Two

 

                                Two 

 

 

     "Hypnos III to Base Two, Hypnos III to Base Two, respond please." The almost mechanical repetition of Lieutenant DeSante`s voice had an edgy quality to it. He fingered a button on his console, turned two knobs nervously and tried again. "Base Two this is Hypnos III, code 41993 Alpha Phase, please respond." A faint hiss was the only answer as Desante paused. He started again.

 

     "Wait!" Birch's interruption was unexpected and the young Lieutenant glanced up at his commanding officer. This wasn’t good. After half an hour of fruitless attempts at communication the words were stabbing into Birch's brain like daggers and the last thing he wanted was to hear them repeated again. "It's obvious that we're going to get no response here," he continued, "Gray, send out a probe, let’s see what’s going on down there.” She hesitated for a moment, turned to speak but seemed to change her mind and turned again to her console.

 

     “Probe launched,” she announced flatly, “transmitting within normal parameters. We should hear something in the next ten minutes.” Birch nodded and left his position to look at her screen. 

 

     “Good, that should give us a good sweep of the main area. Let’s see if we can find out what they’re up to down there that’s kept them from answering. Davids,” he turned now to address Karla, the young blonde lieutenant to his right, “keep close track of that probe. I want to know as soon as anything comes up. The rest of you need to finish the status evaluation of the ship and see what shape this old bucket’s in. We don’t want the bottom to drop out of it while we’re sat here pondering the fate of our universe. Let’s get to it.” 

 

     Silence again returned to the room, save for the electronic hum and buzz of the equipment being used by the crew. Glancing up from his panel Birch caught sight of the rusty orb of Mars through the cockpit window. The mute planet seemed to offer a glint of understanding for the unknown mysteries, but it was a secret it was unwilling to share. Mars had been the beginning of it all. The belief that humanity could conquer its own limitations, that it could tame the untamable and that perhaps our living might finally equal our dreaming. And they had done it. They had created a paradise from the crimson fires of cold, cold Mars, but now it was silent.

 

     “I’m starting to get some preliminary reports from the probe, Major,” Karla’s voice cracked. “Atmosphere reports at thirty-two percent off recommended levels, breathable, but only just. Something’s gone really wrong here.” Birch winced; the great experiment for Mars, and all other projects that had followed, had been built upon the super-science of terra-forming. If this cornerstone had crumbled and failed then a whole generation of plans might be doomed.

 

     “Keep me updated. As soon as anything new s in let me know,” he turned his attention to Jane. “How does the ship status look, are we in a position to do much here?” She shook her head and frowned. Tapping a few more keys she turned to Birch.

 

     “It doesn’t look good. Take a look for yourself.” He moved closer to the screen as she pointed to the scrolling display. “Fuel is pretty low, as you’d expect, but the worse news is that the ship’s hull is pretty badly damaged and the internal structure’s been weakened too; I’m not sure how long it’ll last. This ship has been made to do things it was never designed to do and we’re all paying the price right now. Worst of all it looks like the heat shield on the command module has been damaged. If you remember our last launch was a mess, that seems to have torn a hole right through the shield.” Jane sighed and looked pointedly up at Birch, “Basically we’re stuck unless someone comes up and gets us down.”

 

     “Hmm,” Birch stood staring at the monitor, as though willing the information on it to change, “it’s starting to look like we might need a better plan than that though. I’d like you and Lieutenant DeSante to see what you can do about repairing the structure and hull damage. Are the repair systems operative?” Jane nodded.

 

     “Somewhat, some systems are down though and I’m not sure there’s much material left for them to work with after all this time. The self-repair mechanisms should have kicked in already if there was.”

 

     “Improvise.” Birch pointed to Jane’s monitor, “It doesn’t look like all of this is going to fix itself, and I wouldn’t count on some angel of mercy coming to take us home, so we better get to work if we hope to survive.” 

 

     Jane sighed and moved toward DeSante’s station. As they began their task Birch looked questioningly at Karla, she shook her head, no news yet from the surface. After an eternity of waiting these few moments should have seemed as nothing, and yet they appeared to be everything. The future- their future- hung on the events to come and the waiting made them weigh heavier still.

