One Way To Mars

Chapter 11

Foreman stared in the mirror. Itwasn't pretty. He had shaving foam all over his ten day beard. Hehadn't brushed his hair in a week. His eyes and the rest of his faceseemed suddenly much older than his thirty eight years. thirty eightwas the new twenty eight, right? Even with the dope he wasn'tsleeping too good. Without the razor touching his face, he washed offthe foam. It was time to face his demon.

On his way to the communicationsroom, he passed Monkley carrying clean laundry. He took his dutiesvery seriously. It gave him purpose.

'Good morning, Monkley.'

'Morning, Andy.'

'I'm going to try the radioagain.'

Monkley seemed to consider theimplications of that. He nodded, and then hurried off to Foreman'sroom. Foreman had barely got seated in front of the radio, whenMonkley joined him, jumping up onto the bench.

'I just want you to know, if wecan't contact anyone, it isn't the end of the world. Damn. I wish Ihadn't said that. No. Foreman. Focus. What I mean is, Monkley, wehave to stay positive. I'll keep trying every day until we getsomebody. In the meantime, we need to make sure the base isfunctioning as it should be. For one thing, I noticed the waterfallhas slowed down. It could mean clogged filters or something. That'smy priority for today. Apart from the radio, that is. Right. Heregoes.' He flicked the switch. 'This is Andrew Foreman. This is AndrewForeman. Is anybody getting this?' He looked at Monkley. 'Now. Wedon't need to get too concerned if we don't hear back right away. Iremember in one of our training sessions, radio contact can proveiffy. What I just sent them can take anywhere between four and twentyone minutes to get there. Then, assuming we have a contact at theother end, it will take at least the same time to hear back.'

'Oooh!'

'Exactly. Now, when we got holdof Farley, it was only a few minutes delay. Assuming things haven'tchanged that much since then, we still have to wait a little whilefor the reply. In the meantime, I'll just keep going.'

'Oooh!'

'Andrew Foreman calling Earth.Andrew Foreman calling Earth. Anyone awake down there? Just to letyou guys know, the base seems to be performing well. I am here withMonkley the GenMoP, and between us we will do all we can to surviveand look after the place. Everything seems to be working well, but Ithink the waterfall filtration system is becoming clogged. I have noidea where the filters are or how to fix them, so this could be fun.If anyone has any advice, I'd be pleased to hear it.' He repeated themessage another three times. Then he stopped and waited.

'Monkley. I'll stay here whileyou go get me a coffee. Off you go, pal.'

Monkley jumped down and ran outthe room, Foreman folded his arms and stared at the radio, willingsomebody, anybody, to reply. He was still waiting when Monkleyreturned with a coffee for him and juice for himself. An hour later,they still hadn't heard back.

'I guess that's it for now. Justremember. No reply doesn't mean the end of...It doesn't meananything. Come on.'

The waterfall was running atabout half the flow-rate it had been when he had first seen it, justtwo weeks before. At that rate of decline, it would be stoppedcompletely in another two weeks. Although aesthetically designed, itwas one of the most functional parts of the base. The continuouscirculation of the treated water ensured stagnation didn't set in. Ifhe couldn't fix it, he doubted if they would survive a month.

Cupping his hand, he tasted it,directly from the waterfall. It tasted good. 'Monkley. In themaintenance room, there's a P H meter. We used it the other day.Remember it?'

Monkley scurried off and returnedwith the meter.

'Good, Monkley.' Foreman turnedit on and placed the tip of the probe in the running water. 'Sixpoint seven. Now, I might be just a veterinarian, but I do have somescientific knowledge. Pure water is about seven. The lower thereading, the more acidic it is. Drinking water is okay between, say,six point five and about eight point five. So what we have here, iswell within safe limits.'

'Ooooh!'

'Right. What does concern me, isthe water flow rate. It has slowed down considerably in the lastcouple of weeks. This means the system is getting blocked up.Probably a filter somewhere. I have to find the filter, and eitherreplace it, or clean it out.'

