Prologue
Weapon-flash burst and thundered ominously outside the atmosphere bubble of Mars Colony 7.
"This is Captain Nobile, now here this! Level X alert! Redline has been breached.
I repeat: Redline is breached! Code 3 status: immediate evacuation of all personnel. Level X emergency: Shoot to kill."
In the previous twelve hours, dome MC7 colonists, tech support and military personnel had gone from a standstill of normal activity to a final mad flurry of Evac protocol. Alarm after alarm triggered primal terror in even the most highly trained among them. Two humans remained inside the dome.
Outside, the twin moons of Mars pierced the curtain of orange tactical smoke casting a double light, splitting shadows into men and aliens in pitched battle. Scurrying figures dashed furtively for cover amid percussion waves, Disrupter fire, and a rumble more felt than heard. Within seconds, only alien figures remained sweeping past empty sentry stations, setting charges and undermining fail safe systems.
"This is Captain Nobile again. Code---" the message stopped abruptly. Background voices and screaming amplified on the com-alert. "Evacuate—we’re over run . . . God forgive--- "
Disrupter bursts sounded, followed by ear-piercing shrieks, triggering the com-alert system into shutdown.
Rally flares popped outside the dome, splashing blood-red light across Orion's starry outline, barely visible through the force field of the bubble itself. Portentously, through opaque and translucent flickers, another flare with a penetration beam screamed on high.
John Clayton and Louise Boyd had already raced frantically to the stairwell seconds before the Dome’s bubble shield’s collapse. The artificial atmosphere vanished in a tornado whoosh. The sturdy hatch cover hummed to a close above the two of them. The red light blinked and dinged 3 times for seal function followed by a continuous green light and bell tone--not a second to spare!
According to protocol, the two of them traveling top speed had scant time to cover the distance down the spiral staircase to the rail car, then traverse the tunnel to reach the launch dock. At the dock, a shuttle automatically activated by the alert, would have begun countdown of 5 minutes to launch . . . regardless of whether they had made it to safety in time.
John Clayton struggled to run, breathe and speak at the same moment. His face was bright pink and his mouth gaped with the effort of respiration.
"You can move faster . . . than . . . I . . . can . . . Louise. Go on ahead--don't wait . . . for me!"
Clayton was an impressive man, large and athletic, but old injuries were nagging him at this worst of all moments. For all his astuteness and vigor, his past had caught up with him and caught him by surprise.
"No--I'll hold the shuttle and--" Louise Boyd choked.
An abrupt percussion wave caught her mid-sentence. She gasped, clutched at her neck and toppled. The two of them dropped mid stride into unconscious heaps not 100 meters from the closing door. The shuttle’s metal panel hissed slowly, closing incrementally, punctuating the sealing process with dead silence. The cramped staging area filled with smoke, swirling dust and two human bodies stacked like firewood.
Ululations pierced the silence menacingly. Seconds later, a trio of skulking alien figures furtively emerged from the shadows, Disrupter pistols at the ready.
A wiry mutant soldier stood straddling the unconscious colonists grasping his three prong meat rake. His elongated face glowed with gleeful and ravenous expectancy. Human colonists had described them as a cross between Greek gods and starvation victims.Theirs was an astonishing ugly-beauty. The torso of Martians oddly mimicked that of humans with forearms freakishly longer than upper arms. The lower leg bones were short, while the thighs elongated and thickly muscled.
The alien soldier pointed to Boyd and Clayton's unconscious figures.
"Humanoid remainders. Male and female."
Nearby, the Martian platoon leader swept a grayish tongue across his front teeth and pursed his abundant lip flaps. He appeared deep in thought as he hesitated and holstered his weapon.
"Infect them. Then, let them go."
His voice boomed hollow and guttural, carrying gravitas and the certainty of absolute authority.
The mutant solder trembled with stifled hunger, glancing first at the meal lying helpless beneath him, then back at his platoon leader. It took every effort to restrain his appetite. He shuddered with resentment before tossing the meat rake aside. First, spitting at the human, the mutant pulled off a glove, then plunged his spindly finger down his own throat (gagging and slurping with an awful retching sound).
As the vomit's slime hurled from his esophagus, the creature bent forward with a determined trajectory splashing both humans with his spill.
Slime dripped across the human faces like melting wax. As it touched fabric, a chemical hiss raised a vapor like white smoke and threads began to dissolve. As molecules of carbon dioxide from the human’s breathing reached the vomit, a peculiar reaction transpired. Tiny, nimble, sniffing creatures the size of strawberry seeds surfaced and skittered into the nostrils of the unconscious man and woman. Strange alien parasites burrowed in.
The Martian platoon leader keenly observed this with focused interest until he was satisfied, then signaled to his minions. The Martian patrol dispersed, quick stepping into the roiling smoke from whence they'd come.
****
Back at launch area, emergency protocol scans swept the interior of the shuttle. No human life detected! Backup subsystems pinged, located and recovered Boyd and Clayton. All within 5 minutes the shuttle entered the electric bridge transit tunnel heading for Earth with both passengers safely ensconced.
