Martian Dragons

by Ian Woodhead

  The Martian Dragons

  by

  Ian Woodhead

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright June 2019 by Ian Woodhead

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

  Chapter One

  First Contact

  David Hamilton, the first person to set foot on Mars, listened to the faint beeps and whistles which signified that his suit computer had finally established a connection with their orbiter. He still needed to wait for the orbiter to receive the promised data-packet from Vandenburg Air force base before continuing. How long did he now have to wait before the black cloth was finally pulled off the mystery box?

  His bio-readings suggested that he should attempt to bring his heart-rate down. Dave suppressed a nervous smirk, like that was even possible, at least, not until they had received that data-packet. He panned across the desolate landscape, keeping his eyes peeled for anything that didn't resemble either dust or rock.

  David's internal com-sensor beeped softly.

  ‘Two minutes, David. Are you ready to part with your one dollar?’

  ‘Not going to happen, my friend. Not going to happen.’

  The mission's navigator, Geoff Frost, released a short laugh before he closed the connection.

  David had just two minutes to wait before Mission Command released the exact coordinates of the anomaly. Two minutes before he discovered exactly why he and his crew had been ordered to come back to this airless desert almost a decade after every space agency had scrapped all their plans to reach for the stars.

  The primary lander had touched down just thirty miles from where its ancestor, the lander from the Wayward Adventure first landed. He turned to the left and gazed across the red desert, almost believing that he could see the three-metre-high conical lander where had had descended and left that iconic first footprint before replaying his simple speech which, he'd believed, would make him the most famous human on the planet.

  Perhaps if he had known the truth, about just how bad things had become back home, David might not have spent over two weeks worrying about whether the first words spoken on another planet would carry so much weight. After all, why bother praising mankind's peaceful intentions when seven-three million miles back home, the same species was doing its hardest to try to wipe each other out?

  David only discovered the truth, about the state of the planet and what had happened to his home town, his family and almost everybody he ever cared for when the machines on board The Wayward Adventure revived him when the ship. That did not happen until the ship was close enough to Earth for direct communication.

  He looked into the amber sky to where Earth should be and a single tear rolled down his cheek. That bio-genetic weapon, launched from some now nuked forgotten eastern nation had killed all life within three hundred miles of detonation. While David stood on virgin Martian dust, proudly reciting the speech that he'd spent so much time stressing over, the government were busy scooping up what remained of his wife and family into barrels of bio-hazardous material before storing them deep underground in some nameless warehouse.

  “Come on, man. Pull yourself together,” he muttered. The past was the past and although the situation back home still wasn't exactly back to peaches and ice cream, the insanity which he remembered had thankfully passed. The countries who were still, more or less, intact had realised the error of their ways and were trying to find some kind of status quo.

  The situation was steadily finding an uneasy equilibrium. At least, they were until some joker in South America hacked into some forgotten decades old Martian rover which still continued to rumble across the surface, collecting data and images and transmitting the material back to its mother capsule which still orbited the red planet.

  David looked back at the lander and noticed Geoff as well as their communications officer, Andy Lewis, waving at him. He waved back, just as the data finally came through.

  ‘Are you getting this?’

  He nodded before realising that Geoff wouldn't notice the movement. He didn't bother correcting his mistake, he couldn't anyway. The images showing through his front view player had rendered him dumb with shock.

  ‘This has got to be a joke,’ said Andy. ‘Someone is playing a stupid prank. None of that stuff could possibly be up here.’

  David listened with half an ear while their navigation officer sarcastically asked Andy if the United Space Authority would really spend billions of dollars on getting them up here for some prank.

  The images continued to flow across his view player, each one revealing more and more of the anomaly. It was obvious that this really was no joke. Andy finally shut up. David figured that even the most cynical of their crew had realised that this thing really was here.

  David found his voice and ordered the suit's computer to replay the last three images at a delay of five seconds each. The first image showed a close up of a rectangular hole, cut into the Martian rock. He estimated the hole large enough to fit a small car inside. Although the regularity of the cut was highly unusual, it wasn't totally implausible to suggest that it could still be a natural formation. That all changed in the second photo which zoomed in on the north face of the hole and in the corner of the image was what just had to be a severed mechanical arm. It almost looked like the thing had crawled out of the hole. He could even make out shallow score marks cut into the rock face, now filled with sand, but they did match the spacing of the arm's six digits.

  The third image, taken a twelve metres west of the hole displayed what appeared to be the edge of a canyon, only, like the hole, the edges were perfectly straight. It wasn't too clear what lay at the bottom of that canyon, as the angle was too steep to make it out but there was a single clue, right at the edge of the image, a solid silver line.

  It didn't take much of an imagination to bring the canyon and the hole together into one scenario. David felt himself lapsing into shock again at the implications. If the rover had taken another photograph, just a couple more inches closer to the edge, David had no doubt in his mind that it would have showed the bottom of the canyon, full of mechanical creatures.

