Star of Fire 火星 Mars Space People

Chapter 27. Spin Doctors

Hollis placed one foot on a large rock and raised himself to full height. The rock tilted and Hollis fell on his face. Reggie had been videoing the walk from the garage and he descended down the ramp and walked rapidly to his fallen commander. Commander Hollis rolled over and Reggie helped him to his feet. Like MacArthur’s return to the Philippines, America’s first steps on Mars would require more than one take. The two astronauts returned to the garage and performed a rerun of America’s first steps on Mars.

Blue Jay Status

Chapter 28. Stalemate

Web Hits

Chapter 29. Vatican Roulette

Aggi walked over to the table where her husband was working on a report. She placed a cup of lightly creamed coffee shaken, not stirred in front of him and sat down. “Honey, I’ve got something to tell you,” she said.
Oh, oh, he thought. Aggi never called him Honey in public; it was always Major. The report was his planning for long-range exploration expeditions. Major Lawrence couldn’t understand the rush for extensive surveys when there was so much being discovered locally. Mission Control wanted them to find a geothermal energy and water source; Yellowstone would have to be surveyed and tested.
“Yuh Aggi, what is it?” he asked. Bucky always referred to Aggi as Aggi, even in bed.
“Do you think we’ll ever have another baby?” was the seemingly irrelevant, rhetorical question.
The hairs went up on Bucky’s neck just like they always did when a fifth sense detected danger. “I think one kid’s enough for now and anyway we probably won’t be back on Earth for 4, 6, 8, or 10 years.”
Boy, are you a stupid bastard, he thought as he looked at his wife. She had that calmness that he had only seen one time before. Damn, might as well get the good/bad news. “Are you trying to tell me something?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered.
“When?” was all he needed to know.
“October,” was the clap of thunder following the tiny flash of lightning.
Damn the dust storm. They had been using the rhythm method because of contraindications of Aggie’s birth control pills with the osteoporosis-mitigating micro gravity medication that they were taking. That meant that conception had occurred during the first human sex in Martian orbit [not really – the commies could claim that first] – proof that the Bradleys hadn’t won the bet. Maybe I should call up Reggie and collect my five dollars. It doesn’t seem that all the radiation received in transit has damaged any swimmers.

Chapter 30. The Solitude of Command

Commander Hollis’ consultations with his pregnant second-in-command, Major Aggie Worthley-Lawrence, had been much less than satisfactory. Aggie felt that the Chinese women should be allowed to remain in possession of the MAV and that both groups should cooperate. He had ended up only being able to confide in Major Reggie Bradley. He was what he was – he couldn’t accept a female second-in-command seriously, especially one that got pregnant whenever her husband looked at her. It was a time for hard decisions – decisions that could hardly be left to homemakers.

Call to Arms

The monitor in front of the command console displayed an image of Mong working in the garden. The Chinese women were talking in Chinese over their radios. There seemed to be some excitement about a couple of the ripening vegetables. Reggie helped Commander Hollis into his pressure suit. Hollis went through the pressure lock into the garage where the rover had been stowed. Aggie could hear the commander humming Waltzing Mitilda as he went about his tasks. Hollis went to his private locker and unlocked it using its touch pad. The locker contained a weapons cache. Hollis selected an M-16 automatic rifle with a grenade launcher and an M-60 light machine gun. He loaded both weapons, throwing extra ammo into a canvas tote bag. He walked down the garage ramp, which was facing away from the MAV and set up the machine gun in a shadow under the habitat’s rocket engines with a field of fire covering the MAV. Mong was leaving the greenhouse.

