The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) (27 page)

“
Yes. Jean told me earlier that she was sorry to see Sam leave for the NASA base, since she had done such a good job of training her to become a pilot. However, Sam told Jean that she could always find her again. All of the NASA bases have radar beacons that can be homed in on. There are two spacesuits left. The girls can get in them and take the bulldozer. The bulldozer will home in on the other base.”

“
Mom, Julie’s too small to use one those large suits,” Jean said. “And I’m not leaving without you.”

“She’s right,” Sue said emphatically. “You need to
go too.”

“But
with Jeff gone, there are only two spacesuits left.”

“Mom, I
have an idea,” Jean said. “The suits are really large. You take one suit, and I’ll carry Julie on my shoulders in the other. She can look through the helmet and be my eyes, and I’ll be her legs. This way we can all leave together.”

“
What an ingenious idea, Sweetie,” Sue said. “You all get dressed, while I go out to the main central module and lead interference. You need to go right away before everyone wakes up. It’s probably almost morning.” Sue rushed out the door, the two ends of the belt on her pink robe trailing behind her.

# # #

Old Sue walked over to the kitchen area, planning to innocently make a pot of coffee, and looked around. No sooner had she started the pot, when a voice shrilled behind her, “What are you doing here so early? It’s not your breakfast shift.”

Sue turned around, and saw Celia staring at her suspiciously. Sue frowned back and said, “Is it now a crime to make a cup of coffee? I couldn’t sleep.”

“We are supposed to follow the rules,” Celia said haughtily. “What if everyone decided to get up whenever they pleased to make something to eat? If it was my morning shift, like it is now, I would come out to find a stack of dirty dishes and pots and need to clean them all. I am not putting up with that. Go back to your room and come back when you’re supposed to.” She stood there, glaring at Sue with her arms akimbo.

Sue walked over to the shift schedule, crossed Celia’s nam
e off the list and inserted her own. “There. You’re off the hook. Now get lost!” she snarled.

“You can’t do that without authorization. It’s not allowed!” Celia stuttered.

“Well, I just did. Now get your fat patootie back to bed and come back later.”

“You haven’
t heard the last of this!” Celia spat back in indignation. The woman turned and stomped away into the other residence module.

Sue walked over to the tunnel that led back towards her and Bonnie’s hallway. “
Psst, Bonnie. Are you there? The coast is clear. Hurry!” she whispered into its length. A few seconds later, Bonnie’s head emerged, followed by her two daughters. Sue lifted the hatch in the floor, and the four of them proceeded down the ladder. At the bottom, next to the exit airlock, were two large spacesuits. “Get into them quickly,” Sue said. “I left Celia in a huff. Knowing her, she won’t take it lightly. We may have trouble soon.”

Bonnie took one of the suits, now knowing how to don it from her earlier experience burying her poor dead infant. Sue helped Jean get into the bottom of the other suit. As Juli
e climbed onto her sister’s shoulders, Sue helped put the top part of the spacesuit over them, and then affixed the helmet. Little Julie stared back at her wide-eyed through the faceplate. The suit had multiple folds at the legs and arms since it was much too large even for the two of them.

A deep voice boomed behind them. “What do you think you’re doing?”

With a squawk, Sue turned around. There stood Celia’s husband, George Biggs. “That’s my spacesuit you’ve got there,” he said, frowning at them.

“Please, George, Bonnie’s husband is dead. She needs to go.”

“Jeff is dead?” George said in puzzlement. “How could that happen? That makes no sense.”

“George, you have to t
rust me. Brother Jacobs sent Jeff out to his death. Now he insists that Jean is going to marry him. He’s become unhinged. Bonnie and the girls need to get to safety right away. This isn’t the Middle Ages; they’re not serfs to be handed over to the king to do with as he pleases. You have to help us, George. Anyway, what are you doing down here so early?”

“Celia came in bitching and moaning about you and woke me up. S
ince I was now awake, I figured I would get an early start on finishing the greenhouse. Imagine my surprise to see you down here. Now you’d better get out of those suits so that I can get to work.”

“George, please let us go,” Bonnie begged. “You’ve always been nice to us. It’s our decision to make. With Jeff gone, I have nothing to hold me here.”

“If she stays, Brother Jacobs would just make them prisoners,” Sue said.

