First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (22 page)

He
shrugged. "Best we can do with the limited time. I suggest you
make the best of it. That's a low spot, so Tess, the commander and I
can work on digging a trench. You and Li can take samples where ever
you need to." He waved to the trench Tess had started.

Wanda
nodded. "Okay. I guess that can do. Maybe we can tow an open
rover?"

Mario
looked the open rover over. "We'll see."

...*...*...*...*...

They
used one of the open rovers to drag the green house out of the cargo
bay of hab one and over to the docking port. "Glad we swapped
this out. It isn't like we each need another car." Mario grunted
as he hooked up the seals. "Looks good." He stepped back to
watch the clear plastic cylinder begin to inflate. Nothing happened.

"Um,
Wanda? Do you want to press the button?" he asked plaintively.
He looked around and up to the Hab.

"What?"
Wanda asked, sounding distracted.

"Wanda?
The button? You’re supposed to fill the greenhouse with air?"
he suggested patiently.

"Oh,
sorry, I was looking at a sample of salts we brought in yesterday.
Fascinating! The sodium chloride levels are through the roof!"

He
sighed in exasperation. "That's nice dear, now the air?"

She
kept pattering on about the rock. "Here you go Mario." Tess
leaned out the window and waved as the greenhouse started to inflate.

"Thanks
Tess." He watched as the greenhouse inflated. "Looks good."
He tweaked a wrinkle, straightening it out. "Hopefully the
wrinkles come out; I left my iron at home." He watched as the
cylinder expanded and the skin tightened.

...*...*...*...*...

“I
feel like a damn hamster in a habitrail,” the commander grumped
as he examined the tunnel seals.

Wanda
laughed as she passed him. “Hamster in a habitrail? I'll have
to remember that one.” She shook her head as she continued to
chuckle. “Maybe we can get Mario and Tess to make a hamster
wheel?” she teased as she carried the seedlings into the
airlock.

The
commander laughed. “I think the treadmill fits the bill just
fine.”

She
looked up and smiled. “Yeah.”

He
shook his head. “Need a hand?” he offered straightening.

“Sure,
I need to finish so I can take meet Mario to get more samples...”
She waved at him outside. He waved back then went back to what he was
doing.

“I'm
glad Mario and Tess plowed that dirt under the tunnels, saves us
having to climb up and down stairs everywhere,” The commander
said as he hefted a flat of seedlings. Gently he placed them on their
designated rack. Now that they had the basic greenhouse set up and
inflated they'd turned to planting. It was imperative that they get
the seeds off immediately if they were going to see any results in a
timely manner.

“Yeah,
he can be useful from time to time,” Wanda replied absently as
she continued to plant the next flat. They had taken soil samples and
then run the soil through a microwave to remove any possibility of
contamination and then adjusted the PH and other factors so it
wouldn't burn the plants. A little of their precious water and it
would hopefully work.

“Well,
such a simple thing, we could have saved a lot of weight if we had
thought of it before, we could have left out all those stairs and
ladders. We would have had room for more gear,” the commander
said. The Commander set up the drip lines then placed a temperature
probe into the soil. “I wonder what they are going to do with
all those ladders and stairs?” he asked softly.

Wanda
shrugged. “Knowing those two they will figure something out.”
She handed him the completed flat. “There, we have eight more
soil flats, the two control flats, and then the rest are hydroponic
and aeroponic.” She wiggled her fingers to get the kinks out.

...*...*...*...*...

"Okay,
I give up, how the devil do you get this bag open?" Mario looked
the flopping piece of plastic over. He was out with Wanda, taking
soil samples away from camp. It was only their third day on the
planet and they were already heading out five kilometers to do this.
He just wasn't sure he was up for it. Yung Lin should have been the
one but she was excitedly working in the lab on something she'd found
yesterday.

"No
key tool?" Wanda asked. He looked over to her. She held up her
pinky. A piece of plastic was taped to it.

"Okay,
not what I expected." He went over to her and had her open the
bag. Once it was open he used his fingers to keep it open so she
could set the soil samples inside.

