Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (106 page)

Abby frowned. “It doesn’t look like
a diamond.”

“No, not on the outside. However,
if you were to cut it, I imagine it would look very much like a diamond inside,
but black.”

“Are they valuable?”

Susan shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s
hard to say. But on Earth one that size would probably be quite valuable.”

Abby stared intently at the rock.
“How valuable?”

“Jesus, Abby, who knows? If it is a
carbonado, it weighs out uncut at 702 carats. So, cut, I don’t know, maybe a
couple hundred thousand. Of course, since it’s from Mars, factor that by ten…
or a hundred.”

Abby grinned. “I’m rich.”

Jeff shook his head. “You’re
already rich.”

“Okay, now I’m a lot richer.”

“Point of order, NASA is paying for
sample return, so it probably belongs to them.”

Abby clutched the rock to her
bosom. “Over my dead body.”

Jeff frowned. “Yeah, it almost was…
twice.”

“Sorry.”

“Forget about it. Just don’t do it
again.”

“Right.”

“That’s not as funny as it may
sound,” said Susan. “This little exercise just about exhausted our stock of
major surgical supplies. Not only should we not do this again, we can’t.”

Abby, Gabe, and Jeff somberly
nodded.

After spending a moment
contemplating that thought, Jeff glanced at her. “So, Susan, in all these
rocks, any signs of life yet.”

She chuckled. “Um, like I would
have forgotten to mention it?”

Jeff laughed. “Just asking.”

“No, no signs of life.”

“Well, who knows? We may yet come
across something that crawled out of the primordial ooze.”

Gabe frowned. “I’d rather we
didn’t.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Because it might be hungry.”

He laughed again. “Alright, you
just have to remember what they say about coming face-to-face with a dangerous
bear.”

“And what’s that?”

“You don’t need to outrun the bear,
you only need to outrun whoever you’re with.” He grinned at Abby.

Abby rolled her eyes. “Great! Now
I’m dinner for the Martian primordial ooze monster?”

Jeff smiled. “Yeah. Payback’s a
bitch, isn’t it?”

Susan grinned. “Leaving aside
Abby’s nutritional value to Martian creatures…”

They all laughed.

“Um, what’s this going to do to our
exploration schedule? I mean, this place is a mineralogical gold mine. We
really should take advantage of it.”

Gabe bolted upright in her chair.
“Yeah! And I want to go see something… before I’m too fat to waddle around, or
stuck here breastfeeding a Martian.”

Jeff looked at Susan,
questioningly.

“Well, it’s still early. If it’s
not too far…” She shrugged.

Gabe grinned. “Yes! The Loire
Valles chaos is only about 20 kilometers from here. It’s on our shopping list,
and not much more than a day trip.”

Jeff sighed. “Well, okay.”

Gabe bit her lip, excited. “Can we
go tomorrow?”

“No.”

She frowned. “Why?”

“Well, in the first place, I just
got back from one rather trying little trip, and I’m tired. And second, we have
a ton of maintenance to do: rovers, Genesis, Sabatiers, fuel transfers, solar
panels, incinerator, compost, blah, blah, blah. And with Abby laid up, you get
the job.”

Gabe cringed. “Ugh.”

“But… assuming we get all that
done, if you want to go sightseeing next week, okay, I’m up for a road trip.”

Gabe hopped out of her seat and
pumped her fist. “Yes!”

Monday, January 22,
2017

MSD 50856.435 (Sol
106)

Gabe flinched. “Eh, that’s cold.”

“Whiner.” Susan continued smearing
gel over Gabe’s belly while Jeff and Abby watched with considerable interest.

“Will you be able to tell what it is?”
said Abby.

“Doubtful,” Susan said, shaking her
head, “it’s too early.”

Gabe frowned. “It is not an ‘it’.
It is a boy or a girl.”

Abby leaned on her crutches and
grinned. “Considering it’s yours and where we are, uh, I wouldn’t entirely rule
out ‘it’ just yet.”

Gabe growled.

Jeff chuckled and smiled at Abby.
“I’d be careful if I were you. You know, she’s moved up a weight-class since
the last time she nearly took your block off.”

