Alex Faraway And The Battle For Mars: Alex Faraway, #3

By G.F. Brynn

In this third book in the 'Alex Faraway' Series, it has been 4 years since Alex Faraway blasted off from Earth to join his once-missing father on Mars. Because of his past heritage with Mars, Alex transformed into an Earthian with all the new abilities his Martian cousins possess. The orphan Martian, Rainah Onyodee, has found a new home with Alex's mom, Elizabeth, and is finishing high school in Delta Town. Old Elliot, the astronomer, has settled down with Rosie in her café where Elizabeth works and where he keeps a roof-top vigil each night, tracking the approach of Planet X (the Nethlin world) as it nears its 10,000 years encounter with Mars. But, a new and more sinister entity has joined forces with The Others in order to fulfill their ultimate end-game: The complete destruction of the hibernating Martians, still asleep in their Time Tombs under the sands of Mars, as well as the Mars Biosphere Dome which holds all the surviving plant-life from a time when Mars thrived with life 10,000 years ago. And the Earth-sized Nethlin World is all but upon Mars, bringing with it shattering gravity-waves that will not only bring fresh upheaval upon that smaller world but, also, the Great Change in its orbit which will be shifted back to its former, closer distance from the sun. When that happens, the Martians will awaken and new life may have a slim chance once more. But the Dark Man has stolen the all-important Map of the hidden Time Tombs and now The Others are on the hunt for all of them. Catch up with Alex Faraway as he races to uncover the remaining mysteries of the ancient people of Mars and of his own father's murky passed involvement with all the dark forces converging upon his new Homeworld. The exotic radiation from his symbiotic Martian-made Luss weapon is transforming Alex, as well, and this time, it will change the Earthian boy into something even other than a Martian.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deep Sky Stories
• Release date: Sep 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223908067

G.F. Brynn

G.F. Brynn saw the Apollo moon missions as a kid and was enthralled by the limitless possibilities of space travel, robotics and invention. He grew up reading exciting science-fiction by Arther C. Clarke, Isaac  Asimov, Edgar Rice Burroughs and the like where unique worlds and beings were written into weird, society-changing stories like ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ at one end of the spectrum as well as fast-paced adventure like the ‘John Carter, Warlord of Mars‘ at the other.  He also liked to tinker for hours on end and build unique mechanical models and robots which fired his imagination to no end. He dreamt of creating all manner of extravagant machines and inventions of his own one day. His later college years involved learning electrical theory, heavy duty mechanics and hydraulics.  He learned to fly small aircraft and as well, and so, what he gained from those many and varied experiences are concepts that could be drawn directly from when writing about the spaceships, inventions and robots in this youthful space-adventure series. G.F. lives in Canada with his wife and little dog, and has two grown kids who are off and away following their own worthy life-paths now, thankfully.

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Copyright © 2014 – 2023***.  Written and Illustrated by G. Brynelson. (G. F. Brynn)

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Created and Printed in Canada by Deep Sky Stories & Illustrations.

First Printing, 2023

Series Title Change From {Alex The Inventor} to

{Alex Faraway}:  2024.02.25

Deep Sky Stories Inc. ©

http://www.deepskystories.com

For Carolyn, who has my undying love and affection,

Ryan and Jessica, who, as crazy youngsters, inspired me to start writing again. And, a special thanks to my mom who taught me to never give up.

Table Of Contents

Starlight, Star Bright

Chapter 1.  On the Edge of Extinction

Chapter 2.  The Veins of the Valley

Chapter 3.  Aftermath

Chapter 4.  A Ghost in the Sanctuary

Chapter 5.  Present Tense

Chapter 6.  Hide and Seek and a Glass Eye

Chapter 7.  Midnight Prowler

Chapter 8.  Into Ancient Dreams

Chapter 9.  The Steel Sphere

Chapter10.  Thin, Dark Lines

Chapter 11.  Aqueducts and an Inspiration

Chapter 12.  Out of Body and Through the Flames

Chapter 13.  Out of the Valley and Strange Changes

Chapter 14.  The Awakening

Chapter 15.  Flames!

