The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) (28 page)

Li Julong suffered fifteen minutes of abuse from the Sergeant over the radio until he had caught up with the stalled rover. The military man was stomping around and yelling in frustration even as Julong pulled up. “Get that vacuum over here immediately,” he shouted. “This rover has clogged up too.”

Two of the Koreans jumped off of the bulldozer and rushed over with the suction device. In a few minutes, they had cleared the obstruction. “Give me that thing,” the NCO growled as he grabbed the mechanism. “Here, hold onto this,” he
said as he handed the device to one of the Koreans who was on the back of his rover. “We cannot wait for the bulldozer again if this reoccurs.” He waved his hands in the air and screamed at no one in particular, “Why do I have to think of everything?!” He jumped back onto the conveyance and put it in gear. “Move out,” he yelled.

Li Julong started
his dozer moving with the two rovers, but as before he started falling behind.
“Well, at least his wrath wasn’t directed at me this time,”
the old scientist thought.
“I’ve never seen him with such a hair trigger on his temper. Whoever gets in his way had better be careful.”

# # #

Brother Jacobs waited patiently as the bulldozer pulled up and stopped automatically. He climbed aboard and cancelled the voice control, switching over to manual operation. He punched up the radar screen, and when he lined up with the tracks saw that the screen indicated a heading for the NASA base. “Oh ho, my pretties, a valiant attempt. The chase is on,” he muttered. The colony leader opened the dozer’s drive menu and selected ‘Forward.’ He stared straight ahead and kept it following the tracks that it had made previously.

After a half hour of driving, Brother Jacobs had reached the end of the two parallel lines
the dozer had left in the sand. This was where he had commanded it to return to base. He could see one set of footprints leading straight ahead of him. With determination, he kept going.  In approximately ten minutes, he could see his quarry stumbling in the distance. He kept silent, wishing to surprise them from behind. Slowly he closed the distance.

Bonnie was exhausted as she stumbled on. All she could hear was her labored breathing in her helmet.
Julie had nodded off and her helmet was leaning on Bonnie’s shoulder. Jean had yet to wake up. Bonnie was in the middle of a step when a weight hit her from behind, sending her crashing forward onto the dirt.

“You are more trouble than you are worth,” a voice she recognized as originating from Brother Jacobs resonated in her helmet. She was forcefully rolled over onto her back.

“I’ve had enough of you,” Bonnie screamed and kneed the figure in the groin while pushing the man away with both arms. To her surprise, but due to a combination of the light gravity of Mars and adrenaline coursing through her body, Bonnie succeeded in sending Brother Jacobs sailing over her head. Unfortunately due to the bulky nature of the suits, the knee did not have its desired effect, and the man jumped up in anger. As Bonnie got up, he crashed head first into her chest, sending her onto her back. Brother Jacobs jumped on her and tried to hold her down.

Bonnie fought back like a wild c
at, thrashing all around. The man found it too difficult to subdue her, since he kept getting bucked into the air. “Curse this gravity,” he growled. “Sit still!”

“Never!” Bonnie yelled.

Brother Jacobs realized he would need to take a different approach. He jumped off the woman and ran over to the other spacesuit lying on the ground. With one hand, he grabbed it by the arm and lifted, and with his other hand pulled out the dagger. “If you do not obey, you will never see your daughter again,” he shouted brandishing the sharp weapon.

“No, you wouldn’t,” Bonnie gasped in horror and froze.

“Do you wish to test me?” the leader growled. He looked down at his captive for the first time. Little Julie’s eyes were wide open in fear. “What is this?” Brother Jacobs shouted. “Where is Jean?” He looked frantically around. “Was this a ruse? Where have you hidden my betrothed?”

“Jean, Jean, wake up,” Julie cried. “Wake up; we have to run!”

Realization slowly dawned upon the man. “Ah, very clever, both in one suit,” he said as he turned towards Bonnie. “You will submit, or lose both of your daughters now,” he snarled, waving the weapon.

Bonnie realized she had no choice. With a sigh, she said, “What do you wish of me?”

Brother Jacobs tucked the two girls under his arm and walked up to the mother. “Back to the bulldozer,” he said, pointing with the dagger. When they reached the machine, he placed the girls on the ground and stated to Bonnie, “Put your hands out.” When Bonnie obeyed, he swiftly grabbed the rope sitting on the seat of the dozer and tied her hands. He dragged her to the front, and said, “Get in the blade.” After she had climbed up with a push from Brother Jacobs into the scoop, she was tied by the other end of the rope to one of the bars holding the blade.