Abby frowned. “Uh, good point.” She
worked her jaw back and forth. “I think I still have a couple loose fillings.”

He laughed. “Just shut up and
watch.”

Susan wiped the gel off her hands,
picked up the ultrasound probe and slowly began sliding it across Gabe’s belly.
“Now, hold still.” Almost instantly an image appeared on the laptop screen.
“There we go.”

Gabe lurched up. “What is it?”

“Hold still!”

“Sorry.”

Susan tried again. “Ah, there’s our
little Martian.”

Abby shook her head. “Now there’s a
sobering thought.”

Gabe sat up again. “Where?”

“Keep it up and I’m going to nail
you down.” Susan pointed at the screen. “This oval dark area here is your
uterus filled with amniotic fluid. And this…” pointing to a C-shaped blob in
one corner, “… is your child. Whom, I would note, is being particularly
cooperative.”

Gabe gasped, “Oh my god!”

“Alright, let’s see. Let me measure
this.” Susan used the mouse and keyboard to draw a scaled line across the
‘blob’. “Hmmm, CRL of 5.5 centimeters.”

“Is that good or bad?” said Gabe.

“Just a minute.” She zoomed in on
the fetus’ image and measured the nuchal translucency, the amount of fluid
behind the neck. “Uh, okay, looks like 2.2 millimeters.”

“What does all that mean?” Gabe
persisted with some agitation.

“It means that your child is
boringly normal.”

Gabe grinned ecstatically.

“The CRL or ‘crown-rump length’ is
a growth measurement and 5.5 centimeters is exactly where it should be for this
gestation period, and a nuchal translucency of 2.2 millimeters indicates a low
probability of Down Syndrome.” Susan patted Gabe’s belly. “So, looks like
you’re good to go. Here, I’ll get some more pictures.”

“Are you going to do an amnio?”
said Jeff.

“No, it’s not indicated. That’s an
invasive procedure that carries some risk. At this point I don’t see where it’s
warranted. Like I said, everything looks boringly normal.”

Abby grasped Jeff’s shoulder and
shook him gently. “Welcome to fatherhood.”

Jeff grinned and chuckled. “Wow.”

“Excited?”

Jeff nodded. “Beyond words.”

“Can you tell if it’s a boy or
girl?” Gabe asked.

“No. Like I said, too early. We’ll let it bake for
another six weeks or so and check again. But I think it’s safe to say that it
will be one or the other.”

“Are you sure?” Abby chuckled.

Gabe snarled. “Keep it up and I’m
going to break your other leg.”

“Please don’t,” Susan replied,
“I’ve got my hands full as it is. Just hold still.”

Wednesday, January
25, 2017

MSD 50858.556 (Sol
108)

“Okay, Gabe, I understand your
interest in chaos regions, they’re fascinating and exotic terrain, and I’m
interested in them too; but not this one. Remember what John Grant said? That
chaos probably formed as a result of Amazonian epoch water flow from the Loire
that ponded east of the volcano. So, it seems to me that if we want to find
evidence of water and fluvial deposits, the best place to look is just east of
the volcano. And on the way down, we can hit the lava fields, the crater, and
those really neat canyons that were obviously cut by something. Furthermore,
it’s a lot easier to get to.”

Gabe frowned and whined, “But I
want to see a chaos.”

“Wouldn’t you rather see one of the
ones at either end of the Morava Valles?”

“Yeah. But by then I’m gonna have a
baby.”

Jeff sighed. “So take the baby with
you.”

“Huh?”

“Why not? People take kids on trips
all the time.”

“On Mars?”

“Sure, why not? Just think of the
bedtime stories you can tell him… her… whatever.”

“Whatever?”

Jeff rolled his eyes. “Uh, never
mind.”

“Jeff, the south Morava Chaos is
over a 100 kilometers, that’s four days minimum just to get there. And the
north is 150 plus, that’s a week on the road, each way. They’re too far. With a
baby, we couldn’t do it. The Loire Chaos is only a day’s drive, and we were
almost to it when we moved
Pathfinder
; we know the way. We have tracks
to follow. And from there we can turn west, follow the Valles, and hit all
those other sites on the way back.”

