He had heard the stories, read the old report of the previous incident, and even seen the inventory listing detailing the orbital weapon being unleashed, but he still could hardly believe it. The Chinese Mars venture was not just here with great resources and manpower behind it, but also with some of man’s worst weaponry.
For the second time, Mars was going to feel the scorching nuclear fire of man’s ultimate weapon.
He stared at the screen and shook his head.
Of course, he’d follow the instructions. He was commander; what choice did he have? Besides, now that he’d lost comms and video from Base Five Two, he had nothing else to do.
He consoled himself with the thought that, for all he knew, Wei was already dead.
Regardless, he soon will be.
Deep down, Tung had always hoped life on Mars would be different. Here, they were not faceless numbers in a huge crowd like grains of sand on a beach, but much more rare. On Mars, each one of them was a fleck of gold dust. Here, he had liked to think, as the first colonists, they were uniquely important.
Apparently not.
Tung sat back and wondered if there was some way to question the order that would buy more time. He had sent a hub drone out there to get more information. Perhaps he could use that, and the need to turn that around and get it to a safe distance, as a way to at least get some data on what was happening out there before Beijing Command scorched the site.
But, he conceded, what would a delay achieve?
Wei would still end up dead.
A message alert sounded.
PING!
It was her.
“Yes?”
“You need to rest. You can wait for Beijing’s response from home.”
“It’s a crisis. I have to manage it.”
“I can help. Just ask.”
“There is nothing that can be done, not now.”
“What has happened? Is the survivor dead?”
“His name is Wei, but it doesn’t matter now. Beijing Command has ordered that the site be cleaned.”
Her voice went cold, something clear even through the line’s screening modulation. “Cleaned?”
“Yes. The whole base area is swamped in rubble from the impact, but also with debris from the landers. They have been completely destroyed.”
“That sounds like a problem.”
“Yes.”
“And NASA’s next pass?”
“Four and a half days.”
“They will see it.”
“That is why Beijing Command has ordered the cleaning.”
“When?”
“At sunrise.”
She paused for a moment, before coming back and saying, “Why so soon? Can they be delayed?”
“They wish to take care of the matter.”
“But the survivor…”
He was touched by her concern for the man, a lonely person out there trying to survive. “It’s too late. The order has been given.”
After another moment, she said, “I can help.”
He frowned, his brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Can you delay them by an hour?”
“An hour? Why?”
“Can you?”
“I have a hub drone heading out there to do some recon. I can ask them to delay so I can bring it back a safe distance.”
“Do it. Tell them the data of the site will be valuable, and the drone can also film the blast from the surface. Emphasize the last point as the visual of the blast will not just have scientific value for us, but also be useful as propaganda when the program is eventually revealed.”
He hadn’t thought about that, but it was something that might encourage Beijing to give him an extra hour. “What are you going to do?”
“Just get me the extra hour and I will save your survivor.”
Chapter 15
Yanjiang Er (Base Five Two), Mars
Wei’s initial search through the drifts of debris around the landers had been both worthwhile and heartbreaking. He’d found a treasure trove of ration packs, as well as piles of equipment and gear, but all of it had only highlighted his most pressing issue; his suit’s life support was running low. And that meant he was almost out of time.
I’ll never get to eat those ration packs!
When he had first started to search through the debris, he had begun to succumb to his exhaustion and a pounding headache, something no doubt exacerbated by recent events. The blow he’d taken to the head wasn’t helping. Luckily, when he had paused in his search to ponder if he should return to the survival tent in the lava tube, he’d stumbled upon something.
The Base Five Two rover.
The rover had been parked under the crew lander and seemed to have avoided damage when the huge vessel had toppled to the side. The bulky vehicle had been half buried in a rain of wreckage, loose panels, camo-tenting, and other ruin, but seemed largely intact. That meant the vehicle might still be able to hold a pressurized atmosphere and have power. The rover also had an independent comms array.
Quickly, he cleared a path to the vehicle’s airlock and went in.
The power was on and the small airlock cycled through. He then went in and checked the readings. The vehicle’s seals were good. With a sigh of relief, he took off his helmet and made his way to the front driver’s seat. Once there, he checked over the comms unit.
The deck showed full power.
The rover had its own complete comms setup, one that could work independently of the base’s more powerful array. From the vehicle, he should be able to link up with the satellite network in orbit. At worst, it might be patchy in some places, but out here, certainly by the plain of the basin, he should be fine for getting a signal.
He opened up a channel to Mars Command One and thought about what he was going to say.
He wondered, Where to start?
The deaths of his fellow crewmen—and the scare he’d gotten from Dog? But, of course, he’d imagined the whole Dog thing. That hadn’t happened. Couldn’t have. The whole thing had just been a trick of the light. And if he mentioned it, they’d think he had gone crazy.
Besides, the most important things to report right now were the death of his squad and ruin of the landers, followed by the spread of the debris field. The scattered ruin compromised the whole backbone of the mission and its need for secrecy.
He pulled out a ration pack from the rover’s supplies and opened it. The unit was a simple noodle mix that heated itself when breached. It would do for now. Any food would.
Ready, he began to broadcast to Mars Command One. “Houxing MingLing Yi, this is comms specialist Li Wei at Yanjiang Er. I need to report a catastrophic incident.”
He detached the chopsticks attached to the side of the ration pack and gave it a stir as the smell of beef stock and noodles filled the rover’s cabin while he waited for a response.
His stomach groaned.
Wei hoped he would not have to wait long. With every passing moment, his eyelids felt heavier, and now that he had finally stopped moving, he was fading.
He needed to sleep.
The comms deck lit up, filling him with relief.
Chapter 16
Houxing MingLing Yi (Mars Command One), Mars
Yong sent off the alert to Commander Tung as soon as the message came in.
It was Wei!
Yong had been on duty half the day and now most of the night while his commander had gone to his office to send his request for Beijing to delay the cleaning operation by an hour. The argument for the delay was framed around giving Mars Command One time to call home their drone hub.
They did have other hubs, but not many.
He and Commander Tung had made what use they could of the time delay between Mars and Earth, trying to force the issue. And while Tung had not specifically said why an hour’s difference would matter, he seemed to think it would for Wei. That was reason enough to try, as they all knew the lone survivor of Base Five Two was facing one of only two outcomes at sunrise: life or death.