Red Hope (16 page)

Keller fell to the ground and did not move. His last
breath was now part of the billowing Mars breeze. Adam rolled him onto his side
and unlatched Keller’s oxygen tank.

“I’m sorry Keller. I’ve got a family that depends on
me.
You don’t
.”

A lone astronaut jogged across the surface of Mars under the grayish
maroon sky. Each step kicked up a cloud of red. Her footsteps led directly from
the Big Turtle; she was clearly following the tire tracks left by the multiple
golf cart trips. She said out loud to herself, “Don’t slow down, Molly! This is
where years of jogging pays off!”

She was dragging behind her the only extra oxygen tank
they had that was full; otherwise Yeva would have been with her. In Molly’s
left hand she had a crowbar. She had heard the crackly final message left by
Adam and was racing to the pyramid to see if she could save them.

She paused and bent over to catch her breath. A
reflection in her visor made her look up. In the distance she saw a fountain of
red dust. It was getting taller. Soon she could make out that it was the golf
cart racing toward her. She squinted and saw that it only had one person
sitting in it. She started waving at it to stop. It continued full speed toward
her.

As the golf cart came closer, Molly saw that it was
swerving erratically trying to follow the old tire tracks like a drunk driver
was handling it. The driver wasn’t slowing down and Molly jumped out of the way
to keep from getting hit. She was showered in a cloud of red sand as the golf
cart passed her by and kept on going.

“Hey Yeva, this is Molly. I’m halfway there and the
golf cart just drove past me toward Big Turtle. Somebody is driving toward you
fast.”

“Then you should come back too,” answered Yeva.

“But there was only one person in the cart. Should I
continue on to the pyramid just in case?”

Yeva didn’t reply. Her silence acknowledged what they
were both thinking. Finally, Yeva stated the obvious.

“If there was only one person driving, I assume the
other one is dead. You should just come back home now.”

Molly felt like she’d been punched in the gut and
started to hyperventilate.

She whispered quietly in her helmet, “Please, dear
God, let it be Keller in the golf cart.”

The golf cart continued screaming along through the
Martian dust and grit. Adam could no longer see in color; only brief images in
black and white as he dazed in and out of consciousness. He saw the Big Turtle
and knew that he had to get near the door. He misjudged the distance and crashed
it into the side of the ramp. He was thrown out and landed near one of the Big
Turtle’s support legs.

Adam crawled up the ramp and into the airlock. He had
to forcefully grab each of his legs and pull them into the little room. He
yanked the outside door shut. Adam could hear the air flooding in as Yeva spun
the valves to help pressurize it faster than usual. He ripped off his helmet
and gasped the deepest breath of his life. The tunnel vision subsided, but he
still couldn’t see colors. Then the door to the ship interior flew open.

Yeva screamed, “Where is Keller! Why isn’t he with you!
What happened!”

Adam reached up toward her with his hand, but it fell
down again. He was gasping heavily now and eked out a pathetic, “Keller..., he…
we…”

He gulped another huge breath of air.

“We got trapped and...”

Adam was hyperventilating. His vision went blurry.

“He didn’t.  He, uh.  Keller… he…”

Adam passed out and his head slumped to the floor.

Adam’s eyes popped open. It was dark. No sunshine came through the
windows. It must be the middle of the night, he thought to himself. How much
time had passed? He felt around in the darkness. He must be lying in the
medical bed. Sensor cables were hooked up to his temples.

Adam swung his legs carefully out of bed letting his
feet quietly touch the cold floor. He stood up trying to clear his foggy brain.

“Was it a dream?” he hoped out loud. Adam looked over
at the bed stations. Yeva and Molly were there. Keller’s bed was empty.

“Oh no,” whispered Adam.

His lungs still hurt. He shuffled over to the communication
station being careful not to pull the wires from his sensors. There was a light
blinking near the microphone which meant they had a message from Mission Control.
He looked back to make sure everybody was asleep. Adam put on the headphones
and pushed the play button.

“Okay crew, this is Chris Tankovitch. We heard about the
terrible news. I am sorry you have to deal with this. Keller’s assistant Lydia has
been notified, but we haven’t made any public announcements. We just had an
emergency meeting and, well, you’ll have to bury him there. Without
refrigeration it wouldn’t be safe to keep him in either the housing unit or the
return capsule. And you just can’t strap him to the outside.”

