by Alec Taylor
“They’ll be all right,” said June. “Did you say Amber did this?”
“Yes,” I said, hardly believing it.
“She’s a fucking ninja,” said Tony.
Vivian and Ying rushed back, “They could be anywhere down there. Why don’t we just look up their locations?”
“Liu’s doing it now.”
“They’re out in the main hangar!” yelled Liu from Systems.
“What?” said Tony. “How the hell did they get past us?”
“They must have hidden in the lounge room.” Said June. “We ran right past them.”
“Dammit!” I said. “Liu, stay here and keep tracking them. Let us know where they go. June and Vivian, come with me. We’ll try to catch them.”
Suddenly, Hu ran past us, heading out to the main airlock.
June, Vivian, and I followed Hu, but she quickly left us behind and she had already gone out into the hangar by the time we got to the staging area. We quickly went into the airlock and I asked June and Vivian, “Suits secure?” They both tugged at their visors and checked their suit pressures, then gave me the thumbs up.
We found Hu standing just outside the airlock. There was no sign of Karl, Pete, and Amber—they were minutes ahead of us.
“They’re gone,” said Hu.
I called Liu on my visor phone and asked, “Where are they?”
“They’re out in a buggy.”
We ran past a very confused hangar officer, went outside, and climbed into a hovee. Hu was flying. June, Vivian and I crammed in beside her.
As we lifted off, June asked, “Why didn’t they take a hovee?”
“They can be controlled remotely,” I replied. “We could just fly them back here.”
“Where are they going?”
“I have an idea, but I hope I’m wrong.”
We could see a dust trail in the distance—they were moving at top speed.
“Liu,” I said, still on the call with him. “Can you tell where they’re going?”
“They’re on a direct course to the launch pad. Ta ma de, they’re going to hijack a ship and go home!”
“Call the launch pad and warn them!” I hung up and said to Hu, “The launch pad.”
“I know,” said Hu. She had pitched the hovee forward and was accelerating with maximum force. June, Vivian, and I were squashed down on top of each other into the seat. The landscape flashed past at lightning speed, like it had when I first flew with Hu. I could taste adrenalin in my mouth and every muscle in my body was tensed.
“Hu,” I said. “We aren’t strapped in!”
“My God,” said June. “What in Heaven’s name are they doing?”
“Liu thinks they’re going to hijack a ship to go back to Earth,” I said. “He’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever known, so I suppose he’s right.”
“But what will they do when they get to Earth?” asked Vivian.
“We can only guess,” I said. “But if JOSEV was involved in Imani’s murder, they’ll probably get protection. They might have to stay in the space station, though—I can’t imagine Australia being very happy about harbouring criminals or letting them go home.”
Suddenly, Hu pitched the hovee backward to slow down, and we were squashed even harder into the seat.
“Hu!” I yelled, and she lowered the thrust a little.
We skidded to a halt outside the hangar at the launch pad. Hu jumped out before we came to a complete halt and sprinted inside. June, Vivian, and I followed as fast as we could and I noticed the stolen buggy parked haphazardly inside the hangar.
We rushed through the airlock and saw Hu disappear at the end of the passage as she turned a corner and entered the travel lounge. As I ran through the lounge, I could see that Hu was about to reach Pete and Amber at the far end of the air-bridge to the shuttle. Karl was already inside the airlock behind them, waiting at the open door of the shuttle.
I was amazed to see Hu catch up with Pete and Amber. She leaped into a powerful kick that landed on Amber’s side. Amber recoiled; Hu was moving in to punch her in the chest when Pete pushed Hu from the side and deflected her arm. Hu dipped down and spun around, scooping Pete’s feet from under him with her calf. Unfortunately, that gave Amber just enough time to kick Hu in the back of the head, and she dropped to the floor, unconscious again.
Pete quickly scrambled to his feet. He and Amber rushed into the airlock and closed the door just as the rest of us caught up to them. Amber started kicking the airtight seal of the air-bridge. Her second kick dislodged it, and the depressurisation alarm went off. The airlock went into emergency lock-down mode—we were locked out.
They closed the shuttle door and I looked down at Hu, who was already starting to regain consciousness. She was a walking force of nature.
