I suppose that I will never know how my previous radio transmission
had reached Mars. The ISS’s R/T was normally only powerful enough to
communicate with Earth or maybe as far as the moon in the right conditions. To
reach Mars would have been impossible, I would have thought, until it happened!
I actually wasn’t even sending a message to the Albatross, in fact. Although I knew the Earth and our fellow humans
were finished, I still tried to raise Flight Control on the radio from time to
time. It was the last such message that Albatross
had intercepted and replied to. I had sat there waiting for a reply for
fifteen minutes—as I always did—when I received one from a totally unexpected
source. A glimmer of hope appeared on my horizon until Drew told me that they
had touched down on Mars months ago. That glimmer of hope was suddenly snuffed
out like a weak and sputtering candle in a hurricane…until Drew’s last message
had come through. What a wonderful surprise—I could scarcely believe it. They
were going to risk their lives on a foolhardy, extremely dangerous journey in
which Drew and a crewmate would pick us all up and take us back with them to
Mars. And in an alien ship they had found on Mars, no less! If Drew could pull
this off he would be giving my crew a chance at life and a future, instead of
dying in six months time in a tin can orbiting around a dead planet in the dark
coldness of space. I fully realized how hard a life it would be fighting for
survival on a hostile and alien planet, but I had never shied away from a
difficult task, and after all, this was a chance to live. I silently wished
Drew and his crew Godspeed and the best of luck. I thought of actually
transmitting this message but knew that Drew wouldn’t hear it, as he would be
busily preparing for the mission. I then suddenly realized that I needed to advise
the rest of the crew of the latest developments. I hadn’t told the crew of my
radio contact with Drew on board the Albatross
yet as I didn’t want to raise their hopes only to have them dashed. Now
seemed like a pretty good time to let them know so I switched the radio to the ship’s
intercom channel and then looked around for the mike before realizing that I
was still holding it.
“Attention all crew, please meet me in the
common room as soon as possible. I have great news.”
I then hung up the mike and rose to leave,
pausing long enough to switch the radio back to two-way R/T communications
before heading to the common room.
I found that the rest of the crew had
already assembled and they looked up at me expectantly as I walked into the
room. I started pacing back and forth as I spoke.
(Drew
and Nick would be very surprised when they met Vladimir because he possessed
many of the qualities and personality traits of their old friend Holly.)
“Thank you for being so prompt. In the last
twelve hours I have been in radio communications with a member of the Albatross crew on Mars, a man by the
name of Drew.”
I paused as the sound of a huge, communal
intake of breath filled the small room; then I held up my hand to still the
fusillade of questions being fired at me by the crew. I went on to tell them of
the series of occurrences that had led to that amazing contact.
“The Albatross
landed on Mars two and a half months ago,”—the crew’s previous communal
intake of breath was now expelled as a communal groan—“but Drew has consulted
with the rest of his crew and they have agreed to mount a rescue mission to
pick us up and take us back to their base on Mars.”
I raised my hand once more to silence the
crew so I could finish telling them all of it.
“Drew and another crew member will be
launching from Mars in the next two days and heading our way.”
I paused to allow a question from Yelena.
“How long will it take them to reach us?” she asked.
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