First Blood

Commander Hollis stood up, steadying the M-16 on the habitat landing gear. The shot hit Mong’s helmet ring and her helmet flew into the air. Mong fell forward, dead, with a chunk of her neck blown away. All I have to do is wait for the kid to run to Mong’s rescue and that will be the end of the Chinese problem.
Charon, Vivian and Anatoly heard the thud of the round over the voice link before the static of an open link took over. Mong could be seen on the monitor lying face down without her helmet. Anatoly helped Vivian put on her pressure suit. Charon pulled an American light antiarmor weapon (LAW) and two rocket-propelled grenades from the heavy weapons locker. Anatoly hoped the Americans didn’t have any LAWs but knew that this was a false hope – humanity had gone to Mars armed for hostile locals. His weapons were in the rover, which he had concealed over the ridge on the hill overlooking the landing site.
Charon, Vivian and Anatoly checked each other’s pressure suits and went to the airlock on the command floor. Charon climbed down to the ground first and Anatoly lowered the tote bag with the LAW, two RPGS and two 9-millimeter pistols. Anatoly and Vivian quickly joined Charon on the ground. The integrity of the habitat would be seriously reduced if they used these anti-tank weapons, thought Anatoly. This little skirmish could make survival impossible for everyone at Mars Site1.
Aggi ordered everybody to suit up. The Bradleys were to take their assault weapons and get as far away from the habitat in the rover as they could. She and Bucky would try to sort out what was happening at the habitat.
Had the commander flipped out?
Aggie looked out the side window and could see that Charon had a light anti-armor weapon (LAW) slung over her shoulder.
Aggie told the others, “Charon has a bazooka.”
The Bradleys started the pressurized rover and drove straight out, masked by the habitat from direct fire from the MAV/habitat complex. Charon had unfolded the optical aiming sight of the LAW and scanned the area behind the Road Runner habitat through its range finder.
Commander Hollis heard the American rover drive away and started to realize that he wasn’t going to have an easy kill here. He jacked a round into the M-60 machine gun’s chamber and worked the bipod into the sand. Riddling the MAV with its huge amount of stored fuel didn’t seem to be a good option but that was the worst-case scenario. There was, after all, an ERV at Yellowstone.
Anatoly left Vivian in the rover and retrieved an AK-47 and an American 20-millimeter M-79 grenade launcher from the rear of the rover. Returning to the landing site, he saw a shadow with a rifle under the habitat and then he saw the protrusion of the barrel of a light machine gun. Earth weapons aren’t designed to be fired by a man in a pressure suit with a bubble helmet. The modified weapons hadn’t been originally designed for use on Mars at all. The shot to the habitat was at the limit of his ability as a marksman, so he’d have to riddle the area after he fired a few shots for effect. The shadow didn’t provide a reasonable target. The barrel of the light machine gun lined up on the MAV. Anatoly grabbed the grenade launcher and fired it towards the space under the habitat. The explosion blew the shadow out into the sunlight and the form fell on the ground. The sniper performed a few frantic movements of his limbs and then fell silent. Anatoly guessed that it was one of the men.
Should I target one of the habitat windows?
He saw the other rover turn behind some rocks on the hill behind the habitat.
Charon and I might be outflanked and outgunned.
Aggi and Bucky left the habitat and walked down the garage ramp. Aggi tied a towel to her M-45 assault rifle. The habitat had become a coffin with the heavy weapons being deployed against them. Separation seemed a good tactic to prevent one shot from the LAW killing them both. Bucky covered Aggie as she waved the towel, calling for a truce. The commander’s body looked lifeless; he most likely was dead.
Charon’s voice came over the voice link, “You killed Mong.”
Aggie could hear sobs over the radio link. “Why did you kill Mong?” came the bereaved voice.
Somebody was speaking in Chinese. “Our commander killed Mong and he’s dead. We’ve got to talk this out. If we keep fighting, nobody will survive. Let me look at our commander and Mong.”
Aggie looked over at the stranger speaking Chinese near the other side of the habitat. Anatoly held his fire even though he had a reasonable shot at Aggi. The situation was confused and he didn’t want to give away his position or even his presence.
Charon thought that this was all too strange to consider. She couldn’t see Anatoly so she moved to a position covered by his field of fire.
If this is treachery, I’ll take the Chinese-speaking American with me.
“Okay, but no weapons,” answered Charon in Chinese.
Bucky walked over to Aggie, placing his assault rifle on the ramp. “I’m going over there. We don’t want to fail and die like this,” he said.
Aggie didn’t ask about his knowledge of Chinese.
“There’s two of us and one of her, and the Bradleys have the high ground. She might think hitting us would help her odds,” said Aggie.
“She’s just a kid. She’ll talk to me,” said Bucky.
“We just killed her friend!” retorted Aggie.
“A firefight will destroy both spacecraft,” he continued.
“Okay,” said Aggi without adding the superfluous Be careful clause.
Bucky scanned the terrain one last time. He climbed under the habitat and looked out at the open terrain beyond the habitat. The commander was dead, blood staining the front of his white pressure suit. He pulled Hollis under the habitat, close to the main engine. Aggi looked at the body and back to her husband.
Bucky’s legs took over and transported his body and mind into the open no-man’s land. He sensed another set of eyes on him but didn’t look around, walking straight to Mong’s body. He focused his attention on Charon as he walked, approaching Mong. Bucky gently rolled Mong’s body over, taking in the strange desiccated face of a person who was joyfully laughing just short minutes ago. Death wasn’t pretty on Mars.
Bucky picked up Mong’s body and carried her up the ramp to the garage of the MAV. He placed the body on a large workbench and could sense Charon behind him. Charon looked at her friend and her helmet fell on Bucky’s shoulder, sobbing silently. Bucky wasn’t that good at comforting people. He was holding the same kid that had been pointing a large anti-tank missile at the habitat less than 10 minutes ago.
The girl’s skin is golden!
Bucky raised his glove but couldn’t wipe the tears off the girl’s golden cheeks inside her spacesuit.
Peaceful cooperation didn’t seem to be man’s strategy for colonizing Mars.
Anatoly was running low on oxygen and he would have to retreat to the rover and return home with Vivian to Yellowstone. Charon was on her own but he promised himself that he’d destroy the MAV and both habitats regardless of the consequences if Charon came to any harm. The Americans didn’t know it yet but the odds were going to be eleven to four against them.

