Death Trap Read online

  The gigantic black shell of the dome was five minutes behind me across a stretch of red desert sand. That meant I’d have to find Timothy Neilson in five minutes and get him back to the dome in the remaining five minutes.

  Two things would help me. First, I held a GPS that allowed me to track the location of the signal chip in his space suit. Also, as I neared his body, I could switch to infrared vision and look for the heat escaping his space suit.

  Even with the GPS and infrared to help me, however, I was in trouble because of the bamboo corn stretching high in all directions around me.

  Although this was Mars, the stuff around me truly was as thick as any jungle. My mother is one of the scientists who has worked hard for 14 years to genetically alter Earth plants to survive on the surface of Mars. None can—so far—but these hybrids came the closest. The stems of the plants were tall and thin and strong like bamboo plants, with wide, long leaves like those of corn plants. The entire field—a half-mile square of rows and rows of bamboo corn—was enclosed by a huge greenhouse tent of clear, space-tech plastic sheeting that gave the plants the protection they needed to survive.

  With 100-mile-an-hour sandstorms that covered half the planet and an average temperature of minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, life on Mars wasn’t easy. But my mom believed the next generation of these plants would be able to grow without the greenhouse. In addition to the oxygen given off by the plants, the Mars Project would begin pumping oxygen into the atmosphere. Eventually, scientists hoped humans would be able to live on Mars without being under the protection of the dome. And that would help solve one of Earth’s problems in the 21st century—overcrowding.

  I was somewhere in the middle of this field, with four minutes remaining to find Timothy Neilson.

  Using my robot wheels, I rolled down a path between two rows of bamboo corn. The leaves tickled like silk against my titanium shell. Above the rustling of those leaves, I heard the whistling of Martian wind as it found tiny gaps in the greenhouse tent. Unlike the dome, this wasn’t sealed perfectly. It didn’t need to be—the plan was to see if these plants could thrive with only some protection. If they lived, their seeds would be crossbred and genetically changed again to make the next generation even hardier. I listened as the wind whistled and sand rattled against the plastic. …

  No! I told myself I did not hear what I thought I was hearing: movement in the corn leaves, just out of sight. Like the noise of dozens of creatures slipping away among the stalks of bamboo corn.

  I swiveled the robot body, scanning around me. Only the silent, tall green stems surrounded me like prison bars.

  Then I saw a darting movement. But it came and went so quickly that I told myself it was just my imagination. Aliens, I told myself firmly, do not exist.

  I pushed forward, wondering if those nonexistent creatures were about to attack me.

  My GPS chirped. Loudly. I would have jumped if I hadn’t been on wheels. It chirped louder and louder, telling me I was getting close to Neilson.

  Suddenly I came to broken plants, pushed over and sideways as if a man had crashed into them at a full run. I swerved and followed the crooked path.

  It was easy to see footprints in the soil where the weight of the man’s feet had crushed the wide leaves at the base of the stems. I rolled forward. It was like tracking an animal that had run in complete panic, not caring what it hit as it fled.

  As I followed a twisting path through the bamboo corn, I had no choice but to believe something I did not want to believe. Someone—or something—had chased Timothy Neilson.

  Impossible, I told myself again. This was Mars. The scientists claimed there was nothing alive on this planet that could hurt us.

  I scanned in all directions, but the bamboo corn made it impossible to see beyond the reach of my titanium arms.

  I switched to infrared vision, which let me see heat instead of light. The green outlines of the stems and leaves against the pink light of the sky disappeared. In infrared vision, I saw a blur of warm orange (the plants) standing on a deeper, brighter orange (the warmer sun-soaked soil), surrounded by a very light orange color (the cooler air).

  Beyond the warm orange of the plants, I tried to sense the red shapes of living creatures.

  Then I told myself I was dumb. Even if aliens did exist, which I knew was impossible, why should I expect them to have the same kind of body heat as humans?

  The chirping of the GPS guided me ahead. I rushed as quickly as I could.

