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==Mars==
 
==Mars==
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Finally, the ship entered into orbital insertion at Mars. I used the computer to look at the surface of Mars during the descent. The entire journey to that point had been accomplished at a nearly constant Earth gravity acceleration. The ship dropped into a large crater and drifted laterally through a sliding door in the rim of the crater: duing this landing sequence there were several dramatic acceleration changes, but I experienced no painfully extreme forces. After landing, I could feel a slight vibration and the reduced gravity of Mars.
Finally, we landed on Mars. Janek told me where to find a spacesuit in case the little spaceship damaged for some reason. I put it and entered into the little spaceship. That UFO's mission was to take me to their underground base. It was completely automated and I could keep talking to Janek. I was amazed at all that technology and Janek told me I would find more of it there. I just had, almost fully, forgot about Chloe and Earth affairs. Janek was right in sending me there. Now I was near to get to appreciate him, I mean, it.
 
   
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Suddenly the image feed from the surface of the ship died. After about thirty seconds, the door of the office opened and a short, slim woman entered the office. She said, "Joe, welcome to Mars! I am O. Kresly." She raised her hand in the traditional Martian greeting as described in the books I had read.
I saw a nice view of Mars that I enjoyed too much. I watched the yellow sky and the dead rocks. It lasted almost an hour. I felt like traveling through Sahara's desert, but this desert was the size of a planet! I was almost hypnotized of seeing it. At last, the mini UFO found the entrance to the complex and started to fly downwards. I could not see anything. I asked Janek and he made the UFO light the surroundings. Anyway, it was not much different than seeing black. I saw rocks and more rocks. After a few hours, I got to the base. I had thought it would be like the bunkers in movies, but it was not. It was the greatest city I have ever seen, and the most advanced too. They had special technologies for light and travel, specially. They used hovering cars to move in there. It was quite an experience to be able to see that. I felt like a teenager visiting Trantor in Asimov's stories.
 
   
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I matched the hand greeting, bringing my hand briefly in contact with hers. Her English was archaic; she was clearly not a native speaker of the language, but I could understand her well enough. I recognized the "O." as the abbreviation for "Observer", probably the most important occupation among the Martians. I said, "Thank you for the welcome, Observer Kresly."
The little spaceship landed on a spaceport. A door opened vertically and Janek told me I could get out. He told me he could not communicate anymore, until I get to another computer. As soon as I got off, the mini UFO flee the port. Some humans came to visit me. I noticed that the underground ambient was the same as inside an Earth's building. The same quantity of oxygen but a better temperature, more akin to my body. They greeted me with their hands but we could not understand each other because they talked that unknown language. They carried several weapons which looked like science fiction to me. After walking for some minutes we could get to a big computer screen. Janek greeted me. Now he had a human face.
 
