The War Of a Thousand Dead Planets

Chapter 14: Mars City

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        Tish stood up, cracked her back, and looked around. On the whole, that could have gone a lot worse. All of the lifeform readings were still online. The only damage was to engine three, which they had never really quite fixed perfectly anyway.
        "Mitchlad nineecorp, Redjit ecowa Ufi. Shwaka Loo-teh-neet Lee-oon, orfa sqomachi," Tish called into the intercom, taking charge. Ufi and Redjit went to see what was wrong with the diskship.
        "What did she say for me to do?" Lieutenant Philleas whispered. Jason shrugged, then thought to Tish for a moment.
        "She said to radio y-your Aunt... she works at the Mars c-colony nearby here, right?"
          "Er... well, yes, but we've never met in person, or even had a real conversation. We only ever talk to each-other in video-mail," explained Philleas. Jason nodded.
        Lieutenant Lyon flipped on the radio, tapping into the Mars colony frequency.
        "Hey, Aunt Tal, this is Phil. I'm on government business in space and we need a repairs stop, we crashed only a bit away from you. Over."
       "Oh Philly, I'm so excited, I can't believe I finally get to have a real conversation with you! And you're in space! I'm so proud!" The voice of a woman could be heard through the static.
        "I'm sending you my coords, ok? Can you give me directions?"
        "Oh, of course! Here you go, sending directions now!"
        "So, see you in about 34 minutes, bye!"
       "Catcha later," laughed his Aunt, hanging up on her own terms.

********************************

Jason, Philleas, and two other soldiers stepped out of the airlock, dressed in four Geshian spacesuits. The spacesuits were uncomfortable because of their slightly off-human shape, but because of the way they were designed, the tail-peices were removable. It had been determined that only humans would go, because the alien alliance should remain a secret, even to the human Martian colonists.
        Out of the 34 estimated minutes that the GPS had announced, the team of four had been traveling for 14 minutes when the wind started to pick up. It hissed a wailed and screamed as it blew the red Martian dust up into the air and swirled it around the four humans. The in-helmet radios went off and Philleas's Aunt's voice sounded over the sound of the wind and static.
        "There's a sandstorm coming your way! It will be there in eight minutes! You don't have time to get to me or back to your ship! Four minutes away is a Martian underground city! Sending you coords!" She shouted to be heard.
        Without hesitation, the humans took off in the direction the GPS told them to go.
        "When you get there, you will see a crater full of rocks! Crawl down and to the south through the larger cracks in between them! You will see a tunnel guarded by two Martians of the Otchapti tribe!"
        Through the swirling dust, they could make out a shallow crater with a heap of boulders in it.
        "Tell the guards 'eeftchi seequi teechoi'! They will let you in! Remember tha-" her voice was cut off by static and the visibility was very limited just as they reached the crater. They slid down the lid of the crater and crawled into the rocks, the wind shrieking angrily at them.
        The path down and to the South was not hard to find, it was obvious but looked natural. Jason thought that the Martians had done that on purpose. Presently, the crawlspace opened out into a perfectly round tunnel scratched into the stone with claws.
        Two long, thin little snake-like creatures with long tails, triangular heads & brownish-reddish scales stood there. Each had short, thin legs balancing poised on little claw-like toes.
        "Eeftchi seequi teechoi," said Lieutenant Lyon, scuttling to his feet and brushing off his spacesuit. The Martian slid to the side with curt nods, each repeating the greeting and letting the group pass into a deep, narrow cavern.
        In the walls were carved roundish niches and rooms in which more Martians went about, buying and selling pottery, ice chips, food, & an assortment of other things. Some Martians were conversing, sleeping, or making things. Little narrow bridges of rope that were made of fungus ran back and forth between the rooms. Pully system bucket elevators went up and down, operated by their riders, and the Martians scuttled along like a busy town.
        "Wow, this whole town... underground... running on an underground river of ice? Growing m-mold for food and tools? T-this is incredible!" Jason stuttered, thinking he had seen it all.
        It was just hard to take this in... all in one underground cave, there were potters, sculptors, scribes, farmers, teachers, weavers, & nurseries. Jason was humbled by this primative, developing society. It reminded him of Mesopotamia, or a bee-hive, or mabey one of those Native American cliff dweller cities.
       Later, the group sat in the nursery, laughing as the Martian children climbed up and down all over them, playing some form of king of the rock on Jason. The kids were about the size of  Golden Retriever puppies. The humans got to see a new nestfull hatch, just as another human, with a different spacesuit and smiling blue eyes climbed out of a pulley elevator into the nursery.
        "C'mon boys, we need to getcha back to the colony. You've had a long day."