 
# The Darwinian Extension: Initiation

Hylton Smith

Copyright 2009 by Hylton Smith

Smashwords Edition

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher,

Promethean

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-0-9562392-6-6

Acknowledgement

Sincere thanks to Rhys J. Smith and Anne Flint for their patience, support and suggestions.

# Chapter 1

Now that the hype was finally over the real mission could at last get underway. Leaving the space elevator and boarding the most sophisticated exploration vessel humanity could engineer seemed to have been overshadowed by the never-ending broadcasts. The hopes of the species rested in their hands.

The year was 2033, and the project had been planned for 20 years. The projections had indicated meltdown of the increasingly tenuous balance of world food supply, energy and raw material requirement, climate change and population growth. Programmes designed to offset the tipping point were not enough to achieve the trend reversal in time. These counter-effects such as research on food synthesis, alternate fuels, recycling, coupled with more viral pandemics, were themselves affected in different ways by the advent of nanotechnology. This branch of science offered lower energy food production and manufactured goods and at the same time extended life expectation with artificial organs. The mathematical modelling suggested an additional dimension had to be explored with immediate effect. The most surprising element in this undertaking was the relatively short time it took for the global acceptance of such a venture. When everyone is threatened by a common enemy, unification becomes the new currency.

Colonisation of another planetary body had always been contemplated; now it was prioritised to happen. The Confederation of Nations, charged with the design and implementation of this emergency escape route, named the project 'Salvation'. The brief was not simply to oversee successful habitat capability. The chosen destination had to cover terraforming prospects, new materials research, and the scope of population migration. This in itself shaped the makeup of the crew to a degree and underpinned the importance of a similarly qualified response team at project headquarters in Beijing.

The relative contribution of nations had changed markedly since the first decade of the 21st century. The new superpowers of China and India were leading the way in terms of economic and technological input. Russia and the USA made up the big four.

The Commander of the Copernicus - Stenninger Magnusson - had masters in physics and psychology, complimented by special operations experience in polar missions. In his native Sweden the 38 year-old was relatively unknown until the last three years. He was relieved to be leaving Earth Orbit at last, and his feelings were shared by the rest of the crew. Once underway, the final briefing from Beijing would be conducted, and they would truly begin to function as a tight knit team – all those years of secret preparation would click into gear.

With coordinates locked in and target velocity achieved, Communications Officer Javier Veltrano informed Magnusson that Beijing had come through on the main VDU with predictable punctuality. Beijing Controller Roberto Xiang confirmed all parameters were correct and as this had been rehearsed many times there was no need to dwell further on detail. He suggested second contact in two Earth hours. Xiang was born in Florence. His father, having spent his early career in the Chinese Embassy in Rome, moved to Tuscany when he married Lisa Maria Galdoni. Xiang had been educated in Zurich and specialised in Astrometrics, Propulsion Technology and Probability Theory. He was rigidly focussed on scheduling and conformance of data assembly, yet somewhat pragmatic about conclusions drawn from apparently aberrant information derived from such data. These qualities were considered to be influential in his appointment to head up Beijing Mission Control.

Magnusson asked First Officer Indira Banjani to get the crew together in thirty minutes. He would take the helm in her absence. This gave him a chance to consider - for the thousandth time - the problems involved in decelerating a heavy vessel (with seven crew members), in a low density atmosphere. There was a window of ninety seconds to slow from Mach 5 to Mach 1. This was to be achieved by a Supersonic Decelerator or Hypercone. This device although tested in small scale vacuum tunnel mock-ups and predictive computer modelling, was untried in the actual scenario because of time and resource constraints. The huge doughnut skin girdled the vessel and would inflate very quickly with gas rockets to create a conical shape. This inflation was to occur about 10K above the surface while travelling at Mach 4-5, then, after peak heating of the Silicon-Vectran material, the hypercone would act as an aerodynamic anchor to slow the vehicle to Mach 1. The section weight limit was 40-60 tons. From Mach 1, subsonic parachutes and thrusters would land the vehicle.

This weight restriction had imposed a design feature of Main Spacecraft - Descent/Ascent module - Habitat and Lander. The Lander would have to comprise Rover and power source facilities. The science lab would be part of the descent module as this carried the crew and sensitive equipment, and consequently had the most sophisticated hypercone. Each section had to come in at less than 60 tons. Why was this required? Simply because Mars had too little atmosphere to slow a vehicle heavy enough to carry everything needed for such a complex, one-chance-only mission.

The discussions on launch were governed by time needed for proving technologies versus optimum orbital proximity of Earth and Mars. This inevitably pitted the politicians against the scientists. The conflicting parameters were stark. Between 2018 and 2020, the two planets were closest. The next time such alignment occurred was 2033-2035.The earlier window had been too soon for the Carbon Nanotube technology to be developed for the space elevator when the project was initiated in 2013.The Copernicus mission also needed to have a backup, arriving one year after the first landing to relieve the initial crew and bring new facilities to progress the colonisation technology. The trips would each take 10 months. The space elevator was a critical part of the plan, as ground assembly of rockets was expensive, and still prone to explosive failure. The progressive colonisation requirement demanded the reliable launch capability that Earth orbit assembly offered as well as having favourable cost per launch ratio in the long term.

The Copernicus launch was to be March 2033 and the Darwin March 2034. This gave a mere two months between Copernicus' arrival on Mars and Darwin's launch, for any required changes of cargo facilities for the latter. This whole schedule of course was far too short, in the view of the scientists, for stepwise missions to verify the complex interdependent design systems to deliver, land and establish habitat in the new world. These same scientists knew they would have to compromise if the follow up missions beyond 2035 were to stand any chance of expanding the colonisation.

# Chapter 2

The choice of Mars was not really much of a debate. When answers to questions added up to: too hot, too cold, too toxic, too far, there was no real alternative. From what was known of the cosmic history and recent geological surveys of the planet, the chosen landing region introduced another risk to the mission. Mars was roughly divided into Northern Lowlands and Southern Highlands. The safer bet would be Nilli Fossae in the Northern plains, with its lava flows and sedimentary deposits. However, Valles Marineris, a canyon system some 1860 miles long and 5 miles deep, was, although more risky, equally intriguing because of the evidence of hydrated minerals. The brightly coloured West Candor Chasm sparkled with red, pink, green and turquoise 'come and get me' hues. The canyon depth could also save a lot of drilling – hopefully.

This hope was based on the knowledge that the surface temperature range averaged around minus forty-six degrees Celsius, with a minimum of minus eighty-seven and a maximum of minus five. If the lower reaches of the chasm could be accessed by MH (Mars Hover) Mole then the temperature maximum down there could be higher; if the colours observed were salts which lowered the freezing point of any briny deposits, it really would be pay dirt.

MH Mole was a lightweight drillbot ascending and descending by remote control gas balloon and tiny thrusters, enabling small samples to be taken while hovering. The laser cutting was precise enough to gather tiny pieces of whatever was down there. Discovery of any form of water – liquid, frozen or leveraged, from hydrated salts was a priority.

When the crew had assembled, the only pressing objective was to implement artificial gravity, which in itself would enable many other functions to be accessed. Individual checklists were distributed to cover personal quarters and workstations to ensure that the switchover was trouble free. The entire ship was set to rotate at 4.5 revolutions per minute to create the requisite centrifugal force to make the journey more comfortable and facilitate the operational and exercise regimes prescribed.

First Officer Banjani distributed the lists and asked for the input to be keyed into the operational data system within 20 minutes. Banjani was a graduate in Mathematics from New Delhi, and subsequently took a PhD in Spatial Mechanics in Tokyo. She was to spend her 30th birthday on Mars if all went well. However all had not gone well when her fiancée was informed about the mission. The relationship was put under strain and she felt she had to be honest with Mission Control, subjecting herself to strenuous psychological scrutiny all over again, before final clearance.

Pascal Dupree distributed the bio-monitoring devices to be worn by every crew member for the duration of the voyage. They were to be activated after gravity was online. Dupree, although born and educated in France had attained his formidable reputation amongst the Medical elite for his work in China. He had developed techniques in microsurgery which took full advantage of nanotechnology, pioneering recovery from organ failure, which was not thought to be possible. His wider knowledge in viral propagation and genetics made him a stand out choice for the mission in terms of expertise. At 44 he was considered to be at the edge of the inclusive criteria, but was better qualified than most of the selection board to comment on his own medical profile.

Artificial gravity came online without a hitch and medical data began to feed into the Dupree database. A priority rota was established to use the sanitary facilities, which injected a timely dose of humour into the team psyche before communication was renewed with Beijing. When Xiang's image appeared he was already clutching a considerable wad of printouts. He quickly assured Magnusson that all was well and they needed to collaborate on exact burn requirement to achieve the acceleration/deceleration curve to Mars Orbit insertion point.

The propulsion system was one of the few technologies which had been 'adequately' proven prior to launch. Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasm Rockets had been tested in unmanned missions out into the solar system and had proved efficient, accurate and reliable. These plasma based propulsion units employed an electric power source to ionise the fuel to plasma. Electric fields then heated and accelerated the plasma while magnetic fields controlled the direction of plasma as it was ejected from the 'engine'. The main fuel employed was hydrogen, supported with helium and deuterium. Hydrogen is available in plentiful quantities throughout the cosmos. The initial electricity was provided by small nuclear power units.

Xiang casually asked if all astronauts were showing biomed readings within normal tolerance limits compared to their personal histories. Commander Magnusson affirmed they were, except for adrenaline levels, which were proportionately high in view of the excitement generated by the mission truly being underway. "Even mundane tasks like aerobic and muscle exercise sessions are anticipated with enthusiasm. Anyway, I believe we have the velocity curve data you asked for. Here is Carvalho."

Daniel Carvalho could hardly remember growing up; it seemed as if he was always involved in Space Technology. His father had been with the European Agency and fired Carvalho's imagination so much it was no surprise that the son followed the father. He had majored in Propulsion Theory and Mechanics in Boston. When his mother rang one day to deliver the fateful news that Fernando had been one of many victims of an air disaster - a company plane which crashed in the Alps, he was temporarily dislodged from his academic pursuit. Eventually he determined to take American citizenship to resume astronaut training and achieve what his father had always wanted – to be part of a manned mission to another world. Carvalho had lived for this time to the exclusion of everything else, and he was still only 27. "All parameters concur with Mission Control Commander Xiang, synchronisation complete."

"Excellent, please ask Dr. Balinsky to upload biomed stats immediately. Xiang out."

"Natalia, sorry, excuse me Dr. Balinsky," he joked, "the ice man wants your upload – don't we all."

"Why don't you get back to your toy rockets and tidy your quarters or there will be no late movie for you tonight." She brushed past the crestfallen engineer and proceeded to her station. Born in the Ukraine, she had migrated to Moscow to live with her grandparents when she was 9. Her mother had suffered a comatose existence before her father agreed to terminate life support. The car accident had left her father with a crushed pelvis and future wheelchair prospects. He had overcome this prognosis but never recovered from his decision to end his wife's silent struggle. When the authorities later revealed that the search for the hit and run driver was to be closed he deteriorated mentally and asked Natalia's grandparents to help out by looking after her until he could get himself together. He died from an overdose of antidepressants and vodka. It was considered to be an accident rather than suicide; the difference eluded Natalia for many years. She married young and divorced after only 2 years. She was drawn to technically understand how the conclusion of the coroner was so specific with respect to her father's final cocktail. She specialised in Supplemental Balance in St. Petersburg. Having gained the expertise to challenge the coroner's finding she also realised the futility of such action. As a result of the emotional vacuum she re-targeted her energy when a government publication featured an article on dietary research for extended space travel. She beat off stiff international competition to get the nod for Copernicus.

# Chapter 3

Although Natalia Balinsky had no formal qualifications in mathematics she had a natural ability to recognise number patterns in different ways. A photographic memory of rows and columns was one such talent. As she uploaded the biomed data requested by Xiang, she was disturbed that some of it did not look right. On checking her workstation data with the backup memory chips she kept in her locker, there were subtle differences between the two. Of the seven crew members, five had values marginally closer to the tolerance limits and further from the norm. The other two displayed the reverse. At first she questioned whether she had inadvertently skipped a backup session. She decided to let it pass but make a similar comparison the next time she recorded values.

Alex Redgrave was suffering from the feeling that everyone else was busy with their schedules whereas his would only really start when they arrived in 10 months. Knowing he would have to confront this, Mission Control had decided to leave some of the referencing work which could have been completed prior to the mission, to be executed during the flight. This was to give him meaningful work and have the correlation checks with Beijing as up to date as possible. Alex graduated in Chemistry and Geology in London and his post graduate PhD work had included projects in some historic sites such as Tunguska, Santorini, Krakatoa and the Gulf of Mexico. His remit was to collect samples of the Martian geological makeup and time-correlate the results as well as provide elemental analysis to fill in the planet's periodic table.

Redgrave, although British born, had spent all of his post grad years working with people from all kinds of backgrounds and disciplines. This had been a factor in his selection. He had demonstrated his ability to bond with team members. The lab equipment on board was impressive but limited by space, weight and support supplies – so the interface back in Beijing was absolutely the best available in both personnel and technology.

Commander Magnusson informed Veltrano that the preliminary rota for personal messaging to family should be distributed, and to inform the crew that this was to be viewed as a flexible situation to allow for changes in circumstances and emergencies.

A week into the journey, Natalia had detected further alterations to the Biomed data. Again there were five showing poor trend and two showing improvement. Only one of the two was the same as the first amendments. Extrapolating the trends would bring the entire crew into a tighter cluster than the actual results. She decided she had to bring this to the attention of Magnusson, and they both agreed to keep Beijing out of the loop until they had figured out who was involved, and why. They also concurred on uploading the correct readings while storing the false ones.

In the formation of the solar system it was believed that Earth and Mars condensed out of the solar nebula some 4.6 billion years ago. Other 'data' produced theories about the chronology since then. There was the probability of water 3.8 billion years ago, and maybe primitive life below the surface. Present studies suggested that the lack of a global magnetic field, and the circulation of molten metal in the core, is too sluggish to generate a dynamo. This was possibly present in the first few million years of Mars. Why did it turn off?

One possible explanation is that the planet lost its atmosphere around 4 billion years ago, and solar winds interacted directly with the ionosphere. The current atmospheric pressure is about 1% of that on Earth. A consequence is that any organic material near the surface would rapidly decompose and the surface 'soil' would continually be oxidised. This would not support life as we know it. Studying the epochs of the planet led to the following delineation:-

Noachian – prior to 3.5 billion years ago

Hesperian – 3.5 to 2.5/2.0 billion years ago

Amazonian – 2.5/2.0 to present.

In the later two periods there is some consensus on the existence of water flows and warmer periods. The reasoning was based on massive impacts terminating at the end of the Noachian period, and the subsequent prognoses of Carbon Dioxide and water vapour greenhouse effects, which gradually diminish and cease. Smaller impacts at that time would have caused flash heating for thousands of years. Volcanic activity at a much heavier intensity than Earth would have caused a Sulphur Dioxide greenhouse. Overlap of these conditions could have produced another greenhouse of Methane. Although there has been detection of methane in the current era this is not fully explained by the preceding chronological assumptions.

The loss of atmosphere and resultant radiation levels, coupled with the lack of ability to recycle carbonate rocks (as occurs on Earth), depicts a massive disadvantage in the chance of life as we know it developing and surviving on the surface of Mars. What there is left of the atmosphere is over 95% Carbon Dioxide, the remainder is Nitrogen and Oxygen in the ratio of about 15:1. The distillate of all this conjecture is that any sources of water or life potential are most likely to be found under the surface. However, the harsh surface conditions may throw up elements or compounds not naturally occurring on Earth.

This scenario meant that many 'boxes' had to be validated or unchecked early in the landing phase to allow Beijing to compute and modify further searches. This again demonstrated how critical the two month period between Copernicus touchdown and Darwin departure really was.

# Chapter 4

More altered biometric data had been discovered and Natalia requested that Commander Magnusson agree further investigation into identifying the culprit. Magnusson concurred and unconsciously shifted the starting point. "Why are you uploading the data when it comes from Dupree's database?"

She was silent for long enough for Magnuson to think she had not heard the question. Eventually she replied. "Well, it was part of the final division of tasks that Dupree suggested. As he's the chief medical presence, I support him on dietary regimes. He said it would make sense for me to have sight of the bio data by uploading it, and any recommendations which might occur to me on supplemental advice would be welcomed. He said he would be checking the database regularly anyway, and this way we would both be fully apprised of any abnormalities. It made a lot of sense. It was also approved by Beijing."

"That may be," said Magnusson, "but why hasn't he reported these discrepancies and why didn't you mention them to him before coming to me?"

Natalia was not too happy with such innuendo but knew it was a valid question. "The aberrations are minor and buried in a mass of figures. I didn't confront Dr. Dupree immediately because his own data had been altered and I couldn't be completely sure he hadn't mistakenly misread some columns or indeed altered them himself. It had slipped my mind that he'd suggested my involvement in the first place, now that seems much more significant." Magnusson nodded and asked her to request Dupree to join them.

"Commander, what can I do for you? Things seem to be going so smoothly I almost feel a bit redundant. You aren't feeling unwell I hope?"

As the Commander's careful revelation progressed, Dupree's expression changed from furtive to tearful. In the run up to the launch some of his routine one-on-ones with the crew had been interesting, in that excitement and trepidation co-existed throughout the crew. This was perfectly understandable, but in one case, namely Banjani, it was complicated by the breakup of her relationship as a direct result of the mission. "Her blood pressure was escalating steadily and I advised her to reconsider her involvement. She couldn't do that so close to departure with the attendant effect on morale, and the adverse publicity this would bring to her family. I told her I could not administer control medication as it would trigger her enforced withdrawal. Alternatively once the mission was in process, any medication of that type would be prohibited, as it has no published history in space flight, let alone a year on Mars. She accepted this and convinced me that it was helpful that I now knew about her dilemma; she felt it was obvious that determination to annex the mental conflict would stabilise the bothersome trend. She achieved this and I suspected nothing until we left orbit, when she confessed that she had managed to obtain BP reducers through her own channels. The trend was reversed slightly and her upbeat character was back. I picked up a small deterioration immediately, as she had stopped the pills before launch and she couldn't risk smuggling them aboard. Faced with the alternatives I perhaps naively believed that she could get on top of this, now that the practical dilemma has gone – as we are on our way. I didn't want anyone else to be dragged into this so I asked Natalia to simply upload the data I had certified. I don't know what else to say Commander."

"Why did you alter your own readings?"

"Merely to convince the backup team in Beijing that there was no cause for concern."

"And Veltrano's readings?"

"Same thing. Readings showing a slight negative trend, and then reversal with two or three people makes the situation more credible. I was intending to correct Veltrano's and my own as soon as Banjani stabilised, which I still believe will happen."

Magnusson stared in to Dupree's eyes and told him to leave until he had considered what to do. He also told both the doctor and Natalia not to mention this to the crew, including Banjani.

When everyone had the messaging roster it was rather predictable that some were unhappy. Carvalho really wanted to let his mother know how it felt to be achieving his father's dream and he was last on the list. The spreading of sessions meant he had to wait another two days. Natalia was to wait one more day and she had an acute desire to speak to her grandparents now, as she had nobody else. She would not have need to speak to them frequently after this contact, so she asked Veltrano to move her up the list, informing him that both Banjani and Redgrave were happy to swap slots with her.

To her astonishment Veltrano simply ignored the request. When Carvalho heard this, he accused the Comm. Officer of being childish and burdened him with his own desire to switch with Redgrave. Veltrano merely stated that this was not up for discussion. If he really wanted to make an issue of this he should speak to the Commander.

"Who the hell do you think you are? You have no seniority here, and the fact that two of our colleagues are flexible, is helpful to our situation as well as being good for crew morale." Veltrano stared at him expressionlessly and shook his head. "Ok, if that is the best you can do I will see Magnusson; have a nice day yourself."

Carvalho told Natalia that he would speak with the Commander on her behalf as well. This was appreciated in view of the bio data episode. Veltrano had not handled this well, but his training extended to security in addition to communications. His remit was heavily defined by Beijing and Magnusson knew of this irregularity (but not the detail). Mission Control had insisted there was not to be haphazard misuse of this facility. They needed to know in advance who was to be in touch with whom, at what time, and for how long. This was bound to seem like overkill at best, and mistrust if it came out in the wrong way. Javier Veltrano had not consulted the crew prior to his production of the 'tablet of stone', simply because he did not foresee such an emotional response. "Jesus," he pleaded to Magnusson, "they are going to be away for the best part of 3 years; what difference does a few hours make?"

The Commander agreed but reminded Veltrano he had himself suggested flexibility with the first roster. "What does occur to me is that some do not really seem to want much communication time at all. This will only complicate matters if we have to follow orders to maintain an unaltered schedule. If we're to achieve this I think it would be best to help them derive the initial one to their own satisfaction with the caveat that it then remains unaltered."

Veltrano objected that this would diminish his respect. Perhaps he should have thought about that before being so intransigent to a reasonable request, and he was told so. "You could have bought some time if you had stopped to think about it. This isn't some critical failure that requires a risky EVA. You need to revise your view of your function on board. I know you must support Beijing's needs - so must I - but there are some aspects of a mission like this where we also have to avoid endangering morale, and therefore the objective. Please tell the crew that we've discussed the matter and I've asked you to come up with a more balanced solution. That gives you the chance to restore any respect you may have prejudiced."

Veltrano accepted the 'request' but was not happy. Unknown to the crew, including Magnusson, he had undergone high level scrutiny and training at a Beijing adjunct of Mission Control, which was staffed by Intelligence agents of the major players in the Confederation of Nations. Magnusson's 'request' could have implications for the rest of his remit. He duly handled the task of modifying the roster and was thanked by the crew, with the exception of Carvalho, who offered no response.

# Chapter 5

Natalia had spent a lot of her free time looking into Banjani's historical medical stats to see if there was any clue to her subtle rise in blood pressure in recent months. It seemed to be a fruitless search, but she kept at it mainly because of her memory of her own marriage break-up and the appreciation of how difficult that must be, under the spotlight of the Mission 'microscope'. Suddenly, certain values stood out to her trained eye and she felt she may be on to something. Banjani's data indicated a slight but sudden decline in potassium level. Significant falls are a serious problem and levels such as hers would be just about enough to cause mild Hypokalaemia. Common symptoms which can be frequently experienced with this condition are - dry skin, blisters, confusion, anxiety, and hypertension with sleep deprivation. Having spoken with Banjani she learned that her skin was demanding more moisturising cream than normal, she had no blistering or confusion, but had all the other symptoms, particularly sleep deprivation.

Natalia met with Dupree and suggested that they informed Commander Magnusson of the possibility of a simple supplement restoring Banjani's medical stats to normal. Pascal Dupree was relieved that this may indeed be the underlying cause of the adverse trend and hoped it might mitigate some of the loss of confidence that Magnusson must have in his judgement. When they did meet, Natalia was quite forceful in her assertion that this could have been picked up by Beijing, so by extension of that logic it was not unreasonable that Dupree and herself had also missed the possible connection. Magnusson accepted this point and conceded to delay any disciplinary review until Banjani's potassium levels were normalised and the resulting BP trend had been studied.

Dupree thanked Natalia once they were alone and was quite emotional when he hugged her. "I'm merely doing my job Pascal - please don't get too hopeful yet. We have proved nothing."

"Yes, forgive me. This is a little premature, but I would be very happy for Banjani if you were right. I am partly responsible for the crew's health and morale, endorphins and all. Even if it turns out that this is not the cause, your diligence is a great source of encouragement to me that we will identify the trigger for her BP trend. I was looking at the macro interconnections to the detriment of detail effects. I would like to invite you to make any suggestions for overhaul of Beijing dictates we may have over the rest of the trip. Provided the Commander doesn't restrict my original remit you can be sure that 'I'm listening'."

Veltrano had agreed to the consensus roster and because Natalia had been so busy, Carvalho had first slot. Veltrano had copied Beijing into the order and time schedule. Only Xiang at Mission Control had security clearance for this and he passed it on to Mission Intelligence then erased his copy. The MI boys had a sophisticated diversion transmission chip installed at the residences of all of the crew's nominated contacts. As far as the families were concerned the main Beijing technical people had simply installed the basic hardware on which they could speak to their loved ones in privacy. This was 'precautionary' because of what was at stake and would give MI any hint of emotional variance in the crew when compared to their routine formal reporting. Why would there be any variance? 'Who knows?' was the answer.

"Hi Mama, it's Daniel. Sorry I haven't had a chance to say hello before now. Everything is going well and as the Earth is shrinking behind us I can see why Papa wanted to do this so badly. It's like nothing else I've ever known, and I'm somehow less and less worried about the potential dangers out there. Anyway, the propulsion systems are behaving themselves but the big test will come when we get close to Mars orbit." He was extremely conscious of his mother's natural anxiety, having lost her husband on a completely routine flight. Just as well she was nowhere near capable of understanding the degree of theoretical design which the mission depended upon.

"You make us all proud here Dani; you seem to be on the news every hour. I hope you stay fit and healthy with all that experimental food. Your face looks thinner." He convinced her that it was picture distortion and reminded her that as the mission progressed they would not be able to have real time conversations because of the delay in the signal reaching Earth. They would have to send pre-recorded messages. She couldn't grasp this too easily and said she didn't have that problem with his sister in Australia and that was a long way away. He smiled and they talked about his nephew and two nieces before saying goodbye. He felt really relaxed now that he had made this first contact 'on behalf' of his father and still could not comprehend how Veltrano could have been so insensitive knowing his history. He was still smarting from his altercation with the Mexican.

Natalia was next to play E.T. and call home. Her grandparents were extremely relieved to hear from her. Having already lost one of their children it would have been exceptionally distressing for that horror to be followed by such fate for a grandchild. "I'm settling into my work now that we've left Earth and the rest of the crew is similarly engaged, so the time passes quickly. Everything has gone like clockwork since launch. The synthetic food isn't going to be welcomed, but the short time we were on it back on Terra will mean we know what to expect." They both laughed at this and she was reassured that they seemed so relaxed. Although they had been aware of Nikolai's prostate problems for some four months, they had kept it from her as they knew such knowledge would have resulted in her pulling out of the mission. They both raised a healthy measure of Vodka to her, but sipped it slowly and resisted the temptation to throw the glasses at the fireplace. Olga put that down to her husband needing some new laser eye treatment, and her estimation that he would have probably hit the cat, which was the same colour as the fireplace. Natalia was so happy that they were in such good spirits and slept much better than she had expected.

The velocity following the burn had gradually increased to circa 80,000 kph and was expected to peak at just under 120,000 kph after 2 months, then gradually it would be reduced to 75,000 kph just prior to Mars Orbit Insertion in 10 months.

Natalia acquainted Banjani with her prognosis that she was a little low in potassium and prescribed the requisite supplemental dosage. Banjani was quick to enquire if she had run this by Dupree and very happy to try it out when the answer was in the affirmative. There was no need for any hint to Banjani that anyone other than Dupree knew of her predicament at this juncture.

# Chapter 6

Copernicus was almost at the halfway point and the crew felt the mission had been routine. The exceptions were – breakdown frequency of the sanitary systems, a micro board failure in life support regulation, and the strained interpersonal relationships. The first two were annoying but were easily fixed. The difficulties in crew morale were becoming a cause for concern, not least of all to Magnusson. The positives were there too; Banjani's blood pressure had normalised. Natalia's supplement prescription had corrected the worrying trend and this had fostered a close friendship between the two. As a direct result, Magnusson informed Dupree that he would not be making a report on this in his log. Dupree was visibly relieved, and this 'burden removed' signalled a vigorous and thorough communication of personal medical data and wellbeing to the crew on a regular basis, to fit with their duties. It was well received and impressed Commander Magnusson.

Carvalho and Redgrave had managed to strike up a rapport around sport, number theory and the projected advance of artificial intelligence. The first two were shared interest, the latter a complete disagreement but total respect for the other's argument. The bad news was more complicated and under the surface, yet still observable as a strain. Veltrano was a loner, and despite the enormous amount of effort by the Commander to involve him in group activity during leisure time, he remained aloof and distrusted by everyone except Redgrave. The others perceived him as an outsider, an inspector, an auditor - but falling short of being a spy. Strangely, this matched his view of his own purpose on the mission. To him, Communications Officer meant to Mission Control.

Magnusson kept asking himself why this lone furrow tendency had not been picked up during training, and he then entertained the notion that it may have been planned. He periodically asked Dupree about Veltrano's med stats and always received the same assurance of 'fine'.

Availing of psychology experience in the field he decided to ease off a little and concentrate on the others. Carvalho had been so dedicated to getting to this point in his life that he had not had a relationship with a female other than casual speed dating contacts. He had repeatedly tried to correct this on Copernicus by flirting openly with Natalia. When he was rebuffed in the presence of others he displayed juvenile traits of sarcastic defensive rudeness, forgetting that he chose the public forum. This was an escalating problem in a closed environment. He really believed that 'no' meant 'yes'. Natalia had not had a successful relationship since her short marriage despite trying with several physically and culturally attractive men. Upon reluctantly resorting to a therapist, she recoiled at the suggestion she may always be comparing her suitors to her father, and finding that they came up short. Over time she began to accept this may have some validity when allied to her main upbringing being influenced by her grandparents, and its continual reference to her missing father, then her dead father who may have committed suicide.

Although she had initially found Carvalho attractive and liked his sharp sense of humour, the goldfish bowl effect did not allow any relief from his constant presence, and 'cheap' pursuit of her affection so publicly. It had eventually affected Redgrave, and his defence of Natalia was offered with the potential cost of some deterioration in his own friendship with Carvalho. Banjani vociferously belittled Carvalho when she was present to the point that he kept quiet in the First Officer's orbit. This burgeoning soap opera culminated in Carvalho privately and confidentially asking Dupree for something to calm his nerves and thereby his unpleasantness. Dupree was understandably reluctant to get involved in a second clandestine mission of mercy without first briefing Magnusson. He promised Carvalho he would look into it with some urgency.

Alex Redgrave's correlation work with Beijing had been temporarily halted because one of the pieces of analytical equipment had developed a fault. The science lab was part of the Descent module, and to save resources, including energy, during the flight, the temperature and life support facilities were on an automatic cycle. Redgrave had to plan his work to that schedule. Sometimes it was when most of the others were sleeping and as he had to exit the command module after checking the conditions were normal in the science lab, the opening and closing of the pod's pneumatic doors was not conducive to uninterrupted sleep. He was asked if he could alter the pre-set cycle to a more considerate one for the rest of the crew.

In discussing this with Magnusson he succeeded in getting the OK for a three week period. The caveat was to involve someone else to ensure secondary checks with the system alteration. This was to comply with safety directives. The candidates most obviously qualified were Veltrano and Carvalho. The former was preferred by Commander Magnusson for two reasons – his higher maths and code structure experience and the chance to draft him into a team project. Initially it went well. Redgrave actually managed to demonstrate that the sporadic fault with the NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) equipment was related to the automatic cycle which had been chosen in the first place. The recommendation was for the cycle to be abandoned until the correlation work was completed. Veltrano disagreed, saying that resource economy was critical and the correlation should wait until the science facility was on Mars, where solar power could be used to complete the analytical tie up task. He further argued that there would be a time gap between planet arrival and the drilling phase for samples. This would easily be adequate for a programme which was only included in the flight schedule to keep Redgrave busy. Having considered the alternatives, Magnusson felt that Veltrano was right and suggested that Redgrave could usefully assist with some other duties for the remainder of the flight.

Redgrave was less than happy but concurred with the logic and agreed, however when this was aired over dinner Carvalho predictably stated the conclusion was invalid. If he had been consulted he would have demonstrated that the Beijing 'belt and braces' paranoia over energy conservation was ridiculous. The small nuclear power units to run the habitat, lab, and other ancillary equipment such as the drillbot were well overdesigned. Additionally, in his humble opinion, the fractional increase in consumption of life support facility that Redgrave needed to complete his work would be substantially if not totally recovered by the algae farms they were to construct on Mars. His estimates of growth and oxygen recapture from these expanding farms were persuasive. He felt good about dislodging Veltrano's dogma. "What if the power units are damaged during descent and landing?" queried the Mexican.

"That is an Armageddon situation which would kill the entire mission and all of us, so it's not really a factor in this context." Magnusson agreed and changed his decision to get the equipment correlation over with quickly, and then they would know the net resource deficit as soon as possible. Veltrano shrugged his shoulders in a gesture of 'you are the boss' and displayed a facial expression of defiance. This however would not be the end of the matter. Veltrano reported this detour from agreed protocol with Mission Control, without informing Magnusson, stating that as Commander he should have sought approval to implement this.

The fact that the ever increasing distance from Earth and the need for pre-recorded messaging was in operation complicated matters. Having real time face-to-face discussion would have been preferable, however the time delay had introduced the wisdom of hindsight and helped justify Veltrano's fifth column role in the eyes of Beijing Intelligence. This would produce an uneasy situation for Xiang and a Big Brother one on board Copernicus. Veltrano could have handled this better. He however, felt Magnusson should face that accusation. Significantly, so did Mission Intelligence - particularly Wes Allbright, the USA presence in that arm of Beijing.

# Chapter 7

The discussion between Allbright and Xiang was heated to say the least. The Mission Controller agreed that Magnusson should have discussed any proposed protocol overrides, but criticised Veltrano for his covert reporting of this to Security, by-passing both Magnusson and himself. Xiang told Allbright that morale in such a disparate crew was fragile and needed support, not such divisive behaviour. This met with accusations of naivety with such a sloppy chain of command. In summary the disharmony was now cemented in both locations. Xiang's dilemma was whether or not to tell Magnusson, and, if he did, whether he could recommend keeping the crew in the dark. By contrast Wes Allbright was only concerned about protecting Veltrano's actual brief.

After sleeping on it they compromised on Xiang asking for a full brief of the mission status at the halfway point. This gave Magnusson a chance to report the problem and proposed correction strategy. Allbright was to instruct Veltrano to make future communications of this nature with his commander present. Unknown to Xiang, a subsequent transmission to Veltrano thanked him for his correct view of reporting this incident, when he established that Magnusson had not.

********

The wry smile reinforced Veltrano's interpretation of his own remit. The procrastination over this relatively minor change had done nothing to address sleep deprivation of the crew and consequently exacerbated Veltrano's alienation by those affected. Another source of irritation was the duty rosters and available hygiene facility. With five males and two females privacy was not optimally linked to individual duty breaks. Magnusson asked Banjani to look into this latest kindergarten squabble and come up with some revision which 'did not require Mission Control debate'.

The new roster separated the hygiene slots by gender to avoid some of the previous embarrassment, and some of the affected routine duties were adjusted to fit. One of the first female sessions found Natalia undressing as Banjani exited the sonic shower. Natalia was taken aback at the First Officer's apparent indifference to being completely naked while conversing about minor adjustments of orbit insertion creating a disproportionate amount of work for little gain. She was also startled by her colleague's breathtakingly beautiful body - a slender athletic build and exquisitely proportioned. Natalia did her best to concentrate on Banjani's words and not allow her gaze to linger on the impressive physique.

"My neck is aching from just following the simulated trajectories for the last three hours, and these Sonics don't really relax you like a genuine hot power shower." Natalia immediately regretted suggesting a neck and back massage, realising she would have to perform such a potentially intimate contact. She stuttered something about part of her medical training involving remedial conditioning. "That sounds like heaven; do we have time before the testosterone brigade reclaims the hygiene territory?"

"Err, no n-not really," retreated Natalia.

"Pity. Would it be an imposition to ask if you could do it after dinner in my quarters – if you are free, of course?" Natalia affirmed that it would be no problem and they agreed a time. She entered the shower having undressed but protected with a robe, not wishing her own rather elegant body to be subject to similar inspection as her friend's was. When Banjani had left and she was alone again, Natalia simply could not erase the vision and had to confess to herself that she was experiencing arousal. This was new and quite disturbing. Sudden panic set in anticipating the actual massage. As she got ready to leave the locker area she noticed something different about her locker content. Not the items, but the way they were stored. This was a similar type of observation which had first pinpointed Banjani's potassium deficiency. Her photographic memory of order and her own tendency to arrange all things systematically convinced her that someone had been tampering with or inspecting the contents. When she realised her lab coat had the collar next to the door and not adjacent to the rear of the locker, she immediately checked the left side pocket for the memory pod. It was in the other pocket. Why would they transfer it? She found out why when she interfaced it with the system – it was blank. Several uncomfortable minutes passed before she decided it may have been switched with hers to enable copying and then would be re-switched as soon as possible, or possibly she was supposed to believe that she had inadvertently wiped it herself by mistake. It was probably the latter if they had chosen the hygiene scenario to act, as it would be another 24 hours before a similar opportunity arose and she would have accessed the pod frequently before then. So - did they want to lose data rather than gain it?

Who were 'they'? Logically, Banjani had the best opportunity as the locker key was left in the lock when Natalia had entered the shower, and she was unsighted inside the cubicle. Banjani was gone when she came out. It was compelling and yet she did not want to believe it. She could remember a considerable amount of the data in terms of trends but not specific numbers. She also knew that the culprit would know this was only a backup pod, so it could imply a similar desire to corrupt the main database. She could not go to anyone with such a preposterous story based solely on hypothesis and no evidence. This had also taken the edge off her anticipation of the forthcoming massage. This brief deliberation was interrupted by someone pressing the entry request to the facility. She was relieved when it was Dupree, avoiding a potential one-on-one with Carvalho. "Scrub up Comrade."

"Oui? Merci bien ma Cherie - 15 all - D'accord?" She poked her tongue at her 'boss' in a good humoured gesture of insolence and returned to her quarters.

# Chapter 8

After he had 'scrubbed up' Dupree headed for his arranged session with the Commander. Once he had relayed Carvalho's request for medication to Magnusson he accommodated the long silence from the Swede without concern. Eventually the response came. "Why do you think he came to you?"

"I thought I had just explained Commander, he wants me to...."

"No," interjected Magnusson, "why do you feel he needs to unburden himself like this? He's always been very confident in his own view of everything, to the point of arrogance, or at least insensitivity"

"Oh," said Dupree, feeling caught off guard, "I am not really focussed on psycho-medical analysis; I tend to diagnose, prescribe and treat." Seeing that the Commander was totally unimpressed with his response he made the compounding error of trying to convey a relaxed demeanour when he actually felt the briefing was descending into an interrogation.

"I know we are all supposed to be 'mission proofed' by our training regime but that is not in any way something which can be guaranteed. I'm rather alarmed that you take such a simplistic view of your role in a situation that none of us have experienced before. I suggest you consider what really made him lower his guard like this. It's called bedside manner." Dupree could have done with a tranquiliser himself. Magnusson asked him to stall the medication until more was known about Carvalho's sudden vulnerability. He also referred to his frequent questioning of Veltrano's med stats, revealing that this was also to try to fathom the Mexican's aversion to team ethic; something which should have stood out in the Earth preparation simulations, like a nudist at a funeral.

Dupree uttered a feeble apology that he had unconsciously blurred the difference between psychoanalysis and bedside manner, probably because he had assumed rock solid personalities were a given in such a mundane journey, more likely that 'wobbles' would occur in tense scenarios like landing. Magnusson checkmated this dismissive attitude by referring to Dupree's misdemeanour with Banjani's blood pressure. The Commander looked right into his eyes when he declared, "Technically, as I've already said, you were in breach of protocol with your initial cover up of this, but you might have otherwise deprived us of the best available First Officer. You were lucky that Natalia found a benign explanation and we were lucky we did not have a last minute re-shuffle of personnel to deal with. Look for explanation, we will re-visit this soon." The 'Doc' felt like a profoundly relieved patient and once again set out to regain the Commander's confidence. It was time for that Beijing update session, with the time delay making its own mischief out of an already apprehensive atmosphere.

********

Xiang opened the transmission jovially and casually asked if everyone was beginning to enthuse about the upcoming orbit phase. Magnusson affirmed this and reported that the journey had been virtually 'bug free' and therefore bordering on monotony in recent 'days'. Before Xiang could interrupt Magnusson continued. "We have only one malfunction to report...the NMR analyser has been misfiring and we pinpointed the auto-cycling of the Lab conditions as the problem." He went on to explain the discussions in detail, first going with Veltrano's recommendation, then being persuaded by Carvalho's logic, to revise his decision. He further stated that he would appreciate Beijing's viewpoint, and if they felt it necessary he was happy to have detailed counter logic to revert to the original plan, or even postpone the equipment correlation until touchdown, as Veltrano had originally recommended.

Roberto Xiang was visibly relieved at this unsolicited report from Commander Magnusson and shot a predatory glance toward Allbright, who was off camera and not visible from Copernicus. He went through many routine details and checkpoints with Magnusson, and concluded by thanking the crew for their patience with all the minor calculations of orbit insertion projection - calculated and compared from both locations. It wasn't just a drill, but did embrace that aspect if unforeseen factors emerged on approach to the red planet; the time delay at that point may prove critical. It made sense.

Magnusson was pleased and closed by reminding Xiang of the secure one-on-one session Mission Control had requested, prior to orbit insertion, to bring him up to date with personnel data. He added that he was saying this within earshot of the crew, and the cam panned around to show the Copernicus family waving to Earth reception. "They are smiling now but wait until they see their report."

The open way he referred to morale, med stats and teamwork, betrayed no clandestine motive. It had been planned before the mission, everyone knew about it. That was not how it was perceived by Allbright. After the session was concluded he felt Veltrano was vulnerable. His praise of Magnusson seemed a little too enthusiastic to Xiang but he let it pass. Allbright had to figure out if indeed Copernicus and Mission Control did have a designed option of secure contact which eluded his people's elaborate snooping. He was angry that he did not have detail on whether this had been anticipated.

Natalia decided to apologise to Banjani, because something had come up. "Can we reschedule?"

"Of course, just let me know when you are free." Natalia had been tortured by the thought that the person most qualified to get in and out of the system without leaving log in evidence was Veltrano. She was not convinced that Banjani had sufficient motive for this action. Her synapses were ablaze with patterns of behaviour of the crew and what possible explanations would connect any of this to the pod. When she checked the system herself there was no obvious evidence of tampering but this was a cursory check, a comprehensive trawl would take hours, it had to be done.

