Captain Scarlett, Martian Envoy

Family Ties

Friends at La Grange Point 3

©Copyright 2024 by Duleigh

Dedication:

To Curtis, who had faith in me and convinced me to publish my stories, and Tom, who has followed me since day one and actually got to talk to my hero, the inspiration of two of these stories - Isaac Asimov

Chapter 1

December 16, 2162

Lake Jezero Crater, Mars

Lake Jezero was a lake of broken ice pieces. Just a few years ago, a small moon made of ice was dropped in this crater and shattered before it landed on a military base populated by the Eastern Bloc soldiers disguised as pirates. The ice reached up to five feet in depth in some places and here at the buried military base, the tops of several concrete shelters could be seen sticking above the ice, and one person with a tracked excavator was digging her way toward the shelters.

Eris Carmine-Rodriguez drove the little tracked excavator down the alley she constructed by digging out the chunks of ice then freezing a wall of ice with a flamethrower, preventing the ice from collapsing on her. She had just uncovered another Eastern Bloc treasure. Protected in a concrete shelter, the small ship was in perfect shape and Eris towed it out of the shelter with the excavator. She had connected hoisting straps to it and was headed back to the edge of the crater, where the road that angled up the side of the crater led her out of the crater and to her temporary facility. There she switched from the excavator to a scooter, a multi-use utility truck, and flew out over the crater. She landed the scooter behind her prize and connected the chain that was wrapped around her find to the hoisting hook of the scooter, then climbed back into the scooter and lifted.

It wasn't long before her prize was dangling below the scooter. A Western Alliance F-231 SpaceStreak, the fastest interceptor/fighter in the known universe. Her collection was getting bigger and bigger. She had two of the famous F-733's, an E model with no .50 caliber guns and an F model with factory installed 50cals. She had an older F-303 before it was ruined for atmospheric flight, a FB-719 fighter/bomber… except for the F-231, these were all ships that fought at Venus Prime. What were these jerks doing?

She had sole permission to excavate the military base that the Eastern Bloc had built on Mars and so far she's uncovered many vehicles which are in a garage getting repaired and ready for sale, several eastern design scooters which were gutsy but built like battleships. They needed to be lightened up before they were useful. Along with the vehicles, she had tons of tools and other equipment. She also found emergency shelters that were full of soldiers that were crushed when the weak shelter they were in collapsed under the weight of the ice. With her excavator, Eris dug a huge trench in the ground and buried them. Her time with the Western Alliance Navy Berserkers gave her a respect for military people, especially these blokes that were led so poorly.

The Eastern Bloc had built a dozen bomb proof spacecraft shelters and so far each shelter had safely held a fighter spacecraft but no spacemen. It looks like the troops weren't allowed to shelter with the spacecraft when their world was ending. She had seven shelters and seven months to go before she had to evacuate the dig. That was ok, she had enough scrap metal, tools, electronics, vehicles, and plasticine 'lumber' to keep her busy for years. Everything else she gets out of that hole is 'gravy on the taters' as her gyrene husband would say.

The F-231 fascinated her. It was long, pointy, and nasty looking. It had a long nose and its tail was a gigantic exhaust for the N-52 engine, known as the Moon Buster. This machine was clearly designed to dip into the atmosphere because of its streamlined design and stub wing pylons. The pilot's front view screen conformed with the tubular body, and the aft canopy for the navigator was directly behind the pilot. The navigator had no windscreens; he had no view outside his cockpit. Two stub wing pylons with missile launchers and rocket exhausts at the tips stuck out at the middle of the long tube shaped body, and at the root of the pylons were two gaping maws which held the lasers and 20mm canons. Slug throwers were becoming quite popular since Commander White created the algorithm that linked the guns with the propulsion system to keep the ship stable and counteract recoil as the gun fired. She couldn't wait to get it back to the shop where she could tinker.

