Return From Mars

Something Amiss

It didn't take too much time to figure out that something was seriously wrong with the astronauts. The best scientists and doctors available put the three living astronauts through a barrage of tests.

Price was fine, apart from memory loss, and a small deficiency in muscle development; all other functions seemed normal. It was the other vegetables that the scientists were worried about. They showed no sign of cognitive awareness, their heartbeat and breathing pattern was so slow that it was like they were hibernating; like they were waiting for spring to begin to warm the air around them or like they were waiting for something to happen.

Chris (the dead astronaut) had been given an autopsy, and it had been decided that the cause of death had been stress to the heart; a cardiac arrest. The scientists seemed to think that he had died of fright.  

The four astronauts that had gone to Mars had had months of deep space training; months to prepare for what Mars had thrown at them, but the simple fact was; they had not been ready for the threat that had faced them in that cave.  

*     *     *

Things went wrong on the third night they had been in quarantine. I had been talking to Captain Price, a habit I had developed since she had arrived back at Helios. I had felt sorry for her, being cooped up in a small cell with nothing to do, so I had taken it upon myself to go and talk with her.

She hadn't said much on that first day. I informed her about what had happened on Earth while she had been away. I had also taken the liberty to update her on her family situation which I think she appreciated. On the second day she had opened up a bit more and we talked about the town she had come from and her life before the army.

By the third day I had come to look forward to our talks and had stayed in there for the majority of the afternoon, and much of the evening. She had informed me about the deep space flight to Mars and back. It had been a very interesting conversation and I had discovered some fascinating ways that Price had kept herself entertained during the flight back. A lot of it had involved exercise.

            I had bid Price goodnight, and had walked out of quarantine. As I was heading towards the sealed door I heard a noise. It was a clanging sound and it was coming from the morgue. I frowned and checked the computer schedule; I had not remembered anyone coming or going from quarantine since I had arrived. No one had logged into the area, so I wandered over to check the noise out. It got louder as I approached and then suddenly it stopped.

            I got to the door of the morgue, which only had a small vertical rectangular window on the right side of the door. I looked inside, but I couldn't see anything on the viewing angle, so I depressed the open button and pulled the handle.

I was still in my pressure suit and moving was difficult, but I managed to get in. As I turned around I saw a sight that has haunted my dreams ever since. The dead astronaut; Chris Bertrand was standing at one of the morgue cells chowing down on Jennifer Lightbody (a Helios Base coms officer who had died of a brain haemorrhage a day before the astronauts had arrived home). With the base in lock down her body had not been sent back to Earth and was in the morgue awaiting its return to Earth. The noise I had heard had been Bertrand smashing open the door to one of the morgues refrigerator closets.

            Chris had slowly turned around when he had heard the door open and now stared at me hissing as a cat would when poised to strike. My eyes widened;

"You've gotta be shitting me." I turned to run, out of the corner of my eye I saw Chris leap; and as I reached for the handle of the door I was knocked to the floor by the weight of his body. Even through the suit I could smell the decay of flesh, his body half-way decomposed but still functioning. I heard myself screaming, and then in the midst of my terror a funny thought came to mind. The advertising line from an old movie called 'Alien,' the title had been 'in space no one can hear you scream.'