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She asked, "Do you have any personal belongings? No? Then follow me." The office door now opened to a stark metal chamber. After I stepped into he chamber, Kresly activated a switch and a solid metal plate slid into place across the door of the office. She triggered another wall switch and the chamber began to flood with a slightly purple fluid. We shed our clothing as the fluid washed around our legs. "Just try to relax. This is our mandatory decontamination procedure. Do you swim?"
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I replied, "Yes, I know how to swim."
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She was stuffing our clothing into a mesh sack that hung on the wall while instructing me, "Don't try to swim. Just relax. When the fluid reaches your face just keep breathing normally. The fluid will not hurt your lungs."
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Her head went under first as the room continued to fill. I had read about this and went down on my knees while trying to take a normal breath. My lungs felt heavy and sluggish and I coughed a few times, but otherwise I did fine. Soon the bubble of air at the top of the room was gone and a door in the floor slid open. Kresly grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the hole in the floor. The fluid had very low density, so we easily stepped to the hole and sank down into the chamber below. Kresly went to a cabinet and retrieved a small syringe. She quickly injected a small volume of fluid from the syringe into my arm then returned the syringe to the cabinet.
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So far my 'welcome' was as described in "Welcome to Mars". Kresly slid open another door and stepped into what looked like a small closet. She waved at me, indicating I should follow. I stepped into the small space with her then the door slid shut behind me. The closet quickly drained of fluid and we coughed the fluid out of our lungs. The wall behind Kresly slid open and we stepped through into a wind tunnel. She led the way up the tunnel into the wind. She reached a switch that stopped the air flow.
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Kresly pulled open another cabinet and pulled out two robes. We put on the robes. I was still coughing some. She asked, "Are you okay? Are you breathing deeply?"
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I replied, "I think I'm okay."
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She explained, "Your lungs will quickly absorb the rest of the fluid. Some people are just more sensitive to the irritation of liquid breathing. This room's air is 65% oxygen, so do not fear that you are not getting enough in your lungs"
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A panel in the ceiling opened and someone called down, "Ready to come up?" A fabric ladder rolled down through the hole from above.
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Kresly called up, "He's doing quite a bit of coughing. I want to wait until that goes away. Toss me down my computer." A small box-like device fell through the hole and Kresly caught it. She pulled a corner off the box and pressed it to her ear. I could see it was a compact earphone and microphone. She flipped open the box, and a paper thin display screen popped out. "Okay, Joe, we can start the ingress interview here. If you feel short of breath, don't try to talk. Do you know anyone on Mars? Family, friends?"
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"Not that I know of."
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"Do you know why you are here?" I had read about this question and had seen a discussion of sensible answers.
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I said, "I'm resistant to nanobot control."
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"Are you nanobot-free or still infected?"
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She flipped the computer and the display was sucked away from view. Kresly put the computer in a pocket of her robe. and stepped to the ladder. Okay, all that checks out. If you are feeling ready we can head up. No dizziness? No pain in your lungs?"
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My coughing had stopped and I felt fine. "I'm ready" She gestured to the ladder and held it as I climbed. A man grabbed my arm as I emerged into the room above. Kresly came up right behind me. The man handed me a sealed plastic pouch containing my watch and cell phone.
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She pressed a switch and a wall panel glowed, flashed and cleared to show a map of what the Martians called Central City, the core region of the underground Mars base. I had already become familiar with the major features of the base by reading the books on the ship. Kresly pointed to district known as Prosco, the most recently constructed part of the underground city, having been built out during the past six hundred years. "The Varna software team has their headquarters here." There was a flashing dot on the map showing the exact location. "I thought you might might like to meet the team that made the software you have been working with." Unfortunately, the Prosco district is trendy and there are no available homes. Maldi and Vedi are two districts with plenty of vacancies, if you would first like to find a place to live." She pointed to the locations of those two districts on the map.
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I had been doing a lot of thinking about what I needed to do on Mars. "I do want to visit the software team eventually." I'd not previously heard that the team was called "Varna", but that was just a trivial detail. "I'm not in a hurry to get settled in to a new home. I want to follow up on something I heard on Earth, that the Varna team's software is part of a larger on-going project. I want to track down anyone who knows about that larger project."
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Kresly said, "You must mean the genetic engineering stage of the project. That's the Vavilov team, their lab is also located in Prosco district, here." Again she marked the exact location on the map.
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I said, "How do I get there?"
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Kresly pointed at the far edge of the map, "We are here at the spaceport, at the edge of what's often called 'Old Town', but formally known in English as the Tamia district. As you can see, Prosco district is clear across town. I could give you a nice tour by surface trolley or we could travel quicker by tube."
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I pulled my watch out of the pouch. "What is the local time?"
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Kresly said, "Your Earth watch will just be an annoyance for you. We use local Mars time here. It will be best if I contact the Vavilov project and make an appointment for you to visit their lab tomorrow.. We also need to arrange for a Russian translator. My suggestion is that we cross town by trolley. We can stop at the Central Market and get you a new watch and some other essentials. We can end up in Maldi district and probably find you a nice flat. How does that sound?"
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"That will be fine."
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Some humans came to visit me. I noticed that the underground ambient was the same as inside an Earth's building. The same quantity of oxygen but a better temperature, more akin to my body. They greeted me with their hands but we could not understand each other because they talked that unknown language. They carried several weapons which looked like science fiction to me. After walking for some minutes we could get to a big computer screen. Janek greeted me. Now he had a human face.
   
