Colony Three Mars (Colony Mars Book 3) Read online

  Colony Three Mars

  A Scifi Thriller

  Gerald M. Kilby

  Contents

  1. Secret

  2. Clone

  3. Council

  4. Embrace

  5. Xaing Zu

  6. AsterX

  7. Search

  8. Fire

  9. COM

  10. VanHoff

  11. Subterranean

  12. Sanctum

  13. Battle

  14. Control

  15. Rock

  16. Taikonaut Down

  17. Happening Again

  18. Chaos

  19. Jing Tzu

  20. Dome Five

  21. Run

  22. AsterX Land

  23. While You Were Asleep

  24. Pandemic

  25. Ultimatum

  26. UN

  27. A New Flag

  28. Earth

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  1

  Secret

  Dr. Jann Malbec delicately removed the cover on the petri dish inside the biolab’s hermetically sealed isolation chamber. She could now see the profusion of bacterial blooms that radiated out across the surface of the agar gel. This was the last living sample of the bacteria that had caused so much death and destruction to the original colony and the later ISA mission.

  Yet, for those lucky enough to be immune to its devastating psychotic dementia, it bestowed a biological reinvigoration and rejuvenation. It was a two-faced Janus. It could be both a beginning or an end. On the one hand, it was the very elixir of life. On the other, it was insanity and death.

  Fortunately, it posed no threat to the current colony population, as they had all evolved, one way or another, to be immune to its darker attributes. But there were those, currently en route to Mars, that would not be so lucky should they be exposed to it—even though this was the very thing that they sought. One of these missions was already imminent, with others not far behind—all of them hell bent on acquiring this duplicitous mutation.

  Jann removed her hand from the joystick controlling the mechanical manipulator within the sealed chamber. She flexed her fingers for a moment, then reached up to the control panel above the unit and flicked open the protective cover on a switch marked IRRADIATE. Her finger hovered over the exposed red button—pressing this would send a stream of accelerated electrons directly through the sample, killing all bacteria within and eradicating it forever. She hesitated.

  In the aftermath of the upheavals that had traumatized Colony Two, Jann realized, that if they were to survive, she would need to have a better understanding of the complex, genetically engineered, biology of the colony’s ecosystem. This technology was, after all, the very reason that a human outpost on Mars could ever hope to function. But much of this knowhow was lost in the mayhem wrought by the events of the revolt, specifically the destruction of the Colony Two labs. So, Jann set about building a new research facility in the hope of regaining this lost knowledge. To this end, the medlab in Colony One had been repurposed and extended. New modules were added, and much of the lab equipment that was salvageable had been moved here from Colony Two. It was during this period of rebuilding that she realized the cave where Nills and Gizmo had hid out, during the first wave of infection by the bacteria, was still there, and that only she and the eccentric droid knew of its existence. So she decided to keep it that way, and had sworn the robot to secrecy. Although, quite what that meant for a droid was hard to know. That said, it did seem to be very attached to her and followed her around everywhere. Nills tried to explain its behavior to her many times.

  It learns. That’s how it’s programmed. And like most intelligent beings it learns from experience, by doing things. The more data it has to work with the more it will change and modify its behavior. It has spent a long time with you, Jann. And Gizmo has also saved your ass more than once. So, it has moved you up its hierarchy of priorities. You have become important to it. Basically, it likes you, you are its friend.

  Jann also realized, that when they had purged the Colony One environment of the malignant bacteria, they had neglected to consider this hidden space. It was sealed off and environmentally isolated from the main facility. But, if the bacteria still existed down there then it would pose a fundamental threat to any new arrivals. So, shortly after the medlab’s reconstruction as a research facility, she and the droid secretly entered the cave and went on the hunt—and it didn’t take her long to find it. But rather than eradicate it she took a sample for investigation, isolated in this sealed enclosure and then purged the cave environment. This was now the only living sample in existence.

  Since then, she had spent long hours down here, testing, probing, exploring the bacteria. All the time hoping to gain some better understanding of its extraordinary properties. But time was running out. Missions were already on their way to Mars. New people coming—all seeking this very biology.

  She could give it to them. Let them have it. It could spare the colony from the pressure to reveal its secrets. If the bacteria were here, then why not just hand it over? But could they be trusted with it? Not be tempted to return it to Earth where it had the potential to cause havoc on a truly global scale? No, it was simply too dangerous. It must be eradicated for good. Do it! She commanded herself to press the button—but still she hesitated.

  A light blinked on her comms earpiece lying on the workbench beside her. Jann sighed, removed her finger from the button and picked up the comms unit.

  “Yes?”

  “Jann, where are you? I’ve been trying to find you for, like, half an hour.”

  “I’m… eh… doing something. What is it?”

  “Operations just picked up a craft entering Mars orbit.”

  “So soon?”

  “Yes, they’re here. Nills has called for an emergency council meeting over at Colony Two. He’s on his way here to pick you up.”

