Colony Mars Ultimate Edition Read online

  Colony Mars Ultimate Edition

  The Complete Series

  Gerald M. Kilby

  Published by Outer Planet Media, 2019

  Copyright © 2019 by Gerald M. Kilby.

  All rights reserved.

  Comprises of:

  Colony One Mars Copyright © 2016

  Colony Two Mars Copyright © 2016

  Colony Three Mars Copyright © 2017

  Jezero CityCopyright © 2017

  Surface Tension Copyright © 2019

  Gizmo Origin Copyright © 2019

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed, or electronic form without express written permission. Please do not participate in, or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies or events is entirely coincidental.

  Version 1.0

  For notifications on promotions and updates for upcoming books, please join my Readers Group at www.geraldmkilby.com.

  You will also find a link to download my techno-thriller REACTION and the follow-up novella EXTRACTION for FREE.

  Contents

  Reader’s Group

  Maps

  Colony One Mars

  Prologue

  1. Descent

  2. Jezero Crater

  3. Colony One

  4. Exploration

  5. Vanhoff

  6. Hab

  7. A New Sol

  8. Just The Feeling

  9. COM

  10. Medlab

  11. Cold, So Cold

  12. Nills & Gizmo

  13. Annis & Malbec

  14. Caves

  15. Bloods

  16. Walkabout

  17. The Analogue

  18. No Return

  19. Bio-Dome

  20. Recalibration

  21. Lies

  22. Research Lab

  23. XFJ-001B

  24. Mav

  25. The Garden

  Colony Two Mars

  1. The Animal

  2. More Than One

  3. In Search Of Answers

  4. Colony Two

  5. Incarceration

  6. Biology

  7. Homo Ares

  8. The Council

  9. Intrigue

  10. Hydro

  11. Recycling

  12. The Tank

  13. Colony One

  14. The Purge

  15. A New Old Friend

  16. Memories

  17. Decision Time

  18. Ready To Leave

  19. Weapons

  20. Return

  21. Revolution

  22. The MAV

  23. Pale Blue Light

  24. Search

  25. Dust Devil

  26. Schism

  27. Xenon

  28. A New Sol

  Colony Three Mars

  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

  Colony Four Mars: Jezero City

  1. Five Klicks Due South

  2. Colonist Number 897

  3. Old Town

  4. Like An Everyday Gal

  5. Terraforming

  6. At The Red Rock

  7. G2 Unit

  8. NIli Fossae

  9. Distraction

  10. Central Logistics

  11. Dumb Droid

  12. Smoking Gun

  13. MASS

  14. Harsh Environment

  15. Way Station 29

  16. Council Session

  17. Reboot

  18. Droid Down

  19. Decennial Celebrations

  20. You Want Me To Do What?

  21. Space Station

  22. Star

  Afterword

  Colony Five Mars: Surface Tension

  1. Dust Storm

  2. Breakdown

  3. Poe Tarkin

  4. Museum

  5. Caravan

  6. Syrtis

  7. Dune

  8. Attack

  9. Allen Robotics

  10. Components

  11. Leighton Waystation

  12. Black-Coat Man

  13. Vance Baptiste

  14. Revolution

  15. Riot Droid

  16. Jezero

  17. Propaganda

  18. Spider Tank

  19. Decompression

  20. MLOD HQ

  21. Surface Tension

  22. Aftermath

  Gizmo Origin

  1. Biodome

  2. Outside

  3. Brainwave

  4. Droid

  5. Breakfast

  6. APU

  7. A new friend

  Author’s Note

  Also by Gerald M. Kilby

  About the Author

  Reader’s Group

  Tap the image above to join my Reader’s Group and get my techno-thriller REACTION for FREE.

  I do like a good map at the start of a book, it’s like an aperitif before the story begins. But, depending on what type of device you are using to read this book, you might find the images are too small. In that case, you can head over to my site, by clicking either of the maps above, and download a much bigger version. Enjoy!

  Colony One Mars

  Prologue

  What follows is the last known communication from Colony One Mars:

  Sol #1:435 COM ID:N.L-1027.

