The Orthogonal Galaxy (19 page)

“
I think we might be able
to make it now.” It was Garrison’s turn on the pile when he
announced the opening to his partner.

Dmitri was a couple of
flights down, spreading the debris evenly down the stair well in
order to not create a barrier in their return to the bunker. “I
will be there in one moment.”

As Dmitri made it to the
pile, he saw a dust-filled chamber filtering an orange glow from
the hole above, now adequately sized to allow the pair to climb out
of the tunnel. Garrison was already scaling the remaining rocks and
disappeared slowly through the hole.

“
What do you see?” asked
Dmitri. “Where are we, and why is this pile of junk here in first
place?”

“
I really can’t tell,”
responded Garrison. “The visibility is simply awful. This must be
one of those dust storms that they taught me in Martian Weather
101.”

“
I come up and see too,”
Dmitri replied with both curiosity and concern.

The curiosity and concern
only deepened when he reached the surface, and saw a lot of dust in
the air, and a lot of uneven debris on the ground.

“
Well, it is dust storm,
but it is not right.” Dmitri said sullenly.

“
Why?”

“
Little wind,” pointed out
Dmitri matter-of-factly. “Dust storm of this nature requires much
wind. Where is wind?”

“
So, you haven’t seen this
kind of activity before?”

“
It is most unusual
weather.”

“
Let’s take a look around
and see if we can find our way out of the landfill,” said
Garrison.

“
Garrison, this is not
landfill.”

“
But what about this pile
of junk underneath us?”

“
I don’t know, but I know
what landfill looks like. There is too much concrete and rocks and…
broken asphalt?” Dmitri wandered slowly through the uneven terrain
and came to a section that consisted of more significant amounts of
asphalt, which was only used on the road surfaces of Camp Mars. No
road work had been redone during Dmitri’s mission, and there was
none that he could recall at the landfill either.

“
Dmitri, does it make
sense to go to the power grid with all of this dust? Will we be
able to see anything to make a diagnosis?”

“
No, it does not make
sense. Nothing makes sense right now.”

“
Should we head over to
the barracks, at least? We can wait out this dust storm there to
make a better assessment.”

Dmitri was leaning down
onto the pile of debris picking at the pile with the
axe.

“
Dmitri?” Garrison
carefully stepped over rocks and jagged concrete to meet up with
his companion. “Dmitri?”

“
This is road, here.”
Dmitri indicated with the end of his axe.

“
What?”

“
The road goes here, under
these rocks. The asphalt is largely broken up and tossed about, but
here, I see asphalt, but over there it is just dirt.”

“
I don’t
understand.”

“
This concrete,” Dmitri
said as he sat on a rock and hefted a concrete chunk. “It is
rounded. Based on the arc, I believe this is part of very large
cylinder.”

He paused to see if
Garrison understood.

“
It is fuel tank,
Garrison.”

“
The fuel tank blew up,
then, and left this pile of rubble here? But how does that relate
to the pow—”. O’Ryan stopped in mid sentence as he was able to
piece together a theory. “Shrapnel! Dmitri, shrapnel from the tank
must have flown over the runway and landed on the solar array as
well, or worse, all the way to the other side of the crater to the
distribution subsystem. Oh, no… the communication array. Dmitri,
this is a huge blow to our camp.”

Dmitri shook his head. “We
must not draw hasty conclusion. “The atmosphere is not sufficient
for that kind of explosion of fuel.”

“
An earthquake, then?”
suggested Garrison eager for answers.

“
We would feel a marsquake
in bunker. Besides, you know that Mars is not geologically
active.”

“
We must explore the camp
and assess the extent of damage, Dmitri.”

“
No,” said Dmitri quickly
as he stood up. “We must not risk becoming lost in this dust storm.
Remember… since Mars is one of few planets with no magnetic field,
we only rely on visual landmarks, sky navigation, or vehicle
navigation system.”

“
Okay, so we can’t see
landmarks, but we can see a faint bright circle through the dust
that indicates the position of the Sun. We can use the Sun to help
us reach the MTV and then drive around the camp to assess the
extent of damage.”

“
Too risky. We must first
wait out dust storm.”

“
Dmitri, why can’t we wait
in the barracks instead of the bunker?”

Boronov’s voice raised
slightly. “What if we find barracks damaged also, and then we grow
disoriented and can’t find hole in the ground with this sea of
debris around it? Too risky, Garrison.”

Garrison nodded, and
turned around, straining to survey anything through the haze of
dust. At last, he asked, “How long will the dust last, Dmitri? When
will we be able to venture about and restore some sanity to this
camp?”

“
Winds are not strong. I
am hopeful that tomorrow, we will have clear day to assess damage
and make repairs.”

A frustrated sigh was
audible to Dmitri.

“
I’m sorry, comrade. We
must return to bunker and wait.”

Dmitri lead the way back
to the trap door. Pausing, he kneeled down and picked up an object
that Garrison did not recognize.

“
What is it,
Dmitri?”

Boronov showed Garrison
the contents of his hand. “It is fuel gauge that needed
repair.”

Garrison hung his head and
sighed. “Looks like it’s going to need more than repair now, my
friend.”

…

Joram Anders sat upright
in bed, his heart started by the sound of a telephone ringing next
on a table next to his bed. He answered the phone.

“
Hello.”

“
Joram, this is Professor
Zimmer. Can you meet me in the common room?”

Joram looked at his clock.
11:25 AM. He just went to bed a couple of hours earlier after a
third straight night of investigating the Martian dilemma. Rest had
not come easily, either, as his body was struggling to cope with
his sudden change of schedule. In fact, this was the first morning
where he was able to quickly go to sleep, and even if it was
Carlton Zimmer on the phone, he couldn’t help feeling agitated at
being awoken from such a sound sleep.