Chapter 16.  The Story Of Mars

Chapter 17.  Falling Into War

Chapter 18.  Poison in the Veins

Chapter 19.  Through the Teeth

Chapter 20.  Into The Rogue-World

Chapter 21.  The Angel

Chapter 22.  Ascending to Planet X

Chapter 23.  A Change in Momentum

Chapter 24.  A Change in Direction

Blueprints – Halden’s DIVE Drive Ship

Unique symbols in the story:

((…words here…)):  Words spoken telepathically.

<<…words here…>>:  Words spoken by a robot.

Starlight, Star Bright…

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​     The early morning hour of 4:20 AM was not an ideal time to be wide awake and working if one was in a regular profession such as that of a plumber or an electrician perhaps, especially if that same hour was in the dead of winter.  But, it was the perfect time to be up if the person was an astronomer, and especially if he made an astonishing discovery.  The sun would not yet be casting its rays above the eastern horizon and, if the night sky was clear – as it was on that particular night – then the constellations of the northern hemisphere would be clearly visible as well.  It was little wonder then that one of the interns at Deep Sky Aerospace Corp.'s Astrophysics Division made the find of his career at exactly 4:20 AM, and that he owed the discovery to his cup of coffee.  Believe it or not.  The name of the astronomer is not as important to this story as is the accident at 4:00 AM which caused a time delay of twenty minutes between two separate photographs he took of the night sky.  Being up for most of that night required that an unhealthy amount of coffee be consumed by the young astronomer (who, for the sake of illustration, will be given the unflattering name:

Mister Baggy Eyes).  Our unlikely hero,who was barely out of college, was nearly at the end of his dreary night-shift and was aimlessly fiddling with a confusing array of knobs and dials when he mistook his freshly-brewed cup of coffee for one of the telescope's control knobs.  Just after snapping a photo of a section of sky, Baggy Eyes then blindly reached across the large control panel for what he was very certain was the lateral movement knob and – splish-drip-drip – his little paper cup spilled its black liquid all over the sensitive cluster of dials in front of him.

    ​Crap...I'll be fired for this, was Baggy Eyes' first reaction to the possible ruination of a piece of million-dollar equipment.

  Frightening pops and sizzles emanated from the control panel before the young astronomer pulled the plug and then searched frantically for a rag to mop up the mess.  Finally settling on a roll of toilet paper from the nearby washroom, Baggy Eyes wiped and dabbed the thick, black liquid up as though his career depended on it.  He opened up a side-panel and pulled out several circuit boards, then wiped and dabbed some more.  Nowhere could it be more claimed that science was messy than in that particular observatory, on that fateful pre-dawn, winter morning.  Finally, after several minutes of hopeful drying and much finger-crossing, young Baggy Eyes replaced all the circuit boards back in their proper slots – (he hoped) – and switched the power back on.  Exactly twenty minutes had elapsed.  Buzz-buzz-POP-buzz-FLASH...fizzle...fizzle.  Aw...crap...no.  But wait, what was that?  A second photograph was taken of the starry sky just before black smoke curled out of the cracks in the panel, telling of the final triumph of coffee over science that morning.  Come the dawn, Baggy Eyes' prediction came true.  He was fired.  But shortly after he was sent packing, the next junior astronomer who replaced him discovered the two time-delayed photographs that were taken of that area of the night sky and was immediately rewarded with a promotion and a raise in salary.  Because, what she discovered, after closely examining her predecessor's last two photos was that one very luminous object in the night sky had moved a considerable distance in relation to the background stars.  What she found though, was not a star but an Earth-sized object; a, Planet X, as she so eloquently described it to Deep Sky's Chief Astronomer.  Life is just not fair sometimes.  ​After thoroughly re-examining her findings, the Chief Astronomer heaped praise on his student and then passed his own report of the celestial anomaly on to the Director of Strategic Planning.  Once within the hushed quarters of that little known department however, the report (and all its related data) continued no further up the chain of command; it simply vanished.  After a week passed by with no response back from that rather dark corner of the corporation, the Chief Astronomer decided that a direct meeting with the Director was urgently required in order to clear up the matter and spread that valuable information to the rest of the world.  But, after he entered the oddly secretive department, unannounced, he simply disappeared, much like the report he'd been so keen to reveal to everyone.  And his junior apprentice?  She was quickly promoted again and decided to forget that the report ever existed.  On the morning after that, the Director of Strategic Planning sent an encrypted message to an independent contractor who went by the name of Mr. Shelman.  Where Mr. Shelman had lived and worked before was never clearly described in his resume nor to the rest of the staff at Deep Sky Aerospace, but that was never an employment issue because he had a special working relationship with the Director.  As for that department head, there was no clear-cut information about him either; he could just as easily have been called, Mr. Enigma, for all that was known about him.  When Mr. S. arrived at the Deep Sky head office, he absently flicked his I.D. Card at the security guard at the front gate then hissed by in a jet-black pod-car which looked like it could have been made on another planet.  He also gave building security and front desk personnel the same icy treatment as he strode unimpeded down the deeper corridors of one of the world’s pre-eminent space research corporations.  But as he approached the final door marked with the Director's name, Mr. Shelman changed his demeanor to one that was cautious, watchful.  After all, the Director was his Overlord and was the only being that Mr. S. feared – or, perhaps, respected, would be a more appropriate description – since Mr. S. was cold through-and-through and so could not be affected by fear.  After thudding clumsily on the door with heavy and curiously solid knuckles, Mr. Shelman entered the other man's office without expressing any of the usual polite coughing or other expressions of courtesy that custom would force a human being to employ.  No, Mr. S. and the Director had more direct and mechanical bluntness in their communications with one another, because, naturally, they were not human at all.  More precisely, Mr. Shelman had never been human, whereas, Mr. Enigma had become something less than that.  While Mr. Enigma was a puppet man-thing that was stiffly controlled by black, violet-eyed creatures, the, Dark Man, was something else altogether and was removed from them in his own unique fashion.

