(42) Day 24 1230 Director outlines the Production Plan
The Sergeant walked into the Director’s office. “30 ounces,” he said.
The Director punched the number into an app she’d written for the ‘business’. “That will provide about 90 samples to potential distributors. Sufficient for now,” she said.
The Sergeant paused. His experience extracting the blood had caused a question he’d been pondering to raise itself to the surface. “Director, I’m not sure how this project scales,” he said hesitantly.
“Good question,” she said briskly. “I was concerned about the same issue. We simply cannot produce sufficient quantities to make the business viable. Fortunately, I found a solution that both enables us to scale and develop a brand. Instead of providing blood replacement directly, our product will serve as an input for personalized synthetic blood supplement production. Right now the blood sources for synthetic blood production are all universalized – they have been optimized for performing the function of blood, but there are no differentiators – everyone has access to the same blood base from which the individual blood products are made. Of course, for people with more money than sense, this is unattractive. What we are doing is adding the potential to brand the blood substrate itself, and provide a differentiator in the blood industry. In other words, we are bringing fashion into the blood market and thus creating new niche markets in a homogenized, commoditized industry.”
“But is our blood actually better?” the Sergeant asked.
“How should I know?” the Director snapped. “But it doesn’t matter – we are not selling blood, we are selling a fashion based differentiator. As long as people believe it is better and pay for it that is all that matters. By using our blood to create a synthetic batch which they then use to ‘cleanse’ their systems before ingesting the latest and greatest new drug, we become an indispensible ingredient in the drug experience of a small segment of the population with massive disposable income – we are in effect transforming blood into a luxury product.”
“And with any luck we can expand into the organic health market,” added the Sergeant.
“Yeah, possibly,” said the Director, realizing it was actually a brilliant idea, but since she hadn’t thought of it herself, acting unenthusiastic. “So our current low supply is not a major problem. What is a potential problem is if our friend Dirk dies before we can get this going – it depends on his young blood. Once established we can probably substitute other blood from Mars – baby’s blood would be fantastic!”
“Oh yeah, we could charge a premium for that,” the Sergeant smiled.
(43) Day 25 1830 Yakisoba and Mushubi
Dirk slept the rest of the day and through most of the next night – his all nighter plus giving blood wiped him out completely. His dad had awakened him at dinner time.
“Dad,” Dirk had said, “I don’t see why they needed blood from me.”
His dad, with an effort, kept himself calm. “You are right, Dirk, they shouldn’t have done that. I was asleep and didn’t hear your call/text – I had the phone on silent. I’m sorry I wasn’t there – I feel terrible about it.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“I know, but I should have been there. I’ve made a formal complaint to the Company. This was an abuse of power, a violation of your rights.”
“It wasn’t that big a deal,” Dirk said, hoping to avoid a hassle.
“It was a huge deal, but you don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it. This is part of a broader offensive on the part of the Director to illegitimately expand her power. Fortunately, we are not without friends back on Earth. But, here, eat this, get your strength back, and leave it to me. Though if they summon you to City Hall again tell them you won’t go until I’m with you. Stay here until I arrive. Send Radius to get me.”
“Ok, Dad,” Dirk said. He had not felt hungry, but now that the yakisoba and mushubi were in front of him he realized he was ravenous. Dirk ate quickly, drank almost half a gallon of reconstituted orange juice, and went back to sleep. Surprisingly, after drinking so much, his bladder didn’t awaken him until 0630 – losing a liter a blood has that effect.
(44) Day 26 1400 Dirk shows Mandy the pictures
Dirk knocked softly on the door to Tom’s house, the Book in his hand. Quiet entrances were the rule, since he never knew when T2 might be napping. T2 seemed to nap a lot.
After a minute Mandy opened the door.
“Hi Dirk!” she said in a low voice. “Come on in.”
Dirk closed the airlock door behind him. Mandy nodded her head in the direction of the couch where Tom and T2 were napping. T2 was sleeping on top of his dad. Dirk had to stifle a laugh when he realized that they were both drooling.
Mandy rolled her eyes and said, “Yep, those are my boys. Come into the kitchen. What’s up? Were you looking for a climbing contest?”
Dirk sat down at the kitchen table. “Actually, I’m here to see you,” he said.
“Great!” said Mandy. “What can I do for you?”
Dirk paused. “Um, I took a picture of something when I was out at Tharsis Minutus and I’d like to you take a look at it.”
“Ok, what’s it of?” Mandy asked.
“If you don’t mind, I don’t want to say so that I avoid prejudicing your opinion one way or another,” Dirk said.
“Sure. Do you want something to eat first?”
“No, thanks,” said Dirk. “But I would like some water, if that is ok.” He still felt a little dehydrated, or maybe thinking about the cave recalled the thirst he’d experienced then.
“Have all you want,” Mandy said. He’d been there enough to know his way around the kitchen.
Dirk sat down again with the water and unlocked the Book. “Here are the pictures. I took a few.”
He slid the Book across the table to her. She picked it up and looked closely for a minute before starting to pinch and flick to zoom in and out. Mandy looked up at Dirk through her hair as she pored over the images, and almost said something before shaking her head and returning to the image examination.
“Which one do you think is the best?” she asked, pushing the Book back over to Dirk. He flipped through quickly, selecting the second to last.
“This one. I used the flash.” He had a feeling she knew what he wanted her to see, but she wasn’t ready to explicitly acknowledge the possibility that had occupied the forefront of his mind for the past day – well, when he wasn’t dying of thirst, having his blood stolen or passing out from exhaustion.
Mandy pushed the Book back across the table to him and sat back in her chair. “I think I see what you wanted to show me. It looks organic in origin. My first thought was a snake, but the little dots on the sides look like footprints, so maybe it is a lizard sort of creature.”
Dirk had to fight to keep a smile from breaking out on his face. He didn’t want to show how excited he was.
“However,” she said, sensing his excitement, “I can’t say for sure from those pictures. That is why I asked you which one you thought was the best. I’d like to, but the stories of misidentification because people saw what they wanted to see are legion, and I’m sure you don’t want me to be mistaken either.”
Disappointed, Dirk asked, “What should we do now?”
Mandy thought for a moment. “If you don’t also have a video of our little Martian buddy standing up and saying ‘Hello!’ then additional pictures, with something to provide precise scale, are required. I’ve actually thought a lot about this.”
She stood up. “I have some cameras and flashes you can take. More importantly than the cameras, I included graduated rulers you can place against the tracks so I can derive scale data and do locomotion modeling to get a better idea of whether or not the tracings (we can’t call them tracks yet) are the result of animal movement or some coincidence arising out of a rock rolling around. Humans tend to see what we want to see, as you know and demonstrated when you didn’t tell me you had taken
pictures of tracks – smart.”
Dirk smiled – it took a little of the sting out of the disappointment caused by her inability to see without doubt what he’d found.
“When can you go back?” Mandy asked. “But first, before you answer, have you shown anyone else?”
