Second generation, p.28
Second Generation, page 28
Mishka picked it up and turned it over in her gloved hands, “Oh, look, whoever made this must have had tiny fingers. And lots of them.” She handed it to Leo who took close-up shots with his headcam, frowning, then passed it to Demetria.
She held it, feeling how her fingers did not sit naturally in the grip. They felt too large and clumsy, even allowing for her gloves. Then she counted the grooves. “I think whoever held this had six digits on their hand, not five.”
“That’s what I thought,” said Leo, “but you’re better qualified to say that than me, working with prosthetics and the like.”
“I’ve seen a few of our people with less than five digits,” said Mishka, “but I haven’t met any with more.”
“Polydactylism,” said Demetria. “Its rare. Usually just a growth out the side of a thumb or little finger. I saw a couple of Martians affected that way by radiation. But it’s even rarer for it to be a fully functioning digit that you’d want to design a handle around.”
“So, the tunnellers were around fifty-thousand years ago and had six fingered hands,” marvelled Mishka.
“And cut inexplicable patterns in the polar caps of at least two planets,” added Leo.
Demetria peered closely at the moulded handle of the ice axe, thinking. “Why do you think there are twelve tunnels on Mars?”
“We don’t know,” said Leo, stroking his beard.
“Could there be more?”
“Not on Mars, at least not at the North Pole there. Hal’s team have spent the last six months searching and only found the twelve of them, arranged in a radial pattern around the pole.”
“Could there be more here, on Earth?”
“There could. We’ll need to spend time searching.”
“But you don’t expect to find more, do you.”
“No.”
“So twelve could be a significant number for the tunnellers.”
“Perhaps, what are you driving at, Demetria?”
Demetria waggled her gloved fingers in front of her. “If humans had dug the tunnels I bet there’d have been ten of them.”
Leo’s jaw dropped, “Holy shit!”
24
Home
The Armstrong, Re-entering Mars Orbit – Leo Meier
Leo ran around the revolving crew chamber, the curved floor rushing towards him with each stride. The exercise still seemed easy, like cheating after working in Earth’s gravity for so long. He pressed himself harder. It took his mind off the many thoughts that competed in his head. The discoveries on Earth continued to haunt him. Survivors. A new species of humanity. And… who? Who or what were the tunnellers? Demetria’s observation had startled him. It startled Hal and his team as well. It suggested an answer that humanity still struggled to confront.
He also did not want to confront the return to Mars. The unwanted attention made him baulk. Neither did he want to face his mother. He had started exchanging vid calls with her once the time lapse became manageable. She seemed stiff. Remote. She had likely heard all about his promise from others, but the two of them refused to talk about it. Their discussions had revolved around the responsibilities Martians had to their neighbours. The evolution of the reseeding plans and development of new tech to take back to Earth. Leo realised this was another grand design for his mother to revel in and a part of him felt cold. Yet he also saw how much thinner she had become. While her voice remained strong, her blue eyes were sunken within their sockets. Her white hair combed more sparingly over her skull.
Worst of all, Leo did not feel as if he were coming home.
Each moment of each day, he remembered the promise he had made to the survivors. To go back to them, on Earth. He realised he had felt more alive there than at any time on Mars, even when preparing to go. Where was home for Leo Meier? Where was his place in the universe? People had asked themselves these questions for millennia yet few with the perspective he now carried like a stone-filled sack across his back.
“Stop! You’ll wear us all out, just looking at you,” called Georgia.
Leo nodded and eased down to a steady trot. After two more revolutions of the cylindrical chamber, he veered off the running track and grabbed his towel, taking deep breaths of recycled air. He had never noticed how stale it was until he left Earth. He had never noted the inert absence of taste to the recycled water until he had drunk from the streams that ran through the forest village. He had never felt this chamber close in on him as much before he saw the open skies over the Bering Sea. He knew the domes of Tithonium would narrow his view, no matter how ambitious their architect.
