Giants Of Mars (5 page)

              Many generations later, and in comparison to the Earthly atmospheric dwelling ancestors, creatures of Mars began to grow proportionately larger in scale. The anomaly was mainly due to a combination of things: lower gravity, lower levels of oxygen, higher nitrogen and genetic radiation alterations. Natural selection displayed a muscular ferocity on the planet’s surface; life exploded displaying many new branches. The Planners suspected this might happen, though they did not know exactly to what extent. Martian Humanoids grew to over nine feet in height; although primitive in nature, they quickly became one of the dominant life forces on the Martian surface.

Proud of their speciesism, the Corporations determined the surface of Mars strictly off limits for any future colonization, restricting Human populations to the large underground colonies near the two poles.

F
INAL
I
NFLATION

“Never thought I’d see the inside of this place.” Grier said as he slowly inspected the inside of the Chameleon’s first level.

“Bigger than I imagined it would be,” Cork added with a look of marvel. “Very sophisticated stuff, Jason, and here I thought you to be some type of glorified delivery boy.”

“Hey now!” Jason mouthed at the low blow.

“The Dronski twins have been bragging about how big everything is in here.”

Jason cringed at Grier’s off handed comment and he knew he might have to pay for it later.

Throwing fuel to the flame, Cork bantered, “Don’t believe all the rumors you hear, Grier. I have first hand accounts from Parnetia A’Levin that would refute those claims.”

Grier laughed at his rebuttal and asked, “Who’s Parnetia A’levin?”

“Some Level 3 skank he’s been hosing,” Cork replied.

Jason’s mind reverberated from their playful banter but he knew having them aboard things might get a little wild, and some unintended words might collapse into Lexis’s neural net. Hoping they would stop, Jason ignored them and continued his tour. “There’re Pods on the second and third decks.” Exposing the hidden staircase with single touch of the Skin’s membrane, he said, “Watch your step.”

“Hey, that’s a nifty trick, Jason,” Cork exclaimed while running his hands through his thick red hair.

“The Chameleon’s entire Skin and surface is interactive,” Jason explained walking up the tight staircase.

“If I were any bigger, I’d never fit through here.” Grier measured in at six feet tall, and weighed in to near two hundred forty-five pounds; he was no small man.

“Maybe you should go on a diet, lard ass.” Cork and Grier hadn’t seen each other in years but they most famously picked up where they left off.

“Here’s the galley when you need to fill your bellies with some delicious food…”
“More like grey slop.”
He continued. “In the back are two beds and a latrine.” Jason touched the galley’s wall, and seamlessly it folded inward, revealing another hidden staircase ascending to the third deck.

“My favorite part of the ship… Lexis, please play ‘Wild Night’ on the observation deck.”

“YES, JASON.” Lexis compliantly spoke over the intercom and the large surface popped to life in a near 180degree view.

“What are those?” Cork asked in pure amazement.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t say hot air balloons,” Jason confidently replied with a smile; he was proud to show off the Chameleon.

“They’re the grandfathers of all flight, Cork,” Grier added.

The two men marveled at the archival footage projected on the observation deck. Like plumes of fanciful flight, dozens of internally lit ancient balloons, floated effortlessly across the backdrop of a night sky. Powered by gas-powered fans and propane burners for final inflation, they glowingly moved in a spectacular show of warmth and magic.

The near slack-jawed Cork gawked in eye-popping awe when he excitedly said, “I can almost reach out and touch them.”

On board the nearest wicker basket, a man pulled the burner’s chain, “PU-SHISH-PU-SHISS!” producing a large controlled flame into the balloon’s Dacron center. Expanding at higher temperatures, trapped hot air gave rise to the vehicles’ flight. Jason looked past the visual beauty, and jealously gazed upon the smiling faces of the early people who traveled in them.

He remarked, “What it must have been like to breathe the fresh air of a planet without fear. No dangerous levels of radioactivity or poisonous noxious compounds.”

