The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) Read online

  Grant then spoke to him over the radio. “When you’re done with that thing, get back here to the rover. I want all three of us to walk together to the transport. If something else attacks us, we’ll stand a better chance that way.”

  Soon, all three astronauts made their way slowly across the sand. They were exhausted, and the open door of the transport beckoned.

  CHAPTER 17

  “Emergency, Evacuate. Emergency, Evacuate,” a woman’s voice calmly repeated over and over.

  Bonnie was in the main corridor of the Cycler, along with everyone else, trying to get to the Pegasus. It was chaos. They were all bunched together, many screaming, and Bonnie could hardly move. The exit to the main hangar was jammed with bodies.

  She frantically looked around. “Jean, Julie, where are you?” she yelled. Behind her she heard Lucky barking, but she was stuck and couldn’t even turn around. “Help! My children are missing!” she shouted.

  Up ahead, she saw arms reaching and pulling members of the Called through the corridor exit and into the hangar. When the path was cleared, the Commander entered and shouted, “Back! Everyone back! The Pegasus has no fuel. You must use the asteroid exit. Go back and down the ladder!”

  The human tidal wave surged. Bonnie would have fallen over backwards, but the press of bodies held her up. When she reached the ladder, she grabbed on to it and called again. “Jean, Julie, we have to leave! Why aren’t you here?”

  The Commander reached her, and shoved her down the ladder. “You need to evacuate now,” he said as she tumbled to the lower floor.

  Bonnie stood up. Her husband Jeff, Platinum Two George, Brother Jacobs, and Sam the pilot were standing there in spacesuits. Sam handed her a small mask attached to an oxygen bottle.

  “I’m sorry Ma’am. This is the best I can do. You should have brought a spacesuit,” the pilot said.

  As Bonnie donned the mask, Sam turned and pressed a large red button on the wall that read Emergency Evac. The door exploded away, and Bonnie was sucked violently into space. She tumbled end over end, the stars wheeling around her.

  On the mask’s faceplate, she saw some words and numbers in red, and heard beeping. With each beep, the numbers changed and a calm woman’s voice read them off.

  Beep. “Oxygen – 3%,” the voice told her. Beep. “Oxygen – 2%,” it warned.

  Bonnie could feel the air hissing away out the sides of her mask and frantically looked around. As she whirled with her arms outstretched, she could periodically see Brother Jacobs and her husband Jeff. They were both floating nearby and looking at her. Jeff’s helmeted head slowly shook from side to side.

  The annoying voice continued. Beep. “Oxygen – 1%.” Beep. “Oxygen – Depleted.” Beep. “Oxygen – Depleted.”

  Bonnie couldn’t breathe. She was suffocating! Her head was swimming and her abdomen was spasming. The stars spun around her. Bonnie’s last thoughts as her lungs ached from lack of oxygen were, “Why oh why did I ever come on this trip and not bring a spacesuit? My poor baby will never be born now.”

  Beep. Beep. Beep.

  Bonnie sat up, sucking in the sweet air in a giant gulp. Her heart was pounding. She was momentarily confused.

  Beep. Beep. Beep, went the alarm next to her bed. She slammed her hand on it to turn it off. Shaking, she looked around. Jean and Julie were sleeping in their pullout beds, with Lucky on the floor looking at her quizzically. Her husband Jeff was still asleep next to her and lightly snoring.

  As she forced herself to get up for her Monday breakfast shift, Bonnie thought, “I’ve heard whispered rumors that others have been having weird floating and flying dreams, but what a horrible nightmare. I wonder if it is because I’m pregnant. I had strange dreams while having Jean and Julie, but never like this.” She grabbed her toiletries and change of clothes, and went into the small private bathroom and washed her face. It took her longer than it normally did, since she was still a bit rattled from her dream.

  She looked at herself in the mirror. Her face looked puffy. Now that she thought about it, everyone’s face looked puffy these days. “I guess it’s from the light gravity instead of from the pregnancy,” she thought. “At least my feet haven’t swelled up.”

