Colony Three Mars (Colony Mars Book 3) Read online

  5

  Xaing Zu

  Over the next few sols, as they counted down to the arrival of the Chinese expedition, messages began to flow back and forth between the colony and the orbiting craft as arrangements were being made for the landing. Much was already known to the colonists about the history and scale of Xaing Zu Industries. They were a global industrial conglomerate, with interests in space exploration, biotech, mining and more. They had a long-standing helium 3 lunar extraction operation, and also controlled over ninety percent of the global stockpile of many rare-earth resources. Their decision to land near Colony One had been made long before they had lifted off from Earth. And all communication, hitherto, had been polite and efficient, if somewhat clandestine. They gave nothing away about their mission, other than on a need to know basis.

  Jann, Nills and Xenon, along with a few other colonists that constituted the reception party, were in full EVA suits standing out on the planet’s surface, well back from the proposed landing site. They had assembled there around an hour ago, and were now all craning their necks to try and spot the telltale streak in the sky that would be the Chinese Mars Descent Vehicle. It should be currently ploughing its way through the upper atmosphere, hurtling towards the surface. All going well, it would land in a few minutes.

  “There.” Xenon pointed over across the horizon.

  They all watched as the speck in the distance grew in size and formed into the recognizable shape of a Mars lander. Finally, its descent slowed as retro-thrusters kicked in, then it was lost in an enormous cloud of dust and sand. They had landed successfully. The first craft to do so since the ill-fated ISA mission. The one that brought Dr. Jann Malbec to this place, many Earth years ago.

  “Okay, let’s saddle up and go say hello,” said Nills. They clambered onboard one of the colony rovers and Jann took the controls. She started up the machine, and headed in the direction of the slowly dissipating dust cloud. As she drew closer, Jann could see just how big it was, maybe three times the size of the now destroyed ISA lander.

  “That’s a sizable bit of machinery,” she said to no one in particular.

  “Well there are eight of them. And fully fueled to lift off again in a hurry,” said Nills.

  “They’re not taking any chances, are they?” she said, as she slowed the rover down.

  “Would you? To be fair, they don’t know what to expect on the ground. We could turn out to be a ravenous horde of cannibals,” said Nills.

  Jann pulled up around twenty meters from the base of the craft. A thin cloud of dust still shrouded the enormous lander, giving it a ghostly aura. On her left she could see the second colony rover, driven by Anika, pull up close by. On Jann’s right another enormous plume of dust kicked up from the planet’s surface as Xenon brought the flying bed in to land. They were all in position. Nothing to do now but wait.

  “They’re taking their time. No sign of any activity.” Nills began to fiddle with the comms unit on the rover. “Gizmo, are you sure this is the correct frequency for two-way with the lander?”

  “Are you seriously asking me that question?” The robot had made its own way out from Colony One to meet up with the reception party, at Jann’s request. She felt safer having it around.

  “Wait… look.”

  On the side of the gleaming white craft a hatch cracked open. It was low and wide, and pushed out from the main structure as it gently rose upward revealing a low, wide gap. From this, a platform extended slowly, giving the impression of a balcony on the side of the craft. From within the shadows of the ship six taikonauts stepped out. They wore gleaming white EVA suits, all identical. The platform slowly started to descend.

  “I have to admit that’s pretty slick. I feel like we’re being visited by a technologically superior race,” said Nills. “Okay, well it’s time to get our game faces on, let’s go”

  They clambered out on to the surface and stood for a while watching the taikonauts slowly descend. One waved at them. They all waved back. Jann wondered what they must look like to these clean sleek spacefarers. A band of rag-tag colonists, with their battered and dirty EVA suits, and strange space-trash transport. Like a Mad Max on Mars, probably.

  Gizmo moved up beside Jann. “If I am not mistaken, and let us face it, I never am—they have brought a robot with them.”

  “Where? I just see six crew and some equipment on the platform.”