  “OK. Tell him I’ll meet him in the common room in twenty.”

  “Will do.”

  Jann pulled the comms unit out of her ear and put it in her pocket. She looked in at the sample again for a moment as her hand reached for the button on the control panel. She hesitated again, then finally flicked the protective cover closed. She grabbed the joystick and manipulated the cover back on the petri dish, and returned it to its compartment. It would live for another while longer. Maybe after the council meeting she could bring herself to eradicate it—once and for all.

  2

  Clone

  The clone known as Nills Langthorp exited the main airlock of Colony Two into a bright Martian morning and looked out across the vast expanse of the Jezero Crater. A flat, unbroken landscape stretched before him all the way to the horizon, around three and a half kilometers distant. Out there, far beyond his field of vision, lay Colony One, where Dr. Jann Malbec had chosen to set up home. He had hoped she would stay with him, here in Colony Two, but she had been adamant in her desire to establish a new research facility. Since most of the labs had been destroyed in Colony Two, they had moved all that was salvageable to a new home in the now extended medlab of Colony One.

  Gizmo had also gone with her. Nills missed the company of the little droid, missed its eccentric ways and quirky turn of phrase. But it had formed a strong attachment to Dr. Malbec, and seemed to want to be in her orbit all the time. He didn’t mind, really. In fact he was glad that the robot was with her, keeping an eye on her, keeping her safe.

  Nevertheless, Nills had started building a second Gizmo some time back. But he simply could not spare the components needed for its construction. Things were becoming scarce, some would even argue critical. Yes, they
had food a plenty, and air and water. But it was the electronics that kept all the control systems functioning, and those they could not fabricate. So as components failed, less critical systems would be scavenged for parts.

  This was a situation made worse by the destruction of the labs during the upheavals surrounding the ousting of Dr. Vanji. And it was further exacerbated by a disaster in the resource processing sector some time later. That catastrophe had nearly tipped the viability of the colony over the edge. A hydrogen leak in the lower cavern led to a devastating explosion. Twenty-six colonists died, including all of the Hybrids, except for Xenon—he was now the last of his species. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, most of the machinery used to fabricate basic components was also destroyed.

  In the aftermath of this fiasco, the council had argued that the resources of the two colonies should be consolidated into one, it would give them a better chance of survival. But in the end it was felt that retaining both locations would provide them with a better defense against potential subjugation by any of the new forces now heading their way from Earth.

  So, Gizmo II was parked as a half-built project and Nills’ mind turned to finding a way in which the two facilities could be more efficiently managed and maintained. The big problem was distance, they were over thirty kilometers apart, too far to EVA on foot. So the only way to go from one to the other was by rover, and that could take up to two hours, particularly with a full load on board. So for some time Nills bent his mind to the conundrum of affecting a speedier and more efficient, cross crater, transit. But he also had his own, more selfish, motivation for solving this problem. If he wanted to spend more time with Jann, then he was going to have to come up with a better transport solution. One that could take minutes rather than hours to cross the crater.

  The solution, of course, was flight. But not winged flight, as the Martian atmosphere was too thin to make this practical. Nills also ruled out an airship type design for similar reasons. His idea—one which he’d had for some time—was to repurpose one of the landers the original colonists arrived in. Since they used retro-thrusters to affect a landing on the surface, they all came with methlox engines, tanks and a control system for stabilization.

  However, it would need a considerable amount of re-engineering to transform it into a true flying machine—one that could traverse the crater. Since it only had the ability to move up or down, not sideways to any significant degree, he would need to add on a forward thruster, as well as lateral and rotational control. The fuel tanks were also too small, affording only a few minutes of burn time. So his first task was to dramatically reduce the weight by stripping it of everything that wasn’t directly required for flight, including the outer shell. Since he could operate it while wearing an EVA suit, there was no need to have it enclosed. By the time he was finished it had been reduced down to a bare chassis, just enough to support the four retro-thrusters, tanks and a rudimentary pilot seat of Nills’ own construction. The landing gear was permanently extended and the entire contraption looked like some experimental craft from the mind of a 50’s NASA engineer. It was nicknamed the flying bed or simply the bed, for short.

  Fortunately, the retro-thrusters were not powerful enough to reach Martian escape velocity, so Nills had no fear of accidentally sending himself into orbit with it. But they were more than sufficient to lift the entire craft off the surface and then some—that took care of going up. For forward motion, Nills added a simple gas powered thruster on the stern of the craft. One of the advantages of a thin atmosphere was very little friction so this unit did not need to be that powerful to get a decent amount of momentum going, and once moving, it pretty much kept on going. He also added lateral thrusters to port and starboard to give him rotational control.

  It used methlox—methane and liquid oxygen, as the propellant, and they still possessed the infrastructure to manufacture plenty of this, in both facilities. So Nills only needed to add enough additional tanks to travel the distance between the two colonies. After each trip it would be refueled and made ready for the return.

