“Good. Probably too long though. How long have you been up?”
“Just a few hours. I was the first.” Wilk lowered his voice. “I may have found a way.”
Gerald looked around to make sure the others were completely preoccupied. “Good. When do we land?”
“About an hour. I think the sooner we do it, the better.”
“Tonight?”
“I don’t see why not.” Wilk pulled away from the computer to face Gerald. “Do you still think this is a good idea?”
“I think Capena will thank me later. But I got to get it back.” Gerald leaned forward slightly. “I still don’t know why I’m here. That stupid training had absolutely nothing to do with this mission.”
Wilk laughed. “Mine did. I don’t know what he was doing with you.”
Gerald pushed Wilk aside. “Just let me help you so I feel useful at least.”
Wilk pushed him back. “You can pretend to be busy. You’re good at that.”
With a slight laugh, Gerald leaned forward and pretended to activate things at random. “This is going to put me to sleep.”
Wilk sighed. “I can’t help that your first assignment isn’t until we try to land. Why don’t you go back to sleep?”
“Maybe I should have requested you to be put on the other ship.”
“I never did ask how you pulled that string.”
“Just a few last minute favors.”
“Like what?” Wilk asked with a confused expression.
“Trust me, I don’t want to go back to Mars anytime soon.” Gerald sighed. “Jessica won for now.”
“She seemed to watch you awfully close this last week. Good thing you actually behaved yourself. That must have been difficult for you.”
“You have no idea.” Gerald sat back and watched the others working hard until, at last, they reached the outer part of the Earth’s atmosphere.
Luna, the scientist in charge of their group, was seated up front. Beside her was the pilot. “We will be landing soon,” Luna said. “Gerald, the moment we are within range, you need to begin plotting our point of arrival.”
Gerald shot a smirk at Wilk. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Everyone, buckle up and hold on. This should go smoothly though.”
Gerald buckled in and turned his chair toward the window in the front. There was a slight shake as they got closer, but it was minor. Then, the ship leveled out and the dead wasteland broken up by sparkling blue water came into view.
“Gerald,” Luna said in a commanding voice. “Where is our site?”
Gerald looked at the map and then at the planet outside. The plot they had drawn up before leaving Mars showed that they needed to land just a bit further north, but Gerald was determined to get them closer to the southern coastline. “A little further.”
“Are you sure? Our readouts show we should land about here,” the pilot, Fenny said.
“Trust me, Fenny. I know what I’m doing. The soil here is not the right consistency. Just a little further south should do it.” Gerald held out as long as he dared. “This looks good. You can land anywhere along here.”
The ship slowed down and circled around as it lowered to the ground, landing softly a thousand feet from the water’s edge. “We have successfully landed. All initial personnel please get suited up and begin with today’s samples. Everyone else, sit tight.”
Gerald stood up, put on the one piece suit that loosely fit on his body and put the headset on. He grabbed his case. Then he, Wilk, and Sutton, a lanky kid with eyes that seemed far too large, made their way out onto the burning hot surface. The planet hadn’t decreased in heat in the least. Gerald glanced at the other two who looked almost ready to die.
As though she could see them and their miserable faces, Luna said, “Activate your suits.”
Gerald pushed the button on the collar and immediately he felt the cooling sensation travel over his body. It may have been three thousand degrees out, but he felt as though there were a cool constant breeze upon him. “Where was this suit when we were living in this hell hole?”
Wilk laughed. “You might have never left if you just had this suit.”
“Yeah, I mean no food and no water were problems, but the heat was definitely the worst part.” He walked forward a ways to the edge of the ocean and stared out over the waves at the glimmering, shimmering surface. “It didn’t look like this when I lived here.”
“I bet not. Is it weird?” Wilk asked.
“Seeing the planet so different? Yeah.” Gerald bent down and felt the water on his hands. “I think we should start taking samples.”
Wilk shook his head. “Sutton’s already way ahead of us: the disappointment brothers. I’ve got soil.”
“And I’ve got water.” With a click, he opened the case to reveal fourteen different vials. Two samples per day while they were going to be there. He grabbed the first vial and filled it with water only. Then, after simply screwing the lid back on, he placed it back in the case. There was a brief red light behind the vial.
“Good job, Gerald,” Luna said in his ear. “Get back to the ship until your next sample.”
Gerald closed the case and walked back to the ship, Wilk just behind him. “So what were the results?” he asked as he took the suit off inside the ship and placed the case back in its corner.
“We’re analyzing them now, but we won’t have anything accurate until we’ve analyzed at least four samples,” Luna said. “Next team, please begin measurements.” Three more of the members grabbed their packs and left the ship after being completely suited up.
Gerald looked at how preoccupied everyone else was. He hit Wilk on the side of the head and moved through the sleep chamber. Within a couple seconds Wilk had done the same thing. The door slid shut. “So do you think we’ll be able to pull this off?”
“Of course,” Wilk said. “I’ve got everything we need in my pack. You just worry about how we’re getting that damn thing back.”
“I’ve got that under control. How are we going to sneak off?”