“
Um… Yes, professor… I’ll
be there in just a minute.”

Joram’s room on Palomar
observatory was smaller than a motel room. It held a twin size bed,
night stand, and a small closet for a few changes of clothes and
personal affects. He went into a tiny bathroom, washed his face in
cold water, dabbed with a towel, and proceeded to put on a pair of
clothes he had tossed in a corner.

When Joram entered the
common room, which really was a library stocked with astronomy and
science texts, he noticed that Zimmer was already conversing with
Kath and Reyd. Spinning around towards the door, Zimmer clapped his
hands. “Ah, right. Let’s head to the video conference room at the
observatory, then.”

“
What’s going on,
Professor?” Joram prompted Zimmer for a briefing of their morning
activity.

“
Ravid called Dr. Gilroy a
couple of hours ago. He is confident that we will get a visual of
the camp during this Earthrise. We will be getting a live video
feed from an observatory in Istanbul which is already focused on
the eastern Martian horizon, waiting to get the first visual into
our hands.”

As Zimmer led his trio out
of the dorm facility, Joram buttoned up the wind breaker that he
put on, due to a morning autumn wind which had deposited a light
frost on the ground the night before. Reyd, likewise zipped up his
jacket, and Kath embraced herself sporting a jacket and scarf,
which was flowing freely in the wind. Zimmer, who was familiar with
the weather on the mountain, wore a long sleeve dress shirt and
tie.

As they entered the dimly
lit room, the party of four took seats along a conference table
closest to the large projected display which was already showing
clear images of the Martian horizon. Long shadows filled the breach
between night and day, cast by mountains and craters and were
replaced by even longer shadows as the frigid surface rotated,
groping for sunlight.

Zimmer dialed on the
speaker phone in the center of the room.

“
Dr. Gilroy, this is
Professor Zimmer. I have my students with me here at Palomar
Mountain.”

“
Thanks for calling in,
Professor! We know that your team has been working through some
exhausting evenings, and we apologize to bring you back this
morning. I have Ravid Avram on the phone in Israel, as well as Camp
Mars specialists here at Johnson and Kennedy. The team at the
Istanbul University Observatory is also online. We really hope that
we can get a visual on the astronauts during this Earthrise and
begin to establish a plan for their safety.”

After a brief pause, a
different voice came over the phone. “Dr. Gilroy, do you plan to
make an announcement about Ayman Hardy today?”

“
We are not inclined to
give up our efforts yet,” Gilroy replied.

“
He has been
non-communicant for more than 60 hours now, Doctor.”

“
Yes, but as far as we
know, his shuttle is carrying him as safely as ever back to the
Moon, even without communication. The shuttle can sustain life for
four weeks.”

“
But you have also failed
to make visual contact with the shuttle through either visual light
or infrared which should detect the heat trail of the
shuttle.”

“
Understood,” Gilroy
sounded annoyed. “We are guarded in our comments to the press, but
we are also conveying realistic scenarios as well. We simply will
not give up until the full two weeks have elapsed. If he does not
arrive on the Moon in that time frame, then we will announce our
fear of the worst.”

Joram looked across the
table at Kath, who was staring down at the floor motionlessly. He
returned his gaze to the projected image.

“
Two minutes to visual,
Dr. Gilroy,” announced a scientist who was calculating the
estimated time of Earthrise on Camp Mars.

“
Doctor, the edge of the
crater is in view now,” said another voice that appeared to be in
the same room as Gilroy.

“
Thank you, Stan,” replied
Gilroy, and then speaking into the phone gave instructions to all
who were dialed in. “If you will all fix yourselves on the upper
left corner of the horizon, you will see the edge of the crater,
distinguished by its opening to the plains surrounding it. We
should be able to start to see camp facilities in less than a
minute now.”

Joram leaned forward in
his chair. Kath looked up at the crater rim while manicuring the
nail of an index finger with her teeth. Reyd straightened his
eyeglasses to improve his vision. Professor Zimmer stood, muted the
speakerphone, and paced towards the back of the room with hands
folded behind his back.

“
What do you expect to
see, students?” asked Zimmer with his back to the
projection.

All three turned in their
chairs to look at Zimmer, but none gave a response.

“
See for yourselves.” He
wheeled around and gestured with his right hand. “This is what
we’ve been anxious to see for three days now.”

The three turned back to
the view. The phone was silent of any significant conversation, but
indistinguishable mumbling could be heard from a couple of
sources.

“
Professor,” Kath was the
first to speak. “I—I really don’t recognize anything. Are we too
zoomed out to make out any structures?”

Zimmer shook his head and
spoke softly. “There are no structures, Kath.”

Her eyes grew wide in
recognition.

“
Oh no,” gasped Joram as
he stood and drew closer to the projected image.
“It’s—It’s…”

“…
a pile of rubble!”
exclaimed Reyd. Leaping to his feet in horror, Reyd turned to the
professor. “Professor Zimmer, what happened? How? How can this
happen?”

Zimmer shook his head
slowly. “I do not know, Mr. Eastman. It is an unspeakable tragedy.
We have lost three astronauts.”

“
Three, professor?” asked
Kath in surprise. “Are you sure that the shuttle was destroyed
also?”

“
Ms. Mirabelle,” answered
the professor carefully. “Whatever leveled Camp Mars also took out
three of the four satellites. It also sent a flurry of
unidentifiable radiation to our very own planet and caused a sudden
flare of brightness on the Sun. Whatever force we are dealing with
here, it is very powerful. That shuttle didn’t stand a
chance.”

“
But one satellite
survived, Professor. Couldn’t the shuttle be safe as
well?”