Nebula

Just Another Martian

A/N:- I don't usually add an author's note to my stories, but I thought you might like to know that I have split these up for the sake of you lovely readers. Therefore if you're critiquing me I only ask that you take this and the second part as one critique. That is how they were written and how I would like them to be judged. Thank you :)

That night the red planet burned.

I was covered in a sickening sheen of sweat all over my body. I hated Mars. I always thought it was the most boring, most stupid of all the planets in my home system. I still do. Even if it's just a pit stop, all I can ever feel is clingy dust in my throat. Choking me.

Back then, I was a kid. Fifteen. In Earth years, anyway. Too young, they told me. Too young.

What did they know? I'd been in space for all my damn life, I could do it myself! But they were the ones with the plasma rifles and the keys to my future. They had laws and protocols that they could hide behind and throw at me again and again. I'd heard it all before. I couldn't stand it. But that was all about to change.

I managed to sneak out by pure luck. Curfew was still on so I wasn't supposed to, but that'd never stopped me before. The wardens on my floor just weren't looking the right way at the right time, so I got past them. Shimmied down the wall face, leaped over the short wall and sprinted through several backyards before I saw it.

That warehouse was where I last saw the Presley. They hadn't moved it, that'd be hard to miss. I smiled compulsively because all that went through my head was one small phrase:-

Honey, I'm home.

****

Getting in was the easy part.

I'd cased the joint more than enough times to know where I'd be able to get in. Like I was in one of those ancient heist movies, looking for a good entrance and quick getaway. There was a back door that was always left open to let some air in for the guards that were stationed there. Bored, young human guys, never with much to do but play with MMO Goggles to kill some time before their shift was over.

I didn't think there'd be a Durian there, awake, patrolling and actually doing his job. Yet there he was. It didn't take long before he dumped me in some kind of interrogation room.

He looked like your usual Durian - blue skin which could get deeper or lighter depending on the race; coal black eyes that were wide and slanted, several eyelids that would blink at the same time; brittle body structure and long ears that would reach down past the neck. Their heads were stupidly huge - it was like they were constructed from a five year old. Unless you met a female, who had breasts just like any other Earth mammal.

Durians were cold beings. Their sole desire in life was to achieve to become the best that they could be. Sounds noble, right? Well they aren't so much. They don't care about courtesy or compassion or even good sportsmanship when in competition with others. If they couldn't be the best, then nobody else could. They also seemed to be especially cruel to humans.

I didn't stop scowling at him. My arms crossed in that way most teens did, as if to scream that I didn't give a shit about what happened next. That, if the worst came to it, I'd kick the alien's arse and I wouldn't care if he never got to walk again. In some ways I didn't give a damn about the consequences. I just wanted to get out of there.

"Bit late for an evening walk, isn't it, honey?"

"Not late enough." Now he was mocking me just because I was female. I would've said the magical 's' word, but they weren't all into that social equality thing.

His head veins throbbed. I'd seen it before - on old movies and again in different space-stations - but it still looked weird. Was he annoyed that I wasn't playing along with his psychic mind tricks? Good. Let it crawl right under his skin.