The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three

by Mike Marlinski

Chapter Twenty Eight

  After almost 30 minutes of carefully examining the technology in the alien hangar, Simone was beyond convinced that these creatures had no relation to ancient humanity, whatsoever. Whatever sick experiments were happening on Mars, were not in mankind’s best interest or even Severov’s. It seemed to Simone that even Winston, who was once thought to be the mastermind of the entire operation, was little more than a pawn in Phaetos’ game.

  She was worried about a video surveillance system on the ship, but still had yet to encounter any opposition, since sneaking on board. It would be Simone’s luck for her to be being watched, but knowing that the aliens had kept even Severov from venturing inside, made her think that a surveillance system may not have existed, simply because it wasn’t necessary. While doing her best to keep her worries at bay, she continued her work.

  Amongst the circle of damaged ships, she found a small, pod shaped vessel, with seemingly intact gun turrets on either side of its canopy. Whether or not they still worked, was still a mystery. There were also other ships that fit that description, but this one was of particular interest to her, because the ship’s canopy was facing the energy sphere; meaning that the weapons were also facing it. This left her trying to find a way inside the pod, without making too much noise.

  Before searching for an opening or hatch, she decided to try communicating with Marco, knowing that she was very close to possibly ending everything around her with a few quick pulls of a trigger. She pressed a small button on her ear piece and whispered his name. He instantly replied with, “I’m here. I’m here, Simone. I’m in a vent shaft. Severov and Phaetos tried to kill me after you left. They found out who we really are. Winston got our DNA on the way here and had it tested. I killed them. I killed them both, Simone. Now the others are on their way to you. They say they know where you are. You have to get out of there.”

  Something in Marco’s voice, made Simone not trust his words. They had spent almost every second of every day together, for the last ten years in preparation for that moment. During that time, they had worked out key phrases and questions that were deeply rooted in their subconscious, in case one of them were ever compromised. “Marco, I want you to tell me something,” Simone began. “Are you alive?”

  Meanwhile in the bedroom, Marco had heard Simone’s question and despite the drugs that were forcing him to act on Phaetos’s behalf, he was able to give her the answer she was looking for. He paused for a moment and said, “No. No, I’m not. I’m dead, Simone.” Winston’s eyes widened, once he heard Marco’s words. He turned to Phaetos and screamed, “It’s fucking code! She knows! She fucking knows!” Phaetos then instructed his soldiers to open fire on Marco. Marco was shot twice in the head and killed instantly.

  Simone heard the weapons fire and then a few seconds of static. She then heard Winston’s voice. Winston had taken the ear piece and screamed, “Listen, you fucking bitch. I’m not going to let you ruin everything we’ve built here. You can’t stop my new world from happening. I’m going to find you and I’m going to fucking turn you into a tasty meal for my friends!”

  After Severov’s final words, the signal died. Simone ripped the ear bud out of her ear and threw it against the ground. She wept for Marco but continued to search for a way inside the pod. After a few more seconds of scanning the hull, she found a small rusted over hatch that was partially open. Simone got a hold of it and pulled as hard as she could, but it wouldn’t move an inch. Finally, she decided it was no longer worth keeping quiet, and she screamed at the top of her lungs, while continuing to pull at the hatch.

  She was then finally able to open it wide enough for her to squeeze inside the pod. She tripped over the hatchway, sending her falling into a hard plastic, oval shaped chair, pressed firmly against the control panels beneath the ship’s canopy. Simone readjusted herself and sat upright on the awkward seat, facing the control panels. The pod’s reserve power was fully functional, as it was serving as a power source for the green energy sphere outside. Not recognizing the language on the black screens in front of her, or finding any controls that resembled those of a craft she was more familiar with, she became frustrated and began punching at the brightly lit buttons, beneath the screens. A moment later, the ship vibrated and began to rise off the ground, tugging at the conduits, connecting it to the energy sphere.

  Knowing that abruptly separating the ship from the sphere would cause a lot of damage, she noticed that a green holographic display of the ship’s surroundings had appeared in front of her. Red shapes that resembled arrows had also appeared in the center of the image. She found that when she reached out and touched one of them, the ship would move ever so slightly in the indicated direction.

  Simone was just about to send the ship flying backwards, when she felt two arms violently grab her and pull her away from the controls. She looked over to see that Severov had gotten inside the pod with her. Evidently, the aliens had lifted their “quarantined ship” story and granted him access to join the pursuit.

  “Did you really think it would be so easy?!” he screamed in her face, as he repeatedly hit her in the head, while pulling her out of the pod. She landed on the cold metal floor behind the pod, to see Winston standing over her. Phaetos and other human-looking members of the Incomplete were standing behind him with laser rifles drawn. Conveniently, none of the more unpleasant looking members of the species were present for Winston to see.

  “You think you know everything, don’t you?” Simone stuttered, as blood trickled from her mouth and forehead. “Don’t you see, you fucking lunatic? Look at the writing on the walls! Look at these ships! They’re not human and they never were! There’s no Starblood here! They’ve just been using you for food, you fucking asshole!”

