The Ruins of Mars: Waking Titan (The Ruins of Mars Trilogy)

by Dylan James Quarles

  For several minutes, the dome was silent save for the sputtering of the torches.

  “You speak eloquently, Teo,” said Yuvee at last. “Olo would be proud of how openly you have embraced the many tongues of your world. But words are simply that: words. Were it not for your actions, Olo would still be sitting in the wreckage of your burnt camp. You were the spirit that freed him and gave his soul license to explore and expand his principles of peace. This connection is the most important of all the lessons we have to teach. It is the key.”

  Allowing herself to smile, Teo looked past Kaab and into Yuvee’s eyes.

  “Tonight,” she said with finality. “We shall burn him tonight and the smoke of his body will anoint this new school.”

  Yuvee nodded then released Kaab and left the chamber in four long strides.

  Shivering, the boy seemed to take a moment to gather his wits as if doused with cold water. When he had, he fixed Teo with a barely repressed look of mocking then bowed.

  “Chieftess.”

  “Boy.”

  “It’s always a great pleasure for Yuvee and myself to see you. You shouldn’t be such a stranger. The people already speak loudly of your indifference to the affairs of our city. When was the last time you visited the Tribunal? Your son tries to make inroads with the other members but he lacks your gravity, I fear.”

  Teo ignored Kaab’s words and made her way to the altar in the center of the room. Frowning, he hung back, his hands forming into fists.

  “I could be a powerful ally,” he nearly shouted, his thin voice echoing off the walls of the dome. “You should show me more respect.”

  “Respect is earned,” Teo replied, her back to him. “Not gathered like fallen fruit at the feet of gods. The people, whom you so often speak of, know this truth.”

  “Many don’t agree with you,” he sneered. “Many believe that I am chosen. Special.”

  Dropping to her knees at the altar, Teo did not respond for a moment.

  “There was once a time when they said the same of me,” she spoke, her voice even and dangerous. “But you will see. Time can change what the people believe. Our great Teachers are helping to undo superstition’s stranglehold on our minds. Plan your future carefully, Kaab, for the moment when you lose power will only appear to you once it has past.”

  Shaking violently, Kaab turned haughtily on his heel and marched out of the dome.

  As the last sounds of his departure faded away, Teo raised her head and gazed out the open skylight above. The sun had fallen and night was upon the city. Lifting a weary hand, she laid it atop the figure in front of her, shrouded in white cloth.

  “I will miss you, Olo,” she whispered. “Father.”

  Giving the green light—Sol 88

  As the morning of Sol 88 blossomed over the mighty Braun, its brilliant white shell shone in the space above Mars like a daytime star. Though the planet below cast an ochre glow that brightened and warmed the soul, Captain Tatyana Vodevski yet felt the cold knife of nationalism press dangerously against her throat. Floating in her room, she had just finished watching a transmission from James Floyd, an otherwise normal routine to her day. Only on this morning, the message had contained information so chilling that, even in the temperature-controlled belly of Braun, she shivered.

  Playing the transmission for a second time, Tatyana hoped that somehow, through a miracle of divine intervention, the message would have changed. It had not.

  “The Chinese have launched a ship,” James’s dogged face explained. “It’s full of soldiers, Captain. Twenty-five members of the Chinese Special Forces. According to Donovan’s intel, they’re heavily armed. The Chinese government swears the ship is a resupply Ark, a gift to the team in our time of need. Guess the Trojan War isn’t required reading in their schools. In any event, we’re not sure if this is actually connected to Liu’s death since the Ark launched well before the accident. Things are really messed up here to say the least. The markets are in the dumps and terror cells all over Southeast Asia are fired up and active. Talks have broken down for the time being and the situation on the Korean peninsula has deteriorated, to put it kindly.”

  Knowing that in all likelihood, if it came down to it, her own government would side with the Chinese, Tatyana shut her eyes and let out a long deep breath. A growing sense of urgency spread from her stomach to her heart, bringing with it the memories of a childhood spent watching her countrymen starve during the Eight Year Exile.

