Is There Life On Mars? (part three)

Note: This is the third 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 95

Gertrud has died…

We’re all in shock.

We don’t know what happened. When Elias went to feed her this morning, she was lying on the ground, not moving, not responding. Marcus, our vet, couldn’t revive her. He couldn’t find any sign of infection or anything. He checks on all the animals weekly. I mean, he does it every day, but there’s a rotation; not every animal gets checked every day. Well, you know what I mean. So, yeah, he checks on them; they’re all healthy, and they’re adjusting to life in space as well as we are, even the chickens.

The chickens struggled a bit with the low gravity at first. They loved being able to actually fly, but they got a little too excited, and that led to a couple of accidents where they hit the walls of their coops.

But the cows were fine. Sure, they don’t have a lot of space, and they can’t move around as much as they’d like, but that’s true for all of us, including humans. My point is, they were healthy. Bessie seems traumatized. I didn’t know that cows could have feelings, but Sally told me that yes, they do, and that they can form long-lasting friendships. You learn something new every day.

After lunch, we had a special meeting to decide what to do with Gertrud’s body. Believe it or not, a cow dying in flight wasn’t in the manual.

The first obvious suggestion was to turn her into beef. Some people got upset at the very idea. I’m not sure why, because if we’re going to take cows to Mars, it’s not just for their milk. We also want them to reproduce (with artificial insemination at first) and eventually provide meat.

Later, when I talked to Sally, she said that cow dung is also a great fertilizer; that’s another use for cows on Mars besides milk and meat.

Anyway, eating Gertrud was quickly off the table, if I may say so. Marcus pointed out that since we didn’t know what killed her, the meat might not be safe to eat. Jean-Pierre, our butcher, added that all the instruments he needed to “prepare” a cow are stored in a cargo module that is separate from the main capsule and inaccessible until we land on Mars. In addition, many of the people on board have somehow become attached to the cows. That’s why Gertrud’s death is such a shock to everyone.

We considered storing her body in the freezer and burying it later her on Mars, but the freezer is just not designed for that. (There are a few places on the ship where deceased humans can be kept, but shhh, while it makes sense and we have contingency plans for that, it’s not something anyone wants to talk about or even think about unless we have to.)
Eventually, it was decided that she would have a space funeral, or more prosaically, that she would be jettisoned into space. Fortunately, I refrained from vocally making light of the incongruity of the situation, because some of us (they shall remain nameless) are taking this very seriously and are preparing an actual funeral.
The technicalities of such an unusual thing must be carefully prepared. Luckily, the mammal “barns” are near the hangar bay, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to get Gertrud’s body there. Then, three technicians will suit up, open the airlock, and gently push her out of the platform wagon where she’ll lie.
Meanwhile, a small ceremony will be held in the conference room, where the screens will show the live feed from the hangar bay. I’m not going to say anything more about this ceremony; the last time I did, Sally got a little upset with me and called me heartless.

Me, heartless…

 

******

Day 96

Gertrud was ceremoniously thrown off the ship. In her own way, she made history. Adam, one of our navigators, calculated that within a few weeks she would be caught in the orbit of Venus, becoming the planet’s only “natural” satellite. After a few decades, possibly centuries, she will eventually crash into the planet. And, well, you know the atmosphere of Venus; there won’t be much left of the cow’s body when it reaches the surface. Who would have thought that a cow would be the first (and only) Terran to make it to Venus? Oh, I almost forgot about that weird expedition a few years back. These guys thought they could safely approach the planet. They also went into the record books as the humans who died farthest from Earth.

 

 

******

Day 98

A few days ago, I briefly mentioned low gravity, but I didn’t explain how it works. I realize that I never talked about what the Susan Constant looked like. I’m assuming that if you’re reading this, the ship is in the history books and you all know about it. So, very quickly and for the sake of thoroughness, all the modules of the ship that require some sort of gravity (mainly the inhabited parts) are connected to each other and to the core of the ship, forming a large rotating structure that looks like a giant wheel with spokes around the large cylinder that is the core. This rotation creates enough artificial gravity for us to move around almost normally. And for the chickens to almost fly.

 

******

Day 100!

Well, this is a milestone. 100 days in space and almost halfway through our journey. Venus has done its gravitational slingshot thing with us, and we’re now pretty much in a straight line to Mars. Well, it’s not really a straight line. It’s more of an ellipse. What I mean is, no more detours. Who cares if it’s a straight line or an ellipse? The navigators and the pilots, that’s who. They’re the ones who insisted on it in the daily briefings and announcements.

We should have been celebrating, but we didn’t because of a technical problem that was more important than ellipses and straight lines. We’ve lost contact with Houston. It’s not the first time this has happened, but Chris, our communications officer, is afraid this time it might be permanent. Or at least long-term. However, while it’s not a small problem, it’s not as big as it sounds. Communication with Base X on Mars is seamless. Noel even takes the time to say a little something to us every day. And now, he’s also our liaison to ground control in Texas.

It’s not like we can U-turn back to Earth, anyway.

Still, the inability to communicate directly with Earth makes some people uncomfortable. But Noel is not worried. Chris is not worried. So, I’m not worried. The Pilgrims didn’t have a way to contact London during their adventure, and they did just fine.

We’ll be fine.

 

(to be continued)

 

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