Prologue
Orbiting Mars
0500 Hours
April 7th, 2167
The United Earth Cruiser Excelsior drifted into orbit around the planet Mars, ending it's four month journey from its home planet.
The great red planet below, speckled with craters and rocks, looked perfectly peaceful.
On the surface, in the shape of a star, was Mars Base One. The base sat ten kilometers from Olympus Mons, the tallest known mountain in the solar system.
The base was now empty, but would soon be filled with the men and women that had spent the past four months of their lives on the Excelsior.
The ship itself looked like an over grown coffee bean. It was mostly flat on the bottom, with the upper portion forming an ovular dome. Two massive duetronium-powered engines protruded from either of the ship's sides.
Inside the men and women began waking, preparing for the task that awaited them on the surface of planet.
Section One
Orbiting Mars
0523 Hours
April 7th, 2167
Alyssa...
Alyssa was starring into blackness. She knew someone was calling her name, but she couldn’t bring herself out of the serene bliss that she called sleep.
Alyssa...
There it was again. The voice sounded familiar. She decided to force herself to get up.
I can do this, she though, I’ll count to three. One... Two... Three...
Alyssa sat up in her bed, if it could be called a bed. It was only a few centimeters thick... or, more accurately, a few centimeters thin.
“Alyssa Anderson!”
She smiled. The voice coming from the communications panel belonged to her long-time friend, Captain Avery Fletcher.
Actually he was more than a friend, as they had been engaged at one point in time. Their relationship was at best, complicated. They remained “friends” for the time being. Although Alyssa hoped they could one day resume their romantic relationship. They had broken off their engagement because of the demands of their respective jobs, but Alyssa was willing to work passed that.
She reached over and pressed a green button on the comm panel, “Sorry about that Fletch, I couldn’t sleep last night so I took some a sedative. I didn’t realize we were going to be arriving this soon.”
“I didn’t think we would be either, but it seems that weather men are just as bad at predicting weather on the surface of the Sun as they are at predicting weather on Earth.”
Fletcher was of course talking about a solar flare. As far as mankind had come technologically, it would seem that this would be no big deal, but a single solar flare, tens of millions of kilometers away would still knock out all communication in the system and reek havoc on navigational computers.
"The flare subsided sooner than they thought so the navi-computer compensated for lost time and got us here sooner than expected.
Alyssa smiled, “Well I suppose it is for the better. I’ll be up in ten minutes.”
“Right.” The comm panel beeped softly as the transmission terminated.
Alyssa stood and quickly dressed in her standard uniform (navy blue with a zipper in the back) brushed her teeth and washed her face, as was the norm for her. She looked in the mirror as she pulled her shoulder length, fiery red hair back with a hairband. She thanked god everyday there were no regulations on hair length. She had had long hair since she was young and she didn’t want to part with it anytime soon.
She brushed a hair off of the small gray patch on her upper right arm that identified her as Director Alyssa Anderson, Science Division.
She looked around her room for what would almost be the last time. She would come back once more to gather her things before moving down to the surface. Her “spacious” living quarters were only fifty square meters, but this was considered larger than normal because most other people on the Excelsior only had twenty-five square meters. One of the perks of being Chief Scientist was an extra twenty-five square meters in living space, but Alyssa would gladly have traded the space for a simpler task on this mission.
The Division of Off Planet Mining had selected Alyssa from a list of twelve others qualified for this mission. Of course she had been honored, but that still didn’t make the job any easier.
Three years ago a research team of ten people had come to Mars in search of deutronium, a major source of fuel for space vessels. The team discovered, as they had expected, a rich deposit of deutronium and set up what was now called Mars Base One. The mission of the Excelsior’s crew was to complete Mars Base One and begin excavation of the deutronium.
Alyssa turned to the door and pressed a small silver button next to it. In response, the door slide open with an obnoxious hiss and granted passage to the hallway it guarded.
The hallways on the Excelsior were actually rather disturbing. They were all exactly six feet tall and four feet wide. They were covered, floor, walls and ceiling, with a metal alloy only broken by doors every few meters. Each door was adorned with a small black plate with white lettering identifying the occupant and the suite number. The halls were lit by extremely bright halogen lights every ten or fifteen feet. Oddly, the lights gave no reflection in the metal alloy that was covering everything.
The space program needs an interior decorator, she thought as she walked out the door and down the hallway. As she rounded the corner she passed someone she knew and stopped to converse for several minutes. Finally, she reached the door of the turbo-lift, pressed the button next to the door and leaned against the metal wall as the lift sped toward her.
As she stood waiting, a rather tall and well built man walked up.
“Going up?”
“Yes I am.”
“Thank goodness. I was going to be late if I had to wait on the next lift. Name’s Derek, Derek Hollister.”
“Nice to meet you Derek Derek Hollister,” She smiled as she proffered her hand and he shook it, firmly. “I’m Alyssa Anderson”
The lift arrived and the two stepped on to it. They pressed their respective buttons and were on their way.
“So your the leader of this whole crazy goose chase, huh?”
Alyssa laughed, “I guess you could say that. Why do you call it a goose chase?”
“Well I know for a fact that scientist found out years ago that the Greyson comet it full of deutronium and it’s a heck of a lot closer than here.”
“But New Russia has already claimed the Greyson comet.”
A strange look came over Derek’s face. “Well I think...”
But before he could say what he thought, the lift reached his floor and he bade her goodbye. The door slid closed behind him and the lift resumed its accent.
Alyssa thought she knew where he had intended to go with his comment. In 2132, when Earth United had formed, Russia had been the only nation to refuse to sign the peace treaty. To prevent a war from breaking out, the United Earth Counsel decided to give the moon to Russia for population. With modern technology, the Russians were able to produce their own food and water in airponics labs on the moon, and, according to satellite intelligence, they had begun to tera-form parts of it.