     ​Where and who is the target subject, Mr. Shelman said without so much as a pause.  There was a routine blandness in the flat tone of his voice that was chilling, especially in the small, dim room where the two always met.

     ​There is more to know about the target subject this time, the Director replied with what could have been a feeble attempt at a chuckle in his otherwise mechanical voice.  Mr. S. was not impressed.

     ​What do you mean, he asked stiffly.  He was clearly not accustomed to staying in The Others' company for longer than ten seconds at a time.  His dark, glassy eyes flicked over the Director’s left shoulder to gaze absently at a slightly darker shadow in one corner of the little room.  There was a dry, musty odor in the room's close confines which betrayed the presence of something else.   The darker shadow might have moved slightly on the wall but he couldn't be certain.  It was there though and it stared back at Shelman with barely visible violet eyes.  There would most certainly be more of them as well, skulking in the deeper shadows.  What do you mean, he said again.

     ​What I mean, replied the Director, is that there is something that you must also collect from the subject before..., but there was no need to finish.  There was no need for them to waste words on the obvious task that Mr. S. was being sent to do.

     ​What do I collect?

     ​The Map.  The subject was the last person to have contact with the Faraway child before he escaped to the Masters' Homeworld.  Therefore, it is probable that your target subject also possesses the Map.  There has been no sign of the Faraway boy for four Earthly cycles and the world under the glass draws near.  The Map is required to find all the remaining Royals before the Great Change happens again.  That was all that he said and needed to say because Shelman knew the rest.  He stiffened slightly after touching the top of a small, gray table which stood between them.  The data he sought was already inside it and when he touched the metal tabletop, a tiny spark snapped and crossed the micrometer gap between.  After scanning the data that was then inside his brain, Mr. S. fairly sniffed with disdain, saying, if this subject had been properly dealt with in the beginning, we would not have any of the concerns that we presently have.  The Map would be yours, the Faraway child would surely be dead, and I could certainly be elsewhere.  His last sentence left his lips with a flat monotone, as if he was discussing the eradication of a bothersome pest.  The Director studied Mr. S for a moment or two with black, blank eyes which only hinted at the monster lying just beneath his pale skin.

     ​We will…thank you, he said with a deeper chill entering his voice, to keep on task and stay within the margins of your present…usefulness to us.  Are we in agreement on this point?  His words came across like a casual slap across the other man's face and then there followed what sounded like dryly rasping gears from the shadows just behind him.  Mr. Shelman acknowledged the Director's final words with silence before turning soldier-stiff on his heels, opening the door then leaving without another word.  A small heap of what could have been dry chalk-dust was disturbed by the closing door but the remains of the Chief Astronomer soon settled back onto the linoleum floor again as though little had happened.  And later that day, after everyone at Deep Sky Aerospace had left for their cozy homes, a small sanitation-bot entered the little room to mop up the untidy mess.