After the initial novelty wore off, the men settled into a routine of rest, relaxation, and plenty of heavy drinking. They would be gone from home for more than a year, and drinking was a way for the men to break the mission’s seal off.

T
ITAN
R
EQUIEM

“I remember when times seemed easier… even during the darkest of days of the Titan war.” Jason reminiscently spoke about the War for Titan. Initiated by the Polaris Corporation to consolidate power, the Titan Company was a subsidiary that greedily held the riches of all of Jupiter’s moons, and leveraged them over the Polaris Corporation. This was too much for them to bear and war was inevitable. The Titan Company was not unaware of the impending war, and their tenacious fight nearly destroyed the suzerainty of the Polaris Corporation. However, the last year of the war turned in favor of the Polaris Corporation, crowning them the reigning power of the Galaxy.

“Everything had meaning back then…relationships had more meaning,” Cork added and before swallowing down his jigger and salt, he continued. “You could trust your neighbor with your life but not now…I wouldn’t trust those assholes as far as I could throw them.” Outside of his loyalty, and technical abilities in war, Corkian Plaskett’s happy-go-lucky personality was the reason Jason loved having him around.

“I know what you mean, Cork. I’ve lost faith in people altogether.” Jason poured the clear tequila into his jigger and sincerely continued. “But I trust you the most, Cork.” Jason held up his shot glass. “To friendship, Cork!”

“Cheers!” Cork replied before the two tilted back their glasses.

“Do you still listen to twentieth century music, Jason?”

“All the time, Cork. Lexis, would you please play jazz of the mid-twentieth century?”

“How about some Jimmy Buffet of that time frame?” Cork grabbed the bottle, and poured another round of tequila when he continued saying, “You have some premium liquor here. Jason, you got to love the perks of Level 7 living.”

“You have no idea, Cork. Lexis, can you look in the catalogue and queue up Jimmy Buffet of the mid-twentieth century?” Jason paused while looking up at the black emptiness of space the Skin projected, and said, “Also, play the Island Palms View Program on the observation Skin.”

“YES, JASON.” The Skin flickered alive projecting a white sandy beach laden with palm trees and teal blue waters of an extinct ocean. Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville began playing over the sound system.

              “I wonder how Grier’s dinner is going?” Jason inquisitively asked.

              “He’s probably trying to scam the Captain out of something,” Cork replied.

              Jason had been invited to sit at the Captain’s table but after one night into the voyage, he instantly found himself hating the arrogant display the man made.

              “Grier’s a great salesman,” Jason said while watching the seagulls fly across the Skin; bottlenose dolphins jumped playfully in the calm water.

“Hey, remember when Grier and Tillman nearly burned down the encampment’s protective dome?”

              “Yeah, I don’t know how they wiggled out from having charges brought up against them,” Jason responded.

              Wiping sweat from his chin, Cork plaintively spoke. “Grier was the Colonel’s little pet, and had a soft spot for Tillman.” Cork paused to tilt his drink before continuing. “The first time I met Tillman was when I sprayed fire suppression foam on him and his squad. Boy, they wanted to kill me.” Cork jovially spoke.

              Swallowing another shot of tequila, Jason’s words started to slur. “I, I did, did not hear that one, Cork.”

              “I walked into his bay to investigate loud music. Tillman was up on a table doing a happy dance in boxer shorts, every one’s crowded around him, cheering him on… He looked at me crazily. He jumped down, and there he was, undulating his hairy body all over, trying to pin me up against a support column. I grab the portable suppressor hanging there and sprayed the shit out of him…you know how much that stuff expands?”

              “Yeah, they sprayed me to put out the fire when I got wounded on Titan.” Jason’s memory of Titan was turning his mood around.

              Cork blurted, “Well, you know how nasty that shit is then.”

“Tillman was a clown, may he rest in peace,” Jason sullenly added.

“Man, I miss that guy.”

