Cinnamon Sands Academy: The Monsters on Mars

By Salley J Robins

They don't call it Crater School A - It's Cinnamon Sands Academy. William Glenn learns that when he arrives at the Mars Colony. A second fact is that Vincent Sorenson is a friend he can trust with his secret irrational fears. So when bad dreams and a nagging sense of danger keep creeping into his mind, he tells himself it's time to grow up. However, when all communications are suddenly cut off, he has time for one course of action. William has to conquer his fear by taking the ride of his life as he attempts to save the Colony from “The Monsters on Mars”.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Salley J Robins
• Release date: Jun 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005944698

Salley J Robins

A writer who loves bringing readers into her world. A storyteller, poet, and amateur photographer, Salley writes with passion. She adores travel and sharing the good things in life. Currently based in the South of France, her unique voice speaks with enthusiasm about the culture, history, and people of the region.To preview that Taste of France you will find a blog and a few stories on her website. However, she also enjoys writing in a variety of styles which include YA sci-fi, adult fantasy and surprisingly - an adult steamy novel - Never Say Kiss me to a Frenchman! under the pen name of Lascivia Bené!Her eBooks-only "South of France" books are visual visits designed to welcome readers right into her sunny village on the Côte Vermeille. A historical-fiction-fantasy book about life with the California Indians in Yosemite delights readers of all ages. For the ten-to-twenty group as well as the young-at-heart, she delighted in creating a trilogy of sci-fi adventures set on Mars. Arthurian Legends of Avalon inspired her two Adult Fantasy/Sci-Fi novels.As she edits her 11th novel, she draws on the experience of nineteen years of life in France to solve a mystery and warn her readers that one must "Never Say Paint me to a Frenchman!"

Book preview

CINNAMON

SANDS

ACADEMY

THE MONSTERS

ON

MARS

Salley J Robins

This is a work of fiction. The characters, realms, and events portrayed are fiction. Any resemblance to real people, places, and events is purely coincidental.

CSA – The Monsters on Mars

The first in the CSA series

Copyright ©2017-2021

Salley J Robins

Cover Art

SelfPubBookCovers.com/Viergacht

All rights reserved.

DEDICATION

For everyone who dreams of the day when we humans will be living on Mars and – especially to the students who inspired me. You are the real kids of Cinnamon Sands. Your names have been changed and characters combined to protect the somewhat guilty. If you look with the eye of imagination, you will find you are here.

To the real William Glenn, a big thank you for being the catalyst that moved this story from the classroom into print.

In Memory of my husband who taught me that to write is to see worlds no one else does and then bring those worlds to life.

And then, well, then there was Ben...you know who you are.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Scientific Information came from the amazing resources of NASA and ESA.

The Inspiration must be credited to every sci-fi writer I discovered in the county library. The list is too long and my memory too short to number them all here but among them are: Heinlein, Zelazney, L’Engle, Dick, Le Guin, Foster, Niven, Norton, Bester, & Blish.

Much thanks to Ray Bradbury, for that day when I was ten and the only child at a college luncheon. I said I would like to be a writer and you said to me, Then be a happy writer. Write whatever comes into your head. Keep on writing until the story comes to an end. Thank you most especially, for making me dream of life on Mars.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PROLOGUE: THE DISCOVERY

1 - CINNAMON SANDS SIROCCO

2 – LIFE ON MARS

3 – SCHOOLTIME

4 – IS THIS A DRILL?

5 – VERONICA’S DREAM

6 – TOO MANY STARS

7 – CRATERS, CRATERS, EVERYWHERE

8 – THE MYSTERY

9 – MONSTERS ON MARS

10 – SANDSTORM

11 – WILLIAM’S TURN

12 – NEXT EMERGENCY, PLEASE

13 – CINNAMON SANDS SUNRISE

14 – DOME, SWEET DOME

FURTHER WORKS BY SJ ROBINS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PROLOGUE: THE DISCOVERY

It was slightly sunny and somewhat still, an unusual combination on that fourth planet, well-known for its destructive winds. Absolutely not so unusual at all was the small rover-robot scraping away at the cinnamon colored surface. It was but one of a small army of rovers on Mars that sported the emblem of the Aries Corporation - a bright yellow star inside a circle with tiny, stylized letters running around the edge. If you could get close enough to read it, which, of course, you shouldn’t, you would see that the logo read, Forging the Future for Mankind.

