The Ruins of Mars (The Ruins of Mars Trilogy Book 1) (17 page)

     
Letting go of Harrison’s hand, she wiped at her eyes and sniffed.

      “
I’m sorry. I should go. I don’t even know what I’m doing here.”

     
As Liu made to move past him towards the hatch, Harrison took her by the arm and drew her in. She started to protest meekly, but he kissed her on the mouth. With a sudden passionate move, she broke his grasp, then threw both arms around his neck. Snaking his hands through her silky black hair, he let go of his inhibitions as the kiss grew more intense. Her lips were wet and warm, and together they floated a little ways off the floor—locked in an embrace that said more of how they felt for each other than either could hope to articulate in words. Quickly stripping out of their jumpsuits, the two broke apart, then rushed together again with unbridled longing. Wrapping her legs around him, Liu squeezed Harrison’s body to hers, and he braced his back against the bulkhead.

     
Outside the hull of Braun, there was death. The freezing vacuum sterilized the space between stars and planets, but within the belly of the great whale, two souls found life and warmth in the naked embrace of love. Their sex was a protest to the lethality of their situation and to all of the feelings they had denied themselves over the last two-and-a-half years. Now that the dam had finally broken, desire built up to near-frenzied levels drove the hungry lovers as they explored one another. The quiet moans of their lovemaking echoed in the confines of the small room, and the heat from their bodies warmed the cold metal of the walls. Hungrily, they bound themselves to each other like the elements had done eons ago when the stars had fused and the heavens were born. With a shudder and a gasp, they fell silent, yet refused to part. Neither spoke as gradually their breathing slowed, and the perspiration on their naked bodies dried. When finally they did split away from each other, they donned their jumpsuits in timid silence. Liu turned for the hatch to leave, but Harrison called for her.

      “
Wait,” he said, hand outstretched. “Stay.”

     
Facing him, a mixed smile of relief, shame and gratitude swept across Liu’s face, and she took his hand. He pulled her body to his, and she slid her arms around his waist, resting a head on his chest.

      “
Stay,” he repeated softly.

Orbital arrival—April
2048

     
Joseph Aguilar awoke with an instant alertness bred into him by his years in the US Air Force. Within seconds of opening his eyes, he was keenly aware of a nearly imperceptible feeling of weight. Perplexed, he let his arms float up and noted that they were still as light as dandelion tufts. Bringing a hand down, he fished two black pills from a velcroed breast pocket on his jumpsuit and reluctantly popped them into his mouth. Grimacing he waited for the now-unavoidable nausea that was bound to follow, thinking, I hate these fucking cancer inhibitors.

     
Sitting up and pushing out of bed, he floated a little ways, then grabbed the handrail that ran the length of his ceiling.

     
Still pretty much zero G, he said to himself, and yet I do feel
something
.

     
Moving quickly across the room, he opened the hatch and slid out into the hallway. Everything looked the same as it always did. The round hatches of the crew quarters still dotted the sides of the tunneled corridor, and the walls were still colored with their fading shades of blue, creating the sensation that you were swimming in a placid sea. Yet something was definitely different, and Aguilar furrowed his brow while his mind raced to put a finger on it. He closed and locked his hatch, then shoved off hard towards the bridge deck. With the precision of a true pilot, he shot from his room, down almost seven meters of hallway and through the open bridge hatch with ease. The moment he entered the great room, he understood what his bones were trying to tell him. The deck glowed with faint brown and red washes of light, and at the far end of the room he could see the dusty surface of Mars turning outside the oval window.

     
We’re in orbit! he thought excitedly. That’s what I’m feeling, the gravitational force of orbit! Jesus, after four months of empty space I can actually feel the force of orbit!

     
Propelling himself off the back of a workstation by the door, he skimmed across the room like a dragonfly—arms outstretched. Nearing the window, he did a flip and put his feet out to stop himself as he arrived. Grasping the window’s handrail, he brought his nose up to the large portal and peered down at the alien world. The vivid detail and the intimidating size of the red planet contrasted with the months of empty blackness, shaking Aguilar down to his core. After their long travel through space, he had grown accustomed to the mostly bleak view from the main window.

      Now, as he gaped down, the hard lines and deep shadows of the ochre-colored desert almost overwhelmed him. The Hellas Impact Basin slid into view like the cycloptic eye of Mars, fixing him with a cavernous glare nearly 2,200 kilometers in diameter. The crater yawned up at Aguilar as Braun drifted like boat on the rim of a whirlpool. Something metallic drew his attention away from the planet, and he saw the Arc orbiting many kilometers away. Small in the distance, he had to squint to make out the faint flashes of rocket boosters firing from the rear of the cylindrical cargo vessel, altering its orbit and lining it up with the ship.

     
Braun’s bringing her in, he smiled to himself. I’m finally going to get to fly! Hallelujah, I’m finally going to fly again!

      “
Good morning, Joey,” came a silky deep voice from behind him.

     
Suppressing the urge to jump, he turned and was met with the sadly smiling brown-skinned face of Elizabeth Kubba.

      “
Hey, Liz,” he said with a grin. “Check it out: Mars!”

     
Kubba drew her tall gazelle-like frame up to the window, breathing in sharply at the sight below.

      “
Oh, wow.”

     
The two stood in reverent silence for a moment, then Kubba spoke softly.

      “
This means they’re leaving us, Joey.”

      “
What?” he asked, slightly confused.

