Terra Nova
Mars
Nikolai Kovalev stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to get to the ground level. The elevator didn’t move fast, but it was okay, as he appreciated the few moments he could get for himself.
As the elevator slowly crawled its way upwards, Nikolai began to hum on an old Russian melody he remembered from his childhood. But he couldn’t really remember who it was who used to sing the tune. Was it his mother? Or was it perhaps his grandma?
He usually had difficulty remembering more than vague memories from his childhood, except those about his dad. Those memories were always crystal clear in his mind, and it was a pity he couldn’t completely erase them from his mind. But it was impossible. His father was a cruel man who felt that the answer to his own disappointments in life was to beat up everyone around him, especially his own son. And the memories of him always lingered in the back of his mind as a reminder that the world was an evil and unpleasant place.
Well, there was no need to think about that old man anymore. He had been dead for twenty years now, and the memory of him belonged to another world, a world he had now left forever.
But somewhere deep inside, he wished his dad could see him now, and perhaps be a bit proud of what he had accomplished. Not everyone was the leader of an entire new world. Okay, it wasn’t such a big world yet. But still, it was a world where everyone relied on him, and where no major decisions were made without his consent. He was the leader of humanity’s next step into the future and if you asked him, he was the perfect man for the mission.
He had two university degrees. One as an electrical engineer and one in basic physics. Maybe not something to boast about? Almost everyone on this planet had at least one university degree. But education wasn’t everything. Few, if any, of all these engineers, biologists, physicists, and doctors would be able to survive more than a day at his job. They simply wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure and stress he was exposed to on a daily basis.
Luckily for them I am of the right stuff, he thought and smiled while he continued humming on the old melody. As he saw it, there were very few people who had the ability to lead other people. Most people probably thought they had that ability, but then they didn’t know what leadership was about.
It’s not just about giving orders and expecting people to follow them. Most people will follow orders without any reflection, if the person giving the order is higher in rank, at least initially. But if you aren’t a real leader, you will get into trouble sooner or later. Someone may begin to question a decision. Someone else believes they know better and start making their own decisions. Then it won’t be long before you have to deal with a completely uncontrollable situation. Something you absolutely don’t want to be involved in when you are in an environment where a single mistake can have terrible consequences.
He understood that he was a leader early on in life. At school he noticed that everyone was listening to him as soon as he opened his mouth. Few tried to speak against him, and if they did, he could quickly convince them to accept his arguments in the matter. It was ridiculously easy to convince people that he was right, and to get them to follow his lead, and sometimes he almost got the feeling that people were afraid of him. But why would they be? He had hardly ever exercised any physical violence or even threaten with it. People just respected him, probably because of his charisma, his intellect and his good ability to argue.
But in order to lead an entire colony on an inhospitable and deadly environment like Mars, it required of course more than that. He also had to surround himself with the right kind of people. People that he trusted and who followed his orders without questioning them.
It was almost the hardest part of the leadership, Nikolai thought. Could you really trust anyone? Probably not. Still, he had to do it. Therefore, it was important to be a master at getting to know people and understand why they behaved as they did in different situations. And above all, he had to be a master at spotting their weaknesses. Once he did, he had to know how to use this knowledge in such a way that it served his purposes. Of course, it was cynical. But it was the only right thing to do. He was a born leader, and he just acted in the way that was necessary to make this new world work as smoothly as possible.
The elevator slowed down, and he looked in the mirror and pulled his hand a few times through his thick dark hair and then straightened his tie. He seldom wore his uniform. Instead, he almost always used the more comfortable and practical overalls. But now he was on his way to the communication-center and it was likely he would have to send a message back to Earth, and on such occasions, he always wanted to give a trim and correct impression.
The doors opened with a faint hissing and he stepped into a narrow corridor that ran around the entire ground floor in a circle and in that way connected all the different modules. He decided to take the slightly longer way to the left, because he wanted to make a quick stop at the greenhouse. Maybe he could find Chen over there and get a short briefing about the progress of the construction of the new greenhouse. During the last years, several cargo ships had arrived with new building materials from the Earth, and hopefully the new greenhouse would be ready just as the last colonizers arrived.
But hopefully was the wrong word. The new greenhouse must be ready when everyone was in place. With several hundred new mouths to feed, there was no alternative. If the greenhouse is not completed on time, they would soon be starving.
The food supply was clearly the weakest link in this project. Other sections could be flawed or even broken, and they would still manage to survive in one way or another. But if something went wrong with the greenhouses, they would soon begin to starve, and people would probably start to die before rescue came after maybe seven to eight months.
