16
Circumnavigation
Érico scanned the eastern horizon ahead of them for any sign of Jerry’s expedition. The area they were passing through was pretty bouldery, though; it was the Isidis/Syrtis border, a zone where an impact crater rim and its bouldery ejecta blanket yielded to lava plains. Still, the expedition should be visible by now.
He glanced at the GPS coordinates, then called Jerry. “I still don’t see you guys.”
“I just spotted your conestoga; a bit north of west.”
“So you should be a bit south of east, then.” Érico looked very closely. “Ah, I just saw sunlight reflecting off your windshield! Yes, I see you!”
“We’re just a bit over a klick away!” exclaimed Jerry.
“I copy.” Érico pushed another button, to call Will. “Will, we’re just about to meet up! I’m starting transmission from our cameras!”
“Great!” replied Will. “I’m glad I won’t have to stay up too much longer!”
“I thought Marshall wouldn’t go back to sleep.”
“He wouldn’t; but now he’s sleeping anyway.” It was 3 p.m. at Isidis, but 5 a.m. at Aurorae.
“Go to the right of that boulder; it’s smoother,” said Patrice to Érico, pointing to a boulder about thirty meters ahead. Érico was heading toward its left side.
“Okay.” Érico turned the steering wheel slightly. He was in the lead and kept the ranger moving forward steadily at six kilometers per hour, with the bulldozer blade set to excavate about five centimeters into the regolith. The result was a smooth road surface cleared of all rocks, with a low ridge of excavated material on the left side about sixty centimeters high, forming a very clear road edge. Sometimes bedrock was visible and Érico raised the blade slightly, allowing the pile of material in front of it to bury the rough rock. Rarely, he had to stop, back up, and scrape material to form a smooth surface.
About one hundred meters behind the ranger, the conestoga followed, but driving two meters to the right; its bulldozer blade was set to create a similar ridge of excavated material on the right hand edge of the road. This made automated driving very simple because the automated buggies had two clear, parallel ridges four meters apart to steer between. Following the conestoga by one hundred meters were two buggies pulling a portahab. Finally, hanging one kilometer behind them was a truck pulling a supply trailer and their one-tonne nuclear reactor and its attached stirling cycle engine, which turned out a continuous 150 kilowatts of power. The power was fed through a cord to a hydrolysis and sabatier unit, which made methane and oxygen from water and Martian air. Every morning before they set out, the ranger would bulldoze a big loop through the terrain around the reactor, pull up to the back of the reactor trailer, and refill its oxygen and methane tanks. The conestoga and the buggies would follow, and then the expedition would push forward again, sometimes progressing as much as seventy-five kilometers in a long sol’s work.
The new arrangement had worked remarkably well. Now the end of construction of “Route One” or the Mars Circumnavigational Trail was at hand.
Érico felt his excitement rising as his expedition got closer and closer to Jerry’s two vehicles and two buggies. He could see the ranger and conestoga now. A few minutes later he could see the buggies and the truck as well. He glanced at the computer screen in front of Patrice, who sat in the middle seat next to him. The road surface was projected onto the image of the terrain—the Mars Exploration Society amateurs had gotten extremely good at selecting optimal routes across the surface—and Érico could even see the route they were clearing linking up with the route Jerry was clearing. The two expeditions were just a hundred meters apart, now.
One minute later, the lead rangers were nose to nose and Érico stopped, smiling broadly at Jerry, whom he could see behind the steering wheel of the other vehicle just two meters away. “We did it!” he exclaimed over the radio.
“We did!” agreed Jerry. “Incredible! All the way around! We’ve linked up a road that goes all the way around!”
“Congratulations, gentlemen!” said Will from the other side of Mars. “This is a truly historic moment.”
“The credit goes to Jerry,” said Érico. He was a disappointed to say that; he had contributed just about as much as McCord had.
“Yes, we managed to clear 165 degrees of the 300 degrees that had to be completed,” said Jerry. He looked at Érico through the windshield. “Of course, it helped that we got the stirling first, so we had the extra kilowatts.”
“We also lost a few sols when the ranger’s bulldozer blade had to be welded back together,” added Érico.
“Not to mention the great fossil locality we found last month,” added Karol, who was listening from the conestoga.
“We hit some pretty rough territory, though,” commented Jerry. “There were a lot of lava flows to go around and the degraded ones we went over in Amazonis were torturously slow. The fumerole was a fascinating delay. And then there was the dust storm.” That had been quite an experience, forcing them to travel half as fast and stay inside the vehicles for six sols.
“I’ve got a bottle of champagne, so let’s dock together and celebrate,” suggested Patrice.