  This may be our last transmit for some time, we cannot spare the power. Sandstorm continues unabated, it will never end. We are down to 17% energy levels and have deactivated all non-essential systems. Solar array unable to recharge batteries due to darkened sky, running at only 7% efficiency. Plutonium power source has failed and attempts by EVA to find the fault have proved fatal. Those who have ventured outside to investigate have not returned. If the storm does not clear we will run out of power in approximately fourteen sols.

  To add to our woes, a strange malaise has overcome many of us who still survive. A disturbing psychosis now affects one in three. We are prepared as best we can. We all know what is coming. We wait in hope, even though that now seems futile.

  Send no more.

  1

  Descent

  In less than fifteen minutes Dr. Jann Malbec would be either walking on the surface of Mars or be dead, and there were plenty of ways for her to die. She could burn up in the atmosphere if the heat shield failed or be smashed to pieces on the surface if the thrusters didn’t fire. In any event, it was going to be one hell of a ride.

  After months of floating around inside the Odyssey transit craft en route to Mars, the moment had finally arrived for the six crew of the International Space Agency (ISA) to enter the lander and descend to the planet’s surface. The habitation module was already in situ along with a myriad of equipment and supplies. The mothership would now be parked i
n orbit where it would wait patiently for their return.

  Jann strapped herself into the seat, gripped the metal armrests tightly and tried to breathe normally. Ahead of her, at the flight controls, Commander Robert Decker and First Officer Annis Romanov cycled through the systems check routines.

  “Detaching in five… four… three…” The voice of the first officer squawked in Jann’s helmet and she felt a thud behind her as release bolts retracted. The lander detached itself, floating free from the mothership. A moment later thrusters fired to align it for the correct injection trajectory. Jann felt the force propelling her forward. Her grip tightened on the armrest. It bit through her gloved hand; it comforted her.

  Gravity began to tug at the craft as it commenced its downward spiral. It shook. Gently at first. But with each passing second the vibration intensified and deepened until the entire vessel rocked with a violent cacophonous rage. The first officer began to shout out the descent velocity and elevation vectors.

  “Mach two point seven. Altitude fifteen point six kilometers.”

  Jann tried not to think about the searing temperature building up on the craft’s heat shield as it ploughed through the upper atmosphere. She gripped the armrest tighter and hung on.

  It should have been Science Officer Patty Macallester sitting in this seat instead of her. But four weeks before the launch, Macallester started feeling unwell. An examination by the ISA medical team quickly diagnosed a viral infection. Not life threatening, but she would not be fit for the mission. So, after much deliberation and hand wringing by the ISA directorate, Dr. Jann Malbec got the call. She was officially next in line and checked most of the boxes for most of the stakeholders but she was least experienced in terms of astronaut training. Jann knew the journey here was the easy part. The real test was beginning now. She would soon find out if she had what it took, or if she was simply an impostor.

  The craft accelerated through the thin upper atmosphere and Jann felt a sickening wave ripple through her gut as her stomach began to form a closer relationship with her throat. The staccato voice of the first officer echoed in her headset as she checked off stats. “Mach one point seven, altitude ten point one, lateral drift two point two. Get ready, deploying chutes…”

  With that, three enormous chutes exploded from the top of the descent craft and the vessel slowed down dramatically. Jann felt like she was being vacuum packed into her seat as they all took heavy G, as they hurtled towards the surface at extreme velocity. The thin Martian atmosphere—only 1% of Earth’s—was grossly insufficient to slow the craft down for a soft parachute landing. At best it took just enough sting out of the free fall to engage the retro-thrusters.

  “Detaching heat shield in three… two… one…” Jann felt the thump of bolts as the shield fell away from the base of the craft to find its own way down to the surface.

  “Prepare for chute jettison…”

  For a brief moment Jann’s stomach resumed its relationship with her throat before she was vacuum packed to the seat again.

  “Retro-thrusters engaged… one point eight kilometers… targeting on HAB beacon… lateral drift still at two point two.” The first officer and commander traded data, ticking off the distance to the surface and speed of descent.