I called Liu and said, “They’re in the shuttle.”
“I know,” he said. “I watched it on the airlock camera. I think Amber might not really be a doctor, what do you think?”
“Yeah,” I said. “And maybe Hu is something else, too, but I’m okay with that ’cause she’s on our side. What’s happening in the shuttle?”
“They’re prepping for emergency launch.”
“Can you override it?” I asked.
“Not a chance—not the shuttle. They’re leaving, and you should watch out—that’s a powerful machine they’re about to fly off the planet.”
“No way! They’re not leaving!” I said, desperately trying to think of a way to stop them.
“Can we attach something to the ship, some kind of anchor?” asked June.
“They’d just take it with them,” I replied. “They could probably lift the entire colony.”
“We could smash something into it?” suggested Vivian.
“Maybe,” I replied, “but we might kill them in the process.”
“Screw them,” said June, surprisingly. “But hold on a second—where are they going, anyway? We’re sending the evidence to law enforcement agencies on Earth. They’ll be arrested if they touch foot on the surface of the planet. In fact, this is a lot easier for us than trying to contain them here. We’d have to tie up Amber permanently, or build a prison cell or something. This way, Earth can deal with them.”
“My God, you’re right,” said Vivian.
I hesitated. It was certainly easier for us to let them go back to Earth. However, I instinctively wanted them to pay for their crimes where they were committed, and I wasn’t convinced that justice would be served back on Earth. There wasn’t a lot we could do at that point, regardless.
“Okay, let ’em go,” I said. “Let’s get out of here before they take off.”
Hu was already able to walk on her own, but she consented to lean on June as we walked back to the hangar. We climbed into a couple of hovees and flew back to the colony.
As we accelerated away, I looked over my shoulder to see the shuttle climb into the sky. A trail of dust spewed from the open door of the silo it was carrying. I sensed that my brother was standing deep in the shadow of the silo door, leaving the planet forever. They were headed to the space station above Mars, on the way back to Earth. A huge wave of relief washed over me, and I had a deep-seated feeling that it was all over at last.
*
We landed at the colony and went back to Security. Tony and Chris were also back when we arrived, and Liu was on a call. Tony was holding an ice pack to his face—he had a fat lip and was obviously in pain.
“Are you okay?” I asked Tony.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” said Tony. “A couple of broken ribs I think.”
“Who’s Liu talking to?” asked June.
“He’s prepping the port for an unwelcome arrival,” replied Tony.
I leaned over toward Liu and said, “Tell them—”
“He knows,” cut in Tony, pulling me back. “He’s telling them to cooperate fully, to just let them dock and help them take the ship. Hopefully, they won’t be Ambered.”
“Is that a thing now?” I aske
d. “To be Ambered?”
“Yep,” said Tony. “I was completely Ambered. So was Chris.”
“Chris,” I said. “Hu was knocked unconscious. Could you take a look at her?”
“Security, I’m fine,” said Hu, but she let Chris check her anyway.
Liu finished the call and said, “They’re docking now. Hopefully the station guys won’t get hurt. Amber is lethal. Here, have a look at the memo we’ve been writing.”
They had prepared a message to send to Earth and JOSEV. They had attached copies of the video footage, Liu’s algorithms and results, and Jan’s statement, and added an outline of the escape. Liu sent it all to Earth via a direct radio transmission, outside JOSEV communication lines. He also sent it to the JOSEV Executive Committee and the Board—and to every colonist on Mars.
“Several space antennas will pick that up and it’s not encrypted,” said Liu. “We’re not going to need to contact the media; people will do that for us.”
“Good,” I said. “The more the better. How are our escapees going?”
“They’re probably prepping the ship,” said Liu.
“Can we see?” asked Tony.
“We might be able to see them leave on one of the space station cameras,” said Liu. “I’ll have a look.”
He moved over to Glen’s old screen and, as it woke up, the live video feed of Earth briefly appeared in the background. There was a flash of white light toward the top of the screen, and then the home screen appeared and the image was gone.
We all did a double take.
“What the?” said Liu as he leaned back and turned around to look at us.
“Did you see that, too?” asked June, perplexed. “What was that?”
