Cal: “Oh yes. Susan. She had her arm severed just above the wrist by a Squid beak. But it was a clean break through the bone which helped for a good fitting of a prosthetic hand.”
Ted: “Oh well that’s good then.”
Cal: “Yes that’s good. Thank you. In answer to your question Alice. Yes Squid can fly. The furthest distance that a Squid flight has been recorded is about ten metres.”
Alice: “Squid can fly? I’m sorry for asking. I think that’s about it thanks Cal. So that was World News for today. Remember people, unlike other news channels we deal in facts. We don’t make this up.”
chapter 38
Jethro left Walker at the Methuselah, manning the guns, just in case. If everything was OK he would send for him. If not he would come running and expect him to be shooting at whatever was chasing Jethro and the team back to the craft.
“Code Orange until we know what is happening at Moonbase.”
He sent out a Point but no flanks because he didn’t have a big enough team. He also reminded the team, to move slowly on the Moon initially, because gravity on the Moon is less than half that of Mars so walking needs to be adjusted to avoid problems.
The team reached the lip of the crater where Point was waiting for them.
“Everything looks normal sir. There are people moving about, both inside Moonbase and on the surface around the Moonbase.”
Jethro looked through his scope and saw that this was the case.
“OK. We’re going in. Code Yellow. But be on your guard.”
They crested the lip of the crater and slowly made their way down the slope. At about four hundred metres from Moonbase Jethro heard an alarm go off.
“Get ready for the welcome committee.”
To one side of the Moonbase Jethro saw three Moon Rovers come out of a large hangar. Each had two Moonnauts seated in the front and two seated at the back and all were armed. Also each Rover had a manned powerful gun, probably a laser, mounted behind and above the driver and co-driver. The three Moon Rovers split up with one approaching them from the front and the other two flanking them. They stopped about fifty metres from Jethro and his team.
“Ahoy there. Who are you and what is your business?”
“I am Sub-Lieutenant Jethro Tull, C1533536F of the Earth Defence Force. I am serving with the Space Marines from the Earth Mining Vehicle Blackbird. I wish to speak to your station Commander.
“We monitored your landing. That is not the EMV Blackbird. That is an old Mark one EMV, the Methuselah, I believe.”
“The Blackbird was disabled and we had to commandeer the Methuselah. We need to get to Earth urgently. I must speak to your Station Commander.”
There was some discussion on the central Rover between the driver and co-driver.
“You will leave your weapons on the ground and you can approach the central vehicle with two approaching the right had one and two approaching the left hand one.”
“Sir?”
“They’re being cautious Gunny.”
“It’s worth noting we have already picked up the man you left at the craft.”
Jethro would be exercising the same caution himself if he was in their position. Strange people don’t appear on the Moon at Moonbase unannounced every day.
Jethro climbed on the back of the Rover and they were driven back into the hangar. Once they were inside and through the airlock and the doors were sealed, the Rovers parked up in front of a suite of offices that occupied the whole of one wall of the hangar. Jethro couldn’t see any craft inside this hangar capable of making the trip back to Earth but there were two more hangars beside this one.
He removed his helmet as requested and was approached by a young female officer. He saluted her.
“Sorry about the protocol but we don’t get a lot of unannounced visitors here,” she said.
“Sub-Lieutenant Jethro Tull, ma’am.”
“Lieutenant Susan Strange. Call me Susan.” She held out her hand.
Jethro shook it.
“We’ll feed and take care of your team Jethro. If you’d like to come along with me.”
Jethro saw that his team were being led away.
“I see you’ve been in the wars.”
“I need to speak to your Station Commander, now please. Priority Red.”
Jethro was effectively pulling rank on her which he didn’t like to do because she was being quite pleasant to him.
“Priority Red you say?”
“Yes.”
“OK.”
She was as good as her word and led him through Moonbase to the HQ dome and finally he was deposited outside the Station Commanders office.
After she had a short visit in the office she came out again and told him, “The Station Commander will see you now.”
Jethro was led into a barren office that had a huge window overlooking a large part of the Moonbase.
“Sit down. Jethro isn’t it? I’m Commodore Winston. Priority Red? What can you tell me?”
“Sir. Mars is being attacked by aliens. This is why you have lost communications with them.”
“How do you know that?”
Jethro told the Station Commander about how the Blackbird was sent by Earth to investigate loss of communication with Mars. He told them what happened on Mars and that the Blackbird had disappeared and how they commandeered the EMV Methuselah and flew her to the Moon and how they were unable to communicate as they approached Moonbase.
The Station Commander asked a lot of questions, interrupting Jethro a few times. When Jethro had finished the Station Commander put his hands together and gazed out of the window.
“Do you have videos and logs detailing all this?”
“Yes sir. I need to take them to Earth as soon as possible.”
“Yes, I see. I’d like to see the videos and read your logs. It will take a couple of hours for us to prepare a ship to go to Earth. This loss of communications has meant we have been flying back and forth to Earth continuously, you understand.”
