"God, you're an absolute mess. You'll have to lose that moustache, singed to bloody oath."
"Yes, thank you for your – " Nikola rolled over, coughing violently. The smoke had worked its way deep within his lungs, blackening them. "Assistance..." he finished. Nikola's long suffering neighbour had dragged him from the burning laboratory, down the stairs and out into the freezing snow.
Rome never changed. Millennia had passed it by calmly, as if wandering in and out of its marble streets while the rest of the world dug its feet in and battened down the hatches. Nikola buried his hands in the white powder. This was not the first time his life's work had burned to the ground, reduced to a pile of smouldering rubble. It certainly wasn't something that got easier to watch.
"Is there any good news?" he asked, ignoring the painful burns on his hand. They would heal.
His neighbour shook his head in amazement, "You really are an optimist." Nikola assured him that he was just crazy. "Well, aside from the obvious fact that you're alive – still. I swear I've known you for forty years and you never look any different. Yeah I know, don't ask," he caught himself, "the only other positive thing I can think of is the letter left for you this morning. I was on my way to deliver it to you when I found the whole place ablaze."
"A letter?" Nikola lifted his head from the ground. Flecks of ash drifted over, spiralling with the snowflakes.
The neighbour eyed Nikola's burnt hands, "Would you like me to open it?" Nikola glared, snatching the letter before growling, dropping it in the snow. "That'd be a yes then." He unfolded the letter carefully, holding it up to the glow of the burning building.
"To Mr Tesla, owner of patent 3029A0,
Your presence is required for immediate repairs..."
"That'd be right," hissed Nikola. "They never pay me for anything, skimp on materials, make drastic changes to design, and then want help when it breaks."
"Are you going to be quiet so I can read this?"
*~*~*
The shuttle dropped him roughly in the desert, miles from anywhere. Nikola eyed the landscape. It was eerily quiet and choked by peripatetic dunes. Sol was at its brightest, shining high above but at this distance it was more like a light bulb than a star. Had it not been for the shield encapsulating the area he would have frozen to death very quickly in the faint milieu of light.
He waved sardonically at the awkward craft as it rose back into atmosphere with a storm of sand. The red particles embedded themselves in every nook of Nikola, staining him a general red. He hadn't been on Mars five minutes before he decided against it.
"Horrid planet..." he muttered, attempting to dust himself off.
The rendezvous appeared to have failed as there was nothing to 'rendezvous' with other than a curious rock which Nikola approached, tilting his head in curiosity. It was a vaguely round protrusion, weathered on one side by the endless grinding of sand storms. Tesla had seen a lot of rocks in his time. During those few decades he'd spent seducing a geologist, identifying rocks had become an unwanted skill. This was no rock.
He got within a nose of it, rubbing away at its surface with the sleeve of his Victorian style jacket. Underneath all the grit was an ochre colour – naturally smooth. Nikola stretched out his tongue, resting its tip on the strange surface. Instantly he felt the pull as the surface tried to suck all the moisture in. Bone – a very large lump of ancient bone.
*~*~*
"These doors ain't gonna hold the water," an engineer hurried through the unground facility, upsetting piles of paper scattered over the office desks. "We closed them as soon as the pressure spiked but we're losing integrity in the tunnel. It's going to bleed out into the surrounding rock and when it can't do that..." He came to a halt in front of the senior engineer. Professor Robert Hill was newly appointed after the sudden death of Dr. T. Edwards and currently having the worst possible day.
"We're going to have a very pretty water feature in the middle of town..." Robert rubbed the vein between his eyebrows. By, 'very pretty water feature' he mean that the entire city would be drowned in thousands of litres of raw Martian water and they would lose the food gardens, essentially bringing an end to humankind's attempts at colonisation. "What about the expert we sent in to assess the damage?"
"Ashley Magnus," the engineer shook his head. "We had to close the tunnel doors. She didn't make it."
"What aren't you telling me?" Robert took a step closer to the rattled man. "Come on, I don't have time to be subtle."
"It's the boss's kid. Video footage shows him following Magnus into the tunnel just before the accident. He didn't come out either."
Robert felt ill. "The force of the artesian basin will eventually break our pumps. Get those drills working on an evacuation tunnel for the water – I don't care how rough it is, as long as the water has another option. At least we won't all drown."
*~*~*
The dune buggy skidded over the sand in a crazy curve, nearly tipping over before coming to rest beside Tesla. Lowering their sunglasses, the driver eyed the man running his hands over a rock. It appeared that the rumours were true – the man was a complete nutter/eccentric –whatever.
"You Tesla?" the buzz-cut Major asked, well aware that the possibility of it being anybody else was slim.
Nikola spun around with his eyes agleam, "Did you know that there was life on Mars?"
The Major did away with his shades completely. "Yeah..." he replied slowly, as if it were the most obvious thing ever said. "Get in."
"Fascinating," said Nikola, as he slipped into the passenger seat.
"Someone wants you dead." The Major shifted the car back into gear, racing down the side of the dune. They were headed for one of the shield generators on the outskirts of the liveable area, a good ten minute drive.
"I would be offended if they didn't."
"The government has taken extra precautions, changed most of your arrangements since the incident at your laboratory. We, your security, would prefer it if you didn't lean out over the door like that whilst the vehicle is moving..." The Major grabbed the back of Tesla's coat with one of his enormous hands and yanked the man back into his seat. "Appreciated."
"You should be more worried," said Tesla, preening himself, "about what you've already got in the car."
That made him laugh. "They warned me you'd be trouble." Nikola stretched out, resting his feet on the dash. "It's a rough ride," he cautioned.
"And so is life," Nikola replied, closing his eyes.
*~*~*
Helen was not pleased by the news and had set to pacing around the shield generator as Mike sieved through its error log.
"I'm going to make a catastrophic error if you keep that up," Mike lifted his eyes to the distressed woman. "They said that he was a colleague of yours – your reaction suggests that there is more to that story."
"Got a thousand years?" she hissed back. Mike mistakenly took that as a joke.
"Oh, here he is now – or is that our car... no, it's definitely him." They both stood as the buggy approached with a red trail of dust swept up behind, stalking it.
As the car stuttered to stop, Helen couldn't help but think about a similar scene back in Egypt, 1929. Humans may have moved to another planet, but they didn't change.
"You're going to regret this," Helen whispered to Mike, as she caught sight of Nikola sporting a moustache.
*~*~*
John Druitt took the stairs three at a time, gliding down toward the depths of the Ecological Science Building. He was trailed by a security team two flights above, doing their best to catch him.
"Oy!" one of the grey-suited men yelled, puffing as turned and began the next set. "I said stop!"
He could see the final emergency door. John hit the landing and pushed into the engineer's level. Half a dozen shocked scientists froze at the sight of the imposing man who was scanning the room.
"Where is she?" John growled.
One of the men, dressed in white pants and matching lab coat, shifted to the front. He was wearing a bright red hard hat, clutching a clipboard. "I am Professor Hill," the man said.
The pursuing security team finally caught up, piling in through the door behind John in a grey blur. Several of them grasped onto John, pretending to have him captured.
"No, no..." Robert raised his hands, trying to calm the security detail. "Let him go. I was about to call him anyway."
They did – but very reluctantly.
"Please, my office is this way."
With the news Robert was about to deliver it wasn't going to make a difference whether or not he had protection. Druitt was either going to help him – or kill him. It was as simple as that.