25

BROKEN WING

Prosperity died behind the frosted windows. On the outskirts of the city, protected by the intersecting bank of mountains and wall of sand, the shuttle yard and its scattering of buildings were unharmed by the collapse of the forcefield. Red wind whipped against the glass, whistling sharply as it tried to tear down the last structures of humanity.

"Come away from the windows..." one of the engineers murmured, herding nervous people toward the centre of the room as sheets of metal folded down the outside of the building, protecting it. Artificial light replaced the Martian day leaving everyone stunned.

Only one intact shuttle remained on the sand, unable to take off despite the frantic efforts of its engineers. It was their ticket home and now it was out there, unprotected. Eventually a narrow, unpleasant sort of man with straight black hair greased over his skull and pale green eyes that sunk away from the light, stood up and hushed them all.

"Forget it! The shuttle is not broken," he hissed, curling his bony fingers over the back of an innocent chair. It creaked in alarm. "The fuel cell is missing, as are all our spares. Without them, no one is leaving this planet."

"Then where are they?" came a general mutter from the room.

"With him," the thin man replied.

"Well, this is awkward..." John strode around the strange, polished room. It, like the rest of these unexplained underground structures, formed a cube around the unlikely pair. It was excessively too large for them, dwarfing their forms and stealing away the echoes of their voices. "I give you what you want and in return, you think you can sneak off back to Earth without me. My, my..."

"It's good business," the man shrugged. He was emotionless, standing in the middle of the room as though he owned it. In a way he did – well, as close as you could come to owning an ancient ruin. "Where are the generators, Druitt?"

"Where is my ship?" John countered. His long coat dragged on the floor, sweeping away a path through the millennia of dust.

"Exactly where you left it, as you well know. I don't appreciate being held to ransom. The longer you keep this up the more likely it is that something will damage that lifeboat. The shields are gone. The city is gone."

"I am merely keeping you honest," John insisted, "as you appear to be incapable of doing so on your own. As agreed, when I'm done with my affairs, I will return with the power cells and we can be on our way." With extra emphasis on the 'our'. "In the mean time – get comfy. Play cards. Do whatever it is that you do to unwind." Which was probably torturing small animals, considering the sheer malevolence seeping from the man's eyes. There was more than one monster on this rock. John was glad of the company.

The man turned to leave and then thought better of it. He reached out and grazed his claw-like nails against the polished rock, making it cry out. "Try not to be too long about it," he hissed. "Playing with your food gives it a fighting chance. Believe me, if I have to come and find you again, this won't end with pleasantries."

Helen sat at the edge of their Hydrogarden. Its peaceful, black waters and comforting roof of steel reminded her of an underground reservoir. Well, she realised with a smirk, that was essentially its definition. Bare foot, Helen wiggled her toes about in the cool water, unable to halt another smile at the predictable glow around her skin. Those tiny, peaceful creatures had no idea how fragile their existence was. They were content to float about in the water, doing whatever it was a microbe liked to do.

"The city is gone," a voice breathed behind her.

Nikola was stood by the water. His body and clothes were stained from the rusted equipment he'd been fixing and later soaked when they all fell into the hydrogarden. There was a strange look in his pale eyes that she'd never seen before. He was lost.

"Nikola," she tugged on the hem of his coat until he relented and sat by her side, "are you all right?"

"We've been through a lot of crazy shit, you and I," he started, refusing to look at her. Instead his gaze was fixed on the silent water and the reflection of electric light on its ebony surface. "I've been thinking – a lot more than usual – and I've come to a regrettable conclusion. We're not getting out of this."

Helen nudged him more gently than normal. He seemed too fragile to torment. "Nonsense, you old vampire," she insisted. "This is nowhere near the worst thing we've done. Drinking our way through my cellar – now that I didn't expect to survive." There was a very private smirk on her dark lips. "Or breaking into the British Museum. They never quite forgave us for that tour of destruction."

