The Oceans of Mars

by Tiffany Weems

  She nodded, but John wasn’t convinced she wouldn’t say anything.

  “I’ll go get something to eat and be right back. Probably will have to work through the night on this one. If you would like to mess with the system, be my guest, but make sure as soon as the second team arrives they continue the system checks. The ship still has to make it there.”

  “You’ve got it sir.”

  He smiled. “Thank you.” Then John left the room. He didn’t go to the cafeteria. Instead John went to see Xana. She was working in her office, alone, the lights from the walls reflecting off her desk surface. “Hello Xana. Is she awake?”

  She looked up. “Yes, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for you see her just yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “What if someone’s watching you? Do you think they’ll wonder why you’re being lead into a quarantined room? One which, according to the onboard records, is currently empty.”

  John shrugged. “No one’s watching me. Please. It’s been so long, I just want to see her.”

  “She wants to see you too.” Xana paused before rolling her eyes. “Alright, but I expect you to make it quick. We’re going to fill her in on most of what’s going on later.”

  “Very well.” He stepped aside to allow Xana to exit first, then made his way toward the quarantined rooms. Patricia was in the one furthest down, where Tuft had been kept when he’d gotten sick.

    

  Patricia sat back, staring at the ceiling. She wanted to see something other than two glass walls, clouded so no one could see in and she couldn’t see out, and two white walls. The ceiling was just as plain. How was she expected to stay in there with nothing to do and no one to talk to? With her eyes closed, she imagined what was going on back on Mars. She wondered how Thomas was doing. Was Second Earth a success? She wanted to know what they’d found on Earth. Were the return of the oceans a success or just another defeat?

  Then the sound of the door opening brought her back. Patricia opened her eyes and sat up in time to see John rush into the room. He’d aged, but there was something about him that made her know who he was immediately. She could just feel it. She leapt off the bed to meet him halfway, wrapping her arms around him.

  “It’s good to see you,” he said.

  Patricia smiled. “You too. I didn’t think I’d see you this soon.”

  “I needed a break.”

  “From what?” she asked, hearing the frustration in his voice. “Is there really a system out there that you can’t figure out?”

  “I’ll figure it out. Mark my words.” John took a seat on the bed.

  Patricia did the same, beside him. Then she looked to Xana. “Thank you.”

  “You two have five minutes. After that I will personally drag you out of here.” Xana shut the door.

  Patricia turned to John. “What are you having trouble with?”

  “The planet we’re approaching has some highly advanced protection systems going on. I’m trying to get us in undetected.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t understand. The planet itself set this stuff up? Like it can think?”

  “You’ve missed a bit. I don’t know if we have time for me to explain.”

  “John, is there something living on that planet?”

  He nodded.

  “I’m so confused. What? How? Did we know? Why are we going there?”

  “There’s a lot to talk about. Really we wouldn’t be going there if Gerald hadn’t made the discovery.”

  “Gerald? Thomas’s son? What does he have to do with this?”

  John grabbed her hand with his. “I promise to tell you everything. To hell with the regulations of this ship. Troubalene followed the rules and look what that got her.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, you don’t know. She’s been suspended.”

  Patricia hugged John again. “You know, I wish that I had just let Lance do whatever he wanted. Maybe I would have been able to actually go on the journey with you.”

  “That boy deserves everything that he has coming to him as soon as I am able to prove it. He works for me now.”

  “That’s where he ended up? What about my class? Who took over for me?”

  “Someone from one of the maintenance departments. He apparently had applied for the position, but they chose you instead. He does an okay job, just nowhere near what you used to do for those students.”

  Patricia reached out with her free hand and ran it across John’s face. He had new lines, his hair was receding slightly. There was something that was different about his eyes even. “You really could look worse.” She paused. “How’s the captain look? Is he a hundred and two now?”

  John shrugged. “That man really believes I helped you and has done everything in his power to prove it since you were taken. I don’t think he’ll be satisfied until he proves it.”

  “So who took it? Lance?”

  “Yes and no.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Lance was one of the two people to have come in contact with the object.”

  “Who was the other person?”

  “Susanna.”

  Patricia sat there a moment. “You’re wrong. She would never do something like that. She wouldn’t even steal those codes for herself. What makes you think for one second she would be capable of taking something of such a high value?” She looked John over and pulled her hand away. “What was it?”

  “I’m not entirely sure. Troubalene won’t tell me what’s in the vial, but Xana says it appears to be some sort of biological disease or something of that sort. We just know that whatever it is those two were planning, they’re going to be sorely disappointed when they discover it missing.”

  “Did you get the tablet back?”

  “Yes. Just recently though and I have not had a chance to take a look at it yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “At the moment, it is of more importance for me to get this ship landed safely on that planet. Otherwise this entire trip will have been for naught.”

  The door opened. Xana poked her head inside. “You’re time is up. John, out now.”

  He stood up from the bed. “I’ll see you this evening. I’ll drop by Xana’s before going to bed.”

