Lost in the Red Hills of Mars

by Jackie Hunter

  “Mom, may I spend the night at Hannah’s? I’ll bring the Memchip to you early in the morning.”

  “Of course, dear. Hannah would like that. See you in the morning.” Abbie gave Celine a hug.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Abbie was having a rough week. She had been a little spacey, and Mr. Rittenhouse had questioned her competency. She had been trying to remove a complex computer virus that had infected the cold storage area. Having Mr. Rittenhouse peering over her shoulder didn’t help the matter either. I can understand why he’s so concerned about cold storage. After all, his stem cells are in there too. But I’ve got this under control. At least, I think I do. I’ll have Madison double-check it tomorrow.

  She rubbed the red spot on her forearm. I’ll ask for some stem cream tomorrow.

  “Oh dear, how could I have forgotten? Hannah got her new implant the same day I did. Can’t remember anything.” She rolled over in her bed. “Goodnight, Celine. Lights out.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Meanwhile in cold storage, an unattended computer flashed on, creating a surge in the cooling system. In the walls of cold storage, an electric fire began smoldering.

  CHAPTER 5

  My Radiation Suit!

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Bong! Bong! An alarm sounded in the early morning, waking everyone just as the sun rose.

  “Celine, get up! The fire alarm just sounded!” Hannah yelled.

  “Huh? Why do we have a fire drill so early?” Celine croaked groggily as she slowly climbed down from the bunk above Hannah’s small bed.

  “My radiation suit! It’s in my drawer at home!”

  “Go get it! I’ll meet you outside!” Hannah quickly climbed into her suit as Celine ran home.

  Celine pushed through the crowd as colonists headed to their assigned exits. She slipped into her quarters. Her mom wasn’t there. She was glad she didn’t have to face her. She rushed to her drawer where she kept her outdoor wear and found a lightweight radiation suit lying within. On top of it lay her dad’s flute. Celine gently set it aside and then slipped into her suit. Comforting to her body like fine mesh, it covered her from head to toe and would undoubtedly protect her from the sun’s radiation. She pushed the small button on her right sleeve to activate the suit’s electromagnetic field. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck and arms rise, which was her sign that the suit was activated.

  Celine then reached for a small foil packet in the bottom of the drawer and carefully unwrapped it, revealing a tiny blue pill; she placed it beneath her tongue, all the while staring at the flute. I could never forgive myself if something happened to it. Suddenly, Celine felt her lungs shut down. The O2 pill is working. Now, she wouldn’t need to turn on the oxygen synthesizer on her mask for at least twenty-four hours. Next, she grabbed her helmet and fastened its strap beneath her chin. The red facemask on the helmet made the room appear red: just like the Martian surface before a thunderstorm. Finally, she grabbed the flute. “I’m not losing you,” she whispered as she pulled the instrument to her chest. Celine dashed into the corridor and through the commons, gripping her dad’s flute tightly as she dodged the fleeing colonists.

  As Celine exited the Compound, she saw her mom in her oxygen mask, heading toward the smoke and carrying a sonic fire extinguisher.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  In the brisk, dry morning air, the colonists huddled together. As usual, the early morning gales blew forcibly, like the strong winds exuded by Earth’s oceans. The gales blew away precious body heat and left Celine wishing she had grabbed her gray blanket. Just last night, the temperature was thirty-eight degrees below zero, but the sunrise had quickly raised the temperature to just above freezing. By noon, it would be a comfortable ten degrees Celsius, Celine thought. Fantasizing about the warmer temperatures to come, however, did not ease her discomfort.

  Celine wove her way toward the center of the crowd where she knew she would find both warmth and Hannah. Hannah had been Celine’s assigned caretaker since she was an infant, and she also happened to be her mom’s personal assistant and best friend.

  “Stay close.” Hannah hesitated. “…baby. We can keep each other warm.”

  “Don’t tell me you forgot my name, Hannah,” Celine joked through shivers.

  Hannah smiled.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Inside the Compound, the fire was quickly contained with bass sound waves from the fire extinguisher but not before the toxic fumes had done serious damage to an electrical engineer’s lungs. Madison, who had found the fire, was brought to the surface wrapped in a gray blanket and laid at the feet of his jittery wife.