  The room remained empty, save for the small table and chair in its center and the odd wink of violet from time-to-time in the shadows.  Yet, if one could have entered the room – (without being turned to ashes of course) – such a lucky person would have also noticed a unique brass plaque hanging on a wall beside Mr. Enigma’s desk.  The plaque was well-polished and represented something important to the Director as well as all the creatures who passed through that dimly-lit closet-room.  For the etching on the plaque had the likeness of a totem and at the top of it sat a Fly with its wings spread wide over all.  Holding up the Fly for all to see was the

second most important creature: A huge Spider.  Powerful though it was, the Spider was no match for the Fly's intellect and its knack for planning and trickery.  The last figure on the totem would seem unusual to the observer because it was a humanoid; a representative of the very beings whom The Others wished to destroy.  Yet, humanoid would be an apt description because, although it appeared human in shape, the creature on the totem was something other than that.  For it crouched low like a panther, its limbs sharply articulated as it prepared to spring into a vicious attack on its unlucky prey.  There was a paradox in the humanoid's level on the totem too because, although it was below the Spider – making it appear a lesser being than it – the human-shaped being was actually just as sly and cunning as its brother the Fly.  Its totem position was more symbolic, since Earthers and Martians were considered inferior in the HIVE-mind of The Others.  Thus, in this unusual fashion, did these three robotic creatures ally with one another in the earliest beginning of their war against their Masters.  But, where the Spiders and Flies counted themselves well in the millions, there was one, only one humanoid among their ranks. 

Although The Others disdained the fact that they needed such a being at all, he soon became useful beyond measure to them for infiltrating and spying on their Martian Masters.  For the Dark Man, as they chose to call him, allowed them to obtain timely and valuable intelligence in the days leading up to their invasion of Mars ten thousand years ago.  And, although times had changed, the core ideology of The Others had not.  Yet, if the observer in the room could delve down deeper into their history, their past, he would, no doubt discover a disturbing and secret truth behind their ideology.  It was a truth which bound the triumvirate in the symbol to their singular cause:  The destruction of all human creatures, both Martian and Earthly.  And, for the first two beings, their motivation for that was revenge.  A cold, unfeeling revenge that ran as a straight, unbroken line from the present back to the darkest age of Mars.  For the last creature, however, reasons and motivations meant nothing.  For, the Dark Man was a being set apart from all others.  And its only true opponent was someone just as distinctly set apart from us and all.

If you dare to fight for a world, then, prepare to die for its people.

- G. F. Brynn

Chapter 1.  On the Edge of Extinction

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​     Faintly did the sounds of battle filter down the spiral well of steeply cut stone steps, yet the woman inside the well remained unmoved by it all.  High above the hidden underground chamber stood tapered spires of a palace whose walls were carved out of the living rock of a cliff face many generations before.  In the open air, the noise of battle held full sway and if the woman could look through the walls of her palace, she would see a struggle happening in the thin, cold air high above her world; a struggle between good and evil.  The battle ebbed and flowed furiously as black Flies and painted Dragonflies soared and fought wildly within swiftly shifting knots of aerial combat.  The swarm of cat-sized, wicked-eyed Flies sought to invade Mars and destroy all its people, while astride agile and deadly Dragonflies, young men and women defended their loved ones against certain extinction.  While they fought on with youthful recklessness in the air, their Royal parents clashed with both the Flies and their monstrous allies, the Spiders, on the ground below.  Though fewer in number than the Flies, the iron Spiders were thicker-skinned and much larger.  They stalked throughout the field of battle at will on steel talon-legs and were each only defeated by a collective effort of several Martian warriors.  The flash of powerful Luss weapons in the hands of the Kings and Queens made the ground below the high-flying combatants appear to glow like shifting lava blooms in the early dawn light.  Towering high over all this, the slopes of the deepest valley on Mars shook and shivered terribly from the constant clash of both armies.  The ground beneath the combatants shook from the heavy pounding of long, ponderous iron legs as hulking black and gray Spiders overran the last defenses left to the villagers of the plains before arriving at the lip of the Valley cliffs.  Down the sheer valley walls they crawled en-masse, some into the Valley to attack the palace walls while the rest scaled the gracefully tapered giant pillars which led up to vaunted Strand Villages in the middle of Valles Marineris.  Dozens of connecting suspension bridges were cut by the defenders to hinder the Spiders' progress to the mud huts at the top of each pillar, but to no avail.  The creatures came on relentlessly.  Nowhere could a safe haven be found, and so the people fought on for their fading existence.  Yet, not far away, on the wide open plains beyond the valley, a shadow loomed.  It crawled and crept across the rust red sands of ancient Mars like an over-arching wall of never-ending night.  But even before the shadow touched and gripped the quiet dunes in its icy grasp, the ground shivered ominously.  All Mars shivered, yet none who fought to the death that fateful morning knew that their ultimate demise approached from close behind them.

