The Attempt (The Martian Manifesto Book 1) (30 page)

“They have been firing in volleys,” Sergey replied. “Perhaps we can do the same to good effect. And it might force them
to take cover.”

“Good idea, Serge,” said
Roy. “And then let’s get out of here. We can try to parlay a truce from a safer distance.”

“
Alright, everyone,” Grant radioed back. “Let’s all shoot together on the count of three. One, two, THREE!”

Roy, Sergey and Grant all stood and fired. Brad leaned out from behind his rock, grimaced at the pain in his wounded leg, and let fly
. Sam shot his pistol from her prone position next to Charles, while Charles aimed for the Chinese bulldozer. He was hoping to hit some ordinance and light it off, scaring the group that was firing at them. Six contrails from the rocket bullets zoomed towards the Chinese formation.

Two shots whizzed by the helmets of the Koreans.
Another went over their heads, and the fourth into the dirt in front of them. Charles shot hit the bulldozer and ricocheted, sending sparks flying but no explosion. Sergey’s shot flew true, and hit a Korean in the hip, sending him tumbling.

The volley was too much for one of the Koreans in the second line. He threw his weapon down, turned and fled. He saw a ridge of a crater nearby, and made for it, hoping to hide on the other side.

# # #

Sergeant Wong
settled in at the acme of a crater rim. He was surprised to see behind him an American probe half buried in the sand, tilted to one side. He briefly wondered where it had come from, but since it seemed to be inactive, he ignored it. He set up his rifle, and sighted along the sniper scope.

He saw three Americans stand from b
ehind a rock and fire together. He saw one of his men go down, and another flee.
“I had hoped that Lao Li would have been able to keep the formation solid, but no matter. I will take the enemy out myself,”
he mused. It was obvious to the NCO that the Americans had no army training, as they all continued standing to see the effect of their bullets. Sergeant Wong focused his sights on the astronaut standing in the middle, since he would be the hardest to hit. Once taking him out, the NCO would proceed to the one next to him on the right who was more exposed. He sighted in on the middle fellow’s helmet, and slowly let out his breath, preparing to fire.

The sergeant was startled by a piercing shriek over the radio. He looked up. Coming up over the rise of a crater near his men was a gigantic monster. It was holding up the Korean
who had fled by his neck with one of its gigantic tentacles. The man was screaming incoherently. The beast shook him violently and then flung him away. The Korean landed in a heap on the ground and lay still.

Silence
briefly descended upon the makeshift battlefield as all the humans turned and stared at the creature that had suddenly appeared. The monstrosity spread its four tentacles wide and started to walk towards the Asians. One of the female Koreans screamed in horror and bolted in the opposite direction. The remainder of the formation frantically turned to face the new threat, and started firing haphazardly.

“What are you doing? Wait, wait,” Li Julong shouted, but
to little avail. “We must communicate with it.” The Koreans watching the approaching horror ignored him and just kept firing.

The Master calmly approached the humans, its tentacles weaving like whirling dervishes in front of it. The bullets merely bounced off of the armor of the appendages, and not a single shot reached its mark. The lighting quick reflexes of the forebrain
that controlled the Master’s tentacles worked to perfection. The black beady eyes missed nothing; they noticed every approaching missile. The Master reveled in this use of skill in battle. It itched to grab and rend the weak humans.

The American astronauts, now standing slack-jawed, watched the creature in amazement. “Oh my God, what is that thing?” Roy gasped.

“Oh no, there’s more than one!” Bonnie shouted. “My husband got killed in that crater, and the rover video captured the image of some creature, but it wasn’t the same. That thing is trying to kill us all.”

The NASA astronauts, needing no further encouragement, fired their rocket pistols at the Master. Some of the Koreans simultaneously threw hand grenades at the approaching horror. With disdain, the Master flicked everything harmlessly away as it closed upon the Asian
formation.

Sergeant Wong turned his rifle to aim at the creature approaching his men. The tentacles were frantically waving around the head of the being, blocking all the attempts to destroy it. He could not get a clear shot at the thing. The NCO realized that he could aim for the body, hoping to hit a vital organ, but that it would probably do nothing to such a large organism. He wanted a head shot. His
sniper’s mantra was, ‘one shot, one kill.’ Somehow, he needed a pause in the action, but the thing was almost upon his men and they would certainly not stop firing while standing their ground in front of the monster.

The military man had almost given up hope and was preparing to try a body shot, when a space
-suited figure appeared from nowhere and skidded to a stop in front of the creature.

# # #

All firing stopped as the suited figure confronted the abomination.

“Oh Great Consciousness,” Brother Jacobs intoned,
holding his hands wide while standing directly in front of the alien. “I am here to join you. These heathens would destroy you, but you are wiser than all of these pitiful beings. Together, you and I will rise up into the brotherhood of the cosmos. We are one and the same, almighty Great Consciousness.”

The Master stared with its four eyes at the creature in front of it. The
human was saying something, but the Master had no radio with which to detect its utterances. The faceplate was cracked in front of the Earthling’s mouth, making it difficult to read its lips. However, the glass in front of the face was vibrating slightly. The Master focused on the vibrations, intently staring, trying to decipher the words. It slowly let its tentacles droop.

Sergeant Wong saw that this was his chance. He
sighted his scope on the creature’s skull, right where the brain would be located. He pressed the controls on the stock of his rifle to select for Mars gravity and 200 meters. He hoped that he had estimated the distance correctly. The NCO took a breath and then slowly let it out, centering on the target. As his exhale stopped on its own, he waited a second to still all movement, and then squeezed the trigger.

“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 a
cross 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 realiz
ed 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 it
s 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.

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 Mas
ter. 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 the 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.