Hi everyone :)
Looks like I'm back on track with weekly posts so I just hope I can keep it up. I'll be interested to see who notices the 1970's Disney reference in this chapter.
Route 66
Arsenic and Old Space Suits.
Luis Dias was glad his children were not there to hear him swear when he heard the bad news, but later he find the right words to use when explaining the situation to his three teenage crewmates. Fifteen minutes after Luis had received the disturbing report, they all sat with him in the habitat ring and learned their fate.
"Why can't we go back to Mars?" Abigail asked in a very worried voice.
"It's because Blue and Calla have come from Earth and we have been in close contact with them. The Mars Council want us to undertake a quarantine period, just to be sure none of us are carrying any pathogens or viruses."
"Hey... I'm clean!" Calla protested.
"I have no doubt you are" Luis smiled "but since everyone on Mars has been living in a very sterile environment for many years now, some members of the Mars Council thought it would be better to be safe than sorry."
"So how long do we have to wait in quarantine?" Abigail wondered.
"They haven't decided yet" Luis sighed.
"Do we have enough supplies to live on?" Calla realised.
"Doctor Spencer sent us enough for six months before we left Earth, plus we already have a few months worth on board anyway" Abigail noted.
"Hooray for Sarah" Calla smiled.
"We shouldn't have any problem" Luis added "By the time we get to the Orbit Station, the council promised there would be a supply ship waiting for us."
"A supply ship... from Mars?" Calla noted with suspicion.
"Yes of course" Luis wondered why Calla was looking at him so strangely.
"A capsule full of supplies from the home of the Deep Council, who's former agent tried to kill you both. I certainly would not want to come into contact with anything they send us. Just think about it for a minute; the people who sent the supply ship wouldn't know about the gear sent by Sarah Spencer and the crew. So if the quarantine is any longer than ten weeks, then they will assume we would have to access their food supplies; I don't trust them to be safe."
"Dad... do you think they'd try again to kill us?" Abigail began to worry.
"I seriously doubt the Deep Council would even attempt anything so foolish" Luis responded "Commander Sage acted on his own last time, so I don't think anyone on Mars would want to risk having more unwanted accusations levelled against them."
"But they wouldn't have to kill us" Calla continued "It sounds to me like it's not just the Deep Council, but there are a lot of people on Mars who are worried about being overrun by refugees from Earth. If we were to come down with a nasty flu or some other disease while waiting in the Orbit Station, then anyone who wants to argue about keeping Earth people away from Mars would have a very convincing case indeed."
There was a moment of silence while the other considered the probability of Calla's suspicion. Major Dias was particularly impressed with the young girl's deductions.
"How old did you say you were?" he asked.
"Don't let her appearance fool you Dad; she's very smart for her age" Blue said "I think she's fourteen going on thirty."
"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult" Calla sniffed.
"I think it's both" Abigail stated.
"It's a compliment" Blue protested.
Back on Mars, Saffron Dias felt like she had been living on a rollercoaster of emotion for the last few weeks. First there was the reported death of her father and older sister, followed by the discovery they were still alive, and then the revelation that she had a brother. Now to top it all off, the entire Mars base was awash with rumours about the Deep Council; who were they, how many and what were they really up to? With all the current upheaval, it did not look like she and April would be going back to Base 2 any time soon, so Saffron was finally being forced to join Holly Duncan's training class.
"The girls are okay" Holly explained as they walked down the corridor "Rain is fourteen and Zavia is sixteen and we get along great, but the boys are a bit of a handful. Cort is twelve but even though he's two years older than Sudhi, he's real immature and Talon is even worse. Just because he's the oldest at eighteen, he just assumes he's the boss. If an Instructor puts him in charge of a project, Talon just tells everyone what to do without listening to anyone else's ideas. But if someone else is made leader, Talon constantly pushes his nose in and tells them what they are doing wrong and how he would do it better."
"Sounds like Commander Sage" Saffron smirked.
"Whatever you do, don't say anything like that in class" Holly warned "Talon really looked up to Sage and was really pissed when he was blamed for the apparent death of your family."
"But Sage admitted he..." Saffron started.
"I know" Holly whispered as she reached for the door "but don't talk about it unless you're looking for a fight."
Saffron remembered how nervous Holly had been when she had to changing classes; now Saffron was beginning to understand exactly how Holly had felt. It was not as if these were bad people, but it's just never easy to go through major change.
"Hey everyone" Holly called out "You all know Saffy, right?"
Although they were all familiar with Saffron, she had never worked with them before and really felt like an outsider.
"Come in and join the team" instructor Dexter Riley invited her.
"Thanks" Saffron said nervously as she sat between Holly and Talon.
"We were pleased to hear the good news about Abigail and your father" Doctor Riley continued.
"Err yeah... so was I" Saffron stated the obvious and then wished she hadn't.
The day started slow with some basic introductions followed by mathematics and coding before Doctor Riley told the small group to take an extra half hour for lunch so they could get to know each other. He told them to meet him in the robotics lab when they were done so they could put their coding efforts to the test in the afternoon, and then he left them to enjoy their break. Lunch conversation was very light at first, but it soon took a dark turn.
"Well then" Talon began as he finished off his meal "Your mother appears to have turned into quite the trouble maker."
