Forever

By J.R. Bacon

FOREVER IS THE LAST BOOK IN THE BIRTH OF THE GODS SERIES.

Hal Steiner sees his Mars Colonization Mission as a way to promote Steiner Industries. He has already sent astronauts to Mars. They prepared some of the operational structures for the future colony. This has given him lots of media coverage. Yet, there are serious challe

• Language: English
• Publisher: On the Write Path Publishing
• Release date: Sep 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638374534

J.R. Bacon

John Bacon grew up along the shores of Lake Champlain in the Adirondacks of northern New Champlain in the Adirondacks of northern New Champlain in the Adirondacks of northern New York. At age seventeen he dreamed of becoming a writer. He started his college education at the University of New York in Albany and finished at Adrian College in southern Michigan. After graduate school at Wayne State University in Detroit, John taught English in Farmington, Michigan for thirty-three years. He started his writing career when he retired. He has three children and six grandchildren. John resides in Florida.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

The Strange Find

Base Alpha

Borealis Basin

Mars

Tuesday, February 13, 2048

11:42 p.m. EST (Earth)

L

ieutenant Tony Leonardo stood at the entrance to the Mars headquarters building. It was called Mars HQ but that was kind of funny actually. It was just this large tent with a plastic floor and a titanium roof, both pieced together out of panels one meter long and twenty centimeters wide. The titanium roof was protection from meteorites.

When the colony got here, they had to put up a large sleeping quarters tent, as well as a hydroponic garden.

He didn’t envy those people. They would be here for the rest of their lives. He supposed you could get used to this barren desert environment, but he would rather be back on Earth.

Tony turned to look at Olympus Mons. He was always impressed by the size of that thing. Kind of weird – this monster mountain. Mars was a strange place.

Well, he had to get inside. He had to show Captain Winfield what he had found. Tony bent down and unzipped upward the flap to the air shelter. Then he held the flap back and stepped inside.

He rose to full height and zipped down the flap. Hey, Jerry, you wouldn’t believe what I found.

A six-pack of beer? said Winfield’s voice over the radio system.

A whole case.

Don’t keep me waiting, Tony. You know I don’t like waiting.

Bones.

Talk about coincidences.

What’s the coincidence?

I found a skull.

No shit?

Yup. And it’s human … or was. Here, take a look.

Tony Leonardo focused on the clear plastic wall of the decompression chamber. Beyond it was another room with an air supply. That’s where Jerry Winfield was standing.

It was a skull for sure, really dark brown in color. It was hard to see the details because it was inside a clear plastic bag. But it was a skull. Hey, Jerry, I have a question.

Shoot.

What in the hell are human bones doing on Mars? What I have in my bag looks like finger bones … human finger bones. What the hell are they doing on this godforsaken planet?

"That’s the million dollar question. Well, when it comes to this mission, I’d have to say the trillion dollar question.

Hey, Tony, you’d better get yourself in here. We have to book on out of this place in just over four hours.

Be right in.

The decompression chamber was the next area. Before he went in there, Tony had things to do. He put down the sealed bag of material he had found. He carefully placed it in the hard plastic bottom of the tent, and then pulled off his gloves.

It was quite a bit warmer in here, but there still wasn’t any air to breathe so he had to keep his helmet on. He would take off his helmet in the decompression chamber.

Winfield turned and faced the wall again. You know what, Tony. Something doesn’t work here. You were digging a long way from where I was. Why would the bones be scattered? There aren’t any predators to tear up a body and scatter bones.

Tony shrugged. Maybe not the same person. But I really don’t get it. How the hell are there human bones on Mars? It doesn’t make any goddamned sense.

Damned if I know. Tell you what … why don’t you go through the decompression chamber and come inside.

Will do. The first thing Lieutenant Leonardo did was to check the seal of his bag. They weren’t sure if there might be bacteria on the surface of Mars, or even beneath the surface, so they had to be careful about exposing themselves to anything they found here.

