Fairytales From Mars - Short Story Submission

Darkness in the Depths of Mars

Long ago, in the early years of our colonization of this planet, there were a pair of explorers. When we first began settling on Mars, at first the colony was quite small as we had to determine whether even a small colony could sustainably live here. As such there were very few settlers and everyone had tasks to perform.

There were two explorers, Neil and Brad. Their job, as tasked by the settlement leaders, was to scour the planet for any minerals, resources, or ideally signs of life, either previous or current. Now Neil was a cautious and quiet man, and he hoped he could find something on his journeys to help the colony and humanity as a whole. Neil was tall and wiry and quite bookish. Next was Brad, he was a thrill junkie. All he hoped for during their exploration was to find a worthy challenge or opponent to face. He was strong and stocky in build and also quite tall.

As they drove their buggies across the land it seemed that anything of interest or value, much less any signs of life, were nowhere to be found. “What do you hope we find, Brad?” Neil asked. “Something interesting and exciting, I hope. I am getting a bit tired of reddish-brown dirt and rocks. Best case scenario, I find a member of an advanced alien race, beat their king at an arm-wrestling match, and be crowned as their new king” Brad said confidently. “It’s an advanced alien race but their monarch is decided by an arm-wrestling competition?” Neil said. “Not to mention the fact that they still use a monarchy in this day and age?” he continued. “Hey you asked what I hoped we would encounter; you didn’t say it had to be realistic. And who knows, it’s a big universe, anything can happen” Brad said. “What do you hope we find Neil, a rock with an abnormal red-brown hue?” Brad asked mockingly. Neil laughed and thought for a moment. “A new element or material that helps lead to technological innovations and breakthroughs,” he said. Brad laughed and added, “and also a harp that shoots rainbows and universal peace, c’mon man come up with a less boring and pure-hearted answer.” “Alright,” Neil said, accepting Brad’s challenge. “I want to find a small band of alien rebels, lead them in a coup to overthrow their overlords, and find an alien wife,” Neil said. “Now we’re talking, that’s a goal I can get behind Neil!” Brad said encouragingly.

They continued driving on for a few minutes in silence. “Alright Brad, let’s say we get jumped by a crew of alien bandits, what do you do?” Neil asked. Brad nodded thoughtfully for a moment, “How many bandits are we talking here?” he asked. “Let’s say five” Neil answered. “What’s their formation, how are they positioned in this situation?” Brad asked. Neil, surprised by how much thought and how seriously Brad was taking it, said “Uh, the leader is in the front with his second in command, and he has three aliens behind him backing him up.” “Alright, so I go up and start negotiating with them. Hopefully, they have some form of translator device, and if not then I pull out a pen and paper and do the best I can to communicate with them. I ask what they want specifically and appear cooperative. If I can reach an agreement with them then I explain to them the human tradition of shaking hands as a formal declaration and acceptance of an agreement. If the leader agrees then when we are shaking, I pull him in close with my right hand, draw my plasma pistol with my left hand and shoot the second in command and then him. Then, using the leader’s body as a shield, draw my plasma rifle with my right while shooting the left two guys with the pistol and plasma rifle blast the last one.” Brad stated matter-of-factly. He paused for a moment, “How would you handle it?” “Hmm, my plan was something more along the lines of getting them to fight amongst themselves. I’d probably ask who was in charge and then ask why they were in charge instead of anyone else. If I’m lucky then they all start arguing and at least then I can call for backup. If things get really heated and they actually started attacking each other, I’d just bail at that point and escape.” Neil said. Brad grunted disapprovingly at Neil’s plan. They continued for the next few hours in silence.

While they stopped to assess their surroundings and check their suits’ digital maps, Brad was testing the buggies’ ability to drive donuts and jump small surface inclines. “You’ve got to try this, Neil!” he bellowed. “These buggies can get some serious air and speed!” “Nothing but dirt as far as the eye can see” Neil sighed to himself. He got out his binoculars to see if there was anything in the distance anywhere. As he slowly scanned the horizon his heart sank as he saw nothing but jagged rocks until finally, he saw a vague shape in the distance. “Brad! Brad! I think I see something!” Neil yelled. Brad hurried over and looked through the binoculars. “What do you think it is? Brad asked. “It’s hard to tell from this distance but it looks like it might be a cave of some sort,” Neil said uncertainly. They drove their buggies to the potential caves’ entrance.

