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| SEASON 1: EPISODE 3: "DISTRESS CALL." |
7. NO CHOICES.
“Normally, for a distress call we would up anchors and go at once, but Weather Control has instructed us to finish the service on number three, and then embark.” Jones rubbed his chin and pointed to the map being projected onto the bridge windscreen; “Make of that what you will, but we don’t have a choice in the matter. This strange little signal is coming from around here, about five hundred kilometres from the start of the ice-shelf.” Jones pointed to a small valley running into the rear of the Easter Mountains.
“Valley Le Mort.” He said, and smiled at the crew, who were sitting and standing about the bridge listening to the Captain’s briefing, including Frank who said quietly; “Death Valley.”
Everyone looked at Frank who shrugged his shoulders; "It's an old Earth language name, translates as Death Valley.” The Captain nodded; “Franks right about the name, but the valley was named by someone on Earth centuries ago, even before humanity arrived here. So it could have been called Happy Valley for what significance the name means.” The crew laughed and Jones continued; “So we finish up the service and head south, I calculate about four hours to complete, so we should be underway in about six hours and certainly be on route by 22.00 hrs.”
Bella raised a hand; "Captain, why is Weather Control treating this with such a lack of urgency, it is a distress call is it not?” Everyone started to agree with Bella, talking amongst themselves. Jones left it for a few seconds, then raised his hands; “Everyone, everyone please, Lilly our comm.’s expert will give you the answer on that!”
All eyes turned to Lilly, who stepped forward and flicked a switch on the comm.’s desk. A strange low rhymical pulsating sound filled the bridge, everyone stood in silence until the Chief said; “That’s the weirdest distress call I’ve ever heard.”
Lilly coughed and motioned for silence; "That signal hasn’t not been heard on Mars for nearly a century.” She stated simply and waited for the reaction from the crew.
Everyone was looking at each other; "Did I hear right, nearly a century?” Leon looked quite amazed.
“I’ll explain.” Lilly replayed the signal and stated; "That was the distress signal for a surface suit from about 215 to 255, then it was changed to a far more high pitched one, which itself was changed about 280/290. But the fact is, that distress signal had to be activated during those years of 215 to 255, which means whoever was in trouble, called for help nearly a century ago, hence why there is no rush to attend.” Lilly shrugged her shoulders, continuing; “The interesting thing is that type of distress signal was only used by Mars military, no one else used this type of signal. But according to Military Archives, any suit alarm activations were recorded and there’s no record of any being missed. O.K. it was a century ago and maybe somehow it got overlooked. But I doubt it.”
“So let’s get this right Ma’am, It’s a suit alarm from nearly a hundred years ago and it’s just been picked up now, how could that be?” Frank sounded quite bemused; "That means, if the poor bastard has been dead for nearly a century, why did they activate it now?” A ripple of amusement swept the bridge, but no-one really laughed.
“Lilly nodded; “The suits in those days had a small solar panel on the back of the helmet, which was used to recharge the inbuilt batteries, what we think has happened, is that storms in the area have uncovered a body, and sunlight has reached the panel, its recharged the battery and set off the alarm again.”
“Do we know who it is?” Eve asked quietly, but Lilly shook her head; “Military intelligence say they have no records of any missing military personnel who were lost on the sand. But they admit the records may not be complete for certain periods or maybe are still classified.”
“Well, that’s it for now, let’s get this service finished and then we’ll recover the poor bastard from the sand.” Captain Jones closed down the projection and added; "We've been given the honour and privilege of bringing home a colleague who fell doing their duty. It may be a hundred years ago, but he or she is still one of us – and we will bring them home.”
Everyone nodded in agreement; “Spot on Captain, well said.” Lilly uttered and resumed her duties on communications, whilst Leon and Peter sat discussing the incident. The Captain and the Chief headed for the suit room with Tom and Kazza. “The answer has to be no Chief, the MO has stood you down from sand-time for five weeks and I cannot over-rule her medical advice.” The Captain gripped Marcus by the arm and added; “Now stop whining and tell Leon to get down here and suit up.” He smiled at the Chief and slapped him on the back; “You command the Thor, keep Troy on the bridge with you because Peter will be covering us with the sand-cat.”