Slowly, she gained altitude, lifting the F-231 with her trusty scooter. Soon she was looking down at the crater. It was maybe a third filled with ice and from what she heard, the next solid ice moon that her brother-in-law was bringing would fill this crater to the brim with ice. Water for all of Mars for a century and more. Eris hauled the F-231 straight from the pit to her main shop and dropped it at the big air lock that closed around it. Then, going into the shop through the personnel access airlock, she opened the inner hanger door and there it was, gleaming in its anger. She hooked a tow bar to the front strut and pulled it into her main shop with a tracked excavator and the first thing she did after sealing the door was to copy down the ID number WA57-0002. Sitting down at her desk, Eris pulled off her gloves and fired up her computer terminal and logged into the Shipfinder's database, then typed in the serial number. After a few moments, the information on the F-231 popped up.

"F-733F. SPACECRAFT OWNED BY GOVERNMENT OF MARS. LOST AT THE BATTLE OF VENUS PRIME"

That confused Eris a lot. The battle of Venus Prime was fought in 2155. This ID number is for a spacecraft that was registered in 2157, the year that Alan Scarlett dropped a small moon on Mars. She went back to the F-231 and found the serial number 570204DG6058L9420002. She knows a bit about the serial numbers. The first six digits are the date it was completed. The DG means it was built by De Havilland Gulfstream, and the L means it was built in the Londonderry plant. 942 is her model number and the last four numbers are her series number that is used by the Western Alliance Navy as an ID number.

If this serial number is correct, this ship was completed in early February 2157 in a Western Alliance factory, painted and numbered for the Western Alliance Navy, registered to a neutral planet, and three months later it was buried under seven feet of ice in an Eastern Bloc military base on Mars. Eris punched the serial number into the data query and got the following result:

"F-733E. SPACECRAFT OWNED BY GOVERNMENT OF MARS. HEAVILY MODIFIED IN 2156. LOST AT THE BATTLE OF VENUS PRIME"

Even weirder, this data shows it was lost in 2155, rebuilt in 2156, and initially built in 2157. Somebody at the Shipfinder's database has a bizarre sense of humor. What is the Government of Mars doing with a military spacecraft? It looks like pirates or government sponsored pirates were stealing spacecraft and stashing them on Mars.

She logged her daily finds into the database she was required to keep, mostly so the President of Mars, Ray Clark, would know what she was digging up. That finished, she logged off and put on her helmet and locked up her shop, then got on her scooter and headed to the "water plant." The water plant was a building built by Scarlett Water Systems that provided water to the colonies of Mars. A large robotic arm scooped ice out of the crater, dropped it into a grinder that crushed it finer and a conveyer carried it miles across the Heinlein plain to Perseverance where it would be melted, filtered, tested then either bottled or added to the pipeline that provided water to the Martians.

There at the water plant she locked up her scooter, let the marine guard know that she was done for the day, and headed to the tube station; she needed to hurry, so she didn't miss her train home to Perseverance, the capital city of Mars.

The train stop at Lake Jezero was a flag stop. The train only stopped if you pressed a button at the station stop which notified the train that you wished to board. Eris stepped up to the station with plenty of oxygen to wait out two trains if she had to, and pressed the button. She sat down on a bench and headlines scrolled across her helmet visor for her to scan. Eventually, the story she was reading was blocked out by the words, "Your train approaches." Soon her train stopped and the doors on one of the rear car slid open. It was a commuter train, so the cars weren't pressurized as you got on, but there were oxygen lines and electronic lines to plug into your environment suit. Eventually, the train would decide that there are no more passengers for your car and your car would pressurize for the rest of the trip.

They blasted across the Heinlein plain and soon entered Perseverance and as the trains stopped, pressurized walkways pressed against the car exit doors, and you could enter the city. Once indoors, you could take off your environment suit and leave it in a rented locker. Most men and women who drop off their environment suit rarely wear more than sheer underwear and sometimes not even that, so it's not unusual to see a commuter on the moving sidewalks wearing nothing but tiny panties or their jockey shorts. Eris will occasionally do something like that to taunt her husband, Alex, but that's not very often.

She changed moving walks three times and soon was home. Their apartment was small, but the price was right. It was free, which really helps when your husband is an enlisted marine, and you make a living selling scrap metal. "Carmesí!" cried Alex, and he scooped Eris up in his arms and swung her around, finally setting her down with a long, sweet kiss.

"What's Carmesí?"