Chapter 31. Reality Television

The new commander couldn’t understand the reasoning behind what was happening, but she wasn’t going to have any part of these Earth politics.
Why did man go to Mars unless it was to do better than he had done on Earth? I’m not going to be the first sheriff on Mars to evict somebody.
The transmission began with a standup shot of Major Worthley holding a mike.
“Good morning, Mission Control, Major Worthley. An explosion in the habitat, downstairs, near the rocket engines, killed Commander Hollis. I have assumed command of the landing site. First I want to transmit some tapes of the landing of the Road Runner habitat on Mars, three months ago.”
The video was telecast in the clear, without waiting for any response, using both the Road Runner habitat and the older MAV systems to insure that more satellites than those controlled by Mission Control would receive the transmissions. The video showed the scenery around the MAV, the nuclear reactor tractor and the garden, as well as scans around the landing area. The screen cut to a pinpoint of light in the Martian sky that grew into the exhaust plume of the Road Runner. The Road Runner hovered over the site and sat down near the X that marked the position of the homing beacon. The dust slowly settled around the spacecraft. The camera remained centered on the habitat as two individuals in space suits approached the habitat. The video clip terminated and the telecast returned to the new commander. The commander’s husband was sitting behind her alongside a strange-looking young woman.
Aggie continued her commentary, “I’d like to introduce my husband Major Lawrence and the latest addition to our family, Charon Li.”
The reception of the news of a Chinese stowaway was mixed at NASA. The information about the presence of the Chinese on Mars had to be declassified. A complete rewrite of the screenplay, NASA on Mars, would be required. The initial public Chinese reaction was one of surprise and relief that their teenager had been found and was in good health. In a way NASA officials were relieved that the information had been made public. It limited the range of the decisions that the administration could make.
Zhou told Captain Wu to order the flight crew of the habitat in Mars orbit to decouple any commands from the Americans and to anticipate instructions for a landing at the Yellowstone Caverns site. Later Zhou decided to land the Sparrow in Yuma Crater, concealing some of his people from the Americans. The presence of the ERV flight crew at Yellowstone would be discovered when the Americans inspected the ERV at the Yellowstone site.