By 2137 the moon became officially know as “New Russia” and Old Russia became part of England and joined United Earth. But in resent years, New Russia had been doing some questionable things, including sending spies to the United Earth Counsel meetings.
Earth responded in kind by sending it’s own spies to New Russia. There were groups now that opposed New Russia and held the opinion that United Earth should declare war and take over New Russia.
After the comet, named after it's discoverer Marcus Greyson, was discovered on a direct collision course with Earth, The Counsel formed the United Earth Defense Force. The Defense Force safely altered the path of the comet and brought it into orbit around Earth. New Russia quickly took possession of this comet, angering the people of Earth even more, but Earth still refused to take any action against them.
Many spies from Earth had mysteriously disappeared in New Russia, but the Counsel had tried to cover this up to keep the people of Earth from panicking. The Counsel had decided not to officially disband the Defense Force, for obvious reasons, leaving a fleet of over fifty armed space vessels docked with a massive space station several kilometers from earth.
The lift finally reached the main bridge of the Excelsior and the door slide open. The bridge was rather spacious and was surrounded by space-glass that could withstand just about anything. The glass also served as the main computer monitors for the bridge. The bridge crew sat in front of the glass tapping it and sliding holographic icons back and forth, keeping the ship operating at maximum efficiency.
Standing close to the glass at the front of the bridge was the captain.
Alyssa walked over and put her arm around his shoulder and they together looked out at the amazing sight. They could see the entire planet below them, bright, red and barren of life.
“It’s beautiful,” Alyssa said softly.
Fletcher turned to her and smiled, “I agree, but mark my words, you’ll hate it by the time we leave.”
She smiled as he walked over to a comm panel and pressed a button. “Senior staff members to the briefing room.”
Alyssa followed Fletcher to the back side of the bridge and stood with him inside of a yellow square. He tapped an icon on the screen and the floor descended into the briefing room below the main bridge. Another piece of metal replaced the flooring, closing the hole that had been left.
A long table filled most of the room. In the center of the table was a gleaming black sphere. Within the minute, the rest of the senior crew arrived through the sliding door on the right side of the room and took their seats.
The captain took a seat at the head of the table and Alyssa, the one to his right.
Fletcher typed out a series of commands on the touch-pad in front of him and a pale blue beam of light shone from the sphere in the center of the table. The beam shone on one of the empty chairs to Fletcher's left. Gradually, the beam began to display the outline of a body and after several seconds, there appeared to be a man sitting in the chair.
Fletcher addressed the crew, “Mr. Jackson Pillar, the Minister of Off Planet Mining will be joining this meeting via holocam today.” The man nodded his head and the image flickered ever so slightly. “As you all know, our mission here is to complete the job of setting up Mars Base One and to begin excavation of the deutronium. There is not room for the entire crew to move to the surface just yet, so it will be up to the department chiefs to organize construction teams.” Fletcher looked at the holographic Minister. “Mr. Pillar, do you have anything to add?”
There was a slight delay in the Ministers response due to the vast distance the transmission was traveling.
When he finally spoke, his words cracked at first and then the audio became clearer, as if the speakers had needed to warm up. “Yes captain. The mining team that established Mars Base One did do several test drills around the area, but the main drilling will take place several kilometers away from the drill site that is set up now. Your first priority will be setting up the new site.”
“Thank you Minister.” Fletcher looked at Alyssa, “Dr. Anderson?”
Alyssa hated speaking in front of other people, but she tried her best not to sound nervous. “The unprocessed deutronium ore is extremely radioactive so Haz-Mat suits must be worn at all times. There are several caverns beneath the surface, so make sure your teams consult their maps before drilling, we don’t want anyone falling into one of those caverns.” She looked at Fletcher.
“Thank you doctor. We will begin shipping down the necessary parts and equipment at 0600 hours tomorrow. The shipping will be overseen by the Chief Architect, William Okuda. Are there any questions?” There was a silent pause. “Alright then, you’re dismissed.” Everyone stood, including the holographic Minister, who vanished halfway between sitting and standing. The black sphere on the table gave three soft beeps and flashed a dull red color, telling all who would pay it attention that the transmission had been ended.
All of the crew, except for Fletcher and Alyssa, left through the same doors they had entered. As the doors slid closed Alyssa turned to Fletcher. “It’s kind of scary to think of how are we are from Earth, floating helplessly over a desolate planet millions of kilometers away from anyone.”
“I would hardly say we are helpless out here. This ship is equipped with fifteen Class-Seven fighter-pods and the ship it’s self is equipped with several nuclear war heads and most cutting edge laser weaponry available. We’re hardly a sitting duck.”
“Why would they arm the ship so heavily? Are they expecting trouble?”
Fletcher frowned, “No, they just wanted to take every precaution, what with all of the disappearances and all.”
“I see, well the sooner we get this mission over with, the better. The relief ship will be arriving in three months and I have a feeling that these are going to be the longest three months of my life."
Section Two
Orbiting Mars
0500 Hours
April 8th, 2167
Alyssa had not gone back to her cabin the previous night, she had spent it in Cargo Bay Twelve preparing equipment and sundry other items for transport to the surface.
A soft alarm chirped from the speakers, letting those listening know that it was five o’clock.
One more hour, thought Alyssa. She had finished packing everything into her shuttle-pod and was now heading for the door.
She went back to her cabin, gathered her things and made her way back to the cargo bay.
After loading her things into the shuttle, she leaned against a crate marked Support Beams, 3-Alpha and fell into a deep sleep for the remaining forty odd minutes.