As they entered the cave, their suits' flashlights illuminated patches of the craggy and jagged stalagmites scattered across the interior landscape. After a short walk inside, the pair found themselves at the edge of a cliff. Neil pulled out his tape measure and aimed the laser at what he could only assume was the bottom of the abyss before him as it was far too deep and dark to see clearly. As he pulled his hand back to read the measure it slipped from his gloves and soon disappeared into the black below. “I guess we’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way”, Neil said, as he lit a flare and dropped it into the abyss, looking at his suit's clock and counting the seconds. “Where’s the fun in that, Neil?” complained Brad as he also approached the edge. Before Neil could stop him, Brad jumped off and disappeared into the abyss. Everything was quiet for several seconds. All Neil could hear was his breathing. He peered over the edge of the cliff but it was pointless, he couldn’t see more than a few feet. Eventually, he heard a faint thud of what he assumed was the flare. A few moments later came a bigger thud of Brad landing on the abyss floor.

“Are you alright Brad?”, Neil asked nervously over his comm device. “Never better, it's definitely a rare experience being able to jump into a pitch-black abyss risk-free”, Brad mused. “What if there were a bunch of sharp rocks at the bottom?” Neil inquired. “Alright mostly risk-free, Mr. Particular”, Brad admitted. “You really are a crazy man,” Neil said incredulously “Are you sure you are alright?” he asked. “'Course I’m fine, just hit the suit’s jetpack thrusters as I got close to what as best I could tell was the bottom. It’s not the first cave abyss I’ve jumped into on Mars.” Brad replied. He paused for a moment then admitted “alright well actually it is but I figured I’d be able to see far enough below me to time it right, plus gravity is much more forgiving here than back on Earth”

Neil tied a rope around a sturdy-looking stalactite near the cliff’s edge and then tied the rope around himself and slowly lowered himself down to the cave’s true floor. “Come to think of it this is deep enough down scans probably wouldn’t be able to pick up anything, be that resources or signs of life.” Neil said aloud. Brad groaned impatiently and started walking forward.

Suddenly there was a loud snap. Brad quickly showed his flashlight on his left foot. Underneath his boot was a large bone, snapped into two pieces. It looked like it could be a human femur. As far as they knew they were among the first humans to ever set foot on Mars much less be on the planet long enough for there to be bones lying around.

Neil pulled out his analyzer and pointed it at the bone. “It’s a human femur, but how is it here?” Neil said. “There’s no way a human has been here long enough for their body to decompose into just bones though. This doesn’t make sense.” Neil went on. “Well, if that isn’t it then how is this possible, what else could it be?” Brad asked. “Hold on, hold on, I’m thinking, there has to be an explanation. If the bones aren’t here just due to the passage of time, then the only other explanation is…” Neil trailed off as a worrying thought finally dawned on him.