“You mean I have put us with both her and Troy!” The Chief exclaimed and raised his arms in mock despair, and made his way to the bridge where Eve was setting up the medical monitoring station and Lilly was on communications. Bella was next to Eve and rechecking the weather reports. “The storm has passed over Chief, there’s still a bit of wind, but nothing to worry about.” Bella scrutinized her readouts and was satisfied that the mission could proceed. “Captain, the weather is good for go.” The Chief spoke into the microphone; “Peter is suited and bringing the sand-cat around to the station.”
Marcus watched on the suit-room cam as the service team squeezed into the External Pressure Lift, and then Captain Jones looked up at the camera and gave the thumbs up. “How’s the readout’s Eve?”
“All suit readout’s are green, good to go Captain.” Eve spoke over Lilly’s shoulder and then sat back; "Let's hope this service call is dull as dishwater.” Lilly smiled in agreement; “Thank you Eve for being with me on my interview, I did appreciate that.”
“You did the right thing Lilly, The Captain now knows and has said he will support you. He won't allow bloody bullying on his rig! I would have found out with your first medical. Then I would not have been happy with that, but that’s behind you now. You’ve been given another chance, but frankly, you really had no choice but to accept this one – and it’s a good one – so don’t waste it.” Eve gripped Lilly’s arm and raised her voice from a whisper; “I wonder who it is?”
Bella looked round and agreed; "I too, wonder who the poor bugger is, he or she has waited nearly a century for a rescue that has come well late.” Bella shuffled her papers about and checked her PA again – there were no new weather reports available for the region. “Chief, the team is at the station.” Lilly reported; “The Captain thinks a couple of hours and it will be completed.”
The Chief nodded, but said nothing.
“I think he’s still sulking about being stood down.” Eve whispered to Bella and they both giggled, drawing a disapproving look from the Chief who muttered; "Bloody women” under his breath.
The maintenance of Weather Station number 3(S) concluded after two and a half hours and the service team returned to the Thor without incident. Bella and Troy had prepared an early evening meal - after Bella received a little surprise in the Galley; she was pulling potatoes from a crate, when she screamed so loud and suddenly, that Troy dropped the chicken pieces all over the floor. “There’s something moving in the crate!” She yelled, hiding behind Troy who armed with a whisk, peered into the box.
Dallas climbed out the box and sauntered down the table, tail in air, with a complete look of indifference. “How the hell did that stupid cat get in there?” Troy asked, because the crate had been taken out of the locked vegetable store just moments before by Bella who shook her head; "That damn cat seems to be getting bigger by the hour."
The pair managed to get a fairly good chicken casserole ready and it was appreciated by the crew, even Frank, sitting in the Medical Bay stroking the mischievous cat, thought it was O.K.
There was some left over and Dallas showed his appreciation of their efforts by eating it.
Troy, looking at the empty dish, was not happy, he was going to reheat it later and have it for a bedtime snack. “Bloody furry bandit.” He muttered to himself, and then realized he had put the plate in one of the kitchen fridges, and now it was on the floor – empty. “He’s a real fucking cat burglar!” He cursed and threw the plate into the dishwasher and went back to the bridge.
The Thor was now on route to the distress call location.
8. SECRETS IN THE SAND.
“We’ll have to keep her [The Thor] on this ground, the Valley is nothing but sand.” Jones instructed Peter; “Tell Troy to prep the ‘sand-cat’ and it will be Lilly and Kazza with us.” Peter nodded and passed the command to Lilly who was on Comm.’s.
“The signal is a little stronger now Captain, You should be able to locate the body.” Lilly was also listening through her headset with some intensity, and then the Captain noticed the expression on her face; “What is it Lilly?” He said with some concern. Ensign Blissforth nodded and held up a hand to silence everyone for a few seconds, then with some puzzlement on her face announced; "I think there is a second signal now Captain, much weaker than the first and a little different.”
“Isolate it and push it through the speakers.” Jones ordered and Lilly tapped at her keyboard for a couple of minutes and a strange, eerie sound filled the bridge. “What the fuck is that?” Tom had never heard a signal like that and neither had the crew who now packed the bridge.