“What are we doi
ng when we get back to the base?” she asked.

“I can tell you will be nothing but trouble,”
the man replied. “We are going for a little ride.”

“Ride? Where? Are you taking me to the NASA base?”

“Of course not, my dear. You would cause just as much trouble for me from there. You are going to join your husband. Let us see if you are purer than he was. I think it is time you met the Great Consciousness.” With a snorting laugh, Brother Jacobs went back and lifted the girls onto the right seat of the bulldozer and buckled the seat belt.

A vision of Jeff’s body floated into
Bonnie’s mind. “You can’t be serious,” she gasped.

“Oh yes, I am most serious,” was the reply. Brother Jacobs sat in the bulldozer and pulled up the radar display. There in one corner was a blip with the words ‘base rover’ underneath it. The rover was still sitting in the crater with Jeff lying nearby. Brother Jacobs started the engine and the machine lurched into motion. The colony leader turned it so that the blip was now at the top. “Soon, Sister Bonnie, you will have a chance to prove your worth,” he said.

Bonnie knew her chances of surviving the encounter would be slim, and realized that she had only one hope. Remembering how Jean had instructed her suit’s computer, Bonnie whispered, “Computer, switch to frequency 121.5,” and held her breath.

“
Frequency change accomplished,” a women’s voice responded.

“
NASA base, help us!” Bonnie gasped. “This is Bonnie. I’m on the surface with my daughters. Brother Jacobs is taking us to the Great Consciousness. I saw it on the rover video. It was hideous. It killed my husband.” Bonnie had said all of this in a rush, and was out of breath. She took in a huge gulp of air. “Sam, Roy, Charlie, help us. The man has gone insane. He’s taking me there as a sacrifice. He wants to marry Jean, but she’s only a child,” she sobbed.  She listened to see if anyone responded. “Hello? Is anyone there? Please answer!” she yelled. She was only greeted by silence. “Can’t anyone hear me? He’s taking us to be killed!” she cried. She held her breath and listened. Still there was no answer.

Bonnie realized she was talking too long, and that Brother Jacobs might realize what she was d
oing if he talked to her and received no response. She commanded the suit to return to the primary suit frequency.

“
Giving me the silent treatment, are you?” she heard the leader’s voice over the helmet radio.

“Oh, go to hell!” she responded.

# # #

Charles rolled out of bed. He had tossed and turned for the last hour and could not fall back asleep. He went into the main central chamber and extracted a drink from the small cooler. “Some exercise will get my mind off of events,” he muttered. “I think I’ll go row a 2K piece on the ergometer.”
He climbed down the ladder and over to the exercise device. He settled his butt on the sliding seat, and leaned forward to tap on the machine’s computer. He set the speed of the pace boat, the distance and the rowing cadence. He put his feet in the footrests and grabbed the oar handle.

He commenced with a racing start: a half stroke, three-quarters stroke, and a full stroke. He strained to get the flywheel moving, and hurled himself as fast as he could for the next ten strokes. After that
was accomplished, he settled into the base pace he would use for the majority of the exercise. He was pleased to see that he already had a quarter length lead on the pace boat.

As he slid forward and back and listened to the
zip-kazip of the chain spinning the flywheel, he felt himself calming.
“This is exactly what I needed,”
he thought. After a few more strokes, he glanced over to his right at a mirror he had placed there to provide the ability to self-check his rowing form. In the reflection, he could see a small blinking blue light on one of the consoles at the other end of the room.

Charles stopped rowing, and looked to his left. He could see no light. He looked back at the mirror. There was no light there either. Puzzled, he let go of the oar handle. “I’m sure I saw it,” he mumbled. “That’s the light for the
old guard frequency. Who would be transmitting on that channel? I must have imagined it, or maybe there’s a short in the wire.”  He debated continuing on with his exercise, but the pace boat had already disappeared off to the right of the screen.

“Damn,” he said
, standing up. He walked over to the console. The blue light was definitely off. On the slight chance that someone really was issuing a Mayday on that reserve frequency, he turned on the speaker. He was greeted with only a slight hiss of static, so he pressed the transmit button. “This is the NASA Star-kissed base, biologist Charles Winston speaking. Is anyone on this channel?” There was no reply.