Nikolai greeted everyone he met in the corridor with their names. He had decided to memorize the name of every citizen in the colony with the idea that it would strengthen his leadership. Everyone would feel that they were important.
After five minutes, he arrived at the cultivation center. He hoped to find Chen somewhere nearby and entered greenhouse 1, which was the single largest module on the colony. The moisture and heat immediately hit him as he entered. I wonder if the uniform can withstand the moisture? he thought anxiously and quickly closed the door behind him. It doesn’t look good if I have to send a message to Earth in a wrinkled uniform. He looked around, and as he thought, Chen was there. He was standing by the potato farms and engaged in an intense discussion with two people.
"Chen!" Nikolai shouted as loudly as he could to override the noise from the ventilation system.
Chen turned around and nodded at Nikolai while holding up a finger at him to show him to wait a minute, and then faced the other two again. It seemed to be a serious discussion as Chen gesticulated and pointed aggressively over the rows of potato plants. After a while, they seemed to agree and Chen started walking towards Nikolai, while the other two left in a different direction.
"It looks like you have some problems with your staff Chen." Nikolai said when Chen arrived. "With that body language I would almost guess that the whole potato harvest is about to molder away."
"Ha, very funny Nikolai. Peter and Claudia wanted to try some new ideas about how to harvest the potatoes, and I just made it clear to them that there’s no room for "testing things," that the routines we have developed are the ones we apply."
Chen wiped away some moisture from his forehead with his sleeve and continued.
"Anyway, what’s on your mind, Nikolai? Aren’t you mostly down at the lower levels these days, monitoring the construction of the housing modules?... And what a nice outfit! Are you going on a date? Is it Andrea? I heard a rumor that she is available now, that she and Martin broke up a few weeks ago."
Nikolai ignored Chen's comments. Although he was a well-known pain in the ass, he was also reliable, and one of those few people who always did as he was told without any fuss.
"As you said, I have a lot to do with the new housing modules. We have dug out two new corridors on level four and we must finish two more within the next two weeks. I thought you managed yourselves up here without my involvement. But it almost sounds like you miss me? Maybe I should pay you a visit a bit more often?"
Chen immediately got a nervous look in his eyes and muttered, "No, no, there’s no need to. Everything is under control..." He went quiet and stared anxiously at Nikolai. Nikolai stared back without saying anything. After a few seconds, Chen continued a bit hesitant.
"Well, I guess you want a report while you’re here?"
"Yes, Chen, it would be nice," Nikolai said calmly.
"Okay, so this is the case. Greenhouse 1 works like a clockwork. The wastage is minimal, and we actually get out more calories per square meter than we first expected. As for the construction of greenhouse 2, we keep the schedule. There isn’t much left to do and as soon as the last ships arrive with the remaining components, we will finish it."
"That was just what I wanted to hear, Chen. Well done! And our food supply? Do we have good margins until greenhouse 2 starts to produce?"
"According to the latest inventory, we will manage until then. When the last ship arrives, it will only take a week to finish the construction, and after two to three months we will be able to harvest the first crops. There should be no need for some sort of rationing if you ask me. We have enough food. If nothing unexpected happens, there’s no need to worry."
Of course, there’s no need to worry if everything is flowing smoothly, Nikolai thought. But I always have to take into account that things can go wrong at any time. And if there is something I’ve learned through the years it’s just that. When you least expect it, you have to deal with something unforeseen.
He put his hand on Chen's shoulder
"Well, it sounds like you have everything under control. The spaceships are many months away, so we have plenty of time to prepare."
"Regarding the spaceships," Chen said smirking. "I’ve heard that your best friend Emma Harrison is on the first incoming ship. You must have longed to finally meet her in person?"
"Ha, very funny, Chen! But don’t worry, I’ll handle her when she gets here. She knows the rules and I’m sure that I won’t have any problems with her.... Okay Chen, I’m not going to disturb you anymore, I must hurry to the communication-center now. Any message you want me to send back to Earth? Maybe a letter to your little mommy?"
"No, no, it’s not necessary… But say hello to your sweet sister from me, will you?"
Chen smiled and showed off his perfect white teeth and for a second Nikolai had to hold back the impulse of crushing them with his fist.
"Yes of course, I will do that. Is there anything special you want me to say to her?"
"Eh, well... no, just say hello from me, that’s enough…"
"Okay then… if you say so. I have to leave now. Inform me immediately if any problems arise."
