Martin ran through the passage between modules into the garden where Carlo and Rachael were examining some fronds growing from red soil within a glass tank. "It's working!" Martin shouted, "I didn't have to change the frequency after all, I got our missing survey photos."

"That's excellent," Carlo said, "when will you be able to work out the 3D maps?"

"I'll get the computers on it right away. I only have to paste the new sections within the model I've made with the earlier survey."

"I'll be able to draw up plans for terreforming sections of mars more accurately with those maps."

"Can you really make Mars like Earth?" Rachael asked.

Carlo nodded excitedly, "It takes years, but it is possible, theoretically."

"It has something to do with shifting the distribution of elements already present." Martin said.

"Yes, to create water from hydrogen and oxygen present in other compounds and so on."

"Well the soil needs help," Rachael noted, "It's got too many salts in it. We would need a lot of water and fertilizers to grow crops here. It's often a good idea to drive a rusty nail or two into the soil of a potted plant, but the soil here is all rust."

"I think it will be different at deeper layers. I have found small amounts of water ice in some of the samples. And I'm sure the soil varies from region to region, the coloration is so different on maps."

"A volcanic sand might work," Rachael speculated. "I suppose it's all a matter of time and intensive labor."

"I'm sure when we return to Earth they'll send others," Carlo said.

"So long as our findings support your theories," Martin said.

"I'm enthusiastic so far," Carlo smiled.

? ? ?

Martin, Carlo and Captain Yamashiro had left nearly an hour ago for the first test of their equipment over extended duration. The group had checked out the gear thoroughly and were confidant that nothing would go wrong, but this was the first time any of them would have their lives depending on this equipment. If they were to successfully explore the planet to evaluate its use to future settlement they would be making more of these trips away from the base. Sending three of the team out with Rover, portable shelters, and somewhat limited supply of food, shelter, and air was not easy. This was unlike their trials in the Indian desert or Antarctica. It was like that first launch into space.

Martin, Carlo and the Captain would be traveling roughly north into the region named Cydonia, taking various readings as they went. They would travel by day, despite the more intense radiation, and take to their portable shelter at night, when the deadly cold became all the more unbearable on person and machine.

Remaining at the base Etan, Brittany, Rachael, and Xian monitored their communications as their teammates were just approaching the range of direct communications. Etan looked over the control board before him. He leaned forward just slightly, "Estimate you'll reach end of personal communicator range in one minute."

The answer came back, already ghostly and broken, "haven't run into any problems yet."

Etan read the displays before him knowing that already they were receiving the radio signal via their communications satellite and that remaining in contact was only a matter of switching over the speakers to that channel. As their signal began to register as a weak signal on his display Etan hit the button before him that sent the output from the receiver connected to the satellite feed to the speakers so that all could here.

"We read you loud and clear," Etan said.

"Confirmed, we can hear you much more clearly now," Captain Yamashiro reported.

"Check in at every three hours," Xian said loudly.

"We will report in three hours from now or if there is any problem."

? ? ?

It was getting close to dusk. Yamashiro ordered a halt for the day and asked Carlo to radio in a report. Martin briefly surveyed the land about them then went about erecting the portable shelter. They had considered enclosed vehicles but these would not be of much use when exploration was done on foot or when steep climbing had been involved. Each shelter could support two people overnight, or for about ten hours, consisting of a lightweight rigid framework covered in layers of airtight and insulating materials and a specialized pump. When activated the pump, which stored atmospheric gases in liquid state heated these elements to a gaseous state and inflated the shelter. Overnight and during the next day the pump was left to suck in air through its turbines and separate the gasses which would be condensed into their liquid form. If needed external tanks of air could be attached to the shelter to maintain a longer supply.

It was a harsh environment; these explorations were not easy. They had to take several bugs along to carry gear, two large metal-limbed mantises that rolled behind them on wide treads and some smaller ants. Yamashiro shut down the bugs close to the rover and anchored the lot of machines to the ground with a tarp fitted over them. The winds could get fierce.

Martin and Carlo would share a shelter; Captain Yamashiro would sleep the night in another. He had one ant with him fitted with small directional antenna and radio receiver so that any messages from base would be picked up. All three men passed through the tiny airlocks into the white interiors of the portable shelters not yet soiled with red dust.

They would sleep in the suits. If for some reason the seals did come open they would have only moments to secure their helmets. "I wish that I could live to see a planet terraformed, to walk the surface of a planet other than earth without mask or special suit," Carlo said. Martin did not answer, he was busy with his prayers directed in whatever direction earth, and Mecca, might be.

