Odyssey Rising

by Best, Michael T.

  He ran outside and stopped at the drill near the edge of the newly created desert oasis. He stood out by the ammonia pool, just sort of swaying. He stood on the edge of the liquid oasis. The liquid covered his feet. He wasn’t thinking. He couldn’t think. It was like someone was pulling his body out there.

  Inside the Pod, the warning alarm blared and woke the other Positives. Theo was first to rise.

  Theo went to the doorway. It was open and outside he saw trouble. Theo quickly realized he had to deal with the troubles of a nearly two-hundred pound, oxygen deprived, sleep deprived, manic, aggressive crazy guy with two taser guns who wasn’t wearing a breathing mask, so every second meant more of his precious brain cells were being killed.

  Before rushing out to stop the madness, Theo went back to the supply closet and grabbed a syringe and a vial of sedatives form the medical kit.

  Ellie and Ravi joined Theo on his way to the front door of the Pod.

  “It’s happening. Just like the rabbits,” Ravi said.

  “Except he’s a little more dangerous,” Ellie said.

  “More than a little. Sam is a bloody big guy,” Ravi agreed.

  “What are we going to do?” Ellie asked.

  “Hopefully the big guy is going to cooperate. That’s Plan A,” Theo said.

  “And if he bloody doesn’t?” Ravi asked.

  “Plan B is that I tackle him and one of you give him a sedative injection,” Theo said. “The big guy falls asleep. We say our prayers and get him back to the Pod.”

  “And if that doesn’t work?” Ellie asked.

  “Free jazz time,” Theo answered.

  In a sense, they were prepared for something like this, which meant they had sedatives and syringes. They were all the tools they might need for insanity and mayhem.

  When Theo started to walk toward the liquid oasis near the drilling area, Sam raised one of the taser guns up in the direction of the Pod and Sam moved the gun in a wide circle back and forth.

  Sam swayed and staggered and then ripped off a series of rapid electrical charges that exploded from the gun toward the liquid oasis.

  Each time an electrical charge skimmed into the liquid, there was a rather large fireball produced. A torrent of sand and muck flew into the air.

  Sam shot again and again into the liquid oasis.

  In between shots, Theo took a few steps toward his friend.

  “Hey there buddy,” Theo said in a calm voice.

  Sam looked around. Foam fell from his mouth like feral dog. His eyes did not focus on Theo’s actual position. “Who’s there?” he barked.

  “It’s me,” Theo said.

  Blood fell from his nose and Sam repetitively wiped at the blood with the back of his hands.

  Theo offered the spare breathing mask. “You need a mask.”

  “I’m King of this World and all these things are little mutant pawns,” Sam said. “You know it. I know it. They all know it. I AM KING OF THIS WORLD!”

  “I know you are,” Theo said calmly.

  “I am, but man, where are all the aliens? Where are they?”

  “Don’t know. Maybe all dead. Maybe in hiding.”

  “Don’t they want a fight?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I want to go home,” Sam yelled.

  “Let’s go inside.”

  “Home! Take me home!”

  “Just put the gun down.”

  “Watch this,” Sam said.

  Sam’s finger was on the trigger of the gun and the gun appeared to be aimed at Theo’s head. Theo was standing so close that Sam really couldn’t miss.

  Theo had one word for Sam’s behavior: madness.

  “Put the gun down,” Theo said.

  “Just watch this,” Sam answered.

  “Everything’s okay,” Theo said. “Just put the gun down.”

  Sam lowered the gun a few inches and pointed the barrel at an angle toward the liquid oasis.

  “That’s good. Now let’s go back to the Pod. That’s where it’s safe,” Theo said.

  “Safe? It’s not safe. Not here. Not anywhere,” Sam barked as he kept his finger on the trigger, sniffed his nose and more blood fell.

  And then Sam aimed the gun toward the liquid oasis and clicked the trigger over and over and over. Three, four, five, six shots were wasted and then the chamber was empty. There were no electrical charges left.

  Sam was not a happy young man. He threw both guns down into the ground. A cloud of golden dust flew up.

