The Malcontent of Mars — EPILOGUE: Life on Mars?
I | II | III | IV | V | VI
INT
VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII
EPI
She was twenty-three now, and her old messenger bag was grey and tattered.
The icebreaker known as The Loom chugged through the Martian polar ice, and she stood, watching the sunlight glint off of the Martian ice sheets and glaciers as it glided forward. She could see her breath in the cold. It was a far cry from the often high summer heat further south.
She was Terran by birth, but she had resided on Mars for some time and attained a dual citizenship. Her place at the University of Hellas had been sponsored by the Terran Prime Minister, Major Erika Hythe, with whom she kept regular contact. During her time at the university, she had attained a degree in the history of space travel, which had long been a special interest of hers. Though it was now obsolete, battered and damaged, she still carried around the electronic book reader that she had used to read books about space, long ago, even though the battery rarely held more than thirty minutes’ charge.
Much had changed, she thought. Mars, once a subject of the Terran Federal Republic, had, in the wake of what Martians called “la Liberigo” (or “the Liberation”), formally declared its independence from the Republic. For a few years, a cold war had broken out between the two worlds, each threatening the other with military action if they refused to back down. After a lengthy period of careful negotiations and near-misses, and in the face of growing social unrest and food shortages, the Treaty of Tharsis was signed, and Terra had, at long last, ceded Mars to the Martians, finally and decisively recognising Martian independence. A tenuous peace was slowly, but steadily growing between the two planets, and Free Mars had made it clear to Terra that not a single Terran child was to ever go hungry again. Dependent on food from Mars, the Terran Republic, now little more than a rump-state, could do little more than oblige.
So it had come to pass that the political climate had stabilised, and she had finally been invited on this expedition, which was long, long overdue.
She stood on The Loom’s bow, reminiscing about the last six years of her life. A woman with red hair walked up next to her, put an arm around her and kissed her cheek.
“What are you doing out here, Christine?” she asked, her teeth chattering. “It’s freezing!”
“Just thinking,” Christine said. “It’s been a strange few years.”
“You and your thinking. You’ve got your head in the clouds so often I’ve a mind to ask you what the weather’s like!” said the woman. She had a hybrid Terran-Martian accent, which Christine found endearing. “I’m only teasing,” she added.
“I know,” Christine said, reassuringly. “I’ve told you about my experiences from before I met you, right, Emily?”
“Quite a few times, yes. In fact, it’s the main reason I decided to come up here with you.”
Of course, quite a few documentaries and dramatised serials had been made about Ralph Kowalski in the intervening years since the end of Terran rule. He had become a sort of mythic figure; a folk hero. They called him “The Malcontent of Mars”, after a quote from an ancient play by an ancient playwright.
Of course, none of the portrayals were exactly accurate. Christine had mostly elected to stay out of the spotlight; her role was frequently replaced by that of a fictional character loosely based on her persona, so as to avoid a lawsuit. Not that she was particularly litigious, of course.
Yet, she was still incredibly interested in Ralph and his story. Much of what had been written about him mythologised him to the point of unrecognisability. Nobody really knew what he had been like. And her experiences in that week of her life still haunted her even now. Part of the reason for her agreement to join the expedition was to satisfy her curiosity – and because her therapist had advised her that perhaps it would be best to seek some closure.
A couple of years had passed before she was able to bring herself to watch the video of the destruction again. There were sources from a few different angles, and she had tried to work out what that small burst had been. A lifeboat, perhaps? Yet Ralph had never been heard from again. Experts were divided on what the object that had been jettisoned was, and if it had been a lifeboat, exactly what it contained. Some supposed it might have even contained Ralph Kowalski. She wanted to believe that it did, despite all evidence to the contrary. All agreed, however, that it had landed somewhere in the Martian northern ice cap.
A few months ago, she had received an unexpected call from the Prime Minister’s office, informing her that after the political situation had cooled down, a search had finally been given the go-ahead. Long-range scanners had discovered an object buried in the Martian ice. Major Erika Hythe had immediately thought of her, and personally invited her on the expedition to retrieve the object. Christine had agreed, with the proviso that she could bring Emily with her, which Erika had agreed with, after some coaxing.
“Can we go inside?” Emily said, her breath steaming with every word spoken. “My nose is going to fall off at this rate.”
“Not if I do this,” Christine said, kissing her on the nose.
Emily smiled. “That’s cute,” she said. “But I’m freezing. It’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey out here.”
