Kahnu (The Guardians of Tomorrow Book 1) Read online

  “Now, you’re starting to sound just like François. Give those two a chance to land on another world, and they think they’re Gods of the planets!”

  “Hey. Wait a minute…” began François.

  “You know you’re the only one for me, baby,” said Dedrick to Vera.

  “That’s more like it.” She gave him a playful smile.

  “Oh, come on you guys, you’re not gonna start this right now, are you? None of that romantic crap, OK? Come on, let’s get to work!” interjected François.

  Dedrick looked at his French friend with lassitude and got back to his seat.

  “Ok. We need to contact the station and give the rover our coordinates. Check on our exact location while I attempt contact,” said Dedrick to François.

  After making a few adjustments to several dials in front of him, Dedrick grabbed the keyboard and started typing a direct message to ARC 2, one of the two rovers waiting for the ship's arrival at the Mars First outpost.

  “Hello ARC 2. This is Mars First One team leader, Dedrick Sokolov, requesting transport assistance.”

  A few seconds passed.

  “ARC 2. This is Mars First One, requesting transport assistance.”

  “What’s that rover doing?” asked François. “We have signal, right?”

  “Yes. ARC 2. This is Dedrick Sokolov of Mars One First. Requesting transport assistance.”

  “Welcome Mars First One team leader Dedrick Sokolov. Please provide exact landing coordinates for transport assistance.”

  “Well, it’s about time.” said Dedrick out loud. “Ok, so where are we exactly, Sherlock,” he asked François.

  “I’m sending it to you right now,” replied François as he looked over at Dedrick’s screen.

  “Got it! Thanks. Forwarding coordinates to ARC 2 right now.”

  “How long do you think before the rover gets here? Are we far from the station again?” asked Vera.

  “We’re exactly two point six kilometers away; not quite where we were supposed to land, but still within acceptable margin. I would say about fifteen-twenty minutes for the rover to get here, an hour or so to secure the ship, and another one to get back to the station. We should be home for supper!” finished Dedrick, with a wink.

  Eight minutes later, the ship’s door opened, and Sabrina emerged in her white and black spacesuit, one hand holding on to the wall of the cabin, the other casting a shadow over her glass helmet as she scanned the horizon.

  “Mars!” she thought. “I’m on Mars!”

  Vera was soon standing behind her, staring at the amazing view that none of the simulators or pictures could ever have done justice to. The two of them stood there for a while. Far in the distance, the orange horizon was meeting with the immense plains above the cliffs. The steep rocky faces surrounding the flat lands were a sight unlike any they had ever seen. And no other human, as a matter of fact, would see for at least another two years. Most of the immediate area around the ship was flat and predominantly desert like. Low dusty mounts, dirt, and loose rocks covered the ground. There were no clouds. The sun, low to the left, was adding a surreal tint of reddish blue to the alien landscape.

  “Wow, check out the sun! It really looks smaller… I’ve seen countless pictures and videos, but now you can really tell. Crazy, don’t you think?”

  Vera did not reply. She was mesmerized by it all. Yes, the sun looked smaller from Mars, and several kilometers away, what had looked like small dried out river beds from space, now looked more like deep canyons with sharp cliff sides, taller than they had imagined. Being there was so different. The sensation was indescribable, and their hearts were beating faster than normal from the excitement. Yet, once one took in the immensity of the cliffs and their dark shadows; dust, dirt, and a reddish-brown ground was all that comprised the entire scenery, as far as the eyes could see. There were no oceans on Mars, nor rivers or streams; no trees, no plants, no grass. And this eerily silent, desert-like planet, a world completely devoid of life, was now their new home. The four of them had just spent the past six months traveling through space, crammed together in the confined space of the MF1 spaceship, in a space barely larger than a small studio apartment, and though their new habitat would only be slightly larger, they knew it was all worth it. This was the new frontier, mankind’s next adventure.

