Celina, her sister, and her mothers continue their journey to Mars. Working with the team on Earth, they discover a new challenge in the asteroid belt.
Interplanetary Transport Schiaparelli
The Void between Earth and Mars
August 2055, One Month from Mars
We’d been in transit away from Earth for over seven months and were almost to Mars. We’d be back on solid ground in one more month, with at least a semblance of a sky overhead. I was restless to have this trip end.
Three months ago, we started the injections needed to combat bone loss in the planet’s lower gravity. Thankfully, the gravity ring of the Schiaparelli helped us avoid that for most of the trip because, although I got used to it, the first few treatments were nauseating. But it brought home to me that this was a one-way trip, and I would be a Martian for the rest of my life. It’s not likely I would see Earth again. I could train and exercise to go back, but my mothers would never make the trip, and I wouldn’t leave them.
My guess—Celeste would love the adventure of it all and would never want to go back. She had patched it up with Marco and moved in with him. Between her shifts working on the new ship and her time with Marco, I never saw her except in passing. She often irritated the hell out of me, but I missed her these last few months. And how did that even happen on such a small ship? At least I had Lexi to keep me company.
On the bright side, we’d gotten close enough to Mars that communications with the team at the base there were at least bearable, if not real-time. I’ve learned to cram a lot of information into my half of the conversation as I worked with the tech teams to ready Lexi’s new home, as she likes to call the latest state-of-the-art computing hardware being installed at the Mars base at Lyot—an advanced environment that would let her grow beyond the limitations of the shipboard hardware.
Unfortunately, my mothers and Inspector Fuentes took over investigating Seth and the encrypted signals from the invaders. I tried to stay involved and have Lexi work on the investigation, but Fuentes told me I didn’t have the proper security clearance. Really? What the hell did that mean? Lexi and I had discovered Seth in the first place, and then they cut us out—relegated us to continuing our conversations with the native Jupiterians and, through them, the entities on Saturn and Uranus. It mainly disappointed me that my mothers hadn’t come to my defense and wouldn’t give me a reason.
It was a quiet morning, with no communications scheduled with the Jupiterians, but I needed to check Lexi’s latest translations. I slid my handheld into the keeper attached to the desk and slipped into one of the zero-G lounge chairs. “Lexi, do you have a minute?”
Lexi materialized in the holographic chamber, dressed in bright pink sweats, a fresh addition to the casual wardrobe she’d adopted when it was just her and me. Honestly, though, I didn’t know where she came up with her outfits. “Good morning, Celina. What’s up?”
And now colloquial phrases; where had she learned that? “Good morning. What’s the status on—” The blare from the wall speaker interrupted my question.
“Attention. Mars Base Command has scheduled an emergency briefing to begin in thirty minutes. All science and engineering personnel are required to attend. Bridge out.”
Well, that was disconcerting. Mars has never called an emergency meeting. They’ve typically published a schedule because of the communication delays and the need to prepare materials. They didn’t specify, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to have Lexi listen in. “Lexi, we’ll finish this later. I’m heading to the conference room; can you listen in? We can communicate through my handheld. OK?”
Lexi’s hologram had switched to the plain blue suit she wore in meetings. “Yes, Celina. That will be satisfactory. I’m not sure how I can help. But I’ll be there.” Lexi’s image faded, and the holographic chamber went dark.
I retrieved my handheld, removed my zero-G slippers, and headed to the conference room. Lexi’s icon had activated, so she was online when I arrived in the conference room and sat in the front row. The teams filtered in and found seats. Celeste came in alone and waved. She raised her palms and gave me the “what gives” gesture, but I could only shrug and return the gesture since I didn’t know any more than she did.
My mothers and Inspector Fuentes entered together and made their way to the front. They took the empty seats near me. Both my moms gave my shoulder an affectionate squeeze as they passed by. Jenny took the seat next to me and leaned over.
“How are you, sweetheart?”
“I’m fine, Mom. Do you know what’s going on? We’re almost to Mars, and we have an emergency?”
“Patience. You’ll find out soon enough. Your Aunt Mavis is running this briefing. There’s been a recent development.”
The room quieted as the scheduled time arrived, and the viewscreen activated. The image on the screen was my Aunt Mavis, but she was in uniform—two stars now. Why was she back in Space Force?
