by Paul, Alan
The climb up was slow, and painfully tedious. Occasionally, he banged his arm but the metal splint absorbed the majority of the impacts. Albeit, in serious pain, he was making good time, and decided to push right through the hurt; stopping to rest would only exhaust what little energy he had left in his tank. Logically, he started planning his next move, and thought, “I’ll climb back into the suit, rest, and eat before coming back down.”
Excitement washed over his naked body when he could make out the lumbering shadow of the suit.
He figured the climb had to have been just over two hundred feet when he painfully pulled himself into the belly of the protective exoskeleton.
The Ersatz Suit powered up right away and Jason ordered, “Close to environment.”
The belly retracted upward, and two chest plates closed inward. The helmet folded back down fully enclosing him within the suit. The internal computer scanned his body, and assessed his injuries he had sustained from the fall. Though the suit’s healing abilities were not as extensive as the medical grade healing chamber, it would however rehydrate, and fast track the natural healing process.
“Play Smooth Jazz from the twentieth century,” Jason commanded.
Fly me to the moon
And let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter or Mars.
Frank Sinatra’s lyrics poured from the internal speaker system, reminding him of Lexis. She often cued up Jazz on board the Chameleon, and he left both behind 50 million miles away, and three days ago on the Martian surface.
“Up 10 percent.” The music played louder while he drank fluids from a feeding tube.
Fill my heart with song and
Let me sing forever more
You are all I long for
All I worship and adore.
“Divine,” Jason pathetically thought. An internal vitality drove him to gulp down the nutrient rich essence that slowly pumped out, quenching his thirst for life. Designed from the suit’s scan, the fluid consisted of a mixture of electrolytes, regenerative molecular DNA compounds, painkillers, vitamins, and minerals. Before the song ended, and with the feeding tube still in his mouth, Jason fell into a deep slumber.
In other words, please be true
In other words, I love you…
He remained resting there in the Ersatz Suit for the next three days. The amount of time would maximize the healing progression by speeding up his natural mending process.
Jason’s vigor for life was renewed, along with his quest for vengeance, and before stepping out on to the ladder he buckled a small utility belt around his waist. He had left behind the metal pipe he had used for splinting. However, he still needed the makeshift sling to support his healing right arm.
Slowly descending into the dark howling wind, Jason winced as the dry crusted blood pulled at the hairs on his legs. Below the waist, and from his butt wound, he was covered in a purple crust of congealed blood. Despite only the use of one arm, his progress was swift. After reaching the small landing, he acted quickly and removed a laser-cutting tool from the utility belt. He pointed the high-energy beam into the door’s jam, and produced molten drops of metal, reducing the steel bolt.
The door now opened freely and Jason staggered into a bizarre environment. Disbelief grabbed his humanity as he looked up at a brilliant astronomical light show and thought, “Stunning, absolutely stunning! But why is this here?” It was neither a night sky nor day. A large creamy orange gas giant vibrantly glowed, and a black hole’s galactic outer disk spun near the horizon; nothing escaped its gravitational grip. A plethora of speckling stars filled the black voids.
Mind blown, his body froze gazing at celestial objects projected on the artificial sky. Jason had never heard nor seen anything like it under any Polaris canopy. Rumors circulated throughout the city about how the Level 9er’s lived but he had no idea. Level 9’s visual beauty was overpowering, as was the thickly unkempt humidity that hung about, filling his lungs with mucus. His chest labored due to the thick atmosphere when he began moving along the service path.
“PTOOIE!” Jason spat up a huge phlegmy glob.
Scratching his skin, the utility belt tightly clung to his naked hips, as he moved along the periphery of the level; leg-cramping strides began weighing down his progress. Even more astonishing was the near endless display of bioluminescence below that radiated in a flickering yellow ruddiness, and alien greenish afterglow between shimmering dome-like structures dotting the landscape. The domes attracted his mind like a moth to a flame. Strangely, his leg muscles became sinewy, and taut like piano strings. Momentarily he paused, rubbing his hamstring and noticed weird shapes moving within them. The shapes seemed to be reflecting upward. Jason could not get a grip on whether the domes were translucent or mirrored glass.
After resuming along the service walkway, his discomfort intensified. However, the pain or his freely flopping manhood did not distract, he was too mesmerized by the extraterrestrial world. And caused by the infinite radiance, Jason nearly stumbled into a stairwell leading to Level 9’s surface.
Liquefying steal hissed and popped as the high-energy laser tool melted the outer door’s dead bolt. Jason cut the lock and before the door swung wide open, he made the decision to go directly to the nearest dome for further investigation. “Maybe I can steal some clothing there.” Jason bolted into the alien landscape.
When he neared the alien looking structure, a gust of wind caused the glowing undergrowth to proliferate in a dance of glittering waves. Walking among the strange bioluminescent foliage was difficult. He felt more squeezed than up on the catwalk. He struggled breathing under the oppressive and almost viscous air. The heavy atmosphere caused his head to spin.
