by Bob Lee
“Is it not an amazing morning?” Brother Jacobs panted. “This is our first sunrise on our new planet. I have led us here safely, and I now have new big plans.”
“He still has those movie-star looks, even after just waking up,” George thought, “but he seems in a pretty happy mood considering what Bonnie just told me.” Aloud he said, “Um, I was just given some disquieting news, Brother Jacobs. I was told that you sent Jeff out and he died. Is this true?”
“Oh, my boy, we were visited in the night by a flaming emissary. It sat there burning, yet it was not consumed. It spoke to us in its own way, and explained that it had come as a sign. In his folly, Jeff took it upon himself to go meet with the emissary and force it to take him to the Great Consciousness. I tried to stop him, but he would not listen. He was found unworthy.” Brother Jacobs’ eyes lit up with sudden realization. “Why, that makes you Platinum One now. The great responsibilities of that office currently rest upon your shoulders.”
George considered whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. He had not forgotten how Brother Jacobs had been quick to offer his Platinums’ lives to keep the two astronauts from retaking the Pegasus. He wondered whether his promotion meant that he would be the next one to be offered up in any dangerous situation. He also wondered if Brother Jacobs’ version of events was what had actually happened, so he decided to hedge the truth a bit. “I came to let you know that I confronted old Sue at the airlock. She told me that Bonnie and her daughters had taken the spacesuits and left. I would have stopped them, but they were already gone, using the two remaining spacesuits. Without a suit, I couldn’t follow to capture them.”
“What? They’re gone?” Brother Jacobs sputtered. He stormed around the room. “This is inconceivable! They’re ruining all of my plans!” he yelled as he swept his arm across the objects on his desk, sending them flying.
George watched this ranting in shock. The biggest surprise was that he had never heard Brother Jacobs use contractions before while speaking. “He must really be out of control,” he thought.
Brother Jacobs turned back to George, his eyes boring into him. “Go, Platinum One,” Brother Jacobs said with a wave of his hand. “Tell the others that Brother Jeff was not virtuous enough to withstand the glory of the Great Consciousness and died as a result. Tell them that his dying wish was for me to marry his daughter so that his legacy could live on. Tell them that Bonnie in her wickedness has fled, but that I will handle the situation. I will discover where the women are and retrieve them. Tell the Called that we will have a wedding ceremony this afternoon. Begone, and perform your duty!”
# # #
Brother Jacobs rushed over to his console and turned it on. He accessed each external camera in turn, looking for the fugitives. After thoroughly examining each feed twice, he realized that the bulldozer was gone. “Oh, clever girls,” he muttered. “But not clever enough!” He pulled up a different set of menus, and accessed the bulldozer camera feed. Sure enough, the camera registered the view in front of it. Since it was situated on a pole at the back of the machine, Brother Jacobs could see the back of the heads of the two spacesuits and the ground moving in front of the dozer.
“Hah, no doubt my young bride, you have assumed that you could use the manual override to keep me out once you were discovered. But oh, my dear, you are so wrong. I am observant, and I learn quickly.”
Brother Jacobs leaned forward and spoke into the microphone. “Rover, this is Brother Jacobs. Emergency cancellation Archimedes! Override, my voice only! Rover, return to your home base!”
# # #
Bonnie was steering around a particularly large boulder when the control lever jerked in her hands. Pulling with all her might would not budge it. The bulldozer turned, completing a half circle, and then the lever centered. “Jean,” she yelled. “Something’s wrong! The bulldozer turned around all on its own. We’re heading back the way we came!”
“They must be controlling it remotely,” Jean replied. “Quick, find the manual override button on the display!”
Bonnie frantically tapped at the screen, which suddenly displayed a bright red background. On it were displayed the words ‘All control functions disabled. Brother Jacobs voice commands only.’
Bonnie pounded on the screen in frustration. “Noooo!” she cried.
CHAPTER 46
As usual, Sergeant Wong was the first to awaken. He rose and performed his morning Tai Chi exercises to limber up. When he had finished working up a sheen of sweat, he walked out into the main living area and obtained a cup of clear water from the reclamation unit. While drinking, he sidled over to the communications computer and sat down.