“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Over the last three months, many of you have likely wondered about the encrypted signal we detected and the discovery of the AI entity, Seth. I can now reveal what we’ve learned. With this new information, we have had to review and update all of your security clearances so you can attend this briefing and continue to work on this project. Your supervisors will provide you with your new security badges and access codes. Second, the US Space Force has assumed direct control of constructing the ship in orbit around Mars under my command. Those are the new conditions; here’s why.
“As you recall, we detected a coded signal from the invading force directed to an unidentified location in the Asteroids. Since that discovery, the Space Force, with the teams at Lyot and New Mexico, have been working with NASA to update the encryption of the data feed from the Hubble Space Telescope. Fortunately, the second Polaris Program mission in 2025 boosted Hubble to a higher orbit, and it has remained functional. The telescope allowed us to put eyes on the region of the Asteroids where the invaders had directed their signal. What we found was unexpected. Since you’ll have questions and we still have a communications lag, I’ll turn this briefing over to InterSol Inspector Fuentes. Buckley out.” The screen switched to a star field with the Space Force logo in the middle.
A hubbub swelled. In the room, folks shouted questions about what they found. Inspector Fuentes rose and stood before the group.
“Everyone, quiet down.” He tried waving the room to silence, but gave in and stood patiently until the din dissipated. “OK. Here’s what we know—first, the easy part. We knew the invaders had targeted a signal to an AI entity known as Seth. InterSol’s intelligence division located Seth on Space Systems & Technology’s ship factory and material processing facility in Earth orbit. So far, we don’t believe SS&T knows of our discovery.” He paused as surprise rippled across the group.
One engineer in the back stood up. “I work for SS&T. Does that mean we’re helping the invaders? Am I in trouble?”
The inspector waved the engineer to his seat. “Don’t worry, Maurice. You’re not in trouble. Essentially stealing the technology to create Seth, and what I’m going to show you next is being run by a discrete, secret cadre within the company. Our intelligence does not implicate anyone outside of that unit.”
A hand shot up in the back. “So, what have you got, Inspector?”
Fuentes sat at the control console and typed in a quick command. The screen refreshed and now displayed three ships hanging in the blackness of space. “This is what we found with Hubble. Two asteroid ore miners and a massive vessel of a design never seen before.” Another wave of awe flooded the room. Shouted questions came from everywhere. Unlike everyone else, though, Celeste sat quietly, scrutinizing the image.
I was no expert, of course, but the new ship was peculiar. Like our ship, there was a control module in front, and behind that was the crew module, but with an oversized gravity ring, much larger than the one on the Schiaparelli. Then, at the stern were the plasma engines, the nuclear power plant, and the fuel tanks. That’s where any familiarity ended. Huge ovoid tanks composed the middle section, easily two-thirds of the ship—tanks as large as the ore miners. Any one tank would dwarf the Schiaparelli, and there were six of them surrounding the central core.
The room calmed down when Fuentes stood up. “The mining ships aren’t a tremendous surprise; they’d launched three together. Although, at the moment, we don’t know where that third mining ship is.”
In the brief pause, Celeste stood at the back. “The ore miners are of pretty much standard design. The orbital facility, where the Schiaparelli was launched, had quite a few under construction when we left. But Inspector, my guess is that the missing ship, the third ore miner, formed the core of the new ship. The control module, the engines, and the power plant are the right configuration—larger, clearly.” A murmur of assent flowed through the engineering teams. “And, Inspector, I’d bet real money that it’s a tanker. For what, who knows? But they’re going somewhere to get a lot of something.”
“That’s what the Space Force engineers thought. So, here are your assignments. Science and engineering, you need to review all the data we’ve gathered. Try to figure out what they’re going to do with that thing.” The inspector turned to me. “Celina, I need you to work with Lexi and Jessa and the team in New Mexico to listen in on what SS&T and the invaders are doing. We need to know what they’re planning. That’s it, folks. Get to work.”
So, Lexi and I were back in the game—as spies. I couldn’t wait to hear what Lexi had to say about that. We’d never asked her to keep a secret before. I worried about how her ethics module would handle our new clandestine assignment. How would she handle maybe having to send false data to Seth? Could she lie?
Time to find out.
Watch for Episode IV: A Change in Plans coming after Thanksgiving 2023