Did life exist on Mars before it was destroyed, and can it exist again? Jordan Pleiedes arrives on the planet hoping to right a wrong she committed years ago only to discover that it isn't Mars that needs to be saved.
Only three of us survive. We are waiting for the ships. I don't know what our fate will be, don't dare predict. It happened so fast.
The sliding door of the airlock opened sending my heart into warp drive. Oh Lord. The hound from hell. Lu Mare, our captain and the station's ecologist, tossed her helmet to the deck and opened her arms. From one of the passageways in the Martian station, a big yellow puppy galloped up. It stood on its hind quarters trying to grab her face with its paws. She ruffled the dog's fur and planted a big kiss on the top of his head while I cringed.
"What's the matter, Jordan? Nostradamus is just a pup. He can't hurt you."
I showed Nostradamus a trembling hand, and instead of sniffing it, he dived into my face.
"You okay?"
I shuddered, lied. "I'm fine. Is David here?"
"He's out collecting samples, but he'll be back for chow."
I had just arrived from the Agaricus II one of the biospheres orbiting Mars. Lu Mare had picked me up at the landing and brought me to the Ranunculus. It was not a large station, but it was home for the next six months. It was constructed like a torpedo or a submarine, and like a submarine, it had only one entrance.
Lu pointed to a door. "You're bunking with me, so the cube's empty. I've got to complete some reports, but if you want some company—" Her eyes flew briefly to Nostradamus before returning to mine. I shook my head quickly and entered the cube.
Outside the only porthole, Olympus Mons rose above the Tharsis plains. In the nearby sea, squat columnar stromatolites, pink, green and blue jutted out of the backwash. Waves sloshed and sucked, heaved up and out, and splashed the coral and sulphur sand mottling the shore. Dust swirled, burst, as a hovercraft scuttled by. Two faint moons showed above the settling dust, and somewhere beyond that . . . was Earth.
David and I were lovers on Earth. I will never forget the dark look on his face the last time I saw him. The growl, the terrified voice. David jerking his head up from the tray of green slime that was meant for the simulator. My own voice screaming. I remember seeing him through the window of the lab as he shoved the glass tray into the simulator. He had left the hatch open and come outside, approached the snarling boxer, held its collar, then let go, and put an arm around me and walked me indoors. A snarl had come from behind us. His boxer skulked in. David went for its collar, too late. The dog lunged at me. As I dodged its snapping jaws, it catapulted into the simulator and I slammed the hatch shut. In my panic to get away, I tripped onto the console, switching it on. The dog convulsed, its eyes bulged, and its blood boiled. Then the body of David Wang's boxer crumpled in the simulated Martian air.
Nauseated at the memory, I forced my attention back to the porthole. Accidents happened. That sea and that sky. Stromatolites on Mars. That was why I was here, and why Mars, given enough time, would look like Earth.
A scratching started at the door, then a whining and a whimper. Nostradamus was sniffing at the threshold. I could hear him, almost smell him. If humans had hackles, mine were rising. The hairs along my arms bristled. Gooseflesh rippled across my shoulders. A man's voice mumbled, then a scurrying of canine claws followed. I waited, opened the door, and peered into the corridor. There was no dog and no David either. I braced a hand on the bulkhead and shut the heavy door behind me. When I turned around, I almost screamed.
Lu had materialized from nowhere.
"What's the matter, you got the jitters? You're probably suffering from shuttle sickness. It'll pass with a good night's sleep." She squinted down one of the narrow passageways and motioned for me to follow. "Let's go visit the cairn. David won't be back for another hour. You look like you need something to do; you're so pale."
Nostradamus was curled up, asleep, on the deck in front of the airlock. We tugged on our suits and fastened our helmets, and just as we entered the airlock, the dog stirred. He glanced up, stretched, and Lu blocked his abrupt leap with her knee and sent the sliding door shut in his face.
The two faint moons hung on the horizon. Red dust whirled around my mask, and I turned from the wind to seek out the cairn which sat on the Martian beach, a mound of grey stones.
