Glory on Mars (11 page)

"Use the bunks here in the north habitat," Sanni
said. "I'll help Emma."

Inside a bunk room, she peeled the suit's compression
layer off and Emma was unconscious before Sanni tossed a blanket
over her.

***

Emma lay still in the bunk for as long as she could
after waking, but her bladder demanded attention so she reached
towards the red nightlight and found the switch. Her duffle sat on
the shelf next to her along with her helmet. A sleeve from her
surface suit peeked out from under the bunk. Her cargo pants were
still wadded up in the duffle where she'd shoved them before
leaving the transport ship, a hundred years ago.

Jaars ago, she reminded herself as she dressed. She
pulled the surface suit boots on to keep her feet warm.

Emma smiled weakly at Daan in the habitat and, moving
slowly, climbed the ladder to the upper life support deck and the
toilet. When she returned to the lower level, Daan gave her a cup
of hot water and a plate of macaroni-like tubes from the food
printer. She chewed on a rubbery, tasteless piece.

"Sorry, we're out of tea. We're low on
macronutrients, too. We better recover the cylinders in your cargo.
These are getting low."

Alarm shot through Emma. She hadn't realized they
might lose some of the cargo. It was vital to Kamp, vital to
staying alive.

Liz and Claude joined her as she sipped her second
cup of hot water. In addition to the effects of gravity, they were
also battered from the crash, and Claude's hand was bandaged. Liz
found her surgical kit lying in the galley and fished out a bottle
of pain meds.

Emma plugged in her pad, opened her message center,
and sorted by senders.

"Filip's asking for the habitat video feed to be
turned on," she said. "He asked politely; says everyone's worried
about us. Is it okay, Daan, for a few minutes?" They took turns
talking to the imager, and then shut it down again.

Emma responded to a message from her mother, and
found a short message from her father asking if the rovers were
damaged in the crash.

There was nothing from Malcolm, which was fine, Emma
thought, but puzzling. A crash should have brought all the
controllers back from their weekend off. She opened the MEX log and
saw him listed on medical leave, but had no time to ponder why.

"We're planning to have a memorial for Luis and James
as soon as you feel up to it," Daan said. "Then the bots will take
the bodies out to bury next to Ingra. It'll be easier to push them
out the south airlock. We'll watch through the bots' imagers."

Even Ruby agreed that video feeds of the memorial
should be streamed live. The settlers assembled in the north
habitat and each said a few words, then they walked through the
Spine to the Plaza, where Luis and James lay on the flatbed under a
pile of crushed ice.

It must look eerie over the live streaming, Emma
thought, with us standing under dim lights exhaling an ice fog with
each breath. Yin and Yang pushed the flatbed and they all followed
through the south habitat to the docking module. The bots were too
large to enter an airlock, so Yin positioned the flatbed while Yang
suited up to operated the air pumps. When Yin was safely inside, he
opened the outer door and a bot's jointed arms reached in.

The robot was like a giant beetle with a smooth oval
body, and many-jointed arms with exchangeable tool tips. There were
two beetle-bots, bright blue like all the surface equipment - the
hands and eyes of the construction squad and general purpose units
for the colony.

The bot slid Luis and James from the airlock onto a
tool skid and dragged the bodies away. Stone building blocks were
staged beyond the maintenance bay at the edge of the shallow
trenches where they dug regolith sand. The bot stacked blocks over
each body, next to the pile that marked Ingra's grave. The settlers
sat in the south habitat, watching the video feed.

After Governor shut off the feeds to Earth, Emma
turned to Daan.

"I should get the fish into their pond..."

"Fish." Ruby snorted. "Luis is dead and you're
worried about fish."

Yin tried to put an arm around her but she shrugged
him off.

"Emma's being practical," he said. "Our food supplies
are almost gone and we don't know what shape the cargo is in."

Liz started to get up with a groan.

"Stay put, Liz," Daan said. "Come on, Yang. Let's
help Emma."