Adam considered the grim task ahead and cringed.

The message from Chris continued, “So, you’ll have to
play it by ear, but do the best you can. So far we think you should continue
the mission until completion, but that’s up to you. Oh, and Molly, we received
the uploaded photos from Adam and Keller’s investigation of that floating cube
thing. Unfortunately, the video upload from Adam’s helmet is taking a really long
time. Just let it run overnight. We’ll review it when it’s finished.”

Adam was suddenly frozen in fear. His pulse
skyrocketed and the health monitoring computer that he was hooked up to started
beeping.

“Crap!” he said.

Adam tried to think happy thoughts. Quickly. Sun
beams! Sun beams! His pulse calmed down and the beeping stopped. Yeva and Molly
didn’t wake up.

He searched the desktop and found the battered helmet
that he’d worn on the mission. The upload cable was plugged into the video
camera. The light was blinking which meant the upload was still in progress.
Adam reached over and yanked out the cable. In the brief moments of lucidity
during the wild drive back, he had hoped to discuss the event with his crew and
Mission Control before they watched the helmet video. That was unlikely to
happen now. Adam had no idea how much Mission Control had already received.

Just then bright light from the sunrise tore through
the window edges and lit up the room with a dull grey glow. It was morning on
Mars. The automatic blinds slowly rolled up.

Adam went back to the medical bed and sat down to
think over the previous days’ events in his head. After ten more minutes, the morning
wakeup call came from their ship computer. It was a mechanical voice saying,
“Rise and shine!” The voice was way too happy for the mood on Mars. Molly and
Yeva slowly stirred from their sleep and woke up. Adam stood up and put
together breakfast for everybody.

Yeva was the first to show; Molly was in the bathroom.
Yeva looked around to make sure Molly couldn’t hear her and she whispered to
Adam, “Molly isn’t doing so well. She’s very upset. Be careful what you say,
okay?”

Adam nodded without making eye contact.

They sat down to their bland tubes of raisin bran and
coffee. However, nobody could eat. After they could take no more of the quiet,
Yeva spoke.

“Adam, please tell us what happened out there.”

Adam took a drink of coffee and stared at the table.

“A Marsquake caused the door to close on us and we
were stuck inside. In order to get out, we used one of our oxygen tanks as an
air hammer to knock the door down.”

Adam looked up at their intense faces. He added, “We
were down to one tank without enough air for both of us. And then I,
we
,
had to make a terrible decision.”

Molly started to cry and bellowed out, “He gave up his
life for you?”

“Yes. He saved my life,” said Adam plainly.

She was leaning on the table with her hands covering
her face sobbing loudly.

That was all Adam was willing to say. The head-mounted
video camera didn’t record sound because there was none on Mars due to the thin
atmosphere. Without hearing the actual words exchanged between them in the
pyramid, Adam realized that his talk of the hero Keller would eventually be
questioned due to his own actions. Hopefully, he thought, someday his own
explanation would add context to the unfortunate video that Yeva and Molly hadn’t
watched yet. But surely Chris and NASA had watched it by now.

Molly was trying to slow her tears. Her nose was
pouring snot.

“Look, I understand this is an awful thing,” said
Adam. “He died a hero. I’ll go back to the pyramid today and get him, okay?
We’ll give him a proper burial with full honors.”

“You broke the golf cart during your trip back. You
will have to go there on foot,” Yeva explained.

Adam sighed and nodded; bad news after bad news.

He got up and hugged Molly saying, “I’m so sorry this
happened.” Then he walked over to the medical bed, sat down and turned away
from the two women. He was incapable of processing anything else right now. All
he could think about was having a video-conference with his family, but that
would have to wait a few more hours.

Late morning finally arrived and Adam suited up for
his long workday. He had three tasks when he got outside. First, see if the
golf cart was easily repairable. It wasn’t. The second task was to dig a grave.
Below the dusty surface, the ground was impacted and very hard to dig. The
digging process took him so long that he had to replace his oxygen tank.

Now for his final task. Walk to the pyramid and
retrieve not only Keller, but the anti-gravity cube that he’d left. It would
most likely be his last trip to the pyramid. Getting home was all he cared
about now.

