Blue Sky of Mars

by Christopher R Wills

  Normally Jethro would kick an assailant, probably on his knee to immobilize him but the prisoners were wearing the heavy metal boots and had their ankles shackled together by a short chain to limit their movement. Instead, he tried a rabbit punch to Monster’s knee but the man was much faster than Jethro gave him credit for and he was able to move his leg and deflect the blow.

  This was unfortunate for Jethro because Monster could now reach him and could grab Jethro around his waist and lift him full off the ground and above his shoulders with only one arm.

  “Fight. Fight. Fight,” chanted the surrounding mob, trying to prevent the guards from getting to the combatants. Everyone wanted to see what Monster would do to Jethro.

  Some fight thought Jethro. If Monster threw him, he could end up in a wheelchair for the rest of his short life. He reached down and took one of the monster’s fingers, which was about the size of a small cucumber and pried it away from the grip around his waist.

  Jethro knew there was only one thing Monster would understand, and that was pain. He could hold the finger with both hands and pushed it hard in the direction it was not supposed to go.

  Monster screamed and dropped Jethro onto the floor which was only marginally better than being thrown a great distance, as he wore the heavy boots and could not flex his knees or convert the fall into a roll which would reduce the impact. Instead, he fell into a snotty heap at Monster’s feet.

  He knew he would never match Monster toe to toe in these conditions so from his position he wrapped his arms around Monster’s legs just above the knees like a belated rugby tackle and applied his full body weight through his shoulder to the thighs. This unbalanced Monster and ever so slowly he began to fall as Jethro could feel his back being pummeled by one of Monster’s fists.

  Jethro knew he was still in danger of Monster landing on top of him, so at the last moment and only when he was sure Monster was beyond the point of no return, Jethro unlocked his arms and let him fall with Jethro landing on top.

  Jethro was not safe yet because Monster was trying to grab hold of his head with his massive hands and Jethro knew if he got hold of it he could snap his neck like a stick of fresh celery so he reached back with his right hand curled up as a fist and smashed it into Monster’s hand aiming it at his thumb with as much force as he could muster.

  There was a satisfying crack that told him he had probably broken Monster’s thumb and an even more satisfying scream as Monster’s entire attention was directed to this new source of pain.

  This allowed Jethro the opportunity to push himself away from Monster so he could stand up, but he didn’t make it because the most excruciating pain shot up from the back of his thigh as an electric prod was thrust there by a guard. Before he had time to recover, another prod hit his other thigh, and the fight was over as the vicious guards descended on the two of them.

  chapter 6

  The good news is that Jethro was not shackled next to Monster on the punishment detail. The bad news is that Monster was in the same punishment detail on a different team, so they would be in proximity for the next few days. It was probably too much to hope that Monster didn’t hold grudges, especially as he scowled when he saw Jethro.

  Brains was there sporting a massive black eye, and she scowled at Jethro too, as did Walker, but he rarely found anything to smile about. Gunnery Sergeant Brown looked like someone had battered his face many times with a baseball bat and when he saw Jethro, he managed a smile revealing a missing tooth. So that was Gunny, Brains, Walker, Peck and Fraser.

  So the whole team were together. Now all Jethro had to do was overcome the heavily armed guards, free himself and his team from the almost impossible to remove shackles and weighted boots and then escape from the Moon and get to Mars. And then return to Earth.

  They were assembled by the train carriages as they were going deep into the tunnel of death as the furthest machines had broken down over a month ago, possibly because of a cave-in in the tunnel and this time was the first time a big enough punishment detail could be assembled to deal with the machines. Fortunately, the prisoners were not expected to walk as there was a train on a small gauge track with open carriages. The three details of prisoners, two groups of men and one of women were each loaded into a separate carriage and their chains were secured to the carriage so they couldn’t leap out during the four-hour journey.

  The train started with a jerk and the prisoners in Jethro’s carriage were forced to move around to get more comfortable. The prisoners’ carriage was a simple wooden base with short sides about a metre high that hinged open when not fastened together. The guard’s carriage had seats and a roof, which meant the prisoners were isolated from the guards.

  Someone nudged Jethro.

  “Oy you.”

  Jethro turned to see that his annoyance was a man, Rutter, known as a gang leader in the prison.

  “My money was on Monster. It still is.”

  Jethro ignored him. But he didn’t want to be ignored.

  “I said my money is on Monster.”

  “I heard you,” Jethro replied, hoping he would go away but knowing he wouldn’t.

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  “What?” Jethro wanted to know what he was talking about.

  “Round two.” Rutter smiled. “It’s all arranged. Set up between the guards. Round two.” Rutter laughed.

  That was all Jethro needed. His plan was to wait until they were working. The prisoners would be unshackled whilst they were doing lifting and shifting, most likely clearing rocks from a cave-in. Jethro would shout orders to his team to overcome the guards hoping that in the melee other prisoners would join in because they outnumbered the guards, and if organized and led, Jethro believed they could easily overcome them. Weak plan, but it was all Jethro had. The rematch was something he hadn’t foreseen.

