Ares 5: The Last Martians

Chapter 10

Mission Day 155, Ares 5
Sol 31 on Mars

Su Fa cursed as he typed away at the computer. It seemed that he has done irreparable damage to the onboard navigation system. In retrospect, he should have seen it coming. He had sought to disrupt communication with Earth, which in addition to NASA being unable to contact him meant that Mission Control couldn't take control of the ship and send him home, so if he accidentally fucked something up when scrambling the ship's computers for this purpose, he couldn't plot and execute the course himself to get home.
His original plan had been to crash the entire crew on the surface, then make his way home while deliberate disrupting communication with NASA so that they would attribute the ship's homeward course to a technical difficulty that caused it to start on its preprogrammed homeward trajectory earlier than scheduled.
But Harden had interfered with his plan. He hadn't played by the rules. He should've been in the MDV with the rest of the crew. When he showed up and confronted Su Fa, he'd forced his hand. He had no choice but to start the MDV on its downward trajectory and confront Harden mano a mano. Su Fa had managed to subdue him, but it was a long, hard fight. He'd left Harden bruised and bleeding in his quarters and locked the door for good measure. He was long dead. Su Fa now had a more important concern on his hands, and that was having enough food to survive long enough to fix the ship and return home.  Since he was just one person instead of six, he wouldn't have a problem until-
He heard footsteps behind him. He didn't turn around right away, dumbfounded as he was by the unexpected sound. Then he heard a voice.
"Why, Su Fa?"
Su Fa slowly turned around. There stood Harden, his clothes stained with dried blood. He swayed slightly where he stood. "How did you survive?"
"Took an aspirin from the medical supplies and moved some food to my quarters while you were sleeping. I rearranged what was left so you wouldn't notice."
"Why didn't you kill me while I was sleeping also? Or try to poison my food?"
"I was too weak to think straight. Regardless, it wouldn't have been honorable."
"Honorable!" Su Fa scoffed. "What is it with you and your honor?"
"I doubt someone like you would understand," scowled Harden, "but in a civilized society, we don't stab each other in the back."
Su Fa laughed. "Ah, so I'm uncivilized now! Won't you Americans learn to be tolerant of other cultures?"
"No culture should tolerate treason," said Harden forcefully. "And that's what you have committed. If you were military, you would be court-martialed."
"Don't be so serious," Su Fa smiled. "You should learn to relax. Perhaps with some morphine. You could use a large dose..."
As he was speaking, he slowly moved toward the shelf where the medical supplies were kept. Harden moved to intercept him, but before he could, a loud ping came from the computer, indicating a message.
They both froze and stared at the screen. Then, as one, they moved toward the computer. Su Fa reached out with one hand and opened the message.
It was short and to the point.

Communications systems up and running. Cannot be disabled from Hermes. Will not be disabled from Mission Control. MAV launch in six hours. Prepare for intercept. -Beth.

"What?" Su Fa growled. "What MAV launch? What happened to Thomas? And who the bloody hell is Beth?"
"It must be Beth Johanss- er, Beck," Harden said excitedly. "She's fixed the ship. The crew survived. We're going home!"
His joy at discovering the crew was alive was such that he did not get his guard up in time. Su Fa jumped and pinned him against the floor. Harden's weakness was still such that he could just barely resist. He has enough wits left to attempt to distract his opponent.
"You still haven't answered my question," he gasped. "Why are you doing this?"
"Simple," Su Fa said. "China could have been a leader in space exploration and interplanetary science. But we gave that up just to save one man. And an American! It was a waste. You do not accept our help and proceed to do science we should have done. Make discoveries we should have made! You do not deserve the honor!"
"But why derail your own mission?" hissed Harden. "You put yourself in danger as well as the rest of us!"
"It was a necessary risk. And this was never my mission. I was what CNSA traded in exchange for helping the Americans. I refused to help you yet again and humiliate China even further."
"How was China humiliated?" retorted Harden. "You did something altruistic for virtually nothing in return! Do you know how much negative opinion of China has decreased in the U.S.? Cooperation has become so much easier now that some trust has been established between us!"
"Cooperation! Trust! What are those things? Useless niceties that hold us back. China would long ago have surpassed the U.S. in space exploration if it weren't for those petty little things!"
"Petty?" snarled Harden. "I was against having anything to do with the Chinese before, you know. I thought they couldn't be trusted to be open about their plans. But after the Taiyang Shen, I started to think differently. I thought that maybe it was possible to trust you. That we could work together instead of against each other. What changed? Was it your intention all along to betray us? Was even the Taiyang Shen a ploy?"
"No, no, of course not!" said Su Fa. "It was indeed altruistic of Zhu Tao to have that idea and for Guo Ming to approve of it. But they began to regret their altruism for the reasons I already described; China gave up what could have been a profound contribution to scientific research and turned it into a resupply mission for someone else's astronauts. They intended for me to simply spy on you and give them scientific secrets of yours to pass of as China's, and for that purpose we employed my cousin Thomas, who works in software engineering at NASA. But Thomas and I felt that that wasn't enough. America needed to pay for what they had cost us; they needed to be punished. You think you're so wonderful, that no other country could possibly match- "
He was suddenly interrupted by a quick and violent right hook from Harden. As with every evil villain since the beginning of time, his evil monologue was his downfall. He passed out cold.
Harden slowly rose to his feet, breathing heavily. He looked back at the message Beth had sent.  He had six hours until he would see his crewmates again. In the meantime, he had better tell Beth what happened so Mission Control could take the necessary steps. He sat down and composed a reply.

       *        *

The landbound crew of Ares 5 began preparations to shut down the Hab and head to the MAV to await launch instructions. Osborne sat down at the computer and checked for messages one last time.

Harden: Crew, I'm sorry to have caused you distress. Su Fa caused the MDV to start on its preprogrammed descent faster and sooner that it was supposed to, and his cousin hacked into NASA's files and seems to have run away, according to Beth. Su Fa and I fought, but I eventually overcame him. I tied him up with his sheets, gave him a couple sleeping pills, and locked him in his quarters. NASA wants us to keep him subdued until we get back to Earth so he can be put on trial. They're already working on trying to extradite his cousin, which will be done once China admits they have him. Su Fa explained the entire plot to me, and I will do the same for you once you are aboard. I look forward to seeing you all again.

Osborne stared at the screen in disbelief. He was alive! Harden was alive! And unhurt, seemingly. And it seemed like everything was getting under control. The others had been right to be suspicious after all.
"Guys!!" he hollered. "Harden's alive! And Sofa's a traitor!"
"I knew it!" exclaimed Barrand. "Wait, what was the first part?"
"How is he?" Barton rushed over and looked at the screen. "What?" she said irritably. "There's nothing here about his physical condition. Trust a pilot to think nothing of what others think of his safety."
"Will you relax?" said Watson. "This looks like the best-case scenario. Harden's okay and everything else is under control. We can finally go home."
"Yeah, home." Osborne smiled. "Alright, let's pack up and head to the MAV."
The crew did as he bid them. Before leaving, he sent a quick message to Harden confirming he received his message. They would talk more in the MAV while they were awaiting launch. They would talk even more once they were aboard Hermes. There was certainly a lot they had to say to each other.