Blue Sky of Mars

by Christopher R Wills

  Jethro stopped after a hundred paces, thinking they were about halfway. He could still hear explosions behind him. He put his face up to Doc’s. Suit communications were still not working. So he gave her another hug. This time she retaliated and gave him one back. He tried the thumbs up and she replied. Jethro pointed onward and they continued their trudge through the snow with Jethro keeping a firm grip on Doc’s hand.

  After another seventy paces Jethro saw the looming dark shape that suggested to him, they had reached the Snow Tractor Garage. He pointed to it and saw that Doc was nodding so they upped their pace and finally reached it. The garage was still intact, which was good because it meant the aliens had not yet found it. They approached the main hangar doors. Jethro looked around for evidence that Walker and Chang had made it there but he couldn’t see any. He pulled Doc around to the side so they could enter from a smaller door.

  Jethro punched in the key number and the door slid open. He put a finger up to Doc, indicating he wanted her to wait outside for a minute. She nodded.

  Jethro entered the airlock and then the main garage area and looked around. His suit told him there was air inside so he removed his helmet. It was dark. “Lights on.”

  The hangar was flooded with light, which temporarily blinded Jethro.

  He heard a movement to his left behind some boxes. “Lights off.” It was Fraser.

  “Sir. Glad you could make it. Best not to put the lights on, I think.”

  “Good point. I’ll fetch the Doc.”

  Jethro put his helmet back on and retrieved Doc from outside.

  When they were safely inside Jethro looked at his watch. At least half an hour.

  Fraser and Chang had only just arrived.

  “What did you see at the research station?”

  “I saw one of those Spiderbot things,” said Fraser.

  “Was it the same as the ones we saw attacking Uruk?” asked Jethro.

  “Looked the same to me.”

  “Do we know how many?”

  “I saw two, but there could be more,” answered Chang.

  “How far is it to the cavern?” Doc asked.

  “Too far to walk, with those aliens out there,” replied Jethro. “Our best bet is to wait it out here and if we need to fight, this is as good a place as any to make a stand. Fraser and Chang look around for weapons or anything that can be used for a weapon or protection.”

  “What can I do?” asked Doc.

  “Look for a good place to make a stand. A place we can hide and a place we have some protection from their guns and a place we can easily get outside and run.”

  “OK.”

  They split up and did a tour of the vehicle hangar.

  The hangar was large enough to take four snow tractors with space around them but not large enough to take the Methuselah or any other spacecraft. It was a modular construction and because of the heavy machinery and tools needed for vehicle maintenance was not movable like the Research Base office and accommodation legs so it was constructed on site. Jethro noted that there were two vehicle pits and two ramps to access the underside of vehicles needing maintenance.

  Fraser and Chang were back.

  “All I could find were welding and cutting tools.” Fraser reported.

  “Can you use them?” asked Jethro.

  “Yes sir. I used to soup up hover cars.”

  “Great. Anything Chang?”

  “No weapons but I noticed the pits and ramps. One of us could hide in the pits to get behind them.”

  “Good idea.”

  “And the ramps. If we raise them, it will provide obstacles for the Spiderbots.”

  “Another great idea.”

  All of this assumes they don’t just stand back and blast the entire building and its contents, with us, to smithereens.

  Jethro didn’t need to voice his thoughts to Chang and Fraser; they knew the score. He didn’t want to scare Doc though. He had a plan.

  “We’ll open the hangar doors and leave the lights on and play some music over the speakers inside the hangar so they might not shoot first and ask questions after. They might enter the hangar first.”

  “Might,” said Doc.

  “I’ll be outside, anyway. So if they shoot first, I can come up behind them whilst they’re blasting away. Questions or suggestions?”

  “I can hide in one of the pits,” said Chang. “That way I can get behind at least one of them and reduce the odds a bit.”

  “What about the others?” asked Jethro.

  “You’ll be behind them, attacking them, so I should be OK.”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Please sir. I’m happy to do it and you know it’ll help.”

  Jethro knew that it would help. Chang would be in a great place to take down at least one of the Spiderbots and it would attract their attention but it was bloody dangerous.

  “Please, sir.”

  “Chang. I think you’re a bloody good soldier and I don’t want to lose you. But it would be a great help.”

  “Thanks sir.”

  “And don’t be a bloody hero. We need you.”

  Jethro told Fraser to hide out with Doc in an office to one side of the main garage doors and help Chang as necessary.

  He scouted for a good place to hide assuming the Spiderbots would come from the direction they arrived from.

  Fifteen minutes until the earliest time the Snow Tractor might reach them. That would give them two more guns, which would be a great help.

  Whilst Chang was prepping in his pit, Jethro squatted behind some rocks. The ideal scenario was that the Snow Tractor would come and they could jump in it and drive off towards the cavern without the Spiderbots knowing they were there. But that wasn’t going to happen.

  The Spiderbots had arrived.

  chapter 26

  In an ambush, there is always a prime time to attack. Too soon or too late and the enemy are given a bonus get-out-of-jail-free-card.

  Jethro’s plan was to attack the instant Chang attacked from the pit. He would be behind the Spiderbots and should be able to kill them by hitting their exposed panels on the back.

