Ultimate Adventure Novel: Mars Page 3

  TURN TO PAGE 187.

  Almost two hours later, you are standing in your space suit. It’s so stiff that it’s difficult to move around. Your suit has a life-support system, which lets you breathe, keeps you cool, gives you power, and allows you to communicate with the spacecraft. You’re wearing a nitrogen-propelled backpack

  that’ll let you fly around the spacecraft if necessary, using hand controllers to steer. To keep you from drifting away into space, you’re attached to a cable that is tethered to the spacecraft.

  Tethered to you, in turn, are five space suits, one for each of your stranded crewmates. The suits don’t weigh anything, of course, so it’ll be no problem to drag them along behind you. You just hope that you won’t get tangled up with them, and you make sure that the tether is secure. Now you are as ready as you’re ever going to be for this space walk!

  “How do I look?” you ask Aneesa, who helped you get into your suit.

  “Like the fifteen million bucks your space suit cost!” Aneesa says, giving your gloved hand a fist bump. “Go get ‘em, partner!”

  You step into the air lock, which is an airtight chamber between the spacecraft and the outside. With the turn of a switch, you depressurize the air lock. A few minutes later, you close your eyes and open the hatch.

  You open your eyes, and there it is in front of you: the awesome blackness of space. Unbelievable! This isn’t how you imagined your first space walk would happen, but even with all the stress of your emergency mission, it’s still incredibly thrilling to step out alone into the universe.

  “Nice work!” says Commander Wen, patting you on the shoulder.

  “You did it!” cheers Julie, with tears in her eyes.

  “That was awesome!” says Nico.

  “I’m really impressed, superstar!” adds Cooper, with a thump you can feel through your pressurized suit.

  “Are you feeling okay?” asks Victoria.

  Actually, you feel great. Better than great. You’re so grateful that everything went smoothly and that you were able to get to your crewmates safely. Now you can all work together to get the spacecraft back in order. You proudly accept when Commander Wen asks you to lead the group on the space walk back to the other side of the ship. And this time, you get to take your time and enjoy the view.

  It turns out that the damage to the spacecraft is minimal, and since you wisely waited to repressurize the habitation module until Commander Wen had done all the necessary stress tests and repairs, the compartment holds up just fine when you refill it with air. Everyone is hugely relieved to have a fully up-and-running spacecraft again!

  The next few months of space travel are uneventful, but in a good way. There are no more catastrophes and no need for daring rescues, just your daily work and the regular routines of astronaut life. But after six months of being confined to the spacecraft, you are more than ready to explore the great frontier of Mars— and to experience all the adventures the next year and a half will bring.

  And now, your much awaited landing on the Red Planet is about to happen!

  The crew is huddled around the windows of the spacecraft, watching the reddish-orange-hued sphere that is Mars come into view. You can see the craters and canyons that you’ve only seen in photos before, and you’re completely awestruck. You can’t wait to get out there and start exploring!

  “We have entered the atmosphere of Mars,” Commander Wen announces amid the celebration of the crew. “Strap yourselves in, everyone. We are go to land.”

  You attach your safety belts and wait with a pounding heart for the landing sequence.

  When the spacecraft doors are opened, you step out into a large elevator compartment that will lower you to ground level, where a transport rover awaits you. Fortunately, the elevator has enormous windows, because this is where you get your first glimpse of Mars! You gasp as you look outside. You see the impressive domes of Mars Base I, your home for the next year and a half. Beyond the base, you see a vast red desert stretching all the way to the horizon. You stare at the pale pinkish-yellowish Martian sky, so different from Earth’s blue sky. Wow. You could look at this scene for hours, but soon, you’ve reached ground level, and it’s time to climb aboard the transport rover for the short ride to the spaceport.

  Your remote-controlled transport rover glides across the soil and through the airlock doors, which slide shut behind you. You’re inside the base! You and the rest of the crew climb off the rover and smile as you greet the first new people you’ve seen in six months.

  “Greetings, Earthlings,” jokes Oscar Schweiger, the Chief Mars Settlement Officer. “Welcome to Mars. We hope you enjoy your time here as Martians.”

  Martians. Even though that’s what Mars residents are called, for some reason the word still makes you think of green cartoon characters with antennae and laser guns.

  Over the next few hours, you meet the staff that has been setting up the Mars Colony for the past year. They have done a lot of important groundwork, like constructing basic housing, building the first greenhouse, and going on the first expeditions to explore for materials needed to make longer term settlements on Mars possible.

  Your crew’s job is to help take the new colony to the next level, expanding the base by building bigger and stronger habitats and other important buildings, making sure the food supply is stable, and searching for resources you’ll need for energy and construction. If you succeed, the first wave of colonists will soon arrive to start permanent residence on Mars—the ultimate goal of the Mars Program.

  “Can you believe we’re really here?” Nico asks you during a break from the introductions. “I can’t wait to get out and explore this place!”

  “Me too. I hope we’re on the same expedition team!” you reply, eager to get into a rover and out into the frontier.

  Commander Wen calls out your first assignments.

