Chapter No.24. Planitia Surprise.

Walking on Mars took some getting used to. The gravity is only a little better than a third of that on Earth and the soil, or regolith, is mostly dry and dusty basalt. The atmosphere on Hellas Planitia is about as good as it gets on Mars, but being very thin compared to Earth, it doesn't hold much heat from the sunlight. Our suits had to adjust for the temperature, but it wasn't that bad.

The main entrance to the colony looked like an old fashion phone booth. Most of the colony was underground because it helped shield much of the solar radiation that bombarded Mars. The first thing we noted was that the door was not secured. We entered the vestibule and descended the steps that led down to the colony proper.

We were able to go through the air lock without difficulty. Evidently, the colony was still under power from a solar panel farm nearby. Once the air pressure was up to normal, we were able to enter the colony's main complex.

"We didn't see anyone. It appeared deserted.

"Looks like no one's home," Bridget said.

"I don't like this," I said looking around while I kept one hand on my laser pistol's handle.

"Doesn't look like there's any boggy men down here," she said, noticing my anxiety.

We walked toward what appeared to be habitat rooms. It didn't take us long to find someone.

"He's been dead for some time," Bridget said after a cursory examination. "There's a burn mark on his forehead. I would say that he was shot through the head with an energy weapon."

After searching through many of the habitat rooms, we only came up with another male with a similar wound.

"This looks like there was a battle here, but I don't see any evidence of damage," I said.

"How many colonists were here?" Bridget asked.

"Good question, but I would assume that it was several hundred judging by the number of habitat rooms."

"There's no other bodies. Where did they go?"

"Good question. Unless we can find something that would answer that question, we'll have to assume that they were taken away."

"Maybe they were abducted like the dome city people said they experienced."

"That's a good possibility, but why would aliens want to abduct humans?"

"The main reason for alien abductions is for scientific reasons," she said. "Although, most of those accounts were proven to be false."

"I don't want to spend any more time down here than necessary. Let's search for any clues and then get back to the ship."

She nodded. We didn't find anything that would indicate what happened to the colonists. We walked back to the shuttle and returned to the ship.

We met to discuss the situation at supper.

"I think we have to assume that the aliens abducted the Mar's colonists," I said. "We didn't find any evidence of graves and the two dead men appeared to have been shot with some sort of energy weapon."

"Are you suggesting that they were taken back to the alien's home world?" Sharon asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know, but that's a good possibility."

"We have no idea where their home world is," Janet said.

"Maybe the dome city people know," I said. "Let's go back to Earth and see if we can get more information from them."

No one objected. At this point, they were just as dismayed as I was.

We got in our G-chairs for the engine burn that would get us back to Earth in a day. The difference in travel time was due to the change in Mar's difference in distance from Earth.

As soon as we entered orbit around Earth, we immediately began trying to make video contact.

The women appeared. I assumed that she was in charge, but I didn't want to go into politics at this juncture.

"There is no one at the Lunar base," I told her. "We found two dead men at Mars Colony. They were both killed by an energy shot to the head. We were unable to find any other bodies or graves. We assume that they were abducted."

She didn't show any emotion from my report. "We assumed as much."

"Do you have any idea where these aliens came from?"

"We believe that they were from a nearby system, but which one is just a guess."

"Okay, we'll investigate that. Have you discussed the tree planting idea?"

"Yes. We believe that planting some conifers might survive our climate here."

"Good. We'll deliver them to you tomorrow. We'll land near to your city."

"Land near the southern edge," she said.

"We will."

The communication ended.

"Not very talkative is she," I said.

"Do you trust her?" Janet asked.

"It doesn't matter. We don't need conifer seeds. As long as they don't try anything, we're okay."

The next day we spent considerable time getting a drum of conifer seeds up to the hanger deck and in the shuttle. I checked the shuttle's fuel supply and noted that it had been fully charged. Obviously, the robots on the engineering deck took care of that job.

I decide to take Bridget down with me. I reasoned that there was no need to risk everyone.

After slowly moving the shuttle out of the hanger, I began the trip down by firing the breaking rockets to slow the shuttle and plunge it down into Earth's atmosphere. After the breaking procedure, I began a course to take us to the domed city.

After landing near the southern end of the city, we waited for someone to come and take the seeds. An hour passed before we saw a rover appear. Bridget and I exited the shuttle and waited for the rover to approach.

Two men got out of the rover and walked over to us. I kept one hand on my laser pistol just in case. Thankfully, they weren't armed.

I pointed at the barrel. "Here it is. I believe there's at least a thousand seeds in here. If they sprout and grow properly, we can give you more."

"We're grateful for this," one of the men said. He was a younger dark-skinned male with a mustache and beard. The other guy, an older male with grey hair didn't say anything.

Bridget and I watched them carry the barrel to their rover and then drive off.

"Not very friendly," Bridget said.

"They probably don't trust us," I said. "Especially after I killed two of them."

"They deserved that. They tried to kill us."

I shook my head. "Yes, I'm sure they realize that it was a mistake."

"A lot of wars started because of a mistake."

"That's true."

We got back into the shuttle and returned to the ship.

At supper, the big question came up.

"What are we going to do now?" Natale asked.

"Maybe we should see if the aliens are on Proxima-b," Sharon said.

"We could do that, but if these supposed aliens are aggressive, we could end up being destroyed or at the least stranded. Our vessel is not designed for war in space."

"What else could we do," she retorted. "We can't find a safe habitable planet to live on, and Earth is only marginally habitable. We're only guessing that the aliens are on Proxima-b."

"Good points. I, for one, would not want to live out the rest of my life in a domed city on a planet that's one step away from being uninhabitable."

"So, what do you think we should do?" Janet asked.

"I suppose we should go check out Proxima-b. It was our original mission target."

"Let's do it," Natale said.

"How long will we have to stay in hyperspace to get there?" Bridget asked.

"Not long, I would think," I said.

It turned out to be a few days, but what we found there changed everything.