***

Yang and Daan brought the canister down from the
habitat's upper deck, where Daan had plumbed it into the water
recycling system overnight, and laid it on the same flatbed they'd
used for the bodies. Emma tugged packages labeled for the fish pond
from the pile until Yang sat her down in a chair.

"Just point," he said.

They maneuvered the flatbed across the frigid Spine
to the fish module airlock. There, high velocity air ducts skirted
the walls, but hung unattached at the bracket where the compressor
should go.

"I haven't made any connections to the Spine
recycling systems yet," Daan said, noticing the direction of Emma's
gaze. "It's too cold out there, so except for power, this module is
isolated."

"And except for Governor." Emma examined a shiny
white shell, a smooth lozenge as long as her forearm with rounded
ends and three small LEDs. The solid green light was illuminated.
She touched a black metal bar set all around with short fins - the
heat sink protruding through the sealed unit's surface.

"Yeah, I pulled a couple servers from our modules to
install here, and inside, too."

When Daan opened the inner door, Emma's spirits rose
and she dropped the blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

The module was bright, warm, and humid. It was the
empty fuel module from S-2 and Daan had built a pond of stone
blocks in the center. An aerator burbled in the warm water.

"I sintered the blocks with a hand unit, so it's
water tight, and used spare parts from life support," Daan said.
"You'll have to keep a close eye on the pH levels in the water
since there's no recycling hooked up."

"It's wonderful," Emma said, checking the
thermocouple readout mounted on the pond's side. "We need to hang
the canister over the side, submerged in the water..." She bent
over to help lift the canister and wobbled a little.

"You're still knackered," Yang said. "We'll do that."
He positioned the canister and Emma opened a small port to let pond
water gradually mix in.

"I'll release them tomorrow, after they've adjusted
to the new water. Then I can regenerate the canister filter. This
pond should be fine until they start reproducing. By then I hope
we'll have the cargo unloaded..." Her voice trailed off. Thinking
about the damaged knarr made her think of James.

"I can handle this," Emma said, reaching resolutely
for a sack. With her jerk, it sailed up to head level.

Daan chuckled. "Your body doesn't know yet how heavy
things are compared to their size. That looks bulky. What's in
there?"

"Limnological solids," she said, pulling out a
fist-sized lump. "A dehydrated mix of pond life - algae, water
bugs, nitrogen-processing bacteria, stuff like that. Liz could tell
you all the species names." She unfolded a screened cage with a
one-handed flip, hung it in the water, and dropped in the friable
lump.

"The cage gives the pond life protection until it's
established," Emma said. "After nothing but compressed pellets, the
fish will be wild for fresh food and they'd eat it all.

"Liz has bags of soil starts, too. Microbes, bugs,
and worm casings. She calls them her subterranean livestock."

"I've piled all the organic wastes we've accumulated
in the greenhouse."

"Great. Then the bugs can work their magic. We'll
siphon fish waste from the bottom of the pond and use it to water
the beds - share our vegetables with the mealworms - and feed some
of them to the fish, which will start breeding. The sand filters
the water and what drains to the sump, we dump back with the fish.
As neat as your life support systems."

"Then you'll appreciate this," Daan said, enjoying
his success. "Mealworms can go on the module's upper deck..." He
pointed to the metal ceiling. "But let me show you the greenhouse
next."

Through the next airlock, they stepped into a long
bay. It, too, was bright and warm and reminded Emma of a
Quonset-style greenhouse, but instead of glass it was built of tan
stone with carroty orange streaks. The massive arched walls were
fabricated from sand, sintered into a sort of stone foam, with
closed pores for insulation and three meters thick for radiation
shielding. She touched a seam where the surfaces crushed together,
creating a tight seal.

"Beautifully consistent." She smiled at Yang.

"Tharsis sand turns out to be very well sorted. And
check out the garden beds." He pointed down a narrow aisle.

"We washed the sand in the maintenance bay, so no
perchlorates or other nasties. Just sterile rock dust."

"This is perfect," Emma said. The bay was filled with
raised beds built from smaller blocks of the same artificial stone.
Knee-high, the beds were separated by aisles, with small ponds
scattered among them.