But it was Kazza, ascending the bridge ladder, who exclaimed; “Wait, wait a tick, I think I’ve heard that pattern of tones before, when I was at University, and it was specific to something.” He placed both hands on his head and paced the bridge for a couple of seconds, then stopped; “Shit Captain, that’s a cyborg motherboard in hibernation!” The look on his face wasn’t missed by his crew-mates. Fear – real fear.
“Lilly, pull that specific sound from the archives.” Jones slowly sat down in his chair and sipped some warm coffee, only Kazza spoke; “Captain, if I’m right, then that body could be an old Military Grade Cyborg, left over from the Invasion attempt, and even lying in the sand for almost a century, would not have altered its murderous nature – not one jot.”
“Is it one of our old Cyborg’s or one of theirs?” Jones said quietly and Lilly answered that particular question; “It’s a Mars Military Cyborg Captain.” From the bridge speaker came the same distinct sound, “That’s from the Military Archives.” Lilly said simply. “It’s one of ours.”
“The Military should still hold disarm codes for it.” The Chief announced to the shocked crew, then added; ”If it’s in any state to do anything - that hibernation signal means its damaged, awaiting repair and rescue, and we’re certainly not bringing it back online, even if it’s one of ours.”
The Captain agreed and made his decisions quickly and quietly.
The Thor would remain parked on the good ground under the Chief’s command, Eve would monitor the suit readouts and Bella would handle communications. The search team would consist of himself, Peter, Kazza and Lilly. They would take the ‘sand-cat’ and enter the valley, using the signal to locate the source, and recover the body. For the first time in many weeks, Jones opened the rig’s armoury and issued pulse tubes to the search team.
Everyone checked that the ‘safety’ was on before clipping the hand length, metallic tube to their suit belts. “You are all trained in the use of Pulsars, you know how deadly they are, but if you feel you really must use it, and then act without hesitation.” Jones explained as the search team headed for the External Pressure Lift where the final checks were made by them and the support team.
“I’ve hooked up the flatbed trailer to ‘Little Thor’ Skipper, we’ll never fit the body in the cab with us four in there.” Peter spoke to the Captain as they crossed the sand towards the ‘sand-cat’; ”It will make it easy for us to lift them into the cargo bay, and then we can retrieve it from there to the Medibay.” He added, pulling open the cabin door on ‘Little Thor’ and they climbed in.
Peter fired up the engine, but didn’t pressurize the ‘sand-cat’ – they wanted to be able to move quickly in and out the vehicle – should the need arise.
“Captain, I have a secure link with the Military Control Centre at Fort Benjamin and a Colonel James La Strade is in command there. He states that only you are to receive the secure transmissions from the Centre. They are quite insistent about that.” Bella spoke with a little sarcasm in her voice. “I’ve been instructed that if you go down, then it passes to Lt. Gravestone, and then onto the Chief.” She added.
Jones chuckled; "Thanks Bella, I do know the Colonel and I would expect nothing less. You had better put him through.” Jones tapped Peter’s shoulder; “He was my first rig Captain when I joined the service as an Ensign, he knows his stuff. The last I heard, he was a Major in Military Intelligence. Must be going up the ranks which wasn’t unexpected – his Great, Grandfather was Marshall Caleb La Strade of the Invasion War.”
Peter whistled in mock admiration; “A total Military man to his regulation blue socks.” Jones nodded in agreement and said; “But he’s a good man and Officer to have around in a tight spot. Let’s get the rundown on this job - Bella, is the link ready please?”
“Patching the Colonel through now, Captain. I’ve closed all other channels, but you can still communicate with the search team members on the suit lines. They won’t be able to pick up the secure channel.” Bella punched buttons and turned to Eve;”This is beginning to turn a little sour I think.”
Eve breathed deep; "I agree, the Captain’s readouts are a little high. I think he is really concerned about this mission.” The Chief peered over Eve’s shoulder and grunted; "That's OK, a little nerves are good, if there’s a fight ahead.” He smiled at the girls and returned to the bridge control desk. They both looked at each other and sighed deeply.
“Good morning Pic, is your search team prepped and ready?” Colonel La Strade’s voice appeared in Jones’s helmet and the Captain realized that no-one had called him ‘Pic’ for a very long time.