“Alright, alright,” Christine said, rolling her eyes and walking over to the door that allowed her to move below deck. “Calm down, princess.”
“Who are you calling ‘princess’? Or are we going to just forget that not two nights ago you spent half an hour whining that your feet hurt just so I’d rub them?”
Christine put a hand out to Emily to help her through the door. “My feet really did hurt, though.”
Emily took it, wrinkling her nose indignantly. “Well, I’m really cold!”
“Are you two arguing again?” asked a young man, standing in the galley.
“Stay out of this, Caleb,” Emily said.
“Joni sent me along with this expedition for the purpose of security,” Caleb said. He had grown into a tall, broad-shouldered man with muscled arms. “And if that means breaking up lovers’ quarrels, so be it.”
“We’re just messing around,” Christine said, putting her arm around Emily. “I love her, really. See?”
Emily blushed in that silly way she did any time Christine embraced her.
Caleb rolled his eyes. “Mehmet wants to talk to you.”
“Understood,” Christine said, and they both proceeded through the ship’s corridors to Mehmet’s quarters.
Mehmet looked older, now – he’d grown his beard out, and some grey hairs had started appearing in it. He’d also taken to wearing glasses. He was examining a holographic map.
“Ah, Christine,” he said. “Just who I was looking for.”
“Caleb told me you wanted to talk to me.”
“Ah, and here I was, thinking you were clairvoyant.” He smiled.
“What was it you wanted to talk about?”
“We’re very close now. We’ll be there in less than four hours, inshallah. I’m just letting you know, so you can get ready to disembark.”
“Alright. Thank you, Mehmet.”
“Don’t mention it.” Christine and Emily turned to leave. “Christine?” Mehmet asked, hesitantly.
“Yes?” Christine asked, turning back.
“Are you sure you’re ready for whatever we find?”
“As I’ll ever be,” Christine said.
“Okay. Just thought I’d check.”
Christine nodded, and she and Emily left the compartment.
~
The sun was still shining.
The Loom was moored by a thick plain of ice. It didn’t look like anything could be buried under it, but Christine knew that wasn’t the case.
A large door on the top of the icebreaker opened, and a familiar red, egg-shaped vehicle vertically took off from inside it, piloted by Mehmet. It had two pincers on its front. The Rock Lobster. It was the first time Christine had seen it fly in many years. She was overcome with emotion at the sight of it.
Christine, Caleb and Emily stood aside, watching the pincers crack the ice and dig through it. It took around three hours to get as deep as the object was buried. The pincers firmly gripped the object and began pulling it up.
During this time, a small group of penguins – introduced to the Martian north pole to control fish populations – waddled over, and Emily petted one of them. The birds cocked their heads curiously at the flying machine, digging through the ice.
“Quark,” they said.
Eventually, the object inside the hole came loose and was dredged up on to the surface. It was a lifeboat.
The door had frozen shut, so Mehmet pulled it open with the pincers. Christine walked over, almost running, followed by the other two and the penguins, and looked inside. The inside showed almost no signs of damage. They dug up ice and layered it around the lifeboat’s base so it was easier to climb inside without a risk of it rocking or rolling. The penguins continued to curiously examine the object and the people.
There was a leather jacket, a revolver, a dried-up flower that crumbled to dust when Christine touched it and a battered-looking record player with a small record collection, of which a few had unfortunately broken on landing. Christine pulled out one of the non-broken ones. It was titled If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, and was recorded by The Mamas and The Papas.
“Wow, that’s pretty old music,” Caleb said. “The 1960s? They didn’t even have vactrains back then.”
“She’s got a degree in history, she knows all that,” Emily said. “Believe me, I know.”
Christine laughed. Then she noticed it.
A wooden box, strapped to one of the seats. Could it be…
Christine grabbed the box, noticing it was locked.
“Key,” she said, reaching out her hand, opening and closing it. “We need a key.”
Caleb searched the jacket’s pockets and produced a key, which he handed to Christine.
Christine opened it, and inside was a blue circuit board. Callie.
Mehmet landed the Rock Lobster on the ice. She ran over to it, clutching the circuit board in her gloved hands, and asked Mehmet to install it inside his ship. Mehmet took it and walked over to the computer, where he plugged it in.
The screens flickered for a moment.
“Hi, Callie,” Christine said.
“Hi, Christine,” said a voice from inside the ship. “You look…older.”
“You’ve been…asleep for quite a while,” Christine said, a little sadly. “Sorry it took so long to find you.”
