Ares 5: The Last Martians

Chapter 8

China National Space Administration
Beijing, China

"Are you sure this is all of it?" Guo Ming asked, scrolling through the information on his computer.
"This was all he sent, sir," Zhu Tao told his boss. "He has had difficulty finding opportunities to send more. His flash drive can only hold so much data, and he has to be careful when he goes to collect it."
"Are they on to him, then?" Guo Ming asked sharply.
"No, not all of them," said Zhu Tao reassuringly. "He thinks Beth Beck has been spying on him, but no one else suspects a thing. No one suspects our primary operative of foul play, though."
"You mean the primary operative who is currently on a spacecraft orbiting Mars with limited and unreliable communication, and currently sharing that space with a crewmate of uncertain condition?" snapped Guo Ming. "There were supposed to be no bodies to bury, only data tracks to cover. Now Su Fa has gone rogue and crashed most of his crew on the surface- unsuccessfully, I might add- and God knows what he's done to his commander. This is ridiculous. We shouldn't even be in this situation."
"It's not an unwelcome side effect," said Zhu Tao. "The American' morale is lower than it has been in some time."
Guo Ming sighed. "Yes, but we were supposed to be in and out, leaving behind no traces that could lead back to us, and now look! Crewmates suspecting foul play and messages in Chinese and- " He broke off suddenly and buried his face in his hands. "This is all falling apart, Tao! It's crumbling to nothing right in our hands!"
Zhu Tao smiled. "Not to worry, sir," he said. "We're not found out yet. We can still turn this around."
Guo Ming looked at him warily. "You have some idea for damage control?" he asked.
"Certainly," Zhu Tao said. "But that is not all I was thinking of. We still have many of the Americans' secrets, and not just of the scientific variety."
Guo Ming sat up straight in his chair and stared intently at Zhu Tao. "This would be another not unwelcome side effect?"
"Of course." Zhu Tao smiled again.
"Hmm," said Guo Ming. "Well, we mustn't waste it. It wouldn't do to not salvage what we can out of this."
"Indeed," said Zhu Tao.

* *

"This is a disaster," Teddy said.
"No shit!" Annie exclaimed. "One minute the Chinese are doing us a favor, the next they're hacking into our files- what the fuck is going on?"
"I actually meant the fact that Harden is still unresponsive, according to Su Fa, and for some reason we are still having trouble maintaining a connection with Hermes, which means that the rest of the crew has to spend an indefinite amount of time on Mars," sighed Teddy. "But yeah, thanks for reminding me." He rubbed his knuckles against his forehead. "What are we going to do?"
"We haven't publicly accused them yet, have we?" asked Venkat.
"No," said Annie. "But most people suspect them anyway. Beth is still pushing for us to go public. I've told her and the others in software engineering to stay on the job while we work out how we should do this."
"Isn't it obvious?" Brendan said angrily, rising from his chair. "We need to retaliate! Nobody messes with my crew! Nobody!"
"Okay, calm down, Brendan," Venkat said wearily. "We need to figure out exactly who did what before we make any moves. Haste won't do us any good."
Brendan resumed his seat and muttered irritably to himself.
"Okay." Teddy sighed. "What do we know so far?"
"Well," said Annie, pulling out a summary, "On Mission Day 124, the scheduled landing day, the MDV's autopilot appeared to turn on of its own accord, and it was going much faster than it was supposed to. We lost its computer shortly before it crashed and we never heard from it again. On the same day, the signal from Hermes began intermittently going in and out, and a large amount of scientific data disappeared from our servers- mostly the newest data, stuff that we'd barely gotten a chance to look at. More recently we've noticed more and more scientific data disappearing, as well as... other things."
"What other things?" asked Venkat warily.
"Things that could possibly threaten national security," she said.
"Fuck," Brendan scowled.
"Fuck," Annie agreed. "We first heard from Osborne in the Ares 5 MAV on Sol 4. They've set up the Hab and everything is under control. They have enough food to last until Sol 45, and that's without rationing. It's Sol 21 now."
"Okay," said Teddy. "So we've got some time to get Hermes back in shape before they run out of food. We don't have time to send them any more. If they have to they can grow crops and eat those; they already have some planted. They're for the experiments, but if it comes to it- "
"Perhaps we're looking at this the wrong way," said Venkat.
"What do you mean?" asked Teddy.
"We keep waiting until we have a steady signal from Hermes before we send them up," Venkat said. "But it hasn't been staying. It's been fighting with us. And on top of that, Harden needs immediate medical attention. Actually, he's probably way past immediate medical attention at this point. And no, Su Fa and some medical supplies don't count. So why don't we let them go up now and worry about technical difficulties later?"
"Are you insane?" Teddy exploded. "Do you know how bad it would look if we lost them? The public- "
"The public is already pissed over us letting Harden stay up there in God knows what condition with virtually no medical attention," interjected Annie. "His wife has been calling us nonstop. She says you're a- well, I won't say. It's too rude to repeat."
The three of them turned as one and stared at her in astonishment.
"What?" she asked. "I do have limits, you know."
"I think we should do it," said Brendan forcefully. "They're my crew, and I call the shots. I say we give them the go-ahead to go up right now."
"Whoa." Teddy threw his hands up. "Slow down there. I still make the final call."
"You're not seriously considering just leaving them there indefinitely?!" Annie exclaimed.
"No, no, of course not," Teddy insisted. He hesitated a moment. "We'll proceed as originally planned and let them leave on Sol 31. We can't rush this."
"We can't not rush this," hissed Brendan. "Harden needs a doctor. Barton's a doctor. What are we waiting for?"
"You're both right," Venkat said. "We can't afford to err on either side. We have to do this right." He rose. "I'm going down to software engineering and telling them to step on it. We need to find the source of this cyberattack and nip it in the bud. Whoever hacked into our files and whoever hijacked the MDV and Hermes are likely to be the same person."
"No shit," muttered Annie.
"I heard that," Venkat said as he left the room.

* *

Thomas Chang angrily slammed his fist against the table. It was no good. Every time he figured out how to get around an obstacle, another one was set in his path.
"Darn that Beth Beck," he muttered to himself. She was just too good at her job. Almost as good as he was. It was infuriating. He wasn't used to meeting opposition on his home turf, especially from a woman.
"Well, that's about to change," he muttered as he opened a new window. He made a few more keystrokes, then leaned back in his chair with satisfaction.
Excellent, he thought. She'll never figure out how to fix that. Nobody beats me at my own game. Nobody.