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

by Brandon Ellis

  The needle pricked his skin below his bicep and on his anterior forearm. Heat rushed up his arm, and he couldn’t help but open his eyes.

  He glanced around at the shocked faces, and at Jonas. He had his hands behind his back, pleased to be witnessing another death under his belt.

  The masked executioner waived in the air. Several more masked people in robes entered.

  Ozzy eyes became heavy, and his mind twirled along with the spinning red planet he hated so much.

  The masked figures threw open their robes.

  They had photon guns.

  Ozzy almost laughed. Why was he imagining this? It was a silly hallucination. Was this what death was like before crossing to the other side?

  He yawned, and his eyes closed, fading off, knowing for the first time in his life what it was like to slip from the living to the dead.

  19

  Unknown

  Ozzy jolted in a start, and sat upright, his hands touching something soft and comfortable. He was covered in sweat and everything was pitch black.

  Am I in a bed?

  He patted all around, finding a pillow, blankets and sheets.

  “Hello?”

  No reply.

  Where was he? Was this death? A dark space with a bed? If so, this sucked.

  But Ozzy wasn’t that dumb.

  He shifted on the bed and dangled his feet over the edge, touching his bare feet to the ground. The floor was warm.

  He touched his clothes.

  A robe?

  He turned to get up and his hand hit something hard next to the bed. He ran his hand over it.

  A hoverlamp above a table turned on.

  He lurched back, swiping his hand away from the table.

  “Who turned that on?”

  No one responded.

  A piece of paper with words on it sat underneath the light. He narrowed his eyes and read.

  Read the Gaia Stones out loud, and I’ll let you go free. We are recording you, so be precise and accurate. Thank you.

  - Lyra No Tail

  He twisted in the bed. A table was off in the corner, with two long, round stones placed on top of it.

  “Lyra,” Ozzy pushed off the bed and stood, his legs shaky and weak. “You set me up.” But more importantly, how was Ozzy still alive?

  “Ozzy, darling, I’m sorry I set you up.” Lyra’s voice came over an intercom.

  Ozzy put his hands out. “Why did you do it? I trusted you and you threw a knife in my back, just like Jonas.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic, my prince. It was the only way I could safely retrieve the stones without Jonas knowing it was me, but now that you spilled the beans that it was me, he knows and I’m in hiding.” She purred. “Don’t worry. I’m not mad.”

  Ozzy walked to a wall. There had to be a hologram in here somewhere. Maybe the hole place was a hologram.

  Lyra had to be watching him from somewhere.

  He pressed on a wall. The wall was tough and hard, made from red concrete, one of Mars’s special blends.

  He eyed the walls and ceiling, using the ample light the hoverlamp gave off. He didn’t see a hovercam but that didn’t mean much. The hovercam could be a hologram in itself.

  “Jonas wasn’t really going to kill me then?”

  “No, he was. I was the one who injected you, but we replaced the lethal serum with a sleeping agent.”

  “Who is we?”

  “My own guards. They came in whilst you were sleeping, and shot up the room. We unstrapped you and hurried you out and to my ship. There, we escaped into hiding, where we sit now, waiting for you to translate what the Gaia Stones tell us.”

  A tinge of hope came over him. “Then you killed Jonas and rescued my friends and brother?”

  “We did neither.”

  “Of course.” He huffed loudly and walked to the stones, and examined them. They were longer than they were wide, and each one was perfectly shaped like a two foot by one foot pill.

  He snapped his fingers. “Hoverlamp, to my right hand’s location and five feet above.”

  Ozzy held his right hand over the middle of the table. The lamp lifted a few inches and darted across the room toward him. It slowed and floated over his hand, and raised five feet, highlighting the entire table.

  Ozzy examined the stones. “These are jasper stones.” He rubbed a his hand over his eyes, clearing away more sleep. “Have we ever found jasper on Mars?” He surely hadn’t.

  “I don’t know, Ozzy. Stop dilly-dallying, and translate.”