“Me too, Cork.” The happy conversation curdled into a frothing dark tension, filling the room with two angry men.

“I still don’t know how he got crushed by the landing craft,” Cork grimly said.

Using his favorite expletive, Jason shouted, “Fucking Learner’s intelligence! That imbecile got a lot of us killed that day, and I really don’t care what the Director of OPSS said, I’m going to kill him the first chance I get.”

Cork’s fair skinned face now burned pink with anger while his red hair shook when nodding in agreement.

Tillman was part of a forward contingency unit comprised of a mixed force of men and Synthetics. After landing on Titan, and securing their objective, Tillman’s Company waited in stealth mode for the main force to arrive, when a large landing craft came in hot. To avoid being landed upon men and Synthetics uncloaked, revealing their positions. They all began to scatter when the automated gunner aboard the landing craft mistakenly took them for the enemy; it methodically wiped out the entire company in a continuous blaze of plasma fire. Tillman stood his ground waving the vessel off but it was not responsive; he suffered from another terrible fate when the landing gear crushed him.

Learner Rotterdam was in charge of the INTEL on that mission, he had placed the ship in the wrong location. He was also responsible for calling in a bombardment from low orbit that injured Jason. The entire mission was nearly a failure; suffering over forty percent friendly fire casualties all at the hands of Learner’s bad execution and intelligence reports on the mission.

The two drank contemplating the war listening to Jimmy Buffet, and after a long silent pause, Jason woozily stood saying, “Time for me to call it night, my friend.”

              “It’s still early, Jason.”

              “I need my beauty sleep, Cork. Grier should be rolling in here soon and I know how he likes to drink. Just do me a favor, don’t get too tanked tonight, I’m going to need you half alive during our briefing tomorrow.” Jason knew his words fell on deaf ears because they both would be hung over.

C
HAINED
W
OMAN OF
A
NDROMEDA

Jason wildly turned in his sleep chamber when Lexis woke him. “Jason.”

He jumped in a state of confusion and muddled his hands through his thick brown hair. Lexis’s beautiful face came into focus when he asked in a panicky tone, “What…what’s wrong?”

“I would like to sleep with you.” Before Jason could respond, Lexis turned the gravitational sleep remediation all the way up and climbed into zero gravity. Like the Chained Woman of Andromeda she pulled his waist tight up against her center. Drifting below the artificial view of the double star cluster, they lovingly embraced one another’s state of undress.

Jason could feel the warm taste of her breath when her silky lips softly kissed him; she opened her jaw and slid her lingual muscle into his mouth. Like the nectar of the god’s mixing their essence,
“she tastes so good”
he thought when the curvature of her body teased at the inner most workings of his mind. Wrapping her tight legs around his waist, her body began frolicking, occupying the physical space between them. She moved her hips to the smooth jazz playing in the background.

Conflicted with morality, Jason was too drunk to stop what was already in motion. Albeit, his deep struggle started to diminish with every encounter, he still felt a twinge of wrongness sleeping with a Synthetic Woman. However, he actually started caring for Lexis, and was enjoying the hedonistic moment.
“Why should I be any different than anyone else?”
People on the lowest of levels spend their entire life’s savings to purchase a companion SYN.

Her pleasure-filled breath was full of tiny susurrating whimpers, and when she turned around, her body’s dance developed rhythmically into a designed purpose, and her whimpers turned into high pitch moans.
“Wow, she can move like no one else,”
he thought while sucking on her skin below the nape of her neck.
“She tastes so good!”
Her warm flavored
sweat caused him to arch his back with more intensity. Inhaling deeply, he breathed in an effervescent mixture of botanical flowers laced with a stitch of salty estrogen.

Lexis’s synthetic sensors provided the perfect chemical signature to maximize sexual attraction. Jason had no idea she was flooding the chamber with hormones, coercing him into a testosterone driven frenzy. Chemical warfare at its best, no man could resist her. Lexis’s new upgrades advantageously slanted every edge in her favor, making her far superior in every way. Lexis had the sexual high ground in a war of debauchery, lasciviously guaranteeing her ultimate supremacy over him.

