Singularity - Chapter 9: Genesis (Part 1)

Chapter 9: Genesis

The team was sitting around a large metal table. Across from them were several people who, unexpectedly, lived in the Mars base. The youngest, a teenage boy sat against the wall in a small chair, while the oldest, a man with a scruffy beard and white hair sat directly across the table from Sarah. He introduced himself as Tom Bosworth. He was obviously the leader of the base, and took the lead in the discussion at hand. Sarah had taken it upon herself to speak for the Homestead team. The man had a very even, calm voice, with an accent that was hard for the Homestead team to understand. He seemed to take everything in stride, and had a very dry wit and humor about him.

He leaned back in his chair, crossed his ankle over his knee and addressed the team, “Well, I’m guessing you are all a bit more surprised than we are. We had expected some visitors someday, but I imagine you never expected to see us here.”

“Yeah, you can say that again. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed right now.” Sarah said, sounding more overwhelmed than her words spelled out. “I admit we weren’t sure what we would find when we arrived, but I can say for certain that we weren’t expecting to find people living here.”

Tom laughed a hardy laugh, “I imagine not. Let me just say that you should not feel threatened to be here. In fact, we’re overjoyed that someone finally found us. This base is called Genesis, we’ve been here nearly 500 years, dozens of generations have come and gone from our numbers. The human race has long ago forgotten us, we’re sure. The problem with a secret base such as this one is precisely the secrecy. Our people at NASA couldn’t acknowledge us. We, and when I say we, I mean our ancestors of course, had been here about 13 years when we last had contact with Earth. We had been sent here on a 25 year mission of discovery. In the 13th year, we were awaiting a mission to bring a relief crew and supplies to repair our return craft. The craft never arrived. We tried to communicate back to Earth, but we couldn’t find a satellite. Since then, it’s been silence from Earth.

“The crew had a choice at that moment, either try to repair the craft themselves, and attempt to get home, or prepare to survive on Mars, and wait for another rescue mission. They chose the latter. After a decade or two, it became clear that a rescue wasn’t coming. They determined that they would survive here on Mars. The base was expanded below ground, where sealed chambers were easier to build. The greenhouse became more valuable than ever before, and a great deal of work went into the production of food, fibers, and the other things needed to survive. Our original mission was neglected for a century.”

“Pardon my asking,” Sarah took the opportunity to jump in during a pause in Tom’s speech. “Do you have any idea what has happened down on Earth?”

“Not a lick. Although, we’re pleased to find out you’re not all dead. Our leaders sure did have quite the arsenal back then, figured the planet was dead long ago. But I’m glad you’re still alive, that’s great news!.”

“You and me both.” Sarah Laughed

“We can get to that in a minute.” Tom said. “So after that initial 100 years, we were able to increase our population enough to get on to some research. Technology used to advance pretty slowly on Earth, other than military tech. We were able to devote our full efforts to studying what we came here to study. We advanced in leaps and bounds. In fact, after being here for 500 years, we have done things we never dreamed were possible. Sure, we accomplished our original mission, but we took it way beyond that as well.”

Sarah had a confused look on her face, which Tom recognized, and stopped, allowing her to get a word in. “Tom, this is interesting, but I don’t think we have any idea what your mission was. You see, we found our way here because of some documents we found on Earth, but those documents said nothing about why you were sent here, only that there was a base here. We came hoping to find some answers, and find a way to make the Earth livable again. So I guess I’m just wondering, what exactly was your mission?”

Tom smiled, “Intergalactic travel, of course.”

Sarah’s jaw dropped, “But you said you accomplished that a while ago. Why didn’t you come home?”

“We are home here. By the time we got ourselves to Alpha Centauri, nobody here had ever seen the surface of Earth. Earth wasn’t our home, it was a planet that we see in the night sky once in a while. But this base right here is the place we call home.”

Garst was amazed by this, the gearhead in him came out immediately, “Oh man, what kind of thrusters do you use, what’s the craft like, is life support at those speeds difficult? How long did the journey take? Man, I gotta sit down with your engineers.”

