Note: This is the eleventh part of the story Is There Life on Mars? If you missed the beginning, maybe you should start there (just click on the link.)
Day 16 on Mars
Food will soon be a problem. The plants are not growing properly in the tunnels. We had to kill the last cow. We can use the food that was for her, and… we also have beef on the menu now. Hopefully. If the freezers continue to work properly. It’s not a given. Power generation and storage have been more erratic than planned.
Proper lighting has become a secondary necessity in most parts of the facility. The entire base is now quite dim.
******
Day 30
We have completed our first month on Mars. We should be celebrating.
Instead, we found Edwin dead in his room this morning. He had hanged himself. He may have been like this for the last few days, for all we know.
No team from Base X has ever arrived. We haven’t heard from Noel, and we have no way of contacting him; only the radio receptor works, not the transmitter.
Edwin was buried as properly as we could near the pigpen lander.
Cremation was the originally planned procedure for everyone’s eventual demise. I remember talking about it on the ship a few months ago. We always envisioned new cultural practices on Mars that would differ from those on Earth, including new rites for the dead. Cremation was part of that new tradition.
Except that we don’t have enough power for a cremation right now, and the incinerator isn’t fully set up yet, anyway.
So he was quickly buried in a shallow grave. Nobody says it explicitly, but it seems that the pigpen area is now our official cemetery. We all know that more graves will have to be dug soon.
How long can we live like this?
How long can we even stay alive under these conditions? What will happen when we run out of food? What happened at Base X? Why has no one come? Why have we heard nothing from Noel?
******
Day 35
More and more of us seem to be just waiting for death to come. Not all of us. We were chosen for this colonization mission on the basis of many criteria; ingenuity was a prominent one.
As disgusting as it may seem, we have found a way to expand our food resources: the various worms and bugs we have brought as eggs to populate the Dome. We incubate and raise them. The bug larvae are not the most appetizing dishes, but we can’t afford to be picky eaters right now.
They’re adapting well to their “home”. They may become a sustainable source of protein. Some fungi also look promising.
******
Day 38
Today Melania asked me if I was still writing this journal. It made me wonder why I was still doing it.
Originally, I really thought it would become an important historical document for future generations of Martians. Now I think I just do it to keep my sanity. Does it work?
******
Day 42
Jordan has fixed land-to-land communication!
Unfortunately, not the interplanetary one. That requires parts we don’t have.
Now here is the strange thing. The transmitter was never really broken. It just malfunctioned because of the unstable electricity and batteries.
So now we’re all wondering why we lost contact with Noel and Base X.
If the problem wasn’t really with us, it must be on their side. Did something happen there? What is it?
******
Day 43
We must do something both to find out what happened to Base X and to get out of our own predicament. We quickly agreed that we must send a team to Base X!
A “Big Wheel” MPV is currently being outfitted with enough food, energy, and supplies for a team of five for two weeks. That’s more than we need to get to Base X and back.
I’ve studied the route many times. Since I’ve never driven it before, I think I can make it in three days. Yes, I’m the pilot of this expedition.
We’ll leave at dawn tomorrow.
“We” is Paul, Alba, Damon, Sally and me.
Yes, Sally is part of the team.
No, we’re not back together. But we’re good. And she has shown more resilience than most. She volunteered to be on the team because she just couldn’t be with those who had given up. As she said at the meeting, “We can’t wait for a miracle to happen, but we can make it happen.” That was very inspiring.
So, yes… We’re leaving in the morning.
It’s probably just their communication system that’s broken. That’s all. It must be. We’ll reach them, and we’ll all figure something out together.
Noel will know what to do.
Of course he will.
(to be concluded)
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About the art: It’s difficult to find pictures of Mars colonization that are not AI-generated these days, it’s why a lot of the previous pictures are from For All Mankind (a TV show, I warmly advise you to watch) or from the Martian (a very nice movie too). However, I’m glad I could find a picture from an artist that I could give credit to this time. His name is Matthew Savage, and while this rover is an older work, he has done some pretty amazing things lately, including design work on films like Alien Romulus and several Star Wars movies and shows, and yes, The Martian too.
Here are some links to his works:
Author(s)
Frenchman, exiled on the other side of the planet, DavidB writes. It's not always very good, but who cares, the goal is to write. Sometimes, he also does other things.
MetaStructure is one of his longest-running projects. It was started in the early 2000s. Stopped many times. Started over a few times. Let's hope this time is the right one.
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