The Galactic Chronicles

Mars Born-3

Chapter FourTHEY WERE IN MARS ORBIT. The Bricoleur was quieter with Erielle, Makey, the pilot, and the miners gone. Four days had passed since the last of them had left. Flux’s addition to the crew had caused a temporary lifting of the spirits, but the atmosphere had quickly returned to a subdued and pensive state.

Carl was the only person aboard who had been planetside, but he hadn’t stuck around. He’d remained at Valles Marineris Spaceport just long enough for the miners to disembark the shuttle before flying back.

He was worried about Sayen. After Erielle had left them, her mood had sunk even lower. She was rarely seen outside her cabin, and she ate very little at meals—when she turned up to them at all. She’d grown worryingly thin, and her eyes were shadowed in their sockets. Her depression was bringing her brother down too. Phelan spent most of his time with her, though when the two were seen together he would be the one doing the talking. He would reason with her, or go over stories of their childhood, or just generally try to cheer her up. His naturally buoyant temperament was less and less evident as time wore on.

Carl decided to pay her a visit and take Flux with him in the hopes that the quirky alien’s presence might lighten her mood. He rang her door chime twice before she answered, and when she opened her door it was evident she’d been crying. “I’m sorry, Carl. This isn’t a good—”

Flux took off from Carl’s shoulder and flew into her cabin, alighting on the corner of her bunk.

“Got anything to eat?” the creature asked, his Australian-accented voice high-pitched.

“No, Flux. I don’t have anything. Maybe you should try the dining room?”

“Nah, nothing good in there. How about I scout around for some cockroaches?” He flew down from her bunk and crawled underneath it, pulling himself forward with the hooks on his wings.

“There are no roaches in my cabin,” Sayen exclaimed. Her cabin was extremely neat and tidy—almost too neat and tidy, as if no one were living there. The surfaces were completely bare and there wasn’t a smudge or speck of dust in the place.

“I bet there are,” came Flux’s voice from under the bunk. “Y’ can always find one if you look hard enough.”

“Sorry about him,” Carl said. “Is it okay if I come in, just for a minute?”

Sighing, Sayen stepped back to let Carl in. She told the door to close.

“Can I get you a drink?” she asked as she went to the dispenser on her wall.

“No, that’s okay,” Carl replied. As Sayen filled a beaker with water, he noticed that her hands were red and raw, as if she’d been washing them excessively.

Carl took the only chair in the cramped room, and Sayen sat on her bunk, her elbows on her knees and her head bowed. Scratching sounds were coming from beneath her bunk where Flux was searching.

Now that he was there, Carl wasn’t sure what to say. How are you doing seemed trite.

Sayen broke the awkward silence. “Carl, I know why you’re here, and I appreciate it and all, but there isn’t anything you can say or do that’s going to make me feel better. Phelan’s tried his best, but he can’t bring Mama or Daddy back, and now that Erielle’s gone too...” She paused and swallowed. “It’s like the light’s gone out of my life, and there’s nothing I or anyone else can do about it.”

“Nothing under here,” Flux said, crawling out from beneath Sayen’s bunk. He climbed up the side and onto her mattress, gripping her blanket with his feet and wing hooks. “I’ll try up there,” he squeaked, launching himself into the air. He flew across the cabin to the top of a cupboard on the opposite wall and disappeared into the gap between it and the ceiling.

“There’s no roaches there either,” said Sayen.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that if I were you,” came Flux’s voice.

Carl rolled his eyes at Sayen and was pleased to see the corners of her lips twitch into a half smile, but the moment was soon over.

“Your brother seems to be coping pretty well, at least,” he said.

Sayen shook her head. “He’s hurting. He just won’t show it. We aren’t much alike in that way. He doesn’t easily show how he feels. Mama and Daddy’s choice of modding for him was a little too far on the tough and adventurous side, they always said. I think they overcompensated with me. Made me too emotional and timid.”

