RED PLANET STOWAWAY CH.9 THE PROOF

RED PLANET STOWAWAY CH.9 - THE PROOF

By J.A. Souders

You decide that since the janitor/king was the one to order the assassination you’d better follow. Maybe you can talk some sense into the guy.

He leads you into his “office,” which you realize is nothing more than a tiny little broom closet. You stifle a laugh. Of course it’s a broom closet. After all, he’s just a lowly janitor now.

The door shuts behind you and the Martian turns. You can tell by the tiny smile on his strange face that he finds you amusing. However, before you can ask what’s so funny, he pulls on a broom handle on the opposite wall. Another door opens revealing a bright white light, like the kind they’re always talking about in old science fiction movies.

He continues walking, leaving you no choice but to follow. He leads you into another, much larger room resembling what you always assumed the office of a CEO would look like.

He goes to sit behind the glass desk and gestures for you to take the seat in front of him. You do so and patiently wait for his so-called “proof.”

He only continues to stare at you until you say, “Well, spill it already. Where’s this proof?”

He spreads his hands out in front of him. “All around you.”

You look all around you, but see nothing that proves anything. You arch a brow at the Martian. “What the hell are you talking about?”

The Martian chuckles. “Such a silly Earthling. Do you really see nothing?” You only continue to stare at him. He sighs. “Very well. Here.” He tosses you what looks like a crystal cube. It’s about the size of a Rubik’s cube you had as a child.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a data crystal. All of our technologies are on this cube. If you help me, I’ll give you every secret of our people. What you see in this room is only the beginning of the secrets we’ve hidden from you.”

“It looks normal to me.”

“This room is not part of the space port. It is actually in what was once my palace. The light we passed through was our transportation device.”

“Prove it.”

He gestures toward one wall, which shimmers and then turns clear as glass to reveal the lush landscape that could only be the southern hemisphere of the Martian territory -- and on the complete opposite side of the planet than where you thought you were.

“H-how do I know that’s not a trick?” you ask.

“Step outside.” He gestures again, and a door appears in the glass wall. A breathing device appears in your lap. “I’d give you a pill that will help you breathe in our atmosphere, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t take it.”

You shake your head, then slip on the equipment and step outside. You’ve never been to this part of the planet, but you know instantly that this is the real thing. You return to the room and the door shuts behind you. The wall becomes the silk wallpaper, as before.

“Okay. I believe you. You mentioned you’d give it to me if I’d help you. Help you with what? The murder of the president?”

“In essence, yes.”

“No. No way.” You stand up. “There are no secrets you have that could make me help you.”

“What about peace between your world and ours --would you help me then?”

“I don’t understand,” you say. “By killing the president you won’t have peace. It will only start a war.”

“It will if they think I had anything to do with it, but if they find out that the assassination was carried out by their own general, and that you, with my help, tried to prevent it? Now that, that is cause for peace. Don’t you think?”

“Okay, so now I’m really confused. You’re trying to kill the president, yet you want to help me prevent it?”

“Well, yes. Because once the president is dead, the truth comes out, and you’ll be a hero. My people will push for you to be the next president. Your people will join in the nomination, and you will hesitantly and humbly accept. Then you’ll push for our world to return to the way it was before your people came and turned it to -- this. Your payment will be all our secrets. All you have to do is agree to follow my orders and lead my people and yours the way I would.”

“So you’re saying that you want to make me president, and that will bring peace to our worlds?”

“Yes. Your people would never accept a Martian ruler, but they will accept you. And they will love you because you will be a hero. My people will accept you because you will treat them as I did -- with respect, for them and their heritage. What do you say?”

“What happens if I don’t choose to help you?” you ask.

“I’ll return you to the space port and you can continue whatever it was that you were going to do.”

Do you...

A. Accept his offer to bring peace to both your worlds?

B. Make him return you to the spaceport to look for the ball players again?

C. Kill him by hitting him with a data cube and run? (You have all his secrets anyway.)

RED PLANET STOWAWAY CH.6 THE SHUTTLE TO NANDITZ

RED PLANET STOWAWAY CH. 6 - JUMP ON THE SHUTTLE TO NANDITZ

By JA Souders

Malloy, Saleen, and Peter Tan step from the pod and you panic. You know it’s only a matter of time before they find that blob of a shape-shifter and they come looking for you.

And once they find out you know they plan on killing the president, that’s exactly where they’ll expect you to go. Not. An. Option.

So that leaves following them and trying to play hero. Or jumping on the shuttle to Nanditz and hoping someone there can help you. You decide you’ve never been much of a hero anyway, and take the shuttle.

The only problem with that plan is that the trio hasn’t moved from the pods, and the shuttles are in their final boarding calls. You don’t have a choice. You have to risk it. You rip off the security shirt and try to sneak as quietly as possible behind them to the shuttle pod.

Unfortunately, just at that moment, a little girl with bright yellow pigtails runs into you. You apologize with the intent to keep moving, but she squeals, a high-pitched yell that pierces your eardrums.

“Mommy, mommy look! It’s Smelvis! Can I have your autograph, Smelvis?” She shoves a notebook and pen into your hand.

You groan and wonder how this girl has mistaken you for Smelvis. You look nothing like the alien performer; for one thing, you’re not purple.

You quickly dash off a signature, hope that the trio didn’t notice the girl’s outburst, and push past her to the shuttle.

Just as you’re about to step onto the shuttle, a hand grabs your arm and twirls you around. You're facing Malloy.

He sneers at you. “What’s your hurry, Smelvis? Your fans want your autograph.”

He tugs on your arm and the shuttle doors close.

