 
THRONES OF MARS

A novel

By

Lloyd R R Martin

Part Two

Life on Mars

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

No reproduction is allowed without permission.

The right of Lloyd R R Martin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Copyright © Lloyd R R Martin 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from the publisher.

This book is sold or presented subject to the condition that it shall not , by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent publisher.

Chapter 1 Re-Entry

Chapter 2 Orion Astronauts

Chapter 3 Michelle

Chapter 4 Capsule

Chapter 5 Evidence

Chapter 6 Shots fired

Chapter 7 Quest

Chapter 8 One Short

Chapter 9 Inside the Phoenix

Chapter 10 Orbit

Chapter 11 Landing

Chapter One

RE-ENTRY

A new system of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere has been developed by the robots on the Phoenix.

The Module known as 'Columbus' now looked very different from the one that had been attached to the ISS since February 2008.

Mary-Jo was working in the Columbus module she tried to keep from letting her mind drift back to what she had just experienced, but the focus was just not there; there was a definite lack of prowess in her work.

Galina noticed this, so did the rest,

'You would like to go home, wouldn't you?' she asked quietly during a coffee break.

'Probably,' Mary-Jo replied, 'I can't get over how close I came to being lost in space. We all know how you can get stranded within inches of the ship, standing still, but to be moving away and spinning at the same time.'

Upon return to the Phoenix, Mary-Jo had to rest to recover from her ordeal, whilst she rested Ash and Galina Danilenko went out into space to recover any evidence as to why the tether had come adrift. They found the anchor point had given way in an unexpected way.

Her hands and arms were still badly swollen from being subjected to centrifugal force for a prolonged period. This made most of her work on the Phoenix difficult. Coupled with the trauma of her near escape, it had now become impudent to keep Mary-Jo on the ship.

'I am sure the guys back on Earth would like to see you back down there.' Mark said.

Ash then said,

'The medical people have never had chance to examine anyone who has experienced what you went through. But we have the problem of re-entry. There are only the two Orion Command Modules here on the ship, but they have had a lot of their equipment stripped out in preparation for the journey to Mars. It would take too long to reinstall the re-entry gear. The next Orion mission is not due until the week after next, so it looks like you are stuck up here with us.'

'Not necessarily.' Gerald entered the conversation,

'We have been experimenting with a small re-entry vehicle for use on Mars. There have been three experimental re-entries with garbage for ballast. The last two were completed successfully. They were not intended for Earth re-entry, but we have redesigned them for it, because it was all we had to work with,' he waved an arm towards the looming blue orb of planet Earth,

'Being so close.'

Mark stroked his chin and said,

'Will it take a person? We know about your experiments. It will not do for the poor girl to have to cling to something like Blackpool Tower during re-entry.'

Gerald calmly explained,

'Yes, Mark. It was designed to take two people down to Mars. We have now made two clean re-entries; you can see the gathered data if you like. It shows clearly that a person would have survived intact.'

Ash then commented,

'If this thing was designed to land on Mars with less gravity, and much thinner atmosphere, how can it work for Earth re-entry?'

'I see your quandary, Mr Preston. Yes, it was designed for Mars, but we knew we would only have Earth to experiment and test with, so we designed it to work on Earth, then we simply re-do the calculations for Mars,'

'What do you think, Mary-Jo?' Ash asked.

'These guys are great.' she indicated the robots as represented by Gerald,

'If they say it can be done, it will be done as advertised. I'm game.'

Ash turned to Gerald, shook his hand and said,

'Looks like you have a mission on your hands.'

Ten minutes later Ash was talking to Mission Control at Houston, as he explained the plan, Gerald entered the sideways assembled room in time to hear Hoshi Masuto from Houston ask,

'Do you have a probable area of error for the landing site?'

This is the circle within which the capsule will land. It is normally several miles across due to the vagrancies of the wind and weather.

'Gerald here, Dr Masuto, what ship will you be using for the retrieval? Is it a carrier?'

Hoshi wondered what that could possibly have to do with the question, but answered none the less,

'Yes, the JFK is standing by.'

'Then we shall be landing on the deck, there will be no circle of error. Is there any particular area you would like us to alight upon?'

'What? Parachutes do not give enough control in winds across the deck to allow a safe approach even. We prefer you to alight at least half a mile from our asset.'

'We shall not be using parachutes. We have found that rotors are much more efficient at slowing a descent, being metal they can be deployed earlier than cloth parachutes. And they give nearly as much control as a helicopter. You regularly land helicopters on deck don't you?'

'Of course, yes.'

'Well, this is exactly what we intend to do. If the JFK is too valuable an asset, we can land on a heli-pad on any ship. The capsule weighs considerably less than a naval helicopter, and with the control we have over the rate of decent there is little or no impact.'

By now the whole of the control room was listening intently to this conversation when Hoshi said,

'It is beginning to sound as if you could land on the White House lawn.'

'Is that where you would like us?'

'I was joking, Gerald.'

'Oh, I see. But what you say has merit. Landing on grass is a very acceptable conclusion to our mission - it has more give than the deck of a super-carrier.'

Hoshi could hardly believe her ears as he heard himself say,

'Could you put down in the Armand Bayou Park?' (This is a large park just by the Johnson Space Centre in Houston.)

'We can put down in the soccer field by the Gilruth Centre, building 207, if you like.'

Hoshi looked up at Mike Xanthros, the Mission Director. He was just as stunned as everyone else was; he nodded his approval for the first fully controlled descent from space.

Just over half a day later seven and a half thousand people gathered around the grounds of the Johnson Space Centre to watch a re-entry capsule containing one woman as it glided in full control over Clear Lake. This approach path was taken to keep the capsule over water for as long as possible for safety's sake. At 1,000 feet it actually did a circuit around the perimeter of the Space Centre, demonstrating the level of control.

The two sets of six sickle-shaped rotors were spinning in opposite directions, counteracting the torque from each other that normally tries to turn a normal helicopter; hence the need for a tail rotor. This capsule didn't need a stabilising rotor at the back, it was controlled by altering the workload being put through the contra-rotating rotor system.

Everyone was very impressed; they thought Mary-Jo did a brilliant job of flying this thing. The truth they eventually found out was that the whole thing was flying itself – robots always put a bit of themselves into whatever they design and build.

... ..........

The next day saw Sergei Pavel and Dmitri Chopov driving down El Dorado Boulevard when Dmitri Chopov's cell phone rang. It was Jem Stringer,

'Hi Dmitri, this is Doctor Stringer calling from Professor Xanthros's office. We have had a report from the Phoenix concerning the High Gain Antenna. You worked on that when you were out there, didn't you?'

'Da. I mean yes. Yes I did some familiarisation work on the High Gain. The robots had done some changes, and I have written it up, plus some training suggestions.'

'Yes, I have seen it, and very good it is. But I would just like to talk these latest developments with you if you could call in later today?'

'I will call in to see Professor Xanthros this afternoon.'

'The Professor will not be available for a couple of days, I'm afraid. I am handling his workload in the meantime. Shall we say 2 this afternoon?'

The Russian knew he had no choice. A request from the Operations Director cannot be ignored, even if it only came from his office; he had the power to see to it that you never went into space again, or even got sent home.

'Ok, I will be there.'

Doctor Jem Stringer heard the call being terminated before he could even say thank you; I'll see you then.

He placed the phone in his top pocket, then methodically fastened the flap over it to prevent accidental fall-out. He learned this lesson the hard way when he was attending a training session by the pool. As he bent forwards to see what was going on under the water the cell fell out. Jake Jensen was the spaceman in the pool at the time. He caught the cell as it fell into the pool. He realised what it was, and put it to his ear, even though he had a full spacesuit on, and was five feet beneath the surface. Then he tapped it and shook his head.

'Nobody gonna call me on this.' He quipped as he threw the now dead phone on to the side of the pool.

Jem turned his attentions to a plastic box on the desk between him and Mary Jo. He took a piece of shiny steel out of it, looked at the buff coloured label on it, then turned to Mary-Jo,

'This looks as if it would never have stopped you from drifting away. Did you give it some strong pull?' he asked.

'Not really, Jem. As far as I recall, I barely touched it. This can be shown in the slow speed at which I drifted away from the ship.'

'That's true. So this failed with very little force being put on it.' He closely examined the part.

'Then your suit failed. I think we had better have a look at that.'

The suits are normally kept on the ship, but this one has been returned to Earth for a full examination of it to ascertain the cause of the incident. Orson Le Hoya is now examining this in his Life Support Bay.

Returning to the tether anchor, Jem said,

'This looks wrong. We have never had a piece fail like this before, even after months of pulling and tugging underwater.'

He replaced the metal object back in the white plastic box in which it had travelled from high Earth orbit back to Houston, along with the space suit.

'Let's go see what Orson has come up with.'

They walked across the compound to where Orson Le Hoya worked on life support equipment.

The Life Support Bay echoed to the sound of the door opening. Orson was examining a small part of Mary-Jo's suit when the pair entered.

'Hi, Orson. What have you get there?' Jem had known Orson for eight years.

'I'm trying to investigate this thruster nozzle without disassembling it. If I have to attack it too much I could destroy what I am looking for.' He put the part down and looked at Mary-Jo and Jem.

'Sorry, Banjo. I didn't know you had company. Hi, Mary-Jo. Gee I sure am glad to see you safe back here. Some adventure you had out there.'

'Not the kind of ride you want to take too often.' She agreed.

Jem was eager to find out what his friend had found out,

'What news from your Rialto then, Orson?'

Orson put down the item he was inspecting and turned to look at the couple in front of him.

'Well, the first thruster I looked at, the number two, had the regulator turned right up, then the retaining nut that is supposed to allow movement was locked down. As if that were not enough the trigger mechanism was bent in such a way that once fired it would never close. The one I am examining here looks as if a foreign object has been introduced to prevent smooth firing, but the thing is moulded together, so I cannot get inside without annihilating it.'

Jem looked closely at the suspect object,

'How about an ultrasound?'

'That could work, Banjo. The thing is only plastic, so the rays will pass right through. Can you fine-tune them to pick up a small delicate part?'

'These guys can enlarge the picture, in colour. Turn it around and zoom in and out. Anything you need.'

'Well, ok. What are we waiting for?'

Twenty minutes later the three people were in another lab, looking at just what Jem had promised when a knock came at the door.

Michelle Romero was keen to hear about developments in the mission. She had hoped that Ash would be coming back with Mary-Jo, but he was needed up there on the nearly ready Phoenix.

'Hi guys. Mind if I sit in?'

Jem answered first,

'Certainly, Michelle. We are trying to get to the bottom of what went wrong with Mary-Jo's spacesuit. This is part of it on the screen here.'

Orson moved a little closer,

'That's it.' He turned to the operator,

'Can we just rotate a little that way, then move up a little. Yes. That should not be there.' He pointed to a curved shape in the centre of the assembly.

'That does not look like contamination, Banjo. I can't see that getting in there any other way than by deliberate insertion knowing it will cause difficulties.'

The two women looked aghast at the evidence.

Jem asked the operator if he could have a hard copy of the picture they were all staring at in disbelief. The man pressed two keys on his keyboard, within seconds Jem had the hard evidence he needed.

.....................

At 1400 exactly Dmitri knocked and entered the Director, Mike Xanthros's office.

Jem Stringer sat comfortably behind the Directors desk. He stood up as Dmitri walked in. they shook hands and sat at opposite sides of the big dark oak desk.

Normal protocol took place, but was soon disposed of, and Jem went straight to the point,

'The tether anchor by the High Gain looks like it had sustained some damage; did you happen to catch it during your time out there in the vicinity?'

'It is always possible, but you cannot feel everything clearly in a bulky Russian space suit. We try not to damage anything, but it is inevitable that things will take an occasional knock. You should see the state of the outside of the ISS after all these years in space with so many space people moving around it. And the outer skin is only about as strong as a coke tin, you know.'

Jem considered producing the plastic box containing the offending part, but decided to move on,

'On the 'Phoenix' who has access to the space suits?'

'We all have access to the suiting area. It is not a separate area that is dedicated to suiting up like you have here on Earth.'

'But accidental damage is unlikely is it not?'

'It takes three people to get one cosmonaut suited, in a very confined space, Mr Stringer. And we go out as a pair. Anyone who thinks that accidental damage is unlikely is a fool.'

'What about foreign object introduction?'

'Not a chance, Mr Stringer. The cleanliness in that area is very strict, as it is all over the ship. Even the smallest amounts of miscreant dirt can cause electrical problems. That is why we do not even have pencils on board, the minute amounts of graphite given off by writing with these implements floats around and could short out electrical equipment.'

Jem produced the glossy A4 colour print from the ultrasound machine; the size was indicated by the graph laid over the whole picture. The curved object was about quarter of the size of a fingernail on the little finger.

'Here we have an ultrasound scan of a part of the thruster unit on one of the suits. What do you think that curved thing could be?'

'I must confess that I do not know, Mr Stringer. Is it part of the directional enabling system? Or maybe part of the throttle?'

He knew that no such things exist but was gambling that Jem didn't know either.

'Is there any way this could have got in there by accident, Dmitri?'

'In my opinion, no. Is it part of the manufacturing process? Do they have stringent cleanliness regimes, like we do?'

'Of course, they do, and this will turn out not to be part of the suit. The other thruster on Mary-Jo's suit also looks suspect. The valve looks as if it had been tampered with.'

This was the first time Jem had mentioned where the thrusters had come from.

'What we are dealing with here is a very dangerous business.' Dmitri continued,

'The slightest malfunction can spell disaster for all concerned. Look at what happened to your Apollo 13, and before that Apollo One, or Gemini Eight. And we too have had our calamities. On an operation of this scale we are lucky nothing has gone wrong before.'

Jem was quick to correct him,

'But things have gone wrong; what about John Garbou?'

'Yes. That was an unfortunate training accident, which only goes to prove how dangerous this whole business is. Even the training can kill you.'

Jem took the picture back from Dmitri,

'Something here does not add up.' He said, 'I shall discuss this with Professor Xanthros upon his return.'

'Am I free to go now?' Dmitri wanted Jem to know that he was still in control.

The next day Professor Mike Xanthros returned to his office to find Jem Stringer waiting for him.

'Good morning, Professor. More evidence has come to light on the Mary-Jo incident.'

'Oh yes, tell me more. Jem.'

Jem Stringer then told Xanthros about the findings he and Orson La Hoya had found about Mary-Jo's suit. Then showed him the picture, next he produced the tether anchor from the 'Phoenix' and illustrated what he thought must have happened.

'Have you any idea who could be involved here?'

Jem explained about the meeting with Dmitri. Then he went on to tell Xanthros about the scratch marks he and Orson had found on John Garbou's suit, and how Dmitri was the only astronaut who could have had an involvement in all these events.

'We cannot condemn a man without firm evidence.' Xanthros told Jem.

'What I want you to do is take Orson to the manufacturer and find out what they have to say about all this, and can they shed any light on the likelihood of this kind of thing happening again.'

That evening Jem and Orson took a tour of downtown Houston to help them shake off the stresses of the past few days. The jaunt suffered an early termination when a group of sailors began fighting in the dance hall next to the bar they were in. They decided to return to base in order to study their route the next day, and to decide their selected mode of travel, car, train, or air. Even sailing was considered, but not seriously.

Of all the options, they decided to fly down to Dover the next day.

An early start was in order. They took Jem's car on to the freeway, complete with the photograph and the full backpack that Mary-Jo had used. This would allow the manufacturer to examine the evidence and come to an informed conclusion.

The sun behind the clouds cast a shadow over the fields as the men began their trip to Dover, Delaware.

Xanthros had organised a special flight from field 54T, near Dutton Lake, just to the east of Houston. This was close enough to Houston, so the men did not have a long drive. The flight to Dover was 1,300 miles and would take over ten hours in the little light aircraft that Xanthros had organised for them, so they were to commute to George Bush International Airport for the main leg of the journey.

When they got to the airfield they found exactly that, a field with one solitary runway on it. There were no buildings; on the end of runway 028 sat one Cessna 172.