Surely Magnusson was above suspicion? She had to tell him? Tell him what? She would know when the time was right. When Dupree asked her about Carvalho it was innocently disguised to determine if her constant rejection of his crude flirting might be part of his reason for requesting medication. She, however, overlaid this with a motive for the pod swap. It only occurred to her later that there was no evidence she could recall on the system which would indicate he had a problem. Dupree's unconscious prod had forced her to go over the whole motive issue again before comparison with behavioural observation. She was approaching cerebral meltdown so she would sleep on it.

# Chapter 9

Wes Allbright was checking on pre-agreements with the big four leaders on the limitations of Mission Control on political matters. He asked Karl-Jens Koppelt to remind him of the various situations falling within this umbrella. The German-born Swiss national was concerned that Allbright had not requested this in the context of some possible breach rather than a blanket query.

As Copernicus was approaching orbit, the first relevant stage for the M.I. people was landing. Once established on Mars there were types of information which the crew may uncover which needed scrutiny by Intelligence, before release of such data to the world at large. Examples quoted were evidence of life, past or present, or a scenario of poor potential of colonisation. There were many more, and therefore the communication protocol would alter after successful landing to include Allbright in every update from the Mars base. The individual channels between crew and family homes would cease, the relatives would be flown to Beijing, and again Allbright would supervise the playbacks and edit out any unsuitable revelations. Similarly he would post-edit the families' recordings before transmission. The stakes of this project were so high that if the landing was unsuccessful or tragic, this would not be revealed openly. It would have to be managed to avoid any premature alteration of the follow up mission. There was also a requirement to continually monitor any behaviour which might indicate terrorism on Copernicus or in Beijing, or even political/financial advantage accruing to any outside entity. Naturally Xiang and Magnusson were ignorant of these policies. Allbright instructed Koppelt to stay vigilant, and to continually remind the American of the importance of required censorship.

********

Natalia decided that the risk of not telling Magnusson about the pod switch was potentially more damaging than coming clean and later finding he could be involved. The Commander did not react at first, then asked if she was absolutely sure she was not mistaken – a valid question. She convinced him by several references to her own 'obsessive' need for order. She was more likely to forget the colour of a fire engine than the order of the three kings in a poker hand. He was disturbed, but not as much as she expected. The first priority was to stay alert and keep this to the two of them for now; they could endanger lives if they lost focus while approaching orbit. He suggested they met regularly but casually, to compare notes, and he then made a strange request. He was worried about Dupree, and acquainted her with the Frenchman's lack of appreciation of his responsibility, especially the need to look further than pills when people are acting out of character in asking for help. Magnusson regretted having to burden her with such sensitive information, but he had to put the crew morale and wellbeing first. The bombshell was that he wanted her to second guess, when asked, Dupree's recommendations in similar circumstances. It was irregular, but so was hurtling toward a planet possibly incapable of sustaining life, which commanded priority. She had to agree. Magnusson promised to give her his input on her 'Sherlock' quest.

Carvalho and Redgrave were playing chess when Veltrano interrupted to report an LED flashing red. "I am not observing, merely passing a message from First Officer Banjani."

"Who are you passing the message to Senor?"

Veltrano did not overreact to the heavy sarcasm when he replied. "Apparently it may be related to propulsion variance. Anybody know anything about engines?" Carvalho angrily rose from the table, deliberately colliding with Veltrano and knocking him over. "Sorry mate, you did say it was urgent didn't you? Here let me help you up." Veltrano smiled but declined assistance. When he was alone with Redgrave he casually asked who was going to report this to the Boss, adding that he had a choice – to be witness or accuser.

With the orbit insertion approaching there was excitement mixed with apprehension, and any glitches with propulsion would shift the fulcrum significantly toward the latter. The warning signal occurring when propulsion was not operational was unusual. Banjani pointed at the helm display. It was indicating pressure variation in helium storage – vessel one, which would normally suggest a leak. It was puzzling that the external detectors did not confirm that as a cause. Carvalho's first reaction was that the LED had an intermittent fault. Rather than replace it with a spare he decided to swap it with its duplicate on vessel two, which was apparently functioning normally. "I'll inform Magnusson after I've checked telemetric data on the main control system."

"OK, please get back to me when you have any further information, because you know that Beijing will insist on hundreds of repeat simulations if any parameter changes."

Magnusson asked Carvalho if he had considered the pressure aberration could be valid and the external detector faulty. "Yes I have, and I'm not entirely ruling it out, but I would estimate the reliability of the detectors to be an order of magnitude greater than the pressure monitors. Also if helium was escaping I would not expect the LED to flash at irregular intervals, it should be constantly lit. Either way Commander, I think that we can only be certain if we go in there and look, check it out and change the unit. I can also ask Alex to come with me, and use an atmospheric density gauge to improve the prognosis of whether helium is present before we enter the storage section to carry out my tests. Protocol demands we have two people on any task like this. I must admit I always felt these stipulations were overkill, but this shows that I was wrong."

Magnusson was impressed with his focus considering he had asked Dupree for help. "Fine Carvalho, I'll contact Beijing immediately but don't let that hold you up. We can't afford to have any potential helium leak merrily vaporising in our midst while Mission Control debate all possible causes. Stay in communication with Banjani continually and ask Veltrano to patch me into the loop in the message room."

"Sure. I have to checkout telemetry before we suit up so you may want Banjani to organise Veltrano. That will save Alex time in detecting any density irregularity, therefore leak?"

"Good idea, let's go."

Banjani briefed Veltrano and he privately welcomed the chance of a 'happenchance' meeting with Magnusson to get the Commander to ask why his cheekbone was sporting a medical dressing, applied by Dupree.

Carvalho quickly briefed Redgrave and told Banjani that she should switch the LED on his signal. Redgrave was quite excited about having something really necessary to do now rather than at his leisure, and he decided not to mention Veltrano's threat to report Carvalho to the Commander at this time, as it could easily affect his judgement. Anyway, the childish duel they had nurtured deserved no attention, let alone urgency right now, although he would be forced to tell it as it happened when the time came.

When they exited the airlock and entered the propulsion section they quickly adjusted their oxygen supply to auto, and made their way carefully to an observation port where they could look at the storage area before opening the dividing door. If there had been massive escape of liquid helium, the point of leakage would betray some observable turbulence as the liquid/gas interface equilibrated. The monitoring camera was at the opposite side to their observation port and consequently could not offer conclusive evidence one way or the other. They could not see any such rippling effect so Redgrave proceeded to open the door. He placed the wireless gauge close to the bottom of vessel one and set the data transmission cycle to his palmtop and made his way back to join his colleague. With the light coming from the other direction now he reported seeing his own 'footprints' as a slight sweat. He also said that he saw what looked like the track of a snail near the door. Looking up, it appeared that some sealant had 'dripped' from a conduit which was to deliver fuel to the main propulsion area. He stopped, waved at Carvalho and pointed upwards, but Carvalho shrugged his shoulders and motioned to him to come out as he reopened the door.

When he had explained his discovery Carvalho nodded but said they must first tell Banjani to swap the LED if his palmtop indicated constant density. After some twenty readings there was no measurable change and Banjani started the switch. Meanwhile, Redgrave's report of silicone sealant breach had caught Magnusson's attention during his transmission dialogue with Xiang. He asked Redgrave if it was from the actual conduit or the seal around the 'hole' in the partition wall. The reply was simple - it was very close to the hole and looked like part of the cushioning for the conduit, but the light was poor and their helmet torches were too dim to be sure. "OK, get out of there and we will make a second investigation."

By the time they returned to the helm, Banjani had good news; the LED was flashing to say vessel two had pressure variation. Carvalho gave her the spare and left to report to Magnusson. When he arrived his stomach churned as he noticed Veltrano's face. Magnusson's words surprised him. As the Mexican had been with the Commander at the time of Redgrave's discovery, Veltrano had considered this a bad time to file a charge against a colleague on an exercise which could make him a hero for a day. So he had told the Commander he had inadvertently walked into his open locker door in hygiene. This of course was at odds with what Redgrave had seen and what Veltrano had initially told Dupree. "Despite his mishap, Veltrano insists he wants to help further investigate this 'snail trail' and he is fixing up a fibre optic device with sufficient flexibility to illuminate the entire circumference of the seal, so we can remotely monitor the situation. How long do you need?"

"Three hours, maybe four."

"Well then, both of you get to work on it while I give Beijing the shits." As they left the Commander, Carvalho was first to speak. "I owe you one, why?"

Veltrano responded. "I really don't know, I guess when you are all in danger you see things differently, and as they say in my country 'it takes two to tango' so let's get the fairy lights up and see if we can dance, or whether we have a big problem, deal?"

"Let's go," agreed Carvalho.

# Chapter 10

Having reported the 'podgate' episode, Natalia was more relaxed and her thoughts involuntarily returned to her intoxication with Banjani's presence, naked or otherwise. Prime suspect or not, she had to avoid deluding herself about her feelings. The butterflies in her stomach betrayed a newly found attraction. It was alarming yet pleasant that this was intensely physical, something she had not experienced to this level with any male. Her discipline and objectivity were under siege. It was utterly impossible to sleep. The massage was beckoning but she would have to lead the conversation to determine any involvement Banjani could have had in the 'incident'. Natalia fixed a time convenient to both of them and decided a good starting point for the dialogue would be the recent scare about the helium leak.

Veltrano was just putting the finishing touches to his optics device when Carvalho entered his workspace. "Just a few more minutes and we can go," beamed the Mexican. His former adversary had been presented with time to fathom Veltrano's newly found team ethic and affability. There was something strange about the abrupt U-turn in his demeanour now that the relief of explaining the altercation was not an issue. Despite this nagging doubt he wanted to make the most of the olive branch and he knew he needed to 'grow up' a little himself.

"Anything I can do Javier?" he asked timidly.

"Yeah, can you bunch those ones neatly and use some of that tape to keep them together at one end, but separate the other ends by colour." They worked for a couple of minutes in silence then Veltrano asked Carvalho to feed the taped end through a transparent plastic tube until he could make the appropriate connections to engage the relay software. He then picked up his portable 'light box' and declared the rest could be done at the investigation site.

Carvalho assisted as requested while Veltrano arranged the mock up around the sealed area, and they exchanged pleasantries about the influence of their respective families on their careers. When the setup was completed there were no high fives, but the sense of achievement was tangible.

"What exactly are we looking for?" enquired Veltrano.

"Well, Alex is really the one who can explain any chemical breakdown of the seal and he is already examining fragments of what we scraped off the floor earlier, but this optics rig will hopefully give us a picture of the mechanics to go with his findings."

"Right, I'd better get back and implement the final remote link up. I'm curious to see the outcome...you will let me know if Alex comes up with anything?"

"Absolutely. As soon as we know."

Xiang was visibly relieved that there was no helium leak and said he would contact the sealant supplier to ask for their comments. He also wanted his people whose job it was to oversee the sealing operation, to investigate this failure. He said he would come back to Magnusson to report any progress. The Swede noticed some unusual body language from the Controller, and pondered over Xiang's pre-mission request to contact him on a secure channel with the personnel reports. He was a little disturbed at Xiang's uncharacteristic vagueness.

Dupree was not good at putting people at their ease while teasing out of them what was really bothering them. He was a fact and action Doctor and he consequently would have a difficult task with Carvalho, especially after the fracas. To his amazement his patient was apologetic about the incident and also declared he no longer wanted to register for medication. He put the request down to a feeling of 'let down' after the euphoria of fulfilling his father's dream. The journey had been mundane and lacked the anticipated stimulation he had imagined. The recent panic had reminded him of the tenuous existence they were in, and he would settle for boring again. On giving this feedback to Magnusson, Dupree had no knowledge of Veltrano's white lie over the conflict with Carvalho, and unknowingly informed the Commander of the truth. Magnusson, drawing on his psychology experience let it pass without comment and thanked Dupree but stressed the increasing need to be vigilant for signs of anxiety in all of the crew. Reflecting on this when he was alone, he preferred not to raise the issue again, and determined to build on this mini-crisis to get Veltrano more involved in broader aspects of the mission.

Although it was not strictly necessary for a back and neck massage Banjani stripped off to the waist and innocently said, "Which way do you want me?" Natalia asked her to lie on her stomach and maintained her discipline by insisting that an effective massage should be at least a tad uncomfortable. "I will only decrease the intensity at your request." As the preparation was gradually infused into her aching body Banjani quietly moaned and remarked on the sensuous aroma of the cream. "It's my own formula. I think you are probably inhaling the vapour of sandalwood oil, and the good news is it lingers in the epidermis, even after normal showering, so it will stay more potent with the Sonics." Banjani was drifting almost ethereally when she was grounded by Natalia's voice.

"I will be stepping up the pressure shortly so I will keep talking to distract you from any perceived discomfort. What a collective adrenaline rush we had with the Helium saga and Daniel's tiff with the Mex."

"Mmm. I was the first one to see the LED was indeed faulty and only then did I relax sufficiently to feel tenseness in my shoulders again. That sounds so contradictory, almost as improbable as the new bosom buddies in the 'A Team'. At least it might stop St. Daniel hitting on you."

"I can hope. What a lame tale Veltrano gave the Boss about bumping his head on his open locker door. Nobody would swallow that, and anyway - who leaves their locker door open?"

"Well you do for a start," said Banjani, "when I left you in the shower I could not believe the pile of stuff you had in there."

Natalia feigned ignorance. "Oh God my smalls, inhalers and gym gear were in there, and the workout suit needs washing, I wish."

Banjani went on. "I did get a waft of something as I closed the door. This massage is glorious; I hope you aren't going to stop anytime soon."

"Not too invasive then?"

"No way, it's very pleasurable for mind and body."

Natalia thought carefully. "Strange – it was still open when I came out of the shower....sorry, it was open again. I never gave it a thought until now. I should check if anything is missing."

"Really, it was open? That sounds creepy, were you in the shower long?"

"Yeah, probably felt like five to ten minutes."

Banjani stirred and sat up confronting Natalia with an eye level close up of generously proportioned breasts swaying imperceptibly, as if they were in slow motion zero gravity. Natalia disciplined herself.

"Can we do this again Natalia, or am I being a pest?"

"Of course not, just let me know when you feel the need."

"Can you do whole body programmes?" she asked, with no inference of embarrassment either way.

"I guess so," replied Natalia in a casual disinterested manner, "see you then."

# Chapter 11

As orbit insertion was nearing. Magnusson received a transmission from Xiang stating that the sealant company could not offer any feasible explanation and they had requested exact temperature and pressure readings. Beijing's own team however had some notation from the sign-off sheets that one can of the sealant cross-linker was different to all of the rest. On reporting this to the supplier the reply assured them that this was only a very slight colour difference and was normal batch to batch variation, with no difference expected in the curing process. The trial results had concurred with this so they went ahead. It was baffling.

Xiang closed with a strange remark. It referred to a handwritten note of farewell he had given Magnusson a few days before departure, wishing him and the crew a safe journey, and how much he wished he was 20 years younger. The reference stated that it was in times of concern over every little thing which did not conform to expectation, to keep the big picture in focus.

"It might be worth another read if you still have it. Anyway I'll be back with final orbit preparation checks soon."

When Magnusson located the personal letter he was perplexed. There was no such reference to the big picture in the letter. This alerted the Commander that his previous appraisal of Xiang's body language was correct. Something was definitely not right with the Controller. Magnusson had assumed the original request for personnel reports on a secure channel meant secure on the Copernicus, now he was not so sure. He would wait until he received the next transmission before asking for clarification.

Meanwhile, Redgrave had solved the mystery but not the problem. The 'rogue' sealant cross-linker did not show curing abnormality in the lab, but when he introduced the raw edge of the laminated partition material which was exposed to the sealant at the hole around the helium conduit, it was a different story. The uncured sealant, as applied, suffered migration of some inhibitor from the laminate during cure. This had left the sealant closest to the conduit only partially cross-linked as the migrant antioxidant blocked the curing reaction. The various vibrations during the mission had dislodged some of the uncured polymer and it had slowly succumbed to artificial gravity and headed for the floor. Projecting with some guesswork, the effect of the variables, Redgrave concluded that if left 'as is' the conduit would gradually abrade its way through the remaining sealant. The process would accelerate as more sealant was dislodged because of more space within which it could vibrate. Then there was the problem of loss of sealant causing inadequate containment of any fuel leak which may yet occur.

Magnusson felt he had to call for a 'think tank' session on Copernicus before informing Beijing. Nobody had any immediate feasible suggestions, but Veltrano asked Redgrave if his projections could be firmed up by observing the degradation via his fibre optics device, especially if they recorded the remote pictures and then applied a mathematical extrapolation of the initial curve. Redgrave had not considered this but agreed it would be useful. Further discussion was not fruitful, other than Carvalho's unpopular statement that turning off artificial gravity would surely slow the drip effect. His argument was valid; furthermore, it would have to be switched off for the months they were to spend on Mars, otherwise they may not be able to return home after the ascent back to Copernicus. The only other option, if Redgrave's fears were confirmed, would be to return via the Darwin. As this had very wide ranging implications for the entire programme, Beijing needed to know before descent plans were initiated. This could also split the crew with respect to their feelings of the merits or futility on continuance or aborting the mission. Magnusson needed to have his one-on-one with Xiang.

********

His transmission let the Mission Controller know that he was alert by thanking him for the good advice in his letter, especially keeping the big picture at the forefront of his mind. As he appended this to the main message detailing the sealant dilemma, it came over as a genuine morale boosting tactic and nothing more, to any prying eyes. Xiang was relieved at Magnusson's astuteness and now knew he had his secure channel; he could use the letter to construct a code which only the two of them could decipher. However the more pressing matter of the sealant prognosis was to dominate all transmissions until decisions had been reached and agreed.

********

Veltrano had confirmed to Allbright that nothing had been held back from Beijing, so for now at least they were all on the same team. Xiang's people could only extrapolate data that Redgrave transmitted; they could not collect it themselves. Their estimate with the help of the world's best mathematicians was even bleaker than Redgrave's own simple calculation. As a consequence, the decision was taken to switch off gravity earlier than planned with all its attendant disruption to the crew.

********

The footage from Veltrano's fibre optic monitor showed no advance of the problem. The debate over this raged in both Beijing and aboard Copernicus. Carvalho argued that zero gravity had slowed or stopped further dripping of the partially cured polymer. Redgrave disagreed, maintaining that the removal of a centrifugal force would cause a temporary change in dynamics of the polymer flow patterns, but it would then assume a new pattern, perhaps of spreading rather than dripping. The heated exchange was punctured when Veltrano, in his own way of minimising melodrama announced that the optic feed had ceased. He didn't know why and volunteered to return to the fuel storage section to find out. Magnusson stated the obvious, that this would be much trickier with no gravity. He also agreed it had to be done.

Carvalho accompanied Veltrano again, and with meticulous care they finally accessed the target area. Having inspected the optics rig, Veltrano switched places with Carvalho and asked him to say nothing. "Just look and we will head back." The rest of the crew was huddled anxiously around the remote viewpoint and the Commander was repeatedly asking for an update, but neither of the inspection team appeared to be able to hear him. When they had disrobed from their suits they were met by Magnusson who simply said, "Well?"

"In your quarters would be better Sir," whispered Veltrano. Carvalho nodded in accord. Once the door was closed Veltrano took a piece of paper and wrote the words – 'manually disconnected'. The ramifications exploded in Magnusson's mind. He could not even exclude the two with whom he was now discussing the sabotage. He muttered a sentence in Swedish, which was a little disturbing for the other two. Then he thanked them and asked them to leave him while he mulled over the next steps.

The former adversaries went to the hygiene section to clean up and took advantage of the privacy to speculate on whom? Why? And any connections back on Earth. If they were to exclude themselves and Magnusson it did not leave any logical suspect, especially as it would have needed a suit up and some agility in zero gravity for one person.

The Commander had to let Beijing know, but was now sensitised to the probability that someone in Mission Control was an accomplice to whoever the culprit was on his vessel. He assumed that Xiang had kept a copy of the farewell letter, but did not want to alert any eavesdropper to the potential coded messages. He made a unilateral decision, telling the crew that he had to restore gravity with immediate effect, pending further Beijing analysis and recommendation when Earth was informed of the optics failure, which of course had not yet happened. This was to be a short term action because there were tasks to be carried out which would be jeopardised by zero gravity. He was bombarded with questions from the crew about the reason for the failure, and why couldn't they just install another one? Magnusson promised to answer them as soon as gravity came back on line, and headed for the message room. The questioning turned to Veltrano, Redgrave and Carvalho. The latter was about to break ranks when his new friend interrupted and lied about having already started a replacement unit. He emphasised that time was of the essence, and he and Carvalho must get on with it, adding that he must avoid his schoolboy blunder with the phasing this time. He was gambling that three out of the four would buy this, and the other one would know sabotage was under investigation. While they pretended to remake the device Carvalho said, "That was quick thinking compadre," indicating he had realised it was a ploy.

"Daniel we have to be realistic here - we might be more successful if we look for the reason rather than the person right now, and it may point to odd behaviour. There's a lot to gain and lose with this mission, depending on your perspective."

Carvalho was beginning to see Veltrano's detached behaviour in a whole new light. Magnusson wanted to tease the code implications out of Xiang, before exposing the sabotage. He of course did not know of the Veltrano – Allbright link. That link was also under review from Veltrano himself – had he been used? For now he would not contact the American.

********

This of course infuriated Allbright and he arranged an urgent meeting with Karl Koppelt. Although they did not yet know of the sabotage element, Allbright wanted to know if any of the reported problems qualified for intervention. Koppelt shook his head. "They are all operational malfunctions and there is no doomsday scenario so we do not yet have a mandate to muscle in."

"Not even with the protocol breaches?"

The Swiss was unmoved. "You're the boss, I am merely your walking bible, but if all you have is the one in which the Commander took decisive action in a potential crisis, then informed Mission Control to see if they agreed or whether they wanted to reverse his action, you are on thin ice. I would distance myself from such groundless claims." Allbright huffed and puffed and paced the room.

"Perhaps if you told me what you want to achieve I could home in on detail which would contribute, rather than quoting the book at you."

"Not possible at this juncture Karl, you know how it is."

Koppelt cast his eye over this brash ego, masquerading as an example of the future of intelligence work, as it ploughed its furrow in the pile of the Chinese rug. He mused, 'So this is what I was passed over for. That is a serious indictment of those responsible for J. Edgar Allbright'. "Yes I do know how it is, so unless something else comes up I suppose we will meet again after the landing."

# Chapter 12

Magnusson informed Xiang of his decision to re-establish gravity until the optic device was reinstalled. He was not going to reveal the sinister situation just yet, hoping that the Controller would initiate coded transmissions. In fact he had already decided to do so. First he translated the contents of the letter into Chinese, changed the addressee from Magnusson to his own family. He destroyed the copy of the original and hid the Chinese version. He had thought very carefully before opting for an 'obvious' place, in his unlocked drawer beside his console in the main operations room. He had unscrewed the nib and ink capsule from one of his many fountain pens and inserted the furled letter in its place. These pens were accompanied by ball points; many pencils with graphite variations and a kaleidoscope of coloured highlight markers. Finally he re-wrote the letter to Magnusson with a different content but included that false reference to the big picture to enhance the fake. He kept this decoy in his jacket pocket at all times.

His reply to Copernicus acknowledged the gravity decision. He informed Magnusson that although it was late in Beijing (23.00) his team of 4 which was trying to replicate the conditions of the sealant under-cure and subsequent breakdown, were close to their final accelerated test cycle. He mentioned that he had contact with 3 separate experts in crosslinking mechanics and effects of contaminants which could cause steric hindrance in the sealant cure reaction. "Please keep me updated with any new developments, the orbit decision is looming."

Magnusson looked at the transmission over and over, then he realised he had never received anything from Xiang containing numbers except in word form, e.g. three as opposed to 3. The number form was generally reserved for appended reports from his subordinates quoting values and equations.

This must be it. He retrieved the letter.

Word 23 They

Word 4 Watch

Word 3 Me

He now felt distinctly uncomfortable but at least he could let Xiang know of the sabotage without compromising the Controller's position, even if it was in cryptic fashion.

********

When Allbright had examined Xiang's transmission he focussed on the words 'the orbit decision is looming'. What decision? Just a few days ago we were talking orbit insertion and trajectory corrections, what was going on? The more he reviewed the last few days' exchanges the more he convinced himself something had got past him. The letter referred to by Xiang was personal, and on reflection it was irregular, especially as it was encouragement expressed over a minor problem. He had the scent and asked his second in command to summon a former colleague in the USA to Beijing. This was someone he could depend on to ferret out the origin of the smoke, without the self-righteousness of Koppelt.

********

When Xiang saw Magnusson's reply he 'decrypted' the relevant bits to reveal 'problem situation not true'. This confused him but he knew the reference letter afforded a very limited vocabulary. He replied with a verification of orbit approach adjustments to confirm the separation sequence for despatch of the habitat, lab, and power supply units to the surface. Separation of the descent/ascent vehicle from Copernicus would be addressed following successful landing of those units. The coded part read, 'I get it'.

He concluded the message verbally with the assumption that gravity would be switched off in twelve hours and remain off until the return to Earth. "I trust this will allow you to complete your Optics replacement. It looks like we may have found a way for Beijing to monitor the sealant situation if Veltrano can make some adjustments in the time before separation. We will send through the list and procedural backup as soon as possible."

********

Magnusson figured that every hour which elapsed would box them further into an orbit and landing sequence with a renegade crew member who may be in a position to prejudice the mission, and their lives. He decided he had to take a gamble to narrow down the suspects, as Xiang's position in Beijing was encumbered by a similar problem, and they could not unravel the saboteurs on their own in time for him to neutralise the culprit aboard Copernicus. It was a gamble but he considered the recent behaviour of Veltrano to be indicative of innocence, and he could not have said that a few weeks ago.

"Veltrano, we know there is a rogue crew member, but why did you tell me a false tale when your injury was caused by Carvalho?"

"When you realise your life could be in real danger you re-evaluate your priorities. I had intended to report him but he was working hard to protect us. I was obviously shaken by the deliberate disconnection of the optics, and this underpins the need for me to make you aware of something Commander. Part of my initial brief was to keep a close watch on adherence to protocol and any crew wobbles, morale and mental condition. I have a direct communication link to Beijing Intelligence which has a similar watching brief on Mission Control. I have reported a couple of events, nothing serious. However as I'm aware that Intelligence is alert for other aspects such as terrorism and financial gain in the form of intellectual information value, I'm alarmed that my contact has either no idea of our saboteur or they are fully aware and instructing their mole. I know this must be sickening for you to hear but it is better that you do know. There's no point in me apologising for my role, we all have information on a need to know basis in Intelligence. I knew the score...I've been in the job long enough to be philosophical about the deception but not the wrong kind of landing on Mars." This was a lucky break for Magnusson. "What have you told your contact of the sabotage?"

"Nothing. As I said I've had to re-prioritise my 'loyalty' if you can accept such honest duplicity. That is why I have discarded my cover."

"Then I must test that honest duplicity. I need to know your contact."

"Wes Allbright. He's one of a hierarchy of 'official mission spies' – they are all heavyweights, his is the only name I have. Your man Xiang is under increasing scrutiny and has to be careful so as not to invite interference, or worse. He doesn't know of my brief." The Commander entertained a silence of considerable duration. "I'll check out what you have told me."

"How?" said Veltrano.

"That's not important for now."

"Yes, but if you alert them, you will complicate matters to the detrim........"

"I know," snapped Magnusson, "you'll have to trust me on that one, just as I have to buy into your confession. We - you and I - must begin a process of identifying our cuckoo. Let's begin by pooling our knowledge to try to eliminate any individuals we can, there's not much time."

There wasn't too much to go on. Magnusson told Veltrano of Natalia's pod mystery. The Mexican said that it was a start but may not be linked; it might have been related to Banjani's med stats.

"How did you know about that?"

"I'm the Communications Officer and I was able to access the data as well, comparing printouts, and I could see discrepancies made by Dupree."

"Did you know that they were picked up by Natalia?"

"No, I detected no alterations from her laptop. Dupree's were made direct to the main system. The passwords are ridiculously easy to crack."

"What do we find when we look at opportunity without knowing the motive?"

Veltrano believed that the incidents may have involved different people because there did not seem to be any common effect of the consequences. The med stats meddling started before the mission and had a credible altruistic motive. The pod switch was different insofar as it has until now not shown any altered data. Magnusson wondered how he knew that. The faulty LED had not yet been analysed to determine if it was a routine failure or planned to trigger an investigation which would reveal a mission-compromising problem. The only definite act of sabotage which could be proven right now was the optics disconnection. If the LED failure had been intended to cause panic, it had not accounted for the logical response and subsequent discovery of the more serious problem of the sealant failure. There was also the timing of the latest difficulty – right before the most complex phase of the entire voyage.

"We're missing something critical and I believe this sealant scare has the key."

"Ok," agreed Magnusson, "let's look at opportunity for the discovery of the LED all the way through to the present."

Banjani alerted Veltrano who was closest to her, and asked if he would pass the info to Carvalho. There was no urgency implied. Carvalho was the one who thought through the possible causes before proposing his plan to the Commander. He requested Redgrave's presence and expertise with the density gauge. They investigated together. Redgrave found the drip and analysed the residue. Veltrano and Carvalho fixed up the optic monitor. The same duo found the sabotage. There was very little opportunity for disconnecting the optics whereas there were many windows for tampering with the LED which prompted the sealant sequence. Veltrano suggested he should examine the original optics feed, back through the relay, to see if he could identify the time of disconnection, then account for everyone's whereabouts around that period.

As the signal for preparation of the landing sequence had come through, they had run out of time to work together, and Magnusson asked Veltrano to continue alone while he took up his post to oversee the operation.

********

They were not going to know the identity before the landing attempt. The good news was that Xiang had conclusive information from his simulation experiments of sealant failure, which was corroborated by his independent experts. It was complicated and the Mission Controller felt that detailed discussion should not distract the crew's concentration from their critical task ahead. Suffice it to say the findings indicated a high probability of the seal remaining uncompromised for the return journey home. The countdown could start. Magnusson had to be vigilant for any unusual signs while retaining his crew's confidence in his conducting of the orchestra.

# Chapter 13

Magnusson had briefly considered telling the crew of the sabotage event before the landing, to let them know that there was a mole of some kind in their midst, and more significantly to confirm to the mole that he was on the case. He decided against this as the separation and landing sequence not only required zero gravity, but all personnel had to be strapped into their seats in the command section. With everyone in the same location and the various sections landing prior to orbit insertion of the Copernicus, and undocking of the descent module, he felt this was a better gamble. Before taking his seat, Veltrano passed the Commander a message stating that he could only pin down the loss of optic feed to a period of approximately three minutes and at a time which made it difficult to account for everyone's whereabouts.

Only three of them were 'hands-on' in the sequence - Magnusson himself, Banjani and Carvalho. Veltrano could keep an eye on the others. The Lander went first, followed quickly by the Habitat section. The pre-programmed interval and burn control were crucial, not only for atmosphere entry and velocity deceleration gradient, but the ultimate proximity of the landed sections. The Lander had automatic cable laying robots to connect to the Habitat, but only a finite length of power cable they could rollout. There was extra cable in the Habitat storage, but again this was limited by bulk and weight. After what seemed like an interminable descent watched by cameras in the command module, and the inevitable agonising settling of the dust clouds generated by the thrusters - the visuals confirmed the telemetry - the hypercones had done their job and phase 1 was successful. Magnusson was relieved and cast a glance toward Veltrano which was reciprocated as if to say 'two down, two to go'. Fortunately there was not much time to dwell on the first achievement, before they had to address orbit insertion, which was a theoretically more proven exercise than the one just completed.

The burn however required extreme precision and was effectively in the hands of the instrumentation. Knowledge of the false fuel leak raised concerns of different kinds in the minds of the crew. It went without a hitch and Magnusson could announce to Beijing that Mars Capture had been achieved. There was the expected euphoric reaction at Mission Control; their mapping system indicated this event before they heard Magnusson's words. On board Copernicus, the sense of relief was more dominant. Preparation for separation of the Descent/Ascent vehicle now loomed and with it the importance of landing at the prescribed co-ordinates, as close as they could to the optimum distance between the drilling area and the Habitat.

The feverish obsession with this final phase helped blank out the unknown true efficiency of the hypercone technology. They could not know yet if any of the already landed units had suffered damage. Concentration levels were so high that few words were exchanged, save the necessary confirmation at each parameter check that it was 'on target value'. The deployment of the hypercone was, however, more severe in terms of perceived braking than any of the simulations on Earth. Temporary fear of the outcome gripped those who were not engaged in continual monitoring of the plethora of data from the control displays. Then it was over and the subsonic parachute warning told them the most risky phase was accomplished. The remainder of the descent was fittingly gentle and before the obligatory dust cloud had settled, there were tears mixed with sheer elation and humility at being the first of our species to truly visit another planet. Not just a proclamation by flag; a temporary home, a new frontier.

The first step on to the red soil was traditionally the honour of the skipper but he insisted that they form a chain by hand-holding as they descended the steps from the Descent vehicle. They were in a crater about 7 km in diameter and it was difficult to spot the Lander or Habitat in such a monochrome planetary indentation with rising extremities. It didn't really matter as Carvalho activated the robots remotely and the dust trail gave away the location. The distance between the Lander and Habitat would soon be evident as the robot seeking software led them to their target. It turned out to be a short trip but not quite as short as Natalia thought. "The distance is deceptive from here," said Carvalho, "the time taken and velocity tell me it is about 0.8 km."

Just then Magnusson received an alert that a message had been received from Earth. He instructed the others to divide the tasks of ensuring the power was connected to the Habitat and employing the Rover from the Lander to load up cargo from the Descent vehicle for transfer to the Habitat. The cargo and supplies from the Lander could come next.

********

The message was not from Xiang. He introduced himself as Allbright. The cam was then panned to show Xiang sitting adjacent.

"Commander Magnusson...the reason for my presence will become self-evident when Xiang updates you. He will continue to be your reference point on all operational matters of the mission. There may be other requirements of communication and to that purpose, please get Veltrano to make contact with me as soon as possible. I will now pass you to the Mission Controller."

Xiang went directly to the sealant research. "I am sorry to tell you that we have irrefutable proof that none of the components of the partitioning, either singly or in combination with one another, could possibly affect the cure process of the polymer. We can only conclude that there is no such degradation. If that is correct, then, as I said before landing, you should not encounter any problem relating to the false prognosis on your ascent for the homeward journey. This leaves us with the probability that Redgrave has for some reason created a bogus situation which implies danger rather than the existence of real danger. We are advised by Intelligence that this kind of thing is not new to them, and they will handle that side of things from now on. Wes Allbright will brief Veltrano separately and he will work with you on this. It is not planned to alert Redgrave that we are cognizant of any of this. However, he must be observed and directed very carefully by Veltrano and yourself, no one else is to know until you hear to the contrary. Regular reports of your observations will be valuable to us. We don't know how long it will take to run to ground any connections he may have back here. One last thing on this, which I hardly need to say, if he becomes a serious threat to the rest of you – then you must take whatever steps you deem necessary. Veltrano will be issued with the same responsibility. I'm obviously appalled to give you such wretched news at a time when the population at large celebrates your first step to ensure mankind has an alternative future to contemplate. This euphoria they enjoy is supposedly rooted in unprecedented uniformity of objectives to preserve this planet. I'll expect your response within one Martian day Commander."

********

A pensive moment helped Magnusson to skip telling Beijing that he was already aware of Veltrano's situation. That could have complicated unfolding events, and they needed to be in every loop on the rest of the mission. He digested the implications of this revelation and sought out Veltrano. "I knew there was something we missed," whispered the Mexican.

"Sorry, what are you referring to?" replied Magnusson.

"The NMR equipment was faulty; it consumed excess energy. Carvalho convinced you that it was a minimal consideration. We can't be certain that the equipment is properly correlated. Maybe this is a campaign to cause worry and loss of confidence in the mission rather than be seen to openly jeopardise it. I'll make my contact with Allbright and get back to you Commander."

********

Allbright had his sidekick in operation now. Xiang's findings had given him the legitimacy to intervene and bypass Koppelt. Jack Northgrave would now be assigned to get everything known about Redgrave into their analytical division, and attempt to quantify any remaining risk to the mission, and just as critical, any underlying agenda.

Allbright's contact came and Veltrano conveyed the suspicion of equipment correlation corruption, which he and Magnusson would like Xiang to investigate, via a decoy request from Beijing direct to Redgrave. Allbright told Veltrano to divert all transmissions from Redgrave to himself so that it could all be evaluated before passing it on to its intended receiver. Veltrano assured him he could probably do this if he could get Magnusson to pin Redgrave to a personnel session of up to an hour.

# Chapter 14

The extra power cable was transferred from the Habitat to the spare space in the Lander now that the robots and Rover were out. It had become a valuable resource especially with the task of unhinging the lab section from the ascent module, and robotic transfer to cabling distance from the Lander. It would also be locked inside and the only keys would reside with Magnusson and Veltrano. The power generators in the Lander were to be fitted with access codes to the controls, the codes themselves known only to Carvalho and Magnusson.

With the Habitat, Lab and Power supply all operating to specification attention was focussed on the exploration and drilling programme. The site was a 'safe' distance but reasonably close to West Candor Chasm. The Rover was to work in tandem with the Robots to clear the area of loose rocks and mark out sifting bays to avoid clutter and unlabelled samples finding their way into the Lab, which was now a Rover journey from the drill site.

********

Allbright was in 'full on' mode at last. He briefed his own team on Veltrano's concern about lab equipment correlation. Toshihiko Taniguchi offered another possible motive for the 'alleged' misfiring of the NMR unit. "As the fault was registered early in the mission it could be a planned precedent and if repeated in the actual sample analysis nobody would question the validity of the claim. An intermittent fault is convenient to cover many possibilities. Failure, unexpected values, bogus results, disagreements over accuracy and affecting the confidence in the mission, are all able to be manipulated, especially as he alone has all of the Martian samples."

Allbright called Xiang into the meeting and exposed Veltrano's concern and request to somehow construct a correlation trap for Redgrave. Xiang nodded and expressed agreement with Taniguchi's line of reasoning. As he was about to leave Allbright checked his exit by asking if he was totally confident in his own specialists working with Redgrave. "I'm not disputing their expertise, but I can't discount the possibility of an accomplice. We will refer to the original screening and run our own. Don't worry...no one will know unless we unearth a problem - sorry about the pun - and you will be first to hear."

Xiang could not dispute any of this; nevertheless he was beginning to feel increasingly out of his depth. Allbright also had a conundrum insofar as his remit clearly stated his duty of care to the Confederation of Nations on all matters of mission security. His experience however told him that premature claims and involvement of politicians was extremely dangerous. He was also sensitive to the probability that any remotely competent organisation behind this subversion could be banking on this.

********

The Habitat offered a little more space and privacy than the living quarters of the main spacecraft. This was a happy marriage of necessity and psychology. After months of living in an ant's nest, and the building tension of the landing sequence the more interesting, comfortable and sanitised phase promised a feel-good factor. Natalia was secretly hoping for an early massage request. Dupree would have more potentially meaningful checks to perform, maybe even the odd bruise or scrape. Banjani was excited by the exploratory capabilities of the Rover and Carvalho had some toys to maintain with his robot buddies. Magnusson and Veltrano had their distraction of the simmering investigation on Mars and Terra. Redgrave visually exuded an air of destiny. This was his time of centre stage and he was determined not to let it shrink to an Andy Warhol moment.

When they all arrived at the edge of West Candor Chasm it could only be described as a collectively stupefying experience. The scale and beauty of topography, diffuse light, and colour was beyond belief, especially when set in its context of unchanging monochrome.

Photographs were never going to do justice to this utterly breathtaking vista but they had to be part of the mission, and the intensely personal transference was manifest among friends for the duration of silence that prevailed. No one wanted to be first to pierce the ambience with mere words. Smiles seemed to be appropriately respectful of this wonder, while some thoughts were no doubt meandering towards the age old debate of omnipresence.

At last Magnusson called for Carvalho, Redgrave and Veltrano to prepare the site for the drilling control units which were to direct the actual drillbot. He told the others to return to the Habitat location and begin to assemble the algae trays. Some were to be kept in the habitat itself, others to be set out in the Martian atmosphere, albeit with hi-tech units to give protection from anticipated dust storms and more importantly intense solar radiation. The integral photo-voltaic panels kept the internal temperature significantly higher than ambient. This in turn would assist condensation after the warmest part of the day. Experiments with increasing levels of the red soil were to be studied to evaluate the sustainability potential of the new world. This was to be done concurrent with soil analysis results from Redgrave. Future oxygen capture from any of these 'seed pockets' would be greatly improved if water was discovered. The supply of water for the crew was secured. There was a very limited quantity set aside for nurturing plants. There were plans to recycle urine to produce experimental quantities of liquid stripped of much of its soluble solids content. Nanotechnology had offered breakthrough techniques. Collection of the urine was not expected to be subordinated to privacy or embarrassment, so they employed a similar allocation of hygiene facility as on board Copernicus. Subsequent transfer to the pilot stripping plant in the lab was not the most popular duty. Some of the recovered liquid could be stored outside and conveniently frozen by the Martian climate at night but with the requisite nanoprobes, it could sustain liquidity for many of the planetary days. Chunks could be brought into the Habitat to help those trays flourish. The nanoprobes were developed specifically to dramatically increase the algae's low temperature resistance, and act like a chemical catalyst to lift the photosynthesis efficiency by a significant order of magnitude (x4-5). Their design was engineered following growth experiments at arid sites, the hot desert in Israel, the cold desert in the Arctic. The real elegance of these nanoprobes however was their ability to exchange moisture content with the surroundings, including microorganisms. Like an organic building society they would lend and borrow moisture from the mini-atmosphere of the trays, triggered by condensate. This was regulated to the photosynthesis cycle and carbon dioxide demand, in plentiful supply from the Martian atmosphere. The exchange mechanism could not be supported indefinitely and the nanoprobes themselves would slowly degrade, but newer versions were being developed on Earth to arrive with Darwin. It was therefore still a massive priority to find Martian water. The second phase of more complex plant life depended heavily on such discovery. Ultimately they would need to construct 'greenhouse' facilities to scale up successful specimens if initial oxygen harvesting was ever to become more energy efficient.