  Seconds later, my infrared located the red outline of a space suit that was bleeding body heat.

  Timothy Neilson.

  “Are you all right?” I asked in my deep robot voice.

  No answer.

  I switched back to normal vision and focused on the white fabric of his space suit. He was lying on his stomach, his legs twisted beneath him where he had fallen in the middle of the bamboo corn. His space helmet was hidden by the leaves that had fallen on top of him.

  I scooped him into my arms, grateful for the strength of titanium limbs. Without hesitation, I wheeled back toward the dome.

  I now had 6 minutes and 25 seconds to get Timothy Neilson to medical help. If he was still alive. If I wasn’t attacked by whatever had attacked him.

  Because if I could trust my eyes, it looked like teeth and claws had ripped the holes in his space suit.

  CHAPTER 2

  “How is he?” I asked Rawling. Of anyone under the dome, he was my best friend. He was a mixture of father and buddy and teacher. I’ve always said I could ask him about anything, and I knew he’d treat my question with respect and honesty.

  I was now disconnected from my robot body and back in my wheelchair, trapped by my useless legs. I sat in front of Rawling’s desk in his new director’s office.

  “All Neilson’s vital signs are fine,” Rawling said in answer to my question. “The med techs tell me he’s in a coma. He landed hard on his head and gave himself a concussion. If he comes out of it—” He stopped himself and sighed. “When he comes out of it, they expect he won’t suffer any permanent brain damage from lack of oxygen. It looks like you got him back in time.”

  “Good,” I said.

  Rawling studied me with curiosity on his face. “All right, Tyce Sanders,” he finally said after watching me. “I want to hear all of it.”

  I should have known he’d figure out I’d kept something secret. Best friend or not, Rawling knew me almost better than anyone else, including my own father, whom I only saw every three years. “How did you guess?” I asked.

  “It wasn’t a guess,” Rawling said dryly. “A man doesn’t rip his own space suit to shreds. Maybe falling down a cliff with jagged rocks would have done it. But it couldn’t have happened out there alone in the cornfield. There has to be more to it than what you told the med techs.”

  “I told the med techs the truth about what I saw,” I said. “But what I didn’t say is that I wonder if he really was alone.”

  Rawling raised an eyebrow.

  I described everything I could to him. The twisted path that Timothy Neilson had crashed through in the bamboo corn. The big stretches between footsteps that showed he’d been running. And the sounds of creatures scampering among the leaves.

  “That makes sense,” Rawling said. “I don’t want to believe it, but it makes sense.”

  Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow. I was getting better at it. I’d sit in front of a mirror and work on raising one eyebrow, then the other. I practiced it because I liked the way it looked when Rawling did it. “It makes sense?” I asked.

  “I’ll explain in a minute,” he said. “First, tell me why you decided not to tell the med techs.”

  “You’re the director,” I stated bluntly. “If there is something out there, I figured you should be the one to decide whether you want anyone else under the dome to know about it—in case people start to panic.”

  “From worrying about an alien attack?” Rawling queried.

  “That would be
big news for all of us,” I responded. “Wondering what was out there and waiting. I mean, you saw what happened to Timothy Neilson’s space suit.”

  “Just his space suit, right?” he asked. “I know what the med techs told me, but I want to hear it straight from you.”

  All of a sudden I realized that Rawling was talking as if there actually were aliens. Goosebumps chilled my neck. “His body looked fine to me. So if they only hurt his space suit, maybe I showed up before they could finish the attack.” I stopped and thought about what I’d said. “Whatever they are.”

  Rawling began to fiddle with a pencil on his desk. He spun it several times and spoke as he stared at it. “To find out there is other life in the universe besides life on Earth would be one of the most incredible discoveries in scientific history. Then to find out that this alien life-form will attack humans …” He spun the pencil a few more times. “You know our last director kept too many secrets from people under the dome.”

  I nodded. Those secrets were another part of why ex-director Steven was heading for Earth on the next spaceship leaving Mars.

