I was admittedly a man of many weaknesses during my time as “a bag of meat“, as Calum had so eloquently put it. Peanut butter, bad movies, overly complex board games, the occasional toke of “the devil’s lettuce“, and a particular infatuation for women with bangs just to name a few… But my greatest weakness by far, was rocks.
One of the few “athletic” hobbies I had in my first life was spelunking. Now don’t get me wrong, I was the type of person who’d drive my car when I needed to go somewhere within walking distance, but I was also the type who’d crawl through a cold wet cave in the dark for hours if it meant getting to look at a few cool rocks along the way.
I’ve quite literally been in more caves than I can remember, but walking out of that airlock and into the colossal underground lava tube I’d been hiding in was an utterly surreal experience. While the vast majority of caves I’d previously explored would best be characterized as “claustrophobic“, this was the EXACT OPPOSITE experience. The 3D scans I’d analyzed earlier could never do the space justice. The cavernous void below 300 feet of Martian rock was eerie, other-worldly even, but I suppose that last one was a given.
After begrudgingly agreeing to stop gawking at our unreal surroundings, I now found myself, or rather my drone, with the rest of the U.S.E. team in the largest of the 3 abandoned structures. The short walk between buildings should have taken less than a minute, however it took nearly a full ten minutes for Calum to finally drag me inside.
While the exterior of the 3D-printed structure was relatively mundane, the interior had a more obvious religious influence. Each room had vaulted ceilings and arched doorways with shallow carvings of various Christian symbology subtly printed into the structure. The entire top floor of the egg-shaped building was clearly a dedicated worship space, with a few rows of ornate pews and an intricate panel of stained glass depicting two distinct stories behind the altar taking center stage of the room. One side of the panel was instantly familiar, however the other side was a little less obvious, at least at first. On the left, the colorful glass panel showed the life of Jesus from birth to death, and his eventual return back to “life”.
Big deal. I came back to “life” in a cave too. Granted it took me about 56,000 days, not 3, but I still did it. It was also safe to assume my little drone buddy could allow my avatar to “walk on water”, at least it could if Mars had any puddles just lying around. So suffice it to say, I’m basically Space-Jesus.
The panel on the right side was done in similar style, however the characters and the story it depicted were new to me. The scene at the bottom of the pane portrayed a tall white man in a suit and tie encased by a glowing light clearly meant to indicate “holiness“. He was surrounded by a small crowd of men wearing religious garb bowing their heads to the ground, obviously holding the main figure in high esteem. The next scene showed the same man, now wearing similar clothes to his followers, holding a baby boy in the air, again surrounded by a holy aura. The final scene appeared to be a modified version of “the holy trinity“. It showed an older bearded white man sitting on a central throne, presumably “God”, with 2 smaller seats on either side of him. On the left sat Jesus from the other panel, and on the right sat the unknown religious figure.
While I hadn’t really dived into the finer details of FAITH history enough to understand the exact context of the images, I had a good idea of who this main mystery figure was. It was likely a depiction of “Andrew Handel”, and a perverse version of events leading to FAITH’s rise to power in America. Handel was an overtly religious politician who was elected President of the United States in 2036. After his first term in office left the country in shambles, America elected it’s first atheist President in response. This sparked outrage with the religious right, which triggered the growing series of domestic conflicts that ended with FAITH staging a successful coup of the US government. My former homeland was ruled by the FAITH theocracy and the descendants of Andrew Handel for nearly 100 years, however the Great Purge and the war that followed ended FAITH’s reign on Earth just shy of a full century.
Man, I’m glad I missed that whole shit show.
Our eclectic little group of Martians was now gathered around a small round table on the ground floor of the former FAITH habitat. After sitting down everyone took out pairs of glasses identical to the pair Calum was wearing, and suddenly in the eyes of the crew, I went from a floating drone to a seated Sam.
On my left side sat Calum, and on my right was Neera. She looked just like her avatar from our first meeting in VR, however her white lab coat was now a navy blue jumpsuit covered in various logos and insignias I didn’t recognize and a white name tag above the left breast pocket of the suit with “SULLIVAN“ written clearly in all-caps.
That’s when I realized everyone was wearing similar suits, everyone except for me that is. I was still wearing the same set of clothes I woke up in, a plain pair of white shirt and pants. I wonder if I could get a cool astronaut jumpsuit for my avatar?
After a quick confirmation that everyone’s AR was working, Neera stood up to address the group.
