Chapter 6: Volume 1. Chapter 6. Frank Arnold

September 19^th, 2051

     Alicia took quick steps up the ramp and then jogged up the staircase to the buildings housing the ISC headquarters. She hadn’t been able to get an automated taxi in time, so she took the bus – which was late. The weather was balmy, nearly perfect in LA. She was excited to meet The Frank Arnold. He was back from Mars now with a shuttle load of goodies. The ISC offices were in new stone buildings made to look ancient. Stone pillars rose to meet the roof, which covered the walkway leading up to the front doors. To her right were windows that started at her waist and nearly went up to the top.

     Alicia made her way inside, heels clicking against the polished floor, and presented herself to the security desk. The guard checked her bag, patted her down, and took away her phone. She stepped through a scanner while another guard watched a screen. After finishing, the guard guided her through several hallways to a tiny, plain door in a corner hallway. The nameplate on the wall next to the doors did not read ‘Frank Arnold, Astronaut.’ She didn’t have time to finish reading before the guard pulled open the door, and Alicia made her way inside. A small man sat in an oversized chair, he looked up, and his thinning hair shifted, showing a bald spot. He pushed horn-rimmed glasses up his nose and stood up. “Dr. Alicia Dunn?” the man asked.

     “Yes, I’m here to see Frank Arnold,” replied Alicia. Whoever this man was – she did not like him.

     “That will have to wait. My name is William Caldwell. I serve as head of ISC security. Sit down, please” William gestured at a plain chair opposite his desk. The please was an afterthought.  

     Alicia took her seat. “Is there anything I’ve done wrong?” That name. She didn’t like it either.

     “No, but your binoc recorders must be deactivated for the remainder of your visit. The ISC will provide recording equipment. We will also vet any recordings you decide to take with you before leaving.”

    “Of course.” Alicia felt slightly more relaxed. This guy was just a spook; they were supposed to be creepy. She was only slightly more comfortable. While William was preparing paperwork, she deactivated her binocs, rendering them regular glasses. “Is there anything else you need?”

     “Yes. You will need to sign this NDA. It concerns everything that is not part of your interview.” Alicia took the form and read it over. The ISCs logo was at the top of the page. Underneath the heading was the ISC’s slogan, ‘For the good of all those on Earth.’ Alicia signed and slid the stack of papers back. “Thank you; the guard will guide you to Mr. Arnold’s office. Have a pleasant stay.”

     William Caldwell sat down, gave her a terrifying smile while holding eye contact for slightly too long, and returned to typing at his computer. Alicia let herself out, trying to balance wanting to leave quickly with not wanting to look intimidated. The guard guided her to another non-descript door bearing the name, ‘Frank Arnold, Astronaut.’

     Frank sat in his office chair but stood up instantly when she entered. “Dr. Dunn, it’s nice to meet you,” said Frank while pumping her hand. Frank looked in excellent condition for a guy who had spent multiple years off the planet. His skin was remarkable. She was honestly jealous.

     “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Call me Alicia.” Alicia flashed Frank a gorgeous smile. It’s not every day I get to meet a good old-fashioned hero.

     “I’m not,” Frank answered while shaking his head. “Thanks. It’s nice to meet you, Alicia.”

     “You’ve saved the lives of at least three people. They even did an hour-long show on your life. That kind of fits the definition,” said Alicia while grinning at him.

     “If you say so.” Frank shrugged. Despite receiving these compliments, he didn’t know how to handle them. He’d simply been doing his job.

     A knock at the door interrupted their conversation, and an intern dropped off a box of recording equipment. “The security guy made me turn off my binocs. I need to get this set up,” explained Alicia somewhat coldly while holding up a recording device.

     “William. Yeah, he does stuff like that. He is a good guy, dam good at his job, and he worked for the FBI before coming to the ISC. He caught some of the nastiest people around. He even put away….” Franks’s line of thought petered out as he stared at his hands.

    “Who?” asked Alicia casually.

     She was fussing with the equipment and not paying real attention to Frank. Thankful for the distraction, he fudged an answer, “Oh, uh. I was trying to think of one of the guys he caught. One of those FBI’s most wanted types.” Frank continued to look at his hands, hoping the lie would go unnoticed. Can’t remember for the life of me.” He paused for a second, “I’m going to go and grab a coffee. Would you like one?”

     “Yes, please.” Frank locked his computer ‘for William,’ he mouthed while smiling. Frank left the room while Alicia set up the recording equipment. He returned a minute later carrying two cups of coffee. “Ready to go.”

     “Yes, let’s do it.”

     “Okay.” Alicia clicked the record button and asked her first question.

