UnEarthed

POP!

The cork whizzed past James Campbell's face and bounced off a monitor.

“Jesus, Lewis, if I'm going to die out here I would like it to be the indigenous life that does me in!”

“Sorry Campbell, I didn't mean to miss,” Violet Lewis smiled at him.

Captain John Orin and Campbell each took a cup. Lewis offered the fourth to Felicity Gomez, and the crew spent the next hour soaking up the camaraderie. They had just landed in the Arsia Mons region of Mars earlier that day and had spent the remainder of it running diagnostics and remotely unpacking equipment with robots. This would be the only night spent in the lander. In the morning they would be heading into one of the famous Martian lava tubes.

By mid-morning the next day Lewis and Campbell were standing by the vehicle packed with gear doing their final checks.

Lewis was walking past Campbell when something caught her eye. “What the hell is that Campbell?”

“What?” Campbell asked, following her eyes. “Oh, this?” he said patting the knife on his thigh. “This is for if the indigenous life is hostile.”

“Wait, are you like, for real about the killer Martian stuff?”

“All I'm saying is, ya never know. I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. That, and they wouldn't let me bring a gun.”

Lewis shook her head and continued to the other side of the vehicle.

After another ten minutes, she and Campbell were sitting in the front seats and heading into the lava tube. They drove for about a half hour, at which point Gomez informed them that they were far enough in. Five minutes later they had found a good spot and had set to work.

“It's been thirty minutes since we lost radio contact.” said Gomez, “Are they just ignoring us or did something go wrong?”

“I doubt they are ignoring us. Let's give it another ten minutes. If we still haven't heard from them we will suit up.”

Thirteen minutes passed. They began to put their suits on. Lewis and Campbell had taken the only vehicle they had. The plan was for them to find a suitable location for the base, set it up, and come back to the lander to pick up Gomez and Orin. Assuming that Lewis had stayed in low gear for the whole trip like she was supposed to, that meant they had at least one and a half miles to walk.

“Command, this is Mars Team Two. We are entering the Veil.”

The Veil. That is what they decided to call the lava tube. It seemed fitting since nobody had ever even seen in there before this mission. The dense rock prevented the rovers from getting a signal in the tunnels, so they were never explored until now. As it so happens, the very rock that prevented rovers from entering the tunnels also blocks all of the harmful radiation from the sun and space. The purpose of this mission was to set up a base camp under the surface of Mars where it would be safe for humans to stay long term.

After about an hour of walking they were able to make out man made shapes at the edge of their lights.

“There they are!” Said Gomez as she picked up her pace a bit.

Orin grabbed her arm as she passed. “Hold on.” he said.

The two of them stopped. They stared ahead for about ten seconds. Gomez looked at Orin. Orin kept his gaze ahead of them.

“You wait here.” Orin told Gomez.

“No way, you know we aren't supposed to be alone outside habs.”

Orin didn't argue. He stood there for a few more seconds, then slowly started walking. They moved steadily forward, light beams scanning. When they were about 30 meters away, the truth of what they were seeing slid into place. The rover was parked at an angle with one wheel on the wall of the tunnel. And the hab. The hab had been inflated, and then something decided to deflate it with long jagged holes. They both stopped again, taking it all in. Neither spoke. They scanned the area again, slower this time, hoping to see one of their team members working on the vehicle or patching up the hab. No one was in sight.

They walked up to the vehicle, which was closer to them, and looked around it. When they saw no signs of the other crew members they went over to the hab. There they found the first sign of their teammates. A suit, laying face down in the red dirt, the electronics ripped out of the back of it. It looked as deflated as the hab.

“Did they have extra suits with?” asked Gomez.

Orin nodded, but he knew this wasn't one of the extra suits. He went to the suit and kicked it over with his boot.

“Oh dear God...” Gomez whispered as she took a step back.

The whole front had been ripped open. The only sign that a human had once been inside of it was the blood around the tears in the suit. The name patch was gone, but Orin knew it was Campbell's. He turned and went to the hab. After poking around under it for a minute he came back out.

“There is no sign of Lewis.” he said.

Orin walked back to the discarded suit and dropped to one knee. He pulled Campbell's knife out of its sheath and was standing back up when he noticed the drag marks leading deeper into the tube. Gomez followed his gaze and saw them too.

After a few seconds Orin said, “You really should wait here Gomez. We have no idea—”

“No Captain. Would you wait here while I went down there alone?” Gomez asked as she headed toward the vehicle.

She came back holding a large spotlight that she handed to Orin.

“So we can see more and save on our suits' batteries.” Gomez said.

“Alright...and you're sure that—”

“Captain.” Gomez snapped.