The wind was gusting harder and Lu brushed dust from her mask. I stared at the baleful sky, then looked back at Lu, who pointed to the entrance of the cairn. Dropping to my knees, I peered into the dark hole and tried to crawl in, but my shoulders jammed with the thick suit. I gestured with a hand. Had she been inside? I'd been told that there were bones in there, and unless I could remove my suit without dying a horrible, gruesome death, Lu, who was shorter and thinner, and altogether smaller, would have to retrieve them for me. But that would have to wait for a calmer day.
David was in the computer lab when we returned. He looked the same. His black hair was styled in a neat brush cut. His intelligent eyes made me feel like I knew less about everything than he did. He was lean and muscular, and his umber skin was blemish free. He looked up briefly, only long enough to recognize me, then he returned to his simulation on the computer.
From the counter, he lifted a vial of blue-green algae. Life first emerged on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. The same had occurred on Mars a billion years earlier. Then a meteor had stopped evolution in its tracks. All of that had been buried under rock and ice. Now, life was forming again; there was algae in the seas.
He replaced the vial, tapped at the console; the soft silicone keys made no sound. A giant simulated comet made its fiery way across the screen, the brilliant tail fragmenting into pieces as it struck the earth's orbit.
"The universe never ceases to amaze me."
My comment was met with silence. "Lu took me to see the hominid bones today. I couldn't get inside the cairn, but I used the remote camera and got some wonderful images. The bones are definitely those of a female. I think she was alone . . ."
I watched the side of his face for any sign that he was listening. "Can you imagine how frightened she must have been when it happened, if she saw the meteor coming? Of course the chances are she didn't see it and if she did she wouldn't have understood what it meant, so she wouldn't have been afraid—" I broke off, suddenly realizing that we hadn't seen each other in two years. "Hello David," I murmured.
David remained mute. He ran a new scenario and this time when the comet struck Earth, one quarter of the planet exploded.
I winced.
His face stayed fixed, stern, as he ran another scenario. This time he replaced Earth with a simulated Mars and filled the red planet with greenery—what Mars might have looked like when the hominids were alive. Then he changed the comet to a meteor. On impact, everything shrivelled up and died. He fast-forwarded the simulation, and life started forming again, blue-green algae . . .
"Here so fast, gone so fast." My voice was a strangled whisper.
David turned to me with an exasperated look on his face. Yes, I had been talking too much.
"Everything we had to say to each other was said two years ago. What are you doing here, Jordan, except running my ear off, babbling about things I already know."
"I was assigned to study the bones in the cairn."
"Then study them. But stay away from me, and stay away from my dog."
At dinner that evening, he avoided my eyes and spoke only to Lu. For the first time since we had met, the captain was quiet. She looked from me to David and screwed up her face. She opened her mouth like she wanted to ask what the hell was going on between us, but nothing came out.
David left the mess hall for the gym.
I went to the lockers to suit up.
A snuffling caught my attention and Nostradamus came around the corner, eyes gleaming with joy, tail wagging wickedly.
Go away! I yanked on my helmet, almost snapping my wrist, and stepped into the airlock. Nostradamus followed. No! I chased him around the airlock but he thought it was a game. A few seconds later David entered, sweat flying from his workout. He seized Nostradamus by the collar and sent him out. Then he hiked up my mask and glared at me.
That night I awoke to voices on the other side of the bulkhead.
"What the hell is going on between you and Jordan?"
"Nothing. Nothing that concerns you."
"Everything that happens on this station concerns me."
"We had a past, okay? Let's leave it at that."
"I will not leave it at that. Don't you realize how serious this is? I need you to have your mind on the job. Fix whatever's messed up between you, and help her study those bones in the cairn. I want the both of you to figure out what happened here and the probability of it happening again."
"Don't you understand? I can't work with her."
"Find a way. You may only have one chance, David, so seize it while you can."
"I've been calculating probabilities, Lu, running scenarios for two years. Nothing's changed."
