Jupiter Projects

Tantalus X 3

Chapter 3

The Angels

Gabriel checked his watch again. He hated stake outs. He understood their importance, but lately all they were doing was watching buildings where young Martian adults met to plan protests. Gabriel was a detective, not secret police and he resented being used as a glorified babysitter. Every year they used more resources on protest crack downs, and less on real police work. The U.N. Government was using fear to cultivate more tax money, and control and these kids weren’t dangerous, at least not yet. Gabriel saw this for what it was-just another way to put more colonials behind bars. It irritated him, this unnatural fear of the pinks.

He was not a fan of Mars, but he certainly didn’t take that fact out on the locals. He had spent his childhood on Earth before he moved here with his family when he was just thirteen. There was no green here, and everything was covered in a red dust. He missed the blue sky, and the smell of pine trees. Mars didn’t even have birds-all it had was large spiders, a product of early terra forming, like the reddish skin colonials. Mars was a miserable place, but the people were just like everyone else.

Gabriel looked over at his partner, drooling onto windowsill of the government issued car. The guy could sleep anywhere and was now showing his skill with loud, thunder-like snores.

“Hey Micheal wake up! Were on the job, here.” Gabriel passed a thermos to Micheal. “Here- caffeinate!”

Micheal wiped the drool off his chin and the door. He could never understand how Gabriel stayed awake on these patrols. No matter what he tried-sleeping all day, drinking pure caffeine-nothing worked. Gabriel was like an owl; his eyes were locked and only his neck would move for hours.

“How is it you can always stay up?”

Gabriel laughed. “Unlike yours, my mind is always working.”

“Well if we keep getting stuck on these government bitch runs I’m not gonna need it ever again. When was the last time we did real police work? We are detectives and shit.”

Gabriel, and Micheal had been partners for years. The precinct even had a nickname for them- “The Angels”. They had solved many hard cases, and had too many close scrapes to count. They were the perfect partners-Micheal, with his love of history and passion for mysteries and Gabriel, an ex-marine, with no great love of authority complimented each other both personally and professionally. After fifteen years as partners, the men-now in their mid thirties-could not be separated.

The two paused as they heard a motorcycle coming down the road. A white bike came to a stop outside of the warehouse they were parked next to.

“That looks like him.” Gabriel said.

“That is definitely him,” Michael confirmed, “lets make the stupid call.” After reporting the necessary information Micheal turned and whispered, his hand covering the speaker on the police radio. “Is it bad that we always root for these guys to escape?”

“Hell no. These poor kids don’t deserve this-they have a hard enough life already. If I could I’d arrest these fuckin’ swat guys.”

They watched as the swat vans pulled up around the building. The doors burst open, and the black hooded swat ran into the building. Only a minute passed before they saw a young male colonial burst out the front doors of the warehouse, and jump on the white bike. Micheal broke the silence in the unmarked car.

“Hey-that’s a different kid!”

They didn’t budge. The motorcycle roared to life, and the young man sped away into the night. After a little while longer they saw the SWAT coming back out, a long line of hand cuffed martians following them. One of the black hooded officers ran over to their car window. He looked out of breath, and Micheal rolled down his window.

“Hey-either of you see a red run out these doors?”

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed, but he answered back, “Nope-no one out these doors.”

The officer looked confused, stopped like he was gonna say something else, but instead ran back to the van full of wrongfully arrested Martians. Gabriel and Michael looked at each other, their eyes having the unspoken conversation of like-minded long term partners. Gabriel turned the key and the unmarked car roared to life, pulling away into the Martian darkness.

Tantalus X 2

Chapter 2

Breakdown

Judy watched as her daughter slept. The only time she got to see her oldest was in the morning before work; it was a blessing and a curse all rolled up in one package. Getting to see her daughter sleep gave her time to be nostalgic of days long past, when Emily was little and still needed her, yet it also meant Judy had to wake her up-and that was definitely not an honor she enjoyed. It looked like another hard morning, Judy thought to herself as she shook Emily violently. She stirred, but true to her stubborn nature, rolled right back over.

