Bachelor on Mars

by Leigh Wyndfield

  “There they are!” Haxley exclaimed triumphantly, wiggling through the entrance without another thought about Jack and his flashlight.

  Now that Haxley had the diamonds, he didn’t need Jack anymore, so Jack had to act fast to make sure the other man didn’t just shoot him.

  “Haxley,” he said, following him into the cave, planning to grab the gun while the other man was distracted. “I have to confess I lied to you.”

  “What,” Haxley said still staring at the wall in wonder. “So many of them.”

  “I lied. Those aren’t diamonds.” Although Jack thought they were worth much more than any Earth gem. “I think it’s a new type of quartz.”

  “You…lied to me?”

  “Yes.” Which was only fair since, Haxley had blown up his rover and tried to kill him. Would kill him, if he could.

  Haxley must have believed it, because his shoulders fell and the gun hung useless at his side. “That’s really awful of you, Boyle.”

  Jack dove for the gun, slamming into Haxley, who crumpled to the ground without resistance. Unprepared for such an easy defeat, Jack stumbled past him, catching himself on the far wall.

  A loud crack sounded and it took a moment for Jack to realize Haxley had shot him, since he felt only a tug at his shoulder and not any pain.

  Jack spun in a half circle with the impact. He tried to catch his balance, sinking to the ground. Scrambling, he covered the hole in his suit, trying to stop the oxygen leak.

  Haxley stepped over him. “You’ve always been a jackass, Jack,” he said, and left the cave without a backwards glance.

  A sensor in his helmet beeped an alarm, making it impossible for Jack to hear if he’d stopped the leak, and a burn started in his left arm, painful fire racing over him. “Oh shit.” If he didn’t stop the oxygen loss, he’d be dead in minutes. Then his fingers slid and he realized he was bleeding. Even when he’d been in the military, he’d never been shot before.

  He pressed hard, trying to stop the blood pooling in his suit and the air leak.

  It took everything he had to remain calm enough to silence the alarm and carefully crawl forward until he was out of the cave. But Haxley and the ship were long gone. Exhausted, Jack fell on his back, careful to keep steady pressure on the tear.

  Staring up into the blinding sun, he realized he’d never been in this big of a cluster in his life. Because he couldn’t hold the hole closed and move without letting more O2 escape. Sooner or later, he’d weaken from the blood loss enough that he’d end up passing out. Then the temporary seal he’d created with his hand would open and he’d lose all the oxygen in his tank.

  Jack was well and truly fucked.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Margaret pushed her rover like she’d never pushed it before, winding around boulders and bouncing over old washes and smaller rocks. She noted with some satisfaction that the suspension worked as she’d anticipated. She even cut through a deep wash to climb out, holding her breath as the rover expertly handled the descent and climb.

  She flexed her bandaged hand, the small slice oddly painful, like a giant paper cut.

  When she rolled into the area that contained the cave, she gave her rover an A for performance. She had a few things she’d need to adjust, the front struts could be a little longer, for example. But otherwise, she felt good about it.

  What she didn’t feel good about was that Haxley’s ship was no longer here. If it had ever come. Maybe he’d taken Jack to his station and had locked him in a closet? No, she’d seen the glint of greed in Haxley’s eyes. He would come here. She must have missed them while she had been wrestling free of the chair.

  She rested her head against the steering wheel, all the stress from hours of aggressive driving weighing her down, wondering about her next step. If Haxley thought he had diamonds, would he go to Station 7 or his home base? She’d bet his station and she had no idea how to get there.

  Glancing up to the sun, she figured it was midday.

  A light flashed in her peripheral vision, drawing her notice. Was there something by the cave?

  Probably just the sun reflecting on that quartz Jack had discovered earlier.

  She debated for a bit, then figured her legs needed a stretch anyway and got out to check, knowing she was wasting time and yet not able to leave without making sure.

  An oddly shaped rock moved before her.

  She broke into a run as she realized the rock was a man.

  “Jack,” she yelled, dropping to her knees beside him.

  He stared at her through the bubble of his helmet, his lips as blue as when she’d first seen him. His right hand pressed into his left shoulder, where blood leaked out around his fingers. Fear climbed through her, and suddenly all the possibilities she’d secretly had about them being together, all the building feelings she had for him and the respect she had for his career and her desire to see if this thing they had together would work, all flashed before her and she realized she didn’t want to lose him—that she wouldn’t lose him.

  “Lay still,” she said. First she had to stop the leak.

  She bounded back to the rover, grabbed her duct tape and a rag, then bounded back. Kneeling again, she ripped off three strips, careful not to stick them together. She hung each from the bottom of her helmet, sticking the edge to the face shield, since she didn’t know what else to do with them.

  Jack’s deep blue eyes stared at her as if she were a lifeline.

  “Okay,” she said. “On three, you lift your hand and I’ll clean the blood off so this tape will stick and close the hole in your suit.”

  He blinked at her and she took that as a yes.

  “One.” This was going to be tricky. Too much oxygen loss and he wouldn’t be able to recover.

  “Two.” But since they didn’t have a choice, she had to do this.

  “Three.”

