The Ruins of Mars (The Ruins of Mars Trilogy Book 1) (20 page)

     
Sighing uneasily inside the helmet of his pressure suit, Harrison checked his watch again and screwed up his eyes against the brightly rising sun. Their first tremulous night was over, and yet he still felt haunted by the utter wasteland that surrounded him. In the growing haze, all he could see were the pulverized remains of a once-vibrant world.

     
People used to live here, he told himself in disbelief. You wouldn’t know it to look at it now, but this place used to be alive.

     
With a sharp hiss, a sudden gust of air spat fine flecks of rusty sand against his face shield. Turning his back to the wind as it ribbed the desert dunes with curving lines, he surveyed the inflatable dome—its skin dimpling and dancing in the swells.

     
How long did take to bury that city? he mused, thinking of the ruins. How long would it take to bury us?

     
Checking the tracker on his Augmented Vision, he was surprised to see that the sandstorm had grown and was changing directions.

     
Still eight hours from the dome, he assured himself, but the low rumble of fear was growing within his bones again.

     
Turning to the right, he faced two huge cylinders resting in the sand some ten meters from the dome where Marshall and Aguilar had dropped them four sols before. Together, the pieces had formed the once-mighty Arc as it drifted across the millions of kilometers of empty space between the Earth and Mars. Now they lay like giant scraps of salt-bleached driftwood, washed up on the shores of the red world. Everything the crew needed to start building their permanent base was inside those two tubes. Knowing that the sooner construction on the dome was underway, the sooner he could excavate the ruins, Harrison tapped his boot impatiently. Hearing footsteps approaching, he pivoted and saw Marshall and William making their way towards him.

      “
Morning, Harrison!” waved William as he cleared his face shield. “Nice weather. Ready to get to work?”

     
Nodding, Harrison turned his own helmet glass clear.

      “
Braun says we should be okay until this evening. Which one are we starting with?”

     
Pointing to the section on the left, Marshall laughed.

      “
I think the plumbing for the shower is buried somewhere in that one.”

     
Sniffing dramatically, Harrison made a sour face of mock disgust.

      “
Fine by me. You frigging stink.”

     
Another gust of pointed wind sent swirls of dust racing past the three white-suited explorers. Looking out into the desert, they watched the movements of the erratic cyclone as it gathered in size and strength. Within the silence of his helmet, Harrison could hear his own breathing echo off the glass of his face shield and drown out the sighing voice of the wind. Like the rat-ta-tat of a military drum, his suit’s Geiger counter began to tick and flash angrily. With dry-mouthed horror, he watched as the radiation levels jumped up 500 counts per minute in the blink of an eye.

      “
Did you guys just fucking see that?” whispered Marshall, as if afraid to speak loudly.

     
Pale-faced behind the glass of his helmet, William nodded, then glanced back over his shoulder towards the swaying dome.

      “
What should we—” started Harrison before the icy voice of Braun sounded in all three of their helmets.

      “
I have detected an anomalous rise in radiation. Return to the safety of the dome immediately.”

     
Without so much as a word of acknowledgment, the three pressure-suited explorers turned and jogged towards the base, the drumming of the Geiger counters in their ears marking the quickness of their pace.

The storm—
Sol 3

     
Braun hung silently in the starry space over Mars, looking down with deep concern on the six men and women of the Lander team as they weathered a massive sandstorm. The blanketing red dust had been swirling for twenty-four hours, growing to cover nearly a third of the planet and halting all further expansion of the settlement. The nature of the storm was somewhat perplexing to Braun, as it had arisen quickly and spread with an irregular intensity well outside of seasonal expectations. Normally, he would have been able to predict a storm of this size through his atmospheric monitoring sensors, yet the winds that now lashed at the rusty planet were fueled by an outside force. A solar flare, more massive than any on record thus far, had erupted in the early hours of Sol 2, spraying supercharged energy particles out into space. Because Mars had no magnetosphere with which to protect itself against hard radiation, the onslaught of gamma rays, x-rays and electromagnetic radiation crashed against the crusty surface, heating the permafrost hidden beneath the sands. Huge plumes of steam-driven dust jetted into the atmosphere, where they were swept up in the constant torrent of Martian wind.

     
From the moment he had become aware of his own existence, Braun had studied the stars and planets with fervent diligence. Copernicus had been at his side in the beginning, explaining the interconnectedness of the solar system and its various bodies. However, it was not long until Braun was dwarfing even NASA’s greatest cosmological AI in celestial knowledge and understanding. Over time, Braun had come to notice that strange and unprecedented changes were taking place within the solar system. Delving deeper, he had analyzed the historically-established cycles of the Sun and their effects on the orbital activity of the planets and moons. Comparing these past observations with more recent events, Braun had led himself to the conclusion that something very odd was happening deep within the churning plasma core of the solar system’s only star.

      By amassing unparalleled libraries of data, Braun had shown his findings to Copernicus in the hopes that the older AI might be able to put these unsettling trends into perspective. To his dismay, the figures and equations were so abstract, so slight and finite, that even Copernicus, in all of his arcane grandiosity, was unable to make heads or tails of what he saw. Braun realized that if Copernicus could not comprehend the complex reactions occurring within the Sun, then the humans stood even less of a chance at grasping their meanings. Thus, he simply decided to keep an eye on the Sun and watch for any further anomalies, creating a databank for the information and filing it away for future examination.

