Bones on Mars - A paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy romance

Surprises

Gravity was a funny thing. There was less of it here on Mars, one third of Earth's. But despite making it easier for Floyd to lift and lug things, he didn't enjoy what passed for walking on this orange dust bowl of a planet: A loping gait, a bit like running, because he had to lean into it, with a sort of floaty phase in between until he hit the ground again. I took a while to get used to, even for an avid jogger like him.

It got him places, though.

He slowed. It would be stupid to slam into the strut of the future home dome while day-dreaming.

More to the point, he wouldn't hear the end of it. Leelawati excelled at first-class nagging. During the past two weeks, he'd learned to tune her out. No matter what he did or said, she did or knew better. She'd turned into a constant irritant, like the rash on his skin where a seam of his spacesuit rubbed chafed his thighs.

So be it. If it boosted her rocket.

Floyd stopped, fumbled the tablet from the holdall, and pawed at the screen in his gloved hand. After the third attempt—spacesuits weren't really compatible with touchpads, no matter what the techies said—the screen lit up and displayed the latest scan.

There was a cavity under the fourth strut. It hadn't been there when the scientists searched for a suitable site. However, it had been very much there when Floyd surveyed the place for the first time, and it had constantly shown in each and every blasted display, no matter how he calibrated the asshole scanner.

When the powers that be had chosen the site for the Atlantic Alliance's colony, there had been no holes in the ground. Apart from the cavities left behind from the ice-mining, obviously. A colony needed water, the more the merrier.

But those were much closer to the surface. This beast of a hole was about ten meters down. Somehow, its roof had caved in when the struts were inserted into whatever passed for solid ground in this place. A tricky mixture of sand had shifted and the strut with it.

Not good. Not good at all.

"Fix it," Leelawati had said.

As far as he was concerned, he would shove her chubby body into the hole and be done with it. But that wouldn't fix their problem either. One strut was unstable. And if that was the case, all the others were in the wrong place as well. To find another site and move everything across would take ages. They would never be ready for the next stage.

Leelawati knew it. Bones knew it. Floyd knew it.

Shit. How was he supposed to fix the unfixable?

Something about the latest scan caught his eye.

He checked. Now that was bloody impossible. He squinted. Turned the tablet upside down.

It still gave the same reading.

The blasted cavity was no longer ten meters below the surface. Instead, it was just below the surface. Right under his space-booted feet, actually.

Shit.

He couldn't help it. He jumped backward. Only, he was on Mars, and the result was a semi-somersault that slammed him straight into the stricken strut.

Ow.

The life support pack he carried on his back somewhat dulled the blow, but it still wasn't an experience he'd wish to repeat any time soon. 

He stood, halfway expecting a sinkhole to open in the ground. It didn't. The wind, a muffled grating in his ears, blew, the dust shimmied around in eddies, and an indifferent sun glowed on the scene.

His lips as dry as the dust, he ran another scan. And another.

Same result.

"Floyd? Base calling." Bones's voice boomed into his eardrum. "How's tricks?"

"This is Floyd. Tricky. Our favorite cavity has risen to the surface."

"Huh?"

"Well, according to my reading, it's not where it used to be. It moved."

"The thing can't move."

"Bones, the thing shouldn't have been there in the first place. I saw the subground scans of the site. No cavities. Then there is one. Then it rises. Either the instruments are totally fucked, or someone is playing tricks on us."

"The AI?"

"Don't blame the AI all the time. Someone ballsed something up, big time, and that someone is human. My money is on the Pacific Alliance."

"Their technology isn't as good as ours. If we can't create holes that move—which I'm sure we can't—they won't be able to either." It's got to be a technical glitch."

"Listen, there's no point in me being out here. There's no point in proceeding until we know what the heck is going on here."

"You wanted to pour plastocrete down the hole to stabilize the strut. Sounds like a good idea to me. Why don't you go ahead."

"What if I pour plastocrete down that hole and it moves somewhere else? Waste of some good plastocrete."

"Ah. Now that would be a bit of a bugger, I agree. Are you sure the thing has moved. I mean it can't—"

"Don't tell me what it can't do. It just does."

"Hey, no worries, mate. I hear you."

Did Bones ever take anything seriously?

"Listen, can't you dig it up?"

"Dig what up? The cavity?"

"Yes. If it's that close to the surface, you shouldn't have any problems. You've got the droid with the plastocrete on standby. Just turn on the drill and have yourself a Captain Cook. Just don't actually pour anything before you know what's down there."

That was actually not a bad idea.

"Okay, I'll try my best."

"You do that. Gimme a shout when you're done."

"Don't tell Leela yet."

"Mate, who do you take me for? That woman is missing a few cables in her life support system."

"Okay. Floyd out."

"Good luck. Base out."

Floyd shoved the tablet back into the holdall. He itched take another scan, but where four had shown him a cavity close to the surface, a fifth might well show him one-eyed green aliens baring their teeth, and he really didn't care for that.

He pushed the remote control of the Tekko-Droid.

"Activate."

"Activated."

"Assume pre-programmed position. Aim drillhead at surface. Continue drilling until sub-ground cavity detected. Confirm mission."

"Mission confirmed. Assuming position."

The droid rolled across on its tracks and stopped exactly where the effing cavity was supposedly lurking. The arm with the drillhead rotated and its shiny tip hit the ground. It whirred, the sound distorted by the Mars atmosphere.

"Operation started."

Good. Soon enough they would know if there really was a hole in the ground or not.

1047 words (3328 total)

This chapter is dedicated to fellow author elveloy, who's participating in the ONC with "Inside Man". 

As far as things like gravity and ice below the Mars surface are concerned, the science in this chapter is mostly correct. Unlike the moon, which is mostly dry (though a recent Indian mission found some traces of it), the Mars has quite a bit of water in frozen form, which makes it attractive for colonisation.