Yong hesitated, but then clarified, “Sir, on the ground?”
Tung grimaced. There was much his security clearance allowed him to know, but that did not extend to his command crews. He chose his words carefully. “We have been able to get here, establish a presence, consolidate, and expand with few people back on Earth discovering the truth. If we did it, we cannot discount the possibility that others might have likewise made the journey.”
Yong’s jaw dropped open as he processed what his commander was suggesting.
Tung wanted to avoid questions, so he snapped, “Get to work! I will be in my office reporting to Beijing.”
Chapter 9
Yanjiang Er (Base Five Two), Mars
Wei awoke sprawled on the white tent floor.
He was cold and confused.
Outside the emergency shelter, the klaxons still sounded, but their chorus was dulled by the thin Martian air. While that was a small mercy, the blue strobes continued to mercilessly flash.
Groggily, he tried to lift his head, only to discover his face stuck to the floor in a pool of dried blood. His own.
With a grunt, he pushed himself up and peeled his face free.
After a moment of swaying on his hands and knees, he decided to sit down before he toppled over or a rising sense of nausea overwhelmed him.
Other than the klaxons, there was no sound. No voices called out; there was not even the rustle of movement.
That couldn’t be good…
After a moment, he realized he could hear something else—the low hiss of life support. He looked through the closed inner door of the airlock module he was in, the unit hooked up to the front of the survival tent. There, under the stack of emergency supply crates, were the vents of the unit keeping him alive.
How long could it last?
How long would he have light, heat, and air?
He cursed under his breath.
One thing at a time, he told himself. He needed his head to stop spinning first and give his stomach a chance to settle.
In an effort to calm himself, Wei closed his eyes and focused on his breathing.
Slowly, things eased.
Now ready, he opened his eyes again and systematically took in his surroundings. He started with where he sat.
His helmet was within easy reach, so he grabbed it to check it over. He could see the buckle in the rim that had made the seal fail. The damage was substantial. He wouldn’t be able to fix it, but he knew there should be spares in the crates at the back of his shelter.
Should be…
Wei grimaced and forced himself to take another deep breath as he tried to quash any doubts.
He had survived so far. How much further could he get?
Perhaps things weren’t so bad, in spite of the meteor strike and silence.
He could do this!
The lava tube habitat might have been breached, but the lander the squad had come down in would still be outside. That was its own habitat, one they had used successfully in their crossing from Earth. All he had to do was find any other survivors and then get to the lander.
Once in the lander, he could then get on the comms to Mars Command One and call for assistance.
Yes, he would be alright.
Mars Command One would help him.
They have to!
Wei took another deep breath and steeled himself.
He was ready…
Lifting his gaze, he looked beyond the airlock, and then into the tent behind him. Finally, he turned to the rest of the lava tube.
Some of the grow lights were still on in places, although many had popped because of either the lower pressure or the cold. That meant the illumination of the long chamber was patchy, although still mostly lit by the chaotic strobing of the blue emergency lights.
He was still groggy, like his mind was stumbling through a sentence only half formed or telling a joke in which the punchline had been stolen away. But he had to get up. He knew he had to take stock of his situation.
Wei was certain there was an override for the klaxons and strobes, and pretty sure he’d find it at the back of the survival tent. But, with his head spinning and ears ringing, he couldn’t quite remember.
He didn’t berate himself. He knew, eventually, as his head cleared, it would all come back to him.
Wei was sure someone had said that very thing to him only recently.
Their medic…
…Dog…
…their medic. His nickname was Dog!
Putting his confusion aside, he slowly got to his feet.
Looking out from the airlock, he could see orange dust had settled and the air was starting to clear. While much of the chamber was in shadow, there was enough light to show what the outcome of the breach had been.
Things weren’t looking good…
A film of dust covered everything, including five bodies scattered between the tent and the airlock that led out to the gully. Along with the bodies lay stacks of the tumbled crates. It was one of those that had come down to strike Wei’s helmet at just the right angle to somehow not just pop it off his suit, but crack the seal.
There had long been a concerned undercurrent of grumbling about cheap components in the mission inventories…
There were also piles of other gear, including a series of lined up robots and drones sitting in their sleep modes along the opposite cave wall.
Looking at them, Wei could see their red or green charge lights. They didn’t look to be in their sleep modes; instead they seemed to be staring at him.
It was as if they were wondering why he lived, while everyone else was dead!
Some of them, heavy machines that they were, had toppled onto some of Wei’s squad brothers. The blocky artificial workers had crushed the crew beneath them.
In other places, where the surviving grow lights shone, they spotlit furrows in the planting beds dressed by a white frost of ice peppered by protruding stalks.
Wei took his gaze from the destruction and looked for the reason for the breach.
He remembered the air had been exiting towards the airlock at the end of the lava tube, so he let his gaze rove over the cave walls and roof there until he found the damage.
There!
He could see a hole in the wall to one side of the lava tube’s airlock module.
The mission’s first-stage robots had built up a thick wall of processed regolith around the unit to plug the ten-yard-wide entry into the lava tube. The work had been completed autonomously before the Yanjiang Er mission crew had even left Earth.
For a year, the seal had stood monitored, the lava tube fully pressurized, with a trial crop in place.
But now the seal was broken, although the bulk of the wall still held.
From a distance, he examined the hole, something as big and round as a baseball. The shape almost perfectly punched through. At a glance, it looked bad, but he realized it was something that could probably be fixed.
The solid wall had been built to hold the habitat’s precious atmosphere at pressure that had until now allowed his squad members to walk unsuited and free. The lava tube had been planned to be their permanent habitat, a space wide and long enough that the blueprint called for it to be eventually partitioned with internal airlocks as safety measures, and then segmented into an assortment of different biospheres where future colonists would come and join them to work, farm, and live.
Including a lander crew of women.
That, of course, was their motivation to make the lava tube work. This was not just a mission, but their future. Eventually, they would marry and raise their children here.
He looked at the gap in the seal again from the safety of the tent’s airlock.
Between him and the damaged seal lay his dead squad brothers, the ruined crops, and a thin and poisonous atmosphere.
Perhaps there would be no children…