“Yes sir.”
“Have you briefed anyone else about this yet?”
“You are the first.”
“Good. I’ve put your crew in a private dining hall. If you’d like to join them we can feed you then we can sort this out as soon as possible. Keep quiet about this until we have escalated it upwards. We don’t want to start a panic OK?”
“Yes sir.”
The Commodore buzzed his secretary.
“Lieutenant Bland will take you to the dining room. And Jethro?”
“Yes sir?”
“Thanks.”
“No problem sir.”
Lieutenant Bland, a stern face librarian type led Jethro through the maze that was Moonbase to the private dining hall.
“Jethro.”
He recognised that voice anywhere. It was Bronte. They sort of dated at officer training academy but a relationship was difficult there and even more difficult now, when one is at different parts of the Solar System.
They hugged. She smelled as good as ever which made Jethro even more conscious about the state he was in.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I can’t say, but it’s good to see you.”
“Likewise. Have you got any time?”
Damn.
“No. I have to leave asap. Sorry.” Jethro was really sorry.
“Hurumph.” Lieutenant Bland made her presence known.
“Keep your hair on Bertha, we’re old friends,” Bronte said to her fellow officer.
“I have to go. I’ll be back and we can catch up later, OK?”
“OK.” They hugged again. Jethro liked the feel of her body pressed against his. Her arms lingered around him and he was forced to break away from her.
“Miss you,” she said as he parted with Lieutenant Bland.
“Me too.”
Jethro’s pulse was racing so much that he missed the fact that the private dining room had two armed guards outside the doors. He was st
ill thinking of Bronte, when the doors closed behind him.
“Sir?”
That brought him back to Moon.
“Yes Gunny.”
“Where’s the food?”
“I expect they’ll bring it in a moment. Here they come. The doors opened but no food was brought in. An armed crew of Marines rushed in all shouting and pointing weapons.
“Hands up. Against the wall. Everybody. Now!”
Jethro complied as did the rest of his team.
“Hands behind your back. Now.”
“What the hell is going on?” Jethro turned to ask but he immediately felt pain as he was beaten to the floor with a club.
His hands were secured behind him and he was lifted to the standing position to see his team have bags placed over their heads and be led from the room. He suffered the same indignity and was dragged through the Moonbase and thrown into a room.
The bag was removed from his head and he could see that he was alone in a cell.
As the door was locked behind the departing Marines Jethro shouted out “I demand to see Commodore Winston.” But there was no reply. He was left alone in his cell.
Darkness came quickly, which was a false dark imposed by the lighting system on Moonbase to align with Universal Constant Time on Earth. Jethro was so tired and his head hurt where he had been clubbed. There was a simple bed so he lay down on it and slept. When it got light again the cell doors were unlocked. A doctor entered with three Marines and an officer, all armed.
The doctor tended to his wound.
“What’s going on? Why am I being treated like this? I need to get to Earth. Mars is being invaded.”
“Lieutenant Tull,” said the officer. “Shut up. Mars is not being invaded. Your ship the Blackbird landed on Mars and you and some of your crew switched sides to the Martians and destroyed the Blackbird and possibly killed the rest of the crew. We believe you were sent here to Moonbase as an advance party to prepare Moonbase for an attack by the Martian fleet, in preparation for another war with Earth.”
“What?” Jethro couldn’t believe it.
“You and your team are being charged with high treason. You will be taken to Earth and will be put before a Courts Martial.”
They stripped Jethro of all his clothes, scanned him for any foreign objects in his body, then left him with a pair of underwear, some slippers and orange coveralls. They also left him with a lot of bruises where he fought back until he was outnumbered and outpowered by brutal guards with their baseball bats. Given a bit of space he might have been able to isolate the three guards and take them out one by one but they knew their business and Jethro knew he was probably lucky the officer insisted he was not to be injured too seriously.
chapter 39
Jethro was kept in solitary and fed three times during a period of lights on through a hole in the cell door. The plastic door was the entirety of one wall. His cell was about three metres by three metres with his bed taking up some of it and there was an ablution station in a recess which self-cleaned. There were no windows, although the door may be a two sided mirror because Jethro could just about see shapes the other side when he pushed his eyes right up to it.
The guards must have been given orders not to speak to him because he tried shouting at them when his food and water was delivered but none replied. He had not seen his team since he was arrested and had no idea what had happened to them.
What was going on? Why was he being charged with Treason? He kept shouting out that Mars was being invaded but he suspected his cell was soundproof because he could hear nothing from his side of the door.
Jethro went over and over the events on Mars in his head but could recall nothing that would lead him to the same conclusions the Station Commander of Moonbase had come to. There must be other information. What had happened to the Blackbird? Where were Maddy and Conrad?
He occupied himself with Tai Chi exercises and meditation which helped him get through the boredom and solitude. He didn’t know how long he had been in the cell because he couldn’t be sure how long the lights went out for. Time had no meaning other than lights on lights off. He tried counting so that he could guess how long a lights on period was but so much was going through his mind that it kept distracting him.