“Well, hmm, there’s certainly that,” George said, pondering his next step. “Alright, you can go. No one should be held against their will. With Jeff gone, that makes me Platinum One. You realize that
, given my responsibilities, I’ll need to tell Brother Jacobs, don’t you?”

Bonnie stretched up and gave George a peck on the cheek. “Bless you, George.
I won’t forget this.” She plunked the helmet onto her head and told Sue to latch it on. At once, she turned to the airlock and pressed the button to open it. “Let’s go, girls,” she said.

# # #

A few minutes later, Bonnie and her daughters reached the bulldozer which was sitting next to the greenhouse. Bonnie could just barely see in the dim light of the rising sun, which was sitting on the horizon. She had to assist Jean and Julie, because Jean could not see where she was walking. Only Julie’s head was in the helmet and, since Julie was only six years old, Jean was finding her directions very difficult to interpret. They tripped multiple times before Bonnie got them safely seated on the bulldozer.

Once settled
, Bonnie spoke over the suit radio. “Jean, what do I do now?”

Jean could hear her mother
’s voice drift down to her from the helmet above. Jean shouted to make sure she could be heard, and Bonnie heard her muffled voice say, “There should be a panel. Touch it to activate it, and then look for any words like start or run or engine. Then touch it to start it.”

Bonnie did as Jean indicated, and saw a dizzying array of options. One of the words finally p
opped out at her. She pressed ‘Drive.’ There were only two options that resulted: forward and reverse. Bonnie selected ‘Forward’ and the bulldozer lurched ahead. She clutched at the steering lever and held it steady. “Okay, we’re moving. What now?” she asked.

“If you’r
e not at the main menu, press ‘Return’ and then look for anything like radar or navigation,” Julie’s muffled voice responded. “We should be able to find Sam’s base that way.”

Sure enough, B
onnie found a ‘Navigation’ option, and then a ‘Radar’ selection. When she picked that, a number of circles appeared on the monitor. Each circle had a name under it. One selection that was off to the right of the screen said ‘NASA Base.’

“I see it, Jean. It’s at around where an hour hand
would point if it was three o’clock.”

“Turn to the right until it’s at the top of the display, and then keep it there.
That should send us directly to it,” Jean replied.

Bonnie turned the bulldozer, and felt better as the blip on the screen moved to the top. “See, Julie,” she said as she tapped the circle, “that’s where we’re going. We’ll get to see Pilot Sam and Commander Roy again.
Think of this like a little vacation.”

“Will we be gone a long time, Mommy?” her daughter asked.

“Yes, dear, a very long time,” Bonnie said. She then focused on steering around the small rocks and boulders in their path, always returning the bulldozer to place the indicated blip at the top of the display.

# # #

Brother Jacobs woke up and stretched. He had his wall monitor set to a camera that gave a view outside to the west, and he could see the sun coming up. “Ah,” he mumbled. “A glorious day is at hand. Soon I will rise and check on my betrothed, and then announce the nuptials to our members. They will be informed that Jeff’s last wish was to grant his daughter’s hand in marriage to me. No one will dare to gainsay me.”

A quiet
knock sounded on his door. “Brother Jacobs, are you awake? It’s George.”

“Enter, my friend, enter.”

George opened the door and came into the cabin. He saw Brother Jacobs roll out of bed and stand. He was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. The leader rushed over to him and vigorously shook his hand.

“Is it not
an amazing morning?” Brother Jacobs panted. “This is our first sunrise on our new planet. I have led us here safely, and I now have new big plans.”

“He still has those movie-star looks, even after just waking up,”
George thought,
“but he seems in a pretty happy mood considering what Bonnie just told me.”
Aloud he said, “Um, I was just given some disquieting news, Brother Jacobs. I was told that you sent Jeff out and he died. Is this true?”

“Oh, my boy, we were visited in the night by a flaming emissary. It sat there burning, yet it was not consumed. It spoke to us in its own way, and explained that it had come as a sign. In his folly, Jeff took it upon himself to go meet with
the emissary and force it to take him to the Great Consciousness. I tried to stop him, but he would not listen. He was found unworthy.” Brother Jacobs’ eyes lit up with sudden realization. “Why, that makes you Platinum One now. The great responsibilities of that office currently rest upon your shoulders.”