“I showed my Dad, but he didn’t notice anything about them. He had been up all night…”
“Why?” Mandy interrupted.
“A sandstorm forced me to spend the night in a cave at Tharsis Minutus. That is where I took the pictures.”
“Fascinating! So why was he up all night?”
“Waiting for me to get home,” Dirk explained.
“Oh, of course! I’m glad T2 isn’t old enough to wander around by himself yet,” Mandy said.
“When can you go back then?” she asked.
Dirk thought a moment. “The Sergeant said non-work related excursions were forbidden due to safety considerations. I haven’t talked to my Dad about it yet, but I think he will disagree. On the other hand, I don’t think he’ll want me wandering around by myself again anytime soon.”
“I can go with you!” Mandy said. “That solves everything. I’m trained in sample collection and analysis - I didn’t get my doctorate in exobiology for nothing after all.”
Dirk hesitated. “Um, it was not an easy climb to get up there, into the caldera actually…” He didn’t want to offend her, but wasn’t sure she could do it.
Mandy laughed. “My Mom status doesn’t entail I can’t climb.”
“Yeah,” said a voice from the living room – “She’s a better climber than I am,” Tom said. T2 sat on his dad’s chest, looking hungry. Tom brought him into the kitchen and sat at the table. Mandy put some cereal in a bowl. T2 grabbed pieces with his little paw and mushed them into his mouth, smiling at Dirk.
“What have you two been discussing?” Tom asked.
Mandy looked at Dirk and raised her eyebrows interrogatively. Dirk nodded “Yes.”
“Dirk may have made the find of the century. He took some pictures during his overnight adventure of what looks like tracks from some living organism.”
“I’ve got to see this!” Tom said excitedly. Dirk handed him the Book and scrolled to the best picture. T2, like his dad, looked intently at the image.
“Hummmm. I think I see what you are talking about, but I’m not sure,” Tom said.
“You’re right, and that is the problem. It is not Dirk’s fault, but it simply isn’t definitive evidence. Better imagery is essential,” Mandy said.
Tom stood up, clearly excited - T2 under his arm he began pacing around the kitchen. “This could be huge, but we must be very careful and be sure of ourselves, well, actually Mandy requires definitive evidence before I think we share even our suspicions with anyone else. What do you think Dirk?”
Dirk thought a moment while he took a long drink of water. “I think you’re right – I wouldn’t want to overreact to a pebble caught in a cave bound dust devil.”
“We’ll have to think about the composition of the next survey team,” Tom said, “With T2 and all.”
Mandy nodded, not entirely agreeing but not wanting to get into the nitty gritty of the argument at the moment.
“In any case,” she said, “I can show Dirk how to set up the cameras, flashes and scale so that when we do get a chance to go we are ready to collect evidence immediately.”
“Sounds good,” said Tom. “Are you ready to serve as a Martian wee beastie model?” he asked T2.
T2 wiggled happily.
“He is a real Martian after all,” said Dirk. “He was born here, right?”
“Yes sir!” said Tom. “We had the first Martian baby – or thought we did.” He gave T2 a big hug. “The originals may be running around that cave of yours!”
(45) Day 27 0925 Fuel Transfer and a Muncher
The Book lay on the floor of the garage next to Dirk’s head, a schematic of the fuel system displayed on its screen as he was elbow deep in the guts of the Crane that landed the day before. The day of its landing had been especially calm – no wind at the surface (the troposphere) the jet stream in the mesosphere was especially slow, and the exosphere was minimally turbulent. This added up to a prize of sorts as far as Dirk was concerned.
“Radius, could you hand me that socket set please,” Dirk said.
“Certainly,” said Radius, walking over to the workbench, grabbing the set and taking it over to Dirk while simultaneously examining internally the same schematic Dirk was reading on the Book.
“What are you doing Dirk?” Radius asked. “The functionality of that Crane no longer matters – it has served its purpose.”
“Hold on,” Dirk said. “I can’t do this and talk at the same time – I lack your super parallel processors.”
After a few minutes, Dirk inched out from under the Crane, picked up the Book, and stretched, doing some good mornings, trunk twists and air squats.
“I’m glad the hard part is done. The rest should be easy.” Radius watched as Dirk pushed the Crane he was working on next to a Crane he had almost completely dismantled, removing the rocket engines and control system components, leaving only the fuel system. On the opposite side of the dismantled Crane, Dirk rolled a Crane that had arrived earlier in the week.
“Ok, now attach the fuel lines…” Dirk said more to himself than Radius as he took the inlet line from the pump on the center Crane and attached it to the line issuing from the fuel system of the recently arrived Crane. He attached the pump outlet line to the intake of the third Crane’s fuel system.
“You are refueling the used Crane!” Radius exclaimed.
Dirk gave him a big smile. “Indeed I am. I figured these things are basically junk now, but all of them, to a greater or lesser degree, have fuel in them. They always fill the tanks, even though it is expensive, so that the Cranes can navigate through the atmosphere. They try to avoid windy days, but two reasons make the extra fuel necessary. First, the weather satellite’s coverage is not that great, (as I well know having been stranded overnight by a sandstorm). Second, even though it is ten times less massive than Earth, it is still a big dynamic planet and the reserve fuel may be required to avoid a crash onto the City. As a result, almost all the Cranes contain fuel in the tanks when they get to us. Even though no single Crane has enough fuel to go very far, if I collect the fuel from several Cranes and load it into one, I’ll have Cranes that I can use to do other things.”
“Like drive around having fun,” Radius said.
“Precisely!” said Dirk.
“Hey, Dirk! Hey, Radius.”
“Sounds like Tom,” said Dirk.
“It is,” said Radius.
Dirk ran out of the garage and waved at Tom who was walking toward the Control Tower. “Tom! We’re over here.”
Tom jogged over. “Hey, I’m glad I found you guys. You want to help me turn a Muncher around?”
Dirk looked at Radius. Radius shrugged.
“Sure,” Dirk said, “What’s a Muncher?”
“I’ll explain as we walk – very quickly. Grab some water and let’s go.”
Dirk went back to the garage, grabbed his backpack with the water and ran to catch up to Tom and Radius who were already striding back toward the City.
After a few minutes, Tom veered left off the path. “We’ll cut across country to intercept the Muncher,” said Tom.
“And Munchers are…” asked Dirk.
“Munchers are a nickname for the Martian Surface Carbonite Recycler/Aearators. Your Grandfather, I believe, actually designed them. They are the primary soil developers on the planet. In a way, they are the core processors at the heart of the terraforming project.”
Dirk was surprised. He’d known his grandfather was an engineer, but didn’t know he had done anything with terraforming. “So they are mechanical earthworms?” Dirk said.
Tom laughed. “Yeah, earthworms that eat through solid rock and through you if they get a chanc
e.”
“Why haven’t I heard of these before?” Dirk asked.