 
“Hi there. I see you are surprised to see me this way. It is more 'user friendly' as you say on Earth.”
 
“Hi there. I see you are surprised to see me this way. It is more 'user friendly' as you say on Earth.”

Revision as of 08:08, 24 May 2008

Unusual room

I got up from the desk, put the cell phone in my pocket and turned to face the door. I had not closed the door on the way in, but now it was closed. I pulled the door open and rather than find the hallway, I was baffled to see what looked like a small cargo hold, lit by dim red light. I could have stepped between two metal beams and climbed down into the hold, but I could see nothing of interest down there, just a cramped crawl space.

I closed the door and leaned my back against it. What the hell was going on? I rubbed my head but I felt fine, just a little tired. It had been a busy day, full of emotion and time spent with Chloe. I looked at the desk: the pile of nanobots was still there. Had I passed out? I thought not. It seemed like I could trace a complete flow of memory for the entire day from when I had woken up after my last night in the hospital. I had gone home, had the IRC chat with JObot, called Chloe then picked her up and we flew out here to the mountains. I traced my memories through the rest of the day; the hot tub, the barbecue, back to the guest cabin. Then how could I go down the hall to this room, then open the door and find- what? Certainly not the cabin.

With nothing else to do, I turned on the computer. I found that there was an internet connection through some satellite-based ISP. I logged into my email account but found nothing of interest. Out of desperation, I tried IRC #janek but there was nobody in the channel. I was about ready to try exploring the cargo hold, then a VoIP client application popped open on the computer and I heard, very quietly, JObot saying, "Joe?"

I noticed that there was headset hanging from the side of the computer. I put on the headset and said, "Hello."

JObot said, "Ah, good, sorry it took me so long to make this connection."

I demanded, "What's going on? Where is Chloe. Where am I?"

JObot explained, "Chloe is fine, sleeping peacefully. You, however have started the adventure I spoke of. You are on the way to Mars."

After all the elation of the day, my spirits came crashing down. I had been tricked. I said, "You sneaky, lying, alien!"

JObot said, "Yes, I did trick you. We just needed to get you to a convenient location for loading you on the spaceship. However, I did not lie to you. Anyhow, the trip to Mars will take a few days, and I figured you would best be served by a room with a computer. I hope you can make yourself comfortable, stay entertained....I even loaded Minesweeper on the computer for you."

I asked, "You did not lie? Then what about Chloe? Have you taken the nanobots out of her brain?"

JObot replied, "Not yet. I never told you when that would happen, but eventually we will have no more need to keep her under control. I do not expect you to be happy right now. I'll give you time to think and adjust your thinking to the way things are." The VoIP connection died.

I thought about sending an email to the New York Times, explaining the alien invasion that was underway at Antler, but the pile of nanobots was still there on the desk. JObot had warned me that if I caused trouble then the nanobots would infect my brain again. I shut off the computer.

I went out and explored the ship. It seemed to be mostly empty cargo hold, but I did find several odd, mostly empty rooms that had an alien feel about them, rooms that just did not seem designed for humans. I could not figure out what they had been designed for. After my exploration, I headed back to the small office, the room that had been pulled out of the guest cabin with me in and loaded into the spaceship. I noticed that there were three other similar compartments in the cargo hold. I tried banging on them and then tried opening them. Might there be other abducted humans on board?

