Tex works his mind to determine the cause of the light anomalies. He reviews his notes, and he might have some odd activities that don’t line up with this mission.
- PART 1 - PART 2 - PART 3 -
Tex is exhausted. It was a long day of tasks. Laying in bed, his mind swims in the day’s events, and the light anomaly is nagging at him. He reviews everything he can remember to find some kind of idea.
He finally drifts off to sleep. He sleeps hard, and his alarm will wake him at the usual time. As he wakes up, he’s refreshed, it was a good sleep. The only thing he remembers from his dreaming is a light flare being handed to him by the hand of an astronaut. He saw an astronaut’s glove with a light flare, and then his glove received the light flare.
It will be a long day of flash tests. The systems he’s put in place will be tested extensively on site today. They’ll be put under light stress, heat stress, cold stress, and simulated dust storms. Much of the finer workings and the solid state are below grade. Having it underground is probably the best protection they can get.
After breakfast, Tex has inventoried and put away all of the equipment he no longer needs. The place is getting cleared out and organized. He can’t believe the major parts of this mission are complete, and things are being stored away for the next crews that show up here to do maintenance.
After a first round of tests, he contacts Admiral Robson.
“Martian to Ground Control, daylight tests are completed. I’ll make a round of foot checks. I want to request duty suspension until the dark sky tests and checks tonight.”
Robson: “I don’t hear or see any concerns here, Tex. It looks like you sewed everything up pretty well yesterday. Go ahead, then, and take a little R&R.”
Tex: “Well sir, I feel like I want to send that jobber around to the pole. I want to see if I can determine anything about that light grid I saw yesterday.
Robson: “Oh… that… yeah, that’s still a negative, Colonel. We don’t want to use those resources for something unplanned. Stay put. See if you can figure it out from where you are. Who knows, son? It’s a new thing up there. You could be seeing anything. It may just be a trick of the mind, or some kind of space mirage. Don’t get too caught up in it.”
Tex shakes his head. “Yes sir.” He says. “Will commence at dusk with next tests.”
“Robson out.” Says the admiral.
Tex isn’t buying it. He’s able to tell that the admiral is avoiding this situation. It’s not like Robson to be unadventurous. Tex will not send a jobber around the pole. He’s going to take a magnet skiff and chase the dark side of the planet. He’ll go to the pole himself, against the orders of the admiral. This is something he figures the admiral must know about his personality.
Tex gathers up some tools and prepares the skiff. He knows where the tracker for this little vehicle is, and he knows he can disable it, but he doesn’t know if it’s the only tracker. He leaves the primary helmet at the base, uses a back-up helmet, and does not switch out the personal tracker. As far as he knows, he’s going to a much darker area of the planet, without any trackers, and without anyone on earth knowing he’s about to do this.
End Part 4
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