FIRST

The blackness at the edges and the orb at the center of all like a birthed bloody egg made an negative eye skyscape; and with a sickly wobble the whole of the horizon seemed a portent of something violent yet to come. This was Mars, the planetary mass enormous before the small ship, which had for nine months appeared to grow increasingly in size. A halo of astroglow and gossamer shreds of atmosphere clothed its heavenly body.

Within this tiny vessel seven souls anticipated arrival in a new world, clutched at prayer beads or at the last stray food tube and stared at the video screens that radiated their bodies in acceptable amounts, and beheld a sudden glow as their ship separated into three sections for the final descent.

Heat and anxiety caused them to sweat in their full suits as their lander fell planetward with saucer shaped side toward the planet and forces of atmospheric friction. Though in reality their entire voyage had brought them only seconds ahead in time from those they had left behind time seemed to slow, to almost stop. Seven lives passed instantly before their minds' eyes

With a jerking motion chutes unfurled and slowed their decline; some minutes later the vessel made a controlled crash onto a barren plain of red rock.

? ? ?

NINE months all of the seven but one had talked over what they would do once they reached this planet. Now all seven of them, awake, suited to leave these enclosed chambers of metal, glass and plastics, stood or sat without movement, silent. They thought to themselves, we're here, we really made it. And silently they said, I have finally reached Mars, or, I should say something.

"We should be all right out there?" asked one. He was Etan Goth-Jewel, on his breast the faint glow of an ID tag that spelled out his family name. The others: Xian, Jinnah, Hamad, Dumont-Cabral, Yamashiro and the one voyager who had no family name so far as the others knew, her tag read, Rachael.

It was Xian who moved first, standing, as he had been seated. He spoke, "Captain Yamashiro, run the diagnostics, if all is well with the lander start on tracking the other two sections."

"Yes, Sir," said Yamashiro quietly.

"Let's go," Xian ordered, "Cabral, do a last check of the suits, Jinnah, I want a link to our communications satellite ASAP, Jewel, I want an encoded message sent home as soon as the link is up, Hamad, get the hovercar and rover out from module C and running, we need a quick recon of the surrounding terrain."

"Sir," Xian said.

Rachael kept her gaze on him.

"May I suggest you get the bugs operational?"

"Carlo will assist me as soon as he is free," Rachael said and at this Dumont-Cabral agreed, he would aid her in setting up the robotic laborers and processors as soon as he completed his initial readings.

? ? ?

From within a hatch was opened and out into the thin cold Martian evening air a door swung outward and after it Xian stepped from the lander onto a narrow ladder that had dropped with the opening of the hatch. He panned his field of vision and with it the video camera mounted on his helmet across the terrain and was recorded for posterity and transmitted for the six with him to hear, "Today we discover a new world," and then a very quiet throaty grumble.

For nearly a year Jon Xian had known he would lead this mission and had been practicing what he would say, and now he was here and impulsively had used one of the lines he had formerly ruled out as just not great. Then Etan stepped to the ground and said, "It's beautiful, like what parts of America must look like at night."

Four others made their way to the ground, Rachael and Jinnah obviously female even at a distant glancing by the fit of their fitted suits. The suits and ship had all been designed by Yamashiro's nation just as the station they had departed from. Inside these suits all were protected from the low atmospheric pressure, the intense cold, and the alien air with a voice command or gesture they might bring up a series of projected virtual controls to make adjustments to their ecosystem of one. Fluids and nourishment were available in some supply, water was recycled so that as it passed from the body it was processed and made drinkable again. Toxins could be purged from the system by use of a specialized compartment called the liver. Drugs could be administered as needed from within. Soothing or invigorating musical selections were stored and replayed to make work go easier. Inside their suits the voyagers could link to the main computer abroad the ship for information transfers, or they might link to another suit for communication.

Their lander, a collection of sealed cylindrical modules seated on a half-buried saucer appeared enormous after nine months spent within its tiny compartments. The weight of their bodies a burden after a year of artificial gravity, yet only a third what it had been on their homeworld. Rachael in particular seemed disoriented, arms wound about her midriff section as she walked back and forth over an area of land.

The group split up to carry out their duties, their day would not be ended until they completed these initial tasks. Individually they had spent three to 12 months working with each other, it was established they had their differences and personal biases, but necessity forced them to cooperate. Jinnah climbed up onto the saucer and opened the panel that protected the locking mechanism of module B's door. Goth-Jewel reached her as she was punching in the numerical code.

"Watch it," he spoke to her via their radio link as he took hold of her waist and pulled her from the patch of the hydraulic door's opening.

