The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) Page 30

  “Yes, Great Consciousness. I am truly yours. Now, destroy all of them,” Brother Jacobs said pointing behind him, “and I will ascend with you at your side!”

  The Master, starting to become disgusted with the antics of the creature in front of it and eager to get on with the battle, was about to swat the human away when it felt a searing pain in its skull. The forebrain was destroyed! The creature in front of it had been a ruse all along. The hind brain took control of the tentacles and reached out, lifting Brother Jacobs by his neck with one tentacle.

  As he was raised up by the Great Consciousness, only now did Brother Jacobs have a modicum of doubt about his past actions. "Oh please Great Consciousness, spare me. I have sinned, I have lusted. But I will be a better person. Just let me go." The man thrashed and kicked his legs as the creature lifted him higher. "You can have everyone else, since they are heathen unbelievers. You and I can be..."

  In rage at being tricked by this creature, the Master wrapped two other tentacles around the colony leader's legs, and pulled the man's head off. In a fountain of blood, the Master tossed the body aside.

  “Fire, fire!” Li Julong yelled in horror.

  “Shoot and kill that thing!” commanded Grant.

  Bullets flew across the landscape from all directions. Now, many started finding their mark, pelting into the large torso of the Master. The Master roared in frustration, as the hindbrain could not command the tentacles as effectively as the forebrain to ward off the attacks. And it wanted revenge.

  The hindbrain calculated where the attack that had destroyed the forebrain could have come from, and quickly deduced the trajectory. It turned its head, and saw a glint of sunlight on metal in the distance. With a bellow of triumph, it turned and galloped in that direction.

  “Sergeant Wong has saved us, but now it is after him. Keep firing at it, men,” shouted Li Julong.

  “Get that thing before it can kill any more people,” yelled Grant.

  A hail of bullets followed the Master as it hurtled across the landscape, approaching its target. A lucky shot hit one of the rebreathers on the Master’s rear, but that did not deter it in the slightest. It saw the accursed human in front of it stand with its arms outstretched. “At least this human now understands the proper way to fight,” the Master thought. “But he will die for his cowardly initial thrust.”

  Sergeant Wong saw the massive horror approaching, and realized that he could not kill it using his rifle. The monstrosity was too powerful. There was only one chance to destroy this thing before it killed everyone on the surface of Mars. He stood, and pulled two grenades. Holding them in the air, and issuing a battle cry, he hurled himself at the beast.

  “You are mine,” roared the Master as it stretched its tentacles forward to catch its adversary. It grasped at the man, and missed!

  At the last second, Sergeant Wong dove underneath the creature’s appendages and rolled onto his back. Yelling over the radio, “Lao Li, take care of my men for me,” he thrust his hands up to the beast’s belly, and the two grenades exploded.

  BLAM, KA-BLAM!

  Pieces of the Master flew in all directions. A rain of its purple blood splattered down, staining the red sand in all directions. The head with its tentacles still attached came down with a thud, twitched a few times, and lay still.

  Silence descended as everyone stared at the location of the double explosion in stunned silence. Li Julong ran as quickly as he could towards the carnage to locate the NCO. He ran up to the remains of the sergeant, and realized there was nothing that he could do. The grenades had blown both arms off, and shredded his suit, causing an explosive decompression. The man was dead. “Sergeant Wong Sheng,” the chief scientist said, “although you were a slave to the orders of our home world masters, you were a brave and honorable man to the last. You saved us all. You will be remembered as a hero.”

  Julong stood, and slowly started walking back to his comrades. Over the radio, he said to the Koreans, “Lay down your arms. The fighting is over.” Then in English, he said, “Americans, there has been enough bloodshed. I am chief scientist Li Julong, and I speak for our team. This alien thing proves that we humans should work together for our mutual benefit. We are all far from home. Let us make peace.”

  “He’s right,” Charles said in response. “We need to stop trying to kill each other.”

