The Wall: Eternal Day

by Brandon Q Morris

  “Yeah, it’s only a few meters,” Maxim said. “I’ll bring you there now.”

  “Should I lock up?” Michael asked.

  “Ha, ha,” Judith said. She sounded slightly nervous.

  “Just a little joke,” Michael said. “And the port-a-potty there in front of us, what do you use that for? Is it actually an outhouse?”

  “Another good joke. I like your sense of humor. That’s the airlock,” Maxim said. “Once we’re through it, a corridor leads underground. The base is below the moon’s surface.”

  A Russian who liked his jokes—that was another thing that had never happened to him before. Maybe he could make something useful out of this Russian-American friendship.

  One look at Atiya, however, and he wasn’t in a mood to make any jokes. Her physical degradation was very advanced. Nevertheless, he could still see that she once must have been a very fit athlete. Her body fat content must’ve been very low, so her muscle cells had been attacked almost immediately. But the extent was shocking.

  Was something else going on here too? “Have you thought that maybe her immune system has gone hyperactive?” he asked.

  Jonathan shook his head. “No. In most cases a hunger phase will cause the immune system to be suppressed.”

  “That’s true, but what if this is something else?”

  “Have you seen something like this before, Michael?”

  “Not personally. I’d have to search through one of the large databases, though we can’t get access to any of those right now, of course. It’s only a feeling. Her body’s attacking her muscle cells much more aggressively than necessary. Normally the protein degradation decreases after a few weeks. It doesn’t look to me like that’s the case here.”

  “And if so, what could we do about it? Corticosteroids are a bit non-specific, but I don’t have anything else here.”

  “We have both calcineurin inhibitors and mitotic inhibitors on board the ARES. If we were to combine that with steroids—”

  “So, you could even perform a transplant if you needed to?”

  “The expedition was planned to be two years long. We have to be prepared for anything. We even have a robotic surgeon on board.”

  “The R3001? That was originally intended for the moon base. I was even trained on it, and then suddenly it wasn’t so important to put it on the moon anymore. We were told that in the event of a serious emergency, someone could be flown out of here within two days and treated on Earth.”

  “That had to be frustrating,” Michael said. If NASA had tried to pull something like that with him, he would’ve raised some hell! But as the Mars crew, they would probably have had more negotiating power from the beginning. Now, well, there probably wasn’t even a NASA anymore.

  “If it makes you feel any better, the guys down there who did that to you are probably not even alive anymore,” Michael said.

  Jonathan looked at him with wide eyes. “You’ve got a really strange sense of humor. Maxim warned me about that. No. Oddly enough, it doesn’t make me feel any better at all.”

  Too bad. Michael had thought that he and the German were of a similar mind. Weren’t Germans supposed to be the epitome of determination and pragmatism, tough as coffin nails? They’d all gone soft. He’d have to be more careful with his words.

  February 28, 2035 – Moon Base Unity

  Slowly, the command center was filling with life again. The ARES landing capsule had now also brought Giordano and François down to the surface. Jonathan had only been able to greet them briefly, because they were already busy hauling supplies into the base and, when they weren’t doing that, they were helping Maxim and Wayne with the greenhouses. Maxim had set the goal of having all greenhouses operational within four weeks at the latest. Then they wouldn’t be dependent on their rescuers for food anymore, and the ARES could resume its journey to Mars.

  Whether they would actually restart their journey, and who would go along, he didn’t know. He’d already heard wildly different answers to those questions from various people. Michael, the doctor from the ARES, appeared to have fixed plans that the rest of his colleagues didn’t necessarily share. They would all have to discuss it at some point, because if he’d understood correctly, Michael wanted all of them, the ARES crew and the moon base crew, to fly to Mars. Should they just give up on Earth, then? Jonathan couldn’t imagine agreeing to that. He still believed that his parents and sister were down there, waiting for help.

  But right now, his attention was focused on Atiya. “Have you seen Mike?” he asked Yue. Ever since the new arrivals came he’d been sharing a cabin with her so that Judith could have space for herself. Michael was sleeping in Atiya’s room. Giordano and François had taken over the large storage space together.

  “I think he’s with his patient,” Yue replied.

  “His patient?” Atiya was not Michael’s patient. The doctor from the ARES was assisting him.

  “With Atiya.” Yue kissed him on the cheek and sent him away.

  Michael was already in the medical station and examining Atiya. Jonathan cleared his throat. “How’s my patient today?” he asked.

  “No worse than yesterday, but no better either. I think we should start donor testing. If her kidneys continue to be overstressed like this, at some point we won’t be able to save them, and then a transplant will have to be done, and quickly. And we don’t even know yet whether one of us has the right tissue characteristics.”

  “You’re right, of course. At some point, it will be too late. What do you have there?”

  “We’ve got cyclosporine and azathioprine. We’ll combine them with steroids, as we talked about already. I’ve even prepared a few infusions. Shall we?”

