Martian Republic: The Fateful Secret

Chapter 9: The Plan's First Phase

Location: Planitia Terra Capital-City, Martian Republic

Timestamp: 2:45pm, +2 Standard Martian Time

It was a pleasant day at the Martian Republic's capital. Sunlight glinted off the warped metal tower that stretched high up into the blue skies of Mars. The dark accents on the curved, irregularly shaped glass and metal buildings contrasted well with the reddish Martian regolith.

Josh sighed as he eased the NIMF down for a landing. As he had already sent the required paperwork into the database back at Bosporos Planum base, there was already a slot reserved for him in Docking Bay 3.

He had always wondered if the design of the docking bays at the Capital were inspired by the Jedi Temple in Star Wars. They were simple cuboid-shaped structures painted pale gray with support beams along their sides. He flew into one with a large holographic sign that read "Docking Bay 3" projected above it.

"Now, where the hell is slot 45?" Josh muttered under his breath as he scrutinised the map of the docking bay on his nav computer. "Alright. It's next to that big pillar there."

He manoeuvred the NIMF right over to a raised platform and carefully landed on it. He hit a button on his dashboard and waited for the rear ramp to fully lower. As soon as the ramp was lowered, he walked out of the NIMF and pressed a button on the NIMF's exterior that retracted the ramp.

Josh climbed down from the platform and hustled through the crowded docking bay, heading for the hyperloop station. He climbed into a pod already packed with people. The door hissed shut and the pod sped through a vacuum tunnel.

Before he knew it, the pod had already arrived at the Hyperloop Sub-Sanctum. He summoned a private pod on his SlatePC and waited.

Okay, let's go through what you have to do after this. You have to get to Docking Bay 1 at the other end of this massive city-settlement and board the Hyperion. Once you're boarded, you'll fly the Hyperion to TransitPoint-5 and wait for the NIMF that holds Mark and Kelly hostage to show up. When it does, storm the spacecraft as soon as it docks with the security forces on that orbital spaceport. Simple.

"Simple but not necessarily easy," he muttered under his breath.

His SlatePC beeped, signalling that his hyperloop pod was arriving. He hustled his way over to the section of the hyperloop station for private pods.

"Going to Docking Bay 1?" asked a man behind him.

Josh turned, finding himself staring at a man wearing an shirt with the Invar Technologies logo emblazoned on its right pocket.

"Yes," he answered. "I've got to send some crucial comm equipment to TransitPoint-5. I can't believe all we can use now are those old NIMFs."

"Well, the problem is that we don't have our own supply of Helium-3," said the man. "As soon as I heard that our supply was delayed, I knew we were going to be in for a few rough weeks. Docking Bay 1 is now overcrowded as it's the only docking bay in this mega-settlement that's still fitted with the infrastructure for servicing NIMFs."

Josh's SlatePC beeped, signalling that his pod had arrived.

"GR63K1," he read aloud, checking if the pod that had just arrived had the same code projected holographically above it.

"Yep, it's the correct pod," said the man helpfully. "Goodbye!"

Josh waved as he climbed into the pod and hit the button to close the door. The pod hurtled through the tube of nothingness, emerging a minute later inside Docking Bay 1.

He climbed out of the pod and made his way over to the Hyperion. The mere sight of it left him astounded.

It was painted gleaming white, with thick dark accents snaking around its hull. What truly was amazing about the NIMF were its large delta wings that seemed to melt into the engine humps. It wasn't blocky or edged like other spacecraft, but fluidly shaped. It looked more like a piece of art than a functional spacecraft. While it was slower than most Direct Fusion Drive craft, it could beat any other chemically fueled rocket hands-down in terms of Isp and speed. It was also the most technologically advanced spacecraft in its class.

Josh climbed up the ladder that led to the platform that held the Hyperion and waved his hand over a sensor. The door slid open and he climbed in. He rushed through the small main hold and into the cockpit.

Considered advanced, there was no need for him to initiate the preflight processes. As soon as motion sensors detected him entering the cockpit, the dashboard powered up and holographic monitors began display data from the diagnostics.

In just twenty seconds, the Hyperion was ready for flight. He increased power to the engines and manoeuvred his way out of the docking bay. Carefully manipulating the control column, he veered past a bulky space-freighter and shot off into the sky.

"Exiting Martian gravity shortly," announced the dashboard of the Hyperion.

The loud roar of the booster engines faltered as the sky ahead slowly grew darker and stars began to accentuate the pitch black backdrop.

Josh manoeuvred the Hyperion into a trajectory that intersected with TransitPoint-5's heliocentric orbit.

"What's the ETA?" he asked.

"Three hours. Fairly short due to the proximity of Earth to Mars at this time. An increase in speed, at the cost of much higher fuel consumption can shorten the time to two hours."

"Is the onboard fuel supply sufficient for that?" asked Josh.

"Yes," replied the dashboard. "Maximum possible speed given the onboard fuel supply is a hundred thousand kilometres per hour."

Josh selected the holographic throttle and increased speed to the maximum possible limit.

"Got to get there as fast as possible," he said to himself.

Suddenly, realisation dawned on him.

Mark and Kelly were kidnapped using a NIMF. Why use a NIMF when you can use DFD-equipped spacecraft? It would only make sense if the terrestrial team wasn't coming in from outside Mars but were stationed on Mars. That means that they have a small outpost on Mars or even potentially a base!

Josh grabbed the comm and recorded a transmission.

"Amy Averin, this is Josh speaking. I think the team that kidnapped Mark and Kelly have a reconnaisance outpost or a base on Mars. Their use of a NIMF suggests that they too are affected by the delay of the helium-3 shipment."

He transmitted the voice message. As he stared out of the cockpit window at the planets and stars in the distance, he began feeling for once a glimmer of hope, a slight inkling that this battle could be won. The mission was going well so far, wasn't it? There were no serious issues or obstructions, at least not yet.

And I hope there won't be.