Tom guffawed. “Slow down there, kid. If you talked to any of our engineers, they wouldn’t know the first thing about it. That’s a bit like asking you to explain a steam engine. Obsolete technology, long gone. Fact is, we found that travelling by spacecraft was terribly inefficient. All that mass to move over all that distance, and it took so long to do. No sooner had we returned from Alpha than we changed gears immediately.

“Truth be told, we haven’t even gone anywhere since that first trip. We’ve been waiting a long time for the right technology, and we finally have it.”

Singularity - Chapter 8: Hunters

I'm sorry that this is a little longer than some sections I've posted, I couldn't figure a good way to split this one up without making one section really short and boring. Still, it's not that long of a chapter, so enjoy.



Chapter 8: Hunters

After Bruck’s death, Cheslie struggled with what she would do. She was 17 years old, nearly graduated from primary school, but she had been so far ahead of her peers, she had already completed the requirements to go on to college, but no universities accepted students under 18. They all said it was because they wanted to be sure students had all the pre-college experiences that would make them well-rounded people, but Cheslie knew it was just to keep the schools from getting over-crowded. She didn’t want to stay in Inner-London any longer. Without Elliot there, and after her father’s death, there was no reason to stay there anymore, and every day just reminded her of Bruck.

She had decided to sell everything in the apartment, and use the money to move to New Washington. She had applied at the University, and was certain to be accepted with her perfect grades. She just needed to find a place to stay for a while until she found a permanent apartment. She remembered that when she had spoken to Albrick Hunter, Elliot’s program director, he had told her that if there was anything she needed, just ask. She hated imposing on people, but decided that just this once, she would try depending on someone else for help.

She called the phone number he had left, and watched as the video phone began the ringing sequence, with the multi-colored bubbles rising randomly across the screen, the ringing tone quietly humming away. A woman answered her call. “Hello, this is the Hunter house.”

The woman was probably in her late fifties, or early sixties. Cheslie could tell that she was once a beautiful woman, which still shone through the wrinkles and gray hair left by time. Her eyes were a gray/green shade, her face was welcoming and her smile was broad. Her gray hair was cut short, in a distinguished cut, like you would expect from a businesswoman or politician. Cheslie was a little startled by the woman, since she had been expecting Albrick to answer.

“Yes, hello, is Mr. Hunter in?” Her voice was a little shaky, she did not enjoy talking to strangers on the phone, especially when it was personal, and not business.

“I’m sorry dear, he’s just run out for an evening meeting. Can I leave a message for him?”

“Oh, sure, can you tell him that Cheslie Adams called, and if he has a minute, could he call me?”

“Cheslie Adams? Albrick told me about your father, I am so sorry for your loss. Can we do anything for you? Oh, I’m so rude, my name is Hadessa, I’m Albrick’s wife.”

Cheslie was a little taken aback that Albrick’s wife knew who she was. But it made sense, since Albrick worked with Elliot, she had probably heard her name come up after Bruck’s death. “Um, well, actually, I um, yes, that’s why I, um.”

“It’s alright Cheslie, you can ask for anything.”

“Well, I was calling Mr. Hunter to ask for a favor.”

“Of course, first, a tip. Don’t call him Mr. Hunter, he hates that, it makes him feel old. Stick to Albrick, or Al if you prefer. Come to think of it, I don’t like being called Mrs. Hunter either, so that’s out too, guess you’ll have to call me Hadessa.” She smiled broadly at Cheslie, which made her feel much more comfortable.

“Well, obviously, you know what happened to my dad, so I am planning on selling our furniture and moving away from Inner-London. I applied at NWU, but they won’t take me for another six months, so I’m planning to move to New Washington in the meantime.”

“Enough said, our guest room is your home.”

“How did you…?”

“Just a hunch.” Hadessa shrugged her shoulders, “We’d love to have you stay with us. When will you be arriving? I’ll meet you at the station.”

“Um, Next Monday, I guess. Are you sure that’s ok? Shouldn’t you wait until Mr. I mean Albrick gets home?”

“He’d say the same thing, hon, when you’ve been married 35 years, you start to think alike.”

“Well, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Albrick has said so many nice things about Elliot, and surely we can take care of his sister when she needs help.”