"Here's the sludge I promised you." Daan pointed to
crumbling grayish heaps. "Irradiated and sterilized. So - there ya
go - Plant us a garden. When's supper?"

His blue eyes danced above a boyish smile. Emma
laughed.

"Spinach before you know it. And Liz says the number
one problem with aquaponics is overproduction, so I hope you like
fish." Her smile faded as she thought about the near-empty nutrient
cylinders in the galley. They needed the gardening to go well.

"Liz's tools were packed right behind the
macronutrient cylinders. I hope we can recover the knarr's
cargo."

"MEX is working out a revised access procedure," Daan
said.

"The module has a split up the side, so they better
hurry," Yang said. "A small dust storm won't cause much trouble,
but if we get a big haboob, it'll pack sand into every
crevice."

"Come, my lady." Daan took Emma's hand and laid it on
his outstretched forearm. "Let's go back to the fish module and
I'll show you the mealworm's penthouse." He waved his other hand
theatrically above his head.

"But soft! What light through yonder hatchway
breaks?"

Emma began a giggle, but half choked.

"Go ahead and laugh, love," Yang said. "It's better
than crying."

Emma rubbed her face and smiled gamely.

Chapter Fifteen:
Cargo

Emma frequently checked on the fish. She held her
breath every time she peeked into the pond, fearing something might
have happened to the half-dozen tilapia that would breed a major
food supply - if she kept them alive until Liz was fully recovered
from the crash and took over. But all six were still there. Unlike
the settlers, they had left the transport for a much larger world
and darted around happily chasing food pellets. Sometimes Emma
scooped a little duckweed out of its floating cage for them or
dropped in some mealworms. They loved that, which was good because
there was only one bag of pellets. Before they had fish to eat, she
had to grow food for fishes.

Daan often joined her. They were laughing as they
stepped into the north habitat for supper one evening, but hushed
when they saw Melina and Liz seated at the table, meditating.

"Sorry," Emma said when Melina opened her eyes.

"That's okay," Melina said with a sigh. "I can't seem
to get past this headache tonight."

"Do you want something for it?" Liz asked, ending her
efforts too.

"No. I should have warmed up more before I started. I
get so cold working in the Spine."

"I'll make supper. That'll warm you up." Liz held the
edge of the table to help her stand slowly.

"No, no. You sit still," Melina said. "I'll start the
food printer. That way, I get to choose the shape." She attempted a
smile.

"And I'll heat the water," Daan said. "Where is
everyone?"

"They'll be here for supper," Liz said. "Claude
wanted to take a walk so he went to the south habitat to find
them."

Melina started the food printer extruding
macronutrients in little shapes like buckyball cages with
alternating protein and carbohydrate threads. She said the funny
shape made printed food chewy, and texture was the only way to vary
the meals.

"This printer used to work a lot faster. It needs a
new head. We've used parts from both habitat galleys to keep this
one going. I wish you'd brought the printer from your
transport."

"MEX planned for the S-3 habitat to be dropped on
Phobos fully intact," Emma said. "I suppose we'll be happy we have
a base there one of these sols. If our cargo's badly damaged, Ruby
could fly up and retrieve the nutrient cylinders we left, and the
food printer."

Melina harrumphed.

"Colony Mars plans - they planned the food supply,
too. I gag on half the shapes programmed in this thing." She
fiddled with the settings.

"I'm surprised Ingra hallucinated about trees. I
might try a dash across the surface myself if I saw a decent meal
waiting."

"Don't joke about that." Daan scowled at the cup in
his hands.

Claude followed Sanni through the airlock. She
carried the cat sprawled across one forearm and a yellow duffle in
the other hand. She fished out a cushion to lay on the table and a
gel pack.

Liz cooed at the cat as she helped shift him to the
cushion so Sanni could heat the gel pack in the galley.

"Does he have to be on the table?" Claude asked.

"I'll move him before supper."

"How's the hand feel?" Liz asked.

"Kinda dull right now." He held up his bandaged
hand.