She removed herself, stepped onto the ramp that had been on its other side the door. "You found your land legs quickly, Etan." Her language though American as they all spoke to each other was accented, partly English, partly Pakistani.

"I'll help you unload the mod." Etan on the other hand spoke American as well as Xian or Rachael though he was not from their union of states.

Rachael was moving past them, silently, Etan glanced in her direction, and she noted this. She was older than the nation he came from, had served as a soldier in the war that brought about the birth of Goth as a nation. Rachael could hear their male-female posturing at each other though her com was not tuned to the same channel. In fact she had turned it off completely.

Rachael opened the second storage module. She awaited the door then moved inside. An overhead light illuminated the bugs, so many automated many-limbed machines and processors programmed for the sole task of breaking down Martian compounds into chemical elements that would be used in the constriction and maintenance of their base here.

Carlo approached the module where Rachael lifted metal robot components and carried them to the ground with surprising ease. She was not like the others; she was more different than they were from each other. "I have removed the hover car and rover components for you, they are there," Rachael said with gesture to a neat piling of machinery a few meters from the saucer. "You may assemble them now."

Carlo left her, went about his task of assembling the components of both hovercar and rover. Martin approached him, the African. "Can I help you with those, Captain Yamashiro and I are going out after one of the other saucers." His accent was similar to Brittany's, rather British.

"All the rover is together," Carlo said.

"We'll take it; Saucer three is only a couple clicks from here."

? ? ?

The bugs were loosed to go about their programmed tasks. Huge and hulking or spindly they moved over uneven surfaces on treads of linked metal plates or on many spidery legs. Part construction machinery and part precision instrument the bugs rolled all three of the modules from the saucer to the coordinates Martin Hamad had assigned to them. They worked in unison or individually, huge automated machines like land boring worms that regurgitated earth into the mouths of beetles shaped processors that ate Martian soil and stacked piles of solid carbon or magnesium like heaps of dung. Arachnoid robots moved about quickly on spindly legs and lifted cargo in powerful front-end pincers or with a crane neck resembling a scorpions tail. Large water beetles sucked in air and spit vapor as an enormous caterpillar tugged module C into a ditch. In moments so many smaller ants carried soil and buried the module beneath the ground. Module A, which housed the living quarters, was only partially buried with its end up, and anchored to the ground with metal cable. And finally the saucer was ripped apart piece by piece for its materials.

Brittany Jinnah and Xian set their satellite dish on the top of the living quarters, radioed to Etan who was inside that it was up. Within the cockpit Etan sat, indoor clothes on and blonde hair decorated with braided and dyed locks. He activated the communications system that had been down since entry and fed their first recordings and findings into the computer for encoding and transmission.

Xian and Brittany entered the chamber, still in their suits but carrying their helmets. Xian was American, an Army general but his features were those of the Chinese. Brittany, dark glossy hair in two neat braids, might have seemed exotic to many peoples, neither fully Anglo, Arab, Indian, Israeli or African. She was a highly educated astronomer but all the others on this voyage with her agreed she might be the reincarnation of an ancient queen or empress from any of their peoples.

"I'm waiting for a reply, it may take a while," Etan said.

"Ms. Jinnah, it may be a while, you should find Rachael."

"What happened?" Etan asked.

"It's nothing I think I sprained my ankle climbing down from the op of the module. I haven't got my land legs yet," Brittany laughed.

? ? ?

Rachael was below in the med bay, packet of blood in one hand, interested in the movement of a couple of caged rabbits in the cubby before her. She turned over her shoulder as Brittany walked in. "My ankle feels rather sore, Rachael," she said.

Rachael turned full around and looked Brittany up and down, pushed thick brown hair over her shoulder. "You're walking on it. Get out of your suit and have a shower. I can look at it then."

Brittany seemed shy. "You put Lestat and Akasha in the same cage?" she asked. At this Rachael turned around and examined the two rabbits huddled close. "Etan named them while you were asleep," Brittany explained. She took her suit into the adjacent sonic shower with her.

"Why is it you don't use your father's name?" Rachael called.

"Would you if you were a Jewel?" Brittany asked.

Rachael leaned back against the shelves of the alcove and sucked a mouthful of blood from the plastic packet she had been holding. She licked at her lips before answering. "The family has become so internationally famous that it is a handicap in some situations to be known as one of them?"

"Yes, where I come from the Jinnahs have nearly an equal reputation, but I was going to school in Israel when I dropped the name. I did not want to answer questions regarding my father and grandmother."

"They were archaeologists, no?

