Mission: Harbeasts of Mars

by V. A. Jeffrey

  “I don't know. I think it was all part of the scheme.”

  “Ah, no doubt about it.”

  “But for what reason?” Asked Giren.

  “Doesn't have to always be a reason,” said Kiernan. But I wasn't so sure. A little voice in my head told me that Lafayette most definitely had a reason for all of this besides just looking for good sport. I just couldn't see it.

  . . .

  The next day I had another examination. What for, I didn't know and I didn't ask. This time, however, Dr. Fairchild was responsible for my examination. Studying him up close, I eventually recognized him from the arena.

  He was a kindly, elderly gentleman and I certainly felt more at ease with him than I did with the others. He introduced himself as Ronald Fairchild.

  “Patrick has arranged to put you in my care. I'm happy for it. Robert,” he said, after having put me through various endurance tests, “Your blood and cell samples show something radically different from what anyone here has ever seen.”

  “So you guys keep telling me. Tell me something I don't know,” I said, trying to catch my breath after getting off a stair-climber. He directed me to sit down.

  “Perhaps I can. It's as if part of your DNA has been changed into what can only be described as particles of light.” I said nothing but I felt my spirits sinking. I didn't want to be anything but how I was originally made, human.

  “It speaks to either your resiliency and strength or the genius of the experimentation you went under. Or both. We suspect an unknown bacteria has been released into the human population either by accident through Nature or by design and that this organism can make drastic genetic changes in other living organisms. The other researchers and Lafayette want to see if this organism can be isolated and its activity copied and what use it can be to them. They will be using those samples for future projects.”

  “Such as a so-called super predator?” I asked. His face fell into a deep frown as he wrote something down on the screen of a thin data pad.

  “I've heard plans of some new kind of super predator. Yes.”

  “Good Lord! Is that all?” I rolled my eyes and said in mock glibness. He gave a short bark of laughter.

  “I'm curious, Dr. Fairchild. I learned that this laboratory was once run by a different person. Someone by the name of Burrows.” The color in his face drained. He looked over to the door and then got up and locked it. When he came back to his seat he put his pad and stylus down on a nearby table.

  “Dr. Roland Burrows. Yes, yes,” he heaved a heavy sigh. “He was my partner when we first built this lab. It was his idea.” He sat down on a hover stool near mine, looking at his feet. Then he looked up. “Dr. Burrows was my half-brother.”

  “How did you end up here in all this, if you don't mind my asking?” He seemed to be listening for any sounds outside. Then he spoke again.

  “Well, the original name that we gave this lab was MN-1. My brother often called it Triskele. A rather romantic name, I'd thought.”

  “I think it might fit quite well.” He smiled.

  “My thoughts as well. These days, I think I understand what he meant by that name. That was so many years ago. We came out here on a prospector's ship and every credit we could muster, every favor we could call in. We had a generous grant from a philanthropist. One of the wealthiest men this side of the sun. his name was Larry Toledo.”

  “I've heard of the name. He founded, guided and expanded Futura Technologies into the technology powerhouse it is today. Then sold it. ”

  “Yes. He's kept a very low profile since then.”

  “What made you and your brother go in with Dr. Lafayette in the first place?” He sighed heavily.

  “We were naive. He, romanced us, really. A very smooth operator. Charismatic, charming and crooked as a dog's hind leg. He was a devil! He showed Roland all the things he was planning to do to support our research, all the wonderful things his money could open up for our work and the influential people he could introduce us to. We only thought of the great works and new heights of achievements we could accomplish and we desperately needed the money. I also have to admit that pride played a role in it. I had a niggling feeling in the back of my mind that his offer was too good to be true but at the time I had so many people employed and they naturally wanted to keep their positions and we were near a breakthrough in genetic splicing of alien animal and terrestrial animal DNA, as well as other exciting developments. We felt that we couldn't afford not to take him up on his offer. We didn't want to see all our hard work disappear into the wind. Mars needs us, we'd said. We had an elderly scientist who worked with us on our preliminary experiments in this endeavor, a Suwudi who had come off the Mothership. We owe him much of the credit for what we did here. But he passed away some years ago. Anyway, I couldn't let this all go because of loss of funding. I couldn't continue with the government funding from the U.S. because they wanted to take over the lab themselves and I didn't want that. So I let Roland convince me to trust in Lafayette. If only I'd told my brother a resounding no and refused any and all agreements! I've caused untold misery to so many people because of that decision,” he said.

