1.
Landing
High above Mars, the shuttle Hadriaca fired its engines briefly and headed toward the atmosphere. It quickly pulled away from Columbus 2, a complex of three interplanetary habitats and a shuttle in orbit around the Red Planet. It was followed by a second Mars shuttle within a few minutes.
For twelve hours the Hadriaca fell towards Mars until it finally blazed through the thin upper atmosphere, burning off a significant amount of its speed, nearly circularizing its orbit and changing its plane slightly. Three hours later it dipped into the atmosphere again, one last time, slowing and heading toward the surface like a glowing meteor, carefully directed by Commander Sebastian Langlais toward a spot on the sunrise terminator a bit north of the equator. The shuttle dropped quickly and slowed in the thickening air until its drogue chutes, then its three main parachutes popped open. A minute later they detached from the shuttle on Langlais’s command and the three main engines roared alive, steering the shuttle toward its preprogrammed landing spot and burning off its remaining velocity. The landing legs extended and the vehicle momentarily hovered above the surface, then dropped onto it, bouncing a bit on its legs. The first three members of the Columbus 2 crew had arrived at Aurorae Outpost.
Inside the outpost, Will Elliott, Ethel MacGregor, and Shinji Nagatani watched the entire landing on the big screen in habitat 1’s great room with rising excitement. After nine months of looking at each other, they’d finally have new faces to gaze on! As the Hadriaca’s engines fell silent, they applauded.
“The Hadriaca has landed safely at Aurorae,” exclaimed Langlais rather matter -of-factly.
Will pushed a button. “Congratulations, Hadriaca, and welcome to Mars.”
“Thank you, Aurorae,” replied Langlais in a formal tone of voice.
“I guess I had better get going, ” said Shinji. Unlike Will and Ethel, he was wearing a pressure suit, minus helmet and gloves.
“See you later with the new arrivals,” said Will.
Shinji nodded and headed for the airlock. Outside was a “docking unit,” a square room three meters across with pressure doors in each of its four sides; docked to one of the doors was a ranger, a vehicle rather like a truck or humvee, ready to be driven to the shuttle.
“I sense mixed feelings in you,” said Ethel to Will, after Shinji had left.
“Yes, that’s true. It’ll be a great relief to see some new people. But I worry about how well the eight of them and the three of us will integrate. And Langlais is so. . . stiff. I hope we can break down the façade and get to know him.”
“Oh, don’t worry. It’ll be fine. Think about how hard Columbus 1 was.”
Will smiled. “Yes; the six of us had a lot of difficulties. But in the end we were pretty close.”
“It really worked out, in the end. We’ve got a year and a half together; the eleven of us will become a team, also. Don’t worry.”
“I think you’re right.” Will smiled and kissed Ethel on the forehead. They had been married ten months, now, a romance that had sprouted during Columbus 1.
They watched the ranger heading toward the Hadriaca on the cameras. The shuttle had made for a cleared landing area about five kilometers away, on the other side of Boat Rock; that way the massive pile of fluvial sediment, volcanics, and crater ejecta would protect them from any crash or explosion. It had landed within the inner ten-meter bull’s eye they had spray-painted on the Martian desert floor; that’s how precise the landing had been.
Shinji arrived at the Hadriaca in a few minutes while its crew was completing their power-down and checkout. He circled the shuttle at a distance, focusing the cameras on the vehicle to reveal any venting of gasses. There were no plumes or discoloration to see. Finally he had permission to move closer and parked about five meters from the ramp that led from the Hadriaca to the Martian surface. Shinji put on his helmet—he was already wearing his gloves—and began to depressurize the cab.
About the time he finished, the shuttle’s airlock door opened and two figures came out, followed by a third a few minutes later. They came down and stepped onto Mars, cheered, and began to walk around excitedly. Shinji was able to step out as well about the time the third person exited; the latter left an airlock full of air-tight suitcases and plastic boxes. While Mars’s new inhabitants practically danced off their excitement of landing, Shinji packed their suitcases and boxes into the space behind the seat.