“Emily Phoenix, get yourself up this minute!” Judy raised her voice, but made sure to keep just under the decibel that would wake her younger daughters.

Em jerked her head and gave her mom a sharp glare. “I’m up, I’m up!”

“Good. While you do that, I’ll make you breakfast and pack your lunch.”

Em could hear her mom humming a tune to herself in the kitchen as she pulled on her overalls, and collected her gear for the day. She tiptoed out of the room and sat down at the counter. Judy looked at her daughter-she had become a beautiful woman under those overalls, cap, and goggles. Judy passed coffee to her.

“Here you go sweetie. Hows Jack doin’?” She asked, overly casual. Emily rolled her eyes.

“The same as he always is, Mom-doin’ good, pulling the same hours I am.”

Judy knew she asked too often, but she liked Jackson Dwight. His parents had never been able to spoil the young man’s good nature and she knew he was a good match for her Em. If only they would kiss, she thought, maybe she could have some grandchildren before she got too old and worn out to enjoy them.

“Well gotta go mom, love you-see you tomorrow morning.”

Grabbing her tool bag and her lunch, and took one last gulp of coffee before heading out the door. Emily stood next to the dirt road and waited for Jack as she did every morning. She thought happily about the routines she enjoyed. Every morning she got to see her mom and drank miner coffee, a special mix of all the necessary nutrients. It was thick but warm and filled you quick. Most Terrans wouldn’t touch miner coffee, they drank something watery which didn’t have the same kick the rough coffee had. For lunch she would have moss sandwiches-bread made from moss grown at home and then seasoned with jam made from miner coffee, and moss. The taste wasn’t for everyone but it comforted her she was raised on it. Still, her favorite part of the day were the rides to and from work with Jack. Emily looked at the sun-it was too high.

“Dammit Jack come on were gonna get in trouble if we’re late again!” she whispered under her breath. Another thirty minutes rolled without the sound of Jack’s motorcycle pulling through the streets. Past being mad now, her mind flashed to images of his bike crumpled on the side of the road. Just when Emily was starting to really worry, she saw the dust cloud and heard the sound of the engine. When the bike was close enough for her to make out the rider her heart fell into her stomach-it was Jack’s friend Paul, riding Jack’s bike. He turned off the bike and looked sorrowfully at Em as he swung to the ground. Blood rushed into her head and pinpricks of tears stung her eyes. She knew she didn’t want to hear what Paul had to say.

“What are you doing on his bike?” she demanded, “that’s Jacks motorcycle and he doesn’t let anybody borrow it!”

Paul let her yell at him; he knew she loved Jack and was not happy to share his knowledge. Jack was his closest friend.

“Em, he ah…Well he ahh…Well he told me a long time ago to give you this bike if anything were to happen to him…”

Emily threw herself at Paul, her fists pounding his chest, “What happened? Where is Jack! You tell me right now!” Paul let her lash out, and looked down at the top of her head with sympathetic eyes.

“Last night the Terrans police raided the meeting. They picked up all but a few of us. I managed to get away, but I saw them grab Jack.”

Emily’s fists stopped clenched against Paul’s chest. She rested head against them and the sobs climbed out of her throat. Watching Em cry made Paul turn green, and he put his arms around Em, a gesture which protected them both from the reality of what was happening to Jack. They knew he was being sent out to the frozen mountains, and he wasn’t coming back. Paul braced his back against the bike and let go of Emily, trying to pull his thoughts together. He knew when people got picked up they usually came back and picked up their relatives and friends too. It would only take so much time before Emily and Paul were in danger themselves.

“There’s still time for us to hide, Em. I have a place for myself but I cant bring you.” Emily nodded, but stood perfectly still. He grabbed her arm and spoke into her dazed expression, “Emily take the bike and get out of here!” Paul turned swiftly and walked away-no goodbye could cover how they felt at that moment. Emily didn’t even look up, she just stared numbly at the keys he had left in the dirt beside her feet.

