"I am worried that Jonathan might try to gain access to one of the ships." Todd said. "If he has your eyes then what can we do to keep him from gaining access?"
"If he is wearing my eyes then I can't just lock him out using a retina scan." Mike pondered. "How do you suggest we keep him out?"
"Two factor authentication." Rebecca suggested. "Set up a code word or something."
"Or fingerprints." Paige suggested. "No two people have the same fingerprints. Not even twins or triplets that share the same DNA."
"No two people have the same retina blood vessels either." Sebastian said. "I don't think clones would have that capability either."
"Is it a scan of your blood vessels that opens the doors?" Lane asked. "Or is it that you can read some script or something?
Everyone looked at Mike as he blinked and thought about what happened to open the door and lock.
“I don’t think I did anything. I think it just opened when I looked in and saw the runes.” Mike said. “If it did scan my retina then it makes me wonder how random each person’s retina is. If the blood vessels are random then it makes sense that mine would be random too.”
“Unless you aren’t.” Sebastian said.
Everyone looked at him for a better explanation. He looked back at them.
“Have you been withholding anything from us Sebastian?” Mike asked. In his mind he was thinking the same thought but was afraid to say it aloud. He wanted confirmation from someone else.
“Let’s get the two-factor authentication taken care of first, and then discuss the other options.” Rebecca said.
...
Mike set up the small cargo saucer for 3 factor authentication that included retina, voice, and fingerprint when his hands were available, and a pass code when it wasn’t possible.
The voice command would work with actual voice, or through a transmitter if there was no atmosphere. The pass code would be on a revolving scale that used many small phrases that he would have to say. He had it set up so that his responses had to be spoken using pig Latin. He didn’t even tell Lane about this caveat.
Even though the other 3 ships could communicate using an interface that was decidedly secure, Mike had to do the initial confirmation information in person. The sun had nearly set by the time he was finished, and the dust in the thin atmosphere made for a beautiful sunset. The small abrasions on his helmet gave the sun an appearance that was between a halo and star filter.
It took an additional hour for the astronauts to get settled in the habitats. They had the power, and lighting for the outside trek, but the extreme low temperatures used a lot of the power and taxed the battery systems to dangerous levels. Huston was not impressed. They had to endure a 40-minute tirade from earth for taking these chances on the distant planet. The crew promised to be better prepared in the future.
Rubin and a couple of his alien minions descended on the scene as soon as Mars or bust I through IV was out of site from earth. They performed most of the precursory work that had to be done on Mars including programming the excavation equipment and automated habitat expansion controls on the land-based equipment.
“We need to get some samples of the fuel and coolant for testing.” Rubin said as he greeted the astronauts.
“How much of each do you need for that?” Mike asked.
“I am thinking about a gram of each for that size of load.” Rubin said. “But it must be a homogeneous sample.”
Mike nodded. “What does that mean?” Mike asked.
“A representative sample of the load.” Rubin said. “We should set them to agitate for a few hours before pulling the sample, and then get it from the middle of the load.”
“Can the ships do that, or do we have to put something in there to do it?” Mike asked.
“Oh, they can do all of it.” Rubin said. “But since the ships are yours, you need to order it.”
“Pardon?” Mike asked. “They only answer to me?”
Rubin narrowed his eyes and scrutinized him for a minute before answering. “I do not think you have completely grasped your importance here. You are the prophet. You are the one chosen to lead this system out of obscurity, and into a galactic superpower.”
Mike blinked.
“Bullshit.” Lane said as he entered the conversation. Rubin hadn’t realized that he was working nearby, and his 2 minions were of the same mindset as he was.
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“You can’t just unload this responsibility on to Mike.” Lane continued. If these other places have this kind of head start on Earth, and if Mike has some unfortunate misfortune, there must be a backup plan. Don’t make him think that the fate of the galaxy rests on his shoulders.”
“It does.” Rubin and the minions said simultaneously.
Lane looked over to Mike as he turned his gaze toward him. “Bullshit.” they said in unison.
...
The moons weren’t putting out very much ambient light in the wee hours of the morning as Lane looked at the predawn constellations. Mike approached him and followed his gaze to the north where they could see the same stars as they had on Earth. Neither man expected the stars to be the same for some reason, even though the tilt of Mars was nearly the same as Earth. The north star didn’t line up the same, but you couldn’t tell by a snapshot of time. Many more stars were visible on Mars than were on Earth. There were fewer than when traveling through space, but it was black as pitch then.
“Did Rubin get his samples then?” Lane asked as Mike got closer.
“Yeah.” Mike said. “A gram of that fuel is less than a CC. He’s testing the last sample now.”
