Secret of Mars

by Eric Johnson

  “You shot it?” Tom choked, fell to his knees, and screamed at the top of his lungs. “I can’t believe it. You just killed us. The atmosphere is escaping and you shot a hole through the only barrier that could protect us.”

  “Kid, we are already dead, didn’t you get that?”

  No, he didn’t. No, he wasn’t. He was going to make it. It was his plan to take the ship, get home and find his dad, but now it was all over. He entered the bridge and sat down on the floor holding Anidea. Winston sat with his hands-on Emmett’s face, trying to keep the deep wounds closed. A large view screen came to life as the adults pushed and pulled levers on the helm control board. The moon appeared, shining brightly in greater detail than he had ever seen before. He closed his eyes and listened to the adult’s chat amongst themselves.

  “That’s the moon,” one said.

  “It’s so big,” another gaped.

  “Just think, we are the first humans to physically see the moon this close in sixty years.”

  “These controls don’t do anything.”

  “Keep trying them, it can’t be that difficult to figure out.”

  “This control panel says Atari. What?”

  “It’s a game joystick,” one adult said nostalgically. “My grandfather had one when I was a kid.”

  “Why would they use it? Unless they have been to earth before and taken our technology.”

  “The moon is moving,” another said excitedly.

  “No, it’s the joy stick. It’s working,” the other cheered.

  “The Earth, it’s on the screen now. We turned the ship around,” one congratulated.

  The adults were very proud of themselves, but the Earth was now getting bigger and bigger on the monitor.

  “Uh, we need to slow down, don’t we?” one asked.

  “How? How do we tell if we slow down? These panels aren’t written in English.”

  “I’ve tried every one of the controls. Nothing’s working,” one panicked.

  “Oh no.” Tom slapped himself on the forehead. He’d finally realized what Emmett destroyed in the computer control room; he stood and announced to the adults, “I don’t think we will be able to do that. We destroyed the controls. Besides, won’t the air leak out before we crash?”

  Winston’s eyes welled up with tears as he thought of how he’d almost lost Emmett, how his dad had died, and how he didn’t know what happened to his mother. He looked over at Tom and sobbed, “I don’t want to die yet. I- I- can’t.”

  “It’s not going to be alright. I won’t sugar coat it, Winston. We’re going to die, asphyxiate as the air seeps away, our blood is going to boil in the vacuum of space.”

  “I don’t want to hear it, Tom.”

  “And what’s worse is that if we live that long we will burn up in the atmosphere and then crash, probably into a juvenile detention facility or someplace worse where our souls will suffer in eternal damnation forever.”

  “Anidea and Emmett, they are the lucky ones; they’re unconscious,” Winston said.

  “I didn’t find my dad either, Winston. He’s probably dead too. I didn’t finish building my dirt bike engine. My mom, wherever she is, won’t know I’m dead or how I died or that I wished she’d never left.”

  Soon the ship started to jolt and shake as it plunged into the Earth’s atmosphere. The adults worked frantically at the controls despite what Tom had told them.

  “Well, we didn’t suffocate or die from decompression,” one mused.

  “This is no time to joke. Can’t you show a little sensitivity,” another snapped.

  Tom stared at the screen and watched the image cloud red from the friction of the ship entering the atmosphere. “I guess this is it. I didn’t think we’d make it this far anyway. I’m going to say goodbye before we burn up.”

  “Wouldn’t they have an escape ship?” Winston wished. “In case of an emergency?”

  Tom jumped up and moved frantically about the bridge. “Escape ship? Help me, we don’t have much time to find it. If you were a lizardman what would it look like? Think like a lizard, Winston.”

  “Um, lizards crawl? They’re scaly and green?”

  Tom looked low along the floor. “Crawl. That’s it. There, under the main bridge controls. Those oval slats could be covers to something.”

  Over to his left were three more and he counted nine across the room. One for each bridge crew member station. “We don’t even know how to open them.”