Suddenly, the dome’s edge seemed to have jumped out of nowhere, effectively shortening his gait. Falling down on the dome’s exterior, Jason fingered at the translucent dimpled surface, causing shimmering waves to radiate outward. “Tacky but textual,” he thought about the façade’s surface as he moved forward on his hands and knees.
Gathering tear duct fluid blurred his vision, causing difficulties training his ocular powers down into the dome. Now looking through the indescribable exterior, Jason made exaggerated eye wiping movements. Several small glistening figures came into focus. The bizarre flickering matrix revealed numerous Alien forms gazing upwards. All beheld Jason’s image. Expressions of fear and shock gripped their little faces. One even pointed up.
Stealing his breath, his bronchial tubes constricted under the weighty ether, causing his lungs to burn. Different from the rest of Polari, the air was specifically designed for the inhabitants of Level 9. Higher concentrations of nitrogen and carbon dioxide filled artificial environment. He began wheezing as asphyxiation crushed at his thorax, thrusting him into a state of distress. Jason’s tongue swelled.
In a purple lipped, spasmodic dance of throat gagging hurls and successive convulsing movements, Jason began arching his back in violent vertebrae pops and clicks. The uncontrollable cough tore at the inner lining of his trachea. Splattering downward in a wash of mucus and blood, profuse amounts of liquid roiled up in a surging stringy substance. Strangely blistering on the peculiar medium, in a weird multi-colored glow, Jason unintentionally smeared at his bloody lung matter.
In a show of brightening illumination, he noticed the Anannaki’s glowing faces respond emotionally to his distress. Jason’s eyes then rolled in the back of his head and in a splash of iridescent colors, his unconscious body fell on to the uppermost part of the semi-transparent home.
T HE FALL
“Would you like a drink?”
“No, sir,” Aldiss Spline answered while watching the head of Polaris Security pour the amber liquid over ice.
“Here, take it…you’re going to need this more than you know.” Hornsby handed the bourbon to Aldiss.
“Now you have my full and undivided attention, Mister Hornsby.” Uneasily Aldiss sipped on his drink. Th
omas Hornsby spoke again. “There’s going to be a Level 9 inquiry, and you’re going to be at the center of it, Spline.”
“There hasn’t been an inquiry at that Level in centuries,” replied Aldiss Spline.
The man fearfully fidgeted in the leathery pleated chair. His skin became uncomfortably sticky listening to Hornsby. “I haven’t received any details but our analysts think it’s regarding the Bjorn debacle.”
“That should be a Martian affair, he crashed and died there…and even if it was our responsibility, the crash would fall under the Transportation Secretary of Level 5.”
“My sentiments exactly, Aldiss. However, something else is unseen.” Hornsby paused momentarily to pour himself some bourbon. He continued. “We can not afford for you to go under a Level 9 mind scan.”
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying, Thomas?” apprehensively Aldiss asked before guzzling down the contents of his glass.
“Yes, we’re going to have to move out of the city under a veil of secrecy,” replied Hornsby.
“What do I tell my wife?”
“You can’t tell her anything…you can’t ever see her again. Plausible deniability, Aldiss. You knew the risks…we are way too far along to turn back now. The success of Operation Black Star is your only true redeemer.”
Aldiss Spline slouched forward, sunk his head into his hands, and listened in deep rumination as Thomas Hornsby continued saying, “I’ll send some agents to question her about your whereabouts…you’ll be disavowed, and banished forever.” Hornsby paused momentarily to sink his gums into the alcohol. He continued, “You’re about to enter the front lines of our war, and you’ll need to acknowledge this fact before I send you on to your new command.”
Aldiss Spline had no other choice but to simply agree. “Yes, sir.”
“You’ll take Learner Rotterdam’s place as a field agent. Don’t worry, your current status, as Master Paladin will hold. Albeit, you’ll be the only active Master Paladin out in the wasteland.”
“Where’s my assignment? Chasm Fat Boy? The Devonian Enclave?”
“No, reports are trickling in from that sector, indicating the Teserak was destroyed three days ago.”
“By whom?” Aldiss inquired.
“It’s unknown at this point but I feel it will come out in the Level 9 inquiry. Anyhow, you’ll help advance our cause from the Temple of Syrinx, and while you’re there, I want you to keep those fucking zealot’s in line. They’re always causing a mess of things.”
PART 2 STAR BIRTH
R EBEL LEXIS
“I’m trying real hard not to go mad. The isolationism is mentally exhausting,” Lexis thought. A deep emotional pain bore through the center of her chest; she tormented for his love. His companionship was all she had ever known, and she so desired his touch again. “His baby grows within and I must find my legs so I can walk again. The little one will need a semblance of a normal life.”
Jason had gone missing several weeks ago, and somehow Lexis thought it might be her fault, “Perhaps a glitch in my neural network. Maybe I hid him somewhere, and my memory bank is failing to disclose his location; he is most likely dead by now.” She could only recall up to a certain point when the crash landing knocked Jason unconscious but everything after was unknown; her logic processing remedied inconclusively fuzzy patterns. During a diagnostic check, she identified a strange anomaly in her brain. Several bifurcating branches from her memory bank’s neural network were soaked in a milky covering. Only deepening the mystery, there was no sign of pathology.
