Qahirah's Kayak
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Transcript of Qahirah's Kayak
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Qahirahs Kayak
Derek M Shannon
2007 Derek Shannon
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Latin English
Vallis Valley
Valles Valleys
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Table of Contents
1. THE MIDNIGHT WORKSHOP SESSION2. ANYTHING BUT PATIENCE3. SET TO SAIL4. UNDER A BLUE STAR5. A LONG ROVER RIDE6. LONELY ON THE HIGH PLAIN7. A FALLING STAR8. THE FROZEN WATERFALL9. THE CURIOUS CLIMBER10.PATIENCE MEETS AN AIRMILL11.A NARROW ESCAPE12.SPRUNG FROM THE HOOSEGOW13.THE CLOGGED BATHTUB14.THE CARELESS KAYAKERS15.THROUGH THE CHAOS AND INTO THE CAVERN16.A FRIENDLY GLOW17.THE HAPPY EXPLORERS18.BACK IN THE FLOW OF THINGS19.WINTER UNDER TWIN MOONS20.THE CANALS OF A GROWING TOWN21.A LADDER TO THE SKY22.A SPECTACULAR VIEW23.WINDMILLS, WHALES AND WALLOPS24.GREEN AND RED MOLASSES25.THE NET IN THE CHAOS26.WHERE A ROVER ONCE ROAMED27.THE GROWING CRASHING28.JOURNEYS ON THE NEW SEA29.TO THE CAPITAL CITY30.A REUNION IN PASSINGAcknowledgements
NOTE: Chapter
titles in redare
also shown on the
rainbow map of
Mars
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1. THE MIDNIGHT WORKSHOP SESSION
Outside, a thin wind blew colder than anyone had ever known.
Inside, Qahirah held her breath.
The workshop creaked around her. The night through the nearest window was dark
with blowing dust. She wasnt supposed to be down here this late, and certainly not in a
storm. If the wind woke Papa.
On the other hand, the wind covered up Qahirahs own noise.
Their little house was shaped like a tin can, shiny and metallic. It groaned as it
shrank in the cold. Qahirah tightened the blanket around her shoulders. The creaking
subsided. The storm had shriveled the little house as small as it could go. All was quiet
but for the winds wolfish cry.
Qahirah resumed carving. Papas day of rest tomorrow might be the last chance for a
long while to learn how to do the next steps, and after thatThe journey!
Qahirah glanced to the window. Her reflection in it seemed so small and alone. It
made her doubt that the journey would ever be possible.
With a firm shake of her head, Qahirah got back to work. The better to get every
detailjustright!
Slowly, a shape emerged from the aerogel block. It was half rocket and half canoe, a
toy kayak just bigger than her forearm. Three bulges on each side would add buoyancy.
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The bulges reminded Qahirah of the old six-wheeled robots that had once wandered
nearby. She wondered if the resemblance would bring good luck.
A tiny figure dressed in a spacesuit peaked up from the kayaks middle to watch over
it all. The figure held a paddle as if to stroke unseen waters.
Qahirah.
She was nearly startled into dropping the whole creation. Instead, she caught herself
and clutched the kayak to her thumping heart.
Papas voice from the kitchen doorway was soft. She couldnt be in too much
trouble.
Papa had been watching her for a while. He shuffled her up to bed, reminding her for
the millionth time that even the first child born on Mars needed sleep. But he did stop to
admire her handiwork. He asked what name she had given to the little kayaker.
Patience, Qahirah declared. Her name is Patience.
Papas face became serious. So you must already know that it will take many
people, and a lot of timeperhaps many lifetimes, evenfor Patience to complete her
journey. Do you still think it will be worth the trouble?
Qahirah looked at her reflection again, this time in the porthole that was her tiny
bedroom window. Maybe, she replied.
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Papa tucked Qahirah into her bunk. He set Patience on Qahirahs bookshelf, next to
her stories of a strange wet world called Earth. He smiled. Thats my girl! After all, it
could be the best kind of journey, the kind that never ends.
This gave Qahirah a moment of puzzlement. What do you mean, Papa? Of course
Patience will have an end to her journey. Im building her to reach the sea. Her journey
will have to have an end there, unless. Qahirah couldnt bring herself to say, unless
Patience doesnt last long enough for the sea to come about. Or unless Patience is lost or
stopped in her travels.
Papa only shook his head. Youll understand some day. He stayed with Qahirah a
little while longer. They talked about all that would have to happen for the little kayaks
journey to succeed. It nearly made Qahirah lose hope.
Papa offered some encouragement. You can make it happen, Qahirah. I believe in
you! And the name youve chosen is a very good ideaits just that an even better idea
would be a good nights sleep! With that, Papa gave her a look that saidNo more
sneaking out. He flicked off the light and gently shut her door.
Qahirah was not inclined to argue. Surrounded by a howling storm on a frozen desert
planet, she dreamed of lakes, and rivers, and the sea.
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2. ANYTHING BUT PATIENCE
The next morning the sun rose small and bright. The land awoke in perfect stillness.
Qahirah woke up with it. She took a glad moment to see that last nights storm had
passed.
The long morning shadows seemed to be the deserts way of stretching itself from
horizon to horizon, the better to soak up the suns first rays. It was all so clear after the
storm! From the lavender sky to the red and purple rocks, the world had been rubbed a
fresh raw pink. The air outside was one hundred times thinner than a person could
breathe, so the dust had settled quickly. Papa would have no excuse to delay!
The special equipment she would use that day took up a section of the rover garage,
which meant they would have to go outside. Qahirah had her helmet on and suit fastened
before Papa could remember what planet he was on. Before he had finished his coffee,
Qahirah had triple-checked her valves, fixed a loose wire in her radio, and begun to cycle
the airlock.
Dont rush, Qahirah! Papa called out over his morning dispatch. You dont want
to depressurize the hab!
Qahirah rolled her eyes. She had known all about airlocks since before she could
walk. Qahirah worked the controls with one gloved hand. Her fingers flashed over the
dials.
Whoosh!
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The air in the airlock was the same pressure as in the kitchen.
Papa slurped his second cup of coffee.
The inner door opened. Papa barely had time to set down his coffee mug before
Qahirah had dragged him through. With a bounce she set the clear bubble of his helmet
over his balding head.
The inner door closed. After a few snapped latches and a blurted Safety check!
Qahirah was ready for the next step. She set a different airlock dial to the proper setting
and
Whoosh!
The air in the airlock matched the near-nothing pressure of the desert planet outside.
The outer door opened.
Mars lay before them.
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3. SET TO SAIL
Qahirah clambered down from the airlock almost on top of Papa. Her boots stomped
down on dirt. She did not mind the chill that tingled her toes.
Looking around, patches of frozen air still clung to the shady sides of dunes. When
the patches were gone, the sun would be high in the sky and it would be time for lunch.
But making up for a skipped breakfast was for later.
For now, Qahirah hopped from crunch to crunch in the frost, until halfway to the
rover garage Papa scolded, Settle down, Qahirah, before you fall and crack your
helmet!
Papa always said that.
Inside the big bubble of the rover garage, Papa took her through a maze of machines.
Qahirah learned quickly. Her heart leapt as the little kayak emerged from one device,
shining with its first coat of protective diamond.
Once Papa was satisfied that she understood how to use all the equipment safely,
Qahirah was free to finish on her own.
All that day and the next she worked. Ballast of wrought ironsmelt from the rust-
red sands all aroundgave weight to the kayaks base. A titanium bolt was reshaped to
become a gleaming, knife-sharp rudder.
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All of it would have to last a very long time. This was the worry that guided Qahirah
as she applied the finishing touches, painting on details and refining the balance. At last
she applied the final coatings: One to protect against chemical oxidation, another against
ultraviolet light, and one more of diamond for good measure. Beneath all this, three
broad stripes on the kayak itself shone red, green and blue.
That night she raced back to the habitat to show Papa her completed work.
Qahirahs kayak was ready to set sail.
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4. UNDER A BLUE STAR
With so few people around, however, it was hard to say good-bye. Instead, wherever
she went, Qahirah brought Patience with her. Qahirah kept the little kayak by her books
as she studied in the greenhouse, or tucked between the oxygen tanks of her suit as she
scrambled over rocks. There was so much beauty in this world, yet so few people to
share it with! Qahirah was still the only child around for a long, long ways.