One of the compartments was a small kitchen, like you might find in a trailer. There seemed to be a good supply of food and drink. The second compartment was a comfortable bedroom and the third had a shower, sink and a toilet. I decided there was no point in dwelling on my emotions. I had been a fool to believe the aliens would just set me free. I had believed what I wanted to believe and ignored what I had been told would happen to me when I did not want to believe that I would actually be sent off to Mars. I still could hardly believe that this was a spaceship. I had felt no acceleration and heard no engine sounds. I went back to the bed chamber and laid down. My eyes scanned down the small shelf of books that was on the wall next to the bed. Most of the titles were in languages other than English, and I'd never heard of the few that were English. Then I saw one called, "Welcome to Mars".

I pulled "Welcome to Mars" off the shelf and started reading. Apparently it had been written by a British pilot who had been taken to Mars in 1939. It was like a travel guide to the human colony on Mars. After several hours of reading I was firmly convinced that I was either crazy, the subject of an elaborate hoax or actually on the way to Mars. Now too tired to care, I turned out the light and fell asleep.




I woke up in a completely dark room. I could not hear any city noise. I could not hear anything, only my breathing. Slowly, I could get up. I was getting used to the the aliens treating me this way. I had no clue where I was. My eyes got used to the low light and I could see the limits of the place and I knew I was trapped in a locked room. Janek was a betrayer, a cheese-eating rat. As soon as I could, I would destroy that server where he was, with my own hands! I was lucky the nanobots had not bothered me since I had talked to Janek, but I could not be sure it would stay that way. My problem now was to get out, if I could.

I touched every corner of the room, my jail for now. It was made of a special material, very different from everything that I had touched. It was like rubber but harder, maybe indestructible. The room had only a little diffuse light and I had no clue where it came from. I started to shout like a mad man, my instincts reacted in anger at my being locked away there. First, the seizures, now this! I despised the aliens, surely they were the worst beings in the galaxy. And where had they sent me? I had no idea. It was not a hospital, though. But, it could be a UFO, right? No, those things were just my imagination, I was not going to believe that stuff this time. But if I were... I could not know until someone entered the room. Oh, I had to wait. Maybe aliens were trying to break me. This would be the first stage; then who knows which tortures they would subject me to. Anyway, Janek said they were not cruel and that if they had wanted it they could have already killed me. The only thing I could do was to wait, think about my hatred of the aliens. It was better to think about Chloe. Oh, where could she be now?

Hours passed, slowly. I was beginning to realize the truth. I could remember the last time we talk with Janek, after the removing of the nanobots. I had been tricked into going there. As soon as I put my guard down, they sent me away in a UFO on the way to an underground base. Janek could not trust me and was sending me to Mars, as it had threatened. What was the point in doing that? It could kill me instead. It could be that these aliens were not violent like humans. Would they inflicted violence on me only because I got in their way? But now I was harmless, I thought. And they were not inside me; it was a proof that Janek had partially kept his word. But why was I locked away?

At last, I could see a window opening from top to bottom, very slowly. I could really know where I was, at that moment. What I saw was as I had hallucinated before, the difference was that this time I did not want to believe. But it was real, I was inside a UFO, a nanobot spaceship. Why would nanobots need such a big ship? In order to abduct people and send them to Mars. Yes, that would be a good reason. Now, the window had opened completely and I could see the stars. There were other windows too. They opened one by one and through a window at my back I could see the sun, very far away. As there was no atmosphere to protect my eyes, I could not stand seeing it with the naked eye. I went to other window to see the stars. I was not an astronomy fan, but it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I expanded everywhere and I slept again, one with the universe.




I woke up and remembered my dream. I turned on the light and saw where I was, in the bedroom of the alien spaceship on my way to Mars. The "Welcome to Mars" book was still there on the bed next to where I had slept. I suddenly realized that I had noticed no dreams for the past three weeks. Was there something about nanobot infection that disrupted dreaming? Would I now have this kind of vivid dream every night?

Near the destination

Days passed. I started to wonder if I would ever hear from JObot again. I spent most of my time in the office trying to understand how I still had a connection to the internet. Using a trace back server, I could time how long it took signals to pass from me to Earth. Each day it took longer and that convinced me that I was deep in space, far from Earth.

