Red Dust of Mars Read online

  Red Dust

  of

  Mars

  by

  C R Wills

  Figure 11 Publishing

  Copyright © 2019 C R Wills

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 978-1-913333-00-3

  To my lovely wife Denise who has supported me and put up with my dreams for many years.

  chapter 1

  “You were up late last night Jethro,” said Dad looking up from his breakfast.

  “There’s a rumour on RumorTumor that First Contact has been made.”

  “No one would have believed in the early years of the twenty fifth century that our world was being watched by an intelligence far greater than ours…”

  “Very funny dad.”

  “And what was that racket you were playing?” asked Mum.

  “That racket, as Dad nearly quoted correctly, was Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds,” said Jethro.

  “Do you have to play it so loud?”

  “Sorry Mum. Did I disturb you?”

  “Thank you, but no you didn’t. I heard it when I came down your end of the house to fetch something from the spare bedroom.”

  “You’ll kill your brain listening to that stuff,” said Dad.

  “What makes you say that?” asked Jethro.

  “I read an article about it on RumorTumor.”

  “You’re on form today Dad.”

  “What do want to do today Jethro?” asked Dad.

  “I want to go into space and meet some aliens.”

  “Can it wait until you’ve checked the sheep on the moor?”

  “Dad. I’m serious,” said Jethro as they rehashed the old argument. “I don’t want to be a bloody farmer. I want to be a Space Marine.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with being a bloody farmer.”

  “Can you two stop swearing at each other?”

  “Sorry Mum.”

  “Sorry darling.”

  “I didn’t mean it that way Dad. But you know I want to join the military.”

  “You’re not joining the military whilst I have a say.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you’re a farmer and I need you here on the farm.”

  “You’re the farmer. Not me. If you hadn’t signed those papers declaring me a farmer when I left school, I’d have left home by now.”

  “You’ll thank me one day Jethro.”

  Jethro got up from the breakfast table. “When I’m twenty five I’m joining up whether you like it or not.” He left the kitchen.

  Mum followed. “Jethro, what about your breakfast?”

  “I don’t want breakfast Mum. I’m not hungry.”

  “Dad will come around Jethro,” said Mum. “I’m sure he will.”

  “Yes but when?”

  “His arm and his leg are playing him up. It’s the damp.”

  “They’re not his real arm and real leg, they’re cyber-limbs. How can they play him up?”

  “I don’t know Jethro. But I know that at night sometimes I wake and he’s crying in pain.”

  “I’m sorry Mum, but if he took the drugs the doctor gives him, he wouldn’t feel the pain.”

  “He’s like you Jethro. A tough old bird and he doesn’t enjoy taking drugs.” She looked at Jethro. “Although. He’s not as tough as he used to be.”

  Jethro spread his arms out for a hug. Mum liked hugs.

  “Next year Jethro, he’ll qualify for a hardware and software upgrade. The cyber doctor reckons he’ll be like superman after that. He’ll let you become a Space Marine then.”

  “Maybe Mum.” Jethro knew Mum didn’t want him to join the military either, but she would never tell him. She was a Mum. “I have to check the sheep.”

  Mum let go and Jethro went to the barn where his hoverbike was garaged. He pressed the start and then attached the trailer in case he needed to bring injured sheep back to the farm for treatment and recovery; they couldn’t afford to lose many sheep.

  Dad came out of the kitchen. He handed Jethro his lunch. Jethro nodded, but they spoke no words. Jethro stored it in the trailer compartment.

  “Mum? Say goodbye to Arlo and Connie for me.” Jethro took off and crawled up the lane towards the dark hills of Dartmoor.

  After they retired to the kitchen, Mum told the kettle to boil. They couldn’t afford the new food and drink replicators but it didn’t matter as Mum enjoyed cooking.

  Arlo and Connie, both retired Space Marines, had been staying for two weeks to learn about the farming trade from Dad and Mum. Yesterday, they found out that their bid for some land and a small property near the Brecon Beacons, had been accepted. So today they were farmers.

  Mum brewed them some tea. Arlo and Connie were so excited, they wanted to leave as soon as possible.

  “Remember you can come back whenever you want,” said Dad. “And if you need any help let us know,”

  “You’ve been more than enough help already,” said Arlo. “And same goes to you. If you or that son of yours wants to get away from all this, our door is always open.”

  Mum and Dad thanked them and waved them off to their new life.

  “When are you going to tell Jethro about your accident?” asked Mum.

  “Soon darling, soon.”

  “But he’s eighteen years old.”

  “I know,” said Dad. “I’ll tell him before Christmas. I promise.”

  Mum was happy. Dad always kept his promises.

  Jethro twisted the throttle on his hoverbike as he left the track to cross onto the moor. He wasn’t stupid enough to race the bike with a trailer in tow, maybe later, when he took his lunch break at the reservoir. He circled Black Tor then High Willhays and Yes Tor but saw no sheep in trouble.

  It had been a dry summer which helped the sheep because the ground was mostly firm, and although the farmland below was parched, threatening their Soybean crop, there was always plenty of water and grass on the moor for the sheep. They kept sheep to protect them when the Soybean crop was poor or failed completely. Cattle farming, even for milk, was banned as a waste of land unless you had clearance. Sheep were a valuable resource because they could be reared on land fit for nothing, except perhaps, military exercises.

