The Oceans of Mars

by Tiffany Weems

  “Destroyed me?”

  “I’ve studied you from the moment we met. Anything I could find out about you.”

  Patricia laughed. “I bet that wasn’t a whole hell of a lot.”

  “Oh, there was far more than you know. The war on Earth was fought out of desperation for a natural resource that you and your people squandered away. In that war, you lost everything. Your family was torn apart and your daughter killed over just a few drops of water.”

  Patricia was no longer smiling. She glared at Lance, refusing to look at the others in the room. He couldn’t have known that. No one could have known that. There were no records and she’d never spoken of it. The past was the past and that was where she left it.

  “So, when there was nothing left to lose, you took as much as you could from as many as you could. I do appreciate that your first victim was the man who killed your daughter. Beautiful revenge story. Though I am concerned at how far you took that cannibalism thing. You ate a lot of people, Patricia. A lot. Do you miss the taste?”

  “I could do with one more victim,” Patricia said through clenched teeth.

  “Ignore him,” John said. His voice was more strained than Troubalene’s had been. Patricia almost couldn’t understand him. She wished she hadn’t understood him.

  “Go ahead. Ignore me if you would like, but have I said one thing that isn’t true?”

  Patricia gritted her teeth.

  “I didn’t think so. I wonder how much of that either one of these two knew.”

  “Every word,” Troubalene said.

  “From beginning to end,” John said.

  Patricia had to stop herself from smiling. Neither had known because she’d never told them. Well John had known about her being a cannibal at some point, just not why. “Lance, I think maybe you have lost your touch.”

  “And why’s that?”

  Patricia strained her ears in the moment of silence. They had seconds, maybe. That was good. “I thought maybe you’d have chosen someone by now instead of standing there like some idiot. I mean clearly, your intent was to kill someone in this room. Something tells me, it won’t be Cubina. No, you like her.”

  Lance grimaced.

  “Yeah, that was a little too obvious. And you probably hadn’t intended to use that on me. Why deprive me of the punishment they’ll bestow soon. No. I’m not your victim. That leaves those two. So which one would hurt me most?”

  Lance didn’t speak.

  “I think maybe you’ve lost your nerve. Did you even kill those other people or did you have help? Despite all your talk and your incredible intelligence, you’re still a person with very a weak constitution. You can’t do it. You won’t do it.”

  She refused to look at the other two, sure that their faces would be full of fear and injustice. She focused entirely on Lance. How smart was he? Not very.

  “You don’t think so, do you?” Lance asked. He held the syringe out, headed for John’s arm. She had a split second to react. She grabbed his hand, directing it away from John and pulling Lance toward the door. She saw his other hand make a move, but she grabbed it as well, keeping him away from his chest.

  The room door opened. “Help!” Patricia yelled. She pushed him against the wall and banged his hand on the wall until the syringe fell to the ground. The only thing going through her mind was to keep him from turning out the lights. He would get away if he did that. She couldn’t allow him to do that. “Help me,” she said again.

  “Patricia,” Troubalene said. “Knock him out.” Her voice was still strained.

  Patricia pulled Lance away from the wall and shoved him into it hard. There was a crack as his head hit. But he was still conscious. “Guess I’ll have to try harder,” she said. She pulled him away again while he struggled to break free of her grasp. She shoved him harder into the wall. Another crack echoed through the room. She dis this again and again until, at last, he went limp.

  “Good job,” Troubalene said.

  Patricia let go of Lance and turned around. There were about five guards and the captain cramming themselves into the room. Cubina had already been untied and John and Troubalene were both free to move around again.

  “Arrest her,” the captain said.

  Troubalene stepped between the guards and Patricia. “I appreciate your position, sir, but you are wrong. This woman has done none of the things that she is accused of. That man there has framed her for all of it and I can prove it.”

  “And how do you explain the camera footage from all over this ship?” Captain Creighton asked.

  “Lance has doctored it. John can help prove that one. Can’t you, John?”

  John stood up off the bed, cracking his neck from side to side. “Yes. Just going to need a few minutes.” He left the room and one of the guards followed closely behind.

  Patricia placed a hand on Troubalene’s shoulder. “While he tries to prove my innocence, maybe I should go into custody for now. If it will make this whole thing easier, it’s the right thing to do.”

  Troubalene looked over her shoulder at Patricia. “Why don’t you sit on the bed? You can stay in here until this whole thing has been properly sorted out.” Then she faced forward once more. “Sir, if I may, I’d like to show you everything I know and perhaps put this matter to bed once and for all.”

  Troubalene escorted the captain from the room with another guard. Three guards remained in the room with Patricia and the unconscious Lance. She leaned back on her hands.

  “How about a game of charades?” she asked. They stood very still, their hands on their guns. “If you’re playing the silent game, I think you’ve won.” She sighed heavily. As she sat there an odd sensation came over her. It happened at once. A sensation of concrete being poured into every pore. Her muscles were stiff, her bones rigid. She couldn’t blink or speak. And it took her more than a second to know exactly who had caused her rigor mortis. Out of the corner of her eye, she could make him out, using the wall to get off the ground.

