Martian Ark

by Brandon Ellis

  Could it really be that easy? They actually didn’t need to dig deep into the mountain?

  He closed the capsule, tucked it into his satchel, and zipped it closed, wishing his luck would hold. Jozi opened the cabin door, and Gragas stood and jumped out. He froze in place while staring at the sky. “Incoming craft. Three of them.”

  Ozzy grabbed his rifle and jumped out next, followed by Jozi.

  “The High Judge doesn’t want us to get this,” Jozi growled. “What is his problem? Those are S-9 MMP ships.”

  Ozzy squinted, his lips drawing down when he saw the rear ship. “No, those are two S-9’s and Zeld’s starfighter.” He moaned. “Just what we need: Zeld.” He turned and walked up the rocky incline. They needed to get this Ark and fast. “Let’s go,” ordered Ozzy, picking up his pace and heading toward the entrance.

  Gragas unholstered two double-barreled photon guns and held them up, turning and rushing after Ozzy. Jozi rushed back into the Hawk, emerging with her own rifle. She strapped it over her shoulder and trekked up the incline.

  They moved around a boulder and pushed their way up to the red rock ridges.

  “Almost there,” shouted Ozzy, finding a foothold on a rock and pushing off. “Up ahead.” He took a few more steps and paused. Thrusters burst loudly behind him, echoing against the rock walls. Zeld and the MMP were about to land.

  “I’ll stay here and hold them off. You get the Ark,” said Gragas, pressing against the edge of a boulder and hiding his body from view.

  “MMP agent protocol is to destroy a criminal’s unoccupied ship just in case the bad guy finds his way back to the ship for a fast getaway,” said Jozi. “Try to take out their ships as well, but make sure you leave one of their ships intact. We need one to escape. Got it?”

  Gragas nodded. “Got it. Now, go.”

  Jozi saluted and passed Ozzy on the slope.

  Ozzy patted Gragas on the back. “Thank you. I owe you one.”

  Gragas shook his head, keeping his eyes on the landing ships. “You don’t owe me anything. Galactic Knights don’t keep score.”

  That’s not how it worked in Ozzy-land, but all the better. Keeping score and being owed and owing others was part of the criminal life.

  He spun back around and marched toward the shadowed entrance.

  “Turn on your EVA lights,” said Jozi, flicking on her own EVA illumination, lighting up the rocks around them.

  They crested a small, rocky hill and came to a halt. The entrance, only a few meters away, was dark, but not because it was shadowed.

  Was that a wall? It shimmered like a graviton shield, but this one was pitch black.

  Jozi walked up to it, inspecting the anomaly. She went to touch the black shield.

  “Wait,” said Ozzy.

  A pile of clothes was tucked away near some rocks at the entrance. He walked over and picked them up. A very familiar archaeology insignia was stitched on the shoulder. “What the hell? This is Toph Bailey’s EVA and jumpsuit?” Did the guy vanish into thin air? Did he disintegrate by touching the shadow? If so, why didn’t his clothes go with him?

  “What happened to him?” Jozi said.

  A capsule, identical to the capsule Ozzy had, was lying next to the clothes. How many capsules were there?

  “I don’t know, but don’t take another step, Jozi.” This was his find, his responsibility. If danger lurked behind the veil, it would be better if he was the one who initially encountered it. “Let me go first.”

  Jozi stepped back, and Ozzy cautiously stepped forward. He pressed into the shadow with his hand.

  He yelped. A jolt of electricity zipped through his fingers and rattled across his body. He shot backward and into the air like being catapulted out of a cannon. He landed on his back with a thud, letting out a loud grunt.

  “Are you okay?”

  Ozzy shook his head, rubbing his helmet as if it was his skull. “What the hell was that?”

  “It looks like a shield,” said Gragas, now leaning up against a large jutting rock, aiming his guns down the hill.

  The Galactic Knight had changed positions and did so without making a sound.

  The guy was good.

  “I know it’s a shield, but shields don’t shock you like that,” replied Ozzy.

  “That one does,” Gragas said.

  Thank you, Mr. Obvious.