“Watch the quantity if you want to go outside,” warned Will, ever vigilant.
“It’s late in the sol; we won’t drive any farther this sol,” replied Jerry. “We can have an early supper and explore a bit tomorrow. Let’s dock.”
“Acknowledged,” said Érico. He turned his steering wheel sharply to the left, then drove forward, passing Jerry’s ranger on its north side and widening the road even more. Jerry plowed forward to connect the two halves of the Circumnavigational Trail together, officially completing it, then turned around and began to plow the roadway wider to the south in order to create a very wide space for docking. Meanwhile, the two conestogas reached other, turned around, and backed up, docking rear to rear. Then the buggies, which had been pulling the portahabs, maneuvered the portahab’s rear airlock to dock to the conestogas’ drivers side doors. The buggies were then detached from the portahabs and driven away, and the rangers docked to the fronts of the portahabs. In a few minutes all six pressurized vehicles—rangers, portahabs, and conestogas--were docked together securely.
Érico, Karol, Shinji, Carmen, and Patrice opened the hatch to the other expedition’s conestoga. Jerry was waiting to hug everyone and shake hands. “Congratulations, we did it!” he repeated over and over.
The atmosphere was heady, joyful. They opened the champagne bottle; it sprayed all over the rear cabin of the conestoga and they laughed. They brought folding chairs into the main cabin so that all ten of them could squeeze in, ever wary of the two escape routes if there was a pressurization problem. Millions tuned in to catch a glimpse of their celebration.
“We’ve conquered Mars!” exclaimed Jerry, with a laugh, raising his glass. Everyone toasted and drank.
“To dozens of more trails and dozens of vehicles cruising them!” replied Érico.
“Here, here!” someone replied, and they all drank again.
“We’ve got to get some supper, too,” said Patrice.
“Well, my team traveled farther, so your team has to feed us,” replied Jerry.
“It’s only fair,” agreed Paul, who had been riding with Jerry.
Shinji and Carmen retreated into their conestoga to heat up a meal. In half an hour they brought it over, and they all ate. The champagne had gone to their heads quickly on empty stomachs, but no one had to go outside, so there was no problem.
The sun set about the time they finished eating. Coffee came out and they felt a bit more sober. Érico began to smile at Carmen and she smiled back; they were anticipating a quiet evening together in their portahab. Jerry rose. “Okay folks, let’s review the plan. It’s July 15; two months before blastoff. We completed the Circumnavigational in record time, far sooner than anyone thought possible.”
“God bless the nukes,” replied Shinji. It was true; they had been able to travel twice as fast as any expedition on Mars before because they had robust, mobile energy sources that made power-hungry road-clearing techniques feasible.
“You’re right,” agreed Jerry. “We’ll be heading back to the Outpost after a morning expedition to the volcanic field ten klicks south of here. We’re heading back westward, since that’s the shorter route.”
It was also the route that took Jerry and his team all the way around; Érico and his people would be backtracking. That way, Jerry would get the credit for the effort. But Érico didn’t mind. Jerry was leaving; he was staying. He’d see the other half of Route 1, especially the Tharsis Plateau and its volcanoes, some other time. “We should also consider some exchange of crew,” he suggested.
“I want to switch with Paul and ride with Lisa for a while,” exclaimed Karol.
There was a moment of silence. Riding was not all he had in mind; everyone knew Karol and Lisa were close. “Fine with me, if Paul doesn’t mind,” said Jerry.
“Oh, it’s fine with me,” replied Paul.
“We’ll get back to the Outpost in about two weeks, right?” asked Érico.
Jerry nodded. “It’s a nine thousand kilometer drive. If each vehicle makes a two-hour geology stop every sol we’ll do four geology excursions and will manage ten hours of driving at fifty kilometers per hour. Add thirty kilometers per hour of automated driving for nine hours every night; that’s 770 kilometers per sol, total. We’ll also lose one time zone almost every sol. The trip will take twelve sols.”
“Good. That means by August 1, an expedition can head southward from the Outpost. With these new driving techniques and the long summer days, we should be able to reach the South Pole by mid September.”
“That’s the time of blastoff,” noted Jerry.
“I know, but there will still be three vehicles at the Outpost for the blastoff, which is plenty.”
“You’ll have to run the plan past Will and Mission Control,” reminded Jerry.
“Of course. It’d be nice, with the Circumnavigational Trail finished, that we finish the Polar Trail as well before the southern autumn arrives,” replied Érico.
“Yes, that would be good,” agreed Jerry, though his tone had a growl to it. He and Érico had grown jealous of each other lately, and Érico was happy about Jerry’s success with Route 1 only because he could count on personal success with Route 2 shortly thereafter.
