(51) Day 29 1355 Camera Retrieval
Dirk drank the last of his second bottle of water. “Two down, two to go,” he said to himself as he reslung his backpack, turned on his headlights and knee lights, and strode into the cave.
His excitement soared as he reached the part of the cave where the tunnel made the tight turn, and he gave a little laugh of excitement when he felt the temperature suddenly increase.
“Yes!” He stopped where the tunnel opened up and listened. Nothing. “Silly – what did I expect? Crickets?” he said to himself.
He snapped pictures of the ground with the Book camera as he approach the tripods.
“Whoa!” he said, almost dropping the Book. The flash had surprised him. “The motion sensor is still working – very good.” He took one more picture with the Book, put it away in the backpack and grabbed the tripod straps. He turned off the camera and removed it from the tripod.
“Man, I wish I could rewind it, and check to see….” But he didn’t for two reasons. One, his time was short and two, Mandy, Tom and T2 should be there when the film rolled. He wrapped the camera in the bubble wrap he’d brought and moved onto the flashes. After putting them carefully into the backpack he broke down the tripods and secured them to either side of the pack. He swung the flashlight around, checking he hadn’t missed anything. He paused, scanning the wet rocks for any sign of life – nothing.
“But the water looks deeper now,” he thought. That of course was not saying much, but a even puddle on Mars was impressive, and these were clearly puddles.
He checked his watch. 1530. “Lots of time – I hope the Sergeant hasn’t spent it waiting for me.”
After pulling on the backpack, and adjusting the tripods so they didn’t hit the back of his legs (or head) as he walked, he took one last look into the darkness, staring futility past the limit of his flashlight’s beam, and headed back to the surface.
“Mars is accessible to the strong, not the technologically enabled,” his dad always said. As Dirk looked over the rim of the dead volcano he had to agree. Though as he looked at the Crane Farm through the dusty air he thought, “That will probably change when the Elevator is complete. With a cheap way to deliver water, people and equipment everything will become reachable, like on Earth. But not yet.”
He looked back into the crater, down the entrance of the cave. On the one hand he was desperately excited for some evidence of life to rest on the memory cards in his backpack. On the other, he felt like Tharsis Minutus was his – he was the only human ever to have slept there, he’d explored the caldera and cave. “Once we have the proof of life,” he thought, “that will no longer be the case. Everyone will want to come here.”
“But that is silly – its not mine,” he thought, as he scanned the plain below between Tharsis Minutus and the Crane Farm, the rift about two thirds of the way between them.
His train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a bright spot of yellow – “The diplo pouch!”
He heaved a sigh of relief. “Not too far off from my preferred course back,” he said. Acquiring a mental fix on the pouch, based on its position relative to the Rift and Tharsis Minutus he headed down. It was easy to see from here, but even a small depression or hill could conceal it from his line of sight when he was at ground level, so he made sure he could find it using several landmarks.
At the bottom Dirk removed his backpack, retightened the straps holding the tripods on, and took a long drink. His suit reservoir was still full, so he could drink from that via the suit tube as he hustled for the diplo pouch. He’d save his last bottle for the final leg of the trip to the Crane Farm.
Making good time, he reached the diplomatic pouch in under an hour. The objects inside hit one another and rang like Tibetan singing bowls a Buddhist temple when he picked up the bag. Dirk was simultaneously annoyed and entranced. He shook the bag again. The sound cascaded away from him across the plain. “Gorgeous!” he said out loud. “But this couldn’t wait for normal delivery?”
He couldn’t stay mad, however, bathed in the sound. He shook the bag to ring the bells as he walked. Gazing at the Three Sisters to his left and nothing but the Rift in front of him, hiding the Crane Farm from his view, he felt completely alone in a magic sonic bubble.
His pleasant walk was interrupted by the thought of the Sergeant and Radius’ interrupted message. “What could he want? The diplomatic pouch will give me the cover for hiking out of range, but I don’t want to have to explain the tripods, cameras and lack of weighted clothing.”
Dirk scanned the area for the Sergeant walking out to meet him as he approached the Crane Farm. Keeping his eye on the WiMAX network strength indicator in his glasses, as soon as one bar appeared he put out a call to Radius.
“Radius, Radius, Dirk over.”
“This is Radius, roger over,” Radius replied.
“Is our friend still at the Crane Farm?” he asked.
“No,” said Radius.