  “Wrong as he was to decide who should live and who should die when the dome was running out of oxygen, he has some of my sympathy. Sitting behind this desk is not easy. Neither are some of the decisions.” He rubbed his face. “Conditions back on Earth are not the greatest. Because of overpopulation, governments are barely maintaining control as everyone fights for water and other resources.”

  “Yes,” I said. I wondered why he was telling me something I already knew. Something everybody on Earth knew too.

  “What I’m saying,” Rawling told me, his voice heavy, “is that if news of aliens—especially aliens that attack humans—reaches Earth, it might cause riots.”

  “I understand that,” I said. “Are you telling me there are aliens, and you’ve kept it a secret?”

  “I’m telling you that if I do keep it a secret, people here might get hurt. If I keep it a secret, I’m doing exactly what the former director did. And I don’t know if that’s right.” He sighed. “But on the other hand, if I call an assembly and tell everyone what I know, eventually word will get back to Earth and billions of people may panic.”

  I cleared my throat. “What exactly do you know?”

  Rawling didn’t answer. Instead, he flicked on his computer. The monitor on the edge of his desk lit up. I saw the cursor move across the screen.

  “Here’s why what you told me makes sense,” he said, opening a file.

  It wasn’t a text file or a video file but an audio file. A short clip of excited shouting.

  I didn’t hear it right the first time. Or at least, I didn’t want to believe I had heard it right.

  “That voice belongs to Timothy Neilson,” Rawling said. “It’s his last radio communication back to the base. I’ve ordered the radio operator to keep it quiet until I can figure out what to do about it.” He replayed the audio clip for me.

  “Help!” Timothy Neilson’s terrified voice shouted from the computer. “Help! They’re chasing me! Dozens of them! Help me! Help me! Help—”

  All that followed those words of panic was static.

  I stared at Rawling. Rawling stared at me.

  “To make matters worse,” Rawling said, “we’re expecting the spaceship late tonight, with dozens of newcomers to the base.”

  CHAPTER 3

  Some of you on Earth might already know about me. I’m the kid on Mars who was writing a journal about the final days under the dome, when it looked like everyone here would die.

  Even if you didn’t read the long e-book of that journal sent by satellite back to Earth, you can probably guess that everything turned out fine in the end. Otherwise, I wouldn’t still be writing, would I?

  So why this new e-book, starting today, June 26, AD 2039?

  Mom figures anyone my age might be interested in a Mars journal, so as part of my ongoing homework, she’s making me add to the first journal. If you feel sorry for me because you don’t like to write, either, I’ll thank you now. I wasn’t happy with being forced to do it.

  “Tyce, are you cleaning up your room?”

  It was Mom, calling me from the common living space in the middle of our tiny minidome.

  “No,” I called back. “I’m at the computer. Doing homework. Remember? The homework you gave me?”

  I guess if there’s one good thing about writing my journals, it’s this: an excuse to avoid other things, like cleaning my room.

  “All right, all right.” I heard her laugh. “Can you wrap it up soon? I need to give you a haircut.”

  Like that was a good reason to hurry up and finish. I’d almost rather get poked by a needle than squirm under a sheet while she clips my hair and comes dangerously close to clipping my ears. And let’s just say her haircuts are not a work of art. She’s a scientist, not a stylist. Worse, because we can’t waste water under the dome, we’re only permitted showers twice a month. The rest of the time we use an evaporating deodorant soap. My next scheduled shower wasn’t for another week. If she gave me a haircut tonight, I wouldn’t be able to wash the itchy hair off my neck and shoulders until then.

  “Haircut?” I hollered. “I just had one!”

  “It was three months ago,” she said in an amused voice.

  “No way! It’s been only six weeks! I sure don’t need one this soon.”

  Mom walked through the entrance into my room. With hands on her hips, she did her best to look stern. “Don’t lie. Three months. I marked it on the calendar because I knew you’d try to get out of it.”

