A Step Beyond (33 page)

“We should collect our gear first.” He opened the comm channel to the
Gagarin
. “Takashi, can you see it?”

“Yes, yes. Please make haste.”

Satomura was to take the miniature rover into areas of the tube that the astronauts felt might not be safe. The rover was to be equipped with several comm relay units that it could drop off along the way in order to extend its range.

It took nearly fifteen minutes to prepare the equipment, which consisted of flashlights, ropes, aseptic samplers, scoops, tongs, picks, brushes, sample-collection bags, and the comm relay units. As Carter finished packing the last of the items, he saw the rover take off ahead of them.

They were careful as they descended into the riverbed. Although the decline of the bank was not so steep that it was difficult to negotiate, the surrounding basaltic rock was quite sharp. This troubled Nelson, but he did not say anything. Their instructions had been clear. They were not to take any unnecessary risks and were to limit their exploration to the first two hundred meters, unless they spotted something of unusual scientific value. Satomura was to assist them in that determination.

The miniature rover darted into the dark entrance of the tube. Carter turned on the halogen flashlight and waited for Nelson to catch up with him. He attempted to look into the cave, but the dim sunlight outside was too bright for his eyes to adjust. They placed a comm relay unit at the entrance of the tube.

Colonel Nelson stepped inside with Carter immediately behind. They froze in astonishment at the sight that stretched out before them. The cavern was huge. To think that it had been formed by flowing lava was almost beyond comprehension. The halogen light barely reached the other end. It seemed to Carter that a fleet of ocean liners could fit inside of it. The rock was reddish black and porous. Light streamed from the cracks and pits in the ceiling and was diffused by thin vaporous clouds. They were about twenty meters from the floor of the tube, and after nearly a minute of scanning their surroundings with the narrow beams of their flashlights they commenced their descent.

“We need to find the source of that moisture,” Satomura declared.

Carter looked around for the rover and saw that it was almost out of view. Upon reaching the floor of the tube, the two astronauts stood speechless as they scanned the walls of the cavern. The tube extended as far as the eye could see in either direction.

“We are to go northwest,” Nelson said, and pointed the flashlight where they had last seen the rover. “Toward the volcano. It looks as if the temperature has risen a few degrees.”

“Thermal activity,” Satomura replied. “It was expected. But there is no need to be concerned. Olympus Mons has been dormant for several million years. An eruption would be a spectacular sight though. Don’t you agree?”

The astronauts did not bother to reply.

The floor of the cavern was remarkably smooth, but littered with rocks that had evidently fallen from the walls and the ceiling. Carter bent down and picked up a rock that was the size of his fist. It looked much like the rocks he had seen on the surface, which he knew meant the rock was rich in iron. The orange tint was rust. He tossed it before him as if he were skipping a rock on a pond. Nelson looked at him disapprovingly.

They struck out in the direction that they had last seen the rover. The cavern seemed to go on forever. The occasional pit in the ceiling made Nelson uneasy, but Satomura assured him that there was nothing to be concerned about. They only stopped once to collect samples. They would fill their bags on the return trip in order to limit the length of time they would be carrying the additional weight. Upon reaching the two hundred meters, Carter suggested that they break to eat lunch, and plopped himself on a rock before Nelson had time to object. The miniature rover was nowhere in sight.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Carter said after a while. Nelson nodded in agreement. He was looking in the direction of the rover, wondering where Satomura had gotten off to. The meal of rehydrated mixed vegetables he sucked in through the tube was barely palatable. When he had finished eating, he stood up and shined the halogen light down the length of the cavern. “We’re about to head back, Takashi.”

“I may have found something of interest,” Satomura said excitedly. “It is a passageway that is not part of the tube. Both temperature and barometric pressure have increased remarkably. Some sort of heat anomaly. Most likely volcanic in origin. Could be cryptovulcanism, which is subsurface magmatic intrusion. I may need you to check it out.”

