Martian Chronicle Part III
Though Chapter II precedes Chapter 1, Previous two chapters of this saga are here:
https://furzicle.livejournal.com/450708.html
Martian Chronicles - Part Three
“So, you’re saying we’re NOT going to Alpha Centauri?” Charlie widened his eyes quizzically at General Takeda. He glanced quickly across at Dax, his partner in crime, who also looked nonplussed. The three were huddled around the aluminum composite table in Irene Takeda’s kitchenette. As Takeda’s apartment was part of the earth colony settled on the planet Mars, like everyone else, she had to make do with Mars-built technology. On the other hand, as a general, she had the luxury of a beautiful three-meter rosy globe of a window on her living quarters which afforded an expansive view of the russet hues of the Martian landscape. The base itself was a relatively compact cluster of low, metallic structures seemingly clinging to the bare dirt at the base of a naked mountain range on an otherwise empty planet.
Irene Takeda continued. “After you two interacted with the alien ship, our ground crews tracked its departure. Rather than immediately leaving our location and heading for outer space as you both assumed, it actually disappeared within the Martian planetary orbit. The commander has instructed me to lead our exploratory venture around this planet and try to determine what happened next. We are not aware of any other bases on Mars populated by earthlings or any other beings, but we also can’t rule out a fatal crash. Heaven help us if it simply vaporized. But they are saying there were no vehicles tracked leaving the Martian sector.”
“Whew, that sounds cool,” remarked Dax. “Exploring more of Mars, that is. I had pictured the Commander sending us out on a life time sentence to another solar system.” He made the gesture of wiping the back of his hand across his brow, sweeping away imaginary sweat. Dax was an intrepid ranger, but he thought he knew a sentence of exile when he saw it.
“Oh my gosh, me too,” Charlie interjected. “As bleak as the landscape is here on Mars, I was already starting to miss it. It’s not lush like the forests and bounding rivers of earth, but we do have the incredible views and fabulous opportunities to “play outside,” as I like to call it. Encapsulated in a tube for who knows how long on a voyage to another solar system was not in my plan for the moment. I, for one, will not take any natural beauty for granted anymore.”
“Always good to get that reminder,” said General Takeda. “Did you gentlemen come up with an ROC?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” responded Charlie. “Here is our proposed roster of crew. With your approval, we’d like to suggest:
“General Takeda, CO, NAVSPEC, and RTN (commanding officer, navigation specialist, and radio technician, N class)
“Corporal Charles Lindersky, Ranger (“That’s me,” he added, somewhat unnecessarily.)
“Corporal Dax Obama, Ranger and geologist
“Sergeant Kaia Greenacre, AFPPM (Air frame and power plant mechanic. She’s also an accomplished agronomist.)
“Corporal Linsa Rosen, MD Ph.D, aka medic
“Beyond that, we are open to any suggestions you have.”
“Commander Arnold has offered us CIO Lawrence Howard, Chief Intelligence Officer,” said Takeda. “He also suggested Captain Travis Layfield as our pilot and flight engineer.”
“Holy cow! Larry?” Charlie interjected. “He’s the guy who picks up the dirty dishes in the chow hall! Dax, you remember Larry? The somewhat slow guy who’s always wearing a sloppy apron? I always wondered how he ended up on this base.”
“Wow! Good thing we didn’t put that bottle with the message in it on the cafeteria belt like we planned. He woulda figured that out in no time!” Dax thought with chagrin of their scheme to have the chow hall staff deal with the bottle received from the aliens.
“What shall we do with the bottle?” Charlie asked. “Remember, I never told the commander about it.”
“Charlie, why don’t you bring it along,” suggested Takeda. “Hopefully this Larry Howard will seem solid and we can take him into our confidence. But let’s keep it our secret for a while.”
“And of course, we’re still evaluating whether this is all some kind of traitorous plot with Commander Arnold at the center of it,” added Dax. “Is there any way we can learn more about him?”
“I’ll keep my ear to the ground,” responded Irene Takeda.
