Bones on Mars - A paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy romance

Dawn

There was no friggin' point in running further perimeter searches for the missing skeleton. Not when the site was riddled with rocks, blasted by sand, and surrounded by miles and miles of nothingness, where even a the planet's biggest shit pile of bones could vanish forever.

Floyd groaned and buried his head in his hands.

This wouldn't do. He straightened, and faced his companions, whose expressions were as bleak as his must be.

"Everything we've been experiencing is scientifically impossible," Leela said. She'd been saying it before in the last hour. Several times.

"Yeah, unfortunately something or someone here doesn't seem to give two hoots about science," Floyd said.

"That statement is flawed," Leela said. "You're assuming there's an intelligent entity behind these odd happenings. Paulsen just told us we're on our own. Which we knew beforehand. So, there's no someone or something around to give hoots."

"Paulsen is an ass," Bones said.

"Tell me something I don't know," Leela said with a sigh.

"So, what do we do?" Floyd asked. "I've been around the blasted compound twice in the last few hours. So has Bones. So have you. No skeleton. We don't even know where to look. The remains could be under a rock, in a hole, anywhere and nowhere. There's only one thing we can do."

8k MILESTONE HERE

"Such as?" Bones asked.

"We have a dawn appointment, remember?"

"You can't be serious," Leela said.

"I am. We've been wasting our time going after the bones."

"Let's waste them following up on the words, is what you suggest? Mh,why not," Bones said. "It's not like we got much else to do, eh?"

"Nope. I'm only suggesting a change of tactics."

"He's not wrong," Leela said. "That's one approach we haven't tried yet. It would be logical to do so. As irrational as it appears. Eh..." She frowned, apparently lost among the  twisted loops of  gray matter.

It had been a long day for all of them.

"Fine, why not?" Bones said. "Trouble is, where are we supposed to meet the bus? There's a lot of space around." He waved his arm and swept the procedure manual from the shelf.

"The cavity," Leela and Floyd said simultaneously.

"Hm. Put like that, it makes sense. Question is, who do we send? Floyd baby here shouldn't have been running around like a groundhog on his great day. I really don't like his vital signs."

"I'm fine."

"You're blood pressure is way too high, and that's despite the medication. You need rest and sleep."

"If you think I'm going to snooze while you two go out there and play footsie with the aliens, you've got one coming."

"There are no—"

"Yes, Dr. Kalal," Floyd said. "I get it. No aliens. Maybe it isn't aliens, fine. I don't care. I simply want to know what this shit is all about, and then I want it sorted, so we can continue doing our job. Which is, as Paulsen pointed out so kindly, all about setting up our colony."

"Who wants to live on effing Mars?" Bones asked.

"We do," Floyd said.

"Not forever."

"Thank the non-existing deities for that," Floyd said.

"Bones...Dr. Jones and I will go. You stay here and watch our backs."

He could do that. She sure had a nice ass. Shame really, it was hidden by the space-suit. Even worse it came with such a prickly personality. Having said that, recently she hadn't been too bad.

Wonders never ceased, and he was acting the grunting Neanderthal. Tut, tut, so not politically correct.

In his mind, he could do what he wanted. No one around to tell him off. What were the other two idiots saying?

"...make sure to keep the camcorder running," Bones said. "The last thing we want is something happens and we don't have evidence."

"I wasn't born yesterday." Leela's fingers slid over the touch-board, entering their proposed plan of action.

More ass covering going on, but like the spacesuit, it was necessary.

"You suit up and keep PEMAR in standby mode ." Bones pointed at Floyd. "If anything goes awry, you can gallop to the rescue."

"My blood pressure won't like that."

"Agreed, but hopefully you won't have to actually do anything."

Floyd wasn't sure what he wanted. One part of him craved to be in on the action. The other part, bone-tired and freaked out, craved only one thing.

Sleep.

Well, with a bit of luck they would get the regulation six-hours in before the brown stuff hit the air-supply system.

***

To Floyd's ultimate amazement he did get his regulation shut-eye and some, and a good, deep one it was well. It was nice not to be walking like a zombie, powered by stress, caffeine shots, and suppressed panic bubbling away in the recesses of his mind. With a bit of sleep and a shower under his belt, even this godforsaken world was a much better place. The shelter in its gray uniformity almost looked like a home. Even the artificial scent in the air was bearable.

He sniffed. What was it today? Ah, pine.

Better than yesterday's lemon, for sure. That had reminded him of toilet cleaner.

He held his vitality bracelet against the scanner. It beeped and flashed yellow. Not brilliant, but a lot better than yesterday's piddly two hours.

"Morning," Bones said. He lurched into the control room, wearing his protective underwear in sexy mummy-wrappings beige and holding two mugs of insta-caf, one of which he held out to Floyd.

"Why aren't you suited up?"

"Change of plan. Leela drove around the terrain with the hover cat and had a quick Captain Cook. She's back now, getting PEMAR ready. Spotted nothing out of the ordinary. We'll then walk over together, and see what's what."

Leela was getting the transport ready? That was a first.

Bones emptied his mug. "I'll suit up while you get kitted out. Gimme a shout, when you're on."

"Will do. And good luck."

"Yeah, we need some of that."

The door hissed shut behind him.

Floyd took a while set up the auto controls that would keep the shelter online while he was in the airlock. The last thing they needed was getting locked out or something. He'd never hear the end of that. He then entered the airlock, which was unsurprisingly empty. Leela and Bones waiting outside.

"Base to Kalal and Jones, do you copy?"

"Copied," two voices chorused.

"Okay, I'm in the airlock. Just have to suit up. Ten minutes to start of mission.

"Copied," the two voices dutifully chorused.

Mission Dawn Patrol was under way.

(1044 words/8839) SECOND MILESTONE MET

The image is from Stefan Keller on Pixaby - it's as if he anticipated my story. 

The chapter is dedicated to @WillFlyForFood who has written some of the best - because it is realistic and truly science-based (yes, we hear you, Leela) - SciFi on and off Wattpad. Unlike me, he knows his stuff. The farthest out I ever went was geostationary orbit. Well, not physically obviously; we're talking work here, okay?