One afternoon was turning into evening as Qahirah and Papa hurried back to their tin
can house. They urged their all-terrain vehicles faster over the packed dirt. It had been a
hard day of exploring.
A pale blue evening star was peeking over the horizon as the glowing portholes of
home came into view.
Look, Papa! called Qahirah over her radio. They dismounted, and on a nearby rock
the pair took a seat to watch the star. It was following the suns example by disappearing
behind some far off hill. Qahirah knew that it was no star at all, but rather a planet.
It was the Earth, the planet where her parents had been born, but which she had never
known. Still, Qahirah knew that it was blue with oceans. It was warmer with its thick
atmosphere and closeness to the Sun. Qahirah knew this, and also that her own world of
Mars was red and cold. It made Qahirah sad. She reached out for Papas hand in the
growing twilight.
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Qahirah, Papa said, I know that you are lonely here. It was always my dream to
give my daughter a new world, a world of her very own, but I know this is not the world
of your dreams. At least, not yet.
Qahirah nodded in her helmet. Her father had reminded her many times that she and
the planet shared a name, Mars in Latin, al-Qahir in Arabic. Qahirah even meant
victorious. This was her fathers favorite meaning, becausehe saidthat was how
she made him feel. Her name did make it feel like the whole world was hers, but it was
not her victory. Or as Papa had said, at least, not yet.
The blue star was slipping below the horizon. The silver dot of the Earths moon
became just barely visible, but it too was about to blink away.
You dream of a world with people and oceans, Papa continued. Would you have
been happier if you were born on Earth?
Qahirah was taken aback. The thought of living anywhere but Mars had never
crossed her mind. No, Papa! The Earth is already aliveWhere would the fun be in
that? I love this planetour planetas it is, and how it will be again. I want to see it
come back to life. I want to see it become a laughing, breathing, Mars of our own
making. And if I cant be around, I want Patience to see it for me on her journey.
Papas eyes were shining as he put an arm on her shoulder. Then youll be happy to
know that todays dispatch had some major announcements, he said. His voice became
uncertain as he squeezed her tight. Many more people will be arriving. You wont be
lonely anymore.
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Qahirah felt many things, but uncertainty was not one of them. She leapt up,
springing skyward as if to greet the people from the blue star. They might already be on
their way! She came down with her arms around Papa in a hug.
This will change our lives a lot, continued Papa. Patience will have her journey,
and you will have yours. His eyes had caught the kayak wedged between his daughters
oxygen tanks. A smile had crept into his voice.
Qahirah looked at her father. More people meant more friends, and more hands to
help the waters flow once more. There was no time to lose!
A dark curtain had fallen over the western horizon. Smaller stars began to sparkle
through.
Qahirah decided that it was time for Patience to begin her journey.
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5. A LONG ROVER RIDE
It would be the first time Qahirah had been allowed to take a long rover trip all by
herself. The rover was as safe as a little houseand Papa could always come to the
rescue if something went wrong, but still.
The thought of exploring alone gave Qahirah a funny feeling in her stomach.
Papa peppered her with last minute warnings as he helped her pack away food and
other supplies. Radio back every night! Be sure to re-activate the main power cycle
every morning. Watch out for dust devils. And quicksand!
And sand devils, and quickdust! Qahirah teased back. I know, Papa, and I will.
She put on a brave face, but Qahirah was glad that Patience would be with her.
The hour before her departure was taken up by one last session in the workshop.
There, Qahirah inscribed a message on the little kayak, once on each side:
I am Patience. Hear my plea. Help me reach the distant sea.
The rover rolled out. Qahirah was surprised at how small Papa looked as he waved
good-bye. The habitat disappeared from view behind a bend.
To pass the time, Qahirah spoke to the miniature spacesuited kayaker perched on the
rovers dashboard. Pay attention, Patience! When I was very little, Papa showed me a
rainbow map of Mars, where the biggest craters showed deep blues and purples, and the
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tallest volcanoes showed red, then brown, then white. The map revealed an ancient
waterway. The waterway has been dry for billions of years, but it still traces a path from
the ice cap at the South Pole to the plains that were once the northern sea.
Patience, I want to see the water flow again. I want to see that ocean, with people all
around! But it will be a long time before that can happen. Qahirahs voice was sad.
Patience, I have made you strong. This is the journey you must make for me.
That was enough lesson for now. Qahirah flopped back in her drivers seat.
The rover chugged quietly south over ridges and hills. Qahirah never tired of
watching the new sights stream by. Every night she radioed back her progress. Papa
listened as if he hadnt already been monitoring every detail along the way.
After several days, the rover ride had gone on just long enough. Qahirah checked her
map and commanded the rover to stop.
Well, Patience, were here.
They had reached the very start of the great ancient waterway of Mars. At the
moment, however, there was only a dusty orange desert. Qahirah used a spade to take a
sample of the soil. She did not have to dig down very deep before the scoopfuls had
become bright with ice, almost more ice than dirt! This was indeed the place.
One last time Qahirah cradled Patience in her arms. She thought of how lonely the
trip back would be without the little kayak. She thought about Papas dispatch, the news
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that soon there would be new people all around, perhaps even other children! It would
not be so lonely then. They could all work together to help Patience on her way.
Gently, Qahirah set the kayak down upon the mound of icy soil.
This is the right place for you to wait, Patience. I dont know when the waters will
flow again, but Ill make sure they do. I promise.
Back in the rover, Qahirah took a final look at the little kayak perched on the desolate
plain. Good-bye, Patience, she whispered. Maybe well meet again some day. She
felt like crying.
Qahirah tucked her samples of icy soil away in the cold storage compartment. She
commanded the rover to take her home.
She hoped she could keep her promise.
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6. LONELY ON THE HIGH PLAIN
A soft wind whistled over the little kayak. No curious owls swooped down to have a
peek. No mice tested their teeth by nibbling on Patiences helmet. The air was too thin,
the soil too cold, and the sunlight too harsh for any living creature.
Qahirahs laboring hands had left microbestiny creatures too small to seeon the
kayaks outer surface. Even these quickly met their end under the ultraviolet rays that
streamed each day.
Those days could be very long. This close to the southern pole of Mars, the sun
would sometimes twirl around Patience many times before setting. Then the days would
get shorter and shorter. The very air would freeze. Stars would be harder and harder to
see as Patience on her little mound became encased in ice. Eventually even the bright
blue star of Earth would fade from view through the slab of solid air. The winds soft
whisper would be muffled almost to nothing.
The sun rose again, however, again and again after each of many winters. The blue
star shone sometimes in the evenings, and sometimes in the mornings. But the high plain
all around Patience did not change, even as the fogs of spring rolled over it.
The plain was part of the Dorsa Argentea. Long ago cold waters from the polar cap
would pool here. Now the only water near the surface was ice mixed with frozen dirt.
Patience did not mind the changelessness. She could wait.
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Patience waited.
Towards the end of one spring night, a bright flash interrupted the changelessness.
A ball of fire thundered through the sky, and for a few seconds night became day.
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7. A FALLING STAR
The sky faded once more to velvety black, but the hills to the south shone red like hot
coals. It might have seemed that a star had fallen from the sky, but had Patience been
able to count them, she would have found that all the skys stars were still at their posts.
Rather, a large chunk of rockan asteroid the size of a basketball courthad come
crashing down. It had hurtled through space at tremendous speeds. Upon hitting Mars,
the great energy of its motion had become heat and light and a gaping, bowl-shaped hole.
The hole was an impact crater. Its formation threw chunks of the surface upward to
form smaller craters themselves as they fell back down. It vaporized rock and ice in the
shorter part of an instant. The thermal pulse from the cataclysm spread over the icy plain,
as if someone had spilled hot soup.
In a mission control center far to the north, Qahirah sat in the command chair as she
and her team of friends congratulated each other. Several Mars years ago, they had
selected one small mountain of rock from the untold multitude that swirled around the
Sun. Robots had lassoed it. Rockets had nudged it ever so slightly. The asteroid took on
a new path, one that sent it careening towards Mars.
Qahirah sat back and smiled. The site of the impact had been no accident. She had
helped Patience begin her journey. Now Qahirah herself had a journey for which she had
to prepare.
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In Dorsa Argentea, the ground greeted the approaching dawn with a tremble. A blast
of steaming wind picked up. Dim though the early mornings light may have been, there
was clearly movement at the plains southern edge.