  Then, as was the case now, impatience, greed, and corruption had led to a kind of Mini Cold War, subjecting the people to the turmoil of geopolitical collateral damage while the governments remained intact and corporately well-funded. If the Chinese were successful in their mission, the world would cry out in anger and betrayal yet little would be able to be done about it. Mars was millions of kilometers away from any military protection. It was literally on the fringes of mankind. With three billion citizens and growing by the minute, the Chinese Empire would simply absorb Mars as they had done with Tibet, Mongolia, Myanmar, Taiwan, and now North Korea. Besides, if anyone really had a problem with it, China would likely just threaten to call in its purchased Western debt.

  With an angry snort, Tatyana rolled her eyes. She could see it all happening, unfolding before her like some twisted rerun of a bad television show. Worse still, James Floyd wanted her to play a part in it by lowering herself to the level of a common terrorist or pirate. It was disgusting.

  Reaching out, she paused the transmission before it could reach the section where James issued her final orders. She didn’t need to hear that part again.

  Outside, a knock sounded and her hatch swung gently open.

  In the doorway, Joseph Aguilar hung weightlessly with smile on his lips. His jumpsuit was pulled down, its arms tied in a knot at his waist. Smudges of mechanical grease blotted both of his hands and forearms and his hair was slightly messy.

  “Hey, pretty lady,” he said. “How’s it going?”

  “Sometimes I wish I’d become a baker,” replied Tatyana, her sad eyes unable to ignore Aguilar’s well-sculpted shoulders and chest.

  “Bad news from home?” said the young pilot, nodding towards the frozen projection of James Floyd’s face.

  “Yes, very.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Holding out a hand, she beckoned for Aguilar to come in and he slipped through the entry, shutting the hatch behind him.

  “You alright?” he asked, his handsome features searching her face with concern.

  “Not really,” she said, unzipping her jumpsuit.

  “Oh,” he responded dumbly, eyes widening with realization and excitement.

  In the soft embrace of the room’s lighting, her naked skin seemed to glow—its feline sensuality drawing Aguilar in with the promise of heat and passion.

  Some time later, as she pulled her red hair back into a tight ponytail, Tatyana examined her face in the mirror. Her cheeks and chest were still flushed from the warmth of lovemaking, and a small smudge of oil winked back at her from the cusp of her left breast. Zipping up her jumpsuit to just above the blemish, she smiled at Aguilar’s reflection as he watched her dress.

  “You want to tell me what that message was all about?” he asked, reluctantly pulling on his own jumpsuit.

  Tatyana’s grey eyes clouded.

  “In a little while.”

  “Alright,” he shrugged. “Fair enough.”

  Checking his watch, the pilot raised his eyebrows in surprise.

  “Is it really 0800?”

  Glancing at her own watch, Tatyana nodded.

  “Oh shit! I told Julian I just had to pee. I better get back down to C Deck. We’re replacing the hydraulics on the blast doors for the port-side Lander Bay.”

  With a frown, Tatyana went to speak but was interrupted by an incoming call from Ilia Base. Glancing quickly at Aguilar to make sure that he was fully clothed, she answered the hail.

  There, projected in three dimensions above her
desk, the face of Harrison Raheem Assad faded in.

  “Harrison!” she said with a mixture of excitement and relief. “It is very good to see you. How are you feeling?”

  “Good, Captain. Thanks. Hey, Joey.”

  “Hi,” waved Aguilar from behind Tatyana.

  Blushing slightly, Tatyana went to make an excuse for Aguilar’s presence, but Harrison held up a hand.

  “No need to explain, Captain. And besides, everyone already knows about you two. I actually called because I need a favor.”

  “A favor?” she replied, recovering quickly from the shock of embarrassment.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m not sure what favors I could grant to you, but please feel free to ask anyway.”