  Patricia stood up as well, leaning against the cloudy glass wall as she watched the two of them leave with a knot of jealousy in the pit of her stomach.

  15

  Lance’s Experiment

  Patricia sighed heavily. She was sure it had to be getting close to the time for Xana to pick her up and take her away from the quarantine room. She’d been there for what felt like days, but she guessed was only a few hours.

  Finally, the door flew open and Patricia leapt from the bed toward Xana. “Is it time?”

  “You really shouldn’t exert yourself, but yes. Put this on and try to stay hunched over as we walk. Don’t make eye contact with anyone, don’t speak.”

  Patricia took the odd garments. They weren’t a uniform and smelled as though they had definitely been worn before by somebody else. There was a pair of pants that were extremely baggy through the legs with a form fitting waistband. They adjusted to the length of her legs after she slipped them on. With the top, the sleeves were baggy as well. The torso tightened slightly and the neckline rose, until her head was covered. She could still breathe fine and was able to see through the fabric.

  “What is this?” Patricia asked when she had everything on.

  “Just something I brought along in case I needed it. Sorry about the smell. It belonged to Chidi.”

  “Can we go now?”

  Xana nodded.

  Patricia felt Xana grab hold of her hand and drag her from the room. Patricia could see, but it wasn’t a wide range of vision. She could make out a few people, but no one she really knew, no one she recognized anyway. It really didn’t matter. It was better that she didn’t recognize anyone since they couldn’t know who she was in return.

 
As they walked through the halls, Patricia examined everything. It was amazing how little things had changed. She didn’t know if she was expecting the ship to be falling apart or for them to have come up with some new amazing technologies while she was imprisoned, but neither seemed to be true. Xana dragged her into an elevator and the doors shut.

  The fourth floor was almost deserted. As they rounded the initial bend, Patricia saw the body first. She yanked her arm back and ran off ahead of Xana. She dropped to the ground, sliding to a stop. The man was curled up in a ball, an arm stretched out over his head. His eyes were wide open with a glassy, cloudy look. She knew without even touching him that he was dead.

  Xana dropped by her side. She grabbed his head. “I’m going to have to call this in. You need to get in my room and don’t leave, okay?”

  “What happened to him?” Patricia asked.

  “Just get inside and don’t leave. Now.”

  Patricia sighed as she rose from the floor. “Fine, but you’re going to tell me later.” She knew which room was Xana’s because she’d been there a few times before. As she activated the door, Patricia looked down in the opposite direction of where Xana was. Standing at the end of the hall, with that same smug look he had when he was in her class, was Lance. Patricia felt her chest grow tight, her teeth clenched. He was there. She could kill him and no one would know she’d done it. She was supposed to be frozen. The cameras couldn’t recognize her in the outfit. But as she debated, her eyes met his and he smiled. Did he know it was her? Then he disappeared around the bend.

  Patricia reluctantly slipped into the room, wishing she could have slammed the door behind her. Leg bouncing up and down nervously, she sat on the edge of the bed. She should have gone after him, chased him, beat the crap out of him. He deserved it for what he had put her and John through, as well as so many others on the ship. He deserved whatever she wanted to do to him, which was a lot. Then she thought of Xana. Xana wanted her to stay put, was trying to protect her, but she hadn’t counted on Lance being there. That surely changed everything. And the man that was dead; Lance must have been the one that caused it. She had a right and obligation to take him out for it: justice.

  Rising slowly from the bed, she was approaching the door when it was activated from the other side. John walked in.

  “Were you going somewhere?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Not really. Did you pass Xana?”

  John looked around the room behind Patricia. “She’s not here? Where did she go?”

  “We found a body in the hall. She had to call it in.”

  “A body? Was the individual deceased?”

  “Definitely. And Lance was in the hall. He might have recognized me.” Patricia looked down to realize she was still wearing her disguise. She slipped the clothes off and laid them on the bed. “I can’t be sure though.”

  “What would he be doing on this floor?”

  Patricia shrugged. “Maybe he lives on this floor. I mean, he could have just come here to kill whoever that was, but I highly doubt it.”

  “He doesn’t live on this level. He’s on the fifth level. What did the victim look like?”

  “Male, pale, wide open eyes. Nothing out of the ordinary. He just wasn’t alive.”

  “And you didn’t know who he was?”

  Patricia tilted her head to the side. “That seems to be irrelevant. You do remember where I’ve spent the majority of this trip.” She then took a seat at the edge of the bed. “We’ll just have to wait for Xana to get back. In the meantime, I need to know about Gerald and this new planet with things living there.”

  “Gerald sat in on the last communication we had with Mars. Apparently while on Earth, he found an old space probe that contained a member of an alien species inside.”

  “That’s pretty awesome.” Patricia sat in silence while John filled her in regarding the planet and the species, what little they knew about it, and the problems he was having with breaking through the outer barrier. She waited patiently until he was done. “That’s a lot to take in. So you still can’t break through.”