He wanted to laugh and smile with her, shake off his fears with a playful wink and wise-crack but this was different. "I've never seen anything like it," he continued, holding onto the rock beneath him with his pale hands until his nails went blue. "Mars just ripped apart the only chance we'll ever have of getting home. I – well I was hoping the fall of Prosperity would be a gentle affair. There won't be much left to salvage on the surface. That beautiful ship..." What if the great bird in the desert was destroyed by the carnage? "It was a nightmare, Helen," he added quietly. "Tell me, seriously, why did we come here? I think if we can work that out we'll finally understand what's going on. All we have left is revenge."

That wasn't particularly healthy but anything to keep him motivated "Start with what we know?" she agreed, flicking a thick mess of blonde curls over her shoulder. They were admittedly going limp and unfurling against her jacket. "God Nikola, the more I think about this, the more I worry that we're just caught up in someone's sickening game."

"If it's a game, there are rules," Nikola replied, slipping off his shoes before letting his feet slide into the water beside hers. His eyes closed for a moment. A soft moan escaping his lips at the water against his skin. "Now – who do we know that likes to play games?"

There was a pregnant pause between them before they turned to each other, two sets of sapphire eyes meeting. "Druitt..." they said together.

"What are they doing?" Mike asked, strolling with Ashley around the perimeter of the hydrogarden. There were two people playing in the water, swimming and splashing around accompanied by a presumably irritated cloud of glowing micro-organisms.

Ashley eyed her mother and Tesla messing about in the water. "Who the hell knows?" she shrugged in defeat. Ashley was so done trying to understand them and their whole spaceship of fucked-up-ness.

"I think I preferred it when they were fighting," Mike admitted.

"Still, we now have indelible proof that they'll follow each other anywhere." Ashley turned to Mike, pausing as she took in his warm features. She wasn't sure if it was the abundance of freckles or the unruly red curls but there was something she rather liked about the scientist, even if he was a bit soft in the face of survival. "I'm sorry about your shield. I know it meant a lot to you."

"It's okay," he replied, continuing their walk amidst the constant stream of people ferrying possessions from tunnel to tunnel like ants. "There was nothing anyone could to. By the time we landed on Mars, the virus was deeply rooted in the shield's systems. It was a lost cause. We should have started evacuating people immediately. While we were trying to solve the murder of one man – who knows how many we've let die up there in the city. I was – stubborn. I thought I could fix it."

"Most of them probably escaped on the shuttles..." Ashley offered, resting her hand on his arm.

"Do you think that or wish that?" Their walk continued in silence.

"I'm saying it to make you feel better."

Mike managed a sideways smirk. "I appreciate the thought."

"I have a wonderful bedside manner... And I'm available for apocalypses and weddings."

"Sadly you're also mental."

"Hey – are you still monitoring the shield?"

"No," Mike shook his head. "Tesla thinks it's his pet seeing as it's his virus that infected it. Last I heard the virus is alive and well, living in the city's servers. My shields are all dead, damaged by the destruction of the city or power overloads. The only way to get a shield back around this place is to build it from scratch and isolate it from Tesla's pet. We haven't got enough resources to MacGuyver our way out of this one."

Helen and Nikola swam to the far side of the lake. Nikola carefully avoided the thick mats of algae on the surface, eyeing them warily before they dragged themselves up onto the rocks, seeking refuge beneath a jagged overhang where no one could see them. It was peaceful there, the only place in the tunnels where they could be truly alone. Helen craved the solitude and already knew that she'd come here often. That was the hardest part about living on another planet – you were always on top of other people. It was enough to drive you mad.

"Are you still trying to prove that you had a career as a lifesaver, Nikola?" Helen rung out her wet hair, letting it drip in glowing pools on the rock. It was strange to look over and see that his whole body was glowing with the sheen of water.