“Br-Brad, we have to get out of here, now!” Neil stammered. “Are you crazy? This is a huge finding, we have to keep exploring and figure this out” Brad said. “Th-the only other possibility I can think of is that an alien or alien animal did this,” Neil managed. “Even better! That makes this two discoveries for the price of one! Human bones and then an alien animal pelt for my house pod!” Brad exclaimed. “Brad, I appreciate your zest for life but whatever did this to these humans could do the same to us,” Neil protested. “If you want to hang out here with the remains of these failed explorers then be my guest, I’m going to hunt this animal!” Brad declared. Brad adjusted the knife and plasma pistol on his hip and checked his plasma rifle on his back. Brad walked quickly forward into what could be the animal’s den. Neil watched as Brad disappeared into the darkness ahead. After a few minutes of Brad walking ahead to look for clues, he suddenly stopped. In front of him were five large eggs, each one was about three feet tall and two feet wide. Each egg was a dark purple and glowed slightly. “Neil,” Brad whispered, “I think I found its eggs.” “What?! You found alien animal eggs?” Neil said incredulously. “You jealous? Just think of the omelet I could make with one of these,” Brad boasted. “Brad, focus just take a picture of it, and let’s get out of here,” Neil demanded. “Are you insane? I’m not leaving without this and ideally beast that birthed them. Besides, you wanted to discover something significant, and an undiscovered species and life on Mars is most definitely a significant discovery.” Neil paused for a moment to think it over and process Brad’s words. Against his better judgment, Neil followed in Brad’s footsteps and walked forward into the darkness. “Fine, I’d like to at least see the eggs and we’ll grab one, and then we have to leave,” Neil conceded. “Mother animals on Earth don’t leave their young unattended for long and they will destroy anything they think might harm their children. I know we aren’t on Earth and those rules may not apply but I think that’s a universal animal instinct,” Neil warned. Several minutes later, Neil caught up to Brad and saw the eggs. “I can’t believe what I am seeing right now, this is remarkable,” he said. Brad inspected his plasma rifle. Regaining his composure, Neil marked their location on his suit's map. As Brad walked around, he knelt and picked up a bit of material he found. “This place is a bit of a mess; this stuff is scattered all over the place,” Brad observed as he tossed a small chunk of the material to Neil. “According to the analyzer, this is iron,” Neil noted. “What are small iron chunks and shavings doing near these eggs?” Brad wondered aloud. “Well, presumably whatever laid these eggs subsists on iron perhaps, it has to eat something, and up until recently as far as I know there was no life on Mars outside of humanity. Mars’s crust consists mostly of iron and magnesium so there must be enough chunks on and just below the surface to keep whatever these are alive.” Neil guessed.

Suddenly they heard a loud noise. It was somewhere between a screech and a roar. Among the darkness in front of them, two pairs of yellow pupils appeared. As it slowly approached them, potentially evaluating the threat, Neil and Brad were able to take in what stood before them. The animal was easily five feet tall and it was too long and the cave too dark to tell its length. It was black save for its pupils and had a large almost shield-like face. It approached on all fours, each leg ending in a paw with four claws.  As Brad slowly moved to approach from the aliens’ side, he noticed it also had a large clubbed tail. Brad wrapped his right hand around his knife’s handle and his left hand around his plasma pistol and readied himself. For a moment that felt like an eternity, the three stood there waiting for someone to make the first move. The beast turned its head and focused its two front-facing eyes on Brad. It suddenly headed towards Brad faster than an animal that size should be able to move. Brad shot his pistol a few times, which did not appear to hurt the animal much, then he pulled out his knife and started running towards the animal.

At the last moment, the animal turned around and whipped its tail down onto Brad’s left foot which broke with a sickening crunch. Brad bellowed in pain, dropping his pistol, but he still managed to stab into the beast’s tail with his knife. The beast recoiled in pain and swiveled back around to face the two explorers.

Neil, who was still attempting to process the reality of the situation, shakily drew his plasma pistol and adjusted the pistol to stun mode. He started shooting at the beast as it was turning around, looking like it was about to pounce on Brad and finish him off. The bolts landed on the animal’s hide but it didn’t seem to achieve anything outside of angering the beast and drawing its attention, which Neil wasn’t sure if he had fully intended to do or not. The beast leaped at Neil and pinned him against the cave’s wall with its front paws. Neil wheezed as the animal knocked the wind out of him, it hit him with such force that his pistol had flown out of his hand and landed to the side, far out of his immediate reach. The animal opened its mouth for the first time revealing multiple rows of teeth. The frontmost row of teeth was wide and flat, most likely for smashing and the second row was pointed. As the beast bit his helmet, Neil was suddenly grateful for how reinforced and durable the helmet material was. His eyes widened in terror though as small cracks began forming in the outermost layer of the helmet which was supposed to be near-indestructible. He desperately started punching the beast’s face which did little more than momentarily irritate it. Brad, still reeling from his obliterated foot drew his plasma rifle and began shooting at the beast with no apparent aim or specific target in mind. As multiple bolts pierced its back leg, the beast winced in pain and tossed Neil to the side while it brought its attention back to Brad. As the animal turned towards Brad, in one fell swoop it crushed Neil’s pistol with its mighty tail. What little remained of the pistol were broken pieces of metal and rubber.