“How far are you from our position?” Nelson asked hesitantly.

“The entrance to the passageway is approximately three hundred meters from your current location.”

“I’m not so sure we can do that,” Nelson said.

“Give me a few more minutes. I suspect that I am near the source.”

“We could collect some samples while we wait,” Carter said. If Satomura was on to something, he wanted to see it. But he knew that Nelson wasn’t keen on the idea. He also knew that whenever it suited Nelson’s purpose the letter could very easily become the law. To his surprise, Nelson concurred.

They thought of the passage as they worked. It wasn’t necessary for them to concentrate on what they were doing. They had collected many samples already, and knew instinctively which ones the scientists were most interested in. The actual selection of which rocks were to go back to Earth with them would take place at the lander. They had filled several bags when Satomura interrupted their work.

“I’ve found the source,” he said, his voice trembling. “You may want to pull up the video feed from the rover.”

They did as he requested, and in a window on their heads-up display there appeared the inside of a cave. There was a large body of water. Occasionally, a bubble appeared at the surface and burst, sending ripples outward. Steam was rising from the walls of the cave, and a heavy cloud hung over the water. Although they could not be certain, the walls seemed to be of different colors.

“Now watch this,” Satomura said, as if he were a magician. He turned the lights of the rover off and for a moment the image in the window went black. But then colored lights began to appear. The walls of the cave were glowing. Patches of red and green and blue and purple shone dimly from the walls. The water seemed to be flickering. A light would appear, then disappear.

“What on Earth is it?” Nelson asked.

“Not exactly an appropriate expression, is it?” Satomura replied. “What you are witnessing is not terrestrial.”

“Spare me the lesson in semantics. I just want to know what it is.”

“I suspect the walls of the cave are composed of phosphorescent rock. Although I must admit, I am a bit puzzled about the light in the lake. It is probably pebble-sized fragments of phosphorescent rock being brought to the surface by the bubbles. Although its movement seems to suggest something else.”

“Something else?”

“If you watch closely, there is random horizontal movement. Since the movement is random, we have to eliminate current. It’s almost as if the lights are moving by their own power.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“Well, I am reluctant to say until I’ve had a better look.” He paused for a moment. “However, if I were to speculate, I would say that the light is being produced by an aquatic life-form.”

“There are fish in that lake?” Carter asked incredulously. “Fish? Well, I suppose you could call them that,” Satomura replied. “The only way to determine for certain is for you to go there.”

“How far is the lake from our current position?” Nelson asked.

“Approximately six hundred meters.”

There was a pause as Nelson considered this.

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Carter said.

“Suppose it is a life-form?” Nelson said. “How do we know it’s not dangerous?”

“For crissakes,” Carter said. “What do you think we have here? Some kind of space monster?”

Nelson scowled at Carter. Their conversation would be heard back on Earth.

“Switching to voice channel nine,” Nelson said. The channel allowed them to speak privately. “I don’t know what we have here. What I do know is that I am responsible for our safety. I must evaluate the risk.”

“It’s a damn fish. Fish don’t just jump out of the water and attack you.”

“Takashi?”

“To speculate that it is a fish or any other form of life is premature. I suggest we take the rover to the edge of the water and see what happens. If whatever is in there doesn’t attack the rover, then we can probably assume that it won’t attack you.” Satomura emphasized the word
attack
so that it was clear that he felt the measure was an unnecessary precaution.

Nelson considered Satomura’s suggestion, attempting not to be annoyed by his tone.

“We’ll observe the area for ten minutes and then decide.” The rover pulled up to the lake and stopped. They watched the occasional ripple and the flickering lights, and the more they watched the lights the more they convinced themselves that their source was something other than fragments of phosphorescent rock. The light was clear, unlike the colored rock on the cave wall. Sometimes it zigzagged, but it never lasted for more than a few seconds. They watched the water in anticipation of something breaking the surface. At the end of ten minutes, Carter motioned that he was switching back to voice channel nine.