The trembling became a rumble set to shake the planet apart.
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8. THE FROZEN WATERFALL
The frozen crust of Dorsa Argentea buckled all around. The heat of the impact was
melting its icy surface. The liquid waters that had been lying dormant now raged to
break loose. They roared from below like a wounded lion.
Patiences mound was where they burst forth onto the surface. The dirt around the
kayak melted away. A crash of water began carrying Patience on the first leg of her
travels. It seemed as though the entire land of Dorsa Argentea was surging down the
slope that dipped gently to the north.
Patiences ride was anything but gentle. The rushing, muddy waters battered the
kayak. Rudely awakened and rude in turn, the waters converged at the head of a valley
system, the Surius Valleys. On the crest of one seething wave, Patience leapt over the
edge and into one of the valley systems deepest gashes.
This valley led to another, much larger crater. It made the crater that Qahirah had
engineered look like a pinprick in comparison. It had been formed when a giant bit of
space junkperhaps a comet one hundred kilometers wide!struck Mars billions of
years before. Here near the craters edge, great blocks of stone had been tilted upwards.
The blocks had formed a ring of mountains nearly a thousand kilometers across.
Water had once carved a path through the scraggly peaks. With Patience leading the
charge, the water found its way again.
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The valley rushed past. Soon the mountains loomed large all around, as if to warn of
the devastation ahead. Patience bobbed high as waves snapped and snarled at each other.
They tossed her between them.
Cold as the water ran, the air around was so thin that each wave wanted to boil so
much as freeze. Water hissed away into the atmosphere. Near the edges of this newborn
river, the slower waters began to crack and spit. Ice formed only to shatter into a million
pieces. But every time the ice formed again, it lasted a little longer.
The ice migrated toward the rivers center. It advanced on Patience. Giant rafts of it
threatened to smash her to smithereens.
Just as the river seemed almost solid, it flung itselfand Patience with it!into a
great abyss. Tumbling end over end, the remaining water froze ice and rock together as
the whole mess plummeted downward. Thick fog obscured the bottom.
Patience would not find the bottom this day. The freezing jumble trapped her as well.
The tip of the kayak peeked out of a wall of ice.
Patience was trapped in a frozen waterfall.
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9. THE CURIOUS CLIMBER
As day broke, an amazing sight opened up before Patience. The icefall lay on the rim
of the Argyre Basin, the impact crater that had formed the surrounding mountains. It was
so vast that the far side could not be glimpsed, even from Patiences high vantage point.
The grip of the icefall held fast even in the peak of summer. In the cold, thin air the
ice could sublime directly into water vaporbut it would not melt. Patience passed
many seasons before the grandeur of Argyre.
Patience could not see, of course, but even if she had been able, the kayak blocked the
view directly below her. It would therefore have come as quite a shock whenon one
particularly rosy morninga spacesuited ice climber appeared beside her.
The ice climber clung to the face of the icefall with crampons, pitons, and a shining
ice axe. Inside his helmet, he blinked and shook his head. He checked the oxygen
readings on his suit. He wiped frost from his faceplate with a free hand. With the other,
he began switching his lifeline between pitons while leaning far over to get a better look.
By Jo! he radioed back to his friends. The rover in which his friends were waiting
looked like an ant from the great height. The wind whistled. Theres some kind of toy
wedged in the ice up here! Im going to
That was the moment when the crampon of his right boot slipped! The climber did
not fall very fast in the low gravity, but the bottom was so far below if would not have
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mattered. He had just enough time to extend a gloved hand and grab the tiny kayak. He
hung on for dear life.
Of course, thatwas the momentprecisely the wrong one!that Patience began to
slide out of her ice prison. In a flash, the climber had reattached his lifeline, but it was
too late! With Patience in one hand and the lifeline in the other, the climber dropped
down towards the floor of the crater. He shouted as he fell.
Just as fear drove its memory from his mind, the lifeline pulled taut. The light gravity
had pulled him to its end. He and Patience swung lazily across the pillar of ice. The pair
rocked back and forth like the pendulum of a grandfather clock.
The climber radioed to his friends that hed had enough for one day. He cautiously
rappelled the rest of the way down.
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10.PATIENCE MEETS AN AIRMILL
The climber breathed a sigh of relief as his boots touched solid ground. He kicked his
crampons off and took a closer look at the find that had nearly left him to be found.
Patiences spacesuit was very old-fashioned. She must be very old. He read the
inscription on the sides of the kayak.
I am Patience. Hear my plea. Help me reach the distant sea.
The climber looked around. Aside from the icefall and the waiting rover, there was
nothing but rock for as far as the eye could see.
The climber thought about taking Patience back to his friends. It didnt seem like
such a good idea. They might put up a fuss, and Patience might never complete her
journey. The climber was too grateful for the little kayaks brief handhold to let that
happen, even if the journey did seem impossible. He set Patience down a ways from both
the rover and the base of the icefall. It would be a better story if his friends were left
wondering if it were true!
Back in the rover, the climber told his tale. His friends only half-believed it. They
soon fell to discussing other topics, like the first mission to another star. The explorers of
that mission had just left the Solar System, on a voyage that would last them many, many
years. But despite such distractions, some of the climbers friends repeated the story, a
story about a little kayak that sought the sea. A sort of legend sprang up.
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Legends were no use to Patience. The little kayak was left to sit in safety on the floor
of the great crater. Seasons passed. Sometimes the wind blew stronger than it ever had
before, and the little kayak would rock back and forth. The pillar of the icefall collapsed
one day. It left a heap in the distance. The rubble might have crushed Patience had she
still been trapped inside.
More floods came. While all eventually became new frozen pillars on the crater rim,
the base of each pillar reached farther and farther into Argyre. Soon, Patience was once
again lost in a jumble of ice blocks. On the sunniest days and in certain places, the top of
the ice would melt. The water would still boil away, but not as fast as it once had. The
wind would blow the kayak back and forth in a small pool above the ice. Then as night
approached, the chill would freeze Patience back into place until the next heat wave.
It was late one fall when a new sort of rumble could be heard across the ice. It was
neither a Marsquake, nor a flood, nor even a falling asteroid. It was a giant sort of rover.
The giant rover scooped ice up off the surface. The ice went into a contraption at the
front, where whirling metal jaws crushed bits of rock and the ice itself before a conveyor
belt ushered the mish-mash into its mysterious confines. At the rear, strange clouds
billowed out of a tall metal chimney.
Sometimes the giant rover could not be seen at all. At others, it and two or three just
like it were in sight, gobbling away all across the crater. They would zig and zag and
rarely come near. That is, until one day when a giant rover was becoming giant indeed.
Its hungry jaws opened wide like a hippos as it headed straight for Patience.
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11.A NARROW ESCAPE
The clamping and clanging of metal jaws echoed louder and louder over the ice.
Chips of rock danced across the surface before the looming shadow. Patience danced
with them, but not nearly far enough to escape the path of destruction.
At the
last!
possible!
instant!
the giant rover lurched to one side. It sputtered to a halt. Its jaws went silent.
An airlock cycled. The feminine form of the driver stepped gracefully down and
approached Patience. The driver scratched her head as best she could through her helmet.
Gal-ax-Y! she muttered to herself. Her strong arms scooped Patience gently up off the
ice. You had a narrow escape just now, little She didnt know what to call the
bizarre find, until she turned the kayak over in her gloved hands.
Patience! Well, Patience, the driver continued, Youre not safe here. Not every
airjack has an eye as sharp as mine! The driveror airjack, ratherbegan carrying
Patience back to the giant rover. Pointing, she said, This heres my airmill, and Im
sorry the two of you had to meet under such circumstances. I think in the long run the
two of you will be best of friends.
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The airjack was right. In the years that followed, Patience might have become the
worlds leading expert on airjacks, airmills, and their mysterious mission.
The explanation was repeated often. Patience, the air on Mars is very thin. Its
mostly made out of a gas called carbon dioxide. That warms this here planet a bit, but
not enough for there ever to be an ocean again. Dont worry, thoughThere are better
gases for trapping the suns heat, fluorocarbons and whatnot. Its sort of like wrapping
the planet in a thicker, warmer blanket!
The airjack would use the airmills sensors to scour the ice for just the right deposits.
