The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) (7 page)

Charles made the short walk to the greenhouse that the astronauts had erected next to their Mars base. The long, low greenhouse looked just like the poly-tunnel hoop houses found on Earth. Before the mission biologist entered, he turned around and looked at their habitat. It was squat and round with a flat top. For years, the designers had referred to this as the ‘tuna can’ style habitat. The advantage of this design was that the hab fit perfectly on top of rockets being launched from Earth. Charles shook his helmeted head. 
“Someone back at NASA must have had this tuna can shape in mind when they decided to label our base the ‘Star-Kissed’ habitat,”
he thought with a grin.

After he entered and cycled the greenhouse airlock, he took off his
helmet and gloves. This section of the greenhouse was Earth normal atmosphere as well as containing supplemental growing lights. In here, he tested plants for their ability to thrive in treated Martian soil. He was testing cool weather root crops like beets and carrots, as well as leafy plants like lettuce, spinach and Swiss chard. He bent over and pulled a few of the beets and carrots.
“The carrots are doing well,”
he thought,
“but these beets are pitiful. No wonder Serge complains so much. I think I’ll plant some over by the edge of the greenhouse where it’s colder. Beets supposedly taste best when subjected to a few weeks of frosty weather.”
He also decided to add a bit more of the small amount of the nitrogen fertilizer the astronauts had brought to Mars. This environment section of the greenhouse was similar to what the approaching colony’s greenhouse would consist of, and so the NASA plan was to transmit his findings to the group after they landed.

Charles put on his helmet and gloves, and moved to the next section of the greenhouse. In this section, he was testing genetic modifications to the plants that would allow them to deal with increased contaminants in the soil of Mars, as well as lower atmospheric pressure. He had modified the genes for the stomata of the plants. Even though the Mars atmosphere was almost pure carbon dioxide, because of the low pressure
, he had had to tweak the plants’ DNA so that they would have more of these leaf openings. This would allow the plants to be able to bring in enough of the carbon dioxide in spite of the low pressure to perform photosynthesis. He had only Swiss chard in this section, with each row of plants having a different genetic modification that varied the number of the stomata on each leaf.
“It looks like row 5A is doing the best. I think I’ll take that as a base, and try some modifications of that one,”
he mused. He pulled a few of the plants from this row to take back and examine under a microscope.

As Charles was about to go through the door to the final section of the greenhouse where he was testing genetic modifications for plants to survive in unmodified Martian soil, his helmet radio squawked. “Hey, Chuck, you better get in here. We have a problem.”

# # #

“Warning, Warning, Alien machine approaching,”
the hopper transmitted.

Probe Spit could see from the hopper video feed that the alien robot was nearing its crater, with the machine’s eyes and threatening light weapon pointed directly ahead. It was a bit surprised that the mechanism had taken so long to approach, as it seemed to weave and stop at every dep
ression in its path. But that had given the factory enough time to finish both of the electro-biosynths. 

The probe released the electro-biosynths
with the instructions to incapacitate the alien device. The synths could find their own way. They were long and skinny, and would move under the soil using hundreds of tiny claws along each side of their bodies. Although they had two eyes for stereo vision, while underground they would use a third parietal eye that would be just above the surface.

Spit watched the hopper video feed as the almost imperceptible raised soil tracks of the synths approached the menacing alien machine. The synths split apart and came at the machine from each side. At the last second, they emerged and bit into the slow moving treads and chewed. Although the treads attempted to shake them off, the synths just kept chewing as they rode around on the treads. As soon as the tread on the right separated, that synth lunged up. Gaping its mouth wide, it grabbed onto the alien’s neck and pulled sideways.
The whole machine teetered and then fell over.

Instantly the other synth released its hold and wrapped around the rear section protruding above it. It then released its store of electricity in one huge jolt. The treads on the alien machine stopped. The synth on the right then wrapped around the front of the machine, and released its shock to ensure destruction. Then, per programming, the two synths reburied themselves and returned to the safety of the crater.

Probe Spit was satisfied. The programmers would be proud; it had assessed the situation and acted correctly. It would now monitor events to see if the alien machine revived or if additional machines were dispatched to threaten it. If nothing additional approached it within three of this planet’s days, it could proceed with the next phase.