? ? ?

"They're almost-" Etan was woken from stuporous sleep at his main communications console. He blinked quickly, checked the monitor pinned to his sleeve, there was sufficient oxygen in the air. Etan lifted the headset from his neck.

"Captain Yamashiro? Mars Base One to Away Team"

Moments passed. Etan stopped one recorder and switched on another, all communications were recorded. He set the recorder to playback the last minute of radio signals. It came again, usual background noise and then: "They're almost-" Yes, maybe it was They're.

"Mars Base, this is Dumont-Cabral, we have just reached the Nix Cydonia, can you pick up our camera's signal? A chain of low mountains just to the west."

Etan turned in his swivel chair to glimpse the bank of monitor that displayed camera feeds. He did see the reddish-yellow mountains at the left of the screen. "We've got the camera feed," Etan said returning to the microphone. "Did you send a message about two and a half minutes ago?"

"No, only after we got your call, we were not scheduled to check in for another hour. Is there a problem?"

"Nein, Negative. Report again when you have more. MB1 out."

Etan looked again to the bank of monitors. He had three from the away team. Brittany was not in her suit. Rachael's camera showed her to be making her way back to the living quarters from outside. General Xian was still outside, grappling with a bug with treads bent and sparking against rock.

Etan stood up from his chair then stretched his limbs. Etan tried the com device on his sleeve, "Brittany?"

"Brittany here, what do you want, Etan?"

"We're getting pictures in from Cydonia, can you come over to the com mod?"

Two seconds later Brittany opened the airtight door and entered the module. "On the monitors?" she asked already on her way. Etan followed to the monitor bank. "How have they been doing?"

"They woke this evening already at the near end of the Nix Cydonia, they are moving North now."

"Get me a headset so I can talk to them," Brittany demanded. Etan returned to his main console and took up a headset. Their personal communicators were tuned to a different frequency meant for local communications. With the headset they could speak to the away team while moving freely about the base.

Brittany fitted the headset over her hair, recently in many small plaits that Etan had braided for her. Speaking in Cultural generality all Goths knew how to braid and weave hair from an early age. She spoke into the mic while leaning in toward Martin's monitor. "This is Mars Base One, do you hear me?"

Broadcast laughter and then, "Good night, Brittany, working late again?" Martin asked.

"We're only just finishing our chores for the day, only have eight hands to work with. Seen anything anomalous?"

"Yeah, three stone pyramids and a giant carved humanoid head on a lion's body," Martin laughed.

Brittany swatted at Etan as he giggled behind her. "That's funny, Martin, did I tell you I just discovered three aquifers and a canal with distinct signs of water erosion?"

The monitor showed that the group was stopping. It was Carlo who spoke to them now. "We've reached an area with less cratering, we are at approximately 40 degrees latitude and as near as I can tell, ten degrees longitude. We will be stopping here to do another run of tests."

"Let us know when you've set up," Etan said, "We will be on standby." He flicked his headset to his neck. "I came across something odd just before I spoke to them last, I'd like you to hear it."

"What is it?"

Etan was already taking his seat before his console. "I recorded something anomalous."

"Sure."

"Really, listen." Brittany moved her headset down from her ears and came to Etan's side as he set the disc player to playback the recording again.

"They're almost here?" Brittany asked.

"How do you get that?" Etan asked.

"Play it back again, just do it."

Etan played the recording again. Just two words then it broke off.

"There!" Brittany said.

"There was no other sound."

"Etan, I speak five languages most of which you do not and that was a breathing pause, or maybe the sound of an H being dropped."

"And I suppose you just intuited the rest? Even if you can hear a non-H that I can't they could have been saying Hellaspontian for all we know!"

"It isn't one of us..."

"I realized that."

"Did you tell Xian?" Brittany asked.

"No, just you."

"Then there is someone else here."

Etan shook his head. "You intuit that too? It could be a signal from Earth. Radio signals are effected by the atmospheric change at sunset. It could be that the frequency shifted slightly."

"Let's get Rachael in here. After she hears it you can try various filters on the recording, maybe find out more."

Etan nodded. He did not have to activate his com link. Rachael knew when she was wanted, especially when Etan called.

"The guys are calling," Etan said noticing the indicator on his console. Brittany moved toward the monitors and fixed the position of her headset.

"I read you, Captain Yamashiro," Brittany said.

"Martin has set up his equipment for a sonic picture of the ground under us, thought you would want to watch."

