by Eric Johnson
“Great we’re going to burn up in the atmosphere,” Anidea said, “After all that we made it through. What a stupid way to die. Just call me a barbecued lizard.”
“That’s not gonna happen,” Emmett said to Anidea between jolts. “Mars doesn’t have an atmosphere thick enough to burn up in. At 13,000 mph we’ll only heat up to 3800 degrees, give or take, and the pod should protect us from that. We will be through the atmosphere before there’s ever any chance of us bursting into flames. What’s going to happen is we’re going to make a new crater.”
Tom growled at them. “This thing got us here on automatic. That has to include landing or why would they bother? I bet you think you’re funny.” he closed his eyes and smiled. “And what’s making you so smart, Emmett? They don’t teach this stuff in school.”
The pod hurled through the atmosphere. Fire lit up the view port. Smoke filled the pod. Anidea and the twins held on, and Tom braced himself as best he could on the floor.
The pod bucked violently as it smashed through the layers. Tom was bounced around the capsule like an egg in a tin can. Anidea grappled for his hand to hold him; Emmett and Winston grabbed on to his legs. It was a fiery free fall. They all screamed.
A bright green light enveloped the escape pod and it recoiled like a bungee cord, bouncing to a dead stop. Tom thudded on the floor with an “Oof!”
Emmett smiled. “Saved by a fantastic alien technology.”
Tom held his head and sighed in relief. “Good call, Emmett.”
The pod was held high above the Martian desert in the grip of a beam. It was pulled across the land, past dunes and ancient jetties of rock, finally coming to a stop over a deep crater. They marveled at the sights through the viewport.
“Percival Lowell was right. Look, canals!” Emmett exclaimed.
The green light that held it in place changed color to blue and the pod descended into the crater. They landed softly, without a sound.
Seconds later the pod jerked like a roller-coaster grabbing the chain on a lift hill and started to move.
“Now what?” Anidea said, “Should we just stay strapped in for our safety?”
Smirking, Emmett said, “You should probably know that Mars doesn’t have an oxygen atmosphere. We won’t be able to breathe. If we get out of here”
“No oxygen?” Anidea asked, “I’m not amused by your stupidity.”
“We’ll figure something out,” Tom said. “What that something is, is going to be the difficult thing to figure out.”
“I know your plans are good, Tom, but this is Mars. You can’t tell me you have a plan for this,” Anidea said.
Tom felt like an old man, every bone in his body ached. “I’m thinking.”
The pod bumped and stopped moving.
“We are part lizard now,” Emmett pointed out and got out of his seat, “So why wouldn’t we be able to breath the carbon dioxide atmosphere? If that’s what the lizards breathe. Is this the door handle?”
Anidea fumbled with her seat restraint. “No, don’t.”
Emmett’s hand was on the handle before she could unbuckle her harness to stop him. The air from the escape pod hissed out. She gulped a lung full of air and held her breath.
An indicator light above the access hatch turned from orange to blue and beeped once.
Breathing deeply, Emmett patted Anidea on the knee. “Yup it’s good. Quite pleasant with just a hint of cat box.”
She punched his arm. “You jerk.”
“Didn’t hurt. Either my scales protected me or maybe you’re just weak.”
Tom pushed past them and stepped out of the pod. “Let’s get out of here.”
Outside, luminous orange moss lined the chamber, shedding a faint glow over the smooth rock floor.
A low breeze chanted from a corridor attached to the far side of the room sloped down. Their enemy was somewhere within.
At the bottom of the ramp the passageway opened up to a balcony on the wall of a domed canyon. The canyon was well lit; bright light shone through a giant arched skylight that went on for as far as the eye could see.
Slowly, Tom stepped out of the passageway. No human had ever seen anything like this, he was the first.
Anidea emerged from the passageway. She stood next to Tom, staring down over the railing to the canyon floor, and gasped. It was warm and nearly as humid as the spaceship. “Is that water I smell?” she asked.
