The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 20: Questionable Ethics

There was a brand new problem waiting for them when they got to the tram station, although Jack had no idea what to make of it.

"What...the...fuck?" Jenkins whispered.

Jack had to agree with him. The three of them stood together in the tram as it trundled slowly across the surface of Deimos. They had confirmed that they were on Deimos when they found a map of Deimos Base on the way out.

Directly overhead, seen through the glass ceiling and the clear tube, was the sky.

The problem was that Deimos had no sky, it was without atmosphere. It was Deimos, and yet...overhead, they stared up at a swirling, shifting crimson sky.

"Could...could it be Mars?" Jack asked slowly. "Maybe...maybe the experiment screwed up Deimos's orbit?"

"I don't think so, that doesn't look like Mars," Jennifer murmured. "It's a slightly different color and that doesn't look like a normal atmosphere."

"So what is it, then?" Jenkins asked softly.

"I...I don't know," Jennifer replied.

"It doesn't matter. There's nothing we can do about it," Jack said, trying to get a grip on himself. He stepped back into the front room. "We need to stay focused."

Jennifer joined him a moment later. They had no idea where they were going. The map had called the next structure the Containment Area, so that could mean...just about anything. Most of the other buildings were the same as those over on Phobos: Military HQ, Deimos Labs, Nuclear Plant, Hangar. Up ahead, he could see the structure: a huge L shaped building with a couple of towers on top of it. The tram was heading right into the elbow of the L.

Jack found his gaze drifting back up to that impossible crimson sky.

What could it mean?

He thought that he might know, somewhere deep in his battered, abused brain, but if he did, it would not bubble to the surface. The notion remained elusive, and perhaps that was for the best. A small but potent part of him thought that if he could dredge the notion up from the murky depths of his mind, it might drive him crazy.

So he left well enough alone.

In the distance, he could see clusters of Lost Souls drifting soundlessly across the gray surface of Deimos, which looked no different from Phobos. Except for the crimson tint to everything. He could also see the larger, beach ball shapes of Cacodemons hovering about, apparently content to float in the vacuum of space.

Provided that's what was out there, beyond the glass.

The tram pulled into the station after cycling through the airlock. Jack stared out the windows, trying to get a feel for what kind of situation awaited them in the entrance bay. There didn't seem to be any hostiles in the immediate area. After a few moments, he finally moved back into the main cabin and over to the door.

Wordlessly, the pair of fellow Marines followed him out onto the platform.

They ran into a roadblock immediately, though this one couldn't be cured with keycards or cutting tools. The main entrance into the Containment Area was bashed in, the metal buckled and dented, wedged firmly. It wasn't going anywhere.

"Well, shit," Jack muttered.

"There has to be another way in," Jennifer replied.

They searched the platform but found nothing worthwhile, no other entrances. From there, they got down into the darkened maintenance area beneath the platform. They found the generic litter of maintenance things down there, a small bathroom that looked like an abattoir, and, finally, a workroom that had a small service lift that went only down. Jack went first, stepping into the little lift and hitting the down button.