First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (54 page)

"Good
luck honey," Mrs. Treadwell called. Wanda nodded. Carefully they
lowered her over the side.

"Can't
this thing go any faster?" Wanda urged.

"Not
if you don't want to go splat at the bottom," Treadwell
cautioned.

"Right."
Wanda looked down. "Oh crap." She closed her eyes.

"What?"
What's wrong?" Mrs. Treadwell asked urgently.

"I
looked down," Wanda sighed.

"Almost
there," Treadwell replied.

"Yeah,
the dust is starting to dissipate a little. Oh my god there he is..."
Wanda cried. "No, oh no, his helmet is breached," she said,
knowing the truth of it now. She started to sob.

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

"It
looks like his legs and neck were broken in the fall. The groaning
you heard was both him and the face plate seals giving away. It
wasn't pretty," Mr. Treadwell replied as they returned to base.
The body was wrapped in a tarp on the back deck. Wanda stared out at
the landscape.

"Yeah."
Mrs. Treadwell replied. She patted Wanda's leg. "Nothing you
could do, nothing any of us could have done," she replied.

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

"Ladies
and gentlemen breaking news from Mars, Sadnire Hotamba, thirty four
year old South African Geologist is dead. We take you live to Mission
control for the press conference...”

Mario
clicked the TV off. "Damn," he sighed. He like the rest of
the crew had liked Hotamba; he had been a welcome addition to the
team. And now he was gone.

"Are
you going to do the eulogy?" Wanda asked softly.

"No,
that's on Luigi's plate. I don't envy him at all for it," Mario
replied. He shook his head sadly.

"Yeah."
Wanda hugged him. "You know it could have been me right?"
she whispered. She shivered.

"Yeah.
I know. It could have been me during the radiation, or when Toshi got
pinned, you can't go there and play the what if game, it doesn't
bring anything except more tears and fears." Mario sighed
patting her arm. She nodded and hugged herself to her husband.

"Think
you could reach your welder?" she asked.

He
rubbed her back. "What for?" he asked curious.

"Weld
us together like this. I don't want to leave."

He
chuckled softly. "I think your taking the whole joined at the
hip expression a bit too literal dear. Besides, I gotta pee," he
said. She giggled at that, squeezing him tighter. "Not funny, I
really gotta go!" he said sounding desperate. She laughed
softly.

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

They
stood around the grave site and tried not to look lost. The
Treadwell’s were there, looking solemn. Hotamba's body was in a
body bag and plastic coffin hanging over the six foot trench by
slings. It swung gently in the wind. Mario looked around to the
others, then out to the landscape. Wanda had set up cameras to allow
the people back home to witness the event.

Luigi
sighed. "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to lay to
rest our fallen comrade. He has given his last measure of life and
devotion in exploring this wondrous world...." Luigi started the
sermon quietly. Mario stood quietly. He felt something in his right
hand. He looked down to see Wanda had managed to grab his hand with
hers. She squeezed. He returned the squeeze gently.

When
the sermon was over Luigi stepped back. Mario gave another squeeze
then let go. He stepped forward to the motor. "We thank you our
brother for your gentle spirit. May we meet again someday."
Mario touched the button and the slings lowered the coffin into the
depth. As the onlookers separated into knots to file back to the base
Wanda used the remote to turn the cameras off.

 ...*...*...*...*...

"A
week ago the family of Doctor Hotamba released a video he had made in
the case of his death. Here are his words on that very subject."
The screen changed to the chocolate scientist.

"I
do not want anyone to fear for me, I want you to know I will meet
this challenge and do my best to overcome it. However if the worst
happens, if I die, I wish you all to know how proud I am to be an
African." The young man grinned.

"Do
not give up on your dreams, look at where I am! We can do it just
like any American, European, or Asian, we can touch the stars!"
he said, flashing his white pearly teeth. He sobered. "Mother, I
know you had deep regrets over my joining the program, and fears that
my death may happen. I don't want you to be bitter, remember, I
embraced my life and lived it to the fullest. To my teammates, I know
you, and love you like brothers and sisters. Keep reaching for the
stars." He finished and the screen faded out. Wanda folded into
Mario's arms with a sob. He felt his cheeks wet and rested his cheek
on her hair. He looked over to see Luigi comforting Betsy. He sighed.

