ICE

ICE Chapter Four: Hell on Mars

ICE


Chapter Four
Hell on Mars

The swirling dust and debris swept past, roaring through the Byar Rift. Daniels stood waiting, looking into the maelstrom which raged with a fury unchecked. Martin gathered his thoughts as he leaned upon the doors terminal, hoping beyond hope that the screaming he heard through the comms was nothing more than a trick of the wind. The team gathered together and rested, the crossing had taken its toll upon their minds and bodies. And Dr Cole wondered why he had come, other than fulfilling an old friends request. From the broiling fume a dark shadow loomed forth, as it approached Daniels it stayed its course.

"Bryce?" Daniels questioned.

"He fell, I could not save him." James said and looked back into the storm. "We must push on, the Lazarus Complex is not far." and he stepped past Daniels and climbed the steps to the airlock ahead.

"James?" Daniels questioned once more. "Are you compromised?"

"No, sir... Not compromised, all diagnostics read normal. We should get indoors, life supports are low, recharging is needed. There is no frozen zones within the Clifton Labs, after you, sir!" he replied as the airlock gasped and opened.

"Everyone inside, recharge your tanks." Daniels ordered as they entered the dock. The door closed locking out the storm. With a swipe of the panel, the inner door opened. Martin and Houser swept the way, nothing but silence filled the space. They removed their helmets and set their suits to restock air supply. "Get some rest, we push on in twenty."

They found themselves within a holding room, to their left was a locker room. Some of the lockers were open, and Environment Suits hung upon rails. It was no less normal than it would have been while in use. Except for the quietness, broken only by the sound of running water. While they rested and took thought in their next move, Dr Cole seemed unsettled, and walked in circles to ease his thoughts. Morgan watched for a while before he approached him. "You alright, Dr Cole?" he asked. "Want to talk about it?"

"Ah, it's nothing. I'm just wondering..."

"Why you're here?"

"Yes, and no... Do you have second thoughts when you head out on detail? Or am I just getting things, out of focus?"

"Only when it's off world."

"Anchorage 4?" Dr Cole asked.

Morgan turned to a siding and sat upon a storage box, and Dr Cole did likewise. "Yeah... Yeah, I was there. Along with Daniels, Kitch and Houser."

"Dr Samuel." he said quietly.

"Bloody mess he made up there, and we mopped it up." Morgan said and rubbed his brow "Bastard thought it would not effect Earth. But when you destroy almost a third of the Moon, it has an effect on the tides. He's the reason we have whole countries devoid of life."

"England... Your home country?"

"Yeah, my home." He said as he held his hand against the Union Jack upon his shoulder. "And most of Europe too."

"I've read the ONI reports on his work there, but I was not allowed access to the military files, nor your decision on quarantine."

"Quarantine... Nuking the dark side of the Moon was not quarantine, Dr Cole. It was a shitstorm choice. Now we have to live with the consequences of that action. Let me ask you something... Do you know what this facility is?"

"I'm unsure, Morgan. Do you?"

"Nope! But I'm guessing that is why your here. Just in case it's something nasty, then you can make the hard choice." he smiled. "Don't think Daniels could do that twice in his career. Once is enough for any man."

They sat and spoke no more, the structure groaned and and water dripped in the dark places. Every now and then a hissing of valves broke the sound of unseen motion. The Clifton Labs lay no more than a corridor away, yet Dr Cole wished not to see it. His thoughts were dark, and his fears of what lay within disturbed him.

"Looks like were moving, get yourself together, Dr Cole."

"Please, call me Geoff." he replied kindly.

"Alex, nice to be acquainted." he said and shook his hand.

Daniels gathered them together, and James addressed them. "We shall be passing through the Clifton Labs, and I would advise not to touch anything. We should stay our course and head to the Lazarus Complex, fourth floor exit to the north. Once there... Central Operations Offices, and Dr Samuel." He looked at Daniels and offered his lead.

They followed Daniels to the lab entrance and the lights flickered, guns on point, they entered the first section. Section Nine: Foods and Growth. The lights steadied, and the white walls shimmered with condensation. Clean lines and unbroken seams, the wall panels edged with a silver aluminium. One of which was unhinged, and sparks sporadically escaped the dark opening, dying upon the wet flooring. The laboratory, sectioned into isolated rooms, were filled with plants of varying kinds. Room upon room of automated hydroponics, each holding within a tropical climate. "How did we not see the temperature readings, James?"