  In the distance, rock and pebbles cascaded down the hill. Zeld and the MMP agents were well on their way.

  “They’ll be here soon,” said Jozi. “Are you accurate with those guns, Gragas?”

  “Yes, indeed,” reassured Gragas. “Unstrap your rifle and help me keep them a good distance from Ozzy, will you?”

  Jozi pulled her rifle off of her shoulder and held it out, crouching next to a rock, hiding from view. Jozi was a crack shot like she always claimed, which meant Zeld didn’t know what was about to hit her.

  Ozzy unzipped his satchel and pulled out the capsule. He opened it, and the hologram shot outward, and a red dot blinked. It was his position, or better yet, the capsules current location.

  “There have to be directions somewhere on this hologram,” he said to himself. He pointed the capsule at the shield. The dot blinked faster. He took a step forward. The dot flashed at a quicker clip.

  He touched the tip of the capsule onto the black shield. The tip went through. His mouth gaped. The capsule was shieldproof if there was such a thing.

  He paused, thinking. Maybe he had to lead with the capsule in order to get through?

  He took another step forward. The capsule was now halfway through the shield.

  It was working.

  “I’m a flipping genius,” he said under his breath. His gloved hands were wrapped around the capsule and hadn’t yet touched the shield.

  He took another step. His gloves skimmed the shield. A bolt of lightning jumped through him. He jerked back and flailed his arms. The capsule went into the air and landed, bouncing across the rocks behind him.

  He lost his balance and landed on his side.

  Jozi yelled over her shoulder. “You alright over th—”

  Wapooh! Wapooh!

  A handful of broken rocks tumbled down on top of Ozzy like rain. Dirt and dust shot upward, creating a fog around him. Ozzy rolled, moving out of the way, and lunged for the rock wall next to him. He leaned against it, his body hugging the side.

  Zeld and the MMP agents were here.

  “Firing now,” shouted Jozi. “Time to meet my blaster.” She aimed, along with Gragas, and they littered the terrain in front of them with hundreds of photon shots, their rifles and guns recoiling with every trigger pull.

  From Ozzy’s angle, he couldn’t see Zeld or the MMP agents.

  “Get back up, Ozzy. No time for a rest,” ordered Gragas.

  Ozzy took a step and stumbled to his knees, cringing in pain. Maybe his adrenaline wore off because it suddenly felt like someone had jabbed him in the gut while simultaneously punching him in the ribs.

  Being electrocuted hurt.

  He pushed himself into a standing position and took several breaths, trying to gather himself.

  He glanced at his hands, remembering that the capsule went flying.

  He had to find it.

  Wapooh! Wapooh!

  Blasts pounded against the ground next to him, throwing rock onto his radiation visor.

  He jumped back against the rock wall. “Where is it?”

  “Where is what?” asked Jozi, popping off shot after shot.

  “The capsule.” He studied the small enclosure like a professional surveyor, waving his hand in front of his face, doing his best to push away the dust cloud in front of him. “I can’t see a thing.”

  He went to his hands and knees, reaching out and patting the rocky ground. “Where are you?” He scrounged for the capsule like a blind man.

  His hand brushed against something hard. He picked up the object, his eyes lighting up in hope, and then his hope faded. “Damn.” It was a rock.

>   He tossed it aside, searching more.

  He continued to pat the ground. What if the capsule blew up or broke when he dropped it? What if one of the photon blasts destroyed the thing?

  A photon bolt zipped over his head, sucking into the shielded entrance, creating a small electric storm, shooting lightning bolts every which way.

  Ozzy rolled, not wanting to get shocked again.

  But a good thing happened. The dust particles fizzled into smoke from the lightning zaps, vanishing a moment later.

  And there she was—the capsule—laying on the ground across from him.

  Ozzy dove, extending his arms, reaching for it. A burst of photon beams blasted the ground in front of him. Ozzy grabbed the capsule and crawled away, butting up against the rock wall he had been using as cover.

  He opened the capsule, and a hologram shot outward again. “There’s got to be something, anything, that will tell me how to get inside. Give me some damn instructions, please.”

  A photon charge singed the rocks in front of him.