Both men were qualified to fly this light aircraft, so there would be no need for a pilot. Josh Mercer was sitting in his car alongside the aircraft when Jem and Orsen pulled up.

'Hi. You must be Jem and Orsen.' Josh opened the conversation.

'Yep,' Orsen replied, 'Is she fuelled up?'

'Yes. How far are you expecting to go? Xanthros didn't tell me anything.'

'Only as far as GBI. Will you be picking it up from there?'

'No. Nothing has been said about picking up the aircraft from anywhere.'

'Ok, we'll just drop it in the light aircraft park. Thanks.'

The two men from NASA then performed a daily inspection of the aircraft; followed by an extensive pre-flight check, where each one covered the tasks the other had done, to be doubly sure that everything was in perfect working order.

With both pilots satisfied that the aircraft was safe to fly they waved Josh off. Orsen held the door open for Jem to get into the aircraft. This meant that Jem Springer would be flying the aircraft.

He lined up at the end of the long runway. As the dead straight road stretched out before them he did a final full and free movement test of all the control surfaces. As he was doing this Orsen pushed the throttle fully forwards to alarm his friend, the aircraft moved forwards as the thrust from the propeller increased. It all happened in a split second. Jem was checking the controls and looking for the movements of the control surfaces, then the engine burst into deafening life and the machine lurched forwards. Orsen laughed at Jem's embarrassment as he fought to keep the aircraft on a straight line. Differential braking brought it back on to the centre of the runway, but by then the aircraft had started to lift, the rudder was beginning to bite, and the wings were not level. As they passed the end of the runway, heading for Dutton Lake at 300 feet Jem had it all back under complete control.

'Are you sure you have done this before?' Orsen joked.

'Bastard.' Jem replied with a smile.

As the aircraft climbed steadily across the lake the engine note changed slightly as Jem turned the mixture down and throttled back for the short flight. A turn through 180 degrees saw them heading across the lake again in the direction of Houston. Then the engine just cut out. At less than 500 feet Jem had no chance to make the shore.

'I'm gonna have to put her down on the water.' He said to Orsen, who was busy putting out a mayday call.

As the aircraft, now a glider, gradually came down towards the water Jem selected full flaps to give him as slow a landing speed as possible. The horizon dropped below the nose. What used to be called a 'three-point landing' was performed. This is where the tail and the main wheels touch simultaneously, even though this aircraft had a nose-wheel. The tail began scribing out a line on the lake as the main wheels touched the surface. The aircraft then stalled, and the wheels sank immediately. With all the drama neither man heard the small explosive charges go off in the rear of the doomed aircraft. This caused the machine to tip up on the nose, which is where the heaviest part of the aircraft, the engine, is. This caused the Cessna to flip on to its back. The tail section then broke off and began to fill with water, Jem and Orsen were both thrown about to such an extent that they both sustained injuries. The engine then began dragging the whole contraption down into the depths of the lake. Both men undid their straps in preparation to exit the aircraft when they were hit by a massive wave of water from the rear as it gushed in through the missing tail section. The hard dashboard and windscreen made it impossible for either man to effect an escape before they drowned.

Half way through the morning Michelle received a call on her desk-top screen. The caller was Tom Collins. The conversation went this way,

'Hi, Tom. What can I do for you?'

'Hi Michelle. I have some bad news for you.'

'What? It's not the 'Phoenix' is it?'

'Not directly. There has been an air crash in Dutton Lake. Doctor Stringer and Orson La Hoya were taking Mary-Jo's backpack to the manufacturers when they seemed to lose control of the aircraft they were flying to GBI.'

'Any news of injuries?'

'It doesn't look good. There was no sign of anyone getting out before it sank. No one got out.'

She sat back, startled,

'That's terrible.' Her hand came up to her mouth involuntarily,

'I don't know what to say. Is there anything I should do, Tom?'

'Not at the moment, Michelle. But you can possibly check on Jem's appointments list for the next few days, and just let people know that he has had to cancel, but we will be in touch with alternative arrangements soon. And let the Life Support Bay know that Orson will not be coming back. No need to go into details, they probably know anyway, but just to put an official seal on things.'

'Ok, Tom. I'll get on with that right now.'

She opened up two more screens on her desk top to check Jem's appointments. It only took her fifteen minutes to notify anyone involved.

Five minutes after finishing this task Professor Xanthros phoned her.

'We need to get a meeting organised to work out who is next going up to the 'Phoenix.' He said.

'Very good, sir. Whom would you like to be there?'

'Me, Tom Collins, Hoshi Masuto, Dmitri Chopov, Jake Jensen and Mike Lafont. That should do it, I think. Everyone else is off site today.'

'What about the Chinese cosmonauts?' she asked.

'They have decided to withdraw from the program.' Mike said without a flicker of reaction.

'Oh. I see.' She replied.

'If you could arrange that for this afternoon, please Michelle.

'Ok, Professor Xanthros.' She tapped on her desk top screens, and then turned to Mike's screen,

'I see we have conference room 241 free in building 180 from 1400.'

'That will do fine; I shall see you down there then.'

Michelle called all the available flight astronauts to the meeting.

At 1405 in room all the relevant people had been seated, when Mike Xanthros called the meeting to order.

'The next Orion launch is scheduled for next week. Provisionally slated for this mission were Cho Ling, Mike Lafont, and you, Tom.'

Mike spoke up,

'I can't make that launch date. Medics say it is too close to my last virus test.'

Tom also added,

'Me too.'

Xanthros thought as he looked around the room at the remaining candidates.

'I can tell you now, ladies and gentlemen. The next launch will be the last. Some of the people in this room will be on that launch and going to Mars.' He waited for this to sink in before continuing,

Michelle spoke first,

'Does that mean that the people up there now will not be coming back here?'

'Yes, I'm afraid it does.' Xanthros knew about Michelle and Ash,

'I'm sorry, but with the Chinese pulling out it makes it imperative that we preserve the whole program. Ash tells me that things up there are just about ready. Tomorrow we are sending the last ESA transfer vehicle with the final fill-up, so we are good to go.'

Hoshi then spoke up,

'Great, I'm ready to go. My bags are packed. But what about the others on the program, Professor? You said that some of the people in this room as if the others were excluded.'

'We must exclude them because the preparation you must now undertake for the journey begins as soon as you leave this room. They would not have sufficient time if we wait until they return.'

Tom then asked,

'How many will we be sending on this final launch?'

The Professor looked through his notes,

'We are sending up some extra - 'supplies' – let us call them, for the trip to Mars, so there will only be weight consideration for two people. We already have Hoshi here, now we must decide who else is to go.'

Dmitri then spoke up,

'I am ready to go.'

Michelle summed it up,

'So we will have a Mission to Mars with Preston Ashton, Jake Jensen, Dmitri Chopov, Galina Danilenko, Mark Singleton and Hoshi Masuto.'

'Sounds like a pretty good party to me.' Announced Hoshi, then there was a round of applause.

.....................
Chapter Two

ORION ASTRONAUTS

No one knew what would happen when the 'Phoenix' blasted off from near Earth orbit. Jake Jensen took up a place near the central section in the arm now called the Blue Sarsen. He took a position on the Bridge, with Jake Jensen. Behind their position was the cupola viewing station, this was where Hoshi Masuto occupied the only station that offered an outside view.

Dmitri and Galina took up awkward positions in the Orion capsule on the end of Red Sarsen. These positions were awkward because the capsule had been converted for operations under gyroscopic gravity, the anticipated G-forces during launch would be coming from the rear.

At the opposite end of the ship, the Brit, Mark had taken up station in the newly arrived Orion capsule on the end of Blue Sarsen.

Gerald, Steve and Stuart stood near the top of the centre rocket-shaped series of sections. These were known as the White Sarsens.

Tacked on to the outside of the Red and Blue Sarsens were Scuttles and Skittles with all their multi-purpose arms anchored to the main structure. Silver hung on nearer the main engines. He had a ring that ran around the rear of the ship and enabled him to move to deal with any problems that might occur during launch.

The humans also had their tasks, Dmitri and Galina were in the converted Orion capsule on the end of Red Sarsen. They monitored and handled the LOX and electronic systems needed for main engine start in conjunction with Steve. Hoshi was stationed further along Blue Sarsen, close to where the arm meets White Sarsen. She kept close communications with all the robots.

In fact, the robots could easily launch the ship into space, but astronauts were trained to deal with the unexpected, and they have to be there in order to get to Mars.

'Helium charged prevalve accumulator.' Galina called.

Mark responded 'Yes. Start tank discharges, CO2 causing.'

Dmitri called,

'Ok pressure switches send mainstage OK signal to Steve.'

Stuart came on line,

'LOX turbopump bypass pump open to control lox pump speed.'

Mark called,

'GG valves admitting propellants. Pressures building. We are go for launch.'

Ash was listening to the familiar round of calls from Houston as well as the reports on board.

'Guidance System release, Go. Booster Systems go/no go. Go. Spacecraft systems go/no go. Go. Life Systems go/no go. Go. Flight Activities, go/no go. Go.'

Then the call they have all been waiting for,

'Phoenix, you are clear to go.'

Ash responded in the traditional way,

'Roger, Houston. We are go for launch.'

He fired the small ullage rocket engine in the middle of the main engines to seat the propellant ready for main engine ignition.

Mark called,

'Engine start command lights on.'

Ash flipped the safety cover for the main ignition switch to the up position.

He made one last call to all on board,

'All clear.'

Jake then took his place in the very well-rehearsed procedure,

'Life support clear.'

Hoshi scanned her instruments as this was going on, then called,

'All clear here.'

Dmitri called,

'Mission parameters met.'

Mark takes his turn to call,

'Engines clear, pressures OK.'

Galina was the last to call. She said,

'Oxidiser valve open, Lox valve open. Pressures OK, clear to launch.'

Ash flicked the ignition switch.

Less than 0.02 of a second later Gerald called out,

'First Motion.'

As the gigantic rocket engines shook the whole ship the sound was transferred through the structure. Four colossal flames of thrust shot out of the back of the ship.

43 seconds later they passed 1,000 miles per hour as they were all pressed hard against their supports. The interplanetary craft Phoenix continued in Earth orbit as she accelerated in order to use the Earth's gravity to increase her speed without using more power.

As they accelerated the ship began turning away from Earth, putting the old planet behind. As they reached 2,000 mph they began to face the position in space where Mars would be in 172 days' time.

The acceleration phase only lasted 12 minutes 49 seconds.

As the main engines cut off there was an almost eerie silence on board the 'Phoenix'.

Objects began floating. The crew undid their straps to move around more easily.

Then they began to hear the sounds of a ship that feels and sound as if it is alive.

'Rotation proceeding.' Steve called to break the reverie of listening to the burbles, creaks and various sounds from a ship that is living and functioning as it should.

The 'Phoenix' then began to revolve very slowly. As this happened gravity was restored to the capsules at the ends of the Red and Blue Sarsens that contained the humans.

The rocket ship made up from the second and third stages of the Mars Launch Vehicle, known as Epsilon, now made up the central White Sarsen. This contained the robots, androids and other equipment. Around the rear of the White Sarsen were mounted four containers made up from third stages of supply rockets. These were numbered as Sarsen One to four, and were powered by rocket engines from the same Epsilon vehicles.

Sprouting out of the White Sarsen, at 90 degrees to the Red and Blue Sarsens, were the trusses carrying a nuclear reactor at either end. One of these will be used during the course of the long journey to Mars. This had to be kept as far away from humans as possible, so that arm was much longer than the other one.

.....................
Chapter Three

MICHELLE

Michelle Romero decides to do some further checks on the John Garbo incident.

The importance of the news of Jem and Orson's fate began to dawn on Mission Control.

Michelle turned to Sem,

'Oh man! They were carrying important evidence concerning Mary-Jo's accident. If that's what it was.'

'What do you mean, evidence, and, if that was what it was?'

'The suit and backpack she was using, and a printout of an ultrasound scan of one of the parts. There is something wrong there, Sem.'

'Yes, I can see that. Otherwise she would not have needed rescuing.'

'No, I mean in the way the suit malfunctioned. Orson thought so, that is why he had the part ultrasounded.'

'What do you mean, ultrasounded?'

'It is like an x-ray, but much more detailed. Like when they look into a pregnant woman's womb to see the baby. That's ultrasound. They can now take a good look around from all angles, then produce a colour print. That's what Orson and Jem had with them. And the parts of the suit that went wrong, I doubt that we will see them again.'

'And what about Orson and Doctor Stringer? Were either of them married?'

'Yes, Orson was married to Sue, they have two daughters, I believe. One of them, Wendy, has a flower dealership somewhere. I don't know about Doctor Stringer.'

'Michelle. You sound like you are not completely comfortable with this. What can you do?'

'I don't know, Sem. Pass me that small box, would you?'

'Does anyone else know about the evidence?'

'Yes, of course. There will be Professor Xanthros, and the man who took the ultrasound scans. Oh, yes, and Orson's buddy in the Life Support Bay, Tom Bennet.'

'What about the man in the Life Support Bay. Will he know more about the suits?' Sem was getting more involved now, as she gathered more information.

'That is a very good point. Let's see where he is likely to be right now.' Michelle touched one of the screens on top of her desk with the tip of a stylus. Two or three more taps and she came up with a list showing what Tom Bennet was doing.

'He's out at the Launch site this morning, but due to fly back this afternoon. I will go down to see him when he gets back in the Bay.'

...............

At precisely two fifteen that afternoon Michelle Romero marched into Tom Bennet's office.

'Hi, Tom. What do you know about the malfunctioning of Mary-Jo's suit thrusters?'

'Not much, Michelle. Orson and Jem were working on them, I didn't get any information on the work they had done.'

'And the ultrasound? You know nothing about that I suppose.'

'That is correct. I'm sorry, Michelle. Orson was on his own on this one, I was down at the Launch Site for most of that week.'

It was beginning to look as if Michelle had drawn a blank here.

Then Tom looked across at the three suits hanging in the storage area.

'Not like the first investigation he did. I was able to help on that one.'

Michelle knew nothing of this.

'What was that?'

'The John Garbou accident where he drowned in the pool. His suit malfunctioned; we really don't need things like this. It makes our life support look bad, so Orson took it upon himself to look a little deeper into it. He found scratches around where the leaking seal sat, and the edges of the seal looked as if they had been cut.'

'Did you see this for yourself?'

'No, Professor Xanthros took the seal away with him.'

'Did he now?' Michelle looked across at the suits, then said,

'Tell me, Tom, did Orson have any idea how the seal came to be in such condition?'

'I think he thought that it had been cut. Deliberately.'

She was somewhat taken aback by this.

'Did he have any idea by whom, and when?'

'He established that the suit in question had been hanging in the suit prep area when someone saw one of the Russians in there.'

'Who saw this, Tom?'

'I don't know, but I think it was one of the American astronauts. Maybe Tom Collins from what Orson said.'

'Well that's just Dandy.' She remarked.

'Tom Collins is far too busy for me to talk to him at the moment, and two thirds of the Russians are now on their way to Mars as we speak.'

'Which ones are on their way to Mars?'

Michelle thought for a moment,

'There is the woman, Galina Danilenko, and Dmitri Chopov.'

'That is the name that Orson mentioned could have been in the suit room. Dmitri.'

'Brilliant!' she exclaimed,

'He also had access to the suits on the 'Phoenix'.'

She needed to talk this over with someone else, someone closer to the events. She needed to talk to Mary-Jo Shelby.

Back in her office Michelle found that Mary-Jo was on sick leave until the next week at least. So she arranged to visit her at home. As she began to shuffle her own schedule a call came in from Ash on the 'Phoenix'.

'Hi, hon. we have just completed blast-off and begun to turn. It sure feels strange now to be in space and under gravity. Like being in an old Star Trek movie!'

'If it were,' she said,

'You could beam down here for a proper goodbye.'

'How are things with you down there? Gee, I'm real sorry I couldn't see you again before we left. But things like this have happened in the Navy all the time, and they didn't have the communications we have.'

She didn't want to tell him about Jem and Orson. He knew both of them personally, so it would be a bad start to the mission.

'Ash, I can't help but worry about you. And I don't like the way this is so public. There may be things I need to say to you that are in confidence.'

