Blue Sky of Mars

by Christopher R Wills

  Doc stood up and went to face a large map of Mars on the wall. She produced a pen from her pocket and slowly marked a cross on the map which she then circled and finally scribbled to obliterate the area from the map. Then she returned to her seat. “It’s gone.”

  “What do you mean gone?”

  Doc made herself another cup of coffee. “After you left, it was clear Uruk would fall so we moved the field hospital to a cavern. I and one other escaped from the city and went to look at a cavern to see how viable it was for a field hospital. It’s used to store and grow food under artificial light.”

  “Are these the caverns the city was going to be built in?” asked Jethro remembering something from his school studies.

  “Yes.”

  “So why weren’t cities built underground, the temperatures are much more benign?”

  “They were, but they abandoned the idea when dome construction became cheap and they could build larger domes.”

  “So what happened?”

  “We visited a cavern which was ideal for a field hospital but when we got back to Uruk, the city wasn’t there.” Doc was speaking at a whisper now and she was cradling her empty coffee cup and staring into the blackness of the liquid.

  Jethro remained silent and let her continue when she was ready.

  “The dome wasn’t there; whole buildings weren’t there. The site was like a massive deconstruction yard. Huge machines were knocking down entire buildings whilst smaller machines were pulling them apart brick by brick, stone by stone and loading the bits onto spacecraft the size of football stadiums.” Her voice was faltering. “There was only a hole in the ground where the Library of Congress once was, and the winds were blowing sand into that.”

  “By now I doubt there are any signs left of Uruk. The entire city gone…” Doc tailed off as she was finding it difficult to relate her story.

  Jethro said nothing and didn’t know whether he should get up and put his arm around her. He wanted to, and she possibly needed him to but he had seen too many lectures on proper behaviour during his training so he didn’t. He watched her body slowly heaving whilst she stared at the emptiness in her coffee cup.

  Finally she looked up with red shiny eyes. “Doctor Livingstone who I have known, respected and loved my entire professional life ran from our hovercar directly into where the city was shouting and screaming at the aliens and one machine that was pulling lumps of building apart into individual bricks didn’t even pause from its work when a laser from it cut Doctor Livingstone down. And then a small hovercraft with a large pincer arm came and picked up his body like it was a rag doll and dumped it on a pile… a pile of bodies that were being fed into a kind of shredding machine, that was shredding them… shredding human beings as if they were dead trees…” Doc dropped her coffee cup and started crying properly.

  Bugger protocol.

  Jethro got up from his chair and went to Doc and wrapped his arms around her and let her cry against him.

  chapter 17

  Jethro was in the canteen dome briefing his team.

  “The situation is this. One, the Administrator doesn’t believe the aliens will come here so she insists she and her team of scientists are staying. Two, reference military defence, we are it.”

  “I thought there was supposed to be some military here,” said Walker, fully recovered now and with a full appetite.

  “They were withdrawn for other duties.”

  “How does the Administrator explain that if she doesn’t believe in aliens?”

  “The military stationed here were withdrawn for unspecified defence duties, probably worded that way so as not to alarm anybody who saw the signal.”

  “Great. So what now sir?” asked Walker.

  Jethro had been thinking about the Methuselah.

  “First, we need to get the Methuselah repaired. There’s no way she can get us back to Earth in the state she’s in at the moment.”

  “We can’t repair her outside in this weather sir,” said Brains.

  “I saw a large building on the way here,” said Gunny. “Must be that vehicle garage.”

  “You’re right,” said Jethro. “But it’s not big enough for the Methuselah. Doc said we can borrow any of the tools we might need from there. Also Doc also said there’s a large cavern close to where the Methuselah is sat. It has been used to store large craft before and it has simple lighting and heating and is out of this weather.”

  “How can we get The Methuselah in there?”

  “The base has two polar tractors which are used to tow the buildings to a new location if the building mechanicals don’t work. We can use them to tow the Methuselah into the cavern.”

  “Sir?” asked Fraser. “How did you get the Administrator to agree to that?”

  “That was simple. I told her the sooner we could repair the Methuselah, the sooner my bunch of drunk, violent and debauched squaddies can leave this place.”

  Laughter.

  “What I didn’t tell her, and I will remind you to keep this to yourselves, is that when we leave, we take everyone with us.”

  “Aye aye sir,” replied Gunny, for the team.

  Jethro dispatched Gunny, Raja, Peck and Brains along with two of the admin staff to pull the Methuselah into the cavern so they could repair it. The two admin staff would return in one of the polar tractors, leaving the other for Jethro’s team to use.

  Jethro told the rest of his team to do a security check on the base then report back to him about what they thought the weak points were if the base was attacked. He also told them they must not annoy the scientists as Jethro didn’t want to upset the Administrator until he had to drag her screaming to the Methuselah.

  Jethro went to find Doc to discuss what more she had found out about the aliens.

  “No more tea thanks. I’ve had my fill for the day.” Jethro noted that Doc was having another coffee but he said nothing after what she had been through.