Adam followed the golf cart tracks as well as Molly’s
footprints from the day before. It was by far the longest walk of his life. Not
in time or distance, mind you, but in the cost to his spirit. He had faced a
life or death decision and he chose life. That decision may have cost him his
soul.

Before Adam got too far, he heard, “Wait up, I am
coming with you” over the headset. The airlock opened and Yeva came out. Each
of them had on two oxygen tanks for this long walk. It took nearly twenty
minutes to reach the pyramid. Neither one said a word. They walked past the
fossil boulders and toward the pyramid. Adam noticed the wheel tracks left by
the Curiosity and saw what direction it had taken the day before. He slowed
down as he approached the pyramid.

Yeva stopped when she saw Keller’s body in the
distance. It was facing down in the red dust.

“You stay here. I’ll go take care of him,” said Adam.

He walked over and laid out the body bag that NASA
included on all of their missions, but had never had to use until now. He
rolled Keller’s body into it and zipped it up most of the way and then stopped
to briefly look at the helmet. He saw a gruesome face through the missing visor
glass. Keller’s expression was frozen solid, literally and emotionally. Adam
zipped up the body bag the rest of the way.

Yeva looked curiously at the floodlight tripod that
was broken open and laying just a few feet away.

Adam stood up and said, “Let’s get the anti-gravity
cube. I’ll show you what it does when we get back to the Big Turtle.”

They walked past the toppled door and into the
pyramid. The room was heavily illuminated by sunlight. Adam quickly found the
anti-gravity cube floating over near a wall. He picked it up and was still
amazed at how dense it felt. With nowhere on his suit to store it, he walked
back outside and placed it in the body bag with Keller. Next he tied a bungee
cord to the bag and attached it to his pressure suit. With the low gravity on
Mars, it wouldn’t be very difficult to pull it back to the Big Turtle.

“Let’s head home,” said Adam over the headset to Yeva.

Adam didn’t complain about having to drag the load
several miles. Once again nobody spoke. As they approached the base, they noticed
that Molly had decided to join them. She was next to the gravesite, kneeling
down to look into the freshly dug hole.

Adam knew that Molly had grown very close to Keller
during the training in California; they were unofficially a couple that neither
he nor Yeva told NASA about. Keller’s death was very hard on her.

In between these somber thoughts, Adam remembered that
he and Yeva had all of the remaining oxygen tanks with them. Molly had none.

Molly had done something simple. She put on her pressure suit without
bothering to include an oxygen tank. She exited through the airlock and walked
over to the gravesite. Then she kneeled down in front of the empty hole and
thought about her friend Keller as she slowly opened the air valve on her suit
letting any remaining air leak out. She didn’t fall over. She just sat in that
position. By the time Adam and Yeva had found her, she was frozen solid in a
position of eternal mourning.

Yeva started sobbing uncontrollably. Her helmet was
fogging up. She ran over to Molly’s lifeless body wanting to help but realized
none of her actions could help anything. Adam let go of the body bag and ran
over to Yeva.

“I shouldn’t have left her alone,” cried Yeva.

“Look Yeva, we’re all under tremendous stress. You
couldn’t have known.”

She swung around in impatient anger.

“But I did know!” yelled Yeva.

“What do you mean?” Adam asked confusingly.

Yeva closed her eyes and asked, “Do you remember back
during the training in California when you thought Keller and Molly were
getting a little too close and it might jeopardize the mission?”

“Yah, we both remember that,” admitted Adam.

“Well, you were right on all counts. You should’ve
said something to them! During the initial launch up to the Space Station, do
you remember her vomiting in her helmet?”

“Yah, she got motion sickness. I did too. It’s common.”

Yeva gained her composure back and stared blankly at
Adam. She delicately shook her head back and forth.

“No, she told me it was morning sickness.”

Adam collapsed in body and soul. The shovel was the
only thing keeping him out of the red dirt.

Yeva looked down at him.

“I take it you didn’t know?” asked Yeva plainly.

“Of course not. No. I had no idea.”

Nobody spoke for an eternity. Adam broke the silence
with an offer for Yeva.

“You go inside and I’ll dig another grave. Right next
to Keller.”

Yeva nodded her head and then said, “You know what,
I’ll stay here with you for a while.”

