Yesterda's War 8 - Untimely Warriors, page 38
An electronic beacon had already been placed precisely where each craft was designated to land. The four extended landing legs of the slowly descending craft gently touched down on the Martian surface under the power of a handful of rocket motors.
After the dust settled around each craft full of personnel and supplies, a six-wheeled ground vehicle would drive up. At the same time, a cargo door on the side of the landing module would open up. A lightweight crane and platform would be extended out from the cargo door in preparation for the passengers and crew to ride down to the surface.
After all of the passengers and personal cargo were unloaded, then the rest of the cargo and other materiel for the colony would be unloaded. After unloading, most of the landing modules would be tilted over onto their sides into shallow excavated pits to be converted into new pressurized habitats. Those habitats would be connected to the rest of the colony, and then covered with Martian regolith to protect them from radiation.
After the last of the eight landing modules had safely touched down, Beatrice stood up and said.
“I’m going down to meet the new arrivals. You’re in charge up here, Rodney.”
“I got it, Ma’am.” Rodney replied as he began looking down at the manifest data file that had just been transmitted down from Endeavour. Shortly after Beatrice left the command center, Rodney noticed, with a sense of curiosity, a couple of passengers whose names appeared to be rather familiar.
Beatrice was standing there at the passageway in front of the main airlock, greeting people as they came in. A group of four people were walking up together, excitedly talking with each other. Beatrice paused for a moment because two of them appeared to be very familiar to her.
One of the newcomers, a handsome young man with reddish-blonde hair who appeared to be in his mid-twenties looked up at Beatrice and smiled broadly before speaking to her.
“Hi, Mum.” Peter said as he and his twin sister Mary walked up, still in their pressure suits, but each with their helmets tucked under one arm and their gloves sitting inside of their helmets.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you two were coming to Mars?” A shocked Beatrice exclaimed as she quickly walked up and embraced both of her children, tears filling her eyes.
“We wanted it to be a surprise. Plus, we were afraid that you would order us to stay on Earth.” Mary explained.
“You’re probably right. But now that you are here, I am so very happy. There’s just not that bloody many people around here that are your age.” Beatrice replied while wiping tears from her face after taking a step back.
“No worries. We didn’t come by ourselves, Mum.” A smiling Peter said as the other two people walked up from behind Beatrice’s children. One was an Asian man in his late twenties. The other was a tall stocky young woman who appeared to be a native of the South Pacific. She was carrying what appeared to be an oversized hard-sided briefcase.
“Hiro Masukawa is my fiancé. He’s originally from Osaka, Japan, and has a Master’s Degree in Biology and Agricultural Sciences.” Mary explained as she held Hiro’s hand and showed off her engagement ring.
“This is Roberta Sawyer, though everyone calls her Bobbie. Her father was Aborigine but her mother was a Pacific Islander from Western Samoa. She may only have a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, but she is also a pilot and an absolute whiz with tools.” James said as he put his arm around the attractive brown-skinned woman who equaled him in height.
“Are you two engaged as well?” Beatrice asked.
“Well, no. We actually got married just before we left Earth, Mum.” Peter replied just before he turned and gave Bobbie a kiss.
“It looks like the two of you are full of surprises, aren’t you?” Beatrice replied.
“Well, Ma’am. Peter here was a very convincing bloke. I still think that I was the lucky one though. Your son here is quite remarkable.”
“I gather that you met Hiro while working at one of our family businesses, Mary. But how did you find such an impressive woman, Peter? I thought that your tastes ran more towards blondes.”
“Well, I was working with the Militia when I met Bobbie after she was flying one of our Archer helicopter gunships. As you said yourself, she is quite impressive. I easily saw that while she was in the air and on the ground as well, Mum.”
“I’m sure that both Hiro and Bobbie will be welcome additions here. But what is most important to me is that both of my children are happy.”
“Yes, we certainly are. Unfortunately, we had to leave our canine companions behind. You would have loved them too.
