The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) Read online

  In the background, the voice of the interviewee could be heard yelling. “We don’t need further evidence! We need action! Tell the world!”

  Jeff stood there in stunned silence as the screen went dark. “Is that a manifestation of the Great Consciousness?”

  “Yes, Jeff. It is the first sign,” intoned Brother Jacobs. “When we arrive on Mars, we will have to go meet it. We can only hope that the astronauts currently there ignore this evidence. If they go meet it first, it could be disastrous. They could do irreparable harm with their infernal meddling. Why, they might even attack it, and the Great Consciousness could leave for another thousand years!”

  “But wouldn’t it wait for us after all of this time? It must know we are coming,” said Jeff.

  “Yes, yes, of course. What was I thinking? But even so, I do not trust NASA and its astronauts. Who knows what they are keeping from us? If it was not for my diligent scanning of the news, we would not have heard about this. Notice that our NASA shepherds did not tell us. We must keep closer tabs on them. Where are they now?”

  “The Commander and Pilot are out on the asteroid surface checking the supply ships. They told me that, for this first spacewalk, they would do it alone. We Platinums are to assist them later,” said Jeff.

  “Very well, but from now on I want you to shadow the Commander at all times. You are to learn all of the workings of this asteroid and the astronauts’ procedures. We will also need to learn all about the Pegasus, but we will need to be subtle.” Brother Jacobs brought his hand to his chin, thought for a few seconds, and then continued. “I have noticed that your elder daughter seems to be growing into a fine young woman. She has adapted well to life here, and seems to have an insatiable curiosity. I have seen her peppering the young female pilot with questions about space. Is this not so?”

  “Sometimes she can be a real pest,” said Jeff. “She always wants to know how things work around here. She even told me that she wanted to join the space force someday.”

  “Listen carefully, Platinum One. I want you to nourish that curiosity. Tell her to follow the pilot everywhere. She is to learn from her any and all emergency procedures. She is to learn all about the Pegasus control systems. I want your daughter to investigate how they plan on reaching our new home and setting up the colony’s habitat. Tell her to write this all down every month as a report and to deliver it to me.”

  “Isn’t that all a bit much?” asked Jeff. “I doubt she would be patient enough to write a report, especially if it seems like she’s being asked to spy. She’ll also be even more of a pain in the butt if I allow her to ask even more questions.”

  “It is well to be prepared for all contingencies, Platinum One,” said Brother Jacobs. “As I said, I do not trust these astronauts. I want to be prepared to take our destiny into our own hands, if necessary. Remember, they follow their own agenda, and not ours. And if they move against the Great Consciousness, we must not be seen to be in collusion with them. Find a way to use your daughter to ingratiate herself with the pilot and to get the information. Do as I say and we shall be greatly rewarded.”

  “Very well, Brother Jacobs. I’ll go encourage my daughter Jean to learn as much as she can and to write it all down.”

  “Good. I expect the first set of information in four weeks’ time. Go now, and say nothing to the others about this.”

  # # #

  Commander Roy Olstein and Pilot Samantha Tuttle slowly picked their way across the asteroid’s surface. They had just finished checking the automated mining equipment that supplied the habitat with fuel, air and water, and had determined that everything was in working order. Now they needed to check the three Mars supply ships that sat near the ‘nose’ of their temporary home. They towed behind them one of the tanks that had been filled with water extracted from the asteroid. The slow spinning of the asteroid threatened to hurl them all into space, and the astronauts were careful to keep two tethers clicked onto the webbing that stretched in front of them at all times.

  Sam found this part particularly tedious, in spite of the thrill of being outside on an asteroid. It was just a slow sequence of motions: unclick the rear tether, reach and pull yourself forward, and click that tether onto the webbing, and then repeat over and over. She looked around at the amazing stars in the pitch black of space, and thought about how ancient navigators used the stars to find their way across Earth’s oceans. “Hey Roy,” she said. “Do you ever find this view getting old?”

  “No way,” the commander said. “I still love looking at the stars, ever since I had my first pair of binoculars as a kid. I used to look out of my bedroom window on cold winter nights at the constellation Orion, marveling at the different colors of its stars, like red Betelgeuse and blue Rigel, not to mention the nebula in Orion’s belt. In fact, this interest in the stars helped me on more than one occasion when I was a fighter pilot. It’s one of the reasons I got the nickname Owl.”

  “How did you get that nickname? You’re not going to tell me some old fighter pilot’s ‘hairy tale,’ are you?”

  “Ha, well you’ll just have to decide for yourself,” Roy chuckled. “I always had good night vision, but I also used an old astronomer’s trick that goes back to the time of Aristotle. It was especially useful during night carrier landings.”

  “What trick was that?”

  “It’s called using ‘averted vision.’ The color receptors in the center of your eyes only do well in bright light. So if you look at a dim object directly, you can’t see it. If you want to see a dim object in the dark, you need to use your peripheral vision. You put the object off the side of your nose and look straight ahead, and the black and white rod cells in other parts of your eye will spot it. You can see something about five times dimmer than normal that way.”