She could have tried harder to keep him away from the groups. Her sadness hardened into a bitter hatred-for the terrans, the cops, the world they lived in, and-most of all-for herself. She could have protected him. She should have been there.

In the distance, the sirens of a Terran police convoy screeched down the road, bringing her back to herself. She had to run. Moving with blind instinct, Em grabbed the keys out of the dirt, kick started the white bike, and headed out of town. The red sand stuck to her tears on her cheeks, her face stuck in an angry grimace. She cranked the throttle back as far as she could and the bike screamed across the uneven dirt road, looking like a white comet with screaming a red tail. She needed some where to think, to collect her thoughts. Things just got extremely complicated and her emotions were all over the place. She felt suicidal, and the unearthly wail of the bike made her feel better. She didn’t know where she was going, but within twenty minutes she found herself turning into the bone yard.

She zipped passed the hanger, straight to the Kyoto, weaving in and out of ships up the hill. She couldn’t get there fast enough. At the foot of the massive ship she slammed the bike to a stop, smoke curled out from its seals. Emily gazed back behind her-the place was empty, yet she felt safe here-almost like she could feel Jack with her. She climbed onto the top of the old ship to sit, just as they did every day at lunch and her heart wrenched with sadness.

The sky looked blood red, not the usual hazy pink. It was a deep, dark, cloudless horizon. Emily’s mind started clicking, putting together everything she had just gone through, but it still felt distant to her. Today felt like a normal day, as if any minute Jack would poke his head up to the top of the Kyoto and explain it was all a game. Hide and seek like they played as kids. She just wanted to go home and tell her mom everything and cry together, but some part of her knew she couldn’t endanger her family that way.

Emily began to face the reality of her situation, and she soon realized what she had to do. She would stay on the Kyoto as long as she could. She had the duffel with food in it, and if she could find the airlock on this ship she might be able to hide inside of it, as long as her flashlight would hold out. Emily was pretty sure the Terrans wouldn’t follow her inside, no one had ever gotten inside it from the stories she had heard. Emily slid down the side of the massive ship, she didn’t know how old it was exactly, it was old she knew that but the hull was still reasonably smooth-you couldn’t slide down most ships because of all the rust. Emily touched down and looked across her hiding place. The Kyoto was at least three stories high above the ground, the hull touching the sky was roundish and smooth. It looked like a large half buried oval stone, one you could skip across water. If it was that shape then there must be at least four to five stories under silt. The ship looked like a mound of smooth steel with the large print K-Y-O-T-O across both sides angled up at the sky. Emily hoped no spiders inhabited this ship-it did seem sealed not at all like most of them that were missing half their hull plating. Em hid the bike under some dirt aside the ship.

She headed out to go get supplies from the tractor down at the hanger. She still needed a lamp and plasma cutter to get inside the airlock-it would be rusted tight after this many years of being sealed. The turtle shell shape sticking out of the ground, was going to be her home for the next week. After that, everything would die down and she could tell her parents everything was okay. Emily headed out to the hangar, hiding between ships, and staying in the shadows. It would have been nice to have some stormy weather to hide her but all she got today was the shadows as she wound her way to the tractor parked farthest from the trail. All the tractors had plasma cutters, a tool box, and extra lamps. The hanger floor was smooth, Em bolted across the large expanse of concrete, leaping into the tractor. She preemptively put the vehicle in gear, knowing it was going to be loud and wanting to make this as quick as possible. Coughing and choking the tractor lurched forward, running cold, and with a large sigh of relief she made her way to the airlock on the Kyoto unseen.

