Giants Of Mars

by Paul, Alan

  The car jutted around a huge tree next to a hidden driveway when his mind embraced the thought of not having to look at a sea of apartment tenements, public housing, or high-rises found on the descending levels.

  After thirty-five minutes, Jason’s ride slowed to the elevator portal that would take him to the base of the Off World Transportation System.

  Jason hadn’t even stepped one foot out of the car, and although he had only lived there for a short couple of weeks, he was already missing the life he had established.

  However, walking up to the glass elevator, which would take him through the forest canopy and up to the balcony of Level 7’s portal, he knew he was about to embark on a dangerous journey of sorts that would pay for his expensive automobile, new house, DNA upgrade and all the other perks. He was all too well aware of the deal he made with the devil. Insidious as may be, he was willing to fulfill his part of the bargain, and nothing would stop him from accomplishing his goals.

  Being part of something grisly was the nature of the beast, and if he wanted to keep his new possessions, he would to have to serve the devil himself. “Too late to turn back now,” he thought. And playing ball with the Office of Polaris Security Services was his only choice.

  THE RESURRECTION

  “How long have I been out, Doc?” Learner Rotterdam groggily spoke after being pulled from the healing chamber.

  “You’ve been in stasis for almost a week now. When your two friends brought you in here, you were near death. And if it were not for them keeping you alive, you would’ve never made it,” she coldly said before oddly walking out of the room.

  “What’s her problem?” Learner irritably asked the technician who was fumbling with some diagnostic wires.

  “You should see her when she’s in a bad mood.” The technician placed the untangled wires on receptor pads stuck to Learner’s skin.

  “Where am I?”

  “You are at a Devonian Health facility in the Verve Fault Zone.”

  “How come I can’t remember anything?”

  “I think it’s the cocktail of drugs used to treat your pain. You suffered a traumatic experience.”

  “What was wrong with me?”

  The technician mouthed plaintively, “Besides the internal bleeding and broken bones, your brain was shutting down from the swelling caused by blood pooling there.”

  “Well, thank you for saving my life.” Learner closed his eyes, and not even thinking about the crucifixion, he fell into a deep slumber.

  Mitchell Thacker was getting out of the Raven when he watched the rail guns train on him. The Verve Fault Zone Security was at an all time high; being a Devonian outpost, they knew their arcane connection with the Vril gave them good reason to be nervous. The Polaris Corporation knew about the secret Vril military build up at Chasm Fat Boy, deep within the Pacific Abysmal Plain.

  Mitchell frantically walked through the draconian entrance’s hulking security doors. Heavily armed shock troopers, wearing Power Suits, lined the sparse ingress of the small underground city, which felt more like a military camp instead. To get his bearing, he looked out from the large balcony on to the concrete buildings that spread out for several miles. The artificial sky was not bright like those in Polari, and it created a never-ending, overcast, cloudy day, adding to an already gloomy existence for residents there. Albeit this was their reality, living on the deadly radioactive surface of Earth was the only alternative, which was not viable.

  “Wake up, sir,” Mitchell Thacker urged.

  “What…what’s happening?” Learner Rotterdam woke dazed and confused. And when Mitchell Thacker’s face came into his view, he said, “Mitchell, my dear friend.”

  “I’m sorry to wake you but you have a Priority One message.”

  “Did you bring the blue shield?”

  Without saying anything, Mitchell handed Learner the anti-eavesdropping device and a scroll pad.

  Learner spoke sincerely. “Thank you, Mitchell, just give me a few minutes alone. Would you guard the door so no one comes in, please?”

  “Boy, he has never been this nice or even polite to me ever before,” thought Mitchell while stepping out of his hospital room.

  Learner placed the smooth oval electronic device next to his bed and clearly spoke. “Activate protocol, 21466.”

  “IDENTIFY?” the device asked in a monotonous voice.

  “Learner Rotterdam, Madnet 5150.”

  “IDENTIFICATION ACCEPTED.”

