Yves Giraud - Kahnu

The following months were fairly uneventful. Most of the team’s daytime activities centered around countless experiments and routine maintenance of the station. That last part was in itself a full-time job. Of course, the station computers were constantly checking all systems, habitat integrity, oxygen levels, and performing countless other diagnostics, but human supervision was still required. By now, the small group of four had grown to eight. MF2 had made it safely to Mars, landing on September 8 th, 2027 without a glitch. Back on Earth, Mars First Headquarters couldn’t have been happier, especially after the near mishap of the previous year, when a cargo shipment, sent ahead of the second team’s arrival, had almost been lost on landing due to a sensor failure in one of its main landing gears. The second crew, comprised of Indian commander Najib Shamsi, South-Korean Biochemist Liu Xing, Irish Medical Officer Ladli O’Connor, and Zimbabwean Technical Engineer Tendai Nyandoro, had easily adapted to their new surroundings, thanks to the legwork of Team One, who had by now figured out all the kinks and quirks of their daily routine.

The station now counted five modules and three greenhouses. The latest addition, a garage to house two of the three rovers the colonists now had at their disposition, was designed in a similar way to the greenhouses. About ten meters in length and almost six in width, it was however, substantially larger. Although the huge additional cost had been frowned upon by Mars First investors, several incidents had called for a protective habitat for the vehicles. One of them had almost caused Tendai’s life, his first year on Mars.

Back on that fateful day, two rovers had been deployed to separate locations, leaving only ARC 3 at the station. At the time, it had seemed perfectly acceptable to get two teams to work at the same time. Four members in one vehicle and two in the other, the two could do research in different quadrants of the “grid”, and cover a greater area, speeding up the work.

Water was the focus of most outings. They had developed a grid system of several square kilometers and explored a new block daily. Starting in a low section of Candor Chasma, they were gradually moving towards the top of the range. Candor Chasma was a region of Valle Marineris, a giant canyon stretching several hundred kilometers south of the station. The area they were exploring was so large and the canyon so deep, that they knew they would never cover the entire region, no matter how many years they spent at it, but they didn’t need to. They just needed to hit water once.

Back at the Mars First station, Vera and Tendai had stayed behind, monitoring the two rovers outside.

“ARC 2, ARC 2, this is Mars First. Please come back, over.”

“Mars First, this is ARC 2. What is it, Vera?” answered Dedrick.

“Looks like it’s about to blow something serious over here. The numbers are pegging like I’ve never seen before, and outside visibility is already down to zero.”

“Crap! Are you in need of assistance? Should we come back?”

“I don’t know that that would do much good. You probably don’t want to get caught in this. I just wanted to give you a heads-up. It just appeared so quickly… We had absolutely no warning from the computers. It came out of nowhere. I just hope it won’t mess up our instruments outside. I’ll let you know if we start losing signal.”

“How do the internal systems read? Any problems?”

“No, so far, so good. All the life support checks are in the green. Tendai is keeping an eye on the radar and satellite info. At least you shouldn’t be affected where you are.”

“What about ARC 1?”

“We’re here. Nothing to report on our end. Sabrina and I have been monitoring your transmission. The two of us are ready to head back right away if you need our assistance, Vera. We are closer to you than ARC 2. Are you sure you can ride this thing?”

“Thanks François. We appreciate your concern. For now, Tendai and I are fine. Trust me, if we need you, I’ll let you know. For now, you guys are safer where you are.”

For the next twenty-five minutes, all three teams kept in close communication while the storm was active. It eventually let out over the small outpost and veered to the north, a direction Vera was glad to see it take, since the two rovers were southeast of the camp.

She was still monitoring the computers when Tendai, already partially suited up, called her on the intercom from the greenhouse.

“Vera, the storage unit outside of greenhouse III looks loose, I think I need to go anchor it before another gust of wind damages it further.”

“What? You want to go out now? I know the storm seems to have calmed down, but it could pick up again at any moment. Can’t this wait? I’d rather you did so later.”

“I know, but it’s pretty quiet out there right now, and as you said, that may not last. I need to go secure that thing while I can. I’ll take ARC 3. It shouldn’t take long.” Tendai sounded determined to go.

“OK, but please be careful!”

“I will”

A few minutes later, ARC 3 was approaching the storage unit outside the greenhouse.

“Vera, I’m almost in front of the— shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh …” The radio had just turned to statics.

“Tendai? Tendai, can you hear me? Tendai…? ARC 3…!”

“ Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh …”

“Shit!”

Outside, ARC 3 and its passenger were at a standstill. The vehicle had stopped abruptly without any warning, and everything in the rover was shutting down. Soon, nothing was showing on any of the dashboard monitors anymore. No lights, not even a bleep from the onboard computer. The whole thing was dead.

“What the f… OK, now what? Vera? Vera, are you there?”

It was no use. He had obviously lost all power. “ When was the last time they had checked ARC 3? The vehicle was connected to its solar charger this morning, that much I’m sure of. Regardless, the computer should have alerted me that something was wrong with the batteries …!” He tried to recall who had done the last system check…

“ Either myself yesterday morning, or maybe François last night …” The Frenchman often spent the last hour of his work day working in the garage. He loved taking care of the vehicles. His aptitude in robotics had been discovered early on at the Mars First Headquarters. François had a knack for figuring out problems and fixing things. He was almost always working on some technical project in his free time, if he wasn’t playing his Ukulele.

“Either way, there’s no point dwelling on that right now. What I need to figure out is what to do next. I can’t get out without a suit. On that particular point, Dedrick is going to be pretty mad, I have a feeling. And he will be right. I should’ve checked the cabin before I left. I guess I have only myself to blame for that too. I’m the one who forgot to put the suit back in its place yesterday… Ok, so I guess my only choice is to stay put until someone comes to get me. I hate waiting…”

Inside the station, Vera had already contacted the other two rovers. Both were on their way back. Dedrick had ordered her to stay put. He had formally forbidden her to leave the station. The storm had picked up again, not as bad as before, but visibility was still pretty much non-existent. Dedrick couldn’t let Vera take the risk of getting lost. The thirty meters or so that separated her from Tendai were completely filled with flying pebbles and a dark brown dust, an impenetrable fog that was not to be reckoned with.

“Tendai should have enough oxygen for at least another hour. The power may be down, but the oxygen left in the cabin will be sufficient for ARC 1 to get to him in time,” thought Dedrick. At least, he hoped so. He really had no way of knowing that for sure, but he couldn’t let Vera take any risk. Unfortunately, to make things worse, the storm had also extended south of the station, which was slowing the return of the rovers.