The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) by Bob Lee Read Free Book Online

titled ‘Earth time’ showed a time of 2:15. The other clock had a large dial with one hand and the title of ‘Cycler Orbital Stages.’ There were many labels in different places on the clock, the most prominent being ‘Earth perihelion’ at the top and ‘Mars perihelion’ at the four o’clock position. The hand was just past the top label. Bonnie briefly wondered why the Mars label was not at the bottom. “Oh well, I’ll have lots of time to learn all about things like that,” she mused.
    As she scanned the room, she noticed that t he ceiling of the large rectangular room had squares missing and wires dangling down through the holes. On her left were a few rooms with no doors and some free standing walls. On her right, it appeared that the whole wall was missing from the room. Instead, there was a curved expanse that looked like a gray quilt, since it was composed of multiple square sections. At the far end of the room was a table behind which were sitting the Platinums and Brother Jacobs. The members of the Called were filing past the tables, picking up papers.
    Bonnie heard a slight hiss behind her, and turned back around. The Commander was sliding quickly down the ladder, his feet on either side of it and Lotus tucked under one arm. He landed lightly in front of her, turned around and placed Lotus on the floor. “Here you go, Ma’am. I’ll be right back,” he said.
    “That was pretty impressive Commander. I thought you would struggle carrying Lotus.”
    “Nah, I learned how to slide down ladders while half asleep and carrying equipment when I was stationed on Navy carriers,” he said. “I’ll be right back with your dog.” He turned around and scampered back up the ladder in no time.
    Soon, Jean, Julie and Lucky had joined her and they approached the table at the other end of the room. “Hello, George,” she said.
    George Biggs was Platinum Two. Like Bonnie’s husband, he was tall and handsome, with blue eyes and brown hair in a buzz cut. He was holding a piece of paper with a list of names.
    “Hello, Bonnie. We’re going to be neighbors. You and the kids are in Module 1, Suite A-1. I’ll be right next door in M-1, A-2. Here, take one of these,” he said. “It’s a schematic of the living modules.”
    Bonnie took the paper and looked at the image. At the top was the label “Bigelow Aerospace” with “Genesis IX: Space for Living” underneath it. There were three objects in a row that looked sort of like blimps. The middle blimp was hooked to the other two at its ends by short equal signs. The blimp on the left was labeled Module 1, and the one on the right was labeled Module 2. The one in the middle was labeled Central, and someone had written in pencil an ‘X’ near its right side. It had the words ‘You Are Here’ with an arrow pointing to the X. Near the left end of the blimp labeled Central was a small circle with the words ‘Egress Ladders’ under it.
    “Huh, nice map,” muttered Jean who was looking over her shoulder. “I think Julie could have drawn a better one with her crayons.”
    “Hey, be nice, Jean,” scolded Bonnie. “This is our home for the next six months.”
    “Yeah, great,” Jean said as she looked up at the holes in the ceiling. “The Taj Mahal it ain’t. Any way, I see where we have to go,” she said, pointing across the room. “There’s a hole behind the ladder we came down. We have to crawl through that. The map shows that A-1 is all the way at the end.”
    “Before you go, tie up Lotus over there in one of those rooms. We’ll have to set up a pen for her later,” George said. “And pick up an emergency procedures sheet from your husband at the end of the table.”
    Bonnie took two steps to her left to stand in front of her husband, Jeff.
    “Wasn’t that part of our trip just fantastic, Honey?” Jeff said, hopping up and down on his seat. “Here we are, speeding away from Earth and you can hardly tell. I told you it would be a glorious