Free The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) by Bob Lee

top and Mars at the bottom of that big clock on the wall?” she asked. “Mars looks to be at about four o’clock.”
    Pilot Sam Tuttle stepped in. “Think of Earth and Mars as moving around the Sun as if they are on a large racetrack. Earth is on the inside, and moving much faster. By the time we reach Mars, the Earth will have passed Mars by, and so it will take the cycler another twenty months to catch up. We all need to get off at Mars, because it’s a long time going back! Thus the clock is showing the six months to Mars, but the twenty months back to Earth. We hope to create another cycler at some time in the future that takes twenty months to get to Mars, but only six months to get back to Earth. Then people going to Mars will catch this cycler that we are on, sort of like an ‘up elevator’ and take that other one as the ‘down elevator’ when they wish to get quickly back to Earth.”
    “ And the actual orbit the cycler makes is a bit more complicated,” Roy said. “It does a sort of ‘dosey doe’ with the Earth three times before heading to Mars. Planetary Resources used the first pass to dig out the space for the modules and set up the mining equipment. The second pass was used by Bigelow Aerospace to install the living modules. You might remember that Bigelow has a number of inflatable space hotels orbiting Earth, and these here are similar. Thus the cycler’s name: the Aldrin-Bigelow Cycler. The third pass the asteroid made with Earth was where we joined the cycler. The Mars orbit actually looks like a pretzel, and the cycler passes Mars twice before heading back to Earth. The clock here shows the times of last approach to each planet, which are the last chances to join or exit the cycler.”
    Bonnie wasn’t sure she was following all of this. The smell of the food was definitely making her stomach do flip flops and her head was starting to hurt.
    “Thank you for that summary,” Bonnie’s husband Jeff Chiswick said as he strode forward and faced the seated members of the group. “Now, although we all were successful in helping Brother Jacobs acquire the funding for our trip, we also had to perform some creative bargaining. You’ll probably have noticed that most of your cabins have no power. As part of the contract for our ride on this asteroid, we need to complete some of the module construction.” Jeff pointed up with one hand at the wires hanging down from the holes in the ceiling, and then held up a stack of papers that he was holding in the other hand. “I have here a list of assignments. Most of the men will be involved with the wiring and creating doors for the partitions in this room. The women will be assigned food preparation. We could also use some decorating of these bare walls and a play area for the children. The youngsters will be charged with creating pens for the animals and laying down dirt that others will bring in from the asteroid, as well as cleaning up after the animals.”
    Old Sue turned to Bonnie. “Are you alright, Hon?” she said. “You’re looking awfully pale.”
    Bonnie was definitely not alright. She was dizzy and about to throw up. She frantically looked around. There were too many people in the kitchen area, and she didn’t dare interrupt Jeff’s discussion, so she ran back in the direction of her cabin. As she crawled through the tunnel, she knew that she wouldn’t make it back in time. “I can’t throw up here in the tunnel!” she thought. “Jeff will be so mad.” As she emerged, she remembered the door labeled ‘Head’ that was there on her left, and quickly entered, just in time. She bent over and proceeded to retch into the bowl. Nothing but a bit of spit emerged, but the dry heaves continued a while. When the worst was over, Bonnie turned on the fan, closed the lid, kneeled down and laid her cheek on the cool commode.

CHAPTER 9
    Charles made the short walk to the greenhouse that the astronauts had erected next to their Mars base. The