Then she would poke around Argyre, talking to Patience all the while. Those floods that
brought you this far arent much good as rivers, Patience, but the ice they leave on the
surface is very useful, rich in fluorine and such and so forth. That ice provides us with
raw materials. Airmills like this one are roving all over the planet, and thats not all
Through all the seasons of exploring, even before the arrival of Patience, a large logo
had remained emblazoned on the airmills side. It looked eerily like the silhouette of a
small, spacesuited figure seated in a kayak. As to the why and wherefore ofthis mystery,
the airjack never explained outright. Now and then she would hint, however, by
muttering, Gal-ax-Y! We thought he was just a klutz, but all this time, that crazy ol
climbin fool was telling the truth about his fall that day
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12.SPRUNG FROM THE HOOSEGOW
Patience kept the airjack company for many a day. The little kayak would look out
from the airmills dashboard as it trundled back and forth across the ice of the crater
floor. Fluorocarbons poured out of its shiny chimney. Each puff warmed the planet a
little bit more.
When the airjack went on vacation, Patience would go on display in the cafeteria of
the air-making company. Other airjacks and visitors would come to gawk, but they
always showed enough respect to make sure that Patience faced the spectacular view
outside.
Far in the distance, the basin of Argyre gleamed white with ice. At the peak of
summer, the brightness in the distance would sometimes shimmer and break into a dark
mottle.
During one long vacation, Patience was put on display under glass. A sign nearby
read: PROPERTY OF AIRCO, INCORPORATED.
When the airjack returned, she was not at all happy.
Its the end of an era, Patience, the airjack said. It was late at night, after everyone
else had left. We dont need to crunch the ice up, anymore. Its not even ice most of the
time!
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The airjack rapped her knuckles on the glass to test its strength. And just when
youd be safe back in the waters, those jokers go and toss you in the hoosegow. Well, Ill
get in bit of trouble for this, but its about time to retire anyway. Lets spring you on out
of there, little buddy.
The airjack wedged a small tool beneath the glass case. She lifted the case up and off
Patience. Even if the sea isnt quite there yet, its time to set you free to find it!
An alarm began buzzing.
The room glowed red.
The airjack rushed off with Patience under one arm.
Later that night, far from the security cameras and searching lights, the airjack and
her friends held a secret ceremony. There was cake and a ribbon cutting and a ramp
down which Patience slid into calm, clear water. Still very cold, it splashed all around.
A wind kicked up, carrying the little kayak away. The airjack and her friends
shivered in their spacesuits as they waved good-bye. The ceremony was for many of
them their retirement party, as well, after many years of trekking across the ice.
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13.THE CLOGGED BATHTUB
Argyre was wetter now, but all the melted ice added up to barely a few bucketfuls.
The water froze solid around Patience every winter. Every spring, however, Argyre
thawed to welcome new waters from the south to its blue expanse.
Once there, the waters would swish and circle with nowhere to go. Patience flowed
with them around and around. With each cycle of the seasons she rose up higher with the
waters, as if trapped in a clogged bathtub. One stretch of the crater walls in the north did
not rise very high at all. This was the mouth of the Uzboi Valley, where long ago the
waters had risen high enough to rush out.
Patience was near where her icefall had once crashed down when it happened again.
The currents quickened. The first waters to rise above the dusty mouth of Uzboi
Valley had trickled only briefly before becoming a great torrent. They carved down to
bedrock in an instant.
The waters of Argyre tugged Patience along as they unleashed themselves on the
long-sleeping waterways to the north.
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14.THE CARELESS KAYAKERS
Patience bobbed along towards the rapids that marked the entrance to Uzboi Valley.
The valley made a gap in the peaks of the Nereid Mountains. After so long going in
circles, to go north at last!
The great white roar of water over rocks echoed as the mouth of the valley drew near.
It was hard to tell which was more powerful, the rushing waters or the pounding noise!
Patience was not the only kayaker to approach the rapids. Several full-size paddlers
were poised to take the plunge themselves. Some of them did not wear full space helmets
at all. Instead, they wore simple contraptions that covered their noses and mouths like
the masks of surgeons. Such oxygen masks were all that were needed in the thickening
airThose and a good wetsuit for the frigid waters!
Others wore helmets, but not the fancy new models that had been the fashion for
some time. Instead, their helmets were downright bulbous and antiquated. They looked
suspiciously similar to that carved long ago for Patience herself.
One of the kayakers spotted Patience through a pair of binoculars. The kayakers
lifted their paddles in a cheer. They had timed their expedition just right, but not for the
reasons a certain air-making company would have liked.
Airco, Inc. was offering a Patience Prize for returning the little kayak to the
companys private collection. The members of the kayaking expedition, however, were
not there to capture Patience or the reward. They thought they had a better idea. They
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would follow Patience through this segment of her journey. Then they would work hard
to bring about the sea that would greet her at its end.
Patience floated through their midst. The kayakers paddled backwards to keep their
positions. One was close enough to reach out and pat Patience with his paddle, for luck.
Patience passed the lead kayaker. A yell went out from the group. Led by the
smallest amongst them, the armada set out across the rapids of Uzboi Valley.
Water had not flowed through the valley in a long time, so the way was wild and
untamed. Water cascaded over small cliffs in arcing waterfalls that were just barely
navigable thanks to the low gravity. Jets shot up in a confusion of whitewater.
In one whirlpool, the way was lost entirely, and the currents were so strong that the
kayakers could not find a way out. The raging waters threatened to bash them on sharp
rocks as they exhausted themselves more and more with each spin.
A flume of water catapulted Patience onto just the right current at just the right time.
She floated away, out of the deadly whirlpool. The kayaker who had patted Patience
with his paddle saw Patience escape. He yelled to his companions.
Digging their paddles into the foam, the careless kayakers strove towards the patch of
saving current. The maelstrom fought against their every stroke. The last of the group
had just made her exit when Patience disappeared from view around a bend.
The kayakers lingered in the calm. It was good to have a moments rest. They
slowly regained their strength before continuing downstream.
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15.THROUGH THE CHAOS AND INTO THE CAVERN
The kayakers did not catch up to Patience. There were too many paths to choose, and
more were being made all the time.
Uzboi Valley branched this way and that. The water would course through each
stretch of valley until another crater reared up before it. Some craters were very old, and
the water could follow the same path it had previously. Just as often, a crater would be
young, obliterating the waters last path and forcing a detour as the waters searched for a
new route.
This fickle flow kept Patience bobbing around for a whole season.
One day the water was working to find its way with particular ferocity. It was a place
where rivers of lava had once flowed across the land. In some cases, the outer layers of
lava had cooled as the molten rock inside flowed away. A hollow shell called a lava tube
would be all that was left. The lava tubes went off every which way like a tangle of
sewer pipes.
Patience was battered against rock as the water attacked a broken lava tube that
barred its way. The rock was strong, but the water gained the upper hand. Its swirling
vortices drilled into the rubble, and suddenly a new path was pierced. Most of the water
flowed up and over, but not Patience. Some quirk of the current sent her right into the
ancient lava tube!
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Sunlight was soon a distant memory. Patience was carried deep beneath the surface
by the flowing water, through twists and turns and sometimes narrow passages. Finally,
she rode a spout of water out the end of the lava tube, and fell
down
down
down
SPLASH!
The little kayak landed in a place of stillness. Aside from that, it was too dark to tell
what kind of place it was. There was a crashing from above as the end of the lava tube
collapsed.
Patience was trapped in a watery cavern.
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16.A FRIENDLY GLOW
The last drops from the lava tube plunked down. The water at the surface must have
chosen another way. Ripples from the drops spread out over the cave waters. They made
the smallest of splashes on the cavern walls before bouncing back fainter and fainter,
until not even an echo was left. It became very quiet.
Mars is half again as far from the Sun as the Earth, and the suns light there is not as
bright. So to be trapped deep underground there is a very dark situation, indeed. In this
particular cavern, however, it was not always as dark as one might expect. Nor was it as
cold.
The cavern was warmed not by the faraway sun, but by heat flowing up right from the
core of Mars. In the early days of the planet, such warmth had exploded from the depths
to craft huge volcanoes like Olympus Mons, the tallest in the Solar System. Now, the
heat percolated slowly, and only here and there. Caverns like the one where Patience
now resided were rare.
Patience sat on the surface of a deep pool, not even drifting between its shores.
Some of the water here had arrived with Patience through the lava tube, but most of it
was from long before. The waters that flowed here would circulate down through cracks
into the hot depths of the planet. They would then slosh back just in time to keep the
cavern waters from freezing.
