Battleground Mars

Chapter Three


The following day the air scrubbers started to act up. The only warning was in the base control center, none of the drillers were aware that Jacques Fechter had blanched white and run around screaming for an engineering crew to go out and fix the problem. When they got back, they reported Tauron activity. A party of aliens had been spotted no more than ten miles away. The aliens had decided to operate nearer to Mars Base. And the cave. Every man pictured the nightmare scenario, an attack on the scrubbers. But this time there was no problem with enemy action, there were no reports of them coming closer. They breathed a sigh of relief when the scrubbers were back up to full capacity, there would be no need to initiate the emergency lockdown. Every man in the base dreaded it. They’d all gone through the drills, everything had to stop, all drilling operations, all unnecessary activity, and they were confined to their bunks to conserve air. It was boring, irritating and every hour meant a big chunk of money lost. No one wanted trouble with the air scrubbers. Rahm took his team out as usual to drill for trevanium. His crew took a spare buggy and went out with the other teams. When they got a mile away from Mars Base they started to fan out, dispersing over their target area to find the most productive sites. This time they kept a careful watch, he made Kaz stay on the buggy, perched high on the framework to keep a lookout for Taurons. But there were no attacks that day, they worked late and drove back with the cargo hold stuffed with mineral. It made up for part of what they’d lost lately, they caught up with the other returning teams on the way back, by the sound of the jubilant radio transmissions they’d all had a good day. Maybe their luck was about to turn.
Rahm dove straight in the shower when he got back and then went to the canteen to unwind. He sat down at a table with a mug of coffee and poured in an oversized slug of Bourbon, then relaxed back to enjoy it.
“You mind if I join you?”
He looked up. It was Gabi Aaronsen, Grant Merkel’s sister. She was a looker, which was enough to make him glance at her for longer than he would normally bother with a girl. Especially since Christine’s death. He looked away quickly, for he didn’t want her to think he was ogling her. He’d seen her around a few times since they’d met in the library on the ship, yet hadn’t had any real need to talk to her.
“Sure, go ahead. You want a slug in your coffee?”
She nodded. “That’d be nice; life here has been pretty crap lately.”
“You’re telling me.” He poured a good measure into her coffee mug. “I’m sorry about the poor devils on Grant’s crew, it should never have happened. It’s sad about your brother.”
“What do you mean, it should never have happened?”
“I mean that these so-called managers should think a little more about their men and a little less about the trevanium. Men are dying, and they don’t seem to give much of a damn.”
“You think they should send security guards out with the drilling crews?”
“I know for certain that they should. Think about it, we have a hard enough task as it is. We have to concentrate on the drilling, trying to stop the machinery from going crazy while we extract the mineral, it’s a tricky job. We take our eyes off to watch for alien monsters and the equipment goes to pieces. We concentrate on the equipment and the Taurons jump us. We can’t do it all, if they don’t start giving us security teams there won’t be any drillers left by the time the next relief ship arrives.”
I’m Gabi, Gabi Aaronsen. I guess you should know that Grant was my brother.”
“Yes, I haven’t forgotten that we met on the ship.”
She smiled when he said he remembered their meeting. She was taller than many women, not far off his height of six feet one inch. Maybe she was five nine, pretty impressive for a woman. Dark brown hair, eyes that shone interest and intelligence, she was slim but also had an attractive shape, with curves in all the right places. He pulled himself together, as he realized he’d been looking at her breasts. Damn, he hadn’t meant to be rude, not with this girl.
“Thirty six C,” she interjected. “You were looking at my tits, I guessed you were wondering. Lots of men do, I don’t mind.”
“No, of course not,” he stammered, but he felt his face glowing red. “I mean, of course not, I wasn’t, you know…”
“Sure.”
Her smile lit up her face. She understood. She was the kind of girl who knew what she had and wasn’t self-conscious or vain about it. His kind of girl. He noticed her eyes were shadowed with grief.
“I’m real sorry about your brother.”
“Thank you, it looked like a horrible way to die.”
You didn’t watch…”
“The video? Yes, thanks for getting it back. It was horrible, but at least we know what happened to him, there are no doubts, no waiting and worrying.”
“Right. Another one?”
She nodded and he poured it in.
“Would you do something for me, Rahm?”
“Sure, of course.”
There’s a service of commemoration later tonight. Would you say a few words, as it was you that led the crew out to recover the recording?”
“Yes, I’ll do that.”
