Red Hope (12 page)

“Why is there so much static coming from the speakers?” asked Keller with
a confused look.

Once they were on the surface, their communication
with Earth relied on an intermediary satellite in orbit around Mars named
Odyssey
.
It had been sent there years earlier, mainly to measure thermal surface data.
If that satellite failed, they would only have a direct line of communication
with Earth for a few hours every day. Adam was now concerned that the relay
satellite was malfunctioning.

Yeva’s frown turned to a grin. She laughed and said, “I
think that
static
is the sound of cheering from Mission Control.”

She was right. The sound of a hundred people clapping
and yelling overwhelmed the microphones at Mission Control. After a minute, the
crew could finally distinguish a voice talking over the cheers. It was the
Mission Control Director.

“Okay guys, we can finally breathe!” said Mission
Control over the speakers. He continued, “The entire room, no, the entire
planet
is going nuts down here. There is confetti falling in Times Square!”

“They like us. I think they really,
really
like
us,” joked Keller.

Mission Control kept on talking, “Hey guys, somebody
here has a few words for you.”

Adam raised his hand and said, “Be quiet everybody.”

“To the group of men and women who just took our
species from this planet to the next, you have my wholehearted thanks for
taking on this audacious task and making it happen. God speed to your experiments,
exploration and a safe trip home.”

And that was it. The culmination of mankind’s hard
work wrapped up in a few words from the president of the United States of
America. His re-election was now guaranteed.

Mission Control started talking again.

“Thank you President Jennings. We have another
message, this one is for
Yeva
.”

For the next minute the Russian president spoke
directly to Yeva in her native language. None of the other crew could
understand it, but when she smiled and her eyes filled with tears, Adam
realized it was something heartfelt.

Mission Control knew the astronauts had a big job to
do and decided to keep this talk short.

“Those were some special words from the world leaders
responsible for this mission. Crew, we’re going to sign off now, but we’ll be
calling again soon. Over and out.”

Adam was the first out of his seat, happy to walk with
solid gravity again. He only weighed a third of what he did on Earth, but the
constant gravity felt good and reassuring.

“Congratulations everybody. From now on, every step
you take is history in the making,” said Adam in a fatherly tone.

As much as they wanted to get outside and walk around,
their first task was to make sure the life support systems were working well
and to extend the pressurized hallway all the way to the Big Turtle which
arrived a few weeks earlier.

The Little Turtle sat on four landing pads with
powered wheels on the bottom. It automatically crawled slowly toward the Big
Turtle until the pressurized hallway was near the hatch on the other side of
the gap. Once everything was aligned, the hallway would extend, crossing the
chasm between the two modules resulting in an air-filled walkway between them.
When the connection was made, it would virtually triple the available living
space. That was the plan anyways.

Adam paused the hallway extension.

“Hang on everybody; we can’t extend the hallway until
we drop the grounding cables. Otherwise, we’ll have all kinds of nasty static
electricity problems when the hallway touches the other ship.”

Adam lifted a small panel near the hallway hatch and
exposed two red switches. He pushed the first switch down. Underneath the
Little Turtle, a spike fired downward from an air cannon at high speed. It
drove deep into the bedrock and dragged a steel woven cable with it. Adam
flipped the other switch and a similar spike fired from the bottom of the Big
Turtle. Both ships were now electrically grounded. Any static electricity
buildup from the constant blowing winds would be dissipated easily through the cable
and into the ground beneath.

Adam returned his attention to making the extendable
hallway cross the gap over to the Big Turtle. The astronauts watched out the
windows as this delicate mechanical dance took place. It was done automatically
by the control computer once initiated.

The hallway wheels slowly rolled along the Martian
surface leaving a rut in the loose soil. When it reached about half way, one of
its support wheels ran into a rock on the ground that was just taller that it
could climb. Normally, it would back off and try to roll around the obstacle.
This was a wide rock and it was a very serious problem.

Adam frowned with worry.

“Crap, we didn’t plan on that. We have to get that
hallway attached or the mission just got more complicated; the airlock for
external excursions is on the
Big Turtle
. We can’t exit Little Turtle
without depressurizing the entire ship every time. And we can’t do that very
often.”

Yeva thought for a moment and then suggested, “We need
to push that rock out of the way, right? Perhaps we can use the mini rover to
nudge it?”

Adam smiled and said, “Yeva, you are brilliant!”

He walked over to the rover station and lifted the
handheld control transmitter out of the wall caddy. Although the mini rover was
meant for exploration purposes, nobody said it couldn’t be used for a little
rock bulldozing.

Adam held in his hand something that looked just like
any common radio controlled toy transmitter. He pushed a black power button and
a noisy ramp extended from the bottom of the ship until it hit the red dust and
sand on the ground. The rover itself resembled a small toy Jeep. It rolled down
the ramp and onto the ground. Adam pushed the throttle stick frontwards and the
mini rover took off like a rocket.

“Whoa! That little thing is fast!” yelled Adam.

“Slow down there, cheetah,” laughed Keller.

Adam used smaller stick movements and brought it back
around maneuvering it to be near the problem rock. He used the mini rover’s claw
attachment to grab the rock and roll it out of the way. As he did that, the
hallway extension jerked back into motion and continued moving toward Big
Turtle.

Yeva smiled and said, “Aren’t you glad they kept that mini
rover in the budget?”

Adam sent her a big grin.

After a few minutes a loud clunk was heard and the ship
shook. They looked out the windows and saw that the hallway was now attached
forming a bridge to their new living quarters known as Big Turtle. It was
pressurizing and would be viable in a few minutes.

