Untimely Rivals: Book Six in the Yesterdays War Series by Gerald Hall

Author:Gerald Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-05T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three:

Mars Colony One

Valles Marineris, Mars

November 25, 1975

Activity at the Mars colony was at an all-time high with the recent arrival of three more cargo modules that had been launched by Sea Dragon rockets. The arrival of the Ares interplanetary transport was expected within the next three months, along with another fifty or more colonists.

The Mars colony already had over five hundred personnel there as every Ares mission brought fifty or more new personnel with it. The new modules would have to be quickly unloaded, set upright in new trenches, buried in Martian regolith, connected via flexible passageways and reconfigured as habitat and laboratory space in time for the new arrivals.

Part of the cargo that arrived with the new modules was enough polymer and glass laminate panels to make three new geodesic domes to add to the six domes that had already been set up at the Mars colony. The three new one-hundred ton modules would give the colony a total of forty modules when they are unloaded and set up for living and working space as well.

For everyone who is not immediately involved in essential operations, the arrival of a new cargo module meant an all-hands evolution to work with it. Of course, everyone was also eager to see what new supplies and luxury items had arrived inside each module too.

Three of the colonists, Edgar Holloman, one of the colony’s mechanical engineers; Terri Graci, soil and agronomy expert and Jeanine McEnany, an astronomer and electronics technician, were all working at unloading one of the new modules before it was to be moved to its permanent location.

Terri was operating one of the colony’s battery-powered heavy tractors while the other two were simply working in their standard pressure suits. The normal earth-moving blade had been temporarily removed to make way for forklift attachments on the tractor. That allowed the tractor to be able to lift and carry large cargo containers from the module to where they were needed.

These three colonists were communicating by short-range radio as they worked.

“I wonder what Beatrice is doing? I never see her out here when the modules arrive.” Edgar asked as he prepared another cargo container for movement.

“She’s coordinating the connection of the computer data network with the new modules after they were emplaced in the newly excavated trench.” Terri explained.

“She’s always been very protective of that network and who got access to it. We’ve always had access to a tremendous amount of information that has helped us do our jobs out here. But we’ve always known that there were segments of the computer database that she alone had access to. We’ve all also known that the computer network here is faster than anything we’ve ever had access to on Earth, even counting the corporate computer system for Cavill Industries.” Jeanine added.

“I know that. But I’m not about to argue with her or anyone else about what she does or doesn’t do. We are out here on the cusp of humanity’s boundaries here. Beatrice and the

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