The Orthogonal Galaxy (5 page)

All astronauts served a
twenty-two month rotation on Camp Mars. A pair of astronauts was
stationed there at all times. Garrison was hitting the early part
of the window where Earth and Mars are sufficiently close to make
the trip. He would relieve an astronaut, who would return in the
Mars Shuttle back to Camp Moon shortly after he landed. Then in a
month, another exchange would occur, relieving Garrison’s companion
of his duties in a similar manner. After that, the Earth and Moon
would continue to diverge, as Earth raced around its orbit at twice
the rate of Mars. After one year, the Earth would be back in the
same position it was today, but Mars would’ve only traveled one
half of its orbit, placing it on the other side of the Sun from
Earth. Both planets would need to travel another nine months around
their orbit in order for their positions to be close enough for
Garrison to be relieved of his duties on the red planet.

“
Iowa,” interrupted the
mission control specialist from Garrison’s nostalgia. “All systems
check. You’re good for launch in T minus six minutes.”

Halton announced to
Garrison that it was time to resume business as the last several
steps of launch preparation would need to be completed. Upon
hearing the commotion from mission specialists on Earth, images and
thoughts rushed through his head like they did back in Florida just
a couple of days ago. And then in a flash, it happened.

“
10… 9… Iowa, you have
horizontal acceleration. Rockets are engaged at 100%... 4... 3...
2… 1… Mars Shuttle Iowa has lifted off from the runway. Second leg
mission clock has commenced at four hours, twelve minutes, and
seven seconds GMT.”

…

Even though Garrison had
already seen Earth and the Moon from the sweeping view of space,
Garrison was even more stunned as he stared out of his shuttle down
onto the surface of Mars. While orbiting the red planet, he was
able to identify some of the most prevalent features that he’d
become so familiar with.

He easily noticed the
massive scar-like canyon, Valles Marineris. The deepest, widest,
and longest canyon in the solar system, even from several hundred
miles above, Garrison was stunned at its massive structure. On
Earth, Marineris would stretch from Los Angeles to New York City,
with depths up to 25000 feet, and would span a distance of 125
miles wide. By comparison, the Grand Canyon would look like a small
ditch. He observed massively fractured canyons jutting off of both
sides of the main canyon walls, until Marineris narrowed tightly
into a maze of slot canyons, called Noctis Labyrinthus.

The Labyrinth of the Night
was Garrison’s favorite feature of Mars. He was thrilled to
discover that part of his mission on Mars would entail a visit to
this feature, along with a significant investigation of the
geological—or, because it was Mars, and not the Earth,
areological—forces of this region. With his mouth open in surprise,
he attempted to gain a perspective a the massive sand dunes he saw
swirling up onto the canyon walls. He imagined that these
structures might rival anything found in the Sahara Desert, since
the canyon walls were as tall as 10,000 feet.

The shuttle whisked him
away from the Labyrinth quicker than he would hope, and in craning
his neck to see the last of it, he hadn’t realized that he was
directly over the Tharsis Region mountain peaks: Arsia Mons,
Pavonis Mons, and Ascraeus Mons. Ranging from fifty to sixty
thousand feet in elevation, these three mountains arranged in a
straight line were easily identifiable.

The jaw dropping
experience of the Tharsis Mountains had dazed the young astronaut,
but he quickly recovered to remember exactly where to locate
another impressive feature. The aptly named Olympus Mons—Mount
Olympus—sat on the western edge of the Tharsis region. While no
longer active, the solar system’s largest volcano grew to its
stature over a period of about 100 million years. Every astronaut
will attest that nothing can prepare you for awesome sight of
Olympus Mons from the ground. Towering at nearly 90000 feet or 17
miles above the mean level surface of Mars, you would have to stack
three Mount Everests on top of each other to understand the degree
of reverence this behemoth commands. As he passed just to the south
of the mountain, Garrison stared down into the 60-mile wide
caldera. Seeing the six impact craters at the top, Garrison could
understand just how difficult it would be for a meteor to actually
miss the top of this mountain. It just looked like a magnet the way
it leapt off of the plains surrounding it.