George considered whether
this was a good thing or a bad thing. He had not forgotten how Brother Jacobs had been quick to offer his Platinums’ lives to keep the two astronauts from retaking the Pegasus. He wondered whether his promotion meant that he would be the next one to be offered up in any dangerous situation. He also wondered if Brother Jacobs’ version of events was what had actually happened, so he decided to hedge the truth a bit. “I came to let you know that I confronted old Sue at the airlock. She told me that Bonnie and her daughters had taken the spacesuits and left. I would have stopped them, but they were already gone, using the two remaining spacesuits. Without a suit, I couldn’t follow to capture them.”

“What? They’re gone?” Brother Jacobs sputtered. He stormed around the room. “This is inconceivable! They’re ruining all
of my plans!” he yelled as he swept his arm across the objects on his desk, sending them flying.

George watched this ranting in shock. The biggest surprise was that he had never heard Brother Jacobs use contractions before while speaking.
“He must really be out of control,”
he thought.

B
rother Jacobs turned back to George, his eyes boring into him. “Go, Platinum One,” Brother Jacobs said with a wave of his hand. “Tell the others that Brother Jeff was not virtuous enough to withstand the glory of the Great Consciousness and died as a result. Tell them that his dying wish was for me to marry his daughter so that his legacy could live on. Tell them that Bonnie in her wickedness has fled, but that I will handle the situation. I will discover where the women are and retrieve them. Tell the Called that we will have a wedding ceremony this afternoon. Begone, and perform your duty!”

# # #

Brother Jacobs rushed over to his console and turned it on. He accessed each external camera in turn, looking for the fugitives. After thoroughly examining each feed twice, he realized that the bulldozer was gone. “Oh, clever girls,” he muttered. “But not clever enough!” He pulled up a different set of menus, and accessed the bulldozer camera feed. Sure enough, the camera registered the view in front of it. Since it was situated on a pole at the back of the machine, Brother Jacobs could see the back of the heads of the two spacesuits and the ground moving in front of the dozer.

“Hah, no doubt my young bride, you have assumed that you could use the manual override to keep me out once you were discovered. But oh, my dear, you are so wrong. I am observant, and I learn quickly.”

Brother Jacobs leaned forward and spoke into the microphone. “Rover, this is Brother Jacobs. Emergency cancellation Archimedes! Override, my voice only! Rover, return to your home base!”

# # #

Bonnie was steering around a particularly large boulder when the control lever jerked in her hands. Pulling with all her might would not budge it. The bulldozer turned, completing a half circle, and then the lever centered. “Jean,” she yelled. “Something’s wrong! The bulldozer turned around all on its own. We’re heading back the way we came!”

“They must be controlling it remotely,” Jean replied. “Quick, find the manual override button on the display!”

Bonnie frantically tapped at the screen, which suddenly displayed a bright red background. On it were displayed the words ‘All control functions disabled. Brother Jacobs voice commands only.’

Bonnie pounded on the screen in frustration. “
Noooo!” she cried.

As usual, Sergeant Wong was the first to awaken. He rose and performed his morning Tai Chi exercises to limber up. When he had finished working up a sheen of sweat, he walked out into the main living area and obtained a cup of clear water from the reclamation unit. While drinking, he sidled over to the communications computer and sat down.

After logging in, he saw that there was a return text message f
rom the Moon base. He opened it and saw that it was addressed from General Zhou.
“Sergeant Wong,”
it read,
“Congratulations on your successful landing. Unfortunately, I have dire news to report. Our spies at NASA have been captured, and I cannot relay to you any additional information. All I can state is that the organization planned to send new mission directives to its crew as soon as the colony ship had landed and increased their numbers to six astronauts. I cannot inform you whether the ship landed successfully or not. We must assume the worst case, and that the two groups have merged. No doubt they will attempt to immediately capture any alien artifacts. Haste on your part is more critical than ever. I need not remind you of your duty. The Americans cannot obtain the artifacts. You are authorized to use whatever means necessary, including killing all of them. We will handle any political ramifications from here. Speed is of the essence. Go immediately.”

