Last Updated: February 04, 2007
BRIEF EXCERPTS FROM THE MARS TRILOGY, BOOK THREE:
by Thomas William Cronin
PUBLICATION DATE: March 01, 2005
PAGES: 475; COVER: Hardcover; PRICE: $25.95
ISBN: 0-9687502-3-0
[ Glory Be To Mars is Book Three of the Mars Trilogy and a stand-alone continuation
In August, 2005, Tharsis Books published
The NEAR-LOOK-INSIDE-THE-BOOK excerpt below
includes beginning pages, Prolog,
and parts of Chapters One and Seven
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Third front-matter page
GLORY BE
TO
MARS
by
Thomas W. Cronin
THARSIS BOOKS
Fifth front-matter page
Dedicated to those engineers, scientists and others,
who have worked on missions to Mars.
Without their spectacularly productive efforts,
this book could never have been written.
The images from the journeys of exploration
of NASA's rovers Spirit and Opportunity
on Mars in 2004 were especially helpful.
Sixth front-matter page
What changed everything was the arrival on the scene of a young man whose like had not been seen in a hundred years. Early in the war, he appeared unexpectedly out of the southern waste, at the head of a dusty column of armored rovers and tanks, his formations of predator drones flying overhead. This young man had desert warfare in his genes, and before long became known as the desert fox of Mars, feared and revered on two planets.
To the desert fox, who roamed the great plains and canyons of Mars with his band of daring warriors, preying on the enemy, we are forever grateful.
Glory be to Mars!
An entry in The Third Part of
The Book of Mars
Seventh front-matter page
THE FIRST red glow of dawn was beginning to light up the sky to the east, beyond the boundary escarpment wall of Leaf Valley. A thin layer of early morning ice mist was faintly visible on the valley floor, beneath the still sparkling canopy of stars. Around Mount Tip, the mountain at the northern tip of the leaf-shaped valley that was the jewel of Mars, the lights were on in all the glass enclosures.
Everybody was up, standing around outside, but staying close to home, anxiously waiting. Some of them, field glasses ready, were looking up, searching the sky for the satellite. It would pass overhead momentarily, visible against the star background, as predawn sunlight high up reflected from its solar panels.
Others were looking across the valley at a small gap in the eastern escarpment wall, silhouetted against the dull red of the early dawn sky. The gap marked the entrance to a small canyon, where a missile sat, pointed at the sky, waiting. They had rolled it out during the night, under cover of darkness.
The satellite they were waiting for belonged to the United Nations coalition, one of two spy satellites in polar orbit around Mars. Although a military platform, it was not protected. When the coalition installed it four Earth years earlier, in 2066, military strategists had not believed that the Martians could develop a missile capable of destroying a satellite in orbit. The Martians might well be able to make the warhead, but they could not possibly build the rocket engines.
The military on Earth had since realized their mistake. The Martians would not need to build the rocket engines. They already had twenty-four of them, in perfect working order, built on Earth, and enough for six missiles. A cluster of four of these rocket motors could power a one-ton warhead into orbit.
Eigth front-matter page
The military did not know whether the Martians had taken advantage of this possibility, but they had informed their political leaders of their concerns. This had led to a demand that the Martians destroy any such missiles. The demand had been part of the Seventh United Nations Mars resolution, passed just recently.
The concerns were valid, as the coalition would soon discover, for it was just such a missile that sat on the canyon floor that morning, ready to launch.
The Martians had taken the momentous decision to fire the missile only reluctantly, aghast at the deliberate, mendacious fear mongering on Earth that had lead to the widespread support for the latest U.N. Mars resolution.
The long list of impossible demands in the resolution had been an ultimatum. Comply immediately, the final wording had stated, or face horrific consequences.
The Martians could not comply, and knew what would follow—invasion, at the next opposition perhaps, but certainly at the one after that. Defensive preparations on an unprecedented scale needed to begin at once. They would have to keep these preparations secret, and so the first step had to be destruction of the coalition's two spy satellites.
One satellite was due to pass directly overhead that morning. If they could take it out, they would get the other one the following week, when it too passed overhead. But if the missile did not work as intended, they would suffer a crippling loss of morale, and their very survival would be in jeopardy.
That morning, they continued to watch and wait outside their homes, tension rising as the moment approached. The satellite would appear. They knew that. It went around the planet every two hours—orbital velocity close to six thousand miles an hour. The missile had to launch a few seconds before the satellite appeared in the northern sky . . .
Three seconds to launch. Two seconds. One second . . .