  The adults were too busy to notice and interfere with his plan. He didn’t want to take the chance as there were ten people and only nine escape pod hatches. What if the pods were single lizard? That would give them something to debate and they would be dead before they decided.

  “Don’t give up. Hurry Winston, we don’t have much time. Help me drag Anidea and Emmett to the hatches.”

  Winston pushed Emmett against the hatch. “It won't open.”

  Tom ran his hand across the smooth metal of the hatch. “It has to. There’s no levers, no buttons. Please don’t be voice activated.” He waved his arms frantically and hiisss’d at it in lizardese. “Szsszsszss.”

  How did it open? He kicked and hammered his fist against the door, nothing happened. Emmett would have known instinctively what to do, but he was unconscious.

  Tom shook Emmett. “Wake up! Wake up!” But he was too far gone from his infected wound. It was no good.

  “What are we going to do?” Winston cried. “We don’t even know that these are escape hatches.”

  “They have to be.”

  “Hey kids, come over here and we will comfort you for the end,” one adult beckoned.

  No way! It was a trick to stop him from succeeding. “We’re not giving up,” Tom said. Then it suddenly dawned on him. In an emergency; break the glass and pull down. He flipped switched and turned knobs across the control console, there in the center toward the top was a clear cover and under it was a lever. He hit it with his hand but it didn’t crack. He hit it again, harder and harder but still it didn’t break. Curse safety glass. He took out his gun smashed it with the butt. Success! He pulled the lever.

  Winston shouted, “They’re opening.”

  “What’s that?” one adult said surprised by the floor panels opening. “Look everyone, those could be escape hatches.”

  “There's only nine, and ten of us. How are we going to choose who goes and who stays?” another adult exclaimed.

  “Choose nothing!” an adult shouted, and dove head first, sliding across the floor into a hatch.

  The remaining adults looked from one to another, surprised by the one who had taken a snap decision. They stood still. Their expressions were like the cat who caught the canary as they realized that they didn’t have to obey the rules and be considerate or nice to each other. They didn’t have to care. They could put themselves first. It was everyone for themselves. Suddenly a fight broke out.

  Tom moved, blocking one hatch. He pointed his gun in the air and fired just as two more slipped into hatches. One door closed. The remaining three adults froze. “If you don’t behave,” Tom ordered. “I’m going to shoot you. Winston, push Emmett and Anidea in, then go yourself.”

  “That’s right, shoot us,” an adult confronted him. “Give me that gun right now!”

  After Winston was in Tom said, “You adults, that leaves two hatches and the four of us. We need to talk about this.”

  “No, we don’t,” one of the remaining adults said and dove into a hatch.

  Tom fired and missed. He cursed himself. He’d never really had a chance to become a good shot.

  “Sorry kid, but do you really want murder on your conscience?” The last two adults scrambled down the remaining hatch.

  Tom stood there, shocked, “After all I’ve done for you, this is how you repay me?”

  He looked down at the hatch that his team has disappeared into; it was still open. No choices left. He crawled in hoping that there was room. Soft padded mechanical arms took hold of him and
pulled him forward down a dark tube. He came out into the dim light of an escape pod, landing right in Winston’s lap. Winston let out a loud. “Oof!”

  Emmett and Anidea were already there and strapped in, but the pod only had three seats. Before he could adjust his position to get comfortable the machine automatically strapped Tom tight against Winston and launched. They were pressed back in their seat.

  “Frrooooff! You’re crushing me,” Winston gasped for breath.

  “There’s nothing I can do until the thrust stops.”

  Through the viewport they could see Earth as the ship plummet towards it. The ship became a bright ball of fire that disappeared over the horizon to the west. They were well above the planet and moving along rapidly. Florida passed by, and moments later the North West coast of Africa and Spain.

  The pressure from the launch subsided and Tom unbuckled himself. Winston breathed deeply and stretched his legs. “Remind me the next time we use an escape pod, you get in first.”

  Tom watched out the view port for a while. “Amazing isn’t it,” he said, “but there’s a problem. We are orbiting and I don’t see any controls for the pod.”

