Dangerous Knowledge (Part V of The Thrones of Mars Series)

Dangerous Knowledge by Lloyd R R Martin

Thrones of Mars

Book 5

Dangerous Knowledge

Contents

Chapter 1 Death by Name

Chapter 2 Des Moines

Chapter 3 Boise, Idaho

Chapter 4 Comaro

Chapter 5 The Jedi Transition

Chapter 6 The Hilbert Transformation

Chapter 7 Zoo

Chapter 8 Is the Secret Out?

Chapter 9 Helix

Chapter 10 Clover Leaf Battle

Chapter 11 Vargas Returns

Chapter 12 Steve Luke

Chapter 13 Redstone Arsenal

Chapter 14 The Clan Almost Complete

Chapter 15 The Alamo

Chapter 16 Totem

Chapter 17 Phoenix

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The astronauts from Mars have returned to the Earth only to find devastation caused by the Tsunami from the Canary Isles – the Capital had to be moved to Chicago. Most of Florida was wiped out – including a lot of NASA. The re-entry was difficult to say the least. Now they are pretty well alone.

Chapter One

Death by Name

Preston Ashton looked briefly out of the window as the Earth drew nearer and nearer to his craft. A few hundred feet away he saw the second module piloted by Jake Jensen.

In monosyllabic tones Ash said,

‘Drifting north.’

Curved multi-bladed rotors with simple rocket motors at their tips sliced through the air above the modules. Bigger rocket motors beneath them fired to slow the descent.

Long probes attached to the legs reached down, waiting to touch the Earth.

As a probe touched the ground a light came on in Ash’s panel.

‘Pythagoras, first contact.’

Seconds later, Jake said,

‘Euclid, first Contact.’

One point five seconds later the rockets beneath the modules cut out.

Inverted cups on the ends of the legs touched the desert floor. Oleos within the legs further cushioned the impact of landing, and then levelled the modules up.

The dust settled around the two landers.

Jake finished the shut-down procedures. He turned to Galina Danilenko. They both smiled like they had not done in a long time. There was not enough room in the module for them to reach other, but they managed to touch hands.

She said,

‘What is it that you are looking forward to most?’

Jake thought for a few seconds whilst he threw the last switches, and checked readings,

‘I suppose it’s driving through the outskirts of a city after dark. Looking at the houses with warm lights in their windows; knowing that there were people in those houses, and wondering what kind of people are living there.

It was early morning in Death Valley, the temperature was already climbing. As the returning astronauts emerged from their vehicles they felt genuine wind for the first time in over three years.

Ash pointed at the burned-out wreck that was once a pickup truck,

‘Over there – what’s that?’

As Ash climbed down the steps to the desert floor, Jake emerged from the second capsule.

‘Christ, this looks worse than Mars!’ he remarked as Galina pushed her head under his arm to get a view.

‘At least there are no robots trying to kill us.’

‘They are not needed out here … how are we supposed to survive? No water, no food, not much shelter.’

‘We are not alone.’ Ash said, pointing to two figures near a burnt-out truck.

As Michelle dismounted from the truck her cell-phone rang. She knew it could only be one person out there – Semeramis.

‘Hi.’

‘Hi Michelle. Are you and Tom ok?’

‘Yes, I think so.’ Michelle looked at Tom, ‘You ok?’

He nodded, holding his ribs,

‘Slept in a funny position.’

‘We are better than we would have expected.’ Michelle said to the phone.

‘Don’t worry. Help is on its way.’

Michelle looked at the two conical modules on the desert floor.

‘I think I can see what you mean.’

‘No. they are the returning astronauts – they are also in need of rescuing. There are Marines on their way in to you.’

Hoshi Masuto followed Ash from the first capsule as the four astronauts made their way to the people by the truck.

Tom was standing alongside Michelle, he was having difficulty moving, and breathing was hard for him, so they stayed where they were.

As the four astronauts walked towards the truck, Michelle could not wait any longer. She ran to Ash, who took her in his arms. The warm embrace was welcome in the cool air. The red and white dress had certainly seen better days – it was not thick enough to keep Michelle warm, the shiver she felt could also have been excitement at seeing Ash again after all this time. They kissed passionately as Hoshi saw that Tom was in difficulty.

Jake, Hoshi and Galina sat Tom on a rock as he struggled for breath. He waved them away to signal that he thought there was nothing wrong. His breath came in short pants like someone suffering an asthma attack. Presently he smiled as he looked at his returned comrades.

‘What the hell have you been up to?’ he said to Ash.

Ash replied,

‘You would not believe it.’

Galina heard sounds coming from the distance. She scanned around to see what it was. Presently she saw three black dots shimmering above the horizon. As they slowly drew closer it was soon recognised that they were V-22 Osprey rotorcraft.