At six o’clock, on the dot, the cargo bay doors hissed open and a group of men and women walked in, still partially comatose. It appeared that the excitement of the arrival had kept the entire ship up for most of the night.
Alyssa started as a tall, slender man nudged her.
“O!” She rubbed her eyes, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to go to sleep, I was just trying to rest my eyes.”
The man smiled, “It’s quite alright,” he said with a thick British accent, “I’m William Okuda.” He extended his hand to her
“Nice to formally meet you.” Alyssa tried to to stifle a yawn, but to no avail.
“Its still beyond me, how there are so many on this ship that I haven’t come into contact with.” He seemed impossibly energetic considering the hour.
“I guess three hundred people is more than most people think. I’ve got all of my gear loaded into Shuttle Three.”
“Spot on! As soon as the rest of your team is ready, you can take the shuttle to the surface. I believe your team is working from the part of the base already in place?”
“That’s right.” Alyssa walked over to the group. “Beta Team meet at shuttle three,” she said loudly. She smiled as she said this, relishing the power she commanded.
Within five minutes, all of Beta Team was assembled and loaded on to the shuttle except for one member, Lieutenant Junior Grade Tom Nelson. Alyssa was sure Tom would be late for his own funeral, but she put up with him because his programming skills were better than anyone she knew. And because she liked him. Well, she thought she liked him anyway. Actually she wasn't quite sure how she felt about him.
She smiled as she pulled a thin piece of glass from a holster and slid her index finger over the top of it. The screen flashed to life and she tapped several icons in quick succession. She pushed her head forward ever so slightly and said, “Locate Lieutenant Tom Nelson.” Just as the last syllable slid off of her tongue, the cargo bay doors slid open and Tom ran through them.
“Sorry I’m late,” he panted, “I had to...”
“Don’t explain Tom just get in the shuttle.” Alyssa smiled at him. “How is she?”
“Oh she’s doing gre...” He caught himself, “Very funny Alyssa.”
“That’s Director Anderson to you.”
“Very funny, Director.” He saluted her sarcastically and and boarded the shuttle.
Alyssa knew that Tom had been spending a lot of time with a young botanist from the airponics section and had assumed this is what delayed him.
She made one last look around the cargo bay and signaled Mr. Okuda that she was leaving. He gave her a friendly wave and she climbed into the shuttle.
The shuttle had just enough seats for her and the eight other members of Beta Team and the pilot. There were two seats at the front and four along each side of the shuttle. At the back was a small door that led into the cargo room.
As the pilot started the engine, Alyssa pulled a box from the floor and turned to address the team. “Good morning every one, I just have a few things to go over while we wait for take off. First, I am going to pass around communicators, make sure you have one of these on at all times.” She began distributing communication bands from the box and finally slipped one on to her own wrist. “These will provide you with mission stats and allow you to communicate with anyone on or off the planet.”
She set the box on the floor and continued, “Second, you have all already been issued standard scanners, but these will have to be re-calibrated before you can use them on the surface, so when we get settled in, make sure you preform the update marked Mars-1. I put it on the server last night to save a little time.”
She tuned to the pilot who gave her a thumbs up, then turned back to the group and said, “Well Gary says we are ready so everyone strap in.”
They all secured their straps as the pilot patched the intercom into the flight control deck.
“Flight control, this is shuttle-pod three, ready for departure.”
A set of large yellow doors in front of the shuttle slid open and the shuttle moved forward on its track. As soon at the shuttle was past the doors they slowly slid closed.
“Shuttle three, this is flight control, engaging air lock.” The large red lights on the ceiling of the launch room began flashing. “Releasing guiding track clamps.” There was a faint, echoing click as the clamps released the shuttle. “Opening pod bay doors.” The doors in front of the shuttle slid open slowly and reveled the black emptiness that was called “space”.
“Shuttle-pod three, you are clear for takeoff.”
The shuttle lifted from the floor and flew forward, clearing the doors in less than ten seconds. As soon as the shuttle had exited the ship, it made a sharp dive, and the bright, red surface of the planet filled the viewport at the front of the shuttle.
The doors of the launch bay closed in preparation for the next shuttle.
The pilot addressed everyone with the faux-enthusiasm of an airline pilot, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking, our trip will last a grad total of ten minutes, so don’t even bother moving your chairs from the full, upright position.”
Everyone laughed at this bit of humor, and the pilot basked in the glow of their attention.
Ten minutes later, almost on the dot, Alyssa saw Mars Base One in front of the shuttle.
“We’ll be landing in a moment, so hold on tight," said the pilot.
The pilot brought the shuttle in line with the landing strip, which had flashing blue lights on either side of it. The bases’ power systems had been activated automatically as soon as the Excelsior had come into orbit of Mars.
The shuttle hovered over the landing strip and then, after a few more seconds, slowly lowered until it landed with a jolt.
Docking clamps attached to the shuttle and pulled it into the hanger bay and the airlock sealed behind it.
Above the viewport at the front of the shuttle there were two squares, a red one and a green one, the red one was currently illuminated. After three or four minutes, the green one lit up as the red one faded and a monotone female voice echoing from the hanger said, “Air pressure equalized.”
The door to the shuttle popped open and the team, after unstrapping and gathering their gear, exited the shuttle.
Once the crew had entered the base, the automated shuttle hanger placed the shuttle in a storage bay to be recharged.
Alyssa addressed everyone: “Alright everybody, you know what to do with your gear, make sure you update your scanners and meet in the mess hall at 1900 hours for a briefing from the captain.” There was indistinct murmuring as the team dispersed, each to his own station.
There was a faint sound as the hanger bay doors opened to allow the next shuttle entrance.