"Expecting
a ten thousand dollar fix?" she teased.

"Something
like that," he grumped.

"No,
I caught it on the science channel. Mars Society figured it would be
a problem and someone came up with a fix. Neat solution."

He
chuckled. "And all this time I thought it was for picking your
teeth."

She
sighed and shook her head mournfully. "Neanderthals. Forty five
million miles from Earth and they send a Neanderthal." He
chuckled.

...*...*...*...*...

Mario
looked over the extra tanks and nodded in satisfaction. It had taken
a bit of effort over several days, but Tess and the commander had
helped him to get the tanks out and over to the growing industrial
plant. "All hooked up." He checked the readouts.

"Why
the extra?" the commander asked. Mario looked over to the
commander.

"Always
good to have a healthy reserve commander, besides, we can use it for
plastics."

The
commander nodded. "Yes, having extra in the reserve is good.
Though Wanda and Li will want to extend their trips," he replied
dryly. Which was true, both of the geologists were going nuts taking
samples. They wanted to go further and further out and resented the
restrictions.

Mario
chuckled. "Price we pay." He waved to the great outdoors.

"Do
we have enough to make more?" the commander asked. He tapped the
empty tank. "I seem to remember the first crashing."

Mario
smiled. "Well, we left the cracked tanks out, but these will
work. We have more than enough water from the compressors and
extractors to supply us for four years," he explained. He
pointed to the water tanks.

"We
left the hydrogen tanks over there. I want to bury them when we get
the time that will add to their insulation factor." He pointed
to the next set of tanks. "These are the ethylene tanks. With
these we can run the rovers... or make plastics."

The
commander chuckled. "You think it will work?" he asked.

Mario
smiled. "That's the next thing. I want to get it started but I
have chores to do. I was hoping I can get to it next shift."

The
commander chuckled. "Well check that fabricator out first, no
point on having plastic if we can't use it."

Mario
nodded. "Good point. I may do that," he sighed. "If I
can find a spot."

The
commander nodded. "Yes space is limited."

Mario
snorted. "Were working on it. One step at a time." He waved
as he went back to work.

"Now
I wonder what he meant by that?" The commander muttered.

...*...*...*...*...

Wanda
wiped herself with a towel and grimaced. "How are we for water?"
she asked the commander.

"Water?
So far so good, we could always use more though." He gave her a
long appraising look. "You want a longer shower?" he
teased. They recycled all their water of course but they had a water
ration anyway.

Wanda
chuckled. "Yeah, something like that. And a hot tub," she
joked and then waved. "There are signs of a possible aquifer
directly below us. I bet if we drilled we could run a pipeline to the
base and be set for water." She smiled.

"We're
what, two clicks from base? Long haul for pipe," the commander
observed. News that the team had definitely confirmed the presence of
water had hit the world back home with little fan fair. After all, it
had been hypothesized and hemmed and hawed about for decades.

Wanda
grimaced. "Yeah, it’s most likely under pressure, so we
wouldn't have to pump it. I'd like to get a look; we could get some
useful data by checking it for water solubles and signs of life,"
she sighed.

"How
did you pick it up? Dousing fork?" the commander teased.

"No,
GPR," she replied. She waved to the Doppler screen. “Ground
Penetrating Radar. Mario hooked it up last time he was working on the
rovers for me. We can get a read on underground rock formations."

The
commander nodded, suddenly serious. "So, what about drilling a
well and tapping it with a tanker truck?" he asked. Having
additional water would be a good reserve. Though he was cautious
about any contaminants it might bring along with it.

She
sat down. "Yeah, that could work. It would be easier then
compressors and electrolysis," she sighed.

"Yeah,
but the greens and nut jobs back home will have a field day, we'll
have to test it carefully before it enters the supply," the
commander cautioned.

"Yeah,
I almost forgot that part," Wanda sighed once more, wearily
shaking her head.

...*...*...*...*...