  Seeing that the Koreans were lowering their arms, Grant said, “Okay, it looks like the fight is over. Mr. Li, I’m Commander Grant Stiles. That thing is destroyed, so everyone is safe now. I agree to a truce.” Then to the NASA astronauts he added, “Holster your Gyrojet pistols, men.”

  “Wait, it’s not over; we’re not safe,” Bonnie added. “There’s another creature hiding under a trap door in the middle of the crater.”

  “There is another one?” Julong queried the female voice.

  “Yes, it’s not the same. It has an eye on a stalk and wicked metal arms. We need to be careful.”

  “Commander Stiles, between us we certainly have enough men to investigate,” Li Julong stated. “We cannot leave something like that behind. I suggest that all of us together attempt to capture the creature.”

  “You’re on, Mr. Li. Let’s go,” Grant stated.

  They did not realize that they only had five minutes left to stop a transmission that would surely result in the destruction of the human race.

  CHAPTER 50

  Probe Spit sat in the underground lair with nothing to do but contemplate its fate. There was still a quarter of a quatlent of time left before the transmission of the human’s remains to the home world could initiate. Then the probe would need to follow the Master’s final instructions, and self-destruct.

  Spit had seen through its remaining hoppers the struggle that had resulted in the Master’s demise. The biological portion of the probe’s brain had marveled at the humans’ will to survive in spite of their obvious inferiority to the Master. One of them had even given its life in order to protect the others.

  Spit’s eye looked up and saw that the humans above were already prying open the hatch and would be upon it momentarily. Its programming urged it to attack the humans and complete its mission. Its biological brain urged self-preservation. Back and forth the two natures of the probe struggled. The software briefly took control, and ordered the hoppers to self-destruct into dust. Spit’s biological nervous system then wrenched control. Spit in desperation froze all of its computer and biological systems except its eye, and started it blinking rapidly.

  # # #

  “Stand back, there’s a creature down there,” Charles said as he peered down the open hatch. “Bonnie was right.”

  Julong was next to the NASA astronaut and also peering inside the murky chamber. “Wait, it is just sitting there. Its eye is blinking in some sort of sequence.”

  “Hey, I think that’s Morse code,” Sam said, also taking a look. “I can’t believe that ancient system they still make us pilots learn would come in handy. Hold on, while I translate.” A moment later, Sam said in amazement, “It says, ‘Earth in danger. You have one minute. Save me and I will help.’”

  “It’s intelligent! Quick, save it. Just think what we could learn from it,” Charles said.

  “Go ahead, Sam,” said Commander Stiles. “Give it an answer that we’ll help. There are enough of us here that I think we can handle it if push comes to shove.”

  Sam held up her hand, and with a sequence of opening and closing her fingers against her palm spelled out ‘agreed.’

  The probe’s eye blinked back in code, ‘Get me out and destroy the chamber. Quickly.’

  “It says to get it out and destroy the chamber,” Sam said.

  “Alright, let’s do it,” the Commander said.

  Li Julong spoke to the Koreans next to him. “Go down and bring that object up,” he said, pointing down into the chamber. “Do not be afraid. It has communicated that it is helping us.” Three of the Koreans jumped down, and in a few moments had the probe up onto th
e Martian surface.

  “Now, drop in your grenades and let us pull this mechanism to safety!” Julong ordered. He then turned to Charles and said, “Help me pull the creature away while the grenades complete the destruction.”

  In a moment, they were all struggling to pull the alien probe away from the still open hatch. The unencumbered people chose to scatter in all directions. With three seconds remaining before the quantum teleporter initiated transmission, the grenades exploded, shredding everything in the chamber into oblivion.

  As everyone turned and watched the huge plume of dust fly into the air from the hatch, they heard a mechanical voice speak through their helmets. “Thank you. You have released me from my bondage and saved your planet Earth.” Probe Spit could finally speak, now that the programming was no longer in conflict with its biology. The Master’s command had been very specific: transmit, and then self-destruct. Since there was no transmission, it did not need to immolate itself. And since the transmission apparatus had been destroyed, there was no longer a mission for the software to focus on. With the conflict resolved, the probe was able to communicate freely. It spoke again to the humans. “I am probe Spit. You are my new masters.”

