Once on the ground, it was a short six-minute drive from Ellington Air Force Base to the Johnson Space Center. No one in the ATAC party seemed to be all that concerned, neither with the posted speed limit nor with the traffic signals during the wee hours of the morning.<\/p>\n
With having previously been a regular fixture on the base and being well known by the Space Center checkpoint personnel, Commander Cody easily gained access to his objective. Known as a man of integrity and honor, his word was good enough for them as he vouched for Captain Thomas and his men. Had there been any idea of the firepower in the car’s trunk, the base would have been locked down tight. Assuming a jovial attitude, Ty informed the guards that he and the others had arrived for the anticipated Mars landing.<\/p>\n
Ty had stopped using his cane a little over a month ago, but hadn’t done much exercising in nearly a year and a half. As he marched along with his entourage, his leg began aching, but the determination in his gait masked most of his pain, which was only slightly evident in his limp.<\/p>\n
In the Mission Support arena, there had been a general murmur over the past three hours, with voices steadily growing louder and more apprehensive. Technicians were frantically trying to redirect additional satellites to search the path which the Hab would have taken after firing the thrusters, while others were busy trying to re-establish contact with Bolo One. As the craft had apparently fallen silent, just as it was firing the thrusters, the team at Mission Support was fearing the worst. So, Mars Observer was directed to scan the Hab’s last known co-ordinates as it came round the planet and into range. As the satellite breeched the horizon, it captured an image of multiple objects burning through the atmosphere. It was feared that the crew of six had been lost.<\/p>\n
Commander Lewis was also lost, but only deep in his own thoughts: this turn of events was working out better than he could ever have hoped. If the ship and crew had been destroyed in a fiery explosion, he wouldn’t have to contend with them and their probing questions during the next twenty months. He was feeling almost giddy at the prospects before him and having a hard time trying to look concerned, fighting to keep his inner satisfaction from emerging on his face. He thought about heading into his office for a celebratory double shot.<\/p>\n
Abruptly, there was a sudden intake of breath as the room fell silent. Expressions on the faces of the people at the consoles were fearful and bewildered, as Commander Cody thrust open the door and strode through the entry. He was heeled closely by what appeared to be six soldiers garbed in black shirts, pants, stocking caps, boots, flack jackets, and holsters. Most still wore black smudge makeup on their faces. Cameramen that had been embedded among the Mission Support technicians suddenly swiveled around, as faces of spectators pressed against the glass in the overhead gallery.<\/p>\n
“Commander Cody, what the hell is the meaning of this? Who are these men?” Commander Lewis loudly barked.<\/p>\n
Staring stonily at the traitor and conspirator, Ty firmly declared, “Commander Morgan Lewis, I am relieving you of command and placing you under arrest for the crimes of treason, murder, attempted murder, and kidnapping, to start with.” Gesturing, Ty ordered Steve to take the Commander into custody.<\/p>\n
“What the hell are you talking about? You have no authority to arrest me!” Morgan blustered. “I don’t have time for any of this crap! I’ve got a missing crew to contend with, and you’re in the way and need to leave.” With that, Commander Lewis tried to sidestep around Ty, but Steve raised his hand, as a waiter intone a guest to wait a moment. That signal was followed by the heart-stopping sound of five automatic pistols being cocked, simultaneously. They were all pointing directly at Commander Lewis’ shiny, sweat-slicked forehead.<\/p>\n
“Go right ahead, try to escape. Please!” Ty dared, fixing the disgraced turncoat’s feet to the floor with an icy stare. Steve stepped around behind Commander Lewis, grabbed a wrist, wrenching it up sharply behind his back, and slipped a heavy-duty nylon zip-strip over it.<\/p>\n
“If you’re smart, you’ll put your other hand in here, too,” Steve advised him as he glanced over at Ty and with a wink added, “I’m running low on these cause we’ve gone through so many in the last couple of hours.” But Ty was not feeling amused at this moment. His face was frozen with hatred for the man who had sought his demise and no doubt caused the death of his beloved Claire.<\/p>\n
Seconds later, the silence in the cavernous room was broken by a burst of static over the communications system, quickly followed by a flickering image on the super-sized view-screen mounted high on the wall. A disembodied voice announced, “Houston, this is Commander Thomas Castle from Claire Base. Bolo One has landed, right in line between Penny Bright Crater and FP1 here on the Avernus Colles.” As the image snapped into sharp focus, the flight uniformed figure continued, “I would estimate we are within fifteen meters of our Mars Ascent Vehicle, and oh\u2026 about forty-five meters from the edge of the crater. We touched down shortly before sunrise and the sky is just getting clear enough to get a good look at our surroundings.”<\/p>\n