Fountains and pools of water flowed, filling channels that led off into the distance. Many of the same types of plants that they had seen outside the spaceship back on earth were gathered around the fountains. They appeared to be socializing by the way they swayed back and forth, turning from one to another and rubbing their tentacles together.
Arriving just after Anidea, Emmett and Winston said, “Whoa.”
“It’s that plant,” Winston said, frightened.
“No,” Emmett said, “this must be what happens to the fruit when it goes to seed and gets planted. How ingenious. Meat and vegetable all in one, the perfect food.”
“We will get hungry sooner or later,” Tom said, “and if that’s the only food that we can find we will have to eat one of those.”
“What if one of those was a human?” Winston asked reflectively. “Would we be cannibals if we ate it? Like that one. It looks human.”
Anidea put her finger in her mouth and stuck out her tongue. "I’m not eating anything here.”
“Wouldn’t they have more plants than this to feed an entire population?” Winston asked.
“They would,” Emmett remarked. “This doesn’t look like a farm, more like a botanical garden. See all the different species of plants. They must travel to other worlds for different creatures to convert to food. Wait, not even a garden, it’s a sort of zoo.”
Anidea made clawing motions with her hands. “We aren’t creatures or zoo animals.”
“To them we are,” Emmett said. “See the dome, how it acts as a sort of greenhouse. It magnifies the light and keeps the heat in. This explains a lot.”
“Explains what to who? This doesn’t explain anything more than that you know nothing about it.”
“See those rib supports up there. Those are spaced about 500 feet apart. NASA has pictures of them from the outside.”
She shook her head. “You’re saying the government knew about all of this?”
“Yes and no. They would never admit it. Not intentionally. They let the public look at their pictures and decide for themselves what they are looking at. This would be M0400291a.”
Anidea made a diving motion with one hand, and clapped them together. “Ah splat. Yup, deep end. You’ve gone off the deep end, where there is no swimming allowed. There’s no way you could know any of this.”
Emmett kicked a rock at her. “Look around you, stupid.”
“Tom,” Anidea took a step back. “You’re licking your eyeball. OMG. Just don’t tell me if I do that.”
He grinned and trilled his tongue at her. “Tastes like chicken. Like I said, relax. We have to figure out how we are getting back to earth.”
Winston put his face into his hands and laughed uncontrollably. “I can’t take this anymore. I know you haven’t gotten us killed yet. We’ve been lucky so far. But I just can’t help thinking that this is it. We’re going to die here.”
Emmett kicked off his shoes and wiggled his toes. “Hey, our transformation is quickening. This is the coolest thing ever. We talked about what it would be like on Mars at space camp. I can’t believe we’re here. It’s real. We need to make the most of this. We’re going to be lizards. This is great!”
“It’s not great, monkey-brain.” Anidea balled her fists up and raised them at Emmett. “We’re trapped on another planet with no way home. How’s that cool? How’s that great?”
Emmett flexed his knees and hopped high in the air. “It is. That’s why.”
“Up there,” Anidea indicated, as large robots moved above suspended in auras of blue light. They tended to the g
arden’s needs. Their appendages were fixed with cutting and grabbing and digging attachments.
“Ha!” Emmett said, “will you look at that? Any intelligent civilization knows to use robots for the little jobs. Unless they need to occupy their population. Then they have a real problem. When all people want is a fair and even chance to live their lives without worry. But modern civilization prevents that from happening, there just isn’t enough to go around for everyone. I’m going to take this technology back to Earth and make billions.”
Streaks of light zipped past Winston’s head and he ran to the passageway. “We’ve got company,” he hissed.
“OMG! There so many of them!” Anidea chirped.
Lizardmen appeared from hatches in the ground across the valley, from around large rocks, and peered over balcony railings that blended into the flora higher up on the canyon wall.
