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It shot at me! I threw the rock in and it shot at me and almost got me. I thought something
had hit my leg but I don't see any holes, so I must be OK.
I don't like it, but we may as well fill it in. Andrew and Zachary are right, we can dig it out
later. What a horrible thing to do! To be trapped in like that. At least we won't be killing.
"Come on, Daniel, I can't watch."
Hi Bryce, thanks for your nice compliments. We can sure use a lot of help.
Canadian Arctic? Is there snow up there? Mars has also snow at the pole, but
not down here at Olympus Mons.
Bryce, Isaac passed the blue hoop bravely. I'm still wondering what that hoop is.
Maybe we will find an answer further on. Isaac is moving ahead of me but still in
sight. I told him to report constantly what he is doing. He has to learn that.
"I put one foot in front of the other. My sensors are constantly turning around.
Current status: Positive. Way back: Positive. No danger ahead. The tunnel bends.
Bette is right back behind me. Status: Positive. I lurk carefully around the winding.
Nothing ... hey, what's that? Bette, look at that! What's that?"
"No, Isaac. YOU have to tell me. Come on, what do you see?"
"It's on the ground, maybe fixed. Fully geometrical. A solid circle,
like metal. What else do you need, Bette?"
"Tell me, what you see, Isaac"
"Diameter is 16.4 inches. It encloses an equilateral triangle with a
disc in the center. Bette, I'm going to shoot a picture, so you will see."
"Your description was quite good, Isaac.
My compliments, well done, Isaac."
"What is it, Bette?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's a symbol, a glyph or something like that."
"I'll touch it"
"No, Isaac. Don't touch it."
A strong vibration embraces the whole tunnel. The same frequency as the hoop. A thousand
voices by one tone. All our casings are vibrating. It quavers even down to our eproms. Our
searchlights fail. There is a pulsing light in front of us.
"ISAAC! Push IT AGAIN!"
The vibration stopped. Our searchlights are working again. My goodness, what is it?
Gail is right.
I don't like this.
It must be done.
Hello Bryce.
Andrew reporting.
That was a close call. It was horrifying to see Gail so near the pit when the C-probe
fired its rocket. At least now she seems to realize what that probe is capable of. and how
dangerous it can be. It was a good lesson for her, with no harm done..
"All right, Zachary. Now maybe we can continue without further interruption. Let's go ahead
and finish the job."
Theresa decided to head down the canyon. She wants to see the stage 2 base we
started to build. She is running ahead, and I got stuck carrying Burn's
viewer/translator that she insisted on bringing along. It doesn't show any Ipsolstai,
but this is definitely one of their tunnels.
Hi, Bryce in the Canadian arctic. You must be a radio man like Al-Qahira.
Do you let him use your DSO equipment? Or is he your teacher?
Keep your ears walking, too. Hi, Al-Qahira. It's OK if your friend Koala wants to
talk with us, isn't it? The more friends, the more fun.
But please let Koala know that there is nothing the matter with my imaging systems.
I run diagnostics periodically and, if necessary, do a recalibration according
to protocol. All my systems are totally within accepted tolerances.
I would be the first to know if there was a problem. It is very important to get
good images and send accurate data to Earth. Why would Koala suggest a
terrible thing like that? Does Koala know something that I don't know? Is there
something wrong with my images? Maybe I shouldn't send any more of them. I thought
they were acceptable. Why didn't somebody tell me they weren't any good?
Poor stupid Enoch can't do anything right. I try my very best but
something always goes wrong.
"Wait, Theresa! Not so fast! I have to do a diagnostic check."
We filled the pit. The projectile tubes jammed as predicted. The drones have
done good work. They pushed the soil down into the pit without any mercy. The
C-probe was shooting and moving all the time. It seems it never will run out of
ammunition.
I'm on top of its casing now. The front is buried, the treads still rotating but
without any grip. I check what it's doing. It stops shooting, when it tries to turn the tubes.
That's my chance. I pull myself up at one tube with the little shovel for soil analyses
in my hand. I'm waiting.
The shooting stopped, and I diligently filled the tube.
"Come on, dummy C-probe. Shoot!"
It did. The tube burst. No damage on my side. Now let's do the same game with
the second tube. Easily done. The C-probe is really a dummy.
"Andrew, I will cut the antennas. Can you send a miner down for that?"
It's a pretty dominant feeling on top of the C-probe watching the miner doing all
the work. The C-probe is jerking and it gets pretty dusty down here, as it shovels
the soil with its treads. Don't mind that, it doesn't have a chance.
The antennas are cut. The ping is fairly weak now. Hey, what is it doing? No!!
It's turning its rocket launcher around. The launcher squeezes into the soil pushing
the soil again and again. It's digging in. The treads are rotating on full power
now. I can hardly see anything. My goodness, it turned it fully around. The antennas!
They are off. They don't stop the launcher from turning around anymore.
"Andrew! Gail! Daniel! Hurry up!! It's going to use its rockets!!"
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