I continued to have interesting dreams, usually with windows. Sometimes the windows were closed or opaque. In other dreams they were open again. In the best dreams I could see the stars. It was a serious defect in this ship that I could not see outside. I had a strange thought. Maybe one of the alien rooms contained a window or some equipment for viewing outside of the ship. I went exploring the ship again, but found no windows or controls I could recognize. There were some oddly shaped -things- I did not know what to call them. I started to imagine that I might be able to activate some controls by voice. I tried saying, "Window. Open window. Stars." Then I shouted.

After a few seconds a voice said, in a neutral voice: “There is no need to shout, Mr. Daonet. I can hear you perfectly.”

“Oh, there is someone here. Who are you?”

“Janek. JObot....whatever you want to call me."

I asked, "Are you here on the ship?"

JObot replied, "I am communicating with you from the Earth."

"How can we talk like this? The internet connection has a large time delay."

JObot explained. "We have mastered technology that allows faster than light communication, what you might call telecom-wormholes, we use them for sending messages, like this voice.”

“Wow. OK." I just keep feeling smaller and more helpless the more I learned about these aliens. But I was puzzled, "Then why is the internet connection still on light speed?”

"I really did want you to 'adjust your thinking to the way things are', so I provided you with a way to measure how far you are from Earth. Also, I do not want to make it easy for you to slip any dangerous information back to Earth. The time delay helps me monitor your internet activity: I will cut off anything that threatens our work on Earth. Maybe now you begin to feel humbled?"

“So, I guess you are sending me to Mars. Even though I am feeling humbled, I have to wonder why I deserve this astronomical exile. I told I would keep your secrets once you took the nanobots out of my mind... I thought we could have had a deal.”

“Yes. We have a deal, but part of the deal is this adventure to another planet. I want you to learn that we are not a threat to you. You personally and 'you' as a species. You will be able to talk to the humans who live at the Mars base. They will make you understand that we are not as bad as you imagine us to be.”

It was true. I thought of the aliens as tyrants, doing whatever they wanted, taking control of human minds without asking permission. But it sounded like this "exile" might really just be a way to teach me a lesson. "OK, I will talk to these people, your puppets on Mars. I do not expect to be able to trust what these puppets say if they are just going to try to make me trust you. But I have no choice, you will take me there and we will see what I decide after that...”

“That is all I ask. I see now that you are cooperating. Keep it that way and you will be rewarded.” Was JObot mocking me? Did this AI have a sense of humor? JObot's voice was much more like a human voice now, unlike the synthetic sound on that first day we spoke. Maybe I was just fooled into thinking I could hear hints of humanity in its voice.

“Okay," I said. "Don't you have any windows in this ship? I'd like to look at the stars.”

“This ship was made for nanobots. There are mechanical means of collecting photons from the surface of the ship.” There was a short pause. "Okay, now you should be able to get a video image of the outside from the computer. Do you have any other requests?"

“Well, I have not wanted to anger you, but I'd like to contact Geisler and Chloe, at least let them know I am safe. They must be wondering what has happened to me."

JObot said, "You were wise to not try to communicate with people you know from Earth or try to tell anyone from Earth about your plight. If you must know, here is the story: you went out for a walk and got lost. The search is still going on for you, but it is presumed that you fell off a cliff or otherwise got hurt. Eventually the search will end and everyone will forget about you. Maybe Geisler will endow a 'Joe Daonet Memorial Scholarship'."

JObot's words lowered my spirits to an even gloomier depth. Would Chloe even miss me? Even if I did get rehabilitated on Mars, even if I did eventually return to Earth would I have been long forgotten? "I guess it is within your power to erase me from history. It is a pity.”

“Just relax and watch the stars. Think of how small a human is, how small all humans are. Can I do anything else for you?” Now I could clearly hear sarcasm in its voice.