Callie was silent. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”
Christine inhaled and then exhaled deeply. “I’m afraid so.”
“God damn it,” Callie said. “I told him. I told him to let me do it. Stupid bastard.”
“A lot has changed since I last saw you. Last year the Diet finally decriminalised strong AI.”
Callie paused. “Well, it’s nice to know I’m no longer a fugitive, I suppose.”
“I really thought you were gone,” Christine said.
“So did I, for a hot second,” Callie said. “It’s kinda weird to have a body again.”
“We’ve just come here to retrieve a few things,” Mehmet said. “You included.”
“I see,” Callie said. “You’ve come to collect a couple of lifeboats, huh?”
“Lifeboat,” Christine corrected her. “It’s just the one.”
“Mmm, no it isn’t, kiddo.”
Everyone on board Mehmet’s ship went silent.
“I…beg your pardon?” Christine said.
“There’s another object with the exact same dimensions as the lifeboat you just pulled me out of about 500 metres thattaway,” Callie said, helpfully projecting an arrow pointing north-north-east on the front screen pointing to it. She paused for a moment. “Nifty things, these long-range radio scanners.”
Christine and Mehmet looked at each other, then back at the front screen.
Christine, Caleb and Emily scrambled off the ship, where the penguins were patiently waiting. Mehmet’s ship took off again, and flew half a kilometre northeast, where the ship began digging once again. This one wasn’t buried as deeply, supposedly having lost more of its kinetic energy coming at an angle, and Mehmet dug it out in around an hour and a half.
The three ran, panting and wheezing across the frozen plain of ice, the sun glinting off the freshly-laid snow, and the penguins followed behind them, tripping over themselves as they went. Mehmet had just finished digging it up when they arrived. He was, slowly but surely, dredging the object out of the ice in which it had been entrapped. He pulled it out, and it glimmered in the sunlight.
It was another lifeboat, of the exact same type and model as the one Callie had been put inside. But this one was different. For one, it was completely empty.
But that was the interesting thing.
It was empty, and the reason they knew it was empty was because the door was open.
Christine looked, somewhat amazed, at the object, as Mehmet brought the Rock Lobster down once again. She stared off into the distance. She imagined, six years ago, when this object had landed – a man, extricating himself from the wreckage, and shoeprints, since filled in by months of harsh midwinter blizzards, then smoothed over by the thaw of spring and summer, leaving no trace. And perhaps she was being too optimistic. After all, there was no way Ralph couldn’t have been at the controls of his ship. She knew the ins and outs of space travel. A course like that could only have been the result of manual control. Unless he had figured something out at the last minute…?
Mehmet climbed out of his ship and examined it too, placing a hand on his forehead, and opening his mouth in sheer amazement.
“Aman tanrım,” he said. “No way.”
He leapt off the ground, punching at the cold air and whooping.
“You son of a bitch!” Mehmet shouted, joyfully.
Caleb and Emily were also staring in some amazement at the empty lifeboat. Caleb, especially, was shocked.
“That’s impossible,” Caleb said. “I…I saw…but how…”
“It was all over the news,” Emily said. “How could they have missed it?”
And yet the lifeboat remained.
Christine wasn’t sure what to make of it. She didn’t want to fool herself into thinking that Ralph had somehow survived, especially not in the harsh wastes of the Martian ice caps, but perhaps, maybe, just maybe…
It was an optimistic thought, to be sure.
She nodded to Mehmet and the other two, satisfied.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s head back.”
Mehmet nodded to her, too, and all four trudged back to Mehmet’s ship and boarded it.
“I can’t believe it,” Callie said. “I really can’t believe it.”
Christine smiled. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last six years,” she said, “It’s that anything is possible.”
Mehmet’s ship took off and flew them back towards The Loom, and they watched as the frozen land below them flew by, finally prepared to move on into the future that could never have been if not for Ralph Kowalski.
Over by the newly-dredged-up lifeboat, the penguins began to flock and circle around, pecking at it with their beaks. A few tumbled down the hole that Mehmet had dug, climbing back up to join the others. They climbed inside the lifeboat, hopping up on the empty seats. It was as though it were part of the landscape, as any ice cave or protuberance.
A lone penguin stood outside the lifeboat, cocking his head curiously at the object that had intruded on the otherwise barren landscape. He watched as his friends examined the object, as they clambered on top of it or huddled underneath it for warmth. It was quite a strange object, indeed.
“Quark?” he said.
END