“We can all be very satisfied personally by this achievement,” replied Paul, trying to heal the tension everyone could feel. “This is a really unique achievement we have all contributed to. The years 2025 and 2026 will go down in history as great milestones in Mars exploration.”
“Let’s drink another toast to that,” agreed Karol, with a smile.
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The next morning, the combined expedition drove over to the lava flows and all ten of them got out to explore together. It was quite an experience, tackling the geology site en masse. They actually outnumbered the geology ground support personnel, most of whom were on summer vacation at the time. A few samples were taken, though not too many; after six years on Mars, there wasn’t much unusual or interesting about the site.
Finished, they all climbed back into their vehicles and headed westward on the Circumnavigational, up a long, gradual slope that would take them across Syrtis Major’s ancient volcano and onto the ancient cratered highlands of Mars on their way back to the Outpost. Paul and Érico got into the same ranger and drove together; it gave them a chance to catch up.
“I’m surprised you’re heading for the South Pole. Aren’t you tired of exploring?”
Érico sighed. “Yes, I suppose I am. But I want to accomplish something big this year. My expedition did just about as much work on the Circumnavigational as McCord’s, but he gets the credit. It isn’t fair.”
“No, it isn’t. But he’s heading home next month, this is his big accomplishment, it’s the culmination of his career, really. So I’m willing to give him a break.”
“Well, I’m not.” He paused to think. “I’ll be back to the Outpost in early October, and at that point I’ll want to rest and move on to other tasks for a while. Carmen feels it’s time to start a family.”
“Really? It’s amazing how much her views have changed over the last two years.”
“Me, too. I never thought I’d be a father on Earth, let alone on Mars. But if we’re going to stay, and if our friends are all going to have families, we might as well, also. The Strogers plan to work on it as well.”
“Good for them. Monika and I want a child as well.”
“Are you getting excited about the wedding?”
“Yes! It feels right. She’s been doing all the planning, and now that Mars has wedding gowns and can make lots of kinds of food, there’s some planning to do! She emails me almost every evening about something. She wants to make the first wedding invitations issued for a joint Earth-Mars wedding.”
Érico smiled. “That is surprising. Well, don’t rush the plans for children too much. Carmen and I have really enjoyed the last eighteen months of marriage without children.”
“I’m sure, but the clock is ticking for Monika and I a bit more.”
“That’s true; you’re 37 now, right?”
Paul nodded. “And so is Monika. We both feel ready to settle down. When we get back to Aurorae we want to look around for a piece of land somewhere on Little Colorado Trail that we can claim as our own. We won’t be able to build there, or anything like that, but we’d like to have a piece of land anyway.”
“Really? I guess we’ll have a town meeting at some point soon to talk about sale of land. I suppose Carmen and I will buy something, too.”
“It’ll give us a sense of roots here,” said Paul. “What exploration do you want to do, after the South Pole?”
Érico considered. “I’m not sure. We need a Tharsis Trail connecting the volcanoes together; the road should go to at least one of the peaks as well. We need a road from Argyre across Hellas to Hadriaca and Tyrrhena Patera. A road that drives along the northern crustal discontinuity would be really useful, too. And we haven’t gotten close to the Elysium volcanic field yet, either; Jerry saved himself a month of road clearing by avoiding it! So there are a lot of projects to tackle, yet. This is a big planet and there are a lot of places to see.”
“I understand Columbus 4 will bring two more nukes and three more vehicles, so we’ll have a lot of options.”
“Including three-vehicle expeditions again. This two-vehicle arrangement is okay, but it isn’t ideal.”
“No. Thank God the rangers and conestogas have proved really reliable.”
“Ten years of operating them on the moon worked a lot of the bugs out of the design.” Érico sighed. “As much as I enjoy exploration, though, I think I’d rather slow down a bit and enjoy family life. Once we have a kid, I want to stay around the Outpost for a while. It’s a different phase of life.”
“You sound like you’re ready to retire!”
“In a way, I am. Six years of exploring this world has just about burned me out. I’d like to take my time for a while and see Aurorae build up.”
“I can understand that,” agreed Paul. “A happy, stable marriage and family is very satisfying.”
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Eve Gilmartin pulled the magnetic resonance image from the printer. It was unusual to print something out; they didn’t have a lot of paper. But this was an unusual situation. “There it is,” she said to Madhu, pointing. “That’s your left lung. The spot is about the size of a small coin; less than a centimeter across.”
Madhu looked, simultaneously fascinated and horrified. “And you can’t tell what it is?”