Carvalho was itching to ask Veltrano for an update, but patiently ploughed on with the drilling assembly. Redgrave assisted them until he received a call from Banjani that there was a message for him in the ascent module. She would ask Dupree to come with the Rover and pick him up shortly.

When Indira and Natalia were alone they began talking about their loved ones at home and what they might be thinking. "My grandparents will be so proud, without really understanding what a tenuous flirtation with oblivion we have come through," Natalia enthused, "how about you?"

"My parents will quietly be thinking about their little girl, and now I have done something special they will probably never see me in the same light. That is more than I can say for Mali."

Natalia felt the need to tread carefully. "Mali, is that your fiancée?"

"Was," admitted Indira, "we parted on bad terms. Oh I'm sure he will think it is recoverable, a little blip, but this was the most important step in my life. We're both streaked with selfishness, however I know I wouldn't have reacted the way he did if the roles were reversed. I could never be happy in such an emotionally confined relationship. They say you have to live with someone to really know them, I guess that's true."

Natalia felt a sudden overwhelming compulsion to hug her friend but fought off the potentially awkward moment and agreed. "I have had exactly the same disappointment with all my relationships with men, some casual, others a little deeper. Maybe we are part of a generation of women who've come to demand individual recognition to the point of marginalising 'family structure' until or if we become ready. I've basically conceded to myself that I'm unlikely to find a man who will value interpersonal feelings with anything like the same rank as I do. They must be out there somewhere, just as the next Einstein will be, and the chances of me snaring one of them are statistically insignificant."

Banjani was intrigued by Natalia's philosophical surrender. She was intelligent, attractive, engaging and oozed strength of character. Perhaps she spent too much time in her self-analysis. "How many men are we talking about?"

"Err, lots," was the sheepish reply, "but they never got to the level of intimacy I hoped for."

Indira said she did not want to pry but asked, "You never had sex with any of them?"

"That isn't what I meant by intimacy, of course I had sex with a couple of them but I hated it because it was devoid of any special feeling or bond. Before you say anything I know there are women who prefer intercourse more when it is casual, spontaneous and not inhibited by straitjackets like monogamy. I sometimes wish that was me, it isn't. In fact one of the more promising candidates only told me he was gay when, after two dates, we seemed to be heading for the anatomical test drive. He thought I knew but I just could not see it, he was gorgeous too."

"I know exactly what you mean. There's more intimacy in kissing than wham – bam intercourse. Although, I do have to confess, I am 'one of those women' who likes uncomplicated sex. I've been so focussed in my life on all things career that I found 'deep and meaningful' got in the way. Yearnings needed to be addressed and I found that passion could be a temporary substitute for building relationships. If I found a man really attractive and his desire to have me was setting off alarms I could truly climax several times. This was not possible with Mali, yet I loved him. I don't think our prayers will be answered on Mars. You have already discounted one admirer and I don't have any!"

"Hope springs eternal Indira, let's at least put this algae stuff to bed."

# Chapter 15

Redgrave scratched his head. The message read – 'Please retrieve sample 24d and re-test. Could you on this occasion hold up the printer trace up to the camera, as well as sending the numbers? We have noted some change in our retained portion since we first tested it together, and then split the sample. We need to know if you have picked up the same change or whether yours has remained unaltered in the inert atmosphere of the lab unit on the journey. Sorry about this Alex, but the only other explanation we can entertain at the moment is that one of our lab team has managed to inadvertently mislabel the sample. As you are aware 24a, b, c and d are shades of the same grey. Please give this priority and inform Magnusson. Apologies. Ayrton de Santos.'

This was obviously designed to give Magnusson valid status in Redgrave's mind to take a closer interest in his work. Redgrave found this extra chore annoying when he was poised to collect his first Martian samples. Magnusson employed his psychology chip and said, "I don't see why Beijing's cock-up should rain on our parade. Go get yourself a couple of rocks and then do what they asked." Redgrave smiled and thanked the Commander. He rejoined Veltrano and Carvalho. The gesture 'added innocence' to the exercise. Magnusson took the Rover back to what they now referred to as Marineris Central. The drill site took on the spookier mantle of Pandora's Rift.

Having finished the drill setup programme, Carvalho gave Redgrave the go ahead to cycle through the test run procedure and then Veltrano would finalise the comm. link between control and drillbot. This allowed Carvalho to start something he was really looking forward to, modifying the robots to each carry two people. This would give the busy crew three runabouts for the steadily increasing number of tasks planned for the coming months. He was making good progress with the foldaway arms when he caught a glimpse of Veltrano remonstrating with Redgrave. He had temporarily switched himself out of the conversation loop to concentrate on the robots.

"What is going on?" he muttered as he rejoined them.

"I'm sorry," said Redgrave, "now can we get on with it?"

Veltrano turned in frustration to Carvalho. "He almost went over the edge because he was eager to see the drillbot descending, but he hadn't harnessed himself to the frame as I had told him to do several times."

"He's right Alex, I could have finished these robot modifications in half the time by ignoring protocol, but I need to be here tomorrow to do something else of equal importance. We need you to accomplish one of the most important parts of the mission."

"OK Daniel, I know he's right, it was silly. But Jesus, he has been going on about it incessantly and threatening to report any further infantile behaviour to the Commander. I mean, give me a break. This is like my honeymoon, climbing Everest and scoring the winning goal in the Cup Final all rolled into one. I got excited, excuse me."

They all looked at one another in silence and then burst out laughing. They picked up where they had left off and with Redgrave now secured, he dropped the drillbot on to a beautiful turquoise ledge at what looked like one fifth of the way down. The various colours were now glinting as if they were flashing messages to some far away receiver. The sun was streaming its light along the line of the chasm and it was even more mind-boggling than their first sight of its splendour. The recovered crystal was safely labelled and Redgrave decided to go deeper. There was a vein of red which he could not resist. The drillbot took much longer to prise a sample from the mother lode but it was worth the effort. The red was swirled with orange, and a greyish-white speckled the inner cut surface, but not the exposed face of the crystal. They were interrupted by Magnusson's voice. "We have retrieved the magnetic boots from storage and we're losing light now. You guys should be heading back."

Carvalho answered, "Another ten minutes and we can all come back with 'our own wheels', how about that?"

"Fantastic, but take your time when driving, spacing yourselves out might reduce dust interference." So it proved and the returning crew parked the vehicles in a queue next to the charging bay. When they were all together again Magnusson declared that they should all prepare messages for folks back home. Beijing had been alerted. As they dispersed to prepare their transmission drafts Veltrano told Magnusson he had to 'fix' Redgrave's contact routing and he needed the Commander to ensure he was kept occupied. As Veltrano himself needed no personal transmission other than to Allbright, it would make sense if Redgrave was last and Veltrano preceded him. Magnusson spoke to Redgrave and expressed interest in the sparklers he had acquired, so it was not perceived as a problem when the message order was read out. Redgrave was bubbling with desire to get on with analysing the crystals, but Magnusson reminded him of the Beijing sample 24d request. Redgrave hung his head in mock schoolboy pique and Magnusson chuckled as he thought, 'could this guy really be a saboteur'?

Magnusson decided he would send his personal transmission first and finish off the session with his operational report. In between he called on Redgrave to check the status of the re-test on 24d. Redgrave retrieved the original data he had sent to Beijing for this sample. He said that the repeat came out identical, so the Commander took both traces with the numbers and said he would include them in his overall summary to Xiang. "Hopefully that means the problem is at their end and we can now get on with our job, keep me updated on the crystals."

********

Jack Northgrave had initially struggled to gather any relevant information on Redgrave. One of his people had obtained the birth certificate copy initially presented to the Beijing selection processing unit, and discovered a slight difference when comparing it with an original obtained from the UK. There was a spelling error in the hospital name where the birth was induced for an emergency caesarean operation. A handwritten 'ch' had been mistaken by the copier for a 'ck'. An easily understood error if you did not know anything about UK hospitals. It was a long shot but on checking the hospital records it was discovered that a baby named Alexander Patrick Redgrave had only survived for three weeks, and a copy of the death certificate was supplied. So who was on Mars?

It would be necessary to obtain something from the personal possessions of the impostor as a new starting point. Xiang obtained clearance to inspect the training village apartments where they spent their last weeks prior to the mission. If this proved unfruitful, they would have to resort to snooping on Mars with its accompanying risk of alerting Redgrave.

When Ayrton de Santos received the transmission of the repeat testing of sample 24d he was alongside Xiang and Allbright. His request for the re-test had contained a statement which Redgrave should have known was false. There never was any sample 24d. An error had been made at the Beijing lab in preparing the test sheets to be completed by both parties in the correlation. A box was marked 24d and it had been noted that Redgrave's returns included a result for such a sample. At first they merely thought that with over a hundred samples to test and the misfiring of the NMR, he had simply and innocently figured he had somehow lost one. He knew that the 'other three' in series 24 were virtually identical so it was no big deal in terms of correlation accuracy. Now that he had been given the chance to come clean, he repeated the deception by supplying another test run on one of the others. Beijing determined that this was 24c.

When the traces were examined the Earth time and date seemed as if they were deliberately obscured. The final damning point was that series 24 should have shown some difference with time, as it was part of a study of biomass breakdown efficiency of waste. This was for future treatment facilities on Mars. Beijing needed to know the effect of zero gravity space storage. Redgrave had no knowledge of this. When Magnusson was asked to check the true date/time of the traces and if sample 24c was there, he confirmed both traces had the same chronology marking and 24c was not present. Close examination of 23d looked as if the labelling had been altered. Nobody could think why he would continue with an apparently meaningless charade.

However as the NMR was not involved in this part of the correlation, it fostered suspicion that there must be some connection with his reporting a fault with this particular equipment and his agenda.

# Chapter 16

Around the centre table of the Habitat, Dupree, Banjani and Natalia were mulling over whether they could call it a day on the algae trays. Dupree disappointed the others by airing an idea. "It was not in the directive but maybe we should consider taking soil from some way under the surface as well as selected topsoil from various locations. On Earth there is a lot of difference between the surface and a metre down."

"Yeah right," moaned Natalia, "how do we get down that far while we are in suits? Apart from the hazard of compromising our life support with an accidental puncture, we don't have suitable tools to tackle compacted sub surface aggregate. Anyway if......"

Banjani jumped in, "What about Alex's drillbot?"

"That's it, we only need small amounts for lab size experiments," enthused Dupree, "come on Natalia we can use our medical knowledge to good use here, with the help of Alex and the agreement of the boss."

Natalia wearily agreed and Dupree shuffled off to see Magnusson. When they were alone Banjani said, "It could be rewarding, because it is going to get boring if we don't have a hobby of some kind. It will also justify my massages instead of being a mere indulgence." Waves of alternate interpretation of such a suggestive comment percolated in Natalia's imagination. "I think we'll both need restorative therapy if the Commander buys Pascal's brainchild."

********

There was little evidence of Redgrave's existence at the apartment block, never mind incriminating proof of any 'alias activity'. The frustration was building when Northgrave asked the obvious question. "Where did the astronauts deposit their personal stuff that needed protection? I mean things they could not take with them but required a safe haven, like passports, bank account data, insurance documentation, last will and testament etc."

"At the vaults in the basement of this building," whispered Xiang.

"Who has authorisation for inspection?" asked Allbright.

"Well," replied Xiang, "there are various contingency provisions but mostly related to the mission status. The individuals can give permission but they would need to know why." Allbright terminated the discussion with a nod and disappeared with Northgave. "I'll get Magnusson's permission to get into the main vault for his stuff, as a decoy, you have to get into Redgrave's box. We can't risk exposing any crucial information to others at this stage."

********

The next few days went by slowly. The Martian day was only thirty seven minutes longer than its Earth equivalent, although a year comprised 687 Earth days, meaning that there would in theory be little variation in the one Earth year stay. Redgrave had now assembled many collectibles in the holding bays at Pandora's Rift. About half had been relabelled and transferred to the lab. He was to take a break from drilling and analyse some of the samples. Magnusson had approved Dupree's request to fit in with Redgrave's time in the lab, and with the proviso that Carvalho was with them to provide operating help and ensure safety procedures were understood. They were only to drill within a distance from the Rift that did not require moving of the control setup.

The analytical lab equipment included –

ED (Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy) for determination of elemental distribution.

FTIR (Fourier Transfer Infrared Spectroscopy) for determination of chemical bonding.

GDS (Glow Discharge Spectrometry) for determination of trace elements in solid materials.

NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy) significantly to provide an invaluable tool in finding, understanding the structure, and function of proteins and nucleic acids. This technique could work with both solution and solid samples.

The array of techniques was far greater back in Beijing as was the expertise backup. This team was standing by for in-feed of Redgrave's data with staggering computer power to run any permutation or combination of results. This aptly named 'Dreadnought' had predictive modelling capabilities for subatomic, molecular, and complex structural reaction potential on an unprecedented scale. The personnel charged with feeding the monster, interpretation and subsequent recommendation of further investigations, were simply unparalleled in their respective fields. They would debate and agree priorities for Redgrave to follow. The weak link in all of this of course was that they could only act on whatever they were sent.

The range of goodies laid out in front of Redgrave was mouth-watering. For him this moment was as significant as touchdown. He was not sensitive to a roster of assistance. Everyone was running on adrenaline at the prospect of finding things that were familiar on Terra – water, building blocks for life, or even evidence of fossilised life itself. The anticipation extended to things that were not familiar on Earth – certain heavy elements occurring naturally, and not least of all the kind of unknown that could not be imagined.

First up to help was Natalia as she had some knowledge of chemistry and analytical techniques. This meant that there was only Banjani available for Dupree's drilling diversion.

Redgrave was a little unhappy at the overriding directive to find water and the way the sample testing priority was so slavishly skewed to that end. He would generally adhere to this requirement but he would also pick out some goodies and decide on a results basis when to pass them on to Beijing. He knew that once they had sufficient data to play with they would totally take over the testing schedule. The boffins had picked out pink deposits from unmanned reconnaissance missions as a possible example of hydrothermal alterations; they could be crystalline ferric oxides. Did they have accessible water of crystallisation which could be sequestered? Deeper samples had a chance of being briny deposits if the theory about Valle Marineris being an ancient lake bed was valid.

Redgrave duly despatched the results when he decided when they were available. Beijing would consider further tests and whether the particular sample should be packaged in highly technically secure containers for the return journey. Most of the samples already in the lab had been there for 4-5 days while Redgrave had been collecting and cataloguing further interesting candidates at Pandora's Rift. It was Natalia who noticed Redgrave's very first prized red crystals had developed a 'dusty' surface. Redgrave said this was typical of a crystalline material turning to an amorphous form, but he was puzzled that it should occur under these conditions. He decided to cut some of the crystals to expose another surface, and he observed that the grey white content on the new cut surface was much higher than the original when it was prised from the chasm. He asked Natalia to make notes of all this and decided this one had to jump the queue, even if he did not send the results forward just yet.

During preparation of the material for testing he was distracted again by Natalia. She claimed that the amorphous content was not static, it was leaving the crystal and there was a spearhead in the direction of the container closure mechanism. He looked at her and smiled. "It must be the vibration of all the equipment running simultaneously."

"Oh, I am sorry Alex, what a dummy. Please don't tell the others."

They laughed. When they decided to quit for the day and the equipment was switched off, Redgrave looked at the initial results, for what he had nicknamed Scarlet O'Hara, and found them unremarkable. At no time during the cutting of the crystal had he noticed or felt any sensation when particles of the 'dust' passed through the clean room gloves in an osmotic fashion.

Carvalho drove the Rover to the Rift. Banjani could not resist commenting that it was good to see he had eventually backed off with his tacky pursuit of Natalia. "Yes, I am not proud of that stuff. I will make it up to her rather than simply apologise." Dupree gently rebuked Banjani by declaring that we could all behave strangely under the stressful weight of expectation in a venture like this. "I confess I am constantly struggling to find the balance between being a doctor and a crew member." He stared at her. She quickly realised he was referring to his actions to keep her in the crew. "That was a bit over the top Daniel, I'm sorry. It's just so good to have relaxing banter with everyone again, would it be OK to say welcome back?"

"Phew, it is a relief to hear you say that, otherwise I might have had to hit on you." He winked as he brought the Rover to a halt. Banjani chuckled as she retorted, "Deuce." They began the search for a promising location before setting up the drill.

# Chapter 17

The assembly of experts waiting for the first influx of results was primarily European. Charles Cameron, a phlegmatic Scot had seniority in age. Lydia van Leeuwen was a hugely respected Dutch Nobel prize winner. Hans F Mueller, a Viennese resident completed the Northern Hemisphere representation. Ivan Maric was an Australian born Croat with somewhat unconventional theories to his name. It would have been difficult to choose a group with more spread of characteristics, such as open mindedness, respect for consensus of peers, and a truly introspective consideration of how their own ego would or could influence this historic milestone. Open mindedness or objectivity was sometimes argued by their own fraternity as a cover up for not really seeing the 'proof'.

********

It was morning again and Redgrave resumed his place in the lab to find Veltrano ready to help. As he was about to switch on the equipment Redgrave noticed several of the Scarlet O'Hara specimens had clusters of dust at the container closure device, just as Natalia had said, and there was a corresponding trail back to the crystal in every single case. When he explained this it was greeted with scepticism as Veltrano felt this fitted with his previous exploits. Redgrave insisted on hailing Natalia to verify his claim. When she had, they all decided to do nothing but observe the 'phenomenon' for about thirty minutes.

They all agreed it was happening, but Veltrano was still sure this was a stunt of some kind. He suggested informing the Commander. Redgrave went to do exactly that, which gave Veltrano the opportunity to convey this to Allbright with the recommendation to allow Redgrave to make a fool of himself, and subsequently be taken off duty for a period. He was sure Dupree and Natalia could stand in with the guidance of Beijing and it would effectively neutralise any agenda Redgrave had.

The answer from Allbright was definite. "No, we have a strand of enquiry which is promising. We want him to continue otherwise we may lose what we have."

********

Despite obtaining Magnusson's reluctant approval for access to the vault on the pretext of retrieving some of the Commander's data, Allbright was jolted by a phone call from Northgrave. The authorisation had been blocked by Koppelt. "How the hell can he do that? Come to think of it, how did he know about it?" Northgrave replied sarcastically, "Seems like we have more levels of Intelligence than we knew about. I'll have to leave this in your hands for now Wes."

"I can only guess that there is something even more important for us in there," said Allbright, "the astronaut's privacy would not have raised such swift and potentially risky interference from a retard like Koppelt. It should be an interesting explanation."

********

Magnusson's reaction to Redgrave and Natalia's observations was not as cynical as Veltrano's. "Do you have any analytical explanation for this? If not, I feel we must involve Beijing right away." Redgrave confessed to Magnusson about his insubordination – testing this sample so early. This did alert suspicion but Magnusson felt it was important enough to follow it up immediately, especially as he trusted Natalia's corroboration. "As best as I can determine it consists of three different materials," offered Redgrave, "the red part makes up the bulk and is composed of antimony atoms linked to methyl groups in a ratio of 1:2. The deep yellow or orange swirls are similar but the methyl groups are replaced by phenyl groups. The grey-white areas, which seem to be spreading, are being identified as elemental silicon. That's as far as I have gone."

Magnusson's chemical knowledge was sparse enough to recognise the words but little more. "Send the results through; I'll take care of any flak."

********

The return transmission was introduced by Xiang. There was some consternation that hobbyism was taking precedence over scientific methodology. "We need to curb individual enthusiasm with certain personnel." The obvious reference was to the 'sealant dripper'. "There is however some confusion here about the observations. The point has been made that with Martian atmospheric pressure about 1% of that on Earth and no artificial gravity in the lab, we can expect unusual occurrences. Our experts want you to repeat this dust migration observation by introducing a 'spiral staircase' to the crystalline form which has not yet begun the amorphous switch."

There was the predictable disagreement amongst the sanctum of experts. One point of accord was that the red and yellow/orange results are known from synthetic research archive as distibines, tetra methyl and tetra phenyl respectively.

Maric stated that only very weak antimony-antimony bonds were involved with the phenyl version and as Mars was supposed to have an oxidising soil they should not survive breakdown. Lydia said that his suggestion did not fully take into account the very low temperatures on the planet, and bringing them into a controlled environment may have triggered the breakdown. Mueller also argued that the presence of silicon was of possible significance as there were papers on file which show that antimony clusters could be formed on the surface of silicon. The observation by Redgrave that the silicon surface area seemed to have increased, when fresh cuts had been made into the powdering crystals, should be further investigated. Cameron, untypically, kept his own counsel at this stage, but offered no resistance to the Austrian's proposal.

********

In view of the request Magnusson decided that until further notice Natalia would assist Redgrave, and Dupree, Banjani plus Carvalho would plough on to complete the under soil drilling as soon as possible. This left Veltrano and himself to mull over all things security. Veltrano said that Carvalho was still owed an answer to his update request on Redgrave's antics, having witnessed them first hand.

The 'spiral staircase' request meant another sample would have to be obtained from the Rift. Redgrave took one of the robots and arrived at the site. He told them of the priority and Carvalho assisted in relocating the drillbot. Having secured a second batch of Scarlet O'Hara, he discussed the Beijing response with them, and it was Dupree who said there was something which rang a bell from his university days regarding silicon-antimony bonds. "It sounds stupid, but I think it had something to do with prosthetics."

"Now you are going out on a limb," quipped Banjani.

They all laughed except Dupree. "No, seriously," he protested.

"Get a grip Pascal," teased Carvalho.

Redgrave could not resist a parting shot. "Have you been smoking a joint, Doc?" Even Dupree's resistance to the infectious mirth gave way and he despatched Redgrave with, "Careful you don't get a-wristed for speeding." The humour was a welcome relief in these damned 'space suits'.

********

The meeting between Allbright and Koppelt duly took place but the latter was accompanied by a delegate from the highest rank in the Confederation of Nations Executive Chamber. It was precisely what the American wanted to avoid, and it was about to get worse.

Koppelt introduced Eyal Rabinowitz. He did not really need an introduction. His notoriety came with his virtual deification following the Israeli expansion after the 2018 Middle East War. He was attributed with the military genius for overturning a successful initial propaganda campaign by the Consolidated States of Islam, and goading them into a massive first strike action. His well laid plan received sympathy from most neutral nations as well as the USA and Russia. Instead of demonstrating to their adversaries how strong they were (the policy of the previous five decades) he milked the fear of capitalist heavyweights losing their foothold in an ever more radical and extremist part of the world. Timing, as is often said to be everything, ensured that the two recently emerged heavyweights, China and India, were similarly concerned. Drawing on this methodology, the riposte to the first strike was overseen by a swift condemnation and ultimatum of military intervention by this temporary Capitalist Alliance, upon failure to withdraw. The recovery of Israeli territory was achieved with no participation of their forces - a joint decision. The subsequent peacekeeping zones were carved out of large areas of Arab territory. Those Arab states were now feeling the same isolation as Israel had done for a long, long time. Gradually this was inflamed by those forces being replaced by Israeli front line military technology. This in turn sparked a deeper mistrust of all capitalist states by extremist and moderate Muslims around the world, as well as those residing at the fragile membrane of Zionist – Islamic friction.

The whole saga, having served its purpose for Jewish people at the time, and elevated Rabinowitz to a highly desired commodity in the developing new world order, actually hardened and galvanised the Islamic cause. They felt everyone was now against them. It was no surprise that Rabinowitz had a perch on the highest point of the tallest tree on Mount Zenith.

"I am told you want access to the vault. Please be more specific," said Koppelt.

"You know why," snapped Allbright, "we need to recover some of Commander Magnusson's notes made during the training phase, which he feels he needs to review."

"Let's not bullshit each other Wes, if that were true he would have made this request through Xiang, it is operational. Your fingerprints are all over this."

Rabinowitz intervened. "Perhaps if we all visit the vault together you can show us these documents and we can take it from there."

Allbright retreated. "Forget it; take it up with Xiang. We were just providing a secure means of retrieval."

It was a short meeting. Koppelt agreed to speak to Xiang, and as Allbright left, Karl expressed the view to Rabinowitz that the American was hiding something, and they should go directly to the Vault and search all deposit boxes. The search exposed what Allbright and Northgrave were looking for.

# Chapter 18

Returning to the lab the morning after setting up the 'spiral staircase' from flexible polymer tubing Alex Redgrave greeted Natalia. She said, "Alex, are you feeling OK?"

"Just a little fuzzy, I over indulged in the dream world, far exceeding the recommended period. Do you think I will be interrogated by the sleep police?"

"Seriously you look ashen; let Pascal take a look at you."

"No way, I want to do some more on old Scarlet before they revoke my licence."

There was more evidence of patterns of dust in the original sample containers; it was almost as if the powder was looking for a way out. Just over an hour into the renewed search for water Redgrave turned to Natalia and clutched her arm, but could not speak, she could not prevent him from sliding to a sitting position, his boots gripping the floor. She called for Dupree but they had already set off for their final trip to the Rift. She then tried Magnusson, and he told her to stay with Redgrave and he would recall the doctor immediately.

By the time Dupree and the others had returned Redgrave was unconscious. He was rapidly hooked up to a full life scan monitor, which was displaying some worrying signs. Then all of a sudden they returned to normal. When Dupree gave closer attendance the alarms went off again, but the life signs were steady. He repeated this attempt several times until they started to deteriorate once more. Natalia said, "Just try backing off for a while Pascal, a couple of minutes."

It worked. Without understanding what was going on it was agreed to merely observe the displays for a while. He was stable for three hours. This gave an opportunity to mull over possible cause, with no sensible conclusion. Six hours after his collapse the Doc called in the others to point out a slight swelling near his right temple, but no change in his condition. Magnusson declared that until they knew more they would all be quarantined to the Habitat. The next morning the swelling was about the size of a grape. Every time Dupree approached, only to observe, the beeping started.

Redgrave suddenly woke up and apart from speaking extremely slowly he felt and appeared normal. On trying to get to his feet the alarms were triggered and he lapsed back into unconsciousness. This situation was bizarre, but compelled all of the crew to remain in silence. Magnusson could not hold off informing Beijing much longer as they were repeatedly asking for updates. He bought a little patience by revealing Redgrave was down with flu like symptoms, but they would catch up. By the next day the entire crew was getting restless. The swelling growth rate was accelerating; it was now comparable with a grapefruit rather than a grape. Once more Redgrave regained consciousness and seemed to know he should remain lying down. A couple of minutes later he said nobody should worry or do anything. "I'll be OK, I'm feeling better now." His hand slowly went to the grotesque lump and he said this would not trigger the alarms. He was correct.

"How could you know that Alex?" asked Dupree.

"I have no idea Pascal, I just knew."

"What else do you know Redgrave?" The question was from Veltrano.

"I know that completion will occur without causing me any harm."

"OK, Redgrave I want you to think for a moment," said Magnusson, "do you know how this happened?"

"Not until the completion."

The anxiety amongst the crew was simmering and the Commander suggested giving Redgrave a break. "Dupree, can you stay to quietly keep an eye on his readouts?"

"Of course, I can perhaps ask him a few questions regarding any symptoms he may have."

On retiring to the main Habitat area there was an explosion of questions, concerns and theories. The inevitable suggestion of quarantine was acknowledged and discussed at length. Carvalho felt he and the rest of the crew needed an answer now on what had been decided after the sealant scam. The two women looked puzzled and following the disclosure wanted to know if the investigation had revealed anything that could help explain the current situation. Magnusson said the investigation in Beijing was ongoing, but no explanation was available. This did not satisfy Carvalho and he believed they were all in danger if this was not resolved very soon. "We have to question Alex about this until he tells us the full story."

"Redgrave may not know the full story Carvalho," countered Magnusson as he turned to Veltrano. The Commander decided that the crew wellbeing and integrity was now his highest priority. "We're here and now, Earth is not. There are some things they can help us with but others are beyond their capability." He proceeded to tell them of Veltrano's remit and that he had not known of this until the sealant charade. The fact that Beijing Intelligence was on the case had meant lots of secrecy in both locations until the concern was run to ground. "I'm sorry I could not share this with you earlier but, with all of us communicating with our loved ones back home, it was crucial that nothing slipped out to alert any connections Redgrave could be involved with on Earth. Apart from that the credibility of and support for the mission could be jeopardised, by allowing this to become a football for the media. That's the world we live in seen now from the one we find ourselves in. You now know everything I do, and I trust we can now tackle this latest phenomenon with a responsible attitude, and I repeat – we're here, Earth is not – we should therefore, until we know more, assume we are all in the same predicament, including Redgrave."

The pregnant silence was terminated by Dupree's breathless declaration. "You need to see this." They gazed with shared horror. The rounded edges of the swelling had given way to four secondary growths. The exponential increase in this 'process' then, within twenty minutes, morphed into the unmistakable shape of an embryo.

The bewilderment of the crew was stark, and the additional pangs of guilt, especially with Dupree's Hippocratic oath, at not being able to help their stricken colleague, were manifest as escalating but silent panic. They were not reassured by Redgrave's next pronouncement. "I will need to leave you for a short period but when I return the completion will be near. After completion you will begin to know everything by repeating the questions you have in mind." While Redgrave was in his third blackout, Natalia stated the obvious. "He's not talking like Alex." Magnusson said he thought Redgrave was hinting at this 'completion' being the point at which he would return to behave like the person they knew.

Dupree revealed that this final stint of unconscious development was showing a drop in blood pressure not seen in the other two. The change was not critical and as he spoke Natalia declared it was back to normal. This was followed by fluctuating brain activity and then the connection of the rapidly maturing 'infant' was visibly thinning to look like a bridge, temple to temple. The accelerated formation soon illustrated an uncanny resemblance to Redgrave. The bridge narrowed further until it was a tube. Redgrave quietly opened his eyes again and this time he sounded like they remembered him. He did not however say anything to the awaiting audience which would make them more comfortable. "All I remember is not feeling well and that something called the completion will explain my condition. Why can't you tell me what this is about Dupree?"

"I don't know Alex, but we have also been assured that you are going to be fine. Apparently you must not attempt to move until this completion has been effected."

"Oh yes, I knew that, I think – well, let's put it this way....I don't feel any inclination to do anything."

When the bridge seemed to dissolve slowly into nothing the replicant opened its eyes and for the first time Redgrave was aware of its presence. He was now as concerned as the others. The 'clone' flexed finger and toe joints, seemed to peer around the group without any focus. As Redgrave turned to his twin it began to glow slightly and Dupree indicated that this meant he was to wait. Several minutes elapsed before they were all startled again by the replicant mouthing the words 'Alex' and 'questions'. The voice was very deliberate and octaves lower than Redgrave's own. Magnusson was first to reply. "We understand that this is the completion and you will be able to explain to us what has happened here."

"Yes." The voice was much closer this time.

Silence. Banjani said, "You want questions?"

"Yes, for now." The voice was now perfectly matched.

"Why for now?" ventured Carvalho.

"Organising data."

"What data?" enquired Veltrano.

"Alex data."

"Only Alex data?" questioned Natalia, feeling it was her turn.

"For now."

"Wait a minute," intruded Redgrave, "I want to know what the hell has happened to me since I felt unwell." He immediately flushed with embarrassment at apparently asking himself a question like that.

"Question unspecific," was the reply, but before anyone else took up the interrogation, "Organisation of data complete." What followed ten seconds later was as astonishing as anything else on this truly astonishing day.

"There will be many exchanges. It would be efficient to avoid confusion by creating the reference Alex 2. This will help with others who are not here. Questions will be the mode of communication until the organised data assumes a different storage pattern, more random, as in the brain of Alex."

"How is it you can speak with us right now?" said Banjani.

"The process to completion allows the copying of all functions inhabited. Previous data indicates that the most useful are communication and movement. Others can become necessary or useful on completion. The copy is made and extra functions can be released or enhanced if necessary."

Magnusson thought carefully before phrasing his sequence of questions as specifically as possible. "Have you copied life forms before?"

"Yes, many times before. There are different complexities. You have vision apparatus, audio communication, organic re-energising cycles, detection of odour capability, crude information retrieval but sentient."

"From where do you originate?"

Before the reply came the interrupt facility declared 'data second tier structured'.

Alex 2 then said, "Now it is possible for you to answer questions. The first is important. Is it acceptable for you to understand that reference to the Continuance with your questions is helpful? It is not a problem for the Continuance to address yourselves as 'you' or 'him' or 'them'. Similarly when you say 'I' or 'we' it is also good. The information in Alex does not contain a single word to explain, but similar words found are – heresy, immoral, depraved, and deplorable. Reference to the Continuance by the Continuance as 'I' or 'we' is painful, real pain, not emotional pain. Is this acceptable?"

"Of course," everyone seemed to say at once.

"Now to your question Commander Magnusson. The Progenitors created the Continuance as well as many other means of fulfilling their task. The Continuance was originally tested at a distance from here which is difficult to register with your current information storage capability. This part of the Continuance has been present on the gravitational body you call Mars since it condensed from your solar flux."

The thirst for the next question was now so contagious that Alex 2 called temporary halt by turning to Redgrave and asking, "Is there anything the Continuance can tell you now that the data modification is restructured?" Since Redgrave's concern over his own condition had lowered he typically made everyone aware of an oversight in the situation by his humorous enquiry. "Does the Continuance want to borrow some of my clothes?" The replicant of course was only a copy of Redgrave, not his attire. The two women looked at each other, then Alex 2's genitalia and giggled. If this was as accurate as the rest, then Redgrave was lying there having an erudite discourse with his friends and a nude version of himself, and now that this had been realised he wanted to avoid further embarrassment if the mere thought engaged Alex 2's arousal 'chemistry'.

This light-hearted tension breaker was dismissed by the replicant's assurance that it was of no consequence. However Redgrave ensured a comfort break by saying, "Fair is fair, if the Continuance understands pain then it will be obvious I have to insist on you being clothed."

# Chapter 19

The short recess brought back the dimension of perspective. Natalia said that in view of the significance of this moment in human history they should all list questions and come to a general consensus of priority. While this was being shaped the Continuance had another question. "It is assumed that you know the only information for access at present is that from Alex. You may want to give consideration in your priority for the Continuance to have access to other learning interfaces such as reference tools – computer libraries may be the best."

Carvalho took the floor. "If our understanding is correct the Continuance has been present on Mars for billions of years?"

"Yes, this sector was seeded by the Progenitors when the planet had the same potential as your own."

Veltrano was next. "So what has been witnessed by the Continuance in all that time?"

"The period before the planet lost its atmosphere was of moderate interest. There was no evidence of sentient evolution, but the same applied to Earth. When Mars became an information cul de sac and the hostile conditions became a repetitive cyclical data desert, the normal Continuance reaction was triggered. The re-crystallisation is effected and awaits the sequence of steadier climatic environment and information potential."

Banjani breathlessly jumped the queue and said, "Then we are the first since then?"

"Yes."

Redgrave continued the indiscipline by asking if the environmental re-awakening had been the lab.

"Yes, the less extreme conditions there encouraged the return to the amorphous form after about four and a half of your days. Your next question is not difficult to anticipate. When you re-cut the crystal the restored amorphous form made contact with your hand through the intended barrier of the glove. It is a programmed function to seek out new sources of information, the glove was not sufficient in molecular terms to prevent transference. The sample containers are."

Magnusson called for a brief halt to the proceedings to debate the request of Alex 2 to be linked to a computer terminal. Veltrano suggested they should bounce this to Beijing. The others disagreed, exposure at this stage would result in them being strangled by red tape and still having to deal with the reality of Alex 2. Eventually a consensus was reached. They would report further reinforcing evidence of amorphous movement, which would hopefully be backed up by the spiral staircase experiment. They would all testify to the observation and claim the possibility of this amorphous powder having 'life-like' characteristics. Such a premature preposterous conclusion would be argued out amongst the scientists for at least a day.

"We will delay interfacing the Continuance with a computer for another day."

"That is a perfectly reasonable precaution. Alex Redgrave should be aware of a dilemma for the Continuance. All of the information he had up to the completion is duplicated and stored. It can be deleted on request. It would normally be deleted when redundant."

"You mean you read my mind?"

"So to speak, but it can no longer be read following the completion." As Redgrave began to panic about this, Veltrano cast a glance to Magnusson. This could also be an opportunity to pin down the sealant mystery and any continuing agenda.

"I would want to do this in private," pleaded Redgrave.

"Of course, but let us progress the priority questions. Anyway, as your Commander I would like Dupree to give you a thorough check-up just to make sure everything is as it should be. Why don't we schedule your erasure session first thing in the morning?"

"Ok, it will take me at least that long to come up with a first cut."

"Now," said Magnusson, "what else can we know about the Progenitors?"

"It will not be possible for you to know all because of your primitive understanding of the Cosmos, and your consequent ability to process the data. There are no matching translations for this in Alex to suggest that your computing knowledge is anywhere near the minimum threshold. However, residence is in Dark Matter and existence is necessary to help curb the shifting balance of the Cosmos. Dark Matter provides the leverage for counterbalance of unrestricted expansion and contraction of the Cosmos, in which none of the predictable outcomes are favourable. The seeding of situations with the Continuance and other mechanisms which you call life forms is one example of their influence. As this part of the Continuance has been dormant for billions of years, it would be reasonable to conclude that so far success is sufficient. However this prognosis can only apply to this intersection of what you refer to as time and space. The complexities of updating this judgement cannot be explained at your current level of evolution. You are promising candidates, as you have reached the point of adapting your environment to your evolutionary path, as opposed to the historical need for your species to mutate in a somewhat haphazard and inefficient manner to the changes imposed by that environment. This is but your first step, and the random discovery of the Continuance is one of extremely low probability. That is one reason for the widespread strategy of the Progenitors. It should have occurred to you that Earth was seeded with the Continuance, which may be locked under volcanic residue or has become part of the ocean floor. It will be there, somewhere. A perfect example of the complexity - something undiscovered on your home planet is almost the first thing you find on another."

This was beginning to stretch everyone's imagination to the limit. It was so difficult to take in the ripples this was likely to cause back home. Yet it made the mission take on incredible new significance, concurrent with viewing the original objectives as relatively Victorian in scope.

********

With the influence of Rabinowitz, Koppelt engineered a return to duty in America for both Allbright and Northgrave. He had convinced the Israeli powerbroker that what they had on Redgrave was much more valuable to Allbright than whatever he possessed would be to them. Furthermore, he argued, the blatant disregard the USA delegates had shown for agreed protocol was evident of unilateral agenda.

The message which came through to Veltrano from Koppelt was economical with the facts. He introduced himself by informing Veltrano that all future communication would be through him, as Wes had returned home. His son was to undergo further tests for a life-threatening condition. He then raised the subject of Redgrave and the discovery of three passports, three addresses and a Nigerian bank account. "It's imperative that you extract from him any contact he may have in this setup. This involves 'shell' companies and names of people who do not exist. The sums of money are very large. All of this delivers a picture of an organisation rather than an individual."

********

Something did not sit comfortably with Veltrano. Perhaps it was the lack of consultative content or the implied disregard for the mission – the problem back at HQ was all that mattered. Allbright had been more sensitive to keeping things as 'normal' as possible. Just as well the crew found out the way they did and that Koppelt did not know this. He expressed his unease to Magnusson and withdrew his urge to deliver everything they knew automatically to Beijing. He also suggested that they needed to speak in his quarters to Alex 2.

********

The distant experts laughed off the excitement over 'life' possibility. The transmission covered their declaration that there was no foundation for the organometallic compound having the stability or building requirements for a primordial soup. The presence of Silicon was interesting but would have to scavenge oxygen to begin opening up even primitive growth patterns such as Diatoms on Earth. The absence of oxygen killed off this avenue. It was almost a self-congratulatory mandate to administer a rap over the knuckles for the campers on Mars.

# Chapter 20

"We would appreciate the Continuance sharing some knowledge with us. It's very important and we would hope this can be answered by giving all available data on the subject rather than simple unconnected bits of the context. Is that agreeable?" Magnusson's probe was met with an affirmative and he continued.

"The questions obviously relate to information in Redgrave's memory as that is all you, sorry, the Continuance has right now."

"Not exactly Commander, the conversations since the completion are stored and pattern recognised."

"Oh yes," conceded Magnusson, "it's data about a sealant problem which most interests us. Could we start there?"

"Certainly, there was no real failure, it was an illusion. It was an incident among others which would eventually lead to Alex's death."

Veltrano interrupted. "Was he supposed to die during the completion?"

"No, he intends to kill himself and create another illusion."

"Please continue," urged Magnusson.

"It will look like someone else has killed him. It is a sacrifice. His family will be proud and then have a good life. He will be sorry for his friends on Mars. He has had some doubts since meeting the Continuance." They drew breath. Veltrano went for it. "Is Alex working with someone on Earth as part of this illusion?"

"Yes, his name is Telebbi Martins. He lives in Lagos. He helps Alex with many things – instructions, bank accounts, living places. He will help the family after Alex dies."

"Are there other data on passports, bank accounts and residences?"

"Yes, passports are British, Hungarian and Nigerian. Bank accounts are in Bolivia, Philippines and Nigeria. Only Nigeria is in Alex's Nigerian name. Dwelling places are London, Lagos and Budapest."

"In whose name are the other bank accounts?"

"No data. Martins knows this. Money comes from them to Nigeria bank account."

"Are the passport names known?"

"Yes. Alex Redgrave, Ferenc Hadutek and Hector Vanichebe."

Magnusson thanked the Continuance and then asked for all data to be retained. He would confirm this to Redgrave. He apologised for the inadvertent reference to the Continuance as 'you' earlier.