* * * * * * *

Cheslie had been living with Albrick and Hadessa for several weeks by the time they got word that Elliot’s team had safely reached Mars. It was an exciting day for everyone, and was heralded around the world as a major advance in the human struggle against the world they had inherited from the destructive generations before them. The world rejoiced together at what a prolonged peace could provide. At the center of this triumph was the figure of Zeke Rennet, the president who set the wheels in motion to achieve this success. The regions of the world had been in constant communication with the NAR government to offer assistance with the program, and ask for inclusion in any benefit it provides. A movement was underway in the NAR citizens to vote Rennet in as President for Life.

Cheslie was surprised to find out, upon moving to New Washington, that Hadessa was a Senator, representing New Washington in the NAR Senate. Albrick and Hadessa seemed to work almost every hour of the day, so she had a lot of time to herself in their apartment. The view from their apartment was fantastic. They lived near the edge of the cavern, with a view over the city. Cheslie loved sitting on the balcony looking out over the city below. She could see the Capitol and Artemis building in the center, and the roads radiating out from the bright center like a sunburst. It brought her hope in the human race to see the way the city functioned, everything working together to make the habitat continue. She would sit there and stare out, dreaming about her future, and what her part in society would be. She was enrolled in the Political Science program at NWU, and would be starting in just a few weeks. She had told Albrick and Hadessa that she planned to move out of their home once she started, because she didn’t want to overstay her welcome, and wanted to be closer to the university.

Cheslie was sitting on the balcony in one of her long daydreams when Hadessa came up behind her, and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Cheslie, how’s the view?”

“Oh, hey Hadessa, you’re home early today.”

“Yes, after the senate passed a resolution recognizing today as ‘Zeke Rennet Day,’ they decided that we should celebrate by taking an afternoon off. I had to give my staff the afternoon off, so I decided to come home, and spend the afternoon with you. How would you like to take a walk with me?”

“Yeah, that would be nice.”

They headed outside and began to walk towards the city center. They discussed life, told stories about where they grew up. Cheslie talked about Inner-London, and how it was so unpleasant and dark all the time, wherever you went.

As they neared Pratt Square, they sat on a bench and watched street performers entertaining children and tourists nearby. Hadessa turned to Cheslie, and put a hand on her arm. “Cheslie, what are your plans for college. Besides school, I mean. Are you going to find a job to pay the bills during school?”

“I dunno, I hadn’t really thought about it in great detail. I was most likely going to just work at a coffee shop or something like that I guess.”

“Well, I’d like to make you an offer that I think you might want to consider. I would love to have you work for me in my Senate office. I know that’s going to take a significant amount of time, and I’m sure it will limit the amount of leisure time you’ll have. I will be flexible with your hours, you can work between classes, and if you need an afternoon off to study for an exam, no problem. “

“Thank you for the offer, I’m not sure I’m qualified, I’m only 18 years old, and I haven’t even started college yet.”

“Frankly, Cheslie, you’re over-qualified. The job involves a lot of mundane work, filing, answering phones, a little bit of research, nothing that you aren’t prepared to do. The most important qualification is trust, and I can trust you more than anybody currently on my staff. You’re a brilliant young woman Cheslie, and if I didn’t hire you now, I’m afraid I’d lose that opportunity.”

“Well, you make it hard to say no, are you sure there’s room on the staff?”

“Yes, I had to let half of my current staff go today.”

“Oh no, what happened?”

“Well, I was one of only 10 senators to oppose the resolution on Zeke Rennet Day. It made me very unpopular among my fellow Senators, and I started getting dozens of calls in my office every minute. I heard several of my staff telling the callers that I was opposing the measure, but could be convinced. I couldn’t have such mixed messages coming out of my office, so I had to let them go.”

“Oh…” Cheslie looked down at her feet, “I’m not sure I understand why you oppose that.”

Hadessa placed a hand on Cheslie’s shoulder, “Cheslie, it’s ok, you don’t need to be embarrassed. Your feelings are the same as most. It’s hard to understand why someone who has done great things for the NAR would not be honored in such a way as this. It’s why most of my colleagues voted in favor of the measure.”

“Yeah.” Cheslie looked up at Hadessa, who had a very soft look on her face, “Can you explain it for me?”