The rover carefully cleared the area with a puff of air from a small nozzle. A flexible tube snaked out and a spotlight at the end illuminated a streak of sparkling crystals. Extending a trowel-like tool, the rover scooped some of the glittering sand into its mouth. As it snapped shut, a sound of grinding came from the rover’s interior. After a moment the chewing stopped and a green light came on. With a burst of static, the rover sent the message everyone at Aries was hoping to hear. It was a lot of commotion for such a short message. Confirmed, was all it said.

Twelve months later, two men worked near the rover. They wore the traditional white spacesuits made by NASA for all space-going explorers. The taller man, Manny, had red hair while Joe was completely bald. Other than that, they looked nearly the same in their bulky outfits. The only distinguishing mark on their suits was the sun-in-circle logo of the Aries Corporation centered neatly in the place a left shirt pocket would be, that is if spacesuits had shirt pockets.

This is it! Manny laughed to his companion. Yah! We’re all gonna be rich... breathed the shorter man. Yeah, and Aries will be richer than everyone. In spite of his helmet making the move futile, the tall man scratched the shining orb that surrounded his head as though it could relieve the itch. He nodded and said, Well, time to find out if this really is the find of the century, Joe. Then Manny pushed another lever and they both watched as the glowing crystals changed shape inside the clear lab box. Before their eyes, the green glow slowly changed to orange as the spiral of crystals coiled in upon itself. Super, whispered Joe. Correction, said his partner with a big grin, Super-Sand.

§ § §

1 - CINNAMON SANDS SIROCCO

Screams filled the colony as monsters poured in through the gates ahead. The colony was helpless against the onslaught of mutant snakes. Crawlers, jumpers, creepers, and every kind of slithering sand serpent imaginable headed toward the sandy-haired boy. William stopped running and terror filled his blue eyes. As he stood frozen with fear, he yelled to his big sister, There’s no way out! We’re gonna die!

The tall, dark-haired girl just ahead of her brother, skidded to a stop, grabbed his sleeve, and bellowed, Don’t just stand there! Move! Com’on! We’ve gotta make the shelters! Her voice gave him hope and though his legs felt like jelly, he managed to get them moving again. With a whirl, he turned and ran. In full flight now, brother and sister pounded the red gravel of Bradbury Avenue. Swinging left, they reached the entry to the school. They might make it. Just a little farther. All they had to do was reach the softball dugout and they’d be safe.

His sister was well ahead of him when larger-than-life, the class bully appeared. With a maniacal laugh he barred the way. Standing in the way, like a roadblock, his rubbery arms stretched out and out. They expanded, forming a solid barrier impossible to avoid. It was over. From close behind, he heard the slithering of something very large. Then a triumphant hissing sound filled his ears and he could have sworn he felt hot breath on his neck. Turn around punk and face your doom! the bully chortled, "I dare you! Against his better judgment, the boy turned around. This was a mistake. Helplessly, he stared with dread into the fanged cave that was about to swallow him...

The narration broke off and the boy, who had been telling the story, shut his eyes for a second and thought of a clock. The unseen nano device in his body showed him the time on the inside of his eyelids. Save story, he commanded the invisible computer as he pushed back from the kitchen table. Title: Sand Snakes on Mars, he added and ate the last bit of his breakfast. The table sensed the empty plate and absorbed it. William went over to the window, unconsciously smoothed back his hair, and asked, Could I have a snack? He grabbed the packet that emerged from the table’s smooth surface and then headed out the door to meet his friends in the recreation crater.

§ § §

Whoooosh! Warm air rushed across William’s forehead and ruffled his straw-colored hair with as much force as it could manage in the low gravity of Mars. Look Out! shouted his sister, Anika, afraid that he would be clobbered. She sat with her friends on the benches that were near the rim of the recreation crater. They watched the action below and wondered if a collision was near. William stood at the lowest edge of the incline of the flattened bowl. Two skim-boarders were speeding around above his head and it was clear why his sister had yelled. With each circuit, the boards just missed him as they passed overhead. Again, his hair was creased by the rush of air. William Glenn didn’t move a muscle. Instead of ducking, his grin grew a little wider. Although skim-boards looked improbably slim to be holding anyone’s weight, he knew they were stronger than they looked. In shape, they were a lot like the old-fashioned earthbound skateboards. The most noticeable difference was that skim-boards had no wheels and glided on nothing more than air.