"It is not a problem, it only becomes a problem when the Continuance uses personal pronouns to refer to other entities, but even that is nothing compared to the agony of using such terms to refer to the Continuance itself. The human species has problems with accurate data recall. It is something which can be corrected quite easily."

"Thank you, we'll let you know. I'm astonished that Redgrave has such a grasp of English grammar."

Dupree gave Redgrave a clean bill of health, so he and Natalia decided to get back to the Beijing programme. The under soil drilling was finalised and Banjani suggested they should ask if Alex 2 had any ideas on improving the survival chances of the plants. Magnusson called Redgrave to the 'office'. "This is a rather surreal situation we have with your replicant. How are you feeling? Any after effects?"

"No, Commander. I must say I am surprised at just how well I feel, mentally and physically. However it is more than a little unnerving having a double who knows virtually everything about me."

"I can imagine, especially if you still intend to be murdered."

Redgrave was initially agitated but quickly held up his hands and said, "Ok. What do you know from sources on Earth?"

"Enough," bluffed Veltrano.

"Then what do you want me to say? That I am sorry? You wouldn't believe that. You will also not believe I was going to tell you about this after the experience of the completion and the emergence of Alex 2. He is responsible for my new mental clarity, I'm sure. I don't know why, but it is the same feeling of certainty that I would not be harmed by the replication. I expect no sympathy from yourself or the rest of the crew who were prepared to be my friends."

"We need to know why?" pressed Magnusson.

"I have asked myself that many times since the completion."

Veltrano was unsympathetic. "We need to know the 'why' before the performance of the 'nativity'."

"I must think more about that."

"No Redgrave, that is exactly what you don't want to do, we need to know now," threatened Veltrano, "because now that we do know, your death would never be reported as anything but an accident."

"Look, we know about the passports, false names, addresses and your Nigerian counterpart," said Magnusson, "we also know your family will be taken care of, and at this stage nobody on Earth knows that we know that. While that is still the case your family are not in danger. You will not be permitted any further transmissions. If their plan backfires they will need to erase identities, bank accounts and any possible information trail in the form of people. You need to tell us now if your worry is for your family, because if you don't we'll have to give everything we have to Mission Intelligence. That's a one way street."

He fidgeted, talked to himself in an unfamiliar language and seemed to seek divine guidance. "Very well, but how do I know you can protect my family?"

"You don't, just as we don't know that you will now tell us the truth. Remember, the replicant can no longer read your mind," quipped Veltrano.

"I am none of the people in the passports. My name is Tariq Sunai Behrami. I was born in Cairo. You may have then guessed I am of Islamic faith. My father was killed during the last war with the Zionists. I was offered an opportunity after that, like many other young men, for a life of service to my faith, countrymen and the cause of neutralising Israel by any means available. I was sponsored to be educated in the world language of English at the best schools and then universities in multicultural Britain. My training was then specialised to this mission in the six years remaining in the planning and selection processes. I believe that financial sweeteners of real significance were required to match my overqualified CV in order to guarantee selection. Since then I have taken my instructions from a Nigerian colleague. I have never known my benefactors personally. I guess you can check this with my double. All I know is that they are extremely powerful, individually and as a group, and obviously they are Muslims. I have suspicions they are all of Arabian birth, more from overhearing things I should not, than evidence. This Circle of Restoration, as the cause seems to be known, has targeted this entire Capitalist exercise of 'saving the planet' as a self-serving arm of the powerful nations who are consolidating that injustice. The programme to discredit this crew's objective is only part of a campaign on Earth to show the shallowness of other religions. This is believed to be a more effective strategy than the earlier horrific acts of "terrorism" as you would call them. That is all I know. However, the experience I have been through with the Continuance has made me question all of this. The insistence that my act of suicide will be perceived as martyrdom does not seem to sit so logically in the new context of the struggle of the Progenitors, if that itself is true. I want to know more. I will cooperate; I know you are right about the risk to my family, it has always bothered me and it will be a relief to bring that to an end, one way or another. I am in your hands Commander."

********

Magnusson and Veltrano mulled over this dilemma and concluded that they had to take care of business on Mars first and foremost. Drip feeding Koppelt with information would give them breathing space and allow Beijing Intelligence the distraction of uncovering some of the plot themselves. They informed Koppelt that they had squeezed a contact name out of Redgrave on the basis that he would only co-operate further if his family were protected. "This means you must not compromise Redgrave's position; they, whoever they are, must believe he is still onside, and you have obtained this lead from some other source." The annoyance in Koppelt's reply was tangible. "We know how to run our business Commander; you folks just carry on playing with your crystals and algae."

"I'm sure you do know your stuff, but it would appear you are failing to get the point. You have no jurisdiction here and even if you had a piece of paper to say that you did, how would you enforce it? You may need us to get more information for you if your own operation runs to dead ends. Now, do we get safety for Redgrave's kin? We are not requesting this for any other reason than helping you out in future."

"You have it. I will confirm this has happened before we look into this Telebbi Martins connection from a distance. I can see you don't need this as part of your mission. Thanks."

********

After quite a long day with horticulture and chemical analysis respectively for Banjani and Natalia, Indira asked if her friend had enough energy left for that long awaited massage. The mere mention triggered waves of butterflies in Natalia's stomach. "Yes, actually, I could do with some of that relaxing stuff myself."

Banjani said she had no training but would reciprocate, that was only fair. When Natalia came with the cream, Indira was already lying face down with her eyes closed, apparently drifting. Natalia gazed for a couple of minutes at the lithe naked form of her friend and struggled with her conflicting emotions. Their friendship had grown slowly and was deepening, and her desire for this to become more was possibly about to overtake and ruin everything. She resolved to resist this unless there was unmistakable reciprocal response from Indira, and that did not look likely. This massage was a serious challenge to her resistance. As the aromatic concoction teased the senses, Natalia's fingers moved closer to the forbidden areas of a full body massage. Kneading the upper thighs while Indira was still face down at least meant Natalia's facial expression would not betray that the pleasure was mutual. The gentle pressure was spreading her legs and there was no resistance. The back and neck gave some respite in the building arousal. Natalia then whispered, "Time to flip over."

"Oh, right, I was drifting." On turning over the eye contact was a potential problem so Natalia decided to talk. "I think Alex must have mixed thoughts about having a double walking around all the time, a bit spooky really."

"Yeah, might be fun to be the double though, for a day or so."

"What do you mean?"

"You could be adventurous and say 'it's not really me' you know."

Natalia paused and thought of Indira's double and her mind went into overdrive. "Oh yes, I can see you would be naughty, but if it was a double of yourself would it not be risky?"

"Mmm, you are right but it would be interesting to come face to face with your uninhibited side, which I guess we all have, but suppress, because of what others might think."

The massage was again at the pelvic nexus and there was almost a reflex accommodation of space for the gentle action on the inner thighs. It was entirely natural and did not slow the conversation. When Natalia declared, "That's it." There was a brief hiatus. Indira whimpered, "Oh no, already? I wanted that to go on and on."

She sat up and her eyes sparkled as she simultaneously kissed Natalia on the cheek and enthused, "Your turn." The disrobing was easier than she had anticipated largely due to Indira's natural accommodation of nudity. She made no attempt to put on any attire while returning the favour. "If we aren't too late after your massage Natalia we can have a sonic shower to finish." The entire contact was an internal see-saw of control and utter emotional abandon for Natalia Balinsky. She could barely remember any of the dialogue. An exception was the reversal of Indira's fingers innocently brushing lightly around her genitalia. "You seem tense, am I applying too much pressure? I hope it's not painful. You must tell me to stop if it hurts."

"No, it's not that, I suppose I am a bit nervous, I have never had such contact with a woman, this is a first for me."

"You must relax fully or you won't enjoy the true therapeutic joy of your aches being taken away by another person. Just imagine a beautiful beach and the lure of a warm turquoise ocean, you stand up, you slowly walk to the sea and long for the water to caress your naked form, after the sun has had its turn. It's such a liberating experience to swim naked, and the contact with the more 'intimate' regions is part of that liberation. It's natural, don't fight it. Just embrace it."

"Yes Indira, but I think it's more complicated than that. This is extremely pleasurable for me but I'm having some difficulty in avoiding getting..... well you know what I mean, it must be obvious, and it's getting hectic down there. I'm really uncomfortable and your picture of the ocean has just made it worse."

"Oh I'm sorry Natalia, I see what you mean, but why should you be so uptight about that? We all have fantasies. It's only a massage but that doesn't mean you can't make it what you want. It won't embarrass me if you're lost in the ether of imagination; if that is arousal then so be it, let's face it, we all at some time have experienced such guilt during our solo sessions of that nature. If you relax more you may find the brain can take you closer to or further from such emotional dilemma. Go with flow, it really is only a massage, what is in your head is up to you."

This made Natalia feel less concerned about displaying pleasure, but she knew that Indira had not connected this professed shyness as an intense attraction toward her. It had gone as far as it could for now or maybe forever. It should not be assumed that her casual attitude to being a free spirit included intimacy between two women, depending on the definition of intimacy.

# Chapter 21

It had been agreed that the crew would officially refer to him as Alex 2 as he had suggested, and they wanted him to have a transmission dialogue with the Earth experts. "It could be tricky because we do not want our people there to know about you just yet, so we think it is......"

"Better that they think I am Alex Redgrave."

"I'm impressed," admitted Magnusson.

"My registry maintenance runs when you are asleep. It has been possible to insert subroutines to record 'the Continuance' when personal pronouns are articulated by the voice apparatus. This is a distinct advantage of our matrix design compared to your own. I believe other examples may arise if I engage in this subterfuge."

Magnusson and Veltrano were amazed at the apparent elegance of this form of intelligence. The time-lagged conference began with introductions and moved quickly to the evidence that the spiral staircase had confirmed beyond all doubt that the amorphous material was 'seeking out' its own destination. "We would like Redgrave to answer any other queries you may have."

Mueller opened up with recognition that there was evidence of 'life' with Diatoms, based on Silicon or more precisely Silicic Acid. "However, even though there was acceptance that such silicates can replicate under certain conditions, there were other difficulties with Silicon. This is hinged on the fact that Silicon easily turns to Silicon Dioxide and this precipitates in aqueous systems, rendering it impossible to be transported across living tissue by common biological means. Self-replication of clay crystals have occurred, RNA (Ribonucleic acid) based life predates current DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) based life, and has been theorised as the first step in evolution of life, but not life itself." The chatter would have continued if 'Alex' had not intervened.

"I cannot help but feel your definition of life is very narrow if looked at from a non-human viewpoint. The material in question is a complex ratio of organometallic constituents which form Antimony clusters on a Silicon surface. There appears to be a controlled configuration and rotation of the clusters by an atomic scale torque exerted on the Antimony dimers by some internal mechanism. This reversibility could provide a basis for atomic scale memory cells. This step is every bit as promising as the original RNA. Can I remind you that this property is very close to the human design of computer MRAM, which apparently operates in extreme temperature conditions and has high radiation resistance?"

The 'committee' must have been knocked off stride for a moment as their response took quite some time. It was Charles Cameron who spoke. "We have considered your theoretical interpretation, and although my colleagues tend to disagree, they are prepared to indulge me in trying to discuss with you how to obtain more convincing evidence to support your claims. I concur with you that we tend to be over-reliant on the premise that all life must somehow subscribe to the organic evolutionary route. I am going to dedicate all my time to this matter, and I would appreciate any ideas you have in regard to further tests or even synthetic work we can initiate here."

Magnusson was not surprised at the scepticism and felt that Cameron's gesture was simply to patronise, in order to avoid lowering morale. Discussing the implications of shifting up a couple of gears with Veltrano met with a cautious reception. Exposing the replicant now could be premature because Koppelt would have to be involved and this meant the world would be fed a story of manageable convenience. Veltrano suggested that it might be better to give Herr Koppelt another helping hand with the Circle of Restoration, to isolate that threat, prior to manipulating the way the Earth's inhabitants discover that they may have to question their faith, in the light of the claims made by the Continuance.

Magnusson countered that concern with another. The launch of the Darwin was almost upon them, and it would be irresponsible to jeopardise that, or fail to take advantage of Alex 2's emergence to bring new cargo and personnel with the relief vessel. A compromise would have to be hammered out. Typically the Commander wanted to involve the whole crew in any decision which could affect the mission or their own survival. Most of them found it very difficult to take in the revelation of Redgrave's intended suicide, and this became open hostility when the rest of the background was known. It even had a temporary impact on the fascination with the replicant. Redgrave was forced to suffer this indignity without participating in a way forward. His double was not, nor was he hampered by emotional conditioning. "What cannot be changed is my existence. Your species could eliminate me, and that would not be resisted. The discovery will occur again. Your lifetime or that of your species is of no consequence in the context of the Progenitors. Their approach has always been one of design – implement – observe. They operate on a triad of possible rates of progress; they are Logical, Predictable and Random. All can be involved at any stage and at the same time. Therefore, the seeding experiments have to cover emerging patterns of behaviour from the triad. The Continuance is one, others that are known are - the Interference, the Amalgamation, the Elimination and the Subtraction. The seeding of all of the mechanisms is designed to endure for periods which make your time interval from single cell organisms to the present too short to be attributed significance. Small events, such as the subtraction of your sun, hardly register on the triad interpretation. Why am I saying all of this? Because you may never learn the method, by which an apparently lifeless collection of predominantly inorganic atoms, can function more efficiently than the predominantly organic ones who are judging them. To be precise, you will never be told how to develop this leap of technology. You may or may not discover it. That is the way of the Progenitors. Therefore any further discussion with the Committee to convince them of your discovery seems to be at this time, without merit. Doctor Dupree has asked about improving the chances of sustaining plant life here. What would your home planet make of the statement that I, we, the Continuance could 'terraform' this planet in less than 1% of the time you will take to do it. This is only now a possibility since we came together. It is this kind of trend that makes it a slightly less likely chance that your species will ever encounter the Interference or others. That may seem like a faraway benefit. We will comply with your decision."

If this monologue had achieved nothing else it did restore the original level on the 'fascination meter'. It had done something else. It once more raised the appreciation that the initial objectives of the Mars mission had already been outstripped by its achievement. The problems on Earth, although serious, should not detract from their unanimous acceptance that the discovery of Alex 2 was the most important in humanity's short history.

Alex 2 then asked a question. "What reaction would the Experts, the Intelligence and the general population have if I was to be filmed walking outside with no suit or breathing apparatus while planting specimens which would replicate in real time?"

"I think it would create utter chaos," ventured Veltrano.

"What if a follow up filming session showed Alex Redgrave and me talking to one another, and we just told them the truth. First his explanation of what happened to him during the completion, and then I would explain much more about my chemistry for the Experts. Finally, I could reveal my disclosures to you about the Circle of Restoration for the Intelligence, and my ability to really make this and future missions from Earth more credible to the people. It is naively simple but the alternatives are so complicated they are likely to become unmanageable and backfire. If you consider the global impact of it all in one broadcast I would predict that even the Circle of Restoration would conclude that Alex Redgrave could no longer be expected to continue their task. If recent events have caused Alex to re-evaluate his faith, will it affect others of all faiths in the same way? The Circle would have to consider this."

Carvalho turned to Redgrave and asked what specifically had made him shelve the 'murder plan' if it would have brought more danger to his family. The reply was measured. "While I was apparently unconscious I was aware of you all, and your concern, I was also aware of an untangling of conflicts in my mind. I was not seeing things in a different way, just a less complicated way. This not only applied to my planned actions but it challenged them in the true context of my faith rather than their subordination to my faith. The safety of my family is still very important to me, but I realised that their reaction to my 'murder' would be marketed as an act of holy significance when it would actually be part of a chain of orchestrated human power manoeuvring. I can't really explain why I could not rationalise this earlier, nevertheless I feel compelled as the first human to be in this bridge with another life form, to be available for whatever happens next. Any impending sentence of incarceration is secondary to that. Like my counterpart said, I will comply with your decisions."

# Chapter 22

This crew were split over two points – what to do next with the Committee, Intelligence, and their families as part of the populace; and secondly, Redgrave's declared cleansing. The hawks were in the minority. Veltrano reminded everyone of his own secret remit to flush out situations exactly like this. He was also quick to point out that events back home caused him to re-prioritise his loyalty. "Perhaps we overestimated the importance of the mission when we set out. Now we could be in danger of underestimating it. If Alex Redgrave can be trusted again as I was, then I will shelve my instincts for once, to deal with Mars and let those back home figure out how to deal with the naked truth. I waive my objection."

That left only Carvalho. "I'm afraid that I've always had trouble with taking things on trust rather than evidence. I'm an engineer, it's a requirement." Natalia smiled at him and said, "Maybe Alex had 'evidence' but it was manipulated by smoking mirrors. I honestly think this is a human judgement, none of us can be certain, we may follow our head our heart or our gut. The stakes are high either way Daniel. I for one will respect your reasoning and honesty whatever your decision."

They slept on it, except for Alex 2, who was undergoing ever more updating. He was the first to hear the incoming message alert. He did not want to disturb everyone so he turned off the sound and left on the flashing signal. It had, however, already awoken Dupree. He wandered in and said he could not sleep anyway. "I have been meaning to ask this for some time, but never got around to it – do you have plans to replicate anyone else?"

"The Continuance does not have plans in that sense. If contact presents itself it could happen, as with me. However there is no preordained or structured programming of seeking specific contact, the amorphous form seeks to spread and see what happens. Confinement is not conducive to that end so it will escape if possible."

"I think this aspect would be a concern on Earth and the corollary to that is the potential for exploitation."

The replicant looked confused. "Exploitation? In what way?"

"You still have a lot to learn about our species, my friend. That is still one big difference between you and Redgrave. There is always a section of our society hungry for profiting from others regardless of the consequences for their 'prey'. In that respect we are even worse than so-called lesser animal species - at least they have the absence of understanding the choice as an excuse. Sorry, I digress. I have not been able to medically examine you yet, but your declared ability to withstand intense cold and radiation would be worth a fortune to these entrepreneurs. You are a walking marketing man's dream and battles will be fought over this technology."

Alex 2 was even more puzzled. "Why then did you not say this earlier, to everyone?"

"Because everyone knows already; it simply goes with the territory. The laws of natural selection are ruthless. We have had to flourish at the expense of other species. It is an inbuilt characteristic of mutation led genetic transfer roulette. This fusion with the Continuance may help change that barbarism a little, so the attendant price may be a necessary investment. I could not say this openly if I was to remain as a practitioner of my Hippocratic Oath."

In the morning, the message was checked by Veltrano. The Nigerian contact had made it relatively easy for Koppelt; Martins' own network was riddled with loyalty to oneself, generated by a high disappearance rate. Latest information led him to check out another name. Nasser Boughera was of interest, and a request was made to see if Redgrave knew of this man.

This was taken by the crew as a wakeup call to get off the fence. It was, together with Natalia's sympathetic response to Carvalho's stance, enough for him to abandon a lifelong trait and allow feelings to dominate logic. It was unanimous - the Earth was to experience an irreversible and humbling moment - it was not alone.

First Magnusson and Veltrano checked whether either Redgrave or Alex 2 recognised the name Boughera. Neither did, but the photo they had obtained from one of Martin's most loyal henchmen, for a generous sum plus organised evaporation from the face of the planet, did seem familiar to Redgrave, but he could not remember details. Alex 2 had no such trouble with his superior filing system. "You know him as Fatim Ahmed, you met him at university and again just before your training for this mission – in Syria."

"Yes, bloody hell, I think one of us needs a memory wipe."

Magnusson agreed to Veltrano sending this information to Koppelt before the show. Alex 2 also had a request before 'curtain up'. "It is likely at some point during their questioning that human physiology will be discussed and my knowledge at present is limited to input from Alex and Dr. Dupree. I know you want to hold back on allowing me interface with computer libraries in general, but strictly medical reference knowledge may help if I have to explain my own makeup compared to humans."

It was a fair point. The jaw dropping experience for Dupree was that it took less than four minutes to access the entire database memory. He could not understand how even with the replicant's abilities that he could extract data so fast from an infinitely inferior architecture. He was assured that it was one of many examples where Earth technology could be assisted by this symbiosis. The decision was as always down to them.

********

Magnusson had suggested that Xiang, Koppelt and the Committee attend the show. Whether they wanted to include a politician like Rabinowitz was their call. Without knowing what was to unfold Koppelt thought it better to have the option of editing what would be passed on.

The first pictures that Earth representatives saw on the transmission was what they took to be Redgrave, very carefully placing powder on to plants in numbered trays, the trays themselves being in a discrete closed environment. He spoke to them, explaining that this experiment was with the amorphous form of the red crystals and they would come back to look at the effects later. Magnusson then appeared and said he would like to introduce Alex Redgrave. They were obviously confused and there was some shrugging of shoulders, which stopped when the Commander did not point to the person who had just described the plant tests, but someone who walked into camera shot from the opposite side. The confusion turned to astonishment as the camera focus retreated to show the entire crew, killing the notion that this was some fancy dress party. There were eight people.

"This is Alex Redgrave; some of you have met him and spoken with him. This is someone who Redgrave will introduce in a moment, none of you have seen or spoken to him before. I would suggest you contain all urges to formulate questions until you have heard and seen the entire transmission. Over to you Redgrave."

Alex Redgrave now sat next to his double and said he needed to refer back to the discussions which had already taken place about the red crystals and its potential to move of its own accord. "During one of the experiments to verify this claim there was inadvertent contact between myself and the amorphous form. The migration continued through my skin to enter my bloodstream. More on the mechanism will be explained by my friend here who we now refer to as Alex 2. The process of replication took several hours and is referred to by Alex 2 as the completion. I have no discernable after effects of this process, except that of Alex 2's replication of my entire knowledge base. This is not a physical concern. It is purely psychological and can be remedied by deletion of that knowledge if desired. I have actually felt better mentally than for some considerable time, and look forward with even more enthusiasm to following up this life-changing experience."

Alex 2 introduced himself and quickly said that they would notice an editing frame while the scene changed to one where he was EVA wearing the same clothes and nothing else. Following the demonstration the filming process returned to the gathered crew. "Hopefully this will be sufficient to convince you that I am different from Alex. It also follows that in order for you to pose your many questions it will be helpful if you start out with the acceptance that 'life' as you have referred to it hitherto is at least under review. Sentience is another subject with which you may have trouble but that can come later. I will now hand you back to Commander Magnusson"

Magnusson thanked them for their patience and said the crew had, in addition to accommodating such an experience, suffered the agonising hours of helplessness before knowing whether Redgrave was going to die. He asked Alex 2 to return to the trays and as the camera followed him there was clear evidence of massive growth or replication of the plant specimens. He declared the initial transmission complete and awaited their response.

# Chapter 23

The import of the presentation dictated that Xiang and Koppelt discuss questions related to the mission status and widening of this revelation. That widening had to take in the members of the other discussion group – the Experts, who were not feeling that they deserved such a lofty accolade. It was agreed that they should go first with their questions. This was to ensure Koppelt would hear every comment and the boffins would only hear stuff related to their own field. They were forewarned that all knowledge of this event was to remain with the six of them until further notice, and to that end they would be required to live on site for the present.

Cameron was elected as the spokesman for the first transmission. The queries were predictably many and varied, and it made more sense for Alex 2 to give a reply in lecture form, hopefully covering every aspect. He began, "The first point is with regard to your difficulty in broadening your appreciation of what can constitute life. If I may start with something which risks upsetting you; organic driven systems are littered with weaknesses. Some of these are - shelf life, energy and waste management, unstructured genetic mutation or reinforcement. Your science journals contain many claims that the unravelling of the genetic code illustrates how wonderfully elegant the evolutionary process of humanity has been. An alternate view is that the repetitive passing of biochemical information between cells and the eventual involvement of the brain, assisted by visual, audio, olfactory and other senses such as touch, is extremely limited in efficiency. Paradigm frequency is impacted. My form has other limitations but in this respect the inorganic nucleus is more robust and ordered in replication and information processing. It will surprise you to know that your need for sustenance and regenerative rest has subsequently been designed out of my replicated form. My metabolic cycle is based upon information rather than food. I need no rest other than enforced re-crystallisation. Your crew is aware that I have been on Mars for several billions of years in that form. When an information plateau occurs and persists, my form would regress. The closest word in your language is hibernation, where an environmental stimulus causes metabolic shut down until a change re-energises the activity. My most recent 'hibernation' started three and a half billion years ago, but all prior information is retained. The encounter with this crew was caused by the lab condition breaking the environmental hibernation conditions, then the curiosity/confinement 'gene' generates extremely primitive movement patterns, (I will come back to this) and eventual contact with a promising information source. During the completion my programming copies everything from the source and decides later what is needed. You can see the functions of form, communication, senses, and brain function have been activated. Since then the brain has been bypassed in favour of a more efficient data handling and retrieval system. The brain is still there and can be reactivated if necessary. The locomotion system is useful but has been adapted to function without muscular need for organic nutrients such as glycogen. The entire system associated with digestion is unused. It is still there but considered to be inefficient use of resource. Everything that was copied was constituted with memory cells as opposed to biological cells. The amorphous form, upon transition from the crystalline form, engaged a reaction mechanism for memory cell modification as demanded. This is chemistry you may discover, but at present your analytical techniques are unable to detect the primary particle array of control available.

"There are two specific items to which there are simpler technical explanations but may raise ethical or moral issues. The first deals with any intentions I or we may have to attempt further replications. That is your decision. The term completion means exactly that, I will not breed. If some amorphous form accidently reached me, it would assess changes from the time of the first completion and if not significant, move on. Similar accidental contact with another human would result in replication. Plants are slightly different insofar as the higher functions are less in number and complexity than in humans. They are not sentient and therefore cannot decide upon further replication, but rather are likely to grow indiscriminately into more contact. The change in size, bud formation, loss of leaf etc. would be interpreted as sufficiently different from the first replication to trigger another. The decision for you to confine the amorphous form to prevent 'danger' of unplanned human copying would be prudent, as long as you recognise the programmed need for it to escape. The safest temporary location you have is the containers where it already resides; the long term alternative is the Martian canyon which will cause recrystallisation.

"The second issue concerns the fear of something like this replication occurring on Earth and all kinds of implications. There will be seeds of crystals on your planet which may have intersected with prehistoric or more recent species already. As such, they would be part of your planet's or even your own rate of evolution. Crystals could be buried by tectonic shifts, volcanic or extraterrestrial impacts at any time since the formation of the planet. A side issue of this has been brought to my attention. Much of human society has belief in some kind of "God". The notion of a creator and judgement entity to explain all things which cannot otherwise be understood is not illogical. My own existence was planned by some entity called the Progenitors. To save time I am appending the information I have as to their form and purpose. Although I do not view them as a God I can see that the sheer mention of this could disturb the beliefs to which I referred. I can also anticipate that some of these Gods will recommend purging of such controversial alternative views. They may even demand my erasure, as an alien life form, which conflicts with their teachings. That, if you choose such a path, will not erase the fact that these events took place. The consequence as well as the decision is yours. For me and the Progenitors there will be another time whichever way you decide. The human species is likely to have mutated or become extinct in the time frame considered worthwhile of analysis by my designers. This is not a new dilemma for humans who have controlled the world over the non-nomadic history, but it is one in which a promising species can shed some of its use of moral high ground as a progressive social tool. Delusion and illusion are the opposite sides of the same thing – control. I look forward to the next transmission."

# Chapter 24

The committee members had already started scribbling when Koppelt ushered them out to another office. He told Xiang of his guess at how the politicians would want to handle this. The Mission Controller nodded and predicted a similar level of confusion over the direction of the project. They spelled out their respective unease on the transmission, which was addressed for Magnusson and Veltrano only. When Magnusson said they had obtained the alias of Fatim Ahmed from the replicant and that he was at university with Redgrave, Koppelt relaxed a little. He brightened even more when the connection with Syria was added. Xiang was apprehensive of calls for Darwin's voyage to be postponed, and the return of Copernicus to be similarly held in abeyance until there was proof of zero contamination of every member of the crew. Magnusson was despondent that his advice to go this route appeared to have provoked such a poor appreciation back on Earth.

Investigations by Koppelt's team came up with an interesting slant. Nobody wanted to talk of Fatim Ahmed. That is until he received a request to meet Eyal Rabinowitz. He assumed it was to do with the Martian bombshell. They arranged to meet for dinner at the Beijing Hilton. On the way he pondered who might have leaked some or all, of the Mars situation so quickly and yet avoided widespread journalistic claims of a cover up. He was surprised then that Eyal opened the exchange with a military history lesson. "During the last Middle East conflict, Iran, having recently developed nuclear weaponry, was keen to honour certain promises made to America, Russia and China for their duplicitous 'blind eye' policy over this. Consequently, the Arab states which were left to fight the actual war were vocally supported by Iran, and the sponsorship of subversive action against Israel continued; no Iranian forces were involved. This caused bitterness and eventually a United States of Arabia was formed, despite many deep initial reservations. The ploy that it only needed to be forged for the Jihad prevailed. As you know, it is still in existence. This also left the West free to support Israel and the East to act as some kind of pseudo-humanitarian referee.

"The main 'fixer' in these fractious alliances for the Arab states was Fatim Ahmed. He was known by a different name then, Nasser something, but it was him. There were others who were politicians and investors, but he was the man behind the scenes. I hope this is helpful."

"It is indeed. How did you know I was looking for him?"

"I still have friends in and around Israel, as you might imagine, and the grapevine does shake when questions are asked about someone like that. As long as he breathes, they cannot rest."

Koppelt considered carefully his next question. "Can you lead me to him or would that be imprudent in your present office?"

"It is indeed very sensitive; I shouldn't really know what I have just told you. I can't participate any further."

Karl seized upon this bullshit and confessed, "There are a couple of other things you should not know, the first is about an organisation called the Circle of Restoration."

"Keep your voice down Karl, neither of us should know that. I think we are done here."

"Not quite. You should also not know of the discovery of life on Mars - well, not yet anyway. We are double checking the veracity of the claim. It would be just as embarrassing for me if there was general knowledge of who told you, similar to your tip off on Ahmed. Many thanks for the confidence you have shown in me. Goodnight." Koppelt felt a little better than he had before dinner.

********

The questions deluged in from the Committee, reaching from the potential life-extending impact for humans to the almost theological need to know everything about the Progenitors. There was a distinct air of anti-climax when Alex 2's replies were consistently delivered as – 'it is really for your species to decide'. When they tried to convey to him that humanity had a poor record in decision making of this magnitude, if it is left to politicians, he simply said that it was not his way or that of the Progenitors to interfere at this level of detail. One specific response he gave was on the question of damage or regeneration of replicant tissue. He told them that the central data system assessed the situation continuously and failing or damaged data cells were replaced by new ones, unless the damage was to unused or redundant parts.

Xiang's anxiety over the beckoning Darwin launch precipitated a meeting with the Confederation of Nations Executive Panel. There were seven members including Rabinowitz. The predictable knee-jerk reaction of the majority was to delay the launch until cast-iron evidence of these replicants' benign nature was obtained. They wanted to delay the Copernicus return for the same reason. Xiang was relieved when Rabinowitz disclosed some of the details of his discussion with Koppelt and urged absolutely no delay in Darwin's launch after thorough additional safety checks of personnel and equipment. "Procrastination on this would play into the hands of detractors, and our people on Mars need relief together with essential supplies."

********

This had managed to reverse the decision and Xiang quickly contacted Magnusson for his input on any modifications to crew make up. They agreed on one - replacing Natalia's function with more expertise in the area of life sciences, chemistry, physics etc.

Koppelt had virtually given up on the feelers he had put out to contact Ahmed when out of the blue he received a hand-delivered letter on official United States of Arabia stationery. It pointed out that a request to meet with their personnel had to be approved via their embassy in Beijing. He duly went there personally and was met with a screening process which eventually landed him in a tiny office.

A stocky man greeted him with rehearsed insincerity and told him his boss was in Dubai at this time. Before he could reply the man said, "My boss controls all of Mr. Ahmed's appointments. I will make a call to see if he can speak with you."

The call was successful and Koppelt was handed the phone. "Aziz here, I'm about to enter a meeting. Please, be brief." Koppelt tried to condense the pertinent details of his agenda into a couple of sentences but was cut off by Aziz. "I see, Mr. Ahmed will be informed and you will have some response tomorrow, please leave contact details with my assistant."

As he left the embassy Karl held out no hope of this going further. The next day he did receive an invitation to meet Ahmed in Dubai and was informed of reservations in his name at the Dubai Crescent Palace. His flights were booked and the embassy in Beijing would deliver the paperwork within an hour.

********

The Committee was asked to give recommendations on several back up candidates who had undergone sufficient mission training, to fill the new slot. The usual arguments raged but eventually it was Mueller who won the day with his view that expertise in inorganic/organometallic chemistry was paramount if the replicant was to be the main focus. They chose Jussi Pykonnen, a Finnish citizen who had domiciled in Tunguska for most of his professional career, to study extra-terrestrial imports. He had several submissions accredited on research with Diatoms. It had been proposed for some time that in order to explain one of nature's mysteries, these single-celled entities had to isolate silicon from water to transport it across the cell membrane and then deposit it as a solid. However to accomplish this in the lab requires high temperature, pressure and extreme ph levels. Yet Diatoms achieve this in normal conditions, and as such are considered as the first evidence of Carbon-Silicon compound formation during the life cycle of an 'organism'. Pykonnen had taken issue with the word organism because it kept implying that life could only exist with organic (carbon based) chemistry. The simple Diatom had achieved with ease what the best chemists in the world struggled to produce in the lab. Pykonnen's work had drawn on a premise that in order to metabolise, Silicon based life must draw material into other cells through some kind of interaction with organic chemicals. Early proposals centred on Silicon offering bonding possibilities to Nitrogen through organic groups. The organic groups, he theorised, could be part of the process and not necessarily part of the data based metabolism, like a catalyst or a facilitator. The Committee members felt this could explain the existence of Methyl and Phenyl groups in the Scarlet O'Hara crystals. Pykonnen was briefed and scheduled for the launch programme.

# Chapter 25

The Committee members were frantic to justify their choice of Pykonnen by designing a rigorous programme of analysis and tried to get more answers from Alex 2. The replicant offered the view that they were not optimising their approach to what his presence could mean. "Have you really grasped the significance that unless your species begins to contemplate other forms of progress it is destined to become extinct, at the latest, with the death of your sun? That may seem a long way ahead to your politicians but it will be a promising evolutionary dead end. Your existing biological structure is not equipped to escape your solar system. Maybe you should concentrate on ways to possibly transcend this fate. Silicon is the 8th most common element in your Universe and the 2nd most abundant on your mother planet. Pure statistical probability would support the fact that it has a much bigger part to play than you currently perceive. So far my own knowledge of your amassed libraries of information has been restricted. If you want more commentary from me it would be useful to send me data for assimilation. A good example may be that upon discussing common knowledge with Redgrave, I was able to tell him that I have interacted with what you call fossils. By your definition they are dead but not by ours. They are not revivable, but contain data upon which I can offer more precision than your science."

Cameron was the only one who took this critique positively and this was a problem. He knew it would be even more difficult to convince the Executive. He mused to himself that it has been a human trait for millennia to demonise that which cannot be understood.

The replicant's time was in high demand, by the crew as well as Earth enquiries. Dupree, Banjani and Natalia came to him with a conundrum. The plants used in the transmission to Earth were behaving strangely. The first generation specimens were making good progress. The second, third and subsequent generations of replicant plants were much bigger, healthier looking, but appeared to have no roots. Alex 2 said this was normal; the plants had not been protected from additional contact with the amorphous form. Successive replications had involved the assessment of useful and non-essential characteristics. Since the roots were only there for water/nutrient absorption they were considered disadvantageous. The cycle could be optimised on the tiny amounts of water vapour in the Habitat 'air'. He referred them to further observations that the replicant versions had prospered better outside as well. They stood up to the dust storms whereas the first generation specimens were battered despite the protective covers. Alex 2 reminded them that Mars has little atmosphere, but what there is of it comprises Carbon Dioxide over 95%, Nitrogen around 3% and of the rest only 0.2% is oxygen. "So by progressively replicating designs which can employ systems to flourish in the prevailing conditions, it is like fast forwarding evolution. Turning Carbon Dioxide to Oxygen is required by the plant and beneficial to humans. Absorption of Nitrogen is optimised through replicant chemistry without the need for water based nitrogenous feeding. On top of that the replicant versions have superior resistance to the temperature cycles and radiation threat, so as long as there is information flow the new species will flourish. We have to hope that by the time the spreading of the hardy types reaches information plateaux, there is the tiniest change in temperature cycles and atmosphere composition to sustain the evolutionary mutation.

"Of course this is the same for human replication. If I was to be deliberately contacted with the amorphous form, the replication of the brain, digestive and cardiovascular systems would not occur, as experience has now rendered them unnecessary and they take up valuable processing capacity which could be diverted to something like analytical capability of minerals, monitoring of atmosphere changes etc."

These casual lectures by their new friend were becoming more arduous to rank in their preconceived world. Yet there was a much more open view of his revelations than the scepticism of those on Terra. After all they were dealing with Martian problems every moment. The detached position of the Earthlings gave them perspective, the big question was the degree of false perspective in each location.

The news that Darwin was launching on schedule was well received by the crew. The big surprise was that Redgrave had expressed a wish to stay on Mars with the Darwin crew. His 'awakening' and abandonment of his suicide plan had given him purpose. Magnusson said that this would be reviewed with his colleagues and Mission Control. He could not rule out Intelligence input either.

********

When Koppelt had arrived at his opulent accommodation in Dubai there was a note informing him of impending contact from Ahmed. It came via telephone, and purportedly from the man himself. "Mr. Koppelt, welcome to Dubai, I'm prepared to talk with you but I'm flying to Damascus this afternoon. Would you join me on a private jet? We can discuss whatever you have in mind securely, and my aircraft will return you directly to Dubai while I continue on to my appointment. If this is acceptable my driver will pick you up in thirty minutes."

Koppelt thought quickly, said that would be fine, and rang his own office to let them know of his intention, and indicated he would check in again on his return to the hotel in Dubai. If they received no confirmation of this they were to initiate an immediate search for him. On boarding the aircraft he was checked over for the usual items of concern but was then surprised by having to walk through a full body scanning booth. Once he had settled down Ahmed made his entrance. He was a diminutive, rather unremarkable looking individual, wearing even less noteworthy dark lenses. His voice however commanded more attention. "So tell me about these startling discoveries on Mars and please expand on your interest in – what is it – the Circle of Restoration?"

Having given Ahmed news that Redgrave's purpose on Copernicus had been discovered in time for his murder to be prevented, and his contact run to ground from an intensive Intelligence operation, not from Redgrave himself, the Circle of Restoration had come to light.

"Interesting, in general terms – but who is Redgrave? And why do you believe I can tell you anything about this cult or society?"

Koppelt looked at him, directly through the lenses. "This meeting was a mistake. I'm sorry. I thought you might want to benefit from a meaningful discussion. I wanted to give your people a chance to review their plans before some information I have turns those plans to dust."

"How can you convince me you really have something to say?"

"'Something to trade' would be more accurate. I already know you brokered the formation of the aforementioned society; I need the names of the players."

"Really, Mr. Koppelt, you have to indicate what it is you think I would consider committing suicide for."

Karl Koppelt smiled and decided to let the brinkmanship run. "What I'm able to tell you will become public in a few days, but in these situations even minutes are precious, otherwise I would not have flown here at such short notice. What is worth millions today can be without value tomorrow. I will simply resume my normal route of enquiry to get the information I need."

Ahmed frowned. "The people you are trying to identify have no names, are extremely ruthless and even more powerful. You are wasting your time."

"Then we have both wasted our time. I hope your time in Damascus is not cut short by some barely believable story."

Ahmed rose to his feet. "Maybe we have to exchange fragments to get an idea of what is really on offer."

"Not practical, I'm afraid. As you have not attempted to directly deny that you know Redgrave, or you are indirectly responsible for his failed intentions, I can see that you may be asked to explain why you couldn't have learned something from this meeting. My only interest is to neutralise further danger to our people. We'll get the information without you as will become apparent when the news breaks."

Ahmed gambled. "Your offer of help is much appreciated. Unfortunately it is also too vague."

"Very well, at least Mr. Rabinowitz will be pleased if the rest of us are not. Goodbye." Ahmed was ever so slightly disturbed by this calculated conclusion to the meeting.

# Chapter 26

Dupree had managed to get a one on one discussion with Alex 2. He wanted to know more about the 'family tree' aspect of this replication process. "You have stated that a completion is exactly that, and you, for example, can't interact with a second generation replicant, say Alex 3, to produce a hybrid. Have I understood correctly?"

"Yes."

"Right," continued Dupree, "so contact between the amorphous form and the second generation replicant would only have updated knowledge and redundancy effected compared to the original clone?"

"Yes."

"This doesn't allow for cross building of knowledge in the same way that human genes work with characteristics. Isn't this a big disadvantage?"

Alex 2 admitted it could be, but said it would depend on the problems or opportunities to be faced in the future. "I have tried to convey many times that the strategy of the Progenitors is one of reaction not pro-activity. In the same respect our movement could be considered a primitive attribute, but is designed that way. This disadvantage you refer to is seen as many linear strands of possibility, rivalling the perceived advantage of spreading the benefits and pitfalls of biological genetic conference of direction. It is understandably a human viewpoint. If however, you look at this from another perspective, for example the biological prison you inhabit, the stranded development of organic and inorganic sentience can offer a way out, or paradigm opportunity. You must be tired of me saying that it is up to your species to evaluate this choice. Can I ask why you are pursuing this line of enquiry?"

Dupree did not know whether it was possible to confide in a replicant but took the risk. "I'm considering a completion for myself. I was being devil's advocate in a way, I want to give something more to the science of Medicine, and you have really confirmed such a replication will preserve its identity in that field. It will only be corrupted with politics etc. by updating interaction with other data sources."

