Odyssey_Double Helix

by R. Patricia Wayne

  “I’m so sorry,” Nyx said as she wiped her eyes.

  She didn’t want to leave Dax behind, but there was another thought hammering at the back of her brain. She’d never feel another moment’s peace until someone paid for this. She eyed the open manhole in the quickly darkening distance. And she already knew the first two names on her list.

  Ajax and Kilo.

  With a sneer, Nyx turned on her heel. And with clenched fists, she made her way through the snow and toward the open manhole cover. Although the dusk was growing darker by the second, and although the snow was falling fast and heavy, Nyx had no problem finding the open manhole cover. And without any pause or hesitation, she climbed down the rusty iron ladder and back into the old subway system.

  Ajax and Kilo we’re sitting at the base of the ladder, eyeing her as she marched over to her horse. Since Nyx already knew what was going to happen, and regardless of the fiery rage in her heart, she continued playing it calm. She casually readjusted the large bedroll, the torch, and the saddlebags. Without Dax as a passenger, Nyx pulled them forward to where they would normally sit.

  “Where’s the girl?” Ajax demanded in his assertive voice.

  Without looking at the man, Nyx drew in a deep breath and sharply exhaled. That was all the reply she would give him.

  “You let her go, didn’t you?” He asked.

  She removed the canteen from her back and tied it to the saddle horn. Once finished, she eyed Ajax over her shoulder, giving him a cold glare.

  With his head, Ajax gestured toward the ladder but spoke to his younger companion. “Go find the girl. Hurry, before she gets away.”

  Kilo bounced to his feet and scurried up the ladder. Once he disappeared from view, Nyx turned to face Ajax with gritted teeth, narrowed eyes, and clenched fists.

  “She’s dead!” Nyx jabbed a finger at him. “And that’s your fucking fault!”

  “I doubt that. You planned on letting her go all along didn’t you, woman?” He rose to his full six-feet. “That’s why you brought her with you.” He snorted a breath at her. “Mark my words, when Abraxas hears of this, he’ll let me challenge you to the arena.” He turned and began tightening his saddle.

  As soon as his back was turned, Nyx slipped her dagger from her boot. She quietly padded up behind him and with dagger in hand, she reached around his neck. And with one quick swipe with the razor-sharp blade, she slit his throat from ear to ear. The man collapsed to his knees, holding his throat and trying to gurgle out the words that could no longer escape his lips. Blood flowed and spurted from between his fingers.

  She gave him another sneer of disgust as she kicked his shoulder. His compliant body fell over on its side. With another boot thrust, she kicked him onto his back. Then she stood over him, watching the blood ooze and spray from his wound, watching him convulse as he gasped for breaths that he could not take, watching the life slowly drain from his eyes.

  Eventually, his limbs fell lifelessly to the ground. No more gasping or convulsing or gurgling. No movements at all. Nyx left Ajax where he laid. She pulled the saddlebags from his horse. After she placed them on Fury’s back, she then removed the saddle from his horse and dropped it to the ground.

  “Hah!” She slapped the horse on its rump. “Get outta here!” The horse galloped off into the darkened subway tunnel.

  She then repeated the process for Kilo’s mount. And once she’d freed Kilo’s horse, there was no doubt that only one person would return home now. Her. And with that now a fact, she lit her torch and rested it against the ladder. She backed away, standing in the shadows, facing the ladder, and patiently awaiting Kilo’s return.

  And no more than a minute later, the moment she had been waiting for came to pass.

  “She didn’t let Dax go, Ajax!” Kilo called out as he descended the ladder.“She’s dead!” He jumped down the last few stairs. With a grunt, he landed on his feet near the torch.

  Out of the shadows, Nyx marched forward. She raised her fist with the dagger in it. And as soon as Kilo heard her approach, or perhaps sensed it, he spun around to face her. And once she was within a single stride of her prey, she jabbed the dagger into one of his eye sockets. Screaming and reeling, he stumbled backward with his hands covering his face. She marched forward. She had no intention of letting him go, or allowing him to recover.

