Analog SFF, November 2009 by Dell Magazine Authors

Author:Dell Magazine Authors
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Dell Magazines
Published: 2010-12-15T07:07:37.404000+00:00

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Short Story: FOREIGN EXCHANGE

by Jerry Oltion

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Illustration by John Allemand

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Plan ahead can only take you so far....

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The return vehicle touched down in a swirl of red dust. The engine continued to burn until the sensors in all three footpads reported contact, then it throttled down and let the entire weight of the craft settle onto the Martian surface.

A few minutes later the protective shroud split open from nose to waist, four solar panels tilted out like flower petals, and a pump began pulling air through a chemical fractionating unit. Inside, catalysts stripped the oxygen from atmospheric CO2, and further pumps liquefied it and stored it in fuel tanks alongside the already-filled liquid hydrogen tanks. It was a long, slow process, restricted by the low wattage available in Martian sunlight, but it was steady. Molecule by molecule the tanks would fill, and by the time the manned landing party arrived they would have a fully fueled return vehicle waiting for them.

Mission controllers on Earth directed the nose camera to swivel around for a full panorama, mapping the rocky floodplain at the mouth of the Valles Marineris so the astronauts could study their base camp site before they arrived. There were no facilities for soil samples or life-detection tests; that would be the explorers’ job.

Off in the distance—a distance everyone hoped was far enough to keep the astronauts’ ride home safe from danger—they could see the fresh scar of the recent outflow event that had made them choose this landing site. Water had flowed out of the canyon wall and carved a gully just last year. “Follow the water” had been the dictum of Martian exploration since the 1990s, and this was about as close as you could get to a sure thing.

The return vehicle kept making fuel. NASA, perpetually strapped for money and downlink time, switched off the camera and reduced the polling interval of the vehicle's status to once every two weeks. They left it alone to do its job while the second spacecraft was assembled and tested in Earth orbit, and after six months, when the return vehicle reported that its tanks were full, humanity's first manned expedition to Mars set out on its historic journey.

There were only two astronauts. The ship couldn't carry enough supplies for more. Some people doubted that even two people could survive the trip, but Melissa Nelson and Will Randall were willing to risk it. They had faith in the engineering and faith in themselves and faith in each other. There were hundreds of unknown factors that could complicate the mission, but facing the unknown was what exploration was all about.

The trouble with the unknown is that you can plan ahead all you want, but you can't plan for everything. Melissa and Will were only halfway to Mars when the return vehicle launched itself from the surface and headed for Earth.

They cursed like sailors from a previous century when they heard the news, even though they were on an open mic.

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