  After an exhausting morning chasing sheep down and checking them over, Jethro headed to his favourite spot on the moor for lunch, Okehampton Reservoir. It had been created to collect more of the valuable water that ran off the moor. In the centre of the reservoir was a small rocky island, which was formerly a Tor, where a few trees had taken root. The island provided a perfect shelter from the wind and sun, and even the rain, if one sat under the rocky overhang.

  Jethro landed his hoverbike and immediately pulled the anti infra-red tarpaulin over it so its heat couldn’t be detected by surveillance satellites. His family were allowed to run sheep on the moor but some places were out of bounds to non-military personnel and the small island was one of them. Jethro didn’t know why, but he knew surveillance satellites could still detect him until he sat under the rocky overhang where he took his lunch.

  Soy steak in soy bread with tomatoes and cucumber grown by Mum at the farm. Jethro’s favourite lunch apart from Lamb, which was reserved for special occasions. He took a drink from the flask and to his delight he had a flask of the new Soy wine batch that Dad illegally brewed. It was watered down because he was working, but he knew from early tasting that this year’s batch was particularly good. He looked forward to nights by the fire during the harsh winter with a few mates from the village and plenty of Soy wine. Although illegal, it was acknowledged by the authorities that it was brewed in the countryside, because it kept the farmers happy. In Jethro’s case, they ‘paid’ the local magistrate and chief of police a couple of free crates every year.
/>
  He heard an unfamiliar sound coming from behind him. Was that the military coming to arrest him for being on the island? It sounded like a craft of some sort. But the sound was too smooth and high pitched as if the craft was travelling quick; Jethro had heard nothing like it before.

  He cautiously packed the remains of his lunch away, not wanting to lose it because he still had a long day on the moor ahead of him. Then he stuck his head out from under the overhang and looked up at the sky to see if he could spot the source of the noise.

  Something glinted in the sun and then swooshed over the island at a huge rate of knots and crashed into the reservoir. Jethro pulled out his monocular to look at the object which appeared to have survived the crash and was still floating on top of the water.

  It was a Personal Evacuation Pod. Jethro had read about them on the Jungle. They’re used as personnel transfer vehicles in space or as an escape pod when the main craft is damaged. They’re not normally flown on Earth. Jethro could see a man inside the pod and he looked as though he was trying to get out because he was hammering at something by his side.

  What is his problem? The pods are supposed to be airtight and can sustain life for a long time in space so there shouldn’t be a problem in water. Jethro scanned the whole pod with his powerful monocular and saw the burn marks along the side of the pod and the damage to the rear. The pod must be filling with water because it looked from where Jethro was sitting that the man was becoming more frantic as the pod began to sink.

  chapter 2

  Without thinking, Jethro ran to his trailer and rummaged around to find his breather, goggles, some rope and his multitool. As he ran to the water’s edge, he fitted the breather over his nose and mouth and put his goggles on and dived in to the water. Jethro loved swimming and tried to swim every day.

  He had to reach the pod and try to save the man. He powered through the water but by the time he reached the location the pod had already sank. He bent over and thrust himself down towards the bottom of the reservoir. Luckily the water wasn’t deep and Jethro quickly reached the bottom. He didn’t see the pod immediately but it was teardrop shaped so it might have glided away from its surface entry point. He looked around for the pod but was struggling to stay at the bottom; he needed some weight.

  He spotted an old car wheel from the twentieth century, covered in silt and barely visible. It would make an ideal weight as long as it wasn’t still attached to the car; it wasn’t. He secured his waist to the car wheel with the rope and was able to swim a few feet above the bottom, although dragging the wheel stirred up a bottom cloud that obscured his view. It was also bloody tiring pulling the wheel.

  He stopped for a rest and allowed the silt to settle then he saw the pod. The man was still inside and still trying to open the glass canopy, but the pod was nearly full of water and the man looked doomed to fail. Jethro swam over to him and as soon as the man saw him, he waved his hands pointing frantically towards the area where he was trying to unlock the canopy.

  Jethro moved to where the man was indicating and tried to pull the canopy off from the outside but he was unable as it was jammed. The man was getting more excited by the second as the water level reached his neck having almost filled the pod cockpit.

  Jethro picked up a nearby rock and smashed it down on the glass but nothing gave. He brought it down on the glass again and again but when he examined the area he had been hitting, there wasn’t even a scratch on the glass canopy. The glass was toughened glass designed to be hit by small debris in space.

  Jethro shook his head and calmly pulled out his multitool and powered it up. There was a small weak laser cutter on the tool which might just be able to burn a hole in the canopy to allow the man to escape. Jethro tapped on the glass canopy to get the man’s attention. He set the laser to operate in water.

  When he had the man's attention, he showed the laser to the man and indicated using his hands, that he would wait until the cockpit was full then he would cut a large hole above the man and pull him out. He also indicated to the man that he should release his safety belt.