“Maybe you were a little like that, at one time,” Carl replied, remembering her as he’d first known her when she was navigator aboard, the Galathea. “But that doesn’t sound like the Sayen I know now. The Sayen who broke into the secret files the Government was keeping on Shadows wasn’t emotional and timid. And neither was the Sayen who saved me and Makey after the truck crashed and we were surrounded.” He would never forget that lasting image he had of her appearing on top of the flaming truck, herself in flames.

“Seems like a long time ago,” said Sayen. “I was a different person then.”

“It just shows, though, doesn’t it? We aren’t set in stone. People can change. Modding’s only one part of who we are. We can still choose how we act and how we react when we hit hard times. We don’t have to accept that’s how we’ll be forever.”

Sayen frowned. “I guess so.”

Flux flew down and landed on Carl’s shoulder. “No luck,” he said disappointedly. “You keep your cabin too clean,” he said to Sayen.

“Er...sorry about that.”

The creature began to pick through Carl’s hair.

“You’re not going to find anything in there either, mate,” Carl said, brushing away a curl that had flopped over one eye.

“You never know,” Flux replied, leaning in to peer at Carl’s scalp.

This brought a small chuckle from Sayen. Carl thought he would take advantage of the momentary break in her mood with a change of subject. “Hey, did you know about the Bricoleur’s engine?” he asked.

“The Oootoon drive? Yeah, I know about it. Phelan had to argue long and hard with our parents about buying the ship when they were loaning him the money to start up his business. They didn’t think the greater efficiency of an Oootoon engine was worth the necessity of always having an empath aboard.”

“So it’s true that the engine’s alive and can communicate?”

“Oh yes. You could talk to it too, if you wanted to. You have to open the engine casing and touch it. I did it once, when the ship was delivered.” She grimaced. “What’s inside doesn’t look like much. It’s just a thick yellow liquid, but I wouldn’t recommend touching it. You immediately hear all its thoughts, and it’s like being inside the head of someone with multiple personality disorder. Confusing and creepy.” She gave a slight shudder. “Took me a little while to get over it.”

“Right...why does the engine need an empath?”

“An Oootoon drive will take you wherever you tell it, in hops like a starjump engine, only it’s a fraction of the size and it doesn’t need any fuel. The last I heard, no one’s figured out how it does it. But if the engine’s damaged or something upsets it, you have to have a way of talking to it, or it might stop working. Like I said, talking to it isn’t easy, but empaths like Flahive can do it. Flahive doesn’t need to touch the Oootoon to communicate with it. And he doesn’t just feel its emotions like with us; he can hear what it’s saying if he ‛tunes in’, as he puts it.”

“Wow,” Carl said. “I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

“Humans are still on the fringes of galactic society. We’ve only had interstellar travel for a couple of hundred years, whereas some alien species have been exploring the galaxy for eons. We’ve barely touched the surface of what’s out there. You should hear some of the stories Phelan has to tell about what he’s seen and done.”

“Sounds like I should. Ow.” Carl frowned and looked up from beneath his brows at Flux, who had just pulled his hair.

“Sorry, mate,” the creature said. “Thought I saw something.”

Carl gently removed the animal from his shoulder. “Maybe you should give it a rest for a minute,” he said, sitting Flux on his knee.

“Yeah. A rest sounds like a good idea.” Flux climbed over Carl’s lap and pulled open the top of Carl’s shirt before climbing in, saying, “You two carry on. Don’t mind about me.”

Flux made himself comfortable inside Carl’s shirt. Carl winced as his friend’s claws tugged at his chest hairs. Holding open the top of his shirt, he peered inside. Flux had curled into a ball and wrapped himself in his transparent wings. In a moment, his eyes began to close and his mouth opened, revealing two rows of tiny, sharp teeth. The creature’s breathing became deeper and more regular.

“It’s good to have him back,” he said to Sayen quietly, “but I’d forgotten how much of a pain in the arse he can be.”

“I can hear you,” Flux said.

Carl smiled at Sayen, and she grinned back.

