Mars Colony Chronicles (Books 1 - 5): A Space Opera Box Set Adventure

by Brandon Ellis

  11

  Unknown

  Ozzy woke. His body ached, and his head pounded. His arms and hands shook like he was an old man.

  He lifted his eyelids. He was in his cockpit chair, and the Martian crimson landscape was flying by.

  Relic hummed, and she was flying fast.

  Ozzy blinked, doing the best he could to get the sleep out of his eyes. “Who?”

  Someone patted his head. “You’re waking up. It’s about time.”

  He turned his head, and squinted his eyes from the bright light pouring into the cockpit. The morning sun was rising above the horizon.

  Someone was flying his craft, and it wasn’t him. He blinked a few more times, waiting for his eyes to adjust.

  “Jozi?”

  “The one and only.” She kept her eyes forward. “You and I are going to find our family together.”

  Ozzy smacked his lips together. “Our family?”

  Jozi pursed her lips and shot him a blank look. She tilted her head a few times like she had a kink in her neck. She straightened in her posture and her shoulder’s relaxed. She let out a sigh. “I’m sorry, Ozzy. I didn’t mean to say that. I’m still getting used to…me. I should say, your family. But before we do that, we’re heading to a secret location.”

  Ozzy leaned back and stretched his arms. “Wait.” He patted himself down, realizing what had just happened. “What did you do to me? Did you inject a sleeping solution in me?”

  Jozi nodded, her lips downturning. “Yes. You wouldn’t be able to function properly if you didn’t get any sleep. And now you’ve had plenty. Good morning.”

  He remembered something right before he passed out. Her skin had a working needle slide out of it, or had he just imagined it?

  He yawned. He was probably hallucinating. He was working on little sleep as it was, hallucinating wasn’t too far fetched.

  “We’re going to a secret location?”

  Jozi nodded. “She knows we’re showing up.”

  “Who knows we’re showing up?”

  Jozi shook her head. “Someone who knows where Lou and Venessa are.”

  “Again, who?”

  Jozi ignored him, and looked at the horizon in the distance. She lowered Relic. “Right here.” She motioned with her hand. “We’ll get our EVA suits on and head in there.”

  A small adobe dome was in the middle of nowhere smack dab in the middle of the crimson desert, and at the base of a small mountain range.

  Ozzy rubbed his eyes, still trying to get the sleep out of them. “What’s in there?”

  “A friend.”

  “A friend?” Where the hell was she taking him? Had her neuro-synapses gone haywire?

  Something wasn’t right. Ozzy placed his hands on the arm rests and dug his fingernails into them. “We don’t have time for this. We have to get Lou and Venessa.”

  “Besides Jonas, she knows more than anyone on this planet where Lou and Venessa are. I setup this meeting while you were on the bench in the ancient base.”

  Ozzy grimaced. “Look, I’m not moving until you tell me who the hell it is I’m about to see.”

  She lowered the S-4 Jumper’s skids and landed next to the adobe dome. The craft jostled up and down. “Indigo isn’t on this craft, so I’m not going to say her name until I know we’re safe. I can’t be sure if a Ministry satellite has located us, but if they have, they may be listening to our conversation. It’s easy to listen to conversations outside the cities as there isn’t any graviton interference or noise pollution. Does that make sense, Ozzy?” She glared at him like a mother to a child.

  “It—”

  “Attention,” came a voice over the com line, interrupting Ozzy. “Exit the craft and put your hands up.”

  A dozen men and women in military grade EVA suits marched out of the adobe. They were armed to the brim, some carrying weapons on the Marines owned.

  Ozzy glared at Jozi, bearing his teeth. “What the hell did you just do?”

  12

  Unknown, Mars

  Ozzy pulled his EVA torso over his head, slipping it on and connecting it to his pants. He was next to his tool bench in Relic’s storage bay, wondering what in Mars-nation was happening.

  Jozi had never done him wrong, so he was trusting her right now while a dozen people were standing outside, pointing their weapons at Relic.

  He glanced in the corner of his bay, and furrowed his brow. “I’m trusting you, but tell me, where did you get that?”

