Deviation

by A. J. Maguire

  Daylight faded too quickly on Mars. She managed to rip her robes in half and used one portion as an underlay, fixing the waxy jungle leaves on top by poking their thick, stiff stems through the fabric. This she tied to several of the branches hanging over the deepest part of the declivity, stretching it down until it was secured at a forty-five degree angle. They wouldn't be able to see much, but if it really was going to rain then she imagined that was a fair price to pay for staying dry.

  The other portion of the robes she set aside, thinking of Myron's bare chest and the possibility of a cold draft. Her own spacesuit was still working, albeit barely. She didn't want to know how humid it really was on Mars. How Myron had managed thus far was amazing to her.

  Surveying her preparations for a moment, Kate decided that the depressing lean-to of auburn robes and violet leaves was as good as it was going to get.

  She scooted out from under the shelter and crawled to the edge. Her father had built a tree house for her and her brothers when she was a child and she'd loved it. But that was then, and this was now, and she was quite certain that the tree in her parent's backyard wasn't nearly as massive as this one. Her stomach pitched at the sight of the ground and she had to close her eyes. How high up were they? Thirty feet?

  Opening her eyes again, she searched for signs of Myron. But there was nothing at the base of the tree and leafy branches obscured most of her vision of the ground. Sighing, she shifted to straddle one of the branches and tried to listen instead.

  Wind was picking up speed, ruffling leaves in its passing. She could hear the groan of large branches bending, and the tangle of smaller branches fencing each other. If she hadn't been looking at purple veined leafage she might have mistaken it for the coming of a storm on Earth.

  "Why purple?" She asked out loud.

  Taking away the science that Hedric and Myron had given her, Kate wondered what would possess Reesa to make the planet into this color. Had she been going for an alien approach? Or maybe she just liked the shade and wanted to paint it this way. But she couldn't remember seeing Reesa wear anything purple.

  Kate flinched at the thought of her friend.

  Her mind flashed to that four hour wait at Tokeland Bay Marina. To the annoying press of her luggage latch against her left thigh. She'd thought of giving up more than once, of returning home and waiting for Reesa to contact her. But something had made her stay. Every time she stood up to leave she stared out at the black ocean, hunting for some sign of Reesa's boat and then she sat back down again and waited some more.

  As the last traces of daylight bled from the sky Kate cursed herself for having waited.

  ***

  "Who is it?" Matthew crouched beside Finnegan.

  Through his helmet he could see the sway of the jungle as the storm began increasing intensity. Thus far there had been no rain but he knew it was coming. Their suits would keep them dry, but the ground would become unsteady. And it would be a welcome reprieve. Wildlife would take to shelter, if they hadn't already, and Kate would have a relative amount of safety.

  Assuming she wasn't already dead.

  Matt was fairly certain that the bloated, severed leg Finnegan was handling had come from a man. There was a certain, masculine bulge at the calf that seemed to suggest this. It was severed just above the knee; a crooked, diagonal cut that looked quite a bit like it had been chewed. He tried to keep that thought at the back of his mind as he waited for Finnegan's assessment.

  The soldier worked quickly, smearing a portion of blood onto the palm-sized touch screen built into the forearm of his suit. The screen blinked twice, appearing light green in Matt's night vision before it brought up results.

  "Freeman," Finnegan reported and set the leg down. "Traces of Dromodus saliva."

  "A Dromodus?" Newbill said, and then hissed a curse. "We're too late, Boss. Best we call it a night before it comes back for seconds."

  Matt grunted in agreement before he could stop himself. The Dromodus was one creature that might consider hunting even during a rainfall. Intensely aggressive, that was their main classification. But he couldn't give up without knowing for sure that Kate was gone.

  "Spread out and search for any more bodies. I want confirmation that she's dead."

  The Fomorri all turned in unison, taking orders from Chamberlain for their positions.

  "Pitts, Newbill, left flank," Chamberlain said. "Finnegan, you're with me."

