover, he wouldn’t have to move his arm.

  But Wayne wasn’t there. Nobody was there, only the rover. He would have to use it, and with both of his hands. The handlebars wobbled too much whenever he had tried to use the rover with only one hand before.

  First he had to get the vehicle off his legs. With his left arm, he pushed it farther down toward his feet. He hoped he wouldn’t be tearing holes in his suit. But the fabric didn’t tear. He had already fallen on the ground and the rover had landed on him. Nothing had happened to the spacesuit yet, so it would probably be okay. He pulled his legs up toward his chest. The rover rubbed against the air-filled fabric past his lower legs and got stuck briefly on the lip of his hard boot. After a good shove with his left hand, it landed.

/>   Time to stand up, Maxim.

  Now, go slow, don’t do anything else stupid.

  Again, he’d need to use his left arm for support. He tried to put his broken right arm out of his mind, but the immediate jolt of pain made that impossible. Nevertheless, he was able to get to his knees.

  Ugh. You’re almost there, Maxim.

  He remembered how his father had pushed him relentlessly. He’d hated it when he was a kid. But it had eventually helped him grow beyond his own limitations, and was probably the main reason he had ended up a paratrooper and finally a cosmonaut in space. The best-paid job anyone could get in the military. He hadn’t flown to the moon for fame or out of curiosity. It had been purely about the money. He wanted to be a good husband for Irina.

  Go, Maxim, stop thinking, just do it!

  Maxim, don’t be a crybaby!

  Get up, goddammit!

  Maxim stood up. He used his left arm to support himself briefly on the tipped-over rover. He was standing. He was wobbling a little, but he was standing.

  Ha! Did you see that, Dad?

  Now the rover.

  No, first a plan. He had to be realistic. With his broken arm, he wasn’t going to be able to get back down the mountain to the base. But even if he could reach base by radio, help wouldn’t get to him for at least two hours. He wasn’t alone on the moon. There were six of them at the base. He either needed to get past the protrusion on the side of the mountain below him, or he had to go farther up until he had a direct line of sight to the base again. But if he went down, he’d have to cross the trench again. And what if he got stuck again? Although everything was pulling him back toward the base, it seemed to make more sense for him to go up the mountain.

  How far? He tried to solve the problem in his head. The base was on a plateau at an elevation of 3,000 meters, and he was currently located at about 4,200 meters. The protrusion was... No, he didn’t know enough. They would have to map out all the radio dead zones in their surroundings sometime. He couldn’t forget to have Yue put that task down on the plan.

  So, the rover. The vehicle was still on its side. He clenched his teeth, which didn’t do much to help him ignore the pain. He pulled the rover up with his left hand, his right foot in front of the front wheel so that it wouldn’t slide away. The seat was full of dust, but that didn’t matter. He had to climb on somehow—one step at a time. Maxim positioned himself next to the rover, held tightly to the center of the handlebars with his left hand, and then swung his left leg onto the other side.

  Ha, he was back in the saddle again. Anyone who saw him now wouldn’t have believed that he had just broken his arm. Maxim took a deep breath. He turned his body so that his right hand came to rest on the handlebar without having to lift his arm. Next he needed to grip the handlebar. Now! His hand opened and closed. The pain was unbelievable. It was so strong that he couldn’t even feel if he was holding on to the handlebar or not. He had to look down to convince himself. Yes, it should work.

  Carefully he pressed down on the accelerator. Without a sound, the rover started moving. Only the motor’s vibrations, which he could feel underneath him, gave evidence that it wasn’t magic that was moving the vehicle. He drove faster. How far up the mountain did he need to go? Would 500 meters be enough? First, he selected the direct route. The rover had been designed to handle 30-degree inclines. The Germans had found some way to make that possible.

  Neither the American nor the Russian rover prototypes had been able to handle inclines of more than 20 degrees. It had annoyed him at the time, because waiting for that technology had delayed the whole project. He blamed the Germans for wasting time and making it possible for the Mars colony to step in and take all their sponsors. Since then, nearly all the money was going to Mars, leaving only ‘crumbs’ for the formerly magnificent moon base.

  But now here he was, sitting on the rover that could manage an unbelievable 30 degrees—a product of the legendary German automobile industry. Everyone in Russia wanted to drive a German car, and now he was driving one himself.

  Then the rover started to slow down, even though he hadn’t let up on the accelerator. Even with large studs, the tires could no longer get enough traction on the smooth, slippery rock. The display on the handlebars showed an incline angle of 25 degrees. He shouldn’t try to overdo it. Maxim turned the handlebars slightly to the left. He could also make switchbacks across the mountain to get higher.

  He almost immediately realized his error. A big mistake. He should’ve turned right. The base was to the west of the summit. To the north, where he was headed now, the inclinations were significantly greater than 27 degrees, in some parts even steeper than 32 degrees. To the south, he would have to deal with hills of 22 degrees at most. Shit. He had to go back. Maxim turned the handlebars as far to the right as they would go.