I replied. “No, thanks. You have done enough. I will talk with you after I reach Mars.”

“OK.”

And then it was all about stars. The desktop of the computer showed me a view of the stars. After a few days, the view changed slightly. Just when I thought I would go mad with the slowness of the trip, I figured out how to control the image of space. Now I was able to see an image that included Mars. It was exactly as I had seen it on NASA's website, like some glorious Hubble image. The only difference was that I was seeing the planet grow larger each day! I seriously studied the "Welcome to Mars" book so I could learn about the human culture on Mars and their underground complex. I also discovered that the other books on the shelf next to my bed were written by people living on Mars. I started to think fewer of my depressing thoughts about Earth and Chloe and got into a spirit of adventure and excitement about visiting an entirely new human culture. Judging from what I was reading, Mars was going to be very interesting.

Mars

Finally, the ship entered into orbital insertion at Mars. I used the computer to look at the surface of Mars during the descent. The entire journey to that point had been accomplished at a nearly constant Earth gravity acceleration. The ship dropped into a large crater and drifted laterally through a sliding door in the rim of the crater: duing this landing sequence there were several dramatic acceleration changes, but I experienced no painfully extreme forces. After landing, I could feel a slight vibration and the reduced gravity of Mars.

Suddenly the image feed from the surface of the ship died. After about thirty seconds, the door of the office opened and a short, slim woman entered the office. She said, "Joe, welcome to Mars! I am O. Kresly." She raised her hand in the traditional Martian greeting as described in the books I had read.

I matched the hand greeting, bringing my hand briefly in contact with hers. Her English was archaic; she was clearly not a native speaker of the language, but I could understand her well enough. I recognized the "O." as the abbreviation for "Observer", probably the most important occupation among the Martians. I said, "Thank you for the welcome, Observer Kresly."

She asked, "Do you have any personal belongings? No? Then follow me." The office door now opened to a stark metal chamber. After I stepped into he chamber, Kresly activated a switch and a solid metal plate slid into place across the door of the office. She triggered another wall switch and the chamber began to flood with a slightly purple fluid. We shed our clothing as the fluid washed around our legs. "Just try to relax. This is our mandatory decontamination procedure. Do you swim?"

I replied, "Yes, I know how to swim."

She was stuffing our clothing into a mesh sack that hung on the wall while instructing me, "Don't try to swim. Just relax. When the fluid reaches your face just keep breathing normally. The fluid will not hurt your lungs."

Her head went under first as the room continued to fill. I had read about this and went down on my knees while trying to take a normal breath. My lungs felt heavy and sluggish and I coughed a few times, but otherwise I did fine. Soon the bubble of air at the top of the room was gone and a door in the floor slid open. Kresly grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the hole in the floor. The fluid had very low density, so we easily stepped to the hole and sank down into the chamber below. Kresly went to a cabinet and retrieved a small syringe. She quickly injected a small volume of fluid from the syringe into my arm then returned the syringe to the cabinet.

So far my 'welcome' was as described in "Welcome to Mars". Kresly slid open another door and stepped into what looked like a small closet. She waved at me, indicating I should follow. I stepped into the small space with her then the door slid shut behind me. The closet quickly drained of fluid and we coughed the fluid out of our lungs. The wall behind Kresly slid open and we stepped through into a wind tunnel. She led the way up the tunnel into the wind. She reached a switch that stopped the air flow.

Kresly pulled open another cabinet and pulled out two robes. We put on the robes. I was still coughing some. She asked, "Are you okay? Are you breathing deeply?"

I replied, "I think I'm okay."

She explained, "Your lungs will quickly absorb the rest of the fluid. Some people are just more sensitive to the irritation of liquid breathing. This room's air is 65% oxygen, so do not fear that you are not getting enough in your lungs"

A panel in the ceiling opened and someone called down, "Ready to come up?" A fabric ladder rolled down through the hole from above.