Nothing at first. Suddenly, a brilliant light. Four tails of fire, merging into one, streamed from the rocket motors. The whole northern end of the valley lit up in a glare of white light, as the forty-foot long missile streaked up into the sky to the south. Seconds later, it was only a distant short strip of light, high in the sky, headed a few degrees west of south, its pale white vapor trail just visible in the sunlight high up.
Ninth front-matter page
Then the satellite appeared, in straight-line motion, a brighter spot of light that looked like a distant star. It was much higher up, also headed a few degrees west of south, seemingly trying to catch up with the missile, but not succeeding at first. Then the satellite began to get closer to the missile, still seeming to trail behind, but in reality still much higher up.
The missile's long flaming tail was still visible, but only through field glasses. Then the flame extinguished, and its vapor trail abruptly ended, as the missile went ballistic, continuing the climb into the satellite's orbit. The missile could still be seen with the naked eye as a single spot of light, sunlight high up reflecting from its metallic surfaces.
The satellite continued to catch up with the missile, as the gap between the two objects steadily narrowed, and the missile curved into final orbit. The missile was the brighter of the two spots of light.
As the pair of spots continued moving south against the star background, the gap between them grew ever smaller.
Then the two spots of light merged.
Less than a second later, there was a flash, like an exploding star. The flash lasted but a few seconds. When the normal star background returned, the moving spot of light had vanished.
There were no cheers, no shouts of elation. There were only feelings of relief, mixed with apprehension, as they all went back to their homes. They had succeeded in their first attempt at destroying a spy satellite in orbit, and had given the U.N. coalition a decisive answer. Now they would have to face the consequences.
Tenth front-matter page
Know, my son, with how little wisdom
the world is governed.
Count Axel Oxenstierna,
Chancellor of Sweden during the Thirty Years War,
on his deathbed.
Understand that every man is worth just so much
as the things are worth, about which he busies himself.
From Meditations,
by Marcus Aurelius, 16th Emperor of Rome,
written in the field, at the head of his legions.
1
CHAPTER ONE
Desperate Journey
FAR FROM the settled part of Mars, in a deep, desolate valley, two solitary figures in pressure suits were standing outside. Their huge six-wheeled rover sat close by, all its lights off, barely visible in the near darkness. It was only just before seven in the evening, but dark enough for the stars to be out, and cold enough for light frost.
The two figures stood on rough, rock-strewn ground, quite near each other. Their helmet lights were off, and outdoor field glasses dangled from their necks. They were both looking upward, in different directions, carefully monitoring the sky.
Edward and Paul might be tired, after a long day, but they were vigilant. They both knew the importance of checking out the sky each evening for any sign of the approaching armada. The lives of all ten on the expedition, their own included, could depend on it.
The two young men would keep up their lonely vigil until about seven thirty. By that time, any spacecraft orbiting Mars would be in the planet's shadow, and no longer visible from the ground. Only then would the two call it a day, get in their rover, and drive the short distance back to their warm bunker for a well earned rest.
The expedition's bunker lay two miles away to the north. It was well hidden, built deep into the side of the lower slope of a boundary escarpment wall. The slope was very steep, faced due south, and lay in shadow by day during most of the year. The shadow helped overhanging rocks and boulders better disguise the bunker entrance, making it very hard for an enemy spy satellite to pick it out. The steep slope had dugout shelters at the bottom too, well disguised, to hide the expedition's four rovers from spying eyes in the sky.
The other eight on the expedition were safe and warm in the bunker that Friday evening, making final preparations for a planned move out at first light, and an anxious rover journey northward to their homes in Leaf Valley. Getting back home safely was all that mattered now.
2
There was reason for concern. The ten on the expedition were just a construction crew, only lightly armed, and could run into enemy forces on the long journey back to the sheltered, leaf-shaped valley, site of the now infamous Martian settlement at the western end of Kasei Valley. Worse, they could find themselves cut off behind enemy lines, for the determined foe approaching Mars would likely ring the settlement with hostile bases soon after landing.
At least it would get warmer as they traveled northward, for it was only four weeks to the summer solstice in the north, and the official start of the long northern summer. And Leaf Valley's location, only seven hundred miles north of the equator, was a guarantee of a summer that would be relatively warm.
It was now late Alpha-June on Mars, and late March, 2074 on Earth. It was also only six weeks since the previous opposition, the time every twenty-six months when Mars and Earth come closest.
Sometime in the following month, most likely in the week after the summer solstice, was the best guess for when the massive coalition armada would arrive and the war would begin. An arrival any day now was also a possibility, although nobody on Mars could predict for sure. There was just no doubting that the short time since the opposition, and the long days of the six-month long northern summer that followed the solstice, would both be to the enemy coalition's advantage.