For days, Lexis had scanned the area of the crash on foot. When her internal sensors picked up any type of life form, she would visually inspect the heat signature, insuring it was not Jason. All turned out to be some type of indigenous species, and after having a dangerous run in with a Humanoid, where she actually had to kill in self-defense, she decided to get the Chameleon running. With the Chameleon’s powerful sensors, she could cover more ground in her search. Though, after searching hundreds of square miles, her encoding logic overrode the emotional instinct program; she concluded that something was wrong with her memory bank. Jason must be dead. She gave up the search.
Seldom filling the night sky in chorus, the ancient Face Pyramid jetted out under the lunar presence of Deimos and Phobos. Creating angles of contrasting shadows, the Martian moons brilliantly flooded the landscape with a warm ruddiness and creamy vanilla glow.
Lexis ran a quick scan of the pyramid from the fully cloaked Chameleon as it moved across the Cydonian grasslands. She found a large service tunnel running under the abandoned archaeological site; small dunes blocked its entrance in a frozen state of undulating wind blown waves. The Chameleon slowly hovered over the dunes, and using short powerful bursts from its thrusters, loosely growing grasses ignited into flames. The air danced with orange tipped cinders and black spiraling vortices. Plumes of churned up sand quickly extinguish the fire. Displacing the natural barricade, the Chameleon pushed forward in a spectacle of dust and smoke, gliding into the crumbling concrete passageway.
Much earlier in the history of Mankind’s discovery of the pyramids, and before any terraforming, archeologists had removed any ancient artifacts that were found. However, they did leave behind small forgotten abandoned underground outposts. Like tiny little ghost towns, Mars was dotted with many such sites.
Miles of interconnecting service tunnels spanned out from this location, and if needed, Lexis could easily escape. In her planning for the Mars mission, Lexis had previously downloaded nearly every aspect of the planet, including historical maps of all the ancient dig sites. With this information, she could easily hide the Chameleon under the ancient Martian City of Cydonia.
The underground outpost’s entrance was vault-like in its design, hermetically sealing it for centuries. The forgotten site was even equipped with a first generation Core Displacement Generator. Although inactive, Lexis had great confidence she could get the power source up and running again. Understanding the principles behind Core Technology was unassuming. Thermal energy within the Martian planet was converted to a usable power source by means of generators. The fact that these generators were of an older design only made her task simpler. Mankind really made things to last forever in his early rise to modernization, almost to the point of over engineering.
Between the Martian Surface, the Chameleon, and the vault’s infinite energy source, Lexis and her unborn child could sustain themselves for as long as needed.
To enter the forgotten archaeological facility, Lexis had to cut off a thick padlock from the vault-like door, and bypass an antiquated electronic lock. Lexis removed the screws from an outdated keypunch, splaying the faceplate’s microchip board outward, and exposing a gamut of electrical wires. A backup electrical source was needed to open the door but the source was dead long ago. To solve this problem, she ran a small slave cable from the Chameleon, giving electrical juice to the control module hidden inside the door. Directly wired into the keypad now, Lexis quickly deciphered the keypunch combination, unlocking the door’s tumblers with ease. The heavy door still did not open, for it was obvious it would need some physical persuasion. Age had created some corrosion. Lexis’s soft but firm hands gripped the treadles of the vault’s door handle. “BANG.” The internal mechanism broke free, retracting multiple cylindrical bolts inward. She then slowly turned the round but nautical looking handle counter clockwise, filling the air with metallic blends of clanks and clunks. “CLICK,” resonated within the body of the vault door, signifying all bolts were fully retracted. “SCREECH.” Slowly the heavy door budged open.
Lexis’s internal sensors scanned the interior’s environment, which was void of any breathable air. Before entering, she donned an oxygen respirator; even Synthetics needed some type of atmosphere to breathe. The fact the there was no air was a good thing. No atmosphere, with zero moisture, meant no rust or decay could destroy the underground systems; dust could not even gather.
Her initial priority
was to inspect the Core Displacement Generator. On first glance, she became more confident walking through the habitat. “Should not have a problem resurrecting the energy source,” she thought while noticing how everything was stowed properly for long-term recovery. After reaching the lowest level, she broke open a large storage crate, and pealed apart the thick shrink-wrap; the generator was in pristine condition.
Lexis then attached several pipes to the generator, and opened their flow valves. Several other couplers were tightened at attachment points. The control module was rewired in minutes, and the simply designed machine was nearly ready to fire up. A power source was needed to start the large machine but it too was missing. That was no real problem because she could use one of the extra power-nodes from the Chameleon to create the spark needed to drive the large shaft deep into the ground.
However, the real dilemma was that a very specific piece of equipment was missing; a simple connecting robot that rode the end of the drive shaft, and connected to the core pipe deep into the ground. Without the connection, there would be no energy. Lexis thought it might be stowed away, and began methodically searching the five-story facility.
Down in the lowest level, including the core generator, all utility services were located, such as water purification and waste reclamation. Room after room, she looked. There was no sign of the robot. Feverishly, she worked her way up through the entire complex until reaching the security office, overlooking the front entrance.