Tantalus X Prologue

Prologue

The ancient Romans had a term for the unexplained, that which devoured and preyed on mortals-Lamia meaning witch or vampire in old Latin. Thousands of years after this great civilization died out and only their alphabet remained, the archaic word was brought back, if only by destiny, to become a term for hero. It was the chosen name given to a series unique scout ships created by Mars Colonial Ship Yards in a time of desperation, when all was nearly lost. Ten of these Lamias were produced over an eleven year period, the designers and builders knowing full well that each ship may be the last hope for their civilization. By 2150AD the last ship bearing the Lamia name rolled out of dry dock with the marking X. This ship was destined to become an icon; the savior of Colonial Mars. While this ship fought valiantly during the United Planets Civil War, its true worth would not be fully realized until generations after when it was finally able to grant Mars its independence. Captain Richard Hull, one of the greatest leaders of Colonial Mars, started his first command aboard that Lamia and gave the the vessel the name Tantalus X. Greek for “something that cannot be obtained”, the great Captain Hull christened her in hope that she could be used as a last defense. The Tantalus also held a great secret-she and her siblings carried revolutionary artificial intelligence on board. AI was an untrusted technology in 22^nd Century, but the desperation of the times required all available technology be used regardless. A limited version of AI was utilized as as a sixth sense for the ten Lamia scout ships. L.O.L.A., or Lamia On-board Limited Artifical, could calculate impact times and maneuver faster than any human officer could. This made the Lamias famous for getting out of impossible situations. Earth’s United Nations despised these ships, but by 2215AD it didn’t matter. The U.N. Won the war against Colonial Mars and all Lamia ships were stripped, parted out, or used for freight transport. They were remembered for years in stories the Martians shared with their children about the Battles of Onyx Ditch and their win at Neon Port, yet in time they quietly disappeared into history-except one. The Tantalus X, renamed Kyoto, had a malfunction while in service for the U.N. as a transport ship. The engineers aboard her did not fully understand how their unusual Martian vessel worked, and when the crew did an emergency repair in flight they unintentionally destroyed the life support and the lock out limitation for the L.O.L.A. systems. L.O.L.A. was unable to save the crew and one hundred and fifty souls were lost. It was a tragedy for Earth, and the Lamia was discarded at a Martian bone yard to be dismantled. As time rolled forward in an unending quest to quiet the dead, life simmered down and Mars adjusted to life under Earth’s boot. Martians, those humans who had colonized Mars in the early years, were no longer allowed to own property or business. They became an impoverished lower class, while overlords from Earth took over the infrastructure. In this new world business owners became barons of massive estates, affording many servants that were little better than slaves. In 2301AD this is the world which Emily Phoenix lived in. She was a poor Martian with no prospects and many grand dreams. She, and her childhood friend Jackson Dwight, could never have imagined they would change the world someday and finally grant Mars independence from the tyrannical control of the U.N.

My Goal

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
-Marcus Aurelius

The older I get the more I want to write. I am less afraid to be wrong. So this is me embracing the love of writing I feel in its purest form. So here’s to my first post, and getting started instead of waiting to be a better writer I will just grow with my mistakes. I’m not here to waste time being perfect, I am here to enjoy the process. I have started stories in the past, and I have more to express. I will most likely throw writing on here that’s random. I just don’t want to set any goal other than to write. I like writing stories, so if you check out my blog expect a lot of random short stories, and pieces of larger ideas. If you come by and read a couple thanks for stopping by.

Tantalus X 1

Chapter 1

The Bone Yard

Red sands swirled around the desert landscape. Hot sun cooked the skeletons of once great ships littered in unending lines at the bone yard in Hayden, Mars. The horizon was covered in dunes and bathed in red silt, except for the tall standing structures of scrap metal which arose like spires out of the dust. Warm wind mixed with the particles of rock, hazing the clear day with a reddish glow. Emily pulled her goggles back down over her eyes and corrected her scarf, re-wrapping it around her mouth and neck. The plasma cutter was acting up in the weather and she cussed under her breath.

“Jack turn up the power on this piece of crap, its cutting out!” Two stories down Jack Dwight kicked the generator to shake loose the silt build up.