Her faced brightened a little. “It would mean a lot to me.”
The eulogy was like those occasions always are. Miserable and sad. Depressing. It was difficult to see what good it did for Gabi when they gathered in the canteen. The manager, Jacques Fechter, spoke a few words. Then Rahm spoke for a couple of minutes and then Gabi gave the eulogy. She was weeping at the end, and Rahm went across to her and led her away back to the living quarters. He wished her a good night, went back to his own quarters and dug out a fresh bottle of Bourbon that he gave to Kacy and asked her to take to Gabi. He didn’t want her to think he was hitting on her. Not now, not today.
That night, he had the nightmare again. He was back on Earth, his first major responsibility, chief engineer on the research station in Afghanistan. Vast quantities of opium poppies were harvested and converted for the computing industry on a daily basis. It was winter, and they spent the day outside of the station, on the frozen Afghan plain, supervising the test harvest of a new strain of the poppy. Christine Blake was with him, she too was a scientist, attached to one of his research teams. She was also his fiancée. At the end of the working day they settled inside the relative warmth of their comfortable, prefabricated station. It was a huge building, delivered to the remote area by teams of helicopters. Many advances had come to Afghanistan over the decades, but good roads were not amongst them. The raid took them all by surprise. His bosses had provided them with guards equipped with AK74 Russian-made assault rifles. In this country they were cheap and easily available and the locals were used to their simple, rugged design. They viewed the newer laser weapons, with their complicated electronics and plastics, as little more than toys. Like many Afghans, they had their own way of keeping out the cold, they smoked incessantly. But not tobacco. Opium was their drug of choice, for after all, tobacco couldn’t be picked from the fields during a relaxing walk in the countryside. The terrorists were after loot, food, weapons, anything they could find. They smashed open the main doors and rushed inside the station, shooting wildly. Rahm had previously gone to his office to retrieve his satphone when he heard them. He rushed out in time to see one of his opium befuddled guards go down at his feet in a hail of bullets. The man’s assault rifle dropped next to him, and he stood looking down at it, frozen into inaction. He did nothing, and the bandits swept through the complex, shooting, smashing and ripping out equipment and murdering anyone who stood in their way. The theft became and orgy of violence and destruction, probably drug induced. When they left, he was the sole survivor, unwounded, and left wracked with guilt over his failure to act. He couldn’t explain it afterwards, and he never discovered what had gone wrong. The doctors insisted that he’d had some kind of a seizure at the crucial moment, almost like a stroke. It wasn’t his fault, they said, it could have happened to anyone. The inaction probably saved his life. But it didn’t help Christine Blake. When the bandits left, she was bleeding the last drops of her lifeblood onto the floor. Afterwards he resigned his position and started a new life as a humble driller, working in the worst hellholes on Earth, places that required extraordinary toughness just to survive. He had nothing left to live for, and everything to die for. He’d worked his way up to crew boss, after spells as a mercenary guard in some of the most violent places, and finally cam to join the operation on Mars. It was as far from his ghosts as he could possibly go.
The mood the next morning was somber, but the business of ripping trevanium out of the Martian surface had to go on. They went out again the next day. They’d made the area around the Nepenthe Valley off limits, as well as those sites that were greater than half way to the Tauron base at Elysium. They rolled out of Mars Base on their repaired buggy and he drove towards the Schiaparelli Crater, remembering the pass they’d driven along in full flight from the Taurons. The crew was nervous about returning to the area. Even Nathan Wenders, who was normally a man who showed no fear, protested.
“It’s too close to Elysium. The last thing you need is to get your crew annihilated in a bandit attack.”
He looked at Wenders sharply. Was he referring to what has happened on Earth, in Afghanistan? But that was not well known, the company had buried it deep. After all, the loss had cost the company billions of dollars, and it was not something they wanted to advertise to the shareholders. He decided it was no more than an innocent remark. Rahm went on to explain that the area was within the region assumed to be safe by the manager. He nodded and accepted it, but he clearly wasn’t happy.
“Think about it, men, we could get as much in one day from the rim of the Schiaparelli Crater as we do from three days elsewhere on the surface.”
“As long as we live to spend the money,” Brad muttered.
Rahm smiled. “We’re all going to live, and I promise we’ll get back in one piece. Brad, I want you to man the laser cannon again. Kaz, you’re our eyes and ears on the surface. Everyone else, work as usual.

When the indicators went off the scale they stopped the buggy at the side of the crater and the crew began to assemble the drilling equipment. After the problems of the past couple of days, the crew was exuberant.
