'Sacmis' (formerly 'Alien Abduction')

Chapter 49: Too late

Amisha watched from the co-pilot’s seat as Cymon skimmed the shuttle low over the Martian surface. It was a roller-coaster ride which, under other circumstances, she would have found thrilling, as Cymon alternately lifted the shuttle to clear mountain peaks and jagged rocky outcrops, then in the next moment dived low over the red sand to hug the ground.

“How long till we reach them?” she asked, turning to Cymon and speaking into her helmet mike, since they were both wearing spacesuits.

“About 30 minutes,” said Cymon, checking the shuttle’s instrument panel where a moving map showed their progress over the surface of the planet.

“What’s the plan?” Amisha asked.

“It depends what we find. If the shuttle is there, we’ll try to communicate with Matias and Kate, assuming they’re inside. But if there’s nobody inside - ” he hesitated for a moment “ - then we look for bodies near where we last had contact with them.”

“And what if the shuttle is gone?”

“Then we have to assume they’ve either taken off - or been captured. Either way, we can’t afford to search for long - or we risk capture ourselves.”

“And if they have been captured, what can we do?”

“Truthfully?” said Matias.

“Truthfully.”

“I’m not sure there is much we can do. That is, without risking capture for the rest of us. The other ship is fully manned and, even though our ship has guns and missiles, we wouldn’t stand a chance with our crew of just three to fight it.”

“Six,” said Amisha firmly, “we have six if you include us three women.”

“I know,” said Cymon, smiling at her, “but we could never train you in time.”

Knowing he was right, Amisha fell silent, continuing to watch their progress through the front screen and on the moving map.“We’re just three minutes from their landing zone,” he said. “We need to watch carefully.”

A pulsing red light on the moving map showed the last location of the grounded shuttle as the green light that represented their own craft rapidly converged. Cymon lifted the shuttle over a final mountain range and they dropped down into the plain beyond.

“This is the location,” he said, slowing their shuttle’s progress. Through the windshield they could see the view ahead, while a monitor on the instrument panel showed them what was directly below.

Both sat forward in their seats, scanning the landscape for the shuttle. Clearly identifiable by its shape was the rock outcrop where Kate and Matias had sought shelter, but where the other shuttle should have been, there was nothing.

“There!” said Amisha, as she spotted clear depressions in the red sand that must have been made by the other shuttle’s landing gear. At one end sand was still heaped up where it had been deposited by the sandstorm.

Cymon brought the shuttle to a hover over the spot, then gave a groan of despair.

Looking down, at first she could not see what had caused his reaction. Then she saw why: alongside the set of landing marks she had seen - was a second set. Cymon magnified the view and they could clearly see multiple sets of bootprints in the red sand joining the two.

“Another shuttle must have landed alongside them,” said Matias, bitterly. “I’m afraid we’re too late. We have to assume they have been captured.”

“So what do we do now?” said Amisha.

“We get away as quickly as we can and hope we haven’t been detected.”

He spun the shuttle on its axis and sent them speeding back the way they’d come. Amisha remained silent as Matias concentrated on flying the shuttle, then said:

“Assuming they have been captured, we can’t just abandon them. We have to rescue them.”

“I don’t see how we could do that,” said Cymon hopelessly. “There are just five of us - and only three that can manage our ship. Their ship is fully manned, fully defended. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Amisha watched the Martian landscape speeding past below them and realised how hopelessly the odds were stacked against them. But they had to do something - anything. They could not leave either Kate - or Matias for that matter - to their fate. Whatever the risks, they must try.

Leave nobody behind was what they said in the Army. You don’t just abandon your mates.

As Cymon pulled the shuttle into a vertical climb to rejoin the ship, the beginnings of a plan began to take shape inside her mind. She turned to Cymon.

“In your study of Earth,” she said, “Did you ever read the Iliad?”

“No,” he replied, never taking his eyes off the view outside. “What’s it about?”

“You’ll like it -  it’s about abduction,” she said tartly, “It’s a story from Greek mythology, though it probably has a historical basis. There were two races - the Greeks and the Trojans. The Greek King had a fabulously beautiful wife, called Helen. The Trojans, or more specifically one of them - a Trojan Prince called Paris - abducted Helen and took her back to the City of Troy. The Greeks, of course, sent a huge army to rescue her but they were unable to breach the city walls. Then a Greek hero, called Odysseus, had an idea - ”

“Which was?” asked Cymon, fascinated.

“To build a large wooden horse.”

“A wooden horse?” said Cymon incredulously, but was forced to turn away as a chime from the instrument panel took his attention.

“We’re not far from the ship,” he said, “it should be in visual range any moment. You can tell me the rest of the story once we’ve docked.”

© Adriana Nicolas 2014