On Mars Pathfinder (The Mike Lane Stories Book 1) (14 page)

Foo-Fighter

The next day wasn’t supposed to be filled with activity for me. The plan was for plenty of rest to be able to further acclimate back to a gravity environment. So much for the best laid plans of men, and mice. After waking up and having some water and my last meal replacement bar that I had in my duffel, I connected the Habitats.

The active and passive breezeways had both outer and inner doors but once the breezeway was extended, the outer door could not close again. In the most extreme conditions I could retract the breezeway to close the outer door, but that was an unlikely scenario. The breezeway was airtight but could not function as an exterior airlock. I powered up the active breezeway’s standalone system in the W-Hab, and did a handshake with the system in the L-Hab. Everything was in order so I commenced the five step sequence to connect the two Habitats, which I was now starting to think of as buildings, instead of what they technically were, spaceships; or more precisely, fairly complicated cargo containers.

First, open the outer doors. There was a small portal in the breezeway inner airlock door and light immediately streamed through. I had unpacked and initialized a desktop computer and now held up my tablet PC, which I had finally paired with the COM Panel. I had one camera from each Hab aimed at the breezeway points and watched the process. The W-Hab outer hatch settled inward, and then lowered into the wall of the Habitat below the breezeway. I then triggered the same process in the L-Hab’s outer door, receiving both telemetry and visual confirmation through the camera. After a quick double check of alignment, I went ahead and crossed my fingers, then extended the breezeway. I heard support screws retracting underneath the breezeway entrance ramp, and then heard the whine of giant servomechanisms extending the breezeway. The four sided and solidly built breezeway tunnel was my only path between the two Habitats that did not require an Activity Suit and an airlock. Watching the cameras on my laptop with occasional glances through the portal, it took ten minutes for the breezeway to extend the 86 centimetres to the other Habitats passive breezeway connection receptacle. Taking my time with the walk had paid off. The breezeway slipped right into the open hatch on the L-Hab perfectly. The servos stopped whirring, and I heard the support screws under the ramp re-engaging. I ran the processes then, to first secure and create an airtight seal on the L-Hab passive breezeway entrance. I then repeated this with the W-Hab active breezeway entrance. All totaled, thirty minutes. Before opening the hatches, I took a few minutes with my tablet PC to run integrity check on both the Breezeway and the L-Hab. I pressurized the Breezeway and then waited another fifteen minutes, per procedure. At the end of the waiting period, there was no variance in the breezeway pressure so I was good to go. I released the locking mechanism on the interior breezeway hatch at my end, and then spun the arm that would allow the hatch to open. It swung inward, as there was very little available room in the breezeway.

The breezeway was mighty darn cold, but it would warm up soon enough. It got its atmosphere and temperature from the ambient environment in both Habitats by leaving the doors at each end ajar. At night time, or if everyone (future crew) left the Habitat, or there was a severe weather condition, then the doors at each end had to be sealed (a good procedure to follow). I walked through the hatch, gingerly stepping and testing my weight on the breezeway. There was no bounce or give to the floor. I hopped up and down a few times in the middle, and everything was solid as a rock; thanks mostly to the low Martian gravity, as well as the exquisite design and construction. Gotta love those German engineers. I approached the inner hatch on the L-Hab end, peered through the portal, and then swung the arm to open the door. It swung open inward as well.

Stepping into the upper level of the L-Hab, I looked around. Toilet and shower, mech room, storage, kitchen, and table and chairs (still needing unwrapping) with auxiliary COM panel over the table. There was a couch and sitting area, a workstation, book cases and storage cabinets, recessed lighting, and carpeting on the floors; all the comforts of an austere hotel room. As both Habs were only twenty-five feet in diameter, slightly less inside, things would certainly be cozy. No worries, it would feel like home soon enough. I went down the spiral staircase to where the sleeping quarters were located.

There were three sleeping units, plus a linen cupboard and a small but very, very efficient washer and dryer in the lower level. The rooms were not large, but they were designed for efficiency and comfort. The main bedroom (and the largest),was at the back of the Hab. It was designed with a double bed. There was plenty of closet space with below bed and overhead storage. There was a dresser; one section of wall was drawers from top to bottom. There was also a small desk. To the designers’ credit, they had gone to great lengths to not only make things functional and utilize all the available space; they had also gone to great lengths to make the rooms practical, comfortable, and appealing.