“They were landed here about 70 years ago (they unrolled like rolly pollies, those crustacean like bugs) and began their work. The Munchers (it didn’t make sense to call Martian terraformers ‘Earthworms’) did the work that on Earth is done by tectonic movement. Mars is tectonically inert, so it is unable to recycle the carbon dioxide and other gases that were precipitated by the weather into carbonate rock. As a result, the Martian atmosphere gradually became less and less hospitable to life, at least as we know it, and from looking around, as Mars might have known it too. On Earth the tectonic motion of the Earth’s crust recycles gases caught in the rock, keeping the system moving.”
“So earthquakes are the Earth crewing and exhaling,” Dirk said.
“Yeah that is one way to look at it. And violently burping,” Tom agreed. “But Mars is tectonically static, as far as we know, so it needed a little help.”
Dirk noticed a dust cloud up ahead to the west of the City. “Is that the Muncher?” he asked Tom.
“Good eye! Yes that is it.”
“Why is it here, and why are we chasing after it?” Dirk asked.
“It’s not supposed to be here,” Tom said. “They were dropped off in the Northern hemisphere, each group in a large crater. The idea was that they would be able to get to the nitrogen and water bearing soil more readily if they had a head start provided by an earlier meteoric impact. They were placed in the Northern hemisphere lowlands so the City, located on the equatorial highland, would be safe from them.”
Dirk still didn’t understand, but held his questions for moment while he followed Tom who had broken into a jog on an intercept course, not directly toward, the Muncher.
Tom continued: “The Munchers pulverize and mix the rock with a superfine water mist in order to moisten and aerate the soil. This complete, the Munchers add the ‘secret sauce’. As they munch through the rock they periodically release lichen spores from compressed air powered bladders. Although they are now less efficient, since they are mostly out of water, there is enough water in the atmosphere now to enable the spores to grow. The spores eat methane and secrete oxygen, nitrogen and trace amounts of argon. It is a result of their efforts that we can breath as well as we can. Even 50 years ago we would have had to wear respirators.”
“So they are the reason for the ‘carpet’?” Dirk asked.
“Yes,” Tom answered, “They spread the spores and started the lichen growing. The ‘carpet’ produced is now self sustaining on a planetary level. If all goes as planned, this lichen will eventually cause its own extinction – when the ratio of carbon dioxide gets to below 20% they will be unable to metabolize the methane, water and carbon dioxide into useful nutrients. But what is bad news for them will be good news for us, because it will mean that the atmosphere is functionally similar to Earth.”
Dirk could discern the Muncher through the dust cloud by now. It did look like an earthworm, albeit one with a huge mouth in front. It appeared to be eating the ground, each bite causing it to move forward a bit in a hunching motion. It only disturbed the soil a little bit, it seemed to Dirk – hardly worth the effort.”
“It isn’t having much of an effect, is it?” he said to Tom.
“No, not in this area. It is not designed to operate here. We are on a high plateau, with very little water and very little loose topsoil. This was intentional – if we were in the lowlands we’d be up to our knees in a watery muck. Mars was covered with what we’d call permafrost on Earth, like in Siberia and northern Alaska. Thanks to the Munchers and asteroid and comet harvesting, we’ve been able to increase the surface temperature leading to melting of the permafrost. It still freezes during the winter on much of the planet, but the area in which it remains liquid, and thus more useful for biologics, grows all the time.”
“How does the Muncher work?” asked Dirk.
“It is a product of earthworm bioemulation resulting in a mechanical combination of hydraulics and fuel cells. The hydraulics provide the crushing power of the jaws and a fuel cell absorbs about 40% of methane and water vapor released by the crunching and uses it for fuel. They were designed to work in groups, following each other’s trails with a simple eye at the top of the forward jaw. Even though each bite is very small on its own, cumulatively they can dig significant trenches. In some areas of the Northern hemisphere they have become so deep as to create the canals Mars was once famous for, though now they are filled with the lichen.”
“So what are we doing here?” Dirk asked.
“Preventing this puppy from eating the City!” Tom said.
“How are we going to do that?”
“We have to push it to turn it around.” Tom stopped. He analyzed the Muncher as it approached their position.
“They were designed to be inexpensive, easy to produce, and requiring no maintenance. Therefore, they don’t have a guidance system. Once they unrolled upon arrival they started munching away. Whatever direction they pointed when they opened up is the direction they went,” Tom explained.
“What happened if they hit a wall or went over a cliff?” Dirk asked.
“If they hit a slope too steep to climb or a crater wall they either eat away at it or bounce against it until they eventually turn enough to go parallel to the wall. Sometimes they will bounce off and carry on – other times they will get stuck, and eat themselves into a hole.”
“Then how do they pose a danger to the City?” Dirk inquired.
“Even though they were never supposed to reach the City, and we are thousands of miles away – uphill!” Tom explained, “they are so effectively engineered that every once in a while, doing their random walk, they get themselves into a position that poses a threat to the City. They send out a very weak Wi-Fi signal, and once they get within the City’s WiMAX network range an alert is generated. I’m then notified and deal with it.”
“How many times has this happened?” Dirk asked.
“This is only the third time, and I’m glad I have you here to help me. These things are tricky to turn, especially 180 degrees. The other two took me about an hour each to get retargeted – I was sweating like a pig when I was done, and it was winter! Moving them is like trying to push a moving sled up a hill. Oh, yeah, and a sled that has the potential to crush your limbs to a pulp.”
“It’s getting close,” Dirk said.
Tom took a deep breath. “Let’s get him! We’ll both push on the starboard quarter, shifting his head to the west. I’ll count ‘One, two, three.’ As we push, you count ‘One, two, three’ and then we walk past his tail and revaluate. I think with two of us it won’t take long to get him turned 180 degrees. Our goal is to send him back down his own path.”
Dirk took a drink of water. “Ready when you are,” he said.
Tom paused for a drink of his own. “Ok, let’s do it.”
Radius interrupted. “What should I do?” asked Radius.
“Radius my friend, you are here to help carry the injured – hopefully that won’t happen.”
“Roger,” said Radius.
“So Radius if you would please get at least ten yards away – we might push him in your direction inadvertently. Tell us when we are 45 degrees off from his original track.”
“Ok,” Radius said, and walked away.
“Now, Dirk, this might take us a little bit of practice to get right. Sometimes these guys skid more than expected. Of course, I’ve only done it a couple of times, so I really don’t have a great handle on wrangling these puppies. Keep your head on a swivel and be ready to move. If he is coming right at you jump onto his back – that is safer than attempting to run and slipping.”
“Jumping on his back doesn’t sound too safe either,” Dirk replied.
Tom laughed, “Yeah, I guess not. Let’s push this guy and send him back to the lowlands to make some more air for us.”
They walked up to the Muncher’s right side, two-thirds down
his length, Dirk closest to the tip of his tail. Tom gave him a nod and said, “One, two, three!”
They began pushing, and Dirk forgot for a second to count. “One two three!” he yelled and then walked away from the Muncher down the line defined by his tail.
After ten yards Tom stopped and turned. “Looks pretty good - ten degrees of turn. Do you want to push longer this time?”