  Before Gizmo had time to answer, the elevator came to a rest on the surface, a small plume of dust kicking up from its base. The taikonauts stepped off and waited, while what looked like a stack of equipment unfolded itself and perambulated out on the dusty Martian soil. It was a quadruped, about waist high, with a small head that seemed to be scanning all around it.

  “I see it,” Jann said as she watched the machine advance.

  “It is scanning us, multiple spectrum analysis. Hmmm… that is interesting.”

  “What is?”

  “It just said hello to me. Its name is Yutu, which means jade rabbit in Mandarin.”

  “I don’t know which is the most surprising, the fact that they have a robot with them or the fact that you know Mandarin.”

  “I have been studying many of the Chinese dialects, of which there are hundreds, in anticipation of this very event.”

  “I’m switching to broadcast, Gizmo.” Jann tapped her wrist pad to change comms frequencies. In preparing for this they had agreed a common VHF channel to use for communications. It was old school but worked just as well on Mars as it did on Earth. Jann looked over at Nills and nodded. The three of them then walked forward to greet the new arrivals. Gizmo followed behind.

  “Welcome to Mars,” said Jann.

  One of the taikonauts waved. “It is an honor to be here. I am Jing Tzu, commander of the Xaing Zu Industries Mars Exploration Mission, and on behalf of our crew we are humbled to be among you on this momentous day.”

  Nills stepped forward and extended a hand. “I am Nills Langthorp, pleased to meet you.” They shook hands. “And this is Dr. Jann Malbec.”

  “Ah… Dr. Malbec, we have heard so much about you.”

  Jann simply shook his hand and nodded. The other taikonauts all hung back and said nothing. Jann noticed that they were distracted by the Martian vista, preferring instead to look all around them rather than focus on the colonists. Yet she felt they had a distinctly military air about them.

  The robot, Yutu, sat down on its hind legs, like a big cat, beside the commander. Gizmo was studying it intently, its head twitching as it probed. Yutu looked to be doing the same thing. It reminded Jann of two dogs meeting for the first time. She half expected them to start sniffing each others’ butts.

  “We can assist carrying your equipment and supplies on to the transport,” Nills waved an arm behind him at the two colony rovers and the bed.

  “Thank you for your kindness and consideration but we can manage it on our own.”

  “No, I insist, it’s no problem.” Nills nodded to the other colonists and they moved forward to help carry the boxes that were now being emptied onto the surface by the crew. This provoked an immediate reaction from the Chinese. They stood together, blocking the way, one held his hand out signaling for them to stop. The broadcast channel broke into a chorus of excited Mandarin chatter. The colonists halted, and looked over at Nills. Jing Tzu turned back to his crew and jabbered in a sharp authoritative manner. This seemed to calm them all down a bit. He returned to face Nills and the colonists with his hands in the air. “Please accept my apologies, we are all a bit anxious from our journey.”

  Nills nodded. “That’s okay, we’ll leave you to carry your own equipment, then.”

  Jing Tzu bowed. “You are most gracious.” He returned to his crew and started gesticulating wildly.

  Jann flipped her comms to private. “They’re a bit jumpy.”

  “Understandable,” said Nills.

  “I wonder what’s in the boxes that’s so important?”

  “Who knows? Maybe it
’s a year’s supply of fine whiskey.”

  “How do we know they’re not full of weapons?”

  “We don’t.”

  “Well, we can’t risk them bringing in concealed weapons.” Jann stepped forward towards Jing Tzu, and flipped her comms to broadcast. “Commander, it was agreed that we cannot allow weapons inside the colony. Once we are there you will allow us to conduct a thorough and complete search of your equipment. Is this acceptable to you?”

  Jing Tzu nodded. “Yes of course, we understand.”

  “Very well. When you’re ready we can move out.”