“Thanks!” Emily shouted from the wing of an old ship, and started back to her job. She knew their boss would give them hell if they didn’t finish tearing down the old A.C. 100. It had already taken a month to get this far and most puddle jumpers only took two weeks to fully scrap. The two story structure creaked and moaned in the weather. Em just wanted to get this over with-these jobs were dangerous and she did not want to take any more risk than she had to.

“Look out below!” The three ton tip of the wing finally broke loose, falling safely away from Jack. He gave the thumbs up.

“Come on down, Em. We should transport this to the hanger.”

Before Emily climbed down the ladder she looked out over the yard…it was only ships and red sand as far as the eye could see. “Hey Jack, why we do this again?”

Jack looked up the ladder and shouted, “Because we fuckin’ rock! And its the only job we could get-but I prefer to think its because we are bad asses!”

“Thanks, Jack!” Em slid down the rails with her heals out. After years of climbing and descending ladders, she hated wasting time doing it. A cloud of sand puffed from the ground as her boots hit. Jack had already connected the tow line from the tractor to the wing tip and was anxious to hurry her along.

“Come on Em, quit screwin’ around!” The tractor shook and coughed to life as Jack pulled the throttle lever back. The four seat tractor bumped along, dragging the scrap behind at a spirited pace. Emily stood up in her seat bracing herself against the roll bar, loving to imagine she was the captain of one of these massive ships in their hay day, cutting through the canyons created by the long shadows of the decrepit ships and escaping from some invisible enemy. The remains of the vessels were so massive, they made her feel like a tiny part of something larger.

She glanced down at Jack, grinning stupidly beside her-he loved driving the tractor. He would throttle back all the way if they were heading out to a new project, hitting the max speed of about forty to fifty miles per hour. The anxiety which a passenger experienced holding on for dear life, slipping quickly between ships with only inches on both sides of the open top rover, would terrify even the most hardened Martian, but Jack did it on a regular basis and she felt safe riding with him. He had even been skilled enough to dart around the spider than had jumped in front of him a while back without throwing her from the vehicle, though he had lost a month’s wages for the damages.

Spiders were the only wild life on Mars and were the same size as deer back on Earth, and she shuddered thinking about them. They liked living in the old frames of the bone yard, and most of them were more scared of humans than humans were of them, but they looked scary and there were always a few that got aggressive. A year before she had to plasma cut one that had pounced on Jack-that was scary as hell. She looked around as they drove up to the hanger and calmed her mind. Once they dropped off the scrap, it was time for lunch and they took the tractor up the hill to the Kyoto. The wind was dieing down and whenever possible they liked to sit on top of it and eat lunch. Terrans thought it was a ghost ship and their boss wouldn’t go anywhere near it, which meant a lunch free from his racist ramblings about “Reds”.

Martians like Emily and Jack had reddish skin due to ancestors, who had terraformed Mars before colonization. Their exposure to the unformed Martian landscape had caused permanent pigmentation changes which their children and grandchildren inherited, making them easy targets in the crowds of Earth’s colonists who came in almost every color except the distinctive bubble-gum hue. Most Martians were proud of their reddish skin, despite the social and economic disadvantages it brought them, and they referred to Earthling overlords as Terrans, if only behind their backs. It was an imbalanced system full of distrust on both sides-but it didn’t matter as they sat atop the Terrans’ ship and relaxed.

Jack and Em unwrapped their lunches. She didn’t realize how hungry she was until she downed her first sandwich in a matter of a couple large bites. Jack didn’t enjoy her mother’s moss sandwiches as much as she did. As Em watched Jack take painfully small bites, she couldn’t help noticing again how handsome he was. Every day he had changed more until the awkward kid she grew up had became a very stunning man. At twenty two he was only a year older than her, but spending the past four years moving scrap and repairing old engines had defined Jack’s muscular build, making it visible even through his overalls. She was certain he didn’t notice her watching him from across the hanger as they repaired engines, but Em loved the way he rolled the top part of his overalls down and tied them around his waist, showing his broad shoulders and arms flexing and straining under his tight white undershirt. Things had certainly changed.