  David skinned back to the second photo and zoomed in on the arm. He saw no distinguishing marks, no maker's imprint, no writing of any kind. Then again, David wasn't expecting to find any. According to the text attachment, the boffins back home had already established that this artefact was old, certainly well over a few thousand years.

  His two companions were a few metres from his position now. David quickly replayed the last few images then used the suit's GPS to triangulate their position in relation to where these images were taken. They were within walking distance, less than half a klick north.

  ‘I gather you two received the same data as me and I'm sure that you no longer think it's some kind of trick, Andy. So, what are your thoughts now?’

  ‘This is just utterly incredible!’

  David imagined Geoff was now dancing inside his suit. The comm could not contain the man's excitement.

  ‘Alien tech. This is like a dream come true. This is going to reunite mankind. Not only is their life beyond our planet, it's intelligent too! Can any of you even comprehend what this discovery means? It's like.’ Geoff took a deep breath. ‘I don't know. It's like Inca stumbling across a 20th century motor car or the Romans finding a cave packed with computers. They must be from another star system, meaning we might
even find a starship with a working FTL drive!’

  He had to admit, Geoff's enthusiasm was contagious. He still remembered how it was in the world, when he was still a kid, back in the late 2050's when most of the nations generally got on with each other before everything turned to utter shit. It would be so nice to return to that state, only with interstellar spaceships, first contact and all the bells and whistles which came with the package.

  ‘Andy, what do you think?’

  ‘We need to take off, right now and nuke the site from orbit,’ he replied.

  ‘What?’ shouted Geoff. ‘You can't destroy the greatest gift that mankind has ever received. This is going to solve all of our problems.’

  ‘No, it will make them worse. Come on, Geoff. You can't be that naïve? You even used the analogy of the Romans finding computers as an analogy, for crying out loud! If those guys had, somehow, found a cave full of tech, the first thing they'd do is use the knowledge to crush all of their enemies. Two thousand years might have passed but we're still essentially the same primitive, violent beast.’

  ‘You're wrong, Andy. How can you even say that when the three of us are standing on another planet? We have achieved so much and now, thanks to this gift, our knowledge is going to quantum leap ahead.’

  Dave began to walk away from his two bickering companions, while wondering if he should turn off the comms too, as it wouldn't matter how far he travelled, their two voices would still be present, one for each ear.

  ‘I'm not wrong. Have you forgotten that there are two more ships on their way to Mars? Do you think the Chinese or the Europeans are going to adopt your hippie attitude, Geoff? The damn Europeans won't be suing for peace any time soon, that's for sure. Has it slipped your mind that the Brits and the Russians nuked our two main carrier groups three years ago? Hell, the only reason they didn't destroy our other groups is because we took out their capital cities. Do you honestly think those traitorous Limey bastards are interested in holding hands and singing songs about peace and love?’

  ‘Gentlemen, it doesn't really matter what we think now does it? We are here to do a job and our orders are very specific.’ Dave looked up, almost imagining that he could see the afterburner glows from the other two spaceships. Andy was right about one thing. Both the Chinese and the Europeans didn't trust each other and both certainly didn't trust them. It was only their expertise and technical ability which helped them get here before the others. Dave shuddered to think how this might have played out if either of the other two had got here before them. Andy was right about another point too. The orbiter did indeed carry nukes. And they had orders to make sure their nation staked their claim first.

  Turning around, I saw Andy and Geoff crouched around something poking out of the ground. Andy had already cleaned away enough of the dust for Dave to identify the object. He walked back to them, leaned over Andy and blinked rapidly.

  ‘Now this, Andy. Now this is what I would class as a prank.’

  ‘Either that, or some other country has been here before and not told anybody.’ Geoff reached forward, took hold of the object in both hands then carefully lifted it up. ‘Then again, maybe not. This is ancient.’

  Dave stared in utter disbelief at the human skull held in Geoff's hands. This was like something ripped straight out of some Victorian science fiction novel. He almost expected to see a dusty British flag in the earth as well. ‘How old, Geoff? I'm guessing it's older than us?’

  ‘Most definitely,’ replied his colleague. ‘Remember where we are. No atmosphere, no life, low temperature.’ He handed the skull to Andy. ‘There's also the question of equipment.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Geoff while turning the skull upside down.

  ‘Unless our friend here danced around the Martian sands totally naked, there should be some of his gear here too.’ Andy swept away some more dust. ‘There's some more bone here.’ He pulled put another piece. ‘Like this can't get any weirder?’

  Dave leaned closer. ‘What the hell is it?’

  ‘You got me there.’ He passed the bone fragment to Dave. It was another skull, a little smaller than the other one. This wasn't human though. It look reptilian. He looked at Andy then at Geoff, noticing they were both staring at him. He figured that his companions wanted him to state the obvious. He couldn't say it, no matter how much he wanted to. Dave could not announce that he held in his hands a genuine alien skull.