The Golden Girls

General Zhou snuck up on his daughter, Alicia. Sensing somebody in the room, Alicia turned to see who it was. Zhou flinched at the sight of the snake eyes looking back at him.
“Oh Dad, all the kids are wearing them,” Alicia explained as Zhou regained his composure.
Alicia was wearing contact lenses that made her eyes look like those of his special women.

Coming Out Party

General Zhou watched the television rebroadcast. Charon was being called the Golden Girl. He went to his wife’s bedroom and gently woke her. No, she didn’t want to help him at the base this early in the morning. He went to Alicia’s room and asked her if she wanted to go to the base. Alicia was eager for some excitement; she rarely got to go to the base. Zhou told her to make sure she brought her alien contact lenses. He called Captain Wu to see if she knew what was happening. Zhou started to feel the rush of surfing the big waves fed by the winds out of the north on Hawaii.
Zhou told Captain Wu, “Bring all of the girls to the base cafeteria without their goggles and hoods.” (Pause)
“Yes, in summer flight work uniforms,” he answered.
CNN and two local TV crews had their cameras set up and were videotaping the cafeteria, the golden girls and curious PLA Air Force personnel as Zhou came into the cafeteria. Alicia had inserted her alien contacts. The camera in the center of the room went live as she stared directly into the camera’s lens. Zhou pulled her away from the camera and she went to sit at the little people’s table. The young girls weren’t sure about how to handle their sudden incursion into the outside world. General Zhou walked over to the table and sat next to Alicia. A british reporter interviewed him about the girls and moved on to Alicia. Then she interviewed the other children in English as the local reporters followed, translating into Chinese for their local audience. The reporter didn’t seem to believe that the kids had flown in rockets at their young age. The reporters gravitated to the vivacious kid called Lin who had a calming influence on the shyer girls.
“And what’s your name?” she asked Lin.
“Lynn Chang Lin,” answered Lin.
“What do you think about going to Mars?” asked the reporter.
“No problem. We are the rocket men. I fly rockets.”
Zhou hoped that this publicity would protect his command. Now it would be difficult for the golden girls to disappear into thin air. Lin and her friend Lian walked over to Zhou and Alicia. Lin climbed onto Zhou’s lap, breaking the formality of Zhou’s relationship with his girls and causing a tinge of jealousy in Alicia. Alicia’s relationship with her father had always been quite formal, and she controlled her dismay. The Beijing reporter and her cameraman focused on Zhou’s table.
Lin seemed oblivious to her breach of protocol as she asked Zhou, “Well General, when are we going to Mars?”
“Mars is for the young; I’m too old for all that adventure,” answered the general. “I’m ready to retire and grow bananas and coffee. Are you ready for your own Grasshopper, little girl?” he asked, playing to the cameras.
“Give Lian and me the keys and we’ll punch a few holes in the sky,” was her answer. “Do you want to go with us?”
Lian silently nodded her agreement. Zhou placed his arm around Alicia trying to hide his misty eyes.
I have been truly blessed in my life.
Zhou was terribly upset by his first loss, Mong, and it weakened his will to risk more of his people. They had accomplished more than could be expected – let the taikonauts pick up the baton. He didn’t dare to admit to himself that the trails of his women might have just begun. Mong’s work was done.
How would Charon react to being alone, a leader instead of a follower, and independent instead of dependent?
Zhou retreated to a small table and sat alone outside of the turmoil of the gathering. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to look up. It was his wife, Xiaolung. She was dressed in a brightly colored feminine business suit. Xiaolung sat down next to him and put her hand on his leg.
“I thought you might want some company this morning,” she said.
“I’m glad you could make it,” he said, placing his hand on her arm. The couple sat there quietly observing the chaos. Zhou tried to remember the last time they had enjoyed being alone together.
The serenity only lasted a few minutes. Alicia, seeing her mother, ran over to the table pulling Lin.
“Mother, I want you to meet my new friend, Lin. She’s one of Daddy’s rocket girls.”

