He brushed the front of his suit off. A red warning flashed at the corner of his HUD. Oxygen levels were at only ten percent.
“Did it stop?” David asked him.
“What?”
“The storm.”
Jeff looked at the entrance, at the hole the slip had cleared. The wind still carried swirls of brown and red, but he no longer felt the intense pull of the storm trying to drag him from the tunnel.
“Looks like it’s settled,” he said. “How’s your oxygen?”
“It says fifteen percent.”
Better than his, but David wouldn’t make it alone if Jeff’s ran out.
From what Jeff knew about their suits, there were a couple of options to replenish their oxygen stores. The first was directly depositing some tank-like canisters into the suit. The other option was to find an environment with adequate oxygen levels to peel them off and let them harvest air from the atmosphere. He’d seen Bouma do this a couple of times when he was testing the suits. But, besides the Sunspot, he wasn’t sure there was anywhere he could find an oxygen-rich environment to recharge their oxygen systems.
“We need to recharge our air supplies,” Jeff said. “I know there were extra canisters aboard the Sunspot, assuming it’s still there.”
“Maybe we will find the others,” David said.
The two brothers climbed out of their shelter, to be greeted by the sight of the spider carcass. A few of its legs had been shorn off by the shrapnel of the dust storm, but it still clung stubbornly to the rock face. Farther out, the bodies of the spiders they’d ambushed littered the ravine, their limbs protruding out of the dirt the storm had deposited over them.
Jeff climbed to the top of the precipice. Wind whispered over his suit, and he helped David up beside him. Below lay a plateau that had been blasted almost smooth as marble. This was where the Sunspot had crash-landed. All the little craters and rocky columns were gone, and the Sunspot was nothing more than a husk of blackened metal. It looked like when their dad had left a fish too long on the grill. There was no doubt now; the flash of light had been the Sunspot exploding.
Jeff doubted there would be any intact oxygen canisters in the wreckage, but they had to look.
“We’re going to go down there?” David asked nervously.
It wasn’t just the prospect of a futile search that worried David—and Jeff. Rather, the broken Sunspot wasn’t alone. Nearly a dozen spiders were scurrying over the landscape around it, and some scorpion-like monstrosities paced the perimeter of the plateau. Beyond them lay a few Organic fighters, similar to the winged ones with the dorsal fins they’d seen in space. Between those fighters were much larger ships Jeff judged to be some kind of transport craft.
Jeff and David got down on their bellies to watch.
“What’s that?” David asked, pointing toward the horizon beyond the Sunspot.
Jeff used his hand to shield his eyes under his visor. A small dust cloud billowed from a speck in the distance. It seemed to be moving. There was no blue glint like it was an Organic alien. Maybe, just maybe, it was a human vehicle.
But it was racing away.
“Is that a Rhino?” David asked.
“I don’t know.” If it was, there was no way they could catch up to it on foot. Jeff surveyed the landscape crawling with Organics and all the debris around the broken Sunspot. The aliens seemed to be searching for something, and he had a feeling it was their missing friends.
Jeff eyed the alien ships again, an idea forming in his mind.
“If we can get on board one of those,” he pointed to an alien ship, “maybe we can find Bouma and the others. The aliens are looking for them.”
David looked over. “Are you crazy, bro?”
Jeff shrugged. “Maybe a little.”
***
Sophie floated above the Martian surface, a complex and hostile landscape of ravines and mountains carved by ancient tectonic activity and rivers that had long since disappeared. A flash in the distance blinded her momentarily. When her vision cleared, she once again focused on the alien landscape, suddenly overwhelmed by a strange sensation that this was her home.
But Mars never was my home, she thought, so why do I feel so nostalgic?
A vague memory floated back to her in that ethereal moment. At once she saw all that had transpired since the Organics invaded Earth and upended her life and the lives of billions of others. She felt the pain and anguish of knowing the rest of her family was gone forever; she was among a handful of humans left to linger until the planet breathed its last breath and the Organics had taken all they had come for.