Dirk considered a moment. It had been exactly as Tom said, like pushing a sled during a competition, the weight skidding in front. If he leaned into it at a steeper angle, and drove with his legs, he could easily move it further. “Sure,” said Dirk.
“In order to ensure that we don’t push him away from us so quickly that we slip, let’s add 2 to the count. Go to “Five’ this time,” Tom said.
“Sounds good,” said Dirk after taking a sip of water.
“One, two, three.” Tom yelled once they were in position.
As soon as his hands hit the Muncher Dirk started his count. “One, two, three, four, five” and they walked aft of the Muncher and turned around.
“Nice,” said Tom, after rinsing his mouth out and spitting. “I ate a bunch of dust that time. I think we are at about 45 degrees now. Only 135 degrees to go. I think ‘Five’ was good. Let’s do that again.”
Dirk rinsed, spit, and clapped his hands – “Ready!”
They approached the Muncher and repeated the process two more times.
“We’re almost there,” said Tom. “I think two will do it this time. Radius, how do we look?”
“I concur,” said Radius. “Unless you guys are tired, and thus don’t push as hard, two will suffice to push the Muncher back onto his original track.”
“Why not leave him here?” Dirk asked. “He is slightly to the West of his track now, heading away from the City.”
“That is a good idea, but I want to take advantage of the track following capability in order to increase our certainity that he won’t get shifted by a big rock or a crater and spin back around toward the City. If his path led him here he should be able to follow it back where he came from.”
“One, two, three” counted Tom.
“One, two!” said Dirk pushing hard, and walked aft.
“What do you think Radius?” Dirk yelled.
“You are appropriately aligned,” said Radius. “He’s heading along his original track.”
“Nice work, and thanks,” said Tom. “That took us 15 minutes of pushing – much better than the hour it took me by myself.”
“Glad I could help,” Dirk said. “Great workout – my legs are burning!”
“Mine too,” said Tom. “Let’s go home. Thanks for the backup Radius.”
“Your welcome,” Radius said, still watching the Muncher to determine if final adjustments were required – it seemed on a satisfactory course so he turned and followed the guys back to the City.
Dirk was a little nervous about getting in trouble for having left the City and gone somewhere other than the Crane Farm. However, after showering at home and going back over to Tom’s for lunch he stopped worrying. “The Sergeant would have slammed me by now,” he thought.
(46) Day 28 0800 Surveying a Justification for returning to the Cave
The Muncher incident had been a distraction. After breakfast the next morning, as he walked to the Crane Farm, Dirk couldn’t stop thinking about getting back to Tharsis Minutus, this time with Mandy’s camera equipment.
The question is, “How can I get out there without raising suspicion?” He was no longer allowed to explore on his own (according to the Sergeant) and though his authority in this matter was questionable Dirk wanted to avoid trouble.
Radius unexpectedly provided the solution at the Crane Farm. “Dirk, one of my tasks is to extend the survey grid in preparation for construction following Elevator completion. Given the lack of deliveries in the schedule, I propose we embark on this task.”
Dirk was at first dismissive. “Yeah, but Radius, the Elevator is not even under construction yet – why do it now when we don’t have to?”
“It is a matter of good practice,” Radius replied. “When one is given a task, that task should be completed as expeditiously as possible – the future is uncertain, and what appears to us now as ‘plenty of time’ can be eaten up by unforeseen challenges.”
Dirk had to admit the correctness of Radius’ position. “Ok, Radius, you’re right. What do we have to do?”
“The task requires that we establish property line benchmarks relative to the geodetic survey points on the equator and the line of zero latitude established by the point of the bow of the ship that became the initial City Power Plant,” Radius explained.
“But Radius, what do we actually have to do?” Dirk asked.
Radius paused for a moment, thinking about how best to explain the task. “We have to drive the monuments into the ground based on measurements from the original planet wide benchmarks system. This will extend the human scale surveying system, useful for delimiting property lines as the City expands. It is an artificial overlay on top of the broader planet wide system. Additional build out of the human habitation on Mars depends upon this vital preliminary step.”
“That’s great Radius, but I still don’t understand what we have to do?” Dirk said, exasperated. He had been hoping to spend the day figuring out how to get back to Tharsis Minutus, not working on some project with a due date that was probably over a year away, at the very least.
“Establish subsidiary benchmarks – we have to make monuments, consisting of special nails embedded in the ground. These monuments constitute the benchmarks which can then be used to establish property lines and lay out construction sites and structures on those sites.”
The answer to his problem appeared to Dirk in a flash of insight – surveying was the perfect cover for getting him, and the photo equipment, out to Tharsis Minutus. His attitude suddenly shifted.
“Great idea, Radius! Let’s do it today. How do we start?”
Radius was pleased – he’d thought he’d have to sell the idea a little harder. When the logic of a situation did not compel Dirk’s agreement immediately Radius always struggled to persuade.
“The equipment, the laser levels, theodolites, surveying tripods, sledge and monument markers are at the Crane Farm. We’ll print a few other items, like face shields,” Radius explained.
“I’ll be ready in ten minutes,” Dirk said.
“Ok,” said Radius, who was always ready. “I’ll meet you at the Crane Farm. I’ll print out the eye and face protection. I printed the sledge yesterday.”
After Radius left Dirk gathered together Mandy’s camera equipment. This included two tripods, two cameras, and two external flashes. As he was putting on his weight bearing clothes he paused and looked at the pile of gear. “This stuff will weigh me down enough – I’ll skip the extra weight – if we get caught I think carrying the surveying equipment will provide a sufficient excuse to avoid trouble,” he said to himself.
Radius removed the two pieces of the face shield from the printer as Dirk arrived. “Dirk, please assemble this,” Radius asked. Dirk put Mandy’s camera equipment down next to the surveying gear and took the pieces from Radius. Radius’s fingers were extremely sensitive, but were biased toward strength. As a result, it was sometimes hard for Radius, and Robots in general unless specifically designed to do so, to assemble general purpose printed equipment. They tended to push too hard, breaking, for example, the connecting pieces between the head strap and the protective face shield itself whereas humans, like Dirk, were better at the minute wiggle movements necessary to push the face shield onto the head strap tabs.
“We have all of our equipment now. Are you ready?” asked Radius.
“Ready,” said Dirk. “Let’s start to the south, toward Tharsis Minutus.”
“Very well,” said Radius. “We will begin by finding the first Geodetic benchmark on the equator, which will be easy because it is only a 1000 meter
s from here. The circumference of Mars is 21,344 at the equator, and they installed nine benchmarks as part of the City foundation, four on each side of the prime Meriden. Our control tower is offset from the prime meridian by 600 meters. The Elevator will be centered on 0 LatitudeMars and 0 LongitudeMars. So another 400 meters East will bring us to the first equatorial benchmark. We will use that benchmark, and the tower, to establish our first monument marking the first southern Benchmark. The City has several benchmarks already, but they are all North of the equator.”
