And then a third light blazed in the sky as another meteor screamed in.
A loud alarm started to sing out on Yong’s terminal.
He checked it, but knew the tone, as did Commander Tung and the four other people on duty in the Command Room.
BREACH.
A set of alert lights around the room began to pulse blue.
A habitat had been breached and was losing its precious atmosphere.
None of them needed to ask which.
Chapter 5
Yanjiang Er (Base Five Two), Mars
Shan and Wei got to the closed airlock, waiting for it to finish cycling through its previous occupants. Half the squad was exiting on the other side into the lava tube, many taking their helmets off with relief. As soon as the doors closed after the last of them, the airlock began to reset. A moment later, as Shan checked over his shoulder as the rain of debris approached, the outer door opened ready for them.
The remainder of the squad hurried in and waited for the cycle that would flood the chamber with a breathable atmosphere and then let them into the lava tube cavern.
Thankfully, the mechanics of the unit were fast and efficient.
Wei looked back outside as he listened to the hiss of air. He watched, as Shan had done a moment before, the march of arcing projectiles falling down to slam into the ground as the impacts marched closer to the lava tube. The debris was coming in all sizes, like some world-ending rain. Dust bloomed where rocks landed, scattering more debris and ruin as the gully outside their new habitat was pummeled.
With his helmet still on, he turned away from the apocalyptic view and asked Shan, “Will the lava tube survive a direct hit?”
Behind him, outside, a new light flared in the sky.
The airlock lights went yellow, indicating the cycle was complete.
Shan ignored Wei’s question, instead worriedly ordering the rest of the squad though a wide broadcast, “Get your helmets back on and stay suited until this over!”
But those who had shed their helmets didn’t hear his order.
They spilled out of the airlock and into the cluttered front of the lava tube.
The tunnel was twenty yards wide and tall, and meandered ahead following only the slightest of bends. The end of the pressurized section was bricked off by another seal and plugged with an airlock that led to more of the tube they would one day turn into new segments of pressurized habitat.
Wei followed them out, hurrying between parked construction and horticultural robots that had done much of the work to seal the first section of tube and plant the experimental crop beds.
But he barely had a chance to take in what lay before him as Shan berated his squad, many of whom had taken off their helmets, thinking themselves safe in their new home.
Behind Wei, through windows in the airlock doors, blinding light shone in, followed by a deafening boom.
The third meteor had hit.
The ground bucked as dust fell from above along with sections of stone from the ceiling. The stacks of crates besides Wei and Shan toppled, crashing down upon them.
But all that was nothing, as a high-pitched wail sounded as a wind rose to gust back towards the airlock.
The habitat had been breached. The life-giving atmosphere was escaping.
A set of klaxons kicked in, blaring their deafening alert as blue emergency strobes pulsed.
The squad all knew they were in trouble.
One of the stacked crates hit Wei on the head, cracking something at the back of his helmet. He went down, the seal between suit and helmet broken, his head gear tumbling free as he blacked out.
Chapter 6
Houxing MingLing Yi (Mars Command One), Mars
The video playback continued on one screen, twenty seconds behind what was happening out there on the surface in real time.
Yong checked the breach alarm details on another screen.
Meanwhile, the impacts continued to march forward. The vision trembled with each one as they drew closer to Base Five Two.
One projectile landed only meters from the camouflaged reactor, scattering chunks of dark regolith and kicking up a cloud of dust. The pod rocked, but stayed upright, although a blaze of sparks flashed amidst the haze.
Other debris came down, most as small as pebbles or rocks, but a few as big as cars. One jagged lump crashed into the middle of the solar array, smashing the base’s backup power to pieces.
Yong turned off the alarm and confirmed, “The breach is to Yanjiang Er’s lava tube habitat.”
His commander pursed his lips, but continued watching the video feed as more rocks rained down, closing on the camera. “Squad status?”
“Just checking. They had just finalized the lava tube habitat.”
Tung nodded. “Bring up the internal cameras.”
Yong clicked a few buttons. A moment later, another screen filled with nine windows showing the insides of the new habitat.
The habitat was a modified lava tube, an ancient tunnel formed by the cooling external crust around a molten lava flow. As the lava drained away, still hot and liquid at its center under gravity’s pull, a solid casing of rock was left behind to form a tunnel. All of that had happened an age ago. And now, as part of Beijing’s mission plans, sites such as these were plugged with airlocks by drones and robots and pressurized in the early stages of each base mission, well before their human crews arrived.
Just like at the Yanjiang Er site, where the crew at Base Five Two had only just recently landed.
So now, with the crew resident, the lava tube should have been filled with autonomously delivered equipment and a series of emergency tents at one end, while much of the remainder lay under grow lights that shone down on soil beds prepared by crawling robots, which added trace elements and bacteria and irrigated the soil. A carefully choreographed routine of robotic labor over the past year had prepared a test crop of assorted vegetables, melons, and legumes.
At least, that’s what the cameras had shown a few minutes ago.
But now the vision was a confusion of rushing vapor as the atmosphere escaped from the breach somewhere near the entry to the tube. Blue emergency lights strobed to warn the squad, not that they needed any help being advised their new habitat was suffering a catastrophic failure.
Some of the lightweight equipment was airborne and being sucked out towards the breach. Three cameras showed the leaves of the test crop whip around and be stripped off. The rich soil, carefully cultivated and now enriched by the stored waste of the squad after their long crossing from Earth, was turning white as the moist surface froze.
And amidst that chaos of haze and escaping air, flashing lights, and flying debris, bodies were visible, too. Yong and Commander Tung could clearly see three—and they weren’t moving.
PING!
Yong checked something else flagged by his terminal.
His commander asked, “What is it?”
“They have lost reactor power. The cameras and lights are running on backup batteries, but as soon as they run out, they will go dark. That includes life support.”
Tung sighed. “The sparks we saw at the reactor impact. The cables have been cut.” His frown deepened. “How long will the batteries last?”
“A day at most, assuming they are not damaged.”
They both watched the screen showing the nine windows of camera shots.
What had started like footage from a typhoon’s landfall, complete with gusting winds, mist, and blue lightning, had begun to ease. The pressurized atmosphere was now mostly gone, leaving a haze of dust to fill the space with only the flashing strobes maintaining the sense of chaos.
Or so it seemed, until the clearing vision revealed the damage done to the crops, scattered debris, and seven suited bodies.