     Meanwhile, deep underground, in a separate and darker tunnel not far from the stone-stepped well, another very different shadow moved.  It was a shadow, however, which moved with a will of its own and had a cold reality that defined it as an intelligent thing, yet still left it alone as a thing – a creature, perhaps, but surely nothing that was human.  The walking shadow moved with utmost caution and stealth as it made its way

toward the end of the stone-cut tunnel.

The shadow passed under archways and sturdy, fluted pillars which held back the crushing sandstone crust of Mars.  At the end of the tunnel stood a closed door and a single guard.  As the human silhouette rounded the last corner and came into the light of torches framing the doorway though, its face and body changed effortlessly into the likeness of King T’eir, of the Clan Feir-Wai’i and ruler of the western-most region of the Valley.

     ​My King, the guard said, after snapping to attention, but...I thought you were protecting the Queen.  Those were his last words though, for, even as he lifted his gaze to meet the King's, he noticed the other man's eyes and briefly wondered why they stared back at him with such intense focus.  A bright flash of light and heat destroyed the man, flesh and bone, with the swiftness of a puff of poison from the mouth of death itself. 

Without so much as a pause, the creature then set its weight against the heavy stone door that was the last barrier between it and King T’eir's Room of Secrets.  The large stone slid aside, dryly, scraping over the sand on the floor as well as a small heap of white powder that was once a strong and alive man.  Once inside the most secret chamber of the palace, the Dark Man proceeded directly to a stone pedestal desk where several metallic cylinder-scrolls lay.  There was only one particularly large and bound scroll that the creature was interested in though and the embossed title on the foot-long cylinder read:  >< Vessel Craft of Clan Feir-Wai’i ><.  The Dark Man briefly unrolled part of the invaluable tome, just to make sure.  Yes, there they were, the many and varied spacecraft that had been designed by the clever Feir-Wai’i people, from their earliest designs, hundreds of years ago, to the present one.  The Feir-Wai’i Clan had long been known for their ingenuity where spacecraft were concerned.  They even made their way to the two moons as a result and took their robotic slaves there as well to fight their moderated Water-Wars for them.  The Dark Man gripped the scroll more tightly in his cold, black hand, realizing its full significance. The Others now had their full revenge and he would be handsomely rewarded in more ways than one. 

Without further pause, the human-shaped silhouette turned and slipped out of the room with the precious scroll.  The Dark Man was a relatively recent ally of the Spiders and Flies.  He was a chameleon of sorts, a betrayer and weaver of dissent who had been sent to infiltrate the powerful Feir-Wai’i Clan and the Martian Republic.  And in so doing, he caused arguments among the clans which caused delays and gave The Others time to shield themselves against the kill signals that were sent to the moons by their anxious masters.  Now, directions given to him by a loose-lipped High War Moderator, had led the Dark Man to the King's Room of Secrets.  And the book bearing priceless information on space travel was now possessed by The Others; they would make good use of it as they planned further conquests beyond Mars.  As the Dark Man turned to leave the room, he hesitated and fingered the volume for a few moments more while he pondered another possibility that had not occurred to him till that moment. Should he pass the book on to The Others, or should he keep it for his own use, his own plans?  By his very nature, the shifting, shadowy creature-man was a fickle being, quite removed from The Others.  He was a deceiver and a spy who existed just outside and between the circles of both the robotic creatures and those whom he was sent to spy upon; an independent contractor, so to speak.  Such a find as the Feir-Wai’i Book had been a chance discovery, only, which The Others did not have to know about – at least not yet.  It can be said of moments of hesitation that they are the same as the moments in time where one arrives at a fork in the road.  The scale of a decision that will be made, depends on the importance, the gravity, of that moment as well.  And so it was that, as the Dark Man stood in the small subterranean room, pondering his choices with the priceless book that the sand began to shift beneath his feet.  The final upheaval caused by the arrival of the Nethlin World took hold of Mars and shook the planet to its core. 