Finally, they shook his hands, slapped him on the back, and stepped inside the ranger. It was a tight squeeze; the cab was 2.4 meters long and thus could hold four people across it, but the seat was moved forward about as far as it could be to hold the suitcases as well. Shinji closed up the cab and began to pressurize the interior while driving them all back to the Outpost, where he backed the ranger against the airlock and docked to it again. Will controlled a remote manipulator arm from inside to make sure the transfer tunnel was latched properly in place.
Inside, Will and Ethel waited. The airlock door soon opened and the three new people stepped inside the outpost.
The first was Sebastian Langlais, a 46-year old German, the new Commander of the Mars expedition. His blond hair was streaked with a lot of gray, but his blue eyes flashed with energy and excitement as a result of their arrival. He stepped out.
“Vill Elliott, it’s good to see you again.” Will had forgotten Langlais’s strong German accent.
“It’s been almost four years, Sebastian. Welcome to Mars.”
“Thank you, we’re very happy to be here.” They shook hands.
“Long trip?”
“It felt long.” Sebastian turned to Ethel to shake her hands and Roger Anderson came out next. A 42-year old Texan, on the tall side for an astronaut, his brown eyes peered at Will in a less friendly but respectful fashion.
“Will,” He said, and extended his hand. They shook; a bone-crushing exchange. Will stared at Anderson’s eyes and felt the man’s rivalry. It triggered a natural rivalry in him, also. Anderson, after all, had disagreed with one of Will’s papers about lunar mantle fragments that he had found during one of his lunar south polar expeditions. And he had often asked pointed questions during the last six months of Columbus 1’s geological operations. Anderson was a damn good planetary geologist and he knew it.
Will returned the bone-crushing grip and smiled. “Roger. Welcome to Mars.”
“Thanks, glad to be here.”
He moved on to Ethel and the third person came out of the ranger, Roger’s Indian-American wife, 41-year old Madhu Gupta-Anderson. Will had never met her before. He was surprised by how long her black hair was; more than regulation, he was pretty sure. She smiled warmly and shook hands.
“It’s really nice to meet you, Will. I’m looking forward to collaborating with you.”
“Thank you. Pleased to meet you, Madhu.” They shook hands and she was genuinely warm and friendly. That made him feel better.
Madhu moved on to shake hands with, then hug Ethel. “I’m happy to meet you.”
“Thank you, I’ve looked forward to meeting you as well.”
Madhu reached up and touched Ethel’s hair. “By the way, I’m the mission barber, and I have an entire set of professional hair-cutting shears.”
“Oh, marvelous! We’ve been without a really good barber for nine months, now. I’m afraid we look rather shaggy.”
“Nothing we can’t fix,” replied Madhu with a smile.
“Can someone help me?” exclaimed Shinji, appearing in the door with a large plastic-wrapped box.
Will reached out and grabbed one end. “Sure.”
“Those are your wedding presents,” said Langlais.
“Oh? Thank you!” exclaimed Will. He pulled the box through the airlock, then turned and carried it into the habitat. The others reached through and grabbed suitcases and boxes as well, carrying them inside the habitat.
“Which is my room?” asked Langlais.
Will took him around a corner into a small, semicircular room with a series of doors along its curved outer wall. “Shinji’s in the far room, there; the room next to his is the medical unit. Since Roger and Madhu are upstairs with us, the two habitats have fourteen rooms and only need to accommodate seven, so we should leave every other room empty for privacy.”
Sebastian nodded. “Alright. I’ll take this one, then.” He walked to a door near Shinji’s room, but separated from it by one empty room, and opened the door. He entered a room two and a half meters deep and almost two and a half wide on the habitat’s circular outer edge, with a single porthole window facing the southwest. He pulled his suitcase inside, nodding.