Summer was nowhere near, however, in the valley in which Edward and Paul stood, far to the south of their Leaf Valley home. Instead, winter would soon be upon them, only four weeks to the winter solstice. The days were already short and very cold, with the sun low in the sky to the north each day. The sun set very early too, shortly before five thirty.
Edward and Paul were on the opposite side of the equator from Leaf Valley, in a desolate place the settlers had named Broken Valley. They were actually a good five hundred miles south of the equator, a few miles south of the gigantic Mariner Valley. Their homes in Leaf Valley lay fourteen hundred miles away, at the other end of a very high, wind-swept plateau.
Four Earth years had slipped by since that pivotal week in 2070, when the Leaf Valley settlement had answered a United Nations ultimatum by destroying two U.N. coalition spy satellites. In those four years, an outraged U.N. coalition had responded in kind, by building a formidable space armada and dispatching it to Mars.
The settlement had also been busy, during those intervening four years. As part of its defensive preparations, it had regularly sent expeditions south of the equator to Broken Valley, to build a secret, defensive outpost there.
3
Broken Valley was not the only secret outpost the settlement had ordered built, but it was the most important. The current expedition had just completed construction of a concealed bunker in Broken Valley, and had hidden a large machine in it. The machine was vital to the settlement's future.
This machine had given rise to widespread feelings of fear on Earth, almost terror. It was widely believed that the machine could one day make it possible for the Martians to wipe out all human life on Earth—the ultimate weapon of total annihilation.
This fear among the citizenry of the great powers on Earth was a major driving force behind the approaching armada. The governments of the Earth's great powers, supported by a majority of their citizens, were determined to subjugate the Martian settlement and destroy its hideous machine, no matter what the cost, before it was too late.
Of course, the settlers on Mars saw the machine through very different eyes. The Martians had been using it successfully for over twenty-five years, and had demonstrated its incomparable worth to them. In their eyes, it was the key to a glorious future for Mars. They were determined to defeat the coalition forces, and prevent them from ever laying hands on the amazing machine that now lay hidden in the bunker in Broken Valley.
For the past month, all ten at the outpost in Broken Valley had been working long hours each day, from dawn till well after dark, to finish the bunker on schedule; and they had completed the job the previous day. They had spent the final day removing all traces of construction activity from the site, and had loaded the construction equipment into the trailers and buried everything else. It now remained for them to get back to their Leaf Valley home before hostilities began.
All ten were fervently hoping that the best guess was correct, and that coalition forces would not land until a week after the solstice. That would give the expedition just enough time to get home, if they left at once, and nothing went wrong.
Even so, many on the expedition, especially Edward Russell, had become increasingly worried about the possibility that the invasion would come early, well before the solstice in four weeks. The settlement leadership had been concerned as well, and had prepared a contingency plan for the expedition, just in case. Not only could the invaders come early, in an effort to take the settlement by surprise, they could also land where they were least expected.
4
That was why Edward and Paul were standing outside in Broken Valley that Friday evening. It was their turn to check out the sky in the hours after sunset, for any sign of the coalition armada's arrival. Low orbiting spacecraft would be visible at that time, reflecting light from a sun just below the horizon.
Paul Erway was twenty-three Earth years old, the youngest son of Denise Lavoisier and John Erway, two original founders of the Leaf Valley settlement. Paul was red-haired, like his mother, square-faced and cleft-chinned like his father, and quite tall and rather thin. He was a geologist and structural engineer, just like his father.
Unlike Paul, Edward Russell had never known his father and mother. They had both died before he was born, the only child they had ever had together. Edward did not even know who his father and mother were, and would have to wait until he was fifteen Mars years old, twenty-eight Earth years old, to find out. He did not even know that they had both been celebrities on Earth, for the Martian leadership did not want him to develop an inflated ego. And people on Earth certainly did not know that the two dead celebrities had a young son alive on Mars. Indeed, had the commander of the coalition armada known whose son Edward Russell was, he would have made killing him his highest priority.
The young man had grown up in Leaf Valley, in the spacious, glass-enclosed garden home of his two foster parents, along with other children. His foster parents had treated him like a child of their own, and he had received the best education they could give him, with the expert help of the settlement's vast knowledge bases.
Despite his relative youth, at age twenty-five Edward was already an expert mechanical and electrical engineer. He also had a hobby he never talked about. It was an unusual hobby for a young engineer, not one any of his friends indulged in.
