The Ruins of Mars: Waking Titan (The Ruins of Mars Trilogy) (16 page)

             
At this, the crew grew stiff.

             
“Braun is a hundred times more powerful than the twins,” Harrison said dismissively. “He can handle this.”

             
“I’m glad you think so,” YiJay sneered. “If the circumstances were different, I might be inclined to agree. But unfortunately, they are not.”

Silence permeated the air for several moments. Sensing a shift in the general mood, Harrison glanced around for support. As his gaze flicked from face to face, he saw that YiJay had struck a chord. Meeting the eyes of
Ship’s Pilot Amit Vyas, he hoped to sway the argument back in his favor.

             
“Amit,” Harrison said. “You’ve been pretty quiet. Tell me what you think. Is this worth it?”

             
Amit looked uncomfortable as he weighed the question in his mind. When he finally spoke, his lyrical voice was heavy with doubt.             

             
“As you all know,” he began. “I have a wife and kids waiting for me back on Earth. I communicate with them every day. Last month, it was my youngest son's tenth birthday and I missed it because I was here. He asked me in the message if I would be home for his next birthday. I told him, ‘Yes.’ When I think about what Braun is really for, I don’t think about digging machines or advance computing or atmospheric scans. I think about our return trip. I think about all the mechanical systems he runs in order to keep us alive. I think about his warnings against incoming projectiles. I think about the timing it takes to successfully set off the nuclear torch engine without killing us all in the process. If you’re asking me, ‘Do I believe we could manage a return trip home without Braun?’ then I have to say: ‘No.’ He is too crucial.”

“But,” said Harrison.

Amit held up a hand.

“I’m not finished,” he sighed. “Because of my bias, because I want nothing more than to see my son turn eleven, I have allowed my sense of duty to be corrupted. I am too invested in my own motive
s. This, I think, is the problem which faces us now. How do we honor our duty to mankind? If our mission is simply to survive, then I would have to say that using Braun for this is a bad idea. However, if our mission is to learn, then I fear we have no other choice but to roll the dice and see what happens.”

The air was still as everyone, especially Harrison, was shocked silent by Amit’s honesty.

“But what about the Base?!” cried YiJay, her round face red with anger. “I’m not even a third of the way finished cloning Braun’s full range of functions, and I’m still at least a week off from bringing Ilia online. Rolling the dice, as you say, could mean we all die!”

“Actually, it’s not that complicated,” interjected Udo. “The
Dome was designed, with help from Copernicus, might I add, to be able to run without the aid of an AI. We might have to get used to flipping switches every once in a while, but we will survive just fine.”

Defeated by this, YiJay slumped back in her chair.

“Then you’ve all decided. You don’t care if he lives or dies—if we live or die. I hope a page in the history books is worth putting us all at risk.”

As she said this, YiJay cast a sour look at Harrison.

“Dr. Lee,” said Captain Tatyana Vodevski, speaking for the first time since the meeting had begun. “I know you feel a special connection to Braun because you helped to raise him. I am touched by your loyalty. There is, though, a larger picture than the one we are all focused on presently.”

Looking around at everyone as she spoke, Captain Vodevski went on.
“I received word a short time ago about a ship launched by the Chinese.”

“A ship?” shrugged Marshall. “Big deal. So what?”

“Well,” Tatyana frowned. “This ship has a specific destination.”

“Where?” asked Harrison.

“Mars.”

Before the others could say anything, Tatyana went on. “The Chinese have sworn that the ship is a resupply vessel: an Ark full of new materials and automated construction machines. Only, Donovan says differently.”

“What’s going on, Captain?” Marshall said, his eyes narrowing. “What are they really up to?”

“I don’t know,” lied Tatyana. “Perhaps they are telling the truth. But, in any event, I want us to have total control of the situation with the ruins. We need to have every available piece of information at our disposal before they arrive.”

“They?” Marshall said. “Who’s
they
? Scientists? Astronauts? Our replacements? What?”

“I don’t know,” Tatyana repeated, her face remaining unreadable. “But their ship will no doubt possess a highly sophisticated AI as our own does. If Remus, Romulus, and Braun all detected this alien signal with such ease, then their AI will be able to so as well. We must capitalize on our advantage.
We
are here.
They
are not...yet.”

Everyone was quiet.

“But, Captain,” spoke Harrison, his features set in a worried expression. “What if they aren’t our enemies? What if they really are just here to resupply us?”

Unfaltering in her outward appearance, Tatyana Vodevski screamed within. Nothing would make her happier than to assure her crew that they had no need to fear this approaching dilemma. However, she had already made a liar out of herself once today and would rather spare her pride the pain of doing it again. Instead she avoided the question.

“Dr. Lee,” she said, addressing YiJay directly. “When can Braun be ready to decode the signal?”

Though her lip trembled as she calculated her response, YiJay did not cry.

“If it must be done, I will need him for the rest of the day to, at the very least, get as much fundamental programming directives from him as I can.”

“Tomorrow
then?” Tatyana asked, though it was less of question and more of a statement.

“Yes, Captain,” YiJay nodded with a sniff. “Tomorrow.”

Contact

Harrison Raheem Assad was dreaming.

He was in his lab in Ilia Base, standing with his arms wrapped tightly around Xao-Xing Liu. Though she did not speak, her body clung to his in a loving embrace. Her oddly protruding belly was a source of great warmth to his cold and tired flesh. His face was pressed into the top of her head, and he drew in a long breath, fully enjoying the scent of her hair.