  After opening the door quietly so as not to wake her husband and children, and going through the corridor to the central module, Bonnie saw that the rest of the Monday morning shift was already there. Every member of the Called needed to work five meal shifts a week. Bonnie had three morning shifts and two dinner shifts.

  The four other members of her shift were already at their duties. Two were getting the tables and chairs out of the recessed closets and arranging them, while the other two were setting the tables. They used gleaming metal plates and utensils that had been manufactured from ores extracted from the asteroid. Bonnie’s meal task today was dishwashing, and so a late start for her was acceptable. She would be the last to leave the shift after washing the final sets of dishes and putting them away.

  As dishwasher, Bonnie’s other job this morning was to heat the breakfast meals for the shift crew, since they would eat before the rest of the Called arrived. She checked the menu that was posted on the wall. She understood that the meals were designed with a shelf life of three to five years, and wondered how any of these would taste after all of that time. Today’s breakfast consisted of packaged scrambled eggs. Bonnie put out a small amount of fresh goat cheese and milk that the children had just produced during their morning and afternoon work shifts, along with a dish of nuts and a few packages of cookies for dessert.

  She then removed from the cabinet some of the plastic gusseted bags that NASA now used as meal containers. The gusset seams allowed the bags to expand upon heating in the microwave and eliminated the size and weight of the plastic trays needed to hold the food inside the bags. Bonnie injected water into the bags of dehydrated scrambled eggs, placed them in the microwave and set the timer.

  For condiments, she took out a few individual pouches of catsup and hot pepper sauce, along with the bottle of pepper suspended in oil and the bottle of salt dissolved in water, each of which could be dripped onto the eggs if desired. However, she preferred something else in order to settle her stomach after that dream, and so she pulled out a package of dried cereal that was packed already containing dry milk and sugar. All she needed to do was add water to it and shake the bag. She thought that perhaps she would also treat herself to a little of the fresh goat milk with the cereal to settle her stomach. She looked up and saw old Sue approaching, and was glad that her friend was also on this morning’s work detail.

  “I hate to bother you, Bonnie, but we’re out of dishes,” Sue said. “It looks like whoever was responsible for washing Sunday night’s plates didn’t finish them. Can you run some through the washer quickly before our brothers and sisters show up for breakfast?”

  “Really? Again?” moaned Bonnie. “That happened to me last week too!” She stomped over to the work roster, and flipped the page back to Sunday. “I should have known; it was George’s wife Celia shirking her duties again,” she said, pointing at the work detail list showing the Platinum Two’s spouse as last night’s dish washer.

  “Bonnie, hush!” Sue whispered. “You know that Brother Jacobs doesn’t allow any dissension. You’ll be punished for complaining. Just do it. I’ll help you figure out a response later.”

  Bonnie walked over to the other room where the sink was, and sure enough there lay a pile of dirty dishes. “Ugh, they’re not even soaking. I’ll have to scrub and scrub by hand to clean these,” she muttered. After about ten minutes of vigorous scraping, she had enough of them cleansed to run through the washer. She parsimoniously placed three drops of cleaning detergent in the dispenser, and turned on the steam cleaner. Although they had plenty of water from the asteroid, they had very limited cleaning materials, and so had to be careful in their usage. Because of that, any caked food had to be assiduously cleaned off by hand before placing the dishes and utensils into the washer.
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  While the dishes were being done, Bonnie went and sat with her shift mates. “Good morrow, Sister Bonnie,” wished one of the more traditional members of the Called.

  “And good morrow to you, too,” Bonnie replied. “I trust you slept well?”

  “Like a baby,” the woman replied, chewing on her eggs. “I am not bothered by any of the dreams that others seem to have reported. No doubt it is because of my complete faith in Brother Jacobs and our cause. Why, do you know that I actually heard someone scream out in the middle of the other night? That person needs to be taught a lesson about faith! And how was your night?”

  “Well, I did dream that we had an emergency and needed to evacuate to the Pegasus,” Bonnie replied.