  The first of three Spiderbots had reached the open door of the garage. It stopped at the threshold and the other two stopped behind it in chevron formation. The first Spiderbot edged forward with the other two remaining on station.

  Jethro remained on station too because he had to time his attack to perfection.

  The first Spiderbot maintained its tentative movement into the hangar and had reached the edge of the pit that Chang was hiding in. It stopped.

  Jethro prayed to any Gods that might listen that the Spiderbot didn’t see or detect Chang. Chang had pulled the aluminum planks above him so he was mostly hidden in the pit unless a close observation was made into the gaps between each plank.

  The Spiderbot now walked forward but still ever so slowly until it had cleared most of the pit.

  Jethro tried to force himself to remain calm whilst also being on edge because he would need the adrenalin for his attack. Jethro always thought the worst part of war was the waiting. In the middle of action he could function as trained, but nobody had trained him properly how to wait.

  He heard shooting coming from inside the garage and without meaning to and without thinking about it he was already running toward the back of the nearest Spiderbot and firing whilst on the run. This they had trained him to do. This was the easy bit. Dangerous but easy.

  He could still hear blasting from the garage. Chang was an excellent shot so it wouldn’t take him long to finish off his Spiderbot. Jethro switched his fire to the other Spiderbot that had stayed out of the garage and took that one out quickly.

  Jethro had heard firing which he presumed was from Chang. But when he could see past his Spiderbots, he noticed the one in the hangar was no longer there. It had disappeared.

  Jethro approached the hangar with caution. Then he saw the Spiderbot. It had scurried up the wall of the hangar and was upside d
own on the ceiling facing them. But where was Chang?

  Jethro dived into the ground as he saw a searing ray directed at him from the Spiderbot. He rolled on his side away from the hangar opening trying to get out of the line of fire but knew he was dead because as soon as the Spiderbot located him, which would only take a fraction of a second, it would fire again.

  Jethro kept rolling because it was the only thing he could do but the blast never came. He stopped rolling and saw that the Spiderbot was no longer on the ceiling, but it had fallen to the ground upside down. It was dead.

  Jethro got up and ran into the hangar. He kept his gun pointing toward the Spiderbot lying on its back.

  Jethro rushed to the pit and saw that Chang was lying at the bottom of the pit bleeding. Jethro got down into the pit.

  “Let’s get you out of here Chang.”

  Chang shook his head. “Too late, sir.”

  “No.” Jethro lifted Chang by his shoulders and maneuvered them onto the hangar floor. Then he lifted Chang’s legs and rolled them onto the floor too and climbed out of the pit himself.

  Doc had arrived. “What’s up?” As soon as she saw Chang, she rushed to his side.

  “Sorry sir,” said Chang. “I was too slow moving the planks out of the way from the pit. The damn alien was moving by the time I had freed enough space to fire. Then when I fired at him, he saw me and fired back.”

  “Don’t talk,” said Doc. “You’re using up valuable energy.”

  “It’s too late, Doc.” Chang coughed up some blood.

  Jethro took Chang’s hand. “You did good Chang.”

  “I got him, didn’t I?”

  Jethro nodded. “Yes, you got him.”

  “Will you tell my mum and dad I love them?”

  “Yes Chang, I will.”

  Chang smiled and squeezed Jethro’s hand.

  “And I’ll tell them you died a hero, saving others.” But Jethro wasn’t sure Chang heard the last bit because when he looked at his face and when he felt Chang’s grip on his hand weaken, he knew that Chang had just died.

  It wasn’t Jethro’s thing, but it was his responsibility, so he said a brief prayer over Chang’s body in case events prevented later ministrations. He left Doc and Fraser in the hangar to mourn and checked outside. He could hear some mechanical noise and alerted the others.

  It was the snow tractor arriving from the cavern.

  Jethro and Raja loaded Chang’s body in the back whilst Fraser and Doc took their seats. Jethro closed the doors of the hangar and killed the lights and power in it in the hope it might delay any more Spiderbots.

  He would take Chang’s body back to Earth so his parents could have a funeral. He hoped someone would do the same for him one day, but then he remembered his parents thought he was already dead from the execution. If he could get back to Earth, it would be a big shock for them.

  When he got the chance, he would write the letter to Chang’s parents. How was he going to explain everything? Chang had been sentenced to ten years' hard labor in the mines on the far side of the Moon because he was serving with Jethro. Jethro would say that Chang had been selected for undercover work and that he had readily agreed to it; which was kind of true.

  Sons and daughters shouldn’t die before their parents. There is no compensation when parents lose a son or daughter. The military does their best to give the parents something to cling to. They always try to return the body; they also give the parents kit and medals and say good things about the deceased. It’s not much and it will never be enough, but it’s more than nothing.

  chapter 27

  The journey to the cavern where the Methuselah was being repaired was long and slow because the terrain was rough and navigation had to be by radar as visibility was almost zero due to the snowstorm and the darkness. That was good because it reduced their chance of being followed or discovered until they took to the air.