He groaned. “Alright. But when we
get to the volcano if we can’t find a safe way down, we turn around and do it
my way. Okay?”

Gabe grinned. “Okay.”

“In the meantime we have a lot of
maintenance to do, so let’s get to it.”

“Okay.”

Monday, January 30,
2017

MSD 50863.301 (Sol
113)

In the airlock, Abby stood staring
at them. “You sure you guys will be okay?”

Gabe smiled and nodded.

Jeff shrugged.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Well,
give us a call if you get stuck or need help. We can be there in a couple hours
with
Andy
, but it’ll take all day to get there with
Jake
.”

Jeff nodded. “Roger that. Alright, see you in a
week.”

“Have fun. Try not to fall in any
holes.”

“Yeah.” Jeff and Gabe climbed into
the Genesis, closed the hatch as Abby closed the inner hatch, released from the
airlock, commanded
Amos
to head for
Pathfinder
via the best-known
route, and headed off. “Are you sure you don’t want to suit up, sit in
Amos
,
and see the sights?”

Gabe shook her head. “I’d rather not. Though it’s
much better now, I’m still having occasional bouts of morning sickness. I think
the less time I spend in a suit, the better.”

“Gotcha. How far along are you
now?”

“Thirteen weeks. Second trimester
begins tomorrow.” She grinned. “Another four or five weeks and I should have a
baby bump.”

He patted her belly. “Wow, already
a third of the way there.”

She clasped his hand. “Yeah.”

“Are you feeling better?”

“Yes. Sue was right, the first
trimester is hell, but it’s getting a lot better.”

He smiled and nodded. “Good. So,
about five or six hours to
Pathfinder
?”

“Uh huh.”

“You think we should stop there for the night?”

“I’d say press on as long as we
have some daylight. If we can find a descent path, we may be able to make it
down into the chaos before dark, then go exploring first thing in the morning.”

“Alright. But we’re gonna be
cautious and take our time. Like Abby said, if we get stuck, it’d be at least a
day before they could get to us with
Jake
.”

“I know.”

“Okay. So, what do you want to do
to kill six hours? Watch the scenery on the video screens, or play cribbage?”

“How about both?”

Jeff frowned. “Both? You know I
can’t multitask. We try and watch TV and play cribbage at the same time, and
you’ll whip my ass.”

Gabe chuckled. “I’ll whip your ass
anyway, so what difference does it make?”

#

Five and a half hours later
Amos
pulled to a stop alongside
Pathfinder
.

Gabe scratched her head. “So, what do we do now?
Follow Abby and Sue’s tracks?”

Jeff shook his head. “I don’t think
so. Based on THEMIS imagery I think we should turn east until we intercept the
minus 1,500 contour, then follow it and that ‘S’ shaped ridge right down into
the chaos.”

“That’s 20 kilometers.”

“Yeah, I know. But it puts us in a
good spot to explore the chaos, and gives us an exit to the west down the
Valles toward the confluence.”

“It’s steep.”

“Yeah, but not as steep as the
south face of the volcano.” He yawned and glanced at his watch. “It’s almost
1400. We need to suit up and get in
Amos
to do this so we can see where
the hell we’re going. We haven’t even had lunch yet, and I’m hungry. I vote we
camp here for the night, and tackle this descent in the morning. What say you?”

She smiled and shrugged. “Alright.”

Jeff chuckled. “You’re awfully easy
today.”

“It’s fun just to be out… and alone
with you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Ah. Well,
maybe we can find something to do to keep us busy this evening.”

Gabe wrinkled her nose and grinned.

Tuesday, January 31,
2017

MSD 50864.354 (Sol
114)

“You ready?” said Jeff.

“Yeah, all set.”

“Okay, here we go.” He opened
Genesis’ outer airlock and stepped out. Gabe followed. She closed the hatch and
they climbed into
Amos
. “Abby? You there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Okay, we’re in
Amos
and
about to head down into the Chaos. We’re gonna go east-southeast until we
intercept the minus 1,500-meter contour and follow that, then enter the chaos
about 300 meters north of the old eroded crater southeast of Frying Pan. You
know the one?”