Alyssa picked up her gear and followed the map on her scanner to her new living quarters, this time, the same size as everyone else’s. She arrived at her door and entered her pass-code on the small touch-display next to the door.
Welcome Doctor Anderson. The base had been equipped with the latest computer technology, which included an annoying monotone voice that read out the obvious every time it did something. Alyssa assumed this was because the team that had established Mars Base One had only been comprised of ten people, and they got tired of each others voices so they programmed the computer to talk.
They could at least have given it a more natural voice, she thought.
As if in response to Alyssa’s thought, the small computer screen on the desk lit up.
Doctor Alyssa Anderson, your personal schedule has been downloaded to the main computer memory. To synchronize your schedule with you comm-band, please touch the green icon on your screen.
Alyssa touched the icon and the screen of her comm-band lit up.
She began unpacking her things and placing them into three drawers that were standard in all of the base's living quarters. There wasn’t much use for extra clothing in space. Each person was limited to four changes of clothing. There were tubes connecting all of the rooms on the base that were used to transport clothing to an automated, water free washing facility.
A substitute for water had been found for everything except, of course, humans consumption. Showers were replaced by sanitizer powder, a very uncomfortable process, and the plants in the airponics garden used a chemical byproduct of the engines in place of water. But there was no substitute for human consumption.
A large portion of the ship was made up of water supply tanks, and the water was used under strict rationing. The relief ship would bring with it a replacement tank for the Excelsior’s journey home.
After Alyssa had unpacked her things, she found her way to her lab and unpacked the remaining equipment. She set up the lab’s computer system, which used a separate memory core incase of a base-wide computer system failure.
She placed labels on the trays along the wall. The trays would hold samples of ore from the mines and it was Alyssa’s job to analyze the samples to determine wether or not the drill site would be fruitful.
Each sample would have to be labeled and placed in it’s appropriate tray to make sure she knew which samples were from which mine.
Alyssa pressed a button on the side of her comm-band and spoke to it, “Anderson to Captain Fletcher.” There was a pause and then he responded.
“Hello doctor, how do you like your lab?”
Alyssa smiled. This lab was about five times smaller than the lab she had back on earth. “It’s certainly... cozy.”
“I know it’s a lot smaller, but I think you’ll find it has everything you will need and more.”
“I sure hope so.” She turned to look out one of the viewports and continued, “Are you going to join me for and scrumptious freeze-dry dinner and eight ounces of water?”
“Mmm, as appealing as that sounds, I think I’ll pass, I have a lovely ninety page report to write and send to Earth Control by 0900 tomorrow.”
“Ouch! That sounds like loads of fun,” She turned around and looked though a microscope absently. “I guess I’ll have to have supper with Tom then.” She sighed for emphasis.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He said, sounding slightly worried.
“Oh, nothing.” She smiled, she loved playing with his emotions. She knew he was jealous and used it to her advantage often. “I need to go, the rest of my team is walking through the door and I need to make sure everything gets put in the right place.”
“Wait, Alyssa, you can’t just...” She pressed a button on the side of the comm-band and the transmission ended. Actually, there was no one even near the lab, but she knew how to work Fletcher and he had responded just how she wanted.
Section Three
Mars Base One
1030 Hours
April 8th, 2167
By now most of the teams from the Excelsior had made it to the surface. The base was now teeming with life as people unpacked equipment and moved into their respective rooms.
There had been a problem with the liquid oxygen cooling tanks on one of the shuttles that had caused a delay in the transport of the airponics equipment.
There was to be a large airponics lab set up on the east side of the base which would provide food for everyone.
Alyssa sat at the desk in her lab looking over files on the base. She found a holo-map of the entire base that included the bunker underneath.
She hoped this would never need to be used since they were in place to protect people from radiation exposure if the main reactor ever ruptured.
She sat looking at the three-dimensional image floating over her desk. The wireframe map of the base was blue and contained a red dot for every person on the base. Each persons comm-band had a tracking device in it so that people could easily be accounted for.
Alyssa looked at the map and found her lab and saw the red dot that represented herself and touched it with the tip of her finger; as soon as she did this, her name appeared above the dot and her personal profile opened to the side of the map.
She typed Tom’s name into the search bar via the holographic keyboard in front of her and one of the red dots in the main computer room blinked and turned green.
It then struck her that this was a very odd thing to do. She knew deep inside herself that she had feelings for Tom, but she didn’t want to admit this to herself.
Suddenly the door to the lab slid open and the jumped up and quickly erased the search.
“Oh hello Dr. Anderson, I’ve brought the ore treatment chemicals and another Fragmenter, I wasn’t sure if you had already brought one or not.”
“Oh, thank you Lin, I left mine in my quarters, I’ll bring it tomorrow morning.” Lin was Alyssa’s most trusted assistant. She knew she could count on Lin for anything she needed. “Where is the rest of the team?”
“They are on their way, they got caught up looking at the reactor core. It’s actually quite fascinating, you should have a look sometime.”
“I might just do that.” She turned to a small work space on her left. “This will be your workstation, it should have everything you need.”
“Thank you Doctor, I’ll set my things up now.”
As the hours went by, more and more people filed into the lab and the more people that came, the smaller the room seemed. By 1900 hours, the entire base was filled and set up. The entire crew of the base met in the mess hall for a meal of freeze-dried rations as the captain went over the base regulations.
Once everyone was finished eating, they were all given free time until 2200 hours. At 2200 the power systems in the base went into conservation mode which meant that all systems, except for life support and emergency lighting, were shut down.
The excavation would begin early the next morning meaning that the project would be in full operation.
Alyssa didn’t exactly know what she wanted to do with her free time, so she found Tom and went for a walk around the base.
He had already been around the base once, so he gave her a tour.