  He would have to play it by ear. But then again, every obstacle can also become an opportunity…

  chapter 7

  The Governor was showing the head of Moonbase, Commodore Winston, around the control room.

  “I’m told you had a lot of fights here yesterday,” said Commodore Winston. “Is that usual?”

  “No sir but it happens. Control was achieved very quickly in all cases. Here let me show you how efficient my guards are.”

  The Governor instructed one of the control room operators to play footage of one of the fights. It was in the loading bay as a work detail was assembling to perform some routine maintenance on the mining machines. The fight appeared to start out of some verbals between two of the prisoners and was quickly and brutally brought under control by the guards.

  “So you see sir. We have everything under control.”

  “Yes I can see that,” said the Commodore.

  The visit continued and the Commodore was shown into the Governor’s office for lunch. The Governor’s office was a luxurious haven of paneled wood and leather seating with a display of model ships from the days of sail right through to the present.

  “I love your models Governor.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “You say you get the prisoners to make them.”

  “Some prisoners are quite talented and if they behave, I allow them to express themselves; it’s a form of rehabilitation.”

  “I see.” The Commodore was looking at the later models of spaceships. The Governor appeared to have one of every type of spaceship, even the old EMV.

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Please sit down, sir. Lunch has arrived.” The Governor opened the door and four chefs wheeled in a feast on trolleys and set it up on two tables erected to one side of the office.

  “We will be joined by some guests shortly.”

  The Commodore smiled. He always enjoyed the guests that the Governor provided. EMV? He stood up quickly.

  “Take me back to the Control Room.”

  “But sir, the guests…”

  “Now,” insisted the Commodore.

  The
Governor didn’t argue, and they left his office in a hurry pushing past a line of female prisoners.

  In the Control Room the Commodore wanted to see the film footage of the fight again.

  “Stop it there.”

  The film was stopped.

  “Can you zoom in on that man?” the Commodore asked. “Who is that?”

  The Governor turned to the Control Room Supervisor. “Tell the Commodore.”

  The Control Room Supervisor pulled up an app on the screen and facial recognition immediately provided the answer. “Former Gunnery Sergeant Brown. Space Marine, sir.”

  “I want to see footage of every fight that took place yesterday,” the Commodore ordered. “Now.”

  They went through every fight and identified the perpetrators.

  The Commodore was especially interested in the fight that took place in the mess hall at breakfast. When he saw it he shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”

  “Sir?”

  The Commodore asked the Governor, “All these prisoners are on the punishment detail today?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Then you have a prison break on your hands. Return the detail to the prison immediately.”

  “I can’t sir.”

  “What do you mean you can’t?”

  “There are no communications in that tunnel. It’s the oldest tunnel we have, and it’s twenty miles long.”

  “What’s at the other end of the tunnel?” the Commodore was pacing about the Control Room floor.

  “Nothing sir.”

  “Nothing?”

  “Well, there’s an old abandoned shaft that leads up to the original mine entrance, but that’s derelict. It hasn’t been used for years.”

  “Damn.” The Commodore slammed his fist into his other hand. “Governor Plunkett. You have an escape attempt on your hands, and it had better not succeed or you’ll spend the rest of your miserable career greasing bearings on hangar doors.”

  Governor Plunkett turned to the Control Room Supervisor. “How soon can we get the Rapid Action Team to the other end of that tunnel?”

  “Sir?”

  “The RAT? How quickly can we get them to the end of that tunnel?”

  “Well sir. We must wait until the train arrives at the other end and deposits the work teams and the guards will return it to here. Then the RAT can board the train and they can be taken to the end of the tunnel.”

  “And how bloody long will that be?” The Governor was getting desperate because he knew the Commodore was a man of his word and didn’t like failure.

  The Control Room Supervisor punched some numbers onto his keyboard. “Two more hours for the train to get there. An hour to offload the work teams and the kit. Four hours for the train to return here. Four hours for the RAT to get out to the end of the tunnel on the train. That’s eleven hours sir.”

  “Eleven bloody hours. The escape will be long over before then.” The Commodore was pacing furiously about the Control Room. “How long to get a team overland to the old mines entrance, Governor?”

  “Can’t do that, sir.”

  “Why not?”

  “We have no land transport capable of traveling in the dark. Light on this side of the Moon won’t be for another ten days. The only transport we have access to is the daily shuttle from Moonbase.”

  The Governor neglected to remind the Commodore that he personally had refused to sign off on a fleet of night enabled hoverbikes with special lighting to make them ideally suited to the far side of the Moon when it was dark, on the grounds that they were an “unnecessary extravagance”.

  “Well get your RAT, or whatever you bloody well call them into that tunnel as quickly as possible. If you send them in on foot, they can meet the train coming back which might save some time.”

  The Governor shook his head at the suggestion he might send his team of highly trained prison guards on foot five miles underground into the tunnel of death.

  The Commodore asked for communications with Moonbase.

