Battleground Mars (2 page)

“Is everything ok?”

They looked up. A small man, thin faced. Ryles was back.

“Yeah, all good,” Saul smiled, wondering if the man had overheard him. But he hadn’t.

“You know what to expect when we get there?”

“Mars?”

Ryles managed a sickly grin. “Very funny, Mr., er,” he squinted down at the name tag. “Mr. Saul Packer. Nice to meet you, Sir.”

He shook hands, his face attempting, and failing, to give a warm and engaging smile.

“And you would be, Mr.,” he squinted at Rahm’s badge. “Sorry, Dr. Rahm. As I said over the intercom, the journey will be five weeks. This will be the shortest journey time on record for a commercial flight. Since the relief ships were retrofitted with VASIMR, the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket technology, it’s made a huge difference. Yes, a massive difference. I must tell you more about it at a later time, I'm sure I have all of the information on my tablet. I’m kept very busy running this show, but I’ll do my best if you want further information. Now, when we arrive...”

“Taurons.”

“I beg your pardon?” But he’d paled. His nasally voice deteriorated to more of a squeak. “Taurons, did you say?”

“Yes. Tell us about them.”

Ryles looked around, as if he was to impart some great secret. “You know about the raid on the Earth facility?”

“We heard. That was pretty stupid, to put our entire stock of trevanium in one place.”

“How were we to know that they would attack us, Dr Rahm?”

“You knew they were hostile, and you knew they were desperate for trevanium. Isn’t that enough? It’s a simple equation. Taking what you want from someone else has been the justification for war since the dawn of man.”

Ryles sniffed. “I wouldn’t know about that. There are certain strategic considerations that I am not privy to.”

“Right. They’re big bastards, aren’t they, the Taurons?”

“Yes, they are rather tall. As you’ve noted, they have as much need for the trevanium as we do, perhaps even more. Their planetary atmosphere is failing badly, or so our astronomers say.”

“How the hell do they manage to travel from another solar system?”

“They’re from the Planet Tauron in Alpha Centauri. They managed to develop faster than light travel, something we’ve been unable to do so far. The voyage from Alpha Centauri to our own solar system takes them no longer than it takes us to travel from Earth to Mars at sub-light speed.”

“A pity we couldn’t do the same and raid their planet, they’d see how it feels,” Saul muttered darkly.

“That’s wouldn’t be a good idea, Mr. Packer. The Taurons are a very warlike race. It’s much better to leave them well alone.”

“How do we manage that on Mars, if we’re both working the same planet?”

Ryles looked embarrassed. “Er, well, we just have to stay out of each other’s way.”

“And then they leave us alone, do they?” Rahm asked skeptically. “Like they left us alone when they raided our warehouse on Earth.”

The assistant manager ignored him and walked quickly away, fuming about ‘people asking idiotic questions’. Rahm reached up and pulled off his name tag, he hadn’t noticed they’d used his title of Doctor. It was part of his past, a past that he wanted to forget. It was the reason he was on this ship. Like the old immigrants to the United States, escaping the wreckage of their lives in the poverty and inequality of the old Europe, this spacecraft was his pioneer wagon. He reflected that they faced similar problems to the old American settlers. Hostile warriors, intent on stopping them.

“What got him all upset?” Saul asked.

Rahm shrugged. “Alien bogeymen, he didn’t seem to like the idea of those Taurons.”

An older man looked across from the next aisle. “Neither will you, when you see them. I’m Josh DeVries. Crew boss.” The guy was short and completely bald, his face wrinkled from too much exposure to the elements. Rahm shook hands, and discovered that Josh had a grip of steel. His gaze was honest and direct. “I’m on my second contract to Mars, so let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.”

 
“Thanks, Josh. I’m Rahm, this is Saul Packer. He’s my toolpusher.”

“Rahm, no other name?”

“It’s no secret, my first name’s Cal, short for Caleb. They’ve called me Rahm since, well, a long time ago. What’s this about the Taurons?”