"I do not know, sir... Maybe the power supply is on an isolated system, like Dr Samuel's office."

"Possibly... Stay alert!"

Section after section passed them by, they reached the stairs to the upper floors and paused. Morgan and Houser went first, securing the upper landing. They followed once the all clear was given. As they walked through the upper labs, Dr Cole wiped the moisture from a window and froze. "Daniels!" he shouted. "I think you need to see this!"
Returning to Dr Cole, Daniels looked through the glass before him straight into the eyes of a person. Locked within an Environment Simulation Room, the clear eyes of a young woman stared back. "James, open this door!" he demanded as he shouldered his rifle.

"I would not advise it, sir." James replied.

"Open it!"

"As you wish, but I still do not advise it."

The door slowly opened, and the security panel lit up. Red lights filled the room, flashing as the door shut once more, and locked. "Open it!" Daniels cried out as he thumped his fist against it.

"I cannot, it is being over-ridden by a security protocol with changing algorithms. It's in constant re-coding. This is not a GSC program. It is shut."

"Dr Samuel?" Morgan asked.

"Maybe. Betty has a trace running, but even she cannot open it. This is too far advanced for both Betty and myself to configure."

"Give me her status, if you can, James." Daniels asked as he gazed into the woman's eyes. Within the flashing of the security lights, his thoughts fixed upon Samantha once more.

"She is deceased, though she seems not to be in a state of decomposition. The holding lab is at a temperate twenty one degrees, and stable. She should not be... this well preserved."

"We got another one!" Kitch said as he wiped the moisture from another window. "Male, mid aged."

They went to the next secured lab and peered in. There before them in another lab, another preserved body. "What the hell is going on here, Daniels?" Dr Cole asked as he tore his eyes away.

"Hell on Mars... Just as you thought, Kitch." Morgan said as he looked at him. Kitch stood silent, and lowered his gun.

"Got something to tell me, Kitch?" Daniels asked.

"Just my paranoia... I carved it into a bench back at the presidium, and Morgan read it. That's all, sir."

"Were leaving." he said as turned for the exit. "James, which way?"

"The exit is locked, but there is a supply lift, left of this section. We may use it to reach level four."

"Not using it, get that door open."

"I can't... The laboratory is locked down."

"Find me a security camera!" he shouted. "Dr Samuel will be watching!"

"Got one right here." pointed Martin as he walked towards the exit. "If he's watching, he might be able to open it for us."

Daniels took a small note pad from his pocket, standing under the camera he started to franticly write. Looking up he glared into the lens, and held aloft his message. "I know you can see this, open the fucking door!" he growled as he tensed his whole body in anger.

"Open the fucking door!" he shouted as the lock clunked and the release opened. "Thank you, Doctor." he hissed between his teeth.

Filing through and leaving the labs behind, they took point upon the stairs. Each floor distanced them from the dead, each floor the same. Secured rooms, a horror within each, and something that they did not understand. Through into the next atrium they shut the door behind, leaving the dead, leaving that loathsome laboratory behind. They filed across the atrium to the stairs and decent into the lower thoroughfare, tables and chairs gathered before restaurants and cafes. Again, no signs of a panic, just abandonment and water dripping from above. That which was once frozen, had thawed and a stale stench poisoned the air.

"Lazarus Complex!" pointed Cortez as they turned past the seating area of the cafe.

"The door is open... Dr Samuel?" asked Morgan.

"Maybe, but I'm not sure. Keep your eyes keen, after the laboratory, anything could be alive in here." Daniels replied. "Take point!"

Morgan and Cortez rushed the doorway and covered it, nothing moved beyond. Quiet and calm, unnerving, yet welcoming and clean the air smelt. Passing a table, Houser watched as a mug of coffee moved. He paused and waited, seismic activity, he thought, waiting to feel the movement in the structure. No movement he felt and turned towards the door. As he did, the contents of the mug lurched towards him. Passing the rim of the mug, slumping upon the table.