“How does it look?” Lane asked.
Mike shrugged silently while Lane looked at Special delivery taking off and leaving the surface before Earth came into view. It looked small next to the big flying saucers that apparently belonged to Mike.
“The fuel and coolant haven’t degraded inside the shielding of the saucers.” Mike said. “They have a purity that is unprecedented in current times.”
Parts of the horizon had sun shining on them. Day had officially arrived, but the astronauts were still in the shadow of Olympus Mons. The heavy equipment detached from the habitats of Mars or bust I and II and went through a test cycle that was similar to booting up. When they had finished, they began their tour of the surface where they roamed around mapping the surface and testing compaction for building the Space X city on Mars. The regular crew were busy operating the equipment remotely and projecting the city's variables from data being gathered. Sebastian, Lane, and Mike were the only ones that didn’t have important work to do, so they decided to check out the other saucers instead.
The wind had picked up but the aggregate on the surface would require more influence to move. The fine dust particles seemed to come from one horizon and skip across the planet to the other horizon while making a red brown haze to look through. As the heavy equipment tested for compaction it would throw a puff of dust up into the air. Lane looked at the equipment on a viewscreen in one of the big saucers. His mind wandered as he watched. They looked like big rhinoceros beetles scouring the surface for a nesting location or something. He thought about Mike being the hero of the galaxy and shuddered at the thought. He didn’t know whether to believe it or not, but the aliens sure thought it was true. He absently looked over at his friend. Mike seemed to be searching for something on the computer. He was scrolling through screens, expanding drawings and blueprints, examining areas of the ship on the viewscreen, and then starting over. He was looking at something on one of the screens, and he made a gesture with his thumb and middle finger with a wiping movement, and a spark sprang from his index finger. Not an electrical spark like before, but a hot spark like a welder might use to light a torch with. It was bright, and it had a trace of smoke that followed its rapid movement across the bridge and struck a dart board that Lane hadn’t noticed before.
“What was that?” Lane asked with a loud startled voice.
Mike looked down at his hand. Put it up by his nose and sniffed it. “Pyrotechnics.”
“How did you do that?” Lane asked. He didn’t seem appeased by Mike and his calm demeanor.
Mike looked at his hand as he did it again. This time it struck the center of the dart board and popped softly like one of those pop-it snappers that you might get on the 4th of July. A trace of smoke climbed the board for an inch before disappearing. Mike got a grimace on his face as he looked at his friend.
“Are you really the prophet?” Lane asked.
“I’m just a girl in the world.” Mike said. “Thats all that you’ll let me be.”
Lane nodded as he caught the reference, but he didn’t laugh. The situation was more serious than he would have thought it could be.
“We should name these ships.” Lane suggested. He wanted to change the subject and was aware of his friend's fondness for naming vehicles.
“Any suggestions?” Mike asked.
“Well, there are four of them.” Lane stated. “We could name them after the Beatles. Or the musketeers if you count Dartanion.”
“Or the ghosts on Pac Man.” Mike offered. “Or the seasons. Maybe the directions.”
“The armed forces?” Lane suggested.
“There's five now.” Mike reminded him. Lane nodded his head.
“The four states of matter?” Mike offered.
“One of them would be gas. That's not cool.” Lane said.
“Keep thinking about it.” Mike said. “We will come up with something epic.”
...
After a few days of scouting the area, the two rovers began an excavation for the beginnings of the Mars terraforming mission. The Martian habitats were moved to the best location to support the excavation logistically. Sensors and equipment were set up to take samples of the cuttings from the drilling operations to see if there was water, carbonic structures or anything that suggested life, precious metals, and any indication of tectonic plate movements. The low gravitation of the planet made drilling difficult without anchoring the rig to the surface.
After a few weeks they were able to alter the angle to a shallow angle like you might expect for a fracking operation. The idea was to create a space where the air pressure was more conducive to human survival. The machinery was cutting the area out of the rock. The huge volcano's base comprised differing compositions of basaltic rock with no signs of life. None was expected in this area that was so close to the base of the largest volcano in our solar system, but the location was set due to the placements of the flying saucers.
“Why don’t you just build a trench around the equator of the planet?” Rubin said one day when he was watching the operation. “If you make it deep enough you can have one bar of atmospheric pressure, and it will be a little warmer as well at a lower elevation.”
“Have you seen the size of our drill rig?” Paige asked. “We plan on getting out of here next year.”
“You should come visit my home one of these weekends.” Rubin suggested. “I could show you some stuff.”
“Stuff?” Paige asked.
“Yes.” Rubin answered. “We can assist you in getting it going. Wouldn’t you expect that if we can build a base on Uranus that we could excavate rock?”