“Of course, let’s walk back to the apartment, I’ll explain on the way.” The pair got up and began to walk back towards the apartment. Hadessa dropped a few coins in the hat of one of the performers as they walked past.

Hadessa looked up at the dome of the Capitol and smiled. “Cheslie, do you know the story of Mayor Morgan Pratt?”

“A little.”

“Well, here’s a story you probably hadn’t heard. When he built the city of New Washington, he had no plans to become the Mayor. He was a visionary man who was incredibly inspirational. He knew that nothing would unify people more than a goal. He made this city his goal. He organized the people around the construction of it, he designed it, he managed the process, he took care of details. No single person was more involved in the founding of this wonderful city. He did not want to be mayor, in fact, when they held the first election, he specifically asked not to be on the ballot. But the people wrote his name in. He won the election with over 80% of the vote. It was overwhelming, to the point where he could not turn down the people’s sincere request that he lead. He became the mayor of the city, and when his four year term was done, he requested that they not vote for him, but encouraged them to vote for his vice-mayor instead. The people did this out of respect for the man.

“Once he was out of office, there was groundswell across the nation to elect him as president of the NAR. He was nominated by his party as their candidate, and he attended their national convention. At the convention, he gave an incredible and courageous speech. He talked about the responsibilities of the office of President, and the power associated with that office. He discussed how important it was to be cautious on whom you place that awesome burden. He spoke about the potential corrupting force of power, and the way that a person can become addicted to that power, to the detriment of the governed. He then said that he was declining their nomination, because he was severely disturbed with the legendary status he had attained, and did not trust himself with the responsibility of that legend. He knew that if he were given a seat of power, he would not easily relinquish it, and the people who voted him into that office would willingly enable him to stay. He argued for the necessity of a change of power in government as a way to keep any one person from achieving pharaonic status. He warned against the mindset that places any man or woman above human status, and made the profound statement that any person who would accept such a status could, by no means, be trusted with such. He said that his fear was that he did not have the character to turn down that status, and therefore, could not accept their nomination.

“The crowd was shocked as he walked off the stage. It wasn’t until several silent minutes later that a slow applause started in the gallery, and eventually spread to a loud standing ovation. The party nominated a new candidate, who won the election with the support of Mayor Pratt. The mayor lived out the rest of his life without holding office, but was a strong figure speaking out against abuses of power around the world.

“Most people stop their history of Mayor Pratt before that presidential nomination speech, but it’s that principle of preventing abuse of power for which he spent the latter years of his life fighting. I serve in the Senate and hope to emulate the vision of Morgan Pratt. That is why I could not support a resolution honoring a sitting president. That is why I fear this movement to make President Rennet more than just a president. I fear that it will come to the Senate before long, and I don’t have much time to get support from my colleagues. I refuse to allow our government to go down the road of crowning an Emperor.”

Cheslie was speechless, she tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind. It would take some time before that all sank in for her. She was caught up in the fervor around the constant praise of Zeke Rennet, so this shift was something that she had a hard time accepting. But Hadessa’s story was very compelling. She knew that she could learn a lot by working on her staff. “I’d like to accept your offer, Hadessa. I look forward to working for you.”

“Good. I don’t suppose I can talk you out of moving out of our apartment, so take a week, get settled into your new place, and you can start next Monday.”

Singularity - Chapter 7: Contact (Part 2 of 2)

The landing on Mars was not as smooth as the Moon. The atmosphere on Mars was considerably thicker than the Moon, causing additional heat and friction on entry. The B-537 landing craft took all of this in stride, the aerogel shell that surrounded the craft effectively deflected the heat from the thin metal hull holding the crew and equipment. This craft was significantly smaller than the A-537, designed to be able to easily land on a planet, and leave the planet’s atmosphere easily without the aid of rail launchers. It was more difficult to control during turbulence than the larger craft, but more maneuverable. Garst set the craft down on the dusty clay landing strip that was remarkably clear of debris. The landing was bumpy, but safe.