In an instant, there came a sudden flurry of movement. Opening his eyes, though he already knew what to expect, Harrison was saddened to see that Liu was gone. He was alone. With a last glance around the room, he walked to the door and left.
             

Stepping out of his lab, Harrison came into a crop of high-canopied trees. He squinted against the hot light that fell between the branches until
his eyes adjusted. With curious-though-unafraid movements, he made his way to the nearest of the tall trees. The bark was white—almost the color of eggshells—yet there were thousands of tiny flecks of silver here and there, dimpling and grooving the skin.

A strong wind sighed through the leafy branches above, and Harrison was so moved by its calming melody that he put his arms out and threw his head back. Turning in wide exultant circles, he soon felt his feet leave the ground. With steady and swelling energy, he broke through the heavy cover of the treetops and into the world above.

Rolling out in every direction, green grasslands dotted by little forests wove themselves through patches of red desert. Rivers, wide and fast, spilled over rapids and gushed through rocky alcoves as they webbed out to form lakes and tributaries.

Weightless, Harrison continued to turn in circles, his eyes dancing across the countless acres of landscape as if they were the wind itself. Coming around again, his attention was drawn to a hazy patch of sky in what he somehow knew was the north. Almost before the thought had formed itself in his mind, he was flying towards it.

Racing like a shooting star, he cut across the heavens. Below him, the landscape shifted and melted: his speed so great that the grasslands and the forests and the deserts seemed to blend together into one giant calamity of color and texture.

Bringing his legs up, as he had often done when approaching a target in zero gravity, Harrison slowed quickly. Ahead of him in the distance loomed the great mountain that would someday come to be known as Olympus Mons but was
now
called Atun. Struck by his seemingly effortless ability to know such things, Harrison turned his attention to the left. There—in the shadows of Arsia, Pavonis, and Ascraeus Mons—was the Martian city.

Blue lakes, deeper in color and richer in clarity than any water Harrison had ever seen, surrounded the city on nearly every side. On one lake in particular, wooden bridges spanned its open body, a network of docks and flotillas hanging weightlessly in its crystalline waters. Watching for a few minutes, Harrison smiled inwardly as small boats cut this way and that, moving from shore to shore like water striders.

I wonder where the big walls are, he asked himself, shifting his attention back to the city. Just like before, an answer leaped into his mind.

They aren’t built yet
.

Satisfied with this conclusion, he felt himself drifting, pulled towards the gaping and jagged mouth of the Valles Marineris. Plumes of dust were rising up from the canyon, not far from the very place where Harrison and his team entered the cave network.

Sinking a little from his high perch, he saw a complex array of wooden scaffolding hanging from the side of the canyon. Hundreds of small agile people leaped from walkway to walkway, hot flashes of white light sometimes silhouetting them as they carved away at the canyon wall. Enormous chunks of rock cut free from the cliff face drifted weightlessly up and away from the scaffolding to the waiting hands of workers above.

Unable to see how the stonecutters were achieving such incredible feats, Harrison smiled as another rush of understanding spilled over his mind.

They’re using the alien technology, he said to himself. They had help, just like I thought.

Following the procession of large rocks as they filed from the Valles rim to the outskirts of the city, Harrison scanned for any further signs of alien machinery. With a surge of determination that seemed to come from something outside of himself, he flew back towards the blue waters of the crescent-shaped lake, stopping above the center of the city.
             

Below him, a sight both familiar and alien came to life. The tops of short square buildings nestled close together, as narrow streets and alleyways dissected them into groups
or neighborhoods. Near the lake upon whose eastern shore a third of the city rested, a dome poked up above the rooftops of the surrounding buildings. Painted the same bright white as the tall trees Harrison had seen before, the dome was one he knew well from studying the ruin grid. Now, though, he saw it more clearly than his mind’s eye had ever been able to recreate.

Beautifully proportioned and as smooth as ceramic, the
dome gazed up at him. A small disc-shaped skylight beckoned, and before he could make up his mind, he was flying towards it.

Landing softly and without sound on the convex roof, he peered down through the skylight and saw, far below, a glowing projection of a living Mars. Gathered around the holographic sphere in neat rows of even numbers, were at least one hundred little people.

At first, Harrison assumed they were praying and that the murmuring voices he heard echoing up through the skylight were the chants of some religious practice. However, as it seemed to happen here, the true meaning of what he saw grew in his mind like a seedling.

They aren’t praying. They’re learning. This is a school.

Suddenly, a shadow passed over him, and Harrison snapped his head up. Above, like a flock of silent crows, black arrowhead-shaped craft were skimming low over the city. Made of the same strange metal as the device that powered the miniature Sun, the ships headed for a wide open square near the center of the complex.

Taking to the skies again, Harrison flew among the ships, attempting to count their numbers. As they landed, one after the other, the fleet arranged itself in a pleasing pattern around a circle of stones in the center of the plaza. Now understanding why the huge space had been built, for it often perplexed him, Harrison also landed near the standing
Monoliths that were Olo’s first Temple.

Somehow knowing that he could not be seen, he attempted to study the people who now flocked to the spot. As if made of water, their liniments refused to show themselves clearly. It was only when he did not look directly at them that he could see the wide friendly faces of the people of Mars.

His feet on the solid flat stones of the plaza, Harrison walked among the throngs of people, sometimes moving directly through them like some kind of horror movie ghost.

Long ramps unfurled from the ships, and the shapes of people began to emerge from the blinding light that
poured out. Like those of the Lake City, the first of these new arrivals to set foot on the ground were Martians. Soon though, the taller three-eyed beings—as depicted in the Statue Chamber—began to descend the ramps as well.