Adam took the shovel and started the arduous task of
digging another hole in the hard sand and loose bedrock. He couldn’t help but
thinking that he was actually digging graves for three people. Adam considered
joining them.

Each shovel of dirt weighed more and more. It took
longer than he wanted, but he didn’t care. He put Molly gently down in the new
hole and slowly covered it over in Martian sand and gravel. Then he carefully
put Keller in his hole and buried him too. The dry red dust swirled around as
he shoveled dirt on top of the bodies.

Adam found the American and Russian flags they had
planted early on and created a cross out of them. Then he stuck it in the
ground between the graves. He said a quick prayer and asked for forgiveness.

Yeva didn’t say a word. She walked up the dented ramp
and paused. She tilted her head to try to figure out what was wrong with the
airlock.  She could see straight through it.

“Hey Adam?”

He paused to lean on the shovel and looked at her.

“Yes Yeva?”

“Both ends of the airlock are wide open. I don’t think
Molly bothered to close them when she came outside.”

Adam swung his head around quickly.

“Oh no!  The air must be all gone by now!”

Yeva ran through the airlock quickly followed by Adam.
He grabbed both doors and slammed them shut. The inside of Big Turtle was at a
near vacuum and the temperature had dropped to nearly -100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Adam, returning to panic mode stated the obvious, “We
can’t take our helmets off and neither of us has much air!”

Yeva said, “Calm down, Adam. First things first. We
already sealed the door. Now go over to the life support panel and crank up the
oxygen generation system if it still works.”

Adam sprinted over to the panel, but slipped and fell
smashing his helmet on the dinner table. The water supplies had frozen and
exploded leaving an ice sheet on the floor. Adam heard a hissing sound coming
from a growing crack in his facemask.

“Oh God no!” he yelled as he stood back up and
speed-walked over to the life support panel. Adam grabbed the oxygen system
knob and cranked it up to its maximum. That would make the room breathable in a
few minutes. Adam tried to focus his eyes at the crack only three inches from his
face. His gloved hand came up against the crack to help stop the leak.

That was enough to help avoid disaster as the ship was
finally pressurizing with both nitrogen and oxygen.

Adam looked down the hallway connecting them to Little
Turtle and noticed the door was shut.

“It looks like we had a little bit of good luck for a
change of pace. Look over there, the door to the Little Turtle is shut. Our
return supplies are probably still undamaged by the extreme temperatures. Maybe
Molly was telling us to go home.”

When the Big Turtle was almost done pressurizing, Adam
wandered toward the return ship and investigated. He quickly opened the door
and jumped in before slamming the door behind him. The water was still liquid
and he breathed a sigh of relief. He cranked up the heaters on the entire
complex to prevent any more disasters.

Yeva took an inventory of their food supplies. The
food was fine, but half of their water tanks had exploded from the cold.

Yeva stood up after reviewing the water situation and
said, “Looks like our departure deadline has been moved up quite a bit.”

After a few minutes, they took off their helmets.

Yeva admitted, “It’s still pretty cold, but we are so
lucky that our oxygen generators weren’t damaged. Good God that was close. I
hate to think what else is broken that we don’t know about yet.”

Then she noticed that the communication station light
was blinking again. Yeva pushed the Play button.

“Guys, this is Chris Tankovitch again. Hello? Look, we
need you to talk to us. I realize things are crazy up there with Keller gone,
but we’ve got a real public relations nightmare happening down here. One of our
heroes is dead and the rest of you guys are AWOL. You need to contact us. Adam,
I need you to contact us in private, okay? We have some quick questions to ask
you.”

Adam could imagine what their questions would be about
and talking to Mission Control was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

The Sun set and grayness draped across the landscape.
The red sky had evolved into the violet and dark tones of the evening. The two
astronauts decided they would sleep through the quickly oncoming night and then
send Mission Control the terrible news about Molly in the morning. Adam would
get one more night of sleep while still a hero to his family. There would be
plenty of time to become a villain.

They started the Pandora streaming music service and decided
on something quiet and peaceful. Calming Mozart melodies began pouring from the
speakers after the ten minute wait for data to start streaming from Earth.

Adam climbed into bed and heard a crinkle sound coming
from under his pillow. He reached under it and found a piece of paper with a
note signed by Molly that said, “I watched your helmet video.”