On Daniels command, they entered and followed the corridors towards the Central Operations Offices. Each turn welcomed a distance from the labs, and another step closer to answers, and Dr Samuel. A warming air met them, and the groaning of the structure continued to unnerve them. Lights dimmed and flickered, wiring hung in loops, and the ceiling tiles bowed under the weight of water, which now dripped and streamed from the edging.

"Dr Samuel's office is the fourth corridor on the right, eighth office on the left." James informed them, but Daniels just focused on getting there swiftly. All thoughts of danger left his mind, replaced by thoughts of Samantha.

As they approached the office of Dr Samuel, the locking mechanism clicked and the seal hissed. The door opened, and a bright light shone out. As they entered there before them sat Dr Samuel at a shimmering desk. Daniels raised his gun, and Martin grabbed it and fought to lower it. "Don't do this! We need answers!" Martin cried out. "Sir, please... Answers first, arrest second. Let ONI deal with this piece of shit."

"Yes... Your comrade is right, Commander Daniels. It's answers that brought you... to Mars. And I am the only one who has them for you." Dr Samuel said silhouetted against the light that streamed in through the windows. "Please... Come in and as I have already said... I will give you, everything you need."

Daniels lowered his gun and approached the desk. Before him sat a frail figure wearing a large coat, hooded and leaning to one side. Upon the desk a display was lit, it showed the map of the installation, and an area highlighted in red. To his left a sealed cylinder, one third filled with a clear liquid. His office was also adorned with the same wall panels as the Clifton Labs, white and silver. Slender cupboards aligned each side, and one was opened slightly. Inside a filing cabinet system, A-G Personal Documents could be seen through the gap. Upon the floor, to the right of Dr Samuel, stood a sturdy casket. Property of Nilsen Heavy Industries labelled it in red.

"Okay, Samuel. I'm here, I'm listening. Speak!"

Samuel sat still and silent for a moment, reaching to the console before him he pressed a highlighted button upon the screen. The door closed and sealed with a hiss. Guns raised they surrounded him as he sat. Still, and unmoved. "Please... Put your guns away. You are quite safe here."

"I'll be the judge of that." Morgan said as he lowered his rifle.

"James, get me an uplink to the Dorchester, Admiral Stevens." Daniels said and secured his rifle. "Give him an update, all we have seen, the labs, everything."

"I shall keep the channel open."

"Now, less of the niceties, it doesn't suit you!" he said bringing his attention to Dr Samuel and narrowing his eyes. "What the hell happened here?"

"Where do I begin?"

"The start!" he said firmly.

Dr Samuel sat for a moment and began. "As some of you may know, this installations primary function is a mining colony. Here for the last twelve years... the company has mined minerals and ores, that which has almost become... depleted on Earth. While we mined we discovered many, things... Fossilised animals, bacteria, all long dead. That, is when the Archaeological dig began here." His voice strained as he spoke, muffled and metallic. "Six months ago, we mined into a vast cavern... We discovered that which, was once thought... by many, in accessible on this planet." he looked at the cylinder and continued. "Water... The discovery was welcomed... Considered, one of the most important discoveries, of this century. Clean, plentiful, and... within reach. The facility had all they needed to be self sustainable. Nilsen reduced its freight, supplies, and heralded in a New Age of Mars... But it was not to be..."

"Water on Mars. That does not explain the horrors witnessed in those labs, Doctor!" Cortez said looking hard at him.

"No, no it does not. During their first efforts to excavate the ice, they had many problematic... errors. Some of the miners fell ill, they tried everything to heal them... Nothing worked, they died. Some fifty deaths within the first week. Nilsen decided to send myself and a few others to identify the virus, or so they, believed it to be. They thought it was within the water... And they were not far from the mark, but they looked for, something... that was not there."

"Not there?" Daniels asked.

"Not there... They found DNA within the water, tried to isolate it, extract it, all they got was conflicting answers... More, questions... It belonged to something of a higher evolutionary state, than ours... Much higher." His voice strained further "Human DNA has twenty three pairs of chromosomes... The DNA we found in the water, has twenty nine pairs. This changed everything science has ever thought they knew, about biological diversity, the elements, the chemistry that creates life... and takes it." Dr Samuel straightened up in his chair and a gasp of pained breath escaped him. "Science has often theorised that water has, memory. Now, I know it to be true... The DNA within the water we found here on Mars, has transcended from physical to spiritual in it's evolution, a consciousness so to speak. The water is... alive." He finally said with conviction.

