Chapter 17

The First Martian

Catherine asked someone to bring over some coffee. Jay sensed the deep scent of roasted coffee beans. Jay could not reject drinking what he had been offered. Although Jay felt a little different, he did not know what the reason was. He drank a sip and he became a little warmer. Catherine’s twinkling eyes stared at Jay.

“When you were covering the news of Mars Two Project....you did take a look at the contract, didn’t you? It was literally a slave contract. Only obligations and no rights whatsoever, they were not even allowed to take up an insurance. It surely was a 'one way journey to death', just like you wrote in your article.”said Catherine.

There were some 2,700 people who passed the document screening. This project has become the dream post for the L-generation unable to get a job. The advent of Robotas have impoverished their spirits; and they desperately needed a goal to rely on. The dream of exploring Mars was similar to the vibe during the Age of Discovery. Dragonfly had added advertisement onto each one of the dreams and distributed it for their money-making business. Broadcasters were the accomplices. Articles pointing out the danger of the project was not welcomed by anybody.

“We followed the money flow,” said Catherine. “That’s basic, if you are an investigative agency,” said Jay. He had tried to search for the flow the money, but it was hard to find out. “Correct. Desire leaves its trace through the flow of money,” said Catherine.

Catherine leaned her body on the table. She had come nearer to Jay. Jay could smell a refreshing citrus scent. It was rare for Jay to notice a woman’s scent. Especially since Tina’s decease, Jay felt that he had become over sensitive. He was letting his guard down.

“As you tried to prove, we found out a clue that the explosion of Stumpalos, Mars One Project rocket was Dragonfly’s plan. A huge amount of money was deposited to Space Odyssey, in charge of the Mars One Project. An important fact was revealed during the investigation,” Catherine calmly continued her explanation. Jay stared at her lips. Her pointy lips had crimson red lipsticks on. The light upon her face were reflecting on her lips making them gleam and shine.

“Tina...was never on Stumpalos,” said Catherine. Jay blinked his eyes. “During the takeoff, the one sitting on the Stumpalos' command module was not Tina. It was another pilot named Cheng, who had similar stature with Tina,” said Catherine.

Jay’s doubt was finally proved. Yet, Jay was distant. It was supposed to be a shocking news but he did not feel that way. Rather, Jay was concentrating on Catherine. Catherine’s voice color, tone and even the breathe in between every word she spoke...

“During the Boston Mechanics days, they concentrated in developing the neural link. Howard Mason had Charcot Marie Tooth disease. When he declared that he will make a ‘world without any disabilities’, everyone took it word by word, but he had a secret purpose,” said Catherine. Jay felt her voice as sweet as cotton candy ; he thought his sense was totally strange. Jay remembered Howard Mason giving a speech under the pin lighting. The scene was portrayed in his brain like a stop motion miniature. It was as if he could count every little dust on stage at the time.

“The real purpose was elsewhere. Humanity tenaciously dug into it due to that reason,” said Catherine. Jay remembered the front court of Boston Mechanics. There was a person who came into his sight in that open space. It was none other than Hugh, who was one of the 4 pilots of Mars Two Project. 'Why is Hugh demonstrating with Humanity members?' Jay thought. But it was not a logical thinking. It was an ambiguous and surreal thought, somewhat like some thick smoke lurking around.

“What he has created is something called ACR, Artificial-Consciousness-Receptor. It is a system which can hold onto the connectome pattern. Mind uploading is possible, and if their invented neural link gets connected, it becomes possible to invade a human body with blood flowing in its veins,” said Catherine.

Jay rubbed his right arm with his left hand. He felt awkward. It was as if thorns were sprouting from the inside of his body, penetrating through his skin from beneath. His senses were alert.

“Clinical test or FDA approval will not be possible under the current legal system,” Catherine laughed out loud regardless of context. She was beautiful. Jay shook his head, something weird seemed to be happening in his brain. Everything started to become hazy.

“Howard Mason wanted a faraway place where nobody interferes for a long time ahead ; He built 'Out Post' on the other side of the moon. But it is too near. Moon is reachable by many. That’s why he chose Mars,” explained Chatherine.

He felt as if his forehead was being pricked with needles, and he held his head tight.