  Kilo came to an abrupt stop with his back against the ladder. She grabbed him by the parka with her free hand and pressed him against the ladder. With the other hand, she sank the dagger’s bloody blade deep into his heart. Slowly. Purposefully. She sneered at him, holding him pinned to the ladder as his cries slowly turned to whimpers. And just as slowly, the whimpers turned into silence. And then, Kilo’s lifeless corpse also littered the subway tunnel.

  Although she knew that killing Ajax and Kilo wouldn’t bring Dax back, somehow it seemed to help. All the rage was quickly draining from her body, and in its place, sorrow and pain filled her hollow heart.

  She returned the dagger to her boot, then after grabbing her torch, Nyx remounted Fury. And then she trotted her horse back the way they’d come.

  It may take her a very long time to find her way back, but eventually, she surely would. And in the process, she planned on mapping out the tunnels so she could memorize them. She’d never allow anyone to put her in a position like this again.

  And as Fury trotted along, another thought crossed her mind. The Archons were never going to stop kidnapping native girls from the wasteland. So, without a doubt, she’d meet other innocent girls one day. Then what would she do? Sooner or later, this day would repeat itself. She could feel it in her bones.

  She huffed out a breath.

  They were thoughts for another day.

  For now, it was time to find her way back.

  And Then the Morning Comes

  By Holly L. SkarsgÅrd

  EDITOR’S NOTE: On Mars, the rangers are the last remnants of Earth’s military. Now, they’ve become soldiers who patrol the jungle, protect the colonies from jungle beasts, and repair automated terraforming stations. But, service in the rangers is not usually by choice. It’s where society places those that have trouble conforming. They are sent off into the jungles and kept away from the colonies. And as the legal age of adulthood on Mars is fifteen-years-old, most of the rangers are lower-class young women, and girls who have had trouble with the law.

  Mars, one hundred miles southeast of the colony of Hesperides

  Year: 2253

  The dawn’s beauty filled the eyes and senses of Commander Aleesa Shaw. Not only had the monsoon rains finally ended, but the orange sun on the horizon slowly crept up into what promised to be a cloudless, bright blue sky for a change.

  Today was an important day for her squad of rangers. They would be traveling through new terrains today; the harsh savannahs and the barren badlands instead of the lush green jungles they normally patrolled. Her girls would see things they had never seen before, including an abandoned mining village. And if they didn’t drag their feet, they’d end their day at the nearly unpopulated Camp Andromeda.

  The mining camps were awful compared to the colonies, but they were luxurious accommodations for rangers. With the exception of seeing their base camp from time to time, it wasn’t often they slept anywhere but in the jungle or drank anything other than water.

  Commander Shaw felt so proud of her girls. They had collectively trudged through the unforgiving wilderness for the last two weeks, giving them a new unbreakable team spirit. This was part of Commander Shaw’s plan to bring these young women together. She continually exposed them to new skills and life lessons. It was through shared hardship that would quickly make them a tight-knit squad of rangers.

  Commander Shaw’s two decades in the rangers saw her survival knowledge tested every day, and this is what she’d hoped to pass onto her rangers. In planning this exercise, she intended for her still-inexperienced squad to learn how to deal with a wide variety of situations and environments. These women
would grow to be just as flexible and adaptive as she was. These young rangers were equal to her in their cleverness and resourcefulness. They just didn’t know it yet. She’d seen them becoming increasingly resourceful every moment of the trip. And that made being their commander a rewarding experience.

  Unfortunately, Commander Shaw’s squad members had also learned some painful lessons due to a lack of experience. Some of her squad members were covered in bruises from falls they had encountered during tricky climbing exercises on one particular moss-covered cliff face. Although she routinely explained what to do and gave demonstrations, not all of them had the same strength and determination Commander Shaw possessed. Thinking back to last night, she made a mental note to keep an eye on Violette today, her youngest squad member, and the one who had been attacked by a beast none of them saw in the dark. With her chest wounds being freshly stitched, she’d walk fine, but there would be no climbing for her until she healed.