Georgia handed him a sealed cup of water with a straw. He smiled but placed it beside him, reluctant to drink. He may have left Earth, but at least he had returned to his family. He took Georgia’s hand and kissed it, “Thank you.”
“It’s only a cup of water.”
“Thank you anyway.”
Georgia frowned, then smiled again, running her hand across his broad, now muscled shoulder. “Are you up for the reception?”
Leo shook his head, “No.”
“Just consider it another day in the landing party leader’s work. Negotiate with the excitable locals. Make peace. Move on.”
Leo raised an eyebrow, “I’d rather be facing Hanta with a spear. At least I know he’s a softie underneath.”
“My grandfather can be fierce when he needs to,” called Mishka from what felt like the ceiling on the far side of the chamber. Like Demetria, she had found spaceflight fun after her first experience of weightlessness and throwing up.
“True,” agreed Leo. “But he never shoved a bunch of cams in my face and interrogated me on stuff I’d already told him. They’ll be after you too,” he warned. “You’re exotic.”
Mishka beamed.
“It’s not a good thing,” he added.
Mishka had already given dozens of recorded interviews on the way. So far she had been willing, as fascinated by the questions as the Martians were by her answers. They were greedy to hear her survival story and those of her family and friends. No doubt they’d want to have her reaction to Mars and themselves when she arrived.
Leo walked to the nearest view port where the familiar red globe loomed. At least he would not be the only focus of attention. Poor Mishka.
His tablet pinged with a message from Hal. Perhaps he wanted to talk about those incredible tunnels again. Then he read, ‘need to talk to you in confidence, find somewhere private.’ Leo wondered what his brother could possibly want to say that couldn’t be said in front of the others. He made an excuse and kicked off for the central axis, looking for the connection to the bio-chamber. It was where most of them went if they needed a quiet space away from the crew.
He found a secluded gap between two hydroponic troughs of crops and leaned against one, opening up his comms link. Hal’s bearded face appeared. He usually looked serious, business-like, but there were more furrows on his brow. Dark lines under his eyes. “Hi Hal, are you okay? What’s with the secrecy?”
“Mum is dying,” said Hal. No preamble. No softening words.
Leo stumbled, gripping the trough.
“Sorry. No easy way to say it. She has cancer of the liver. She’s taking medication to numb the pain, but it will kill her soon. She’s at peace with it. She hasn’t said as much, but I suspect she thinks it’s the price she deserves for exposing dad to the radiation which killed him.”
“… How long?” croaked Leo.
“Hard to say. Doctors said she should already be dead by now, but we both know she’s tougher than that. I think she’s been waiting for you all to return.”
The last three weeks of their journey to Mars was agony for Leo and Demetria. They checked their messages hourly, dreading what they might read or hear about Verena. There was nothing they could do to speed their flight. It was even more frustrating to know that Katya and Stef were slowing the Armstrong to guide them into a geosynchronous orbit again. Even when they arrived they’d have to wait several days to reattach the elevator cable.
It was excruciating.
Georgia and the others tried to calm them but Demetria would disappear for hours into the bio chamber and Leo would run. Pounding his feet on the running track that looped the inside of the spinning crew chamber. As if he was trying to run the last few kilometres that separated him from Verena. Though he still wasn’t sure he wanted to arrive.
Space Elevator Base, Pavonis, Mars – Demetria Philippou
The elevator lobby was rammed. Demetria knew their return was being talked about all over Tithonium City and beyond, she had seen the media exchanges. But it did not prepare her for the clamour that erupted as the elevator car doors opened. She clung to Leo with one hand and to Mishka with the other, protective of both. Drone cams hovered over their heads. Mics were thrust into their faces. The polite yet firm elevator techs tried to hold back the surging crowd.
“STAND… BACK!” yelled a familiar voice. The struggles disintegrated. The throng shuffled back making space. Verena Meier stepped into the opening and glared, daring any one of them to cross her. “Immediate family only for now,” she commanded. “And I’m one of them.”