The base was set up like a star. The center housed the reactor core and then five tunnels each led to a different dome. All of these domes were protected by a meteor deflector screen that repelled any unknown descending objects.
One dome contained the labs (including Alyssa’s lab), two contained living quarters, one contained the shuttle bay, and the last was used primarily for storage.
After the ore was tested for purity, it was taken to the storage bay and locked in containers that would be taken to Earth by the Excelsior when it returned. The ore that failed the purity test was taken to an “extraterrestrial landfill” about a kilometer from the base. This was done using an automated transportation vehicle that had been brought by the team that had established the base.
After the tour, Tom walked Alyssa back to her room and said goodnight.
Once he had gone, she sat at her small desk, accessed her personal journal and wrote, or rather dictated, her thoughts on the past day. She found that expressing her true feelings to the computer made her feel better, because she knew it wouldn’t talk about her behind her back.
Alyssa Anderson personal log, April seventh, twenty-one sixty seven.
We arrived at Mars a few days ahead of schedule. I set up my lab and then spent some time with Tom, walking around the base. I fell guilty spending time with him when I know I still have feelings for Fletcher, but I can't help myself. I suppose there isn't much point in pursuing any kind of romantic relationship with Tom since he is seeing someone else, but I can't seem to get him off of my mind.
She stood and walked to the small circular window, gazing out at the dark, dusty surface and continued her entry.
I'm having a hard time dealing with out lonely this planet feels. Even though I'm surrounded by hundreds of fellow people, I can't help but feel alone. I can't imagine how anyone ever thought there was life on Mars; it's so dead out there.
She returned to her computer and saved her entry, dressed for bed, and tried to stay calm.
Alyssa had read a book, as a young girl, about several people that had gotten trapped in a cave while exploring; now she knew how those people must have felt, being completely helpless.
Then she thought of Fletcher and some how, she knew she would be safe, no matter what happened.
She laid down and fell asleep within minutes. That night she dreamt that she had become trapped in some kind of cave-in and Fletcher had saved her... or had it been Tom?
Section Four
Mars Base One
0600 Hours
April 9th, 2167
Alyssa woke slowly. She went through her morning ritual and then walked to the mess hall for breakfast before heading to her lab.
The mining crew had left for the drill sight over an hour ago and the first batch of ore was due in less than an hour.
She arrived at the lab door and tapped her security card on the small black pad on the door. A green light flashed, a soft beep came from the speaker and the computer said, Welcome Dr. Anderson, simultaneously. The door slid open and she walked though it.
“Computer, activate all laboratory systems.”
Activating laboratory systems. There was a hum as the systems came online and the lights brightened. Laboratory systems are online.
“Computer, discontinue all non-emergency auditory notifications.” She smiled. That will take care of you.
A level six security clearance is required to mute auditory notifications.
“Oh that’s very funny guys,” she slapped a folder down on her desk.
“What’s so funny?” Alyssa turned to see Lin walking toward her, the door sliding closed behind her.
Alyssa smiled again, “Someone on the first mission programmed the computer to require a level six security clearance to disable the audio notifications. There are going to drive me crazy."
Lin laughed, “I know what you mean. I’ve already had five notifications since I woke up, all about completely obvious things.”
“I guess those guys were pretty lonely out here,” She stared off in the other direction.
“Are you okay doctor?”
“Lin, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Alyssa?”
“I’m sorry... Alyssa.”
“That’s better. I’ll be fine. I was just about to set up the ore transfer system, could you help me?”
“Of course.”
The two women walked to a large metal sliding door and began entering commands into the computer console beside it. On the other side of the door was a tube that connected the lab to the drill site. The ore that was mined at the dig was placed into a transport pod that was sent through the tube to the lab.
They finished their programing and move on to set up the other computer systems in the lab. It would take the drilling team several more hours to set things up on their end.
* * *
“The first batch should be here in just a few minutes,” Alyssa announced as she moved to her desk and laid out her tools.
Three hours had passed and the other lab technicians had arrived.
"Everyone suit up." All of the scientist put on one of the yellow Haz-Mat suit. Although the suits did restrict movement, they were considerably thiner and easier to move around in than some of the suits Alyssa had seen in museums.
Promptly at 0900, the light on the top of the large door began flashing and the computer spoke, Warning: transport in progress. Please stand clear.
At least it’s a polite computer, thought Alyssa. The walls of the lab were lined with lead to protect against the radiation and lead shielding slid over the all of the glass in the walls. Once the ore was stored in the safety trays, the room had be designed to eradicate the remaining radiation.
The doors slowly and loudly slid open and a large metal pod came out. A large robotic arm came from the ceiling and placed the pod on the floor. The lab crew quickly unloaded the ore samples onto their desks and placed the trays back in the pod.
Once everyone was clear, Alyssa pressed a green button marked “Return.” The computer gave another warning and the arm lifted the pod back into the tube and it was on its way back to the drill site.
Alyssa began running scans on the ore. The part they wanted was a grey-blue colored metal that usually formed in large groups of smaller pieces.
She continued scanning the samples for the better part of an hour without any success. All of the ore from the first load had returned negative results, meaning it was contaminated with too many other metals and minerals to be purified. The loaded was placed in the disposal chute and taken to the landfill.
As the day wore on, more and more loads of ore were delivered and the disposal chute was used again and again.
This was expected of course, because the main deposit that had brought the team here was further down, but Alyssa had expected at least a small amount of pure deutronium.
After going through the half-hour de-radiation cycle, the crew took a break for lunch, returning less than an hour later.
They all suited up again and unloaded the next load. This time they found something.
“Dr. Anderson! I’ve got a green light on this last sample!” A young man looked at her excitedly.