The walk, even weighed down with the various tripods and surveying equipment, didn’t take long. Radius quickly set up the first tripod directly over the nail marking the benchmark. “Each nail is serialized – it is essential that we put the correct nail in the correct place. The nails are meant to be read by and thus provide inputs to the WiMAX network as it expands. As the WiMAX network grows, it will be possible to see each of these points, and use them as a reference in the City’s and eventually the planet’s, common operational picture. If we place a nail in the wrong location, it will create a cascading series of errors.”
“Then I’m glad you’re the boss of this operation,” Dirk said with a smile. This sort of detailed accuracy was not his forte.
Radius finished with the tripod, turned on the laser sight, and began walking further East. “I’ll set up the tripod on the next benchmark, and activate the lasers. Then you’ll take the laser rod and prism out to determine the location of the benchmark. I’ll direct you – all you have to do is listen and keep the prism pointed in my direction. We’ll get a bearing on the second benchmark. You’ll remain in place, and I’ll come back to this first benchmark and get a second reading so that we have two lines of bearing. Then you’ll mark what you think is the location, and I’ll dead reckon out to you and check it. Once we concur on the placement, we’ll drive the marker and move on to the next one, which will give us three lines of bearing, and we’ll repeat the process.”
Dirk’s heart sank, but he didn’t show it – this was going to take days and days of work. On the bright side, it was going to get him closer to Tharsis Minutus with the gear he required.
After an hour and half they had two new benchmarks placed, and Dirk was ready for a break. Radius was not, so Dirk had to work through two more benchmark placements before he was able to convince Radius to pause in the project.
“Hey Radius, we are fairly close to Tharsis Minutus – Mandy wanted me to take some interior pictures of the crater. You can keep working…”
“But Dirk,” Radius interrupted. “You are the prism holder.”
“You can dead reckon and check, or dead reckon to the new ones which will give me a better idea of where to start, so we can dial in the precise location faster.”
“Ok,” Radius, said pleased that they’d accomplished the bulk of the task (achieving his goal for the first day) without complaint out of Dirk. Time to triple check the work was welcome. “Do you require my assistance with the project?”
“Nope,” Dirk said. He didn’t say it, but was thinking that he didn’t want to risk Radius getting hurt on another climb. Dirk adjusted Mandy’s tripods on his back for climbing and secured the backpack containing the camera gear. “I’ll come find you at the next benchmark point. I’ll hold the prism, you can do the final checks, and we’ll mark that puppy.”
“Roger,” said Radius.
“I’ll be back in 3 hours,” Dirk said. That gave him 15 minutes to get to Tharsis Minutus, 30 minutes to climb up, 30 minutes to climb down, 30 minutes to set up for the pictures and an hour to get back to meet up with Radius.
(47) Day 28 1538 Return to Tharsis Minutus
Dirk checked his watch when he reached the rim of the crater – “20 minutes. Nice! Ahead of schedule.” He looked down and found Radius, looking like a toy as he checked the monument locations. Dirk took a drink and headed down into the crater.
He beat his estimated time to get the bottom as well. “It always seems faster when you know the way,” he said to himself. He hustled over to the cave entrance and slowly went inside, hoping he’d hear a scurry and flurry of little creatures fleeing from his approach.
No such luck. He put his headlamp on and continued into the cave. After passing the smoothed out area where he’d spent the night of the storm he paused and peered intently at the ground.
No tracks revealed themselves. He didn’t really think they would, but their presence would have simplified his task. Now that he was in the cave again he began to feel a little hesitant – his excitement at discovering the ‘tracks’ had overcome his memories of the fear and general unpleasantness associated with cave exploration.
“But I have a job to do,” he said to himself, and headed further back into the cave. After a minute however he stopped again and took off his backpack.
The fear was beginning to overtake him – he hadn’t expected it, but there it was. Rested, and without a storm to make the outside environment more hostile than the inside, the amygdala, his ‘lizard brain’ as he liked to refer to it, was doing its best to overwhelm the intentions of his higher homo sapiens gray matter. He was surprised by the strength of the fear – it was not as though he was swimming through the cave, hoping to surface in a open space of air before his lungs exploded – he was walking in to take a few pictures.
He wanted a security blanket, and was glad there was no one else there to see him break it out – though of course if there were someone else there that would provide the positive peer pressure necessary to enable him to put up a brave front, in spite of his fear, which is of course the definition of courage.
The ‘blanket’ emerged from the bottom of the backpack. In this case it was much more useful than an actual blanket.
He tied a bowline around the shoulder straps of the backpack with the paracord, serving as his ‘security blanket’ or, it occurred to him now, Ariadne’s thread Theseus used in the Cretan labyrinth. He’d last used the paracord as a clothesline during a beach campout with his troop. “This cord has come a long way,” he thought, “From drying a bathing suit and swim shirt at Waiamalo to now feeding through my hands in a Martian cave.”
Leaving the main backpack on the ground, he awkwardly picked up the bag containing the camera gear in one hand, stuck the tripods under his arm, and then with the other hand fed out the paracord as he walked deeper into the cave. It wasn’t much, but the cord in his hand as he walked forward into the illumination of his headlamp, silence and darkness surrounding him, was enough to tamp down the fear and enable him to carry out his mission.
Sideways, he carefully walked down the slope where he’d fallen before. It was really nothing – he’d only fallen due to the unexpected nature of the slope. He looked quickly at the ground, but nothing jumped out at him. “Since the marks here had proven inconclusive, no point in tarrying there – the better hunting must rest deeper within the cave system,” he thought.
The cave angled steadily down. Occasionally he came to a complete stop to figure out a safe path down the steeper of the slopes.
Originally a little less 500 meters long (since he’d cut off pieces for various lanyards and knot practice with some of the Webelos who’d come on the campout) the bundle of cord grew light in his hand. “It’s more than halfway gone,” Dirk thought.
“I’ll go to the end and revaluate.” He checked his watch. The chronograph read 46 minutes – still ahead of schedule, but setting up the camera equipment might take longer than expected. Mandy had talked him through it, and showed him one of the flashes, but he hadn’t assembled the entire package.
Dirk walked for about another thirty seconds, making several turns as the tunnel narrowed – and stopped. At first he couldn’t figure out why, and then he realized what had halted his forward movement. He’d felt a change in the atmosphere. “Did I feel a breeze?” he said, as he craned his head upward. The light illuminated nothing – no longer was the ceiling only a few feet above him.
“
Whoa.” He was almost out of paracord. “End of the cord, and I’ll stop,” he promised himself.
The slope angled down steeply – he had to walk carefully. It flattened out again, and he felt two different things simultaneously. The cognitive dissonance the feelings caused brought him to a halt. It was as though he was swimming in the ocean and had dived down into a warm layer. He felt the same way now. The air felt suddenly warmer. What was even stranger is that his feet had made a squishing sound as he stepped onto the flat area. He looked down, and the damp soil sparkled in his headlamp.
Dirk took another step and the last foot of cord fell from his hand.
“This is as good a place as any to find wee Martian beasties,” he said, and walked back up the slope a few steps for dry land on which to put down the backpack and setup the camera gear.