  “I want Moonbase defence to scramble two, no four, attack craft and send them to the old mines entrance on the far side of the Moon at coordinates,” he got the coordinates from the screen. “Their orders are to prevent any craft from taking off from that location. Destroy the craft. This is a Level One operation. No prisoners to be taken. Kill everyone. Kill them all.”

  chapter 8

  Alice: “…and we just have time for one last story Ted.”

  Ted: “Thanks Alice. News just in. Fishing boats in the South Pacific have reported seeing what might be a Colossal Squid.”

  Alice: “What size do they mean by Colossal Ted?”

  Ted: “One report suggested a fisherlady thought she saw a rock and her charts showed they were nowhere near land or any other rock formation so she headed for the rock in case it was an upturned boat in need of help but when she got near to it, the rock turned out to be a dark brown Colossal Squid. It flashed red and then dived into the deep and was not seen again.”

  Alice: “What size do they mean by Colossal Ted?”

  Ted: “Oh. Sorry Alice. I believe she described the body as being at least as big as her boat, a ten meter vessel and the arms could be at least three times as long.”

  Alice: “Thanks Ted.”

  Ted: “No problem Alice. You’d get a few Squid steaks from that one. Ha ha.”

  Alice: “I don’t find it funny Ted, but thanks anyway. So that was the World News for today. Remember people, unlike other news channels we deal in facts. We don’t make this up.”

  chapter 9

  As soon as they reached the end of the tunnel, it was clear to Jethro that the fight was first on the agenda. This could complicate things as Jethro might be in no state to lead an escape after fighting and probably losing badly to that great beast called Monster.

  The train stopped at the end of the line. The prisoners were disembarked from their carriages and unloaded all the equipment, which included a generator and lighting system. This was the first thing to be set up, which revealed they were in a large chamber about the size of a cathedral with high ceilings.

  There were twenty-eight prisoners, twenty men and eight women, and there were only eleven guards, heavily armed guards, but to Jethro’s expert eye most would not be up to much if faced with organized combat.

  Jethro could see the shaft in the far dark corner that hopefully led up to the surface and freedom although there were signs of rockfall all around the chamber. The machines that had been working at the face were partially covered in rocks and Jethro assumed the prisoners were sent there to uncover the machines and hopefully get them working again at the rock-face constructing a new deeper tunnel to find more of the precious rare earth minerals needed by the engineering industry on Earth.

  The prisoners were unshackled but they kept their heavy metal boots to limit their movement. All the guards had come to look at both Jethro and Monster to size them up for the fight as they were unloading and setting up the equipment. Jethro could also see that the guards were exchanging communications on their communicators and as he knew they wouldn’t reach the prison because the relay stations had long since died, he assumed they were betting heavily on the fight.

  Rutter, the man who had annoyed Jethro on the train carriage approached him.

  “Are you ready for the fight then?”

  “Not yet.”

  “What?”

  “If we’re going to have a proper fight, I want a seconder and manager at my side.”

  Rutter said, “OK but they’re not going to make any difference to the outcome.” He started laughing again.

  Jethro could choose, so he chose Gunny and Brains as his team.

  Rutter was clearly hosting the fight and seemed to know Monster. He took centre stage in the large space at the centre of the chamber. A guard handed him a communicator switched to microphone so he could announce the fight.

  “Ladies,” he laughed at that and looked over to the group of female prisoners hu
ddled together. “And gentlemen.” He directed his gaze to the guards this time but showed them more respect. “Tonight, we have a fight between the undefeated champion of Moonbase Darkside Prison, I give you Monster.”

  Monster clomped into the central space to cheers from all the guards and most of the prisoners. He made the heavy metal boots the prisoners wore, look like slippers, and although everyone knew he had to have his specially made because of the size of his feet, some said they were lighter than normal prison boots, although nobody ever said this within his earshot. Jethro didn’t believe it. You only had to look at the size of the monster’s legs to see he would make light of any heavy metal boots.

  “And the unknown who I will call the man with no name.”

  They pushed Jethro to move into the central space. Nobody cheered for him, although a couple started to clap but immediately stopped when they became the focus of everyone’s attention.

  “The rules are, by special permission, the combatants will have their heavy metal boots removed for the fight. If the combatants will return to their corners, the guards will unlock the boots and the fight can begin.”

  Jethro was quick to spot an opportunity. “Brains. Clock the guard with the boot keys and get Walker to steal it during the fight.”

  Brains melted back into the dark.

  “What’s the plan, sir?”

  Gunny Brown was always positive, a characteristic Jethro loved in the man. Jethro wasn’t going to suggest there was no plan or that the plan he had was made up on the hoof or that it had virtually no chance of success.

  “After the fight we overcome the guards. Then we go up that shaft over there.” Jethro didn’t point but looked towards the darkest corner of the huge chamber they were in. “At the top of that shaft is the old mine entrance with buildings where we’ll find a ship to take us to Mars.”

  “Mars?”

  “We have a simple mission. Freedom and full reinstatement when we succeed.”