"Thank You." Brittany noticed Rachael come into the module from the corner of her eye, perhaps had felt her presence. Martin's monitor showed a small monitor among his equipment. He was explaining that Captain Yamashiro would activate the machine that would send a vibration through the ground and sensors Martin had placed in the ground would read the vibrations that came through the ground to those areas. Then the computer would translate the data into a sonic photo of the ground, showing areas of varying density or hollow chambers.

"Here it comes," Martin said just as across the room Rachael spoke:

"I do not know the origin of this signal but solely by hearing it I agree that it ends in the word here-my sense of hearing is more keen than yours-and I believe this is a female speaking. I would say a female showing stress in her voice."

Brittany was eager to speak to Rachael but her eyes were draw to the monitor as Martin said, "I think we've found a Raptor."

"What?" Brittany spoke as two more monitors before her showed the gray tone image on the small monitor, a small rounded space with something like lines registering as a lighter color."

"Forgive me, I've used this same equipment in my geological consulting with paleontologists. It definitely appears there is a skeleton not far below at the foot of this mountain."

"Dig it up!" Brittany ordered.

She definitely sensed Rachael's gaze. Rachael picked up a headset. "Captain Yamashiro, you and the civilian men will excavate the area and anything strange you will bring directly to me, you will not travel any further in that area but come straight here. I alone will be responsible for informing Xian. Is that understood?"

"Yes, General, you can expect us back in two days."

Rachael stood still, Etan and Brittany staring expectantly at her. Both of these two she trusted for her own reasons. "Listen to me both of you, I sense that it may be something strange Martin has discovered, until we can be certain what it is do not speak a word of this to Xian. You must trust me. Do not tell any of the others about this recording either. Etan, I want you to do all you can to determine where it did originate from."

"What is it?" Brittany asked.

"It could all be nothing. But in any case I want you to report only to me. Being civilians you should not have a problem with forgoing a step in the chain of command, I do outrank General Xian by a star." Rachael ended this command in friendly tone, winked playfully to put these two at ease. They would rather speak to her that to Xian anyway, had consulted her on their own.

? ? ?

Xian came down into the mess carrying his helmet, more red dust covering his suit. Rachael and Brittany were there, Rachael hanging some hydroponicly grown herbs from the ceiling to dry. "Sir, I could have used your help with the bugs," he said.

"I was hungry, General," Rachael replied, "So I came in. I trust you managed."

"Yes, Sir I did." Xian went to the compartments where food stores were kept, looked over the supply.

"There are some steamed vegetables from Rachael's garden prepared there," Brittany offered.

Xian examined the contents of the food container Brittany had labeled. "Working late Ms. Jinnah?"

"I was in the com mod with Mr. Goth Jewel. Rachael will be able to update you. I think I will go get some rest now." Brittany left the room quietly.

"We have news from the team?" Xian asked.

"Yes. They are returning; their tests have been completed. We have some more video, Etan can get you recordings of their data if you are interested."

Xian shook his head: no.

"Will you be turning in soon?"

"Yes, Sir...if you would assist me in locating the proper ointment...my fingers..."

"Xian, they are frostbitten." Rachael quickly leaned across the table and took up one of his hands, so quickly that Xian betrayed shock in his expression. "You will heal, but for now I will have to restrict you to indoor duty. It is most likely working with the metal bugs after sunset that did it, perhaps even a slight hole in your gloves. I'll test your suit tomorrow."

"Very well." Xian said nothing else but returned to his meal.

Rachael went up two levels to the med bay for an ointment and some bandage. She returned shortly to the mess to leave these with Xian. "I trust you remember how to wrap a wound, general?"

"I will make do."

Rachael smiled. "Then I will get some rest myself."

? ? ?

The mantises had excavated the topmost layers with their strong metal claws and now the two large bugs warmed the remaining layers of soil with hot air jets as the ants, Captain Yamashiro and Martin dug. Slowly the first shards of bone were uncovered. Then Yamashiro paused. "Wait," he commanded. "Mantis 4, direct jets thirty degrees forward. Mantis 7, direct jets thirty degrees backward."

"What is it?" Martin asked.

"Look, this is definitely a corpse of some kind, it is only partially decayed, perhaps mummified by this environment. This material here, it is not like the surrounding soil, it is dried flesh."

Martin drew a hand back reflexively but soon went back to digging. "The cold and salt earth...lack of outside microbes."

"The jets might disturb its state," Yamashiro said.

"Yes," Martin agreed. They went back to digging, careful to remove the soil from the corpse. Carlo brought a tarp to the side of their excavation so they might place the corpse in it. After several hours work they had what they thought was an entire corpse free. Yamashiro looked over it.

"There is no head."