On a second orbit of the
planet, Iowa entered Mars’ thin atmosphere with hardly any
indication. The shuttle began a sharp decent and leveled off
directly over a feature that Garrison had missed earlier. The
Hellas Impact Basin impressed Garrison greatly as he was only about
thirty miles above Mar’s largest impact crater. He shuttered to
think about the violence required for an impact to leave a hole
1500 miles wide and over five miles deep. In fact, seeing the
landscape peppered with hundreds of thousands of
craters-within-a-crater caused Garrison to shudder with concern for
his own safety at Camp Mars. However, he had to remind himself that
this landscape did not occur overnight, and that his odds of being
hit by a meteor on Mars was only a little better than being hit by
lightning on Earth.

As he left the Hellas
basin, Iowa started issuing a series of lights and buzzers that
reminded Garrison it was time to get down to the business of
touching down on the runway of Camp Mars, just moments
away.

Compared to all of the
massive features that he’d been experiencing, it was a good thing
that the computer navigational system knew where to pinpoint the
relatively tiny three-mile wide crater that was home to Camp Mars.
The landscape was littered with craters. As he strained to find his
crater, he couldn’t help wondering whether he would be able to spot
such an inauspicious feature. Fortunately for Garrison, the crater
glowed with artificial lighting. The greens and oranges of the
lighting towers focused his sight to the camp, and eventually to
the red ground lights lining the two-mile long runway. His approach
and landing was incredibly smooth, a point which he would first
mention proudly to the pair of astronauts eager to make
introductions with their replacement.

“
Did you see that
landing?” Garrison asked as he made his decent from the shuttle
onto Martian soil. “I should’ve become a commercial airline
pilot.”

“
Well, Stud,” interrupted
one of the astronaut companions. “Before you pat yourself too hard
on the back, just remember that you’re in a much thinner atmosphere
here… there’s not as much turbulence and wind, at least not here
near the equator.”

“
Oh, yeah. Good point”
Garrison’s bubble had burst. “Gentlemen, I’m Garrison O’Ryan
reporting for duty. It’s a pleasure to make your
acquaintance.”

“
No,” answered the other
astronaut with a Russian accent. “The pleasure is ours. We are glad
to see the first replacement. It has been much privilege come to
Mars, but I am eager to see family again. Come, we show you the
barrack now. You must be exhausted.”

“
Am I ever!” Garrison
yawned and stretched, and as he took his first step, he faltered.
While the cockpit of every Mars Shuttle was equipped with exercise
mechanisms needed to keep limbs from freezing up. It had been over
a month since he had actually used his limbs in any meaningful
fashion.

“
Oh,” said one of the
Martian veterans. “I’m so sorry. I forgot that it’s nearly
impossible to walk upon touchdown here. Let us help
you.”

With that, each astronaut
flanked O’Ryan and assisted him into the barracks, where he was
able to strip out of his spacesuit and collapse in a heap on a bed
wearing only his long underwear.

…

After a few hours of
rest—it seemed more like a couple of minutes to him—Garrison’s two
colleagues woke him up from a deep slumber.

“
Rise and shine, Sleepy
Head,” called out one astronaut.

With an achy head and
blurry eyes, Garrison responded, “What time is it?”

Looking at his watch, the
other astronaut offered, “Well, it’s 2:30 PM, Tharsis Standard
Time.”

“
Ok,” nodded Garrison.
“Thanks, but why did I even ask that question? Let me try again.
How long have I been sleeping?”

“
Well, you arrived this
morning at precisely 9:17 AM, so it’s been a little over five
hours.”

“
Really?” Garrison sat up
in his bed and looked around now that his eyes were beginning to
focus.

“
How are you feeling,
Garrison?” The first astronaut held out a hand for
Garrison.

“
Ayman!” Grasping his hand
firmly and joyously, Garrison recognized his astronaut fellow from
some training sessions they had performed together a few years ago
at Kennedy. “I’m fine… a little tired, but that’s nothing that a
few days of sleep won’t solve.”