  Patricia could see the guards, standing just as still as before, but she knew they were in the same position as she was. They weren’t able to move and especially weren’t able to protect themselves.

  Lance was up. He stood in front of Patricia, shaking slightly. “I would kill you. I would love to kill you, but there are a few things I want you to see first. The next time I see you, this will end.” He picked up the syringe from the floor where it had landed and stuck it into the each of the guards’ arms, distributing the liquid evenly between the three. Then he slipped out of the room.

  Patricia struggled. She concentrated in just moving her fingers, her toes, even her nose. Anything small. If she could just move one thing then perhaps she could break free. The guards were falling to the ground one at a time. She tried to close her eyes; they wouldn’t close.

  It took a few minutes, but eventually she felt her muscles loosen. Patricia leapt up from the bed. She hurdled the three guards and ran toward the back elevator. Someone called out her name from the other direction, but she didn’t turn back to see who it was. She didn’t have time. He had a head start and she needed to get to him. There was only one place she could think of that he might go.

  The elevator door opened immediately and she jumped on board. “Level 7,” she called out the moment she entered. She felt it descend to the correct level and the door opened. There was no guard standing just outside. That was good. She didn’t have time for that. She ran straight ahead into the main bay.

  Maybe he had had trouble getting one of the devices to respond to him. Or maybe he was the reason there was no guard. Either way, Patricia got to the bay just in time to see one of the butterflies take off. She had missed him. She had missed her opportunity to stop him and all she could do was watch him leave. Where he would go, Patricia didn’t know.

    

  It was probably a good half an hour before she made her way back up to the sixth level and back to her room. Inside she was met with Captain Creighton,
Troubalene, and John. She walked past them with her head down and heavily sat down on the bed.

  “He got away.”

  “It wasn’t your place to chase after him,” the captain said in a harsh tone.

  Patricia glared at him. “Well I didn’t see anyone else trying to stop him.”

  “And where did he go? This ship is only so big.”

  “He took a small craft and left the ship. I don’t know where he’s going from there. But he’s off the ship.”

  The captain’s face had turned several shades of red. “I’m not sure what part of that seems like a bad thing to you. He’s gone and won’t be back. He’ll die out there. Better for us.”

  Patricia looked at Troubalene. “So I take it I’m off the hook?”

  “For now,” she said with a smile. “Though I think that won’t last long.”

  “I think maybe I should apologize to your husband. He attacked me first, but I feel kind of bad.”

  “He’ll get over it,” Troubalene said. “He was in need of a good butt whooping.”

  The two of them laughed. Then Patricia turned back to Captain Creighton. She stood up from the bed. “I am sorry about your wife, if he wasn’t lying.”

  “He wasn’t.” The captain said it with very little emotion. “From what medical officers have been able to determine, it was not the same method as the others. Did he tell you how he did it?”

  Patricia shook her head. “I’m not sure. He had me in the room with all the plants when he bragged about it.” Then she looked between the three. “How is Cubina doing?”

  “Good,” John said.

  “That’s good. I think he might actually like her. That could mean he might try to come back for her. Just saying, it might be an issue.” She addressed the captain again. “I hope your son is okay. He didn’t leave me much of a choice. If it helps, I went easy on him.”

  “It doesn’t.” The captain grunted and then exited the room.

  Patricia smiled. “I think he’s warming up to me. What about my job? Can I go back to teaching?”

  Troubalene sighed. “I asked him that, but he seems adamant that you are a troublesome human being who would be better off shut away in a room for the duration of all time. I’m going to arrange for you to return to work as soon as we land. You’ll have to sit out the remainder of our trip which won’t be too much longer. What are we down to John? Just a couple days?”

  John shrugged. “I am unable to determine exactly what day it is any longer. If the two of you will excuse me, I do have work to catch up on.” Then, with a quick hug goodbye for Patricia, he left as well.

  “So did the captain reinstate you?” Patricia asked.

  Troubalene nodded. “Yes, once he realized that Lance had caused all the damage, he couldn’t see any other reason to keep me from my duties. He’s really a big softy.”

  Patricia stifled a laugh. “I’m sure. So what am I supposed to do now? Half the ship believes me to be some sort of criminal.”

  “We’ll issue a statement immediately to all personnel to the contrary. You are free to move about the ship. No more rendezvous trips to level seven. You are prohibited from the level again.”

  “Yeah, I get that. What about the first level? Would I be allowed up there?”

  “And why would you need to go up there?”

  “You realize how bored I’m going to get, right? I just thought maybe I could visit John.”

  “I suppose. Just try not to make it a frequent action.” Troubalene clapped Patricia on the shoulder. “I’m glad this is over.”

  Patricia smiled. “You and me both.”

  18

  Closed too Soon

  “You cannot begin to understand how happy I am that they cleared your name,” Xana said. “Why didn’t you come see me sooner?”

  “I just kind of wandered around the last couple of days. It’s really amazing how similar everything is, but the people aren’t. I’m actually a little jealous.”

