Red Entaries

Thirtytwo

Time passed as they made it to Mars with Rahden Jr. piloting. The spacecraft suddenly plopped down, low on fuel, before it could make it to an open runway at Red Entaries.

The glass shot out like shrapnel as the port side wing smashed its cockpit flat when Sonya Alabaster jumped out of the cargo hold from the spaceship to safety.

Rahden landed the ship at an awkward angle, leaving the starboard wing to bend sharply at its base. The mechanic crew ignored the fact that some of them were almost turned into a pincushion from the debris of glass.

The crew could see if Rahden was injured or not. But one mechanic complained: "What did you do to my baby? And how am I going to fix this wing?" He said dramatically but not yelling.

Admiral Logan saw the change in the Red Entaries vehicle bay's camera screen. The natural starlight was replaced with overhead ceiling lights going across like a pipeline.

The white light brightened every corner reviewing the many air vents just above the space vehicles on their adjacent walls.

In between the vents were thick but deep portholes with red curved outside glass, they were about as tall as a five-eight man to peer through and latched to the metallic-gray wall. Near the intercom was an assortment of rifles and handguns. These were for immediate insurgency if under siege.

"Patch Michael Rahden jr. through," Admiral Logan barked an order. "Send Michael the go ahead." He said while leaning over a soldier's chair.

"Roger, Sir," The soldier said. "Mike go through."

"Okay," Michael said.

"Captain Alabaster," the soldier's voice breached the intercom: "Sorry for the delay, there was an incident in the bay."

"Open the grate already," Sonya was disgruntled, followed by a: "Oh, just shove it!"

"Captain Sonya, play nice," Admiral Luke Logan broke in.

The angry captain was ready to take off her environment suit. She got in a bad way from the cold Mars atmosphere with her suit freezing. She was cold and wanted to get in the warm dome and from her despair...

"Opening the bay airlock." The soldier began through the intercom.

The cold Sonya released the lock on her helmet's exterior. "Wait!" A different soldier yelled, quickly restraining Sonya. "The air isn't condensed yet." He gave her a bear hug. "Don't open your helmet yet." And as Rahden Jr. watched the scene on his spaceship camera, he was jealous.

With her arms restrained he said, "open the air vents—"

Sonya tried to worm her way out: "What's your problem soldier!"

When the soldier realized he liked the position, he held on to the commanding officer, Sonya, and she activated her com. "Red Entaries, this is Captain Sonya Alabaster," she said as she looked up at the see-through dome. "Get this soldier off of me!"

Sonya broke loose from the soldier as more came. "We're all set down here," she said.

The soldiers started to get impatient to get out of their environment suits. Michael received the relay message moments later as the soldiers corralled around Sonya.

"This is Admiral Logan from the space vehicle bay. The breach is open, it should be right above you. Over."

Rahden Jr. steadily scaled the ramp with a low emission on the fuel gauge. Sonya's ship flew in dangerously as the warning lights glared off...

The glow torches were in place to see through the night. "Alright," Sonya exclaimed, "everyone back up."

Mike noticed the blue insignia of the torch light cracking a neon glow through Red Entaries. Michael instinctively followed the path.

Seeing that Mike made it through out of the bay, Sonya signaled the soldiers to go ahead. They went down the rigid-steel stairs on either side of the ramp, but not the middle, which was a flat surface for vehicles.

Sonya and her men jogged past the eleven vehicles in the bay. There was a diversity of types, ranging from hoverbikes to a large passenger hover rover.

The Admiral was in his viewing chair overlooking all that was going on, via picture-in-picture screens and cameras, only butting in if he needed to.

The spaceship landed gently inside from the navigation control computer. Michael saw five pairs of legs below his light blue pilot suit arm inside Red Entaries.

"Are you alright in there?" A man knocked on his window as Rahden Jr. felt a sigh of relief. Michael wondered why the soldiers had a muffled voice.

An astute woman in charge spoke whose identity was only revealed by her stern overtures: "Whatever you do, don't open the hatch."

Michael felt a shiver as he saw this lady in her environment suit with a globed head desperately examining him through the cockpit.

"Why—? He yelled.

"I can barely hear you," she said, while tapping on the windshield. "This is Sonya, they will arrest you, you might be on death row for killing many people from the Hollowed Eagle crashing into the Moon."

The ramp was finally closed, and everyone could hear each other well. "Mike, she began...the Admiral told me more about you..." Being interrupted by a strong soldier who saluted the captain.

"We have to arrest him, I'm sorry MissAlabaster." The soldier said.