  There, just a few miles away to the right, Vera spotted the white glow of the Mars First station. “Look, Sabrina, the station.”

  “I see it!”

  About halfway from there, a small trail of dust could also be seen behind the moving ARC 2 rover, clearly visible on such a nice day, even if still over a kilometer away.

  “This is it, our new home,” thought Vera.

  After almost ten years of preparation and hard work, they were finally on Mars. The entire planet was now their new backyard, a barren world where they were going to spend the rest of their lives.

  “So, are we going down or what?” asked François who had just come to the hatch to join them.

  “We have to wait for Dedrick,” replied Vera.

  “Right!” he said as he pulled the lever next to him to release the outside ladder.

  A few seconds later, François approached the small opening.

  “Pardon me, ladies.”

  “Wait! You’re not supposed to go down yet. Dedrick is still in the cockpit. We're all going down at the same time, remember?” voiced Sabrina as he started climbing down.

  “What’s the difference? Plus, we can’t really all go down the ladder at the same time, now, can we? One of us will set foot on Mars first, no matter how we do this. I’m going down.”

  “Thanks, Pal! I thought you guys were gonna wait for me,” said Dedrick who had just rejoined his colleagues at the door.

  “There you are!” replied François, still climbing down.

  “That’s what we were just telling him,” added Vera.

  “I know, I heard you all in my helmet headset. Never mind. Let’s go take a look at our new world. After you, ladies.”

  Sabrina started down the ladder.

  “Go ahead, baby. I’m right behind you,” offered Dedrick, gesturing to Vera.

  A few seconds later, all four were standing on the bare rocky floor of the red planet, the Mars First One spaceship right behind them, its white shell shining in the orange glow of the mid-afternoon sun. They were now completely silent, taking in the fantastic view. François kicked up a small rock that went flying a few meters away.

  “So… Where’s the nearest bar?”

  “Very funny,” replied Dedrick, sarcastically.

  “Should we say something? I mean, some profound line for posterity? You know, like Neil Armstrong did when he landed on the Moon: “A small step for-”

  “Yeah, we all know the line, Sabrina. How about, ‘Here we are!’ blurted François, cutting her off.

  “You can be such an idiot at times, really! I’m serious. Dedrick, wasn’t there something headquarters wrote for you to say?”

  “Actually, there is. Let’s do it right. Take my hand.”

  Vera took Dedrick’s suited hand in hers and turned to Sabrina who took hers. The four of them were now standing in a circle, hand in hand as Dedrick began.

  “We, the people of Earth, have come to Mars on this Earth day of December 17th, 2025, in the name of all mankind. We come in peace and in humility, but also with great courage and strong spirit. May this day mark the beginning of a new era in man’s exploration of the universe, a historical moment in the human colonization of Mars and the worlds beyond.”

  #

  Two hours later, the strange convoy was driving slowly around a rocky bend when the Mars First station came into view.

  “There! Look! Our new home. Isn’t she beautiful?” said Dedrick excited.

  “Wow! So it is. And it’s about time. We only have another hour or so of daylight left. We still have to detach the landing module off the rover, and I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted.” />
  “Did you listen to anything at all in training those past eight years? We’ll setup the module tomorrow. We’re to leave it on the rover for now and get the habitats ready for our first night on the red planet. That’s our priority.”

  “Yes, boss!” replied François to Dedrick with a military salute and a smirk on his face.

  The sky was even redder when they finally reached the station. An occasional wind draft was lifting orange dust from the ground around them as they stepped out from the vehicle. Transporting the module on the rover’s bed had made the short trek a very long one, only able to go a mere six kilometers an hour on the flattest portions of the uneven terrain. Of course, once François had realized he could go faster on foot, he had simply taken off ahead of the convoy. But a few minutes later, Dedrick and the girls had convinced him to stop wasting precious oxygen and get back inside with them.