  “Nico and Cooper, expedition for fuel sources. Victoria, construction of recreation dome. Aneesa, central dome for communication system updates.” And then you hear your name.

  “Greenhouse dome for goat duty.” What? Did you hear that right?

  “Excuse me, sir. Can you repeat that?” you ask.

  “You’ll be tending to the goats in the greenhouse,” Wen repeats. Seriously? Babysitting goats? You thought you’d be doing something a lot more exciting than that.

  Cooper sees the expression on your face and pulls you aside after the meeting.

  “Hey, superstar, I know you were hoping for a field expedition assignment, but this is a good way for you to show everyone how you always have a good attitude and work hard, even when you don’t like your task.”

  “Yeah, I guess so. Thanks for the pep talk,” you reply, trying to hide your disappointment.

  You start to head over to the greenhouse to meet your furry new friends when you overhear Victoria and Aneesa speaking.

  “Nico is so lucky that he was chosen to go on an expedition already!” Aneesa is saying.

  “Well, he must have really impressed Commander Wen to be picked for such a challenging job,” Victoria replies.

  Wait a minute. Nico’s great and all, but why is he the one who impressed Commander Wen? You were the one who rescued the crew with a space walk on the trip over here. Wasn’t that impressive enough? You feel your face get hot as you think about how unfair this is! You’ve been dying to get out into the Martian frontier and explore after being cooped up on a spacecraft for six months. You wonder if you should politely ask Commander Wen for a new assignment. Maybe he’ll realize his mistake and even appreciate your pointing it out. Or should you take Cooper’s suggestion to just go along with what you’ve got and hope for something better next time?

  IF YOU ASK COMMANDER WEN TO REASSIGN YOU, TURN TO PAGE 84.

  IF YOU KEEP WALKING TO THE GREENHOUSE, TURN TO PAGE 30.

  You show Aneesa how to strap on her wings, and then put on your own.

  “You flap them like this, and then let them catch on the air…“ you begin. B
ut you hardly need to say anything else, because Aneesa was apparently born to fly and takes off before you finish your sentence.

  “This is am-a-zing!” she sings as she soars by you.

  You can’t agree more, although you do have a little pang of guilt about Nico not being able to join in on the fun. But that feeling is quickly replaced by excitement when you and Aneesa take a rest and talk about the next big plans for the recreation dome.

  “Did you hear that they’re going to put up basketball nets?” Aneesa asks.

  That’s a slam-dunk idea if you’ve ever heard one! Playing basketball in the pressurized dome would take the game to new heights, literally.

  “You could jump over the head of any basketball player in this gravity!” you marvel.

  “I know, and if you put on wings, you could actually fly to the hoop!” Aneesa adds.

  “Yeah, but wouldn’t that be cheating?” you argue.

  As you continue debating the rules of the game, Cooper comes by.

  “I’m glad to hear you guys so enthusiastic about the sports leagues we’re setting up. Would you be willing to be in charge of the basketball committee?” he asks you both.

  “Sure!” you reply.

  “I’d be glad to help out,” Aneesa says, “if I have enough time left after my work.”

  You’re more than ready to trade in a little more work to help set up the league. Over the next week, you throw yourself into organizing the teams, setting the game schedules, firming up the rules, and even choosing the colors of the teams’ uniforms. This is going to be awesome!

  Tonight is the first Mars Flight Basketball League game, and your team—the Marvelous Martians—is scheduled to play. You’ve been practicing and have mastered a beautiful layup with a somersault in the middle—and you can’t wait to show it off. Your team is looking good, and you’re sure you’re going to win.

  But two hours before tip-off, you get a call from Commander Wen. “I’ve got an expedition team assembled and ready to go scouting for mineral resources, and we could use an extra set of hands. I meant to ask you earlier, and I’m not sure if you have the time, but if so, we’d love to have you join us.”

  Finally! This is your first expedition opportunity, and you’ve been waiting for it for a long time. You’ve been waiting to get out into the Martian frontier and have some adventures that don’t involve goats. But what terrible timing! You really want to play in the first game of the basketball league that you’ve worked so hard to set up. It’s going to be so much fun, and if your team wins, you get to play again tomorrow.

  IF YOU ACCEPT THE EXPEDITION OFFER, TURN TO PAGE 68.

  IF YOU PASS ON THIS TRIP AND PLAY IN THE GAME, TURN TO PAGE 34.

  You hurry to join the expedition team, which is already assembled. You’re a little disappointed that none of your crewmates will be accompanying you. Instead, you’re with a couple of Martian scientists you don’t know very well named Ivan and Helena. The three of you will be exploring for mineral resources in a pressurized rover, using telerobots to collect specimens for you.

  Even though you’d rather share the moment with your friends, it’s thrilling to be getting off the base, and as you drive away from the settlement, you’re amazed all over again by the fact that you are on Mars.

  “It’s pretty impressive, eh?” asks Ivan. “I still can’t believe I’m here, after six months already.”

  You wonder if you’ll ever get used to the feeling of looking out onto the rocky reddish-colored landscape. It’s awesome.

