by Calista Skye
But we both know the Lambda section doesn’t contain enough air or water for a full evacuation of everyone in the colony if Mars is in the wrong place in its orbit, so that the return to Earth takes more than about eight months.
“Estimated time of journey?”
Tricia returns my gaze levelly. “Two hundred and ninety days.”
Nearly ten months. And we’re twenty-six people in the colony.
Minus the two dead Forcies. Twenty-four.
That’s still too many. We’ll suffocate with two weeks still left to travel. It’s close, but the calculations are merciless.
Too many.
“We will,” I agree as I finish gulping down the juice. “Just tell me one thing: who killed those two Forcies?”
Tricia looks at me like I’m drunk or crazy. “The spiders.”
“All right. There are other aliens here, just so you know. The spiders are called the Glup. But I was abducted by another alien, a giant blue dude called Brox who is taking part in some kind of competition along with a robot the size of a pinhead. He has a flying saucer and can shapeshift into a giant blue rancor.”
Tricia stares at me for two heartbeats. “Althea, would you like a mild tranquilizer?
“I’m fine,” I state without conviction. “Actually, I’d like a stimulant. Or two. But the spiders basically left you alone, right? After the first battle?”
Tricia takes two pretty weak pep pills out of her pocket and hands them to me. “No. They used our own computers to ask us all kinds of questions. Why we were here and what we were doing. We told them. Then they wanted the MPS. But you weren’t here, so… well, they searched through the whole colony. Every nook and cranny. Then they left. I guess they found it.”
I finish another canister of juice, take the pep pills, and wipe my mouth. “They didn’t. And they might be back. Hopefully, we’ll escape before then. Although I’m not sure if it will help us. I’m sorry about all this. If anyone but me had known where the MPS was, things could have been less… bad. Okay, I’ll see you soon. I hope.”
“What, you’re leaving?”
“Unfinished business. It’s better for everyone if I’m not here until the evac. I seem to attract trouble.”
“Are you crazy? You don’t have permission to leave. We need everyone here!”
“I’ll be back for the evac. If I’m not, then go without me.”
I go out the door before I change my mind. I take a small detour to pick up the other thing I need from here, then start the Martian jumping run back to the hole I came out of.
29
- Brox -
I’m dying.
The projectile in my shoulder contains some kind of poison that’s quickly spreading through me and turning me pale. I’ve never seen anything like it. And I’ve never felt anything like it. It’s a gray coldness that spreads and makes me feel weak. My shoulder has gone numb and feels dead already.
The injuries I received from fighting the Glup would normally have been on the way to be healed already, but my badly weakened body has nothing to defend itself with now. My leg feels like it burns. Is this how prey species feel pain?
In the middle of it all, I can’t help wondering how I got myself in this situation. It’s uncharted territory, this. I’m about to die, and I can’t even point to how this sacrifice strengthens my family or my tribe or my team. Althea is the only one who gains any kind of advantage from this. But I suppose if I’m dying anyway, I might as well use my death to spite a competitor like the Glup.
I can’t hold back a dry burst of laughter. It was Althea who shot me with this infernal projectile, and so killed me. And here I am, sacrificing myself so that she might get away. The irony is not lost on me.
She found the new exit I blasted as a way for us to escape. But the way things are, I can’t go with her as planned. I had to chase her away so that she will never come back. Hopefully, she can find some kind of safety out there on this desolate planet.
There are hard little clicks and a soft humming from the tunnel leading out. The Glup are on their way in here, and they will want to know where Althea is. I’m too weak to fight them. Indeed, I’m too weak to stand up. The Combat form is far, far away.
The best I can hope for is that they will kill me while trying to extract the information from me.
I wonder what her secret was.
30
- Althea -
I make my way down into the hole again, trying to be quiet and not dislodge too many of the loose rocks. Making my way down here is easier than going up, and the weak gravity makes me pretty silent.
I reach the bottom and avoid splashing my feet in the standing water. I peek out the door. The tunnel is empty. But I can hear noises — humming and clicking. The Glup are in the common room.
I slowly make my way there, taking one step at a time and letting the water settle back down each time.
I can’t hear Brox, and it worries me.
I slowly peer around the corner. There are two Glup. Brox is on the floor, looking pale. And… dead.
Then one of the Glup pokes his injured shoulder with one of its tentacles, sticking it right in there.
Brox groans in pain and the Glup hum, making sounds that can be understood. It sounds like a swarm of bees speaking English.
“We will not let you live forever,” one of them says. “We require the other biped.”
“The biped with the knowledge,” adds the other. “The smaller. Where is it located?”
Brox doesn’t reply, and they poke him again. He grunts, but he also grins. Fine, he’s an overbearing dude with a high opinion of himself. But then he backs it up with things like this.
“It is located in your behind,” he groans.
It causes some confusion at first, but the Glup soon realize that he’s mocking them. They go back to poking his injuries.
Okay, that’s what I thought. He wasn’t going to sell me at all. That would just make too much sense. It just wasn’t the kind of thing he’d seriously consider. He just wanted me out of here.