“That’s great!” Alyssa quickly walked over to the man’s desk. His tag identified him as Stephan Crusher. She looked at his scanner readout and confirmed his finding.
“Good good work Mr. Crusher. Make sure you place the positive samples in a labeled tray and dispose of the negative ore.”
“Yes ma’am.”
She returned to her desk a continued working.
* * *
Several days had passed now since Alyssa had arrived on the surface of Mars and there had only been three more positive batches of ore since the first.
Alyssa sat in the mess hall now finishing her ration of dried beef and three carrots from the airponics garden. She brought her comm-band closer to her face, “Anderson to Captain Fletcher.”
Several seconds went by and Fletcher answered, “Captain Fletcher? Since when do you call me Captain?”
She smiled, “Since I need permission from the captain for something.”
“Oh really? And just what might you need permission to do?”
“I’d like to go over to the drill sight and check a few things, I’ll only be there for an hour max.”
“You can go under one condition: you have dinner with me tonight. I’m coming down to do a check on the computer core.”
“Your on. And while your in the computer core, would you mind shutting those annoying audio notifications off, they’re really bugging me.”
“Your not the first to say that. I’ll see what I can do.” Alyssa was about to ask him something, but Fletch interrupted her unspoken words, “I’ve got to go, someone just found something on the long range sensors.”
“What do you mean they found something? It isn’t the Russians is it?” Alyssa dropped her fork, but didn’t even notice.
“Don’t worry, Alyssa, it’s coming from the other direction, it’s probably just a meteor cluster or a sensor glitch. Your safe, trust me.”
She wanted to trust him, but something inside her knew something was going to happen. She didn’t know how or why, she just knew.
Section Five
Martian Drill Site
1308 Hours
April 12th, 2167
Alyssa arrived at the drill site a little while later, still unsettled about what Fletcher said. She knew she was probably making a bigger deal out of this than she should, but that didn’t help her feelings any.
After entering the office section of the drill site, she found the computer lab, scanned her security card, and activated one of the five computers.
Just as she was beginning to give the computer a command, the lights dimmed and the red emergency warning lights though out the room began flashing. An alarm started somewhere down the hall and the computer began repeating, Warning! Tunnel integrity compromised, evacuate immediately!
Alyssa jumped to her feet and ran down the hallway. She reached the entrance to to the mining shaft and was stopped by a man that looked familiar.
“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the building.”
“I have a level five security clearance, I tell you what to do, not the other way around. Have I met you before?”
“I’m Derek Hollister, we met on the turbo-lift back on the Excelsior.”
“Oh, thats right. What happened here? Is anyone down there?”
“It's nothing to worry about, the computer is just overreacting. And yes, Lieutenant Tom Nelson is in the pod.”
“Tom! What in the name of all things holy was Tom doing in the mining pod? He's a computer programmer, not a miner.”
“He said he needed to run some tests on the computer system and he had clearance to do so; I didn’t see anything wrong with him going. Why are you so worried about it, anyway?”
“Oh,” her face turned red, “no reason.”
There was another notification from the computer saying that the mining pod had returned to the surface and the doors opened.
“Tom!” Alyssa ran and hugged him.
Tom looked rather confused. “Alyssa?”
She jumped back and said, "Oh, I’m sorry. I just... I’m glad your okay."
Alyssa had finally admitted to her self that she liked Tom, but she kept forgetting that Tom already had a girl.
The man that had come up with Tom stepped out and said, “I think you should have a look at the mapping computer mister Hollister.”
The four of them moved across the room and Derek activated the mapping computer. The other miner, whose name tag identified him as Andrew Larson, entered several commands into a wall panel and the flashing lights stopped along with the computer’s warnings.
“What in the world? How did we not see this before?” Derek was pointing at something on the map.
“See what? What is it?” Alyssa looked closer at the screen.
“It’s some kind of hollow area several feet behind one of the main tunnel walls. It hasn’t showed up any of the scans we’ve made. I can’t understand it.”
* * *
Four hours later, Alyssa, Tom and Derek had been authorized to go down the tunnel and try to access the hidden cavern. Of corse Captain Fletcher had put up a fight when Alyssa had asked to go, but she had finally talked him into it.
Tom insisted on going, saying that her had "discovered" the hollow area.
The mining pod descended the shaft and reached the area where the hollow spot had been detected. Derek activated a drill on the side of the pod and began to drill through the wall.
“What do you think is behind there?” Asked Alyssa, excitedly.
“Rocks,” said Derek, sounding completely uninterested.
“Oh come on, use your imagination!”
There was a loud crash as the wall on the other side of the mining pod collapsed and the pod itself lurched violently.
“I guess that means we’re through,” said Derek, smiling.
“I guess so,” replied Alyssa.
Derek fiddled with a control panel on the wall of the pod and the pod rotated so that the door faced the hole they had just drilled.
“Would you like to push the button Alyssa?” Derek asked in a mocking voice.
“Why of course.” Alyssa said, grinning. She shifted over to the control panel and pressed the green button appropriately labeled, “Open”. The door slid up swiftly, as the jaws of the three passengers slid down slowly. They were staring at a city. An entire city buried under the surface of Mars. At first no one spoke. Then Alyssa pressed a button on her comm-band and called Fletcher.
“Anderson to Captain Fletcher, I think you should come to the main mine shaft ASAP.”
There was a slight delay and then Fletch replied, “Is everyone alright?”
“Yes, we’re fine, but we’ve found something.” Alyssa almost didn’t believe what she was seeing. “Fletch, there’s a city down her. An abandoned city in ruin.”
“Very funny Alyssa.”
She change her tone, “Do I sound like I’m kidding, Captain.” She put emphasis on the last word, perhaps a little too much.