He and Jerry had been digging in two separate areas today – maybe a couple hundred meters apart, looking for anything unusual and both of them had found bones. Go figure. Bones on Mars?

The seal on the bag was tight. Tony stuffed his gloves into his pockets on both sides of his insulated suit, and then moved across to the titanium door in the plastic wall of the decompression chamber.

Actually, they weren’t decompressing like in space where there’s no air, but they had to have a room where they could convert from the thin air on Mars to air that was breathable.

He spun the small wheel on the right side of the door. Then he pulled the door open and stepped inside. He placed the sealed plastic bag on the floor inside the decompression chamber and pulled the door shut.

Tony spun the wheel to the right until it wouldn’t move any farther. Now the room was sealed.

He reached over to the wall to the left of the door and turned a silver lever upward.

There was a gauge above the lever. He watched as the numbers rolled upward until they reached twenty.

Then he placed both of his hands on his titanium helmet and twisted to the left.

There was a puff and air was hissing. Lieutenant Leonardo lifted off the helmet and put it on the floor.

Then he reached up to his left shoulder and twisted a small lever. The hissing stopped.

The door opened on the other end of the decompression chamber. Let me see those fingers, Tony.

Sure. Lieutenant Leonardo picked up the plastic bag and handed it to the other man.

The captain held the bag up and stared at the contents. Colors are not the same.

Yeah. The fingers aren’t as dark as that skull.

These look almost like regular bones. The skull in the other room is brown. When we get up to the mother ship, we’ll have to contact a geologist back on Earth.

Tony nodded. Yeah, a geologist would certainly know.

The skull seems real fragile, Tony. I think I’m going to pack it down into that sample of soil we dug up. I’m worried that the pressure of launching up to the mother ship might crack it.

There was something weighing on Tony Leonardo’s mind. Jerry …

The other man turned to him.

Jerry, really, what the hell is a human being doing on Mars? And who the hell are these people and when did it happen?

"Well, first off, I think it’s two different people because we found them so far apart and there’s the difference in color. I have a feeling that the color might have to do with the age … how long it’s been here.

As far as how the hell that person or these persons got here, I have no damned idea.

It was definitely not somebody from Earth.

Jerry Winfield grinned. The Chinese might claim it’s one of their people.

Tony chuckled and shook his head. Shit … they might say they were here ten years ago. But that’s pure bullshit. I don’t care what anyone says. He looked at the captain. So where did they come from?

Damned if I know. This planet is not habitable, and as far as we know, it never has been. On the other hand, there’s a lot we don’t know and we’ve been wrong before.

Yeah, lots of times.

Jerry nodded. Sure as hell. He shrugged. Hey, I guess we’ll just have to let the geologists check this stuff out. I wish we had more time here. Maybe we could find more stuff buried out there.

Tony nodded. It’ll be another year or so before Mars and Earth will be this close again, so we have to get out of here. Don’t have the supplies to stay anyway.

"Let’s get this stuff loaded up, Tony. I’ll give Karl a call and let him know we’re getting ready to go back up to the mother ship. Have to check on his orbit and make sure we can coordinate with his position.

Got to seal up this thing. I’ll have to open up this container of soil and put this skull and those fingers inside. I’ll do it right here in the decompression chamber.

Need any help with that?

No. You just load up all our gear and anything else you find around here that we should take back.

When are they actually going to set up that colony?

Jerry Winfield shrugged. I think it’s still up in the air. My guess is that they’ve got lots of things to work out before they actually colonize this place.

Tony nodded. They sure do.

From what I’ve been hearing, it’s going to be a while. I’d say maybe five years at least. Jerry shrugged. But what the hell do I know? Actually, I have no goddamned idea. Those guys upstairs give you a number, and then they change it. First, I heard it was three years. Then somebody told me it was going to be sooner. But even three years doesn’t seem feasible to me. I’m betting on five or six.