“Affirmative Sir, we’re ready to depart as directed.” Jones answered, staring ahead, towards the forbidding entrance of Valley La Mort. He looked down to find his right hand was gripping his Pulsar, he had never fired one in anger and really hoped that would not change today.
“I have some background information from Mars Military Archives that you need to know and understand, about what happened in this area during the Invasion War. Some of it is still classified and cannot be repeated – to anyone. You agree and accept that caveat?” The Colonel spoke softly, but with real authority in his voice.
Jones took a deep breath and agreed; "Yes Sir, I do understand and accept that.” He leaned back in his seat and checked that the suit communication line was still active; "You won’t be able to hear what the Colonel says but we can still talk to each other.” He spoke to the search team and gave them the thumbs up – they all responded with the same signal.
“You of course, know what happed in 227, the attempted Invasion of Mars by forces from the North American Caliphate; everyone learns what happened during those terrible nine days in School and from numerous videos and stories produced since. But what happened near Valley La Mort has never been revealed, and officially, the mission there during those dark days, is still classified. So what I’m about to tell you, must remain with just you.” The Colonel’s voice lacked any kind of emotion, like he was giving a talk to some Military students at Fort Benjamin University.
“I understand Sir, please go on.” Jones now had quite a dry mouth; he looked around and could see Peter leaned across the steering wheel, staring out of the windscreen. Kazza was sitting upright, arms folded, looking at the floor. Lilly was leaned back in her seat, legs crossed and looking quite relaxed until she saw the Captain gazing at her -she sat upright and gave him a nervous smile. Jones smiled back, but his attention was returned to the secure channel communication.
“Mars Military Command received information from a very reliable Earth agent that the enemy was planning something special in that area, during the initial invasion which was to take place here in the North. So Military Intelligence dispatched a team to Valley La Mort, their mission was to discover the enemy’s plan and prevent its success. The team was commanded by Captain John Stanner, a former Mars Marine, with Lt. Petra Dreyfuss – a Military physicist and Specialist Kobi Samurri who was trained in demolition. They had three military grade Cyborgs as backup. What was discovered there, and what transpired, is classified to this day. Needless to say, the enemy’s plan was thwarted or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” A little humour crept into the Colonel’s voice.
“After it was all over, there was a search of the area, but nothing was found. No wreckage, no bodies and no signs of the enemy. The team had vanished completely and within a couple of decades the mission was forgotten, and being archived as ‘classified’ there were no further attempts to discover what happened there. The team is still officially classified as ‘Missing, believed killed in action’. If this suit alarm belongs to one of the missing team, it could solve the mystery of what happened there.” The Colonel lapsed into silence and Jones asked; “Are there any records of radio traffic at the time, from the team?”
A few seconds passed; "No, sorry Pic, there are no records of any communications with the squad, remaining in the Archives. They must have been disposed of at some time. It has been nearly a century, all we have to go on, is what’s in the classified file – and that is not much, I’m afraid.” The Colonel replied and Jones muttered; "Shit!”
He took a deep breath and said; "Right Sir, with your permission we’ll head into the Valley La Mort and start the search.”
“Affirmative Pic, good luck and take real care in there.” Jones noticed that a little concern had crept into the Colonel’s voice – was that a good or bad sign?
9. VALLEY LA MORT.
‘Little Thor’ disappeared into the dark, shadow filled entrance of Valley La Mort, watched by the remaining crew of the Thor, who were all on the bridge, standing and sitting in silence until the Chief said simply; "The Captain knows what he’s doing, they will be alright.”
“I don’t like the single communications channel, I don’t like the fact we cannot speak directly to them and I don’t like the sound of this Colonel.” Bella folded her arms and sat grim faced by the communications desk. The passing minutes seemed like hours to the waiting crew.
“I wonder what the fuck is going on in there.” Troy asked after a few minutes; ”Bella, can’t you ask Military Control for an update?” He added. She nodded and called up Control, but all they replied was: the search had started with no results yet.
“They’re out on the sand, the readouts show that.” Eve informed the crew, as she carefully watched the four suit readout monitors. “They appear to be fine, sweating a little, but drawing good breaths and all are in good condition.” She added, giving a big smile to Bella and the Chief.