  “No doubt it is because we had that drill on Saturday,” one of the men sitting next to Bonnie said, “and your mind was probably rehearsing the proper techniques. I trust everything went orderly?”

  Bonnie kept her head down, munching on her cereal, and thought about her reply. “Yes, it was perfectly orderly,” she finally answered. “We all marched in two rows to the Pegasus as we practiced, took our seats, and sat quietly until the astronauts and the Platinums reported that it was safe to return to our rooms.”

  “See, that is exactly what faith provides you,” the original woman said, nodding. “As Brother Jacobs told us at his last weekly sermon, ‘Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘Where shall we shelter?’ for I and the Great Consciousness know that you need them all, and we will provide.’”

  “We will arrive and merge,” the man next to her said, invoking their new slogan.

  “We will arrive and merge,” they all responded.

  “Excuse me,” Bonnie said quickly rising. She didn’t want the others to see how anxious she was becoming again. “I have to check to see if the dishes are done.” She went into the other room and leaned her back against the dishwasher with her eyes closed. “Why can’t I have the same faith as the others?” she thought. “Life would be so much easier.”

  “Ahem,” she heard, and quickly opened her eyes. Old Sue was standing there next to her, looking at her strangely.

  “My dear, your dream wasn’t quite as nice as you stated, was it?” Sue asked. “And, you know, your abdomen is sticking out when you lean back like that. Is there something you wish to tell me?”

  “Um, whatever do you mean?” Bonnie replied, blushing.

  “You might have the others fooled, but not me,” Sue whispered. “C’mon, tell the truth. You’re with child, right?”

  Bonnie gave in; she had to tell someone. The pressure of this whole trip and the impending birth was too much for her to bear alone. “Alright, yes, I’m pregnant. And I’m very worried.” She turned and grabbed Sue by both arms. “Please, please don’t tell anyone. I’m not ready for that yet.”

  “Your secret is safe with me, child,” Sue quietly replied. “But you won’t be able to keep the others from knowing much longer. It’s starting to become obvious. When do you think you’ll deliver?”

  “Probably a month after we land on Mars. I think I became pregnant a couple of months before we left. It was about the same time that Brother Jacobs told us that we would be going upon a great voyage of discovery. That was also the time when Jeff suddenly became amorous, bothering me constantly for a few weeks.”

  “Well my advice is to go tell Brother Jacobs before the others suspect. Then he will announce it to the Called. It will be received well that way. And if you ever need to get away from everyone, you can always come to my room to escape, dear.”

  “Thank you, Sue,” Bonnie sighed with relief. “You are such a good friend. I don’t know what I would do without you here.”

  The dishwasher next to them gave off a small chime. “Come,” Sue said. “It looks like the dishes are done. Compose yourself, and let’s get this last batch set out. I see the others are already starting to arrive for breakfast.”

  CHAPTER 18

  Commander Grant Stiles pulled the MMTV next to the Mars Star-Kissed habitat, and turned the wheels sideways ninety degrees. He then slowly closed the distance until the transport was almost touching the habitat, and extended the small docking tunnel. Once the tunnel was safely sealed, he opened the door hatch.

  Brad was peering through the tunnel from the other side. “How’s Serge?” he asked. “I could only see some of what happened on the video.”

  “Help me unstrap him from the seat and carry him in,” Charles said. “I had to knock him out with a sedative.”

  “First, take both of the click-suits off,” Grant ordered. “We’ll need to clean all of our spacesuits and bring them inside the habitat to check their integrity, as well as seeing if we can salvage Serge’s. Then we’ll need to vacuum up all of this Mars dust in here.”

  Brad and Charles quickly stripped Sergey out of his suit, and carried him into the habitat and towards the section they had designated as an infirmary. That section was really just a slab next to a cabinet of various medications. They placed him on the slab, and Charles unwrapped the arm that had been burned.

  Brad whistled. “Wow, look at that,” he said. Sergey’s arm was covered in spidery lines all the way up to his shoulder.