“Damn, we’re going to be rich, man!” Saul Packer exclaimed as he dragged the drillhead out of the buggy and began to assemble it. Rahm smiled it was good to see they’d put the bad times behind them. Before he’d left his room that morning he’d checked the returns for his crew. It was a line that slid down like a ski slope, for they’d been hit with too many problems of late. A good, rich haul would do much to put them back on course. They worked through the day, the drill struck the seam of trevanium and they sent down the extractors. As the precious mineral poured out of the pipe into the cargo hold they felt their spirits lifting. Kacy smiled as she adjusted the alignment of the drillhead.
“We’re going for a record here, Rahm. I estimate we’ll take a month’s figures from this one site.”
“Provided it doesn’t peter out halfway through the day.” He wasn’t a pessimist, but neither did he want to build up anyone’s hopes.
She shook her head. “No way. I’ve looked at all the readings and run it through the analyzer. There’s enough for us to come back tomorrow and a few days after. We’ve struck the motherlode.”
“That’s good to know. I’ll pass it on to the others. We need to make damn sure we’re careful, I don’t want any equipment failures or Tauron attacks to disrupt this one.”
There were no attacks and no equipment failures that day. As they drove back to Mars Base every man in the team reflected that they’d at last turned the corner. The precious mineral was weighed in and the assayer’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
“Jesus Christ, there’s enough there to buy up half the planet. Where did it come from?”
Saul laughed. “Yeah, like we’d want the whole planet muscling in on us.”
The man shrugged. “I thought I’d try, it could be worth having some extra crews to work it and make sure the whole seam is stripped out.”
“We’ll manage, don’t worry.”
They celebrated their change of fortune that night, the Bourbon bottle passed around and around. Gabi Aaronsen joined them, for she was still at a loose end after the destruction of Grant Merkel’s crew. Rahm suspected she wanted to be assigned to his crew to complete her technician field training, but it was the last thing they needed. They’d had a run of bad luck that had ended today. They needed to rip the precious mineral out of the ground fast, and there was no time to worry about a rookie. Besides, he was growing fond of her. Another thing he didn’t need to divert his attention was a pretty girl on his crew. After Christine was killed, he vowed never again. No exceptions. Rahm had to call a halt before they were incapable of working the next day and they left the canteen groaning in mock anger. He whispered, ‘good night’, to Gabi, she responded but the look in her eyes stated that she wanted something more.
The following day they set out in high spirits for the Schiaparelli Crater. They set up in the exact same place as before and within twenty minutes the mineral was spewing into the cargo hold. The crew worked hard, once the trevanium started flowing the equipment needed constant attention to make sure that everything kept working. The surface of Mars was a harsh taskmaster, and nothing could be taken on trust. The biggest worry was the Taurons. Brad was stationed on the laser cannon and Kaz was positioned high on the buggy frame. Every time Rahm looked, his dark, hawk-like eyes constantly swept the surrounding ground for signs of aliens. They worked through the day without stopping, by mid-afternoon they were looking forward to another triumphant return to Mars Base. The problems started when Kacy’s air supply started to malfunction. By the time Rahm got to her she was gasping, struggling to draw breath. He could hear the sound of air hissing out, one of the pipes that transferred air from the reserve tank to her helmet had fractured. She was in deep trouble. All of the buggies carried reserve sets, so he lunged for the locker and opened the lid. It was empty. He cursed out loud. The mechanics who’d overhauled the vehicle had forgotten to replace them when the work was finished. She was desperate now, her face, already turned red, was becoming blue, and she was shaking in terror. She’d seen the empty locker, and he heard her voice over his helmet system.
“Please, please help me. I don’t want to die out here.”
“Kacy, listen to me,” he shouted. The other crew members had stopped work and drifted over to see what they could do to help.
“No one dies in my crew without my permission, you hear?”
She smiled uncertainly, still gasping at her ruined air supply. They all knew what Rahm was doing, what little air she had left was being drained at a faster rate because of her panic. She needed to relax while he sorted out the problem.
He shouted at Saul. “Bring me the toolbox and an air hose extension, I’m going to put an adapter into my own supply and link into Kacy’s, we’ll share it until we get back.”
The toolpusher rushed to the buggy and ripped out the equipment he needed and returned with the hose and a set of tools.
“Saul, you’ll have to do this for me. Uncouple my air supply, insert the adapter and fit the hose to Kacy’s helmet. Hurry it up.”