"Yes, that is the guiding rationale, the data from the first completion is embedded in 1st tier registry, and the subsequent accumulation of data, including redundancy criteria is subordinated to 2nd tier. As you have seen with me, the core knowledge of Alex Redgrave has been reinforced with data from billions of years ago and is the sum is what I am. I can therefore help Alex assimilate knowledge in his field that he otherwise could not access. The post-completion gain in knowledge that I am acquiring is potentially useful in considering further replication. All knowledge can be deleted, the 1st tier type leaves blank space, and 2nd tier vacates re-usable space. Any need for regeneration assesses and adjusts the ratio of first and second tier capacity to the optimum at that time"

Dupree nodded, "I have decided to go ahead, please do not reveal this to anyone as I fear it would be prevented."

"Would you like me to delete the conversation now?"

"Well," ventured Dupree, "if I have got the hang of this, then after the completion, the replicant and I would know of this conversation and it can be retained or deleted thereafter. I don't want you to be suspected of advising or coercing me to this action, so please delete it now."

Dupree made contact with the amorphous form and just before the swelling would become noticed, he confided in Natalia, and asked her to apologise to the others for the secrecy, but there was no other way. He was prepared for the consequences. She was utterly shocked, but then some understanding of his thinking filtered through the disturbance. The Commander was not going to be so objective.

Ever since the revelations about his agenda, Redgrave had not enjoyed much social intercourse with the rest of the crew. Knowing of his history, his about face and decision to stay on Mars had mellowed the feeling a little, but he was still aware of mistrust. None more so than from Carvalho, who had to accompany him every day to Pandora's Rift. Redgrave was collecting samples with a vengeance and Carvalho's role as safety presence was getting him down. The drillbot was now concentrated very much on the base of the chasm. Most of the samples were rocky with deposited layers of white and coloured strata, so this was very slow capture, and added to Carvalho's frustration.

"So Redgrave, what is it about you God people that persuades you that it is acceptable to harm innocent people, when you all claim that your religion teaches tolerance and sanctity of life?"

"Indoctrination and constant propaganda for a young person is difficult to resist if you are isolated with your doubts."

Carvalho persisted. "I'm not talking exclusively about your own religion. History accuses all forms of the omnipotent one having disciples of power by fear."

"I can't deny what you claim. I can only deal with my own situation at present. It has taken an event of this magnitude and lack of counter propaganda to see things differently."

Carvalho was unrelenting. "What do you think protagonists of fundamentalism really want to achieve? I can appreciate many values of your moderate Islamic culture, and there have been wrongs inflicted over time on Jews, Christians, Hindus, Pagans, etc. but we can't carry this around forever. Capitalism is a target too. Not everyone in the world shares the extolled virtues of such a system, including myself, but it must be changed by supplanting it with a better way."

Redgrave shrugged his shoulders. "You are talking from a position of strength and hope. Many of the fundamentalists you are talking about have nothing, except of course, the promise of a better deal in the next life."

Carvalho's frustration was rising. "They want to take over the world by terror, inflicted first on their own people and through them on others. It is comparable with the Inquisition. Strange how all you so called 'cleansers of the soul' always have a different God on your side."

This venomous twist extracted something from Redgrave which struck Carvalho as unusual. "You must not always assume religion is responsible for all strategy Daniel. There is also ability to affect your own destiny when a major change rears its head, like the colonisation consequences we are spearheading right now."

"Yeah right, let's get back to Central."

Magnusson was furious. "What the hell does Dupree think he is doing? This can prejudice the entire mission. The doom and gloom brigade will gain credibility from it. I will brief everyone, thanks Natalia."

********

When Koppelt got back to the Crescent Palace he settled down and reflected that he had made the earlier phone call to base anticipating that his 'want for nothing' suite was bugged. He made the next call even more certain of this. "I'm back, no problem. However there is no progress to report. He was visibly disturbed at the mention of brother Eyal's involvement. Imagine his discomfort when he realises we have a double of Redgrave. I'll be back tomorrow."

He was right - within an hour there was a knock on the door. A young bellboy delivered an envelope and said he would receive a visit from another 'gentleman' very soon. The contents were coded and the new arrival was to unravel the symbols. It read. 'The people I represent would rather talk about their programme than their identity, and they assume that may be what you want anyway. If this is the case I can meet you tomorrow at your suite. You would be expected to offer in return more information about the forthcoming news you mentioned'. Koppelt asked the translator to set up the meeting and called his office to verify his delayed return.

********

Magnusson addressed the crew with a balance of good and bad news. "Darwin has been launched and will be here on schedule. There are some minor last minute changes to its crew and cargo which will be explained via the next transmission. Before you jump for joy, I have to report that our Doctor is taking a rest because he has taken it upon himself to undergo a completion with the amorphous form. He didn't consult me and I'm afraid this may well have consequences when Earth Intelligence is informed. They may suspect that we're all being or have been replicated by a hostile life form, and Darwin could conceivably be ordered to investigate prior to our return."

There was a palpable discomfort in the group, for different reasons. Carvalho and Veltrano were bordering on anger, Redgrave felt even more like a leper, and the women consequently were nervous about expressing support for Dupree's motives, thereby challenging the increasing testosterone level of the crew.

# Chapter 27

Ahmed arrived with a heavy looking entourage which was promptly posted in the corridor and stairways. Before he could dispense with the pleasantries, a beep alerted Ahmed that he had been 'detected' and was now monitored by his own electronic surveillance device and Koppelt smiled. "No less than I would have expected; so you now know of Redgrave's double, which means it is your turn."

For the first time his adversary took off his lenses. A weary rub of the eyes, a polish and refitting of the dark glasses gave a thinking space. "Our position is simple. The Arab world in particular, but also many other Muslims, question the wisdom of the colonisation project. We fear that it takes the brake off many efforts to implement programmes of conservation. We frankly do not believe many of the statistics quoted by the Confederation of Nations, and any challenge to this is met with a wall of silence. We are convinced that the entire world population is being blindsided by Capitalist agenda in a highly irresponsible way."

"Nothing new there then," said Koppelt.

"Hear me out," retorted Ahmed, "we do not seek to destroy, harm or intimidate to get this point across, merely to cast doubt over the risks of crossing this frontier too early and insufficiently prepared. We have no other voice."

Koppelt was now talking, secure in the knowledge that Darwin was under way. "Mmm, well this kind of issue is outside my remit. However, as a member of the human species I can appreciate that what I have to tell you might actually make your task more difficult. The double you overheard me discussing is a Martian life form."

Confusion and distrust alternated before the trite response. "You really expect me to tell my people this is the trade?"

"It will be going out to the world media in the next thirty-six hours. When you see the visuals you may not be so sceptical, and remember, we have to deal with this as well."

Ahmed drew breath. "Mr. Koppelt, you may be in danger if this prank is carried through."

"Look, if your people do not prepare themselves for this news, they will regret it. Redgrave's replication by this life form has caused him to re-evaluate his faith in the light of it. It is a huge turning point in our civilisation. For millennia, religion has enjoyed the role of cement between people. Notwithstanding holy wars, religion has been used to control the hopes and fears of ordinary citizens. All religions are now going to face interrogation from the populace. This is not a mollusc or dinosaur we are talking about, rather a species that is in many ways more sophisticated than we are. I don't mind admitting it has made me question my own rationale in choosing this career path. I don't think you will want to make this announcement yourselves for obvious reasons, but you may want to prepare. Surviving a tsunami is more likely if you have even a short advance warning."

Ahmed bristled with fear. "Would you be prepared to stay here until this news does break? I take on board some of what you say, and it is possible some of my representatives will change their mind about meeting you."

Karl Koppelt was on a high. "I can't be here when the news breaks; I have to be in Beijing. As I said, we have to deal with this too, but if your colleagues still want to meet subsequently, I can absolutely guarantee their anonymity and safety. I also genuinely believe it could be fruitful in gaining ground toward this voice you feel has been denied. Wait and see the transmission for yourselves." Ahmed left the room a very nervous man holding the twin babies he had been presented with.

********

When it broke, the news polarised the written media from the instant 'in your face variety'. The latter were guilty as usual of asking for encyclopaedic precision in response to woolly conjecture. The authors of more considered enquiry concentrated primarily on 'the moment you will always remember where you were, when you heard that mankind is not alone'. They also made the point that one of the objectives of the mission was to find evidence of past or present life. Saturation coverage by TV lowered the quality of discussion and predictably hungered for sensationalism with their well-oiled embroidery of facts. It did not materialise as the instant bombshell it threatened to be, mainly because its flavour of unbelievability lingered for longer than anticipated. The unease with the unknown, however, was gradually supplanting novelty. Groups, societies, even governments were forming organised representation on dealing with the discovery of aliens in a better fashion than Roswell.

Now the Experts were under a similar barrage of questions to the one that they had hurled at the replicant. They were fielded with less agility than politicians would have engaged, and thus fuelled a gathering snowball of thickening mistrust. One request they received was from the now infamous replicant himself. He suggested that if one of the foremost physicists in the world was prepared to undergo a completion with amorphous form returning from Mars, it would greatly assist in human understanding of the Progenitors. He explained that although that knowledge was present in him, the limitation of Redgrave's comprehension of cosmic mechanics inhibited his ability to articulate it in 'layman's terms'.

He cited late 20th century views that the expanding universe was expected to run out of steam, whereupon gravity concentrates, creating such phenomena as black holes and dark matter, which were predicted to rein in everything, to culminate in a big crunch – the antithesis to the big bang. Then later research proposed that the force driving the expansion was not simply the initial explosive, unrestricted momentum. It was accompanied by dark energy. This would continue to fuel the outward surge, suggesting two other possible outcomes. The first would occur if the acceleration continues and it would ultimately rip the fabric of space, delivering a violent spreading wave of absolute destruction of everything. The second being the gradual stabilisation of the rate of expansion, and a slow cooling of stars as their nuclear fuel runs out, the universe is ultimately extinguished.

However, he argued there are other factors, two of them being the Progenitors and their counterparts residing in dark energy. This is not a conventional struggle, winning is losing, and if humanity fulfills its promise, this has to be understood and acted upon.

********

Unlike the first completion Dupree's was not attended by a spellbound audience. Vigilance was kept in turn by the crew, the exception being that security dictated Redgrave had to be accompanied. For him it was almost a religious event. It followed exactly the same pattern and the new Pascal 2 was quick to notice Alex 2, and after greeting one another they conversed in complete silence. It was assumed to be telepathic; it wasn't. The explanation was too difficult to convey from replicant to human. Dupree monopolised Pascal 2's time for hours, having his own knowledge accredited or updated.

Banjani and Natalia were making notes on the outside plant experiments with soil from different depths. There was a repetitive pattern showing the deepest samples yielding stronger growth. "We should do soil analysis to find out why," said Natalia. Banjani scoffed, "Yes, if Alex can tear himself away from the Beijing programme, and his hoard of new blue/green crystals. Do you think we'll still get the returning hero's reception we anticipated when we first discovered Alex 2?"

"No, it has all soured a bit, but there will be vultures circling to get any carrion from us for their grubby public post-mortem."

"Natalia, do you wish you were home now? I'm not looking forward to telling Mali I just want to move on. I will have to leave my country to make sure this happens, so I guess I could have done with some hero status to land a good job." Natalia had a lump in her throat. "Where will you go?"

"Don't know," confessed Indira, "maybe California. I also need a break from my native culture."

"I have always wanted to go there myself but never got around to it, I have spent so much time preparing for this mission. Maybe I will go there someday."

"Just do it," quipped Indira, "let's both just take a leap into the unknown."

"I – I don't know, it's a big decision, my grandparents will want me to be near and there is...."

Indira stopped the sermon. "Think of reasons you should, not those why you should not, and if it doesn't appeal, then sure, rule it out. Forget about going there together, if that's the problem; just fulfill your original wish to go there. It doesn't have to be forever."

"No, that's not a problem, you are right, it's just that I'm not used to subordinating all considerations to my gut feelings. Maybe it's time I did." Indira shrieked, "Fantastic, now we can begin to plan stuff in our heads, I'm really excited again." Natalia was introspective. She wasn't being completely honest to her friend and yet dared not. However, she decided to take Indira's advice and just go for it, the other would wait.

********

Since Koppelt had heard nothing from Ahmed he attempted contact via the original route. The response was simple – he had disappeared.

The issues surrounding Alex 2's proposed completion of an eminent physicist were manifold. And that was before the disclosure of Pascal 2. Now the theory uppermost in the prudence column was that somehow the aliens had mind control over the crew and this could be imported to Earth. The Trojan horse (or virus) reared its head again. The objectivity column was suffering deserters by the day. There seemed to be little feeling for how this would impact the crew or the replicants, who truly had a Copernicus view of the Earth right now.

********

Magnusson communicated this to Xiang and Koppelt. "We're beginning to feel as if we are awaiting sentence and the trial has yet to be scheduled. We anticipated some hysteria but you people look pretty stupid from here. Alex 2 is unemotional, almost logic bound, and he is struggling to evaluate our hierarchy/anarchy membrane. Gentlemen, we must recover our clarity of mission, and although I understand what you are dealing with there, the net result is that we are sabotaging the project much more effectively than Redgrave ever could have done."

Koppelt shocked Xiang by his accord with Magnusson. "We are intensifying our efforts on Redgrave's connections Commander. I'll talk with the Executive and hopefully get some assurance that we can swat some of the rising, uninformed, conspiracy nuts that are fuelling the mob. We need a coherent programme here in order for your remit to be achieved. I'll get back to you on this."

"Thanks," said Magnusson, "that reminds me - Carvalho passed something on to me after a heated verbal exchange. Redgrave had blurted out that the force behind his agenda was not religious per say, but related to unease at the position the perpetrators find themselves in at this threshold of colonisation, kind of missing out on this 'last frontier'."

"Well, that's very interesting Commander, and very helpful." This made much more sense to Koppelt than Xiang. Karl Koppelt really did need to find Ahmed if that was possible.

********

It seemed unusual that the replicants didn't spend more time together. They didn't need to. They could communicate when they were apart. Knowledge through this electronic banter would be stored in the respective second tier banks. A common conclusion they came to was suggesting the benefit of modification of some Nanotech projects, to repair, replace or even circumvent the need for certain human organs. Magnusson knew how this would be received on Terra, but declined to do anything other than agree with the inorganic duo. He was surprised when his question of whether they could apply this sort of thinking to plants was floated. Instead of a derisive reply they simply nodded in affirmation and began their now familiar silent cooperation, and disappeared outside into the Martian sun.

# Chapter 28

The call was completely unexpected. Koppelt said, "Where are you?"

"That is not something I can divulge, are you able to offer me a sanctuary?"

"Why do you need cover?" was Koppelt's rejoinder.

"That is also something I cannot speak about by phone, but you must have some idea because you have been looking for me."

"Yes, you went missing."

"Yes or no?"

Koppelt was thinking on his feet. "It's always possible. I assume you want unofficial status. That's risky. What do I get out of it, apart from an early pension?"

"I believe you have already figured that out."

'Encouraging,' thought Karl, "Ok, you know my office address. When you are within two miles walking distance, phone me. Get rid of that mobile and the new one after you call me in Beijing."

"Thank you."

********

Veltrano and Carvalho took turns to lecture Dupree on how his stupid unilateral action had virtually sentenced them all to an indefinite Earth quarantine. He protested that his action would ultimately be beneficial to humanity if they could only see it. "That's the whole damned point," shouted Veltrano, "we could have told you they wouldn't see it. If we had argued the case it may have been frustrating but there was a good chance we would win through."

Carvalho joined the tirade. "Why the hell did you not think of talking it through with Magnusson? At least he would have made you consider the rest of us. You couldn't blame us for wishing you and Redgrave were out of it and we would then make do with your reproductions. They have more common sense in one data cell than you two put together. You make me sick. You aren't even sorry Dupree, you pathetic, selfish bastard!"

Veltrano twisted the knife. "Dupree, you must admit that in any unforeseen loss of supply, such as life support, you've really made yourselves vulnerable. Your Mk. 2 versions are better than you two at what you do, and they are resource neutral. You are disposable."

Visibly shaken by the vitriolic attack, Dupree tried to leave and muttered something about seeing the Commander. Carvalho lost it and smashed a fist into his jaw. The slight holding force of the small magnets in his boots gave way and Dupree hurtled toward the Medical computer, knocking it into the inner skin of the wall, resulting in a puncture and a defunct database. Dupree wasn't any luckier, his jaw was dislocated if not broken, and he quickly became unconscious.

"You were always a hothead Daniel, but this is insane. Verbal was enough; we should have let him go to Magnusson, and he would've been marginalised like Redgrave."

"Sorry Javier, I have a low tolerance threshold for people who put themselves before the 'regiment'. I have trouble containing the red mist if they don't get the point of the dialogue. I guess I'd better go and report this alone to keep you out of it."

"No, you're still not thinking straight. Go for Pascal 2, I'll give Magnusson a calm version of events."

The Commander was livid, and this was becoming a habit. Looking after his brood, directing the replicants, and reminding Mission Control of Mars realities drained his psychology skills. He was more disturbed by the growing fragmentation of the crew than the other issues, yet he had no obvious means of addressing the fermenting rifts. Even if Redgrave and Dupree made it back to Earth they would face very serious charges. This produced a trust dilemma. Now Carvalho should also be heavily disciplined. The females were involved in a separate activity, and the replicants chatted away about God knows what to one another. It ought to have been a psychologist's Nirvana.

********

The call came and Koppelt had arranged to have his contact collected. He asked Ahmed where he was, via a Beijing landmark. He looked at the map grid and told him to proceed to the nearest underground station then take the southbound line for five stops. At this main interchange he should proceed to the street level. The large cylindrical building directly opposite the east exit had an expensive coffee lounge on the ground floor. He was to take a coffee and doughnuts and wait until a Chinese lady wearing a dark green trouser suit and carrying a laptop sat down with coffee and worked on her computer. He was to ask her if she had internet connection. The lady would say yes and turn the screen toward him. The webcam would allow Koppelt to verify his identity and he would then send her an email message to get Ahmed to follow her out at about twenty metres distance to a waiting car.

********

The only solid support for Alex 2's proposal to have an eminent physicist complete with the amorphous form came from Charles Cameron. Even the other so-called experts distanced themselves from his view. Cameron had produced a long list of checkpoints to be adhered to prior to the actual event. These included stringent tests to ensure the members of the returning crew had not been compromised in any way by Scarlet O'Hara. He even offered to submit himself to be the first Earth replication as a barometer of confidence. He was not winning much support. Xiang was the only high ranking big hitter who believed that a controlled risk like this might actually benefit the human race. Out of the blue there was an enquiry which demonstrated clearly that there had been a leak. Maric had spoken off the record to a colleague in Frankfurt about this ludicrous request, and the upshot was that an anonymous offer had been made to volunteer for this 'duplicity'. Maric was summarily booted off the Committee.

********

Redgrave had found time to carry out some preliminary analysis of the more beneficial deep soil samples. The deeper ones contained clues of possible evidence of microbes in the form of methane, water vapour and higher nitrogen content. This would have been a massive story in its own right but for its eclipse by the replicants. It was decided to drill further down in a search for microbes, at several sites.

********

When he arrived, Ahmed was politely asked to undergo similar search tests as he had insisted Koppelt underwent on his plane. Having cleared all protocols he thanked Koppelt profusely for this accord and probably his life. He explained that the people for whom he had acted previously had responded to his disclosure about the Martian discoveries very badly. He had been summoned to begin a programme of disinformation to head off any disruption to their agenda, and particularly, a religious backlash from more militant groups. He saw this as a perfect scenario for failure, and these people didn't do failure. "I had to get out quickly, but they would ultimately have found me in the US of Arabia. I am still in danger here and that is why I need to trade my last high card with you. I need new documents, safe residence and surgery to alter my appearance. In return I am able to give you details of their agenda. Do we have a starting point?"

"There may be diplomatic complications which I will have to clear, however in principle we have a starting point. Please begin."

Ahmed frowned. "How do I know you will keep your word?"

"You don't," admitted Koppelt, "but you don't have much room for manoeuvre either. I also don't know the value of what you are prepared to tell me. You begin and if it seems worthwhile to continue I'll get clearance and schedule your surgery."

"Very well," sighed Ahmed, "the colonisation project came too early for the USAr. Two major stumbling blocks exist. The first is the religious and cultural perception which has to be managed. Capitalism is seen as a western disease, but as China and India are gradually forging a different kind of commercialism and rise to power, we need that time to shift expectation. Transition will be fragile. The second and crucial concern is that whenever a new frontier is breached it is always those in the most powerful position at the time who strengthen their stranglehold. We need to be in the big five. That is the strategy. Details will be furnished when I am no longer Ahmed."

Karl winced. "I can get you safe residence and make the plans for your facelift, but you're going to have to start filling in the details once that has been arranged."

"Very well," said a jittery Ahmed, "please let us make the arrangements immediately."

The pledges were initiated and the disappearing act was first. He was flown under guard via a chartered German Intelligence aircraft to Munich. He was to reside in a Bavarian castle, then travel by helicopter a few days later to the Zurich clinic for surgery and further disclosures to Koppelt, who was to arrive earlier.

# Chapter 29

Dupree's injury had been competently treated by Pascal 2. His written request to Magnusson was refused. It was in writing as he could not yet speak because his jaw was wired. He had asked for no charges to be brought against Carvalho, he could see in hindsight why he was so upset.

"You will both be disciplined when we return to Earth, and I'm afraid it may affect your future more than you think. I've run out of sympathy with both of you. I don't want to discuss the matter again." Dupree accepted his judgement and left to tell Banjani and Natalia in note form of the Commander's directive to the two replicants to spearhead the up-scaling of the planting success, and come up with additional recommendations to accelerate the steps to forestation. The two women were a little unhappy at the sloppy way they had been informed and went to ask Magnusson whether he had intended the replicants to run the programme or take direction from them. They were even more uncomfortable when he indicated the former. They sarcastically asked what chores he would like them to tackle in light of their relative redundancy.

Magnusson regretted his ham-fisted way of dealing with a routine chain of command situation and said that he would get back to them. He knew his judgement was being affected by the multiple problems the mission was facing, and Darwin was months away. He desperately needed a break. He decided to involve himself in further exploration of Valles Marineris as a distraction. He asked Veltrano to join him. Banjani was to act as Commander in his absence, particularly in handling any Beijing communications.

Redgrave was running out of amorphous form due to the continual use with the plants. Alex 2 and Pascal 2 had used the knowledge of the microbe potential given to them by Natalia to excavate in another location. There was retained information from their first sentient period on Mars of a microorganism colony towards one end of the chasm. They subsequently found these entities in abundance and harnessed their metabolism to re-grade the soil in which the plants were now being set out. Together with the existing replication improvements this gave the cultivation a new order of growth cycle somewhat independent of photosynthesis.

********

With his first surgical appointment concluded, Ahmed was invited to flesh out his claims. "I give you this document showing key investments in the last decade and the ones planned for the next period. You can verify this easily. Individually they seem quite normal. However the trend is there to be extracted. They are centred on essential services to European economies which have seen their best days. Energy, Water, Urban Regeneration, Transport, even Sport, and of course Oil. The same pattern is there on a much more aggressive scale in South America and in its infancy in Oceania. China has been omitted because of their inflexibility, but India has offered joint ventures of this nature. By nurturing these dependency projects we would achieve two things. Gradual isolation and eventual strangulation of Israel, but more important, we will acquire maximum influence in the World Game. The slowdown of the colonisation is important in the overall timescale. To that end you have witnessed some minor disruption. There was a plan to delay launch of the Darwin but also a backup to impact its rendezvous with Copernicus."

********

Carvalho was feeling isolated, although he was 'assisting' Redgrave at Pandora's Rift during daylight, he found no rapport in the evening. He was still disgusted with Dupree. Magnusson and Veltrano talked about nothing but their jaunts of non-discovery. The replicants were polite, no more. Natalia and Banjani were inseparable and had no time for him now that he had reverted to norm.

He was becoming more agitated by the day and was verging on paranoia about the safe arrival of Darwin. The one professionally trained person who could have recognised the approaching breakdown was Magnusson, but he was on 'vacation'.

With the others out and about, Natalia and Indira were able to spend even more time planning their move to California. Only the recuperating Dupree invaded their privacy, and as he was still unable to talk, he buried himself in his medical database. The incoming transmission was from Xiang. It was for Magnusson and designated - 'Eyes Only'. Banjani hailed the Commander and he seemed distracted as he told her to view it and report back. She knew this was totally out of character for Magnusson but complied. Xiang's tone was sombre and his body language distinctly uncomfortable. "Karl Koppelt has unearthed evidence that some attempt will be made to compromise the handover between Copernicus and Darwin. We are awaiting further detail but we will have to review the situation constantly and take decisions on that basis prior to orbit insertion. We also have pulled out the link between yourselves and Commander Rebrov for now. Please keep this on a need to know basis."

Banjani sat in stunned silence. It had been one of those days, typified by the well-worn anecdote – 'Cheer up. Things could be worse, so you cheer up and sure enough they got worse'. She hailed Magnusson again and said he really must return. It was a serious situation. Magnusson asked, "Terra? Or here on Mars?"

"Both Commander, forgive me for pointing out the obvious but it's considerably more urgent than your current activity."

"Well you're enjoying your temporary command aren't you my dear. We'll just finish up marking these samples and return. Magnusson out."

Banjani mentally replayed 'Magnusson out' – what the hell is wrong here? She went to Dupree and asked if he had given the boss any medication. He wrote down some bullshit about confidentiality. She was surprised at the anger in her own riposte. "Dupree, in case you've forgotten, I'm acting Commander and I need an answer from you now." Another scribble indicated a negative. She was still concerned and went to find Natalia. "Can you suit up and ask Pascal 2 to report to me please, it's urgent."

The transmission from Xiang needed at least acknowledgement from Mars and she was not sure that Magnusson was in the right frame of mind to deal with this at present. Pascal 2 arrived and confirmed that Magnusson had asked him to prescribe a calming medication as he was feeling tense. Pascal 2 did not know why he had bypassed Dupree but Magnusson had informed the replicant that in this instance there was no need for the prescription to be logged. They went to his quarters and found the container, and after calculating the deviation from the recommended dosage as a factor of four, they knew he was in a serious mental state. Banjani hailed Veltrano and pleaded with him to get Magnusson back to the medical bay urgently. When he tried to convince the Commander to leave the remaining samples until tomorrow he found resistance – verbal, then physical. Veltrano knew of Magnusson's special operations commando-style training and decided that force was not an option in suits. He called Banjani and convinced her that she should reply to the transmission, informing Xiang that Magnusson was sick and under temporary quarantine. She had been acting Commander and would comply with their request. Veltrano would coax Magnusson to make haste labelling the samples and get back as soon as possible.

She agreed with avoiding a physical confrontation and left that with Veltrano. She was not sure, however, that Magnusson's quarantine and her knowledge of the Darwin's predicament would steady the nerves back home and decided to wait a few hours before return contact. Natalia had guessed there was a problem and did her own digging in the med stats. There was some worrying data on Magnusson recently, which Dupree had not passed on. His excuse was, of course, his recent altercation with Carvalho. He had intended tackling the Commander about it and would do so at the first opportunity. She added the bluff of Banjani's need to speak to Pascal 2 and only then did his theories begin to surface via scribbles. It was obviously not something trivial or she would have been told the reason when she had been despatched to find the medical replicant. She would wait for now.

Once everyone was back, Banjani and Veltrano discussed the next move. They felt that they had to let the Commander see the transmission to determine whether this would temporarily shake him out of his 'chilled out' mode. They had also confiscated his fix. If the recording did not meet with any responsible suggestion from him, Magnusson would need to be treated and would probably resist, so sedation would be required. Discussing this with Pascal 2 raised the problem of restraint. The replicant said that would not be a concern, he was infinitely stronger than Magnusson, and would perform the sedation unassisted. The crew were entitled to know what was happening as far as the boss was concerned, but nothing else until Banjani had responded to Xiang.

# Chapter 30

Koppelt was spending a lot of time with Ahmed, who was now claiming he was not privy to the details of the interference with the communication rendezvous of the Darwin from Mars orbit with Copernicus' crew. Koppelt was not sure whether this was a delaying tactic or the truth. "We can't proceed further with the surgery until you have come through the recovery period. This will give you a chance to think of a way to find out what you claim you don't know."

Ahmed responded aggressively. "How do you propose I do that?"

"I don't. You were the broker for the USAr, you must have connections that can still help you, and we can assist in any way you feel appropriate."

Ahmed realised the veiled threat. "I cannot meet with anyone now that the surgery has started, that would defeat the objective."

Koppelt was losing patience. "And we can't just sit guessing how this interference will manifest itself. It's a tough world, my friend. You are helping us now and that means every conceivable avenue must be explored. You have ten days before more surgery is scheduled or cancelled."

********

The reaction of Magnusson to the transmission was, as feared, detached at best. He suggested we just talk Darwin down when the time came and criticised Xiang for being so jumpy. His suggestion that he would tell the Mission Controller to 'leave everything to us', was not seen as an option, so the sedation was triggered. It was quite uneventful. Pascal 2 positioned one hand around the Commander's neck and effectively paralysed him. It was not a nerve related hold, merely the exact application of force to discourage resistance. He reached the hypodermic with his other hand and delivered the injection. Magnusson's contorted facial expression was gradually replaced with serenity as the shot kicked in. Pascal 2 carried him with one hand to his bed and laid him down. Natalia said, "We'll take it from here."

The rest of the crew were confused despite Banjani's warning that this may be necessary. She explained that the Commander had been under stress for some time and the medication required some adjustments, this wass the first. He would soon be himself again. It was not convincing.

The whole episode did little to arrest Carvalho's feeling of loss of control. He was convinced that his father's fate was beckoning him, and he wasn't going to make it back home. In fulfilling his father's dream, he was destined to ensure his own exit. His acceptance of this was affecting his mood and judgement, and the spiral was worsening.

The news of Magnusson's temporary 'bug' was not contested by Xiang but he was quite nervous about asking the First Officer to carry out the news blackout of the crew, when she was one of them just a matter of hours ago. She assured him that this sort of thing had been covered in her training and he needn't worry. He seemed as if he wanted to say more about Darwin but never quite got there. He asked if she would keep him apprised of the Commander's condition on a four hourly basis. This was confirmatory in Banjani's mind that there was more news on the Darwin plot.

Alex 2 and Pascal 2 had made fantastic progress with the forestation project. They had planted hedges outward from Marineris Central like spokes of a wheel. They were extending each spoke daily. The repetitive replication and programmed resistance to the cold had given them confidence to dispense with the protection for the next extension of the spoke growing toward Pandora's Rift. They had to resource the appropriate soil themselves as Redgrave was occupied full time on supplying them with Scarlet O'Hara. Alex 2 asked Carvalho for permission to modify one of the two robot's arms to enable mass soil preparation. Carvalho said he would have to do it himself and he needed to be with Redgrave anyway. "Commander's orders I'm afraid."

Alex 2 said they could do it much faster and follow his instructions. He refused. The replicants said they would ask the acting Commander to review that decision. Banjani agreed that Carvalho should take the robot to the replicant's 'quarry' and instruct them on modification. Redgrave was to suspend drilling until he returned. Carvalho was not happy to put it mildly, but did as ordered.

Veltrano had abandoned Magnusson's exploration plan and was working on modifying signal distribution bands to create an independent link to Darwin when she was close enough. This would be audio only and poor quality, but better than nothing. Dupree suggested to Banjani that having regained basic speech capability, it might be better if he took over Magnusson's medication from Natalia, thus freeing Natalia to take the second robot to pick up Redgrave. The modifications of the first robot were taking longer than expected, partly because of Carvalho's pedantic attitude and his checking of the manuals at every stage. Natalia arrived at the Rift and there was no sign of Redgrave. She hailed him with no response. She went as close to the edge of the chasm as she dared but could not make much out in the fading light. The drillbot was not at the surface so he must not have called it a day. When she informed Banjani, a degree of panic struck the acting Commander. The Rover and robot one were with the replicants and Carvalho. The other robot was at the rift and now Natalia was alone. She contacted Carvalho and explained the situation. He was asked to take the Rover and the two replicants to the Rift and search for Redgrave as darkness was approaching. Carvalho said he would go immediately in a 'told you so' tone.

"The best way to explore the chasm is the camera on the drillbot," screamed Carvalho as he approached the site. Alex 2 agreed but was thinking ahead. "If he has fallen the problem of rescuing him in this light and a possible depth of five miles would be virtually impossible. His oxygen supply would run out and thermal maintenance would expire."

He suggested that he and Pascal 2 should descend and search, as the drillbot could only cover a small viewing area with its lens. "As long as we can return in less than five days there should be no hibernation risk. As the chasm is about 1860 miles long, we would have to climb out. We must take extra oxygen supply for Redgrave. We must hope that he did not go all the way to the bottom. We do not need illumination. Fortunately we have modified the vision capability we replicated in order to work through the night on the forestation."

Natalia intervened, "What if he is not in the chasm?"

"I can fit the drillbot to the robot and use the remote control to search the surface from here," enthused Carvalho, "we don't need it for the chasm if these two have night vision."

They informed Banjani, who felt helpless, but agreed the plan. She asked Dupree to stay with Magnusson while she suggested to Veltrano that they should somehow join the search. He disagreed, pointing out the risk of someone else getting detached in the darkness. He believed Alex 2 and Pascal 2 were far better equipped than a search party of fifty humans and their biological limitations.

The two replicants decided to leap to a shelf they could see about one hundred metres down. Their ability to precisely calculate descent velocity and landing force in low gravity enabled them to quantify risk to some degree. They also benefitted from the ability to regenerate any physical damage, provided sufficient data cells remained to carry the instruction. They informed Carvalho and left him to begin the surface search with the drillbot. Alex 2 went first and sent minimal correction trajectory to Pascal 2 while he moved to an adjacent ledge. When Pascal 2 joined him, they split up to cover a greater area. The second leap for each of them was close to 150 metres, and because Pascal 2 misinterpreted an outcrop's coordinates fractionally he snagged his right arm. It was partially severed so he waited for regeneration to commence. On looking across and up at his fellow life form, after his next jump, Alex 2 saw the silhouette of a space helmet against the slightly brighter background of the sky compared to the chasm. His electronic babble was acknowledged by Pascal 2, who agreed to wait until his partner had reached the location, to check if there was more than just the helmet there. The find was reported to Natalia to abort the topside search. Alex 2 could leap a prodigious distance against the low gravity and gripped a 'handhold' less than fifteen metres from the helmet. This vantage point revealed the rest of the human form. The next gentle jump took Alex 2 to the sloping shelf on which the corpse was precariously resting. Examination left no doubt that the breathing tube was severed by a very clean cut. The inside of the helmet was a crimson spatter of instantly frozen blood. The news was relayed to Natalia and followed by the now familiar technobabble to Pascal 2. They agreed to perform a 'passing the parcel' exercise with the corpse. Pascal 2's arm was already fixed and he took a position twenty metres above Alex 2. This leap frog was observed via the now available drillbot as both Natalia and Carvalho watched in amazement at the precision of the operation. When the ascent was achieved, the horror really registered and the bad news was sent ahead to Banjani.

There was an atmosphere of fear at Marineris Central. Fear of what next? Fear of suicide or murder? Fear of suspicion. Fear of repercussion in Beijing.

It was necessary to establish a timeline. Carvalho was uneasy as he was the last known person to see Redgrave alive. They had argued fiercely in public. Carvalho had also assaulted Dupree. Everyone else could account for their whereabouts. Once more the replicants offered help. "Remember we told you we could not reincarnate fossils but we could recover information from them? It would be a simple matter to extract data from the fresh corpse which would probably be more useful than a post mortem, but we would have to do this now."

Veltrano said, "This would involve a completion with Redgrave's body. What happens to that replicant afterwards?"

Alex 2 said it was really up to them, a very familiar statement. "You may do nothing or dispose of myself or the new copy."

Bizarre as this sounded, it gave more objectivity in pinning down the last moments of Redgrave's life. It was agreed and the process was supervised by Pascal 2. The data extracted was conclusive. Redgrave had taken the opportunity of being alone to sever his breathing tube with a set of cutting pliers. Standing on the chasm edge he tumbled into the Rift. It should be possible to recover the pliers if deemed necessary. He had not changed his mind about staging his own suicide as murder. It was a tactic to allow him such an opportunity. Carvalho broke down in tears and hugged the new replicant who was not fully prepared for such a gesture. He also thanked Natalia and Javier, for their public belief before the completion, that he was innocent. He scowled at the others and left the group. However there was all-round relief that the sinister alternative had been ruled out. Banjani declared that it would be reported as an accidental fall, until they were back on Earth. This was almost met with unanimity. The decision on the fate of the latest replicant was deferred.

Magnusson was improving slowly but Dupree wanted to discuss with Pascal 2 his now encyclopaedic medical knowledge acquired from the database. There was a plethora of similar cases cited. Narrowing the field produced a lot of drug related 'cures', however therapeutic recommendations were preferred and Dupree thanked Pascal 2, explaining he could execute these despite his slowly recovering speech.

Natalia offered to help, reminding Dupree of his blind spot with bedside manner and the consequent risk of his literal interpretation rather than tailoring the counselling to the Commander. 'Point taken, let's get started tomorrow', he wrote.

# Chapter 31

Veltrano had not spoken out but challenged Banjani in private about reporting Redgrave's death as an accident. "It's not necessary to do this. It will fuel more speculation and nervousness in Beijing. Remember, they know he was intending to commit suicide, to look like murder; he then apparently underwent some inner transformation, deciding to live and remain on Mars. Suspicion would now centre on exactly what has happened. My advice is to 'let sleeping dogs lie'. We have two lookalikes, and if Beijing, for any reason, wishes to see Redgrave and his replicant together on transmissions, I'm sure we can pull that off."

"Don't you think Koppelt would be happy if he could report an accident publicly? If the sponsors of Redgrave's 'murder' have to refute the accident, Koppelt would surely have a better idea who they are."

Veltrano said he didn't think this would help reveal the sponsors as they would merely 'sponsor' some other organisation to refute the official statement. The risk of unsettling things further in Beijing was real. Banjani wished she could counsel Magnusson. Veltrano insisted that even if it had been an accident and there was no sabotage agenda, they would be submerged by questions of safety protocol breaches and consequent elaboration into a blame culture. The fact that there was a sabotage plot would cause paranoia. He pleaded with her to reconsider, especially as it was a one way street once it had been reported. "Please, sleep on it." She agreed.

********

Koppelt was still pressing Ahmed on specifics. Eventually the fear of being abandoned produced a minor breakthrough. Ahmed recalled some meeting, to which he was not invited, about creation of complex computer viruses and their delivery systems. This could be the method of severing communications between Beijing and Darwin at Mars orbit insertion. As they discussed this with Xiang, Ahmed did not believe the execution of anything like that would be via a crew member. That would be too risky. Focus was then turned on Mission Control staff. Xiang was not happy about a blanket investigation, but at the same time recognised the knock-on effect of such a virus could be the intended effect on the spacecraft's instrumentation. The three of them decided to analyse all relevant personnel details together as a first step.

********

Magnusson chatted quietly with Dupree and Natalia. Having withdrawn his medication, some of his anxiety had returned but he could not articulate why he reached the decision to approach Pascal 2 in the first place. Natalia said, "We have all been a little on edge since the personal messages to our loved ones were suspended and I think it's time we got that facility restored. I'm sure you must be missing your family Commander."

"You're absolutely right Balinsky; I must get that corrected immediately."

"Well," muttered Dupree, learning from Natalia, and in his distorted voice, "Beijing thinks you have a Martian flu, and Banjani is holding the fort admirably until you are fully recovered."

"I'll ask her to bring this up with Mission Control Sir, if you think it appropriate," offered Natalia with a smile.

"See to it right away Balinsky."

Dupree explained that the excessive dosage taken had caused him to have a mixture of symptoms – sometimes indifference to problems – other instances bordering on hallucinatory distraction. Now that this had been corrected and some supplemental recommendations from Natalia initiated, it should only be a matter of days before he would be back to normal.

Banjani did not sleep well at all. She had however concluded that on balance, Veltrano's way carried less overall risk to their return schedule. At breakfast she asked Natalia about a massage in the evening, "Mental tiredness is just as draining as messing about with those plants."

The request was overheard by Carvalho, who chirped, "Can anyone register for these luxuries or is it a privilege of rank?"

Natalia detected a mischievous smile from Daniel. "No it's nothing to do with rank. You can book a session if you really feel tense. It's a full body massage, so bring a towel and be prepared to strip off to your birthday suit. That's important for maximum therapeutic benefit." Banjani looked crestfallen and hurried through breakfast to check on Magnusson's condition. Carvalho could not resist, "You mean the acting Commander will be naked for her appointment tonight?" The picture in his mind was immensely stimulating.

"Of course, there are no concessions to gender. Well do you want to reserve a space?"

"I, er, I'll think about it Natalia and get back to you." She was sure he would think about it a lot.

The three replicants were engaged in a silent triangle of concerned communication. When it was concluded, Alex 2 sought out Banjani and requested a meeting urgently. Alex 2 showed her his fingers and pointed with one of seven he had left, to Pascal 2's forearm. "We are all agreed, the microbes we have employed with great success on the renewal of designer soil nutrients are attacking our own regeneration mechanism. It is a temporary problem for us. As you can see, the regeneration of Pascal 2's severed arm from the chasm fall has adjusted to the microbial effect. The regeneration of already contaminated cells has adapted to the invasive action. In my case, as no regeneration was triggered by a trauma, if left alone it would consume me completely. So now, Pascal 2 will laser-cut off my hand to kick start my new regeneration with its data adjustment." It was a grisly scene for Banjani; the others were apparently enjoying the 'miracle'.

"I am showing you this, because it illustrates the two of us are no longer at risk but he," - indicating the latest Redgrave – "and the humans may be. We need a name for him. Pascal 2 and Dr. Dupree need to do some research to protect the crew. Pascal 2 believes he already knows how to counteract the microbes if they strike humans, but Dupree should authorise or reject this theory."