He slid the legs of the tripods to their full extension, closing each set of three clamps as he extended the legs. Both tripods assembled he pushed he center post of the larger tripod up and through the top head, turned it 90 degrees, and fed it through again so that it was perpendicular to the ground. On the main head he placed the flash, and on the smaller end the much lighter camera. He attached the motion sensor to the camera with a cord – it could use wireless signals, but that took more battery power, and he wanted to maximize the time the camera was on. “I don’t know when I’ll be back to retrieve the gear,” he thought.
Cord attached, he took the motion sensor, built a little platform of rocks to keep it off the damp soil, and pointed it directly in front of the camera. The camera’s field of view would capture anything tripping the motion sensor. The motion sensor/flash assembly set up, he walked parallel to the slope for about ten feet. He then set up the infrared video camera on its own tripod. It would record for fourteen days, and the software would mark whenever motion appeared, making review much easier. Once the video was rendered skipping to each movement captured made it possible to analyze days of footage in hours.
Wishing he had a better method for coverage optimization, Dirk simply pointed the camera out into the darkness.
After double (and triple) checking that the cameras, flash and motion sensor were ‘on’ Dirk headed up the slope. “I’m glad I’m on my way out,” he thought. His chronograph indicated 1 hour 6 minutes. The olive green paracord was easy enough to see against the fairly smooth surface of the cave as he hiked back, not because of its color but because it shimmered slightly in the light of the flashlight.
“It’s chillier out here,” he said, once he passed the narrow turns. Confident in his memory of the path, he made good time to the backpack. He untied the paracord and threw the backpack over his shoulders. A few minutes later he exited the cave into the caldera.
“I’ll be back helping Radius in under two hours,” he said to himself as he started climbing the caldera rim.
“Where is the camera gear?” Radius asked as Dirk walked up.
“I left it there,” Dirk explained. “Mandy wants a time lapse series so I’ll have to come back and get it another time. We can finish up these monuments and do the rest another day, since I have to come back for the camera gear anyway.”
“Ok,” said Radius. “We have one more to do today. It gets faster the more monuments we have established.”
“Right on,” said Dirk, as he picked up the monopod with the prism. It had been a good day. “I’m anxious to see the pictures - the waiting will be brutal. I wonder what Mandy will think about the soggy ground? I’ll have to ask her tonight.”
(48) Day 28 1830 Duck and Discussion
Dirk finished his last bite of the duck confit before responding to Mandy’s question. “This is fantastic chow,” he said. “I’m positive the ground was soggy. I didn’t see any actual puddles, but I could tell it was wet as I stepped on it, and when I built the little platform of rocks the sides that had been resting on the ground were clearly slick with moisture.”
“Amazing,” she said.
“What is supplying the heat?” Dirk asked. “I had thought it was going to get colder, or stay the same, but that (apparently) large space was noticeably warmer than the cave leading in.”
“Mars is still geothermally active,” Tom said. “Not nearly as much as Earth – but still in a limited way. The core remains molten and since we are on top of what used to be to the most geothermally active part of the planet, it makes sense that a molten flow may generate the additional heat. Perhaps molten lava flows from the core through passages beneath the cave system you found, and then back down into the core, in a loop. The lava rises, cools, and sinks keeping the cycle going, like a huge heat exchanger.”
“I hope there isn’t an eruption,” Dirk said.
“Me too,” said Mandy, “But I doubt there will be. Mars lacks the geologic dynamism necessary. No one has ever found evidence of lava flows, or even earthquakes, on Mars that are less than 100 million years old. The surface geologic change that does occurs is due to water and before we started messing with the place, CO2 sublimation.”
“And of course the wind,” said Tom.
“Yes, the wind. As the planet becomes wetter, thanks to the asteroids we’ve been dumping on it and the heating of the atmosphere, we might even see running water here in our lifetimes,” Mandy continued.
“No doubt,” said Tom. “The Company is finding more and more success with large scale comet and asteroid harvesting for water to make hydrogen fuel. I think we are going to find so much water in the C asteroid belt that we will actually store it on Mars for future use. The Elevator will make storage on Mars and transfer to the fuel producing ships in orbit affordable. Mars based storage will save the costs associated with tracking and maintaining the iceberg if we left them in space.”
“I must say, Dirk” Mandy broke in, “I am extremely impatient for you to get back out to Tharsis Minutus. The idea of a Martian creature on film, sitting there on an SD card without anyone knowing, is making me crazy.”
“I bet you can’t even concentrate on your video games,” said Tom to Mandy with a laugh.
“So true!” exclaimed Dirk. “I can’t either! I never thought I’d care about anything enough to bring about such a situation, but here we are,” said Dirk with facetious excess of drama in his voice.
“But seriously Dirk, when do you think you’ll be able to get back out there?” Mandy asked.
“Radius and I have two arrivals on the schedule for tomorrow, but nothing the next day, so I should be able to sneak out then. I don’t want to wear the weights when I go, so I’m considering making a super early start (before a certain police office is awake) in order to race there and back before anyone notices. I doubt he’d come down to the Crane Farm purposely to inspect me, but it would just be my luck to have him show up there.”
“Another day – at least!” Mandy sighed. “No help for it.”
Tom spoke up. “I could g-.”
“No!” Mandy yelled, cutting him off and shocking both Dirk and Tom with her vehemence. She took a deep breath and tried to smile. “I mean that Dirk earned this opportunity. No fair for you to jump in after he’s done the work and bring home the goods.”
“And she doesn’t want you to break a leg in the cave,” Dirk said with a smile.
Tom laughed. “I think that’s the real reason. Uncle Dirk here is expendable, isn’t he?” he said to T2, holding him up in his arms and nodding.
T2 smiled and nodded back, happy to be involved in the conversation.
Even Mandy laughed.
“Dirk, you know what I mean,” she said.
Dirk smiled. “I know – and I don’t want anyone else to get the glory either, especially not Tom! I’ll take T2 though.”
Mandy took T2 from Tom and shook her fist at Dirk with a smile, “Oh no you won’t!”
“Ok, Ok. But may I please have more duck?”
“Certainly,” Mandy said, handing him T2. “I’ll go get it.”
(49) Day 29 1030 The Director’s New Task
ing
“Come into my office,” the Director said over the 1MC. Since they were the only ones in the building, she often used the building wide announcement system instead of texting him an alert on his glasses. It annoyed the heck out of the Sergeant because it made it impossible to ignore, or at least delay, responding to a summons. Sometimes he could ‘ignore’, at least for a few minutes, a text summons, claiming he was watching a training video (really a movie) or something and didn’t notice it. Not hearing the 1MC blasting through the building was impossible.
As he walked down the passageway to her office, he once again thought that having someone else working here, a staff, even if not working directly for him, would not be a bad thing since it would provide an additional target for the Director’s taskings. Right now he served as the enabler of each of her ‘bright’ ideas. The only saving grace was that she was in general as lazy as he. Her ideas were annoying, but tended to come in spurts, interspersed with long periods of inactivity when she, he surmised, watched videos from the nearly infinite library of digital content produced globally over the past 150 years that she had brought to Mars as her media allowance.
