“The mitochondrial Eve,” Michael said. “That is the current scientific theory, yes. But it doesn’t mean that there was only one woman on the entire Earth at that time. It’s just that none of the lines of descendants of the others survived.”
“You’re contradicting yourself there,” Giordano said.
“There’s no contradiction. The four of us could establish a genetically stable population. Of course, we’d have to forget all of the concepts of morality we’ve learned. But wouldn’t it be worth it when it comes to humankind’s survival? We’ve got a responsibility. We can’t do anything about this shell-like thing, whatever it is. But we can do our part to ensure that humankind survives on Mars.”
“You’re completely crazy,” Giordano said. “Don’t you think JR might want a say in this? Your second-in-command wants to marry you off to the rest of us.”
Judith shook her head.
“Maybe Mike isn’t so crazy,” François said. “He’s only being logical. Think about it without emotion, without ideological blinders. Someone or something has placed an impenetrable shell around the Earth. This isn’t some cheap trick. To do that, you’d need capabilities that are far beyond our own. We’d have no chance against such a barrier—that must be clear to everyone. But we do have resources—this colony ship and ourselves. It’s only logical that we’d use our resources as best we can.”
Michael floated down and put a hand on François’s shoulder. He was probably surprised to find an ally in the Canadian.
“But we haven’t even checked if we can penetrate that thing,” Giordano said. “François, you’ve told me about your girlfriend. The language teacher, who taught us all Russian? She had steely-blue eyes and long, blond hair. You said you fell in love with her. Do you really want to abandon her now?”
The Canadian turned around and wiped his upper arm across his face. He didn’t answer.
“Mike, don’t you have any friends or relatives back on Earth?”
Michael shrugged his shoulders. “Sure, but how will it help them for us to start some meaningless experiments? They’ve got the government back there, NASA, the military, everyone’s going to use all their capabilities to try to break through that shell. And we should do what we can, too. Nobody else has the ability to ensure the survival of humanity on a different planet.”
“Judith? What do you say?” Giordano asked. “You’re our captain.”
She just looked at him with her eyes wide open. In this crucial situation, she was refusing to lead. It made him angry. Maybe Michael really should have been given the commander’s position. Giordano banged his fist on the computer, got up, and left the room.
January 12, 2035 – Moon Base Unity
“You see the blinking light on Malapert?” Atiya asked.
Jonathan nodded.
“You’ve got to align the crosshairs with that, exactly.”
“How exactly? The light is smaller than the lines in the display.”
“As closely as you can. But don’t worry too much—as long as you are genuinely close, the link is self-adjusting.”
“Understood. Okay, got it.”
“Hold it there. I’ll tighten the screws.”
Jonathan stood up but continued to hold the metal structure. He yawned. It had to be long after midnight.
Atiya knelt on the ground and tightened a few screws on a rotating joint. Then she stood up. “You can let it go.”
The laser link on the Shackleton crater’s ridge was now aligned as close as he could make it with its counterpart on Malapert’s summit. They were still powering it via a cable from the rover’s battery, but soon it would be supplied with energy from the solar panels on Mons Malapert.
“I’m starting the fine adjustment sequence,” Atiya said and pressed a button.
The device, which looked like a large telescope, was now sending a laser beam to a mirror on its counterpart. Then the device measured how much of the beam was reflected and oriented the transceiver to maximize the reflection. None of the process was visible, because the moon had no atmosphere to scatter the laser beam.
“Done,” Atiya said.
That was fast, he thought.
“I’ll start the transmission.”
She pressed a different button. A control pulse was sent at the speed of light to Mons Malapert, and the laser link there started to divert energy from the solar panels and send it to the new link. Here, the concentrated light was converted into electrical current and fed via a cable to the Far Side Telescope in the crater. The radio repeater integrated into the laser link was also supplied with power. Finally, they could contact Base again. Sometime in the future they wanted to provide the whole surface of the moon with power and communications like this.
“Are we done here, then? I’m dog-tired,” Jonathan said.
The next part of the plan was to spend the night in the shelter on Mons Malapert.
“Almost. We’ve got to test the repeater.”
“Okay.”
“Away team to Base, do you copy?”
“Atiya, finally,” he heard Yue’s voice in his helmet. “We’ve all been anxious to hear from you.”
“What’s going on? I thought the others would’ve long gone to sleep.”
“Something’s happened to the Earth. We can’t explain it ourselves.”
“What is it? A new war? A hurricane? Species extinction?” Atiya asked.
“Maybe all at the same time. Earth has gone quiet, and all we can see in its place is a large, white wall.”
Atiya gave a fake laugh. “That’s a good one, Yue, but I’ve got no patience for jokes this late after midnight.”
“Sorry, but it’s not a joke. You’ll see when you get to Mons Malapert.”
“Then let’s talk again in a few hours. You’ll understand we’ve got to see this with our own eyes.”
Atiya was right. Yue would be the one to play a prank on them. Atiya should’ve had Maxim get on the com. The commander wouldn’t have told them any nonsense.