"Yes," Brittany said as she stepped from the shower. She stood for a moment staring at Rachael, hair down, naked. And then Rachael brought a clean shirt to her. "I have an interest in history, but I believe it is just as valuable to study history on a cosmic scale than a global scale. My father understands this, but so many of his colleges still cling to the old ways of thinking of our world's history and the history of the solar system, perhaps because it has been taught so in the schools for so long," Brittany explained as she dressed. She understood from Rachael's gestures that she should sit. "It's rather ironic that I should travel to another planet to discover Eden after trying not to be associated with my Grandmother and Father's work. It was my grandmother's grandfather who discovered the Eden settlement. They all spent their lives working there, restoring it, trying to explain to the world that there was a slightly sinister side to their ancient religious texts."

"I'm familiar with the power of Religious organizations," Rachael said. "It is not broken," Rachael said, her brows wrinkled, "Have you taken all your supplements?"

"I forget sometimes."

"It is especially important as a woman that you keep up your calcium levels. Everyone has been given a diet specific to their needs."

"I don't like standing out," Brittany mumbled.

Rachael put her hands on Brittany's foot and it seemed to cause a shiver in her patient. "I wondered why you do not use the name when even children of Jewel mothers take the name, it has always been to one's advantage in certain situations."

"It isn't that!" Brittany insisted, "I do not fear your kind..."

Rachael laughed. "Madre de Dios," she swore quietly, "Carlo told you?"

"Yes. No. He mentioned something, but, I'm uncomfortable with male doctors as well."

"I don't take it personally," Rachael said before Brittany could offer her explanation, "I learned ages ago to accept peoples' unease around lesbians and Vampyres."

"My family has never had to fear Vampyres."

"That's what I was wondering about," Rachael said. "Your ankle is sprained I can tape it for you, it should help." Brittany only nodded. Rachael went to retrieve some tape from one of the compartments lining the walls. "Etan uses his name, he's a cousin?"

"Very distant, I believe we have the same Great-great-great-great-grandparents. Our Grandmothers who were not born Jewels were good friends however. Actually I was surprised when I learned who the other team members were. Martin's parents live not very far from my father's house in Tanzania."

"Yes, odd isn't it?"

? ? ?

Six local days it took them to establish a base that housed everything necessary for their yearlong investigation of the planet and preparation for possible future settlement. There were nine modules anchored within 1 kilometer of each other, inside of 30 degrees north of the equator in a region Earthlings had named Eden. It seemed a fitting name for the location of their first settlement. Already their modules were covered in a layer of fine red dust, most of them linked to each other and safely sealed off from the outside environment. Around these modules so many bugs moved about in their tasks, large domed beetles that anchored in one place harvested raw materials for processing them rose up on sturdy legs and slowly walked to a new location, and the burrowing worms that excavated the ground and delivered soil and rocks to the processors or to the modules to be taken in for testing.

Seven modules were devoted to various areas of study while the other three housed people or bugs. Module D had become Carlo's terreforming laboratory, beside it Module E housed their hydroponic garden. Martin had taken over Module F and now they already referred to it as the map room. Module G had become home to a larger communications station, which had powerful antennae, designed to pick up and relay their transmissions when out of range from each other. Module H was a sort of catchall storage and repair area. Buried deeper below Module I was Rachael's.

Their next step was to construct other shelters from materials they could attain on planet. While this went on they would be exploring other areas of the planet. Already Martin had been downloading images from the satellite that had been placed in orbit before their arrival. These were assembled by computer in the map room and translated into a holographic projection of the orb they were on.

Martin came to the mess in Module A obviously disgruntled. It stopped the others there laughing, Brittany, Etan and Carlo, all the civilians. Martin asked what had amused them. "Our distinguished Brazilian friend was commenting on my love locks," Etan said. Martin stepped forward and swatted the two colorful braids that hung from the right side of Etan's head.

"For his boyfriend and girlfriend," Martin said, familiar with the explanation.

"It's not so strange. I'm sure Brittany has painted herself with henna."

"Forgive us, Etan, but it amuses us to see Goths at Olympic games, or at University, or political conferences, old gray-haired men in dark Parisian suits and purple braids in their hair."

Etan shrugged. "Everyone's got their cultural differences."

"Yes, but I only meant that yours seems retro in a way. That Europeans after the last war turned toward their roots in the nomadic tribes for the means to unite them, even when those ancient tribes battled each other," Carlo said.

"And so did peoples in many areas of the world that are now united. That we underwent a cultural change is pretty much beside the point."