The NCO
leaped up and proceeded to stomp around the inside of the Mars One restored base, pounding on doors and yelling at all of the Koreans who were still in their bunks. “Hurry up,” he shouted. “It is morning and we must move out immediately! I will not have the Americans beat us to the goal when we are so close! If you are not out here and ready in five minutes, you will be shot for insubordination!”

He then
strode to the chief scientist’s room and unceremoniously burst inside. He went over and shook the old man, who was still asleep. “Lao Li, get up,” he said. “What is the status of the two rovers and bulldozer? We need to leave with them at once.”

The old man’s eyes snapped open and he sat up. He shook his head and
blinked a few times. “Um, I do not know,” Julong stuttered. “They are older models, and have no remote communications capabilities. Everything on them is manual, and so I needed to go outside to check them. Since night fell and I was performing the other duties that you had commanded of me, I put it on my schedule to look at them this morning.”

“Bah, must
I tell you everything that must be done first? Why did you not inform me last night?” After a moment of silence as the scientist stared back at him in consternation, the NCO barked, “Never mind, get out there at once. I want all three vehicles prepped and ready to leave in ten minutes.”

When the military man had returned to the main area, he was pleased to see that the Koreans were rushing around getting dressed in their spacesuits and retrieving their weapons. He saw Li Julong rush to the airlock and depart.
After a few more minutes, the Koreans had helped each other check their suits and equipment.

The Sergeant ordered them outside, leading the way. He
could see Julong had the hood open on one of the rovers and was leaning inside. He walked up to the old man and commanded, “Report!”

“It appears that a dust storm deposited a tremendous amount of dust inside this one and fouled up the gears,” Julong answered over the radio, not bothering to look up. “I have been trying to clear the clogs, but these gloves are inadequate.”

“You, and you,” the NCO said, pointing with a finger. “Go inside and find something to clear the dust out of the rover, and be quick about it.” In frustration, he walked around the equipment a few times. Then he ordered the Koreans to practice embarking and disembarking from the two rovers and the bulldozer and forming up in their three-line firing formation they had practiced on the Moon. “Faster,” he ordered them. “The Americans are shooting at you, trying to kill you. Move faster. You are sitting ducks on these rovers!”

While the drills continued,
the Sergeant punched into each of the transports the coordinates of the alien location. Soon, the two Koreans returned with a small vacuum. Luckily, it was battery operated, and after clearing the clog and starting the rover, Julong said, “Sir, the rover is now running. I suggest that I check the other transports so that we do not have a possible issue later.”

“No, we leave now,” the NCO said impatiently. “You three with me in the lead rover,” he said, indicating three of the Koreans. “You four in the second one. And yo
u three with the scientist. Li, you will bring up the rear with all of the extra weapons and those who form the back line of the firing formation. And bring the vacuum mechanism.”

With a lurch, the three machines
started over the terrain, their passengers clinging on as best they could. There was barely enough room for two people on each, let alone four. After a minute, it was obvious that the rovers were faster than the bulldozer as it started to lag behind. “Keep up, Li” the NCO ordered.

“We cannot,” Julong answered back over the radio. “This bulldozer is slower.”

“We have been delayed long enough,” Sergeant Wong stated. “We will go ahead. Follow our tracks and catch up when you can. We cannot afford to let our progress be stymied any longer.”

Li Julong watched as the two rovers slowly pulled ahead. When he lost sight of them, he watched the tracks they left behind as he rolled over them
. “I hope, for their sake, the Americans are not there when we arrive,”
he thought to himself.

# # #

Bonnie hit her fist on the console of the rover yet again. “It won’t allow me to do anything, Jean,” she cried. “We’re headed back to the base. It says that the manual functions are disabled and it will only answer to Brother Jacobs’ voice!”

“That’s not good, Mom,” Jean responded. “I don’t think there’s
any way around that.” Jean thought for a moment about everything she had learned from Sam during her training sessions on the way to Mars, and then spoke. “We need to call for help. I don’t know the frequency for the NASA base, but Sam told me once that there’s an emergency frequency called guard that is kept free for pilots at all times and constantly monitored on Earth. The frequency is at 121.5, and maybe the NASA base also keeps track of it. Let me try it.”

