In the early years, Beijing had learned the hard way not to push their crews. A series of incidents had proven that rigid discipline meant people would still find a release, eventually, but all too often would be pushed to more extreme measures after the prolonged buildup of fatigue, stress, and tension. The methods Mars Command One had detected had all proven either dangerous to either the individuals themselves, their comrades, the mission arc, or the body politic.
People had died in proving the point.
Mars Command One had lost thirty-seven Chinese lives so far due to mission-related stresses. Some bodies had been recovered from the surface, others found on base and recycled through habitat gardens, while more had either been irrecoverable or had just gone missing.
Standing orders now were to emphasize professionalism, but ease up on the discipline.
Commander Tung’s screen showed a series of emails and flagged bulletins that held priority. There were also some messages direct from Beijing Command, a pile of reports, and a selection of news video feeds touching on issues and events happening back on Earth.
Tung let out a sigh. Everything looked far too much as it should. He never would have thought leading Mars Command One on the red planet could have so quickly become so boring.
His gaze drifted from the screen to the nearby window, one of the few on the base. Outside, Mars spread ochre, tan, and orange, a plane of rocks and a nearby dune field, with shadowed mountains far off on the horizon. The sky spread salmon pink and strangely beautiful.
He loved it when occasional clouds would drift by, high and thin. Sometimes, at sunrise and sunset, they caught the light and turned golden. The sight reminded him of his previous life back on Earth in Inner Mongolia. The glowing clouds there at sunset helped highlight the blue of the sky. Here, of course, the clouds might sometimes look similar, but they would usually be set against a more alien backdrop.
After all, this was Mars. Familiar, but so different.
The red planet was many things, but it certainly wasn’t Earth. Still, for him now, Mars was home and would be until he died.
Tung still remembered the day he had been collected from an orphanage at the age of six by a stern-looking man in uniform. He had been taken to an isolated camp in the Gobi Desert, by some ancient ruins. Tung hadn’t known it then, but that had been the beginning of not just his military training, but also his induction into Beijing’s Mars Program.
For a few years there, he had been trained and educated, but not just in military discipline and drills. There were also stories told, historical tales of adventure, daring, and great dynasties.
He didn’t realize at the time, not while a boy, but with hindsight, he could see those stories had been lessons in how to avoid leaving a legacy of ruin, like the ancient fortress they had camped beside.
Once China had been great, and now it would be again.
In time, he was sent to a military school where he was not just educated, but drilled for fitness and assessed at every turn. Eventually, he graduated and was accepted into final training and mission preparation at Ordos. That was when he lost touch with the world outside and was told he had been accepted into the secret Mars Program.
And when he realized the military had been preparing him for the red planet since the day they had sent an officer to collect the brightest from his orphanage.
He’d excelled and eventually gotten his launch date. The crossing had been good and uneventful. His posting was to oversee the missions under Mars Command One, replacing a recent fatality. Even back then, there had been hundreds of missions planned or underway.
China did not want to just establish a presence on Mars, but was preparing for the colonization of the red planet. And that, the real work of the program, was now about to begin.
Tung knew this would be his life’s work.
Yet every day, outside his office window, Mars seemed so quiet and mundane.
Things happened, of course. There had been the impact ten years ago, a meteor coming down to land between two outer bases a few years before he had arrived. The facilities had been damaged. People had died and gone missing. Over the years since, there had also been accidents on bases and with crew landers and cargo ships. And, of course, somewhere along the way, the Renegades had arisen as an issue.
Renegades on Mars.
Several base crews, not just inexplicably, but almost impossibly, had abandoned their habitats, it was said. Of course, currently life unsupported without deliveries from Earth was near impossible. Systems could be improvised and equipment stolen, but it would only be a matter of time before a breached habitat or critical life support failure would end any supposed settlers who had abandoned their base posts.
Occasional thefts still occurred, and there were signs of a persisting presence out there in the red planet’s bleak wastes. But renegades weren’t a threat. In fact, personally, Tung thought there could only be a few left. Aside from having to maintain their own life support, air and heat, and food and water, there were too many other dangers like radiation and the problem of Red Lung to make unsupported survival anything but a short-term proposition.
Red Lung had killed the man who had previously held Tung’s post. The disease was caused by Mars’s fine dust being inhaled in large enough quantities to eventually compromise the respiratory system. The dust got everywhere, even inside the habitats.
Still, dangers aside, overall, things were routine and life was good. Tung knew he might be a little bored, but he also realized he should enjoy the quiet while it lasted. He had already been told that it would not be long before the Chinese government officially announced not just their claim on Mars, but revealed they already had many citizens scattered across dozens of assets.
When all that was in the open back on Earth, not only would the world be stunned, but Beijing would have already given the green light to begin regular civilian colonist transports. Thousands would be sent to Command One as well as the first ring of five bases.
His comms on his screen went off.
PING!
It was Yong, no doubt waiting for him next door in the Command Room.
“I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Sir, we’ve got a meteor coming in near the Yanjiang second base ring. It’s only just been detected.”
He cursed and said, “I’m on my way.”
Chapter 3
Yanjiang Er (Base Five Two), Mars
Shan put a hand out for balance against the rock wall as the ground bucked. He swayed on his feet, but the movement passed. Around him, others were doing the same. A few lost their balance and sprawled into the middle of the gully, sending up sprays of fine red dust and gravel.
The comms light in his helmet came back on. He cried out, “Get into the open and away from the gully sides!”
Wei stepped out from the camo tenting down the gully and turned to look across the wide crater’s basin, past the opposite rim, to where the meteor had come down.
There was a dark smudge rising on the horizon, like a billowing storm cloud.
Shan got clear of the overhang, making sure those who had been with him did likewise. He then stumbled down the gully towards his friend, to get a better look at what had happened. As he did, he broadcast, “Check on your squad brothers.”
Dust rose from across the gully, gravel, dirt, and fines disturbed by the shock. Smaller rocks tumbled down from above, but largely the landscape seemed as old, tired, and immovable as it had upon their arrival.
Wei cut in on a private channel. “A system alert is prompting me to report to Mars Command One.”
“Do it.”
“How much detail do I go into?”
Shan reached Wei and said, “That hit on the head during the landing still has you rattled! Remember your training! You’re comms, you need to communicate. Just tell them we had the orbiter pass and then the impact. Answer their questions. If you can’t get someone on duty, leave a brief summary to show we followed procedures.”