  “You’ve got to stop,” Theo said.

  “Can’t,” Sam said.

  “Just try,” Theo encouraged.

  “I can’t see. Do you hear me? I can’t see you or anything,” Sam said.

  Sam took the second gun into his shooting hand and again aimed at the oasis and pulled the trigger. Again, six shots were quickly used up.

  Sam paced back and forth as Theo took a few more steps closer to his crazy friend.

  “I just want you to come back inside the Pod,” Theo requested.

  “You don’t know what it feels like,” Sam barked.

  “This is the infection.”

  “I can’t die. That’s what they say. I can’t,” Sam barked again.

  “You remember why we’re down here?” Theo asked.

  “To die,” Sam said

  “The Yin-Yang Twins. Remember?” Theo said.

  “No Twins around here. Nothing but dust and blindness,” Sam stammered.

  “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to give you a sedative,” Theo said.

  “No.”

  “But it’s what you need.”

  “No way.”

  “We can help you, Sam.”

  “There’s no more Sam anymore.”

  “Then who am I talking to?”

  “Yin and Yang,” Sam said with two quick thrusts of the gun for each part of the microscopic invaders.

  “Do you know who I am?”

  “One of them,” Sam said.

  “One of who?”

  “The enemy,” Sam answered as he ran at full speed and jumped up in the air right for Theo.

  Out of the frenzy of motion rose terror.

  A cloud of dust kicked up in a swirl and Theo feared that getting Sam to calm down would never happen.

  CHAPTER 19

  PLAN C

  Theo had never seen anyone look so mad, so crazy, so urgent, so deadly.

  When gravity brought him down Sam started to angle right down into Theo’s chest. Sam’s big head led the way and knocked Theo to the ground.

  Before Theo could defend himself, Sam slugged him in the head and in the side and in the stomach. The punches hit hard and frequent.

  Warm thick blood and dirt splattered into his eyes.

  Theo could not see. He tried to reach for the injecting needle with the sedative.

  As a counter attack, Sam pressed both guns into Theo’s chest and pounded the metal of both into it.

  It was not part of this Plan B to let Sam pummel this gun into Theo’s chest, but the Madness seemed to also bring a frenzied and uncontrollable wildness and strength.

  Getting Sam sedated was going to be harder than Theo hoped. Sam was a two-hundred pound young man who didn’t want to go back in the Pod.

  Sam’s big arms flailed and tried to hit Theo. He was in pain and had manic energy.

  Theo quickly realized that his Plan A was not going to work.

  Even with Sam bearing down on him, with his eyes ablaze with the Madness, Theo’s greatest fear was that God would truly judge him for everything he ever did.

  The largest part of Sam’s body that could be reached was his shoulder blade. The syringe with the sedative knifed into it and Theo slammed the needle and released the liquid contents. It was 100ML of clear sleepy time.

  But it would take time for the sedative to work its sleepy time magic.

  Sam’s fists sought contact with anything. He struggled and wrestled. He was as strong as the Yin-Yang Tw
ins were virulent and at first he overpowered Theo’s every move.

  Feeling the pinch of the needle, Sam spun around. Both his hands were still attached to opposite ends of the first gun and then he dropped them into the ground. He threw his body back into the sand. The wrestling match was over. Theo was exhausted and rolled off of Sam. The taser guns were in the sand off to the side.

  Sam was not fully sedated. He still had some of his instincts and some of his strength. Like a punch drunk heavy weight fighter, Sam’s punches and legs wobbled left and right. He started to miss Theo’s body.

  It took only about a minute for Sam to become like a sedated zombie. Pacing. Stumbling. Searching for his balance. Frothing at the mouth.

  His eyelids became heavy. The blood still dripped from his nose. Some splotches of red hit his shirt and made a patchwork quilt of stains.

  Finally, Sam fell to his knees and then he just fell to the ground. He coughed blood and then convulsed and then his body stopped moving, even his chest.

  While he looked asleep and calm, Theo feared the worst.

  He knelt by his friend’s side and felt for a pulse. He didn’t find one.