Jack cut into her heated thoughts with his deep voice, “So Emily, when are you coming to one of our meetings after work?”

Jack and a handful of other young men had started a group to talk about the treatment of Martians. Recently, they had held public protests hoping more Martians would join in, but Emily wasn’t interested in politics and didn’t want to be involved. The police were brutal, and she was terrified to think of the kind of danger Jack could be in. Terrans had made strict laws regarding protesting, and while it wasn’t completely illegal people who dared to voice their opinions often got picked up in the middle of the night and shipped off to some prison out on the distant frozen mountains. It irritated her that he felt he had to risk his life in this way.

She gave Jack a sharp eye, “I’m never going to those stupid meetings. No one can change what’s going on. The war ended long before we were even born!”

They ate in silence for a long moment before Jack tried to clear the air. “Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?” She said flatly.

“Amahl.”

“Really, Jack?” She lifted her brow skeptically, but there was laughter hidden in her eyes.

“Come on Em,” he cajoled.

“O.K, fine. Amahl who?”

“Amahl shook up!” He grinned widely at her.

“Very funny, Jack. I think that is the stupidest joke I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah, but your still smiling!” He hopped down off the old Kyoto and she followed him back to work.

The rest of the work day went by fast. With the storm calmed, Jack and Emily were able to make five more scrap runs, more than any other group in the scrap yard, and their boss gave them no trouble when they picked up their paychecks. The white metal on Jacks old motorcycle mirrored the brilliant sunset as he braced himself to kick start the old bike as he did every night. He waited patiently for Emily to climb on behind him.

“My god, she’s stunning,” Jack thought to himself as she held on tightly to him, straddling his hips with her thighs. He didn’t want to complicate their friendship, he loved her so much he knew he couldn’t survive without her, but her bubble gum skin was always soft to the touch, and her bright blue eyes like nothing on Mars. She hid her shape under overalls all day, but on the way home she wore her own tight shorts and curve hugging t-shirt that helped her bra-less hour glass figure keep him awake long after he dropped her off. He shook himself mentally-making a move could mean losing her forever and he knew he couldn’t take that risk, so instead Jack ripped the throttle and the two hearts traveled together under the stars along the miles of road with nothing but the deafening rumble of the bike and their dirt cloud behind them keeping them company.

Em stared at the stars, and Jack focused on the light up ahead coming from his bike. After an hour they could see Hayden’s tent town surrounding the small city up ahead. Hayden’s light pierced the black night that their eyes had become accustomed to on their long ride. Jack tapped Em with his left hand, signaling that her house was approaching. He could feel her stretching her arms and pressing against his back, getting ready to climb down. When they came to a complete stop in front of her house, she hopped off and grabbed her work clothes out of the saddle bag on the bike.

“See ya tomorrow, Jack.”

Jack turned to her. “Hey, you sure you don’t want to come to the meeting tonight?”

“No. Hell no. I wish you wouldn’t even go.” She paused, looking at him with a feeling he didn’t understand in her eyes. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She turned and retreated into her house. Jack smiled at her back and ripped the throttle, pulling a half-assed wheelie and accelerating up the street into the dark night.

When Emily entered her family’s house, it was filled with sweet smells of dinner and beer. Simple, and just bigger than a shed, the six hundred square feet shared by Emily, her parents, her grandmother, and her two younger sisters had two bedrooms, a bathroom , and kitchen which also served as a living room and dining room. Everyone was already asleep, so Emily skipped dinner and quietly tip toed to the bathroom and took a quick cold shower before sneaking into the room she shared with her sisters, crawling in between them and wrapping up in covers. She looked at her sisters on both sides. The six and ten year old girls were little angels while they were sleeping, but if she accidentally woke them they could turn to demons pretty quick. Tonight, neither one woke up and Emily slowly drifted off to sleep.