Out of Time by Ryan Matthew Harker (ebooks online reader txt) 📕

room the wall is built from what appears to be thick plate glass, or perhaps some sort of finely translucent and stout Plexiglas. Sammi sneaks up to the wall and gazes through the window. On the other side of the glass is a massive docking bay filled with space transports of all shapes and sizes. On the opposite side of the dock Sammi can clearly see the pitch blackness of space glowing with the luminous light of an infinite tapestry of stars. Wow, where is she? Space? How did she get here? She reverts her attention to the docking bay and can make out a trail of people marching towards a large landing craft. Davey! One of those people is Davey! Sammi wants to cry out to him in her happiness but clamps her mouth shut tight so not to let a peep escape.

I have to get down there, she thinks and looks around. But the elevator stops on this floor. How do I gain access to the docking bay?

Sammi turns back to her bird’s eye view of the docking bay, Davey and his escort is almost to the landing craft. Panic tries to set in but she pushes it aside and sets off at a jog in the direction the strange looking man had gone. Eventually she comes to a turn in the hall she’s following. She rounds the corner without thinking and jumps back fearfully. She had just come to the doors of a freight elevator guarded by two of the strange looking men. They stand unprepared, lackadaisical even, talking among themselves in a brotherly manner. Sammi knows her only choice is a full frontal assault. Without a quiet weapon on her, Sammi must use her wits... and her fists; surprise will be her ace in the hole. Balling up her fear into a small, tight ball in the pit of her stomach, she draws courage over her like a cloak, drawing its hood around her face.

Darting around the corner Sammi charges full bore at the two men. The look on their faces would be worth a laugh if the contortion of her facial muscles by adrenaline didn’t leave her unable to produce any feature other than a grimace. Her hand cannon is clutched tightly by her right hand, she draws Davey’s .45 with her left. The guards eyes widen even further, beyond what should be humanly possible. Before they have a chance to realize exactly what’s going on, she strikes, and again, one weapon impacts the guard on the right, the other the left. She stands panting with each crumpled to either side of her.

Stepping over the prone and unconscious guards Sammi presses the button to call the freight elevator to her level. After a moment a bell chimes and the doors open to reveal a thankfully empty car. Stepping inside she eyeballs the buttons, they aren’t labeled but she wants to go down. She chooses the bottom button and barely feels the lurch of the car as it begins its descent.

She’s in luck as the elevator stops and the doors open to reveal the ship dock on their other side. Sammi is just in time to see the tail end of the procession leading Davey disappearing inside the landing craft. Boy does that craft look a lot bigger from down here, she thinks. I need to find a way inside, and fast. With a quick look around, the coast clear, she moves from the confines of the elevator car at a low, hunched over run, bee lining for the landing craft.

 

 

No gee while a five point harness holds your body into place can be an unpleasant experience for one not used to it. The harness never holds the contents of your stomach from floating around inside of you, no matter how empty it may be, and no matter how well it might hold you from floating out of your seat.

The landing craft I’ve been lead to by the wolfmen has left the gravitational confines of the starship’s docking bay for the freefall of orbital space. I say orbital because the ship we’ve just left sits in a concentric orbit around the fourth, red plant of our Milky Way galaxy, Mars. The, potentially, most Earthlike of all the planets circling Sol, Mars has, as of this time period, has been inhabited for millions of years... well, actually, reinhabited is probably a more historically accurate term. In the many, many millennium since Mars became first inhabited by man, there have been a slew of archeological discoveries that have proven- beyond a shadow of a doubt- that, yes, Mars had, at one time, an advanced civilization of its own crawling across its dusky, red surface.

I manage to wrestle control of my stomach just in time to hit freefall. The landing craft lurches perceptibly as its trajectory carries it into Mar’s atmosphere and my stomach renews its complaints. I really don’t want to puke though as I’m dressed in a self contained spacesuit... just in case of an emergency. Really? An emergency? As if I’d want to live through whatever may go wrong at this point.

The landing craft’s descent is arrested by its thrusters, which- in my opinion- only serve to throw my churning guts into a whole ‘nother realm of discomfort. I grip the straps of my harness until my knuckles turn as white as my face must be about now and pray to a god I’m fairly certain I don’t believe in for the intestinal chaos to subside. The fact that I still wish to barf my last supper- as long ago as that was- into my helmet only serves to reinforce my inherent belief that man was never truly created to withstand the rigors of space travel. Why didn’t they just beam me down? It’s obvious they have the tech to do so. Oh well, I clench my teeth and try to enjoy the ride.