  “How will we land?” Winston asked.

  “They designed this so we crash by slowly falling into the earth’s atmosphere.”

  “That’s not funny!” Winston said angrily. “This is the dumbest escape pod ever. There have to be controls. Wouldn’t there??”

  “Maybe it was designed to stay in space and not land.”

  Winston felt along the seat edges. “Here’s a lever, let’s pull that and see what happens.”

  “Wait!” Tom had a bad feeling about it. “I think that’s for the door to the outside. I’m not pulling it.”

  “What about this one on the side of my seat,” Winston said, and activated it. There was a distinctive click and whir that came from the center of the floor. A circular purple light flashed and a floor panel slid back. A small console rose up.

  Tom leaned forward and studied the control. “It only has three buttons.”

  “What are we supposed to do with that?”

  “One to land, one to take off and the other to open the door I guess?”

  “Why can’t anything be easy?”

  Tom pushed all three buttons. “It never is.”

  Vibrations resonated through the compartment like the sound of flaps extending from an airplane’s wing followed by several rapid bursts of mechanical clicking.

  “Uh oh. Here we go,” Winston said.

  A low rumble started and the compartment shook. Sudden pressure pulled Winston back into his seat; his cheeks pulled back from his face, making him smile like a grim clown.

  Tom was pinned on his back to the floor. He could see the Earth moving closer through the escape pods’ viewport. The pressure held him tight, he could feel his limbs going numb. Spots of white light flashed across his eyes, his vision dimmed and he blacked out. His last conscious thought was of Anidea, Winston, and Emmett.

  Percival Lowell

  The buzz and pop of electrical shorts flashed and glittered illuminating the escape pod for a second at a time waking Tom. He hadn't been dreaming. His lips quivered in amusement. Reality was worse. He refused his bodies impulsive request to run, and gripped his legs. At least his legs were there. That was a good sign. Not that there was anywhere to flee. No one can run in the vacuum of space.

  A surge of electric sparks blinded him. Spectral yellow and red dots clouded his vision. His skin crawled with a million pin pricks; something was on him. He screamed. Whatever it was sat in the edge of the darkness. Then he heard the clicking, and a mini spider-crab flew up in the air and landed on his chest. He screamed again and it scurried away as he tried to move, but his body wasn’t listening. First his body wanted to run now it froze. He could only shift his eyes.

  To his right Winston’s shoe was in his face. The worn tread was caked with fishy blood from the lizardmen. Every joint in his body protested, it was a fight to move. Using every ounce of will he could pull together he rolled his head a little to the left and a sharp pain shot down his spine. Emmett was on the other side of him. He was alive and breathing. “Wake up, Emmett.”

  The spider-crab sat for a moment, its claw holding onto a strand of his hair. A long needle slid out from one of its arms. A colorless liquid dripped from the end. It wasn’t the type for a quick pin prick. This was a ten-penny nail.

  The spider-crab climbed up over his head and out of sight, pulling on his hair. He was helpless, terrified about what it was going to do with the needle. That was a dumb question. He knew the answer; it was going to use it on him.

  He had no chance to cry out. His eyes bulged out of his head as needle drilled into the top of his skull, right into his brain. Seconds later the pain melted away and he felt warm and comfortable.

  His face slouched and drool trailed down his chin. “Whoa- this is better than laughing gas at the dentist. Maybe you’re trying to help me little spider-crab, maybe you’re like a first aid kit. It’s okay, you can come back out.”

  Now dozens of tiny spider-crabs emerged from small ports on the pod walls, covering him. They moved over his body, clicking and clacking and flashing little lights. They weren’t going to hurt him. He closed his eyes.

  Emmett groaned and Anidea muttered, “Emmett, are you alright?” Then the lights came on and she gasped.

  “Alright?” he said. “The lizardman bit me and I couldn’t stay awake. What happened?”

  “OMG,” Anidea felt her face. “Get me a mirror. You have scales on your face. Tell me. Wait. No don’t. What do I look like?”

  “What are you talking about, Anidea?”