Bonnie heard her daughter say, ‘Computer, switch to frequency 121.5’ and then she heard no more over her suit radio. After a few tense minutes, she heard her
daughter’s voice return. “It was no good, Mom. There was no answer. I repeated the Mayday a few times and told them we were on the Martian surface and needed help. We’ll have to try again later.”

“How did you switch back to talk to me?” Bonnie asked.

“It was easy. I just told the computer to switch back to the primary suit frequency.”

“Oh, that’s easy enough.” Bonnie said as she gazed ahead. She could see that the rover was following their tracks back to the
colony base. She shuddered at the thought of returning herself and her daughters to the man who had ordered her husband to his death. She also determined that there was no way she would let him defile Jean. “Alright, we’re not going back,” she said defiantly. “Get ready to jump.”

“Jump
, are you crazy?” Jean questioned. “I can’t see!”

“We don’t have a choice,” Bonnie said and reached over and unbuckled her daughter. After undoing her own belt, she said. “Stand up.”
They stood unsteadily as the bulldozer rocked its way across the landscape. “Now, on the count of three, turn to your right and jump. One…two…THREE!”

Bonnie watched in horror as Jean overturned and jumped. Little Julie screamed and then the two of them landed with a thump on their left sides. Bonnie turned and also jumped, landing upright and stumbling, but catching herself with her hands.
She lurched over to the girls. Julie was crying.

“Jean, Julie,
are you okay?” she cried.

“Ow, I hit my head on the inside of the helmet,” Julie sobbed.

“Jean, Jean?” Bonnie shouted. “Jean, answer me!” She turned the girls over so that they were face up, and felt the bottom part of the suit where Jean was. She wasn’t moving.

“I think Jean hit her head too, Mommy.”

“Oh, what I have I done,” Bonnie cried, and then gritted her teeth. “C’mon, Honey, hang on to Mommy,” she said. “Mommy’s going to carry you.” She lifted the suit up and hugged it to her chest, feeling Julie’s arms wrap around her. With one final look at the departing bulldozer, she turned her back on it and started walking, following the tracks. She was determined to reach the NASA base or die trying.

# # #

Brother Jacobs turned away from the monitor and whistled to himself. He did not see Bonnie and the girls jump a few seconds later. He was too busy grinning at his cleverness as he went over to a trunk that had remained unopened during the entire voyage. He lifted the lid. There, inside, lay a gleaming white spacesuit.  “Do you think I would not have my own insurance policy?” he muttered. “I always plan for every contingency. I am amazed that no one seemed to question why my Platinums were the only ones with suits. I, of course, have brought my own.”

He gingerly picked it up and placed it on his bed, and then returned to the chest for the helmet. This he also placed on the bed, admiring it.
After a moment, he returned to the chest and rummaged around. “There should be some rope in here somewhere,” he mumbled. “Knowing that Bonnie, she won’t come along quietly after the rover returns. I’ll need to go out and subdue her. Ah, here we go,” he said as he dragged out a coil of rope. Then a gleam caught his eye. He reached in, and took out a small dagger. “Like I said, I always plan for every contingency.”

He glanced up at the monitor to view the rover’s progress and was shocked to see the women
were missing. He ran over to the microphone, and directed the camera to pan three hundred and sixty degrees. There, in the distance, he could just discern the two small suits.

“Ah, you ladies task me. You task me, but I shall have you,” he growled. “I will
chase you across every chasm on this planet before I give you up. You are mine and no one else’s!”

The colony leader turned
back to his bed and donned his spacesuit. He placed the dagger in a pocket on the sleeve and picked up the rope. He looked in the mirror at his reflection. “Perfect,” he said, and with a flourish turned to leave his cabin. Soon, he was outside waiting for the rover to arrive so that he could use it to chase down his prey.

# # #

Charles tossed and turned in his bunk at the Star-Kissed base. He had woken up early and couldn’t fall back asleep. He kept having visions of that poor preemie and his mother. She had seemed so nice, but lost at the same time, and Charles wished that he could have done more for her. He couldn’t imagine what hell she must have gone through during the emergency landing, and after all that receiving no support from her husband.
“She deserved much better than that,”
he said to himself. He rolled over in bed, and put the pillow over his head. He could still see her face.
“Hmm, I wonder if she has a sister,”
he mused
. “I should have asked.”
He grinned to himself at his audacity, and tried to fall back asleep.