  “One point six… one point one… drifting…”

  Slowly Jann’s body resumed some ability to move and she shifted in her seat to reassure herself that she could still do it.

  “Five hundred… three fifty… two seven five… hold on to your butts… here we go…”

  The craft thumped down onto the planet surface. Landing gear took the strain and there was a brief moment when the stanchions held the full force before springing back to a complete rest. The thrusters shut off, the noise stopped and the craft was silent.

  Stillness permeated the interior as the crew adjusted to the realization that they had landed, and that they were all still alive.

  “Holy crap,” it was the Chief Engineer, Kevin Novack, who broke the moment. Then followed a multitude of cheers and hand slapping. There was a palpable air of excitement mixed with intense relief that they had all survived the ride of death.

  “It looks like we’re about one klick from the HAB beacon.” The commander pointed to a flashing blip on the main screen. “ If our calculations are correct then the sandstorm should be about five kilometers west of us. Plenty of time to reach the Habitation Module.”

  They had been tracking the storm for some time while still on board the Odyssey. After much deliberation with ISA Mission Control it was decided to land now before the storm had chance to grow. If left too long it could engulf the entire area, making descent too risky and mean waiting weeks in orbit for another window.

  It was a sandstorm that proved the undoing of Colony One, the first human settlement on Mars. It raged for over six months during which time all contact was lost. That was three and a half years ago. The crew of the ISA Odyssey was here to find out what had happened to it—and the fifty-four people who had called it home.

  Annis ran through the lander shutdown sequence, flicking off switches and putting the craft into sleep mode. When the time came to return to Earth, it would be woken up, refueled from the methane/oxygen plant already on the surface and prepped for reuse as the Mars ascent vehicle (MAV) to rendezvous with the Odyssey orbiter.

  “Prep for pressure equalization.”

  A chorus of ‘check’ echoed in Jann’s helmet as each crewmember confirmed the integrity of their EVA suit. Jann lifted her arm to adjust her helmet. It felt like lead. After so much time spent in zero gravity her body struggled to adjust to a new way of working. She managed to activate the heads-up display that gave her a status on vitals: pressure, oxygen, temperature and a raft of other biometric data. The others were also moving very slowly, readjusting to the one-third gravity.

  “Okay, let’s do this.” The commander unfastened himself from his seat, opened the door to the Martian atmosphere and headed outside. In a well-practiced routine they followed in turn. Jann was last to leave. She felt totally uncoordinated as her body tried to remember how to move without floating. She clambered out backwards through the small hatch and fumbled to find the foothold that should be there—somewhere.

  “See that on the horizon? It doesn’t look good,” said Annis.

  “Damn, I thought we had calculated it was moving north of us.” The commander was agitated. “Malbec, hurry up. We’ve got that storm heading our way.”

  “Sorry, Commander, can’t find the foothold.”

  “Good God, would somebody please help her.”

  She felt a hand on her boot and her foot was guided to the rung. She scrambled down, stumbled on the final step and ended up facedown on the surface. She felt like she was glued to the dirt. Gravity’s a bitch, she thought.

  “Come on Malbec, move it.” Decker was getting impatient.

  Jann sat up, and with the help of Medical Officer Dr. Paolio Corelli and Mission Seismologist, Lu Chan, she was bundled upright.

  “Thanks,” she managed.

  They were in the Jezero Crater, a forty kilometer wide basin situated near the equator. It was a desolate, barren wasteland washed with a rose-colored hue. It had a terrible beauty. Ahead of them, somewhere to the west, lay the HAB, placed there by an earlier mission. It was their destination, their home for the next few months.

  “We’ve got to move. Look.” Paolio pointed over towards the horizon. Rolling across it was a vast billowing sandstorm. It was moving fast—in their direction. Commander Decker checked his holo-screen, a red blip pulsed out the HAB’s location. He pointed off into the distance. “That way. Let’s go.”

  They moved slowly, but with purpose. The last thing they needed was to be caught out in the open. Jann’s sense of balance was fragile and she struggled to put one foot in front of the other. She felt like an ancient deep sea diver, trudging along an ocean floor hunting for pearls, weighed down with brass and lead.