  “I’ve seen pictures of people after they’ve been struck by lightning,” Charles stated. “They have these exact same types of feathery lines on their bodies. That creature must have packed some jolt. I think the only thing that saved him was the violent reaction of the suit to the electricity.”

  “If Serge didn’t like his shortened nickname before, just wait until I start calling him Electro, like the old comic book character,” Brad laughed.

  “Oh yeah, I’m really sure he’ll just be thrilled,” Charles said sarcastically. “Let’s get his forearm properly bandaged. It looks like there are no puncture wounds, only burns.”

  The commander walked up to them, having finished shutting down their transport, and looked down at Sergey. “What’s the prognosis?” he asked.

  “It looks like mostly burns, Commander,” replied Charles, “but from these traces on his arm it looks like his nervous system had a major jolt of electricity. His hand might have no feeling or be tingly for a while until the nerves heal from the shock. We won’t know until he wakes up, but I think he’ll be ok.”

  “Good. I’ll keep an eye on him while you guys get some rest. Later, we’ll have to check the suits and clean the transport. I’ll send a report to Mission Control. Go get some sack time, and I’ll wake you in a few hours.”

  Behind the three astronauts, a small creature hopped out of the tunnel unnoticed. It scanned left then right, and then hopped to the other side of the nearby treadmill and hunkered down. Its video feed continued to transmit everything that it saw and heard.

  # # #

  Probe Spit was pleased. The hopper had hidden behind a box of equipment in the bipeds’ vehicle and had not been noticed. Briefly, Spit had considered whether the hopper would be capable of sabotaging the transport, but the limited abilities of the hopper precluded attacking such a sophisticated device. Instead, the probe had commanded the hopper to record everything, which would be presented to the Master when he hatched.

  The programmers had provided Spit with a complete compendium of the creatures’ language, and so the probe could also closely follow the events being transmitted. After it had safely directed the hopper to concealment, it saw two of the creatures leave by climbing up a device they called a ladder.

  Spit watched as the remaining upright biped who was called the ‘Commander’ went over to a panel with a display and started talking. The probe continued recording as it heard, “Mission Control, this is Commander Grant Stiles of the Star-Kissed Mars habitat. We have returned from our initial foray to the site of the rover mishap, and indeed there were creatures located there. The creatures were subterranean, violent and territorial, and attacked the rover once again. It was determined that the rover needed to be defended and the crea
tures repelled, and we successfully defeated the attack. Unfortunately, Mission Engineer Sergey Andreovich received an arm wound during his valiant efforts, and is now recuperating. We will send more on his status when he awakens. The remains of the two creatures that precipitated the attack are now in our possession, as well as a third which they seemed to be protecting. The analysis of the creatures will commence posthaste. The rover was left at the location of the attack, as I determined that we would need additional equipment to disinter it, and mission priorities demanded that we return with the creatures’ remains and with Sergey for treatment.”

  Probe Spit listened intently as the creature continued talking. “I suggest that you notify the base relief astronauts as well as the colonists who will be arriving in five months, so that they may be properly prepared. It appears that the creatures have the ability to deliver large electric shocks, and that these react violently with the hydrogen infused microfibers of our suits if the suit is penetrated. Attached to this message is the complete video recording of the attack. Any suggestions as to how to effectively deal with this type of threat would be most appreciated. This is Commander Grant Stiles, over and out.”

  “This is something that the Master must be made aware of as a top priority,” Spit determined. “There are more of the creatures arriving in the future. This will make the mission even more complicated than I initially determined. It is well that the course of action I chose was to summon a Master. This is far beyond my programming.”

  Spit sat satisfied with its course of action in its underground lair at the center of the crater. The Master would be arriving shortly.

  # # #

  Charles opened the door to his small cubicle bedroom, and flopped down on his bunk. The adrenaline from the encounter with the creatures had long ago left his body and he was exhausted. He really wanted to get up and immediately start analyzing the biological remains they had gathered, but realized that he was in no condition to do any work.