This summons to her office was the first in a few days, and as he walked in the door he hoped it was not the beginning of an active phase.
He noticed her hair immediately, and desperately scanned his memory for some clue as to the period it referenced – he only watched the latest and greatest programs, and so was hopeless when it came to identifying the historical fashions that occasionally came back into vogue. The result of a historical drama binge, he surmised, her huge hair looked like a mane but the specific reference escaped him completely.
“I love your hair – very retro,” he said, hoping that would suffice.
She smiled.
The Sergeant let out a small sigh of relief. The Director looked like she wanted to say something, but didn’t. They spent most of their time together, and he suspected she didn’t have any friends here on Mars – she wanted to preserve her authority, much as he did. He did have a few drinking buddies, but saw them seldom. This entailed that the only social interaction they had was with each other. Therefore, they occasionally had these awkward moments when normal human social interaction impulses intruded into their work relationship.
“We will receive a diplo pouch with cryogenic blood vessels in the next day or so. Our colleagues are ready for additional product. A ship is returning to Earth in four weeks – I want to have a full set of product on board.
“Roger,” the Sergeant said, wondering what this meant for him.
“I’ve been thinking about our friend Dirk, and how we can keep him properly engaged. We don’t want him getting hurt out there, so I’ve been considering giving him a ‘promotion’. As soon as the Elevator is completed, his job is obsolete, correct?” she asked.
“As far as I know. I’m not sure what the Company’s employment plans for him are. Maybe there are jobs associated with Elevator operation that he can transition into.”
“I don’t know either,” she snapped. “But that is not the point.”
The Sergeant looked at her, knowing he could not say anything appropriate in response.
“Keeping him close is a priority, at least until more young people arrive on Mars, which I’m counting on happening once the Elevator is operational. We cannot scale this venture without more bodies. But that is a problem for the future. At this delicate stage, more importantly, we cannot afford an interruption in our supply, and our supply is totally dependent upon Dirk. He’s our single point of failure.”
The Sergeant had no idea where she was going with this line of thought. He maintained an interested, but not too interested, expression on his face and waited for her to continue.
“So, I want you to write a job description and statement of work justification for an assistant position here. I don’t know that a security position is appropriate, given his run ins with the law, but I want you to figure out a job for Dirk here, in this building.”
This was totally unexpected – Sergeant was trying to process the implications for his own position, and was as a result having difficulty keeping up with her order formulation.
“Uhh…” he said. Luckily the Director wasn’t finished.
“The offer of a government position will be too tempting to pass up – any government job is better than getting dirty and cold working out on the edge of town taking care of machines like some maintenance robot. With him on the payroll, and under our constant observation, blood extraction will no longer be an issue. We’ll even be able to make sure he is getting the rest he requires to deal with the ‘contributions’ he will ‘voluntarily’ (or lose his job) make. He’ll be our little goose in a golden cage, too afraid to lose the pay and benefits we provide to make a fuss.”
The Sergeant had no objections to make to the plan. “However,” he thought to himself “he better not have a job that is better than mine, or that has the potential for advancement. I don’t want the competition.” Living as the Director’s ‘little buddy’ was often annoying, but he recognized the value of his position ‘adjacent to the throne’ and didn’t want some snot nosed kid, soon to be a grown man, pushing him out of his admittedly cushy position.
He noticed the Director looking at him expectantly: “Oh, yes ma’am, I’ll get right on it.”
“Good,” the Director said. “I want the job description by the end of the week with a statement of work. I haven’t decided what grade to make his position, so don’t worry too much about the precise wording corresponding to the appropriate level. We can work on that next week.”
“Yes ma’am,” the Sergeant replied.
He turned and left. “Three days should be plenty of time to do the write up. I can copy something – plagiarism is the highest form of staff work, you know,” he said to himself walking back to his office.
(50) Day 29 The Drill
“Hi, Dirk,” said Radius.
Dirk walked into the Crane Farm with an empty pack on his back.
“Only two deliveries today. We are getting close to the end. We’ll have to start staging for the Elevator construction team soon. The final set of deliveries will consist of the drill and anchoring equipment”
“What drill?” asked Dirk, his mind on how to get out to Tharsis Minutus.
“The main element,” Radius explained, “Is a self drilling drill and anchor. It drills itself down, trailing the main Elevator cable behind it. Drilling the mounting hole and installing the cable occurs in the same step. When it gets to the appropriate depth based on the local geological profile (42 meters) it anchors itself into the bedrock.”
“I thought the elevator base was flexible so it could move, like a tree in breeze?” Dirk said.
“You are correct,” agreed Radius. “However, the cable has to be anchored. It is then connected to the base, which as you point out, ‘floats’ so that it can adjust to the inevitable movement of the cable from the bedrock to orbit. The base contains the Elevator tensioner, and as it moves it absorbs the various dynamic loads impinging on the Elevator system, from both the movement of the planet, the movement of the system in orbit, and the main vector source, the weather in the atmosphere.”
Dirk sighed. Before the experience in the cave the excitement at the prospect of bringing in a massive, and hugely important, load like the Drill would have bubbled up like Christmas anticipation. Now, in comparison, it was hard to get excited. Still, he started the pre-delivery checks and as he headed out to the garage to do the pre-starts on the Land Crane designated to move the Drill to the staging area he forgot about the cave for a while.
“Dirk, time to head to the tower,” Radius informed him over the WiMAX net as he parked the Land Crane.
“Sweet,” said Dirk. “I’m on my way.”
He jogged over to the Tower. It was built on the other side of the berm, facing the main landing area. They called it the Tower, but it was no taller than a two-story build
ing. A printed tube made in orbit, delivered by Sky Crane, Radius and Tom had extended it like a telescope into position. Directly in front of the Tower was a large satellite dish to receive the signals from the incoming Cranes as well as beaming the corrections from the Tower to the vehicles. Two other dishes served as backups and provided triangulation to increase the position determination accuracy of the system.
The entire top of the tower was enclosed in a clear dome, and this dome was covered with a protective tarp. The first order of business was therefore to uncover the dome. They always waited until the last minute in order to protect it – even without a dust storm the sand in the air scoured the surface, and Dirk didn’t want anything to degrade his view of the Cranes as they came in.
He climbed up the exterior ladder, released the clasps securing the cover allowing it to fall into Radius’ waiting arms. Radius caught the cover, Dirk climbed down, and they quickly folded and brought it inside the tower.
Dirk took his seat and swiveled back in order to face up through the dome. Radius took the co-lander seat behind him and swiveled up. They both operated the controls making the final adjustments – the control computers averaged their signals, and if they were too far out of synch an alarm sounded. Each session was recorded, and Dirk and Radius always compared their lines to see who was closet to the optimal track. Radius generally won, but only by a percentage point or two, which pleased Dirk immensely. “All those video games paid off,” he’d say to himself.