  Matt stood, cradling his R413 in both hands, and began to scan the jungle just behind them. He saw his soldiers split off, each of them scouring the area for more body parts. He wasn't certain what he would do if they didn't find Kate. Reesa wouldn't take it well, he knew that much. The poor woman was still blaming herself for the deformation of the female race. If she heard that her friend had been killed by a Dromodus, she'd probably blame herself for that, too.

  He flexed his fingers around the grip of his weapon and scowled.

  "Lord Almighty," Pitts said. "I've found a trail."

  "Human?" Chamberlain asked.

  Matt was already moving toward the soldier.

  "Human and Dromodus, sir," Pitts reported. "Someone's still alive."

  "Or they were alive," Newbill said. "Boss, please don't tell me we're going to hunt a Dromodus now."

  Matt stopped just beside Pitts. He was right. There was a trail. He could see two sets of human prints in the soft dirt, and one set of Dromodus. Frowning, Matt continued to stare at the prints as the rest of the Fomorri gathered. All of his instincts told him to cut his losses and go. Fighting a Dromodus was like gambling a billion dollars in a rigged card game. And the rig was never in your favor.

  "Romberg," Matt said, knowing the soldier was manning all communications on board the Io.

  "Here, Boss."

  "We're going to need a quick extraction when things get messy. Don't leave the cockpit. Not even to piss."

  "Roger that," Romberg said. "Boss, you've got movement coming in from the south. It looks like a team of six headed straight toward you."

  Matt grunted. Celeocia's team, no doubt. They were quicker than he'd given them credit for.

  "Let us know if they get close," he said.

  Romberg acknowledged his request and then Matt started walking. He heard Newbill mutter several curse words, but each of his Fomorri followed. They knew this drill. Meet the objective, he thought, or die trying. It was their own personal motto, carried down from before Matt's father led the Borden Company. And for once, Matthew actually wondered if it was worth it.

  He thought of Blake Knox's hologram exploding into blue light, and of the debris his men had collected from the ocean. There hadn't been much left of the Fomorri vessel, and absolutely nothing of the pilot. Casualties were nothing new to Matt, but it had been a long time since one of his elite had died.

  He didn't want to think of how many more were going to be killed.

  ***

  She'd spent four years in the Army, most of it deployed in Afghanistan. In that time she'd consumed at least a thousand MRE's - Meals Ready to Eat. Once she'd even found one with rotten cheese and that awful taste was somehow preferable to the Mars Rat. Though Myron had cooked it with care, he had no salt or spice to cover the distinct, almost kelp-like taste of the meat. And while Kate prided herself on a strong constitution, there was something about the chewy, foreign texture that made her stomach revolt.

  Kate gave up trying to eat and focused on Myron instead. "Why are you helping me?"

  Wind slapped their make-shift roof about, gusting through the horrid little shelter Kate had made. She wasn't certain how it was still intact and thought that it should have snapped free already. Myron nestled in next to her when he'd brought up the already cooked Mars Rat. It was such an unselfconscious move that Kate hadn't argued. And, now that she thought about it, she did feel a certain amount of safety in his nearness. He wasn't Ben but he was close enough and he'd already saved her life several times over.

  He wore what was left of her r
obes like a blanket and hooked one knee, casual like, as he surveyed her before answering. "Hedric should never have taken you," he said.

  "I have a hard time believing you would risk your life just to fix another man's mistake."

  "Perhaps Hedric isn't merely another man?"

  Kate squinted at him in disbelief. After a quiet moment, Myron shrugged and looked away from her. Rain started, all at once, a loud and startling bombardment against their weak little canopy. Kate tensed and scooted closer to him, watching the ties strain against the added assault and counting the seconds before they would be inevitably drenched. Myron muttered something that she couldn't make out over the din of the storm.

  Another sound caught her attention. At first she thought she'd imagined it but then she saw Myron unholster his weapon. His jaw set tight and his gaze narrowed at the left opening of their flimsy tent. Kate looked past him, squinting to try and see what he saw and then she felt her stomach knot with shock and fear.