     “What was the journey to MARS1 like?”

 

October 11^th, 2047

     Frank was dreaming. He was floating along the ocean. Snorkeling. As he came out of his dream state, he found he was still floating, not off the coast of a beautiful Caribbean island. The sleep webbing kept him secure because polymer netting hooked at multiple points along the sides of the sleep pod. It kept him snuggly in place like the ATVs he and his dad had strapped onto trailers when he was a kid. He slipped his fingers and unhooked the webbing while pushing out of his pod. Lin’s watch started vibrating, startling her awake. Frank’s started a second later. The netting kept her in place too. “Morning,” said Frank.

     Lin gave a sleepy response between yawns, “Good morning to you too. Are we there yet?”

     Frank smiled. The joke was a month old now. “Not yet. Almost.” Mars had been one big red dot in a black ocean for three days, slowly getting bigger. The landing was tomorrow. Frank offered Lin a hand as she pushed out of her pod. “You headed to the gym?”

     “No, breakfast first.”

     “Sounds good. I’ll see you in the command pod.” Frank and Lin were a paired team, one of three that operated 24/7 to keep the shuttle running. Not that much had happened on the journey out. Lin Xiu was the team’s biogeochemist. On Earth, she studied rocks, specifically how bacteria ate rocks or something like that. It was a good fit for Mars because they wanted to know if bacteria had chewed on Martian rocks in the ancient past. Frank knew how to fly planes and shuttles while also deploying robots. Rocks weren’t his thing.

     He hit the head before making his way to the gym. He strapped himself into a resistance bike and pedaled, followed by resistance bands. After working up a sweat and using super absorbent towels to collect that sweat beading all over his body, he rinsed himself off and went for food.

     It was an excellent ration of foodstuff. Slightly different in color than the ration of foodstuff at dinner, lunch, and breakfast yesterday. Such variety was going to spoil Frank if he wasn’t careful. Then he took the pills from Apollos Life Sciences. He needed to get more of these when he got back to Earth. He felt better now than he had on Earth and swore his skin looked better than it had in his twenties.

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     He tidied up his eating space, disposing of the aluminum tubes and cleaning up the stray bit of liquid that had escaped. He pushed himself off the deck towards the command module. Sarah Loch and Brin Janssen were heading toward the living module. “How was it?” he asked.

     “The dot is now a ball,” replied Brin.

     “Excited to make landfall?”

     “I want some gravity so I can take a normal shower,” replied Sarah. “Badly.”

     “Don’t we all. Have a good sleep.”

     “Thanks. We’ll be up in a few hours for the landing,” said Brin.

 

October 15^th, 2047

     MARS1 was a hive of activity. Qbots swarmed around the triple airlock that formed one of the entrances to MARS1. They had excavated two chambers in a round hill producing cave-like entrances capped with airlocks. They were separated on the interior by another airlock creating two pressurized enclosures. The Qbots were busy excavating the third chamber, carrying out soil, smelting out the finest bits of iron, and disposing of the remainder. Frank was inspecting the airlock seals on MARS1. Celine’s shovel and robotic claw symbol were embossed above each entrance and exit.  

     The site for MARS1 was near the pole and received sunlight all day. All 24 hours and 37 minutes of it. The solar farm that kept all the Qbots running was on the top of the hill. Lin asked Frank what the Qbots would do after they finished with the base.

     “We’re close to the canyon that ISC plans to inhabit long term. A small contingent has set up shop down there already and started on MARS2. When the others finish here, we will move them down there, and they will work until they break down.” They continued to chat over breakfast with Sarah, Brin, John McHugh, and Moe Said.

     They spent the first few days inspecting the Qbots and their handiwork. They’d found no structural failings like those on Earth’s first base. The solar farm was operating well and clean of dust and debris. They had the next two days of R&R time before the more serious work of expanding the base and conducting their research projects began. 

October 21^st, 2047

     Frank continued to unpack and activate Qbots. He had multiple brains and diggers unloaded and ready to go. The builders were laying more power lines down to the canyon where the future ISC base would be. Frank and John hefted a pallet of Qbots onto the back of the rover, clicking the locking mechanism into place. The pallet easily weighed 100 kg, but they only needed one hand each to lift it in the low Martian gravity. The rover slid across the smooth surface and down the canyon’s shallow-graded slope that the Qbots had prepared for their arrival.

     They had installed a charging station, and the Qbots had started excavating out a much larger and more permanent base dug into the rock. Frank brought the rover to a stop, and they unloaded the pallet. One at a time, they took the Qbots off the tray, sent flick commands to activate them, and released them like baby sea turtles at the edge of an ocean.