Chapter 32. Non-compliance

The Americans interpreted the presence of the Chinese stowaway as a breach of contract – the spacecraft had not been biologically sterilized. The Chinese countered that their contract allowed them to perform actions deemed necessary for the success of the flight without obtaining prior approval for each individual action from the Americans. Number 1, the Chinese never acknowledged that they had known about the stowaways, and second, Zhou didn’t argue that the flight would have failed without workarounds by the women. The American position was that the Chinese were in non-compliance and wouldn’t get any more progress payments for the Sparrow ERV; the Chinese called into effect the clause that non-payment of progress payments would result in confiscation of the Sparrow. The Americans took this as an empty threat and closed the negotiations. Zhou left the door to the Americans open and felt he held all the cards. The Americans could bet that he’d charge them for storage and maintenance when they came to their senses and returned to the bargaining table. He broke off the American communications and control of the Sparrow. It was time for some shuttle diplomacy with the Russians, Europeans, Brazilians and American corporations.
What would be the going price for a functional ERV with a trained crew, one of the only two spacecraft on Mars capable of returning to Earth?

Sparrow

The landing site prepared for the Sparrow was close to the ancient arroyo that provided a break in the Yuma Crater’s corona. The rovers entered the crater through the gap. Anatoly, Sharon and Charon were waiting in Yuma Crater to receive the crew of the Sparrow before it descended. Vivian had to stay with Qian and Mi at home. Janice and Jane landed the habitat in Yuma Crater as three video cameras documented the landing. Anatoly greeted Sergei and cautiously examined his new little sisters. Charon returned home before the Americans missed her. She wouldn’t have missed the landing for all the tea in China. The Americans assumed that the Sparrow had been lost while orbiting in Martian orbit. The new Martians gathered their strength rapidly and were anxious to see their new home.

Chapter 33. Plymouth Dispensary

The biology and medical procedures at Plymouth were going to have to be more extensive than planned by NASA. Additional medical equipment wouldn’t be available until the next habitat landed.

Martian Princess

Aggi was starting to look big at six months. Sonja would be the attending physician but she knew that Dr./Major Lawrence, the expectant father, would be looking over her shoulder.
What couldn’t the men just go outside and smoke a few cigars like normal farmers from Kansas? thought Sonja.
Reggie put Bucky’s rock hammer in his medicine bag.

Delivery

Aggie was giving birth two weeks late. Sonja thought that the delivery might have to be Caesarian; the women had abnormal musculature for females. The delivery of Aggie’s first son had been mildly difficult. Aggie told Bucky that the baby was coming and Bucky called Sonja before rushing Aggie to the impromptu delivery room in the biomedical lab. It was the start of a very long day.
The warnings continued all day but the baby hung on to her nice warm home. Sonja gave Aggie a mild sedative as the birthing pains continued. Aggie and Bucky were exhausted by the time night fell so Sonja medicated Aggie to enable her to get some rest and sent Bucky to his cot with a sleeping pill. Bucky sat on the cot and popped the pill with a gulp of water. Bucky’s communicator buzzed as soon as his head hit the pillow and he rushed back to Aggie’s side. The contractions persisted all night.
“You selfish bastard. You needed your little nookie to ‘keep an even keel.’ Just like the rest of the men, always thinking of yourself.”
“Yes, Aggie. Take it easy, Dear.”
“You prick, it feels like I’m passing a watermelon.”
“Breathe, Dear.”
“I’ll give you a Breathe Dear you bastard. Arghhhh! I’m giving you the drum right now, arsehole. Fuuuck me! After I deliver this fucking rock melon you aren’t coming within six fucking meters from me. SHIT!!!!”
“Press down, Honey.”
“If you don’t get the chop, Sport, I’ll give you a fucking vasectomy myself! Arghhhh! If you want to carry live sprongs, find another piece of fluff.”
“Breathe, Aggie. The baby is coming.”
“So’s fucking Christmas but I have a confirmed date for that. Chriiist!!!! Did you hear me, Drop Kick. I swear if you try to get it in the next three months I’ll cut it off and ram it up your arse!!! Fucking Hell!!!”
“You’re doing great, Dear.”
“You’re up Shit Creek without a paddle. Fuuuck me! Am I delivering the Incredible Fucking Hulk? Doctor, get this kid out of me NOW!!! Ow…..”
The baby girl was named Robin. Robin would have a habitat (re)named after her.

