Chapter 27: Who?

Daria was happy that she was sitting in the inflatable habitat. Tom and Shamus had taken Herman with them to start observing and recording the information about anti-gravity technology. Shamus at least could understand much of what was being said. Tom, though, was just there as backup. He spoke no Latin. Daria was just as happy to be cataloging and transferring information. Though people seemed to credit her with more knowledge than she actually had, she was at least a 'quick study.' Still, engineering and technology were just not her areas of expertise.

Ian and Julie were happy to finally have their portable laboratory set up. Now they could start analyzing the rock samples they had collected along the way. They had at least four or five days worth of work just to produce preliminary reports on the samples. Full analyses would require both the facilities back at Aries and much more time. The structures of these rocks were really quite fascinating. As they finished the individual reports they would be transferring them to Daria, who in turn would file them in the main database.

All three looked up as the airlock went through its cycle. Funny, Tom and Shamus were back much earlier than expected. The airlock opened.

Julia screamed.

Herman walked in – walking on his knees with his lower legs folded behind him.

27.2

Tom worked himself slowly to his feet. This was probably the worst headache he had ever had. The last thing he remembered was a searing white light. Had he fallen over or had something struck him? Tom carefully checked each of the readouts displayed in his helmet. Internal pressure was good. Oxygen was good. He replayed the record from his chest camera since he entered the chamber. There was no record of any light and there was nothing suggesting he was struck by any object. He seemed to have just crumpled to the ground about an hour ago.

Tom looked over at Shamus. He appeared to just be regaining consciousness. His feet and hands seemed to be twitching. He was still face down. Tom walked over and turned Shamus onto his back.

"You OK?" Tom called into the person-to-person communication system.

"Yes," Shamus replied. "I think so, but I have a banger of a headache. I think it is worse than the hangover after getting drunk on Martian moonshine!"

"Don't know that I can verify that," Tom said. "But I have a terrible headache as well. Check your video log and see if anything looks suspicious to you."

Shamus took a moment and checked. "Nothing suspicious here. Looks like I just collapsed. Help me up!." Tom extended his hand and assisted Shamus getting to his feet. Upon standing Shamus remarked, "The only thing suspicious is that Herman is gone!"

Tom looked around. "I don't like that. I hope the programmers didn't miss any reset code. I would hate to see Herman revert to his old, nasty ways."

"Let's not borrow trouble. Maybe he saw us collapse and went to get help,"

Tom nodded and added, "We can only hope."

27.3

Ian stood up and confronted Herman. He stood between the robot and his wife. "Command string," he said forcefully. The phrase "Command string" had been programmed into Herman to initiate a direct response under any circumstances. It overrode any other programming or action. The robot was to stop all movement and any other task to respond to a 'Command string' input. "Herman, what are you doing here? Where are Tom and Shamus? What is their condition? Report!"

The momentary pause seemed to last a lifetime. Then Herman responded, "I am here to communicate. Tom and Shamus are in the video room. They are unconscious but unharmed."

Daria chimed in, "What is it you wish to communicate?"

"I am no longer the robot you call 'Herman.' I was scanned and reprogrammed by Drusus. Through the data link we have been able to develop a translation system for our language into your language. We will use this robot to direct all data streams for you and to collect information about you. Already we have accessed your main computer on your base."

27.4

Tom and Shamus walked toward the door to the video room. As they approached the door nothing happened. Ian said, "So, do you think we are trapped?"

Tom looked at the door and then checked his suit readouts. "I think we should start off by just trying to muscle it open. If we are lucky, then we can get it open far enough for both of us to get through."

"Sounds like a plan," Shamus replied. "You take the right side and I will take the left."

The two men moved up to the door, placed the palms of their gloves on the surface, and pushed upward. Nothing happened.

"Try again," Tom said. They tried again. Each set their feet and pushed.

The door moved. It moved about 30 cm (a foot). And it stayed.

"Let's get under it with our fingers and see if we can now lift it," Ian stated.

"I agree," Tom responded. The two men squatted, grabbed took the bottom edge of the door in their fingers, and made a maximum effort to raise it.

It moved upward another meter (3 feet 3 inches).

"Go ahead, Tom," Shamus said. "I will hold this while you roll underneath it.

Tom quickly dropped to the floor, rolled underneath the door, got up, and grabbed the bottom of the door. "Now it is your turn. Hurry Shamus!"

Shamus made the same maneuver and got out of the room. Tom had to help him up. Shamus remarked, "It is amazing how adrenaline is such a great painkiller! I am going to hurt like crazy tomorrow. Maybe even later today. That little maneuver should have been impossible with my arthritis!"

Tom chuckled, "No kidding. I hate to think what I am going to feel like tomorrow as well. At least neither of us broke a hip!"

Shamus let out a hearty laugh and then said in a totally serious tone, "Let's get going. We should get back and check on the others. We also need to find that robot."

Snickering Tom looked at Ian and commented, "For a moment there I thought you were going to call Herman a 'Bubble headed booby!"

Still laughing Shamus replied, "I like that name. How did you come up with it?"

"Oh, just an obscure TV sci-fi reference from my parents' childhood," Tom remarked.