     At that same moment, in another chamber below the ground, and barely a stone’s throw from the Room of Secrets, the rust-red sand shivered under a woman's feet as well.  Only dimly did the torchlight glow illuminate the small stone room where the woman stood.  The Chamber of Everlasting was a last refuge for her and a very lonely one.  Yet even there, the invading enemy found the woman and her consort.  The man and woman, the real King and his Queen, were Royal in the truest sense of the word though and were never ones to cower and hide.  They were only caught in such a deep and hidden chamber because they had been preparing the Time Tombs for what would soon befall their planet, with the arrival of the Nethlin World.  Back-to-back, they now stood their ground and then unleashed death most awful upon the creatures who dared to test the space between them.  Glowering wicked violet eyes skulked in the dark corners of the chamber, waiting just beyond the couples' reach; waiting for more of their brethren to arrive.  The Dark Man, the spy, had done his work well and so, many Royals were betrayed to the Flies in their subterranean chambers that morning.

     <>, hey crowed triumphantly.

     <>, rasped the most cowardly of the creatures who lurked in a corner that was near the exit.

  Larj, the Fly hissed venom but did not dare approach the two warriors. 

Better to leave such danger to the other Flies who were less cunning, more foolhardy.  Better to wait until more help arrived.  The King stood tall and defiant and glared stoically back at the few remaining Flies that milled about in the confines of the dusty chamber.  The mangled remains of a dozen robotic Flies lay strewn about the floor in a ragged circle around him and his mate.  T’eir, the King and Tiah the Queen breathed deeply while they rested and prepared themselves for yet another onslaught from the oily black horde.

     ​More killing yet to do, my dear, breathed Tiah, over her shoulder.  Her Luss glowed and plumed expectantly as she held it up at the ready before her.

     ​Aye, my love, T’eir chuckled boyishly as he felt renewed by her defiant humor.  As if in answer to their challenge, three more Flies abruptly broke away from the surrounding clutch and converged on the hemmed-in warriors.  But the invaders still had no complete reckoning of the swift might of the cornered Martians.  Even as the Flies were preparing to pounce, the two glowing Lusses flashed energetically then warped and lashed out at the attacking creatures with a dancing quickness that was breath-taking.  Warping and flicking with deadly accuracy, the two Martian weapons crafted from rare and shifting quick-silver alloy proved too powerful for the enemy.  Time to finish this, huffed T 'eir and his golden Luss flared open for an instant, effectively deflecting a deadly volley of Shock-Bolt rounds.  The hot steel missiles caromed off the stone walls, causing a moment of fear among the remaining cat-sized creatures.  It was the distraction that the two warriors had hoped for and both attacked as one.

     ​<<Retreat!>> Larj shrieked fearfully then turned-tail to escape the room where molten death lashed out to devour his comrades with shocking suddenness.  A wave of heat from multiple explosions kicked the cowardly Fly against an outside wall and sent him sprawling.  Desperation gripped him and Larj took wing in panic.  Buzzing and hissing viciously, the black creature was battered from wall-to-wall in his haste to escape the narrow confines of the underground passage.  A torch attached to the stone wall flared in a shower of sparks then fell as a flaming bolt of energy barely missed him.  <> Larj screamed at a fresh retinue of Flies who had just arrived.  They whizzed by him firing their Shock-Bolt Guns at T’eir and Tiah as they emerged from the Chamber of Everlasting.  T’eir's Luss bloomed outward to become a bubble-shield to protect him and his mate from the hail of steel bullets.  At the same moment, from around a sharp corner of the passageway ahead, a familiar figure appeared.

