After our narrow escape with Mace and my mom, Nia flies us all up the canyon to another of Tony’s hidden bases. She explains they have spare parts stashed there and they’ll be able to fix the broken side thruster on the ship, and it’s also likely where her dad would go after realizing the other location was compromised.
Sure enough, when we fly into a cave deep in one of the most remote stretches of Valles Marineris, a couple of military hoverbikes are parked there, covered in dust and bullet holes with pieces of body panels missing.
Nia looks tense but doesn’t say anything. We step into one of the smallest airlocks I’ve seen, two by two, and enter a narrow, dimly-lit tunnel. I get flashbacks to prison and struggle to contain my fear in the enclosed area. I’m starting to think I want to move back to Earth. Say what you want about the toxic algae blooms and dying ecosystems, at least there are still places I can breathe freely under the open sky.
The tunnel turns a corner into a cavern about the size of my garage, with a single window overlooking the canyon and no other exit. We’re met with the barrels of three automatic rifles.
“Dad!” Nia shouts.
Three men put down their guns and one steps forward to embrace her. “Thank goodness you’re all right,” Tony says. “I see Mace found you.”
“Actually she found me,” Mace said. “She got all of us here. Hell of a pilot.”
Nia grins. “I get it from my dad, to be honest. Speaking of which I’m going to get started fixing the ship.”
“Who has my daughter brought me this time?” Tony asks as she leaves.
I introduce myself and my mom. “I’m just a salesperson who got accidentally mixed up in all this, do you think you could help us get to Earth? I still have family there.”
“We ain’t headed to Earth initially, but when we get to Titan and regroup, we can work on that.”
Saturn is so far away; I feel extremely uneasy about this. But I don’t have much choice. Going home just means getting re-arrested, tortured, and executed. I can’t think of any better way to get off this planet than a ship piloted by Nia Ross.
The two other men introduce themselves as Newton Makoto and Clyde Conway. Their haircuts and clothing immediately portray them as the sort of clean-cut, stylish young men you’d meet at a gay bar, although they are exceptionally disheveled and dusty at the moment.
“Are you two also smugglers?” I ask.
“Oh no,” Clyde says, laughing. “I was a garbage collector.”
“And I was recently hired as a security guard for the back gate to the senate parking garage.”
“We helped Tony get in to assassinate Greg Rockwell.”
“If you’ll excuse us,” Newton says, taking Clyde by the hand, “we’re going to clean up.”
Tony claps me on the back in a way that kind of hurts and also feels aggressively masculine in an awkward way. “Nia and me are gonna fix that ship of hers. Make yourselves at home. Plan is to blast off tonight, about four hours after sunset.”
I’m left alone with my mom, blinking in shock. She pats my shoulder and whispers, “I’m craving some nuts.”
“There are some in my bag in the ship,” I say.
~
I wasn’t expecting another significant addition to our crew. The kids show up after dark, led by a sandy-haired young man with a European accent who introduces himself as Gavin. There are six of them, and we start learning their story over a crowded dinner of pasta. Apparently they have…unusual talents of some sort? And they’re being pursued by a violent cult that believes they are possessed by demons? It sounds absurd and I’m not sure I believe it’s entirely the truth. Nia assures me that they’ve been screened through the smuggler network and are definitely not working for the Martian government.
“We can’t fit everyone in your ship,” I whisper to her. I’ve counted a couple times and there are thirteen of us now.
“We don’t have to, dad has our shuttle hidden nearby, it can carry eight.”
“Oh, that makes more sense.”
I glance out the window by chance and see a glow in the darkness for a fraction of a second. “Uh, I think I saw something outside.”
The room falls silent. Tony, Newton, and Clyde immediately pick up their weapons and cluster around the window. Nia joins them, peering through her multitool. “Oh fuckity fuck fuck,” she says. “They found us.”
Tony takes the multitool for a brief look and then shouts at everyone to hit the floor.
“And don’t fucking hold your breath!” Nia screams.
The window shatters with an incredible blast that shakes the ground, and the air rushes out of the cavern. Nia and Tony and the others are already suiting up. I look around frantically for my mom, who is nowhere to be seen. Nia shoves my pressure suit into my hands as my vision begins to darken. Then she seems to change her mind and grabs her dad’s arm. They get on each side of me and drag me down the tunnel toward the airlock. I pass out halfway there, and then wake up sitting in the ship, with mom beside me wearing a pressure suit minus the helmet and munching on a jar of salted nuts.
“They say we’re under attack,” she whispers. “Here, have a cashew.”
A moment later everyone else returns to the hangar, dragging a man in a military suit with a mirrored helmet. One of the newcomers is carrying their smallest companion, Nova, who appears lifeless. I scramble into my pressure suit and help mom put her helmet on and then leave the ship to see what’s happening. As I climb out I see them putting Nova’s body in with the cargo. They seem strangely unaffected.
“What happened?” I ask.