  “But you couldn't have known what he was up to.”

  “The problem is that we should have. We should have done a thorough investigation into his background. But we had dollar signs in our eyes and great research waits for no one. Or, that's what we used to say. Anyway, we'd received a generous grant from him to fund our project to help with the work towards terraforming Mars. To work towards making it as livable and hospitable as Earth. For about ten years we did well. We made huge advances in our work. But my brother was fairly bad at managing the funds we'd received.” Dr. Fairchild lowered his voice and moved in closer.

  “I was usually the one who raised funds for the laboratory, the grants for it. The center was originally created with the help of a few alien scientists who had participated in the battle on the hive ship. What creatures that had survived that great battle they took and donated genetic samples from those creatures to the lab for research on creating a verdant planet full of wildlife and domestic stock, later on. To make it beautiful, varied and diverse, like Earth and Eraut. But it was hijacked by Lafayette. Years later, the lab was losing money and the project was in desperate need of funds. That's when we fell into his trap. One good thing that came out of the mess was that I'd managed to share the farm and livestock production work with others who then left for Syzygy and other places to duplicate and expand on the work. If it had been up to Lafayette, he would have kept an iron grip on that information for an outrageous price. But I outwitted him there!”

  “But why didn't Burrows look for help among the aliens here?” I asked. “Why did he go outside of Mars for financial help?”

  “Burrows was impulsive. He often took action before thinking things through and when he saw we would have to fold and put our research on hold he just wouldn't hear of it. So many here didn't have enough to help us. He met up with Lafayette, who flashed prodigious amounts of money in front of him. He couldn't resist. And we ended up making a deal with the devil.”

  “And then he brought in his goons and took over the place, wresting it away from you and Burrows,” I finished.

  “Before we'd met Lafayette, when we first ran out of funding I scrambled to scrape together more money to help us out for the next two years from a few organizations willing to help us. I was able to get a small grant from the government to help keep things afloat. But that was fast running out by the end of the second year. We were not sure what to do as our research, while successful and promising, was not yet as profitable for our corporate sponsors and they dropped the project. We didn't know what to do. One day Burrows had gone on some mission to try and secure more funds for the project and came back with a contract in hand he'd signed. He'd made a deal with a wealthy entrepreneur and scientist. That man was Lafayette. We'd thought all our dreams were realized and that we could continue our work unmolested or disturbed
by outside interests or funding problems. I signed. For the first two years, he left us alone and allowed our research to be conducted without any strings attached. I wasn't entirely convinced he'd remain true to his word but for those first two years, he did. The third year he changed the rules on us. He wanted to create a big game reserve using cloned, genetically enhanced animals. And more. I remember that he and Roland had many arguments on the issue, but Lafayette kept pushing his agenda. The man was ruthless. We had to relent and allow him to take the research into a different direction. That meant that less of our work was for the benefit of others and more for his own personal gain. He controlled the finances so what could we do? He was turning what was one of the most important places of scientific research this side of the sun into his own personal profit playground. He was making a mockery of what we'd built. One day my brother and Lafayette got into an ugly shouting match and two days later things changed forever. Lafayette had hired and brought in armed security and he then began building the mansion. We still produced things like genetically engineered plant life, alien plant life spliced with earth plant life, and the animals and cloned food, but things went into a sinister direction after that. Then Lafayette revealed his Trojan horse.”

  “Trojan horse?”