Chapter 2

"Carmesí is captivating and full of allure, carmesí is the color that sets your heart ablaze lighting a fiery passion that cannot be ignored." He leaned her over backwards and gave her a kiss that almost made her drop her helmet, which could have caused hundreds of dollars of damage. "It is my new pet name for you."

"Ok, so what is carmesí?" asked Eris.

Alex put his arm around her shoulders and gestured off into the distance as if pointing out a spectacular sunrise. "Red."

"You're a nut, I love you. Help me out of this so I can go clean up." Alex helped her open the environment suit and soon she was naked, carrying her underwear and the environment suit's inner lining to the laundry. Eris was slim enough to be a Martian, but she and her twin sister Pandora were born on Luna to Earthling parents. Both Eris and Pandora were small girls, short with pale white skin and freckles, narrow waist with round hips and cute round asses. Both girls have small, firm breasts whose nipples were almost always erect. The main difference between Eris and Pandora is their hair. Both have flame red hair, but Pandora lets her hair grow long and braids it, while Eris cuts her hair short, giving her the look of a pixie. As for their pubic thatch, both girls keep themselves trimmed with the help of their husbands. Pandora's husband Alan prefers a bikini trim to point the way, and Alex prefers a landing strip of red to guide him in.

Eris ducked into the bathroom and checked their current water allotment. They were almost up to forty liters! Alex and Eris made a promise that when they hit fifty liters, they were going to take a shower together, a real one, a long hot soaking shower. She set the water temperature and climbed in the shower and turned the faucet on as she twirled around, then she shut it off. Eris scrubbed down with soap and a damp cloth, then rinsed off, then she checked their water allotment. She only used two liters, she's getting better.

"Hurry up and dress, we have company coming for dinner," called Alex from the kitchen.

"Ok, I'm drying my hair!" she called. A few moments later, she heard the doorbell ring, and she stepped out of the bedroom in a t-shirt and shorts.

"You look so much like your sister," said the President of Mars.

"Mister Clark," she gushed as she plotted to kill her husband.

"Please, it's Ray, or as I prefer, Uncle Ray."

"I'm sorry I dressed like a slob, I didn't know," sputtered Eris.

"Please, I told Alex to avoid telling you because I hate big events and being gushed over. I'm just a guy who knows how to get things done, so they put me in charge, kinda like your brother-in-law."

Eris looked around the tiny apartment. It usually looked like Laundry Day in their house. Both she and Alex get bored with folding laundry quickly and they end up screwing instead of folding. But the apartment looked great. Alex clearly spent his day off folding laundry, cleaning, and cooking. Eris had to laugh at Ray's words. Her brother-in-law, Captain Alan Scarlett, was the most disorganized organizer she's ever met. He rarely disciplines his troops, and he lets them do what they feel is best, and somehow it works out in the end. "Alan has a method to his madness," she said.

"Whatever it is you're cooking smells incredible," said Ray.

"It's my favorite," said Alex. "My dad said this recipe came from earth and followed us to the stars. It's called Carnitas." He set out dishes and serving bowls of yellow rice, refried beans, and carnitas, broiled to perfection so the edges were crispy and the rest of the meat was tender and juicy. They sat and Alex loaded up Ray's plate with the delightful smelling food. "This is how I was brought up to eat this meal," and Alex took a tortilla that he made earlier, tore off a portion and picked up the carnitas with it and ate it that way.

"This is incredible!" said Ray, as he got the hang of eating with a piece of tortilla. "You must have been slaving all day!"

"No, it's simple food for regular people… oh, I forgot the best part," and he set out three bottles of San Miguel beer. "Cerveza!"

It was a splendid dinner. They talked and laughed with the President of Mars, the man that invited himself to their wedding with the explanation, "I had tickets." When the meal wound down, Ray glanced over at Eris and said, "I see that you dug my spaceship out."

"The F-231?"

"The one that you listed as an F-733E on the spreadsheet you keep for me? Yeah, that's the one."

Eris knew that anything she dug up could be called "Property of Mars" and confiscated by Uncle Ray, but the F-231 was so cool! She wanted to fly it. "That's what it was listed as at the ShipFinders database."

"I know, when it was stolen, that's what we listed it as. The moment that gibberish came up you went and looked again, right?" asked Ray.

"Exactly," said Eris.