  “Ladies!” Shaw called out. “We’re leaving in five minutes. I want everyone in a single line by the large rocks to your left.” Shaw pointed to a collection of boulders. “Also, take your rubbish with you. I don’t want to see a trail of trash leading all the way back to the base.”

  True to form, Commander Shaw packed away her ranger-issued cutlery and cleaned up her trash. She stood next to the boulders and thought about the mining camp they’d reach tonight. She looked forward to being indoors for a change, to sitting down for a drink. She did a quick head count. Her vibrant nature was infectious as she met every squad member’s gaze. She could see it in their faces. They were just as eager to get started as she was.

  “This morning, we’ll be slipping through an old miner’s village. It’s abandoned, but we’re going to simulate that it’s full of threats. This exercise will force you to think on your feet. We’ll practice securing intersections, covering each other, and breaking into two teams to secure objectives. After that, we’re traveling to an old mining camp. That’s where this trek ends. Mix things up today. Pick a new partner for the day. Watch each other’s back.”

  The women slipped through the crumbling remains of long deserted buildings. Watching these women flit in and out, practicing their skills was astounding. They hid behind the old labs, crumbling warehouses, and decaying apartment buildings, and all with skill and precision. They were transforming from a collection of outcasts into a highly skilled squad of rangers.

  By 10:00 a.m., the drill had ended and they began trekking across the dry and barren savannah, which soon turned into a forest of old dead trees and ancient red rocks. After an hour, they had traveled so far they could no longer see a trace of the emerald green foliage that they’d left behind. After another hour, the savannah turned into the barren expanse known as the Badlands. All that lie ahead now was a dusty and rocky landscape where even trees forgot how to grow. The wind, however, never forgot how to spread dust.

  With her squad behind her, Shaw marched on. And on. And on. There wasn’t anything exciting or interesting about the Badlands. Rocks, cracked clay ground, blowing sand and grit that stuck to every inch of her hot and sweaty skin... It became the bane of existence. It tried the patience of anyone who was forced to make this journey. Even her energetic squad had lost their enthusiasm. With slumped shoulders and heads hanging low, they shuffled along in the torrid heat as if they had just lost a battle. The commander had to keep reminding herself that it wasn’t going to be like this forever. They had a goal. They would make it to camp soon and everything would be fine.

  The harsh Badlands eventually turned into the dusty promised land: Camp Andromeda. Commander Shaw had been to this camp several times and enjoyed it each time. It was a sprawling little community of approximately two dozen miners that spent their days underground gathering ore of one kind or another. No one would ever confuse this place for a resort, but to travel-weary rangers, it was a welcomed sight all the same. Knowing their ordeal was nearing an end, Shaw smiled and looked back at her squad. Their bodies were colored a dusty orange. They melded perfectly into the sunset’s tangerine sky.

  Not far from the sand-covered shuttle landing pad, Commander Shaw turned and pointed at the doorway with the ranger logo on it—a skull wearing a beret above crossed daggers—signaling her girls to proceed underground. They filed down the long staircase and into the ranger barracks located two sub-levels below the surface. This would be home for the next several days, unless of course, they were to receive new orders from base camp.

  Shaw was lucky, her position gave her a spacious commander’s quarters. Everyone else slept in bunks in the barrack’s room. It didn’t matter. The squad was just happy to see beds in any form. The young women stripped, showered, and clambered back to their packs, laughing as they hurriedly dressed in clean fatigues. Shaw knew why. They were eager to reap the rewards of their hard work in the bar just a few doors down from the ranger’s quarters.

  After everyone was dressed, they all put their hair up into the standard ranger ponytail and rushed out into the night. Shaw knew all her girls were beat, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at their smiling faces, by the sounds of their chatter and laughter, or by the bounce in their steps. Shaw had been in their position many times before. They were carried to the bar by thoughts of alcohol, fun, and excitement.

  All the mining camps were rarely policed, and their bars even less so. Not even the protectorate wanted to come out this far. Inside the bar, Shaw eyed the room, looking for potential threats. And after visually sweeping the room, she relaxed. There was only one male patron and the usual female bartender tonight. Shaw instructed everyone to go to the bar and order whatever they preferred to drink.

