This is a fan translation of Road to Mars (Дорога к Марсу) by fifteen Russian science fiction writers.

This chapter was written by Paul Amnuél.

I claim no rights to the contents herein.

Chapter 28

Mortal Danger

While the email wasn't written in Russian, the text did have Russian words stick out in large font like reefs in a quiet bay. They were far away from each other but instantly came together into an easily-readable phrase, "DO NOT GET INVOLVED IN GAME MORTAL DANGER STAY AWAY FROM HANGAR BOAT GHOST." Pryahina pressed her hands to her temples. The phrase produced fear, like a code word spoken by a skilled hypnotist. The phrase was meaningful, the way a person could understand even an extremely ridiculous text at a subconscious level after being told about it long ago and then forgetting.

Mortal danger. Right. She shouldn't look for anything related to this Hangar and TsUP on the web. This meant that there had to be a connection of some kind, it was obvious, and someone really didn't want her to learn of that connection.

Pryahina wasn't a coward. In other circumstances, she might have pushed her natural fear aside and done the research: where the text had come from, who the author was, what they were trying to achieve, what the actual TsUP connection to the mysterious Hangar was, considering it had been mentioned by the President of the Russian Federation himself. The mention had seemingly been in passing, but with an obvious hint, knowing perfectly well that Pryahina was going to look into it to try to understand what had been said. This meant that the President had wanted for her to… or not? Had it been a warning? Then the President was aware… of what? He probably knew more than what he was saying. But he always said only what he knew and never said anything without thinking about it first.

Stay away from the Hangar? All right, she would, even though she still didn't know what that Hangar was. And how would she stay away from a facility without knowing what it was? Or did the email say that Pryahina was supposed to find the Hangar first and then step aside to let someone more competent handle the problem? Probably…

Getting ahold of herself and re-reading the text several times, Pryahina finally realized that it wasn't just the Hangar she was supposed to stay away from. Yes, she'd noticed that word first because she was looking for it. But there were also "GHOST" and "BOAT." Also dozens of words in some other languages with only Russian ones that were sticking out. Irina saw several words that were probably in Italian, maybe a few in German (but it could've been her imagination, as she barely knew the language), and a couple possibly in French. Strangely enough, not a single word in English. Pryahina was fluent in English and would've easily recognized a word written in that language.

Maybe the foreign text was repeating what was written in Russian. Why? The Russian words were emphasized in a large font, which meant the unknown sender had intended them to be read. But then why scatter them through the text, nearly drowning them in other words?

Pryahina reached out to print the email and show it… no, she wasn't going to show it to anyone, she'd try to figure it out on her own, study every letter, and…

As soon as her finger touched the keyboard, the text on the screen blinked and was replaced by a message: "Email deleted."

Her heart began to pound again, this time in even greater fear. She felt as if someone was carefully watching her, saw the movement of her hand, realized what she'd been intending to do, and made sure she couldn't.

But the email still had to be in deleted items! A few mouse gestures, and she saw that the text of the email wasn't there at all. In fact, there wasn't even a mention of its existence.

Had the email even been there? Pryahina would've started doubting that, but the text was still suspended in her mind's eye clearly enough to let her see every word. Pryahina had a good memory, although it never even got close to being eidetic. In school, in order to memorize a poem, she'd had to repeat it at least a dozen times. Then again, she would remember it for the rest of her life, just like the line that came her now: "Only ashes know what it means to have burned to the ground." Brodsky had been added to the syllabus when Irina was already a senior; she didn't like the poet and had no idea why he'd gotten a Nobel Prize…

Irina took a clean sheet of paper from the stack next to the monitor, took a pen from a plastic glass… if the text of the email was gone from the screen, then maybe they wouldn't let her write it down too… it was a ridiculous thought… Pryahina wrote down the first four words… then it was "DON'T GET INVOLVED," then four more strange foreign words, then "IN GAME"… It was fine, she kept cheering herself on, keep writing.

So she did. She held the piece of paper in front of her, peering into the two last Russian words. "Ghost." "Boat." Familiar words, but what did they mean?

"Boat"… Could that be about the Chinese ship? Maybe. What about the ghost? The Hangar and the Millennium Boat were material objects, whatever the author of the email had meant. "Ghost" led into another world, one that didn't exist, giving the email a mystical tint. Or maybe she'd misunderstood the word.

Pryahina carefully folded the paper, took a notebook from her handbag, and placed the paper between the pages. She put it back into the bag and snapped it closed. She closed her eyes and sat like that for several minutes, getting back to the right state of mind.

Ghost… Where and how had she heard that word in the right context?