He nodded. “I’m on it. Don’t you worry, Kacy, you’ll be celebrating with the rest of us tonight.”
It took him four minutes to uncouple Rahm’s hose and couple his system into Kacy’s helmet. Almost instantly the color began to return to her face as she breathed in, taking huge gulps of air.
“How are you feeling now, can you carry on?”
She nodded. “I’m ok, yeah. We’ll have to work together like Siamese twins.”
He grinned. “I can’t think of a prettier twin to connect to.”
“You saved my life, Rahm. I owe you for this one. You know I could have died out here.”
“Hey, it was nothing. Listen, I told you, no one dies without my permission, you hear?”
“Whatever, but I owe you big time for this.”
“Ok, then. Buy me a beer when we get back and we’ll call it quits.”
“You’ve got it.”
He stayed with her, connected by a four-foot hose, while she continued to monitor the drillhead and make the continuous adjustments that kept the trevanium flowing. By the time they finished their shift, the cargo hold was full and they drove back with another record haul.
“Hey Rahm,” Saul asked him. “How long do you reckon we’ll be able to work that seam?”
“Kacy, you’re the best one to answer that question.”
“Based on what I’ve seen so far, and looking at the ground we’re working on, I’d guess we’ve taken about half what’s down there. It’s the largest concentration of trevanium I’ve seen, we’ve been lucky.”
“Luck ain’t got anything to do with it,” Saul replied. “We’re the best team in the business, bar none.”
She grinned. “You’ll get no argument from me.”
When they drove in, Tobin Ryles was in the garage making a nuisance of himself, as usual. As they stripped off their suits, they could see the annoyed expressions of the mechanics as he snapped at them, moaning about delays and unfinished work. When he saw Rahm arrive with two of the crew sharing an air supply he ran over.
“What the f*ck’s going on here, Rahm? You’ve got air supply problems? Don’t you know that the buggies carry spares?”
They stowed the gear in their lockers, Ryles wouldn’t leave them alone.
“I asked you a question, what happened out there?”
“It was nothing, just a mix up, we’re fine.”
He went to walk away, if he told Ryles the truth the mechanics would get it in the neck. He’d speak to them quietly, but as soon as they’d seen the shared life support system they’d know they’d make a mistake. They wouldn’t make another.
“The hell it’s nothing, I want to know exactly what happened.”
Rahm sighed. It had been a long hard day and they’d come back with a huge load of trevanium, all he wanted was to strip off, shower and change and share a drink with the guys in the canteen.
“Ask someone else, I’m leaving.”
“I’m asking you? What was it? Did you screw up, Rahm? Like last time?”
He felt himself getting angry. They guy was like a terrier, he wouldn’t give up.
“What are you talking about, what last time?”
“I’m talking about that business in Afghanistan, or have you forgotten already. You lost an entire research station, didn’t you? According to your file there was something about your fiancé, she was killed, I believe. Something about a problem you had, Rahm. What was it, a booze problem? Or was it drugs? Somehow the only person who got out was you. That’s very interesting.”
“Leave it out, Ryles, I’m warning you.”
The odious manager only sneered more broadly. “I run things around here, not you, so don’t go telling me what to do. I see something that worries me, I need an answer. Especially from someone like you, a man who hasn’t got the guts to take good care of his people.”
That was when Rahm hit him. Saul and Kaz were waiting behind to hold him and stop him getting violent, but he was too quick for them. His fist took the man on the point of his chin and he went down like a log, he lay on the floor for a few moments, knocked unconscious. Gabi Aaronsen had been watching and listening from the side of the garage, she ran over to help him.
“It’s ok, I can handle this. I trained as a medic as well as a technician. I’ll make sure he’s not too badly hurt.” She looked up and flared with anger. “You shouldn’t have hit him like that. The man was only doing his job. We’ve had enough violence around here.”
Rahm felt irritated that she was even prepared to soil her hands with Ryles.
“His job isn’t supposed to be telling lies about his crews. The best place for him would be out of the airlock.”
“Was it a lie?” she asked him. Her eyes were fixed on his, for some reason his answer was important to her. But he misread the signal.
“If you think that, you two should spend more time together, you’d make a perfect couple,” he snapped angrily.
He shouldn’t have said it, for no sooner were the words were out of his mouth than he regretted them. She was still hurting over her brother, she was just looking for assurance, and he’d bitten her head off.