  Jing Tzu turned back to his crew and looked to be explaining this new procedure to them. It was met with confusion by the others, like they were trying to decide something. Then they removed two boxes from the stack and returned them to the craft. Jann and the other colonists watched all this unfold. When the cart was repacked, Jing Tzu signaled that they were ready. Nills climbed up to the cockpit of the bed and fired it up. He waved to Jann.

  “I’ll see you all back there.” With that, the thrusters fired up a great plume of dust as it rose into the air and flew off across the crater. Jann stood beside Xenon as they watched the Chinese board the waiting rovers.

  She turned to Xenon, her back to the rovers. “Did you see them putting those boxes back in the craft?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Weapons. And lots of them.”

  “It would seem so.”

  Gizmo whizzed by them, with the Chinese robot Yutu following close behind. Jann was not sure what they were doing, racing? Seeing how fast each other could go? Or was Gizmo being chased? It was hard to know what went on in the mind of a robot.

  Yutu broke away and joined the Chinese contingent. Gizmo looped around and headed over to where Jann and Xenon were.

  “I see you’ve found a new friend. Gizmo.”

  “That machine is not my friend, Jann. It is a feebleminded conglomeration of spare parts. I do not like that robot.”

  6

  AsterX

  Xaing Zu Industries and the Colony One Mars consortium were not the only corporations planning missions to the red planet. But of the others, only one stood any real hope of achieving such an enormous undertaking, and that was the asteroid mining company, AsterX. It was headed up by the charismatic tech billionaire, Lane Zebos, who was currently looking out a window in the giant rotating torus of the AsterX space station. From this vantage point, he could see the central axle of the mining facility stretch out above him, and the dark brooding form of the kilometer wide asteroid that was grafted onto its terminus. All across the surface of this primeval rock was dotted robotic mining installations, like spiky metallic carbuncles.

  Some years ago, his company had conceived of an audacious plan to capture a near-earth asteroid (NEA) and park it in orbit around the planet where it could then be mined for all it was worth—which turned out to be a considerable amount, as it had a core rich in platinum.

  But that was then, and soon Lane Zebos was looking around for the next challenge. His searches kept returning him to that great swath of rubble that spread itself out between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter—the asteroid belt. But this would be a mammoth undertaking, a bridge too far, even for an asteroid mining company with the skill and experience of AsterX. It was only when the colony on Mars popped back onto everyone’s radar, revealing itself to be very much alive, that a mission strategy began to formulate in his mind. One which might just be possible. And the first leg of that strategy was get to the red planet.

  Lane looked up at the central truss of the mining station. Attached to it, and now coming into full view as the torus rotated, was the AsterX Mars transit craft, ready to embark. All they needed was the official mission authorization from the State Department, so that they would be in compliance with the Outer Space Treaty. Lane glanced at his watch, this is cutting it very fine, he thought. To take his mind off the waiting, he pulled a cigar canister from the top pocket of his shirt, unscrewed the cap, and slid a thick Cuban Cohiba out into the palm of his hand. But he didn’t light it. That would be later. Instead he brought it up to his nose and inhaled the deep redolent aroma.

  “You’re not planning on lighting that up?”

  Lane looked over at Chuck Goldswater, his chief technical officer, and gave him a wink. He slid the fat smoke back into its metal sarcophagus and returned it to his top pocket.

  “Well now, that depends.”

  “You think the scrubbers will handle the heart attack they’re going to get if you kick that thing off in here?”

  Lane smiled. “When I actually get to light this bad boy up then I couldn’t give a damn about what the systems think of air quality.” He raised an extended finger at Chuck. “That’s one of the great things about being the boss. I get to do what I like.”

  Chuck laughed. “Ha, maybe so, but it’s still a filthy habit.”

  “And you’re a philistine, with no understanding of the deep pleasures of smoking tobacco. Granted, it’s a dying art form, practiced now only by the true connoisseur.” He made a kind of a flourish with his hand.

  “You’re full of shit, Lane.”

  “Anyway, you know I only partake when something truly worthy merits it.” Lane sat back down into a well upholstered white leather seat, and swung it around a few degrees to get a better view of the universe gently rotating outside.