  When the drinks came, Shaw raised her margarita glass. “I want to propose a toast to celebrate every one of you. Your resilience, your resourcefulness, and your stamina. Watching you out do yourselves over the last few weeks has given me a renewed sense of pride. I’m proud to be in command of an outstanding squad of rangers. Drink up, ladies! Here’s to a great night!”

  With laughs and glasses raised, voices shouted back.

  “Good work everyone!”

  “Thank you, Commander Shaw!”

  “Cheers!”

  Spotting a couple girls with empty wine glasses, the commander scanned the bar and located the wooden racks full of wine bottles, just beyond the end of the bar.

  Her squad’s elevated and excited voices noticeably pricked the patron’s ears at the end of the bar. Now, Commander Shaw recognized the man. He was Commander Lewis Graves, another ranger commander. Shaw knew who he was, but had never met him. Actually, everyone knew who Graves was. He was as tall and muscular as men come. It was unusual to have two ranger squads in the same camp at the same time. This was not only odd but might present a problem if they both had their sights on the same resources. But, that was not a problem for tonight. Shaw was more interested in relaxing with her girls.

  Commander Shaw made her way to the end of the bar, stopping beside Commander Graves. As he sipped at his glass of whiskey, she reached around him, grabbing two bottles of red wine from the shelf behind him.

  His low voice rumbled, “Commander Shaw. Congrats. I heard you got a new squad, and it looks like you’ve already taught them to work as a team. They look like they belong together.”

  She laughed. “Thanks for the compliment. I’m impressed, too.”

  “I’m Commander Graves. I’d like to talk with you, if you have a minute.” His stool swung round and he locked eyes with her.

  “Oh, I’m Aleesa, what would you like to know? Aside from everything about me.” She giggled. “Jokes aside, let me talk to my squad for a minute and give them their drinks. I’ll be back.”

  Shaw filled each of her girl’s empty wine glasses with red wine then raised her glass again. “Cheers, ladies!”

  “Cheers,” beamed her squad of young women.

  After a mouthful of margarita, she excused herself. She knew that her squad would be drinking and laughing unt
il the day’s exercise caught up with them. Then they’d all sleep like babies for the night. After the bartender refilled her margarita glass, she walked back to Commander Graves, whose eyes were tracing her every movement.

  “What was your question?” Shaw asked as she sat down beside him.

  “Last I heard, you were fifty miles from here,” Commander Graves rumbled. “So, tell me. How did you get here so fast? Which route did you take?”

  Commander Shaw smiled. She walked around the end of the bar and found a pencil, then she pulled a paper napkin from under the bar, then she returned to Graves, sitting down beside him again. She explained their trek while drawing a basic map of the terrain. She explained the path they had taken from base camp and through the Badlands to where they were now.

  This area of the wilderness was known to all as Artemis’ Retreat, and Shaw knew it well. She had been patrolling here for twenty years.

  As she sketched out the terrain, it became obvious that Commander Graves wasn’t aware of some of the valleys and canyons she used as shortcuts. It wasn’t surprising when she thought about it. Graves normally patrolled another zone called Chiron’s Grove. His stay in The Retreat would only be temporary.

  “Clever.” With a smile, his eyes lit up. “You really know your stuff.”

  It had been a long time since someone had looked into her eyes like he did. And tossing in a compliment with it only made him even more likable. It was in that moment she transformed from a ranger commander into a woman who wanted to be seduced. Gazing deep into his steady blue eyes, she could see that he wanted it too. She hoped.

  Her hand purposefully slid over his when she reached for the paper napkin, then waited to see his reaction.

  The ranger rules excluded romantic encounters. She knew she couldn’t get away with any of the lusty thoughts filling her mind, but once, just once, she’d like to try. She was in such a good mood and he was... well, he was Commander Graves. He was a six-foot-five mountain of muscle. And he would only be in Artemis’ Retreat until he completed his unknown assignment and then he’d be gone forever.