"I don't think it is," Carlo said.

"Then just agree to disagree," Brittany said. She silenced Etan and Carlo with the wave of a hand and looked up at Martin. "Was there something wrong?"

"I don't know. I lost the satellite link again."

"Haven't been able to get a complete map yet?" Carlo asked.

"I should be able to, there's just a few parts missing."

"What parts?" Etan asked.

Martin sat down beside Etan on the bench before the narrow table. "So far there are three pieces missing, a large area of the Sinai region, a portion of Hellas Planitia and in the Cydonia area. I'm getting garbage from the satellite."

"Cydonia? Maybe the little green men are trying to hide the Martian monuments from us," Carlo laughed.

"We should go out to Cydonia," Brittany said seriously.

'In any case, I'll have a look at it," Etan said, played with reconstituted mush on his food tray.

"What do you pretend your food is?" Brittany asked Martin who had just reached for a tray.

"I don't know anymore. There is just no spice to this stuff."

"I adored spiced meats and fruit juice for lunch," Brittany said, "I'll have to ask Rachael if she has many herbs in the hydroponics module." As she said this general Xian and Captain Yamashiro came down into the room. Xian in particular had a bad look to him; he found weakness in the civilians' conversations about food. Of them all he was the most driven to complete his mission, did not care to explore things for himself.

"Problems with the satellite link again," Martin repeated for their benefit.

"Just use the old photos," Xian said.

"But the most recent aerial survey has got to be a hundred years old, a fraction of a second geologically speaking but the whole plan was to get a new survey. Suppose there has been volcanic activity or crustal movement since the photos were taken."

"It's not your satellite?" Yamashiro asked Xian.

"I think it's just the link," Martin offered.

"Can you fix it?" Yamashiro asked.

"Etan may."

"It's not a big matter is it? We can survey from the ground if needed."

"We can, Captain," Martin said finally.

? ? ?

Etan moved through the tight passage between modules into the map room. The long low ceilinged room was dimly lit yet aglow with monitors and holographic projectors. Printed maps lay neatly under a reading lamp on Martin's drafting table Yamashiro had constructed of lightweight magnesium board honey-combed in the center which the bugs had manufactured. Xian was at one of the terminals awaiting a printout. "Where's Martin?" Etan asked.

"He's out in the hovercar with Cabral looking for aquifers."

"Those the blacked out map sections?"

"Aren't you scheduled to conference with NS1?"

"I talked to them an hour ago. Your superiors did send a coded message for you. Is it Carlo? Do they send you orders in code because they are afraid Carlo is a spy for his union?"

"It's nothing you need to know about Mr. Goth-Jewel," Xian said flatly. He took up the papers from the printer and left the room.

Etan sat down at the terminal Xian had left and brought up the images from the past satellite passes. After a few minutes it was obvious that the same regions were affected over and over by these problems with the link. Etan thought perhaps there was something about the paths of the two small moons that they had not calculated. Could there be older satellites in aresynchronous orbit they had forgotten about? The space programs of most nations had suffered leading up to and just previous to the last war in Etan's great-grandparents' time. Perhaps Brittany or Kei would know. Even a hundred years ago, America, Russia and Japan had all various projects involving space exploration.

Rachael passed through the module on her way to med bay, wearing her black GI fitted bodysuit. Sometimes Xian wore one of these, though more often he wore a many-pocketed vest over the snug garment. Etan's own indoor clothes were Goth military issue though he was civilian. He wore one of several pairs of many-pocketed pants and a fitted thermal long-sleeved tee, both black with red emblems and banding.

"I'll walk back with you," Etan said.

"As you will," Rachael said without pause in her step.

"Do you know if the USNA had any older satellites in Mars orbit?"

"I would think they would have fallen to the surface by now if they had any."

"That's what I thought but something seems to be interfering with our satellite link."

"Communications down?" Rachael asked as they walked around the leafy rows of vegetation.

"No, it's something effecting the low atmosphere spy satellite we programmed for the aerial surveys."

"Well then how can the link be bad if only one satellite is effected?"

"I can only guess it must be the frequency it uses to transmit, perhaps Martin or Yamashiro know if it can be set to another frequency by remote."

"Ask them, they are just ahead," Rachael said.

"How did you-oh, of course, you sense presences."

"Don't you?"

"Sometimes. I sense you strongly. I can't control it."

"Never learned to tune," Rachael said as they came to Module A. Captain Yamashiro and Martin were just above in the mess.

"Rachael thinks it may be the frequency the satellite transmits at," Etan announced as Rachael climbed up into the higher rooms.

