The Ruins of Mars: Waking Titan (The Ruins of Mars Trilogy) by Dylan James Quarles Page A

overly talkative, Braun usually seemed to perk up whenever they were in the caves. Today, however, he was even more distant than Harrison.
    “Braun?” she spoke into her helmet.
    “Yes?” he replied instantly.
    “You’re very quiet, are you alright?”
    “Yes, thank you for asking.”
    Thinking about the odd power glitch from the night before, Liu wondered if the AI was distracted because YiJay was running tests on him at that very moment. Catching Marshall as he cast another conspicuous glance over his shoulder, she wilted a bit in her suit and choked back the sour sting of silence in her ears.
    “Braun?” she said again. “Would you please tell me about the tunnel? If it’s no trouble that is.”
    “Of course it’s no trouble, Dr. Liu,” Braun answered. “But wouldn’t you prefer to learn about something else? I’ve already told you everything we know about the tunnel.”
    “That’s alright,” she smiled. “I don’t really care. I just want someone to talk to.”
    “I understand.”
    Finishing the remainder of the long walk in speechless quiet, Liu listened to Braun pontificate about the tunnel and its builders, trudging on into the darkness like a child in the night.
    As the four explorers entered the Statue Chamber, the various floodlights came to life, bathing their pressure-suited bodies in a warm yellow glow.
    “Okay,” radioed Harrison. “Let’s post up quickly. I want to be cutting in under an hour.”
    Spreading apart, the small group set to unloading and assembling the contents of the metal crates.
    Harrison and William began bolting the winch scaffolding together while Marshall helped Liu wire the laser cutter into the Rover’s main power supply.
    “So,” the Lander pilot began. “You and Harrison are having some troubles then?”
    “It’s extremely complicated, Ralph,” she replied, though there was so much more she wanted to say.
    “I understand,” he nodded. “It’s just that, well, Harrison is my friend. You know? I love the guy and I know how much you two mean to each other.”
    “Someda y,” said Liu in a wistful voice, “I will tell you everything. But not today.”
    “Fair enough.”
    From across the room, Harrison watched Marshall and Liu as they worked. Frowning, he hoped that Ralph wasn’t trying to speak to Liu on his behalf.
    With a shake of his head, he turned back to what he was doing and threaded a bolt into the eye of a connecting support rod. Using his power drill, he tightened the bolt down and moved to the next. Soon, the rigid and skeletal-looking body of a base scaffold was finished, a large winch fastened to its center support beam.
    “Done,” radioed the German happily as he sunk the last anchor deep into the cave’s rock floor.
    “Us too,” reported Marshall.
    Popping the clasps on the last unopened box, Harrison reached inside and removed two large yellow-tipped granulated-silica grappling hooks.
    “Alright,” he said. “Here goes everything.”
     
    Circling the drain— Sol 68
     
    As the four explorers moved about the Statue Chamber in the final stages of preparation, Braun felt a surge of excitement overtake him. Momentarily outshining the offensive presence of the medical override, he believed that, in some way, all the answers to all the questions he had never been programmed to ask lay just behind the statue of the praying woman.
    Swarming like insects with fractal wings, the energy fields moved through and around the human astronauts, incorporating the glow of their own energy into the grand flow of ordered madness.
    Though they were totally unaware, the team worked along predestined paths so complicated and profound that their very implications surpassed the bounds of what Braun was capable of fathoming. Because he was the largest, most massive AI ever to have been created, Braun’s mind was fully equipped to comprehend what he was seeing, yet at the core of everything, he was ignorant. The feeling thrilled him.
    “Alright,”