Giants Of Mars

by Paul, Alan

  “Go on.” Between the hangover and the morning interlude the two had, Jason could hardly focus on the conversation.

  “An anti-eavesdropping device was activated last night during Captain Asaph Hull’s dinner.” Now that Lexis caught his attention, she continued with more specificity. “John Grier and Captain Hull were both involved in the secretive conversation.”

  “Are you sure, Lexis?”

  “I don’t have actual footage of them disappearing under the soft blue laser, but I have a resonate signature of the spherical grid encasing them in an electrical shield.” The anti-eavesdropping device is a very expensive piece of equipment; ensuring conversations are completely oblivious, and undetectable.

  “How long was their conversation, Lexis?”

  “The signature shroud lasted forty-five minutes and fifty-three seconds.”

  Jason was now wondering why John Grier and Captain Asaph Hull needed to hide their conversation.

  “Learner Rotterdam used one during our meeting at Dronski’s Café,” he excitedly exclaimed.

  “Just in case, I locked down all vital systems onboard the Chameleon, including all weapons, besides this one.” Lexis reached out and handed him a holstered pistol, and continued saying, “Do not trust John Grier.”

  MARTIAN BRIEFING

  “Nothing could have prepared me for the tunnel.” Cork loudly spoke.

  “Except, Colonel Aldiss Spline wanted to have it his way. Charge the enemy position, head on,” Grier said before drinking the alcohol in his glass.

  “More of Learner’s bullshit INTEL on the enemy strength. Nearly killed us all!” Jason added while eavesdropping in on the conversation as he walked into the Chameleon’s galley. And after sitting down at the table, he continued, “Don’t you think it’s a little early to be drinking, Grier?”

  “Early? I haven’t gone to sleep yet.” Grier had been inhaling large amounts of oxygen with his alcohol.

  “Anyhow, Cork, I wanted to kill him more than anything that day, even more than the enemy,” growled Grier displaying a face of anger.

  “Whatever happened between you two on the last run to Fissure Point?” Cork asked.

  “The Corporation’s on the brink of another purge, and Learner’s stink is all over the place.” Jason could not take his eyes off of Grier when he replied with the thought that there might be more to his deceitfulness, and his hand gripped the pistol hanging from the holster under the table.

  “Learner? I know he’s a heavy handed player in the black market, but a major player in an international uprising?” Cork said with an ambiguous tone.

  With denunciating eyes movements, Jason glared at Grier and spoke. “Learner’s at the eye of a gathering storm, and his treachery runs deep. He is involved with Vril, and they seem to be pulling his strings.”

  “The intrigue is killing us, what exactly happened, Jason?” Cork again asked.

  “Grier was there that night at Dronski’s Café.”

  Grier shook his head before saying, “Yep, I told you not to trust that asshole.”

  Reflecting an amber color in his hand, Grier poured more bourbon into his glass, immersing the large ice cubes.

  “He approached me there asking me to make a quick Black Market run out near the Devonian Enclave; turned out to be bad news… Learner’s contact hijacked the payload. I was captured and chained up like a slab of meat inside of an empty container…” Jason paused to study the two men’s expression before continuing, “…if it were not for Lexis coming to my rescue, I’d be dead… the Vril was all over our egress, things got real hairy on our escape…everything else is above both your pay grades.”

  John Grier laughed before guzzling down the rest of his cocktail, and after wiping off the excess from his chin, he bellowed, “I would’ve loved to have seen the look on Learner’s face, when your SYN showed up naked to your rescue.”

  “Naked?” Cork inquisitively asked.

  Jason’s mind was blown from the words that just came out of Grier’s mouth. He sat back in his seat mystified and the tumblers of his mind began working. Jason Bjorn then locked his eyes on John Grier and viciously gave him a cold stare of hatred, causing an uncomfortable silence that gripped the room.

  Sweat puddles collected in the corner of Grier’s eyelids as he suddenly shifted nervously in his seat. His mouth quivered not knowing what to say next. Grier exuded fear and Jason could smell it with flared nostrils. Jason’s jaw muscles tightened as rage began to coil up inside him; revenge burst to the forefront of his conscious.

