by Nick Braker
“We’re heading to Mars. Girls, figure out how we can bury them with reverence and respect on that planet. I think the best way to remember them is to give them something no other human being can ever claim. I wish they could have a more memorable honor than being the first humans buried on Mars but it is at least something unique and I hope they would agree.”
“Jules, I’m sure Mira already has the course laid in, so if you will do us the honor and get us to Mars with all expediency.”
She nodded at him, tears flowing from her face. The girls cried but they kept working. Greg got them each a piece of cloth to wipe their tears. He gave Seph one first and moved around the bridge to the rest. Greg returned to his seat as Asher felt the ship move out of orbit from around the sun. The delayed response allowed inertia to bleed through the force of the gravity well generators. Asher was glad it did, otherwise, he’d have no idea they were moving. He was also glad to see the girls were capable of emotion. They could finally let some of it out. Regardless of how tough they claimed to be, no human could go indefinitely without venting their feelings somehow. Now that the danger appeared to be over, the bridge was somewhat subdued but reverent.
“Call me when we get there,” Asher said, leaving the bridge. “I’ll be in my quarters.”
Weston and Brandon followed right behind him.
“Six minutes, sir,” Mira said softly.
He almost didn’t hear. More importantly, he almost missed the significance of what she was telling him.
Only six minutes to Mars.
Greg patted on Asher’s shoulder as he walked by hoping it would comfort him. Greg pulled one of the computer assisted chairs to Seph’s station and sat down beside her.
“Were any of your three sorority sisters, uh... like you four girls?” he asked.
Seph shook her head, wiping her gorgeous green eyes.
“No, they were brilliant but not like us,” she said, her voice wavering.
She didn’t mean it to sound arrogant or insulting but it could have been interpreted that way. He got the impression she wished she had said that better. Greg put his hand on her shoulder, feeling the tension drain from her. It was all he could do and it seemed to help.
“Thank you, Greg, you are a decent man. I am glad you are here. I have wondered since waking here, what happened to the other guests at the party. Why us eight? I have considered the possibility they took all of us and we were coincidentally last in the procedure. They could have killed everyone else before we awoke. What do you think?” she said.
Greg’s head drooped, staring at the floor.
“I hadn’t thought of that but you’re right. It makes sense. Our swimsuits were dry when we woke. We could have just been the last ones left.”
“If that is the case, then everyone from the party is dead except us. They went through horrific pain and agony before dying,” she said, letting the comment settle in the air before continuing. “Have you thought about why they are extracting the hypothalamus, the thyroid and the pituitary glands?”
“Sorry, I have not. I feel horrible about it but I have been distracted,” he said, looking at her uncomfortably.
His cheeks flushed beet red.
“Oh,” she managed a weak smile. “Me too.”
Greg’s eyes went wide as her question finally registered with him.
“The aliens are extracting what?” Greg exclaimed, surprised. “Wait, how do you know that?”
Seph buried her face in her hands in exhaustion.
“Zara examined the corpses of the girls earlier today. She found all three glands missing. Each one removed from them.”
“Ugh. What would they want with those?” he asked.
“We are working on several theories but we do not have enough data to determine that yet.”
Greg didn’t really want to pursue the topic. They needed to work on burying the girls.
“Asher asked about a burial service, I mean a memorial service. Any thoughts on how we can accomplish that?” Greg asked.
“The ship has lasers,” Jules interjected.
“They are designed to penetrate shielding and metal hulls.” Seph added. “I could modify them enough to cut into soil and rock. Perhaps we could vaporize holes large enough for our friends--”
“And if they are deep enough,” Jules said. “We could cover them up by attempting to collapse the surrounding soil and rock around them.”
Mira and Zara joined their conversation. Jules stayed at her station intent on keeping an eye on their progress to Mars.
“How do we get their bodies into the graves?” he asked.
Zara raised her hand, pausing the conversation.
“I have several ideas of using Mars’ gravity and letting them fall out of the airlock as we hover the ship over the graves at right angles but I do not like the idea of treating them so.”
“I thought of that too,” Seph said, “but like you, I do not think it is proper.”
“Are there any alien spacesuits onboard?” Greg asked.
“Actually, while we all searched every section of the ship, the eight of us were only looking for aliens at the time. The sections we searched do not have spacesuits. The sections that you four guys searched, in contrast, should be checked again,” Zara said.
“Why just our sections?” Greg said, frowning.
“Because each of the areas we searched do not have alien spacesuits,” she said, sounding completely confident she was correct.
“Since you four were not looking for spacesuits, how do you know that?” he asked.
Zara continued.
“Because we can see every single place on this ship that we searched in our memories. There are no spacesuits.”
Greg shook his head.
“I’ll get Brandon and Weston to help me. Excuse me, Einsteins.”
“Please do not insult us,” she replied, pretending to be offended. “Einstein was hardly in our league.”
The other three girls started laughing as Greg walked away. He had wanted to stay and talk with Seph but instead walked down the ramp to track down Weston and Brandon. He brought them both up to speed on the discussion topside. They agreed to do a search for alien spacesuits and meet back on deck.