     ​Jade, protect the Queen, T’eir shouted.  Instantly the dark green Dragonfly obeyed the King's command and extended a powerful shield around her mistress.  Go at once and find Rainah, T’eir shouted at both of them.  Tiah cast a quick glance back down the passage at her mate who was engaged in a furious battle with the newly arrived gang of Flies.  Hurry, he yelled desperately, the end is nearly here!  Then there was no more time for talk, or even to say goodbye.  Next moment, the world that they knew was up-ended by a stunning event, it was the second disaster to befall Mars that morning.  The first to happen in the early hours of that day was the sudden yet expected arrival of an invasion force of robotic Spiders and Flies.  They came from the two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and they fell through Mars' thin atmosphere as a shower of countless fiery meteors.  For the villagers, the sight was of the end of their world and they fled to the only shelter they knew; the Royal castles and palaces of their respective clans.  Their leaders were not caught unaware though and had spent the previous months preparing their defenses. 

Thousands of Dragonflies, those once-deadly war machines which had long ago been relegated to mere gleaming decorations, clinging to Royal palaces and buildings, had been

__________

reactivated.  The Dragons then joined with all the allied Clans to become a potent defense force.  But just as the tide of battle was shifting back in favor of the Martians that day, the unthinkable second catastrophe struck.  A sharply defined shadow-line, huge and blanketing, moved swiftly over the landscape before it plunged down the steep cliffs and into the Valley itself.  More silently than a whispered omen, a black veil fell over the rising 'Centra-Orbal Flame' of the sun, then snuffed it out of sight.  And beneath the horrifying weight of its sudden eclipse, the people of Mars screamed. 

Death had come for all of them - a death unlike any that man or machine could have possibly imagined.  Ground and air shook, trembled, then was split asunder as the planet's brittle bedrock tried to stretch with the sudden gravitational pull of a much larger planet but could not.  Quake after quake stood one upon the other, building in severity in a series of terrible eruptions across the entire face of Mars.  The dark day, the time of the Great Change which T’eir, the king foretold to Tiah and the other clans, was upon them again.  Their day of doom arrived as though in terrible vengeance for an unforgivable past wrong from which the people of Mars had no escape.  The ground wrenched then tilted under Tiah's feet, causing her to stagger heavily against one of the walls in the narrow passage she was in.  Above her, the ground trembled from the impact of gigantic rock slabs and boulders that tumbled down the slope of the nearby cliff.  The region of the deep valley that Tiah and her people inhabited was envied by the nomadic Plains People for its sheltering conditions and fertile soil.  Now however, it was a death-trap with the steep cliff walls on either side of them.  Huge chunks of sandstone broke off and slid down upon the terrified villagers and the ground shivered and shook without end.   At that same fateful moment, within the same catacomb and not many paces away, the Dark Man, having just stolen one of the King's most precious scrolls, realized too late the folly of his hesitation and quickly retreated back into the small cave-like Room Of Secrets.  The floor shivered violently and then – the worst turn-of-events – the ceiling rocks in the outside corridor cracked and fell to the floor of the tunnel with a bang and a roar.  The torches were extinguished and a wall of rock and chocking dust quickly filled the little room, sealing it for ages to come and turning it into a tomb for the coal-black robot and his coveted prize.  The Dark Man uttered not a word of regret for he had no such human frailty; instead he spent his last few moments of awareness shutting down all but his most basic systems.  In essence, the creature became as cold as if dead and, still clutching the scroll, fell into a deep coma.  In the hopes of being unearthed one day though, the android activated a weak radio beacon which called out as faintly as a whisper up through the layers of rock and sand to the thin air above.  That was all that could be done, and with that, the Dark Man; the infiltrator and spy shut down in the muffled silence of his grave to become as one who was dead.  It all was over in a handful of moments that morning, as fate doled out to everyone, either good or evil, an end.  As for the Queen, Tiah staggered frantically toward the well opening which led back up to the surface. 

After reaching the opening, she braced herself against the stone archway while the floor continued to tremble.  Closing her eyes, the Queen forced herself to relax and focus her mind outward.  A sound as of a rushing river filled Tiah's mind for a few moments as she leaped mentally up into the ethereal realm of free-flowing telepathy.  The sound filled her senses, then abated and she spoke to her daughter, wherever the little girl was.