On the front of the L-Hab sleeping level, the second largest bedroom was similar to the larger one, but it had no wall of drawers, and no dresser. There was lots of shelving and hanging baskets in one of the storage cupboards though, so you could get by without drawers. Both the front and back sleeping quarters had portals looking out over the austere but beautiful Martian landscape.

The final bedroom, on the side of the L-Hab directly underneath the passive breezeway, was a smaller bedroom with bunk beds. There was one big closet, a small dresser, a desk, under bed storage and overhead storage. The bed was a bit wider than I had originally expected, so it looked like it would be comfortable. All the beds had thick memory foam mattresses, wrapped in plastic. I unwrapped the mattress in the small bedroom on the lower bunk then unclipped all the doors and drawers. I had decided this would be my room. It had no portal but that was okay. I didn’t have to worry about waking-up in the night and seeing someone staring in at me, ha ha ha! Above the desk was a large removable decorative panel. Behind it was this Habitat’s emergency egress point. The walls for the small bedroom were a bit thicker than the others; and the door was a proper airlock door. I thought about this choice for a few minutes, but realized that when Colony 1 arrived, they would need the two other bedrooms. That mission of four people was two women, two men; two couples. I might as well get used to batching it in the pseudoairlock from day two.

I spent the next 15 minutes grabbing my duffels and two foot lockers from upstairs; and unpacking my clothes and some personal items. I had brought three fleecy blankets, three crochet afghans, and three thick down pillows with me: all in vacuum bags. I had to fight hard to bring those with me. I was told the provided sleeping bag and environmental controls would be enough. My counterargument was these things made me feel comfortable and at home, and I needed them for the days when I was having a hard time handling that fact that I was
all alone on Mars
. I probably played that card more times than I should have, but in the end Jayden relented and basically said I could bring anything I wanted, so long as it fit in the available space and didn’t put us over the weight limit. Now I just had to find which of the transport mission units had my guitar in it! The last item I took out of the third duffel bag was a cardboard box. I opened it and slid out the faux leather bound Holy Bible that had belonged to my mother. Well-worn and a bit frayed on the edges, I held it for a few moments, thinking about the woman that had so long ago, gone home to Glory. I smiled and wiped a tear from my eye as I imagined her face in laughter at some stupid joke I told. She always laughed at my jokes, no matter how bad they were. She always loved me, without reservation, no matter what I had done or what decisions I had made. I could only imagine how she would have reacted to Mars, but I know in the end she would have supported me. I smiled and said, “I brought you with me Mom. Welcome to Mars.” I opened the bible, and in between the pages was her picture. I smiled at her smiling at me. I flipped forward a few pages and found the picture of my son and his wife on their recent wedding day. I flipped forward a few more pages and found the picture of Loreena, taken the day I proposed to her. I put the snapshots back in between the pages. I put the Bible under my pillow. Its words would bring me a lot of comfort in the coming years.

I spent the rest of the morning on that first full day unpacking and setting up the other computers and getting them hooked up to the servers; which I also had to unpack and setup, in the W-Hab. Luckily computers and software were one of my strengths so it was pretty mindless work. To make it go easier I launched the music app on my tablet and worked along to the tunes of Canned Heat, and then zoned out to some Yngwie Malmsteen. Listening to him shred arpeggios was blissfully relaxing when you listened to it loud enough. At some point I even played the very first, ever, Martian Air Guitar. Thank you. Thank-you-very-much.

Once the computers were set up, networked and working as intended, I moved on to unpacking the kitchen and living space. The L-Hab had three months’ worth of food supplies so getting food out of the supply drops was not a priority at present. I finally found the small Bullet Blender, and was able to mix up a chocolate protein/meal replacement shake for lunch. I put in some water, peanut butter and a bit of cinnamon and stood at the living room portal, sipping it slowly. It was a bit of a surreal moment. I was on an alien planet, by myself, and sipping food that was familiar and comfortable to me.