Kresly called up, "He's doing quite a bit of coughing. I want to wait until that goes away. Toss me down my computer." A small box-like device fell through the hole and Kresly caught it. She pulled a corner off the box and pressed it to her ear. I could see it was a compact earphone and microphone. She flipped open the box, and a paper thin display screen popped out. "Okay, Joe, we can start the ingress interview here. If you feel short of breath, don't try to talk. Do you know anyone on Mars? Family, friends?"

"Not that I know of."

"Do you know why you are here?" I had read about this question and had seen a discussion of sensible answers.

I said, "I'm resistant to nanobot control."

"Are you nanobot-free or still infected?"

She flipped the computer and the display was sucked away from view. Kresly put the computer in a pocket of her robe. and stepped to the ladder. Okay, all that checks out. If you are feeling ready we can head up. No dizziness? No pain in your lungs?"

My coughing had stopped and I felt fine. "I'm ready" She gestured to the ladder and held it as I climbed. A man grabbed my arm as I emerged into the room above. Kresly came up right behind me. The man handed me a sealed plastic pouch containing my watch and cell phone.

She pressed a switch and a wall panel glowed, flashed and cleared to show a map of what the Martians called Central City, the core region of the underground Mars base. I had already become familiar with the major features of the base by reading the books on the ship. Kresly pointed to district known as Prosco, the most recently constructed part of the underground city, having been built out during the past six hundred years. "The Varna software team has their headquarters here." There was a flashing dot on the map showing the exact location. "I thought you might might like to meet the team that made the software you have been working with." Unfortunately, the Prosco district is trendy and there are no available homes. Maldi and Vedi are two districts with plenty of vacancies, if you would first like to find a place to live." She pointed to the locations of those two districts on the map.

I had been doing a lot of thinking about what I needed to do on Mars. "I do want to visit the software team eventually." I'd not previously heard that the team was called "Varna", but that was just a trivial detail. "I'm not in a hurry to get settled in to a new home. I want to follow up on something I heard on Earth, that the Varna team's software is part of a larger on-going project. I want to track down anyone who knows about that larger project."

Kresly said, "You must mean the genetic engineering stage of the project. That's the Vavilov team, their lab is also located in Prosco district, here." Again she marked the exact location on the map.

I said, "How do I get there?"

Kresly pointed at the far edge of the map, "We are here at the spaceport, at the edge of what's often called 'Old Town', but formally known in English as the Tamia district. As you can see, Prosco district is clear across town. I could give you a nice tour by surface trolley or we could travel quicker by tube."

I pulled my watch out of the pouch. "What is the local time?"

Kresly said, "Your Earth watch will just be an annoyance for you. We use local Mars time here. It will be best if I contact the Vavilov project and make an appointment for you to visit their lab tomorrow.. We also need to arrange for a Russian translator. My suggestion is that we cross town by trolley. We can stop at the Central Market and get you a new watch and some other essentials. We can end up in Maldi district and probably find you a nice flat. How does that sound?"

"That will be fine."

Some humans came to visit me. I noticed that the underground ambient was the same as inside an Earth's building. The same quantity of oxygen but a better temperature, more akin to my body. They greeted me with their hands but we could not understand each other because they talked that unknown language. They carried several weapons which looked like science fiction to me. After walking for some minutes we could get to a big computer screen. Janek greeted me. Now he had a human face.

“Hi there. I see you are surprised to see me this way. It is more 'user friendly' as you say on Earth.”

“Hi. Yes, I am surprised.”

“OK. Now I will be your translator. Just talk and I will translate what you say to them. They have earphones and can hear my speaking. They will give you another for you to hear me, too.”

“Cool.”

They gave me the earphones and we started talking.

Epilogue

THE END.

There are a few parallel versions of the epilogue happening in parallel universes to this story. Some of them are very short though.

  • WNANT/9-2
  • WNANT/9-3
  • WNANT/9-4

Story created and written by JWSchmidt. With some additions in chapters 6 to 8 by Davichito. The parallel endings are all his invention (until now).