  “Hey what’s going on, guys?” Cork uncomfortably asked as he sensed the foreboding tension unfolding between the two men; a tension so thick, one could almost slice through it with a knife.

  With a fraudulent look, Grier dubiously but simply asked, “What?”

  “You could never handle your liquor, Grier.” Jason Bjorn’s tone was deadly when he unholster his pistol.

  “Come on, what’s going on here?” Cork asked again hoping to diffuse the situation. He could see Jason was ready to explode in a fit of madness.

  Jason’s face burned bright red, as his mind raced with the conclusion Grier was a traitor. His finger twitched on the trigger when he pointed the weapon straight at him and asked, “How did you know Lexis was naked? I never told you that she was naked. Matter of fact, I never told anyone!”

  Asserting his innocence, Grier feinted, “Yeah, you must’ve told me about it before. Come on, Jason, put the pistol away, you’re making me nervous.”

  His malicious lies only fueled the hostile tension in the room, and only strengthened Jason’s detestation for Grier, and his self-incriminating words.

  Jason tightened his fingers on the pistol grip, he then yelled with spitting malevolence, “You’re a deceitful son-of-a-bitch, I never told you jack! Now answer the fucking question, Grier!”

  Shaken, Grier fidgeted in his seat as his bones trembled with trepidation, he spoke. “Jason, sure you did… you told me all about it.” Grier looked at Cork for encouragement and continued, “He was at my house the day he came back…must have slipped his mind, Cork.”

  “What were you and Captain Asaph Hull talking about last night under an anti-eavesdropping device?” Jason asked.

  “Now I know you’re crazy!”

  “Bullshit, you were in on it the whole time at Dronski’s. You called Learner, told him when I was coming in that night, and now I don’t trust a damn thing you say.” Jason pushed the barrel into the face of Grier.

  “Wait! Listen, Jason, it wasn’t supposed to go down like that…all you had to do was deliver the goods, and make some money.” Grier evasively spoke.

  Grier’s defensive pleas were lathered in manipulative overtones, and Cork now looked suspiciously at Grier in silence. He listened on in disbelief at the whole scenario as it unfolded like some surreal dream.

  “What was your end on the deal, Grier?”

  “A measly ten percent finder’s fee…that’s all, Jason, I swear.” Grier cracked and downplayed the whole event.

  “I don’t buy it, Grier…what was with all the role playing and deception?” Jason stood up across the table pointing the pistol and his head pained with anger; he so much wanted to kill Grier.

  Looking down the barrel, he yelled, “Plausible deniability, Bjorn!”

  Grier’s palms seized the table, his muscle tightened when he sprung up with lightning fast speed. After pushing off the table, he lunged at Jason, and knocked him down, causing the pistol to discharge. Grier had clotheslined Jason’s head, slamming him to the floor.

  Jason’s internal light switch blinked off momentarily, and when he came to, he was looking up at the ceiling. Groggily, he pulled himself up off the floor, he smelled burnt flesh, and plasma fumes.

  “Cork!” he yelled gawking at Cork’s body that was splayed out with a hole in his chest.

  “John Grier has activated an escape pod in the payload bay of the Transport.” Lexis spoke over the Chameleon’s sound system.r />
  “What’s Cork’s status, Lexis?”

  “Deceased, Jason. His wound was fatal.”

  Jason frantically ran down from the galley, chasing after Grier, when Lexis spoke again. “Captain Asaph Hull is hailing you.”

  “One moment, Lexis,” Jason excitedly replied. When exiting into the zero gravity payload compartment, where his momentum exceeded a safe acceleration, he nearly knocked himself unconscious, by slamming into the wall.

  “Are you alright, Jason?” Lexis now stood inside the hatch of the Chameleon, looking out at Jason rubbing his skull.

  “What of Grier?”

  “According to the Transport’s log, his Pod automatically plotted a course to Deimos, second moon of Mars.”

  “He betrayed us, Lexis.”

  “Jason, Captain Asaph Hull is requesting an audience on board his vessel.”