“No, please wait,” Yue said. “We need your help.”
Atiya moaned. “I don’t believe what you just told us.”
“Maxim here. You’ve got to trust us. Yue is telling you the truth. And we need your help.”
Crap. If Maxim was confirming the story, then they really did have a problem. If they couldn’t contact Earth anymore, they would starve in six to eight weeks. They had to re-establish the connection. And what about his family? He’d reserved radio time with them for the day after tomorrow. This supposed wall would have to be gone by then.
“Okay, understood,” Atiya said. “What do we need to do?”
“You’ve got to contact the ARES. We won’t be able to reach it until the day after tomorrow.”
“By helmet radio? The ship is much too far away for that.”
“No. You’ll find a radio dish right next to the FST.” Yue had taken over the microphone again. “That’s the prototype for the large radio telescope that’s supposed to be installed in Shackleton crater. You can use it not just to receive but also to transmit. With its power, you can definitely reach the ARES.”
“Couldn’t you do it by remote control?”
“The dish isn’t in the network. Someone’s got to go there and connect it to the data port.”
“That’s where we come in. And what are we supposed to tell them?”
“They need to look at the Earth and tell us exactly what they see.”
“That sounds very cryptic.”
“I think they’ll understand the request.”
“Okay, understood, Yue, we’re on our way.”
“We’re there.”
Jonathan almost fell off the rover as Atiya stood up. He must’ve fallen asleep in the back seat. At first, he had driven, but halfway through the drive, they’d switched positions. The rover was standing in front of the hill that always reminded him of a pimple. He didn’t see the dish of the radio receiver anywhere.
“Do you have any
idea where it is?” Atiya asked.
“Wait here.”
He walked around the FST. There wasn’t a radio telescope anywhere, not even a small one. He was sure he would’ve noticed one during his last visit too. Maybe it had been set up somewhere farther away? He walked a larger circumference. He came across a small crater and shined a light inside. Inside the crater was an upwardly curved metal dish.
“I think I’ve found it,” he called, climbing into the crater and pulling out the dish. It had to weigh at least 150 kilograms. It was a good thing that the moon made transporting things easier.
Atiya appeared.
“That’s not where a radio telescope was supposed to be,” she said.
“No. Someone from the set-up team must’ve hauled it over there,” Jonathan said, grinding his teeth.
“Must’ve been before our time.”
“Probably when the big version was pushed back to the twelfth of never.”
“They could’ve at least noted that in the plans.”
“Yeah, woulda, coulda, shoulda.”
“And now?”
“We’ll have to improvise. Well, you will. I’m just the doctor here.”
“Thanks a lot.”
Atiya walked around the dish once.
“Away team to Base, I’m sending you a photo. Can you make anything of it?”
“Just a minute,” Yue said.
“Kenjiro here. It looks like someone stopped right in the middle of setting it up and just left everything else off. Can you hold the camera in the middle of the dish?”
“Okay.”
“Ah, I can see it now. The system looks basically completely preassembled. It’s only missing a base.”
“Is there anything around here that looks like a base for the dish, Jon?”
Jonathan looked around.
“No, nothing.”
“Maybe it was never delivered,” Atiya said.
“That’d fit the chaos that seems to be the defining characteristic of how this moon base’s organization operates,” Kenjiro said.
“What now, Ken? Can we use Jon as a base?”
“No. He’d have to align the dish exactly with the target and then hold it there in place during your conversation. It’s too heavy for that.”
“Then what do we need for a base?” she asked.
“Some kind of stable ball-hitch joint,” Kenjiro explained.
“You were just tightening screws in a joint like that,” said Jonathan. “For the laser link.”
“That’s true,” Atiya said. “Could we use the laser link’s joint?”
“Yeah, probably, those things are fairly standardized. They didn’t want to have to haul too many different spare parts here.”
“So, we’re supposed to drag the dish to the crater’s ridge now?” Jonathan asked.
“That’d be great,” Kenjiro said. “It’s good you guys took the cargo rover. And at least the ridge is also on your way back to base.”
“32.8 degrees,” Jonathan said.
“That’s perfect. Now I’ll tighten the nut,” Atiya said.
Yue had calculated the ARES’s current position for them so that they could align the dish perfectly. Nevertheless, it had been a difficult and cumbersome piece of work.
“Do you have the connector cable?” he asked.
“Yes. I’ll connect it... and... it fits.”
“Be careful. Whatever you say from now on, the whole universe will hear you.”
“You’re exaggerating, Jon. The radio transmission is pointed toward the ARES. Otherwise, the modest power of our rover’s motor would never be enough.”
“Understood. I’m just the doctor here. At least I’m very familiar with ball joints.”
He was making jokes, even after what Yue had told them before—that the Earth had gone silent. He wasn’t feeling the loss yet. Maybe it was because he was tired, or perhaps it was because his colleagues jerked him around from job to job.
“I’m going to contact the ARES now,” Atiya said.
“Don’t be disappointed if they don’t answer right away,” Yue warned.
“I know, the signal propagation time.”