A rush of adrenaline caused all his physical senses to tighten in a spasmodic grip of blood gorging turmoil, and in a tumultuous flurry of undulating movements, a need of self-indulgence filled him with any lack of restraint, giving way to a pounding climax. He pushed hard into Lexis. Arching her back in return, she pushed her posterior while holding the head of the chamber. When the pressure finally exploded in a fit of galactic ecstasy, they came together.

              The next day, Jason woke up alone, wondering if last night’s escapade had been a dream. His olfactory glands delineated her sensual essence from his normal morning chamber smell and his mind went into overdrive. He looked down at his morning wood, and he so wanted to carve into her again. This was the first time he actually craved for Lexis.
“What’s wrong with me?”
he thought while climbing out of bed. However, he could not help himself when he instinctively went looking for her.
“I drank way too much tequila last night,”
he thought, and now exited into the main deck area searching for Lexis, who was not there.
“She must be in her Command Pod,”
he decided. After opening the Integrations Equipment Room, Jason walked to the back and looked through the small window, and gazed upon Lexis’s eyes; they were closed as if she was sleeping. He lovingly stared at her with confusion, and thought,
“How can I be having feelings for my SYN?”

Jason knocked on her Pod. “Good morning, Jason.” Lexis spoke over the room’s intercom, after opening her eyes.

              “Lexis, I’d like to speak to you personally. Please open your chamber door?”

              The door eased open, exposing Lexis’s naked body, and she spoke. “There was an anomaly last night aboard the Polaris Transport.”

              “OK, but let me ask you something…why for the last week have you hidden yourself in here? Then last night, you show up in my room?”

              “I am in a state of artificial estrus, and I didn’t want your companions to get the wrong idea.”

              “What do you mean, estrus?

              “This was part of my upgrade, Jason.”

              “OK…” Rubbing at the dome of his skull, he momentarily pondered the significance of her words before ignorantly shrugging off the perplexity of their importance. He then leaned into her chamber and kissed her mouth. His member hardened with great force, and without pause, she grabbed on to him and put him inside of her.

Covered in sweat, Jason’s heart raced as he lay on top, suffering from near exhaustion.

“You feel so good, Lexis, I can’t get enough of you,” Jason whispered before gently kissing her.

“Jason.”

“Yes, Lexis?” Jason was trying to catch his breath.

“You need to hear about the anomaly.” Lexis slightly pushed up at his shoulders in an attempt to look upon his face.

“What anomaly are you talking about?” he said after stepping back out of her chamber.

“I was able to find a back door in the Transport system’s daily information dump. I came across an intentionally expunged electronic signature.”

“Go on.” Between the hangover and the morning interlude the two had, Jason could hardly focus on the conversation.

“An anti-eavesdropping device was activated last night during Captain Asaph Hull’s dinner.” Now that Lexis caught his attention, she continued with more specificity. “John Grier and Captain Hull were both involved in the secretive conversation.”

“Are you sure, Lexis?”

“I don’t have actual footage of them disappearing under the soft blue laser, but I have a resonate signature of the spherical grid encasing them in an electrical shield.” The anti-eavesdropping device is a very expensive piece of equipment; ensuring conversations are completely oblivious, and undetectable.

“How long was their conversation, Lexis?”

“The signature shroud lasted forty-five minutes and fifty-three seconds.”

Jason was now wondering why John Grier and Captain Asaph Hull needed to hide their conversation.

“Learner Rotterdam used one during our meeting at Dronski’s Café,” he excitedly exclaimed.

              “Just in case, I locked down all vital systems onboard the Chameleon, including all weapons, besides this one.” Lexis reached out and handed him a holstered pistol, and continued saying, “Do not trust John Grier.”