Alex sat in the front seat of the rover speeding along the road leading away from the Martian Tropics resort. He had no memory of running across the sand, escaping in the cleaning buggy and getting back to the rover parked in the service area. The only image in his mind was Elea’s panicked face as she clutched her red-stained shirt with blood trickling out through her fingers.
“This is not good,” said Ivan.
Alex’s attention was pulled to the present. “What?”
Ivan nodded toward the windshield. “MSS.”
Up ahead, a vehicle was heading straight towards them. Most likely another rover, by the size of the dust cloud created in its wake.
“You don’t know that,” said Alex, looking at the vehicle which was far enough away that it was impossible to tell. “It could be anyone.”
The rover’s control systems spoke as if responding to their conversation. “Communication request from Mars Security Services rover.”
Ivan flashed Alex a knowing look. “Hang on, everyone.”
Without giving Pete and Sammi in the back a chance to respond, Ivan pushed the control stick hard left and the rover swung off the road. Alex was almost thrown out of his seat as the rover hit the bumpy Martian surface.
“Urgent communication request from Mars Security Services rover.”
“No, I don’t want to talk to them, you fatuous machine!” Ivan shut down communications. They could now no longer receive calls demanding their surrender, or call out for help.
The rover struck the edge of a boulder the size of a rover wheel and Alex was thrown forward. He reached out to stop himself being catapulted through the windshield and his hands slapped on the dashboard. Pushing himself back into the seat, he fumbled for the seatbelt.
Grinning, Ivan swerved hard past another boulder almost as large as he clung onto the control stick like a rider on an unruly horse.
On the dashboard’s left display, the image from the rearview camera showed the MSS rover in pursuit. Ivan kept driving one handed while he put on his seatbelt.
“Can we outrun them?” said Pete.
“Maybe,” said Ivan. “I’m more concerned with them figuring out where we’re going and sending another rover to cut us off. Lucky for us, I know the mining works around here – almost certainly better than they do.”
The rover lurched a second time and Alex was thrown against his secured seatbelt.
Sammi had also strapped in at the back, but Pete was more cavalier and staggered forward, ducking to avoid hitting his head while the rover struggled to smooth the ride over the rough terrain. He leaned between the two front seats. “Are you sure you should be doing this? If you hit the wrong rock, you’ll turn us over and get us killed.”
“You want to get caught?” Ivan barked at him.
“Well… no.”
“You want to go to jail?”
“No, but I don’t want to die either.”
“Then trust me and sit down.”
Alex watched with increasing unease as the MSS rover grew larger in the rearview screen. A threat confirmed by the distance counting down on the readout. “Ivan, they’re gaining on us.”
Ivan frowned at the view screen. “Everyone suit up!”
“What are you going to do?” said Alex.
“A little trick I learned from some mining pals of mine. But I’m going to need you to drive.”
“Me?”
Alex looked doubtfully at the unfamiliar controls. He’d driven a rover in a simulator, but never for real.
“I’ll set us on course for the old Sinai mines,” said Ivan.
Through the windscreen, Alex saw a disused mine works building and its piles of waste discarded on the surface of the plain.
“You need to drive as close as you can to the slag heaps,” continued Ivan. “But don’t let your wheels go too far up the slopes. With the increasing temperature on Mars, they’re becoming unstable. At least, that’s what I’m banking on.”
Pete’s warning about getting them all killed replayed in his head as Alex tried to remember his lessons in the simulator. “I’m not sure I can.”
“I have faith in you, Alex. But you’ll need to suit up first.” He glanced around and shouted at Pete and Sammi. “That goes for you too – suit up! For this to work, I’m going to have to open the hatch.”
“The hatch?” Alex feared that venting their breathable atmosphere, by effectively opening a hole in the vehicle, could potentially make the rover unstable and even more difficult to drive.
“Quickly!”
Ivan’s orders shocked Alex into moving. He unfastened his belt and slipped between the two front seats to get into the back, banging his head against the hull as the rover lurched to one side.
Sammi pulled out all five rad-suits from the compartment near the hatch. Enough for all of them, including Elea. They each grabbed one, leaving Elea’s suit abandoned and alone on the bench.
Alex suited up and, as he needed to be ready first, Pete helped him.
Pete stood ready with his helmet as Alex waited for him to finish. “I hope we’re doing the right thing,” he said.
Alex was about to reassure him that Ivan had always got them through in the past, but Pete slipped the helmet over his head and secured the seal, cutting off his chance to reply.
Locked into his own individual environment, Alex felt suddenly alone. Ivan had told them not to use the suit comms unless absolutely necessary in case the MSS were monitoring and so all he could hear were the suit’s life support systems, the rapid beat of his heart and his own nervous breath echoing back at him.
Walking awkwardly in the cumbersome suit, Alex returned to the front. The slag heaps Ivan had talked about were up ahead. The trackway, mostly cleared of major obstacles after years of mining vehicles operating in that area, was relatively smooth. The readout alongside the image of the pursuing MMS rover showed it had closed in a little, but Ivan’s wild driving had sustained a reasonable distance.