After logging in, he saw that there was a return text message from the Moon base. He opened it and saw that it was addressed from General Zhou. “Sergeant Wong,” it read, “Congratulations on your successful landing. Unfortunately, I have dire news to report. Our spies at NASA have been captured, and I cannot relay to you any additional information. All I can state is that the organization planned to send new mission directives to its crew as soon as the colony ship had landed and increased their numbers to six astronauts. I cannot inform you whether the ship landed successfully or not. We must assume the worst case, and that the two groups have merged. No doubt they will attempt to immediately capture any alien artifacts. Haste on your part is more critical than ever. I need not remind you of your duty. The Americans cannot obtain the artifacts. You are authorized to use whatever means necessary, including killing all of them. We will handle any political ramifications from here. Speed is of the essence. Go immediately.”
The NCO leaped up and proceeded to stomp around the inside of the Mars One restored base, pounding on doors and yelling at all of the Koreans who were still in their bunks. “Hurry up,” he shouted. “It is morning and we must move out immediately! I will not have the Americans beat us to the goal when we are so close! If you are not out here and ready in five minutes, you will be shot for insubordination!”
He then strode to the chief scientist’s room and unceremoniously burst inside. He went over and shook the old man, who was still asleep. “Lao Li, get up,” he said. “What is the status of the two rovers and bulldozer? We need to leave with them at once.”
The old man’s eyes snapped open and he sat up. He shook his head and blinked a few times. “Um, I do not know,” Julong stuttered. “They are older models, and have no remote communications capabilities. Everything on them is manual, and so I needed to go outside to check them. Since night fell and I was performing the other duties that you had commanded of me, I put it on my schedule to look at them this morning.”
“Bah, must I tell you everything that must be done first? Why did you not inform me last night?” After a moment of silence as the scientist stared back at him in consternation, the NCO barked, “Never mind, get out there at once. I want all three vehicles prepped and ready to leave in ten minutes.”
When the military man had returned to the main area, he was pleased to see that the Koreans were rushing around getting dressed in their spacesuits and retrieving their weapons. He saw Li Julong rush to the airlock and depart. After a few more minutes, the Koreans had helped each other check their suits and equipment.
The Sergeant ordered them outside, leading the way. He could see Julong had the hood open on one of the rovers and was leaning inside. He walked up to the old man and commanded, “Report!”
“It appears that a dust storm deposited a tremendous amount of dust inside this one and fouled up the gears,” Julong answered over the radio, not bothering to look up. “I have been trying to clear the clogs, but these gloves are inadequate.”
“You, and you,” the NCO said, pointing with a finger. “Go inside and find something to clear the dust out of the rover, and be quick about it.” In frustration, he walked around the equipment a few times. Then he ordered the Koreans to practice embarking and disembarking from the two rovers and the bulldozer and forming up in their three-line firing formatio
n they had practiced on the Moon. “Faster,” he ordered them. “The Americans are shooting at you, trying to kill you. Move faster. You are sitting ducks on these rovers!”
While the drills continued, the Sergeant punched into each of the transports the coordinates of the alien location. Soon, the two Koreans returned with a small vacuum. Luckily, it was battery operated, and after clearing the clog and starting the rover, Julong said, “Sir, the rover is now running. I suggest that I check the other transports so that we do not have a possible issue later.”
“No, we leave now,” the NCO said impatiently. “You three with me in the lead rover,” he said, indicating three of the Koreans. “You four in the second one. And you three with the scientist. Li, you will bring up the rear with all of the extra weapons and those who form the back line of the firing formation. And bring the vacuum mechanism.”
With a lurch, the three machines started over the terrain, their passengers clinging on as best they could. There was barely enough room for two people on each, let alone four. After a minute, it was obvious that the rovers were faster than the bulldozer as it started to lag behind. “Keep up, Li” the NCO ordered.
“We cannot,” Julong answered back over the radio. “This bulldozer is slower.”