Now I have a job to do.
I look at the largest of the two things I brought from the colony.
OERLIKON CONTRAVES S20 GPZ Space Cannon 20x128 mm
Still no instructions on the side of the huge gun. But at least now I know to not put it against my shoulder when I fire it.
I move slowly so as not to attract any attention. But the Glup are focused on torturing Brox, and they must think that the rest of the facility is deserted.
I place the butt stock of the gun against the rock wall, holding it at hip height so I can aim and pull the trigger. My shots won’t be accurate, but this thing will make so much noise in here that maybe it will be enough to chase the Glup away.
I aim at the closest one, steady the gun against the rock, and pull the trigger.
The world explodes, and the gun makes a wild jump in my hands, forcing me to drop it.
With my ears ringing, I pick it up again, feeling the gunpowder smoke burn in my nose, then put it back against the wall and aim again.
The first Glup is on the floor, not moving. I must have hit it pretty well.
The other one is frozen with one tentacle hovering over Brox’s thigh, caught in the act of torturing a helpless man.
I have no idea how this gun works. It does have a magazine, so in theory there should be more bullets in it. But I’m not at all sure how many there were to start with, and I don’t know if another shot is automatically made ready inside it when you fire it. For all I know, I could be pointing an empty gun at that last Glup.
We’re all frozen like that for several heartbeats, and I’m aware that time is probably not on my side.
I hoist the gun to get a better grip on it.
The spider immediately jumps into the air and runs out on its seven thin legs, eerie clicks going all the way up the tunnel until they’re gone.
“Should have killed it,” Brox grunts.
I drop the gun. “Fe
els like there’s been too much death already. They killed two guards at my colony.”
“Dishonorable,” the huge alien responds. “Killing to win a Match in the Competition.”
I drop to my knees beside him, feeling the cold water soak into the knee area. “You weren’t planning to sell me at all.”
“And you came back, certain that wasn’t my plan.”
I open my pack and get the glass jar inside it, the second thing I brought from the colony. “Yeah, I was pretty sure. It felt wrong, somehow. It was just a hunch. And if I’d been wrong, I had the gun. It has worked against you once before. But I was pretty sure about my hunch. Which is the worst injury, the leg or the shoulder?”
“The shoulder. You shot me with a poisoned projectile.”
“I don’t think it’s actually poisoned. Hold still.” I open the jar, take out the glass tube inside it, and dip one finger into the Master Pattern Sample. The crystal-clear gel glitters as if it had a million little stars embedded in it. “You’re about to get the most expensive medical treatment in history.”
I smear about two billion dollars’ worth of the medical nanogel onto the festering bullet hole in his shoulder.
Brox watches with interest. “My turn to have a hunch: does that substance have anything to do with your secret?”
I watch the gel slowly seep into the wound as if it had a life of its own. “My mother is a scientist. She invented a medical nanogel that could be used to cure pretty much any disease. The particles are tiny, but they have a degree of intelligence when there are many of them. It’s the greatest revolution in medical history. But she couldn’t manufacture the gel on Earth. The gravity is too strong, the air too polluted, and the radiation too hard. She could only make picograms before it deteriorated. That’s not enough to work. Mars was ideal. There’s radiation here, too, of course. But the air is cleaner and the gravity weaker.”
The gel takes on a bluish tint, becomes liquid, and spreads over Brox’s skin all by itself.
“It can be made on this planet?”
“We can make more of it here. Enough to unleash its best properties. But there is only one sample of it in existence. Making this is the reason the colony exists. I can only assume that it is what the Glup wanted from me. I can think of nothing else.”
Brox nods slowly. “Oh, it definitely is exactly what they wanted, if it really can cure many diseases.”
Prey healing the predator. “Pretty much all of them. They’re so small, they go down on subcellular levels and fix whatever’s wrong. My mother refers to the particles as ‘little janitors’. At a conservative estimate, when in regular use on Earth the gel will save six million lives a year. I couldn’t let the Glup have it. There is only one sample of it. It’s taken a long time to make.”
“I can’t help but notice that you’re using it on me.”
“Only some of it. I only brought a small part of it. Most of it is still hidden. More can be made. The production goes faster the more of it you already have. But if we lose it all, they’ll have to start from scratch. Decades will pass before they have this much again. Years during which millions of lives will be lost when a cure could have existed. I thought it was worth my life to keep it away from the Glup. Would they be able to use it, do you think?” I carefully close the tube and put it back in its jar.
Brox lays back onto the wet floor. “They wouldn’t use it so much as sell it. If it’s as good as you say, they could get infinitely more than the fifty million they offered. Many civilizations would have been interested. But the highest bidder would have been those who make medicines. They would not like something of this nature existing anywhere.”
I still have a little residue of the gel on my finger, and I spread it around the wound on Brox’s thigh. “Yeah. That’s why my mother is being so secretive, too. Big pharma really doesn’t want this to be brought back to Earth. Their own primitive medicines will be worthless. That’s why I’m the only one who knows exactly how it works and where the sample is being kept whenever I’m not in the lab. You just can’t trust anyone.”