Dirk suddenly felt lighter. “Roger over,” he said. He didn’t want to talk about it over the net. Once they were in WiMAX range their communications were potentially subject to monitoring. “Sad that I’m worried about that way out here. I’ll be back at the Crane Farm in another 15 minutes,” he thought.
(52) Day 29 1555 Dirk Returns with Camera Gear
“Hey Radius!” Dirk yelled. Radius walked out of the garage.
“How’d the move go?” asked Dirk. “You get it to the Drill area?”
“Yes,” said Radius.
“How’d the Land Crane work – any problems? And how much fuel is left?”
“No problems, and under half a tank. Plenty for the remaining required movements,” Radius said.
“Bummer,” responded Dirk, looking toward the City. He shook his head and looked at Radius. “Sorry, I mean, not bummer that it went well, but bummer that there is less than half a tank. I was hoping to take it into town, using the Diplo pouch as an excuse, but not with only that much fuel left. We don’t have time to refuel it now. But after I get my gear on, can you please help me carry this stuff? I’m anxious to get the cameras to Mandy.”
“Sure,” said Radius.
Dirk realized that he hadn’t shared the reason for his excitement with Radius – he wasn’t sure why. “Maybe I’m afraid he’d have good reasons for not pursuing the investigation,” he said to himself. “But too late now! The footage is captured.”
As he put his weighted clothes on in the garage his excitement again started to build. “I’m glad I didn’t wear this stuff on the recovery mission, that’s for sure.”
He suddenly remembered the Sergeant’s highly unusual visit.
“What did the Sergeant want?” Dirk asked.
“To see if the diplomatic pouch had arrived. He must have been notified before the alarm sounded here,” Radius answered.
“I wish they’d given us a similar heads up,” Dirk said.
“Yes,” said Radius. Though Dirk didn’t notice the significance of Radius’ response, it was actually something that had taken the programmers years to perfect in the early part of the widespread use of humanoid robots. Many of the human phatic verbalizations do not logically require responses, and yet humans rely on such responses to smooth their interactions – the “Yeah, I know, sure, ok” the smile, nod or shrug are an integral part of human communication. Robots of course initially did not respond to those unspoken queries for agreement that humans sensed and responded to naturally. The programmers, many of them not disposed to be especially sensitive to social cues themselves, were eventually (with difficulty) convinced by the human factors people to include the logically unnecessary response loops in the robot programming. Referred to in general as “Smile and Nod” responses, the subroutines increased dramatically the human evaluation of the Robots workability and reduced the feeling of the uncanny robots without such programming often stimulated.
(53) Day 29 1705 Pouch Delivery
Dirk stopped two “streets” down from
their destination, out of sight of City Hall.
“Hey Radius, can you please wait here for me with the camera gear? I don’t want to stimulate the Sergeant’s curiosity. I’ll deliver the diplo pouch and be right back.”
“Certainly,” said Radius.
Dirk started to jog over to City Hall, but stopped when whatever it was in the diplo pouch banged together, making that beautiful ringing sound. “I hope I haven’t cracked them or something,” he thought. “But they sure sound nice.”
He walked into City Hall lobby and announced, “Diplomatic pouch”.
“Deliver to my office,” the Sergeant said immediately over the 1MC.
“I’m glad I had Radius wait – the Sergeant must have been sitting in his office waiting for the building to let him know I was here,” Dirk thought.
Dirk walked down the passageway to the Sergeant’s office. The Sergeant met him at the door.
“I’ll take that,” he said, reaching for the bag.
Dirk handed it over. The Sergeant turned his back to Dirk as he opened the bag. He then looked over his shoulder back at him with a strange smile.
“Thank you,” he said, followed by his normal, curt “Dismissed.”
As Dirk walked out he thought, “Maybe he really likes bells? Weird.” But as soon as he reached the street and headed back toward Radius the excitement bubbled up in him once again, and he broke into a run.
“What is on those memory cards?”
(54) Day 29 1710 Supplies for the next phase of the Director’s Plan examined
The Sergeant walked into the Director’s office with the contents of the diplo pouch in a cardboard box.
“The vacuum flasks have arrived, Director,” he said.
“Bring them here!” she said, standing up at her desk.
Gently she took one of the six flasks out and examined it closely.
“Fantastic! So we stick him and then attach this flask to the needle assembly, and the vacuum sucks the blood right out?”
“Yes ma’am,” the Sergeant said.