“That useless creature Ryles described them as ‘quite tall’, did he? That’s a pile of bullshit. They’re enormous, built like tanks. The Taurons are bipeds, like us. They’re very strong, very clever, and so aggressive you wouldn’t believe it. Their hides are tough too, it’s like a kind of scale armor. And one more thing about the Taurons.”

“Yes, what’s that?”

“Forget that ‘live and let live’ crap. They hate us. If they take a human prisoner you wouldn’t want to know what happens next. When you get near a Tauron you get away as fast as possible. Even then, it may not be fast enough. When they see one of us it’s like a bull when it sees the matador’s red cape.”

Saul glanced at Rahm. “They didn’t say anything about it being that bad back on Earth. The raid was hushed up, too, we only heard about it while we were waiting for the flight to leave.”

Josh smiled. “They figure it’ll upset their recruiting figures. Look, they’re really bad news, the Taurons. If you stay away from them, you might make it back to cash in your pay.”

“Might?”

“I had a six man crew on the last contract. Three of us came back, the others didn’t make it.”

“Do they ship the bodies back?”

Josh thought about his answer for a few moments. Then he shook his head. “No, they don’t ship the bodies back, you can forget about that.”

“So they bury them on Mars?”

“Something like that. You’ll find out soon enough.” He looked at the people seated in front of Saul and Rahm. “Is this the rest of your crew?”

Rahm nodded. “Yep, that’s Brad Haakon, Kaz Yasan, and Nathan Wenders. Our technician is Kacy Lakkin. She went to the ship’s library to stock up on technical manuals.”

He noticed that Nathan was sitting slightly apart from the others, his face morose as usual. He recalled their first meeting at the funeral service for Christine Blake. Rahm had stood at the back of the old church. The cool, dark interior was dimly lit by shafts of sunlight that penetrated the stained glass windows. Her family had packed out the front rows and he didn’t feel ready to face them, not yet. He’d noticed the guy staring at him as if he knew him. He was very thin, to the point of emaciation. His hair was cropped close to his skull and his pale, thin face accented the dark, brooding eyes, making them look huge and intense. Like an old-time religious fanatic.

“You’re a friend of the family, aren’t you?”

Nathan nodded curtly. “Something like that, yes.”

“I’m Rahm, pleased to meet you.”

“Yes.” They shook hands. Rahm shrugged off the man's coldness. He knew that some people were like that, especially at funerals. Later, when he signed up for the Mars contract and he’d been introduced to his crew, he found Nathan amongst them. At first he’d been taken aback, he was here to forget everything to do with that terrible time. Not be constantly reminded of it every time he saw Nathan. But it wasn’t the guy’s fault, and he did his job, that was what counted.

“Well, I’ve got to get back to my own people, you’ll meet them later, I expect,” Josh smiled. “It’s a crappy way to spend the next twenty four months. An early introduction to hell.”

Rahm realized that he’d been drifting, thinking about Nathan. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

Josh repeated his verdict on the Martian colony.

“Why did you come back if it’s so bad?” Rahm asked the old crew boss.

“Money, pure and simple. I didn’t make enough on the last trip. I plan to buy a piece of land up in the mountains and set up a skiing operation, with my two sons. This is the only way to earn big money, and so here I am.”

“Are your two sons on the ship too?”

He looked horrified. “Bring them with me to Mars? No way, it’s a hellhole, and there’s no way I’m having my sons there. They have huge dust storms that batter the whole planet, and Tauron monsters that’ll attack us for no reason. There are a thousand and one ways to die up there if you’re not careful. I want to keep them safe. What are you here for? I assume it’s the money.”

“That and a change of scenery.”

Josh stood up. “It’s a hell of a change of scenery on Mars, believe me.” He walked along the aisle towards the ship’s canteen.

“What do you reckon, these Tauron monsters, they couldn’t be that bad?” Saul looked at Rahm for an answer.

“Probably not. They can’t be as big and ugly as you, Saul.”