At the base of the stairs that led up to the balcony, a lizardman at the head of the group stood out. He wore ornate robes of red and purple. He pointed at Tom. His voice echoed, “What are these abominations? Capture them.”
“They speak English. They’re speaking Englishfaaagw!!” Winston hiss click clicked.
“Your speakingazzas za lizardfish. ASsxWhat are you trying to xsaySAezsdesa,” Anidea blizorgorfed.
“Andzedae! Raz hisss tic.”
The lizardmen charged forward carrying nets. From the balconies, canisters spewing orange gas arched and landed around them. The gas made them choke and feel dizzy. They turned to flee, staggering through the orange cloud to the passageway.
The capsule was the only place they knew where to go. Winston raised his gun to fire as Tom, Anidea and Emmett moved past him. His vision clouded by the gas, he fired blindly. Shrill screams cried out and that gave him courage. “If you want a fight, then come and get it!”
From above a glowing net whipped down on top of him and pinned him to the ground. He tried to fire his gun, but the more he strained the heavier the net grew.
Through the orange cloud a figure appeared. A scaly foot pushed his arm into the dirt and crushing pain stabbed across his forearm. The gun was pulled from his hand. In the distance Anidea cried to be let go.
Emmett made it as far as the passageway before his legs were pulled out from underneath him. His chin hit the ground, sharp pain ran across his face and the taste of salty copper filled his mouth as his teeth cut through his lip. He tried to scramble away but he could not get free of the bonds on his legs before he was pushed back to the ground. His arms were pulled behind him and bound. Tom jumped into the pod and pulled the door lever to close the hatch. Lizard hands wrapped around the edge of the hatch door and a rock was jammed in, preventing it from closing. A face appeared in the gap.
The lizardman held one of the canisters. It smiled at him, twisted the top of the canister and tossed it into the escape pod. The door closed. His last thought before he blacked out was, how did he know it smiled?
Tom woke; he was bound to a table like the boy on the spaceship. A piece of apparatus was attached to his chest, beeping and buzzing and blinking. He struggled, pain shooting through his body. At his side a voice said, “Don’t move, it will only make things worse.”
“Let me go,” Tom said.
The lizardman snipped scissors in front of his face. “An interesting display of emotion. How curious. Do you fear me?”
“When I get free, I’m going to kill you!”
“Be silent, abomination. I am here to examine you. Not to learn if you are capable of emotion. Where did your species come from? Answer me!”
Tom shook his head.
The lizardman stuck a long needle into Tom’s nose. It crunched as it pierced the back of his nasal cavity. His body went rigid, blood ran down the back of his throat and he spat it at the lizardman as hard as he could manage.
“I see you know how we feed our young, learn to aim better,” the lizardman wiped his face. “You couldn’t have originated here. You’re too primitive to survive our climate. What happened to the ship that the pod came from?”
Tom spat again, hissing with rage.
“How did you get on the pod?” The lizardman licked the spit from his arm, then twisted a needle into Tom’s arm and attached a tube to it. He patted Tom’s arm and watched blood flow into a beaker.
Clamps pinched the remainder of Tom’s ears. “We saw the face from the escape pod,” he said. “It wasn’t a lizard face. You’re not from here either.”
“The more you talk the more it proves that you are not one of us. I understand you, but your words make no sense. You’re a mutation perhaps.”
“You only have one ship then. Is that all your species could build? Maybe we destroyed it.”
“Your insolence will only get you into more trouble.”
“That’s a big word for a lizard brain. How could I get into any more trouble when you’re the one that’s about to be cut open?”
The lizardman pried back the scales on Tom’s forehead with a tiny hook and knife. “This third eye of yours, very curious. However, your friend’s is more developed than yours, were you born on the ship?”
“Bite yourself and die, scaleface!”
“I suspect you are a product of radiation, a mere mutation.”
“You really have no idea, do you?”
