A Mars Odyssey Read online

  A MARS ODYSSEY

  A science-fiction novel

  By Michel Poulin

  © 2018

  WARNING TO POTENTIAL READERS

  THIS FICTION NOVEL CONTAINS SOME COARSE LANGUAGE UNSUITABLE FOR CHILDREN.

  ABOUT THIS NOVEL

  This novel is meant to describe the reasons, motivations, means and achievements that would eventually land Humans on Mars, where they could then establish viable settlements. As such, it is not meant to be some sort of space thriller or action novel, but rather to be a celebration of the human spirit of adventure and exploration.

  BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

  (Available free online at Free-ebooks.net, at Goodreads.com or on request by email to [email protected])

  Nancy Laplante Series

  CODENAME : ATHENA

  ADVENTURES THROUGH TIME

  CHILDREN OF TIME

  TIMELINES

  DESTINIES

  TIMELINE TWIN

  FROM THE FIELDS OF CRIMEA TO THE SANDS OF MARS

  Kostroma Series

  JOVIAN UPRISING -2315

  THE ERIS PROTOCOL

  Sinner Series

  SINNER AT WAR

  ETERNAL SINNER

  AMERICAN SINNER

  U-Boote Series

  THE LONE WOLF

  U-900

  Standalone books

  THE LOST CLIPPER

  ODYSSÉE TEMPORELLE (novel in French)

  FRIENDS AND FOES

  SPACE-TIME ODYSSEY

  A MINOR GLITCH

  A MARS ODYSSEY

  TABLE OF CONTENT

  CHAPTER 1 – A WORSENING SITUATION

  CHAPTER 2 – A REAL NAIL BITTER

  CHAPTER 3 – CREW MATTERS

  CHAPTER 4 – COMING ABOARD

  CHAPTER 5 – DEPARTURE

  CHAPTER 6 – IN MARS ORBIT

  CHAPTER 7 – FINAL DECISION

  CHAPTER 8 – A FRUSTRATING DELAY

  CHAPTER 9 – A WALK ON MARS

  CHAPTER 10 – A HUGE FIND

  CHAPTER 11 – PHASE TWO

  CHAPTER 12 – PHASE THREE

  CHAPTER 13 – VACATION TIME

  CHAPTER 14 – OLYMPUS MONS

  CHAPTER 15 – A NEW HOPE FOR HUMANITY

  CHAPTER 16 – RETURN TO MARS

  CHAPTER 17 – NEW TECHNOLOGY

  CHAPTER 18 – STEPPING AWAY FROM ARMAGGEDON

  CHAPTER 19 – A TIME TO CELEBRATE

  BIBLIOGRAPHy

  CHAPTER 1 – A WORSENING SITUATION

  09:56 (Washington Time)

  Tuesday, March 5, 2041

  White House Situation Room

  Washington, D.C.

  U.S.A.

  President Ronald Mason looked quickly around the large table and, seeing that everyone that needed to be present was in the Situation Room, nodded to the staffer standing ready to brief him.

  ‘’Now that we all are here, you might as well start, Mister Blake.’’

  ‘’Thank you, Mister President!’’ replied the State Department briefer before switching on the first slide of his briefing on the large digital screen set against one wall of the room. With a laser pointer in his right hand, he then started speaking in a measured tone.

  ‘’Mister President, ladies and gentlemen, this is the latest State Department update on the World situation as it refers to the progressive global warming and consequent rise in sea levels. Yesterday, the last line of dikes protecting what was left of Bangladesh, along with the Indian city of Kolkata, broke and let the sea in. With the situation in that region already catastrophic and with little local government resources left, the flooding that ensued swamped the totality of the Ganges Delta, including the cities of Dacca and Kolkata. The millions of refugees that had been sheltering in and around those two cities never had a chance to escape and were swept away by the incoming waves. Our estimates are that most of the 43 million people who were in that region are now dead.’’

