Mars Rising- Part Four

Jun 10, 2008 - 12:19 PM PST

Parts one, two and three are linked here below

The Message

Just Another Day

Happy Birthday

The Day Everything Changed

The next morning Oran woke up with a little headache, Selena was bed ridden. Sitting on the counter was a package, it was from their mother. Since it was addressed to both of them he decided to go ahead and open it. Inside he found a letter from mom with the normal “Have fun’ and “I love you’ ending with ‘I wish I could see my two babies more often.’ Under the letter were two boxes, one labeled Oran and the other Selena. He took the box with his name on it and opened it. Inside was a necklace with a Gemini medallion on it. Then looking in Selena’s box he found and identical necklace. He put his around his neck and laid the letter on top of her box. He had tried to stir the grumpy girl facing her first hangover, but soon gave up when he realized that he would be late for work. He raced to the loading docks, arriving five minutes late and having to explain to Demetrius why his sister was not going to be there. He seemed more understanding of Selena’s condition than Oran tardiness.
“Your on 439 today, Will never showed up and they are behind.” The beastly Greek shouted at Oran. “Sorry you don’t get to load for your obsession.”
“Will never showed? Odd that man hasn’t missed a day of work in over 4 years.” As he rushed to dock 439. There he found three guys that he had never met loading the transport. They were not at all talkative which made Oran’s day go by extremely slow. When they finally finished the men quietly walked on to their next assignment, they didn’t say more than five words to Oran the entire time. As he was beginning to head to find his next assignment, he realized his Gemini necklace was missing. Frantically he looked all around the work area and could not find it. Then after his search came up with nothing he thought that it might have fallen off on the transport. And fearing the pilot would find it and pawn it for some extra cash he ran back on to the transport. So busy was he that he did not realize that the door had closed behind him and the transport had taken off. And as Will had said it was heading in the wrong direction for Neue Berlin. For security reasons there was not a door or hatch connecting the cargo hold to the cabin of the transport. So he had no way of letting the pilot know he was back there. He decided that looking for his birthday present was the best idea. It was extremely hard to move around all the cargo. Using his hands to find his way around in the near pitch dark, He felt something under his feet. Bending down to pick it up he found that it was his necklace, just then there was some turbulence and a crate fell off and hit Oran in the head knocking him unconscious.
As the transport touched down, Oran woke up on the floor of the cargo hold. Frantically he tried to figure out his next step; hope that when they open the cargo hold and find him and except the story that he was mistakenly sealed in the ship prior to departure, or should he hide and try to sneak off and find his way home. Fearing trouble, especially since something didn’t seem right about this ship he chooses the latter of the two. Hiding behind a bunch of crates he waited until the door was open. The door opened and two men entered, and then began to unload the crates onto a flatbed truck. When the men were both walking out of the transport Oran quickly snuck out and around the transport.
This was not Neue Berlin; there was a single tower and a landing pad that had three space worthy ships. Oran stood there in amazement thinking to himself that all space bound ships had been dismantled for materials needed for the colonies. No one had gone into space for over thirty years He stood there in shock wondering what these ships are doing here. His gaze of amazement was ended when he heard voices coming around the side of the transport. With little time to think he looked around and saw a water filtration unit next to the landing platform. Running as fast as he could to hide behind it just as three men walked around the transport. These men were wearing uniforms that Oran did not recognize and carrying what looked like some form of guns. Crouching behind the water filtration unit Oran scanned the complex that he found himself in, and realized that it was surrounded by a ten foot fence. Checking his re-breather he only had a little over an hour of air left, he knew once it was out the Martian air would suffocate him in less than five minutes. He needed to find a way inside. Once the guards turned around a corner, he ran to a nearby building that looked like a warehouse. Finding a door he reached for a handle and was grateful to find that it was unlocked. Inside this warehouse were hundreds, possibly thousands of crates that had come from different outposts and colonies from all over Mars. If even half this was food it could feed a large colony for over a year.
The ground began to shake and there was an enormous roar in the air. Looking out a window Oran saw one of the three ships on the landing pad take off and disappear not in the horizon, but into the sky above. It was leaving Mars.

© 2008 Aaron Kuhns