Along the wall of the base,starting from the back of the mound of the waterfall, was a pipe madeof Luxotral, about the diameter of Foreman's arm. This took a sharpright angled turn behind the jungle. There was a narrow path betweenthe jungle and the wall and Foreman followed the pipe with Monkleybehind him. As expected, it continued past the marijuana crop, andtook another right turn. Another few yards brought them to the watertreatment unit. It was housed in a dedicated three sided structure,with the wall of the base being the fourth wall. The structure wasaround thirty feet high. There was a warning on the door.

'Caution. Rubberised suits mustbe worn during maintenance. Incoming water highly acidic.'

'Oooh!'

'We've been warned, pal.' Foremanopened the door and a light came on. On the back wall, a schematicdrawing of the plant simplified things. Foreman studied it, glancingat the plan and the plant. 'Right. Inlet water comes through the wallof the base, here. It is then neutralised by adding sodium carbonate.Now, the incoming water is just to top up the reservoir. Every dropis recycled. Most of the water vapour in the air waters the trees andplants. You and I consume around fifty pints a day. At a guess, thetreatment plant is topping up at around two hundred pints each day.'

'Oooh!'

See that tank there?'

'Tank.'

'That contains the sodiumcarbonate. Enough to run the plant when fully occupied for aroundthree years. It has inbuilt P H monitors that control how much sodiumcarbonate is added to the incoming water. When the water is aboutseven P H, it is released into the filters to remove the organic andiron stuff. Then it goes through a final filtration unit, wherechlorine is added to purify it. Finally, it goes to the mainreservoir which is continuously circulating to keep it fresh, toppedby treated water from this plant. I hope you are paying attention,Monkley. There'll be a test afterwards. Okay. I think we have twoissues to deal with. First of all, the level of sodium carbonateneeds tweaking up a bit. That will bring the end product back up tonearer the seven P H it should be.'

He studied the schematics for amoment. 'Water from the reservoir is continuously going through thesystem. That way, the treatment plant isn't trying to treat just theMartian water. The incoming is being diluted with the fresh stuff,giving the system a fighting chance. Now this pipe here, see, isdivided into two. There are two pumps, running off solar energypanels on the roof. There are two pumps to provide backup and also sothat the system can keep working, whilst repairs and maintenance arecarried out. Each pump works in ten hour cycles.' He touched onepump. 'This one is working, the other one is ready to take over. Eachpump has an outlet with a final filter. My guess is that one or bothof these filters need either cleaning out, or replacing.'

Returning to the schematic, hestudied the instructions. 'Ah!. It says here, they need to bereplaced. They cannot be cleaned out.'

In one corner were two storagecontainers. One marked in green with the words new filter cartridges,and the other in red stating used cartridges only. Opening thecontainer of new ones, he took out two. Taking the 'c' spanner offthe wall, he took that and the new filters to the filter housings.

'I'm pretty certain water at thispoint is just that. Water. The rubber suits are for working on therest of the plant. However. Just to be on the safe side...'

Hanging up on the wall were tworubber suits. He put one on.

'Does my bum look big in this?'

'Bum big, bum big.'

'Trust you to say that. Okay,pal. You step outside while I do this little job.'

Monkley stepped just outside,watching Foreman at work. Between the pumps and the filter housingwere valves. On the pump that wasn't running, he turned the valveclockwise. Then using the 'c' spanner, loosened the retaining nutseither side of the filter housing. Removing the housing, he slippedthe filter out. It was impossible to tell if this was the problem ornot as the internals of the filter were inside its own sealed unit.The direction of flow was clearly marked with a black arrow. Foremaninserted the new filter and refitted the filter housing using the 'c'spanner. One done, one to go. On the wall was a switch to turn on andoff the pumps by overriding the automatic system. He turned on theone he'd been working on and turned the backup unit off. He repeatedthe procedure on the second pump, turned it all over to automatic,checked for leaks, and took off the rubber suit. Finally, he adjustedthe sodium carbonate input by the minimum indicated increase level.Job done.

'Come on, Monkley. Let's go takea look at the waterfall.' When they got there, he nodded, satisfiedthat the filter changing had served its purpose and the waterfall wasrunning at full capacity. 'Time for a feed.'