  She cradled the cup as if she was getting more than just the heat from it. “How can we defeat these aliens Jethro?”

  “What do you mean?” Jethro asked.

  “We know we can shoot them when they’re out of their Spiderbots. But their ships seem to be impregnable and it won’t be long before they do something about that vulnerable patch on the back of the Spiderbots that you discovered. If we can’t kill them,” she paused, then she whispered the last bit to her coffee. “This could be the end…” She finished her coffee in a large gulp and went to the machine for an immediate refill.

  Jethro had no answers.

  After polishing off most of her new coffee Doc continued in a more practical tone. “If we can get hold of one of the Squids, we can analyze it and that might help us defeat them.”

  “That won’t be easy.”

  “Why?”

  “They appear to be carnivorous and when one is killed in battle the nearest Squids eat the dead ones.”

  Doc was silent.

  “There is one thing about these aliens.”

  Doc looked up. “What’s that?’

  “On our flight here from the Moon, we were attacked by three alien ships but they didn’t follow us down.”

  “Maybe they don’t like the cold.”

  They don’t like the cold.

  “That might be it. The aliens don’t like the cold, which could be why this Research Base hasn’t been attacked.”

  “Could it really be that simple?” asked Doc.

  “War is never simple Doc,” said Jethro.

  Doc went to get another cup of coffee and Jethro hoped the high caffeine intake might take her mind off things, get her thinking.

  She stopped before she pressed the button. “What did you call them?”

  “What?”

  “The aliens?”

  “Oh. Umm. Squids. We all call them Squids because that’s what they look like.”

  “Real Squids live in oceans. They can exist at extreme depths and high pressure of water and where there is no light
, and yet they come to the surface to hunt and eat.”

  “But Squids can’t fly,” said Jethro.

  “That’s not true,” said Doc. “Squids can fly by propelling themselves out of the water using a jet of water squirted through their body. On Earth Squids have been seen to fly up to thirty metres distance, possibly to escape predators. Maybe on whatever planet they are from this ability has evolved. And don’t forget Mars has only about a third of the gravity of Earth.”

  “I never knew that. Do you think these alien Squids might be related to our Earth Squids?” asked Jethro.

  “No idea until I’ve dissected one.” Doc sat down without getting herself a coffee. “It might just be that their design has evolved to be the most efficient design for the conditions on their planet. If only we could get hold of one. I’m sure we could get some valuable data from it.”

  “Are you suggesting I head up North to get one?”

  “No. Absolutely not.” She banged her empty coffee cup on the table. “Your job is to get us back to Earth so we can tell the Earth government and get them ready for an invasion.”

  “Good luck with that last bit. Last time I was there they didn’t believe me.” Jethro rubbed his neck which was still sore.

  “Sorry Jethro. Please don’t rub that.” Doc got up and rooted around in a cupboard below the coffee machine. She produced a tube of cream.

  “Rub this on every 12 hours. It’s too late to get rid of the scar but it will help reduce the sensitivity and the itching.”

  Jethro took some and applied it. Doc was the first person to show him any compassion since his execution.

  “One thing I know about Squids,” said Doc. “Is that when they go down into the deep ocean in the dark, they almost shut down to save energy. A semi hibernation. They only come near the surface to feed.”

  Beep! Beep! Beep!

  “What the hell is that?” shouted Doc, above the din.

  “Fire alarm?” Jethro immediately grabbed his gun, not for one moment believing it was a fire alarm.

  chapter 18

  “Stay here,” ordered Jethro as he left the office.

  “I will do no such thing,” replied Doc already on her feet and following him.

  “Stay behind me then.”

  “OK.”

  Jethro reached the central dome, the largest space in the research center. Walker and Fraser were there. The alarm was still blaring away.

  “Sitrep?” Jethro asked.

  His team shook their heads in unison. Nobody knew what was going on.

  Jethro saw a scientist running through the dome. He grabbed her arm to stop her from running away.

  “You? Moore,” he read her name badge. “What’s happening?”

  “It’s aliens. They’ve got Finstein.” It scared her.

  “Where?”

  She pointed to a door leading to one of the legs out of the central dome.

  “Calm down.” Jethro kept a muted, and he hoped, reassuring voice. “We’ve got it in hand.” He let go of her arm.

  “Thanks,” she said then continued her run through another door leading away from the direction she came.

  “Follow me. Code Orange. I want one of these Squids alive if we can get it.”

  Walker and Fraser reset their guns and followed Jethro out of the door and down the dark passageway of one leg leading out of the dome.

  He used a hand signal to stop them and listened but he could hear nothing through the racket of the alarm which was still beeping away. They continued slowly and purposefully in the dark along the passage until they reached a smaller satellite dome that ended some legs that were spread out from the central dome.

  Jethro entered and immediately went right and indicated to his team to split right and left. Doctor V kept close behind Jethro all the time; in fact she was so close she hindered his signaling but Jethro said nothing about it as he knew she was quite scared. Finally, the alarm stopped.

  There was nothing in this dome but they could all hear noises coming from the passage behind them they had just moved along.

  “Can we get the lights on?” Jethro asked Doc.