Captain Jerry Winfield moved across the room and took his helmet off a hook on the wall. I’ll be working here in the decompression chamber for a while, Tony. You go ahead and pack up.

Tony Leonardo moved through the port into the inner room. He turned around, closed the door and turned the wheel to the right until it was tight.

He was ready to leave Mars. This whole thing of changes in time schedules kind of unnerved him. It made him feel like those people above him weren’t sure what the hell they were doing.

As far as Tony was concerned, dealing with Interstellar, Hal Steiner’s space program was a pain in the ass. Nothing was ever definite. But he supposed it could be worse, although he couldn’t imagine how.

Mars was interesting and it was different to be on a planet where the sky was sort of blue but you could see the black and the stars behind the blue – a little like a constant twilight.

The planet itself was this huge desert with that big mountain, Olympus Mons. All of it was interesting, but he was ready to go back.

He missed Sarah and his kids, Josh and Cindy. He had been gone three years. Hell, Josh would be fourteen now and in high school. Of course, by the time he got back, Josh would be sixteen.

The trip out of here would be tricky. Getting off Mars shouldn’t be difficult, but docking with the mother ship was kind of weird. They had to fly upside down, once they reached space, so they could dock the bottom of the shuttle onto the bottom of the mother ship.

They would have to clamp onto the mother ship just right so they could exit through a port in the bottom of the shuttle connected to a port at the bottom of the mother ship.

They had practiced it above Earth. As he remembered, it was somewhere around eleven times. The first few docks were not so good, then finally they got it right. Then they did it right over and over again.

Of course, if they had a problem, they could always pull away and try again. He hoped that everything went as planned. You just have to stay positive and stay focused. Then it gets done.

He looked at his watch. They’d be blasting off in less than four hours. He’d better get his butt in gear.

CHAPTER TWO

Samples

Astrophysics Lab

Michigan Southern College

182 College Park Drive

Monroe, Michigan 48213

Thursday, April 8, 2051

2:27 p.m.

F

rank Cornwall hated working with these latex gloves. It was nearly impossible to operate his camera. He had to make sure the gloves were tight on the ends of his fingers or they would screw up the buttons on his camera for sure.

Doctor Pilgrim was paying him pretty well for this work or he would have told the doc to stuff it. On the other hand, maybe he wouldn’t have said that because he had Doc Pilgrim’s Astronomy I class. If you talked like that to Doc Pilgrim, he would mess with your grade for sure.

Of course, the doc was getting a real deal here because a professional photographer would demand to be paid about ten times more. Frank didn’t actually know how much they got, but he knew it was lot more than Doctor Pilgrim was paying him.

From what Frank had heard, this whole project was costing in the billions. No wonder they were looking for ways to save money. Hal Steiner had big bucks but there had to be a limit.

Frank had seen him in town a few times. Steiner always seemed to be in a hurry and he acted like there was nobody else around – at least until he needed something from you. Then he was all smiles and he focused on you and pushed.

Frank had seen him in action at the UPS store. Old Hal Steiner had to have something sent out ASAP and he wanted it packaged just right. He made such a big point of the packaging thing that the young guy behind the counter told Steiner that he would pay special attention to the packaging and, No, sir, there’s no extra charge, sir.

Apparently Steiner always got what he wanted.

Doctor Milo Pilgrim, on the other hand, was one of those guys who wasn’t particularly engaging at all, but he did think he was smarter than the whole world. Actually, Frank didn’t like Pilgrim very much. But, hey, this work paid a fair amount of money and it was relatively easy, except that he had to wear this green hazmat suit, a rubber-band germ mask, goggles and latex gloves.

He aimed the camera at the small plastic container of soil with the number 182 written on the side of the container. He pressed the shutter button gently.

There was a subtle beep, the beep to say it was focused.

Frank pressed the shutter button firmly.

There was a bright flash.

He pressed the REV button and studied the image in the small window on the back of his camera, checking the fine details in the photograph. Doc Pilgrim had said that the details were important.