***
Four days later, the PEV (planetary exploration vehicle) carrying the small crew of anti-subversive special agents (ASS) was 2000 meters above the Martian surface on a heading of SSW, to be followed by a heading of WSW. The intention was to track the recorded direction the alien ship had taken on its super-lightspeed (SLS) departure from its original encounter with Dax and Charlie. Interestingly, the alien ship had deviated from its original heading to skim the famous Valles Marianis, the monumental valley scarring the Martian surface along its equator. At more than 4000 km long and up to 200 km wide, it was nearly the longest valley in the solar system. Only the rift valley of earth was longer. This one was even 7 km deep! [Traveling at light speed had been deemed unnecessary for the ASS crew, as their goal was to carefully and methodically scan the surface of Mars for any anomalies, including an alien base or any possible crash sites.
Layfield piloted the craft, while Takeda kept an eagle eye on the navigation, as well as the communication. All other crew manned the observation bays. (OB) Dax kept up a running commentary on the geography and geology below them. Not only could the whole crew more effectively observe the territory, the extra eyes provided back-up coverage as fatigue set in.
At first, they had to increase their altitude, as they were traveling over higher and higher elevations. Suddenly, Valles Marinaris was in view!
“Man, I’ve always wanted to see this!” exclaimed Dax. “Did you know this is considered to be the second biggest valley in the solar system? Can you guys see how that looks like a huge river bed down there? There’s a place on earth that has a very similar structure, called the Washington scab lands, but here it is on Mars on a huge scale! Can you guys see it? Imagine a huge lake or aquifer that is dammed up with ice. On earth, every several thousand years or so, the dam broke up and ice and water burst forth in a catastrophic flood. Enormous quantities of water scoured out the area, removing top soil and boulders. On earth, it is estimated that it has happened in Washington State at least forty times over the last ice age, and innumerable times before that. It’s pretty amazing that such evidence of flooding water exists on Mars! See the teardrop islands? Look at the longitudinal grooves! Wow, check the terraced edges. It looks just like a drying lakeshore on earth!”
Kaia had to agree that hearing the travelogue made scanning the apparently barren landscape a lot more captivating. It really did look like dried river beds she had seen. She almost expected to see an abandoned boat.
By evening they had nearly completed the traverse of Valles Marinaris. Daylight searching would become harder to do in the fading light. Plus, all onboard had been up since the pre-dawn hours. It was decided to find a suitable spot to set down their craft and wait for the better viewing the morning would bring. It would be good to give their eyes a rest. While grounded, they could discuss their situation without being distracted by the need to be constantly alert to the view.
Kaia and Linsa put on extra-vehicular suits (EVS). Kaia intended to take soil samples and check the exterior of their craft. Linsa volunteered to set up some motion detection cameras. It was uncertain how useful these would be, what with the likelihood of small meteorites and dust storms constantly triggering the motion detectors. On the other hand, it couldn’t hurt.
Charlie figured this might be his big opportunity for some unique sightseeing. He also put on his EVS and stepped through the airlock with the women to take a look around. He made a panoramic turn to see in every direction. They had landed on the upper edge of the valley. He marveled at how very distant the opposite rim of the canyon seemed to be. Even from inside his EVS, with its hematite alloy helmet, he relished the beauty. The red-toned grandeur reminded him of nothing so much as the Grand Canyon back on earth. He had last seen that some fifteen years ago. He wasn’t at all sure he would ever see that again. But as far as canyons went, this was a fine one.
“Dax, Charlie, meet me in the RCB. I want you to help me check our equipment.” General Takeda ushered them aft to the Rear Cargo Bay. While apparently examining the gimbal of their rear video cam, she asked, “How’s it going? Any new thoughts?”
“You know,” answered Charlie, “I’m now convinced that the bottle we received from the aliens really is the same as the ones from the chow hall. I compared them back at the base and could detect absolutely no difference.”
“It’s interesting,” contributed Takeda, “I’m getting messages from HQ to hurry up our mission. I find that odd, since they usually want us to be very thorough. The Commander requested we return to base in two days’ time. That hardly seems like enough.”
“Dax’s eyes grew big. It sure sounds like they’re trying to rush us along. I wonder why.”
Takeda added, “By tomorrow we should be able to reach the mountain Pavonis Mons. Our intel tells us that that is as far as we have tracked the aliens. Once we get there, we should be able to definitively say whether we’ve spotted the alien ship or not. I guess, for the time being, that will take care of things.”
“Has anybody noticed anything off about Larry Howard?” asked Charlie.
“I’m hoping he will bus our MCRIs,” joked Dax.