  The soft blue laser shot out from the device forming a spherical grid, encasing him in an electronic shield. The anti-eavesdropping device ensured his message would be completely oblivious to all.

  Mitchell quickly peered into the room to see if Learner was finished watching the message on the pad. Learner was now standing naked next to the bed wildly pulling wires off his body. Several technicians pushed by Mitchell to get inside the room as loud blaring alarms sounded at the Nurses’ station.

  “Sir, you can’t do that!” The head technician tried grabbing Learner. Although still groggy from the long duration in the healing chamber, the technician found out that the big man could move. Learner sidestepped, pushing him to the side with ease. He then looked at the others, and said, “Don’t even think about it.”

  They all froze there when one of them bravely spoke. “Sir, you haven’t medical clearance to take those off.”

  “Watch me, assholes!”

  “There’s the Learner I know,” Mitchell thought to himself.

  Learner and Mitchell spoke after leaving the small hospital as they walked along the city’s overly crowded concrete fairway.

  “I don’t understand Master Paladin’s conflicting orders, Mitchell. One minute he orders my execution and next he saves me.”

  “He covertly saved you, sir. The official record was that you escaped on your own accord. I do believe even Master Paladin has someone to answer to.”

  “I was warned before losing the nuclear enriched power rods that I would pay if the mission failed.”

  “The Vril council wanted a sacrifice,” Mitchell added.

  “Superstitious fuckers!” Learner angrily spoke while rubbing his sore palms.

  Teeming with people, the Verve Fault Zone buzzed at a feverous pitch. Hastily, the two made their way through the crowds and nothing more was more pressing on Learner’s mind than the current mission. It was Master Paladin that had ordered his immediate reactivation.

  “We’re to head for Chasm Fat Boy, Mitchell.”

  “Why?”

  “The QFG is operational and I’m to lead the first mission through the portal.”

  PART 2 MAGNETIC AERODYNAMICS

  L AUNCH SEQUENCE

  Red lasers scanned the vertical drop between the Chameleon and docking ports, vertically aligning the stealthy land-ship with the base of the Off World payload bay. Elongated power-driven arms extended out from the launch tube’s sidewalls, slowly lowering the Chameleon down on to the tail section of the Transport. Dactyl-like brackets with ovum shaped ends, manipulated upward, grappling on to the rear of the Chameleon; a loud “BOOM” echoed when they fingered downward, pulling the Chameleon tight up against the payload bay’s base. The mechanical fingers then penetrated deep into the Chameleon’s locking ports, securing it to the tail section of the Off World Transport.

  The Chameleon was now positioned at the foot of the Polaris Off World Ring Transportation System; where it stood vertically erect, and waited to be inserted into the empty vaginal contour shaped midsection of the Transport vessel. The payload bay’s Sleeve was specifically designed to snuggly fit the aerodynamically semi-phallic cuttlefish shaped Chameleon, allowing for maximum Ring Technology weight displacement on lift-off.

  The Polaris Corporation fiercely guarded the Ring Technology by restricting and enforcing all Off World travel activity. Their preoccupation was control and dominance.

  Jason watched the Chameleon being pushed into the payload bay’s Sleeve, bridging the tail section with the
forward control module. From inside the observation booth, he gazed upon the smooth bands of concentric shaped rings rippling down the long cylindrical exterior of the Off World Transport; bands were merely large conductors of magnetic energy, and when unlatched from the launch pad, the whole craft would hover in MAGLEV, otherwise known as Magnetic Levitation Status.

  “The ship is secure, Jason.” Lexis’s soft voice spoke from his personal communicator.

  “They should have us loading in just a few minutes. If you wouldn’t mind, Lexis, I’d like you to come meet us at the transport’s entrance.”

  “I would love to, Jason,” Lexis enthusiastically answered from inside her Command Pod aboard the Chameleon.