“Beautiful. How many can we fill at a time?”
“Standard practice is one, but reading the literature I think we could do two. He’d be pretty wiped out after giving that much blood – probably won’t be able to stand up for a day.”
“That is not our problem. We’ll have to collect the contributions when we don’t have any diplomatic pouches arriving, or I suppose, major Elevator parts. These must be filled and returned on the ship that arrives, and departs, next week. I’m concerned that our exclusivity will be undermined once the Elevator is operational, so maximizing our revenue and developing our brand now is essential.”
“You really think the Elevator will ruin this project?” the Sergeant asked, disappointed. He’d already been mentally spending his share of the profits, and looking forward to Elevator completion because it would enable him to gain delivery of the things he lusted after and would soon have the financial wherewithal to purchase.
“Not if we get the brand established - but too many Terrans will dilute our unique value proposition. Ideally, I’d like to get more ‘native’ Martians here before the Elevator becomes operational, especially young ones. We are selling blood purified by youth and isolation.”
The Sergeant thought for a moment. “There is a baby here, you know.”
“Baby!” the Director said. “I’d forgotten about it. Whose is it?”
“I think it is the Power Plant operator’s kid. I can find out.”
“Excellent. Give me some options tomorrow on how we could get it in here for ‘medical evaluation’.”
The Sergeant walked back to his office, his dismay at the Elevator threat to their new business fading as he visualized the underground ads for ‘Baby blood’ elixir.
(55) Day 29 1810 Examining the Evidence
Dirk knocked on Tom’s door. He’d considered going home first to shower but couldn’t wait.
Tom opened the door, with T2 perched on his shoulders. Tom held T2’s right leg in his hand.
“Hello Radius, Dirk!” said Tom. “Come on in.” T2 made a happy noise in greeting and wiggled up and down.
“Hi T2,” Dirk said.
“Good afternoon,” said Radius to them both.
“Who is that?” Mandy called from further inside the house.
“Radius and his buddy Dirk,” Tom answered back.
Mandy rushed out, a book in her hand, and smiled when she saw the tripods. “So you retrieved them! Fantastic. Did you watch?”
“No, I waited for you,” Dirk said.
“Good – after downloading and rendering the video, we can jump straight to the motion. Come into the office – I’m all set up and ready to go,” Mandy said.
Radius placed the tripods in the closet while Dirk took the cameras out of the backpack and handed them to Mandy. She removed the holographic memory cards and put them into the readers on the computer.
“We have 4 days of video, right? So that should take about 10 minutes to render. Dirk, you want a snack while we wait?” Mandy asked.
“Sure, that would be great. Let me wash my hands so I can play with T2.”
Dirk washed up and went into the living room where T2 was in his walker.
“Tom, did you make that here?” Dirk asked.
“Yes, I sure did. Printed it up from a Terran plan. I made a few modifications, but didn’t want to go too crazy – the Earth model has been extensively tested for safety – I didn’t want to innovate into injury. All the hazard avoidance systems are set to Earth parameters.”
“It looks like fun. How fast can you go in that, T2?” Dirk asked.
T2 bounced in response.
“He moves it randomly occasionally, but he can’t make it go where he wants quite yet. I suspect one day soon he’ll figure it out and cruise around everywhere,” Tom explained. “He doesn’t quite have the coordination down, but it will come.”
Mandy brought Dirk a large glass of water and a piece of pizza.
“Pizza!” Dirk exclaimed. “Fantastic, thanks.”
“Your welcome,” said Mandy.
“That’s homemade – not dehydrated,” Tom said.
Mouth full, Dirk said, “It’s amazing!”
Dirk devoured the pizza. “So good, thanks, Mandy,” he yelled. A chime sounded from the office as he put his plate and glass in the dishwasher.
“It’s ready,” called Mandy.
Dirk went into the living room to grab T2. Tom was picking him up. “I’ll hold him,” said Dirk.
“Ok, thanks,” said Tom. “Let’s watch some videos!”
Mandy sat at the computer, and Tom pulled up a chair. Radius and Dirk stood behind them, Dirk holding T2 so he could see. Mandy’s hands moved quickly in front of her, sensors in the monitor translating her movements into software actions.
The video from each camera was displayed on the screen - one in visible light, the other in infrared. The visible light camera also took still pictures with the flash whenever the flash motion sensor activated it or every 10 minutes. The infrared was purely video and had recorded constantly.