After a few moments, Charles pulled up the log. He was surprised to see that two transmissions had been received within the last hour. Since all receipts were recorded, Charles could play them back. He listened with growing horror at first Jean’s Mayday call about escaping Brother Jacobs in the bulldozer, and then Bonnie’s frantic call for help.

Charles jumped up and scrambled up the ladder. He ran over to Grant’s door and frantically knocked. “Commander, wake up,” he stated urgently. “I need to take the MMTV and leave right away!”

Grant
, who had been working on sending Mission Control an update message, strode to the door and opened it. “What do you mean, you need to leave right away?” he asked.

Charles quickly related what he had heard recorded on the emergency frequency and concluded with, “So I need to get out there immediately and save them. That Jacobs character has gone crazy
. Time is of the essence!”

“
Chuck, you can’t go out there alone, especially if this colony leader is as kooky as we all think he is. It’s much too dangerous. Since we were ordered out to that same location anyway, we might as well do this right. Get everyone together. We’ll go en masse and confront this fellow. Then, we can scope out the area and see if there really are any aliens there. Tell Serge to bring all of the ammo, and make sure everyone is armed. I know you don’t like those rocket pistols, but we can’t take any chances.”

“Alright, but we need to hurry,” Charles said as he turned around. He moved to each cabin door, waking the occupants and explaining what had occurred.

There were a few exclamations of surprise from Sergey and Brad when they had heard the brief review of the emergency calls, but Roy and Sam assured them that this was typical of Brother Jacobs.  “I can’t wait to hear what he has to say when he’s looking down the barrel of this pistol,” Sam growled. “This is going to be payback for what he’s put us through.”

Soon, all of the astronauts had donned their spacesuits and crowded into the transport.
Grant sat in the driver’s seat and punched in the coordinates that NASA had provided. As the MMTV sped across the dusty landscape, he turned to Charles who was seated next to him. “Check the emergency guard channel and see if they’re broadcasting anything.”

Charles spun the dial, but nothing could be heard over the radio. “Nothing,” he said, “and we’re too far away to pick up the suit to suit frequency so I’m getting nothing on that, either.”

“Damn,” Sam said. “I never thought to explain to Jean during training how the suits transmit to each other on really low power. That’s by design so that only nearby suits can pick up the signal and we don’t get cross chatter with others far away. We won’t be able to pick up anything they’re saying until we get close.”

“I hope they can hang on until we get there,” Roy said.

“Hang in there, Bonnie,” Charles muttered under his breath. “I’m on my way, and this time I’ll make a difference.”

Brother Jacobs crested the Martian crater and pressed ‘Stop’ on the bulldozer’s navigation display. Near the center of the shallow crater he could spy the base’s rover. A spacesuit that could only contain the remains of Jeff was lying on the ground in front of it. The leader alit from the bulldozer and walked to the scoop in front. He untied the end of the rope that was around the bar, and roughly tugged on it to pull Bonnie to the ground. “It is time to visit your dearly departed, my Sister,” the man said with glee.

Bonnie struggled to her feet, her tied hands in front of her. “You’re a maniac, you know,” she said.

Brother Jacobs laughed and gave the rope a yank. The two of them started down the gradual slope of the crater. “The Great Consciousness did seek me out above all others,” he said as he dragged Bonnie behind him. “It called to me. I flew, I arrived. I will give it sacrifices so that it will understand my beneficence.”

Bonnie had read
Moby Dick
when she was younger, and could not help thinking that Brother Jacobs was as obsessed with this goal as much as Captain Ahab was in the novel. “The Great Consciousness did not seek you out,” she said. “It is you who madly seek it.”

“Ah, very good, my dear, I see you can quote Melville,” Brother Jacobs said. “Yes, I sought it. And I succeeded. But this magnificent being will not destroy me. It will grant me the boon I have always desired. I will reach the next plane of existence. It is YOU who will be destroyed, Unbeliever!”
He roughly gave another yank on the rope. Bonnie could see that they had almost reached the rover.

# # #

Julie couldn’t bear looking any longer at her mother being dragged away. She wriggled mightily, and managed to slide down further into the suit. “Jean, Jean, wake up,” she said, shaking her sister from behind. “Mommy needs us. Wake up!”

“Ow, my head,” Jean moaned,
finally returning to consciousness. “What happened?”

“We’re at the place where Daddy died. I can see him on the ground. Brother Jacobs tied up Mommy and is dragging her to him,” Julie stuttered, crying.