  A small Mars buggy was parked in the corner of the bay. This one had photon cannons above the head lights and a missile rack on top. It was definitely military.

  Was this a new edition to Relic that Gragas was talking about?

  “Hurry, please.” Jozi’s voice was monotone. She was wearing her full military grade EVA suit. The helmet was sealed and her oxygen tank was already pumping in fresh air.

  He put his helmet on, and sealed it. “I’m ready.” In truth, he wasn’t, but maybe this meeting with someone he didn’t know was going going to get him to Venessa and Lou.

  Jozi turned and headed to the ramp. She slapped the button, and the ramp whined as it hit the ground. Red sand flew into the air, and swirled around.

  She stepped off the ramp.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” said Ozzy, over the com line.

  “You’re a big boy. You can deal with it.”

  Ozzy huffed. He liked her annoying personality before she had died and come back to life as a half-robot, half-woman. Now she’s a bossy, unemotional android half the time, and a considerate person the other half.

  Ozzy hopped off the ramp, and curled around the craft where the gun toting guards were waiting. “They aren’t going to shoot us, are they?”

  Jozi ignored him and walked toward the hut. Ozzy followed, waiving his hands in the air at the guards. “I have no gun. See? We’ve come in peace.”

  He chided himself. That phrase never worked. In fact, in holomovies, they tended to backfire.

  A man nudged Ozzy forward, and motioned for him to enter the small adobe dome where Jozi had just walked into.

  Ozzy walked cautiously forward, and ducked under the dome’s doorway, and into a dim room.

  Someone guided him against a wall.

  “Jozi?”

  The door closed, and more darkness pervaded the room.

  “Hey, Jozi.”

  “I’m here, Ozzy, but please be quiet.”

  Yes, because quiet was really helpful. He let out a sigh. “Listen, this isn’t furthering my pursuit.”

  “Shut your mouth, Ozzy,” said Jozi, her tone sharp.

  Ozzy winced. “You better—”

  A red light lit up near the door, and Ozzy jerked in a start. “Like I said, nothing feels right, Jozi. I think I’m going to exit the premises now.”

  A hand pressed against his chest, keeping him in one spot.

  The room jostled, and descended.

  The door opened, and there sat a desk with a light hanging over it. A person was sitting in a chair, his or her arms were resting on the desk.

  Ozzy heard a purr. “Welcome, darling.”

  13

  Unknown, Mars

  “Let’s go back up,” said Ozzy, reaching for his sidearm. That was Lyra No Tail’s voice and she was Jonas Moon’s ally. He wanted to be as far from her as possible.

  A man clutched Ozzy’s wrist. Ozzy gave him a hard look. The guard squeezed Ozzy’s wrist harder, and gestured over his shoulder, indicating there were a lot more of his kind than of Ozzy’s.

  Ozzy got the hint and lifted his fingers off his gun.

  “Good choice,” said the man, pulling Ozzy through the elevator doorway and into the room. He ushered him up to the front of Lyra’s desk.

  Jozi stepped by his side, and put her hands behind her back. “We’re here. Thank you for meeting with us.”

  Lyra licked her paw, and wiped it on her cheek. She purred some more. She was a feline alien and fit the cat-look perfectly. She
had paws, cat ears, whiskers, and silver fur with a golden tuff of hair curled over one of her wide, cat-like eyes.

  “No problem, darling,” said Lyra. “Did you have trouble finding this place?”

  “We found it easily,” Jozi replied, matter of factly.

  “Excellent.” Lyra cupped her paws in front of her, resting them on her desk. “You can take your EVA’s off. It’s chilly in here, but the oxygen is good.”

  Ozzy shook his head. He’d be leaving everything on just in case he needed a clean break from here, and soon.

  He looked around. He probably couldn’t pull escape with all these guards around.

  “Dammit,” he mumbled under his breath. “Did you set me up, Jozi?”

  This wasn’t like her.

  Jozi shook her head.

  Lyra sat straighter. “Okay, my prince, do you do know why you’re here?”