“All right guys. I know we’re all swamped with our own projects right now, so we’ll try to keep this brief.“, she said in a commanding tone of voice I hadn’t heard her use yet. This was obviously her “I’m the Captain“-voice, and based on the intense focus of the crew it garnered, it was clearly working for her.
“As we all know, Calum has been working with the abandoned matrix he found in the engineering workshop. That brings us to our new friend here.”, said Neera, turning to look down at me.
“Dr. Scott? Would you like to introduce yourself to the crew?“, she said.
I nodded and stood up.
“Hi there! My name is Dr. Samuel Scott, but you can call me Sam.“, I said with a smile and a little wave.
“Calum informed me you already know I was a Geologist in my past life, but my primary field of study before was actually in Geomorphology. That being said, I was also known to dabble in a few other subjects like Planetary Geology and Environmental Science, both of which I’m hoping will make me at least somewhat useful.”, I said hoping to project my value to the team.
“So back in 2023, at the ripe old age of 32, I died in a hiking accident. Thanks to an obscure raffle prize I won a few years earlier, my body was cryogenically preserved by a company called ‘CryoEterna’.”
I opened my mouth to continue but was cut off by Calum.
“A raffle? So you didn’t pay for the procedure? You won it?“, said Calum, clearly intrigued by the development. That’s when I noticed a similar expression on the faces of the 4 other crew members, including Neera.
“Pay for it? I could barely afford to buy a new refrigerator back then, let alone pay for an afterlife in a freezer.“, I said.
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“Well that’s a relief.”, said Neera.
“Why’s that?”, I asked in response.
“There were some gaps in your recovered FAITH file, so based on your teaching position and the estimated cost of the procedure back then, we all just assumed you were some trustfund kid.”
I let out a laugh at the thought.
“A Trustfund kid? I grew up eating government cheese in a double-wide trailer in the backwoods of Tennessee. The only ‘trustfund’ I ever had was a small college-fund my grandpa left me after he died.”, I said in defense of my humble redneck origins.
“But I can understand why you might’ve thought that.”, I continued. “Teaching wasn’t exactly the most profitable path I could’ve taken with my degrees, and most of the people who bought into cryonics back in my day had more money than they could ever hope to spend in one lifetime, so I get it.”
“There are only a few handfuls of replicants still active, but most of them match that description to one degree or another.”, said Neera. “Granted a lot of them have since found ways to make themselves useful, like the guy who invented the NERVE unit for instance. I’ve even heard talk about a replicant who earned a doctorate in Astrophysics after being revived. Apparently he’s working with a small group of researchers in the Baltic states now, looking for signs of intelligent life around distant stars.”
“Sounds like my kinda guy!” I said excitedly. “He wakes up as an immortal AI, and the first thing he does is go back to school. And to help humanity find aliens no less!”
“On the other hand…”, interjected Neera, “Some replicants have been more than happy to just live out their new lives in VR, rarely interacting with the outside world. I’ll put it this way, most replicants aren’t exactly known for their ‘work ethic’”.
“Look. I know spending time and resources on reviving a cubified academic probably wasn’t part of your mission plan, so I’m eager to start carrying my weight around here however I can.”, I said trying my best to show everyone I was a team player.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find a way to put that eager supercomputer brain of yours to work. Trust me.”, said Neera in a joking tone, as the rest of the crew chuckled to themselves in response.
“So now that we know a bit about you, it’s about time you learned about us!”, said Neera while gesturing to the rest of the table.
“You know me. I’m Neera Sullivan, the mission commander and pilot.”, she said.
“You’ve already met Calum O’Donnel, our team engineer and resident ‘tech guy‘.” said Neera pointing to a smiling Calum on my left.
“Alright Doc. Why don’t you start the rest of us off?”, said Neera, addressing the older woman on her right.
“Gladly!”, said the petite woman with short black hair as she moved to stand up.
“My name is Isabel Rashid. As the team Doctor, my primary job is to keep this crew healthy, both physically AND mentally. So if you ever need someone to talk with, my door is always open.” said Dr. Rashid in a somewhat motherly tone.
She sat down, and the man across the table from her stood up to take her place.
“Hi. I’m Rajesh Watson, but everyone just calls me ‘Raj’. I’m a civil engineer specializing in the design and construction of off-world infrastructure. For right now my job is getting this old base back in working order, but eventually I’ll be leading the construction of the habitats for our first wave of colonists.”
“Wait, aren’t you guys the first wave?”, I asked.
“Not quite.” responded Raj.
Neera chimed in to explain and we all turned to face her.
“We’re just the first team in a growing series of missions, with the end goal of establishing a self-sufficient USE colony on Mars.” said Neera in a confident tone, obviously proud about their role in the project.