“What do you mean a ruin city, that’s impossible. Aliens don't exist.”
“I think the builders of this city would have to disagree.”
“I’m sending a team over there right away and I’ll be down as soon as I can.”
“Right. See you then.”
The comm beeped as she ended the transmission.
“What should we do?” Tom looked terrified.
Alyssa pulled a flashlight from a compartment under her seat and strapped it to her wrist. “We explore!” She had a crazy look in her eye. “Just think, we are the first humans to examine an alien culture.”
Derek was staring out the door and the roof of the cavern. “Where do you suppose the light is coming from? It can’t be the surface or we’d have noticed this place.”
“Let’s find out. Is there a scanner on board?”
“Yeah,” Derek detached a scanner from the wall of the pod and handed it to Alyssa, “I guess your the leader for now.”
“Well then, let’s get a move on.” They filed out of the pod an into the cavern. Alyssa began conducting scans of the surrounding area.
“The light is coming from some sort of halogen gas emitter on the ceiling. The halogen is being mixed with some type of element I’ve never seen before to produce light,” she paused as the scanner finished its analysis, “five times brighter than traditional halogen lights.”
“What do you mean, an element you’ve never seen before?” Derek asked.
“I mean, what ever it is, it isn’t in our database, but the scanner registers is as an element.” She looked at him excitedly, “We’ve only been in here a few seconds, and we’ve already discovered alien elements! This is a huge discovery Derek, why don’t you looked excited?”
“I don’t like this. I’ve grown up my whole life being told that aliens don’t exist and now...” He looked around, “This. I'm not convinced this is real.”
“You have to have an open mind. This is the reason that I support the space program, the search for other intelligent life out there... here.”
There was a loud crash several meters to the right and Alyssa instinctively grabbed Derek’s hand.
“Well that’s more like it.” He smiled at her.
“Oh shut up. Tom? Was that you?”
“Over here, I found something.”
Alyssa and Derek cautiously walked in the direction of the sound.
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure. It looks like some type of breaker. I think if I...” He was cut of as the entire room suddenly exploded with light. There was a loud hum as systems came online all over the room.
Now that they could see the entire room clearly, they saw that they had come in right next to some type of engine room. The wall closest to Tom was covered in circuits and power relays.
They looked out at the rest of the room and saw hundreds of desks with what looked to be computer monitors sitting on them.
Wow was all Alyssa could think.
“Where did all of the aliens go, I wonder,” Tom stated.
“Let's see if we can get one of those computers working.”
“But how will we know what anything means. This isn’t like in Old Earth movies, I’m sure they didn’t speak English.”
“Well we can at least give it a try. Besides, computer programing is all math at heart and math is a truly universal language.”
Tom spoke up, “That may be true, but it doesn’t mean that they depicted their numbers the same way we did. It could take a while to decipher the numbers.”
“Don’t be such a wet blanket.”
The three of them walked to the desks and began looking for a way to switch the computers on.
About ten minutes later, Tom found a button on the underside of the monitors that activated them. A series of strange looking symbols flashed across the screen is a way that made it look like some type of warning.
“Hey, I got one to work!”
Alyssa and Derek ran over to the console Tom was standing behind.
“That looks like some kind of warning,” Alyssa said as soon as she saw it.
“That’s what I thought too. I wish we had some way of translating it.”
“You to keep working on this, I’m going to see if I can get that working.” Derek pointed to a large monitor at the front of the room.
“Be carful,” Alyssa said.
“What’s the fun in that,” Derek replied, with a wink.
Alyssa and Tom sat at the console tapping buttons on the keyboard in front of the monitor. Every once in a while the screen would change, but they had no idea what it meant.
After about an fifteen minutes, Alyssa looked up to see where Derek had gone, but he was’t anywhere in sight.
“Tom, don’t you think that team should have been here by now?”
He looked at her with a worried expression.
Alyssa pressed a button on her comm-band and said, “Anderson to Fletcher.” There was silence for several seconds and then the comm-band beeped. She looked at the screen which read “out of range”.
“These strange elements must be interfering with the comm system. Derek!”
She looked around again but didn’t see him anywhere. Tom go back to the pod and see if you can use it’s comm-panel to find out where that team is.”
“Right.” He ran back in the direction that had originally come and she walked toward the main console that Derek had gone to check out.
“Derek are you,” she inhaled quickly and then yelled, “Tom come here!” Derek lay, unconscious, on the floor in front of the main console.
“The hole we drilled has been sealed somehow,” He stopped when he saw Derek. “What happened to him?”
“I don’t know, I just found him like this.” She pulled her scanner from it’s holster and changed the setting to medical scan. She passed it over his body several times and then said, “His vitals are fine. The scanner doesn't show any reason for him being unconscious.”
“It must be some kind of alien poison or something.”
“Don’t go getting yourself worked up Tom, we need to get him to the medical lab back at the base. What where you saying about the pod?”
“The hole we drilled had been sealed somehow. Some type of alloy just filled in the part we drilled through. What ever it is, it don’t register in the database.”
“So someone sealed us in here and cut our comm link with the outside, but why?”
“It was probably the aliens! Maybe we’ve defiled there sacred temple or something.” Tom looked around, wide eyed.
“Does this look like a temple to you Tom? Pull yourself together.”
As she said this, there was a loud explosion from the other side of the room.
“That came from the entrance,” said Alyssa. “Stay here.” She ran off leaving Tom looking absolutely terrified.
Section Six
Martian Ruins
1701 Hours
April 12th, 2167
Alyssa came around the corner just as Fletcher jumped through the hole that had been blasted in the wall.
“Alyssa!” He ran and wrapped is arms around her. “Why didn’t you answer your comm-band? We’ve been trying to reach you.”