  From Nills’ perspective, it was a thing of beauty. However, it was a view not necessarily shared by Jann, who, while she appreciated the speed at which it could traverse the crater, was not as convinced as Nills was of its mechanical integrity.

  Nills walked over to where the bed now sat, its spindly structure silhouetted against the Martian sky, like some giant metal arachnid warming itself up with the rise of the morning sun. He clambered up the superstructure onto the wide, flat platform that served as the passenger area and sat in the pilot’s seat. He flicked on the power and pre-ignition check routines started to scroll down a central screen. It would take a few minutes for this process to complete so, as he waited, Nills looked up at the sky above him. Somewhere overhead a Chinese mission, Xaing Zu Industries, had just entered orbit. They would spend the next few sols slowing the craft down by using their main engines and the atmosphere as a braking system, going lower and lower as they slowed, until they had burned off enough energy to enter a stable orbit and prepare for landing.

  For a long time now, the colonists had known this would happen, new missions, and new people arriving—all anxious to investigate the strange and exotic world of the colony. But he had mixed feelings about this intrusion, as did the other colonists. On the one hand these new missions would bring badly need supplies and components that could not be manufactured in situ. And these supplies could ultimately make the difference between survival or death. Not that it was a quick death that faced the colony, but a slow death by a thousand cuts as each component failure would stress the life support a little further each time, until finally, it could no longer sustain its dependents. So Nills had welcomed these new missions, he was, on balance, looking forward to them.

  However, Jann was not of the same opinion. In fact, she had an almost visceral paranoia as to the intentions of these new arrivals. It was not a view that Nills subscribed to, although he was not so naive to assume, for one minute, that their motives were truly honorable. No, he knew damn well what they were after—the so-called Janus bacteria. But, since it no longer existed, then what was the problem?

  His ruminations were broken by a message flashing on the control screen. Ready! It had run through all the checks, time to lift off. Nills settled himself deeper in the pilot’s seat, strapped himself in and hit the ignition button. He could feel the vibrations of the pumps kicking in up through his spinal column. It increased in intensity until the control screen flashed Ready to rock!

  On either side of the pilot’s seat, mounted onto the rudimentary armrests, were two simple joysticks. One on the left was simply up/down. This was really the business end of the machine. It was also the moment that Nills loved the most, so he hesitated slightly so as to savor the moment, then he gently pushed the joystick forward.

  A massive cloud of sand billowed up and around the craft, completely obscuring his view. The vibrations increased dramatically and, if he had not been strapped in, he would have been bounced off the platform. The dust cloud thickened as he nudged the joystick further, delivering more propellant to the engines. So dense was the dust cloud, that he was never quite sure when he was airborne until the craft exited out through the top of the plume.

  He was now fifteen meters or so up from the surface and still rising. When he reached around thirty, he throttled back to hover the craft at this altitude and took a moment to survey the area. It was a clear morning and he now had a commanding view across the Jezero Crater. He nudged the joystick on his right side to rotate the craft in the direction of Colony One, then pushed forward on the same stick. The machine moved off, slowly at first, but all the time picking up speed as it flew over the crater’s surface. It would take him less than fifteen minutes to make the trip.

  His heart gladdened at the thought of being with Jann again. They had been apart for quite a while, as she spent most of her time holed up in the medlab of Colony One, while he saw to the engineering and m
aintenance demands of Colony Two. He looked skyward again, as if to catch a glimpse of what was to come. For better or for worse, things were about to change. A new era was now unfolding, one where the humanity of the colony, and all those who called it home, would be truly tested.

  3

  Council

  After Nills had picked her up, the trip back across the crater for Jann had been uneventful. That is to say, the bed didn’t blow up en route. She even began to enjoy the ride, as some moments were truly exhilarating. And it was in those moments that Jann felt more alive than she had for a very long time. Perhaps she had spent too many hours cooped up in her lab, staring down the barrel of a microscope, so to speak. All the time looking inward—seldom outward.

  Now though, she was glad in a way that the first of the new missions had finally made it into orbit. At least it gave her an excuse to leave her darkened room and engage with the world, with Nills—she had missed him too. But before any intimacy could pass between them there was a council meeting to undertake. One that required her full attention, because what was decided now could dictate their very survival as a self-governing human colony.

  The post revolution colonists had initially established a kind of governance by general consensus, where everybody’s voice was heard. This had the advantage of minimizing arguments and fostering an inclusive and harmonious environment. In a sense, it kept everybody in the loop. But as time passed, and decisions on strategy and resource allocation became more important, a new council of sorts began to manifest itself. First to rise to prominence were those who had the knowledge and expertise in the functioning of various sectors of the colony infrastructure: biotech, agriculture, engineering, medical, communications, et cetera. Then there were those that the colonists simply held in high regard, such as Dr. Malbec. The Hybrid, Xenon, was also one such. He was viewed by all as a considered thinker, never rash, one who carefully analyzed the various options and possible outcomes. So, when a final decision needed to be made on some tricky issue, it was generally he they would turn to.