Her look at him was pure hate. He stormed out of the garage and made for his quarters where his could wash off the incredible amount of shit that had hit him today.
It didn’t wash off, not easily. He spent a half hour in the shower and he still felt like crap. He dressed and sat on his bed to read a novel. After an hour there was a call for him.
“I want you in my office, now.”
Jacques Fechter, the Base manager. Of course, Tobin Ryles wouldn’t have lost any time in running to him to whine about Rahm hitting him. He got off the bed and walked through the passageways to the office. He went straight in without knocking, Ryles was sitting in a chair at the side of the office. His head was covered in a bandage that wrapped around his jaw and up over his head. The manager wore a look of fury.
“What the hell do you think you’re playing at, Rahm? You can’t go around punching my staff when you feel like it.”
“I hear you, Jacques. He started it, you keep this creep off my back and there won’t be a problem.”
“This ‘creep’ as you call him is my deputy manager, you should respect his position.”
“Yeah, when he respects mine I’ll do just that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean running around calling a crew boss a liar, for starters.”
Tobin stood up, his facing begging to redden with anger. “I said nothing of the sort,” he snarled, but it came out as a strangled whimper, his jaw was fastened up so that he couldn’t speak properly.
“Shut up, Tobin. Look, Rahm, I spoke to the guys in the garage, they said you were provoked,” he looked around with an irritated expression as Tobin started to protest again. “I said shut up, Ryles. You’ll damage the work the doc did on your jaw. Besides, I needed to hear what the others had to say about this little episode.”
He looked back at Rahm. “So in view of everything, I’ve decided to let it go this time. But I’m telling you, both of you,” he glared at Tobin Ryles. “I’m trying to run a professional operation here, so cut out the crap. I don’t want to hear any accusations and I don’t want to see any violence, clear? If you want to take a pop at someone, go find a Tauron to tangle with. No, forget I said that. Just save it, clear?”
Rahm nodded. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, that was a good haul of trevanium you brought in. Where did you find it?”
Rahm smiled. “Forget it.”
Fechter nodded. “Yeah, I wouldn’t say anything either. I’m sending a crew out further than usual tomorrow to try and increase the figures for the end of the contract. We’ve still got a long time to go and we’re behind with our quota. There’s a likely site at the edge of the Tyrrenha Plateau.”
“It’ll be risky, that’s close to Tauron territory.”
“I know. This’ll be a two buggy operation, we'll need the second vehicle will carry militia to guard the drillers. I was going to send your crew to do the drilling, but with this new site you’re working I know it’d be a waste of time asking.”
“Yes, it would. Is there anything else?”
He shook his head and Rahm left the office and went to the canteen.
They were all there, celebrating the big find. Saul was half drunk, the others were all well on the way. With the exception of Kaz Yasan. The Moslem was sitting quietly with a glass of orange juice. Josh DeVries and his crew were nearby, they were drinking but there was little celebration at their table. Rahm noticed that Gabi Aaronsen was with them, he walked over to say hello.
“Josh, what’s going on? Gabi, how are you?”
She nodded coolly without saying a word.
“We’re going out to the Tyrrenha Plateau in the morning, hadn’t you heard?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I saw Fechter earlier.”
“Did he call you in about that punch you delivered to Tobin Ryles?”
“Something like that.”
DeVries nodded. “Bastard deserved it. We’ve been queuing up to give him what he deserved.”
Gabi looked disgusted. “It was an unprovoked attack.”
DeVries fixed her with a stern expression. “Miss, whatever it was, it wasn’t unprovoked. The guy's been asking for it ever since he came here. If you want a good reason for what’s going wrong around here, look at Ryles. The useless bastard has been trouble ever since he landed.”
Gabi looked away, for she obviously didn’t want to agree.
“You watch your back out there tomorrow,” Rahm said to DeVries. “There’s been a lot of enemy activity out on that plateau.”
“We’ll be fine. Damian Hacker is leading the security team in the other buggy.”
Hacker was at least a pro. He’d been a Ranger on Earth, a Captain who’d led men into a number of heavy fire missions. More importantly, he’d led them out again. With a heavily armed six man security team in a back-up buggy, they’d be carrying some heavy firepower if there was any kind of a run-in with the aliens. But still, Rahm was uneasy. Gabi Aaronsen would be with them, her first mission since the murder of her brother. He caught her eye.
“Gabi, this is bandit country you’re going into. You should consider starting off nearer to home, there’s a lot that can go wrong out there.”