Will walked back around the corner to the Great Room, their main gathering area. The bedrooms did not face the Great Room, so that the noise of socializing didn’t interfere with the sleep of anyone going to bed early; the bedrooms faced the Geo-Bio lab, which was actually empty, since they had been using the great room of Habitat 2 as their Geo-Bio lab instead. Off of the Great Room was the kitchenette, the bridge, and the repair area. Each habitat was large enough to accommodate six people, eight in an emergency; the six crew of Columbus 1 had used two such habitats, and the eleven crew of Columbus 2 would have three. But the extra space was not a luxury; it provided redundancy in case one of their living areas depressurized, and gave them much-needed interior space to wander in or be alone in. The space was an important antidote to cabin fever.
Roger and Madhu were carrying more boxes into the Great Room; Ethel followed with one of their suitcases. “Where’s our place?” asked Madhu.
“This way,” replied Ethel. “We just finished building it last month.” She pointed to the stairway that led to the smaller second level that was squeezed under the habitat’s upper pressure dome. Then all four of them grabbed a suitcase and carried them up.
The upper level originally had been a large balcony opening onto the Great Room, much of which had a four to five-meter ceiling. The Great Room occupied about a third of the entire floor area of the habitat, leaving only two thirds for the upper level, and half of that had a ceiling too low to walk around in, though it could serve as storage and some of it was usable for sitting. The usable space was an oval seven meters long and four wide; Will and Ethel had the right half, Roger and Madhu the left half. Their rooms were separated by a tiny room with a toilet, another tiny room with a sink, a shower accessible to either couple, and closet spaces. The entire area had been enclosed using metal support beams and plastic sheeting made of Martian materials, with plumbing and wiring added. It was Ethel’s greatest construction effort to date.
Roger and Madhu looked at their small room, which was pretty bare. “This has a lot of potential.”
“We didn’t add the wallpaper,” said Ethel. “We had run out, but you’ve brought more.”
“We know, and we’ve already selected our design,” said Roger.
“I think you’ll like it,” added Madhu. “It’s quite different.” She opened the door to the common bathroom and looked around. The sound of flowing water came out of a loud speaker; white noise to increase privacy. “I gather everything is set up and functioning?”
“Yes, Will and I have been using it for ten months. The plastic walls have held up pretty well, I think.”
“I’m just looking forward to a lengthy shower and a chance to wash my hair thoroughly. I gather we can take long showers here?”
Ethel nodded. “Today—or maybe I should say ‘this sol’ which is what we use instead—everyone can take a long shower, and once we have the third habitat and the two additional greenhouses set up, we’ll have almost unlimited access to water. We’ll have a lot of recycling ability.”
“We have to cover the new habitat with an ice layer for radiation protection, anyway; it could be fifty tonnes of bath water as easily as clean water!”
“Yes, that’s true.” Ethel looked at Madhu’s hair. “Your hair is beautiful.”
“Yes, and it’s almost twice as long as regulation permits. But it fits inside my pressure suit just fine.” She approached Ethel and whispered. “Don’t tell Sebastian, but I’ve decided I’m not cutting my hair while here on Mars. I’m growing it long.”
Ethel smiled. “I’m sure he’ll notice eventually.”
“It’ll be a long time! Sebastian’s not very alert about women’s hair.”
The two women walked back into the bedroom. Roger had put the suitcases on the bed; Will had helped.
“It’s too bad the four of us are jammed together up here, when there’s so much room in the other habitat, and there will soon be a third habitat,” said Roger.
“After we have the additional facilities set up, we can build you a different apartment, if you want,” replied Ethel. “That would be fine with me; Will and I could convert your bed room into a private living room. We can make the materials easily enough. But the big task is reinforcing the floor with hard plastic sheeting and metal support beams all the way to the basement area. That hasn’t been done in habitat 2 yet.”
“Installing the bathroom isn’t easy, either,” added Will.
“We might want to set up habitat 2 or 3,” said Roger. “I suppose we could remove a wall and convert two private bedrooms into one, also.”
“Yes, but we’d have to cut the fabric and that would alter the habitat permanently,” said Madhu. “I suppose we want to avoid that. Besides, here we have a real closet.”
“Can I come up?” exclaimed Sebastian. They all replied affirmatively, so he hurried up the stairs. “So, this is married housing up here. You all have a lot of space.”