  For a moment, Winston let go of his lust for power and looked over his surroundings. He himself had studied the contents of the Talin at great length and had a formidable understanding of the languages and technology of ancient man. Looking around the room, he was just as baffled as Simone had been, when she had first made her discoveries on the Incomplete ship.

  A moment later, Winston backed away from Simone and turned to face Phaetos, who had its weapon pointed at Winston’s head. “Is this true?” Winston asked. “All a lie? I thought you were my friend. I thought you were my only friend.”

  Phaetos’s stern expression became an emotionless one. Its veil of false feelings was no longer necessary. “There was a time when I thought you would be difficult to replace,” Phaetos began. “But the more members of your race I encounter, the more I realize how easy it will be for us to find another, willing to trade his or her people for the promise of power,” it concluded, before firing a blast of green energy into Winston’s face.

  Simone screamed in horror, as Winston’s decapitated body fell beside her. Phaetos turned back to its soldiers, pointing in Simone’s direction, and at that moment, she darted back inside the pod. It was still active and ready to fly.

  Once secured in the pilot’s seat, she pulled the hatch closed and reactivated the navigation projection, she had learned to use earlier. She used the controls to quickly pull away from the energy sphere, causing the ship to separate from the cables that connected them. Simone then allowed the ship to rise high above the sphere, before tilting the ship downwards, aiming its foremost section directly at the glimmering green orb below.

  She continued to look on, as hundreds of aliens poured into the room; some with human characteristics, but most without. Some of them were about to open fire on her with their rifles, but Phaetos instructed them not to do so. Phaetos had another plan in mind. One of its soldiers brought in a long, black spear-like device, with a wide antenna, resembling a satellite dish on its end. Phaetos intended to render Simone’s ship useless with an electromagnetic pulse, causing it to lifelessly fall to the ground, to the side of the sphere. But Simone wasn’t about to give the aliens that chance. She had grown tired of attempting to decipher the ship’s weapons systems and
instead decided to ram into the energy sphere at top speed.

  She quickly raced her finger along the holographic projection, instructing the ship to fly down at the sphere, as fast as it could go. She screamed in anger the entire way down, as tears of agony and despair streamed down her face. A moment later, she was consumed by a bright green flash that triggered an incredible explosion, leaving nothing but a gigantic crater where Aeolis Mons once stood. Her final thoughts were of her family; of Callum, Marco and her parents, and how proud she knew they would’ve been of all her accomplishments; especially her sacrifice.

  On March 14th, 2042, ten Mars Arcs entered Martian orbit and awaited Severov’s signal. Only the ten pilots and their co-pilots knew the truth of the Mars Mission and the unfortunate fate awaiting their passengers. After three hours of having received no transponder signal, the pilots became nervous and entered their storage compartments, to check on the status of their human cargo. To their surprise, all of the colonists were waking up and getting out of their life pods. The sinister pilots, who had agreed to carry out Severov’s orders, were faced with two thousand confused and angry people, demanding answers.

  Prior to their launch, Simone and Marco had learned the identity of every last colonist selected for the trip, and sent pills to their rooms with forged medical documents, supposedly from Winston Severov, instructing them to take them. They were the same pills that Simone and Marco had planned to take, had they journeyed to Mars aboard one of the Arcs. The colonists bound for Mars were never supposed to wake up. But the pills ensured that they would be awakened from their induced comas, regaining consciousness after roughly 14 days, which was the predetermined length of the trip.

  With no landing instructions, or place to land, the pilots orbited Mars for another day, before their secret mission files were discovered by the colonists in the ships’ computers. The pilots were overmatched and detained, while the colonists did their best to work together to safely land on the planet. They had no choice but to land, because the ships no longer had enough power or supplies, adequate for a return trip. Each ship only had a certain amount of food and water, originally reserved for its pilots.

  Three days later, ten long, cylindrical landing modules touched down near a valley, to the west of the Aeolis Mons crater. Each module was essentially a long stretch of metal casing on wheels, containing the storage compartments from each Arc. A distress call was sent to Earth by the colonists. The two thousand untrained astronauts, were stranded in their metal tubes, praying for some form of salvation.

  Their days were long and filled with great distress and uncertainty. All they knew for sure, was that they had just established the first legitimate human colony on Mars. In the years to come, newly elected world leaders dispatched rescue ships, loaded with supplies, to come to their aid. The terraforming process of Mars was completed in 2147, causing the Red Planet to take on an appearance similar to that of its original form, as Tyrran.

  Eventually, global warming on Earth was reversed by monumental advances in environmental technologies, and the planet became the shining beacon of hope it was meant to be. Earth and Mars served as flourishing home-worlds for the human race, who spent the next several million years living in peace amongst the stars. Mankind became the galaxy’s ambassadors for peace. It was the destiny that Aia always knew we could one day fulfill.