Brad continued to shoot wildly at the animal, still shaken but not down for the count yet. The beast swiped its front claws at Brad who miraculously was able to roll out of the way in the nick of time. As the beast went to bite at Brad’s helmet, he turned his gun sideways and thrust it past the beast’s rows of teeth, and used it to push the beast’s mouth back.

Neil took off his backpack and rifled through it looking for anything that might help. At that moment, inspiration struck and he began searching specifically for his magnet. He aimed it at the beast and turned on the magnet to its highest strength. Neil managed to wedge the magnet into a crack in the wall and he immediately dove to the side after turning it on.

The beast's four eyes widened in surprise as it was suddenly hurled backward with tremendous speed and force. With the beast effectively stuck against the opposite wall, Brad steadied his aim and fired a few well-placed shots at the animal. Clinging to its last bit of life, the beast let out a deafening screech, different from earlier, this time it was almost like a yelp or some other type of cry.

Neil stumbled as he stood up, still shaken from all the excitement. He ran over to Brad who was sitting down propped up on the wall opposite him. “Brad, are you okay?” Neil asked. “Other than my foot now being a thousand-piece puzzle I’m ok; you alright?” he responded. “Ye-yeah I’m fine, just a bit stunned about all of this especially the fight just now. Let me see your suit panel.” Brad lifted his right arm upon which the suit's control panel lay. Neil’s eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he navigated the suit’s many functionalities.  A small needle emerged from within the inner layer of the suit's sleeve and injected its payload into Brad’s right shoulder. “Ow, what did you just stab me with,” Brad said. “It’s morphine, it’s good stuff, it should at least help within the pain for the time being. It should take effect in a few minutes. These suits are amazing but they aren’t magic, unfortunately. We need to get you to the medical bay back at the settlement.” Brad nodded silently in agreement. Neil sat down next to Brad in order to catch his breath. He sighed, “Let me know when you are ready and I’ll help you back to the bottom of the cliff’s edge, from there you can use the suit's jetpack to get back up without putting pressure on your foot.” “I’m not leaving without an egg and my kill,” Brad stated. “Are you crazy? You need immediate medical attention; these eggs and that beast aren’t going anywhere,” Neil said. “After all we’ve seen today you don’t think there’s the possibility something could happen to this cave and its contents?” Brad responded. Neil paused for a moment as Brad had a good point, nothing they had encountered that day were things they had even remotely expected or could have predicted. Neil got up and approached the beast’s lifeless body. On a whim, he pointed his analyzer at the alien animal, no results was the analyzer’s reply. He reached behind the animal and turned off his magnet. He put the magnet back in his backpack and walked over to the eggs.

“Brad, did you notice how the second noise it made was different from when it first saw us? The second one was a different cry but I can’t figure out what it meant,” Neil asked. “After all of that, you’re wondering why it made two different noises? It screeched at the beginning to warn us to back off and at the end, because it was in great pain and essentially dead, end of story, case closed.” Brad stated. “Hmm, I suppose you’re probably right, I still think it was odd though,” Neil said. “How about this, we’ll take one egg and then go back to base,” Neil offered. “No deal, that animal’s body is coming back with me if I have to drag it while hopping on one foot all the way,” Brad stated. “You really are impossible, you know that?” Neil defeatedly. “Fine, I will take an egg and drop it off at the buggy and then we will both try to take the body up. We just have to hope that between the lighter gravity and our combined suit’s jetpacks we will even be able to get the body all the way back up to the cave entrance. While I store the egg on a buggy, why don’t you brainstorm a backup plan if the suit’s jetpacks aren’t strong enough.” Neil said. “You got it!” Brad said excitedly.