After all, they were wearing the alien’s clothes, the suits should fit.
Greg retraced his steps in the areas he had searched previously and found a spacesuit in the closet of the alien bedroom. He returned to the base of the ramp on the lower section and found both Brandon and Weston held a suit in their arms.
“Lucky, I guess. Unfortunately, I can tell you right now, they will not fit anyone around six feet tall. That leaves Weston and the four girls as the only ones able to wear them.”
Her mental clock reminded her they had just 70 seconds left before arriving at Mars. Mira hit the comm-switch. Asher would want to be on the bridge for their arrival to Mars. She estimated it would take him 52 seconds once he got the message.
“Captain to the bridge,” Mira said.
She hated estimates but there was no way to correctly calculate his arrival. Asher was too random. Perhaps Jules would simply wait for Asher to reach the bridge before proceeding.
“Jules,” Mira said. “Are you going--?”
“Yes,” Jules interjected sweetly. “I will wait until he gets on deck before I bring the ship into orbit.” She smiled back at her. “We take good care of him, right?”
Mira nodded.
“And Greg too,” Seph said, glaring playfully at Mira.
“You like him?” Mira asked.
Seph nodded slightly, turning back to her station.
“You know he is married,” Mira said.
It didn’t need saying. Seph’s shoulders sagged.
“Yes but I cannot help how I feel. We are just friends.”
Girl, you got it bad.
“There is something special about all four of them,” Zara said. “Although, I think Weston and Brandon would best be described as mentally chall
enged,” Zara laughed. “Brandon is extremely comely. I wish my plan had come to fruition. He was all mine that night, even if he did think it was his idea.”
“Zara, you are incorrigible,” Mira laughed.
“Seph, Jules, Mira, when are you three going to give up the fight? Are you still holding on for the right guy?” Zara smirked.
Seph’s face turned red with anger. Seph was tired. They all were and, although Zara was just playing with her, it was about to get ugly. Mira placed her hand on Seph’s shoulder and jumped in first.
“Zara, call us old fashioned but waiting is the right thing to do. We have already discussed this at length with you. We think you are wrong and you think we are silly. Let it go and stop pushing buttons just because you are tired and irritable.”
Zara sighed.
“You are right. My filters are down right now. I am upset and tired. I’m also angry I missed my shot with Brandon.”
“There will be others,” Mira added.
Mira and Seph rolled their eyes. Zara’s apology had softened the blow and Seph’s anger was subsiding. Mira loved Seph like a sister but her anger was easily provoked. She heard someone walking up the ramp. Judging by the sound, it had to be Asher.
“Places, everyone,” Mira whispered. “We do not want the Captain to see us standing around.”
She sat down at her station just as Asher’s head cleared the top of the ramp. Right behind him were Brandon, Weston and Greg. They were empty handed. This meant they either left the spacesuits below or they didn’t find any at all.
“You called?” Asher asked.
“We are less than a minute away, sir, and we thought you would like to see this,” Jules said.
His eyes lit up when he looked at Jules. Mira smirked to herself. Asher’s interest in Jules was palpable. The two of them liked each other but for some reason Mira wasn’t so sure. It didn’t feel right for Asher but Mira could not explain her feeling.
“Greg,” Seph said. “Get over here and check this out.”
“Sure thing,” he said.
Mira made a mental note to speak with Seph later. She needed Seph to back off with Greg. He was married. Mira frowned inwardly at the thought of Seph getting too deeply involved with Greg.
My friend is a determined young woman and she has always gotten what she wants. Greg is off limits or one of them is going to get hurt.
Asher took the command seat and his friends took their usual places. Greg had pulled one of the chairs over next to Seph who was showing him something on the screens. Mira couldn’t think of anything Greg needed to see. Seph had simply created a reason to have Greg near her. She wanted to shake her head in disappointment but Asher would see it and likely ask why.
“Jules, take us in. We’ll need to do a scan for possible burial sites. I want something spectacular. Perhaps the highest point on Mars?”
“Aye, Captain,” Jules said, playfully.
The flirt.
The forward view screen panned left, revealing the rust colored planet ahead. Mars was quiet and to Mira it felt like Mars was sleeping. Alone and lifeless in this part of space, the planet simply existed, without purpose.
“I will put us in a retrograde orbit. We can use the planet’s rotation and our speed against it to scan a bit faster with less energy.”
“That was an unnecessary explanation,” Mira said.
“That was not for you three,” Jules replied.
Greg rolled his eyes this time. Mira fed Jules’ station several locations of interest she had just received from Zara who used the ship’s surprisingly vast knowledge of Mars’ terrain to her advantage. There were several minutes of quiet before Zara broke the silence on the bridge.
“Interesting, this ship has a lot of information on our solar system’s planets.”
Mira nodded but Jules looked disappointed at the news.
“We won’t need to scan the planet then?” Asher asked.
“Correct. We have the entire planet already in the database,” Mira replied.
“Find the highest point and set us down there,” he ordered.
“Does 69,649.2 feet sound high enough?” Mira asked.
Asher nodded.
“And what did you four come up with? The guys found three spacesuits, which are below,” Asher said.