“That’s easy, you and I volunteer for the shift tonight. We’ll be on watch and we’ll be watching…just nowhere near here.”
“And if we get caught?” Gerald asked.
“I throw you to the wolves.” Wilk laughed. “We should get back out there before Luna notices. Don’t want to raise suspicion before we get this done.”
“Good point.”
Gerald spent most of the day just staring at the computer screens, pretending he knew what any of the readouts really meant. Finally, after hours, the sun set and the final samples of the day were taken. The crew sat, staring at Luna.
“I need volunteers to do a night watch. There will need to be three samples during the evening. The watch team is to monitor for any abnormal activity in the evening hours.”
Gerald bit his tongue. What did she expect was going to happen?
“So, who wants the job?”
Gerald and Wilk threw their hands up without hesitation. But another did as well: Fenny.
“Good, the three of you can do it together. The rest of us are off to bed. We’ll relieve you at sun up. Try not to fall asleep.”
Gerald grabbed his case and left the ship, Wilk just behind him. “Now what?” he whispered knowing that Fenny wasn’t far behind.
“Relax. This is easily solved.”
“We’re not killing him.”
“No shit.”
Fenny joined the other two. “Alright, so do you two have a suggestion as to how we’re going to do this?”
Wilk cleared his throat. “I think we should each take a third, spread out, one thousand feet in three separate directions from the ship. Sound good?”
Fenny nodded. “I’ll go toward the ocean. You two can go that way and that.” He pointed behind the ship at two separate angles. “See you in the morning.”
Gerald watched as Fenny walked away. He waited until he was out of earshot before talking to W
ilk. “I think it might be a good idea to wait a few minutes in each of our spots before reconvening. I’ll meet you in that direction in about ten minutes.”
Wilk agreed and the two then walked away from each other to their watch spots. Gerald walked as slowly as he could. The planet seemed so different. He felt like a stranger visiting an old acquaintance. It just wasn’t the same. Maybe it was because he knew that he didn’t have to stay or that he realized there was no one left. Either way, Gerald could feel it was no longer home.
When he was sure he had travelled a thousand feet, he glanced toward the ocean’s edge to see if he could make out Fenny. He could. Fenny was turned in the other direction from what he could tell, though, so Gerald turned back and started toward the meeting point. He arrived first.
“Are you ready?” Wilk asked.
Gerald turned to see him bent over, rifling through his case. “What are you looking for?”
“Our transport. Got it.” He pulled out a cube no bigger than a brick.
“You brought a cube. Do you want to ride it first or should I?”
Wilk mock laughed. “You really should have studied our technology a bit more. Wait for it.” He set the cube on the ground and placed a palm on each side. It took a minute, but the whole thing shuddered, sending a wave of shimmering color across it entirely. Wilk backed away.
“What…” Gerald took a step back as well as the cube began to grow. The metal unfolded slowly, little by little until it took the form of a two seater hover scooter. “How in the hell did you do that?”
“It’s a fold out,” Wilk said with a shrug. “Not a big deal. This one’s a little older, but I thought it would work well for the two of us. Here, put this on. It’ll allow us to go faster without ripping our heads off. We’ll still be able to talk to each other while we travel too.” Wilk handed Gerald a form fitting helmet. They both put them on.
“Where’d you get it?”
“I borrowed it from my parents. They don’t use it anymore. You think I could afford this thing?”
“I guess that leaves one question, do you want the front or the back?” Gerald smiled.
“Front.” Wilk climbed on first and immediately began to punch in some controls. “Get on. We need to go before Fenny notices we’ve left.”
Gerald climbed on. He could feel the steady hum of the machine beneath him, but there was no sound. The scooter lifted from the ground. Leaning forward slightly and wrapping his arms around Wilk, Gerald felt himself almost ripped backward as it shot forward. They were traveling fast. That was good because they had a long way to go in a short amount of time.
“Can this thing go any faster?” Gerald asked, leaning forward and adjusting his grip on Wilk.
“It can, but I don’t want you to fall off.”
“I’ll be fine, but at this rate, we’ll never make it back before sun up. And we haven’t done a sample. They’re going to know we weren’t there if we don’t take a sample before everyone else gets up.”
“Alright, but if you fall off, I’m going on without you.”
Gerald laughed. He tightened his grip and leaned forward. The power was intense as they increased speed, but he knew it would be worth it if they got there that much faster.
It took the two nearly two hours to arrive at Gerald’s old neighborhood. He looked at the homes with remorse and an uneasiness in the pit of his stomach.
“You lived here?” Wilk said as he stepped off the scooter. “How?”
The houses were just as they left them. Some burnt to a crisp, most decrepit and many devoid of character. “With a lot of faith and a massive amount of hope.”
“I knew things were bad, I mean, I listened to the stories you would tell and the stories of so many other people from Earth, but those stories would never be able to do this justice. You guys were pretty badass to have survived this.”
“You know, you’ve been through a lot too.”
“It’s not the same. We let Juno get that bad. You didn’t cause this.”