  “That’s a neat trick. So is that why they call you Owl?” Sam asked.

  “It was at the start of the Chinese invasion of Southeast Asia. The Royal Thai Air Force was very concerned that the Chinese had allowed North Korea to invade their neighbor Laos, and requested U.S. assistance. I was assigned to lead a joint night mission with them into Laos airspace to investigate. Things were going fine until the damn Koreans lofted up a Chinese antiaircraft EMP bomb right in front of us. The electromagnetic pulse knocked out all of our lights, communications and navigation equipment, but luckily not our hardened aircraft control systems. We were flying blind on a dark moonless night. I managed to lead the squadron back to base using the stars for navigation. With no communications, and all of us flying under the radar, they didn’t know we were returning and so they didn’t turn on the landing lights. The whole base was pitch black. Luckily, everyone followed me down to the runway successfully. After we landed, I was surrounded by all of the pilots, who started chanting nohk-oo, nohk-oo. We all got pretty drunk that night, laughing and singing. Someone later told me the translation of nohk-oo. It meant owl.”

  “Wow, pretty nice. You must really have some great night vision to be able to land on a completely dark strip.”

  “Well, I didn’t tell them that I actually cheated,” said Roy laughing.

  “What? You cheated? How?”

  “I learned long ago to always be prepared, and I had a special small night vision monocle with me. It’s saved my ass a number of times. In fact, I have it right here in a zip pocket on the outside of my spacesuit. I never leave home without it. After that night, it’s been my lucky charm.”

  “That’s a pretty good tale,” Sam said. “I never got a cool nickname like that,” she sighed. “I did make snakes my hobby as a kid, and learned a lot about them, but that never resulted in a nickname. Did you know that there are sixteen types of rattlers and thirty-six different species? They are the most amazing and adaptable creatures. Even if you cut the head off of one, it can still give you a fatal bite. You’re supposed to bury the head of any snake you kill because of that. Hey, do you think they’ll find some similar creature on Mars? I saw that newscast from Earth of a guy yelling tha
t NASA was hiding that there was some type of frog on Mars.”

  “Yeah, that was pretty insane,” said Roy. “Some guys will make up anything to get attention from the media. But we still have a few months to go before we get there, so we’ll have to wait to see what the guys on the ground discover. I can’t imagine what the colonists on this asteroid would do if they saw that newscast. I’m sure that’s why NASA told us not to say anything to them. They’d probably insist that we light the thruster rockets on the rear of this asteroid to get there sooner, even though we would zoom right past Mars and onward to the outer planets in the process. And not to mention we’d burn up on trying to land the Pegasus at those speeds.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past that Brother Jacobs to try some weird stunt like that. We’ll have to keep a close eye on him. I’ll make sure not to let him anywhere near the Pegasus when I do the monthly maintenance checks,” Sam said.

  “Good idea. Well, here we are,” Roy said as they reached the Mars resupply rockets. “It looks like the fuel manufacturer has finished its first tank. Here, take the fuel hose and hook it up to this first rocket.”

  “The whole idea of using the natural resources of this asteroid is pretty amazing,” Sam said as she took the hose and connected it. “All we have to do is dig up some water, bring it over here and this small machine splits it into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel. We don’t need to launch any fuel from Earth.”

  In a few minutes, they had emptied the fuel into the rocket. “Okay,” said Roy. “That takes care of this rocket. When we get to Mars, we’ll launch this one first, since it has supplies for the Star-Kissed habitat on Mars. We’ll need these supplies after we’ve landed the colonists and head over to the habitat to live there while the current astronauts lift off and return to Earth on this cycler. Let’s swap out the empty water tank for the one we hauled over here so that it can make more fuel for the other two rockets.”

  “The other two rockets contain material for the colonists, right?” asked Sam.

  “Right. It will take a couple of tanks of water for us to create enough fuel for the colony supply rocket and the rocket that contains their living quarters and machinery,” Roy explained. “We’ll have many space walks to perform to get everything fueled and ready. I sure hope those colonists are prepared to help with this. It takes a lot of effort to drag that tank over here and get everything swapped out. I think we’ll need to bring them out one at a time until we’re sure they can handle these activities properly.”

  “No kidding. Should we start back with the empty tank?”

  “In a minute. Let’s check the rockets for any micrometeorite damage. We might as well patch any holes we find now.”

  “Speaking about micrometeorites, do you ever worry about getting hit by one while on a spacewalk?”

  “Nah,” said Roy. “The odds of that are pretty low, and these new spacesuits are just amazing. Not only are they more comfortable than the ones from the past, they have automatic pressure sensors that will cinch off the suit at any joint if it detects a breach. We can also stay out here for hours without worrying about radiation. The suits have hydrogen woven in with the nano-fibers which will absorb cosmic rays without generating harmful secondary particles. We won’t have to worry about procreating two-headed kids when we get back,” Roy said with a laugh.

  “When they told us about the new suits at training camp, we started calling them Hindenburgs.”

  “Hindenburgs?” asked Roy.