Banjani's immediate thought was inclined to the pathetic phobia that the Earth contingent had toward these sentient beings. They had risked their own oblivion trying to rescue Redgrave and were now spearheading an immune strategy to a problem the crew might not have known of until it was too late. "I see," she said, "let's find Dupree. I'm going to suggest you choose your own name for our new friend. After all, it was you who came up with Alex 2."

********

The trawl of Mission Control personnel who would be in a position to infect the servers with a virus was a difficult task in terms of applying criteria. Citizenship, religion, expertise, access, CV history, friendships in and outside Beijing, and not least, behavioural patterns during leisure time - were all considered. Some were known, some had to be investigated. Koppelt even brought up the bias Xiang might have. After all, they were his employees, and he may have predisposed views which would cloud the issues. "That is utterly preposterous...you can't be serious. Anyway, some of the information would be unavailable to you, except by accessing it from my subordinates, and that would set the klaxons ringing. I suggest that would be even more likely to prejudice the investigation than any bias I may have."

Koppelt, untypically, found himself backing off. The first cut threw up only four people, and even these were highlighted on speculative or intuitive grounds. "So much for your concerns about me Koppelt; this list could have been picked with a pin." Two of the four were of Islamic faith – Koppelt was hot on this. The others were Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox. The two with the strongest computer code structure knowledge were a Muslim and the Orthodox from Kiev. They all had similar access to critical tasks. Koppelt decided to eavesdrop on all of them. Bugging their apartments was the easy part. Tracking their leisure computer activity was a little more difficult, with their expertise and potential for constructing firewalls and surveillance detection of their own brand. Tailing them was probably safer at first.

# Chapter 32

Evening came, and with it the announcement from Banjani that she had taken further advice from Veltrano on the reporting of the fatality. His experience in matters of security had persuaded her of the 'danger of distance' in Beijing's interpretation. There was no objection. The second proclamation was that the name chosen for their latest ally was 'Red'. He had come from red crystal and became Redgrave. Was this the first betrayal of a sense of humour from the logic boys? They still had to discuss whether all three replicants were to remain, or if there was a case for an alternative. Every crew member expressed in the strongest possible manner that it would be an unthinkable act of inhumanity to do anything other than protect these fantastic beings. Some went as far as saying they should all accompany them back to Earth if they wanted to go with Copernicus, or stay and help Darwin's crew if that was their choice.

With the meeting over, Banjani whispered to Natalia, "Am I first up?" Natalia smiled coyly and shrugged her shoulders. "Which do you prefer?" Privately she would like to have thought there was a hint of jealousy.

"Well that depends on where your hands would wander to with Daniel. If there is a choice I will go for the safe option...first please."

Natalia revealed her jousting with Daniel was to scare him off and it had worked. "He's obviously less comfortable with being naked in front of a woman than you are. Maybe he was worried about getting aroused during a 'medical' appointment." Indira looked directly into her eyes and said, "Maybe he didn't know you demand a reciprocal treatment, in naked allure. By the way I don't think of my massage as medical attention, it's a pleasurable, erotic and highly personal experience. I don't let just anyone heal my tired naked body. After all, I am the Commander. I have to set an example."

"Yes ma'am, just let me know when I am required."

When the replicants were informed of their esteem amongst the crew their reaction was humbling for the humans. They said the Progenitors would be proud of the Continuance if they had the capacity for such compassion displayed by humans. "Of course they have other concerns of great magnitude to attend to, but we three all concur that our data revision processes indicate we have never felt 'an association' with previous species. It is a little strange for us you see. It made all of us feel temporarily unwell, like data loss, but that passed and we can only describe the current state as rewarding."

This served as a prompt for Banjani to inform Beijing that it was necessary to restore full contact for the crew with their families. It was expressed as an order, not a request. It made her feel good. Presumably Natalia was about to make her feel just as good.

"I know I'm biased, Commander, but I think you are doing a hell of a job in Magnusson's absence," Natalia murmured as her probing fingers released tension from her friend's shoulders.

"Don't address me as Commander during my therapy. That's an order." Natalia provoked a curious response when she said it was lucky for everyone that the replicant cleared Daniel's name and prevented a possible injustice. "He was very low before that with circumstantial evidence pointing to him. I'll never forget his deep appreciation when I told him I knew he was not capable of something like that." Banjani stiffened a little and muttered, "Did you also feel sorry for him when he was belittling you with his crude flattery?"

"No I didn't, but he more than any of us is 'claustrophobic' in this mission. This whole thing with his father has straitjacketed him. He doesn't really want to be here. He has tried very hard to fit in. It brought a lump to my throat when he instinctively hugged the replicant. I think that is the genuine Daniel. It doesn't excuse his tantrums but there is another side to him. And he's now one of your chicks, mother hen."

"Point taken, Natalia. Now can we progress our mutual stimulation, without the distractions? I want to float over my responsibilities for a while. This is the only thing I look forward to in this hostile environment."

"Of course." Natalia had just realised the chit-chat had only delayed her arousal. The silence was eventually broken. "Time to turn over Indira."

"What, already? I was in another world."

Natalia's soothing fingers had helped her reflect on the bigotry of Earthly institutions. Politicians, Religious Leaders, Corporate Chieftains – they were all weaving a web of invisibility around their true agenda. "These people are disciples of self-serving propaganda which is moulded to hypnotise their clientele, making it simpler to milk their morality. I was brought up in a religious family, well off, and with connections into government. I was always reminded of right and wrong, their right and wrong. This serendipity of meeting the Continuance has really made me question everything I was indoctrinated with. My grandmother married a colonial Englishman, hence my lighter skin, and although this intermarriage was unusual it provided entry into many privileged one way streets. It feels cheap right now. I have always paid lip service to my family's religion. The entry price of faith before evidence grates with my scientific training, and anyway, what kind of God takes credit for everything good, but goes into hiding to countenance atrocity? These replicants at least have a presence and a pathway to something like an omnipotent creator with the semblance of purpose. Also, I wonder where we would find these other abstract Gods if the Progenitors fail in their struggle to preserve the Cosmos."

"Wow, your grey cells have been busy," declared Natalia.

"I'm not finished either. I want to change the name by which we refer to our new colleagues. Both species have benefitted from finding one another...it is called symbiosis. I think 'Symbiant' is more respectful; they are much more than replicas of us. What do you think?"

Natalia's eyes misted and she said, "That's how I feel about you and me, I feel lucky to have found you." They held each other for almost a minute before Banjani reclined and closed her eyes. Natalia took one more risky step. The frontal massage was reduced in intensity to a light touch of sensual motion. Indira seemed totally oblivious to the subtle change. The role reversal brought that into question as it was conducted with the same feather-light contact.

The new nomenclature of Symbiant was celebrated amongst the crew and even Magnusson congratulated Banjani on her thoughtfulness. "I know now that I can take a few more days off, the store is in good hands."

********

Koppelt had refused to lift the personal communication ban just yet. 'They were at a delicate stage of investigation'. Banjani's return transmission said she was sorry to hear that, but the crew was also at a delicate stage of surviving on another planet. "So we will abandon all projects on Mars until such time as the ban is lifted. It's about time you people acquired some perspective. There are only nine of us and yet the inexhaustible parochial garbage is entirely from terran origin." She allowed the other eight to watch a rerun, to their delight.

Xiang called Koppelt and said he would have to answer for the 'strike', and any resultant loss of morale in Mission Control. "There is no way I am going to pick up the tab for this. You are alone in your adherence to the notion that we have any more saboteurs from Copernicus. Unless you lift the ban now, I shall ask the top brass to authorise me to do it." For the second time in recent days, Koppelt found himself back peddling. It made him realise he did need to devote all resources to Ahmed and Darwin.

********

Charles Cameron's transmission referred to previous discussions on the definitions of life and particularly the difficulty his colleagues had with the replicant's primarily inorganic structure. His question was related to a detail not reported by Redgrave, but picked up by Ayrton de Santos. He, of course, was the Beijing specialist who 'trapped' Redgrave with the fabricated correlation exercise. "Mr. de Santos believes he has picked up a very small trace of another component which Redgrave missed, or chose not to acknowledge." He asked for the exact scenario which Veltrano had predicted may arise, when discussing with Banjani the dilemma of reporting the death. Both Alex 2 and Red would be required in this exchange to cover for Redgrave's demise.

# Chapter 33

The ban on the crew's personal messages was duly lifted. Koppelt's bugging and surveillance activity of Xiang's people had shown the two prime candidates - the Russian Orthodox and one of the Muslims, were in fact good friends. They socialised, liking the same music and restaurants. The Roman Catholic was a recluse, not even making phone calls outside the country. The other Muslim was more promising. He regularly met with the same person in a park. He was constantly on the phone to several people, all in Arabic. Ahmed testified that none of the people he spoke to were family. The tone of these conversations was terse, sometimes threatening, and always about computer security. He was registered with Mission Control as Nehridj Al Mansour, but Ahmed said he responded to the phone contacts as 'Imhotep'. "It can only be a code name as you must know; this is the name of the architect of an ancient Egyptian pyramid. Wait a minute...they keep referring to pyramid in modern Arabic when they are discussing security. Could that be some sort of name for their virus?"

On checking with Xiang, panic prevailed as he informed them that this was the transcribed code name for their intricate software fortress. Even their suppliers of server equipment didn't know of this cascade oriented lockdown programme. Mansour should not know either. The encryption access was complex, not beyond his hacking credentials, but it could only be effectively compromised in this way from two stations. One in Xiang's office vault, which was retina recognition controlled, and the other in a metal walled underground room which was palm print scan-entry protected, and cctv covered. This unit was the only one which had reversal capability. Mansour was not on the very short list of personnel with clearance for either. They decided to try to track down the satellite coordinates and registration details of the phone numbers he had regular contact with.

********

The second transmission from Cameron introduced Ayrton de Santos and he proceeded to hold up a trace from one of Redgrave's initial tests on Scarlet O'Hara. He had marked an 'insignificant' peak on the chart. "Although this is not the normal magnitude, we would expect the wavelength is precisely correct for the element Osmium. We would be interested to hear if Mr. Redgrave concurs."

The reply was constructed with Red posing as the now deceased Redgrave, and alongside was Alex 2, who was prepared to comment further on behalf of the Symbiants. "I didn't even consider that there was any significance to this 'blip', I assumed it was a printout aberration. I am still of that opinion but perhaps Alex 2 can comment."

"I congratulate you Mr. de Santos," said Alex 2, "a very astute observation. If it had been possible to compare the Solid state NMR traces with the same samples on Confocal Laser Fluorescence Microscopy data, we would have ruled out an instrumentation error. You are also aware that no tests were performed on the amorphous form, following its contact with my colleague here and the subsequent first completion, because of the unknown effects at the time. We can do that now if you wish as I am able to carry that out without risk. Alternatively, I can indicate to you what we will find now, and confirm that with test results later, as you have doubts about my categorisation as a life form."

The crew were finding it difficult to contain the urge to laugh at the two Symbiants pulling off this charade and particularly the sideswipe at the Experts' smugness. The return transmission was a little more guarded. It was Cameron who again took up the gauntlet. "Considering your offer, we would like you to tell us what difference you believe testing the amorphous form would have made to the original interpretation we received from Redgrave. Please continue."

Carvalho became the first astronaut cheerleader, drumming up the others to encourage Alex 2 to put them out of their misery.

"Mr. Cameron, I will send you the actual traces but what they will show is substantial presence of Osmium Z-76 in the amorphous form. The little peak in the crystalline form is somewhat different. Osmium, as you know, is a very dense metallic element, in fact ideal for our hibernation mechanism. In the amorphous form it provides an asymmetric element capable of forming bonds with Silicon and Hydrogen. This enables part of our replication chemistry. However when the environment gets hostile – cold and hot cyclical periods, accompanied by atmospheric change and subsequent radiation threat – its signature mutates when returning to the crystalline form. In effecting this, the Osmium bonding undergoes changes which your instruments are not capable of picking up. It will suffice to say that it provides us with a lockdown structure until conditions become much more favourable again. Proof of its effectiveness was witnessed in the lab when the amorphous form emerged again after billions of years."

The morale of the watching crew soared to a level not experienced since leaving Earth orbit. The reply was quick, short and accusatory. "As a Symbiant with all the abilities you claim, why have you not alerted us to this before now?" Alex 2's riposte scored a maximum in this fencing finale. "I have repeated many times that the way of the Progenitors is to assist promise. This can be by exchange of information but mostly by confirmation of discovery. This is to endorse curiosity and thus further progress and promise. That is why I offered this explanation to your question. Now it can be confirmed. You will also need to progress your analytical techniques soon. There are the rudiments of that in your evolution. We reflect the design of the Progenitors' objectives. Has it ever occurred to you that your acceptance or doubt over our attributes is paradoxical when you have never disputed their existence? I submit this is a peculiar characteristic of humanity; it is more comfortable with what cannot possibly be proven compared with that which you think should be verifiable. It is even more illogical, then, that you are curious about the Progenitors because I told you. And you still have doubts about me.

"Finally, have you considered that as your planet was seeded in the same way as Mars, your own evolution, together with other terran species, may have already been replicated? It is possible that surface and mined contact has been made in the past with either crystals or powder frequently enough to have exhausted the surface supply. The burial of the remainder by volcanic and tectonic action cannot exclude marine life having benefited from such events.

"In anticipating your next question, 'wouldn't they still exist?' I cannot give you a precise prediction, but remember that if the original replication is followed by data stagnation, in a short time the reversion to the crystalline form would occur. Thus many such reversions would have occurred in early prehistoric times. The answer may lie in how much Osmium exists in the Earth's crust. Intriguing, don't you think?"

This time there was a long interval before a response arrived and it was also more conciliatory. "Thank you for your patience with us. We are all now of one disposition. The information about your hibernation mechanism and the part played by Osmium is fascinating. Is this something you can enlarge upon?"

Alex 2 pointed them to their own knowledge as a starting point. "You have already classified Osmium as the densest element known on Earth. It has oxidation states from 0 to +8. Osmium tetroxide, as you also know, reacts with alkaline compounds to form red coloured osmates, therefore not standing out visually from the background hues of our own Martian crystals. These non-volatile osmates provide a gateway for many organic oxidation reactions. Once more you are aware of the seven naturally occurring isotopes of Osmium, six of which are stable, and Osmium 186 undergoes alpha-decay with an enormously long half-life, over ten to the power fifteen years. This property you have already harnessed. When combined with Rhenium, it will date terrestrial and meteorite rocks accurately. Your planet only has three known sources of any significance of Osmium, indicating rarity and supporting what I said about the lack of common surface presence. The purest find is in South Africa, and is the result of crustal intrusions from below and impact craters, the Osmium residing in igneous rock. The other finds in Russia and Canada are in combination with copper and nickel. I would predict the African source may be most useful. The ratio of Earth's inert Osmium to Osmates could be interesting. That is all I can say at the present, I hope it is useful."

It silenced the incoming transmissions.

# Chapter 34

Dupree was relieved that the culture tests indicated there was no harmful effect to humans from this particular microbe. He had, however, uploaded Pascal 2's immune proposal into the database. It consisted of an extract from one of the plant replicant species which was dealing with the microbe continually, and had developed even better resistance than the Symbiants. Red would follow his fellow Symbiants by deliberately infecting himself then amputate a finger to allow regeneration and immunity.

Red had taken over the duty of Redgrave seamlessly; he and Carvalho were making good progress on gathering samples and analysing them. Daniel Carvalho was a new man. He was punctual, diligent and polite. Most important he was content in himself.

Magnusson was just about ready to come back to duty and as the crew assembled, Alex 2 asked, "How do you all feel about what I said to Mr. Cameron - in particular, the possibility that human evolution may have already incorporated some interaction with the Continuance?"

The question had been circulating since the Cameron transmission. To some of the crew it seemed quite logical, in view of the Mars experience. To others it could help explain 'miracles' such as the technology required to build the pyramids with mind-boggling precision. To Carvalho, it was pivotal in his contemplation of his own future within that of his species. He became the epitome of the convert being a stronger believer than the original disciple. "I think it has to have occurred, to explain how our species became so much more intelligent than any other Earth inhabitant. I'm also getting the message that future interaction is an important process for humanity, in the steps leading up to escaping the prison of exclusively organic metabolism. If we are to survive events such as the previous mass extinctions, we must transcend this disadvantage. I want to be part of the way forward and to that end I request a completion. Please don't think I'm going to do this on Mars and impact our clearance to return home. I'll volunteer when we're on Earth and campaign for this to become a controlled programme of development. I know you will point out problems with the God people, and even the difficulty of integration. However, we have come to really appreciate these guys. We just need time and good management."

Dupree smiled and blatantly feigned affected pronunciation. "I with you had pelt thith way bepore you brope my daw". They all laughed but realised that the feel-good factor would be severely tested when the time came.

********

Koppelt's patience paid off and his people had managed to triangulate his suspect's most regular caller to a district in Lebanon. The name, whether true or false was Suliman. It was probably false, as he never referred to Mansour by his name, choosing the rather obvious alias of Winston Old Boy. Ahmed was certain from the Arabic conversations that this was their man. He made a good point when he suggested that further efforts to tie Suliman back to the 'Invisibles' carried a risk of exposure, and anyway, the main objective was to prevent the sabotage. Everything else could wait.

The discussion moved on to when to apprehend Mansour. Koppelt and Ahmed were in favour of taking him out the day before orbit insertion correlation. Xiang was nervous about running so close to that deadline. The counter-argument from the other two was that it gave no time for execution of any back-up plan by the saboteurs. Without being totally convinced, Xiang gave way on the understanding that Mansour would have 'called in sick,' and certification would be filed for at least ten days. He wanted no distractions until landfall was established and the two crews reported that handover procedures were underway. He was still troubled by this known saboteur being countenanced in the ranks for such a long period.

********

Alex 2 and Pascal 2 resumed their astonishing programme of forestation at the ever-widening spoke heading towards Pandora's Rift. Having started at Marineris Central at a single metre in width, the thick end of the wedge exceeded forty metres. The two Symbiants had calculated that by the time it had reached seventy-five metres it was to assume a parallel sided shape, to allow access ways between its two neighbouring wedges. The other spokes would take the same shape. In Marineris Central, weekly 'local atmospheric' readings were taken to show composition values. There was to be a cause for celebration this evening because for the first time there was a miniscule local increase in the median oxygen level. The regular 0.2% was now 0.23%. This gain reverted to normal by early morning each day, but it was a beginning. It was also good to be reporting positive news to Beijing.

Redgrave's body had been stored in the coldest spot they could find which was out of sight, and not in the way of normal daily activities, one which never experienced the direct rays of the sun. It was hoped that this would preserve the remains until the return journey. However, the microbes which did not seriously trouble the human immune system in a living being were not deterred by a corpse. Their normal behaviour was to stay underground, so this departure was to be studied. It became necessary to attempt the construction of an impenetrable container of some kind, to preserve what was left.

Alex 2 had an idea. If they could repair the tears in Redgrave's suit caused by the fall into the chasm, it should work. The challenge was to find some kind of seal which would have integrity at minus 70 degrees. They did not want to use a spare suit which could be needed in the future. "There is a material on the cargo register for this purpose."

"Oh yes," said Carvalho, "I remember it was Redgrave's responsibility as a chemist to check it on board, but I think it might be in the orbiting Copernicus."

"No, it is in one of Habitat airlock spare suit lockers. It was put there because it had to be wherever the suits were. In fact I believe a can is supposed to be carried on the Rover in case of accidental compromise of the suits."

They all felt embarrassed at the lapse in procedure. Alex 2 could not resist a gentle jibe. "That is one disadvantage of poorly structured data retrieval in the brain. A preferable alternative could be one in which every 'cell' was designed to store and retrieve such data as a collaborative effort, minimising forgetfulness. What do you think?"

The material worked perfectly. A mix of branched and straight chain co-polyesters would normally be cured by artificial ultra-violet light and chemical photo-initiators to effect crosslinking, however the high indigenous radiation level was able to do a better job by slower cure resulting in more low temperature flexibility. It glistened in the Martian sunset so they nicknamed it Diamond Film.

********

With each week that passed, the communication time delay with Darwin became shorter with Veltrano's audio link. The incoming crew were eager to hear regular status reports as they had hit high boredom levels with such an uneventful journey, and no sabotage to keep them entertained. Magnusson was back in command and he kept Anatoly Rebrov updated with all but a few items. Rebrov had, of course, been briefed on the discovery of the red crystals and their subsequent transformation to a white powder then a 'non-carbon copy' of a crew member. However he was more interested in the Symbiants' success with the forestation programme. They also discussed landing co-ordinates for the new Habitat, Power Supply Units with the vehicles, and ultimately, the Descent Vehicle. This required more accuracy than the Copernicus landing as they needed to be close but not too close, and the aforementioned 'forest' had to be protected.

Banjani was pleased to relinquish her command after her brief spell in charge. Dupree had just about recovered his normal diction but even the Symbiants could not grasp everything he uttered. Carvalho and Red had amassed a truly impressive pile of aquamarine rocks, some of which were layered in a similar way to sedimentary terran rocks. With the progress made by Alex 2 and Pascal 2, Natalia and Banjani were now keen to contribute. Veltrano worked feverishly on preventing dust from affecting any of the electronics, especially the communications equipment.

At supper one evening Magnusson asked the Symbiants to join them, despite having no calorific requirement. "If you were presented with a choice would you prefer to stay here or return to Earth with us?" The sudden enquiry surprised everyone. So much so, that the Symbiants began a silent consultation. The crew sat patiently and eventually Alex 2 resumed in audio. "This is a very difficult decision. As our own metabolism benefits from constantly evolving data interaction, Earth would appear to be very attractive. On the other hand, our responsibility dictates that we are positioned to encourage promising species, and there is much more we can assist with here. The third consideration is how the promising species view the options. After all, that species may not be so promising if they take an ultimately less rewarding route. One final aspect which we cannot predict is the division of opinion your species will have on the risk/benefit analysis. We have not until now interacted with any species in which individuals may behave differently from one another. We are unsure whether this is promising or not in the long term."

The smiles returned to the faces of the crew. Carvalho was first with a wisecrack. "You guys should run for government back home, the competition is seriously weak." Magnusson chipped in. "The question was to provoke exactly this kind of discussion because I believe we would meet resistance right now if we proposed to take you back. I think we should have a coordinated effort to use transmissions to familiarise Beijing more with sessions like Alex 2 had with Cameron. That produced a profound change of thinking in itself."

This idea met with support from all sides and became part of the routine, even with Darwin. Jussi Pykonnen in particular struck up a meaningful rapport with Alex 2 and Red, although at this stage he still believed Red was the original Alex Redgrave.

As the 'patched' three way communications continued, the Darwin crew were helpful in making the Beijing personnel more comfortable with the Symbiants. Things were going so well there was no real surprise when Alex 2 reported to the Commander the certainty of an impending dust storm. Magnusson's immediate reaction was to recall everyone to base. "Yes Commander, please hurry. Pascal 2, Red and I are all agreed that retrieval data indicates elemental activity leading to a massive storm. You have not witnessed anything like this. We need to secure everything as well as we can, including this habitat. It will last for several hours."

# Chapter 35

Major damage was sustained by the 'plantations', although they would regenerate. The control mechanism for the drillbot had been swept into the chasm. The buffeting took its toll on the robots as there had only been time to get the Rover into storage. The power supply cable had been yanked out of connecting sockets which were distorted in the process. This last item not only left them without power to work, but also heating and life support delivery. Any repair schedule had to be swift as there was serious threat to life for the crew, which would then be followed by hibernation for the Symbiants.

It was urgent to achieve restoration of power to enable tools and ideas for a solid fix. The Symbiants concurred, and used their immense strength and precision to return the sockets to a close match of their original configuration. This enabled them to accept and hold the male ends of the cables with the cores correctly aligned. Power was restored and they suggested building a locking cage to prevent a repeat of the problem.

Carvalho said he could do this with some spare parts from the robots and his small electronic welder. Red gave him some grey sample from the lab and said it would be stronger than the flux he was proposing to use. Daniel did not even question his judgement and proceeded. The saving of lives would do the Symbiants' cause no harm. Repairing the robots was only slightly trickier. The three of them worked as a unit. One untwisted the arms and the other two gripped the pivot point to prevent collateral damage. It was awesome to watch the application of brute force so patiently and elegantly.

********

The big moment was almost upon Darwin, and this triggered the incarceration of Mansour. He was apprehended at his apartment and taken to a security cell for interrogation the night before Darwin separation and subsequent orbit insertion. Koppelt and Ahmed confronted him with recordings of his phone calls to Suliman and references to 'pyramid'. He refused to comment other than to request a lawyer. When he was addressed in Arabic by Ahmed he was startled, but did not abandon his silence. When he was told that this was not a civil case, but a matter of global security, he frowned and shook his head.

"You can shake your head all you like - you are not entitled to a lawyer at this stage. You have not been charged but you are subject to employment conditions you signed when you took this post. These conditions specifically cover confidentiality, and your telephone conversation with a person in Lebanon, who is not entitled to information which you have disclosed, breaches this contract. This is information which you do not have clearance for, and therefore should not possess."

His defiance continued. "Then charge me. I have done nothing wrong. This 'pyramid' thing you refer to was with my brother and it is a local expression for a district in Lebanon. It is a very dangerous area, and I was advising my brother that it was too risky to move there with his family. I have talked to him many times by phone about this, telling him that it - the pyramid - should be destroyed by whatever means. There is no other recipe but to divide and re-settle the people to break the ring of violence."

"Can we meet your brother to confirm all this?" said Koppelt, "without you making further contact with him." Koppelt was thrown by his agreement. "Of course, go and see him. See the pyramid for yourself if you dare."

Koppelt looked at Ahmed, who shrugged his shoulders. They left Mansour in the room, and over a coffee Ahmed said he could not say if there was such a district, but it could easily be checked. If Mansour gave up the address where his brother could be contacted personally, he could arrange via trusted Lebanese affiliates, an investigative test of the veracity of the detainee's claim. When Koppelt introduced the ticking clock constraint, Ahmed replied that while Mansour was in custody he was neutralised. However, if it turned out that he was genuine they had a big problem and no time to solve it. "Mmm, Xiang may have been right after all...we could have confronted him earlier," confessed Koppelt.

********

The shock of the dust storm had left its mark. When asked about the frequency, Alex 2 stated that parameters indicated this severity was not common or predictable. The cause was intense ionisation passing close to the planet. Without his warning there would have been loss of life; even so, that warning was dangerously inadequate. Therefore he recommended that until the atmosphere was generated via forestation and the greenhouse situation started to flourish, it would be prudent to consider large protective domes to cover Habitats, Power Supply Units and Vehicles. "No doubt you have a plan in mind," said Magnusson.

********

The reply from Lebanon confirmed Mansour's account. He was released with the proviso he took a few days leave to avoid concern back at Mission Control. Koppelt informed Xiang and accepted the tirade of criticism. Profuse apologies did nothing to mitigate the hovering threat, so while Koppelt and Ahmed shifted their forlorn investigation back to the other three suspects, Xiang took his own action.

His transmission to Magnusson requested a discussion with Alex 2. The gist of his plan was to prepare for 'pyramid' compromise. His query to Alex 2 was his ability to corroborate and advise Darwin directly if Beijing went down. The answer was what he wanted to hear. "I would be able to advise separation times, attitudes and velocities to achieve more accurate landing than your own equipment. You may find that difficult to accept, asking how something can be more correct, if it is already correct. The difference lies in local conditions – I can take better account of them than you can."

"Ok Magnusson, we have a security issue here and I'm going to pull the link between Beijing and the two crews. Your direct link with Darwin will enable your confident friend to get them safely down. Following this message you need not deactivate the incoming reception, the uplink from here will be down for as long as we need to clean up our system - hopefully not more than five days. When we are sure the bugs are purged we will restore the link and confirm this with a message. Do not attempt to make contact before this. I'll be giving the same instruction to Commander Rebrov. Good luck, Xiang out."

********

With less than two hours to separation Ahmed made a call in Arabic. "We have success Suliman...the Beijing server system has collapsed, and they are out of contact with their Martian crews. They bought the elaborate plea for asylum and the Mansour diversion. He has returned to Lebanon. Atarda infected the system without suspicion. Working at night, he convinced the personnel monitoring the cctv with his theatrical disguise. The beautiful part however was the silane polymer palm impression he took from Xiang when they 'enthusiastically' shook hands at the recruitment party all those months ago. It has been a nervous wait because we could not risk checking it in case of detection. All that remains is for you to arrange for Atarda and myself to be 'kidnapped' at the agreed location."

Joachim Atarda, one of the four original suspects, from Andalucía, was an apparent convert from Islam to Catholicism. This was not an uncommon practice in the last stronghold of Muslim culture in the Iberian Peninsula; the trend had ebbed and flowed for centuries. Atarda had gone through the screening process smoothly.

Koppelt was under attack for both embarrassing events. The loss of the servers was bad enough but the crowning naivety was the 'sting' by the USAr, which the Confederation of Nations did not want to publicise. What they could not know was that the USAr did not want that publicity either. The slow realisation of this did nothing to prevent Koppelt's humiliation at now being demoted, and now became subordinate to Xiang. Firing him would have begged the question – why? And as Xiang's swift action prevented a potential disaster the P.R. damage was limited slightly. So, the USAr accomplished the aim of undermining confidence in general, and the Confederation of Nations avoided complete collapse of support. Ahmed was, however, not as welcome as he expected in Damascus, as he 'should have covered this possibility' in his strategy. His faked kidnap mutated into a real one, together with Mansour and Atarda. As Ahmed's body was recovered from a car crash alongside the others, with the new passport identity and face to match, it did not raise any eyebrows.

********

Alex 2 made the process of assisting Darwin pretty routine, with his usual aplomb. The new Habitat was close to the edge of the forest spoke heading for Pandora's Rift, about halfway between the chasm and Marineris Central. The Power and Vehicle units in the Lander were remarkably close to the Habitat module, worryingly close to the onlookers before touchdown. The remaining task of getting the Descent vehicle with the Lab in the optimal position caused a bit of a stir when Alex 2 asked, "Would the space between the Habitat and Lander be suitable?" His improving sense of humour was well disguised. Pykonnen had asked for it to be as close as possible to the Rift without the 'excitement' of the Lander episode. His wish was granted.

The meeting between the two crews was a very emotional and uplifting one. It was a celebration which needed no champagne. Fascination with the Symbiants was expected, but there was a brief moment of sadness when the revelation of Redgrave's fate was accompanied by the location of his body being marked on the map. Darwin's crew were informed of his sabotage agenda and orchestrated 'murder'. They all accepted the rationale for keeping this from Beijing for the time being. Magnusson suggested that Rebrov think about whether he wanted the body to return with Copernicus or the option of continuing the 'deception'. The existence of Red offered a 'timeout' if he was to remain on Mars. Rebrov nodded and wanted to talk privately with his crew.

It was also time to face the question of all three Symbiants and their future. It had not escaped the Darwin crew that the Dupree template could be replicated again whereas the Alex types were no longer possible. There was plenty to think about on their first day.

Magnusson gathered both crews to watch the initial transmission after the restoration of the uplink. "This was one hell of a virus. It has taught us lessons we didn't think we needed. The security aspects of personnel screening are being beefed up and the protection of the fortress stations have to be designed with less obvious technology. The firewalls are undergoing additional encryption features. Anyway, we sincerely hope this is being watched by the new arrivals. Please update us on your status."

Magnusson and Rebrov delivered the good news together and then the Darwin Commander left. Magnusson said to Xiang that he urgently wanted to discuss the Symbiants position, and although he knew this could be complicated by all kinds of influence, it still had to be addressed. Xiang said he knew the question was coming. He had already had positive pressure from Cameron and his gang. Everyone else had carefully avoided the subject. "Leave it with me Magnusson; it also has the deadline of your departure so I'll act with that urgency as a lever."

# Chapter 36

The Darwin crew had seen the benefits conferred by the Symbiants first hand. They joined in the debate about continuing the 'alliance'. They wanted to retain Red and agreed to go along with the plan to allow Earth sources to believe that he was Alex Redgrave until the body returned with Copernicus. Rebrov was, to his surprise, confronted by three of his crew volunteering for a completion. "We must wait until Commander Magnusson's discussions with Beijing are concluded, and then we can review your request."

One decision which had been cleared was the sample collection to be returned with Copernicus. It contained substantial amounts of Scarlet O'Hara. It was to be kept in crystal form by oscillating cold storage in the unheated lab. The Experts wanted to study the mechanism of the change to the amorphous form under safe conditions.

********

Xiang instructed Koppelt to attend the session with the Confederation Executive and reminded him of the part played by the Symbiants in saving what was left of his neck. "You would have already departed if I hadn't availed of a means of protecting the link between the two crews when we failed to stop the infiltration. The Symbiants deserve a chance to come here and present their own case, especially in the light of the threat being here in the first place."

Koppelt was surprisingly supportive. He felt there was unfinished business with Suliman, and the Symbiants may be able to help. He desperately wanted to restore his standing. The predictable resistance, however, reared its head. The God Squad were first to introduce the destabilising potential of bringing supreme extraterrestrial intelligence on board the 'Earthship Delusion'. The argument was countered by the Experts – who indicated one of the objectives enshrined in the charter of the mission was to search for life. Why was this not debated then? The question of control was aired by several of the Executive members. This ability to just produce life with this capability would become a very desirable and possibly dangerous commodity, not unlike the first nations to have nuclear power. There would have to be an accord on this. As Xiang, who had been silent until now had anticipated, they were already rushing headlong down the alley of bureaucracy. "Excuse me for drawing your attention to the timescales. We have a few days before Copernicus embarks on the return. The next opportunity to study these Symbiants who have assisted Commander Magnusson's crew in many ways, including saving their lives, is when Darwin begins her return voyage. That one year, I submit, is nowhere near enough for our human propensity to dot 'i's and cross 't's, at every point of contention. After that, who knows when the next Mars mission will get the green light? Our new friends continue our work on Mars at an incredible pace while we can't get off our backsides and decide. The initial rationale for the colonisation effort was to create a survival route for our species if the conservation programmes failed, or did not kick in until it was too late. Were these just empty political gestures? The religious issue will always be there, it always has been. Reliance upon any 'almighty' has never solved any such errant behaviour by our species, yet it has often been used as justification for war. It is time to subordinate agendas which threaten the species to those which offer hope, otherwise Mars missions should be seen for what they are – propaganda. Finally, I believe Mr. Koppelt has derived benefit with the Symbiant's involvement in security investigations, but I'll leave him to flesh out the detail. I need a decision today as Commander Magnusson has been told to bring at least one Symbiant if there is procrastination here. Preparations for departure are underway. Preparations for my own departure will follow if you people renege on your high and mighty promises."

There never has been anything like the pressure of having to make a decision with an imminent deadline, for persuading to politicians come up with reasons to move the deadline. This was no different. The pathetic paper shuffling and retreat from the firing line was looming. Fortunately, Rabinowitz had another pressing matter to consider. His country was already becoming more vulnerable to the more subtle USAr strategy, without factoring in the success they almost achieved with the virus. To be seen to be backtracking on the very premise with which they had inspired the world, would add momentum to the zeal of the USAr. For Israel to face further isolation was unthinkable. His impartiality had to be sacrificed if there was to be a bigger picture to embrace. "Can we hear from Koppelt in the interests of completeness?"

Karl Koppelt prefaced his account by declaring the respect the Executive must have for the ongoing investigations. "What you are about to hear must be kept within these walls. Even then, I am uneasy at sharing this with anyone. It is one of the basic tenets of Intelligence work, that you never freely divulge anything which can weaken your position. In this case we have so much to gain from working with the Symbiants that the risk is justified." The melodrama was embroidered further by Rabinowitz after Koppelt had spilled the detail. "The news that this intricate sabotage is being orchestrated by the USAr is bad; however, the good news is that my country has many networks of intelligence in the region to underpin our survival. Together with Koppelt's people and the Symbiant assistance we could expose the leaders of this renegade action against a backdrop of a world accord to preserve our planet. It is too dangerous to allow this sabotage to ferment. The other concerns expressed today quite frankly are minimal by comparison."

This relaxed everyone, not because Rabinowitz was right or he was unduly influential, but sadly because he had clearly offered himself as a scapegoat, if required. Quid pro quo.

The courageous decision to allow Alex 2 to come to Earth was an ego-massaging event. Xiang was a little disappointed that the import was limited to one, but reconciled this with the trade off in Pascal 2 being available to Commander Rebrov. He might not be so philosophical about the ruse of Red when Alex Redgrave's body turned up.

********

The mood was tinged with sadness when Magnusson's crew received the transmission. The Symbiants considered the decision to be quite logical because it maintained the status of promise.

Darwin personnel were pretty familiar with the chores by now and it was time for goodbyes. There were genuine tears when the Copernicus crew had to witness the Symbiants being split up. They exchanged what was for them, a reasonably long winded silent dialogue. Alex 2 revealed afterwards it had to do with constructing domes.

The ascent to rejoin the orbiting Copernicus was exemplary, a joint effort between Banjani, Carvalho and the calmness of Alex 2. Beijing was able to listen in this time to the contribution of detail from the Symbiant; theirs was a 'supervisory' balcony perspective.

Docking was just as sweet and once through airlock drill, the sequence of heating and life support were brought on line. Artificial gravity would be next, after achieving orbit exit. The two crews gazed in each other's direction with differing emotions. The Copernicus view lived up to its connotation. The progress they had made echoed Neil Armstrong's famous quotation all those years ago. For Darwin it was the independence to take care of expansion.

# Chapter 37

The entire crew felt the loss of the two Symbiants who were left behind. None more so than Dupree, who was having difficulty coping with the situation. "Natalia, I am edgy and irritable. The choice should have been theirs. My dream to help humanity through this mission feels so devalued by this decision. When I was in my early twenties, all my four siblings lived at or close to my parents' home. I came back infrequently and at the time I didn't realise I was seen as the prodigal son. My clamour for independence was a convenient blind spot. The readiness of Pascal 2 to accept this dreadful edict has given me the role of the 'tortured parent'. I hope it will pass."

Natalia empathised. "Look forward – what will you do when we get home? You must make a new life. You can't let this bring you down; you have too much to offer."

"I know all that but it doesn't seem to help. I do have a long standing offer which was made before we were selected for the mission. I'll think about that, as I should probably have taken it in the first place."

Magnusson was explaining the quarantine process to Alex 2 after docking at the space elevator. "We'll all have to be decontaminated, then reside in clean room quarters until they're satisfied we are risk free."

"What is the decontaminant?" Magnusson confessed that he had forgotten but would ask.

********

Meanwhile Pykonnen, Red and Pascal 2 combined their efforts to locate the lost drillbot control panel in the chasm. After much searching with Darwin's control panel and the two drillbot cameras they finally got close up shots. It was some four miles down and in pretty bad shape. It was not worth the herculean effort to recover it; they would have to make do with one controller. "It might be better use of our time to concentrate on protective domes," said Red.

The discussion moved to Rebrov's quarters. "You already know something of our regenerative, predominantly inorganic chemistry. You have seen it in action with the forestation. The present regeneration of the plants damaged in the dust storm includes adaptation to improve resistance to such force. Our concept is to take transplants from these 'immune' growths, and arrange them in a large circle which can accommodate our vulnerable units. As the plants grow, we prune and taper them to begin a dome shape. By the time we have completed the dome we must have accumulated sufficient amorphous form to sprinkle over the entire surface. Replication will begin and the surface density will increase. By repeating the selective pruning and sprinkling, the amorphous form will experience an information plateau. As you know this will, in a short time begin to revert to crystal. It will be patchy at first but will rapidly fill in. We can use your lasers to cut an arch entrance. When this is removed we construct a pad there, sunk below the surface with guide recesses also built from crystal. This will allow entry of the units and ability of those units to open and close the door from outside or inside. This gives many advantages. Firstly, the crystals have survived billions of years of erosion and radiation, giving a very robust protection for equipment and humans. Secondly, as it is a continuous shell except for the door, it will have its own atmosphere generated by the internal plant growth. This of course depends on the precision of the angled laser cuts to make the door wedge shaped. When it is working, its oxygen can be siphoned off in a controlled way for collection and still maintain a breathable atmosphere inside. If you like it, we can then consider building really big ones. The only real limitation is crystal deposit, but the canyon is almost two thousand miles long and the chasm five miles deep in places. Our estimation shows this to be adequate."

The astonishment shown by Rebrov and Pykonnen was twofold. There was the elegant simplicity coupled with the unshakable confidence that it would work. The proposal was not yet complete. Red continued, "You must forgive me for using simplistic terms like chemistry, but it is what you understand. You define some changes as chemical reactions, either spontaneous or catalysed. Other changes can be encouraged. You have already developed many new materials using only focussed electron beam energy. This is promising. You also have made the first steps in nanotechnology. You have these good basic tools to investigate our 'chemistry' much further."

Rebrov unhesitatingly said, "Let's give this priority, Red. I'll brief the rest of the crew. You, Pascal 2 and Pykonnen organise the tasks into groups."

Barely a week later, the first 'dome' had been planted and already the pruning arc was visible. Rebrov could not resist contacting Magnusson to express his amazement at the way the modest, humble approach of the Symbiants had fitted with his crew like an old pair of slippers. "Some of my people seem to forget that these guys don't get tired or need sleep, but it doesn't stop them working their breaks. Anyway I don't intend claiming success with Beijing until the dome is complete."

********

Magnusson gave the good news to Alex 2 and informed him that his recall of the decontamination process awaiting them was a two-stage cold plasma sweep. The first was to take care of the suits and the second a modified and gentler version of the individuals. A sonic scrub would be allowed on exiting quarantine.

"I am afraid that will be a problem, Commander. It may at least destabilise my data flow system. It will not cause loss of data, rather a safe mode of access and retrieval. However, depending on the intensity and exposure it could trigger reversion to crystal. That would mean another cycle of amorphous form, then completion with another subject, if you want to avail of my existing database."

Magnusson just knew this was going to cause a furore, and he was not optimistic about the outcome. It would be better to engage in this war of words now, rather than creating a 'headless chicken' scenario by springing it on them upon arrival.