Chapter FiveJAS FASTENED HER SAFETY belt, breathed in and exhaled slowly as Carl piloted the shuttle away from the Bricoleur. Breathing deeply didn’t do much to slow her racing heart. Thinking rationally, it made sense for her to be the one to go planetside. She was the only one with Martian citizenship, which meant that she could enter and move around in Mars Territory freely, providing she passed the health check at immigration. Her coloring also meant that she would blend in easily with the local population and remain relatively incognito. She was the ideal person to assess the place for signs of Shadow infiltration.

On the other hand, if the Shadows had arrived on Mars and were looking for her, she could quickly find herself in hot water. But with Mars’ much lower population, little deep space traffic, and far tighter controls on who entered and left, she didn’t think it likely that the Shadows had penetrated its defenses.

Yet it wasn’t fear of Shadows that was making Jas’ stomach clench into knots as Carl flew her to Valles Marineris Spaceport. All her life she’d avoided dwelling on her childhood, which had begun on Mars. Her unknown parents’ death had been the first in a series of experiences that had marred her early years.

After being forced to travel to Earth so her bones wouldn’t be permanently weakened by Mars’ low gravity, things had gone from bad to worse. Global Government policy at the time had mandated that Martian children were separated from their peers to better enable their integration into Earth society. The intention was good, but the effects were poor. Jas had been relentlessly bullied at her Earth institute for cared-for children. Then a traumatic experience while at training college in Antarctica had been the final straw.

Jas’ past was a place she’d never wanted to return to, in word or deed, but here she was, traveling back in time as well as space.

“Touchdown in five,” came Carl’s voice over the passenger cabin speakers. Jas jumped a little as she was jolted out of her musings, surprised that so much time had passed so quickly.

She could have sat next to Carl in the co-pilot’s seat, but he hadn’t offered and she hadn’t asked. He’d been a little cold toward her since that time in the dining room when they’d nearly kissed. She didn’t blame him. He’d made his feelings clear and deep down, she reciprocated them. Yet she’d been acting like a nervous sixteen year old, moving ahead only to shy away as soon as anything at all serious began to happen.

What’s wrong with me?

Jas shook her head slightly. She knew exactly what was wrong. What she didn’t know was how to fix it.

It was night time in Valles Marineris, and the spaceport was a triangle of brilliant lights at one end of the valley. Points of light ran out from the triangle, marking the overground tunnels of the Loop, which led to the colony settlements. Spreading patches of silver and red, they ran across the valley floor and up into the surrounding foothills.

The lights burned brighter as the shuttle vibrated and descended vertically to the landing pad. It came to rest outside a utilitarian, gray building with the words Valles Marineris Immigration Control stenciled across it in red.

The roar of the shuttle engines quietened, and the vibrations ceased. Jas undid her safety belt, but she hesitated, hoping for something before she disembarked. After a moment, her silent wish came true. The door to the cockpit opened and Carl’s lanky frame filled it, leaning against the edge.

“All set?” he asked.

“Yep. Ready as I’ll ever be.” She got up and retrieved her bag from the locker.

“Remember,” Carl said, “if you need to leave earlier than we arranged, just send the word. The Bricoleur’s right above. I can be here in a couple of hours.”

“I’ll remember. Hopefully, it won’t come to that.”

“Yeah. Hopefully. Have you figured out where you’re gonna go yet?”

“First, I’m going to find a place to stay. Then in the morning I thought I’d try to talk to the governor. See if there’s been any comms from the Council. Maybe the Territory officials know about the Shadows already. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth a try.”

“Hmm, yeah. Got any plans to go anywhere else?”

“You mean am I going to go back to the place where I grew up? Maybe. I haven’t made up my mind yet. It’s been so long, everyone I remember will have moved on.”

“What about the colony?”

“The disaster site? No, I don’t think I’ll bother. They must have rebuilt it decades ago. I don’t see any point in going there.”

Carl looked doubtful, but he didn’t say anything else. The pause began to turn awkward, so Jas shouldered her bag. “I’ll be off.”

“Okay.”

Another pause. Jas wanted nothing more than to step over to Carl and hug him, but her feet wouldn’t take her where her heart wanted to go. Instead, they turned her around and carried her to the exit.

“See you soon,” she said over her shoulder, unable to meet his gaze.

“Yeah. See you soon. Good luck, Jas.”

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