  “Yes,” he nodded. His archaeologist curiosity taking over. “Are these two stones in order?”

  “We don’t know. We can’t read what they say.”

  It was just old Ancient Coptic writing. Why couldn’t anybody ever pick up a book and learn the damn language.

  He studied a stone. A Coptic number was on the upper right of the stone, indicating this stone was number five. He looked at the other stone and its number. “Number two and number five.” He glanced around. “Where are the rest of the stones?”

  “Again, we don’t know as of yet.”

  Ozzy read the symbols on number two’s stone, which was intermixed with bird glyphs, human glyphs, ancient Egyptian glyphs, Sumerian glyphs, and even Celtic writing, using letters from Druid ancestry.

  The problem? Not one glyph was actually written in Martian.

  Ozzy took in a deep breath and ran his fingers over the etchings in the stone. He furrowed his brow, concentrating. He went to the next stone, reading it, and keeping the messages and stories in the front of his mind, something he was strangely good at doing, practically recording it in his brain where it would stay forever.

  Earth’s history, and wars and nations that have come and gone, many Ozzy thought were merely myths or legends that were exaggerated, were on the stones.

  “Ozzy,” came Lyra’s voice. “It’s been fifteen minutes. Are you done translating the glyphs?”

  Ozzy stood straight, blinking and staring at the wall. “I…uh…don’t know really what it’s trying to spell out here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Ozzy itched his temple, and glared at a stone with one eyebrow raised. “It’s…well…complicated. And unlikely.”

  “My race is looking for the Explorer Race. We think, and hope, we’ve found them.”

  “It doesn’t say anything like that on these glyphs. You may want to keep looking around the galaxy?”

  “What does it say, Ozzy?” Her voice was low, and almost meditative.

  “Well, here goes.” He ran his fingers over the first stone. “Whoever etched on these stones are claiming that humans were put on Earth as an experiment. Apparently, the Creator—and yes, they use that word—divinely inspired other races to jump start a race on Earth in order to seed new thought in our Universe. We have been intermixed with two dozen extraterrestrial races, and they created us in a way to live short lives, but we are stronger in nature than all those beings combined, and are to change the mindset of the extermination races or expel them from this Universe altogether.”

  He snorted. This was silly. Of all races, humans weren’t even good at fixing themselves, let alone another races ideologies and misgivings. Hell, getting a contractor to finish a structure on time was the miracle of all miracles, so how could humans change anyone’s mind, let alone their own relatives?

  Ozzy continued, shaking his head at what he was translating. “So, they created different human species until they came upon my style—homo sapien.” He puffed out his cheeks, thinking this was just nuts. “Before my race was imagined and then created, they tried homo heidelbergensis, the homo rudolfensis, the homo abilis, the homo erectus, the homo neanderthal, and…” Ozzy let out a loud breath. “Do I have to keep listing them off?”

  “No.”

  “Good.” Ozzy shook his head over the absurdity of these claims. He knew about the other races, and more, but humans made by the hands of other beings was just nonsense.

  “K
eep reading,” ordered Lyra.

  Ozzy glanced all around, his eyebrows finding new heights. “Are you serious? You believe this crap?”

  “Yes, now I need to know more.”

  He shook his head, continuing, “The first of my race were seeded on Atlantis, though of the red-skinned variety. Others were placed on Lemuria, and they were yellow-skinned. The brown-skins were set in Africa and—”

  Ozzy put his hands on his hips. “Can I be done now? This isn’t what I’d call true facts or history. It’s a story written by someone about a race on a planet they had no clue about.”

  “Does it answer this burning question? Were humans created to tackle the biggest problems in the Universe, and not just change the thinking of the Universe?”

  Ozzy could answer that without re-reading any of the stones. The answer would be a resounding, hell no. “You haven’t been paying attention to us humans, have you? Is there any part in us that would even suggest that we could tackle even the smallest problems in the Universe?”

  “Yes,” replied Lyra. “Now, find me that answer.”

  Ozzy rolled his eyes, his patience thinning. “It’s not there.”