  “Yes. He was planning to build some game reserve here and humans and intelligent aliens would be the pinnacle of the hunting prizes at this reserve. We had it out with him, for he never mentioned this in the contract, but he essentially orchestrated an armed take over after we drew the line in the sand. He then brought in his own people, his own researchers and renamed MN-1 as Triskelion Research Center. What fueled it was an offshoot of a eugenics-like project he'd been working on for some years. We were both wholly against it and we tried to oust him but it was too late. We wanted to open this lab up for research to help people settle on Mars. When we found aliens already living here, after the initial shock, we found some willing to help us with our research and they gave us invaluable gifts in alien flora and fauna from their home world. Precious gifts. Mars was to be a flowering of sentient and non-sentient life, all Martian. That, in itself, is a long story. But Lafayette wants to turn Mars into a hellhole of his depraved ideas. He cares nothing for anyone else's welfare except that it forwards his own goals. Of course, we had no power and were beholden to him financially. Which leads me to that fateful confrontation. One night, Burrows and he had the ugliest fight I'd ever heard them wage. Things were said that should never have been said-” he choked on his words and shuddered. I saw tears well up in his eyes.

  “I'm sorry I asked. It wasn't my business.”

  “No, no. It is your business. You got trapped here, caught up in this monstrous man's vision. So many innocent people, human and alien have fallen afoul of this place and never lived to tell of it.” He gathered himself together and went on. His voice nearly lowered to a whisper.

  “I never found the body, but I know he murdered my brother. My brother left that night in a rage, on his way to Syzygy. I haven't heard from him since. And Lafayette always maintains he never knew what happened to him after that night, that he simply flew off in a rage and never came back. I suspected that he had him hunted down and fed him to his snagar. That wicked beast loves the taste of human flesh. And he has always been happy to oblige her. He humiliated me by demoting me from partner and head researcher to what you see here. I work as a technician now, but I'm really his servant.” He pointed to the collar around his neck under his lab coat.

  “He put a collar on you? A scientist?”

  “It was either submit to the collar or else. I well remember the night he threatened me. She was standing right there beside him, licking her chops. The threat was obvious. I'm a prisoner in my own research center.” I felt rage well up inside of me.

  “Why didn't he just kick you out? Let you go?”

  “Because I know too much about his purpose. And because of the knowledge I'd acquired over the years before he snatched it out from under my brother and me. He doesn't have the knowledge or the genius to make discoveries on his own. What he does know how to do is steal from others.”

  “I will never understand the mindset of a person like that. Why? Why does he do this?”

  “He enjoys it. And he loves nothing better than to cause pain and suffering, to watch others suffer. He's a sadist, and a greedy one at that. Here, let's get you dressed.” He helped me back into my prison coveralls.

  “I know this sounds crazy, but, if I try to escape, would you be willing to help me get out of here and escape yourself? I know someone who can help you get funding without all these strings attached.” He frowned at me but I detected a flicker of hope in his eyes. But then he threw me a look as if I were crazy. I could sense that the change in his demeanor heralded that someone was coming.

  “No one escapes from here!” He whispered harshly.

  “But-”

  “Stop! Stop this! No one escapes. You must learn to live with your fate. No one ever escapes from here. Believe me, I've tried.” The door's lock pad from the inside beeped a few times and then the door opened and three other medical assistants walked in with an armed security mech to take me back to my cell. Dr. Fairchild's face instantly returned to its mild, blank pleasantness.

  “The door was locked, Fairchild,” said one of the medical assistants. Her voice sounded friendly enough, but it was more of a demanding question. She had a plaintive look on her face.

  “Oh, was it? Forgive me, Lita. I hadn't noticed. You know how forgetful I am.” Fairchild seemed suddenly like a forgetful old man as he shuffled to his feet to get his data pad. One of the male assistants gave him a suspicious look but appeared to let the matter drop.