Verena stepped forward and took Leo, Georgia and Demetria into her arms. Demetria could feel how slight her grandmother had become, as if her body had eaten itself from within while they had been away. Demetria’s relief at seeing her still alive wrestled with the fear of imminent loss.
Unwittingly Mishka was swept into the family embrace too. Eventually Verena eased her surprisingly firm grasp and turned her blue eyes to Mishka, smiling, “When I first arrived on Mars I was bundled into a rover and taken to a dusty hab with my partner. No welcome. No embrace. We hope to do better this time and I want you to feel every bit as welcome as my wandering family, Mishka.”
Demetria looked over her shoulder to see Phoebe held by Peter, Dean, Sam and Trish. Bim and Bingwen with Chen, Feng and Katya. Samaira was with her parents and, to her great surprise and relief, Ursula was in a tight hug with Lena. She turned back to Verena who now held Leo’s cheeks with both hands.
“I understand you made a promise to return,” she was saying.
Leo looked down, avoiding his mother’s eye.
“I’ll admit it almost broke me when I heard,” she said. There was a waver in her strong voice, a catch in her breath. “But it didn’t surprise me. The same reason I came to Mars took you to Earth. I cannot be angry with you for that.” She paused, seeming to draw on some inner well of strength, “But I can be proud.”
Leo looked up, surprised.
“I’m told you brought peace and understanding to those would have fought,” she looked across at the young Innuit, “and Mishka brought reconciliation. That can take years… I know.” Verena turned back to Leo. Demetria could see hints of her fine bones showing through the thin white hair. There was another hesitation in her voice, “I wish your father could be here now. Like you, he tried to make peace. I kept breaking that peace, so its just as well I stayed here, out of your way. He’d be proud of you too,” she stroked Leo’s head and smiled, a tear tracked around her bony cheek.
Leo held Verena’s hand. He looked thunderstruck. As if he’d braced himself for another conflict and found only compassion in its stead.
“Don’t look so surprised, Leo,” said Verena, a familiar firmness returning to her voice. “My mother, Lena, refused to talk to me after I left for Mars. When she started joining vid messages again it was almost too late. I may have her stubbornness, but I’m not going to make the same mistake. And I reminded her namesake too,” Verena nodded at her daughter who was still clinging to Ursula.
Lena prised herself from her partner and came to join Leo, Georgia and Demetria. Then another familiar face stepped forward.
“Hal!” exclaimed Leo and put his arms around his younger brother.
Hal looked surprised, perhaps awkward but went with it. “We need to talk again later,” he said quietly. “After the circus has left town,” he waved a hand at the crowd and the drones.
Finally Sam and Trish joined them, “Am I allowed to be proud of you all too?” asked Sam tentatively. “Maybe not a second father, more an eccentric uncle?”
Demetria laughed. She laughed because she had never felt so close to her family. She laughed because she had never thought she would be so proud of her father, Leo. And relieved to see her grandmother.
Elder Chamber, Tithonium City, Mars – Leo Meier
Leo paused near the top of the spiral stair, looking across the glowing domes of Tithonium City. Magenta and flame red flared from the taut curved surfaces as the sun climbed above the rim of the chasm. It was the one place he could see a wider sky without putting on a claustrophobic EVA suit. Yet it would never compete with the broad blue skies of Earth. He climbed the last few steps and clasped hands with Hal who had been waiting for him on the landing outside the Elder Chamber.
“I think Mum’s going to ask something of you,” Hal gestured towards the chamber.
Leo frowned, “What do you mean?”
“You’ve shown you can take responsibility. Lead. Make hard decisions. Make peace.”
“So?”
“So she wants you to take on a little more.” Leo looked blank. Hal shrugged, “Come on, you’ll see.”