Mid-continent Baby

Reggie had been the odd man out with Aggi’s baby. He would be happy when the baby prettied up and stopped looking like a prune. He had a very bad feeling about Sonja’s increased sex drive after the delivery - like a jet redlining at 130 percent. His world had spun out of control – one of those flat spins that required stepping outside of the office, writing off the aircraft. Two months later Sonja announced that she was with child.

Emergency Room

Aggie and Sonja were preparing their weekly report to Earth, double-checking that they had responded to all of the requests that had been relayed from Mission Control. Aggie was surprised to see a rover drive over to the Blue Jay MAV. The men had only left a half an hour earlier – what were they doing coming back so soon?
Then she noticed some minor differences in the rover and realized that it was a different vehicle. She switched through the communication channels but couldn’t hear anything. Charon came out of the MAV in her pressure suit about ten minutes later. Aggie worried about Charon’s isolating herself for days, without communicating with them. Charon looked at the Road Runner habitat and then walked over to the rover. Aggie found Charon’s communication band and heard a conversation in Chinese. Charon walked over to the Road Runner and directed the rover to back in close to the access tunnel to the greenhouse.
Aggie broke into the channel and said, “I’ll be right out.”
Aggie suited up and had Sonja check out her suit. She opened the pressure port to the tunnel and disconnected the tunnel at the greenhouse end. After Aggie had stepped back into the habitat Charon connected the tunnel to the rover. Aggie waited for the occupants of the rover to disembark. Sharon and a very pregnant Vivian stumbled up the tunnel into the habitat. Charon waited patiently and then she walked up the garage ramp to the garage access port. She vented and opened the port, folding herself into the small space, before closing the external port. Sonja opened the port on the habitat interior side and helped Charon inside. The two American women thought it was nice to have a visit from the neighbors but where in hell had the neighbors come from?
And where was Dad?

The Bradley Bunch

Sonja was very pregnant - her sonogram showed two individual embryos – twins. Sonja figured that she was carrying one potential Tornado Alley dancer and possibly a flight controls engineer for Boeing-Wichita or Beech-Raytheon.

Three’s company, four’s an orgy

Aggie and Charon were going to visit Yellowstone Caverns because Aggie wanted to survey the tar pits. Charon was a coauthor of the original paper detailing the cracking of the resins by Martian microbes. Charon had a conversation with Vivian and Sharon while Aggie and Anatoly went to place a new beacon and laser target on the prospective site of Anatoly’s dream castle. Charon wanted to negotiate with Vivian and Sharon for sexual services from Anatoly.
Why should I be the only non-frigging virgin on the frigging planet?

Chapter 34. The Seven Sages of Bamboo Grove

Yuri’s Night - Yuri Gagarin/Shuttle First Flight Anniversary

April 12^th (1961) is the anniversary of Lieutenant Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into space. Yuri rode Vostok I for 108 minutes before ejecting from his capsule below 23,000 feet and descending by parachute to Mother Russia. Gagarin died in a crash in 1968 during a MiG-15 training flight. Sergei insisted that the stories alleging that Yuri was drunk when he had his fatal crash were false and mean-spirited.