“I’ve set it up to fast forward to the first motion detection,” Mandy said as she pressed play.
The film stopped immediately.
“It’s hideous!” said Radius.
The video showed Dirk walking back and forth through the frame.
“Very funny. I was triple checking that I had the cameras and flashes turned on,” Dirk said sheepishly.
Both Tom and Mandy laughed, and T2 joined in.
“You think that’s funny too, huh?” said Dirk to T2 giving him a little hug.
Mandy smiled at Dirk. “No, that’s good, I’m glad you did,” she said.
“Fast forward onward!” said Tom.
Mandy flicked her hand in the air quickly and the video sped ahead. As it did, Dirk was again surprised that Radius had a sense of humor.
The frame counter advanced on
each of the selections, but nothing changed. Even the water remained still for the most part, an occasional flicker the only indication that it was not perfectly motionless.
And then it stopped.
“Look!” said Mandy, pointing at the upper part of the screen. Something moved past, but it was impossible to tell what it was.
“Let’s wait and see if it comes more clearly into the frame,” Mandy said, excited.
600 frames later it crawled/slithered into view, with big eyes, two froglike arms with which it sort of walked, and a long body that tapered into a tail.
For a moment they were speechless – no one had ever seen living alien life, and it was there on the screen, captured.
“It’s like a variation on a lungfish or a frog,” Mandy whispered. Tom reached out and held her hand, and looked at T2 who was not entirely enrapt by this particular video. But he’d seen it.
“Should we Cellini T2?” Tom asked Mandy.
She shook her head and looked at him quickly before saying “No, of course not he’s too little,” and returned her attention to the screen.
“What’s a Cellini?” Dirk asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” said Tom.
The creature seemed to lick a couple of rocks, and then disappeared from the frame. Mandy waited a couple of minutes, letting the video run, before rewinding, selecting the best few shots of the creature and printing them off. She then hit the fast forward button again and the video advanced for about a day before another frog creature appeared. They couldn’t tell if it was the same one, but looked very similar. This time it only passed through. Mandy printed a still picture of it anyway, and they continued the scan.
(56) Day 29 1850 Revelation
Without fanfare, or any indication that new phase of human (and Martian) history had begun, they saw her walk into the frame on the infrared video, stop suddenly and cover her eyes when the flash went off – and disappear.
Too amazed, no one said anything. When one expects another frog like creature to slither into the frame, and an obviously female alien in a blue dress appears instead, it takes a while for the speech centers to reengage.
“How strong is that flash,” Tom finally asked.
“Not strong,” Mandy said. “It’s on the lowest setting. I hope it didn’t hurt her eyes. She must be accustomed to low cave lighting.”
As she spoke the flash in the video went off again.
“She’s back,” Mandy said.
Nothing happened, and then once again the flash illuminated the space.
Another pause.
The flash fired again, and then they saw her at the top right of the image on the infrared display. She was moving slowly toward the tripods, covering her eyes with a bag in her right hand and what appeared to be a lantern, glowing blue like her dress, in the other. The flash was set to go off only once when the motion detector was tripped, and reset after 10 seconds.
“Look at that,” Tom said admiringly. “She figured out the delay,”
The alien walked past the tripods with the cameras, and they could hear a rustling as if she was getting something out of her bag. The infrared light camera moved slightly. They were surprised by the sudden shift in view as she removed the camera from the tripod. Her face came into view occasionally as she turned the camera around, examining it free of the tripod. They were treated to a close up of her face as she peered into the lens.
“She must see her reflection in the lens,” Mandy speculated. The Martian had large eyes and thick wavy hair.
“She’s extremely tall – she lifted the camera off the tripod and it seemed to travel a bit before her face came into focus,” Tom said.
The alien put the camera back on the tripod and removed the other camera.
“She figured out the clasp so easily and worked it so smoothly,” Mandy said.
“I had trouble getting the cameras on,” said Dirk.
“Amazing,” Tom whispered.
She replaced the camera quickly, and then stood back, looking at both cameras. Her dress glowed with a blue light, as did the lantern.
Walking carefully she apparently returned to the flash. She held her bag in her hand again when she came back into view.
“She took the cover she’d placed on the flash to protect her eyes off before leaving,” Tom observed.
The alien walked out of sight, back in the direction from which she arrived.
“The camera’s are in the exact same alignment as before she removed them,” Mandy said. “Fascinating.”