  The Snow Tractor drove straight into the cavern and stopped a hundred meters from the opening. Jethro got out and examined the cavern. It was huge. So big that a spacecraft bigger than the Methuselah could easily fly in and land. It had been used as the staging post for the South Pole base, which is why it was fitted with rudimentary lighting and some heating. There was a temporary door fitted to the entrance comprising panels that fitted together and a crude motor to power it open and shut. Apart from no oxygen, it was almost paradise compared to the conditions on the surface of the Mars south polar region.

  Gunny briefed Jethro on the repairs. “We can take off and get into space and we have repaired all the weapons, but we’re not ready to tackle re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.”

  “How long?”

  “Brains says three days.”

  “Three days? How come. I thought it was just a case of fitting more heat shield.”

  “There’s not enough material. We’ve had to remove metal from the first Snow Tractor and now that you’re here we will have to do the same with the second tractor.”

  “OK.” Jethro told him about Chang and asked them to store Chang’s body in the Methuselah until they reached Earth.

  Jethro needed to recce the area and the cavern. If they were attacked from the surface, they would have to get troops outside to get behind the Spiderbots. He left the cavern into the snow and had a look around outside and found the area was dotted with small caves and depressions which was convenient.

  Jethro had a walk around the inside the cavern and noted that it appeared to go a lot deeper underground than the lighting allowed for. He called Gunny over.

  “Has anybody searched down that way?” He pointed into the black.

  “A short way only, because we needed all hands to get the Methuselah back working so I couldn’t afford to send a team down there. Do you want me to send someone down there now?”

  “No. Get the job done as quickly as possible and let’s get the hell out of here.”

  However, Jethro briefed Gunny that he wanted one trooper outside the cavern, in one cave he had found, and he wanted one deeper in the cavern. Jethro said he would take the first outside shift.

  Jethro found the cave he would do the first shift in. It was bloody cold even though he snuggled down into the cave. It was no worse than training and he was only there for an hour, but the others weren’t as highly trained as he was. He communicated to Gunny to make sure the next on duty wore a thermal romper suit from the ship.

  Jethro had spent a lot of time on Dartmoor in the snow tending his parents’ sheep, but it was never this cold.

  Would there ever be a time when this planet was terraformed and sheep could run around on the surface of Mars? Probably not in my lifetime.

  The problem with starting out cold when you are in the cold is that you can only get colder. Jethro stomped about trying to get his feet warm. When he felt he had slightly improved the circulation in them he tried some star jumps and squat thrusts and was just about to do some press-ups when above the howling of the wind he heard a sound that shouldn’t be there. He readied his gun pointing it in the sound's direction although it was hard to tell which direction it came from.

  “Jethro?”

  It was Doc. “Hello Doc.”

  “I’ve come to help get you warm.”

  “Not here Doc. I’m on guard.”

  He heard her laugh as her shape appeared out of the blizzard. “You soldiers have a bloody one track mind. Anyway. You’re still weak from loss of blood. I brought you a thermal romper suit.”

  Jethro felt what little blood he had left rush to his cheeks and was glad his face helmet obscured the resultant embarrassing blush from Doc.

  “Thanks, Doc.”

  “No problem.”

  She wore one herself and helped him put his on.

  “I won’t stay because even with this on I can feel the cold.”

  “I can get you warm,” Jethro said.

  “Jethro.” She stepped back from him.

  “Doctors,” Jethro said. “You have a one track mi
nd. I meant I could show you how to do some exercises like star jumps.”

  “I’ve never exercised in my life and I don’t intend to start now, thank you.”

  “Fair enough, Doc. Thanks for the suit and take care on the way back.”

  She left. The romper suit was a large thermal puffer suit with its own heating system powered by small batteries. It was easy to put on and removed over clothing or the space suit and it went right down to the feet. Jethro really appreciated it and felt as warm as toast. The thoughtful visit by Doc had helped.

  He scanned the vista but couldn’t see very much because of the snow and the dark. It was likely that if anything came, he would hear it long before he would see it.

  His stint was up and Fraser replaced him. He briefed him and returned to the cavern. Fraser had just completed a stint down the cavern so the rota told Jethro he had a few hours before his turn down there.

  He toured the ship and examined the repairs. The team had fitted a captain’s chair for him, which was fun, but he made sure it was not at the expense of time repairing the ship.

  The Methuselah was looking good with all guns working and most of the repairs completed. All that was needed was the completion of the heat shields. But the work was going slowly. They didn’t have proper heat shields to fit on the front of the ship so Brains had worked out how to make some from metal salvaged from other parts of the ship and from the snow tractors. There was also a scrap snow tractor and bits of metal lying about as the cavern had been in use for a while as a haven for a spacecraft.

  The scrap snow tractor was made of tougher material than the newer ones used today to get to the cavern because in earlier times the weather and conditions weren’t fully understood so everything was over engineered. This meant metal from the scrap snow tractor was ideal for heat shields but there wasn’t enough of it, which is why Brains had taken metal from other parts of the Methuselah to make heat shields and had to replace those bits of metal. It was slow and heavy work and had to be done properly because their life would depend on it when they reached the massive heat generated from the friction of entering the Earth’s atmosphere.