  “You think we’ll get the oversight we need?” Chuck slumped back into his chair.

  “We’ll know soon enough.”

  “It’s ridiculously antiquated when you think about it, the Outer Space Treaty and the need for private operators to get some government rubber stamp before we can do any mission.”

  “Yeah, I know. It frustrating. As far as I can see, it just gives them an opportunity to meddle and look important.”

  “Life was easier before COM went and sued the ISA. Back then this would just have been a formality. Now everybody is running scared.”

  “Yeah, Mars has turned into a political and legal minefield.”

  Chuck looked at this watch. “What’s keeping them? How long do they need?”

  “Patience. We’ve waited this long, a half hour more isn’t going to make any difference.” Lane stood up, walked over to the window, and looked out at the massive asteroid that they had tamed. He considered the problems with the Outer Space Treaty, of which there were many. Under its current guise, there was nothing to stop another company just attaching itself to the far side of the AsterX asteroid and mining it. Not that anybody would, they were an exclusive club and had all, more or less, agreed on a set of unwritten rules. Nevertheless, everyone conceded that the treaty was grossly out of date. Formulated back in the late 60s, before Armstrong even put a boot print on the moon, it served, at least, to establish some international rules for the exploration of space and, more importantly, for the exploitation of its resources. But back when it was signed, the concept of a private company making it into space was laughable. But, to their credit, they had to consider that the possibility could exist sometime in the future, even if it was fanciful.

  In short, no country could lay claim to any object in space. So when the US flag was hammered into the surface of the Moon, it wasn’t to proclaim it as the fifty-first state. However, under the terms, you could dig a hole in it, and whatever you dug up you could keep. This was the basis that AsterX, and a bunch of other companies like them, operated under. The problem for private companies, though, was they needed oversight from a national government before they could do anything in space. So politics entered the arena. In Lane’s mind it was almost medieval. To venture forth and explore needed the equivalent of a royal seal.

  Of course private corporations were lobbying hard to remove the need for national oversight, but after all the shenanigans up on Mars, and the subsequent high-profile court case by COM, there were those who argued that national oversight was needed now more than ever. Others countered that what was really needed was a truly independent
body to be set up to oversee and arbitrate all space exploration. With the rush to Mars now in full swing, the need to get clarity was even more urgent. To this end, a revision to the original 1967 Outer Space Treaty was to be discussed, and hopefully ratified, at a special UN session due to take place in a few months time.

  But this was of no use to Lane Zebos and AsterX. They had to do it the old fashioned way, and that meant greasing the palms of a select number of gray and anonymous mandarins in the key positions in government. A slow and frustratingly tedious process whose ultimate climax was, this very moment, being played out behind closed doors in the State Department.

  So all Lane could do was wait until the session ended and the fate of the AsterX Mars mission would be revealed, but he wasn’t expecting any surprises. The right moves had been made, so it should be a simple rubber stamping. Yet, you never truly knew for sure. Something might yet upset the fall of the dominoes that AsterX had so carefully set up.

  So, for now the cigar was staying firmly in his top pocket.

  Lane glanced over to the far side of the room to see Dr. Jane Foster, the chief medical officer, step onto the floor from the ceiling tunnel connecting this section of the torus with the central body of the mining station. It was a tricky transition from zero gravity at the center to one third G at the outer edge of the torus. The connecting tube was one of four spokes, with a ladder running inside its length. The trick was to enter it feet first at the start so you were oriented correctly when the centrifugal force began to kick in. Some people would make the mistake of entering head first, like climbing a ladder, only to realize they were effectively upside down when it was time to exit. It was a mistake you only made once.

  Lane nodded to her as a greeting. She nodded back, then moved over and began to fix herself a coffee from the small galley. Finally she sat down beside them in one of the luxurious leather seats, tucked her feet up under her and sipped her drink. “Any word?”