He turned around and left without waiting for an answer. What an irritating bastard he is. But so far, he had proved himself loyal and he had always done what he promised to do. However, he had a good point when it came to Emma. She could be a problem. The few times he had to deal with her had always ended up in a confrontation between them. She was probably one of the few people he couldn’t dominate as he wanted. And now she was on her way here. Fortunately, I have found a solution to the problem, he thought and smiled. He left the greenhouse, walked out into the corridor and went toward the communication-center. As he walked through the corridor, he began to hum on that old Russian melody again. She will not be happy about my decision, he thought, but for my part it will become much easier to handle her.
*
Nikolai entered the communication-center without anyone noticing him. Ali sat with his feet on the table and watched his computer screen with a bored look on his face, while Elvira sat in front of one of the other screens with her eyes closed.
"Don’t let me interrupt your hard work!"
Both Ali and Elvira jumped up in their chairs and especially Ali had a hard time hiding his shameful look. However, he quickly tried to take control of the situation.
"Hello boss, I was just taking a small break while waiting for the broadcast from Earth to finish. It should be ready at any time now."
"Yes, yes, I understand, take it easy, Ali."
Nikolai put a hand on Ali's shoulder and sat down in the chair next to Elvira and said, "How many messages are there?"
"It’s actually two incoming this time, sir."
She scrolled down a bit on the screen.
"The last one is encrypted, highest class. Only for you then boss. It will be finished in a minute or two."
She glanced at Nikolai.
"Do you want me to play the first message right away, or do you what me to send it directly to the board?"
The message could wait. It was probably just suggestions for improvements calculated by scientists back on Earth. It was of course good that they didn’t had to figure out everything by themselves, but the suggestions were mostly addressed to the individual managers in each area. The message also contained a whole bunch of private messages from friends and relatives. But these were sent directly to each tablet and was nothing to put any weight on.
"You can just as well send it directly to the board. There is a meeting tomorrow and we can deal with it then… Will you transfer the other encrypted message on my tablet, please?"
"Sure," Elvira said. "Can you open your tablet for transfer?"
Nikolai pressed his thumb on the tablet and then nodded lightly to Elvira and after a few seconds she replied, "It’s done, boss!"
"Thanks Elvira! I'll be back in half an hour. Make sure John is here then. And make sure he has the recording-gear up and ready."
"Of course, no problem boss. He’s having lunch now and will probably be back in time."
"Great, see you later then!"
Nikolai tried to behave as calm as he possibly could as he didn’t want them to notice the tension he felt. It was always worrying to receive encrypted messages of the highest security class. Last time, the earthlings had come to the conclusion that there was something wrong with cooling systems of the nuclear plant. Not that they had risked a meltdown in the near future, but if the problem wasn’t corrected, the risk of a total shutdown of the reactor was imminent in the long run. Luckily, there were plenty of smart engineers here on Mars. They solved it quite fast, but during the course of the work, they had no power from the reactor for a whole week and the solar panels gave only enough energy for the most basic needs. Hopefully it was nothing that serious this time.
It wasn’t easy to get any privacy on Mars. He could of course go all the way down to his own housing module, but he didn’t really have the time and hoped that one of the small offices that were connected to the communication center were vacant. He looked into the first room and found Andrea sitting there, busy writing on her computer.
"Hi, Andrea!" he said cheerfully.
She flinched and turned around and smiled when she saw him.
"Hi, Nikolai! Nice to see you. It’s been a while since you payed us a visit. But I guess you have been busy working with… Amazing outfit by the way! Something special going on today?"
"I have to send some messages to Earth later today and thought that it would be a good idea to show the earthlings my best side."
He symbolically straightened the tie while smiling at her.
"Yes, it looks really nice on you Nikolai," Andrea said and smiled back.
"Thank you, Andrea!" Nikolai hesitated for a second and then continued. "Are any of the other offices available? I have to go through some classified stuff and are in the need of some peace and quiet."
"You can take any of them, it’s just me here right now. Peter and Roger are on their lunch break."
She smiled again and Nikolai hesitated again before he answered, "Great! I’ll take room number three then. Make sure I am not disturbed!"
"Sure, I'll do that Nikolai, and good luck with the transfer to Earth later."
He left the room and while he was walking through the corridor, he couldn’t help but smile. There was something about Andreas' style that appealed to him, and now, according to Chen, she was single. Maybe he could ask her out on a date? But in the same moment he contemplated the thought, he realized what a stupid idea it was.
