Glory on Mars (19 page)

"This has a full set of life support sensors. Plug it
in like this and Governor can read the levels. You know, you can go
up to five thousand parts per million CO2 if you'll promise to
spend less than eight hours a sol in here."

"That won't be necessary," Liz said with a laugh.
"There's a point where more CO2 won't help - we're nutrient limited
in these sands. I'll be happy around four hundred."

A coil of lights hung from Daan's other shoulder.

"I'll need another pair of hands to help me hang
these."

"Emma can do that. She'll be glad to get out of our
next chore," Liz said. "I'm about to sift mealworm bedding."

Liz retrieved the cat and bounce-walked down the
aisle, leaving Emma and Daan.

Daan had a dozen strings of lights.

They stood on the rims of the beds. Lights hung from
poles pushed into the sand to keep the lumen level on the leaves as
high as possible without snagging anyone's head. They stretched the
new strings from pole to pole and plugged them in to cords dropped
from the ceiling.

"Good job," Daan said with satisfaction when they
finished. "Let's take a break."

They sat on the stone edge of a bed. She rolled her
shoulders, sore from all the reaching.

"Have you noticed how hard it's getting to open the
airlock door?" Daan asked.

"Yes. I practically have to pry it open." She'd taken
to bracing a foot against the frame to haul on the door, but Daan
had been so sour she hadn't complained.

"P V equals N R T." He smiled at her momentary
confusion. "A basic equation. As the temperature in here goes up,
so does the air pressure. Even a small increase creates enough
force to notice, and you lose warm air to the Spine. I'll hook up
an air pump so you can equalize pressure before opening the
door."

"That'd be great." It would be nice to have the
airlock pump, but it was even nicer to talk amiably with Daan.

"I've been working on a poem and I finished it while
we worked."

"You told me once that you're a writer."

"On Earth I wrote travelogues for money and poetry
for myself. Want to hear it?" He cleared his throat.

"Dust blurs the stars as

"Moons cross paths through rusted skies

"Above orange plains.

Emma gulped.
Poetry
!

She'd never read any poem unless it was a school
assignment.

Daan chuckled.

"Don't worry; I won't recite angst-filled soliloquies
at you."

It felt good to laugh with him.

Chapter Twenty-Four:
Exploring

Daan plopped the cat in front of him and raked his
fingers back and forth from neck to tail. Fluffs of amber hair
floated away in a ventilation current.

The settlers were sitting at the stone tables in the
Plaza enjoying the wide space with its high arched ceiling. The
floor was still cold and Emma wore her surface boots. A draft
tumbled from the last chunks of ice floating in the pond.

"It's no wonder the cat's so wild," Sanni said. "You
play too rough."

"Aw, he loves it," Daan said. As if agreeing, the cat
arched his back and purred loudly, then suddenly rolled on his
side, hugged Daan's arm, and bit his hand.

"Then why is he biting you?"

"It's a love bite," Daan said, clenching his teeth
against the prickle of the cat's claws and teeth. "He's not
breaking the skin."

"Here's a bit of fun we can have while we wait out
the storm," Yang said, unplugging his pad from an extension cord
running across the floor. "The pressure's high enough for us to
open one of the new bays."

"Brilliant," Yin said. "There's no point in building
them if we don't move in."

Daan left the cat licking his fur flat and they all
followed Yang around the pond to an arch in the stone, protruding
at the edges but flattened inside. Yang opened a tool box on the
floor.

"I've been watching the pressure go up, millibar by
millibar as the air warms," he said.

"This bay will be the lab and hospital, where the S-4
equipment will go," Yin said. "We don't want to give MEX any excuse
to delay that mission because we're not ready."

Yang slapped his hand on the flat wall, grinning at
his audience.

"On the other side is the empty module from Settler
Three that Ruby brought down. The beetle-bots opened the airlock
doors before sealing it against the Plaza and we built the new bay
against the airlock on the other side," he said. "At least, I hope
it's on the other side." He laughed at his own joke.

He took out a hand drill, fitted in a bit half the
length of his arm, and plugged into a nearby outlet.

