Houxing MingLing Yi (Mars Command One), Mars
Yong didn’t really know what he was supposed to be doing in the utility tunnel, but he’d gone as ordered by Commander Tung. Apparently there was an odd sound that needed to be checked out, although he had no idea why he had been called on to deal with it. Normally, if Yong had received such an odd request, he would have suggested that someone from maintenance would have been better suited to look after it, but the last line of the order had convinced him there was more to this than met the eye.
That last line had been: …seeing as you’re experienced now in dealing with matters of radiation.
So, Yong had accessed the corridor to the reactor, utilizing a temporary pass in Commander Tung’s name. He went in with a rad counter and a pile of questions, making his way along the white corridor that had been dug into the mountain, listening for an odd noise.
But all he could hear was the usual hiss of life support.
Finally, he approached the two doors at the end. He knew one went to the reactor, the other to a control room. But as he closed on them, he noticed a puddle of liquid on the floor.
He stopped and examined it, the fluid leaking from a vent in the wall.
That was when he heard something other than the hiss of the ventilation.
“Yong?”
It was Commander Tung, his voice distant, but he couldn’t be seen.
Yong looked around, but stood alone.
Yet it didn’t take him long to focus on the grill in the wall. He knelt down and listened.
The air hissed as it was pumped through the base, occasional rattles from unseen machines joined by the rhythmic beat of motors and pumps. But that wasn’t what he was listening for, not now.
“Yong?”
And there it was again, and the source was unmistakable. He was sure it was Commander Tung.
“Yes, sir?” he answered awkwardly into the grill.
“Put your toolbox down and then get into the ventilation and crawl through the ducting towards me. Don’t mind the leaking water, it’s just there as a prop to make it look there is a problem.”
He nodded, even though his commander could not see him, and then got to work.
Yong emerged from the ducting into a spacious room with custom furniture and actual carpet. He was stunned. Commander Tung was there to pull him out, letting his junior officer have a moment to orient himself and look around.
Finally, Yong said, “Where am I?”
“My private quarters. We can talk here without being monitored.”
Yong looked around, stunned at how roomy the space was. There was even a king-sized bed, and an atrium garden as big as his own quarters.
It was like being back on Earth!
“Are you sure it’s safe?” he asked, but it wasn’t Tung who answered.
From behind him, a woman’s voice sounded. “Yes, Yong.”
He spun around in shock.
Commander Tung said, “Officer Yong, this is my wife, Liu Yang.”
“A woman! Here, on Mars!”
The couple looked at him, gauging his response.
Finally, Commander Tung said, “In the past few days, Yong, you and I have passed through the gateway and into Mars’s own Forbidden City of sorts. I think it is time you heard more of it, as it will make everything clearer.”
Yong was staring at Liu Yang. After a moment, he slowly began to nod, still not believing what he saw before him.
Liu Yang smiled at Yong, and gestured for him to follow them as they left the vent and came around to some chairs positioned by the atrium and its soothing greenery. The ferns and palms grew well, perhaps looking lankier than they should have, but they seemed lush enough as they reached for a skylight that was dark at the moment courtesy of the Martian night. A circle of grow lights still lit the garden up, the ring of globes surrounding the skylight.
As Liu Yang guided Yong to a chair, he struggled to focus.
The young man didn’t know what was more amazing: the atrium, spacious apartment, or the woman that his commander was married to. And only now, with widening eyes, did it register that she was pregnant. Finally, he said, “What is all this?”
Tung looked at his wife, letting her tell the truth of what was happening.
“Yong, as you know, Mars Command One is staffed solely by men in an effort to retain control of base crews and tight mission schedules.”
He listened to her every word, captivated, although she revealed nothing new.
She went on, “But imagine if Mars Command One had a mirrored command, one with its own schedule of missions, and they were in turn crewed by women.”
Yong’s eyes bugged out to hear it. He turned to his commander, the question clear in his face.
Tung gave a nod.
Yong said, “Mars Command Two?”
Tung spoke up, “Yes, our sister base network on the other side of the mountains.”
Yong just sat back, his mouth agape.
After a moment, he glanced from Tung to Liu Yang, and then back to his commander. Finally, he asked, “So my wife—my promised wife—she works in the Command Room for Mars Command Two?”
Liu Yang smiled, but it held sympathy. “No, she does not. She is coming out with the first of the civilian colonists. Only the commanders were paired early. The pairing has helped give us a sense of security and support when we have had to make the hard decisions our rank sometimes demands.”
Yong was disappointed to learn that his wife-to-be was not mere miles away, but instead probably still back on Earth. Intellectually, he could understand the perk extended to the commanders, although there was already a stirring of resentment in his heart that he and his colleagues had missed out. He shook his head as he processed it all, eventually asking, “And the other partnered Mars Commands, like Three and Four, are the same?”
She nodded. “Yes, and are also blind to the truth as they work through their own research, exploration, and expansion missions in the polar region. The same goes for Commands Five and Six.”
“It is incredible and hard to believe! It is amazing my colleagues haven’t stumbled upon the ruse.”
Liu Yang stood up and gestured for Yong and her husband to follow her. She led them across the apartment to a kitchenette and meals area. There was a window, and it cut through the rock of the mountainside to show the Martian landscape.
Outside, it was nighttime, so there was little to see under the dim starlight but silhouettes and broad detail. A small but almost perfectly round crater lay down the slope, nestled between two ridges that then rose after forming a wide and long valley. The ridges eventually became a continuation of the mountain range, their peaks and detail lost in the gloom. To each side of the ridges spread the Martian planes, sometimes marked with dune fields or holed by craters.
As the three of them looked out, Liu Yang asked, “Yong, tell me what you see?”
He peered out into the night, not sure what she wanted to hear. “I don’t know if you want me to talk about craters and ancient rock, or about buried minerals and riches, or about the future.”
She smiled and looked out herself, pointing to the low hills and planes on one side of the ridge. “The future is a good answer, but even the present can impress. Out there you can see the land under which fifteen of Mars Command One’s bases sit. That means we’re looking at probably the homes of over three hundred of our countrymen, all hidden away not just from our rivals on Earth, but each other.”
He nodded. That he understood.
She then turned and pointed at the other side of the ridge line. “Out there are hundreds of your countrywomen, also working away, but oblivious to the proximity of the men. Between both base networks, there are nearly two thousand people out there, but you wouldn’t know it.”
He saw her point. As unbelievable as it all sounded, almost all the work of everyone in the grand project was about digging and planting and refining and tunneling. None of it was about exploring. Only the Command teams oversaw the exploration schedules, and those were almost entirely automated.