'That's just the way things are, hon. we are in the public eye and we joined up knowing that.'

'But is there no way we can have a quiet word?'

'Not a chance, Michelle. The radio transmissions are not secure by their very nature; there is nothing we can do about that. But you can always send me an e-mail, would that do?'

'Well ok, I want you to be extra careful. I will have to consider this; maybe an e-mail is better after all.'

'Sounds intriguing, I cannot wait. But in the meantime, we will have to sort something out with these video calls. When you take a call from the lower screens on your desk, the camera tends to look at the top of your head. Not that I am complaining, I think you have a wonderful head and hair, I have noticed that on the boat, but it would be nice to see the whole of your face.'

'Sorry, Ash. What was that?' she noticed a slight movement on the picture.

'I think we have reached our terminal velocity. The main engines have all cut out now.'

'How do you mean, 'all' have cut out? I thought they were on or off.'

'That's right. There is very little throttle control on a solid fuel rocket, but we have four main engines that are used to get up to speed. We have used all four to overcome the main part of our inertia, but after that it was felt that the amount of g-forces being experienced not only by us, but by the structure too, could be lessened. So two of the engines were shut down, and we continued to accelerate on the remaining two rockets.'

'What g-forces were you feeling after the two were shut down? We all know that the initial g-forces would be between four and five, but what was the sustained force?'

'It peaked at two point five, but gradually decreased to one point four constant.'

'And what would have happened if you had kept the two engines burning for longer?'

'Theoretically we would keep on accelerating because there is nothing up here to prevent it. In fact, we don't really know. You can't keep on accelerating ad infinitum like Captain Jake, so we settled on 30,000 miles per hour relative.'

'How do you mean, 'relative'?'

'Everything has to be relative to something. We read our speed relative to our position when we were at rest. Not relative to the Earth, you notice. That is because the Earth is moving away from our rest position at about 1,000 mph. Mars is racing towards us at about 2,000 mph, but then it depends what position is relative. Everything is moving in space.'

'Gee, I'm glad I asked. I could never sleep without knowing all this. I will have to play that back and take notes.'

'Quite simple, really. It isn't rocket science, you know. Oh yes, wait a minute, it is rocket science.' He smiled, then continued,

'Got to go now, hon. someone has to fly this thing to Mars, all the astronauts are queuing up to use the 'phone. We only got the one you know.'

'Ok. I may have something in e-mail for you soon.' She was not happy about sending the bad news by e-mail, but that was better than having his reaction broadcast live to the whole of the listening Earth.

She turned and looked at the box Sem had passed to her earlier. It contained the broken handle from behind the High Gain on the 'Phoenix' that had given way, thus sending Mary-Jo on her spinning journey. Carefully she removed it from its protective wrapping.

'I'm no metallurgist, or engineer, but this doesn't look right.' She thought.

'I think I better get it examined by a structural engineer before I mention it to Ash.'

Michelle then drew out a mechanical keyboard from the right hand drawer of her desk. On it she began to type the e-mail to send to Ash:

'Hi Ash. You had better read this through before sharing it with the rest of your crew. There has been an air crash here at Houston. Jem Stringer and Orson LaToya were killed on their way to get Mary-Jo's space suit checked out by the manufacturers. I will send more details as and when they come through.'

She didn't feel confident enough about the communications set-up to go into more detail. Anyway, there was no firm evidence of anything yet.

Michelle Romero was right to be concerned about information leakage due to the communications set-up.

Three of the robots operating on Phoenix were of advanced android type. That means they were human-like, but more importantly they had the capacity to learn as they operated. A key element to this learning capacity was the communications, not only between themselves, but also with the humans they work with. That includes the people on Earth. It is not difficult for these machines to assimilate masses of information, then decide which bits are of interest to them, then bin the rest. They work as a grid, or web, to co-ordinate all information in real time.

These three 'SA-class' robots, Gerald, Steve and Stuart also had the ability to communicate directly with the humans either on board by speech, and the people on Earth by electronic means; that is either e-mail, video or radio. Even the cell-phone network was open to them.

Mere seconds after Michelle had sent the e-mail her personal cell phone rang from within the desk drawer where she kept it.

'Good afternoon, Doctor Romero. This is Gerald Stevenson speaking to you from on board the 'Phoenix'. I know that this call may be a surprise to you, but I detect that you have concerns regarding the security of communicating with us here.'

'What? How? Who? I beg your pardon, I don't think I fully understand. Is this some kind of joke?'

'No, Doctor. I am an 'SA-class' robot, known colloquially as an android. We have briefly met on Earth if you remember.'

'Gerald Stevenson. Yes, I remember.' She remembered because Ash had told her about him.

'How on Earth do you know about my concerns on security?'

'That was easy. We can read your e-mails in real time in case there is something of interest, or something we can use up here.'

'Is that necessary? I mean it is like listening in on private conversations.'

'We have no intention of prying. We are only interested in things that could be of use to us up here. For instance, we have already had information about scientific developments from as far away as Manchester, England, and Osaka, Japan. We have even received information on ultra-low temperature experiments in Antarctica. Small snippets of information from these sources can mean the difference between mission success and disaster.'

'You mean to tell me that you receive every e-mail that is sent on Earth? That's impossible.'

'Not impossible, Doctor, unmanageable. This is where our communications web comes into its own. There are six robots here; two 'S-class', one unclassified machine that we built ourselves, and us three 'SA-class'. All are interconnected, and one of the machines filters all e-mails. The astronauts' call it 'Silver' because it shines to reflect the heat from the direct sunlight. Only the messages pertinent to our work here are allowed through by Silver. Yours is a matter of some concern here. We know that you people can have a need to keep certain bits of information and conversation between yourselves, we do not fully understand this, but Dr Masuto has explained the situation to us, and I think we can comply with this requirement.'

'How do you mean Gerald?'

'There is a way that we can enable you to have what you would refer to as confidential communications.'

'That sounds good, but how on Earth, if you pardon the expression, do you intend to do that?'

'Our communications are secure and unique for us. The only drawback is our strongest element, and that is the communications web between us. Whatever any one of the six of us does, the other five know about it. That enables us to work seamlessly as a completely co-ordinated team – no, as one entity in at least six places at once.'

'Are you telling me that there are six android robots on the end of this line?'

'Yes, but you need not worry. I am what you might call the prime number. If my information has to be shared with humans, only I can do it.'

'So, you can pass messages on to Ash with no-one else listening in?'

'Yes, I will serve as your voice and ears.'

'You lost me again, Gerald. How's that?'

'I will meet with Dr Ashton in private, ring you, then your voice will be spoken by me, you will hear everything I hear.'

'Wow! That sounds great. Give me time to gather a little more information at this end, and I think we shall have something to tell him.'

'Certainly, can I be of any assistance in the gathering of information? Our web holds more information than you can comfortably conceive of.'

'I don't know. I have to find a metallurgist to examine this part here.'

'Would that be the handle attachment that doctor Shelby was holding before she left the ship?'

'Yes, it would. Do you know anything about this?'

'Of course, we installed it in the first place.'

'Then there can be no doubt as to its structural integrity?' Michelle meant this more as a statement than a question.

'No doubt whatsoever. I have here the torque settings on all of the bolts, and the structural stress test outcomes for that particular part.'

'Could you send that information down to me here?'

'You will have it before we finish speaking here.'

'Right, thank you.' She looked over to her desk as one of the screens lit up with a lot of technical data. There was no way she could understand this. Maths had been on the curriculum when she did her Doctorate, but this was engineering mathematics, and way beyond her experience.

'That's it. Thanks again, Gerald. I shall take this along with the handle to a metallurgist on site and get the whole accumulation analysed to find out exactly what happened.'

'Might I suggest Doctor Chris Rigbye in building H2/45? She has had a lot of experience with this type of metal.'

'Great. You have been a fantastic help, Gerald. Thank you very much. How can I contact you in future, I haven't got your cell number.'

'You have, Doctor Romero. It is now stored in your cell phone in just the same way as any other number.'

'Get out of here! You mean I can now touch my phone twice, like any other call, and contact an interplanetary space ship?'

'That is about the size of it. But remember that you will be contacting the whole web. I will answer, but the other five robots here will be in on the call, as will anyone who is working with us at that time.'

'Is that likely?'

'Professor Masuto sometimes enters our web, but not often.'

'Will I know if she is on line?'

'You will if I tell you. We do not lie, and there are no secrets here.'

'Ok. I think that just about covers it now. Once again, thank you.'

.....................
Chapter Four

CAPSULE

Up on the Phoenix two astronauts watched developments.

'See those androids go.' Galina Danilenko and Jake Jensen looked out of the copula, which allowed them a good view of the central area of the 'Phoenix'. The human-like robots were working on the rocket-shaped central section, known as the White Sarsen. All three were now working outside the ship in tee shirts and jeans. Ashton Preston and Hoshi Masuto had to be dressed in full space suits of course as they busied themselves around open hatchways in the White Sarsen.

Gerald faced Ash as he said in a normal conversational way,

'This is one of the re-usable re-entry vehicles we have been working on.'

The stars behind Gerald moved slowly from upper right to lower left as the 'Phoenix' rotated slowly to maintain gravity for the occupants at the ends of the Blue and Red Sarsens. The workers hardly noticed this, apart from the stars that marched in a constant procession around them. By looking to the rear of the ship they could still see the Earth and moon. Hoshi looked at this scene as it rotated some 20 degrees off the centre line of the ship. The Earth still appeared blue, the moon white, but no details could now be made. Imperceptibly slowly they were receding into the blanket of stars that provided a complete arena in which they were now travelling at 30,000 miles per hour. Pure naked sunlight hit them from the rear, some 45 degrees off the centre line. This also moved round slowly, the shadows thrown were completely black – even the androids needed illumination in these severe conditions.

Everything happens slowly in space, the machine that emerged from the White Sarsen was no different. Two multi-handed robots pushed it out into the glaring light of the rising sun. It looked white; all subtle colours were bleached away. Pyramid-shaped with a small tower on the top, Ash could see details emerge as the sun moved around, throwing parts into half-light.

'On the bottom is the retro motor,' Gerald explained,

'This is a steerable rocket that is used to bring the vehicle to a slow enough speed to enter the Martian atmosphere. As its speed decreases in orbit, it begins to fall under the influence of Martian gravity, and then it begins to contact the thin Martian atmosphere, which causes friction. Turning the vehicle around to allow the heat shield to take the brunt of the heat then uses the standard re-entry system.'

'What is the strange assembly on top of the structure?' asked Ash, pointing a space-suited finger at the tower on top of the pyramid.

'That is the main rotor system. Like the one that took Ms Shelby back, this also has a contra-rotating rotor system for its final touchdown, and vehicle alignment system.'

The whole apparatus slowly moved along the White Sarsen towards the rear of the container, where a large silver ball awaited it. Upon arrival the silver globe-shaped robot attached it to the ship.

'That can now remain there until it is needed.' Hoshi explained to Ash,

'And the hole it has vacated can be used for storage of objects currently stored in the Sarsens. There is another one in Sarsen Four.'

Surely enough, on the opposite side of the Sarsen there was another re-entry vehicle.

The two humans moved across to assist in the moving of this vehicle.

As it was carefully lifted out of the storage space by the S-class robots it began to drift away from the centre of the slowly revolving ship. That meant that, as it was also turning around a central axis around the ship, it would soon experience its own centrifugal-induced gravity. As this gradually built up the large object began to increase in weight. As it came out of the bay in which it originally rested it was almost weightless. By the time it was completely free of the confines it weighed the equivalent of a small child. It still had the inertia of three busses, but the weight of a small child.

Ash and Hoshi were holding on to the heat shield rim. The problems of differentiating between inertia and weight being coupled with increasing 'gravity' became too much, and the whole machine began drifting into a higher gravity situation. By the time it weighed the equivalent of a refrigerator the s-class robots found that their limbs were being taxed to their limit. Stress gauges built into them prevented the accidental breakage of either themselves, or whatever they were handling. This time it was a large re-entry vehicle that was gaining weight on a logarithmic scale.

Ash and Hoshi were holding on as best they could, but the object was slipping away. For a time, they thought they could hold it, but as they attempted to pull it back, it continued to move away, gaining in weight as it drifted. They were relying on their tethers now, having lost touch with the structure of the ship.

Inside the Phoenix, Mark took the other communications seat next to Jake. He immediately changed frequency and began communicating with Houston on that, instead of Houston interrupting the delicate mission that was unfolding in outer space.

'This thing is going to take us out into space.' Hoshi said as she gripped on to a handle, knowing that this handle was stronger than her tether hooks.

'At least we will have somewhere to stay!' Ash quipped.

Just then there was a distinct thud that ran through the structure they were holding on to. Ash managed to squirm round enough to see a big silver ball with gigantically long arms reaching from the rear of the ship to the re-entry vehicle they were holding on to. The robot Silver had managed to get a hold on to the miscreant machine.

The two astronauts clung on to their grips, and then a much less dramatic pulse ran through the vehicle as the S-classes had to release because their strain gauges told them to. Silver was at full stretch, he couldn't hold from that distance. The vehicle now had an equivalent weight of a small car. The tethers were at their full length; Hoshi knew what was happening, so she let go before her tether gave way. Then Ash was heard to say,

'Shit.'

And everyone knew what had happened.

The vehicle was now accelerating away, thrown out by centrifugal force with a hapless astronaut clinging on to a handle near the base. The only saving grace was that the whole assemblage of man and machine was again weightless.

Hoshi radioed to Ash,

'Ash, get into the capsule. There is a hatch on the side you are on.'

The capsule was now spinning slowly, allowing Ash to be in sunlight for enough time for him to see the path of handles that would take him to the hatch.

'But be careful, remember you are not tethered.' Hoshi reminded him.

'Roger that.'

The struggling astronaut and white pyramid got gradually smaller as they drifted away from the 'Phoenix'.

Hoshi called again,

'When you get to the hatch, remember to hold on to the structure as well as the hatch; you may have to give it a good heave to get it to open, and the force of this can throw you further out into space. We don't want to have to chase you out there.'

Ash replied,

'Ok, Hoshi. Look, I'm getting low on oxygen. We left at the same time, so you must be getting low, too. You had better get inside too.'

'Not until you are safe.' Hoshi looked around. She was as far away from the hatch as it was possible to be, and the light was sweeping around her position in such a way to make movement dangerous.

Jake came on the line then,

'Hoshi, this is Jake. How long have you got?'

Hoshi used her arm-mounted mirror to see the oxygen contents gauge.

'It is in the red, but my usage is minimal. I think I have time to see this through.'

Ash reached the hatch on the re-entry capsule,

'Ok, I'm here by the hatch now. Standard handle and opening is it?'

Hoshi answered first,

'I don't know. I never had need to find out.'

Then the booming, monotone, reassuring tones of Gerald came over the radio,

'Yes. We made it just the same as your hatches on the Orion. But that one has been exposed to extreme temperatures. It should work cleanly but be prepared for it to be stiff.'

Ash took a firm hold on the hatch and the structure alongside it. He heaved at the wheel in the centre of the hatch.

'I can feel the mechanism working.' He said,

'Locked back. Moving to the handle now.' He tightened his grip on the structure as he turned the handle to open the door. Nothing happened.

'Gonna need a bit of persuasion here.' He said.

As he pulled hard on the handle, he knew to push down on the structure to counter the force that could throw him out into space.

The door flew open. At the same time he heard an alarm. He at first thought that he had set off an alarm in the capsule, then he realised that it was his own oxygen level alarm. Jake got the alert at the same time.

'Ash, you ok?'

As he pushed himself into the capsule Ash replied,

'Yes. I'm inside, closing the hatch now.'

Gerald then said,

'Ash, if you spin the wheel to seal the hatch, you will see the usual pressurisation button to one side. Press that and the capsule will pressurise within ten seconds. Then you can take your helmet off and have a good supply of oxygen.'

'Great. Then I only have the problem of getting back.'

'That is not a problem. The capsule is equipped with Hydrogen-powered reaction rockets, and a powerful retarding engine that is intended to slow it from orbit. But in this case, I think the reaction rockets are all we need to get it back here, then it can dock with the common berthing mechanism for the transfer of Mr Singleton.'