  Later that day, after the Positives shed tears, they brought Sam up to the nearest hill. His body was slung over Theo’s shoulders in a dead man’s lift.

  They buried Sam Suzuki at the highest flat spot among a set of four rambling, soft hills that overlooked the liquid oasis.

  Theo forced back tears and Ellie noticed his worry.

  “It’s not your fault,” she said.

  “Isn’t it?” Theo remarked.

  “You gave him a sedative. That’s all,” she said. “The Yin-Yang Twins did the rest.”

  “Yeah, but I found the bones,” Theo said.

  “You did not kill him. He just died. From this infection. Okay?”

  Theo nodded and calmed himself.

  Theo knelt to the sandy ground and said, “God speed, Sam Suzuki. God speed.”

  The Positives were silent for several moments. They used a part of the heat shield as a gravestone. It sliced into the sand like a shovel and rested in the warm wind.

  Ellie also knelt in prayer.

  Unexpectedly, with her knees still on the sand, Ellie jerked her body upward as if she was under attack. Theo did the same.

  “Something’s crawling up my leg! Ah. Ah. Ah. Like bugs!” Ellie yelled.

  “They’re on me too!” Ravi yelled.

  In the sand, there were dozens of tan worm like creatures about two inches in length.

  They attached to Ellie’s ankle and crawled up her leg.

  Theo swiped at the worms with his hand. From his pocket, he took out a knife and a plastic vial. He scooped one of the worms into the vial as a sample.

  “Oh my god,” Ellie said.

  Her ankle quickly had several raspberry colored bumps.

  “It’s like you’re having an allergic reaction,” Theo said.

  “Yeah. Totally.”

  “Do you feel okay?”

  “Creeped out, but fine,” Ellie answered.

  Before they could examine the worms or her ankle any further, in the sky above them, a new sound overwhelmed their ears. The sound was a collection of high-pitched shrieks, almost like locusts.

  They moved fast, swirling to and from the Pod and the liquid oasis.

  Just out of reach, the silver cloud soared as one unit. The cloud was like a school of fish in the big sky.

  The silver swarm dipped, soared, shimmered and sparkled. The silver cloud seemed to have two extra gears of acceleration: fast and almost supersonic.

  The cloud of creatures seemed to change and sway with the wind, like a flock of birds flying to and from a set of telephone wires in unison.

  Only they weren’t birds.

  COMMUNICATION ENTRY:

  From: TheoS.Odyssey.space

  TO: DrStarling.Ark.space

  Sam Suzuki is dead. Long live his memory.

  There have been no further sightings of the silver cloud of silverfly creatures, if they are even creatures. Never seen anything living fly so fast.

  The other news of the day: Protocol 111 is now complete and we’ve had success. At a depth of fifty-six feet, we tapped into a subterranean supply of heavily contaminated water with toxic traces of methane and ammonia. We drilled in the shadows of the place we now call Mount New Acadia. It’s very near the Discovery Site. The liquid has been trickling steadily to the surface. So far a small, damp oasis has been created. Tests confirm no presence of the Yin-Yang Twins or any other microbes. Also there has been no carbon found in any of my samples, only the presence of ammonia, methane, oxygen, hydrogen, some traces of zinc and iron ore.

  Knowing how quickly news and rumors spread back at the Ark, every bandit and pirate from O’Ryan’s Armada of rogue fools, cranks and crooks is going to want to come here and stake out a colony outpost.

  While Protocol 111 was running, we explored the area. Ellie and I got as far as the northern crater (we’re calling her LUCY cause well…the crater is shaped like a diamond…you know like the Beatle’s crazy song you always played?) and then we hit the edge of the NOT SO GRAND CANYON. That’s where we found the silver cloud that flies like a jet.

  Harry Wolf hasn’t eaten anything in two days. That is not good. Dogs always eat. We say he’s just nervous, but we know it’s the Madness.

  Maybe life is like a black and white domino being pressed against another in a long line of checkered and connected pieces. Press one and soon they’ll all be falling down into another. Maybe that’s what we are, just interconnected dominoes that are falling and falling until we can fall no more. We only want to survive. I’ve given up trying to understand this place.