All you can think as he pulls you through the crowd is that you’re in for it now. But to your surprise, he only shoves you into another shuttle. Saleen is doing something at the controls.

Malloy and Peter Tan tie you up like a hog at a greased pig contest and then secure you to the seat, so there’s no way you can escape. Not that you’re not trying. The ropes bite into your skin as you struggle, but it’s a no go.

Someone had obviously paid attention during rope tying at the academy. Something you wish you had done instead of drinking your way through.

The trio smiles and Saleen wiggles her fingers as they leave the pod. Your stomach sinks.

There is no good reason they’re leaving.

You feel the minor vibrations of the shuttle leaving its dock and wonder where the hell it’s taking you.

You don’t wait long for your answer.

“We have reached…safe distance from planet…Orbiting mode initiated. Self-destruct sequence activated...Have a nice day! And thank you for using Red Planet Transport…

…5…4…3…2…1 . . ."

THE END

Oops...RETURN TO CHAPTER 6

RED PLANET STOWAWAY - CH.1 HIDE UNDER MALLOY UNDERPANTS

RED PLANET STOWAWAY CH.1 - HIDE UNDER MALLOY'S UNDERPANTS

By JA Souders


You quickly bury yourself under the pile of gray-colored, nasty, smelly underpants and hold your breath. The sticky fabric crunches under your fingertips when you pull it over your head.

Each of the captain’s footfalls is in time to your heartbeat.

Please don’t come here. Please don’t come here, you beg, although you know it’s hopeless. Where else would he go to retrieve clothes?

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Your eyes water from the fumes drifting off the raunchy clothes, but you try not to move. If Malloy catches you now, it’s all over. Better to let the salty tears run down your cheeks than taste the rusty blood when he knocks every single one of your teeth out of your head for seeing him naked.

Malloy continues to grumble under his breath about “fucked up alliances” and “gray-skinned bastards whose only interest in camaraderie is eating our still beating hearts once they rip them from our chests.”

You wonder, vaguely, what the hell he’s talking about just as he wrenches open the door to the storage locker. Surprised by the abruptness of the move, you accidently gasp. The pile of clothes you are lying in tumbles out and across the captain’s bare feet.

Fortunately, the sticky substance on the grody briefs seems to have stuck the cloth to you and you remain concealed. You cover your mouth with your hands and pray he didn’t hear your slip.

Malloy’s mutterings fall silent. One. Two. Three heartbeats.

A tickle in your throat is causing you to swallow fast in an effort to control the cough brought on by inhaling the noxious gases pouring from his clothes.

What is this man doing with his clothes? Why do they reek so badly? Then you remember the sticky stuff and think it’s better if you don’t know.

Finally, Malloy mumbles about having the laundry bot maintenanced. He steps forward and his bare, gnarled foot, stinking so badly of moldy cheese that it overwhelms even the stench of clothes, collides with your stomach.

You try to control the wince, but it’s no good and the air whistles out of you as he kicks your stomach again, knocking the wind from you.

“Bloody gray-skinned bastards!” he yells and then slaps something along the side wall.

A siren blares. The call for General Quarters. You don’t have to look to know the red lights are flashing and crews all over the ship are scattering like ants to get to their battle stations. Not to mention that security is even now on their way to save the captain from the “enemy.” You.

Captain Malloy reaches up and pulls a white polycarbonate helmet—the kind they use for space walks--down from the top shelf of the locker as you struggle to sit up and explain. But even as you open your mouth, Malloy is swinging the hard plastic bubble at your head.

Stars explode in front of your eyes and you collapse into the toxic pile of clothes again. He continues to beat you until your vision hazes and you feel the floating sensation that is your consciousness as it leaves you.

Just as you black out, you see Malloy grinning down at you. “Thought you could get the best of me, didn’t ya? Going to report back to your Hive leaders what you heard here today? Going to let them know you saw me in all my glory?!”

You black out when he kicks you in the stomach again.

What feels like only seconds later, light floods over your body. You moan and wavering shadows swim into view. You can’t make out what these beings look like, but you can tell one is shorter than the other.

“It’s still alive. The captain said he’d killed it,” shadow one—the shorter of the two--says.

“Guess not. C’mon. We’ll have to finish the job,” the tall shadow says with a lisp. He sounds like a snake and you wonder if you were handed off to those “gray skinned bastards” the captain talked about. More clothes get peeled off your body and you moan as the light stabs into your eyes and a headache pounds behind them.

“Wait! That’s not an alien, that’s…” the tall shadow exclaims.

“Oh, shit! You’re right! What was the Cap’n thinking?”

“Does it matter? He thinks there was an alien here. It isn’t our job to prove him wrong. We need to get this…thing to the space lock like he said.”

“But it’s human?”

“Not according to the captain.”

You finally realize what’s happening and struggle to sit up, as the two shadows argue back and forth. When they see you sitting up right, they glance at each other. The smaller of the shadows takes your feet, while the other takes your head. They carry you down the hallway to a room with another smaller room at the end of it. The small room has a large circular door on one end with a window in it.

You see the red haze that signals that the red planet is circling below you.

You struggle harder, but it’s no use. They’re too strong. And they toss you into the tiny room. Then they leave, and the door locks behind them, echoing with finality.

You jump up as the warning lights and buzzers sound. They’re planning on tossing you into space without a suit!

You bang on the door, but the man standing at the window only smiles, waves, and points to the doors behind you as they slide open and pull you into airless vacuum of space.

Your last thought is how you can still smell the captain’s underpants.

THE END

Oops...RETURN TO CHAPTER 1