But how have you been doing, Mum? The only memories that we have had of you have been the video chats that we have had over the past few years.”
“I suppose that I am doing alright considering that I have been living here on Mars for more than two decades now. You could say that I am a living scientific experiment on long-term living on another world.” Beatrice replied, trying hard to hide her failing health from her children still.
“Well, Mum. We are planning on staying here for a long time ourselves. So hopefully you will be able to give us a few pointers on life here after your years of experience.”
“I will certainly try.” Beatrice replied with a smile.
“Mum, we also brought a great many items that will help operations here in addition to the new personnel and the modules themselves.
To start with, we brought another fifty kilowatts of additional solar panels. This will supplement the three new nuclear batteries to generate more power for the colony. There are also three thousand kilograms of the latest in lithium-ion battery storage technology in one of the modules.
In addition to all of this, we have over nine hundred tons of other supplies including clothing, computers, tools, metal stock, computer-controlled milling machines, a wide variety of foodstuffs, and a wide variety of other items that Aunt Judith and the others thought that would be needed here.” Mary explained.
“What’s in the big case there, Bobbie?” Beatrice asked.
“Oh, that’s something that your brother James asked for me to give to you, Ma’am. Since you are getting a lot of new computer equipment here, he wanted to send you the latest computer software to go along with it.
I understand that there is a new generation of computer operating system along with something that he referred to as ‘Expert AI’ to help your computers manage all of the colony’s systems.”
Bobbie put the large plastic case up on a nearby shelf and opened it up. Inside of its heavily padded interior were four large data storage devices.”
“Uncle James said that all that you needed to do was to plug these new data drives into one of the new computers. The software would decompress and install itself automatically.” Peter said as he picked up one of the big data storage devices.
“It all sounds very interesting, Peter. I bet that you all would like to get settled into your quarters. I imagine that all of you slept through the majority of your journey here. But I know that you are glad to be in gravity, even if it is a mite less than what you have been accustomed to on Earth.” Beatrice remarked.
“Yes, we’d love to, Mum. Once that is done, perhaps we can all have a meal together with some of the food that we brought. I heard the people here say that the foodstuffs would be offloaded right after all of the new colonists had left the landing modules.” Mary excitedly replied.
“That actually sounds like a grand idea. It has been quite a while since I had any food that either didn’t come out of a storage container or wasn’t grown in our aquaponic garden. After a while, that does get a bit old, I’m afraid.” Beatrice answered back with a sense of excitement that she hadn’t felt in quite a long time.
Cast of Characters:
The Cavill Family:
Harold Cavill: Originally James Stevenson from the year 2040
Judith Cavill-Singer: Harold and Dorothy Cavill’s oldest daughter
James Cavill: Harold and Dorothy Cavill’s son
Sarah Cavill (Court): Harold and Dorothy’s daughter, Beatrice’s twin
Beatrice Cavill (Kenniman): Harold and Dorothy’s daughter
Joseph Singer: Judith Cavill’s husband
Peter Kenniman: Beatrice’s son
Mary Kenniman: Beatrice’s daughter
Benjamin Cavill: James Cavill’s son
Carolyn Singer: Judith and Joseph’s daughter
Beverly Singer: Judith and Joseph’s daughter
Patrick Kelly: Cavill Ordnance Director of Research and Development
Miriam Cross: Cavill Aerospace engineer and wife of James Cavill.
Benjamin Cavill: James Cavill’s son
Alan Court: Sarah and Grant Court’s son
Kimberly Court: Sarah and Grant Court’s daughter
Alison Cavill: James Cavill’s daughter
Hiro Masukawa: Mary Kinniman’s fiancé
Roberta Sawyer: Peter Kinniman’s wife.