"What would be causing interference on that frequency only part of the time?" Yamashiro asked.

"Perhaps it could be some electromagnetic property of those regions we are not aware of..."

"Mars has virtually no magnetic field," Yamashiro said.

"I know, but what could it be then?"

? ? ?

Etan felt cool wind pass over him, chill him slightly through his clothes. The sun was setting on the horizon, everything the color of blood and of fire. The intense star seemed small, a glowing red eye belonging to the dragon that was born from shards of eggshell every morning and crawled back into the egg, whole again, every night. Etan gazed at the setting sun until the clouds turned from yellow to red and then to night violet.

From somewhere behind his name was called and Etan turned to look over his shoulder. The moment he beheld the figures dancing there he realized: I'm dreaming. He sat up in his bunk, the interior lights were off and their sleep room had no window but he sensed it was still daylight. The other men were in their beds still, Brittany had taken to sleeping above in the med bay, and Rachael usually slept in another module.

Etan felt for his tool bag that hung above him in a pocket of netted fabric. He found his pocket light and switched it on. He made his way to the ladder. Sometimes they all still expected their world to spin noticeably around them, that they could easily pull themselves along the ladders. Now they had to climb.

The mess was empty. In the small chamber above was the outdoor hatch. Etan climbed up again and into the med bay. It was immaculately clean but for a cluttered corner where Brittany slept on a pull out examination table, her plastic binders and computer memory devices and her astronomical drawings.

Rachael was above in the cockpit. Etan sensed that she was without reason. He found her lounging in one of the chairs in her usual bodysuit, something in her hands. It seemed she was gazing out the window. "You had a dream," she said.

"Yes, it felt strange." Etan sat in another of the chairs and studied Rachael.

"You know even with the thin atmosphere and lack of magnetic field surrounding the planet it is not so bad at this distance."

"They probably selected you for the team just to see."

Rachael turned to Etan, "very likely. Did you want to tell your dream to someone?"

"I dreamt I was outside, here on Mars. I felt the wind. And there were people with me. I didn't know them. They seemed strange, not like the sort of aliens you often see in video."

"Martians?" Rachael asked with faint laugh.

"I suppose so," Etan said, the laughter contagious. "What's that you are looking at?"

Rachael lifted the small viewer. "Memories," she said, "Would you like to see some of them?" Etan nodded his desire to look at what old photos Rachael might have thought important enough to make room for on their trip. Rachael clicked through the series of graphic files, explaining some or pausing to answer questions. She touched the screen, "I was mortal once, that was my daughter. I have descendants on Earth."

"This woman looks familiar," Etan said of the pretty laughing blonde woman with arm about Rachael's shoulders.

"You probably saw her picture in schooling but don't recognize her without her uniform. She is the one who made me, and she was the General of the VC troops that we fought alongside in the war."

"This is Angel? She looks so normal, not at all like the photos I have seen. How could a girl that looks like that have stolen the Vatican City from the Catholics or lived through the Battle of Danube Valley?"

"Because she is hundreds of years old and has seen horrors you may not even be able to imagine," Rachael explained patiently, as if to a child.

"Have you pictures from the war?"

Rachael clicked quickly forward through the files until she stopped at a group of uniformed soldiers on a city street. "This was taken when I was a lieutenant, with my Platoon in Paris."

"That's Paris?"

"You have only seen it since the reconstruction. It was horrible what went on in France actually, with the schism and Gaul fighting for Les Etates Liberté against the Union."

"Goths? They must be," Etan said at the next photo.

"Yes, our entire battalion was assigned to France and ordered to escort the Goth as they entered the country. They had the armies of the EL behind them and the Rowan hunting them as well, it was all quite messy, but it was also a good time, for us as soldiers to travel with and fight alongside a very noble group of inspired young people, to protect children. It feels better than just shooting other soldiers across a field or ditch."

"My parents taught me that it is a good thing to kill or die to defend people that you care about but pointless and sad to ever kill or die over land or objects that can be replaced. Many times it is better to not press an argument over one's ideaology."

"Your people do have some good ideas. I remember my time with the Goth fondly, Etan."

"Rachael, do you know why Xian gets coded messages? Is it because of Carlo?"

Rachael laughed. "Carlo poses a threat to no one. It's silly to think so just because his nation is part of another Union. Though I feel slight discomfort knowing of his attraction to me that I do not return I know that he is quite learned in his field. I'm sure the coded messages are just procedure, military stuff. There are things we don't want any of our civilians knowing, eh?"

Etan smiled. "Oh," he said.

? ? ?