“They may have closed the audio and head cam’s down, but we can still switch on ‘Little Thor’s’ front camera.” The Chief announced with a large grin creeping across his face. Leon leapt into the right Pilot seat and tapped on his keyboard. “We can soon remedy that and chief, if you weren’t so hairy and ugly, I’d kiss ya!” He shouted and everyone turned to the front monitor as the screen came to life.
Nothing. The disappointed crew could see nothing but dirt, rocks and cliffs. "They must be to the side of the ‘sand-cat’ and there’s no fucking camera’s fitted there.” The Chief spate the words out in frustration and the sense of disappointment were palpable amongst the crew on the bridge. Everyone sat back and started to talk quietly amongst themselves until Frank appeared on the bridge with a tray of sandwiches, followed by Tom carrying cups of coffee.
“Scoff’s up.” Frank said and shook his head; "Typical, all this going on and we’re looking at sand and rocks…………and what the fuck is that?” Everyone turned back to the monitor as Frank tapped the screen; "Just there, near the bottom of that cliff face, where that really big black shadow is.”
Tom looked closely and nodded; "That's a cave entrance, a big one. But that’s no surprise, The Easter’s are riddled with huge caverns, it’s said they run for hundreds of kilometres underground with some caves big enough to lose a city in.”
“Good place for an enemy to hide.” The Chief growled; "We need to tell the Captain about it.”
“How can we do that, they have closed all communications off with the search team.” Leon stuffed a cheese sandwich into his mouth and looked at the monitor. “What enemy Chief, the war’s been over nearly a century and whoever is left on Earth couldn’t raise flowers, never mind an army.” Tom sipped his coffee and looked hard at the dark shadow and the thoughts of a deranged and damaged Cyborg, hiding out, waiting for a victim, changed his mind. “Your right Chief, we need to get a message to the Captain, without Military Control realizing that we can watch through the ‘sand-cats’ front camera.”
“I know how we can.” Eve said quietly; ”Tom, get in your sand-suit, but I won’t hook you up to the Medical Monitors – they can read them, but they can’t listen in on the suit lines!” The Chief and Tom were already half-way down the bridge ladder before Eve finished speaking. “Fucking genius Doc!” The Chief yelled, heading for the suit room, with Tom following.
Tom found it quite uncomfortable, sitting on the bridge in his sand-suit, worse still; he needed to keep the helmet on for the head mic to work. “I’m calling the Captain now.” He spoke, wiping sweat from his brow and said simply; "Skipper, it’s me Tom; we need to tell you something, can you hear me?”
“I hear you Tom. A clever, very clever, idea to bypass our eavesdroppers – I’m impressed.” The Captain certainly sounded surprised to hear from the Thor. “It was Eve’s brilliant idea, Skipper, we’re watching through ‘Little Thor’s’ front camera’s and some thousand kilometres ahead of you, on the right cliff face is a big cave entrance, big enough to hide an army or a deranged Cyborg.” Tom spoke quickly and quietly. “Thank you Tom, Lilly and I will check it out; we won’t wave as we pass in front of the ‘sand-cat’ for obvious reasons.” The Captain joked and everyone on the bridge turned to the monitor again.
The crew was relieved to watch the Captain and Lilly pass in front of the camera, heading towards the cave entrance. The fact they were now holding their Pulsars didn’t pass unnoticed. “I told you that the Skipper will be on top form out there.” The Chief spoke with real pride and his words were met with universal agreement.
“Listen up everyone, Peter and Kazza have found a body!” Tom was listening intently to his suit communicator; “They’re calling the Skipper back.” He hesitated for a couple of seconds, then added; "It's someone called Stanners, the suit name tag reads: J E STANNERS. Kazza says the suit distress call is operating, he was face down apparently, and so Lilly’s theory was right. They are going to place him on the flatbed. But there’s no answer from the Skipper or Lilly.” Tom could see some anxious faces around him; "The signal may be getting blocked by the caves, those cliff’s are almost like granite.”
“Peter is saying that Stanners looks like he died yesterday, no signs of decomposition – nothing.” Tom wiped more sweat from his face and Eve gave him a clean rag and said; "That's not unexpected, there’s nothing on the Mars surface to start decomposing, no germs, no air, it’s like being kept in a deep freeze – without the ice , of course.” Eve returned to the monitor; "What's happening in there?”