  “I don’t know.”

  Jethro spoke to his team. “Switch to infrared.” He handed his goggles to Doc. “Put these on.”

  “What about you?”

  “I don’t know why but I can see the aliens without infra-red.”

  Again Jethro entered the passage in front. He was far better trained than the rest of his team, except for Gunny, but he was out with Raja, Brains and Peck, repairing the Methuselah.

  Just inside the passage Jethro could see a faint light under the door of the last office or lab on the left. He motioned his team to follow in silence and stopped them when they reached the door. He showed with hand signals he wanted a classic door entry with himself going first. He whispered to Doc that she stand back and not enter until he eyeballed her. She nodded but Jethro knew that as soon as they crashed the door, she would leap in behind him.

  Jethro kicked the door in and jumped to the right side. Although it was dark, he could make out the shape of a scientist lying on a bench with a Squid perched on top of the body of the scientist. The Squid was eating the scientist’s head.

  “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” Jethro ordered to his team as they rushed through the door behind him.

  He saw the Squid change colour from translucent to red and back to translucent emitting a low glow of light and he wondered what the others were seeing through their infra-red goggles. The Squid had a body about half a metre long with arms of varying lengths but the longest appearing to be around two metres. Its arms were propping its body above the head of the scientist. Jethro could see a vicious beak beneath the head clacking away and covered in blood. It stopped eating and turned its head slightly so that one of its large eyes could look at Jethro.

  “We need a bag or something to put it in,” said Doc.

  Jethro felt a recycling bin next to him along the wall. He handed his gun to Doc. “Hold this.”

  She looked as though she had been given a hand grenade with the pin just removed. Fraser must have clocked her expression because he took the gun from Doc.

  Jethro calmly took the bag out of the bin and emptied it onto the floor, all the time noticing that the eye was watching him. He put the recycling bag in his left hand and picked up a stool in the other. He intended to knock the Squid out with the stool and stuff it into the bag. Crude plan but it was the best he could come up with on the spur of the moment.

  “Be careful sir.”

  Jethro edged towards the Squid which was still watching him with its eye. He noticed that all the time, the frill on either side of the Squid’s body appeared to be stretching out like two wings unfurling and it was changing from translucent to almost transparent so that he could barely see it in the gloom.

  He was just about in range and raised the stool to strike it but he was too slow. The Squid leapt up into the air until it was clear of the body of the scientist and then it flapped the frills and within a fraction of a second it was on Jethro’s head. Jethro dropped the stool and bag and tried to pull the Squid off his face but it had a firm grip wrapping its tentacles and arms around him. He felt the hard sharp beak against his neck. Any moment and he would be dead.

  But the beak was closed, and the Squid did not try to bite him; it was just clinging onto him.

  Jethro felt a shiver run through his brain. He had felt this before but weaker when he thought something was trying to enter his mind. He realized the Squid had been clinging on to his head so it could get close to him to enter his mind. He fell to his knees banging his head like a man with his head on fire but the Squid ignored his attempts to remove it as if it could only concentrate on one thing at a time. He felt two other hands also trying in vain to grab hold of part of the Squid.

  Then suddenly Jethro could see the Squid change colour from almost transparent to a translucent red as it released itself from Jethro’s head and fle
w away from Jethro to the other side of the room. As soon as it did this, Jethro heard shooting as members of his team blasted at the Squid.

  Doc was shouting stop and when Jethro was able he stood and ordered, “Stop.” The shooting stopped.

  “Can we get some lights in here?” Jethro asked. The room was flooded in light as Doc said, “Lights on.”

  The team removed their infra-red goggles to see the scene. Jethro could stand up and didn’t feel any worse for wear physically apart from his head and face being covered in slime. He took charge.

  “Where’s the Squid?” asked Jethro. “Walker video everything and collect anything that shouldn’t be here. Nobody talks to anybody about this. Fraser set up a rota to guard this door. Let nobody except Doc or I into this room. Any problems refer them directly to me.”

  They looked around the room but the Squid was not there. It couldn’t have got through the door but then Jethro noticed the small hole in the wall.

  “Where are you going Jethro?” Doc asked.

  “I’m going to see the Administrator.”

  chapter 19

  “Come in.”

  Jethro entered the Administrator’s office.

  “Can you hurry? I’ve got some important data to analyze.”

  Jethro wanted to grab the Administrator by her lapels and drag her back to the dead scientist and stick her face into the dead scientist’s gaping head wound where the Squid had eaten it, but he didn’t, he sat down instead.

  “Excuse me, I didn’t say you could sit down, did I?”

  Jethro was going to get up.

  Fuck this. They have hanged me. What can she do to me?

  He didn’t get up. He ignored her. At least, he was trying to ignore her when he noticed something appear from her nose. It was a tentacle that unrolled out of one of her nostrils like the ones he had seen on the Squid and the Administrator didn’t appear to notice it at all.

  “Well? What do you want?” Another tentacle unrolled from her ear so now there were two of them waving about in the air, each about half a meter in length and she was oblivious to them.