Ash was the first to respond to this plan,

'That sounds like a good plan, but in order to use the berthing hatch you will have to depressurise part of the ship. Is that a good idea?' then he felt the reaction jets fire as they begin to take command of the capsule and return it to the mother ship.

Jake said,

'Ok. Will you be able to transfer from the capsule in space?'

Gerald spoke,

'Mr Ashton can replenish his oxygen supply whilst in transit if required.'

'Sounds like a good idea to me.' Said Ash,

'Just get me within jumping distance.'

The escaped capsule returned to the 'Phoenix' with commendable smoothness and control.

When it was stored on the rear of the 'Phoenix' it was time for the humans to return back to the inside of the spaceship.

As they approached the air lock another spaceman emerged. Ash immediately recognised this as a cosmonaut by the different spacesuit he wore. Ash presumed it to be a man, but didn't know why – it could be Galina, but no matter, he would soon find out as he called,

'Hello, looks as if we have company.'

Hoshi followed the pointing arm towards the astronaut who was struggling to work out the best way to close the airlock and keep his balance in the 0.5 gravity that existed at the position of the airlock.

When an astronaut says something, like Ash had just done, it is broadcast to everyone on the ship; the signal is then boosted and sent off to Earth. The Russian did not respond. Neither did Houston.

Jake Jensen was manning the communications post in the first room above the Orion re-entry module on the Blue Sarsen. This small room, at eleven feet wide had only room for two seats with all the equipment installed, plus the entrance hole in the middle of the floor, and the exit that was placed on the right side with a ladder running up the wall. All movement between rooms was by way of ladders. These are much harder work than stairs, for which there was no room anyway, but the astronauts liked the extra workload of climbing – even though the gravity gets weaker as you go up.

'Say again, Ash.'

'Hi, who is that over by the airlock?' Ash asked as he and Hoshi stopped. They were now in a very comfortable area of minimal gravity; just enough to give you a gentle push in one direction, but you still felt as if you were weightless. Because of this situation they were positioned with their feet facing towards the airlock. This made it difficult to watch the Russian man or woman.

.....................
Chapter Five

EVIDENCE

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Michele Romero continued to dig down in her investigations.

Doctor Chris Rigbye was working in her laboratory in building H2/45 when Michelle entered.

'Good Afternoon Doctor Rigbye, my name is Michelle Romero. I have here a piece of spaceship I would like you to have a look at.'

She gently withdrew the anchor point from the box. Chris Rigbye took it carefully in her hand and examined its parts. There were three main components, one of them broken.

'Do you have the attachment bolts, Michelle?'

'Only six of them, the other four have not made it back, if they were recovered in the first place.' Michelle handed them to the Doctor.

She examined these in turn, scrutinising the threads on each side. Then she put them under a magnifying light to better see the heads. She took up the anchor point. This was distorted quite a bit. Doctor Rigbye moved it around in her hand before putting it under the lamp for further examination, paying particular attention to the holes where the fixing bolts had been.

'From what I can see after this cursory examination there was no way this could have withstood the strain that was put on it, even though that would not have been excessive.'

'I think Mary-Jo would confirm that, Chris.'

Chris placed the anchor point back under the light, and pointed at holes at either end,

'When something is wrenched, like this was, it takes damage where the drama occurs. See these marks around the bolt holes? That is where the fixture was wrenched out. But then look at the other end, and you will see that the holes there are clean and undamaged. That is because the bolts were not present when the piece was put under pressure.'

Michelle looked shocked.

'You mean it was interfered with? Could this be put down to were and tear?'

'Only if four essential bolts can come adrift. I see you have the torque settings.'

'Yes, it was part of the new space craft, so as such it did not come from the old ISS. This means that the robots put it in place,' she consulted the readout,

'Two years ago.'

Chris looked at the data. As she scrutinised the figures her eyes widened.

'Jesus, they record everything, don't they? If we put a screw into a light fitting, we tighten it, and that's it. With these guys they register the exact workload applied to tighten every single fastener. This is incredible. Here it is. All of the bolts were tightened to the same torque rating, the bolts were made to NASA specs, so there is no way four of them could have come loose. Not without the other six showing signs along the same lines. These four bolts were crucial to the integrity of the structure; someone knew that and deliberately undid them.'

'You sound very certain about that, Chris.' Michelle had lost colour in her face.

'Yes. With this kind of information there is no room for doubt. This was deliberate sabotage.'

She handed the parts back to Michelle, who placed them back in their box. She thanked the Doctor, then turned to leave. As she reached the door she turned back and asked again,

'You're sure about this, aren't you?'

Doctor Rigbye smiled reassuringly and replied,

'I'm afraid so, Michelle. I would go into a court of law at say so. Metal cannot lie.'

Michelle returned to her car, placed the box in the passenger seat well, and just sat wondering what to do next.

She picked up her tablet computer and tapped it a few times, taking more time than usual on each decision. Presently she came upon Mary-Jo Shelby's home number.

Mary-Jo was still wearing compression bandages on her arms when she opened the door to Michelle Romero.

'I hope I'm not intruding on your private time.' Michelle began.

'Not at all. We all work for the same firm; I presume this is something to do with my accident?'

'Well, yes, it is, Mary-Jo. May we go sit outside for a minute?'

'Sure. Would you like a cold drink Michelle?'

'No, thank you. I feel that I am imposing upon your good nature enough.'

They moved through the spacious house to the patio out back, by the pool. They took up places either side of a garden table. Mary-Jo had a half-finished drink. She had obviously been reading a paperback book when Michelle arrived.

'I am sorry to disturb you.' She pointed at the book,

'It is most unusual to see anyone reading a hard copy book these days.' She looked at the title and thought it apt in some way.

'The Mandalay Conspiracy. You like conspiracies?'

'I like the way they make you think differently about something, but the devil is in the detail.'

'Mary-Jo, I have been making some enquiries about your 'accident'. What I have found adds up to some sort of conspiracy.'

'I am intrigued. Pray continue.'

'This could take some time, and may change the way you see some important things in your life. Once again, I'm sorry to intrude on your private time, but things have happened that seem to be connected.'

'I don't mind the interruption, and if something is wrong we need to sort it as soon as possible.'

'You are very perceptive, and correct.' Michelle wondered just where to start, how much did Mary-Jo know? She decided not to pry and ask questions, the woman had been through enough, and was trying to recover from her ordeal. Michelle felt she was intruding, and in a way she was – this was not official NASA business.

'I don't know how much you know, so I will begin at the beginning and then bring you up to date about what I have found out. You will be surprised, and maybe shocked at times, but everything I am about to tell you is true.'

Mary-Jo took a drink and sat back. She found it difficult to fold her arms because of the compression bandages, but sat easily as Michelle began,

'You will remember the unfortunate John Garbou incident where he drowned in the pool before ever getting into space?'

Mary-Jo nodded and replied,

'Yes, a fault in the space suit wasn't it?'

'That was what we thought at the time. But a man from Life Support, Orson LaToya, thought there may be something in it, so he looked deeper. You remember Jem Stringer?'

'Yes, Banjo to his friends as I recall.'

'He and Orson took it upon themselves to look further into this but found that their suspicions could not be substantiated. But when you had your incident they wanted to know more immediately. They had your reaction jets tested and x-rayed by a micro-scan machine. I saw a print-out of that scan, but don't tell anyone that I know. The other people, Jem and Orson, were killed in a plane wreck the day after, and all the relevant evidence was lost in the same crash. The radiographer has been shipped to the Philippines.'

Michelle took out a white plastic box,

'But now I have the anchor point that gave way when you were cast out from the ship in the first place. The robots sent it without notifying NASA, I don't think anyone else on Earth knows about it. I have just been to the metals lab, and the scientist there told me that there has been sabotage without a shadow of doubt.'

'Shit.' This was not the kind of reaction either of the women was expecting.

'Mary-Jo, have you any idea who may have had access to the area that your anchor point was situated before you went out?'

'No. We were the first out. I remember because we had to get back in again pretty quick when we saw something Ash didn't recognise. Turned out to be a new robot that the robots on board had built and didn't bother telling anyone about. Frightened the living daylights out of us. We thought we had found Martians before even setting off!'

'So none of your crew could have accessed the point?'

'Definitely not.'

'What about the crew before?'

'Ash did mention something about one of them taking longer than expected working on the High Gain Antenna.'

'Where was your anchor point? The one that gave way?'

'Behind the High Gain Antenna.'

'And the astronaut who was working there for longer than expected?'

'It wasn't an astronaut, it was a cosmonaut, Dmitri I believe it was.'

'And did Dmitri have free access to your spacesuit?'

'Of course, we all did.'

'It may surprise you to know that a Russian cosmonaut was seen leaving the Life Support bay all that time ago, when John Garbou's suit was still in storage.'

Mary-Jo suddenly thought about the people up there on the 'Phoenix' right now,

'How can we be sure that everything else is safe? He may have done all sorts of damage and left it for someone else to find on the way to Mars.'

Michelle looked into Mary-Jo's eyes as she said,

'I somehow don't think he has done anything to threaten the mission.'

'How can you be sure of that?' Mary-Jo looked at her conspiracy book.

Michelle looked calm and confident of her answer, but deeply worried too,

'I can be sure he has not done anything to threaten the mission because he is already on it.'

'Michelle! You must warn the people up there, and quickly. But how can you, when every communication will be heard by the Russian?'

'Luckily I have a way, but it puts them in a real predicament – they are on their way to Mars.'

...............

Three spacemen were now outside the interplanetary space craft 'Phoenix'.

'It's the freakiest thing,' Ash said to Hoshi Masuto over the radio that could be heard all over Earth as well as by everyone on the interplanetary craft 'Phoenix',

'But it looks as if he has a gun.'

'Don't be silly, Ash. Who would have a gun in space? And what good would it do anyway? For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That is truer in space where there is no air resistance or gravity.'

'But that is correct, Dr Masuto.' The voice of Dmitri Chopov came over the radio waves for the first time.

'I am taking over this mission in the name of Mother Russia, and in support of the people of the Ukraine.'

He approached the returning astronauts, pointing a small handgun at them.

'You will now please go into the vacated bay in the Sarsen Two.'

He indicated the square gaping hole from where one of the two Mars re-entry capsules had emerged.

Inside the Phoenix Galina turned to Jake Jensen. They just stared at each other in silence.

Their reverie was broken by a disembodied voice from Houston,

'Hey, guys. What's going on up there?' Tom Collins asked.

Jake turned back to the consul that faced him,

'Hello Houston, we have a situation developing here. I think someone has smuggled a gun on board.'

'Oh, yeah. Have you got John Wayne up there Jake?'

'No, Tom. This is serious. One of the Russians, Dmitri Chopov, has got a gun. He is outside at the moment, so are Ash and Hoshi. They were on their way back in, and I think that Hoshi is down on oxygen.'

'How much oxygen does Ash have? He has been out for as long as Hoshi.'

'I don't know that, Tom. He probably replenished during the time he was in the capsule.'

Then Gerald came on line,

'Mister Ashton has sufficient oxygen for five and a half-hours, sir. Doctor Masuto, on the other hand, has less than four minutes; her alarm should sound at any moment.'

Tom Collins on Earth then asked,

'Are we on a secure line?' this means can they be heard all over Earth, and by the other astronauts.

Gerald gave the answer,

'Yes; only Houston, Mister Ashton and Doctor Masuto are on this line. And there is no time delay because we are filtering it through our new laser-based system.'

Ash and Hoshi were facing a gunman in outer space travelling at 30,000 mph, when Hoshi's low oxygen warning went off.

Ash looked at his comrade, then at Dmitri,

'She needs oxygen. We must go back into the ship.'

'You must go into the Sarsen. Now, or I will shoot.'

'Don't be a fool. You don't know what will happen if you fire that thing. You don't even know if it will work. Don't explosives need oxygen to work?' Ash protested.

'We have been working on this in secret for some time. I know exactly what will happen. You do not. Therefore, you will die.' Dmitri looked as if he was taking aim.

Hoshi's oxygen alarm kept buzzing intermittently as she said,

'He's right. We must follow the instructions.'

Neither Ash, nor Dmitri knew that Hoshi had already been told of plans to get more oxygen to her. Stuart and Skittles were now moving to put replenishment tanks in the Sarsen cargo bay. When they finish Skittles will lurk behind the ship, out of sight, ready to free Ash and Hoshi.

The big doors were still open as they drifted towards the Sarsen, then Stuart appeared with the oxygen tanks. Dmitri was not expecting to see a man without spacesuit on the rim of the opening.

Stuart's voice came over the radio,

'This is oxygen for Dr Masuto.'

Dmitri could see his mouth move as he said the words, but with no microphone, or helmet. It was as if he were holding a normal conversation out in space.

Jake and Galina aboard the Phoenix were able to speak to each other without anyone else hearing them, but otherwise all communications could be heard as far away as Earth.

'Now what do we do?' Jake asked Galina,

'Well, one thing is certain, we can't get any help from Houston. This situation has not even been considered. Anyway, he can hear everything we get from Earth.'

Satisfied that Hoshi and Ash were now entering the White Sarsen, Dmitri made his way towards the Quest air lock. He turned to see the cam-shell doors begin to close on the two astronauts. Stuart went to the rear of the ship as Dmitri took hold of the hatch unlocking wheel. He let the gun drift on the end of a short tether as he opened the air lock and entered it.

Stuart was able to prevent the Sarsen doors closing.

.....................
Chapter Six

SHOTS FIRED

Hoshi looked at the gunman as he tried to get into the airlock. The alarm kept on sounding in her head as she descended into the vast opening with Ash alongside. They found the oxygen supply left by Stuart, but the connections could not be made in space; Hoshi's suit would decompress as her own connections were released. This would cause her to boil away in less than a second. The lack of air pressure would cause the water contained in her body to boil at a much lower temperature than when it was under normal atmospheric pressure; its boiling point would be lower than body temperature.

'We still have a problem. The suit cannot be decompressed in space, so we cannot replenish Hoshi's supply here.' Ash reported.

'You two began together, how come you have plenty, whilst Hoshi is low?' Mark asked.

'I had to get into the capsule we were hauling. It pressurised, and I was able to replenish in there on the way back.'

'Is that something that Hoshi could do?'

Hoshi replied with the sound of her alarm ringing in the background,

'I could if I could get to the capsule.'

Just as he said that she was hit by a beam of light as the ship turned to bring their compartment to face the sun. At the same moment Skittles appeared at the bay door.

'My readings are almost zero, I don't think I can make it.' Hoshi said.

'Yes you can.' Ash faced her, helmet to helmet as the light streaked in,

'Take it slowly. Don't take fast breaths. Breathe in for five seconds, hold it for five, and then exhale for five. That gives your scrubbers chance to work.'

'I see, like in yoga?'

'That is exactly what we want. You relax and conserve oxygen requirements, I will move you to save effort on your part.'

Ash then grabbed the back of Hoshi's suit and sprung up to the open bay. As they reached the lip of the compartment, Ash's free hand stopped their fairly fast rise towards the stars by grabbing hold of the edge. They continued to move around the pivot formed by his anchored hand.

Then he saw what he was looking for. But he could only move using one hand. This is not quite as simple as hopping on Earth, but has similar problems, the main problem here being having to let go of the structure, therefore risking going drifting into space. When Ash's hand lets go to move to another hold they are free floating in space. When he reached the next holding place, his hand may only be millimetres away, but if he can't actually grab on to something solid, they are stranded – with Hoshi running out of oxygen.

Looking towards the air lock he saw that the Russian was now inside it.

'Ok. We are out of the bay now. Hoshi, you asleep yet?'

'I nearly was.'

'Good, continue breathing steadily, there will always be air inside your suit. The scrubbers will keep the CO2 down, and we should make it. Do not respond, partly to preserve oxygen, partly to stop me hearing that blasted alarm.'

He moved carefully along the edge of the bay towards the rear of the ship. Then he came to the end of the forward cargo compartment, where the Red Sarsen stretched out. The re-entry capsule they were aiming at was positioned along this Sarsen.. There is a serious gap where there are no handholds.