      “
The ground crew. Now that we’re here, they’re going to leave us.”

     
Kubba was one of the crew not slated to go to the surface until the permanent base was finished. Unless there was a real emergency, she would carry out her duties from orbit, using trimensional projection and electronic scanning to assist the ground team with any minor medical issues that might arise. Out of necessity, the entire crew had been fully trained in first aid and basic trauma care, but Elizabeth Kubba was the only actual physician, and thus, she was too valuable to risk on the unpredictable surface of the planet without the safety of the permanent base close at hand.

      “
It’s easy for the rest,” she continued morosely. “Liu and Harrison get to go together, and you have the captain here with you.”

      “
Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” barked Aguilar, his cheeks reddening.

     
Chuckling, Kubba turned from the window to face him.

      “
Oh, come on, Joey,” she said quietly, a smile snaking its way across her broad face. “Everyone already knows about you two.”

     
Not taking his eyes off the rough surface of the planet below, Aguilar replied, “Tisk tisk, you giant Amazon. You shouldn’t spread rumors.”

     
Kubba threw her head back and laughed loudly, her tight braids whipping about as she clutched her sides.

      “
Okay. Whatever you say, Joey! Whatever you say.”

      “
Hey, you two!” called Ralph Marshall as he drifted across the open bridge. “Tell me we’re there! Tell me I can finally get behind the stick!”

     
Kubba turned back to the window with a sour look on her face. Grinning broadly, Aguilar high-fived Marshall, then pulled him up to the handrail.

      “
We’re there, man. Did you feel it too? The second I woke up, I knew something was different.”

      “
For real, Brother!” agreed Marshall, nodding vigorously. “I’m so Goddamn happy to be here! I can’t wait to get off this boat and plant my feet on the ground!”

      “
Aren’t you lucky,” mumbled Kubba absently, refusing to look away from the view.

     
Giving Aguilar a questioning look, Marshall tipped his head in the direction of the tall black doctor and shrugged. Aguilar rolled his eyes and made a half-smile.

      “
Don’t feel bad, Lizzy,” joked Marshall. “I’ll write you every day until you get there.”

      “
No thanks,” grumbled Kubba. “And don’t call me Lizzy.”

     
Again, Marshall looked confused and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. Kubba gave him an icy sidelong glance, which he missed as he turned his focus on the scene outside the window.

     
Sensing the uncomfortable tension, Aguilar pointed to a glint of white in the starry sky.

      “
Look, Marshall. The Arc.”

     
Spotting the phallic cargo ship, Marshall cooed lasciviously.

      “
Oh, yeah. Bring it in, baby.”

     
Looking sharply away from the window, Kubba fixed Marshall with a stern glare.

      “
You sound fucking perverted, you know.”

      “
Whatever, babe,” shot Marshall with a smile. “I’ve been waiting four frigging months for this day. I’m like a sailor in a strip club.”

     
Shaking her head with exasperation, Kubba pushed off and headed for the exit.

      “
See you later, Joey,” she called over her shoulder.

      “
What, no goodbye for me?” whined Marshall with mock dejection.

     
Kubba ducked through the exit hatch without looking back, and soon Marshall turned to Aguilar.

      “
When did I piss in her Cheerios?” he asked flatly. “For two weeks she’s been like that towards me.”

     
Fighting to keep from laughing in the older man's face, Aguilar bobbed his head and said in a low voice, “You’re always hitting on her girl, man.”

      “
What?”

      “
She’s a lesbian, cabron! Her and Viviana.”

     
Marshall looked as though he had been struck by lightning, then the corners of his mouth twisted up into a huge devilish grin.

      “
What are you smiling at?” questioned Aguilar in a cautious tone.

      “
A lesbian,” laughed Marshall dumbly. “Thank God. I thought I was just getting old or something.”

     
As the morning progressed, the red glow emanating from the bridge drew the attention of others, and, by 9:00 AM, the large deck bustled with excited bodies. Everyone crowded around the window to gaze down upon the first solid object they had seen in four months. Hovering behind them, Tatyana Vodevski smiled inwardly at the obvious uptick in crew morale. Save for the drooping face of Dr. Kubba, people seemed noticeably happier. The cold fear, which had quietly gripped them for four months, diminished in the red light of Mars. Even YiJay Lee, who usually moped about the ship like a sad ghost, looked elated to Tatyana as she stood with Udo Clunkat, giggling at his bad jokes.

     
This is good, she told herself. This is what we needed.

     
The Arc had become larger in the window as it moved on an intercept trajectory with Braun.

     
In a couple of hours, thought Tatyana, it will be time for Aguilar and Marshall to suit up.

     
Biting back a nervous chill, she silently went over the mission in her mind.

     
It’s an easy mission, she assured herself. Joey can do it, no problem. They’ll take the sections of the Arc and drop them off on the surface, then he’ll come home for dinner.

     
Watching young Aguilar as he talked and laughed with the others, Tatyana chewed on her lip and fantasized.

     
Dinner and maybe more?

     
Her daydreams were interrupted by another voice in her head.

     
Now begins the hard part, it said sternly. If there was no time for love before, then there certainly isn’t now. You’ve got a mission to run here. These people depend on you for leadership.

     
Aguilar looked up and noticed that Tatyana was staring absently at him. Flashing her a stunning grin, he waved above the heads of the others between them. Feeling her stomach ache with longing, Tatyana smiled back and tipped her head.