But all of that seemed so distant now as she floated above Mars.
Another flash of light tore through the sky, like a meteor coming into the thin Mars atmosphere.
But this was not a meteor.
The ship streaking through the sky was the Sunspot. And she knew she was glimpsing not the present, but rather, an event that had occurred not so long ago.
She had been on that ship, and was watching herself crash to Mars.
A plume of dust rose above the crash site, and a voice boomed within her skull—a voice she hadn’t heard in a long time, but one she knew exceedingly well.
“Welcome home, Sophie.”
Dr. Eric Hoffman.
An intense pain overwhelmed her. All that she saw turned a brilliant red. A thousand tiny needles pierced every bone in her body.
The Mars surface blurred, to be replaced by what looked like metal walls. Distant voices called out in a muddled jumble of sound, but none of them belonged to Hoffman.
“Sophie,” one of them said. The tone was soft, kind… reassuring. It pulled at her from a distance, tugging her back to reality.
She blinked.
Hovering over her were the familiar eyes of the man she had grown to appreciate as much more than just a colleague—the man who had brought her out of whatever cocoon the nanobots had hidden her away in.
“Emanuel,” she choked. Pain lanced her throat, and she tasted something metallic.
He pulled her in close to his chest until she could feel his heartbeat against the side of her head. A dull pain throbbed at the back of her skull, but it no longer seemed to matter.
“You have no idea how glad I am to hear your voice,” he said. “I never thought I’d see you conscious again.”
Sophie sensed the presence of others nearby. They lurked on the periphery, like kind spirits edging into existence but not wanting to interrupt. For that she was thankful. All manner of emotions crashed through her, and she couldn’t take the demands of anyone else asking how she was, or finding out someone was missing or hurt.
Seeing and being with Emanuel helped her to heal something that had broken in her mind. After a few moments of shared silence with him, the rest of the world came into focus. She felt the tremble of a vehicle underneath her and heard the whine of electric motors. Her skin felt cool, and the thin suit she wore was soaked in some kind of liquid. The air smelled of body odor, sweat, and the sweet scent of cryostat fluid.
Holly and Bouma were there too, and so were Owen and Jamie. Diego and another big man she didn’t recognize sat at the controls of the vehicle.
She craned her neck to see who else had survived, but the rest of the seats were empty.
Was this all that remained of her team… and humanity? Where were Jeff and David?
— 10 —
The jolt of the ship coming to a stop knocked Captain Noble to the floor of his orb, but he quickly pushed himself back up. Pulling on the coiled feeding cord attached to his stomach, he stood and made his way back to the wall of his prison.
A massive recessed light in the overhead of the chamber flipped on, spreading brilliant white illumination throughout the entire space. Noble’s eyes adjusted to the sight of hundreds and hundreds of alien prisoners in orbs. He could see all the way across the chamber, and while the aliens imprisoned there were just dots, he could make out some of their myriad colors. Some a
ppeared as cool teals, like the Caribbean Ocean, while others were orange, like flames.
He slowly took in the view. Three orbs above and to the right was some sort of gas entity. At first he thought it was one of the multi-dimensional entities, but it was definitely different, a nebulous cloud slowly circulating inside the orb.
A few orbs to the right, an alien with two necks and eyeless red glowing bulbs attached to each swayed from a base that looked like a flowerpot sculpted of bone.
In another orb below, Noble saw a puddle of gray liquid that transformed into the figures of other aliens, mimicking the shapes of those around it. Noble’s eyes widened when the liquid formed the shape of a human.
These creatures were beyond remarkable. There was something awe-inspiring about seeing such a diversity of creatures. In a way, he felt lucky to experience what he was witnessing. Lifeforms from all across the solar system, the galaxy, and perhaps even beyond.