Get drunk fast

Reggie learned at Star City that the Russians don’t warm to or work with anybody that hasn’t got knockdown drunk with them.
Anatoly invited Bucky and Reggie over for the Yuri Gagarin anniversary party. Charon came along and would be visiting at Yellowstone Caverns for a while. The trip over was uneventful except for an hour spent measuring the width of the apparent aquifer with ground radar forty kilometers from Yellowstone. Parking near the ramp to the garage, they could see the inhabitants waving to them through the windows of the flight deck. Charon already had her pressure suit on and she helped the two men to get into their suits. A final check of the suits and Bucky depressurized the rover. Throwing open the large rover door, they walked up the ramp to the garage. They got into the airlock one at a time and entered the laboratory room of the Blue Jay. Anatoly et al were preparing a traditional Russian meal for them, complete with vodka.
The Americans’ attention was drawn to the 60-liter aquarium in the dining area. Some strange fish were transiting the glass pane in front and disappearing into the shadows of some equally strange bulbous seaweed. The fish seemed to smolder red-hot like magma. Bucky walked over to the container, followed by Reggie and Anatoly.
“This is where I get my caviar,” Anatoly joked.
Anatoly had inadvertently caught the eye-less fish while fetching water from the caves. Two rats had survived eating pieces of the fish without any obvious adverse effects. Given the many poisonous plants and animals on Earth, Anatoly guessed that Martian life would be even more hazardous to eat. Anatoly switched on an ultraviolet lamp and the fish and seaweed came alive with exotic, fluorescent colors. Some organisms that had been too small to be seen before under the ambient light appeared as glowing dots.
There were several hours of daylight left, allowing time for the Americans to inspect the Yellowstone Caverns. One of Anatoly’s rubble piles allowed the men to drive the rover close to the entrance of a large cave. Anatoly said that he was going to build a living area in one of the small caves, a long-term project since it would take a lot of energy to produce enough oxygen to fill the cave. He thought the cave was stable since there didn’t seem to be any frozen water that could melt and cause a flash flood. Reggie took a lot of photographs and video to document the caverns, including the frozen waterfall where Anatoly got his water. Plumbing into the liquid behind the ice, especially piping the water to the habitat was also a future Anatoly project.

Vodka Party

Anatoly’s still was jerry-rigged from repair materials for the life support systems. The plentiful, excess potatoes were finally be properly utilized. Potatoes became the favorite vegetable on Mars as well as on the Earth.

Sunday morning, coming down

Anatoly wanted to show the American men the location where he was going to build a castle. The location had a road that the rover could negotiate and a large flat area overlooking the valley leading up to the landing site at Yellowstone Caverns.
The Americans were reluctant to leave and promised to reciprocate the party at Plymouth. There was a lot of data to exchange, especially video, with the Earth using the large dish on the Road Runner. They would be arriving home in the dark. Traveling at night was something that they had avoided, but the road was pretty clear through night goggles if they drove the rover at a reasonable speed. The sunset passed and Phobos became visible. Reggie was looking out his side window while Bucky drove so he saw the glow first. He told Bucky to stop and turn off the headlights. The hills on both sides of the road glowed with a green bioluminescence. Bucky turned on the video recorder and scanned the area with the delicate video control stick.
Now the glow was on both sides of the rover and Bucky said, “Time to get out of Dodge.”
It was too late. As Bucky turned the rover around the glow had them surrounded. Reggie called Anatoly to inform him of their difficulty. The glow came closer and a few glowing spots appeared on the hood and windshield of the rover. Bucky kept driving and ignored the caution light indicating a blockage of the intake filters to the engine. The engine started to overheat, but Bucky kept going. He finally stopped when the temperature gauge redlined. The windshield was a solid screen of illuminescent green. They were stranded. Anatoly radioed that he had called their wives who would be on the way and that he would most likely get there first. Bucky described the situation and warned everybody not to get in the middle of whatever was happening.
The two approaching rovers saw the green stream and stayed at a safe distance. The night went slowly, everybody taking turns napping and guarding. The sky started to get light as Venus and Jupiter glowed together. Anatoly and Mei got to Reggie and Bucky first – the men were still sleeping. There were some strange worms or shell-less snails stuffed into the intake grill of their rover. Reggie and Bucky had got caught in some sort of a snail migration. This was, most likely, the phenomenon Charon had seen the previous year.