  Celine noticed heat rising above everyone—everyone except Madison. She blinked. It’s happening again. She could see halos around the colonists. She wondered if her eyes where glowing, but since no one near her seemed alarmed, she assumed her eyes appeared normal. Slowly, she made her way toward Madison to get a better look. Then she heard something she’d never heard before—a sickening yet sorrowful moan from Madison’s wife. Celine froze in her tracks, and Hannah grabbed her by the arm.

  “No, don’t go,” Hannah whispered. Her eyes were wide with despondence.

  Everyone was silent for a moment. Then, like a noisy beehive, the colonists began talking all at once. Celine listened for bits of conversations.

  “Madison is dead.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “His lungs were damaged from the toxic fumes.”

  “I know that, but why didn’t one of the doctors treat him with his stem cells?”

  “The fire was in the cold storage.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “I know. The stems were damaged.”

  “All of them?”

  “Yes, all of them. The fumes got to them. Some even burned in the fire.”

  Whispers of damaged stems and Madison’s death spread from one colonist to the next like a wave of despair. Celine noticed Alex’s dad waving his hands to get everyone’s attention.

  “Everyone stay calm,” Mr. Rittenhouse called. “We won’t be able to bring Madison back, but we knew there would be dangers and challenges when we took on the mission to make this planet a livable place. This is not the end of our mission. Yes, Madison is dead, but his dream lives on. Our dream lives on.”

  “What about the stems?” someone in the crowd shouted, and a chorus of colonists echoed the question. Yes, what about the stems? Celine thought. Mine are gone forever.

  Mr. Rittenhouse raised his hands again to quiet the crowd.

  “Look, I’ll send Dr. Duke back to Earth to supervise the recollection of your stems. We still have your birthplaces on file.”

  “Not Dr. Duke,” Celine muttered. “Send Dr. Baylor.”

  “What did you say?” Hannah hissed into Celine’s ear.

  To Celine’s surprise, Hannah’s voice sounded menacing. “I like Dr. Duke. I don’t want him to leave. Why can’t Dr. Baylor leave?”

  “Be quiet,” Hannah snapped in a hushed tone.

  “My ship can make the trip back to Earth in thirty-three hours,” Mr. Rittenhouse continued. “Stan,” he shouted to one of his personal protectors. “Go to the Stellar and contact the Company. Tell my vice president, Mr. Adeboye, about this situation. He’ll get the intervention started.”

  “Yes, sir, Mr. Rittenhouse,” Stan said.

  Celine noticed the big smile on Stan’s face, and she envied him for the warmth he was about to experience going into the Stellar to fulfill Mr. Rittenhouse’s orders.

  Mr. Rittenhouse continued his lecture to the colonists. “I will contact the World Authority to collect the stems from your birthplaces and have them sent to my company’s cold storage. That should take no longer than a week.”

  “Martian time or Earth time?” Mr. Armbruster yelled. “A Martian week is fourteen Earth days!”

  “I know that,” Mr. Rittenhouse barked back. “Earth time. Any other questions?”

  No one else spoke, and then suddenly someone in the cro
wd yelled, “Thank you, Mr. Rittenhouse!”

  Another chimed, “We’ll have to be extremely careful for the next few days, but I think we can manage.”

  A chorus of agreement moved through the crowd until everyone was on board with Mr. Rittenhouse’s plan. The colonists formed a circle around him.

  Dr. Baylor, who had been speaking with Madison’s wife, squeezed past Celine in order to stand directly next to Mr. Rittenhouse. “If anyone gets hurt, I still have photon therapy,” Dr. Baylor announced to the colonists. The colonists dispersed so quickly that one would have thought Dr. Baylor had been holding a photon injector in her hand.

  “That thing is painful,” said Mrs. Armbruster. “No one wants that.”

  “It’s all I have now. So stay well,” Dr. Baylor replied. To Celine, Dr. Baylor appeared to smile.

  Then Celine noticed Mr. Rittenhouse taking Alex aside to speak with him. She could tell by the expression on Alex’s face it was not good news.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Alex, I am sending you back to Earth with Dr. Duke,” Mr. Rittenhouse told his son.