# # #

Charles arrived to find the other three astronauts huddled around the equipment. “What happened?” he asked.

Brad turned around to look at him. “The rover just went dark. I had programmed its approach to that crater, and it was in autonomous mode as it
worked its way around any rocks or holes that it detected. I was watching the monitor now and then while I was running on the treadmill across the room.  I think I saw the image tilt and then everything went dark.”

“It
might have missed detecting a rock as it was moving and tipped after running over it,” Commander Grant Styles suggested.

“That
type of accident might have caused the monitor go dark,” replied their technologist Sergey, “but all the instruments are now dead, as if the whole mechanism has shorted. That should never have happened, even if it fell over. There are too many redundant components. I can’t get a response from any of the various instruments. I’ve even transmitted a hard reboot three times, but with no response.”

“Can you run back the video feed
we have stored here?” Charles asked. “Maybe we can spot something that caused it.

“Da, good idea,” Sergey stated.
“I will start the feed from five minutes before the incident.” He tapped a few keys and the monitor came to life. In the distance, they could see the raised ridge of the crater that was the rover’s destination. The rover moved slowly forward and then stopped in front of a small rock. It then turned slightly right, moved forward a few feet, and then stopped and turned back towards the crater. It then proceeded forward again. The way ahead looked clear.

After a minute, the rover suddenly stopped. Thirty seconds
later, the scene tilted sideways. It was obvious that the rover had fallen over. Five seconds later the video went dark.

“Wait, go back, pause the video and get a timestamp
from when the rover abruptly stopped,” Charles said. “Then pull up the telemetry for that moment. Maybe something happened we can’t see. Perhaps we hit a sinkhole or something similar.”

Brad the geologist snorted. “There are no sinkholes on Mars, Chuck. It’s not Florida.”

“Well, do you have a better explanation?” Charles retorted. Brad shook his head negative.

Sergey tapped the keyboard and pulled up a set of numbers on the monitor. “This is most strange. The
instruments report that the treads were still moving, even though the rover was not making progress. Perhaps we hit a sand pit and dug out one side, causing us to tip.”

“I wouldn’t think the treads on one side could dig a hole deep enough to tip the rover in thirty seconds, but at least that is remotely plausible,” Brad said. “I guess that’s our best theory for now.”

Sergey tapped the keys, more insistently this time. “Bah, it is totally dead. I cannot revive it.”

Grant decided it was time to
invoke his commander privileges. “We’ll need to go out and retrieve the rover using the MMTV.” He was referring to the Mars Manned Transportation Vehicle, a pressurized bus-like conveyance that allowed the astronauts to drive around Mars in a comfortable shirt-sleeve environment. “Chuck, you and I will go out and retrieve it. Serge, you forward the rover’s coordinates to the MMTV and then keep trying to resurrect it. Brad, transmit a status report to NASA as well as the video and telemetry. Let’s see what they make of this, and whether they can come up with anything that we haven’t already thought of. Chuck, we leave in ten minutes.”

Chief Scientist Li Julong supervised the loading of the first Mars refueling cylinder into the launch cart. “Be careful,” he admonished the two North Koreans who were in the forklift carrying the payload. “This is the fuel that you’ll need once you reach Mars. It has the furthest of the fuel packages to travel, and any mistakes mean that you will be stranded in Mars orbit once you arrive.”

He had been surprised that the steering rockets and electronics received from Earth were properly designed and had attached perfectly onto the fuel cylinder.
“The military must have been planning this for quite a while,”
he thought.
“They could never have created this so quickly otherwise.”

Julong turned on the diagnostics display panel. “
Come down here and watch closely,” he said. “You will need to do the same before refueling in Mars orbit. First, check the fuel amount and pressure shown here.” He pointed at the indicators, which displayed that the cylinder fuel was at a hundred percent, and the pressure was in the green range. “If for any reason the pressure is below the green, you will need to turn on the auxiliary pump in order for all of the fuel to load into your craft.”  The two Koreans nodded in unison, watching the scientist’s movements closely.