  “Read,” growled Lyra, her voice booming over the intercom.

  “Alright,” replied Ozzy, leaning onto the table, continuing the translation. There was something, but it couldn’t be true, but if it was, the entire known Universe would be after his race.

  According to the tablets, humans were going to change the Universe by being years behind in the Universal race for advanced technology, propulsion, and wars. And the human’s job was to catch up, and display all the problems and solutions to any outsider looking in. Eventually, humans would travel to distant stars, and reveal many different solutions to any problem to other cultures.

  Yet, humans started hundreds of thousands of years behind, if not millions. Because of a human’s short life span, and the limited ability to look back on a long lifespan that would tell them how to tackle major problems, homo sapiens had to continually fix the same problems that plagued humanity using different solutions.

  This would benefit other races across the Universe? But how?

  The stones didn’t explain. It was a mystery.

  Yet the stone labeled number five asked one last question. Would humans fulfill their destiny?

  He went to speak but held his tongue.

  He shook his head. “It says nothing more than weird exchanges between human cultures. That’s it.”

  “You lie.”

  Ozzy stepped back, his hands in the air. “Why would I lie to you? How would that benefit me?”

  “I don’t know. How would that benefit you, Ozzy?”

  The wall in front of him faded, and blipped out.

  There stood Lyra and several of her men and women in monk robes.

  They lifted their weapons.

  Lyra licked her paw. “Tell us, or die with the secrets still in your mind.”

  20

  Unknown, Mars

  Lyra’s whisker’s twitched. “Ozzy, let me know. Now.”

  Ozzy stepped back. He couldn’t give away his leverage, and he knew he’d never convince Lyra that the stones said nothing more.

  If he let her know, she could just kill him whenever she desired. Ozzy bit his lip. “No can do, Lyra. Sorry, but it doesn’t say what you wish it to say.”

  “I can smell mistruths better than I can hear them, and you smell like of a wretched liar.” Her nostrils sucked in and out.

  She was sniffing Ozzy out.

  “My brother—”

  “He will die.”

  “Jozi and—“

  “They will die, too.”

  The words hit Ozzy’s heart, and he went rigid. “You’ll get the rest of what I read when you take me to them.”

  Lyra paused. “Have it your way.” She eyed her guards. “Lower your weapons.” She walked up to Ozzy, and placed her paws on his shoulders. “Hologram, off.”

  The entire room faded, and blinked away.

  Ozzy pushed her hands off of him and spun around in surprise. The damn room disappeared, accept for the bed, tables, and Gaia Stones.

  But the walls? Earlier, he had touched the walls, and his hands didn’t go through it like it would have with any hologram Ozzy ever touched. This was a different tech, and likely from a different reach in the galaxy.

  Feline-alien tech?

  Ozzy jumped back when he saw his ship ten or so meters behind Lyra. “Relic?”

  They were in a cave in Mars’s underground depths and hoverlights blared down on the red rock walls surrounding him.

  “We commandeered Relic under Jonas’s compound shortly after you were arrested.”

  “Where are my friends?”

  “Waiting for you.”

  Ozzy glanced at his feet. “What? Where?”

  “Back at the Galactic Knight’s make-shift base with your daughter. They didn’t have enough security to keep those three behind bars. They escaped.”

  He let out a breath. “How do you know this?”

  “Let’s just say I know them more than you think.”

  Ozzy walked toward Relic’s open ramp. “Let’s go. We have to get my brother.”

  “If we kidnap your brother, do you promise to give me the rest of the information on the stones?”

  Ozzy nodded. “Yes, but you and me board my ship only. I can’t have a hundred monks packing my storage bay.”

  Lyra hesitated. “Darling, listen, my men and women will —”

  Ozzy crossed his arms and twisted around at the edge of the ramp. “Just you and me.” He wasn’t budging. He usually worked alone, but he needed Lyra’s knowledge of Lou’s whereabouts.