The V-22 Osprey is a strange looking aircraft – it is like a normal aircraft, but with helicopter engines and rotors on the wing tips. These can be pivoted - so that the rotors first lift the craft straight up - and then move to give forward thrust, and it continues like a normal aeroplane. To land it must pivot the engine and rotor outfits to look like two helicopters, and it lands vertically. Up to 24 troops can be carried.

Inside the lead Osprey,

‘Throttling back. Rotating engines to 60 degrees.’ US Marine Major Nalini Singh prepared for landing.

As the gigantic engines on the wing-tips rotated, they began bringing the propeller discs closer to the horizontal.

As she turned above a ridge she saw her target.

Two of the craft stood off as Nalini skilfully landed in a cloud of dust and sand. She allowed the machine to move forwards during the landing procedure to keep abreast of the sandstorm her rotors were kicking up.

The six people by the truck watched in awe as the rotors were feathered, which meant that they kept turning slowly without kicking up too much sand.

The second aircraft came in to land behind Nalini. As it flared it threw more dust and sand forwards towards Nalini’s aircraft. The rotors on the stationary aircraft did not help; the whole aircraft disappeared in a yellow cloud.

Galina looked at the two Ospreys as they came in to land. Far to her right she saw another dot appear. She pointed at this as the others looked on. The new dot was a lone A10 ‘Warthog’. By the time it could be recognised it had opened fire on the two Ospreys that were coming in to land. The rotorcraft did not stand a chance. The murderous fire from the 30mm Gatling cannons firing 65 rounds per second minced the Ospreys instantly.

Explosions and fires followed.

Nalini spun round in her seat to see through the open ramp what had happened to her comrades.

The spectators watched in disbelief as the A10 banked round for another pass.

… … … … … …

An industrial complex just outside Des Moines was where Xanthros had established his new control centre. Most of his equipment, and his staff, had been lost in the Tsunami that wiped the Pan Handle off the map. All that remained of Florida and most of Louisiana was now just a series of islands with no infrastructure.

Two engineers, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, were offered the opportunity to move.

As he made sure the door behind them was firmly closed, Tweedle Dum said,

‘Why move from Marshall to go – where?’

‘Des Moines. I think they trying were to find somewhere obscure.’

‘They certainly found it.’

Tweedle Dee shrugged his shoulders,

‘But what operations are there? The Mars mission is over; they lost the whole crew, did they not?’

Tweedle Dum leant over to his pal, almost conspiratorially,

‘I was watching the re-entry. Everything was going just fine and dandy – until insertion to orbit. Then things began to get screwed up. First we lost comms, and then the guidance computers seemed to lose the plot. After that we could only track them on radar for half of the time. We never knew exactly where they would appear from orbiting round the planet.’

‘Did they crash?’

Now it was Tweedle Dum’s turn to shrug,

‘If they did we are not certain exactly where they were – their re-entry was off the scale; the computers could not compute the data fast enough to determine what the changes meant.’

‘And who is running this new show?’

‘Mission Controller Xanthros.’

‘Are you going?’

‘Might as well; there is no likelihood of future employment here.’

There was now a desperate shortage of trusted people who Xanthros could use to help him run his operations.

Xanthros watched on his monitors as the action unfolded. He was also in voice communications with the pilot of the A-10.

As he watched the first approach he said,

‘Take out the elements likely to move away first.’

The pilot, Vargas, replied,

‘Affirmative.’

Xanthros could see through the pilot’s gun sight on one of his monitors as the A-10 began its dive towards the Ospreys lining up to land.

The Ospreys engines on the wing tips began to rotate, and kick up sand as the buzz of the cannon was heard.

These machines contained six Marines, plus medical and rescue equipment, and they cost the American taxpayer 71 million dollars each.

Vargas’s voice was emotionless as he said,

‘Fox Two.’

The Ospreys were destroyed in less than two seconds.

As the A-10 banked to the right the Ospreys crashed to the desert floor. The resulting explosions seemed to deaden everything – the smoke rose without a sound as the six spectators stood in stunned silence.

Xanthros’s screens turned blue as the A-10 lifted its nose above the horizon. Then they went blank altogether.

Even the satellite overview closed down.

‘Control to Bolter. I have lost visual.’

‘Roger that. Moving to the north of target. Two pyramid shaped modules on the right of crash site. Six people moving towards the last Osprey; I missed seeing it in all the dust.’

‘Take out the Osprey, and see if you can take care of the people on the same run.’

‘Roger that. Lining up now.’

The murderous sound of the Gatling cannon came over the airwaves like tearing paper, but much louder.

Vargas called,

‘Osprey destroyed. Six casualties. Collateral damage to modules.’

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Chapter Two

Des Moines

A stubby square building off 64th Street, Des Moines was where Xanthros had set up his new Mission Control.

The enforced move from Florida was not easy. Most of the equipment that NASA had used to set up the original Mission Control was lost in the Tsunami that wiped out most of the State.

Des Moines was chosen because of