The survival tent had been a haven and had allowed him to live through the breach, but he could not stay there. Within days, he’d run out of food, water, and air—if not sooner. What he really needed to do was go and see what was left of the landers.
Wei took a deep breath, psyching himself up.
He could do this.
With each passing moment, his concussion eased and he could better remember why he was here and what he would need to do to survive. But there was still much that was hazy to him.
Nonetheless, he had no choice; he had to get moving.
He stepped forward to the airlock door. Before he punched the release, he took another look at what awaited him—the ruined habitat.
Spilled crates, loose wires, blown grow lights dangling on cables and frames, shredded leaves, and frosted garden furrows—all of it lay before him. But it was the still bodies of his comrades that he couldn’t tear his gaze from.
The red dust of Mars covered everything, making it look as though they had lain there for years.
At least he had killed the jarring klaxons and irritating strobe lights when he had switched off everything but what was left of the two thirds burnt out grow light circuit.
But now was a time for action, not reflection
He was ready.
Wei pursed his lips and hit the release.
The airlock door opened.
He stepped out into the lava tube’s somber gloom.
Wei could hear the hiss of his life support in his helmet, which only left him to wonder, how long could he survive if there was little left to salvage?
And would Mars Command One send any help?
Protocols said they wouldn’t, that each mission had to be self-sufficient and succeed or fail based on its own efforts.
But this was different. They’d been hit by a meteor and deserved help.
Didn’t they? Didn’t he?
He’d only been on the surface for a week!
Wei knew he would find out soon enough, but first he needed to check on his comrades.
His gaze dropped to Shan’s body in front of him.
Shan was still, his suit covered in a layer of red dust, and the faceplate on his helmet was covered in a web of cracks.
Wei knelt down to check on him, but he already knew his friend was dead.
The man who saved me.
The cracks were extensive across the visor, although it seemed intact. A red light flashed inside the helmet indicating life support had run out and the suit’s charge was also about to fail.
Wei lifted up his friend’s head and peered through the visor.
Shan’s face was discolored, his lips already licked by ice, and his open eyes were stained by hemorrhaging, as was his skin.
With a sigh of resignation, Wei gently put Shan back down and went to check on the others.
While it took some time, Wei eventually found most of his squad as he hunted through the deep shadows and dust-haunted patches of light.
Some had died because their suits had been damaged, holed by airborne debris as it was sucked out of the breach, while others had removed their helmets when they had first gotten through the airlock to what was supposed to be safety. A few looked as though their suits remained intact, but they lay still. Crushed by falling stone from the cave roof or collapsing framework set up for the lights, wiring, life support, or crops.
Wei couldn’t find one crew member; their medic, Dog.
He’d been sure he’d glimpsed Dog fallen in the corn crop during the breach, but the space there was now empty. Wei’s head was still spinning, so he couldn’t be sure what he had seen.
In any case, Dog had not had his helmet on from what Wei could remember, regardless of where he’d been during the chaos. And that meant Dog was dead.
Some patches of the lava tube hosted piles of rubble from the roof. There was even another breach hole, this one as big as a car, over some of the secondary crop beds. Wei looked up through the opening to see the night sky. He wondered it was possible Dog had been buried under the rockfall.
In any case, he now had to worry about the living.
Him.
In spite of the throbbing wound on his head, he couldn’t deny he had been the lucky one.
He owed it all to his friend Shan.
But, for now, it was time to go.
As if to emphasize the idea, one of the grow light bulbs popped and went dark, leaving only half a dozen burning.
Wei didn’t waste any time, as he knew he had other tasks to do. He turned from the bodies and shadows that only grew deeper with each dying grow light, and headed instead to the airlock. He needed to get outside and check on the landers.
Wei approached the airlock, focused not so much on the lit door, but instead the wall around it that had been built up by robotic units during the crew’s crossing. The breach was clear, a hole where a projectile from one of the meteor impacts had punched straight through.
Looking at the breach, he figured a hole like that would be much easier to patch than the collapsed cave ceiling further back. He decided, once he got to the lander and assured himself of his short-term survival, he’d see if he could reactivate the construction robots and get repairs seen to.
The lander had a year’s worth of rations for the full squad, or over ten years’ worth for him by himself—even if Mars Command One never sent any help. If he was going to be stuck here for a long time, especially by himself, he wanted more space to move around in than just the emergency tent or the lander. If he could reseal the lava tube, he could possibly restart the squad’s work. The hole in the roof would be a problem, but the robotic worker units were more than capable when given the right solution.
That would at least keep him busy and in time give him plenty of fresh food.
Behind him, one of the grow bulbs started to flicker on and off.
The airlock still had power and looked intact. He used the keypad to change the setting so it began a manual cycle, one that would match to the local atmosphere, as he didn’t want to be waiting for it to try and build up the air pressure.
The door opened to let him in.
He entered and closed it.
He heard a muffled thump behind him.
Wei started. The bang had been loud, even through his helmet and suit.
Turning around, he checked what had made the sound.
There was nothing there, just the closest grow lights lighting the red dust-coated ruin of not just his mission and friends, but what had supposed to have been his future.
And then the struggling bulb flashed for a moment over the ruins of the corn crop.
Wei started, certain he could see someone standing there in that split second of illumination.
He waited, staring into the lava tube as his skin crawled.
His suit beeped a warning, telling him he was entering his last hour of life support.
Wei knew he should go back in. He had got a new helmet from the tent, but he should have also changed suits.
I wasn’t thinking straight…
The light flashed for a moment again, and then sparked, flaring before burning out. But not before it illuminated the silhouette again in the corn.
Wei cried out in fright, frantically punching back behind him to find the external door release.
There, for a moment, stood Dog, helmetless and dead in a crop of ruin.
The door opened behind him, letting Wei out. He fell backwards to land on the pavers around the entrance, but his gaze was locked on the internal airlock door’s window.
He screamed, got to his feet, and then ran.
Chapter 12
Houxing MingLing Yi (Mars Command One), Mars
Commander Tung stared at the blank windows on Yong’s screens.