There was still no sign of the Captain and Lilly. The Chief didn’t answer; he just shook his head and stared at the screen. After a few minutes, there was a huge sigh of relief as two figures emerged from the dark shadowed cave entrance; the Chief noticed that the pulsars were back in their holsters and his sharp eyes also caught the Captain pushing something into his small back pouch.
“You can rest easy people, there’s a very badly damaged Cyborg in the cave entrance, and looks like it hit the ground at speed. I’ve disconnected the Motherboard, there’s no more signal.” Jones spoke with some relief in his voice; "There's a couple of broken open crates in there and footprints all round, whatever was in the cases have gone.”
“Everyone back on the ‘sand-cat’ please, we’ll take the body back and after a rest, we’ll continue the search for the others, and we’ve plenty of daylight left.” The Captain announced, panting a little, as he and Lilly made their way back to ‘Little Thor’, where Peter and Kazza had placed the body on the flatbed.
A voice came over the communications systems of both the big and little Thor – it was Colonel La Strade;”Thank you everyone, this is a job well done. Please return to the Thor and standby for further instructions.” The search crew swapped looks and Kazza muttered; "Well that’s that then – I don’t think.”
Lilly pointed to the body, now face up on the flatbed; "His rank ensign has been pulled off and his holster is empty.” The Captain opened the helmet visor and lifted the dead man’s head, the hair still felt wet and squeaky clean from shampoo, he leaned close and gently opened the mouth – the teeth were gleaming from being freshly brushed. Jones rubbed the face with his fingers and stared hard at his fingertips, then grunted with realization. The others stared at him in disbelief; “What are you doing Captain?” Peter asked incredulously as the Captain closed the visor and folded his arms.
“Back to the Thor please, I want Eve to have a good look at our friend Captain Stanners.” Jones said simply, and they climbed aboard the ‘sand-cat’ in silence.
The ‘sand-cat’ took twenty minutes to return to the Thor, where the body was loaded into the cargo bay with some reverence and careful handling. Lilly commented on how young and good looking the late J E STANNERS actually was, considering he had been dead for nearly a century, she also noted there was no damage to his suit or helmet. “He must have run out of air and was asphyxiated.” Peter guessed.
Jones glanced at him and said quietly through the suit line;”A Mars marine Captain lets himself run out of air on a vital mission, I don’t think so.” Peter nodded; "So you know who he is Captain?”
Jones said; "Yes and no, but this is not just a corpse collection mission, I think.” He pointed to the body and two little red straps hanging loose in the small of the back. “That’s where the spare air capsules would be, but the straps are broken, and with some force, the buckles are shattered. They were ripped off, probably just before or just after he was put here.” The two climbed out of the cargo bay and dropped onto the surface again, where Jones let Peter into some of the story.
“He was killed then, or rather left to die without air refills?” Peter looked back at the body as the outer cargo door slid quietly down and sealed itself. “Poor bastard, why did they leave him to die, they could have taken him prisoner, for information or something, fucking religious mutters.” He sounded sad and a little angry.
“I’ll brief everyone after some food and water, lots of cold water, but I don’t think anyone killed our friend there Peter, so I shouldn’t get too upset.” Jones patted Peter’s shoulder and the pair headed for the external pressure lift, followed by Lilly and Kazza who had closed up the ‘sand-cat’.
Bella called the Captain to say that Eve had Tom, Troy and Leon move the body to the MediBay and Frank was bringing up more sandwiches and drinks to the bridge.
“Whatever happened here back in 227, I think we’ve only scratched the surface and we haven’t learnt all that Valley La Mort has to reveal.” Jones said and looked back at the Valley entrance, then closed the lift door;”Let’s get some scoff and rest; I think we are going to need it, this mission is far from over.” The lift ascended to the suit room where Eve awaited the Captain with some expected, but still disturbing news.
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| FOLLOW THE ROVER TO EPISODE 4: "OPERATION MINCEMEAT." |
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"William Alexander Stephens."
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W.A.S.
Copyright © 2011-2021 Stephen Williams. No reproduction of any part without permission.