"I was a good lifesaver and you know it!" he insisted, laying down on the cool surface. He was wearing a battered pair of black combat pants that he'd stolen from the security team's locker. It wasn't very common to see the famous vampire Tesla shirtless, lounging about like an Egyptian prince. "Besides what's not to like? Sand – sun, warm water and an endless parade of women dressed as heathen goddesses."

Helen certainly wasn't complaining. She laid down beside him, brushing her fingertips over the curve of his shoulder until she had his attention. His eyes had naturally darkened to black in the reduced light. "You never told me," she started, letting those misbehaving fingers of hers wander down his arm and into his hand where she coaxed a hint of claw from his fingers. "What brought you to Mars?"

"A letter."

"And what did this mysterious letter say?" she prompted, her gaze refusing to leave his. Helen leaned in a little until Nikola could feel her warm breath on his skin.

"It – rambled on about some misused, unpaid patents..." he replied, licking his lips.

"You didn't come to Mars to defend your honour," she replied, brushing her lips over his neck so slowly that he forgot that breathing was an integral part of remaining alive.

"Helen's in trouble..." he purred. "That's what it said at the end. My lab was burning into the snow, ash falling thicker than ice and instead I looked up toward the sky and saw a red dot. I thought – if you were up there – then I should be -" he was interrupted.

Helen had reached up and cupped his cheek in her cool hand. He'd come to rescue her and even though she was not a woman to need rescuing, the gesture was touching.

Nikola was trying to find her lips but she was hovering out of reach. "I'd go to any cursed planet for you," he murmured. His vampire eyes falling closed as she finally kissed him. It had been a long three hundred years without her.

"Oh! You scared me, sir!" Rutherford tightened his grip on the box he had almost dropped. "You ah – look good."

Major Smith folded his arms over his chest and glowered with his sub-humane eyes. "Ya think?"

"It's not so bad, boss..." Rutherford set down his box and instead placed one of his bear-sized hands on his superior's shoulder.

"I'm blue," Smith complained, eyeing his webbed hands in dismay. They were definitely blue. There was no denying it any more. He had crossed the tipping point and become more alien creature than human.

"You were gone a long time," Rutherford said quietly. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Everything is changing, Captain," Smith replied. "There are things down in the earth, I have seen one of them but there are more – many more. This rock is alive. It always was and now it's absorbed us."

"No problem," Rutherford insisted. "Vampire scientist will fix. You'll see. He can raise from dead – he will fix shields. If he doesn't, help will come from Earth. It's not a problem," he repeated. His innocent optimism was both sad and heart warming.

"And all these people?" Smith gestured at the swarm of humanity in the caves. "Pretty soon it's all going to go a bit, 'Lord of the Flies'."

"They are used to living under a bubble. Slightly smaller caves should not make too much of a difference. It is safe down here – there is plenty of food. They are mostly scientists, yes? Rational people. They know that surviving is a high probability."

"I wish everyone was as positive as you," Smith sighed.

"These earthquakes make me less positive," Rutherford admitted. "Though that is only because I generally dislike it when the ground moves underfoot. Are you going to report what you found down there?"

"Technically I should," the Major replied.

"But..."

"But I don't trust everyone. The only people I trust are you and Telsa."

"Not Magnus?" Rutherford seemed surprised.

"It was her daughter hunting these creatures. I don't know what that means yet... Telling Tesla is a risk. I'm not sure if I'm prepared to take it. I need to know why Ashley was after the creature." He looked to Rutherford – such a kind soul. There was nothing but goodness in him – which made him a rather perfect candidate for deception. "Captain... Can I ask a favour?"

MARS
9th February, 2430

"Depth?"

There was a pause. Static. Then, a clear reply from her equipment.

"Six hundred metres," Dr Rousseau replied. He was clawing his way along an underwater tunnel, pulling himself and the cumbersome recording equipment with him. The glowing creatures in the water were more of a hindrance than he'd predicted. If he tried to move too fast, their glow destroyed visibility for both himself and the camera that Janet was watching through. "No change. The tunnel heads steadily downward with a slight curve – a spiral, I think."