  “Dad, I’m finally getting used to this place. Why do I have to go home now?”

  “This Compound is not as safe as I had envisioned. I want you home with your uncle until I return.”

  “But, Dad, I—”

  “You’re going back to Earth,” Mr. Rittenhouse snarled.

  Alex groaned. “Is it safe to go back into the Compound to get my things?”

  “Not yet. We’re waiting for Ms. Voltaire to give the all clear. What’s taking her so long?

  Alex scanned the crowd for Celine. “Dad, there’s Celine. I need to go over and tell her goodbye.”

  “Fine, don’t stay too long. I’ll need to send the ship back to Earth shortly.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Celine stood next to Hannah pondering about the damaged stems. Unlike the other colonists, she was born on Mars, so she wouldn’t have any stem cells on Earth. I suppose I’ll have to be extremely careful for the rest of my life, she thought. Oh, here comes Alex. Her tight lips turned into a warm smile.

  “Hey, Hannah. Can I give Celine a quick tour of the ship while we’re waiting for the all clear?” Alex asked.

  “Fine. Celine, do you—”

  “Yes, I do,” Celine replied before Hannah could complete her question. This is odd, Celine thought. Hannah would never allow me to leave her sight in a time like this. Nonetheless, Celine quickly joined Alex, and they headed to the Stellar. As soon as they were inside the spaceship, Alex said, “This is the time to make our move. The drone is down. All systems are offline until the electrical engineers can finish their inspections, and they’re short one. No disrespect to Madison.”

  “We can’t leave yet. There’s something wrong with Mom,” Celine said.

  “We have to, Celine. My dad’s sending me back to Earth.”

  “What?” Celine felt as though she had just been punched in the stomach. “He can’t do that!”

  “Well, he’s going to if we don’t take action now, Celine.”

  “What about the stem cells? You can’t put yourself in danger without your stems.”

  “Dad’s already said they’d be replenished in a few days.”

  “Why don’t we wait for yours before we leave?”

  “Celine, my dad is sending me back to Earth today! I doubt he’d let me come back. We have to leave now!”

  Celine moaned. “I had plans to call my grandmother and tell her about my mom…”

  “She’s millions of kilometers away. She can’t help you.”

  Alex is right. How can Enisi help me now? “Alex, I’m scared. Bad things are happening to the people I love. I don’t know why. I don’t know who I can trust anymore.”

  “You can trust me. And you can trust your dad. Let’s go find him.”

  “I guess you’re right…” Celine took deep breaths. Dad will know what to do. I have to believe that. Mom and Hannah will be OK until I can get Dad back here. Everything will be OK when Dad’s home. Celine gently closed her eyes and prayed, Great Spirit, keep my mother and Hannah safe until we can bring Dad home, and keep Dad safe until we can get to him. Then she opened her eyes and softly said, “All right, I’m ready now.”

  Alex raised an eyebrow, then bolted to his dad’s sleeping area and took two armbands from a dresser drawer.

  “Put this on your left forearm,” he told Celine. “It will mute your life signature.”

  “And why would we want to do that?”

  “So we won’t be followed, you idiot. You said Morg doesn’t want your dad found. You think he’s going to be happy when he finds out we’re out looking for him? We don’t need him trailing us.”

  “Grandma was right. You’re going to be a huge help.”

  “Yeah, whatever. Let’s get out of here.”

  Celine and Alex hurried from the ship to the west side of the Compound where their packs had been hidden behind her rock collection. Dad and I started this rock collection, Celine thought.

  “Hurry,” Alex said, snapping Celine out of her thoughts. “We need to leave before someone realizes we’re missing.”

  “Sure.” Celine slung her backpack over her shoulders.

  While the colonists waited on the east side of the Compound in the morning sun, the teens finished gathering their gear and quietly slipped away. Leaving the safety of the colony behind, they headed for the Red Hills.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Meanwhile, the medical wing had been cleared for reentry, and Dr. Duke was preparing for his trip to Earth to oversee the stem cell collections. He passed Abbie on the way to the Stellar.

  “I’d love to go with you,” she said. “And take Celine with me…”

  “Well, I’d love to have the company of two beautiful women,” he said warmly. They both smiled.