Mira examined the live video feed of the lower deck. Sure enough, the suits were there, stowed away in several open engineering lockers. All three were too small for the men.
“Myself, Zara and Seph will don the spacesuits, ensure they will work for us, and use them to bury our sisters. Seph?”
“Yes, we can use the metal tables from the surgical room. They are solid panels with four of six sides of a cube. I can weld the other two sides and create three air tight enclosures which we will fill with an inert gas like neon. It is the best we can do with the materials onboard. They will make excellent, um, coffins.”
It took Jules 5.2 minutes to reach Olympus Mons. She landed the ship without incident and they began preparations for the burial. Mira was impressed that it took only a few hours, considering there were some initially clumsy attempts at walking on Mars. In the end, the metallic coffins were laid to rest inside three graves created by the ship’s lasers. Mira gave the eulogy at the gravesite with Seph and Zara. The rest of the crew listened over the comm-system.
The three returned to the ship, stowed the spacesuits and found the rest of the crew back on the bridge at their respective stations. The Mars walkers had returned... safely.
Asher paced the outer edge of the bridge.
“How much longer to Earth?” he asked.
“Two minutes remaining to a second geosynchronous orbit over London, England,” Mira said.
If he looked at Mira, she’d be beaming a smile at him. He continued to circle the bridge, starving, while Seph and Greg chatted quietly together at her engineering station. Brandon and Weston were sitting in their spots, laughing at something, as usual. He decided to return to the command chair. A course change and then an adjustment to their speed brought his eyes to the main screen.
Earth.
They must be in orbit or at least very close. Jules would easily avoid any satellite imaging systems but someone, somewhere would eventually see them from ground telescopes. He’d deal with that when the time came.
“I promised you all tacos,” he said. “Let’s get some food.”
The ship dove downward. The gravity well generators kicked in but the lag was there again, always a hair too late to completely hide the inertia. This time the inertia change nearly knocked him off his feet. Jules had pushed the engines hard.
“Jules, what happened to the orbit? I gather we are on our--” Asher started to say.
“Oh yeah. I am starving and I love tacos. A deadly combination,” she smirked.
Brandon and Weston began cheering for Jules.
“Punch it, baby,” they said in unison, adding some hoots.
The spaceship plunged through the atmosphere. The shields easily protecting them from the Mach seven velocity. Jules pushed the craft hard and straight down. Earth’s gravity and the ship’s acceleration were unable to affect the gravity well onboard the ship once it engaged. Being unable to feel the changes in the ship’s movements gave the impression of watching a movie on the main view screen. They were currently traveling through a heavy layer of clouds. The vapor obscured their vision through the main screen as they dove downward. In what seemed like a heartbeat, it was gone and the city of London was below. Jules’ hands played over the instrumentation again and the ship changed course. London began to shift to the right on the screen as they headed for their landing site.
“Where are you taking us?” Weston asked.
“Windsor Forest,” Mira replied. “London is too crowded to land anywhere in the city. We are going to drop in like a rock and stop the ship’s momentum as close to the ground as we can.”
“Eight feet to be exact,” Jules added. “I can do it safely but if you
have not done so already, please stow your carry-on luggage underneath the seat in front of you or in an overhead bin. Please take your seat and fasten your seat belt. Also, make sure your seat back and folding trays are in their full upright position. Thank you for flying Jules Airways. We make flying fun!”
Seph started giggling and Greg joined her.
“We’re so dead,” Asher said.
“Seph,” Jules said. “Would you increase power to the gravity generators? We will need as much power as they can handle to offset the inertia that would normally flatten us into messy little pancakes when I hit the brakes.”
“Did I mention the glue I used to get this ship flying?” Seph said in all seriousness.
“Pansy,” Jules said, not even looking at Seph.
Seph slid her finger over the monitor to force more power to the gravity generators.
“I will transfer power from life support, lighting, some from shielding--”
“Gotcha, the details are not necessary,” Jules said, beginning her countdown.
“10,000 feet,”
The ship started to shake slightly before power was leeched from the various systems. The extra power helped but it didn’t last as it was now rattling like a small earthquake.
“5,000 feet,”
The ground approached way too fast. Everyone except Jules grabbed hold of their chairs as hard as they could.
“1,000 feet,”
The tiny alien ship rattled hard and then the view screen went black a few times as it lost power. Jules hovered her hand over her console.
“Wait for it... wait for it... 10 feet.”
She smacked the air with her palm and the ship came to an instant stop. The gravity generators whined with the surge and the crew were pushed hard into their seats. The downward force lasted only an instant and then it was gone. The generators had offset the inertia and then kicked off when the ship stopped moving. A loud boom shook the bridge. The noised faded and the sounds of the bridge returned to normal.
“Damn it,” Jules exclaimed, whining.
“What?” Brandon said, panicking.
“Eight point five feet. I was wrong,” she grinned evilly.
Asher released his grip on his chair. His shoulders relaxed as he took in a breath and released it. He would have a long talk with Jules later. She did all that to minimize the chance someone would see them but endangering the group seemed borderline crazy. Right now his stomach was calling loud and clear. It was time to eat.