"Water has consciousness? You're fucking mad, been here too long. Now tell me what the hell has happened here!" Shouted Cortez as he slammed the barrel of his gun into Dr Samuels temple. "Tell me!"

"Easy private! Stand down!" Daniels called out raising his rifle.

"You believe this shit, Commander?" Cortez cried out as he fixed his look upon Dr Samuel.

"Stand down, Private! That's an order!" he cried out aiming at Cortez. "Stand down!"

Slowly, he removed his gun from Dr Samuels temple and lowered it. Stepping back he shook his head, wiped his eyes, and turned to the window and looked out. "Something's not right here, its in your head. Just in your head." he said to himself and slumped to the ground.

"Go on, Doctor. The DNA in the water." Daniels continued.

"Yes, as truly unimaginable as it seems, this water has a DNA code within it far more advanced than ours... I focused my time on extracting it, and to map its coding. I failed... As a result, I was... contaminated by it." he lifted his hood and from the shadow, his deformed, and scarred face was revealed. A metal mask with a grid covered his mouth and right side of his face, bound behind his head with leather straps. His right eye was removed, recent scarring covered his brow, and scab encrusted stitches crossed it's socket. Slowly he pulled his hood back over his head. "As you can see, I am... a victim of it."

"Like Frankenstein, you have found your monster." Morgan said as he looked upon him.

"Indeed, I have. Though I am alive, I carry the weight... of the dead. While surgery saved me, it was... too late, for this facility. The water supply became contaminated. I watched in horror as the population became... infected. As hard as I tried, it was beyond my knowledge to help, like those before me, failure was... the next step, in Martian evolution."

"Evolution?" Houser questioned.

"He's right. I hate to say it, but... He is right." Dr Cole said and sighed. "Our bodies are made up of approximately fifty-five percent water. There's water in each of our cells, if that water is replaced, or corrupted with this, Martian water... It could change our build up, redesigning our cells, a mutation of sorts. One that may even kill us, possibly preserve us. Like those in the labs." he shook his head. "That is what happened here, they all drank the water, and it changed them. Those who are dead, are possibly holding a hibernating life form within."

"But where are they all?" Martin asked looking at Dr Samuel.

"Those we tried to help, died. They are still in the labs... The rest, out there." and he painfully rose from his chair and walked to the window. "Out there, within the facility." He cast his eye across the installation. The rust red of Mars blazoned across its structure, an amber glow cast in the low level light. Thrust upwards from the sweeping dusts which gently swirled across the unknown landscape.

He lowered his head and continued. "Once I realised there would be no cure, I accessed the environmental controls... I adapted the environment, made it, too cold for them. Some consciousness remained within them, or it could have been the higher conscience within the water. I do not know... I used the mainframe to open certain doors, passages... airlocks... I figured, they could not survive the harsh environment of Mars. Yet, that DNA survived for thousands of years, buried, deep within the cavern."

"Somehow, someone managed to get a signal to Nilsen." Martin replied. "And they contacted ONI."

"Who sent us!" Kitch said.

"I don't believe it... You're going to take the word of a madman, and be taken in with his story of water with a conscience?" Cortez said and stood up. "I don't believe it, and this freak deserves to die here alone!"

"That may be my fate, and it would be just... Let me show you something, Private Cortez." he reached for the cylinder upon his desk. As he did so the liquid inside gravitated towards his hand. Holding his hand an inch from the glass, he moved it around the cylinder, and the water inside followed. "This is that water, Private Cortez... Does water on Earth follow you with, purpose?"

"You sending all this to Admiral Stevens, James?" Daniels asked.

"I am, however, Betty is acting strange. Something is interfering with her input-output carrier signal. Transmission is being redirected, holding stable, relay online, sending in minimum packages. This may take some time."

"Cortez, pack your bags... We're leaving."

Daniels now knew, that there was no hope of finding Samantha. All he could do was to recover all the files of Dr Samuel, of what happened here, and leave. The Nilsen Mars installation was a ghostly tomb, infected with water, infected with a scientific nightmare. One that he could now not wake up from, he would have to leave without her.