Yin fished a small metal valve with a wide gasket out
of the toolbox and spread his feet apart, standing like he was
about to jump.

Ruby folded her arms across her chest.

"Quit goofing around and put in the valve."

Yang stepped back, lifted the bit to the wall, and
began drilling. Rust colored dust fell from the hole as he worked
the drill back and forth, clearing out the cuttings. Only a trace
of Mars' irritating surface smell tickled Emma's nose. When the bit
had nearly disappeared into the wall, he released it from the drill
chuck, added a length of rod, and resumed. Soon he had to take a
few steps backwards to clear stone dust from the hole.

Then, with a
whoosh,
the bit broke through and
Yang jogged backwards to pull it out. Yin sprang forward and shoved
the valve into the hole. He turned the handle and the valve
whistled as air rushed from the Plaza into the module beyond. With
a little tweaking, the whistle died, replaced by a continuing hiss.
Everyone applauded. Yin and Yang bowed.

"Once the pressure equalizes, we'll cut the opening
clear, and it'll be ready for utilities."

"Right now it's another icy void sucking the heat
away," Ruby said, hugging herself tighter. "Just when the Plaza was
warming up."

"I've got to install high velocity air compressors in
the module," Daan said. "It would be easier if you built ducts into
the floor, like with the other bays."

"The airlock has to seal the bay," Yang said. "So
you've got to install gated hoses. Sorry."

"It seems like a lot of work for nothing," Daan said,
grumbling. "Bays never leak."

Most of the bays Yin and Yang built attached directly
to the Spine, the fabricated stones shaped to dovetail together,
their wide surfaces crushing together and sintered from the outside
to seal. For some key spaces like Medical, they incorporated a
transport ship module for extra protection - a safe room to
scramble to.

"Might as well start on the tedious part," Yin said.
He tossed Yang a wide chisel from the tool box and hefted a couple
hammers.

"But the pressure's not equalized yet," Emma
said.

"No worries. It'll take us a week to chip through to
the airlock."

Of course, Emma thought. The wall's three meters
thick. She looked down, hiding a flush of embarrassment. Strange
that she'd forgotten that.

***

Ruby was right about the cold. After Yin and Yang cut
the stone out of the bay arch, the whole Plaza was frigid
again.

"So let's all pitch in and move the utility supplies
into the bay," Yang said when Ruby complained. "It won't take long
to get the place hooked up for heat and light."

"What's in here?" Emma asked as she stepped into the
medical bay with an armload of wire coils. Her hand light cast deep
shadows from waist-high blocks of beige stone.

"Don't touch anything," Yin said quickly. "Not with
your bare hands. We built stone benches and shelves into the bay as
we fabricated. The stone's still as cold as the Martian surface.
Cold enough to burn your skin."

***

Before turning the bots loose after the storms
cleared, Yin fabricated a mortar and pestle, and a heavy,
thick-walled bowl. He promised the lasers glassified sand
thoroughly, so there were no leachable toxins.

"It's spring equinox on Mars, our New Year's Eve,"
Liz said as she concocted her holiday tea. "It happens to coincide
with Thanksgiving back home in Manitoba this year. No matter how
you look at it, it's time for a party."

Liz turned on the Earth Scan as well as the live
stream and positioned an imager over the galley counter while she
steeped cannabis flowers in hot water and mashed in milk powder and
sugar. Everyone hovered around. Earth Scan was a small orange
sphere. Life on Mars was apparently old news.

"I don't have all the ingredients for proper bhang
tea," she said. "I wish I had almonds..."

"It smells fine," Sanni said.

Liz spooned a little into a cup and handed it to
her.

"Tastes fine, too." Sanni smiled. "I think this'll
soothe my headache."

Liz filled Sanni's cup and passed everyone a
drink.

"I'd rather have a beer," Claude sighed. "Or a
sausage. I wish you were growing pork tissue."

"Maybe in some future lab. I doubt anyone would want
to share a transport ship with a pig." Liz chucked.

"For now it's easier to grow fish and worms than the
nutrient media needed for muscle tissue. Besides, I enjoy growing
fish and worms, and I honor them. They're living creatures. It's
hard to think of cultured tissue the same way."