  He lifted his hand and she swiped the rag, then slapped on the tape. She ripped off a fourth piece before she was confident she had it.

  For a moment, they both rested, her breathing as heavy as if she’d run a marathon.

  Then she picked up his right arm to see how much oxygen he had left.

  It rested on empty. All he had left was what was still in his suit.

  “We have to get you to the rover. We can plug in your suit there and build back up your O2.”

  He nodded, the action feeble.

  Jack felt like total hell. His oxygen level had been low for a while now and he wasn’t sure he could move.

  “Jack,” Goldie, his savior, said. “You have to get up.”

  He stared at her. “You’re beautiful,” he said, raising his hand to touch her face shield.

  “Whoa,” she said, capturing his fingers and pulling then away. “Stay with me, Jack.”

  He grasped her hand and she hissed.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I hurt my hand. It’s nothing. Listen, Jack, we have to get you on your feet.”

  He wanted to see her hand, see how bad she was hurt.

  She knocked on his helmet, startling him. “Jack! Look at me. You have to get to your feet.”

  “You’re a harpy,” he told her, but he shifted his weight and managed to get his knees under him.

  She wedged her shoulder under his armpit and he used her to climb to his feet. For a moment, they both staggered, but then they caught their balance and lurched to the rover, which had magically appeared right beside them.

  “Your rover,” he said, as she let him fall into his seat.

  She slapped the close button and next he knew, she was beside him in the driver’s seat. He must have passed out for a few moments.

  “We need to decide what we’re doing next,” she said, playing with knobs.

  He lost time again, then woke when she pulled off his helmet.

  Air, glorious and amazing air, filled his lungs. He took deep, greedy breaths of it, realizing she’d managed to pressurize the rover so his helmet could come off. />
  “I have to look at that wound,” she said, undoing some of the straps and seals of his suit. It took a while, but finally peeled back the fabric. “Oh wow.” She closed her eyes in obvious relief. “It’s just a bad graze.”

  As he lay there, he’d feared he’d been bleeding out. But looking at the shallow gouge in his shoulder, he knew he’d been fine. The injury hadn’t even bled very much.

  “I’m going to put duct tape on it until we can get a real bandage.”

  It seemed as good a solution as any, with them so far away from a first aid kit.

  He watched her apply the silver tape.

  “Jack, I know you’re hurt, but we need a plan.”

  He took another big gulp of air and tried to think, but his mind was still fuzzy. “Haxley’s ship is alien,” he said, figuring he could tell her everything he knew and she could make the call, since her brain worked better than his did right now.

  “Damn, you’re still hallucinating aren’t you?”

  He frowned. “I’m not hallucinating,” he said, his voice a bit snappish. He really should work on that. No one wanted to date an asshole.

  “Oh thank God. You’re back.” She sunk into her seat in obvious relief.

  “Haxley has an alien ship.”

  She studied him for a moment, then must have decided he was serious. “Alien how?” she asked.

  “It’s not technology I’ve ever seen. He controls it by wearing a helmet that connects his brain to the ship. I think it’s made him insane.”

  “You don’t think it’s Red Meningitis?”

  “I did, until I saw him talking to the ship. He really thinks it’s conversing with him.” And maybe it had been. After all, the ship itself existed, so why did he doubt that it could communicate?

  “Wow.” She sat quietly for a moment, thinking through that new information. “What are we going to do?”

  “We have to get Haxley away from that ship. If it’s taken over his brain, he deserves to live. I don’t want to kill him if I don’t have to.” Jack had never been someone who wanted to take a life, but the crazy old man who had left him to die was dangerous to everyone on the planet.

  “Would you kill him?” Goldie gaze was steady, without censure.

  “To save us I would.” He didn’t even have to think about it.

  She nodded, slowly as if she were thinking that one through. But it didn’t seem to scare her. “So, what do we do next?”

  “He’s going to Station 7, so we have to, too.”

  She put the rover in gear and started without a question, following the vague tracks they’d left the day before.

  As they rolled along, Jack tried to think but he had a headache, probably from the lack of oxygen. “Do you have a med kit in here?” He could really use an aspirin or something stronger.

  “No. But I will remedy that as soon as possible. That was a major oversight it turns out.”

  “I have to admit, the thought of aspirin sounds so good right now I could weep.”

  She tossed him a quick, assessing look. “You don’t look weepy. You look ready to eat nails.”

  “Well, that was the second time Haxley tried to kill me.” Jack touched his shoulder. “It’s like there are two of him. A pathetic old man and a crazy psychopath.”

  “How long do you think it will take him to get to Station 7? You’d think alien technology would make the trip in seconds.”

  “It’s hurt.”

  “What?”

  “The ship. It can’t go fast and I think it had to stick close to the surface as well, because it barely rose a few feet off the ground. I’m not sure how long I was waiting for you. It seemed like forever.”

  “If he’s going the same speed as the rover, then you guys only had a thirty-minute head start on me.”

  “That means he’s what? Max an hour ahead of us, give or take a few minutes.”

  She nodded, agreeing with his logic.

  “When we get to Station 7, there is one rule you have to promise to follow.”