“How true.”
I carefully close the glass tube and stand up. The evac rocket doesn’t have enough oxygen for twenty-four evacuees. But with twenty-three, they just might make it. “So. Any chance to get a lift back to Earth?”
He prods his shoulder. “Bleep has had ample time to fix the ship.”
“The gel takes a while to work. I’ll go check on Bleep, and if it’s not fixed, I’ll go to the colony and get on the rocket off the planet. The whole colony is evacuating. We’ve had enough alien bullshit.”
“They’re pulling out?”
“We’re leaving Mars. Everyone else is going. I can’t stay in the colony alone.”
“I’m sure Bleep has fixed the ship. We’ll leave together, and we’ll take you to your home planet.” Brox sits up, reaches for my neck, and unsnaps the collar again. Then he casually rips it into little pieces and drops them to the floor. “I can feel I’m getting better. Soon, I will be able to walk out of here. It would be nice to see our ship right outside.”
“You might. With or without me inside.” I lean down and kiss his cheek. His skin is cold and moist as if he has a fever, except opposite from getting hot. “Bye.”
As I turn to leave, he grabs me with one hand and pulls me back, then gives me a kiss right on the mouth, so passionate it makes me feel light-headed.
He gently strokes my hair, bringing tears to my eyes.
“You came back for me.” His eyes sparkle, and now they seem warm.
I sniffle. “I had unfinished business. One way or the other, I would see you again. And this time, well-armed. I’m weird that way.”
“All I can do is say thank you.”
I take the gun with me and climb up the same way I came in. When I’m up, I can see that the Glup ship is still there. But there’s no activity around it.
Evacuating the colony is totally the right thing to do. We all need a rest after these events, and we have to report back to Earth about aliens and all that. And the facility is still here. All that’s needed to restart production of the nanogel is the main portion of the Master Pattern Sample in its secret hiding place among the roots of a potato plant in the vegetable dome.
I spot the saucer and set course for it. I’ll be much more comfortable in that than the guys will be in the evac ship. And it means they will make it home to Earth alive.
In the dark Mars night, the saucer looks just as banged-up as before, like an old can that’s been kicked down a few too many roads.
I tiptoe up to it, holding the gun ready. “Hello?”
The hatch has been repaired. It opens, and the ramp comes out.
I walk slowly up it and peer inside. “Bleep?”
Nothing.
I step into the saucer, feeling the stronger gravity pull me down and making the gun so heavy in my hands I can barely carry it. The ceiling is back to its normal height.
“Oh hi,” a bright, girly voice says. “It’s you. Wearing your sackcloth again. Seen that clumsy blue giant who’s supposed to be my teammate? Unpronounceable name, carries a sword and thinks he owns the world? Come in! Sit down!” The little point of light comes zooming unsteadily towards me like a distracted bee.
I look around cautiously. “Did you fix the ship?”
“Oh, sure. It wasn’t that badly damaged. It just won’t win any beauty contests. So where is he?”
I point out the open hatch. “Underground mining facility about two clicks that way. There’s a Glup ship there, but I don’t think there are many actual Glup left. He’s injured, but getting better. He’s hoping you’ll fly a little closer so he won’t have to walk all this way.”
“I’m sure he does. So, he didn’t sell you? Glup didn’t get you?”
“It was a misunderstanding,” I say, hedging my bets. “When they saw me, turns out they didn’t want me after all.”
“Then why is he injured?”
“Oh, he fou
ght a bunch of the Glup. You know what he’s like. And he was hurt from the time I shot him, too.”
The tiny robot makes a little somersault in the air, somehow giving me the impression of someone rolling their eyes. “Don’t tell me: they offended his honor?”
I nod. “Something like that.”
“Why in the name of all that is shit I ever agreed for that giant oaf to be my partner, I will never know.”
I shrug. “He can be stubborn.”
“Stupid organics.”
It’s the first time I hear Bleep’s voice drip with contempt, and I’m suddenly feeling really uncomfortable about this. Inside this saucer, I’ve never been anything but property.
In a flash of certainty, I reverse my decision. Fuck this alien stuff. I’ll take my chances with the evac rocket. Or I’ll just stay in the colony until Earth can send a rocket to get me. “Well, I’ll be on my way.”
As I turn to leave, the hatch slams shut right in front of me.
“I think not.” Bleep’s voice is cold, and now I totally believe that she’s a robot. “I need to get something out of this. My teammate seems to have abandoned our Competition. But I’m still in it. And I intend to give it my best shot. I just need some funds.”
This is not the time to try to trap me. I fling my hand out, trying to catch the little point of light in my fist. “Bleep, let me out of this saucer!”
She easily evades me, then zooms around me as if taking my measurements. “I’ve checked the market rates for human females. I won’t get fifty million for you. But I might get two, because of the rarity and the novelty factor. That could be enough.”
I lift the gun, trying to follow her movements with the barrel. But she’s tiny, and the gun is very heavy in this normal gravity. “Brox let me go. He took the collar off me. I’m free! You can’t sell me!”