  Ronald Mason, a slightly overweight big man approaching his sixties, lowered his head for a moment, saddened by such a tragedy. Unfortunately, such tragic news had become way too common in the past few years, with the steadily rising sea levels and increasing global temperatures causing a litany of floods and droughts. Those floods and droughts had in turn cost the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the World. While the floods could be prevented, at great cost, by the building of defensive dikes, there was little that could be done about the droughts and accompanying high temperatures, which burned down the crops on which so many people depended. Most of the Indian sub-continent, Arabic Peninsula, North Africa and parts of Southeast Asia were now routinely experiencing ambient temperatures above forty degrees centigrade, with spikes up to fifty or more degrees centigrade. Millions of people had died from the excessive heat, while tens of millions more had died from the famines caused by the droughts. The stampede by millions of refugees trying to find more livable places in other countries had further aggravated that chaotic World portrait. Shaking off those dark images from his mind, Ronald Mason looked back at the briefer.

  ‘’How are the Indian and Bangladeshi governments responding to this?’’

  An embarrassed look appeared on the briefer’s face as he recalled the information he had himself read only a couple of hours ago.

  ‘’From badly to not at all, Mister President. In the case of the Bangladeshi government, it was already in a state of deep turmoil, with the various local politicians blaming each other for not dealing effectively with the situation. From the last report received from our embassy in Dacca, the government’s senior members either fled to higher grounds or were swept away by the floods, leaving nobody in effective charge. Our assessment is that Bangladesh is now probably finished as a viable country, with its agricultural system destroyed for good. The already insufficient arable lands are now under seawater and will not be able to raise crops afterwards even if the sea withdraws, due to salt contamination. As for the Indian government, it has had to deal with more than its fair share of ecological disasters during the past decade and the Indian Army and police forces are having a hard time dealing with multiple mass riots by starving refugees and rural populations dislodged by the floods and droughts. The latest disaster which erased Kolkata from the map may just be the one that will break the Indian government’s back. And that is not all for that region, Mister President. General Ismail Khan, who took power last year in Pakistan via a military coup, is apparently preparing to deal with the floods and droughts that also ravaged his country by getting ready to grab some higher, safer and cooler lands, namely parts of the Indian Punjab and of Kashmir.’’

  From sad, Ronald Mason suddenly turned to irritated.

  ‘’Is Khan crazy or just dumb? Has he forgotten that India has at least as many nuclear-tipped missiles than Pakistan has? Does he really think that the Indians will give up such vital lands without a fight?’’

  ‘’Well, Mister President, satellite imagery is clearly showing us that the Pakistani Army has started to mass itself along the border with the Punjab and the Kashmir. Maybe Khan is counting on the floods in India to distract the Indians and thin out the Indian Army units in or near the Punjab. To be fair, I must say that the Pakistanis are presently as desperate as the Indians and have little left to lose by attacking India. On the other hand, the Punjab, being located at high altitudes, is basically safe from floods and is notably cooler than the rest of the Indian sub-continent, two points that make it invaluable right now in terms of real estate to both the Indians and the Pakistanis.’’

  ‘’True, but that real estate won’t be worth much once it is contaminated with radioactive fallouts.’’ replied Mason before looking at his s
ecretary of state, James Barrow. ‘’James, once we are finished here, I want you to call Khan and try to put back some sense in him. Make him understand that he will gain nothing by starting a war with India now.’’

  ‘’I will do my best, Mister President.’’ said the graying African-American man, nodding his head once. Mason then looked back at the briefer.

  ‘’Sorry if I keep interrupting you, Mister Blake. You may continue.’’

  ‘’Thank you, Mister President! In terms of new international developments linked to sea levels and global warming, these were the sole items on our agenda today, Mister President. However, numerous spots and situations are considered critical and we will keep a close watch on them. Those spots and situations were included in the last weekly watch list that you received, Mister President. Do you have any questions, Mister President?’’