Neil took out a large bag from his backpack and unfolded it. He carefully lifted an egg, which fortunately was a weight he could handle, and slowly lowered the egg into the bag. He then clipped the bag’s drawstring onto the bottom of his backpack. “I’ll be back as soon as I can Brad, signal me over the comms if anything goes wrong,” Neil said. “Wait, before you head up let me give you something,” Brad said. As Neil approached him, Brad said, “I saw your pistol got smashed during the fight so just in case you run into anything up top this will at least give you a fighting chance,” Brad grabbed his knife and flipped it, catching it the knife by the blade, and offered it to Neil. “Wow, thanks, I don’t know what to say. Hopefully, I won’t have to use it but I appreciate you looking out for me.” Neil said as he respectfully took the knife. “Hey if something happens to you then who would help me haul this body back to the surface?” Brad said. Neil laughed and started walking quickly back towards the bottom of the cliff’s edge, “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Neil said. Neil hurried back and soon disappeared into the darkness. With Brad’s knife in his right hand and his left hand unconsciously checking and adjusting the egg every few seconds, Neil soon reached the bottom of the cliff’s edge. He jumped and then engaged the suit’s jetpack and began ascending quickly. During that time, he looked around at the walls he noticed many large claw marks. His eyes narrowed as he noticed that the claw marks seemed larger than the beast’s claws could theoretically make. “Maybe it was just sliding down and leaping from point to point,” Neil said to himself. Moments later, he arrived at the top of the cliff’s edge and leaned forward to fly over the land before disengaging the jetpack. He raced out of the cave and quickly set the bag on the back of his buggy. His eyes hurt while he tried to adjust back to sunlight after being in the cave for what felt like an eternity. He sent a message via his suit panel back to the settlement to get them to prep the medical bay for Brad. He hurried back into the cave and jumped off the edge, engaging his jetpack once he could see the light from the flare he threw earlier. Neil almost ran into Brad as he was heading further into the darkness. Brad was limping along, dragging the massive beast’s body behind him. He had gotten surprisingly far for someone with a more than broken foot. “I figured I should get a head start on this; I wasn’t about to just sit there killing time,” Brad grumbled.

“Thanks, for everything man,” Brad said quietly as Neil grabbed onto the body and helped drag it. “I’m thinking of naming this ‘Bradosaurus’, what do you think?” Brad asked. Neil laughed and said, “it’s definitely unique that’s for sure, I’m not sure it will catch on though.” As they slowly moved forward, eventually, they reached the bottom of the edge of the cliff. “You ready?” Neil asked. “Born ready,” Brad said with no hesitation. Brad placed his left hand on a rock and readied his good leg to push off on Neil’s signal. Neil gave the go signal and they both pushed off the ground as hard as they could. As their initial momentum began to slow, they both engaged their jetpacks which were not made to move so much weight. The jetpacks strained initially but after boosting the power were able to thrust hard enough to move the explorers and the animal body back onto the cliff’s edge where they fell to the ground, with little jetpack energy to spare. They dragged the body onto the back of Brad’s buggy, causing it to lean backward slightly. Brad saw Neil’s concerned look regarding this and reassured him, “don’t worry I’ll just lean forward and it’ll balance out.” Neil shook his head in disbelief and hopped onto his buggy. “We should be back at the settlement in about two hours, I think.” Neil estimated.