  Static electricity charged the air; Jason felt every strand of hair rise on end as he walked across the catwalk spanning the divide between observation booth and transport. Waiting to explode in a fury of near limitless power, nothing was static about the stored energy of the Ring Transportation System; the entire System’s power came from Core Technology Stations located on the lowest levels of the subterranean Mega-City.

  “Corkian Plaskett, I’d like to introduce you to Rebel Lexis,” Jason said before she extended her hand.

  “You can call me Lexis,” eloquently she replied while noticing the man’s rough and textured palm.

  With a capstone gleam in his eyes, he flirtatiously responded. “Well, you can call me Cork, Lexis.”

  She politely smiled and said, “Cork it is then.”

  “Also, live from Fissure Point, our infamous John Grier.” Jason comically introduced his tall wiry friend; he was well aware that Lexis knew more about the two men than they would ever realize.

  “I’ve heard so much about you, Lexis,” Grier stated.

  “Likewise, Mister Grier,” she replied.

  “Please, call me Grier,” he replied in his characteristically sly tone.

  “Hello! Excuse me, people, but we’re all waiting for you to board…so we can close the hatch,” said the impatient man standing at the vessel’s hatch.

  “We better do what the Attendant wants,” remarked Jason before receiving a dirty look from the man.

  “I think they like to be called, Crew Person.” Lexis politely corrected Jason.

  “Yeah, right,” Jason quietly answered before rolling his eyes at the over sensitive proposition.

  After they entered the Off World Transport, and while the three men settled into their prospective seats in the passenger compartment, Lexis entered into an airtight chamber to the rear of the same cabin. Leaving the passenger compartment behind she opened the cargo bay hatch that led into an artificial zero gravity environment. The payload bay compartment was exclusively designed for the Chameleon; navigating down a long narrow passage, Lexis carefully floated until reaching the exterior hatch of the Chameleon.

  The majority of the Chameleon’s systems rested in passive sleep mode, and although the payload bay was in anti-gravitational mode, the Chameleon’s interior would provide a false gravity orientation throughout the entire mission by vertical and horizontal gravity mapping; adjustments would be made as needed to realign. Nevertheless, the interior functioned perfectly for living, and would be used by the members of the so-called Hell Fire Club for the next five days as they journeyed to Mars.

  Entering the Integrated Equipment Room, Lexis entered her Command Pod and hailed Jason. “I am securely onboard the Chameleon and I have already communicated this to the Off World Transport’s computer.”

  “Thanks for the heads up, Lexis. We’ll see you in a little bit.”

  “Yes, Jason.”

  “Boy, Jason, your SYN is a real looker,” Grier said while running his hands through his hair.

  “And she has a firm hand shake too!” Cork playfully added.

  “Do me a favor, Grier, don’t call her a SYN or any other derogatory words indicating she’s not human. Please refer to her as Lexis.” Jason stiffly spoke.

  “No problem, Jason,” brusquely he replied when their seats began to rotate ninety degrees.

  “When did you get so touchy?” Cork frankly interjected.

  “Maybe when she saved my life from that murderous back stabber in Fissure Point.” Jason spoke concerning Learner Rotterdam, and the nuclear enriched power rods deal gone bad.

  Now facing upward in a perpendicular ready position, the members of the Hell Fire Club waited for the launch sequence to commence. “WELCOME TO THE POLARIS OFF WORLD RING TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM,” scrolled across the Skin to their forefront.

  The Crew Person said in a monotonous voice, “Gentlemen, we have a full go for takeoff…so please relax, and enjoy the view from our inboard Skin.”

  Grier quietly replied, “I can see he really loves his job,” regarding his less than enthusiastic personality.

  “He makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.” Cork snickered as the man disappeared through an interior hatch.

  Without warning, the entire ship shifted and dropped a few inches inside the Off World Pipe; releasing from the constraints of the departure hub, the ship now hovered in MAGLEV.

  “De-locking, boys!” Grier announced with great enthusiasm. He was the adrenaline junky of the group, who loved the extreme nature of what was about to happen next.