  ASAPH HULL

  “With less than twenty hours until we reach Mars, one of your crew has commandeered an escape pod, and prior to this, our sensors had indicated a plasma discharge aboard your ship.”

  “John Grier is a criminal who attacked me, causing my pistol to discharge, accidentally killing Corkian Plaskett. He then fled in one of your Pods.”

  “Why did he attack you?”

  “I am not at liberty to discuss the particulars with you, however you can have access to the footage, and it’ll show John Grier attacking.”

  “Let’s see the footage, Mister Bjorn.”

  “Lexis, please queue-up the footage.” Jason spoke knowing Lexis would be listening to the conversation through his communicator on his wrist.

  “I can’t hear the conversation you two were having but at this point all I see is you pointing a charged pistol, training it on the man, why?”

  “Like I said, I am not at liberty to discuss the particulars with you,” Jason reiterated.

  “OK, Mister Bjorn, I have no other choice but to hand you over to the Office of Mars Transportation and Trade Commission on our arrival.”

  “That’s fair enough, Captain, is there anything else? I need to prepare for our departure.”

  “No, you don’t understand, Mister Bjorn, I cannot allow you back on to your ship for any reason. So, I hereby place you under ship’s arrest until I can hand you over to the proper authorities.”

  “Captain, first thing we should consider is intercepting that Pod,” insisted Jason.

  “It would be impossible, the Pod’s trajectory deviates from our course.”

  “Why’s the Pod going to Deimos and not Mars?” Jason asked.

  “For rescue sake, the Pod is programmed to travel to the nearest Colony.”

  “I need to contact my employer at Polaris, Captain.”

  “We are all employed by the Polaris Corporation, Mister Bjorn. Anyhow, you’ll be able to tell your story to the Undersecretary at the Office of Mars Transportation and Trade Commission; they will make arrangements for you there.”

  “Listen, you’re really making the wrong decision here, Captain Asaph Hull.”

  “Mister Bjorn, you pulled a weapon, threatened a passenger, and you killed another. From my point of view; John Grier escaped fearing for his life, and you, sir, are the criminal. Place him in lock down!”

  The not so enthusiastic Crew Person escorted Jason by pistol point to an empty compartment next to the ship’s galley. “I could easily push him aside, and walk straight back to the Chameleon,” he thought to himself just before the limp-wristed man shut the door, but he thought he would let Aldiss Spline bail him out after landing on Mars.

  “Have a nice journey, Mister Bjorn, whatever is left of it.” The man locked the door behind him and disappeared.

  “Lexis.” Jason spoke expecting to receive an answer but the room’s design blocked all electronic signals; the room was a virtual dead zone.

  Jason looked back at the events leading up until now, and wondered, “Why are my friends always trying to kill me?” He then realized all the members of the Hell Fire Club, were either dead or fighting for an elusive enemy. The mission was simple, go to Mars, infiltrate the underground black market, and weed out the rebel faction aligned with the Vril. Jason leaned up against the wall, and thought, “Our connections and reputations the three of us brought to the table were ideal for opening doors to the black market; the rest would’ve been easy pickings. John Grier, a traitor, and Cork, killed; the mission is dead now.”

  Jason thought, the plan devised by Aldiss Spline, Security Manager at the Office of Polaris Security Services was fantastic. For him the plan ringed a tone of familiarity; maybe unoriginal in nature but the organic fit simply made it believable; the crime syndicate would not suspect its origin. “All the pieces would fit,” Jason mumbled to himself before leaning up against the wall and falling asleep.

  ASTEROID IMMINANT

  The passenger compartment remained locked as Lexis looked through the portal from inside the airtight compartment between the main passenger compartment and payload bay. The Transport’s computer was denying her access to the rest of the ship; she was confined to the Chameleon and the zero gravity environment of the cargo bay. She pulled out a laser-cutting tool from her pouch and removed the bolts holding the manual keypad. Her sophistical neural net easily bypassed the security lock, opening the hatch.

  “What are you doing in here? Why are you armed?” said the Crew Person who was worriedly eyeing her left hand, gripping the holstered weapon.