****
Five clicks from the shuttle area, Umberto Nobile fought his last stand with fearless bravery. He’d detected a pattern to the attacks allowing him to exploit predictability for temporary advantage. Martians approached with an eerie ululating war cry, followed by direct assault.
Each assault mounted three abreast as easy targets sprung into view. These were not especially intelligent opponents!
Nobile knew he was seconds from total overwhelm as the numbers stacked against him. Until then, he could hold them off unless his ammunition ran out.
Umberto Nobile had been an aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer in his early days and had never been in a battle of any kind, not even a fist fight. But, he’d built his reputation for incredible stamina exploring Earth’s frozen regions and was widely known as the bravest and most able problem solver.
From his nine-o’clock and three-o’clock position he heard the enemy approaching, both at once—only one tactic remained. Nobile fetched a tiny capsule from his utility pocket to pop into his mouth and bite down. Before he could complete this action, the enemy charged all at once! His uniform splattered with the intestines of Martian soldiers as he let go the final bursts of his Disruptor pistol. His boots glistened with green slime and human blood. A putrid aroma off offal and bile arose. The uniform he wore had been khaki a half hour earlier, now it was the color of death and desperation. Relentlessly, more and more mutants rushed into the breach, weapons spitting death.
In one swooping movement, Nobile emptied his clip like a slashing diagonal, first left to right, then the reverse and watched dumbstruck as nine of the enemy faltered, clutched spasmodically and fell at his feet. Impossible! He knew his clip had contained only three rounds!
The imperious alien Commander stepped forward and seized the man by his throat. forcing Nobile to kneel all in one swift movement. Gasping for breath, the man was utterly helpless in the alien's insuperable grip.
Immediately, two Martian mutants with poised meat hooks scrambled into the sentry dugout and raked them across two of Clayton's dead companions. They worked at top speed as they hooked, skewered and dragged the corpses off to a corner and stuffed them into large glowing bags held by a third alien. Nobile’s eyes went wide as he stared incredulously. Three mutants took turns vomiting into the bags! Some kind of digestive acid attacked and dissolved the dead sentry’s clothing without harming the flesh.
Just at that moment, another Martian commander—this one of higher rank, stormed the enclosure and barked menacingly.
"You may devour the dead. Any left among the living are hostages you must infect and release."
A fourth mutant plunged into the group grunting and slurping, its eyes wide with madness.
"I smell it—delicious blood and meat at last!"
The creature grunted and flatulated; its snake-like tongue slithering from a cavernous mouth again and again nervously as it unhinged its jaw extra wide.
The Supreme commander had been sniffing the motionless person of Nobile suspiciously.
"He reeks of disgusting chemistry.”
Nobile frowned wonderingly yet, he quickly puzzled it out. Everybody at the colony complained constantly about his Italian diet liberally seasoned with many fresh cloves of garlic!
The fourth mutant screamed and bellowed.
"Share! I demand my share!"
His fellows ignored him and finished marinating their meal. The fiends commenced peeling meat from human skeletons, sucking flavors from bone marrow.
Furiously, the screaming mutant hurled himself toward the macabre feast tearing at his fellows, brandishing his trident meat hook. A chaotic melee of blood and rancor erupted. Then suddenly, a sonic wave shook the ground as the Supreme commander's Disruptor pistol spoke four final words of death; four twisted alien corpses answered.
"Useless inferiors!" he snarled and grabbed Nobile by an ankle and dragged him to open ground just as a blinding beam of energy pulsed from the direction of the shuttle launch dock. The platoon leader turned, scanned the path of the electric bridge as it blossomed and faded into an after image in the inky night sky. He nodded.
The Supreme commander turned to his underling, “You carried out the infection?” The other alien lifted his chin in assent.
"Good riddance!"
The Supreme commander snorted contemptuously, lifting the human figure of Nobile onto his rail car. Gripping the other alien by his shoulder, the superior threw his head back and the both of them howled a spine-chilling ululation in unison, chilling Nobile to his soul and rattling bones.
As the twin moons of Demos and Phoebus spread a silver beam across Mars’ landscape, only sounds of vomiting, flesh-tearing and the gobbling of meat from every quarter rose to meet the indifferent night sky. Mars had won the day and this was the sound of victory!
The Supreme commander gazed down at his human quarry. He adjusted the restraint straps and scrutinized him scientifically.
“You are about to make new friends, Fool.” The superior officer signaled.
A smaller alien removed a glove, jammed his spidery finger into his own throat and spewed his parasitic vomit into the mouth of the screaming human, Umberto Nobile: arctic explorer, adventurer, and inventor. The terrified Earth colonist choked violently as his eyes rolled back in his head.
“Earth man, here I present the Symbiots, as yet unknown to your species.”
The large alien whispered in a cooing, basso profundo voice as though he were singing a weird lullaby to an infant. The effect of it was hypnotic, invasive and paralyzing. Nobile felt his mind going . . . dimming . . . fading.
Umberto Nobile’s body shuddered and went still.
“There-there . . .all is well. All is well.”
By next morning, a message beacon had been flashed earthward.
“All is well on Mars. Signed, Nobile.”
_______________________________ My new novel is "coming soon" :)