"You
gotta admit, the boy had style," he rumbled softly. Luigi
nodded.

New Beginnings:

Mario
looked at the door and sighed. "Sorry you’re not the one
delivering?" Wanda teased hugging him from behind.

He
chuckled. "We'll have our turn. I'm just glad I am not in the
spotlight," Mario replied.

"Did
you see Luigi when Betsy's water broke? He went so pale I thought he
was going to faint!" Joyce chuckled.

"Da,"
Tess snickered. "Sergei did the same." She gave her husband
an amused look. He smiled as he cradled Piotr. The boy was asleep in
his arms as he rocked. "Is good we have rocker. Was godsend when
teething," Tess said looking at them.

Wanda
smiled. "Well, we didn't have any vodka, so it was the next best
thing." Mario smiled.

"Vodka?"
Sergei asked looking up. "For parent or child?" His eyes
twinkled.

"Both,"
Mario answered with a soft chuckle.

"Da,
was times I wished for drink or two," Sergei chuckled softly.

"At
least he has graduated to sleeping all night and to a child's bed,"
Wanda replied.

"Yeah,
it freed up the crib just in time," Joyce laughed softly.

"So
when is it your turn?" Wanda turned on her with a smile. Toshi
grinned.

"Oh,
we'll get around to it. I want to get the space port and Mars
international finished first." She grinned at Toshi. "I'm
still not sure about having little Toshi's or Joyce's running around,
it could be disastrous," he teased.

Joyce
smiled. "We'll cope," she replied.

"Yeah,
that we will," he replied, rubbing her shoulder. They heard
Betsy's loud groan then the angry cry of a newborn.

"Looks
like all is well." Mario sat back. "My first nephew. Now I
have to practice at being an uncle," he grinned, stretching and
cracking his knuckles. Wanda chuckled.

The
door opened and Luigi lunged out. "It's a boy!" He ducked
back in and slammed the door waking Piotr.

Mario
chuckled. "Yup, little bro is going to have his hands full!"
Wanda shook her head and put her finger to her lips. She pointed to
Sergei trying to get Piotr back to sleep. Mario smiled as they tip
toed away to peek.

"Nathanial
Sadnire Irons?" Wanda asked Betsy as she nursed a few days
later. Betsy and Luigi had held off on a name for a while.

Betsy
nodded. "For my dad and well, Sadnire." She looked back
down at the baby. "He will never get to meet either of them, but
he can carry their names." Mario nodded as he and Luigi came in.
Luigi was looking a bit haggard.

"Long
nights?" Wanda teased.

"Yeah,
he hasn't gotten on a schedule yet," Betsy replied. "He
should settle down soon enough. I'm not looking forward to teething
though." Betsy looked down and smiled softly.

"Yeah,
me neither," Luigi sighed. Piotr had kept everyone in the base
up. Ice had helped calm him down but boy could he howl!

Mario
chuckled. "Enjoy little bro."

 ...*...*...*...*...

Mario
looked up from the e-mail and grinned. "Good news?" Wanda
asked.

"You
could say that. Bob managed to put a shoe string resupply mission
together with space planes and the Columbus. They should be leaving
orbit in a week," Mario grinned at Luigi.

"Good,
I'm glad we're finally getting somewhere. Earth's gravity well...well
sucks," Luigi sighed and shook his head in disgust. It wasn't so
much the actual gravity as it was politics and other things. Some
things just sucked the life out of you like a black hole.

"This
from a genius?" Mario teased.

Wanda
rolled her eyes at Betsy. "So, before the general mayhem erupts,
what is in the care package?" She tried to read over her
husband's shoulder.

"Oh,
more furniture, life support gear, Benny, his wife and ten people,
some new industry stuff, parts for the hopper, and oh yeah, a couple
kids sized pressure suits." He looked up from the list to the
girls.

Betsy
smiled but Wanda was grinning. "That's it?" Betsy asked.

"Oh,
there's more. Bigelow tossed in a hab module for the space station,
built it at cost I hear. He threw in the plans for a dome too."

Joyce
nodded. "We can finally build our dome," she grinned.