  Michael pointed to the IV bag hanging on the infusion stand. It was all happening a little too fast for Jonathan, but he also didn’t have any arguments against proceeding. He was just annoyed that Michael had started taking over his job. How would he react if things went wrong? Would he be able to stand up to Michael? But that didn’t matter right now. There was no choice but to agree to his colleague’s proposed treatment. And maybe the immunosuppressants would prove helpful. Of course, now they would have to try to avoid exposing Atiya’s artificially weakened immune system to any pathogens at all. He’d have to declare the medical station a quarantine zone.

  Jonathan went to the call box next to the entrance. “Yue? A request. From now on, nobody except for me is allowed to enter the medical station.”

  “Not even Michael?”

  “We have to suppress Atiya’s immune system, so we can’t afford to take any unnecessary risks. Everybody is a potential carrier of germs, so I’ll need to treat her personally.”

  “Understood. I’ll note it in the access system.”

  He turned back to the bed in the middle of the room. Michael was bent over Atiya and was examining her as if he was about to perform an autopsy. There was no emotion on his face. Then he turned suddenly to him as if he’d noticed his inquiring look.

  “Good call, doctor,” he said, “Good call! Sometimes you just have to act decisively. I can see you’re no stranger to that. I like it. If you need me, you know where you can find me.”

  Michael left the medical station without looking back. What had he wanted to say? The American had appeared to be very determined, but something in his personality scared Jonathan.

  March 1, 2035 – Moon Base Unity

  Maybe it hadn’t been the best idea to exclude everyone else from taking care of Atiya. In the last 48 hours, Jonathan had left the medical station just once, for 60 minutes. In total. He had even urinated twice in a bedpan, because he hadn’t wanted to leave Atiya by herself.

  However, she had made real progress. Her body had finally stopped attacking itself. Therefore she could finally benefit from the nutrients that were being infused directly into her bloodstream. And, for the first time, she had even been able to eat a tiny portion of solid food that morning. Her blood levels had still not returned to normal,
but that might also be a result of the medicine.

  If Atiya was lucky, her kidneys might recover too. She had also told him that she’d had a long-lasting, serious infection when she was a child, and she had eventually recovered without any treatment. Her parents simply couldn’t afford to take her or any of her siblings to a doctor. And if they could have, it would’ve been her oldest brother who would’ve been treated. As the second youngest daughter, Atiya had little value for continuing the family line.

  After Atiya had told him this, she had quickly fallen asleep. He could tell she was in a dream stage, because her eyelids were moving. He stood up and stretched. Maybe this was a good opportunity for a quick trip to the command center. Maybe even Yue would be there. As quietly as possible, he left the room without looking back at his patient.

  Yue wasn’t in the command center. Sitting there in silence were Michael, the doctor, and Judith, the ARES commander. They were a strange pair. Something seemed to connect them, but not like him and Yue.

  Michael noticed him. “Well, how’s our patient?”

  “Much better. The immunosuppressants finally seem to be helping her get stronger.”

  “That’s good to hear. It would’ve been too bad to lose her genetic material.”

  Her genetic material. Right. There really is something wrong with this guy.

  “Don’t listen to him,” Judith said. “He can’t help himself.”

  “All I’m saying is, I didn’t want a new humankind to come only from old, obnoxious white guys,” Michael said. “What’s wrong with that?”

  “What’s bad is that you think of us as just some kind of resource. Us women, I mean. You think we’re only good for giving birth to a future humankind.”

  “For our survival, it’s necessary that we reproduce. Do you think that I don’t know that you prefer women, Judith? But many lesbian couples have children. You don’t have to have sex with a man. You could inseminate yourself.”

  “I don’t know what kind of conversation we’re having here,” Judith said. “We still don’t know what’s happened to the Earth. Until we know that, we can’t think about what to do next. The universe doesn’t need us. Otherwise, all of this here wouldn’t have happened.”

  “I see that very differently,” Michael said. “It might not look like it to you, but we’ve been chosen. Humankind developed completely randomly. But we’re not mature yet. Just look at how we treated the Earth. Now we have the chance to consciously and deliberately establish a new, better society on Mars. Without the shell, we never would’ve dared to make such a new start.”

  “This is going nowhere. You can try to explain your inscrutable ideas about the future to the others if you want. I’m going to concern myself, first and foremost, with the present.” Judith stood up and left the command center.

  What was he supposed to say? Michael appeared to be driven by some kind of personal enlightenment. Maybe he could see farther than any of the rest of them, but first they had to exhaust all the means and methods they could muster.

  “Uh, Mike?”

  “Yeah?”

  “When do you think we should stop giving the immunosuppressants?”

  “No idea, buddy. If you stop them too soon, all of this would’ve been for nothing. Give them to her for too long, and she’ll almost certainly get an infection. Atiya’s your patient, big guy. You’ll have to make the decision.”

  March 7, 2035 – Moon Base Unity

  “How’s it coming with the greenhouses?” Judith asked.

  “We’ve prepared the soil in numbers two to four,” Maxim explained. “Five and six have already been framed out. Seven and eight should get that far within the next week.”

  “That sounds great,” Judith said. “And I can see that I don’t need to ask about Atiya’s health.”

  What did she mean by that? Jonathan was confused. But then he noticed that the door to the command center was open, and his patient was standing in the doorway. She had a blanket draped around her shoulders. Had he given her permission to walk around the station? Certainly not. But now wasn’t the time to scold her.