Steiner Industries and Michigan Southern College had brought these soil samples back from Mars in a manned spaceship. That was Doctor Milo Pilgrim of Michigan Southern and Hal Steiner who owned Steiner Industries here in Monroe, Michigan. It had been a private enterprise and Midwestern college combination effort. Of course, it was Steiner’s money and Steiner’s spaceship.

Michigan Southern wouldn’t have any of this if it hadn’t been for Steiner. He had graduated from here a long time ago and he had built his metal fabricating company right here in town.

Everybody said the trip to Mars couldn’t be done, but it got done. It just goes to show you that it doesn’t take the big guns to do big things. Well, maybe Steiner was big guns after all. He sure had deep pockets. At least that’s what Frank’s father always said.

As far as Frank was concerned, that seemed to be a strange combination – Michigan Southern College and Steiner Industries.

Frank always felt this certain amusement when he thought of Doc Pilgrim. He had never told anybody this. He didn’t dare. But he thought of Pilgrim as this little guy with a mustache and goatee who strutted around like a peacock. That’s what Frank’s father said about him – like a peacock.

Doctor Tom Cornwall was an adjunct instructor at the college. He taught math classes at night. During the day, he taught high school math.

Frank’s father didn’t like Doctor Pilgrim. He had told Frank to avoid taking a class from the man because as Frank’s father had put it, Pilgrim is an arrogant ass. As usual, his father didn’t mince words.

Frank moved down the line of plastic dishes. He aimed the camera at sample 183. Then he checked to make sure the sample was large in the window at the back of the camera. He pressed the shutter button lightly.

Again, there was a subtle beep, beep.

Frank pressed the shutter button down.

A flash filled the dimly lit room.

This kind of work was the dullest, but Frank knew what the plan was. Doc Pilgrim talked about it all the time. He and Steiner Industries were eventually going to send a rocket full of people to Mars and start a colony. That was the big plan.

Frank would sure like to be on that rocket to Mars. Would that be exciting or what? Of course, it would mean he would have to leave Elise for lots of years and maybe leaving her wasn’t such a good idea.

She was good-looking and cool, and mostly he didn’t want any other guy making the moves on her. Of course, Elise was the kind of girl who sometimes scared guys off. It was because she was smart – real smart.

Elise had told him a couple of days ago about the mammogram. She was going to have one. He thought only older women had mammograms.

A word was lingering in his mind, but Frank didn’t want to think about that word. If he did, it might jinx this mammogram for Elise. No, he didn’t want to think about that word. It was an ugly word.

Frank pressed the REV button and checked the image in the window at the back of his camera. This last photo seemed very clear.

He studied the little specks of dirt along the interior edges of the small plastic dish to the right and left of the number label, 183.

The word was cancer. There – he had let that ugly word surface in his mind. He had seen Elise’s breasts lots of times when the two of them were fooling around. Her breasts were beautiful, small and limply tubular with pointed pink nipples. They sloped down at just the right angle and they were beautiful. God, he hoped she was all right.

Frank stepped to the right along the narrow table and aimed his camera at sample 184. Now he was having a difficult time focusing his mind. He was thinking about Elise’s tits. He could remember very clearly what they looked like.

He pressed the shutter button lightly.

There was a beep, beep.

He pressed the button down farther.

A flash of light filled the dim room.

He and Elise had known each other since fourth grade. It was one of those crazy chance things. He had gotten to the bus in the school parking lot a little late one afternoon and there were only two seats left.

There was one next to Howie Tidwell, the biggest jerk in fourth grade who had been held back because he had missed so much school the year before. Howie had ditched school too many times.

The second year in fourth grade Howie came every day because the truant officer made sure he was there. However, during his repeat fourth grade year, Howie took out his malcontent on other fourth graders who had the misfortune of standing or sitting next to him.

Of course, Frank could just as well take the seat next to a girl who had black wavy hair and blue eyes.