“Alright then.” and with that, the two followed the drag marks deeper underground.

After about five minutes of slow walking and searching Gomez pointed, “What is that?”

Orin focused the spotlight on something laying in the dirt. Two things actually. A quick flash around the tunnel proved that they were alone so they continued to the objects ahead of them.

“Is that?” Orin puzzled

“Yea,” said Gomez as she knelt down to inspect the components , “Some of the electronics out of their suits.”

Orin looked behind them, and then ahead. “We should head back Gomez. Their suits can't function without that stuff, there is no way they survived whatever happened.”

“One second, I'm going to bring these back. Look at the marks on these...”

As Gomez reached out she heard the briefest key of a mic over the radio and the light turned away from her. She flicked on her personal light and asked,

“What is it Captain?”

No Response.

“Captain?”

Gomez turned to find Orin, but the response Gomez got was not over the radio.

Mars's atmosphere is quite a bit different than Earth's. Sounds move slower and are quieter at similar Earth distances. That, coupled with the space suit, means you cannot hear much on Mars. Therefore, the blood curdling scream that pierced through Gomez's helmet and assaulted her ears was far from expected. Instinctively she reached up to cover her ears, but her gloves just slammed into her helmet. This did not help her keep her balance when something rammed into her, knocking her to the ground.

A moment later Orin was pulling Gomez to her feet. Once she was up he began to run, dragging her behind him. Once he knew she was moving, Orin let go. He quickly pulled ahead and that is when Gomez saw that part of his suit was damaged, the same part that had been ripped from the others. Gomez tried to talk to him, but quickly realized his radio must be damaged.

Orin turned to confirm she was still with him and slowed a bit to match her speed. As he reached out to coax her to go faster Gomez saw something unsettling. The knife was in his hand, and it was covered in something. She couldn't make out what it was. The questions were about to leave her lips when she remembered, he wouldn't hear them.

As soon as the vehicle was in sight, Orin shoved the knife into Gomez's glove and pushed her in front of him toward the vehicle. His hands left her back when she was a few meters from the driver's seat. Gomez climbed in and set the knife in the center console. A quick glance showed the batteries still had a charge, so she flicked the power switch into the on position. She looked to make sure Orin was in the passenger seat. He wasn't. She continued turning to check the back seats. Empty. She spun back around, and her heart dropped.

Gomez's light fell on Orin just as his limp body was being pulled out of his suit. As the only other human on the planet was removed from existence, something clicked in Gomez. The tears she felt a moment before evaporated, her mind cleared, and her hands worked the controls. Set to high gear, the vehicle lurched forward, slamming to the ground, and Gomez pointed it toward the tunnel's distant exit.

Soon there was a light ahead of her and it was growing larger. Her empty mind was just beginning to refill when Gomez was launched from the vehicle. Along with the few loose items in the vehicle, Gomez kept going forward after the rover had been stopped dead by an unseen force. If it wasn't for the sixty two percent reduction in weight, she surely would have died then and there, she knew it. As it was, it felt like she was suspended in the thin Martian air for ages. As she struck the ground, she watched the knife bury itself in the ground not a foot from her face. Her eyes had just focused on the substance coating the blade when she was grabbed by both feet and pulled backward.

Gomez groped for the knife. It slid from the ground easily, and she whipped around and stabbed. As the knife sank into its victim, Gomez's helmet began to reverberate with an unearthly scream and the pressure on her feet vanished. She quickly scrambled upright.

Gomez sprinted as fast as physics would allow. She had the urge to look back, but she knew it would only slow her down. It felt as if death was right on her heels, about to grab her and peel her out of her obviously fragile suit. Before the terrors of her mind could unfold, she burst out into sunlight. The relief brought with the sun was short lived as she heard it again. That scream. It burrowed its way into her skull as she made for the lander. Every step seemed to lengthen the distance between her and escape. After what seemed an eternity she hit the ladder and flew up it.

As soon as the air lock cleared, Gomez threw herself into the pilot's seat, buckled in, and hit the emergency egress button. A dialog box popped up on the screen.

“Confirm Action: Preform Emergency Egress”

Gomez stabbed at the confirm button with her gloved finger. Her seat reclined, she heard the engines fire, and a moment later she was pressed into the seat.

Panting, Gomez stared at the screen above her, not seeing anything it showed. As the lander shook free from the surface, something rolled off the console in front of her and landed on her lap. She looked down at it. It was a cork.

“Gomez, this is command. What on Earth is going on up there?”

This short story was written for the Elegant Literature contest #17. The final draft was completed on 23 February 2023. There is an alternate extended “Author’s Cut” version that will be available soon.