Ivan unfastened his seatbelt and slipped out of the chair while maintaining his grip on the control. Alex took it from him and felt the resistance of the vehicle as Ivan let go to jump into the back of the rover. Once seated, with a few testing moves, Alex was able to judge the sensitivity of the controls, even through the thickness of his gloves. Keeping up the speed, he headed for the slag heaps.
Piles of mining waste, like a range of mountains stretching around the base of the dead volcano, towered off to the side, some almost as high as a city dome. Lichen had colonized the far side of the peaks where they would have caught the sun and enough warmth for the primitive organism to creep its tiny, leafless branches across the surface.
The rover’s right wheels slipped on the loose slag at the bottom of the first heap. Alex swerved to compensate, sending the rover too high up the mound and tipping it sideways by almost twenty degrees.
Alex yanked the controls back the other way and the rover sped down the waste, showering a scatter of slag out behind it as it bumped down to the track. He watched the dust and debris fly away on the rear viewscreen. As it cleared, he saw the MSS rover getting closer by running a tight, straight and far less chaotic path next to the heaps.
Ivan’s helmeted face appeared beside him. Alex thought he might be there to re-take the helm, but Ivan was only interested in the dashboard. He punched up the fail-safes and entered overrides to allow the hatch to open while on the move.
Ivan gave Alex a last look through his visor as if to tell him to get ready, then selected the option to open the hatch.
Even in the thin air, the slight change in aerodynamics caused the rover to waver. But Alex had quickly learned how the vehicle responded to his hand on the control stick and compensated without straying too much from the path. High on the thrill of self-satisfaction and pumping adrenalin, Alex also knew that it might take only one miscalculation to crash the rover. He hoped that, whatever Ivan was planning, he did it soon.
He snatched a moment to glance behind and saw Ivan holding an explosive charge, similar to the ones they had used to derail the train, but without the magnetic attachment.
Alex returned focus to his driving. A collapsed part of the slag heap rapidly approached with an unassailably large mound of debris blocking their path. Alex swung around it. The rover tipped dangerously and the near side wheels bumped over the edges.
The MSS rover took a straighter, more direct path and gained a little ground. Alex sped up as much as he dared.
Something too big to be a piece of loose slag bounced across the view relayed by the rear camera and came to a stop at the bottom of the heap behind them. Ivan had thrown the bomb into the path of the MSS rover from the open hatch.
With no time to avoid it, the MSS rover drove right over it. Alex willed the rover’s destruction.
A second later, a flash erupted behind the MSS and a blink of flame silhouetted their pursuers. The MSS rover rocked with the force of the explosion, but emerged intact from the cloud of dust and debris. The explosive had gone off a split second too late.
Meanwhile, Alex had gained ground. Filled with the excitement and confidence that they could actually beat the MSS, he concentrated on driving. Ivan tossed another charge out of the open hatch.
It struck something on the track behind them and flew off at an angle. Alex watched the view screen with disappointment as it spun away out of view and exploded to the side. He saw no flash, but felt the rumble permeate through the ground. The MSS rover was still in pursuit.
Soon, there would be no more slag heaps. There were only two more hills and then the open plain. Alex decelerated to give them more time to make a final attempt, taking a risk that it wouldn’t allow the MSS to catch them.
Glancing over his shoulder, Alex saw Ivan grab at the handle by the hatch with one hand and swing his body out of the vehicle. He launched a third explosive charge.
It came into view on the rear screen, bouncing once on the track and embedding itself in the slag.
Ivan pulled himself back inside, turned from the hatch and crouched to brace himself.
The MSS rover approached the bomb. It was, Alex anticipated, a second before detonation.
But the explosion didn’t wait. A bright flash ripped into the mound, scattering a shower of rubble into the air.
Caught in the blast zone, Alex was thrown sideways as their whole rover swerved towards the hill. It careened up the slope, the wheels struggling to grip on the loose rubble.
The MSS rover still hurtled, untouched, towards the site of the explosion.
Then the side of the hill collapsed. The entire mound slid into the gap blown out from underneath, pieces of slag tumbling down onto the trackway to block it completely.
The MSS rover was obscured behind it. Alex could only see the roof of the pursuing vehicle as it turned sideways – too late to avoid the obstacle – and crashed right into it, coming to a complete halt.
“Yes!” Alex yelled.
In the rear viewscreen, the roof of the MSS rover peering over the collapsed slag heap became smaller as they raced away.
Laughing to himself – his whole body alive with the elation of victory – Alex allowed the rover to slow. He sat back in the driver’s seat and felt his sweat cool in the breeze from the rad-suit’s regulated environment.
Ivan was suddenly at his side, his grin visible through his visor. He accessed the controls on the dashboard to close the hatch and re-pressurize the vehicle. It would be a few minutes before they would be able to take off their rad-suits and speak freely.
Ivan tapped on Alex’s helmet with a gloved finger to gain his attention. “We’re going home!” he mouthed.
Relief almost made Alex want to cry, even while he was still laughing.
He looked out of the windscreen as they left the mining area to enter out onto the plain. Then he checked all external cameras and confirmed there were no more MSS vehicles in sight.
Ivan took over to punch in a course back to Deimos City.
Alex was grateful to be going home. It was only the thought of what he was going to do when he got there that scared him.