  Not answering, Lexis stood quietly, observing what might be his next move. He remained immobilized until Lexis broke her dead serious composure by astutely winking at the man. She knew he would make his move but the wrong move he did by running for the ship’s emergency alarm button on the wall. She silently pounced from less than fifteen feet away, and was on top of the ineffectual man where she placed her knee in the center of his spine, and grabbed his chin from behind. She then wrenched backwards, breaking his neck between the eighth and ninth vertebrae, severing his spinal cord, killing him instantly. He yelped when his head popped backwards, and she could now look into his eyes and see the life drain from them.

  Although she kept him from hitting the alarm, she knew that acting quickly was essential before the ship’s Skin warned the rest the diminutive crew. Originally she hoped he would have made a run for the forward flight deck, unlocking the internal compartments, but now she had to bypass the security code but fast.

  Jason woke up to the startling sound of the Transport’s security alarm blaring. He stood up and anxiously paced in the confined space, wondering what was wrong. “I hope they don’t forget about me.” Jason first imagined all the escape pods zooming off in the darkness of space, leaving him behind to die from some catastrophic accident. “Perhaps a collision with an errant asteroid is imminent.”

  Not only did the warning system’s relentless noise deafen his sense and sensibility, but it also fueled his paranoia. Self-reason gave way to claustrophobia’s anxieties as sweat poured from his brow. He then threw all his weight into the door, desperately trying to jar it open. To no avail, the solid metal door only laughed back in the form of bone jarring pain.

  Panic stricken, he began yelling, “Lexis! I need your help!” And before his mind could register what had just happened, the door unexpectedly swung open, causing a dumbfounded expression to sit on his face.

  “We need to get off the ship immediately, Jason.” Lexis stood there covered in blood.

  Jason shockingly looked at the gruesome mess she was covered in and asked, “What happened?”

  “I neutralized Captain Asaph Hull and his two man crew.”

  “Why would you do that, Lexis?”

  “They were planning on liquidating you and flushing your body out the air lock.”

  “Why do you think they were going to kill me?”

  Lexis began mouthing a recorded transmission she had intercepted, “BJORN HAS BECOME A LIABILITY…HE HAS NO MORE USE TO THE CAUSE…TERMINATE HIM IMMEDIATELY AND GET RID OF THE BODY.” Disguised by
a voice modulator, the deep husky voice was unrecognizable.

  “MASTER PALADIN, THIS KIND OF WET WORK IS OUTSIDE OF MY SCOPE.” Captain Asaph Hull’s voice was easily distinguishable over the few ticks and squelches.

  “THEN SEND A CREW MEMBER TO DO YOUR DIRTY WORK BUT, CAPTAIN, HE BETTER NOT BE ON THAT TRANSPORT WHEN YOU LAND. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?”

  “I AM NOT SURE I CAN DO IT, MASTER PALADIN.”

  “I WILL HAVE A CREW WAITING FOR YOU ON ARRIVAL AND IF BJORN IS NOT DEAD AND GONE, THEY WILL HAVE ORDERS TO LIQUIDATE EVERY SOUL ON THAT TRANSPORT, INCLUDING YOU, CAPTAIN.” Lexis’s transmission ended and Jason would not have believed it unless he had heard the recorded message for himself.

  “Things are spiraling way out of control here, Lexis.”

  “Yes, despite the circumstances, we must survive,” she said.

  “We could try escaping in a Pod and take our chances.” Jason thought maybe they could escape to one of Mars’s moons.

  “They will be waiting for us no matter our end point.” Lexis logically spoke.

  “I can’t believe this is happening!” Jason exclaimed.

  He was at his wit’s end when Lexis spoke. “I have a plan, Jason.”

  “You always have a plan, that’s why I love you.”

  With a twinkle in her eye she flirtatiously spoke. “That’s the only reason?” She paused, and then posted her hands on her waist before saying, “I’m going to tease the horn dog out of you eventually, Jason.”

  Remembering their sensual twists, he blushingly replied, “Despite the disastrous circumstances, your wit and charm still accompany your beauty, Lexis.” Although he had strong feelings for Lexis, he could not get the idea that sleeping with a Synthetic was somehow wrong. He continued. “Can we tease our way out of here first?”