Champion of Mars by Guy Haley Read Free Book Online Page B

with new people. He loathed himself for it, as useful a trait as it was. He worried it made him appear weak.
    “Yes,” said Jensen. “Correct.”
    Deep Two was a complex of small rooms, half prefab, half cut from the rock. Besides the entry-cum-store office, there was a small canteen with barely enough room for the six chairs and table in it, a kitchen with a microwave and fridge, a cramped bedroom with two bunks, a toilet with limited washing facilites, and a number of store cupboards full of dried food, rock samples, and a tiny workshop cluttered with equipment in various states of repair. All of it was meticulously stowed and catalogued.
    Jensen showed them into the observation suite, and Holland paid a little more attention.
    “Here we monitor all expeditions into the cavern system,” explained Jensen.
    This was the largest room in the station, one wall taken up by a large window – shuttered, much to Holland’s disappointment. The light was dim, most of it coming from gelscreens. There were four work stations. Only one was currently occupied, by a woman with flat, sad-looking hair. Edith Vance , thought Holland. Disappointingly dowdy. She looked better in her file photo.
    She looked up when they came in. She had protruding eyes that made her appear surprised to see them, but she smiled and nodded in a way that suggested she wasn’t.
    “We’ve at least three of us on duty here when there’s a team in the cave,” said Jensen. “One of those is often the AI, if she’s not on constant watch below. Vance is our medical officer. Like the AI, if she’s not down there herself, then she is in here with me.” He flicked on a screen, pointing out biomonitors, inactive now, and displays that displayed the suits’ integrity readouts. “The environment is such down there that monitoring is necessary. The smallest sign of a problem, and we will give the order to pull back to base camp.”
    “You’re not going down today,” said Maguire.
    “There is no question of it,” said Jensen. “I will not clear Dr Holland for activity in the caves until he has passed his emergency drill and suit operation tests and a further medical from Dr Vance.”
    “I passed all those already,” said Holland.
    “I make everyone do them again here, under Martian conditions. You passed these tests on Earth.”
    “Well yes, I did them again here, the medical twice...”
    “Then you must undergo them here under my supervision. Please understand, Dr Holland, that the caves are exceptionally dangerous. There is no environment like them on Earth. Acid rains down from the organisms in the cave roofs periodically, and even at those times of the year when the methanogens are the least active, the atmosphere is poisonous, and explosive. We have problems with corrosive fog, and there are issues with rockfalls.”
    “The area’s geologically stable, isn’t it?” said Holland.
    “Strictly speaking, yes. Mars is very nearly geologically inert. But the ground here is a little shaky, partly because of the troglobite remnant activity – they’ve eaten the place hollow – and the Chinese...” began Maguire.
    “They are blasting on the far side of the mountain,” said Jensen. “I co-ordinate with their safety officer. They are reasonable, scientists like us, but they have their orders as we have ours, and no matter what they say the People’s Dynasty Government is attempting to interfere with the TF project, however tangentially. They don’t agree with the UN charter. Their ‘seismic tests’ are sabotage. It can and does lead to rockfall.” He checked a screen. “But that really is the least of your worries.”
    “Jensen...” Maguire jerked his head toward the window.
    “What are you... oh. Yes. Seeing as you are not going into the caves for a while, you can at least have a look... Dr Vance?”
    The woman looked up, eyes still surprised. She stroked a gelscreen and the shield over the window retracted, letting in a wide slot of