'No problem.' He thought to himself. With a good heave he pulled Hoshi across the void to contact hard with the opposite end. Ash looked at the stars slowly turning above him. This may have upset his equilibrium, as he made a lunge for the next handhold he misjudged slightly, just enough for him to touch the rail he was aiming for but failing to get a grip on it. They were now drifting towards their intended target, but not quickly enough, and with no control over their direction.

As Ash looked around for a possible solution he suddenly felt a gentle thump on his legs. Stuart saw what was happening; he had opened the door to the capsule, then come to aid Ash and Hoshi. They stuffed Hoshi into the capsule, then Stuart advised Ash that he could help Hoshi better inside by helping her replenish, so Ash quickly got into the capsule.

As the door closed behind him, Ash looked around him to find the repressurisation controls when Hoshi shook her head,

'No need. Stuart has already set it to automatic.'

Just then the air began hissing into the capsule. The astronauts could not hear this but felt the change in pressure on their suits, and saw wisps of condensation move across the pyramid shaped enclosure they were in.

Hoshi nodded off to sleep as Ash watched the air pressure rise. When it reached ten pounds per square inch he thought it high enough. He nudged Hoshi, but there was no reaction. Squirming round in the close confines of their capsule Ash removed Hoshi's helmet. As he turned the helmet to release the bayonet fastening he saw a thin line of mist enter the helmet, then the visor misted up, preventing him from seeing the Japanese scientist's face. As the helmet was lifted over Hoshi's mop of thick grey hair her head lolled to one side. Her eyes were closed, and her countenance completely relaxed. Never tanned, she looked even paler in the module's harsh lighting.

Ash shook his fellow astronaut gently, then placed a space-suited gloved hand up to her cheek and moved Hoshi's head to a more upright position.

'Shit, she's not breathing.' Ash said.

With his own helmet still in place mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was not possible, so Ash placed one hand behind Hoshi's back, and the other one he gently pushed her front, forcing her lungs to empty, then fill. After two or three cycles of this Hoshi coughed back to life.

Inside the 'Phoenix' Galina and Jake decided that they had better get further away from the Quest airlock.

'What about the Orion?' asked Jake.

Beneath their feet was the Orion module, Jake and Galina could remove to the more remote position to get a little further away from the problem.

'I can't see how moving away from the situation can help.' Galina replied.

'What options do we have?' Jake was stuck for solutions.

'Houston to Dmitri Chopov. Are you listening Dmitri?' Tom Collins came over the net.

'Yes, Houston I am listening.'

'A lot of people have invested a lot of time and money into getting this mission under way – especially your people in Russia. Don't do anything to put this all at risk.'

'You are wrong there, Mister Collins. They are not my people. My people, as you call them, are the people of Eastern Ukraine who have been deprived of their island Crimea.'

'So you have a beef with Russia? Is that it, Dmitri? You will put at risk a massive multi-national mission just to get back at Russia?'

'I will not be putting any mission at risk, Mr Collins. Have you not been listening? I am taking over this mission, not putting it at risk.'

Then Professor Xanthros burst into Mission Control.

'Ok Tom, I'll take over from here.' He said to Tom Collins.

Tom looked across to the Controller, who outranked him.

'Sir, I know these men.'

'So do I, Tom. So do I. It's ok. This can be resolved. It will be.' The Controller took the mike,

'Houston to Phoenix. Mission Director Mike Xanthros here. What's the situation now?'

Jake replied,

'Hi, Professor. This is Jake Jensen. From what I can make out Dmitri Chopov has smuggled a gun aboard. He has prevented Ash and Hoshi from re-entering the ship. Galina and I are in the Blue Sarsen, I think Mark has moved towards us, but I don't know if he is involved.'

Dmitri then came on the net,

'The airlock will not pressurise. What have you done?'

'Pressurise this air lock now.' Dmitri sounded annoyed.

Gerald made his way through the ship to the Cupola where Jake and Galina watched things unfold.

He said,

'We have disabled all hatches and prevented the airlock from pressurising.'

Galina called to Dmitri,

'Hold it Dmitri. We seem to have a malfunction. The system is recycling itself now.'

Mike Xanthros spoke directly to Dmitri over the net,

'Dmitri, what do you want? What is the purpose of your action?'

'My demands are simple. I am not threatening this mission, quite the opposite. I fully intend to be the first man on Mars, or no-one will be.'

'Why are you doing this?' Mike Xanthros kept his calm,

'I am doing this in the name of the people of the Ukraine, and especially those who lost their country when the Russians invaded the Crimea. Now repressurise this air lock, or I will take drastic action.'

Jake said to everyone on the communications net,

'There is nothing we can do. The machine is resetting itself. It knows there is no risk to human life, so it will be very thorough.' He was playing for time.

Stuart said to Hoshi, so that no one else could hear,

'We have depressurised the Orion capsule on the Blue Sarsen to allow you to re-join your comrades.' This was below where Jake and Galina were sitting.

Ash turned to Hoshi. They both had their helmets off now, so conversation could be conducted in confidence. Hoshi turned her suit mike off as he said to Ash,

'We can now get back into the Blue Sarsen via the Orion capsule.'

'Great, let's get suited up.' With that they put their helmets on again and prepared to leave the Mars re-entry vehicle.

Ash then had an idea,

'What if we came back into the Phoenix via the Red Sarsen, at the other end?'

Hoshi asked if that were possible. Stuart agreed,

'Yes, but it will take a few minutes.'

'I think the advantages given by a pincer movement like that is worth the longer time it will take.' Ash confided in Hoshi, who passed the message on to Stuart.

As Hoshi stopped putting her helmet back on, Ash got the message that they would not be leaving just yet. Hoshi nodded to Ash.

'Houston to Phoenix. Dmitri, we have no problem allowing you to be the first man to set foot on Mars, there was always a five-to-one chance that it would be you, anyway.' Xanthros said, playing for time.

'Now let me out of this air lock before I am forced to do something about it.'

Jake then came on the net,

'If you fire that firearm, you will probably cause the whole ship to disintegrate. The effects of a bullet going through the thin wall of this pressurised vessel will be devastating, for all of us, including you.'

'You don't realise that we have been experimenting with this weapon for some time now. It is designed to fire in the vacuum of space, will penetrate human flesh, but not the metal of a pressurised vehicle. The bullet is not metal, but a heavy plastic, and is designed to tumble after being fired. There has been considerable work done by your people investigating such problems on board highflying airliners. We simply adapted your results, and made it fire in space. If you wish for a demonstration, I suggest that you keep trying my patience.'

Xanthros then said,

'We can resolve this, Dmitri. There is no need to threaten your fellow astronauts.'

Then there was a massive bang and loud hissing noise. The room in which Galina stood turned into white mist.

Galina turned to Jake,

'Can the structure stand the trauma of having a hole blown in it?'

'We just don't know, Galina, it has never happened before.'

Gerald took his leave in haste. Quickly he made his way to the opposite end of the ship.

By the time he arrived at the Orion module at the end of the Red Sarsen it had been decompressed ready for Ash and Hoshi.

Once inside the Interplanetary craft Gerald checked over the two astronauts.

Hoshi was no worse for her ordeal but elected to take herself to sick bay to administer a self-diagnosing procedure.

Gerald and Ash sat down, then Ash got the shock of his life.

Gerald began talking, but it was not his voice that came out, it was Michelle Romero's voice that was talking to Ash,

'Ash. Is that really you?'

'Yes, is that really you? How is this happening?'

'Gerald gave me his cell phone number, so I rang him.'

'Don't be silly. We are travelling at 30,000 miles per hour, somewhere so far from Earth that I don't know how far away we are. Gee, it's great to hear your voice again.'

'Yes, same here, too. We didn't even get to say goodbye properly.'

'So what else did you ring me here for? I have told you before not to ring me at work.'

This was strange, talking to Gerald, who was now a very familiar part of the mission, as if it were Michelle – and to hear her voice coming out of Gerald's mouth. Ash decided to close his eyes as Michelle said,

'There is a good chance that my information may have been overtaken by events up there, but here goes anyway. I had Mary-Jo's tether and anchor point analysed, they had been tampered with, no doubt about it. Then I went and spoke to Mary-Jo. She doesn't know how her thrusters came to be inoperative, but if it was sabotage, it could have been anyone on board. And it turns out that Jem Stringer and Orson LaToya found that John Garbou's suit was probably tampered with, too. But the evidence for that disappeared, then the evidence for what may have caused Mary-Jo's incident also went west in the plane wreck that killed the only witnesses to both events. Even the guy who did the micro-wave scan on the suit parts has been shipped overseas. I tried to find him, but his records have been placed on a higher security setting. Anyway, the main thrust of all this is that Dmitri Chopov has had a hand in just about everything that has gone wrong. Now he is up there with you.'

'So what you are telling me is that there is something strange going on, and you are the only one who knows?'

'It would appear so, Ash.'

.....................
Chapter Seven

QUEST

As the drama unfolded in interplanetary space, Michelle Romero left the offices of Dr Chris Rigbye at Houston.

'Could there be life on Mars?' Michelle wondered as she walked out of the clean, cool air-conditioned office block, the afternoon heat hit her like walking into a hot oven. Looking at the hot tarmac of the parking lot that bounced back even more heat she couldn't help but ponder,

'If life can survive these conditions, there must be a chance.'

She did not feel safe calling the robots on board the Phoenix from within NASA's offices; so she had decided to drive out to make the call.

As promised, Gerald answered the call made from her cell phone.

'I'm sorry, Ms Romero, I cannot contact Mr Ashton at the moment, the ship is in lockdown, all the airtight hatches are locked shut for our security. I cannot move to converse with him, if that is what you require.'

'Is there something wrong, Gerald?'

'I do not know yet, Ms Romero. One of the astronauts has brought a firearm with him. This is causing a few problems.'

'I'll bet it is! And I bet I know which member of the crew it is who is causing the problems.'

'How would you know that, Ms Romero?'

'Because Dmitri Chopov has had his hand in at least two mishaps in the program. He was seen leaving the Life Support Bay where John Garbou's space suit was kept. After his unfortunate incident, it was found that his suit had been interfered with, but no one could prove anything because the evidence disappeared. Then there was Mary-Jo's problem, or should I say series of problems. The anchor point that she was connected to the ship with had been tampered with and guess who had the opportunity and time to do that.'

'I think you are inferring that Mr Chopov may have had some input to this unfortunate incident.'

'That and the fact that her thrusters malfunctioned so badly. But the only people who had access to the evidence of this have now gone from the scene, so the connection can only be described as tenuous. But he certainly had some serious questions to answer.'

'It would appear that we have a dangerous person here.'

'What has he done now?' Michelle was getting worried.

'It would appear that Mr Chopov is attempting to high-jack the ship.'

'Oh, that's great! Is he going to fly it to Cuba? What can he hope to gain from that?'

It was then that a loud explosion went through the ship, followed by the sounds of decompression. This is bad enough in a high-flying airliner, but on a space ship travelling at speed in the region of 30,000 miles per hour, that is 500 miles every minute, with no opportunity to lose altitude and regain external pressure, that is disastrous.

Gerald continued his conversion with Michelle,

'From the readings I have, it appears that he has caused a leak to emanate within the airlock. Mr Chopov was on his way to entering the ship, when we instigated a complete lockdown for the safety of all concerned. Now it would appear that he has found a way to repressurise the air lock. I will have to go in.'

Whilst Gerald was communicating with Michelle, he was not talking. The voice she heard emanated from within the human shaped robot, but there was no need to fabricate actual speech.

Dmitri had, indeed shot a hole in the side of the Quest airlock, near the door that led back into the ship. The small plastic .22 bullet had just penetrated the side of the structure enough to cause air to rush into the small compartment that held the Russian. There was slight gravity within the air lock, being positioned quite close to the White Sarsen in the centre of the ship - not enough to prevent Dmitri from being thrown against the rear wall as he fired the gun. With no air, and very little gravity there was nothing to prevent the opposite and equal reaction of the recoil of the gun from throwing the cosmonaut about, with the effect of a jet of air rushing through the hole created adding to the force moving Dmitri backwards. The three androids knew instantly what was happening, so decided to act. As the hapless Russian went from being in control, gently floating in 0.3% gravity, to being thrown against the hard brackets and structure of the inside of the airlock, the robots released the lock. Gerald leapt forwards and grabbed the release wheel and handle. A man normally takes from four point five seconds to as many as seven seconds to open the hatch by winding the wheel, and turning the handle, then pulling the door open. If there is any pressure difference between the two areas, a small bleed hatch must be opened also. Gerald spun he wheel, pulled the handle, and opened the bleed hatch in less than zero point four seconds. The air inside had not had chance to equalise, nowhere near, so Gerald had to pull with quite a lot of power to force the hatch open. The pressure difference was so great that the cosmonaut was thrust onto the far wall. Bright white mist swirled all around the room. Galina grabbed on to a rail, while Gerald simply let go of the hatch and allowed himself to be thrown into the airlock by the onrush of air. He collided with Dmitri full on, there could be no other outcome, due to there being so little room in the air lock.

The android Gerald Stevenson, like all of the space androids, weighed quite a lot more than the people they were meant to duplicate – in fact they weighed about the same as if they were made of solid metal; about 530 pounds. In the weightlessness of space this mattered little, but in the confines of an air lock with a man already in there it mattered greatly. Especially to Dmitri Chopov, he was hit hard by Gerald, who still had sufficient control to take hold of the wrist of Dmitri's gun hand. The robot then squeezed until the whole hand fell off, slowly drifting in the almost weightless conditions, pushed by a straight line of blood that spurted from the fully pressurised space suit. Then its erstwhile owner was slammed against the ribbing structure that formed the rear of the air lock. He was pushed by a 530-pound robot who cannot feel pain, nor does he break easily. Dmitri did. His head was more or less saved by his helmet, but the inside of that turned bright red as his internal organs were squashed to about an inch thick. The right arm, with no hand at the end, fired even more blood and fluids out. The raised ribbing on the airlock wall was flattened, but not before cutting a criss-cross pattern into Dmitri's back.

The other androids, Steve and Stuart, working through Silver, cancelled the lockdown, and allowed doors and hatches to be freed.

Gerald did not forget Michelle, who was still on the line. He knew exactly what he was doing, and what would happen. In the one point four seconds that it took Gerald to subdue Dmitri, he did not say anything. But resumed the conversation as calm as you like afterwards,

'I think we may be able to speak with Mister Ashton in a few moments, Ms Romero, if you can hold on for a little while longer.'

'Yes, I'm ok with that, it's not as if this is long distance is it?'

'You are on the new Trans-galactic tariff, are you not?'

'Sure sounds like it.'

Ash and Hoshi were still in the Mars re-entry vehicle. Ash did not know it, but Hoshi Masuto was in communications with the robot's radio web. This did not include Gerald's conversations with Michelle, but it included information on the salient readings concerning the unfolding events.

The Japanese scientist turned to Ash. They had both taken off their helmets to benefit from the pressurised atmosphere in the capsule,

'I think we can go back in now.' she said as she reached for her helmet.

'You know more than I do, don't you?' Ash commented.

'Yes, probably. I have limited monitoring of the robots' communications. It now looks as if they have resolved the situation.'

Stuart then talked directly to Hoshi,

'The Quest airlock is temporally out of commission, we need to clean something up in there. I have depressurised the Orion Command Module at the end of Red Sarsen for you to enter the ship.'

'Ok. Ash, we have to enter via the Orion on Red Sarsen. It is being used as an air lock for the time being.'

'Ok, Hoshi, let's go.'

The two astronauts left the Martian re-entry vehicle to begin their space walk towards the front of the Phoenix. Stuart assisted them as they floated above Sarsen Two, they met with the Graphene lines that led them to the turning Red Sarsen with the Orion capsule at the end. Skittles has already opened the hatch for them, and the artificial gravity was now beginning to pull them towards it. Ash led the way, they were tethered together for safety, that allowed them to move more quickly, because tethering and holding on to the ship was not as essential, knowing that your partner was securing the position.

