Colin Taber - RED - Burning Skies

Yong nodded. “Anything beside the message and videos?”

“No, that should be enough.” He then smiled at his comms officer. “We’ll also organize some time for you to meet your wife later.”

Yong’s eyes went wide.

Tung nodded, as he did to all the command crew that had turned around at his words, questions plain on their faces. “Yes, all of you. Your wives are here, landing at this very minute.”

Spontaneously, they cheered him.

With relieved smiles, Wei and Ghost crowded into the rover along with Chan and Wind. They made their way on the trail home as Phobos rose in the sky and the land around them fell deeper into night’s shadow. The stars above were beautiful.

Ghost and Wei both couldn’t believe they had escaped, and now with their drained rover in tow, they were heading to Xanadu.

Above, an airship sailed on the light Martian breeze, while dust devils swirled in the gullies they passed through.

The trip from Base Five Two had been long, the days full of tension and fatigue, but now, finally, they were over.

Commander Tung and the command crew looked at the display. The scene showed a smashed hub drone in the gully, the wrecked frame black and stark against the orange rocks and tan sand.

And yet another breach of the secrecy protocols.

Tung asked Yong, “Any sign of other parties?”

Yong had already checked. “None.” The comms officer was tired. He’d met his fiancée last night, and they had gotten on very well. He’d been up all hours. Right now, he was not only delirious because he was tired, but because he hadn’t gotten any sleep.

Tung smiled and clapped his hands together, trying to hide his relief. “So, everything has worked out well. We’ll keep an eye on the site and hope the winds bury the wreck in dust, but I suppose Beijing will be announcing our presence soon in any case now that the colonists have landed.”

There were nods around the room.

He continued, “I just want everyone to focus on their newly arrived fiancées and the colonists generally. Some of their living spaces and facilities are ready, while others aren’t, but I’m sure we’re all glad to finally have them here.”

Yong wasn’t the only one who looked tired, but they all seemed happy.

Wei followed Ghost as they headed into a canyon under the night sky. They had left the rovers behind, hidden under tenting.

He asked, “Is it much further?”

“No, not far at all.”

“Good.”

“Are you okay? You have been through a lot.”

“I’ll be fine. I just want to get there.”

“It’s not much, but it’s home.”

“Xanadu is a wonderful name.”

“We’re doing what we can to establish a robust set of ecosystems. We’re hoping to create something so balanced that eventually it doesn’t need any real adjustment.”

“Yes. We have to be self-sufficient.”

“It’s true. Who knows what Beijing Command will eventually do, or whether another meteor will come crashing down, or when the next great dust storm will blow up and cut down our ability to travel.”

“A global dust storm would also create havoc with power.” He paused for a moment, noting she did not answer, and then he asked, “Assuming you’re using solar panels—or do you have a reactor? No, you couldn’t. You wouldn’t be able to move it.”

“We have a solar array for backup, but we leave it in place with camouflage set.”

“So you do have a reactor?”

“Yes, but only as a backup, too.”

“Then what do you use for power?”

“You’ll find out very soon.” She slowed and then waved him up to stand beside her. She’d led them to the mouth of a cave in the canyon side. The opening yawned dark, lost to the shadows.

He asked, “Are we here?”

She waited a moment, not answering. Instead, another voice came over the comms. “Welcome to Xanadu!”

The light of an airlock module flickered on ahead, the glow lighting the way for them.

They exited the airlock into a tunnel that was a similar size to Sanctuary, but better lit and lined with more supplies. One sight there sent a shiver down Wei’s spine, and that was of an inflated survival tent.

The last time he had seen such a shelter, he had awoken inside it, bloody and dazed. He couldn’t help but look at the tent in front of him and imagine it painted blue by the flash of a strobing blue emergency light. At the same time, his mind filled with the drumming ring of klaxons.

Ghost was beside him, putting a gloved hand to his arm. She already had her helmet off, but he had stalled, frozen by a nightmarish memory of something he shouldn’t have survived. “It’s okay,” she said.

He offered an embarrassed smile and then went to take off his helmet. He used the moment as a chance to try and clear his mind of the memory. At the same time, he knew he had to accept it. The experience hadn’t just reshaped him, but would define his future.

He was here at Xanadu, and none of that would have happened without the meteor strike.

The seal hissed as he pulled his helmet free.

“Come, Wei, we should continue on. There’s people to meet and much to see.”

He smiled, and let her lead him on. “Before, you said there wasn’t much here?”

“There’s our young biosphere and other green spaces, too. I will also need to explain how we do things in detail, so that you understand yourself how to prime our life support systems and how to fix and maintain them.”

“And your people? Will I meet them?”

“Yes, soon. We also have guests at the moment. They helped us in the early days, and now we help them with our joint research.”

“What research is that?”

“The study of the black lotus.”

He remembered the symbol painted on the airlock back at Sanctuary, the airlock he’d been told not to enter. “The black lotus?”

She led him on, now approaching another door that led out of the cave. He noticed it was another airlock. “You will see soon enough.”

They passed through the airlock and then into a corridor that was another cave.

“This leads to a set of lava tubes. As you know, the lower gravity on Mars means some of them can grow quite large.”

He nodded.

She added, “What you see will impress you, but we have heard the Russians are experimenting with even bigger ones on the Moon.”

“I look forward to seeing what you have built.” And he did.

She smiled. “First, let me give you a tour. Then you can clean up, eat, and finally rest.”

He nodded, looking forward to seeing more.

Wei asked as they walked, “Who are these others you talk about? Where are they from?”

They were descending a dimly lit cave, the floor filled and compacted with dirt which held a paved path of fired bricks made up of Martin fines. The pavers gave a solid surface, and one that minimized the kicking up of dust. He could guess that the fines were probably waste from one of the factory units that would be extracting some life-giving or much-needed material such as oxygen, hydrogen, calcium, silicon, or nitrates.

Wei was a little surprised at how long the path went ahead, around fifty yards from where the first linked caverns that held the airlock to the surface, stores, living quarters, and bathroom cubicles were. And ahead he could see something that became clearer with each step, making his eyes go wider and his jaw drop.

Finally, he gasped, “Wow!”

Ahead, the passage opened into a huge cavern, one that was still largely out of view, but the sense of size was clear as he could hear the echo of voices of Ghost’s colleagues and even see layers of mist drifting at different heights.