“Not that much,” replied Ethel. “These rooms are about double the size of a single, though they do have closets.”
Sebastian nodded, looking around. “Between the balcony up here and the basement underneath, we have an amazing amount of space inside these habitats, though I suppose it’s not all usable.”
“We can roughly double the nominal space,” replied Ethel. “But it takes about six months of work, using our current technology and staffing, to set up all that space.”
“So, four habitats could house about forty-eight people?” asked Roger, impressed.
“Yes, theoretically, but with no backup, and a lot of cabin fever,” replied Ethel.
“I have a solution for that; traveling outside,” said Roger. He looked at Sebastian and Will. “I know we’re not scheduled to do any serious geology for a few weeks, but surely we can do some sooner?”
“We could go to the escarpment,” suggested Will. “If you wanted a real quick adventure, we could hike up Little Colorado Canyon. We could go halfway and check the station there. If the oxygen tanks are in working order, we could recharge and continue up to the end of the canyon.”
“You finally made it up to the highlands, right?”
Will shook his head. “We got most of the way to the end, but we have never gone back and finished the hike to the Xanthe Terra. Some time, we need to improve the dirt track enough to drive a buggy up.”
“That’s not scheduled,” said Sebastian. “I want us to start by following the mission plan closely. Inevitably, we’ll depart from it; if Columbus 1 proves to be a model, we’ll do about twice as much as was scheduled in the nominal mission. But let’s start with the nominal mission, and that means devoting the next six weeks to developing the Outpost.”
“Alright,” said Roger, disappointed.
“There’s one other delicate matter,” added Sebastian. He turned to Will. “I assume you and Ethel plan to be extremely careful about avoiding pregnancy?”
Will was startled. “The answer is so obvious, the question is almost foolish. This is no place to bring a child into the world.”
“I quite agree,” said Sebastian tersely, irritated by Will’s tone. Will looked at Ethel; she was startled by the question. Madhu and Roger were not.
The awkward moment of silence was broken by static on the public address system. “Attention,” exclaimed Shinji, over the habitat’s loudspeaker. “The Elysium is nearing apoapsis and requesting permission to land.”
“Already!” exclaimed Sebastian. He raised his voice to reply to Shinji. “I’m on my way to the bridge!”
--------------------------------
A bit over an hour later, the Elysium landed at the Outpost carrying Monika Yevtushenko, their Russian exobiologist, and Armando Cruz, their American physician. Monika was a pilot and flew the vehicle. Shinji drove over to the shuttle to pick them up. They welcomed the two newcomers very warmly. “Armando, we haven’t seen you since launch!” exclaimed Will.
Armando laughed. “Wasn’t that something? I still remember floating around Columbus 1 with all of you twelve hours before the burn, and if you remember, I said I’d apply for Columbus 2 even if my wife killed me!”
“And here you are,” added Ethel.
“And so far, my wife is managing alright; one kid’s in college, the other one will be next year, and my flight pay can easily cover the bills.” He looked at Will and Ethel. “I’m so glad you’re married. Congratulations.”
“Thanks, my friend.” Will shook Armando’s hand.
Ethel leaned over and kissed him. “We’re very happy; and the first year’s always the worst.”
“But at least we’ve had a first year together; that’s really helped, I think,” said Will. “I feel like I know Ethel better than I ever knew my first wife.”
“I feel the same,” said Ethel, nodding.
“A happy marriage is the key to half of one’s success in adulthood,” exclaimed Armando. “Freud was asked what adults should be able to do well, and he said ‘love and work.’ So staying here, you were able to accomplish both at once.”
“For now,” said Ethel. “Two more years may be all we can handle.”
“There’s always the matter of children; I can’t quote Freud for you about that, but as a doctor and father I highly recommend them.”
Ethel looked slightly embarrassed. “Maybe some day.”
Just then Shinji entered the habitat with Madhu, who had stopped to ask him a question about the greenhouses. “I’m anxious to take over the management of them as soon as possible,” she said. “Maybe before the Apollonaris lands this afternoon, we can go to the Hadriaca and get the plant and animal cabinets. The tilapia are not doing well, and I think the water tank you’ve got ready in Greenhouse 2 will be much better for them.”