When they arrived, they were surprised to find Gerald sat in the depressurised capsule, in tee shirt and jeans. The two astronauts were by now under full artificial gravity, so they climbed into the capsule just like they did on Earth. In full launch or re-entry mode these capsules can seat four. Now that this one had been fitted out for the journey to Mars there was more room, so the three of them sat in the plush armchairs whilst the pressure built up, allowing them to remove their helmets and move into the main ship.

As they began the climb up the steps to the Columbus section that used to be a large lab on the ISS, Gerald said to Ash,

'I have someone here who would like to speak to you.'

Ash looked around, then at the disappearing feet of Hoshi, to whom he called,

'I'll be along in a minute, Gerald wants to talk with me.'

'Ok, I'll get the coffee on.' Hoshi called as she closed the hatchway for safety reasons.

Gerald began speaking, but it was Michelle's voice that came out,

'What happened up there?'

'You are right to suspect Dmitri, He brought a firearm up here. One that had been developed especially for this one mission – so he must have had help.'

'You make it sound as if it was all in the past. What has happened?'

'I don't know yet, I have been outside with Hoshi, there seems to have been a development, because we came back via one of the Orion capsules. But you have to be very careful. If anyone else finds out that you know, you may be in danger.'

'ME IN DANGER? You are the one in outer space with a crazed gunman who has probably killed to get to his position. You are in grave danger up there. I want you to get on the next bus back here and come on home at once.'

'Can't do that, Ma'am. I haven't eaten the sandwiches you packed for me yet.'

'Is there something wrong with them?'

'The edges have not curled up enough yet. I want them to touch at the corners.'

'Ash, you look after yourself, and if you see that Dmitri chap, throw one of the sandwiches at him.'

'Judging from the way Gerald is nodding here I presume that the situation has been resolved. You look after yourself, and don't tell anyone about this conversation, don't even tell them about the way you can have this communication.'

'Ok, Ash, love you. Hurry back. Hey! Bring me some Mars rock.'

'I'll bring one of the sandwiches.'

.....................
Chapter Eight

ONE SHORT

As Gerald left the airlock where he had dealt with Dmitri, he said to Galina,

'We must deal with this hole. Could you please hold this weight against the inside?' he passed a small flat piece of metal to Galina, who placed it on the inside of the small dimple made by the almost pinprick sized hole. He then hit the little mound from the outside with the flat of his hand. Then he glued a rubber patch over the place where a hole had been.

'That ought to hold it.' He said as he brushed red splashes off his left forearm. The red tee shirt hid the other splashes of blood.

'Now I must go and greet Mr Ashton.'

Just then Mark and Jake climbed the steps from the Destiny module.

Jake came out of the floor hatch into an area with slightly less gravity than the area he was leaving. This, coupled with his ebullience, made him pop up like the cork out of a bottle towards Galina,

'What happened here?' Jake asked Galina, who was still shaken by the recent events.

'There was a bang, then a cloud.' She pointed at the patch,

'Then Gerald went into the air lock.'

They then looked at the airlock proper and noticed that it was operating. The depressurisation was almost complete. The three astronauts stood, weighing less than a quarter of their normal weight, with the airlock at 90 degrees to them, they watched as the pressure dial slowly wound itself down.

Galina was first to speak,

'They must be testing the repair to the hole.' She pointed to the little rubber patch,

'Gerald did this before he left to see Ash.'

A very loud alarm then rang out.

Outside of the airlock, Skittles had begun to open the outer hatch before the pressure inside had equalised with the vacuum of space.

As he released the final holding latch he knew to stand back. The hatch flew open with the small amount of air pressure inside. This instantaneous change in pressures caused everything in the air lock that was not fastened down to fly into space, including Dmitri and every drop of liquid, most of which was rendered into its atomic particles in space. The hapless Russian accelerated from being at rest to around 500 mph almost instantly. He carried on at this speed ad infinitum.

Two pieces of equipment that accompanied Dmitri on his last trip were the gun he used and a small, blue hard plastic bullet, it's end had begun to melt into a fine point before being forced out of its hole by air pressure coming from outside.

Jake looked at Galina. She was holding up well, but the whole event had been a shock to her system. He noticed that she had a slight nervousness about her movement.

'Would you like to sit down in Destiny, where the gravity is more acceptable? We can talk this thing over.'

'I would be pleased to get out of this room.' Galina accepted the offer to leave the airlock with some relief. As they began down the ladder, Mark called after them,

'There's more room in the Blue Orion module, it may be a good idea to gather together to discuss what has just happened.'

The Orion module to which Mark referred was the capsule in which the astronauts reached the Phoenix. It had been 'modified'; most of the space-type equipment had been removed and stored elsewhere on the ship. In its place Mark had installed a very comfortable semi-circular settee covering half of the circular wall space. To begin with the area he had to work in was nearly seventeen feet across, with a conical roof that ranged from four feet behind the settee to fourteen feet in the centre, with a flat ceiling only five feet across. Above which was the stowage for the re-entry parachutes, alignment rocket motors and entrance hatch. In the narrowing space nearly half way up, another floor had been installed, creating another room above the main cabin. This allowed the use of an almost luxury curved staircase. Two captain's chairs faced a central consul from which it was possible to run the ship. It had been decided that the capsule would not be used for the Mars landing, so could be adapted for this purpose during the two-year mission. It would also serve as a mother ship in support of the landing parties, in case life on the red planet was too dangerous or untenable.

'That's a good idea, there is room for all of us, and we should have a conference about this affair.' Jake replied, he looked at Galina who seemed to be gathering strength,

'If you feel up to it.' He asked her.

'I'll be ok. After all I didn't have a big involvement in all of this.'

'You were standing in the room outside of the airlock for most of the time; you couldn't have known how it was going to turn out.'

The clattering of shoes on the rungs of the first ladder made further conversation impractical. Mark led the way down to the Destiny module, then on to the top of the Orion capsule. This was a small conical room with one workstation and an entry onto the only normal staircase in the ship. Here Mark paused for Jake to join him. He nodded to Jake as Galina entered the top of the ladder. Her feet had just come to view as Mark quietly said to Jake,

'Do you think she is ok with this? She's been through quite a lot.'

'Oh, yes. She's fine. I think she's glad to be more involved with the rest of us. I don't think she got on too well with Dmitri.'

Jake swung round and began down the stairs as Mark checked some read-outs and switched some things on the work-station.

Galina entered the stairs as Mark swung the seat round, and he joined her,

'It will help to talk this through. We are going to walk on Mars.' He punched the air to encourage her to re-focus on the mission.

Jake called Ash from the captain's chair,

'Jake on the bridge.' He grinned,

'I've always wanted to say that!' he returned to the intercom,

'Ash, we are convening in the Blue Orion to discuss what has just happened, Mark is patching us through to Houston.' He looked around to see that Mark was, indeed activating one of the gigantic curved screens that adorned the walls. As Tom Collins appeared on one side of the screen the other screen blinked on to show a south sea island beach in photo realism.

'Hi, Tom.' Mark greeted his fellow astronaut, 'We are just waiting for Ash and Hoshi to join us. I think Gerald will also be here.'

Mark looked at the south sea screen and said,

'I think we need something a little more settling than that.'

He tapped one screen on the central consul. A series of thumbnail images appeared on the big screen. As he selected one pic after another he asked Galina which one she liked, and thought was most suitable. She hesitated at the image of a gigantic cloud, then Mount Fuji,

'Hoshi would like that one. But it may make her feel homesick. No, try another.' She said.

Various flower close-ups were rejected. Then an image of a field of poppies with some aged fig trees in the background flashed up, quickly followed by some of mountains and lakes.

'Too atmospheric and distracting.' Galina said,

'Go back to the poppies. Yes, that is the one.'

Ash and Hoshi quickly took off their spacesuits in the Columbus module on the advice of Gerald; a little more weight on this side of the ship would help with balance. The android then asked his fellow androids Steve and Stuart to position themselves at the end of the arm they referred to as Red Sarsen, also to help with the balance.

The trio made their way through the ship, first up to the weightless centre, where the White Sarsen crossed their path, giving the only hallway in the whole vessel that had five doors. A careful turn before entering the Blue Sarsen meant that they would gradually feel the artificial gravity gradually pulling at their feet as they descended. Through the Harmony Module they descended the steps, past the airlock, into the Destiny module, then on to the top of Blue Orion, and down the stairs into the Command Module.

'It's on.' The American tortured brow of Professor Mike Xanthros came into view on the right-hand side of the screen on which Tom Collins was on the left.

Ash began the proceedings,

'Ok, I think we are all gathered at last.' He turned to Galina,

'Galina, you were probably the first to find out that things were not all they should be. Would you like to open the report?'

'I don't have that much to report.' She began, not knowing whom to look at,

'I was busy preparing the ORN126 to be moved when Dmitri just said that he was going upstairs, and I should stay where I was.'

Tom Collins on the screen commented,

'He sounds very matter-of-fact about this. Had you any inclination at all about what he was going to do?'

'There was no clue that would give away his intentions. He knew that I was working on something that would take me a few hours, he even locked the top hatch to prevent me getting out. Then I suppose he must have gone to put on his space suit.'

Professor Xanthros then asked,

'Didn't he need your help in getting into his suit?' he knew the American suits needed two or three people to help the astronaut into it.

'No. The latest cosmonaut suit from Russia can be prepped and put on by one person alone. This is a design feature that allows one-man operations.'

Ash pointed at Hoshi,

'That must be about when we became involved. We were out by the main engines after helping with the MRVs, the time was getting on, we had been out for over six hours, and Hoshi was getting low on oxygen. I was ok, because I had been for a ride in one of the vehicles; there I was able to recharge my supply.'

'We had just turned to return when I saw a man, turned out to be Dmitri, exiting the airlock. There had been no notification of this activity, which I found strange. It was then that I noticed that he had a gun, or some other such item, I couldn't believe it at first, and then he confirmed that he had, in fact got a gun.'

Hoshi continued the story,

'We were ordered back into the hold from where the MRVs had come from. My oxygen levels were getting critical; I should have been on my way back in. Skittles got a replenishment kit to me, but we found that it couldn't be used in space. My alarm was sounding by now; Doctor Preston pulled me out of the hold and into one of the MRVs. That is where I got replenished.'

Prof Xanthros then asked,

'We got some radio comms between some of you, but not all of it. There are whole bits missing here and there.'

There was a two-minute delay to his messages, so this was said before the previous statement.

Gerald took this opportunity to add,

'We instigated a complete lockdown as soon as we realised that there was something wrong, by then Dmitri had opened the outer hatch to the airlock. But he couldn't get out or operate the pressurisation systems.' He turned to Galina,

'Ms Danilenko, how did you get out of the Red section? When Dmitri had locked you in?'

'As I was trying to open the locked hatch it unlocked, as I opened it I felt it trying to lock again.'

Gerald seemed to be playing things back in his mind.

'Ah, yes. That was when we were bringing the lockdown in to effect. Your hatch was indicating a problem. The solution was to recycle the command to unlock, then lock again. Just as it recycled, you opened the hatch.'

Jake asked Galina an outright question,

'Did he threaten you? Did you feel coerced or threatened in any way?'

'No, Jake. I had no idea that he was going to do anything so violent.'

Then Prof Xanthros spoke with a question he had asked two minutes earlier,

'How did he get a gun up there? Do we not check on up-bound shipments?'

Ash gave the best reply he could,

'We all have our own responsibilities when it comes to unpacking, it would be easy to send something unauthorised to one or other of the astronauts, but there is the weight consideration. Everything is weighed because what cargo weighs is critical; but there has been so much sent up here that it only a very small percentage of the material has been uploaded.'

Tom Collins on the screen next to Mike Xanthros then asked,

'What happened next?'

Hoshi Masuto then responded,

'I had a communication from the robot net telling me that we should go to the Orion module on the Red Sarsen. No-one else would receive this, because I have been working with the robots, and needed to have this access to their net. I then looked out of the bay we were in, and saw that Dmitri was about to enter the airlock, so would not pose a threat to us. My oxygen was getting very low by now, and Ash suggested that I should relax to preserve as much as possible. It was he who dragged me out of that bay, and down to the Red Sarsen's Orion capsule. One slip from him, and I would have gone; I didn't have enough oxygen to await rescue if I had drifted off.'

Ash continued the story,

'And when we got to the Orion, Skittles I think it was, had opened the capsule. And there was Gerald awaiting us.'

'It was the one you call Silver who actually opened up the capsule. We had already decompressed it, this was easy due to the lockdown.' Gerald explained.

Even though there was a two-minute delay, Tom Collins still had opportunity to ask a timely question,

'What happened to Dmitri?'

Gerald was very matter-of-fact about this as he replied,

'Mr Chopov was still contained within the air lock in his spacesuit at space pressures. He elected to try to shoot his way out. This I considered to be a direct threat to the safety of the ship, so I took action to prevent any more damage. The single shot punctured the inner wall of the airlock, allowing air to be drawn into the space where Mr Chopov resided. I immediately began emergency repressurisation procedures. As the pressure equalised I forced the door open to allow myself to be drawn in to be able to interview Mr Chopov face to face, as it were. As I flew towards him, I noticed that he was still holding the gun; so I had no option but to disarm him by gripping his wrist and incapacitating him. The only sure way I know to prevent an accidental involuntary discharge of the weapon was to remove the hand from the tendons that might have caused a finger to pull the trigger. Point zero eight of a second later we slammed into the far wall of the air lock. Unfortunately, the human frame cannot tolerate this sudden impact, but there was no other way.'

Everyone fell silent in respect for a dead cosmonaut.

Xanthros was the first to break the silence,

'Where is he now? Chopov I mean.'

Galina quietly replied,

'I don't think he is still with us, in any manner.'

Gerald cleared this up,

'According to our best estimates he is now three hundred and eighty-seven miles away from the ship, travelling at 620 miles per hour relative to us. That would be 37,842 miles per hour relative to you.' (He had even taken into consideration the orbital movement of Earth in relation to everything else.)

Mark made a comment that was nearly a question,

'What, with no ceremony or dedication?'

'It's what he had in mind for us.' Galina commented.

Gerald gave a more reasoned rationale,

'There was a very real and immediate threat to the whole mission, and everyone on it. That called for drastic, fast action.'

'Bring them back.' Xanthros called,

'Tom, work out a method that will bring them back here as quickly as possible, with as little strain on the ship as possible. It may have been damaged in ways we do not know about.'

Gerald was still explaining his version of events when this interjection came in,

'That drastic action only ended when the threat was removed from the ship.'

Ash picked up on Xanthros's transmission,

'Negative Mr Controller. I recommend that we continue on our present course until we find out if there's a need to return.'

Gerald gave his support to this,

'I concur, sir. If it's metal, we can mend it. The mission is more important than this incident.'

Tom Collins watched Xanthros's expression upon the receipt of these messages. He heard the reply two minutes before the ship got it,

'Ok. That sounds like a reasonable plan of action go ahead.' Gerald backed the efforts to keep the mission on track.

Tom looked at his boss's expression on the screen as he said the words that authorized the mission to carry on. It was as if he went along with it because the robot said it was ok.

.....................
Chapter Nine

INSIDE THE PHOENIX

Dmitri used low velocity bullets in the smart gun, a weapon designed to damage flesh, not spacecraft bulkheads.

The crew was distributed at their workstations; Ash and Jake, the American contingent, sat in the converted Zvenda module in the Blue Sarsen, this was to be used as the main Bridge. It was close to the communications tower with its dishes. Also close by the Bridge was the observation cupola, the Quest airlock and two of the ship's docking ports. Mark and Galina were working in the Orion module at the other end of the Red Sarsen. They were busy converting the capsule into a more comfortable living space. Cooking in zero gravity had proved to be impossible, now they had artificial gravity, it became possible to cook from their supplies.

It was this supply of fresh food that Hoshi Masuto concerned herself with four days later. She climbed down the ladder from the Bridge in the Blue Orion. As she moved towards the curved stairs she found Jake Jensen at the workstation above the bridge,

'Hi, Jake. Do you have immediate access to the ammonia readings in the farm?'

'You bet. The alarm keeps going off. I've already reset the scrubbers to a higher rating, but I think we will have to get some more scrubbers from somewhere, or we will be eating ammonia tainted chicken for some time.'