  “Everything okay in here? How are the stats, Fairchild?” He asked, sounding as chipper as could be. I wanted to punch him. His eyes darted slyly from me to Dr. Fairchild as if he suspected some kind of conspiracy between us.

  “He's as strong as an ox, Meryl,” said Dr. Fairchild. They all beamed.

  “Excellent. Dr. Lafayette will be pleased to hear it. Let's take a look at those stats, please, Dr. Fairchild,” said the first assistant authoritatively. Fairchild handed her the thin data tablet after downloading the information from the various exercise machines I'd used on a chip and placing it in one of the data pad's ports. As I was leaving I thought I saw Fairchild throw me a brief, hopeful look.

  12

  The next four days I passed the time with my next door cellmates. We talked of our pasts, mistakes, aches, and pains, and they continued to quiz me on my trip to the mansion. I was constantly thinking on how I could find a way out of here. On this matter, my memory served me well.

  “You know, I'd noticed too, a certain code used for the elevators here in the lab area. It's different from the one used in his mansion. I didn't notice them requiring an eye scan or thumbprint scan for these doors either.” Their eyes became wide. Kiernan kept looking up at the wall as if he was searching for something.

  “What is it?” I asked. He waved his hand.

  “Never mind. I'll tell you later.”

  “What else did you notice?” Asked Giren. I lay back on my bed, recalling that first day. “There's a pet snagar that he keeps up there in the mansion. Seems to have the run of the place.”

  “Not surprising. Anything else? Like the lay of the mansion?” Asked Kiernan.

  “I didn't wander around that much in the mansion. Obviously, I was being watched too carefully. And I didn't want to run into his precious little nightmare of a pet. But I did get a good look through the gardens. He has several connecting gardens and pools. The ones toward the easternmost part of the grounds lead to his little zoo and wildlife hunting area. Spy mechs built like insects monitor the gardens. Also, I noticed something that looked like an arena attached to the property. Just beyond the last garden. The mansion and the surronding gardens are hemmed in by a powerful electronic fence. Beyond that, no. Sorry. I wish I could tell you more. I wasn't there long enough to e
xplore. What about you guys? You've been here a while. Haven't you noticed anything unusual or special? Has he ever taken you guys to the mansion?”

  “No. We've never seen the place. Only these gray walls and the gymnasium. But we're not regarded as special, either,” Kiernan said and he sat back and thought for a minute.

  “To know our enemy is to defeat him. We must observe him meticulously, his weaknesses, his fears, his blind spots,” he said, then he looked at me meaningfully.

  “Well,” I said, “now that you mention that, I've noticed that he is a man who loves luxury and fine things. When I was in the mansion everything was gracefully decorated, orderly, pristine clean and in its place. Not a snagar hair in sight and that animal, nightmarish as she is, is meticulously cared for. He loves perfection in everything.”

  “Now that is interesting, isn't it? I have also noted for some time now that they do everything in a regimented, timed way and they change this once every month. They come in and feed us breakfast at 0700 hours, then there is our bath and clean up time after that at 0800 hours. At 1100 hours, we go out for our one hour of exercise and then lunch at 1200. If there are experiments or examinations or other things to be done to us, that us usually at 0900 hours or 0200 hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays and they last whenever they last.”

  “Right. He loves unique and beautiful things. I've also noticed that he has an overweening pride. Pride comes before a fall.” They sniggered.

  “There are cameras that monitor our every move. I can tell when a camera is turned on and when they are listening to us. Right now they aren't listening,” said Kiernan. I sat up in surprise.

  “And how do you know that?” I asked.

  “The cameras have a tiny red light, barely visible, that blinks three times before it's switched on or off. You would never notice it unless you've been locked in here and ready to lose your mind, counting every dirt speck and dust mote on the grounds in order to remain sane. But, I digress. I have noticed because when I and other associates, now long dead, have conversed about how much we hated them and want to kill them, when we found ourselves in the labs they threw our words in our faces.”