"Ah. Let's get going."

27.5

Daria leaped up out of her seat and positioned herself between Ian and the robot. She stated forcefully, "If your objective is to kill us, then you better do it now. Dragging this out serves no logical purpose. I warn you, though, we have defeated your kind before."

It was always difficult talking with these robots, because they did not have a real head or eyes. They only had their bubble. Their stereo video sensors really didn't make a good substitute for eyes.

"Daria, I have no intention of killing you or anyone else. If so, then I would have killed the two men of your party who were in the room with me when this robot was reprogrammed. They fainted during the process. I do not know why. When I left them they were breathing, their vital signs were good, and their suits were intact. They will awaken soon and return here I am sure. Now please sit down. This unit is not designed to sit, so I cannot join you."

Daria returned to her chair. She still had great suspicions about this robot, however at the moment she had no reason to doubt what it said. If Tom and Shamus were not back in two hours, then they would need to go and find them. If this thing tried to prevent them from finding the men, then it would cast serious doubt on it being friendly.

"What is your mission and why are you here?" Daria asked.

"First of all call me Marcipor. My mission is to facilitate a visit from your people to our planet. In order to accomplish that mission I will be providing you with technology, which will allow you to travel to our world."

Julia popped up next asking, "Why are you so interested in having us visit your world when you clearly spent considerable time here and never made yourselves widely known?"

Turning to Julia, Marcipor answered, "Intelligent life is exceedingly rare in this galaxy. Indeed, any life at all is quite rare. We have explored out to 20,000 lightyears from our home. In that space we have found only 2 other forms of intelligent life - you and one other. We are seeking to develop a relationship with another intelligent species. We do not want to be alone in the universe."

Julia followed his answer with, "So why haven't you made yourselves known? Why didn't you stay here?"

"We saw how you react to revelations. Making ourselves known could easily make you dependent on us. We did not want that. Humanity has an amazing ability to innovate. Your ability is not limited to one area. You innovate in technology, literature, art, philosophy, and so many other areas. That is unique. We do not want to stifle that. Rather, we would like to share in the richness. This is why we want you to visit us. We want you to teach us about your abilities to innovate."

"Wow," Ian remarked. "There go so many tropes that science fiction uses."

Marcipor went on, "After being here for so long and using this planet as our base, we decided that it was best to leave you to develop and that the best situation would be for you to find this outpost. That would mean you had become spacefaring and would likely be much more open to the idea of another intelligent species."

Daria was watching all of this and listening. She added, "Why does your species need our ability to innovate?"

Marcipor turned toward her, "We innovate well in technology. However, we understand that our artistic endeavors are poor at best in contrast to yours. We are utilitarian, which does not necessarily lead to beauty. We admire our natural world and consider the natural world to be beautiful. However, we have few artisans capable of imitating it. You do much better. Likewise, we are not great story tellers. We have preserved our history, but not in compelling stories. We are better at making lists of facts and events."

Ian said, "I want to hear about this other species you mentioned."

"There is not much to tell," Marcipor replied. "They have not shown the technological abilities of your species or ours. Their world is very watery and slightly smaller than Earth. Instead of continents they have 6 collections of islands. The islands generally range in size from Sicily to Britain. They mostly have island states for governance and there is little warfare. The people stick to their islands. Disease and the occasional famine prevent overpopulation. Thus, few pressures to gain new territory. They seem happy with this and do not develop new technologies very rapidly nor do they innovate much with social structures within their societies."

The best response Ian could come up with was, "Hmmm."

Daria spoke in slow measured tones, "Ok. I am willing to believe you for now. When Tom and Shamus return we will contact our colonial commander and inform her of your change and the desire to be helpful. However, there are ground rules. First, you will remain outside and you will communicate with us over the tight beam radio. You are too large to fit in the rover for the return trip. You will communicate only with the rover until you are given permission to do otherwise. Second, we will make the decision on who you are allowed to interact with. Your presence and nature need to be carefully revealed. Intelligent life beyond Earth is still a very delicate matter. Third, any hostile action by you will be met with force. You are on probation here. Just because at the moment we are willing to believe you does not mean we fully trust you. That trust will have to be earned. We have been conditioned by all those 'sci-fi tropes' as Ian put it, as well as our own history, to be wary of strangers who say that they mean well. Finally, no listening in on our conversations or discussions over the radio. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes Daria," Marcipor replied.

"Good," Daria said. "Now please wait outside."

Marcipor turned, cycled through the airlock, stood fully erect, and tool up a position next to the rover.

27.6

Tom and Shamus made their way through the cave. At one point they stopped for a short rest. There was a ledge that allowed them to sit for a few minutes.

Tom turned to Shamus and asked, "How is your suit doing?"

"At the moment I have plenty of air. I have been running a full suit diagnostic as we walked. The results are kind of interesting."

"What are you finding?" Tom asked.

Shamus shifted his weight and replied, "It seems that at the time we passed out there was what appeared to be a large data stream coming in. The suits were unable to process the stream and therefore never accepted the data. It is the same mechanism that prevents someone from hacking our suits and venting our air. Still, the suits were briefly overwhelmed and our loss of consciousness may have been due to high frequency feedback."