  From a distance, the glittering white station was standing out like a sore thumb against the Martian landscape. The three modules comprising the entire habitat had been set up by the two rovers more than a year earlier. The small white pods, each only a few meters in diameter and spaced a couple of meters apart, were lined up in a straight row, their backs to a small Martian hill. Their only obvious features were the dark porthole windows, two per pod, and the brown streaks along the small jet outlets, left by the rocket boosters when the modules had landed. They were all identical to the one they had just flown in through space. Tomorrow, they would add the extra habitat to the small outpost.

  “Ok, guys. Here we are. Vera, François, go check on the condition of pod one and two and activate the secondary life systems. Sabrina, you come with me,” ordered Dedrick.

  The four of them got to their respective duties. Once inside, Dedrick contacted Earth to let everyone know MF1 and its crew had landed without a glitch, and all the station’s monitoring systems were checked thoroughly. They were busy another hour or so before finally retreating to their sleeping quarters for the night.

  Tomorrow they would add their landing module to the row of habitats and connect it to the other pods. The real work would then begin. Mars First, the first habitable station on Mars, also included two greenhouses, already setup perpendicularly to the pods, partially buried in the Martian dirt mound behind the outpost. That’s where they would now sleep. It made sense, the green plants would generate a good portion of their needed oxygen, while filtering the carbon dioxide the team released. All they had to do now was to grow them.

  A few hours later, the new colonists finally laid down on their respective beds, and exhausted, quickly fell asleep. It was their first night on the red planet.

  In the distance, a small dust storm was brushing up along a narrow corridor in the cliffs of Candor Chasma. Deep inside the canyon walls, in a large underground cave, a small purple light began glowing.

  Chapter III

  Martians

  A few interesting events had taken place on Earth since the four had landed on Mars several weeks earlier. NASA had announced its intention to send a first manned mission to Europa, one of Jupiter’s largest moons, within the next five years. Many scientists and highly respected experts now talked of the eminent opening of space travel and the future of space tourism. Several new private companies had also entered the “Race to Space” arena, working on their own projects, hoping to capitalize on this new trend.

  Back on Mars, the small group was keeping up with Earth’s affairs as much as they could, but their time away from their individual responsibilities was restricted. What made their solitude much more bearable, however, was their personal communication time with loved ones back home. Every night, each member took their turn in front of the webcam to send personal messages to family and friends back on Earth. The quality of the calls was surprisingly good, even with video, but the signal lag between the two planets was annoying, to say the least. Anything said on Mars took a little over twelve minutes to reach Earth this time of year, and the reply took just as long, making real-time conversation impossible. You simply had to wait.

  Dedrick was a few minutes late when he finally sat in front of his computer. He awakened the touch screen, entered his password, and pressed on the “new message” video icon. A window opened, and the video message automatically started playing.

  “You are a real hero, my son! Everyone is talking about you here.”

  His dad was talking loudly, a proud smile on his full face.

  “We miss you terribly, sweetie. How are you doing, up there?” asked his mother.

  “How’s that greenhouse working?” asked his dad.

  “Oh, your Aunt Sonya said yesterday’s sermon at church included a few words from Father Kuznetsov about the ‘travelers to another world.’ She said it was very touching, and they all prayed for you. She asked me to wish you all the best,” commented his mother.

  “Funny, she never seemed to care much about me until this Mars thing…” thought Dedrick.

  “We miss you terribly, sweetie,” she repeated. “Are you eating enough?”

  “Come on woman, of course he’s eating fine. They’ve been training for this for almost ten years now. Don’t worry, they know what they are doing. Right, son? That reminds me, I ran into Colonel Kuznetsov yesterday. He said you’re a brave man and you’re doing your country proud. I told him we always knew you were destined for great things. And I am very proud of you as well, son.”

  “Is that all that matters to you? Your son, our son, is lost on another world and all you care about is what Colonel Kuznetsov thinks? You should have never enlisted him in this crazy mission in the first place. It’s all your fault if he’s up there, now,” she cried.