  “What? That you’re still young? That you stole twenty years of life?” Xana asked.

  “I’ve missed the whole trip. Why didn’t we just freeze everyone to get there?”

  “We weren’t a hundred percent sure of the technology yet. Maybe the next crew will get that privilege, but it was safer this way.”

  “So you threw me in a cryogenics tube without really knowing what the side effects would be.”

  Xana shrugged. “It really wasn’t my decision. The only reason they’re on board is for the criminals who we wouldn’t really care about. Well,of course, I cared about you. Which is why I personally conducted tests of your vitals daily. I kept John in the know on the matter. Don’t think I took it lightly.”

  Patricia smiled warmly. “I know you did everything. I’m sorry if I made you feel otherwise. It just annoys me that my husband is twenty years older than me. It also annoys me that despite the fact they all know I didn’t do any of the things that I was accused of the captain still hates me.”

  “Did John say how long we had?”

  “By the end of the day we should reach the outer layer of their defense system, according to Troubalene. John is a bit preoccupied at the moment.” Patricia took a seat in front of the desk.

  “You know, you got very lucky with those stunts you pulled. They could have taken a lot more than your life from you.”

  Patricia shrugged holding a hand on her stomach. “I knew what I was doing.”

  “You shouldn’t have gone after him.”

  “Then who would have? No one really believed me.” When she saw the scowl on Xana’s face, she quickly retracted her statement. “No one who could really help at the time. I’m sorry. In the future, I will try to keep from being a vigilante.”

  “That’s all I ask.”

  “So, anything new with you?”

  Xana looked at the desk, trying to hide her face, but Patricia could definitely make out that she was blushing.

  “Do you have something juicy to tell me?”

  “I may have found someone.”

  “That’s awesome. Who is he?”

  Xana started to answer when the door opened and disheveled guard entered the room, leaning against the door frame for support. “We need you.”

  Xana stood up from the desk without hesitation and followed the woman out of the room.

  Patricia waited a few seconds before she was consumed with curiosity. What had happened? She leapt up from her chair and exited the office just in time to see two bodies being escorted through the hall on the floating cots. She watched as they guided them into the room where only the dead gathered. That wasn’t good.

  With a glance to make sure that no one else was coming, Patricia followed the guards and Xana into the room.

  “What happened?” Xana asked with a hint of sorrow behind her words.

  The guards shrugged. The woman who had gone into Xana’s office spoke in shock. “We don’t know. Neither responded to their duties today and given the momentous occasion that is about to occur, the captain has ordered us to track down and locate all who have not responded. When we got to their room, it was too late. We found them together, curled up, dead.”

  Xana sighed heavily. “I’ll examine them. Inform the captain of what you found then report back to your duties. There’s nothing more you can do here.”

  The guards shuffled out of the room, leaving Xana and Patricia alone. “What are you thinking?” Patricia asked.

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure. I’m going to need a few minutes.”

  Patricia took a step back. The room wasn’t full of cots, but there were a fair few more than what she had expected to see. It made sense. Lance had been busy within the last week. She just hoped they weren’t about to face a new dilemma that would wipe out any more of their population before they had a chance to land. If they lost too many, the civilization wouldn’t work.

  “Well,” Xana said with her arms crossed in front of her chest. “From what I can tell, they died in the same
manner as Susanna Creighton.” She glanced to one of the cots.

  Patricia followed her gaze and located the one that must have contained the captain’s wife. She sighed heavily. Then her heart sank. “But Lance killed her. He admitted it. She helped him and he killed her in return. They can’t have died that way.”

  “They have the same elevated levels of some unknown substance in their system. That cannot be viewed as a coincidence.”

  “I don’t get it. He’s gone. He left. There’s no way in hell, the captain let him back on board this ship. So how could he have killed two more people three days after he left?”

  “That’s a question you should be asking someone else.”

  Patricia bit the inside of her cheek. If it was still Lance, they would lose several more within the day without an answer. “What room did they come from? Did the guards say?”

  Xana shook her head.

  “I’ve got to go. I’ll keep you informed about what I find out, okay?”

  “Please do.” Xana turned back to the couple. “I’m going to examine them further to see if I can identify the culprit that is causing this. Maybe then I’ll be able to find out how he did it.”

  Patricia sped out of the room and down the hall. She immediately went up to the first level, but didn’t go to see her husband. Though she knew she was overstepping her bounds again slightly, she reconciled that it was for a greater purpose that she spoke to them.

  The deck was packed with people. Mainly those who worked on the first level from all different shifts. There were a few that Patricia was sure didn’t belong up there based solely on their mannerisms. One woman was standing in the corner, biting her nails. On the screen ahead was the approaching planet. The net that enveloped it was absolute, finely woven with precise distances between every satellite. The two people she wanted, though, were in the midst of all the chaos. Neither was speaking and both looked like they were concentrating too hard; or were maybe slightly constipated.

  “Captain Creighton, sir,” Patricia said trying to sound as professional as possible, “Could I have a word with you and First Mate Troubalene in the hall, please?”