Given those choices, he had sat next to the girl. Then he had turned to her immediately and said, I’m Frank Cornwall. What’s your name?

Elise. She had said that one word - nothing more.

This had made Frank feel kind of nervous, so he did what he always did when he was nervous, he talked – a lot.

The girl, Elise, just sat there looking out the window to her right as if he had been speaking German or French or even Vietnamese.

This made him even more nervous and Frank babbled on and on. He told her about where he lived and what his little sister was like and his mother and his father, and he asked her what her parents were like.

She said nothing.

Her stop was before his, so he had to stand up to let her out of the window seat. When Elise passed by him, she stared at his face as if she was going to say something. Then she turned away and walked to the front of the bus.

That night he dreamed about lots of things and somewhere in the mélange of stuff bouncing through his mind as he slept, was Elise on a school bus.

The next day on the way to school, he saw her far back on the left side of the bus and he waved.

She didn’t wave back.

Frank couldn’t sit next to her. That seat was taken by another girl. He didn’t know that other girl, but he recognized her. She was probably in one of the other fourth grade sections.

When he was out in the hall during lunch, Frank looked for Elise. He wasn’t sure why he was doing that. He just felt that he had to do it for some reason.

He didn’t find her.

However, when he stepped onto the bus’s high stainless steel steps after school, the seat next to Elise was open again.

He scurried down the steel plate aisle and dropped into the aisle seat. Hi.

Elise’s white face turned. It’s you again.

Yup.

Do you always talk a lot?

He shrugged. I guess.

You know – with your gift of blab, you could run for congress or sell used cars.

Frank didn’t know how to answer that so he just sat next to her and rode the bus to her stop. Then he stood up and let her out of the window seat.

When she walked by, she turned her head and smiled at him.

The next time on the bus, Elise saved a seat for him. Frank was dazzled. He sat next to her and grinned all the way to Wingate Elementary School.

In the dim lab, Frank stared up at the white face of the clock in the dark shadows on the back wall. It was almost two fifty and he had a class at three o’clock. He would take one more picture.

Taking pictures today was harder than usual. This thing with Elise’s mammogram had him all upset. It made him think about her beautiful tits with the hard pink nipples.

He raised the camera up in front of his face and aimed at sample number 185. Frank touched the shutter button.

There was a subtle beep, beep.

He pressed the shutter button all the way down.

The dim room glowed with a light flash.

Frank pressed the REV button.

The photo of sample number 185 appeared in the window at the back of his camera.

He studied the photo, checking the detail. It looked good. That would be the last 30 milligram sample he would photograph today. He usually did two or three after his last class, but today he wanted to see Elise. Maybe he would drive over to her house and see what’s up.

He wondered about Elise’s tits. They were so beautiful, and he hoped everything was okay. That mammogram made him nervous.

Frank checked the clock again. It was almost two fifty-five. He’d better get to class.

CHAPTER THREE

Classified

Michigan Southern College

182 College Park Drive

Science Building

Room 239

Thursday, April 8, 2051

3:02 p.m.

F

rank Cornwall peeked around the door casing into the classroom.

Doctor Milo Pilgrim turned to write on the white board with his magic marker. As you can see, we would not only need …

Frank dashed into the room and dropped into the seat next to Kevin Horniak.

Thanks for holding an aisle seat, Frank whispered.

Anything for Saint Francis of the Cornhole.

Thank you, Kevin Horneyass.

You’re welcome, Saint Francis of the Cornhole.

This greeting had been one which Frank and Kevin had used for years – maybe even since seventh grade. In fact, it was so automatic Frank had almost called Kevin that name in front of his mother, and Kevin’s mother was kind of scary so that wouldn’t be such a good idea, actually.

Where have you been? Kevin whispered.

Taking pictures.

In the lab?

Yup.

I love your blue hazmat suit. It’s so becoming, Saint Francis.