  “Well,” began Harrison. “This favor isn’t exactly legal, might not even be possible, but here it is: I need you to use one of your programming overrides as Captain to force Braun to unlock the Lander so we can go EVA to the caves.”

  “What?”

  “Yes. As of now, the moratorium imposed by the Earthside Command crew won’t allow Braun to let us into the Lander.”

  “You intend to go back to the caves?”

  “I do, along with Ralph, William, and Lizzy.”

  Letting this sink in, Tatyana looked quickly over her shoulder at Aguilar. As if to remove himself from any decisions made, the young pilot shrugged and offered no counsel.

  “So you want to break the rules set by Earthside Command?” she said, turning back to face Harrison’s projection.

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because,” he said simply. “We came here to do a job. Live or die, we have to see it through for the good of everyone back home. This moratorium stinks to high heaven with the bullshit of politics. We all knew the risks when we came. The fact that we can’t leave this base has nothing to do with our safety and everything to do with someone demonstrating the fact that we are still under the heel of their boot. I don’t know what’s going on back home but I want to do my job, Captain. I’m ready to get back to work and I think you are too.”

  For several moments, Tatyana was silent—the clarity of Harrison’s motives refreshed her in the face of so much secrecy and dread. Though he couldn’t possibly know it, he had struck directly on the point she herself had been struggling with. They were all being drawn into a conflict that represented the very kind of future their mission was trying to correct. If they wanted to avoid that future, create a scenario where it couldn’t survive, then they would need to come at it from many different angles. For herself, Tatyana knew that she must carry out the orders James Floyd had issued her at the end of his last transmission. No matter the implications, she knew that it was her duty to her crew, as Captain. For Harrison, his role in all of this was less defined yet equally important. Though she didn’t know just what he would find in those Martian catacombs, she knew it would be important—maybe even revolutionary.

  “Okay,” she replied at last. “I will override Braun’s lockout and grant you your EVA, but you must promise me one thing in return.”

  “Anything, Captain.”

  “Make her death worth the terrible price we paid.”

  “I’ll try,” said Harrison.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Seeing in the dark—Sol 90

  Elizabeth Kubba stepped from the lift into the Martian caves for the first time. She had made the trip down in the carriage with William, who was now busying himself by taking pictures of the vista outside the open mouth of the cave. Afraid to go any deeper into the massive chamber alone, Kubba walked over to stand next to the German.

  Before her, the steep cliffs of the Valles canyon network jutted up like castle walls, albeit on a scale never attempted by man. Faint tendrils of mist clung to the needle-shaped red rocks, which poked up from the canyon floor like islands in the sky.

  Leaning forward, Kubba looked over the lip of the cave, mere centimeters from the tip of her boot. As it fell away into obscurity, the canyon floor below was an elusive blur. She trembled despite herself.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” said William.

  “Yes, quite.”

  Perhaps sensing her uneasiness, the German moved back from the edge and motioned for Kubba to follow him.

  “Here, come take a look at this.” Leading her to a fallen boulder, William pointed. “Do you see it?” he asked. “There, just follow my fingertip.”

  As her eyes scanned the rock, she caught and traced the faintly etched line.

  “Liu found this, didn’t she?”

  William nodded and his shoulders hunched a bit as he sighed.

  “Poor girl,” was all he said.

  Kubba ground her teeth.

  Poor girl, echoed the ghost of Sabian Crisp sarcastically.

  A few minutes later, Harrison and Marshall came into view, the lift cart clattering along its cable lines until it was flush with the cave floor.

  “Everybody ready?” radioed Marshall.

  “All good here,” William replied.

  Silently, Harrison walked off the lift and made his way towards the rear of the cave where the tunnel began. Watching him pass by, Kubba felt a mixture of relief and injured pride: relief that the young man was out of his lab and back to work, and injured pride because she had not been the one to achieve this goal.