Dirk felt overwhelmed. He’d daydreamed about getting video of whatever little creature, a primitive snake perhaps, that had made the marks in the sand he’d noticed after the night he’d spent in the cave. Never had he thought of this, a tall, elegant alien woman in a blue dress investigating the cameras.
“Why haven’t we seen any evidence of them before?” Dirk asked.
“We’ve never looked underground. Maybe their food chain is based on chemosynthesis like ours is based on photosynthesis. As a result, their biosphere is underground and though we have detected voids in the planet, we figured they were the result of volcanic activity, like the lava tubes on Earth. Perhaps in actuality they are a combination of both volcanism and design, a natural and artificial combination to make the planet livable. Their atmosphere has been too thin to provide protection from cosmic rays for millions of years, we think, so living underground makes sense.”
Mandy scanned back and printed out several pictures of the alien, including the close-up of her face.
“Can you please make a couple for me,” Dirk asked. “I want to show my Dad.”
Radius picked up one of the creature pictures. “Should we not be careful with this information?” he asked.
“What do you mean,” said Tom.
“This constitutes an entirely new, and extremely large, data set affecting thoughts about our utilization of the planet, none of which has been taken into account by the Company decision making processes thus far,” Radius explained.
Tom thought for a moment. “You are exactly right Radius. This is incredibly exciting, but I think we should take an operational pause before releasing the information. It will give us time to think through the second, third and fourth order consequences, or at least start to frame the problems, and give Mandy here time to write up the discovery.”
“You know Radius, I was going to blast out the video to the world, but you are right. Very good thinking. Let’s consider this carefully. It is some of the biggest news ever, and we needn’t rush,” said Mandy.
“I have two questions,” Dirk said. “First, What does it mean to ‘Cellini’? he asked.
“Benvenuto Cellini was a Florentine goldsmith in the Renaissance, and wrote a biography,” Tom answered.
“Tom’s favorite section is when Cellini is talking about seeing a salamander in a fire,” Mandy explained. “He was with his dad, and when they saw it his dad boxed his ears. Cellini was understandably upset by this, and asked his dad why he had hit him. His dad explained that it was because he wanted him to remember it, and then unexpected pain would enable him to do that,” Mandy said. “At the time they thought salamanders lived in fire, but really they were often seen in fire when the wood they lived in was thrown into the fireplace. Tom claimed, even before we were married, that he would Cellini his kids to help them remember key events.”
“But…” Tom said, “Even for seeing the first alien life I think T2 is too young to benefit from a Cellining. Dirk however…” he stood up and drew his fist back.
Dirk held T2 up between them, using him as a shield.
“I’ll remember, I’ll remember!” he said with a laugh. T2 laughed too.
“What is your second question?” Mandy asked.
“May I show my Dad?”
“Of course,” Tom said and Mandy nodded in agreement. “He’s the person I want to talk to about all of this.”
“Great,” said Dir
k. “May I have a few pictures?”
Mandy handed him the pictures, and then took them back. “Let’s protect these with a folder,” she said. “I have one around here somewhere. And put them in your backpack. Thanks for the excellent advice Radius. If we had gone with our first impulses I think we’d be in a world of hurt we are not ready for.”
“My pleasure,” said Radius.
Dirk handed T2 to Tom – Mandy was staring at the screen. “Ok, I’m off to see Dad. We should probably only talk about this face to face. How late can we come over tonight?”
“Anytime,” said Mandy. “I won’t be sleeping for a long, long time I suspect – too excited.”
“Ok,” said Dirk. “See you.”
He and Radius headed over to his dad’s house. “Dad should be home by now,” Dirk said.
“Yes,” Radius agreed.
(57) Day 29 1941 Dirk Receives Great News that is the Worst he’s ever Heard
“Dad, Dad!” Dirk yelled as he ran into his dad’s house. Radius closed the airlock door behind him.
Dirk’s dad looked away from the holographic display on which he was manipulating equations and stood up excitedly when Dirk entered the room.
“Dirk, great news!” he said. “The Company evaluated your comet to Tharsis Minutus idea, loved it, and is sending a comet intended for lunar harvesting to Tharsis Minutus instead! A large water source close to the Elevator planet based terminus will greatly simplify the energy provision problem for the Elevator, and obviate the requirement to occupy an entire ship to power the Elevator from orbit. The original plan was to construct a water pipeline to supply a hydrogen generator, but as you know, the Crane Farm/Elevator is higher than the City, and thus would have required an entire pumping infrastructure. Tharsis Minutus is at a higher elevation than the Crane Farm, and so gravity will pressurize the system, dramatically reducing the costs.”