  He ignored it and pointed the capsule at the shield for a second time. The red dot blinked. He walked forward, and the dot blinked faster.

  But from his last attempt, walking through the shield wasn’t the best strategy.

  He waved his finger through the capsule’s hologram, hoping for some type of response.

  Nothing happened.

  He touched the dot, poking his finger through the red icon. Again, nothing.

  He studied the hologram. The entrance on the hologram was black, just like the real entrance. “Okay.” He pushed his finger into the hologram’s entrance.

  The hologram changed, forming hieroglyphic symbols that scrolled across the screen.

  Another blast riddled rock and dirt near him. He jumped back, dropping the capsule.

  The capsule remained on. Symbols were flowing from left to right. Ozzy crouched, reading the Ancient Coptic writing. He was a wiz at translating that language but this was going too fast.

  He had to concentrate.

  “Have you almost figured it out, Ozzy? They’re coming closer,” Jozi shouted. “We can hold them off but not all day.”

  Ozzy nodded. “Okay, okay.”

  An animal scrolled across the holographic screen, resembling an ox from Earth. Then a bird, an eternity symbol, and a leaf. Next, the tree of life. And it kept going. A human, or a Martian, he couldn’t tell. Another tree of life. A Martian plucking a leaf off of the tree of life.

  Then more symbols, all saying similar things but not being too obvious.

  “What’s it trying to say?” he mumbled.

  “Hurry, Ozzy,” said Jozi, pulling the trigger and ducking under a boulder as a barrage of energy beams slammed into the surrounding rock. She poked her head up, shooting again, then ducked back down.

  Gragas was crawling up a rock, trying to find a better position to take out Zeld and the agents.

  Ozzy glanced back at the capsule.

  A hieroglyph jumped out at him. It was the classic symbol for skin, which also meant bare. In fact, going over all the hieroglyphs that were floating in front of him, none of the animals bared any fur or feathers. Even the Martians were naked and bald.

  Most importantly, the Martians were stripping the leaves off of the tree of life.

  Stripping.

  Bare.

  Naked.

  He stared at the glyph and then at the shadow. “No, no, no.”

  The only way through the shield was without any fake skin.

  Fake skin was clothes.

  Fake skin was a helmet.

  Fake skin was a jumpsuit.

  Shit.

  Fake skin was an EVA.

  He had to go through the veil butt-ass naked. He looked down at Toph Bailey’s clothes.

  The guy had figured it out.

  You have to be kidding me.

  He let out a breath. “Here goes nothing.”

  28

  Olympus Mons, Mars

  “I have to go naked,” informed Ozzy.

  “What?” Jozi asked, continuing to blast photon fire.

  A thunderous roar lit up the heavens. Ozzy glanced at the sky, and his eyes widened.

  A handful of Dunrakee cruisers, more than a dozen frigates and a plethora of other craft, were descending through the atmosphere.

  Another armada had arrived.

  “Oh my Mars,” yelled Ozzy.

  “They’ve brought more than we detected,” Gragas said. “It’s another assassin fleet.” He went back to pressing the trigger and unloading photon shots at Zeld and the MMP agents, who were most likely hiding behind cover.

  Ozzy didn’t know because he still couldn’t see them.

  “You can’t survive with your clothes off, Ozzy,” said Jozi.

  Out here in the Martian atmosphere and the cold, he’d have maybe three minutes if he could hold his breath long enough.

  But there had to be a way.

  A crack pierced the sky, and Ozzy peered upward again. Several ships had broken off from the armada and were heading Ozzy’s way.

  “We’ve been spotted,” he said.

  “You have no idea how great that is,” responded Gragas.

  “Great? How could this be great?”

  Gragas brought his forearm close to his mask. “Galactic Knights. We have Dunrakee inbound. Coordinates 18.67 degrees north, 226.3 degrees east. What is your ETA?”

  “Eleven minutes to that location,” responded a Galactic Knight. “On our way.”

  Ozzy gave Gragas a double take. “Why didn’t you call them when we saw Zeld and the MMP coming in for a landing?”

  “Against our code. We fight the Dunrakee. Hence, we intervene when the Dunrakee attacks you, me, or anyone else. That is not against our code, so we can join the fray, so to speak.”