"Any time there's a query on that serial number we're notified, two back-to-back queries and alarms go off. That means that someone is probably looking right at it the ship. We really need it back; you may get to fly it someday however."

"How did you know that I want to fly it?" asked Eris.

"Hell!" chuckled Ray. "I don't even fly, and I want to fly it." Eris tried to hide her disappointment, but Ray continued. "I'm told that thing is not for anyone with under ten thousand hours. It's killed quite a few pilots."

"How?" asked Eris.

"It's built like a bridge," said Ray. "It can take massive G forces because it's designed to chase someone or something. It does not turn with an engine gimbal; it turns with directional rockets that whip the ship to a new heading. Alan flew it once a couple of years ago and refused to touch it again."

Eris and Alex looked at each other in surprise. It's not like Alan to not fly a hot fighter. This one must be a widow maker.

"What are you kids doing for Christmas?" asked Ray, suddenly changing the subject.

"I don't know, hanging out, watching vids from Pandora and the kids," said Eris with a shrug. That reminded her, she needed to finish editing their Christmas vid to Pandora and Alan and get it sent to earth. Because a radio signal can take five to twenty minutes to complete the journey between Mars and Earth, folks compose video letters of up to five minutes long, compress them, and send them to their loved ones.

"Why don't you come spend it at my place," said Ray.

"The presidential Palace?" asked Alex.

"It's not a palace so much, and Nadia is on Earth, she's working this holiday. Come on over."

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Chapter 3

December 29, 2162

Niagara County, Earth

"Come on, let's get your snow pants on," said Pandora as she chased her daughter Anna, who had run away. "It's cold out!"

Anna stopped and stomped her foot. "I hate snow pants; Aunt Nadia isn't going to wear snow pants." Nadia Volochenko-Clark spent the holidays with Ray's nephew and family, and she spoiled Anna rotten.

"Aunt Nadia will be wearing stockings which are like snow pants," said Alan.

"Then I want nylons," insisted Anna as Alan scooped her up. He held her around the chest and the five-year-old giggled and kicked while Pandora slid the snow pants on her.

"They don't make nylons for five-year-olds."

This was a big ceremony; it's been ninety years since the world was plunged into WWIV with the loss of over fifty million lives in the blink of an eye. President of Mars, Ray Clark, was just reelected for a fourth term and he appointed his nephew, solar system-wide hero Alan Scarlett, Martian Ambassador to the Western Alliance. As a member of the Martian government, Alan Scarlett was expected to be at the ceremony. His Uncle appointed his new wife, Nadia Volochenko, to be the Martian Ambassador to the Eastern Bloc. Alan was currently living on earth, but Nadia remained on Mars with Ray due to xenophobia by the Eastern Bloc. That, and Nadia was an Eastern Bloc spy for years, but the only people she spied on were pirates and, with her help, Alan and Pandora were able to stop the worst of them.

Anna was a five-year-old girl and feeling every moment of her impending womanhood. She wanted to wear a dress for the ceremony like her mom did and not wear "boy clothes" like her dad and brothers. Pandora was wearing the Marine Dress uniform, which included a knee-length skirt. The Marine and Navy uniforms were the same uniforms that had been worn for the past century with minor changes. Not like the Air Force and Space Force uniforms that changed with each new commander-in-chief of those branches. In fact, the assassination of a Space Force Commander by a spaceman that couldn't afford new uniforms didn't slow the tide of meaningless but mandatory uniform changes.

"You need to behave missy, this is a very important ceremony," scolded Grandma Estelle. The scolding calmed Anna down immediately, a scolding from Grandma Estelle carried weight. After a quick check of the kids, Alan Scarlett and his father-in-law, Admiral Walter Schirra, checked each other's uniform. Other than the difference in ranks, the rank insignia on Alan's uniform was different. The star that was part of the insignia of all officers was red instead of gold, signifying that he was a citizen of Mars.

There are about twenty-five Martians in all branches of the military and as Navy captain, Alan was the highest ranking Martian. The Martian colonies were all scientific and academic. There was no military presence on Mars except for a small protective unit of Western Alliance Marines guarding Lake Jezero. It was now the primary source of new water for the colonies, and Alan Scarlett created it. In fact, he had a second shipment of ice en route to Mars, and it was going to arrive in a few months. Alan had to finish this ceremony, then rocket off to Mars to assist in the delivery.