“Sure,” said Shinji. “We’ve got four hours before they land.”
“Oh, can you show me the sick bay?” asked Armando. “I want to see what you’ve got, and where we can put the new equipment.”
“That won’t take long,” agreed Shinji.
Monika came out of her room at that moment. “Oh, and Shinji, can you show me the biology lab? I’ve got a similar interest; I’ve got lots of equipment on the way and we’ll need to plan what goes here and what goes in the new Mars Life Science Facility.”
“It should all fit in the facility,” replied Shinji. “We’ll need the space to expand the Geology lab.” He turned to his fellow physician. “Armando, let me show you the medical area; then I can show Monika the bio lab in habitat 2.”
“Okay, I’ll unpack, then,” said Monika, and she turned back to her room.
----------------------------------
Four more hours passed, then the Apollonaris descended from Phobos, where it had been updating the fuel manufacturing equipment, checking the scientific instruments, and conducting additional exploration. On board were the last three members of the expedition: Érico Lopes, a Brazilian geophysicist and computer expert; Paul Renfrew, a Canadian engineer and expert in using and maintaining Prospector telerobotically operated vehicles or “unmanned rovers”; and Carmen Segovia, a Spanish pilot and mechanical engineer. Roger drove over to get them; he couldn’t stay in the habitat any longer. Soon all eleven human beings living on Mars were walking around the Outpost, exploring the greenhouses and labs, unpacking their possessions, and gathering in the great room to chat. Will and Ethel started to cook the big supper that was planned that evening using a lot of imported, frozen meats and other delicacies they had run out of, as well as lots of Martian vegetables. Madhu came to help; it took three of them because everyone was hanging around and asking questions.
The sun set. Roger and Érico came inside; they had used the afternoon to walk to the top of Boat Rock, explore the crack separating it from Face Rock, and hike along the base of Layercake Mesa. Habitat 1 began to fill with smells of cooking. Sebastian and several others hauled the table and chairs in Habitat 2 to Habitat 1’s Great Room, so they all could sit. Ethel went and found a particular wedding present and opened it, because she already knew it was a beautiful linen tablecloth that would go well on one of the tables.
The food came out on a long table and they all lined up to fill their plates, then sat to eat and talk. The great room filled with laughter, more than it had heard before, for Mars now had almost twice as many crew on it as it had had during Columbus 1. Will looked at Ethel with a smile; it was thrilling to be part of a crowd after years of relative isolation.
“So, Érico, how was Phobos?” Will asked. The Brazilian was seated across the table from him.
“Fascinating. Though in some ways it was anticlimactic, after our visit to 2009KM20 on the flight out.”
“Oh, that’s true; I had forgotten. I apologize, I’m sure that’s not something to forget!”
“Definitely not! It wasn’t as big as Phobos, of course, but it was completely new, and it was a stony asteroid with interesting geology. The first human mission to an asteroid.”
“I guess the Columbus missions will be timed to visit an asteroid every time,” exclaimed Will. “We flew by a little one; fifty meters across.”
“If we return to Earth on schedule, we’ll visit 2015GH6,” added Paul Renfrew. “It’s pretty big; six kilometers long, and probably a loose collection of rocks. The Mars missions can do a lot of asteroid exploration, now that the transportation system’s tested and there are twenty thousand orbits of rocks in the computers.”
“You guys will be accompanied by a Lifter full of fuel, too,” noted Will. “So it’ll be much safer.”
“And we can thank you guys,” added Érico. “Columbus 1 broke the ground.”
“It was nothing, either,” added Will. “What do you guys think of Martian gravity?”
“I’m pretty well adjusted, now,” said Érico. “It’s pretty nice, in a pressure suit. You have almost normal terrestrial traction.”
“I’m still getting used to tasks like picking up spoonfuls of soup,” said Paul. “You can spill pretty easily!”
“You go slow,” agreed Will.
Ethel tapped him on the shoulder. “I think it’s time for the transition,” she said.