  Lyra got the hint. She eyed her men and women. “I’ll be back soon.” She licked her hand and wiped her brow. “Get on board. We’ll get your brother and then the rest of the information from the stones.”

  That was more like it.

  He strode up the ramp, and into his home—Relic. The storage bay was well and intact, the way he had left it. And the smell. Yes, the smell. It was beautiful. A mixture of photon core reactors and pallet jack grease.

  There truly was no place like home.

  “Welcome,” came a voice from the upper deck, and if he wasn’t mistaken, inside his cockpit.

  He paused and shot Lyra a look. “Who is that?” He unholstered his side arm. He didn’t wait for a reply and climbed up the ramp, and onto the upper deck.

  He rounded a corner and waltzed into his cockpit, his gun ready in hand.

  He jerked back. “Get off of my ship.”

  It was the last person he wanted to see.

  21

  Unknown, Mars

  “If it isn’t Sonya Zeld?” Ozzy thumbed over his shoulder, his face reddening. “Get out of my chair, and get your ass off my ride.” Ozzy’s mouth straightened in fury, and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

  Zeld held her hands up, and gave him a pouty look. She’d win an award with her puppy dog eyes. Her hair wasn’t pink anymore. Bright yellow was now her cup of tea.

  “You throw me on the bed tonight, handsome, and you can order me to do whatever you want.” She gave him a wink.

  He closed his eyes for a brief second. All he wanted to do was get his brother away from Jonas, and escape off of this Mars-forsaken planet, but yet, he had to deal with this nasty woman…again.

  He turned and pointed his finger out of the cockpit. “Go ahead. Move your legs and walk out of this ship.”

  Lyra moseyed past Ozzy, heading for the co-pilot’s chair, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

  Ozzy grabbed her furry forearm. “Why is Zeld here?”

  Lyra placed her free paw on Ozzy’s hand. Her claws shot into his skin. A pain zinged into his hand, and he let go, and wiggled his hand.

  Lyra dipped her head. “I hired her.”

  Ozzy let out an exasperated breath. “Are you shitting me?”

  Lyra tilted her head, not understanding.<
br />
  “Alright, alright. Are you lying to me?”

  Lyra chuckled, patting him on the arm. “You’re funny.” She sat in the co-pilot chair. “I hired her to take us to Lou’s whereabouts, because I knew what you’d demand, and like usual, I was right.”

  Ozzy slapped his chest. “I fly us there. Not her.”

  Lyra threw a dismissive hand in the air. “So be it. Get up, Zeld.”

  Zeld bolted to a standing position, pressing a button on the flight console. The craft jostled, and Zeld sat back down on the pilot’s chair. Relic lifted into the air. “Oops. Looky what I’ve accidently done.” She sucked her index finger and slowly slid it out of her mouth, letting the tip of her finger linger on her tongue. “Guess I’ll do the driving.” She gave him another wink and blew a kiss.

  Ozzy stomped forward. “The hell you—”

  Zeld turned, her photon pistol now pointed at Ozzy’s sternum. “You know me, Ozzy. I do the driving in this relationship.”

  Ozzy gritted his teeth. “I do the driving on my ship. Not you. Not Lyra. Not anyone.”

  Zeld snorted and grabbed the control stick. She pushed the throttle forward, and Ozzy fell onto his back, his head cracking against the grated floor.

  He clawed the grate, and held himself in place. “You Marshole.”

  “Oh, sorry,” yelled Zeld. “Forgot we were in artificial gravity in this here cave. And, little old me forgot to also tell you to strap in.”

  Ozzy crawled to Zeld’s chair and grabbed onto the backrest and pulled himself up.

  His eyes widened at what was on the other side of the cockpit window.

  Zeld was flying like a madwoman through a cavern tunnel. It curved left and right and up and down. Whoever built this thing wasn’t too keen on straight.

  He held on tightly until his body lightened. They were leaving the dense artificial gravity field and entering Mars’s thin gravity.

  Zeld brought her hand around and caressed Ozzy’s butt cheek. “You need to do a little working out, there, hot-cakes.”