  “I wasn’t lying,” I protested weakly. It figured as a scientist she’d keep track. “It was six weeks. Mars time.” Here on Mars it took 687 days to circle the sun. Which meant a Mars year was about 1.9 times longer than on Earth. So my six weeks’ Mars time and her three months’ Earth time were about the same.

  “Very funny,” she said, unable to hide a smile.

  “Wow,” I said. “You look great.”

  “Don’t change the subject.” She smiled again.

  “It’s true,” I said. “You do look great.”

  Normally, Mom didn’t care much what she looked like, but tonight her hair was done nicely. I could smell perfume, and she wore a dress I hadn’t seen her wear since …

  “I get it,” I said. “Dad’s coming home.”

  “Exactly. In about four hours. Which is why you’re going to clean your room. And after that I’m giving you a haircut.”

  I pointed at my computer.

  “Yes, yes. Finish what you were writing.”

  “Mom …”

  In my mind, I heard Timothy Neilson’s voice as Rawling replayed the audio. “Help! They’re chasing me! Dozens of them! Help me! Help me! Help—”

  “Yes?” Mom asked when I didn’t finish my thought.

  I really wanted to tell her about the aliens. Rawling had said I could if I wanted, because he trusted her, above all others under the dome, to keep the secret too. But she looked so happy about my father coming home that I didn’t want to worry her.

  “Nothing,” I said, turning back toward my keyboard. Now I didn’t feel like writing in my journal anymore. “Give me a few minutes to clean my room, and I’ll be ready for my haircut.” I forced a smile.

  Clipped ears, in comparison to alien monsters that chased humans, suddenly didn’t seem like such a bad thing.

  CHAPTER 4

  Four hours later, I was among those waiting outside the dome on the platform buggy to watch the landing. The other platform buggy sat beside us, empty except for the driver. The pilots, crew, and new project members would go back to the dome in that one.

  I strained my eyes, looking upward. There was tension among us. While no previous landing had failed, there was always the potential for disaster. If anything went wrong, my father could die. Then the rest of us. Slowly. Because we were in the early stages of the Mars Project, the spaceship was our only lifeline to Earth. It had all the supplies we needed
to survive another three years.

  I reached down to the pouch hanging from the armrest of my wheelchair and pulled out three red juggling balls. Although it was dark, I began to juggle, keeping all three in the air without even thinking about what I was doing.

  After five minutes, people began pointing upward. I let the juggling balls fall back into my lap and stared at the sky through the clear roof of the platform buggy’s minidome.

  At first, it looked like a star growing brighter among the millions of stars in the Mars night sky. It wasn’t a star, though. NASA called it the Habitat Lander.

  The whole journey from Earth was complicated. My father and the rest had taken a Crew Transfer Vehicle from Earth, about a six-month trip through space. Waiting for them in orbit around Mars was the Habitat Lander. They hooked up with it and switched ships. Rawling had once explained it to me in Earth terms. It was as if they were crossing an ocean. They came over in a big ship, and once they reached harbor, a little tugboat took them the final distance to shore.

  But there was a difference. The journey had to be carefully planned so it occurred when Earth and Mars were nearest each other—roughly 50 million miles apart. At any other time, their orbits placed the planets up to double or triple the distance apart. And little tugboats on Earth didn’t have to deal with the intense heat of Martian atmosphere.

  The bright light I now saw was the result of the Habitat Lander moving downward so quickly that, even in the sparse atmosphere of Mars, its bullet-shaped heat shield glowed with friction.

  I held my breath as I continued to watch. There was silence around me in the platform buggy as everyone else did the same. We all knew this was not a simple tugboat operation.

  Coming in at too steep an angle would fry everyone aboard. Coming in at too shallow an angle would bounce them off the atmosphere toward Jupiter, without enough fuel to allow them to reverse and try again.

  Although the Habitat Lander moved quickly, it seemed painfully slow to us down on the Martian surface. This was partly because it was still so far above us and partly because of our fear and worry.