“Of course we did. Man is the number one source of all its problems. Come on, we need to get this thing and head back.” Gerald led the way to the city hall, the best standing building in the center of the neighborhood. “It’s in here. My mother always thought that my hobby of collecting mankind’s final treasures was bit eccentric for our times, but I knew someday things would get better. We’re a resilient species and if we survived, our history needed to as well.”
“How much did you collect?”
Gerald sighed. He walked into the house first and held open the door for Wilk to follow. The bottom floor was far dustier than when he had left it. The windows were caked in dirt, barely letting in the moonlight. “Do you have a light?”
Wilk reached into his bag and pulled out a flashlight. “I’ll hold the light, you just lead the way.”
“Thanks. I had two rooms full of stuff upstairs already, but this thing was way bigger. Too heavy to carry up those stairs to the second floor so I managed to hide it in a room down here.” Gerald carefully crept through the squeaky floor board hallway to the second door on the right. He pushed it open and there it sat, still under the old, hole filled blanket.
Wilk pushed past him and ripped the blanket off the probe. “You’re right, this was definitely worth the risk.”
“Do you think it’ll have anything useful on it?”
“I don’t think that matters. I think Capena would give you a medal just for having found it. So how are we getting it back?”
“I hope this works.” Gerald reached inside his suit and pulled out a small cup.
“And what are you going to do with that?”
“It’s John’s invention. The one they used to bring all that water back in. I was hoping it might be able to transport this monster.”
“I think you’d have better luck getting Jessica to let you off the hook, but go for it.”
“It might take some maneuvering, but I think I can make this work.” Gerald activated the small haltengoss and held it against the large space probe. Nothing happened. “It might be a little too big. I have an idea.”
“Good, I’m glad one of us does.”
“The only part of this thing we need really is the computer. We wouldn’t need anything else actually. So we just need to find the memory in this thing.”
“You’re crazy. If you think for one second that I know anything about this thing. How are we supposed to know what we need and what we don’t?”
Gerald shrugged. “We’ll just have to take a guess.” He began to pull away anything that didn’t look like it belonged. Anything bulky used for the flight, well, what was left of the flight system. He eventually found the main box and, severing a few wires, tore it away. “This should be it. It’s smaller, quite a bit so, so maybe we can get it to fit in this thing.” Gerald, again, activated the haltengoss and placed it close to the box. Slowly, the cube began to shrink away until it had disappeared into the small cup. “That was awesome.”
“Come on, we need to get back.”
“Go on, I’ll catch up.”
“You can’t take anything else with you. Don’t you dare risk all of this for more stuff. We got what we came for, let’s go.”
“I’m not taking anything else. I just need a minute.” Gerald took a deep breath, and concentrated to level out his voice. “I just need a minute.”
Wilk nodded and left the room. “If you’re not outside in five minutes, I’m leaving without you.”
Gerald smirked as he approached the probe one last time. He placed his hand on the cold steel, tearing away one last panel. It was still there: the last piece of the puzzle; the final thing he needed to take. He carefully lifted it with two hands and held it to the haltengoss. “I hope your death is not in vain.”
He tucked the device safely away into his suit and ran from the house.
“Are you done?” Wilk asked.
“Just needed to say goodbye.”
“Well, did you?”
Gerald jumped off the scooter and took off his helmet. “I’ll head back to my post and then I’m going up to see Fenny. I think you should do the same. That way we can take our samples and report without raising suspicion. See you in a few minutes.”
The night was almost over, the sky turning that velvet black just before the sun was to rise. Gerald had always enjoyed that part of the day the most. It was the quietest. When everything and everyone was still, anxiously anticipating the arrival of the sun. He was halfway to his watch spot when his feet turned of their own accord, wearisome of the long journey and moved instead straight for the ocean’s edge. He could see Wilk doing the same of to his left a ways.
Fenny was still in his position, facing away from them. He probably, being the good scientist that he was, had not moved at all from his spot.
“How’s it going?” Gerald asked when he reached Fenny’s side. “See anything yet?”
“No. Have you?”
“Nothing to report.” Gerald shrugged. “Sun’s almost up. Did you take samples yet?”
“I set my watch as an alarm. It should go off in a couple minutes if you want to go ahead and take the measurements.”
Gerald nodded. He set his case on the ground and pulled out the third vial. He scooped up a bit of the water and then placed the vial right back in the case. He watched Wilk do the same with the air sample as Fenny took a sand sample. “Well, I guess now we just wait to be relieved.”
“It is amazing that you Earthlings survived at all,” Fenny said.
Gerald glanced at Wilk behind Fenny’s back. Earthlings? He made it sound like they were two different species. “It was tough. We were tougher.”
“I don’t think I could have done it.”
“Thanks, I think.” Gerald looked out over the ocean. The waves were beautiful, the water glistening. At the water’s edge, at the curve of the planet, the sun was slowly making its way up, causing the water to glisten and sparkle. There was silence and serenity. He wished he could stay there forever, just staring out over that ocean.
The Oceans of Mars Page 9