  Already having reviewed the tapes of Harrison and Marshall’s conversation, Kubba had a new respect for the grizzled Lander pilot. His story about killer AI had been a stroke of genius. Thinking all along that Harrison was aching for someone to blame Liu’s death on, Kubba had been trying to find a suitable target for his anger. Braun was the obvious choice, but as Marshall had explained, blaming an AI for following its programming was like blaming the ocean for sinking a ship. Besides, due to her programming override, Braun seemed to avoid Harrison—as if talking to the young man was physically painful in some way.

  In any event, she saw that she had been wrong. What Harrison needed wasn’t someone to focus his anger at. She had misjudged his character. He was a peaceful kind person, and all he really craved in the end was a friend to help him back onto his feet.

  Falling in line behind Harrison, the others walked into the darkness of the tunnel and Kubba had to jog to catch up. A shiver played itself under her skin and a touch of panic rose in her mind as the shadows fell over her like a fog.

  “Lizzy,” said Marshall, dropping back to walk beside her. “Do you know how to turn on your A-Vision?”

  “Of course,” she shot, secretly thankful for the reminder.

  With a quick command, Kubba engaged her Augmented Vision and the shadows of the tunnel were dashed away by the invisible shimmering blue light. Having never actually used the function, she was momentarily awestruck by the haunting detail projected on her visor’s glass. The dimensions of the tunnel around her were as clear as if they were bathed in the midday sun, yet the depth and contrast that color brings with its presence was lacking. Still though, as the X-Rays played across the faces of the smooth walls around her, she was moved by its electric beauty.

  Slipping further into the blackness of the Martian earth, the group soon had to adjust their pace, encountering the rise in the floor’s pitch that signified the nearing of the famed Statue Chamber.

  As knots of excitement and fear coiled in the pit of her stomach, Kubba watched the glowing outline of Harrison march towards the effervescent light of the X-Ray Beacons left behind from previous trips. Enthralled, she marveled at the way the walls of the tunnel seemed to funnel out as if the team were approaching the rim of a cornucopia.

  Entering into the grandiose chamber ahead of them, Braun activated tripoded light stands placed there to illuminate the statues. Unprepared, Kubba stopped in the archway as her eyes struggled to adjust to the burst of color and shadow. The hot glare of the lights clashed with the blue glow of her Augmented Vision and caused a washout of discolored images until she turned the function off. Her normal eyesight now returned, she allowed h
erself to see that which was actually in front of her.

  Gawking in spite of herself, she took several shaking steps into the vaulted room, stopping at the foot of one of the tall standing statues.

  Smooth and utterly without blemish, the figure seemed to have been poured into a giant mold rather than carved. Its three eyes, deeply recessed into the flat oval facade of its face, stared down at her with impassive judgment. Quivering, she wanted to reach out and touch its leg but was afraid that the thing might come alive and punish her for her sins.

  Distractedly, Braun’s voice piped in through their helmet speakers. “I suggest exchanging your current Survival Packs for the larger, fully self-contained models. As we have already established, there are too few usable gasses this deep within the earth to make breathable oxygen.”

  Moving to a stack of crates in the corner of the chamber, William opened a large metal box. Inside were six, fully charged and loaded, self-contained Survival Packs like miniaturized turtle shells made of white plastic. The Survival Packs were passed out, and the four explorers quickly helped one another to swap them for the ones they were already wearing. Also taking this opportunity to adorn shoulder bags and other equipment, the team soon appeared ready to brave whatever may come.

  With the task of outfitting themselves for the exploration done, the group stood waiting for Harrison to make a move.

  Walking with his head bent to the spot where Liu’s dead body had struck the floor, the young Egyptian dropped to one knee and scooped up a handful of powdery sand.

  The others watched as it spilled from between his gloved fingers, silent in their respect for the moment.

  Even the ever-persistent sound of Kubba’s own breathing, like waves lapping at the shore, seemed to draw down to a whisper.