Bykov woke up with the long-forgotten sensation of quiet happiness. Like when he was a boy and knew that, when he opened his eyes, he would see the Christmas tree his mom had decorated overnight in the middle of the room. If he patted with his bare feet to the "snowy" cotton hill at the base of the tree, he'd find the gift under the "snowdrift": a wind-up car or a construction set he'd been wanting for a while…

Bykov lay there with his eyes closed and knew that he'd have that sensation of happiness for a long time. Maybe for the rest of his life. He could hear Nina quietly (so as not to wake him up) shift chairs in the kitchen, open the squeaking pantry door (he'd have to oil the hinges), and there was the gurgling sound of a boiling kettle… a teaspoon falling onto the table…

"Nina…" he muttered, and she heard him.

He was certain she'd heard, as the sounds in the kitchen quieted, and the voice so dear to him said, "Vitya, you're awake, get up, coffee's ready."

Nina had made sandwiches, and Bykov ate two of them with strong coffee — the best he'd ever had. They engaged in small talk, not speaking of work or the night they'd spent together. Their first night, the beginning of their life together. Bykov was on duty the coming night, while Nina had a library day, planning on finally preparing the text for her report on the Ghost 5 phenomenon for a closed conference on the Ares that was supposed to take place in Houston the following week. Bykov couldn't go because of work. He didn't want to let Nina go alone, but he knew that she had to. Not so much to let her meet their colleagues from other countries that participated in the project but also to get everyone interested in the phenomenon that, to Bykov's mind, wasn't getting the attention it deserved. Until strange events had started happening aboard the Ares, the higher-ups of the Martian expedition didn't care about the activity of the Ghost. What was happening on Mars Bykov couldn't call anything other than "activity." Maybe it wasn't intelligent, but it was definitely sequential and seemingly programmed. Observing Ghost 5 was a part of the overall program. Three orbital telescopes, including a radio telescope, were producing data in automatic mode, but there were not enough researchers in TsUP capable of digesting and interpreting the information that didn't directly impact the Ares flight mission. And then there was also the work on the Millennium Boat, they had to enter the data on the Chinese into the array, lots to do…

All talk of a mole had suddenly ceased several days ago. From what Bykov understood, it was the result of an appropriate instruction from above. Therefore, either they had already located them or decided that they weren't dangerous. Or maybe they wanted to track their own channels. Not my business, Bykov decided and, as ordered, forgot about the mole — he had plenty of work as it was.

Based on all the observations, the Ghost really was the source of gravitational emissions, except the initial and seemingly flawless idea that it was directed and was tracking the movement of the Ares through space hadn't been confirmed.

"I've looked at the morning packet while you were sleeping," Nina said, as usual guessing the direction of Bykov's thoughts, and refilled his coffee cup.

"And? Is the beam still groping in space, spiraling around the Ares?"

Nina placed the coffeepot on a coaster and sat across from Bykov, so she could see his eyes.

"Do you know," she answered with a question of her own, "if anything has been happening with the Chinese over the last several days? Like yesterday morning, for example. I haven't heard anything, no information is coming from the Millennium Boat on the official channels, but I'm sure you know more."

"The Chinese are fine," Bykov replied, still thinking of the Ghost. "They're still ahead, unfortunately."

"No complications or incidents?"

"Why are you interested in the Chinese?" Bykov asked in surprise. "They're fine… Although…"

"Yes?" Nina asked because Bykov had suddenly broke off, rubbed his chin, and lifted a thoughtful gaze on the girl.

"But that's not so much with them," Bykov muttered, "as a malfunction on the Ares. You know they keep having those."

"And yet?"

"Well… They've lost the Boat again. But it's their problem, all ground-based and space observation is showing that…"

Bykov stopped, finally realizing what Nina was hinting at.

"I see," he said. "You're trying to say that the gravity beam has been tracking the Boat."

Nina nodded.

"Based on the morning report, today at 2:43. Before that, it was tightening the spiral around the Chinese for almost eighteen hours. Naturally, the error is fairly significant too since we're picking up the direction of the beam by the location of the quasimirrors/emitters on the Martian surface."

"Anikeev lost the Boat yesterday at approximately eleven, from what I remember," Bykov said thoughtfully.

"That's about when—" Nina began, but Bykov stopped her with a gesture and reached for the phone on the table. He turned on the speakerphone to let Nina hear the conversation.

"Duty officer," came a sleepy voice. "Good morning, Dr. Bykov."

"Morning, Sasha." Bykov didn't waste any time on pleasantries. "What's going on with the Chinese? Are they gone?"

"Yeah," the TsUP duty officer replied with some confusion. "At 2:43. On all means of detection. There one moment, gone the next. Anikeev reported yesterday—"

"Yes, yes," Bykov said impatiently. "Are they aware?" He emphasized the second word.

"It's been reported, of course. I don't know the details, but it seems there's going to be a general meeting within the next several hours. You're on the list. Your shift is tonight, so I didn't want to bother you yet."

"Thanks, Sasha." Bykov ended the conversation but continued to hold the phone in his hand.

"And now the Chinese are going to…"

Nina didn't finish. She had no idea what was going to happen—or had already happened—with the Chinese.