The opening of the ship’s belly far below squashed any feeling of good fortune he had attained. The screech of metal sounded as the doors began to part, revealing a lumpy, gray surface below.
Noble stepped close enough to the wall of his orb that his hair should have prickled, but his beard remained matted to his chin. Cautiously, he poked the gooey skin wall. His finger pushed into the oozing substance.
He pulled it back, and a string of jelly came away with his finger.
The force field was down…
A sudden sharp pain ripped through his gut. He yelled in agony. The cord retracted from his stomach, accompanied by a loud hiss. It whipped to the floor, where it vanished into a slot that resealed.
Noble reached down to grab at the bleeding wound in his abdomen. A small red hole not much bigger than a pea flashed with pain. He pressed his palm over the swollen flesh and staggered a few feet to the other side of his prison for a better look below.
The hangar doors continued opening in a screech that drowned out the grunting, croaking, panting, and other noises of the riled-up aliens.
The liquid entity had taken on the shape of a human again, and was screaming. Noble swallowed hard when he realized it was the same voice he had heard earlier. The festering hope of finding another person on the Organic ship drained out of him like the liquid from an orb.
He forced himself to look back down at the ground, which was rising to meet the ship. Mounds shaped like ant-hills dotted the terrain that stretched under the open doors, and miniature creatures moved in lines out of the holes like insects.
An alien spacecraft shot by below the ship, the raucous sound of its engines vibrating throughout the chamber. Roots waved its spindly arms back and forth and dropped from the top of its orb to the floor.
Several alien noises rang out.
Ribbit stood on both its chicken legs and looked down. The creature croaked and groaned. Still sick, Noble judged by the crusty goo covering its cracked hide.
You have arrived.
The voice in Noble’s head came at the same time the other alien prisoners all started to move and make noises. Ribbit, who tilted his oval head, appeared perplexed. Even Roots seemed distracted, its arms waving back and forth like it was trying to communicate. The liquid alien had reformed into a puddle on the ground, and ripples undulated over it.
You have arrived, repeated the voice in his mind. He wasn’t imagining it. This was the same multi-dimensional entity that had communicated with him before. The four shimmering figures had returned in the center of the chamber. All at once, they fanned out to check on their specimens.
Normally the other aliens were quiet at the sight of the overlords, but not this time. Did they know something he didn’t?
Stay calm.
This time Noble wasn’t sure if the words came from the aliens or if he was saying it in his own mind. He wasn’t sure what to believe or think right now.
What he did know was: the dead gray surface they were headed toward wasn’t Earth. The gray surface reminded him of dead skin. As the ship descended farther, the aliens on the surface skittered away. Now Noble saw them clearly. They were spiders. Thousands of them.
Dust swirled beneath the ship, blocking his view of the pockmarked surface of this alien planet and the creatures that lived here.
His gaze flitted to the apparition floating toward his orb.
“Where are we?” Noble asked.
The reply came in his mind.
Your destination.
“And where is that?” he asked.
Your species called this place the Moon.
Noble blinked, trying to process the information. “Our moon? Like the moon that orbits Earth?”
It is the same.
The dust settled below as the ship landed with a jolt that rocked the bulkheads. The vibration knocked Noble to the floor. He pushed himself back up as the creature flickered away, leaving him standing at the edge of the orb.
Prepare yourself, Captain Rick Noble.
The voice echoed in his mind, and he slowly peered out of the orb. Below, a small cigar-shaped alien ship flew under the open doors and glided into the center of the chamber. Orbs on the bottom level shot away from the bulkheads and attached to the side of the ship like metal flakes to a magnet.
Roots looked up at Noble just as its orb ripped away from the wall and slammed into the ship. As the ship made its way up toward his level, Noble’s shivered and moved away from the bulkhead.
He was next.
***
The hum of the Rhino’s motors was their constant companion as they shot over the Martian surface. They were still headed in the general direction of where the NTC colony was supposed to be. Like a car driving in the night with no headlights, in hopes of running into a city hidden in the sand, Bouma thought.