"Which mission will bring barley and hops?" Claude
asked with a laugh. It was rhetorical; beer wasn't on any mission
list.

"Maybe instead of eating the potatoes," Melina said.
"We should make vodka."

"I thought you Greeks drank that funny licorice
stuff."

"We drink what we can get," she said with a wan
smile.

"It's good to hear Claude joking around," Emma said
to Liz as they set out plates. "He's been so quiet lately. We've
hardly talked about his prospecting trip in weeks."

"You feeling okay?" Liz asked Melina. "You sound
tired."

"Just working too hard, I think," she said. "I've
been pulling wire in the new bay. It's funny, but I look at the
schematic, and I know how the wires should run, but my hands don't
want to do the job. It's not like me." She held up a hand and
stared at it as if looking for the problem.

"Don't say anything to Sanni, okay? She never
complains about anything."

"I have something to cheer you up." Emma pulled a
plate from the chiller unit. "Fish fillets."

Liz set the bowl of bhang tea on the table and
rummaged for a frying pan.

"Let's put some music on," Claude said, plugging in
his pad and scrolling through files.

"Something we can dance to," Sanni said with a
pirouette.

Sanni was usually so restrained that Emma started to
giggle. It was contagious and they all laughed.

"Ah, the smell of frying fish," Melina said.

"Everything will smell like fish for days - sols,"
Claude said. "Well, it will." He answered Melina's reproachful
gaze.

"Remember from training? Fish smell is hard for the
air system to remove..."

"Who cares? Real, fresh fish." Melina sighed. "I feel
human again."

"Nuke some potatoes, too, will ya, someone?" Daan
said. "I haven't been this hungry in months."

Chapter Twenty-Five:
Meteor

Shortly after the New Jaar's Sol Zero, Yang declared
the storms cleared enough for a trip to Maintenance. Emma and Ruby
joined him and Yin.

The trenches Emma had seen before were freshly
filled in by the storms, featureless dips in the sand.

"We just keep scooping out the same trench over and
over, jaar after jaar" Yin said.

"Handy, actually," Yang said.

Emma enjoyed working in Maintenance even though she
spent most of the time on the bay floor in a surface suit. She and
Ruby finished rewiring Jumper Two for the telepresent controls. Yin
and Yang sent the loaders and fabricator out under Governor's
control so they could supervise as beetle-bots hoisted equipment on
the warehouse floor, which had become the main workshop, too.

With its telepresence units donated to the jumpship,
Emma drove the rover back to the nederzetting that night, tired but
happy. They all returned early the next sol.

After a week of effort, Emma merged the jumper's
refurbished controls with Governor. Ruby took over the incremental
shake-down, verified every control function, and exercised each
valve in the fuel lines. When the bots first dragged the ship out
of Maintenance, Ruby lifted it only high enough off the ground to
check the gyros.

"I can take it from here," Ruby said. She had a
series of test flights planned.

Yin and Yang went back to fabricating construction
blocks, anxious to try some improvements they'd developed over the
storm season.

Emma resumed her tasks in the nederzetting, where the
mood was solemn. She found Melina sitting at the habitat table one
evening, resting her forehead on her crossed arms. The cat was
curled against her arms, purring contentedly. She only stirred when
the rest of the settlers came in for supper. Emma moved the cat off
the table and he hopped to the bunks, poking at the privacy flaps
to find one loose so he could crawl in and resume his nap.

"It's the cold in that new bay," Claude said, looking
at Melina with sympathy. "I feel it, too. I'm achy, like the flu's
coming on."

"Maybe you should wear your suit's thermal layer,"
Ruby suggested. "I'm nice and warm all sol in the maintenance bay
and I feel fine."

"A suit's too bulky," Melina said irritably, rubbing
her forehead. She skipped the evening meditation and went to her
bunk as soon as supper was over.

Liz chewed on a corner of her lip as Melina left. She
was worried but Emma no longer had sympathy - Melina endlessly
dragging herself around was annoying. She wished she had a reason
to go back to Maintenance in the morning. She enjoyed the work
there.