  ‘’Not at this time. I read the watch list and I must say that it makes for some grim reading. Thank you, Mister Blake! Jena, do we have anything new on the domestic front?’’

  The Secretary of the Interior, Jena Westwood, a tall and still very pretty woman at the age of 58, nodded her head at Mason’s question.

  ‘’Yes, Mister President! The last group of citizens from New Orleans and the Louisiana coast has arrived in their new designated homes in Birmingham and Atlanta. Other displaced citizens from along the banks of the Mississippi are still streaming in and are being processed as quickly as humanly possible. However, this still makes over half of the states of Louisiana and Mississippi irremediably lost to the rising waters, with their arable lands contaminated by seawater. I am afraid that completing the relocation and rehabilitation of so many people will take lots of time and money, Mister President.’’

  ‘’Yes, we went through the same drill six years ago, when we lost most of the state of Florida to the rising sea, and that despite all our efforts to build protective sea walls. Short of a miracle that would make the sea lower to its original level of a century past, I am afraid that we will continue to experience such losses, both in lives and in infrastructures and lands. In fact, if I can believe the latest studies from the Environmental Protection Agency, we will continue to face rising sea levels and warmer temperatures, unless we can somehow reverse that trend by cutting the proportion of CO2 and other warming gases in our atmosphere. I know that our Ecological Corps is doing a fantastic job of building and putting in operation more and more atmosphere scrubbing towers, or ASTs, across the country, but this problem is truly a global one and not strictly an American one. Even if we do everything possible here, we will still be affected by the pollutants produced in other parts of the World. Let’s just say that experience from the past couple of decades on that subject does not make me optimistic. We thus have to continue focusing on our ‘Plan B’, on top of doing what we can in America to reverse this global warming or at least stop it. Administrator Cardona, how is the Mars Home Project doing? Do you still get all the help and cooperation promised by Russia, China and Europe?’’

  The small but energetic Latino woman in her mid fifties who was the new head of the NASA cleared her throat before answering, speaking in measured words.

  ‘’I still am very pleased with the degree of cooperation and assistance that I get from them on the Mars Home Project, Mister President. As for the project itself, it is actually slightly ahead of schedule and within budget, thanks to the incredible efforts of its project manager and chief engineer and designer, Mister Robert Lithgow. That man is truly accomplishing miracles. As a result of his good work, the main section of our first Mars ship has been completed and will be launched in orbit in two months. Once in orbit, the other sections of the ship will follow up aboard our new heavy space shuttles, to be assembled together in low Earth orbit. If all goes well, the FRIENDSHIP should leave Earth’s orbit in two years, on its way to Mars.’’

  ‘’Hopefully, that trip will fare better than what happened to the Mars One Mission.’’ interjected Vice-President Dana Crawford, a tough politician in her early sixties. Everybody around the table was silent for a moment as they reminisced about the tragic outcome of that doomed space mission. Meant to be the first manned Mars mission, with six astronauts due to land on Mars and do some ground exploration there, the Mars One Mission had been launched with great fanfare in 2032. That hoopla had however covered a litany of mistakes and politically-motivated bad decisions, as the chief motive to launch the mission had been more for the Washington administration of the time to make the people forget about the growing threat of environmental disasters to come than to truly start the exploration of Mars. As a result, too few astronauts had been launched in too small a ship, with grossly insufficient anti-radiation protection and no rotating carrousels aboard to create some artificial gravity. The nine month-long trip to Mars had proven to be a Calvary for the six astronauts, with growing interpersonal conflicts, cumulative physical and brain damage from constant radiation exposure and progressive degeneration of their bones and muscles due to the effects of long term exposure to zero gravity. A powerful, unexpected solar storm in mid-trip had then dramatically increased the radiation dosage absorbed by the astronauts. When they had finally arrived in Mars orbit, still facing nearly two more years either on Mars or in space, the six astronauts were weak, sick and mentally diminished. The ‘coup de grâce’ to the mission however came when the astronauts went down in their lander capsule to set foot on the Red Planet. With their automated controls damaged by radiation exposure, the landing had been a lot more brutal than planned. The bones of the astronauts, already weakened by a long period in zero gravity, broke on impact at landing, incapacitating the unfortunate astronauts in their seats. Unable to move even inside their small lander, the six men had died a slow, painful death under the remote, sad eyes of Humanity. The sole good thing out of that disaster had been that the politicians in Washington had finally understood that such long, manned space missions were no place to cut corners or provide insufficient budgets. More importantly, a sensible, long-term plan with clear and justifiable goals was needed. Another result from that disaster had been a mass purge of NASA’s top and medium levels administrators and the scrapping of its stuffy bureaucratic, cover-your-ass culture. What replaced them was inspired by the examples provided by the first pioneering commercial firms that had joined the space adventure, notably SpaceX and Virgin Galactic.

