Star Fields

Chapter No.13 Futility

Chapter No.13 Futility

Never assume anything.

The next morning, I came on the command deck and sat at the engineering station. "Take us out of orbit and plot a course to Mars," I told Judy.

"Leaving orbit," she said. "We will arrive in orbit around Mars in two hours, fifteen minutes."

Molly came onto the command deck and sat at the navigational station. "Oh, we're moving away from Earth."

"We'll be at Mars in a couple of hours," I told her.

"I hope we find survivors," she said, not sounding very enthusiastic.

"It depends upon how well Mars Colony was developed to be self-sufficient. If they depended upon supplies from Earth it wouldn't bode well for their survival."

"I recall that Mars was undergoing terraforming," she said. "I wonder how far they got with that."

"We'll soon find out, but it would require hundreds of years to achieve a sizable atmosphere and even longer to make it breathable."

"What about the Helios space station?" she asked.

"I don't think that was finished when we departed in the Explorer-1. I doubt there were any people on it before the asteroid collision."

She sighed. "Well, if we don't find people alive on Mars, we'll have to resign to the fact that the human race is gone."

"As much as I hate to say this, maybe this universe is better off that it's gone. This Phoenix project is proof that humans are not worthy to survive."

She stared at me with a serious expression. "Are we worthy to survive?"

"I don't really know the answer to that. All I can say is that we are going to try not to kill anyone or destroy any planets. That might not be easy, but we'll do whatever it takes to not screw things up."

"What if we encounter a belligerent alien species?"

"We'll excuse ourselves and back away. The only time we'll use excessive force is as a last resort to protect this vessel and the sentient beings that are in it."

"I hope we can do that," she said.

"I realize that my declaration sounds grandiose, but I take our situation very seriously. We are basically no longer true biological creatures and therefore have a mandate to protect life no matter what its form. Despite the fact that we have the power to destroy entire planets, we have no right to do so."

"We are in orbit, Jason," Judy said.

Molly immediately began scans of the surface to ascertain if there was still life there.

"It appears that Mars has a decent atmosphere," she said. "I also see surface water. That would require a pressure at least fifty percent of Earth's atmosphere assuming the gravity of Mars is about thirty eight percent of that of Earth. Most of the atmosphere is composed of carbon dioxide with some nitrogen."

"Mars Colony is supposed to have been located near the Medusae Fossae Formation on the Amazonis Planitia. I've never been to Mars, so I don't really know."

"I recall that they used the volcanic dust there to create cement-like structures. It should be easy enough to spot."

After a few minutes, she announced. "I've located it. It's covered by regolith."

"Yes, that's definitely it." I turned to Judy. "We want to go down there. We won't require pressure suits, but we will need oxygen."

"We are ready, Jason."

Molly and I went to the shuttle deck and climbed in to a shuttle piloted by Alice and Ellen. After removing the air from deck and opening the main door, we moved out and quickly plunged down into Mars' atmosphere and flew to a flat location near Mars Colony, which was essentially a large geodesic dome.

We left the shuttle wearing air breather masks and walked over to an arched entrance. A dimmer sun shown in a murky reddish sky, giving everything a crimson cast. We could see some long dormant volcanic vents in the distance.

"How are we going to get in?" I asked, noting a keyboard attached to the side of the door to a pressure chamber.

Alice came forward and punched a code into the keyboard. The door slid open.

"Helps to know the password," I said to Molly with a grin.

She smirked. We entered the pressure lock chamber and the outside door closed. After a few minutes the pressure between the outside and inside was equalized by air from the colony itself. Apparently, the systems still work.

When we got inside, we were able to remove our breathing masks. Molly scanned the environment conditions.

"The oxygen is at 20.1 %. Pressure is 705 millibars. Temperature is 20 C."

"I assume that they keep the pressure in here close to the outside pressure."

"That would make sense," she said.

Molly continued her scan. "I'm not detecting any life forms."

"That's not surprising."

We continued walking into the colony and began checking small igloo Styrofoam structures for any sign of people. They were all empty except for one at the back of the colony.

We found a desiccated female corpse lying fully clothed on a cot.

"Apparently, she died in her bed," I said.

Molly picked up a tablet with writing on it. "This is her last testament. She says that all of the people died from old age and that she was the last one to die."

"That sucks," I said. "No one remained to bury her."

"She talks about the destruction on Earth and how they never received any shipments. They had to rely on what food they could grow in hydroponic gardens."

"It's too bad. It appears that they had made progress in terraforming Mars, but now it's for not. We may as well go back to the ship. There's nothing here of interest."

"Shouldn't we bury her?" Molly asked.

"You're right. We'll do our duty. It's the least we could do."

We dug a shallow grave near her pod and placed her in it.

"Lord," I said. "Please welcome your child into your loving care. She obeyed the call to honor the dead and deserves eternal life."

"Amen," Molly added.

After a few moments of silence we left the colony and returned to the ship.

"We'll remain in orbit for a few days to make sure there are no survivors," I said after sitting at my engineering station.

"Where else could we look for survivors?" Molly asked.

"The only place left is the Helios Station. It's supposed to be parked in an Earth-Sun Lagrangian L1 point. I was under the impression that it was not yet completed before we left on our mission."

"We have to check it out," she said. "Maybe they had a work crew living on it."

"Yes, that's a possibility."

We found no other signs of life on Mars, and it left us with an empty feeling.