He smiled at Dirk – “Fantastic idea, son, and we’re going to implement it. We’ve shrunk the delay between flash and bang, and you’ll be swimming in Tharsis Minutus in a few days.”
Dirk was stunned into silence. He looked at Radius – Radius looked back, appearing to want to say something, but the dynamics of the moment were too much for him and he looked away.
The excitement filling Dirk changed direction as he stood there, shifting its polarity and amplifying its intensity.
His dad noticed the instant change in Dirk’s demeanor and bearing.
“What’s wrong, son?” he asked.
“Dad, I have to tell you something.”
“Ok,” his dad said.
“There is life on Mars,” Dirk said.
“Yes son, I know there is – it’s us.”
“No Dad, I mean the original life.”
His dad looked at Radius for some sort of insight, which Radius naturally failed to deliver. Mr. K wandered over to his recliner, slowly shaking his head. Sitting down, he said, “I’m not following you, son.”
Dirk walked over and handed him the photos.
He looked at them intently, flipping between the frog creature and the body shot in the dress before he stopped at the face close-up.
“You’re not goofing me, pulling my leg?” he asked.
Dirk shook his head. “No sir.”
His dad continued to stare at the photos and then jumped up. “This is fantastic! Did you show Mandy? And Tom?” He began to walk around excitedly.
“Mandy has the video – these stills are video captures. I spent the last two hours watching the footage with Mandy, Tom and T2.”
“Why didn’t you call me over?” his dad asked.
“As soon as the shock wore off I ran over here,” Dirk said.
“Does anyone else know?”
“No, we figured we should wait a little while and think through the various unintended consequences that might emerge.”
“Good thinking,” his dad said, staring at the floor in thought.
“So why do you look so sad? I know the comet is nothing compared to this. Life on Mars!”
“Dad, I took these pictures in the Tharsis Minutus cavern.”
Mr. K looked up quickly. “That explains it – your dour expression when I told you about the comet. Oh man,” he said, shaking his head.
Then he jumped up and went to his control surface. “Once we figure out how much time we have before impact, we plan backwards from that.” He began scanning for the comet location and estimated time of impact from the Mars Orbital Control site.
“How long does it take you to get there and back,” he asked, not looking up from the control surface.
“3 hours,” said Dirk, “at my best.”
“Do you think we can warn them?” his dad asked.
“I don’t even know where to find them, exactly. I left the cameras at the surface of what appeared to be a lake about a ten minute walk from the entrance of the cave. I don’t really know how far it is. My sense of direction and distance failed me underground. But she didn’t appear at the cameras for two days, and seemed to be exploring herself…” Dirk finished hesitantly.
“So you don’t really know where to find them,” his dad said, “And would be getting deeper and deeper into the danger zone as you did.”
“But we have to do something!” Dirk said.
“Yes, yes, of course,” his dad responded. “Let me figure out how much time we have. Impact at 2107 Airy Mean Time (AMT) on Mars Sol Dates (MSD) 89592. It is 2006 now here in AMT-9, so it will impact Tharsis Minutus at 1607 and we have 21 hours to figure something out.”
“21 hours! No way. We can’t do anything in that short a time,” Dirk almost whined, emotionally devastated. “It’s all my fault,” he said sitting down and putting his head in his hands.
Radius stood there, helpless and feeling completely at a loss.
“Can the ship that adjusted the comet’s trajectory reengage and change its delivery course?” Dirk asked suddenly, hope suffusing his face.
“Good idea. Let me check.” Mr. K looked at the display for a moment, checking the ship’s location.
“No,” he said sadly. “It is too far away. It is a tug, without the speed to turn around and catch up.”
Dirk groaned.
Mr. K stood there for a moment, alternatively looking at his devastated son and the picture of the Martian in his hand. After opening his mouth to say something, he thought better of it. Dirk needed some time to process the situation, as did he.
“Are you hungry?” he asked Dirk. “We’ll think better with full stomachs.”
Dirk nodded “No.”
Eating quickly, Mr. K finished dinner and headed over to Mandy and Tom’s to discuss the situation with them in order to better understand the Martian discovery.
Dirk didn’t even look up as his dad left – he couldn’t face anyone right now, including Radius.