Excerpts

The Palladium Queen arrived from Mars on time at docking station twenty-one, but a bit shaken by its harrowing journey. Dark streaks of cinder-trails marred the usually pristine skin. Youd think in 2162, things like this wouldnt happen. You just had to put it out of your mind. The ship made it. Only the investors would feel the pain. The PQ, as I call her, is a tourist cruiser that runs out and back from Jakard Station on the Red Planet with a two day stop on the Backside for excursions and a concert. Then there is the atmosphere-run back to the Las Vegas docking casinos. This trip was out of Bocca Romeros club on the Neuos Strip. Bocca is known for cutting corners. This time it would cost him everything and nearly three-hundred peoples lives, including me and the band.

***

Eddy turned and followed the parade down to the ground transportation. Manny was left to close up the studio. Everything in the place was left turned-on. Little green lights were on everywhere. Manny started to march around the room flipping switches. He found a letter on a music stand addressed Manny. He opened it. It was from Johanna. It said, Manny, if I dont make it back, I love you. Dont tell the band, but I think there is something up with Eddy and Bocca. I heard some things. Maybe you could keep an ear out for me. Johanna.

***

Alvar was dreaming again. It was his instincts swirling in his mind. He could see the rocky valleys of the Red Planet. He could smell the acrid soil. His nostrils swelled.

Wake up you fool, his wife clamored. Youre drooling again. She poked at his side.

Alvar came up out of a cold sweat, eyes wide open, and said in an airy, husky voice, It was the same dream. I could see our ancestors on the trails from the cliffs down to where the hides were outstretched, tanning in the sun. Eden, I know well go there someday. We have to. Alvar was typical of his clan, short, gnome-like creature, standing just over four feet tall. He had a wispy moustache of reddish-white hair, almond shaped eyes, and knobby hands with short claws at the ends of the fingers. He sat up on his cot and looked into the kitchen a few feet away on the other side of a small arch made of polished cactus heartwood, beautifully carved then inlayed with an enamel tear shapes of pastel desert colors.

***

If you were a mutant, where would you hide?

Somewhere out of the way, like a storage area where no one was going to be in until the end of the trip. Lets check the security logs. They will tell us if any of the areas have been opened. The fire was now lit under the lieutenant. I could relax a little. We have to find something to get all these loose pieces to fit together.

Bradshaw led me into a control room. It was busy with staff running the various ships systems remotely. It looked like the nerve center for the ship. There was a crewmember checking on the artificial gravity indicator. It was comforting to see the numbers on the readout were in the green.

***

The ship made a strange noise. I sat back against the wall next to the door and looked at the other side of the tunnel. This was an outside corridor. On the other side of that wall was open space. Another hit. It sounded like some hit and then slid down the side of the ship like fingernails scratching the side. The hits were getting bigger; the ship was jumping and bucking. I crawled down the corridor and found a niche to tuck myself into.

The lynching party came out of the room, staggering around. One of the security guys fell. His belt full of keys spilled out onto the passageway. He got up and followed the rest of them making their way down the tunnel away from me.

I scrambled to the open door. I saw Bradshaw struggling to get free. I grabbed the keys off the floor. Two tries latter, the cuffs came off Bradshaw.

***

The story should have ended there, but Manny had something to tell us. I had already folded my journal up and put my pen to rest, but there were a couple of more surprises left in this saga.