  The rover skidded a bit, but the tires were finally able to find grip again. The rear end of the vehicle, however, continued to swing around. It was heavier than the front, and its inertia kept turning the entire vehicle so that now he was driving down at an angle. Maxim tried to brake, but the tires skidded. He turned to the left. The pain was unbearable as the rover continued to swerve and pull. Where was the famous German engineering when he needed it? Didn’t the stupid thing have anti-lock brakes or electronic stability control? He continued, without success, trying to stabilize the rover. He skidded back and forth, and then he came to a steep hill that dropped a hundred meters or so, almost straight down.

  It was only a small crater. It probably wasn’t even visible on satellite images. But falling a hundred meters into a crater, that wasn’t going to turn out well. Maybe the chasm would turn out to be even deeper. Maxim couldn’t see how deep it was because the crater’s base was shrouded in eternal darkness. It could be as cold as minus 155 degrees in there. That was what they’d learned about such craters here at the South Pole when they’d been searching for water. Atiya had taught them everything there was to know about that.

  He and the rover were careening down the crater’s slope before he’d even realized it. Maxim was amazed at how many thoughts could go through his head in such a short period of time. He tried to press the accelerator and the brake at the same time. That must’ve been the fear of death, the panic, overtaking him.

  Not me, fear. You won’t get me that easily.

  “Help,” he yelled.

  Maybe someone was already out looking for him.

  “Help! I’m falling into a crater north-northwest of the summit. Depth unknown. Total darkness at the bottom.”

  That was all. Irina would never see him again. With every second, the rover was skidding faster downhill. Maxim was nevertheless still able to think objectively. If he wanted to survive this, he couldn’t let the rover fall on him again. He had to jump off to create distance between himself and the vehicle. It was crazy. He was falling into a crater!

  ‘Do it, Maxim, jump!’ he heard his father shout. ‘Now!’

  He jumped.

  Then he fell.

  And finally, he stopped with a thud against the bottom. The pain was a dull ache this time.

  Maxim blacked out.

  January 1, 2035 – Mars Ship ARES

  “Hello?”

  The voice from the loudspeaker was barely audible above the noise. The picture on the screen was choppy, streaky, and stopped repeatedly. Dammit. Judith had been so looking forward to the conversation, and now the connection was terrible.

  “Lisa, is that you?”

  She made a fist and looked out of the small porthole to her left. Just then, the black face of the moon moved to the right, away from the blue-white disk of her home planet. They were so far away that she couldn’t make out the greenish-brownish color of the continents anymore. But according to the calculations, Lisa and the kids would have just started their morning routine on the left edge of the Earth’s sphere.

  “Lisa?” she said again into the microphone.

  Please, Lisa, say something. Soon the signal pr
opagation time would be so long that they wouldn’t be able to hold conversations anymore, and they would only be able to send recordings to each other.

  “Ms. Rosenberg, can you hear me? It’s me, Marcia.”

  She still couldn’t see anything on the screen, but the voice was unmistakable. It was the au pair, who helped Lisa three days a week, now that she wasn’t there to help out with the work.

  “Can you get Lisa, please?”

  They had agreed to a time, but Judith knew how it was. Three and five-year-olds didn’t hold themselves to agreements. Probably Max had just stubbed his toe, or Peter had another nosebleed. How much she would’ve given to be there now to hold a tissue on his nose.

  “She’s upstairs with Max right now, but I’ll go switch places with her.”

  Suddenly the screen showed a camera image. Judith saw Marcia’s back. The au pair walked up the stairs and disappeared from the camera’s view. Judith suddenly felt like a stalker, watching something she wasn’t supposed to. Or wasn’t supposed to anymore. It was still her house too—they had bought it together. But for the next two years, it would belong only to Lisa and the kids. She couldn’t do anything about it. And that was how she’d wanted it, too.

  Two legs in jeans came into the camera picture. They walked down the stairs, and with every step she saw more of Lisa. Soon all of her was there in front of her. She looked tired. Maybe Max had suffered another stomachache last night. Judith felt her face break into a smile. She couldn’t help it. She noticed her smile on the little video display of herself that the communicator superimposed on the screen down at the bottom right. Every morning and every night, Judith sat in front of a mirror and contorted her face into grins and smiles. It was a mental health technique that she’d been taught to do back when she was in training. But it looked much different than the smile she saw at that moment in the miniature picture.

  Lisa sat down and took a deep breath. Judith gave her some time. Her sweetheart had the more difficult job at the moment. Of course, Judith wished that Max and Peter would ask for her as often as possible, but at the same time, she hoped that she wasn’t too much of a burden on Lisa. Therefore, they had agreed that she would talk to the boys only when one of them explicitly asked for it.