"There's no time to search the entire area, it doesn't seem to be anywhere at this site," Martin said.

"How do you suppose it got here?" Carlo asked.

Captain Yamashiro looked at one man and then the other. "I think the Americans sent people here quite some time ago. Several centuries ago there was talk of it, but a manned mission was never completed."

"America retained a technological advantage during the Back Ages," Carlo said.

"Yes, just prior to the last war one could not even get an air flight out of some parts of Africa and Europe," Martin said.

"Our Union was in turmoil as well," Carlo said.

"Finding this evidence leads me to believe that any signs of civilization or life here will not be indigenous but something left from a past American Mars mission."

"Do you think something went wrong...that others died like this person here? And that is why we did not know of any mission here?" Carlo asked.

"Of course if the Americans successfully sent a manned mission to Mars and the crew returned to Earth they would have announced this to the entire world. Can you imagine them keeping such a secret when they'd earned bragging rights?"

"You think that Xian and Rachael know then?" Martin asked.

"I'm not sure. I fully intend to do as Rachael ordered and return to base with what we have found."

"I have questions, but we have spent a lot of time with the others, I think it's best we continue to work as a team," Carlo said.

"I won't protest," Martin said, looking down at the mummified partial remains of the very human shaped corpse. "So far I have no reason to distrust anyone."

? ? ?

Rachael climbed up from her personal module already clothed in her outdoor suit and into the workroom. She went about collecting the tools she would need into a pouch then strapped that about her hips. She passed through the doors into the communications module where Etan was again sleeping at his console. Carefully Rachael went to him and shook him awake.

"Guten Nacht, Etan!" she sang.

"Y Buenos Noches para tu," Etan said sleepily.

"The accent is horrible," Rachael said, "did you get much sleep?" Etan's only response was a shake of his head. "I will be waking Brittany to go out and work on the new buildings. Did you make progress with the recording?"

"Came from Cydonia as near as I can tell, was intercepted during slight frequency shift at sunset. Tried tuning in close frequencies but didn't hear anything interesting. No identifiable background noises, slight echo."

"All right. Secure your gear so no one else can access audio or video except the usual frequencies the locals are on and the one NS1 uses. You go down into my mod and sleep there, don't let the rabbits disturb you...Xian will be inside today; he's recovering from a slight case of frostbite. I think he's been up to something in the map room but I was too tired to bother with him."

"I'm sorry, I didn't even know he was in there-"

"You probably couldn't have helped. I just find it odd, or perhaps of interest that he's been looking at maps. Martin took everything on Cydonia with him."

"But, Rachael, if they did find something in Cydonia as we think they did then perhaps there are other things in Sinai and Hellas, all three areas were undetectable from out satellite for a number of days without explanation. It could very well be connected."

"I had not put the two together...wouldn't Martin have told us if the maps he got showed anything odd?"

"All I'm saying is that if I were Xian I'd want to follow up on that whole unexplained satellite problem by checking out the maps."

"I'll check into it myself. You go down and sleep. I'll call when we come in," Rachael ordered.

? ? ?

The cylindrical figure of the module housing still their living quarters was something of a landmark for the team of Earthling explorers. Beside it the humps of partially buried modules stood in line and turning about one could just make out the two horizontal cylinders that stabled the bugs. Certain craters were becoming familiar and outcroppings of rocks. Now construction had begun on another building.

Rachael and Brittany made their way to the construction site on foot. Brittany brought up a virtual control panel before her and with series of gestures activated buttons switches or slides projected in the air before her so that a number of bugs woke from standby mode to crawl or roll to the site of the new building.

It was part of their assigned mission to experiment with building techniques. They came to the site, already marked by a framework of magnesium girders and sections of wire. This building when complete would be shielded from the outside environment by thick rounded concrete walls and small round windows of tinted glass. The front entry would be an airlock, the home or factory within pressurized.

Today they would spray concrete over the metal framework to form the building's structure. Previously Martin had experimented with small batches of concrete to find a mix that had the desired strength but would cure properly. Rachael and Brittany both hoped this would work. The sameness of the modules could get to one's sanity after a while. If this building went up well they could construct more.

Being able to construct safe sturdy buildings from Martian materials meant the small team and future settlers would have a chance at a lifestyle slightly more like that they were accustomed to on Earth. Brittany and Martin had both suggested the building of a mosque. Rachael longed for a house of her own, a greater measure of privacy more distant from the only large warm bodies on the planet with her.

? ? ?