     For a second after being set down, the collection of diggers and builders was immobile until one of the local brains connected and brought them into the hivemind. The diggers skittered away into the tunnels that would make up MARS2. The builders scurried over to a pile of metal sheeting the smelters had built, and along with ten or so other Qbots using their claws, they hefted it into the base just like they had back on Earth.

     Frank was finished with his load of Qbots and had to unload and secure some gear into MARS2 for future teams. He walked in and had to step aside as the builders formed a tower of claws to get the sheet into place. Their clawed feet hooked into specialized clamping spots on the heads of their fellow builders. It wasn’t graceful or pretty. It was downright terrifying to watch. They looked like a giant metal tentacle suctioning up a piece of metal. 

November 6^th, 2047

     Lin operated the core drill. She was collecting material samples while Brin and John were unloading gear into MARS2. The canyon that ISC planned to develop into a permanent Mars settlement had a naturally shallow slope leading to a nearly flat bottom. The Qbots had taken those natural properties and made them uniform. The canyon walls protected against the Martian winds, which piled dust up near the doors of MARS1. The core drill was a foldable and extendable version offering up to 100 meters of depth penetration. None of the rovers or initial scout teams sent to Mars had ever collected anything more than surface samples.

     Frank was mainly correct about Lin’s specialty. She studied minerals, their types, their compositions, and how Terran bacteria interacted with them. The core sample she was currently drilling out would be unique. They knew something about the surface of Mars but very little about its inner workings. Collecting core samples for later analysis in MARS1 and MARS2 someday would provide untold knowledge about the Martian past.

     The drill chewed through the first few meters of dusty surface quickly. The striations and patterns in the core samples changed as the drill pushed them toward the surface. Then the drill started grinding against denser rock and slowed her progress. She collected 30-centimeter core segments in aluminum canisters for preservation and, for a lucky few – transport back to Earth. 

     She was curious about what the samples were like compared to the rest of the solar system. They’d been studying meteorites and asteroids on Earth for nearly a century. The first samples returned from asteroids confirmed their suspicions. The elemental isotopes that made up the solar system existed at a specific ratio in the primordial solar system. That ratio had been conserved for things that didn’t change – like asteroids and meteors.

     Then there was Earth. That beautiful pale blue dot. A lot of things happened there. Plate tectonics moved rocks around, ground them into dust, and rebirthed them in volcanic eruptions. That changed the elemental isotope ratios. Then life grew on top of that and changed them even more.

     The surface of Mars had ratios like that of the primordial solar system. The reason why was a topic of intense debate on Earth. One camp posited that solar dust had accumulated on the Martian surface rendering the surface readings like that of the solar system. The other believed that neither plate tectonics nor life – but mostly life – had ever occurred on Mars. The core samples from humanity’s future home on Mars ought to add some fuel to that fire.

     The drill continued to grind away. Smoothly now at about 53 meters of depth. Brin came up behind her, using the radio to let her know he was approaching. “I need you to come to oversee the guidelines. John’s gotten tangled up,” said Brin. Lin deactivated her drill and followed Brin down the shallow slope. The Qbots had already excavated the better part of three large rooms. Brin and John were transferring supplies into the future MARS2 base so the next crew would have a larger living space already stocked with gear.

     Lin gave Brin an exaggerated ‘okay’ gesture. The suits made small hand gestures impossible. Everything had to be over the top to be noticeable. Brin walked in, and for the next few minutes, he and John wrestled the straps into place. Lin watched their vital and O₂ monitors. After unloading and strapping the equipment, they checked Lin’s monitor. O₂ was good. They were going to grab another load of gear and leave Lin to her drilling.  

     After loading up, Lin watched Brin power up the rover. The rover’s electric battery-powered motor was barely audible over the radio link. There was a slight whine and grinding sound as it pulled them up the slope. Right past Lin’s drill. Lin watched them closely, “Careful of the drilling rig. I don’t have a backup.”

     “I see it,” said Brin.

     He guided the rover slightly to the left of the drill into the wide part of the chasm. As he did, Lin saw a few pebbles of Martian dust blown up and out of the borehole she had been working with the drill. “Wait, sto-” Lin’s vision filled with Martian dust blowing outwards.

     In a fraction of a second, it went from a light pelting dust to a blinding, swirling vortex pushing against her faceplate. The force pushed her off her feet, flinging her backward into the canyon wall. The backpack with her O₂ tanks hit first. The heavy helmet kept flying towards the canyon wall. Lin died from a broken neck seconds before the composite face mask shattered. Martian dust wormed its way into the interior of her helmet, filling the interior space.