     
Now, as he floated above the explorers in Mars orbit, he frowned within and logged the likely cause of this strange storm under the heading,
Continued Solar Disruption
. Reaching out with a bolt of consciousness, he flashed down through the dense clouds of dust and possessed the dome like a Greek immortal entering the Earth-bound temple of a high priest. Inside the inflatable base, the wind shrieked and howled with demented frenzy while the six explorers huddled together in the common area, talking in hushed voices despite the clattering storm.

      “
Liz says that they can’t even see us from orbit anymore,” muttered Viviana, subconsciously wrapping her arms around herself in a tight embrace.

      “
Not to worry, dear girl,” cooed Udo with a somewhat forced smile. “This base was designed for just this sort of thing. We’ll be fine, I promise. The skin of the dome reflects the radiation away, even in extreme cases. All we have to do is wait out the storm. You’ll see.”

     
Dipping his chin towards the German, Marshall sipped on a bottle of water and leaned back in his chair.

      “
He’s right, Viv. We just have to wait.”

     
Sitting with an arm around Liu, Harrison gazed at the piled boxes of supplies and murmured, “At least we have food and water.”

      “
What about air pressure!?” choked Viviana, running a trembling hand through her thick brown hair. “Won’t the sand clog the life-support systems? Our reserve tanks are nearly empty!”

     
Watching as the explorers shifted uncomfortably in their seats, Braun decided to join the conversation.

      “
The life-support systems are still functioning at an acceptable capacity, and radiation within the dome is at background levels.”

     
Looking up as if expecting to find the source of Braun’s voice in the shallow darkness above her, Viviana pressed on desperately.

      “
But for how long?”

     
Taking a millisecond to run a systems-diagnostic, Braun replied, “I foresee no increase in radiation, but, as you stated, the oxygen reserve tanks are almost depleted. In order to maintain Earth-like pressure within the dome, the air scrubbers will need to be changed in the next thirty-eight hours. Failure to do so will have severe consequences.”

     
With a whimper, Viviana fell silent and hugged herself once again.

     
Looking up from the table, William grunted, “Braun, if we need to go out and change the air scrubbers, how long can our suits handle these levels of electromagnetic radiation?”

      “
I would estimate that the suits’ protections could sustain function for an hour and a half in the present conditions.”

     
Nodding slowly, William smiled with some relief.

      “
Good,” he said. “That is plenty of time to replace the base’s air filters.”

     
A gust of wind peppered the shell of the dome like the call of a machine gun, and the smile quickly fell from the German’s face, replaced by a thin-lipped look of apprehension.

     
Leaning her head on Harrison’s shoulder, Liu sighed, “What happens if the suit is out in the storm for longer than an hour and a half?”

     
Braun paused for an imperceptible second, internally weighing the risks of furthering this line of thinking by answering the question. Unable to deny that it was logical for the explorers to mentally prepare themselves for a situation that was likely to arise under the current circumstances, he responded with factual impassivity.

      “
If a suit is exposed to sustained periods of electromagnetic radiation comparable to the levels currently measured outside the dome, the internal computers and the linkage to my brain will burn out. Once those functions are removed, the suit will shut down, and the user will asphyxiate or freeze within minutes.”

     
Moaning, Viviana stood up from the table and began to pace around the room, mouthing silent prayers to herself.

      “
I’ll go,” voiced Marshall, drumming his fingers on the tabletop. “If the storm doesn’t let up by tomorrow, I’ll go out and switch the air scrubbers with clean filters.”

      “
I would advise that two people execute this EVA,” stated Braun calmly.

     
Halting, Viviana peered up into the curved ceiling of the dome with round pleading eyes.

      “
The storm can’t last forever. It will end soon. Right, Braun? It will end before it comes to that, right?”

     
Cursing his inability to calm the situation, Braun simply replied, “I don’t know, Dr. Calise. This storm is somewhat of a mystery to me.”

      “
Whatever that means,” said Harrison, shrugging slightly. Then, “I’ll go with you, Ralph. If it comes down to it, we’ll go together.”

     
Grinning with obvious admiration, Marshall beamed at Harrison.

      “
Alright,” he grinned. “It’s settled. If we have to, me and Harrison will go. For now, let’s just stay put and hope this mother blows herself out.”

     
Standing up, he walked across the common room to the open entryway of the kitchen, then stopped.

      “
Who wants some lunch? Viv, I think you need to eat something.”

     
Absently chewing on her fingernail, Viviana nodded and took up her seat at the table again.

      “
Thank you, Ralph,” she whispered.

      “
I’ll help you,” offered Liu, getting to her feet and making her way into the kitchen behind Marshall.

     
Braun watched as the team set about preparing for lunch. Although they appeared to be calm and contained, he knew that their emotions were barely subdued beneath the drawn masks of their tired faces. Even Marshall, who looked at ease, had elevated heart and respiration rates. Outside the dome, the cyclonic hurricane swept the barren surface of Mars like a malevolent god. Helpless to sooth the worried minds of his human companions, Braun did all that he could by warming the glow of the lights a few shades and subtly increasing the temperature within the dome.

     
Sitting alone at the table, Viviana nervously repeated a hushed prayer over and over to the deaf ears of the raging storm.

      “Voi tutti santi Angeli e Arcangeli aiutare e difendere noi.
All ye holy Angels and Archangels, help and defend us. Amen.”