Leo followed his younger brother into the Elder Chamber. All the elders were seated on one side. Most of the crew of the Earth expedition, the Mars North Pole expedition and Mishka were seated on the other. There were a few unexpected additions as well, including Lena and Jan Wojcik. Verena stood and gestured for them to sit on a front bench beside Georgia and Demetria. Leo noticed how she gripped the lectern to steady herself, her knuckles white. He wanted to stand beside her, hold her, but he knew she’d never allow him.
“There will be further debate in the Senate,” began Verena, “but I believe the decisions we make here today may find wider support. The principle of returning to Earth again has already been widely debated and agreed. We’re looking for volunteers among the first crew to join preparations for the next. Those of you here have already expressed their desire to return. The elders assembled have voted unanimously to support you,” Verena paused. “…unanimous here means, including me.”
There were some smiles and nervous shuffling among the benches.
“Much work has already been done on the re-seeding and re-wilding plans, using the Ark One resources. Technologies are being developed to facilitate it across wide areas of Earth. Potentially that includes the part of South Africa where you saw further signs of survivors. I, and the other elders believe that Martians have a duty to assist with this programme. Not only for the benefit of the Earth survivors,” she nodded at Mishka, “but also for our own future. We only survived Goliath because we had somewhere else to go. Who knows when we might need somewhere else to shelter again?”
Leo looked around the chamber. Heads nodded in solemn agreement and deep reflection.
“And two world cultures will be richer than one,” added Verena. “To that end, I believe we will need representatives from this chamber to go to Earth. To discuss plans as they evolve and ensure both planets keep talking. There will shortly be two vacancies. Stefanie van Rhoon has made it known she wishes to retire after this session. So do I.”
Silence.
Leo felt an odd lurch in the pit of his stomach, anticipating her next words.
“We propose two new members from the next generation, because it is about time the elders weren’t all so damned old.” A few nervous laughs and nods. “We propose Phoebe Grayson-Sharpe and, at the extreme risk of nepotism, Leo Meier.”
Verena sat down with a sigh of relief, as if a great burden had been lifted from her frail shoulders.
Markus Eckenweber now stood, still tall and imposing despite his age. “Do the candidates agree to stand?”
Phoebe and Leo looked at each other with a mix of surprise and understanding. Phoebe nodded to Leo as if saying they should agree, then stood. “Yes, I would be honoured to stand,” said Phoebe.
Leo stumbled to his feet. “Me too,” he added then sat. He felt Georgia grip his hand.
“The elders will now use their tablets to vote on each candidate presented,” said Markus.
The chamber went quiet as the votes were counted. Leo looked down at Georgia’s hand on his, then met her eyes. She was smiling, perhaps at the mix of emotions on his own face.
“I confirm our candidates have been elected. I invite Phoebe and Leo to cross the chamber to the elder benches.”
Phoebe rose and walked across to sit beside her mother, Trish.
Leo felt Georgia pushing him gently, “Go on, Leo,” she whispered.
He stood. Wavered. Looked around him, then walked across the floor to sit beside Verena. They didn’t look at each other, but for once he felt approval in his mother’s presence. For once he felt he had earned that approval.
“Leo and Phoebe will be this chamber’s ambassadors on Earth,” confirmed Markus. “We have four more volunteers to join them on the next journey there: Hal Meier, Peter Grayson-Sharpe, Bimpe Coulibaly and Lena Meier.” Leo looked at his younger sister, startled. He had expected Hal might want to go, but Lena always seemed tied to her work with Verena on Mars. He turned to see how his mother might react to the news that every single one of her family now planned to abandon her.
Verena remained calm, unmoved.
“Lena wishes to work with Earth’s survivors to plan the development of their sustainable towns and infrastructure. On land and in the sea,” Markus clarified.
Mishka smiled. So did Verena.
“Hal, Peter and Bimpe wish to form the nucleus of a special team to carry out more investigations on Earth’s South Polar tunnels,” continued Markus. “To that end, we have further vital news to discuss. I invite Hal Meier to take the floor.”