“Our job was to scout out a few abandoned pre-war colonization projects, and find the most suitable candidate to repurpose. After that we’re supposed to establish a foothold on Mars, and prepare the site for proper colonization.”
I’d often daydreamed about humanity making a new home on our planetary neighbor, but now I was actually a part of it. I was one lucky cube-shaped son-of-a-bitch, that’s for sure.
Without skipping a beat, Neera continue her explanation.
“Now from orbit, this location seemed like a rather mundane candidate; just a lone dome in a small unnamed crater. But the fragmented records of FAITH led us to believe there was more to it than that. After landing we found the elevator, and that’s when we realized why FAITH had previously invested so much in the project. Once we get the first group of colonists established here, our next big project is getting this lava tube pressurized and habitable. Artificial sunlight, grass, trees, wildlife; the whole deal. Which brings us to our last crewman, Dr. Ruby Volkov.” said Neera, gesturing to the only remaining stranger around the table.
A young woman stood up from the other side of the table and looked up to meet my gaze. She was about 5’ 4”, with short red hair that uncannily matched the color of the precious gemstone she was seemingly named after.
I’m honestly surprised I didn’t let out a cartoonish “GULP” when I first locked eyes with her. Admittedly, she was very much “my type”, that “type” being categorically “adorable”. She was petite, but not skinny. Plus she had beautiful red hair and bangs to match, which perfectly framed her pale blue eyes and subtle grin.
I shook off the proverbial “googly eyes” I was making and listened closely as she began to speak.
“Good to meet you Sam.”, she said in a vaguely Russian accent.
“It’ll be nice having another academic around here to review my work.”, she said still looking me straight in the eyes.
“And what type of work is that?”, I asked, trying to sound as cool as possible. I knew the woman for 30 seconds and I was already developing a crush.
“BAD SAM!”, I thought to myself. I’d have to keep these feelings in check. I mean who’d want to date a cube, right?
“My job, or rather our job, is to turn this lava tube into a proper home. You mentioned you’ve studied Environmental Science? That’s great! I too am an Environmental Scientist, as well as a Biologist.”, she said proudly.
“My primary area of research is on the creation of self-sustaining artificial ecosystems. I try to build ecosystems from the ground up. Starting with the microorganisms, and then in this case, hopefully ending with a herd of happy humans running through fields of wheat and swimming in lakes filled with fish in forests full of trees!”, said Ruby in the well rehearsed manor of an academic trying to explain their niche field of research.
“Wow! That actually sounds incredible.”, I said in awe. I wasn’t even playing it up, I was genuinely intrigued at the thought of turning this alien hole in the ground into a little slice of Earth.
“I think so too!” said Ruby, obviously pleased that someone was finally matching her enthusiasm about the project.
“Until we get settled in enough to begin that massive undertaking, I’m the designated farmer of the group. Granted, the only thing I’ve managed to grow so far has been a few vats of algae, but we’ve got a lot of interesting crop species to try out, and more to come in the future!”, said Ruby with a grin.
Our titillating conversation was cut short by a loud chime, and the synchronous movement of each crew member to inspect their AR wrist screens. I copied the motion, but no screen appeared for me. I’d have to enlist Calum’s help with that little oversight later.
“Massive dust storm inbound. All surface missions are scrubbed until further notice. Orbital imaging is estimating about 17 hours until it clears out.”, said Neera clearly paraphrasing the alert.
“Looks like we’re going to have to delay that PONIE training mate.” said Calum as he turned to address me.
“This seems like a good point to end the briefing. Let’s get back to our personal projects and reconvene here at 18 hundred hours for our evening meal.”, said Neera as she moved to stand up from the table.
“One last thing… Sam, we want you to know that we see you as an individual with free will and the same rights as any biological person. You never asked to be here, so no one would blame you if you decided to retreat into your VR space and live out your life in there.”, said Neera looking me square in the eyes.
“But equally, if you do want to help us with our mission, we expect you to act with the same level of professionalism our crew strives for everyday. If we’re being completely honest, I think we’d all agree we could use the help, but no one here is going to force you into servitude like FAITH. The choice is yours.”
“Are you kidding? I’m still not entirely sure I haven’t died and gone to my own personally tailored heaven! I would’ve volunteered to have my brain melted if it meant I’d get to use my geologic know-how to help colonize Mars… Of course I’m going to help!”, I said with the most enthusiasm I was physically capable of showing.
“Alright Sam.” said Neera, clearly pleased with my response.
“Welcome to the crew!”