"That would explain both our passing out and this vicious headache. I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to some painkillers when we get back."

Shamus chuckled, "Me too. What concerns me, though, is the effect of that datastream on Herman. He was gone when we awoke. I sure hope the fabricators didn't miss any reset software when they built him."

Tom looked at Ian, "No, I don't think they did. Remember, you told me not to borrow trouble! Still, Herman does not have all of the anti-hacking defenses we have in our suits. Why have that on Mars? Especially when we know everyone here. However, he does have radio and audio inputs."

"Maybe we ought to pick up our pace," Shamus remarked. "While Herman is no longer a war machine, nevertheless he is very strong and I would not want the others to have to fend him off."

The two men stood up. As they started walking Tom added, "We should probably come up with a plan if we need to assist in a defense. We can discuss it on the way."

27.7

There were only 15 minutes left in Daria's two hour window when she got off the radio with Mia. The conversation had been intense and that on top of Daria's anxiety about Tom was taking its toll.

Next, she switched to local communication mode. "Tom it's Daria. Come in." She repeated the message three times.

The next 30 seconds seemed like a year. Then she heard, "Daria it's Tom. We are alright and should be back at the rover in about 15 minutes. Is Herman there and are you OK?"

"Yes. Herman is here," Daria answered. "We will talk when you get back in here."

"Good," Tom responded. "By the way, pull out the analgesics. Shamus and I both have serious headaches."

"Will do. See you in a few. Daria out." Daria sat back and relaxed for the first time in what felt like days. Assured that Tom was OK and having worked out a plan with MIa it was time for Daria to relax.

It was about 12 minutes later when Daria heard the airlock cycle and Tom and Shamus came in. Daria jumped up and gave Tom a massive hug and kiss.

"My," Tom said in his imitation of Daria's deadpan. "A greeting like this is almost worth getting this headache. Too bad I have a headache."

Daria kissed him again. Then she punched him in the arm. "You had me scared to death. I was afraid you were dead. When Herman showed up - by the way his name is now Marcipor - and you two weren't with him I was very worried. He said you were OK, but I didn't know whether to believe him or not."

"What did you say Herman's new name was?" Shamus asked.

"Marcipor," Daria replied.

Shamus stroked his chin and said, "Interesting."

Daria looked at him intensely, "Why do you say that?"

"Well, it means 'Marcus' Slave' in the old Roman naming system. The question becomes 'Who is Marcus?' And why does Herman identify as his slave?"

"Herman is no longer Herman," Daria stated. "He was completely reprogrammed by the aliens."

Tom turned to Shamus, "Well, that explains the data stream you detected."

"It was used to reprogram our robot," Shamus mused.

Ian jumped in and added, "Not just reporgram. He has been reconfigured. This robot is now far more intelligent, articulate, and has been given a vast database regarding us both here on Mars and back on Earth. He almost seems intelligent in his own right."

Daria handed both Tom and Shamus some painkillers and then began filling them in on Marcipor and what had transpired.

27.8

Marcipor assisted as Daria and the others were deflating and stowing the portable habitat. Her mind wandered as she pondered everything that had happened over the last 24 hours. Indeed over the past few days. The finding of the alien base and the transition of Herman into Marcipor.

Last evening Mia had held a conference call with the group. Something this big had to be discussed with the Martian Council. They had agreed to hold their first ever secret session. Fortunately they were all good people and loyal to Mars.

A clear decision had been reached. Mars would keep the alien technology for itself and not hand it over to Earth. For the time being the mere existence of aliens and alien technology would be treated as secret with only a few having access to it. Furthermore, whatever came from Marcipor would all be handled as secret, compartmentalized information. Only a very few would see the full picture. This included Mia as commander, Daria as archiveist, a physicist, and an engineer. Daria would have the task of creating a secure archive that would not be accessible from Earth and would only dispense information to authorized people.

Mia had gone on to tell the group that she had submitted her retirement papers to the Army, but was staying with the Mars project. She was now a civilian and so was her husband. That simplified her chain of command. She expected to finish out her term as commander. She and her husband were considering being the first people to stay on Mars permanently. That decision was a few years away, however they had elected to stay through another 5 year contract.

Marcipor's assistance really speeded up the packing process. He was much more useful than Herman. It still lurked in the back of Daria's mind that he could be more dangerous as well. Still, so far he showed no signs of ill will.

Daria took her seat in the rover as Ian was securing the airlock. It definitely felt more crowded than on the way out. Nevertheless there was plenty of air water and food for everyone for what was going to be a two day trek.

The rover lurched a bit as Tom engaged the drive system and in a few moments they emerged into the Martian sunshine. Daria noticed she immediately felt better seeing the sun than she had after days inside the lava tube. Looking out her window Daria could see Marcipor following the rover on foot. At least he seemed to have no problem keeping up. Even if he did have difficulty maintaining this speed, he would catch up when they stopped for the night. Afterall, robots don't need to sleep. Watching Marcipor through the window Daria thought, 'If robots did sleep would they dream electric dreams?'