With a sharp tug the lizardman pulled the apparatus from Tom’s chest and a spurt of blood followed after it. He held it up as if reading something. “I didn’t think this possible. You were one of the food creatures; our medical robots must have changed you. Interesting. Our healing microbes are still active in you. Soon you will be just like us. It’s an experiment I would never have been allowed to attempt.”
“The more reason that you should fear us.”
“I hardly think so. Your existence is strictly limited.”
The lizardman disappeared from sight, but Tom could hear him. “We have a very interesting situation with one of those creatures down here. Yes, I did say creatures. They are not our species, they are something completely new. They all possess the eye, and one is more developed than the others. I recommend that you come see for yourself.” There was a long pause. “I’m certain, absolutely.”
The lizardman reappeared and Tom stayed silent as he watched it work. He knew what they were going to do. They were readying to slip a knife around his scales, cut him open, pull his cavity apart, look into him, and examine him piece by piece, just like a frog in science class. He screamed.
Anidea woke. “Tom?”
“Quiet!” A lizardman stood over her. “Your friend is quite resilient.”
“Where are we?”
The familiar sound of lizard technology beeped and buzzed around them with tubes full of liquid flowing from beaker to tube to beaker. Newer looking equipment that made a pinging sound swayed back and forth in a cradle. “I think you know the answer to that.”
“Where are you Tom? I can’t see you,” Anidea called.
“Right behind you, strapped to a table.”
“I said silence!” the lizardman hissed.
“Where’s Emmett and Winston? Can you see them? I can’t move.”
Several lizardmen entered the room. One was pushing a cart that held instruments neatly arranged on it. Knives, needle saws and sharp looking twisty things that he had no name for gleamed in the light.
“What are those,” Anidea said.
“Fresh tools to help me figure you out.”
“Where are my friends.”
“Over there. They are lucky the healing microbes are working at all on your physiology. I find it hard to imagine any creature that could survive my investigation.”
The lizardman picked up a knife and ran it across a sharpening stone. He stepped out of sight. “It’s time to figure out if you are different from the others.”
“Astounding,” another voice said.
“The transformation is near completion with this one,” the one who held the knife said.
“Leave her alon
e,” Tom yelled.
“Now we can find out how this happened,” the other said.
“So very curious to me. Just how did you come to be?”
To Tom he looked like the lizardman leader when they were captured.
“Tom!” Anidea called out. “They’re doing something. He has a big needle and a knife!”
The lizardman looked up and left Tom’s view. “It’s amazing how they learned our language so well,” he said excitedly. “Do you think she’ll scream like the other ones?”
“Please don’t. Mr. Nice Lizardman,” Anidea pleaded.
The lizardman pried up a scale with the knife and stuck the needle into Anidea’s chest. She whinnied in pain. Her blood squirted out into a beaker and the lizardman held it up to the light.
“It has amazing color. Incredibly red. So succulent looking. I must see that,” the leader said.
The scientist lizardman graciously handed over the beaker to the leader. “I can easily extract more if you need it sir.”
The leader swished the blood around and watched it run down the side of the glass. He stuck his finger into the blood and tasted it. “Interesting,” he said. “I can taste your memories, you miss a dog named D’ohgee. I don’t know what a dog is, I wonder if they taste good. This should prove to be quite fascinating. Let me know if they are compatible. Give me the results as soon as you have them.”
The leader left the room and Tom watched the scientists at work. One sounded like he was humming.
“If you can understand us. Let us go,” Tom said.
The lizardman looked down on him. He held serrated shears and took hold of Tom’s arm before cutting a large price of his triceps off. The last thing Tom remembered was the lizardman saying, “I classify you as an abomination only to be studied. Be quiet.
It’s - Aahhh!
Tom came to on a bed of gritty sand. Anidea and Winston lay next to him. He remembered the pain in his arm. His hand shot up to check it; smooth and scaly. It had been cut off, so how did it grow back?
Anidea sat up holding her chest. “Where are we now?”