“This guy is a spy who called in a missile strike,” Tony says. “Nova got behind him somehow and gave us a chance to jump him. Unfortunately not before he shot them.”
“Don’t worry about Nova,” Gavin says. “They always come back to life three days after they die.”
“Is that supposed to be a joke?” Tony asks.
“No joke sir. I told you we have unusual abilities. That’s one of Nova’s.”
“What in the actual fuck. Well we don’t have time to talk about all that right now.” Tony forces their captor to his knees and opens the mirrored shade on his helmet…revealing the face of my twin brother. “Answer truthfully and I might let you live. Did you call for backup?”
“Of course I did, Tony, I’m not an amateur. Hey Melvin. It’s been a while.”
I forget all about the Jesus teenager for a moment as rage at my brother boils over. “You let mom and I assume you were dead all these years! What the hell, Larry?”
“I’m not Lawrence anymore, call me Maverick.”
“Yeah cause that’s just like you, running off to explore the solar system alone while I’m stuck in a tin can on Mars with our mom who’s suffering some sort of dementia!”
“I get it,” my brother says, “you’re mad I disappeared. But I didn’t have a choice.”
“You could at least have called.”
“I really couldn’t.”
I glare at him. “You better have a good explanation.”
“I could ask the same of you. What are you doing with these smugglers and murderers?”
“Trying to get away from a fascist regime that decided to charge a random scooter salesperson with being an accomplice to smugglers and murderers I’ve never met before.”
“You think my bosses are fascists?”
“I don’t know, Maverick, have you considered the irony of obeying a boss who sends you on a mission to blow up your sis…brother?”
“What did you say?”
“I said you call yourself ‘Maverick’, and yet you’re working for authoritarians who sent you to kill your twin brother. More like a stooge.”
“I didn’t know you were here until I saw you just now.”
“So your boss orders you to drop a bomb on people, you don’t have any idea who the people might be, and you do it anyway? How are you not just another Nazi following orders?”
“That’s low even for a Marxist like you. Dad served Mars honorably and I’m just trying to make him proud.”
Tony looks at me, then at Maverick, and then back at me. “You know, I’m starting to understand why they arrested you, Melvin. Sorry to bust up the touching family reunion, but we really need to get the fuck out of here.” He gestures to Newton and Clyde. “Take away his communicator, put him in the airlock and disable the interior controls." When Maverick is out of sight and earshot, he adds, “The rest of you, figure out how to pack yourselves into the ship like puppies in an illicit orbital breeding mill for a quick ride to the shuttle.”
Nia and I manage to get four of the five living kids into the back together, and the tall bald one wedged between the front seats. With Nia in the pilot seat and my mom in my lap, we just barely squeeze everyone in except Mace, Newton, Clyde, and Tony.
“Get them to the shuttle Nia, we’ll meet you there.”
She nods and shuts the doors as she fires up the ship. “Hang on, kids.”
“She means it,” I add.
The violent ride takes barely thirty seconds to get us to a spot a couple miles up the canyon where the shuttle is well-hidden. Nia sets down right beside it and immediately puts her ship into hiding mode. There’s no sign of activity on the radar.
“Everyone ok?” Nia asks.
“Aside from feeling like puppies in an illicit breeding mill,” Gavin squeaks out. “Just peachy.”
“Good, you all can unpack yourselves and get on the shuttle. The code to disarm the defenses and open the airlock is Ganymede2146.”
“How is that spelled?” Gavin asks.
Nia rolls her eyes. “Can any of you spell Ganymede?”
Our passenger in the front raises her hand with an amused grin. “Aunt Jovi’s got this, Gav.”
“Mom,” I say, “you should go with them, the shuttle is a lot more comfortable.”
After they all disembark, I ask Nia what the exact plan is for escaping Mars.
“If we manage to hide out for another couple of hours, we’ll get a brief window where a gap opens in the planetary defenses, right over this spot. We can blast off without being caught by their satellites. But that’s useless if they’re close enough to see us, so dad and the others will have to lead them away from here before doubling back.”
The ship’s communications panel flashes with an incoming message. It’s Tony, assuring us they are safe and hidden, and promising to rendezvous within ninety minutes. Nia starts chewing on her lower lip.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” I say.
She doesn’t respond.
Jovi returns from the shuttle and climbs in behind us. She puts one hand on Nia’s shoulder and the other on mine. “I need to warn you, I have a horrible premonition.”
“What?” Nia frowns. “Don’t tell me you’re clairvoyant and didn’t warn us about the attack!”
“No, not exactly, but I can sometimes sense the near-future…uh…vibes…of people I’m close to. They’re suddenly very heavy with pain and death.” She sounds calm but when she looks into my eyes I feel a flood of panic that isn’t exactly mine.
“Someone already died, maybe that’s why?” Nia asks.
“Nova won’t be the only one.”
If you enjoy this story, please consider supporting me at patreon.com/lucylauser
コメント