Eve shook her head. “Only a biopsy can determine what it is, and we don’t have the capability to do that here. It could be completely harmless. It could go away in a few months, or it could persist and be benign. Or it could be early stage lung cancer. We’ve been breathing a lot of dust, and the particles are extremely fine. They cause silicosis in enough quantity and silicosis can lead to lung cancer.”
“Could this be silicosis, then?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think so.”
Madhu stared, horrified at the choices she faced. “So you’d recommend I’d return to Earth?”
“Well, if you didn’t have a baby I would. I don’t know what I’d do if I were in your shoes. I am very sorry to give you this news. Roger could raise Sam for a while and you could probably fly back here in two years, or maybe four.”
Madhu shook her head. “I could also die far from Roger, or be too sick to ever fly back. There’s no way Sam can fly back to Earth?”
Eve shook her head. “If he vomited in weightlessness, he could choke to death. He doesn’t know what to do. And the radiation exposure would be very dangerous for him at such a tender age.”
Madhu closed her eyes, shocked and horrified by the choice. “And can I wait until Columbus 4 arrives with medications?”
“Probably. If it’s lung cancer, it’s probably fairly slow growing. We can import chemotherapy drugs and I can rig up something to give you radiation treatments if you want to try that. If it comes to it, we could operate. Shinji is pretty good, and of course we’d have the advice of the absolute best experts on Earth. There are options if you decide to stay.”
“Eve, what choice do I have, really? My baby’s five and a half months old. I can’t leave him with Roger and I can’t take him back to Earth. I’m not even sure it would be that safe for me to fly back to Earth. I’d spend six months between the planets with no physician.”
“If this is cancerous, it shouldn’t be serious in six months, but we can get other opinions if you want.”
“No. I can’t leave, Eve.”
“I understand.” Eve looked at her and tears welled up in her eyes. Tears welled up in Madhu’s eyes as well. Eve embraced her patient and they both began to cry.
----------------------------
The air in the new “greenhouse” had the tang of ozone in it; it was the smell of new duricrete construction, because the material gave off a whiff of ozone for a few weeks after it hardened. Will looked down the ten-meter trench they had excavated in the regolith and lined with ordinary duricrete. Overhead were sheets of plastic, meticulously glued together to form an airtight barrier, duricreted into place, and stretched taught by the air pressure beneath.
“It’s too bad the plastic isn’t more transparent,” he said. His voice echoed in the empty, but pressurized space. “I gather from the presence of two light sources that there’s a mirror above the dome, reflecting light in?”
“Yes,” replied Pavel. “This plastic is the best we can make, right now. I admit it isn’t very good, but it does admit 80% of the light falling on it, and the translucent character diffuses the light.”
“That probably is better for the plants. It’s pretty warm in here.” Will reached and felt the walls. The duricrete still needed to be sprayed with a plastic lining. The material was warm to the touch.
“We imported a lot of heat from the solar power units to warm it up, and now the sunlight is adequate.”
“So, once we spray plastic over the duricrete to protect it from moisture, we can haul in the plants?”
Pavel nodded. “It’ll be a bit experimental because we don’t have filters, but we have sensors in here to monitor the carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen levels, and we can add CO2 as needed. If we start accumulating nitrogen oxides, ammonia, methane, and other trace gasses, right now we’ll have to vent the atmosphere to the outside, but we can afford to do that.”
“How long before the plastic and duricrete starts to leak?”
“A few years, we think. We’ll have to refurbish this space periodically. Lisa’s ready to move in pots and trays of soil and get it set up. If it works as well as we think, the Mars Commission will be importing clear plastic for the roof only.”
“Then let’s get it started.” Will pointed toward the far end. “Does the next building go there, or another ten meters farther north?”
“Right there. The duricrete wall is a meter and a half thick; on the other side is the beginning of the foundation hole for the building.”
“Good. How’s the progress on the design?”
“They’re just about finished. The details of the garage doors are tricky.”
“Well, we need a garage, and it’s surprising we’ve never gotten one all this time. Some of the vehicle maintenance is almost impossible in a pressure suit.”
“You all will have a very good facility, and pretty large; it’ll be usable for assembly of large objects as well. Have you seen the proposal to install an airtight Kevlar barrier around the building?”
“Yes. Will the Kevlar be able to retain enough pressure so that the area around the building can support plant life? The report didn’t say.”
“I asked about that. They didn’t want to make the commitment in writing yet, but privately they think it can. The pressure would not be high enough for humans.”
“I figured.” Will looked around at the future greenhouse again. “Thanks, Pavel, for this and all the construction you’ve supervised here over the last year and a half. You’ve moved us forward enormously. We’ll be able to live much more comfortably as a result.”
