A voice sounded out, heavily modulated. “Hello, Wei?”
After all that had happened, he began to wonder if this was real, or was he delusional? He absently checked his life support readings. His oxygen was running low; in fact, he might not even make it to sunrise after all.
But, he thought, what did he have to lose?
Taking a deep breath, he answered, “This is Wei, Base Five Two.”
“This is Ghost.”
He chuckled, but then calmed himself. “Ghost? What kind of a name is that?”
The speaker ignored his question, instead asking one of their own. “You are the only survivor?”
He thought on that for a moment, thinking of what he had thought he’d seen in the shadows of the lava tube.
Dog.
But that hadn’t been real…
…Just like Ghost probably wasn’t.
“Yes, Ghost, I’m the last one. The others are all dead.”
“I came to help.”
That got this attention.
That was what Mars Command One had said; that they’d send someone.
He started to get up, looking around as he did.
Ghost’s modulated voice said, “I’m behind you.”
He froze, his heart thumping in his chest. Slowly, he started to turn, although his mind filled with images of Dog standing there discolored and impossibly dead with no helmet on.
And there stood Ghost.
Ghost was about five paces away, fully suited, but in worn gear half lost to the surroundings due to an effective camo scheme.
Wei was too far away to see any detail through the visor, but was relieved to see someone in a Chinese suit, and one in which the occupant still had to wear a helmet. After a moment, he said, “Hello, Ghost.” His voice was calm, but he felt like crying.
Ghost stepped forward, the dust of the recent landslip still hanging in the air. “Hello, Wei. I’m glad I reached you in time.”
“In time for what?”
“Before Mars Command One’s drone hub gets here.”
He was surprised by the answer. “Aren’t you from Command?”
“No.”
“Who are you?”
“Wei, I am a Renegade. I was nearby and picked up the comms about what happened.”
A Renegade!
They were real!
And they were here, in front of him, to rifle through the ruins of his and his dead comrades’ base!
He was horrified. “You came to steal from us!”
Ghost stopped moving closer, now standing just over a pace away.
Wei could see through her visor.
Her!
His heart skipped a beat.
“You’re a woman!”
“Yes, Wei. And if you don’t come with me now, you’ll die here. I know your air is running low, but even if it wasn’t, that’s not what would kill you if you remained.”
“I’m not going with you. You Renegades are thieves!”
“No, we’re not. Besides, you’ll die if you stay.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mars Command One has just received an order from Beijing to clean up the site. There’s only one way they can before a NASA orbiter passes overhead, an orbiter Beijing’s hacker assets in Shanghai have only half compromised.”
“They said they would send help!”
“Wei, come with me. I can get you to safety.”
“To where?”
“To our community. We have our own habitat.”
Wei shook his head in confusion, wondering, Is this really happening?
Maybe it was all just a nightmare and I’ll wake up back in the lander with my comrades around me and the sky meteor-free?
“Wei, we need to go now. Right now. Before they get here.”
“How can you even be here? There are no women on Mars, not yet. You’re the reward they promised us!”
She wore a sad smile. “Wei, they told us the same thing, that men would come later as a reward for our hard work. They said we would be married to a preselected man and that we would then be held in great honor as our base became the nucleus of a colonial town. They said our children would be the first born on Mars and well placed to take advantage of the riches here.”
“Mars Command One said nothing about women here! Nothing at all!”
“But here I am.”
He had no answer for that.
She pushed the point, noting the sky getting brighter as the sun threatened to rise above the horizon. “So, why should you trust them with anything else they would say? If they lied about that, what else have they lied to you about?”
“What do you mean?”
“Wei, look at all the debris here, at how much there is.”
He looked around, taking in the site. White, blue, silver, black, and even bits of green and yellow were scattered everywhere. “It’s a mess, and that’s why they will come. If they don’t clean it up, the Americans will discover we are here. I heard them say something about it.”
She just looked at him, but there was understanding there, as if she remembered believing the same thing. “The NASA orbiter is due in four days. Do you think the site can be tidied up by then?”
He glanced around at the sprawling field of ruin.
It was a good question.
A very good question.
Even if he wasn’t hindered by his suit, such a task would take days to even begin, and he still wouldn’t be able to tackle some of the larger pieces of debris. The two shells of the landers alone would be impossible to deal with. And, with a sinking feeling, he knew Mars Command One was not able to dispatch hundreds of people to do it. They just didn’t have the resources.
Not yet.
Quietly, he said, “Probably not.”
She nodded. “But they will clean it up, because they have to protect their secret. And that only leaves them one option.”
“What?” he asked.
“Beijing has already authorized it. We Renegades are pretty good at intercepting comms; that’s how I not only knew you were here, but your name.”
“But how can they clean all this up?”
“They’ll nuke it.”
“What?”
“A nuke will burn away the wreckage and just leave a blasted waste they can blame on the meteor. Think about it. All the debris that would give away Base Five Two is currently scattered over a few acres. One nuke will incinerate or vaporize all of it.”
“They don’t have nuclear weapons here!”
She shook her head and shot back, “Or women, too.”
He stood in silence for a moment.
She took another step forward, now within reach. “Come with me. You’ll die here.”
“But where?”
“I can’t tell you, but I can take you there. I have permission.”
An alert went off in Wei’s suit, warning he was on his last half hour of life support. The systems in the suit were at their limits for recycling his air supply and scrubbing the carbon dioxide. He needed either a fresh supply, another suit, or to get into a pressurized habitat.
She reached out a gloved hand to him. “Come.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“You’re a Renegade,” he said, the words sounding hollow in his mouth.
“You’ll die if you stay, simply because of your suit.”
He stood there in silence, knowing her words were true. After all, he’d already had more than his fair share of luck.
Her voice softened. “Please.”
He looked at her eyes and wondered why he hesitated. She was right; he would die here. And Mars Command One had lied to him, so why should he trust them in rescuing him?
Wei reached out and took her hand in his own.
She smiled and said, “Just tell them I kidnapped you. Come, I have a rover.”
Chapter 18
Houxing MingLing Yi (Mars Command One), Mars
Commander Tung and Yong sat side by side as the drone hub approached Base Five Two. They didn’t know what they were going to see, but they were both still buzzing with the received news from Beijing that the nuclear strike would be delayed by ninety minutes. The confirmation had been enough to reenergize them, burning away their fatigue.