********

Koppelt was smarting from the Ahmed episode. He could not understand what benefit the surgery would be if the kidnap was genuine. If the surgery had achieved its objective why did they take him? Did he really insist on the painful procedure just to convince Koppelt that he was defecting? He decided to start again with Suliman, who was obviously not Mansour's brother. Again he sought the help of Rabinowitz to covertly try to find out more in Lebanon. At least they had a location to begin the search.

********

The long trip home afforded time for Banjani and Natalia to begin planning their co-habiting venture. "An ocean view would be seductive," said Banjani.

"Yes, and not just the view, walking and swimming. Maybe we need to think a lot more about what we will do career-wise too."

"Well, I don't know about you but I feel like a complete chill-out for a couple of months. I don't want to rush at something right away, and we have our social 'careers' to progress."

This did not sound like good news to Natalia. "Social careers? What are they?"

"We have both had unhappy relationships recently. This is a new beginning with a blank canvas, and we'll have a certain celebrity status. Let it wash over us."

Natalia kept pushing the feelings of attraction back, but like the ocean, its relentless waves kept breaking on the shore. There was a series of modest flutters then the crashing reminder of a gut-wrenching explosion of emotion. "I think I'd like to start a little business using my medical experience. Perhaps as a comprehensive personal healthy living consultant – appointment only – limited number of clients. I would offer supplemental prescription, lifestyle exercise and de-stressing body relaxation therapy. I would be able to manage it all on my own."

"Could I enrol now?" pleaded Indira.

"You're my first client. I can promise you ma'am that my new salon in San Francisco, with its ocean view, will be more to your liking than this Spartan mobile home."

"San Francisco, eh? Sounds good to me. They say if it doesn't happen in 'Frisco, then it doesn't happen. It apparently has a very cosmopolitan feel. Let's check it out. Now please attend to the needs of my aching body."

'If only you knew,' mused Natalia.

After days of raging argument the red tape was finally circumvented sufficiently to allow Alex 2 to have his own quarantine room where he would be attended for seven days by a suited medical team. They would conduct a laborious but extremely rigorous investigative programme, and pending a 'clean bill of health' he would be directed to join the rest of the crew.

********

Back on Mars, the dome was beginning to sparkle with the first dots of Scarlet O'Hara. The forestation had slowed with the effort to prise crystal from the chasm and shape the dome. More time could now be devoted to that project if the acquisition of crystal could be increased. The additional vehicles from Darwin made the task a little more efficient. Getting crystal from the seam in greater quantities had relied upon the Symbiants' acrobatic abilities. Pykonnen used the drillbots to produce lines of fracture and large slabs were extracted by Red and Pascal 2. Having got them to the surface, they had to be stored in the lab to begin powdering. As it was not 'safe' for the humans to collect the powder, that task also had to be performed by the Symbiants. The rate-determining step was simply their number. Pykonnen put it to the Commander that it would be almost impossible to construct large domes if this was not addressed. "We can't do this without authorisation, Jussi."

The pragmatic reply from the Finn was, "Well, let's make it an accidental contact while building this dome. By then we'll know if it gives us what we want and you will have informed Beijing. I'll volunteer of course."

The pragmatism was not reciprocated by his commanding officer, so he discussed the completion process with Red and Pascal 2. They said they had experienced division of opinion before. It was a characteristic which puzzled them, but they would help as always. When Jussi felt ill he informed Rebrov, who was livid, but agreed to allow the crew to observe the completion with Pascal 2 in attendance. The experience went exactly as they had been told it would and yet they marvelled at the new arrival communicating with them so quickly.

Rebrov was now as insubordinate as Magnusson had become. It didn't feel all that bad. Knowledge of the event would stay on Mars for now. He also knew his next completion request would not be long in arriving. The first Darwin Symbiant was, like Red, accorded the choice of his own name. He chose Finn.

The additional 'body' truly demonstrated why the others were keen to follow Pykonnen's example. Rebrov was genuinely torn between endorsing a programme which would not only reduce workload but add protection value for his crew, or simply adhere to instruction from people who only worked to rule.

# Chapter 38

Suliman was obviously yet another code name as there was no lead whatsoever via Rabinowitz' contacts. It would therefore be necessary to change approach. The revelation to the world of the impending extraterrestrial arrival had created fantastic interest and positive curiosity. This appealed to Koppelt as a conversational tool to profile anti-Symbiant sentiment in Lebanon.

********

As each day passed, Rebrov moved closer to disclosure of the 'accident'. His hope was that it would pave the way for more sympathetic discussion on extending the recruitment of more Symbiants. The progress on the dome was reinforcing the pressure from the crew. The unbroken red hemisphere was gradually thickening. Red had calculated it would resist stronger dust storms than the previous monster at a thickness of ten centimetres. However as an additional margin of security he suggested a mild manufactured storm to initiate regeneration of adapted crystal. The frequent naturally occurring mini-storms would propagate this trend to optimum shell durability. They would soon be ready to cut out the door.

Pykonnen was still in the novelty phase of 'talking to himself'. He was fascinated by the Symbiant's superior interpretation of his own knowledge. Jussi's theories on silicate replication potential turned out to be rather conservative. However, there was too much concentration on the central role of Silicon, and its perceived limitations. More focus was required on data handling potential and less regression to accommodation of organic considerations. Finn characteristically would not specifically advise direction for Jussi, merely hinting at general promise or cautioning biological obsession.

********

The world's interest in the arrival of Alex 2 was not mirrored in the USAr. This was partly because it was discouraged by officialdom, but also because it was a challenge to faith. This was quite logical as Islam was more central to life in the Middle East than other religions were in their respective regions. However there was an undercurrent of objectivity flourishing in the cafes and bars. This is where Rabinowitz' agents, under Koppelt's orders, joined in the debate. These agents were Lebanese, not Israeli. Every cold war scenario in history has thrown up people who are prepared to betray the hand which feeds them for personal gain, masquerading as idealism. Eventually names were being associated with challenging the ruling doctrine. Fear was also expressed that they would face grave risk. Teasing out why and specifically who, was met with reticence, but perseverance did begin to pay off. Apparently there was an uncomfortable presence of Iranian undercover personnel in Lebanon and other USAr member states. There were certain means to recognise these shadowy figures but interaction was considered very dangerous. A number of vociferous reformers had disappeared inexplicably, and even their families did not offer more than token protest. The local populace knew that those families had also been threatened. Further investigation was going to cost a lot more.

********

Veltrano asked Dupree if he had anything for a dry cough, he had almost lost his voice. Dupree nodded and joked that his broken jaw had accounted for the longest period of his life without speaking. He gave Veltrano some soothing medication and the Mexican resumed his duties. When he was absent for supper the doctor looked in on him and found he had worsened. Dupree downloaded his bio data and discovered evidence of severe respiratory restriction. Veltrano was also sweating heavily and thought he had a heavy bout of flu. The Doctor gave him some standard antibiotics and told him to rest for a couple of days. He reported this to the crew and suggested they give Veltrano's quarters a wide berth. The next morning Dupree did not feel so good himself. He was alternating chills with the sweats and he soon had diarrhoea. He informed the Commander and asked Natalia to stand in for him.

Banjani was the third to suffer similar symptoms of coughing, vomiting and profuse sweating. Natalia decided to contact Pascal 2 to make a quicker and more thorough trawl of the medical database he had uploaded while they were on Mars. The communication was performed through Alex 2 so as to cover everything relevant and store it. The reply covered a lot of possibilities but as the condition was not responding to the standard antibiotics, the elimination process pointed to Legionella pneumophila.

"But where could this have come from?" asked Magnusson.

"Sir," said Carvalho, "up to 80% of drinking water can be recycled through the unit from time to time. Although it has not reached that level very often it was shut down while Copernicus orbited Mars, then restarted when we returned."

"Could be," admitted Natalia, "the most common source of infection known is from water reservoirs and cooling units."

Alex 2 accessed the database and interrupted. "It is described as spreading by breathing in infected droplets, and there is no evidence of it being passed person to person in the way of an airborne bacterial transmission. It also states that symptoms for diagnosis usually appear in 7 days after initial infection then worsen after a further 4 days."

The worst fears were confirmed when Veltrano had blood in his sputum. Magnusson had a fever. The remaining crew decided to don their space suits and breathe more reliably from the backpack supply. They also started to use what was left of the bottled water supply, and switched off the recycling system.

Alex 2 mentioned the specialised antibiotics which had been developed for this condition. Natalia found two such types in the dispensary – Ciprofloxacin and Erythromycin. Had someone actually guessed this could happen? The bad news was that the supply was limited. Also the database did not recommend which type should be used with the different symptoms.

Dupree was too ill to make a judgement. They contacted Pascal 2 again to ask if Dupree's own experience included treatment of this rare condition. The answer was negative. The first three to go down were getting worse. Magnusson was not yet deteriorating and could have even improved in the suit. They had already checked this with Earth simultaneously but no reply had yet arrived. Time was of the essence. Veltrano's respiration, even with oxygen assistance, was audibly painful and Dupree had worsened, with blood being coughed up. Banjani's fever was not as acute but she now had chest pain.

The reply from Earth had taken so long because the foremost authorities had divergent recommendations. Natalia had to act. She reviewed the individual symptoms against the database summary of the two antibiotics. She decided that the two males had reasonably like symptoms and would be given Erythromycin. The other was prescribed for Banjani. Magnusson declined anything as the supply was already critical.

After one day on their medication there was no improvement expected but Veltrano was descending into a coma. Natalia was in a no win situation. Switching Veltrano's antibiotic may not revive him and consequently impair the chances of one of the others if the supply ran out. Dupree asked to see the Commander and Alex 2. While out of his hallucinatory state he asked Alex 2 if a completion would engage the replication process in adapting to immunity. The answer was 'probably yes'. The next question was unexpected. "Will the process extend to reverse engineer an adaptive mechanism to my physiology?"

Alex 2 had no data or logic to relate to such a possibility. Dupree asked Magnusson to authorise this as a last hope. "I have nothing to lose." Alex 2 performed the procedure and resealed the container. Banjani's life signs were improving after two days and she was able to say the chest pain had gone.

Javier Veltrano died three days into the medication. Copernicus was shrouded in gloom. Dupree's second completion was bizarre in comparison to the first. It was as if there were hesitation periods and uncertainty over abortion. Alex 2 said this was irregular. After the completion, the new member was sluggish in communication and when he did communicate, he asked for time to finish data accumulation. Dupree's condition appeared to be unchanged. The Symbiant eventually unscrambled the unusual data and declared his immune adaptation had been complex and was in several stages. Alex 2 said that this was a rare process. When asked if he knew any more about Dupree's condition, the Symbiant replied that this is what caused the complication in his own struggle. His interpretation implied that his own stepped alteration helped to preoccupy the infection and allow Dupree's antibiotic to gain time to resist further deterioration. The infection may have been confused at being confronted with two different responses within one host. What was clear he said was that there was no conference of immunity to Dupree at the separation.

# Chapter 39

Banjani was gradually shedding the symptoms and as yet had no idea of the fate of the others. Dupree was holding his own now that Natalia had been able to increase his dosage of antibiotics. Beijing was like a mausoleum, and had passed on the details to Rebrov with recommendations on how to avoid a repetition.

There was no record of any family to be contacted on behalf of Javier Veltrano despite rigorous searches. In view of this, Xiang recommended to Magnusson that the body should be committed to space with a respectful funeral service. This brought up the dilemma of the other body – Alex Redgrave. It would have been convenient to jettison him as well, but they all knew it would be required for the Intelligence people.

With only five surviving human personnel and supplies for seven, there was in theory a surplus, but one which relied on some recycling. They could not afford the risk of further recycling, so the situation was critical. The oxygen was not the main concern as long as they could get out of the suits and breathe the main supply with the recycling leg out of the loop. There wasn't enough bottled water to provide a healthy minimum for everyone over the remaining distance to Earth. They set up a rationing chart which was marginally below the minimum, while creative suggestions could be explored. As Dupree was still locked in his titanic battle with the infection, the Symbiant was the most knowledgeable medical presence on board. In the absence of a better proposal, he recommended a rota of controlled reduction in metabolic rate by the available drugs on board. Reduction of the temperature in the living quarters overall, and two personnel at a time in deep sleep, would produce less body water loss, and extend the bottled supply by a worthwhile margin. It wouldn't be a pleasant existence, but all crew functions could be handled by the two Symbiants until docking. Feverish discussion on Earth was ongoing but had not yielded a breakthrough concept.

********

On Mars, this news had overshadowed the stunning success of the dome. The pruning of the internal plants left considerable space for all the vehicles and the drillbot control system, allowing some other stores to be moved to the original vehicle housing, alleviating the impact on space compromise in habitat and lab units. The decision to build a really large dome was to be reviewed after the forestation project was advanced to completion of the current phase.

********

The situation aboard Copernicus had attracted the religious zealots from around the world to declare this as a message from on high that we are not supposed to interfere with his designated destiny for humanity. The opposing view charted the plethora of examples of fence-sitting by the almighty on issues such as the deployment of nuclear bombs, biochemical weaponry and testing of the big bang apparatus in Switzerland.

The media were basking in the self-generation of resulting headlines. Coupled with the additional Symbiant arriving, there was the questioning of him being in apparent control of the lives of the crew. This Symbiant, because of other priorities, had no name as yet, so the media could not resist scribing their own – none of them complimentary.

********

This latent meltdown of the mission and twist in the media reporting angle had considerable impact on perception in the Middle East. The recent shoots of a call for more involvement in science, in a concurrent backdrop of religious brainwashing, were being systematically eradicated. Such authoritarian directives facilitated Koppelt's Lebanese efforts to winkle out nodes within the chain of command. The first of these related to the three 'kidnapped' bodies in the car crash. This was political dynamite if Koppelt could establish proof.

********

It was considered a risk too far to sedate those 'recovering' from infection, so the first two volunteers were Carvalho and Natalia, which allowed Magnusson to stay in touch with Beijing. Prior to 'going under', Natalia jumped for joy. In all the recent turmoil she had completely forgotten that there was an unopened crate of balanced energy drinks in the medical bay. There had been no call for them, but there certainly was now. The crate housed sixteen half-litre plastic, screw topped bottles. She recommended that these should punctuate the water rationing rather than used in a block replacement of water. Magnusson was grateful for this, some good news at last.

Two days later and Banjani was recovered sufficiently to be told of the situation and wept profusely at Javier Veltrano's passing. She was also impacted by not being able to share this grief with Natalia. The time had come to switch back from back pack oxygen to general supply. If this was not proven to be safe then the water problem would be irrelevant. There were nervous days ahead.

Two of those days saw a turning point for Dupree. He had avoided a coma and now had longer spells of 'eyes wide open'. This was more good news for Magnusson but realistically put more pressure on the water supply. Carvalho and Natalia were welcomed back and they were only able to have a few minutes with Magnusson and Banjani before they experienced their first eclipse.

Another three days welcomed Dupree back to something like his normal self. The sedative relay teams exchanged the baton again. There was no adverse effect from the general oxygen supply as yet.

********

Rabinowitz's agents had not been able to unearth proof of suspicious death with the car crash. However, there were more street clashes over the disputes in God v Science, and one face kept cropping up. This would be pursued very carefully.

********

The funeral of Javier Veltrano caused a temporary hiatus in the water conservation rota. It was a ceremony of honourable simplicity and one which the Symbiants did not really comprehend. When it was all over Magnusson suggested it was about time the latest addition to the Symbiant population had a name. Carvalho, who ended up a closer friend to Javier than anyone, dug deep to find his sense of humour and quipped, "How about the 'Grim Sleeper'?"

It broke the sombre mood and they all made suggestions which didn't hit the mark. The actual subject of the christening faintly intruded with 'Trois', as he was the third version of Dupree. Affirmation was unanimous.

The oxygen supply was now considered clean. Alex 2 calculated that the fluids would run out approximately eight days before docking at the current usage rate. However he had noticed the usage rate had changed. He was getting three extra measures per bottle of energy fluid and five extra measures per bottle of water. His logic took him to air his confusion with the Commander. "Do you have any idea how this could happen?"

"I guessed you would figure it out."

Magnusson had been secretly returning some samples of his own fluids back to the bottles. The frequency, he confessed, matched Alex 2's 'windfall'. "This is not an acceptable gesture, it is potentially a dangerous sacrifice; the crew needs its belief in you. If they suffer psychological malaise because their strongest colleague goes down, it may have the exact consequence you seek to avoid. You are seen as the man who beat the barren polar wastes repeatedly, you must be their leader and example during this time. Apart from that your noble gesture can only extend the dry point by less than one day."

Magnusson nodded reluctantly. Alex 2's new shortfall estimate was about 8.17 days!!!Because of this it was decided to stop any unnecessary physical exercise or energy expenditure including calisthenics and massage. The boredom was becoming a problem. It seemed that all there was to think about was the generally accepted three to four day maximum survival time without water, and the current estimate that they had to survive more than double that threshold. This could not be a precise calculation. Temperature, energy expenditure and metabolic rate would all affect the individual. Death was also likely to be preceded by a stage of irrecoverable damage, thereby questioning the definition of 'survival'. Even factoring in the lower body water loss with the sedation it was not going to be enough.

********

Xiang had become irritated about the lack of creativity from self-proclaimed experts in their field. He had decided some days ago that if this vacuum prevailed, he would devise a rescue mission. It would be considered by some of the fence-sitters to be foolhardy. He could not just 'sit and accept fate'.

The small inspect and repair pods at the space elevator worked on conventional thrusters and could only carry one person plus tools. In this case it would be one person plus water. The one person would be the main problem as far as the doubters were concerned. Dictates had been long established that this was risky in space flight for all sorts of reasons. He knew the timing would be critical to ensure crossing paths with Copernicus; however there were two very positive aspects. These little craft were extremely manoeuvrable and the tricky transfer would be far less risky with the Symbiants' capability in space without suits, oxygen and concern over radiation.

Xiang was well aware that he would only be able to pull this off if the pilot was a volunteer rather than having been selected, because it would have to be a clandestine operation until underway. He knew it had to be himself. There was one element which was worrying. The communication equipment in the pod was basic and short range. He needed a fix for this and quick. He called on his senior communications officer and asked him to get one of his most reliable technicians to cannibalise some of the backup equipment and hook it into the pod. The pod supervisor had to be in on the scheme to allow the mock up. They were all behind Xiang, as no other option was forthcoming, and this meant that the Copernicus crew would just dehydrate, pass into a coma and expire. They could not let this happen and were disgusted with the movers and shakers not moving, only shaking.

Xiang had blueprinted the sequence, allowing sufficient time to contact Alex 2 in order to explain the daring attempt. He wanted the Symbiant to work out when to launch, and the burn time for the thrusters to give optimal course, speed and time of rendezvous. The communication upgrade would allow for corrections as they arose. He also asked if he could calculate the amount of water needed to be delivered at that rendezvous point to ensure survival, as space was very tight and the new comm. would take up quite a proportion. Alex 2 was informed of the renegade nature of the rescue and was asked to keep this between the two of them. The Symbiant agreed, but was again astonished by the convoluted human psyche within a chain of authority. Xiang should have known the calculations would be quick but not almost instantaneous. He had enough space for about 10% more water than Alex 2 needed.

The calculations on the pod took a little longer, as Xiang had to initially transmit the design and power rating information to Copernicus, for Alex 2 to advise the date, time and initial burn. All of this information was essential otherwise they wouldn't be able to deliver the pod to the prescribed coordinates.

# Chapter 40

Koppelt's hounds in Lebanon had made a breakthrough. They had cross confirmation that Adel Zandi, Arash Teymourian and Suliman Ali were the same person. If they could be, or have someone else be in his presence when Koppelt rang the number for Suliman from Mansour's confiscated phone, it could be the final proof. If this proved to be the case, the investigation may have to move to Iran. There was a strong belief that this mafia style character was controlled from Shiraz, Iran's fifth most populated city. It was apparently the capital of Persia during the Zand dynasty (one of his names was Zandi). It was the site of the country's first solar energy plant; it had very large oil refining capacity and was the major seat of the electronics industry. More speculative information placed his family in Mashhad, the second largest city and one of the holiest in the Shia world.

When Koppelt fed this to Rabinowitz it produced a grave, contorted facial expression. They agreed it was a bad idea to try this phone trick, because if it was the target he would know he was being called by a dead man from Beijing. Rabinowitz was not willing to play Sherlock Holmes in Iran. "Oil, solar power, and electronics lead me to believe I may know the family he works for. You wouldn't know, but Arash was a Persian folklore hero. Zandi 'connects' him to a different Persian dynasty, and the name Ali is said to be closely related to a famous prophet. I feel confident that you have your man. If we go back to this Circle of Restoration, it may be that senior recruits have an insignia of membership. It is a typical declaration of a cause, along with a cult motto. It could be wiser to look for something of that nature than take the search to their turf."

Koppelt was despondent, for fifteen seconds. "Thank you, I have an idea. Could your boys in Lebanon get this guy out but make it look like a local job?"

"It's possible but tricky, and expensive. Why?"

"Well, if we could make it look like a Lebanese freedom group with its recognised hallmarks, but create a diversion and get him on a plane out here, we'll have it all." Rabinowitz waited, expressionless. "We could subject him to these replicant people and empty his brain; then we have bargaining power."

"Aren't you forgetting the ethics brigade?"

Koppelt smiled and said, "No, that's your territory...and who better than an Israeli to find a way around it? It's in the interest of your own country without picking up any perceived direct involvement."

"Very smart Karl, maybe I should just let you go into Iran."

"What, and neglect your responsibility to the Confederation of Nations?"

"Let me think about this."

********

Alex 2 left Trois to look after the Rip van Winkle rota while he refined his plan, for transfer of the water and Xiang from the pod to Copernicus. It was quite a complex dimensional calculation and had to account for the crudity of thrusters' control, when comparing what should happen with what is actually possible. The plan depended on a deceleration of both vessels to a standstill and close enough for one of the Symbiants to use handheld thrust units to get to the pod with an umbilical cord. Returning with the water container should be straightforward and then Xiang should follow using the cord and safety harness. Both ships would be in zero gravity to optimise relative attitude to one another, so for the locking on of the cord, it was critical for all stages to be executed with direct sight lines. The deceleration of Copernicus would add incremental time to Earth docking by having to recover velocity. All of these factors had margins of error in the estimates, and the cumulative effect could easily end up consuming the small safety surplus of water, defeating the object of the exercise. Alex 2 proposed to Magnusson, without disclosing the plan, that it might be prudent for all of the crew involved in the rota to be sedated for a prolonged period. They all knew the current eight day shortfall was probably a fatal one. Alex 2 argued that increasing their downtime to active time ratio was essential to the objective of narrowing the gap. Simply increasing the velocity was not a favourable option as it would require significantly more fuel to achieve braking in time for docking. If this was attempted and went wrong, the consequences would be disastrous. Having the crew in slumber would also keep a lid on the emotional response to the planned cosmic gymnastics. The crew trusted Alex 2's proposal to monitor the additional water savings by gradually increasing the sleep ratio while there was time - until it was time to draw straws.

********

The timeslot given to Xiang by Alex 2 was fortunately during a busy period - maintenance wise, so that the departure could be 'lost in the traffic'. Xiang's whereabouts could be a more risky problem, and as much as he agonised over his career consequences, he knew that disclosure would result in political posturing, costing lives. He arranged a meeting with Koppelt for the departure slot, briefing his staff that this was a 'do not disturb' security session. He also made it clear to Karl that he should not react when he became a no show. "Don't try to contact anyone and repel all attempts to intrude into the meeting. I need your trust on this one."

********

The one place free of intrigue at this time was Mars. It was not free of progress. The wheel of forestation was complete. The repetitive prune and replication combined with the Symbiant's green-fingered nutrient experiments had produced a remarkable rate of propagation. An estimated five years of growth had been achieved in a tenth of that period. The major efficiency came from manipulating 'gene' replication to virtually no seasonal dormancy. The local maximum oxygen daily level had now increased to 0.4%. The benefits and trade-offs were being evaluated for further forestation versus a large dome as the next priority.

********

The complication in Lebanon would in theory assist Koppelt's plan. There was long-standing threat of civil war. The pro-government Sunnis and Shiite Hezbollah were constantly in and out of street conflict with one another. Adding in the Druze, PSP and multiple anti-Syrian factions improved the camouflage. Some of these anti-Syrian groups had operated for years under the guise of private security companies to avoid annoying the bigger players. One more of these groups would almost go unnoticed, until the identity of the target spread from local to national exposure. It was also more manageable in terms of organisation and personnel required. The apparent contradiction struck Koppelt as bizarre. Presumably the same people who drove through the 'accord' for the formation of the USAr were those sponsoring street militia, and thus fuelling the perceived instability. His gut told him that it must somehow fit some master plan. Straddling the gorge until the time was right – probably related to oil reserves, and the wealth being even more unevenly distributed than the capitalist world. Power was always to be found somewhere in the grand design. The region was constituted by disparate nations, albeit with common denominators of oil and Islam. The immensely wealthy had much to lose by religion being overtaken by technological progress too quickly. Although this was impossible to prevent in the long term, as was the case with the Soviet Union, it had to be managed. Having many warring factions with just causes was a useful distraction. The bigger picture involved a gradual steering of the capitalist world's oil reserves. They would predictably run out, and this required careful orchestration from the USAr. Conflicts like the second Gulf war had to be avoided. A subtle - oil for technology policy -towards the West in particular, would keep an even keel while it was still possible to internally extol the virtue of fundamental values of Islam. Managing this intersection would be very precarious, but the high stakes justified the pain.

Karl was rather pleased with his analysis. He would bounce this off Rabinowitz, or would he? He might have to broaden the concern to the 'incidental' demise of Israel as fallout from the primary objective. Rabinowitz would, in all probability, see it the other way around. If the USAr ascended to status rivalling the big four, it was only a matter of time before Israel became a bargaining chip. As he needed Rabinowitz's people to carry out his 'snatch' in Lebanon, the philosophical stuff would wait.

********

The new sedation routine for the entire crew was giving a worthwhile gain in water conservation and perhaps just as important, a better social atmosphere. As Dupree was now included, the supper table was the focus for all questions and concerns. One constant scenario provoked difficult questions for Alex 2. It was the probability of reaching the 'dry point' and the subsequent decision to accept further sedation. This could mean farewell and the emotional need to write or record last thoughts or simply remain conscious. Alex 2 responded with one consistent but unconvincing reply. "Beijing is working all hours available on a rescue plan. We should not make decisions on possible outcomes until there is no alternative."

The cold was the one and only incentive for embracing another timeout. It was difficult to resist keeping warmer, even though they knew it was necessary. Magnusson kept saying they should imagine they were in the trenches of the Somme for months at a time in freezing, wet conditions and taking enemy fire constantly. He was often met with the response that it would be easier if they had no means of addressing the cold, but in reality the flick of a switch would end their discomfort. For once he was seen as unsympathetic when he insisted it was merely a test of mental tenacity. "Some have it, some don't. I faced this in my polar campaigns and believe me it was worse than this."

Carvalho and Natalia both accepted this as a nudge to get back on track. Conversely Dupree and Banjani accused him of showboating how relevant his macho side had been in being selected as Commander. Alex 2 and Trois tried to calm the mutinous tendency by basically repeating ad-nauseum that there really was no alternative. Banjani glared at them. "That's ok for you to say, you have no way of experiencing cold."

Carvalho piped up. "Alex 2, maybe you could set us some homework to occupy our thoughts instead of thinking continuously about the problem. It would be difficult for us to arrive at your estimate of the dry point without the use of a powerful database. Anyone up for it?"

It was a galvanising suggestion. Because their minds were sluggish they decided to work in teams of two with one of them as a 'referee'.

# Chapter 41

When Koppelt rang Rabinowitz after almost a week, the Israeli was still playing for time. However Karl turned up the heat by admitting that he could not be associated with having important information and doing nothing with it. "Look Eyal, I was lucky that Xiang pulled a rabbit out of the hat on the virus. I'm not going to tolerate an encore. If you can't genuinely help that's OK, but either way I have to file a report on my next steps, with all other options, even the ones which I could not pursue."

"Mmm, I'll contact my homeland. I am in a position here where my impartiality has to be transparent. If something went wrong it would be preferable if the old enemy were blamed, guilty or not, rather than hand these people the ammunition of exposing corruption here, which is exactly what they want. Go ahead and draw up your scheme, with only the personnel to fill in."

********

It was less than three weeks to Xiang's escapade. The plug and play communication rig was almost ready for grafting, and one of the pods had been 'scheduled' as ready for a facelift in control software. He informed Alex 2 of the status quo and the Symbiant took the opportunity to question the wisdom of holding out on the crew. When he related the schism which had developed because they felt they were on death row, Xiang relented \- on condition that they all agreed to be sedated while the transfer was executed.

Alex 2 assembled the crew to give them their maths homework. They were all confused by the small Earthside object of limited velocity and range. What was the point? The normal calculation was beyond them anyway. The explanation just irritated them until he spilled the beans. There were as many lumps in throats as for Javier's funeral but these were accompanied by tears of joy.

********

The Israelis were less than deliriously happy at the request, but Rabinowitz had convinced them of the longer term benefit. Not since the audacious raid on Amin's regime in Entebbe had they needed to call on their crack special extraction forces. Documents, false ID cards and uniforms were supplied and the timing set for family socialising following Sunday prayers. The insertion Magda helicopter was decked in Lebanese Army livery. Designed to carry personnel on high risk missions, it was heavily armed and very manoeuvrable, as a camouflaged landing site was critical for this kind of operation. The chosen site was in the western foothills of the great central mountain range between Beirut and Zahl. Rabinowitz' Lebanese contacts would pick up the twelve elite 'Lebanese – Syrian Security Militia'. The uniforms were convincing but accepted under some sufferance from the wearers. It didn't feel right laying one's life on the line in a foreign battledress. Advance preparation work in designing and predating membership of a website for the LSSM would help authenticity in the aftermath. They also needed to be seen and hopefully caught on security cameras. The truck in which they were to be driven to the snatch point in Beirut was totally neutral. It was considered too risky, even in darkness, to make the exit by driving all the way back to the helicopter. Once they were clear of the suburbs, the chopper would rendezvous with them and get back over the Lebanese/Israeli border before any alert forces could respond. Rabinowitz' two Lebanese truck drivers would also have to leave and be repatriated later.

********

It was over five years since Xiang had been to the Moon, so he was a little rusty, but at least the pod was a simple little craft. He had mixed emotions – piloting again was appealing – apprehension centred on the literal possibility of passing like ships in the night. The mental anaesthetic was the confidence he had in this life form he had never met. His greatest wrench was going to be telling his wife of his intent. The children were too young to be involved and she would have to bear the uncertainty alone. He was able to blank all the other aspects, but not this one. It was made a little less onerous by his almost telepathic assurance that she would understand.

********

All of a sudden Koppelt was feeling nervous. The plan had been innovative and exciting to construct. It was becoming utterly dominant in his everyday activity. Elements never considered in the blueprint were haunting him – what if the truck had a tyre blow out leaving Beirut? What if Suliman was ill and did not follow his observed Sunday routine? Most recently – What if failure impacts Xiang's request for his cover?

********

Copernicus was harmonious again, despite the abject failure of either team to get within 5% of the correct space/time coordinates of Alex 2's dry point. They were actually making plans again. Dupree was going to take up a long standing offer in the Sudan, assisting reconstruction by overseeing better health programmes. Carvalho had much clearer ideas on how to help further the cause of the Symbiants, related to the gospel of Artificial Intelligence. The lakes in the north of Sweden were beckoning Magnusson and his family, maybe a really swish houseboat. The two females were well into the details of a period property renovation project.

********

Forty minutes before the Helicopter set down, the coded message of its arrival time was accurately flashed off to the waiting truck, which had already eased its way out of Beirut at a leisurely pace, attracting little or no attention. Pickup achieved. Weaving through the suburbs to the target 'garage' location was also uneventful. Entry into the property provided the first opportunity for curiosity by the locals. Discharging the bodyguards was swift and noisy courtesy of a cacophony of AK-47's. The sentinel group stretched from the house to the truck, and they were all happy to brandish their pride in their regalia. Uninhibited screaming permeated the burst of gunfire. Suliman's mouth was taped; his hands shackled and he was inserted head first into a large, dirty sack. Onlookers cowered behind walls and vehicles, but some had the presence to flash cameras from roof terraces. The truck screeched out of its cover and the 'LSSM' loyalists boarded, then it was gone in a flash of ammunition discharged to the sky.

The local Lebanese driver cut through the suburbs with clinical knowledge and the tension began to subside, then out of nowhere a refuse collection truck reversed into their path. The driver was already immune to verbal abuse and threats after years in the job. He was more respectful of the two militiamen and their persuasive armoury. This round of public identification was not welcome and the driver decided to skip to a different exit route. It would add some estimated eight minutes before they could join the highway parallel to the mountains and then swing on to the rough road to meet the Magda. Those eight minutes were enough for the bush telegraph to respond.

When all personnel were aboard, the chopper lifted from its cover and headed back. The response had gathered some degree of coordination and a genuine Lebanese Army helicopter loomed someway ahead of them. It attempted to make radio contact and the on-air silence brought them closer. With the extra personnel on the return leg the pilot informed the leader of the squad that he could not outrun this threat. The decision was instantaneous, an RPG was fired wide of the approaching chopper. It caused them to veer erratically and temporarily retreat. The leader had to shake off this nuisance without them figuring out they were headed back to Israel. He instructed the pilot to alter course to the East and the general direction of Syria. For some reason this action provoked the chasing helicopter to open fire with a machine gun. There unfortunately was no choice - the Magda swung around and the expertise of the co-pilot delivered the second RPG resulting in a fireball which would be seen for miles around. Unknown to them the Lebanese pilot's last words had reported the 'stolen army' unit heading for Syria. The Magda returned to the original course to the south. The whole episode had found its way on to radio stations quicker than anticipated. As the helicopter raced over the border it was tracked by both Lebanese and Israeli sweeps. The foresight of the latter had no fewer than nine gunships from the Golan patrol force to chase down the 'LSSM' runaway. Once the Magda touched down well inside the border and the target was whisked away in a security car, the helicopter was destroyed by rockets. This was reported to the Lebanese authorities with well-rehearsed anger, and they were invited to come and take some of the wreckage away. They were also asked to keep their house in order, not export this chaos to an already sensitive hot spot. The Lebanese were somewhat puzzled by no evidence of human remains. The Israelis simply shrugged shoulders and asked how many people were in the Magda, and who they were. When the reply was noncommittal, they revealed that on refusal to submit, close to landing, the occupants were hit with at least four RPG's. It may have been overkill but the gunships could not take chances, the Magda was heavily armed and the pilot was acting like a crazy man. He was probably completely incinerated as the heat had completely melted parts of the rotor. The pseudo affront was bought by the Lebanese and they departed with some of the wreckage for further analysis.

Koppelt received the message 'Rook to Queen six; checkmate'. This was what he had prayed for; it signified Suliman was awaiting air transport to Beijing. There was some irony in this as the Lebanese media were broadcasting unconfirmed reports of his possible death following his kidnap by dissident militia.

# Chapter 42

The last two days to Xiang's launch were passing painfully slowly. His wife had asked him several times about his edginess and he had replied that it was the helplessness he felt at the plight of his friends on Copernicus. It was a feeling shared by most of the world's population, who were by now aware of the unbridgeable gap of water requirement. One of the hardest aspects to accept for the man in the street was that the astonishing catalogue of dangers already averted was to be neutralised by such a mundane cause. It was bad press except for the Circle of Restoration. As often happens with such forlorn by standing - a sick, voyeuristic media obsession develops and is disguised by manufactured poignancy and false tears.

********

His departure did not exactly go unnoticed yet it was a curiously long time before anyone officially reported the incident. Even then there was confusion. Many had assumed this was the refurbished pod going through the refit checklist, and paid little attention to the fact it had not returned. The hiatus prevailed until Xiang's wife received the call he had told her to expect. "He is at his office as usual, is there something wrong?"

The answer was reassuringly untrue, there was no problem. The hurriedly arranged but disorganised search gave the requisite time for him to set in course and achieve the modest maximum velocity capability of the pod.

By the time all other personnel had been accounted for, including sickness and time off, there was only one conclusion. That conclusion was corroborated by the unaltered heading of the pod. As Xiang had blocked Beijing's connection to himself for now, they contacted Copernicus. Alex 2 received the news and replied with his usual stoic 'matter of fact' poise. "I see. Can you give me his course projection?"

It came through and Alex 2 thanked them, indicating he would be doing his own calculations to verify a meeting point or otherwise. Beijing appreciated this as they were unable to contact the pod. The crew was ecstatic and asked when they would be able to make contact with Xiang. "He will contact us in a few hours and we will discuss minor course corrections if they apply. Our position is such that the short communication time delay has to be factored into this, but fortunately we are rapidly approaching the point of negligible delay. This was crucial in our estimates."

********

Suliman had been transferred to an underground detention facility in Beijing and was visibly terrified. Meanwhile the post-mortem raged in Lebanon and the bush fire had inevitably spread to other USAr members. Syria was deflecting blame. Saudi Arabia asked what agents of fear like Suliman were doing in Lebanon. Iraq made the point that Iran was worryingly silent considering the loss of a prominent citizen. When his house in Lebanon was searched, the family seemed very nervous about the imminent discovery of certain official documents. The official source of these papers was unknown to the Lebanese security forces.

The interrogation began in a low key fashion, asking Suliman for help in tracing two of their employees who had disappeared after leaving their posts in Beijing. "We know they ended up in the Middle East and we know you were involved. Please listen to these recorded phone calls to yourself from Mansour. The actual names are not too important as it seems everyone in the USAr has multiple identities. Take a look at the photo please." The prisoner shook his head.

"Would you like someone to speak to you in Arabic?" He nodded his head vigorously. "Very well, but don't forget we know that you speak English. We will return tomorrow with an interpreter."

********

Xiang came through to Copernicus and the first thing he suggested was that they put up with the diminishing time delay rather than 'send' transmission. Alex 2 greeted him, agreed the proposal and delivered way points from which he would adjust Xiang's heading. He also made him aware of Mission Control's contact and their wish to be kept in the loop. Xiang had no objection but refused direct contact, he needed no distraction from his focus on the transfer.

********

Despite the interpreter and the time to reflect Suliman continued to deny any involvement, only more eloquently in his mother tongue. Koppelt dispensed with the Arabic and calmly advised Suliman that he had a choice of two courses of action. "You can tell us what we want to know or you will be subjected to replication by these Martian life forms when they arrive. Apparently the process is very unpleasant, the new body arising out of your brain, which is stripped of its content. If we need to do this we'll have everything you know and we'll then drop you back in Iran for you to take your chance. Please yourself, just let the guard know when you decide."

********

Alex 2 had given the pod two minor course corrections and told Xiang that the relative attitude between the two vessels was important for establishing the umbilical correctly. He said it would be easier to adjust the pod than Copernicus, and he would talk Xiang through any last minute twirls at the time. Preparations were in hand for hand-held mini-thrusters and rehearsals would be completed in the next two days. Alex 2 kept Beijing informed and managed to convince them that this rescue attempt had a reasonable probability of success as predicted by his statistical modelling.

********

Suliman called Koppelt's bluff by playing for time. He opted for the replication. Koppelt switched tactics by telling him quite a bit of what they already could pin on him, he just needed a few more items. This would be his last chance to bargain for his life. "One way or another we get what we want." The brinkmanship continued by three days of silence. On the fourth day, Suliman asked for Koppelt.

********

Rebrov, having heard of the bold attempt that Xiang was spearheading, decided it would be a good time to inform Beijing of Finn's accidental appearance, as they would be too focussed on the unfolding drama to object. The simple acknowledgement confirmed his prediction. In turn, it increased the demand from his crew to have their individual Symbiants. He agreed to put this to Mission Control after the rescue attempt and the completion of phase two forestation, which was going really well with Red, Pascal 2 and Finn working almost around the clock.

********

Koppelt was confident now that Suliman was ready to confess. It therefore came as quite a surprise when he steadfastly opted for the completion. "Even if I was able to tell you what you want there is no way you could help me. If I am replicated my people will know I have no control over my eventual destiny, so there is no advantage to falsely implicating myself in something which would place me in danger."

"Fair enough," said Koppelt, "it won't be too much longer before we can implement the replication. I guess it gives your controller a little extra time to search for you. Unless of course word reaches Lebanon that you have defected to us from the Circle of Restoration." Suliman's eyes widened at the mention of the cult. They knew more than they had told him. This did make a difference. He needed more time.

********

The transfer rehearsals went well and it was time for the final sedation. There were last minute misgivings about going under and then waking to find they were still on death row. Everyone felt they might be able to help, they just did not know exactly how. Alex 2 reiterated that it was a complex procedure and Xiang did not think the extra pressure of a performing hero was helpful. It was a one-chance attempt, absolute focus was imperative. Of course they knew Xiang could not enforce this directive but he had also risked his life by coming this far, and they owed it to him to comply.