Chapter 35. The Bee Hive

The later renaming of the Road Runner to the Bee Hive by the public wasn’t the result of a worldwide contest among high school students but came out of talk radio and press editorials. The French said they would be sending a nursery to help their friends out of their predicament at the next opposition. The Brazilian diva, Monica Salmaso put out a hit record, Problema Dupla [Double Trouble], on the dangers of space travel to female astronauts. The refrain contained phrases about double the moons, double the trouble, double the ecstasy and double the lunacy.
Aggie and Sonja lamented that there were no babysitters on Mars – there were at least four who could be hired as soon as their presence on Mars became known.

Survival Cache

A month before the 2014 opposition an unmanned supply ship, the Alabama, was sent to Yuma Crater, 30 miles north of Yellowstone Caverns, using a cluster of the USAF RJ-86 heavy lift vehicles. The supply vessel was the pathfinder for the 2014 opposition. The spacecraft flew direct to the Martian surface and landed at night on the smooth volcano caldera. Sergei was doing astronomical observations of Phobos when the braking maneuver of the vessel lit up the night. The cargo on the spacecraft consisted of two nuclear 250-kilowatt power sources, solar panels, communication dishes, heavy weapons, life-support systems, a large inflatable greenhouse, food and medical supplies and a heavy transport truck.
Anatoly and Sergei located the American supply ship two weeks later as part of a survey of the crater prompted mainly by the appearance of the vessel. Sergei and Anatoly stripped the spacecraft and stashed the equipment in the caverns. The oversize shell of the American supply ship was dragged to Sergei’s habitat and placed in a small canyon where it could be partially surrounded by dirt for protection against radiation. They would have to construct a passageway to the supply ship so that suiting up wouldn’t be needed every time somebody needed to visit the supply ship, renamed the wine cellar. The supply ship was several times bigger than the habitat. It ended up being an extra bedroom/living room, freeing up a guest room in the habitat. The whole habitat complex was camouflaged to reduce the possibility that the habitat would be discovered by whoever came to recover the ship’s cargo. NASA might wake up and perform a census on Mars; their coach didn’t have a clue who was on the opposing team.

Truck

Sergei and Anatoly inspected the mechanism on the front of the cargo vehicle. The front of the truck had a lift mechanism similar to the one on the latest American rover, which functioned as a forklift with the addition of blades. The secret to the rover design became obvious when two unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), Junkyard Dogs to the grunts in Iraq, were examined. The armed version of the Talon robot was designed to be a remotely radio-controlled platform for quadruple light anti-armor weapons (LAWs), a six-barreled 40mm grenade launcher, and several small arms with mounts for a standard 5.56mm rifle, a 7.56mm rifle, and a .50 caliber Barrett sniper rifle. The Talon could be radio-controlled from the truck or tethered to a short fiber optic cable. The Talon could also be used on the rover as the mount on the rover showed. An operator removed from the truck could use the weapons by the use of a ruggedized computer. The lithium batteries for the fire-control computer had about nine-hours of duty between charges. The weapons were standard weapons (modified for use in the vacuum of space and heavily-armored combatants wearing gloves) that could be used conventionally by a person or mounted on the Talon.
The Americans have seriously escalated the level of weaponry on Mars.
Sergei and Anatoly awaited the arrival of the latest American habitat, the Peregrine, and its all-male crew with foreboding. The weaponry aboard the Alabama seemed to indicate a change to a more aggressive American policy on Mars.

Star of Fire

火星

People of Mars

太空人

By Dennis Carlyle Kenney

email: kenneydennis@hotmail.com

© All rights reserved, September 2005

Book Two

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