It was of course impossible. Where would they go on a date on this planet? The colony hardly offered any opportunity to be private and everyone would find out what was going on right away. I have to cool down, he thought. As the highest leader of the colony, I have everyone's eyes on me.
When he entered the empty office, he immediately sat down in the nearest chair and opened the encrypted message. To his surprise it was not a video recording, but only a short text message from the chairman of the space board, Michael Greenstone.
Dear Nikolai!
I will keep this short and go straight to the point as we earthlings have been, to say the least, busy right now. I don’t even have time to write this really, but you have of course the right to find out about the situation.
This is how it is.
A week ago, NAAW found out that a comet with a diameter of six kilometers, is about to strike Earth in sixteen days (nine days when you read this). I know it sounds like a bad joke, since all major objects that could be considered a danger to Earth have been mapped out a long time ago, but in this case, it was a so-called dark comet. It’s a comet where all the ice has long ago evaporated and the only thing left is a dark lump of hard stone. And the fact that it was a long-periodic comet made it even more impossible to discover until it was too late. When an amateur astronomer discovered the comet, it was, as I said, just sixteen days before impact.
Not much time to work with. Using mirrors or lasers to change its path was no option. In order for it to work, we had to find it years before impact. Our only hope now is rockets packed with H-bombs. But it’s probably not enough. The most likely outcome is that we will break it into smaller pieces and that these pieces will hit us anyway.
The consequences are indeterminate. What we can know for sure is that billions of people will die in conjunction with the impact (or impacts), and what happens after that is up to the gods. There’s clearly a great risk that photosynthesis will be eliminated for a while and that Earth’s temperature will drop drastically. It’s also very likely that the impact will cause electromagnetic pulses that will knock out every electronic device on the whole planet. From one second to another, we are thrown back to the pre-industrial era.
The only thing that we can be sure of is that the survivors will starve. Perhaps this is the end of humanity, perhaps not, it is impossible to say.
For your part, this means that all communication with Earth will end in nine days. After that you will be completely left on your own. If it gets really bad, you might be the last of what’s left of humanity along with the two ships that are already on their way to Mars. Hopefully this is not the case. Maybe we can recover and someday resume contact with you. But don't count on it. Although millions of people might survive, we may have to start from scratch altogether.
I understand that you will be in trouble as you await necessary building material for your second greenhouse with the last ships that haven’t yet left Earth. But hopefully you will solve it in some way.
I don't know what more to say Nikolai…
Good luck and may god help us all!
Michael Greenstone
Nikolai read the message over and over again. It can’t be true, he thought. Has Michael gone crazy? But at the same time, he knew Michael was always trustworthy, so it must be true. Are we done too? Can we survive? Can we produce enough food? Material? Energy? The thoughts run back and forth, and he felt that unpleasant pressure in his chest that always appeared when he felt he was under stress. He took some deep breaths hoping it would help, but the pressure didn’t go away.
"No, get a hold of yourself Nikolai!" he said loudly and straightened himself up in the chair while taking some deep breaths. "Am I a leader or that pathetic little wimp my dad always thought I was!?"
Suddenly his eyes darkened. He rose quickly from the chair, picked up the tablet and walked with resolute steps toward the communication room. When he arrived, he stuck his head through the door opening and said with a clear and firm voice, "Elvira! Send a message to all first rank managers in each section that they should be in the conference room in ten minutes. Then I want you to send a general message to every citizen that they must come to the big dining hall at 19:00. Only those who have duties that cannot be left unmanned may abstain. Make sure no one misses this. Understood!"
Elvira looked terrified, and just nodded while she started writing on her keyboard.
"But boss," Ali said worriedly. "What about the transmission to Earth? Should we do it later?"
"We’ll do it later Ali... And don’t just sit there, help Elvira instead!"
He left the room and went on through the corridor with quick steps. I can just as well make sure to be the first man in place at the conference room, he thought. But then he suddenly slowed down and stopped. Why hurry? It would only give the impression that I’m nervous and can’t handle the situation. I’m the one sitting on the information, and they can’t do anything before I get there… I can just as well let them wait a while. Show them who’s in control!
He clasped his hands behind his back and felt a calm feeling spreading through his body, while that old Russian melody began to play in his head again. He smiled slightly as he slowly walked through the corridor. This is the ultimate opportunity to show everyone that I’m the leader I’m meant to be, he thought. Everything is going to be okay. This is my world now. Finally!