  One large, taloned hand curled around the lip of their haven as the Dromodus' head slowly came into view. She suppressed the instinct to scream and forgot to breathe instead.

  Myron took aim and fired.

  The creatures head snapped back and it lost its grip on the tree. She felt its thunderous crash onto the ground reverberate through the tree and scrambled to her feet. Myron was up beside her, scowling and quickly surveying the situation.

  "Climb!" he shouted.

  "What?"

  He pointed upward, "You have to climb! It's our only advantage!"

  For all her training, Kate couldn't move. She heard the Dromodus' ascent as it hurried back up the tree, knew it was coming with a vengeance, and couldn't get her feet to move. Myron heard it too, took her by both arms and shook her until she blinked at him.

  "Don't make me lose her twice, Kate! For God's sake, move!"

  Still mostly dumbfounded, Kate scurried up the tree trunk and began to climb. It was slick and impossible and she jammed nearly every finger and toe that she had, but she kept going, fueled by the constant hum-crack of the R413 just behind her. The large, tubular branches were not helpful in her ascent and she vaguely wondered what she was supposed to do when she reached the top.

  Hooking her left leg around one great branch, Kate muscled her way upward. The moment her right foot left the anchoring branch below her body began to slide. It wasn't a slow slide either, one moment she had a mostly certain grip on the tree and the next, her left leg lost its hold and she found herself dangling. She glanced down, gasping for breath and immediately regretted it. There were many, many branches hiding the distant ground and none of them were near enough for her to safely find an anchor again.

  Her fingers began to slip.

  Kate tightened her grip on the branch and made one desperate effort to get her leg back around the thing. But it was the wrong move. Her soft-toed space boot barely grazed the underside of the branch just as her fingers lost all purchase and she began to plummet. She caught a scream in her throat and tried to prepare herself for the first hit, but her body jolted to a stop, a vice-like grip holding fast to her left wrist.

  She heard the loud clatter of the R413 as it hit just below her and realized that Myron had dropped the weapon in order to catch her. Which immediately reminded her of the Dromodus. Kate looked down again, just in time to jerk her legs up and away from the sudden snap of teeth and jaws.

  Its teeth made a distinct cracking sound as it missed her body, falling back several feet onto the next level of branches.

  Kate looked up at Myron's tense face as he swung her away from the Dromodus. At his farthest reach he let her go and she was airborne. Behind her she felt and heard the clack of the creature's mouth again, narrowly missing her spine. But she was too focused on trying to catch herself to worry about how close it had been.

  Her stomach hit the branch first, pushing air out of her lungs and stunning her for a moment. Kate felt herself begin to slide again and managed to hug the tree close enough to stop.

  For one breathless moment there was only the loud, rapid beat of her heart in her ears and the sturdy feel of bark under her left cheek. And then she saw a flash of movement on the ground far below. Myron had made it down, was grabbing his weapon and steadying himself for a further fight.

  Apparently sensing its advantage, the Dromodus had abandoned her and was intent on Myron. Kate watched as the creature swung its tail, grazing past Myron as he ducked and weaved away. The yellow spikes crashed into the base of the tree with enough force to make it shake. She held on tight and prayed that she didn't fall.

  She wished for some form of weapon. Any kind of weapon. Myron would not be able to kill the thing on his own that much was clear to Kate.

  The Dromodus screamed at Myron, its tail embedded in the tree trunk, momentarily immobilizing it. Myron took the opportunity to run, disappearing around the base of the banyan tree. Kate breathed a small spurt of relief and then realized that she needed to move.

  With no other options, Kate scrambled up and started to climb again. Rain continued to dump on her, sluicing over the tree and soaking through her suit. Under her hands, she could feel each time the Dromodus yanked on its tail, trying to dislodge itself from the trunk.

  She wondered if Myron would abandon her, if he already had, and couldn't really blame him if he did.

  "Don't make me lose her again!" he'd said.