"And Mars wasn't supposed to start growing life."
The next morning they were gone before I awoke. I went to the locker to suit up. A reflection flickered in the corner of my mask and I blinked. I couldn't see much because the helmet had too many blind spots. I passed through the airlock to the outside, and before I could even react, Nostradamus flew past me.
Wind lashed viciously at my suit, dust swirled.
Horrified, I scoured the landscape, but the dog was gone.
By my stance and total inability to answer the hail over the transmitter, David knew something was wrong. He saw me from the beach and ran clumsily toward me. When he reached the station he rushed past me to the airlock. I tried to stop him from entering, but we were already in and the door shut. A minute passed, the air equalized and the inner door slid open. David shot into the corridor. He searched his cube and under his bunk. He went to the mess, the lab, the gym. He grabbed me, and turned me to face him, his glare accusing, while tears rained down my cheeks.
"He's not here."
He brushed me aside, passed through the airlock and went outside with me at his heels. I snatched at his arm, but he tore away. The storm was rising, and I knew that there was only one place Nostradamus could find shelter—if he was still alive.
I made for the cairn, and David followed. The opening was black, but something bolted out of it, knocking me down. Overjoyed, David lunged for his dog but missed, and Nostradamus disappeared.
Then he poked his head out.
I couldn't hear a thing with my helmet on, but I could see the dog barking furiously. Delirious with relief, and with a sudden delayed flash of insight, I unfastened my helmet. I knew I was taking a huge chance, especially when David shouted, "NO!" But my helmet was already on the ground, my suit was off, and I was worming my way into the cairn.
Under the stone ceiling, Nostradamus huddled among the bones. I went to him, breathless, and soon, David appeared at the cairn's entrance, minus his gear, and crawled to us. I smiled idiotically, stroking Nostradamus's ears.
David watched us, overcome with relief, and ran an affectionate hand over his dog.
Abruptly, he raised his head, clipping his scalp on the stone ceiling, and caught my eyes. His own sparkled with excitement. "Yesterday the atmosphere would've killed us! I checked the instruments last night. Nitrogen, CO2 levels were too high. My projection was for another decade before the air was thick enough to breathe. It must have been the new species of algae. When I tested that sample last night it gave off an explosive charge of pure oxygen, the most perplexing thing I've ever seen. This morning it was everywhere, a massive blue-green bloom covering the entire sea, an oxygen-emitting algal bloom."
A rattling started on the roof and I cupped my head. I curled up on the floor of the cairn and shut my eyes. The bones of the ancient hominid dug into my cheek. The pounding came heavier. Then, just as quickly as it had begun, the rattling stopped.
David and I exchanged puzzled glances and we crept outside to a strange sight. The ground was wet and hail the size of my fists lay melting all around.
He whistled in astonishment, toeing the ground. Miraculously, there were shoots breaking through, and what once was dust was now damp soil. He shooed Nostradamus ahead of us and grabbed my hand. "Come on, we'd better get back to the station and tell Lu."
I hesitated, bit my lip.
David squeezed my hand and kissed my forehead. It was amazing to feel his touch again, bare lips against bare skin.
I opened my eyes and saw the captain on the slope, suited up, agitated, beckoning for us to hurry. David let me go, and motioned for Lu to remove her helmet.
At once she realized what had happened to the atmosphere and raised her mask. As we got closer, she peered around, eyes wide, then her face changed.
A strange, eerily purple darkness was forming in the sky. Earth was just visible, a glowing blue orb. I looked at the captain and the pain on her face turned my chest cold. I was terrified to ask.
"How much time do they have?"
"Not enough. Your projections were off, David. The comet is coming sooner than we thought."
David gave an agonized cry, slumping to his knees.
Lu yanked him to his feet. "No time for mourning past mistakes. We'd better get ready for those who make it here."
Utterly Fantastic Occurrences is a collection of 20 science fiction short story novellas existing in hardcover, in paperback and in Kindle and Nook e-book formats.
