You'll be spending the next six months in isolation in the Mars Base 2, along with seven other scientists. You are here to study the ancient Martian cave drawings and carvings in the underground cities you've been tasked with exploring.
This base is the first permanent livable base on the planet, weighing in at nearly two million cubic meters of living space, five square kilometers of solar panels, and it is half a kilometer deep into the surface. This is the first location to be inhabited by humans, but it is not the last. Building has begun on the nearby base which will house fifty scientists.
The six months you'll be here on Mars is divided into four three month long exploration/colony construction periods, each with a days off in between. These days-off are your time to explore the base, talk with Ernest and other base personnel, or just to relax.
The supplies and equipment you brought with you in your personal craft have been transported to storage, along with your personal belongings. You are wearing your specially constructed spacesuit, carrying only a tokkie with you. It is made of a unique crystal that can regenerate itself into new tokkies when certain bacteria and other organisms break it down. This is significantly lighter than your old Earth clothes, and they take up a fraction of the space.
If you want to go exploring, you could start by checking out the central common room which is where you will often find most of the base personnel and where the base's computer interface is located. The dining room is connected to it, along with the kitchen and central storage. The space is open and roomy, and if you feel like it, you could put on some music and dance.
There are 15 sleeping rooms to your left, and the hallway leads to the gym and bedrooms. Beyond that is the greenhouse and whatever else the base personnel have built in the six months since construction began. I'm sure you'll see it all soon enough. For now, though, I will leave you to explore on your own. Talk to Brandon about anything you might need to know, and with everyone in general about how the base has changed over the last six months. This base has only been lived in for about a month, so it will most likely be much different than what you remember. You can call me anytime.
"Hello. My name is Ernest Deadman. I'm the leader of the Mars Base 2. Feel free to explore however you want, but if you have any questions, speak loudly and clearly in the general direction of the nearest computer terminal, or simply ask me. It'll talk to me. I'll try and answer your questions in the way you want, but sometimes it takes a minute to think of real answers and understand your questions.
Of course, you won't really be able to answer anything. You will speak in a computer-generated voice. I can explain how that works, if you want. The computer recognizes your voice and speaks back to you. It's not like magic because it's a machine that can understand most language, and it has also been programmed to respond accordingly."
"Is this communication able to translate complex language?" we asked,
"Yes, it does. I can even go outside and you can watch everything in our base and the base next door and around Mars via those displays. You can also communicate with anyone on Earth or around Mars or even the other planets, when we have the resources to build a second and third Mars base, which is in progress."
He didn't have a clear face, so it wasn't really possible to see him smile, but we could hear it in his voice. His computer automatically translated out words so everything he said was spoken in our native language.
"This is pretty cool, so what should we do now?"
"Those areas contain some historical records, notes, and other things. If you want, you could read a book in the common room. I can arrange for the base's computer to read it to you. You could also watch the news. It's easier for me, for now, to describe that because I have to do it, but things will change if other humans arrive and think of new things to do."
"OK, thanks,"
"Would you like to go to your room and meet the other residents?"
"Yes, that sounds nice,"
"Follow me. I'll tell you more along the way,"
He led us down the hallway, and we looked around every once in a while. Everything was very spacious and looked nice. The six of us walked past the dining room, and there were two guys and four girls sitting at the tables eating and talking.
"This way, please. All of you. Every one of you is new. Come meet the rest of us. I'm sorry if I'm like a big jerk, but I only know you three. Everyone else, I've met since the base was formed. I'm Ernest Deadman, and I'm in charge. Ernie," he said to us, calling us by our names. "This is Zane, Tamara, Alice, and I have another long name for the other guy but you'll never remember it. He's Alex."
"I'm Alice, and this is Zane, Tamara, and Alex," Zane said as we shook hands.
"My name is Tamara, but everyone just calls me Tam. Nice to meet you," Tam said. "Should we sit down?"
"Yeah, let's do that," Zane said. We all took our seats, except Ernest.
"I know you guys are not from Earth. I want to share some things with you first before you meet everybody. First, everyone is friendly and will probably help you in any way they can for the first two weeks. Then, some of us will become irritated with you, and the longer you stay the more irritated we will be.
You guys were picked for this mission for your strengths. That doesn't make you greater than anyone else. It's just because it needed to be done, and you were picked. Anyways, that's the first thing. Also, all of you might be placed in positions of authority.
That's because we need leaders to run this place, and all of you are relatively high up in your fields. Also, you seem to be pretty nice and competent. So if you feel like you're not up to it, just say something and you won't have to do it. Lastly, I'll be honest. The longer you stay, the more obsessed with hating the Earth you become. Of course, that's not because of you or who you are. We feel the same way. It's just the way we feel.
So when you come back with me to Earth, we might not appear as good as you remember us. Also, remember that you are on Mars to work. If you don't focus on that, you could die. Apply yourself. Can you do that?"
"Yes, but can you make everything smaller so it's easier to understand?" Zane said.
"I can make help screens, yes," Ernest said. He pulled a strap off his belt and held it up. "Do what I do," he said. We did, and the information appeared,
"Wow, you didn't even have to tell us to do that," Alice said. "This is amazing. You did this so fast and everything is so small."
"Yep, that's what I thought. I really want to show you everything, but this is just a small tour. We'll do the full tour another time."
"Okaaaay," Tam said.
"You said that. Aren't you glad, at least a little, that we're on Mars?" Zane said,
"I really am," Tam said. "I've always wanted to come here, and when I heard that the first team had landed on Mars, I was so excited. I almost cried when I heard that they were dead. I thought, 'Oh, that's so upsetting, now there will never be any more humans on Mars.' Then I said, 'Oh, wait a second, that means I could go to Mars and live there.' Then I thought, 'that is so awesome but I don't have any experience,' and that was the end of it."
"Wasn't there another guy, who was here first, who you liked?" Alex said,
"Well, maybe liked isn't the right word. I liked his personality. He was very nice. We only talked for a few minutes, and then he just left. That was the leader of the first colony."
"Yeah, he just went crazy. I saw a picture of him, and he looks okay, but he's a little creepy, not that that's a bad thing," Zane said.
"He always looks like he lost a fight," Alex said.
"That sounds about right," Zane said. "Sure, he could be more social, I guess."
"We really need to learn more about your plan and all of this stuff," Alice said. "There are so many things I don't understand yet."
"You'll understand, like I said before, we're only explaining all of this for the first couple of weeks. You'll probably notice stuff during the first month or two.
You might not understand it all. That's okay. I'm not a scientist, so I'm good with it. You wouldn't believe the scientists who come here. One of them decided to run some of her new formulas on Mars soil and got a huge reaction. It almost killed the entire base. We had to respond to the battle and quarantine the area. We'll talk about that later.
"The scientists have had some huge successes, too. You guys have really nice quarters. That was one of the first things we constantly argued over, so we made it huge. The main thing when you first come here is not to wear anything with metal.
It'll mess with your head and make you crazy. Secondly, there's almost no oxygen, so we have protective suits. There are plenty of things to do, but I'll tell you more about them later. Anyways, we've had some great food successes. We've created new foods with the food here. We have grown a few animals, and they're doing pretty well. Speaking of those, we should get to the gym." He led us away, and we saw that the others were watching us.
"Wait, where are you going?" Tam asked.
"To see the animals and eat some food. Also, we'll see the room you'll stay in."
Zane and I looked at each other.
