The Settlers (Mars, Part 5)

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Everyone watches the airlock’s door in anticipation. Half an hour to depressurize. Half an hour to pressurize. It feels like forever. I don’t know if that’s the flu disturbing my sense of time or just fear. Probably both. I just wonder how the angry mob is feeling.

Looking around, they don’t seem as angry anymore. No, they seem scared. Almost terrified. That could be good but it could also lead to more deaths. I’m just glad they’re afraid to spread the virus by killing us in here. And maybe they’re too lazy, or too weak, to drag our dead bodies to the outside. Letting us walk by ourselves is much easier.

Finally, the door opens. But they don’t reveal what everyone expected.

This is not the crew of one of our spaceships. They’re humans. But the spacesuits are totally wrong.

Nobody moves and we just stare at our ten visitors. Scared. Hopeful. Terrified.

”Who are these people?” Someone asks which prompts one of the visitors to take off their helmet to reveal a man in his 40s. But he doesn’t look particularly healthy.

”I could ask you the same question”, he says. ”We haven’t seen other humans in almost 200 years. Where did you come from? Why are you here?”

I stare at them in disbelief. 200 years? How could that be? There haven’t been any successful Mars missions, all projects had been stopped because of what happened to the crew of the SpaceX Mars mission. They all died on impact in a horrific accident.

Or so we had been told.

”You came to our home, we should be asking the question”, the woman guarding me proclaims with a slightly shaking voice. ”We don’t have to tell you anything.”

”That’s fair I guess.” The man sighs. ”My name is Mike. These people” he gestures at the people who accompany him, ”are part of my colony. We’re the first and only settlers on Mars. We were promised that nobody would ever follow us but it seems that promise has been broken. Now, who are you, people?”

”We’re what’s left of humanity. Earth is dying and humanity with it”, the woman explains. ”We didn’t know there are other humans here on Mars. But why do you only turn up now? Our robots have been building these caves for a relatively long time.”

”We try to avoid the surface.” Mike frowns. ”It’s not healthy for us. The radiation damage … it’s just too much.”

That explains why Mike is not looking so good. Patches of the skin in his face are blistered and his mouth seems slightly bloody when he talks as if his gums are damaged. Just two signs of radiation sickness. I don’t want to imagine what other things he’s battling with.

”How did you survive this long?” The question escapes my mouth before I can stop myself. The woman’s grip on the rope around my wrists tightens as she’s suddenly reminded of my existence. Shit. Luckily, Mike decides to answer my question.

”Until the members of our colony reach a certain age, they are not allowed to leave the deepest caves. That shields them from the worst radiation. Galactic cosmic rays and solar particles are mostly blocked by the rocks. But our greenhouses, they’re on the surface and somebody must take care of them. And our protection isn’t perfect. We all die very early.”

”Why aren’t you simply using electromagnetic force fields?” Somebody from our group asks. He’s right. Those fields are built into each space suit and are basically a miniature version of the field surrounding the earth, which keeps the harmful radiation out.

Mike lifts his eyebrows in confusion.

”Electromagnetic what?”

”It seems our technology is slightly more advanced than yours”, the woman behind me says. ”We’d be happy to share it with you, in exchange for some help from your side. We humans must stick together after all. But you’ll have to help us get rid of these dangerous individuals first, we were about to throw them outside right before you arrived.” Wow. The hypocrisy.

To my endless relief, Mike doesn’t seem so happy about the idea of throwing people he doesn’t know out into the dangerous cold environment that is the surface of Mars.

”Why do you want to get rid of them?” He asks. ”They don’t seem like dangerous criminals to me. Actually, they just seem slightly sick. The one you’re holding looks like a teenager! How old are you child, 14?”

”15”, I reply.

”Shut your damn mouth”, the woman hisses and violently pulls on my ropes. ”They are sick and it will kill us all if we let them roam free”, she tries to explain. But Mike’s face just gets darker.

”Sick people deserve care, not death.” He gives his companions a quick nod and they all pull out ancient looking particle guns. Probably state of the art when they left earth. Still, better than knives. And Our angry mob doesn’t have any guns, why should we take any on a peaceful mission to an uninhabited planet?

”Drop the knives and let go of the prisoners”, commands Mike. Nobody dares to disagree. The other nine go around, free the captured people from the ropes and bind our attackers instead.

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References:

How does radiation affect the human body in space?

For Manned Deep-Space Missions, Radiation Is Biggest Hurdle

Radiation sickness

Space Radiation Threat to Astronauts Explained (Infographic)

Real Martians: How to Protect Astronauts from Space Radiation on Mars

SpaceX – Mars

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