  Getting over those sad souvenirs, Mason redirected the meeting on more mundane subjects, like budget appropriations and the continuing sea walls building and Atmospheric Scrubbing Towers programs. After another fifty minutes of discussions, the President called an end to the meeting, making the participants disperse back to their respective offices and buildings around Washington. Going back to the Oval Office, Mason went to the large windows behind the presidential work desk and spent a couple of minutes contemplating the Washington scenery while thinking. The capital had been built originally over low, swampy grounds, making it quite vulnerable to the rising sea levels of the 21st Century. What had saved it up to now was a high sea wall that had been built at a huge cost in the third decade of this century, along with elevated highways to connect it to the higher grounds of the Appalachian Mountains to the West, where many of the original residents of the American East Coast had moved to when the waters had started to seriously rise. A similar solution had been used to save the major cities along the East Coast, but that had cost money, lots of money. That in turn had forced a massive shift in spending priorities at the federal level, a shift made mostly at the expense of military budgets. With the United States fighting for survival against the rising sea tides and hotter temperatures scorching its lands, the traditional World policeman role that the United States had assumed by itself could not be sustained and much of its military personnel and equipment had been recycled into an enlarged Army Corps of Engineers, which had then been renamed the ‘Ecological Corps’. The Ecological Corps was now at the forefront of sea wall building and AST network expansion, plus was cha
rged with disaster relief work and refugee relocation. The other major military powers of the planet, Russia, China and Europe, also having to fight large scale environmental disasters, had quickly imitated the United States in this, understanding that long term survival as viable nations was more important than short term gains via military means. Yes, there were still a number of small wars going on around the globe, but the days when the World population feared a World War 3 and a nuclear holocaust were well over by now. Only a few stubborn, radical governments, like the Pakistani one, still believed in the use of military force as a mean to survive and grow. Ronald Mason couldn’t help then wonder if that new international spirit of peaceful cooperation would survive long enough to permit the Mars Home Project to attain its ultimate goal: the colonization of Mars and its transformation into a second home for Humanity in the Solar System.

  CHAPTER 2 – A REAL NAIL BITTER

  14:44 (California Time)

  Friday, May 17, 2041

  Launch Control Center, Vandenberg Space Center

  California, U.S.A.

  Despite his deep faith in the project he led, Robert Lithgow couldn’t help feel somewhat nervous as he looked at the video image of the huge disk and its six booster rockets displayed on the giant plasma screen of the Launch Control Center, situated inside a bunker at the Vandenberg Space Center. While he had carefully reviewed every possibilities for a launch failure and done his best to prevent them, nothing in space exploration and travel was risk-free. One seemingly insignificant mistake or oversight could be enough to delay the launch of the main section of the Human Space Ship FRIENDSHIP or, worse, lead to its destruction and loss at launch. If that last thing occurred, then it would set the Mars Home Project back by at least three years. Worse, it could shake the political support that the project so depended on in the long term to achieve its ultimate goals.