Adam wanted to remove his helmet, but he knew that would
be unsafe until they established that the hallway was now an airtight
connection between two airtight ships. He opened the door on Little Turtle
which gave access to the newly extended hallway. A sound of rushing air lasted
just a few seconds; everything seemed okay.

There were no surprises in sight or sound. He walked
carefully to the other end of the hallway, each step causing it to bounce up
and down like a cheaply built bridge. Adam found himself standing just outside
the door on Big Turtle.

He grabbed hold of the circular handle on the door and
slowly spun it. It opened and he felt a blast of air hit his suit pushing him
backwards. He instinctively held his breath even though he was still wearing
his helmet. Had he not been holding onto the door handle, the push of air would
have knocked him down.

Adam pushed hard on the door and peered in through the
crack. He pushed it wide open and looked around checking a pressure gauge on
the wall. Then he turned around and looked back through the hallway at the
other astronauts anxiously awaiting his next step. His hands came up and he took
off his helmet, slowly at first and then with a big quick jerk movement.

He gleefully stated, “We’re home kids. Take off your
helmets and stay a while!”

The next hour was a flurry of activity as each
astronaut got out their purple checklists and went through them meticulously.
Adam was to check all of the safety systems and valves. Molly made sure the
life support systems were functioning and they had enough oxygen to supply
their 30 day mission. Yeva was opening all of the exploration tool compartments
to check their condition.

Keller, on the other hand, was staring out the window
at the red rocky landscape just a few feet away. To him, it looked like Arizona.
Being on such a huge planet with such a confined place to survive caused his
hands to begin shaking. When nobody was looking, Keller took one of his pills.
He calmed down.

Yeva also had the delicate task of dropping the Mars
extra-vehicular transport from the Big Turtle housing unit. The astronauts
referred to it as the
golf cart
. It was belted to the bottom and it had
to be slid out on extendable rods where it would drop onto the surface. This
golf cart is what they would use to drive around on during their external excursions;
it was their main vehicle.

Yeva sat down at the control panel by the airlock.
This gave her a good view outside. She could see the golf cart which was pinned
against the side of Big Turtle. She pushed the toggle switch labeled Extend and
two large rods extended from the side of the ship carrying the golf cart with
it. Next she pushed the button which would release the golf cart. It dropped to
the ground and bounced hard a few times. Fortunately they couldn’t hear it due
to the thin atmosphere.

As everybody worked, they began to notice a silence
that had befallen them. Nobody was talking; they just did their tasks.

Adam broke the silence, “Okay everybody. Let’s gather
around for a meeting.”

The astronauts walked over to the dinner table which
was rigidly bolted to the floor; they were still wearing the lower portion of
their pressure suits.

Adam spoke in a fatherly tone, “Once we finish these
tasks, I think we’ll be in a good spot to start the first phase of our
exploration. Yeva and I will go out first. If the golf cart is working okay,
we’ll drive around to examine the condition of the two Turtles from the outside.
After that, we’ll go find the Curiosity rover and then take a look at the
pyramid.  Sound good?  Great.”

Prior to leaving Earth, the astronauts had secretly
decided who would be the first to step down on Mars. To help choose, they had
taken a bowl of pennies and each astronaut chose one. The penny with the oldest
year would decide who would go into the history books as being the first to walk
on Mars. Yeva and Adam both picked pennies minted in 1973.

It was decided that they would both descend the ramp together
at the same time. A coed landing of sorts. Nobody was happy with this
compromise.

“It’s a green-eyed conspiracy,” complained Keller
referring to the fact that Adam and Yeva both had green eyes and were both getting
the chance to be the first on Mars.

Adam wanted to be the one in the history books; mainly
because it would guarantee a constant stream of speaking engagements and
endorsements for the rest of his life. Keller and Molly were not very happy
about it at all, but they accepted it for what it was.

After touching down on Mars, Keller pulled Adam aside
to see if he could convince him to trade places with him during that initial walk
on Martian soil. Keller looked over his shoulders to see if he could talk to
Adam in privacy.

He whispered, “Look, Adam, I have an offer for you.”

“Oh yah? I’m listening,” responded Adam half-seriously
as he was transferring a stack of supplies from one cabinet to another.

“I will pay you two million dollars if you allow me to
walk out there first. I’ll go out there with Yeva, everything will look hunky
dory, but I’ll run ahead and get to the surface first.”

Adam looked at the floor, soaking in the offer.

“That’s a tempting offer Keller.
Really
.
However, I think the potential payoff from being the first would far outweigh
two million dollars. Besides, we may not even make it back. Then your money
would be worthless to me.”

“What about your family?”

Adam halted what he was working on so he could think.
He said, “My family already has the million dollar bonus. Thanks to you,
right?”

“Well, what
would
it take?” asked Keller.

“I’m afraid there’s nothing you could offer. Sorry
Keller.”

Keller turned away in disgust.

After the astronauts completed their task lists, Adam
and Yeva prepared for their monumental trip. They put on their suits and tested
the valves to make sure the pressurization was working properly. All four
astronauts walked over to the airlock vestibule.

Adam and Yeva ducked through the airlock door and
stood in the cramped room staring at the external hatch; on the other side of
that flimsy metal was the harsh atmosphere of Mars with temperatures of -100
degrees Fahrenheit. Molly closed the door behind them, essentially locking in
their fate. They could feel their hearts pounding.