“
Well, I’d love to grant
it to you, but I need to depart for Camp Moon before the sun sets.
We have just a couple of hours to give you the grand tour here
before I head back home.” Then, turning to the third astronaut, he
said, “Garrison O’Ryan, I’d like you to meet a great friend of mine
who has served marvelously at my side these last couple of years.
This is Dmitri Boronov. He will be your companion here for the next
couple of months until his replacement arrives.”

“
Ah, yes,” Garrison warmly
bowed and grasped the hand of his new companion, “We met earlier,
but I was a bit out of it. By the way, I didn’t get a chance to
thank you for helping me walk into the barracks
earlier.”

“
You should be slow to
stand now,” counseled Dmitri. “It will take few minutes to use
legs.”

Heeding his advice,
Garrison stood slowly from his bed and while steadying himself on
the wall next to it, took just a few experimental steps. “I must
agree with you, Comrade.”

“
We will give you a few
minutes to adjust and dress, Garrison,” said Ayman. “To encourage
you, there will be a hot bowl of soup, fresh-baked bread and juice
waiting for you in the dining room.”

Garrison didn’t realize
how hungry he was until he heard this discussion of food. “That
sounds great!” admitted Garrison. “I’ll be there as quick as I can…
um, where is the dining room, anyway?”

“
As you leave the room,
turn left and proceed to the end of the hallway. The door is right
at the end. See you there soon.”

Garrison thanked the pair
as they left his room, where he stretched his limbs and began
learning how to walk all over again. He found a sweat suit in his
closet, exactly like those being worn by Ayman and Dmitri, with the
name “O’Ryan” embroidered on the left chest pocket. The door to a
private bathroom was open, so he stepped in. After splashing water
on his face and hair, he washed his hands and felt much better. He
would’ve liked to take a shower, but his appetite and time
constraints gave way to the temptation. Toweling himself off with a
large white towel, which also had the name “O’Ryan” embroidered on
it, he ventured back into the bedroom to dress.

As if his legs might still
give out under him, he walked slowly and cautiously out of the
bedroom and into the hallway. He peered down both ends. So far, the
barracks had a more homey impression than he might otherwise have
expected. The cream-colored plush carpet led down towards the
dining room at one end and the foyer at the other end. Framed
pictures and artwork, depicting some of the impressive features of
Mars lined both walls. Towards the foyer, he could see all of the
typical NASA-produced hypergraphs of each Martian-based astronaut
lining either side of the hallway.

The door to the dining
room was open, and he could hear the soft din of a casual
discussion taking place between Ayman and Dmitri as he approached.
He could only make out the occasional word or phrase: “Home”, “your
family”, “what an adventure.”

Ayman and Dmitri quickly
stood up as Garrison appeared, as if needing to help him to a
seat.

“
I’m fine,” He waved them
off. “I’m actually adjusting rather quickly. I suspect that it’s
because of the lighter gravity that my legs are feeling back to
normal so quickly.”

“
True,” admitted Ayman.
“Keep in mind, however that the adjustment will not be so sudden
when you return to Earth. Part of our daily regimen is an exercised
routine prescribed by NASA trainers to ensure that we do not lose
muscle tone in our arms, back and legs. This is because the gravity
here is so much less than it is on Earth that muscle atrophy would
cause a serious impediment to an adjustment to Earth
life.”

At this, Ayman noticed
that Garrison was bracing himself on a chair, and realized that he
was still laboring a little bit to get his full strength
back.

“
I’m sorry, Garrison…
please, have a seat.” Ayman gestured to the chair. He sat down to a
place setting as Dmitri walked over to a counter. From under a heat
lamp, he grabbed a steaming bowl and a plate with all of the
contents as promised. Garrison noticed that the remains of the
other astronauts’ lunches remained on the table.

“
Cheese steak sandwiches
and potato salad?” asked Garrison curiously. He was famished and
thought that he should be able to partake in the more wholesome
fare of his colleagues.