After about fifteen minutes into their drive back, they saw something straight ahead of them off in the distance. It appeared to be moving towards them. “Do you see that ahead of us Brad?” Neil asked. “Yeah, I do, no idea what it is” Brad replied. “Is it my imagination, or is it moving and more concerning moving right towards us?” Neil said, worry creeping into his voice. Before Brad could even respond, Neil called one of the leaders back at the settlement. “This is Neil, I’m out here with Brad, I’m sending you our current coordinates. Is anyone else scheduled to be outside of the settlement today? No? Oh no, okay, how fast can you get someone out here? Just send who you can as fast as possible, I have a feeling we are going to need it after the day we’ve had. We’ll divert course to avoid whatever this is.” Neil said. Neil reached, hands shaking as he had suspected this earlier but now the pieces were coming together, grabbing his binoculars and putting them in front of his eyes as close as the helmet would allow. “Brad! Turn your buggy 45 degrees to the right, now!” he yelled. Brad started to do as instructed, “What is it?” he asked. “That beast you/we killed wasn’t the mother, that is and it is headed right towards us. That cry it made was a rallying cry calling the mother back to protect the eggs!” Neil exclaimed. “That’s not good,” Brad stated solemnly. Neil adjusted his buggy to ride parallel to Brad’s again. He checked the binoculars again and almost dropped them in fear and surprise. “That…thing is massive and more importantly it’s insanely fast, in this last minute it has covered a great distance. If it keeps up this rate it will be here within a minute or two!” Neil yelled. “The overdrive! The buggies have an overdrive for emergencies that we can use to significantly increase our speed but it will quickly drain the battery. We run it too long and we are stuck hours from the settlement and have to walk the rest of the way,” Neil shouted. Neil quickly engaged his overdrive and started blasting ahead of Brad. “Engage the overdrive now Brad! There’s no time!” Neil screamed. Brad’s buggy started to accelerate faster but the buggy was clearly slowed significantly due to the weight of the beast’s body. “For goodness sake, dump the body, Brad! If it catches up to us and you have the body with you it’ll be the end of both of us” Neil yelled in desperation. “Forget it, go on without me. I’ll be fine. I lost too much to go back without this body!” Brad barked. “It won’t be worth anything to you if you aren’t alive to do anything with it!” Neil protested. Neil turned and to his horror and dismay, he didn’t need his binoculars to see the new beast approaching. It was easily twice the size of the alien animal they had beaten earlier. It wasn’t much more than a few hundred yards away and its tail club alone looked like it could crush a buggy.

As the beast charged towards Brad’s buggy, Neil desperately fumbled through his backpack to find his magnet while also trying to avoid crashing his buggy or Brad’s. As Brad opened fire, which did little to faze the beast, the beast turned around and crushed Brad and the entire buggy with its massive tail. “NOOOOO!!!!” Neil cried. The beast then turned and began running toward Neil. Before he knew it was biting at the back of his buggy, the overdrive doing everything it could to keep the buggy out of the beast’s clutches. Neil turned around and stabbed the beast in the face with Brad’s knife the next time it bit at the back of the buggy. It recoiled its head in pain but maintained its breakneck pace. With the few precious seconds the knife had bought him, Neil was able to find his magnet. Neil set the magnet to its highest setting and threw it as hard as he could behind the beast. It jumped to pounce on Neil, but mid-pounce it was flung backward. It let out a screech of anger as it watched Neil escape. Neil turned off the overdrive to preserve the battery as best he could. As he drove back to the camp in sullen silence, Brad’s last words rang in his ears. Neil wished Brad’s pride hadn’t gotten the better of him in the end.

As Neil finally arrived at the settlement, the watchtower guard waved him in. Neil ignored all the colonists, got off his buggy, and headed to the leaders’ office. A guard was posted at the door. Between the adrenaline and rage, a quick sucker punch knocked the guard unconscious. Neil’s left hand stung with the impact, he hoped he had unconsciously used his left hand because he was holding back and didn’t want to really hurt the guard. As he stormed past the now unconscious guard, he barged into the leaders’ outer office. The leaders’ assistant sat at a desk and jumped up when Neil burst in. “Hey Neil, back already from exploring? We weren’t expecting you back for a few more days. Where’s Brad?” the assistant asked. Neil’s eyes told the whole story and realization dawned on the assistant. “I-I uh, maybe you should come back after you’ve had some time to process.” By the time the assistant finished the sentence Neil was already at the leaders’ office door which, channeling his inner Brad, he kicked open. 

“You!” Neil said pointing an accusatory finger at the leaders who were startled by the sudden and unexpected intrusion. “When were you going to tell us that we weren’t the first exploration party? After we both died maybe?” One of the leaders, Jack, stepped forward and approached Neil, “We thought it best that the events of the previous exploration party stay under wraps so as to not cause panic amongst the colonists.” Neil grabbed Jack by the shoulders and pinned him against the nearest wall. A few guards readied their weapons but one of the other leaders motioned for them to stand down. “A good man died today because of you” Neil spat through gritted teeth. Neil stormed off immediately after.

Legends say that Neil continued to explore Mars after that although his relationship with the leaders of the settlement was often tense at best. He erected a small gravestone to honor his fallen fellow explorer. It read simply “Brad - Explorer, Warrior, Adventurer, Friend.”