  “What have those spider-crabs done to us? On your face where the gashes were, you have gray scales and your eye looks like a lizard eye.”

  Emmett felt his face. “What could do that?”

  “And in the center of your forehead is a small diamond shaped lens and retina.”

  “Cool,” Emmett said, “The robots must only know how to treat lizard people and they did their programed job.”

  “I feel sick,” Anidea said.

  Tom sat up and the spider-crabs retreated back into their holes. “Am I alive? Did we land?”

  “Tom?” Anidea gasped, startling him. Tom was covered in scales. He looked like himself, but green.

  “What?” he said as he saw her and gasped himself. “Y-you look like a lizard. How?”

  “No!” she shouted, her worst fears realized. “The spider-crabs changed ME?”

  “Stop freaking out, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Tom tried to calm her. “I feel fine, actually quite good. Whatever they did, it made us better.”

  Winston woke, pushing back into his seat at the sight of them. “Your skin!”

  “Wow, cool,” Emmett said, smiling a scaly smile as he wiggled his fingers and hands. “My hands don’t have scales, still human. That’s disappointing.”

  “Oh no, we didn’t land,” Winston said, as he unbuckled himself from his seat and started to float a little above it.

  Together they crowded at odd angles around the viewport in the zero gravity.

  “Where’s the Earth?” Anidea asked. “That’s not Earth. It’s red.”

  “That’s Mars,” Emmett gleamed. “This must be where they are from. And when the escape pod was activated it acted like a homing pigeon, bringing us here.”

  “Mars is, like, a long way away. How did we get here?” Anidea asked.

  “I don’t know, but it looks like we are going to land,” Emmett said.

  “What’s going to happen to us now?” Anidea said.

  “We’re going to land.”

  Tom went to the viewport and studied the Martian landscape for a moment. “Then, we are going to find our way back home.”

  An alarm beeped frantically and lights flashed, Tom desperately wanted to believe this was going to end. Panicked, he searched for the problem, “What now?”

  Retro-rockets
fired, pinning them to the pod walls, then sputtered and cut out after several seconds.

  Anidea gritted her teeth in anticipation of what was to come. “That can’t be good. Everything has been bad so far.”

  “It could get worse,” Emmett said.

  Anidea felt her face and shouted at him. “I look like a lizard.”

  “If the transformation completes it will be an improvement,” Winston mused.

  “I’m tired,” Tom snapped at them. “I’m sick and tired of you two not getting along. After everything we’ve been through.”

  “I couldn’t have said it better,” Winston admitted.

  The escape pod tilted, bringing the viewport to face the planet’s surface again. Emmett tapped on the window, “Mars is so cool. Look! There’s the Cydonia face from the picture the Viking orbiter took in the 1970s, it’s real.”

  “The engine’s stopped, Emmett,” Anidea said, “and you don’t have a problem with this?”

  Emmett smiled. “You can see the polar cap. Come take a look. Where there’s water.”

  “What the hell we going to do with Mars?” Tom asked.

  Golden light illuminated the cabin. Anidea pushed Emmett out of the way, pressing her face against the viewport. “How many layers are there in the Martian atmosphere?”

  “Three,” Emmett said. “Three very thin layers of terror.” Anidea pulled at her hair as he continued. “We’re going to plummet through to our deaths.”

  “We could only be so lucky.”

  “There’s no use in us panicking,” Tom said. “it’s not like we can step out and flap our wings.”

  Anidea didn’t believe they could be joking. “Tom! We’re going too fast.”

  Tom watched her. She couldn’t sit still. She acted like a trapped animal in a cage the way she clawed at her seat and fiddled with her hair, “Remember what I said about freaking out, Anidea?” His thoughts drifted to his neighbor’s Suburban and he smiled, “Just another tin can. Strap in, we are going to land.”

  They fell.

  The smooth ride of frictionless space ended. The capsule skipped like a rock across the tenuous eddies of the Martian thermosphere. Settling in, it shook and vibrated. The air smelled of ozone and it started getting hot.