  “You know, after that old zeppelin, because of the hydrogen,” Sam said. “They won’t really catch fire if you get hit with a meteorite, right? That’s just a myth, right?” Sam asked worriedly. “We figured we newbies were just being hazed by the old guard.”

  “Hmm, I doubt you would catch fire. Well, maybe if you get hit with an electric shock at the same time you get a hole puncture in the suit, you might get a nice blowout. But really, what are the odds of that happening? No, I think we’re pretty safe,” Roy said.

  “That’s a relief. Thanks,” Sam sighed. “Okay, my rocket’s clear of damage.”

  “Mine too. Let’s haul the empty tank back and get it set up to receive more water, and then head back inside.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Chief Scientist Li Julong stood once more in front of General Zhou Desheng of the Chinese PLA Air Force. “You sent for me, sir?”

  “Li Xiansheng, you have done very well,” the general said. “According to my reports, it appears that the first two fuel packages have been successfully launched into their proper trajectories. How are the preparations proceeding for the final two fuel supplies?”

  “The third will be launched within the month, and the final one the month after that,” Li Julong replied. “I have had to make the men work overtime in order to create the launch carts, since we unfortunately lose one with every launch, but we are ahead of schedule. We should be able to create an extra fuel package and cart in case of a failed launch, but I do not anticipate that. The mass driver is running at one hundred percent efficiency.”

  “And have you finalized the list of North Koreans for the mission?”

  “Yes, sir. As you predicted, I had more than enough volunteers.”

  “Excellent! In fact, the Party is so impressed with your work, that we have a reward for you. You will be going with the Koreans on the mission.”

  Li Julong stood there in stunned silence, looking up at the general. “Have I heard him correctly?” he thought. “This must be a mistake. I will need to word this carefully.”

  “But sir, I am old and not in prime health. Surely the party would not wish to compromise the success of the mission. Are there not others who are better qualified?”

  “Not for this. The mission parameters have changed. Our agents who secretly work at NASA have discovered a most interesting development. Although the Americans encrypted the message that they recently sent to their base on Mars, they did not expect that there would be spies working within their own organization. It was a simple matter for our agents to acquire an unencrypted copy. Observe!”

  The general turned a desk monitor to face the scientist. Julong watched in silence as the video message that Brick at Mission Control had sent to the Star-Kissed habitat astronauts played in full. When it had completed, Li’s head whirled.

  “Sir, are you sure that this is not a hoax?” asked the scientist. “Or perhaps it is a case of pareidolia,” he said, using the term for seeing realistic faces or animals in random input. “After all, we all show our children in China the rabbit on the Moon, which the Westerners see as a man, and yet it is just an illusion. Perhaps this is something similar.”

  “No, if the Americans are convinced, then we must be prepared to respond accordingly. Our mission to Mars will now be to capture any alien artifacts, mechanisms or entities for ourselves, and launch them here for us to study. Thus, you are uniquely qualified. You will direct the Koreans in constructing a launch facility on Mars, and plan the proper trajectories for any discoveries to arrive safely here. You will work everyone as hard as it takes to launch additional fuel packages to land on Mars to fuel a sample return rocket. Then you will go there and prepare the rocket and samples for return here.”

  The scientist thought furiously. There had to be some hole in this plan. Then he thought he saw it. “But what if the Americans have acquired all of the evidence? I am but a scientist, and the North Koreans are workers. There would be nothing for us to do.”

  “You will have one additional member, who will be arriving here from Earth next month. He is an expert on such matters,” replied the general. “You will focus on your job of getting the fuel packages to Mars, setting up the launch facility once you are there, and shipping any discoveries to us here for the glory of China. We cannot afford for this to fall into the hands of the Americans. We must have it strictly for ourselves.”

  “But a discovery of this magnitude would be astounding. Think of what this would mean. Shouldn’t we provide any knowledge of
this to the whole world?” asked Julong.

  “Li Xiansheng, we do not work for the world. We work for the Chinese air force,” the general said as he glared at the scientist.

  Li Julong stared in shock, and briefly wondered if the general realized that he was uttering a line similar to one in the old 1951 movie The Thing from Another World. “No, the general would not be imaginative enough to watch science fiction movies,” he told himself.

  The general was still ranting. “You will go to Mars, you will acquire the samples, and you will send them all here. I will brook no more discussion on this. Now go and prepare yourself and your men. No doubt you have much to do.”

  Shaken to his core, the chief scientist bowed as he backed towards the door. “Yes, of course, General.”

  CHAPTER 16

  “Well, what do you think?” Mars mission engineer Sergey Andreovich asked the others. “I took Mission Control’s suggestions about how to protect the rover, and made a few modifications myself.”

  The rover sat on the floor of the habitat’s workroom. Sheets of metal had been formed around the rover so that it looked like a boat, with the rover’s optics poking up through the top like a smokestack.

  “I don’t know,” the geologist Brad said. “It looks like one of those ironclad boats in the old Civil War painting of the Monitor versus the Merrimack. Are we expecting cannonballs to be shot at it?”

  “And what about the treads?” asked Charles. “How is it protected from below?”