 

     “I’ve got something!” Karla’s voice shattered the silence and all faces turned to her. “Reports coming in show large developed areas, significant industrial development and infrastructure. Intact… but no sign of life,” Birch moved quickly to Karla’s monitor, “just buildings.” 

 

     “Can you get a visual on that?” Birch barked. “Let’s see what it looks like.” Karla nodded and punched in the code to enable the probe’s visual display. The screen flickered and the salmon-colored glow of a Martian sky merged with the dusty red of its rock and soil. As the probe shifted position structures and buildings came into view. All were covered in the same red coating, like rust eating away the very memory of human aspirations. It was lifeless. The buildings were dilapidated with holes that gaped like open wounds that no one could heal. Debris lay in the street, and a harsh wind blew the lifeless, orange soil hard against the cowering buildings that would eventually succumb to its bullying. 

 

     This was the perfect picture of a ghost town, like the old west, but it was a planet- a ghost planet. Something had gone terribly wrong here and for the first time since this had all begun Birch was scared. “Is it all like this?” Birch looked at Karla desperately. Her face was blanched; even in the light of the screen it was obvious.

 

     She nodded, “It’s all the same. There’s nothing there.” She paused for a moment, took a deep breath and tapped again at her console. The display flickered and changed. It was conclusive- this was a dead planet. For a moment everyone stood silent, looking at the screen, then desperately away. Birch’s breath hissed through his lips as he hit the console with his fist. Whatever lives had been built on the rocky surface below were gone now and there was nothing left for them here.

 

     “We're going on to Base One," Birch announced. The others looked dumbly at their commander; no one moved. In the stillness of the moment each face showed varying expressions of shock and grief. There seemed no room for hope. Jane laughed bitterly. Her face was drained bloodless, but her eyes were fiery. Birch recognized the signs: a storm was brewing. Jane Gray was a fine pilot and had been as close to a friend as he had managed for some years, but that was a long time ago and the strains of command had built barriers between them. They were adversaries now. Her soft, waist length, black hair and dancing brown eyes belied a bitter streak that ran deep into her soul. Birch had recognized that only recently, but it must have always been a part of her. Now he could feel her animosity rising toward him again.

 

     "In a hurry for a closer look at the hell you’ve brought us to, Major? Well that’s nice, but it's too early to go," Jane hurled the words like spears that were left quivering in the wall. "You know that’s not procedure," she continued icily, "we can’t go on until we find out what went wrong here first. If we do we risk getting there and finding ourselves in a worse position.”

 

     “A worse position?” Birch spat the words back at her. “How could you imagine any position worse than this? If Base One is finished then we’re all finished, so we may as well get over there and find out if it’s our own funeral we mourn here today! I don't care what procedure you want to quote at me; we’re not staying! If you're determined to follow your dead regulations then I'll be glad to leave you a space suit and an hours’ worth of oxygen and you can stay here. Otherwise buckle up and shut up because we're going back to Earth." 

 

   Jane looked to her crewmates for support. DeSante shrugged his shoulders in resignation, Lauren and Karla looked away. Jane rolled her eyes and moved back to her seat. "You're wrong," she hissed, "you’ve been wrong all along and now you’re going to get us all killed for it."

                                 

   "Maybe," Birch replied sourly, "but who knows if there ever was any way to avoid it. We’ve taken a lot on with this mission and in space you get a real perspective for what we really are. Look around you, it’s big out here, big and mean and looking to crush any puny attempt we might make to try and tame it. Maybe this is a punishment for our arrogance, for feeling that we could control this. Maybe we're already dead- we just don't know it yet. When we get to Earth, then we'll know if we're dead or not. Then we'll know the answer." He looked at Jane and the others. Soon they would all know.  

Reviews

[there is no more from m..]

i enjoyed this chapter while reading it it came alive in my mind :)

[Aleirah]

I love the way you use words and sentences to provoke imagination rather than create too much of the scene for the reader, it becomes more personal. And the idea of terra-forming is awsome! The conversations which the astronaughts have with eachother is also captivating and fully informing, it even sounds like possible mutiny is brewing with one of them, definately a marker for interesting development, I very much like the way you have used converstaion to develop the story. Will read the next chapter soon!

[TL Boehm]

maybe we're already dead, we just don't know it. One of the most chilling settings (no pun intended) is this situation right here. In space, by a dead planet. Great tension in this one.