The Australians:
Kurt Walker: Judith Cavill-Singer’s Executive Assistant
Stephen Anderson: Australian Deputy Defense Secretary
Edward Carlton: Cavill Aerospace Engineering Manager
Orin Jackson: Cavill Industries Lead Engineering Manager
Thomas Spenser: Australian Defense Secretary
Arthur Willis: Captain of the Cavill Shipping Lines ship Cormorant
Marianne Nichols: Cormorant’s First Officer
Commander Lewis Arthur: Captain of the Bandfish-N submarine Tigershark
Lieutenant Commander Erik Falkner: Tigershark’s Executive Officer
Rick Shannon: Tigershark’s Sonar Technician
Admiral Peter Clarke: Chief of the Australian Defense Force
Douglas McFall: Supervisor of Cavill Industries Maritime Paramilitary Operations
Major Corrine Wells: Australian Military liaison to the Derby Militia
Colonel Paul Andersen: Commander of the Derby Militia
David: Member of Derby Militia
Bryan: Member of Derby Militia
Lieutenant Ronda Taylor: Cormorant’s navigator
Liam Conroy: Cormorant’s Second Officer
Colombo Jackson: Tigershark’s Communications Technician
Captain Todd Carswell: Commander of Darwin Naval Base
Captain Archibald Conway: Cavill Militia Scout commander
Captain Johnny Taylor: Cavill Militia Armor commander
Lieutenant Corbin Towers: Cormorant commando leader
Staff Sergeant Robert Riley: Cormorant commando
Sergeant Milton Parsons: Cormorant commando
Corporal Earl Orinson: Cormorant commando
Corporal Patrick Fitzsimmons: Cormorant commando
Major David Myer: Commander, 1st Derby Militia Combat Team
Julia Frost: Captain of the Cavill Shipping Lines ship Heron
Lisa Andrews: Cormorant’s Weapons Officer
Rear Admiral Patrick Hornsworth: Commander of naval forces at Darwin
Martian Colonists:
Rodney Evans: Electrical Engineer at the Mars Colony
The British:
Alan Falk: Defense Minister
Madeline Cook: Defense Minister’s secretary
Selena Collingwood: MI-6 Intelligence Analyst
Colonel Alan Clarkson: Commander of the Royal Hussar’s 1st Combined Arms Combat Team
Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Day: Commander of 1st Combined Arms Combat Team’s Armored Battalion
Major Nigel Carson: Royal Artillery Corps officer.
Wing Commander Erol Cardingham: FB-80 pilot
Flight Lieutenant Michael Tobin: FB-80 weapons officer
Squadron Leader Charles Lindon: FB-80 pilot
Elizabeth Hawking: Prime Minister
The Germans:
Admiral Frederick Canaris: Commander of the Deutsch Marine
Werner Ostmann: Admiral Canaris’ friend
The Indonesians:
President Safwan Munaf
Elang Akol: President Munaf’s chief political advisor
Jabar Wijaya: Indonesian Minister of Defense
The Americans:
Darren Everett: Journalist and CIA undercover operative
Claudia: CIA employee at Bronx covert office
Denise Nelson: Associate director of the Space Launch Center at Cape Canaveral
Clark Wayne: NASA Director
Edgar Calvin: CIA Analyst
Kaitlyn Norwood: CIA Analyst
Captain Erik Matthews: Commander of the Aircraft Carrier, USS United States
Commander Jeremy Matthews: Commander of USS United States’ Air Group
The Cabal: Identities Unknown.
The Argentinians:
Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Aguirre: 15th Infantry Battalion Commander
General Hector Perez: Commander of the Argentine Army
Almirante Mauricio Ricardo: Commander of the Argentine Navy
Capitaine Terrance Morro: Captain of the Aircraft Carrier ARA La Argentina
Comodoro Vincente Rudolfo: Commander of the 6th Air Brigade
Brigadier Javier Menem: Deputy Commander of the Argentine Air Force (FAA)
Angelo Gutierrez: President of Argentina
Matias Arroyo: President of Argentina
Sofia Diaz: Argentine Minister of State
Generale Fidel Morone: Commander of the FAA
Gerald Hall, Yesterda's War 8 - Untimely Warriors