“I’m not scared,” she said in a voice that dripped with meaning.
He sighed, not prepared to argue. “Good luck with it, Josh.”
“You too, I heard you’re on a roll.”
“Yeah.”
He went back to his crew and downed a couple of shots of Bourbon, but he didn’t enjoy their company as much tonight. He looked across again to where Gabi was engage in conversation with one of Josh’s people. He’d messed up there, very badly, and he wasn’t quite sure how. Or how to put it right. Maybe he was fated with women, but that made him think of Christine Blake. That wasn’t fate, it was something else. He wasn’t quite sure what. When would he ever put that behind him?
They headed back to the Schiaparelli Crater next morning. Once again, Kaz kept watch and Brad manned the laser cannon. It meant they could get on with their work without worrying about an attack. Kacy was recovered from her ordeal and this time, Rahm had made certain that the spare air supplies were stowed in the vehicle locker. The trevanium poured into the cargo hold and they ended the day having to leave the site an hour early, they were full to capacity. They spent the journey back talking about what they were going to spend it all on. Kacy wanted to become an inventor, and she talked about funding a company to develop hi-tech gadgetry for mineral exploration. Saul speculated about opening a female wrestling arena, which got him into an argument with Kacy, who was an ardent feminist. He realized someone was talking to him.
“What about you, Rahm. What are you going to spend it on?”
He realized with a start that he had no plans. Ever since that terrible day when his operation had been shattered by the bandit raid and he’d left it all behind, he’d put his life on hold. Mars was somewhere to hide out, that was all. What would he do when he returned to Earth? All his soul craved was to find solace from the terrible loss of his station in Afghanistan. He managed to mutter something about a ranch, but they weren’t convinced and they left him alone. When they drove into the base garage to unload, and to have their haul weighed and then recover from the day’s labors, there was pandemonium.
“What the hell’s going on?”
Jacques Fechter was prowling around the garage, assessing the vehicle fleet and weapons inventory. He turned to Rahm.
“Do you want the bad news, or the much worse, really terrible news?”
Rahm smiled, what kind of a joke was this? It was rare that the manager tried to be funny.
He grinned. “Ok, I’ll play. Give me the easy bit first.”
“Josh DeVries’s crew was ambushed, a large force of Taurons.”
His thoughts flashed to Gabi. “Are they all dead?”
“No, so far they’re all ok. But they’re pinned down, Damian Hacker circled the wagons, he’s formed a defensive perimeter and so far they’re holding them off. Their most pressing problem is air, what they have left won’t last forever.”
“Right, so let’s got and get them out,” Rahm said, turning to shout for his crew to stop removing their suits. “What are we waiting for?”
“That’s the terrible part, my friend. The air scrubbing plant is playing up, I’ve got a team of engineers out there now but they’re not hopeful. If it breaks down completely, I’ll have to bring in the emergency lockdown procedure. That way, we’ll at least hold out until the relief ship arrives, but we’ll have to cut out all of our drilling operations.”
His team had come up behind him. Their exhilaration at the huge cargo of trevanium had evaporated.
“Hell, Jacques, we can’t stop drilling. We’ll all go home broke,” Brad said. His voice was filled with anger.
“Hold it, Brad,” Saul said to him. “The first thing is to get that crew out of trouble. We’ve got what, twelve of our people out there?”
“Thirteen, with Gabi Aaronsen, she’s on DeVries’s crew as a trainee.”
“Right, thirteen. So let’s go get them.”
“No ones leaving here, Saul. We need to wait and see what the engineers say about the air scrubbing plant.”
“Surely they can fix it,” he said with a note of anger.
“They’re not sure, none of them have been trained on that type of equipment, their specialty is drilling equipment, for Christ’s sake. This is a mining operation after all.”
They all went silent, thinking about the implications. A crew of drillers with their security team, under threat many miles from home. With the whole of their operation facing potential disaster from lack of air. They would get back to Earth with just their basic wages to look forward to. There would be no bonuses, nothing to represent many months of hard, dangerous labor. In addition, they could be carrying a shipload of corpses. Assuming that the Taurons left any corpses for them to take back.
“We’re not sitting back and taking this, Jacques,” Rahm said quietly. “First off, there must be someone here who knows about those air scrubbers, it’s not possible that on the entire Mars colony there’s not as single person who doesn’t know how to fix them.”
