Fatal Discovery

Chapter 4

Section Four

Mars Base One

0600 Hours

April 9th, 2167

Alyssa woke slowly. She went through her morning ritual and then walked to the mess hall for breakfast before heading to her lab.

The mining crew had left for the drill sight over an hour ago and the first batch of ore was due in less than an hour.

She arrived at the lab door and tapped her security card on the small black pad on the door. A green light flashed, a soft beep came from the speaker and the computer said, Welcome Dr. Anderson, simultaneously. The door slid open and she walked though it.

“Computer, activate all laboratory systems.”

Activating laboratory systems. There was a hum as the systems came online and the lights brightened.

Laboratory systems are online.

“Computer, discontinue all non-emergency auditory notifications.” She smiled. That will take care of you.

A level six security clearance is required to mute auditory notifications.

“Oh that’s very funny guys,” she slapped a folder down on her desk.

“What’s so funny?” Alyssa turned to see Lin walking toward her, the door sliding closed behind her.

Alyssa smiled again, “Someone on the first mission programmed the computer to require a level six security clearance to disable the audio notifications. There are going to drive me crazy."

Lin laughed, “I know what you mean. I’ve already had five notifications since I woke up, all about completely obvious things.”

“I guess those guys were pretty lonely out here,” She stared off in the other direction.

“Are you okay doctor?”

“Lin, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Alyssa?”

“I’m sorry... Alyssa.”

“That’s better. I’ll be fine. I was just about to set up the ore transfer system, could you help me?”

“Of course.”

The two women walked to a large metal sliding door and began entering commands into the computer console beside it. On the other side of the door was a tube that connected the lab to the drill site. The ore that was mined at the dig was placed into a transport pod that was sent through the tube to the lab.

They finished their programing and move on to set up the other computer systems in the lab. It would take the drilling team several more hours to set things up on their end.

* * *

“The first batch should be here in just a few minutes,” Alyssa announced as she moved to her desk and laid out her tools.

Three hours had passed and the other lab technicians had arrived.

"Everyone suit up." All of the scientist put on one of the yellow Haz-Mat suit. Although the suits did restrict movement, they were considerably thiner and easier to move around in than some of the suits Alyssa had seen in museums.

Promptly at 0900, the light on the top of the large door began flashing and the computer spoke, Warning: transport in progress. Please stand clear.

At least it’s a polite computer, thought Alyssa. The walls of the lab were lined with lead to protect against the radiation and lead shielding slid over the all of the glass in the walls. Once the ore was stored in the safety trays, the room had be designed to eradicate the remaining radiation.

The doors slowly and loudly slid open and a large metal pod came out. A large robotic arm came from the ceiling and placed the pod on the floor. The lab crew quickly unloaded the ore samples onto their desks and placed the trays back in the pod.

Once everyone was clear, Alyssa pressed a green button marked “Return.” The computer gave another warning and the arm lifted the pod back into the tube and it was on its way back to the drill site.

Alyssa began running scans on the ore. The part they wanted was a grey-blue colored metal that usually formed in large groups of smaller pieces.

She continued scanning the samples for the better part of an hour without any success. All of the ore from the first load had returned negative results, meaning it was contaminated with too many other metals and minerals to be purified. The loaded was placed in the disposal chute and taken to the landfill.

As the day wore on, more and more loads of ore were delivered and the disposal chute was used again and again.

This was expected of course, because the main deposit that had brought the team here was further down, but Alyssa had expected at least a small amount of pure deutronium.

After going through the half-hour de-radiation cycle, the crew took a break for lunch, returning less than an hour later.

They all suited up again and unloaded the next load. This time they found something.

“Dr. Anderson! I’ve got a green light on this last sample!” A young man looked at her excitedly.

“That’s great!” Alyssa quickly walked over to the man’s desk. His tag identified him as Stephan Crusher. She looked at his scanner readout and confirmed his finding.

“Good good work Mr. Crusher. Make sure you place the positive samples in a labeled tray and dispose of the negative ore.”

“Yes ma’am.”

She returned to her desk a continued working.

* * *

Several days had passed now since Alyssa had arrived on the surface of Mars and there had only been three more positive batches of ore since the first.

Alyssa sat in the mess hall now finishing her ration of dried beef and three carrots from the airponics garden. She brought her comm-band closer to her face, “Anderson to Captain Fletcher.”

Several seconds went by and Fletcher answered, “Captain Fletcher? Since when do you call me Captain?”

She smiled, “Since I need permission from the captain for something.”

“Oh really? And just what might you need permission to do?”

“I’d like to go over to the drill sight and check a few things, I’ll only be there for an hour max.”

“You can go under one condition: you have dinner with me tonight. I’m coming down to do a check on the computer core.”

“Your on. And while your in the computer core, would you mind shutting those annoying audio notifications off, they’re really bugging me.”

“Your not the first to say that. I’ll see what I can do.” Alyssa was about to ask him something, but Fletch interrupted her unspoken words, “I’ve got to go, someone just found something on the long range sensors.”

“What do you mean they found something? It isn’t the Russians is it?” Alyssa dropped her fork, but didn’t even notice.

“Don’t worry, Alyssa, it’s coming from the other direction, it’s probably just a meteor cluster or a sensor glitch. Your safe, trust me.”

She wanted to trust him, but something inside her knew something was going to happen. She didn’t know how or why, she just knew.