Thank you, Horneyass. I do appreciate your intelligent input about my wardrobe.

Are you two gentlemen going to conduct this class or am I?

Frank looked down the sloping narrow aisle at the short, well-groomed man with the black mustache and goatee.

Do you have something to say, Mister Cornwall?

No, sir.

You arrived to class late.

Yes, sir.

What a suck-up, Kevin whispered.

Frank could feel the muscles around his mouth twitch. He worked to avoid a smile.

See me after class, Mister Cornwall.

Yes, sir.

Are you going to suck his dick? whispered Kevin in his right ear.

Frank turned to his friend. It’s your idea. You do it.

In spite of the fact, droned Doctor Milo Pilgrim’s voice, that Mister Cornwall was late for class, I will say that he’s providing an important service for our university and our Mars Explorer Project. He’s photographing soil samples from the red planet.

Doctor Pilgrim turned to look at Frank. I presume that you were doing some photography before you came in here late, Mister Cornwall.

Yes, sir, I was.

Very good. At least you have a good reason for being late.

The handsome, small man turned toward the rows of students on his left. We’re trying to learn as much as we can about the environment of Mars. This will serve us well when we send our colonizing spaceship to that planet.

A hand shot up in the front row below Frank.

Yes, Miss Holcomb?

Sir, when do you plan to send this colony mission?

The small man folded his arms across his flat chest and looked off toward the right side of the room. Then he faced the female student, Tracey Holcomb. The projected time, at this juncture, is three years from the current year.

Twenty, fifty-four?

Yes, two thousand and fifty-four.

I thought NASA was supposed to do that.

Doctor Pilgrim turned to his left. "Mister Liebermann - yes, one would expect that. However, the politicians in Washington had clipped NASA’s wings with budget cuts. We determined, here at Michigan Southern College, that the best way to get this accomplished was to combine the intellectual resources of a good college astrophysics department with the financial resources of private industry.

"Hal Steiner, the owner and CEO of Steiner Industries, is a man with unusual vision. He sees this as a way of advancing knowledge and promoting the manufacturing capacity and expertise of his company.

Hal is a man who gets things done. If the government were involved in this in any other than an advisory capacity through NASA, this mission would take twelve to fifteen years to accomplish.

Frank was so amused by Doc Pilgrim’s reference to Hal Steiner as Hal that this time he did smile. Unfortunately, Doctor Pilgrim noticed.

Are you amused by something, Mister Cornwall?

No, sir. I’m just pleased this whole project is going ahead and that Hal … I mean Mister Steiner … is so enthusiastic about it, sir.

Careful, Saint Francis, whispered a voice to Frank’s right, he may be an arrogant runt, but he’s not stupid.

Yes, it is a matter of the best good fortune, isn’t it?

Yes, sir, it really is.

Are you making fun of him? whispered the voice on Frank’s right.

Frank smiled for Doctor Pilgrim. Of course, Horneyass, he whispered.

Did you want to say something else, Mister Cornwall?

Frank could feel beads of sweat running down his chest. No, sir. I was just answering a question my friend asked.

And what was that question, Mister Cornwall?

He asked why I was taking pictures of soil samples. Frank held his breath, hoping this would get the little asshole off his back.

And what did you tell him, Mister Cornwall?

That I had no idea, sir.

The handsome, small man nodded. Yes, of course. You wouldn’t know.

Sir, what is the reason?

Doctor Pilgrim turned to a female student on his right. Aside from the general statement that it will increase our knowledge of Mars, I’m afraid that’s classified information, Miss Holcomb.

CHAPTER FOUR

Peanut Butter and Jelly

1282 Adrian Drive

Monroe, Michigan

Thursday, April 8, 2018

8:53 p.m.

O

n the porch, Elise was sitting in the corner of the glider swing with her arms folded across her chest. She was staring out through the screen into the backyard.

Across the yard, perhaps two hundred feet away, was the back of a house on the next street. It was lit up as if there were some kind of party going