A horn blared outside of the house, and Little Wally jumped up on the couch and looked through the picture window. "Ooh! Shiny!" Pandora peered out and saw what her overactive middle child was looking at. It was a huge, shiny black limousine, large enough to carry the seven of them. Still carrying Gerry, their youngest, Alan went out to the limo and spoke a few words to the driver and came back in the house.

"Get your coats on everyone!" called Pandora. Marine Colonel Pandora Vermillion could easily be described as 'cute' and if she was in uniform, that would be the last time you ever described anything. She was a small, slim ball of fire. Bright red hair, glowing green eyes, pale complexion dusted with freckles. She was beautiful, but her priorities lie with the Marine Corps, her family, and her man. In that order. For his part, Navy Captain Alan Scarlett was tall and almost impossibly slender as most Martian men are, with dark hair graying at the temples. He has a blue left eye and a black and white bionic eye on the right. He often wears an eye patch on the right eye because the bionic eye gives him headaches.

The limousine left and shortly after it left, a hulking, olive drab Marine ALS/APC (Air Land Sea / Armored Personnel Carrier) pulled up. Normally here in peaceful Niagara, its side armor panels were left in the shop at Thundering Waters Space Force Base, but being winter, it was fully armored up to the disappointment of Anna and Little Wally. "Do we have to fly in that?" whined Anna.

"Yes," scolded Pandora. "General Hershey was very nice to loan us a car."

"They always smell funny," moaned Anna. "Like rust and old sandwiches."

The family piled in, Alan and Pandora, their three children, and Pandora's parents, Admiral Schirra, and her mom Estelle. They weren't happy, an ALS is too cold or too hot and Anna was right, they smelled funny. However, there were intelligence briefings warning Captain Scarlett to be careful. The Eastern Bloc put a price on his head again.

After strapping the children into their seats in the ALS/APC, Alan strapped Pandora in gently and gave her a kiss, then worked his way forward and sat in the gunner's seat, often called the Shotgun Position. "Are we ready corporal?" asked Alan.

"Yes sir!" the eager corporal nearly shouted.

"Let's take the quick route," said Alan. "Follow the river to the lake, then I'll show you where to land."

"Roger!" and with a whistling roar, the ALS/APC rose skyward, extended its wings and headed toward the Niagara River, just a couple miles west of Alan's house. "Nice neighborhood sir," came the corporal's voice over the intercom as Alan put on the gunner's helmet.

"We like it," said Alan. "Now if the damn Navy will let us enjoy it we'll be happy." Alan swiveled around and sighed. With the helmet's optics in place, he can swivel his seat around in all directions and look at anything that captures his attention through the APCs targeting optics. "There, on our ten o'clock, can you see that limo?"

The corporal squinted. Then he saw the big black multi-mode limousine cruising south about fifty feet over the surface of the water and following the course of the Niagara river. "Yes sir."

"Keep an eye on it, but stay back.

"Yes sir." The corporal followed the river shore, dodging trees and the ruins of ancient buildings that were destroyed by the tsunami eighty years ago. Keeping the limo in his sights, Alan looked around for threats, but the Threat Warning Radar was silent and there weren't any threatening boats or planes. He wasn't getting a tickle from Eastern Bloc satellites that passed overhead, either. "Expecting something, sir?"

Alan glanced at the pilot, who sat left and slightly below him. "I always expect something horrible. That way when it doesn't happen, it feels good to be disappointed." As they approached the ruins of the city of Buffalo, the big limo turned east toward the remains of the city and lost altitude. It was getting ready to land. Alan reached inside his uniform jacket and grasped the handle of his huge Eastern Bloc issue hunting knife, the one that was used to kill the deserter Lieutenant Commander Risto Pärn years ago. He relaxed a little as the limo neared the landing zone when suddenly a flash of light reached out from the remains of an ancient building and the limo exploded in a flash. Pieces of limousine and chunks of driver fell to the ground and Alan groaned, "I hate it when I'm right."

That was a preview of Captain Scarlett, Martian Envoy. To read the rest purchase the book.

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