  Ozzy gathered himself and gave a sideways glance at Jozi. “You apparently know where my brother is, and Venessa.” He eyed Lyra. “But what’s the catch?”

  Lyra slowly closed her eyes and opened them much like a cat did. “Right, because in my world and in my crime life, you think there is always a catch. But understand that I do know exactly where your brother and your daughter’s mother is, and what Jonas will do to them.”

  She licked her shoulder.

  Ozzy threw his hands on Lyra’s desk. His heart beat picked up, and his muscles tightened. He leaned forward. “What’s he planning to do?” He narrowed his eyes, ignoring the nerves splashing around in his veins. “Jonas better not lay another hand on them.”

  “Jonas is planning on luring you in, and by now you probably realize that your daughter’s mother is the bait. He’ll kill you, and then he’ll kill her. And he’ll make sure no other relative that you have on Mars is still alive to screw him over. So, yes, your precious brother will die too.” She made a pouty face, and her whiskers twitched. “I know, Ozzy. It’s so sad.”

  Ozzy gritted his teeth. “Where are they?”

  “They are safe…for now. That’s all you need to know.”

  Ozzy lunged forward, and reached over the table, grabbing Lyra’s collar. “Tell me.”

  Lyra hissed, and swiped her claws, catching his bicep. The military grade EVA uniform held true and remained in one piece, but he pulled away nonetheless.

  Hands grabbed Ozzy. He spun around, ready to throw punches. A guard caught his arm, and pinned it behind his back.

  Ozzy grunted, not giving the guard the pleasure of a yelp.

  “Let him go,” ordered Lyra.

  The guard let go and Ozzy pushed him away, his breaths coming heavily and quickly.

  “Here’s the catch, Ozzy. I have several tablets that were found while you were vacationing on Earth,” said Lyra.

  If Ozzy could spit on her, he would. He gnarled his face in a rage. “Vacationing? That was a deathtrap, Lyra. I barely survived.”

  Lyra chuckled. “Oh, darling, I know about your excursion on Earth more than you realize.” She paused, looking him up and down. “But we’ll discuss that at another place and another time.” She leaned back into her chair. “Now, pay attention, sweetie. Jonas hired some rookie forbidden archaeologists to find the Gaia Stones. It took them annoyingly long, but they found a few.”

  The Gaia Stones had been referenced on several Ancient Coptic tablets, though the stones were written only in story form. They told the story of Earthlings, but that’s all they referenced—that the Gaia Stones simply told a story about Earthlings.

  But in all of Ozzy’s findings and digs, he’d never come across the Gaia Stones.

  Ozzy put his hands on his hips, and stood tall. “Why do you want to know the human story? What does it matter to you?”

  Lyra scoffed. “Because story and myth have a way of opening people’s eyes, and I want my eyes to be wide open.”

  “I’m retired. I’m not taking on anymore jobs.”

  “You just took a job for Jonas. I even let you have my craft for that particular job. And to thank me, you blew my Eagle into thousands of pieces.” She shrugged it off.

  He huffed. “Alright, you help me get my family, and I’ll translate whatever you think you have.”

  “It doesn’t work like that, my lovely. It doesn’t work like that at all. You help me in a way that I deem exemplary or not, meaning you aren’t making up the translation—and believe me, I can tell—then I will show you where your family is located.”

  Ozzy threw his hands in the air. “There will be no way you can tell if I’m telling you the correct translation or not. I’ll get Lou and Venessa on my own.”

  He turned and walked toward the elevator.

  Jozi stepped in front of him. “Do this for your daughter, Ozzy. She needs a mom. You help Lyra, and she will help you.”

  “She’ll lie, saying I didn’t tell her the correct translation, Jozi. I can’t trust her.”

  “Has she ever crossed you before?”

  Ozzy shook his head. “Not yet, but I don’t want to waste my time giving her something she wants while I get nothing of my own.”

  Jozi put her hands on her hips. “She can help you.”

  Ozzy pushed out a gush of air. “My ass, she can.”

  Jozi gave him a long stare.

  Ozzy crossed his arms at his chest. “Do you trust Lyra with every ounce of your being?”

  Jozi looked down. “I can’t say that.”