  “Hi everyone,” she said. “So, you’re the new guys? Sorry, I didn’t know you were having a meeting right now.”

  “Just don’t get too close,” Maxim said, pushing his chair toward her. “How are you feeling?”

  “Pretty good, I think.” Atiya sat down. “At least, that’s what Jonny-Boy says. I can’t remember the last few days very well.”

  “It’s nice to have you back with us,” Judith said.

  “So, are you our new commander?” Atiya asked.

  Everyone laughed. Everyone except Michael. But, that was how it must have looked from Atiya’s perspective. Judith had quickly assumed something like a leadership position, with her personality exuding natural authority, without the subject ever being discussed. Yue was the organizer, and Judith delegated tasks and convinced others of their roles. That appeared to be the new arrangement of leadership. Thus, Maxim could spend almost his entire work time outside being busy with the greenhouses.

  “I’m Judith. I’m helping a bit with the organization of duties. Maxim is and remains the commander here.”

  “It’s great that you’re here, Judith.”

  “Good. We’ve all come together today to talk about the future,” Judith said. “It’s now foreseeable that we, that is, the ARES crew, will have soon fulfilled our role in helping you here.”

  “I don’t think any of us would be opposed to you staying here,” Wayne said. “François is a real card shark. We could have lots of fun.”

  “You all know that we were supposed to fly to Mars. That is still a possibility. You’ve produced enough fuel to restock our supplies. We’ve given you some of our provisions, of course, but our mission was so well planned and financed that we still have enough to be able to build our own base on Mars. I believe Mike has already talked to some of you about this. Could you explain your thinking for everyone here, Mike?”

  “Gladly. I think it’s exceedingly clear that we’ve lost the Earth. Thus, a huge responsibility has been placed on our shoulders. If we don’t want humankind to die out with us, we’ve got to do something about it. We need a base on Mars. The moon’s conditions would make it more difficult to establish a new civilization. We must be rational. In some challenges, we’ve got to put humankind above our egos.”

  “That all sounds very abstract,” Kenjiro said. “How exactly do you imagine this unfolding?”

  “The ten of us fly to Mars. Then we construct our base there, the embryo for a new humanity. And then we populate the Red Planet, like we once populated the Earth.”

  “Everyone has sex with everyone else, is that it?” Wayne asked.

  “Growing the population would naturally be the priority. Each woman could theoretically give birth to one child every year. That would mean with three women and realistic estimations, maybe thirty children in the first generation. If we leave things to chance and don’t filter out what could be technically possible, and each woman gives birth to ten kids again, the second generation would already number 150 individuals. Then it’d grow to 750, 3750, and so on. In a good hundred years, Mars could already have 5,000 inhabitants. Doesn’t that sound excellent?” Michael looked genuinely excited.

  The others didn’t appear to share his enthusiasm. “So, the women would be reduced to just some kind of child-bearing machine,” Atiya replied. “What about the men?”

  “The men would build up the base. That would have to happen quickly, of course. We need energy, living space, schools, a hospital, food, et cetera. In the beginning, this outside work might be dangerous, but that wouldn’t be bad. For the colony to grow in numbers, only the women would be needed.”

  “Men could quietly die off? Shouldn’t they... fertilize the women at least now and then?” Wayne asked.

  “If you look at all our experience with human nature throughout history, personal attachments only lead to murder and mayhem. For the sake
of diversity, too, anonymous sperm donations should be the norm. If each child might be your own, wouldn’t you work harder at taking care of all the kids instead of just favoring your own?”

  “You’re crazy, Mike,” Wayne said.

  “Do you have any substantive arguments?” Michael asked.

  “I’m afraid most of us aren’t ready to go that far yet,” Giordano said.

  “Or will never be,” Atiya said.

  “But seriously, we’re not that far along yet,” Kenjiro said. “It’s much too early to take off to Mars. We’ve got so much to do here.”

  “You won’t need those greenhouses if we all leave for Mars,” Michael said.

  “We’re thinking about the Earth. I believe there are still people down there,” Kenjiro said.

  “Believing is not the same thing as knowing,” Michael interjected.

  “But I know how we can find out.” Kenjiro paused. Nobody said anything. “At the start of the 2020s, ESA began to build a gravitational wave detector—”

  “Here we go again. You all started jabbering about that a whole month ago,” Michael said.

  Yes, that was true. They had talked about this in the command center in mid-January. It’d been Yue’s idea. How could they have forgotten?

  “I remember now,” Jonathan said. “Yue came up with the idea. But it’s good that you’ve reminded us about it, Ken.”

  “What do we need to do to make it operational again?” Maxim asked.

  “I’m afraid we can’t know until we get there,” Yue said.

  “Okay, then will you take that on?”

  “What do you mean, Commander? I’d go along on the ARES?” Yue asked.

  “I’ll gladly give you my cabin,” Michael said. “I don’t want any part in this nonsense.”

  “You’d stay here on the moon?” Jonathan asked.

  “Until you came back, sure. It seems like nothing is going to convince you all, otherwise. But I’m afraid you’re just wasting our time and ruining our ship.”