  Collecting the samples is fun, and you enjoy using the remote controller to steer the telerobots and watching their movements through a camera. You command a robot to scoop up samples and dump them into a canister in the rover. Then, while you are steering the robot past a big rock, something catches your eye. Unlike all the other dust-covered rocks you’ve been seeing, this one stands out because of a distinct pattern on it. You move the telerobot back and forth over the rock, peering closely at the image that is transmitted. Why does that look so familiar? You’ve seen this pattern before, if you could just remember where. Wait a minute! This rock looks similar to images you’ve studied of stromatolites, the earliest fossils ever discovered on Earth.

  Could it be? Could you really have just found a stromatolite? No way! Scientists have been combing over Mars with telerobots for decades, and have recently been going on manned expeditions, to search for any evidence of fossil life on the planet. The debate about whether or not there is, or was, life on Mars has been raging for decades. Although several scientists have come close to big breakthroughs, there has never been any proof.

  With your heart pounding, you review what you know about stromatolites. These rich fossils have tons of tiny organisms stuck in them, and they take thousands of years to form. They’ve been used to understand the role that ancient organisms, stuff like blue-green algae, play in the evolution of life on Earth. Most stromatolites you’ve seen have strips of light and dark colors running across them. You look at the rock again closely, and see the same color pattern. Whoa. If this is really a stromatolite, it will rock the scientific world!

  You can’t believe that you might have just stumbled upon a major discovery like this. You look over at Ivan and Helena, and for some reason, you don’t feel comfortable sharing your find with them. Even though they’re perfectly nice, you hardly know them, and you aren’t sure how they will react to you. What if you’re wrong? You’d rather show Julie and the other members of your team first to get their input. Not to mention, you’d rather share the excitement of the potential discovery with them, not with Ivan and Helena. You wonder if you should get the robot to take a sample of the rock, and then show it to Julie. Or you could just take careful note of where you are and bring Julie back to check it out.

  IF YOU TAKE A SAMPLE NOW, TURN TO PAGE 85.

  IF YOU PLAN TO BRING JULIE BACK WITH YOU ANOTHER TIME, TURN TO PAGE 50.

  You take cover behind the boulder and wait. In a matter of minutes, you see an enormous reddish-pink cloud heading your way. Whoa! This is the start of a full-fledged dust storm! You’re so glad you didn’t try to walk through that mess—you wouldn’t have been able to see anything or get anywhere!

  Crouched next to the boulder with grains of sand scouring your suit, you wonder how long this storm is going to last. Unfortunately, you know that Martian dust storms can last for months. Months! Thinking about that makes your stomach queasy. A lot is unknown about Martian dust storms—no one knows how to predict them, so you couldn’t have known about this before you started your trek. It was just plain old bad luck.

  But fortunately, your luck turns around.

  After what seems like forever, but is actually only about two hours, the storm dies down. Before you know it, the air is calm, and the dust is settling—and a lot of it has settled on you! If anyone saw you walking around, they’d think a pile of sand came to life. You use a cloth to wipe off your visor, and you shake off as much dust as you can. Then you look around.

  The sun is setting, and in the dim light of dusk, you can see that the rover tracks you were following are no longer there! Like a giant sandbox that has been shaken, the desert floor has lost all marks and grooves. You realize you don’t know which way to go.

  As you try to orient yourself, the sky grows darker, and you become more nervous. Will you have to spend the night alone on the Martian frontier? But then, the stars begin to appear. The stars! You can use what you know about constellations to guide yourself back to base!

  On Mars, you can find the same constellations you can see from Earth. The only thing that’s a little different is how you find the Martian “north star,” which is a point halfway between Deneb and Alderamin. Fortunately, the materials you got during your training gave you a little crash course on navigating at night on Mars. Now you just have to remember…

  IF YOU GO TO THE LEFT, TURN TO PAGE 46.

  IF YOU GO TO THE RIGHT, TURN TO PAGE 147.

  You wait until
Coco has taken a nice mouthful of prehistoric plant and is contentedly chewing on it. Slowly, you creep up behind her and thrust your hand onto her collar—got her! Coco starts bleating and kicking, but you hold on tightly and drag her out of the garden.

  “Oh no! What’s this?” you hear Julie cry out. You look up and find her looking at the chewed plant, shaking her head.

  “I’m so sorry, Julie,” you pant, out of breath from fighting with the goat. “This goat got out of the pen, but I chased her down before she could do more damage.”

  “You should have let me help you when I offered—I have dog biscuits that we could have used to get her to come to us. That would have been smarter than chasing her, silly!”

  Julie is an animal expert—you should have trusted her to help you.

  “I know, I messed up,” you say. “But look, there’s a new kid. Coco just gave birth!”

  “Aw, it’s beautiful,” Julie says. “I can’t believe we didn’t notice that Coco was pregnant!”

  After the two of you spend a few minutes petting the baby goat, Julie says, “Listen, why don’t you let me take over watching the goats for you. I know they need some help over in building materials. It’s not the most exciting work, but it’s important.”