“We have been delayed long enough,” Sergeant Wong stated. “We will go ahead. Follow our tracks and catch up when you can. We cannot afford to let our progress be stymied any longer.”
Li Julong watched as the two rovers slowly pulled ahead. When he lost sight of them, he watched the tracks they left behind as he rolled over them. “I hope, for their sake, the Americans are not there when we arrive,” he thought to himself.
# # #
Bonnie hit her fist on the console of the rover yet again. “It won’t allow me to do anything, Jean,” she cried. “We’re headed back to the base. It says that the manual functions are disabled and it will only answer to Brother Jacobs’ voice!”
“That’s not good, Mom,” Jean responded. “I don’t think there’s any way around that.” Jean thought for a moment about everything she had learned from Sam during her training sessions on the way to Mars, and then spoke. “We need to call for help. I don’t know the frequency for the NASA base, but Sam told me once that there’s an emergency frequency called guard that is kept free for pilots at all times and constantly monitored on Earth. The frequency is at 121.5, and maybe the NASA base also keeps track of it. Let me try it.”
Bonnie heard her daughter say, ‘Computer, switch to frequency 121.5’ and then she heard no more over her suit radio. After a few tense minutes, she heard her daughter’s voice return. “It was no good, Mom. There was no answer. I repeated the Mayday a few times and told them we were on the Martian surface and needed help. We’ll have to try again later.”
“How did you switch back to talk to me?” Bonnie asked.
“It was easy. I just told the computer to switch back to the primary suit frequency.”
“Oh, that’s easy enough.” Bonnie said as she gazed ahead. She could see that the rover was following their tracks back to the colony base. She shuddered at the thought of returning herself and her daughters to the man who had ordered her husband to his death. She also determined that there was no way she would let him defile Jean. “Alright, we’re not going back,” she said defiantly. “Get ready to jump.”
“Jump, are you crazy?” Jean questioned. “I can’t see!”
“We don’t have a choice,” Bonnie said and reached over and unbuckled her daughter. After undoing her own belt, she said. “Stand up.” They stood unsteadily as the bulldozer rocked its way across the landscape. “Now, on the count of three, turn to your right and jump. One…two…THREE!”
Bonnie watched in horror as Jean overturned and jumped. Little Julie screamed and then the two of them landed with a thump on their left sides. Bonnie turned and also jumped, landing upright and stumbling, but catching herself with her hands. She lurched over to the girls. Julie was crying.
“Jean, Julie, are you okay?” she cried.
“Ow, I hit my head on the inside of the helmet,” Julie sobbed.
“Jean, Jean?” Bonnie shouted. “Jean, answer me!” She turned the girls over so that they were face up, and felt the bottom part of the suit where Jean was. She wasn’t moving.
“I think Jean hit her head too, Mommy.”
“Oh, what I have I done,” Bonnie cried, and then gritted her teeth. “C’mon, Honey, hang on to Mommy,” she said. “Mommy’s going to carry you.” She lifted the suit up and hugged it to her chest, feeling Julie’s arms wrap around her. With one final look at the departing bulldozer, she turned her back on it and started walking, following the tracks. She was determined to reach the NASA base or die trying.
# # #
Brother Jacobs turned away from the monitor and whistled to himself. He did not see Bonnie and the girls jump a few seconds later. He was too busy grinning at his cleverness as he went over to a trunk that had remained unopened during the entire voyage. He lifted the lid. There, inside, lay a gleaming white spacesuit. “Do you think I would not have my own insurance policy?” he muttered. “I always plan for every contingency. I am amazed that no one seemed to question why my Platinums were the only ones with suits. I, of course, have brought my own.”
He gingerly picked it up and placed it on his bed, and then returned to the chest for the helmet. This he also placed on the bed, admiring it. After a moment, he returned to the chest and rummaged around. “There should be some rope in here somewhere,” he mumbled. “Knowing that Bonnie, she won’t come along quietly after the rover returns. I’ll need to go out and subdue her. Ah, here we go,” he said as he dragged out a coil of rope. Then a gleam caught his eye. He reached in, and took out a small dagger. “Like I said, I always plan for every contingency.”