The cell door opened and four burly guards entered. They cuffed him and shackled his ankles so he couldn’t run or kick and finally they put a space helmet on his head with the visor set to dark so he couldn’t see out and locked the helmet on, effectively gagging him also. He was being moved and they didn’t want him to see anything nor to be able to communicate with anybody in any way. He was dumped on a Rover and driven somewhere then taken off the Rover and walked up a ramp. He realised then that he was being transported to Earth.
He was strapped into a chair and felt the familiar g force as the craft took off from the Moon. He had visited Moonbase once during his officer training so he knew roughly how long it would take and what it felt like to travel to Earth. He hoped he would get a chance to warn somebody on Earth of the attack on Mars. Where were his team? They could be on the same craft sitting next to him and he wouldn’t know.
His special forces training included resistance to interrogation training and although he wasn’t being interrogated yet the techniques he had learnt were helping to keep him moderately sane.
He knew from the re-entry forces that he had reached the Earth and when they landed, he was escorted off the craft in a similar fashion and taken somewhere and dumped on a bed and left for a short while.
More guards were present when his helmet and restraints were removed.
“I demand to see a lawyer. I have rights. I want to speak to a lawyer.”
That was all he was able to say before the guards left. He found himself in a similar cell to the one on the Moon but he knew he was on Earth from the feel of gravity on his body.
Back to the same routine of being fed, Tai Chi and meditation and sleeping.
Then the doors opened and two guards entered with a young woman She was a Lieutenant. She brought a chair and a briefcase with her and sat on the chair and began rifling through the briefcase.
“You two can leave. I am perfectly safe with my client.” She said to the two guards but neither moved.
“I said you can leave.” Again there was no movement from them.
“Oh for God’s sake.” She got up and left the cell and because the cell door wasn’t shut behind her Jethro heard her have a blazing row with somebody outside the cell where she pulled rank and insisted on speaking to his boss. After a while Jethro heard someone else turn up and another not quite so blazing row where this time she threatened to inform her boss that the military code of conduct was being flagrantly ignored by both the victims of her tongue lashing.
Finally she returned to the cell with a Warrant Officer who told the guards to leave. He then saluted her and left himself with the door closing behind him.
She sat down again.
“Good morning. My name is Lieutenant Ruby Truth. I will be representing you during your Courts Martial.”
Jethro began to speak but she immediately put a finger to his lips and shook her head.
She pulled out a card from her briefcase. It read: ‘Not safe to talk in here’. Jethro nodded.
“Today I will go through the procedure and the charges. Please save any questions until after OK?”
“OK.”
“Right. You are being charged with treason in that you and your platoon destroyed the Blackbird on Mars and killed the rest of the crew and switched sides to support Mars.”
Jethro stood up.
“Sit down. Lieutenant Tull.” She held up another card which read: ‘Say nothing here about the events. I will try and get us a safe place to talk.’
Jethro nodded again. Either this was legit, in which case he had best do what she asked in the hope she could find them a safe place to talk. Or she was part of the establishment and this was part of the deceit. But if it was the latt
er there was little he could do anyway. He made the decision he would hold his tongue for the moment.
“Earth has sent an ultimatum to Mars that has warned them if they fail to communicate within the next 48 hours, we will launch a full scale attack.
“It has been suggested that you went to Moonbase to sabotage it so that Mars could invade and use it as a staging post in their attack on Earth.”
Jethro was furious. He felt like pummelling the Lieutenant senseless to make her believe that what she had said was a load of rubbish but he knew it was pointless so he remained silent.
She fished another card out of her papers. This one read: ‘Calm down, or I will never get you out of here so we can talk for real.’
Jethro was clenching and unclenching his fists below the table. Was this for real? What choice did he have?
“Do you have any questions?” Another card: ‘Don’t ask anything about the events.’
Jethro thought about it.
“Are my section OK?”
“Yes.”
“Are they charged with the same offences as I am?”
“Yes.”
“They were obeying my orders and should not be held responsible for my actions. They should be released immediately.”
“Noted. I will make enquiries.”
“Are my parents aware of my circumstances?”
“No.”
“Am I allowed to have anything to read?”
“Noted. I will make enquiries. What would you like to read, if you have a choice?”
“Lord of the Rings by Tolkein.”
“Noted.”
Jethro couldn’t think of anything else without straying onto the events of the last couple of weeks.
“Nothing else.”
“Thank you.” Another card: ‘keep your chin up you have supporters.’
That only made Jethro more angry.
Why do I need supporters? I’ve done nothing wrong. Earth is going to be invaded by aliens and they are doing diddly squat about it.
He managed to restrain himself until Lieutenant Ruby Truth left.
But as soon as she went out of the door and it locked behind her he screamed his frustration and began to beat on the door as if it was a punchbag. He stopped when he noticed blood appearing on the door from where his fists kept landing.
Red Dust of Mars Page 14