“Yes, keep an eye on what he does after chow time. I’m still a little curious about him, as none of us knew him before this mission.” Takeda was surprisingly serious about this statement. She then announced a duty schedule for the next forty-eight hours. Two individuals would be on duty for each two hours throughout the night. Privately, she asked Dax to overlap the others keeping watch for the first four hours of their sleeping time, and Charlie to similarly stay alert for four hours of the second. But she left the rest of the crew in the dark on this point.
The interior of the craft was darkened while the crew slept. Those on watch manned the OBs. Tiny LED type red lamps provided them with minimal illumination. Dax climbed into his rack like everyone else, but read under the cover of his sleep sack. He had learned Braille many years ago for this very purpose. No need to turn on even the tiniest of lights. He merely had to keep his chuckles very quiet as he read the amusing or ironic parts of Ray Bradbury's “The Martian Chronicles.” Human knowledge had certainly come a long way in the previous four hundred years!
Charlie took over for Dax at midnight. Things were uneventful and two hours later, he crawled into his sleeping sack to begin the surreptitious portion of his watch. Trying to fake deep sleep with heavy breathing, he really had to work at not falling asleep! But around 0230, he became aware of soft footsteps traversing their cabin. The footsteps did not proceed towards the head, aka, the toilet. Instead, they seemed to go towards the cockpit of their craft. He would have to set up some kind of trap to figure out who was making this stealthy exploration, and why. Hopefully, they weren’t sabotaging the nav of their mission!
The crew began their pre-flight preparations at 0400. It was still dark, but Larry got a pot of MCS (Mars caffeine substitute) coffee brewing. Dutiful crew members leaped to their stations.
General Takeda announced that the day’s target region was Pavonis Mons, a large shield volcano in the Tharsis region. It was the last known location of the alien ship. They were heading to longitudes between 235 E and 259 deg E. Once again, the crew took up their observation stations.
“Whoa! Look out ahead!” Dax alerted the crew what they were approaching. Though they were well above it, all could tell there was massive dust storm mounting around the western edge of Pavonis Mons. “This mountain may be named after a peacock, but it’s going to be really hard to see it.”
Layfield put the ship in TSM, total silence mode, as they drifted over the dormant volcano. Dax set up the GPR, ground penetrating radar. Meanwhile, the dust totally obscured the surface of the mountain.
“Attention! I’ve got an anomaly!” General Takeda called out. “It appears there is a very deep cave directly under us!”
“Orders, Ma’am?” Layfield inquired.
“Just hold it steady here in a hover mode for thirty minutes. If nothing changes, we’ll have to make a landing and wait for conditions to improve. These dust storms don’t last forever.”
Six hours later, they had landed in a flat area within sixteen kilometers of the base of the mountain. Takeda addressed the crew before they turned in for the night.
“Gentlemen and Ladies, I am suspicious that the dust storm which still obscures our target peak is not natural. Certain radio transmissions suggest that there are sentient beings in the area. Alien or human, I cannot tell you. I’m wary that they may be altering the environment to disguise their presence. I mentioned before that we have technical evidence in the form of GPR that suggests a very deep cavern in the side of the mountain. I have radioed HQ to alert them of our situation. Meanwhile, we sit tight. I recommend that, since we are so close to the possible base of the aliens, we remain extra alert. Any suspicious movement, and I want all hands on deck. Tonight we will keep everyone on watch except for two. Layfield and Dax will sleep the first four-hour shift and Charley and I will sleep the second shift. Everyone else will trade off taking two-hour naps. While you’re on watch, man the tracking devices, both aerial and terrestrial. Keep radio contact open. Keep all sounds to an absolute minimum. In the morning we will reevaluate and plan a possible mission on foot.
And before we settle in for the night, I want to meet with each of you privately to share intel. Get your beauty sleep when you can, everyone. Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.
...to be continued
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tharsis
https://astrobob.areavoices.com/2014/07/06/giant-cave-found-on-mars/
Explanation of illustration:
Blue areas of map are lower elevations, brown is higher.
The original Mars colony in this story is located very near the third red dot down from the top.
The blue horizontal slash is Valles Marinaris.
There are three mountains appearing in a row on this map to the west (left) of Valles Marinaris. One of those is Pavonis Mons. (Directly between letters A and B.
NW of there, near the letter A, is Olympus Mons, which is 2.5 times higher than earth's Mt. Everest is above sea level.