  “What’s that?” She worked them carefully through a crack in the ground, then back up the other side and he paused to let her concentrate.

  When they reached the other side, he said, “We don’t sacrifice ourselves for anyone else. We stay alive first. Just like a first responder on a bad accident scene. We can’t save anyone if we throw our lives away.”

  At her pause, he pushed, “Promise me.”

  “I promise.”

  He dropped his head back to rest after the long exchange. “So, what do we do when we get there?”

  “You’re asking me?”

  “You’re all I’ve got,” he said, so glad on many levels that he had her here with him.

  “That’s not a ringing endorsement.”

  “I’m not a ringing endorsement kind of guy.” But he knew she’d saved his life.

  “No, you aren’t. But you’re handy in other ways,” she said, her tone just bordering on flirting.

  He huffed out a laugh. “You are too. Like saving my bacon back there.”

  “I did, didn’t I?” She hummed. “Our number one goal should be taking away the gun from Haxley so he doesn’t shoot us.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed.

  “If he’s at 7, then he has a lot of hostages he can bargain with.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that too.” All those contestants could make great bargaining chips. Really high maintenance bargaining chips. Haxley would have his hands full, which was perfect for distracting him.

  “If Haxley is inside, then we should disable his ship first.”

  “I’m not sure we can get inside it. He told me it agreed not to let anyone else fly it.”

  “If there is a way in, I’ll find it,” she said, so confident, he believed her.

  “Okay then, you disable the ship and I’ll disable Haxley.” In the cave, he’d underestimated Haxley. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  “That sounds like a plan,” she said, and went silent to concentrate on driving.

  He spent the rest of the journey reprogramming their helmet channels to a separate bandwidth that wasn’t shared by Station 7. The last thing he wanted was to have Haxley hear them over the intercom in the main building.

  After a long, slow drive, they arrived, easing their way around the rocks and stopping before they got to the biodome, not wanting Haxley to see them if he was outside.

  She scanned the area. “Stay here and I’ll check the yard.”

  He almost fought her but then he realized he needed to conserve his strength. He was still a bit lightheaded from his near brush earlier.

  She came back. “Everything looks quiet. Nothing moving at all.”

  He input the code to open a small door to the biodome. He wasn’t worried that Haxley had set up any sort of warning. He hadn’t had enough time and Jack hadn’t had anything already set up like that. “Drive through those two pillars and around to the mechanical hut. We’ll put your rover out of sight.”

  She zipped through and around the building, then climbed out to open the doors so she could drive through.

  When they were safely inside he checked the oxygen readings to make sure the biodome was still functioning correctly. “The biodome can still support us without the suits, although at the low end.”

  “We’re going without them then?”

  “In a moment,” he said, then framed her face in his hands and gave her a long, deep kiss that left his whole body weak and needy.

  “Wow,” she said, blinking up at him from her large, beautiful green eyes.

  He traced her lower lip with his tongue, almost becoming lost in it all.

  Then he made himself drop his hands and said to them both, “Later. We’ll finish that later.”

  “Wow,” she said again and touched her lip.

  “And Margaret.”

  She blinked at him.

  “Thank you for saving my life.”

  A slow smile spread across her face. “My plea
sure.”

  “And for getting the generator up and running at Station 3.”

  “Wow, I’m getting some serious praise here.”

  “I’ll give you more when we have more time.” A piece of him wanted to lean back in and kiss her, stay here, and let the rest of the planet do what it would.

  But that wasn’t his way, and he knew it.

  Jack stood, happy to find he no longer felt dizzy, then shimmied out of his battered suit, growling a bit as it chafed his duct-taped shoulder, abandoning his suit in a heap on the floor.

  He watched Margaret load a bag full of tools into a backpack and sling it on her back.

  He nodded to her. “Okay, let’s do this thing.”

  They peeked out the door closest to the lab, both pausing to see what was going on in the courtyard. The egg rested in the middle, and he heard Margaret’s small gasp through his headset when she saw it closely for the first time.

  “Let’s go,” he whispered, knowing they didn’t need to be silent, but not ready to speak in a normal voice yet. He felt like he was back in Afghanistan, doing a raid on a local village of insurgents. God, that had sucked. Worst time of his life, one he’d rather leave in the past. But it had paid for college, and grown him up fast, and he wouldn’t be here without it.

  They hustled to the side of the main building and pressed against a wall without windows. She’d be exposed until she made it to the far side of the ship.

  Part of him wanted to go with her, but he had to let her disable the ship alone. His presence wouldn’t add anything. She was the expert.

  Instead, he held his breath as she ran across the short, exposed expanse and then he tapped in the code to his lab.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Margaret pressed her hand into the center of the ship, hoping what Jack had described would work for her.

  Nothing happened. Damn, maybe it really will only open for Haxley.

  She leaned her head against her hand…and a panel slid out of the way, as if it had melted into the right side.

  Wow.

  She paused to peer inside, awed by the sight. The whole ship was made out of one continuous piece of hard resin, the lines of it like modern furniture from the early 1990’s. Two chairs grew up out of the floor and pointed toward a blank wall, as if it were missing a windshield.