  His comms crackled. ‘Gentlemen, our friends have entered orbit. You have to reach the designated area and stake our claim. It won't take them long to reach the surface.’

  ‘Mission control. There has been a complication. We have found what appears to be a human carcass.’ Dave couldn't bring himself to tell the guys back home what he held in his hands. It took them a few moments to reply. He imagined the conversation the guys must be having.

  ‘Message received and logged. Log the coordinates and proceed to the designated area. Our friends have already begun their descent.’

  ‘That's not possible!’ said Andy. ‘Their tech is decades behind us.’

  Dave thrust his fingers through the large eye sockets. ‘After what we've just discovered, it sure is refreshing to find details that there are some things in the cosmos which makes you wonder, Andy.’

  ‘What's that supposed to mean?’

  ‘Never mind. We best move out. You all heard Mission control. Time is against us!’

  It took the crew another thirty minutes to reach the designated area, while they trudged across the land, David kept a close eye on the other two landers, steadily descending through the thin Martian atmosphere. Even from this distance, he saw how similar the two landers looked. Were they sharing technology? The implications of such an alliance sent a shudder down his spine, especially after the explosive information they had already discovered hiding just below the surface. If there were more artefacts on Mars, not just in the area where they were racing to claim, and the Chinese or Europeans find them, then there truly could be a new arms race about to explode. One that Dave didn't think he'd live through. More than likely, none of them would live through. Unfortunately, it appeared that the men who ran the world were more like Andy than Geoff.

  Andy and Geoff were already at the designated area and had taken the three metal claim poles from their backpacks and had started to mark the area. Dave found it satisfying to see that the two men did their duties before actually checking out the rectangular hole. Even from here, Dave could see the severed mechanical arm. It took so much effort not to try to run over to the site. Andy could keep his two skulls. Dave wanted that arm as well as anything else mechanical they might find down there.

  Geoff positioned the last pole and gave Dave the thumbs up sign. This was it. As soon as he gave the all clear, the three poles would activate and log the claimed area and transmit the data all the way home where it would be stored at an underground facility, guarded by personal picked from all three nation states.

  ‘Okay, Geoff. You have the all clear. Get them activated!’

  A slight but steady vibration reached Dave's feet a couple of moments after his colleague activated the claim poles. He frowned. That wasn't supposed to happen. Dave looked across at the other two, wondering if were feeling the vibration as well.

  The ground beside Andy opened up. He stumbled backwards to avoid falling into the new chasm. Geoff caught the astronaut and helped to pull him away from the collapsing ground. Dave began to jog towards them when both men fell. He heard one of them screaming through the comm then Geoff just vanished.

  "What the hell is happening?" he gasped. Andy managed to get to his feet and stumbled towards Dave.

  ‘There's something down there!’ shouted Andy through the comms. ‘There's something…’ His colleague jerked to a sudden stop, he thrust his arms up and screamed. ‘Please, help me!’

  Dave groaned in disbelief and terror as several dark green mechanical tendrils pushed up through the sand, curled around both of Andy's ankles and dragge
d him under as well. He kept perfectly still, despite the desperate urge to spin around and run as fast as he could back to the lander. If Dave did move, even breathe too loudly, it would be the end of him. He didn't need to be any anthropologist to know that whatever was under the ground must be attracted to movement. Maybe if he stayed here, pretending to be a rock, then it might go away. Dave have enough breathable air for another three hours, plenty of time for the crew from the other two landers to reach him. He hoped to God that they brought weapons.

  His forlorn hope that maybe those things down there would be satisfied with his two members vanished when Dave caught sight of another three of those mechanical snakes rising out from that hole. They slid across the red sand, moving farther and farther apart until they all shot back into that hole.

  Hamilton's law kicked into effect when those snakes returned, only with some extra pals, only Dave quickly discovered that those snakes were not separate entities at all. ‘Suit, please open direct one-way communications with Mission Control and begin all sensory recording.’ The suit would have already, recorded the tragic deaths of his crew members already but the data was still locked in the suit's onboard computer. Dave knew he wasn't getting out of this situation alive.

  Those mechanical snakes had grown in number, now totalling twenty. The endings dug into the sand then about a third of the snakes' bodies stiffened at an upright angle while the rest of the segmented pieces rose up, bringing what looked like an egg-shaped globe, the size of their lander, from out of the hole.

  ‘You have got to be shitting me.’

  The underside recessed before two oval flat panels slid into the machine. From out of the two openings, a thick bundle of what looked like corded wires, each one as thick as his wrist, dropped to the surface. Once they reached the sand, the wires spread out in three directions before folding back on themselves. The mechanical snakes then detached from the surface and slid back into the machine.

  Dave very slowly lifted his left leg without taking his eyes off the three-metre, bipedal, mechanical monstrosity, and took one step back. As soon as his foot touched the Martian surface, the egg-shaped body swivelled a couple of degrees. Another two flat panels, this time on the side of the machine, slid back, and a very recognisable object pushed out of its body.