“Just start already,” Jonathan said, “I want to get to bed.”
“Moon Base Unity here, calling ARES. Please come in.”
January 12, 2035 – Mars Ship ARES
The noise startled Giordano. An alarm was sounding throughout the ship. What was happening now? Had the Earth disappeared completely? Or had it returned? The signal only told him one thing—he had to get to the command center as quickly as possible.
Giordano sat up, causing the light to switch on automatically. His sweatpants were lying next to him, and he pulled them on. Then he lifted one arm and sniffed his armpit. Not too bad. The alarm continued. He didn’t have time to look through his clothes closet.
He reached up and opened the flap. The first step was always the hardest. He pulled himself up to the lowermost step. His capsule, which reminded him of an oversized coffin, was being flung around the central axis of the ARES at six revolutions per minute—just like the other three capsules were. The centrifugal force imparted the feeling of gravity.
The next step. For the first five, he had to climb only using his arms. After that he could use his legs as well. There were only 21 steps to the central area. The corridor was a tight fit, but he had gotten used to it. The first few days he had hurried through it so that his claustrophobia wouldn’t be triggered. Humans could get used to anything, maybe even to a lost Earth.
Giordano was the last one to reach the command center. Michael and François looked at him. “Good morning,” he said.
“Good morning to you, too,” Judith said. She didn’t look as unsettled as she had yesterday. It almost seemed as if what she was about to tell them had helped to restore her composure.
“So, why’d you wake me up?” Michael asked. His voice came out somewhat higher than usual. He always spoke that way when he was stressed or itching for a fight.
“I woke up Giordi, too,” she said. “And François had his exercises interrupted. Thank you all for coming.”
“With that alarm going, we didn’t have any choice,” Michael said.
“I just had a radio conversation.”
“With Earth? They’re answering again?” François asked. His face was practically beaming.
“No, with the moon,” Judith said.
Of course! Giordano realized. The moon base! How many people were stationed there now? Four? Six?
“Did they ask us for help?” Michael asked.
“Yes. They wanted to know what the Earth looked like to us. I told them that we saw some kind of shell around the Earth.”
“Did that shock them?”
“They were surprisingly calm. They had first thought that the phenomenon was some kind of wall in front of the Earth. But that had seemed just as unlikely to them as a shell did to us.”
“Well, great, then. Everything’s settled. You didn’t have to wake us up to tell us that,” Michael said.
But Mr. Second-in-Command was wrong. Giordano thought he knew what Judith had in mind. That had to be where her renewed strength had come from.
“I’ve decided that we’re going to turn around,” she said.
“What?” Michael seemed to move into an attack stance. “You can’t just decide something like that.”
“I’m your commander. And I have no other choice.”
“Did they ask you to do this?”
“No, Mike. I asked about their supplies. Everyone knows that the moon base has been scaled back due to lack of funds—funds diverted to our expedition. They are a long time from being self-sufficient. And we have enough supplies on board for two years!”
“Won’t it take too long if we turn around?” Giordano asked.
“That’s a good question,” Judith said. “If we were already on the transfer part of our trajectory, we’d need about a year and a half for the return trip. But the fina
l thrust hasn’t happened yet. Right now, strictly speaking, we’re on an extremely elliptical Earth orbit. If we brake instead of accelerating, we could also reduce our orbit to a trajectory that intercepts the moon.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m still against it,” Michael said. “We’d be endangering the future of humankind. Only Mars can offer us a new home.”
“We have no other choice. The law demands that we go to their aid. It appears that we can’t help the people on Earth, but these six astronauts on the moon, them we can help. Otherwise we could be found guilty of failing to assist people in danger.”
“That’s nonsense. Who is there now to put us in front of a court? There’s no jurisdiction anymore. There are no laws anymore. Our own decisions are the only ones that count.”
“You’re right, Mike,” François said.
Whoa, thought Giordano. What the heck?
“You’re right, Mike,” François repeated. “Maybe there aren’t any laws anymore. But there are still morals and decency and integrity. A humanity that would ignore its own kind and let them die would not be something worth saving.”
“Yes, I agree,” Giordano said.
“Oh, I knew that we’d get to a majority decision,” Judith said. “But as an offering for you, Mike, the moon base is currently able to produce rocket fuel. We could fly back to the moon, pick up the six astronauts and some of their equipment, and then restart our trip to Mars. Three women and seven men would produce much more potential for the gene pool, if everyone wants to follow your idea. The moon crew also has a considerably more international composition than our team.”
“Why do I have the feeling that you’re suggesting that just to shut me up?” Michael asked. “But I have to admit your arguments are appealing. It would actually make a lot more sense to establish a new humanity from ten individuals instead of just four. And ARES shouldn’t have any problem diverting to a moon orbit. I’ve got no idea how we’ll manage to refuel, but I’ll leave that to the rest of you. I’m just a surgeon.”
“The central unit is a standalone module with a separate propulsion system,” Giordano said. “We can detach it, land on the moon, and refuel it there.”
The Wall: Eternal Day Page 9