'Ok. I will go down there and see what I can do.'

'Take a robot with you and wear a respirator. It is close to toxic levels.'

'Could you see if Stuart is available? I think he is in that area.'

Hoshi gave a thumbs-up as she began climbing the ladder to the Blue Sarsen.

Hoshi starts at moving up the Blue Sarsen, past Jake in the workstation, then into the converted Spektor module, then to the Bridge area with access to a docking port. She continued climbing into the Unity Module. Above this she moved through the changing room with space suits stored around five of the eight walls.

By now her weight had reduced to approximately 25 per cent.

The next module contained mainly water, this they would use to protect themselves from the harmful effects of solar radiation. When she reached the module next to White Sarsen she was faced with a choice of four hatches on the walls, as well as ones at either end. Of the four, he knew that one led to outer space, two more led to storage modules that were attached to the outside of the Blue Sarsen. It was the other one that she needed, the one that led to the Farm.

As she left the Blue Sarsen she became almost weightless in the new sections of the White Sarsen. She now floated as an astronaut is supposed to. She was facing the rear of the ship, turning to her front she moved less than three body lengths to the entrance to the farm. The ship here was fifteen feet across, once again with almost a hexagonal shape; due to installation of equipment turning the circular sections to near squares. In these equipment hatches Hoshi found a respirator. She tested this whilst she waited for Stuart to make his way to her.

Soon Hoshi saw the blue tee shirt of Stuart moving towards her. To say she was floating is not right, she was nearer to swimming as she adjusted her position in the middle of the space as she moved effortlessly from the rear of the ship.

Fresh eggs and chickens came from the farm. This is the name they gave the inflatable pod attached to the side of the Red Sarsen. In this they had ranks of chickens on one side. It was felt that the chickens in the highest positions, which felt weaker gravity, would not fare as well as the ones at the bottom of the stack. So it was decreed that they should be rotated to give them all a chance of experiencing full gravity, and also chance to walk around on the grass that was on the ground. This activity also gave the crew a job that reminded them of home. Hoshi Masuto was concerned about the effects of the ammonia released from the chicken droppings, but apart from that it was felt that the nutrient-rich product could be used to replenish the small amount of soil they had brought with them.

'You don't know how lucky you are.' Hoshi said to Stuart as they began to descend into the farm,

'The stench is quite overpowering. I don't know how long I can stay in here.'

'Is your respirator not functioning properly?'

'Yes, I think it is, but the gas can sometimes seep in as I move about.'

'We must ensure that the gas does not seep into the rest of the ship.'

Stuart consulted his wrist-mounted multifunction instrument.

'Steve tells me that the scrubbers will be replaced completely in two point three hours. In the mean time I suggest that we inject a dye to colour the ammonia to allow everyone to see if there is a problem.'

Hoshi was by now only half way down the ladder alongside the chicken pens. She had trouble making herself heard over the racket made by the birds. She shouted to Stuart, who was below her,

Hoshi shook her head and said,

'I don't think that will be necessary. The smell is much more noticeable than any dye. But it can't do any harm.'

'Yes, and if there is a leak, a coloured gas will be easier to trace.'

Hoshi's eyes were now almost closed. The sweat and tears were now combining with the gas. She dared not lift her goggles to wipe her eyes. She was just about to call to Stuart that she is going to return to fresh air when she lost her balance on the slippery rungs of the ladder. She tried to grasp with her gloved hand, but that failed. At the position she lost her footing she was about half way down, so only experienced 40 per cent gravity. Her leg caught Stuart as she fell, who tried to grab her to prevent the fall. But to no avail. Hoshi hit the grass with quite a thump, luckily the ground was soft, but it put Hoshi at a disadvantage. She was now completely blind, dazed, and feeling none too good after her fall. Above her, through the din of over one hundred chickens and an almost toxic stench was a forty-five-foot ladder that she would have to climb. The muddy texture of the ground contained more than its fair share of chicken droppings. Hoshi sat up and assessed her situation. Her left shoulder seemed to have taken the brunt of her impact. She tried moving her left arm, but the pain was too great, so she laid her arm on her lap.

'Something may be broken.' She thought. Carefully she began to try to stand, but with only one hand useable and the slippery ground she failed to even stand. Then Stuart was standing alongside her.

'Is there anything broken?' she asked.

He gave his assessment,

'Left arm, shoulder, maybe clavicle. Legs seem ok, neck and back ok.'

She had just taken in the report when she felt a sharp pull from the collar of her overall. It would have taken her a little over one point six minutes to climb the ladder in good conditions when she was fit. Stuart pulled her up in eighteen seconds.

The weightless conditions in the White Sarsen did not allow the pain in her shoulder to abate. She felt that her arm was ok, so strapped it to her waist to prevent movement.

It was later found that she had broken her clavicle.

Normally on Earth this would be left to heal itself, but this was not Earth. It was not possible to guarantee that she would not knock it every now and then. That alone would prevent the healing process; so it was decided that it would have to be repaired.

Galina Danilenko had had medical training, and the 'S' class robots have an extensive knowledge of human anatomy, so an operation was carried out, and the scientist was enabled to be a useful member of the crew again in three days.

When she returned to duties her first task was to address the ammonia problem, only to find that the robots had found a solution.

'We decided that ammonia is a source of energy, so we designed a storage system, which is not difficult given the cold of space.' Stuart explained,

'Steve and Silver have built a distillation plant that will also convert the gas into a liquid. They are now working on an engine that can at least turn the liquid gas into heat.'

On the other side of the ship, alongside the Blue Sarsen was the pod that contained a lot of their water. Naturally, this was called the pool. Although there were several tons of water, the weight exerted on the structure did not exceed the maximum strain load since not all of the water was exposed to full gravity; the water at the top was almost weightless. Not all of this was drinking water. Fish are a very good source of protein and are easy to keep. Experiments were carried out to find if the fish carried thrive in zero-point eight gravity or do they do better at half of Earth's gravity, or none at all. From results thus far, it is the pressure of water that makes most difference to the well-being of fish.

Concentrated food, however was to be the mainstay of the crew during their two-year deployment on to another planet.

The main body of White Sarsen comprised a long tower. This tower was to hold the Graphene lines that prevented the Blue and Red Sarsens that carried the humans, from moving and breaking when under acceleration. The Orion capsule at the end of central White Sarsen was kept untouched throughout the whole journey, for this was the lifeboat, if anything should go wrong, the crew would be able to make their way to this capsule. Behind it was the massive final stage of the gigantic Epsilon 3 rocket that sent the Orions into space.

This rocket stage had now been adapted to carry mainly food, water, oxygen and batteries. Should the astronauts need to abandon the ship, they would have to live in this lifeboat for as long as it took to get back to Earth. They all knew it was a forlorn hope, even though they were only five people now, it would still be a massive undertaking. And they may have to spend up to a year getting back, depending on the orbital positions of the Earth and Mars, and where they were in their journey.

Another five Epsilon 3 final stages had been utilised in the construction of the Phoenix. Four of these gigantic machines were mounted around the rear of the rear of the White Sarsen. The rear of this arrangement gave the impression of a truly gigantic contraption with 7 massive rocket engines. The odd number comes from the fact that 3 of the Sarsens had three J-2 engines from the third stages of the Epsilon rocket, Sarsen Four had one F-2D engine from the second stage that had gone to make up the White Sarsen.

During the increases in solar activity that bring about solar flares tremendous amounts of radioactive energy is released from the sun. This energy is thought to be deadly to humans, and it was not known what effect shielding would have, if any. But at least they would get warning of these deadly events. In the event of a massive solar flare the crew would all go to the centre of the ship, where rocket engines, fuel, water, food and a lot of space ship would be between them and the sun. Doctor Masuto would then study the resultant effects upon the living creatures, especially chickens. A more difficult to predict phenomenon was the radiations emitted by exploding stars and galaxies light years away.

These matters did not concern the occupants of the revolving Phoenix as they sped towards their goal of landing on Mars and establishing a temporary colony there.

.....................
Chapter Ten

ORBIT

Preston Ashton sat in the captain's chair on the bridge of the interplanetary craft Phoenix when a call came in from ground control at Houston.

'Houston to Phoenix, Tom Collins here. Come back if you can.'

Mars and the Earth were closer now, but moving apart again. The planetary orbits have brought the planets to within 40 million miles that is about 65,000,000 kilometres. Now communications were as good as they would get for some considerable time. For Phoenix the time delay was five point two minutes, but as the mission progressed the planets would move apart because they are both orbiting the sun, not each other.

When the Phoenix left its orbit around Earth, Mars was some 90 million miles away. In the three months they have been travelling the planets have moved closer – closer than they have been for 50 million years. The reason for this can be found in the orbits they follow; they are not circular. It can be likened to a bullet chasing a moving target. As the planets oscillate in their elliptical paths around the sun, they move further apart, then closer together. When the Phoenix arrives above the Martian surface the planets will be in the closest positions for 50 million years. The Phoenix cannot then leave Mars to make the journey back immediately. The reason is because by the time she had travelled the two or three months back, the Earth will not be there, it will be 90 million miles away, and it would take the Phoenix nearly five months to travel that far. By which time the Earth would be even further away. The people aboard the Phoenix are now trapped in the Martian orbit for two years, when the two planets get close again.

Ash replied,

'Hi, Tom. Ash and Mark here, the others have been notified, and are on their way.'

'Ok, Ash. What about the 'S' classes? Are they on the net?'

The voices of Stuart, Steve and Gerald confirmed that they were all on board and in contact.

Galina passed the Cupola, and turned towards the bridge in the Blue Sarsen, followed by Jake.

'Anyone seen Hoshi?' she asked.

'Just coming in from a spacewalk.' Ash told them.

Space walks alone were now permitted provided at least one 'S' class robot accompanied the astronaut, although Silver did not count in this because he was usually active around the back of the ship. If an astronaut got into trouble upon leaving the air lock (the most likely time), he would not be in a good enough position to help. Hoshi re-entered the ship with Steve in white tee shirt and jeans. They both exited the airlock into the ship; Hoshi had her helmet under her arm. Between them they got her out of her spacesuit and made their way to the bridge.

As Hoshi entered the bridge she apologised for keeping people waiting,

'Don't worry about it,' Jake responded,

'We blame Steve for being overdressed in space, you realise that we are now in the jurisdiction of the Martian Fashion Police?'

'If we can get on, gentlemen?' Ash took control,

'Hoshi, I understand you have a definitive report on the preparations the 'S' classes have made.'

'Yes, Ash. They have been very busy. Mark and I have tried to help, but we have not been able to do very much, as usual.'

'You cannot help having to spend 75% of your time in the ship.' Steve remarked.

Tom Collins seemed to be a little out of step, being four minutes behind the conversation,

'We have here preliminary plans for the Mars landing.' He reported.

Mike Xanthros then came on the net,

'Good morning people. Yes, we have our original plans, but as you well know, we had not been able to finalise the finer points.'

The crew of the Phoenix knew to keep quiet and wait for the signal to reach them; normal conversation was impossible due to the time delay. Xanthros continued,

'The 'S' class robots you have on board have been working on a solution, which they have now been able to furnish to us, but I will let Doctor Hoshi Masuto explain it more fully to you all to make sure we are all singing from the same hymn sheet.'

Hoshi began immediately,

'Thank you, Professor. I have just returned from outside the ship inspecting the preparations being made for our arrival and orbit, followed by an imminent landing on Mars. Our friends Stuart, Gerald and Steve have made very good provision for the continuance of our mission.'

Just then the equivalent to a cell phone in Gerald's circuits rang. Without anyone knowing, he answered the call. It was Michelle Romero from Houston on his private line.

'Hello Ms Romero. What can I do for you?'

'Hello, Gerald. Would it be possible to talk to Ash?'

'Not at the moment, I'm afraid. He is in a meeting with Houston and the whole crew.'

'Oh, I see. I just wanted to wish him good luck.'

'Would you like to listen in on the meeting?'

'Can I? That would be fantastic.'

'I can mute you, so that no-one will know you are there.'

Hoshi continued her explanation,

'We shall be entering the Martian atmosphere in the MRVs, in much the same way we re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. But because the Martian atmosphere is so much thinner than ours the deceleration effect is reduced. However, because the Martian gravity is less than Earth's we will not be travelling quite so fast as a re-entry to Earth. The MRVs are similar to any other re-entry vehicle, apart from the blades on top. Instead of parachutes, which would be difficult to repack on Mars, these are equipped with rotor blades like a helicopter. Because of the thinner Martian atmosphere there is not much for them to grip on to, so they have been made more like the shapes of a ship's propeller. Normally stowed along the sides of the vehicle, they can only be as long as the MRV. But these are extendable. When they are deployed they begin spinning, the centrifugal force draws out the extensions, which nearly doubles their length.'

She put a schematic diagram on the screen, Gerald explained to Michelle what was on the screen,

'There is a picture of one of these vehicles. It resembles a cross between a tall helicopter and a trailer caravan, with a pointed top. Dr Hoshi will now describe the component parts.'

'This strange device is the best shape we have come up with to perform the tasks set for it. To begin at the top, here we have the rotor assembly and initial re-entry guidance motors. We went for a contra-rotating set-up to give greater stability, and more blade area. Much more blade area.'

Gerald explained,

'That is where you have two sets of rotor blades, one on top of the other. They go round in opposite directions to cancel out the gyroscopic effect; and by slowing one or the other you can turn the vehicle.'

Hoshi took a sip of water,

'The heat shield below the vehicle is a problem. Because of the work it does it, cannot be re-used. The rest of the vehicle has been designed to be re-usable. We have rebuilt one J-2C rocket engine to fit under the vehicle and four ullage engines to be used for stability at the four corners. These are sufficient for lift-off from the planet's surface.'

'There is room inside each MRV for two fully equipped astronauts and sufficient supplies for five days. Landing is on these extending legs, each of which is a hydraulic system that can be used to level up the MRV as it lands. This thing can land on a slope of up to eight degrees, or on an uneven surface.'

Tom Collins asked a question, but with the four-minute delay it was a little out of place,

'If the heat shield is a problem, how can the MRV be re-used?'

Gerald answered simply,

'We have a supply of heat shields here on the Phoenix. She will stay in orbit above the landing site and operate as a mother ship. When one of the MRVs returns to the Phoenix the heat shield will be replaced ready for the return journey.'

Xanthros turned to Tom Collins,

'Did he say one of the MRVs?'

'Yes, he did, sir.' Then to the Phoenix,

'Gerald, how many of these re-entry vehicles do you have?'

Hoshi continued,

'The supply of equipment will be via the storage containers we now know as the Sarsens one, two, three and four. These will enter the atmosphere sideways on to present the largest surface to give better slowing performance. Luckily they do not have to be re-used; the heat shield on these is massive, so cannot be replaced. Upon landing they do so in the reverse of a normal rocket taking off from Earth; that is straight down. They are equipped with the same contra-rotating rotors that are used on the MRVs, and they each have four J-2C rocket engines. These can be used to either move them or return them to the mother ship. Controllable hydraulic legs are used here with more need for stability due to the need to stand these cylinders on end.'

Then Tom's question came in over the radio waves,

'How many MRVs have you got?'

Gerald replied immediately, but his reply was not heard for four minutes,

'We have two ready, one almost ready, and another under construction, sir. We have designated them MRV One, Two, and Three. We know how you like to give these machines names, so we have followed a past practice of yours of using the names of important historical Greeks. MRV One has been given the name 'Euclid', MRV Two is called 'Pythagoras', and when it is finished MRV Three will be 'Ptolemy'.

...............

The red planet moved slowly past them as they orbited one hundred miles above its barren surface. Jake and Galina stood in the copula looking down at the rugged planet, upon which no man had ever set foot, and they were about to; nothing could stop them now.

'Who is to be first?' Galina pondered aloud.

'The first to set foot on an alien world? To be the first person to ever set foot on another planet? There can only be one first. There may be many who come after, like Neil was the first to set foot on the moon, but there can only be one first – and this is a biggie.'