  Kate grunted in effort as she pulled herself further into the wet, massive tree, and wondered if Reesa realized that Myron had been in love with Mesa. It seemed like something an author should know about her characters. But then again, Reesa hadn't known about Celeocia's plans.

  Kate faltered at the idea that maybe Celeocia had been right.

  Maybe Reesa had been more than a science fiction author. Maybe everything Reesa had written was really some sort of future divination, construed by her friend and their capitalist society into nothing more than fiction.

  Kate panted and swallowed, pausing long enough to make certain that the Dromodus was still stuck to the tree. She shut her eyes in defeat as the next thought crashed into her with a wave of despair.

  If this was the future, Kate doubted very much that she would ever see home again.

  *

  "After the announcement and subsequent attack on Thursday afternoon, officials have confirmed that a special detail of Field Arcs have been sent to the Novo Femina Temple on Mars to ascertain the situation. The identity of the woman presented as unaltered is still in speculation. Some fear that the woman's disappearance is a sign that the terrorist attack on the temple was successful." - A.P. Saturday, November 24, 2998

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Celeocia hadn't slept in thirty-seven hours. She stood stationary in the communications room on board the Citadel, relying mostly on the robotics built into her. A vague part of the woman was awake, but it was that level of consciousness between dreams, the twilight of the mind, and the robot had control instead.

  "We've found traces of blood ... " Captain Bonsway reported. Her voice was hushed in the speaker, a reminder that the group was in the middle of the Martian Night. "DNA processing cannot confirm the victim."

  "Keep looking," Celeocia said. Her voice was a quiet mumble, a sleepy murmur, and from the corner of her eye she noted Eanmar's uncertain frown.

  "There is a Dromodus nearby," Bonsway reported. "The girl is likely dead."

  "Find me proof, Captain," Celeocia said. "Borden's ship is still in orbit. Find the Fomorri. They are looking for the same thing."

  There was silence before the response; "Yes, Priestess."

  Communication was severed with a blip of static and Celeocia exhaled through her teeth. Thirty-seven hours and counting. She let the robot take over and drifted to sleep, her body still standing vigil in the center of the room.

  ***

  Kate clung to the banyan tree as it shuddered and swayed under the might of the Martian beast. The rain had lessened some but that hardly seemed to
matter. The edges of her space suit were leaking, allowing water to slip under and soak her arms. The leak had not managed to roll past her elbows, however, so the chill was tolerable. Her face and hair, on the other hand, were soggy to the point of irritation. She could feel water pool together on her scalp and roll its way down toward her neck.

  Several feet below her, the Dromodus had managed to free itself. She'd thought for a moment that the creature would run off to pursue Myron, but it hadn't. It was steadily climbing the tree, its reptilian nostrils flaring for her scent and its massive weight breaking past most of the branches it encountered.

  The weight issue seemed to be the only reason she was still alive. It would climb, put its feet to a branch, snap the branch and plummet back down. The only problem was that it kept trying.

  And it gained an inch or so with every attempt.

  There was a rustling in the branches to her left, a level above her head and moving her direction. Kate held her breath and clasped the branch tighter to her chest. As of yet she hadn't spotted any more Martian wildlife but she knew there had to be some. She just wasn't certain if something more or less dangerous than the Dromodus lived nearby. The rat Myron had cooked was more than a foot long, and that was after it had been skinned and cooked. She hated to imagine what a living one looked like.

  Whatever it was stopped just above her and she spotted a flash of white between the branches. The leaves parted and Myron grimaced down at her, snapping a small twig out of his view.

  "Comfortable?" he asked.

  Kate breathed in relief.

  The tree shook and they both looked down at the Dromodus. It had leapt onto the trunk again and was clawing its way upward.

  "Please tell me you have a plan," Kate said.

  He thrust his hand down, bracing himself on the upper level and prepared to take her weight. "You're so demanding, Kate. When did I have the time to become brilliant?"

  She grasped his arm and cautiously straightened her back, straddling her branch for added support. "I ... thought you'd be long gone by now," she grunted and got one foot underneath her.