His friend grinned happily, then closed his eyes and promptly went to sleep. Rahm tried to doze, yet the crew boss’s comments kept coming back to haunt him. They’d said little about the threat from the Taurons back on Earth. The impression given was that the aliens mined one side of Mars, and the humans the other. Yet Josh had suggested that it wasn’t so clear cut. In fact, he’d made it sound not too far from open warfare. Rahm digested that thought. Surely if it was that bad they’d be recruiting soldiers, not miners. But still, now that they had the warning, they could be prepared if they did meet any Taurons.

He sighed, thinking about the Red Planet. As if there weren’t enough difficulties to contend with. There was little atmosphere, less than one percent of that on Earth. The whole planet was intensely cold, with sheets of ice at the poles. They faced two years on a planet that was airless, freezing cold and occupied by hostile aliens. It was sure going to be interesting. He noticed that Saul was stirring. On an impulse he stood up.

“I’m going down to the ship’s library. I want to look up a couple of things.”

“Bring me back any monster comics you find,” Saul laughed. “This’ll be a long journey without any good movies to watch.”

“I’ll see what I can find,” Rahm promised him. He walked through the huge cabin. It was not unlike the size of small commercial aircraft, except that the cabin was circular, with room for just over one hundred seats. There were other, smaller rooms that led off the main cabin. Most important was a tiny gym, which was necessary for any space flight of long duration, and there was a galley and canteen, as well as the ship’s library. His technician, Kacy, was scrolling through the onscreen catalogue when he entered. She brightened when she saw him walk in.

“Hi, Rahm, are you after anything special, anything I can help you with?”

He glanced at his technician. Kacy Lakkin was tiny, he estimated she stood about five feet in her socks. She was pretty, yet her best features were a cute snub nose and patches of freckles on her face. But she was no Barbie doll. Kacy had experience in some of the toughest sites on Earth.

He shook his head. “I thought I’d look up some general stuff about Mars.”

“I’ve been reading through the files, what can I tell you?”

He smiled. He’d read her file, before becoming a technician she’d been a police detective on Earth. She was probably treating her new assignment like a crime scene investigation. She was working through the information gathering phase.

“Go ahead, give me the big picture.”

“Right. Well, the Martian days are very close to Earth's. The day is twenty four hours and thirty nine minutes long.”

She was smiling, she appeared pleased to have someone interested enough to listen to her. Her blonde hair was tucked into a blue polka dot scarf fastened over the top of her head. The blue complimented her deep blue eyes. She was tough, sure, but cure.

“Kacy.”

She stopped. “What?”

“Why did you come, why Mars? A girl like you, I could picture you with a husband, nice house, and a couple of kids.”

Her bright smile faded. “You know I was a cop?”

He nodded.

“I was married, you’re right, but I didn’t have any kids. Didn’t have time. My husband was a cop too. He was killed in a drugs bust that went wrong.”

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s ok, Rahm, I’m over the worst of it. Shall I carry on?”

“Yes, please.”

It was like turning on a switch. She spoke like a cop giving evidence in courst. “Mars is a smaller planet than Earth, less than thirty percent of our surface area. It only has one-tenth the mass, which means that it has a lower density and lower gravity, about one sixth of Earth. So we’ll be able to jump higher. Even in our pressure suits. We have to wear pressure suits, because of the low atmospheric pressure. We couldn’t survive for long without them.” She grinned. “Oh, and another thing, this Red Planet stuff? Forget it. The whole place is the color of sand and dust. The planet is divided into two hemispheres, north and south. The northern hemisphere is flat with just a few impact craters caused by asteroids. Most of it is below the determined zero elevation level. The southern hemisphere is very different, lots of mountains and highlands,”

“Anything else I should know? What about our destination, Mars Base, what’s it like?”

“Mars Base? Hmm, it’s a double skinned dome structure built on the planet’s surface, with...”

He stopped her then. “Hold it! Did you say on the surface? I thought they built the Mars Base underground, so that it would be safer from the storms.”