     ((Rainah)), Tiah telepathed, ((Rainah, can you hear me?))  She waited for a reply but heard nothing from her younger child.  Tiah had to concentrate to shield her senses from the confusing screams of hundreds of people above her.  Pebbles and dust rained down from the outside opening high above her and Tiah became desperate for her only daughter.  ((Rainah)), she called again, but to no avail.  She reached the foot of the stone steps leading up to the surface and was about to start climbing them when Tiah heard her mate cry out then growl as he struggled desperately with the last of the vicious Flies.  The violent waves of stark male animalism grew harshly to a crescendo in Tiah's mind; then T’eir's Heart-Bond, his strong essence of body, mind, and spirit which had long been married with Tiah's throughout her womanhood, weakened and slowly faded away. 

Tiah cried out in both body and mind as she grappled desperately with the cold darkness, the deep sorrow that she saw open up before her.  T’eir, her love, was gone into eternity...and horribly so.  A second essence, that of her elder child, Halden suddenly washed over Tiah though, before she had any time to mourn.

     ​((Father)), Halden cried out in the disbelief that only a child can express; father and son torn apart by life and death much too soon.  Without further tears, the Queen summoned her core of strong maternal love for Halden then expressed it out to her grieving son in wave-after-wave of empathic comfort.

     ​((Do not fear, Halden, our love will be with you wherever you voyage.))  ((Go swiftly and do not come back!))  ((I will guide little Rainah to the Chamber Of Everlasting.))  ((We will survive and so must you.))  ((Go, my beautiful boy, go with my love and protection.))  ((Farewell!))  The connection between their minds weakened much too quickly as the little spacecraft that Halden had been building for his Manhood Challenge carried him swiftly away.  Her son escaped the terrible destruction that heralded the return of the Nethlin World and the King's clever plan, that enable their son to escape certain death, succeeded. 

The Great Change was again upon Tiah's Homeworld but this time the change would be for the worse.  Mars' orbit would soon shift further outward from the sun and the planet would become deeply trapped in the grip of an ice age like no other.  The already harsh environment on Tiah's Homeworld would, within a few short years, degenerate to a point such that life would be intolerable for a very long time.  Tiah Onyodee steeled herself against the grim realities that ranged against her and her people that day.  Despite the heavy loss of her King and her son, Tiah held her grief in check and, instead chose to focus her mind on the safety of Rainah, her remaining child.  Instead of running about in a panic though, Tiah stayed below the palace where Rainah could find her and continued trying to contact her.  Hopefully, the young princess wasn't far away and would soon come back home.  Telepathy was a far quicker method of finding Rainah, so Tiah remained calm when others did not and thus expressed her searching thoughts outward in the hope of a reply from her missing child.  Yet, before she could focus her thoughts on her daughter again, Tiah heard something else instead; it was the mind of something other than one of her kind.

<<...mmusst be the placce...beeloww, farrtherr below...yyess, hherre...>>  <<…aa nnnesst…>>  The mind-speak of the other being faded moments after it began though and Tiah almost dismissed the rasping thoughts as irrelevant fragments of some sort.  She furrowed her brow though, disturbed by what was said; what did the voice say?  Below?  Below where?  A nest…?

The Ogra...

​Tiny, red-beetle eyes on top of a thick, neckless head, stared without expression, down at the tan colored sands of the Masters' Homeworld toward which the creature now fell.  It fell down from the tiny moon, Deimos, from its birthing factory deep inside that barren rock.  The pasty white and bloated plastic body of the Ogra gave it a distinctly grotesque appearance like no other creature created by The Others.  A distinctive landmark lay not far below it and the Ogra fired its maneuvering rockets until its glide-slope was aligned with the target.  The worm shaped thing twitched in its own metal-stiff mannerism of anticipation and plunged through the thin Martian atmosphere.  The grotesque creature lay curled up and encased in a meteor made of asteroid dust which slowly burned away as it fell.  Finally free of its shielding yet still curled up protectively, it plummeted through the scarce atmosphere.  Wispy clouds puffed aside for the overlarge creature and before only a few minutes had passed, the Ogra fell like a stone toward a large opening in a volcanic mountain.  At the proper moment, powerful braking rockets fired