"Excuse me?" Saffron answered as the Toucan of Defiance alighted on her shoulder.
"Nobody knows who to trust anymore, thanks to her" he continued.
"Oh come on Talon" Zavia sighed "Don't be a jerk all your life."
"Well it's true" he argued.
"Perhaps you would have preferred it if we were still having all our private conversations recorded" Saffron sniffed.
"Who said we were being recorded?" Talon pointed out.
Holly and Saffron looked at each other, wondering if the young man was serious.
"Do you think the Deep Council just listened in occasionally for entertainment?" Saffron huffed.
"I don't assume anything without proof, unlike you two" Talon declared smugly.
"So what so called proof do you have that my mother is a trouble maker?"
"My own observations for a start; it was weird the way she kept the truth about Major Dias and Abigail secret until she could put her plan into action."
"You pathetic piece of crap" Saffron hissed "Do you have any idea what it was like for us, thinking Dad and Abby were dead for over a week? We went through hell!"
"Well I can understand your Mom would have been upset about losing Abigail, but she doesn't seem to care about men very much."
"Now you've gone too far Talon" Zavia said sternly.
"I've seen the way she treats Major Dias; ordering him around, expecting him to oblige her every whim."
"Mom and Dad love each other very much" Saffron started to cry "It's just the way they play around with each other."
"You're just lucky you were born a girl" Talon insisted "After all, she did abandon your baby brother back on Earth."
"SAFFY, NO!" Holly cried out too late.
"HOW COULD YOU JUST LEAVE THEM ALONE? YOU'RE AN IDIOT RILEY!" Gretel Descott declared loudly.
"Calm down Gretel; there was no real harm done" Dexter Riley tried to play peacemaker.
"NO REAL HARM? That little delinquent could have broken his nose!"
"If I'd been there when he opened his big mouth, I would have broken more than just his nose" April admitted.
"Violence is always the last resort of the limited mind" Gretel said accusingly.
"You heard for yourself what your son said to my daughter" April spat back.
"Are you saying Talon is not permitted to have an opinion?"
"He can have all the weird opinions he wants; but if he throws them in my face, I'll deck him without hesitation" April was adamant.
"Beating children; you should be ashamed of yourself" Gretel turned up her nose as she wagged her finger at April.
"He's no child; he's eighteen and almost as big a Luis" April sat heavily in the nearest chair "And what kind of stupid name is Talon anyway? It sounds like you expected him to be rude and overbearing when he grew up, so I suppose his behaviour is entirely your fault."
"Why you..."
Gretel's hand swung around at April's face with full force, but just as Doctor Riley jumped up in panic, April moved with lightning reflexes though and caught the offender by the wrist.
"Limited mind eh?" April stood, pushed the hand away before strolling out of the room.
As she stormed past the children in the waiting room, Saffron jumped up and followed after her mother. April glared at Talon, but he just turned away as he held a cloth to his bleeding nose.
"Err... am I going to be punished?" Saffron asked as she tried to keep up.
"You bet your ass you're gonna be punished; tonight you can stay up late and you get a double helping of dessert!"
At the entrance to the bunker near the Arizona border a small crowd of people awaited the weekly change over. After standing in the sun for over forty five minutes, the first members of the departing group marched out of the tunnel and into the light, carrying their personal belongings.
Four bright yellow electric freight vehicles followed behind them carrying all the equipment that had been repaired or fabricated during the first group's time underground. Those waiting to enter the bunker had already unloaded the trucks of the gear they were taking inside, so everyone helped re-load the outgoing trucks. Eventually with the first group headed off to El Centro, Reed, Shifty and two others loaded all the worn and broken parts onto the electric carts while the rest of Group Two began the long walk down the tunnel.
"Why wouldn't they let us unload inside?" Reed asked.
"The trucks are never allowed in the tunnel during changeover" Shifty explained "They say it's because of the exhaust fumes, but I think they're just paranoid about having so many people here at once. You may not have noticed, but there are extra guards up in the rocks so if we try anything, they'll have a clear shot."
"I see; there were only two of us when we came last time and we were greatly outnumbered" Reed realised.
"So they felt much safer" Shifty nodded "but with so many people milling about, they tend to get a little paranoid."
With two of the electric vehicles loaded, Shifty made a desirable offer to his friends.
"Hey Alby, you and Bobby can take off if you want; Reed and I will take care of the rest."
"Thanks Shifty" Alby replied as he stepped onto the operators platform.
As soon as they were gone, leaving only the guards keeping watch, Shifty talked low as he worked.
"I'm not too sure about this plan of yours. Why don't I let a few of my friends in on it? If I don't, you're gonna be very unpopular with the rest of the townsfolk."
"It'll make the whole thing more believable if they grow to hate me" Reed insisted "You can set everyone straight next week when you're back home."
"Okay... if you're sure."
A few minutes later, they finished loading their gear and set off down the dimly lit tunnel and into the bunker, ready to put Reed's strange plan into action.
Spring is here and I'm surprised how much it helps my writing. In the winter I tend to stay inside and play computer games a lot which stifles creativity, but in the warmer weather I get out in the garden and think more about plots and dialogue.
Starting to wonder if I can finish this one off before the new year.