Fechter was silent for a moment, thinking. He looked up at them. “There was one person who did have some training on that gear, now let me think, who was it?” His face cleared. “Oh yeah, Gabi Aaronsen. She used to repair them before she went in for mineral exploitation technology. Yeah, she’s…” He stopped as he realized the appalling truth.
“We’ve got to get those people out,” Rahm said. “I don’t care what you say, because no way do I leave anyone for those Tauron bastards to eat for dinner. That’ll solve your problem too if she can fix the air scrubbers.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Tobin Ryle said as he walked into the garage. The man’s face was still swathed in bandages and he couldn’t speak properly, but they understood him enough to start shouting.
“We’re going,” one of the crew leaders shouted. “Let’s get the buggies moving, we’ll need plenty of firepower too.”
“You’re not listening to me,” Ryles said. “Mars Base is on shut down. I’ve just had a call from the engineers, the scrubbers have finally stopped working and there’s no way they can fix them. Standing orders are that Mars Base goes to the emergency lockdown as of this moment. No one goes in or out, all drilling operations are ended until the relief arrives.”
The garage was packed with people now as every member of the drilling crews, as well as the ancillary workers, came to find out the worst. The noise grew to a hubbub as everyone seemed determined to shout at once. Even the chief engineer, Dan Weathers, a normally taciturn man, looked furious. Probably it was his last contract before retirement. Rahm stepped forward.
“I don’t care about procedures, because we’re not leaving those people to die. We’re going after them.”
“You will not,” Ryles shouted as loudly as his damaged jaw would allow him. The base is closed. If you don’t accept my word, listen to what the Base doctor has to say.”
Dr Neil Price had entered the garage behind the deputy manager. He looked tired and haggard, a beaten man. They all knew that he had several patients in his medical center who were seriously ill. There’d been an accident only six months into the contract, five men had been injured when a drilling rig went out of control and broke up. Four of them were still on the critical list, twelve months afterwards. They needed to get back to Earth for microsurgery, for it was the only thing that could save them. There simply weren't the facilities inside Mars Base.
“My patients need all the air they can get. I have come to ask that you observe the lockdown procedure to give them a chance. If there is any kind of heavy demand on our remaining air, it could be the end for some of them. You men are able to cope with increased levels of carbon dioxide, these patients can’t. That is all, I know about our people out at Tyrrenha. If there is anything that can be done for them we should do it, of course. But please, do not use up what little air we have left in a useless endeavor is there is no chance of it succeeding.”
He turned and left, and the crowd began to disperse. Rahm went to his quarters, located a bottle of Bourbon and took it into the canteen. Saul Packer brought in a bottle of vodka and they sat sharing out the booze. Eventually, Packer looked at Rahm.
“Any ideas? Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I’m not thinking about anything.”
Saul grinned. “You’re always thinking about something, I know you too well. Tell me.”
“I can’t abandon those people, Saul. Somehow, we have to get them back.”
The toolpusher nodded. “I agree, but it’s not going to be easy. If we go out there and fight the Taurons we’ll burn up so much air that the rest of our people could be in serious trouble until the relief ship comes. I mean very serious, some of them could die without adequate air.” He looked thoughtful. “You know, I reckon that bastard Ryles worked it out, if we bring back DeVries’s crew, there’ll be a bigger demand on the remaining air. The bastard.”
“You could be right. But I’m going out to get them, so we’ll have to worry about the air later. Besides, Gabi Aaronsen may even be able to fix the scrubbers.”
“She’ll sure need to. Otherwise it’ll be touch and go without them. So you’re going?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I’m with you, Rahm. You know that, we’re all with you.”
He nodded his thanks. “We need to find out how bad things are before we leave, we need to see Fechter.”
The Mars Base manager was in his office, talking to the Chief Engineer, Dan Weathers. They looked up as the men walked in, Fechter nodded. “Yeah, I wondered now long it would take you two to get here.”
“We can’t leave them, Jacques. Whatever the other problems, we’ll sort them out later.”
“I feel badly too, but my hands are tied, I have to follow the rules.”
“We know that. You can follow the rules, we’re leaving right away. We’ll need buggy, weapons and as much air as you can spare for us.”
He shook his head, but he was smiling. “I thought it would pan out like this. I can spare you precious little, if the Taurons hit us we’ll be left here to carry the can without enough air to get us through the next few months. I can let you have ten hours, that’s it.”
Rahm shook his head. “You know we can’t get there and back and beat back the Taurons with only ten hours. Besides, DeVries’s crew may be running low, and they’ll need air to get them back.”