Gazing into the camera and pointing out a nearby porthole, he continued, “Looking out towards the crater on the east side of the ship, it appears we are not alone on Mars. There is a robotic rover more or less on the edge of the crater’s rim. With two of its arms, it appears to be collecting shiny mineral aggregate, and placing them into large piles. I don’t recall that task as being in the plans for this particular mission. And, I don’t ever recollect any updates mentioning a robotic rover joining the party. This couldn’t be that rover from\u2026 what was it, 2012?” Tom inquired as he turned toward Carl.<\/p>\n
“Oh, you mean Curiosity?” Carl volunteered from behind Tom, moving into camera view along side and appearing to their distant audience. “No, I’m sure it isn’t although, that would have been the closest rover that we have. Curiosity landed six years ago in the Gale Crater, about two thousand clicks west of here, and I doubt it could have climbed those crater walls. Besides, I don’t remember it looking quite like that. Curiosity was much larger than this one outside, more like the size of a car. This one’s only about the size of a quad-runner.” he added gesturing toward the porthole.<\/p>\n
“Well, whatever the damned thing is,” Tom resumed, “we’ll get a better look at it in a day or two, after we complete a full systems check on board. Plus, we still need to conduct an exterior damage assessment. There are some external problems we already know about, but we’re going to perform a more thorough exam. Our second venture outside will be an EVA to investigate those piles of rock being gathered by the rover.”<\/p>\n
“We might want to step up that time table, Tom,” Brandon said worriedly, staring out the porthole through binoculars. As he passed the field-glasses to Tom, he added, “See that large rotary drill bit on the rover’s third arm? As the rover changed course, the drill started spinning. The rover is now heading straight toward us and looks like it’s going to attack the Hab!”<\/p>\n
Tom gave an unbelieving look, “At this distance you could see the drill start up?”<\/p>\n
Brandon replied, “Well, I was watching it with the field-glasses and when it began spinning, a bunch of Mars dust flew off in all directions. Had it not been for the dust, I probably wouldn’t have spotted the drill, at all.”<\/p>\n
“It might just be re-positioning itself,” Carl offered, scoffing at the suggestion. “Why would it attack the Hab? Who would be directing it to do that?”<\/p>\n
“I don’t know, but it certainly looks like it’s been attacking FP1’s landing gear,” Jackie said, agreeing with Brandon as she directed their eyes to look through the opposing porthole and toward FP1. One and all, they crammed together around the porthole, scrutinizing as best they could what Jackie had been seeing. Upon closer examination with the field-glasses, they could see several holes and scratches in a couple of the landing gears, about one meter above the ground.<\/p>\n
Carl gazed once again at the slow, but steadily approaching rover. Its rotary drill was, in fact, about one meter above the terrain’s surface and whirling rapidly. The strong vibration of the drill, once recorded by FP1 and transmitted back to JPL, might very well have appeared as minor seismic activity, as reported in a summarily discarded email. “That thing’s gone berserk!” Carl exclaimed, now convinced of the danger to them. “It’s been drilling holes in anything coming into its radar range, and piling up those shiny rocks around the edge of the crater. And now it’s coming our way!”<\/p>\n
Something else caught Sally’s eye, “That’s not all it’s been doing. Look at the southern-most side of the lander. It looks like it has been piling up rocks over there to possibly use as a ramp. If it got up high enough, do you think it could have drilled into the methane and oxygen storage tanks?’<\/p>\n
Tom looked worried. “I sure as hell hope not. We will have to land the FP2 here as well, if it did.” Then, looking squarely into the video lens, “Houston, if you have any control at all over this maniacal compilation of nuts and bolts, please direct its attention elsewhere. Granted, our pressure hull is nearly two meters above grade, but if that thing finds a way to raise its drill, prolonged boring into the outer surface of the Hab could be hazardous to our health, to put it mildly. I realize the communication lag for round trip is around sixteen minutes, but it’s imperative that you stop this crazy thing, right now. Brandon, what is your best estimate till it reaches our Hab?”<\/p>\n
Brandon peered out the porthole, took a sizable step back, closed one eye and stuck up his thumb at arms length, unconsciously mimicking an artist checking for the proper prospective. After a few moments of careful consideration and deliberation, he replied soberly, “If I had to hazard a wild-assed guess, it will reaching the side of the spacecraft’s skirt in just around twenty minutes or less.”<\/p>\n
“OK,” Tom thought out loud. “We can’t take any chances on that damn thing being directed by someone other than Houston. Let’s get our helmets and gloves back on, Bran. You and I are going to take care of that monstrosity before it takes care of us.”<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
Back on Earth, Ty enlightened Morgan, “You’d better hope nothing happens to my friends or their ship, or I’m going to be all over you like white on bird shit.” Pointing toward the exit he growled at Stave, “Now get this asshole out of my sight and my thanks to all of you for your assistance in this critically time-sensitive operation. It has been greatly appreciated.”<\/p>\n
“Anytime, Commander,” Steve affirmed, reaching out to firmly pump Ty’s hand and clap him on the shoulder in understanding, soldier to soldier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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