She'd been breeding and eating rabbits. Well, not eating them, she had been draining their blood then skinning and gutting them and finally stringing them up in an enclosed section of this module where a low fire constantly smoked. Now Etan was sitting on the cot Rachael had constructed from pieces from one of the saucers and cushioned with fabric from the chutes that had slowed the saucer's decent. He stared at the rabbit skins stretched on wire frames.

"Don't mind the rabbits," she had said. Etan had to wonder just why Rachael had been sent along. Surely her superiors within the military knew her enhanced strength and regenerative abilities would enable her to retain her power in the lower gravity. But Rachael was living on small amounts of Rabbits blood, even they didn't breed fast enough.

And that was why that paper had been put before Etan to sign back on Nihon Station One. Etan was not purely Homo Sapiens either, he was 1/8 Angel. There were many people like him on Earth now and draining their blood was not enough to kill them. Etan's grandfather was fully half and did not age. Strange that, of all the Part-Angels, they had chosen him to make the voyage; Etan's family, the Jewels, had a pact with persons such as Rachael going back centuries, they did not harm each other.

? ? ?

Brittany stood monitoring the bugs that sprayed the concrete onto the wire frames and the temperature of the mixture. Rachael was occupied with a mantis, poised on its back working with exposed wiring from its body. She was having a hard time, taking direction from the main computer via the link in her suit. Brittany could see the glimmer of text projected into the air, but could not read it from where she stood.

A movement caught Brittany's eye. The hovercar was rolling from the garage on its underwheels. "Rache," she called. Brittany turned toward the distant garage and bug stable. Someone was driving the hovercar out. It seemed heavily loaded. And then one of the spiders jumped from the stable and joined the car. "Rachael, who's taking out the hovercar?"

Rachael looked up from her work, turned. "Cuerpo y sangre!"

"Is it Etan?"

"Xian."

Brittany watched as the hovercar rose from the ground then sped away, kicking up an ominous amount of dust into the air. And then the spider skittered after it.

"Xian's taken off!" Rachael said.

"Should we go after him? We could take the last rover, or try riding a spider."

"No, Brittany. Let him go. There's no way he can get off the planet. We'll find him eventually if he does not return."

"You don't think he is returning?" Brittany asked.

"I know he's not." For a moment Rachael was silent. "I'll stay out here a while longer until we reach a point where we can stop the bugs for the day. You go in and wake Etan, see if anything is missing."

"Rachael, tell me what's going on! I can tell you know something."

Rachael frowned behind her tinted visor. Brittany was perceptive, because she was a woman or maybe because all the Jewel family was unusually gifted. "Later, Brittany, go inside."

? ? ?

Etan heard Brittany over his comlink, got up from the cot. He thought it best Brittany not become familiar with Rachael's module. Etan climbed up the ladder and into the workroom just as Brittany reached the door opposite him. "I did not think Rachael wanted anyone down there."

"She told me to go in," Etan said, "What's up?"

"Xian's taken off, Rachael will be in soon. Help me check if anything's missing then we can check in with the away team and check Martin's maps."

"I have a hunch Xian's headed toward Sinai or Hellas," Etan said. He yawned, stretched, then looked about the workroom. "There's a portable shelter missing. That leaves us with just one left here."

"He took our hovercar and a spider."

"Verdammt Xian! The hovercar and a shelter."

Etan noticed a few more tool missing. "We better check out the food stores."

"I did, I'd say at least a month's supply is gone."

"One month for all of us?"

"Yes, I think so, a considerable amount, of course if he doesn't come back it may even out, he can live off that six months, longer if he rations it, and with only five of us left eating the remainder will last longer. We do have the garden."

They moved quietly into the next module where the communications systems were in a locked down mode, just as Etan had left them. He powered up the rest of the equipment and put a headset on. The monitor bank was just flickering to life. "Look at that dust cloud!" Brittany breathed as Etan called to the away team.

Captain Yamashiro answered, "We were afraid you'd never respond, there's a terrible sandstorm coming from the East, we're going to try driving the rest of the trip non-stop. It's hard to judge how far the storm is right now, if we try to wait it out we could be buried."

"Do your best, I'll try to devise a back up plan from here. Sorry about the communications delay, we have a situation here. Xian has taken off without a word to the rest of us, he's taken the hovercar, a shelter, and some of our food."

"Xian's gone?" Yamashiro asked.

"Took off while the rest of us were busy, Rachael suspects he's been up to something in the map room. Do your best to get back, we can all talk then."

"Yamashiro out."

Brittany came slowly to Etan's side. "There is definitely something going on we need to know about," she said.

"We're not alone on the planet and Xian knew it all along."