While getting a hydroponic facility up and running was on the to-do list, it was going to be a slow process just here by myself, and I was going to have to wait until the beginning of the next Martian summer to do it. It was too close to winter for that work to begin. That meant I had to bring all my food with me. In fact, I had brought four years’ worth of food, spread out amongst all the supply drops. I was going to get another two years’ worth of food every two years until Colony 1 arrived. This was one of my deals with Jayden. This food was all, of course, protein shake powder and meal replacement bars. It packed into a smaller space than prepackaged food and the weight, per meal, was comparable. I had used this stuff for years back on Earth to maintain a good weight and health. I was perfectly happy for it to be my diet. Another one of my battles though was peanut butter. The stuff is so damned heavy. However, we got the Kraft company to foil package individual 1.5 tablespoon servings, so we cut down on the weight of the packaging. I had enough of these food supplies for four shakes and four meal replacement bars per day. That would be too much in the winter when I would be fairly sedentary, but in the summer, when I would be outside and busy; it gave me a bit extra for the days where I really worked up an appetite. As I emptied these packages from a transport container into one of the kitchen area cupboards, I found a small cardboard box in the bottom of the container. I opened it up and there were six triple-packs of Twinkies and a note. All it said was, “Love, Carrie”. Bless her. I stashed them in my room downstairs.

I was feeling so peaceful, happy, and in the moment, that I made a second meal-shake and went to the kitchen portal to look at the distant ice fields. I looked out over the topography between the colony site and the ice wall in the distance. Calmness and pure, simple happiness settled over me. This was it. I was here. I was on Mars. We had done it! I looked at the play of the dust in the wind and the diamond like sunlight glinting off of the reds and grays on the ridge of the ice wall. I was doing something special. I was doing something that was going to benefit humanity. I was making a sacrifice to begin a long journey that the human race would embark on. It wasn’t pride I was feeling at the moment, it was gratitude. I was grateful that I was making a difference, and that I could make a difference. I was grateful I had been chosen. When I first applied for this adventure, I had the thought in the back of my mind that I might be running away from something. Standing here today and looking out over Mars’ surface, I realized that perhaps, instead of running away, I really was moving towards something: towards a new life, and towards a new chance to find simple happiness.

I focused my attention back on the beautiful sand coloured striations on the ice wall in the distance. The ice wall was both gray and red at the same time. The colours coming from dust from the Chasma plains permanently embedded on the ice wall face. I looked up at the sky that wasn’t blue. During the day time, the sky was a scarlet or bright orange-ish colour (from the iron oxide in airborne dust particles); and in the evening, even though it was still the time of year for a midnight sun at this latitude, the sky became blue-ish. The Martian sky colouring ran almost opposite to when you would see those colours on Terra. Regardless of the colour, the atmosphere was always crystal clear and would remain so until the winter humidity started forming, or there was a sandstorm. While the Martian atmosphere has ozone layered into it, there is no protective ozone layer like we have on Earth. No proper ozone layer, no blue skies.

I was still amazed at how bright the sun was here on Mars. Being so much farther from the Sun than Terra was, I wasn’t really sure what I had expected, but it was nice. It was like a bright but cloudy day on Terra. During the North Polar summer, there were no clouds. In the winter time, this place would be a cloud factory. Hence, the need to get a wind farm up and running was one of the more pressing items of construction. Beginning that installation was on this week’s work manifest; but not on today’s.

I smiled to myself again. I was on Mars. My dream and hard work of the last few years had paid off. I used to be a very large man. Life curves, a couple back injuries, and some depression had taken its toll. When the Corporation first announced its plans, I weighed over 300 pounds, had high blood pressure, and was diabetic. I lived a sedentary life and was a bit of a hermit. The whole idea of being selected to go to Mars and of having a purpose really changed my life overnight. I started hitting the gym six days a week, and with careful guidance and assistance from the doctors, I lost 120 pounds in eleven months. I got my blood pressure back to normal without medication, and the Type II diabetes went away with the weight loss. I did miss out on the first round of selections by the Corporation, but I made it through when they opened the second application process. A few short years later I was sitting and listening to Jayden’s pitch for the proof of concept mission. Now here I was, on Mars, sipping my lunch, and looking out over the …