The crew put on their space suits for their first steps on a foreign planet. The excitement of the moment was electric. They had all trained months for this, and it was finally happening. They would be the first people to set foot on Mars post-travesty. Garst silenced the airlock alarm warning of the lack of suitable air outside the craft, and pushed the outer door open. Because he had done all the hard work so far, they had decided that he would be the first out of the craft. He descended the ladder to the ground and bounded around in a circle while the others watched from the windows of the lander.

The gravity was stronger than the moon, but not as strong as Earth, providing a good balance that made him feel like he could move effortlessly, but without that feeling that he could jump off the planet if he tried. He smiled and touched the communicator switch, “You guys really oughta get down here, or I’m going to have all the fun.”

The rest of the team took their turns exiting through the airlock and down onto the planet. They spent a few minutes chasing each other around, bounding, and just enjoying the planet that they were all visiting for the first time. The strangeness of their situation took a while to sink in.

After a few minutes, Priscilla said, “Hey guys, I just realized, we’re standing on Mars. I have no idea what I did right in my life to arrive here, but I’m glad I did it.”

Elliot Laughed, it was the first honest laugh he’d had for days. He looked towards the horizon where he saw the sun rising above the thin red line that marked the curve of the planet. It illuminated the dusty amber color of the sky, which was the most striking feature of a planet that otherwise looked similar to the surface of his home planet. He was somewhat disappointed in the sunrise, or was it sunset? No, sunrise, definitely. The sun was small, distant, and no noticeable warmth came with the light. By far the most noticeable difference was the size of the sun in comparison to what he was used to seeing on the days he spent at the surface research station. It was a tiny spot in the sky. It still illuminated the landscape brightly, but did not dominate the sky the way it did on Earth. The pale sky, small sun, and barren landscape gave him a cold feeling. The suit he wore kept his body warm, but he felt chilled to his soul by the view in front of him. This was truly a strange place.

Priscilla led the way from the tarmac to the research station, while Garst ran back to the craft to grab a toolbox. The team found the main entrance, and Garst began to examine the door. It looked to be in decent condition, but he was sure that the hundreds of years would have taken a toll on the mechanics of the door, and definitely would have ruined the motors that control it. Besides all of that, the world that designed this base was a warlike world, and even Mars wasn’t far enough away for security. Thus, the door was built with a keypad entry system, and a 32 digit code, which, of course, was only ever communicated verbally, and never recorded on the schematics unearthed recently. Needless to say, they had anticipated a bit of a struggle to access the inside of the base.

Garst began to eye up the door. It was a beautifully constructed device. The schematics had shown that the door was actually a rotating chamber that served as an airlock as well. It was designed to rotate and stop at three points, spaced evenly around the chamber. The first was the exterior opening where they currently stood. The door would allow up to 10 people to enter the chamber, then rotated to the second point. The second point was a completely sealed position, where the chamber would be brought to equal pressure with the inside or outside, depending on the direction being travelled. The final stop was the opening to the inside of the base.

A solid sheet of metal curved slightly across the opening of the door frame before fitting snugly back behind the other side of the frame. The fit of the door in the frame meant that there was only a few molecules width separating the door from the frame, so no amount of prying would do any good. There was a mechanical override for the door, but that was located inside the base, not on the outside. The team decided that the only way in was to cut the metal. It would be a tedious process, and would require repair later if the base was going to become airtight again, but they didn’t come all the way to Mars to look at the exterior of a Base, maybe peek in the windows and head home.

Garst removed the protective cap off the laser cutting device. He flipped on the safety catch, and started the cutter through its warm-up cycle. The cutter gave off a low tone, which grew higher and higher in pitch as the device warmed up. When the green light came on, he began to test the cutter on a large square of metal sunk into the ground next to the door. The beam flared up where it contacted the metal, and the material could be seen melting away at the sides of the laser. The beam reached the edge of the metal, and Garst flipped the safety back on. “Seems to work well. Kinda fun actually.”

He walked over to the door, and drew a square on the door with chalk, about a meter on each side. He pointed the cutter at the corner of the square, and released the catch when a speaker overhead crackled, causing them all to look up, expecting to see something move. Nothing moved, but a few seconds later, the speaker came to life again.

“If you’re planning to treat the door like that poor bench, we’d really prefer if you’d just knock. It would save both of us an awful lot of time and effort.”