  Ozzy huffed. “That’s why I don’t abide by any code. It limits you.” Ozzy patted down his EVA and then touched his helmet. “I’m doing it.”

  “No, you can’t,” screamed Jozi. “Find another loophole through that shield.”

  Deep down, Ozzy knew there wasn’t one. The Ancients looked upon faith as an essential aspect of life, and perhaps he had to have faith now more than ever.

  Faith in the Coptic writing.

  Faith in his translation.

  Faith in himself.

  Taking a deep breath, he walked in front of the black shield and set the capsule on the ground about an inch in front of the entrance.

  “Ozzy, don’t do it,” Jozi said. “Find another way.”

  The Dunrakee ships screamed closer.

  “I would listen to Jozi,” advised Gragas. “I’ve never seen a Being live long on the Martian soil without a suit of some sort over their body. You’ll die, Ozzy.”

  “I don’t think so.” Ozzy turned off his oxygen tanks and held his breath. He unclipped his helmet from his EVA collar, and it hissed. The cold frost immediately touched his skin.

  He had to be quick.

  He dropped his helmet and unstrapped the torso from the pants. He pulled the torso over his head and dropped it onto the sand.

  Goosebumps prickled his skin. It was freezing. He bent over, pulling his pants off.

  Wapooh! Wapooh!

  Dunrakee starfighters strafed the ground, smashing mountain rock that exploded and threw up chunks of dirt.

  Ozzy turned around, crouching, wearing only his jumpsuit. Jozi ducked, and Gragas fell from his position, tumbling backward and crashing against jagged rock after jagged rock on his way down.

  “Are you—” Ozzy closed his mouth as fast as he opened it. A gush of energy exited his body along with his words, almost emptying his lungs of air.

  Gragas pushed up against a rock and wiped himself off. He glanced at Ozzy and tilted his head. “Get back in your gear.”

  Ozzy twisted around, staring at the entrance. He wanted nothing more than to gasp for some oxygen. Instead, he gulped and unzipped and pulled off his jumpsuit, dropping it on the ground.

/>   He was naked.

  And Mars was damn cold.

  He took a step forward, bringing his foot up, nearly touching the shield.

  Arms wrapped around his stomach and yanked. Ozzy fell, along with Jozi, who had him in a bear hug. He pushed off, waving his hands in the air, telling her everything was fine.

  She shook her head and turned on her external mic. “No. You’ll die.” She rushed to his clothes, grabbing them and shoving them into his chest.

  He gulped again, his body wanting to take in as much air as possible.

  He glanced at the clothes in his arms. He’d pass out if he attempted to put them on now.

  He had only one option, and that option would either take his life or save it.

  He shoved Jozi aside and dropped his gear.

  She toppled over, landing on the dirt. “Are you crazy?”

  Ozzy turned, bent his legs, and jumped toward the shield.

  29

  Olympus Mons, Mars

  He burst through the darkness, splitting through the shielded veil and landing on the slated rock.

  The cold chill of Mars washed away, and warmth surrounded his body.

  The capsule slipped from his hand and shot back through the veil. It skipped across the ground and landed next to the rock wall.

  Ozzy leaned over, his lungs burning and his breath coming quick and fast. He coughed and gagged as more oxygen filled his lungs.

  He glanced at his empty hands and back at the red rock and crimson soil where the capsule rested.

  Jozi was there as well, backing away from the shield, confusion written all over her face. He could see her, but she couldn’t see him.

  He peered at Gragas who was shooting photon rounds at the sky and Zeld, changing his aim every few seconds.

  Gragas had his hands full.

  Ozzy walked forward and stuck his arm through the shield, giving Jozi a thumbs-up. She tried to save him from what she thought was certain doom, and it would be good if she knew he was safe.

  She nodded, giving him a return thumbs-up. She rushed back to Gragas, joining in the fight.

  He didn’t know how long he had until Zeld, the agents, or the Dunrakee overran his friends, so he had to make this a fast in and out as best he could. Then came the impossible. Getting the Ark back to the Hawk.