They were relying on hope and a bit of luck. After all, stranger things had happened.
He was seated in the rear of the Rhino, next to Sophie and Emanuel. Diego and Ort manned the cockpit, and Holly was still making sure the kids were faring the best they could through their trauma. Right now, she was getting them to settle into naps.
Bouma still couldn’t believe Sophie had been resurrected from her slumbers and was, against all odds, lucid. Then again, maybe it wasn’t good fortune that she’d been able to wake up like that. It probably had something to do with the nanobots. He studied Sophie for a moment when she closed her eyes. Even though she claimed not to be in pain any longer, her skin still looked taut and pale. Her lips seemed locked in a permanent grimace when she wasn’t talking.
“Damn, but it’s good to see you awake, Sophie,” Bouma said.
She massaged her temples, and when she spoke, her words came out groggily. “I’m glad to see we’re in one piece.” A look of worry crossed her face. “We still haven’t heard anything from Jeff and David?”
Bouma shook his head. “Sonya’s been looking for any signals that might be coming from an EVA suit, but we haven’t gotten any hits yet.”
“Those two boys are tough,” Sophie said. “We’ll find them.”
Bouma caught Holly’s eyes. He knew her well enough to sense what was going on in her mind. Even if Jeff and David had somehow survived the reactor failure of the Sunspot, they wouldn’t survive out there for long. They were tough, there was no doubt about that. Bouma knew it well enough from training them back in Cheyenne Mountain. But no matter how good shots they were, they couldn’t survive out there without food, water, or oxygen.
“I shouldn’t be alive,” Sophie said, coming back to her senses. She looked at Emanuel. “This must have something to do with the nanobots.”
So Bouma wasn’t the only one to suspect the Organics had something to do with this.
“Can’t say I disagree,” Emanuel said.
No, it looked like everyone was as concerned about the alien technology as he was.
“But without an actual laboratory,” Emanuel continued, “I have no way of telling whether the bots are dead or active. Maybe there are just a bunch of dead bots acc
umulating in your liver and being cleansed from your blood. Might explain why you were able to wake up.”
“Maybe,” Sophie said. It didn’t seem like she believed him.
That worried Bouma. Holly seemed to be able to tell. She lifted herself from her seat next to the sleeping children and deposited herself into the one next to him, leaning her head against his shoulder.
“You’re thinking about Lt. Smith, aren’t you?” she whispered.
“You deduce all that with your psychoanalytical skills?” Bouma asked.
“It doesn’t take a psychologist to tell me that. I know you, Chad. I was thinking the same thing.”
“Smith betrayed us. She opened Cheyenne Mountain to the Organics, and they ran us out of there. Nearly killed every one of us.”
“Smith didn’t betray us. It was the nanobots. They controlled her. You know she never would’ve done that if it weren’t for the Organics.”
“That’s kind of what I’m afraid of,” Bouma said, looking up at Sophie. “This is supposed to be her mission. We’re on Mars, where she wanted us to come, looking for a colony she wanted us to find. And now, right when we’re finally headed in that direction, she wakes up as if the RVAMP blast back on Earth never happened.”
“She still seems like Sophie to me,” Holly said.
“Maybe, but how long before the Organics use her like a puppet?”
Holly appeared to consider that. She rubbed the back of Bouma’s hand. “I can’t explain it, but I don’t get the same feeling from her that I did from Smith.”
“What do you mean?” Bouma wasn’t sure he could tell if there was any distinction.
“She seems more in control, somehow. Maybe the last of the nanobots really were fried, and all it took was a prolonged rest in the cryo chamber for them to finally fizzle away. My guess is, they probably feed on living people or get energy from biological systems. And when everything is shut down when a person is in cryo, maybe they’re not feeding the bots anymore.”
Orbs IV_Exodus_Post Apocalyptic Science Fiction Survival Thriller Page 14