“I’m sorry, that’s it. I have the whole of Mars Base to worry about, ten hours is more than I can spare, but that’s all. Don’t push for more, because I’d be criminally negligent to let you have it.”
“I could tell you where to find more air,” the Chief Engineer said. “Enough for you to complete the rescue mission and have some to spare for Doc Price.”
They all looked at him in amazement. “Dan, you’ve been holding out on us! Where is it?” Fechter exclaimed.
“I only just remembered. You remember the Eastern Star, the ship that crashed in the Huygens Crater?”
They all remembered the crash, because it had been a severe setback to the whole program. Some said that it should have been shut down. The Eastern Star had just delivered a new party of miners and taken off the old crew, together with their valuable stocks of trevanium for the return journey. How it happened had been argued ever since, some said they were greedy and overloaded the ship. Others said it was a simple malfunction, a few insisted it was the result of a Tauron attack. The ship had lifted off as normal. When it reached a height of about ten miles something had gone wrong, the engines had failed and the ship plummeted back down to disappear into the Huygens Crater, a few miles south of the Schiaparelli Crater. Miraculously, the hull survived relatively intact, probably due to their frantic efforts to restart the engines. But all hands had perished, their bodies had been retrieved and they were sent back to Earth on the next transport.
“Is there any air on the ship we could salvage?” Rahm asked.
Weathers shook his head. “They retrieved the bottles of air and everything else of value, but they left the portable air scrubbers for some unknown reason. I believe there are about fifty of them in the ship’s emergency locker. You know that each portable scrubber has its own air reserve, I would guess those units would kit out your mission and help us out too when you get back here.”
“That’s what we’ll do. It’s on the way to the Tyrrenha Plateau, it couldn’t be better. Jacques, we have to go and do this, you know that.”
He nodded. “I know, it breaks every rule, but I’m not going to stop you. If you can bring back those portable units it’ll make the whole trip worthwhile.”
“Bringing back DeVries’s people will do that, Jacques.”
“Yes, you’re right, of course, Rahm.”
“Keep that little bastard Tobin Ryles of my back, would you.”
He grinned. He’s not so bad, but yeah, I’ll tell him to back off. You’re leaving now?”
“Right away. Saul, would you assemble the crew in the garage, suit up and make sure we have every weapon we can carry.”
“On my way.”
They watched the big toolpusher left the office. Rahm turned to the manager.
“What’s the latest word from the crew out there?”
For answer he got a blank look. “You mean you haven’t heard from them?”
Fechter shook his head. “Not for a couple of hours, no. The last message said that they were well dug in and defending themselves from about thirty Taurons. The enemy is well armed and they’ve blocked their only exit, they’re trapped in a narrow valley. Their power cells were hit in the initial attack and they’re running low on power, but otherwise they’re ok.”
“Air?”
“They said about eight hours.”
“That was two hours ago, Jacques. Now there are six hours left and it’ll take us four hours to get to the Eastern Star and pick up the portable air scrubbers, an hour to get them out of the crater and another hour to get to the Tyrrenha Plateau. If anything goes wrong those poor bastards are finished.”
“You’d better make sure that nothing goes wrong then. I know you can do it, Rahm. Bring them home.”
He nodded curtly and left.
Tyrrenha Plateau, Mars
He stood in full view of their guns, daring them to shoot. He’d staged the ambush with cunning. They came down this valley and set up their drilling rig. While they were busy he’d brought in a line of their unpowered transport lighters and used them to build a blockade across the valley’s mouth. It had been beautifully executed, they hadn’t suspected a thing. When one of their security patrols came upon it, he’d stood up and roared and the man turned tail and run back to his comrades, too scared to come and fight him like a warrior. They were pressing in close now, and there was no need for the blockade. His soldiers had gone forward and were sniping at the humans. He wasn’t sure if they’d hit anyone, but it didn’t matter. Sooner or later they’d run low on air, food, water or ammunition and they’d have to come out. Then it would be his time. Perhaps tonight, tomorrow at the latest, they’d feast on the flesh and blood of the humans. He looked across at the three Taurons that he’d lost when the humans used their laser cannon to repel one of their attacks. They’d died bravely. Tomorrow they’d be avenged, many times. They would soon know that the power of the Taurons was greater than they’d ever imagined. He stood tall and shouted to the distant mountains. The terrible, eerie, tremolo echoed across the barren Martian landscape.