Will looked around. Everyone had finished eating. Most were drinking their coffee or tea. “Okay.” He stood and looked to Sebastian, who had been watching Will. He stood as well and the two of them walked to the end of the table with the food, where a small ship’s bell stood in its frame. Will picked up a small metal baton and tapped the bell twice quickly, then repeated it. Two pairs of rings pealed out.
Everyone immediately stopped talking and turned toward them.
“As outgoing Commander, it is my pleasure to welcome all of you to Mars,” began Will. “This is actually the second time the Outpost’s bell has been rung. When Columbus 1 was making its final preparations, Commander Laura Stillwell, an officer in the United States Navy, obtained the bell for our formal and official occasions. The only occasion that came along, however, was a wedding. We would have rung it to mark the transition in command from Laura Stillwell to me, but NASA, as you probably know, did not formalize the decision until Columbus 1 left Mars orbit.
“For the last nine months, three of us have lived here at Aurorae. We’ve been running scientific tests on rock and soil samples, generally catching up on an immense backlog of research, developing the greenhouses, and carrying out routine maintenance. I can’t tell you how thrilled the three of us are to see Columbus 2 arrive this sol. It’s not just a matter of supplies. We had run out of coffee and tea, we were getting tired of rabbit and chicken, our underwear and socks were getting pretty old and filled with holes, the filters were getting old and were no longer filtering out all of the Martian dust we were tracking in, and the rangers need new parts. But what you’ve really brought us is human company. The outpost is filled with laughter again. We hope the next eighteen months will see a lot of happiness and fellowship here, as well as lots of accomplishments. It took Columbus 1 about six months after we arrived here to begin to gel as a team. It was painful, but also quite exciting to watch it happen. I pledge all my effort to help us build a strong, unified, collegial, fun-filled team. And now I turn the commandership over to Sebastian Langlais. Sebastian, not only do I wish you great success, but I also pledge my loyalty to you.” Will reached down and picked up the Commander’s Log, a special book Laura Stillwell had brought. “This is the Commander’s Log. There are two pages of entries in here about the major events of the outpost. I’ve added half a page more, including a paragraph about the landings this sol. Commander Langlais, I now turn this book over to you.”
“Thank you, Commander Elliott.” Sebastian took the book and everyone applauded. The two men shook hands. He opened it briefly to take a look at the entries, then put it down on the table next to the bell. “Well, my friends, Mars has eleven people on it, and we have eighteen months before departure. I echo Will’s wise comments about the importance of building a strong, efficient, unified team. I hope we can accomplish that task quickly. We have a six to eight week construction period ahead of us. The shuttles this sol arrived with a third habitat, the Mars Life Science Facility, two greenhouses, and tonnes of consumables and spare parts. Two automated cargo vehicles go into Mars orbit in a month with a new Sunwing, metal and plastic making equipment, scientific instruments, a conestoga, and many other useful items. We’ll have half as much equipment to set up and twice as many personnel, so we should be able to do the work faster than Columbus 1.
“Then the scientific work begins. The Outpost needs two or three full-time people to keep it running. We should be able to keep the vehicles exploring almost constantly. The new conestoga that’s arriving is really great; much more spacious than the portahabs. As you know, we will have some very important and complicated decisions to make at that point: do we send out two vehicles or three; do we keep them out constantly or rotate them; do we explore north, west, south, east, or a combination thereof; do we emphasize the ‘Prospector’ telerobotically operated rovers or human exploration. We face some fascinating choices. I think the results will go down in history.
“Now, I understand we have a program of entertainment. Madhu?”
Sebastian stepped down and everyone applauded. Madhu Gupta-Anderson stood at her chair. “We do have a few brief acts. Érico has promised to sing for us, and I am pretty sure I have convinced Sebastian to play the violin for us. As you may know, he has brought a Stratavarius here! And by popular demand, I will perform a classic south Indian dance. After that, I suggest Will and Ethel pull out their wedding presents and open them. We can watch and applaud.”
Everyone nodded. Will looked at Ethel and she nodded as well. It would be an evening everyone would remember.