"At
home in a dome!" Luigi chuckled. "Well, there is a kit that
goes with the plans, but anything we can make they left out," he
reported. She nodded. "He tossed in another animal embryo bank
too, and about a ton of electronics gear." Mario smiled. "Most
of it is off the shelf stuff," Luigi said as he waved.

"We
can use it all," Joyce smiled. Wanda and Betsy nodded.

"That's
the good news. Bad news is there are some hijinks going on in
congress; they are pulling most of our funding," Mario sighed.

"Despite
the gas giant miner?" Joyce asked face immobile.

"Yeah,"
Luigi sighed.

"Greedy
bastards."

He
shook his head. "Yeah, they'll keep it all to themselves. Bob
said there is a bill to scrap the ferries. He's working out a way to
have them donated to us," Mario shrugged. Apparently competing
with the Chinese and Russians had been nixed.

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

"
Virus
!"
Toshi cried suddenly. He started to peck at the keyboard in front of
him like his life depended on it. Which if it was a nasty virus,
could be true.

"What
the hell?" Mario and Luigi said together over the net.

"
VIRUS
!
In the computer! It's replicating and wiping our data!" Toshi
cried.

"I'm
on the way!" Mario ran to the nearest Hab. He impatiently waited
as the airlock cleared him inside.

"Damn...
It's in the object files!" Toshi said.

Mario
grunted. "Crap."

He
rushed into the tunnel and pulled the fiber optic lines. "Lines
cut." He went through the tunnel to the next.

"Got
this one." Luigi said looking up. "Okay, we need to check
each computer for rabbits." Luigi went to the nearest desk.
"I'll do that, you keep isolating hardware." Mario waved.

"We
have vault cut," Tess reported.

"This
thing is sick, it just popped up. Antivirus is on it, but it is a
sick bugger," Toshi said.

Joyce
called. "We've isolated the rover nets. I'm not sure if
something got into them though."

Mario
sighed. "Yeah. This is going to be painful." He pulled the
last fiber optic line. "Okay, each net is on its own." He
looked out the window, what about the SSTO and MAV?" he asked.

"No
idea. They both have embedded OS, but that doesn't mean anything if
this thing is smart and gets into the patch program. So far it is
more focused on wiping out our data then in hurting us," Toshi
reported.

"I
think this computer is okay, I am shutting it down just in case,"
Luigi reported.

"Just
in case?" Mario asked.

"Yeah,
just in case we need a back up," Luigi replied.

"Great,"
Mario sighed.

"We
have a virus signs in Hab two."

Mario
lunged down the ladder and into his workshop. He yanked the feed to
the Repraps. "Crap." He started pulling sim cards. "Not
good not good..." He looked up.

"Please
tell me this can be fixed?!" Joyce called in.

"Let's
worry about killing it first," Luigi replied.

"Amen
brother," Mario muttered.

"I
have it clean on my end," Toshi replied.

"What
the hell? How did it get through the firewalls?" Mario asked.

"We'll
find out," Luigi growled.

"So
this thing was in the object files?" Wanda asked concerned.

"And
in the e-mail and in the video files. This was one slick cyber
attack. It was a self assembling virus. Parts of it were in pictures,
e-mails, object files; they didn't raise any alarms until they were
all together
and
assembled. The FBI is all over this now."
Toshi frowned. "Whoever did this is good," he sighed. He'd
just gotten a report in from Mission control.

"Like
looking for a needle in a hay stack. The code people are sending up
antivirus software to hunt and kill the bit files and disinfect our
systems," Luigi finished.

"Yeah,
but what about the data we lost?" Mario asked.

"We're
going to have to get it again. And check each and every off line
storage device as well," Luigi replied with a grimace. There was
no telling how far back this went.

"Great,"
Mario sighed and rubbed his brow. That was a ton of work.

"It's
not all doom and gloom, just be glad it didn't fry our life support!"
Joyce said.

He
nodded. "Yeah, there is that. Okay, so some nut job wants to
cripple us. Prank maybe?" Mario asked.

"Yeah,
possibly. Pretty sophisticated though, I bet they used shells to get
it past our defenses. Maybe even zombies," Toshi replied looking
thoughtful.

"Great,
now we have to worry about zombies? What's next the Litch king?"
Mario grumped. Wanda smiled.