“It’s been a pleasure, Commander, and I’ll be providing ground support, so I’ll still be involved. This has been the experience of a lifetime.”
“It’s a shame you can’t stay.”
Pavel shrugged. “I have a family. Besides, this place isn’t for me; I can’t cope with the tight living spaces and the constant need for pressure suits. I want to go swimming again, fly a glider, and maybe take a Mediterranean cruise.”
“Those all sound nice.”
“But I will be providing support, like I said. I know how persuasive you’ve been in convincing people to stay! You’ve almost convinced me.”
“I think I almost convinced Jerry, too, but he is heading back to Earth next month.” Will turned and walked back to the airlock. Pavel followed. They entered the building. It was finished now, the rooms ready for occupancy, the kitchen and great room ready to take over from Habitat 3’s. For six months they had been installing pipes, wiring, and doors, painting walls, and moving in new furniture. Meanwhile, the pressure had held quite well, and minor leaks had been easily fixed. Duricrete buildings were more porous than the Kevlar and nomex habitats; they constantly leaked at a very slow rate. But the greenhouses produced oxygen at a high enough rate to replace the losses.
From the new building Will walked back to his office in Habitat 1. He walked slowly through the pedestrian tunnel in spite of its icy temperatures; he loved the view of the Outpost. It was becoming quite impressive.
Once at his office, he saw he had a message from Heather Kimball.
“Good sol, Will. We got the results of the poll we commissioned. They show that your strategy of portraying Mars as a family friendly place has been very appealing. The polling company asked the questions of six thousand people in the Mars Commission countries. Seventy-five percent think the personnel on Mars should be able to stay long term and start families there ‘if medical and educational issues can be resolved.’ Seventy percent say they can identify with the Mars mission more than the lunar exploration efforts. Sixty-six percent say Mars will eventually be ‘colonized’ and ‘will become a great nation.’ Sixty-one percent favored exporting Martian resources such as fossils and gold. A whopping eighty-two percent favored buying and selling Martian land. Asked whether the funding level for Mars exploration should be increased, left the same, or decreased, only twenty-seven percent favored a cutback; forty-one percent thought it should be left the same and thirty-two percent thought it should be increased.
“We were also surprised by how many people were willing to contribute privately and personally to the exploration effort, and how many people said they’d consider joining the Mars Exploration Society. MES is planning a major membership campaign based on the results. It’s clear that a segment of the middle class—usually aged 18 to 39—is fascinated by space exploration in general and Mars exploration specifically and is willing to support it if the services are designed carefully. Just keep sending visuals of babies and craggy cliffs coming! The moon and low earth orbit can’t compete with either one. Bye.”
Will had to chuckle at Kimball’s last comment. Intrepid explorers coming home to their families: it was indeed an appealing image. He had hit on it gradually—accidentally—but it was obvious to even NASA that it was the way to go.
He hit reply and acknowledged Kimball’s message. Then he headed to Habitat 3. On the way he passed Habitat 2; Ethel sat in the great room with Marshall and Sam while Roger and Madhu sat on a couch together nearby.
Everyone looked so serious, Will stopped. Madhu looked up and her face immediately told him that something was very seriously wrong. He stopped in his tracks. “What happened?”
She looked at him a moment. “Eve gave me a body scan this sol and found a spot on my left lung.”
”Spot? What sort of spot?”
Madhu shrugged. “Maybe cancerous. Maybe not. I’ve been exposed to a lot of sub-micron dust; it could be caused by silicosis. The spot isn’t very large. It might just go away.”
“So. . . what will you do?”
“Will, she recommends that I go back to Earth.”
“Oh. . . I see. I’m sorry, Madhu.”
“But surely chemotherapy will work here,” said Ethel.
“There’s a new chemotherapy drug for lung cancer. It can be here in about ten months, and that probably will not be too late, since lung cancers are often slow growing. Eve and Shinji could try to operate, but with the facilities here that would be immensely risky, even using laparascopic techniques.”
Will shook his head. “Madhu, what a terrible dilemma. I’m really, really sorry.”
“Thanks, Will. This is just one of those things life can put in your path. I have to stay here for Sam.”
“But you could go, be cured, and fly back in two years,” said Roger.
Madhu shook her head firmly. “No, I have to stay for Sam. I’m not leaving.”
“Honey, maybe it would be better—”
“No, I’m, staying!”
Roger looked down at the floor and said nothing. No one else spoke.
“Let’s talk to Eve and Shinji together,” suggested Will. “And figure out what other options exist.”
“It doesn’t sound like there are others,” replied Madhu.