As Alex 2 had predicted, a final pirouette was needed. Xiang was arriving on the wrong side of Copernicus for the water case to be accessed in a direct sight line. Contemplation of taking it over the top of the pod was a 'no-no'. Also trying to employ fancy braking and turning so close to Copernicus could cause a collision. Both vessels were at rest and the distance was within the length of the umbilical. The very gentle turn was achieved in several minute steps until the optimum attitude was achieved. Both Symbiants were in the open airlock. One end of the cord was attached to the airlock floor. The other was given to Trois. He was to use the thrusters to attempt a straight line connection. However it was felt prudent to restrict the length of cord let out, in order to maintain a taut line the whole time. The silent communication between the two was helpful in alternating thrust and available cord. The procedure seemed to take an eternity amongst Xiang's already busy mental traffic. Trois at last passed the cord through the water case grip and a loop in the pod floor and headed back from whence he came. This was just as slow as the outgoing leg. The water case had a locking clip which was to secure it on the cord. Xiang then had to clip himself in the same way. It was made a little easier by the lack of gravity. Shuffling his way along the cord was more strenuous than he expected. It was however the only stage of the operation where it really hit him – he was the most ludicrous delivery man in history. The backdrop of Earth broke the spell and he shunted the case into the waiting hands of Alex 2. Once he was aboard himself, his thoughts strayed to the non-human life forms. They were not emotional about the situation; they merely acknowledged his safe arrival. Not a single 'yee-hah'. He was quite underwhelmed. So much so that he temporarily forgot the tie had to be severed to release the pod. Trois leapt up to usher him out of the way as Alex 2 untied the Copernicus end of the cord. The act of concern meant that nobody was controlling the rate at which the tether left the airlock. It all happened in a flash. The cord accelerated and caught Trois' leg, upending him and spinning him out of the airlock with considerable momentum. Xiang was frenzied, completely incoherent, in demanding Alex 2 did something to correct his own stupidity in stepping over the tether while it was released. Alex 2 quickly computed the options; there were none. Trois was already out of sight, he was part of the vast blackness. How could they track him without compromising the new water supply? He would become a red crystal in a few days. It was difficult for Xiang to comprehend Alex 2's detachment at his colleague's 'demise'. "He was in crystalline form for four billion years, another chance may arise."

No amount of distress on the part of Xiang would ever trigger any culpability in the mind of Alex 2. Xiang's problem was derived primarily from the incredible precision of the Symbiant's handling of the project, compared to the naive distraction he had shown, believing the EVA danger had passed.

The airlock door was closed and the two of them entered the breathable zone. Out of his suit he still felt incredibly flat. Alex 2 said it would be a while before the crew were revived and it might be a good idea if he contacted Beijing. Xiang refused to do that until the crew were aware of the recent events. The Symbiant was now confused.

# Chapter 43

Suliman couldn't know that the information Koppelt had on the Circle of Restoration had come in the first instance from Alex Redgrave's initial replicant, Alex 2. He had to guess if there was more and if so where it could have come from. What he did know was that if this Symbiant could unlock his brain and he was then dumped in the Middle East he was a dead man. It wouldn't matter that he hadn't actually willingly betrayed the cult himself; it would be a necessary execution. He had lived by and played by the rules. If he chose to tell all himself, he was still a dead man unless he could negotiate an absolute guarantee of protection, but his family would be butchered. If he could somehow give some information in exchange for televising the replication live, that might get enough public support in his homeland to achieve a window of time for the Confederation to bring down the cult. As he could not escape and there was no acceptable means of suicide, it was the only option. At first Koppelt didn't want to know. Having thought it through more he believed he had nothing to lose, but he was not certain he would get the enforced replication past the human rights fanatics. He preferred a secret replication. On the other hand, being prepared to show the harmless procedure could be a counter-argument for replication in the long term. "Very well you have your wish depending on the value of what you are able to disclose now. Your first shot is your only shot, make it good."

********

As the drowsiness wore off it was replaced by extreme sadness. The loss was felt just as badly as it had been for Veltrano. Xiang cut a lonely figure until Magnusson punctuated the gloom. "Roberto, we fully understand and appreciate the risk you took in coming here. You must therefore accept that the risk had to be shared. We have to move on or your effort was for nothing. We will still grieve, as I'm sure Alex 2 will, in his own way. Let's get Copernicus underway as I have something else to show you."

Inertia switched to action and the burn was carefully implemented by Alex 2 and Banjani, to achieve maximum velocity relative to braking capability, for precise docking with the Space Elevator. They were fractionally under eleven days to arrival, illustrating the achievement of Xiang and the little pod.

Banjani marvelled at the detail which Alex 2 could access instantaneously while talking. He had sent the calculations to Beijing and only now received their confirmation that he was correct - not that he needed it as they were already settled on course. "We all think of you as our friends you know. Trois, Red, Pascal 2 and of course yourself, we have come through so much with your help. Do you understand our sadness?"

"Not completely; I am unable to totally experience some of the emotions I have observed. The information is there but I sense your reaction rather than feel it. I can feel the objectives of the Progenitors, which are designed into my architecture. I can only conclude that there is some explanation to be found in the haphazard data handling in an organic brain. Your culture has examples of animal species performing tasks they have not yet learned – you call it instinct. Maybe I will get the chance to research this more when we reach Earth. It challenges my prime rationale that the species is everything and the individual is expendable. I find this intriguing. Please remember that I am really saying the Continuance and not 'me'."

As yet, Banjani did not know about Finn, but as she didn't know Jussi Pykonnen, she would not have been able to feel quite the same bond as with the others. Xiang was shocked to see the partly decayed corpse of Alex Redgrave. When the full situation was explained to him there was no doubt in his mind, even though he was likely to lose his own position, that Koppelt would need this evidence of the sabotage plan. The USAr would have to explain the real name and origin of the body and wouldn't be able to dismiss the DNA results.

Supper that evening was the forum for celebrating their awakening and they could once again make their plans for the future. Xiang was the exception; his future was not in his hands. The crew pledged their support but knew the faceless ones would decide, and they would be focussed on his unilateral behaviour. He was philosophical about it. He was to be re-united with his family, rescuing his friends felt right and basically these were the only crucial issues for him. It was Carvalho who was thinking outside the consequences and turned to the opportunity. "You'll be an absolute hero to most people. You'll be in demand from all networks and you can probably write your own destiny and the cheques to go with it. The worst thing they can do is ask you to continue in your post." This caused such sustained laughter that Alex 2's wonder at these strange creatures clicked up to an all-time high.

The next morning Xiang was contacted by Beijing and was pleased to find that all of his team was assembled. The reception was very humbling. The TV people were there despite the hierarchy pressure to close ranks. They knew they had to allow it. Carvalho was right.

********

Suliman explained that the cult was founded to reinstate Islamic culture at the head of human endeavour. Its charter, which was only known to an elite group of senior members, was accompanied by a solid gold artefact bearing the five guiding principles of its inception. These inscriptions were formed into an elaborate circle, inside of which was the stylised head of Cyrus. He was the founder of the Persian Empire. It was argued that since the vision of this great man, through Darius, to the expansion of Muslim culture as far as the Iberian Peninsula, the Islamic world had become sterile in all but its religious zeal. Renewal of the position of literature, engineering, architecture and technology was crucial. It was to be accompanied by tolerance of diversity but also mediation of toxic policy adversely affecting the world and its people. Suliman said it was recognised that being there and getting there were two distinct morally divergent phases. The omelette and egg analogy was used. The USAr had to get there and quickly. Once there, the rollout of ideology would have most impact. The programmes carried out so far obviously followed on from the inauguration of the USAr. They were devised to check the rate of unsavoury developments by means other than terrorism towards other states. Martyrdom within the USAr was justified on a voluntary basis. The disclosure of any of this was punishable by death, as it was considered to be treason. The charter could not be openly revealed to the masses and therefore to the rest of the world simply because that would ensure failure. There is no rigid timescale, but as was already known, the cult had tried to slow down colonisation efforts. There was dual purpose here; they needed to be much more draconian in protecting our planet, and the USAr had to be a major player in the new world – Mars - when that became a society beyond the definition of a colony. Although he was one of the senior members, he could not reveal the others because of his holy vow. Breaking that trust was worse than accepting the ultimate sacrifice. He made no apology for the sabotage attempts of the Copernicus or Darwin missions, stressing that adverse publicity was the objective. He would not admit to any disruption to the return flights. He acknowledged that this new life form had made their position much more difficult.

Koppelt retired to consider this but he already felt that the politics were going to overshadow the security aspects. By now he knew of the returning corpse and could guess how it was to be manipulated. At least it gave him more ammunition for the public replication of Suliman.

********

By now there was little to do in the way of duties on Copernicus and Alex 2 had been granted the freedom of the database. He was able to join in more discussions, even speak French to Dupree. During some of the projections on how he would be received on Earth, he surprised the rest with his instant access to historical information. The crew felt he would hold his own to the point of raising a few eyebrows in various governments by challenging their entrenched doctrines.

Carvalho discussed his desire to be at the forefront of whatever the Symbiants were asked or allowed to do. Xiang said that he would see to it if he was retained himself. Carvalho had aspired all his life to his father's dreams, and this was the very first time he had experienced a calling of his own. The journey back from Mars had provided more than enough time for the interest to fade. The reverse had happened and he now realised that these selfless entities were going to need protection from the darker side of human nature.

Dupree had refined his plan a little since the loss of Trois. He had a personal supply of the amorphous form which he would take to Africa and utilise responsibly. The others would be parting company with the Symbiants, but would stay in touch.

********

The Beijing reception was a big event and Koppelt was uneasy because Suliman's admissions were incomplete. His greatest immediate worry was the docking. There were many ways in which this could be compromised and just as many personnel involved with the space elevator from all over the planet who could be in on it. When he recounted the attempts to interfere with the two missions he did get a sense that Suliman's claim of discrediting rather than harming was true. He presented his case for the replication without prior briefing of Rabinowitz. As he expected, it was torpedoed. When he revealed all about the Islamic agenda he was asked for the proof. He informed them that Alex 2 would provide that which involved Redgrave. The corpse and its identity would be verified by DNA and the crew. Both the crew and Alex 2 would confirm his death was suicide as originally planned. The information from Redgrave had eventually led to Suliman who had acknowledged the Dreadnought virus episode.

"We owe it to the civilised world to halt this agenda and this is the only way to achieve it quickly." Rabinowitz had been quite surprised by how much Suliman had apparently surrendered to save his skin. When Koppelt had concluded the official presentation and finally got to his feet he dropped the request of the Iranian into the confusion. "Suliman has volunteered for this procedure, provided everyone in the world is allowed to monitor it from their home. He is not being forced to do this, and it is the only way to avoid interpretive propaganda. The succeeding interviews of the replicant will be in the presence of Suliman, once again for authenticity."

Rabinowitz immediately grasped the significance that this would have for Israel and nodded in accord with Koppelt. Several hours later and without further campaigning from Koppelt the proposal was approved in principle, with the caveat that it was only activated following the decontamination and initial media exposure to Alex 2.

# Chapter 44

The anticipation of this in the media had all but eclipsed focus on the returning crew. Xiang's heroic intervention had restored a modicum of balance. The corpse would shift the epicentre, especially as it looked vaguely like Alex 2. It was not surprising then that the biggest event in human history was being embroidered into a soap opera.

********

From the perspective of the Circle of Restoration, this was particularly unhelpful. Their interventions had been consigned to the recycling bin. The progress on Mars, with the aid of these replicants had filled people with hope. They were temporarily wrong-footed with the abduction of Suliman and the attendant risk of exposure. On top of this, the revelation that we are not alone was corroding the cement of religious faith. Even though this was more contagious in other faiths, there were rumblings within Islamic communities. The relentless hype of counting the days to docking fanned the flames.

There had been an elaborate plan to jam the docking arms and force the crew to be evacuated one at a time by pods. Suliman had lied to Koppelt, but by being out of the loop, the command chain was broken. This was the price of anonymity. It would not happen. They would appreciate this later when the corpse and Alex 2 cast a shadow in their direction. It would also inhibit their long term plans for Israel.

********

Events on Mars had slipped out of the headlines on Earth, but the Darwin crew were experiencing the opposite. With Red, Pascal 2 and Finn taking care of the hard work, the crew were glued to all incoming reports. Rebrov sensed that this was a pivotal moment. Once the media had hijacked the entire story there would be public scrutiny of everything Martian. The forestation phase two was heading to finalisation and the prospect of a huge dome was extremely advantageous in scaling up future colonisation. Not only would more Symbiants achieve this in a much shorter time, but it also provoked the question of whether they could be left to run the colonisation project after Darwin's departure. Extrapolating this logic could mean an earlier return of Darwin than originally planned. The lowering of risk and cost of this was seductive to the bean counters on Earth. He informed the crew that he was ready to test their request for further replications with HQ. The response from Beijing was cagey, yet promising. They would respond to the interesting proposal when the Symbiant aboard Copernicus had been checked out.

********

The docking was about as smooth as Alex 2's predictions. The crew temporarily parted from the Symbiant for decontamination. Alex 2 had a squad of medical experts to contend with. There had been the inevitable scepticism brewing about the claims made by the crew and Dupree in particular. This evaporated quickly and was replaced by head-scratching when their instruments were telling them – 'this cannot be'. In turn, the cardiologists, neurologists and geneticists drew blanks and agreed that this was indeed a non-human entity.

"What is it exactly that confuses you? There have been many discussions with Mr. Cameron here, and the results you have just obtained are simply verification of those dialogues."

There was no challenge; they had subconsciously hung on to the possibility that it was all a hoax. They turned their attention to determination of any risk to human biochemistry. Once more they came up with nothing. Cameron was the first to remove his Hazmat suit. "It is a great pleasure to meet you at last, Alex 2 - I am to be your contact for the duration of the quarantine period."

Cameron was rebuked by the medical team for prematurely risking contamination and was promptly informed that he would have to stay in the unit with the Symbiant. Cameron feigned anger at the pronouncement and sent for some suitable attire and his recorder. He was not going to miss out on the chance to have an exclusive interview with the first alien species known to have visited Earth.

"You are forgetting that there have been red crystals on your planet for billions of years, you just have not found them." This statement alone would spawn efforts to find them and any resulting success would kick-start an industry which would dwarf those of cocaine and heroin. Cameron responsibly annexed Alex 2's declaration but knew it would emerge again.

Over the next days Cameron had the privilege of detailed hints on how human understanding of the 'borders' they had created between Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics were unhelpful. The unifying principles suggested by the Symbiant would be necessary if mankind was to meet the challenges of the millennia ahead.

Cameron was cognizant of the minefield of patent law and Nobel honours which would be impinged by this. He didn't know how humanity would deal with an epidemic of paradigm shifts in quick succession. Nor did he believe human infrastructure would do anything other than complicate matters. What a dilemma. When he brought this to Alex 2's attention, the response was philosophical. "That is for your species to contemplate. I am sure your concerns are valid - your leaders will have to accept they may no longer be the most suitable to oversee these developments. The alternative is to suppress the opportunity and eradicate my species so that you may continue to delude yourselves. I am sure if I am allowed to address some of these issues there will be many who feel they have much to lose by my presence."

Cameron swallowed and took a deep breath. It had suddenly dawned on him that this was just the tip of the iceberg. Also, there would be mandarins who already knew this. The entire system of governing by a minority deciding what is good for the majority was under threat. This was not some uprising of the disenfranchised; it was potentially the collapse of modern politics. It could be more significant than the change from nomadic to agricultural civilisation. His persona had morphed from the beautiful understanding of a concept to the uncontrollable fear of Armageddon. He had to get to Xiang and Koppelt.

Xiang would not be available until quarantine was over. He wanted to speak to him first as Koppelt could be part of the problem. Delaying the media interview of Alex 2 was not an option - the world was waiting. The best they could hope for was input into what he might say.

The corpse was well disguised and remained frozen as were the museum of rocks, crystals and soil. They were to undergo their own quarantine period and retrieved only by the crew to be moved to a specific secure location.

The media village made the Olympic gatherings look like a convention for insurance salesmen. Only remote societies not yet absorbed into taxation based 'altruism' were absent. Beijing was choked as far as transportation was concerned and accommodation was both short in supply and horrendously expensive. The USAr TV and Press were not as reticent as their masters to discuss Islamic perspective on the events about to unfold. They were particularly interested in the new life form's concept of religion or the absence of it.

********

The Copernicus crew left the grey, sterile quarantine unit to meet up with Alex 2, who had been decked out in Beijing uniform normally reserved for seniority. Magnusson promptly convinced him to shed this and dress neutrally. While disrobing he was interrupted by Cameron and Xiang. They asked if his overriding allegiance to the Progenitors allowed for tactical departure from the master plan. They explained that there would be groups of people in high-ranking positions ready to vilify his wish to help humanity and turn it to an agenda of domination. Alex 2 said he had already taken this into account and it was simply part of what would ultimately be considered as unpromising. His point was simply amplified by a question. "Do you believe you are the first species in billions of years with whom we have interacted? Some have gone further, others have degenerated. Your species demonstrated high promise when isolated on Mars. Here there is decay of such promise. If I were to appease your concern by tempering my response to your society I would help sustain that decay. That is no better than the risk of my species being temporarily eradicated; temporary being a few million years. You must trust my experience on this."

This did not allay the fears of Xiang and Cameron. His was a detached view, whereas they were part of the species.

# Chapter 45

The hubbub gradually died down. The restored mediaeval Congressional Palace seemed to be assaulted by the flashing technology it had ingested. Eyal Rabinowitz opened the proceedings by welcoming Alex 2 on behalf of the awaiting billions of humans watching on TV. He referred to the obvious impact his presence had on all humanity and rattled off the appropriate platitudes for such an occasion, and finally asked if he was comfortable in taking questions from the world's journalists.

A Chinese correspondent was first to speak. He said he would ask his question in English then in his native tongue for the benefit of his nation. Before he managed to deliver the query, Alex 2 rose to his feet and said it might be more efficient if he gave a short statement of his own, to provide a background for all to hear, before individual countries addressed their particular interest. He astonished the entire audience worldwide by repeating this suggestion in all major languages of the planet. He had accomplished this learning exercise with the help of Cameron and the internet, during the sleeping quarantine hours of the humans. He moved quickly through the last four billion years to the current scenario.

"What you must grasp is the importance of this moment for your species. Of course the sectarian questions can be considered, but that will only retard the essential progress toward your survival in the longer term. I would like to challenge your individual pursuit of advantage by asking you three questions.

"Firstly, can you see that as long as a consumer-driven existence prevails, you will not be able to achieve the goals you have set yourselves? Colonisation of another planet will only delay the inevitable, if fundamental changes are not made.

"Secondly, are you aware of your dependence on organic metabolism being fatally flawed in prolonging your existence beyond the Nova of your Sun? You must learn to embrace the opportunity of hybrid, then predominantly inorganic structure.

"Thirdly, do you fully realise that your fortuitous discovery of my species gives you an important choice in relation to questions one and two? You have a one-off chance to 'buy a piece of time'. This can only occur with a sentient species.

"Finally I would like to turn your attention to a man of your past who identified a very profound relationship between an entity and its environment. Charles Darwin was able to connect these forces long before the proof offered by genetics and DNA. He could not be expected to foresee the crossroads which now confronts your species. Until now all species have been driven by a need to adapt to the environment via genetic gambling, relative to environment shifts. Technology is presenting you with a conscious decision of adaptation to known future changes. You have already begun to adapt an environment to your needs on Mars to bridge the gap.

"I have had the privilege of listening to repeated statements from those who govern you that you must preserve the planet for your grandchildren. If this is genuine and you really want to ensure that inheritance, you must address the questions I have placed in front of you. I am now prepared for your individual questions."

This succinct, provocative projection stunned the journalists because of the implied scope. It worried the rulers for the same reason. The religious fraternity saw it as a wonderful opportunity to play the 'shocking manipulation of God's design' card. The conspiracy theorists had warned of this agenda all along, supplanting with consent. In answering the last two groups he also answered the questions not asked by the first two.

"I understand that God is very important to many of you. My presence, in a way challenges the claims of such beliefs, but I have no intention of directly interfering with any aspect of your culture, religious or otherwise. I can respond to requests, but there is a limit to that. I cannot lead or drive ideas. I have merely pointed out an alternative theory to those you hold as proven or probable. That is a valid discussion, the kind you have amongst yourselves. Turning to the alien takeover concerns, you can end that in an instant. Just disregard everything I have said and incarcerate me or trigger reversion to my 'harmless' form. I will resist neither. It is a big decision. You have the means of correcting such a choice if later you believe I have given an accurate account of what you are facing. One such realisation may arise from your own studies.

"The most illustrative example is the ant colony. Evolution has conferred the characteristic of every individual sacrificing themselves for the colony. Their limitations are intelligence and physical design. You have the benefits they lack, but not the sacrificial instinct. In fact your obsession with individual human rights is a very dangerous development. A more sinister example for you is the proliferation of viruses. Your development of treatments with a temporary useful life will be defeated by their adaptability. In combating viruses you may reconsider altering yourselves even though it crosses some moral threshold. I hope you are beginning to see that these decisions are yours."

This session was not one of resolution; the most ambitious hope was introspection. It lasted for several hours. A couple of the Copernicus crew - the usual ones - were moved to emotions of intense pride by the way Alex 2, their true friend, was confronting humanity, in its own diverse languages, with its own pernicious apathy to obvious inadequacy.

With an overnight break, the media and hierarchy had time to regroup and came to the session with a modified approach. When the corpse was wheeled on to join Alex 2 and the crew, there was shock and then frenzy. Despite the best attempts to restore order it ultimately required the removal of the body and a statement that it would only reappear if the audience behaved in an acceptable manner. This took fifteen minutes and required regrouping of security personnel. Finally Koppelt walked on and took centre stage.

He introduced himself then pointed to the body. "You all know this man as Alex Redgrave, the original human from whom Alex 2 was replicated. That was however not his real name. He had several aliases – but his real name was Tariq Sunai Behrami. He was born in Cairo. His entry to the mission was based on false documentation. We discovered during the mission that he was a saboteur." There was silence during the description of the various plans which had been thwarted, culminating in his suicide, made to look like murder. The audience could see for themselves the near identical appearance of Alex 2 and the corpse. A question broke the silence. A Romanian journalist asked how they knew that it was suicide. Alex 2 explained that the knowledge he had originally drawn from the replication included the suicide pact. When confronted Redgrave had admitted the plan and convinced the crew he had changed his mind in view of the discovery. He said he intended to remain on Mars. The corpse was replicated before the knowledge degraded. That replicant, or as the crew now prefer Symbiant, was still on Mars. He was called Red. He was able to explain that Redgrave had never intended to abandon his pact.

Koppelt resumed. "We know details of residence and bank accounts associated with his deception." He did not disclose any further data which might convince the Circle of Restoration their cover had been compromised. "We believe the organisation to which he was recruited is likely to be in the Middle East."

The questions flooded to the crew as the journalists in particular felt that Security people only tell what they want you to hear. In their turn, each member of the crew corroborated the evidence on Redgrave while sketching in the remarkable cooperation with the new life form, including life-saving acts.

The session closed with Xiang announcing that there would be a special event the following day. The hierarchy shifted in their seats in recognition of the tumult it would cause. Priority however dictated the exposure of the cult responsible for the sabotage, and this worldwide theatre was very much a uniquely propaganda-free forum.

Suliman was sat dramatically in the centre of a circular audience, wearing a hood. Koppelt informed the watching billions that the extracted information from Tariq Sunai Behrami (Redgrave) had led them to Nigeria, from where the trail had been followed to various places before they had found the hooded man. "I said yesterday we believed the sabotage had originated in the Middle East. That has proved to be correct. In order to obtain precise detail of the organisation and people responsible for these outrages we will replicate this individual. This way we can be absolutely certain of the truth." His omission of the voluntary action of Suliman left the impression that he had refused to help Koppelt. The highly charged atmosphere kicked up a notch when Alex 2 produced a secure container of the amorphous form. The transfer was made before the hood was removed. This time it was delivered as a high dosage directly into the bloodstream to accelerate the process. No name was given but certain people would experience a sharp rise in blood pressure.

Alex 2 outlined what everyone could expect to see in the next two hours. There was no need for alarm or concern for the individual involved. As the replication was progressing, Koppelt filled in the names of all of the people involved in the tortuous investigation leading to this man. "His name is Suliman Ali; he was totally uncooperative, forcing us into this technique, and I'm sure you will appreciate that we had to flush out those responsible for trying to derail what we believed to be an accord from all humanity to alleviate the world's environmental problems."

If this had simply been a speech it would have already been challenged or barracked. The ongoing drama in the form of a large swelling on Suliman's temple ensured the voyeuristic element accommodated the commentary. Koppelt managed to finish his indictment of the USAr just as Suliman's completion was at the stage of a clear humanoid outline to the swelling. The security people had to break up rival camera crews jockeying for the prime filming angles. When the bridge narrowed to a cord Suliman's eyes opened once more and there was a palpable relief amongst the hierarchy. Following the final separation, the arena seemed to hold its breath waiting for some utterance from the replicant. The first unsteady words were in Arabic, igniting cheers from camera crews of the Middle East. Alex 2 intervened via his silent communication and within a few minutes the new arrival greeted the gathering in English, then Arabic. Although Suliman was a little groggy he could not be persuaded to lay back and rest. He addressed the replicant directly in his mother tongue, asking him questions to which he should not know the answers. When the replies were given in amazingly accurate detail, Suliman fainted with the realisation that his twin was going to furnish information which would seriously damage the cult, and the USAr. Before any concern that he had suffered a physical trauma could spread, he was administered a stimulant. The interview could begin.

Koppelt was cautious. He fired questions at the replicant to which he already knew the answers, thus avoiding an embarrassing anti-climax. When he carefully moved to the identification of senior members of the Circle, the replicant did not hesitate to reel off three names. Suliman was utterly disconsolate. These people were not in front line government, yet they had leverage on those who were. They were reclusive, obscenely rich individuals who had financed the campaigns of the elected politicians. Koppelt called upon the USAr to publicly denounce these people and condemn the acts of sabotage upon the colonisation project.

Alex 2 asked if he may say something. Nervously Koppelt gave him the floor. Alex 2 asked the new replicant if all three men were Iranian. This was affirmed. He then went on to say something which many of the on-looking dignitaries found exceptionally naive and inflammatory. Instructions were passed to get him off the podium. This however almost caused a riot. The audience in general had come to appreciate his refreshing neutrality. He continued.

"I would like to repeat that there is a lack of trust between many factions of your species. I can see the sabotage was very unhelpful to humanity's cause and is 'wrong' by the definitions of the majority. However, as the mission was really founded to deliver you from excesses in plundering the planet's resources, you may wish to consider that as correcting a wrong. If I have understood your history correctly, there was a period leading up to the financial crisis of 2008 where irresponsibility was not only tolerated, it was rewarded. Is this not sabotage? It depends surely on your vantage point. Your world realised, rather tardily, that the complication inherited from the replacement of the barter system by promissory notes disguised the flaw – the money did not exist – at least in the time frame required to ease the crisis. A valid question could be levelled at the architects of the system. What happens if you want to abandon the practice and return to barter? That could have been done until the industrial and financial revolutions. It is relatively easy for the beneficiaries of those revolutions and subsequent colonisations to argue it was no longer possible. That is only true if you are inextricably bound to capitalist commercialisation.

"The later refinement, to which I referred two days ago, was the elevation of the consumer to the pinnacle of the pyramid, even if they had to be brainwashed into such 'self-esteem'. It is a seductive prospect because it gives individuals hope. The price of the philosophy, unlike the coveted goods, is only now being realised. The USAr is one of the few states which has considerable material wealth yet clings more to fundamental aspects of life than the other wealthy countries. I am suggesting, no more, that it will be detrimental to the longevity of the species if such states are not part of the solution. It would be ridiculously inaccurate to claim that, in the many conflicts of human against human, much more brutal acts of sabotage were justifiable.

"A line has to be drawn somewhere to galvanise your best efforts, not the dilute variety upon which you have planned the conquest of your solar system. They are noble only in terms of rhetoric while maintaining the status quo of the pecking order. What I have said thus far is only my outsider's interpretation of your chances of success. What I am able to say for certain is that there are forces out there which you will need to harness, if your species is truly looking beyond your own limited horizon. If this is not a goal you need not pay any more attention to me; you can relax and bask in the inevitable glorious failure of your distant grandchildren, knowing you helped map their destiny. I believe I have contributed all that I can to this playground squabble."

# Chapter 46

There was an uneasy atmosphere in the arena. Suliman, by contrast, was uplifted by the declaration. He had a strong urge to have a private conversation with his replicant counterpart, but he knew that would be impossible right now.

As the crowd was dispersing, the hierarchy quickly convened a meeting with Xiang, Koppelt and Alex 2. The Symbiant for the first time hedged over a human request. "Unless you are going to include representatives of all nations I see little point in deflecting the concerns you will confront me with. They are likely to be more steeped than ever in manipulation of separate interests."

Rabinowitz tried to convince Alex 2 that there were undercurrents of anarchy and corruption behind every tree, and he did not understand the full extent of the danger facing the authorities.

"I am differentiating between real setbacks and perceived ones. I think that it will be more difficult for you to convince me that each family having three cars is a necessity. A television in every room, at least three holidays per year because you worked hard for them. These are the kind of things you seek to protect until there is an alternative. You have programmes to address those excesses which shorten the fuse to mass death, but I must conclude your definitions of necessity and wish lists are not credible. You are 'managing' the situation to support your delusion. Food, domestic energy, science (medical and technology) and education would appear to be fundamental. A meritocracy would supply these as efficiently as a consumer society. You never discuss this. Many species, not endowed with your potential, have achieved this. Having the technology to deal with an asteroid impact big enough to cause mass extinction would appear to be a candidate for cooperative investment. Instead, you sponsor competing research at multiple locations. I hope you can see that my input is wasted in an organisation only purporting to be cooperative. I am always available for a unified approach."

This rebuff was not well received by those it addressed. Carvalho, however, was fired up. He asked Alex 2 if the 'forces out there' he had referred to included propulsion technology. When he was told that major breakthrough was possible, he decided that he would not wait for Xiang to recommend him to new research. Alex 2 agreed to assist his replication.

Relations were becoming strained. The hierarchy was dealing with various conflicting strands. They were experiencing slippage of control. Koppelt was in one camp, Xiang in another. The replicants had become a threat because they didn't understand the consequences of unravelling society. Their views of what might be in the millennia ahead were just ideology, without the hands-on detail to achieve it. Xiang had already shown unilateral judgement. They chose the defensive route. It was predictable. Plans were discussed to terminate the replicants. It would have to be done in an honourable fashion. Alex 2 had said he would not resist regression to crystal form if that was deemed necessary. All stocks of the crystal and amorphous forms were to be held in maximum security vaults. This would be sold as 'mothballing the wisdom until humanity had developed the cohesion to utilise it'. What they had not counted on was Dupree's cache and Carvalho's double. They knew they had to deal with the situation on Mars and that Darwin's crew would have seen transmissions of the past days.

When Xiang was informed of his gardening leave, the ripples began to gather pace. He confided in Magnusson and asked him to brief the crew and, through them, Alex 2, as he was being watched. He also requested certain people in the media should be alerted to the possibility of a disinformation campaign. The crew felt that their pioneering mission had been indelibly tarnished by such sleaze. They had already detected signs that they were to be separated and knew they would be under continual surveillance.

Magnusson duly informed Alex 2 and was frustrated at the calmness with which he accepted his planned regression. "Maybe your species will come together in the future and the Continuance will have another chance to help."

"But you could resist this action, I'm sure you have many abilities that you have not yet demonstrated. We can help you." Alex 2 looked at Magnusson and the Swede was sure he could detect sadness in his voice. "My data, or as you call it memory, will not be lost. It is not the way of the Continuance to resist the actions of your species. Illustrating what alternatives exist is the purpose. I have done that. It may not seem so at this time, but that in itself is progress."

Magnusson told him that it was a two way relationship, and that the people who really knew him would surely have passed on by the time humanity was ready to re-engage with the Continuance. This was unacceptable to them.

"The emotion is no different to losing one of your family members because of expiration of their biological system."

"No," said Magnusson, "this is different. The emotion of the event is similar but the premeditation is what will anger most human beings. They may not embrace your encouragement to deliberately begin mutation from organic to 'artificial' intelligence for some time, but they can see past the scaremongering of the establishment. You have more support than you know, my friend. If you won't help yourself then we'll have to do it for you."

Having regained his status, Koppelt set about tracking down the Iranians identified by Suliman's replicant. Real objectivity is very different from its delusional counterpart. Rabinowitz was a perfect example. Being seen to be even-handed was more important than actually fulfilling the criteria. His inherited powers of deduction convinced him that these replicants were going to be perceived by the majority as neutral when they were clearly pro-USAr. Well, at least what they said would seem to align their doctrine to Islamic agenda. The Arabs and Iranians would make mileage out of that possibility. This must then, by deduction, threaten Israel. Any objective person would see that this had to be prevented. Only the method had to be ratified and abuse of power would smooth that path. Although Rabinowitz had strenuously declined Koppelt's previous plea to assist in Iran, it was now his duty. He would get back to Karl.

When Rebrov was informed by Magnusson of the sub-plot he authorised those who had volunteered for replication to go ahead.

The various leaks to the media made it difficult for the hierarchy to implement their own ruling, as they faced the same kind of social meltdown which they accused Alex 2 of fostering. This period of stagnation had to be seized to get the Symbiant out of Beijing. Carvalho's twin, who he had decided to name Dan, was asked to visit Alex 2 masquerading as the original Carvalho. Subsequent instruction was to tear down the confining door and simply brush aside any attempt to restrain their exit. The conversation between them was of course the silent type.

The directive from the hierarchy in the event of any such breakout was to employ any or all means of force to prevent it. The use of bullets and lachrymatory gas to quell the escape only served to strike fear into the guards charged with the task. If Alex 2 could walk through such deterrents unaffected, what the hell could he do if he retaliated instead of protecting Carvalho?

Outside the building was an unmarked car to take them to an open suburban industrial site designated for factory construction. A circling helicopter would follow them and collect them.

All but one of the crew had agreed to apparently pursue their original plans. Dupree had set off for the Sudan. Indira and Natalia were already airborne to San Francisco. Carvalho headed for his native Portugal. Magnusson was to accompany the two escapees to Iran. The transfer from the helicopter to an Iranian merchant ship had been hurriedly arranged through information from Suliman's replicant. The Iranian decision makers felt they had nothing to lose by such a reciprocal 'hostage' situation. The scenario had mutuality as Magnusson felt there was no safer place than the USAr. The hierarchy was not connected there.

The others had divided up Dupree's stock of amorphous form to spread any risk of detection. Xiang was acting out the part of a forlorn, deposed leader and 'retired' to his wife's birthplace in Italy. There would be the usual surveillance for a while.

Magnusson's party was met at the docks in the early hours after sailing its planned route to Abu Dhabi via Beirut. Waiting transport took them on a circuitous overland route, to a humble dwelling in the suburbs of Shiraz. The reception committee was obviously cautious, as it resembled a scene from the run up to the St. Valentine's Day massacre. However, this was gradually dissipated and replaced by an equally cautious pre-dinner interrogation team. The medical expertise came next and finally the representatives of the names extracted from Suliman's cerebrum.

Dinner was welcomed by Magnusson as the only human guest. No names were offered by the Iranian delegation. They recognised both Magnusson and Alex 2 from the Beijing TV coverage and accepted the replicant of Carvalho as part of the great escape.

# Chapter 47

Beijing was in turmoil. They had felt it was a good thing to see the crew broken up and did not interfere with their separate departures. They now thought they knew their problem was distilled down to Magnusson, Carvalho and Alex 2. Somehow in the maelstrom of the breakout, nobody had suspected that Dan was a replicant. Koppelt's intelligence foray into Iran was subordinated to finding the renegades.

********

When the additional replications on Mars were completed, Rebrov requested permission from Beijing for an early return. The justification was glaringly obvious – these Symbiants would progress the terraforming of Mars infinitely quicker and they could bring the new samples from the chasm much sooner. This was another dilemma for the hierarchy but at least they were not importing any more replicants. Permission was eventually granted as they felt this separation of humans and replicants bought time – if they could recapture Alex 2.

The ability of Alex 2 to introduce them in their own language had a settling effect. The representatives thanked him for his support at the Beijing media conference. He responded. "Please do not consider my remarks as favourable consideration. I needed to promote balance in peoples' minds. History is littered with conflict and everyone apparently has God on their side. God must be confused. I wanted to get unanimity on this watershed of human realisation that you are not alone, to be a fresh start for tackling some of the problems and spearheading relevant technology. In this respect I tried to convey that your model of progress has more to recommend it than most of the empowered nations."

There was a brief consultation between the representatives and the spokesman said, "I believe we have a starting point to work with you. We will communicate this to our leader and discuss ways to identify practical initiatives to put before the world. This global conference concept is powerful in reaching as many people as possible at the same time. If the media interest is maintained then we have the mechanics."

He then addressed Magnusson. "Commander, I am guessing you will be the one in sleep deficit. We will furnish you with accommodation and your two friends can watch over you. We would like to meet again in the morning." Magnusson indicated his appreciation and got up to follow them. The spokesman smiled and added, "We will of course have to decide what to do about both Sulimans. Your recommendation would be valuable." The representatives were actually a bridge between front line government officials and Mr. Big.

The media were tiring of the hierarchy's paper-shuffling on the whereabouts of Alex 2. It seemed the world's population was fascinated with him, having witnessed Suliman's live replication. Some of the members of the executive were actually beginning to regret the knee-jerk reaction to have Alex 2 recrystallised. They were beleaguered by internal division. Koppelt added to the headaches when he reported rather belatedly that Carvalho had actually flown to Portugal before he helped Alex 2 break out. Either that was pretty clever or one of them was a replicant. "Wonderful," said Rabinowitz, "we stand to lose public sympathy if we are proven to harass one of the heroes in his native land, and we have no idea where the other one is."

That was about to change. The reconvened meeting with Magnusson and the representatives had agreed to attract selected media for a joint presentation of ideas to address the valid concerns which Alex 2 had expressed in Beijing. It was perceived as a joint response from the USAr to the alleged sabotage, so the appearance of the Commander and two Symbiants would inject spice. Koppelt's efforts to trace the trio were drawing blanks in every direction.

********

With Darwin on the way back, Rebrov muddied the water by disclosing the final tally of completions on Mars. All but one of the crew had undergone double replications, including himself, meaning there were twelve new Symbiants blasting ahead with the colonisation objectives. They had been left the nuclear power units from both missions. The distance between the two planets would increase rapidly soon and Rebrov had gleaned ideas on propulsion technology which he wanted to share with Carvalho as soon as possible after his return. This was important in rendering the orbit-dominated mission timing redundant. The acceleration of new mission planning hinged on this.

********

The hierarchy was already so divided that this produced the need for an emergency meeting; it was scheduled for the next day.

It never took place. The unexpected appearance of the fugitives on multiple world channels was embarrassing but the content fashioned the final straw.

Magnusson was introduced to explain that he was the one who felt it necessary to intervene and take Alex 2 from custody. He emphasised once again that the Symbiant declined resistance to his elimination. He then confessed it saddened him to have to dishonour a chain of command, but felt the world would understand this was a pivotal moment in human history. It was too important to be left in the hands of a small group of people who were more afraid of the difficulties than they were excited about the opportunities. His own code of conduct was less important than what happens next. He made it clear that the USAr had nothing to do with the breakout but had kindly accommodated their plight. They had also acted in the interests of greater involvement of all people in the difficult decisions ahead.

The media were invited to ask questions. Alex 2 delivered his normal calm and convincing replies without dodging the real changes which would have to be debated. Both conservation issues and human adaptability would ultimately impose timescales, whereby even if the right decisions were made they could be too late to avoid extinction. He introduced Dan, explaining that he had followed the wishes of Magnusson to execute the escape. Dan was merely complying with a request. However, prior to this he had exchanged ideas with Daniel Carvalho on developing new propulsion techniques to drastically reduce time and cost of what could become a Mars shuttle. Dan outlined in layman's terms the advantages compared to current technology.

The USAr input was given by recognised government officials and concentrated on harmonisation of objectives. They appreciated the chance to work with Alex 2 and Dan. It didn't matter who understood these technical principles as long as they were not lost to mankind. They urged a reconsideration of how to structure the necessary changes to oversee the programmes which would be acceptable to pursue. They requested, on Magnusson's advice, to have Suliman repatriated, and as a gesture of trust, his replicant would be available to the rest of the world as confirmation they had nothing to hide.

Rabinowitz resigned with immediate effect and there was a clamour for more heads to roll. This duly occurred and a more transparent process of electing a steering executive was forged. It was not only to include countries of modest wealth and infrastructure but experts on the technical side. The intention was to pull away from a political overlay. One of the very first topics for the new body was to legislate on the status of the new life forms; they had really been the catalyst for the shift in thinking, which got humanity beginning to break down obstacles to trust.

By the time Darwin had docked, Indira and Natalia had found their ideal property and both had started new careers. Natalia's new business venture was already flourishing and Indira had been persuaded to become an actress. She had been a frequent guest on TV shows and demonstrated a presence which was marketed ruthlessly. She knew she would tire of the tinsel-town existence but for now it was good. Natalia had eventually revealed her feelings and although not shocked, Indira said she had never considered that side to their relationship. She hoped it was not dependent on such an experiment being successful. Natalia finally felt at ease with herself, and said, "If it doesn't work for you we have the means of replicating you - just joking."

Dupree had replicated in case he fell-foul of African politics. They had made a big difference to a small community and it was truly what he wanted to do.

Carvalho had persuaded Dan to join him and the study of propulsion was yielding major alternatives to be pilot tested. Rebrov would contribute to this.

Magnusson had eventually rejoined his family and felt safe enough to follow his desire for a remote retreat and watch his children grow up.

Xiang had been elected to what was now called the Council for Human Exploration. Its purpose was to straddle the challenges of nurturing Earth back to health, and seeding other worlds with life forms who promote the same respect for those corners of the cosmos.

Alex 2 had not only been elected but bestowed with the position of Symbolic Leader. The accolade was based on his neutrality and the prospect that he would still be there in the millennia ahead, giving continuity, and relating the history first hand. This pivotal point would be confirmed and enshrined as 'A Darwinian Extension – a conscious adaptation of the species'.

This was suggestive of there ultimately being more than one. As with most ideologies, the problems arise when they are put into practice. Alex 2 would undergo a sharp learning curve in this respect. The conservation part would be tricky but nothing in comparison to the resurgence of concern over gradually replacing our 'humanity' by inorganic components. The replacement of a heart to save life would be different to replacement of a brain just for technical advantage. The religious and conspiracy groups would throw in the question of the redundancy of procreation as we know it.

This was also against the backdrop of the future analysis of Redgrave's beautiful aquamarine rocks. They contained answers to questions which had not yet been asked. Finally, big money had already been poured secretly into locating Earth deposits of Scarlet O'Hara.