He glanced up at the monitor to view the rover’s progress and was shocked to see the women were missing. He ran over to the microphone, and directed the camera to pan three hundred and sixty degrees. There, in the distance, he could just discern the two small suits.
“Ah, you ladies task me. You task me, but I shall have you,” he growled. “I will chase you across every chasm on this planet before I give you up. You are mine and no one else’s!”
The colony leader turned back to his bed and donned his spacesuit. He placed the dagger in a pocket on the sleeve and picked up the rope. He looked in the mirror at his reflection. “Perfect,” he said, and with a flourish turned to leave his cabin. Soon, he was outside waiting for the rover to arrive so that he could use it to chase down his prey.
# # #
Charles tossed and turned in his bunk at the Star-Kissed base. He had woken up early and couldn’t fall back asleep. He kept having visions of that poor preemie and his mother. She had seemed so nice, but lost at the same time, and Charles wished that he could have done more for her. He couldn’t imagine what hell she must have gone through during the emergency landing, and after all that receiving no support from her husband. “She deserved much better than that,” he said to himself. He rolled over in bed, and put the pillow over his head. He could still see her face. “Hmm, I wonder if she has a sister,” he mused. “I should have asked.” He grinned to himself at his audacity, and tried to fall back asleep.
CHAPTER 47
Li Julong suffered fifteen minutes of abuse from the Sergeant over the radio until he had caught up with the stalled rover. The military man was stomping around and yelling in frustration even as Julong pulled up. “Get that vacuum over here immediately,” he shouted. “This rover has clogged up too.”
Two of the Koreans jumped off of the bulldozer and rushed over with the suction device. In a few minutes, they had cleared the obstruction. “Give me that thing,” the NCO growled as he grabbed the mechanism. “Here, hold onto this,” he said as he handed the device to one of the Koreans who was on the back of his rover. “We cannot wait for the bulldozer again if this reoccurs.” He waved his hands in the air and screamed at no one
in particular, “Why do I have to think of everything?!” He jumped back onto the conveyance and put it in gear. “Move out,” he yelled.
Li Julong started his dozer moving with the two rovers, but as before he started falling behind. “Well, at least his wrath wasn’t directed at me this time,” the old scientist thought. “I’ve never seen him with such a hair trigger on his temper. Whoever gets in his way had better be careful.”
# # #
Brother Jacobs waited patiently as the bulldozer pulled up and stopped automatically. He climbed aboard and cancelled the voice control, switching over to manual operation. He punched up the radar screen, and when he lined up with the tracks saw that the screen indicated a heading for the NASA base. “Oh ho, my pretties, a valiant attempt. The chase is on,” he muttered. The colony leader opened the dozer’s drive menu and selected ‘Forward.’ He stared straight ahead and kept it following the tracks that it had made previously.
After a half hour of driving, Brother Jacobs had reached the end of the two parallel lines the dozer had left in the sand. This was where he had commanded it to return to base. He could see one set of footprints leading straight ahead of him. With determination, he kept going. In approximately ten minutes, he could see his quarry stumbling in the distance. He kept silent, wishing to surprise them from behind. Slowly he closed the distance.
Bonnie was exhausted as she stumbled on. All she could hear was her labored breathing in her helmet. Julie had nodded off and her helmet was leaning on Bonnie’s shoulder. Jean had yet to wake up. Bonnie was in the middle of a step when a weight hit her from behind, sending her crashing forward onto the dirt.
“You are more trouble than you are worth,” a voice she recognized as originating from Brother Jacobs resonated in her helmet. She was forcefully rolled over onto her back.
“I’ve had enough of you,” Bonnie screamed and kneed the figure in the groin while pushing the man away with both arms. To her surprise, but due to a combination of the light gravity of Mars and adrenaline coursing through her body, Bonnie succeeded in sending Brother Jacobs sailing over her head. Unfortunately due to the bulky nature of the suits, the knee did not have its desired effect, and the man jumped up in anger. As Bonnie got up, he crashed head first into her chest, sending her onto her back. Brother Jacobs jumped on her and tried to hold her down.