  “No, no masters,” Bonnie spoke. “I’ve had enough of masters.”

  “I agree with the woman wholeheartedly,” Julong added.

  “Well, I can’t argue with that,” said Grant. “But what are we going to do with this probe Spit? I’m not sure that I’m ready to trust it yet, and we can’t just let it go.”

  Charles spoke up. “Probe Spit, are you willing to work with us voluntarily? I’m sure we have much to learn from you.”

  The probe found this approach appealing. “Yes, I concur,” it said.

  “I think we need a new name for it,” Jean added. “Spit is an awful name.”

  Julong spoke up. “I was very fond of a movie called E.T. when I was a child. Perhaps we could call our new friend Elliot?”

  “Hey, good one,” Sam said, slapping Julong on the shoulder. “I didn’t know you Chinese had a sense of humor.”

  “In that case, perhaps we have as much to learn about each other as we do about our new comrade Elliot,” Julong replied.

  “I say we bring Elliot back to our base. We need to get Bonnie and the girls there too,” Charles stated.

  “No, Charles. There is no room for us with you. And as much as I would like to join you, we really do belong back with our brothers and sisters at the colony. There should also be no more secrets. We need everyone there to understand what has happened, and they may not believe it if it only comes from me via radio. I also need to bring Jeff and Brother Jacobs, or what’s left of them, back for burial.”

  “And I need to tend to my injured,” Julong added.

  “Alright, let’s bring all the injured into our transport to tend to their wounds. Once they’re patched up, Mr. Li, you can send them back to your base. After that, you can accompany us as we go to the colony base. Probe Spit, if you are amenable, we’ll call you Elliott from now on, and you can ride on the trailer behind the transport. Is everyone agreed?”

  Everyone assented, and the probe’s robotic voice replied, “Elliott agrees.”

  With the MMTV set up as a makeshift hospital, the astronauts and Julong tended to all of the wounded. Julong was amazed that all of his Koreans had survived, even the one the Master had initially thrown aside. The only casualties from the battle with the Master had been Sergeant Wong and Brother Jacobs.

  Soon, the Koreans were headed back on the two rovers and bulldozer to their Mars One locale. Roy and Sam drove the colony’s rover and bulldozer as they followed the MMTV in its return to the colony. The NASA astronauts also took the time to recover their small rover that the electro bio-synths had disabled, and it rode on the trailer next to probe Elliott. Bonnie and the girls were happy to be out of their spacesuits as they rode in the transport with the other NASA astronauts and the Chinese scientist.

  Charles was torn between communicating further with the alien probe and talking to Bonnie who sat next to him. He had finally decided to get to know Bonnie better when she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and thanked him for saving her and her children. For the first time in a long time, Charles sported a smile.

  CHAPTER 51

  As the former Pegasus astronauts pulled up to the colony habitat modules in the rover and bulldozer, Roy spoke over the radio to those riding in the transport. “Grant, let Sam and me go in first. We can prepare the group inside for the news, and then you can dock the MMTV to the hab port and let everyone in.”

  “Sounds good to me, Roy. We’ll be right behind you.”

  Soon, Roy and Sam were through the airlock. They climbed up the ladder and into the main central module. All of the Called were sitting eating dinner. “Hi gang,” Roy said. “Got a place setting for us? You seem to be shy a few folks.” Everyone turned and stared at the duo in surprise.

  Celia jumped up from her seat. “What have you done with Brother Jacobs? He’s not here,” she screeched.

  “Us? We didn’t do anything to him,” Sam replied. “As the saying goes, he was hoisted by his own petard.”

  Just then, Bonnie and her girls appeared as they finished ascending the ladder. Sue leaped from her seat and ran over, hugging them. “Oh, I was so worried about you. I’m so glad you came back safe.”

