Beneath the Red Sand

27 || Chapter Twenty-Seven

The next day, Noah and I uncover the floor in the Great Hall of the alien habitat, unearthing tile that matches the pool in its intricate design and rich pigmentation. The aliens who created all this were true artists, and I lost count of how many times I had to stop, spellbound, and admire their handiwork. By the end of the day, we've swept away and sifted the remaining dust. When we're done, we gather with the others to hear the team reports. Exhausted and sweaty, I lean against a nearby wall to listen. Even my skin itches all over from the sweat. Muscles I didn't realize I had ache and burn, but I'm grinning ear to ear after a satisfying day of work.

"We found the greenhouse," team beta reports. "There's traces of ancient plant matter and a huge area under what appears to be a glass dome. The highest point must once have been above ground to allow the sun through."

Team alpha adds, "We still don't have the power up and running yet. The command center machinery needs more elbow grease to prep it first, but we did find a map to an ancient mine that may have the metal needed to fix the power."

"Fantastic." Mr. Gryffin nods in approval. "We can send a team out there tomorrow, now that we're getting close to clearing the site."

"I thought you said you'd be here for weeks?" I ask.

"Oh, believe me, we will," Mr. Gryffin replies, "but we can work with a smaller crew for something like this. If things go belly-up at our habitat, we'll need this place up and running, so we're going to do whatever it takes to make it happen."

I nod. This place is sturdier than our habitat. It's below ground, and it has everything we need, including tons of living space, storage for our supplies, and a safe place to grow our food once we unearth the greenhouse and get the power running. All in all, it's a beautiful place. I'm not sure about moving here, though. Would there be a place to fix up as a dance studio or shops? Do I even have time for luxuries like ballet and shopping now? Would I be losing everything if we move?

"But," he continues, "that means we really have to work fast to make this habitat ready. Remember, we might need to make this place livable if our own habitat fails. Maybe it would be temporary if we can find the person responsible for sabotaging the colony, and believe me, I'll make certain we find him. So listen up, crew, and listen well. We are gonna try to finish work here in the next few weeks and still make the trip to the pyramids as planned."

Claps and cheers erupt from the crew all around me, and I join in the impromptu celebration as we file out of the alien habitat and return to Mars Colony 1. After dinner, Noah and I head over with Jacqui to the atrium. We have a few minutes to talk before our patrol shift starts.

"I found something else, " Jacqui whispers, leaning in close.

"Something in one of those files? Any hard proof?" Noah asks.

Jacqui's bright red lips purse. "Maybe. There are enough regularities in the budget to call his supply orders into question."

"But are you sure these are Colonel James' orders?" I ask.

"I'm sure," Jacqui says. "They have his authentication code. See this item? It's for a whole cache of weapons Admiral McClure never authorized. In fact, the admiral never authorized any weapons purchases since we've been here on Mars, and from what I read, they have to have the authentication codes for both of them."

"What?" I ask. "How did the colonel manage to pull that off without getting caught, because I — I don't know, but this doesn't look good for him. It looks like he's planning to take over the colony by force. Either that, or he's expecting to wage an alien war. This expense list is something we can expose."

Noah nods. "Great. Any trouble we get into for obtaining this classified budget list — and yeah, we will get into trouble for this unless we can find a way to explain how we could have gotten ahold of it without breaking the rules— should pale in comparison to an officer illegally making orders for weapons, right? Hey, and he also requested biology equipment. Check out this line. He increased the orders for equipment used to study anatomy and physiology and blood sampling. On this line, he requisitioned tools for exploring anatomy and physiology. It looks like they're setting up a secret lab to experiment on alien life."