“We’re at the place…?” Jean started to say when realization dawned on her. “Quick, scooch down further and let me see if I can get my head up into the helmet,” she said. The two girls wriggled, and Jean finally succeeded in raising her head. She surveyed the scene in front of her. She saw the rover, her dead father, and Brother Jacobs dragging her mother by a rope. She realized that she needed to do something immediately, but she was too far away to reach them, and in any case there was no weapon at hand. It came to her that there was only one option open to her. She pressed ‘Forward’ on the bulldozer’s console and the machine jerked and started down the crater’s slope. With her left hand, she reached out and grabbed the steering lever. She aimed the mechanism directly ahead.

Bonnie stumbled on a protruding rock, and turned sideways in regaining her balance. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement. She turned her head further, and saw the bulldozer coming down
the slope.
“Bless you, Julie,”
she thought.  Turning forward, she rushed in front of Brother Jacobs and turned around to face him. She could see over his shoulder the dozer slowly approaching them. She only needed to delay the man for a minute.

“Okay, you win,” she said. “
You can sacrifice me. You can marry Jean. Just please, please, promise me that you’ll take good care of her and never hurt her. And you must be a good father to Julie too.”

“Well, my dear, this is more like it,” Brother Jacobs said. “If only you had come to your senses sooner, we could have avoided all of this unpleasantness.” The colony leader shook his head. “So lovely, but you are so insubordinate. But perhaps you will be found worthy by the Great Consciousness. Take solace in that, my dear.”

The man started to step forward, and Bonnie saw that the dozer was still a few seconds away. She appealed to his ego. “Wait, Brother Jacobs. Can you not say some prayer for me before I go?”

Brother Jacobs smiled. “
Why, of course. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Brother Jacobs is with…”

Bonnie dove
sideways, and the blade of the bulldozer smashed into the leader’s back, sending him sprawling.

# # #

Probe Spit was in the middle of calibrating the transmission equipment, when it felt a sequence of large vibrations through its sensopads. It looked over at the corner of the chamber where the Master was in stasis. Spit’s orders were to wake him when the transmission of the specimens was about to commence, and no sooner. However, he would be very angry if Spit had been too engrossed in its task to notice if additional humans had discovered them.

With trepidation, Spit dispatched a hopper through a small tunnel and onto the surface.
The probe’s fears were validated. There were two additional humans sprawled on the surface and another manning a huge vehicle. The vehicle stopped, and one of the bipeds rushed over to it. Spit watched in puzzlement as the two bipeds proceeded to lope across the surface of the crater.
“Why are they leaving after coming all of this way,”
it pondered. It then saw the third figure rise, and set off after the other two. In a few moments, all three had disappeared over the crater rim. With relief, Spit went over to awaken the Master.

“Sir, Sir, I am almost ready to commence transmission of the specimens,” it said.

The Master stirred, and glared at Spit with its four eyes. “I said I was not to be disturbed until transmission was ready, not when it was almost ready,” the Master growled.

“Yes, S
ir, but I also wanted to notify you of a slight situation. I sent a hopper to monitor the surface above.”
Software logic gate registers true
pinged Spit’s internal computer into its brain. “Three humans approached, but I do not believe they discovered our exact location.” Spit felt another ping.
Software logic gate registers true.
“There was no cause for alarm, so I did not wake you.”
Software logic gate ambiguous; one more fault will result in full information dump.
Spit’s biological components shuddered, and it carefully worded its next sentence. “The three humans have left just a few moments ago.”
Software registers true; status reset.
“What should we do?”

“How long before transmission commences?” asked the Master.

“The calibration of the quantum teleporter is complete. I will load the specimens now. The processing of the qubits in the chamber will take approximately one quatlent,” Spit said using their home world time units, which equated to twenty Earth minutes. “The information for the home world on the human biology will be on its way then.”

“Excellent. In one quatlent, the destruction of these vermin will be assured. I will go out and deal with the new intruders. I will be back to monitor the transmission.”

“What if you do not return?” Spit asked, and then all of its internal systems registered shock at its audacity.

“Do not be ridiculous, Spit,” said the Master. “These primitives can only delay me for a short time. If you are ready, then proceed with the transmission.” The Master then glowered at the probe. “And then self-destruct. Your mission will have been accomplished, and there will be no further need of you.”

The Master turned to leave the chamber. If he had looked back, he would have seen Spit’s organic brain jiggling in consternation.