“I say we check it out.”

“We still don’t know what it is. I think we should speak with mission control first.”

“Jesus,” Carter said. “That’ll take at least forty-five minutes, and then there’s no guarantee that they’ll let us go. This may be our only chance. I say we take it.”

“If the risk is yours,” Satomura said, “so should be the decision.”

Carter could see that this angered Nelson, who, when in doubt, usually did things by the book. Nelson walked up to a rock and placed his foot upon it. He looked down the cavern and estimated in his mind how long it would take to traverse the distance. Nearly a minute passed before he announced his decision.

“OK, we go, but we turn back the moment I feel it is not safe.”

“I agree,” Carter said, relieved.

They decided to leave the samples they had collected on top of a rock that could be easily seen from a distance. Carter dumped out the contents of one of the bags in hope of filling it with something of greater importance. Nelson noticed, but did not say anything. He was preoccupied, wondering how he would justify his decision to mission control. They had already gone as far as they were authorized, unless they discovered something of scientific value. This clearly qualified, but the nature of their discovery bothered him. He knew that they should probably observe the site for at least a day. But even then there was always the possibility, for whatever reason, that NASA might not let them go. Time was short. They were to launch in five days. He knew this might be their only chance, and he, like the others, was convinced the light in the lake was more than just phosphorescent rock.

They walked quickly in the direction of the cave, the beams of their flashlights swaying up and down with their footsteps. The mist above their heads seemed to grow thicker, but the change was not great enough for them to be certain. The occasional opening in the ceiling threw faint rays into the mist. The ground sloped downward, and Carter estimated that they were at least fifty meters beneath the surface. This struck Carter as odd since they were heading toward the volcano, but he could see in the distance that the ground sloped upward again. Carter was thinking of the cave that Satomura had found. It seemed to him that the lights could only be one thing. Martian life. A life-form that was far more substantial than what Satomura had discovered at the geyser. The very thought filled him with excitement and apprehension.

They were at the entrance of the cave within what seemed only a matter of minutes. The comm relay unit left by the rover was at their feet. Nelson took the lead. The entrance was only large enough for one person to pass through at a time. A white mist was blowing out from the entrance. It was clearly the source of at least some of the moisture. Carter had to keep an eye on the roof of the passage to keep from striking his helmet against it. He could touch the walls on either side of him. They were different from the walls of the lava tube. The rock was not porous and wasn’t as dark. It reminded him of the rock he had seen in caves on Earth. He stayed several feet behind Nelson so as not to bump into him. They were descending deeper beneath the surface. After they had walked nearly two hundred meters, the ground began to rise. They paused to catch their breath. The outside temperature was getting warmer, and they adjusted their liquid cooling garments to compensate. Carter swung the flashlight beam from his feet to the roof. The passage was becoming narrower. Nelson came to an abrupt stop.

“What is it?” Carter asked.

“We’re at the entrance,” Nelson replied. He stepped forward, and Carter passed through after him.

The image presented by the rover had made the cave seem smaller than it actually was. Although there was a heavy mist in the air, they could see that the cave stretched several kilometers out from where they stood and that the roof was about fifty meters high. There were stalactites hanging from the roof. The rover was at the edge of the lake, about twenty meters away. The lake appeared to occupy the entire cave, except for the narrow shore that encircled it. They could see lights flickering in the water. The astronauts did not move. Instead they took their flashlights and scanned their surroundings. The ground at their feet was relatively smooth and seemed solid. There were patches of dim light on the wall.

“I suspect the cave is several hundred million years old,” Satomura said. “Mars is not subject to the destructive force of plate tectonics, so structures like this can survive for quite some time.”

Both Nelson and Carter were watching the lights in the water.

“The temperature of the lake,” Satomura continued, “is three hundred and seven degrees Kelvin, which is remarkably high and, of course, above freezing. The temperature of the atmosphere is two hundred and seventy degrees.”