"Still plenty of line but watch your O2," she replied, tapping her screen with the Frenchman's vitals. "I can't shift the feeling that you're in some kind of worm's tunnel."

"Yeah. Thanks. Well, let's hope it's one of those friendly lifeforms. Nothing with teeth – oh dammit, god I hate this freaking glowing stuff."

Janet narrowed her eyes, trying not to take offence. The creatures couldn't help it if he was disturbing them. "Just – try to relax."

She leaned back, chewing on one of her awful tasting nutrient bars meant to keep people alive rather than happy. There was a chill in the air – some of the heavier, cold air from above had sunk down through the thick covering of fog that usually protected them during the night. It was strange. There was a lot more movement happening on the surface. She could hear the engines of ships crossing back and forth and feel the deep vibrations of the drilling machines in the bedrock. They must have found something near the settlement – something interesting enough to warrant working through the night.

A scattering of pebbles splashed into the lake. Janet looked up for a moment then returned to her computer. She was used to the hum of machinery dislodging the walls of the hole. When she returned her attention to the doctor's vital signs she frowned. "That's not right..." she whispered to herself. His heart was slowing down but his body was coping. For someone struggling through the water it should be elevated but there it was, steadily pacing along.

"Did you say something?"

Janet shook off the feeling. "No – no you're all good. I'll let you know when it's time to start heading back."

The routine blood samples that they took of each other weekly were sitting in the small fridge beside her. Janet crawled over the floor of the tiny tent and opened it, pulling out Bernard's. It was just a test, right? If nothing was wrong then she could stop worrying. Nikola had always accused her of being paranoid – quite a gesture from him considering his near constant paranoia.

"Yeah – you look happy..." Janet perched on the pebble-laden mount, her feet in the water as her colleague climbed out, hauling all his heavy equipment with him.

"It just keeps going," he muttered. "There's no way anything other than a robot is going to get to the bottom of that mystery. It creeps me out – knowing that there are tunnels under that water that lead into nothing. Or worse – they lead into something sinister." He shivered but it wasn't from the water. Mars was really starting to freak him out. "I should have stuck to boring geological surveys."

"Sit down – warm up," she gestured to the heater she'd dragged out for him. "I made you tea."

"What have you been doing?"

She pointed at her blue folder. "Making notes. Running tests. The properties of the microbes in the water are incredible. The anti-freeze along could be the answer to creating a colony here on the surface – not to mention possibly human cryogenics. It'd be the final piece in the puzzle for humans transiting large distances in space."

"You're earning your keep."

"Of course. I had to beg my way onto this rock. I'm not about to screw it up."

He looked up though it did him little good. The evening fog was heavy, hanging half a dozen metres about their head like a second sky. Sometimes, if the nights were cold enough, it touched the top of their tent. Bernard wasn't seeking out the sky, he was listening to the distant cry of machinery tearing apart the Martian rock. "Do you ever think that we're just a distraction?" he whispered. "A team of scientists they throw down a few holes to appease the media back on Earth? I bet the real story of Mars is out there – where the diggers are driving deeper and deeper. They're not building a colony."

Janet wanted to say he was lying but she'd already begun to suspect the same thing. At the moment she refused to believe that her entire presence – her life's goal was none other than a distraction. "What else could they possibly be doing?" she asked.

Bernard laid back on the pebbles. He was used to their odd warmth beneath his body now. "I have no idea," he admitted. "Though we could always sneak a look..."

She swatted the younger man. "That is completely against protocol!"

The man shrugged. "Come on... Your experiments aren't going to miss you for a day. We could climb out, transfer to the dig site and be back before dinner. No one would ever know."

"And if we're caught, genius?"

"We got lost – we needed help," he prattled off. "There are plenty of reasons and why would they doubt us? Technically we all work for the same company, right?" He could feel her swaying to his cause. A few more hours and he knew she'd agree.