“Yeah, I know it.”

“Okay, from there we’re just gonna
follow that canyon to the bottom. You’ll probably lose comms with us via
Pathfinder
pretty soon, so switch to UHF via the orbiter. We’re gonna take it nice and
easy, and probably stop along the way for samples and snapshots. It’ll probably
take us most of the day to get down there.”

“Rog. Have a nice trip. Don’t
forget to send us a postcard.”

He laughed. “Will do, if we can
find a mailbox. Later. Out.” He eased forward on
Amos
’ throttle and
headed down the sandy slope. “Gabe, do you have any idea why, except for the
monolithic rocks, this whole area is nothing but sand?”

“No.”

“The MSL found lots of bedrock in
Gale, with just a light covering of dust. What’s so different about this
place?”

“I don’t know. Gale is a crater,
and this isn’t. There are lots of theories, but nobody really knows. Four billion
years of weathering of unknown nature? It’s all just guesswork. But if we do
our part maybe we can in some small way advance the science.”

After two hours and about 10
kilometers of slowly descending over small sand dunes through a two
kilometer-wide valley, Jeff pulled to a stop. “Um, this doesn’t look good.
Let’s take a walk.” They climbed out of
Amos
and strolled a hundred
meters down the valley before coming to a drop-off. “Ugh. That’s got to be a
45º slope, and at least 100 meters down. We can’t go down there.”

“We could without the Genesis.”

“Yeah, but I’d rather not. We’d
just have to turn around and come back. Come on, let’s go take a look at the
map and see if can find an easier way down.”

“Okay.”

They returned to
Amos
and
brought up several THEMIS and Viking Mola images. Jeff pointed to the western
portion of the chaos boundary. “I don’t see anything promising to the north. Do
you?”

“No, not unless we went all the way
up and around this portion of the chaos.”

“God, that’s gotta be 40 kilometers,
and we still wouldn’t be in it.”

“Okay, what about south; down here,
west of this crater. The slope seems fairly gentle, not much more than 5º, and
we can follow the contour out this ridge then drop straight in somewhere around
here.”

“Alright. Plan B, or by now, Plan
C, would be to follow the east slope of the volcano all the way down into the
Valles, then turn back up into the chaos.”

“Works for me.”

“And if that doesn’t work, we go
home and rethink the trip.”

“Okay. Jeff, since we’re not going
to be able to climb these city-sized blocks, I suggest we take samples from any
bedrock that we run across on the way down. From those, maybe somebody on Earth
can figure out what went on here.”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s go.”

Another two hours and Jeff pulled to
a stop beside their first chaos monolith, a rock the size of a small town and
200 meters tall. “Holy shit!”

Gabe stared at it. “Yeah, and this
is just a pebble.”

“Uh huh. Okay, grab a camera and
some baggies. I’ll get the drill. We need to do this and keep moving.”

“Okay.”

They collected their gear and
walked up to the rock face. Jeff looked up. “Good grief, we may as well be
standing in the Grand Canyon, and we’re nowhere near the bottom.”

“Impressive, isn’t it.”

“That would be one word for it.” He
poked his finger at the rock wall ahead of them. “I say we drill here.”

“Drill away.”

“Okay, get a baggie underneath and
catch the tailings.”

“Ready.”

Jeff drilled three inches into the
stone. “Got it?”

“Yes, I have it.”

“Alright, tag it and let’s get
going.” As he settled into his seat in
Amos
he said, “You know, it took
the MSL about three months to do something like that.”

Gabe chuckled. “I just worked on it. It wasn’t my
idea.”

Three hours and half a dozen
samples later they finally arrived at the bottom of the chaos in a
kilometer-wide valley bordered by 200 to 300 meter-high rock walls. Jeff
stopped. “Okay, sweetie, we’re here.” They got out and looked around. “God,
this reminds me of portions of Glen Canyon in Utah, but with sand instead of
water.”