Edward reveled in the history of warfare, and found military tactics especially interesting. He had privately studied many of the great generals of the past, and the tactics they employed, everything from decisive pincer movements to daring guerrilla operations. He had even invented some tactics of his own, in a Martian context. There was not much about military tactics or the military mentality he did not know, at least in theory. . . .
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145
CHAPTER SEVEN
North by Northwest
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Within a minute, the aircraft was approaching Stem Gap, a great gap in the northwestern escarpment wall that bounded Elbow Plain.
Stem Gap was the entrance to the legendary sanctuary of Leaf Valley, site of the only human settlement on Mars, independent, proud, and free, but illegal in the eyes of the U.N. coalition that had declared war on it.
It had taken the predator drone only two hours flying time to travel the twelve hundred miles northward from the base at the east end of Juventae Passage. The time now was three thirty at the Juventae base, but Leaf Valley was almost ten degrees of longitude further west, so that local time there was only about two thirty. As a result, the late spring sun was high in the sky, and the walls on either side of Stem Gap glowed bright orange.
The impressive mile-wide gap was heavily fortified, but the supersonic predator drone shot straight through, close to ground level, past artillery positions, and over the tops of tanks and other military vehicles on the road below.
This nuclear-powered robot jet aircraft, able to fly much faster than the speed of sound on Mars, and capable of firing four deadly armor-piercing missiles, was the product of years of exhaustive research and development on Earth. Together with their sister machines, the laser-gun armed fighter drones, these highly intelligent unmanned aircraft were among the most potent twenty-first century weapons of war. They were capable of inflicting enormous damage and sudden loss of life on an enemy, without any risk of loss of life on the part of those who unleashed them.
The settlement had no weapon it could use effectively against this deadly delta-winged machine, but the defenders at Stem Gap, manning artillery high up on either side of it, tried anyway. A stream of messages from the southern front had warned them to prepare for the aircraft's possible arrival. But the best they could do was fire nanogun shells at the predator drone, as it streaked through the gap in the escarpment wall, in a muffled, reverberating, sonic boom.
The aircraft emerged from the fortified gap untouched, and flew on northward up the sixteen-mile long Leaf Valley. It left the defenders at Stem Gap puzzled though, as they forwarded the news of its unimpeded passage to Defense Headquarters at Mount Tip.
151
Mount Tip is a lone mountain that lies at the northern end of the leaf-shaped valley, where the high escarpment walls that surround the valley sharply converge to form the leaf tip. Most of the settlement was built around the southern and eastern slopes of Mount Tip, or on the valley floor directly below those slopes.
As the aircraft flew up the valley, headed for Mount Tip, it began to climb, slowing to subsonic speed, its jet engine exhausts swiveling to the vertical to compensate for the loss of lift in the thin air.
Just about everyone around Mount Tip was now anxiously watching out for the enemy aircraft, wondering both about its intentions, and why there was only one of them. They had all had advance warning of the aircraft's possible arrival. Most had stopped what they were doing, and those inside buildings had hastily scrambled into pressure suits.
It took the machine not much more than a minute to reach Mount Tip. It banked sharply and turned to the northeast as it approached, exposing its huge delta wings, and the four missile cylinders arrayed on pods on the underside.
Below the now circling aircraft lay the gleaming city on the hillside. The lower slopes of the mountain, and several square miles of the valley floor near them, were covered in buildings. Any one of them was an easy target for an enemy aircraft like this. Most of them were under pressure, copper frameworks of glass slabs that glistened in the afternoon sun. A single missile hitting a glass enclosure could cause it to explode like a pricked balloon.
The predator drone had successfully penetrated the heart of the settlement unscathed, and reached its target. It was a dramatic demonstration both of the reality of such enemy weapons on Mars, and of just how vulnerable the settlement was to them. . . .
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Copyrighted. All rights Reserved. However, the material above may be used for review and publicity purposes.
Excerpted from "Glory Be To Mars", by Thomas W. Cronin, 2005, the third book in the Mars Trilogy, and a stand-alone continuation of the saga begun in "As It Is On Mars" (Second Edition, 2005), Book One of the Trilogy.
There is a listing for the novel at Amazon's online book store.
Note also that Tharsis Books has compiled an objective content comparison of recent and forthcoming hardcover fiction books on the exploration and settlement of Mars. That page has a brief, preliminary description of Book Three of the Trilogy: "Glory Be To Mars". The page also has content reviews of Mars Trilogy Book One: both As It Is On Mars (First Edition) and As It Is On Mars REVISED SECOND EDITION and Book Two of the Trilogy: Give Us This Mars.