  “Then I leave.”

  A guard pressed a gun against Ozzy’s back and a gun against his helmet. Ozzy’s heart skipped a beat and he held his breath, and raised his hands.

  “Shit.” He could’t win. He was outgunned and out manned. He turned and took several paces toward Lyra. “Where do you have these Gaia Stones?”

  Lyra scratched her forearm, and dug into it with her teeth. She then licked at it, and brought her head back, coughing several times as if she had a hairball stuck in her throat.

  Her whiskers twitched when she was done and she gave a half smile. “At Jonas’s compound.”

  Ozzy cocked his head to the side. “Then get them and send them to me.” He leaned against the wall and slid on his rear end, plopping on the floor. He crossed his legs and looked at his wrist device. “I don’t have all day.”

  Lyra pushed up from her seated position. “Ozzy, darling, you’re lucky I’m a nice feline.” She nodded to her guards. “Everyone, put your weapons away.”

  The guards complied.

  “Ozzy, I’m trying to help you,” said Lyra. “I’ll have a way for you to sneak in and out of his compound. It’ll be a breeze. I just can’t, in anyway, be on his holovids stealing the stones. But you can, because you’re on the most wanted list and people would expect it from you.”

  Ozzy studied her slitted pupils. “You’re not setting me up?”

  “No.”

  Her pupils didn’t dilate. She didn’t look away. She didn’t blink. And her whiskers didn’t twitch and her ears didn’t come forward.

  In other words, she was telling him the truth.

  “Why do you want these translated so badly?” questioned Ozzy.

  “Because I think humans the ones.”

  “And that tells me nothing.”

  “In truth?” She let out a sigh, and sat, looking away. “Guards, leave the room. Jozi, you can stay.”

  The guards dipped their heads and exited the room, going into the elevator.

  The elevator closed.

  Lyra eyed Ozzy with a seriousness he’d never seen from her before. Her expression went from hard to calm, her face relaxing, becoming more serene. “I need to know what the tablets say to address why I came to Mars. And why I’ve been studying humans for so long.”

  She’d been studying humans? “What do you mean?” asked Ozzy.

  She smiled a beautiful smile. Her eyes shined like a child’s. “I think your race is the race that my people have been searching for.”

  Ozzy scrunched up his nose, his eyebrows raising. “I’m not fol
lowing.”

  She dipped her head and her face contorted into her normal expression, stern and hard, her chin slightly raised and her eyes looking down upon him. “You’ll understand soon enough. But, right now, you need to go.”

  Ozzy didn’t move. “You need to spill the beans, cat-lady.”

  “The race my people have been looking for isn’t like the rest of the races in the galaxy. The certain race we’re looking for was created for a certain purpose. And—” she cut herself off, clearly saying too much.

  “And?” questioned Ozzy.

  “I can’t say anymore, unless you are indeed that race.”

  Ozzy huffed. “Okay, whatever you say.” He stood. “So if I do this one last job for you, you’ll tell me where Lou and Venessa are?”

  “I will. Just do your job, and you’ll get your reward. You can do that, can’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  She threw a dismissive hand. “Be gone.”

  Ozzy cleared his throat. “Gladly.”

  Ozzy lifted Relic into the air and he set the coordinates to Tagus Valles, and pushed the throttle forward.

  A beep came from his holodisplay. The holoscreen split—one side showing the outside terrain, the other side a list of codes.

  It was from Lyra No Tail.

  Jozi eyed the codes intently. She blinked, and blinked again, almost like she was taking snapshot of the screen. She swiped the holodisplay and the codes disappeared. “I got it,” said Jozi.

  “Got what?” responded Ozzy. He exhaled, and set Relic to autopilot. “Okay, what did you just do?”

  Jozi kept her eyes forward. “I downloaded the information into my hippocampus, which is important for memory function, particularly the transference from short-to long-term memory. And these were access codes to get in and out of Jonas’s compound. Plus, there was a scrambled code that I will unscramble to reveal a map of the Gaia Stones exact location.”

  Ozzy lifted his brows. “Alright. That easy, eh?”