The artificial lights set inside the Mars Dome shone brightly. Unaided by rays of the distant sun, the lights made the red sand sparkle. William was tall for his ten years, with blue eyes and a friendly smile. He stood with one knee bent to brace himself, his right arm straight up in the air. On that wrist was a device that looked a bit like what people used to call a watch with a tiny crystal dome over the face. However, the device wasn’t so much on William’s arm as in it. He had imagined what he wanted it to be and it had appeared. The grown-ups called it by its official name of Nano-Implant Identity Band. Every colonist had been tattoo-implanted with one. The children on Mars called it a bio-band. Actually, a lot of the grownups had adopted that name too. It was a lot faster to say and had an old fashioned sound that might have come from the twenty-first century. It recorded straight from the retina of William’s eyes and ears then sent streams of data through those crystals smaller than grains of sand. The word nano was not hype. Those crystalline beings that had been tattooed on William the day he arrived were now tuned into his thoughts and wishes. The band captured the sounds he heard and whatever he saw. It could also use the water and minerals in his body to form new components. That meant it could be shaped into any combination of things. Really, the limits were set only by human imagination. So far he had used his bio-band as a phone, diary, tracking device, music vault, walkie-talkie, video viewer, movie maker, and, funnily enough, even a wristwatch. He had completely forgotten how freaky it felt to have nano-beings living in his skin. After all, everybody had them here. William touched the inside of his wrist, looked at his two skim-boarding friends and willed it to record what he heard and saw.

Lauren Kelsey was riding an aqua-blue striped skim-board. Her helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads were made from the special silica-sand found only on Mars. They were so light and transparent that they were nearly invisible. Lauren accelerated to the rim and spun off the lip of the crater. Controlling the board perfectly, she moved her feet in such a way that the board began to spin in a circle. At the same moment she jumped up into the air. Check it! she yelled as she turned to land gracefully on the board. Then she dove into the crater, returning to the bottom of its curved surface.

Lauren looked a bit like a pixy with her green eyes and a sprinkling of freckles across her turned-up nose. She was small, wiry, and strong. When William met her, he could tell right away that he would like her. She had a crooked smile and was as tough as any of the boys he knew, maybe even tougher. He knew he’d have to be as brave as Vincent was to earn her respect. Her short, light brown hair was held back by a knit pull-on cap that showed through her helmet. It matched the grey of her one-piece e-suit. The e-suit, or environment suit, was what everyone living on Mars wore. It stretched from the wrist to the neck and down to the ankles. As flexible as cloth, it looked somewhat like a sports coverall. Lauren sped past him and William moved his arm in a smooth arc to follow her path with the bio-band. Vincent, riding a neon-orange board, skimmed over William’s head.

Cinnamon Sands Sirocco! exclaimed Vincent as he turned a 180 at the top of the crater. William turned his attention toward him, knowing that Vincent’s catchphrase really meant, Look at me! Cinnamon Sands was the nickname the colonists had given to this part of Mars. This was in honor of the dark red-brown color of the sand in and around the Dome. That final word, Sirocco, had recently become synonymous with everything excellent to the students in William’s class. It sounded like sir-rock-oh and had originally been a word used in the Mediterranean Countries like Italy. It was the name for the strong, hot wind that blew the sands of North Africa across the Med to Europe. A few weeks ago, the class had studied a unit about the powerful wind storms on Mars. Sand and wind were more dangerous to the settlers than the occasional Mars-Quakes. Wind could tear almost any man-made thing to pieces while sand got into and broke delicate machinery in at least a dozen ways. The Dome had been designed to redirect wind so that it shed sand like water on oil but the South-East wind, The Sirocco, was tricky. It could cover the Dome with a coating of fine red sand and sometimes it broke down the link with the communication satellites. This only happened once or twice a year but, even so, the word Sirocco was often heard on Mars, especially when Vincent was around.

William watched his friend balancing on his skim-board. Dust was caught under the board where wheels would have been on a skateboard. The air there seemed like it was trying to twist in on itself and shifted as he looked at it. The scene reminded William of the surfers back on Earth and Vincent’s dark, short, spiky hair even looked as if it could be wet. Mostly, it was that small cloud of red dust curled up in the anti-grav cushion of air under the skim-board that rose and swirled like a wave on the ocean. William knew about this because he had seen surfers during a family vacation by the sea. Of course, there were no oceans here and the only water was either frozen in the polar caps or deep underground. In fact, the only body of water on the surface of Mars was the man-made Ares Lake, named for the Greek god of War. It shimmered at the center of the Dome a half-mile away and surfing there would be out of the question so this was as close as Vincent would ever get. To adjust for back lighting and make a series of still shots, William whispered a few command words to his bio-band. Phobos, largest of the two moons of Mars was beginning to rise over the crater’s edge. It hung full and golden like a huge coin in the pink sky. William filmed Vincent as he shot past then hung outlined against the brightness of the slightly potato-shaped moon. Then he closed his eyes to review the vid and check the action shots. With a smile, he said to no one in particular, These are gonna be Sirocco.

William planned to write an article about