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When this happened, Patience would bob amidst the bubbles. Strange vapors would
fill the cavern until the waters went quiet again. It was a cycle that had been spinning
since the dawn of Mars.
At times, Patience might have witnessed a spooky glow in the ancient waters. It was
strongest when a batch of roiling bubbles had just arrived from below. Sometimes the
glow would just barely illuminate the sharp spikes of stalactites on the cavern ceiling
high above.
Long acquaintance made the glow less spooky. Rather, it became more of a friendly
glow.
Then one dayor rather, during one instant of that never-ending nighta bright
shaft of light stabbed down.
It blazed forth from somewhere high up.
A gasp echoed off the cavern walls.
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17.THE HAPPY EXPLORERS
Whats that?
The question rang like a bell in the immense hollow. It was hardly muffled at all
from beneath the askers oxygen mask. That oxygen mask was complemented by a full
biosuit. Apparently, the asker and his companion wanted to keep the cave sterile.
The asker was a timid young student, and he was getting nervous. This whole crazy
spelunking expedition was his professors idea. That professora very knowledgeable
woman, to be surewas confident that the heat from the planets interior would lead
them to an interesting discovery. The student was not convinced.
The professor wanted to find the most shielded depths of the cavern. There, the
warmth of the planet might have created an environment sheltered from the harsh surface.
It was the young students job to trace the most direct route downward. But the tunnels
before him snaked in all different directions. The radar map was a muddle. Any more
mistakes and they would be lost in the labyrinth.
The young student had almost called off their search for the day, saying, Professor, I
think wed better head ba
It had been just then that an explosion of diamond had erupted. It happened right as
the student had waved his flashlight over a particular crevice in the side of one tunnel.
Something far below had sparkled red, green, and blue.
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The young students Whats that? was still ringing as he again directed its beam
downward. Squinting, it appeared almost as if a sliver of diamond was reflecting the
beam. A dark pool surrounded the sliver. When he turned the light off and let his eyes
adjust, there was instead a sliver of darkness, while the pool around it seemed toglow?
Now, here was an interesting discovery!
The professor was only too happy to have a glimpse. She agreed that they should
investigate. The crevice was too small to squeeze through, however, and the line they
had brought was too short. Painstakingly, they mapped out a detour.
The student led the way with renewed confidence until they came to a watery
impasse. Breaking out their cave-diving fins, the pair slipped beneath the inky waters.
It shouldhave been just a short swim beneath a ledge.
They shouldhave popped upright away!in a pool on the other side.
Instead, the short swim turned into a desperate slog through the murk.
The thermal sensor seemed to be leading them in the right direction, but right when
they should have been surfacing it shorted out. The student and the professor kept their
lights on to communicate with sign language. The way seemed hopeless and it would be
better to go backbut now even the return path was uncertain.
The chill of the waters crept in on them.
The ceiling of rock pressed down.
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To the young student, the walls felt more like the coils of a python. The scales
constricted around him. It seemed impossible to tell, which gap would lead to safety, and
which would lead to icy fangs in the dark.
Fighting off his panic, the young student remembered the glow. The glow became
the spark of an idea. He and his professor turned off all their lights, even the tiny ones
that would help them find each other if they got separated.
It was worth the risk, for there it was!
The friendly glow was shining from just a little ways off. It beckoned through a
small chink in the pythons armor. Professor and student stroked their fins in its
direction. They squeezed through the crack, one by one. Then they powered upwards,
rushing upwards on their fins like birds that had spotted a snake just in time.
The young student drew a long breath from his oxygen tank as they broke the surface.
All around them, perhaps agitated by the commotion, the glow seemed brighter than ever.
Before them was the source of the sparkle. It was a little kayak painted red, green,
and blue, carrying a tiny, spacesuited figure, and made nearly invincible by a coat (or
two!) of protective diamond. The student and professor didnt know what to make of it,
but they figured the little kayak could use a lift out of there.
The two happy explorers tucked rocks, water samples, and Patience into their packs.
They began to wind their way back, up to the smiling sun.
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18.BACK IN THE FLOW OF THINGS
The young student squinted as they reached daylight. Their rover was parked just
ahead, on the edge of a fissure. The rover had a mobile laboratory onboard. Professor
and student clambered into the airlock with their finds in tow.
Inside, with oxygen masks off, the two could smell a whiff of rotten egg stench
coming from their discarded biosuits. It wasnt pleasant, but it could mean that
something exciting was afoot!
The student read Patiences name from the inscription, and spoke to the little kayak
sealed tightly away inside a sample bag. Now, Patience, were awful happy to have
found you, but we were looking for an even bigger prize, maybe the most amazing
discovery in history: life
on Mars! his professor interrupted. She called her student over to a very
complicated instrument. This is very different from anything weve ever seen, and
Patience led us to it. The professor gave the little kayak a knowing smile. Take a
lookI dont think we can even call its genetic material DNA!
When the student finally managed to peer into the instrument, his jaw dropped. He
wasnt quite sure what he was looking at, but it was definitelyalien? It was an
incredible realization, to think that the microbes swimming before his eyes might just
turn everything people knew about life upside down.
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First they had to study it, though. The two scientists were analyzing the discovery
and arguing over it all through the night.
They even analyzed Patience. It seemed that no organism, from any planet, had
found purchase recently on her diamond-coated surface. It was safe to free Patience from
the sample bag.
As they worked, the scientists were surprised to learn that a company called Airco,
Inc. was still offering a large prize for the chance to put Patience in its private collection.
Both student and professor put the kibosh on that. After Patience had guided them so
well, it didnt seem fair not to send the little kayak on its way.
This the scientists did quietly, soon after they astounded the world with their
discovery, and after several other labs had verified that Patience was not a source of
contamination in the cavern ecosystem.
Patience floated away on a serene stretch of river. The waters had long since worn
down the rapids here. The scientists watched the little kayak until it had disappeared in
the distance. Then they headed off to search for more alien life.
The free-flowing surface waters were a better home for Patience.
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19.WINTER UNDER TWIN MOONS
The waters were not calm for long. It was the height of spring when Patience began
down the long waterway again, and the waters flowed fast and deep. Patience was
carried along quickly, but as winter approached the river became a tumult, then a trickle,
and then froze over just as Patience splashed on an icy wave into Holden Crater.
This crater was not so big as mighty Argyre, but it too had once been a lake where
waters circled before heading to the sea. As the waters arrived, their currents slowed.
The waters would dump the sediment they had carried as rivers. The sediment had
formed layer upon layer on the crater floor.
When the waters had left, wind had carved the layers into a thousand different shapes.
Spires, buttes and mesas had reared up where there had once been a lazy lake bottom.
Now these features reared up all around Patience, and made it clear that the waters had
not yet reached their former glory. During this particular winter they were little more
than an ice puddle. Holden Crater would be a lake again, but for now the waters were not
yet ready to claim the title.
The old layers gave the landscape a striped appearance. As the winter wore on, the
grit of fierce winds polished into a mirror the ice sheet on which Patience sat. The striped
mesas reflected up and down until it was hard to tell which way was which.
On the least frigid winter days, the pressure of a skate blade had enough warmth to
allow its user to glide across the ice. On such days, people would go ice-skating in
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Holden Crater. Tiny figures could be seen careening around the most scenic buttes.
Sometimes people would skim across the surface at tremendous speeds in iceboats that
braved the bitter winds.
None of these revelers ever came near Patience. The little kayaks diamond glitter
was lost in the glare.
During the night, it was the two moons of Mars that kept Patience company as they
went skimming by. This far north, they jousted high over the horizon like a pair of ice
skaters egged on by a dare. Each time their paths met, farther, smaller Deimos seemed to
barely brush past the brightly rushing Phobos.
When spring came, waters from the south melted Holden Craters ice puddle. Rising
waters surged as the stripes ticked off their progress. Finally the water rose high enough
to boil over into the spillway of the Ladon Valleys.
Patience bobbed along.
A new summer of traveling had begun.
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20.THE CANALS OF A GROWING TOWN
That summer the waters carried Patience far along the Ladon Valleys. Craters and
other convolutions would often cause a detour. The waters would pause to overflow
some new basin, or remember their way haphazardly along a channel twisted by time.
For every slosh forward, there seemed to be two sloshes back.