  “You,” Celia shrilled, pointing an accusing finger at Bonnie. “We know that Brother Jacobs went out to save your hide when you stole the spacesuits and wandered off like idiots. What happened to him?”

  Bonnie proceeded to explain the events that had occurred to everyone’s shock and amazement. The NASA astronauts added pertinent details, and even Julong chimed in with his experiences. When the narration had finished, everyone sat in stunned silence trying to absorb what they had heard.

  Celia was the first to break the silence. “Well, that means that my husband George is now our leader. And he will make me First Platinum, won’t you, George?”

  George contemplated for a minute before speaking. “You know, I was never comfortable with this whole hierarchy business. And after hearing about ‘Masters’ and how Brother Jacobs deceived us, I don’t think it’s right having a virtual dictatorship. I propose we have a vote, and there is one person here who has displayed the type of common sense we need going forward. I nominate Sue to lead us.”

  Bonnie quickly added, “I second that!”

  “Let’s have a show of hands,” George continued, putting his hand on Celia’s shoulder and forcing her to sit. “How many think I should lead?” A few hands, mostly Celia’s friends, went up. “How many vote for Sue?” A majority of the hands rose up. “Well, Sue, the job is yours, if you’ll have it,” George stated.

  Sue demurred, “I might not be the best choice; I don’t really have any experience.”

  “You have the experience of saving me and my girls, and that’s good enough for me,” Bonnie said emphatically. As other voices urged Sue to take the position, she finally agreed to take on the leadership mantle.

  “Alright, as my first agenda item, I say that we need to work together in harmony with the NASA team and the Chinese/Korean contingent,” Sue said.

  Julong added, “I agree. We here should form a Martian federation which will decide what is best for all of us without home world interference. Whatever we discover should be for our benefit as well as freely available to the people of Earth.”

  “An excellent suggestion,” Brad said. “We should create a Martian Manifesto. Even Elliot can be part of it. I’ll write it up for all of us to sign, and then we can communicate it to Earth. They may not like it, but they’ll have no choice.”

  “And I’m going to write a strongly worded summary of the events here and transmit it to the media back home,” Grant added. “There will be no more secret agendas.”

  After a few more exchanges of words, the NASA astronauts started to say their goodbyes. Charles and Julong were eager to get to the NASA base an
d to begin studying Elliott. The others were exhausted and wanted this long and harrowing day to end.

  Charles walked over to say goodbye to Bonnie. “Do you mind if I come visit sometime?” he shyly asked.

  “Of course, Charlie,” she responded. “I would love that.” Then with a more serious face, she said, “Just don’t come by too soon. I have a lot I need to process. I’ve lost a baby and a husband all in two days.” When she saw the dejected look on Charlie’s face, she added. “But you know, now that I’m a seasoned surface traveler, I just might even surprise you by popping by when the time is right.” She stood on her tiptoes, and gave the astronaut a kiss on the cheek. Charles, in surprise, stood there with a dazed look.

  “C’mon lover boy,” Grant said, grabbing Charles by the arm. “The fun and games are over. You have some homework to do with Elliot.”

  EPILOGUE

  Paul Finkelstein lay on his bunk, his back to the jail cell door. “This is so unfair,” he mumbled. “I never hacked into any government systems to get that video of the astronauts fighting the Reptilians on Mars. I can’t believe they arrested me just when I finally had some decent money!”

  Behind him, he heard keys rattling at his cell door. Paul turned over and saw the guard unlocking the door. “It’s your lucky day, son,” the guard said. “All charges have been dropped. You’re free to go.”

  “Really? What happened?” Paul asked in a hushed voice.

  “Apparently they checked your computer, and discovered that you didn’t really hack into the government systems. They tracked the IP addresses of your emails, and found out that the video came from the Chinese. In fact, you’re something of a hero. They caught all of these Asian spies that had infiltrated NASA only as a result of your posting the alien attack video.” As the guard opened the cell door and beckoned to Paul, he added, “You better prepare yourself. There’s a huge crowd outside.”