“What if the fuel is not at a hundred percent?” one of them asked.

“That will be normal. Some will bleed off during the long voyage to Mars, so expect it to read at about ninety percent. We are providing you with a large margin of error. Anything above fifty percent will be plenty. Plus, you should arrive with extra fuel in your tanks if you refuel at every point along the way and do not miss any of the packages. Do NOT miss any of the packages. As you can see, we are taking every precaution for a successful attempt,” he said with a reassuring smile. “Alright, everything looks good. I have turned on the package’s launch computer so that it will engage its rockets once it detects launch acceleration has completed. Let us send it on its way.”

The chief scientist
and the two Koreans retreated to the command booth. After closing the booth door, Julong turned on the mass driver diagnostics. Up came an image of a long straight line composed of green dots. One of the dots in the middle was yellow, and one near the end was red. “Look here. Superconducting magnet twenty-seven is at half power, and magnet fifty-eight is down completely. The other magnets are still more than enough to achieve the Moon’s escape velocity, but I want you two to put on spacesuits and get out there afterwards and replace those magnets. We’ll have more launches to perform, and I want the driver systems at full capacity.” The Koreans both nodded once more.

Julong pressed the switch to open the bay doors.
From the booth behind the cart, he could see the twin tracks going out of the bay and straight out for four miles onto the lunar surface. In the far distance, he could see the tracks going up the small mound at the center of the crater and then up an extension ramp at the top. He looked at the remote diagnostics of the package’s steering computer. “Everything is still in the green. Initiating launch.”

The cart
disappeared from the bay almost immediately, accelerating away at the tremendous rate of forty-five G’s. It would need to accelerate at that rate for the entire four miles of track in order to reach the Moon’s escape velocity of slightly under a mile and a half per second. The scientist had not exaggerated to the general when he had said that they could not use this system to launch people. No human could survive such sustained acceleration and be of any use afterwards.
“If the package electronics survive, I’ll know this is hardened military hardware,”
he thought.

A
mere five and a half seconds later, the scientist and the Koreans saw the small dot of the cart shoot up in the distance. The fuel package separated from the cart and, having detected that the acceleration had stopped, ignited its engines. It was on its way to Mars.

Li Julong stared in amazement at what he and his team of Koreans had created. This had been written about in science fiction for ages, and here it was in reality. He had truly opened up the solar system for China. He could only hope that it would be used wisely.

He turned and surveyed the two Koreans, who in a few short months would be heading to a new planet, taking half of the time that it took the Mayflower to reach America. They were both dressed identically. They both moved identically, and hardly ever talked.
“I hear they are always worried about spies overhearing them, even within their own families,”
he thought
. “Any misstep and two generations of family are sent to the prison camps. No wonder they are jumping at the chance for this trip.”
Julong almost wished he could go with them, but he had a wife and grandchildren back on Earth to think of
. “Ah, but these Koreans have families also. They probably will never see home again,”
he thought sadly. Then, to hide his feelings, he said gruffly, “Well, what are you two waiting for? Get out there and fix those two magnets. Your lives will depend upon it.”

# # #

Bonnie was lying in bed when the door to the cabin banged open. “How could you embarrass me like that?!” stormed Jeff. “There I was, assigning critical functions to everyone, and my wife just runs off. Don’t you know how that makes me look?” 

Bonnie sat up, flabbergasted. She didn’t know what to think. “But, I was sick,” she started to say.

Jeff stomped over and grabbed her and shook her. “I don’t want to hear any excuses. Get out to the kitchen right now and start cleaning up. I can’t have people thinking that I’m giving you preferential treatment.” He gave her a big shove towards the door. “And don’t come back until you’ve apologized to everyone else cleaning up. Make sure you tell them that I’m treating everyone fairly, too!”

Bonnie ran down the corridor with tears in her eyes. Just when she thought things were getting better, she had discovered that
her marriage to Jeff on this voyage would follow the same pattern as before. As she crawled through the tunnel to the central module, she wiped the water on her cheeks.
“I can’t let them see me crying,”
she sobbed to herself.
“That will only make Jeff madder.”