  The man looked at him and smiled a resigned sort of smile and shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. Then he took as many deep breaths as he could, closed his eyes and assumed a praying position with his hands and waited. Had the man given up? Was he praying to his god?

  Jethro didn’t believe in gods and hoped his small hand held laser had enough charge left to do the job. He couldn’t remember when he last charged it but he used it in the morning to cut some barbed wire wrapped around a sheep’s leg. The sheep appeared fine after its ordeal and Jethro dressed its leg with a spray dressing which would dissolve over the next week as the wound healed. The barbed wire was old and rusty and was a legacy of Dartmoor’s many decades of use as a military training area, or a legacy of the notorious Dartmoor Prison. The prison was still used in the twenty fourth century as a means of protecting the public from the most serious and dangerous criminals. It was due to be closed soon and the criminals were in the process of being shipped to a more modern and far more secure prison on the Moon.

  The cockpit was almost full of water and Jethro started cutting. The man immediately opened his eyes took a quick look then closed them again and resumed praying, if that’s what he was doing. The cutter was working and Jethro soon cut a large arc on his way to a hole and was on his way to closing the arc into a circle when the laser started spluttering.

  Not now, please not now.

  The man must have heard the splutter because he was rapidly mouthing his prayers as far as Jethro could tell.

  The laser stopped with still at least 10 centimetres to go to close the circle. Jethro didn’t waste time. He picked up his rock again and smashed it down on the glass cockpit hoping to break the remaining glass but nothing happened. Jethro climbed on top of the glass cockpit and started punching down with his fist so hard that he drew blood but still nothing gave.

  Then he jumped off the pod and untied the rope from the car wheel that had been holding him down and tied the rope to part of the lower structure of the pod. He climbed back on top of the glass canopy and pulled the rope around his waist so that he was held tight and secure standing on the top of the pod canopy. He bent his knees to his chest then smashed his feet down on the glass canopy as hard as he was able. The cut he had made lengthened. Jethro smashed both feet down on the glass again and again and after a few more goes the glass canopy finally gave in, creating the hole Jethro had been trying to make. Unfortunately the circular port he created smashed down onto the man who was now inert in his seat. Jethro dragged him out through the glass and pulled him to the surface.

  The man was not breathing so Jethro removed his breather and fitted it over the man’s nose and mouth and set it to resuscitate. Then he turned over onto his back and swam back to the island dragging the man with him. When Jethro tugged him ashore, he immediately checked and the man had started breathing again so Jethro removed the breather.

  “Are you OK?” he asked.

  The man was in no fit state to talk so he nodded and he was pointing towards the sky. Jethro didn’t understand. Was there a ship coming down after him? Is that what he had escaped from?

  He looked at the man who was about the same age as his dad and wearing a Space Marines uniform. And then Jethro noticed his rank. Wow. He was a full Colonel.

  Jethro handed the man his flask and indicated he drink. The man took a sip and obviously approved because he smiled and downed the rest of the alcohol. Oh well. Lunch was definitely over now.

  “Go. We must go.”

  Jethro understood that bit but not why. He nodded and helped the man to his feet and over to his hoverbike. There was only room for one on the bike as it was one of the older cheaper models. Jethro helped the man toward his trailer which was full of wool and sheep droppings. He started to clean it out but the man waved him to stop.

  “Must go. No time.” The man kept looking towards the sky.

  Jethro looked in
the same direction with his monocular. He saw two craft and they were heading in his direction. It was OK they were police craft. He handed the monocular to the man who scanned the area of sky. He must have seen the police craft because he immediately handed the monocular back to Jethro.

  “It’s OK,” said Jethro. “It’s the police. They’re friendly in these parts.”

  “No. Not local police. They’re military police. You must hide me. We have to get out of here.”

  Jethro had a quick look. The man was right. They were military police, so why was a Colonel on the run from them? Jethro looked at him.

  Who is this man?

  chapter 3

  “Get on.” Jethro told the man to get into the trailer.

  The man gingerly climbed onto the space. “You’ll never outrun the military police in this old thing.”

  “Hold on tight.” Jethro had already fired the engine of his hoverbike into life.

  He didn’t question why they might need to outrun the military police. That could come later. Now was the time for action. He turned and checked that the man was holding onto the grab rail. Check. He turned the throttle and slowly manoeuvred out above the water. Then he pointed away from the direction of the farm. There was no way he was taking this fugitive, whoever he is, back home. Mum and Dad would not be happy. But he knew a good place to take the man to hide.

  Jethro revved the engine of his hoverbike to top revs and raced across the water. If he could get to the edge before he was spotted, he should be OK, because he knew the hills and valleys of the moor like nobody else, except the sheep. Also, the cloud base was lowering which would help him.

  Dartmoor is often above the clouds so riding fast around the moor on a hoverbike can be dangerous. The Ordnance Survey Satnav office no longer mapped out the moor, or if they did it wasn’t released to the public because it’s not supposed to be traversed by hoverbike. Also it was rumoured that both the military and the prison authorities wanted the moor to remain a wild and desolate place for their own purposes. Jethro rode over the moor almost every day summer and winter, light and dark, through sun, rain and snow; he used the map of experience.