  “What are you talking about, woman? Can’t you see how important this is? What Dedrick is doing is helping all of mankind. And his name will be remembered many generations from now. The first man to set foot on Mars, Dedrick Sokolov- our son, my son.”

  “Who cares? First man on Mars? What good does that do me, now that he is so far away?” she finished, sobbing.

  Watching both his parents argue on the screen was hard enough, but being unable to reply or stop them due to the lag time between messages was pure torture.

  After a few more back and forth, they finally wished him good night and said they would await his reply impatiently.

  “Hey Ma, hello Dad. How are you? You both look well…”

  That wasn’t quite true. Lately, they appeared to have aged significantly. Both in their sixties now, Dedrick realized he had not seen them in person for over a year already.

  “To answer your question, yes, I’m doing good. We're all doing well. As you have probably seen on TV, we are ahead of schedule with our second greenhouse. Seems the new panels allow more light in, so the plants have been thriving. And yes, Mom, I’m eating well. Don’t worry. I won’t bore you with the technical stuff, but our meals have been planned according to our individual metabolism and are ideally calibrated for each one of us. We don’t eat the most tasteful cuisine, but we are all healthy and fit. The greenhouses have become the focus of our current mission. We’ve started growing several vegetables successfully. We’ll soon have tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, kale…even parsley and onions.” He was counting on his fingers at the same time. “It will take a few more weeks before we can harvest anything, but we’re pretty excited about it. As I said, the packaged space meals are not bad, but I think we’ll all get sick of them eventually, and we’re definitely looking forward to some real food mixed in for a change. Anyway, please don’t worry, we’re doing good. We’ve been on Mars for almost two weeks now, can you believe it?” he smiled. “François and I went on our third trip to the ridge this week. It’s so grand and beautiful. I wish you could see the canyon for yourselves. The videos don’t do it justice. Tomorrow, Vera and I are celebrating our eleventh year together. It’s crazy. Eleven years already. Anyway, she thought we should take a trip to Lavida’s crevice. There’s this amazing view over the whole channel from th
e plateau above. I think it was in one of our videos last week, remember? Anyway, we’re looking forward to it. We’ll have a rover all to ourselves. It will be nice to get away from everyone for a few hours. That’s what’s weird here. We have this entire planet all to ourselves, just the four of us, yet we are together all the time, all cooped up in this small station. I’m not complaining, of course, we all get along nicely, but it’s hard to have any privacy, you know? Well…tomorrow should be nice… Let me see, what else? Sabrina brought back some interesting samples of that rock slab she found yesterday in sector four. François is helping her analyze them now. There’s very little chance this is anything more than an odd-looking boulder, but it’s worth a check. That’s why we’re here, right? Who knows, maybe we’ll discover something. Anyway, I miss you both and I look forward to chatting with you again soon.” He reached across the desk and pressed the “send” button on the screen.

  “I should’ve asked them how they were doing… maybe I did… oh well…”

  He logged out of the video session and turned off the camera.

  Olympus Mons

  Weeks turned into months, and it wasn’t long before the small Martian outpost had spent its first year on the lonely red.

  By now, most of the world was following the “Fantastic Four,” as the Chicago Tribune had renamed them, wanting it or not. Dedrick had been the first to mention how wrong the newspapers and media were, when they had mentioned the group had been on Mars seven months, since a year on the red world was almost twice as long as it was on Earth. François had been just as quick to point out that he could not call them months since that word was derived from Earth’s Moon itself. Vera and Sabrina had rolled their eyes at them. Regardless, their names and faces had found their way into the marketing of countless products and commercial goods all over the globe. From coffee mugs and shampoo bottles to fast food chains and even car manufacturers, the four “Martians” were everywhere, and the Mars First Corporation was making money hand over fist, something Lars Bruininck had banked on from the very first day.