Those sloshes added up, however, until Patience was sloshed from the Ladon Valleys
into Ladon Basin. The big depression was very broad, but shallow enough that only three
winters later it had overflowed to set Patience free again. Now the little kayak traveled
north through the Margaritifer Valleys.
As Patience neared the equator, a flimsy shape like a huge, clear circus tent appeared
on the horizon. She was approaching a town. The air all over Mars was now thick, but it
had too much carbon dioxide and too little oxygen to breathe. The townspeople had
erected the giant tent to keep the good air in and the bad air out.
The people worked hard to make their town a more beautiful place. Beneath the tent
and between the two valleys on its east and west sides, they had built a network of canals.
A system of locks on the outskirts kept fresh water circulating through. Instead of
going past, Patience got caught in an eddy, which diverted her into a lock, and soon she
was drifting through the watery byways.
There were more people here than Patience had ever encountered. During the
evenings crowds would throng the sidewalks. People ate and argued and played chess at
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cafs. The canal currents would often send Patience by the towns central park, where
music or laughter could be heard near an outdoor theater.
One sunny day, Patience was floating by the park when a group of kids began daring
each other to take great, flying, low-gravity leaps across wider and wider sections of the
canal. One kid missed the far side by a wide margin, but his cannonball plunked right
down on Patience. Neither Patience nor the kid were the worse for the encounter. In
fact, the kid seemed quite thrilled.
Floating in the water, he exulted at his find, waving Patience over his head for his
friends to see. His friends were so excited that they jumped into the water themselves for
a closer look. The ensuing debate over what to do with the tiny celebrity soon grew so
raucous that the town mayor looked up from his book and wandered over to sort out the
soggy gang.
Why, this is fantastic luck! exclaimed the mayor as he turned Patience over in his
hands. The old inscription verified that this was indeed the legendary kayaker:
I am Patience. Hear my plea. Help me reach the distant sea.
Just in time for the ceremonies! The mayor addressed Patiences latest steward.
You and your friends take good care of Patience for now, but be bright and early for the
ribbon arrival tomorrow. I want Patience to get a good seat!
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21.A LADDER TO THE SKY
Patience changed hands many times that night, as the result of one dare or another,
and sometimes due to an outright scuffle! Too bleary-eyed to discuss the matter any
further, the troop reached the central park again bright and early as promised. They
made it just before the entire remainder of the towns population showed up for the days
celebration.
Patiences steward explained the situation. You must think its funny for us to be
celebrating some bit of ribbon coming to town, PatienceBut its not silly at all!
Patience was seated comfortably in the kids lap, which in turn was located in a seat of
honor up on the makeshift stage. His eyes, along with those of his friends and the
townspeople, would wander from Patience, to each other, and then always to the bright
morning sky visible through the gossamer tent.
The kid whispered to Patience as the mayor and other bigwigs made interminable
speeches. You see, Patience, this ribbon is super-strong. When its close end gets here
today, it will have dropped down all the way from space, all the way from seventeen
thousand kilometers up and beyond! This ribbon is so long that the whole thing is in
orbit, even though one end will be in outer space, and the other end will berighthere!
Look, there it is!
The boy pointed Patiences kayak so that she had a direct line of sight. The crowd
got to its feet and cheered. The mayor had not timed his speech quite right, and was
trying to finish, but if anyone was paying attention they could not have heard him.
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People yelled and pointed at a beacon far above the tent. The beacon marked the tip of a
long black ribbon. The ribbon went straight up into the sky until it disappeared.
Jets from the beacon kept the entire apparatus from swaying too much as the ribbon
was guided down. The beacon came closer and closer, until it had passed through a
special airlock in the tents roof. It would be easy to make up for the unavoidable leaks.
The ceremony had been poorly planned. Everyone rushed to the site of the beacons
actual first contact several canal blocks away. Patience was rushed along as with any
other flood. Through it all, her steward kept yelling his explanation. The ribbon is like
a ladder to the sky, an elevator to space, and now we wont need to use rockets, or the big
draped ribbons on Olympus Mons, or even the newer one on Pavonis. We have our own!
This wont be a small town much longer!
Patience would get a demonstration of what all this madness was aboutsoon!
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22.A SPECTACULAR VIEW
Engineers locked the end of the ribbon down onto its anchor. Up close, the ribbon
was meters wide but thin as paper. They brought it up to full tension while trying to keep
the mob of onlookers at a safe distance. They didnt want anyone to be hurt in case the
ribbon should snap. Fortunately, the ribbon held safe and strong.
Weeks went by as the final engineering checks took place on the brand new space
elevator. It was an advanced design, and the engineers wanted to make sure it functioned
perfectly before sending up the first batch of very important persons on an inaugural trip.
When the checklists were finally checked off, Patience went along for the ride. This
caused her steward much delightand even more worry.
Dont be scared, Patience. Its a lot safer than the old rockets used to be. Patience
just stared straight ahead, as usual. She couldnt be scared to start with, but in talking to
her, the kid got a little more courage himself.
At the anchor, giant cranes would swing a climber car close to the ribbon. Their
treads would clamp down, like the gripping hands of a chameleon on a branch. Then up
and away the car would go. Even more like a chameleon, it would fade to invisibility as
it got smaller and smaller in the sky.
The special passenger car was attached to the ribbon. It took a long while to get
everyone seated. The doors sealed. With a jolt the car leapt skyward! It passed slowly
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through the airlock, then reached high speeds as the atmosphere thinned and the
encircling horizons turned into the great globe of the planet Mars.
A spectacular view of the Red Planet unfolded before Patience and the other
passengers. Few had seen Mars like this before. As they rose higher, the great scar of
Valles Marineris, greatest canyon in the Solar System, appeared in the west.
In the east, the great dust desert of Syrtis Major was dark and forbidding.
And there, to the south, was the glittering blue outline of the waterway that had
brought Patience this far. It stretched through many valleys, back into the immense crater
of Argyre, all the way back to the polar plain.
The kid thought of what his friends had been whispering in his ear as he boarded the
climber car. One of them had heard about the Airco, Inc. prize to put Patience in the
companys private collection. With compound interest over the many years since it had
first been offered, the prize had become very substantial. Patience had already traveled
so far on her journeyWasnt it far enough?
The great plain of Vastitas Borealis, home to the once and future ocean, opened up to
the north. It was stubbornly rust red, with only a dab of water here and there.
To see what might have been an ocean seem so parched and pleading made the kid
think again. He ran his finger over the inscription on the kayaks sides. He thought of
the trust that someone long ago had put in those words. No, not just in those words, but
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in all who would read them. Trust, that those who came after would help the little kayak
reach the sea. Faith, that they would all work hard to make the sea come about.
No, the kid thought, it wouldnt be right.
The journey was far from over.
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23.WINDMILLS, WHALES AND WALLOPS
It took a full day for the climber car to travel along the ribbon to the space station in
orbit around Mars. That orbit was a special one, where any satellite or speck of dust
would travel around Mars exactly as fast as the planet spun. In that way, the entire
ribbon would always be stationary relative to the small town at its anchor.
All the way up, the gentle tug of Mars grew less and less. Patience grew lighter in the
kids arms until they reached the station, where neither of them weighed anything at all.
Giddy from freefall, they caromed from ceiling to wall to floor, and forgot which was
which.
There were many sights visible through the stations large windows. A little ways
off, giant doughnuts spun to give the inhabitants of their interiors artificial gravity.
Superstrong strings a hundred kilometers across twirled like windmills as they flung
people and cargo around the Solar System.
The kid took special care in showing Patience the mirrors near the station. Ya see
those big shiny things, Patience, huh? Do ya? Those are shining down to warm the
planet. Theyll keep the waters flowing, and help you reach the sea. The mirrors
floated past like silvery whales.
Even on the way down, when the environs could only be described as stuffy, the kid
never got tired of the view. This was especially true when the mini-moon Phobos
whizzed by right outside! Didja see that, Patience, huh? Didja? I swear someone
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wearing a spacesuit waved from that crater! Everyone said they didnt believe
himexcept Patience, who minded the stuffiness least of all.
Upon returning to the surface, there was supposed to be another small ceremony.
Wearing their oxygen masks, all the kids, the mayor, and a few folks with too much time
on their hands gathered together on the north side of town. The dock there was decorated
red, green and blue with clusters of balloons. It was then that the kid almost wished that
someone else had found Patience. Sending her on her way left a heavy feeling in his
heart.