Hoshi was in communications with Houston, but the conversation was difficult, apart from the four-minute delay, there was now a period of lost communications when they pass around the back of the planet. Every thirty-seven minutes they were in radio blackout for eight minutes. If Houston's transmission came in during that time it was lost.

Tom Collins spoke to the ship, this is the best way to describe the way the transmissions from Mission Control can be described, because they were received by the robot network. This included all 'S'-class robots, the manufacturing facility in the White Sarsen, and the computers on board the three landing craft, which now took on the ambience of being part of the whole robot culture.

'We have decided to allow you people up there to decide who should have the honour of being the first human to set foot on Mars.' Tom said.

Hoshi replied immediately,

'Well, it can't be me. My shoulder is not yet healed up and can still give me trouble from time to time.'

Eight minutes later Tom said in a very matter-of-fact way,

'Well, in that case I am nominating you to find a way of deciding, of the remaining four people on board, who should be the first one out.'

'Thank you, Mr Collins. I treasure that honour, you side-stepped that nicely didn't you?'

She then tapped a screen on the centre consul,

'Can all crew make their way to the bridge as soon as possible please?'

Ten minutes later the five astronauts sat around in the Blue Sarsen control centre. Hoshi began the address,

'Those nice people down at Houston have delegated to me the responsibility of deciding who should be the first person to set foot on Mars. They decided that I was not in the running, so I could have the job.'

Jake was first to respond to this,

'Is it to be sealed bids?'

Mark and Galina sat back in stunned silence.

Ash saw the importance, and the gravity of the situation straight away, he looked out of the windows of the Cupola to see Mars only 100 miles below them slide past as the Phoenix kept on turning to maintain their gravity.

'We have agreed on a landing site.' He turned to his crew,

'About fifty kilometres away from the permafrost of the southern ice cap. This gives us the best chance of finding water, but avoids the problems involved in landing on an ice surface we know nothing about.'

Mark found his voice,

'Let's make it a race. There are three MRVs, four of us in the running, we just decide who isn't going, and then the remaining three race it out.' He was not serious.

Hoshi decided that enough time had been spent on silly suggestions, but they may have a possible solution,

'I have decided to use a combination of both ideas. To decide who should stay behind we shall have a sort of sealed bids scheme. You all have fifteen minutes to explain, in writing, why you should be the first one to set foot on Mars. I will then decide who gave the best reason.'

The four astronauts were issued with A5 sized sheets of paper and a pen. They then began thinking.

No-one had ever asked them 'Why do you want to be an astronaut?' not even at high school. A lot of head scratching and pondering followed. This was a momentous occasion. How do you give it the right pitch?

Eventually the four little sheets were written on and folded into quarters, then handed back to Hoshi, who then shuffled them as she explained,

'There is no way I am going to decide who should be the first human to set foot on an alien planet. Gerald will decide by selecting one sheet of paper. He has no way of knowing who wrote any of these, so the decision will be completely arbitrary.

.....................
Chapter Eleven

LANDING

The spaceship Phoenix circled one hundred miles above the Martian surface. Situated above the Martian equator the craft was able to maintain a Mar stationary orbit above one point on the surface. This meant that the astronauts would be able to hover over the intended landing site, but the ship would be moving to a higher orbit when the base has been established. Right now the four astronauts were more concerned with their preparations to leave the Phoenix in the small re-entry craft that will take them to the surface of the red planet.

'There is no room in here for you.' Ash commented as Gerald helped him in through the small hatchway. The climbing into the capsules was aided by almost zero gravity out here by the Bridge. This was Pythagoras, Euclid was docked on to the Red Sarsen. The astronauts entered these craft by the hatch in the nose, the same way the Apollo astronauts did with their Lunar Landers. Ash needed as much help as he could get because he was fully suited up for a space-walk with a difference – this one ended up on an alien world.

'That is because I will not be with you on this trip.' Gerald explained,

'But you will not be on your own. These vehicles are fully connected to our net, so we will know everything that you do. The final landing is down to you guys, but we will handle the actual re-entry, right down to the deployment of the rotors.'

Mark Singleton sat in the capsule, waiting for Ash to join him. Hoshi had still not revealed the person who had won the selection procedure, but the positions of the astronauts gave clues. Ash was last in, so was closest to the door. That meant that he would be first out. The same situation existed in the other re-entry vehicle; Galina got into the vehicle first, followed by Jake. It had been decided that the Americans should be split up to avoid complaints about nationalism and Americans trying to run the affair.

Gerald closed the hatch on 'Euclid', which contained Ash and Mark. At the same time Jake and Galina were sealed into 'Pythagoras' by Stuart. The two strangely dressed 'people' then repaired to the main body of the ship. Here they began undoing the fasteners that held the vehicles on to the Phoenix. As they did this they communicated with each other and the crews, Gerald led the sequence, and Stuart did the same actions, Ash and Jake followed by monitoring readings on their visor displays,

'Disconnect Valve Flow Box. Gas Heat Exchanger, Purge LOX and Air.' A wait of four seconds before continuing on Ash and Jake's response,

'Purge complete.'

Gerald then continued,

'Disconnect Umbilical Consul, power down hydraulics.' Ash and Jake threw switches, then replied,

'Power down hydraulics complete.'

'Hold rotation on Phoenix.' Gerald called to Steve, who was monitoring things from the Captains Station in the capsule at the end of Blue Sarsen,

'Rotation slowing.' he said as he fired up the small attitude motors near the ends of the Red and Blue Sarsens to stop the Phoenix rotating.

The gigantic interplanetary craft slowly stopped turning. Jake came on the airwaves,

'We would really like a view of the planet we are aiming at, if you don't mind.'

The two MLVs were mounted on the same side of the mother ship to facilitate simultaneous launches.

As the Phoenix stopped turning, the red surface of Mars came into view through the small windows in the MLVs.

Gerald called the final commands,

'Hold down clamps released, ST-124-M3 disconnect.'

'All systems clear.' Jake and Ash confirmed that they were ready to part company from the Phoenix.

Gerald and Stuart pulled the last levers and pushed their respective MRVs away from the Phoenix towards the Red Planet that loomed above them.

''Euclid' departed.' Stuart reported.

Gerald did the same with 'Pythagoras' when he knew that five seconds had elapsed. This gave the two vehicles sufficient separation to satisfy safety considerations when plummeting to the planet at 12,000 miles per hour.

The on-board computers in the MLVs had been programmed with the intended landing site – there will be only one for both vehicles. They began adjusting the positions of the MLVs to point their rocket engines in the direction in which they wished to go. They were still travelling at 15,000 mph, half a mile away from the Phoenix now. Ash could just make out the shape of Gerald as he freed up the cargo container Sarsen One in preparation for dispatching it down to the surface. It was intended that three of these would land before the manned capsules to enable the people to alight as close to them as they thought necessary. As he watched the cylinder leave the spacecraft he saw Silver at the back end and remembered his first encounter with the silver robot.

Then the retro rockets fired. These were now facing the direction of travel and were intended to slow the craft to allow it to begin falling with the Martian gravity.

Just a four second burn this time to control the curve of their re-entry. But this term is inaccurate, this was not to be a re-entry, because they had never been there before – no one had. But this is the term normally used, so we must stick with it here.

The thin Martian atmosphere began to cause friction on the bases of the tall pyramid structures. Then the shaking began. They had been through this many times in practice on Earth, but the heat they were to experience could not be replicated, neither could what they found next. No-one has ever seen a vehicle entering the Martian atmosphere, which is composed mainly of Carbon dioxide. When this compound burns, it gives off a white flame. The three cylindrical Sarsens overtook the two modules carrying humans just as they reached the outer edge of the atmosphere. As these long cylinders entered the atmosphere sideways on, they began to give off a bright white light that was not expected. With the deep, impenetrable blackness of space behind them, the blueish-white flares that erupted before the astronauts took them by surprise. This was the first time that these structures had been tested – including the Euclid and Pythagoras in which they were now plummeting down towards who knows what. White flames began flashing past their windows.

Jake turned to Galina. He saw the apprehension in her eyes,

'Don't worry, Hun.' He said as he tapped a small screen in front of him,

'The finest robot brains ever developed designed these. They know what they are doing.' He glanced back at her to see a slight softening in her expression.

Mark Singleton, in the other module with Ash, looked around the interior of the pyramid-shaped room they were in. The vibrations now began to rise in both the shaking, and the noise levels. As a structural engineer, he knew all about stress levels. He knew that the robots who built this module would also know, but it still worried him.

Far below, the Sarsens approached the surface of Mars. Their retro rockets began firing, the cylinders started turning. All three of them adopted a vertical posture. They descended under full control towards the surface.

The mother ship Phoenix orbited silently as the two Mars Landing Vehicles (MLVs) began to enter the planet's thin atmosphere.

The capsules began to heat up; the friction of the craft passing through the gaseous envelope at such speed caused the bottom to absorb the energy as heat.

The long cylindrical containers known as Sarsens One, Two, and Three came into the upper reaches of the atmosphere at the same time. Being heavier than the MLVs these fell faster.

With a more dramatic re-entry, they were turned to face the atmosphere side plunged down to the surface with their sides facing their direction of travel. A big heat shield stretched the full length of the Sarsens, but they still reached a greater heat than the manned MLVs. The three flaming, glowing cylinders passed the two MLVs due to their faster re-entry speed.

Inside the MLVs were four people, two in each. Jake Jensen looked out of the window of Pythagoras as the cigar-shaped Sarsens passed them. The flames from their own decent licked past the window with eerie crimson tips to the flames.

There was not much conversation due to the severe vibrations and heat the vessels were subjected to.

All the astronauts had experienced re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, but this was very different. Crimson, white and blue flames streaked past the windows. The atmosphere they were plummeting down into was not air; the Martian atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide, and you would expect it to burn differently to air. What they were watching whiz past the windows was not only burning atmosphere, it was mainly their heat shield disintegrating and taking the heat with it. That is why the heat shield must be replaced or repaired after every re-entry. The numbered Sarsens have such large areas on their sides that it was not practical to replace them, so they were only to re-enter once. They had the capability to return to the mother ship, but once there they would not be able to return to the surface.

High in orbit above this pyrotechnic display the mother ship

Phoenix had changed shape.

With three of the Sarsens gone, plus two re-entry vehicles she looked considerably thinner.

On their way to the Martian surface were two of the three androids, as well as the four human astronauts. This left Hoshi Masuto a little alone in the Phoenix. She initiated the rotating motion of the ship for her own comfort more than anything. There were no communications with the MLVs as they blasted through the atmosphere, all she could do was wait and monitor read-outs on her visor. The MLVs had the capacity to transmit the heat shield data to her, but this was unreliable and intermittent now due to the severe forces acting on the vessels. One other source of information came from the robots' monitoring and control systems. They were able to communicate with all five of the capsules; and control them during their decent.

'Pythagoras and Sarsen One getting too hot, I will deflect them a little.' Gerald said to Hoshi as he joined her on the bridge.

Hoshi saw the commands take effect on her visor instruments, but she heard no instructions – it was as if Gerald had used some kind of telepathy.

Four thrusters on each vehicle, one with Jake and Galina in it, fired briefly to decrease their rate of descent. The big Sarsens were now quite a lot closer to the surface of Mars than the MLVs with people in them. The searing heat had slowed them somewhat, but they were still travelling at 4,000 mph when the thrusters on the tops of the cylinders began firing. These turned the rocket motors at the base of the obelisks to face their direction of travel. Each Sarsen was fitted with four J-2C rocket engines, the type that were used in the second stages of the Mars Launch Vehicles; these will slow the plummeting vehicles more effectively than the thin Martian atmosphere.

A very delicate balancing act then took place. All three cylinders began to rotate until their rocket motors faced the searing heat caused by friction with the atmosphere. There was no doubt that they would fire up when fuel was injected into their combustion chambers, but they had not been tested in these conditions. The thousands of parts had to work perfectly, but the most important were the fuel control valves deep within the spacecraft. These were assembled and installed in the freezing cold of space. Now they were being subjected to severe heating, first from one side, then from the rear, where the rocket exhaust cone was beginning to glow white hot.

As the tops of the Sarsens began to cool, and the four rockets on each Sarsen began taking the brunt of re-entry heat, the fuel was injected into the combustion chambers. Of the twelve engines only one failed to fire. On Sarsen One only three engines fired. That put a lot of strain on the directional thrusters, but the situation should be within parameters provided that no other rocket engines failed to function.

As the Sarsens slowed more rapidly the gravity of Mars began to pull the tops down, and out of alignment with the path of descent, so the vehicles had to carefully stabilize the tall cylinders –like trying to balance a broomstick on your finger. Eventually they were upright; and travelling straight down. Then two of the rockets shut down as they were supposed to, or in the case of Sarsen One, one rocket.

Foldaway rotors deployed to slow and control the cylinders. Above them came two cones shaped fireballs still trailing flame and smoke. The rotors allowed more directional control than parachutes, so the cylinders could be landed in a circle on the base of a large crater with enough space between each other to allow for accidents, but still within walking distance for the astronauts when they arrived.

As they descended into the shallow red crater the cylinders, now black and white from the heat of re-entry, seemed to jockey for position. The counter-rotating rotors on top whirled, each blade carefully manipulated to give direction and movement, hoe-down to the silent fiddle music of Mars.

When each machine was ten feet off the ground three hydraulic legs extended. Thin Martian dust was kicked up by the rocket motors until the pads on the ends of the legs registered hard ground beneath them, then the engines were cut, and the cylinders came to rest.

All except Sarsen Three. The hydraulic leg on the side of the heat shield failed to deploy properly.

Up on the Phoenix, Gerald said nothing to Hoshi, but there was something going on because the readouts in the Japanese scientists' visor showed that Sarsen Three was in trouble. It contained one third of the food, water and oxygen needed for the first year on the planet. If it returned to the Phoenix, it would be very difficult to get the supplies down, so it had to be landed – somehow.

Two padded legs touched down on the Martian surface. The vehicle began tipping towards the legless side. Thrusters that normally fire to correct the attitude of the craft in space began firing. They have nowhere near enough power to prevent the fall. Slowly the burned column leaned over. The Martian gravity though weaker than Earth's, was still powerful enough to pull the column over. It accelerated as it came down to the red gritty surface, the thrusters firing until the last moment. They kicked up more dust than the falling column, pink dust that covered the scene. Then the rotors touched the ground and began churning it up. A split second later the whole column crashed down. It broke into four separate parts, but there was no explosion.

Dust cleared quickly on Mars. Shooting away into the thin atmosphere. As the two cones began circling there was no dust cloud. These were also equipped with counter-rotation rotors to give them a control over where they wanted to alight; but were not powerful enough to give then a survivable landing. To slow them sufficiently they were equipped with a J-2C throttleable rocket motor.

'Pythagoras' landed first. As they came in to land, they saw that one of the Sarsens had fallen.

In the other MLV, 'Euclid' Mark Singleton commented as he saw dark stains spread around the fallen Sarsen, -

'It looks as if there is water on Mars now.'

Alongside him sat Ash,

'Either that or free rocket fuel.' He said as he watched 'Pythagoras' touch down on the Martian surface. Eight seconds later he and Mark followed suit in 'Euclid'.

The confirmation of a safe landing was received at Houston automatically, there was no need for voice transmissions, but tradition was a powerful thing.

Ash made the simple broadcast back to Earth, -

'Houston. 'Euclid' and 'Pythagoras' have landed, - There is life on Mars.'

.....................

The selected landing site lay within a large crater to offer some protection. The three columns descended slowly through a vast dust cloud raised by their rocket motors.

There was no drama, no explosion, as the Sarsen hit the ground in the crater, only a large cloud of dust, followed by a white cloud of escaping gases.

By the time the Euclid and Pythagoras modules arrived above the crater the dust had dispersed. The two thin white pyramids were topped by counter-rotating rotor blades. These were not, however, enough to slow the machines as they plummeted through the atmosphere. To slow to a final descent, they were each fitted with four J-2C rocket engines.

The modules, containing the first humans to land circled above the three Sarsen cylinders, two standing and one fallen.

... to be continued...

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Part two of this story,

The Martian Infusion

This book will be released on 1st September 2019.

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