As a tool to facilitate visual tracking, before every landing he’d draw lines demarcating the proposed track. This way when he acquired a visual on the Crane he’d discern immediately how it was trending against the grease pencil line provided baseline. If the incoming Crane deviated significantly from the intended track, he could instantly prepare himself for a possible bug out to the Shelter.
“Crane inbound,” Radius said. The Crane was now in range of their radar and in another 2 minutes they would gain control potential.
Dirk double checked the proposed track, marked the time, and began staring at the spot on the dome where the Crane should appear as a bright spot in the dusty sky. His watch alarm beeped as he discerned the inbound Crane.
“On track,” he said.
“Concur,” Radius replied.
Dirk shifted his attention continuously between the radar display and the actual position of the Crane through the dome. The system was designed to rely entirely on the head up display (HUD) projected in front of him, but he didn’t trust it. When he’d first started he’d been totally enamored, but after a few Cranes he realized there was a slight lag between the HUD display and the actual Crane position. After he and Radius discussed it, they hypothesized the lag was caused by the time it took the signals to travel through the cables from the other dishes, synchronize in the main receiver and retransmit to the HUD. Perhaps they had been installed incorrectly, or there was a slight misalignment – it shouldn’t be a problem, but it was, so Dirk had adjusted the HUD down and started his grease pencil system. Not useless, the HUD was insufficiently perfect to trust with the decisions necessary to avoid impact with a stray Crane on a constant bearing, decreasing range.
Without Dirk and Radius (or someone) controlling from the ground, the deliveries were in effect kinetic attacks on the landing zone. A human in the loop, given the vagaries of Martian weather, and the persistence of the Galactic Ghoul guarding Mars, remained necessary to help ensure the safety of the City.
He grabbed the controller, glad he’d insisted on a new one. The controller (identical to a video game controller) used for the final stage Crane adjustments, was printed to fit precisely his hands. His hands had grown, and the first controller had become too small soon after he’d arrived. When every motion mattered, a poorly fitted controller could be disastrous. The Company, initially skeptical he needed a new one – they hadn’t thought about it, since all of their other employees were fully grown adults – was convinced by the hand scan he’d submitted.
“This is a big one,” Dirk said.
“Indeed,” Radius agreed.
“It’s responding nicely though,” said Dirk. “I think the larger mass is actually making it easier to control.”
“Concur,” said Radius, always at his most professional when they were bringing in a Crane.
“Let’s bring this down at the Echo field,” said Dirk.
“Roger,” said Radius. He switched the landing field from Charlie to Echo. They had three fields, Alpha, Charlie and Echo. They skipped Bravo and Delta in order to avoid confusion if people became lazy and stopped using the NATO alphanumeric prowords – B and C and D sounded too similar for safety.
“It wants to head there anyway,” said Dirk, “And I don’t mind spending the Land Crane fuel to keep this big boy at a safe distance.”
“Concur,” said Radius, and mentally made the adjustment. The landing zone indicator on the HUD switched from Charlie to Echo – it was only a difference of 500 meters, but the 30% increase in their margin of safety reassured Dirk. He took risks he probably shouldn’t rock climbing and exploring, but never on the job.
Dirk watched carefully as the Crane fired its final retro rockets sequence, lowered the cargo, detached the cables, and settled to a stop with a 10 yard offset, and then confused almost jumped out of his seat.
“Beep beep beep” the out of control alarm sounded.
The Crane landed dead center of Echo and yet the alarm still sounded.
“Hey Radius, what’s going on?” Dirk said, figuring that there was a false alarm in the system. Maybe the switch from Charlie to Echo hadn’t registered in all of the systems, and so the alarm indication was sounding because of the successful landing in Echo.
“Another package inbound,” Radius said. “Unscheduled diplo pouch.”
“Arrahgh!” Dirk yelled. “Why would those idiots send a pouch at the same time we have this High Value Package inbound!?”
“It must have hit some high level winds,” said Radius, “Because it is way off course. It is headed East.”
Dirk smiled at this. This would be the first time he was glad for a Diplo pouch going off course.
“It’s ok Radius, I’ll go get it. And while I’m out there I’m going to run over to Tharsis Minutus and pick up the cameras for Mandy.”
“Ok,” Radius said. “Do you require my assistance?”
“No, if you could drive the Drill over to the staging area while I’m getting the Diplo that would be great. The Land Crane is ready to go.”
“Roger,” said Radius.
“Thanks,” Dirk said. “I’m going to grab some water, and get a head start. Give me the best fix you can – I’ll check out with you before I’m beyond WiMAX range.”
“Will do,” said Radius, not looking away from his HUD. He didn’t really have to look, since he directly received the data. Sophisticated robots, like Radius, were programmed to act in ways that humans would expect even when there was no functional purpose for doing so. Several generations of robot passed before designers settled upon the appropriate degree of phatic action in order to avoid the valley of the uncanny. Therefore, now, especially for people who had grown up with robots, the phatic programs ensured the robot feedback felt appropriate. The degree of programming was tailorable of course, and some people, mostly techs, turned it off completely – they wanted robots to act like robots, not robots acting in ways emulating suboptimal human practices.
Dirk took off his ‘heavy’ clothes – the diplo pouch plus the camera gear would constitute enough of an additional load. Plus, he wanted to move quickly. He filled up his suit reservoir, grabbed extra water, his backpack, and straps with which to bundle up the tripods, making them easier to carry.
He set off at a jog.
“Radius, I’m on my way. What is the latest projected landing point?”
“Due East, about 3 KM. It is way off – must be very light.”
“That is good for carrying it back, bu
t man they should redo their targeting. That isn’t even close!” Dirk said.
“The area of uncertainty is beyond the rift,” said Radius.
“Roger,” Dirk replied, and noticed that the WiMAX indicator showed only one bar.
“Dirk, Dirk,” said Radius, “The Sergeant is approaching the Crane Farm! I say again, the Sergeant is approaching the Crane Farm. Return –“
Dirk kept walking – if he went back now, without the weight bearing gear and with the backpack and straps for the tripods he’d have to respond to a bunch of questions, and he didn’t have any good answers.
“The diplomatic pouch will give me cover,” he said to himself. “But I must go now – if they restrict me for violating the terms of my punishment I might not be able to get out here again. And if I can’t, Tom will be tempted to, and I can’t allow him to take that sort of risk.”
He stopped to reconsider – and noticed he was beyond the WiMAX signal. “No point in going back now,” Dirk broke back into a job. “I’ll find the pouch on my own,” he thought.
He slowed down to a fast walk after a few minutes, took a long drink and looked at his watch. “Another 20 minutes to the rift, and 30 minutes after that to Tharsis Minutus. 30 minutes up, 30 minutes down, 15 to get the gear, 45 up, 30 down, an hour to recover the diplo pouch and 45 minutes back.” He did a quick calculation: 6 hours or so. “It is 1000 now, so I’ll be back by 1600, with an hour to spare before sunset. Imminently doable.”