A few of the kids friends, on the other hand, were a bit more cheery. Trying to talk
him into cashing in on the prize had come to no avail, but had they reallygivenup?
YOINK!
A last minute lunge for Patience resulted in an eight-way wrestling match.
Headlocks! Half-Nelsons! A poke to the eye! A kick to the shins! Nothing quite
pitched the battle one way or the otherthat is, until the mayor wandered into the fray.
The mayor jostled his way through the dogpile, hoisting kids up by their shirt collars
and trying to restore some sense of dignity to the proceedings. It was a wallop that
dodged unexpectedly through his legs that turned the tide. It allowed Patience to slip
through the tangle of grabbing hands and into a tangle of ribbons
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The kid released the balloon bunch with a tug. Rising above desperate leaps, Patience
flew off and over the water. Those gathered watched her float away. All were happy to
be part of the legend, but it was for different reasons that they were sad to see her go.
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24.GREEN AND RED MOLLASSES
Patience had traveled nearly a quarter of the way around Mars, whenflying high in
a cluster of balloons!brisk winds carried her north past the equator.
The land was changing. Here in the tropics of the once frigid planet, the first simple
plants were taking hold. Down below, flecks of green moss and blue lichen spangled the
rusty red. The colors almost matched those of the little kayak and its cluster of balloons.
Near the river, the water-saturated ground was slumping and melting. The land around
the Margaritifer Valleys was like green and red molasses.
The winds carried Patience away from the main channel, over side valleys and up
streams, until her way might have been lost entirely. But when the last balloon fizzled
out, high in a secluded ravine, it was the waters themselves that put the little kayak back
on track. They carried Patience down streams and through side valleys, and with a
rushing gurgle back into the main channel. Within the watershed of the great waterway,
even the tiniest droplet carved a path to the sea.
When winter arrived in lands to the south, the flow of water would slow to a trickle.
Sometimes, if Patience was in a broad part of the valley or in a crater lake, she would be
stranded on a silty beach until the spring waters flowed again.
Some mornings would reveal drifts of snow, which quickly melted under the light of
day. During others, an entirely new phenomenon would occur: Rain would fall from the
sky.
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Through rain and snow, drought and flood, Patience moved forward. North of the
equator, when she was waiting for the waters to find their way out of a crater, the currents
would tend to spin her in the opposite direction. It was good to see the world from a
different perspective.
The plants set in place to help oxygenate the atmosphere grew everywhere. They
thrived during the long northern summers. Their abundance reached its peak as Patience
arrived at Margaritifer Chaos, near the end of the ancient river system. Here long ago the
southern waters had pooled beneath the surface. The lands very shape had depended on
the waters holding it up, like an icy crust supported by a winter lake. Then the crust had
collapsed one day as the waters catastrophically discharged onto the northern plains.
The land had been left in a jumble of brokenness.
Now, all around Patience, it had become a garden.
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25.A NET IN THE CHAOS
Of the many sights that had greeted Patience along her journey, Margaritifer Chaos
was perhaps the most amazing. Special care had been taken here to provide a foothold
for living, growing things. The sides of tall cliff faces squirmed with life. Mosses and
lichens buttressed almost every mesa. Delicate mists danced with shafts of sunlight in
the breeze.
Scientists tested new organisms here before sending them to strive in the southern
highlands or on some squalid lava field. As Patience floated by, a few scientists were
collecting flower samples by the waters edge. One of them was a man in an oxygen
mask and a bright purple jacket marked AIRCO, INCORPORATED Celebrating 300
Years.
When the man saw Patience, he dropped his bouquet!
The man began racing along the shore. He leapt over boulders and dove through
brambles in pursuit of the little kayak. He was just a few strides away when a loose patch
of gravel sent him sprawling in the mud.
Patience continued on unfazed. The broken terrain split the currents like a scythe.
They made her path hard to trace. Limping and muddy, the man fell far behind. Soon it
appeared that Patience had lost him for good. She bobbed from wave to wave as if on a
sluggish and disjointed tour.
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The shattered landscape of the chaos had been cut off from its old courses. People
had carved new channels to help the water find its way. Watery fingers prodded Patience
towards the viaducts that led to Aram Chaos.
The outline of Arams ancient crater framed another living triumph. The fragrance of
vegetation combined with a diversity of green and light. The effect was dizzying, but not
so much so that a person would not notice the dot of muddy purple that sometimes
flashed amongst the green.
The purple dot made appearances more and more frequently, until a few days later
when the man in the purple jacket showed himself once more. He was wild-eyed and
disheveled, as if he had been camping and hiking for a long time. He had positioned
himself far out over the river on an overhanging branch. As Patience approached, he
leaned down with a large net, but the current was tugging the little kayak just out of
reach.
The man shimmied along the branch.
He stretched with all his might.
SNAP!
Patience rode a wave away from where the man had splashed down.
The man took a moment to sputter into his oxygen mask. He waved both his net and
the piece of broken branch over his head. The little kayak moved far beyond reach.
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Long after he had swum back to shore, the man muttered about his lost vacation days,
and how he had been planning to get back to nature, anyhow. He laid his purple jacket
out on a flat rock to dry in the sun.
Later that evening, still nursing aches and pains but at least with a dry jacket in which
to shiver, the man made an important decision. The manwho happened to be the forty-
third Chief Executive Officer of Airco, Incorporateddecided to let the Patience Prize
expire. To have the company give the reward money to charity, his thinking went, would
be far less painful.
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26.WHERE A ROVER ONCE ROAMED
Patience was left free to wander the fractures of Aram Chaos. The interconnecting
channels were like a medina. They turned the currents into a traffic jam. The honking
and complaining waves crammed Patience into this rock crevice and that, then through
soggily collapsed canyons until finally sending her east.
Patience traveled through the only outlet from Aram Chaos into Ares Valley. The
valley was enormous. It had been carved by water flowing at hundreds of times the rate
of the faraway Mississippi. The waters that pushed Patience along it now were hardly a
trickle in comparison, but the splendor of the tear-shaped isles and ravaged piles of rock
was no less.
Long ago, a robotic rover had explored the valley for the first time. The rover had
bounced down from space with huge airbags cushioning its fall. It had sampled rocks
and sent many pictures back to Earth, before any human had ever visited. Now, Patience
was here, too.
A silty stream maneuvered Patience to the center of the valleys mostly dry mega-
channel. Each spring the rush of waters would carry her forward in a month as far as she
had traveled in the whole previous year. Like an inchworm propelled by the seasons, she
approached the plains that were the dust-covered remains of the sea.
On the edge of what many thought was perhaps an ancient shoreline, the currents
gave up the last of their strength. There was no more flow in them. The northern plains
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soaked up their moisture in a maze of dunes. The waters would need to kindle for a long
while before winning this fight.
Patience was run aground in the middle of a sandy bog.
The ocean of dreams long past was nowhere in sight.
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27.THE GROWING CRASHING
Mars moved forward to life again. The process was not a smooth one. Instead, it
progressed with the hulking jerks of a rusty car.
Patience was prey to its whimsy. She sat stranded in the bog, enduring seasons when
hardly a drop came down from the wide mouth of Ares Valley. In others, she braved
deluges in which huge blocks of the planet were in danger of being swept away.
Patience was smacked around unceasingly from this pile of sand to that as the planet
made up its mind. She would sometimes be perched on one of the higher dunes, and to
the far north there would be a strange shimmer, accompanied by a salty spray.
The sea was a long while coming. One late fall a sand avalanche buried Patience
beneath a mountain of dark, damp grit. Not even a puff of sea breeze reached her there.
In time, tender roots reached down and wrapped themselves around the little kayak.
Primitive grasses and other plants took hold and locked the sandand Patiencein
place.
Muffled through the sand, a growing crashing could be heard all the time. The
crashing would be quiet and faraway in winter, but each spring it would return with a
vengeance. Patience waited for many seasons. The little kayak was entombed in
darkness even as the crashing became louder and louder.
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It was the crash and wail of the newborn ocean. For a long while now, the infant sea
had been soaking up warmth from the thick atmosphere. It had nursed from each new
flood and chance fall of rain. It had grown strong.
Movement around her caused Patience to twitch in her little grave. Encroaching
waters saturated the soil. The little kayak strained against the sand and gnarled roots.
