One Way To Mars

One Way To Mars By Gary Weston



One Way to Mars

Copyright Gary Weston 2012

SmashwordsEdition



OneWay to Mars






Chapter 1



'A*shole, a*shole.'

Andrew Foreman felt the tuggingon his arms, and shook his head.

'A*shole, a*shole.'

There was a smell of somethingsmouldering, of electrical wiring melting and fusing together. Therewere other smells, too. None of them nice. Foreman dared to open hiseyes. Monkley was staring right back at him.

'A*shole,' said Monkely. It wasone of his favourite words.

'Right. But apart from that, areyou pleased to see me?'

Foreman tried moving his limbs;cautiously at first. Nothing seemed broken. Bruised, certainly,battered, definitely. Understandably. That was to be expected. Stillbeing alive, now that was a surprise. Monkley passed him his helmet.Foreman ignored the pain in his shoulder and secured the helmet.Struggling to his feet, Foreman felt light-headed, and had to leanagainst the wall to remain upright. Once his vision had cleared, hepassed his hand over the sensor to open the door. Nothing happened.He tried again. Still nothing. He hammered on the door.

'Hey! You guys. How about lettingme out of here?' Nothing. 'Phillips? Mauler? Sanders? Hello.Anybody?'

The lack of response worried him.The smell of the fried electronics terrified him. The ship, what wasleft of it, was about to blow. He hammered hard on the door,simultaneously waving his palm in front of the sensor. Then he trieda coordinated assault on the door, kicking and hammering at the sametime. Nothing. He stepped back. He stared at the door as if by mentalcontrol, he could will the thing open. Apparently not.

'Step back,' he told Monkley.

Monkely jumped up onto his cage,wondering what Foreman was going to try next.

'A*shole.'

'Yeah? Like you got any brightideas?'

He charged the door. The fact itwas a sliding door, and therefore not conducive to being rammed open,didn't deter him. He bounced off the door and landed on his backsideon the floor.

'A*shole.'

There was a groaning sound andthe door unjammed itself, opening a few inches.

'Yeah? An a*shole, am I?' He gotup. 'Well, you just remember it was this a*shole who got us out ofhere.' He pulled on the partially opened door, but it wasn't givingin without a fight. 'Don't just sit there, you nut-job. Give me ahand here.'

Monkley obliged by setting histhree foot body below Foreman's and between them they applied all theforce they could. Ignoring the possible hernia he could give himself,Foreman gave the job his all, as did Monkley. Something gave, andthankfully, it didn't involve tearing of muscles. It was only a fewmore inches, but it was enough. Monkley got through the gap easily,Foreman's face turned purple at the effort to squeeze his bodythrough the gap. Suddenly, he was free.

'Shit!'

Three bodies lay on the floor.Commander Ashley Phillips, Captain Donna Sanders, Science OfficerElizabeth Mauler, were twisted up into impossible contortions.Impossible for living people, anyway. There was a substantial amountof blood on their un-helmeted heads from where they had collided withthe unforgiving and unyielding alloy shell of the ship. Foreman gavethem a quick and unqualified check, but even to an untrained laymanthey were clearly dead.

'Shit!.'

They had been caught out by thesuddenness of the dramatic and catastrophic failure of the ship'spropulsion systems. After seven months of confinement on the crampedship, they were all excited to be finally at the end of theirjourney, and eager to get off the ship. Phillips had just given theorder to put on helmets and belt up for landing, when there was aslight bang and they fell like a stone. Foreman had just securedMonkley in the harness in his cage, when down they went. He had triedto return to the others in the main cockpit and his seat, when theybegan spinning out of control. The 'G' forces were Foreman's finalundoing, and he was out for the count until Monkley woke him. How theGenMoP, Genetically Modified Primate, had freed himself, wasn'tsomething Foreman had time to concern himself with. Not when severalfires started simultaneously.

Monkley started to panic, beingafter all, just a glorified chimpanzee. Turning his air supply on,Foreman opened the airlock and attacked the main exit hatch. Thatside of the ship had sustained minimal damage, so the hatch openedwith a hiss as the pressure equalised. Monkley beat him outside, andForeman jumped down, not bothering with the steps, landing heavily onthe soft sand just a few feet below. Monkley jumped up on hisshoulders, and wrapped his arms about his neck, and Foreman beganrunning. He made fifteen paces before the ship exploded behind them,sending them crashing to the ground.

'A*shole.'

'That's gratitude for saving yourhairy backside.' Wiping the sand off his visor, he turned to lookback at the ship. 'Right. Cremation it is, then.'

The ensuing explosions reducedthe small craft to a tangled shell within minutes. He sat withMonkley for a while, and with a sigh, got to his feet. One thing theydidn't have the luxury of was time. They had about twenty three hoursof suited oxygen each before they would be as dead as the others.Only three humans had died on Mars, and Foreman didn't want thedubious honour of being the fourth. They had one shot at surviving,and one only. Find the base.

It looked hopeless. They might aswell have been in the Sahara desert as far as he could see. Ahead ofthem was a large dune. From the summit they could get a clear viewfor miles.

'Come on, Monkley.'

Holding Monkley's hand, theyclimbed the dune. When they reached the top, they scanned thehorizon.

'Nice beach. I guess the tidemust be out.'

'Thirsty.'

'You and me both. Sorry, pal. Weknow there are pockets of what we call water here and there, but we'dneed to dig one hell of a hole to get at it. The little ice caps aremostly frozen carbon dioxide with more than a dash of acid. Notrecommended. We gotta find the base or...We gotta find the base.'

Wishing he had paid moreattention, Foreman scanned the horizon. He knew the planet wassmaller than Earth, and the lower gravity meant he weighed less thanhalf of what he would on Earth. At least that made it easier to makesome distance.

'Ah. Now. See that? Biggest damnmountain in the solar system. I mean huge. Now. The base is less thanfifty miles away from there. I guess we might as well head that way.'

'Okay.'