“Where is that live feed?” asked Liu as he quickly turned back to the screen and searched the system. He found it and filled the screen with the picture of Earth from the space station above Australia. We all moved in to look, and then suddenly there was another white flash, somewhere in Asia. It was the size of a city.
Then I noticed circular grey smudges around the edges of Australia and most of Asia, and a big grey smudge in the middle of South Australia—at Woomera. And then there was another white flash, this time in Japan.
We all leaned forward, trying to understand what we were seeing. Not able to understand. Not wanting to understand.
June gasped and put her hand over her mouth. There was another flash, this one in the top right of the image, right on the edge of the world. It was Hawaii.
“Oh, no,” said Vivian and started sobbing uncontrollably. She looked away, holding her head, and fell to her knees.
Tears welled in my eyes as I finally started to comprehend what I was seeing.
It was the end of all life on Earth.
June looked at me, tears streaming down her face, “My God. What have they done?”
EPILOGUE
I haven’t seen my brother in a dream or vision since we found the killers and uncovered the conspiracy. My reputation has been cleared, for what it’s worth—I eventually asked Liu to look back at the footage from the medical dispenser the night before my overdose. Amber was carrying an extra receptacle; she had programmed a special, deadly formula just for me. I imagine she was trying to kill or discredit me, because I knew too much and wouldn’t stop digging.
However, there is much that we may never fully understand:
Imani’s pregnancy was just a terrible coincidence. She had obviously wanted to start populating Mars locally and took actions into her own hands. We can only assume that Eli was the father, although he almost certainly didn’t know it. We will never know for sure.
We may never know what specifically triggered the war. If you look hard, you can find clues in the transmissions we received from Earth in the weeks and days before it started: threats from the leaders of the investor nations, strange disappearances of government officials and worldwide military deployments. War was brewing and a desperate struggle for power was unfolding. The war could not have been caused by the events transpiring on Mars. The missiles started flying before Liu briefed me on his analysis, long before we confronted Karl. I doubt our actions would have been cause for war, anyway—if anything, they would have unified the JOSEV investors.
We were also unable to determine who started the war. No specific transmissions were sent to us, the spaceport in Australia was one of the first targets (probably the first), and it was hit many times. When we looked back carefully at the footage from the space station, we could see rocket trails crisscrossing the entire globe, ending in those awful flashes. They all seemed to be launched around the same time, and many of them came from oceans or the other side of the planet. We have no footage of other parts of Earth, but we believe that every continent was hit, and hit hard. It was a full nuclear assault from every nuclear nation.
Perhaps JOSEV had already sent troops to Mars before the war started. If they did, I hope that the troops will see reason and join us, not try to restore the old order. Surely they will, since there is no Earth anymore and no JOSEV? We know that one last civilian transport ship is on the way with a new group of colonists. They called us when they suddenly stopped receiving transmissions from Earth. We told them everything we knew about the war and about the upheaval we had here as well.
There may also be people to rescue on Earth. We hope there will be small groups in shelters that we can rescue. But anyone who joins us will have to commit to a new world and a new and peaceful society. We will pick up the occupants of the space stations above Earth and Mars.
We haven’t heard from Karl, Pete, and Amber but we eventually located the hijacked ship heading back to Earth. We tried to contact them, without success. But what choice do they have now? There is nowhere to run to. They won’t come back easily—but now we are going to need every pair of hands, no matter how bloody they are.
Because now we are truly alone. The colony is the only habitable place in the solar system. We’re already diverting most of our energy to agricultural production and mining: we need the ability to build computers and machines from raw materials and to manufacture everything we need, including steel and medicine. We will have babies and raise children. We will adopt a constitution and have a rule of law—a set of laws that are right for our land, for our planet, for our people.
We have struggled and fought for this place, and we have prevailed. One day, we will pump oxygen back into the atmosphere, and eventually our descendants will walk the land and breathe the air.
Until then, we will survive.
END
THANKS
Thanks for reading Killing time on Mars!
If you liked it please review it on your preferred online book store, click here if you would like to be notified when the next instalment of the On Mars series is published, or visit the author’s Facebook page if you have a question.