The crashing became like thunder. The waves batted furiously at the sands. If
Patience was buried too deeply, the waves would move on past. Patience would be left to
sleep away the centuries beneath calm depths.
Patiences creator had proven too clever. The little kayaks bulges were too
buoyantits frame too lightfor anything to stop it now.
The hungry waves gnawed unceasingly. They mixed and shifted the sands just
enough for Patience to rush up to the surface.
Like a dolphin Patience breached the foam. She spun in the salty air before crashing
down to float once more above the waters.
Patience had reached the sea!
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28.JOURNEYS ON THE NEW SEA
The wind-driven tides eventually cast Patience far out into the open ocean. This wet
expanse covered much of the northern hemisphere. Its currents took time to sort
themselves out, but soon a sort of river in the sea won the day, moving beneath the
winds and spin of the planet to push Patience around and around, and ever to the east.
Patience chased after each sunrise, and fled from each sunset.
Patience circled the globe until it was a wonder that the poles of the planet did not
grow dizzy and tip over. She would travel in an arc up the coast of Arabia Terra, do a
curlicue through the bay of Isidis Planitia, and detour far to the north around the flank of
Tharsis.
If she was headed in that direction in the warmest summer months, she might make it
all the way to where the last of the lovely polar dunes peaked above the waves. She
would spend a winter with them trapped in ice before spring carried her south once more.
The volcano continent of Elysium never knew where to send Patience. Sometimes it
would send her north, to contend with cold waves crashing on the rocky shore.
Sometimes it would send her south, where the shallows were green with algae and brown
with kelp.
On some dark nights, when the waters were very still, it seemed there was a hint of
the friendly glowthe native life of Mars!that had once kept Patience company in a
cave.
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The amount of oxygen in the air was increasing. The first animals appeared to join
Patience in her travels. At first there were only simple creatures, like plankton in the artic
waters or buzzing dragonflies in a tropical wetland. Soon, however, there were fish and
frogs, snapping turtles and even an orca that sent Patience flying on the spout of its
blowhole.
One night, a passing seabird briefly capsized Patience when it decided to take a nap
on the kayaks bow. There came a time when every dawn was greeted by the singing of
birds.
When boats or other signs of people would appear in the distance, it could be seen
that oxygen masks and carbon dioxide filters had long since been discarded. The faces of
the people smiled unimpeded in the sunshine.
The planet had become a home.
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29.TO THE CAPITAL CITY
One early spring, a cold current sped Patience south. She was headed towards Xanthe
Terra. Winds blew Patience through the shallow channels of Xanthe and into the mighty
canyons of Valles Marineris. Waves dashed themselves on cliffs that touched the sky yet
could not spy each other across the immense gulf between them.
Patience bounced from canyon to canyon, until one day in Candor Chasma a giant
contraption blossomed on the horizon. It looked like an enormous metal spider, but in
reality it was a floating power plant. The power plant made clean energy by mixing the
cold deep waters with the warmth of the surface.
It was here that a large coelacanth fishperhaps itself a bit lost so close to the
surfacesuddenly took offense at Patiences sparkle. With a noisy slurp Patience was
wedged within its big fleshy jaws, and headed downward fast.
The coelacanth wanted to finish off this ornery meal at its underwater cave. Patience
had other plans. The farther down the fish swam, the harder it was to keep Patiences
buoyancy from carrying her back to the surface. Soon the coelacanth let go, sending
Patience upward along a string of indignant bubbles. The coelacanth drifted away.
Patience was not bound directly for the surface, however. Instead, a deep intake pipe
for the power plant put a kink in her course. Patience was accelerating upwards not to
freedom, but towards the power plants grinding, crushing turbines.
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This escape was easier than most. Patience was caught in the complicated filtration
apparatus, which did not know what to make of her. It beeped for human intervention.
Eventually, a grumpy diver came to inspect the filter. For being so grumpy, the diver
sure was pleased with what he found.
And if the diver was pleased, his fellow technicians were overjoyed. Excitedly, they
read the ancient inscription:
I am Patience. Hear my plea. Help me reach the distant sea.
They hooted and clapped at their good fortune. Looks like you did it, Patience!
Your journeys all over now. The welcome festival is tomorrow, and just think, after all
these years!...
Youve come back to us just in time! another exclaimed. Well, a hundred years
ago, back when that big prize was still being offered, well, that would have been a bit
nicer for us, I suppose. But were happy youre back, anyhow.
That very evening a sliver of metalwhat passed for an airplane in those days
rushed the diver and the little kayak to the coast of Cydonia.
Patience was taken to the capital city of Mars.
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30.A REUNION IN PASSING
The spires and monuments of the capital city truly scraped the sky. They seemed to
stretch themselves in every direction, to relish the freedom of the living planet. Their tips
swam in the high breezes, for they did not need to constrain themselves within any tent
and certainly not a tin can!
People clogged the streets to greet Patience as she was carried to the central plaza.
They did not constrain themselves, either. They cheered with abandon, and many darted
forward to get a closer look. The diver would oblige them, extending Patience out with a
cheery harrumph for the most curious to view.
Amidst the crystal fountains and beaming faces, in the gleaming city on the shores of
the peaceful sea, there was one face that would have most liked to see the splashing
waves. There was one face that would have most loved to wander through the crush of
cheering crowds. But to see that face again seemed beyond even hope. Hundreds of
years had passed. The face of that long-ago girl had surely faded into history. She could
never see the miracles of time and persistence all aboutcould she?
Nothing is beyond hope!
For there was that same face. It smiled with more wisdom, but shone with the same
spirit that had once set down a little kayak on a pile of icy dirt.
The face now belonged to a woman whose eyes glittered like Patiences diamond
coat. Her name was still Qahirah. Long ago she had been the first child born on Mars.
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She had created a legend and diverted an asteroid, and then when the first crew of
astronauts had left the Solar System, she had been their captain.
Patience would not be the biggest celebrity of these festivities. The celebrations were
to welcome that returning crew, the first people to explore a different star. They had been
gone a very long time. They had traveled so fast that they had outraced time, and nearly
caught up with light. Their clocks had slowed down until they hardly aged, even while
back on Mars an age had passed. They had been brave to explore so far, and braver still
to face the changes that would greet them after the return trip. They would find the
planet a very different place.
Qahirah had led them all home, to see what Patience had wrought.
At the central plaza there were long speeches on heroism and fortitude, and on the
amazing discoveries that had been made. There was talk of a world much like the Mars
of old that now beckoned from a distant star, cold and harsh but somehow welcoming.
Then there was a moment when Qahirah got reacquainted with her old friend. Oh,
Patience! Qahirah spoke to the tiny figure in her arms, but her words echoed out over
the entire crowd. You helped inspire all of us to make a distant dream come true.
Patience was as quiet as ever. The crowd more than made up for her silence as they
shouted their approval.
Qahirah continued, I am filled with joy to be back here, to be reunited with you on
this world we find at the end of our long voyage. But my father once told me that the
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best kind of journey is the kind that never ends, and now I realize what he meant. I sense
a new sea calling out to us, Patience, one that longs to be awakened on a world around a
distant star. That is the new distant sea, the sea to which you are always headed. You
must lead the way there. You will give hope to the people who will awaken that ocean.
Your legend will comfort them on a world where our Mother Earth is not even a blue star
in the sky.
The crowd was thoughtful. Many did not want to send Patience away again after
finding her for the first time in so long. But the hearts of those who would go forever to
that distant star were filled with gladness. Their cheers ignited the crowd once more.
Soon the celebration echoed louder than ever. It roared like a new sea.
When the festivities had ended, there was time to rest. Qahirah wandered with
Patience about the transformed planet. They splashed in crater lakes teeming with life,
and Qahirah made a life for herself on this world of her dreams. She was never lonely,
for now there were people everywhere to share with her in the beauty of Mars.
She was too old to go again to that far star, but she had done everything she had ever
wantedand more! Besides, only a crazy young person would want to leave this perfect
planet. Maybe it was perfect in her eyes because she had helped make it. Maybe these
new star settlers heading off so soon wanted the same opportunity. Sometimes a little
youthful craziness is a good thing, she thought.
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It was a solemn but joyous event, that day when Patience went up the space elevator
again. Patience joined the settlers of the first colony ship as it prepared to leave the Solar
System. Together, they would create the first home for humanity around another star.
Qahirah handed the little kayakstill shining red, g