The ship’s shaking is reduced as it escapes the initial burn of reentry and the shaking in my stomach reduces with it, thankfully, I’m not sure how much longer I could have kept it under control. As it slows even further I gauge we must be getting near to the ground. My estimation’s pretty close but not quite on target as with a final shutter the ship touches down and settles gently onto the landing gear. I guess this is it, Mars, we’ve arrived.

I’ve always wanted to visit the fourth planet from our sun, I only wish that it could be under more congenial circumstances. I take the liberty of unbuckling from my seat while I wait for my ‘hosts’ to retrieve me from the compartment I’m stowed in. My stomach now completely under control I sure wouldn’t mind a smoke. Thinking of cigarettes only makes me think of Sammi, and the last time I saw her. I look up at the ceiling, imagining her alone and trapped somewhere on the starship in orbit around Mars. Man, I miss her. In the short time since we met she’s staked a claim on a little piece of my heart. I’ve noticed constant danger and a healthy fear of losing your life tends to nurture that.

I don’t have long to wait as Wolfman and his wolfmen cohorts pop the door to my chamber within minutes of our landing. “Mr. Jones,” Wolfman purrs and waves an arm for me to depart it’s confines.

“Wolfman,” I growl and shoulder my way past his buddies.

Taking the lead I make my way through the landing craft’s corridors to the exterior causeway. Reaching the hatch I step aside and allow one of my captors to open it...

...and the view that greats us is absolutely extraordinary! A vast and magnificent forest of red and amber, pink and magenta, blue and violet greets my eyes. I step to the edge of the open hatch and lift my gaze skyward. An immense sky of deep, dark burnt orange canopies the foliage surrounding the landing craft. Terraforming and hundreds of millennium of controlled, but unchecked, growth have certainly transformed Mars for the better. I take a deep, satisfying breath and sigh contentedly, my current predicament temporarily forgotten in the face of this alien beauty.

“Magnificent, is it not?” While Wolfman’s question is spot on, his voice only serves to remind me of my imminent danger. I steel my mind from thinking any subversive thoughts and then answer.

“No question about it,” I respond in genuine awe. “I’ve always wanted to see Mars. It’s only too bad I won’t remember it.” I sigh again, only this time my thoughts are truly saddening.

A hand falls on my shoulder. I try not to cringe at the touch. “Come young Davey Jones, let us proceed,” Wolfman says from my right.

I sigh one last time. I really don’t know how I’m going to get out of this one. With every passing moment my chances of surviving this encounter seem to be shrinking. I can only hope that whatever fate has in store for me it’s in my best interest. I resignedly place one foot on front of the other and exit the landing craft.

A lost soul on a strange world I’d laugh at anyone else in my shoes as my shoes press into the soft soil of the red planet. One small step and all that, I guess. But a small part of the thrill that I felt when the landing hatch opened reenters my soul in the first two steps I take on this foreign soil. I can’t help but feel at least a little exhilarated to be finally traversing the terrain of my most favorite planet. I mean, come on, this is Mars for God’s sake. Mars!! Sure I may be millions of years into the future, but still, seriously, how many people from my Time can say they’ve been here? None that I know of.

We walk for a time. By we, I mean me and my cohorts. Wolfman has placed a vanguard of about nine of his wolven brothers about me as an escort, with him in the lead. We march from the landing craft into the lushness of the Martian forest, following a displaced path through which few have recently travelled... at least as far as the weary and hungry eyes of my mind perceive. Human feet have done little trampling along the path my feet now traverse. Little indeed as the tread of my feet stir dust left long unstirred.

Wandering through an almost primal Martian forest, with a nearly human, but not quite so, host of interstellar, Time travelling aliens is surreal to say the least. Though I suppose no more so than any other part of my adventures. With nothing better to do, and no other alternative readily available, I lose myself in the beauty of my surroundings, doing my best to clear my mind as I do so.

Before too much longer our small outfit passes through an area where the foliage starts thinning and then turns into a clearing. I gasp in utter disbelief for in the center of the clearing sits a true tower of Babel. Large beyond all get out the building in front of us is so tall that I literally can’t tell where it ends and the sky begins. So this is it, this is where my journey through Time, and Space, ends.

“Incredible,” I exhale and I’m only partly talking about the structure.

“No need to be sad, Mr. Jones. You’ve had a good run,” Wolfman attempts to reassure me. “Now, however, it’s time to stop your rampage, put things right and save the Human race. Before it’s too late.”

“So say you,” I mutter under my breath.

“What was that, Mr. Jones?” Wolfman asks.

I clear my thoughts. “Nothing,” I tell him. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Very well,” he says and resumes the lead.

We enter the tower and its interior is as equally impressive as is the outside. It’s a technological wonder the likes of which I’ve never seen, and I’ve seen a lot