“My comm-band said I was out of range. I think it’s the metal alloy in the walls. Fletch, we’ve got a man down. I found him unconscious by the main computer console.”
“What was he doing?”
“We were trying to get these computers running. We got one going it started displaying something that looked like a warning message. Derek went to look at the main computer and I found him laying there just a minute ago.”
Fletcher pointed at two men who had just come through the hole and said, “You two, follow Doctor Anderson and get Mr. Derek to the medical center.”
The two men nodded and said, “Yes sir.”
Alyssa, I know you are going to hate me for this but I need you to come back up with us as well. You can take that as an order.”
“I figured you’d say that. But I’m coming back down here later.”
“We’ll see about that. I’m going to have a security team check it out first.”
* * *
An hour later, Alyssa, Fletcher and Tom stood behind a glass wall looking at Derek, who was still unconscious. A medical doctor stood beside him wearing a clean suit. Derek had been isolated just incase his condition had been caused by some type of alien virus.
The doctor stepped into a small room and a door sealed him into it. A red light flashed three times and then turned green signaling that he was free of any micro-contaminates.
He then made his way into the room were Tom, Fletcher and Alyssa waited.
“How is he doctor?” Alyssa asked.
The doctor pulled his mask from his face and spoke, “Medically, he’s fine. There doesn’t appear to be any type of virus anywhere in his system. He has just gone into some type of deep sleep. The only thing I have found out of the ordinary is that his brainwave frequency had slightly increased. But only by about half of a percent.”
“What do you think that means?”
“I’m not sure that it means anything. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Keep us updated on his condition doctor,” said Fletcher.
“Yes sir, I’ll let you know the second he wakes up.”
The doctor walked to a group of computer monitors and the other three made their way to the hallway.
“You two need to eat something.”
“I can’t even thing about eating after all of that. I mean we just discovered an extinct alien race and you think about food?” Alyssa through her hands in the air.
“I’m just saying that you’re going to need your strength if you’re going back down there.”
Alyssa looked at him excitedly, “You’re letting us go back down?”
“Well you were the discoverers, I think you have the right.”
“If you don’t mind sir, I’d like to stay up here. I don’t like the feeling that place gave me.” Tom shuttered.
“Well, that’s up to you; if you don’t want to go back down, I’m not going to make you.”
They reached a turbo-lift and entered, doors hissing closed behind them.
“Just think of all we could learn if only we could translate that language.”
“Well, as soon as the security team clears that room, I want a team to take that computer apart and see if it had anything to do with what happened to Derek.”
The turbo-lift delivered the threesome to the mess hall were they had a quick meal. Fletcher was called to the ship for an urgent matter and promised to contact Alyssa as soon as the team cleared the room.
The captain gave Tom the rest of the day off to recover and he went straight to his quarters after he had finished his meal.
About ten minutes later, Alyssa headed back to the drill site to have a look at the mapping computer.
When she got off of the transport, an armed guard stood in front of the entrance to the main lab, which housed the mine shaft.
“Hello doctor Anderson, can I see your security card please?”
She handed the guard her card and he tapped it to a small black pad on a table next to the door.
Entrance granted to Doctor Alyssa Anderson.
“Thank you.” He handed her card back and she walked through the open door.
She had to used her security card once more to gain access to the mapping computer. She didn’t know wether or not she had a high enough security clearance to begin with or if Fletcher had just made an exception for her, she was leaning toward the latter.
Alyssa pulled up the map for the mining shaft and was surprised to find that the entire cavern they had just found did not show up on the map.
She entered several commands and he computer scanned the shaft again, then redrew the map. Still, the cavern did not register.
“Anderson to Fletcher,” she said into her comm-band.
“Fletcher here.”
“The cavern isn’t registering on the mapping computer.”
“What are you doing over there Alyssa?” He sounded worried.
“I promise I’m not going to go down until it’s cleared, I just wanted to see how big it is. But the computer shows soil and rock where there should be an entire room.”
“Did you try redrawing the map?”
“Yes, still nothing.” She turned and walked to the door.
“Maybe there is some type of cloaking device down there.” He laughed as he said this.
“How can you laugh about this Fletcher? We found evidence of other intelligent life in our solar system. This isn’t a laughing matter.”
“Right, sorry.”
Alyssa turned and placed her back against the wall next to the door and slid to a sitting position. “How much longer is the security team going to be?”
“They should be up any minute now.” Just as he said this, the computer alerted the room that the mining pod had returned and the door slid open.
“The pod just returned.”
“Alright, if they give the all clear, you can go ahead down, but I’d rather you wait until the team arrives, they are on their way right now.”
“I’m sure they can find their way down without me.” She smiled.
“Your stubbornness is going to get you into trouble one of these days.”
“I’m counting on that.” She ended the transmission, stood and walked to the pod door. “Is everything good down there?”
The security chief, Sargent Grant Freemen, stepped out of the pod. “From what we can tell, everything looks good, there’s no sign of life.”
“I wasn’t expecting there to be any life, it looks like no one has been in there for decades.”
Sargent Freemen did not find her sarcasm amusing and simply walked away.
* * *
Doctor Harold Trinneer typed feverishly on the holo-keyboard in front of him. If his readings were correct, he would have the first proof toward his theory.
He pushed his feet against the floor and his chair rolled across the room to the medical scanners surrounding Derek Hollister. He looked at one of the three screens he had added to the medical bio-bed, jotted several figures down on the palm of his hand, and returned his chair to the desk.
The three bio-beds in the medical center came with three standard screens for monitoring a patient’s vital signs, but Dr. Trinneer had added three extra screens to one of the beds. These monitored something called psychoacoustic waves.
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