  Over the ship’s sound system, a computer-generated voice began saying, “COUNTDOWN COMMENCING IN FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE; All SYSTEMS GO, WE HAVE LIFT OFF.” At first, the Off World Transport began to slowly ascend, allowing its passengers to adjust to the vertical movement but after a few seconds, the ship quickly accelerated to incredible speeds. When the MAGLEV technology gave way to the Ring technology, the vertical thrust nearly overwhelmed Jason, Grier, and Cork.

  Giant rings lined the Off World Transportation System, creating an enormous electromagnetic force field that repelled in opposition to the ring technology imbedded in the transport vessel; a state of inverse law was at work. Huge amounts of energy was produced by the transportation system, easily propelling the heavy transport to more than 69,000 miles per hour, and then the Transport Ship exploded from underground in a gigantic electrical flare-up, lurching them out from the center of the mega-city into the stratosphere.

  Displaying on the Skin, Jason watched in silence as the atmospheric sprite activity otherwise known as sympathetic lightning, shockingly danced around the exterior of the ship; and by Magnetic Aerodynamics, they moved effortlessly escaping the Earth’s gravitational grip.

  However, a secondary boost was needed to propel them to their final destination. Originating in the center of a large tubular shaped Space Station, a massive electrical emission imploded downward, mushrooming a path of magnetically charged, ionizing particles, that interacted with the Transport’s imbedded ring technology; floating them aerodynamically through the upper reaches, achieving the vacuum of space.

  Breaching the Space Station’s magnetic field, Jason could see crowds of faces gathering in the windows. “What a grand spectacle this must be, from any vantage point,” he thought to himself as the ship jumped to hyper speed, punching through the center of the Space Station’s portico at a velocity of five times greater than leaving the Earths atmosphere. Next stop, Mars.

  M ARTIAN INDIGENOUS

  In the early years of Martian colonization, life expectancy was a dismal prospect, and for all those who dreamed of a better life it would not come. On average, and about the same time it took traveling there, they lived a harsh eighteen months. Radiation exposure was the main cause of death, and albeit the high mortality rate, the fleet of robotic machinery that accompanied them performed exceptionally well, helping pave the way for the next wave of settlers.

  It was soon realized high radiation levels made living on the surface impossible for Mankind. So the companion robots dug elaborate tunnel systems. They built self-sustained habitats, including huge underground grow-farms, and tapped into frozen ice sheets buried deep under the Martian surface.

  Using water evaporators and condensers, they created sub
terranean atrium-like atmospheres that were great for cultivation. When the next round of colonists arrived, they had shelter from the radiation, water, and a renewable food source.

  For centuries, Mankind and their robotic companions continued to toil underground, enhancing their environment. When things improved enough, the new Martians expanded by terra-forming the surface, introducing a program of bacterial seeding. This was done to help produce an oxygen rich atmosphere; large amounts of genetically altered rock eating bacteria, ate the abundant food source on microscopic levels. These bacteria easily spread across Mars, continually releasing oxygen and nitrogen. Three hundred years later, cloud development began to produce rain.

  When water started to gather on the surface creating rivers and lakes, man introduced modified simple compounds, plants, and other life forms such as algae, plankton, aquatic plant life, arthropods, small fish and other tiny sea creatures. Life on the Red Planet began to thrive in colors of bluish green patches. All this would have not been possible without the two Core Displacement generators at each pole. These huge machines created large magnetic fields, each opposing the other to help protect the fragile artificial atmosphere that precariously clung to the Martian surface.

  On dry land, genetically modified wind pollinating plants were then established, and in just a few short years, grass prairies covered huge swaths of the planet. Next, fruit bearing trees, flowering plants and pollinating animals took root; honeybees ruled the sky for centuries.

  Hereditarily customized to handle high levels of radiation, animals were then freed across the Red Planet; worms, ants, and other soil inhabitants. Then a diverse population of moles, rabbits, ground squirrels, and other ground dwelling mammals began to populate. To help keep the new eco-system in check, scientists released weasels, small cats and a few other small predators.