  But maybe that’s the human’s race fatal flaw: we want to understand the things that can’t be understood. We want answers but there are too many questions.

  Ravi spends hours just outside the Pod jumping and running over boulders and small sand dunes. Thinks he’s see his slake monster. Maybe if we do conquer the invisible menace inside us, perhaps this will be our New World.

  Down here, I can’t help thinking about the origins of life. Are they just a miracle? Or did some super-natural being *AKA GOD just clap two big hands together and begin it all with some Big Bang. Or is this scientific mystery explainable. We’ll probably never know.

  Is life just a miracle or is it an improbable accident? Or, perhaps, could life be an inevitable consequence of the rules and laws of physics and chemistry?

  If God?? didn’t clap life into being then who or what did? All this black space. All the stars. The explosions of supernova energy. Makes you feel pretty small.

  The mystery can be solved if you ask the right questions. Too bad the Yin-Yang Twins can’t speak.

  Sam went mad before he died. He didn’t even know it.

  Am I touched with the warm and clammy hand of the Madness too? Am I? Maybe. I don’t really know anymore. That’s what we’re calling it. The Madness. It unlocks some primal urge.

  If life really has an intelligent design, then what purpose do these little buggers have for us? Yin and Yang. Male and female. Peace and war. Love and hate. Fight or flight. The Madness and the Sanity. Does anything really live down here or is just another dead planet?

  To be honest, the way the rabbits bought the farm is starting to look like child’s play compared to how Sam died.

  Stay positive, right? I’m trying. I’m really trying. But what are we doing here? Are we just waiting for some skeleton to jump out and yell boo? Or are we just waiting for the Madness to come?

  You always said it took an ounce of courage to go to space, and a pound of madness to stay here. Just take me home. Okay? Take me home!

  I’m worried about so many things. I’m worried about Ravi becoming just like Sam. I’m worried that I’m becoming you. I’m critical, complaining, noticing every little thing. How did that happen?

  Fate. Destiny. Luck. None of the above.

  Maybe there’s
just our actions and our reactions. Too many people have gone searching for spiritual redemption in some interconnected divine plan.

  We’re just trying to survive. Is that God’s plan? Just survive? I dunno. Probably never will.

  Already I’ve puked three times in the past twenty-four hours. Feeling worse each hour. Now I have dry heaves. Nothing left. I will not die. Have blood in urine. What look like bruises seeping through the sides of my torso. Pain and aches I didn’t know I had. All because of the Yin-Yang Twins. We need a miracle. Do they exist anymore?

  I guess I am frightened by the creeping and lasting awareness of how tenuous everything in life really was, how easily all that was good and right and safe could just slip away.

  Down here, survival is everything. I have survived the mission up to now. I have to survive the next twenty-four hours.

  Protocol 111 recorded that there are pockets of volcanic sulfur and methane gas and that the mountain is ready to blow. Might be a year. A century. Maybe a hundred. Who knows? Nobody knows anything.

  When the weather cooperates, we’ll continue our search of the Discovery Site. The little twerp is loving every minute. Yeah, its true…Ravi is a land lover now.

  And he’s gotten started on terra-forming this place. Desert plants. Such a little act can have a profound impact. It’s like the Butterfly Effect. He’s planted a bunch of seeds. Just call him little Ravi Appleseed.

  I guess we have changed this planet forever. Has it already changed us? At least we have good shelter. Enough water. The food tablets are sufficient.

  Carpe diem, right? Live each day as your last. Seize the day. Drink it in. Love fully. Laugh often. Live completely. Isn’t that what Mom used to say?

  I hope and pray this message gets to you before we seize our last day.

  For the record, no Host has been found. No virus. No cure. No additional Yin-Yang Twins, nor any kind of microorganisms living in the oasis of methane-ammonia-quasi water liquid. Not sure if we’ll find anything but death down here. But we’re going to try to find more life.

  Now, my battery is running out. Going to have to plug it in and jump on the generator bike.

  Respectfully your son,