“Ahh... it's almost over. Wait just a second,” Catherine spoke to him as if to soothe the child who was suffering from treatment. “There were obstacles. You, who were poking around here and there. Also X, who saved you from the car accident. What's worse is that the two obstacles are connected to each other," said Catherine.

Jay was engulfed in an unbearable pain. He did not know why. Jay’s face became distorted. “What are you doing to me,” said Jay groaningly. Catherine shrugged her shoulders. Her lips showed that she was mocking him. “Where is X? How are you two connected?” Catherine questioned Jay. Jay replied, “X? I don’t know where he is.” Jay really did not know.

Jay only met X once at the Trinity Church. On his way to the office from an interview with Rei, X called Jay. X said he would remotely hack the self-driving car. And X warned that if Jay does not get off the vehicle, he will die; that is why he got off right away.

All of a sudden, Catherine started giggling, “You are not lying after all. The reason we input the neural link into you, is to find out whether there is a secret we are unaware of. We ransacked through your mind just now. We searched for every memory fragment in your consciousness.” It was a grotesque sound. Everything surrounding Jay started to fall down mushily. The table, chair and even Jay’s body was vanishing.

“Regretfully, there is nothing. I will have to find X myself. He is my brother after all, I assume he will come to me sometime,” it was not Catherine, but Howard Mason, standing in front of Jay. Like a legendary sniper, he pulled a silver pistol out from his pocket. “I prepared this pistol as you imagined it in your brain just before. I will be gentle with you, don’t you worry. Now, it’s really about time we say goodbye,” said Howard Mason.

The pistol was just a metaphor. Jay was lying at a Dragonfly secret laboratory, with his skull wide open. Four Robotas without skin were standing by his side. One of the Robotas cut Jay’s spinal cord with a sharp scalpel.

....

Victoria arrived on Mars at expected time and place. Victoria-Destiny module touched down vertically on the red soil of Mars ; there was no event leave footprints on Mars' red land. After the heat of the reverse propulsion engine cooled down, the hatch of the Destiny Module opened. Only one person came out through the door, grabbed the stairs, and came down ; It was Rei, also was Tina.

The artificial consciousness and Rei had found compromise : a kind of compromise. They came down to Mars together. Rei has succeeded in dominating one of the four modules, the Destiny through a rather manual way. She took out all the electrical wiring at the module. Her intention was to cut all connection with the artificial consciousness, and to operate the module manually. The artificial consciousness had no choice but to let Rei do that ; artificial consciousness had lost all the Robotas that act as his hands and feet. Also, it was not possible to segregate Destiny module.

Rei had caused grave setback in the original plan of the artificial consciousness. It could not set the Robotas down on Mars. Rei cut off all the circuits, so he could not control the Hipnos-Leonardo module and land it on Mars. There was a glitch in his plan of creating the base. Rei, for the time being, need not worry about further attack from the artificial consciousness.

The first thing Rei did when she landed on Mars was to draw lines with red soil and rocks on Mars. She managed to find extra food from the cargo ship which had arrived earlier ; the food was only enough to last for a month, even if eaten little by little. There was no way she could send a signal to Mars. Without help of the artificial consciousness, she could not open the lock of the communication facilities. Rei had no choice but to try the final method . She began drawing letters; like a pilot having landed on an uninhabited island.

Rei had bare chance of surviving. Even when a rescue ship departs from Earth having seen Rei’s message, it will take more than 6 months to arrive at Mars. But Rei didn't want to give up ; Rei didn't want to lose against artificial consciousness. She is the first Martian, the first humanbeing who landed on Mars.

Rei made the third letter of the word “HELP”. Suddenly, tons of memories from far away came to her mind. It was not Rei’s but Tina’s memories. Pieces of unerased memories became alive again like plants watered by long-awaited rain. A yellow sports car, a man, sensual touch...

Rei sat down on the ground with a shovel in her hand. Tears ran down her cheeks beneath the visor. Rei wept.

A day on Mars is about 30 minutes longer than a day on Earth. The sun was going down. The sunset on the western sky of Mars was filled with blue. A shooting star was falling diagonally across the sky. It couldn't be a Hugh's body. But Rei wanted to think so. Rei got up. She gazed at the direction the shooting star fell in the pitch-black darkness, and saluted with her right hand up the visor, just like Tina saluted to Jay on the day of their farewell.

THE END