"This
is so frustrating!" Wanda tossed the stylus down and ran her
hands through her hair. "Argth! So close!" She'd just come
back from her first week long excursion in Whinny with Dr. Li. It had
been close quarters with no shower for six days too long. Fortunately
the two of them had been so hyped about the various terrain that they
had completely forgotten to gripe about the tight smelly living
conditions.

Tess
hadn't been happy about the camper. She'd muttered something about
airing the thing out when they'd returned. Hopefully she'd get it
sorted out soon; they were planning another trip in a day or so if
the weather continued to hold.

But
this... this was so frustrating! To be so close... but yet just out
of reach. Fossils... that's what they needed. She clenched her hands
a few times and then sighed in disgust. She felt hands on her
shoulders and closed her eyes and dropped her chin to her chest. She
sighed, and then purred softly. "Damn that feels nice," she
said quietly, voice dropping into a satisfied purr. She heard her
husband’s chuckle.

"Glad
you approve," he continued to rub at her shoulders and her neck.

"I
should get frustrated more often," she sighed in content.

He
chuckled again. "So what's so frustrating?"

She
grimaced. "We're getting signs of fossils, they are microscopic,
but with this equipment we can’t be conclusive. It's like that
Mars meteorite all over again."

Mario
chuckled. "Yeah, so close, yet so far. If you announce anything
both sides will go berserk," he replied.

She
nodded. "Yeah, that's why we are putting it in the maybe but not
sure column and saying we need more evidence," she sighed. She
was disgusted with that; nuts of every shape were jumping over every
finding they passed along now. "What we need is a fossilized
fern or fish. That couldn't be denied," she said firmly.

He
chuckled. "You wanna bet? All sorts of nuts will fall out of the
trees claiming we made it up."

She
grimaced. "You’re not helping..." She sing songed.

He
chuckled. "Sorry."

She
caught his hand and pulled. He reached around her and hugged her with
his free hand. "Thanks Hon," she said softly.

"You
do realize it is one AM right?" he teased.

She
grimaced and rubbed her temples. "I'm sorry, let me finish this
experiment and I'll go to bed like a good girl, I promise."

His
chuckle turned mischievous. "I'm not sure a good girl in bed was
what I had in mind," he whispered in her ear. She blushed.

"Flirt.
Horny bastard," she chuckled. "Go on, go play with yourself
while I do this," she growled. He laughed as he let her go.

"I'll
be waiting..." he teased as he left.

She
felt the blush make her ears burn. "This is what I get for being
gone for a week at a time." she muttered to herself, and then
smiled. "Maybe I should do it more often?" she asked
herself. She chuckled as she set the next sample onto a slide.

...*...*...*...*...

Mario
sat down with a sigh. The commander chuckled. "You're turn."
He tossed Mario the body mike then took off.

"Yeah,
feed the lions," he grumbled as he clipped it to his front.
"Show time I guess." He tapped the play button.

"Mister
Irons, we'd like to welcome you to the show. I would like to start by
asking questions from our viewers. In a poll released this morning
less than half believe that life will be found on Mars. Do you
believe this to be true? Is your team skilled in the proper
techniques to find signs of life past or present?" the reporter
asked. Mario hit the pause button and chuckled.

He
hit record. "Good evening folks, it is a nice quiet evening on
Mars. For your first question, I am not really the person you should
be asking, my wife and the other scientists should be the one
fielding these questions. However, I can say that my wife has a BA in
paleontology, and Dr. Yung Lin Han has a minor degree in Paleobotany,
so I know the team can spot life past or present if they come across
it. So far we have found tantalizing hints of
potential past
life, but nothing that really reaches out and grabs you as conclusive
proof," he said dryly. Mario chuckled.

"Believe
me; they are working hard to find that holy grail of science.
Discovering life on another world would go a long way to proving that
the rest of the universe isn't just gas and rock." He smiled
briefly as he hit record pause, then clicked the next question link
and hit the play button.

"Thank
you for your answer, our next question is about the habs, has there
been any problems or design related issues..."

Mario
sighed mentally. "This is going to be another long boring day,"
he muttered. He shook his head.