  “Celine’s stem cells are in my hometown,” she reminded the doctor.

  “I know. It was very wise of you and Averill to send them to Earth with Captain McAndrew. You ever communicate with the captain since he brought in our first shipment?”

  “No. I’ve heard he’s taking shipments to the moon now.”

  “He’s a good man.”

  “He is. I miss him,” Abbie said. “He always told stories about the latest happenings on Earth.”

  Abbie’s eyes glazed over.

  “Is there anything you’d like me to pick up for your family?”

  “No. Thank you, Thomas. I just wish Celine could see Earth.”

  “Maybe one day.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Death Valley?

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Celine and Alex began their trek under a violet-gray sky with wisps of thin white clouds floating high above them.

  So much like Death Valley, Alex thought. Gotta remember that those clouds are not made of water; they’re frozen carbon dioxide crystals. Without my O2 pills, I’d be gasping for air…He looked back at Celine and wondered if he had made the right decision. She doesn’t look as pathetic as she did the first time we met, but she’s still no Alex Rittenhouse.

  “How ya doing back there, Martian Girl?” he called back. He knew Celine didn’t like being called that, but he didn’t care. He watched her look at the Compound, totally ignoring his comment.

  “It seems so small in the distance,” she mumbled.

  “Hey, Martian Girl—Focus.”

  “Shut up, Water Boy,” Celine yelled. She chuckled at her cleverness. “You live in an ocean on Earth, right? So I’m calling you, Water Boy.”

  Alex burst out in laughter. “So now I have a pet name?” he called back, attempting to restrain his amusement. “Well, I’ve been called worse. Actually, I think I like it.” He grinned at Celine as she struggled to catch up. Looks like she’s skipping. He chuckled. Then he looked back at her as she awkwardly scrambled to keep up, and he noticed what appeared to be a yellowish glare coming through the red facemask of her helmet. Must be the glare from the sun, he thought.

 
◆ ◆ ◆

  When Mr. Rittenhouse and the captain went on board the Stellar, Mr. Rittenhouse expected to see Celine on the ship with Alex. He had seen them board but had not seen them leave. He was considering sending Celine and her mother to Earth and having them return to Mars with Dr. Duke once the stems had been collected. Primarily though, he wanted to have some truth serum slipped into Abbie’s food or drink. I know there was a transmission between her and Red Cloud. She might have the coordinates to the ores and be planning to sell them once all of the commotion over them dies down. I can’t have another company coming here and staking a claim over my ores.

  I am certain Alex would get a big kick out of showing off our home and Earth’s oceans. He’s been spending a lot of time with that little Martian girl. Mr. Rittenhouse smiled as he envisioned his fabulous home and the expressions on every visitor’s face upon seeing it; one side of his home gave a panoramic view of the ocean’s wildlife and flora. He was so proud of it. Alex says the girl is fascinated with Earth’s oceans. Swims every day in that little entertainment room. Won’t she be surprised when she sees what a real ocean looks like?

  Mr. Rittenhouse strode over to his intercom. “Alex, come up to the saloon. I need to speak with you.” He waited an impatient second for a response, then told the captain to search the ship. “Should never leave teenagers alone,” Mr. Rittenhouse mumbled. “Stan!” he yelled as he burst into Stan’s bedchamber. “Get up, you lazy fool. Where’s Alex?”

  Stan rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Sorry, Mr. Rittenhouse. Can you repeat that?”

  “Get up, and earn your keep. Antonio went downstairs to look for Alex. Assist him.”

  “They’re not in here, Mr. Rittenhouse,” bleeped Antonio’s voice on the intercom.

  “Mr. Rittenhouse, the Stellar has cameras in every room,” Stan said.

  “I know that. What’s your point?”

  Stan smirked.

  “Get to the point! You idiot!” Mr. Rittenhouse yelled.

  “Yes, sir,” Stan snapped back. “Sir, we might learn where the children are if we watch today’s video.”

  “Well, get to it. Notify me when you’ve found something.” He turned to the captain who was waiting patiently in the doorway. “Go check the Compound. Tell Alex to get his things and return to the Stellar immediately. I told that boy he would be leaving for Earth soon. What’s wrong with young people these days? Don’t they ever listen?”