  “I’ve not been able to find the right combination to break down their security systems.”

  “And no one else can do it?”

  “Not my people. They’re good, but not that good. Well, with the exception of one.”

  “Don’t. You don’t need him.”

  “I’m sure he could do it, I just would prefer not to have to trust him to undertake such an important job and possibly put all our lives at risk. I do not trust him.”

  “No one trusts him.” She reached out and grasped his hand. “So why aren’t you working on it still?”

  “I’m going to go back, but I wanted to get you something to eat first.” He reached into his uniform and pulled out a bar. “A fruit bar. There’s nothing really good left. This will fill you up though.” He handed her the bar.

  She took a bit of the chewy bar and smiled. “It tastes pretty good. Thank you.”

  “I’m going to leave. Fill me in later on everything that Xana says.”

  He had been gone maybe ten minutes when Xana showed back up. Patricia was thankful to see her as she was on the verge of going after Lance yet again.

  “Well?” Patricia asked.

  Xana shook her head. “We’ve got a problem. Another problem. Like this ship needs another problem to worry about.”

  “Who was it? What did he die from?”

  “That man was Alexander Frint, one of the scientists on board the ship. He wasn’t working on anything sensitive, but still a bit of a loss for us all. He died from a rare disease that I’ve not encountered in my life time of study. From what I could determine, from the little examination I did, the disease was synthesized to only affect one individual at a time. It’s not contagious. But if you get it, you will die within ten minutes. He was probably headed to dinner when he was injected with it.”

  “Injected?”

  “That’s my best guess on how he caught it. I could be wrong though.” Xana took a seat. “I hope I’m wrong about the whole thing.”

  “You’re not. Lance was here. Saw him moments before I got into the room.”

  “Did he see you?”

  Patricia hesitated.

  “That’s not good.”

  “He won’t tell anybody. He’s going to try to kill me instead. That’s fine. I’ll be waiting.”

  “Patricia, this isn’t a game. He’s dangerous and you shouldn’t take that lightly.”

  Patricia scoffed. “He thinks he’s dangerous. That’s what he wants all of us to think, but he’s not dangerous. He’ll never be dangerous. Not really.”

  “Why don’t you lay down for a bit? I’ll let you know when John gets here.”

  “No. He’s already been here. He won’t be back this evening.”

  “He has got to stop pulling those all-nighters. I’ve warned him about the health risks with depriving himself of sleep like that. I hope it’s important.”

  “It could mean life or death for the crew, so yeah, it’s kind of important. He brought me a fruit bar for dinner.”

  “Good. I was hoping he’d get you something to eat. I wonder if he ran into Troubalene. Did he mention her at all?”

  “No.” Patricia stood up. “Is she hanging around the cafeteria?”

  “That’s where she said she’d be. Where do you think you’re going?”

  Patricia slipped the clothes back on. “I don’t want to be stuck in here forever. If she has something she wants me to do, then I need to know what it is before we get too close to landing.”

  “You are not going up there. Even in that disguise someone might see you and what if you run into Lance or the captain?”

  “Bring them on. I can take them both at the same time.”

  “No one doubts your abilities. Just please see reason. It’s better for all if you to stay in this room.” Xana handed Patricia a tablet from inside her uniform. “Take this. Just wait here.” Then Xana left the r
oom.

  Patricia laid on her back. She hated being told to wait. She tossed the tablet onto the bed.

  “Patricia,” she heard someone whisper.

  Patricia sat up and looked around. Then her eyes fell on the tablet. Troubalene’s face was looking back at her. “Troubalene. It’s good to see you.”

  “Likewise.”

  “I hear you got suspended,” Patricia said. “I hope it had nothing to do with me.”

  “No. Captain Creighton will realize the mistake he’s made sooner or later. The suspension won’t last long.”

  “What do you want with me?”

  Troubalene had a serious look on her face. “I need your help with something. I cannot be seen in certain parts of the ship right now. Especially with removal of my rights at the moment. And what I’m asking of you is going to be a huge risk, but I really couldn’t think of anyone more capable of pulling it off.”

  “Why? What do you need?”

  “I need something from the seventh level.”

  “I can’t do that. Someone will notice.”

  Troubalene smiled. “I’m counting on a few people to notice, but they won’t know it’s you.”

  “And why the hell wouldn’t they?”

  “Because I have a plan.”

  Patricia took a deep breath. “If you think that I’m the right person for the job, then I feel like I’m obligated to accept the challenge. When do you want me to do this?”

  “Whenever you get the chance. I just ask that you have it done before we land. This has everything to do with our arrival.”

  “So what do you want me to do?”

  “I’ll send the details to Xana’s private account. When you read them, delete the message immediately. John can help you wipe a few of the back channels as well. When you’re finished, I need to know without delay. You can contact me on this channel at any time.”

  “Alright,” Patricia said. The screen went black. What had she just agreed to?

    

  “Mander, would you please stop looking over my shoulder? That’s not helping,” John said.